Here are some of the books I return to over and over in the moments when I need a laugh.
Henry IV, Part I - William Shakespeare
A Cool Million - Nathaniel West
Gargantua and Pantagruel - Francois Rabelais
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne
Amerika - Franz Kafka
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Ball Four - Jim Bouton
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Moo - Jane Smiley
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle - Tobias Smollett
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
The Good Soldier Schweik - Jaroslav Hasek
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Rivethead - Ben Hamper
Blue Movie - Terry Southern
Most books by Carl Hiassen
Trout Fishing In America - Richard Brautigan
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972 - Hunter S. Thompson
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
David Dees' Takes on Politics, Economics, and Conspiracies
David Dees is an iconoclast. I don't really know if he is trolling, or serious. He's brilliant in either case. Kind thanks to David Dees for permission to reprint some of his work here...
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Obama brings Teleprompters to VA elementary school & avoids being tripped up by the tricksy 6th graders
By Jack Brummet
[ed's note: by Jack, largely because Pablo Fanque refused to have anything to do with this story. Is he getting soft on POTUS?]
This just seems so, uh, lame? Last week, BHO visited an elementary school class in Falls Church, Virginia. The sixth graders must have been a tough crowd. . .The President brought along two TelePrompTers.
I am probably reading too much into all this. There has to be some reason other than wanting to deliver a perfectly nuanced and cadenced speech. When you think about it, I bet George W. Bush would have skipped the prompters and fumbled through as best as he could (the autocue machine never did make him sound like an orator). With President Bush, you could understand teleprompters, but with President Obama, you know he could get through whatever speech he was delivering at the elementary school. On the other hand, no speech a President gives is confined to that room, as the press photos show. Even the most casual speech has the potential to end up broadcast to millions on the airwaves and cable networks...
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Photo: The Beatles fishing in Seattle
The Beatles fishing from their hotel window at Seattle's Edgewater Inn. You can still fish there. Led Zeppelin famously dropped a line, and Frank Zappa wrote his song "Mud Shark" about fishing there. . .
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Monday, January 25, 2010
Digital Art: Jack Brummet and Pablo Fanque - Double Portrait
Digital art by Jack Brummet
click to enlarge
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click to enlarge
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Drawing: Faces No. 149: The Hair Club, with multiple sets of identical twins
click to enlarge
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Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Faces Drawing No. - The Jury (Pt 6)
Faces Drawing No. 103 - The Jury (Pt 6) by Jack Brummet
click to enlarge
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Friday, January 22, 2010
The transit and eclipse of Ex-Senator John Edwards (thank God!)
By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
The Ex-Senator with his daughter
A couple years ago, Ex-Senator John Edwards was a serious presidential contender; a nice guy who spoke passionately for the poor and disenfranchised middle-Americans. [ed's note: Pablo Fanque was an early supporter of John Edwards] He was good looking, sunny even, optimistic, ran a clean campaign, didn't take cheap shots, and never ambushed or smeared anyone. He was an asset in the Kerry presidential campaign, particularly stacked up against Darth Cheney.
After years of prevarication, delusion, and denials, Edwards now admits he’s the father of an almost two-year old daughter and that he has been--as we all know--supporting his daughter and baby momma Rielle Hunter. He has not 'fessed up that he tried to get his pal and employee Andrew Young (not the Carter cabinet member/ambassador/pastor ) to take the fall for paternity. But that's OK. After being seriously burned by Edwards, Young decided to let the world in on just what went down. Yes, has his own axes to grind, but his story seems verisimilitudinous.
Edwards made his tawdry announcement in a press release (he’s in Haiti right now!). The country now knows he left his cancer-stricken wife at home and was on the campaign trail playing hide the salami with his videographer. When he was exposed, he spent the next two years engaged in an almost laughable cover-up. In 2007, the National Enquirer reported on Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter. The mainstream press barely touched the story until they had been scooped by the Enquirer and the story blew up in their faces.
"Game Change" describes Ex-Senator John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, as the couple from hell. Tim Rutten, reviewing the book in the Chicago Tribune wrote: "As reported in these pages, he is delusional, megalomaniacal, self-absorbed and breathtakingly irresponsible; she is condescending, viciously insulting and shrewish -- Lady Macbeth with magnolias. It's hard to imagine two people whose public personas have been more at odds with the private reality than apparently has been the case with these people."
Even the bright and long suffering "St. Elizabeth" is on the griddle in the book. As far as I know, these are new revelations. . .at least people have kept the lid on them in the last couple of years.
The aide, Andrew Young, sold a book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last summer (the book is coming out in Feb. 2010). The proposal promised to blow the lid off Edwards' deception. Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, the Dem's 2004 VP nominee who ran for president in 2008, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. Hunter’s baby. If he did, Edwards promised, "he would be taken care of for life."
Following John Edwards' mea culpa, we wish him the best of luck personally, and hope he can balance his families, wife, and Rielle Hunter. Politically, good riddance, and R.I.P.
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All This Is That National Affairs Editor
The Ex-Senator with his daughter
A couple years ago, Ex-Senator John Edwards was a serious presidential contender; a nice guy who spoke passionately for the poor and disenfranchised middle-Americans. [ed's note: Pablo Fanque was an early supporter of John Edwards] He was good looking, sunny even, optimistic, ran a clean campaign, didn't take cheap shots, and never ambushed or smeared anyone. He was an asset in the Kerry presidential campaign, particularly stacked up against Darth Cheney.
After years of prevarication, delusion, and denials, Edwards now admits he’s the father of an almost two-year old daughter and that he has been--as we all know--supporting his daughter and baby momma Rielle Hunter. He has not 'fessed up that he tried to get his pal and employee Andrew Young (not the Carter cabinet member/ambassador/pastor ) to take the fall for paternity. But that's OK. After being seriously burned by Edwards, Young decided to let the world in on just what went down. Yes, has his own axes to grind, but his story seems verisimilitudinous.
Edwards made his tawdry announcement in a press release (he’s in Haiti right now!). The country now knows he left his cancer-stricken wife at home and was on the campaign trail playing hide the salami with his videographer. When he was exposed, he spent the next two years engaged in an almost laughable cover-up. In 2007, the National Enquirer reported on Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter. The mainstream press barely touched the story until they had been scooped by the Enquirer and the story blew up in their faces.
"Game Change" describes Ex-Senator John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, as the couple from hell. Tim Rutten, reviewing the book in the Chicago Tribune wrote: "As reported in these pages, he is delusional, megalomaniacal, self-absorbed and breathtakingly irresponsible; she is condescending, viciously insulting and shrewish -- Lady Macbeth with magnolias. It's hard to imagine two people whose public personas have been more at odds with the private reality than apparently has been the case with these people."
Even the bright and long suffering "St. Elizabeth" is on the griddle in the book. As far as I know, these are new revelations. . .at least people have kept the lid on them in the last couple of years.
The aide, Andrew Young, sold a book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last summer (the book is coming out in Feb. 2010). The proposal promised to blow the lid off Edwards' deception. Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, the Dem's 2004 VP nominee who ran for president in 2008, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. Hunter’s baby. If he did, Edwards promised, "he would be taken care of for life."
Following John Edwards' mea culpa, we wish him the best of luck personally, and hope he can balance his families, wife, and Rielle Hunter. Politically, good riddance, and R.I.P.
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Faces Drawing No. 147 - by Jack Brummet
Drawing No. 147 finished last night
pen and ink on 24x24" muslin
by Jack Brummet
click to enlarge
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pen and ink on 24x24" muslin
by Jack Brummet
click to enlarge
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Faces Drawing No. 86
Faces Drawing No. 86 by Jack Brummet
Pen, ink, and acrylic on 24x24" muslin
click to enlarge
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Pen, ink, and acrylic on 24x24" muslin
click to enlarge
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
A huge G.O.P.victory & bad news for BHO on his first anniversary as President
"BOSTON – A year to the day after his inauguration, Barack Obamaand his Democratic allies are suddenly scrambling to save his signature health care overhaul and somehow rediscover their political magic after an epic loss in the Massachusetts Senate race.
"Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to beat Democrat Martha Coakley. The loss was a stunning embarrassment for the White House. It also signaled big political problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide." Read the grim Associated Press story here
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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