Mystic City

Liv'd there in the Mystic City of the Empire that's unseen...

So, what's the deal? The wingers are all pissed at Obama (so what else is new?) cuz he doesn't like the term Islamic terrorism. I always say "What's in a name? A Rose by any other name smells just as sweet..." (OK, Bill the Bard said it first). And if you call garbage cordon bleu? 

Of course it's not religious in origin.

How many people refer 2 the KKK as "Christian terrorists?"

But I sorta kinda in a way see the wingers' point on this, so here's something 4 our "friends on the other side of the aisle" 2 chew on: The Christian hate group League of the South is planning big party on April 15 to celebrate the sesquicentennial of Abe Lincoln's assassination, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. (SPLCenter.org/blog/)

And as long as this flap is going on, I'll never speak or write "KKK" without saying "The Christian terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan.

Also, calling them the Christian terrorists of the KKK fits in with their self description, as "Christian, gentile, native, white men."*

All I'm sayin is it's a 2-way street. If their terrorists R motivated by their religion 2 do the things they do, so R ours. But if they're motivated by racism or ethnic chauvinism...who can make such fine distinctions, and where's the profit in doing so? 

*From the song "Mystic City," released in 1927 on the KKK label (Indianapolis). 

friday cat blogging: how safe is your pussy?

Is yr pussy safe & secure? U should know that if she wanders outdoors a lot she's prey 2 coyotes, raccoons, & the dreaded Giuliani monster!


This pussy is safe & secure, Not only is she in a box, but once she pulls that paw in she'll be completely secured, in a box in the house (It's not 4 nothing they call me "Catboxxer"). Some folks might laugh at this, and say "Why worry about the Giuliani monster? He's in NewYork City, amirite?"

Wrong! The monster was sighted here in AZ a week ago, complaining about Obama & claiming he LOVES all pussies, without mentoning he loves em with a side of cole slaw.

Don't  let your sweet little pussy outside, even though this monster is back in NYC right now. He gets around amazingly quickly. You may B in Arizona or Washington state, but I'm sure you don't want your little beast exposed 2 STD's or worse. I'd rather be killed and eaten by a dozen coyotes than fall into the claws of this thing.

mim

Yesterday we visited the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix & were overwhelmed. We saw maybe a quarter of it, but it was only our first time there. We kind of grazed thru the African & Mideastern rooms 4 a couple hours, then took a cursory look at the rest.

Here's a shot of the section of wall devoted 2 a Yoruba masquerade (carnival?). The Yoruba live on the landward corner at the bottom of West Africa's bulge, today part of Nigeria. The display is typical of the Museum's set-up -- a ritual costume and a plethora of instruments, and best of all, each  features a monitor playing a tape loop which shows the instruments in the display being played, in ensembles and by soloists. You're wearing headphones and quickly become immersed in the music and the sight of the instruments.

Turkey gets a comprehensive treatment, with an urban wall (left) and a rural space on the right. The dress looks like the one the Dervishes wear, but it might just as easily be a female costume. Even tho I read all the descriptions, I can't remember what any of them said. I think it's called "Sensory overload."

Some of the most rhythmically complex, passionate, and inspiring music in the world comes from the Balkans, and you can hear several exuberant samples at Bulgaria's space, in the Mideast section if I remember. The bagpies made from half-goatskins are beautiful to look at, and the eerie sound they make frightens some. Bulgars, Romanians, Albanians, & others in the region sometimes play goat bags with 2 pipes, enabling highly-skilled musicians to play real counterpoint.

Speaking of double spout bapipes, I can't sign off tonite without showing you this thing, played with a bellows. I'm not sure how many hands it takes to operate this monster, and don't remeber where I saw it, although I'm reasonably certain it was somewhere in the Balkans.

Click on these little thumbnails 2 C the pix in full size.

pizza pizza

Best Pizza Ever! (& actually good 4 U!) Very 

thin scratch crust w/ 1. King Arthur 

unbleached flour.2. Lots of Kit's homemade 

vegan red (spaghetti) sauce (Lots of it!) 3. 

VERY LITTLE cheese (Monterey jack, 

Asiago, Parmesan), 4. topped with Kalamata 

olives, sautéed mushrooms, scallions, & fresh 

basil. Is "health pizza" a contradiction?

oral flatulace losing its fragrance

We've known 4 quite some time that Rush is in financial trouble, due 2 a campaign 2 get him defunded run by Media Matters & others.

But a story in the Wall St. Yurnal last week

points out that the trouble brought by Rusty has now spread, involving the entire hate radio sector.

According 2 the Yurnal, "More than 50 million people in the U.S. tune in each week to news-talk radio.

"But" the Yurnal continues, "many national advertisers have fled from such situations in recent years, seeking to avoid associating their brands with potentially controversial programming. As a result, advertising on talk radio stations now costs about half what it does on music stations, given comparable audience metrics, according to industry executives." 
             
           The damage hate radio's violent language & its tendency 2 champion stupid opinions have done 2 us politically, socially, spiritually, & ethically is impossible 2 calculate. 

friday cat blogging

A.M. The cat creeps stealthily
along the side of the house.

Click pic 2 embiggen.

marshawn the magnificent

Marshawn Lynch, running back, Seattle Seahawks

(Photo by Carlos Serrao 4 ESPN Magazine's 2014 Body Issue

Jeb vs. Hillary

Linked here  is a piece I wrote 3-1/2 yrs ago, as the election of 2012 loomed and the Republican debates were ongoing.

I'm putting it here this morning not to show what a brilliant predictor of events I am, but simply 2 make the point that usually, if we put our emotions aside, it's easy to tell what's gonna happen in US politics.

This year, we'll see all the various serious and non-serious Republican hopefuls shake loose and fall out one at a time. In the end only Jeb B. will B left. It'll be Bush v. Clinton in 2016.

The last 2 fall will B Scotty Walker, the preferred candidate of Dave & Charlie Koch. Walker "the google-eyed homunculus the Koch brothers appointed to manage their midwestern subsidiary, formerly known as the state of Wisconsin." (Charles Pierce @ Esquire.com) With Koch money behind him, Walker will B the final impediment in Jeb's scheme. However, Dave & Charlie will grudgingly bow to "the will of the people" (i.e., most of the other billionaires), as Mittens did yesterday.

And in the end, Clinton will win the White House easily unless Bernie Sanders runs as an independent, which he will only do if Liz Warren agrees 2 run with him in the #2 spot. That would  split the Democratic vote & throw the election 2 Jeb.

But that seems unlikely 2 me, and I'm going with Clinton. As 4 my vote, I'll probably let this presidential election pass me by, as I did the last one.

Friday cat blogging

 Cats appear quite intelligent, but a lot of the behaviors that improve their survivability are instinctive rather than thought out. An example of this is their usual preference 4 drinking  moving, rather than standing water.

In my cat's case, this preference has lately become a mania, as she refuses to drink anything except water flowing from the tap. It's got to be a very tiny stream, too; she won't tolerate water that runs too fast and splashes, because too vigorous a flow wets her front paws, & we can't have that.

Feline mistresses are some of the most exacting. This one ought 2 have her own full-time servant.

drums tuff

Sunday evening as I sat here attempting to post this, I had an equipment failure, or hardware malfunction as we're wont 2 say these days, when the beat up old cord that connects the iPad to an electrical source finally became 2 porous 2 conduct anything. I realized my blogging career was over 4 a day & a half or so. 

So today I got a ride down to Tarjay, got  a new cord & we're back in business. B4 I was so rudely interrupted I wanted to say that the the drum kit I've been putting together is now all but done, with arrival on Saturday of this beautiful little Ludwig Bros. snare drum, year of manufacture not known.

All we know 4 sure is it's an oldie. The drum & and its identifying badge parted quite some time ago; the seller guesses it's an early 30

s instrument, but it could just as easily B from the 20s. Ludwig didn't put serial numbers on any thing until 1963, so there's no way 2 date it.

It's smaller than Ludwig's standard snare of the time, as it's a "juvenile" model -- made 4 a younger person, but not a toy. Except for its size it's exactly like all the other all-metal, single-tension snare drums that came out of the Ludwig plant from shortly before 1920 thru the early 30's, and looks a lot like this instrument in the hands of  Chauncey Morehouse, Bix Biederbecke's favourite drummer.

Slightly larger, and with a dozen lugs rather than the 6 mine came with, the two instruments are nearly identical, except his has a nifty little sound hole between every pair of lugs My piece arrived somewhat the worse for wear, with the bottom head busted, and the lugs rusted. I took the single-tension lugs off an old Kent drum I bought earlier (and which proved unplayable because it's "out of round"), got a new bottom head, and after slapping on some new snares I should have a picture of the whole kit up by mid-week.

friday cat blogging -- bird watching

.    

skyscrapers & chem trials Updated

WH Auden wrote this in NYC on 9/1/1939, which also happens 2 B the name of the piece. There are other years ending in nine 2 which which his "low dishonest decade" might apply -- 1/21/2009, for example. I can't read this without seeing myself in it, along with most of the people I know.

To be able 2 read this poem without a struggle, and hear it read simultaneously, go here.

It's usually relatively easy 2 copy & paste a poem, but sometimes you'll run into dreaded sorts of formatting problems, as happened here. My apologies 2 readers.
     

You don't have
 2 understand every term Auden uses 2 understand  the poem. W/ the first 2 lines he establishes a tone -- one of  resigned & sad, but determined acceptance of reality. 9/1939 consists of equal parts historical, polical, and spititual elements. Already he smells "The unmentionable odour of  death."

saddy cat

Despite advancing age -- I figure she must B at least 10 -- the cat gets frisky & tears thru the house from one end 2 the other once or twice a day. Sorry abou the blurry shot, but it was the best I could get of the fur blur.

The object of the exercise is centered on the hall runner she's stepping off  here as she enters the living room. She runs into the room  beyond -- the yoga room -- then turns and runs the other way. There's just a bare floor in the yoga room, so it takes a couple seconds of running for her to get traction, then she tears thru the living room and hits the hall runner at full speed, usually getting a nice big slide.

She looks like she's having such fun I might try it myself some time.

bullies

What a test a couple of shitheel Parisian brothers, now deceased, are laying on us. What's the  right way 2 respond 2 terror?

My initial response 2 the Charlie Hebdo massacre was probably "reductive," as The Guardian's Gary Younge characterized all such visceral reactions today. But on further reflection, it seems 2 me that this tragedy raises mostly fundamental free-speech issues, my first conclusion. 

When dealing with terrorists of any kind, whether they're the black-clad dolts of al-Qaida/ISIS, or yr local boys in blue, or the guy from down the street who threatens to whomp you with the Jesus stick, there's 1 principle we need to stick 2.

Salman Rushdie, who appeared on Bill Maher's first show of the new season last night, said it loud and clear -- "Never give a fucking inch."

The terrorist objective is always the same: 2 intimidate us into silence and compliance with their will. That's why it's important to get up in their grilles, and scream loudly, insultingly, and with great malice, "No, Never, Not one inch."

This has been the response, for example, of Deray McKesson, a St. Louis native, 2 the intermittent and random terror the various police departments in that county have imposed on its black communities.

There R some, such as the TV host mentioned above, Mr. Maher, who concentrate on the ideology of specific terror groups, & argue that acts like the massacre at Charlie Hebdo are intrinsically connected to Islam, a fundamentally flawed religion. However I think even Maher, an arrogant atheist, would find such an argument ridiculous if it was applied to US citizens who have murdered abortion providers & then applied 2 all Christians by extension.

When it all boils down 2 gravy, ideology is words -- hot air, & we're left with behavior. And didja ever notice, the behavior of Mideast terrorists is a lot like that of Americans who sleep on pillowcases wth eyeholes cut in em.     

pea vine

What a lovely & inoffensive citizen is the pea vine,
She asks so little and gives so much.
A little water, clean air & and sunshine, 

& the tiniest patch of dirt, which she lightly touches
As she reaches 2 the sun,
from 1st light until the day is done.

friday cat blogging

This is my daughter's cat, a semi-feral female she's been feeding 4 a year or more.

A few months ago she reported that she was finally permitted 2 pet the kitty. Ever since, the cat has been trying to finagle her way in2 the house.

Looks like she made it. Portland winters, it seems, R not fit outdoors for humans nor beests.
.

vánoce skončily

The Holidays are decidedly done 4 another year. Finished. All gone. No more. None left. They're history now, 4 a month & a half annyway, until the feast of St. Valentine sneaks up on us.

Today is the day, if you haven't done so already, to move the dead tree out of the living room, bundle all the decorations into boxes and thence to storage for another year, and assess the damage.

There's been a lot of progress this year, both on the personal front & in the wider world.  There's been a lot of damage 2, as there usually is during times of progress, which entails major changes,

That means it's past time to get serious about changes we've resolved 2 make in our selves in the coming year(s) as well. 

Because of economic, political, & environmental instabilities, society's particles -- i.e., individual humans -- tend 2 B more agitatated than usual, & will become more so as we approach the boiling point.

This may be the year of steam.

superstitious snow

Besides the kit kat, per usual on Friday, I wanted 2 share this pic I took yesterday of "our" mountain, Mt. Superstition by name, because this is the first time I've seen snow on it.

The snow is gone completely 2day, but the mountain remains.

kit kat

 

Cat in foreground.

In the backround is my jen-U-wine 1920's drumkit, a work in progress, featuring 28" early 20s Ludwig bass drum, a 20s Chinese tack-head tom, & retro style block, bell, and cymbal. These last three items are modern, but the style is pure 20s/very early30s

Still missing: Bass drum beater w/ cymbal sriker, bass drum cymbal mount for the back side, snare drum.              

photo: Kathleen Wood

family connections

My disdain for bad behavior, no matter who the perpetrator, extends even 2 my own ancestors-- not a pleasant thought.


I wouldn't do well if I was Chinese, because they're supposed to revere their ancestors. I do revere most of mine, the salt-of-the-earth, impoverished farmers that predominate in my family tree (as I believe they do in the trees of most Americans) appear as God-fearing people who would sooner die than take something that didn't belong to them.

The branch of the family I've pretty much disowned came to the brand-new USA from England in the 1780's, soon after the Revolution, and either my great-great-great paternal grandfather arrived with a little money, or his wife did.  She came 2 America with the idea of getting rich in the slave trade, or picked up on its possibiltles soon after arrivng. First settling in Pennsylvania, dominated by Quakers, so that slavery never got a toehold, they quickly decamped for Duplin county NC, and just as quickly bought their first two slaves. Mrs had half a dozen or so by the time the old man died, and she continued collecting them after he was gone. By the time she passed on she had as many as 10 slaves on the place, and  2 more in dispute.

The dispute arose when her son Francis and his new wife took two household members with them when they departed for Georgia by wagon in about 1830. We know quite a bit about Francis & the family he raised in South Georgia on land acquired cheaply, formerly the domain of the Creek Nation. That old Indian killer, Col. Andy Jackson demolished the Creeks for good at Horseshoe Bend, Alabama, in 1814, with the few survivors of that virtual massacre escaping to Florida & joining the Seminole tribe.

Tho we are famiiar with the lives of Francis and his family in some detail, we know virtually nothing about Dave and Ireland, the two men at the center of this family feud, other than their names. I would like very much 2 know more about them & who they really were, but at this distance doubt that's possible.

What follows is interesting enough to write, and maybe a few would want to read it. Francis prospered in south Georgia, built a plantation called Tallokas, had a gang of kids, bought more slaves, & lived the life of a country gentleman. His mother ignored him in her will; she was still pissed at him for taking Dave & Ireland, who were the only two human chattels on the place not deeded specifically 2 her by her husband. By that time Francis needed no help; he was living large on stolen land and labor. There was a steep price to pay for such prosperity, however, as those who read on will soon see.

...down to the 4th generation...

My grandfather, Sam Brice -- that's him sitting in the foreground with his feet tucked under -- was born in 1889, and looks to have been slightly less than 10 years old when this family picture was taken, dating it to shortly before 1900.

His father, Timothy Brice, is seated at center beside his dour-looking wife Mary, surrounded by their ten children and, on the other side of the white picket fence holding the clan's first and at this date only grandchild, the inevitable "Aunt" Ellen. This was, after all, Brooks County in Southern Georgia.

Until  coupIe years ago I never knew any but the barest facts about my great-grandfather, that he was born in 1838 and looked a lot like me. I had done the math and knew that he was 23 and his brother David  was 24 when the Civil War commenced in 1861. Born and brought up in South Georgia, they were grade-A cannon fodder.

Undoubtedly, social necessity as well as patriotic motives and a looming universal conscription order from the CSA led to their walking down to Savannah to volunteer for duty in the 50th Georgia Infantry on March 4,1862. But when the regiment marched out of Savannah four and a half months later, traveling north where it was attached to Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, only David marched with them. He fought at Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, and met his death on the second day of the Battle of The Wllderness, May 6, 1864.

Meanwhile, Tim was heading home from an army hospital in Macon, above the fall line and outside the malarial zone surrounding Savannah, where he had become sick during training with Camp Fever, a form of malarial dysentary which killed as many during this conflict as died in battle.

Tim Brice was discharged from service on the same day the regiment marched from Savannah, and presumably returned home to Brooks County, where he married in 1866, fathered 13  children, 10 of whom lived, and spent the rest of his days.

It would take a very serious flaw in one's constitution or character to be unconditionally discharged from an army as desperate for manpower as the Confederacy's was. Perhaps my great-grandfather was gravely ill, or maybr he was painfully unfit for soldiering and warfare. In any case, Timothy Brice had a very  shoirt interlude in service, and did no fighting for the CSA. 

merry xmas cat blogging

Sometimes I think the only reason cats consent 2 being domesticated is that they know humans will provide them with more luxurious accommodations than they can get for themselves in the wild.

Learning to crap in a box is a small price 2 pay for regular meals and sleeping on cushions all day. It's a trade-off I'd make. 

francis

Is there anything this Pope can't do?

He probably can't strike a match on a wet bar of soap, but other than that he looks like Superpope.

In recent centuries we've grown used 2 seeing some hypocrite or another on the Papal throne, whining about abortion & birth control, & ignoring real abuse inflicted by some church institutions on their own. Then comes Francis, who deals with the world not just with the authority inherent in the office, but from a  position of  moral authority.

If he keeps his string of hits going in the wake of Cuba-USA detente, he may succeed in returning the Papacy 2 what it once was, a politcal power in a world of competing nations, singular in its possession of neutral, disinterested, moral high ground.

 The  Pope? How many divisions  does he have?¨ Stalin is said 2 have asked when told the Pope (Pius XII) didn´t like his treatment of Soviet catholics. Hs remarks were typical of the last 100 years or so, reflecting disdain for an outmoded relic´s opinion on any world affairs. Who cares what that old flatus emission thinks?

Then one day the real deal shows up out of Latin America, still with not a single division, tank army, or air force. Yet, when he speaks, world leaders listen, someimes in awe & sometimes in fear, but nobody´s´ mocking this pope.

Let´s see what he can do in the 10 years or so he´s got left. World peace, anyone?

friday cats & fruits

Cat: lower left. oranges, upper right.

politially correct xmas

?) 

I´m baking my pnut butter Xmas cookies this morning, which R genderless by default. (R pnuts gender
differentiated?)

I make only half a dozen at a time, so the hard part is producing the recipe in the correct scale. Politics got nothin 2 do with it, except 4 z butter.

1. simmer 1 gram of 13-17% thc hybrid in 2 Tbsps of butter 4 90 minutes.

2. carry on as U usually would with all ingredients reduced by 7/8.

Makes 6 cookies.

The butter preparation is suspect in this county. I'm warned  each tme I open a gram that while what I am doing is legal under state law, I might be violating federal and local laws. These are not specified, however.

Such solemn admonitions may not be politically incorrect, but R obnoxious as hell & probably the work of our obnoxious Mormonublican DA.

friday cat bloggin

Add caption

Mesa is that kind of town, & it.'s that kind of a day.  

mom

Dorothy 4/26/20 -- 12/7/08


She's not in Kansas any more.

lynching in the 21st century

Police today have gone in many places (not all!) from protecting & serving to acting as an organized lynch mob.

The evidence for this is the growing number of victims. Most are black; some are Latinos, some are white. Most are male, & all are young (I know of only one exception to this).

In the past, the composition of lynch mobs varied from place to place, but usually were led by police or some other local authority (mayor, judge, etc). Prior to the "golden age" of lynching (1865-1955) killing negroes was usually an assertion of property rights, and slavery actually protected the lives of of blacks. Your property has to do something heinous for you to terminate it, especially considering that slaves in the ante-bellum south were more valuable than land. Free blacks in the north were in much more danger of being killed by racist whites than slaves in the south. 

Emmet Till, lynched in 1955, was tortured & killed by 2 men in Money, Mississippi, one of whom ws a local cop. The crime was typical at the time, but the response was not. Mamie Till wanted the world to see what had befallen her son, born & raised in Chicago, when he visited relaives back home. The photos of Emmet's face, scarcely recognizable as human, (I will never forget seeing them in LIfe magazine at age 9) spelled the end of lynching in the US. Until now.

Lynching in the US today is a privilege reserved to police departments in some parts of the country. It is unwritten & never spoken of, but even rookies soon learn how it works. If you're on the street & some whippersnapper starts jawing at you, you may shoot him IF U feel like it.

Nothing wil haopen 2 U.

Photo of Emmett Till: (not fo the faint-hearted or weak-stomached)

http://ionenewsone.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/emtill1.jpg

topper

I finally found the top I've been seeking 4 the longest time -- $6 on Ebay. Guess I shoulda gone there 1st.

The Phrygian cap, an ancient design the Greeks used 2 designate barbarians, which 2 them meant any non-Greeks, has in modern times come 2 B associated with liberty, freedom, & revolution, specifically la Revolution Francais.

During the uprising of 1798-1805 it was always red, the colour of revolution, & incomplete without the blue, white, & red cockade.

Traveling across the Atlantic, it appeared on the coinage of the new American republics, both northern and southern, as the favored head covering of Lady Liberty, as it does on this US half dollar from the War of 1812. 

And once again revolutionary era Mexican coinage prominently featured the gorro de la Libertad. These were 90% silver, & some of the most beautiful coins ever struck.

Today we find ourselves living in momentous & revolutionary times once more. It's time to put on the Phrygyian cap once again, a headpiece ugly enough that unbelievers will surely eschew it.