Brevity

Okay, first I think a lot of my posts of late have gotten really short. Even for me.
Also this feels like a weird time for blogs. Personal blogs anyway.
Blaming Facebook. It's just so immediate.
But it doesn't feel like home the way blogs do.
No matter, I'll still be recording my thoughts as long as I have them.
But I do feel somewhat like I've lost my footing.
Though, upon reflection, my footing does change over time.
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Pod

The first Breeders release was a whopping 31 minutes long but it was 31 fantastic minutes.
I think producer Steve Albini was smitten with Kim Deal.
Couldn't have hurt.
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Frightful

Well, we can hold off Winter no more, here it is all over the place.
On the bright side, Solstice is just two weeks away so it's all sunshine & longer days from there.
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Infamosity 3 Years On

2006.
It amazes me.
First of all, being born in 1972 it amazes me just to see a year starting with the number two (I'm still waiting for my jet pack) and that day was one of the lowest in my whole life. And I wasn't nearly out of the woods yet.
I'll be thinking of Liam and Seamus today.
Probably not with the anguish I carried with me even last year but I'll still be thinking of them as dear friends.
Dearly loved and dearly missed.
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2009

What 2009 has taught me.
Here's the thing, right wing talking heads are authoritarian across the board.
They want authoritarian christianity, authoritarian capitalism (those with the most money say what goes, fuck everybody else) and an authoritarian militarism that has freaked out every civilized nation on Earth during the previous eight years.
(I'm getting to lesson I promise)
Yet, when people who actually embrace the values of democracy are put in charge the right wing talking heads immediately scream "Hitler".
What was Bush, Little Red Riding Hood?
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Curious

Watching a documentary on John Waters.
I think the reason his films just don't work the right way on me is because he's trying to shock a world that existed before I was ever born.
Had I seen a John Waters movie in a world that didn't include John Waters' movies I think my jaw would have been on the floor.
Here's a garden accompaniment to Kurious Oranj The Fall.
The video's fun but look for a live version in the links.
Not much to look at but the performance is so much better.
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The Wonderful World Of Work

Not to temp hubris or anything but I'm looking forward to going back to another week or work tomorrow.
I like to work.
I've always felt like I have an inner draft animal that really takes to being busy.
But over the past year I think I've finally been cultivating a relationship with leisure.
I have this yin week and then a yang week chasing eachother around the calendar.
It's nice. Comforting.
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Moon

There was a lovely full moon out last night keeping me company during a downtown walk.
How did it take me 36 years to get here?
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Cynical Thoughts On

The President's "Af-Pak" Policy By Way Of Honduras
I don't think we really learned anything by the President's West Point speech he didn't already tell us in the campaign over a year ago.
He's already nearly doubled the number of U.S. troops there basically moving the pieces from the Iraq chess board to the Afghanistan chess board and now he's increasing that new number by another third. (nearly another doubling of the 2008 troop levels)
Of course none of this takes into account the CIA's covert involvement in Pakistan (or it wouldn't be covert, would it?) or private security companies like Xe (formerly Blackwater) also in Pakistan but that's all in the details.
But for personal reasons, though I dislike wars in general and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in particular, I'm glad large portions of our military are deployed out of town for the next few years.
See, the leadership of our military is just not on the same page as the rest of our democracy.
Several of them think our new President is of the wrong political party, others think he's the wrong skin color and others still (there's quite a bit of overlap) think he's of the wrong religion as Barack Obama is not an evangelical like the last guy.
So, with the troops away I'm hoping it would be much harder/impossible to have our first ever military coup.
The far right in this country is very fond of the coup that occurred in Honduras last June.
In fact Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) actually traveled to Honduras about a month ago to encourage the coup leaders not to back down to... Senator DeMint's own United States government. (It's not treason when Republicans do it)
The Family, the creepy free-market/Jesus cult Mr. DeMint belongs to, is very fond of third world dictatorships.
Since the end of the Cold War they've been using third world countries as anti-democracy incubators.
All that said, if our military has problems with democracy, I feel safer keeping them far away from ours.
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The Band & Their Fans

For the first time in about a decade I am purposefully going to miss a Sloan show.
With the exception of the Indigo Girls last Spring it's been a year and a half since I've seen a band where I didn't know some of the people on stage. And that last time it was Canada's own Sloan.
I have been building up the suspicion that this band and their fans (like me) don't have the healthiest relationship.
With the advent of Youtube I have been watching a lot of live Sloan footage and I have to tell you that the audio is absolutely abysmal.
True, lots of these videos are shot on somebody's Iphone but since I've attended so many of these shows I can also tell you that the audio was at times abysmal.
This is not to say that the shows aren't fun, because they're a blast but I think the fans set the bar way to low to the detriment of the band.
This is mostly manifested in the microphone of little Jay Ferguson. If you want to hear him buy the record because, try as you might, you'll never hear him at the show.
I think I'll let this show go by.
Besides, it's just a few dates in support of a single.
Let 'em work for it.
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Big Fat Meanies

Sadly, like getting rid of the old toys of childhood, I think it's time I stopped picking on Sarah Palin.
It's hard to do because she's just so irresistible. You couldn't find an easier target if Larry Flint were being wheeled through an annual convention of the National Organization for Women.
And I know that I am not nearly the only thinking person who finds Mrs. Palin thoroughly galling.
She gives new meaning to insulting one's intelligence.
But Sarah Palin, like the rest of us, is a human being, she will have her fortunes and misfortunes and ultimately, just like the rest of us one day she will croak.
What is really the long lasting problem is the Nativism that she is a part of.
Even George W. Bush's (Palin's intellectual equal, honestly she could really have been as dangerous as Bush if she weren't so lazy) power came up short before his time in high office came to an end but nativism has plagued us since the first waves of non-English-speaking immigration in the 1820s and 30s.
The big problem with Palin (and Bush) isn't Palin herself but the people who fanatically love her.
The more thinking people criticize her (big fat meanies that we are) the more her people hate us.
Perhaps it would be better to attack their values than their avatar.
They might be too slow to catch on right away.
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Picture

I've noticed on some pictures of me popping up on people's Facebook pages that I'm often scowling.
Now, if I know my picture's being taken I know to make an appropriate face.
Is the scowl my neutral expression?
Of course, I'm smiling as I write this.
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Formula

Yesterday evening I was hanging out with the girlfriend on her couch watching a chick flick. (Don't judge)
Like all romantic comedies we always know how the chick flick is going to end.
Once I got over that I found I could look to all the stuff before the ending, the comedy in the romantic comedy, for a good time.
That's where the writers have the most fun and I really think it was adaptations of Nick Hornby novels that got me to soften up on romantic comedy.
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Just Because You're Paraniod...

Shortly ago I received a malware notification on the laptop.
Within moments it tallied off a growing list of unfamiliar files with scary worded labeled threat'y language like "Serious" and "Critical".
But since I didn't recognise the program that was giving me this helpful warning in the first place, I was suspecting that the malware warning was itself malware.
It asked me if I wanted these scary-scary labeled files deleted, of course I did.
Well, obviously they wanted money before that would happen.
This is the part where in the mob movie the thug would be saying something like "Nice computer ya got there. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it..."
But, since the laptop was indeed starting to act crazy I just manually shut the thing off and won't be turning it back on until I know how to get the thing fixed.
Until then I'll go back to doing what I did for the couple of years before I bought the thing, do without and log on at the public library. (where I am currently)
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P.S. Just received a call from resident smart person ST's husband. Confirmed my suspicions that it's spyware in anti-spyware clothing and passed along tips on how to uninstall it.
Ah, the crazy arms race of on-line security!

I (heart) Nigel Patel

Since I've embarked on a committed relationship I thought I could talk a little about the other part of our relationship, Nigel Patel.
As I've stated before, Nigel Patel at best acts as the voice of my Id, leaving my physical self to act as the Ego and the parts that cannot be seen, heard or read the Superego.
She's in a relationship with Nigel Patel and me.
That said, I wanted to say that I love Nigel Patel.
Been around for about thirteen and a half years and I owe my life and good fortune to him.
He's my ally and I'm hers.
I hope it's obvious that I'm the ally of more than one of you reading this, but this relationship with this woman is obviously more than that.
Mr. Patel is the voice of my seeking and the occasional thrown literary elbow and will be for as far as I can foresee.
It's a bit weird having two names but we are of undivided purpose.
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Autonomia

Sometimes I lapse into the laziest form of Atheism where Atheism=Freedom.
This is just the other side of the simplistic coin Jesus=Salvation or Mohammad=Salvation or whatever.
It's quite possible that Atheism just equals Atheism and Jesus=Jesus, Mohammad=Mohammad.
I guess what I'm getting at here is, my lack of a spiritual worldview does not get me off the hook when it comes to the questions of living one's life.
Am I just a "product of my raising" or am I deliberating and making decisions for myself rather than just reacting.
Keeping the beat of the metronome?
Not that keeping the beat is all bad, it took me long enough just to find the beat, but am I asking myself now and then why I'm keeping the beat or just doing it automatically?
Ah, self awareness.
Not that I think ignorance is bliss, but if your ignorant you don't know that it isn't bliss.
George Helios has a brother who is barely sentient.
He keeps the beat and knows no better, isn't even aware of the impulses that lead him by the nose.
But the real difference between him and me is that I know I'm a fool, he does not know that he's a fool.
We're all fools.
I figure if I'm aware of it, maybe I can behave less foolishly.
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Your Favorite Things

Post holiday bullet points.

• Am I too austere for holidays?

• Too distant?

• "Black Friday" starts shortly. Won't be selling this year. Probably won't be buying either.

• Saw all the immediate family, spoke to the less immediate one.

• Girlfriend and family all seem to get along quite well.

• Stella is in a bad way this week. Keepin' her in my thoughts.

• Too much coffee makes me twitchy.

• As Dave Foley once said, "Thank God for punk".

• (above) My favorite Beatles song.

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Thanks

A few of the things I'm thankful for this year.
Lisa.
Pauline the 1996 purple Ford Taurus.
Employment.
Enjoyment.
This here laptop computer.
Thor Jones, Jettson, Ghee la.
This here house and those not afore mentioned in it.
This here town of Ann Arbor.
Pals old and new.
Barack Obama, Howard Dean, Rachel Maddow, Kieth Olberman, Markos Moulitsas, lefties and leftiness everywhere.
Other stuff.
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Everything Is Going To Be Alright

The other week, watching the Tsars show the guitarist was playing some gypsy sounding stuff and I had an epiphany: people have been doing this for centuries, getting together and playing music.
It's been done in one form or another for more than a thousand years.
That's when it hit me: Everything is going to be alright.
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Turkeypocalypse

By Thursday I may have finished Sarah Vowell's "The Wordy Shipmates", a chronicle of the founding of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies and the subsequent foundlings of the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies.
My reflection so far, Roger Williams is my favorite 17th Century pre-American.
Practically invented the separation of church and state.
He separated the concepts of Law and Sin. Now if only we could send that memo on to the religious right.
The Puritans were all separatists in that they wanted to separate from the King and the King's Anglican Church, but Williams took it to it's logical conclusion and wanted the church separated from all the King's agents including the colonial government.
As one could expect, the colonial government had a different take on it than Williams did.
But friends they were so they let him evade their authorities and run away rather than face execution.
Hence the precursor to Barry Lynn was established in Rhode Island.
The other things that are on my mind are turkeys and horses.
Turkeys are no longer just a food animal, they're the main course in an American ritual sacrifice. (with pie!)
As such, turkeys and chickens have been selectively bread to be so ridiculously chesty that I don't think either one of them could get along in the wild.
But horses...
No, nobody's eating them, it's just that the lot of the horse has been massively, dramatically changed in the past century.
The horse population is probably a tenth of what it was when they were basic transportation.
We don't really talk about the horses but they were a big part of the colonial story.
In our re-tellings they're just props but the reintroduction of horses into North America was a big deal.
I wonder if they miss their old jobs or not.
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The Strange And Long Life Of Santa Claus

In my adult life I have had so few friends with children that when I do, it still strikes me as a little bit funny.
At the shindig a week ago in Eastpointe somebody there was talking about Santa Claus and I was actually fool enough to ask her if she was raising her kids to believe in Santa.
Granted, if I ever have children they'll have IWW coloring books if I have to make them myself, so who am I to question the perpetuation of the myth of Father Christmas?
I'll tell ya who, Santa doesn't actually exist. He's not a real person. It's bunk, hokum, the Great Pumpkin in a red suit, a bill of goods, a massive subsidy to the toy industry. *pant, pant*
It just seems like such a set up.
Warning: I am about to make an ass of myself as a non-parent judging actual parents.
It just sounds crazy to me to willingly tell one's own children something you know isn't true.
Just because the rest of society is stupid...
Being a youngest, I had no chance of believing in Santa Claus, I had older siblings to help me to be cynical enough to handle the road they already knew we all were on.
I just don't get it. Probably because I don't get faith.
Santa Clause in this country is sort of a pre-god. (we're all born Atheists)
It sets up a precedent of faith and reward.
You by the myth, you serve the myth (in a letter or at the mall) and then the myth serves you in return.
Now, I love giving gifts. Even if I have absolutely no investment in the whole Christmas thing.
(Though if I were arranging the Christian calendar I would switch Christmas and Easter so their god would live for eight months of the year instead of four. More god for their buck)
As a kid I gave lame gifts because I was new at it. But it was the thought that counted.
Gift giving, gift receiving, what's not to like?
I just don't understand why anybody would have to put a portly benevolent burglar into the mix.
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Throwback

This morning Stella asked me when I uncloseted myself as a non-christian.
That was a fascinating question. I was ten.
Told my mother and step father that I just didn't buy it.
The fact that there's absolutely no material evidence whatsoever might have been the kicker.
They kept on about a belief in a "power greater than myself" (12 Steppers both of them) and that didn't work because I didn't think I was (humanity is) all that great to begin with.
Had it never occurred to anybody that maybe we're not special?
Still, in this country coming out as any kind of non-monotheist is tantamount to labeling yourself "Un-American".
(Oh how I wish I weren't born into such a backward nation.)
I kept mum about this at school where I stuck out enough as a perpetual new kid and a nerdy one at that.
Atheism in the eighties was way different than it is today.
There were visible Atheists if you knew where to look. They were called old people.
Norman Lear, Woody Allen, Gore Vidal, I.F. Stone, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Benjamin Spock, Charles Schulz... Old men to be precise, though there was Emma Goldman but she predated these fellas by half a century.
See, in the U.S. even the left is spiritual. In the fifties the right got religion in a big and scary way and in the sixties and seventies the left got all "spiritual". (I'm still not sure exactly what this even means)
I'm about as spiritual as a stick of furniture.
I'm just a plain old no-frills socialist who cares about socialistic things like a mixed economy and good government.
Try explaining that to people who are afraid they'll be sent to "Hell" if they teach their children about sex.
Skill testing question:
So, good readers, how about it, if you ever differed from your relative national/cultural norm, how did you differ and how did it work out for you?
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Back To Work

Back to another week at work.
You know, I've had more free time this past year than I've ever had since getting out of high school.
It's weird.
I've read a lot though.
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