Whatever.
I’m not holding out hope for this fucking year.
Politically it feels like a novel where the super villain has teh moves and countermoves plotted out years in advance. Every move skillfully locks together into an amazing wepon pointed straight at Democracy and the Middle Class and we’re the young hero who only know realizes that the villain is real and not J. Random Loonie. It really feels like any response I could post here is already neutralized and countered, or a needed piece of their plot. The way they played Obama like a violin…
Oh to go back in time and prevent Murdoch’s special dispensation, or to crush Greenspan’s and Scalia’s testicles.
Sigh.
Maybe I’ll make it to 2011. Maybe you’ll make it too. Maybe the 25% permanent unemployment and work houses won’t happen. Maybe.
The good Captain, Don Van Vliet passed away from MS last friday. Like every obit I’ve put here, and a few I haven’t, I’ve found it almost impossible to write anything truthful that didn’t sound trite or laconic. Don, in his persona of Captain Beefheart was a major influence on me. Sounding like improvised chaos but usually all prewritten and prearranged, his music literally opened up new ways of looking at music and art for me. It also scared the crap out of me, so much so that after first hearing his masterwork Trout Mask Replica when it came out in 1969 I refused to listen to it again for almost ten years. I know its blasphemy in some circles, but I still don’t like that album all that much. The production particular drives me nuts. I much prefer Clear Spot, Lick My Decals Off Baby and especially (shiny beast) Bat Chain Puller Doc at the Radar Station. Then there is Don’s paintings, a whole other career he had after leaving music. I really don’t know what to say. I’ve lost another hero.
The total lunar eclipse will begin approximately 12:33 am CST and will run through 4:01 am CST.
Totality will occur at 1:41 am CST and lasts 72 minutes.
NASA says 2:15 am CST will be the best time to view the eclipse, with best coloration.
Reminder lunar eclipses are safe to view, and can be spectacular if it isn’t cloudy. The moon will look all smokey and weird, and then seem to glow orange or red during totality.
I’ve been wearing a mustache, beret, turtleneck, dark glasses and sandals without socks. All day. And I feel fine.
Kenneth reminded me of something today.
Emma Lazarus’ master work, the poem on the Statue of Liberty. Most of us only know a line or two.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
What the hell happened to us?
Durbin voted FOR the Catfood commission report, saying it would increase jobs and decrease the deficit. Since it extends tax breaks for the wealthy that have demonstrably done neither in the 8 years they’ve been in place and cuts Social Security-which is a trust you pay into, Durbin has stated his allegiance. He’s a sell out to the wealthy. Ok you prick, you’ve just pissed off your base. Start packing, start looking for a wall street or lobbyist gig.
Fight for your (supposed) right to free speech, urge conneticut voters to terminate their contract with Joe Lieberman now.
