Tire tracks all across your back, I can see you've had your fun

Tomorrow sees me in New York for the first time in ten years.

At some point today, I will experience the pre-trip "have I packed everything for any bizarre circumstance that could occur" stage which a friend once treated with medicinal amounts of hot saki.

That will go under Important Safetly Tips:

Do NOT drink hot saki before a trip. If you forget something and have to dash through the airport O.J. style, the saki will not like it. The warm cookie Midwest Express offers will seemingly mollify the saki but do NOT be fooled. The turbulence involved with landing will arose the monster with terrible consequence. Have mutliple air sick bags at hand and watch out for small children.

Anyway, I'm not afraid of flying despite a few harrowing flights. I have a fear of forgetting something.

This fear is well founded. I forget things consistently. Mentioned on this blog was an instance of my driving along suddenly wondering if I'd forgotten my keys. As they were in the ignition, this was impossible. Another duh! moment brought to you by a slight case of OCD.

For any who would ask, I am not yet excited about the trip. I'll be excited when I get there, get my stuff stowed and make contact with the city. Until then, I will be a contained freak. A slight manic gleam in my eyes will give me away to the observant. To all others, I will appear calm - perhaps even mildy bored.

I'm bringing my behemoth of a digital camera with me for jaunts around a city I love and miss. No pics of normal tourist stuff. I got over that stage in a night mentioned here a while ago. I take pics of gargbage heaps, people that speak to absent goddesses as they shuffle down the street, graffiti and assorted weirdness. New York provided ample weirdness.

I fit in rather well.

The "Please, Let Me Out" Mullet

Just for you.......

That Ken. What a polyester hottie!

Sunshine On My Shoulder

...gives me sunburn. Big, nasty sunburn. That's what I get for hanging in the garden all day on what was a stunningly beautiful day, yesterday. The birds were singing, the sky was spotted with white, puffy clouds and a blue dragonfly buzzed around looking for tiny, mosquito meals. It was so horribly wonderful, I thought I was in a Disney movie. Until I went inside and saw the color of my skin.

Whoops.

Today and tomorrow I shall be indoors hanging with a three year old pal of mine who, if given his way, will have me listening to massive amounts of U2 as he dances as only a three year old can. He even has a black knit hat that is his official "Edge" hat.

The song in my head for the past few days: Marie, Marie by the Blasters.

?

Do You Have Change for a Gazillion?"

"The Department of Defense has increased its investment in new equipment from $700 billion to $1.4 trillion in the coming years," so sayeth ABC analyst Tony Cordesman, who also holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Afternoon Delight

In order from top to bottom: Buffy, Tara, Jester, George.
Finney was running around like a maniac and all photos are furry blurs.

Have farm, will travel

Another bit of verbiage from your humble narrator...

Check out the all girl, all the time edition of Demolition Magazine, edited by the lovable Bryon Quertermous.

Besides my own tale, there are stories by Sarah Weinman, Sandra Ruttan, Patricia Abbott, Aliya Whiteley, J.T. Ellison and Kim Harrington.

Would you like to see a magic trick?

Gut Dozer

Hanging Around

Watched

Bring out yer dead!

It's a case of the plaque that doesn't involve Rickards!

A Los Angeles woman is in stable condition after being confirmed as having bubonic plague.

The unidentified woman was admitted to a hospital on April 13 with a fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. A blood test confirmed the plaque and she was given antibiotics.

Although bubonic plague is not contagious, if left untreated it can morph into pneumonic plague, which is. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted to humans from the bites of fleas infected by rodents.

Dog Tired

Keep on rockin' in the free world.

My heroes have always been outspoken.

Neil Young is that. The man has never hesitated to state an opinion, never backed down from a fight and he fought his way back from the brink with fire in his eyes.

"Living with War", a ten-track set recorded by a "power trio" -- electric guitar, bass and drums -- plus trumpet and a 100-member choir -- as Young states in a news scroll on his website: "I think it is a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan ... metal folk protest?"

The crawl goes on to reveal the lyrics of the album's title track, with such lines as:

"And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man

And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again

And when the night falls, I pray for peace

Try to remember peace."

You've no doubt heard a song has been recorded called, simply, "Let's Impeach the President."

I watched an interview with Young on CNN well after I should have been alseep. So tired my head wobbled, my eyes were twitchy and my voice was ragged. But I sat there, grinning, yelling, "Yeah, Neil! Take it to the people! Whoo!" Then I shut up and listened.

In that calm, nasal twang of his Young explained how he couldn't not write this song and that when he was done, the test audience of a hundred people stood up and cheered.

CNN builds on the story:

"Living with War" appears to bring Young full circle from a more pro-Bush administration stance he took in the months following the September 11 attacks. Not long after recording the song "Let's Roll," a tribute to passengers who apparently fought back against hijackers on doomed United Airlines Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, Young came out publicly in support of the U.S. Patriot Act. The legislation, which gave law enforcement authorities broad new powers aimed at bolstering the administration's war on terror, was harshly criticized by some as threatening civil liberties.

Young has changed his mind. He said, and I paraphrase loosely, that he's proud to be Canadian but his wife is American, his children are American and he's been paying taxes in America for over forty years. He feels he has a right to be heard and respects the opinions of those who disagree - but in America, after we disagree, we should be able to sit down and break bread together.

Editor & Publisher covers the story but the best all out blanketing of the subject is at a blog called Neil Young News. I was amused to see that Fox News crawler stated that Young "attacks America" when he condemns the President.

It's isn't about pure two party-politics; it hasn't been for a long time. It's about freedom.

Perilous Journey, Part IV

Loving Him Tender Could Land Them in the Jailhouse Rock

OK.

That was the worst post title of all time.

But it had to be done.

The organizers of the Parkes Elvis Festival in the central west of NSW are all shook up. It seems the likeness and name of Elvis Presley have been bought out by a billionaire! This could put a festival of look-a-likes in Heartbreak Hotel if all they have is a curled lip and some hip action with which to emulate their King.

For the more than five thousand people who travel to Parkes to see the pod of impersonators, this could leave them lonesome tonight.

If given his druthers, the unnamed rich dude will do it his way by only allowing Elvis impersonations at a show he hopes to open in, of all places, Las Vegas.

The festival's hard headed woman, Monique Kronk, hopes the festival isn't returned to sender.

"Obviously we'll have to speak to Elvis Presley Enterprises and maybe we can negotiate some sort of license that will cover for the whole festival - festival goers coming - we don't know enough yet about the situation."

Until they know for sure, everyone will have suspicious minds.

Got Books?

Active duty soldiers recovering from wounds received in Iraq are bereft of reading material.

You can imagine the books one might find in a hospital in Germany. Many authors, including Robert Ferrigno and T. Jefferson Parker have sent boxes of books over and you can to - hardcover, arc's, paperback, etc. If you've got it, they'll read it.

This program was put together by Mary Ann Phillips, the mother of a wounded soldier.

Send books on to:
21st TSC, Medical Transient Detachment
ATTN: Soldiers' Angels, Mary Ann Phillips
UNIT 23203
APO AE 09263

Anything sent to an APO address gets shipped regular mail; thusly the mailing expense is not cost prohibitive. That's a big word for me in my current state of mind. I've really impressed myself.

A Wildlife Incident

Dozing in bed this morning when I heard a loud pop.

Looked up.

The clock was out.

Another damn squirrel has gone up in flames after chewing on the electric wire.

There are a few of the bushy tailed rodents that have survived being fried. One has singed his coat and tufts are missing all over his wee rodent body. Another has neurological damage and can't stay upright as he eats. We call him Lefty because he always falls on his right side.

What, you think we'd call him Righty?

How about Stupid?

Or Danger Junkie?

Or Volt Monger?

Lay an Ass