Tuesday, June 30, 2009

protracted conflict

"Since the early nineteenth century, borderlanders have witnessed protracted conflict rooted in the vastly unequal power relationship between Mexico and the United States."

--Oscar Martinez, U.S.-Mexican Borderlands: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 1996

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Dharma Bums IIII

"Across the evening valley the old mule went with his heartbroken 'Hee haw' broken like a yodel in the wind: like a horn blown by some terribly sad angel: like a reminder to people digesting dinners at home that all was not as well as they thought. Yet it was just a love cry for another mule."

--Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums, 1958

Films

Slumdog Millionaire
The first 3/4 is basically Oliver Twist and makes for excellent viewing, but the dramatic climax of the film appropriates the inauthentic, manufactured drama of awful reality television (the film's climax cleaves exactly to the fulsomely protracted climax of any episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?), and the ending is happy-happy dreadful.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Australian Hughie, our pretending-to-be-Canadian Wolvie, pivots his motorcycle by slashing asphalt with his claws and then takes out a Humvee with his claws and then flies up in the air and stabs a helicopter and rides on top of the helicopter. And Liev Schreiber is Sabretooth.

the entire Eastern seaboard might join the European Union

"The front page of the December 29 issue of the Wall Street Journal carried a story about a Russian professor, who predicts the disintegration of the United States by 2010....

"Igor Panarin, a former KGB analyst, forecasts economic, financial and demographic turmoil in the U.S. leading to a political and social crisis that will result in social unrest and a civil war before the country breaks up along ethnic lines....

"Panarin, the dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats, first predicted a U.S. collapse in 1998 at a conference in Linz, Austria... [Attendees] lined up afterward and asked him to autograph copies of the map showing how America would break into different regions that would align with foreign lands.


"He essentially predicted nearly a decade ago that California and many western states will become part of China (or fall under Chinese influence), Alaska will go back to Russia, Hawaii will go to either China or Japan, Texas and several southern states will become part of Mexico, northern states will become part of Canada and the entire Eastern seaboard might join the European Union.

"Panarin spends plenty of time at receptions in the Kremlin, lecturing to students, publishing books and appearing in various media outlets as an expert on U.S.-Russian relations, which are pretty dismal right now....

"His projections of a U.S. breakup have made him a darling of the Russian media and power circles.

"White House reaction at a December news conference drew laughter from the press corps. But Panarin warns a similar 1976 prediction by a French political scientist, Emmanuel Todd, correctly predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before it happened."

--Rick Killion, Prairie Business Magazine, 2009 March

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Painting the Space Needle, 1962

"Giving an upper leg its coat of 'astronaut white,' painter pauses in high cage to view awesome sight. Copyright 1962, The Craftsman Press, Inc."

U.S.A., Washington, Seattle
Space Needle
from VintageSeattle.org

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Lyrical III

Seven Nations
I'm waiting for midnight
I'm waiting for silence

John Cougar Mellencamp
She calls me "Baby"
She calls everybody "Baby"

Marilyn Manson
Kill your god
Kill your god
Kill your TV

Merle Haggard
If someone ever said I gave a damn
They damn sure told you wrong

LFO
Deep down I know she loves me
But she's got a funny way of showing me how she cares
Last night she did a donut on my lawn
Then drove off with one finger in the air

Nirvana
I found it hard
It's hard to find
Oh well, whatever, nevermind

Motion City Soundtrack
I'll be back tomorrow
I'll be back in the ballroom, swinging
I'll be back with a capital "H"
It stands for "Hero" and the Hero is me

I'll be back tomorrow
I'll be back at a quarter to eleven
I'm half drunk, I can't see straight
And I'm off to save the world

New Found Glory
I finally have an audience to ignore me

Quarashi
There's a party at your house
'Cause your mama is a stripper

No Address
She don't like me singing songs
She don't wanna sing along
It's still the same
She only likes me when I'm gone

Counting Crows
Well, I woke up in mid-afternoon
'Cause that's when it all hurts the most

Steve Earle
I got an empty feeling deep inside
I'm going over to the other side

Arbuckle

In the Garfield universe, Arbuckle can't hear Garfield's thoughts. Remove Garfield's thought balloons, and the strips become poignant: a very lonely man, talking to his cat.





--http://www.truthandbeautybombs.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4997&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0