On The Road again: roadburn

In about nine hours, we will be trying to get on the road, back to Seattle, and recover the roughly 750 miles we just traversed a week ago. Roadburn!

Obama brokers beer bash and breaks out the bombers

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Correspondent

President Barack Obama acted as the bartender on Thursday at a "beer summit" meet-up of the main figures in a highly charged case of racial politics. Obama hoped to turn the broil into a "positive lesson" in the national debate on race relations.

President Obama described the meet as a "friendly, thoughtful" conversation over beers at the White House with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and a cop, Sergeant James Crowley, who is white. Vice-President "Crazy" Joe Biden also showed up to throw back a few.

Earlier this month, Crowley arrested Gates for disorderly conduct after a confrontation over Gates not identifying himself (someone called the police, believing Gates was an intruder). Words "were exchanged," and both parties seem to have lost their cool. This, naturally, sparked a media feeding frenzy as the 58 year old Gates, accused the policeman of racial profiling. Crowley denied this and accused Gates of overreacting.

Obama poured gasoline on the troubled waters by saying he thought police "acted stupidly" in arresting his acquaintance, Professor Gates.




According to sources in the White House, even after several beers, the atmosphere was tense. The President rolled a couple of joints and passed them around. When our source returned to the meeting, everyone at the table was laughing uproariously and demanding more beer.
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Poem: Highway 89 Haiku

Bugs and cooties stacked
Four layers deep on my grill:
This is sweet revenge.
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Random Photos From Montana, Wyoming, and Chico Hot Springs

a fishing shack? Or someone's cabin? I can't tell.


A very cool street sign in the mountains


The horses and ponies at Chico Hot Springs dining


The obligatory photo of a pissed off buffalo


The Boiling River

The Beartooth Mountains at dusk

Del and my niece Melanie prepare to tell the little kids

ghost stories accompanied by banjo and recorder

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In hot water: soaking in the Boiling River in Yellowstone

At Boiling River, at almost exactly the 45th parallel and straddling the borders of Wyoming and Montana, you can stand with one leg in the glacial Gardner River and the other in boiling (probably really about 130 degrees) water. This is probably the nicest hot springs I have ever soaked in. The Boiling River runs alongside the Gardner River, and down into rock pools where the hot water mixes with the icy river water. A series of soaking pools create a range of temperatures, from cool to extremely hot. The result is nature's own hot tub, with small pools carved water with a great view of the Gardner River canyon walls. We soaked here for two and a half hours after a hike.

Cousins Mackenzie, Del, and Melanie

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The truth about Grizzly Bears

"In light of the rising frequency of human/grizzly bear encounters, the Montana Department of Fish and Game is advising hikers, backpackers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears.

"We advise outdoorsmen to wear noisy little bells on their clothing so that the bears are not startled unexpectedly by a human's presence. We also advise outdoorsmen to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear.

"It is also a good idea to watch for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear poop and grizzly bear poop. Black bear poop is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear poop smells like pepper and has little bells in it. "

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Two permanent barflies at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar in Montana

click to enlarge

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Poem: The Entrepeneur

To launch your nefarious enterprise,
You don't need to see
A discounted cash flow analysis.

You only need to know
If the right people
Are in your pocket,

And, if not, then whom
Should be bought off,
Intimidated, or bumped off?
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Yellowstone, Montana July 28, 2009

Digital Art: The Regret

click to enlarge
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The stages of a bad project

Uncritical Acceptance
Wild Enthusiasm
Dejected Disillusionment
Total Confusion
Search for the Guilty
Punishment of the Innocent
Promotion of the Non-participants

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On The Road to Yellowstone and Chico Hot Springs: warning signs in Yellowstone National Park.

Click on all images to enlarge...

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The Yellowstone Supervolcano

This warning was posted by geologist Christopher C. Sanders on January 1, 2009: "I am advising all State officials around Yellowstone National Park for a potential State of Emergency. In the last week over 300 earthquakes have been observed by the USGS. We have a 3D view on the movement of magma rising underground. We have all of the pre warning signs of a major eruption from a super volcano. - I want everyone to leave Yellowstone National Park and for 200 miles around the volcano caldera."

It looks like he was off by some unknown interval. The supervolcano has yet to blow. If it were to blow, from what I saw on the island of Thira (a/k/a Santorini) in Greece, 200 miles might be just enough distance to survive. Read the article on Sangtorini's supervolcano here, on All This Is That.
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Digital Art: Senor Daveed a/k/a Dave Hokit and 'Mo a/k/a Maureen Roberts

2/5 of the family usually referred to as the Hokits. (as always, click to enlarge). I heart them.






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The President weighs in on the Gates' travesty (includes press conference video)

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

My conservative friends would not agree, but last night a gust of fresh air blew in.

At the end of yesterday's news conference on health care reform, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet asked Barack Obama about race relations in America.

The President said "the Cambridge police acted stupidly" arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home. He also said if he broke into his house (e.g., The White House), "Then I'd get shot." Right on, BHO!


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Poem: Blackout

Lights off: dark skies.
The river gurgles over rocks

Somewhere behind me
In the night.

The Big Dipper
Beams large and bright

Like a Times Square marquee
Flashing among the random stars.
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Lullaby Moon at Gasworks Park

A bad cell phone shot of rabbits singing and dancing in the always evolving Lullaby Moon show that appears each month on the night of the full moon, at various Seattle waterfront parks.

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digital art: 16

click to enlarge

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Drawing: The Bureaucrat

click to enlarge
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Poem: Denial

Denial
by Jack Brummet



What is denial, really,
But those moments,

Those swaths of your life,
Where you play

Hide and seek
With yourself,

Heavy
On the hide,

And easy
On the seek?
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Team America: World Police video clip - Kim Jong Il meets with Hans Blix of the UN, and in another clip, Blix discusses his portrayal in the movie

This may be my favorite scene from Team America: World Police . . .where Kim Jong Il meets with Hans Blix and drops him into a shark tank (foul language warning):



After Team America was released, Hans Blix talked about his puppet version's confrontation with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il at the Arms Control Association's 2006 Annual Meeting, Amazing! Who knew Hans Blix had such a sense of humor?


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40 years ago today, we, yes, WE, walked on the moon. I remember looking up at it, thinking "one of us is up there."

40 years ago today, we, yes, WE, walked on the moon. I remember looking up at it, thinking "one of us is up there." What has it brought us, after all, but a couple boxes of rocks, and Tang [tm]? I know there have been various materials, processes, and other inventions that have probably benefited the world (aside from Tang). But, all that aside, there was something so magnificent about knowing we were up there, striding in the dust, where (most likely) no one had ever been before. In another connection, I think I remember the recently departed Walter Cronkite saying as Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon "hot diggity dog."

It wasn't great that we beat the Russians there--although that was cool too--but more that we had done it. And when you think about the crude computer technology and the materials that went into the rockets and spaceship, it was absolutely amazing we made it. I know that before we abandoned going there, something like 40 or 50 people walked on the moon. For what it's worth, I'd like to see us get there again.

There were the naysayers, of course. And their stories have again been circulating again around this anniversary. Here are a few of the stories and poems that have appeared over the years on All This Is That about the moon, and moon landings (I think my favorite is "The Skeleton on the moon):

Alien Lore No. 81 - The Skeleton on the moon
Life on the moon?
Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon landing disaster
Michael Jackson moonwalk video clips
Alien Lore No. 134 - Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
Poem: The Moon Race
Poem: The Moon's In Tune
The Six Faked Moon Landings?
Alien Lore No. 29 - Nazis On The Moon!!
Alien Lore 53 - The Moon Dust File
Alien Lore No. 108 - The spaceship on the moon
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Keelin Curran and Dave Hokit posing in Winthrop, Wash.

Dave and Keelin pose in a cut-out on the "western"-themed main street of Winthrop, just outside the local brewery.


Click to enlarge

On the back side of the cut-out is this warning (you think they've had to extricate a few heads over the years?):


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A blackout, dark skies, and stargazing in The Methow

click to enlarge

At 12:36 AM last night, the area where we are staying--Wolf Ridge, a few miles from Winthrop in The Methow Valley--experienced a three hour blackout. It didn't affect anyone much except me. I appeared to be the only person awake. In total darkness, I found the headlamp and went outside to read. Oddly and incongruously in this blackout, my BlackBerry worked fine--both for connecting to the internet and as an auxiliary flashlight. It's weird being in an information vacuum. No local news covered a blackout. Nothing anywhere else. For all I knew it was a ten state blackout.

I spent an hour picking out constellations in the dark skies of the Methow Valley. As it turns out, I can only remember five. The stars were fabulous...bright under a low-moon night. I saw shooting stars and a couple of satellites. And way out here in the serious boondocks, you see the stars, but you also see those fantastic clouds of stars--just the way we see the Milky Way in photographs. [typed in the parking lot of a Kampgrounds of Amerika in Winthrop, where I am hijacking their WiFi.]
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Poem: Lights out

Lights out: Dark skies
The river down the trail
Gurgles over rocks

The Big Dipper beams large and bright
Like a Times Square marquee
Planted among the random stars
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Danny DeVito's insane interview

Danny DeVito gives a fairly mind-blowing interview on his upcoming appearance at Comi-Con.
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