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

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"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

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"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

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"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)

Fire in the Water/Earth in the Air PAR-TAY in Lubbock!

OK, last year, when this was held at Stubb's here in Austin, Billy Gibbons jumped the stage and tore it up with some of the stinkiest blues antics I've ever heard live, ever. I shot some of the pics of it. Billy Bob Thornton and Stu Cook were wandering around. If this is anything like last year's, it'll be one of the SINGULAR live music experiences of your life, beyond hyperbole.

Southwest Airlines is offering $74 non-stop flights, so if you don't go, it wasn't because you couldn't afford it. I pee myself slightly just thinking about it. In case you're not on the list (you should get on the list), here's Oges' invite email:

Help us Celebrate!

Friday September 7, 2007
6:00pm - midnight
@ Tornado Gallery,
1822 Buddy Holly Ave., Lubbock, TX

Mark your calendars because you want to be at this party!
Help us celebrate the one-year anniversary of the University of Texas Press publication of
"Fire in the Water, Earth in the Air: Legends of West Texas Music," and more importantly to celebrate West Texas music and the musicians themselves.

• Author Chris Oglesby will sign your copy of his award winning book.
• Many musical guests from the book will attend and perform!
  INCLUDING:
  • Gonzo Bob Livingston
  • Jay Boy Adams & band
  • Kenny Maines
  • Tommy Hancock with Louie and Joaquin Hancock &
    the Sons of Roadside Playboys
  • Cary Swinney with Brian McRae
  • Wade Parks with Matthew McLarty
  • The Texas Belairs
  • Andy Eppler
  • Susan Grisanti
  • Bruno & the Prophets of Rockabilly
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Paul Bullock
• schedule & tickets:
  6pm - 9pm: FREE (in connection with First Friday Art Trail )
  9pm - midnight: admission with purchase of the book ($22.95) or a special commemorative poster for $15.
• Location: Tornado Gallery - corner of 19th Street & Buddy Holly Ave. , Lubbock TX
• Cash bar & food by Triple J Chophouse & Brewery.

Read what William Kerns of the Lubbock AJ has to say about the book & our party.
(note: Colin Gilmore and Jo Carol Pierce have had to cancel, with regrets. - co.)

Check out the book release party we had in Austin at Stubb's!


(Here's the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's writeup)

Help Me, Bobby. Bach Me Up.

Rough weekend. Need relief. I did this before, and it worked so well I'm doing it again. Only this time, with cello.

Grin, grin, grin.

Mom's Red Cross "Restructure"

UPDATE: From Wikipedia:
"On November 27, the American Red Cross Board of Governors asked for and received the resignation of President and CEO Mark W. Everson, effective immediately. The Board acted quickly after learning that Mr. Everson engaged in a personal relationship with a subordinate employee. It concluded that the situation constituted poor judgment on Mr. Everson’s part and diminished his ability to lead the organization in the future.^[3]
Mr. Everson is married and has two children."

Mom got laid off from the Red Cross today. She was one of their senior editors, and had been there for almost 10 years. I was unclear what they meant by "Give Blood" until today. Maybe should have seen it coming from this story off the AP wire last month:

New Red Cross Chief Tackles Multiple Challenges
By David Crary, AP National Writer
Jul 3, 2007

"...after four years running the Internal Revenue Service, Mark Everson has at least one new advantage. "My 18-year-old daughter said, 'People will like you now,'" Everson observed with a smile Tuesday during an interview with The Associated Press."

I know a few people who won't like him, now or ever. Mark Everson's a Reagan & Bush-appointed lackey who made his millions as a VP of finance for Sky Chefs, a multi-billion dollar airline food supply company in Irving (near Siemens). So the guy in charge of feeding the poor got rich selling airplane food. (There has got to be a joke in there somewhere. Help me out here, people.)

Here's our 20/20 hindsight clue:

"Internally, Everson will have his hands full with management challenges. He said the Red Cross has an operational deficit (he didn't give figures) and is looking for ways to cut administrative costs at its Washington headquarters as it invests more money in disaster preparedness. He declined to say whether layoffs might be part of the needed restructuring which also will include efforts to standardize financial procedures among the charity's 760 chapters nationwide."

Four paragraphs later, we learn that Everson's annual salary is half a million dollars. Did I mention he's already a millionaire?

Exactly how much is the Red Cross saving with these layoffs? Pesos to tacos that figure is in the neighborhood of $500,000 a year.

(That last analogy is funny because Everson was behind Reagan's racist 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. And by "funny" I mean "splenetic.")

On the plus side, Mom's an excellent technical writer, and as of this post probably has another solid gig lined up.

10 Million Down, 990 Million To Go.

(BBC NEWS)
The northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has attempted to set a world record by planting 10 million trees in a single day on Tuesday.

Officials say the plantings, aiming to raise awareness of the need to protect the environment, were a success.
In all, 10,266,736 saplings were planted at 9,320 sites across Uttar Pradesh's 70 districts.
The authorities say they have notified Guinness World Records of their attempt and are awaiting confirmation. The record stands at 852,587 trees, planted in 6,284 locations in Tamil Nadu state in 2006.

The programme has been included in The Billion Tree Campaign being run by the United Nations Environment Programme. Banks and other institutions provided the financial help needed to procure saplings. BK Patnaik, chief conservator at the state forest department, said: "The response from the people was overwhelming and heartening."

The leader of India's governing Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, planted a sapling in her parliamentary constituency of Rai Bareli. Read On>>

Patton Oswalt's New Austin Album

Patton's on my short list of favorite comedians/writers/actors (still alive), up there with Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, and Maria Bamford.

The CD was cut here at Cap City, and the included full-show DVD somewhere else. Last time he was in town he played Emo's with Garafalo - check his web page for his valentine to Austin (and eulogy to Houston).

Buy this album now, so that you will associate his brilliance with me and love me more.

Finally. One of Rove 's Chickens Comes Home to Roost.

It's been 25 years since Turd Blossom bugged his own office, here in downtown Austin, greasily insinuating his opponents were responsible. And now:

Senate panel subpoenas White House aide Rove

Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:15PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Thursday he had subpoenaed two more White House aides, including political adviser Karl Rove, in the probe of fired federal prosecutors. More>>

I was afraid he'd have to shoot someone in the face before someone did something about him "shooting" people in the "face."

Please, please, please, let this be something.

It's Wednesday. Conditions are Perfect.

Two years ago I saw these cats' HBO special. Then I DVRed it and watched with Mom and Dad during one of their visits. Last month I peed myself a little when I heard about this.
Up to episode 6, man.

It's what I'm into.


Also, if you misspell "hiphopoppotumus" in a Google search, the only result is a Texpatriate blog entry. So I got that going for me.

The "$100 Laptop" Ships (for 100 Euros)

The XO-1 project is something I've been very excitedly talking about for five years, with responses from "wouldn't that be nice" to rolled eyes. The "One Laptop Per Child" nonprofit org (extremely cool-looking website) was created by MIT faculty to provide schools in developing countries with cheap, rugged, full-feature computers. There are very few moving parts, and they use free, open source software, starting with a Linux operating system.

The cost is actually $176, but will drop disproportionately to production (the price will also obey Moore's Law). Ten years ago I bought me a very loud, very heavy 2-gigabyte hard drive for $250. Today, a 2G memory stick that you can lose in your pocket costs 20 bucks.
Here's a picture of kids in Thailand using the XO-1 to take web shots of what looks like animal poop on a leaf. Proof positive that it's contributing to the lives of children, I tell you what.

Mediapersons Report Patil's Over 3 Lakh Vote Value as Big Margin

This Times of India article makes me pine, yet again, for the India-specific wordsmithing. Especially the copious use of "absconding."

Anyway, Pratibha Patil is India's new President.


According to the Times, "in the final count, Patil got a vote value of 6,38,116 while Shekhawat secured 3,31,306 in an electoral college of 10.98 lakh."

As you know, a lakh is one hundredth of a crore.

Uprooting Austin's Holly Street Power Plant

The tubes-and-concrete blight that is the Holly Power Plant will finally close. Built almost 50 years ago, plant staff have been busy turning the useless hulk into our own little Jolly Rubino. It barely supplies a tenth of Austin's power grid, yet has bullied a loud, ugly, foul-smelling footprint on the banks of Town Lake since 1960.

Even though a Texas Dept. of Health report didn't find immediate risks to Austin residents, it lists 17 major leak incidents, including fuel oil, turbine oil and lubricants. Oh, and PCBs.

Did I mention that it's caught fire four times since 1993? Whoever was in charge of keeping this corpse resuscitated through all that for 47 years (including a City Council decision to close it two years ago, which they reneged on) needs to be repurposed for good. Put them in charge of the Save Barton Springs coalition. Hell, hire them for Austin's GreenChoice program, and keep 'em on familiar turf.

In 1989 I was a wide-eyed 23-yr-old tooling around Austin with my fishing pole tied to my bike. I stopped at the Longhorn dam and dropped my lure in. After a minute the quiet was shattered by a voice blasting across the river: "Jimbo Whosit, call on line four. Jimbo Line four." Then, as I was packing up (nary a bite), this obnoxious mechanical whine started up inside the plant, spooking grackles from the trees.

After its razing (not a moment too soon) the only thing remaining will be that way cool arch along the hike and bike trail.


Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let's turn it into an Eastside brewpub and outdoor stage!

What I Imagined People Were Saying...

"When I was 11, 12, 13..."

My laugh-out-loud for the day: Simon Rich's article in The New Yorker's Shouts & Murmurs.

“I’m impressed by the fact that he isn’t trying to call attention to himself.”

Girls Rock - The Doc

Stumbled on this while "researching" standup acts. Have I mentioned I have 3 daughters? That rock?
I know, how awesome is this?
Seattle Int'l Film Fest Official Selection. Coming in 2008. We'll be there.

Crouching Bunker, Circled Wagons

Dad sent me the Washington Post series on our psychopathic thug of a VP, Angler "What a Dick" Cheney. I'm halfway through; so far it's fantastic.

Also came across this Post article, by staff writer Peter Baker, from a few days ago.

"In public and in private, according to intimates, he (Dubya) exhibits an inexorable upbeat energy that defies the political storms. Even when he convenes philosophical discussions with scholars, he avoids second-guessing his actions. He still acts as if he were master of the universe, even if the rest of Washington no longer sees him that way.

'You don't get any feeling of somebody crouching down in the bunker,' said Irwin M. Stelzer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who was part of one group of scholars who met with Bush. "This is either extraordinary self-confidence or out of touch with reality. I can't tell you which.'"

I can! Me, me! Pick me! Ooo, I know! Teacher, I can tell you which!

It is federal law that the VP must stand this far behind the President when his pants are on fire.

Forgive Me For Taking Up So Much of Your Time

How ardently? Most.


(This is a feature on Charlyne Yi's MySpace page. Interesting: this scene traces back the first use of the term "yadda yadda.")