Saturday Morning Me

saturday morning me//
wokeup/fellouttabed/draggedacombacrossmyhead/
daughter texting/husband twisting/j-on his mac/
k-on her cell/mom's sipping espress-ieio/
waiting for my yayas, uh-huh/
everyone's all plugged in one way or the other/
holiday hangover/must.begin.healthy.regimen.stat/
listening: intervention by the arcade fire-wow!/
so what about you?/


* Banksy Opens Xmas Shop - Banksy said: "I felt the spirit of Christmas was being lost. It was becoming increasingly uncommercialised and more to do with religion, so we ­decided to open our own shop and sell pointless stuff." link

* Hangman, hangman, upon your face a smile

* George W. Bush QUOTES:
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."

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Pan's Labyrinth

12-28-2006 - Pans Labyrinth US Premiere Tomorrow!

From the website:
For those of you lucky enough to live close to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, Pan's Labyrinth is coming to a theater near you TOMORROW! link

"A stark, disturbing fairy story for adults. Its provocative vision of the monsters of fascism and childhood packs chilling power."

A disturbing fairy story for adults. A genuine reacharound sound bite that'll bring me and the rest of the disturbed into the theaters.

link

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POWs - prisoners of "W"

BuzzFlash: Why do you think the rebuilding effort and relief effort in New Orleans has just come to a complete halt?

Greg Palast: It's not stalled. This is the plan. This is another White House gimmick to hide their evil intent in the clothing of incompetence.



The same with Iraq -- oh, we screwed up? We didn't get all the cheap oil that Wolfowitz promised in his congressional testimony, when he said the price of oil would decline. Well, it's gone up. Golly gee, who funds the Bush Administration but the oil companies and Saudi Arabia? Who profits when the price of oil goes up? That's "Mission Accomplished."



Look to New Orleans. Golly gee, the black folks haven't come back. There are no labor unions anymore in New Orleans. There are no public schools. It's all vouchers. Worker wages have gone down. It's "Mission Accomplished." This is the plan. This is the program.



The idea that this is just a screw-up, or a delay, or a stall is wrong. This is the plan. You're seeing it in effect. They don't ever want those people back. You still have 73,000 POWs - prisoners of "W."

What makes Palast a good investigative reporter is that he does his homework and not only tells us the real story sans agenda, but always finds a way to get his voice heard. Sure is a tenacious little fucker.

link

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James Brown Dies

James Brown dead at 73

My memory of James Brown comes from a 1969 concert in a small southern town high school gym with my friend Debbie and being the only white people in the audience.

We all knew he was a great singer and dancer, but being such a showman made seeing him live so special. When calling out "Maseo, come blow your horn" and "Watch me while I do the James Brown" while he did his signature slide dance with those little feet moving like lightning. He came to the stage with his cape on and someone takes it off. By the end, it's draped on his shoulders again, he's drenched in sweat and he's ushered off stage only to return for an encore as he throws the cape to the floor.

His singles played at every party in the mid 60s. His "Live At The Apollo" was my favorite album and it may still be here someplace. I know we still have some old 45s of his around here.

link

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Christmas Day

[via]

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Holiday Wishes

Hope you had a scintillating Solstice
A delightful Yule
May your mirth be multi-orgasmic
Your visions vibrant
Your glee glorious
Your festivities fulfilling
And your halls decked with Love and Peace.

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WEBTRAIL

W E B T R A I L

* Above graphic is one example of the excellent collage art by Agnes Montgomery, who is currently working on something for Animal Collective's next release.

* I didn't know there was a David Gilmour Blog

* New anarchy aggregator site, Carnival Of Anarchy, is blazing a path through intertopia. Will be December 29 and the theme is Anarchist Blogs, Anarchist blogging.

* From the One Club, The Alchemists is a film "about 5 people who hated the world so much? they changed yours".

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Skyler's Marilyn Monroe Tattoo

My daughter's new tattoo. I really like it. Marilyn Monroe's name, lips and mole. She's a major MM collector.

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Best Album Of The Year - 2006

Best Album Of The Year - 2006

I'm certainly not an expert in all things music but I know what I like and here's my pick for CD/album of the year.

Amputechture by The Mars Volta.

I still break out in a sweat when I listen to it and after it's over, I feel some sort of musical orgasmitronic release. Vermicide is probably my favorite track.

Now anything that elicits this type of response deserves Album Of The Year. So I salute you and my husband salutes you.

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saturday morning me//
white tee/black yoga pants/black houseshoes/do-rag/
white tangerine tea/warm brie on rye toast/
forecast: decor8 for 'hood holiday extravaganza tonight/
listening: silence by delerium/
got them solstice/yuletide/xmas/hanakkah-
kwanza/saturnalia boomshakalacka blues/
can i open my present yet?/
so what about you?/


Today's Quote:
"As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free." -- Eugene Debs

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Gnarly Traffic

In an errand run yesterday to do some of my Mother's Christmas shopping for her hairdresser, baker and candlestick maker, I was surprised to see the traffic gnarling it's way throughout this small Tennessee town. People pulling out in front of you, cutting you off every other block.

I reminded myself that it's not as bad as the traffic in Asheville, NC. And surely not as bad as Atlanta, GA. Atlanta is probably the worst clusterfuck of traffic I've ever witnessed. And yes, worse than New York. Pack a lunch in case you get stuck on I-285 circling the city looking for your exit.

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Santacon

Santacon!

Every December for the last 13 years, Cacophonous Santas have been visiting cities around the world, engaging in a bit of Santarchy as part of the annual Santacon events.

It all started back in 1994 when several dozen Cheap Suit Santas paid a visit to downtown San Francisco for a night of Kringle Kaos. Things have reached Critical Xmas and Santarchy is now a global phenomenon.

He's definitely getting into the "spirit".

Related Resources
* See if Santacon targeted your city
* Flickr: Santarchy, Santacon
* Search for Santarchy

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Planning Solstice Celebrations

Winter Solstice Celebrations

It's not too soon to think about Winter Solstice celebrations, which are increasingly becoming more popular. (If you really want to go old school, see Saturnalia.) Some people do this in addition to their usual Christmas traditions. Some have the celebration of Jesus birth assimilated into the Winter Solstice. And some are just tired of the whole cheesy commercialism of Christmas that concentrates more on enriching the retailers and stressing us all that they wish to try something different.

It depends on what you want to get back from this season. Love? Peace? Presents? Do you want to honor it with a religious experience? And which one? Should you feed your spirituality in a more earth-based way, leave out the whole biblical aspect, or celebrate your usual family traditions? And what about the children?

How does a Buddhist couple with Protestant parents and Pagan kids celebrate the holidays? We manage to do our own thing and also honor our family's way of celebrating by finding something we all can relate to. One thing is we all celebrate the Winter Solstice and continue through New Year's Eve: 12th Night. We build a bonfire, (my husband's favorite part) and a Yule log is taken from that to the indoors where it (and more firewood) burns until the 12th Night. Then you spread the ashes on the field or garden on the first day of the year (which get into Compitalia). In those 12 days there's also a procession, gift-giving, (a little gift each day) bells, singing, paying it forward, feasting, prayers and much more but this is getting a little long.

Winter Solstice for 2006 will occur in North America on December 21, Thursday. The precise time depends on your time zone. In PST, it will be 4:22 pm; in EST, 7:22 pm.
* * * * *
Related Resources
* Solstice Planning Guide for the home and outdoors.
* Winter Solstice Religious Celebrations
* Sew seeds for Winter Solstice.
* Saturnalia


In the midst of winter I found there was within me an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

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White Knuckle Express

This is the time of year that we recovering drug and alcohol addicts will white knuckle it, hoping to sail on through the holiday stress and parties without slipping. The time of year we must steer our car away from the liquor store. This time of year it's best to keep my blinders on when I see old playmates around town; step up the pace, and hit the breeze. Drinking and drugs were used so often to deal with my normal daytoday that it's so automatic to go there. After all this time and even in my dreams.

Sometimes I find that a warm geez or an iced anything with lime still wakes me with a smile and glow. And just when I start looking for old phone numbers and feel I might be the only junkie who feels this way, someone will confide their similar urges to me.

It always helps to know I'm not alone and together we'll get through another day, without singing any tired old platitudes; without any generic stepping going on. Strong in our weakness. Life, although not nearly as lively as before, really is good.

At the end of the day I can dust off the day's demons before turning in. Tick off the times I maintained direction, overcame weakness, kept it between the ditches. And with God/Goddess willing, I'll rise to battle another day.

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Asshole Santa

Chunklet

...once a year I don a Santa costume that's doused in cheap booze and cologne, chew a ceegar and go by the name "Asshole Santa". I'm doing it on Saturday December 16 at Criminal Records in Atlanta. Come on down and get a holiday card worth putting on your worthless photo page on myspace, you trendy follower of irony.

PBR on the tree, I'm filled with glee....this is the Santa's lap I wanna sit on.

technorati tags:santa

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saturday morning me//
man, o' man, ees cold--8° in the hills this morning/
hope my car had enough antifreeze in it/
sipping hot tea & not sipping a biscuit/
candles burning/sage smoldering/cauldron bubbling/
listening to: xumantra--bowls, bells, gongs/
i lit a candle for those who dread the holiday season/
to offer lightbeams for your peace of mind/
so what about you?

Stop thinking, and end your problems. --Lao Tzu

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MUSIC | STUFF

* I have Leary surrounded. Interview with John Higgs. link

* Former Mega City Four singer Darren "Wiz" Brown died from a blood clot on the brain on December 6, 2006. Condolences are being received here.

* These swinging dicks have the 'I Got The No Pussy' blues.

* Bob Dylan Live on WBAI. mp3

* You are MOG-ing, aren't you? link

* Dealhack Holiday Shipping Deadlines at Popular Online Stores

* Garrett County Press asked favorite artists to "color in" pages from Kevin Stone's latest project, The Pat Robertson and Friends Coloring Book.

* Hack This: Decorate a glass block from House Hacker. [via]

* How many blue and red people live in your zipcode? Following The Dollars, a Google Maps mashup that points out election donations in your zipcode.

whew! goodnight...

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APOCALYPTO - No One Can Outrun Their Destiny

"Gibson has made a film of blunt provocation and bruising beauty -- it's breathtaking to watch a jaguar racing in the jungle alongside the man who is named after the beast. Say what you will about Gibson, he's a filmmaker right down to his nerve endings." From Peter Travers, veteran Rolling Stone reviewer, who gives Apocalypto an excellent review. The film opens today, Friday, December 8.

If it has half the story as Braveheart, I'll enjoy the hell out of it.

Offical Link

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Women Take Back The Noise

Ninah Pixie is an experimental musician and force behind next weekend's "Women Take Back The Noise" event.

The three years in the making extravaganza is taking off like a house on fire.

UBUIBI presents a 3-day live experimental music series featuring a worldwide selection of female artists from the recently released Women Take Back The Noise compilation.

Each night of performance will focus on the themes from the 3-disc collection: ORGONAUTA, SCHEHERAZADE & VOCIFEROUS featuring works by the artists in their own unique style & interpretation, reflecting the mood of each theme. She's been so passionate and unwavering about this experimental music project that I expect we may one day say "I knew her when she was just starting out" and I couldn't be happier for her.

There's more at Women Take Back The Noise, Discogs, and Venues and Events.

Edited to Add: San Francisco Chronicle 96 Hours Section

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This is pretty cool. It's called a "slide show" bracelet (banned books) and it's only $15 USD. Created for the American Library Assn Office of Intellectual Freedom.

link

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W E B T R A I L

* See The Night Sky @ SkyTonight.com. Have you seen the moon lately? Wow!

* Dec 5, Tuesday in Celestial Timings: The still nearly full Lunar Standstill Moon is crossing the center point of the Galactic Edge as it moves into Cancer. This is what is referred to as the ?out of bounds? Moon and it is transmitting energies from beyond our galactic realm. This suggests we are receiving a whole new download of inter-galactic information and vibrational frequency that is beyond the bounds of our ordinary reality. Greater ease in assimilating these energies occurs when we consciously engage our thoughts and actions releasing attachment to results and limiting beliefs about who we are. See more on the Galactic Edge and the Lunar Standstill at Shamanic Astrology.

* A Stunning New Look At Déjà Vu at Science Daily describes an ongoing thesis that involves in part a study on a blind person. Fascinating read.

* I keep reading glowing reviews about The Fountain. Angela-Eloise has discovered the same thing. Sounds pretty good.

* More on Firefox Tweaks here. See Screenshot Firefox Extensions

* Whole Lotta CDs - Robert Plant's new 9-cd package. If you liked "Kashmir", and I happen to think it's his strong suit, this is for you.

* Today in Peace & Justice History, December 5:
1000 antiwar protestors try to close NYC induction center; 585 arrested including Allen Ginsberg and Dr. Benjamin Spock. (1967)

* Greatest Hits - Satirical Living Will

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Yahoo Food

Yahoo! Food is a new section on Yahoo.com. They seem to really be spiffing up the joint lately. via: sugarfused

Technorati Tags: food, holidays

A little posting with Firefox's Performancing feature, but I'm still having some trouble getting it set up correctly.

powered by performancing firefox

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This Week in Peace & Justice History is a collection designed to help us appreciate the fact that we are part of rich history advocating peace and social justice. While the entries often focus on large and dramatic events there are so many smaller things done everyday to promote peace and justice.

Sign up for weekly Peace History Newsletter

December 4, 1969
President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, and 40 U.S. governors embarked on a fact-finding mission to discover the causes of the generation gap. They viewed films of "simulated acid trips" and listened to hours of "anti-establishment rock music."

December 4, 1968
264 were arrested at a military induction center in New York City during War Resisters League civil disobedience action.

December 4, 1916
Five members of a woman's suffragist group unrolled a banner from the visitor's gallery during President Wilson's annual message (state of the union) to Congress, asking, "Mr. President, What will you do for woman suffrage?" There was no mention of the issue in his speech.

December 4, 1833
The American Anti-Slavery Society was formed by Arthur Tappan in Philadelphia. He and his brother Lewis were active abolitionists throughout their lives, including providing legal defense for the Africans who mutinied on the slave ship Amistad.

December 4, 1970
Cesar Chavez was sentenced to 20 days in jail for refusing to call off United Farm Workers? consumer boycott of lettuce.

December 4, 1980
United Nations agreed to establish the University of Peace and a short wave radio station, Radio Peace International, in Costa Rica.

link

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Blood Tea and Red String

"a David Lynchean fever dream on Beatrix Potter terrain as lovingly crafted as it is unsettlingly sour-sweet" - Dennis Harvey, VARIETY

Equally obsessive if far more oblique, Christine Cegavske's Blood Tea and Red String is the fruit of a 13-year process, a stop-motion fable as beguiling as it is baffling.

Crammed with overdetermined images of birth and death, Blood Tea concerns the struggle between a trio of grasping albino mice (done up like the coachmen in Alice in Wonderland) and a group of half-bird, half-wolf critters known as The Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak. Cegavske's debt to Jan Svankmajer is obvious, but the film more closely resembles one of Alejandro Jodorowsky's psychedelic vision quests as re-realized by Ladislaw Starewicz.

Cegavske's ultra handmade style (she did the menacing crows in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things) is the opposite of every trend in contemporary animation, and worth lauding for that reason alone.

The DVD was released this month and I am very curious to see it.

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Are you using the wrong Real Estate agent?

Saint Joseph (San Jose in Spanish and San Giuseppe in Italian) is petitioned by many conservative Catholics as one who grants an easy death, but in the wider world of Catholic folk-magic, he is the Patron Saint of real estate matters and home sales. The reason given for this belief is that he was a carpenter who taught his step-son Jesus the carpentering trade, and he always saw to it that Jesus was well housed.

REAL ESTATE SPELL KIT
Alleged to Help in the Sale of Real Estate

1 Dressed and Blessed Saint Joseph Candle
1 Statuette of Saint Joseph
1 Bottle Saint Joseph Oil
1 Saint Joseph Chromo Print
1 Saint Joseph Holy Card

The custom of burying a statue of Saint Joseph upside down in the yard while one's house is for sale goes back a long way in the United States -- for despite an "urban legends" page online that pseudo-authoritatively claims the custom only began in the 1970s, i have ads in 1930s hoodoo spiritual supply catalogues that offer a tiny statue of Saint Joseph in a case made to carry him upside down.

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Whatever works. I've never heard of doing this, but it's apparently done quite often.

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Iraq children taunted by a few US soldiers. It just breaks your heart.
link

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This is the Bitty Browser, a widget which I see has a ringing endorsement from Wired.

"Awesome hack! sez: Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief Wired Magazine

The Bitty Browser is only one of the widgets from Widgetbox.

"Our widgets work with Google, TypePad, WordPress, Blogger, MySpace as well as most other blogs, sidebars or websites. No plug-ins are needed, and they're free!"

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Webtrail | November 28

Thich Nhat Hanh's Walking Meditation - Can you walk your way to a calmer mind, more resilient heart, and kinder soul? Walking Meditaion, a book CD/DVD set featuring Zenmaster Thich Nhat Hanh, and dharma teacher and principle author Anh-Huong ushered readers into becoming "fully present and alive with every step, filling each moment with peace and joy." link

* Syd Barrett - A public look (You Tube) at the now-for-sale home of the late Syd Barrett, at 6 St. Margaret's Square in Cambridge. This link probably won't be up much longer, but you can check out the array of his possessions up for bid this Wednesday; includes a variety of his bright colored, hand-painted furniture, a fake Christmas tree, notebooks and more. [via]

* President Bush Promises To Kill More American Troops, Ejaculate Into Iraqi Vagina: link

* Protest News - Police are to demand new powers to arrest protesters for causing offence through the words they chant and the slogans on their placards and even headbands. link

* Absinthe Spoons might be a nice gift for someone this season. Or the whole set of glass, spoon, sugar cubes. I may snap some up for myself. I have several absinthe glasses and zero spoons. link

* Quote Of The Day: What's the last thing you saw on Broadway? (the Dylan musical) "The Times They are A-Changin'. Very Cirque du so Lame." --Michael Musto (gotta love that queen)

* George Bush Quote: "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur'."

* Today in Radical History: Nov 28 - 1944: Birth of San Francisco Digger, author Emmett Grogan.

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Shikito

Top selling toy Shikito from Superdeux's new B*Shit line. Huh?

Panik's Toy Box. Superdeux Shikito in Brown Vinyl

technorati tags:toys, design

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Taj Mahal is back in Berkeley. He stalks the street like a horse, striding down Shattuck Avenue with a thoroughbred's grace. In other places, this mountain of a man in white pants, tropical shirt and straw hat might draw some attention, but on the streets of Berkeley, he doesn't rate a second glance. He dismisses the Berkeley he finds today with a single word.

"It's Yupsterella-land," he croaks. "You know, like Cinderella, but it's Yupsterella." read more

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A Sister's Sacrifice
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

When the janjaweed militia attacked Fareeda, a village here in southeastern Chad near Darfur, an elderly man named Simih Yahya didn't run because that would have meant leaving his frail wife behind. So the janjaweed grabbed Mr. Simih and, shouting insults against blacks, threw him to the ground and piled grass on his back.

Then they started a bonfire on top of him.

But his wife, Halima, normally fragile and submissive, furiously tried to tug the laughing militia members from her husband. She pleaded with them to spare his life. Finally, she threw herself on top of the fire, burning herself but eventually extinguishing it with her own body.

The janjaweed may have been shamed by her courage, for Mr. Simih recalls them then walking away and saying, "Oh, he will die anyway." He told me the story as he was treated at a hospital where doctors peeled burned flesh from his back.

Kristoff doesn't state whether Halima lived or not, although since he doesn't mention her survival, I imagine that she sacrificed her life for her husband's. He tells another story of self-sacrifice, this time a sister leaving herself as a decoy for Janjaweed rapists so that her younger sister can flee:

One of the most inspiring people here is Suad Ahmed, a 25-year-old mother of two from Darfur. She lives here in the Goz Amir refugee camp, and last month she was collecting firewood with her beloved little sister, Halima, when a band of janjaweed ambushed them.

The janjaweed regularly attack women and girls part of a Sudanese policy of rape to terrorize and drive away black African tribes and Ms. Suad knew how brutal the attacks are. A 12-year-old neighbor girl had been kidnapped by the janjaweed and gang-raped for a week; the girl's legs were pulled so far apart that she is now crippled.

But Ms. Suad's thoughts were only for her sister, who is just 10. "You are a virgin, and you must escape," she told her. "Run! I'll let myself be captured, but you must run and escape."

The local culture is such that if the little girl were raped, she might never be able to marry. So Ms. Suad made herself a decoy and allowed herself to be caught, while her sister escaped back to the camp.

Ms. Suad plays down her heroism, saying that even if she had tried to escape, she might have been caught anyway, for she was five months pregnant. Or, she says, maybe she and her sister both would have been captured.

In any case, however, the janjaweed beat Ms. Suad, and seven of them gang-raped her despite her pregnancy. "You black people have no land," she recalls them telling her. "This land is not for you."

People from the camp found Ms. Suad in the hills that evening, too injured to walk, and carried her back. Ms. Suad said she didn?t seek medical treatment, because she wanted to keep the rape as much of a secret as possible and didn?t even tell her husband, although he eventually found out along with a few others. He accepted that it was not her fault....

The gang rape and beating were excruciating, she says, but her sacrifice was worth it. "When my sister saw me brought back and saw what had happened to me, she understood," Ms. Suad says. "She is very grateful to me."

"Side by side with the most nauseating evil, you stumble across the most exhilarating humanity."

link

This is by far our worst global tragedy and certainly warrants our utmost attention, but we don't give it the attention it deserves. Kristoff helps keep the genocide story alive thru his many visits and reports in the New York Times.

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Chicago 10 - Bringing a Political Trial to Animated Life

The trial of the Chicago Eight was the quintessential political trial and an animated account just doesn't do it for me. What's to stop an upcoming Scopes trial in 3D or an Iran-Contra/Watergate mashup?

(The Chicago 7 + Bobby Seale + 2 attys = Chicago 10)

link

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saturday morning me//
hazelnut coffee/hot cheese biscuit/oj,every day/
black jeans/grey hoodie/black sox/
goodbye: leftovers/hello: zantac/
today's forecast: going to time travel/
to visit our old commune/
listening: bjork/
so how about you?/

Today's Quote:
"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
--George W Bush

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From The Inbox: Tons of good reading material for you to devour on company time

* The first trailer for Factory Girl is out. The movie will be released in December. Plot Summary: A beautiful, wealthy young party girl drops out of Radcliffe in 1965 and heads to New York to become Holly Golightly. Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol, Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick. Interesting casting: Mena Suvari as Richie Berlin.

* The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers represents a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come.

* Music Makes Your Brain Happy - As a rock producer, Daniel Levitin worked with Stevie Wonder, the Grateful Dead and Chris Isaak. But the music business began to change, and a disillusioned Levitin turned to academia, where a career in neuroscience beckoned.

* PsyComp Academic - Featuring a searchable database of UK and USA University courses that offer an orthodox opportunity to study fields related to the psychedelic compounds. Examples of the types of course are pharmacology, neuroscience, cognitive sciences, anthropology, chemistry and many more.

* Matrixmasters New Podcast Listings from the Palenque Norte lectures at Burning Man2006, featuring Erik Davis, Rick Doblin, Earth & Fire Erowid, Alex Grey, Jon Hanna, Daniel Pinchbeck, Ann & Sasha Shulgin, and many more.

* The Biography Project is an ongoing volunteer effort to catalog and document the contributions of authors, artists, scientists, film makers and other culturally influential individuals on underground culture in its various forms. This is direct response to the unfortunate lack of accurate and comprehensive information on the net regarding Popsubculture

* Pleasure chemical - For years, the brain chemical dopamine has been thought of as the brain's "pleasure chemical," sending signals between brain cells in a way that rewards a person or animal for one activity or another. More recently, research has shown that certain drugs like cocaine and heroin amplify this effect ? an action that may lie at the heart of drug addiction.

* Shematrix is a body of diverse and courageous women who serve as gatekeepers for the Rite of Initiation, which happens within a 3-day journey. For women, this is known as The Gift -- A Woman's Rite to HerSelf and for men, The Grail -- A Hero's Quest to the Self.

* The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, dedicated to ensuring that humanity safely adopts increasingly powerful technologies, including genetics/biotechnology, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity.

* Ritual - In Lila, the Journal Of Cosmic Play -- Explorations into Shamanism and the Transpersonal Vision, the Bricoleur explains what he thinks are the most accurate descriptions of a "Ritual".

(most links via gaiamedianews monthly newsletters)

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Global Orgasm

If you've got a few minutes to spare on 22 December, and fancy a quick shag for the advancement of World peace and harmony, then get yourself down to Global Orgasm - a mass coming-together of.. well, no, a mass coming together sums it up quite nicely.

Fair enough, although those us who are working on the Winter Solstice will presumably have to nip to the loos at lunchtime and crack one off with a quick "I'll be back in ten minutes - I'm just off to inject some positive input into the Earth's energy field."

The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.

A good cause to get behind. Or under or on top of or...

link

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TERRY RILEY

One of Terry Riley's recent projects has him paired with the Kronos Quartet working for NASA. Thanks in no small part to Kronos leader David Harrington, Riley is commissioned to compose music based on radio waves collected by the Voyager space shuttle." [NASA] has done a couple of music projects before," explains Riley. "This one is based on Voyager's exploration, which flew by all of the planets. On board Voyager was a device called the Plasma Wave Receptor, which was invented by a Dr. Gurnett in Iowa. This [device] is able to receive radio waves the planets themselves broadcast, and each planet has a different sound wave."

Riley is the perfect candidate for NASA's space-age string quartets. Here on Earth, he's spent his time creating music light years ahead of his peers. Riley made his giant leap in the '60s with In C, a towering obelisk of a composition that cast an influential shadow over Philip Glass, Brian Eno and Pete Townshend (remember the intro to "Baba O'Riley" from. Who's Next?) and blurred the boundaries between classical music, avant-garde experimentalism and trance-inducing improvisation for all who followed.

Terry influenced not only Steve Reich, Philip Glass and their protégés, such as John Adams, but his influence spread out to certain European rock groups, such as Daevid Allen's Gong, Can and Tangerine Dream. In the case of these rock groups, I think sometimes Terry was the direct link."

He's been around for a long time and is still making beautiful music.

READ MORE »

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Key Democrat Wants To Reinstate Draft

WASHINGTON ? Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.

In 2003, Rangel proposed a measure covering people age 18 to 26. It was defeated 402-2 the following year. This year, he offered a plan to mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42; it went nowhere in the Republican-led Congress.

What a tool. Just more indication that the US 2-party system is royally fucked up. You can't even hope for the lesser of the two evils anymore.

link

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Hug Salt & Pepper Shaker

Very cute. And almost functional. More fun and mostly eco-conscious items at ELSEWARES.

link

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SOA WATCH

Close the School of the Americas, 11/17-19, Fort Benning GA; honor the memory of those who have died at the hands of SOA graduates.

There are scheduled events all weekend leading to Sunday, for the Memorial Service and Solemn Funeral Procession, followed by Nonviolent Direct Action, Puppets and Festival of Resistance at the gates of Fort Benning!

What exactly is the SOA?

SOA, or School of the Americas, is a school located at Ft Benning, GA, that trains assassins. On September 20, 1996, under intense public pressure, the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals that were used at the School of the Americas for years. These manuals advocated torture, extortion, blackmail and the targeting of civilian populations. A Washington Post article by Dana Priest broke the story.

The release of these manuals proved what SOA Watch, thousands of Latin Americans and numerous human rights organizations had been saying for years: that U.S. taxpayer money had been used for the teaching of torture and repression.

PEACEWORK Magazine is having Live Blogging

Argentine Torture Survivor Patricia Isasa Returns to Police Station Where She Was Imprisoned and Abused

Previously posted:
9/30/05
5/17/06
10/06/06

In 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would no longer send soldiers to train at SOA. Earlier this year, the governments of Uruguay and Argentina followed suit.

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saturday morning me//
long maroon dress/black leggings/
black fuzzy scarf/ballet flats/
breakfast: oj/toasted crackers/banana/
listening: gods gonna cut you down-johnny cash/
forecast: wash,rinse,spin,dry X 5, aka laundry day/
so how about you?/

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TRAFFIC JAMMING with the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir and the Not Buying It Band. Bring your own music, wear bright colors, wear Red. At least wear a Santa hat.

Traffic Jamming defined: That direct action in which citizens step into a roadway where cars and trucks are stopped, then preach and sing to the motorists while offering them information about global warming and how it's caused by buying and driving cars.

ReverendBilly.org


BUY NOTHING DAY
November 24, 2006, Friday

Every November, for 24 hours, we remember that no one was born to shop, we make a small choice to participate by not participating.

CONSUMERISM
Some of my friends really like to shop the sales. The bigger, the better. Generally I can't relate to the people who cheerfully get in line to buy more plastic doodads just to be buying something. Masses blindly following advertising commands and hype as they empty their wallets and then will borrow more money to follow more advertising commands and hype as they....

So, why am I really shopping? Do I need to buy this item, or am I shopping because the television told me to go forth and consume mass quantities of doodads?

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Dave LaChapelle

You may have read posts about the photographer, Dave LaChapelle, here. But I haven't been able to find anything new about him until recently on MySpace, where he keeps a journal. He's living on a farm in Hawaii and he's got The Men, War & Peace show Dec 2 in Berlin that's associated with the Helmut Newton group, which is as good as it gets so he's still at the top of his game.

Reading in his MySpace journal I see a courageous admission about him spending some time in a psyche ward and subsequently discovering he was bi-polar. For a popular photographer it could kill a career, but he doesn't care about that at all. He talks about a crushing breakup, high school, his family, his friends and more. It's been a soul searching couple of years for him and he appears to be content with the direction his life is going in.

His Vogue Homme pictures made me scream with fits of laughter. He says he got in trouble for them. I want to know if they're staged or did he just run into a Saturday night bingo game at Aunt Ruth's? What an oustanding talent. His journal is a fun read I wish for him continued success and peace.

MySpace
David LaChapelle Gallery

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FUCK: A Documentary
Tagline: The movie that dare not speak its name

via monochrom

"Scholars and linguists will examine the long history of fuck. Comedians, actors, and writers who have charted and popularized the upward course of fuck will be heard from, often while defending the Constitutional Right of Free Speech, all the way to the Supreme Court. FUCK will visit with those who actually fuck for a living. We'll hear from advocates who oppose fuck and it's infringement into our everyday lives. We'll watch some of the most famous and infamous film and television clips that feature fuck, we'll hear some of the most famous fucks ever uttered and we'll feel the impact of fuck on our everyday lives."

"The trailer looks amazing, it features Ice T, Kevin Smith, Janeane Garofalo, Billy Connolly and fucking Hunter S. Thompson!"

FUCK: A Documentary was released in the US on November 10, 2006. Maybe we'll laugh our fucking asses off.

link

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November Is Like A Month Of Mondays

November is a month of Mondays. A tired and dreary ass old Uncle Sal kind of Monday. And Mondays are no good for writing.

I kick out the jams by Tuesdays and sometimes end up impressing myself.

Wednesdays, I lie back on the chaise, overseeing mass quantities of writing fodder from Tuesday. It's been saved and deleted, rewritten and deleted some more but I've made an effort.

On Thursdays, I pick up the slack from Wednesday, furiously writing jibberish like some kind of stay-after-school punishment.

By Fridays, I find myself coasting with confidence. Words come easily, effortlessly; and even stupidly. But they flow. The main thing is to have it flow. Like the waves. And I ride it all the way to the shore. In my mind.

December is like a month of Mondays....

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The Inconvenient Death of Brad Will: Mexican police gun down a counterculture hero

Sarah Ferguson, Village Voice

The last time I saw independent journalist and activist Brad Will was in September in an East Village yoga studio. I turned my head and found him lying on the mat next to me in the darkened room, his pale, flat stomach rising and falling serenely with the rhythm of his breathing. So on October 27, when I saw the photos posted on the Internet showing the 36-year-old Will's mortally wounded body laid out on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, I cringed. There was that same pale, flat stomach now punctured by a bullet.

Over the course of his restless 36 years, he seemed to hit every activist node: squatting in the East Village, staging tree-sits in the Northwest with Earth First, and hopping freight trains to anarchist gatherings. He braved tear gas and rubber bullets during the anti-globalization battles in Seattle, Quebec, Prague, and Genoa (where a demonstrator was shot dead in the street by police).

When the heady Seattle-style direct-action movement in the U.S. toned down following 9-11, Will took his video camera south, following the wave of popular uprisings in Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and finally Mexico. Friends say he was consumed with overlooked social struggles around the world. "He was one of the most dedicated activists I ever worked with," says Brooke Lehman, one of the owners of the radical Bluestockings bookstore on the Lower East Side, who met Will in 1998. "You could pretty much guarantee if there was a cause or an action, Will would be there. He felt a tremendous responsibility to do media where other media outlets wouldn't go, or were afraid to go."

There's much more to read about the life of Brad Will.

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Pissing in the Liberal Punchbowl -- Again: The Democratic Conga Line in the American House of Lords

by Joe Bageant

Democrats are dancing around the head of Donald Rumsfeld like a scene from Lord of the Flies, heating up the tar buckets and plucking the goose in eager, nay, wild anticipation. Personally, I love the smell of tar and feathers in the morning and am quite willing to march on the White House as we speak. I like revenge as well as the next guy. But I also consider myself a compassionate man, one perfectly willing to let Bush's cabinet choose whether they wanna play the mommy or the daddy in the Big House, then move on to the real problems, such as the fact that a gallon of Old Grandad is nearly 50 bucks here in Virginia, or the fact that we are still a nation of people, half of whom were happy to elect a bunch of war criminals -- TWICE! -- and still are.

Ah, but lo and beshit, the Democrats have rescued us. If you can call running around like chickens with their heads up their asses while the Republicans did what they always do -- get caught stealing the national silverware, while bombing the hell out of some miserable piece of dirt as a distraction, thereby self-destructing in 12 years as usual, but getting obscenely rich in the process.

Pardon my cynicism, but the view is pretty damned sorry from here in the cheap seats. From down here it looks like every Yankee liberal north of Virginia seems convinced they are now shitting in such tall cotton that all they need do from here on out is foist Hillary Clinton on the many poor miserable bastards unfortunate enough to be called heartland Democrats because we don't have the balls to become heavily armed libertarians. Nominating Hillary might just drive us to it.

Meanwhile, we watch the only woman who can give the ambitious Hillary a run for the money when it comes to "the sneer behind the smile," Nancy Pelosi. Then it's on to the main act, in which we watch Honey Boy Obama "pass" in elite liberal society as a goddamned "negro", for chrissake! Will wretched wonders never end? Read More »

Very funny. I found Joe at Dissident Voice and I really like what he has to say. He has a book coming out Spring 2007.

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Tuesday WEBTRAIL::
Gallery/Bare/Voxing/Carlin/Courtney/Atheism/Johari/

* Huzzah Hussar - Good to finally see more about artist Michael Hussar whose new series, Red Red Robin," opened at Pasadena's Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery on Saturday nite. Also paintings from Camille Rose Garcia's Doomcave Daydream

* Vox Rox - Vox is a really nice platform for keeping a weblog or a journal. It's from the Six Apart family who also has Livejournal and Typepad. One of the best features of Vox is the tons of templates to choose from. If you could ftp it, I'd leave Blogger in the wind.

* Courtney: "This is more Movie Star, isn't it?" she says, wriggling. "I don't want to be too, you know . . . rargh." She mimes a state of base sexual allure. "You know, Warren [Beatty] took me for lunch, and he said: "Courtney, in the movies there are wives and there are whores. You have to learn to play a wife." Revealing article. Times Online

* George Carlin on Religion: The Greatest Bullshit Story Ever Told

* Bare Down There or Square - Do you dare bare your pudanda? Whoa... personal. But we'd still like to know, wouldn't we? link

* Blogickal has a post about using "...The Johari Window to test just how differently people perceive my online and offline personæ", which intrigued me to no end. link

* An Atheist Laments - "Those with the power to elect presidents and congressmen-and many who themselves get elected-believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that light from distant galaxies was created en route to the Earth and that the first members of our species were fashioned out of dirt and divine breath, in a garden with a talking snake, by the hand of an invisible God. This is embarrassing." link

Lurking is the new black. Thank you for stopping by.

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Untitled

One of the students involved in the production of the racially charged video that ignited a storm of criticism and protest at Texas A&M University, has issued an apology.

"First and foremost, my sincerest apologies to the Texas A&M community, but especially to the African-American community, and all others who have viewed the video," the student writes in an apology published in the university's student-run newspaper, "The Battalion."

The video in question shows a white student in blackface being disciplined by a second white student playing the role of a slave master with a belt. During the three-and-a-half minute tape, the student in blackface is put through a mock whipping and sexual assault.

The video sparked campus-wide student protests and petitions as well as a strongly worded letter of condemnation from Texas A&M President Robert Gates, who was nominated just last week by President Bush for Secretary of Defense.

How disgusting. Apologies like this are rarely any good. Anybody who has it in his/her heart and soul to act in this way as some kind of "joke" is a total waste of white meat.

The Blotter

Blogged with Flock

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from the website:

This year the father of micro-finance and founder of the Grameen Bank won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in inventing and promoting micro-loans in the developing world. A micro-loan is as little as a few hundred dollars invested into a one-person business with minimal qualifications. That tiny borrowed amount can launch a vegetable stand, repair shop, or bicycle taxi -- a living in other words. As each micro-loan is repaid (and most are), the effects of that small goodness are amplified and leveraged by being loaned out and invested again and again. Micro-loans are the world's only perpetual motion machines.

Previously I've recommended the micro-finance cool tools of Trickle Up, Opportunity International, and my favorite, Heifer International, as three ways to leverage small amounts of money for maximum global good. (Micro-finance programs are not a panacea. For a critique start with this article in Forbes.)

The news now is that there are many other outfits that offer individuals (like us) ways to leverage as little as fifty dollars via micro-finance programs online. Unleashing compounding good is only a few clicks away. Make a loan, or outright grant, using your credit card, or even PayPal.

Grameen Foundation
A spin off of the original Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Minimum contribution, $100. One of their projects is Village Phone -- cell phones that women can rent to others. "The Village Phone program in Uganda, the first of GF's efforts to replicate the pay phone program outside Bangladesh, continued exceeding expectations in 2005. More than 3,500 microfinance clients have bought and now operate a Village Phone as "Village Phone operators." Besides the boost to operators' incomes, the program is creating a national telecommunications network. Of Uganda's 56 districts, 53 now have at least one Village Phone operator. Often, Village Phone is the first local telephone that villagers have. Having a quick means to communicate has contributed to higher levels of productivity, savings, and safety for entire communities."

Learn about the individual Success Stories.

Namaste Direct

FINCA Village Banking

via - [MORE »]

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David Lynch And His Favorite Cow Team Up To Drum Up Interest In 'Inland Empire'

from the website:

"David Lynch RIGHT NOW is sitting on the corner of Hollywood and La Brea with a cow on a leash and a picture of Laura Dern that says For Your Consideration. He also has a sign that says "without cows there would be no cheese in the Inland Empire". This is one of those things that a person needs to see. I wish I wasn't chained to a desk."

That is one crazy bastard. But he's a talented one.

link

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Time For A Big Ol' Cup Of 'Shut The F*** Up'

Now that the Democrats have taken back the Congress and 51+ percent of America finally has a voice in government again, I think it's time to seriously let fly. So at the risk of sounding contentious in this all-too-genuine era (several days) of bipartisanship, here now is a roll call of people who must officially shut the f*** up.

1) Republican trolls who wrap up their anonymous and incomprehensible criticisms of progressives with the phrase, "and that's why your party never wins," need to shut the f*** up.

2) The cowards who so easily disregard our liberties by shrugging off the president's illegal wiretapping; the cowards who shrug off the Military Commissions Act and the death of habeas corpus; and the cowards who shrug off torture with the phrases, "I'm not doing anything wrong, so I have nothing to worry about," or, "You can't [blank] if you're dead," ought to shut the f*** up.

3) Anyone who still believes that global warming is a myth? Shut the f*** up.

4) Rush Limbaugh must shut the f*** up. On second thought, strike that. The more we see Violet Beauregard flapping his arms and mocking Parkinson's patients, the better off the rest of the nation will be.

5) In Ann Coulter's latest column, he wondered when the Democrats would be fitting Senator-Elect Jon Tester with a "leotard." Speaking of tards, Mr. Coulter needs to shut the f*** up. And this order stands for anyone who claims Senator-Elect Tester is a "conservative Democrat." He could very well be the face of the New Progressive Democrat and one of the most genuine lawmakers elected Tuesday. Prediction: if he isn't already, Tester will quickly become a rock star in this party.

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The Gates of 11:11 - November 11

Within the vibration and sequence of the number eleven and the 11:11 Gateway lives a de-light-full smorgasbord of experiences. Each dish is designed to offer one food for thought into a maze of learning. Tasting new energies seems wonderful to those that seek the thrill ride of enlightenment. Tools for transformation are not always what
they seem as one stumbles through the lightless Light to find a friendly shade of gray. 11:11 in all of its glory is an Initiation beyond what can be seen and felt. It demands 100% of your attention as it makes its way through your veins and life. Within it lives biochemical encodings that house a dormant DNA configuration.

All gates of 11:11 depart at the same time sequence since linear time is neither here nor there. Even though certain aspects of the 11:11 encodings place themselves at the top of the super luminary chain of events all layers of the 11 are seen and felt through time sequences of earthly incarnations.

Read much more on 11:11 @ Snoedel's Sjoernaal

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GIANT BABY
Ron Mueck and his assistant Charlie Clarke work with Brooklyn Museum staff to install the exhibition Ron Mueck on view at the Brooklyn Museum, November 3, 2006?February 4, 2007.

At the Brooklyn Museum the Australian artist Ron Mueck has delivered "A Girl," the biggest human infant ever hatched. More than 16 feet long (weight unrecorded) and not yet unhooked from her hawser-like umbilical cord, she still has traces of birth blood on her wrinkled body.

You may have sensed by now that she is not a real baby. What she is is an extraordinarily lifelike sculpture made with exquisite craftsmanship by the 48-year-old Mr. Mueck, who is known for his ultrarealistic re-creations of the human figure in silicone and fiberglass.

What an amazing sculpture! And you can see more at Flickr.com

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Its the HAND!

Its the HAND!
Originally uploaded by framedview.

Webtrail | Thursday Eve Edition

URGENT THINGS THAT PEOPLE SAY WHEN THEY'RE TALKING LOUD ON THEIR CELLPHONES WHILE THE PLANE IS BOARDING. "I had a tuna fish sandwich in the airport. Tuna fish. Tuna fish. TUNA FISH. Yes, right, tuna fish. But they didn't toast the bread. No, no, they didn't toast the... THEY DIDN'T TOAST THE BREAD. Right. They didn't toast it." I know you've heard this person before...! link

The Twyla Tharp musical that uses songs by pop superstar Bob Dylan will close Nov. 19 at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre, after a brief run. Halle-fuckin-lujah. How could this NOT have been a real suckfest? Bob Dylan on Broadway? Come on. I don't care what he said in the interviews, he hated it, too. He WILL bullshit an interviewer.

Truth - Full Of Shit And Dangerous

Subterranean Cinema is back online with more film goodies all You-Tubed up. Does anyone remember the Loud Family on PBS? I loved every minute of this groundbreaking series of a family self-destructing live. And there's Andy Kaufman, the El Topo screenplay, Mad Magazine's parody, "A Crockwork Lemon", the Doors, The Rolling Stones have some clips there, although they had to take down Cocksucker Blues, which I still haven't seen. link

Is he experienced? Supernaturally, yes. Until Leon Hendrix, younger brother of rock legend Jimi Hendrix, had a prophetic dream a few years ago, he had not pursued music himself. Now he's readying his first domestically available album, due out early next year. link

Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now, has a new nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column called "Breaking the Sound Barrier." link

"On the afternoon I toured the Vixen Creations dildo plant I got much more than I bargained for. Sure I got to see acres and acres of erect, happy and proud colorful phalli waiting patiently in rows before being plucked, packed and sent to their final orgasmic destinations." Another fine SFGate.com article from Violet Blue. Read more about Violet and the Dildo Factory here.

Today's Quote
"It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind."

-- Vita Sackville-West (British Novelist and Poet, 1892-1962)

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