A Prayer for My Friends

To everyone I've known, to all whom I have loved, to all who have loved me, let me send you out a greeting right now.

Thank you for talking to me and being cool people.

May we have many more years of stupid jokes and weird adventures! May we all continue to humbly accept the gift of life and to continue to explore the amusing and beautiful and pleasurable fruits of it. May it continue to yield new secrets to explore, and may we grow wise and reverent in the aura of its beauty.

I hope to see your children grow up healthy and wise and funny, and I hope your cleverness and courage grow even stronger in them, so that this ridiculous little endeavor called humanity can finally try its hand at co-existing in a peaceful and prosperous age.

As we take the mantle of power and responsibility in this place, let us remember the courage and discipline of our grandparents, who survived the Second World War and the Great Depression. Let us merge our love of diversity and equality with their toughness and resolve, so that we can solve the incredibly complex set of problems that we face today.

And as we grow old, let us retain our love of life, and our relationships with each other.

Amen

Jam bake

I'm tired. So much jamming today. So good. So tired. I make fences. Me and kids make fences. I'm tired. Redneck. I have a redneck. Good day. Tired.

Yay for California. Yay for New York. Yay for gay.

Tequila!

Oh Tequila, Tequila,
It's been quite a while
Since you traveled down in me
for to bring me a smile.
So I opened my gullet
to your wiles last night
I thought maybe this time
You'd make me your bride.

Oh Tequila, Tequila
You make my face numb
You make me allow me
say shit that is dumb.
You make my feet wiggle
when the music sounds sweet
And you tell me I'm a badass
Noone could defeat.

Oh Tequila, Tequila
you're a sinner most foul.
The way that you do me
should not be allowed.
for jollies tonight
you take payment tommorow
But you jack up the interest
on the fun that I borrow.

Oh Tequila, Tequila
Your usury stinks.
You're an absentee landlord.
You're a dirty rat fink.
I swear that I'll learn
One of these days
Not to take up your bargain,
Not to follow your ways.
But today I'll just ferment
with you laughing inside me,
And ponder my future
with no Tequila to guide me.

Not much of a title today, but please read on!

Ugh...i ate too many frozen breakfast tacos.

It's Memorial Day weekend! Hooray!

I can remember some things. That means I get to participate.

I remember 16 things. Highlights include the face of my mother, the tint of my discolored big toe toenail, and the amplitude of the waves on my fat rolls when my belly gets smacked.

I heard that we're in a war. I know, right? Seems preposterous to me too. I mean, I haven't been shot at. I remember them talking about it on the news or something, like, last year, but I figured that was just some kind of hoax.

A note to my female admirers: you no longer need to pay so much respect to my privacy and personal space. I am now giving you permission to approach me. Please cast your eyes downward and bring a gift.



I haven't seen a bigfoot yet out here, but I know this is the best shot I'll have for a while. Thunderbirds, too.

A note to television: you are a piece of shit. I swear to god, it seems like every hour of programming has 40 minutes of commercials. I was right to spurn you last summer, and I will spurn you again. You seduce me into giving away time that should be used for songwriting and reading. You provide me very little entertainment and a surplus of shitty shows and maddening commercials. I can't wait to leave you again.

Though, ok, i'll give you this: It was funny on South Park the other night when that couple had butts for heads. And I like that 5-dollar foot-long commerical for subway.

Burning my face off!

I took a little road trip over to the Wild Rivers recreation area. It's a patch of BLM land over by the rio grande and red river gorges. I went out to the ridge where the two rivers (and the two canyons) converge. It was incredibly beautiful. You can stand 800 feet above the river and still hear it rushing with spring runoff below.

I'm still hoping to see an eagle one of these days, but instead I saw turkey vultures swooping around on the updrafts. They were pretty much eye level to me, which was cool. They appeal to my macabre tendencies. There were also these little birds that fly past your head and make this whooshing sound. That was cool.

I got home and decided to grill my first steak of the year. I got the bbq going by squirting the charcoal with fluid. It lit up no problem, no big deal.

The flames went out, and I thought the coals needed a little more burning. So, I gave it another good squirt of lighter fluid, thinking it would behave as it did before. Nope! Instead, a large fireball flew into my face! Yay!

I'm fine, but I did singe a bunch of my face hair. It stinks! God, I feel very stupid and very lucky.

I'm gonna eat my half-cooked steaks now.

Farmers in the Dell

We've just about got the new garden ready to plant up at the ranch. We're going from about a quarter acre to a 1 acre. It's like right on the line between gardening and farming, which makes it kind of hard to plan.

We're using the acequia system to irrigate the garden. The acequia is a system of run-off ditches, with irrigation time allocated to folks in the community based on the amount of land they own. The best part is that the head of the acequia system in a community is called the "Mayor Domo." Doesn't that sound like something from Star Wars?

We have to figure out how to irrigate it without taking off all the topsoil and washing away our seeds. We're gonna drip-irrigate part of the garden, and we're gonna flood irrigate part of it. For the flood irrigation, we're trying to make level furrows that will hold the water without washing everything down the mountain.

Um...
let's see...what else is there....

um...
how bout...

FUCK COCK BALLS SUCK SHIT ASS DICK BALLS CHOAD!

Severed Ears, ODs, Voices from God, etc

Tonight I decided to re-watch the excellent documentary on Townes Van Zandt called Be Here to Love Me.

I know that I recently heralded Hank and Woody as the greatest artists of the 20th century. I'll stick by that, I suppose. But coming in close behind has got to be Townes Van Zandt (and Bob Dylan right beside him).

His songs are so devastating and sad and perfect and beautiful. As Kristofferson says in the film, he was a songwriter's songwriter.

It's so sad to me that he had to be such a sloppy, crazy disaster of a human being. I've wondered this many times...is insanity a prerequisite for genius? I mean, Townes threw himself 4 stories off a building backwards just to see what it felt like to fall. He was a lifetime substance abuser, which caused his early death at the age of 54. He was a terrible husband and a terrible father. But his songs...they're perfect. They're so, so beautiful. And they're incredibly sad and hopeless, which is probably why I like them so much.

One of Townes's sons, who had to live with the irresponsibility and empty refrigerator and dirty carpets, puts it so well. He says something like, "there's more important things in life than writing great songs."

Townes says it himself. "I came to a point where I said to myself, you know, I could really do this. But it takes blowing EVERYTHING off. Security, family, you freedom, you got to sacrifice ALL of it. And you just take a guitar, and go."

I don't know what I'm getting at here...I just wonder what it takes to be a truly great artist. I write songs, and I make doodles, and I do this blog and whatnot, and truth is, I'm about half crazy myself. But I'm no artist. Maybe if I was 100% crazy, I could be. As it is, I'm a wannabe professor who messes around with art stuffs. And, if being batshit crazy and ruining the lives of my loved ones is my alternative, i'm cool with where I am.

In the Drink

I went on a short rafting trip down the Rio Grande today! Man, it was really fun.

I went down with my friend and his girlfriend (the folks I housesat for). He's a real experienced boat guy, and he brought his big inflatable raft.

The winter run-off has the river moving along at a pretty good clip, so we hit some fun rapids. The other three folks in the boat had wet suits, but I was in my swim trunks and a fleece. And my IU hat (sniffle). The splash from some of the bigger waves got me pretty wet and pretty cold.

Just before we started, this dude in this tiny Kayak asked if he could cruise down by us. I gathered that it was sort of a safety thing for both of us. He was also a real experienced boat guy and did all kinds of cool tricks on the kayak.

Well, the biggest rapid on the trip was right before our stop. The rock that makes the big rapid was actually submerged because the water was high, so my friend decided to just go straight into the "hole." We slammed into it, and I was holding on for dear life, but I got flipped out, along with the my friend, who was rowing, and one other member of our group. My friend's girlfriend managed to stay in.

It was freezing! I was pretty alarmed at first, but I had a grip on the rope, and I quickly realized we were fine. (I don't think I ever actually let go of the rope, which is probably why my hands hurt so bad afterwards).

Right after the big hole, there's a very calm little eddy, so we just paddled over and got back in. That's why my friend was so willing to take the rapid hard...he knew it was safe. I think he kinda wanted to flip us so we'd get used to it a little.

The sad thing is, I lost my IU hat to the river. I really liked that hat. It's ok, though. That makes it a solid sacrifice to the river gods. Perhaps they will continue to spare my life on the next river trip.

10 points and the ball with 3 minutes left

Whoah, very exciting night! A photo finish in Indiana and a blowout in North Carolina. As a sports loving country, we're naturally gonna be glued to the screen to see who "won" Indiana, but unlike sports, and unlike the general elections, these primaries are proportional. I think she gets, like, one delegate more from Indiana than Obama gets.

Which means, it was a damn good night for Obama.

At this point, Hilary is basically counting on a heart attack, an assassin's bullet, or "a dead girl or a live boy" to be found in Obama's bed. Either that, or racism. She has absolutely no chance of catching him in the delegate lead or the popular vote lead, so her only chance is to somehow woo the superdelegates.

That hasn't really changed. That was the case before last night too. It's just that she was counting on last night to be the lynch pin in her pitch to the super delegates (if I can mix my metaphors). She was hoping that the Rev. Wright dog and pony show would have hurt him so much that he would lose Indiana big and win NC small. Then she could have claimed that a) she had the momentum and b) she was heading toward a win in the popular vote count and c) he was unelectable, because white people wouldn't vote for him. That's why she loaned her own campaign 6 million dollars (yeah, she's a real salt of the earth person, huh?)

But, last night basically put huge holes in those arguments. What is she going to say to the superdelegates now? I mean, she can keep wasting her money, since her ability to fund raise is now completely screwed. She can stay in as long as she wants, but what can she possibly say to these people to convince them she's the better candidate? What evidence does she have?

Oh, I guess there's still the Michigan and Florida question. Their attempts to spin that issue have been pretty laughable. Obama counted on the party rules being enforced as they were written and thus didn't campaign in Florida and wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan. Those state parties signed the rules. They should not count!

But, I heard the talking heads say that, even if they are included, it's not going to make much of a difference. She still can't surpass him.

So, basically, I don't really care if she stays in or not. This race is over, for all practical purposes.

Obama in '08!

Amped for Indiana's Day in the Sun!

I'm getting pumped for the primary on Tuesday. It's going to be an exciting evening. I don't really know what Hilary will do if she loses Indiana. Some pundits think she'll pull out, and some think she'll drag it out till the convention.

The Indiana primaries will be interesting too. I'm ashamed that I haven't followed those as closely as I should have, as the race for Governor is pretty close. I'm supporting Jill Long Thompson, but I don't have a great reason, other than the fact that my friend has been working for her campaign. I'm supporting Baron Hill, my old boss, for the 9th District seat. Baron's a little more to the right than I am on some issues, and he's fairly beholden to the farmers in southern Indiana regarding biofuels and ag subsidies, but he's a pretty cool guy, and I think he's the only one on the ticket who has a chance of beating Sodrel. And yes, it's going to be Hill/Sodrel 4. Christ, can't we get somebody new? Sodrel really is a giant choad.

On the local races, since I had the advantage of voting absentee, I was able to look up the candidates' bios online. That was really nice. It allowed me to vote without feeling like a bad citizen.

I've been meaning to say, I'm delightedly shocked that we have 3 candidates for President who are quality human beings. Though I strongly disagree with McCain's economic policies, I strongly support his campaign finance reform efforts. And I think he's generally an honorable person with a lot of character. I think Hilary is a very smart woman who will pursue policies that I will generally support. And I think Obama is pretty much the second coming.

I've heard talk that both Obama and McCain might accept public financing for their campaigns. If that happens, I'm pretty much going to explode with pride for this place.

I cannot overemphasize how much I hate George Bush. I hate his policies (well, except for increasing foreign aid to Africa), and I hate his arrogance and willful anti-intellectualism. I hate his pandering and disingenuous image crafting.

Regardless of who wins the Presidency, I'm going to celebrate, because a person of substance and character will be replacing this slimey jerkoff.

More Ranting

I will tell you what I did yesterday.

I woke up kinda late. I made breakfast. Coffee, cereal with some stuff in it, and some sourdough toast.

I ate my breakfast and watched the news. I was quickly disgusted by the vapid and whoreish news media for covering Jeremiah Wright. Especially when they say, "So, Mr. Political Hack, how long is this gonna be a story?" Well, DOUCHEBAG, it's gonna be a story as long as you keep covering it!

Let me rant about television media for a minute.

I know there's a lot of controversy on whether the American news media has a liberal bias or a conservative bias. I actually agree with Jon Stewart. The big problem isn't political bias, it's ratings bias and laziness bias.

Several things are going on here. First, investigative reporting is hard and expensive. Sending correspondents to Iraq or Darfur or Tibet is dangerous, time consuming, and very expensive.

Second, the 24 hour news networks have lots of time to fill (24 hours in a single day!). When something like the Jeremiah Wright story comes up, they get to kill two birds with one stone. First, they get to fill their air time. Second, they get to do it extremely cheaply.

Basically, the entire political season is a wet dream for these news networks. They get to wrap their whoring in the guise of objective political reporting. They can cover the "horserace" aspect of these political gaffs without ever, not even once, in the hours and hours of talking heads they recruit to analyze them, discuss the substantive issues involved.

Never, ever, ever does anyone have to say, "Hey, does wearing a cheap American flag pin on your jacket mean you're a patriot?" Instead, they can endlessly discuss how voters will perceive the absence of a flag pin.

And the brilliant part of the Media's scheme here is that they create the very news that they cover! They create a self-perpetuating cheap time filler that has enough infantile junior high drama in it to capture the attention of the shallow anti-intellectual sheep who populate this country!

And obviously, i'm one of them, cause I've been watching this shit and getting increasingly disgusted for two days straight!

JEREMIAH WRIGHT IS NOT A FUCKING GODDAMN STORY YOU FRAT BOY PLASTIC MEATHEADED CYNICAL VAPID LAZY SHALLOW CHEAP PANDERING SORORITY SLUT BIMBO FUCKS!

oh wow...that felt good.

So, anyway, I did some administrative stuff and chatted online with some folks. Then I went up to the ranch and planted asparagus. Then Daniel and I went up to our friend's house further up the mountain and ate dinner. We watched a show about the Holocaust and World War 2 and a reality show about an aircraft carrier. It was fun.