l'Marquis has been, uhhhhhh, how should we say this...       10.30.05 sort of distracted of late, but believe it when he tells ye, ye pretty little things ye, been plenty of occasions when he thought of setting hisowndamnedself down and spouting off about this thing and that thing. Want to tell ye one thing for sure tho, kinda disappointed in a certain Mr. Fitzgerald as we were expecting to see something more than one individual indicted. Yah, we know, Libby being indicted's still something notable, perhaps leading to bigger things (oh yah, we hopin' so...), but again we wondering just how many folks out there are paying attention and increasing their awareness, 'cause, well, you know, even though many of us have already had a pretty clear idea of what these lying sonsabitches been up to, yourstruly pretty damn sure he not just speaking for hisowndamnedself when he takes note of the huge number of apparently blissfully ignorant fucking fools that he is surrounded by. Another thing too, with the very deliberate pace that any legal action will take after this indictment, Libby will be pardoned (after he takes the bullet for the administration and pleads guilty, keeping his mouf securely shut) by you-know-who as he's about to exit office, and by then, well, as we're all already well and truly fucked, how do ye think it's gonna look after another thirty-nine months? Bleak, baby, awfully goddamned bleak... might be that you'd prefer we share more of our adventures with ye, like our recent morning spent at the Whoopee Bowl, out there on I-10 on the way west out of town; perhaps more about the road trip we returned from a few weeks ago, Hey, how about some news regarding Manny the Mechanic's trial? No, really, as re that last, better ye not ask for those details, grim stuff, Binky, yourstruly kinda regretting attending trial, sorta got more than we bargained for in terms of unpleasant detail. We will tell ye this much tho', be sure to have a few grains of salt about: the verdict was Guilty, & the sentence? Ten years, Binky. Bad craziness, ese, very bad craziness... Yet ain't that what we been putting up with for some while now, ever since that fateful November of 2000? Not sure about ye, but we gonna miss Hunter Thompson's take on things, came across this reminder of Mr. Bad Craziness' way with a phrase just the other day. Oh, yah, sure, it be some old news, but so's stuff like this: from 1.17.03 CounterPunch, Draft Impeachment Resolution Against President George W. Bush (gosh, ye think there might be a few other items we can add to that list?); courtesy The Project for the Old American Century, Wake Up and Smell the Fascism; from AlterNet, 10.7.04, Bush's Crimes Against Nature alongside second cousin to that piece, from the NRDC website (and recently updated by the way), The Bush Record; back again in time for this one, from the Yurica Report, 2.11.04, The Despoiling of America. Alright now, jessferdahalibut, from HNN, Historians vs. George W. Bush, dated 5.17.04, polls obliquely referred to in first para have changed over the last year or so. How'd we get started on this anyway? oh yah, we wuz missing Hunter & his take on things. BTW, we'd seen link to brief interview w/G. Vidal at a couple of places, one of them being Pat T's forty-two (the other may have been wood s lot, where there is currently -- as always -- a surfeit of wonderful stuff, OH, and before we forget to mention -- been our problem A LOT of late -- thinking 'bout Pat T reminded us of recent visit to Ms. Reecie and memorable description she provides us of a particular type: they look like petrified tree frogs in evening gowns.) Tip o'da ol'red fez to Mark for leading us to Ladies and Gentlemen: The Real George W. Bush, which fits in very nicely with that assortment of chewy linky goodness we offerin' up in this edition, as will this item from the New Yorker of 10.24, Game Plan, by George Packer, but goddamolay, will that opposition ever mobilize and actually become some kind of effective and unified force? personal note to Senor Skirbollicious: that S. Silverman is S A U C Y, indeed... oh, and it's currently something like 2:20 Am -- damn, forgot to change the clocks back -- ANYWAY, you know that yourstruly had every intention of coming in here and ranting about 2000 dead American soldaten -- hey, that's not even counting those killed in Afghanistan, right? -- and we got some movie recommendations for ye, oh gosh, just need some dependable minions around to step in whilst yourstruly deals with distractions...

hallo there, katz und kitteez...       10.20.05 you can imagine the delight felt by l'Marquis & his devoted crew of minions as a certain ex-exterminator from texass gets booked today, that news of arrest warrant being issued tickled yourstruly no end, we wishing for indictments to be announced sometime soon, with Mssrs Rove, Libby and (oh Goddess, be kind, be loving, be just...) perhaps that shitheel, the vice-president. oooooh-Lahhh, won't that be a fine day? Can you say resignation, Binky? and whilst upon the subject of those fuckers running this country into the ground whilst lining their own pockets along with those of their dearest campaign contributors, from recent Village Voice, J. Ridgeway provides us a timeline of the career of a certain H. Miers; and do ye realize that we might very likely see that number of U.S. casualties in Iraq (speaking of the deaths of American soldiers specifically) clock in at 2,000 (or more) by Halloween? Contemplate these options, via those very astute women at Code Pink; Reverse the Robin Hood Budget! Add your input to the campaign against the Republican amendment to permanently slash funding for basic health care, nutrition and education services for the poor. Last thing we'll leave ye with for now is this item, John Pilger's We Need to be Told, and again, we are grateful to Mark's efforts over at wood s lot for providing us that bit of linky goodness. Oh, and by the way, Binky-poo, the Late Mid-Fall Ralph is upon us... nearly forgot to mention this, but if ye have not had the opportunity to see Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know well, goshdarnitall, now that is is available on homevid formats, ye now have no excuse...

well my mind is goin' through them changes...       10.17.05 whooooo, anybuddy out dere remember Buddy Miles? egads, we gettiin' a bit long in the toofies, eh Binky? Major change of note here amongst the family P., young daughter of brother Daniel has given birth to 7+ lb. babygurl making bruddah Dan the first Grampa amongst the brothers P. Congrats, Grampa Danny! Congrats to mommyGenett & her sweetie Aaron! Grampa Dan has recently had mucho to celebrate, a B-day in late September, a week or so later he and Mrs Danny AKA Janet celebrated an anniversary, 'tho we not sure which it might have been, perhaps #6 maybe seven, pos, quien sabe, amigos, and who's counting anyway. Met up with all the brothers and some of the kids over the weekend, our first opportunity to get together since we parked the monkeemobile back in the Agena St. driveway. Yea, verily, t'was very nice to see all the kids and bruddahs, share some pizza and popcorn whilst watching movie and, dammit, admittedly a kowboy football game; bruddah Dave and young son Miguelito (as yet undefeated in local H.S. cross-country this season) have inherited the Dallas Kowboy Fan gene from the late paterfamilias, Vincenzo, oh and wouldn't Vincenzo be tickled to see young Genett's babe in arms, oh yesssss, he most certainly would. Let's see now, what else been going on? Healthwise, l'Marquis is fine, putting off any idea of gallbladder removal and maintaining pretty good handle on diet and bad habits to avoid any future attacks from that damned organ. Managed to see a couple of very interesting things in the cinema whilst we were away, enjoyed spending some time with pal Lee S., notorious for his own effort here on the information autobahn, the Skirblog, wherein he mentions evening spent at the lovely Parkside Theatre in Oak-town watching The Aristocrats which seems to have discomfitted Lee a good deal more that it did l'Marquis, who seems to have acquired a greater tolerance for gutter-speak, goodness knows there be plenty of mother fucking, cock sucking, ass reaming, cum spraying, dog fucking, shit eating, rampant incest of every variety and MORE (!) described in the many recitals of an infamously tawdry joke (l'Marquis found hisowndamnedself enjoying Kevin Pollack's imitation of Christopher Walken telling the joke...). So now, guess we'll be careful 'bout cussing up a storm when Lee's around. Also viewed Cronenberg's A History of Violence and then, saw it again upon return to west texass environs. Something about this movie gets under your skin, like so many of Cronenberg's films will and we don't hesitate recommending you check it out yourowndarnedself. Serenity, liked it a lot more than we imagined we might, and we did catch it in a theatre full of tres geeky types, who hooted and hollered and really got into the spirit of the thing, not great, not anything of substance, but pretty solid entertainment, you won't feel insulted or in need of a good, long hot shower afterwards. Some interesting things on DVD, one of the creepier "stalker" themed films yourstruly has ever seen, Enduring Love, truly a lot more going for it than just our lumping it into the stalker flick category. Had opportunity to see interesting film by Patrice Leconte, who's long been one of our favorite filmmakers (ordinarily we'd seek out previous mention of Leconte's films within d'monkey archived pages but they still such a mess after the post-SteveGunnelsFiasco, we'll spare ye that experience), Intimate Strangers may not be one of our all time faves, oh, but we love to see Sandrine Bonnaire in just about anything. A couple of Leconte's film we enthusiastically endorse for thy viewing pleasure, the Girl on the Bridge AKA La Fille sur le Pont and The Hairdresser's Husband.

finest kind of early Am locally...       10.13.05 rainstorm crept into local environs early hours of the morn, awoke to sight of occasional light flashes thru the drawn curtains of far-off lightning strikes followed moments later by lengthy seconds of tympanic thunder rumbling across the heavens, the sound of raindrops splashing upon the skylights, the roof, the ground outside, nice to fall back asleep, lulled by the rumbling thunder. Going to try something here & include a mere handful or so of photos; t'was largely a very fine experience, this road trip, mebbe we spent too much time in Albany environs, hard to say, anyway, learned a lot about our limitations, serious consideration of future trips will require some acquistion of camping gear, not a lot, just more than we're carrying about presently. A decent pair of hiking boots/shoes would be a good thing too, those lug soled rockports we wearing are pretty good for working in, but don't provide enough ankle support and overall comfort for long term hiking about in (occasionally) dicey terrain. Scariest moment? Exiting freeway in Needles, Ca. and as we on the offramp, behind semi-trailer, oh, a good 5-6 feet or so as we both wait at stop sign before venturing across intersection, that damn semi starts backing down towards front end of the monkeemobile, and yourstruly into reverse prontoquickly but checking behind us before moving, damn thing hits us just as we begin moving backwards, our own goddess blessed self honking horn like a madapefellah (like that fucker in front of us could actually hear anything anyway, right, Binky?) into R and backing off/away. Damn trucker finally locates his low gear and moves across the interesection and we are following, kind of hot under the collar, as he heads over to Taco Bell parking lot (somehow, this figures...) and we wheel around and park right in front of the cab as the truck stops, parks. There is a woman behind the wheel, we notice, likely the driver's girlfriend/partner (whatever!?) getting some hands-on experience, likely she never noticed us in rear views as we followed truck off fwy onto exit ramp and towards that stop, and Mind Ye, this dumbmonkey knows better than to tailgate anybuddy, let along fucking semi-trailer. Well, l'Marquis gets out and gives the driver a few minutes of "What the fuck, didn't you see me!!!" Etc, Etc, the guy apologizes profusely (but didn't get out of his truck") --- "didn't see ya man..." Oooooh, we was hot, Hot HOT, imagining having front end of the ol' blue subaru all completely fucked up, lights & radiator shot, the goddess was with us though, only scrapes on the bumper and some additional grey hair in our dark locks. One place visited that has us wanting to get back and spend more time in was Gallup, NM, and it wasn't just because of that Indian Princess we met, Binky, honestly, 'tho she was a vision with her long dark hair, slim, shapely and lovely to look at. Ah, we digress, anyway, odd thing was that we were unable to take photos in/around Gallup 'cause we'd forgotten to charge the battery up whilst in motel the night before - Duh-uhhhh! Maybe just that ol' goddess having fun w/us and making sure we get back there sometime soon. Lots to see nearby (again, maybe a better thing to do with a bit of gear aboard). Had a memorable visit to the Northern New Mexico Visitor Center (additonal bit of linky goodness re local environs: El Malpais Nat'l Monument) where the kindness of staff members allowed us to recharge camera battery (oh yah, re that material acquistition business before any future road trip stuff? New camera, several batteries and inverter so we can charge damned batts in the car...) and memorable because we'd oppt'y to view short NPS film shown in theatre there -- truly, katz und kitteez, if you ever find yourselves traveling I-40 through New Mexico, stop in here at the No.N.M. Visitor Center, a very fine facility and something yourstruly would much rather have his tax dollars paying for than the exercise in idiocy, futility and ego-aggrandizement that is the War Against Terrorism/Occupation of Iraq -- goshdarnitall, hope you'll forgive us as we unable to find some notes we took while there, but it was N. Scott Momaday's contribution to the film that made this visit so notable for us, his language in describing how some terrain, some landscape we've lived in, spent significant time in, how that experience & connection manifests itself in our character, our psyche, and how deeply nourishing, spiritually and psychologically, it is when we've occasion to revisit those places, something that most of this recent trip of ours was about, altho' it wasn't until we came face to face with that reality whilst watching this wonderful 29 minute (or so) film out in this visitor center out in the middle of nowhere, l'Marquis might even have had a tear in his eye, Binky, iz true...

weary & taking a breather...       10.11.05 maybe details later, but for now, back en famille, considering extending the roadtrip by rail; larger image of Mono Lake shot above can be had here

even more quickly now...       10.6.05 with 12 mins left on the counter, and they've disabled right click on the mousies in this library's computer, the bastids! 'fore we getz any further, happy Five Years Annv. to Mark of wood s lot (& thanks to C.J. at BookNotes for the heads up. Hardly enough time in thirty minutes to go thru all of our bloggos favoritos AND try to get to some email at the same time, but wanted to let those of ye occasionally tuning in to catch up with el chango tonto and his misadventures on the road (more details once we have settled someplace, maybe even some pictures TOO!) know that the car problem mentioned hereabouts yesterday is pretty minor thing, small connector that is part of the wiring harness connecting to alternator seems to have been damaged somehow, big mystery as to how that occured, but the fix is in and we know what to look for in re that blinky-fadey kind of battery/alternator signal. Got it handled pretty damn quickly via the fine folks at Planet Subaru (& Nissan) here in Flagstaff. What's next for yourstruly? Oh, we not sure exactly, mebbe the G.C., mebbe further afield to Monument Valley, feeling a bit weary at the moment but that could just be the result of being a wee bit stressed and a not very refreshing night of slumber. Whoh, where does that time go, got to fly, you all be good to one another now...

vite vite, pronto quickly now...       10.5.05 cheapass computer usage rates in the Flagstaff public library, $3/half-hour; Albany might only allow you half an hour at a time, but at least they don't charge you, and in EPT (yah, the kicker there is you got to be in EPT) an hour is no cost. ANYWAY, the monkeemobile is showing some signs of strain, boyz und gurlz, got out of Nv. this Am and made it to Kingman where l'Marquis planned to stop for brief repast, noticed warning light on dash signifying some manner of electrical/alternator problem, just flickering tho', occasionally bright and significant for a mere moment or two, then dimming, going out, only to flicker back on, flicker off, repeatedly, then going back out for some few minutes before repeating the cycle. Yourstruly said Fuck It Laddie! and headed right for Flagstaff, making it there in a wee bit less than two hours, got a place to stay and looked up a Subaru shop, heading there for diagnostic and repairs if required early tomorrow Am, kind of puts a wee damper on our plans for the G.C. at the moment, but we are in the neighborhood nevertheless, and perhaps it will be something fairly minor after all, one can hope, right? Okay, nine minutes and counting before the librarian takes back control. Actually the public library here is right downtown, easy to get to, just walked here from cheapo motel where l'Marquis is lodging this evening, gonna go into town here shortly and find some yummy stuff for dinner, didn't get to that repast planned earlier and right now this bigapefellah is some kinda hungry. Planning to make sure to take that damned alternator back to EPT with me if that is what is going on the fritz as the mechanic who replaced it a few months ago promised me a Lifetime Replacement, we'll let you know if he lives up to his word. Sure sorry that Manny the Mechanic's in the hoosegow for that murder, Time to go, kidz...

some notes from on the road, briefly...       10.4.05 hello, my preeeteeezz, how you are? Ourowndarnself is trying to be less critical of his tendency to worry and fret, seems a much more pronounced thing we experiencing these days, altho' perhaps if we planned things just a wee bit more and didn't fly by the seat of our pantalones so much, it wouldn't be any kind of issue. ANYWAY, here we iz, in the Beautiful Owens Valley in the Eastern Sierras. Spent last night in the wee burg of Lee Vining, after a ride thru Sonora Pass -- egads! such spectacular sights, monumentally impressive vistas; we'd no doubt have enjoyed that last 40 miles across the mountains had we not been so awfully worried about running out of gasoline way up there. Seems like the folks who used to sell gas in Dardanelle have ceased to do so, and goddess damn d'monkey if we didn't pass up getting filled up sooner because we thought for sure we'd find gas there. But we made it, with a few fluid ounces to spare, filled up with eleven plus gallons and the blue subaru has a twelve gallon tank, sheeeesh, we know how to have fun, don't we? -- aaaccckkk, we digress, anyway, out early this Am to attempt to get some decent pics around Mono Lake, and now we are pausing for a bit in Bishop, currently in fine, nicely stocked computer store that also offers internet access for $5/hour, not a bad deal at all. Also spent quality time lusting over lovely prints in the Mountain Light Gallery, the late Galen Rowell's place (visit them online at MountainLight.com) and, by the way, if you want to get some better idea of the lay of the land hereabouts, you might check out some of the results you'll find here. Ourowndarnself a little undecided presently as to which option we shall exercise next, some small degree of monkeemobile related paranoia has us hearing funny sounds coming from the engine compartment now and again, altho' the fine folks at Steve's Automotive in Albany gave us a clean bill of health a bit less than a week ago. What the hell, we'll continue further south here on 395 thru Lone Pine on down to where we'll hook back up with 40 and cross part of the Mojave, maybe head over to Laughlin and spend a few hours shooting craps, quien sabe, then across the Az. border thru Kingman, maybe over to Flagstaff and around the Grand Canyon, imagining we might like to try the North Rim, but ooooooh, that part of the map shows verrrry little around there and like we said, that auto related anxiety has manifested itself. Too bad l'Marquis didn't pack along his meds...

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