Olly Olly Oxen Freeze

So did anyone else go "hey! McCain just had his I pick Sarah Palin moment of the debate" when we got to this portion of the financial section of the evening:

LEHRER: What I'm trying to get at this is this. Excuse me if I may, senator. Trying to get at that you all -- one of you is going to be the president of the United States come January. At the -- in the middle of a huge financial crisis that is yet to be resolved. And what I'm trying to get at is how this is going to affect you not in very specific -- small ways but in major ways and the approach to take as to the presidency.

MCCAIN: How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.

LEHRER: Spending freeze?

MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several other vital issues.

Didn't you think, "McCain has never really considered this idea--it just popped into his head and he said it! He wants to be president and make shit up while live on national tv!" For perhaps he doesn't know the composition of the federal budget. Here's one way to look at it, borrowed from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

That means all that's left of the budget pie for McCain's freeze is the 21% for everything else. Side note: It's instructive he left out "interest on the debt" as if the Republican Party he's trying so hard to run from--goddamit he called himself a maverick which is just tacky--didn't build up the gigundo debt we have to pay-off. I guess being a maverick means never having to say it's your party.

What makes up that 21% we could freeze, then?

Very interesting. Even 6% of that is for vets, and we know how much he wants to support them. So I guess that means we freeze education, since, after all, children aren't our future. Or we freeze science and medical research, since we don't need alternative energy and the best way to fund science is through pork-barrel items (I see your Montana bear sperm and raise it some Alaskan seal sperm). Or we freeze transportation and infrastructure work, since American-built things are the best in the world.

The good news is that McCain returned to D.C. to save the day with the bailout plan. For if there's a sharper tool in the economic shed (a more lipsticked pig in the budgetary poke?) than McCain, I don't know who it is. After all, without his leadership of his fellow Republicans, we'd never have an agreement.

Shoot, guess they got all mavericky on him.

Sunday Observation

Oh, btw, the Mets suck.

Comfy, Thy Name Is Mookie

For Dog Blog Friday: Why be a couch potato when the bed is all yours?

Friday Random Ten

The Ramones "Listen to My Heart" All the Stuff (and More) Vol. One
Merle Haggard "Silver Wings" HAG: The Best of Merle Haggard
Hasidic New Wave "Wedding Celebration" Knitting on the Roof: Modern Interpretations of the Classic Musical 'Fiddler on the Roof'
Mark Olson & the Creek Dippers "Give My Heart to You" Pacific Coast Rambler
Gram Parsons "$1000 Wedding" The Gram Parsons Anthology
Tom Waits "Tell It to Me" Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
King Crimson "Elephant Talk" Discipline
X "Motel Room in My Bed" Under the Big Black Sun
Archers of Loaf "Slick Tricks and Bright Lights" White Trash Heroes
Jimmie Dale Gilmore "Ripple" One Endless Night

bonus
Steve Earle "Lonelier than This" Transcendental Blues

Solid enough, and thanks to Ahab for the great Mark Olsen cut.

No Big Bippy in Mississippi?

OK, let's take McCain on his word and believe he's not hoping to cancel the debate tomorrow for political reasons.

Figured I had to pause a bit for you to get done laughing. That still begs the question--how in the world does having McCain and Obama in Washington help things? McCain has been in D.C. 26 years, actually for most of those helping to deregulate things and get us to the mess that suddenly (hear ominous organ chords, please) threatens to devour us all--as President Bush said last night, "Booga Booga!"* What good is McCain going to do now? I mean, go watch this video and tell me if you want him anywhere near folks trying to fix our buggered economy.

Then again, he might need to be in DC because unlike someone of the 21st century, he can't use email, video conferencing, etc. It seems he can help only if he's in a room with someone.

Ultimately, though, his "postpone the debates" gambit is very illuminating, as it shows the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans, being a party of fear and control, love crises. Heck, how else could someone like Giuliani appear anything less than the ghoul he is? So the only way to operate is sky is falling mode. Now go back and watch Obama's convention speech. It's about hopes, what the U.S. can be. For those who say the two parties aren't that different, think again.

*translations from Fearspeak: Wall Street is the new al-Qaeda.

Not Enough Ex-es in Executives

The AP reports:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain met Wednesday with a panel of business executives to seek their opinions on the Bush administration's proposed $700 million bailout of U.S. financial markets.

McCain said he wanted to discuss "how we can make sure that the American people regain confidence on Main Street so that they can regain their confidence in Wall Street and in Washington."

Hmm...maybe meet with the American people and not a panel of business executives?

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You--Ask What You Can Do for the Biggest Banks in Your Country

Sorry, but little time to blog. Too busy working, working, trying to make that extra $2 grand Henry Paulson needs from me.

This Post Brought to You By Nobody

Perhaps it's just the curmudgeon Mets fan in me, but watching a bit of the ESPN blowjob bye-bye to Yankee Stadium last night (did people go so dewily-eyed dippy in 1973 when Yankee Stadium really did go away for its renovation?) I couldn't help but think when they went to the segment with Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford in the booth with Morgan and Miller that the AFLAC duck really needed to show up.

Snap

With a hat tip to Tom Hilton at IIRTZ, you have to watch this clip. The line of the campaign occurs about a third of the way in.

Friday Random Ten

The Handsome Family "All the Time in Airports" Last Days of Wonder
Lucinda Williams "Main Road" Sweet Relief--A Benefit for Victoria Williams
Buena Vista Social Club "De Camino a la Vereda" Buena Vista Social Club
Albert King "Laundromat Blues" The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968
Shobha Gurtu "Dil Leke Muijhe Badnaam Kiva" Shobha Gurtu
Giant Sand "Astonished (in Memphis)" Chore of Enchantment
Peter Gabriel "Solsbury Hill" Shaking the Tree: 16 Golden Greats
Sonic Youth "The Sprawl" (live) Daydream Nation
Troy Andrews "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" Big Ol' Box of New Orleans
James Brown "Bring It Up" Live at the Apollo Volume II

bonus
Talking Heads "Give Me Back My Name" Little Creatures

Certainly the all over this week but I really sort of like this mix.

Perhaps Not Just the Lamp Is Cock-eyed

For Dog Blog Friday: Although the paparazzi tried to get his photo on his birthday this Wednesday, Nigel cleverly hid his face with a recently received present.

Going for Broke

The AP reports, in a story ominously titled "Bush Says He's Working Hard on Economic Turmoil"--gee, what else can he do to screw things up?--that the White House has a plan as to how to stop our economy from going Chernobyl. The story claims:

"The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence," the president said.

Bush did not specify what those steps might be. White House press secretary Dana Perino said she could not comment on them, either. "That's something I'm not at liberty to talk about," she said.

Perino went on to say: "After all, if we said what we were going to do, the terrorists would know. Then they could thwart all our striving. You know, keeping the free world free, except for having to pay for huge companies that fail. That part's not free, but it's the price we have to pay to live in a democracy, at least in the ways we define democracy. Not that we can tell you those or else the terrorists would know."

Asked for a comment about the economy, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain replied, "When I spent five and half years in a cell in Vietnam I would have loved to have an economy to worry about. Now I have to go and find Spain on a map, excuse me." When asked the same question, Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin said, "Maybe the country could just have a baby? That always picks me up."

Go! West, Old Man

Holy Birthdays, Batman! Adam West turns 80 this Friday. Forget all the recent movies and their saturnine set of caped crusaders, Adam West was the full on Biff! Bang! Pow! of square-jawed heroes and let's face it, the relationship between Denny Crain and Alan Shore today of the veteran (played by another camp icon, William Shatner) and his ward is really just Batman and Robin for the aughts. Take that to your Bat Cave and wonder, boy. (Does that make Candice Bergen Aunt Harriet?) Still, anything that taught us a hero ain't nothing but a punchline can't be all bad, and that West didn't quite seem to be in on the joke--although the costume shoulda been a wee hint--only makes him more remarkable. He never smirks from around that cowl, never lets his guard down (or anything up, and with that costume we woulda known) even with the purr-fection of Julie Newmar nearby. Of course West has been stuck being Batman for the rest of his life, but there are worse things than being a joke for not being in on the joke one's a joke. Just ask George Clooney, although he's seemed to have done alright since his terrible time in the tights.

Temp of the Month...Twice

Perhaps this has something to do with the Information Technology Group kidnapping me for a lunchtime off-site meeting at Hollister Brewing.

An Empty Room and the Right Kind of People

Artie Shaughnessy is caught between Bunny and Bananas, and that might be the least of his problems. The protagonist of John Guare's early play The House of Blue Leaves, which is currently being revived as the first production at the also recently revived Mark Taper Forum in LA, Artie works at the Central Park Zoo but wants to be Rogers and Hart, or at the least, Bob Merrill. We get to hear him sing some of his songs, in particular the ditty "Where Is the Devil in Evelyn" (why yes in Angela's eyes), but what's more, we hear him wish a billion wishes, none greater than to make it in Hollywood. He might even have a leg up--and it's not talent, it's childhood friend, now famous filmmaker, Billy Einhorn. (That Einhorn, when he shows up, is played by Diedrich Bader of Drew Carey Show and Office Space fame might be a hint he's not all Artie hopes--not that Bader's a bad actor it's that he specializes in the un-deep, you might say.) What's more, Artie's day job at the zoo does little to prepare him for Act II, a madcap farce shot through with utmost tragedy (and not just the first tragedy that's sort of played for laughs) and featuring an AWOL son, three celeb-struck nuns, three bottles of beer, two grenades, one malfunctioning hearing aid, a funny farm attendant, an MP, a Pope at Yankee Stadium on just a black-and-white TV, an eggplant casserole, and a dear deaf starlet.

House of Blue Leaves is one of those plays where everything AND the kitchen sink gets thrown in, as the set is a depressing apartment complete with kitchen in Sunnyside, Queens, 1965. Tonally it's all over, literally riotous, as anything with battling nuns in habits can be, totally touching, too, especially when Artie's wife Bananas, who is a bit off her rocker but also, of course, the sanest one in the play (when not pretending to be a dog), explains to the audience (yes, we get direct audience address, even to the point of alluding to ticket prices) how she got to where she is.

The only way a play like this works is through determined acting and this production has that down. Kate Burton's Bananas never quite loses her attractiveness--you can completely tell why Artie married her--but also never pulls completely out of her dreaminess, even when zinging Artie by pointing out one of his favorite creations is actually a rip-off of "White Christmas." (Ever looking at the bright side of life, Artie replies, "But you can sing mine year round.") Bunny, Artie's lover, is played brashly by Jane Kaczmarek (yep, the mom from Malcolm in the Middle) as a dynamic climber, hoping for the best for Artie as that will mean the best for her, too. This Bunny is no dummy--sure she puts out, but she won't cook for Artie. She knows she's a bad lay, so getting that out of the way doesn't mean much, but while she doesn't simmer in bed, she can cook in the kitchen, so she refuses to make him food, leaving something for that honeymoon. If only they can get Bananas out of the way.

That's where the House of Blue Leaves comes in, for it's Artie's artful way to jazz up the asylum where he hopes to be able to ship Bananas. This scene is emblematic of how good John Pankow is in the role--for as often despicable as Artie is, he's impossible to hate. He does want to be loved by everyone. He tells of visiting the asylum and seeing a shimmering tree of blue leaves that turns out to be birds. It's hard to tell if we should like him as he's trying to make the place sound so nice, or to hate him--he's trying to make a mad house (in 1965, so don't think of the pampering rest places we have today) sound poetic so he can leave his wife there and run off with another woman. It's "the asylum is half full" world Artie, and the songs Artie loves, wants to sell.

And lord knows we buy. Even the nuns are celeb-obsessed, at first for the Pope, which makes some sense, but then also for Corrina Stroller, a mere starlet. For a play from 1971 Guare really nails our ever-growing desires to be famous, or infamous, or at the least near the famous. While all the cast features faces known from theater and TV--that's the Mark Taper way--it's clever of this production to end up with the two most known actors together (sorry for that bit of a spoiler). Fame finds itself. The regular Joes (and Arties) of the rest of us are left to scrabble out our days knowing if we didn't exist, there'd be no famous folks--someone has to do the looking, the applauding.

Which came first, the audience or the play? I'm not sure, but I am pretty sure we all have our private houses of blue leaves in which we reside.

Linen in Large Denominations--Appliances We Have Enough Of

Today I'm Not One to Blog, But... celebrates its fourth anniversary, proving it's got one big "but."

Who knew back on September 15, 2004 that I was beginning something that would consume enough of my time that four years later George W. Bush would still be president, Cheney would still be vice president, and somehow I would be fearing even more the next possible Republican administration. The more times change, the more the world seems a disaster.

Still, 2128 posts in four years. That's 532 posts a year. 1.458 posts a day. Of course that .458 post is generally my best.

I only put the counter on June 16, 2006, but in that time there have been over 148,000 unique visitors, or the population of Wasilla, Alaska 21 times over (assuming a Palin hasn't given birth since I began this entry). And those visitors have been truly unique--one of the best things about doing this is all the cool virtual friends I've made: the Around the Keg gang led by Smitty, Drew (my one follower, not that I've activated that function), Sara de la Guerra (whoever she really is--she got me with Bat Spray that one time I was brought into BlogaBarbara's secret location), Cookie Jill, James at Coyote Mercury, Craig Smith, watertiger, Ben Varkentine, Generik, Deb, Heather, Tom, Ahab, and the IIRTZ crew, Fred/Ironicus, Scott Long, Steve Hilton, Frealonzo, Mike, Coop, Deborah, Regina, Rickey, Melissa and the Shakers, Skippy and His Bush Babies, Chari, and TBogg (even if he doesn't link here anymore now that he turned his back on Santa Barbara).

Thanks for making the world a better place and amusing me to no end. You're all welcome over for a cocktail of your choice.

Of course there are the people I knew non-virtually, too, some of whom I sort of, if I can pat myself on the cyberback here, perhaps got into blogging: Noelle, Trekking Left at Average Man, Patrick at Big Table, dashblankdash (who was at this before me, but he's younger and hipper), Dave Prine, Christy, Queen Whackamole, Marty, Ted x 2, Tessitura (who will blog again, I know). I've left for last the best, Amy, who I'm not keeping busy enough--she has two blogs (not that she enters on them too frequently). You folks were all great to begin with, but that your greatness burns brightly on the internets gives me much joy.

I of course have to give a tip of the INOTBB chapeau to Edhat, from where many of my readers came, desirous of learning about Ishkabibble and McCaw's latest drivel.

And then there's the #1 search item that got person here--"the." I can't say how proud I am to be a major source for the definitive article. After that, you're all here looking for King Tut and Morganna the Kissing Bandit--I'll get their sextape posted ASAP.

And I'd like to end on some found poetry from my top search items list:
julie
not
newmar
nude
and
bellucci

Here's hoping I can elevate internets discourse for another 4 years.

There's a Rumour You Should Parker Over There

A little something for the weekend--somehow this song seems more fitting than ever even if the video copy certainly is showing its 28 years.

Journey to the Center of the Nigel in 3-D

For Dog Blog Friday: Just be glad you are not a Milkbone.

Friday Random Ten

The Replacements "Hootenanny" Hootenanny
Spoon "Paper Tiger" Kill the Moonlight
Television "Blank Generation" (live at CBGB's) Spurts: The Richard Hell Story
The Holmes Brothers "You're Good for Me" Promised Land
Sonny Rollins "Sweet Leilani" This Is What I Do
East River Pipe "I Am a Small Mistake" Mel
Freedy Johnston "Wheels" Can You Fly
Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime" Remain in Light
Suzanne Vega "Tom's Diner (Reprise)" Solitude Standing
The Spanic Boys "All Calms Down" Strange World

bonus
The Pooh Sticks "Sweet Baby James" The Great White Wonder

That's a list, not always great but always something. An odd version of one of punk's anthems that proves I do like Quine better than Verlaine, some soul, some jazz, one of the best least known albums of the '90s, one of the best songs period, an ok song from one of the best father-son combos and we go out with Hue Pooh and the gang. I'll take it.

The Good Spill According to Doug

Back in an earlier age that never existed, or was the 1970s, some god, or perhaps Fender, said the guitar was good. Therefore more guitar was decreed better, and best, the legend goes, went all the way to eleven. It was an innocent time when brains were short, leather pants were tight, and hair was long. Some of us remember it as if it really happened.

Doug Martsch, on the other hand, decided to reinvent that mythical age, and thus was born his band Built to Spill. Far from your central casting guitar hero--he’s a balding, if heavily bearded, scruffed-up Jeff Daniels look-alike--it’s hard to believe that this guy with the calm demeanor lets loose such sweeps and swoons. No “I’m a guitar ace” grimaces for him. Yet each of his songs are rock operas, replete with guitar arias worth all your Be-Bop Deluxe records, for all that glitters is not necessarily glam.

Instead, his ‘90s indie-cred runs deep: After time in Seattle, he went back to Boise, and then there’s the Halo Benders, his charming side project with K Records avatar Calvin Johnson. For although he’s got ideas out the wazoo (the band’s name must be a reference to his musical muse receptacle), he never forgets three things: rock is loud, loud can be pretty, and some wit never hurt, neither.

Last night at the fabled Troubadour in LA, Built to Spill revisited a touchstone album of the '90s for anyone who cared about what was good, Perfect from Now. As is the current vogue (see Sonic Youth and Daydream Nation, Liz Phair and Exile in Guyville--for all I know, Tony Orlando does Dawn's Ragtime Follies in Branson every night), they played the album in its entirety in order, leaving some room to let the solos breathe.

Sidenote: There is something weird about a show like this. One reason you see a band live is in theory anything can happen. Odd covers, broken strings, fights between bandmembers. Knowing exactly what a band would play in what order is sort of like going to see Mets games in 1962 (and, alas, many other years)--you know what's going to happen. So it's about that happening happening well, taking you back, reminding you how good something was, how you were young and at least in this case liked guitars a whole bunch. It's about a packed room of people as cool as you for being there (and I want that sentence ironcally and not, please).

I can remember plunking Perfect from Now On into the CD player pretty much every time we had people to the house in 1997. I wanted them to ask, "Hey, what are you playing?" Often they did. So hearing it all again brought all that back, that connoiseurship, that parceling of knowledge, that sharing of what's loved. Plus it thwacks, swings, and rocks, soars, swoops, and lifts the top of your head off in that good rock 'n' roll way (especially during "Velvet Waltz" which I sadly hadn't listened to in years).

Upshot--the show was good and made my memories better, which might be best. After they got done with Perfect, though, the six-member band (complete with cellist) kicked right into "Goin Against Your Mind" from 2006's You in Reverse, as if Perfect was no big deal--hey we've got a show to do. The took "Mind" for a ten-minute plus ride reverse, forwards, left-right, into overdrive. The encore: a lovely version of the hit single in a world where things of goodness were valued, "Car," complete with those ultra-cinematic "I want to see movies of my dreams" as the cello sawed, plus an extra longish end solo. Fine times.

Plus the subject for further research Christopher Walk-Ins opened and Quasi played the middle set--John Cale's piano torture attack filtered through '90s rock with the one and only Janet Weiss on drums. Indeed, when we first entered the Troubadour and checked out the t-shirts in the front bar, who is right behind Amy but Weiss, and Amy doesn't even notice depsite my trying to point it out without going all fanboy. As usual with legends, I probably blushed.

I'm Not Mencken This Up

Friday would be the 128th birthday of H.L. Mencken, who was known as the Sage of Baltimore. Now, that might not seem like a terribly competitive title, but no one turned a phrase like H.L. So I'm going to get out of the way and offer some all-too-apt quotes:

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

All government, of course, is against liberty.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.

To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.

Earmark This!

Because this has to be everywhere, folks!

Can Add a Dummy?

The U.S., in its effort to establish free trade in all things, has a brand new import on its way to Canada. It seems our great neighbor to the north (ok, our only neighbor to the north) is now trying to stop this at the border, a serious case of loving the stupid. The Chronicle of Higher Ed reports today (sorry, you have to register for the link so I'll excerpt freely):

Is "professor" a political insult? The Conservative Party in Canada seems to think so. It is portraying its main opponent in next month's early election, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, as a nerdy, out-of-touch professor.

"I think they've spent too much time reading the U.S. Republican playbook," said James Turk, executor director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

[...]

In various animated advertisements on its Web site, the Conservative Party has mocked Mr. Dion, a former political-science professor at the University of Montreal, by showing him standing and shrugging in front of a blackboard. On Tuesday a new ad featured a puffin pooping on Mr. Dion's shoulder. Uproar over the ad forced Mr. Harper to apologize, saying the caricature was in poor taste.

[...]

Mr. Dion went on the offensive to counter the "prejudice that an intellectual is not a human being," pointing out that while he liked to read books and enjoyed the outdoors, he wasn't a wealthy man and shared the same concerns as other Canadians, including worrying about paying the bills at the end of the month.

He of course added that as a professor he could actually balance his checkbook, unlike most of his fellow hockey-loving, doughnut-scarfing countrymen and women.

Seriously, it's not that in the U.S.--and I'm sure there's research somewhere showing only 47% of Americans can spell U.S.--we think "an intellectual is not a human being." We just don't trust them intellectuals, with their learning and big words and ability to figure and sense of context and history and everything. Gets in the way of Good Ole Merican Doing.

And the Republicans have been "doing" the U.S. for a long long seven years and currently have a bridge to nowhere to sell us.

Where Will You Blog Eternity

You see, there's this problem...I write for my job and my second job (and assorted third and beyond jobs), so sometimes I can't write specifically for you all, at least not the special things you deserve and expect, with all the appropriate inappropriateness, wacky non-sequiturs, cutting left-wing ranting, and more clauses and parentheticals than a grammarian would care to shake her chalk at. (There's a not-so-hidden grammar taunt right there.) I want to review The House of Blue Leaves at the Mark Taper, which we saw Sunday, and now tomorrow we go back to LA, since gas is under $4 a gallon again and the economy is swimming (in petrol products, or perhaps just Republican lies). For tomorrow night we go to the Troubadour, rock history itself, to see Built to Spill play Perfect from Now On in its entirety in order. I haven't done any of these entirety-order-get-your-cult's-nostalgia-cash shows yet, so that will certainly be worth an entry.

In the meantime, this post isn't here: but you did want to know about Beer v. Wine--This Time It's Dinner, didn't you?

Rob Me, but Don't Rub It In

I'm sure this has happened to most of us (which I would say even if I knew there were more than 3 or 4 of you out there in the first place)--we've all had that dream when you wake up terrified, convinced someone is covering you with a spice rub. Turns out your worst nightmare can come true, if you live in Fresno. For just this Saturday, according to the Fresno Bee, "A burglar...broke into a home just east of Fresno [and] rubbed food seasoning over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms."

I'm sure you're wondering what culinary fate befell the other man in this age of twisted traps glorified in movies like the Saw franchise and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (just try, I dare you, parents of young girls, to escape one of those stores with your credit card unscathed). Perhaps he was bammed with Emeril's Essence? Tenderized with A-1?

Even worse, for as the story reports, the burglar "used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head." (Just check the link to the story. Get it? Link?)

And no, I'm not going to make an 8-inch sausage joke. That would belittle (clearly no pun intended) the criminal and his twisted sense of crime, not to mention the poor victims, for the report says, "Both the spices and the sausage, reportedly were obtained from the victims' kitchen." Consider that the next time you bring something home from the Smart n' Final--will a robber someday use this Aunt Jemima against me in anger? How much of a bruise will a Hungry Man dinner leave if heaved (before being eaten, of course)?

Finally, police claimed, "the money was recovered, but that the piece of sausage used in the attack was discarded by the suspect and eaten by a dog." As if they've never heard "the dog ate my crimework" before.

Slightly South of the Border

For Dog Blog Friday: Just wanted to prove we tease both dogs equally. Do note Mookie has the hat on his head without a hand holding it. Draw your own conclusions. They should not include thoughts of staples.

Friday Random Ten

Bryan Ferry "Miss Otis Regrets" As Time Goes By
Yoko Ono and Yo La Tengo "Hedwig's Lament/Exquisite Corpse" Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Giant Sand "Resolver" Ramp
The Klezmer Conservatory Band "In Memoriam: For Yitzhak Rabin" Dancing in the Aisles
Brian Eno "Fractal Zoom" (Naive Mix II) Fractal Zoom ep
Peter Case "Breaking the Chain" Torn Again
Mingus Big Band "Invisible Lady" Nostalgia in Times Square
Wilco "Kamera" Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Matthew Sweet "Evergreen" Altered Beast
Alex Chilton "Single Again" Set

bonus
Frou Frou "The Dumbing Down of Love" Details

One of those lists that's more interesting than good. Still, any cut that brings together Greg Leisz and Robert Quine can't be all bad, and not just for the Scrabble points. And then that Chilton cover of Gary Stewart is quite fine.

Kent Quite Figure Out Where I've Seen Todd Palin

So tell me, baseball fans, am I the only one who has thought this: these two, separated at birth...

And if you know the guy on the right, and you've had 16 seasons to get to know him, then, well, you can fill in the rest. And I'm damn sad Barry Bonds doesn't read this blog.

Squeaky Dirty

Friday is the 33rd anniversary of Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (no relation to Ethan if equally self-destructive) trying to assassinate Gerald Ford, as she evidently didn't think Chevy Chase's satire was cutting enough. Perhaps still bitter that she got left off the Manson A Team and therefore was not part of the grisly Tate/LaBianca murders, Fromme had to do something to make herself stand out. It wasn't her fault we had such a nondescript president (after all, he wasn't elected, but that's true for W., too). To make up for that she wore a red nun-like outfit that went smashingly with her hair and .45...plus a desire to save the redwoods, and nothing says, "Yeah Trees!" like shooting the leader of the free world. Of course we need to forgive Fromme some, for as a teen she was part of a dance group that appeared on Lawrence Welk. Polkas could drive anyone into Manson's arms.

I Was For Woman Before I Was Against Palin

I have to wash out the ugly Republican grit in my mind, so here's some musical palate cleanser with some wonderful women, at the least the first of which is also a mother and mines it for brilliance, not political gain.



And then how where these folks never huge? Doggies, veiled Lady from Shanghai allusion, the gorgeous Carol van Dijk, but I guess everybody loves a band that sells.



Then there's this well-recorded/videod version of something totally gorgeous (and we need lots of that right now).



Turns out there are plenty of clips of new Neko, too, but most of those aren't quite up to snuff and "Star Witness" is so wonderful.

GOP--Keeping the Creep in Veep

So Sarah Palin says: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

The Ivory soap convention crowd (99.44 percent "pure") thought that was a wonderful line. So for Republicans that line must mean either: 1) all community organizers do nothing, 2) Barack Obama the community organizer did nothing (he is a lazy you-know-what after all), 3) community organizers work in neighborhoods where Republicans don't live.

And then there was her lie (no, not line, lie) of the night, which is saying something for this group:

We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco. As for my running mate, you can be certain that wherever he goes, and whoever is listening, John McCain is the same man.

Well, unless McCain's trying to impress the locals in Pittsburgh (so very far from Scranton) about how much he loves the Steelers. For he changed his story about what defensive line he named to his North Vietnamese torturers instead of his actual platoon mates. It's a good thing he doesn't try to make much of how his POW experience was crucial to his character or anything.

He's the same man alright--everyone to anyone. Crooks and Liars even cataloged 10 flip-flops in just under three weeks this past June, in minor little issues like Social Security, balancing the budget, defense spending, and domestic surveillance. Go read about that here. I guess if Palin gets to be VP, she can fire all the librarians who refuse to ban books, magazines, and websites that tell the truth.

Lies, Lies, and More Republicans

Amy is trying to kill me. She has the Republican convention on the TV and it's totally bizarro world as Mitt Romney rallies the troops with a litany of what's horrible about liberals. In this list, he first calls the Supreme Court, led by noted Red John Roberts, liberal--it coddles "Guantanamo terrorists." How Romney knows everyone there is guilty is beyond me (perhaps it's some Mormon superpower). Second on the list for the evils of the world after terrorists, and I wish I was making this up--teachers' unions. (Romney did just cinch Wendy McCaw's vote for the Republicans, if nothing else.)

Then there's this, he calls the Democrats the party of Big Brother. I guess he missed the past 7 years of the Bush White House wiping its ass with the Bill of Rights.

And I run into our office, stick my fingers in my ears, and say LALALALA as loud as possible. Can the Republicans even begin to have an honest debate on things?

Kicking It into Gere

I made fun of Texas the other day, but today it's Kansas' turn. For this evening someone got to my blog from Shawnee, KS by Googling the keywords, and I quote exactly, "guy who stuck haster up butt." Which meant he (c'mon, it has to be a he, or perhaps a woman who is wowed by Sarah Palin) found this entry that linked to this image (warning: not suitable for viewing 30 minutes after eating).

And as for tonight, and Joe Lieberman's turn as a Republican, it's only because they really can't have Newt Gingrich or Bob Ney or Denny Hastert or Ted Stevens or ___________ (fill-in your own disgraced loser) speak. When you bleed that much talent, you have to hire out.

Statue of Lib-food-ie

Hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend. We sure did, as I got to cover Slow Food Nation up in San Francisco--look for a post that's not here about it in the new future.