The Travels and Rants Journal

Making Machines Help Us. Digital collage for mixed media project.

1. “We were always looking for true north
With our heads in the clouds, just a little off course
I left the motor running
Now, if you’re feeling down and out
Come on baby, drive south”

-John Hiatt, “Drive South”

2. Every so often, when I need to be reminded how lucky I am, I go look at this.

3. From Financial Times: James Carville’s “How Karl Rove lost a generation of Republicans”:

The evidence is now pretty conclusive that Mr Rove may have lost more than just an election in 2006. He has lost an entire generation for the Republican party.

I’m not sure I really like Carville (he’s a little too shrill, too weird, and frankly too mean), or agree with him here, but I think he brings up some good points.

4. Ducks. Not in any particular row.

1. From The Richmond Democrat: Breaking News! The Village People to add new character!

“We are looking for something contemporary,” said Ray Simpson (aka “The Policeman”). “We want our new character to emblematic, something that the American public would immediately recognize, that’s why we chose to make the new seventh character for the group a closeted gay Republican.” The new character will be outfitted with a standard issue Republican charcoal gray business suit for most occasions but, “sometimes he’ll just dress like Tucker Carlson in khakis and penny loafers: those bow ties are to die for!”

Hahahaha!

2. From Biong Boing: Pencil in woman’s head for half a century

Doctors in Berlin have removed a pencil that had been lodged in Margaret Wegner’s skull for fifty years. As a child, she tripped while holding the pencil and it went right into her noggin.

3. Two good and thoughtful posts from Raising Kaine:

Karl Rove: Beyond Good and Evil:

If the prism of Good and Evil provided valid insight into the realities of the human experience, politics, or history, then the Presidency and legacy of George W. Bush would be one of achievement, excellence, greatness and destiny, but it isn’t. No. Because of the single-mindedness, arrogance, and self-righteousness of “wid us er again’ us”, “evil doer” Bush Republicanism, America has endured the nadir of national unity, integrity, and constitutionality. When you begin your reign by re-branding greed as “freedom”, you’re off to a heckuva start.

Bush/Rove: What Was the Good of It?:

Good question: what WAS the good of the Bush Administration the past 6 1/2 years? Did ANYTHING positive come out of this bizarrely incompetent, corrupt, venal, nasty, “neo-conservative” Administration? If so, what? Let’s review…

4. Fred. Kentuck. Last fall.

He’s at the county fair.

Fashionable Values For All:

Movies I’ve seen recently:

Paris, Texas: I’d seen this not long after it came out (1984), and liked it a lot. It’s one of those films that has picked its speed and isn’t interested in moving any faster. There are definitely things about it that are a little art-house-overdone, but it’s a sweet movie in a lot of ways. And very visual. 4/5.

Venus: Peter O’Toole is, of course, a treasure. The movie is thoughtful, brilliantly acted, and often sweet, and completely depressing. I’m not sure I totally bought the whole relationship (from Jessie’s standpoint), but it’s a good movie. 4/5.

Basquiat: I thought Jeffrey Wright gave a nuanced and rich performance, but the movie is pretty weak. Ultimately, I was never made to care about the story or the characters. A movie as shallow as the New York art world is depicts. 2/5.

Doctor Zhivago: Yeah, I’ve seen it lots of times. It’s still among my top few movies of all times. So beautiful, so epic, so vast, so heartbreaking. 5/5.

The Photographer: Very flawed in a lot of ways, but often still visually stunning - it carries just enough energy to overcome many of its weaknesses. Not great, but worth seeing if your expectations don’t get out of hand. 3/5.

Separate Tables: A winner! This drama from 1958 is filled with well-drawn characters and well-acted performances. 5/5.

Flannel Pajamas: I liked the fairly complicated characters, but it’s too long, too rambling, and, here again, you don’t really care about anyone - you just want it to be over. Of course, having said that, you do get to see Julianne Nicholson naked. 2/5.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: Yes, yes, yes! Smart, funny, brilliant. 5/5.

Five Easy Pieces: I’d never seen it before. Jack Nicholson is at his best. Subtle, tender, odd. Likable and dislikable at the same time. 4/5.

—–

And on an unrelated note…

1. What a surprise. From Democratic Central: Could it be that an anti-taxer is admitting he was wrong? I had no idea they knew how to do that. “A new revelation — you can’t maintain your infrastructure without tax money”:

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is having a change of heart — after vetoing an increase in the gas tax two different times in recent years, all of a sudden he is willing to consider it…

(Virginia) Democrats should be hitting three themes here: 1. We have been deferring maintenance for too long in an effort to cut taxes. 2. Preventive maintenance done now is cheaper than failure later. 3. Now we have VDOT working right again, so we will be getting something close to what we pay for.

2. “Up there’s a heaven
Down there’s a town
Blackness everywhere and little lights shine
Oh, blackness, blackness dragging me down
Come on light the candle in this poor heart of mine”

-Joni Mitchell, “This Flight Tonight”

3. As seen on Post Secret: A new use for those “W04″ stickers.

4. From Wired: Aug. 7, 1991: Ladies and Gentlemen, the World Wide Web…

The web has changed a lot since Tim Berners-Lee posted, on this day, the first web pages summarizing his World Wide Web project, a method of storing knowledge using hypertext documents. In the months leading up to his post, Berners-Lee had developed everything necessary to make the web a reality, including the first browser and server.

5. New on the site: “When She Walks on Water”

6. Tilt-A-Whirl!

The Story of Famous Books. Digital collage for mixed media project.

1. Went to the great Albemarle County Fair on Friday night. Lotsa fun, lotsa rides, lotsa large cucumbers. Pics will be forthcoming at some point.

2. Then on Saturday we went out to see Richelle Claiborne perform at Live Arts. She’s just the best. Amazing singer, performer, writer, woman - the girl knows how to do it. Pretty much the only bad thing you can say about her is that she’s moving. Richelle, don’t be a stranger.

3. Look what the mailman brought me…

1. From Raising Kaine, about the Minnesota bridge collapse: “It’s not terrorists, it’s the tax cuts”. I’ve always believed this. The rabid anti-taxers are slowly but surely tearing down this country. Sure, no one wants to pay taxes, but the right conveniently forgets that taxes pay for things like schools, teachers, highways, and, ummm… bridges. We will eventually all pay the price.

Clearly, there is a distinct possibility that Republican Governor Pawlenty’s veto of a more comprehensive (if more costly) transportation bill perhaps contributed to the bridge disaster because of limited maintenance funding, and failure to pay attention to maintenance because of costs…

…we can see that the Republican philosophy that “taxes are bad and government is the problem” have contributed enormously to the present decay of our infrastructure, to shoddy no-bid contracts, and blatant obstruction of efforts to improve the “common good.” Indeed, in my opinion, most Republicans seem to act like parasites on the existing social and economic structure, sucking up its substance for their private gain and are, in effect, living off the capital saved and produced by previous generations. Now we all will be paying the price for their greed and lack of enlightened self-interest.

2. Take a deep breath, cuz it looks like JJ is dating Ann Coulter. Is nothing sacred?

3. This just in: Sex feels good.

4. Also found on Raising Kaine: Not that it’s gonna make any difference or anything, but here’s an audio clip of Chris Dodd kicking Bill O’Reilly’s hateful, lying ass.

5. Fox Attacks - They distort. We reply.

6. Hightop Cemetery.