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for current monkey biz go HERE on the eve of the election of 2004...       it was nearly four years ago yourstruly was going to bed thinking that he'd awaken to the news a fellow named Albert Gore was elected president, at the time so confident that there was no possible way the electorate could be so ignorant as to allow a perfectly good waste of space by the name of g.w. bush to take office as head of state. oh, binky, we felt bad, we did, so very, very bad, and truly had no idea of how awful it was going to get, but we knew that something terrible had happened that election day of '00. the sitting president is an embarrassment to us all. Any thoughtful individual possessing the will to undertake the simplest research would undoubtedly discover for themselves reams of information in re the malfeascence and impropriety that are the hallmarks of the current administration. It will be interesting to see how mssrs bush, cheney, rumsfeld, rove, et al & this period of time in our history will be recorded historically. When this boy puts himself to bed on Tuesday night he will remain hopeful that on Wednesday he'll wake to some of the best news he's heard in years, it'll certainly provide him with something to celebrate with so many friends he hopes to see very soon. from the current issue of the New Yorker,  No More Years briefly now, as the weekend approacheth...       10.22.04 indebted to M. Woods at wood s lot for providing reminder to visit democracy now more often (especially now that we out of radio range of KPFA): Noam Chomsky on the State of the Nation, Iraq and the Election; by the way, there be PLENTY of the finest kind of chewy linky goodness regularly available at wood s lot, tell a friend, eh? Ourowndamnedself'd be remiss if we didn't mention the fine work being carried on of late at C.J.'s BookNotes, again, pass along the good word, particularly to anyone you know who is still stuck on that fence of indecision, can you imagine how shitty you are going to feel when you realize you have to live with the moron in chief and his cad-ministration for another four years? okay then, out of recent new yorker, by N. Lemann, Remember the Alamo, and additional chunky linky goodness, interview w/Mr. Lemann from PBS Frontline program "The Choice 2004"; and dear goddess, forgive us for being such a slovenly, lazy nogoodnik; yourstruly had every intention of mentioning the next item here when we first ran across it, thanking the wizard behind the curtain at Ethel the Blog (and looking forward to day when we can talk him into exceeding his carbo count by drinking a few beers with us sometime over dinner and conversation...): Gore Vidal's State of the Union. personal note to Stumpy Delko: "hey dude, where's the rest of that travelogue?" Later that Same Morning or Something like a Postscript from the not so beloved local fishwrap: a matter of great concern locally: shucks!; and on an altogether different note, a little about the woman whose cruel fate brought Manny Vera into her life, RIP, Robin Gillespie some unusual strands've been woven into the tapestry...       10.19.04 of da life of l'Marquis lately; cannot adequately express the shock and surprise when reading the local fishwrap Sunday morning and discovering news item re alleged homicide of young woman and the arrest of an acquaintence of yourstruly as the primary suspect. oh dear, he said to hisowndamnedself, the fucker's gone and done it now... More about that in a bit, would rather mention one of the small but tres marvelous pleasures experienced of late. Been in the local desert S.W. environs going a bit over two months now and been spending some amount of time in Vince's room, AKA the bird room, AKA Popz office. Our Popz took in some birds once he retired, had a parrot some years ago and although yourstruly never brought up the subject with Pop, he evidently took great pleasure in their company and his own good fortune to be Grandfather to, oh, probably a dozen or so new arrivals in the world of cockatiels (popz raised some finches and parakeets too, although it's only been the cockatiels that have been the prodigious breeders). The elder pair here (l'Marquis calls them Fred & Wilma, partially 'cause our Popz always reminded us of Fred Flintstone...) been in house, oh gosh, the Momz isn't even sure of how long, so, it's been a while. Very recently the Momz and ourself acquired young female to introduce to Jr. Birdman (again, our own appellation for the latest progeny of F & W) because upon our return from one of our recent roadtrips, seems Big Poppa Fred had been picking on Jr. B-man, he was missing a goodly number of his feathers and we determined this likely due to new eggs laid while we had been away. Momz had a nice sized spare cage around and we moved Jr. B into his spacious bachelor's quarters but he looked so lonely there the Momz and l'Marquis decided it was time to introduce romance (well, at least the opportunity for romance) into young Junior Birdman's life. By the time Fred and Wilma got their egg laying business behind them, there were four eggs they were tending to, and the big news is the first two hatchlings have appeared just this week, noticed two wee fuzzy creatures in the nest on Sunday afternoon, first heard their (very faint) cheeeep-cheep-cheeeping early this Am when checking on our email. Junior and the new arrival (haven't got around to some name for her yet...) are still getting acquainted, no doubt some degree of 'the shock of the new' that she's dealing with, coming from an environment that had her in a much larger space with twenty to thirty other birds, but she seems to be dealin' with it, and as for romance, well, spring's a few months away, maybe by then Jr. will have made enough of an impression that they'll begin to consider parenthood. Ahhhhh, a true life biology lesson thanks to our esteemed (and very much missed) Papa-San. Okay, so our spending so much time here of late, in what has been a very leisurely and unhurried kind of visit, has occasionally provided us with reason to be in some of the old neighborhoods of our youth, those far from halcyon days of junior-high, high school and our intial abortive attempts at collegiate endeavor. Mixed emotions about many of the memories brought back by revisiting some of that turf making sure ourowndarnself's not dwelling on unpleasant recollections, instead considering where and when some of the stones mortared & joined together in the building of the foundation of our character may have been quarried. l'Marquis hasn't been the most gregarious kinda bigapefellah, not looking up any of his own high schools pals, not hanging out in local taverns, nudie bars (they are plentiful hereabouts) nor even making much attempt in seeking romantic companionship, perhaps recognizing that he may not necessarily be a good prosect in that regard, not lately anyway. Manny V., the troubled and in deep shit character arrested in the course of the homicide mentioned above, truthfully, really don't know the guy well at all. He and l'Marquis attended the same high school, he graduating two years ahead of yourstruly, and we definitely didn't run in the same circles socially, remembering him as one of a larger group of young men generally given over to pursuits best described under the broad heading of juvenile delinquency. Many of my peers developed an affinity for alcohol early in their lives, always seemed that with Juarez right across town, getting high was not a problem at all, and certainly whilst this may be the broadest of generalizations, our Dad grew up here, yourstruly spent much of his young life here, with eyes wide open much of the time. Well, however it happened, in that same period of time encompassed by the Popz retirement, spending some of his free time afterwards in a number of pursuits, one of which became raising birds, he became acquainted with Manny V., introduced via les freres Lewis, both classmates of M.V. at Irvin, now in the auto body repair business, each of them in competition with the other by way of their shops, by their individual careers in auto racing & sponsorship. Manny was recommended to Vincenzo as a capable mechanic, of the shade tree variety. Oncet upon a time, during a visit that was probably 3 to 4 years ago, we ran into Manny and two of his pals, at Victoria's restaurant on Dyer, meeting up with another of the Popz recent friendships, and when introduced all around, Manny and ourself able to nod at one another, that goes-way-back familiarity from high school, his recent acquaintence with Popz and (through that) introductions to brothers Dan and Dave. Next time Manny & l'Marquis met up, the memorial service for our Popz in early january, he made no small point of suggesting that a haircut for l'Marquis would have been in order. Wethinks he was a little drunk at that time, but then, l'Marquis was himself a wee bit tipsy thruout much of that ordeal. Okay, so we barely know the guy but what we do know of Manny is that he is a capable and trustworthy mechanic, got to know the Popz well enough to be invited into chez Ester y Vinny on occasion, even enjoyed some homemade enchiladas. That little mechanical emergency we experienced in august was our reason for looking up Manny again; called him once we got back to the house the same afternoon of the breakdown & tow, arrangements to have car towed to his shop and to meet the next day. Car was fixed pronto quickly at reasonable price, come and get it, so we did. not sure exactly how it happened, something to do with suggestion of having a beer together sometime, raise a toast to our ol' Dad, you know, so Manny runs with this, "you drink beer?" Next thing, BOOM, we in the bluesubaru and heading to Eric's house, Eric being aforementioned friendship we met up with for lunch, and we sit in E's living room, sharing a six pack of bud light (everybody seems to be drinking this around here) and talking a bit about ol' Vincenzo, actually getting to know one another a bit as here we are, with yourstruly quite unfamiliar with both these gents but it not as awkward as it may sound, largely because we all there really in memory of Vincenzo, and this due to Manny's genuine feeling that it was the Popz who was responsible for introducing Manny to Eric and they had become good friends, good enough friends that Manny could show up unannounced on a weekday afternoon with stranger (mostly that, yah, had only met that one time over lunch...) and six pack in hand and be welcome. So we drives Manny back to work afterwards, he offers that in case l'Marquis ever wants to go nightclubbing, wants to be "shown around", give him a call. We do call him, maybe two weeks later or so, noticed the bluesubaru required some attention before piling more mileage on, can Manny take care of it, no worries, and after two days I am there to pick up on a Saturday afternoon, and in sociable mood have bought two six packs to offer up the gang at titanic automotive gettting off work on a Saturday afternoon. Meet up with Manny's brothers briefly upon arrival, another gentleman there, some years senior to us, more a peer of the Popz actually, turns out he is retired motocycle cop, so it's l'marquis, Manny, his co-worker and partner in the garage, this old fellow sitting there killing the six packs (plenty of those dead soldiers around too, so the fellows'd been at it for a bit...) and talking 'bout this and that, sitting some ten feet or so inside the big, open garage door, an afternoon of beautiful sky passing by outside, an incredible blue, big bunches of cumulous clouds piled atop one another, passing west to east in our view outside the garage doors. Spent four or five hours there that afternoon, conversing, some discussion of this country's involvement in Iraq and the middle east in general, my opinions of the administration and most of what has transpired during the last three years plus not entirely in agreement with those in immediate proximity, but discussion remains civil and gentlemanly. There's a lot of talk about fishing, outdoorsy stuff in particular, the retired motorcycle cop is a very decent fellow, good humoured, mexican-american, and l'marquis is not at a loss when the ol'guy lapses into spanish. Somewhere in the course of conversation Manny (at least l'marquis remembers it this way) is asking after some advice from the old gentleman, some helpful commiseration regarding situation regarding woman he loves. Manny is pretty up front about it, using the word love several times, how much he misses her, much of this an issue of some immediacy as he is currently living in small trailer next door to the garage, he and she had been living together, with some success it seems, but now some unpleasantness re dogs that belonged to her mother, now staying with them as Mother was relegated to nursing home. Manny pauses to dig up photograph of girlfriend and himself, shows it to me, yah, nice looking couple. Chat with the old fellow has its moments, his recitation of likely oft told romantic adventures & assignations of his own, the telling of which is fortified by his inclusion of sworn oath that once he got married he never dallied again, no matter how greatly he may have been tempted. Anyway, it's evident Manny is jonesing big time & is a bit mopey over this, l'marquis has his escape already planned, folks are preparing to leave and he acts upon it, even though it seems like Manny would sure like to keep the conversation going, not wanting to be alone, hey, let's get together soon, okay? In the interim, staying busy and out of trouble, made a couple of journeys out of town, found some occasions for amusement and edification, spoke with Manny briefly on phone when the Momz took her car in for some trouble with the fan belt, that just before our recent trip to Flagstaff. l'Marquis was actually considering calling Manny and offering to meet up, maybe bring over some beer and pizza, follow through with his own suggestion for something like this when we last spoke via telephone. the local fishwrap doesn't have the story we discovered in the one-star Sunday issue available on-line, can't show you what surprised us on Sunday morning, but this link will suffice to describe the event referred to. Momz as surprised and shocked as yourstruly, she liked Manny, he was always very polite to her. l'Marquis imagines the tragedy coming to fruition, his continued solicitations, something hopeful in her that things would change, be different, the re-attempt at cohabiting, the echoes of what damned the initial attempt manifesting themselves once again, her request that he leave, again. his anger and disappointment, his drinking and his obsession... hmmmm...   someone doth protesteth too much...       10.9.04 initially caught this small news item in the local fishwrap, likely you might have seen/heard of the story, too... briefly, ma cher ami, via the marvel that is S.J. Green's Plep, (he credits discovery at MeFi) the moron in chief's resume; by the way, amigo C.J.'s in fine fettle over at BookNotes; please invest a little of your time in a perusal thereof... another 1400 miles under our belt...       10.5.04 yes, Binky, t'was another road trip, a brief one to be sure, but an excellent & enjoyable holiday nevertheless. Friday morning the Momz and l'Marquis headed north towards Albuquerque, N.M., skirting the city itself when adjusting our route in a westerly direction, heading for Flagstaff, AZ. Before we fill you in on a few more details re this trip, allow us first to mention a number of things that have occupied our attention of late. Caught a bit of the PBS Newshour last evening, in particular story re military families speaking out against our involvement in Iraq, Huzzah to those courageous souls. In some sort of serendipitous little miracle, upon our return from most recent road trip we discoved brief note from pal Euphorbita sent our way just before her own departure upon lovely long holiday of her own in Spain and Italy, You'll discover some material related to that earlier link when you visit Real Voices. One of the frustrations we have dealt with since our departing l'Marquis' familiar S.F. Bay Area environs is the incredible delay and incompetence of the u.s. postal service in attending to the forwarding of mail from our post office box in Berkeley, only last week did we receive formal notice from the usps folks re recognition of our initial request (delivered to Berkeley Main on Aug. 2nd, in person at the same time we paid for another six months rental of the P.O. box); t'was w/a mixture of joy and consternation we received delivery of large amount of "old" mail from Berkeley main, including a package also mailed way back in August to pal of ours on the other coast (oh, let's not get into all that right now, okay?) but several back issues of the New Yorker (we'd already placed a change of address request with the N.Y.'er customer service folks a few weeks back), and some assorted correspondence and goshdarnitall, before we get altogether sidetracked, there has been some awfully good stuff in the New Yorker of late, maybe we make mention of some articles in more detail a bit later on, but for now, back to that road trip... firstly, they don't call us dumbmonkey for nuttin' folks. Yourstruly at the helm of the Momz station wagon on our road trips, occasionally grabbing camera and catching some lovely scene as we speeding by it on the highway, this trip no exception, on our way thru the Albuquerque & loveliness of No. New Mexico and northeastern Arizona, well, you can imagine how often we had occasion to grab the damn thing and take a picture. Oh, now let's not laugh too cruelly dear Binky, when we admit to thee that upon our arrival in Flagstaff, after having settled in our comfy motel room, ourowndamnedself decides to check out some of those images we'd taken on the road, only to discover NO CF CARD in the camera. You can imagine our embarrassment & disappointment with ourowndamnedself. More re that later... Brief aside here: it was l'Marquis' intention to have been on the eastern shores of this continent some weeks ago, our intention was to join up with some of the thousands of folks making joyful noise and raising their voices in protest against the cad-minstration & their policies during the occupation of NYC by the RNC. Other things got in our way and our plans had to be modified, tho' we are still intent upon invading those environs (& pretty damn soon, but we keeping those plans on the qt, as "announcing your plans is a sure way to make god laugh"...) but we had received word from amigo Stumpy Delko (one of the nefarious gang behind brooklyn based Environy) that a certain Steve L and Lori C were heading west for holiday in Indian Country and would also be stopping in Flagstaff as L.C.'s film This Land is Your Land was part of the Democracy Weekend celebration being held there over the weekend. Okay then, now when youstruly was back in EPT, after having cleaned the pool (have we yet mentioned how much we enjoying being the pool guy? kind of a zen thing...) we taking a breather and watching midafternoon movie on IFC, Big Shot's Funeral, enjoying this wonderful oddity, character played by D. Sutherland has a line in film (he attributes quote to Confucius) that resonated deeply with JP after meeting up with S & L over the weekend, "Aren't friends from far away a joyful thing?" and Yea Verily, Binky, it doth be so! Wethinks we caught 'em by surprise, and it was grand to see our pals that evening, the Momz and ourowndamnedworthlessself were their guests for lovely dinner at Josephine's, we enjoyed long stroll thru touristy (but nice touristy) old Flagstaff district. Experienced great happiness the next day when we learned their schedule would allow them to meet up with Momz and l'Marquis at the Grand Canyon the next morning (Saturday, with the time constraint of Lori's film scheduled to begin at 1:30 that afternoon) and now you can imagine the added consternation and psychological self-flagellation that l'Marquis experienced having acquired the knowledge that HE LEFT THE DAMN CF CARD BEHIND. oh man, that Marquis be getting so dreadfully forgetful as he approaching his dotage (cheap Too!)... okay, really and truly, yourstuly is going back there, and going back there often. As we've mentioned to several pals who will be receiving some postcards (yes, we send postcards on occasion, want one?; write and send your snailmail address...) and those of you who've made the pilgrimage to the G.C. can well attest, mere words are inadequate to the task of describing such a magnificent place. Oh, and our strategy of departing Flagstaff early in the AM, arriving at the park entrance around 7:45/8 Am or so, worked out very well for us. Weather was fantastic, certainly a bit cooler than we'd been accustomed to in the desert S.W., but no complaints. In the company of L & S and the Momz, well, l'Marquis was one happy bigapefellah. As you can imagine, Ms L and Esteban had to head back to Flagstaff in a more pronto quickly fashion than the Momz & l'Marquis, so ourowndarnedselves dawdled a bit and enjoyed the drive out to Desert View, checked out the tower there, and, oh yes, we did indeed almost dawdle too much and for too long a time as l'Marquis found hisowndamnedself hauling ass back to Flagstaff in order to return in time to catch Lori's film, making it just by the hairs on his chinnychinchin, literally walking into the theatre at 1:30 (parking in that historic district of Flagstaff is at a premium, to say the least) and thank the goddess of road trips they were having little Q & A & a goodie giveaway before the film started, giving the Momz and yourstruly opportunity to chill a bit, catching our respective breaths. we stoppin' for now, tho' let us forewarn ye, more later, katz und kitteez, likely that Esteban (he of the truly generous nature..) will pass along and share some of the photos he & ms L took on their trip to Indian Country, so we make sure you have opportunity to view and perhaps be inspired to make road trip of your own to those environs sometime in the not too distant future. last month's monkey-biz in two parts: el primero el segundo hasta lluego, amigos, y que te vaya bien...