An Arkansas Band Makes Good

On Thursday I was reading the Arkansas Times and I read a piece about a band called Gossip with Beth Ditto on vocals. They got started in the Searcy, Arkansas area and went on to extraordinary fame in Europe.

The fact that Beth Ditto is a fat woman, and a rocker extraordinaire, did not escape my notice. A fat woman comfortable in her skin and her talent.

I was telling txrad tonight about this band from Arkansas with a fat woman on vocals, and he asked, "Beth Ditto?" I had no idea whatsoever that he knew of her. Interesting. We are so aligned.

This video gives me chills and I wish I was, or had been, in Little Rock for the gig.

She's fat and you can't do anything about it. And she's fucking awesome. Just enjoy.

This gets better when YouTube can take a storage dump.

Happy Halloween!

What's everyone doing tonight? Smoking? Drinking?

Or just dressing up and being very naughty?

I hope no kiddies stop by here tonight because we have NO candy in the house. We don't even like candy so we don't stock it. And come to think of it, we've lived here 12 years and have never had any trick-or-treaters stop by here. Let's keep that tradition going!

Friday Pussy Blog: Four Four-Legged Kittehs Edition

Here's the whole famn damily as my grandma used to say!

Sissy likes the new Tempurrrrr-pedic mattress and pillows.

Sweet Pea looks grumpy because it's feeding time and daddy is holding the fucking camera instead of a bowl of food.

Tiger is more patient because he has the comfortable chair.

The Tot on the medallion watching my feet to see when they are moving in the direction of cat food.

Happy Friday! Another grueling day of work behind us!

Friday Private Parts Video Medley

Via a source who prefers to remain anonymous. This looks rather painful, honestly.

On a related note, the Korean penis fish:

The Fat Innkeeper Worm:

Size doesn't matter:

Method of determination (cajones don't count):

Bach Made Me Do It

I used to be a mahvelous ice skating champ. And I have the scars and foot numbness to prove it. But I love Bach, because he reminds me of me. I had an ice skating class in Little Rock. It fulfilled a physical ed requirement and got me to graduation right after witchcraft.

But on our grand finale where I was expected to skate backwards and all sorts of other shit, I opted out.. And I regret it to this day.

That wasn't a haiku or anything, was it?

I'm Here, But I've Been Distracted

I was talking about Elvis Costello tonight and got kind of heavy on Facebook with it, so decided to share, as if offering up an iced cake.

It's funny because when I was in my new wave phase I was a HUGE fan of Costello, and then he farted out that country album, and I made for the exit. Never much looked back at him since, except here and there, you know, street change. And then lo and behold, he does the most amazing this (hey, did you know "this" and "shit" have the same letters in a 4-letter word? HELL, EVERYTHING ON TV IS OBSCENE!) shit.

Friday Pussy Blog: 4 Day Weekend Edition

It's been a grueling 5 days of work and I'm starting a 4-day weekend celebration! Yeee haa!

It's really hard to make up a bed when it is being occupied.

The world-famous Tot catching some nap time. Gotta love that pink belly!

Sissy is just a ball of hair.

Sissy's brother, Sweet Pea decided to give me some face time for the camera.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Finally, A Victory

Finally, Hate Crimes legislation passes, although somewhat stealthily.

The measure, attached to an essential military-spending bill, broadens the definition of federal hate crimes to include those committed because of a victim’s gender or gender identity, or sexual orientation. It gives victims the same federal safeguards already afforded to people who are victims of violent crimes because of their race, color, religion or national origin.

Nevertheless, the vote was noteworthy in that our Texas senators, for once, didn't shame me, even though they were voting FOR a military-spending bill.

Senator Feingold gets my applause for looking at the bigger picture.

The only Democrat to oppose it was Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who said he could not vote for the current bill “because it does nothing to bring our open-ended and disproportionate military commitment in Afghanistan to an end and/or to ensure that our troops are safely and expeditiously redeployed from Iraq.”

As happy as I am that we finally have this legislation headed to Obama's desk, it sure would have been nice to see this pass on its own, rather than being attached to a hawk bill, but I'll take it.

Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said he agreed that hate crimes were terrible. “That’s why they are already illegal,” Mr. DeMint said, asserting that the new law was a dangerous, even “Orwellian” step toward “thought crime.”

Bullshit. Whenever there is a murder, there is an investigation into the motivation. Senator DeMint can blow that "thought crime" crap out his ass.

Black Revenge

txrad and I
were talking of racism
and I admitted.

I was. From around 15-ish until I was 22-ish.

Now I COULD have been prior to 15 but I'm going to chalk all that shit up to youthful ignorance. Yes, I was. It's how I was raised.

I ran the fucking Reagan for President headquarters in Desha County, Arkansas. (Check the voter stats on that county!) Which was brave, considering I didn't know another Republican other than the vet. I also combined that office into the Frank White for Governor office. Yeah, he's the dude that ran against Bill Clinton's first term as Governer, also I dispute success in that one.

What got me into the racism business though, was my parents. I didn't have a notion of skin color prior to my parents deciding to fuck unprotected. I didn't have a notion of skin color prior to their introducing it, probably during the time we had the Negro maid, and their only complaint about her was that she would decide to take a dump (as in, "a shit") while my parents would sit down to dinner.

Black revenge. Ahhh, I love it. And besides, if my Dad had put in something besides those Tahitians' slatted bathroom doors which allowed his white odors out, and let the black odors out, and one was a problem and one was not, what would be the problem, exactly.

Photo of the Day

From the 13th Annual Clown Convention in Mexico City this week.

Roll Your Zig Zag

Weather Records Last Week

Interesting...

Source: Hamweather Climate Center and NOAA/NWS

Record Events for Sat Oct 10, 2009 through Fri Oct 16, 2009

Total Records: 6257
Rainfall: 859
Snowfall: 297
High Temperatures: 369
Low Temperatures: 785
Lowest Max Temperatures: 3473
Highest Min Temperatures: 474

Sunday Night Pizza Blogging: The Pizza Pot Pie Edition

Dedicated to Joe Santos of New York-style pizza fame.

First get your 3 teaspoons of yeast going in a cup of warm water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and sugar. Then add 2 3/4 cups of flour. I use a blend of whole wheat and bread flour. Adjust to your preferences. Pour in enough olive oil during a count to 8. Put in a KitchenAid with a dough hook for 3 minutes then massage, cover in olive oil and let it sit in a warm oven for an hour or so.

Then the fun begins.

Start with the meat substitute. Or use real meat if you are that way.

Meanwhile, I prepare the onions and jalapeño.

Next up is a large portobello and a couple of garlic cloves (not pictured).

Once all that is sauteed, time to assemble. Spread that dough and create a well of some depth to hold all the shit that's going on top.

The dough does on a base of corn meal, and then a layer of tomato sauce goes on the dough. Then the mozzarella.

The gloppy topping of fake meat, onion, garlic, and jalapeño go on top.

Then the Roma tomato. Bake at 450 for 17 minutes then add the fresh basil picked from your own garden. Garnish with a generous amount of parmesan cheese which we do NOT have tonight, and enjoy.

Put your three feet up and relax and watch a James Bond flick or something.

Friday Pussy Blog: Lazy Day Edition

Sissy knows how to use a pillow.

I caught the Tot soaking up some rays.

He decided he'd do some grooming.

Bonus: Friday Critter Blogging at Creatures of Habitat.

Happy Friday!

Looking for a Red-Headed Chick

He wants to interview the one who jumped the stage at that Rod Stewart concert back in the day.

Damn, wouldn't that be a score. Does anyone know how I can find her? Is Lexus-Nexus good for that kind of thing? Or is it Lexis-Nexis, or Lexus Nexis, or Lexis Nexus?

Inquiring minds want to know. Meanwhile, I think I hear Deborah Harry.

Taking a Break From a Macaca Moment

Some of you know I've been wanting to learn Spanish for years and have never taken the dive.

Within the past week, I made a trip up to the corner store, Buddy's on Hwy. 290, to purchase a product to feed my severe nicotine addiction, and while I was buying, this dude comes in and addresses the clerk in Spanish (which is odd because I thought she was Indian since there was sitar music in the background), and she immediately and instinctively replied back.

Now, she was dealing with me in English, and her brain switched immediately.

What's really funny is that so did mine.

I heard their quick conversation in Spanish and my brain converted it to English in the wink of an eye, despite that I was also conducting a business transaction in English.

This incident was so profound to me, and so beautiful, and so global. I just don't understand why we can't all speak the same language while communicating, and praying, and worshiping, and politicking, in that other language.

When I lived in LA, my ear was trained for dialects, accents, and people who just struggled with English. You adapted.

That's how you PROGRESS. You ADAPT.

Oiu

The Autumn of My Disco Tent Discontent

It has been awhile since I've had the creative spark required to write a post of any substance whatsoever. Several events of the past few weeks have caused me to become very introspective. My 85-year-old mother's health is up and down with several visits to doctors in the past couple of months, and another one scheduled for next Monday.

My brother, who is 62, is saddled with a lot of debt and having his workshop and residence foreclosed upon this month. I have no idea what he's going to do. We've been doing a lot of communicating via email and I suppose there are things he wants to share since we're all getting older -- things like my grandfather being gay. That was a bit of a shocker.

My grandfather died while my mother was pregnant with me in late 1959. My brother would have been 12 at the time I guess. His first wife (he went through three of them) was my grandmother and during my growing up years, she was something of a magnet for gay men. Apparently, that was not something which just suddenly developed in the 1970s. It would have been interesting to have known my grandfather had he lived long enough for me to retain any memory.

My father was very much into photography and passed that hobby to both of his gay sons. He had a darkroom set up at our home for developing pictures which was quite a long and drawn out process involving the use of negatives, and then a light source to project the imagine onto special paper. The image was still not visible until it was placed in a tray of some noxious chemical liquid which would allow the image to develop on the paper. Once the image had reached the desired level, the paper was then transferred to another tray of liquid which would stop the developing process. The photo was then hung to dry and he'd move on to the next negative and repeat this process. This really makes me appreciate digital cameras although aesthetically, the quality of my father's black and white photos was astounding.

He would later purchase a slide projector and a projection screen and we all began buying color slide film which had to be shipped off to be processed. Through the years I snapped a lot of pictures. I took my camera on many trips to Europe and my one trip to Israel and Jordan and captured many slides.

A few years ago my brother gathered up all the dozens of boxes of slides which were stored at my mom's house and took them to his place. He bought a slide scanner and managed to get quite a few saved digitally by 2004 -- photos from the 60s and 70s, but none of my trips overseas yet.

I have been in a state of heightened anxiety about the fate of these slides now that my brother is facing eviction. Last week I was planning a drive to Arkansas to pick them up. Unfortunately my brother was going to be out of town on some work project so I had to cancel my plans. And in a way I was quite relieved at being excused from a 9-hour drive to Little Rock, and then another 3 hours the next morning to the northeast corner of the state. Instead, he's going to keep scanning while he's still living there, and presumably, will box everything else up and ship it on to me at the last minute.

Aside from all that, I've had some sporadic back pain which I know is partly caused by stress, and also by an improper seating arrangement at my desk (which has been corrected), and probably by a mattress which is not suitable for me. It cost quite a bit of money to improve my seating comfort while working. It may cost even more to improve my sleep situation. But hey, I spend 8 hours in the bed and another 10 hours at my desk. It would be money well spent to improve my life in those 18 hours a day.

Yo, Joe, Bite the Salami

We gonna Razamanaz tonight. Up on the roofs.

Getting There/ Being There

Dear Pope

Why not give this a shot, eh? You and I agree on the death penalty. Prove to me that you are serious about troubling issues.