Welcome to September!
Last night, Jenny Ruth & I were the only staff at a beautiful wedding in a forested park in San Francisco (a small city with a larger population than Alaska.) It was a totally beautiful, small friends & family affair, & the two brides kept asking us what people usual do at weddings: like "when do we do a toast?", or Jenny would say "do you two want to cut the cake in the traditional way," & they'd ask "how's that?" Even tho the brides & the bridesmaids helped set up & clean up, I'm still so sore today on this Labor Day I can barely move my body to the bathroom, let alone the hike thru the redwoods I had planned. And I only mention this, because I believe in love, & altho you may ache the next day, I say to people who are against gay marriages, as a general rule they are so much more fun than yuppie marriages, Jesus ones or drunken Vegas ones.
For anyone just turning in to our spectacularly humble blog, it's been quite a month. A particular highlight was the first-ever international live-blogging, with our correspondences from various cities & countries that begin with the letter 'B', most of us with names beginning with 'B', non-sequentially updating a series of posts about the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. If you'd like to read thru this in order, with all the steppes & mesas of a Tony Hillerman novel, here are links in bold rainbowed chapters.I. Prelude & The Committee discusses the Logistics.
Now that Hurricane Gustav has kept George W. Bush from reminding voters that he's part of the same noble party as John McCain, who knows what will happen this Thursday Night? It might be worthwhile to check this website just in case. Stay tuned in September for Olaf Mary's first posts of artwork from Morocco, white gospel tunes from Berkeley, meditations on the science of dust, poetry based on Wayne's World, & who the frick knows what else.
II. Brains Prematurely Articulates, others have to rush from the bathtubs to set up the live CNN feed.
III. Brooklyn Arrives, Experiments with Zenlike short posts.
IV. Welcomes all Around & Al Gore's Speech.
V. Word from Bulgaria, & the Liberal Crepe Warfare
VI. Gobiden
VII. Climax, Wrapup, Dénouement, Cigarettes
UPDATE: September 1st, 2008, 11:55am. Talking about the plan of drinking Sazeracs on Friday Morning at 5am in Bulgaria (during McCain's convention speech) may be altered due to the difficulty of finding Peychaud's bitters in the Balkans. From Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day:They finally parted company in New Orleans after a confused & repetitive headache of a night that began at the establishment of Monsieur Peychaud, where the Sazeracs, tho said to've been invented there, were not a patch, it seemed to Reef [Traverse], on those available at Bob Stockton's bar in Denver, tho the Absinthe Frappés were another matter.
-pg. 368.
I'm guessing Pynchon made up the Absinthe Frappé, altho it doesn't seem to be impossible to duplicate from fiction; & timely, considering the reintroduction of proper absinthe to America & the current shaken & frothy state of New Orleans. I'll call David Chang & ask him how to get sea-foam on the top of an absinthe drink. (Also, considering the murky origins of America's first cocktails, I think it's a bloody good joke that the sazeracs at "Bob Stockton's bar in Denver" would be better than at Monsieur Peychaud's.) We may need a drink of this caliber to get thru Thursday night.
August 31, 2008
August Review: "Gushes of Blood, Gushes of Tears: got all these gushes coming out of my VJ"
August 30, 2008
PLENTEOUS FRUITS
An early addition to my Western Harmony series of Shape-Note tunes, but new to the internet: this one is pretty conservative in arc & text, but with a few spicy Copland-esque moments. I believe I've managed to find some Isaac Watts poetry that hasn't been set to a shape-note song, but correct me if I'm wrong, it's from his same lovely arrangement of Psalm 65 that the Sacred Harp tune Rainbow uses - the three verses I use would be the middle three verses of Rainbow in some ideal long version. (There's evidence of it being set here: but I've never heard that hymn.)
Click on the (bottom of the) image to see it large & print a landscape-size page. To get a PDF file, go here.The morning light and ev'ning shade
Successive comforts bring:
Thy plent'ous fruits make harvest glad,
And flow'rs adorn the spring.
Seasons and times, and moons and hours,
Heav'n, earth and air are thine,
When clouds distil their fruitful show'rs,
The author is divine.
Those wand'ring cisterns in the sky,
Borne by the winds around,
With wat'ry treasures well supply,
The furrows of the ground.
I recommend you check back this website, like, all the time - because as soon as I fix my damn'd microphone, I'm going to sing you all beautiful home recordings of these songs.
Holy God. I knew he'd screw it up, but...
McCain has outdone himself this time. Really outdone himself. Take a bow, you jackass- oh wait, you're too old to bend at the waist. How dare you be so reckless with the future of America and the World that you would put second-in-line to the Presidency a person who cited her experience sitting on the PTA board of her kid's school in her speech accepting the VP slot on your ticket?
A person who you apparently think is qualified to be commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world despite having no knowledge or experience of global geopolitics and our most pressing conflicts?
what's that? There are bears in Alaska, and they're sort of like terrorists? Her son is in the army therefore she will use her mother's love and her "mom's sixth sense" to guide him and all his friends to sandwiches and safe havens wherever they may find themselves under fire?
"Palin for VP '08: Because of her, a school cafeteria in Alaska now has orange juice instead of Soda Pop!". What. The. Fuck. What kind of a sick-ass joke has this nation become? Our own political "leaders" are mocking us and testing the limits of our self-destructive stupidity. I don't know about you, but I'm outraged that McCain's opinion of the intelligence of American voters is apparently this low.
Hansraj Maharawal drunkenly provides a counterpoint to my bitter consternation:
"But come on, she's given birth to five children. How many children has Joe Biden given birth to, through his own vaginal canal? Huh? How many, smartass?"
August 28, 2008
Live-Bloggin' from Denver via Elsewhere: Post Letter "D" - Frost on the Windshield
Robert Frost once wrote:
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit's crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o'er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out the door.
Which brings us back to Obama's big convention speech, which is happening HERE LIVE NOW, commented upon by our crack team of bloggers. I recommend refreshing the page very very often.
8:39pm Mountain Time. Oh, so now he cares about health care too?
8:43 MST - In linguistics there is something called the schwa, it's the sound made when your tongue is at its most restful area of the mouth, directly between all three extreme vowel sounds (front, rear, and top of mouth). He does that with any word ending in -y. Like "country," "community," and "bureaucracy."
I think he's best when he calms his voice. Ooh! JFK reference (8:42)! So many valid tie-ins: Lincoln, MLK, JFK; must heart Obama.
Michelle's dress is definitely floral, Jenny Ruth insists, but it seems from some alien landscape.
8:56pm This speech is sounding beautiful to me. Has anyone mentioned in the past five minutes that this Joe-Biden whisky is fucking delicious? I eat up that "this is not about me" rhetoric!
9:00pm Again, I would have loved to have heard something more stentorian than an electric guitar play right after he finished.
9:05pm Okay, I take it back, there's some seriously dramatic movie music going on right now.
Grainne: music choices are weird, but to me, satisfying. a country song about new york city. how political!
Liam: "Now I just want the first gay president. I'm so over this. I'm sick of first ladies.
Grace: what if the president's a lesbo?
Liam: Yeah, okay, well, that's different.
Grainne(dissapointed): hey wasn't the Jewish benediction supposed to be tonight?
Liam: that's bullshit. bullshit. all this christian bullshit.
Grainne: Nancy pelosi is cute as hell. and her shiny clothes get me excited.
Brains: It's that point where the cable news panel or radio punditry jump in with 3rd-grade reading level opining, but online from the Demconvention.com feed they just followed O along the stage, and the music orchestral feed was perfectly loud. Instant cinematics? Never thought they were possible. Pretty cool.
Pelosi, my local rep, is such a cheeseball. Fizzle. Out.
(On a five minute delay or something.)
9:13pm Sorry Liam, first gay president was James Buchanan, also one of the worst in history (presided over the break-up of the union). Pelosi - San Francisco in the house, what what!
Well, I guess that's it for now. CNN is already playing it in re-run. Stay tuned if you desire as we explore the MSM & blogosphere's reactions. Otherwises, thanks for visiting & to all a good night!
who is this Republican biotch? why are they letting her talk so much?
CNN's "Republican Strategist" - we needs to get ourselves one of those!
Liam: :"I hope he punches her in the nose with his gay fist"
Grainne: so we have someone to yell at?
Grainne: has everyone seen these ugly-ass meth heads who wanted to kill president O?fuckin ugly, right?
Liam: "who invented this attack dog thing?"
Powers: I think it's a football term
Liam: I think it's a term about animals.
McCain's response actually said "when the temple comes down", et cetera. The only thing those guys know how to say these days is "not ready," "not ready." Wasn't both Lincoln & Clinton & several other fairly good presidents basically as qualified as BHO?
Grainne: I just want to point out that Liam and I got the most pleasure of the night out of fucking up James' layout of this blog post by putting the meth heads up there with Frost and the fat chick. but we knew you'd fix it, you bastard.
I'm not that anal, but what about my beautiful woman! Let me do it for her!
I agree, actually, it looked great up there, but it messed up the poetry format. We're trying to be semi-professional here.
Careful, I have the power to revoke your administrative capacity.
Take another finger of Joe Biden for that.
9:41pm You realize I've been naked this whole time, blogging is one hell of a way to make a living. In Berkeley, with flowers in my hair.
Grainne: I propose that if our ticket wins in November, this delicious whiskey be known henceforward by the name of the forty-fourth vice president of the United States. If we lose, alas, may it remain as it is.
I think we can do little to stop the renaming of Jim Beam as Gobiden or what have you, the 47th VP, under any & every circumstance.
9:51pm Someone just said "I think we just watched Barack Obama become a great president tonight." What does that mean?
10:06pm Okay, goodnight, I'm off to watch some daily shows. I hope you all sleep as deep as Colorado Locusts - (meaning, for at least a hundred years, if not forever.) Ciao.
Alive-Blogging Live from Obama Nation USA! Post 2: A brief explanation of the beverage Gobias Gobama
For readers of George Eliot's novels & heavy healthy dyspeptics, this joke should require no preamble, but I'll brief in the rest of Obama Nation:
In Arrested Development, a canceled tv sitcom on Fox, there is a character named G.O.B. (played by Will Arnett), pronounced "Jobe" but frequently misponounced "gob". With the character Tobias (David Cross), he proposed to open a "carbo-loading" coffee shop called "Gobias" - "as in, 'Go Buy Us some Coffee'" - obviously, it is mispronounced "Joe-buy-us." Et cetera. Mirth & canned laughter ensues.
When Presidential Candidate & Illinois' junior senator, Barack Obama, announced his running mate would be Sen. Joe Biden, portmanteau enthusiasts across the internets immediately started calling the team "Joe-bama" & "Obiden."
Tonight, we are spread far across this majestic country, united by one common pursuit - live-blogging the Obamamania & drinking Jim Beam, which for the sake of it all, we've rechristened "Joe-Biden-on-the-Colorado-Rocks."
Which brings us to the following obvious joke:
And now we return to our scheduled Live Blogging.
7:56pm Mountain Time Does anyone still actually like Rock & Roll Music? I'm nostalgic for when politicians played Copland's music, dramatic open-plains orchestral stuff. Ah, Aaron Copland, gay leftist Aaron Copland. I'd vote for anything set to Billy the Kid.
Grainne+Olaf:
Barack: "That little American flag was the only toy I had. It was everything to me. It was my Fork. I ate with it."
Barack: "I see myself in lots and lots of white people wearing hardhats"
8:14pm That's Obama, I'm sure of it, I'd recognize him anywhere.
Grainne: Michelle never ceases to amaze me. Is her dress red tiger-stripe or am I hallucinating?
It's kind of cool how they match Malia and Sasha's dresses to their mom's. I dig stagecraft.
8:21pm Why on earth did the Rupubs agree to have their conference immediately after this, & how!? They're all going to look so cute & tiny next week.
Grainne: when are we going to talk about eating white babies?
5:25am in Bulgaria - Time for a working man's first big sip of Gob Biden Bourbon.
8:27 MST - He really needs to top his 2004 convention speech. I'm anticipating goosebumps soon, especially towards the end, but so far, Platitudes count: 3. OVerly repeated stump elements: 5. Let's go Barry, pick it up!
8:28pm What does Barack Obama have against John McCain? He keeps mentioning him like a man obsessed. Get over him.
Grainne: is he deliberately not bringing up the "I have a dream" anniversary? Not wanting to emphasize his blackness in such a big bright spotlight? hm. wonder where that will go.
8:33pm Jenny Ruth says: "Same old shit". But bigger, I would add.
I think he's saving MLK for a big moment.
Grainne: it sure is refreshing when the American Flag is not in the frame at all, and O has that giant Japanese-lantern lookin' background instead.
American Flags are so last century. NEW POST ABOVE! CLEAN CUP! MOVE DOWN!
Live Blog from Obama Nation Post 1b - Gyro Worship
7:11pm Mountain Time 28 August 2008, foreshadowings of the dawn in Northern Bulgaria, wipe that sleep from your eyes, people.
President Eisenhower's daughter is speaking, my how time flies.
A note to the lookers-in & devoted enthusiasts: Click on the post to see further comments & a few good jokes, & please say what's on your mind, no one likes passive-aggressivity.
After a few sips of Joe-Biden-on-the-Colorado-Rocks, it feels like I'm there in Telluride Colorado, my injured left leg (ouch!) soaking in cool hot springs.
7:15pm Well, Jenny Ruth has gone to sleep. "Wake me up when Obama speaks."
The military intelligence is taking the stage.
7:22pm Thanks for asking, Grainne. "America the Beautiful", interesting that guy was billed as a "singer/songwriter", because I believe (just off the top of my head) that it was written Katharine Lee Bates like a long time ago or something.
7:31pm How will we be able to tell when it's Barack Obama speaking? Is he taller than these other people?'
7:37pm What are you wearing, Olaf?
Olaf: Republicans. Republican. Mile-High Canadian Republicans.
7:40 MST - This week Senator Clinton showed us the audacity of mope. President Clinton showed us the audacity of cope. Rep Kucinich demonstrated the audacity of elope (he's married to a REALLY young and tall Brit). Now we're ready for some audacious hope. And that ain't just the audacity of dope talking.
7:41pm That is pretty brave to tell 75,000 young Obama supporters you voted for "Reagan, Bush, Gore, Bush & Bush."
Grainne: Olaf is presiding over Joe Bidens and Crepes. He just had this exchange with my room-mate Powers:
Olaf:Want a Crepe?
Powers:are they chocolate chip?
Olaf: Chocolate and Nutella
Powers: I really like chocolate Muffins and pancakes.
Olaf: I'll make you one.
Powers: I'll make it myself.
Olaf: No. it's kind of an art.
Olaf: A moment of dancing for Quillism. Bulgaria is in the house. I think the Tennessee delegate is Bulgarian. Water. Ice. To Matthew Ryken's up and coming child who will be born in Denver (shameful plug of my friends). Bus riding. Monarchies.
Grainne: Durbin got the Biden-Gore Tie from the white guy whose first language was swahili. The blue tie is the elder wand.
Quite, Quite. Whoa! Holy Shit! New Post Above!~
Live from Obama Nation Post 1a - Introductory Results
Hello Good Evening! Here we are, the first Group Live-Blog Live from Denver via Brooklyn, Bulgaria, Berkeley & Ban Brancisco. We would have started a little earlier but there was whiskey to buy, filthy stinky flea-ridden dogs to wash, & saxophones to polish - if you know what I mean!? The extended external blogosphere is encouraged to join in the "conversation," but please remember that this website is frequented by many very small children, & one particular disgruntled & easily-offended one-eyed midget with no name, so please please, no vulgarities or other right-wing talking-points.
I like this "Red Indian" burgundy color for my contributions.
6:46pm Mountain Time. Look! It's our Nobel Laureate!
Olaf: I want to see some innovative American tie colors. Why always blue? (first sip of Biden n' Ginger) We are relying too heavily on foreign pigments. We need to use American mollusks to color our ties, not Isle of Mogador mollusks; it is time for a change.
grainne: It's the same tie. they've been swapping it.
7:00pm Apparently, there was quite a lot of Republican mocking of the "Temple of Obama,"; in response, some people have posted galleries of pictures of McCain in front of columns:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/27/obamas-columns-at-invesco_n_121854.html
http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2008/08/presumptuous_gr.html
(I recommend typing up your comments in a different file, then pasting & uploading them into the post - so we don't all post over each other.)
Olaf: What? Also, I want to hear Brian Schweitzer again. He is a rancher. I am an attack dog, and so are my crepes. This guy isn't Randy Newman. He is not a rancher nor an attack dog, and I am not sure his keyboard is an American.
Grainne: I want to know what Sir James thinks of Michael McDonald.
James I won't write over you anymore! post in here! don't bitch out! (by the way, I think it was Liam, anyway).
7 7:14 MST - I'm gathering impressions after Gore's speech. It's hard to believe he was Lieberman's running mate. In the audience (via SMS) Kristin T. remarks, "You mean 'he who shall not be named'?"
I'm off to get some rancid low-grade mass-produced blended Bourbon from my hometown. Back in 15.
Holy caca that is green.
Grainne: Gore handed the tie off to The guy whose first words were in Swahili.
Olaf: I judge when to use force when I relax on the basketball court with my troops (metaphor for my crepes, and my shit).
Grainne: He really is here for the cops and the firefighters, the teachers and the assembly line workers.
Funny how a couple nights ago was all about the Kennedys. and then the Teamsters guy tonight. anybody else thinking about the war between the Kennedys and Jimmy Hoffa?
New post above & another coming soon. Hallelujah!
On that same note, just to be annoying, Eisenhower wasn't really a fan of The civil rights movement. his daughter speaking on the anniversary of "I have a dream" is interesting.
My room-mate heard the shouting of "si se puede", and came in to ask- "is that still the pet-shop owner?"
Grainne and Olaf, signing in
we are totally here. we're working on our joe bidens. we are also working on Nutella crepes. Olaf on Stevie:
Stevie Wonder loves Me. and now Curtis. so far excellent choice of music.
Live-Blog Obama Acceptance Speech, Preface i
(6:20 MST) Your Sports & Leisure Correspondent is no lazy, sweaty, oversized t-shirt wearing huffer and puffer walking slowly to get into Mile High. I've arrived early to see Shawn Johnson give the pledge of allegiance. She gets a 9.9. Difficulty level 5.8. Good posture.
I claim the color green. (How do I color this green?)
STAY TUNED TONIGHT - - - for the first ever greater inner itwaslost.org community live-blog of the Big Obamamania in Denver
a-hem,
check
back
periodically
& compulsively.
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Thursday 6pm (Pacific Time) onward.
Mr Quill, can you open & watch the following live video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#
& do you feel like staying up into the wee hours on Thursday night?
Team Live-blogging? A post that everyone can edit?
I say we have different colors like they do at the Economist:
http://www.economist.com/
How does the people feel about this idea?
I also propose, if y'all are into it, just to standardize the institution that evening, that we agree on a common drink. I propose Jim Beam whiskey, but that's open for (eighteen or nineteen) debates.
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How about something more with hops? It's Colorado's biggest crop.
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what time shall we commence?
I approve of Jim Beam. I may officialy re-christen it "Joe Biden" for the night.
G
- Show quoted text -
"Let no-one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence...few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."______________________________________________________________
- Robert F. Kennedy
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I love the idea, friends. Unfortunately, as a [____________], I must decline the opportunity...
Give 'em hell, kids.
Also, go Sox! Bury those Yankees.
And tomorrow evening I'll drink some Joe Biden to your health.
Keep me posted on future team-blogging exercises.
James
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I'm torn between doing it the Economist style, with people editing & updating the content of a post in different colors (Mrs Red, Mr Purple, et cetera) with the times in bold, like 7:15pm, all times Mountain? Or, alternately, as Mr Brains suggested, like the Daily Kos, having a short post or a series of short posts, & all our minute-by-minute comments can be in the comment section.
So I suggest: BOTH. I'll make you all "blog administrators", & anything like videos or pictures or transcendental poetry can be added to the body, & grow organically, & comments will be comments, & theoretically anyone on the BLOGOSPHERE can join-in, don't hold your breasts.. & we'll have perhaps a couple different posts thru-out the evening, & play it by the dog's nipples
Bryan, as much as I love New Belgium's 1554 Black Ale (elitist beer from Fort Collins, but is it black enough?), I think Joe-Biden-on-the-Colorado-
Liam, a short explanation of live-blogging, live-blog-parodies, & other oddities to your ear: Welcome to the 21st-century, live free or get out.
I will always love you,
J.H. Hassan D. Welsch
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