d u m b m o n k e y

what is the sound of a breaking heart?       5.30.06
watching something yesterday evening, one of a few things that I am going to mention here, unfortunate that they are only available (far as I know, and we are speaking of the present moment...) via cable/satellite broadcast. During the moments in the film when we hear the events of a particular day described, when a young wife & mother is receiving the terrible news that her beloved husband, a young marine officer, has been killed in Viet Nam, that thought opening this post occured to me. The title of the documentary is "Unknown Soldier: Searching for a Father", seek it out at HBO, might be in rotation and not just one of those Memorial Day specials. A few days back, quite by accident whilst channel surfing and settling on A & E, ran across "Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company". Now, as far as this next item goes, haven't seen it yet myowndamnedself, but will probably devote some time later this week to checking out HBO on demand and seeing "Baghdad E.R.". Why? Well, methinks sometimes all of us are too damned insulated from the terrific (in the truest sense of the word) events of what happens in war, not just the horrors and terrifying occasions, but also those noble and heroic ones. To close out this part of today's post, point ye in the direction of something seen yesterday whilst getting our news fix, from the PBS Newshour, Poet Responds to Lists of Americans Killed in Iraq. Shortly after, as has been typical lately, when the Newshour broadcast closes, came a roll call of twelve more soldiers who died in Iraq.
it is very likely a astoundingly subtle sound,
something like the sound a tear makes sliding down your cheek...

why post anything at all...       5.27.06
holiday weekend and alla that, most folks likely out & about, nevertheless, here goes. Things learned whilst flying back to the desert S.W.: Hamza El Din, longtime Oak-town resident, has departed this vale of tears. Those bad boys from Enron are found guilty (no linky bit here, you know where to find that news yourowndarnedself), but haven't we all known them to be exactly that all along? The Moron In Chief "apologizes" for his rough talk; this is nothing more than the most glaring example of the degree of self-delusion this man operates under. His apology couldn't be more worthless & meaningless in light of the things he ought to be apologizing for. I for one would love to see him spend the rest of his life making personal apology to every individual who has suffered the loss of a loved one, relative, friend, along with those who live on after being crippled, maimed and/or psychologically scarred for life as a result of his stupidity and shortsightedness. To EVERY ONE OF THEM, not only Americans.
Which circle of hell is the Los Angeles International Airport, particularly the Southwest Airlines Terminal (shared w/US Air & a couple of others)? For that matter, most airports these days are some version of hell, right Binky? Arrived yesterday a bit before noon, forty-five minutes later the Momz and myself were in the audience of families, friends & assorted wellwishers at the D. Haskins Center to enjoy the Eastwood H.S. graduation ceremonies. Young nephew Miguelito's biggest day of his life so far, along with signing letter of intent towards his Track & Field/Cross Country scholarship at small college in the wilds of Nebraska. Be back there on Sunday night, to witness niece Leala picking up her H.S. diploma, no word on her immediate plans afterwards. Remember your H.S. graduation day? All that speechifying & shite. Imagine the size of that pile of dashed hopes and expectations. Sorry, just the cynic in me that won't Shut Up...
yipes! now we just heard that Desmond Dekker has died .
Alright! Seems like we might be hearing from Craig Jensen a little more often than we have of late. Pace thyself, amigo, and Happy Birthday to ye, Happy Anniversary to ye and Mrs. J. From another amigo made via the Land of Blog, John of I.J. aka Footprints has been on what sounds like fine kinda roadtrip thru some of the west. Hope he shares some pictures and road tales with us when he returns (Did you get to Mono Lake? Bodie? Grand Canyon?).
mmmmmm,
well, there's bound to be something I've overlooked mentioning here,
maybe I'll get around to it later, finding my notes might help...

flies time when ye are havink fun...       5.25.06
and whilst not exactly fun in any traditional sense of the word, yourstruly will be on plane flying (much like time here has...) back to the desert S.W. early maņana, having expended a fair amount of energy and effort accomplishing a multitude of pesky tasks here at chez d'Monquis, AKA the Albany House. Endured serious scare to ourself on Tuesday afternoon, having spent all of that morning up and down ladder to roof, where l'Marquis was engaged in scraping, sanding and prep for painting the roof trim on the front of la casa de chango tonto, which was looking pretty damned shabby (okay Binky, so the whole house ought to be painted, gimme a feckin' break, life is difficult enough presently, thank ye very much...). T'was about quarter of one and he'd just finished bringing down all the stuff used on the roof (extension cords, sander, drill w/wire brush, misc. this and that), dragged his tired ass into the house and felt like he was going to collapse and expire, seriously, felt deathly ill. So, washed our kisser and cleaned up a bit and put ourself down for a rest, trying to zen out and empty the mind, slow down the processing as it seemed our heart rate was just a bit, ahhhh, extreme. Maybe twenty minutes later began experiencing some major queasiness & that very particular kind of "make ready to do the technicolor yawn" sort of feeling & with due dispatch made obeisance to the porcelain god. Save ye any further details 'cept that shortly thereafter (after a good rinse of the oral cavity along with a bit of mouthwash) we tucked ourself away into bed and napped thru the next four or five hours, during which we were completely oblivious of huge power outage in the east bay. Got up and watched a bit of telly later that evening, boiled some potatoes (yukon gold) which we slightly mashed with some butter & milk and nourished ourself with that bland fare, 'cuz we wuz kinda hungry. Oh we felt much better Binky, and after a good night's sleep, felt more like our own olddamnedself the next morning. Not sure what got into us and laid us so low, maybe a combination of things, maybe a bad burger from Al's on San Pablo; all we'd had that morning was some strawberries and orange juice, quien sabe? Certainly happy to have all that behind us.
Hey, he may not be nationwide, but the skirbydude is bad, got some pieces in latest Kitchen Sink mag AND he's got this thing going on over at KQED's Writers' Block. Why didn't yourstruly decide to stick around the Chron and write obits, too? Hah!!! no, wethinks our destiny might lay elsewhere, although certainly appears to be mislaid presently. Apologies to Lee (and our other amigos y amigas) for not making effort to get together during this trip, it is a brief one to be sure and if it wasn't for the graduation ceremonies of sobrina Leala and sobrino Miguelito, yourstruly would likely be hanging around thru the end of the month, as Coach Sara is on the other coast with the Cal Women's crew defending their championship (Go Bears!) and ourowndamnedself had too much to do anyway, & as ye know, any lil' distraction that may have come our way'd likely have resulted in major backslippage into our typical procrastinatory behaviors...

minor co-inkydinky thing happened yesterday...       5.20.06
visiting some bloggos favoritos, dropped in on good ol' Stumpy Delko and noticed mention of some reading he's been doing, wherein the name of Paul Auster is mentioned. Myowndamnedself has begun reading largish tome (657 pages, a little better than a third of which are footnotes & index), House of War by James Carroll, and the co-inkydinky thing is that early in first chapter Mr. Carroll makes mention of Paul Auster (does so a couple of times in the book), specifically this quote: "Memory," the novelist Paul Auster says, is "the space in which a thing happens for the second time." (incidentally, that's from Auster's The Invention of Solitude). This next item has naught to do with co-inkydinkyness, just want to share this piece from the NY Times Books section re the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?. Hmmmmmmm,
in retrospect, didn't Stumpy mention he was knee deep into reading Philip Roth?
Whilst I'm at it, something from last Sunday's NYT book section, "The Deciders".

let us ramble peaceably thru the ether...       5.18.06
shall we, you and I, where first we'll visit SFGate/the Chronicle and take in Jon Carroll's straight-talking, sensible column about immigration...; Ms Garchick's column provides us a wee tidbit re the marvelous James Nachtwey (oh and ye can bet I'd be very pissed myowndamnedself...); whilst we are at it, let's jet over to the NY Times (use BugMeNot.com if you want to avoid those pesky registration hassles) for something related to the issue referred to in J.C.'s column, and ain't it just like them Bushies. Are any of you as weary (sick unto death!) as yourstruly is when it comes to all the sturm und drang over that damnable potboiler by Dan Brown AND the fuckin' movie based on same, talk about Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, how can such an utterly tedious & insipid piece of crap capture the imginations of so many --- nevermind, all of sudden am not feelin' so peaceable and will likely begin hurling insult and invective thy way, go 'head and read that shit, I don't fuckin' care...

so ye know what day it is, don't ye, Binky?       5.14.06
and a vurryhappymudderzdey to ye too, gatos y gattitas. 'round Chez Esther, it's Mother's Day alladamntime, today will be special 'cause all the kinder be comink over and providing much in the way of comidas deliciosas y sabrosas & perhaps (see if bro Dan & Ken wanna play) a leetle harmonizing be takin place when brother Dave & meowndamnself bring out the guitars and begin wailin' away...
speaking 'bout wailin' away, earlier this morning I dropped in on Mark over at wood s lot, where he shares some fine mudderzdey linkage with us, but the thing that caught my eye was birthday salute to David Byrne. Maybe you want to play Life in Wartime along with ourowndamnedself sometime, Yeah? Check out the tab here, more T.H. tabs here. Whilst hopping about in light years visiting autre blogs we chanced to land upon close your eyes who shared especially good linky bit with us, check out short term MP3 loss, and if ye not already aware of this, always something interesting in the way of mp3z (& more) over at gmtPlus9. One other thing to share with ye 'fore running off, the latest Ralph is available, some suggestions for your summer reading here.

and lots and lots of hot tea...       5.11.06
with lemon, thankyewvurrymuch...
best laid plans and all that, I was feelin' somewhat better and a lot more chipper yesterday when I sat down to post the chicken soup entry (and, btw, I usually include the chicken in the soup, once I've plucked the meat from bone...) and was congratulating myowndamnedself that I'd kept this misery limited to a stuffy head/nose, some sneezing and the usual accumlation of phlegm/snottystuff (you know the drill, don't ye Binky? h-aaaaaa-ccccckkkkkk, p-tui!) Alas, mebbe not givin' meself enough bedrest, mebbe I shoulda used more garlic, quien sabe, as it appears a bit of a cough has developed and I am feelin' snottier-nosed and stuffier than ever (didn't stop us from taking the doggies to the park this Am though).
Good think I made a LOT of soup.
Whilst I am here, why not make mention of a few things:
from left coast pal Euphorbita, Hellishburton Solves Global Warming,
(courtesy Los Yes Men);
from the fine mind behind Akkam's Razor,
When Democracy Dies: The NSA, AT&T, Hayden, the Internet, EFF, & You;
from the pile of recently read library books (and IF one can feel up to it in an hour or two, mebbe returned today), Superfoods Rx (where was this feckin' book twenty-five years ago, goshdarnitall...); The Hard SF Renaissance (you'd prefer it Hard too, wouldn't ye Binky?) -- admittedly, not every page, not every story, but perhaps 75% of what's within the covers -- ; Ian McEwan's Saturday, which yourstruly recommends to thee very highly (bloke makes me want to toss all my miscellaneous scribbles in the firepit and light 'em up).
time for another cuppa, methinks, hasta lluego, gatos y gattitas...

sometime ye just gotta say "fuck the rules"...       5.10.06
or maybe just make up some new ones when ye see the need, eh? I'm dealing with a cold, and ye know how unhappy a cold can make ye, particularly one "out of season", so to speak. Felt it coming on two evenings ago, and went into emergency chicken soup creation mode as soon as it was practicable, some pretty good recipes for that wonderful remedy here, mine was much like the Sickbed Chicken Soup recipe, with the exception of my adding four cloves (Min.) of garlic, didn't have the turnip or parsnips at hand, altho' I've used turnips before, yea verily. I cook the chicken first, somewhere between a medium simmer and gentle boil, with the onion, garlic and peppercorns, then let it sit a bit after the chicken appears cooked thru (not boiled to death). I like to filter the broth after picking out the chicken pieces, then slice up the onion a bit more and put the broth back atop the stove with the carrots, celery, and whatever else (turnips anyone?). After those items have cooked a while I'll often add some frozen peas; I might even cook up some rice and add that as well, with a bit of attention to the process you ought to have something ready to eat in a couple of hours and I don't know if chicken soup is truly the remedy folks like myself believe to be, but it certainly can help one feel a-helluva lot better. The only thing that could make me feel mo' better is if I had someone around to fix it for me, letting me linger in horizontal mode, reading and snoozing, waking me with a bowlful of yummy soup in hand to help me mend. Alas, got to depend on only me-own-damned-self...
Tim Goodman's Bastard Machine, writing about the incredibly implausible marvel of modern media culture, 24, and I hope he'll be forgiving of my habit of borrowing his "cranky pants" line every now and again, just seems so apropo,
ye know?
Reading this news, boy oh boy, kinda made yourstruly feel tres blue.
Cody's on Telegraph is closing.

cooking the facts on a regular basis...       5.7.05
suppose yourstruly is as guilty of that as any of the rest of us, more on that later, for now, a traipse thru the Sunday NY Times beginning with the magazine & a warts & all profile of Rip Torn, a fellow whose work we've long admired. Alongside that '69 film mentioned (Coming Apart), anyone interested in seeing some of Mr. Torn's best work should seek out Payday, c. 1972, of which some folks have alluded to in their writing about his recent work in Forty Shades of Blue, and, btw, yourstruly considers him the best thing in Defending Your Life.
Then, speaking of movies, this Sunday's NYT devotes a section to Summer Films, and a brief piece therein informs us of another goddamned Hollywood remake on the horizon. Unfortunately, not many folks had opportunity to view the film this remake is based on/inspired by/ripping off, but l'Marquis recommends that ye seek out the original, released in the U.S. as Pathfinder, Ofelas in native Norwegian, perhaps available in some very well stocked video emporium, as it doesn't appear available thru either GreenCine or Netflix and Facets lists the title as NLA (no longer avail), 'tis truly worth seeking out. And while we're at it, what's become of Vincent Ward, director of two films that easily cracked our fave 100 of all time list, The Navigator and Map of the Human Heart,
seek 'em out, ye lads & lassies. Alright then, where the feck were we, oh yeah, next up, still in the Times, from the Week in Review, two items, both graphics: The Best (almost) of Friends; When Gas Spikes, Presidents Speak;
elsewhere (the Arts section) Mr. Simon has something new in store for us;
if ye can access BBC America, keep a weather eye out for 'The Thick of It';
okay, got to wrap this up and think about getting dinner on the table, don't want to tarry too long and miss our evening appointment with Tony & Carmela, et al.
Re that cooking facts thing mentioned in the opening, from the Book section,
The Joy of Delusion

it's not bloody likely...       5.5.06
that history will treat the adventures of Rumsfeld, Rove, Cheney, Bush, et al, kindly, at least yourstruly hopes the light of truth will shine brightly upon their record, and it should, if these folks have anything to do with it (although l'Marquis is wondering why the website be so quiet). Seems ol'Donny got a bit more than he bargained for during his speech to what he thought was likely the usual crowd of good burghers in Atlanta. You know that yourstruly be tippin' his ol' red fez in admiration of Ray McGovern for speaking truth to power.
Mid-morning update: transcript from Olbermann's Countdown w/some specifics re Rumsfeld's obfuscations (video here - Beware ADVERT ahead!; brief interview w/Mr. McGovern at Democracy Now avail here; Special Extra Linky Goodness: The World Can't Wait; from MoJo, more on Ray McGovern & Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; perhaps someone can provide us the names of those concerned citizens that were unceremoniously tossed from the auditorium- ???

miscellaneous bits of chunky, linky goodness...       5.2.06
courtesy digg, Fueling Our Future;
originating at Salon, noticed via FAIR, "Why Colbert Matters";
first learned about this Boston Globe story via K. Olbermann's Countdown;
yumyumyumminess, via NYT, fast food option in the City by the Bay;
in case you're thinking of visiting S.F. (jp might be back there late this month),
a little more about the Ferry Building Marketplace;
some bloggos favoritos, sorta in that jessferdahalibut spirit:
grow-a-brain; Suburban Guerrilla; Think Progress; King of Zembla;
Blog with a View; donkey o.d.; une jeune fille bien; WTF is it now?;
Prometheus; The Daily Texican; Unclaimed Territory;
basta! basta! enuf alredddy...
courtesy SF Gate/The S.F. Chronicle, Jon Carroll,
"a million small solutions"

ho ho hee hee ha ha...       5.1.06
one certainly hopes for a great deal of merriment (and reasons for same) in the month of May. During casual perusal of many of our bloggos favoritos earlier this morning we noticed some repeated mention (for example: GITM, BoingBoing, & Left Blank, just to name a few) of Mr. Colbert's gig Saturday at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, and, yay, verily, Thank you Steven Colbert.
There happens to be an interesting article in the New Yorker of 4.24 by Daniel Zalewski, who writes about spending some time recently with Werner Herzog, the N.Y.'er piece is entitled The Ecstatic Truth and wish we could offer ye up a link to the item, but since we cannot, here are some miscellaneous W. Herzog linky bits of goodness: Sunday NYT of 5.8.05. Werner Herzog's New Direction; an old IndieWire interview with W.H.; courtesy Ruthless Reviews, Lessons of Darkness; from Herzog fansite, a bit about his "Rescue Dawn" (inspired by and based upon one of his earlier films, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly"), along with link to Everything Toronto/Now cover story on Werner Herzog.
and now, jessferdahalibut: Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly...