Huck-a-mania! Ex-Governor Huckabee nipping at the heels of the "front-runners" who laughed at him weeks ago

click to enlarge Mike Huckabee

Ex-Governor Huckabee continues to surge in the polls. Sure, he may come back down to earth, but it seems like he is having one of those "Howard Dean" moments of political Midas Touch. In the first full round of tracking polls since last week’s “debate” among G.O.P. Presidential hopefuls, Huckabee pulled within three points of Rudy Giuliani. Before that debate, Giuliani was ahead of Huckabee by twelve points.

New polling data released today shows that Huckabee has pulled within 1% of Hillary Clinton in a general election match-up. Huckabee is leading in Iowa and tied for second in New Hampshire. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Giuliani with 20% support nationwide, Huckabee at 17%. Fred Thompson 14%, John McCain 13% and Mitt Romney, 11%. Ron Paul is pulling 7%.

The G.O.P. is experiencing some disequilibrium over the last week, between the debate, the Chuck Norris endorsement of Huckabee, and the apparent flowering of Huck-a-mania! Some of the frontrunners are gasping for air like goldfish on the sidewalk.

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Painting: Shark!

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The Geek Hierarchy (or, at least one version...I could come up with a dozen other geek scenarios)

click the hierarchy to enlarge

The Geek hierarchy, from Brunching Shuttlecocks, a no longer active web site that remains more or less intact. The funny thing about this geek hierarchy is that it's not too far from reality. . .I work with people who more or less fit into every box on this "org chart," and most of them would admit it...at least about the people in the other categories. Yeah, there are replica sword collectors, renaissance faire folks, comic book fanatics, role players, Wizards gamers, Trekkies, and you name it.
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Notes on lying

By Jack Brummet
Social Mores Editor

I've read a couple of books on the psychology of lying.  I didn't retain a lot, but. . .in general, liars don't gesticulate.  They avoid eye contact and excessive arm and hand movements; they mostly keep their limbs close to their bodies.  Liars often touch their face, throat and mouth, or scratch their noses, or behind their ear.  The timing of their emotes is skewed, you know, just off a normal pace. . .their rhythm plods.

Liars are often like a stranger in a strange place--their emotions are delayed, and stretch out, or stop suddenly in mid-laugh or mid-sentence.  Their gestures and words do not quite sync, or even make sense.  A liar might frown saying "I love you," or smile at your bereavement.

A liar will often focus their efforts on the mouth instead of the whole face.  Only the mouth expresses
emotion and their eyes might just stare back at you in a cold reptilian glare.

They are on guard-- interactions and reactions, move and countermove.  They are always alert to painting themselves into a corner. 

The guilty person is usually defensive, while the innocent will often go on the attack, rightfully pissed off.

A liar and may turn his head or body away from The Questioner (or mark, or dupe); he or she may  unconsciously place objects (a book, a briefcase, a coffee cup) between themselves and you as a little psychological shield. 

If you ask a liar “Did you eat the last cookie?” they will answer, “No, I did not eat the last cookie.”  As we all know by now, “ I didn't do it” instead of “I did not do it” tends to be truthful.  A couple of famous examples are President Bill Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," or President Richard Milhous Nixon: "I am not a crook."

Liars often avoid the direct by implying answers instead of denying or confirming something directly.
A guilty person may speak more than natural, and add in unnecessary details just to close the deal, and help to convince you; they are often not comfortable with lacuna, or pauses, in the conversation.

A liar may leave out pronouns and speak in a monotonous tone. When a truthful statement is made the pronoun is emphasized as much or more than the rest of the words in a statement, and their sentences are far more likely be muddled than emphasized.

If you believe someone is lying, do a complete u-turn in conversation.  The liar comes along with you and relaxes, happy the conversation has veered away.  The liar wants the subject changed while the innocent person is confused by the sudden change in topics and wants to go back to the previous subject.

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Skanking with The English Beat at Antone's in Austin, Texas

"skank (skāngk) noun. A rhythmic dance performed to reggae or ska music, characterized by bending forward, raising the knees, and extending the hands."

I spent the night at Antone's in Austin, skanking with Dave Wakeling and The English Beat. It was an amazing show. Dave's voice, warmth, and enthusiasm haven't changed a bit in the years since TEB broke out in 1979. They played songs from General Public and The English Beat, and some of Dave's solo work, but focused on The English Beat. For two+ hours Ska rocked the house.



They played a couple of Motown covers (including a masterful Tears of a Clown), Rotating Heads, Mirror in the Bathroom, Acklee 123, Can't Get Used To Losing You, I Confess, Tears Of A Clown, Save It For Later, Hands Off She's Mine, Doors Of Your Heart, Ranking Full Stop, Best Friend, Rough Rider, Click Click, Get A Job/Stand Down Margaret, Best Friend (with its awesome guitar lines), and probably a dozen more.

The seven piece band was lock-step tight, and clearly enjoyed themselves. The sax was piercing, the organ/piano was good, but mainly functioned as part of the rhythm section (hey, The Beat never did go much for soloing other than those signature sax lines). Dave's vocals and vocal sound effects were perfect, the drums thundered, and the chiming guitars sounded gorgeous. The new "toaster" (a kind of Ranking Roger replacement who sang and functioned as cheerleader, poet, and rabblerouser) was excellent. Over the years, I've sometimes forgotten just how great this band really is, and what a talented singer and songwriter Dave Wakeling is. And it really hit home that a huge part of the English Beat sound is just Dave's voice and accent.



This band rocked, and I mean rocked, from the first chord to the last. Unlike any show I've seen since, say, The Grateful Dead's last Seattle show in May, 1995, every single person in the audience was on their feet and dancing for the entire two+ hours. Antone's throbbed and pulsed. . .the beers were flying everywhere while people skanked and danced, and the band sucked up all the love and energy and turned it back on us. This show is officially up there in my top ten of all time.



I was again struck by the love and positivity [1] that band was always about, while not ignoring their boho (and Birmingham working class) side. They just moved up a couple of notches in my rockpile pantheon. . .and they were already high up on the mountainside.
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[1] Interestingly, I had to look up the word positivity to verify it is indeed a word and it has a meaning I vaguely knew: "the state or character of being positive: a positivity that accepts the world as it is." That second definition sounds pretty Buddhist to me, but it also applies to Dave Wakeling. He accept things as they are and his music celebrates the sweep of life, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to change it. And from what I know know of his various charitable works, he's doing it, One Smile At A Time.
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The New York City Sewer Guy

click to enlarge


My boss brought me back a great canvas from New York City on a recent trip there. As you can see from the photo, it matches my own canvases that are hung in my office. The Sewer Guy creates these on top of those gigantic manhole covers all over the city, using paint and a rubbing technique. I love it!

Mark Nilsen has a web site here. If you ever bump into him on the street, he'll whip up a canvas for you either pre-made, or right on the spot on top of a manhole cover...
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Back In Austin, Texas

I've had a great 24 hours in Austin so far. Last night we went out to "fancy barbecue" at Lambert's in the 2nd street district (right next to the warehouse district). I've never had barbecue with cloth tablecloths, napkins, and wine goblets. There was a great piano player, and we had a very good golden ale local beer (great for a beer wimp like me) Real Ale Firemans No. 4 and excellent green chili grits. I had some coffee and brown sugar rubbed and oak smoked brisket, and a great iceberg wedge salad.

I was so dog tired that I fell asleep within two minutes of arriving back at The Austin Motel. I fully intended to rest my eyes five minutes, and go across the street to the Continental Club to hear some music. I woke up fully clothed, contacts still in at 4:15. I wish I was here next week: The Knitters (John Doe, Exene, etc) are playing two nights at the Continental.


Tonight I'm off off t0 see The English Beat/The specials/Special Beat/General Public/Fine Young Cannibals at Antone's in the warehouse district.
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Heading to Austin...

Long time reader, friend for thirty-nine years, and someone who makes my year every time I get to see him [1], wrote suggesting I quit using the image of the crashed monoplane when I write about traveling, and instead use the cover of the Special Beat Service album by the English Beat. And he's right. As it happens, I and The English Beat will both be in Austin, Texas tomorrow, and we will be in the same room at Antone's. Oddly enough, it was Kev who introduced me to The English Beat, and their final album, Special Beat Service. I became a fan, and followed the careers of their offshoots and motherlodes, The Specials, General Public, and Fine Young Cannibals. And now it's all come full circle. And Kev, God bless his soul, said I should post the SBS album cover because "they all arrive safely as you always do."



Who'd have ever thought I would fly all around this world? Or that I might become discombobulated when I hadn't flown anywhere for a couple of weeks? I remember back to a time when an 84 hour bus or train trip was preferable to boarding a 'plane for a four hour flight.

I am still sorting this all out. Somehow I have moments when I miss being petrified about flying, and wonder if I haven't just been hypnotized by the Great Corporate Snake?

Anyhow, I will endeavor to write more from Austin in the next few days...and, of course, give a show report on my happy reunion with The English Beat.

Love,

Jack (boarding the 'plane for San Francisco and on to Austin in five hours)

[1] Like I did this June, when I reconnected with NYC and had a ball with Kev and our familial entourage stalking our old haunts, and new ones, in the East Village, Times Square, The Upper West Side, and Brooklyn, and marveling about the changes in us, and New York, and the world.
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Aviophobia, Part 26

As December approaches, I am taking stock of my last year. Incredibly, in the last year, I have traversed America on 70 different airplanes. You may recall, in the early weeks of the year, I was locked in the throes of acute chronic aviophobia.

Even when I lived in New York City, and San Francisco, it was all I could muster to get on a 'plane at all once a year to travel home to Seattle. Now, I routinely take multi-legged trips all over the map, switching 'planes, and hopping on turbo-props from one airport to the next.

Only a year ago, I needed Xanax, Vallium, or any sort of phramaceutical psychic soother to get close to an aiport. And those aids were often bolstered with a bloody mary, screwdriver, or glass of wine. The weeks leading up to a flight were filled with dread, and an increasing sense of doom the closer I got to boarding the "aircraft." Today? I barely even think about it until the night before I depart. Yeah, I usually only sleep a few hours that night before, but I have become sanguine about the flights. On the 'plane, I bring a load of distractions: whatever book I am currently reading, a Nintendo DS to play games, a laptop computer (that I almost never use in flight), a sketch pad or canvas to draw on, and a notebook for stories and poems.

It mostly works. I don't even think about my stainless steel hip setting off alarms and the subsequent indignity of friskings and patdowns. It's just part of the deal now. I am extremely uneasy in flight, but I've mostly sorted it out. I'll be traveling to England and Pune, India in the next couple of months, so I shouldn't get too cocky. . .but for the moment, I've tamped down the extreme anxiety and fear of flying to a level that's at least tolerable. And oddly enough, I am happiest on a turbo-prop, flying close to the ground, with the propeller whirring about five feet from my head. What's the deal with that?
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Poem: Narcissism

"They all sound the same," shouts someone in the audience. "It's all one song," replied Neil Young.

It's all about me
Who are we spoofing
When we pretend otherwise?

It's all one story
It's all one poem
It's all one song

Like it or not.

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Another random poetry generator

I've always been fascinated by poetry generators. I wrote one in the Prolog language in the 1980's and fiddled around with it forever, never able to get it quite right. This one, Rob's Amazing Poetry Generator, looks at a URL (in this case All This Is That) and comes up with a poem. Well, it's not much of a poem, but what I found fascinating was the way it grabbed snatches of this blog from two and three years ago and attempted to incorporate them into the poem. This actually makes me want to attempt to write another one. For what it's worth, here is what Rob's generator came up with:

All This song The
United States of bitters; 2 07 with
his nadir in
Iraq and hooking it bite
into a couple of America,
Republicans, The Pope favoured the
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editorial called his education information, And come November 25,
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but charming Fred wife, Jeri
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along with drugs, or less .Rhizoma Polygonati
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of without taking another breath.
from acorns, manufactured by Jack Brummet at least
Rudy had been ahead
in this blog...

Using the blog about the life of my friend Philip Kendall, it came up with this one:

In hand, over and this was
crawling across this is not jokes, all
of him fight once, although they camped out the
last time. you put them and
did have a guy name. u003d\\\>\
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discussing
literacy, with some time with
the teachers loved his death
Milo nicknamed him in LL both
the courage to
Bellingham.
college
girls, and whenever
anyone we decided to
ride a whistle.
I would suggest popcorn,
Story Kevin Curran would respond
with Hobart when Dad pulled up, again,
What are wasting your game.
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Photomontage: Jeri Kehn pressing the flesh (includes one photo of her husband) and links to Jeri Kehn photo motherlode

Jeri Kehn has been busy on the campaign trail once again. This week, we find her pressing the flesh and posing for photo ops in four different states. That wrinkly guy in the upper left hand corner is ex-Senator Fred Thompson, who is running for office, or something.


click Jeri to enlarge

The Jeri Kehn photo motherlode:

Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs
Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos
Jeri Kehn Thompson photo update No. 12--eleven new Jeri Kehn photographs
Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos
A Jeri Kehn Thompson cameo appearance in a Fred Thompson campaign video, four new Jeri Kehn photographs, and a Mrs. Fred Thompson photo roundup
Three additional photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson a/k/a Jeri Kehn
Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)
One More Jeri Kehn Thompson photo
Jeri Kehn Photos, Part 3: Three more photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson
More Jeri Kehn photos--> A follow-up to "Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)
Not Jeri Kehn: people who are not Mrs. Fred Thompson, yet who often turn up in search engine searches on "Jeri Kehn"
Three new Jeri Kehn photos; links to Jeri photos; and Fred Thompson describes the beauty of having a hot first lady;
"New photographs of Jeri Kehn Thompson on the campaign trail (and a couple of her husband Fred too)
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