later, much later, that same day... 3.26.05
many thanks to waitperson Phil at Steak & Ale for his patience and willingness to subjugate himself to the needs of the nine very hungry carnivores that descended enmass upon his place of employment. The Clan Pivarnick gathered together, instructions provided by the Momz and Tio Juan were "No Kids", so it was Grown Ups Only at our table in the bar, the Arizona/Illinois game on (ooooooooh, big time college basketball excitement provided in BOTH games on this fine day). The aforementioned Phil acquitted himself honourably, making us all happy we had chosen his establishment for our celebratory dinner this evening. At the table were Brothers Daniel alongside spouse Janet, Kenneth accompanied by his spouse Elizabeth, and David (sans any spouse, being d i v o r c e d father of three), sister Victoria Anna & loving husband Timothy, the Momz and lastly but by all means not leastly, that incorrigible batchelor Tio Juan. What were we celebrating, Binky? Oh, we are so glad you asked, the occasion celebrated was the 75th birthday (or, more properly - - and sadly- -, would have been his 75th birthday, had he not departed this vale of tears a little over a year ago...) of our beloved paterfamilias Vincenzo. Happy Birthday, Big Guy! and since many of you couldn't be there to share dessert with us, we provide tiny bit of linky goodness, from current issue of the New Yorker, H. Hertzberg's "Untrustworthy".
Salud!
briefly now, on a breezy Saturday morning...
these days, after that contretemps with our webhosting service, it is a revelation to examine the visitors log and learn that our earlier estimate of visitors provided via miscellaneous searches was pretty much on the nose, as we see something along the lines of only a quarter of the numbers we'd seen previously. Ah well, it was never about numbers, was it, Binky? There was a nice note from one person who passed along URL to their endeavor, seeking perhaps reciprocal priviledges, and it is our pleasure to share it with you here and now, likely will add them to the alliance & autreblog pages before too long: True Blue Liberal. Via that official visitor's list we mentioned, we also learned of someone else kind enough to include the dumbmonkey on their weblog and thought it only fair to recommend visiting her as well: Fatshadow (another denizen of the S.F. Bay Area) While we're at it, why not check out The American Street while you're at it, eh?
directed to those not already regulars of M. Morford's work, Is this a New Dark Age
meanwhile, our modus operandi remains quick and dirty... 03.21.05
more leisurely perusal of the Sunday NYT, our afternoon being filled with family shenanigans, we offer up suggestion to read Frank Rich's column Enron, Patron Saint of Bush's Fake News, and then, by happy co-incidence, an excerpt from Kurt Eichenwald's Conspiracy of Fools, "Washington, we have a problem...".
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quick & dirty on a sunday morn... 3.20.05
back later with more, consider thyselves forewarned...
from Sunday NYT, Now You See It: An Audit of KBR, and be sure to check out link to graphic accompanying article & then visit the link mentioned via the graphic for more, like this copy of the audit.
Then hie thyselves off to thy local newstand/magazine rack for copy of this month's The Atlantic
and enjoy David Foster Wallace's The Host, very entertaining it is...
can you say P A R I T Y, binkie? How about U P S E T? sure, I knew you could. l'Marquis' brackets are approaching shamblehood, and last night's game between West Virginia and Wake Forest, oh babee, college basketball at it's best. And now, for those of you with a fondness for stringed instruments, ooooooh, dat Stumpy Delko's been a busy fellah.... personal note to the skirblogger; yourstruly not embarrassed to admit to regular usage of CD player, so there, pbbbfffffhhhhtttt....
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what is going on with dumbmonkey and pococurante? 3.16.05
hello dere m'preeeteez, yea, verily it is us, ourowndarnprocrastinatoryself, here to mention something of note, that is, of note to anyone visiting here on some kind of regular basis. Technical difficulties we have experienced of late largely relate to notification from our web host that old server where pococurante.net resided was being retired. As these files residing at pococurante.net butress the facade of dumbmonkey, without them, those cheap plywood walls come a-tumblin' down. Yourstruly's been in the process of trying to pick up the pieces after the move to new, superdooperworksprontoquickly server provided by webhost (for an additonal coupla hunnerd bucks on top of the fee we already paid them for "Lifetime Webhosting Services"...) but we still gotza LONG way to go. In the meantime, anything relating to dumbmonkey enterprises, l'marquis d'monquis, El Lobo Loco y el Platillo Volador AKA the unindicted co-conspirator, point your browser to http://pococurante.net (yah, Big Az Dumbmonkey); modify your existing links (those of ye kind enough to include el chango tonto in thy blogroll) likewise, such as http://pococurante.net/allies.html and/or http://pococurante.net/autreblog.html. Anyone visiting archived material is certain to notice that the majority of those files are still a big mess, and given the limitations of dial up and cranky old computer, well, might take a leeetle while 'fore ye see some improvements there, but believe l'Marquis when he tells you that he has the best of intentions and only has to fight the allied forces of procrastination and slovenliness in order to engender progress in that endeavour. yah, right... quickly now, before hieing ourselves off to battle those intimidating foes, you see alongside these words cartoon by C. Barsotti that provides excellent example of how complicated a thing Humour can be; certainly anyone who's never viewed Deadwood (on cable, HBO) is very likely to simply go "Huh!" whereas ourowndamnedself laughed aloud (startling the Momz, sitting in her easy chair across from us that evening). Amongst those very lofty intentions mentioned earlier is our desire to get further into why it is we've become such a big fan of that program, even inspired to seek out supplementary material about Deadwood during that period of our history as well as background on some of the characters depicted in the teleplays. By huge coincidence we were able to catch film "Wild Bill Hickock" with Jeff Bridges in title role, but interestingly enough Keith Carradine (who does a very credible job as Wild Bill in Deadwood) alongside as Buffalo Bill Cody. The funny thing about that film is discovering the lovely Ellen Barkin in the role of Calamity Jane, particularly when you've done just enough research to discover that Jane Burke might resemble Ms. Barkin only if one is as nearsighted as ourowndarnself and have misplaced our spectacles, and perhaps very likely indulging in inebriation. Mentioned briefly in a previous post is our high regard for two of the actors in HBO's Deadwood, Robin Wiegert as Calamity Jane and Brad Dourif as Doc Cochran. Many of our favorite moments viewed include those two characters in particular, but one moment especially, closing scene of the last episode of Deadwood's first season, with Doc and Jewell dancing together in the Gem Saloon. Tune in next week when we wax incoherently on our admiration of the lovely Molly Parker.
okay, gurlz und boyz, one last thing for now: via the New Yorker of March 14th, something that wasn't available on-line either, else we'd likely include link to it hereabouts, Calvin Trillin's very moving "Lost Son". Mr. Trillin writes about a moment he experienced whilst driving his automobile, something touching him so deeply that he was moved to tears, ahhhh, Calvin, that's a feeling l'Marquis knows all too well these days...
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please (!) pardon these technical difficulties... 3.7.05
yah, seems the service we utilize for data storage, web hosting, etc., had a leeetle surprise in store for us, hoping we can get this all figured out before too much time passes, and while yourstuly has had every intention of getting back here to clear up a bit of what we were going on about last time (regular readers will notice a relapsing into using that imperial/editorial "we", the "I" business, oooooh, was too much like wearing a suit & tie after decades of avoiding doing that very thing...), we beg your indulgence a bit longer in that regard as well; been meaning to wax lyrically (and how!) about our fascination/infatuation with that HBO show, Deadwood, some of the members of a uniformly marvelous cast,
(Weigert & Dourif in particular...), other stuff on our mind of late, but again, am begging off for the moment, although will leave you with this Frank Rich column from this Sunday's N.Y. Times: Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here
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you may be asking "what's the point of all this?" 3.2.05
well, hellephino, but remember the lesson of Oblio, s'OK to be without one...
dearly beloved and esteemed readers, all dedicated dozen of ya, thanks for droppin' by oncet again, is most rewarding to know that there still be a few folks visiting la pagina del chango tonto, am even thankful for the many other visitors hereabouts, usually upon finding link to local environs via google search for one thing or another, certainly getting well over 80% of our visitors these days via Google's Image search. What are they seeking, you may well ask. Darling pretty ones, mebbe one day we will take on the task of determining which is the most popular item sought for by the various and sundry internauts out there, in the meantime...
amongst our reading material of late, Harper's magazine, and via a tip o'da ol' red fez in their direction, from here on out ye can refer to yourstruly as your Eternal Bosom of Hot Love, and goshdarnitall, there is that usual feature of theirs, that Harper's Index thingie, well, we also wanted to share Feb. '05's with ye (without having to resort to what we did with the earlier Harper's item) by pointing ye in that direction via Harper's on-line, but as of yesterday, katz und kitteez, whomever in charge of H.'s on-line appears to be a bit tardy in attending to updating linky goodness thereabouts. While ourowndarnself of a mind to pass along some of the stuff's come to our attention of late, from the Feb 28 issue of the New Yorker, H. Hertzberg's Newshounds (and as we visited New Yorker on-line to cadge that link, here is item from issue that's yet to appear in our desert southwest mailbox, a salute to the late H. Thompson, Believer); whilst canoodling about in that NooYawkah issue, there is fine reminiscence by Jonathan Lethem entitled The Beards, first section of which is entitled "The Heavenly Music Corporation" in which Mr. Lethem recalls many fond hours he spent listening to some recordings that might best be included within the category of "Progressive" rock, and yourstruly was hoping to find some record of Lethem's piece available on-line because we thought it would match up in lovely serendipitous fashion with item from the Sunday N.Y. Times on band with local (El Paso, Tx) roots, Mars Volta (some members previously in congregation once known as At the Drive-In). Alright then, maybe enough of that and maybe time for some o'this: some fun stuff (yah, fun being a relative term, yesssssindeedy...), largely for those amongst thee with a predilection for a stringed instrument or two;
bunch of bluegrass tabs, some for banjo, some for mando, the more astute amongst thee can figure out what ye need, no?; some grateful dead (alongside assortment of others) tabs
, more grateful dead stuff, ourowndarnself working on this one; then, whilst perusing some of yourstruly's bloggitos favoritos, came across recent post by P. Tomek at Forty-two, and for the record, last movie seen in a theatre by your ol' pal JP was Hitch and seldom ever has a few bucks been worse spent, mebbe we being a little overcritical, nevertheless, save your money, wait for video release (whilst on the other hand, hie thyself off to see A Very Long Engagement as soon as possible); Last movie watched at home? Okay, to be clear, last rental movie watched at home was Ray, which ourowndarnedovercriticalself enjoyed very much; Don't own many movies, altho oncet upon a time, we had the resources of an entire video store at our disposal; Last movie purchased? Okay, el chango tonto does have a copy of Whale Rider, but it be in storage in Albany CA, so yah, we cop to it, we do own one movie; got Netflix? Nope, but am enjoying the Momz cable connection with every premium service available; Five movies that mean a lot to yourstruly, okay, we give it our best shot, in no particular order and right off the top of our head, Brazil and The Fisher King, both directed by Terry Gilliam; Local Hero, directed by Bill Forsyth; Kagemusha, Dir: Akira Kurosawa; Tampopo, Dir: Juzo Itami; okay, so picking only five is much more difficult a task than one might imagine, will cop out with "anything by Patrick LeConte or Neil Jordan". Guilty Pleasure? egads, got a bunch of those too, as ye might imagine, so we going to go with Powwow Highway and a close (very close) second is Withnail and I (and just to confuse matters further will also include Cutter and Bone AKA Cutter's Way) whew, datz vuz difficult...
not too certain on the Favorite Movie Quotes, but two that we've utilized hereabouts on particular occasions, first from
Batman, the caped crusader has just rescued the comely newpaper reporter, J. Nicholson as the Joker, "where does he get those marvelous toys?" right alongside Mr. Pacino, Godfather III, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in..." neck to neck with Al P., Scarface, "Say hellohh to myeleetle fren'"
last item on that movie meme is naming three folks who might be willing to indulge in similiar manner of confession, so, we leaves up to you Katz und Kitteez, three of you who might happen along here and want to play along, and it'd be nice if you send along note that ye have done so, we be interested.
so, there's seldom a day that passes which doesn't have yourstruly stopping sometime along the way and thinking that one should be mentioning the moment, jumping in here and doing this dumbmonkeywebloggingdiarymaintenance whatever it is kind of thing. Speaking for mineowndamnedself, the coming of age, so to speak, of weblogging, well, okay, here's a minor example of what we mean: watching CNN sometime ago, just wasting some time channel surfing, J. Woodruff's Politics Today (or something like), segment labelled "In the Blogs", couple of gals (one of them kinda cute, 'course datz only our opinion, Binky...) sharing some chewy linky goodness with us, subject of the day was the attack ad on the AARP that was in the news a week or so ago. Well, Damn, me is thinking, they writing 'bouts weblogging in all the papers, there's much mention of them (and the weblogging stars of the moment, conservative and otherwise...) in the electronic media, certainly, every pundit and pundit wannabe is definitely blogging, whoa, no doubt the internet is like the universe, constantly expanding and seemingly without end...
damn, we're once again digressing. Okay, what I meant to geat around to (OH. one thing to share courtesy those lasses on CNN, PunditDrone, and no, Binky, we not be watching every day, but we do try to catch Tony & Mikey on PTI as often as possible...) has to do with movies, watching 'em, enjoying 'em (leastways, most of the time...) and earlier on in this post youstruly mentioned Mssrs. LeConte and Jordan and two films we have re-viewed very recently attributable to those gents, via the magick of cable television, The Good Thief avec La Fille Sur le Pont, both of which el chango tonto AKA l'marquis d'monquis AKA JP, well, All of Us In Toto, highly recommend each of those to you. Enjoyable, artfully constructed, and many-layered enough that each can stand up to repeated viewing. Pretty damn good soundtracks on them both as well, 'tho we favour the soundtrack to LeConte's film. Ourself had imagined perhaps Mr. Jordan had been influenced in some way by Mr. LeConte's film, some of which takes place in Monte Carlo, but our imagining such has more to do more with the psychic connection between the older man and younger femme you see taking place in each story, the theme of fortune (or better luck, plainly stated) its transient nature. In passing would also like to mention great happy accident of late night viewing of Who'll Stop the Rain, which happened to star a young Nick Nolte (funny moment in the film when I am seeing a very dishevelved N. Nolte onscreen, bringing to mind the slightly notorious mug shot of recent history...) alongside Tuesday Weld and Michael Moriarty. Based on book we'd read ages (oh, yah Binky, we OLD!) ago, Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers, oh, but it did our heart good, those glances at Berkeley of some twenty years or so ago,
the shots inside Cody's Books, the brief glimpse of the Med, the Ave, ahhhhhh, took us back to some fine times, years back, oh Lordy, Lordy...
oh dear, we have gone on a bit here, haven't we; not said very much either, have we?
damn...
one last thing, viewed last evening, LATE, local PBS outlet is doing their pledge thing and didn't broadcast this until Midnight. Fucking wouldn't be surprised if I was the only person in EPT who watched the show. Frontline, The Soldier's Heart.
oh we could go on and on, Binky, but we'll pause for now,
tell you about the scorpion some other time, alright?
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the exercise in tedium & banality that was
february
on-line, but as of yesterday, katz und kitteez, whomever in charge of H.'s on-line appears to be 
so yah, we cop to it, we do own one movie; got Netflix? Nope, but am enjoying the Momz cable connection with every premium service available; Five movies that mean a lot to yourstruly, okay, we give it our best shot, in no particular order and right off the top of our head, Brazil and The Fisher King, both directed by Terry Gilliam; Local Hero, directed by Bill Forsyth; Kagemusha, Dir: Akira Kurosawa; Tampopo, Dir: Juzo Itami; okay, so picking only five is much more difficult a task than one might imagine, will cop out with "anything by Patrick LeConte or Neil Jordan". Guilty Pleasure? egads, got a bunch of those too, as ye might imagine, so we going to go with Powwow Highway and a close (very close) second is Withnail and I (and just to confuse matters further will also include Cutter and Bone AKA Cutter's Way) whew, datz vuz difficult...
