Tuesday, July 31, 2007

IRAQ VET. HUNGRY AND HOMELESS. PLEASE HELP.


A homeless veteran lies on a bed at New Directions, a private nonprofit residential and substance-abuse program for homeless veterans in Los Angeles Already, nearly 200,000 veterans—many from the Vietnam War—sleep on the streets every night, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.In 2004 the homeless vet count hit 500,000.

How far does the $4 billion "homeless budget" go for the 500,000 homeless vets? Not including the other 254,000 estimated homeless? I'm terrible at math...is that a hundred bucks each?

I read the following article in Harper's a couple of years ago...and it's haunted me since...and Cappy's recent post reminded me of it again....

Yet the story of this war cannot be told solely in the count of its dead. Some 12,500 American G.I.s (note: this figure is over 30,000 today) have been wounded in Iraq. Eight soldiers have been wounded for every one killed, about double the rate in Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. The percentage of soldiers who have undergone amputations is twice that of any of our past military conflicts; nearly a quarter of all the wounded suffer from traumatic head injuries, far more than in our other recent wars. These are soldiers who have survived Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and car bombs, who are living with mangled limbs, eye injuries, and brain damage. The true legacy of this war will be seen not in the memorials to those lost forever but in the cabinets of files in the neurosurgical and orthopedic wards at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in the backlog of cases at Veterans Affairs.

The hidden economic costs of the war in Iraq will not be found in the immediate treatment of the wounded or in increases to military death benefits. As expensive or labor-intensive as these might be, the largest monetary costs will involve the long-term care of thousands of severely and irrevocably damaged veterans; and these costs will only increase as the years pass. We are going to have to care and pay for a very large number of patients with what are, in any honest prognosis, lifelong disabilities. The price tag will be staggering. An above-the-knee computerized limb prosthesis--made of graphite and titanium, and battery powered with a microprocessor built in to better control movement--costs $ 50,000. A below-the-knee prosthesis is priced at between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000, and then there's the constant attention and ongoing readjustments needed to keep the prosthesis operational. The three types of upper-extremity prostheses offered by the military range in price from $ 5,000 to $ 100,000; patients are given one of each, in order to use them in different situations. In the past two years, there have been numerous multiple amputees who have needed double and triple prostheses.

Ultimately, if the Bush Administration continues its refusal to accept the realities of this conflict, the most enduring images of the Iraq war will be the sight of legless and addled beggars on our street corners holding cardboard signs that read: IRAQ VET. HUNGRY AND HOMELESS. PLEASE HELP.
Harper's, August 12th, 2005

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Beyond The Yellow Ribbons

The Clash - Interview with Tom Synder 1981



Thanks to The Portland Mercury for highlighting this interview and to Mister Anchovy for heads up regarding the death of Tom Snyder. Snyder and The Clash are charming plus, Snyder asks the band about controlling their album Sanidisita! by content and cost. The Clash produced a three record album running at about two hours and sold it for around 2 bucks in 1980...and it was such a revolutionary idea they were making headlines. Not only that...Sandinista! is one of the most fucking brilliant records ever made.



You can see Paul Simonon playing on the Henry Rollins IFC site with The Good, The Bad and The Queen. Henry Rollins show is fantastic and his site offers tons of interviews and performances with Iggy Pop, Shane MacGowan, Peaches and lots more.

The Last Artist

Black on Maroon by Mark Rothko, 1959.

Mark Rothko had a commison in the late 50's with Canadian distiller Seagrams to paint a series for the Four Seasons in New York for $35,000...which would be $2.5 million today. He struggled and worked on these paintings for months. One evening he and his wife went for dinner at the Four Seasons and the next morning he called the contractor and dropped his contract, saying...the people who would eat that food and pay that kind of money for that food will not see his art.

If you get a chance check out Shama's Power of Art, especially the Rothko episode. I was crying by the end of the segment merely looking at his art on the tv, it was so beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen his work in the flesh without getting on my knees before it despite being in a public setting. He was the real deal.

Who, today, would walk away from 2.5 million believing that art is "not made for historians or design students but for humans"?
No.15 by Mark Rothko, 1952.

In the June 13, 1943 edition of the New York Times, Rothko, together with Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman, published the following brief manifesto:
"1. To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.
"2. This world of imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense.
"3. It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.
"4. We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.
"5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted."
[Rothko said "this is the essence of academicism".]
"There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.
"We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art."

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Solar Powered Mobility



Parts List
• Junxion Box wireless gateway $700; junxionbox.com
• Verizon Wireless EV-DO PCMCIA card $100; verizonwireless.com
Voltaic Systems solar-charging backpack $230; voltaicsystems.com

These parts are available at any electronics store:
• 12-volt battery with spade terminals, 1.2 or higher amp-hour $15
• Male DC power plug, size M $5
• 18-gauge wire, black and red $5
• Female insulated quick-disconnect connectors, crimp-type, sized for battery spade terminals $3
• In-line fuse holder $7
• 20-amp fuse 50 cents

From Popular Science.

Friday, July 27, 2007

What Movie Are You?

Thanks to From A Lofty Perch for this quiz. I did it twice because I didn't realize there was an option to click on more questions...I recommend clicking on the "45 questions"...it had more intense questions than the dozen or so set of questions. (this is hilarious that this is what movie I would be as I've probably seen it at least a 100 times. I even loved the short-lived tv series of Indiana Jones)

Cormac McCarthy's Toy Story 3





From the Village Voice

Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Nomi Song, Thursday Thirteen and Performance Art

!) A cartoon illustration of a little known artist.
2) Klaus Nomi moved to America from Berlin in the 70's and became an avant garde performer during a mysterious florid time in New York City.
3) He sang like Maria Calas, and when people saw him perform, they had to be reminded that he was not lip syncing...his voice was so unusual. He was a singer and PERFORMANCE ARTIST
4) He taught himself to sing and to bake. His music was sci-fi high-voiced opera done to a slight pop beat.
5) He was an excellent pastry chef(he worked at the WTC, and then free-lanced)
6) At Max's Kansas City, Kenny Scharf was one of his go-go dancers.
7) He was friends with Scharf (neighbours actually), Keith Haring, Ann Magnuson and Jean-Michel Basquiat.


8) A documentary was made a couple years ago called The Nomi Song. We saw it last week and it is very good.
9) Ann Magnuson says she and Nomi used to watch All MY Children together.
10) Klaus Nomi's name is an anagram of the science magazie OMNI.
11) He performed on Saturday Night Live in 1979 with David Bowie.
12) Nomi was the first celebrity to die of AIDS, in 1983. People were so afraid of the horrifying unexplained "gay cancer" that many of his friends did not see him at his deathbed.
13) Malcolm McLaren's dance opera version of Madame Butterfly was a huge hit one year after Nomi's death. B-52's, raves, techno, Nine Inch Nails, Bowie, Culture Club, Madonna, Marilyn Manson all owe props to him...in fact, if Klaus Nomi had survived even a year longer to appear in videos on MTV...I probably wouldn't be writing this Thursday Thirteen about him, he would have been a household name.

(oops...since my template has been updated..."mister linky" is on the fritz...I'll add you here if you leave a comment until I figure out how to get "mister linky" to work)

:) Thanks for stopping by!

1) Tempest Knight, 2) Karen, 3) Single Parents Unite, 4) Joystory, 5) Christine D'Abo, 6) Amy Ruttan, 7) Ed, 8) Jordan Stratford 9) Carmen, 10 Thomma Lynn,/li>, 11 Art by Diana Obe, 12 Matthew.

Milla Jovovich - It's your Life

In 1994, this was one of my favourite songs. I would play it over and over...and yes...that is the supermodel Milla Jovovich.

She made an album The Divine Comedy and I got turned on to it by a dj at Sanctuary. (old goth bar in Toronto)

Milla is an classic hollywood trifecta, persona, she can sing dance and act. This month's SPIN magazine had an article on the good and bad of actors who made records and I was glad to see that they credited Milla with "music worth hearing at least once". Milla has also made music with Crystal Method. I love her voice.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

My Dream Home

My dream home puts the uberurban Stagg into a worried state...I hung this picture up in my kitchen two years ago. I seriously love tipi's and would love a hundred acres on the Magnetawan River where I would tear down all the farm fences and weed out any totalitarian agricultural plants transported to the great north. ( Actually, I wonder if it was really the tipi that made Stagg nervous in this picture, or the gorgeous wedding dress heh heh)
Wigwam Sam has custom and special made tipi's. Hey, some tipi's are pretty huge with cooking areas and a nice wifi set up would be perfect along with a flyfishing pole and heirloom cabbage. What else do you need to live thin and feel large?

Slow Poke?

Two Questions...

1) Is my blog loading when you drop by? Mister Anchovy says it is very slow to come up when he drops by...he suggests that maybe it is the high res photos or too many unarchived posts? Are you having troubles?



2) I wonder if any of my visitors has read this book The Art World Dream: Alternative Strategies for Working Artists 2001, by Eric Rudd? I thought maybe Steven or Sally or L.M. might have read this one...any good?

Amazon says: Multi-media artist Eric Rudd is not writing for hobby painters or market-driven artists who measure success by the number of prints sold. He has written this book for artists with vision, who see themselves producing great art that has potential for recognition in museums and perhaps a legacy in art history. Rudd sees this as a relatively small group among those who claim to be artists and he pulls no punches in revealing the sacrifices and hard work necessary to achieve these goals. He details his own successes and failures both as an artist and developer of loft art studios from Washington, D.C. to North Adams, Massachussetts. His ideas aren't for the faint-hearted or the hobby painter but rather for the artist with a strong belief in the greatness of the work and a willingness to take risks to create a space where this can happen.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Mathematical Poetry

Dog Dream by Kaz Maslanka. Just one of the great images and poems you can find at Kaz Maslanka's Mathematical Poetry blog.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Life With An Artist Is FUN!

Okay, so a window blind got broken. Stagg makes a new window covering till the blind gets replaced (that's probably something I would procrastinate er, um about a year.) I wonder if the neighbours are gonna complain when he hangs the naked people in the window?
Took our Independance Day wreath down and Stagg made a new one.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Clown Culture

Here is a "bozo the clown" that probably started my fear of clowns...hey The Underground Baker had one of these when we were little...I think she still has it but we hid him somewhere far away from us...in a trunk...?
Japan egg cup clown.
1978 Smurf Clowns.
Ooh...a Varga girl with a clown...
Evil Clown belt buckle...

Check out all the clown gear for sale on eBay, it's amazing how much clown motifs are collectible...there are absolutely pages of clown items...107 pages of clown gear...
Krusty the Clown
Wind-up toy clown
Watercolor Clown

Soooo...I posted Stagg's clown paintings on eBay today. They've been down the basement because well, I might have a minor fear of clowns...I mean wasn't that what Shakes The Clown was all about...how scary clowns can be? Any way I'm holding out high hopes these clowns will sell because people sure seem to like clown stuff....shudder?
Smoking Clown by Anthony Stagg.

SWAG experiment


We're fooling around with a SWAG spot...for our zine BURNING CAR, some hats with "gnosticminx" or "Burning Car"on them, some books of poetry, some customized items of STAGG AND MINX, handmade postcards and odds and ends.

I want to take a minute and send a special shout out to some of our blog friends who sent us short stories, art work and poems for our upcoming zines...thanks a lot guys...we're close to having 2 finished editions!

Friday, July 20, 2007

Music Is Art

How many amazing music blogs are there...and I think in my blogroll, I found at least four or five of the very best ones...and Music Is Art continues to enchant me...and look! She posted a photo of herself standing next to OURS tour bus from a few years ago...I love just showing up at Music Is Art for the sheer surprise of everything about the blog...and it feels like home...

Ambition Makes You Look Pretty

I can't believe it's been ten years since one of the most influencial records and bands made it appearance. Stereogum celebrated the anniversary with a cover playlist and hurry over if you want to enjoy...it won't be online forever...(I just downloaded the whole playlist ah...)

Take Candy Home

This painting and many others are on display here:THE GALLERY IS OPEN
  • .
  • The Doctor Is In


    Remember last year about this time, I did an advice booth at a circus festival? I'm feeling like listening...Ask me anything...something keeping you up at night? Love problems? Decor challenges? Don't know how to save money?

    Why The First Earth Conquered The Second...from Our Kind by Marvin Harris.(published in 1989, a decade before Guns, Germs and Steel which won the Pulitzer for the same topic)

    On his way to Tenochtitlan after landing in Vera Cruz in 1519, Hernando Cortez traveled through a cultural landscape that was eerily familiar. He passed through cities, towns, and villages that had streets and plazas and houses for the rich and poor; he saw people growing crops in lush, irrigated fields, while others carried baskets of food and craft products such as obsidian knives, well-made pottery, featherwork, and skins and furs. Along the way he met a familiar variety of humble men and women: potentates, aristocratic merchants, bricklayers, stonemasons, judges, priests, soldiers, slaves. Many were dressed in colorful woven garments and were adorned with exquisite jewelry appropriate to their high rank. And he passed palaces, pyramids, and other stone structures whose bulk, height, and symmetry spoke of great architectural and engineering skills. Yet there were certain things that were part of the everyday world of sixteenth century Spain that were strangely absent. The people in the feilds were using sticks and wooden spades. Where were the plows and oxen to pull them? and there was not so much as a single goat or sheep to be seen anywhere. Nor was there any sign of a cart, wagon, or any wheeled vehicle at all. For arms, the soldiers bore darts and spears that had points made out of stone. They knew nothing of steel swords or blunderbusses. And their ignorance of horses was so total that they initially judged animal and rider to be one and the same creature.

    Social life on the two earths had evolved along essentially parallel paths, but the pace of change was definitely slower in the Americas. Aggregate human responses tend to be similar when underlying conditions are the similar. But, of course, underlying conditions are seldom exactly alike. The two earths were twins but not identical twins. After the animal extinctions that occured toward the end of the last Ice Age on the second earth, the regions that were well endowed with domesticable plants became poorly endowed with domesticable animals. Nothing like sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, asses, water buffalo, or horses survived to be penned and fed from agricultural surpluses. True, the ancestors of the Inca had llamas and alpacas to domesticate, but they were fragile creatures, adapted to the highest Andean valleys. They could not be milked like sheep, goats, and cows, nor could they carry heavy loads like asses or horses, nor pull wagons or plows like oxen. Nor were guinea pigs an adequate stand-in for swine. Besides, none of the second-earth animals that were suitable for domestication were native to the highland Mexican region in which the progenitors of maize grew wild. I think this explains why the highland Mexicans retained seminomadic ways of life long after they had begun to domesticate their basic food crops. In the Middle East, sedentary villages could have their plants and their animal fat and protein, too, since both plants and animals were domesticated at the same time. Sedentism increased the productivity of the plant domesticates, which increased the commitment to village life. But in highland Mexico, the need to retain animal food in the diet worked against the abandonment of hunting. Hence, in contrast to the Middle East, the development of villages in Highland Mesoamerica did not precede the first phase of cultvation, but following it after a lapse of several thousand years. This, in turn, delayed the appearance of agricultural chiefdoms in the highlands and the appearance of the first highland states in habitats suitable for imperial growth.

    The Mexicans ultimately did domesticate the turkey, the Muskovy duck, the honeybee, and hairless dogs bred for meat, but these species were of no significance in the insipient agricultural phase and never did amount to much in later periods.

    Some anthropologists have questioned the idea that the paleoIndians confronted a poor choice of domesticable species and want to know why they did not domesticate tapirs, peccaries, antelope, or deer. Tapir and peccaries are lowland jungle species adapted to moist habitats and could scarcely have benefitted the people who domestcated maize and amaranth in the arid highlands valleys. As for deer and antelope, since no one else has succeeded fully indomesticating them, I do not see why the ancinet Mexicans should be expected to have done so. At any rate, they would have made even worse pack, traction, or milk animals than llamas and alpacas.

    Not only did the faunal extinctions retard the onset of sedentary agricultural villages on the second earth, but they deprived the second earth of animal-drawn plow agriculture and the ability to develop the full range of agricultural systems that were developed on the first earth. (The Inca actually did use a kind of plow that people pushed and pulled.) Most importantly, perhaps, the lack of traction animals inhibited the development of wheeled vehicles. The Mexicans had no trouble inventing the wheel, but they used it only to make toys for their children. Without traction animals, they had little incentive to build carts. Harnessing people to wagons is not much of an improvement over having them carry cargo on their heads or backs, especially if one includes the cost of building roads that are level enough and wide enough to accomidate a first-earth oxcart. The Inca did build an extensive network of roads, but only for human and llama foot traffic, saving themselves a lot of expense by using steps rather than switchbacks to master steep slopes.

    It is a striking fact that the great cities of the second earth were primarily administrative rather than trading centers. Not that they lacked markets, craft specialists, or merchants, but most trade other than in preciosities consisted of food grown within the city itself. Production for export of food or goods in bulk was strictly limited by absence of carts. Symptomatic of the relative underdevelopment of commercial exchange was the absence of all-purpose money. Except for the limited use of cocao beans by merchant castes in Mexico, the second earth lacked a coin of the realm. The lack of long-distance trade in bulk and the absense of coinage severely inhibited the development of the kinds of commercial classes that played an important role in the development of the classical imperial centres of Eurasia.

    Lack of interest in wheels inhibited technological change in many other feilds. Without wheels, there could be no pulleys, gears, or cogs, devices that enabled first-earth people to construct machines that milled flour, spun thread, kept time, and helped raise heavy weights, including the anchors and sails on their oceangoing vessels, and that formed the basis of mechanical engineering in the ages of steam and internal combustion engines.

    Would second-earth people eventually have developed wheels, cogs, gears, pulleys, and complex machines and gone on to their own industrial revolution? One good reason for answering the affirmative is that they had taken several crucial steps in the field of metallurgy. Having begun like their first-earth counterparts with cold-hammering of copper sheets, they had gone on to smelting and casting copper, gold, silver, and several alloys, including bronze, which they had just begun to use for knives and maceheads when the first Spaniards arrived with steel weapons and armor. An astonishing achievement of second-earth metalurgists specialists was their independant invention of the casting technique known as the lost-wax method. To make a mold for a desired object, they first made a wax model of it. Then they placed the model in a pit, or form, covered it with tightly packed sand, and poured molten metal onto the model through a small opening at the top. The metal instantly vaporized the wax and filled the resulting space with a metal facsimile of the wax model. A people who had gone so far with metalurgical skills must be credited with the likelihood of being able to go still further, perhaps not as rapidly as on the first earth, but in essentially the same direction. Second earth's invention of writing and numerology and its astronomical and mathematical achievements also argue for an eventual convergence of science and technology in the two worlds. Pre-Columbian Mexican calendars were more accurate than their Egyptian counterpart, and the Maya had mastered a crucial step in mathematics that eluded even the Romans and Greeks- a glyph for zero quantity to mark the absence of a base number or its exponents. But none of this changes the fact that the first-earth people had gotten a head start. It was they who possessed oceangoing vessels, gunpowder, muskets, steel swords, and the four-legged equivalent of armored tanks. The Inca and Aztec armies fought bravely, but without a glimmer of hope. Unbeknown to either side, their fates had been sealed long before, when first-earth people had turned away from hunting to domesticate sheep and goats and to settle down in agricultural villages, while second-earth people, bereft of domesticable species, continued to favor hunting for another 5,000 years.

    Cortes 1971, Hassig1988, Fagan1984, Hunn1982,Hosler1988, Sanders and Webster1988.

    Wednesday, July 18, 2007

    Art and Reading, 13 Things?

    Christmas Evening by Thomas Kinkade.
    Some people feel Kinkade's work is inspiring some insipid...but whether we like his work or not isn't important to the fact that his immense popularity is due to his audience wanting tangible images in hyper-aesthetic landscapes harkening a lightfilled pastoral Arcadia unlike America with it's homeless, drug users, motorcycles, crime, traffic, skyscrapers or disenfranchised or morphed defintion of families. There are no drive by shootings in Kinkades light of Jesus paintings. There is hope in the nature setting.
    Balloon Flower by Jeff Koons.
    I happen to like Jeff Koons a fair bit. I've been aquainted with both the man and his work since his early career. But my feelings about Koons body of work are also not relevant to them as examples of mass appeal art. When someone buys either Koons or Kinkade they not buying art that is made by either artist yet they are buying work that inspires peak experiences. In person Kinkades work is quite surprising...it is a print available to the public that has light sensitive acrylic "points" applied in a factory over top the base image. Often these "paintings" are displayed and sold with an accompanying light that makes the added acrylic features kind of "glow".

    I understand the popularity of Kinkade, I only wish when a family put out a few hundred bucks for his work...they were taking home an actual painting. Right now that same family could go to eBay and buy very inspiring original art by searching for "outsider art" and finding all sorts of pieces for less than a hundred dollars! Or that family could go to a local art opening and buy art for about half the price of a Kinkade.

    BUT...for decades artists and writers have been making work in general that doesn't have any belief or respect for the human figure...for the human in nature or the idea that art is transcendental and should be measured by it's quality to inspire a peak experience...so what we have seen for decades (actually especially since late Renaissance) progressively in literature and art is a move away from the transcendental...

    Yes, the magic quality of standing next to a Jeff Koons giant "balloon" figure or the comfort and emotional reassurance in a peak experience of a Kinkade painting is what the mass American populace is actually craving.

    McCarthy's Blood Meridian presents the human figure in a hyper-aesthetic colorful referenced world, where violence is associated with the body...where we feel transcendance in it's manner and style as we read. Blood Meridian was largely ignored because it was transcendant in a materialistically obsessed society. Since it's publication critics have deconstructed the novel as a political exploration of socialism, as a religious quest, or cautionary tale among many other disciplines for interpretation.

    We had seen an absence of novels written in the context of the human figure in landscape for decades...and the genre is often shrugged off as "mans mans" writing...yet the mass appeal of Jon Krakauer's non-fiction Into Thin Air defies the smothering effects of religion and science to banish the transcendental with intellectual explainations for "peak experiences".

    Religion insists on divinity and science insists on analytical logic: both of which is death to literature and art.

    We have convinced ourselves that professors can explain literature and that critics can appraise it...in order for it to have meaning in our economy...

    ...when in actuality the value of literature and art lies in it's capacity to transcend intellect and offer the illogical and priceless LIFE AFFIRMING peak experience natural to all humans and imperative to survival.

    When will more than a handful of artists and writers start to make transcendental work inspiring a peak experience again?







    Tuesday, July 17, 2007

    It's Not An Ice Cream Truck...But...


    The Igloo in Toledo Ohio has a small igloo for pets.

    She Was Major

    I didn't want to watch it, I didn't think I was interested...but it turned out to be major.
    Posh Spice is major funny and she has major boobs and major shoes...and the reality show Victoria Beckham Comes To America was major funny. I've become a major fan.

    Monday, July 16, 2007

    Let's All Hate Toronto


    Although Montreal would likely be the most fervant Toronto-hater in the country because of long-standing sports and cultural rivalries, Spence and Nerenberg found that's not the case.

    "The West only started hating Toronto in the way it does now in the last 20-30 years," Nerenberg said. "This is a trend that Toronto isn't really aware of. It's news to them."

    Top honours go to Vancouver, Nerenberg said. "Vancouver is much more resentful."

    Thanks to Nice Marmot for pointing out this mockumentary to me!

    ..And Nice Marmot also offered up an excellent online article about Emergence And The Origin Of Life

    The Little Foxes


    The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the deep South at the turn of the 20th century. Regina Giddons has her daughter under her thumb. Mrs. Giddons is estranged from her husband, who lives in Chicago and suffers from a terminal illness. But she needs him home, and will manipulate her daughter to help bring him back. She has a sneaky business deal that she's cooking up with her two elder brothers, Oscar and Ben. Oscar has a flighty, unhappy wife and a dishonest worm of a son. Will the daughter have to marry this contemptible cousin? Who will she grow up to be - her mother or her aunt? Or can she escape the fate of both? From IDMB

    This film adaptation of the Lillian Hellman play depicts a post-Civil War southern community where nothing is more important than money and power to Regina Giddens (Bette Davis). In order to join her equally ruthless brothers in a scheme that is sure to gain her wealth and power, she uses her young, naïve daughter to fetch her estranged, ailing husband who is living elsewhere. When she cannot convince her husband to give her the money, she sets forward a cunning plan which escalates.

    Live From Vancouver

    Okay...every have your friends completely disappear on you? I've disappeared...and sometimes friends are MIA..sometimes we are too busy to blog...Rock It To Me moved and haven't seen him for six months but he's back...hope you drop by and say hi to him...

    Saturday, July 14, 2007

    Def Jam Poetry - George Clinton

    Flamer

    Anonymous said...
    please keep your hysterical, boring diatribes off the cormac mccarthy board.

    sincerley,

    cormac mccarthy

    8:57 PM

    Friday, July 13, 2007

    An E-mail Request From Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora the Music Genome Project

    Hi, it's Tim one more time...

    Disaster looms! Yesterday a federal court denied a plea to delay the massive increase in rates webcasters must pay the record labels. This means that, absent immediate Congressional action, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Monday threatening the future of all internet radio.

    This is a very dire situation and I'm writing to ask one more time for your support. The effort you've made over the past four months has been extraordinary and has forced the rapid introduction of the bill, but the committee process has been sluggish and we need to once again remind the representatives of the urgency of this issue. This is perhaps the most important phone call you can make for us.
    Please call your Congressional representatives in the Senate and ask them to force immediate action on the Internet Radio Equality Act and bring the bill to a vote. It is critical that their phones begin ringing off the hook starting early in the morning. If it's busy, please try again later.

    Congressperson Rahm Emanuel: (202)225-4061

    Senator Richard Durbin: (202) 224-2152
    Senator Barack Obama: (202) 224-2854

    I'm sorry that we have to keep asking you for this - but it's our only recourse. We are no match for the legal and legislative strength of the RIAA and we need your help.

    Thank you again.


    Gratefully,



    -Tim Westergren
    (Pandora founder)

    On A Lighter Note

    I used to sit outside the Art Gallery Of Vancouver in the 90's and watch punks and goths do this dance....WEST COAST SWING. This is Pasha and Sara on So You Think You Can Dance

    Thursday, July 12, 2007

    I Have A Stalker-Part 2

    This is a post directed to a victim of my stalker...

    ...and I don't know if this post is going to help us resolve our differences...I posted it yesterday and still I haven't heard from a fellow participant at my online bookclub...who was used by someone stalking me in order to get to me.

    When I noticed I had an anonymous person harassing me at my online bookclub... I was afraid...why and who could this person be? Then when I started to suspect that a fellow participant was e-mailing and seemed chummy with this stalker...I confronted them...and we have had a falling out ever since. We had had a challenging ten years of discussions at this book club long before this stalker starting to harass me online...and I suspect this stalker knew how to manipulate people and take advantage of their adversarial position with me.

    I've re-written this post because it feels futile...especially since I may not be able to resolve the issue with this victim of my stalker.

    My stalker is a sadistic sociopath...and even writing about them is upsetting...and hardly a conducive way to start patching things up with someone also victimized by them. somehow acknowledging the manipulative talents of this stalker begins to free their power over others though...and it has been advised that one should talk about their stalker to be able to heal from the experience and in order to remove their power.

    I hope that some how this fellow victim of my stalker will come here...because I am very sorry that I was angry with them...and realize now...perhaps too late...

    ...that there was almost no way they could have understood how manipulative and deceptive this persons motives were...I know it's taken me a year to finally figure out why they were harassing me online.

    Now that I know my stalkers motives and their methods...I am no longer afraid of them...but unfortunately they did a lot of damage between some book club participants...and maybe it is too late to repair the damage?

    I hope not.

    Enter The Realm


    Thirteen things around the apartment. I may regret this...I'm sure I've got some dirty dishes in these shots...um this is week #46 I think for me and Thursday Thirteen. I've missed a couple I'm probably closer to 50 weeks actually. Wow, almost a year!
    I love roses so I cut up dozens of Wedding magazines and glued all these bouquets into a collage, this is a part of that...I guess kind of like that lady in Fried Green Tomatoes now that I think about it.


    My professional quality juggling balls. No, I'm absolutely terrible at juggling, but it's a surprisingly robust workout.
    I told y'all I'd show you what we bought at Cabela's in Michigan.
    My bulliten board, yes that is Trey and Matt dressed as women at the Oscars (nominated for "Blame Canada" song 1999)
    Things in transit...the brown paper bag is our batteries for toxic waste drop off...all the rest are things we are mailing to family and blog friends...we let them pile up and then haul them off...




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