Friday, July 31, 2009

Obama brokers beer bash and breaks out the bombers



By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Correspondent

President Barack Obama acted as the bartender on Thursday at a "beer summit" meet-up of the main figures in a highly charged case of racial politics. Obama hoped to turn the broil into a "positive lesson" in the national debate on race relations.

President Obama described the meet as a "friendly, thoughtful" conversation over beers at the White House with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and a cop, Sergeant James Crowley, who is white. Vice-President "Crazy" Joe Biden also showed up to throw back a few.

Earlier this month, Crowley arrested Gates for disorderly conduct after a confrontation over Gates not identifying himself (someone called the police, believing Gates was an intruder). Words "were exchanged," and both parties seem to have lost their cool. This, naturally, sparked a media feeding frenzy as the 58 year old Gates, accused the policeman of racial profiling. Crowley denied this and accused Gates of overreacting.

Obama poured gasoline on the troubled waters by saying he thought police "acted stupidly" in arresting his acquaintance, Professor Gates.




According to sources in the White House, even after several beers, the atmosphere was tense. The President rolled a couple of joints and passed them around. When our source returned to the meeting, everyone at the table was laughing uproariously and demanding more beer.
---o0o---

Poem: Highway 89 Haiku



Bugs and cooties stacked
Four layers deep on my grill:
This is sweet revenge.
---o0o---

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Random Photos From Montana, Wyoming, and Chico Hot Springs


a fishing shack? Or someone's cabin? I can't tell.


A very cool street sign in the mountains


The horses and ponies at Chico Hot Springs dining


The obligatory photo of a pissed off buffalo


The Boiling River


The Beartooth Mountains at dusk



Del and my niece Melanie prepare to tell the little kids
ghost stories accompanied by banjo and recorder
---o0o---

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

In hot water: soaking in the Boiling River in Yellowstone






At Boiling River, at almost exactly the 45th parallel and straddling the borders of Wyoming and Montana, you can stand with one leg in the glacial Gardner River and the other in boiling (probably really about 130 degrees) water. This is probably the nicest hot springs I have ever soaked in. The Boiling River runs alongside the Gardner River, and down into rock pools where the hot water mixes with the icy river water. A series of soaking pools create a range of temperatures, from cool to extremely hot. The result is nature's own hot tub, with small pools carved water with a great view of the Gardner River canyon walls. We soaked here for two and a half hours after a hike.

Cousins Mackenzie, Del, and Melanie
---o0o---

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The truth about Grizzly Bears



"In light of the rising frequency of human/grizzly bear encounters, the Montana Department of Fish and Game is advising hikers, backpackers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears.

"We advise outdoorsmen to wear noisy little bells on their clothing so that the bears are not startled unexpectedly by a human's presence. We also advise outdoorsmen to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear.

"It is also a good idea to watch for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear poop and grizzly bear poop. Black bear poop is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear poop smells like pepper and has little bells in it. "
---o0o---

Monday, July 27, 2009

Two permanent barflies at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar in Montana


click to enlarge
---o0o---

Poem: The Entrepeneur

To launch your nefarious enterprise,
You don't need to see
A discounted cash flow analysis.

You only need to know
If the right people
Are in your pocket,

And, if not, then whom
Should be bought off,
Intimidated, or bumped off?
---o0o---

Yellowstone, Montana July 28, 2009

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Digital Art: The Regret


click to enlarge
---o0o---

The stages of a bad project




Uncritical Acceptance
Wild Enthusiasm
Dejected Disillusionment
Total Confusion
Search for the Guilty
Punishment of the Innocent
Promotion of the Non-participants

---o0o---

Saturday, July 25, 2009

On The Road to Yellowstone and Chico Hot Springs: warning signs in Yellowstone National Park.

Click on all images to enlarge...














---o0o---

The Yellowstone Supervolcano



This warning was posted by geologist Christopher C. Sanders on January 1, 2009: "I am advising all State officials around Yellowstone National Park for a potential State of Emergency. In the last week over 300 earthquakes have been observed by the USGS. We have a 3D view on the movement of magma rising underground. We have all of the pre warning signs of a major eruption from a super volcano. - I want everyone to leave Yellowstone National Park and for 200 miles around the volcano caldera."

It looks like he was off by some unknown interval. The supervolcano has yet to blow. If it were to blow, from what I saw on the island of Thira (a/k/a Santorini) in Greece, 200 miles might be just enough distance to survive. Read the article on Sangtorini's supervolcano here, on All This Is That.
---o0o---

Friday, July 24, 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The President weighs in on the Gates' travesty (includes press conference video)


By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

My conservative friends would not agree, but last night a gust of fresh air blew in.

At the end of yesterday's news conference on health care reform, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet asked Barack Obama about race relations in America.

The President said "the Cambridge police acted stupidly" arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home. He also said if he broke into his house (e.g., The White House), "Then I'd get shot." Right on, BHO!


---o0o---

Poem: Blackout



Lights off: dark skies.
The river gurgles over rocks

Somewhere behind me
In the night.

The Big Dipper
Beams large and bright

Like a Times Square marquee
Flashing among the random stars.
---o0o---

Lullaby Moon at Gasworks Park



A bad cell phone shot of rabbits singing and dancing in the always evolving Lullaby Moon show that appears each month on the night of the full moon, at various Seattle waterfront parks.
---o0o---

digital art: 16


click to enlarge
---o0o---

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Drawing: The Bureaucrat


click to enlarge
---o0o---

Poem: Denial

Denial
by Jack Brummet




What is denial, really,
But those moments,

Those swaths of your life,
Where you play

Hide and seek
With yourself,

Heavy
On the hide,

And easy
On the seek?
---o0o---

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Team America: World Police video clip - Kim Jong Il meets with Hans Blix of the UN, and in another clip, Blix discusses his portrayal in the movie

This may be my favorite scene from Team America: World Police . . .where Kim Jong Il meets with Hans Blix and drops him into a shark tank (foul language warning):



After Team America was released, Hans Blix talked about his puppet version's confrontation with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il at the Arms Control Association's 2006 Annual Meeting, Amazing! Who knew Hans Blix had such a sense of humor?


---o0o---

Monday, July 20, 2009

40 years ago today, we, yes, WE, walked on the moon. I remember looking up at it, thinking "one of us is up there."



40 years ago today, we, yes, WE, walked on the moon. I remember looking up at it, thinking "one of us is up there." What has it brought us, after all, but a couple boxes of rocks, and Tang [tm]? I know there have been various materials, processes, and other inventions that have probably benefited the world (aside from Tang). But, all that aside, there was something so magnificent about knowing we were up there, striding in the dust, where (most likely) no one had ever been before. In another connection, I think I remember the recently departed Walter Cronkite saying as Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon "hot diggity dog."

It wasn't great that we beat the Russians there--although that was cool too--but more that we had done it. And when you think about the crude computer technology and the materials that went into the rockets and spaceship, it was absolutely amazing we made it. I know that before we abandoned going there, something like 40 or 50 people walked on the moon. For what it's worth, I'd like to see us get there again.

There were the naysayers, of course. And their stories have again been circulating again around this anniversary. Here are a few of the stories and poems that have appeared over the years on All This Is That about the moon, and moon landings (I think my favorite is "The Skeleton on the moon):

Alien Lore No. 81 - The Skeleton on the moon
Life on the moon?
Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon landing disaster
Michael Jackson moonwalk video clips
Alien Lore No. 134 - Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
Poem: The Moon Race
Poem: The Moon's In Tune
The Six Faked Moon Landings?
Alien Lore No. 29 - Nazis On The Moon!!
Alien Lore 53 - The Moon Dust File
Alien Lore No. 108 - The spaceship on the moon
---o0o---

Keelin Curran and Dave Hokit posing in Winthrop, Wash.

Dave and Keelin pose in a cut-out on the "western"-themed main street of Winthrop, just outside the local brewery.


Click to enlarge

On the back side of the cut-out is this warning (you think they've had to extricate a few heads over the years?):


---o0o---

Sunday, July 19, 2009

A blackout, dark skies, and stargazing in The Methow


click to enlarge

At 12:36 AM last night, the area where we are staying--Wolf Ridge, a few miles from Winthrop in The Methow Valley--experienced a three hour blackout. It didn't affect anyone much except me. I appeared to be the only person awake. In total darkness, I found the headlamp and went outside to read. Oddly and incongruously in this blackout, my BlackBerry worked fine--both for connecting to the internet and as an auxiliary flashlight. It's weird being in an information vacuum. No local news covered a blackout. Nothing anywhere else. For all I knew it was a ten state blackout.

I spent an hour picking out constellations in the dark skies of the Methow Valley. As it turns out, I can only remember five. The stars were fabulous...bright under a low-moon night. I saw shooting stars and a couple of satellites. And way out here in the serious boondocks, you see the stars, but you also see those fantastic clouds of stars--just the way we see the Milky Way in photographs. [typed in the parking lot of a Kampgrounds of Amerika in Winthrop, where I am hijacking their WiFi.]
---o0o---

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Poem: Lights out

Lights out: Dark skies
The river down the trail
Gurgles over rocks

The Big Dipper beams large and bright
Like a Times Square marquee
Planted among the random stars
---o0o---

Friday, July 17, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Poem: Tethers




Your tenuous hold on earth
Is disguised in your shadow,
Tethered to the ground
By the soles of your feet
And a theory of gravity.
---o0o---

Frank Zappa's "Takle Your Clothes Off When You Dance" with lyrics



Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
by Frank Zappa

There will come a time when everybody
Who is lonely will be free...
To sing & dance & love

There will come a time when every evil
That we know will be an evil...
That we can rise above

Who cares if hair is long or short
Or sprayed or partly grayed...
We know that hair ain't where it's at

(there will come a time when you won't
Even be ashamed if you are fat!)

Wah wah-wah wah

There will come a time when everybody
Who is lonely will be free...
To sing & dance & love (dance and love)

There will come a time when every evil
That we know will be an evil...
That we can rise above (rise above)

Who cares if you're so poor you can't afford
To buy a pair of mod a go-go stretch-elastic pants...
There will come a time when you can even
Take your clothes off when you dance
---o0o---

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Del Brummet short "Unplugged" appears in another festival

A film by Del Brummet and two other youth is now appearing in a Korean film festival. The film has already snagged numerous awards and has appeared in several film festivals.

"Unplugged, a short film by Ballard High School video production students Diana Federighi ('08), Kaelan Gilman ('10) & Del Brummet ('10), was recently named an Official Selection by the 11th Annual Seoul International Youth Film Festival. SIYFF is one of the largest and most prestigious youth film festivals in Asia. The event spans the week of July 9 - 15 and includes an international youth filmmaking camp. This year, 821 films were submitted from 44 different countries. Only 36 films were selected for the festival through a highly competitive process. For more information, visit the festival website. "
Unplugged is the story of a teen whose connection to music deepens after the loss of his iPod. The short had not originally been entered in SIYFF, but the festival committee saw the film on the Images of Youth Video Festival website and then contacted Ballard High School to request that the short be submitted. Unplugged had won awards for Special Recognition for Overall Excellence in Media and Peer Achievement from the Images of Youth Video Festival in 2008. Unplugged was also named an Official Selection of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth this year.


---o0o--

Governor Sarah Palin unelected herself to make an indy run at the White House



By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Bam! Sarah Palin is going indy.

After reading the Washington Times "exclusive," I am convinced that soon to be unelected Governor Sarah Palin will make a run at The White House as an independent. Of course. The Republican "base" likes her. They like her a lot. But the suits at the RNC figure Mitt, Newt, or one of the rising young(ish) turks that has avoided a sex scandal [I think there are some?] want nothing to do with her. After reading the recent Vanity Fair article on Palin, I believe that. They threw her under the bus and backed over her four times.


As an indy candidate,, the G.O.P. character attacks become just more partisan gibberish. The Democrats? They're just wack jobs, elitists and commies. If she goes independent, she will have an immediate base from which to expand. And, of course, extract campaign funds. She'll do more damage as an independent than she could ever do a Republican. In these modern elections it doesn't take much to skew an election. Just ask Ralph Nader, who enabled George W. Bush's eight year reign of terror
"The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and heroine to much of the GOP's base said in an interview she views the electorate as embattled and fatigued by nonstop partisanship, and she is eager to campaign for Republicans, independents and even Democrats who share her values on limited government, strong defense and "energy independence."

"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation," Governor Palin said. I suspect she won't become the same sort of turncoat weasel as Joe Lieberman, but you never know.
---o0o---

Monday, July 13, 2009

Poem: Scarred for life



It could be watching your family
Diced up in slow-motion

By a sick biscuit with a machete,
Or the day your brother let you down.

It might be when you were wrongfully accused,
Whether they figured it out or not.

Maybe you discovered your wife sleeping
With her Yoga teacher,

Or remember the night your parents
Let you cry yourself to sleep.

It could be the motorcycle accident,
Or the time you saw your Uncle naked.

Under a bad moon,
It can all leave you scarred for life.
---o0o---

Originally published in "Feets don't fail me now," a literary journal in Los Angeles, 2006. Revised 7-12-2009, and published, heavily revised, on All This Is that

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Pete and Pat Curran, King and Queen of Cornucopia



Pete and Pat Curran, in honor of their decades of public service were the King and Queen of Kent, Washington's Cornucopia Festival and Parade. This photo, by Maureen Roberts, captured them waving to their subjects from a convertible in the parade.

Pete and Pat are my parents-in-law, and the parents of Keelin, Colin, Sheila, Marcy, Mary, Betsey, Brendan, and Megan, as well as the grandparents and great-grandparents of a passel of kids. In their mid-70's, they are patrons of the arts and social service charities; lifelong Democrats (Pete worked for Bobby Kennedy as an advance man in 1968); involved in a large number of volunteer activities; and have sponsored numerous arts events in the Kent area (including sponsoring a Blind Boys of Alabama concert). Pete still plays handball every week, and Pat plays tennis as well as writing poetry.
---o0o---

Friday, July 10, 2009

Tuxpi.com - Big fun with photos and other images

http://www.tuxpi.com/ has a bunch of cool photo enhancing treatments. Here are a few I created tonight. Their image options are Motivational Poster - Water Reflection - Wanted Poster - Infinity - Postage Stamp - Whirl Effect - Pixel Effect - Photo Paper - Film Strip - Newscast - Blueprint - Speech Bubble Editor - Text Collage - Pop Art Collage - Flag Collage Stardust

Nice work, Tuxpi!

[click images to enlarge]
















---o0o---