Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, and John Anderson - Superfreak

Have some fun with this!

I read a book-link

1491 is a scholarly work by Charles C. Mann that presents an enthralling story of the Americas prior to the European invasion. Mann covers the gamut of all the major cultures on both continents but I found his treatment of some of the American cultures to be the most revelatory to me. The size of their populations was amazing in itself, not to mention the works of civil engineering they had to accomplish to support these populations. Needless to say some kind of civil order was required to make that kind of society work and indeed they had systems of laws and governance in place that inspired the founders of our present country.
In what we now call Mexico the earliest cultures developed an astonishing sophistication in agriculture that bred abundant crops from the native plants around them. They created Maize from what was little more than a weed with edible seeds.About 60% of all the food crops in the world today were first cultivated in central Mexico, pre- Columbus.
I started out to review a book and I haven't said much about the actual writing, it is a fascinating subject. Mann possesses a crisp narrative style that is reminiscent of John McPhee His story moves along in a way that turns the ancient people into characters, it's pageantry.

This one goes on the A list.

Winter's easing up a bit

Here's an image that captures the crispness of sunrise on a Colorado winter morning, it's from back in early January and the weather is starting to turn, the thaw, it's on.

The black ice is mostly off the streets now and the potholes are in bloom, some of the streets with poorer drainage are in the worst shape, damnation alley.

victor wooten

Too lame to post, enjoy some Victor Wooten, amazingly graceful.

Strength In Numbers - Slopes

Austin City Limits presents...

R.I.P. Molly Ivins

"We are the people who run this country," Ms Ivins said in the column published in the Jan. 14 edition of the Star- telegram. " We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."

Aug. 30,1944-Jan. 31,2007

Dear Molly, you've been ripped from our midst way too soon, but thanks so much for all you gave, we won't see the likes of you again any time soon.

Keep on Hatin'-link

Photo by Evan Agostini/ Getty Images

"Loofah my stretch marks, Bill!"

Somewhere we might have done some good

Man of La Mancha

I got a chance to borrow a DVD of Man of La Mancha from the library today and I found it to be much more entertaining than I thought it would be. O'Toole's Don Quixote looks like the Burger King fallen on hard times and the effect is even more striking as he plays the Cervantes character acting as Quixote,with mask,wig,etc. in prison.

Reading Don Quixote is a must to understand the context of the scenes in this film, the novel is epic and I guess the stage production and the film were presented with the assumption that patrons would have an understanding of the story.

Deportees-link

From the Rolling Thunder Review tour of 1976, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez sing Woody Guthrie's Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).

Round Two

We got another blizzard yesterday, here's a shot of the backyard. The space directly behind the grill is the drive which I had very painstakingly shoveled out in anticipation of being able to park in. Now it's a future chore that I can already feel in my back and shoulders, I've shoveled tons of snow since the last storm and this one is supposed to be lingering into the morrow.

Soltice Blizzard

The view out my back door on the morning of 12-21-06. I really like the effect of the flash on the snowflakes at various distance, looks like a starfield. Posting now on 12-22-06, I'm supposed to go into work today, it remains to be seen if I can get to a passable street, there's one about 2 blocks from here. Got to get going, later

Frank Rich - Has He Started Talking to the Walls? -link

When news organizations, politicians and bloggers had their own civil war about the proper usage of that designation last week, it was highly instructive — but about America, not Iraq. The intensity of the squabble showed the corrosive effect the president’s subversion of language has had on our larger culture. Iraq arguably passed beyond civil war months ago into what might more accurately be termed ethnic cleansing or chaos. That we were fighting over “civil war” at this late date was a reminder that wittingly or not, we have all taken to following Mr. Bush’s lead in retreating from English as we once knew it.

Bush is so divorced from reality that he blames Al Qaeda for the whole mess, as if they had the influence to manipulate all the forces at play in Iraq.

Radio hoax reveal an appalling depth of bigotry-link

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.
His show on Sunday, Nov. 26 lured a gaggle of bigots out of the weeds. Just hit the link, it's chilling and unbelievable.

Lady "Blue", photo by F. Liebovitz

"I'm A Fool To Want You" or any other Billie Holiday tune you'd care to insert here.

Thank You Dr. Dean

Kudos to Howard Dean for his vision, he thought his "Fifty State Strategy" would take a few years to prove out and it surprised everyone with immediate success. I think it's fair to say he outmanoeuvred Rove who flogged his tired old "Smear & Fear" ploy right into the dirt.

Hopefully he'll get a full measure of credit for Democratic gains, Chuck S. and Rahm E. would like to claim most of that credit, but progressives will see through this corporatist bluster.

That's how I see the future of the Democratic party shaping up, there's a schism between the DNC and the DLC, the progressive and corporatist wings of the party. You could just as easily say the liberal and conservative elements are jousting for position at the steering wheel.

I want my party to stay true to it's liberal/progressive/populist roots, but I realize that some compromise is likely to evolve, as is necessary for the health of a resurgent Democratic party.

Pastor Ted Haggard

Image is from Evangelicalright.com

New Rules with Bill Maher 11/03/2006

Bill Maher's Talking Points Memo

Iraqi reality show?-Link

Is irony dead? Apparently not, if this so called reality show is any indication. I'd say the Iraqis who participate in this show are in grave danger if they ever return to any of the areas where fanatical militias prevail.
On the positive side, it looks like the Americanization of Iraqi culture is coming along nicely, why in no time at all Iraq will be a fully functional western style democracy, just like red state America. End the occupation now.

Mandolin

Here's my mando, the juxtaposition of the instrument and fruit is intended to be artful, I think I've seen a classical painting that's fairly close.