Friday, September 08, 2006

Dean Ericksen's dream!

Regular readers may recall Dean's Ericksen's earlier appearances on All This Is That. . .the most recent one is here. He sent me and another friend, Tanya, his dream this morning for explication.

Naturally, I imposed a most scurrilous (and Freudian) interpretation on the dream. But I'll leave it to to y'all to judge for yourselves. . .

"OK. So, it all starts when I’m invited to a big party (a wake? It’s hard to tell) at Frank Sinatra’s house. Frank’s house is in Redmond [Wash.] . It’s large, but not moviestar-large; it’s in an upscale new development. There’s a big front yard covered with chairs for the guests. The only celebrity that I can see is George Burns, with his stereotypical cigar and check-coat. I expect to hear some crooning from the microphone, but nothing much is happening. "

"Apparently I have a backstage pass, as I find myself wandering around in Frank’s modestly appointed home, mixing with random people, and eating pistachios from an ashtray. A woman introduces herself to me. She is Frank’s grand-daughter; she is about seven-feet tall. It’s not long before I find myself getting busy with her on a pile of cardboard on Frank’s patio. The logistics of this coupling are non-sensual, mechanical, absurd. My heart is just not in it."

"Anyway, I pull myself together and wander back in to the house. A Mafioso grabs me by the arm and says that Frank would like to see me. I’m led to a door, and told by the man not to make fun of Frank’s little sister. The door swings open and Frank is sitting on a huge leather chair in a smoking jacket. Next to him on a stool is a porcelain statue of a Victorian-age girl. Frank begins to laugh maniacally and his face turns the color of a pomegranate. "
---o0o---

Painting: Where is Fidel Castro?


click painting to enlarge

Where is Fidel anyhow? The last I heard, he was on the mend, and had lost forty pounds. The last photo I saw of him, he was wearing a snappy Nike [tm] warm-up suit and sprawling on what appeared to be some sort of chaise lounge.


This undated photo released Tuesday Sept. 5, 2006 by Granma,
the official publication of the Central Committtee of the Communist
Party of Cuba, shows Fidel Castro, who said, in a statement Tuesday
that he has lost more than 41 pounds since he had intestinal surgery
but added that the "most critical moment" was behind him. The
statement was accompanied by photographs of Castro during his
convalescence.

Yesterday, the President of Bolivia, a long-time friend of Castro, visited him in Cuba. "Morales' surprise visit came a day after Castro released a statement saying his stitches had been removed and that he felt well enough to receive "distinguished visitors," despite having lost some 41 pounds since the surgery."

So, why do I keep wondering where Fidel is? I'm not sure, but I do know that since I was very young, he has been part of the fabric of my life. There may be other world leaders in power as long as Castro, but he's been in power since January 9, 1959. . .since I was five years old. He outlasted De Gaulle, Churchill, Hailie Selassie, Kruschev, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, and Reagan. Forty-six years in power! He's been persistent, if nothing else.
---o0o---

Thursday, September 07, 2006

The finger, the wanker, the cuckoo sign, the shocker, rock horns, the shaka sign, and many more


Click to enlarge. Vice-President Rockefeller gives the finger to a
group of hecklers.

The finger - (e.g., "giving" someone the finger), is an extremely popular hand gesture made by extending the middle finger of the hand while bending the other fingers at the second knuckle. It's can perhaps be a softer way of saying "f*** you". In other countries, the OK sign means the same thing. President Bush can be seen in the montage below, performing the gesture. The finger can be extremely hostile, or, among friends, it can just be another way of saying "yeah, right."




This variant was sent by Mark Yeend,
who called it the "fake flip off"
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The Bent Elbow is a theatrical, Italian version of The Finger, and is sometimes combined with the finger. In Italian it is known as the gesto dell'ombrello, meaning "the umbrella gesture." It is typically used two ways: 1) to answer "no way!" in an extremely emphatical (and quite vulgar) way, and 2) after a triumph against some unfair enemy, with a sense of revenge.
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The Sssshhh sign... (Thanks to Mark Yeend)
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The Fig sign - The sign of the fig is a highly insulting hand gesture used, so far as I know, only in Italy (perhaps in other places, too.) It is made by making a fist, with thethumb inserted between the index and middle fingers. The gesture allegedly represents the female genitalia, although I really don't see the resemblance. . .
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The cuckoo sign. A hard sign to illustrate, because it is active. It is used to indicate a person in the room is unbalanced. Kids sometimes use it in a sort of rebus: You (pointing toward a person) + drive (gesture showing two hands moving a steering wheel) + me (point toward self) + crazy (the cuckoo sign). Normally, the gesture is made by pointing your index finger at your head and tracing circles with the finger. It's a little bit old school, and you don't see it much anymore.
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The beckoning sign. Another active sign. The "come here" gesture. You hold your fist clenched. The finger moves repeatedly towards the gesturer (in a hook) as to draw something closer. It is normally seen as condescending because it is a command. It is sometimes performed with the four fingers, or the entire hand.
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The blah blah sign /the yak yak gesture. The fingers are kept straight and together in a horizontal fashion while the thumb is held out straight. The fingers and thumb then snap together repeatedly to suggest a mouth talking. Sort of like a duck's mouth. It is used to indicate that a person is pointlessly flapping their gums.
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The time out sign. Used in sporting events, and sometimes in normal conversation. In conversation it can mean "let's take a break," "please quite talking about this," or "stop arguing."
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The benediction sign. Used by pontiffs and emperors (and, I think, Priests) as a blessing sign. Click on this link to see the Benediction gesture, on a coin of Emperor Constantine.
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Crossed fingers - Crossing the first two fingers is a good luck sign around the world, mainly, however, in Christian countries. One theory posits that when Christianity was illegal, the crossing of fingers was a secret sign for Christians to recognise each other. The gesture sometimes is used to negate something spoken (if you tell someone "you look fabulous" with your fingers crossed, you were probably not telling the truth).
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Rock horns/hook 'em horns/devil horns
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The OK sign
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The shaka sign is the "hang loose" gesture. It is similar to American Sign Language letter "Y", where a fist is also made with only the thumb and pinky extended. The sign is often followed by waving as a greeting or acknowledgement--"thanks for letting me on the freeway!"
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Call me. These days it might be a gesture you make to someone across the floor of a nightclub.
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Thumbs up
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Thumbs down - We think--from watching all those Cecil B. DeMille style sand and sandals epics--that the thumbs down gesture means "kill him!" In fact, scholars just aren't sure whether the gesture means kill him, or spare him...thumbs down meaning, "no, spare him," and thumbs up meaning "yes, kill him!"
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The stop gesture - In the U.S., this is the stop gesture. In Greece, however, it has a slightly different meaning: "I rub feces in your face!"
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The Vulcan salute ("live long and prosper").

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The wanker sign. . .I probably don't need to explain this one.
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Biting the thumb at anyone was once a mark of contempt, usually designed to provoke a quarrel. . .it also means to defy. ``Do you bite your thumb at us?'' -Wm. Shakespeare
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The choke sign - The gesture refers to someone or something "choking" in the sense of failing under pressure. It generally refers to someone involved in an athletic event, althought I have heard it used in the business world too.
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The cutthroat sign is usually used for one of two things: to warn someone to quit talking or suffer the consequences. Or to say "He's a dead man."
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The Bang Bang, or, gun sign
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nose thumbing/queen anne's fan - This is a mild mocking gesture.
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The shocker - A sexually-charged, gesture in which the ring finger and thumb are curled down, with the other fingers extended. The index and middle fingers touch, and the back of the hand faces away from the gesturer. The gesture refers to the act of inserting the index and middle fingers into a vagina and the pinky finger into the nearby exit apperture (the "shocker"). The shocker is sometimes considered vulgar. Did I just write sometimes? There are dozens of rhyming phrases for this gesture, like "Two in the pink, one in the stink."
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The gag me sign - This is the only photo I could find of this gesture. I'm not sure, but the gesture may have originated with "Valley Speak," the idion of the kids of the San Fernando Valley. I do remember the Valley Speak phrase "gag me with a spoon." I'm sure this gesture was around along before the 80s.
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Victory Sign - V for victory. A lot of us remember this as being one of Sir Winston Churchill's signatures. In this photo, President Richard Nixon used the sign at the moment of his greatest disgrace. . .he was leaving Washington D.C., having resigned the Presidency. Moments after this 'chopper took off, Gerald Ford became President and Nixon landed later that day in California, as a civilian.

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Let's get high - Tommy Chong in a vidcap from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno demonstrates this gesture.
---o0o---

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Monkey See, Monkey Do



According to the Public Library of Science - Biology, monkeys in infancy can imitate their parents facial expressions. This was previously only thought to happen in humans (and possibly apes and chimps). That gets a little bit too fine for some us. . .we're all cousins! Click here to read the research article in PLOS Biology...

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

There's UFOs Over China "and I ain't too surprised"


Click here to see the video on Google. Thanks to Jeff Clinton for sending the link. . .
---o0o---

The Beachles - A mashup of Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper

Clayton Counts has produced a "mashup" of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. . .two albums often in the running for the best rock album of the 1960's, and often they are both in the top ten for the best rock records of all time. (note...he also always has a lot of gem "lost" and weird MP3s on his web site). Clayton says:

"Below you will find a track-for-track mash-up of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds with the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Of course, I say “mash-up” because I wouldn’t know what else to call it. It’s really more of an abstract record, but like some of my other projects it’s also a commentary on bootleg culture. "

"Some impolite halfwit was asking why people always compare these records, and so I’ll let Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson answer that question. Have a listen. If ever two records screamed out to be combined, it’s these two. This was created to entertain friends, and I’d be a total bastard if I didn’t give some credit where it is due. This was made at the suggestion of two friends of mine, Adam Wolak and Neil Keener. Sorry it took me two years to get around to it, guys. 100% of the audio here is taken from the two records and various session recordings, and none of it has been created from scratch.

"If you’d like to download the whole thing as a torrent, click here. Or, if you have an account at Oink’s Pink Palace, click here. Also, please be warned: this record is extremely noisy in places, and it’s not for everyone. If you can’t take a little dissonance, you may want to stay away entirely. It’ll probably be awhile before the cover’s done, too. Very happy listening, ladies and gents. I humbly present: The Beachles."

You can find the music in the links in Clayton gives above, or at http://claytoncounts.com/blog/the-beachles/
---o0o---

Monday, September 04, 2006

The Smartest & Most Literate City In America?

According to a couple of measures, the smartest city in the United States is Seattle - 52.7 percent of its residents age 25 or older have completed a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the the U.S. Census Bureau. In fact, New York City would beat Seattle. . .if you only included Manhattan. The number of degree holders in Manhattan is 57%., but when you toss in Brooklyn, Queen, Richmond, and The Bronx, the number slides down to 32%--still high enough to make the top 25 list.

The education rankings were released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Seattle has also been ranked as the most literate city in the United States by Central Connecticut State University, beating out Minneapolis, Washington and Atlanta

In the United States, the five most-educated major municipalities are also among the 25 cities with the highest median household income. Seattle for example, is the eighth and San Francisco is the fourth. So, there is something to the phrase "don't be a fool; go to school."
---o0o---



Poem: Dream Of The Grey



In this dream
I see The Grey
Shrouded in fog

And I know
If I let him
Into focus,



I will wake up
On a gurney
On the tenth planet

With an implant,
And I won't remember
Coming, going

Or
Anything
In between.
---o0o---

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Poem: Torches & Pitchforks

With torches on,
And pitchforks raised,
The peasant horde

Marches ungoverned
Searching for real
And imaginary monsters.



The posse is a mindless beast
And the agglomerated mob
Brims with blood-lust

And madness. The whole
Is far less than the sum
Of its parts:

Each new body adds mass
And each fresh outrage
Diminishes the hive's brain.

One if by land; two if by sea.
They're coming for you.
They're coming for me.
---o0o---

Friday, September 01, 2006

poem: the vault

You spend decades, slowly
Building the vault around your heart
With rebar walls and titanium lining;
But your loved ones are safecrackers.
---o0o---