 
Surprise! From The Borowitz Report:
INSPIRED BY IRAQI HANDOVER, BUSH HOLDS U.S. ELECTION FOUR MONTHS EARLYAndy Borowitz rules. However, for something slightly more sobering, read below a couple of posts.
I got yer slogan right here. Suzanne sent in a link to a tribute to the late, lamented "Sloganator" that once appeared on the Bush/Cheney campaign website, which they quickly yanked when they realized how much fun we were having with it. A little Googling revealed that someone has posted a free-standing successor to the Sloganator, in which you can add your own patriotic slogan to a B/C 2004 campaign poster and print it out yourself! For once, I think I'll rally 'round the Preznit. I can't offer him any financial assistance, since I'm a little tapped out after this week's contribution to the Kerry campaign. My own contribution is a new slogan for them. It honors the Vice-President by quoting him; said quote seems to perfectly sum up their attitude toward the world, toward the citizens of this nation, and certainly toward anyone who disagrees with them or asks them substantial questions about their doings.
And it begins... (Via Atrios) Right now it might not be much more than tinfoil hat fodder, but for the first time someone connected to BushCo has actually uttered the words.
WASHINGTON -- The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.Y'know (he said, donning tinfoil hat), if something happens and they actually do try to pull this, I don't even think the lunatic Freepers will stand for it. This country had elections in the middle of World War II, and in the midst of the Civil War. If (God forbid) there is an attack before Election Day, the one thing we will need to do to hold ourselves together as a nation is to continue with elections as planned. While playing with The Sloganator yesterday, our friend Rick came up with another B/C campaign poster that's certainly apropos.
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Culinary excess to the levels of near-obscenity exists in the palace of North Korea's psycho nutjob leader Kim Jong-Il, a "gourmet" who is perhaps the most pampered eater in the world, while the majority of the people he rules are quite literally starving.
While his countrymen scrounge for food in barren forests, Kim has spent an incalculable chunk of his nation's limited wealth feeding himself.Fascinating, and a further indication of something we pretty much knew already -- Kim Jong-Il is batshit crazy.
Bonehead diplomacy. Batshit crazy though he is, however, Kim is crazy like a fox -- certainly cunning enough to have played George Bush like a violin, and for a fool.
This week, after 20 months of doing nothing about North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons, President Bush finally put a proposal -- a set of incentives for disarmament -- on the negotiating table. The remarkable thing is, the deal is practically identical to the accord that President Clinton signed with Pyongyang in 1994 -- an accord that Bush condemned and scuttled from the moment he took over the White House. (For more on this tale, click here and here.) Gettin' the hell outta Dodge. Bob Harris, on the Iraq handover:
So. Um. Paul Bremer got the hell out of Dodge two days early, admittedly because of security concerns. ("Other than the handful of senior officials participating in the handover ceremony, which was not broadcast live on television, Iraqis had no knowledge of it as it was happening. The ceremony was so secretive that even members of Bremer's senior staff did not know about it until two hours before it began, the official said.")Neither can I.
[...] What's going on right now is obviously nothing but an attempt by the Bush White House to set up someone else to take the blame for the ongoing shitstorm. Remember the American domestic politics is the only reason June 30th was ever chosen in the first place -- the date was fixed before any plan for even forming the new "government" even existed, or we had the slightest clue whom we were handing power to.Three Marines were killed on the very first day after the handover. As Lyn asked, "What do we do now? Invade them again?"
Coalition: Vast Majority of Iraqis Still Alive. Our administration's optimisic view, reported last Wednesday, in preparation for the scheduled handover of "sovereignty" to Iraq, which of course occurred two days early:
BAGHDAD, JUNE 23 -- As the Coalition Provisional Authority prepares to hand power over to an Iraqi-led interim government on June 30, CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer publicly touted the success of Operation Iraqi Freedom.(Via The Onion)
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Carole Coleman responds. The RTÉ journalist says, "The policy of the White House is that you submit your questions in advance, so they had my questions for about three days." In response to White House
More outrage. BushCo continue to attempt to politicize science.
Administration Tries to Rein In ScientistsNo no no, can't have any scientists offering actual science that's in opposition with BushCo agenda now, can we?
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What a gobshite. Here's the capper to yesterday's story about the RTÉ interview with Shrub:
The White House has lodged a complaint with the Irish Embassy in Washington over RTÉ journalist Carole Coleman's interview with US President George Bush.Jesus. This is what she gets for doing her job and doing it well, instead of asking Shrub fluff questions like oh my jaysis, didn't Bertie have the most fabulous outfit on at G8? Pathetic.
Busy day! We're off early this morning to line up to see "Fahrenheit 9/11" (our friend Rick said that yesterday there were already 60 people in line an hour and a half early; "All of the evening performances at the first screen had already sold out. They had added a second screen at the mall and a couple of those performances were sold out. By the time I got out of the theater all of the additional showings had sold out and they were adding midnight and 1am screenings at the other theaters nearby. I talked to the theater manager briefly and he said they were scrambling to get additional prints and more screens before the weekend was up ..." Wow.), then Italian food for lunch, then dash back to Pasadena for a cooking demo of Tuscan food and then dinner. Whoo! Meanwhile, the rest of youse go see Michael's movie.
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Gore: "Democracy itself is in grave danger." Here is the complete text of Al Gore's speech yesterday to the American Constitution Society at Georgetown University. Read it.
George W. Bush speaks to Ireland. Yesterday RTÉ News in Ireland featured an 
exclusive ten-minute interview with the President of the United States,
conducted at the White House by their Washington correspondent Carole
Coleman (RealOne player required).It was ... unbelievable. Yet, depressingly, completely believable. And infuriating. He proceeded right out of the gate to blame Abu Ghraib on "a few soldiers", was incredibly rude and condescending to Ms. Coleman (who was asking pointed, incisive questions, none of which he answered), and was visibly annoyed when she declined to accept the platitudinal bullshit and tried to call him on the facts. He was on the defensive, was not cogent, and was not responsive. I was embarrassed for all of us. I showed the interview to Wes, and he responded with a list of points that articulated what I was thinking exactly, probably better than I was planning to say it. Make sure you watch the interview first, then read his response below:
Here's my list of things about this interview that piss me off:I can only think that anyone in Ireland who already hated him and who watched this is going to hate him now even more than before. Anyone who was sitting on the fence certainly fell off. My Jaysis ... I'm sorry. The majority of us didn't vote for him.
Major league asshole. From the Los Angeles Times, Vice-President Dick Cheney, ever the class act, while on the Senate floor yesterday told a liberal Democratic senator to go fuck himself.
Leahy, a liberal Democrat, had greeted Cheney in a lighthearted way and that the vice president criticized him for Democrats' attacks on Cheney regarding ethics matters, such as alleged improprieties in Iraq military contracts awarded to Halliburton, a company the vice president once headed.Although the Washington Post is reporting that Cheney said "Fuck yourself" rather than "Go fuck yourself", the exact wording is less important; it's the thought that counts, right? Major league asshole? Yeah, big time. P.S. -- Billmon has two wonderful posts on this delightful little sentiment from the man who's a heartbeat away from a pacemaker-driven presidency; the latter is hilarious.
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Cocktail of the day. Because what the world needs now is more rye cocktails. Because what the world needs now is more Liberals. Because I don't think a "Conservative Cocktail" would taste good. (I don't stock vitriol in my bar, anyway.)
This is a really good drink. If you're serious about cocktails, I once again highly recommend picking up a bottle or two of Torani Amer. It's a wonderful product, and even though some esteemed and learned friends will disagree with me, I use it for cocktails that call for Amer Picon. It's not exactly the same as the Picon of old was, but it's close enough (and it it's close enough for all those California Basques for their Picon Punch, it's close enough for me).
Perverse Polarity. Paul Glastris writes in Washington Monthly:
About a decade ago, national news organizations regularly swooped in to various university campuses to report on the ideological battles then brewing there. Faculties and student bodies were bitterly divided over affirmative action, speech codes, and academic freedom. Archetypes of right (a musty old professor or a white male young Republican) and left (jargon-spouting activists or faculty members) could be found to represent the ideological poles, mutually hostile and philosophically uncompromising.Make sure you read the entire article.
The ire of the Irish. Shrub arrives in Ireland tomorrow. The Boston Globe, the daily read for what's perhaps the heart of Irish-America, writes, "Ireland is bracing for huge anti-American demonstrations as Bush arrives for the US-EU summit. Has the long Irish-American friendship finally soured?" (Via The Green[e]house)
Twenty years ago, when Ronald Reagan visited his ancestral village in County Tipperary, most Irish people -- uncharacteristically -- bit their tongues.While I don't expect the Taoiseach [Prime Minister] to tell him to feck off, the Irish Examiner reports that the Tánaiste [Deputy Prime Minister], Mary Harney, said that the Irish government's disagreements with US foreign policy "would be made clear to the US president at the weekend." (As if he'll care.) Greg Greene observes in his above-referenced post on the subject, "That's right: we've fallen so far that we're hated by the Irish. Put that four-leaf clover in your pipe and smoke it." Actually, I don't think that's true. I think the Irish people are well aware of the difference between Americans and the current American government. On my most recent travels to Ireland, when the subject came up the outrage and criticism was directed entirely toward BushCo, not to me. As Christy pointed out in his RTÉ interview the other day, being against George W. Bush doesn't make you anti-American. That said, the anti-Bush sentiment is palpable. I'm intensely curious to see what the turnout will be for the demonstrations across Ireland tomorrow night. Besides the main ones in Dublin and Clare, there are smaller protests organised in Galway, Waterford, Tralee (Co. Kerry), Sligo and at Shannon Town. I'm registered at a number of Irish news websites, and I'll post a few updates when I can.
From the Index. I really enjoy "Harper's Index", from the venerable Harper's Magazine. Here are a few excerpts from their May 2004 index:
Number of blank votes recorded by touchscreen machines in a January election for Florida's House of Representatives : 137'Round and 'round it goes ...
Quotes of the day. (Via Uggabugga) Let's all sing ... lie la lie ... lie lie lie lie, lie la lie, lie la lie ...
"Face the Nation", March 14, 2004Lie la lie lie lie la lie, la la la la, lieeee ... (apologies to Simon and Garfunkel). Oh, by the way, Dick ... it hasn't been "Czechoslovakia" since January 1, 1993.
Holy crapola, could I really be finished? A week ago Friday I submitted the umpteenth edit of the sequenced song list for the New Orleans box set I've been working on since last August. All things considered, I'm pretty damn happy with it. Inevitably with collections like this compromises have to be made (e.g., the band where the song of theirs I really wanted was too long, and had to be substituted for a shorter one to fit on the disc, plus a bunch of songs for which we simply couldn't get licensing), but in just about every case any substitution made ended up being the perfect substitution. Last Friday I handed in the last revision of the liner notes, and I think I'm actually done with this thing.
The official title of the box is: The guys doing the graphics, cover art and packaging design are currently hard at work. I can't wait to see what they come up with; I worked with them on severeal ideas for packaging and was very happy with all their ideas (and happy that they slurped up a lot of my ideas too). There's nothing on the Shout! Factory site yet -- they've only got upcoming releases listed through the end of July so far, and this puppy's due out on October the somethingth. Actually, I'm a lot more than pretty damn happy -- I'm ecstatic, incredibly excited, for this box to come out. Needless to say, I'll keep y'all informed. Maybe later, as the release date approaches, I'll post a track listing.
Cocktail of the day. Heavens, I've got three cocktails of the day backed up. Ah well, it was a busy week last week, what with hectic days at the day job, the radio show and having to finish up the liner notes at the end of the week. I did have time for a few libations, but not much for anything else. We had this one of the evening of Bloomsday, chosen solely for the syllable "Blooms" in its name and not because it has a single thing to do with Ireland, James Joyce or Leo Bloom; for all I know, it could be named after J. K. Rowling's publisher (I'll have to ask Robert sometime). Speaking of whom, this is a DrinkBoy original from 2003. Licor 43 (or "Cuarenta y Tres") is from Spain, a rather sweet liqueur with a citrus-vanilla flavor and a supposedly thousand-year-old recipe of fruit juices, herbs, spices and vanilla.
Christy Moore press conference -- RTÉ provides a RealAudio report on Christy's press conference about the "When Bush Comes to Shove" anti-war concerts (which happened in Dublin last weekend; haven't seen any reviews yet) and the new single by himself and Damien Rice, due out in Ireland on Friday.
Have you seen "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"? If so, then read this immediately. It's feckin' funny. (I share in author Cleo's disclaimer; I loved the movie too, but this parody is still funny.)
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Happy 100th Bloomsday! Today is the 100th anniversary of the events of James Joyce's novel Ulysses, the single day during which his characters Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus took their respective journeys through Dublin. There's a lot going on, including a five-month ReJoyce Dublin festival, a scholarly symposium, plus on the other hand lots of grousing from people like author Roddy Doyle, who finds Joyce's work overlong, overrated and unmoving. Only you can decide. Now that I'm in my forties, older and presumably wiser (ha!), I'll have to take another crack at Ulysses. I tried it in college, and I couldn't manage it. I do love Dubliners (I just got a six-CD unabridged reading of it by Irish actor Jim Norton (a.k.a. Bishop Brennan from "Father Ted"), and ultimately enjoyed A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man when I was a senior in high school. Even though Roddy can't be bothered, I think this year might be a good time to give Leo and Molly another crack.
Marco Mannino, 1952-2004. I was shocked to read in the Times-Picayune that one of my old music teachers in high school passed away a week ago last Friday. He was primarily a substitute when I was there, rather than a full-time teacher (his dad, Frank J. Mannino, was our band director and one of my best music teachers), but I do remember him well. Multiple myeloma is a terrible way to go, and it was far, far too soon. My heart and condolences go out to his entire family. So long, Marco ...
Cocktail of the day. Yesterday was Wes' turn, and once again he came up with a classic that neither of us had ever gotten around to trying. This is a wonderful old chestnut, and back in the day it even called for its own glass, the Delmonico glass. They're rare as dodo's teeth nowadays, but a whiskey sour glass is pretty much the same thing. The combination of the two main base spirits might sound unlikely at first, but it was really delightful. Make sure you get a nice lemon twist with lots of oil in the skin, and express that oil onto the surface of the drink when you twist -- that flavor component is important.
But of course, we already knew this. In spite of the never-ending stream of falsehood from Cheneybush, the 9/11 Commission finds that there was "no credible evidence" of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda in the attacks against the United States. Quel surprise, for the thousandth time.
"When Bush Comes to Shove" change of venue. News from Damien Rice's mailing list ... the new single "Lonely Soldier", a new song about peace by Christy Moore and Damien Rice, will be out next Friday 25th June, Ireland only. If you're interested, email or ring Mulligan Music in Galway and see if they'll let you pre-order or something. Tell Mike I said hi. You can also order directly from Damien's website.
Also, more importantly ... for those of you reading in Ireland (there are probably at least three or two of you) who are planning to go to the Irish Anti-War Movement's "When Bush Comes to Shove" concert (featuring Christy, Damien, Kíla, The Revs, Katell Keineg and more) this Saturday, in case you hadn't heard, it's moved form the Point Depot to Vicar Street. (I wonder how they're going to manage that ... apparently it's already sold out, and the Point seats 8,500, and Vicar Street seats only about a thousand. Hmm.) Anyway, whoever's going, ya lucky feckers, have a great time. I wish I was going with you.
The Fairy is free! You may wish to take a moment to interpret that header as you will, but you're likely wrong. The fairy to whom I'm referring is La Fée Verte, the Green Fairy, the old nickname for absinthe. Nearly a century after starting the anti-absinthe hysteria by unjustly blaming the powerful spirit for a murder, the Swiss parliament voted 142-13 to re-legalize absinthe. This is good news. Now, maybe Swiss absinthes like La Bleue won't cost two-feckin'-hundred dollars a bottle.
Shameful. The Los Angeles Times featured on its front page today an article about former soldier Spc. Sean Baker where he recalls the beating he received at the hands of his fellow soldiers in Guantánamo, and how he's been "abandoned by the military."
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Cocktail of the day. This is a variation on Johnny Mitta's Rose Cocktail. As much as I liked it, I knew that I'd like it better if I changed a major ingredient. With certain exceptions, like Martinis and Vermouth Cocktails, I tend to prefer Lillet blanc to dry vermouth more often than not. With that substitution, I added one more ingredient to help balance the drink now that the herbal tang of the dry vermouth is no longer there. And yes, it looks almost just like a Rose cocktail (perhaps a little redder), but since it's a new and separate drink it gets its own picture. We don't want any of our cocktails to get jealous, now, do we? I am not fond of royalty (certain water polo players excepted), so this drink is not named after any actual people whose primary occupation seems to be to think that they're better than everyone else. (As the song says, "I cry out 'Republic!' and allegiance to no crown.") It is, however named for figurative royalty -- Wes' first niece, who was born two weeks ago last Thursday. They're her initials.
That's just ...revolting. I love hamburgers. Properly done, well-grilled with good beef and the right toppings, a burger rise above lowbrow food and becomes one of the comforting delights of American cuisine. Unfortunately, the hamburger has been sullied by the likes of McD*n*ld's and most of the rest of the fast-food chains that contribute their artery-clogging, gut-expanding offerings to this increasingly obesogenic society. Still, I'll always go for a good burger, within the confines of my diet and in definite moderation. I love 'em. There are limits, though. There are lines one crosses in which a nice, friendly, good ol' hamburger becomes something so over-the-top as to be grotesque. For instance ... ladies and gentlemen, I present you ...
I've been seeing and hearing commercials for these, extolling the alleged virtues of not only the product but of the people who can eat "A POUND OF ANGUS BEEF!!" (A pound? What idiot would eat a pound of beef at one sitting? A proper serving would be three or four ounces.) Extolling the alleged virtues of it being as big or bigger than four McD*n*ld's Quarter Pounders with Cheese, or seven of their plain regular cheeseburgers. It's just as big or bigger, so it must be better! (Seven of those cheeseburgers? I'd puke, probably.) Just about everyone I know who's seen or heard one of these commercials is appalled. I'm still trying to decide if this is worse than their nauseating "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face" campaign.
These monstrosityburgers are the product of
the fevered minds in the Their marketing department is hard at work trying, though. "The 1 lb. Double Six Dollar Burger was designed specifically for our core hungry, young guy target audiences," says Brad Haley, executive vice-president of marketing for Carl's Jr. (Um, yeah Brad ... soon to be your core, hungry young fat guy with heart disease target audience.) Let's look at the nutrition information for this behemoth, shall we?
Calories: 1,420.Carl's should hire the characters from that movie where an ad agency hired mental patients to write their slogans, and they were honest, direct and effective. This burger's slogan would have to be, "Are you a big fat pig? Wanna be one? Boy, have we got the burger for you!!" If you saw the wonderful film "Super Size Me", you watched Morgan Spurlock eat a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a Super Size Fries, and then about 40 minutes later barf it up through his car window. This burger is supposedly twice the size of that. Who on earth would actually want one of these? What's behind this? Feederism? Mere gluttony? I don't get it. Even more appalling, in a way, is Carl's Jr.'s attempt to capitalize on the low-carb diet craze with their latest offering, pornographically depicted in all its cheese-oozing glory on signs outside every one of their outlets ... the Low Carb Breakfast Bowl! It consists of:
... from bottom to top, includes two scrambled eggs, a sausage patty, a slice of Swiss cheese, and a "Loaded Omelet" made with sausage, crumbled bacon, diced ham, and cheddar cheese. The product is topped with more crumbled bacon and shredded cheddar cheese -- all packaged conveniently in a 20-oz plastic bowl.Well, it is certainly as advertised, only 5 grams of nasty, awful, Satanic carbs! First the good news, now the not-so-good ... it weights in at 315g, almost three-quarters of a pound of food. A mere 2 grams of dietary fiber. Nine nundred calories, 660 of which are from fat (that's 73%, if you don't want to do the math). Fat content is 73 grams, 33 of which are saturated fats (that's 45%, better than that burger but still too much). Sodium content, 2,050 mg. I don't care what the late Dr. Atkins says, this isn't good for you. There are too many calories and too much fat for one meal. Don't be suckered in by this kind of advertising bullshit. Fast-food chains like this don't care about your health, they want to separate you from your money. If you're on a reduced-carbohydrate diet, do it and be well; be healthy and eat real food!
Just how bizarre have things become? Take this quiz from BuzzFlash.com and find out. Here's a cheat sheet on how to ace it -- for most of the questions just pick the most bizarre, absurd, mindbogglingly unlikely answer, and that'll be the right one. (To be fair, the subject of #7 applies to every president, wherever he or she goes, and has since the 1950s. The irony and incongruity of the scenario is unaffected, however.)
Oh, the scandal. Quel surprise. The Knight-Ridder reportage has a better headline: GOP refusing to allow testimony on Halliburton spending. I'm shockeditellyoushocked.
Mike West arrived in Iraq last September as a labor supervisor, one of legions of workers hired by oil services giant Halliburton Co. to help rebuild the battered country. And at his boss's direction, West filled out timecards saying that he worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, in camps with evocative names such as Anaconda and Al Asad.From the second story link:
Halliburton Inc. paid high-priced bills for common items, such as soda, laundry and hotels, in Iraq and Kuwait and then passed the inflated costs along to taxpayers, according to several former Halliburton employees and a Pentagon internal audit.And would you believe ... Rep. Thomas M. Davis, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, decided not to include this testimony in today's hearing about contracting in Iraq. It only came to light because of one Democrat. Henry Waxman is my hero.
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Irish artists to record anti-war protest song. It's been too long ... I think we need to have protest songs back once again. I can't think of a better bunch to bring it about than these folks ...
Irish artists young and old have joined forces to record song in aid of protests against US President George Bush's forthcoming visit to Ireland, it was announced today.Can't wait to hear it. In the meantime, give a first or repeat listen to Christy's brother Barry (aka Luka Bloom)'s song, "I Am Not At War With Anyone".
Cocktail of the day. It was a bit hot this weekend, and we had been out running errands and dragging crap out of the garage all day Saturday. I decided something extra-refreshing was in order. I can't remember where I first heard of this variation of the Brazilian classic, but I got the inspiration to make one when someone gave us a pile of beautiful little kumquats the other day. It was mighty, mighty good.
If you haven't seeded the kumquats, now would be a good time to fish out all the floating pips with a spoon before serving. Since the whole kumquat is edible, you can also fish out the crushed kumquat shells and snack on them after you finish your drink. Tangy and delicious!
It ain't just me, babe. Top story, yesterday's Los Angeles Times:
Retired officials say Bush must go.Yeah, no kidding. I'm sure that the statement will be described by the Bush campaign as something akin to blasphemy.
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Cocktail of the day: Cocktailian redux. This evening (after a nine-hour day of home improvement shopping and clearing crap out of the garage) we made Dave Wondrich's recent recommendation, the 1920s-era Rose cocktail, as featured in last week's "Cocktailian" article. Oh my. It's exquisite. You simply must try it. We find this drink to be far superior when you use raspberry syrup made by either Smuckers or Knott's Berry Farm. We like the Torani product, but it's blown away by the jellymakers' products.
Yum yum yum!!
Quote of the day. Hee hee.
"I blame gay marriage."Way to uphold those family values.
Quote of the day, part deux. Day before yesterday, in an email from a friend:
Finally, it might just be as I said to [my husband] when Reagan died: "I'm having trouble summoning up how mad I was at him for all those years. Compared to what we have now, he just doesn't seem that bad."It's come to that. As Wes said, "And that, you know, is one of the saddest commentaries I've heard on The State of Things As They Are Now."
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Today, let's have a national day of mourning for Ray Charles. (1930 - 2004) R.I.P.
Lucky Old Sun(Thanks for sending that, Dave.)
Fantastic new Uncle Tupelo site debuts. This one was a long time coming. My friend 
Michael Pemberton, St. Louis native and adopted New Orleanian, was the
first big UT proto-fan that I met. He's also thoroughly knowledgeable
about the band, with them having been a local band for him back in the
day. Michael's been talking about working on a truly comprehensive UT
compendium and putting it on the web for years, and finally ...Factory Belt is here. Big, exhaustive and with everything you always wanted to know about Uncle Tupelo but were afraid to ask -- lists of live performances, many with songlists; posters; photos; articles and much, much more. It's wonderful. Thanks, Michael!
The Cocktailian. In Gary Regan's fornightly visit to our favorite bartender ... a 1920s drink from Paris leaves our hero The Professor feeling in the pink. The drink, involving French vermouth, kirschwasser and raspberry syrup, looks fabulous. I can't wait to try this one. Tonight!
Planxty's Live 2004 reviewed. Sarah McQuaid in Ireland's Hot Press has a review. It's subscriber-only, so I'll post an excerpt:
From the first spontaneous roar from the crowd as O'Flynn's rock-solid pipes make their entrance on "The Starting Gate", it's evident that something magical is afoot. The four mesh together as though they'd never been apart, especially when Moore, Irvine and Lunny join in rich three-part vocal harmony on "The Good Ship Kangaroo". And always at the musical centre there's O'Flynn, his whistle and pipes a massive, deep-rooted core around which guitars, mandolins, bouzoukis and bodhráns dance in contrasting rhythms that intertwine delicately with nary a clash.I've never been such a fortunate punter before in me life. She gives the CD a rating of 9.5 out of 10. I can't imagine what the half-point deduction was for, except maybe for its not being an entire concert's worth and therefore too short. Maybe I could go along with that. Buy this CD and DVD. I'm tellin' yas.
Heads up, New Yorkers! You are not going to want to miss this show, believe me. Deacon John is New Orleans at its finest.
Classics of New Orleans music, a jump blues orchestra, arrangements and performances by Allen Toussaint, Wardell Quezergue, plus Dr. John, The Zion Harmonizers, Henry Butler, Sista Teedy Boutté ... jeezus! Get thee to Lincoln Center!
Ten foods you should never eat. (Via Matt) Actually, I'll have very little trouble avoiding just about all of these, but ... Who knew Bugles were so bad for you?! Fried in coconut oil?! Good lord! As for No. 10, Denny's "Grand Slam Breakfast" ... when I was in college I ate one of those, and within two hours was violently ill, quite literally writhing on the ground in agony. That was about 18 years ago, and I haven't had once since. Don't plan to again, either.
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Tonight on "Down Home". I'll be debuting the brand-new Planxty Live 2004 album, so if you're in the States and you're curious, tune in at 88.5 FM in Los Angeles or via our web site just before 7:00pm Pacific time. I'll start with the first track off the album, then a little later in the show I'll do a set of Irish music with at least two more Planxty tracks. Tune in!
Cocktail of the day. No, it's not a New Orleans cocktail, despite its name, but it oughta be. Very French, deceptively simple with only two ingredients, but one of those wonderful examples of cocktail alchemy as the various flavor components of the ingredients play off each other. Although after one sip you might think this had been invented in the Crescent City in the 1930s, you'd be wrong; it was invented in 2004 by Robert "DrinkBoy" Hess of Seattle. Boy, do we like this one, Robert ...
If you're anything like me (and I have what I consider to be a rather high tolerance for spirits), you'll be rather well-buzzed after just one of these. Faites attention.
New art by Tom Tomorrow. Tom's been working his ever-brilliant fingers to the bone:
You can get it on a t-shirt, or lots of other swag. Buy, buy, buy! He has several wonderful designs for sale -- the two boys who sold me my Gryffindor-coloured necktie in the theatre lobby after I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban particularly liked this t-shirt, which I was wearing at the time. (Yes, I bought a Gryffindor necktie. Other than the books, it's the only Potter tchotchke that I could possibly buy without embarrassment. Yeah, we already know I'm a geek, but it's actually a nice tie, dammit.)
Nothing good. Oh yes, bit by bit, it gets worse. (Via Wes.)
Military interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been given access to the medical records of individual prisoners, a breach of patient confidentiality that ethicists describe as a violation of international medical standards designed to protect captives from inhumane treatment. [...]Jeezus ....
Let's not forget ... Amidst all the hagiographies, canonization and deification efforts regarding the late 40th president of the United States, and before the Bush-declared national day of mourning, let's try to keep a few things straight. As many have pointed out (unfortunately, though, almost none in the national media), what should be an attempt to lay a former president to rest has turned into a frenzy of worship that's got people simply making shit up. The haziest area seems to be the cries of "He personally ended the Cold War!" Did he? Well, not exactly, but we can praise him for his willingness to work with Gorbachev, whose policies of glasnost and perestroika seem to have the upper hand there:
The Gorbachev factor -- too often overlooked in this week of Reagan-hagiography -- was crucial. If Yuri Andropov's kidneys hadn't given out, or if Konstantin Chernenko had lived a few years longer, Reagan's bluster and passion would have come to naught; the Cold War would probably have raged on for years; indeed, Reagan's rhetoric and actions might have aggravated tensions.We can, at least, praise him for his willingness to work with Gorbachev. As for the gushing "He was the most popular president ever!" ... he wasn't.
The reason Reagan is remembered as being such a popular president is because for whatever reason any time any media person talks about Reagan they remind us that "he left office with the highest approval rating of any modern president." While this was true at the time, if you only look at the last poll (63%), which included an apparent last minute expression of popular goodwill for an aging retiring president, instead of doing something a bit more reasonable like averaging the final 3 or 6 polls (Reagan - 54, 53, 54, 51, 57, 64; Eisenhower - 61, 68, 65, 58, 59, 59). A 3 poll average would give Reagan 57.3 and Ike 58.66. Or, a 6 poll average would give Reagan 55.5 and Ike 61.66.Let's see what some of his family, former colleagues, fellow travelers, journalists and members of his administration once said (via a post on MeFi):
"Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears." -- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in 1988, at a US-Soviet summit in Moscow.Finally, a let's-bring-everyone-down-to-realism editorial cartoon by Kirk Anderson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. There's no link to it on their site (nor on his just yet), but I received a low-quality scan of it in email yesterday. Here's the text of the cartoon with its title ...
MINNESOTANS REMEMBER REAGANIt's right to be sad that another human being died of such a terrible disease (which may well be cured one day if the current president, who claims to idolize him, stops blocking the research that could result in the cure); it's not right to sweep all this under the rug. Respect for the dead is one thing -- dishonesty, either by overt false statement or passively by omission, is another thing entirely.
Outrage overload. I'm approaching critical mass. Watergate was nothing. A little burglary and a cover-up. Now we've got an administration justifying torture, discarding the rule of law and inventing legal justifications to keep them from being prosecuted for war crimes; we have a president who apparently thinks (or at least is being told by his minions) that he's above the law and can set any or all of it aside when he feels like it. We have the most criminally corrupt administration in this nation's history.
Prison Interrogators' Gloves Came Off Before Abu GhraibAtrios said it best: "Arrest Rumsfeld." The band of brothers who saved the world during World War II wouldn't have done this. In fact, they didn't. German POWs were treated extremely well, and I recently read an example of a letter written by one to his American captor, thanking him for his kind and humane treatment (and this, after we had seen all that the Nazis had done). Next, Billmon on presidential powers:
The Wall Street Journal has a long front-page story ... that demolishes a few more pathetic fragments of the Abu Ghraib cover-up -- this time by tracing the cover-your-ass legal trail directly to Donald Rumsfeld.Jesus Christ. Law professor Michael Froomkin analyzes the torture memo (via Lyn:
On pages 22-23 the Walker Working Group Report sets out a view of an unlimited Presidential power to do anything he wants with "enemy combatants". The bill of rights is nowhere mentioned. There is no principle suggested which limits this purported authority to non-citizens, or to the battlefield. Under this reasoning, it would be perfectly proper to grab any one of us and torture us if the President determined that the war effort required it. I cannot exaggerate how pernicious this argument is, and how incompatible it is with a free society. The Constitution does not make the President a King. This memo does.The man said it himself, when he was only the president-elect, although you thought he was kidding back then, didn't you?
Transition of Power: President-Elect Bush Meets With Congressional Leaders on Capitol HillI don't just want them thrown out of office in November. I want to see them indicted, convicted, imprisoned. The lot of them. I can hardly wait until the indictments in the Plame case come out.
Uber-icky. "I like that word," says Wes, who sent in the following DVD news tidbit about which we're both excited and a bit uber-creeped-out:
You'll never look at TV the same way again. Coming on August 24th is David Cronenberg's uber-icky cult classic Videodrome, which will be presented for the first time ever in a new director-approved, uncut and unrated version. Boasting a new 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital mono track, extras include audio commentaries with director David Cronenberg, director of photography Mark Irwin, actors James Woods and Deborah Harry, "Forging the New Flesh" 30-minute featurette on the makeup effects, "Fear on Film" 26-minute roundtable discussion from 1982 (with filmmakers David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, John Landis, and Mick Garris), "Samurai Dreams" complete and unedited faux Japanese AV feature seen in the film, the "Camera" short film by Cronenberg from the Toronto Film Festival,a promotional featurette, a still gallery, theatrical trailers, and essays by film critic Carrie Rickey and Videodrome expert Tim Lucas. Retail will be $39.95.My old roommate Bill worked on "Videodrome" in the effects shop when we were in college, and not long after I went to visit him at the shop. He showed me some of the life castings, prosthetic effects and latex appliances for the "Videodrome" special makeup effects, and even though they weren't attached to anyone they were still creepy and disturbing. Brr. Can't wait for this one.
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Planxty: Live 2004. It's here. Arrived on Saturday, mailed to 
me by Christy Moore's sister Anne in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare -- it seems
she handles merchandise mailings from his web site orders. (Incidentally,
I put the names together and realized that Anne's husband Davoc is the
fellow from whom I bought some vintage Irish whiskey labels on eBay a
while back. I'd been dealing with the Moore family for weeks now and
didn't even know it. Thanks, Anne and Davoc.)It's taken me a few days to digest it all, to immerse myself in it, to revel in it. I tore apart the package, immediately put the CD into the living room stereo and cranked it up as loud as my speakers would allow. I closed my eyes and just stood there in the middle of the room, leting the music wash over me. I was instantly teleported back to Dublin just three-and-a-half short months ago, and hearing that first set of tunes again got me emotions churning once more -- my scalp was tingling, and as soon as the pipes kicked in I got all weepy again. The CD is, it goes without saying, sheer joy. As regular readers (and radio show listeners for the past 16 years) can probably tell, I'm very passionate about music. It's rare, though, for anyone's music to move me emotionally the way Planxty's does. Christy's great and powerful force, his humor and his delicacy as a singer; Dónal's brilliant arrangements, and his complex, interweaving, spiderweb-like interplay with Andy's mandolins; Andy's gentle voice and great songs; and, of course, Liam O'Flynn's piping, which got the tears flowing the first time I ever heard him. Ehh, I'm such a softie. Lucky 13 tracks on the CD plus a bonus, and 16 on the DVD (the track arrangement differs slightly, and there are performances from various nights between the two), plus 3 bonus tracks for a total of 19 separate songs altogether. I ripped the CD tracks for my iPod, then used Audio Hijack Pro to make MP3s of the songs from the DVD that weren't on the CD, rearranged them to correspond with the song order of the particular concert we saw, and it's only off by two. Damn good enough. It's fair to say that the inspiration behind the Planxty reunion was the documentary about them made for an RTÉ series called "No Disco", by a young man named Leagues O'Toole. He was trying to make Planxty's music more well-known to a younger generation, but little did he realize that the film had a great impact on the band themselves, who truly seemed to have no idea how highly they were revered. Finally Christy said, "Lads, the time seems to be right; if we're going to do it, we'd better do it now or we'll all be dead." Here are League's notes from the CD:
Amongst other things, the year 2004 will be remembered for the public re-assembling of Planxty for twelve concerts -- two in Glór, Ennis, in the music heartland of Country Clare, and ten in the plush confines of Vicar Street Dublin -- their first live performances in twenty-something years. This is an event of some considerable historical and cultural magnitude, rendered all the more pertinent given the seamless realignment of Dónal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Liam O'Flynn and Christy Moore.Ah, you're right there ... it was something I wished for, dreamt of and fantasized about for, oh, about two decades. It was a dream come true. Thanks to this album, I relive that amazing night every time I listen to it, especially when I hear the opening set of tunes, "The Starting Gate." After the first measure I'm right back at Vicar Street in Dublin, and a fair share of the emotions I felt at that long-awaited moment well up in me again. Fair play to ya, Leagues. Couldn't have said it better myself. Planxty: Live 2004 is without a doubt my very top recommendation for this year, and won't be topped by anyone. It's available on CD and DVD (both of which are essential) via Christy's web site; in my opinion, that's the best place to get it. Sure, you could get it from somewhere else, but if you did you wouldn't be getting it from Christy's sister. There's something special about getting it from family.
Uh, Mr. Bradbury, sir? Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite writers. I've loved his books since I was ten years old. I respect him. I like him, having met him at a book signing. That said ... I think that until he can demonstrate to us that he secured William Shakespeare's permission to entitle his wonderful novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, he needs to shut up and quit bitching about Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11". My my my, some people sure 'nuff do get crotchety when they get old ...
The latest Republican outrage. (Thanks, Barry.) An AP wire report on Salon says:
Churches that mistakenly mix religious and political activity would face reduced fines but keep their tax exempt status under a provision in a corporate tax bill the House is to consider this week."Mistakenly", my ass. This is a bold and desperate attempt to let them use conservative churches as political action committees, and is as cynical and wrong as David Duke's sole bill in his brief term in the Louisiana legislature reducing the penalty for assault to a $25 fine if the assaultee was burning a flag. I will personally pay for the water and throat spray for the Democrats who must filibuster this if it gets to the Senate.
Andrew Sullivan's hero. Uh huh. Gobshite. (Michael Bronski, nicked from Tom Tomorrow:)
Throughout all of this Ronald Reagan did nothing. When Rock Hudson, a friend and colleague of the Reagans, was diagnosed and died in 1985 (one of the 20,740 cases reported that year), Reagan still did not speak out. When family friend William F. Buckley, in a March 18, 1986 New York Times article, called for mandatory testing of HIV and said that HIV+ gay men should have this information forcibly tattooed on their buttocks (and IV drug users on their arms), Reagan said nothing. In 1986 (after five years of complete silence) when Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report calling for AIDS education in schools, Bennett and Bauer did everything possible to undercut and prevent funding for Koop's too-little too-late initiative. By the end of 1986, 37,061 AIDS cases had been reported; 16,301 people had died.[ Link to today's entries ]
Cocktail of the day. I thought about trying to concoct this one recently when I heard the old song, and thought "hey, that's a good idea ... you put de lime in de coconut and drink 'em both up." Certainly relieved my bellyache. The name of the drink comes from the singer.
Now that I think about it, that alternate version featuring cachaça and coconut rum instead of the coconut syrup would probably kick your ass. That's 3.5 ounces of spirits. Maybe coconut rum instead of cachaça or white rum, then the lime juice, bitters and soda. Caveat imbibor -- I haven't tried any of the alternate versions. This is a very refreshing drink.
Fine awt. A few weeks back Wes and I went to a science fiction and comic book convention in Pasadena (yeah, I know, we're geeks), primarily to get Ray Harryhausen's autograph on his new book (which we didn't get, because they ran out of them), but we did find a bunch of other neat stuff to haul home. Perhaps the neatest was from some kid named Angelo who was offering to draw caricatures for free. Yep, free. (My favorite price.) He works shows and parties, and asked only for tips and donations, which he freely admitted were entirely optional. We were so entertained by his result (he caught our likenesses rather well, we thought) that we actually gave him a pretty big tip. Wes was wearing his "Mars Attacks!" t-shirt, so Angelo placed us on the surface of Mars, being besieged by marauding Martians ("AAAACK! ACKACKACK! AACK ACK ACK!"); we're only seconds from being disintegrated.
Now dat's fine awt. (I especially like Angelo because he made me just as tall as Wesly, when I am in fact five inches shorter. Must be some anomalous Martian effect on height ...)
So, an alligator walks into a restaurant ... No, not a setup for a joke. An alligator walked into a restaurant. If it had been in Louisiana instead of Florida, we might have said, "Mais, how convenient!" and ended up with Alligator Sauce Piquante as the daily special.
Are they insane? Apparently so -- the Republicans are now attacking Kerry by saying he's out of touch with most Americans because he's rich:
The Bush-Cheney campaign this week stepped up its assault on Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) for being a rich guy. No, make that for being a really, really rich guy. "Most Americans can't afford yachts, private planes, thousand dollar haircuts or homes in Nantucket," Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke said in a news release announcing a new video game on the RNC Web site. The game is called Kerryopoly. It's similar to Monopoly, but the properties belong to the Kerry family.Do they not realize that we all know how rich the Bush family is? I'm not sure any of their slimy tactics has reeked of desperation as much as this has. Billmon again:
Actually, Kerry isn't the one with all the dough, it's his wife -- the widow of the late Republican Senator and ketchup heir John Heinz. I guess Kerry's real crime, from a Bush family point of view, was marrying above his station -- and, of course, vacationing in Nantucket, as opposed to someplace earthy and down home and full of regular folks, like, say, Kennebunkport. Right wing penetration of mainstream media. How it works -- a superb post from Leah at Corrente, via Atrios. The slimy attacks on Democratic supporter George Soros (whom the editor of the Moonie Washington Times called, on Sean Hannity's show, "a Jew who figured out how to survive the Holocaust") didn't just come from Hannity's show; the line was traced to attack swill posted on the National Review Onilne, through the RNC chairman directly to Hannity's spew-fest. Another particularly galling part of the post was this recollection from Leah:
We've heard a lot about Bush-hating. We'll hear a lot more. Just to help you keep it all in perspective, let me remind you of the kind of civilized discourse to which President Clinton was treated on almost every day of his eight years in office.(The editorial continues inside comments section)
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Remembering Ronnie Reagan. Alzheimer's is a sad and terrible way to go. May he rest in the peace that his current cadre of followers have striven to deny to this world. I think the best way to memorialize Reagan is by making a donation to an AIDS charity or AIDS research organization, in his name. Also, remember Reagan in the way his widow Nancy specifically requested -- by making a donation to research foundations working on embryonic stem cell research. Please do so. While it is proper and decent to bow one's head and offer a thought or prayer for the dead, the near-deification that's just beginning is already going over the top. It's not inappropriate to keep a few realities in mind, as Billmon eulogizes:
I found it hard to hate Reagan -- even though I detested most of what he stood for, believed and sought to do. Yes, he was as ignorant and stubborn and incapable of rational thought as our current president, but he wasn't arrogant -- or at least, he didn't come across as arrogant. He lacked Bush's infuriating sense of entitlement, and his nasty temper. Reagan smiled, he didn't smirk. [...]Raising a few points to augment Billmon, we'll start with Jeff, who reminds us amidst the deification by the right and the childhood nostalgia of Generation Y:
Thousands of Americans died of AIDS because of him, and his economic policies shot the deficit through the roof and left a mess for his successors to clean up.Via Kos, Josh Green:
Reagan is, to be sure, one of the most conservative presidents in U.S. history and will certainly be remembered as such. His record on the environment, defense, and economic policy is very much in line with its portrayal. But he entered office as an ideologue who promised a conservative revolution, vowing to slash the size of government, radically scale back entitlements, and deploy the powers of the presidency in pursuit of socially and culturally conservative goals. That he essentially failed in this mission hasn't stopped partisan biographers from pretending otherwise. (Noonan writes of his 1980 campaign pledges: "Done, done, done, done, done, done, and done. Every bit of it.")And DailyKos writer D.H.:
I have no interest today in attacking Reagan's legacy; in fact, I wish to praise him for his prescience in recognizing that Mikhail Gorbachev was a dramatically different man than the line of tired apparatchiks he succeeded. Reagan recognized that this was a man that he could bargain with, a man who wanted to make the world a safer place, and place less vulnerable to a nuclear war that would destroy all life as we know it. In short, Reagan looked into Gorbachev's soul, and knew this was a man the U.S. could and should trust.These days, the problem isn't so much Reagan and his works, but the works of those who call themselves his followers. The current crop almost makes Reagan look like a moderate.. To paraphrase Christy ... "hey Ronnie Reagan, I'm black and I'm pagan, I'm gay and I'm left and I'm free. I'm a non-fundamentalist environmentalist, go now and rest in peace." Although, Ronnie, you should be prepared -- there might be several thousand Central Americans on the other side of the river, waiting to ask you some questions.
The NOPSI Cookbook is back. NOPSI (or simply "Public Service", as my folks used to call it) was the big monolithic company in New Orleans that provided electricity, gas and water service, as well as running the transit system (now handled separately by Entergy, the MTA, et al.). They used to slip recipes into their monthly bills, and after a while these were compiled with others into a big cookbook that was used to raise money for the United Way. Now, after being out of print for ages, and albeit with a new name, it's back. (Thanks, Greg!)
"Get the NOPSI Cookbook ... It gives you the basics for making real New Orleans food."From Woodstoves to Microwaves: Cooking with Entergy is available for $19.95 plus $3 shipping and handling from The United Way of Greater New Orleans. The books and publishing rights were donated by Entergy, and all the money goes to charity. It's a great book for a good cause.
The spelling bee is fixed! Fixed! Corrupt! A scam! Appalling! Shocking! Okay, not really ... but our friend Steve pointed out that the winning word -- "autochthonous" -- was in fact Dictionary.com's Word of the Day yesterday ... the very day before the finals of the Spelling Bee took place! Coincidence? I THINK NOT! Quick! Call a Congressional investigation! (Actually, that's futile; the Republicans would only block it, as is their wont.)
Word of the Day for Tuesday June 2, 2004Seriously, it's a wild coincidence, ain't it? It's particularly so when you consider that probably not one of us have ever used the word "autochthonous" in a sentence, nor was even aware of its existence, and it pops up in rapid succession two days in a row. Actually, the bigger news was not the kid who won with "autochthonous", but the kid who came in second with "alopecoid" -- he was apparently so nervous (or something) that he fainted before attempting to spell the word. He seems to be more famous than the actual winner. He's fine, but I hope he stays that way -- if the kids he goes to school with are anything like the little feckers I went to school with, he'll be mercilessly harrassed about his little moment for the rest of his school days.
President Harkonnen? Someone posting in the comments section of the always stupendously excellent Whiskey Bar pointed toward an essay by novelist Frank Herbert in which he describes the genesis of the Dune novels:
[T]here are analogs in Dune of today's events -- corruption and bribery in the highest places, whole police forces lost to organized crime, regulatory agencies taken over by the people they are supposed to regulate. The scarce water of Dune is an exact analog of oil scarcity. CHOAM is OPEC.The commenter continued, saying that "going by that, the Americans as a whole would be the Corrinos, the ruling family of the empire, and the U.S. military the Sardaukar. The Bush family would make excellent Harkonnens, the powerful, corrupt group who gained power and influence through CHOAM and have designs on the Empire itself. We don't seem to have anyone filling the House Atreidies role so far though. I do have images of Al Gore playing Lawrence of Arabia in Iraq, but that's probably just a beautiful dream." Later, Jérôme Guillet posted, "France is the natural Atreides, of course." Heh. Karl Rove as Piter de Vries? Who'd be the Beast Rabban, Cheney or Rumsfeld? Someone who's good with Photoshop should show us how Baron Bush would look with red hair.
The
The Covert Kingdom Joe Bageant, who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family, writes of a looming danger that he sees to be far more potentially dangerous to American freedom than Islamic fundamentalism -- that's Christian fundamentalism. Read the whole thing, disturbing as it is, and especially the last line. While it may seem shocking on the surface, I have to agree -- my tolerance of someone else's religious views ends when there's a threat that said views could be imposed on me against my will.
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Busy news day. Things are beginning to get very interesting. (Mostly nicked from Atrios):
CIA Director Tenet Resigns.Yep, very interesting indeed. All it'll take now is for a mere handful of people to do the right thing.
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Oh, to be a Republican. This arrived in Monday's email from our friend Haven. Not only should this be pointed out far and wide, but it also needs to be written on the end of a large wooden board, so that certain people can read what's written on the board, then the board can be used to smack them in the middle of their forehead. (Snap out of it!)
To be a Republican in 2004, somehow you have to believe...They control (or heavily influence) all three branches of government, and the country has gone mad.
What the f...? I know I keep saying it gets worse and more surreal every day, but ... every day, it gets worse and more surreal:
WASHINGTON, June 1 -- Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials.I'm still debating what's more bizarre -- the Pentagon's Iraqi servant boy selling them out to the Axis of Evil, or some drunk slob spilling his guts to said Iraqi. Given the situation, I suppose there wasn't much else for the silly bastard to go but get drunk, was there? Why aren't the neocons and ShrubCo shrieking "Treason!", do you suppose?
Eleven more seats. Stephanie Herseth has won the special Congressional election in South Dakota. She shouldn't have trouble holding on to her seat in November, and then we just need eleven more Democrats in order to take control of the house. C'mon, people, we can do it ...
Imagine my surprise. I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you. Shocked.
A newly unearthed Pentagon e-mail about Halliburton contracts in Iraq on Tuesday prompted fresh calls on Capitol Hill for probes into whether Vice President Dick Cheney helped his old firm get the deals.It was only "deferred" pay, though.
A journal entry by Neil Gaiman, (one of my favorite writers), in which the author finally has The Conversation with his daughter. A lovely story, indeed.
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Fareweel, auld freend. In 1988, at a wee shop on the Isle of Skye, I spent more money than I'd ever spent up until then for a single bottle of liquor. It was a bottle of 
Talisker
Isle of Skye
Pure Highland Malt
Scotch Whisky, distilled in 1956 and bottled only a few weeks before my
arrival in Scotland (that made it a 32-year-old, in case you don't want to
do the math). Last night, we finished it off. It was time.My four days on the Isle of Skye were absolutely magical (remind me to write about them one day) and included a quest to visit the piping musuem (a.k.a. The Skye Piping Centre) on the Duirinish Peninsula, a ways north up the B884 almost all the way to the end of the road at Dunvegan Head. I really love the Highland pipes (shut up) and was determined to visit the museum, but everyone I mentioned it to said the same thing: "Och, the museum's rather boring, really. You'll be through the whole thing in about ten minutes." Stubborn Irish-American bastard that I am, I declined to listen. I ended up having a lovely lunch at a wee restaurant (whose name escapes me) just outside Dunvegan, and just a bit down the road was an even more wee thatched cottage with a sign out front that simply said "The Whisky Shop." Well, that's too intriguing not to investigate. I walked over, opened the door, ringing the attached bell. It was a long, narrow space, with the counter at the far end. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling, bottles of whisky, very few of which I'd even heard of at the time. (Even now, I'll bet there were some obscure ones you rarely see over here.) I chatted with the very nice proprietor for a while, then asked him to show me something wonderful. Without hesitation he directed my attention to two bottles on shelves right next to the register, with newly-typed description cards below. "It's our own malt, from right here on the island," he said. "These whiskies have just come out of the oaken casks and were just bottled a few weeks ago." There were a 34-year-old 1954 vintage and a 32-year-old 1956, the former considerably more expensive than the latter. I asked him what they were like, and he knocked off a rather florid description of the '54; when he tried to describe the '56, though, he was actually speechless for a moment, searching for the right words. Finally he said, "It's absolutely glorious." The sensible part of me didn't want to spend that much money, particularly since it was late in the trip and I was running low on cash. We continued to chat, and he asked me what I was up to for the day. When I told him, he said, "Well now, I wager you'll find the piping museum to be a bit boring -- you'll get through the whole thing in about ten or fifteen minutes." Sigh. Thanks, but I think I'll go up anyway. It was a lovely drive, up along the mountains of Beinn na Creiche, Ben Ettow and Ben Skriaig, through Colbost, Borreraig and Galtrigill, up to the Skye Piping Centre just about at the end of the road. It was fairly boring, and I was finished with it in about ten or fifteen minutes. Sigh. As I drove back, I passed The Whisky Shop again, and without a conscious thought my hands quickly turned the wheel until I was back in my same parking place from earlier. In through the front door, making that little bell ring ... to be greeted by booming laughter from behind the counter. "I knew you'd be back," said the proprietor, who had already wrapped up a bottle of the '56 Talisker for travel. I thought, "Feck it," and tossed my credit card on the counter. How long will it be before I'm ever here again, and when will I ever have the opportunity to drink a thirty-two-year-old whisky that isn't even exported from the island? There isn't anything I can buy that'll make me remember my experiences on Skye more than that bottle. I decided to hold on to the bottle unopened, and to wait for an appropriate occasion to present itself before I opened it. Six years it sat sealed, wrapped in bubble wrap inside a padded envelope on the floor against the wall in the very back of my closet (well-protected against earthquake, don't ya know) ... six years. Sometime in 1994 an occasion presented itself, and I smacked myself on the head for not having opened it a bit earlier. Off came the cap, and a wee dram went into the glass. It was ... absolutely glorious. I kept that bottle for a total of sixteen years. It didn't come out of its hiding place very often -- sometimes for very special occasions, sometimes to share with close friends. This was The Good Stuff, not casually consumed. Now it's 2004, a new century, in a new house and with life going in all kinds of interesting directions. I had about two inches of that whisky left, and I began to worry that with so little left in the bottle its quality might begin to deteriorate. Plus, we had new whiskeys to try -- from Ireland we'd brought back a bottle of Midleton Very Rare, the 2003 bottling (of which we are the owners of numbered bottle No. 56). This was a splurge -- Midleton is perhaps the finest of blended Irish whiskeys, being a blend of 16- to 24-year-old single malts personally chosen and blended by Master Distiller Barry Crockett. On their recent visit to Los Angeles, our friends with whom we stayed in Galway brought over a bottle of Bushmills 21-Year-Old Malt, matured in Bourbon and sherry barrels and finished in Madeira casks, so we're pretty good for fine sippin' whiskey. I decided it was time to put my old friend Talisker to bed.
We had a few friends over yesterday evening,
quaffed some Moscow Mules and
Cocktails à la Louisiane,
scarfed down some red beans 'n rice
(it was Monday, after all) and for a postprandial tipple, out came the
Yer man's still right -- what a glorious drink, going down as smooth as the finest silk. The nose featured honey, vanilla and honeysuckle notes; on the palate it's slightly smoky without overwhelming the lingering notes from the nose; on finish, you get a whiff and spray of the sea. Now it's gone. Fine spirits are meant to be drunk, not hoarded. I'd had this one long enough, and it was high time to enjoy it and move on. It would have been far worse if I'd saved it for so long that the remaining amount had deteriorated in quality. Besides, he had a worthy successor -- while it might not be a 32-year-old, that 21-year-old Bushmills was pretty amazing in its own right. I'm never throwing that bottle away, though.
(In the unlikely event you need to translate
the post headline, try The Online Scots Dictionary.) Please sir, I want some more! When I was a kid in my mid-twenties, travelling around Ireland and Scotland for a month on a tight budget, I didn't think that splurging on whisky was necessarily a great idea. Faced with the absolute gloriousness of that '56 Talisker, though, I decided not to give it a second thought, and did The Bad Thing With The Credit Card. Easy peasy. As I recall, at the time that whisky cost me £85, which at 1988 exchange rates was about $144 (adjusted for inflation and current lousy exchange rates, it'd be about $257.15 in today's dollars ... feck). That was a pretty penny back then (still is), and it took a wee while to pay off that credit card bill -- that not being my only deferred expense, of course. While writing the above post with the empty Talisker bottle next to my computer, I decided to do some Googling and see if there was any chance that that whisky was still available and, if so, how much it would cost. I quickly found myself at The Whisky Exchange, which has a catalogue section with many rare and old bottles for sale. They had, in fact, an entire page devoted to Talisker. Listed right there was the current price, and a tempting link that said "Buy". I looked at the price for a minute, thought ... well, that's a lot, but that doesn't necessarily seem so bad. Then I did the conversion from sterling into dollars ... The listed price, with the VAT removed for us non-E.U. residents, was a mere £339.57 per bottle, which at today's rate of exhange for the pound sterling comes out to $624.04. Europeans subject to VAT pay £398.99 per bottle, or $732.72. (*glerp*) Um, maybe we'll just stick with that Bushmills 21 for the time being, a bargain at about 15% of the price. (If I win da Lott'ry, though, I'm buyin' a case of that stuff.)
Fountain of suet? My friend Diana forwarded the following obituary from the Los Angeles Times, which was notable for one particular comment about the life of the deceased:
Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, the world's oldest person and the last human being on Earth born in the year 1889, died Saturday of pneumonia in Rio Piedras, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was 114 years and 272 days old. [...]Ignore her advice at your own peril, Mr. Young.
Where are people like this today? Where are the people like Archibald Cox, with the integrity and balls to stand up to a renegade president and make him answer to the people for his violations of the law? We need such a person today, more than ever.
From Bush, unprecedented negativity. The Washington Post reports on the blitz of negative attack ads aimed at John Kerry in states where the Democrat is campaigning, attacking him for his purported opinions, postions and former votes. Apparently it's the greatest number of negative ads ever; in fact, Shrub has more pictures of Kerry on his own website than he has of himself. Thing is, most of the Bush ads' claims are utter bullshit, or at best grossly misleading. Quelle surprise. So desperate, they are. So very desperate.
Quote of the day. Say it again, Al.
In December of 2000, even though I strongly disagreed with the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to order a halt to the counting of legally cast ballots, I saw it as my duty to reaffirm my own strong belief that we are a nation of laws and not only accept the decision, but do what I could to prevent efforts to delegitimize George Bush as he took the oath of office as president. I did not at that moment imagine that Bush would, in the presidency that ensued, demonstrate utter contempt for the rule of law and work at every turn to frustrate accountability.The man who should be president ...
May Looka! entries have been permanently archived.
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'lonely soldier'
Up in the mornin'
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