Like We Needed Another Reason……

The hits just keep on coming, folks. There is no defense for these people anymore. They are destroying the country and need to be removed. Call your Reps and Senators. Put impeachment on the table. Enough, already.

I’ve Just About Had It

So this whole damned Iraq thing could have been avoided, except that wouldn’t have been cowboy enough.  Now people are dead so our Chimp-in-Chief can look tough.

Why is this little f*#ker and his evil puppet master still in office? Why haven’t  we the people forced our reps in congress to use the one tool the Constitution gave us for getting rid of bad Executives?

Oh, I forgot. The Constitution isn’t for governing. It’s for misinterpreting to make a spurious claim to ingratiate yourself with a bunch of morons that think America should be run according to the whims of some invisible magician in the sky who’s really concerned with what we do in our bedrooms and who we do it with.

It’s time to take our country back. And it’s time to take our history back. Our founding fathers where too smart to be Christian lemmings and anyone who has ever read the writings of Jefferson, Adams, Madison and even the sainted Washington know this.

 As for our current leaders, I hope 3800 Americans lives and countless Iraqi lives aren’t too big a price to pay for your egos, you worthless f#*ks.

I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement

NY Punk Godfather and CBGBs owner Hilly Krystal died this week, just a few months after that famed dive closed it’s doors. I guess you could say both the club and the man were victims of the ever changing city.

The Bowery, the neighborhood in which Hilly operated CBGB, was a seedy, dirty, drug addict and wino infested place when the club opened in the ’70’s and when I lived there in the early 90’s, but is now an up and coming area filling up with trendy stores and eateries and high-priced housing, just like every other area of Manhattan.

I went to CBGB’s a few times and saw some good (and really bad) bands there. There was something special about the place and in my opinion it was this: In a city that is notorious for disgusting bathrooms, CBGB’s had the absolute worst. Really. There are no descriptives strong enough to do justice to the putresence of the dank holes I can only loosly describe as restrooms. My one and only exchange with Hilly was about the bathrooms. After holding my breath and running in, doing my business and running out as fast as I could, I informed Hilly that the men’s room had no paper towels. He replied,”Yeah? Well, that’s been the case since about ‘82.” Then he chuckled and walked away.

By the time I had moved to the city, CBGB’s wasn’t the happening spot it once was. There was still live music, of course, and it’s status as the home of New York punk kept it busy on the weekends, but it was more of a nostolgia than anything else. The town has passed Hilly by. Still, it was a warm and friendly kind of shithole.

Anyway, rest in peace, Hilly. Thanks for the place to see music and drink PBR on the cheap.

Gabba Gabba Hey!

Back From Ohio and Still Shaking……

OK. So after a week in the solidly red state of Ohio I have to admit that I had forgotten what the experience is like. Here are some highlights:

• My cousin informs me that his 2 year old son will not be allowed into my other cousin’s house where my daughter and her new found 3rd cousin friend are playing because “my boy ain’t going to be playing with no fucking dolls.”
• That same cousin’s wife tells me, in all seriousness and feeling very open-minded, that she thinks Adam Sandler is funny, “even though he’s a Jew.”
• A stranger that my brother and I played golf with goes on at length about how even though Bush may have made a few “small mistakes with this Iraq thing” it’s excusable since he’s had to spend “so much time cleaning up the mess that Clinton left behind.”
• Any public place with a television that is not showing ESPN is showing Fox News.
• My parents don’t have cable, so they only get 6 channels. Two of them are full time religious networks owned by mega-churches.
• And the countryside is littered with billboards for these mega-churches, crusades, biblical quotes, anti-choice slogans and other nonsense.

On the upside there are a lot of indoor water parks and roller coasters in the part of the state I was in.

My parents are considered very liberal for the area (although I would consider them moderates) and I’m stunned they haven’t been run out of the area by a crowd of pitchfork and torch wielding morons. 

So to recap: I had a great time seeing my parents and family, showing my daughter the places I grew up and going to theme parks.

I had a terrible time being reminded of the reasons I couldn’t wait to leave in the first place. It was an eye-opener. Living safely ensconsed in the liberal stronghold of MA has warped my view of things. If Ohio is any indication, the country is most definatly NOT swinging left. Or maybe Ohio is just a lost cause.

Whatever the case, conservatives in my homestate make the ones we have here look like Kennedys.

Some Random Thoughts While I Have a Minute

The comedy show was a big success and a hell of a lot of fun. I didn’t advertise much this time, but I’m planning more in the fall and I’ll get the word out earlier and farther.

I’m still in the midst of one of the busier summers I’ve had in a while, so the posts will  continue to be sporadic for a while longer.

I’m heading out to Beautiful Ohio next week. (OSU grads stand and sing here). I haven’t been there in years. My parents usually travel here to see us (well, to see the Grandkid. I just happen to be here) so it’s time to go the other way.

I’m having one of those stretches of time where everything seems to break. It’s running the gamut from a leaky faucet I can’t seem to fix to the transmission in our mini-van that costs way more to fix than I care to mention.

I recently had a lovely evening in the back yard of a neighbor drinking and talking with many of the bloggers on my blogroll and some other great folks from the area. Thanks for the hospitality, Greg. And Ross, great to finally meet you. I’m taking you up on that Rotary lunch soon.

My latest musical obsession is King Crimson. Especially the 80’s and 90’s lineup of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford and Tony Levin. This is Prog Rock Magic, folks, with a paranoid edge that makes David Byrne look downright well adjusted.

More later, perhaps from the wilds of the Lake Erie shore.

Bring On The Funny!!!

I am producing (with some local and not local friends of mine) a comedy contest here in good ole North Adams:

Go to www.thumbshows.com for information on being in or seeing the show.

Let’s make North Adams Funny!  Come and be laughed at by your neighbors!!!!

Summer Sucks

It’s my busy season here in the Berkshires. Long days adding up to long weeks becoming long months. The unfortunate thing about my profession is that when everyone else is digging the great weather and frolicking in the lakes and streams, I’m calendar watching for September and a brief respite from the insanity.

So make me jealous, Dear Blog Folks, tell me your great summer plans, fun things that you’ve done already and are going to do in the weeks to come. Let me live vicariously through you.

Bring It On!!!!!!

No More Rudy

A couple of months ago I wrote about my disbelief at Rudy Guiliani being a viable candidate for President, what with having seen firsthand how he screwed up New York.

Now Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone has put together a no-holds-barred rant  on the same subject and does it much better than I could.

9/11 hero my ass.

My Kingdom for an IT Person!!!

Last night I turned on my desktop at home and all it did was boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot…..you get the picture.

Any suggestions? Is it a really big paperweight now? Anybody know a good place to get it fixed?

I’m Back and I’m Ranting

OK. So I know in my last post I said I was coming to the end of my busy period and would be posting more and then…..nothing for almost three weeks.

I spent a week working an installation in New York City for the High Line Festival (Never did see Bowie) and then another week relaxing at Cape Cod (Sorry, Tom. I feel like a traitor for spending so much time at the eastern end of the state, but the fish is so fresh!!!!!)

Anyway, I’m back now and I swear I’ll post more. To echo Tom B over at Mortar Bend, the Blog world here in North County has been a bit quiet and tame. So here is my contribution to the cause:

I am the first to admit that we have a less than perfect country and certainly right now we have some seemingly insurmountable problems. However, every now and then I come across something that shows me how stupid rich and pampered we are as a society. Things that we take for granted in our society that would be unthinkable almost anywhere else in the world.

A few examples:

• Yogurt in a Tube: Because messing with spoons is such a hassle. And a bowl? Forget it. That’s just asking too much.
• Poker on TV: Come on. It’s people playing cards. Are we so lazy that playing cards for ourselves is too much effort? “I’m too tired to play cards. I know! I’ll WATCH OTHER PEOPLE play cards.” In HD.
• Soup in a Re-closable Container: When this little gem came out, the tag line on the commercial was “Finally. Soup is easy.” Finally? Operating a can opener sending you into fits of exhaustion all these years? Adding that can of water just sending you over the edge? Which brings me to one of my all-time favorites:
• The Electric Can Opener: Can it get any worse than this? It’s OPENING A CAN!!!! Do we really need to involve the burning of fossil fuels in this process? Are we condemning the polar bears to an early extinction so we can avoid a possible finger cramp while opening our cans of Nacho Cheese Sauce (contains real cheese flavor!) and Nine Lives Gourmet Cat Food (contains more actual food than the cheese sauce!)?

Surely there are other observant curmudgeons out there that have noticed these things. Let’s have them.

And it’s good to be home again.