Saturday, September 27, 2008

Leopold and Debra



This is a picture of my friend from work, Debra. She's standing with one of the newest members of her family, Leopold. I'm also supposed to mention Trixie at Debra's feet checking out Leo.

Now, when Debra was going to meet him he hadn't been named yet. So we sat in our office all shouting out our suggestions...she obviously did NOT choose mine.

Lorenzo Llama(s)

Am I brilliant, or what?

I am also disappointed. Because it is highly unlikely I will ever have a llama in the family and this name will go unused for all eternity.

Moving on...below is a picture of three more family members. You see Ruby and Mae and baby bull calf Tristan. As they had names before she adopted them I didn't get my heart broken again by rejection of my fabulous names.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Black Cab Sessions

This is kinda cool. I happened upon this website. The premise, as far as I can tell, is an artist or band, or whomever can fit, climb in the back of a black cab and are filmed as he/she/it performs a song. The motto on the website is ONE SONG.ONE TAKE.ONE CAB and I've embedded one of my favorite bands performing.

Death Cab for Cutie (or a couple of members anyway) performing "No Sunlight" from the cd "Narrow Stairs". It's pretty impressive, and a cool concept.


Sunday, September 21, 2008

Videotape by Radiohead

This version "From The Basement" - a live recording of the "In Rainbows" disc.


Saturday, September 20, 2008

3rd BN Kilo Company Platoon 3233

Another bit of good news...imagine that - two great happenings within one week! The video of Justin's Platoon has been uploaded. He looks great, although he is about 40 pounds lighter. Should you take the time to view, he is in the 2nd row from the top near the middle. Naturally, I believe he is the most handsome of all the recruits...

http://www.devildogs.info/Kilo%20Company.htm

After loading this page, click on 3233 and the video will load.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Lewis Black

Rolling Stone tells me this guy is supposed to be the current "angry man" in comedy - 20 years ago they said the same thing about Bill Hicks. I don't have the same affection for Lewis Black, but he does make a few good points.




Thursday, September 18, 2008

And Now For a Bit of Good News

Justin graduates MCRD on October 3, and will be returning home with me for 10 days leave. We heard from him last night, and due to his performance during basic training, he has been given an additional 14 days leave. He will be working with the local recruiters those 2 weeks before returning to San Diego for additional training. I was so looking forward to seeing him, but knowing he'll be here for well over 3 weeks has me over the moon. He sounded incredibly happy, and sure, and changed. That was enough to have me sobbing with relief, and bursting with pride.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The arguments against insanity fall through with a soft shirring sound...


I am re-reading Lisey's Story for the 8th or 9th time. I absolutely fell in love with this novel the first time I ran through it - so much so that I immediately started again.

It's a beautiful love story with the usual Stephen King psychological horror twist. No matter how many times I read it I come away mesmerized by the deep, intense, lasting love the two main characters feel for one another.

baby

babyluv

For You by Barenaked Ladies

This is another clip from the famed "Bathroom Sessions". Ed, on his own, in his bathroom.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

First Thoughts on Sarah Palin

I caught a bit of Bill Maher this morning and it got me to thinking about the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate.

Hey, I think it’s cool that a woman could hold the second-highest political office in this country. What scares, saddens and angers me is that it might be this woman. How did a woman who respects womanhood less than your local street pimp get in this position?

I’ll tell you my take on it - John McCain needed someone who would distract everyone from his laughable policies just long enough that he could get elected. She is going to give the media plenty to talk about, and keep them busy and out of McCain’s business until November. By then, Americans will be in such an uproar over the Republicans mudslinging and insinuations (none of which will ever be proven) that they will vote the way they’ve voted the last 2 elections. And we’ll be fucked for four more years.

Consider this...had Barack Obama chosen Hillary Clinton to be his running mate, the Palin door would have been shut forever. Check that - it would likely never have been opened. McCain’s choice would be some 50ish white guy with experience in DC. And then we’d be getting hit with quote after quote about the lack of “real” experience for both Obama and Clinton. Instead, Obama goes with an experienced white male by choosing Joe Biden - I can just imagine Karl Rove foaming at the mouth at the prospect of enticing all the “Hillary women” to the dark side. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Rove is only giving “informal” advice to the McCain election committee - “right”.

My thoughts are that Sarah Palin is a right wing reactionary anti-intellectual. She endorses and promotes censoring books. I can only imagine her saying that “Harry Potter” books aren’t allowed in her house because they promote the belief in witchcraft and lead children to Satanism. She is a creationist, which is fine by me - until her anti-science beliefs lead her to force her opinions on me and mine. She doesn’t believe that global warming has been worsened by man and our behaviours...and that’s when she even admits global warming is affecting us.

The fact that she’s a woman is of no importance to me. What matters is she wants to take all of us back 200 years to a time when we couldn’t make choices for ourselves, to a time when it wasn’t even imagined that we could make a choice if given one.

I hope that every person in America really thinks about what she and John McCain believe in, rather than being sucked in by the groups pandering to get their vote. Mavericks for change, my ass - we are looking at more of the same. I think our country will have a hard enough time recovering from the Bush years without adding an extra four of McCain and Palin.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Meet Me In Montauk

I have been watching one of my favorite films tonight, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It is a movie that moves from moment to moment and back again, expressing the bewildering beauty and existential horror of being trapped inside one's own addled mind while symbolizing the self-preserving amnesia of a broken but hopeful heart. I find it an agonizingly breathtaking experience.

This video is a compilation of scenes from the film set to Beck's version of "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime". Originally done by the Korgis.


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Savage Chickens



This seems apt, despite the fact I'm not a librarian. I do, however, insist on keeping all my movies, CDs, and books in alphabetical order. Just another something that makes me so special. Right.

BTW, I love Savage Chickens - the pirate series is probably my favorite, but I get a kick out of most of Doug Savage's takes on life...

For more, try this link.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Anyone Else But You

...from Juno.

I watched this movie with Dylan recently, and he's been singing this song to me since. The sound of his laughter heals my heart.