President Obama and Governor Romney fail to show up for first Presidential Debate

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

The two guys I really wanted to see show up for the debate tonight. Unfortunately, neither of them was able to make it.

One of the few things I liked about BHO's performance tonight was that he consistently took the high road, even when Gov. Romney left himself open for a hook. No zingers, but unfortunately no pyrotechnics.

A friend wrote tonight—and I'm crossing my fingers it's true—"My money is on Obama playing chess. He's sacrificing his pawn now, because it's Checkmate in two more moves."

I thought BHO was seriously off his game, but scored over and over on Mitt's lack of specificity. I thought Mitt was the most on his game he's been in a long time. He was peppy, smiling, and irritating.  All that debate prep obviously helped, but he relied far too much on "trust me."

Governor Romney on the other hand, rolled out his transformation to a centrist, almost Democratic position on the economy and taxes.  Now that the tea party wing of the GOP is only focused on getting BHO out of office, they don't seem to much care what he says.

Post-debate,  the team at MSNBC ranged from disappointed to livid. For my part, the one thing BHO most pointedly did not do was take a leaf from WJC's masterful speech at the Democratic convention:  folksy, passionate, fairly wonky, but real clear, and really forceful without being overbearing or lecturing. 

Next week we'll see crazy Joe mix it up with the slippery Paul Ryan. VP Biden is a great debater. BHO has two weeks to get his act together. I also believe that the decideds are softer than is commonly believed...at last a small percentage of them. And a small percentage in the right battleground state is all it takes to upset the applecart. I'm pretty sure BHO will come alive. But, hey, POTUS, there's no time like the present. People are voting. I vote in two weeks. 

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Movie 43

It looks twisted, warped, sick, and hilarious. In short, a must see. . .

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Digital art: Eye Tile

By Jack Brummet

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People molesting statues

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Editor

With millions and millions of people routinely carry cameras in their pocket every day, we see new photographic categories all the time.  We like to think of these as statue outrages. . .

                      

         

 

         

 

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Poem: Odds

By Jack Brummet

Simple probability

And statistics

Tell us ineluctably
That the more times

You stick your head
In the lion's mouth,

The more likely it is
That one day he will close it.
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Night of the Living Pelosi—the strangest political ad ever.

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor


Republican John Dennis in his contest with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has just released what is probably the most bizarre (but enjoyable) political ad ever,  with bonus zombie content

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Richard Nixon and Jackie Gleason in a bizarre photograph

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Editor


I can't find any information—anywhere—about this obviously staged photograph of President Nixon and Jackie Gleason.  It is probably on a golf course in Florida, where Nixon had a summer home, and where Gleason lived most of the time.

If you want to read a strange story about Gleason and The President, click here: Alien Lore No. 225 - Jackie Gleason's tale of President Dick Nixon and "The men from Mars"

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Drawing: The elections board

By Jack Brummet

[drawing one - Etching nib on India Ink coated Masonite, a/k/a scratchboard]

 drawing two - I digitally reversed the original image in Paintshop Pro X4.

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Painting: Acrylic Vortex

By Jack Brummet

[acrylic and pencil on 18"x24" stretched and primed canvas]

click to enlarge

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Music in NYC 1972-1977

I am reading a fascinating book about the NYC music scene from 1972-1977--Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever.  I arrived in NYC in '77.  The book details the emergence of hip hop and rap, the loft jazz scene, salsa, punk, the new serious music a/k/a/ classical of Steven Reich and Phillip Glass, and the new wave.  

It was pretty cool to be there and catch the tail end of it.  Anyhow, this reminded me of one night in 1977 when Kev Francis Aloysius Curran and I went to the opening of Hilly Crystal's new club in the East Village, CBGB 2nd Avenue, in an old Yiddish theater on 2nd Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.  On the bill that night: The Talking Heads, The Ramones, Television, and Blondie.  The Hell's Angels, who lived across 3rd street from my future brother in law Colin, were out front of the theatre selling acid and nickel bags. The theater was almost 2,000 seats...way bigger than CBGBs proper.   Looking at who was playing, it's just stunning that it wasn't a sell out.  OK, rambling now. 

One of the most interesting facts in the book I'm reading is that the Talking Heads lived three doors up from our loft at 181 Chrystie Street in the East Village.  Keelin and I sublet a place there for three or four months.  I never saw any signs of the Heads, but we saw a lot of other weird stuff.   I still often listen to the Heads, Ramones, Blondie, and other bands from back then, but tonight I went back and listened to a couple of my Television CDs.  I'd forgotten just how good these guys were. . .

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Faces No. 315 - "Please take a number and wait your turn"

By Jack Brummet

[pencil and Sharpie on surplus 2'x2' muslin autoclave cloth]

click to enlarge

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"If history has taught us anything..."

Tom: It would be like trying to kill the President; there's no way we can get to him. 
Michael: Tom, you know you surprise me. If anything in this life is certain - if history has taught us anything - it's that you can kill anybody.. 

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Search.xxx debuts today—the first dedicated pornography search engine

By Mona Goldwater, 

Social Mores Editor

Porn fans, as of today, have their own search engine on the Internet.  And there is nothing anyone can really do about it.  In fact, however, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the other search engines already execute millions of searches for porn every day.  

ICM Registry, which runs .xxx, launched its own search engine — Search.xxx — today.  “There’s enough porn for anyone who wants to find it,” said Stuart Lawley, ICM’s chief executive and president. “If people hate porn, they can keep away from it.”

Sure, there's that.

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The botched Ecce Homo restoration now on trash and trinkets

By Jack Brummet, Art Editor

The disastrous Ecce Homo painting restoration, also known as “Potato Jesus”, refers to the botched restoration of a century-old Spanish devotional fresco.  An elderly woman named Cecilia Jiménez, acted as the amateur art restorer. The result of the botched restoration spawned a highly viral internet meme, where the trashed painting was edited in to other famous works of art, movie scenes and probably into a bunch of cat and FAIL images.  

Jiménez wanted to restore a damaged fresco created by Spanish painter Elías García Martínez named Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”), in the Santuario de Misericordia Church in the Spanish town Borja. According to the church, Jiménez restored the painting without permission. 

The original, and Jiménez's "fixed" version:

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Vote (and register to vote!!

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