Friday, May 02, 2008
Back in London
Click the photo of Hyde Park to enlarge
I am back in London, after a road trip and 44 hour stay in the North Country. The trip took four hours this time. Above is the view from my room on the 15th floor of the Royal Lancaster Hotel, directly north of Hyde Park. I am about to stop by a pub and then go to a nice looking Indian restautrant I spotted about two blocks away, about which, more later.
Jack 8PM, London
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Looking snappy in Great Britain, and other notes on visiting the Motherland
You probably didn't know this, but any self-respectable, dapper, and upwardly mobile hotel in Great Britain includes one item you won't find in the States: The Corby of Windsor Trouser Press. Now, if you're like me, you find yourself often needing a trouser press when you're on the road. And like all electrical appliances in the UK, this baby heats up fast because we're talking 240 blowtorch volts. The water in my teakettle boils in about thirty seconds. Now I get this whole 240 thing--it's for more than just heating up your hot tub or your oven.
OK, so they don't have a hair dryer, and they don't even have bad drip coffee (it's all instant freeze dried crystals, baby, unless you go to a "proper" coffee shop). The hotel room does stock little tubes of instant coffee, reminiscent of Greece in the 80s, some nice teas, and some sweet biscuits. But the trouser press is something else entirely. I wanted to fire this sucker up and give my jeans a proper pressing, but I don't have the nerve. Since I brought one pair, I really don't want to end up trouserless in Britain!
From the Corby of Windsor website: "See for yourself a solution popular in Europe and sweeping across the United States that saves time, money and possible damage by unnecessary dry-cleaning. The solution is a trouser presser that also serves as a complete garment organizer and admired piece of furniture.
"Recognized world wide first by the hotel industry with affluent patrons with a need to travel light and reuse a suit and is quickly becoming a common household item and gift idea for those who value both their appearance and their time. "
"Easy to use with a common sense design and automatic timer. It's as quick and easy to use as placing pants on a hanger, pushing one button, and walk away. Knockoffs and imitations from mass producing countries do not compare to the quality materials, assembly and importantly the functionality found in the models offer here. " [ed's note: they may have invented English, but check out the grammar in that first sentence. AND the second sentence!]
And finally, despite whatever else you've heard, the food here is worse than I remembered. Pathetic would be a generous description. It is cooked indifferently, and even when the ingredients are great (which is a rarity based on my limited experience this time), it is bland and weak, and often really sad. You pay about $12 for a glass of extremely run of the mill wine--on the order of something you might get at a stateside Chinese restaurant. A basic breakfast at my hotel is $32.
I made a friend here--a Japanese-American who is a translator, and speaks perfect northwest English, although he grew up in Japan. And this guy from Tokyo is also complaining about the prices here! He has been here for months now from Tokyo, and when I told him my 34 hours here so far has given me an insatiable craving for sushi, he said "don't do it!" I asked why. "You have to ask?," he said. "They cannot even cook rice here." I believe it. They can't cook potatoes either. Or toast. I like these people a lot, but I wouldn't wish this cuisine on even George W. Bush. Maybe I'll have better news to report when I get back to London tomorrow night... Namaste! /jack
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Those wacky serial killers
click the NightStalker's note to enlarge
In the current Radar Magazine is an article about a guy who posed as a ten year old boy and wrote letters to imprisoned serial killers.
The serial killers wrote back with advice, requests for pictures and even creepier stuff.
The best, and strangest part of all this, however, is that Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez, has his own stationary (in prison!).
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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
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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
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
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?
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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---
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.
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