Happy New Year 2007, My Ain True Love

Alison Krauss' "You Will Be My Ain True Love," by way of this montage from angelofpoems, taken from the Cold Mountain Soundtrack. You're so welcome - I love you, this new year, and beyond.

You.

So Much Depends

On poets like these...

- william carlos williams

Story Of My Bubbly Bubbly Life........ * POP *

By the Richter Scales.
Blog blog blog blog....meta.

Can You Hear Me Now?

How about now?

Chris Whitley...Missing You.

He passed November 2005. JC reminded me how confusing, stunning, and unjust it was to see a musical powerhouse like this in the tiny Saxon Pub.

Here's a SugarMegs link to one of his streaming shows. Elation and melancholy.


Well, the mist shall be your blanket
While the moss shall ease your head
As the future is soon forgotten
As the dirt shall be your bed

There's a dirt floor underneath here
To receive us when changes fail
May this shovel loose your trouble
Let them fall away

Let them fall away


Let them fall away.

Cruisin' Down 42nd Street

Crazy little interactive vid from Immersive Media. Kinda blows out my margins, but so worth it.

CLICK the play button. Then CLICK and DRAG on the video screen to pan across the 360° view.

Here Comes The Sun. I Say, "It's All Right."

Caleb and I were talking at the party about moonshine, which led to ethanol fuel: I told him, "man, I'm done with biodeisel and ethenol and all that archaic internal combustion craptrap. If it's not an electric engine, I don't want to hear about it."
And Caleb beamed: "Do you get it now? Ya get it? OK. Now we can start going somewhere."

Richard Rapier is an energy engineer with a blog called R-Squared. He went to Texas A&M and now consults for a North Sea petroleum company out of Scotland. Yesterday's post was about an article in Mother Earth, entitled "The Future is Solar." Heh. I'm sure Mr. Rapier isn't stereotypable, but I can't get this picture out of my head: roughneck on drill site break, smeared with axle grease and sweet crude, nodding approvingly at an article in the hippiest mainstream rag in America.

But check this out:

"Electric Vehicles & Plug-in Hybrids: Electric vehicle drivetrains are inherently five to 10 times more efficient than internal combustion engines and they produce no greenhouse gases at the tailpipe. Even if powered by fossil-fuel electricity, emissions at the power plant are much lower per mile traveled than with internal combustion engines. In addition, electric vehicles can be charged directly from renewable sources, thereby eliminating emissions altogether."

Steve Heckeroth does a bang-up job breaking it all down. Highly recommended.

"Yes, I know - solar panels are still too expensive for many of us. But 10 years ago, nobody gave hybrid cars a chance of succeeding. Today, the Toyota Prius is the hottest thing going. Plug-in hybrids and all-electric options should be available soon. If we all work together and demand that our government set a wise energy policy and use taxes to support the right renewable energy options, I predict we can put the brakes on climate change and enjoy clean, true-green energy."

Electric engines + CO2-removing machines = fast, cheap, and clean way to pull of of this global warming skid. Here we go, somewhere.

42nd Birthday Pah-tay

Seven years ago, this would have been 200 people around seven kegs, until dawn. I'm finally old enough to have a nice adult party with a small, core group of my some of my best friends and a half keg of home brew. In bed by midnight.

Missed you if you couldn't come. Thanks for being there if you could. I certainly didn't expect anyone to drive from San Antonio, but there you go. I had a wunnerful time with all y'all.

Haven't Cracked Yet? I think not.



No, Thank YOU.



Even non-brewers talk brewing 'round h'yah.

Then It Came Back To Rescue Me Today.

I saw American Beauty last week, for the 3rd time.

"This isn't life, it's just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living."

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst...

And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life..."

You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure.

But don't worry... you will someday."

A year after Alan Ball wrote this, he created Six Feet Under.

Jump The Gap Wit Meh

Zefrank de-uninspires me to this day. And man, bring it, I have work to do. Huh - apparently The Show does go on.

Dance Wit Meh

Dennis' Studded Tongue Lashing

Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich on some morning talk show, where he generously infers that the prompter-mouthing makeup model is a professional journalist with attendant responsibilities. Then again, the channel knows its audience: A Pew poll in April found that 69% correctly identified who Dick Cheney was, which is a nice way of saying one out of three Americans doesn't know who is vice president. Strangely, 54% of Americans support impeaching him.

Anyway, back to the "news."

Pwned.

Barbara Jordan & John Conyers on Impeachment

The Resolution to Impeach Vice President Cheney from Rep. Dennis Kucinich is schedled for debate in the House Judiciary Committee. The Chairman, John Conyers, is no fan of Dick "go f*** yourself" Cheney. The day before, he offered the White House one last chance to comply with Committee subpoenas before he files contempt charges against the VP and his Texan sidekick.

Even so, Conyers (D-MI) is treating the issue with the gravity and deliberation that Congress is expected to, as Barbara Jordan (D-Texas) pointedly articulated during Nixon's Judiciary Committee impeachment debate:

(Washington, DC, 11/6/2007)- A spokeswoman for the House Judiciary Committee issued the following statement today in response to floor action on a house resolution to begin impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney: "The committee has a very busy agenda - over the next two weeks, we hope to pass a FISA bill, to vote on contempt of Congress citations, pass legislation on prisoner re-entry, court security and a variety of other very important items. We were surprised that the minority was so ready to move forward with consideration of a matter of such complexity as impeaching the Vice President. The Chairman will discuss today's vote with the committee members but it would seem evident that the committee staff should continue to consider, as a preliminary matter, the many abuses of this Administration, including the Vice President."
- House Judiciary Committee Spokeswoman

Here's Barbara Charline Jordan's Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, delivered July 25th, 1974 in the House Judiciary Committee. Click here to listen to the entire Statement. A brilliant reminder that there is such a thing as American legislation in action.

"Today I am an inquisitor. An hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

...Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. Congress has a lot to do: - Appropriations, Tax Reform, Health Insurance, Campaign Finance Reform, Housing, Environmental Protection, Energy Sufficiency, Mass Transportation.

Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big, because the task we have before us is a big one.

...James Madison, again at the Constitutional Convention: "A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution."

If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that 18th-century Constitution should be abandoned to a 20th-century paper shredder.

Has the President committed offenses, and planned, and directed, and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate?

That's the question. We know that. We know the question. We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question.

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision."



Click here for the LA Times article on what Cheney's being charged with. WARNING: Large, snarly headshot of Tricky Dick Jr.

Jim Henson's "Time Piece"

Long before the mucking Fuppets, there was Jim Henson. He made this the year I was born. You're very, very, very welcome.

What a Bargain - I'll Take Three.

How many million Americans does it take
to screw in a light bulb over their heads?

A real war on poverty

"According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth.

At the upper range of those estimates, the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years."

(Boston Globe, Nov. 11, 2007)

"Why Are We In Vietnam?" is Not an Essay About Vietnam

The first paragraphs of the first two chapters:

Intro Beep 1
Hip hole and hupmobile, Braunschweiger, you didn't invite Geiger and his counter for nothing, here is D.J. the friendLee voice at your service-hold tight young America-introductions come. Let go of my dong, Shakespeare, I have gone too long, it is too late to tell my tale, may Batman tell it, let him declare there's blood on my dick and D.J. Dicktor Doc Dick and Jek has got the bloods, and has done animal murder, out out damn fart, and murder of the soldierest sort, cold was my hand and hot...

Intro Beep 2
The fact of the matter is that you're up tight with a mystery, me, and this mystery can't be solved because I'm the center of it and I don't comprehend, not necessarily, I could be traducing myself. Por ejemplo, the simple would state that Into Beep One is a stream-of-conch written by me, and consequently commented upon by my mother up tight with her libido-drained psychoanalyst. But now you know Chap One with Fink Razzbah (rhymes with Casbah) is made up by me, D.J., alias Ranald such-and-such such-and-such Jethroe, Disk Jockey to the world (my mental connections are faster than anything afoot) and lightning which is a special case of light-how about that, Zack!

Norman Mailer died this weekend. I admired "The Naked and The Dead," but I will have read and learned about him more dead than alive. Somehow, like Vonnegut, that matters to me. I'm certain I don't like it, but what're you gonna do.

(photo: PBS American Masters)

Cheney's War-Sized Safe

We were told that the reason we sent troops to Vietnam was to stop the Communist World threat (the falling red domino scare theory), which is now generally accepted as complete twaddle. So our leaders in the White House who made those decisions either genuinely believed in an imaginary enemy, or were purchased by the American War Machine for Its bidding. The truth is, we were in Vietnam to fill the pockets of war profiteers, and test new military swag.

Here we are again, only now we're being told that we're in Iraq to :

Prevent the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Depose Saddam Hussain
Set up Democratic Iraqi Government
Defeat Al-Qaeda
Defeat Iraqi insurgents
Defeat somebody, anybody
Springboard into Iran

But again, the real reason, the truth, is to fill the pockets of war profiteers.

Three years before we invaded, Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton, aka KBR, is today the #1 American contractor in Iraq ($15-30 billion, but who's counting?). According to Corporatepolicy.org, "In nine different reports, government auditors have found "widespread, systemic problems with almost every aspect of Halliburton's work in Iraq." Exactly like they did in Vietnam.

The Vice President has a man-sized Mossler safe in his office at the White House. The story below is from Wikileaks.org.

Over a thousand safes for secrets and cash

“	[S]ome American contractors correctly believed they could walk off with as much money as they could carry. The circumstances that surround the handling of comparatively small sums help explain the billions that ultimately vanished. In the south-central region of Iraq a contracting officer stored $2 million in a safe in his bathroom. One agent kept $678,000 in an unsecured footlocker.	„
	— Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Billions over Baghdad

Safes have played an important role for US Army in Iraq: not only for securing important documents and official funds, but also as a way to hide away largess obtained corruptly from the US federal reserve, via authorities which did not care to introduce even minimal oversight or accounting mechanisms. The October 2007 edition of Vanity Fair reports on US$12,000,000,000 in cash brought into Iraq under the auspices Coalition Provisional Authority, of which $9,000,000,000 cannot be accounted for.

Below are listed the types and unit assignments of 1,056 US military safes in Iraq.

Military unit	NATO Stock Number	Item name	Quantity
HHC 1 CD (WAGET0)	7110014821441	SAFE-(SPECIFY ON REQUISITION)	18
B 125 FIN BN (WH0FB0)	7110014821441	SAFE	16
A CO 4-1 STB MI (WJK2A0)	712501C006774	SAFE SECURITY CONTAINER: MOSLER	12
...	...	...	...

Woke Up This Morning, New Kind of Music in My Head

Since I was a kid, I've caught myself saying things like, “you know, my Grandfather said, 'if you stay awake long enough, you learn something new every day.'” He said no such thing, I'm the one who said that, but it sounds more wisdomy if I attibute it to an old person. My Grandfather did say that the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is three days. That's according to my Mom; he died before I was born. My point is, I found a new music thing today, and I'm shocked I was awake long enough for it.

"Math Rock" - who's heard of this? I was downloading my 25 free mp3s from some emusic site, and saw it as a genre description of a band that sounded interesting (Don Caballero). Searching for that, I read this description on Eptonic.com:

"Take the intricacy and complexity of classic weirdo hard rock bands like Rush and Voivod, then add some of punk's hyperspasmodic schizophrenia, and you'll have a legitimate math rock contender. Math rock bands take pleasure in being erratic and unpredictable, often experimenting with peculiar tempos and jazz-derived rhythms while keeping the rock hard and aggressive all the while. Their lyrics tend to be as cerebral and expertly designed as their songs. These bands are rock's architects of the future, recrafting and reinventing the genre's tired song structures."

Really? That sounds like the only kind of music I like to listen to, with any real enjoyment.

So, as of today I listen exclusively to math rock. Until I get as sick of it as I am of Zappa and Phish and 80s Rush and Crimson.

Not as open-minded as you though I was, am I, hippie?

Dad's New Ship

Photo: John Esparolini & ESP Images

The American Spirit

Email from Mom this morning:

Dad will be captain of the American Spirit—taking the boat out on educational and pleasure trips. During the day, they often have naturalists taking out school kids to teach them all about the ecology of the river—and then at night, often groups charter the schooner for pleasure trips. He will also be responsible for the maintenance of the ship. He already has spent many hours volunteering on the schooner—and is so happy to be hired as the captain. Right now he is out on the water doing his last on-the-water training of the season. It's a little nippy today.
Hugs and kisses to all,
Pat/Mom/Grandma

The National Maritime Heritage Foundation entry:

"Unique to the National Capital region, American Spirit offers three-hour educational tours exploring the maritime life of Washingtonians in the 1800s. This program allows students to gain a greater appreciation for the history of maritime Washington while moving through a variety of learning stations that reinforce classroom subjects including mathematics, physics, geography, language arts and music.

American Spirit functions as a learning museum, presenting the critical role that sailing vessels played in the development of America through hands-on experiences. (She) provides a dynamic learning environment and educational platform for students throughout the national capital area."

Go Dad Go!

Subscribe Thang

Ran into Charles at the Draught Draft Horse House, and he said he didn't read my blog much because I have no RSS feed to subscribe to. I do, but it's hidden at the bottom of the page where it's easier to not get to it.

I set up a link at the left, there, to subscribe to this blaaauuhhhgghhgag.

Enjoyarama.

All Things Being Practically One

I was helping Franc out with her math homework, and we somehow got to talking about pi, and how it goes on forever. Meaning, if you measure around a circle (circumference), then measure the line down the middle (diameter), and divide one by the other, you get an irrational, transcendental answer - a number that goes on forever.

Mmmmm. Pi.

That's a neat word trick, but for practical purposes, measuring things to the 39th decimal place of pi gives you a measurement accurate to the size of a hydrogen atom. Good enough for government work.

Later that night, I was teased by the thought that even for non-practical purposes, pi's value might not actually calculate, without pattern or end, to infinity. Which reminded me of a post on the Futility Closet, which proved that 0.999...∞ is the same as one. Not close to one: they have the same value.

a = 0.999…
10a = 9.999…
10a - a = 9.999… - 0.999…
9a = 9
a = 1

For all practical purposes, ceteris paribus , tat tvam asi, yar.

It's not obvious. But it is true.

I Am He (And You Can Too)

Please go see this animated short. It broke my heart, and then my mind, and I hope it does yours, too.

Laith Bahrani wrote:
"Creep was created as an extension to a series of shorts called `Low Morale’ which I began to develop during a well-paid, comfortable yet soul-destroying job as a senior designer in a multimedia agency. The countless days spent in the run down converted office, churning out banal multimedia and animation for faceless, lifeless, clueless blue chips had taken their toll on my soul. Creep became my creative escape tunnel."

Cool New Side Gig

Colleen Kane has a "reading is fun for mentals" link list, where I discovered Mandy Stadtmiller (could YOU resist clicking on "Bloggy McBlogalot?"). She's a reporter for the New York Post, and a stand-up comedian. She won last year's "NY's Funniest Reporter" award at the Underground Comedy Festival. She has stand-up videos on MySpace. Then she started getting more famous, plus scored a book deal, plus her own Sex and the City-esque column for the Post, and around September I noticed her site wasn't being updated very often.
Last week, I was tidying my bookmarks, and tried again. That day's entry said this:

"Hello,
You may have noticed I am behind. On posting things. Yes, it's true.
So here's a query.
Basically, I'm looking for an intern-type person to help me out with posting articles and shows and doing other not super-glamorous tasks that I fall quickly behind on.
If you're an aspiring writer or performer or just dig some of my stuff and have free time at work, this would be right for you.
I've worked with both paid and unpaid people who've helped in the past. Right now I can't pay but I can provide a bit of experience, insight and future recommendations. Ideally you'd be in New York, but if you're not, it can be done remotely.
If this sounds interesting, please shoot me a one-paragraph email to mstadtmiller at myemail dot com about who you are and why this sounds like something that would appeal to you."

Well, I'm a writer and amateur performer, so what the hoo-ha, I wrote her a paragraph. Nothing ventured, and all.

Figuring my email would get buried in the avalanche, I did NOT expect to hear from her the next day. After phone/text/email tagging, we talked yesterday evening, and I got my first assignment, which I knocked out right quick.

How fun is this? Oh, did I mention she's this totally warm, authentic person who is just sincerely generous, and willing to help however she can? Which is fantastic, but also weighty, because now I can't procrastinate on this book a minute longer. So much for the days of slack and Austin music. I have work to present.

Here was today's Bloggy McBlogalot post:

"A few quick things:

1) Have found two delightful folks to help out and who I can help out. So awesome.

2) Set your Tivos for "Rock Band Band" on Nov. 11 on VH-1. It's funny. I play myself. Meta.

3) Did you know that even though I'm a Lazy Susan and haven't been posting my column here that you can keep up with it by checking out archives here? It's true. Cool.

4) I'm in the semi-finals for New York's Funniest Stand-Up."

So, apparently I'm one of those delightfuls. How very, very, very. Pretty sure shite like this doesn't happen to people every day. Nice to get a break once in awhile. Ol' Bloggy there is right: sometimes life feels so good you just want to punch it in the face.

No Future in Industrial Beer

Miller and Coors became the same company last week, which means they now control 30% of the beer market, leaving the "micro" brewers to supply 2 out of 10 American beers (Budweiser sells half of the beer bought in the US, mostly Bud Lite). Ten years ago when I brewed for Austin's Hill Country Brewery, we were one of about a hundred US craft breweries. Now there are 15 times that many, and sales climb every year.

Over there in Brooklyn, Garret Oliver cranks out some of the most delicious beer in the world (he's a regular winner of GABF medals). He guest Op-Eded in the NYT today, and this article pops.
Photo: David Shankbone

Don’t Fear Big Beer

By GARRETT OLIVER
Published in the New York Times: October 19, 2007
JUST 10 years ago, the proposed merger of SABMiller and Molson Coors into MillerCoors would have worried craft brewers. Back then, “American beer” was thought of as a cheap product with very little beer flavor. But today the United States has by far the most exciting beer culture in the world, and America’s 1,500 craft brewers are undaunted by the prospect of a juggernaut that would have 30 percent of the domestic market. The age of American industrial brewing is over.

Craft brewers used to be called “microbreweries,” but many of us are not so micro anymore. And the people who once thought the craft brewing movement was a fad can now see it for what it really is — a welcome return to normality.
More >>

Lala's Play Opens Tonight - Go See It

Here's her writeup on the ACC Newsroom:

Drama highlights talent-packed fall arts season

Director/filmmaker Laura Somers will helm the Drama Department’s fall production as part of the Arts and Humanities Division’s upcoming season.

The division has organized a full schedule of events. Among them is “Far Away,” featuring Somers as guest director. The former Austin resident helped found the dirigo group theater company before moving to Los Angeles.

“While ‘Far Away’ is a somewhat mysterious play, I believe that when audiences leave, they will be thinking about it for many days to come,” said Drama Department Chair Shelby Brammer. The play runs two weekends in October.


The Press Release:

The Austin Community College Drama Department will open its 2007-2008 season with Caryl Churchill’s FAR AWAY. Directed by guest director, Laura Somers and featuring Equity member and ACC faculty Jodi Jinks, Far Away, opens Friday, Oct. 19th in the Gallery Theater, 3rd Floor, Rio Grande Campus at 12th and Rio Grande in downtown Austin. The show runs Oct. 19^th, 20^th, & 21^st, and Oct. 26^th, 27^th, & 28^th. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m., and Sundays are at 2 p.m. Admission is by donation, though limited open seating with be available as a part of the TCG/ACot Free Night of Theater project for the October 20^th performance.

"Far Away" is a gripping hour-long play that packs the substance of several full length dramas. Essentially an apocalyptic play about an Armageddon created by its own victims, it provides a searing contrast between the world we treasure and the horror we have made of it. Poetic yet beautifully simple, it observes a time both near and “far away” when the developed nations are no longer just fighting against themselves, but against the world itself.

Stephen Colbert's NYT Op-Ed Piece

With apologies to Alan Ginsberg, it is to howl. I'm making the people in the cubes around me uncomfortable with my spit-takes and snorts.

Enjoy.

I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!)

By STEPHEN COLBERT
Published in the New York Times: October 14, 2007

Surprised to see my byline here, aren’t you? I would be too, if I read The New York Times. But I don’t. So I’ll just have to take your word that this was published. Frankly, I prefer emoticons to the written word, and if you disagree :(

I’d like to thank Maureen Dowd for permitting/begging me to write her column today. As I type this, she’s watching from an overstuffed divan, petting her prize Abyssinian and sipping a Dirty Cosmotinijito. Which reminds me: Before I get started, I have to take care of one other bit of business:

Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

More>>

New BEIRUT Album is on its Way...

Here's a taste. This house reminds me of late 80s/early 90s parties in Hyde Park, when Austin was a sleepy college town.

Zach Condon's Band
New Album - Cover Art

My Shangri-La Beneath the Summer Moon, I Will Return Again

Happy Birthday, Bapu

Hindustan Times
New Delhi, October 02, 2007

As the country marks the 138th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, the Nobel Foundation has regretted not giving the peace prize to Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and finally a few days before he was shot dead in January 1948.

The apostle of peace was nominated five times for the Nobel but the Norwegian Nobel committee believed that he could not be given the honour as he was "neither a real politician nor a humanitarian relief worker".

However, the Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation in Sweden Michael Sohlam says the decision not to extend him the prize was a mistake.

"We missed a great laureate and that's Gandhi. It is a big regret," he told CNN-IBN.

"I usually don't comment on what the Nobel Committees or prize awarding institutions decide. But here, they themselves think he is the one missing," he said.

Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and finally a few days before he was shot dead in January 1948.

In 1948, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate that year".

Nobel Museum curator Dr Anders Barany told the channel that "Mahatama Gandhi is the one we miss the most at the Nobel museum. I think that's a big empty space where we should have had Mahatma Gandhi. I think it was a mistake," he said.

My Favorite 2 Sentences of 2007

From the latest James Wolcott article in this month's Vanity Fair:

"Be a hugger, he urged those gathered at a Rose Garden event on July 26 honoring the Special Olympics ('If you've never been a hugger, I strongly advise you to be one. That means you stand at the end of the finish line of a race and you hug the people coming across the line'), and even those of us who believe a second Nuremberg jury should be convened to try the president, the vice president, and a host of neoconservative architects for Iraq war crimes would concede that this sentiment presented the president at his most sympathetic and human-seeming."

Next paragraph:

"The chrome peeled off of Bush's halo as national healer in the post-Katrina tragedy of errors, the commendation "Heckuva job, Brownie" tied like a tin can to his legacy no matter how they try to paper things over at the future Bush presidential library and car wash."

"Something Emergent"

Beyond Wow. Notice the audience's irresistible urge to applaud.

"Texpatriate, Why Are Your Comments Disabled?"

Separated at Birth?

Watched Anthony in Beirut last night. Not yer usual glib Travel Channel pablum, what with the attack helicopters dropping flares & airstrip bombing strikes & scoping out escape routes & mass population exodus & aircraft carrier evac and all.

Also stumbled on This American Life's MySpace page. Francesca listens to it on her laptop before bed each night at our house.

Listening to This Today

What? What are you saying? Stop it.

Please don't talk to me like a pirate. I swear to god.

For Pastafarians, today is DON'T talk like a pirate day. Did you know that?

FAR more cool and collective:
The Mp3 Experiment

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

According to the Abilene Reporter News, it's time to don your finest and stuff yourself with desserts!

During this 10-day celebratory time, you're not supposed to look at the moon. The moon laughed at Ganesh, when he fell off his rat (among other reasons), so don't give it the satisfaction of your gaze.

One of the gajillion versions of his story (the first one I heard) tells that Ganesh was born to Parvati, wife of Shiva, who was off fighting in a war. When he returned to find his wife cavorting with a young, handsome man, he drew his trident and beheaded him. When dad realized his mistake, he cried to Parvati that he would go into the forest and replace his son's head with the first animal he could find.

Buddha was a Hindu, and the Bhuddists call him Vinaayaka. Vignesha means "Lord of Obstacles" (vighna is sanskrit for obstacles). As in, the one who sets them up and brings them down.

Once in Kathmandu I watched some kids my age giving puja to a Ganesh statue. I asked my friend (who spoke more fluent Nepali) what they were doing - he said they were preparing to take their exams.

Chris Oglesby's Lubbock All-Star Reunion

This was intense. More on this later. I can still barely see straight.

Virgin Lubbock Visit

Off to Hub City tomorrow, and Oges' one-year anniversary of Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air. I found this vid by searching "Lubbock" on YouTube. Imagine my surprise at the end, where it gives photo credits to "C. Oglesby."
Chris wrangled a tour at the only brewery in town, which (HAIL, yes) is right across the street from the gallery. Ray Wylie Hubbard had to cancel his show Friday night because everyone was going to the book signing instead.

I am extraordinarily psyched about this trip.

I Miss the 1/2 Hour News Hour

From middling TV actor and Republican Presidential Candidate, Fred Thompson:

“Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. … NASA says the Martian South Pole’s ‘ice cap’ has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter’s caught the same cold, because it’s warming up too, like Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, nonsignatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle.”


That's so funny, I forgot to vote for you.

My Company's Craaaazy Internal Blogosphere

Looking for a corporate .ppt template, I stumbled into a blogging-for-employees feature on our intranet. I almost got excited - then I read one.
Bookmarks>highlight name>right click>Delete.

SUBJECT: Just amazing what we are doing...

Hi everybody it's quite hard these days to keep posting some blog entries as I am a bit lost in /buried by work due to the fact that I do work intensively for the GSS IT Competence Center Desktop in addition to my AIP job. But still some news that were astonishing enough to sit down and write another post: We (competence center desktop) were enjoying a presentation by Johann Lindmeyr about WAN Traffic Impact compensation within Shared Services IT.

What is that about? Well, during the transformation of IT Services into their future mode of operation we will (hopefully) see a certain degree of consolidation - which e.g. refers to the fact that systems, services, servers are moved into just a few central facilities. Data traffic (Wide Area Network, WAN) between these central facilities and customer locations will increase therefore. WAN costs stay with the customer - which causes potentially higher WAN costs on the customer side just by the fact the the IT Service Provider consolidates systems . This has been widely regarded as an issue....

Now, Johann has shown us what both sides GSS and SIS have jointly developed and agreed: A comprehensive set of methodology and measurement services that gives fully transparency on WAN traffic before and after transformation. Drilled down into each different service (e.g. email, SAP, filespace etc.) and per customer location. Any change and cost impact can easily be made transparent. Absolutely amazing!! And nobody knows yet just because we are not the best marketeers...

The WAN traffic topic is now a non issue. Yeah!

Have a good day & see you soon,
Boris

Tags: Traffic, WAN
Boris S.

We All Get Pinched. But You Did it Right. You Told 'em Nothing And They Got Nothing.

"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say ‘no’ to Karl Rove.”
- Senate majority leader Harry Reid

Oges shot me this:

Published on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 by The Rocky Mountain News

from "Gonzales & Son: The Legacy of An Honest Day’s Work" by Paul Campos

"…Abject loyalty is a fine thing in a dog, but Gonzales’ unlimited devotion to his master became, after a time, a rather stomach-churning sight. Thus I found it particularly offensive that, in announcing his resignation, Gonzales noted that he had “lived the American dream,” because “even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father’s best days.”

Pablo Gonzales, who died 25 years ago, was a construction worker with an elementary school education who, with his wife Maria, raised Alberto as one of their eight children.

I know nothing more about the man that that, but it seems he did an honest day’s work for a day’s pay, and that he found a way to put food on the table and clothes on the backs of eight children despite his elementary school education. And we know he never lied to Congress, or helped make it possible for his country’s government to torture people, or made a mockery of the rule of law.

I imagine he had a lot of good days."

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado.

Jon Stewart Explains US/Middle East Foreign Policy

Biggest "I Didn't Do It" ever.

Paula Scher Diagrams the Blog

This was an NYT Op-Art, but I got it from Personism.

Change the World in a Tiny Way

Just take a point called Z in the complex plane
Let Z1 be Z squared plus C
And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C
and so on

If the series of Zs should always stay
Close to Z and never trend away

That point is in the Mandelbrot Set.

Jenny Cool wrote and said she also likes Coulton's Mandelbrot Set, which I do to, so there you go.

Jenny and I started going out in my senior year at AES. Always wicked smart and true to her last name, she was the one who convinced me to run for school president, which I did, and won. 23 years later, she now has a mind and drive capable of altering the movement of planets. Don't take my word for it: Check her schmidt out.

-- Jenny Cool
anthropologist, filmmaker, intelligent savage
"Count the Moon." "One." "Whoa...."

I Don't Code, So I Don't Get It.

Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey

(Meeeet Me In Monnnntauk...)

This editor's choice of song ("Breathe Me," by the very left-of-center SIA) was eerily intuitive. It's also the soundtrack to Frank Warren's Post Secret mini-movie.

As compelling as it all tends to be, it's hard to be a Charlie Kaufman completist when people like Laila S. keep cranking out this shite.

Happy Indiapendence Day

\
August 15, 1947, midnight. The British ceded power to two vast semi-unified nations, India and Pakistan. The latter was separated and divided into two states, crowded in the middle by India (East Pakistan, refusing to "scooch over," became Bangladesh in 1971, two years before we moved there).

Lisa Lemon Gloria pointed to this excellent article today:

Exit Wounds
The legacy of Indian partition.
by Pankaj Mishra

And here's my short list of essential India books:
- Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
- City of Joy, by Dominique Lapierre
- Freedom at Midnight, by Larry Collins (and Lapierre)
- Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Gitanjali, by Rabindranath Tagore

Ever wonder what that wheel thing is, in the flag of India?

When Indians were forced to buy their own cloth re-imported from England, Gandhi got everyone to make thread and loom clothes out of raw Indian cotton. MLK heard about this and thought, "Back of the bus? Why don't we just just walk?"

Reporter: "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."

I Found These Pics of Francesca

Shot on 35mm film, in Wimberley, about 4 years ago.


May Tumse Pyara Karta Hoon



Two daughters down, one to go (Toots loved staring at fans)



Ladies day out



Hey! Very funny! It's raining! Let me in!



Making sure Scout knows about Sponge Bob

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

June 2, 2007 | Issue 43•22
MORRISTOWN, NJ—In an innovative, tradition-defying rethinking of one of the greatest comedies in the English language, Morristown Community Players director Kevin Hiles announced Monday his bold intention to set his theater's production of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in 16th-century Venice.

"I know when most people hear The Merchant Of Venice, they think 1960s Las Vegas, a high-powered Manhattan stock brokerage, or an 18th-century Georgia slave plantation, but I think it's high time to shake things up a bit," Hiles said. "The great thing about Shakespeare is that the themes in his plays are so universal that they can be adapted to just about any time and place." More >>

The Bloom Fades on the Turd Blossom

Genius Boy will soon arrive at his 800 ft² villa in Ingram, midway between Kerrville and Heart of the Hills. Look for him at the next folk fest, all tie-dyed and looped on Lone Star longnecks.

Meanwhile, in the words of the press:

"Karl Rove leaves the White House in anything but victory. Even some of his former lieutenants are apt, in private moments, to speak of Mr. Rove in tones of disappointment, disillusionment and no small amount of anger.

...(M)any wonder if a strategy aimed entirely at methodically identifying and stoking the party’s conservative base, with issues like gay marriage, abortion and terrorism, was ever a recipe for long-term political dominance, much less for governing a country." - Adam Nagourney, August 13, 2007, NY Times

________________________________

"The Jack Abramoff affair. The mid-term elections defeat. The CIA spy leak. The firing of federal prosecutors. Mr Rove's name was dragged into a series of Republican scandals, but his precise role and responsibilities never revealed — and not without people trying to find out. He was questioned in front of a grand jury five times before prosecutors decided not to charge him in the CIA leak case.
During the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, who was eventually jailed for obstructing the investigaton, lawyers tried to pin the blame on Mr Rove but, as the Washington Post reported, "his job was never fully explained. His influence was never clearly defined." - Sam Knight, August 13, 2007, Times Online

________________________________

"Rove has been the target of congressional scrutiny as he and other White House staffers have been subpoenaed by Congress to testify in the case of several fired U.S. attorneys. Rove served as Bush's political adviser last year as the president failed to overhaul U.S. immigration law and Democrats won control of Congress.

Other White House officials who left after the election include White House counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Rob Portman, chief White House attorney Harriet Miers, political director Sara Taylor and deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left his job immediately following the election, as the Iraq war's influence on voters became clear." -CNN, Aug 13 '07

________________________________

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."
- Karl Rove
Undereducated Republican war profiteer, who will never be accused by anyone of being too much of a good thing.

(To be fair, he does have an honorary degree from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist University)