Seattle's Hooverville in the 30's

Seattle's 1930's Hooverville actually looked fairly orderly, with something even approaching a street grid


click to enlarge - The Seattle Hooverville settlement sometime
in the '30s. The photograph is courtesy of the Washington State
Digital Archives.
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Celebrate! Sen. Arlen Specter extricates himself from The Hive--> The GOP begins to succumb to The Sickness

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Wow. This is, to quote John Sebastian at The Woodstock Festival, a "mindf***er of all mindf***ers." We DID know Specter's break with the Party in voting for BHO's budget was not just a break, but a massive, and perhaps irreparable breach. Arlen Specter! He's been a Republican longer than most Republicans have been alive!

It's no secret to political junkies that Specter is a close friend of the Vice President. Biden has cajoled Sen. Arlen Specter to jump to the Democratic Party for six years. In the last week, he talked to the heroic party-switcher no fewer than 15 times, officials close to Joe Biden told Fox News. Ever since Specter voted against his party, and for the massive Obama stimulus package, Biden seems to have been pressing his case.

A decade ago, Republicans had nine senators in the 11 states stretching up the Interstate 95 corridor north of the Capitol. Today, they have three senators from those states, and one, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, will retire in 2010.

"This has been a long time coming," said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity [cluck cluck cluck]. "He's been having this conversation with Specter for half a dozen years. They're close. You'd be hard-pressed to find a senator he's co-sponsored more bills with." The two are also Amtrak buddies, riding from D.C. to Biden's home in Wilmington, Del., and Specter's in Philadelphia. And they've served together forever on the Senate Judiciary Committee, often in concert, sometimes in opposition.

Yeah, they did split over the sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with Specter taking the low road and endlessly hectoring Hill during her testimony and attempting (in the end, successfully, and shamefully) to derail her charges.

The White House official told Fox that "Biden views the stimulus vote as 'a clarifying event' for Specter, one where he decided to back Obama's economic approach and risk retribution from his party." When Specter was faced with a dogfight with a very well-funded conservative challenger, Republican Patrick Toomey, it was the last straw, and he joined The Good Fight.



Readers of All This Is That--when they do not immediately recoil and click away upon seeing an article on The Greys--are well aware of the Alien Lore regarding "cerebral eviction" practices, or, the "Alien Rejection Technique", first used by John Loengard as a method of ganglion removal for human hosts implanted by the Hive. During the final moments of an A. R.T., the human host usually coughs up the ganglion,which must locate a new host. . .or succumb. In this case, however, Senator Specter ejected himself from the diseased host and immediately jumped to a new, healthy, positive host, leaving the former host to the pathetic ministrations of Rush "Oxy" Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Bobby Jindal.

And, hey, Republicans. . .the tent is big! Come on Senator Olympia Snowe, Senator Susan Collins, Senators McCain and Lamar Alexander. We will welcome all of you actual and alleged centrists. Even you, Joe Lieberman, you sub-human, sawed-off P.O.S. . .come into the big tent! There's lots of room, and we have lots of work for everyone.
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digital art: Daveed and 'Mo

click to enlarge Daveed and 'Mo

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Does The Brown Sound Really Exist? Involuntary evacuation in the news

A fair amount has been written about the brown sound. Notably, one of the funniest South Park episodes, "Worldwide Recorder Concert," tells the story of Cartman learning how to make the sound and then unleashing it on his enemies (and others, including Kenny G [pictured above] and Yoko Ono) at a concert. You may have heard of the “brown noise” or “brown sound” – it is a very low-frequency sound (usually identified as a sound under 15 hz) that is said to cause those who hear it to suddenly lose control of their bowels.

You can see a clip from the South Park show here.

Jonathan Sterne writes in "The Brown Sound" that the sound is "an oscillation of sound that causes the bowels to loosen. The brown noise is believed to be ninety-two cents below the lowest octave of E flat.” “The brown noise was discovered by the French, and tested as a weapon during WWII. It is a 12-14hz sound wave that, when played loud enough, relaxes your sphincter, causing loss of bowel control.”

"On the lower end of our hearing, we almost never perceive a 20hz sound. Even before the vibration slows to 20 cycles a second (roughly an E-flat), we begin to feel the sound as vibration rather than just hearing it. Once the rate of vibration drops below 20hz, we can't hear it as sound at all; we only feel it as vibration. So when Cartman proudly announces that the brown noise is 92 cents below the lowest octave of E flat, he is saying that the brown noise is not a noise at all. It is subsonic vibration. In the second definition, the brown noise is somewhat lower, in the 12-14hz range, which would place the note somewhere between a G and an A, were an elephant or some other animal with better low-end perception than a human to inquire about the pitch. "

Military history is filled with stories of people attempting to create (and most importantly, deploy) the brown sound and other infrasonic weapons. The most common story says the Nazis experimented with pretty much every kind of imaginable weapon, and a brown noise generator was among a class of “sonic” weapons they devised. The plan was to use it in surprise attacks on both military and civilian targets. "On the battlefield, you could momentarily overtake your opponent – and since the brown noise is very low-frequency vibration, it could hypothetically travel through tanks and other hard-to-reach places, thereby temporarily disabling the enemy. It could also be useful for civilian attacks to weaken enemy morale – as a form of what the Nazis called “worldview warfare” and what Americans now call psychological warfare."

The Fortean Times quotes acoustician Jurgen Altman, who argued in a 1999 paper that acoustic weapons were basically impossible to construct: “I have found no hard evidence for vomiting or uncontrolled defecation, even at levels of 170 dB or more.” It takes so much power to generate a low, low sound that it is virtually impossible. . .and then no one is really sure earplugs would actually help...it's your bowels themselves that would be affected, and there really are no earplugs for your bowels. . . at least yet.
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digital art: Old Glory

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digital art: Warren Beatty

click to enlarge

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Keith Olberman offers $1,000 a second to see Sean Hannity Waterboarded

Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show this week. Hannity asked Grodin if he'd ever accept a book from Hugo Chavez or listen to a speech by a "murdering dictator like Daniel Ortega."

Grodin's replied "I'd listen to anybody. I'm listening to you."

Grodin also asked Hannity if he was wearing mascara and if he plans to marry Ann Coulter.

Then, we get to the red meat of the show:

GRODIN: You're for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.
Obviously, this has to happen. For the troops, I mean! Not merely for my amusement!

Keith Olberman offered to pay $1,000 "for ever second he lasts while being waterboarded." I think we'd all pay something to see Sean Hannity waterboarded. . .especially if he cried like a baby, came out of it and recanted.


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The Two Bobs from Office Space Interview Sarah Palin

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Alien Lore No.152 - Astronaut Edgar Mitchell speaks up once again

Edgar Mitchell - "Cosmic Activist"

Once again, former Astronaut Edgar Mitchell this week reaffirmed his longstanding claim that there "is no doubt we are being visited."

Mitchell, who few on the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, said early this week that extraterrestrial life exists, and the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and foreign governments.
Mitchell spoke at the National Press Club following the X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.

Mankind wonders if we're "alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.

"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

Mitchell, believe it or not, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which many UFO believers say is the site of a UFO crash (and along with the Mount Rainier sightings around the same time are the events that really triggered this while alien lore story. Mitchell says that people in his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities."

The resident of Roswell, Mitchell says, "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."

Ten years ago, an admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed," but the admiral was then denied access when he "tried to get into the inner workings of that process." The admiral now denies the story.

"Those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited," he said. "The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time."

A NASA spokesman, Michael Cabbage, denied the cover-up. "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this planet or anywhere else -- period."

"There is a third rail [in American politics, and that is the UFO question. It is many magnitudes more radioactive than Social Security ever dreamed to be," said Paradigm Research Group head Stepgen Basset.

Other All This Is that articles on Edgar Mitchell:
Alien Lore No. 135 - More on Edgar Mitchell's alien revelations - an interview with Moonwalker Dr Edgar Mitchell
Alien Lore No. 134 - Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
Alien Lore No. 77: Celebrity sightings and thoughts on UFOs
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Painting: Ronald "Dutch" Reagan

click to enlarge

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A random (but good) collection of Paul McCartney videos...

His band Wings performs Jet (with their strongest band lineup):




Band on the Run:




Paul sings Please Please Me:





Paul Tells A Raunchy Joke:






Drive My Car:






Sgt. Pepper/and a smoking version of The End



The studio version of Band on the Run:


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Rudy Giuliani & Republican Family Values

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

It almost snaps my brain-pan from its moorings to hear Rudy Giuliani come out against gay marriage. . .or try to speak with any authority at all on marriage period--straight or gay.

Rudy Giuliani was curb-stomped in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. . .and yet, he seems to be pondering a comeback. NY Governor David Paterson is extremely vulnerable right now, and Giuliani may well swoop in and attempt to grab the job like a shark circling a wounded dolphin. In Monday's New York Post, Giuliani hinted that, if he did run, same-sex marriage would be a flagship issue.

Paterson introduced a bill that would, if passed, legalize same-sex marriage. In an interview, Giuliani came out very strongly against that idea, and said that it could galvanize New York Republicans in 2010. "This will create a grass-roots movement. This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics," the former New York City mayor told Post reporter Fred Dicker. "I think gay marriage will obviously be an issue for any Republican next year. . ."

He later said that that same-sex marriage "will be something that Republicans don’t have to use -- this is something that will bring a lot of people to the Republican Party because it’s such a basic challenge to what people believe is the way society should be organized."

Of course, an open attack like this will open up the subject of Giuliani's execrable conduct of his own family life. He's working on Marriage No. 3, and is estranged from his children. At least one of them, I remember, didn't even vote for him in the primaries. . .they voted for Obama. As his flame-out for the Republican nomination demonstrated, Giuliani just doesn't get a lot of traction on anything (except possibly "9/11"). He has gay friends. He has been known to dress in drag. One of his gay friends (in fact Rudy lived with two gay men when he was between wives in the 90s), Howard Koeppel, told the New York Post that Giuliani said that if same-sex marriage were to become legal in New York, "he would marry us himself."

It's hard to understand why we are even still talking about this. Rudy Giuliani, who moved his girlfriend into Gracie Mansion while his wife and children were still living there, who married and divorced his own cousin, and turned his back on his children, is just about the last person we should look toward for any wisdom about marriage. Or politics. Or national defense. However, that being said, I welcome Rudy to run for governor or for President again.
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Painting: Three Nudes

click to enlarge
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Awesome White Album Era video of The Beatles's Revolution

It is so amazing to hear this song now with its dense layers of piano, bass, guitar, and top of his game Ringo. This is such a departure from the early music. Its density is an amazing leap from the earlier mono/4 track songs. I think playing music after The Beatles must have sometimes feel like writing a play in the 17th century after Shakespeare's departure...



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Oprah shouts on Twitter & Shaq notices

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poem: if we were us

If I were me
What would I do?

Would I see you
And you see me?

If we were us
Could we let it be?
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Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon landing disaster

click to enlarge

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out an article and link to the speech I discuss below.

It was interesting to read the excerpts of the speech Dick Nixon would deliver in the event of a disaster during our moon landing. Only a few other speeches like this have slipped out over the years.

When FDR was commander-in-chief, he had a speech prepared in the event that the Normandy beach landings, a/k/a D Day, failed. Other events have triggered back pocket speeches over the years. Mostly, the President (or whoever) has not had to deliver them. But you can bet that every President has had a few of them drafted, waiting in their back pocket.

You may or may not recall an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett's daughter had been kidnapped. His speechwriter Toby handed him a copy of the speech he would give when he daughter was safely released. The President asked him "what about the other speech?" Toby, said, yeah, he had written that one too. Bartlett asked for a copy. And then read it. He approved, but never had to use it.

Neil Armstrong memorably spoke “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. But Nixon's two hundred and some other words, written in the event of a disaster, have been hidden away in an archive until now. Richard Nixon’s speechwriter, Bill Safire sent a memo to White House chief of staff Bob Haldeman, on July 18, 1969 – just days before the landing, that included this very brief speech Nixon would have delivered had something gone terribly wrong during our first moon landing in 1969:

If Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin had been stranded on the Moon, unable to return to Michael to the orbiting Apollo 11 command ship, Nixon would have called their widows, of course, and then addressed the nation.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace,” he would have told the watching millions.

"These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice."

“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.”

If you have any, or know of any other back pocket speeches, send them to us! One that comes immediately to mind was JFK's speech following the disastrous invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
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4/20

An annual 4/20 gathering at the University of Santa Cruz - click to enlarge

According to the Wikipedia: “A large celebration is held every year on 4/20 at the University of Colorado's Boulder campus, with attendance reaching more than 10,000 in 2008. University police have tried various methods to prevent the gathering, including photographing students participating in the event, but the crowd has grown every year. In Dunedin, New Zealand, students at the University of Otago and other cannabis law reform activists meet under a walnut tree on the Otago University Union Lawn on Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:20pm to openly smoke cannabis in public in what they consider an act of protest. In 2008 a member of the Dunedin group was arrested and others were issued trespass notices after attempting to openly smoke cannabis at one of the regular 4:20pm protest meetings. "

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The Free Music Archive

I have found so much great (and free and legal) stuff from WFMU over the last couple of years--stereo demo records, music that has slipped into the public domain, recordings of strange bands, Frank Ackerman's UFO music, the soundtracks from instructional recordings, esoterica, ephemera...novelty records, and mainly just the offbeat and interesting. While the focus is music, my favorite finds and downloads include "78 RPM Records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages..."

Now, WFMU has joined with Seattle's (and NYC's) KEXP, Portland's KBOO, and other music companies, web sites, and blogs, to form the Free Music Archive, "a social music website built around a curated library of free, legal audio. It's a work in progress, and your participation will help us continue to grow."

Sign up, and check out these samplers Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, , and then explore the rest.
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An interview with John Doe of X on X and rock and roll

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Where are they now? -- The banjo pickin' boy on the porch in Deliverance

Billy Redden in 2003 at 49 years of age

What ever became of the boy who played the banjo (The Wikipedia describes him as the "creepy banjo kid") on the porch in 1972's Deliverance?

As it turns out, Billy Redden, the man who may be the most famous banjo player of all time, can barely play at all.

In 2003, Redden appeared in Tim Burton's movie "Big Fish." It was his first movie since his appearance in Deliverance. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Burton on Dec. 23, 2003: "I never forgot that image." The spooky and haunting Redden appeared in one of the key scenes of "Deliverance." 

Redden said he did not mind being a hillbilly icon in the film, but he was embarrassed by what he--unintentionally, hilariously--called the film's "love scene" (a violent rape that turns the sylvan rafting trip into a nightmare). Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty starred in the film. Voight claimed that Billy is the son of an unholy union between his mother and his brother). I find no confirmation of that, but I've never believed much that emerges from that rabid Republican's mouth.

Billy Redden in 1972 - click to enlarge

Tim Burton eventually located Redden in Clayton, Georgia, where Redden works as a cook, dishwasher and part-owner of the Cookie Jar Cafe. "Big Fish," drew the attention of media as far away as London and throughout the United States. "Quite a few people have come in to meet me," Redden said.

Burton gave Redden the banjo he used in the film,and a video about how to play the banjo. Redden said he would give it a shot.

Redden's performance on that porch, in the Dueling Banjos is one of the most memorable and creepy movie scenes ever. After that scene (and the Ned Beatty "love scene"), you knew anything could happen in this bizarro hillbilly world. I might have some cousins in that film. Billy and I might even be related, when you think about some of Our People's breeding practices back there (and maybe even out here). We're not quite in the "I'm My Own Grandpa" camp, but who knows?

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The Grateful Dead check in with Barack Obama

"No ties ... and no tie-dyes," is how the Dead dressed for a meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office, according to a source at the White House on Monday evening.

Obama thanked the Grateful Dead last year:



The meeting (not on the president's official schedule), was arranged by a Deadhead in the White House (lots of fans there, and in Washington including Senators Al Franken and Patrick Leahy, two other Senators, The Gores, etc). The current lineup of Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti and some of their wives, met with Obama for about 15 minutes.

Then it was on to a much longer visit with senior staff. While the president has never been to a Dead show, the officials they met with next -- senior advisers David Axelrod and Pete Rouse and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina -- are said to be big fans who had plans to attend last night's Verizon Center show. "They talked about a lot of different issues."

When Jerry Garcia visited the White House, he wore sweat pants. This time they wore jackets.
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Don't let the bedbugs bite!

Click to enlarge

You can buy these bedspreads (aka duvets), with the couple, or the man or woman, individually, here.
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Painting: Billie Holiday

click to enlarge

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***Editorial - Pablo Fanque*** A Fish Rots From The Head Down - Obama's Gay Marriage Problem

"favors civil unions"

Editorial by Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

I hear people continually excoriate the religious right, Rick Warren, Rush Limbaugh and others for opposing gay marriage. But what about El Jefe? Barack Obama is part of the opposition too. . .every bit as much as Rick Warren. I became, fairly late in the race, an Obama supporter. As President, he has surprised me. He's doing a great job. But, in my booklet, his Achilles' Heel is his policy on gay marriage; we should have known, and remembered that. He told us during the election.

Although Barack Obama "supports civil unions," he is against gay marriage. I have come to see this "supports civil unions" as a smarmy dodge that people all across the spectrum employ. Obama's luke-warm support does no favors to anyone at all. In the end, really, how different is this from George Bush? Rush Limbaugh [1], or Louisiana Gov. Jindal? They, too, oppose gay marriage.

In an interview with the Chicago Daily Tribune, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."

Barack Obama did vote against a Federal Marriage Amendment and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. He said he would support civil unions between gay and lesbian couples, as well as letting individual states determine if marriage between gay and lesbian couples should be legalized.


click to enlarge the BFFs

From the White House Web site: "President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights."


Click to enlarge - "I love you, man"

And yet. . .and yet, I have been spammed with emails, and petitions, asking me to come out against Rick Warren, and other conservatives publicly opposed to gay marriage. What about the guy at the top? "A fish rots from the head down," as Michael Dukakis noted about President Reagan. Nothing has changed. We just like the fish better. Mister President. . .it's time to set aside your cultural predispositions and do what's right. Sure, you'll take some heat, but let's face it--you will never be in a stronger position to expend some of your hard-earned political capital.
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[1] Rush recently delivered this shocking bombshell: "…let’s say we discover the gene that says the kid’s gonna be gay. How many parents, if they knew before the kid was gonna be born, [that he] was gonna be gay, they would take the pregnancy to term? Well, you don’t know but let’s say half of them said, “Oh, no, I don’t wanna do that to a kid.” [Then the] gay community finds out about this. The gay community would do the fastest 180 and become pro-life faster than anybody you’ve ever seen. … They’d be so against abortion if it was discovered that you could abort what you knew were gonna be gay babies.”
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***Editorial - Jack Brummet*** Tear Down The Wall, Mister President: Hasn't Cuba Suffered Enough?

An Editorial by Jack Brummet
All This Is That poetry, arts, and persiflage editor

It's editorial day on All This Is That. Pablo snagged gay marriage and Jack got the Cuban Blockade. . .


click the former President to enlarge - art by Jack Brummet

President Barack Obama's announcement of a U.S. policy shift toward Cuba makes no mention of the "harshest of measures" we imposed on the island, as former Cuban leader Fidel Castro pointed out today. And he's right.

BHO's removal this week of limits on travel by Cuban Americans to their homeland and how much money they can send to relatives falls fall short of being the relief we need to deliver. Does our President really want to continue the punitive and retrograde measures of his predecessors?

Fidel Castro, in his message, said Obama can use his "talents" in creating a constructive policy that would end the embargo that "has failed for almost half a century."

Castro promised his country would "not beg," for an end to the US embargo, which he characterised as a genocidal policy.

“Cuba has resisted and it will continue to resist; it will never beg for alms . . . not a word was said about the harshest of measures: the blockade,” Mr Castro said in a response posted on the internet and published by state-run media just hours after the news broke in Washington.

Obama’s executive order on Monday also did away with some restrictions for US telecommunications companies, allowing them to provide mobile phone and internet services, a big complaint of Cuba’s in the past.

Mister President, it's about 20 years late, but we need to do more, and we need to do it now. End the blockade, let Cuba have access to modern medicines, and our [relatively] cheap food and consumer goods. If you're worried about taming the Communists, remember that we have seen many other examples where free trade with America helped open the floodgates of free speech, and yes, even democracy.

And finally, why not give their flagging economy a boost? They've been seriously in the hole since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the end of subsidies to Cuba. Let's allow them to freely trade (like they do, for example, with our good friends to the north in Canada). Let us help them out by buying their top-notch rum, cigars, excellent music, poetry, art, fiction, and movies. We need to embrace our neighbors, just as we do Canada and Mexico.

President Obama, it's time.
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JFK - digital art

click JFK to enlarge
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Fresh pornography: Not The Cosbys XXX (with photos and video)

In the vein of the Brady Bunch porn movie, (See All This Is That's article here), a new spoof is in the works based on Bill Cosby's long-running sit-com, called Not The Cosbys XXX. 

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Poem: In Transit

We're like bars of soap,
Imperceptibly eroding day by day.
We fade away that slowly, and some of us


Slip away before
Anyone notices we were here at all.
We are all in transit. Some of us make the journey


On foot and some of us
Jump into the express lane
To avoid our plodding, terrestrial locomotion,

As if there is nothing
To be seen, felt, and heard
Between the beginning and the end.
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Painting: John Lennon double portrait

click to enlarge

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The Beatles perform Hello, Goodbye (with lyrics)

The Beatles perform Hello, Goodbye, in full psychedlic regalia. . .




Hello Goodbye
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

I say high, you say low
You say why, and I say I don't know
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

Why, why, why, why, why, why
Do you say good bye
Goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye

Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello
Hello

Hela, heba helloa
Hela, heba helloa
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Some videos by and around The Monkees

Someone on YouTube used Maya or another animation tool to create a short movie based on The Monkee's spoken word piece, Zilch.



The song Words, from an episode (The Monkey's Paw) of their TV show:



A Little Bit me, A Little Bit You (from another episode):



Finally (there would be more, but not a lot of videos are out there..surprising, since The Monkees performed songs on their show every week), here is a Slideo of Jimi Hendrix and The Monkees. Yes, on one tour, The Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for The Monkees.


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It was 64 years ago today that FDR died in office and Harry S. Truman became Presidenrt

On this day in 1845, following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, the vice president, succeeded to the presidency. Truman's presidency saw a number of major events in world affairs:-- we "won" the war in Europe, and Japan, the UN came alive,  the Truman Doctrine--an attempt to contain Communusm--led to the Cold War,  NATO was born, and the Korean War began.  Needless to say, we also became the first (and, thankfully, last [for now]) country to drop an atomic bomb on fellow humans. 

click to enlarge - Harry got into hot water with First Lady Bess over this photo of Betty Bacall perched on his piano, showing some serious gams and eyes...
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Digital Art: Louis Armstrong

Click Louis to enlarge

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Painting: Self-portrait

click to enlarge
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Painting: Mary

click Mary to enlarge
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Digital painting: Jack Nicholson

click jack to enlarge
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This is a test of mobile Blogger

Oops!

My list of favorite websites and blogs was deleted today as I was using the new Blogger In Beta tools. I'll get them back eventually, but for now, why not go bare?
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Mike Judge's new movie Extract

Today on the interwebs (one of my very favorite blogs) posted this link yesterday.  I liked both Office Space and Idiocracy a lot.  In this one, it's the workers who are the bozos.   The movie will arrive next fall. 


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Barack Obama's Hair

Click to enlarge the BHO Chia
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Poem: "I contain multitudes"

We all have a platoon
Of partly-contained multiple personalities
Ready to burst from the confines of the clown car.
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Digital Art: Jerry Garcia in Seattle, 1995

Click Jed to enlarge

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poem: if we were us?

If I were me
What would I do?

Would I see you
And you see me?

If we were us,
Could we let it be?
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Painting: Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger

click mick to enlarge

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Painting: Marilyn Monroe

click to enlarge

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Drawing: More heads, part 89

clck to enlarge

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"We Are Not At War With Islam" - POTUS

By Jack Brummet

arts, paranormal, and poetry editor

In his first visit to a mostly Islamic country, President Obama in Turkey said that the U.S. "is not and never will be at war with Islam."

Wow. We've been waiting eight years to hear someone say that, aloud. POTUS/VPOTUS Bush and Cheney could never actually bring themselves to say those words. . .because they didn't really, in their heart of hearts, believe them.

President BHO was working it hard to mend the frayed ties with our longtime NATO ally Turkey and to reach out to the larger Muslim world. I spent a lot of time in Turkey last summer, and the one thing I carried away was that they had no beef with America; their problem was with George Bush and Dick Cheney. Thanks, Mister President, for clearing this up, after all this time. They're glad to know it, I am most assuredly glad to know it, and I think the world needed to hear it from the horse's mouth.

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Video: Band of Horses "Is There A Ghost?" (with lyrics)

I have really been excited by some of the music coming out of Seattle these days. Particularly Band of Horses, The Moondoggies, Dusty 45s, and Throw Me The Statue. I saw Band of Horses last summer at Bumbershoot, and they put on a raucous and great show. Their new album Cease To Begin is an amazing leap ahead from their first (very good) album. The video is odd, no question, but this is a great song, and the more I listen to this album, the more I like it.

Lyrically, this song stunned me. As you can see from the lyrics below, it is really just the three lines repeated. Fourteen words! And yet, somehow, it comes across as a narrative. How do they do that?! As for the video. . .how can you not like a video themed around a pillow fight? And all colorful pillows, at that.




Is There A Ghost?
by Band of Horses

I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?

I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?
My house...

I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?
My house...

I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
I could sleep
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?
When I lived alone
Is there a ghost in my house?
My house...
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Happy Birthday, Twinkies!

Seventy-nine years ago today, James Dewar, a bakery manager for Hostess, invented Twinkies (1930). Dewar didn't like the idea that the bakery's shortcake pans were only used during strawberry shortcake season. He decided to to use the pans year 'round and developed a banana-filled Twinkie cake. In the World War II banana shortage/rationing, a vanilla-ish filling replaced the banana. Now, 500 million Twinkies are produced each year. I haven't tasted one in 30 some years, but I can still remember exactly how they taste (and the textures).

"The Twinkie defense" became famous when Dan White, who assassinated San Francisco mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk, said that he snapped due to heavy consumption of candy and Twinkies.

There is an often repeated urban legend that Twinkies are so nuclear they last forever. In one small classroom experiment at George Stevens Academy, a single Twinkie, removed from all packaging, did not spoil for 30 years, although it became "rather brittle". In an episode of Family Guy, Peter claims that the only things to survive nuclear attacks are cockroaches and Twinkies.

According to the Hostess website, Christopher Sell invented the "fried Twinkie" at the Chip Shop, his restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. It was described by the New York Times: "Something magical occurs when the pastry hits the hot oil. The creamy white vegetable shortening filling liquefies, impregnating the sponge cake with its luscious vanilla flavor. . . The cake itself softens and warms, nearly melting, contrasting with the crisp, deep-fried crust in a buttery and suave way. The shop adds its own ruby-hued berry sauce, which provides a bit of tart sophistication."

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Digital art: Frances

click to enlarge

A painting of one of my oldest friends, Frances. The source was a headshot photo of her on her biz web site. . .

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Poem: War itself

1
War itself often
Becomes more important

Than the reasons
For which the war is fought.

Every poor boy
Trundles off in starched fatigues,

And at war’s end,
The win goes to those who lost least.

2
Men of war
Weep and lament

Or laugh at the perished
And the blood they shed.

The dead come back
To haunt them.

Spooks attach themselves
To the victors like a conjoined twin.

3
I wonder what happened
To the Armies Of The Night

Tilting against The Power
And maybe ending a war?

How hard can it be
To do it again

Just this one time,
As Tessio said,

Letting ourselves off the hook
For old times' sake?
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Painting of Stephen Clarke-Willson

click to enlarge

The photo of Stephen Clarke-Willson on which this is based was shot in Hollywood sometime in the early/mid 2000's. Stephen Clarke-Willson, among many other things, is the author of Nano-plasm.
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A Salute to William Henry Harrison, The President who died before he could do too much damage

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Editor


click to enlarge

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States. He had earlier been a Governor (of the Indiana Territory) and later as a U.S. Representative and Senator from Ohio. He first gained fame as an "Indian fighter," where he acquired the nickname Old Tippecanoe. When he took office, he was the oldest President ever, until Ronald Reagan's inauguration. He belong to the Whig party.

Harrison is probably best remembered for dying after a month in office. I can think of a few other Presidents I wished had followed his lead on that. His death threw the country into a constitutional crisis, from which we ultimately developed the Presidential succession protocols outlined in with 25th Amendment.
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Story: The Captain's Pants

Long ago, when sailing ships ruled the waves, a captain and his crew were in danger of being boarded by a pirate ship. As the crew became frantic, the captain bellowed to his First Mate, "Bring me my red shirt!" The First Mate quickly retrieved the captain's red shirt, which the captain put on and led the crew to battle the pirate boarding party. Although some casualties occurred among the crew, the pirates were repelled.

Later that day, the lookout screamed that there were two pirate vessels sending boarding parties. The crew cowered in fear, but the captain, calm as ever bellowed, "Bring me my red shirt!" And once again the battle was on, however, the Captain and his crew repelled both boarding parties, although this time more casualties occurred.

Weary from the battles, the men sat around on deck that night recounting the day's occurrences when an ensign looked to the Captain and asked, "Sir, why did you call for your red shirt before the battle?" The Captain, giving the ensign a look that only a captain can give, exhorted, "If I am wounded in battle, the red shirt does not show the wound and thus, you men will continue to fight unafraid." The men sat in silence marvelling at the courage of such a man.

As dawn came the next morning, the lookout screamed that there were pirate ships, ten of them, all with boarding parties on their way. The men became silent and looked to the Captain, their leader, for his usual command. The Captain, calm as ever, bellowed, "Bring me my brown pants!"

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Painting: Link a/k/a Abraham Lincoln

click Link to enlarge...

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Mystery solved: where did the hilarious "taffy piper" audio track come from?

I first heard an audio clip of this on Luke Burbank's show Too Beautiful To Live. I finally found out where it's from, thanks to Joe Bonar. Here is a clip of the piece from the MTV program Human Giant. . .

Human Giant - Montana Meth - watch more funny videos

If the embedded player doesn't work, jump here to watch the video.

Four takes:

• methamphetamines, ice crank, some even call it the devil's drug, angel, drizzle, some even call it hell's snowflake,
  
  
• methamphetamines, asian ladies, gene wilder's screaming ball sack on a fireboat in lake chunky
  
  
• methamphetamines, purple puppy penises, the worst sunburn you'll ever have,
  
  
• taffy pipers, the baby's got a tummyache, slinky pies, dinosaur cheerleaders, hairstyles for hobos, smokable graham crackers, hey I found some change in the sofa, a hopeless sandwich with a despair pickle on the side, dentures for crocodiles, pilgrim food, tummy tumblers, tie-dyed lobster bibs...

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Video: Bobby Bare Jr. and Sr. perform their Grammy winning his "Daddy What If" (with lyrics)

I saw Bobby Bare, Jr. last Friday in Ballard (click here to read the story). This is a video and song he did with his poppa, Bobby Bare, some thirty years earlier. Wow.

Daddy What If

By Bobby Bare

(Daddy what if the sun stop shinin' what would happen then)
If the sun stopped shinin' you'd be so surprised
You'd stare at the heavens with wide open eyes
And the wind would carry your light to the skies
And the sun would start shinin' again
(Daddy what if the wind stopped blowin' what would happen then)
If the wind stopped blowin' then the land would be dry
And your boat wouldn't sail son and your kite wouldn't fly
And the grass would see your troubles and she'd tell the wind
And the wind would start blowin' again
(But daddy what if the grass stopped growin' what would happen then)
If the grass stopped growin' why you'd probably cry
And the ground would be watered by the tears from your eyes
And like your love for me the grass would grow so high
Yes the grass would start growin' again
(But daddy what if I stopped lovin' you what would happen then)
If you stopped lovin' me then the grass would stop growin'
The sun would stop shinin' and the wind would stop blowin'
So you see if you wanna keep this old world a goin'
You better start lovin' me again again you better start lovin' me again
You hear me Bobby you better start lovin' me again
You love me Bobby you better start lovin' me again
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Music Video: The Talking Heads perform Slippery People

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