Yes, I Am Blind

The Cleveland Museum of Art has a temporary installation from British artist, Anish Kapoor, who you might know better as the person who did 'the Bean' (or officially known as Cloud Gate) in Chicago.

If our piece has a name, it's not listed anywhere that I can find.

Cleveland has this Kapoor piece for a year, until July 2016. Yes, it is reminiscent of Cloud Gate in the material used and the reflections.

We are not really bean-shaped. There is a convex and a concave side. And no super great way to get a super great picture. At least not without drones, step-ladders, hover boards or the like.

Like the Bean, I think for all its simplicity, it is actually quite pretty. Or maybe I'm just distracted by shiny objects.

The difference with the Cleveland piece - or one of them - might be that the Bean is installed on a cement and stone plaza. There is grass nearby, but not that close to the sculpture itself.

Ours is.

The reflection has been such that the museum has stopped cutting the grass back around the art to a standard level, because the reflection of the sun burns and kills the shorter blades. In fact - it does more than that.

You will need to enlarge the below image.

What we all feared:  Art Maims.

I have seen pieces of art so bad that you'd wish you'd have lost your eyesight. But I've never seen a work that actually could rob you of it, lest you be careful.

The warning triangle seems to be new. I've never seen that on anything else. I love that some graphic artist had to develop this warning.

Still, it's great we snagged this - even if it is just for a year. I'm enjoying the new director of the museum, whom I had a chance to meet the other week at a dinner.

I hope there is more to come like this.  I mean, except for the retinal burns.



Song by: Morrissey

Save the Country

In a realistic world, Carlene Carter is known four things - and possibly in this order:

A. Being the daughter of June Carter (who she is eerily looking more and more like every day). 

B. Being the temporary wife of Nick Lowe.

C. (coming up below in this post) 

D. Making her own music.

Carter still makes music, but she's almost never made hits. Some of her things were critically received but very little has commercially done so. I can only truly think of two song of hers - "Every Little Thing" and "I Fell in Love". 

I won't say she had a bigger starring role in Lowe's "Cruel to be Kind" video, but there were clips of their real wedding along with fake clips made for the video itself. 

Still, she was a June Carter-Cash's daughter, though her father was Carl Smith....and not so oddly Carlene didn't use "Smith" as her last name, not when you could be part of the Carter Family. Still Carlene was what was probably known as a "spitfire" in country-music circles. 

On her early '80s disks, she used British musicians - Lowe, Dave Edmunds, members of Squeeze, other than Nashville types, though to be fair, Rockpile and such did quite a bit of Rockabilly and often had more soul than some of those in Music City. 

I'm sure she rocked Nashville's world (not in a good way) back when it was a bit more stodgy when she was quoted as saying:  "I put the cunt in country". 

She wishes. 

I haven't really thought of Carter in years............until Sunday whilst at Homo Depot. 

Somehow this slipped through the Ohio BMV. 

Both 710 and I hoped to see the owner / driver, but alas we did not. 

Song by: Rosanne Cash   (Carlene Carter's step-sister)

My Music Monday

We are still on duets. I mean - this is only the second week.

I'm going with "One Cool Remove" - a song from Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter that came from Colvin's album Cover Girl.

I was still working at THE Ohio State University when it came out, so I'm guessing 1994?

Yes, it was an album of covers and one of the few that kind of actually worked. Colvin does a great job with the Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place".

Greg Brown's "One Cool Remove" is the only duet on the album. Carpenter and Colvin have been friends and colleagues for ages - with Colvin singing on at least one song on many of Carpenter's disks going back to 1987. They even did extensive touring together in 2014 - just them and their guitars.

Colvin has another disk of covers - Uncovered - due out next month. Normally I'd say she was coasting, but I haven't been a big fan of her last two original disks, so maybe this will be better. I know I won't be so quick to purchase without sampling beforehand - I've learned my lesson.

Still I've always been a fan of Brown's song - and the two women do a nice cover. Their vocals are understated, but work well together.

Wet Paint

It's illogical, I know - but since "the flood", I hate being in the basement - even to do laundry. Not that I ever went down there for much else, but now it's just icky. 

Yes, the floor was cleaned (twice) but we haven't quite put everything back. The idea was we would paint the floor before getting things to the way they were - if not better. But then, we realized, it's not worth painting and sealing the floor is we don't do the same to the walls - which should come first. 

So it had to be done, we said. Mind you, I would have liked for someone else to do it, but to maintain my membership in the National Gay Butch Club™ (non-lesbian chapter), the job had to be done by ourselves. Auditing might ensue, so it was off to Homo Depot for waterproof paint. 

I love 710 a lot, but he has a skewed sense of time. If he says he's leaving in 5 minutes, I add 25. So when he says it would take an hour or two to do this job, I doubled. it. I was close. 

We struggled with the job on multiple levels. Waterproof paint is thicker than regular paint. Nothing has probably been done to these walls in 70+ years. The plaster itself changed consistency every few feet - assuming it wasn't already crumbling. 

The bigger struggle was internal to ourselves. We had to throw out most of what we know on how to paint. This isn't taping stuff off, this isn't certain brush strokes. And then you had to let go of perfection versus just cover as best you can. It is a basement - an unfinished one, a rough one. Perfection isn't really obtainable, but it's hard to not try. Then it's just a waste of time and paint. 

So most of the walls are done. 

BEFORE: 

AFTER: 

In the right picture, we have exposed lathe we need to take care of. But the rest of the walls are done. We might end up doing some bead board up something on the lower third, just to make it cleaner. We are not replastering. Or we can just cover it with paint - but we'll see. 

During the painting, I thought I got some in my beard. I asked 710 to check - he went back and forth if I did or not. He finally admitted it was possible, or it could just be the grey in my beard. 

Great!!!  

Still we can do the floor next weekend, if we get it together. I can't find red waterproof paint, so it will be slate or silver. The former will be darker and easier to cover things. But the latter will keep things lighter in a basement. I'm probably going for easier just to get back to some sense of normalcy. 

You'll get pics of the floor - once we get around to it. Because I know you're all dying to know. 

Song by: Forest for the Trees

Gang of One

Just a few pics from a week ago. Three-Fifths of them are from when we were in Columbus last weekend.

 Visiting my sister - Boomer made himself comfortable, which is just fine with me. He's a great dog. 

A veritable s(n)ausage festival:  Petey, Barkley, Ripley, Skeeter - and Logan's tail.  We visited Morty and George last weekend. Meredity (Ripley) and Rebecca (Barkely) were around too. 

Petey got to sleep in our room at Georty's house. 710 invited him onto the bed - and it was all over. 

It was his first time sleeping with us in bed. He looks WAY too comfy. 

Petey the following morning. 710 loved loved loved him in bed, pressing right up against him. Petey got out of bed about 75 minutes after we had been up - and only because we insisted. 

 Chipmunk hunt with Skeeter and Logan. 

Dogs: 0.  Chipmunk: 1.

And the lone Sophie pic - hanging with me in my office. 

We were gone for 36 hours. 

She yelled at us like we had been gone 36 weeks. 

Song by:  Bradford

Zero

It's 22:00 and I just realized I had not drafted a thing for today.

Nor do I have anything even running around in that walnut-sized brain of mine.

These things happen. The day gets away from me, and there is nothing interesting in the news - or in my life.

It will give you a chance to catch up on all your other blog reading.

Or checking out TMZ or NPR - whichever you tell yourself, that's fine. No one will know - no one to judge.



In the end I could not watch the debate(s). I had to laugh and laugh at the turn-out for the Kid's Table Debate.

Ouch.

Just ouch.



Song by: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Hood Politics

Tonight's first GOP debate could go either way.

I could watch - and be horribly amused at the imploding that is sure to go on.

Or I could watch and end up holding a gun to my head and pull the trigger, in which any sane coroner would call "justified suicide".

Or I could figure out my Twitter sign-in and password to watch people just real-time recap for me, and usually with funnier quips than the 10 on stage would be doing.

Or.....and probably the real scenario: I'll read about it tomorrow.


First off - how big of a joke is this debate?   (the question is somewhat rhetorical, though I'll go on to answer it myself.)

FOX is holding it. Ok.  TOTALLY impartial here. But on the other hand, no other reputable news organization (if one exists) wouldn't (probably) even bother with this train wreck. And that tramp, Megan Someone or Other is moderating.

She doesn't have an impartial bone in her body, nor would she ever give them hard-ball questions, let alone hold them to actually answering a question.

I also believe she has personally fellated every single male candidate (multiple times) who "qualified" for the debate, which, polling numbers aside, is the only reason Carly Fiorina isn't one of the 10. {and more power to Megan for finding Christie's dick under all those folds of skin!}

I'm not sure I like the idea of the debate top 10. If you're doing just top 10 - fine. But to appease the other six losers with a kid's table debate is FOX just puckering up to their buttholes on the off chance one of those six moves up in the polls. And any number of those six (or sixteen) are sure to be FOX commentators in the next few months.

I do hope for a train wreck though, but I don't hold out hope that this will truly be moderated. It will just be a talking-over-each-other-fest.

Trump claims, if elected President, he'd tone down his rhetoric and buffoonery (my word, not his). My first question to him would be: 'based on what we've seen of you in the last 30 years (even the last 30 days), what evidence do you have to support this "claim"? 

Ms. Lindsey Graham called Trump a "jackass" and Trump gave out Graham's personal cellphone number - proving Ms. Graham right.

Can you imagine this blow-hard actually dealing with other heads of state?  Let's face it, we'd have a chunkier version of Putin in office.

The only other person I'll comment on today is Kasich. He's an asswipe. Another running for office with g-d's guidance. Don't you think g-d would pick ONE candidate to run, and actually HAVE him win? Kind of makes you wonder not only about religion as a whole, but to which g-d they might speak with, or what kind of a practical joker g-d is.

Anyways - I'm doubting highly that Kasich has top 10 numbers to actually qualify for this debate. What he has is: Ohio.

Kasich will claim (and claim again and again) his landslide to victory in 2014. It's true. He did.

What he fails to mention is that the Ohio Republicans spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep a Libertarian candidate from getting on the ballot or that the Democratic party stopped pushing their candidate months and months before the election because of his fuck ups. Kasich was basically running unopposed.........but it wasn't a landslide. Not really.

No, 710 is right. Regardless of the GOP nominee, the VP nominee will be Kasich. He doesn't have the cred or numbers to be top of the ticket, but the GOP needs Ohio to win. It's why Cleveland has the GOP convention. It's why the first debate is in Ohio. And it is why that Kasich "miraculously" wound up in the top 10 only 10 days after announcing his candidacy.


The biggest downer of this GOP debate will be - no Jon Stewart recap the next day.  Sad.




Song by: Kendrick Lamar

Cooking with Blobby

Well, "cooking" implies heat. Doesn't it?

No heat here. Not today.

I'm trying gazpacho again. I did it a few years ago and it was ok, but just ok.

But this last weekend, Georty gave us a heap of fresh tomatoes. None of that store-bought, green-house raised crap.

We ate two just plain with a little salt and pepper - SO good. But the problem was, they were ripe when picked, so there is a limited window to use all of them, and I didn't want them going bad.

Gazpacho it was.

Rebecca's mother-in-law steered me towards a different kind of gazpacho - Andalusian Gazpacho. It's more Spanish than Italian. There are a few differences, one that no tomato juice is used (hallelujah!) and the other is that it is smooth - no chunks. The latter could be a problem. The former, not so much.

I LOVE tomatoes. But I am no fan of tomato juice. I make a mean tomato soup (if I say so myself), but just juice makes me gag. Straight vodka is better than a Bloody Mary.

Both 710 and I like our gazpacho chunky, but I was willing to try this - but I was smart and reserved some of the veggies for later, in case I needed to chunk-it-up.

There are a ton of recipes out there for this - no two are the same. So mine wasn't like any of them, I just kind of tried to keep to the tone, but played with it a bit. The ingredients and amounts are mine.

Tomatoes - 1.5 lbs chopped in big pieces.
Green Bell Pepper - large, chopped into large pieces.
Cucumber - 2 C largely chopped
Garlic - 4 cloves, chopped.
French Baguette - 3". Dried out (overnight). Cut into large pieces.
Celery - 2 stalks, cut into large pieces
Red Onion - 1/4 of large onion cut into large pieces
Olive Oil - 1/2 C
Sherry Vinegar - 2 T
Salt & Pepper to taste.

Put the first six ingredients into a food processor. Pulse for 3-5 minutes. Slowly pour olive oil and vinegar in during this process.

Through a sieve, let liquid pass through, leaving the solids in the sieve.

Great in theory, bad in reality. Sieve was too small in grates. What liquid got through was like dribbles of piss. The gazpacho as is, out of the processor, was pretty smooth. Smoother than I've ever had. Too smooth even then. The sieve thing was not going to work for me.

I poured everything, as is, into the bowl.

So I went and coarsely processed more cucumber, onion, celery and peppers. Not too coarse, but....still....

Seasoned with salt & pepper. 

It's not red, like other gazpacho. I guess because no tomato juice.

It also had little flavour.  We added more salt. We added another tablespoon of vinegar, and it brightened things up a bit, but I wouldn't say enough.

Maybe I'm not just not the guy to make gazpacho.

I mean, it wasn't awful or anything - there just wasn't any 'wow'.  And sometimes, I just want 'wow'.

Big Mess

This is a gas station in Cleveland. 

The man in the chair is Mayor Frank Jackson. The "boy" in his lap is Officer Michael Brelo. The man petting him, Judge John O'Donnell, who found Brelo 'not guilty' in his role of shooting two unarmed black people. 

I counted the painted bullet holes, but the numbers don't match the exact number of bullets shot during that high speed car chase & shoot-out. Only about 80 of the 137 round that ended up in the vehicle are represented. 

I suppose the NAMBLA reference is to how two grown men (mayor & judge) protected a younger man. The bag of money? Who knows. I don't think there was any discussion of impropriety when it came the verdict. No mention of paying anyone off. 

The neighborhood down by Biggie's can be a little sketchy. While I drive down the street often, I can't say I felt horribly comfortable pulling in the lot to take the picture. There have been other paintings here I have wanted to get snaps of, but didn't have the balls. 

Biggie's Foodmast (and gas station) has a history of painting things on their three exposed walls. Here is one of the other walls currently. 

This one just seems to be superheroes doing various things. 

Normally, the paintings have more of an anti-Zionistic nature. And while I know the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, I would go out on a limb to say that Biggie's clientele do not. 

These are two recent and oddly less controversial renderings - not taken by me. 

These change quite often and usually it takes a few drive-bys to figure out what they say. And by then, chances are, they've moved on to a new drawing. 

I'd love to know who actually comes up with the message, who paints and how much Biggie's puts into dollars for the paint. 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would be surprised at how many of their customers are even aware of what NAMBLA was. 

If another good one gets painted (and it will), I will post again from here. 

Song by: Lucinda Williams

My Music Monday

Duets.

That is the August theme.  Erik "let" me pick. I went through a few options with him and this wasn't even one of them. We still might revisit the others, but after scrolling through my liberry, I started to freak out about some of the other themes and whether I could fulfill the month-long obligation.

I'm still not sure I can. I mean - I can - easily. But I'm not going for the low-hanging fruit and it seems nowhere in my liberry is Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson singing "State of Shock".

You can thank me now for that.

I'll start off with a left-of-center one - perhaps.  It might be dead-center for the likes of my readership, but you never know.

Laurie Anderson & Peter Gabriel.  Unless you bought the version on his album, then it's Peter Gabriel & Laurie Anderson.

"Excellent Birds".  Or "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", if you bought Gabriel's album.  Titled slightly differently for different albums.

I'm going with the Anderson version, well, because I knew her version first and like her version better. And yes - the songs are not only titled differently but they are different. Not majorly so, but enough. I think I like Anderson's better because it is different for her. Gabriel's just reeks of him. Not that it's a bad thing, with him, back in 1984 it was nothing new.

Anderson even said in a recent interview that not only was this her first collaboration with anyone, but that she and Gabriel could never agree on what the bass line was - and they operated on two different planes in regards to what they heard, which is why they took the bones of each recording and made the rest their own.

There is a video for Gabriel's version (with Anderson in it), but not one for her version. Both are very visual artists, but since I'm doing Laurie's take, you only get audio.


Laurie Anderson - "Excellent Birds"

Learn to Fly

I know it's made the rounds - as even I've posted it on Facebook. But I was just so wow'd by 1,000 musicians playing the Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly".

I like the song anyways, but I thought it was an incredible way to try to woo a band to play your native land.

I get that I don't know how much of the playing was isolated with mics, because you certainly don't hear any screw-ups. But when they get long shots of the drummers, not one of them is out of synch. It is totally awesome to watch.

And everyone is in tune. But with so many singers, you're not hearing the Peter Bradys of Italy.

The song is only the first four minutes of the video. Watch the rest if you like. Or don't.

The Foo Fighters even put this video on the front page of their website. I don't see how Dave Grohl & Co. cannot go and perform there now.







Song by: Foo Fighters

Across the Fields

Petey had a rough start to the week. Not sure why he was ill, but he was.  A few days of rice and chicken - instead of his boring old kibble - perked him right up and he's back to normal.

I wish he liked to swim (or water at all), because it was so hot, it would have been nice to take him swimming somewhere. But he is not a water dog in any sense of the word - unless it means drinking it.

On the way out to see my mom, we stopped at the polo fields. (oh yes, where I grew up, we actually had polo fields!)  He loved it. Soooooo many new smells. I was hoping a horsey would be there for him to check out. Alas, there were none. 

Sophie was in no mood to pose. But she never is. 

Our sunroom was an add-on way back when. The step you see Petey laying on is cement and use to be the step to the outdoors. He's taking to laying there lately. I think it's cool on these hot days. 

Same entry. Sophie just playing with the door. She can come and go as she pleases, but she would rather play the victim of not being able to get in or out on her own. 

Old & the new. 

New 8 week old Omar meets 13 year old Petey. Omar looks annoyed, but he wasn't. Petey was very intrigued. And Omar was so cute and so soft. 

Song by: 10,000 Maniacs

the Lion Sleeps Tonight

I got nothing.

Well - technically that is not true. But there is so little I can write about Cecil, the lion, that hasn't been done in the last 48 hours.  Sure I signed petitions and I noted my outrage on various sites.

I was mildly amused at people's outrage at the outrage. How dare we care more about a dead lion than we do about lives cut down in movie theaters or during routine arrests, they say.

A. It's not one or the other we have to be enraged about. As humans, we can operate at multiple levels. Honest.

B. It's Facebook. Give it 36 hours - people will move on from Cecil, just like they have already moved on about the theater shootings, police killings, SCOTUS decisions and Caitlyn Jenner. Whether you agree or not, that's how social media works. We might not be at Andy Warhol's 15 minute time parameter, but we're getting closer. We, like Mr. Mike, have short attention spans.

C. The lion had better PR. That's all there is to it. And we had a common enemy that people hate: no one likes the dentist (or the idea of the dentist) and it turns out, no one likes a dentist who hunts and hunts dirty.

Since I just had my check-up a month ago, I can't even crack-wise with my dentist about this. By the time December rolls around, no one is even going to remember this incident. Well except that Minnesota dentist - who might have to look for a Greeter job at Wal*Mart.

I have to believe, the DDS never saw this coming - certainly to this degree. I'd say "how horrid to be so vilified in such a short time frame", but it's not horrid. He is a horrible person - for this and the other illegal hunting he has done. It's not horrid, it's deserved.

Allegedly he voted for Romney - which is great. It proves that Mitt was a jobs creator. Just think of all the O.T. going into the police force of Bloomington, MN - protecting the dentist's business and neighborhood. Round the clock security - even though he isn't even there {allegedly}. That is economic stimulation!

Well, I guess that's it for today.


Song by: the Tokens

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there! 

Admittedly, I was a little hard on Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell's last album, Old Yellow Moon two years ago.

Individually, I like both artists a lot and expected greater things from that disk. At best Old Yellow Moon was fine, but mostly it missed the mark. As a member of Harris' Hot Band years back and an accomplished producer in his own right, I figured Crowell would step-up and take the helm of the last album.....or even this one. He did neither on both.

The Traveling Kind is remarkably better than their last outing. Maybe it's the song choices. Maybe it is that Crowell wrote more of these. Maybe it's because Harris wrote some too. Perhaps it is Joe Henry's production.

Perhaps that there is a more 'country' bent to this than 'americana', the latter in which both have made great strides in the last few years - but early on, they were full-on country (not that they'd actually be allowed in today's sub-par version of country music).

With the opening of title track, Harris gives a nod to her mentor, Gram Parsons with "we don't all die young to save our spark" and then references both of her and Parsons (waycross boy & the red dirt girl). It's a nice song and nice harmonies between her and Crowell.

A really different kind of tune - which I wasn't sure I'd like, but really do - "Bring it On Home to Memphis". The song structure is different for both artists, but it works. I'm not sure I can say the same thing about "No Memories Hanging Round". Harris isn't in the best voice for this - and I think Crowell produced the ultimate version when his then-wife Rosanne Cash recorded it back in 1978.

Their cover of Lucinda Williams' "I Just Wanted to See You So Bad" is pretty frickin' good. Harris has always had a good track record at recording Williams.

The rest of the songs work on some levels - and some more than others. It could be argued that Crowell and Harris don't harmonize traditionally well - and that might be true, but their love of the music and each other's styles can transcend that.

Sure - it can be an acquired taste, but I don't think anyone would dispute the talent they have together or one their own.

Wash Me Clean

There is a reason I should not be allowed to talk to certain vendors who do service for us. Like if they do an iffy job.....or g-d forbid a bad one - I'm one to hold my tongue.  ......that is, until I don't. And then venom just kind of spews forth.

We are in a little over a month since our basement flooded. And 3+ weeks since the company I hired to do the clean up did "the clean up".

Oh yes. Quotes.

When our neighbors used and recommended these guys, I though, "ok....my neighbors are pretty good with this stuff". I got a quote - $800 cheaper than the first quote. Insurance covered it.  Then two schmoes came out and did the work. With our neighbors they were there for over a day. For us, less than 90 minutes.

I raised an eyebrow when 710 told me they were done and gone. On the plus side, the guys said the pricing wasn't anywhere near what we had been quoted ($900 cheaper, actually), so I thought, 'cool, we can pocket the extra dough the insurance company paid for'.

Let's start with that the worker bees said, "we don't pick up x, y and z - you have to do that before we can start".  I was stymied, but 710 and I went to work while they sat in the driveway. So they actually started work 30 minutes later than scheduled. I started questioning - if they cleaned up basements, why are WE cleaning up ours first. It's the equivalent of cleaning the house before the maid gets there.

I was told by the company that they would bring and leave fans for the basement to dry and they'd pick them up the following week. None of that was done. We had to get our own fans to do that work.

I will admit to not going down while they worked. I know what was to be done and made the silly assumption they did too. And maybe they did, but they didn't do it.

What you see at the title image was before they came. What you see below, is how they left us.

Ok. It looked better. The grey is just unpainted floor.  ......and then it dried.

Granted it was better than the title image, but c'mon: this is not clean!

They did not answer 710's phone calls nor his emails. Until his second email, which came after the invoice. The invoice they said was based on the estimate. Dude!  How about based on the actual work? And the invoice was higher than the estimate.

This floor is not $1400+ clean. It's not fucking $40 clean.

So they could not get 710 on the phone and unfortunately they got me. Me who started firm and ended up just kind of losing it on them. "We never got a call or an original email" they says. (liars). Our workers can't give out pricing - let alone reduce it ("then why did they ask for 710's credit card?). Where were the fans? Why were they here less than 90 minutes but across the street for a day and a half? Why did we have to clean our own basement floor?  and of course the kicker: why is there still mud and dried sewage still on our floor?

Granted, I put them on the defensive, but they started a blame game - so you know how well that sat with me. And for the record - they answered none of my questions. Not one.

Since they were asking some questions back (the blame part on email and phone), I said, I would have 710 call them, but won't answer for him.

To my credit, I never once brought out the ultra-bitch card: their ad. Embiggen if you need.

I desperately wanted to ask how they could possibly rid a structure of a deadly virus if they can't even clean a fucking floor.

I am the model of restraint.

If you lead with fucking Ebola, you had better be able to eat off the fucking basement floor.

So I talked to 710 and let him know I kind of imploded on these folks and sorry for what he was about to walk into. But they came back out yesterday 100 minutes later than schedule (and the owner who was supposed to be there was a no-show!).

The floor is clean, but clearly needs to be painted.

....but it ain't gonna be by them. I'd rather make a Homo Depot run and do it myself. At least that's the plan now.



Song by: k.d. lang

Baking with Blobby

I haven't made cookies for weeks. I've been trying to be good, but you know, we still like something sweet after dinner. I won't lie.

But I've been lazy. Which probably isn't a bad thing for the waistline when it come to cookie consumption.

With the weather lately, the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the oven too. But it was in the high 60s, and early in the day, so I went for it.

Another new cookie, but one where I had to do as little work as possible and clear out the cupboards at the same time.

Another cake mix to cookie recipe. I liked these much better than the last go-round. And believe it or not, even fewer ingredients!

The batter took almost as long to mix thoroughly as it did for the cookies to bake. Clean-up was in two stages (while the cookies baked and the cookie sheets after they were done). All done in record time. I was in and out of the kitchen in a half-hour. Tops.

Devil's Food Cake mix - 1 box
Vegetable Oil - 1/2 c
Eggs - 2
Confectioners Sugar - as much as needed

Add first three ingredients to a bowl. Mix completely. It is thick and becomes hard to incorporate, but this is almost all the work you'll be doing, so get over it.

Scoop into 1" balls. Probably better to let them sit for a few minutes before covering them in powdered sugar (or granulated, I suppose would work). I put 2-3 into a bowl of sugar coated them and put them on the ungreased baking sheet.

Place them 2" apart from each other and put into a pre-heated 350F oven for 8-10 minutes. I rotated the sheets half-way through cooking time.

You can see that it makes about 32 cookies. Not bad.

Let them sit on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes after taking them from the oven. Then let them cool on a rack.

Some of the sugar stayed on, some baked kind of into an icing or glaze. But even the powdered sugar wasn't messy.


I'll be honest, I didn't taste test them until after dinner and 710 was the first to bite into one. He love it. So did I.

I suppose they are like a non-chemically filled Snackwell.  But they tasted so much better (from what I can remember of those cookies).

I've only had two of these, and I would definitely do them again.

My Music Monday

It's the last of the drinking song theme for me (Erik still has one more to go).

I had one other wine song and that might have been about it. It was cheeeeeeeesy, but that's kind of what would have made it fun. I might save that song for a "not intentionally funny" music theme.

But it's hard to get through this exercise without Amy Winehouse. I mean.....c'mon!

Nothing says drinkin' (well....and druggin') like Amy and her song "Rehab", which wasn't really recorded ironically. At least it wasn't initially.

What a difference a few years makes.

I'm on the fence at seeing her movie, Amy, which is already out here. It's kind of like seeing JFK and the Last Temptation of Christ. I know how they end.

"Rehab" is still great and it was practically the opening for the first episode of Glee. I don't know why, but it made me bust a gut when a competing high school show choir team opened their set with that song.

....and it fits into Erik's theme.  So there.


Anyone want to throw out ideas for a music theme for August?

Terrorism

I've been thinking about the shooting down in Louisiana the last few days. Well that and the hundreds of shootings that take place annually here in 'Murica: Land of the 2nd Amendment.

I thought Trainwreck was ok, but certainly not bad enough to shoot up the theater.

Of course, the main character doesn't stay at home or keeps quiet in church. She's kind of a drunk, promiscuous sort, so no doubt that had Mr. Crazy Pants all up in arms. But all up in militia arms.

But as a friend of mine mentioned: 'why isn't this called terrorism?'.

It is terrorism.

The NRA can call it whatever they'd like. Law enforcement can call it whatever they'd like. Politicians can call it whatever they'd like. So can the media.

It is terrorism.

If an armed man in Afghanistan walks into a coffee shop with a bomb strapped on, or someone in Egypt shoots up a pizza place, even if they kill no one, the U.S. media, and U.S. politicians call it terrorism. Well the 'media' calls it terrorism because they're taking their sound bytes from the politicos.

If an armed man goes into a Littleton, CO. theater and kills 12 folks or an elementary school in Sandy Hook, CT killing 23 children, he is a madman who might have some mental health issues. But it's not terrorism. They are not terrorists.

And here is why it isn't terrorism - at least to both the politicians and their constituents:

If we were to call it "terrorism" it would mean one of several things.

First off - we, as a country, would have to actually dial down the rhetoric for those in the middle east who are suicide bombers in the name of religion or an oppressive government.

Secondly - with all the demonizing we have done regarding the middle east, and certain African nations, vilifying their behaviour so we can use military action, or to sanction, or to manipulate funding, we would have to admit that we are no better than they are.

And we aren't better. We just have a better PR department.

Can you imagine the deuce the NRA would drop if we changed the verbiage on this - and the word "terrorism" and "terrorist" were being used on a daily basis - and in the papers and tv news?

By all accounts, the Louisiana gunman was a Christian who praised the Westboro Baptist Church and said he followed the bible to the letter of the law. I don't remember a mass theater shooting being in those pages, but I can't say I've read it cover to cover for content.

Thank g-d, he wasn't wearing a gallibaya - because then he would have been called terrorist. Because it really comes down to clothing, travel and sometimes your birthright. Well that - and if you fly three planes into three buildings.

Oh - and your religion.  Yes. that is the big one.

If you're a Christian and condone or participate in any violent act (at least in the U.S.), it seems you're not a terrorist. If you condone and participate in any violence as a Muslim, well let's face it, you're fucked.

Honestly - if we want to change the culture in this country with mass fatality shootings, we need to call it what it is: terrorism. And the people who participate are terrorists.

Not once have I heard a politician or media representative call into question a suicide bombers mental health. But that is always their 'get out of jail card' we play here. I'm not saying our terrorists don't get jail time for their crimes, but it's always with the caveat of their mental stability. On U.S. soil, it's always called into question.

But slap a Khet partug or Perahan wa tunban on them, and well, they are just plain evil from the get-go.

The sad thing is, our culture is set. I don't see these shootings stopping, nor do I even see a politician actually trying to place restrictions on weapons (so stand down gun-nuts....no one is trying to take them away).

Let's just not beat around the bush here. We know what is going on, so does the rest of the world. Just own up to it.

We breed terrorists here - and in the name of religion and what some see as an oppressive government. Just like everywhere else. Plain and simple.



Song by: XTC

Near You

I have lots of pics to choose from this week. Some I'll hold back in case of a non-photogenic week from Sophie and Pete.  As if!

But you never now when I might be too busy to take pics.  As if!

Hanging in the dining room. Petey awakening, Sophie being the Sentry. 

Poser.

Oliver, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Merlin, the Great Dane/Lab mix (8 weeks old). 

Petey didn't know what to think of Merlin, who wanted to play and kept yapping at him. 

No one barks at Petey. He didn't understand. 

With the neighborhood Corgis. There were five. now four. 

I only know one of their names. And I don't know which dog it is. 

Three-quarters of a family portrait.  Actually, I wasn't trying to get in there at all. Just leaning in to get them both in the shot was tough. 

I'd say that's all I got, but from the opening of this post you know that is not true.



Song by: Dwight Yoakam