Web Log Archive, October 16th through October 29th, 2005

Saturday, October 29th, 2005   Happy 60th Birthday, Joe!

Patrick Fitzgerald was not unprepared for "So Libby lied! What's the big deal?" The Special Counsel was, rather, a bit too prepared to answer that query with a sententious baseball analogy about a pitcher hitting a batsman in the head and injuring him. The umpires are charged not only with determining what happened, said Pat, but why it happened! Did the pitcher intend to do it or was it an accident? Did the pitcher plan to do it over a period of hours or days or was it an impulse? And so, Fitzgerald compared Libby's mendacity to throwing sand in the umpires' eyes..."...truth is the engine of our Judicial System", he proudly intoned.
Pat (the son of a New York doorman) is a native of Brooklyn (born three years after the Bums moved to Los Angeles and one year after Ebbets Field met the wrecking ball). He has vanquished his accent, but the cadence of the dialect remains on his lips. My five Catholic cousins grew up in Brooklyn. I visited them from time-to-time in my youth. I can still quite vividly conjure  the odor of that place.
Color me corny, but yesterday's news gives me reason to hope that ours might, after all, be a nation of laws!

It is with more than some sadness that I link this story. Christine graduated a year behind my son from our local high school. Still no details on just how the accident occurred (at quarter to three in the morning at a well-traveled intersection).

Friday, October 28th, 2005

"... the victim 'was just trying to get some coffee and doughnuts and the next thing he is viciously and cowardly (sic) attacked. Is there no sanctuary?'" Robbery Sgt. Dom Arotzarena said Tuesday.

Thursday, October 27th, 2005

Last night was a milestone. It was my first foray into what I'll call "Transcontinental Musical Collaboration" (TMC). See, for a few years now I've had this (call it) "vision" about doing multi-track recording projects with people whom I hardly ever (or even never) see! Scott Derkin is a drummer who used to play with me on gigs back in the 70's. Sandy Rothman is a gracefully talented musician whom I knew, but only barely, back in the 60's. Turns out that Scott once knew Sandy and now Scott wants Sandy to overdub some banjo (or mandolin or Dobro) on some (call 'em) 'country rock' tracks featuring a guy (whom I've never met) named 'DC Papke'. So Scott sent me four tunes...or I should say, he sent me four sets of *.wav files---each set consisting of seven or eight files ranging in size from ~20 to ~40 Megabytes---too large for email. [While I suppose they could have been FTP'd from a Web site, Scott chose to copy them to a couple of CD-R's and (express) mail them to me.] Well, they loaded up pretty easily into my Pro Tools system and last night Sandy and I worked on overdubbing the first of what will be several tracks on these four tunes. Later on today, I'll make a rough mix of what we did and I'll post it here in some compressed format. when Sandy and I are satisfied with his overdubs (and maybe one or two of mine on guitar or keyboard), then I'll send back the files to Scott and he can incorporate them into his next studio mix of those four tunes. 
Somehow, I'm fascinated that our 'technology' has evolved (so soon) to the point that TMC is not only possible...but easy and inexpensive! More evidence that these last sixty years comprise the most exciting period of time during which any members of our species have gotten to live!

Wednesday, October 26th, 2005               Happy Birthday, Ernie!

Thanks a lot, KQED TV! Last night I caught a segment which was a 'self-evaluation' type quiz for (us) 'older drivers' (who are 'sure to have failing eyesight'). Among the questions: 

"Do other drivers frequently make angry gestures at you? Do you make three right turns to avoid one left turn? Have you given up trying to parallel park? Do you avoid certain intersections? Do you dislike driving at night...or in bad weather? Do you perceive that people are driving faster than they used to...and that fewer people any longer are observing the rules of the road? Do you get lost more often? Do cars suddenly 'appear' in front of you? Are you experiencing an increasing number of  'near misses'?" [Hey, buddy! They are 'misses'! I'm more concerned about the 'near hits'!]

The narrator went on to say that...while some perfectly non-blind young people might answer 'yes' to one or more of these questions...if you're old (and you answered 'yes'), then maybe you're in the way! 

I mean...just because some old trout the other day in Florida drove three miles with a dead pedestrian poking through his windshield...until a toll taker noticed the fresh corpse and called the cops...

"Supporters of the war in Iraq, as well as some non-supporters, warn of the dangers if we leave. But isn't it quite possible that these dangers are simply a consequence of having gone into Iraq in the first place, rather than a consequence of leaving? Isn't it possible that staying only makes the situation worse? If chaos results after our departure, it's because we occupied Iraq, not because we left."
Ron Paul, a Republican Congressman from Texas!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2005

The following excerpt is translated from the Russian...the whole column can be found in the online St. Petersburg Times. The author, columnist Chris Floyd, feels no imperative to show deference to our mighty leaders. Quite an amusing read, to be sure:

But this schadenfreude, however tasty and effervescent, is no substitute for the strong meat of justice. And even in the unlikely — not to say inconceivable — event that the entire pack of jackals gets herded into the hoosegow for the agent-outing conspiracy, it will not bring back the innocent dead murdered at their command. It will not restore the shattered families writhing in the pits of grief and loss, from Baghdad to Burbank. It will not be recompense for the pointless sacrifice of soldiers and reservists sent on a criminal errand, plunged into a brutal and brutalizing hell — for nothing, for a chimera, for ideological lunacy, for the enrichment of cats already so fat they can barely stand up and waddle to the dish for another slurp of cream."

Monday, October 24th, 2005

"The president's philosophy on Supreme Court nominees, obscured by his unpopularity and ineptitude, is intellectually superior to that of his newly energized critics. These right-wing critics, many intelligent and sophisticated, are guided by the French slogan "sauve qui peut," which might roughly be translated as 'stab the wounded.' If his reputation sinks, theirs might, too. Bush's former friends treat him as not only a lame duck, but as a walking bucket of avian flu.
If Bush were 25 or 30 points higher in the polls, the right's television troubadours and op-ed bards would still be describing [Harriet] Miers as Mother Teresa and Madame Curie combined."  Martin F. Nolan

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005

Whether it refers to one's attitude toward world events or to one's attitude toward one's own acquaintances...or to both, a phrase garnering much currency of late is "compassion fatigue": the inability to absorb any more (of somebody else's) bad news.
So while the bottle (the phrase) may be new, it's simply old wine, like that decanted by Sheldon Harnick in 1961:

They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much.

Saturday, October 22nd, 2005

This just in from the "Let 'em Honk" Society: "He may have somewhere in his mind have realized it was a crash, but immediately forgot about it." 

Friday, October 21st, 2005

How do ya like that? By noon yesterday it was announced that, by Wednesday night, a local kid had already been arrested!
Now...had the police waited even one more day, then a few of the attorney's erstwhile TV colleagues would likely have even more openly speculated that "he musta done it!"
It was with the news that 'the killer took a shower' that a noose for hubby commenced to be fitted!
Paula Zahn was already in "now come on!" neighborhood, with a "but who else?" line of questioning.
A local paper hosted a "Forum" and people were already weighing in on what a rancid, hot-headed dirt-bag this lawyer is and how they 'wouldn't be a bit surprised', considering the scum-ball-people he's defended in court 'n all: slithery ambulance-chaser that he is, ya know!
So I ask, and not for the first time: If suspicion's long shadow were to fall over you, then who would say he "always knew"?
And let us pause to remember the Olympic Gold Medallist among the wrongly-accused: the honorable Richard Jewell.

Thursday, October 20th, 2005

There is a grisly (but) true crime story developing out here which will probably result in the arrest and conviction of someone other than the usual suspect. But this story has (let's call them) 'aspects'. The usual suspect is a successful defense attorney and TV 'legal analyst'. 

Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

"Vengeance is mine.
I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip.
Their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."
[Deuteronomy 32:35]

"Researching 25 years of suicide bombings, scholar Robert Pape found the leading cause was not a lack of democracy, but the presence of troops from democratic nations on lands terrorists believe by right belong to them."  From 'Faith-Based War', by Patrick Buchanan.

"...when her draconian views on abortion came out, the White House immediately tried to assuage the left. The White House flack Scott McClellan turned on his fog machine, saying, "The role of a judge is very different from the role of a candidate or a political officeholder." Naughty Harry

Tuesday, October 18th, 2005  

Sleep? In Taunton?

By now, we've all heard of the Colon Club but...were you aware of the Semicolon Club? What's next?

Monday, October 17th, 2005      Sixteen years ago today, the earth moved beneath our feet!

While I love to hear someone speak truth to power...I am refreshed to hear someone speak truth to money! 

"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word (sic), financial decadence." Brother Hoagland

Sunday, October 16th, 2005

"I never trust a man unless I've got his pecker in my pocket."  Lyndon B. Johnson

Current Blog