11.29    Double-u oh em ay en; say it again
with Jon Carroll
~ ~ ~
  quietly, before heading out the door...
on a cold & rainy thursday morning.
Classic Fleetwood Mac track: Rattlesnake Shake;
from the L.A. Times, a visit to the Southwest.
appears we remain gainfully (?) employed, altho our situation is somewhat tenuous,
certainly a horrible kind of situation for many of my counterparts & real wake-up call
in terms of a certain kind of reality. Oh, BTW, more early F.M. on it's way here by the weekend...
~ ~ ~
more East Bay Fun
Background info on bEASTfest

11.27   consider this an FYI for the locals

Small Press Distribution
~ ~ ~
oh, & by the way...
she's baaa-aaa-aack
you'll never find her previous material archived, but take it from us,
this overworked sysadminatrix provides snarky-ness w/a dollop of smutty-ness aplenty...
~ ~ ~
the question of the day is...
does the ol' silverback still have a j-o-b to go to?
& in the meantimes, this interesting story
leading to this locale for your perusal,
& perhaps something that'll make you blush here
can you say "overloaded server"?

11.26   the devil's work...
likely the opinion of the present administration
regarding the news of the day
~ ~ ~
oh dear...   nothing like 20 20 hindsight:
we were warned, weren't we;
more on the onetime Missouri senator;
what ya see is what ya get;
add'l mat'l to help fill in the blanks;
more, more, more;
& now, we kid you not,
make the brownies Ashcroft likes
thought that posting these might make me feel better,
but i was wrong, now i just feel worse...

11.25   apres les holiday
cobbling together just a bit of stuff, to keep our hand in,
so to speak. first, a link to ourowndamnself a year ago;
nice new look w/movable type at Perils of Leisure
Stumpy, Steve & the gang turned us on to some fine stuff here
(providing encouragement for a music buying spree later today,
make a pilgrimage to Down Home Music & get me some...)
oh, & we wuz so tickled to to discover d'monkey included in the back-scratching links at P.A., The Definitive Website;
we'll close this out w/a few places we have visited of late,
a place to write, nothing fancy; a day late, a dollar short;
a jaundiced eye; burningbird; exitwound; follow me here;
fool's paradise; girl with the curls; in a dark time; blogfootball; genehack.org; timothompson.com; dutchbint.org;
oh, all right, datz enuf, a baker's dozen,
chock fulla yummy linky goodness...
one last thing, lovely tune i first heard in a movie once, many years ago

11.23     w h e w . . .
aside from a moment of stark terror caused by a minor stupidity on my own part,
the annual chez d'monkey holiday dinner went without a hitch. I am not at all certain why
Brother K imagined that the flesh provided by one williebird smoked turkey wouldn't be enough
to feed 3 children, hisowndamnself, spouse Liz-Beth, the Momz & Popz, & yourstruly,
but upon arriving home on wednesday evening (after a singularly horrible day at the j-o-b)
we found frozen bird slowly defrosting in sink & wondered why & learned that dear brother
imagined the possibility of not enough bird flesh to go around, particularly leftover bird, well,
you can imagine that any possibility of paucity did not manifest itself, and altho yourstruly hadn't
prepared a bird from scratch for many (MANY!) moons, the cooked from scratch bird was a wonder
to behold, deliciously moist & tender, and the Momz outdid herself w/the made from scratch stuffing.
Oh yah, the stark terror part. Yours truly was in kitchen, attending to that great naked carcass roasting
in the oven, & had just opened oven to pull the bird out & baste, when the grid the roasting pan was
sitting on came free from the guides built into the oven sides, tipping the roasting pan towards the rear of
the oven whereupon some of the fat & juices collecting in bottom of pan spilled over in the oven and
sprang into flame. YIPES! ourowndamnself had some brief vision of chez dumbmonkey exploding & our
joining up with Camdogg in the great big dog park of eternity, but we were lucky and able to right the pan,
yank it out of the oven and clean up the mess, get everything settled down and back to the business at hand.
~ ~ ~
so, in our usual fashion, we will rely on those with finer minds
& brighter intellects to astound & amuse thee:
J. Carroll, suggesting caution & aforethought
uh oh!, jaypea's horrorscope for the week to come
from Esquire on-line, Holy War Inc
Ralph, Early Winter 2001
today's Daily Bleed
lastly, this poem from E.E. Cummings,
more by Cummings & others here

11.21    we've had our moments...
like any other family, dysfunctionally loving & hard-headedly stubborn sometimes,
but we manage to have a pretty good time together during our annual t-day rondevous,
always a treat for me to introduce the momz & popz to a movie or two they've not seen,
last night we all enjoyed Brother, Where Art Thou, the momz especially, cracking up
watching Clooney & company's adventures in Mississippi. Another film on our viewing
calendar over the next few days is Girl on the Bridge (La Fille sur le Pont- apologies to
any French speaking indivs out there) which we recommend in a Major Way, an awfully
enjoyable film, great soundtrack, and, well, they don't make them w/the same sort of
panache hereabouts. Whatever it is you are up to during the next few days, yourstruly
wishes you many fine memories result, that you remain safe, and experience some degree,
large or small, of happiness & contentment, knowing how rare both of those things are.
~ ~ ~
thought you were free of the curse of me, eh?
not that simple, my leetle preeteeezz...
chatting w/counterparts here at fishwrap central,
discussing movies & films on vid, we thought of
something we had posted in April this year re similiar
subject matter, link below will get ya there & if you're
so inclined, look at the entire 4.4 post (well, hell,
look at the entire page, we got nothing to be ashamed about)
as it is mostly movie/movie industry/oscar related stuff...
nugget of linky goodness

11.20   not that ennybuddy gives a damn...
there are few illusions we subscribe to these days, suppose it's the
result of achieving silverbacked status; and the few proudly wierd folk
that come by here on a regular basis, well, this is for you (and me, really
something in this posting/blogging thing that we find somewhat theraputic...)
yourstruly is currently "en famille", enjoyably so you know, what else can top
returning to chez d'monkey after a long day chasing the advertising dollar to
discover homemade chile colorado and tortillas, man, talk about soul food...
caught this show on the telly before, and we apologise for making any
New Yorkers out there Y   A   W   N   w/boredom, but EGG is fine
television stuff. Am not sure what rock we've been under but we were
introduced to the work of Cindy Sherman last night:
Masters of Photography: Cindy Sherman;
MOMA, Cindy Sherman, C. 1977;
C.S. on the Internet; Artcyclopedia
& oh yeah, show also featured the work of Bruce Gilden, amongst others.
hey, you know how to google doncha?
just put your fingers together & type g o o g . . .
~ ~ ~
our usual savoir faire & nonchalance has been somewhat rattled by the
goings on at the j-o-b; new "front-end" software installation is wreaking
minor havoc in the advertising department of N. Ca's beloved fishwrap,
& while it really isn't anything upsetting or discomfiting in any major way
we sorta wish we had scheduled vacation for this period of time, it has put
a cramp on what energies we are able to muster, and as we are devoting
much of them to our guests & their entertainment & edification,
maybe apres holiday we'll have something more interesting to rattle on about...

11.18   jaypea & the Momz & Popz...
all got up at dark-thirty this Am, with intent to catch some meteor activity,
drove up into the Berkeley Hills to discover w/combination of shock & humor
that hundreds of others had same/similiar intent, bloody traffic jam all along
Grizzly Peak Blvd, and Centennial Road to the Lawrence Hall of Science had a BPD
roadblock lit up with flares as the amount of stargazers had overwhelmed the parking
lot at the Hall & Space Sciences bldg farther up the hill, so we drove thru Tilden &
found ourselves a nice spot in high priced R.E. neighborhood and enjoyed 45 minutes of
star gazing, ourselves & the pater/materfamilias. The family that gazes together,
grazes together (& no doubt we be doing our fair share of that in a coupladaze...)
quickly now, vite vite!
here are a couple of links found during early perusal of sunday fishwrap,
and then after those, some items we had posted at our evil twin's site earlier
this year (which is currently the venue for departed pal camdogg memorial &
grief therapy workouts), so without much further ado (yah, yah, chill, willya!?)
mature relationships/foreign films;
more Euro film stuff
& now the previously posted at lobo loco stuff:
some additonal material re Patrice Chereau's Intimacy;
uh oh...     links gone south...
seems some of the Chereau/Intimacy linkage is a goner,
unless one wants to pony up for a Prospect subscription.
so, we'll include the following as substitute fare:
cinema's explicit future ;
July interview w/P. Chereau, from Film World;
& then two items from The Village Voice,
J. Hoberman reviews Intimacy;
Mark Rylance's Body Language,
okay, yesssss, it's only a matter of time before those links too
go the way of all things linkable, lost in the ether, and we sorry,
cannot account for why archipelago seems to be, well, gone
only that we know it was there friday & we weren't hallucinating...
inspiration for reposting this next item came from a
recent visit to archipelago & recent guitar related posts therabouts,
el chango tonto visits the Healdsburg Guitar Festival;
& now, before ourowndamnself in the company of mater & pater hit the road north
to visit the Santa Rosa gang, we leaves ya w/some monkey biz related material:
monkeysrobots news

11.16   steamed clams & fish tacos...
are two of our favorite goodies, w/a good cold beer,
especially alongside excellent company. Oncet upon a time
yourstruly used to offer up a bunchalinkage on fridays,
we called it friday follies, you can still peruse the oddities
as they're recorded in the archives of ol' monkey biz.
we'll do something a little similiar today, but it won't
have the pointless sillyness of a friday follyish post
but it will have some pointlessness of its very own, to be sure.
Love in the Time of Coca-Cola;
my boot (she hates my futon);
The Rover or, The Banished Cavaliers;
J. London's The Human Drift;
a bit of Bukowski
w/the t-day holiday nearly upon us, and the imminent arrival of the
d'monkey Momz & Popz, we shall strive mightily to continue to provide
the occasional chewy linky goodness (be sure to brush after every visit!)
but thou canst always hie theyself here or here,
& get some great linkage, oh, like this one,
that we came across whilst visiting Eclogues,
or maybe marvelous linky treasure like this one,
courtesy Cahill, U.S. Marshal

11.15   h e l l o . . .
nothing much to say, but a couple of things to share
the Leonids are falling, the Leonids are falling!
more info on Leonids here
& jessferdahalibut, close your eyes,
take a deep breath or two, & then enjoy this
oh, you all who reside in places w/out the encumbrance of city lights
yourstruly hopes you make an effort to witness this marvel...
~ ~ ~
one last little thing...
from the little zen calendar for today:
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
attributed to The Buddha
~ ~ ~
whoops, dos mas cosas, chiquitas,
Clams, Anyone?
Berkeley Free Folk Festival
le marquis d'monquis will be manning (in a big way)
the kissing booth from Noon-6PM.         NOT!

11.14   sometimes it is difficult...
to revisit events of the recent past. This morning, for example, yourstruly is on the train into the city,
reading Nov issue of Esquire magazine (we could go into major riff here about how many years we've
enjoyed reading this magazine, the many reasons why we continue to do so and continue to enjoy it,
but it's likely few of you give a damn about what we read & why) and we began reading the
"War Comes to America" stories published in that issue and then, well, (careful it might happen to you)
got those goddamned tears in my eye and had to stop reading. Wasn't sure that we'd find linkage
to said stories at the Esquire web site, but lo & behold, there is, Hurrah!
So, if you are at all inclined to be moved by the written word, hie thyself here. 
~ ~ ~
three items,
inspired by reading the local fishwrap...
numero uno
we love Marga Gomez;
even if she's got no use for us...
numero dos
this news available in other places,
but a Billboard item mentioned in the Chron
led us to news of something in the works:
Marty Scorsese gets the Blues
you mean i gotta wait til '03?
numero tres
web-spinning w/J. Carroll
~ ~ ~
an otherwise unremarkable wednesday awaits...
          Quite often, the "baptism" of a future dissenter occurs in something unplanned, such as a spontaneous resistence to some piece of pedagogical stupidity. There is good reason to think that such reactions arise from something innate rather than something inculcated: Nickleby doesn't know until the moment of the crisis that he is going to stick up for poor Smike. Noam Chomsky recalls hearing the news of the obliteration of Hiroshima as a young man, and experiencing the need to go off and find solitude because there was nobody he felt he could talk to. It would be encouraging to believe that such reactions are innate, because then we can be certain that they will continue to occur, and will not depend for their occurrence upon the transmission of good examples or morality tales.
          It may be that you, my dear X, recognise something of yourself in these instances; a disposition to resistance, however slight, against arbitrary authority or witless mass opinion, or a thrill of recognition when you encounter some well-wrought phrase from a free intelligence. If so, let us continue to correspond so that I may draw from your experience even as you flatter me by asking to draw upon mine. For the moment, do bear in mind that the cynics have a point, of a sort, when they speak of the "professional nay-sayer." To be in opposition is not be to a nihilist. And there is no decent or charted way of making a living at it. It is something you are, and not something you do.
Christopher Hitchens, from "Letters to a Young Contrarian";
sage advice to elder silverbacks like myowndamnself, too...

11.12   w h o a . . .
growin' up be painful
~ ~ ~
  still pleading, but got offa my knees...
RIGHT NOW, go to Craig's Booknotes,
todays Featured CD link
and i wasn't kidding yesterday, you be cheatin' yourself
if you don't go out and get yourself a copy of
Down From The Mountain, it will bring you much JOY!!!!
you'll also discover how big a baseball fan Emmylou is...
the two best albums from last year:
Lucinda Williams, Essence;
Gillian Welch, Time, the Revelator
we mentioned how much comfort & pleasure
we derived courtesy Gillian & David on 9.5 d'monkey
& by the way, that last link on that entry,
the one from Slate that went south?,
yeah, this is the corrected link

11.11   i am on my knees and pleading...

please, we beg, hie thyselves out towards your video rental parlor of choice and get hold of
Down From The Mountain. Even better, and mind you, we   p l e a d i n g. . .
buy some copies and send to your friends who reside off in the hinterlands somewhere...
additional Down From The Mountain link here; the film & a concert series might be heading your way...

11.10   later that same afternoon...
oh, & by the way, it's raining!
hmmmmm, movies; Mamet's latest has its moments,
it wins an overall okeydokey, tho it breaks no new ground.
Cameron Crowe wants to blow your mind w/Vanilla Sky,
so be forewarned. Gene Hackman again, in a military/actioner,
& yah, no doubt made some little while back,
but seems chock full of that rah rah America kicks ass feelin'
those two last mentioned coming soon to a theatre near you.
these items 'cause i been thinking of Ken all afternoon,
google-cached K. Kesey interview;
digital interview w/K. Kesey;
official team roster of the Pranktown Busriders;
(from the Cosmic Baseball Association
--watch out for the mad-midi file-- PLAY BALL!)
a 1988 interview w/Ken K.
a Grateful Dead Moment w/Ken
a few miscellaneous Ken Kesey links here
and now we are off to see W.H. Macy in Focus
oh yah, we wish ya wuz here too...
~ ~ ~
ayii caramba, otra cosa mas...
let's hope a literal face lift isn't in the cards...
once she swallowed...   ahhhh...   tacks,
now she appears to be bovinely opining...
~ ~ ~

d a m n . . .
adios ken kesey
how is it one cannot be feeling blue about this?
fuck it, we going to the movies all weekend long and escape...
for you w/the wherewithal, a couple of tunes
originally posted hereabouts on 9.5,
Gillian Welch, album's Time, The Revelator,
I Dream a Highway & Time, The Revelator

11.9   referral log bullshit...
we really needed the laugh, too,
found this in the official record of visitors:
vital love creme for low libido
OH YAHHHHHH!
just cover me ALL up with that vital love cream stuff!
talk about your disturbin' search request...
All you Katz & Kitteez have yourselves a fine weekend!
describe tonights Warriors @ Wizards game in one word:
W O T T O N!
~ ~ ~
  all dressed up in the red, white & blue...
ourowndamnself did not watch el residente last evening, truthfully?
we have had a bellyfull & more of the administration wrapping
itself up in the flag, spouting patriotic homilies while
lying through their teeth & bad hairpieces...
we a little sick & weary of it, so we are taking a few days off...
i hate being lied to
don't you?
~ ~ ~
couldn't have said it better myowndamnself...
Mark Morford weighs in on the current situation

11.8   reports of our demise have been exaggerated...
ahhhhh, the usually dependable pitas servers took a holiday-
this from our always alert & aware web administrator:
NEWS (november 8, 2001): Wow, the site was just down for
super long. The webserver daemon crashed and our monitor
didn't catch it for some reason, and then ansolutely noone
emailed us about it until just now. So yeah,
back now, and sorry about that!
maybe these simultaneous incidents are signs that yourstruly
needs to develop hisowngoddamnserverthingie...

11.7   m o d e r n   l i f e . . .

we started out this Am by posting the following message to visitors:
we are currently experiencing
some technical difficulties
& as soon as those are straightened out, we'll be back...
~ ~ ~
yesterday eve, upon returning to chez dumbmonkey, yourstruly checked in
on the d'monkey page, only to discover- ACKKKKTHHHPTTTT- Gott in Himmel! -
the allman bros jpeg & tune we had uploaded yesterday were KAPUT! & then, upon launching
our fave ftp proggie (the cute one) we see that neither of the files reside where they were earlier that same day,
and then when attempting to upload the files again, Damn!, got some kind of wierd neverseenbefore message
advising me I hadn't the proper permissions to do so, & boy was we steamed! but definitely also mystified
so we called our personal technical assistance dept, better known to regular visitors as Brother Ken,
and he discovers "WotDaFugg! I am getting the same thing!" (we both utilize super.nu as server providers)
so, the brilliant younger bro surmised, "hmmmmm, maybe servers went down, and were restored but possibly
data lost might include anything uploaded within a specific time (like early Am on 11.6) and they may still be in
the process of gluing everything back together..." uhhhhhh, okay, i said ignoramously, and was reassured
by his intent to send off a couple of emails to super.nu & see what's what...
below is response sent to bro k from super nu:
Ken - sorry for the interruption in service. We have just completed >a major hardware upgrade. ALL servers are now larger, faster, more powerful - and you will >experience a dramatic increase in performance. > >I have spoken with our upstream provider about mail and he informs me no mail has been lost, >however some mail is in a holding file - >it will be available in 24 hours. > >Your site should be up and running, and FTP access should be normal. >If you find this is not the case, please reboot your computer. > >There may be other problems, but please rest assured, we can fix them. > >Please reply with your domain names, and passwords, and I will check out the problem. > >Thanks for your patience. We appreciate your business. >
here is response to message sent by yourfurrymammalianpalhisowndamnself:
John - apparently this was a problem caused by the upgrade - in transferring the files, root took over ownership of your site - sorry for the inconvenience - we are working on a system wide fix now - in the meantime I have changed ownership of your files back to you, so you can upload etc
uhhhhhhh, okay, we said again, still ignoramously-
but we did wonder why we never heard anything about the wonderful server upgrade and any
possibility of interruption of service or whatever, it might have been a nice thing to mention, que No?
anyway, it looks like we are back, 5x5 & treetop high
although we won't have the opportunity to upload that
allman bros tune again, until this evening...
your patience with us & our non-technical ways is always appreciated

11.6   hello...

guess you could say that this days post has been inspired by the always fabulous efforts of the estimable Craig @ BookNotes & his college of musical knowledge, although the big difference here is you're actually likely to learn a lot more courtesy his labors than what yourstruly's gonna provide, and hereabouts we are also likely to include a tune or two, in this case, just one, and one of our absolute fave Allman Bros tunes, available here.
TURN IT UP!
Apeing (hah! apeing- get it?) our esteemed weblogging comrade, we will also include a couple of links, but of a slightly different complexion, mostly fan-oriented Allman Bros inspired sites:
Duane Lives;   The Allman Brothers Band;   some reviews by Wilson & Alroy;   Planet Dobro;
you can find more at Allman Brothers HQ, also an Allman Bros Webring to check out.
we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

11.5   stumbling about in the ether...
and tripped over this
~ ~ ~
oh, yah, monday w/a vengence...
so, not much to say, at least at the moment,
but we thinking about a lot of stuff, yet for now,
this L.A. Times item will just have to suffice:
Minority of One, Lee Siegel on C. Hitchens latest

11.4    later, that same afternoon...
Talkin' Heads
or Rich Folks Can Be Good For Sump'tin'
watching a little c-span whilst performing our bachelorly chores,
and caught the largest part of this discussion,
then wondered, hmmmm, will this be on again soon? (no...)
but went to the Carnegie site & found it here.

seemingly adrift, not caring where the current bears us...
a variety of items i've come across during my morning reading:
a little about Charlie Liteky & courage; something positve to share;
an aside, after that last item: a neighbor of mine, two houses away, has two adopted daughters,
one of them from China, raised since a "wee bairn".   I also read recently a Jon Carroll column where
he describes his joy at becoming a grandparent, and the youngster also an adopted girl from China,
am not certain if he mentioned "Half the Sky" in his piece, oh, but that isn't the point. I am thinking,
perhaps, of all the worlds forgotten children, all of those orphaned and innocent souls, and wonder
whether or not we are all already damned because this is how we come to treat our children. arrgghh....
Just Imagine, an interview w/Y. Ono; a little more about raising children, w/a little help from the State;
much written about the economic stimulus package recently, but we like the tone of this item;
ohhhh yesssss, we could go on & on, including linkage various & sundry, items we think important
and relevant to the tenor of the times. Maybe I should just write something more personal, less
weighty & issue-ridden; perhaps something about the return of Michael Jordan (nope, sorry,
he be one very tired wizard by the end of the season is all we got to say) or Shaquille shooting .88%
from the line the other night (nope, no way, nobody else hereabouts gives a shit but yourstruly...)
'da Yankeezz? Hah! well, gotta say that myowndamnself not any kind of serious beisbol fan, but the
late inning drama of the N.Y. games weren't lost on me, certainly, in terms of entertainment, WAY
more interesting than last night in Phoenix (that is where the diamondbacks play, isn't it?).
no, no no, no no no no.... homie don't play that, not even sure where we want to go with this at
the moment. All of sudden (it seems) i get home and it's dark! Those shadows are lengthening &
i feel that creepy downward spiral of yucky depression awaiting me in them, got to do something
more proactive 'bout it, change of scene would do me good (Quantas, $899 R/T, LA to Sydney)
but you're not going to be able to manage that, are you Binky? no goddamit, not without a
Great Deal of Trouble.

11.1.01   Stop Wasting Your Time Here...
and YESSS, I am speaking to You, the unschooled, the ones who aren't paying attention & have ended up
here 'cause your search for funny Bin Laden pics coughed up dumbmonkeypage, Wake Up & Pay Attention!

Really! I'd suggest you go and read these folks, ASAP:
wood s lot;   medley;   BookNotes;   blowback;   ethel the blog;
these only a small representation of concerned & attentive folk out there,
making some effort to remain as aware as possible of all aspects of the
current situation, there are more of them at the l'alliance link found at the
top of this page, and that small list of places to visit now included above
(also from the awwwshit webpage) will provide addtional opportunity to
expand your awareness far beyond that provided by network/cable news
& the various & sundry U.S. fishwraps from any part of the country.
~ ~ ~
Profiles in Cowardice
~ ~ ~
okayokayokay, jaypea lightens up...
poetry by Aahhnoldt

alla October '01