Away for a few days...

I will be away for a few days, hiding out in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, then going to another of the most beautiful places on Earth.

I could say that I will think of all of you often, but I don't think that is really true.

I could also say "fight nicely in the comments box" but since comments require my approval, nothing will show up until I am back.

Giotto On Line

First, I have not yet recorded the Giotto lecture for online consumption. Expect me to do that in about a week and a half, when I return from a one week camping trip to Lake Tahoe.

Second, mark your calendars, because I will be speaking about Fra Angelico on August 15 at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi.

What is that racket?

Oh, nothing, just Erik walking around all day singing the Triumphal March from Aida. 2-0!

Viva Italia!

More on the Collapse of Hank 8's Little Play Church

Someone asked me, "instead of just slinging invective against the Anglicans [sic], why don't you read what they have to say and answer their points?"

Short answer: Because when I do read their spew, I tend to despise them as people and not just their false church as an abstract. Ignoring their actual words does wonders for keeping my view of them in the realm of charity and compassion.

When I actually hear the words of the Mitred Harlot and her army of Priestesses, I am far less sympathetic than when I can pretend that they are good-natured, yet misguided, etc.

I am firmly convinced that a girl will have a better chance of working out her salvation in a whorehouse than running around pretending to ordination.

Ah the now fading light...

I have a friend who hates today.

"You know that it is the longest, so it is all downhill from here."

He is a physician, so I am assuming that is what accounts for the gloomy take on it.

Not me. I love it (unless it is a cloudy or overly foggy day, in which case I feel gyped). Amalia and I played in one of our favorite parks this evening, until a few minutes to nine o'clock, and it was still twilight. It helps that today has been wonderfully warm, almost hot, certainly hot for those who did not grow up in Sacramento or Redding (hunnert fourteen on Sunday, if all goes as predicted).

Tonight is much like a Sacramento summer night, even here in Oakland (aka Murderville or Potholia). If I didn't live in what has become in the last year a war zone, I would probably take a chair, a glass of single malt scotch and a maduro out front and enjoy the night. I tried it awhile back, but it just wasn't fun. You know it is time to move when you are outside at night and have a sigh of relief when a cop car pulls up to the corner house. And then the #$%$#$%s go and elect Ron Dellums.

Right now is not a personally good time for us to move, but we will see what happens at the end of summer.

Meanwhile, I am loving the weather and the late embers of day that have lasted until not too long ago.

The Fish and Chips Offer...

A few years back a moron named Elihu Harris was running for office, yet again, in Oakland, a town that for a few decades seemed to vote for him no matter what he was running for. He blended the twin toxins of racial identity politics with the Democratic machine, and so long as he kissed who he was told to kiss things went pretty well, for him at least.

He was a grossly incompetent mayor, and the town breathed a sigh of relief when he was on his way.

Now, we have a new mayor elect, a criminal shyster, machine politician, arrogant, cynical, old-style Oakland Democratic racialist named Ron Dellums. To the people who did not turn out to the polls, figuring that there would be a runoff, well #$%% you. To those people who actually think that it was smart to vote for Dellums, well double, triple #$%# you.

He's not my mayor.

Somewhere in the Oakland Hills, Montclair Village has lost its idiot.

Don't blame me. I voted for De La Fuente.

Oakland should be written off as a lost cause. The people here are too stupid to govern themselves. When the legions come in at the start of the Keilholtz Dictatorship, there will be a certain extra glee when I watch them march down Broadway. Almost as much as when they arrest Tom Ammiano.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to mourn what was probably already lost.

The point was to talk about good news, which is the fracturing of the Anglican Communion, and to offer a suggestion from the annals fo Elihu Harris. Old Elihu, he thought in his last bid for public office that it would be a smart thing to offer free fried chicken dinners to anyone with a ballot stub in certain neighborhoods in Oakland.

I shit you not.

Elihu didn't win.

However, I think that we should, as parishes, confraternities, individuals, offer free fish and chips dinners to those who leave Canterbury for the One, True, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Maybe a free fish and chips dinner every Friday for the first year, and a pint of Watneys on Sundays.

Now, with ideas like that, could someone please tell me why I am not in charge of ecumenical affairs?

Viva Portugal!

While I always have a soft spot for Mexico, I have been pulling for Portugal, and am quite happy with the results of today's game.

Of course I am an Italia Uber Alles sort, but I could live with Portugal as Cup winners.

The Perfect Fruit

This is probably not of too much interest to those who live in distant places, but if you are looking for the best fruit in the world, check out Frog Hollow Farm. They have a store in the San Francisco Ferry Building that sells their produce as well as the great pastries that they make with their fruit, but we have been buying their stuff in the Tuesday evening Farmers' Market in Berkeley.

I will warn you that Frog Hollow is more expensive than anyone, but it is the Rolls Royce of produce. Yesterday we just bought apricots that were better tasting than any I have had in years. I highly recommend their peaches, as well. In fact there was an article in Gastronomica last year where the author was going around looking for the best peach in the world. He found it at Frog Hollow (and his search used both scientific criteria (degrees brix, pH and so forth) as well as subjective).

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some stone fruit that is just begging me to eat it.

The Spanish Beat the Moors!

Well, even though I was disappointed that Italy didn't win outright on Saturday, I am elated over the Spanish victory over the Moors. Perhaps there are still a few Spaniards with cojones who have not gone soft and socialist. Of course the maracones of Catalonia are doing their best to steer their province in a horrible direction, one that we should all hope fails.

Catalonian aspirations for independence make me pine for the days of the General. Of course, just about anything makes me pine for the days of the General. If it were up to me, they would dig him up, dress him up, and put him back in office. Even dead, Generalissimo Franco would do a better job than the communists, freaks, homosexuals and fellow travellers that are in power today.

The Great Insanity is Upon Us.

Well, if you are wondering about the sparse postings, it has to do with being busy with art history lectures, art classes, and serious high-minded stuff, as well as the inexplicable excitement that comes with the National Teams kicking and heading a ball around.

I am almost out of blue shirts. Must remember to get some more.

Tomorrow!

Remember, tomorrow is the day:

Feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Mass for St. Anthony at 5:30pm at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, followed by blessing with a relic of St. Anthony.

After mass, a reception, to celebrate the St. Anthony of Padua Institute's recently granted canonical status/tax exempt status and busy year of continuing education offerings supporting the Catholic Liberal Arts.

Followed by, at 7:30pm, a lecture by yours truly on Giotto, entitled Shock of the Ancient.

And, yes, if you were intrigued by the focaccia described below, I will be serving it at the reception, along with biscotti that I am making tonight.

Come one, come all, and SUBSCRIBE to the St. Anthony of Padua Institute!

Whole Wheat Flaxseed Meal Focaccia

Uh oh, Keilholtz is reverting to his Hippy roots? No, just wanting a good sandwich focaccia to feed many people that would have a good tooth and would be quite filling, not to mention tasty.

Heat two cups of milk to 95 degrees.
Pour it into a large working bowl and add two teaspoons of sugar and two packets of yeast.
When it foams, add two cup of whole wheat flour, three Tablespoons flaxseed meal, a Tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, two teaspoons of salt, and stir. Allow to foam for ten minutes.
Add white, unbleached flour, kneading it and adding flour until the dough no longer sticks excessively, yet is still soft.
While holding the dough in one hand, oil the bowl with EVOO, rotate the dough around to cover, put it in the bowl, cover with saran wrap, and let rise for an hour and a half or until doubled.
Punch the dough, divide it into two parts, placing each one on an oiled cookie sheet. Flatten out to the desired size.
Cover with plastic and let rise for at least another hour.
Preheat oven to 375.
Use your finger to make indentations at about two inch intervals all over each loaf. Drizzle EVOO all over, making sure you get a little puddle in each dimple. Sprinkle with course sea salt and bake for about 15 minutes, or until browned and the loaf makes a hollow sound when thumped.
Take out of the oven, allow to cool on the sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool to a temperature that is comfortable to handle.
Ready to eat. Yum.

My Monument

Awhile ago I read about someone's desire to be cremated and have her ashes spread to the wind. Ugh. How Pagan. But I am glad I read it, as it reminded me that I am not getting any younger, and have yet to start carving the marble figure for the top of my sarcophagus. I plan on having a life-size Etruscan style figure of myself, with one of those happy expressions and a mug of wine.

Now, here is the real problem: where to put it. It must be in either Italy or Northern California, and it should be in a public place, where the honor guard can do their elaborate ceremonies. I have thought about the City Hall Rotunda in San Francisco, or in the courtyard of the Palace of the Legion of Honor, or even in the music concourse of Golden Gate Park. Then there is the idea of going classical and putting me in the Roman forum. Perhaps EUR? If so, I would need a second statue, or a row of statues, like sphinxes, greeting people with an archway formed of my right arms, raised in the Roman salute.

All of this figuring, it gets difficult.

New 419 fun, Part Three

This is Part Three, please go down two entries and start with Part One, then read Part Two...

So, I can't resist, and I send Joel a note:

Joel, After I got back I just happened to log on to the bank and noticed that you made a withdrawal for $6500. Is this to cover the expenses on the Birkenau Arms evictions?

Erik

And Joel is a master, so he picks it up, sends a copy to Lisa with:

Lisa:

Crap! I just got this e-mail from my meddling brother-in-law (I'll just call him Erik).
What should I do?

Joel

And Lisa says:

Joel. Tell him is for expenses you incured,from one of the properties just tell him something he should not be involved in our transaction,so desar joel find an excuse and say ok.Money was used to repair or pay someone ok,just do the payment by western union and we are done,and we get the funds transferred and take everyone by surprize.

Regards

And, to throw gasoline on the fire, I tell Joel this:

Joel,

I hate to give you the bad news, but I just got off the phone with Attorney Ingersoll, and he says that the Birkenau Arms eviction is going to cost us, when it is all done, about $13,000. Now, you have that $6500, but we only have an additional $4000 in the account. We will need to come up with the rest right away, or we are going to be stuck in the middle of proceedings without enough funds to cover everything.

Now, I can put more money in, but that will increase my equity percentage, which will, of course, come out of your future earnings. I know you have the expenses of the new wife (boy, you are catching up with me in that department), but can you pony up any of it by next Monday? I suppose we can talk to the Deseret group, but then we end up having to pay them interest, so it would be best if you could just put the cash in.

Again, by Monday we need a total of $13,000. We have $4,000 in the account, and you have $6,500, totalling $10,500. So, one of us should put in $2,500, and it should really be you.

If we don't evict these two biddies, they will still be in the place when they turn 67 1/2 next month, and that will give them legal shielding. Just think, if we get them out, we can raise the rent on both apartments and start with a higher base. Really, $2,500 is nothing when you consider what it gets you. In fact $13,000 to concoct evidence, line up the associates to help convince them that moving is good for them, and the lawyer, is a bargain. We can each get $500 extra per month per unit on these, so it should not take a rocket scientist to see when the payoff is.

I know you are weeping over their situation, but the only reason that they are not well-off is that they chose not to work hard enough in their life, or to marry the right husband. Besides, neither are Mormons, and one is even a Catholic. Maybe when they are evicted they will see the wisdom of the Book of Mormon and the help that can be offered. Then we could put them up in an apartment, and the Church will be paying the difference between market value and their rent, so we can charge whatever we feel like.

Think about it Joel. Pray on it.

Erik

Meanwhile, before Joel forwards my email, he gets this:

Joel. just say for expenses and cover it up just make the transfer these morning so we get funds immediately,lets stop the delay,i awaitto hear from you for the payment details.
Lisa

And that is immediately followed by:

Joel. I await to hear from you regarding the western union,whats the problem,make it done immediately joel,so we finalize why all these delays.

So, Joel says, at the same time forwarding my latest letter:

Lisa:

Here's another letter from Erik. Of course he checked our account, and now I'm up shit creek. There's no chance that you'll be able to get money back to me by Monday if I wired it Saturday, is there?

Otherwise, I'll just have to reveal the deal to him and give the pious bastard a cut of our profit.

Joel

And here is where we stand today. I will keep you posted as things come up.

New 419 Fun, Part Two

NOTE: this is part two, to follow, go to the entry prior.

I lost the email where Joel tries to engage on the mormonism thing again, but here is Lisa's response:

Godday Joel i got your email,and dont know much about
> the mormom,so tell me more and i will appreciate,so
> immediately we finalize the transaction,i will be in
> your country to learn more of these ok.So keep me
> informed.
> regards

And Joel to Lisa:

You need to know much more about the Book of Mormon. God likes all sorts of
people -- even Africans.

Then, after some more lost emails, Lisa nags:

Joel. Still no news from you,why you delaying all,we are meant to finalize and get the funds immediately keep me posted asap.

So, Joel replies:

Lisa:

I withdrew the $6500 in $100 bills from a business account which my brother-in-law and i share for the family business. I've got the cash now, but I haven't been able to get it to the Western Union office because I have to spend every waking moment with Erik (my brother-in-law) to make sure that while he's in town, he doesn't discover that I've borrowed the money.

I'm exhausted. It's almost 10:00 and i picked him up this morning at the airport at 5:00 and I've been baby-sitting him all day. He's so damned cheap that he flew in on the red-eye from Detroit. I'm hoping that he'll leave by Monday. Tomorrow we have a full schedule of inspections on our rental properties (including two evictions). I'm not looking forward to it.

I can't wait to get this cash off to you and get him out of my hair.

Joel

Next installment is where I jump in.

The Latest 419 Fun!

My friend has been handling this one, so I have not been posting it, but I have jumped on board, so let me get you up to speed...

Typical deal. Lots of money. No one to claim it. Blah blah blah. Joel (my friend) leads them on, telling them that he is a polygamous Mormon fundamentalist. Tries to engage them in a discussion on the Book of Mormon, assuring them that "even you Africans are people now, too" and asking completely asinine questions about Africa.

So, Lisa, the alleged contact, keeps on, and gets to the point where she needs $6,500 wired to her. Joel stays goofy, and explains all these ways he can get the money. As soon as the 419er sniffs a buck, you can tell all reason goes out the window, and the writing style crumbles (this always happens. A very exitable lot these 419ers).

Anyway, Joel has been on the verge of sending the money for a couple of weeks, and Lisa is getting positively frantic.

So, dear reader, let's pick up with Joel to Lisa:

Lisa:

Some land agents I know said that they could get the cash for us if we cut
them in on the deal. Should I have them send you a personal check, or what?
I don't want them to send cash. What if the envelope tore and all of the
cash came out?! The post office probably wouldn't deliver it. I imagine that
the African postal workers are shifty and dishonest, but I could be wrong.
Even American postal workers would probably postpone their plans on coming
in to work with a gun if they saw cash spilling out of an envelope. No sir,
cash in the mail is a very bad idea.

Do you have zebras where you live?

Joel

AND Lisa to Joel:

The funds could be sent by western union money transfer,or
money gram these is the fastest way to send money world wideso it is easy
for us,the land agents want big share of the money how do we do that,how
much do the need just borrow the money from them,and say you pay back in
1week time,so we get these money all for us,so now try and get the funds and
send it through western union money transfer so we could finalize the
transaction by these new week and no that we are done and we share the funds
50/50,so my dear joel make your possible best to send the money before
tuesday by western union.

By Order of the Duce

At the Keilholtzian Fascist Institute of Language we have decided to make some changes:

1. The word "homo" just has too many bad connotations. The Duce proposed renaming the species Hetero sapiens. It was then proposed that Ortho would be better, so the Duce endorsed Ortho sapiens as the new name for our species.

2. The word homogenized can stay the same for now.

3. The term for one who holds bad doctrine shall be changed to Homodox, which, in this day and age, seems appropriate.

4. A general call for other areas where Greek and Latin roots cause confusion was issued by the Duce, who would love to wreak further havoc on the language by standardizing them in strange ways that cut through the confusion by laying their own level of confusion over them!

Music of Azerbaijan

A few years ago (I believe I have mentioned this in the past), I went to a World Music festival to hear the fantastic Alessandra Belloni, a Sicilian musician who does traditional tarantelle. On the bill were Hun Hu'ur Tu, the famous Tuvan throat singers (always fun to hear), and some guys from Azerbaijan. All of us who went were blown away by the Azeri music, particularly a garmon (a type of accordion) player named Rahman Assadolahi. I have seen him again, and loved the music just as much.

Anyway, my parents were on vacation in Greece and Turkey and brought us back some music, including an Azerbaijani woodwind player. I don't know if it is something in the Kabab, but once again I am astounded at the gorgeous sound of music from Azerbaijan. Even with some slightly silly synthesized pop/almost new age intrusions, this stuff is fantastic.

If there is one region of the world that merits a serious listen, it is Azerbaijan.

The Anglitics and Cardinal Kasper

Now, I make no pretense of having warm and fuzzy thoughts towards the Anglican-Episcopal Church and her many offshoots. Of all the Protestants, they are the worst, in the roots of their schism, in their theft of Catholic buildings, in their persecutions of the True Church, and in their solemn mockery of the sacraments. I can personally think of no sillier way of wasting time than dialog with them beyond saying, "look, your little play church is falling apart left and right. Repent and join the Holy, Catholic Church in communion with the Bishop of Rome, or go to Hell, enduring a lot of silliness along the way. And, yes, they have women priestesses in Hell, in fact, all of them."

Bingo. Think of the time saved.

Instead we get this sober, polite back and forth, back and forth, and our guys have to sit and grin and not blurt out, "you gits! All of this hogwash is so that slob Hank 8 could get a divorce. We know it, you know it, and all of this theological gobbledegook you keep shovelling at us is nothing more than half-assed attempts to make yourself feel better about your decision." And the Anglitics go on to do sillier and sillier things: ordain women, Gene Robinson, elevate women to their episcopacy.

It is beyond time to stop bothering with dialog. Cabbages would be more receptive.

But, I am not in charge of these matters, Cardinal Kasper is. And Cardinal Kasper is a much more patient and polite sort of fellow than I am. Here he is talking to the Coven of Anglican Bishops or whatever they are called these days. I admire his charity and all that, but at what point is this crap going to be seen as prolonging the misery. The Church of England is going to vanish in the air, and, since it is clear that they will not come back to the fold as a whole communion (indeed, how could they with women priests?), we should simply hover around with lifeboats to pick up the survivors.

The good Cardinal should reflect a little bit when he says things like:

it is the church led by the Archbishop of Canterbury who, in the words of the Windsor Report, is ‘the pivotal instrument and focus of unity’ within the Anglican Communion; other provinces have understood being in communion with him as a ‘touchstone of what it was to be Anglican’

These people are not about unity. If so, these talks would not be necessary. In reading the whole speech, it is clear that the Cardinal is proceding as if there were some hope that Canterbury might repent and return to the fold. His optimism is certainly praiseworthy, yet it is an optimism I do not share.

The best hope for the Anglicans is for them to leave their church and become Catholic. Period. And in this, we must strongly support those who came out of the darkness of Canterbury, whether into the Anglican Recension or the normative Roman Rite.

Yes, as the Cardinal says, "Our friends’ problems are our problems too." So let's stick with helping our friends with their problems, and let the enemy wither and die, so we can begin the enormous task of tending to our enemy's victims.

The Shock of the Ancient...Little Over a Week Away!

Come learn about Giotto come early for mass for the feast of St. Anthony (5:30) and a reception. Venerate First Class Relics of Francis, Clare and Anthony!

Come join the The St. Anthony of Padua Institute.

Savages. Filthy Savages. And Fallen Oaks.

I use the term "savages" rather freely, to denote the various aboriginal peoples and their rude habits. In our hyper-thenthitive age, people often look at me askance, as if in my calling someone a savage, I am calling them evil or less-than-human.

However, this is not the case at all. Half of my own ancestry is savage, and many of my countrymen are still savages, especially in the North (not to mention our swamp-dwelling cousins in the Netherworlds or our half-breed cousins on the island). Not all of my fellow Teutons are still savages, and we have the Patron of today's feast to thank for that (Danke Sehr, Heilige Vater Boniface). In fact, last year one of our tribe was elected to the most civilized office in the world. Pretty good for a bunch of unruly Barbarians from the other side of the Alps, which, as everyone knows, is not fit for human habitation.

Anyway, many years ago St. Boniface chopped down the Sacred Oak of Wotan. He ended up martyred for it, and his blood, mixed with a little bit of Roman culture that rubbed off on the aborigines up there, became the seed for a great faith and a great civilization. As I have been doing the research for my presentation on Giotto, I keep coming up with examples of the "revolutionary" traits of Giotto - from a hundred years earlier in Germany!

From scratching themselves en route to hunt Celts for sacrifice to a people who gave the world great art, architecture, music, machinery, science, poetry, all of this can be attributed to the civilizing elements of the Catholic Faith, seeded by the blood of St. Boniface.

However, the spores of savagery remained in pockets of soil that were somehow shielded from sunlight, where rot and decay fed them and allowed them to Reform. The first obvious sprouts of the mold of Satan were in the dark priest, Fr. Martin Luther. From those sprouts dropped the leaves that rotted, making the fertile soil for acorns of the Unholy Oak of Wotan. Further fertilized by the rot of the leaves of Protestantism, the Oak of Wotan grew and grew, eventually taking over the forest of Germany, under the leadership of a particularly poisonous druid whose name was a modernization of Atawulf, the Wolf Father, who saluted that which was celebrated from the mouth, in joy.

Even before the Oak grew to full strength in Neopagan Germany, those spores of savagery, like a toxic mold, spread throughout Europe and America, leaving a trail of death, democracy, endarkenment, degeneracy. The Eldest Daughter of the Church was laid low, left sickly, the butt of jokes, grasping on to what remains of her dignity, with what remains of her Catholic population.

The good knights of Europe and America finally went to battle the Druid Atawulf, but so infected with the spores themselves that, although they conquered the savages of Wotan (who probably did themselves in with visions of Gotterdaemerung), they allowed the Oak's nasty cousin to come in from the east, and when they went home, their children gave themselves over completely to Oak worship, although they call the Oak by names other than Wotan, rather Diversity, Tolerance, Acceptance, and they perform their twisted rites under its branches, especially in Massachussetts and California, but also in Spain (the horror!), in Denmark, in the Netherworlds.

Even in Churches dedicated to St. Boniface, you can find the Gospel of the Oak preached, even by wayward sons of St. Francis. A member of a penitential order denies the sacrament of confession so that his congregation can feel more comfortable in their Oak worship!

St. Boniface, intercede for us poor savages, though we deserve the axe ourselves! Let your Volk remember the seed of your blood and let one rise among us to chop down the Oak once again! Pray for us that God may cleanse Germany and all of Europe, in Europe as well as in America, of the spores of Satan, the Curse of Protestantism, the acorns of paganism!

We were all savages once, although it has been so long for some people that no one can remember what it was like for them to have been savages (which made them the target of the neo-savages). Some have climbed out of the forest of savagery recently and some are leaving the greatest civilization known to man to go back to the forest. When one has come out of the forest, one is out of the forest, and is of equal level of civilization to those who have been out of the forest for generations, and is in a better state than those who, bored, alienated by their own wretched philosophies, smug, and wanting an easier moral direction, crawl back into the woods of savagery and despair.

Those who were born savages, in a savage land, to a savage culture are in a better state than those who crawl back to savagery after knowing a better life.

St. Boniface, Pray for Us!

Fiddle Players in Space?

So I keep hearing all of this buzz about trading Clemens to the Astros, and I had to wonder: what sort of strange thing is going on here? Why are they sending Vasser up in orbit? Wouldn't Mark O'Connor be a more logical choice? He could come back and write one of his tedious semi-classical, semi-bluegrass pieces about the whole thing.

But Clemens? Does this shuttle go to Little Rock?

Maybe they will have to rename the shuttle the Orange Blossom Special.

Ah, baseball. Houston Astros. Got it.

Still can't figure out what a baseball team needs with a bluegrass legend. I guess since the A's have a banjo player, the Astros need a fiddle player. The next time the Astros come to Oakland, maybe they can jam together.

Speaking of Vasser Clemens, that brings to mind Jerry Garcia (Old and In the Way, a great band, by the way), and that reminds me of the sad news about Vince Welnick, RIP. I have to say that I never really liked his sound with the Dead, but since I was never a fan of any Grateful Dead keyboardist since T.C., I suppose that is to be expected. Pigpen was THE Grateful Dead keyboardist, and I think that everyone after him knew it.

Alas, Welnick was a competant musician, understood the Dead's music, and seemed to be a nice guy.

The moral of the story (of course) is: if someone offers you the job of Grateful Dead keyboardist, take out a good life insurance policy.

Very Interesting Archive on the Internet

Amalia was asking me about a Punch and Judy show, so we went to the Internet to try to find one. We finally located one on www.archive.org. While searching around this incredible repository of everything from video ephemera to Presidential speeches, I found a collection of material from the fantastic Other Minds Festival. If you have any interest in modern music, particularly John Cage, Lou Harrison, Conlan Nancarrow, and Charles Amerkhanian, you will flip over this site. I foresee a long night of listening to fascinating interviews.

California Bullfight and Portuguese Festa Information

I found out from a friend that lusoplaza.com has been back up and running for some time. I used to follow the arguments on the guestbook quite avidly, and in fact got to know some good people I later met at the bullfights from it. It is good to have as many sources for the bullfight schedule, too, as some of them come and go with an alarming lack of notice. Anyway, the guestbook is a lot of fun (follow the directions in the news box for the password, which is mainly to prevent spam), where Central Valley Portuguese get to argue over which forcado group is best. They pull no punches (and certainly work against those of us who are trying to convince the world that bullfighting is the height of civilization, but keep in mind that they are obsessed with forcados, which, as much fun as they are, are not exactly up there with matadores), but can be a lot of fun.

Sometimes the New Yorker is just Grand

I have not read The Da Vinci Code, nor will I. Contrary to the liberal current assumptions, one need not read every book in the world in order to "fairly evaluate it."

Next time some liberal says something to that effect, ask them what they thought of the middle part of Mein Kampf.

Some books are trash, and some directors are capable of making films that are little more than trash. It might be well loved trash, but no one is going to accuse Mr. Howard of being a serious artist.

So, without having read the book, nor seen the movie, nor having any plans at either, I am still on pretty safe ground to say that this Da Vinci nonsense is trash. I have it on multiple, good authorities.

Now, the New Yorker is a hit and miss proposition. The name says it all: smug, insular, but more often than not, right. It is the journal of blue staters, many of them smart, and all of them sure of their smartness, which is a little better than the smugness of red staters, but I am sure that the loyalists of the Republicans and Democrats will perfectly despise spending eternity with each other.

Anyway, I love when I find bits like this in the New Yorker. I have yet to read my dead tree version, so I have to thank Julie for pointing this out.

Blind Scorpions

Normally I find the discovery of a new species exciting. However, I detest centepedes and scorpions. They creep me out to no end. Scorpions are especially bad, because it just isn't right to have claws AND a stinger. I like arachnids, but not scorpions. Well, they are interesting to look at, but the thought of being with one without glass between us is not a pleasant idea for me.

One morning on vacation I came downstairs and encountered a large exoskeleton of a scorpion on the stairs. You can bet that I shook my shoes out thoroughly every time I put them on.

So, even though the discovery of a new species is a cool thing, I find it hard to jump up and down with glee over this news.