Tiny Tannic

Huzzah to the makers of Dreamcast's version of Hydro Thunder. Alex and I finally raced all the courses and all the bonuses and wound up in one last crazy race with a whole new array of boats from which to choose. He stuck with his favorite (Rat Hazzard) but I took a chance on Tiny Tannic and we were not disappointed. I jumped that sucker over the last ramp of this insane castle track, with the finish line in sight the Tiny Tannic landed wildly and beached itself in the middle of a graveyard.

The boy and I dropped our controllers and laughed our asses off. It was the only thing to do after seeing the sorry fate of the Tiny Tannic...run aground among the undead. God Bless you Siera and Willie L. for giving the boy your old Dreamcast. You have no idea how much fun it provides for my boy and the boy within me.

NOT THAT YOU SICK BASTARDS!

Someone Has Been Busy

Our little Henry Deringer...ok, Deringer made pistols not pop guns converted into plastic tip shooters but listen to the sound the boy got after shooting his kick drum. One thing is certain, the kid is cooler than Rick Derringer.

Harvest Here 08

Last night we worked on the final arrangement of a song I’ve kicked around for ever. Lyrics took less than 20 minutes to write and I was always proud of them…or they suited the…whatever the fuck I wanted to get across


In a hiding place, safe for me and you
No one watching, anything we do
We can draw some lines, scar the face of the moon
We can get up and down, down at the lagoon

It’s here for you to believe in
It’s here for you, just breathe in
You breathe in and it burns your lungs
It gets in your clothes, makes you feel dumb

Well it’s harvest here, and I know it’s rough
When you count the things, you have given up
Just to be here, to be on your own
And all the friends, that you left at home

I know what it’s like – I know what it’s like
I know what it’s like – I know what it’s like
I know what it’s like – To feel alone and numb

I know what it’s like – I know what it’s like
I know what it’s like – I know what it’s like
I know what it’s like – To be here and so in love


It’s funny, the first time I tried Harvest Here I worked it up with the PDawg right after the old thang went the way of the flaming bag of poo. My arrangement of this was way too sad and there wasn’t enough for him to save. One thing I have found in the past ten years or so is if the idea is decent, and you don’t write it to death, you can find yourself in circumstances where the original thing can flourish. A few weeks ago, OD threw out some bassline that sounded nothing like the first version of the song but I started singing the lyrics above as we played…and here ‘tis.

After Dev and I work up the rest of the guitars for IDKiB II and Francesca…I will try to get all four of us to play this new thing and record it at Larry’s.

Feel better D. We are moving the chains but it ain’t the same when you are not there.

A Boy and His Dog

This blog is not going to the dogs...yet, but I am so proud of how the boy is taking care of his new best friend. There will be a few more pics coming and then back to the regularly scheduled nonsense.

Got Some Tails This Weekend

Meet the new edition to our family...Cookie. We have either adopted an 8 year old chihuahua or the world's cutest chubacabra. YOU DECIDE!

Recon

We are preparing the boy for his First Reconciliation and I am trying to help him see the beauty in this sacrament as I struggle with my own understanding of it. This is a tricky business.

Feeling bad about something is a natural feeling and, like pain, helps us understand some of what is good and bad for us. This is not the same as teaching young ones or anyone to be unduly scrupulous or a slave to shame. Mostly we are trying to get the boy to see that reconciliation is meant to bring us all closer to God because many things can happen that drive us away from him.


Me: We are human. We make mistakes. We make bad decisions, I’ve made some whoppers. Knowing when I do things that make me far away from God, and being sorry for those things helps me be a better person. I want to do God’s will and choose the right things or at least try my best. And when I do the wrong things, I am further away from God. He gives me free will and hopes I choose the good, but when I choose bad that is also on me.

Alex: Like when you say the ‘D’ word.

Me: Yes.

Alex: And the ‘S’ word.

Me: Yes.

Alex: Or the ‘G-D’ word and the ‘A’ word…

Me: Yes, yes…

Alex: ...and then you start dropping F-bombs because Nutty (Peanut Tillman) got a stupid penalty against the Pirates (he meant Buccaneers, but you gotta applaud his memory)

Me: Maybe you better go first on Saturday, cuz Daddy could be in there for a loooong time.

Alex laughed

Me: The point is that when we go in and say we are sorry, God invites us to be close to him again. He wants to get rid of anything between us and him and the divine love we all share. Boy, when you leave that confessional on Saturday, you are going to be free and feel like a saint.

Alex: But only for a little while.

My Eyes, They Burn

Look, I’ve been around the rodeo a few times…but today I stepped into the can at my place of business and saw part of a coworker’s fecal remains still floating in the toilet. The person smiled at me and had no idea what was left behind. In a similar vein I watched the Lee Atwater doc on Frontline. His famous fear and smear campaign of 1988 ought to remind us (no matter where we sit…what we believe) that there is an ugly side to people and when it is brought to the surface it is nearly impossible to stomach.

It seemed like a billion years ago but when he died, I thought the awful decade of the 1980’s came to an end. Those ten years of neon eye shadow and women with hair sprayed to points that cut my face when I got to close (maybe it was just the smart ladies who used their coiffed monstrosities to keep douche bags like me away)…those ten years seemed to begin with the death of John Lennon and end with untimely demise of this potent, Machiavellian genius of politics.

What struck me today...I just read a review of Phillip Norman’s new John Lennon bio that seems to bring into view the uglier side of a man worshiped by many who never knew him. The last portion of the Atwater piece presented a man hated by many as having a repentant side, someone who learned what awaits the man who gains the world and nearly loses their soul.

Does it mean time leads the critics, historians, ink-stained wretches, hacks, poets, serious journalists, commentators to remake those we thought we knew into their opposite?

Or does it just mean we may see other people’s shit floating if we happen to walk into the toilet at the right/wrong time?

Where Did He Get Bob?

Family road trip to Kalamazoo for Alex’s first show. Bob Dylan. Did you ever get the feeling you were driving the only Toyota in Michigan? Swimming at the hotel before the gig (also, tons of pool time early Sunday). Dinner and pool (the kind where you use sticks) with Kim & Alex at the Nob Hill Bar & Grill before going to Wings Stadium for the show. Alex and I touched the ice under the fake floor. We sat in the penalty box while waiting for the band to start.

The show was great and I might blog more about it later. While we waited to exit in the Rav4 my little crew had the following conversation:

Kim: Did Dylan always live in New York?
Me: He grew up in Minnesota. Hibbing. It is near Duluth I think.
Kim: And his name was Robert Zimmerman?
Me: Yes.
Kim: Where did he get Dylan?
Me: Dylan Thomas.
Alex: Where did he get Bob?

The White House Bites Back

Looks like President Bush plans to settle some old scores as he runs out the clock. Today, he literally turned the attack dogs loose on this White House correspondent. Meanwhile some other dude who doesn't even have a dog gave a press conference in Chicago for a job he hasn't started yet.

If that develops into anything, I'll let you know.

Projected 195 and Counting

Fox News called Ohio (not that I am watching Fox News…I heard Jim Lehrer say that Fox News just called Ohio for the Junior Senator from Illinois)

That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Can it be that four big Senate seats up for grabs are turning the way of the Donkey? Not enough so far to be construed as a mandate (except by overeager bags) but enough to make me wonder what the fallout from the 08 Election will be if votes keep trending this way…

Does a big win mean that the Democrats believe that the center has shifted like I bitched about yesterday? Or are their grown ups more ambitious than all that? Are they interested in rewarding their ideologues by spending political capital (the only capital resources left these days)…is that the limit of their vision?

Perhaps they dream of a real realignment that will come about in four years. If they do, it behooves them to govern from the center. At the very least, in the midst of worldwide economic crisis…if the Democrats take 2006 and 2008 as an opportunity to do the things that make them feared by many Americans then they deserve criticism of the most rancorous kind.

If the rumors are true and Rahm Emanuel is going to be BO’s Chief of Staff, I have hope that he brings more of the New Democratic Coalition agenda with him and helps a potential Obama Whitehouse focus on uniting issues centered around the economy. We will see.

As far as the Pro-Life matters, which were raised in my last post - let’s see who wins, what the Congress looks like and what Donkeys in Washington do or try to do about South Dakota. If a potential Obama Whitehouse gets Stephanopolized and takes on something it shouldn’t take on in the first few months…

…and that something leads it to join the fight with pro-choice advocates who seek to do battle with SD’s legislative initiatives…

…trying to roll back all that pro-life citizens feel they have gained in SD (or if an effort in some other state is more successful - is it clear that I am not sure what I am talking about)…then I expect to hear folks say ’Obama is the radical we thought who dumps the morality of the Left in the lap of the nation’

It is easy for me to be reserved about things. Minus the appointment of Chief Justice Roberts, I don’t think government will end the horrors of abortion any more than it will halt other horrors of the modern world. Govt, to a degenerate like me, seems to be more of a horror regulator or a horror manager, not an instrument for reinstituting values that have been siphoned off America for whatever reasons over the past 50 plus years.

The war in Iraq was a horror that directly took our nation’s treasure and turned it into a destructive machine (I think sometimes govts must do this)….but turned this into a machine that destroyed for either no good reason or a reason not fully explained to us the people. This, coupled with the economic crisis led to whatever repudiation can be read-into the results in 2006...and now, maybe tonight.

If my Pro-Life friends can take any comfort in what may be happening tonight….consider:

1. What if Sen Klinton was the D nominee?
2. She would not have the sorts of advantages Sen O has enjoyed and taken advantage of tonight….but say she ran a better campaign than Kerry or Gore…Wouldn’t she have to pander to the pro-choicers far more than a Pres Obama (regardless of his position beyond the mainstream re: partial birth abortion)….a President Klinton would have to play to her base and its more radical choice contingency than candidate and possible Pres Obama…?

Not to underestimate the issues above...the next president is going to face a recession, the worst of which we have yet to feel. That man, and the rest of the winners are going to inherit one giant gaping money hole that they are going to need to fill with something more than speeches about hope.

Do we have a new, New South? What of Indiana and our nation's dong? Let’s see what the map looks like tomorrow.

God Bless you John McCain. The thing that makes me feel great about my country right now? The first African-American president has received his first official congratulation in the State of Arizona.

It is later and the scene at Grant Park is breathtaking. The thing that could ruin it all? If that douchebag Jim Belushi walks out and plugs According to Jim, I'm moving to Canada!

Will the Center Remain Unshifted

My greatest fear, and this has more to do with me as an American Catholic…my fear is that if there is an Obama landslide the Democrats will take this to mean that the center has shifted…not just with respect to the war in Iraq and the present administration’s misuse and maybe even abuse of fear and the war on terror…

Hmmm, my fear has made it impossible for me to write a complete sentence.

There. Ahhh….

If the Democrats see the 06 Midterms and this election year as an absolute shift in the American political landscape they will have thrown away all they learned in winning in 06 and drive themselves further from Americans who might be inclined to hear what they have to offer. Remember in 2006 the party opened itself up to candidates like Sen. Casey in PA. I don’t need to say what it is about a Donkey like Casey (and his father) that I admire…but people that know my personal beliefs can probably guess.

I don’t have a “life” litmus test when it comes to voting for national candidates, but I tend to admire Dems who bucked the system in the 90’s and in the Oughts to say ‘Damn it we need to open the tent and we ain’t talkin’ abortion tents….we mean open the tent of our party to those who have different views on the so-called cultural issues’

I think the Karl Roves of the world have successfully claimed a generation of potential voters who will spend the rest of their lives believing that a vote for a Democratic presidential candidate guarantees four years of baby eating with intermittent sodomy. To some extent (minus Rove’s “brand our enemies as gay rights supporters strategy”) the D’s have opened themselves up to this East Coast liberal-elitist tag because for the last 15 years that’s who ran the Donkey Show and the Republicans have allowed diverse opinions on abortion, embryonic stem cell research and allowed for both sides to be bandied about in the party…even though their standard bearer does not reflect this openness.

I am not a liberal or conservative in the sense that I believe either movement will save me, my way of life, or my country. If that’s your bag, fine. I am not suggesting some sort of moral superiority…especially in this blog where I am most comfortable being a nasty and mildly amusing fucknugget.

I feel humor has a better chance of saving me than ideologues and the agendas they espouse on either side. For me, as someone who wants to be Christ like the difference between Republicans and Democrats (especially on the so-called social issues) is like the difference between the Pharisees and the Romans. The Elephants who ride the social issues hard and try to draw out the base to get elected make themselves the messengers of God’s law and place themselves as guardians of the fence laws (no immigration pun intended) to keep the heathens out are like those damned Pharisees who try to trap God’s good shepherd and true servant (I am not saying Sen. O is either of these things). The Pharisees do not care about service to the Lord or his people. They care about appearance of piety and preserving a way of life for the sake of preserving it.

If you vote for Republican presidential and national candidates because you think they will keep taxes low and allow a certain understanding of the America work and property ethic to dominate that is honest and fine. I find the use and abuse and confusion of Christian purposes with strictly political ones to be most offensive among certain Republican hopefuls. By the way, one of the things I admired about McCain in the primaries is how he put those motherfuckers in the Elephant Camp in their place (the first shall be last eh...?) and pushed his way through to the nomination.

I guess I find most Democrats less offensive to my religious sensibilities than certain Republicans who wanna stick a cross with a tiny American flag on it in my face. The Democrats…especially when they come off as slick East-coast liberals or (worse to some) European-style libertines (sounds like dirty sex)…the Democrats are the Romans. They espouse certain views because they are “cosmopolitan” and they opine this is how all civilized peoples should behave. There is a different sort of practical moral calculation and no one should take beliefs seriously enough to fuck up the way we run an empire. One might think the worst case scenario is when Democrats who are like the Romans try, for practical purposes, to merge their rhetoric with the language of faith. Anyone remember the Clinton's New Covenant? But this ain't so bad because nobody can or should take it all that seriously when prominent Democrats use language like this...especially in a video produced by the creators of Designing Women.

I have said from very early on that I wanted both of these Senators to be the nominees. Of the two, Senator Obama seems to fit nicely into what I think makes for a healthy combination of ambition and offering a view of politics that promotes a more tangible sort of social goodness (as opposed to real America vs. fake, real values vs. redistributing the wealth). Christians acquainted with the history of the early church understood "wealth distribuion" to be standard practice for those folks not an evil plot to undermine all that is decent in society. I am not saying the business of govt ought to be wealth distribution....but this view has more directly in common with Christianity and the Bible than other issues that lead the Jesus wing of social conservatives into the voting pods.

I am also prepared to admit that the Junior Senator from Illinois may seem to be something he is not and we might not find that out until it is too late....and that his true victory has more to do with PR and money than leadership. But what is worse for the country is the Democrats will mistake the last two elections for a mandate in America and go back to living in Cupcake Castle on Gumdrop Lane and alienate another group of supporters in the process.

I hope, if Obama wins, either he will have the good sense to understand that he must appear to have moved to the center as much as possible or that financial and other crisis will force him and the Congress to focus on Americans material needs and leave behind the less palatable, less mainstream social agendas some in the Democratic part hold up to the exclusion of other opinions.

Aw screw it. Vote for me and I promise that my administration will flood the news cycle with more dick jokes than the Jamba Juice next to Zanies.

Kim Jong, Ill?

Maybe it was something he ate? Too much yellowcake? Perhaps he crafted a makeshift bowl from aluminum tubes and gave himself a massive headache. I do not miss being poor.

In other fake-ass news I wish I could report here…

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger went to Ohio for some hand-shaking and official ass-grabbing on behalf of his Republican buddy John McClane. Only in America could the Terminator help the Die Hard guy…

Here’s hoping that at one rally, Arnold points to the lump on the Arizona Senator’s face and says, “It’s not a tumor.”

If it’s not a tumor, McCain is the world’s largest chipmunk.