For what it's worth, the only pic I can take credit for photoshopping is the one below.

So if anyone coming here from Hayden's weblog sees fit to copy and forward my take on Ernst Stavro Blofeld, feel free.

(This is the Donald Pleasance era Blofeld, by the way. I'm picky about my choice of Bond villains. So anyone that thinks that's Mike Myers as Dr. Evil, go find a copy of You Only Live Twice and see the original in action.)

Evil is a full-time occupation.



Advantage Kerry-Edwards.

Waterfall
Don't ever change your ways
Fall with me for a million days
Oh, my waterfall

Fall Creek Falls, rural Spencer, TN. Sept. 27, 2004

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so down-hearted sometimes

So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away
Just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?

This was a much awaited set last night...



Nick Lowe, f. Geraint Watkins, Belcourt Theatre, Sept. 21, 2004.

This is another artist I don't know how I missed for so long. Most know of him either through his hit, "Cruel to Be Kind" or because of his marriage to Carlene Carter. Some also know him as the guy that produced Elvis Costello in his early years. Others may also know that he wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding."

I'm somewhat at a loss for words. It was a flawless set; yet, it's one of those things that I think you really had to experience in order to "get" it. Suffice it to say that at 53, Lowe is still a master of his own tunesmithy, and that the fact that he didn't sell out a venue the size of the Belcourt is but a single testament to the criminal underappreciation of this artist.

(Sidebar: Steve Winwood, Chuck Mead, Gillian Welch, and Dave Rawlings were spotted in the audience.)

Recommended:

Party of One: Set including a cast so tight a cat couldn't scratch it; Bill Kirchen on guitar, Ry Cooder on guitar, Dave Edmunds on guitar and co-producing, Paul Carrack on piano.

Also, if you can find it, 16 All Time Lowes is a good career retrospective.

You lose sixteen points, and whaddya get?

A fat load of crap from the Nashville Tennessean, that's what. The headline shouldn't be about how the differential in Tennessee is Bush by 16... it should be why there hasn't been a consistent polling result in the whole few months running up to this election.

Bush may be ahead here, but I'm certain that the lead is single-digit.

Here's the methodology:

The Tennessean and Chattanooga Times Free Press poll was conducted by the national polling firm of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C.

It included a sample of 625 registered voters who said they are ''likely'' to vote in the Nov. 2 general election. Interviews were conducted by telephone over four days from Sept. 11-14.

The sample included people whose phone numbers were randomly selected and then weighted by exchanges to ensure statewide coverage and by county to reflect voter turnout in prior elections. (emphasis mine)

The poll includes a margin for error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. That means there is a 95% probability the results of the poll are within 4 percentage points higher or lower than the result if the entire population was sampled. For example, if a candidate scores 15%, there is a 19 out of 20 chance the actual result will fall between 11% and 19%.

Here's why their conclusions are wrong, wrong, wrong:

Tennessee's population of 5.8 million is not evenly distributed throughout the state. This poll has a built-in bias that will tend to skew down the potential Democratic turnout. The population is heavily urbanized, and the turnout in 3 counties -- Davidson (Nashville), Shelby (Memphis) and Knox (Knoxville) could easily determine the outcome of the election. Hell, the total margin of victory for Bush in 2000 was roughly 80,000 votes (a 6 point spread, for what it's worth) -- so one game at Neyland Stadium at 80% capacity could have swung the election.

Now, based on 625 people which were pulled from a geographically weighted sample of the state's 95 counties, they're trying to say that Bush would win by over twice that?

Even given Bush's dismal record? Even despite the fact that every other poll for the past couple of months has shown a statistical dead heat? Even given the phenomenal increase in Democratic activity, in voter registration, and in a visible public sentiment that is a lot more anti-Republican than it has been in at least four years? Even given that Tennessee's state house and senate are majority Democrat? And that the governor is a Democrat? And that the two largest metros in the state are heavily Democrat?

Sorry, Mason-Dixon. That dog don't hunt. This election may be determined by "geos," but not the way you're reporting them. Rural turnout may skew Republican by percentages, but you're taking from a smaller pool numbers-wise. If you win a county of 100,000 by a spread of 60-40, you still get beaten (and outweighed) by a county of 1,000,000 which splits closer to even. Hell, you gotta have five or six counties with a much bigger spread in order to beat back the huge metros.

And if Shelby County breaks for George W. Bush, I'll put up an elephant in my cubicle at work.

And then, there was one.

RIP Johnny Ramone.

Could it be that this vaunted War on Terror turns out to be a bigger sham than our fight against the international communist conspiracy?

I wasn't old enough to remember our long battle against communism directly, but history teaches me about a drunken sot by the name of Joe McCarthy who rode shotgun while on the Road to Hysteria once before.

We expended a lot of capital (emotional as well as financial) globally trying to defeat an economic system. The heart of that economic system, by the way, was the idea that labor -- in and of itself -- has inherent value. Not only does it have value, it imparts collective power to those who perform said labor.

Talk about your threat to the "established order."

Say all you want to about how we were targeting despotism and totalitarian rule, but honestly, we didn't have so much of a problem with that as we did with people fucking with our ability to extract profits wherever we wanted to. Go on, pick a "communist insurgency," and I'll show you a country where We The People's Proxy have actively supported ethnic cleansing, rape, genocide, bacteriological and chemical warfare, nuclear proliferation, repression, murder-as-a-one-off, coups d'etat, drug running, election rigging, starvation, black ops, propaganda, and covert wars when it suited profitable ends.

I won't say we've never done the right thing, but by and large, our history is rife with hypocrisy on this.

And here, we're at a crossroads of recent history. We're faced with a clear choice this November: whether or not to bow to those who would have us believe that the unquestioned global hegemony of American Military Might is a Good Thing, and those who find that battling the international force of terrorism requires complex thinking, adaptation, and international consensus.

Just in case you're not caught up, George W. Bush is the most brazen and craven champion of the forces that believe in extending the national security state into a world-wide paramilitary State run by the friends and family of the Bush Family. Not only that, but that the world is our plantation now.

The State of Our Union, 2004: "It's all up for grabs, boys. We just need to figure out now how to circumvent the last few checks and the niggling balances that prevent us from getting whatever we want, wherever we want it. And that means, coincidentally, that the vestiges of the liberal democracy that these pissants we call "citizens" were used to? Gone. Unions? Living wages? Not if we can help it. Available jobs? Opportunities? Take a job in a call center. Oh, wait -- that's moving offshore. Move to Bangalore. Or to the maquiladora."

That is the shingle that Bush has hung at the gate. If you got the money, honey, we got the time. And the firepower. So we'll go "shock & awe-in', and we'll have us a time." Consent was manufactured by a lazy fourth estate and a giggling troupe of totalitarians, and were abetted by a knot of appeasers known as Congress.

And honey, when there's no more money... well, you know the song. And the dance.

Let me ask an honest question: Why has the right gone so far to demonize every mark of progress of the past five generations? Why do you think they have such a problem with the word "liberal?"

Here's my working theory: All of the comforts that We The Actual People had earned over a few generations -- reasonable working hours, decent pay, decent benefits -- those are all at risk, and they are all fairly liberal notions. And, like I've heard it said, those things were earned for many of us because a lot of union guys got their heads stoved in for standing up for those things; things that really are, in a lot of ways, becoming "fringe" benefits. Fully sponsored health insurance for goddamned sure ain't mainstream anymore.

So, how does one go about pissing in the collective American face, calling it rain, and building the necessary consensus that will have a simple majority believe it?

I do my best to read my current history. I found the recommended ingredient. They said they needed a "catalyst."

Read the Project for A New American Century's white paper on transforming the military. Don't forget the part about The Need for a catalytic event in order to re-order priorities to make it possible for this vision to come about quickly. And a year prior to 9/11/2001, they predicted that it would take a Pearl Harbor type event to snap our society into the shape they needed.

Need I amplify this more?

Well, I was chilled to the bone when I read that. It showed in fairly bold print that the neoconservatives behind PNAC (including Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Jeb Bush, Doug Feith, Elliot Abrams, Zalmay Khalizad, Scooter Libby, Bill Kristol, and on and on and on) had opportunity on their minds when 9/11/2001 was dropped into their laps. (Presumably, the lap-dog Congress and the lap-dog Fourth Estate got out of the way.) And their collective sense of urgency and immediacy was unmistakable.

Wow. And terrorism was suddenly a matter of utmost importance. We were even declaring War on Terrorism.

Huh. I guess that wasn't as important when 168 people were pulverized in the explosion that toppled the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

How soon we (conveniently) forget.

Were you surprised that this building was blown up by a war hero? By a faithful, honorably discharged veteran of the Gulf War? By a white guy?

Just goes to show you -- not all terrorists are related to some guy named for the prophet Muhammad.

It also serves as a potent reminder for me. I think about the people in Oklahoma City that were slaughtered by Tim McVeigh -- and then I think, "Jeez. They were victims of terrorism too. So why not have Republicans say that we need Bush in order to protect us from wingnut whackjobs that are just sick enough to load up a Ryder truck with ANFO and blow up a building full of people who are, like the rest of us, working shitty jobs just so they can spend a few hours at home a day, and maybe provide themselves with basic insurance so they don't go broke if someone gets in a car wreck? Weren't their sacrifices just as significant as those people in NYC and in DC? Hell, why not try to link the Michigan Militia to Al-Qa'eda? It makes just about as much sense as invading Afghanistan to punish a group of Saudi extremists, doesn't it?"

Regrettably, those answers are easy.

But still, are our memories really that dysfunctional? Have our priorities already been re-ordered, and are they only as long as the next press cycle?

***

I bring this up because I was listening to Air America the other day, and they talked about the use of language by the opposing sides in the upcoming election. "Jobs" were mentioned 25 times or some such thing at the DNC. At the RNC, "job" or "jobs" have been mentioned twice. And once, it was used by Cheney in the context of "we have jobs to do." Terrorism dominates the language at the RNC. Just shows you their priorities.

But really, how threatened am I by terrorism?

Let's evaluate risks, here. Some things I figure that are more likely to befall me or someone that I know: joblessness, bankruptcy, medical emergency, impacted by global climate change, hassled by the cops, falsely imprisoned, infected by pollution, sickened by unsafe food, dead in a plane crash, struck by lightning ... ... ... (way way way down the line) killed by an Al-Qaeda sympathizer.

Do any of you know, personally, a terrorist?

Me, I don't know any. That's perfectly honest. I suppose that in some way, I should be frightened about that. But in a much larger sense, what kind of life would I be leading? Fear is not the guiding principle I choose for my existence. I find that there's a steep, slippery slope between prudence and paranoia under that paradigm.

And thus, we come full circle back to a Senate hearing in the 1950s which turned on the question of one man's sense of decency. Given the compression of our lives in the Information Age, the parallels should be painfully obvious by now.

You know, that's not to say that 9/11/2001 doesn't bring up huge memories of confusion, loss, anger, fear, defeat, and sorrow for me. But as far as that goes, I had no personal stake in the 9/11/2001 tragedy, other than the fact that I happen to inhabit the same soil as the Pentagon and the World Trade Center (lest we forget that the United States also contains Wounded Knee, Birmingham, "Death Row," and Ruby Ridge). And yeah -- the idea of getting caught up in a terrorist incident is frightening, but I like to think I can keep that in perspective. Should that ever happen, I would like to think that whoever survives me seeks justice for the wrong done to me, but maybe that would start with going after the actual perps. The pain that those people suffered is incomprehensible to me, and I have to say that I count myself fortunate that I was ... well, that I was who I was.

So -- where are my priorities right now?

I think about my choice. I am being asked to be complicit in a regime that asks me to repudiate terrorism, and to participate in a War on Terror that asks me to approve of killing people associated with "weapons of mass destruction program-related activities."

This brings me to "The Election." Bush supports a regime that means less civil liberty, less shared wealth, and less international discretion in favor of American interests. And, please recall, I don't know any terrorists. However, I know a lot of Republicans.

And goddamnit, if they think that what Bush is doing to our economy, to our society, and to the world is in our best interests? They're the motherfuckin' enemy. I can't do anything about terrorism, but I can do something about Republicans holding office.

I figure the risk to me from the latter is much greater than the former.

***

And, since Vietnam has become the metaphor for this election, I'm reminded of a man who refused to go along with a War that he didn't believe in, despite tremendous pressure for him to conform. He refused to be pressed into the service of his country when drafted; his statement of conscientious objection was simple, yet somehow, eloquent:

"I got nothing against them Vietcongs. Ain't no Vietcong ever called me 'nigger.'"

In other words, his war was to be fought at home. (Or, as Dick Cheney might have said, "I have other priorities.")

Of course, if he'd said that today apropos of the War on Terror, the devout Muslim who said this -- Muhammad Ali -- would probably end up at Camp X-Ray.

***

You better start swimming, or you'll sink like a stone.

Photography lessons from the front...

(carried over discussion from South Knox Bubba's website)

OK, here's an example of what I'm talking about:



Witness the softness around the head. It works for the rest of the shot, as the great egret has some cool plumage. But this looks like absolute crap in 5x7 print. I can't fix it no matter how hard I try to sharpen it.

Shooting info: 1/160 @f5.6; zoom 400mm, ISO 200.



Worse yet. The whole bird appears out of focus, but look at the pine needles! Bah! They're more in focus than my subject.

1/250 @f5.6; zoom 400mm, ISO 200.



But when it works, it works pretty well. This is the same bird, but I'm a little closer (notice how it fills more of the frame) and check out the detail around the eye and the beak. These are fairly skittish birds, though, and getting close to them isn't all that easy. This guy moved around a couple of times before he finally got tired of me dogging him.

1/200 @f5.6; zoom 400mm, ISO 200.

And here's something a little different...

A few years ago, I came into a wealth of 35mm color slides. My dad took them. He hardly ever shot color for prints that I can remember. Prints were done in Kodak Tri-X Pan 400 that he used to liberate from the darkroom at the old Danville Commerical-News. So I'm not as familiar with a lot of these photos.

I have been meaning to scan some of them in so I can make archives of these, or simply to have them in a more usable format. Unfortunately, the PrimeFilm 1800u is as big of a piece of crap as it was on the day that I first bought it, even if it does now have a useable Mac OS X interface. (A Nikon LS-40 is high on my wish list.)

But from these scans, perhaps you can get some idea of the genuine talent that he was as far as this photographic avocation.

Robinson St., Danville, IL 1987 (autumn, natch):



Lakeside fall color, date unknown:



Finally, the man himself, in one of the rare photos that was ever taken of him. I believe this was in the Sierras circa 1976. I remember coming to meet him at the Danville airport when he came back from this trip, but mostly because I got to play a lot of pinball while the plane was arriving late. There's a scad of slides from this era, and this had to be my favorite, despite the poor color rendition of the crappy film scanner...



(Foregoing images c. Robert Harry Wilson, 1947 - 1990.)

Here's a couple shots taken from the library:

1) Bald eagle, taken at Land Between the Lakes. She's a captive bird, and has been since her wing was injured.



2) Big stag elk, taken also at LBL -- this time, roaming free on the Elk & Bison Preserve.

I'd resolved to get my house in order.

So I start by reorganizing.

And then I find a trinket from long ago which reminds me that I'd gotten it in my head that I needed to get my house in order way back when.

Like I needed a reminder of some damned broken relationship, I find an ex-girlfriend's necklace.

You know, it hadn't even occurred to me to so much as think of your triflin' ass for the past couple of years. And here I find some of your bullshit junk jewelry among my belongings.

And I find myself really, really angry all of a sudden.

Reminds me of another time I thought I'd get my house in order.

Guess I have learned to tolerate a lot more mess than I'd thought.

Some great new writing on the new High Hat, even if I say so myself.

I am really excited, honored, and grateful to be involved on this project.

In other news: New dual 2.0Ghz G5 in the house. Photoshopping has never been easier.

Via Pandagon, we find that Republicans have discovered a savvy way to up their voter registration numbers in Jacksonville, FL:

CHEAT.

Yes, you saw that right. The same city where disputed ballots were thrown away by the bushel in 2000, here we have GOP canvassers pre-registering party choice on the voter forms for newly sworn-in immigrants.

What was that Bush v. Gore decision again? Something about how President Fredo was being denied his 14th Amendment rights; equal protection under the law because of... the fact... that... counting ballots fairly would tend to... uh... favor?... his opponent, like, unequally?

And this is in Florida. Again.

Coincidence?

Hearty shoutouts to Rogue Amoeba for their Audio Hijack product. Wow. Software that works as described! I especially like the scheduling feature. Now I can catch Car Talk even when I want to sleep in.

If I had more time to run a radio station from home, I think I might consider Nicecast as *the* option.

Not quite Pearl Jam.  Not quite Swearing at Motorists.

New acquisition Wednesday (Updated Thursday):

New acquisitions, aplenty!

The Flatlanders, Live '72.  Oh my!  A gem of a discovery... from the liner notes:  "On the night of this performance, only fifteen or twenty people were in the audience (a good crowd for the '72 Flatlanders)."  Makes me wonder if some of the small-set shows I've seen may yield legends sometime in the future.  Recording quality is good, even through my pitzy PC speakers.  Jimmie Dale's high lonesome featured on most songs.

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Who Is This America?  Fans of the legendary Fela Kuti will find much to love here.  This was pointed out to me by D-Funk at Grimey's.  It's the sort of album that sells itself -- a perfunctory listen on the in-house system was about all it took to get me to grab this one.  I had to wait until they restocked, but it wasn't a long wait.  Catch Track 3, "The Indictment."  From the same people bringing you Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.  If I've not mentioned them before, let me throw out that recommendation again (and again, courtesy of D-Funk).  Antibalas can be found on Ropeadope.com or Antibalas.com.

XTC, Transistor Blast.  4CD set of their BBC recordings.  My favorite bit may be the John Peel intro on disc one:

"Hello, my name is John Peel, and on tonight's programme, we're playing cuts from The Slutes, The Slots, The Groan, Exploding Truss, The Blues Bastards, one from The Geckos, uh... Hubert and his Pie-Tones, The Ear, The Nose, The Throat, uh... the Cassowaries from Hell are here; uh, and Inevitable Groin.  Uh, a couple of tracks by up-&-coming beatnik groups tonight... Frank and the Sandalmen, uh, and the Goatees.  The Goatees, incidentally, will have you trading in your parkas and Arab t-shirts for Beduins and Sloppy Joe, limit twelve them, I'm going to assure you.  So, on to tonight's first guests, and they're XTC, uh, and they're here to answer all allegations that they're 1979's answer to The Baron Knights. Well, see what you think."

I am but a mere piker.  John Peel, the hipster's hipster.

Anyhoo -- recording quality, excellent.  Track selections -- excellent (despite some cross-pollination with Fuzzy Warbles).  I think this one's OOP, but I was able to find this for $35 used.

(Coat of Many Cupboards is in the mail!)

Beastie Boys, To the 5 Boroughs.  Y'know, they might want to drop the self-aggrandizing hip hop cliches.  Their political stuff actually works.  I've thought that since Ill Communication, but then again, I'm not one to think that music shouldn't reflect one's politics.  Songs about children and puppies are another matter.  Those are almost never acceptable.  Regarding the album:  I like the more stripped down production here.  In a way, it seems like a tribute to Jam Master Jay's bare-bones style of mix.  Whether this is intentional, I cannot glean from the liner notes.

Nick Lowe, The Convincer.  Yep.  I'm convinced.  Actually, I'd become convinced once I'd found a copy of Party of One.  How I missed Lowe for so long will have to remain one of those personal mysteries.  I doubt that this album has scanned many more more than 20K copies, but as I can be oft-quoted as saying, that's fucking criminal.  Lowe deserves to be recognized as something more than a sidemouse.  Slated to visit Nashville's Belcourt Theatre on 9/21. I have my tickets. 

Sonic Youth (DVD), Corporate Ghost.  Videos from the DGC years, beginning with Goo.  I had no idea most of Goo was out there in video format.  I was especially tripping on the video for "My Friend Goo." Sounds great played really really loud.

Well, hell.  I know that there's more.  I just can't recall what.

GBV final touring schedule is out.  Five legs, 25 stops.  Pick one.  Go.

(If Naz is reading this, I'm considering Carrboro. And if Alan is reading this, I'm also considering Athens.)

A bit of sad news from today:



Jeff Smith, PBS' "The Frugal Gourmet," dead at age 65.

Hadn't heard much out of the Frug since his private woes went public back in 1997. I can't say that I know what drove the guy personally -- but I will say that he pretty much inspired me to get off my ass and to start cooking decent food for myself. I was never all that much for many recipes before I started watching his program, although I did make a dynamite tomato sauce for pasta then. But my repertoire was seriously limited, for sure.

He had a way of making cooking look easy. And he had a goofy manner that normally would have bugged the heck out of me as a viewer, but somehow, it never put me off. Quick with a joke or a smile, he offered practical advice like, "Hot wok, cold oil; food won't stick." I'd even watched some Justin Wilson at that point, although it was the Frug that had me picking up his book, "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American," and had inspired me put together my first etoufeé. Simple, elegant, and tasty. He was in so many ways what Julia Child and her ilk never were for me: interesting, thoughtful, and motivational.

Even when the recipes weren't 100% on, he'd inspired enough confidence in my practice of cooking to improvise, and to choose my own manner of preparation.

For whatever troubles you had in life, Jeff, you were an important part of my young adult life.

And I bid you peace.

And one more... a laughing gull doing its best imitation of the dove of peace (although it's carrying seagrass rather than an olive branch):

Pair of snowy egrets (Egretta thula) parading in the shallows:

The green heron (Butorides virescens) playing hide & seek on a bridge piling.