Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Overnight to London



I am sitting in my hotel room in Sheffield, swaying at the desk--these long flights always leave me rocking (how long does it take when flying to get your sea-legs?). I sit here still swaying and rocking as if I were still on that 747.

Speaking of which--I haven't been on one in years. Seattle's finest! These 747s rock! After all this flying on 737s and Lockheeds, and our enemy AirBus, and even Bombardier prop planes, this seemed like a monstrously huge lumbering beast. When we took off, it seemed like forever to get airborne, but when we did it was a magnificent roaring beast. And you can walk around
, and even go upstairs! Even the food and drink was good.

I arrived in London about 4 AM Seattle time, and then took a limo out to Sheffield. Once you leave London, it is absolutely amazing how the countryside turns immediately to farms and sheep for the entire trip to Yorkshire in the North Country.

We passed through dozens of towns I've read about it like Derby, Chesterfield, Coventry, and Nottingham (where the driver convinced me NOT to stop...I wanted to see what sorts of Robin Hood swag and souvenirs that might have kicking around... /jack, heading to bed at 10 PM (2:00 west coast time
---o0o---

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Off to the motherland!



I leave Seattle at 6:30 and arrive in England at around noon (UK time) tomorrow.
---o0o---

Barack: Thanks Rev.


click to enlarge
---o0o---

Index of Jack Brummet's Poems on All This Is That


This is a sporadically-appearing index to all the poems I've published here (and elsewhere) over the last few years. I also wrote 64 poems based on the Book of Changes a/k/a the I Ching that are indexed here.

Poems published since the last index (October, 2007) are colored red. Click on the poem to read it...

Poem: How He Lived
Poem: In California, I write down the names of every great tree name I can remember
Poem: When the devil comes knocking
Poem: Into the wind
Poem: The Outlet
Poem: The riptide beneath my feet
Poem: The sounds on Puget Sound
Poem: Stages
Poem: But you can't
Poem: [with your back to the wall]
Poem: [The surging sea]
Poem: Are they on the way or is it "just my 'magination (once again)?"
Poem: The telepath
Poem: Catch 23
Poem: Narcissism
Poem: Midnight Madness
Grey USA
On seeing the photo of a long lost friend
Imaginary Friends
Alkyvision
[The streetlight's blue shadows...]
There's A Civil War In His Head[
Jesus Walks On Water
On The Plain: just a song of Gomorrah
Why I won't run for President
The story of a long long journey
Dawdling
Landing, or, Aviophobia, Part 26
The eyes have it
You Rehearse Dying
How the first baby in the world
The Big Boat
Babylon and the unfinished tower
Late Spring
Higher Ground Poem: The Icarus Factor).
Truism 1
The Grey Convoy Flies Over the UFO Crash Site
Dual Mortality
Ephemeral Communications
toast
3 A.M.
I'm agnostic about atheism
Snow Day In Kirkland, Washington
Squirrel poem
Going Mad Might Be Like A Bad Eight Track Tape Deck
Fall Haiku
Jericho & How Joshua Caused The Walls To Come Tumbling Down
The Orgy In The Pantry (starring Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, Pilsbury Dough Boy, Aunt Jemima, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and more
With Or Without The Words
Hello. . .My poem is. . .
You Gather Your Friends
The Way We Were
Scarred for life
The White Flag
The Cover-up
The Good German
Dream Of The Grey
Torches & Pitchforks
The Red Flag
Don't look back
The Tenth Planet (Or An Incredible Facsimile?)
Anger management is a slippery slope
the vault
The Moon's In Tune
Another politician resigns in disrace
Rub-a-dub
Tendrils
The Candidate
Reds
Making Room
The revolt in heaven
Found Poem: The Richmond Hill Oracle
The Robot Wars
Ten ways of looking at lies
The Broken Chord
With our heads in the sand during the transit and eclipse
the sun plays its red song
Litany
Poem: The Developers
A raindrop's life
The mystery of the first amendment to the Ten Commandments
The Bay Of Delusion
Mad Song
Reasons To Keep On
Conspiracy Theory
The Moon Race
Mr. Flue's Grave In Hillcrest Cemetary, Kent, Wash.
The World Seems Especially Calming And Verisimilitudinous Today
Kent, Washington
Rollover
[It's the Lee Harvey Oswald smile]
Zombie Breakdown
Heaven
The Variations
Sonnet For Hari
Defensive Daydreaming
The Dream
Dogpaddling
The Prostethic Head & The Absence Of Blood
Tetuan - "No Paranoia, My Friend"
The Grey Ambassador
The Bad Movie
The Bucket
The Man In The Mirror
Liftoff
Optimism
Perspective
A Flight Of Swallows
Audioblog - The Prevaricator
Weather Report
Your Wooden Leg
The Revelations Sermon At The First Church Of The Mojo Apocalypse
Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch
The Late Excavation
Poem: Jack Kerouac, Meet John Barleycorn
The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand
At The Acropolis
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
The sous-chef is a sociopath
James Wright
Falling
[Life Is Not A Hardy Novel]
Seven
Coyote Comes Home Like A Salmon
Shorts For Jerry Melin ca. about 1988
Bird
Monism
The Golden Rule
The Countdown
AT HILLCREST CEMETARY IN KENT, WASHINGTON, I WALK BY THE GRAVE OF SAM THE GRASSEATER
Notes On Flying
Daybreak
Explosions
Not Past Tense Yet
the glass is not half-full
It's Getting Crowded Here
Li Po In Disgrace
The Clock
A Love Song
Bad Timing
The Killer
The Absence of Footprints
Growing Up
Gone Fishing
The M.D.s
Acrylic
The Marriage
Driving Home To Seattle, We Watch Deer Drinking from the Skookumchuck River
---o0o---

Monday, April 28, 2008

On this day, 63 years ago, Adolph Hitler committed suicide



It is nearly sixty-three years since Adolph Hitler resigned as Der Fuhrer by putting a gun in his mouth. Unfortunately, he resigned just about six years too late.

Before he began his assault on Europe, Hitler promised his followers the Third Reich would last 1,000 years. Twelve years later, in January 1945, as Montgomery and Patton's forces closed in on Berlin, Hitler retreated into a bunker beneath the Chancellery to live out his final days. Located 55 feet down, the shelter contained 18 rooms and was self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. As he grew increasingly deranged, Hitler continued to meet with close subordinates like Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels (who would join him, along with his entire family, in suicide).

One day after marrying his mistress, Eva Braun, Hitler and his new bride killed themselves by swallowing cyanide (Hitler also shot himself). The invading Russian soldiers found their charred remains in a bomb crater a couple of days later.
---o0o---

Video: The Beach Boys' demo of "Walk On By"

If only the Beach Boys had finished this fab Hal David-Burt Bacharach tune! The one minute demo is tantalizing. This song was made for them. But alas, they never came back to it, although Brian had clearly spent time orchestrating the vocal parts. Would it be blasphemy for me to say I like it better than Dionne Warwick's completed version/hit?



---o0o---

Poem: The Broken Chord (rewritten & reheated)



The rain falls
As you practice arpeggios

Running out shimmering notes
In an ever-shifting

Pattern of music sifting
Through the caesuras between the notes

Forming a counterpoint
With the drumming of the rain

Thousand of patterns and polyrhythms
Weave around and through other patterns

The rain chicanes in the wind
Breaking up and merging again

Billions of drops in midair
Bump together in a choreographed ballet

We can never reproduce
But that's nature for you

We sing paint and write the same story
Over and over and over again

And nature trumps us
With her singular snowflake.
---o0o---

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Video: The Beach Boys' Friends

This is one of my favorite songs by the Beach Boys, one that was never particularly popular,and one you may have never heard.


---o0o---

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Poem: How He Lived


If he steps back
The whole machine

Wheels past in a blur.
Some nights he jettisons

What is left of his soul
Out into the void

And it dogpaddles back.
He's been it for too many turns.
---000---

Friday, April 25, 2008

Face scans at airports are coming to the U.K.; it will happen here


A face recognition system will scan faces to match them against the biometric
chips on passports in England. Photograph: Image Source/Getty

In the United Kingdom, a new level of scrutiny is about to be added to the other indignities air travellers suffer from. I have been on roughly 80 different airplanes in the last 16 months, and have written here fairly extensively about the airlines and airport security, and the indignities to which we are subjected as we try to get from one place to the other[1]:

According to the U.K. Guardian:

"Airline passengers are to be screened with facial recognition technology rather than checks by passport officers, in an attempt to improve security and ease congestion, the Guardian can reveal.

"From summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to scan passengers' faces and match the image to the record on the computer chip in their biometric passports.
Border security officials believe the machines can do a better job than humans of screening passports and preventing identity fraud. The pilot project will be open to UK and EU citizens holding new biometric passports.


"But there is concern that passengers will react badly to being rejected by an automated gate. To ensure no one on a police watch list is incorrectly let through, the technology will err on the side of caution and is likely to generate a small number of "false negatives" - innocent passengers rejected because the machines cannot match their appearance to the records.

"They may be redirected into conventional passport queues, or officers may be authorised to override automatic gates following additional checks. "

[1]

The Nazis and "Degenerate Art"


click poster to enlarge

In Munchen, in 1937, the Nazis staged a huge exhibit of "degenerate art," from which this poster is taken. Unfortunately for the Nazis, this show it drew more visitors than a concurrent exhibit of state-sanctioned art. This poster announces the exhibition.

Stephanie Barron wrote a monograph called "Degenerate Art": The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany" (published by LACMA [a favorite museum of mine], or, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1991).
---o0o---

The Mighty B



A couple of friends of mine in L.A. have a cartoon starting on TV this weekend, on Nickelodeon. "The Mighty B!" premieres Saturday morning, April 26th, at 10:30 a.m. Two other new episodes will appear on Sunday morning. There is an article on Wikipedia with more details than I can possibly provide.

Cynthia True (who wrote for Fairly Odd Parents and does lot of print work, not to mention her great (if somewhat handcuffed by overly-protective copyright holders) biography of Bill Hicks) and her husband, Erik Wiese (who wrote and storyboarded Sponge Bob and other cartoons), co-created the show with Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live. It's been over three years in the making and it is finally hitting the air. It's a very charming show and I probably can't tell you how I know that, but we all--or a subset of us--will know tomorrow.

The cartoon is hand-drawn 2D, which doesn't happen much anymore [1]. Is that cool, or what?

According to my friend Daryle Conners, it is also the first Nick show "(and one of the only cartoons I can think of) that features a little girl in the lead, let alone a little girl who is goofy, crazy, ambitious and a little homely - typically the girls in children's animation normally act as reflectors for the male characters or play "the straight-man" role. "

Amy Poehler voice acts the lead Bessie Higgenbottom, and Andy Richter plays her little brother, Ben. Tune in and give Cindy and Eric a Nielson bump!
___________________________________________

[1] I remember when Disney sold all their animation tables a few years ago...it was kind of a big deal in the videogame and movie industries. We threw in the towel and it wasn't long before those who couldn't or wouldn't make the leap to 3D were left behind--tossed off the side of the prairie schooner to bolster the surviviors' chances.
---o0o---

Map of the last 100 All This Is That visitors


This is sort of interesting (well, to me anyhow). It is a map of the last 200 visitors here. When I looked at this map a year or two ago, the visitors in the U.S. were almost all from the east and west coasts. It appears that we've penetrated the "flyover states," that we're completely sucking in South America, the Arctic and Antarctic, Cuba, and we don't seem to be reaching our brothers and sisters in Canada or Africa either. That red dot you see is the All This Is That offices...
---o0o---

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Republicans and Tony Zirkle are now courting the Nazi voters





A congressional candidate is defending a speech he gave to to a group celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, He said, he came because "he was asked."

Tony Zirkle, who hopes to become the Republican nominee in Indiana's 2nd District, stood in front of a painting of Hitler, next to people wearing swastikas, with a swastika flag in the background as e talked to the American National Socialist Workers Party in Chicago last Sunday.


The Congressional Hopeful

"I'll speak to any group that invites me," Zirkle said Monday. "I've spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta."

Even at a black radio station, Tony? Wow. So, how's this one working for you,Tone?

The 2nd Congressional District includes a large portion of north central Indiana spanning from South Bend to Kokomo.
---o0o---

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A great new home improvement tool

This video was sent to me by Senor Dave Hokit. I have no clue as to where it actually originated.

---o0o---

Let's get Kinky with Bizzare (and other) Magazines




Thanks to Dean Ericksen for pointing out this excellent article on Gawker. Dean reads Gawker so we don't have to! But look at what we miss! Check out their Best of the Bizarre and photo roundup here, on Gawker. In fact, one of the characters on one of the "girly" magazine covers is almost a dead ringer for Dean himself--I wonder if he put him through school The Hard Way?



---o0o---

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Back to California



All of a sudden I am returning to Orange County, California. Despite being a Republican hotbed, I kind of like the place. Certainly the weather, anyway. I barely unpacked my bags from the last trip. The good parts: I can be in the pool by five o'clock if everything goes right, and I am upgraded to first class, where I can swill, stretch out, and watch a movie or read in comfort. I'll just about have enough time to unpack when I return home Wednesday night, to get ready for my trip to England next week.
---o0o---

Monday, April 21, 2008

Are you a Godly person? Claim your 250,000 Pounds Sterling



Is this my lucky day?

-----Original Message-----


From: Mr. Jennifer Woodward [mailto:mrsjjwodward1958@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 4:19 PM
To: Jack Brummet
Subject: Funds willed to you (Please Contact my Bank)

GOOD DAY TO YOU,
GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF GOD,

My name is Mrs. Jennifer Woodward. I am a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have to you/church. I am 59 years old and I was diagnosed for cancer for about 2 years ago, immediately after the death of my husband, who has left me everything he worked for. I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to you for the good work of God, rather than allow my relatives to use my husband hard earned funds ungodly.

Please pray that the good Lord forgive me my sins. I have asked God to forgive me and I believe He has because He is a merciful God. I will be going in for an operation in less than a month and I decided to WILL/donate the sum of £250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand British Pounds) to you for the good work of the Lord, and also to help the motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of the widows.

At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls due to the fact that my relatives are around me and my health status. If you are a Godly person, please contact my Account Officer and he will arrange the transfer of the funds from my account to your preferred account. I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly, and PLEASE use the funds well and always extend the good work to others.

Pls. Contact Account Officer of Halifax bank Plc.

Account Officer; Mr. John Kerry
Halifax BANK PLC
HEAD OFFICE: Halifax Bank Plc. Address, 2170 Coventry Road, Sheldon Birmingham, B26 3JM.
EMAIL: halifaxbnkplc@hotmail.com


CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Tel: +44-704-576-9996
Tel: +44-704-577-0107
Fax: +44-707-570-7718

You are required to contact my Account Officer with the following information below Full Names; Address; Telephone number;

A scanned copy of your International Passport or driver?s license or any valid form of identification if available should be sent along

Mrs. Jennifer Woodward.
CC: Account Officer
John Kerry
Halifax Bank Plc
---o0o---

The cold rain and snow

All last week, I was in Orange County, California, where it was mostly about 80 degrees. As I arrived home in Seattle, a month into spring, it was snowing. And it snowed all weekend sporadically...never sticking, but snowing every few hours. It even snowed on my way to work this morning. I was driving to the freeway, and there was an inch of snow on the ground and it was hailing and snowing. Traffic was slowing, and it looked like it might take hours to get to work. Three miles later, I was in the sunlight.

As it turns out, I am going back to Orange County tomorrow, where I'll get another blast of heat before returning to who knows what?
---o0o---

Saturday, April 19, 2008

A Blogger Meltdown, mostly of my own authoring?

You may have noticed the sporadic postings (partly due to being in California all week) in the last few days? I completely pooched my blogspot template. It seems partly due to collisions between last year's new blogger switchover and the new beta blogger sandbox. I am still missing a lot of the marginalia and widgets, but I have mostly recovered everything else. Except (!!!) the post date now appears beneath the first post of a day. And it's huge. And ugly. I've deleted all references to it, changed the color to white in the CSS section of the template, attempted to move it above the posy title somehow, and pasted in sections of old templates that I know looked good. All to no avail. I had one problem a couple years ago, where I sent the whole template to blogger and they immediately figured out what I'd done wrong. I have to throw myself on their mercy. I am a bonehead.
---o0o---

Friday, April 18, 2008

Karate Monkey-- Video of martial art Chimp in action

So Grandma's Boy wasn't that far off. You apparently can teach a monkey karate. Or Tai Kwan Do. Or Judo. Ok, it's not a monkey, it's a chimpanzee. Monkeys have tails.



---o0o---

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Poem: Stackabones



[I started this poem 21 years ago in Berkeley, California, the week before my daughter was born. I finished it tonight, in Irvine, California]


Stackabones

for Claire

"What is it?," you'll ask, and I'll hedge.
Things with no title aren't,

So make a name. Our dreams have no lexicon.
We'll look at wildflowers

In the chapparal and fill the silence
Around the blossoms with a name.

Waiting on you to be,
I try to remember not to forget.

In a dusty corner of my head
I've opened files with Websters of words,

Waiting on you to be.
We'll cover the earth with Venn Diagrams

Of our steps bisecting the old steps.
We'll breach the barricades

And walk circles from here to here.
The wheel itself rolls flat

And you can't slow it down;
With each spin of the ball it grows flatter,

But still rolls up and down the hill.
The list of whom the bucket was kicked by

Grows longer every day
And that bucket fills with tears.

Our job is to stay off that roster.
Back to the story.

God, gets the fire going
As She spins us back into the sun

To warm us up in the morning.
The sun didn't rise today,

But the sun doesn't rise.
The last cricket falls asleep,

And the birds begin their rounds.
Earth rolls over like a dog,

And the light
Floods in.
---o0o---

Poem: In California, I write down the names of every great tree name I can remember




Cedar, cypress, juniper mulberry, buckeye,
Gingko, hickory, ironwood, magnolia, persimmon,

Paw paw, pussy willow, sassafrass,
Sumac, tupelo, witchhazel, oak,

Alder, crabapple, devilwood, dogwood.
And they call me John.

Who do trees and meeting rooms
Get all the good names?
---o0o---

Video: Bob Dylan Plays "Like A Rolling Stone" With The Rolling Stones


----o0o----

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Poem: Ephemeral Communication




Native American smoke signals
May be the most transitory
And ephemeral communication of all,

Next to the voice
—A Jiminy Cricket whisper
In your ear—

That transmogrifies instantly
Into memory
While the smoke signal

Takes its own sweet time
And rises in a langorous backstroke
Drifting slowly and inexorably

Toward Heaven,
Achieving evanescence
Somewhere in the troposphere.


[Irvine, California 4/16/2008]
---o0o---

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Shine a light! Martin Scorsese's rolling stones movie


click the stones to enlarge

I am not a huge Rolling Stones fan--I liked them in the 60's/70's, but pretty much lost interest sometime around Some Girls.

This concert film reminded me of why I did like them--they wrote some good tunes, and they always had attitude. We saw the movie at IMax--on the six story screen with fantastic sound. It really made me think about what would have become of the Stones if Brian Jones had lived.

The movie was edited with a lot of rapid cuts--and you rarely if ever saw the whole stage. And, of course, the focus was often on Mick, who is still an amazingly energetic dancer and performer. I think the cuts would probably be more tolerable on a smaller screen. It took a couple of minutes to get used to the jump cuts.

The best moments were where Keith Richards was in the spotlight (he sang two tunes). And the camera would frequently zoom in on him. He seemed to happy to have survived, and I had forgotten what an amiably lovable rascal he is. I will buy this movie just to savor those Keith moments. Jack White, Buddy Guy, and Christine Aguilera also did guest shots. Jack White's was just OK. but Aguilera and Buddy Guy were off the hook. You should go see this film. Even if you're not a fan.

/jack reporting from Orange County, California...


---o0o---

Monday, April 14, 2008

Obama issues clarification on his "bitter" remarks

by Pablo Fanque,
National Affairs Editor, All this is that

(Seattle, Wash. - All this is that wire) — Senator Barack Obama on Sunday attempted to clarify (and mitigate!) what he meant when he said some small-town Pennsylvanians are "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion."

Sen. Barack Obama told All This Is That's Pablo Fanque that his statement was misunderstood and misrepresented. "I didn't say it as well as I should have," Obama admitted to Fanque in Muncie, Indiana, on Sunday, the day after he first defended his comments,

"Many of these traditions are passed on from generation to generation -- but that doesn't mean they're right. These people in the flyover states are shooting innocent animals, are inveterate racists, homophobes, and I understand many still have sexual relations with cousins, in-laws, siblings, and even barnyard animals. Just because these are traditions with these backwoods folk, Pablo, doesn't mean they're right, or that they shouldn't be changed."

"But will the peckerwoods and crackers ever make these changes?,"
he asked Fanque on Sunday. "No freakin' way! And that, friendos, is why we need to make the changes for them."

"That's why my first act as President will be to round up every single gun in this country. And the second will be to enroll every citizen in this land in mandatory sensitivity training. And in case you're interested, I also plan to raise taxes. Through the roof. And in case you're interested, I have not ruled out mass involuntary sterilization."
---o0o---

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Senator Barack Obama: These people are a bunch of gun nuts, tariff freaks, racists, and cross wavers, or, an Obama Nation Abomination

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign began taking on water yesterday after he thumbed his nose at the middle class of Pennsylvania.

Obama's rival, Hillary Clinton, and Republican presidential nominee John McCain both pounced on the comments Obama made last weekend at a fundraiser in San Francisco.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he said.


Video of the speech, which was closed to the press, surfaced as Obama was campaigning in Indiana on the working-class issues like job losses and rising mortgage foreclosures.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he said.



His opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton responded at a rally in Pennsylvania: "Pennsylvania doesn't need a president who looks down on them," she told the crowd. "They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."

The McCain campaign, of course, also lambasted Obama: "It shows an elitism and condescension toward hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking," said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the Arizona senator. "It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
---o0o---

Friday, April 11, 2008

painting: George W. Bush in full regalia


click to enlarge
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 127: NASA's UFO


click to enlarge the saucer - photo by NASA

Actually, of course, this is not a flying saucer,but the domed top to a 70 foot tall vacuum tank at the John H. Glenn Research Center's Electric Propulsion Laboratory.

The three technicians in protective suits had just emerged from within the tank where they had been cleaning in the toxic mercury atmosphere, following ion engine testing in the tank. NASA has used this photo many times over the years and features it prominently in their galleries, since it looks so much like something it isn't.
---o0o---

Keelin Curran talks about marriage to Jack Brummet

---o0o---

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Poem: When the devil comes knocking

"It's for you. I think it's The Devil."

I always wondered when
And how he would come knocking—

Maybe in a two-button Armani suit
Or clad in a red unitard

With a baffle for his tail—
And ask me why I blame him

For the ills in our hearts and world.
Will he flip open a dusty,

Bartleby-scriven ledger
And call me to account

For my good deeds,
Or did he come to claim me

For the accumulation
Of a succession of transgressions?

Does he realize I have a problem
With authority figures?

When The Devil comes knocking
Will he show up half-drunk

And reeking of sulphur
Or will he come in stealth

Looking polished and rakish
Like George Clooney or George Raft?

Will he proffer a Faustian deal?
Or is he coming because I earned

My passage into the underworld
The hard way, sin by sin

And he's nearly an innocent bystander
Just collecting the bill?
---o0o---

TBTL --- Too Beautiful To Live? Luke Burbank's Talk Show On Seattle's Kiro 710 AM


Luke somehow doesn't seem like a baseball hat guy.
I should be, since I grew up in Kent, Wash.

I love these people! I have been a radio fan since sometime around 1960, when I got my first seven-transistor radio. When I was young, I used to listen to the talk shows on KGO (like KIRO another 50,000 watt powerhouse) in San Francisco at night, when their signal would skip all the way up the coast. When I lived in SF, I listened to KGO too, and when I lived in NYC, I used to listen to a couple of different talk stations. I have a collection of about 600 Jean Shepherd radio shows I listen to frequently--all from WOR in NYC from about 1960-1977. Alas, Jean Shepherd signed off the air on WOR just about the time I arrived. Next to Jean Shepherd, my favorite radio show of all time is a brand new one, that has only been on the air since January in Seattle (with podcasts available for the unfortunate who live out of broadcast distance). You hear that Luke? In some perverse way, you're up there with Shep!


Jen, who grew up in my neighborhood,, Ballard.

In January, in Seattle, talk radio began to live again. Or at least someone was performing artificial recussitation in hopes of breathing life back into what had become a loud and moribund format. Unfortunately, according to its creators, it may be Too Beautiful To Live. Luke Burbank, who was working on NPR returned to Seattle for his own talk show on KIRO 710 AM Radio.

Luke Burbank's TBTL is a bit [extreme understatement] of a departure from "typical" AM radio — "I'm going to hang out with my friend and talk about things," Burbank says — and that's the whole point of these three hours a night. The show spits in the face of talk radio conventions, and they are fatalistic about it. But, I have heard people on the street, at work, and at parties mention the show. That's never happened before with a local show. People write in from around the world and all over the U.S. "There's something happening here/What it is ain't exactly clear..."


Sean, cook, engineer, and mixmaster

"Too Beautiful To Live" runs from 7-10 p.m. weeknights on 710 KIRO-AM, with a Best Of... on Saturdays. You can download the MP3s a/k/a PodCasts from KIRO's Web site Mynorthwest.com, and also from iTunes.

Luke is vain, funny, often a smart-ass, and always sharp. His partner in crime, Jen, is also funny, and extremely bright. She has a wicked sense of humor along with a heart of gold. Their engineer Sean, is an amusing knucklehead who sometimes talks about making eight bucks stretch the last four days before payday. TBTL is like sitting around with some funny friends, friendos. And the strangest and best part: they almost never take calls. Unlike most talk shows, you're glad. Unlike most talk shows, you actually want to hear the host.

"You have to treat it [the show] like it's a firefly and you've put it in a jar and it's flickering," said Luke in an interview.

Burbank and producer Jen Andrews have daily weigh-ins along with their engineer Sean. As most diet experts tell you, you shouldn't weigh yourself every day. But it's a great icebreaker and they treat it like it matters (also a recurring segment on the show: "Why ____________ [insert the name of something cool like Office Space] Matters." And then, they often delve into just what, and how much, they drank the night before (even Luke, who is now training for a marathon).
Just tune in and you'll figure it out on your own. Or you won't. You'll either detest it, or become a fan for life. Like most people (I'm too ancient to say peeps), I can't describe the show. . .I just ask is that you give them a listen. The podcast, with its high fidelity and no commercials is excellent.

I guess I am one of the 10's...a group of people who've been listening since the show's listeners numbered in the 10's. I tuned in the very first night after reading an interview with Jen and Luke before the shows began. Sure, I'm old enough to be their Dad, but I love these people. Even when they rant about pushing the graybeards out of the way (as they did this week)! Tune in M-F 7-10. They live in that dead zone...one of radio's worst possible time slots. They may be too beautiful to live, but I hope they're just homely enough to survive.
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Charlton Heston, R.I.P.


From www.coloringbookland.com - click to enlarge

I actually liked Charlton Heston, aside from his stint with the NRA advocating firepower, self-defense, and the one useless amendment to the constitution. Most of the post-Baby boom generation remembers him from his work in the Planet of the Apes series. And Ben Hur.

In his best movie roles, he had this populist heroism going into head-to-head combat with ignorance and oppression. Yeah some of his movies were jokes. But don't forget, despite his later bad rug and ranting about guns, that he was marching with the civil rights people back in 1963.
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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

FDA Orders Massive Cow Head Recall

According to the United Press: "The U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall of approximately 406,000 pounds of frozen cattle heads due to a health hazard.The FSIS said Elkhorn Valley Packing of Harper, Kan., is voluntarily recalling the frozen cattle heads because the animals' tonsils were not completely removed, in violation of federal regulations.The products being recalled are various weight bulk boxes of the heads bearing package codes "91700" or "93700" that were sent to distributors and wholesalers nationwide.Consumers with questions can contact the company at 620-896-2300."

In case you did buy any cattle head over the weekend, take note.


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Linked out of LinkedIn...Jack Brummet resigns from the insanity


click to enlarge

I don't know if you've been sucked in yourselves, or if you've resisted, but a year or two ago, I succumbed to LinkedIn. If you are in "business" you find people constantly pinging you to become their linked in buddies a/k/a connections. It's similar to Facebook, but about 1/20th as fun. And there seemed--to me at least--to be no point at all. All I ever did on linked in was approve new friends and connections. And occasionally, a salesman from some company would tunnel in and hound me to set up a meeting or a lunch or drinks...all over the map.

So I decided to Link Out. That wasn't easy. It's easy to link in, but not link out. Kind of like the Roach Motel. After begging the customer service department, and spamming them for a week, they finally killed my account. After all, if you want to track me down, just do a GIS, and you'll see numerous other avenues to find me.
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Monday, April 07, 2008

The Ruthless Gene


click to enlarge

Could a gene be partly responsible for the behaviour of some of the world's most savage dictators? Jump here, to Nature News, to find out. Has the ruthlessness gene been uncovered? The study suggests dictatorial behaviour is partly genetic.
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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Barbara Bush (senior) on the beach...and speculations on Bikinis


click Mrs. George H.W. Bush to enlarge

I brought this up at a dinner party last night and everyone scoffed. Yes, there does indeed exist a picture of a comely Barbara Bush [Senior] in a swimsuit (I was wrong about the Bikini part...they hadn't even been invented yet[1]). There you are, Friendos.

[1] Well, they kind of had been invented, according to the wikipedia, but they didn't become popular until after 1943, when swimwear was under a restriction to use 10% less fabric. The wikipedia also has a great definition of a bikini: A bikini or two-piece is a type of women's swimsuit, characterized by two separate parts — one covering the breasts, the other the groin (and optionally the buttocks).

Here is a photo of one of the very first bikinis modeled by Micheline Bernardini.

:

In our more modern, Idiocracy, world, the bikini was finally reduced to the microkini (really, a glorified Band-aid®:


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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Locked out of your car? Have a tennis ball?

This even beats a Slim Jim. A low-tech solution for unlocking your car if you get locked out...




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Friday, April 04, 2008

GraphJam

Stephen Clarke-Willson recently wrote about GraphJam - pop culture for people in cubicles. It's definitely worth checking out. Here is my favorite one so far. This graph was created by Malachi Lohman. It's like a manual for office workers (and everyone else).




click to enlarge
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Nano-Plasm by Stephen Clarke-Willson--a very good read

Speaking of Stephen Clarke-Willson, I finished his new book tonight. As much as I love it and live it, I suck as an actual reviewer of art. That said, I give Nano-plasm two thumbs up...it's a rollicking tale of nano-technology gone seriously awry, and the colliding interests of business, insurance companies, and the public welfare. With a touch of mad science and scientists, and a dose of lust, ambition, and madness. Nano-tech, the framework for the book, is explained in some detail, but mostly just enough to completely creep you out.

Did I mention the novel is set on an island? Islands often seem to harbor mad scientists and mad science in other works of fiction like Conan Doyle's The Lost World, and The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. Thinking of those books and the movies made from them, and their island locales, I have to conclude this book is made for the movies. The scenes at the facility on the island would be CGI sensations...

Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.

I have no idea whether what he writes about nano-machines is real or pure confection. I suppose I could look it up, but come on. . .it's a novel; a work of fiction. And in a work of fiction, all things are permitted--at least in my world.

I have been baffled by the people who demanded refunds from the publishers for the book by James Frey (remember the bogus autobiography Oprah annointed, which was exposed as fake?) or Margaret Seltzer's recent fake memoir Love and Consequences: A Memoir for Hope and Survival. How that last book even got published is beyond me--I remember Keelin Curran and I read excerpts in the New York Times before the scandal broke, and we both thought it sounded totally bogus. But what do you expect? Isn't a memoir just a work of fiction told with a patina of truth? So, I have now completely digressed.

Stephen Clarke-Willson's book is such a page turner that you don't really care about the verisimilitude of the nano machines. It's a good story! Read it free here, or buy it from Lulu.com. Your President wants you to spend more money!
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