BostonBootGirl

Obnoxious NY Fans

2008-02-20T05:10:00.002-05:00

Hullo. Just dropping by for my semi-annual rant. My neighbor has a new yappy rat dog and the thing is yapping sweet holy hell at 4:00 a.m. this morning.

I hate my neighbors.

Which brings me to this blog subject.

Those who know me know that I've always been a Boston sports fan, but I've never been obnoxious about it. I like watching the games...when I can. I hope they win...when they do. I hope as we all hope in New England that the Red Sox will pull off another victory against the NY Yankees, and when they do, I'm smug about it. It's about freaking time, don't ya think?

But I'm the first to buy the "loser" a beer. And I will take my ribbing in good nature if my team is the loser. I realize it's just a game. My self-worth and identity are not inextricably tied to a sports team.

Which is the problem with many NY fans, Yanks fans in particular. The years of baseball monopoly they have enjoyed has made them boorish, spinal column-ruled bullies. They remind me of the folks who listen faithfully to right-wing political porn pundits. They transfer the victories of their team -a finely tuned, insanely fit and competitive winning machine- to their more mundane and flabbier everyday lives. They have been winning for way too long and their fans have become asshats because of it.

Which is why everyone -not just Boston- hates them, except for them.

I work with two guys like this. They are young, educated, smart and decent men. But I get shit from them constantly. When the Pats lost to NY I got videos and snide emails. Most of it was just good natured ribbing, and I have some snide retorts myself. But I think they take it just a bit too seriously. Sometimes they get a little too snipish. They literally HATE Boston, not just the team. One of them went to school there and it was all he could do apparently to survive. He was like a little delicate Yankee flower withering in the dirty Boston water.

Maybe it's because I grew up hating "jocks" in general and respecting the 80's NY/Boston/DC trifecta in the punk scene. NY punk influenced us, we influenced them. Maybe there were some sports rivalry, but it was about the music. I have all the respect for the city of NY. And not just the punk, but the art, the culture, the world-shaping influence. The other night I saw a Boston hardcore band open for the great Sick of it All from NYC. SOIA had a giant Yanks sign on their stage. Did my eyes burn? Um, no.

Or maybe it's because we Bostonians have pride in being the underdog. We fight harder and we are tougher. I don't want the Sox to be the next Yanks because I like Boston's fighting spirit. I don't want us to be smug, self-satisfied fatties expecting our team to win again and again. It's too easy. Besides, we found the soft underbelly of the NY empire, and we impaled it. Us. Little, humble Boston. WE slayed the dragon, with spit and hard work. We broke up Ma Bell. Everyone likes it when the underdog wins.

So while it's great to be a passionate sports fan, it's not so great to be a fragile little prick about it. It's a game. Anyone who hates a city and everyone in it because of a sport team is posing a thuggery they do not posses and betraying for all the world a fragility and petty smallness of spirit. And anyone who wins too much for too long is going to fall that much harder when the time comes.

New painting

2007-11-30T21:35:00.000-05:00

So I'm pretty damned proud of this one. This is 8" x 10" on black Claybord. Claybord is essentially a piece of masonite with a layer of white clay on top. Some are left white. I like the black ones...they spray a layer of black ink on top, and you have to scratch into it with a stylus. I used a stylus made for the Claybord and an Exacto.

(This painting is backed with a 2" deep block of basswood covered with gold-toned metal that is embossed by hand with assorted "calaveras" fighting the ravages of a catastrophic flood. Go here for a detail view of frame.)

I created a thumbnail "idea" sketch first in pencil. For my larger paintings I sometimes rearrange and tighten the sketch in Photoshop and then project it onto the surface and sketch it out. With this little one I just sketch it out directly onto the board with white chalk. Then the scratching begins.

For some strange reason...maybe it's my autistic/artistic temperment...I can work hunched over at a drafting table for hours, eyes straining, fingers cramping, just skritch-skritching away at tiny details. Stick a pair of headphones on me with my iPod and I'm in heaven. My ADD is temporarily alleviated!

Color was added with watered down acrylics, which I've never tried before and got real nervous about. But it looks effing A-OK if you ask me. After color is applied, you can scratch back into it to get more highlights out of the white clay.

To explain the imagery a bit, those of you familiar with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) or Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada will understand it more readily then those who don't.

La Catrina, created by Posada, is a familiar icon in Day of the Dead festivities and an integral part of Mexican folk art. "The word "catrina" is the feminine form of the word "catrín", which means "dandy". The figure, depicted in an ornate hat fashionable at the time, is intended to show that the rich and fashionable, despite their pretensions to importance, are just as susceptible to death as anyone else."

Day of the Dead, despite its morbid imagery, is the act of "celebrating and honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life."

New Orleans, past and present, has great parallels with Day of the Dead and La Catrina. In many ways, New Orleans is like the grand dame La Catrina, an opulent and extravagent diva, full of life and richness but not without corruption, extreme hardship and poverty. Her colorful gowns and silks don't hide the skeleton, but we love her just the same.

Hurricane Katrina changed so much in New Orleans. I have been there before her and directly after her...and it saddens me to think it might not ever be the same. I've seen the streets of devastation, the war zones of bombed boats, cars, homes; the ever present water ring around the buildings and bridges. The striking thing was the void of people and the piles of belongings Katrina uprooted from their lives and threw to the ground. Piles everywhere. Baby clothing, jazz records, family photos, sports trophies, toilet seats, shoes, knick-knacks, furniture...just imagine a giant hand ripping the roof off your housea, lifting it upside down and shaking it out. Now imagine that hand doing that to hundreds and thousands of homes for miles and miles. Homes where no one lives anymore. Neighborhoods that are like ghost towns.

La Catrina is Katrina, a grand dame of death jealous of the grand dame of life that is New Orleans. In my new painting, she just changed the spelling of her name a bit and replaced her flowing gowns with flowing water. New Orleans is represented as a coffee skinned jazz-age beauty wearing a fleur di lis that Katrina covets.

In Day of the Dead celebrations, and Mardi Gras and countless New Orleans parades, and in the French Quarter and parts of NOLA today, we celebrate life in spite of destruction and death, be it death of people or a way of life. Death in the tarot represents "change". Change is hard, particularly in NOLA, where life is changed for not only its residents but for our country as a whole. Katrina was a thief and a killer and she brought so much sadness.

But music is still played by live jazz bands in the lovely old streets of New Orleans. Katrina didn't quite get her boney hands on that fleur di lis.

La Katrina left some friends in her wake. Mexicans are coming in droves to New Orleans, at least the last time I was there they were. They are coming in to work in the rebuilding efforts. It's a bit of a culture shock for the native New Orleanians who have stayed behind. I wonder if, many years from now, New Orleans will see taquerias, latin food carts and bodegas sprouting up, as the workers eventually settle down and raise families. It's just another parallel between La Catrina and Katrina.

This long and somewhat maudlin meander sums up the new painting. I hope you like it.

Hopemonger

2007-11-13T22:38:00.000-05:00

For all those wondering if we would ever see the potential for real greatness in American politics ever again, watch this video of Barack Obama at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner last Saturday in Des Moines. I say potential because like everyone else in this country, I harbor skepticism, which is really just another word for fear. I am nervous that this ain't the real deal. It's not anything in what he says or how he says it. It's not you, Obama. It's that you might go the way of all other true visionaries in this world who speak for the real silent majority of Americans...the long-suffering working class who have learned to become consistently disappointed long ago...and somehow be snatched away from us.

Obama, are you too good for us? It seems like there are certain forces determined to sink this country, and they aren't *just* Al Queda, they aren't *just* Chavez or Iran, they are elected leaders and their appointees who salute the flag and call themselves Patriots. They shake our hand, call us brother and sister, and work consistently to undermine everything that once made this country great. They are also people like you and me as well, who consistently vote for the comfortable status quo or for incompetents. They are people who won't vote for a black man or a Democrat no matter how viable he or she is.

But Obama isn't just a feel-good orator. He's angry. He's not making this passion up. He's ready to fight. I get the feeling he understands exactly what he's up against and despite his perceived flaws, he's got the fire in the belly to fight. Compared to all other candidates, as good as they might be, they don't even have a pulse.

What I see in Obama during this speech is a fierce, uncommon spirit. We saw it in his speech at the Democratic convention in 2004. Here, he reminds us that it wasn't a fluke, that he means business, that he is a formidable candidate who is poised to become the man who can turn this country around from the precipice.

This man is making history. He has all the potential for greatness and he is electable. Now all we have to do is put aside the skepticism and fear and vote for it for once.

AND THE BOSTON RED SOX WIN THE WORLD SERIES!

2007-10-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

Holy shit I wish I was home! What a game! What a season!!!!

Looking at these photos makes me so damn happy. What a celebration. The streets are just jammed with ecstatic Red Sox fans. The Dropkick Murphy's are on a frigging parade float with a clogging Jonathan Papelbon. DOES IT GET ANY BETTER?

More photos from the ALCS and World Series games:

Papelbon with Mark Orrell from DKM.

Papelbon with the Dropkicks on the field I believe after the ALCS win. DKM played in Fenway that night.

The New Golden Rule?

2007-10-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

So I found this delightful story linked on an alt.support.childfree post this evening. I guess d-bags like Mr. Anderson are one good reason why we need less people on this planet. When I talk about bullies, I mean this guy and everyone like him. If he was in a third world country he'd be chopping that lady up with a machete and not thinking twice about it, while the stupid cro-magnon twats around him would hoot and holler themselves wet with glee.

Not all life is precious, dammit. I'd say this guy gets my vote for first guinea pig for all those icky and dangerous scientific experiments no one can perform on human beings.

Man jailed for urinating on woman

Anthony Anderson was filmed urinating on Christine Lakinski

A man who urinated on a woman as she lay dying and shouted "this is YouTube material" has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Anthony Anderson also covered Christine Lakinski with shaving foam after she collapsed in a Hartlepool street.

Miss Lakinski, 50, who suffered from a number of medical conditions, was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Anderson, 27, and from Raby Road in the Teesside town, had earlier admitted outraging public decency.

The court heard how, on 27 July, Miss Lakinski was making her way home with a box of laminate flooring when she fell ill and stumbled into a doorway.

Totally shocked

Anderson, a former soldier, had smoked a cannabis joint and been drinking when he and two friends spotted her.

He tried to rouse her by throwing a bucket of water over her, before urinating on her and covering her with shaving foam.

A crowd had gathered around, watching and laughing, and the incident was filmed on a mobile phone.

She was later declared dead at the scene, the cause of death being given as pancreatic failure.

Magistrates in Hartlepool had referred the case to Teesside Crown Court so a longer jail term could be handed out.

Judge Peter Fox, the recorder of Middlesbrough sitting at Teesside Crown Court, said: "You violated this woman in an incredible way, and the shocking nature of your acts over a prolonged period of time must mean that a prison sentence of greater length is appropriate in this case."

'Sick and inhumane'

Outside court, Miss Lakinski's family said in a statement: "We remain totally shocked that anyone could behave in such an appalling way.

"The fact that Christine was dying makes this man's actions even more sick and inhumane.

"However, those who stood by and did nothing to stop Anderson are also guilty in our eyes.

"It beggars belief that these people chose not only to condone his cruelty, but also to walk away from a neighbour who was clearly in distress and needed help."

The family statement added that Christine had "faced immense challenges throughout her life", yet still had managed to "forge an independent life for herself".

RIP Howie

2007-07-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

Some animals have a funny way of working their way into the deepest and most private places in your heart. Some animals become so inextricably woven with our lives that to imagine being without them is to imagine being without your parent, your child, your spouse or your friend....forever. And when you do find yourself without them, you wonder how much longer you can face the quiet walls in the house you used to share. You wonder if you'll ever be able to stretch out into the empty spot on the bed they used to sleep. A pair of boots in the corner, a sweater on an armrest...you wonder when the sight of those common things will ever just go back to being just what they are, and not what you wish it to be.

Howie was one such animal.

I was working at a GNC at the Hanover Mall back in the early 90's. I was essentially squatting in an old warehouse in Rockland where I was renting an art studio. There were plenty of artists there, and some of us lived there even though it was illegal, but the manager didn't mind because he liked us and we kept an eye on the place. My studio was 3 sheets of drywall and a wall full of windows. I slept on a futon on the ground, I cooked my food on a hotplate, I washed up in the sink down the hall. I had everything I needed except a pet to watch over.

One day when leaving the mall after a day of work, I witnessed an uproar in front of the pet store window. Three old ladies were rocking on their heels back and forth and hooting with laughter. Whatever it was, I had to peek. There, hanging upside down from a carpeted cat condo and swinging his front claws at the ladies on the other side of the glass, was the longest, scrawniest black kitten I ever saw.

I went in. I asked the girl if I could see him. She brought him to me. He was older, not at all a cuddly and easily sold tiny kitten, but a gangly, stringy teenager. I held him, and purring, he shimmied out of my arms and clambered his way awkwardly up to my shoulders, wrapped himself around the back of my neck, and proceeded to lick my cheek.

That was 14 years ago. Since then, Howie has been wrapping his long self around the shoulders of me, my parents, my grandmother, Matt and any of my friends who gets to know him long enough.

He has been purring and sleeping in our laps, beds and couches. He kept constant vigil beside my mostly bedridden grandmother in her final years, comforting her during her bouts of senile dementia. He kept my parents company when I moved to CA, and when he became nearly deathly ill, my parents wrapped him in blankets near a humidifier and took him to the vet day after day. As I moved about the country, Howie was living with my folks, but he never forget who I was when I came home. He would come running down the stairs, meowing, as if he was a dog.

In fact, he was more dog than cat. He was attached to people. If you were watching TV or reading a book, he'd be there, behind your head on the chair. In bed, he'd be stretched out beside you against your leg or curled up in a ball beside your head. He loved to just be in the presence of people he knew, to hear their voices and rub up against ankles, as if he was a part of it all, and not just some indifferent feline creature waiting for his supper.

This cat was so loved by us all. He was the luckiest cat on the planet, the lucky bastard. He was so spoiled rotten that it was almost disgusting. He demanded love, received it, and gave it back tenfold. In his old age, he became even more affectionate, demanding us to follow him to bed so he could get petted or climbing up unwitting computer users to plop down on your chest under your chin and rumble with purring.

All he wanted was love. And that's what he gave back.

We lost him 7/7/07. He went out that night and never came back. Matt and I were frantic trying to find him. We did find him. Monday night after work, we planned on putting flyers up around the neighborhood. We decided to check the bushes around our house one more time before we left, and that's when I smelled the scent of death. I followed the scent to the garbage can in front of our neighbor's house. This is where we found Howie.

Apparently, our neighbor was on vacation, and his dad down the street came by to check on the house. He found a dead cat in the backyard and placed it in the trash. He had no idea it was ours until Matt talked to the neighbor this morning. We think he might have been hit with a car and climbed off somewhere hurt.

If we hadn't found him, we wouldn't have been able to give him a proper burial, we never would have known where he went. We wrapped him in a tropical fabric I bought in O'ahu and placed him in a box. I wrote some sort of memorial and placed photos of Matt and I, my parents, my grandmother and the beach where we lived for most of our lives, I placed all of this in a ziplock bag. Then we buried him in the backyard under the palms, near the mango tree, next to the grave of the last tenant's dog. We will plant flowers on it later, and I will paint a marker.

Our house was a happy house. It was Matt, Howie and I. Howie greeted us each and every day, tail up, eyes bright, mewing frantically. Not anymore. Not ever. The house is quiet and all the cat shaped shadows around corners and on beds and floors are nothing but shadows.

It is very profound this sadness we have for that little guy. He was a gift from whatever mindless chaos runs the universe. He didn't deserve this. But we can't do a thing about it. I'm crying as I write this.

Rest in peace, Howie. You were the best fucking cat one could ever hope to have. We will miss you friend.

My dad with Howie on our back porch in Hull, and Howie with Matt napping

Stop Bullying in Our Schools

2007-05-30T14:51:00.001-05:00

Florida legislature has failed to pass the significant anti-bully law that would clearly define what bullying is and what can be done about it. This law, perhaps one of the best written, would protect school children and school employees from bully behavior and harassment on school property, including busses, and over the internet. The bill would also not be misconstrued to limit anyone's fundamental First Amendment Rights.

I'm not sure why it didn't pass. Is it because some lawmakers think schools can handle bullying just fine on their own? Do they think bullying is just harmless schoolyard teasing?

Here are some statistics, lifted directly more or less from this PDF on the website BullyPolice.org:

From the FBI: Victims of bullies are responsible for 3 out of 4 school shootings.
1 out of 13 kids under 19 commits suicide, many due to bullying. This rate has tripled over the past 20 years.
3 out of 4 students have reported being bullied.
69% students believe schools handle bullying poorly.
Each month, over 250,000 students report being attacked.
The National Education Association reports that more than 160,000 students stay home from school because of bullying.
Students who are repeatedly bullied are more prone to suffer depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder and thoughts of suicide.
Since 1992, 25 school violence events have left 50 people dead and 119 injured. Rich long, Brigham Young University professor of communications, has found "that a child being bullied, taunted or rejected seemed to create a need for active revenge."
A Secret Service study of school shootings found that almost 3/4 of the school shooters were bullied, persecuted, threatened, attacked or injured by other students prior to their action, the bullied then becoming the bully.

Anyone who thinks that schools are able to handle bully problems adequately, or that parents don't do enough, read this letter from the parent of a bullied child, also from the same PDF:

"I am very interested in your quest to make the schools a safe environment for our children. I have a 15 year old son in the Montgomery school system who has been bullied for the past 3 and half years. I have exhausted all means of getting any relief from all school officials. I have run backwards and forward to the school, dealing directly with the principal, and I've written the superintendent. Needless to say, I haven't heard a response from him either.
These people know when you're not able to afford an attorney, so they don't worry about it. I was told by a police officer that the reason nothing had been done was because these boys bullying my son were "jocks". Anything I can do to be helpful to other parent facing this same dilemma, I'm willing. And any advice you can give me in my situation will be greatly appreciated. My son has tried to commit suicide twice because of this and I've even shared this with the principal and the superintendent. I'm now in the process of looking for attorneys who will take the case on contingency."

This is just one letter. But I'm willing to bet that if you asked parents of bullied children, or the bullied children themselves or adult victims of school bullying, you would hear much of the same thing. Conducting an internet search on "bullying" will yield hundreds of results, testimonies and horrifying statistics, including stories of real suicides.

I don't necessarily want to blame schools for not doing enough by forcing laws upon them. We expect them to do too much as it is on meager salaries. After reviewing the failed Florida anti-bully law, it appears that this law doesn't penalize or unduly burden school officials. In fact, it makes their jobs easier as the law clearly spells out what bullying is and is not, and allows schools to take distinct action without infringing upon anyone's rights, or receiving punitive action from angry parents who think their kids do no wrong. It also safeguards our teachers who are increasingly getting bullied themselves....from their own students!

My Experience
I have a strong personal investment in this. I myself experienced severe bullying, both verbally and physically, from grade 5 up to my junior year of high school. I was a gifted child, particularly in the arts, and frequently received A's on my report card. I learned to read early. I loved school, I loved learning, especially history, music, visual arts and anything to do with language. The future was bright. Aside from some ADD symptoms (which weren't understood in those days) I was on my way to becoming a bright, promising, happy child with a productive future.

The bullying started when 2 fellow students, both boys (we all were no more than 7) beat me up not more than a half mile from my home. One threatened to bash my skull in with a rock as the other boy held me down. He was talked out of it by the other boy so they "wouldn't get in trouble." I don't recall ever talking to these two boys, but knew they were in my 5th grade class. My mother was horrified that two boys would do this to a small girl.

After that day, my parents tried to talk to their parents, only to be told "boys will be boys" and there was nothing they could do. The school also did nothing. From there I entered 6th grade and middle school, where it escalated to an unbearable, daily barrage of verbal and physical assaults from most of my classmates. Most of the kids were afraid of the two boys and they had a lot of tough friends who saw to it I remained a target. My grades suffered tremendously. I cared nothing for my appearance and alternated between wanted to disappear or die.

Teachers, again, proved to be of no help. Since I was in such a state most teachers assumed I simply did not care. I felt terribly alone. I withdrew completely from my home life which caused my parents great distress. There was absolutely no joy I found in being a kid anymore. I had a few friends back then, some I have still, they were the only bright spots in my life.

High school was more of the same and in some ways worse. I thought about suicide. Teachers were even worse now as many showed open disdain for me and went so far as to belittle me in front of entire classrooms full of laughing kids, or just outright ignore me. I started skipping classes to hide in the art room; the only place I could get some peace from all the constant kicking, poking or spitballing that happened if I sat in a classroom chair for too long.

I was not the only one. There were many kids like me; the chunky ones, the ethnic ones, the effeminate ones, the smart ones, the awkward ones, the unfashionable ones. Some got smaller degrees of bullying, others, like me, got the full frontal gamut. Some kept lists of the ones they wanted to take revenge on. A few talked about weapons. Violent retribution fantasies were not uncommon, and I admit to having them myself.

For some reason, things quieted down in my senior year. Perhaps it was the music I was listening to: a steady stream of punk rock and new wave that kept me sane and released my anger. Maybe it was the reconnection to my art, which was long denied me because my grades were so horrible I was not allowed by the school to take art classes. Perhaps it was my group of friends, a fellow bunch of misfits who tagged together and were in many ways my solace and salvation. Whatever it was, I made it. Kindof.

I suffered depression much into my early 20's. I still have a hard time trusting people and I am deathly afraid to speak in public. I felt stunted somehow, cheated, like something was stolen from me. I worked long and hard to overcome the pain of those days. It was very real and palpable. Tell me: should any child have to be forced to go through what I went through?

What We Can Do
So, now that you've read through all this uncomfortable personal stuff, here's what you can do to help. If you are a parent or a teacher, you have the power to help a bullied child, and to stop bullying behavior in a child. Here is a small list of websites that specifically address bullying:
BullyPolice.org
The Wounded Child Project
The Broken Toy Project
Jared's Story
Bullying.org

Also, websites that fight hate and condone the passage of anti-bully laws in schools are:
Anti-Defamation League
Human Rights Campaign

If you are an adult survivor of childhood bullying, or you were once a bully yourself and want to make up for it, you can contribute to these sites through donations or sharing your story. If you have kids of your own, you owe it to them to fight for their right to be able to go to school without fear. If your child exhibits bullying behavior, please don't ignore it. Take action now. Write your political representatives if your state has failed to enact anti-bully measures. Get involved with your schools. Be an advocate. Learn to reprimand bullying behavior so your child doesn't grow up to be an adult bully, and one less kid can live in fear.

Also, I advocate teaching children martial arts or basic self-defense. This can be controversial. But martial arts isn't about learning how to kick ass indiscriminately, it's about discipline and self-defense. I urge parents to shop around for a decent martial arts or self-defense class. My young relative has a living room full of huge trophies, and kids who gave him crap before are going to think twice about doing it again.

That said, I intend on getting more involved myself. I resisted writing this because it's such a personal thing and it's far behind me in many ways. But it causes me great pain to think that many kids are going through today what I went through many years ago, and it's my duty to speak up and not be silent.

A frightened child cannot learn. Every child deserves the right to an education free from verbal abuse, harassment and threats of violence. No child should ever feel alone, helpless or that they deserve this fate, ever!

"Do you remember back in high school
That kid we all picked on?
No one backed him, ever liked him
He carries that with him today."
--"Fatty", by the Street Dogs

In memory of Brian Deneke.

illustration by moi!

Thanks, herpes girl.

2007-05-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Dear Anonymous via my now deleted review of a Street Dogs show:

Yeah, thanks for spreading some of your virtual virus over my way in the form of nasty little outbreaks....er, I mean "comments".

Hey, it sucks, and I'm sorry. I woudn't wish it on anyone (well, almost anyone!) But I'm not a big fan of being part of your war, which apparently you spend just about every waking moment of your life waging, judging by the site I just visited. I just like the band, that's all. I have nothing against anyone in the band. I don't mind a negative comment or 2, but yours is straight up defamatory and disgusting, true or not.

Best of luck to you. But please think a little harder about including strangers like me who don't even know the guy personally (and I have friends who do) and just want to enjoy one of the best freakin' bands on the planet right now.

New Tattoos

2006-12-12T08:55:00.000-05:00

New tattoo time! Matt and I went to see Scott White of Altered State in Lake Worth, FL. This is one great shop. If you ever need ink and you're near Lake Worth, visit the guys at Altered State.

Here's my new girl on my right calf. She's from a Frank Miller piece again. I figured she'd complement the other Miller girl on the other calf. I reconfigured the original a bit just to simplify the hair for a cleaner tat and extend the hair to the right a bit, and drew a black box behind her to match the other calf. I do it all so all Scott has to do is paste the stencil on me. He's a Miller fan too and loves doing this type of stuff.

Here's the girls together. As of now the new one is itchy as hell and starting to peel.

Here's "Pablo", the other side of Matt's Day of the Dead calf. He'll be going back shortly for Scott to work in some desert buttes and a mariachi band, among other things. Matt wants his whole calf covered with a Day of the Dead scene when he's all done.

We adapted a figure on a t-shirt we bought in Austin that was a print from Mexican artist Jose Posada to arrive at this character. I changed the bike, the hat and the general style of the body. Again, all Scott had to do was paste the stencil on and make minor changes.

Island Life

2006-11-28T08:24:00.000-05:00

Ah, O'ahu!

After a week of working and playing on this island, I'm ready to stick my stuff on a ship and live here. The Pacific is warm, the skies are blue, the air is perfect, the people are kind and hospitable. Everything is beautiful here. It smells like orchids and food. There are lush, green mountains and heavy, rolling surf. There is the international city of Honolulu, and the backcountries and fields of pineapple and macedamia. There are lagoons, waterfalls, craters and incredible glistening emerald foliage.

Oh, and the MEN! This is a photo I found elsewhere on the web, but this is a rather fine example of some of the hunky Hawaiian men on the island. Big, brown and smiling, some with tattoos, some with long hair, some with surfboards. I like my men with a bit of heft on them, and a lot of the men here do have that. The women are gorgeous too, even when heavy, and the island is teeming with cute little Japanese girls. Japanese culture is huge in O'ahu, particularly in the city. It's like a little Tokyo. Many public signs are written in English and Japanese.

I found it very interesting to be in the Pacific Rim where so many Asian cultures are.

Above is a Bird of Paradise flower, next is the garden of a macedemia nut farm.

We installed a Sony Shop in the CompUSA store in Honolulu. Our boss arranged for us to have 3 days off towards the end, but unfortunately our fixtures were delivered late and we only had 2. But we did manage to drive around the entire island, seeing the city, the rainforest-like windward side with its moist low clouds, and the drier leeward side with clear skies and cactus.

Not sure what these little black lumps are. Whatever they are, they had a fringe of "legs" around their perimeter. They looked like some kind of round starfish or spineless urchin. Or, a squidbilly!

Surfer at the Turtle Bay Resort. We did get some ocean time in. The waters here were very much like our home in south Florida, very blue and warm. Of course there isn't much surfing in Florida. Not like this kind, anyway.

Sunset at Turtle Bay Resort.

Our first arrival at Sandy Beach had some pretty serious waves coming in. While watching natives placidly lolling about on surfboards in the calmer section, Matt dove head first into the roughest section of the water onto an oncoming wave and received the spatula treatment. He was pressed into a roiling mess of sand and rocks that left him bloody. The lifeguards then promptly started sticking warning signs along the beach. One mentioned how this beach had the notorious distinction of providing the most neck and back injuries on the island. As Matt was getting some gauze pads from another lifeguard (a young, rippling, brown stud of Polynesian descent), I noticed a small flowery memorial at the foot of the lifeguard stand commemorating the death of someone who most probably lost his life to this beach.

So I guess Matt's lucky he didn't break his neck or end up in worse circumstances!

A fallen red leaf provides the wearer with a new prosthesis.

Claiming the best Mai Tai's on the island, Turtle Bay Resort is a peaceful north shore hotel paradise with a pool and outside bar overlooking surfers and sunsets. We stayed in Waikiki, which is very much like South Beach....thronged with tourists and tacky tourist shops stuffed with plastic shittery. But in Turtle Bay there was little of that. Matt used to be stationed at Pearl Harbor while he was in the Navy, and Turtle Bay was one of his favorite haunts.

This is overlooking the mountains of Maui. We flew out from Honulu during the afternoon with a stopover in Maui before we flew to Los Angeles. Don't ever get a double Mai Tai at the Maui airport. It's a rip off. You get a huge glass filled with ice and nary a buzz. We wanted to sleep on the place, dammit, and due to a weak yet expensive drink and uncomfortable seats, we got nary a "z".

If you get the chance to do it, go visit Hawaii. If I had my way I'd be living here for a few years.

Door to Door Atheist?

2006-11-25T01:02:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Hawaii. It didn't suck. I'll write more later and post photos, since right now I must get to bed. BUT I have this little gem of a video for ya...

Ever have unwanted guests at your door? I know Mooselet has. This Australian atheist got sick and tired of Mormons knocking on his door, so he actually went to Salt Lake City, UT, the birthplace of Mormon religion, to see how they liked it. Moose, I have no idea where the Jehovah's Witnesses came from , but you might want to stick some free cd's with this guys' video on it on your mailbox just to get the message across.......

It's funny. Really funny. Especially the old guy with the broom.

A Great Friend

2006-11-14T09:09:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Boston. Was up there for 4 days for a sad reason. Ann "Nancy" Winchester Monaco, a dear friend of our family, has passed after struggling with a declining body that couldn't house her vibrant young spirit any longer.

I missed the wake and today's funeral because I have to get on another plane today for business purposes. But my thoughts are with her family and mine. This is going to be a tough week for them all.

Thank you, Nancy, for all the love you showed my mother, my father and my entire family. Your humor, strength, bottomless compassion and generosity of spirit has been and always will continue to be an inspiration. Because of you, we all loved each other that much more. You and your amazing family are the truest friends, and I consider myself undeservedly blessed to have have known you. We have learned so much from you. You will be missed and never forgotten.

Not Without A Purpose, Not Without A Fight

2006-11-07T22:30:00.000-05:00

Just got back from a week of crazy work in Nashua, NH and Minneapolis, MN. I'll get into that later, but suffice it to say that I freaking LOVE New Hampshire. If I ever move back to New England that's where I'll go and I'll drag snow-hating Matt with me. It was so good to be back up there, albeit as brief and hurried as my stay was. Boy is that accent thick. When you live away from home this long, it's just so damn obvious when you come back. Even my mother doesn't sound that bad, except when she says Target.

THE STREET DOGS KICK ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They just keep getting better and better. Their new album, Fading American Dream, is out in stores now. You can get it from Newberry Comics, which I just visited in Nashua a few days ago. I remember Newberry Comics when it was just one store in Harvard Square. Um, and I also carried potatoes in my pockets to keep my hands warm on the way to school.

That's it for now. Did you vote today????? I did. I voted for Max Linn, the third party candidate for Govnah. I love that guy. But of course Crist is going to take it, the spineless bastard. But hey, at least he's a moderate.........for now. Re the latest news: it's nice to see Dems taking back some seats across this country to redistribute the balance of "power" in this country. Not that I have that much hope for them either. Goodbye, Santorum!!!!!! Smeared on the wall again, fucker!
I dearly hope Dan Savage is dancing around his living room with that bit of good news.

Miami Herald Writer Leonard Pitts Jr.

2006-10-30T12:43:00.000-05:00

Today I'm going to copy/paste an article from the In My Opinion section of today's Miami Herald by writer Leonard Pitts Jr. Mr. Pitts is a Pulitzer Prize winner and his articles are marked by clear-headed, objective, insightful criticisms of mostly politics, culture, society, religion and racial issues. He is a gifted writer and a top-notch journalist.

A New Course on 'Staying the Course'

BY LEONARD PITTS JR.

lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

'The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -- if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. `Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' '' -- from 1984 by George Orwell

''I'm here to tell you we're going to stay the course.'' -- George W. Bush, Nov. 28, 2003

``. . . We've got to stay the course, and we will stay the course . . .'' -- George W. Bush, April 5, 2004

''The United States of America will stay the course . . .'' -- George W. Bush, Nov. 21, 2004

''We will stay the course; we will complete the job in Iraq.'' -- George W. Bush, Aug. 4, 2005

''We will stay the course; we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed.'' -- George W. Bush, Aug. 31, 2006

``Listen, we've never been stay the course . . .'' -- George W. Bush, Oct. 22, 2006

Ahem.

''Orwellian'' is a word you toss out to prove you stayed awake in freshman English. Often, it is used to evoke a world in which all people are always under surveillance, as was the case in the totalitarian state George Orwell depicted in 1984, his 1949 masterpiece. But as you know if you read the book, surveillance wasn't the most chilling aspect of the world Orwell foresaw.

No, the thing about that world that made your skin creep on your bones was the shameless intellectual dishonesty of its leaders, the brazen way they savaged objective truth and dared anyone to call them on it. Nobody did. The people simply accepted what they were told.

In the world Orwell invented, words had no objective meaning beyond that assigned to them by the Party, whose slogans, not incidentally, were, ''War is Peace,'' ''Freedom is Slavery'' and ''Ignorance is Strength.'' In that world, there was no past -- or rather, the past was what the leaders said it was, and it was a waste of time to check for yourself, because all books, newspapers and other records were constantly being updated to reflect whatever the new reality was.

Thus, ''Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia.'' Much as we now learn that the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq has ''never been stay the course.'' And never mind that the president and his henchmen have spent three years pounding that phrase like nails into the public consciousness.

''Stay the course'' doesn't work anymore, not with most of the nation united against the war, so the White House announced last week that the phrase would no longer be used. That's their prerogative. But it's quite a leap from won't be used to never has been used.

So did we dream these last three years? Is ''stay the course'' just something we mumbled in our collective sleep as we twisted in our collective sheets? Or do we learn something here about the administration's level of respect for our collective intelligence?

It is not, by now, surprising that the president and his surrogates rewrite the past. We've seen that before, after all. Seen it with John Kerry the war hero ''traitor,'' with John Murtha the Marine ''coward.'' Saw it with WMD, which, it turned out, were not the reason we invaded Iraq. (Where'd we ever get that idea?) What's painful, though, is that we see it so quietly, see it, as the citizens of 1984 did, with apparent acceptance.

The truth is being stolen right before our eyes. Yet there are no mass demonstrations at the executive mansion. There are not a million headlines saying, ``Wait Just A Bleeping Minute!''

''We've never been stay the course,'' he says. Oh, we say.

To which I can only add that war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. And Orwell was off by only 22 years.

The Big Snit

2006-10-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

I used to go to animation festivals a lot at the Somerville Theater. I saw the very first Simpsons and Pixar shorts before they made it big time. Most animation shorts were a few minutes long, some were brilliant, some where stupid, many were whacky, funny, poetic, irreverant, or sick and undeniably twisted (thanks to Spike and Mike).

This is the one I remember most fondly. I've ran searches on it before and couldn't find it until now. It's called The Big Snit, by Richard Condie. If you're married or have been with your sweetie for a long time, I think you'll find this video hilarious.

Getting High

2006-10-27T19:49:00.000-05:00

20'-25' high, to be exact. Work has been getting busy, and between painting ongoing ceiling murals and hanging 500' feet worth of huge banners from unistrut frames in CompUSA's, I don't know what the ground feels like anymore. After a day of riding around in a scissorlift and securing steel into dusty trusses with an impact drill (fun!!!!), my truck feels hopelessly earthbound.

So life is busy again. Next week I'm off to Nashua, NH and Coldasfuck, MN to hang more banners. Not sure where Nov. will take Matt and I on our bannerific journies, although our Best Boss In The World tells us she wants to send us to Hawaii at the end of the month to build a Sony Shop.

Yeah, we can handle that!

So what else is new in life?

I've discovered that Bill Maher lives in my head (along with Lewis Black and Denis Leary). Actually, I am Bill Maher, only with pink hair and tits.

Barack Obama is The Great Brown Hope of America. Why wait? Obama, '08!

The Dixie Chicks are punker than Johnny Rotten.

Diebold voting machines can be hacked with a screwdriver and a thumbdrive.

My Mom hangs out with younger women and goes to rock concerts. (Go Mom!)

Men are turned on by women who use impact drills.

That's all the useless information I could dredge out of my tired little head. Time to sit by my honey and have a Heineken and watch Shaun of the Dead.

BRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNGGGGGGGG

2006-10-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

Something funny:

Here's a little blast from the past. Yep yep yep yep yep yep...

The Nietzsche Family Circus

2006-10-07T06:42:00.000-05:00

Been working a lot lately, but I bring you this:

The Nietzsche Family Circus

Heh heh. "The Nietzche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzche quote." All ya gotta do is hit the refresh button for a new toon.

Where are the moderate Muslims? Everywhere

2006-09-28T14:44:00.000-05:00

Blogger is acting totally wigged today, so I can't format anything. All the HTML editing buttons are gone today and I don't know why.

Anyway, interesting letter in today's Miami Herald Editorial:

Where are the moderate Muslims? Everywhere

Re Cal Thomas' Sept. 23 Other Views column, Where are the moderate Muslims?: The simple answer is: They are everywhere.

Many of us are Americans, study in American institutions and go on to work and pay American dollars to our tax system. Like everyone else, we eventually find our better half, have chubby babies, go to zoos, get season tickets to the Miami Dolphins, go on our childrens' field trips and fix the leaks in our roofs.

With all the growing pains in the life that we lead as normal Americans, every day we turn our face to Mecca to pray to what our Christian brothers call God, our Jewish sisters call Yahweh and whom we call Allah.

I am a small-business owner. I am not the only woman who works in my Muslim community. Many are engineers, pediatricians, teachers, research analysts and attorneys. Some are PTO volunteers.

America's Muslims have time and again issued statements denouncing 9/11 and the gruesome killing of innocent Americans. We have denounced the London bombings, the arrests of Americans in Iraq and the Iranian holocaust-cartoon contest. The list goes on and on.

Muslims also ran a full-page ad in several newspapers distancing us from the fringe ideology of the few. In addition, we ran an Internet campaign, ''Not in the name of Islam,'' in which we denounced all acts of terror on innocent civilians. To date it has been signed by more than 700,000 people -- mostly Muslims.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (www.cair.com) has called on Muslims to help repair Palestinian churches damaged following Pope Benedict XVI's remarks, which were perceived as critical of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.

Our actions rarely make it into print. When they do, the coverage is relegated to some corner of the paper or a brief spot on a local TV channel. On the other hand, when someone from some other country issues a controversial statement, it rates headlines and becomes a topic of discussion by all TV hosts.

After last year's hurricanes, Muslims formed a task force and pledged $10 million. At the local level, we had truckloads of food, medicine and clothing sent to New Orleans from South Florida. Are we passionate about America? Of course.

-- MEHER SULTANA, Fort Lauderdale

All I can say is THANK YOU MEHER. I checked out some of the organizations she is talking about, and yes, they are doing exactly as she is saying. Now if the media could step up to the plate a bit and represent more moderate rational minds of all belief or lack therof, it would be a significant step.

http://www.cair-florida.org/

http://www.cair.com/

We have enough kneejerk overreactions triggered by the extremist minority in this world, and what a mess it is. I've been guilty of them myself. As an atheist, I am highly critical of all religion, but props go to anyone who is willing to extend their hand beyond the boundary of their belief and idealogy to help others and to conquer extremism.

Sick of it All

2006-09-24T12:36:00.000-05:00

Matt and I went to see Sick of it All at Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale on 9.22.06. This was their 20th Anniversary Tour since they have been together as a band for 20 years. Matt has been a huge fan for most of those years since he was a kid going to Boston area hardcore shows back in the 80's and remembers them selling cd's out of a van. I am a recent fan since I didn't much get into the hardcore scene then, unless you count Bad Brains and Minor Threat. But SOIA have to be one of my all time favorite bands today, along with Bad Religion. I love their sound and strongly identify with their lyrics. (The song of my life!)

There are a good amount of photos here with lots of blank space between because I can't seem to format pics and text right. Please bear with me cuz' Matt did take some kickass shots. Just scroll away!

Founding brothers Lou Koller on vocals, Pete Koller on guitar. Pete looks like something out of a Frank Miller comic in this shot.

Rich Cipriano on bass.

Pete Koller.

Front row fans. Matt was able to get almost everywhere, this time it was behind the hated security fence. When you carry a professional camera, people just assume you have all-access.

The big guy here with the beard was a happy giant drunk careening all over the pit and hugging people he had just plowed over. The security guy almost threw him out but he hugged him too and all was well.

Lou Koller. Not bad for an old git. Wait a minute....Matt and I are old gits!

Pete Koller. Another hottie. These guys really look great...lean and mean.

Drummer's name is Armand Majidi. It's not the easiest thing in the world to get good shots of the drummer.

This was actually a pretty good pit going on in front of the stage. Helps that there were lots of old fans. Matt was itching to go but his back was injured and he was toting a $1500 camera around.

The next 3 shots is something SOIA do for their song Us vs. Them. (video) The pit is split into two teams facing each other ready to come together in a sprawling and kicking melee. See happy hugging bearded drunk giant in there?? He's going to hug some poor emo kid to death.

Ready..........

Set.....................

(the guy in the scally cap is a Masshole, heh-heh)

GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(video from YouTube of another show)

Lou and Rich. A touching ballad. NOT!

See Pete grrr. Grrrrr-grrr, says Pete.

(this is such a cool shot!!)

Did you know they won't let you into a hardcore show unless you have a black t-shirt on? Union rules.

This is some old lady who thinks she's all that and a baseball bat. Someone actually called me "Ma'am" at the show. Do I fucking look like a Ma'am to you?????????

That's it! After the show we hit a bar next door (I keep forgetting the name!) where an amazing band was playing blues and rockabilly. The inked and studded crowd outside from the show and the rollicking theme song from Ren and Stimpy lured us in like the moths to a flame. Now I'm back on the wagon and no drinking until Halloween!

I LOVE SOIA. Here's a little SOIA prayer:
SOIA Akbar. To thee I proudly cry. When SOIA Akbar strikes Thy ear, Oh! To our reply. Sorry, muslims. Please don't burn my camels.

Videos worth checking out:
Relentless (courtesy of our fellow south shore rejects at BlankTV)
The District
Step Down (we saw a lot of change-picker-uppers at this show...)
Just Look Around
Early SOIA

All photos property of Matt Ludlow of Mr. Matt Photography. Contact him for more info or permission to use.

Vampire Ball

2006-09-21T12:58:00.000-05:00

Not much to write for this post, just some crazy photos of last night's adventure.

Went over to Sue's house for dinner and b-day cake, a scrumptious meal! Then went to my her favorite club, The Morgue, where she was to paint. This is becoming a bit of a trend here...artists painting and drawing at dance clubs as entertainment.

This photo is Sue in the purple bra top and gypsy headscarf, with her painting to the left. The big drag queen in a fly costume was mincing around with a microphone and camera crew for some Spanish language show.

Sue doing her thing.

I didn't get too many photos. My allergies kicked in for part of the night, forcing me outside, when I finally got some medication working I was back inside doing charcoal drawings.

This is a bed of nymphs and satyrs with same camera crew.

Burlesque girl and some guy in a great monster costume. The Morgue, as name would have it, is a goth club, which Sue is very much into. I, not so much!

It was a fun night. But I'm tired right now. My allergies are really kicking my ass.

Happy Birthday To Me

2006-09-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

I'm 37 today. Holy shit.

I used to get carded for booze until my early 30's. Sometimes I still do, especially if I wear a ballcap and no makeup. I have muscles and wear a size 6. I'm painting all the time now, something I wasn't always able to do, creating the best work I have in years. I have real love in my life...Matt is absolutely wonderful and we have a happy home. I am closer to my family now, even more so than when I was still living in MA. I have wonderful friends who care about me and who'd help me out in a second.

It ain't perfect...the money situation is scary, we are always living on the edge. But I like edges. If it weren't for taking risks and making mistakes maybe I'd have a more sedate and predictable life, but I doubt it would be as authentic. I never would have left home to see most of my country. Never would have met all the cool people I met. Never would have found my artistic vision and the drive to fulfill it. Never would have found Matt, again. Never would have brushed off so many negative people and influences in my life that held me back for years, to find positive people and influences instead.

Getting older never really scared me. Most women abhor the idea of reaching 30, but I loved it. It was as if I earned something worthy. Now, with 40 staring me down, I feel a little fear, but not too much. I have big plans. Not too sure if they will all pan out, but that's no reason not to pursue them. What's next? Well, I know for one thing, I will keep painting. Matt and I are talking about living abroad for a year, maybe more. Motorcycling Europe? Learning to paint fresco in Italy? Sure, why not? Even if we don't make it right away, we still have plenty to do right here.

Not to get all existential on your ass, but as I said before I'll say it again....life is to be enjoyed right here, right now. No one really knows what the afterlife holds or whether there even is one. So get busy, people.

It's exciting, this life.

Lonely Messiah

2006-09-19T07:31:00.000-05:00

My anger has turned to sadness,
I don't understand this madness.

Warning: I'm in a pensive mood. Matt just left for a week on work and I just finished reading the newspaper. I don't know why I bother reading the damnable thing in the morning, it ruins my whole day. But if I read it at night, I'd have nightmares.

Quote of the millenium:
"The human psyche has two great sicknesses: the urge to carry vendetta across generations, and the tendency to fasten group labels on people rather than see them as individuals. Abrahamic religion gives strong sanction to both--and mixes explosively with both. Only the willfully blind could fail to implicate the divisive force of religion in most, if not all, of the violent enmities in the world today. Without a doubt it is the prime aggravator of the Middle East. Those of us who have for years politely concealed our contempt for the dangerous collective delusion of religion need to stand up and speak out. Things are different now."--Richard Dawkins
Quote obtained by the excellent book The End of Faith by Sam Harris.

Whatever it is that we claim is peaceful about our Abrahamic religions, particularly Islam and Christianity, is either long forgotten or never was there to begin with. I've been told that to know God is to know peace. I thought I knew him once, I thought I saw his face. I still do at times when I see strangers help each other or when I feel real wonder of this world and all creation. I think God, should he exist, wanted this for us. If we truly felt this way, we wouldn't kill and hate each other so much.

I, of course, don't believe in God anymore. That doesn't remove my (niave) hope in mankind. If anything, it bolsters it, because I believe now more than ever that we're here to create a life that is remarkable while we are still here to enjoy it. We're here to celebrate, accomplish, and to care about each other and our planet. Old vendettas and the persecution of fellow men and women because of tribal differences must be abandoned if we are to survive without needless violence and bloodshed. We've moved from rocks to nukes. If we keep going how we're going, we'll be back to using rocks soon enough.

Compassion is not the province of the devout. As we can plainly see, many of them don't know the first thing about it.

I'm not against religion so much if it helps people, and it arguably does. The myth of the angry atheist who spitefully denies everything the pious claim is inaccurate and misleading. I'm no dogmatist. I try to keep an open mind. But where I don't see evidence, I'm not about to go filling in the gaps with myths. And, unless you want to deny me my humanity or otherwise hurt me, I do not want to hurt you because you don't believe what I do. If anything, I will help you. We are all here together.

I wouldn't have such a low opinion of religion if the people who practised it wouldn't use it as a reason to become flaming assholes to one another. "You will know them by the fruits of their labor". How true. Read the newspaper, and you will see how rotten this fruit has become. I know there are geniune souls out there who are faithful and actively compassionate, but they aren't the ones running the show right now.

If there is a messiah, he's crying in his beer. There's almost nothing left to save.
(ink illustration above by me)

Kissing Sailor Turns Hero

2006-09-17T19:08:00.000-05:00

MiamiHerald.com | 09/17/2006 | 'Kissing sailor' sinks home invader

Everyone knows this famous Life magazine photo. It's probably one of the most loved and reproduced images of American history.

The sailor is Carl Muscarello (known to friends as Moose), now an 80 year old man living in Plantation, FL, just a few miles from me. He is also a badass. You go, Carl!

Here is the story reproduced from the Miami Herald today below, along with a photo of Carl and nurse Edith Shain reenacting their famous kiss in front of their statue:

Burglars were thwarted by Carl Muscarello, better known as the sailor who kissed a uniformed nurse in Times Square in a famous Life magazine photograph.

BY TRENTON DANIEL AND JENNIFER LEBOVICH

tdaniel@MiamiHerald.com

Two would-be burglars proved no match for 80-year-old Carl Muscarello when they calmly walked into his Plantation home.

Muscarello said he and his wife had just returned from a memorial service Tuesday morning and left his garage door open, planning to change and quickly go out again for a game of golf.

Minutes later, one of the burglars turned Muscarello's own golf club on his family.

These guys picked on the wrong family.

Muscarello, a retired New York City police detective, is perhaps best known as the tall, dark-haired sailor who's credited with kissing a white-uniformed nurse in New York's Times Square in an August 1945 photograph. The kiss, photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine, was Muscarello's way of celebrating Japan's World War II surrender.

Sixty-one years later, Muscarello's adrenaline was again racing -- this time because his family was in danger.

''My wife was in the kitchen,'' said Muscarello, 80. ``I heard a scream. She came running to the bedroom. Shelly said someone was in the house.''

Muscarello saw a stranger swinging a golf club at his 36-year-old stepson Rob, a member of the Indiana Army National Guard, who was home visiting. Shelly Muscarello ran to a neighbor's house to dial 911.

One of the intruders took off through the front door. Muscarello went after the other one.

A CHOKEHOLD

''I jumped on this man's back and put a chokehold on him. I was surprised I could do it,'' said Muscarello, who wrestled with the man.

They crashed through a kitchen window in the home. The burglar tried to pick up a piece of broken glass to slice Muscarello with it, he said.

''I had him pinned down to the concrete by the pool floor when the police got here,'' Muscarello said. 'He said, `Let me go -- I'll give you plenty of money.' ''

Muscarello didn't.

Officers came and arrested the intruder. Police couldn't be reached late Saturday for details on the case.

Days later, the Muscarellos were still rattled.

''I'm probably never going to get past this,'' Shelly Muscarello, 67, said Saturday.

Of course, Carl Muscarello -- known as ''Moose'' to his friends -- seems to have lived a life of fortuitous circumstances.

In his den filled with keepsakes, he has a clipped newspaper photograph of himself providing security to John F. Kennedy in New York -- days before, he said, the president was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

`A STRANGE PLACE'

Also on the wall, Muscarello has several photographs of the famous Times Square kiss -- of which he's done many reenactments, including one a year ago for the 60th anniversary of V-J Day.

He and Edith Shain, believed to be the smooched nurse, reunited in Times Square for a mock kiss.

''I often happen to be at a strange place at a strange time,'' Muscarello said.

New Tattoos

2006-09-16T07:05:00.000-05:00

Matt and I received some new ink about 2 weeks ago from Scott White from Altered State Tattoo in Lake Worth, FL. For some insane carnival art check out Altered State's owner, Pooch. (wicked cool website!)

Here's mine, on my left calf. The split picture shows how it wraps around. It's Wendy, Goldie's twin sister from the "Hard Goodbye" yarn of the Sin City series from Frank Miller. I'm a fan of his stark black and white artwork for this series, and I loved the movie they made from it.

I also have this thing for chicks with guns!

This is Matt's new ink on his right calf. This is La Catrina, an icon made famous by Mexican artist Jose Posada. She's used a lot in the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos , or Day of the Dead. For Day of the Dead, Mexicans honor the lives of their passed on relatives and friends. The holiday is marked by colorful folk art depictions of sugar skulls and las calaveras (skeletons).

This particular Catrina is actually a nod to Hurricane Katrina. She's wearing Mardi Gras beads and a hurricane symbol earring. Matt used to live in New Orleans for a couple of years. I designed this piece and Scott represented it exactly.

The cactus was Scott's invention to cover up an old panther tattoo Matt got in Rhode Island when he was younger.

Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom

2006-09-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

Save the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom

Politics makes strange bedfellows.

MoveOn.org joins with The Christian Coalition....yep, I wrote that right...to soon place a full page ad in the New York Times to fight for internet neutrality. Why? Because internet providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T want to get Daddy Govt. to eliminate it. Because killing the principle of internet neutrality will affect the free exchange of ideas for everyone, from Liberal Pussies to Jesus Freaks.

See the ad here. (pdf)

It's bad enough we're bombarded with political and corporate propaganda bullshit at every turn. But when our choice to avoid it or find something better becomes infringed on, then it gets real slimy. Some internet providers want to decide what websites you should access...depending on which site coughs up the most lunchmoney. The free-wheeling wild west internet that we've all come to know and love will be changed significantly if these providers get their way. It's AOL's greatest wet dream.

How could this affect us? Go here.

Do they teach budding execs to how to give wedgies in business school? Apparently so. If a company can't succeed on the price and quality of its product alone, must they fingerfuck the government to squash their competitors in order to limit the people's ability to choose? That's not very free market, is it? Are we, the consumers, being thrown into the lockers by a bunch of huge corporate bullies?

The PERFORM Act of Desperation

2006-09-13T09:15:00.000-05:00

XM Radio - Grassroots

The PERFORM Act is yet another attempt by big record companies to thwart progressive technology and the free market it encourages. Conduct a search for the PERFORM Act and see how many independent music and digital rights groups come up against it, for good reason.

This from Digital Knowledge, a "Washington DC based advocacy group working to defend your rights in the emerging digital culture":

"This bill would prevent satellite radio subscribers from recording and listening to programming that they have paid for, unless they pay an additional license tax to the record labels on a song by song basis (which, in addition to cost, would severely limit the repertory that could be offered to the public." (a quote from Bob Schwartz, a copyright/tech lawyer)

From Blogcritics.org, "a sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, technology, and politics."

"XM Satellite Radio is the latest target of the RIAA. They have filed suit in New York over a new radio device that XM just put out called the Inno. This is no small matter, either. The RIAA is suing for $150,000 per "violation." In this case, a violation would be considered a single song recorded onto this device off of the live XM Airwaves. While this is an outlandish number difficult to imagine, even some fraction of that amount per "violation" could send this infant radio/technology company into an unrecoverable tailspin."

Here is the bill as it is explained on Senator Diane Feinstein's website. She is sponsoring this bill. If you read it, it sounds reasonable enough, until you start thinking about cassette tapes. Imagine if we had to pay for using cassette tapes to record entire radio shows or any song we wanted. Or think of the entire concept of TIVO being eliminated. Using these analogies, I can't see how this bill is beneficial to anyone but the record companies. Why can't I tape all the Frank Sinatra songs I find on satellite? Satellite is already paying record companies to play this music, I am paying for my subscription, I should be able to record what I want. With XM receivers I can't give my recordings to anyone, I can't download them or put them on my Ipod, so what exactly is the problem?? Satellite is a closed system. I should have the right to record what I want because there is little chance I can exploit what I record.

In my opinion the record companies should be paying satellite! (Although I hope that never happens, they pay ground radio and look what we drivel get) Terrestrial radio is all but dead as far as music is concerned. Because of satellite I'm listening to artists and music styles I would never hear (unless someone made me a tape, heh heh). Because of satellite I am buying more music! I AM BUYING TICKETS TO SHOWS! I turn on terrestrial radio, and I buy nothing because there is nothing for me there!

Big record companies don't care about musicians or their fans. They care about money and staying dominant. Big record and big radio are scared that the newly powerful indie market and satellite will knock them off their mountain. I hope they do.

Defend free market satellite radio. Send a letter to your representatives against The Perform Act.
XM Radio - Grassroots

Philippe Petit

2006-09-12T06:23:00.000-05:00

"One more thing: Philippe, you are not a coward--so what I want to hear from you is the ecstatic truth about the twin towers."
-Werner Herzog

So reads the quote on one of the opening pages of To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers by Philippe Petit, the man who secretly capered and succeeded to walk the tightrope between the WTC towers in 1974.

Here's a video that is based on a children's book about the stunt. Yesterday, after watching the towers come down again and again, the sad stories and constant scroll of victim's names, this should cheer you up. It's simply beautiful. It will make your day.

There will always be people who tear down towers. Some people out there think our lives are better spent groveling in the dust, that man's proper state is on his knees.

Then there are those people for whom even gravity can't hold down. They believe man's proper state is to walk tall on the earth and in the sky. If we all have just a bit of Petit in us, we will never grovel.

MIT Engineer Breaks Down WTC Controlled Demolition - Google Video

2006-09-11T19:36:00.000-05:00

MIT Engineer Breaks Down WTC Controlled Demolition - Google Video

I'm not too much of a conspiracy theorist, but I found this video pretty interesting. It might not be the most appropriate thing to watch today according to some people, and I understand that. But along with the reflection, mourning and anger we should experience, there should also be an attitude of constant inquiry, an effort to understand.

I don't know if the assertions made in this video are true. I don't know what is true anymore. The arguments in the video have plausibility. But then again, so many things do. It's to the point now...what do we choose to believe? Do you want the red pill, or the blue one?

Why do I always feel like Neo searching for Morpheus?

Third Party Blues

2006-08-30T08:37:00.000-05:00

What is Left? What is Right?

With the 2006 elections coming up, I've been wondering how I'm going to vote. However, as a registered Libertarian, I don't have much of a choice. In Florida, I cannot vote for Senator, Governor or Chief Financial Officer. Only Democrats can vote for Democrats, Republicans can only vote Republican, any other third party (including the wrongly named Independent) is left with judges, state reps, and school board members.

Being a member of the LP is a bit like being in the New York Mets. The Red Sox and the Yankees seem to get all the press, and the fans are rabid, frothing and constantly at war with one another. While the Dems and the Repubs continue to devote their time to a majority voting populace that many times can't tell the difference between the two parties ("conservatives want to be your father and liberals want to be your mother"), Libertarians are left to wander the wilderness. Yet the 2 big teams are constantly stealing from the LP idea playbook.

What is a Libertarian, anyway? Could it be that it's the only party left that holds any hope for this country? Why is it that some of our most popular politicians....John McCain, Barack Obama....have some libertarian ideals? Why do I get the feeling that conservatives aren't really conservative, and isn't advocating "social conservativism" a contradiction of the noble conservative premise of "smaller government" in the first place? Why has the anti-gay, anti-woman "family values" agenda taken the place of real values, like accountability, honesty, integrity, personal responsibility, and a restrained and rational foreign policy?

How do conservatives, who claim they want a smaller govt., justify its increasing intrusion into our bedrooms, our bodies, our churches, our culture and media? And it seems that liberals, for all their talk of inclusion and tolerance, seem to want bigger govt. AND bigger controls over our behavior. Go figure. Are the only people out there with any influence at all the exact ones who actually want a nanny or patriarch state, the so-called "Values Voters?"

So, I was thinking of leaving the NY Mets to join either the Red Sox or the Yankees. Just so I could be with a heavy hitting team for once. Just so maybe my vote would count for once. Maybe I could find a candidate that would represent the best compromise....not too Conservo-Facist, not too Demo-Socialist. But after reading the above article, I'm sticking to my Libertarian guns. I'm sick of trying to peak behind their disguises.

So, with all the open-ended questions I've been asking, can anyone tell me what is Right, and what is Left? Better yet, what is Left for anyone sick of the phony 2 party system we have today? And what is Right about any of it? Not much. In being forced into deciding between the lesser of two evils, I will opt out of that game and I will give a vote to the only party I think gives this country any hope at all. The LP may not be perfect. The fans may not be as rabid, frothing and war mongering. But until I see a candidate that is as close to Libertarian as one can get, I won't settle for Republicans or Democrats who quick-change their masks in order to gather votes.

Darwin and Hitler?

2006-08-23T09:13:00.000-05:00

Right Wing Watch: Kennedy: Evolution to Blame for Death, Hopelessness in World

Here, Mr. D. James Kennedy, a Christianist Pastor and founder of Coral Ridge Ministries, declares Darwin akin to Hitler, and that w/o Darwin there would be no Hitler, and that Evolution = Death.

You can see I added some quotes in red and inserted them in his ridiculous argument below.

"The great lesson of The Holocaust (religion) is what happens when man tries to decide who should live and who should die, when man tries to ‘clean up the gene (infidel) pool’ from those viewed as undesirable. To put it simply, no Darwin (Jesus, Allah, God), no Hitler (death) …

We have had 150 (hundreds of thousands of) years of the theory of Darwinian evolution (religion), and what has it brought us? Whether Darwin (mankind) intended it or not, millions of deaths, the destruction of those deemed inferior, the devaluing of human life, increasing hopelessness; Darwin’s theory (religion) has been deadly, indeed. … The time has come to recognize that evolution (religion) is a bad idea and should be, frankly, discarded into the dustbin of history."

There are so many factual errors and baseless assertions in this dickhole's argument that I won't even go into them here. They're pretty self-evident to anyone who knows anything about Darwin or Hitler, or even just plain old forgotten reason. But if you read it and subsitute the red words for the original word I placed in italics, it is now a true and valid argument.

Come On! Aren't You Making Much Ado Over Nothing?
Do Christianists in America want their religion to clean up the undesirables, to undertake, as the Nazi's did, to impose their values upon the whole country, maybe the whole world? Read below:
From The Changing of the Guard, by George Grant, former executive director of D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries:

"Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.

But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.

It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.

It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.

It is dominion we are after.

World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.

THIS is mainstream Christianity in America today. These people are in our WHITE HOUSE. These people used to be on the streetcorners waving signs, today they enjoy more popularity and influence in the running of this country than any other group in America.

The painting and quote above are from the American Fundamentalist website that showcases the artwork of Joel Pelletier.

Make that 5

2006-08-21T21:04:00.000-05:00

Red Sox Fan, Waving the White Flag

Well, it may not be officially over. But according to this sports writer above, it is. Matt and I went fishing instead of watching. Plus, I've been really sick the past few days, this last nail in the coffin would have made me sicker. @#$%&!!!*$#%$^%^*#@%% Red Sox! I can't curse the Yanks anymore cuz' the Sox definitely blew it themselves.

I'm not even a die-hard baseball fan. I'd rather have my skin peeled off than watch it most of the time. But I'm homesick, people, and I want my team to win. Again.

FetishCon, Tampa, Aug. 8-13th

2006-08-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

Have been real busy lately, so haven't had time to post this right when we got back. Mr. Matt takes all the photos, and usually there are hundreds of them that need to be sorted, edited, deleted and saved. I have a post coming up about my recent art show, and lots more photos will be there as well.

Anyway....the Tampa Fetishcon 6th Annual Trade Show was August 10-13th. We were up there starting the 11th. For any of my friends with kids reading this, there is no nudity or sexual content in this post except for one blurry bum getting whipped! We went as press, Matt taking photos and I taping interviews. We hope to put together a story on this very soon. It was a LOT of fun, and quite a learning experience. I'm not a fetishist myself, unless you count my affinity for vintage lingerie and pin-up, but I LOVE fetish people. This show was put together by Genesis Lynn and Vesta, 2 lovely ladies who succeeded in carrying off an awesome convention that was both well-organized and professional.

Look closely at the ladie's shirt graphic above. Cute, eh? Enjoy the photos. Matt got many good ones.

The Bondage Bunny. One of many attendees that hit just the right combination of fuzzy and freaky.

Another couple worth talking about but we didn't get great photos of was of the Drag Queen Dom with her great big bear Sub dressed up as a horse. Picture the Gimp from Pulp Fiction with a leather horse mask, hooves and a tail, on a leash, with Gene Hackman in a latex skirt, wig and platform heels leading him around.

Speaking of horses....Foxy from Native American Exotics with two fine mares on leashes. At least I think that's his name. You can't see their hands but they have leather hooves on them. Giddyap, bitches!

A fiesty cat burglar gets caught! This girl was a model for the fashion show and bondage demos.
She was so darling. A natural beauty with gorgeous hair and a big smile, and a sense of humor as you can see in her last photo. Here she struggles as a bondage pro demonstrates his skills. Don't ever rob this guys' house.

Watch that shoe, buddy!

Awwww!

Can't get your kids to shut up? Try these.

If the mouth gags don't work, try these!

The two cheerful owners of Rainbow Rope. They seemed annoyed that yet 2 more idiots who knew nothing about fetish wanted to ask them zillions of questions about their wares. But they did pose for this shot, and they did have a fascinating array of toys, many of which would only be recognizable to someone in the medical field like Mooselet.

The art of bondage is much more than just tying someone up. Many people involved in ropes consider it an art. It can be very intricate and beautiful if done right.

I wish I could remember this sweetheart's name. This adorable nymph is the artist behind CeresMoon Inc., if I'm not mistaken. I have yet to play back my interview with her, so I will correct any foggy memories later when I review it. She designs cyber headpieces inspired by manga, anime and goth. In her words, it's not exactly fetish, but fetish accepts a lot of crossovers from all kinds of alternative subcultures, so she fits right in.

I'd have to say the best thing about going to this was not only was it a pleasure to be amongst such fun and creative individuals, but I got to see some serious artists like Cerez and Matthew Mansou who really bring back that kind of old school craftsmanship you just don't see everday.

Here I am getting accosted by a nurse. Mooselet, is this what you do to your patients? Actually, I am getting fitted for a vintage style corset by the salesgirl of one of my favorite vendors, Girdlebound. I love love LOVE vintage. Girdlebound provides old-fashioned girdles, corsets and stockings that your grandmother would have loved and our mothers were busy burning. They have a fantastic website that has tons of photo shoots of pin-up style models wearing Girdlebound's garments. If you like Betty Page, this is the place to go. I love you Girdlebound!!! Yes, I bought that corset. I will be dying it my favorite color, RED!

While I'm on the subject of vintage, I will provide a link to another of my favorite vendors. They were not at the Fetishcon and really have nothing to do with Fetish but their clothing is so beautiful. This is Trashy Diva of New Orleans, designers of gorgeous clothes inspired by the 20's to the 50's.

Mansour Designs is operated by artist Matthew Mansour. Here is a statement about his work from his website: "I make extremely high-quality masks and other assorted items with clean sharp lines and a very distinctive personal style that is obvious. I am a stickler for quality and I will only use the finest materials available or whatever I can afford at the time..."

He has made maskes for Cirque de Soleil. They are truly beautiful, the type of quality you hardly ever find in today's mass produced world. You can't get a sense of just how quality they are until you pick them up. Many of these should be in a museum, if they are not already. Matthew, a handsome gent with a mohawk, says that his art allows him to send his kids to private school, and he loves his life.

This is one of Matthew's designs on a model during the fashion show. There were nearly 50 outfits modeled.

Here is a the back of the sexy Librarian model wearing vintage wear from Girdlebound. The audience is nuts with cameras. Notice Supergirl over to the left....there were a few comic book characters that day, including Wonderwoman.

Another gorgeous outfit on a gorgeous Suicide Girl type model. IT wouldn't surprise me if she was a Suicide Girl.

This is stunning fetish model Rubberdoll flanked by two girls from the Filth-O-Rama Floozy's.

Rubberdoll is the hardcore latex queen, a kink performance artist of the highest degree.

Another kink queen, the brilliant Kumi Monster. I had a long interview with her where I asked maybe 2 questions and she talked the entire rest of the time. This is a fascinating woman. She bills herself as an International Asian Fetish Bondage Model. This lady travels worldwide working with the best photographers and modeling the latest fetish fashions. She also is a student of history and an avid reader.

Isabella Sinclair is another model, dominatrix and performance artist. We also interviewed her. She studied psychology, which gives her a lot of insight into the dynamics of the BDSM world. This is another fascinating and brilliant woman to talk to. For anyone who is interested, this Mistress gives training for submissives. She has an accute understanding of the dynamics of the trusting give and take of power in relationships (think of the trust consenting adults must have for one another during sub/dom play) and has contributed her knowledge to a book on the subject that many housewives have used to spice up their love-life. I found the whole subject intriguing, to the point that I would like to learn a bit more! Being a Mistress could be fun! As long as I wouldn't have to make the videos this lady makes, which are very hardcore.

There is just so much going on with the ladies we talked to that I cannot begin to write it all here. I'd be here all day. Besides, I have a recorder full of it, waiting to be listened to again. Sure, they dress up in latex and maybe smack people around a bit. But the women we talked to are savvy intellectuals who also happen to know their business. They are powerful in mind, brilliant and beautiful.
This lovely nymph, I forget her name (but I have it on tape!!) works for or is owner of Z-Edge, "Hot collectibles and cool stuff". (Their website is under construction at this moment. )

This lovely lady is all tied up at the moment. I'm guessing she is SheriFox, the wife of Foxy. Together they run Native American Exotics, "Makers of unique Native American BDSM equipment for the consenting adult connoisseur." Like I said, I don't exactly have my names straight, so will have to do some fact checking. So if anyone needs to correct me then by all means go ahead.

Jami Deadly, a retro fetish vamp, puts on a killer burlesque show at the Club Chambers in Tampa. This is one drop-dead killer babe. I love burlesque. Jami is a curvy babe. One thing about fetish and the pin-up burlesque scene is that the female body is BEAUTIFUL again. That means natural boobs and bodyfat are OK again! How refreshing in this homogenized world we live in.

Mere photos can't convey the absolute hedonism going on at Club Chambers on Saturday night. Lots of people were getting tied up and spanked with various objects. I've seen this sort of thing at ManRay in Boston, so it's no big deal. This crowd, believe it or not, was a pretty light-hearted bunch, into dressing up and having fun. It was SAFE....these people weren't getting slammed to death here. It was very surreal, like being in a movie.

Now doesn't this look like fun, even just a little bit?

Fetishcon ROCKED. One of the best things about going was the fact there were so many latex clad freaks (I mean that in a good way) running about a high-class hotel. One memorable moment involved 4 very rich, very white, Republican-esque women entering the hotel bar where people in piercings, latex, leather and spikes were all sitting around drinking beer and doing Jaeger shots. Imagine their surprise. They were visibly uncomfortable, yet mildly...and nervously...amused. One couple sat across from them, both in their 60's, both in latex. The woman, looking just like a grandmotherly Annette Funicello, had her cleavage spilling out between her latex jumpsuit for the whole world to see. The rich ladies couldn't stop looking. I, watching and loving every minute of it, couldn't stop laughing.

There were LOTS of older people there. Another cool thing about this scene. One woman, who had an uncalled-for sour and pissy disposition towards the hard-working Hyatt staff that made me want to smack her, had to be in her 70's. She was stout and walked with a stiff waddle. She had a face full of peircings and wore heavy leather and metal studded gauntlets on her calves and forearms. She also needs a lesson in treating service help, as she was completely rude to the barkeep (who did not deserve it) and left him a cheap insult of a tip that I would have thrown right back at her, if I were him.

After Fetishcon we took the long 4 hour drive home, stopping at a breakfast/lunch diner along the way in a small Florida town. We had no idea at the time, but it was run by a born-again and everyone in there had just got out of church. One family behind us, a young mother, husband, little girl and friend, were discussing Galatians from the Bible. Everyone was perfectly cleansed, polished, coiffed, behaved, with smart preppy pastel outfits. We should've known from all those minivans with Bush and Jesus fish on the bumpers parked outside. They made us so nervous, even though we looked perfectly ordinary!!!! (Must be those demons we're possessed with!!)

Fetishcon might have had some weirdos. But THIS was the weirdest place of them all. I'd rather be in a room full of big hairy dudes dressed as horses than in a room full of THESE people. But the food was astounding. Our bellies full, we finally went home, exhausted.

4 games lost to the Yanks in a row

2006-08-21T08:18:00.000-05:00

FOX Sports - MLB - Yanks score fourth win over Sox in three days

So sad. Here we go again, kids. I hope whoever Ortiz is pointing at up there hear's Boston's prayers.

Lee Press-On Claws

2006-08-17T17:27:00.000-05:00

Alternatives to Declawing, Nail Caps for Cats

Yup. Just looking around for a good way to clip Howie's overgrown back claws and came across this page. They are little plastic caps you can actually glue on kitty's claws to keep him from shredding the couch. They have ones for dogs too.

They come in colors. Warm summer ones. Yes, they sure do.

Street Dogs

2006-08-16T12:06:00.000-05:00

So I'm updating my mural site, which is a long process since I'm an HTML retard. I've got XM Fungus 53 satellite radio on, which is by far the best thing to happen to punk rock in 30 years, no matter what your age is or how long you've been into it. I've already blogged about it here.

A song by one of my favorite bands just came on, called "Decency Police", by Boston's Street Dogs. What an excellent rip roaring song it is. If anyone still mourns the demise of the Mike McColgan fronted Dropkick Murphys, well, quit yer cryin'. The Street Dogs have been putting out some great music and great shows while you were sobbing in your Guinness over Sunshine Highway*. Since their 2003 release, Savin Hill (or Stab n' Kill, if you're from the Boston area), they've just been getting better and better.

(The photo above is from their website, they are visiting Melbourne, FL, which is a couple hours north of where I live now, but it looks just like the beach I live 1 mile away from.)

This is a video of their song Back to the World that you have just got to see. It's very important that you do. If my link doesn't work, go to their homepage and you'll see the link right there, the one with the helicopter graphic. It's worth it if you take 3 minutes out of your day to witness this.

Street Dogs play honest, uncontrived, socially conscious, heartfelt punk rock. I missed them the last time around here in Ft. Lauderdale, and really regret it. I won't make the same mistake again in December, when they come back. You shouldn't either. Go buy their music, go see their shows.

This is from their Myspace profile:
"The kind of rock the Street Dogs are attempting to make is nothing like the pop-punk rock infiltrating mainstream radio and television. In fact, it is best described as a combination of blistering rock songs and melodic, infectious punk rock."

I've met Mike McColgan briefly when they toured with Social Distortian, and he's a nice guy. He's easy on the eyes, too. This photo, also from their site, Johnny on the left, Mike on the right.

Had to put this shot in too....it's Mike singing the anthem at a Red Sox game in Fenway a few years back. What an honor this must have been for a boy from Dorchester.

*I will always love the Dropkicks and will always support them. They were and are a great band and do great things for the city of Boston and the punk scene. Al Barr is a great frontman. I've seen them in Dallas, Austin, Ft. Lauderdale, as well as Boston, and they mean what they say, they love their fans 100%. They make me proud of where I came from. They ressurected my love for punk (which I grew up with, and was sick of watching it become fashion show) when I first heard them played on some kids tape deck during an overnight shift while working at a Home Depot in Quincy, MA, back in the 90's. But that doesn't mean I have to love every song they do.

Time to Update

2006-08-15T14:04:00.000-05:00

Pretty soon I'm overhauling this blog. I know the basics of Dreamweaver and Fireworks but deeper than that, I'm screwed. I'm a DIY girl so I will learn to do it myself. The last free template I used got highjacked, I lost all my links. So forgive me if this blog looks rather plain jane and my link to your blog is no longer here.

I also have a lot of make-up posts to do...I haven't been around lately. I just got back from a Fetish convention that was an absolute riot, I have lots of photos to post of that. Matt and I went as "press". Let me just sum it up by saying that the surreality that is a Fetish convention is NOTHING compared to having breakfast the day after at a Christian eggs and grits diner. More about that later.

Matt's in Albany on work so I can hog the computer again. It's just Howie the cat and me for a few days.

We Like Mike

2006-08-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a wicked cool blog entry (and a very cool blog as well) I stumbled across today while trolling the series of tubes otherwise known as the internet(s) for images and info on all things Mike Rowe from Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs. I, apparently, am not alone.

It's no secret that ladies like Mike. I found a few other blogs with adoring posts about him:

Marsha Loftis Blog.
Some strangely designed fanlisting.
"I just saw Mike Rowe in a wetsuit!" on KateSpot.

The Dirty Jobs fansite has no shortage of swooning women that want to get dirty with Mike Rowe:

"I wish I had a dirty job so I could meet you. My only dirty job is being the ex-wife of a scumbag, but that can't be put on TV."

There's even a Myspace fansite, among others.

Men dig him too. My honey, Mr.Matt, who is very much like Mike in looks and wit in my opinion, gets a kick out of the guy. He's unpretentious and hilarious, a blue-collar intellectual, a thinking man's man with an unshaven face and a smirk. Mr. Rowe's a regular guy with a healthy dose of smartass, the kind of guy you could have a beer with. (Now, I know that's the criteria many Americans used to vote for our present Idiot in Chief, but Mike's not running for political office. That's a job too dirty even for him, I think.)

Dirty Jobs is a great show as it is, but I can't imagine it without Mike Rowe as host. I've seen the other Discovery channel hosts....it's like watching CSI:Miami when you really love the original Vegas CSI...you keep wanting that red-haired jackass to be Gil Grissom but he's so fucking NOT.

Screw Leonard DiCaprio and Antonio Banderas!! Give us Mike Rowe covered in fish guts and poo anyday. Will the editors of People magazine finally get the hint? Will a future cover of "The Word's Most Beautiful People" look like this?

Gay men like Mike too. Here's a photo from WeHo Mark, another blogger. Looks like he took a picture of his TV when Mike was frollicking around shirtless. WeHo Markie says to Mike, "Come to me, Daddy!" Right on, brother!

Here's more ribald horniness from the gay men's crowd: "Maybe it's his sexy deep baritone voice, or his hot hairy bod...I find him strangely compelling..."

For Mooselet in Australia, who doesn't get Discovery Channel, go here. There should be video clips of the show. Since you're into science stuff, girl, you might like the clips.

Two for the Shitlist

2006-08-09T06:32:00.001-05:00

I'm up early today in hopes I get my ass to the gym and then get home to finish updating both Matt's website and my own. So that means I'm actually up before the sun, drinking coffee and reading today's Miami Herald, which leads me to yet another pissed-off rant. Two more for the Shitlist! Yes, I have a Shitlist, doesn't everyone??

Today's first display of the middle phelange goes to the Broward Sheriff Office, otherwise referred to as the BSO, for shooting Miami lawyer Elizabeth Ritter in the head with a rubber bullet for just standing there with a protest sign. The incident was videotaped.

Major John Brooks is shown in another related videotape used for training (er, entertainment is more like it) purposes talking about the incident with BSO deputies. Here are some quotes from him in that tape straight from the article:
'How about yesterday, huh?'' Brooks says, complimenting the officers for their work during the protests. ``I would go to war with everyone here.''

Brooks continues, ``I went home, I couldn't sleep, I was just so pumped up about how good you guys were . . . Nobody broke ranks. You're the best I've ever been with.''

Sgt. Michael Kallman, a BSO counterterrorism unit officer, addresses the group next. A voice off-camera says, ``What about the lady behind the sign (referring to Ritter)? We have intel on her?''

The officers laugh.

Kallman smiles and says, ``The good news about being able to watch you guys live on TV is that the lady with the red dress, I don't know who got her, but it went right through the sign and hit her smack dab in the middle of the head!''

He raises his forefinger and zooms it toward his forehead.

The cops all laugh.

Another officer asks, off-camera, ``Did I get a piece of her red dress?''

Now, I don't fault the Fuzz for beefing up before the WTO protest that 11/20/03. The violent gang in Seattle pretty much screwed that up for all of us. But the ACLU is already calling up lawsuits against our local law enforcement for their roughshod treatment towards many undeserving and otherwise peaceful protesters during the WTO. Ms. Ritter, described as a middle-aged professional, dressed in a bullseye-red jacket, skirt and pumps, didn't deserve the barrage of rubber bullets she got. This was no hippy throwing bricks through Starbucks windows. So do all average, everyday Americans have to worry about the police shooting at them during peaceful and lawful public protests?

I'm reminded so much of the goosestepping thugs I went to school with who got off on bloody fists and intimidation. Did they all grow up to be cops? I've known a few decent cops, and we sure could use more of them.

Ms. Ritter was holding a sign that said "Fear Totalitarianism". How appropriate. Anyone wanna call up Roger Miret and have him revamp Agnostic Front's "New York Police State" to better suit us here in south FL?

My next Size-7.5 Doc Marten-Up-the-Ass goes out to former soldier Steven Green, Spc. James P. Barker, Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard for the pre-meditated rape of a 15 yr. old Iraqi teenager and then the killing of her and her family. Yes, war sucks. But this is sheer evil. How horrible and embarressing for them to do this. I hope all of you are prosecuted and punished to the full extent of United States laws. If that doesn't happen I hope they drop you naked and wrapped in the American flag in the middle of Faludjah.

Oh, and Mel Gibson, you are a JACKASS. Go back to your Slashin' of the Christ funded private island, you freak!

I guess that makes 3 for the Shitlist. Oh well!

New Marbled Columns

2006-08-06T10:29:00.000-05:00

Here are the columns I just finished for my newest clients. This is the same bathroom where I just finished that mural. There were 4 columns in all. The first shot shows what they looked like all prepped and primed. I had to sand the living crap out of them with an electric sander because the wood grain was really prominent and marble columns with a wood grain isn't atractive, plus the builders that installed them used that nasty cheap paint that flakes off everywhere. I also sand between every coat of primer and paint so the columns will feel just as good as they look. I don't want hair, dust and shmeg mucking up my nice smooth columns!! They are finished with a coat of clear gloss. I'll be going back later to start another mural, and also to recoat the columns for extra protection.

Here are the sample boards. The client went with the rose/tan one (the one on top, they are all subtle)

Finished column, base.

Finished column, top.

Today we're going to the Bass Pro Shop down the street to look at fishing rods. Going to Bass Pro on a SUNDAY???? I guess we're crazy. But we really want to get into fishing since we're surrounded by water everywhere we look.

Standing with Israel

2006-08-06T10:05:00.000-05:00

This morning's Miami Herald printed this on the Opinion Page in a regularly run section called "One-Liners".

"If Hezbollah laid down its weapons today, there would be no more war. If the Israelis laid down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel." --Joel Barbanell, Sunny Isles Beach.

It's awful that people have to suffer over there, no matter what side of the border they are on. I don't want innocent people getting maimed and shelled. Many people in this world want us to sympathize with the Lebanese and the Palestinians. I do. Maybe I don't truly understand this ages-old bewildering problem of truly Biblical proportions. But I don't think I have to, because it's not what Israel has or has not done, it is the fact that they ARE. Israel exists, and she is hated for that alone. She could shower the jihadists with flowers and still be hated.

That is one thing I do understand. The haters of Jews have made that perfectly clear. It's racist tribalism at its cave-man best. Once they are done ridding the planet of Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and the rest of us infidels, they will kill each other over petty differences. (Oh, wait, they do that already!!)

The world criticizes Israel for too strident a military response to the recent kidnapping and shelling, but what could she do to avoid criticism? Maybe her response is too strident. But what of those who want to "imagine a world without Israel?" and then act on it? What is the greater crime here? Is it the ferocity of her fighting that angers those who hate her, or the fact she defends herself at all?

I think Joel's one-liner sums it up. Whatever bad things Israel may or may not have done today or yesterday, there is nothing this tiny New Jersey sized country can do to appease the fundamentalist Muslim community other than cease to exist. Am I supposed to feel sorry for people who love blowing up their own children for a religion? Here's another quote from today's paper, "He gave his son to Islam," said Sanaa Younes, a Shiite from Beirut in regards to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, "It's what every parent would want." I don't want any child, or any person, to die in the name of any religion. I don't care if it's not politically correct to say this, but if anyone of any faith wants to exist in this world, they have to understand others have the right to exist as well, and if they can't understand that (if they can't live and let live), then they deserve no place in civilized society. Criminals get sent to prison because they can't get along and abide by laws. What about genocidal jihadists?

What in the world do we do with bloodthirsty religious nutjobs who get giddy when their sons and daughters blow themselves up in crowded markets in the name of God? Is anything more insane and evil than this?? When they bomb tiny democratic countries and kidnap their soldiers, do we listen to a damn thing they have to say when that country strikes back??

In my heart of hearts I want peace. I want the poor families on both sides of the issue to be safe and out of harms way. I don't hope for the destruction of anyone. But I have no illusions about those who kill in the name of their religion. History teaches us all we need to know.

FLORIDA DRIVERS SUCK!

2006-08-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

Before I indulge in my obscenity laced rant, go to this website for a good laugh, especially if you hate bad drivers and wish there was a way to get back at them other than swinging a nine iron into their skulls.

I live in southeastern FL and everyone on the road here SUCKS!

I've lived in Boston, CA and Dallas, and have been all over the country, including Los Angeles, which is notorious for its traffic. Boston's not much better...but I'll tell you one thing, at least people use blinkers and are semi-conscious on the road. I used to hate Boston drivers.....now I miss them!

Here in south Florida people LOVE to sit back and relax in the left lane. The left lane is for passing, and in Boston earns you a pissed-off tailgater leaning on the horn or highbeams should you be so ignorant as to amble in it with your cruise-control on 64. You just don't do it. Here, it's like a paved paradise for big fat minivan drivers yammering on cellphones. Or anyone else in a car or truck. They LOVE the left lane and won't move even when they see thousands of cars trying to get around them.

The worst is when you have a granny in the right, where she belongs, a cement truck next to her, a tanker truck next to him, and in the left lane IS A FAT BITCH IN AN MINIVAN WHO IS DOING 55!!!!!!!! I WANT TO KILL THAT PERSON!!!!!!!! You also see big trucks in the left lane too, going as slow as can be. Has anyone read their DMV handbooks recently? Does anyone know that the left lane is for passing, and that slower traffic should stay to the right???

I HATE YOU PEOPLE!!! It's bad enough you can barely drive anywhere else! But you need to get out of the left lane!!!! No one here uses their blinkers, everyone cuts you off, and FORGET IT if you want to drive US1 near Hollywood, Hallandale or probably all towns it runs through.....NO ONE IS AWAKE ON US1!!!!!!!! I look at them when I drive by and they are usually on their phone! If not on the phone, they are picking their nose, hitting their kids, reading a paper, or ANYTHING BUT FUCKING DRIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ugh. That's it for today's rant. I'd feel much better if I knew I wasn't about to get on the road again, but I am.

DIE SOUTH FLORIDA DRIVERS, DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is how I'll get back at them....HAHA I love this site!

I Can't Complain

2006-07-30T00:45:00.000-05:00

Sue, you threw another wonderful party. Here's some incriminating shots of people who won't be able to run for Republican office anytime soon.

Mural is Finished!

2006-07-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

Finished the mural today. My client's wife deemed it "perfect!" Here's some shots below. The hole in the ceiling was a nasty light fixture they want to replace. The "brick" stuff you see is the wallpaper below it, which has some plant and insect art I replicated in the mural. I really "whitewashed" the color out so the effect is light and airy, which is exactly what they need in an otherwise small bathroom with short ceiling height and busy wallpaper. If the color was intense it would be suffocating!!

Next, I marble 4 of the columns in the same bathroom, starting next week. For the next couple of days I hope to update my website, Matt's website, and maybe do some of my other art. I have another show coming up, more about that later!

HI TERRI I HOPE YOU ARE READING THIS AND ESCAPING THAT HELLISH HEAT IN CALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk to ya soon!

Mural in Progress Days 4-5

2006-07-26T19:08:00.000-05:00

Day 4:
Anyway, here it is with most of the rail worked out, with tape still up. The tray ceiling is pretty square so any warped corners you see is because of the cheapy camera I have.

I had serious issues with the perspective on all balasters not in the corners. They were all taped off, which hid any anamolies, but once I took most of the tape down it looked strange. I had to do a lot of panicky fixing. To me, it still doesn't look 100%.

Day 3, which I didn't log, had the rail painted but no highlights. It was pretty much just flat beige and not attractive.

Day 5:
With the most of the rail done and tape down.

Day 5:
Highlight wash added to under side shadow part of rail to lighten it up.

Day 5:
Mangos are added! I bought mangos at the grocery for this. They still need some shadows and highlights.

Day 5:
Closeup of mangoes. You can see the odd perspective on one of the balusters, the one directly to the left of the corner baluster. You can't really notice it when you're in the room, and the wife really loved it when she saw it. It still bugs me, being the anal retentive perfectionist (in art, anyway).

New Mural

2006-07-24T17:49:00.000-05:00

Have a new client that's commissioning me for a number of murals and some faux work. Right now I'm working on one mural in their master bath and it's coming out pretty good. I'll post the progress as I go.

Here's the sketch. It's a tray ceiling, about 5'x5.5'. Not very big. The bathroom is decorated in a kind of French country style with quaint brick wallpaper with topiarys, butterflies, bugs and plants.

There will be a rail, a mango tree, and flora and fauna copied right from the wallpaper. An Ibis will be sitting on the rail. The perspective was hard here because you're looking up. I had to take photos of a porch rail at some hotel in order to get it right.

Day 1 I did the sky with impressionistic clouds. I'm deliberately keeping my colors muted.

Day 2 was the mango tree sans mangos. Again, very soft colors.

Close-up of tree.

I've also put in most of the rail underpainting, but like the doofus that I am I deleted the photo. So It will have to wait for tomorrow.

I so badly need a new blog template. I realize this is probably ill formatted. But no time for that now! I'm lucky I'm even posting now.

Suicide Girl Party

2006-07-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

I've been a member of Suicide Girls for a while now. It's a website dedicated to gorgeous women of the tattooed, pierced and blue-haired variety (not blue as in grandma)and alternative culture in general. It's also an incredible community of like-minded souls of all ages who appreciate these kinds of women and all the culture associated with them: hot rods, body mods, rock n' roll, Betty Page, pin-up girls, burlesque. It's the kind of place I wish I had as a kid. I was never your average babe. I was mainly a freak...and that's one of the nicer words my school peers called me. But now that aesthetic I was a part of is finally celebrated, and even though there are Hot Topics out there, it's still an underground thing in many ways.

SG is a bit like Myspace, only you pay a subscription to have the privelege of putting up a profile complete with a blog and photos. There are also tons of groups you can join and waste precious posting time on, with topics on anything from religion, corsets, painters, philosophy, music. SG also conducts interviews with musicians, journalists, artists, actors, intellectuals, virtually anyone involved in shaping culture. I'm constantly finding new bands, books and people through SG.

Anyway....there are regional groups, and one is based for the state of FL. Most members are in Orlando and are a pretty tight knit group. Folks in south FL, where I am, are way more transient. The Orlando folks have hosted tons of events and parties where everyone gets together and hangs out. Matt and I decided to drive 3 hours this past Sat. to Orlando to check out one of these parties. It was a risk, but hey, you only live once.

We had the best time. What a really cool bunch of people! Most members there were much younger than us, but everyone was very intelligent, friendly and unpretentious. I remember talking to one gal and mentioned to her that Matt and I were usually anti-social types that really had a hard time finding anybody we had anything in common with. She said more or less that everyone else felt the exact same way, but they all had each other. They were a happy bunch of misfits, goths, punks, bohemians, skaters, nerds and geeks. My kind of people.

Yeah, I blurred her boob. You'll live. That's probably how it looked to me anyway with all the beer I had.

We met photographers, producers, models, musicians, travelers and people who we generally felt very comfortable around and could actually have a converstion with. We didn't have to explain ourselves. We were totally in our element, even though we were older. I felt kind of proud honestly that there were so many cool kids out there who are passionate about their lives and are into many of the things that I was into when I was their age.

Demon Duck of Doom

2006-07-13T19:36:00.000-05:00

So researchers in Australia have found the fossilized remains of galloping killer carnivorous kangaroos and 9' tall meat-eating ducks.

I shit you not. Follow the link in the title.

It was the only thing that made me laugh while watching the news today. The rest of the news, well, what more can be added to it other than...holy fucking shit??!!!?????

Liberal States Whine, "No (Bean) Fair!"

2006-07-12T14:51:00.000-05:00

Homeland database flawed - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

It's about time the government did something about pesky liberal states like NY. Who do the heck they think they are, expecting The Statue of Liberty to be considered a national icon that should be put on the Homeland Security's list of possible targets of terrorism? Why, not even the Empire State Building made the list. Are we supposed to be protecting Frenchie art??

The people of New York City, Boston, California and the like are going to have to get used to the fact that states like Indiana have far more worthy institutions to protect. (Indiana had 8,591 assets. NY claimed 5,687) On the list on behalf of the Heartland of America, there were petting zoos, a bourbon festival, a bean festival, and the Kangaroo Conservation Center in GA.

These are places where good American folks come with their families, the very same Americans that voted for our great president. The Values Voters!! These are the people that should be protected! And Kangaroos are from Australia, and Australia is our ally in God's chosen war against evil!! Conserving kangaroos is a distinct American value! They should be adding county fairs and Walmarts!

Statue of Liberty? Empire State Building? Pffft. Bleeding heart liberal icons if I ever saw 'em. They wanna cry about getting more money for their firefighters and police forces to protect against terrorists than Indiana? Boo freaking hoo. Who did you vote for last election, NY? Yeah, I thought so. Traitorous traitors!

Besides, everyone knows God is targeting the blue states anyway because they are part of the Gay Agenda. Nothing we can do can stop His will!! Hooray for dead blue state people!!

Brave Old World

2006-07-07T08:37:00.000-05:00

Gay and 'passionate about Islam' - Islam in Europe - MSNBC.com

A UK group talks about being gay and being a practicing Muslim. Talk about guts.

COMICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-04T07:25:00.000-05:00

I've always been an alternative comic book fan since I first visited that little underground shop in Harvard Square when I was about 17 and got my first Heavy Metal mag and some crazy local zine with the coolest art ever. I never turned into a full-fledged fangirl...either my attention span is too short, or I have a life, thankya...but I still love comics.

My love affair with Tank Girl, Love and Rockets, Grendel and now Tony Millionaire's stuff is going pretty strong these days. How I love love love the work of Jamie Hewlett. I remember seeing a Gorillaz video in a store one day. I had no idea who they were but the song caught my ear first...the Clint Eastwood song....and then I had to see the video, because well, it's animated, and what do I love almost as much as comics?? Animation! As soon as I saw the crazy teeth I knew it was The Hewl. Kewl!!!! Then I bought Tank Girl all over again to replace the ones I lost in a million moves.

I always wished Hewllet and Hernandez (Love and Rockets) were women, because the women they drew were such kickass girls that real kickass girls could love and identify with. It's obvious they love women just from their characters. Tank, Hopie, Maggie, Penny and friends are such fierce babes! Every little punk rock girl wants to be them, or at least have them for friends!

Which brings me to the work of Jessica Abel. Since I'm not a total fangirl I don't hear about the latest artists right away. I just read her interview on Suicide Girls. She does a comic called Artbabe and has a new one called La Perdida. Her art, from what I've seen on her website, is frikken great. So I've got to buy more comic books, do I??? Guess I should dig around in my retirement fund for a few bucks or 2.

Also, another artist who I found through Suicide Girls, Ross Campbell, does some amazing work. He does the best little punk rock chicks. Everyone loves punk rock chicks!!!!!!!!!!

Fear Factor

2006-06-28T08:17:00.000-05:00

What is it about bullies that we love so much?

I was watching Bill O'Reilly last night. Just to see what this guy is all about, again. Here's a guy who makes a living off of saying the most inflammatory, one-sided statements he can make about any issue, and pretending that he has the answers to save us all. All the rightwing pundits do this. It's an art form and science...that whoever interrupts, intimidates or insults the most....wins. If you go on the Factor and have a differnt viewpoint than Bill, you better have the lungs in order to scream over his constant showboating interruptions and insults. And people glom onto this shit like bass to a worm.

People like O'Reilly appeal to emotionalism, not reason. It is a tactic designed to eliminate true debate. They don't want you to think and consider. They want you to react so you won't check their sources. They will tell you lies and take stands, and belittle their opponents so you can sit in your chair and feel vindicated. It's like watching show wrestling. You like the blood and the drama, and you want the biggest, most outrageous asshole to win, and when he does, you're behind him all the way, because now you too are a winner, not a loser.

CNN is no prize. Their constant repitition of reporting old stories is designed to not only cover up the fact they won't report other news but because they like to keep you glued to the set out of sensationalism and fear. But I can't watch FOX news on a full stomach or I'll blow chunks. It's so full of slanted bullshit that so blatantly insults its veiwers it makes me sick.

Democracy for All?

2006-06-28T07:14:00.000-05:00

Here's a question to really think about: is democracy for everyone? I realize our president seems to think so, now that he's pulled our country into some glorious holy war to bring democracy and liberation to the people in Iraq and Afganistan. But even if it were true, is democracy the right mode of governement for these people?

Think about it. A free society only will thrive in a place where people are free to work how they want, worship how they want, and pursue the kind of life they want. It's crucial that all are equal. It's crucial that we don't have a government mandated religion. It's crucial to be able to vote unimpeded and have a voice in government. It's crucial we have laws based in absolutes, and that everyone is entitled to a fair and speedy trial if we break those laws. It's crucial we have freedom of ALL speech, no matter how unpleasant. It's crucial to question our government and each other. It's crucial we can access whatever artistic culture we want without censorship.

When a people are used to thugs and mystics running their countries, expecting a democracy to just spring up after their present mode of government is dismantled will lead (as it has) to chaos and death. It's not that some don't dream of democracy. But their values are fundamentally different. They are values that cannot foster any form of true democracy unless they decide to take on the values stated above. Tribal rule must die, and mystics need to step aside.

Fighting a real war against tyrants and despots may be noble, but in the end it is not in our best interest, unless they are threatening us imminently. Killing terrorists and bringing Bin Laden and his like to justice is one thing and we should do it, but forcing regime change on any country whose actual threat to us was dubious at best is a good way to waste our military's resources, create illwill with those who would otherwise be allies, and burden every American into an impossible debt for generations to come. And there's no end in site.

Freedom spread at the point of the gun is a lie. Freedom can't be forced. Only a people ready for freedom can claim it, like the first American settlers did. Bush was warned by those who understood this principle before he started his war in Iraq, but he chose to ignore it, and look at how it has cost us. With our attention preoccupied with Iraq, are we ready for Iran and North Korea, should their threats turn to violence against us?

Nano Nano

2006-06-14T06:05:00.000-05:00

"A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. That's like comparing a marble to the size of the earth."

So begins the article on Nanotechnology in the June 2006 edition of National Geographic. I've made the assertion before that the Great Green World will be the new wave of the future, allowing us to create a revolutionary technology that will change the world and its economy (again). But Nano might be the god of the new church, bringing us things only science fiction writers dreamed of, allowing us to live even safer, healthier and happier lives. Add that to human enhancement technology, and this world is going to be a very different place in the next 50 years. Think grandma is mystified by today's computers? Just wait till you're a grandma. "May you live in interesting times," the saying goes, which, appropriately enough, can be either a blessing or an admonition.

Definition of Nano from the National Nanotechnology Initiative government website: "Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications. Encompassing nanoscale science, engineering and technology, nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at this length scale."

Nano is already present in the things we use. Those pants that you can buy that are stain resistant? Flourinated nanopolymer. It's in sunscreeens. On sunglasses. On cutting tools. In wound dressings. The biggest breakthroughs yet will be in the medical field and environmental energy field, where nano will be used to fight cancer and other illnesses, and filter water supplies and supply cheap, efficient energy.

Carbon nanotubes and "buckyballs"--a 60 carbon atom molecule that takes the shape of a geodesic dome ala Buckminster Fuller, discovered by late scientist Richard Smalley in 1985--are, in Smalley's description, 50 to 100 times stronger than steel and 1/6 the weight. Putting nanotubes in epoxy strengthens it by more than 30 percent. Nanotubes are found in high-end tennis rackets, racing bikes and golf clubs. Nanotubes also conduct energy extremely well and could be dropped in cheap chemicals and painted on windows to turn any building into a solar building. In theory, nanotubes could replace all electrical wires since they conduct way more current and lose much less energy in the process. If this technology is ever perfected, entire cities, and even houses, can be wired and powered by solar alone.

Nano is being developed to fight and detect cancer. One goal is to design a test using Nano that could detect up to 20 different cancers with just a finger-prick. Jennifer West, a bioengineer, is battling cancer by injecting mice with gold nanoshells. The gold nanoshells are injected into cancerous tumors, then activated with infrared rays that heat the gold and kill the tumor. The gold is only toxic when heated and will only be confined to the tumor. She has injected the mice with huge doses of nanoshells and not one mouse has died from any side-effects from the treatment.

There are set-backs, however. Scientists have yet to figure out how to manipulate nanoparticles and tubes with ease, so those new energy wires are a long way off. Also, there are concerns of toxicity. But the science is growing and corporations are investing (up to $4 billion in 2006), as this technology has the potential to affect every industry imaginable. It has been called as revolutionary as plastic, a material in almost everything that we take for granted on a daily basis.

I sometimes think we're all going to hell in a handbasket. But it's news like this from the world of science that brings back the dormant hope I've always had in our ability to master our world and create a better quality of life. If the mystics don't blow us all to hell, that is.

My thanks to National Geographic and the National Nanotechnology Initiative for the info I gleaned to pen this post. Visit both those websites (you'll have to buy the June issue of NG for the full story, though) for way more information than either you or I could imagine from this fascinating technology.

This One's For Mooselet and her Calves...

2006-06-14T05:46:00.000-05:00

From the National Geographic online:

June 13, 2006—Perhaps not since the Cowardly Lion has an animal's appearance been so at odds with its attitude.

On June 4 a black bear wandered into a West Milford, New Jersey, back yard, was confronted by a 15-pound (7-kilogram) tabby cat … and fled up a neighbor's tree. Hissing at the base of the tree, Jack the clawless cat kept the bear at bay for about 15 minutes, then ran him up another tree after an attempted escape.

Finally, Jack's owner, Donna Dicky, called the cat inside, and the timorous trespasser disappeared back into the woods.

"He doesn't want anybody in his yard," Dickey said of Jack in an interview with the Newark Star Ledger.

Unlike cats, bears aren't typically territorial, roaming instead over vast areas that would be impossible to patrol for intruders. Fairly common across North America, black bears are seen fairly often in this region of New Jersey.

Full-grown black bears weigh between 200 and 600 pounds (90 and 270 kilograms) and measure as much as 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. Their diets can include fruits, honey, insects, acorns and animals as big as moose calves—a fact apparently lost on Jack.

—Ted Chamberlain

Coulter Shock

2006-06-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

Ann Coulter is a second-rate psuedo intellectual who is the darling of hardcore Christo-facists who read her hate-filled invective that masquerades itself as policital analysis. She is the flaxen-haired, anorexic-thin sex symbol for asshats like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the rest of the gorging swine. She is a political porn star. Hers is not a centrist or even remotely moderate agenda, but a radical one fertilized in fundamentalist, jingoist dogma. She is the Extremist Imam of the Neo-Con Mob. She also might very well be a genius.

She's enjoying quite a bit of controversy these days for her comments in her new book regarding the 4 widows who lost their husbands in 9/11 and became activists who pushed for the independent investigations into the governments role in handling the attacks. "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," she writes in "Godless."

Want to read a page ripped right from the playbook of our religious right taliban, a virtual manifesto of their agenda? Go here. It's so bad you wonder if it's all a joke. Even if it is, and she's just making a buck off the gullible idiots who wank to her drivel (like an artist that craps in a can and sells it for thousands), there are still people out there who swallow it whole! Which makes me think.....if this is a joke, she's a muthafuckin' genius of Dominique Francon proportions, a Stephen Colbert of a more insidious nature. Show the monsters their ugliness in the mirror and maybe they'll be destroyed. Or, maybe just buy more of her books.

Here's a funny article by the Washington Monthly that has a slew of her more ribald and tasty "Coultisms". Also, an opinion piece by James Love on the Huffington Post that makes the "joke" argument. It's just gotta be, right? Right????

If so, then it is effective. While everyone knows Colbert is a brilliant satirist, he is still just making jokes. Coulter, on the other hand, does not appear to be on a lark. She in fact appears to be dead serious. Whether she is or isn't doesn't really matter because she is such a polarizing figure that all conservatives except for the staunchest of the extreme will not want to be associated with her. The monster is ugly as she has shown us whether she intended to or not, and that monster is the ogre of mean-spirited politics, not "godless" Liberals. If she in fact means what she says, her books will backfire on her and cause the Neo-Conservative movement to lose ground. Most Americans don't go for this sort of ugliness, and if conservatives embrace her rhetoric, they will alienate those Americans, who will then gravitate to more centrist and moderate levels, which is what I hope.

So either way, it does no good for Democrats and Liberals to get their Dockers in a wad over what big bad Coulter says. Don't go banning her, fercrissakes, like they're trying to in New Jersey. Let her blather on, let her get even worse if she wants. The uglier she gets, the more that everyday, working-class folks who feel the GOP has fucked them over and who find no more solace in a Democrat solution will want...and hopefully demand....a balanced administration.

Angies's List

2006-06-13T11:46:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting link for anyone who wants to find "word-of-mouth" reviews on anything from home contractors, hairstylists, mechanics and even vetrinarians.

http://www.angieslist.com/AngiesList/

I just joined, it's free to join in FL since it's just starting up here. Might not be free elsewhere. So far I've been able to leave good reviews on my gym, vet and mechanic, and I've read reviews on painters and landscapers. If you are as sick of bad service as I am...this is your chance to do something about it. If you know of a service that is great, and deserves more business, you can do something about that too.

Right now in FL we are experiencing an amazing amount of contractor dishonesty since everyone is here trying to make a buck off of hurricane damage. This is a good resource for homeowners to separate the goats from the stallions.

As someone who is in business, I really go out of my way to give exceptional work for a reasonable price. I try to show up on time, listen to my clients, provide more than they expected, and above all respect their needs and budgets. Is that so hard these days? I like Angie's List because I can keep an eye on things I need to improve by seeing what matters most to people, and because I'm a consumer who is fed up with businesses that insult my intelligence while attempting to take my money.

Fear of a Gay Planet

2006-06-13T08:44:00.000-05:00

What a shame that 1000's of Americans, including our doofus of a president, want to corrupt the most precious document in our country by amending it to include blatant discrimination against an entire class of working, taxpaying people who deserve the same rights as all.

What a shame that so many think it's just hunky-dory for government to legislate forced "morality" based on the irrational demands of a minority fundamentalist mob.

Whether or not you agree same-sex unions are right or wrong, it shouldn't be the federal government's place to tell anyone who to marry or how. It is a state's right to decide those laws, as Massachusettes has done. It's the right of a religious group to decide their own code of morality, and there are many reform groups that support same-sex unions. It's a debate we should be having fairly and openly, and a Federal Marraige Amendment would close that debate.

Most people who are against gay marriage probably don't know many gay people. They haven't seen happy, loving gay couples walking together on a sunny day with a baby stroller. They don't know about gay couples who've been together for over 20 years and who by all rights and purposes, should be allowed marriage. Many everyday Americans who have been biased against homosexuals in the past have changed their minds as they've come to know homosexuals and see them for the real people they are, and not the demons the religious right makes them out to be. Many Americans who don't support gay marraige at least support civil unions, which the religious right wants to eliminate as well.

The religious right has a well-known history of denying rights to those they consider deviant or otherwise damned by their god. The religious right need to have their bogeymen, their scapegoats. It wasn't too long ago that blacks and women had little to no rights at all. The gay struggle today for equal rights echoes the struggles blacks and women had (and still have). Is it no coincidence that religious fundamentalism brings about inequality for minorities, ie: anyone but "straight" men?

Quote from an article in USA Today:

"Once, black people, women and homosexuals were viewed the same way by the leading theologians of the times: "They were all cursed by God in Scripture, inferior in moral character and willfully sinful and deserving punishment," says the Rev. Jack Rogers, former head of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and author of a new book, Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality.

Eventually, most churches found a biblical basis for changing their stance on race and gender but not on homosexuality."

We are a country based on religious and individual freedom, not religious dominance and mob rule. Writing anti-gay dogma into our Constitution corrupts religious freedom and denies equal rights to gay Americans. Each religion has the right to decide whether to sanction same-sex couples, and an anti-gay marriage amendment would deny that. Passing the Federal Marriage Amendment would impose the beliefs of some upon all.

What I'm afraid of is that the same people who would deny gays their rights to marriage are the same people who want to take away my reproductive rights. I am a strident secularist involved in a committed hetero relationship and I don't want kids, ever. This makes me the enemy to these people as well. If I'm not married and popping out children and quoting Psalms, I am not a good American or even an adequate human being.

5'7", 110 lbs, 38D? BULLSHIT!

2006-06-02T05:47:00.000-05:00

So I'm trying to lose a few pounds. What women isn't? Whatever you do, ladies, don't open a Playboy.

The lowest weight I ever reached in my life was 124. That was when I was working my hardest job ever...department manager of flooring at Home Depot in Plano, TX. I was constantly moving...pacing the cement floors with customers, heaving 20 lb. boxes of vinyl tile, 50 lb. boxes of ceramic tile, 30 lb. bags of grout, endless rolls of heavy carpet...you name it. It got to the point that I was stronger than some of my male customers. I had one waifish fellow ask me to find him someone to help him lift the new box of heavy porcelain tile I just sold him, aso I picked it up for him, easily. He didn't say much after that.

As a worked this job I didn't even notice the weight dropping off. All I knew was that after about 5 months I could take my smallest jeans off without unbuttoning them. I started lifting weights at a gym in order to keep general muscle strength up. After about 2 grueling weeks of working overnights to prepare for inventory, I was actually getting sick. I might have dropped to 120 for all I knew. But I was wasted, tired, drained. After the overnights were done with I started looking for another job. In retrospect, I could have been eating way more calories than I did, but in general my diet was pretty good.

I mention this episode because 120 doesn't sound too thin, does it? Not for a girl who stands 5'5" with a classic mesomorph body type, which is basically good musculature, hourglass figure and ability to put on both muscle or fat pretty easily. 120 sounds thin alright, just not too damned thin. But it was. You see, I could only reach that weight after working a job that forced me to move all day long. I was really an athlete in training, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Not too many people can live like that constantly, and who the hell can go to the gym that long?

When you read Playboy (we have a subscription, and it's a great mag!) you find they like to mention the stats of the models. Sheila is 5'7", weighs 110, and is a 38D. PUH-LEASE!!!! Are they subtracting her tits in that equation or what? Honestly, mine must weigh 5 lbs each! Now, I know Playboy is all about airbrushing and the illusion of perfection, and those stats are probably bullshit. But they're out there, feeding the illusion women struggle each day to attain, thinking men want that too. Maybe they do. Playboy isn't the only place you'll see a girl with great curves and big boobs telling her audience she only weighs 110.

I used to subscribe to muscle and fitness mags for women. It's there that you find the more realistic stats. Women in those mags, although their bodies are perfect (at least for the photo shoot), you don't see ridiculous bodyweights of 110. They average around 130, more or less depending on height. When you watch the Olympics, the women athletes are healthy, strong, and usually weigh in the 130's, again depending on body mass and type of sport.

So, I'm 140. I wear size 6 dress, 8 in jeans. I will never see 124 again unless I get my old job back at Home Depot, and I don't want it. I can't live my life like that anymore, although I do know the key to keeping weight down is simply just moving more and eating less. My injury, while it prevents me from biking 20 miles or running like I used to, gets even worse if I sit all day. I have to move just to keep it from getting worse. I can't ever have a sit-down job again. Go figure.

These days I speed walk with weights, and have even started jogging (not running...keeping the heels close to ground to reduce impact) with weights. I'll be investing in a weight vest because that is far more safer for the body than the injuries you could possibly get from swinging weights around with your arms. I've been so busy I haven't been to the gym, but I do a series of pilates for my core, I do pushups and tricep dips, and I do these about 3-4 times a week. I've lost about 5 lbs in the past month alone, down from around 145-ish.

(Looking for a great way to flatten and strengthen your belly? Screw crunches. Go pilates! I can't do crunches anyway since it pulls right on my sciatic. You won't lose body fat, but how powerful and flat you'll feel!)

My goal weight is 135. It's realistic and healthy. The lowest I'll go will be 130, but I'm not going to go nuts trying to get there. I'm not even sure I could if I wanted to. Even 140 is fine, since a lot of it, I like to tell myself, is muscle....and boob!

The Latest Faux Job

2006-06-01T18:06:00.000-05:00

Well, it's finally done. 6 bathrooms, 6 columns, 4 ceiling medallions.

Here is the big accomplishment...the master bath in a onyx type marble finish, with two of the marbled columns visible. It was very tough to do...the original photo they found for the job was slightly different, the artist used a different technique which I couldn't for the life of me duplicate. I came close enough, and they approved the sample. However, once it was done, the finished product was so overwhelmingly bright that I suggested I glaze it down with transparent white. The wife loved it since she loves colors, the husband (and writer of checks!) went for the white glaze. I am much happier with it with the glaze, and think it looks like some sort of sunstruck cavern in a canyon. Before the glaze it looked like Bozo the Clown on acid with a box of Crayolas.

Here are more columns at the entrance to the bathroom, they look slightly bowed due to Matt's camera lens for some reason...

Another marble column, part of a pair in the master bedroom. They came out really cool, and not bad for someone who's only done minor marbling here and there and not all of it was good!! It's amazing what you can get when you apply 3 different colors of glaze to a piece of plastic wrap and stick it on a white painted surface. Of course, I did a lot more work after that with more glazes and the veins, but if you want a decent cheap marble finish, get the Saran wrap and 3 similar toned colors mixed with glaze and go nuts!

Here is a small bathroom near their large family room I was supposed to paint but didn't since it was off budget. This is one of my favorites. It's a 2 color troweled latex paint and 90 set drywall mix with metallic accents. The colors are tan, cocoa and metallic antique gold. The light is hanging off because everything is brand new and they're changing all the original cheapy crap the builders place in the house.

This is the medallion that got me the gig! I painted this for a high-end lumber and architectural mom & pop store in my town so I could get some exposure. I signed the back of it. My latest (and first here in FL) client bought it for his new house, saw the signature on the back, and hired me for everything else.

Another medallion painted with a ivory and tan marble-type stipple, then highlighted in silver and gold metallics to match the chandelier. There were 2 of this kind.

This is a huge medallion, and ornate as hell, but it's going up on a ceiling 20' high so that's good. I washed it with a beige glaze and rubbed off the high points to show the original white, then highlighted here and there with gold. I could have got away w/o the gold but these folks like small tasteful bits of metallic mixed in with their largely neutral decor. It is almost too easy to turn a heavy piece like this into a gaudy eyesore.

This client and his family, native of Jamaica, live in a giant new subdivision that has many affluent people, and he is a man of influence as well there as he works in the construction industry. His neighbors are all coming over to take my business cards since he and his wife have been recommending me. They were some of the nicest folks I ever had the pleasure of working for and I can only hope all my customers are this sweet and appreciative of my work. So far the neighbors are all different nationalities...Latin, Chinese, Haitian....which is really cool for me because everyone will have vastly different tastes and backgrounds to build designs on.

Tomorrow at 10:30 I have an appt. with a client who wants a ton of mural and possible faux work. He found my website....thank goodness for metatags! I'll keep my fingers crossed on this one, since murals are what I really want to do in this business. But the faux shown above was hellof fun, and challenging!

The rest of the bathrooms were finished a while back, viewed here.

Eve Interrupted Sexuality2 Women's Art Party

2006-05-31T05:56:00.000-05:00

This post is a tad late, the art party happened on the 19th, but I've been a buzy lizzy lately! Penning a blog post is usually a time consuming ordeal as I'm constantly editing and reediting.

The party took place at a great renovated building in Miami's up and coming Wynwood District. A studio loft was rented for the occassion. There was also rooftop access, which we needed since HUNDREDS of people showed up.

Here is Carla, Sue and myself on the rooftop. We couldn't walk 2 steps in this party without Sue bumping into someone she met at some glowstick rave or goth thing somewhere. She's like the frigging pope in a parade!!

Mr. Matt took most of these photos, with the exception of the burlesque girls, taken by Carla.

Go here to Eve Interrupted to see more great photos. Thanks to Lissette Barros for a fantastic evening and a much needed infusion into the south Florida culture scene! Let's do it AGAIN! Thanks to Marla Warrington for the use of her Global Spirits Studio, which is up for rent for almost any occassion.

Here is part of the crowd....and I mean part....the studio had to be about 25'x30' with 12 to 15' ceilings, so it wasn't that big. There were hordes and hordes of hot women and a few lucky dudes trying to cram into this studio to watch the Subversive comedy sketch or the burlesque show.

Burlesque girls Morgan and Lola.

Photo on left is of La Loquita, an artist and entertainer, in wig and balloons and smashing femme entourage.

There could have been more art, but what there was was frikken awesome. So nice to see people who know how to paint again, and the kleenex vagina boxes by Lisa Lockford ruled! There was also some gorgeous sensual and feminine photography.

Here are just a few of the talented ladies that showed that evening: Pop artist Tee Davis, photographer Janette Valentine (who does pin-up punk tattooed chicks, which is something we certainly need more of in Miami!), and Barbara Hernandez photography. There were more of course....that fiesty Irish-Cuban blooded redhead, what's her name again?? Fucking great realist painter. When I get her name I'll post it.

Here are two of the pieces I entered. They received a warm response, and a few interested parties wanted to purchase, although I haven't heard from them since the show. But that's OK. I'm not in it for the money, and I'd like to hold onto them because I have more coming up. I'd like a cohesive body of tattooed or punk ladies and also my "comic book" character badass girls. I just need some good solid time to do it. That, my dear one loyal reader, isn't coming up anytime soon!

(Hey Moosey, wanna model??)

If anyone is interested in modeling, all I need are some good photos. I'll turn you into a goddess.

The red piece is titled "Temptation", the yellow piece is titled "Catwoman".

It's about time women started depicting women (even though it's been going on for some time now). For years we've always been the subject matter of men who get all the credit. But many times they relegate us to just mere props...our beauty is celebrated, as is deservedly so, but many times that's where it stops. That's why I love women comic book heroines. It's hard for me to even read a novel...even a classic peice of literature...that depicts women who are soft and one dimensional, just filmy hangers-on in the periphery of the way more important world of men, a mere accessory.

I don't mean to bash men here, cripes, my boyfriend takes pictures of bikini babes. But there's a real hunger for women to see themselves in their own eyes as something more than just a pretty face.

When a woman depicts a woman in any kind of artform, she's recreating woman as she should be in her eyes. At least that's what I do, and what other women artists I've seen do. The women's art movement is one of the only places you'll see a thick boned girl painted as if she were worthy enough to be painted. And she's beautiful. A woman viewing the art of women for women feels lovely, ballsy, smart, sassy, sexy and finally, FINALLY, recognized.

Abandon All Taste Ye Who Enter

2006-05-17T18:56:00.000-05:00

Hahahahahahahahaha....

Don't even ask where I got this. I am already burning in hell as it is.

The Unit's Losin' It

2006-05-16T16:35:00.000-05:00

So, The Big Unit is losing his shit. Oh, waah. And that robot Matsui broke his wrist. Oh the tragedy of it all! The poor bastards!! What rotten luck!

All the money in the world can't buy away injuries and aging, just goes to show ya.

There is a God, and he roots for The Red Sox, just like everyone else who isn't from NYC.
(If you go to Syracuse, they root for the Mets. They're sick of the Axis of Pinstripes too.)

Sexuality2 Women's Art Party in Miami

2006-05-15T17:44:00.000-05:00

Wicked wicked pissah! I'm in an art show, and not just any art show. It's a kickass women's art party, complete with dj's, a burlesque show by Lola, grrrl bands, booze, cleavage, and a sexiest dressed contest.

Brought to you by Lissette Barros of Eve Interrupted, this is their 7th art show since Sept. 2003. The last one was wildly successful and this one looks to be even better. I saw photos of the last one and it looked HOT! The show is called Sexuality2 Women's Art Party, and all the art will have the wonderful sexuality of women as a theme. All women are invited, especially women who love women. Men too are also invited.

WHEN:
This Friday, May 19th, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

This leaves us some time to go to Churchills, if you so desire....HOORAY FOR CHURCHILLS!!!

WHERE:
THE WYNWOOD LOFTS
250 NW 23 STREET
UNIT: 204A
(Global Spirits Studio), DOWNTOWN MIAMI 33127, (WYNWOOD ART DISTRICT)

Tix are $8. If you are going with me, then I'll front ya. Just buy yer own drinks, which I'm told will be cheap, unless of course I sell something then it's on me!! I have 3 pieces in, one of which is shown above.

See the listing in Miami Times events online, scroll down just a bit to see.

New Blog Name?

2006-05-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking of coming up with a new blog name. Bostonbootgirl is something I came up with a few years back because I've always worn Doc Martens and I'm from the Boston region. Plus, bootgirl or bootboy is a Skinhead or Oi term of sorts, and seeing I come from working class roots (STILL working class for that matter!) and I love streetpunk or Oi music, I figured, why the hell not?

But honestly, I don't live in Boston anymore. I live in Florida. It's too hot to wear big Doc's unless I go to a show or work, so I wear a lot of sandals and flip-flops. Amazingly, Floridaflipflopgirl sounds all wrong. Go figure.

And...I've never called myself Skinhead, although I've shaved my head many times and I shop at Army Navy stores. I just don't subscribe to be a full-fledged member of any club. I don't need anyone judging me because I'm not wearing or listening to the right stuff. I'm 36, dammit. I didn't give a rats ass at 17, I'll be damned if I give one now.

Funny thing is, a friend produced a great punk compilation called Blank The World and the opening credits thank Matt and Bostonbootgirl. Shite. Mebbe I'm stuck with it.

I don't want to use my real name. I like a little bit of anonymity, so I can rant and rage with some privacy. So what will it be? Or maybe I should keep it??

Any suggestions?

(BTW, those are my boots in photo, and I AM wearing skivvies. Red ones. Ooh la la, ya'll.)

Escape from Orlando

2006-05-14T22:25:00.000-05:00

I just got back from the Orlando job last night after 2 long grueling weeks of waking up at 3:30 a.m. and working until late afternoon or early evenings. Our project consisted of hauling heavy metal retail fixtures around, tearing down old ones and putting up new ones, then piling store merchandise onto them ready for selling. Constant, fast paced go go go work. Matt and I would drive back to our hotel each night, drink beer and pass out and do it all over again the next day.

Every part of my body is aching and bruised. I've done harder work, sure, but I've had it easy the previous months before this gig and I'm a bit older now. Stuff hurts more now. Tomorrow I go see a chiropractor and a masseuse so I can get my back and neck in order once more. It feels literally like someone somewhere is sticking needles into a voodoo doll in my name.

But you should see my biceps. Bulging, I tell ya. I have the best arms in the business; sleek, taut and curvy. But my belly, well, alas...it bulges too, even if only a little. No low-hipped Brittney jeans for me.

Matt drove back to Orlando tonight since the job is STILL NOT DONE. After all the missed deadlines due to stupidity on the store's part to organize this correctly, after all the work shut downs due to nonexistent permits, the job must be complete by the end of next week. (It has been ongoing for close to three months now!!) He won't be back until Friday, we hope. I'm participating in an art show on Friday and he really wants to be there for it (it's a woman's sexuality show put on by a bunch of Miami lesbians, why wouldn't he or anyone else not want to be there??). So, for until Friday, it's just me and Howie. Already the house feels empty.

I had to come home to take care of a client who may prove to be a catalyst for the future success of my business, who I wrote about in an previous post. So Matt must stay in the game, to chug and haul shit back and forth between store and dumpster, with needles sticking in his shoulders as his nerves angrily scream at him that he would be better suited to pressing the buttons on his camera instead.

So I'm back indefinitely. And I will be a busy gal. Tomorrow I start the samples for my client's remaining baths (the big room got canceled) and Tuesday I start actual work on it. My client's wife tells me she has invited her friends and neighbors over for a look at the baths I've done and they may be interested in my services, so that may be a great thing for the future success of my business.

Happy Mother's Day for all cool momma's out there....I may not be one, but I know many!!

Ain't It The Truthiness

2006-04-30T11:46:00.000-05:00

Stephen Colbert skewered president Bush and his administration at last night's White House Correspondents Dinner with a massive dose of biting satire that caused Mr. and Mrs. Bush to abruptly leave afterward. It was nothing short of a roast. A hilarious, brilliant, I-can't-believe-they-let-him-up-there-and-I'm-sure-they-regret-it-now roast.

There were a lot of nervous nellies fidgeting uncomfortably in those seats during Mr. Colbert's pirate take-over of the podium. What did they expect when they invited him there? Did they actually expect him to behave? Have they ever really watched his or Stewart's show?

It needed to be said. Thank you, Mr. Colbert (and Mr. Jon Stewart) for having the guts to say it. Many of us think it. But how many of us get the chance to actually say it aloud to the man and his administration, the entire press, and the entire nation, on TV? We live in a free country still, after all.

If you aren't familiar with Stephen Colbert, he was once on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but branched out to host his own fake news comedy show that airs right after The Daily Show. He lampoons ultranationalist, religious rightwing windbags like Bill O'Reilly.

Here's the video. It takes a while to load up, but it's so worth it, especially since you will certainly not see any of this on any news channel in the US. Liberal media my ass.

Howie, Orlando, Painting and Kayaks

2006-04-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

I've got this great black cat, Howie, who loves to jump up on my lap when I'm at the computer and then crawls up to rest on my boobs. His head goes under my chin and his front paws hug around my right shoulder. The rest of him....a formidable 11lb. shedding bag of purring black fur...must be held by my left hand, cradled like a baby. He does this every half hour or so if I'm working a long time.

I've had him since he was a kitten. He's my bud. He's also an eexperienced shoulder surfer, as you can see from the photo.

Got back from Orlando about a week ago but have been busy painting for a new client. Finished 4 bathrooms...2 plaster finishes, 1 multi-toned sponge finish, 1 grassy linen type of finish. This client also is getting a 1400 sf. grand room done, 2 other baths, 6 columns to be marbled, a few ceiling medallions and I think that's it. I think by the end of that gig I can afford a rather nice laptop :)

Here are the 4 finished bathrooms:

We're going back to Orlando probably Sunday. I get back to paint the grand room on the 7th of May.

Matt and I are buying kayaks real soon, we're shopping around now. If you haven't kayaked, well, GO, dang it!! It helps that we are surrounded by water, and anytime you want to boat, you stick the yak in the back of the truck, pull up somewhere and throw it in. Tomorrow we go kayak fishing with a friend of ours.

That's it for now. Life is good.

Orlando bound

2006-03-12T08:33:00.000-05:00

Gotta go to Orlando today for work again, we're expected to be there till the end of the month. I won't be around again much...so wish I had a laptop!

Good news...my second consult with new clients for faux finishing went very well yesterday. I really like these people, they are very nice, and they have a very large home and many paint ideas. Already I've met the kids and they are pleading with their parents to get murals done in addition to their fauxed bathrooms.

There are 6 bathrooms I'm doing. SIX. There are 4 people who live there. Yesterday we accomplished getting the types of finishes they want. I left them all the color swatches so they can finalize that. We did discuss colors a bit, but as husbands and wives go, they did disagree on much of that.

When I get back we'll finalize the colors, I'll work up final samples and hopefully start working and getting paid.

Evolution Theory Holes Filled!

2006-03-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

Creationists complain that there are too many holes in Evolution theory, so therefore they need to fill them up with angels, devils, leprochauns and woodsprites. Not so, I say. See below my latest illustration that seeks to fill in at least some of said offending holes.

Notice I left out the nuclear bomb stage and the last stage with the huge "Mankind RIP" tombstone. I ran out of paper.

Buh-Bye, Dubai

2006-03-11T08:57:00.000-05:00

DP World has decided to give up the ghost on the fight to win a coveted contract to operate 6 major US ports and turn it over to a US entity.

It SHOULD have been and always should be a US entity operating and guarding our ports and borders.

This is another major blow to Bush, who was dying to finally use his veto power in defiance towards almost an entire Congress and Senate who were stirred into an unbelievable uproar over the controversial deal. The majority of Republicans finally remembered what common sense felt like as they defiantly parted ways with Bush and his insistence to not only give operations to another country, but an Arab country.

______________________________________________________________________________________

What could we do to regain our former greatness?
1. Dump Bush.
2. Pull out of Iraq gradually. Murtha is right, much as we don't want to admit it. Don't stop military action against Bin Laden. Justice must be served.
3. Bring troops home to SECURE OUR COUNTRY AND OUR BORDERS.
4. Create an ID system for border crossers (perhaps the only thing I agree with Bush on)to let crossers work legally and safely and to identify them and possible terrorists.
5. Become a leading world vanguard on cutting edge green technology to wean us off the oil teet and create a new economical industry boon.
6. Stop protecting US "interests" abroad....our interests are here at home.
7. RENEW ORLEANS. What a disgrace to see that city in the condition it is.

Agree? Disagree? You tell me.

New Addiction

2006-03-10T06:51:00.000-05:00

I'm hooked! After work (at home) yesterday, we went down to the Oleta river park area in North Miami to rent kayaks. I LOVE kayaking. We are buying some used ones from the park hopefully at the end of this month.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH???? Mr. Kibbles, the now famous kitty who found his way back home through 15 miles of Everglades jungle after a pissed-off neighbor kitty-napped him and dumped him there and Jennifer Wilbanks, otherwise known as the Runaway Bride, who found her way home after ditching her wedding and then calling her fiance to falsely claim she was kidnapped and sexually abused. Did Conan already do a spoof on this yet?? I seem to recall something similar.

IN MEMORIAM: It's considered noble to live and die for what you love and believe in. Dana Reeve was one such person. This truly beautiful human being was not only a talented actress and singer in her own right but stayed by her late husband (actor Christoper Reeve) throughout his paralysis and vigil to raise awareness for stem cell research.

Reeve, a nonsmoker, died of lung cancer at the age of 44. Christoper Reeve passed on October 10, 2004.

Christopher Reeve Foundation

DKM & SOIA Show (and a nasty unrelated rant at the end...)

2006-03-07T08:47:00.000-05:00

Matt and I saw the Dropkick Murphys (again!) with Sick of it All opening last night at Sound Advice Ampitheater in West Palm, FL.

God, I love SOIA. These veterans of good old-fashioned hardcore have been kicking ass since the 80's. THIS is how it's done, all you stupid cookie monster bands (go back to death-metal, Cookie!) These pushing-40 "grumpy old men", as they refer to themselves, were running around stage, lean and muscular, bristling with energy and sounding as good if not better than their recordings. Pete Koller, the grinning hunk with the spikey blond hair, was all over the place, a tattooed, hyperkinetic jumping blur.

The crowd was a writhing mass of limbs and crowd-surfing hotties in tank tops. (...and flip-flops. WTF? What is up with the kiddies wearing flip-flops to punk shows? Now I know these shows are pretty tame these days, but still! Ouch!)

The Dropkicks put on their usual high-energy show. They still sound great. "Sunshine Highway" is not the road I want to follow them down on, but I still love these guys and what they stand for. Some Bostonians associate their home with the sounds of Aerosmith. Not me. No matter how many Warped Tours or Conan shows these guys do they will always be a bunch of proud working-class stiffs from Boston. They were pulling kids in wheelchairs and on crutches up on stage to watch the show alongside tons of kids in Red Sox gear. The crowd was insane and filled with guys in Celtics shirts and Irish stuff. You cannot have a bad time at a DKM show, no matter who you are, no matter what your age, no matter what music you really like. It just cannot be done. (er, except for the big 400 lb. kid who passed out in front of us and had to be ambulanced off before they even came on...)

And they played "Skinhead." I didn't think they would...oh me of little faith. But as we walked towards the truck past the truly faithful in scally caps pumping fists in the air calling for the song...they ripped into it. We could hear the chorus growing louder and louder as we rolled down the windows. He may be lost forever in the streets of Boston...but the skinhead returns for every DKM show and I hope he always will.

Nasty Unrelated Rant:

So they finally made abortion illegal in South Dakota. I think they did it for the publicity. I mean, who gives a flying crap about South Dakota anyway?

What we need to do is get the hard-working immigrants who these right-wing facists hate so much to build a 50' high wall that starts from Orlando and extends all the way up to Canada, leaving out New England, NY, NOLA, WA, OR, and CA. We'll call it the National Federation of Nascar-Loving-Gun-Toting-Jesus-Freaks. We'll paint a huge target (or a huge crop circle?) in the middle with the words "Aim Here" in Arabic. Abortion won't cure overpopulation but maybe that will.

Or we can just bomb the Walmarts. Not that I have anything against the big-box bohemoth, but have you seen the majority of Walmart shoppers? Mouth-breathers, all of them. If you go there for a bargain, fine, but if you view Walmart as a pleasant recreation spot to visit with the entire family, you should have been aborted a long time ago.

How awful! That wasn't Politically Correct at all!!! (Isn't it odd that the concept of PC was created by the lefties in the 80's, now it is a sacred cow of the righties today?)

Attribute my surly behavior to my unhealthy breakfast this morning of 2 Ibuprofens and a liter of coffee, the crowning glory following last night's after-show meal of Guinness, Sam Adams, Jaeger and pizza. Or the fact that this country is F-CKED!

Hunk of the Month

2006-03-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

I'm a little spotty at keeping up this blog due to my strange schedule and all, so I think I missed last month's Hunk. I don't know if it's in me to really try and be all that punctual about a blog! So I might make it 2 hunks. I don't know. I don't care! How Moose does it so well with kids and a hubby is beyond me!!

Today's Hunk of the Month goes to Mike Rowe of the Dirty Jobs hit show on Discovery Channel. I love a lot of strange shows when I get the chance to watch, CSI Vegas is one of them. The daily news is probably the strangest and most disturbing show ever, even more than CSI. Dirty Jobs is a close 2nd in disturbing factor, as we watch hunky and hilarious Mike Rowe wallow in poo, slime, grime and premordial ooze, all with a bright (yet slightly strained) smile.

Mike is the host and one of the producers of the unlikely hit show. He bravely goes where most men and women would never go...into the roach-raining, rat-slithering, reeking bowels of San Fran as a Sewer Inspector, sqeezing green crap out of baby chickens as a Chicken Sexer, or nearly being killed by angry ostriches (probably the funniest episode ever) as an Ostrich Farmer. He and his team find people who actually do these jobs for a living, and they roll up their sleeves and get in there right with them. It's horrifying. It's fascinating. And with Mike as host, it's funny as hell.

Quote from Mike on the Discovery Channel website:
"We wanted to do a show that pays tribute to the men and women who earn a living doing things that you and I would never want to do. Whether it's a sewer inspector or a roadkill-removal specialist, we wanted to honor real people by rolling up our sleeves, literally, taking an honest look into their world and ultimately magnifying the importance of what they do to earn a buck. Essentially, that's what the show does."

Another Mike quote:
"The dirtiest job so far? "Bat biologist has got to be near the top. Bracken Cave is home to 40 million Mexican free-tail bats. The bats are hanging overhead, urinating constantly, defecating deliberately and giving birth randomly. All of the aforementioned substances are falling upon us. The guano that we're standing in is filled with billions of flesh-eating beetles, which survive on dead bats that periodically plummet from the ceiling.

Bracken Cave is like no other place on Earth, and quite possibly the dirtiest hole on the planet."

Mr. Rowe apparently has quite a female following. Go to the website's forum and there are many an adoring treatise to the man. Can you imagine hundreds of women sitting down promptly at whatever-o'-clock to watch a show about bat poop and exploding toilets? Well, with Mike and his baby blues, charming grin, runner's physique and self-deprecating wit, they're all over it. Like flies on...well, you know.

Morning Coffee Babble (personal update)

2006-03-04T08:23:00.000-05:00

Finally finished my website makeover! Go see at www.currierartandmural.com.

The old one was made a few years back right after I finished a class in Dreamweaver and Fireworks. I have a graphic design education and am familiar with some Photoshop, Illustrator and that kind of thing so it wasn't too hard to learn, even though I don't know crap about HTML. The old one was nice but after a few years it started to really sprawl, got loaded with links, text and weird colors. It looked way too amateur.

So hopefully the new one is easier on the eyes and more professional.

It's a gorgeous day out of course!! Yesterday I was able to do a pretty good weight workout at the gym and then a 6 mile walk on the broadwalk at our beach. The last quarter of the walk I was finally able to RUN! I hate running, but since I've had this sciatica I haven't been able to do that OR use weights much, so any improvement in my abilities is a good thing.

I credit pilates mat work (this book!) and chiropractic. The sciatica was so painful I couldn't even do crunches to keep up my basic ab/back strength. I was able to do basic mat work and now am stronger than I was when doing hundreds of crunches, leg raises and god-knows-what-else 2-3 times a week. Pilates is easier (though not easy!!!) and my tummy, while still sporting a layer of flub, is strong and flat.

I workout for a few reasons. #1: Things hurt more in my troubled neck and back if I don't. I'm afraid if I don't keep up some level of fitness I will have more physical problems. #2: I HAVE to for my job! All my jobs...except for 2 desk jobs I've had...required good physical conditioning. Right now in my day-job I am the only woman and I can't afford to slow anyone down because I can't do the same kind of work the men do. #3: I don't want to be fat, and I don't want to be old.

If I look at it emotionally, reason #3 is really reason #1. It's partly for reasons of looks, but really it's more for reasons that I want to be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. I want to someday be the old lady who goes hanggliding.

Matt has been sick with walking pneumonia we think. He's finally getting over it, but it's been hard on him because he can't lie down w/o coughing. So he barely sleeps. It's 8:40 a.m. here and he's finally snoring on the couch after staying up late last night, he won't sleep with me because he's afraid of keeping me awake with his hacking.

Howie just got back from the vet yesterday after having his choppers cleaned and an infection treated in his back leg that developed from a cut. He's 13 now and getting closer to that age when cats start declining. He's been my loving and faithful friend since I plucked him out of a Hanover Mall pet store 13 years ago after I saw him hanging upside down from a cat condo while pretending to attack some old laughing ladies on the other side of the window. He's fine now, curled up and warm on his spot in our bed.

Today I go for another long walk...maybe a run...and put together a quote for a huge faux finish job. Matt might have a photo shoot today with a model downtown. By next week, we might be in Orlando for the day job.

And THE DROPKICKS ARE COMING! With SICK OF IT ALL!!!! (Moose, if you're reading this far, you might like these guys if you like metal or harder rock) We haven't bought tix yet since we never know if we're certainly going to be here, so if by Mon. we aren't flying out it's a fine show we'll see that night. Matt has seen SOIA a bunch of times, being the old-timer he is, and I've seen DM tons of times all over the country(I'm on their website...see this page, scroll up 16 photos from the bottom)....looking forward to seeing SOIA. They are definitely one of my top favorite bands.

Anyway, that's enough babble for now. Life is good, I'm a happy gal.

...just don't read the newspapers...

Who Knew? We All Did.

2006-03-02T08:47:00.000-05:00

As Katrina was raging towards its target in the Gulf Coast, Matt and I sat staring at the newscast slackjawed. We live in major hurricane territory, and coming from the Boston area as we both did, we are not strangers to devestating storms. Almost my entire neighborhood was wiped out by the Blizzard of '78 when I was a kid.

Bryan Norcross, our venerated meterologist who is credited for saving many lives during Hurricane Andrew and whose words Floridians regard trustingly during each hurricane, told us flat out...Katrina was due to hit New Orleans or around its vicinity very soon and the devestation would be catastrophic. If Brian Norcross says it folks, it's no joke.

Matt, who lived in NOLA for 2 years, was more acutely aware of the consequences of a direct hurricane hit. He knew that if the levees failed New Orleans would be flooded. In fact, everyone in New Orleans knew what could happen if a major hurricane hit. It was no secret. Scientific studies were conducted on it. Not only did the residents know, but the state and federal government knew. "In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City."

That's why it's so ridiculous that all of the sudden it's being reported that the White House knew all along, that the president was personally briefed about the possible consequences the day before Katrina hit. Did anyone ever take him seriously when he got up in front of national TV and claimed he didn't know how bad it was going to be? That no one knew?

Something should have been done a long time ago to correct New Orlean's vunlnerabilities. The blame for that goes much farther than Bush. He also can't take full blame that the planet is going through a climate change...be it greenhouse gases or natural phenomena...that make conditions ripe for more frequent and violent hurricanes for the rest of the decade.

But to be surprised that he did know the worst case scenario if Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and in particular New Orleans is foolish. How he acted after is no surprise at all. It's just more of the same.

Viva La Chocolate City

2006-02-25T13:41:00.000-05:00

Wishing I was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans right now. However, I can't complain. Here on the lower east side of Hurricane Alley we're gearing up for Mardi Gras too. No one celebrates like storm survivors!

I've heard some people say there shouldn't be a Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Nonsense. Let her kick up her heels, I say. She deserves to dance. She's had it rough. Let her be defiant. She's not going down that easy, storms and FEMA and uncaring politicians be damned.

If you can, go. Anytime, not just Mardi Gras. Donate to charity, donate with labor, or donate this way...go visit, and spend your money on New Orleans food, booze, beads, and businesses. They will welcome you with open arms and it will be an experience you will never forget for the rest of your life.

More Offensive Cartoons, Please.....

2006-02-24T19:20:00.000-05:00

It needs to be said. Chances are it is only being said in small town editorials or obscure blogs like this.

The radical Islamist nutjobs who are pissed off about the Danish cartoons need to GET OVER IT NOW. I realize that sensitivity towards other religions and customs is a good thing and even necessary in order for all of us to get along without killing each other. But this is really out of control and the leaders who tell you it's OK to get all violent over a cartoon (a fucking CARTOON, people!!!!)are really just exploiting your gullibility to act out in violence in order to bully the world into keeping their mouths shut over unpleasant matters your chickenshit leaders would rather not discuss.

These cartoons are not on par with the ugly anti-semitic comments and caricatures prevelant in some Muslim publications or conversations. These cartoons were metaphors to the questions all non-Muslims are asking these days. These cartoons were making a point about what the rest of the world fears most from the Islamic community. The question these cartoonists are trying to raise is; why are the adherants to a supposedly peaceful religion so quick to kill? Does Mohammed, and therefore Islam, advocate the kind of violence our world is seeing perpetrated in his name? That's what we're seeing lately, and regardless of who started it first, can you honestly blame us for asking these questions?

I don't aim to offend Muslims or Christians. But I do want to ask questions many of you won't like, and I want to hear others ask them as well. Why do religious people treat their god like a china doll? Is your god really this small and powerless? Is your god going to topple from his throne because of a cartoon or an uncomfortable question??

EEEEWWW!!

2006-01-28T09:41:00.000-05:00

Do not follow the link above if you have a weak stomach!

Here is the first sentence of this story as seen on MSNBC news via the Washington Post this morning:
NEW YORK - Hundreds of very live Americans are walking around with pieces of the wrong dead people inside of them.

The story then goes on to describe a horror story about unscrupulous people, one in particular a drug-addicted dentist, who traffic in the illegal harvesting of body parts from cadavers and funeral homes for use in transplants.

Apparently some of the cadavers had cancer, syphillis, or were way too old to qualify for transplant material. One of the cadavers ended up being Alistair Cooke!

Another quote: "We know that they obtained these bodies in a fraudulent way and off the scale of acceptable practice," FDA spokesman Stephen King said.

Stephen King? Could this story be a hoax designed by Mr. King's marketing team to get the public ready for a new thriller? I freaking hope so.

America, The Land of Dreams

2006-01-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

There's been much America criticism these days within our borders and certainly beyond. We are in a spiritual struggle as a people to maintain our version of the American dream in the face of great odds and turmoil. Whatever your version of the dream...whatever politics you adhere to, philosophy/religion you choose, or lifetsyle that makes you happy and whole...there's one star we ALL watch for in an ever-darkening sky. We are a divided people today, but this one star is our only hope to reunite us in the face of our many differences.

This is the land of dreams. This is the land our fore-fathers came to from England, Ireland, Sweden, France, Spain, and the Netherlands, to escape persecution, worship their god, add glory to their homeland, or to boldy pursue a new uncharted life. To dream and then to act on it is simply the most creative and spiritual act you can perform, it is what we are meant to do, it brings us closest to the god (or force) you believe in. We all share this, even the atheist.

This spiritual struggle has little to do with religion and politics, at least beyond the surface. It has everything to do with remembering this dream. Immigrants come to our country still today, illegally if they have to, to pursue the dream we have forgotten. While we busy ourselves fighting over gay marriage, abortion, racism and wars in foreign lands, immigrants come here with the glorious dream to make it in America, to be somebody, be it providing parent, musician, scientist or business owner.

We need to remember the dream and forget our divisions. People around the world who criticize us still love us for what America inherently was and still could be, if only we could just remember. People who truly hate us are hoping we never remember that dream. Our spiritual struggles are part of their plan to topple our homeland, and it is working far more effectively than bombs. The cracks in our foundation are of our own making. As we squabble, they grow wider.

People within our own country who desire to "take America back" in the name of their god are also forgetting the dream. If we are just a "Christian" nation, there is no room for anyone else. All other non-Christian members of our society (and Christians who don't agree, and there are many) who contribute their creativity and hard work will go underground or abroad. They will not be welcome here anymore.

Our forefathers came here to chase their dreams, not just to worship. As a result, this country quickly became a crucible of technology, industry, arts and intellectual achievement, in spite of our mistakes. ONLY creativity and the freedom to pursue it allows this! We are in danger today of killing that creativity and freedom and therefore thwarting any future achievements that could benefit us and all of mankind. Other countries will and are taking up the slack.

America was a beacon of hope, the grand land of Enlightenment and opportunity. The dream made us that way, and it is our best weapon against terrorists and against our further disintegration. It is time to make her that way again.

Throw The Bums Out!!!!

2006-01-20T17:02:00.000-05:00

Some people voice unconditional support for the Bush administration because, they rationalize, there hasn't been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. Regardless if our stretched-to-the-limit armed forces are uneasily straddling battles in both Afganistan and Iraq, or whether if the latter is moral and legal. Nevermind all that liberal nonsense of "faulty intelligence" on WMD's. Bush has kept us safe, dammit, and that's all there is to it.

Then along comes a certain somebody with a head scarf and familiar salt and pepper beard...you know, the religious fanatic (of the Muslim variety this time) who destroyed 3000 innocent lives in the Land of the Free and the Brave. Remember him? The prick who started this whole thing?

The new tape alleged to be from Bin Laden warns the American people that there haven't been any attacks here simply because his minions have been quite busy in Iraq, and have nothing to do with Mr. Bush's attempts at homeland security. Of course, the Faithful will pooh-pooh this. But honestly, can anyone really feel secure anymore, no matter how many boots, guns, cameras, NSA spying and search engine subpoenaing goes on? Do the Faithful truly believe our Govt. is so omnipotent that it can prevent any and all attacks from terrorists from within or beyond?

Homeland Security is an oxymoron. They can't even help people during a natural disaster. What will happen when a man-made one hits?

A truce with Bin Laden, as he suggests in his tape, is a joke. Pulling out of the mess we've made in Iraq right away is irresponsible and would have horrible consequences both for its people and its nascent government (we broke it, we own it, thank you Mr. Powell). Tracking down those responsible for 9/11 hiding in Afganistan was the right thing to do, and the whole world knew it. Getting sidetracked in Iraq was a deliberate act of deception by our government that has cost us lives, brought billions of dollars of debt, and has allowed those responsible for 9/11 to escape justice. We've tried to force democracy and freedom at the point of a gun on a people that may not be ready for it, if they want it at all. What about getting those that threaten our freedom, which we used to cherish?

Getting rid of our reckless and dishonest administration who do what they want with impunity would be a step in the right direction!! Impeachment worked for removing a president whose salacious appetites didn't result in the loss of life, why can't it work for a boob-in-a-Stetson and his cloven-hooved cohort who send our sons, daughters, mothers and fathers into harms way, not for the protection of or freedoms as glamourized for the benefit of those who will swallow it, but for lies?

Some in the media claim the new Bin Laden tape will bolster support for Bush. Come on, people! The very fact Bin Laden is STILL out there making tapes should be enough for you to ask why it is acceptable to have Saddam sitting cozily in jail eating Doritos while those TRULY responsible for 9/11 still make threats on our existence. It is time to THROW THE BUMS OUT.

Alito likes Cows!

2006-01-14T10:21:00.000-05:00

One more post.

After listening to senator after senator appear to do nothing more than windbag their own personal views through the Alito hearings, and listen to Alito sneak cautiously around the lulled (or dead) watchdogs of moderate America, the press is stating flatly that confirmation for the ex-Concerned Alumni of Princeton is now inevitable.

This will be yet another victory for the religious statists who run our country. This is just one more gleefull stomp in the march to lessen rights for our nation's women.

Roe will not be overturned outright if Alito takes a seat on the Supreme Court. The Statists know such an act will guarantee hostile outrage from the moderate majority. So they follow a well-planed blueprint to chip away at it, to hobble it with as many restrictions as possible in order to eventually render the Roe impotent.

Do you like being a cow? The Statists in the religious right are betting you do. If you don't, they will force you. It is their objective to end your right to make decisions about your own body and how or when you will choose to give birth. Not only is abortion in the line of fire but so is medical contraception, which they call abortificants. So not only will you be forced to have children you don't want, there will be limited-to-no medical methods available to you to prevent such unwanted pregnancies. So while most moderates agree that abortion should be an undesirable choice that should be avoided at all costs (as I do), the one thing that would lessen abortions for women who choose to be sexually active will be thwarted as well. Just ask your local pro-life pharmacist.

You will be been reduced (if the Statists have their way) from a fully-actualized equal member of this society with all rights bestowed* and granted upon you in a free country to nothing more than a cow destined for breeding purposes. You don't have a right to your body since God created your body, henceforth it is not yours to make any such decisions about.

In other words, people of a faith get to tell you...who may not be of that faith or have different interpretations of that faith...how to live your life. Iran has mullahs, and so do we, and like Iran they seek to enforce their religion on every aspect of American life. It's only a matter of time before they successfully destroy the wall between church and state, which is, and don't pooh-pooh this, one of their lofty goals.

Can anyone say Moooo?

*and even this is debatable...

Green Ham and Eggs

2006-01-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

Oh my. I wasn't going to bother posting anything else until I got back from Maryland next week, but after sifting through news this morn I just HAD to post this.

Apparently some scientists in Taiwan who evidently have more time on their hands than anyone would hope for have created the world's first.....fluorescent.........green................................PIG.

Not only is he green on the outside, but he's green on the inside too. Quote from article: “There are partially fluorescent green pigs elsewhere, but ours are the only ones in the world that are green from inside out. Even their hearts and internal organs are green,” Wu said on Thursday.

This pig would fit right in at 80's night.

Lustworthy Man of The Month

2006-01-13T21:12:00.000-05:00

Just to prove that I; #1. still have hormones that work, or #2. have not progressed past the mental age of 16, I bring you Greg Graffin, lead singer of Bad Religion, professor at Cornell University, and a Ph.D in Evolutionary Paleontology.

And he's a hottie.

Within the past few years he has published a thesis called "Evolution, Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist World-View." The thesis website, The Cornell Evolution Project, has Greg stating the purpose of the project as thus: "The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which the world's leading evolutionary biologists believe in traditional religion, naturalism, and the philosophical implications of their science. A further goal will be to understand how they reconcile these disparate and often conflicting beliefs with their teaching and practice of evolutionary biology."

In order to do this a questionaire was sent to the world's leading evolutionary biologists polling them specific questions on how their personal beliefs pertain to their studies...in short, asking them if they believe in a god or not.

Bad Religion, one of the founding fathers of American punk rock, formed in 1980 in southern Cally, and has gone through many incarnations and alternatingly dwindling and burgeoning fan bases, only to still be rocking hard to this day. Greg Graffin is the main song writer and the lyrics are (as always have been) socially conscious and directed towards making the listener think.

Many ignorant and misguided souls who mistakenly claim punk rock (and all hard rock) is all about "Kill your mama! Kill your dog! Take drugs!" (if anything, punk is all about the power of thought) would find themselves challenged upon hearing a Bad Religion song. They might even like it, if they can turn off American Idol for one danged minute.

One more saucy picture of sexy Greg giving the old "No Masters" salute during a show....

Boots on the Web!

2006-01-13T20:19:00.000-05:00

Haven't been around much lately due to the fact I've been doing all kinds of frightening things like....getting INCORPORATED! Yikes! I am now officially a CEO of my own business called Currier Art and Mural, LLC. Cost me two-hunerd-buckeroonies. Now I get to have meetings with myself annually and get an offical tax ID number with the IRS. Oh Joy. At least at my meetings I allow beer. I'm going to need it.

(LLC is short for Limited Liability Corporation, which means my personal assets aren't liable if I bounce a can of white enamel all over a client's antique Oriental, which would never happen. And, even if they did try to sue me, then what do they get??? An Ipod, a bumpersticker-plastered 2000 Ford Ranger worth $4000 if I'm lucky, and a pair of 15 hole Doc Martens that need a good polish. Snicker!)

I also had a nice little visit with my new accountant. Krikey. He's in for a treat. This gal may be able to put a brush to the canvas but don't ask her nuthin' 'bout numbahs. Just get the bib and the helmet ready, Kristin just hopped off the short bus with a manila folder in her hands.....hide the sharp objects...

Things left to do: Get a city AND a county license. Everyone wants a piece, dammit. Also, need liability insurance. All these things are legal to run a decorative painting company in the state of Florida. Gotsta pay da man.

Also, I'm going to Maryland Sunday for a week of work in my other gig, so I won't be letting off steam here on Blogspot. I get to tear down retail fixtures, that oughta do it.

Ta Ta for now, ya'll.

Oh...and the rather incongruous boot image that has nothing to do with the subject matter of above post is just there because I'm trying to tie the image to my profile on Myspace. Simple things for simple minds.

Petition 2493 False

2006-01-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Gotta make this one short. A friend of mine recently sent me an email about Petition 2493. As a Christian, she is signing it to prevent the Atheists from petitioning the FCC to remove Christian programming from radio.

The petition is false. Other than the link to Snopes above, another disclaimer can be found on the James Dobson website Focus on the Family and also on the FCC site. I had to let her know.

I've written a few posts that are very critical of Christians but as an Atheist and ardent supporter of separations of Church and State I would never sign a petition to eliminate Christian or otherwise programming from radio. Radio is a free and public service and protected by the First Amendment. May they forever have a right to their say under the guarantees written in the Consitution. May we all. If their rights are taken away then we have reason to fear for ours as well.

Viva freedom from religion and freedom of all religion!

FUNGUS Among us

2005-12-23T15:15:00.000-05:00

Where else can you hear The Templars, Dead Kennedys, Against Me!, Youth of Today, Dropkick Murphys, Bane, Circle Jerks, Flogging Molly, Buzzcocks, AFI, Sick of it All, MC5, old Ramones, The Unseen, The Meteors, Oxymoron, Black Flag, The Addicts, Dag Nasty, Manic Hispanic, DI, Southern Culture on the Skids and surf rock???????

No, not just your mother's old vinyl collection. Fungus 53 on XM Satellite radio is THE best resource for old and new punk, oi, hardcore, ska, surf rock and cowpunk. They make up for one lousy Green Day song with 50 songs all in a row from classic bands like those above. You will hear shit you never heard before. They are not afraid to play anything and everything, new and ancient history.

If you're thinking of getting Howard on Sirius, I understand completely, but if you want great punk rock that is accessible 24/7 then you need XM. I cannot stress enough how fucking good this station is. It's about damn time too.

pUnK RaWk with a "W"

2005-12-22T07:47:00.000-05:00

I just added 2 links to my sidebar that will appear to be very different from one another. One is PunkVoter.com, a liberal, anti-Bush site, and ConservativePunk.com, an unapologetic conservative site....for, yes indeedy, punks.

Punks (and, btw, it's taken me 20 years to feel comfortable using that term, since in my youth we never called it punk, but were quite used to be calling "freaks" instead, which I'm sure the Hot Topic/Travis Barker generation has no frigging clue about, but that's a rant for another day...) have traditionally identified themselves with an ill-defined and ragtag brand of ultra-left politics ranging from the most extreme and semi-educated Communists and Socialists to the young poseur who spraypaints the anarchy symbol on his jacket without really understanding why. Some of their causes are worthwhile, but for the most part many glom onto whatever is fahionable for the day, and many hold thousands of contradictory idealogies in their heads, failing to examine deeply their most cherished premises.

Now another voice emerges. Punk Conservative is an anamoly. They like Bush. They like Fox. They like Minor Threat. They are educated and bodly speak their convictions. Plus, they give Ayn Rand, my favorite author, some credit on their links page.

While I don't agree with MANY of the opinions of the writers on this site, (I don't like Bush, that phony statist prick) I do consider myself of Libertarian/Bill Mahar persuasion, a Gin & Tonic- Swilling-Playboy-Reading-Stinking-Capitalist-Pig advocate.

Libertarians are sometimes thrown in the Conservative mud-pen, although I think the ruling "Conservative" party isn't very conservative at all, unless you believe legislating moral behaviour (while conveniently ignoring their own), amassing an incredible and irresponsible deficit and advocating a much larger and more powerful government are things Coservatives and Republicans should be doing. I don't. Many true conservatives and moderate liberals don't either.

So "while the views voiced on Punk Conservative aren't necessarily my own", it's a site well worth looking into, just for challenge of our own precious convictions alone.

Both sites are worth a ride. I find myself getting pissed at both of them, and agreeing with both of them. I'm convinced that somewhere in the middle, where common sense is hiding, lays the answer.

Thinking for yourself requires challenging and informing yourself. Now, isn't that the true essence of punk, kiddies??

Triumph of Common Sense

2005-12-20T17:02:00.000-05:00

"HARRISBURG, Pa. - In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a federal judge barred a Pennsylvania public school district Tuesday from teaching “intelligent design” in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise."

Not only is the judge a Republican (which, of itself, does not necessarily mean you're automatically a drooling Jesus-Monkey), he goes to church.

Yet he ruled against the ID pushers, stating that while ID “may be true, a proposition on which the court takes no position, ID is not science.” He also is quoted saying that ID “violates the centuries-old ground rules of science by invoking and permitting supernatural causation”.

But exactly. Intelligent Design is a theory NOT based in science. It cannot be tested against natural empirical evidence through any of our immediate senses or through conducted experiments. It is, in fact, premised on faith, or what the good judge terms 'supernatural causation'.

Evolution, while also a theory, is based in scientific research and CAN be tested against natural evidence. Theories that can be proved or disproved belong in science classes. Theories that cannot be either belong in philosophy to be debated at length.

Intelligent Design...a fundamentalist wolf in secular clothing...has some merit as a topic for lively debate in ANY other social study class but science. It needs to be discussed openly and rationally, but not trussed up as anything equivalent to science or fact in any matter whatsoever. Doing so is taking American students and their parents as fools. It murders all common sense and rational thought, and gives us invisible men living in clouds as demand enough to give it solid footing along with the accomplishments of Einstein, Galileo, Darwin or Hawking.

To put it a little less fiery, it's a very good question, but fails as an answer.

He also states that “It is ironic that several of these individuals (who promoted ID taught in science classes), who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.”

Ironic, indeed. It is, by far, their modus operandi, and their insincere motives are as tainted as their spirits are void of the love for the god they claim to worship.

Mr. Matt Photography

2005-12-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

I finally finished Matt's photography site, with the exception of his profile page. Go see it, link above! Let me know if anything looks odd on your browser. Hey Mooselet and Gabe, the photo featured is actually a pic of Hull bay 2 Thanksgivings ago. It's probably the best Hull has looked since we all left it, huh?

To those who know me (the only ones who read this except for the occasional wandering religious troll) Matt is my wonderful man, who also was my first real beaux back in teenage days. Thanks to our travel-lust and the antics of an old acquaintance who is now officially insane (looong story!), we are back together and better than ever. It seems that since we hooked up again 4 years ago we've become quite the creative duo, with him passionate about photography and me creating the best paintings I ever have. Isn't that the way it should be? (4 years?? Holy Crap!)

Anyway, the site took awhile, since I'm not guru-level on Dreamweaver/Fireworks yet. Converting huge jpegs into smaller web jpegs, thumbnails and pngs is a real pain in the ass. But now he has an attractive website to show to potential clients.

Today I'm working on my mural portfolio because I have a big meeting coming up tomorrow with a spa owner. Have to print out some new photos of recent work to add.

We also have an artsy fartsy charity-party to go to tonight at a local gallery. I have 7 small paintings and he has about 8 small mounted photos committed to a charity sale, half the proceeds go to the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital here. The other half goes to the artist, and we are free to donate to the hospital if we want. If I sell anything my money is going to New Orleans groups.

Defending Religious Freedom

2005-12-16T06:24:00.000-05:00

It occurred to me that the whole "Merry Christmas" controversy is something other than a Far Right propaganda and publicity stunt. It still is, but there's something else more insidious. It's a trojan horse, dolled up to look like a defense of religous freedom, but inside is a different story.

With the help of Thomas Jefferson, religious freedom was established in this country. In Jefferson's 1777 Draft of a Bill for Religious Freedom for the state of Virginia, he states: "Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind..."

In other words, God meant for our minds to be free and capable of depending on reason to reach conclusions, and any threats to such freedom lead to a bitter hypocrisy not intended by God.

He follows: "...the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others..."

He is saying here that although God has this power, he does not seek to coerce us, but allows us to follow reason alone. Also--and this is most relevant to our present state of affairs today--the people who help to lead this country, political or religious, are imperfect humans and are not divine, and have no right to impose their will or politics based on their faith upon others.

So while he admits the existence of a creator (and his personal position on this is quite debatable), Jefferson paves the way for all to possess freedom of mind, speech and religion, even if one chooses NOT to have religion. You cannot have freedom of religion without freedom from it. Also, politics wedded to religious concerns leads to more impropriety and loss of freedom. Hence, people like Senators Frist, Brownback, Trent Lott, President Bush and the like. Hence, people like James Dobson and Pat Robertson waging a full-on war against true religious freedom, through the means of bullying and buying influence to today's politicians to impose their system of belief on the our entire country, Christians and non-Christians alike.

The Anti-Happy-Holidays crowd is crying wolf. They claim their rights to say and hear and read Merry Christmas is being impinged upon because stores, people and even the President's holiday card chose the easy and inclusive way out with Happy Holidays. These people cry Religious Intolerance. They boycott huge retail corporations who sell to every creed imaginable because they choose Happy Holidays over Merry Christmas. Ridiculous, true, but even more ridiculous when you realize that these people are NOT the oppressed minority. They are running our country!!!!

These people, and their political puppeteers, are seeking to impose their system of belief on every non-Christian in this country. Christmas is, after all, Christ-mas, but it's fair to say that non-Christians celebrate this holiday in a variety of ways. We should all be free to do so. Jefferson tried to guarantee this. The Consitution guarantees this.

They also like to claim that Jefferson fans such as myself use the "Freedom of Religion" argument as an excuse to eliminate Christianity. Nothing could be more false. As I said before...I'll defend heart and soul your American right to believe and express your religion...just don't expect me to accept it into judicial and federal public institutions of which I am an equal, tax-paying, voting member of.

In other words, I am against "...the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others..." in my government. Thank you.

Forcing the public to forgo 'Happy Holidays' in favor of 'Merry Christmas' is not freedom of religion, it's tyranny of ONE religion. Will the President have to write Merry Christmas, Screw Everyone Else!...on his holiday cards? What comes next, mandatory church and tithing to "faith-based initiatives?" Our churches are already being used as voting offices, why not? Theology is being taught in our science classes, why not??

This isn't really about Christmas. It's about the agenda of the Far Right to do what they can to make this a country based on and ruled by their religion. They claim to be for American values, but American values never included religious tyranny. If they get their way, people like me and millions of non-Christian Americans will be unrepresented (yet taxed). But that's OK for these "Pat Robertson Christians" because they believe their way is the right way, it's God's way, and eventually we'll all be thankful.

Extremist Muslim leaders run on this philosophy, and it's doing wonders for them.

Merry Hatemass

2005-12-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

Crap. I so did NOT want to devote any attention to this more than I already have. There are far more important things going on this world...the Iraqi vote, the war, Israel/Palestine conflict, Plamegate, etc, etc, etc.

I am, as Fox anchor John Gibson calls it, a "Professional Atheist". Whatever that means. I just know I'm lumped into that category no matter how extreme my lack of belief is, or how much I believe in everyone's right to believe what they want without my input or influence. No matter what I or anyone else of moderate sensibilities say about this matter will not make one ounce of difference to this extreme group of fundamentalists.

I, as a born-again Atheist, die-hard secularist and avid proponent of Church and State separation, don't really care if you want to put a manger on the median of Main Street. I'm not going to freak if you say Merry Christmas. I'm not going to boycot some store because they decide to plaster their windows with "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". They aren't hurting me. They can't force me to believe what they do. Everyone has equal right to express themselves, no matter how misguided. I don't have to agree with you, but I'll defend your right to express and hold your beliefs.

Want to put a religious display in a public space? Fine, just let everyone do it. I'll even make-up my own display, like "Happy Godlessmass" or "Merry Freethinkmas". If we can't have that, and the Christian fundies aren't satisfied with generic, non-religious decorations, then NO ONE gets to display a fucking thing.

People like Bill O' Reilly, Pat Robertson and James Dobson have only one purpose in mind by standing tall at the warfront of this idiotic crusade. They want true Christians to feel that the non-Christian world is going to feed them to the lions. It's pure manipulation in the name of power. "Happy Holidays" is not anti-Christmas, it's a figure of speech used to include everyone in the season. Must we exclude people of other beliefs just to please the raving vocal minority??

How terrible to use this season, which is for love, joy and giving for so many people of all beliefs, for this hateful and divisive purpose. Just this once, at this time of year, we should all come together in brotherhood and forget our differences. It's been a hard year. It's not going to get easier. Let's stop being so petty and selfish.

Demanding others to remember Jesus while forgetting his teachings is pure hypocrisy. Jesus would be ashamed of these people.

The Pharisees maligned in the New Testament, however, would be proud.

Merry Christmas! Now GET LOST!

2005-12-14T06:40:00.000-05:00

Got Fema? Yeah, it's an old joke nowadays. You see it everywhere in New Orleans, especially hanging in the doorways of tourist shops on Decatur and Bourbon, emblazoned on t-shirts, bumperstickers and ballcaps.

But it's not a joke. Many people who should have FEMA, don't. That should alarm the American populace that something is deeply, horribly wrong with the Federal Government's ability to help us during a natural disaster. Or a not-so-natural disaster.

I'll let your mind do the wandering on that one.

What happens to people who don't have FEMA?

--An eviction notice. FEMA set a deadline just short of the holidays to stop paying hotel bills for displaced Katrina victims. They claimed they wanted victims to find more "permanent housing". (For all you people caught in the stupid and intentionally distracting snit of whether to say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, forget about it...FEMA's holiday message has you all beat.) Federal judges, however, are fighting to force FEMA to extend this heartless deadline past the holidays.

--A home they can't use. Thousands of FEMA trailers sit in Alabama, empty. So while FEMA is busy trying to kick out victims from hotels before Christmas, they are not providing the very housing they claim they want these victims to use.

--FEMA rips them off. They don't get their promised $2000 to cover basic living expenses if their checks were "lost in the mail". How do you deliver mail to a tent under a New Orleans bridge, or an RV on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain?

--They have to pay for those who DO get FEMA. It's bad enough FEMA can't get their act together. They certainly don't need the help of certain yacht owning, golf playing opportunist rats who profit from FEMA's inefficiency. Here's a quote from this lovely article: "A FEMA program to reimburse applicants for generators and storm cleanup items has benefited middle- and upper-income Floridians the most and so far cost taxpayers more than $332 million for the past two hurricane seasons, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found in a continuing investigation of disaster aid." So while lawyers and doctors buy generators and chain saws they can afford on their own and might not even need, some kid in Ft. Lauderdale is putting catheters in by candelight.

These people are the scum of the earth. One guy in this article, who lives in a million dollar home, is actually wondering if it's immoral to cash his measly FEMA check. (His wife says, CASH IT! I want some Jimmy Choo shoes!!!)

We need an alternative to the present FEMA system. Big government bureaucracy does not work. Washington is not getting the job done in the way Americans deserve. Disaster response needs to be centered at state level, perhaps over territories of the country prone to certain disasters, instead of blind offices in Washington.

Individuals and community activists also need to learn to make preparations for fight or flight scenarios in this new age of natural disaster and terrorist concerns by saving money, storing supplies and establishing routes of escape and possible locations to stay in the event of such emergencies. Waiting for Daddy Govt. to bail us out is not an effective survival strategy.

41,000+ people displaced by Katrina are living in hotels, motels, trailers and tents spread across the United States. That number is a wakeup call. Awful things are happening to our once glorious country, and this is one of them. When you see regular people living in tents and under tarps because they've lost their home, you wonder...is this America?

King Tut: It Ain't All Black and White

2005-12-12T11:35:00.000-05:00

I just got a letter from an activist group I belong to. There's a big stink in parts of the African American community about the reconstruction of the face of King Tut. Egypt was apparently conquered by the Nubians, and King Tut, whose reign was well after that, should have had African features, they claim. The image made popular today, of course, is the one at the top of this blog entry.

According to National Geographic, 3 separate groups were allowed to create forensic recreations of the face of Tut, on their own with no other involvement with eath other. All 3 arrived at similar conclusions and looks. Some dispute this, and say they look nothing alike. While there are some variations in the soft tissue, the bone structure is the same, the chin and protruding teeth are the same. They look like they could be "brothers", so to speak.

Upon viewing the finished reconstructed face above, other than the subjective artistic assumptions made about skin and eye color (which they only guessed at), this face doesn't necessarily look purely Caucasion. I am no forensics expert. But as an artist who uses faces realistically quite a bit in her work, I study faces all the time. The features look mixed, certainly not pure Caucasion by any stretch of the matter. I'm Irish and Swedish, I should know! It's not a far-fetched assumption to believe King Tut was of mixed blood and carried traits from both African and other sources.

Along with the pervasive incest involved in preserving the blood of Egyptian royalty, Nubian as well as Egyptian and Libyan blood all percolated in the mix, and probably Caucasoid blood as well at some point. It would be impossible to determine with any certainty what soft facial features King Tut may have had above his bone structure according to whatever race was his background. We can only theorize.

It's also fair to say that the peoples of the African race don't necessarily have the same, generic features across the board. Nubians were believed to have slim, aquiline noses. Some had varying degrees of pigment in the skin. King Tut has Nubian blood.

Forensics is a science, albeit an inexact one. People who dispute the current faces of King Tut claim he looks nothing like the old paintings and statues of him. If one were to go according to that, there would be an entire race of 200 ft. high Egyptians who only walked sideways. To claim that forensic art based in science is more dubious than icon art from an ancient race who were producing these paintings as a way to glorify and exaggerate their royalty is an abusrd leap of illogic. It's obvious that the Egyptians were not in it for the photorealism.

While I can understand the frustration within some in the African community who have fought to overturn the outdated premise that the ancient Egyptians were Caucasian or Asian even, the current emotional outburst is knee-jerk. There's as much evidence for mixed races in Egypt at that time as there is for a strong African contingent. It wouldn't have been fair for the current forensic experts to portray King Tut as a stereotypical African because the evidence was just not there. So they settled for something somewhere in the middle, and even then, any rational person knows that even science changes in the light of new evidence.

Who knows what he'll look like 10 years from now.

Wasting More Time Yet Again.....

2005-12-08T15:13:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Mooselet, I've decide to take the Spiritual Challenge:

You are an Atheist

When it comes to religion, you're a non-believer (simple as that).
You prefer to think about what's known and proven.
You don't need religion to solve life's problems.
Instead, you tend to work things out with logic and philosophy.

What's Your Religious Philosophy?

Woop! Not a big surprise there!!

And another one:
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I so disagree with supposed High Score on Level 8 and 9! I am NOT treacherous or malicious! I just don't do as I'm told all the time, so there. And I guess the fact I love Quentin Tarantino supposedly makes me violent????? I'M GOING TO KILL THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS STUPID DAMN TEST!!!!

Gin and Tonic Ravings

2005-12-06T23:58:00.000-05:00

Hoo boy. I'm on my forth gin and tonic, and hoping to gawd I get some sleep tonight. The ol' bitch of the sciatic nerve is acting up again in a notorious way...and mama needs some help this evening.

This bitch has been on my back since Sept. when I was 3 months strong into a new weight lifting routine and decided it would be cool to run the hills in the suburbs of San Diego while staying at my boss's digs for some mural work. Never-you-mind I live in flatter-than-a-12 yr.-old Florida and I'm not USED to hills anymore....naaaw, I didn't see any problems with that, not at my resilient tender age of 30-fucking-6.

So I ran these hills....massive hills I tell ye...for at least a good week. Then I sneezed. A vertebrae shot out of my back, hit the drapes, and I haven't been the same since. Now I can't run, can barely ride a bike, and walking is just fine if I'm hopped up on Alleve or it's many generic counterparts.

I thought it was going away this last Nov. until 2 days ago. It creeped up on me out of nowhere, somewhere between reading the newspaper and blowing my nose...and now I sleep on a freaking baseball at night.

Yes, a baseball. The Sciatic nerve is located just below the end of your spine in conjuction with your periformis muscle, which, is right in the crook of your arse. If you had a perfectly toned bum it would be right where the dimple would be. The chiropractor I visited yesterday could not ensure me a comfy night's sleep, so I tried sitting on a baseball. It fits perfectly into the periformis like a cement fist. Believe me, this is a luxury!! It releases the pressure, much like accupressure I guess.

So I'm taking a baseball to bed, my friends. Right under my left ass cheek. And with 4 gin and tonics under my gullet, I hope I get a decent snooze for once.

Oh yeah....I spent all day working on Matt's new website, Mr. Matt Photography....it's not much to look at and needs to be worked on way more, but after I upload the whole thing it should be quite nice.