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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Another one from downtown Ft. Madison.
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I was walking around downtown Fort Madison and came across this old jewelry store. The image was post processed with Poladroid to give it that old time flavor.
whenever anyone tries to minimize the effect of the latest McCain/Palin terrorist/muslim/traitor/socialist sleaze show them this JFK flyer. this shit matters, the demagoguery on display here trickles down to all the crazies in this country. language matters, tone matters, the public statements that someone like mccain makes reaches down into the darkest corners of this country. as these last couple of weeks creep on by, i find myself getting more and more uneasy about this kind of stuff. what is the impact if something like this really goes down? what if it doesn't - are we going to spend 4 years terrified of an obama tragedy? either way there's paralysis.
OK, when I first heard that McCain was suspending his campaign I sorted through the pros/cons and something didn't quite add up. The timing of the thing just didn't make any sense, sure his poll numbers were sliding and all that. But they weren't sliding that bad and suspending your campaign based on a 1-2 point erosion just struck me as too over the top - even for big mac. However, I did however, remember that Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric was running the same night.
I walked into the house and one of the first things I told my wife was that I was worried McCain was suspending his campaign to generate a massive smoke screen because of Palin. Obviously, they knew what that interview was going to contain and if it was going to be a major disaster then they would obviously want to head that off ahead of time. Of course, just a minor disaster wouldn't be cause to suspend an entire campaign. But a major, almost disqualifying disaster would be. And it appears that the Couric interviews are bordering on disqualifying her from holding national office. So he suspends the campaign and what is even more suspicious is that instead of flying straight to DC he went straight to Katie Couric to give an interview. That is damn near a smoking gun. Why go to Couric when you know that your VP pick is being interviewed that same night? It makes no sense unless your purpose was to bump your VP's interview from the headline to possibly second billing (or even completely drop the interview from the broadcast).
So, has it worked? It certainly has taken some of the focus off of Palin, but I'm pretty sure this story has legs. McCain has to see this, has to know that the meltdown is inevitable and probably knows that he's only left with stalling actions while he plays for more time. Eventually this thing's going to come to a head and I'm guessing it's going to be the debate with Biden. Should be a train wreck of epic proportions.
Breaking News from Big Eddie: McCain Camp insiders say Palin “clueless” Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”
Looks like McCain is staring down an out of control locomotive with Palin written across the front. How awesome this is, he made this pick for pure political gain and it's the political aspect of it is going to bring him down.
I'm speechless here. How can Biden compete against someone so utterly incoherent? This is going to be the equivalent of taking off your shoe and holding a serious debate with it. She is actually getting worse as time goes on. Of course the nutbags are going to say this is a brilliant example of the Chewbacca Defense, which has been described thusly:
"someone asserts his claim by saying something so patently nonsensical that the listener's brain shuts down completely."
The best way to describe this is to first forget everything you've ever known about disasters. Think bigger and bloodier. Let's imagine a plane crash. Then let's say a train comes along and crashes into the plane wreckage. Then look - here comes a semitrailer! It jacknifes and plows into the rubble. Then to finish things off, pick up the whole smoking mess and throw it into the Sarlacc Pit Monster's gaping maw. And there you have it folks, a potential Vice President of the United States.
