Distance, Fall. Birds, Pundits and other Bastards, More Birds and Shonen Knife
Feeling like a bit of a freak this am – not for any reason I care to share at the moment – it’s just one of those moments when I feel like I’m here and the rest of the world is somewhere over there (points to somewhere in the distance).
Late fall is in full swing – most of the birds have left by now – last evening as I was walking to rehearsal, I walked by the railroad bridge and I heard from the bridge the chatter of starlings hundreds of them. They were holing up for the night – bunched together to stay warm in the shelter of the bridge before heading on south the next day.
Starlings – which are not a native bird are an unfortunate result of a rich American’s Shakespeare Obsession – he wanted to have examples of all the birds in Shakespeare’s plays in his aviary – this unfortunately included starlings. Bill was fond of using omens from nature to indicate that bad things were afoot, comets, hail and the sheeted dead rising up to squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome before Caesar got his ass capped and I remember that there were starlings croaking in the eves of Duncan’s Castle after Macbeth had stabbed him.
So this millionaire gets these starlings and these starlings escape and because they have no natural predators here and they are aggressive and nasty (this is of course using human values to judge – starlings just are, it isn’t a matter of good or bad really, we add that bit) have forced out other birds and bred like rabbits to the point were there are thousands hanging out on a bridge in Queens.
Things are quiet for the most part – expecting madness to break out any minute now but that’s more my personality that actual circumstances warrant. I’m told I’m pretty tightly wound – which I won’t really dispute – but what kind of knocks be back a bit about that is for my family, I’m pretty damn easy going. This may explain things.
Meantime the political silly season has gotten into full swing – apparently Maureen Dowd has just penned a peach of a column where she used dominatrix imagery to describe Hillary Clinton. “flick of the whip” and the like. We also have been treated to commentary about how she laughs, holds her hands, and is a 60 year old woman flashing a bit too much bosom for mainstream America.
To be honest, I have some problems with Hillary, but not because of how she folds her hands laughs or even because has a bosom. It’s her way too cozy relationships with K street Players – even Rupert Murdoch and the like that I find off putting – along with her overseas hawkish ness re Iran and formerly Iraq. Not that she laughs funny or too loud or something.
That said, if she is the democratic nominee I’ll vote for her. If only for the chance to listen to right wing pundit’s heads explode as she takes her oath of office and especially to watch Tucker Carlson (who’s pretty much said out loud he’s afraid of her) piss himself in terror as he imagines the FBI breaking into his a apartment the day after Hillary becomes president and taking him to a place where they do interesting things involving electric wires and testicles and water boarding which he, if one remembers correctly does not regard as torture.
It’s been pathetic watching the cream of Washington’s press corps act like adolescent schoolboys making weird giggling noises about lady parts and the like. It’s embarrassing on a deep level. Lord knows what the rest of the world thinks about this. Jesus grow the hell up – England and India have had women in charge and neither country has run off the rails – this Hillary terror puzzles the hell out of me.
Band notes – we have a gig at ottos’ 12/11 – please come along – it’s gonna be a good show and we’re trying to stick some of the older stuff in as well – Johnny’s going Postal for example sounds amazing with a full band treatment – even given it’s a very creepy song. It’s one of the few songs we have that we’d pull from the set if there is an instance of someone indeed going postal. I had a song about being in a plane that was going to crash – that one was dropped 9/12/01 – it’s not coming back either.
I was going to comment on Rudy and his problems with Mr. Klerk and now Mr. Klerk’s ex-mistress Judith Regan who has a lawsuit pending and probably knows a lot more than either Rudy or Bernie are comfortable with – but it really would be a waste of electrons on a day I’m trying to be at least a little productive.
Meantime the Market – on bad news from Citibank is tumbling again – it’s a been a bad few weeks for the market – mostly from the sound of 12 ton chickens – the utter collapse of the sub-prime market – coming to roost. I saw that one brokerage had put the sell sign up for Citibank – which while not surprising is a bit late – the thing to do would have been to give the sell signal for Citibank a while ago before everybody was heading out the door. It was like the room filled with smoke – flames where shooting out from under the doors and then (and only then) Goldman noticed Citi was on fire.
We’ll see where is goes from here – no place good I think.
The picture is that of the Kakapo – a nearly extinct flightless parrot from New Zealand – Douglas Adams wrote about them in Last Chance to See and they have had a special place in my heart ever since – as Douglas noted not only have they forgotten how to fly but they have forgotten they have forgotten how to fly – a disturbed Kakapo will climb up a bush or tree a ways and then jump off – with the usual not good result. Really something this goofy must be preserved at all costs.
I remember one time I was telling an older person about this bird and the efforts to keep it from going extinct and her cold blooded response was ‘well if they can’t take the competition they should just die out” to which I said “if we can’t protect the helpless, the innocent and the silly what the hell good are we?”
Speaking of bastards the Japanese have launched a fleet to hunt Humpback whales for the first time in about 40 years – they are vowing not to be swayed by environmental terrorists. Forgive me but I don’t think Greenpeace is about the break into their mess hall and shoot them with harpoons that explode after they are embedded in the flesh - at least not yet. Greenpeace can be pretty extreme but they aren’t that extreme (just yet)
Off to see Shonen Knife tonight – first show of any short I’ve seen in a while – looking forward to it. I am a large fan of their Ramones meets Jose and the Pussycats sound and have been ever since I heard Riding on a rocket – yeah their accents sometimes get in the way of understanding what they are saying but it’s not important. With their enthusiasm and oddball song topics – soap powders, Singapore, Bison, and Twist Barbie they just make me just giddy with joy - you can’t listen to them all the time – too much cotton candy will rot you teeth down to the gum line, but every now and then, when the weasels have closed into the point were – as HST put it you can “smell the ugly brutes” it’s time to put your stereo up to 11 and let her rip.
Peace, Love, Save the Whales!
Late fall is in full swing – most of the birds have left by now – last evening as I was walking to rehearsal, I walked by the railroad bridge and I heard from the bridge the chatter of starlings hundreds of them. They were holing up for the night – bunched together to stay warm in the shelter of the bridge before heading on south the next day.
Starlings – which are not a native bird are an unfortunate result of a rich American’s Shakespeare Obsession – he wanted to have examples of all the birds in Shakespeare’s plays in his aviary – this unfortunately included starlings. Bill was fond of using omens from nature to indicate that bad things were afoot, comets, hail and the sheeted dead rising up to squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome before Caesar got his ass capped and I remember that there were starlings croaking in the eves of Duncan’s Castle after Macbeth had stabbed him.
So this millionaire gets these starlings and these starlings escape and because they have no natural predators here and they are aggressive and nasty (this is of course using human values to judge – starlings just are, it isn’t a matter of good or bad really, we add that bit) have forced out other birds and bred like rabbits to the point were there are thousands hanging out on a bridge in Queens.
Things are quiet for the most part – expecting madness to break out any minute now but that’s more my personality that actual circumstances warrant. I’m told I’m pretty tightly wound – which I won’t really dispute – but what kind of knocks be back a bit about that is for my family, I’m pretty damn easy going. This may explain things.
Meantime the political silly season has gotten into full swing – apparently Maureen Dowd has just penned a peach of a column where she used dominatrix imagery to describe Hillary Clinton. “flick of the whip” and the like. We also have been treated to commentary about how she laughs, holds her hands, and is a 60 year old woman flashing a bit too much bosom for mainstream America.
To be honest, I have some problems with Hillary, but not because of how she folds her hands laughs or even because has a bosom. It’s her way too cozy relationships with K street Players – even Rupert Murdoch and the like that I find off putting – along with her overseas hawkish ness re Iran and formerly Iraq. Not that she laughs funny or too loud or something.
That said, if she is the democratic nominee I’ll vote for her. If only for the chance to listen to right wing pundit’s heads explode as she takes her oath of office and especially to watch Tucker Carlson (who’s pretty much said out loud he’s afraid of her) piss himself in terror as he imagines the FBI breaking into his a apartment the day after Hillary becomes president and taking him to a place where they do interesting things involving electric wires and testicles and water boarding which he, if one remembers correctly does not regard as torture.
It’s been pathetic watching the cream of Washington’s press corps act like adolescent schoolboys making weird giggling noises about lady parts and the like. It’s embarrassing on a deep level. Lord knows what the rest of the world thinks about this. Jesus grow the hell up – England and India have had women in charge and neither country has run off the rails – this Hillary terror puzzles the hell out of me.
Band notes – we have a gig at ottos’ 12/11 – please come along – it’s gonna be a good show and we’re trying to stick some of the older stuff in as well – Johnny’s going Postal for example sounds amazing with a full band treatment – even given it’s a very creepy song. It’s one of the few songs we have that we’d pull from the set if there is an instance of someone indeed going postal. I had a song about being in a plane that was going to crash – that one was dropped 9/12/01 – it’s not coming back either.
I was going to comment on Rudy and his problems with Mr. Klerk and now Mr. Klerk’s ex-mistress Judith Regan who has a lawsuit pending and probably knows a lot more than either Rudy or Bernie are comfortable with – but it really would be a waste of electrons on a day I’m trying to be at least a little productive.
Meantime the Market – on bad news from Citibank is tumbling again – it’s a been a bad few weeks for the market – mostly from the sound of 12 ton chickens – the utter collapse of the sub-prime market – coming to roost. I saw that one brokerage had put the sell sign up for Citibank – which while not surprising is a bit late – the thing to do would have been to give the sell signal for Citibank a while ago before everybody was heading out the door. It was like the room filled with smoke – flames where shooting out from under the doors and then (and only then) Goldman noticed Citi was on fire.
We’ll see where is goes from here – no place good I think.
The picture is that of the Kakapo – a nearly extinct flightless parrot from New Zealand – Douglas Adams wrote about them in Last Chance to See and they have had a special place in my heart ever since – as Douglas noted not only have they forgotten how to fly but they have forgotten they have forgotten how to fly – a disturbed Kakapo will climb up a bush or tree a ways and then jump off – with the usual not good result. Really something this goofy must be preserved at all costs.
I remember one time I was telling an older person about this bird and the efforts to keep it from going extinct and her cold blooded response was ‘well if they can’t take the competition they should just die out” to which I said “if we can’t protect the helpless, the innocent and the silly what the hell good are we?”
Speaking of bastards the Japanese have launched a fleet to hunt Humpback whales for the first time in about 40 years – they are vowing not to be swayed by environmental terrorists. Forgive me but I don’t think Greenpeace is about the break into their mess hall and shoot them with harpoons that explode after they are embedded in the flesh - at least not yet. Greenpeace can be pretty extreme but they aren’t that extreme (just yet)
Off to see Shonen Knife tonight – first show of any short I’ve seen in a while – looking forward to it. I am a large fan of their Ramones meets Jose and the Pussycats sound and have been ever since I heard Riding on a rocket – yeah their accents sometimes get in the way of understanding what they are saying but it’s not important. With their enthusiasm and oddball song topics – soap powders, Singapore, Bison, and Twist Barbie they just make me just giddy with joy - you can’t listen to them all the time – too much cotton candy will rot you teeth down to the gum line, but every now and then, when the weasels have closed into the point were – as HST put it you can “smell the ugly brutes” it’s time to put your stereo up to 11 and let her rip.
Peace, Love, Save the Whales!
posted by Unknown at 11:34 AM
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