A chicken in the backyard in Bucerias (Nayarit, Mexico)

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A Mexican backyard in Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico. Now, this kitchen has some elbow room! This backyard is great! There is a laundry, a cooking area and dishwashing area, lines for hanging clothes, a huge box of the glass jars from devotional candles (you know, the tall candles in glasses wth pictures of Madonna or one of the Saints), a sack of beans (the greyish frijoles usually found in Nayarit and Jalisco...I don't know their actual name, but they're similar in texture to a pinto, with a slightly more earthy taste like, say, a field pea, or a black-eyed pea), and a lot of other things that don't fit in the house.

And one chicken. The lone chicken standing by the water bucket, reminds me of the wonderful imagistic poem by one of my favorite American poets:


The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.
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The JFK conspiracy buffs, and cover-up fanatics are about to have a field day...

A sketch, detailing how the single bullet

theory works. Click to enlarge.

A batch of old documents linked to the slaying of President John F. Kennedy has reportedly been unearthed in Texas. The documents include a highly suspect transcript of a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer Jack Ruby that numerous people have thought is actually a work of fiction--a bogus conversation that was destined to be included in a novel about the JFK assassination conspiracy. This is according to a Dallas Morning News published on Sunday.

The newspaper said the Dallas County district attorney's office, which found the documents, would display them at a news conference on Monday morning.

The Morning News said the items from an old safe in a Dallas courthouse included personal letters from former District Attorney Henry Wade, the prosecutor in the Ruby trial. Jack Ruby shot Oswald two days after the president's death. There were also papers and records from Ruby's trial, a gun holster and clothing that likely belonged to Ruby and Oswald, D.A. Craig Watkins told the newspaper.

One item is sure to inflame the Kennedys, the surviving Warren Commission members, and the ranks of the dwindling but still vocal and cantankerous of the JFK conspiracy theorists. This is a conversation in which Oswald and Ruby allegedly discuss killing Kennedy to halt the mafia-busting agenda of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy (ed's note: Jack Ruby, although Jewish, was allegedly an associate of La Cosa Nostra).

The Morning News said one theory about the transcript was that it was part of a movie script Wade was working on with producers, for a film that was never made.

As you know, the official U.S. government version of the murder is that Oswald acted alone when he shot Kennedy on November 22, 1963, as the president's motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas.

A few days later, Ruby shot Oswald dead at point-blank range as police were escorting their prime suspect. Live on national TV, which I remember, they played and replayed that whole long, weird weekend. Jack Ruby died some years later in prison.

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Drawing: detail from Canvas 136

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This is a detail from one of the canvases in my Faces series. I have been drawing these for nine years, and have completed around 14o canvases, each with 16 faces, and about a dozen with 96 faces (or six faces in each square that usually holds one).
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The Trailer From "Strange Wilderness"

The trailer from Strange Wilderness, out now, from Happy Madison productions, with many of the same gang that brought us the comedy masterpiece Grandma's Boy:



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"That's right, play my head, Monkey"

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"That's right, play my head Monkey, " says Dante to his chimpanzee roommate.

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No Politics Thursday: A drawing and a painting

A drawing: Sixteen Voters 36" x 36" (Ink [a/k/a Sharpie] on Mississippi School for the Blind canvas).

A painting/assemblage: Owner Will Maintain 24" x 48"(Acrylic paint on pine panel, with doll eyes, a lightning bolt car emblem, two stickers, an "owner will maintain" sign I found in a ditch in 1995, and an old saw blade I bought for a dime at a junk store).



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Alien Lore No. 124 - Three airline crews report seeing UFOs as big as a battleship in 1976

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In 1976, three pilot crews from three different airlines saw UFOs "as big as a battle ship."

On May 14, 1977, the “Natal Daily News” from South Africa, published an article about this UFO incident titled “UFOs as big as battleships, pilots claim":

"For fear of being ridiculed, pilots of three airliners kept secret the sighting of three UFOs over Portugal, later described by one of them “as big and solid as battleships”.

"British Airways Trident jet pilot, captain Dennis Wood, who has been flying with the airline for 20 years, said he and his crew first spotted the UFOs while flying from London to Faro.

"The sighting, described by experts as the most important in the past decade, was also made by the crew of a British Tristar below the Trident and the pilot of a Portuguese airliner. All the stories tallied.

"Captain Wood, 42, said he and the Tri-star crew made sighting reports when they arrived at London’s Heathrow airport but kept it all a secret for fear of being ridiculed. Captain Wood has come forward in the hope that Britain’s ufo experts will turn a serious eye to this particular sighting."

“Suggestions that the three objects were balloons, stars or satellites, strange clouds or reflections are quite unacceptable to us”, he said. “As I looked to the west we saw this very bright headlamp in the sky. All the cabin staff saw it too and I told the passengers. Then it was joined by two cigar-shaped objects as big and solid as battleships”.



"On the return trip, captain Wood tilted his radar scanner. “There, in exactly the same spot, were these two cigar-shaped things. We got to within seven miles of them when they disappeared from our screen”.
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Are you doing Your Part for Home Security???

You may have not realized this, but as we sit here, you have certain responsibilities to the Homeland Security. We are now, and generally are, in a state of Elevated security threat. You should have by now completed the steps outlined in step Green, Blue, and Yellow. According to the government, you need to stay ever vigilant, and prepared.

Green - Develop a family emergency plan. Share it with family and friends, and practice the plan. Create an “Emergency Supply Kit” for your household. Be informed. Visit www.Ready.gov or obtain a copy of “Preparing Makes Sense, Get Ready Now” by calling 1-800-BE-READY.
Know how to shelter-in-place and how to turn off utilities (power, gas, and water) to your home.
Examine volunteer opportunities in your community, such as Citizen Corps, Volunteers in Police
Service, Neighborhood Watch or others, and donate your time. Consider completing an American Red Cross first aid or CPR course , or Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course .

Blue - Complete recommended steps at level green. Review stored disaster supplies and replace items that are outdated. Be alert to suspicious activity and report it to proper authorities.

Yellow - Complete recommended steps at levels green and blue. Ensure disaster supply kit is stocked and ready. Check telephone numbers in family emergency plan and update as necessary. Develop alternate routes to/from work or school and practice them.
Elevated Risk Continue to be alert for suspicious activity and report it to authorities.

Orange - Complete recommended steps at lower levels. Exercise caution when traveling, pay attention to travel advisorie. Review your family emergency plan and make sure all family members know what to do. Be Patient. Expect some delays, baggage searches and restrictions at public buildings. Check on neighbors or others that might need assistance in an emergency.

Red - Complete all recommended actions at lower levels. Listen to local emergency management officials. Stay tuned to TV or radio for current information/instructions. Be prepared to shelter-in-place or evacuate, as instructed. Severe Risk Expect traffic delays and restrictions. Provide volunteer services only as requested. Contact your school/business to determine status of work day.

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video: Drive Monkey Drive!

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Homecoming queen beats sister with wooden leg, smears feces in cop car, and threatens to burn down the neighbor's house, (and that's just recently)

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Donna Sturkie-Anthony makes Tanya Harding look like Mother Theresa. Jump here to MSNBC to read the sordid story.
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A painting of Jerry Melin (with links back, and a poem)

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I found an old picture of Jerry and decided to fiddle around with it. Curiously, in the original--and you can still see part of it here--is a piece of framed sheet music titled "Dear Old Pal Of Mine."

Here are earlier references to Jerry Melin on All This Is That:

Jerry Melin, Master Forger and Craftsman
A Blog for Phil Kendall
Photograph: Jerry Melin At Mud Bay, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Jerry Melin, still missing, still missed
Mel, Part 1
Audioblogger Post::::Kevin Curran And Jerry Melin Meet The Poet Allen Ginsberg At The Grass Roots Tavern On NYC's Lower East Side
Senator Jerry Melin Speaks Out About 1979
Further ruminations on Phil Kendall

A poem I wrote for/about him:


Shorts For Jerry Melin [ca. about 1988]

1
A dim crescent
Hung cockeyed
On cathedral skies.

2
An orchard of salt pillars
Circles Gomorrah's ashes:
Lot's Wife had no name.

3
Two vultures flap
Side by side into the sun.
Calcutta awakes.

4
The wine in this cup
Has a tide all its own.
I am the sucking moon.
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West Dakota Senator Hoolihan endorses Obama, urges split ticket with Larry Craig

Senator Otis Hoolihan (D), West Dakota

Another superdelegate has jumped on the Obama bandwagon. Senator Otis Hoolihan held a press conference in Crockett, West Dakota this morning to announce he was throwing his support to Senator Obama. Hoolihan urged Obama to run on a split ticket--with Senator Larry Craig (!), and asked him to put a lid "on all this fainting at rallies silliness."
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