George Romero " Zombies ain't supposed to move fast. They're supposed to be dead, man. " 

It's Delightful, It's Delicious--It's Wrong
"But the worst thing "De-Lovely" does to Porter's music isn't musical, precisely; it's interpretive. After a few bars of 'In the Still of the Night,' the angel Gabe says, 'You wrote that for her, of course.' Porter responds, reasonably, 'A song doesn't have to be about someone.' The rest of the movie ignores this caution, and makes Porter out to be a kind of proto-James Taylor. It shows Porter jotting down a love song upon waking beside Linda, and generally suggests that his lyrics closely tracked his personal life. This is to impose a rock 'n' roll--or perhaps singer-songwriter--aesthetic on a prerock mode of production. Notions of sincerity and self-expression have little direct application to songsmiths of Porter's era, who produced romantic, rueful, or raucous material according to the needs of a given form, be it stage show, film, or the individually marketed song. " 

Germaine Greer--this goes for Canada too of course.
"'Australia doesn't owe whitefellas (including me) a living. They should stop ripping its guts out for a pittance, and sit on the ground. Sit on the ground, damn you, and think, think about salination, desertification, dieback, deforestation, species extinction, erosion, suburbanisation, complacency, greed and stupidity. As if.'" 

Robert Wyatt's "Cuckooland" nominated for Mercury prize: "'I think it would be a disgrace if anything came of it,' the 59-year-old told The Daily Telegraph. " 

LBJ's scar and the King's two bodies: "Trying to allay suspicions that Johnson was seriously ill, press secretary Bill Moyers 'snowed [the White House press corps] with details,' including full-color anatomical slides, and the news media duly carried daily reports of Johnson's convalescence, including such minutiae as how well the president slept on particular nights, Lady Bird planting a tree outside the hospital room window, and his viewing of 'Hello, Dolly!' on television. Unfortunately, Moyers had no idea how far the president was willing to take the full disclosure policy. On October 20, Johnson was holding forth to the press as he sunned himself on the Bethesda Naval Hospital grounds. 'Apparently feeling words to be inadequate' in describing how he felt, the Baltimore Sun's Muriel Dobbin reported, 'the President whipped up his blue knit sport shirt,' and, as Time put it, 'let the whole world inspect the ugly twelve-inch seam under his right rib cage' where the surgeons had done their work. Many newspapers and both major newsmagazines carried a photo that week of a squatting, squinting LBJ exposing his flesh for the press." 

Interesting looking doc on PBS tonight: "But 'Last Man Standing' meticulously delves beneath the surface--the filmmakers shot 200 hours of footage over five months--and stereotypes of Texas politics fall by the wayside. For one thing, Texas itself is on the cusp of a sweeping demographic change that threatens to unsettle the state and nation's political landscape."

(Later: this was rather good. Seeing the young (24!) Democrat
Patrick Rose--bucking a statewide trend--narrowly defeat his predictably sociopathic rival made for gripping TV. And early on, there were great colour shots of a white-suited LBJ doing some fancy walking horse dressage...) 

The Drunken Silenus, 1628
Jusepe de Ribera (Jativa, Spain 1591-1652 Naples)

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions: Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints
(thanks again Plep) 

free tunes by STEREO TOTAL and many others at Kill Rock Stars mp3's 

Like the one early last Thursday, the quake was centred off the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Nootka Sound area. The biggest one I ever felt was a couple of years back, and it was like a big truck going through a violent gear change right outside the room. With lots of giant cheap subwoofer action. Any memory of these two recent quakes sadly to be found in the file folder marked "misc. unsorted responses to false alarms; see cats, porch umbrella..." 

from Seven Oaks Magazine, an Alberta NDP candidate detects a whiff of change in the Hinterland. Our experience in Nanaimo-Cowichan certainly bears her out.

"Alexa McDonough, a former leader of the NDP states that winning takes three elections.

The first election shows who and what you are. The second election reinforces the trust that was built in the first election. The third election drives home that the NDP is really the best choice for the constituency.

In the Hinterland, we have begun to build that trust. That we are willing to work so hard for what seems to be a lost cause is already beginning to pay off. "

The Flying Yankee: " The Flying Yankee is a three car articulated train that was said to be the first streamlined train east of the Mississippi. "

No longer runs of course, but travelled between Boston and Bangor.  

Trouts and Seasons of The Mountain Village--papercraft and fishing stories...

"The river's summer come around with cicada after the rainy season.
I'm soaked with sweat and go up the river
but there isn't good fishing though I got so tired. The Japanese proverb says
"There's only one trout for every 2.5 miles in summer".
I give up and take a nap in the shade of the tree." 

all of Maud: A Monodrama

Then I rise, the eavedrops fall,
And the yellow vapours choke
The great city sounding wide;
The day comes, a dull red ball
Wrapt in drifts of lurid smoke
On the misty river-tide. 

Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the roses blown.

Tennyson, from "Maud"



A treasury of Bats
(thanks Exclamation Mark) 

For a raven ever croaks, at my side,
Keep watch and ward, keep watch and ward,
Or thou wilt prove their tool.
Yea too, myself from myself I guard,
For often a man`s own angry pride
Is cap and bells for a fool.

Tennyson, from "Maud"


Check out this amazing animated Harmonie / Harmony - John James Audubon - THE BIRDS OF AMERICA site 

The Self
"If their eyes were closed, and they were asked to point to their hand on the side where the fake hands were, they'd point to the rubber one. The experiment changed the perception of self. The volunteers swore that the rubber hand was their real hand. 'It is a strong sensation,' said Ehrsson, whose study was published in Science." 

Adolph Menzel "Rear courtyard and house" 1844.
 
Ok review of Menzel's Realism: Art and Embodiment in Nineteenth-Century Berlin
" Fontane penned an affectionate poem on the occasion of the painter Adolph Menzel's seventieth birthday in 1885. In it he queried, 'Indeed, who is Menzel? Menzel is many things, if not everything; he is in any case a great Noah's ark, animal and human being.'" Discovering the huge & incredibly varied output of Menzel was one of the most interesting aspects of my long ago trip to Berlin. 

Adolph Menzel "Much later in the show, there is a painting by Adolph Menzel of an empty room, painted in 1845. The door to the balcony is open, the light filters into the room through a translucent curtain. The painting seems to ask us questions about what is real, what is reflected, what is painted. It is an inconsequential view of an unoccupied room on a sunny day, with the light coming in. We are made aware of the light, how it moves through the room, catches on a chair back and on a picture frame, pools on the polished floor. The air in the room feels very present. We are aware, somehow, that the painter is in the room, observing, and that he has bought us with him. " I disagree with this guy about Friedrich, though. 

Don't Stop the Presses!--sign the petition to save the venerable Coach House, certainly the most influential Canadian small press.

Virtual Flickbook "the rougher feel of plastic keys brushing against your filthy paws..."