A blackout, dark skies, and stargazing in The Methow

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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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an animation sequence from The Grateful Dead Movie

Pretty cool old school work...


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Seattle to the Methow Valley via the North Cascades Highway today

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Poem: Tethers

Your tenuous hold on earth
Is disguised in your shadow,
Tethered to the ground
By the soles of your feet
And a theory of gravity.
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Frank Zappa's "Takle Your Clothes Off When You Dance" with lyrics

Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
by Frank Zappa

There will come a time when everybody
Who is lonely will be free...
To sing & dance & love

There will come a time when every evil
That we know will be an evil...
That we can rise above

Who cares if hair is long or short
Or sprayed or partly grayed...
We know that hair ain't where it's at

(there will come a time when you won't
Even be ashamed if you are fat!)

Wah wah-wah wah

There will come a time when everybody
Who is lonely will be free...
To sing & dance & love (dance and love)

There will come a time when every evil
That we know will be an evil...
That we can rise above (rise above)

Who cares if you're so poor you can't afford
To buy a pair of mod a go-go stretch-elastic pants...
There will come a time when you can even
Take your clothes off when you dance
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Del Brummet short "Unplugged" appears in another festival

A film by Del Brummet and two other youth is now appearing in a Korean film festival. The film has already snagged numerous awards and has appeared in several film festivals.

"Unplugged, a short film by Ballard High School video production students Diana Federighi ('08), Kaelan Gilman ('10) & Del Brummet ('10), was recently named an Official Selection by the 11th Annual Seoul International Youth Film Festival. SIYFF is one of the largest and most prestigious youth film festivals in Asia. The event spans the week of July 9 - 15 and includes an international youth filmmaking camp. This year, 821 films were submitted from 44 different countries. Only 36 films were selected for the festival through a highly competitive process. For more information, visit the festival website. "

Unplugged is the story of a teen whose connection to music deepens after the loss of his iPod. The short had not originally been entered in SIYFF, but the festival committee saw the film on the Images of Youth Video Festival website and then contacted Ballard High School to request that the short be submitted. Unplugged had won awards for Special Recognition for Overall Excellence in Media and Peer Achievement from the Images of Youth Video Festival in 2008. Unplugged was also named an Official Selection of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth this year.


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Governor Sarah Palin unelected herself to make an indy run at the White House

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Bam! Sarah Palin is going indy.

After reading the Washington Times "exclusive," I am convinced that soon to be unelected Governor Sarah Palin will make a run at The White House as an independent. Of course. The Republican "base" likes her. They like her a lot. But the suits at the RNC figure Mitt, Newt, or one of the rising young(ish) turks that has avoided a sex scandal [I think there are some?] want nothing to do with her. After reading the recent Vanity Fair article on Palin, I believe that. They threw her under the bus and backed over her four times.

As an indy candidate,, the G.O.P. character attacks become just more partisan gibberish. The Democrats? They're just wack jobs, elitists and commies. If she goes independent, she will have an immediate base from which to expand. And, of course, extract campaign funds. She'll do more damage as an independent than she could ever do a Republican. In these modern elections it doesn't take much to skew an election. Just ask Ralph Nader, who enabled George W. Bush's eight year reign of terror

"The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and heroine to much of the GOP's base said in an interview she views the electorate as embattled and fatigued by nonstop partisanship, and she is eager to campaign for Republicans, independents and even Democrats who share her values on limited government, strong defense and "energy independence."

"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation," Governor Palin said. I suspect she won't become the same sort of turncoat weasel as Joe Lieberman, but you never know.

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Poem: Scarred for life

It could be watching your family
Diced up in slow-motion

By a sick biscuit with a machete,
Or the day your brother let you down.

It might be when you were wrongfully accused,
Whether they figured it out or not.

Maybe you discovered your wife sleeping
With her Yoga teacher,

Or remember the night your parents
Let you cry yourself to sleep.

It could be the motorcycle accident,
Or the time you saw your Uncle naked.

Under a bad moon,
It can all leave you scarred for life.
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Originally published in "Feets don't fail me now," a literary journal in Los Angeles, 2006. Revised 7-12-2009, and published, heavily revised, on All This Is that

Pete and Pat Curran, King and Queen of Cornucopia

Pete and Pat Curran, in honor of their decades of public service were the King and Queen of Kent, Washington's Cornucopia Festival and Parade. This photo, by Maureen Roberts, captured them waving to their subjects from a convertible in the parade.

Pete and Pat are my parents-in-law, and the parents of Keelin, Colin, Sheila, Marcy, Mary, Betsey, Brendan, and Megan, as well as the grandparents and great-grandparents of a passel of kids. In their mid-70's, they are patrons of the arts and social service charities; lifelong Democrats (Pete worked for Bobby Kennedy as an advance man in 1968); involved in a large number of volunteer activities; and have sponsored numerous arts events in the Kent area (including sponsoring a Blind Boys of Alabama concert). Pete still plays handball every week, and Pat plays tennis as well as writing poetry.
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The Grey

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