click to enlarge
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Thursday, September 08, 2011
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Let the cannibalism begin: The Republican/Tea Party Debate!
By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
Images from Wikipedia Commons. These images are licensed
Governor Rick Perry, between dashing back and forth between the campaign trail and Texas as fires rage across the state (and asking for aid from President Obama, even though Perry recently said he believes the federal government should only be responsible for highways and defense) is being nudged by both his staff and backers to come across as more presidential. In short, they feel he needs to be a little less shit-kickin' and a little more politic in his unscripted moments. He needs to defend his exaggerated Texas "accomplishments," and consolidate his sudden rise and growing base—while building on his fast start by bringing voters into the tent from all across the Republican party, from the Tea Party and fundamentalist Christians to the old line party hacks and wardheelers.
Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is desperate to combat the growing feeling that the GOP race has contracted into a two-man race between Romney and Perry. She is on the precipice of becoming irrelevant and needs to inflict serious damage to Rick Perry to convince the far-right and tea-party to stick by her. Her strategy of non-stop attacks on BHO isn't going to win many votes. She now needs to go after her opponents. Likewise, both Romney an Perry need to back off their attacks on Obama, because their real enemies are in their own party (at least for now).
Ex-Governor Mitt Romney needs to--and, more or less has--drop the front-runner B.S. and get ready for serious combat with his fellow Republicans. Neither his rope-a-dope strategy nor his above the fray stance is working anymore. We know Mitt is in it for the long-distance fight. But, in the meantime, he needs to eviscerate Governor Perry by savagely attacking him on his record on immigration, and his much exaggerated claim that he has created thousands of jobs in Texas.
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The gravity defying tire at Bumbershoot
This is a short video clip of a piece at the Bumbershoot art exhibition. I have no idea how they do this. I couldn't tell by looking at it--you could hear machinery rumbling, but you can't tell either how the tire is suspended in mid-air or how they get it to rotate. . .
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Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Billy Collins's poem--Consolation
While I don't necessarily agree with the underlying premise (I believe in travel), I love this poem by Billy Collins.
Billy Collins looking awesome at 70
How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,
wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns.
How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,
fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and billboard
and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.
There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.
No need to stand around a sarcophagus, see Napoleon's
little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint under glass.
How much better to command the simple precinct of home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.
Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled maps?
Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyes camera
eager to eat the world one monument at a time?
Instead of slouching in a café ignorant of the word for ice,
I will head down to the coffee shop and the waitress
known as Dot. I will slide into the flow of the morning
paper, all language barriers down,
rivers of idiom running freely, eggs over easy on the way.
And after breakfast, I will not have to find someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around the owner.
I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a journal
what I had to eat and how the sun came in the window.
It is enough to climb back into the car
as if it were the great car of English itself
and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off
down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even Bologna.
---o0o---
Billy Collins looking awesome at 70
How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,
wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns.
How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,
fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and billboard
and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.
There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.
No need to stand around a sarcophagus, see Napoleon's
little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint under glass.
How much better to command the simple precinct of home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.
Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled maps?
Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyes camera
eager to eat the world one monument at a time?
Instead of slouching in a café ignorant of the word for ice,
I will head down to the coffee shop and the waitress
known as Dot. I will slide into the flow of the morning
paper, all language barriers down,
rivers of idiom running freely, eggs over easy on the way.
And after breakfast, I will not have to find someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around the owner.
I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a journal
what I had to eat and how the sun came in the window.
It is enough to climb back into the car
as if it were the great car of English itself
and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off
down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even Bologna.
---o0o---
Monday, September 05, 2011
Alien Lore No. 215 - Alien Flyby Over Mecca?
By Jack BrummetUnexplained Phenomena Editor
This video was recorded in the holy town of Mecca. Mecca is the birthplace of prophet Muhammad and a site of the composition of the Quran. Mecca is as the holiest city in Islam and a pilgrimage to it, known as the Hajj, is obligatory upon all able-bodied Muslims.
The recording shows a cluster of unidentified bright objects flying in the night sky. Some of the UFOs flew in clusters upward and others flew sideways or downwards, as if they couldn't decide which end was up. . .
Mecca? Really? Were The Greys trying to create a high-profile fly-by?
---o0o---
Sunday, September 04, 2011
The best form letter ever, from Irving Hoffman
Irving Hoffman was a Broadway publicist and columnist for the Hollywood Reporter who received hundreds of letters each week. When he couldn't answer, he'd send out this wonderful form letter.
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Alien Lore No. 214 - The alien pig of Santa Cruz El Chol
By Jack Brummet, Paranormal Editor
People in a remote Guatemalan village—Santa Cruz El Chol—believe that a piglet's human-like head is the result of Visitors. The night of its birth in August, many strange bright lights were spotted hovering in the sky over the town, leading villagers to believe that the pig's appearance is due to aliens from outer space.
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Saturday, September 03, 2011
A great photograph of Jerry Garcia, the last time I saw him (Seattle, May 26, 1995)
This is one of my favorite photographs of Jerry Garcia, from the last time I (or anyone) saw him in Seattle, (May 26, 1995). They played their hearts out that night and sounded great. The Dead would only play twenty more shows after this.
click to enlarge
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Painting John Lennon, revised
by Jack Brummet
[2'x3' poster revised with duct tape, Ben Day dots, acrylic, marker, and pen and ink]
[2'x3' poster revised with duct tape, Ben Day dots, acrylic, marker, and pen and ink]
click to enlarge
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Friday, September 02, 2011
painting: a Bumbershoot audience
By Jack Brummet
[acrylic on canvas, digitized]
[acrylic on canvas, digitized]
click to enlarge
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