Oh dear...

You know I have been a bad blogger when only one entry is left on the thing. However, I am back and have some good rants stored up! Yipee!

One disadvantage to neglecting the blog is the amount of spam that comes up with all new ways around my blacklist.

One question I have is why would anyone hire a lawyer based on a blog spam comment?

Anyway, thank you for your patience. I have been so absent from my computer that I have barely checked email for the last three days, which has been a wonderful break, but all breaks must end and the 719 emails must be sorted (most of them can be easily deleted, but I should be careful, as that is how real emails end up getting zapped as well).

The War Against Spam Rages On!

I have been getting a string of spam attacks that contain no URL for me to add to the blacklist. Therefore, I have had to resort to IP banning. I am always a little hesitant to ban IP's, because I do not exactly understand how the whole thing works, and I don't want to ban someone from commenting who did nothing wrong.

However, something needed to be done about this miscreant, so I banned a whole bunch of IP's. If you are trying to comment and cannot, please email me at EKeilholtz [@t] a[merica]o[n]l[ine][dot]com and I will lift the ban on your IP.

Hidden Spam

Recently I have had major blog spam hits. I got all of the ones that I could find (with the help of MT Blacklist), but I think that 10 or 15 got through the cracks. I do not know how to view a list of comments more extensive than the five most recent that it shows.

As a result I have no idea what to tell MT Blacklist what to look for.

So, I am asking you, dear readers, to let me know if you encounter blog spam on any archive posts you happen to be reading. That way I can zap them. The best way to let me know is to email me at EKeilholtz [at] a[merica]o[n]l[ine] [dot] com. Thanks!

I've been a bad blogger

Between restaurant reviews, bullfights, baseball games (stayed clear of flying chairs), family reunions, etc., I have been bad about updating the blog. I am sorry. I will give you a review of the excellent bullfight in Gustine shortly. I took copious notes and need to sort them out. I will also probably discuss some painting stuff, as I have been having some good conversations with Jared about painting and have been thinking about it a lot. Not doing it, unfortunately, but at least thinking about it. So, in short, I will shoot for an entry a day at the minimum for the next week. Thanks for continuing to stop by!

On the music front, I have been mostly in folk land recently, listening to a lot of norteno conjuntos from the 1950's and 1960's. It must be the hot weather we are having.

Pizza Spam

I had to think for a moment. Comments box spam that is promoting pizza. What do I do? I am opposed to spam, but I am very pro-pizza. In fact I consider pizza and espresso the very model of a perfect breakfast.

However, I figured that anyone who is resorting to spamming probably makes horrible pizza, so they had to do. Thank you MT Blacklist!

More Praise for MT-Blacklist!!!

A couple of days ago I noticed that some spam had made it to the site. I was in a hurry, so I didn't zap it with MT-Blacklist. Today, when I got on to do it, I found that MT-Blacklist had already gone out and zapped the offending spam. I love it when technology performs even better than expected.

MT-Blacklist is Great!

133 spam comments vanished and it took me under a minute! Bravo MT-Blacklist! Now if only I had a realtime version that would simply block out comments from certain people who use certain phrases in real life.

"Will you sign my petition to..." ZAP. Comment rendered inaudible.

Although that would end my joy of arguing with the PIRG folks (not to mention animal rights weenies).

Last time I had an argument with a petition gatherer (legalize marijuana), we actually had a good conversation. He was able to articulate points, he considered mine, did a good job of addressing them, etc. I was not convinced (I am mixed on the legalization of marijuana, but his petition was to put it on the front burner at the local level, and Oakland has far more important things to do than to lead a battle through the courts to establish case law for this - not to mention the fact that he had not thought through the other ramifications of the precedents that would be set if they won. Why not let Santa Monica lead this one? They have the money to burn. Oakland needs to spend its resources elsewhere), but we had a good and respectful argument.

However, most of the petition gatherers are a bunch of Naderites who are incapable of listening to any conflicting view. They are followers of a cult, and will not question the supreme leader. I wouldn't mind if some chip somewhere rendered them mute.

Oh no, I forgot to do this

JXrXd, the unnamed bearer of beer at the bullfight Monday night, was a bit miffed that I gave the impression that he somehow bought Coors Light on purpose or was at least OK with his purchase. It was one of those things that happen in a crush of people (all speaking Portuguese, a language that Mr. GXtXkXnst does not speak), in a hurry. It was not his fault, and he definitely does not like Coors. He also does not think that I disguised his identity enough, which is hogwash. Obviously changing the vowels to X's made it very difficult for anyone to know who I was speaking of.

Anyway, rest assured that I do not go to bullfights with regular Coors drinkers.

Speaking of beer in cans, I just bought a twelve pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, which was the first beer ever put in cans. For what I am using it for, Pabst is a tolerable beer (I will be using an opened can of it as a stand for a chicken on the barbecue). You can drink it, too, which barely applies to Coors.

Now I am going to utter complete heresy: German beer is overrated (a generalization). Give me an Englisch ale any day (or a Czech beer if we are looking at lagers). Still, they sell these wonderful minikegs at Trader Joe's, and when the weather is hot, they are mighty tempting.

Search Requests

To the person searching for "recipe for Muslim oil" I am a bit baffled. I hope you are not looking at rendering some hapless Mohammedan. We must fight that horrid heresy, but rendering is over the top. Perhaps you mean the black stuff from which we make gasoline? In which case the best recipe is invade and take the stuff. Letting them sell it only fuels death and the spread of Mohammedanism. If you are looking for a food thing, then you are going to have to be more specific. Not counting Western apostates (whom I really cannot object to rendering - every rule seems to have an exception), Mohammedanism covers a lot of ground, from Morocco to Indonesia. I have recipes from North Africa, from Syria, from Turkey, from Pakistan, etc. All sorts of flavoring oils and cooking oils, so you have to be more specific.

To the person looking for the key that has three flats, the easiest thing to remember is: B-E-A-D-G-C-F. For the Major key, look to the penultimate one in the number you get to, so for three flats, B-E-A, and the answer is E flat Major. For minor, then go down a minor third, so c minor. It is not really correct to call a mode a key, but if you were, then you could be talking about g phrygian or even d locrian, although the locrian mode doesn't really exist.

Oh yeah

Obviously posts like that last one should tell you that I am still too swamped for anything of substance, like that bullfight report. And with Dante tonight, it looks like we must wait for tomorrow.

Tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Seems so Far away,
Now I believe in Tomorrow...

No, that's not it. Not it at all. At least this one doesn't have that whining vegetarian singing it. Why not? Because he is stuck in Yesterday.

Back to writing Strategic Marketing Brief.

Bye.

Mea Culpa

I am sorry for the light postings these days, but I am tremendously busy. I have been working on two marketing project proposals, a music marketing project, two restaurant reviews, a slew of CD reviews, a banner for the Lepanto League, as well as the reading for the Lepanto League gathering. Add this to raising Amalia, helping my parents in their landscaping project, a dinner party, a bullfight Monday and Lectura Dantis readings and I am one busy puppy. I will try to post a bit here and there, but I will be pretty swamped until Tuesday.

Meanwhile, for your reading pleasure, might I recommend any of the fine blogs on the sidebar (as well as the usual suspects who have yet to make it on the sidebar)?

A New Record!

This evening my site was spammed some 600 times, all for variants on the same filthy URL. What would have taken hours took only 20 minutes, thanks to MT Blacklist. Hopefully I was comprehensive enough in adding strings of text to the blacklist, that this will rid me of this particularly offensive spammer.

If you are using Movable Type, I highly recommend MT Blacklist. I thank Ann for installing it and for all of you who recommended it to me.

Spam Must Go!

I just had to spend the last half-hour de-spamming a bunch of comments that got past blacklist. As a result I am far too foul a mood to post what I was going to post. Sorry. Perhaps later.

The offending comments were beyond offensive. Is there any way of turning this stuff in to a regulating agency that will actually do something about it?

I Hear Those Jackboots Marchin'

The forces of Anti-Libertarianism strike again on Erik's Rants and Recipes. According to Ann, the talented web-tech-design person behind the scenes here, we now have Blacklist. Many thanks to Ann!

I will dedicate this Blacklist to the Cause of Perpetually Stamping Out the Good Reputation of Paul Robeson (pheh! pew! yuck!). Of all cultural figures, the most repulsive has to be Paul Robeson (pheh! pew! yuck!). He was educated at the finest schools, had a college sports career, a law career, a music career, and a film career, made a ton of money, yet embraced Stalinism, even to the point of betraying a friend to death. He made a ton of money singing "Negro Spirituals" all the while denouncing religion. He was a traitor to every party that he owed allegiance. In blacklisting his good name for eternity, let's take a moment to pray that he repented, because otherwise a man of his depravity would undoubtedly be eternally farted out of Lucifer's least part.

While speaking of blacklisting I always think of Satan's little club, those turds at the American Civil Liberties Union, and that makes me think of my dislike of civil libertarianism in general. I read on a blog or somewhere that the government is monitoring blogs. The linked article had the usual pissers and moaners crying "domestic spying!"

It sounds like these folks are in need of a castor oil cocktail. Blogging is publishing, and it is publishing in a particularly accessible form. We charge no money (although some ask for contributions to help keep the blogging a higher priority than it would otherwise be (as a person who makes his living from writing, I certainly understand Mark's position)) and, in fact, try to encourage as many people as possible to come to read our blogs. To have any expectation of privacy is daft. I suppose these ACLU numbskulls would have the FBI shunning the newspapers as well.

So, in the spirit of blacklists and in the memory of my hero, Sen. Joseph McCarthy of happy memory, let it be known that June 1, 2004 is the last date that I will accept as innocent when the Keilholtz Dictatorship seizes the membership lists of the ACLU. You have been warned. Any name found in active status from that point on, will be viewed as guilty of violating the law, even though it may take another 20 years to establish the Keilholtz Dictatorship.

Furthermore, while ACLU members are still invited to the San Fermin festa, they will be required to ply the Duce with jugs of cheap red wine to assuage his wrath. The only person who is automatically uninvited is Paul Robeson himself (dead Commies are not usually the life of the party, you know). Even his good for nothing son can come, provided he pays the proper tribute.

Posted by order of the BlogDuce

Blog Spam

I have been deleting spam comments and banning the IP's. Unfortunately I lost one of the numbers that I was going to put on here, so if you spammed me last night and find that one of your IP numbers still works, please let me know so that I can ban you.

I am up to something like 60 banned IP numbers, almost all of them for spamming. I am quite tolerant of most anything, but spam and sedevacantism go too far.

Reading spam is probably some great cultural barometer, though. Reading said barometer is probably a task better left to some grad student with a grant and a lot of time on his hands. I would do it, but it is a sunny day and the goats need feeding!

New Link!

Anna L. Conti is an artist in San Francisco with a blog! From what I have read this morning she is worth reading. She also has pictures of the de Young construction. I am still pessimistic about the whole thing, but that is for a later post.

Meanwhile, be sure to read her entry on "what is art."

Feeling a little grumpy perhaps.

I am sick and tired of sedevacantists and their whining. They are not Catholic and are henceforth banned from Erik's Rants and Recipes. This prohibition does not extend to Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and others who are honest about their relationship to the Catholic Church and our Holy Father Pope John Paul II. Likewise this prohibition does not extend to authentically Traditional Catholics who are in communion with the Holy Father.

I have come to this decision based on two things:

First, ecumenicism is a worthy and noble thing when seen in the light of Tradition. However, it has become too infected with the Spirit of Vatican II and we need to think of ecumenical dialog in the light of Bl. Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors and how the Church has dealt with heretics and schismatics in the past. Dialogue is two-way, and there is no evidence that pseudo-Traditionalist schismatics are interested in it. We disrespect their own Athos-like views if we insist on dialog with these people.

Second. Error has no rights. Repeat daily. Error has no rights. We do not do these misguided souls any good by giving them any platform with which to broadcast their goofy views.

Third. These people are in grave danger of losing their souls and should not be dismissed lightly. Extra ecclesiam nullus salus est. Authentic Catholics take that seriously, when it is viewed in the light of the Tradition and the Sacred Council. It is one thing to recognize that God may act in mysterious ways and see to it that some animist in the jungle is somehow incorportated in God's Holy Church, but another to use it as a shield for those who pretend to be Catholic, yet abandon the barque of Peter.

So, from this point on, any posts expressing sedevacantism or by known sedevacantists who have not publicly repented of their error will be deleted and the IP added to the list of sellers of online pharmaceuticals.

EDITED TO ADD: The first step in these sanctions are simple deletions, which will happen to any post that is disrespectful of the Holy Father at all. Repeat offences will result in IP Banning, which can be appealed by emailing me at EKeilholtz [at] aol [dot] com.

One more new link

I keep meaning to link to Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. I met him awhile back and later was reading a blog and put two and two together, and by the Grace of God did not come up with five this time (I hate when I do that), but realized that it was the same priest. Anyway, he has a great blog: reflective, balanced, well-written and edited, in short, all the stuff that you have gotten used to doing without on my blog. His new home at stblogs.org looks very good, too. It turns out he is moving back to take over a parish not too far from us, so hopefully we will get to see him in person soon.

Speaking of new links...

I am ashamed. I thought that I already had Mark Sullivan's Irish Elk in the links section. He is as big a fanatic of early American jazz as you will find in St. Blog's Parish. He is also a baseball fan, although he is into those teams that one finds on the other side of the Sierra Nevada (I chalk it up to accident of birth, invincible ignorance, etc.). He has named his blog after some extinct Polish deer that is known as an Irish Elk. What more do you want? Mark is the Mezz!

New Link!

Anyone named Otto is OK in my book, particularly if he is Catlick. He also links to a hideous picture of the grotesque hand of a witch, so if you want a scary image, see what a lifetime of Leftism will do to one's physical well-being, and be glad that you were never Tom Hayden or Ted Turner, go click on the Hanoi Jane photo link. Eeeew.

Anyway, this Otto fellow runs a mighty fine blog! Check him out if you haven't done so already.

Spam attack

I was hit by a robot that left spam messages in 192 of my comments boxes. In the process of deleting them I inadvertently deleted a post. If it was a favorite of yours and you cannot find it, let me know and I will try to recreate it.

Meanwhile, I have had two requests for topics and will comply. I was asked about Lenten disciplines and have started a post on them at home (I am at my parents' house tonight, so cannot post it yet). The other is about the California Supreme Court (uggh! the very phrase makes me gag). I will need to do some research on it. I have been very busy with restaurant reviews, CD reviews, and a design project and simply have not been following the current round of court cases.

Meanhwile, speaking of restaurant review, if you are in the Bay Area and are looking for good Louisiana cuisine, please check out the CreoLa Bistro in San Carlos. It was the first four car rating I have ever given (our highest mark - don't blame me for the dorky "car" system, it predates my editor even). This place serves food worthy of the best restaurants in the Big Easy.

Links update

I am finally getting around to adding to the links. It has been awhile, and I realized that some of my favorite sites are not on there. I added the Curt Jester, and the two bullfighting sites mentioned below. I also have to say that it is with some sadness that I had to delete one of my favorite comments box contributors, as he has stopped his excellent blog (get a new one, John, we miss you. Also, you were the only Prottie (agnostics like Lileks don't count) that I linked to, so now I look even less ecumenical than ever). I also added Reflections in d minor which replaced another fine blog that has gone away (come back, Gregg!).

There are scads of others that I should add, and I will eventually. If you notice that you are not on the list and should be, please holler!

Advance Warning

If any post seems more than usually incoherent this weekend, please forgive me, as I am celebrating my birthday. On this day in 1972 (that is 29 years ago - in the Keilholtz dictatorship we do not admire the Commies, but there is something about their ability to change basic facts to fit with ideology), I was born in the Great State of California, in a town that will someday be known as Carmichael del Caudillo.

To celebrate my birthday, please have a Sapphire martini (diluted with a splash of water, as gin is sold at too high a proof in this country) and tell me about it. I was going to have a martini before dinner, but realized that I am out of gin and had forgotten to get more. They say the memory is the first thing to go.

If for some strange reason you do not drink gin, then you can celebrate with roast pork and fried potatoes, or trippa alla fiorentina or by playing Toddler Iron Chef (go to a good butcher shop and let the 2 year old pick the meat. It is great fun and you might learn to cook something you never have done before. If you are really adventuresome, do this at the Oakland Housewives Marketplace, which is practically a museum of variety meats). If you want to stop by here to celebrate, please make sure to call first, as we might be doing something after mass. If you really want to give me a birthday present, then come to mass at the National Shrine of St. Francis and volunteer to help with collection, as I am on duty as head usher and am always looking for volunteers.

Still writing!

Unfortunately the lettering project keeps me too busy to do much blogging. The things we do for friends! At least I am having fun on my flourished italic hands. I normally prefer more sedate hands, but for this wedding they want lots of curlicues. So, bear with me, and I will reward you with a good post on art or music or a good recipe (cooking has been minimal until I get this thing done).

By the way, I hate to be the bearer of good news, but I had a disagreement with the IRS over something, namely that they adjusted my return (without an actual audit, thank God), and was dreading the inevitable conflict with them. However, they are being really helpful and efficient. The suspicious side of me is on alert, but they really don't seem to be horrid vultures looking for any reason to ding me. It looks to be all resolved in my favor, with much help on their part. Wow! Who woulda thunk?

No art talk today

Amalia wanted to go to the farm yesterday, so we did not make it to any museum. We did get to feed some magnificent dairy shorthorns, some lovely geese, a sow that was the size of a bus, goats (yawn, the thrill is not in feeding goats, but in not feeding goats), and sheep. We also looked at the pictures of the different breeds, and I showed Amalia what traits to look for in a fighting bull. It was a perfect day for the farm: weather in the 60's, clear blue skies, all that wonderful stuff, so it is probably better that we were outsided instead of inside. Unfortunately it has started to rain, or we would go to the Ardenwood Farm tomorrow. Trudging through mud is not fun, and they will not be running the horse drawn train. So, perhaps we will find ourselves in a museum tomorrow. Then you get some art talk.

Upcoming attractions

I might be at SFMOMA tomorrow, in which case I will blog about what is there, otherwise I won't. If we don't go there, we will probably go to a gallery of some sort, so there should be some art talk coming up. I don't think that I will make the return trip to the David Ireland exhibit at the Oakland Museum this week, so a comprehensive discussion of Ireland, Bay Area Funk Art, Conceptual Art and the like will have to wait.

As for food, I have really not done anything that exciting since the duck confit, so you will have to wait until a wave of creativity hits me (unless I find out about some new thing at the Ferry Terminal Farmers' Market).

I am finishing up the Hughes book on Goya, so a review will be forthcoming. I am still not up to writing anything big on Fellini, as much as I might be tempted by Steven Riddle's discussion of the Responsibility of the Artist, mainly because I would end up spending too much time on it, and I really should be spending the time on writing for filthy lucre.

Ah yes, filthy lucre, filthy lucre. When I was in High School it seemed like a great dream: get paid to write! Wow! To be a professional writer! Does it come with cape and theme music? Well, no, not really. And with the demise of the manual typewriter and hats and chainsmoking, whiskey guzzling newspapermen, even some of the noir romance is gone. I do have to admit that I have a probably unhealthy love of hate mail, especially when it is misdirected and completely illiterate. There is nothing more fun than finding 100 emails in my inbox adressed to a colleague telling me in vastly substandard English that I am an idiot because I do not see the brilliance of whatever flash in the pan my colleague panned that week. The irony is that I have yet to have even heard of the folks that are so vehemently defended by their teenybopper fans.

"Your revue was unfair. X does to sing with emotion and for you to say that he is all commercial is unfair. Maybe you dont like him but you don't have the right to say that he is bad."

If you ever want a reason to despair over our education system, trade email addresses with me when a colleague pans the next American Idol and my address is stuck on the byline by mistake.

So that is what is coming up on Eriksrant. I hope it doesn't bore you too much, but if it does, please send me an email telling me so in no uncertain terms!

New link!

I am surprised that I just discovered Relapsed Catholic. Anyway, even though I should probably add a whole bunch of other links that I have known about and enjoyed for some time, I am adding this one right away so I don't forget. Anyone who is as appalled as I am that the Stalinist ham actor and minstrel singer Paul Robeson is getting honored with a postage stamp is fine in my book!

Be sure to read the article she links on Robeson. He did make a good point, when he refused to support the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He said that the people involved were "the same sort of people who overthrew the Spanish Republican Government."

Paul, I couldn't have stated it better myself. And let me further congratulate you by saying that you were the sort of person who benefitted from the Spanish "Republican" Government. I sure you could have been Chief Minstrel for the Cause if they had won.