Friday, February 20, 2009

Gabriella's first art project


This is the output from girlie's first art class. My reaction to this piece was pretty surprising. When I did something like this (in grade school and the like), mom and dad would say it was good , great, etc. Some part of me believed that it WAS great but another part of me believed they were saying this because they had to, it was part of their job description to enjoy any and all crap I put out. I imagined that when it was my turn, I would do the same. So imagine my surprise when gabriella handed this item to me (with an absolutely HUGE grin) -I think i almost physically burst with pride, true pride, with not a hint of fakeness there.

Posted by ShoZu

Sunday, February 8, 2009

springsteen is god


_MG_1194, originally uploaded by s_and_b.loz.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

No additional comments needed, just sit back and love it.



Thunder Road
The screen door slams
Marys dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy orbison singing for the lonely
Hey thats me and I want you only
Dont turn me home again
I just cant face myself alone again
Dont run back inside
Darling you know just what Im here for
So youre scared and youre thinking
That maybe we aint that young anymore
Show a little faith, theres magic in the night
You aint a beauty, but hey youre alright
Oh and thats alright with me

You can hide `neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now Im no hero
Thats understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow
Back your hair
Well the nights busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heavens waiting on down the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh thunder road, oh thunder road oh thunder road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know its late we can make it if we run
Oh thunder road, sit tight take hold
Thunder road

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my cars out back
If youre ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The doors open but the ride it aint free
And I know youre lonely
For words that I aint spoken
But tonight well be free
All the promisesll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out chevrolets

They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch theyre gone
On the wind, so mary climb in
Its a town full of losers
And Im pulling out of here to win.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Consolers of The Lonely

I'm absolutely nuts over The Raconteurs. I had their first album and it was aight. But they really nailed it on this one. There's beautiful mix of crazy guitar work with a slight country twang.

Book Review

Hocus Pocus

There seems to be one consistent theme running through this book. That theme is the criticism of capitalism. Breaking it down further, it could simply be a statement on evolutionary theory and how there is a relentless winnowing of all that is good in place of all that is efficient. You'll notice that this description of evolution serves as a decent description of capitalism. Not having the book in front of me, there are three examples I can remember to support this.

1. Vietnam. This one is hard to quantify without actual quotes but since no one reads this blog I'll try. The Preacher repeatedly refers to the corporations of I G Farben and Du Pont, makers of napalm and other war materials. He implies that warfare is bound by the same rules of business, the most efficient side usually wins. Efficiency in this context means which side can side the other side with the least expenditure of blood/treasure on their end. He also makes several statements on how the young soldiers under his command are simply there as cannon fodder. The weak (or maybe just unlucky in this case) are removed in a relentless and remorseless winnowing process. The implication - the efficiency of war leads to one endpoint and that is the annihilation of everyone.
2. Tralfamadore and bacterial spores. Apparently the entire point of human existence is to create a bacterial spore strong enough to float through the universe and make contact with other lifeforms. We create viruses and cures for those viruses that only mutate them and make them stronger. Those viruses that are too weak die out, those that aren't become stronger. A relentless selective process - he doesn't say so explicitly but the implications are clear - eventually we'll create something that we won't be able to contain and will most likely consume us.
3. The Japanese takeover of most American industries. Vonnegut takes some liberties with part of the novel, describing Japanese takeovers of American prisons and a couple other examples that I can't remember right now. The point being, that our pursuit of efficiency (in itself a pursuit of profit) has led us to this point. To make the point even more explicit, he ties the prison to Vietnam through the Japanese warden. The Warden considers his job as analogous to a tour of duty in Vietnam. To them, America is a quagmire. The endpoint? America as we know it no longer exists.

So, the theme here? There's not much hope for us as a species. This novel is pretty bleak in that regard. The method of our destruction? Our own quest for efficiency, our own curiosity, and the systems we've set up to enable them.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

More from Ft. Madison, this one from my grandma's backyard. This has some lomo postprocessing via photoshop elements. I'm hoping to get a holga in the near future, right now using the lomo action just feels like cheating.

IMG_0761-lomo

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Just a quick comment on this post by Josh Marshall. It does seem as if Obama is ceding the initiative to Congress now, you can't really deny that fact. But as Josh himself alludes to in the post, there isn't an actual Obama presidency yet and hence no actual pulpit to bully from. For all the talk about Bush being a non-entity the simple fact of the matter is that he is still the democratically elected leader of this country for another 12 days.

Like Josh mentions, there's very little real power that Obama has right now. So, when does Obama get some real Power to play with? January 20 - to be more specific, the second he finishes his inaugural address. And here's where I think the ballgame is. If there has ever been a need to truly unleash the rhetorical big guns, this is it. Because of Obama's vulnerability (exposed by both Clinton and McCain during the campaigns) to the "all style no substance" charge, his oratory was largely put on the shelf. Jan. 20 is going to be the day that we see the full force of that oratory put on display. There is absolutely no reason on earth why Obama shouldn't unleash an inaugural address for the ages, a stirring call to arms that moves and inspires, sweeping all and sundry before it like an electoral tidal wave. Having done so, he'll find himself with an instant mandate for the stimulus package. All of this pre-inaugural posturing will be washed away and we will no longer be talking about mid-February. The stampede will be on to get behind Obama and his agenda.