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DESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE
AND SMORES
This page is dedicated to the territorial rantings, interviews, poetry, and musings of musician, film maker, producer, fisherman, pseudo-philosopher, and owner of zeitgeist rekords, Ellard. From poetry to pop tarts, Zen to zero year theories. A blog before there was a name for them. seriously. |
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February 15, 2010
If I were King I would set up a tax system on music. This system would monetarily provide disincentives for people to listen to familiar music and provide incentives to listen to music that is less familiar. Taxes would kick in when a song was played a certain number of times - say a million. After that there would be a gradual increase in the excise tax once the song reached a certain number of plays. Let's say after 3 million plays it would be 5 cents, 10 million plays 10 cents, 100 million plays 50 cents per listen. This would create a slight disincentive the next time someone wanted to hear Margaritaville for the kijillionth time. Since the experience and brain stimulation you receive from listening to new music is superior http://the-brain-and-music.blogspot.com/ to that of listening to the same songs over and over I believe this tax would have a public health benefit. Also, it would probably force Jimmy Buffet to scale down to two mansions instead of three and allow those royalty payments to be directed to some starving musicians who create beautiful music but just haven't had a "hit" song. I realize there is an emotional benefit that people receive from listening to a song that is connected to a memory but that benefit decreases with every listen. It is like crack where people continue to take the drug or listen to the song long after they receive any benefit from it. When my girlfriend says to me "It seems like you are just angry that your music (my art form) hasn't received recognition." I respond that I am angry that the majority people are so shortsighted and narrow minded that they feel the needed to listen to the same 500 songs (if that) their entire life. I know for a fact that there are many bands out there that are as good as the Beatles but they just haven't gotten the world spotlight focused on them. And my music has received recognition but not from thousands of people but from hundreds of people - the people keen enough to find art that isn't easily findable. For an artist it is those types of people's recognition that feels better. I have written this before below but do not let majority opinion be the only guide as you select what art and music to consume because out there on the fringes of the mainstream there is great art and music. As good as Bob Marley, ACDC, and yes Jimmy Buffet - you just have to be open to finding it. January 29, 2009 Waiting for the Cable Guy It’s raining in San Francisco again, but it’s okay because we
need the rain everybody says. November 21, 2009 You know when you listen to the right music and it makes you feel cool. And you feel like you've discovered a tropical island with all the trappings of paradise. My new island is simply listening to the Brazilian Girls station on Pandora. Of course Brazilian Girls are the fucking best thing since coconuts but the rest of the station provides as well. I Am Jen, Zero 7, Gotan Project, Rouge Rouge, Air. October 22, 2009 Your health is your first and most important estate. August 7, 2009 It has been a while since I wrote on this blog because I have been having quite a busy summer. I use this space as kind of journal for myself so I am going to do a little recap of what I have done so far this summer so I may look back in my old age and remember that I indeed lived a rich life. In the beginning of June I went whitewater rafting on the Merced River. A naturally fed river which flows out of Yosemite National Park. There are Class III and IV rapids on the River. We camped in a town called El Portal. I drove my 1993 VW Eurovan there which I just had jut been serviced.
I went with my girlfriend Kim, and my friends Todd and Ben. That is I in the front of the boat.
When we returned home from the trip my car was acting kind of funny. Then going over the Bay Bridge this loud alarm started going off. By the time I had pulled over I burnt my engine up b/c there was no oil in it. So $2800 later my car now has a newish engine. Quite a pain in the ass. The next week I started having trouble sleeping to the point where I would not sleep at all. I learned a lot of techniques for sleeping better like breathing, not clenching your teeth when you are trying to sleep, and developing a sleeping routine before you go to bed. The next weekend my girlfriend decided we should take a trip to the Monterey aquarium which is a great solution for somebody in the middle of serious bout of insomnia. It was awesome. Monterey is a beautiful place. And the aquarium is very relaxing on the mind. The jellyfish and the Secret lives of Seahorses were two of the seriously trance-inducing exhibits. We also rented a new yellow jeep which we drove around with the top down. On that same weekend I went over my friends house to bottle up the beer we have been making. Back in September of last year we were over a friends house having dinner (homemade Pho) when these guys broke out a five gallon jug of their home brewed ale. Right then I knew I had to start brewing my own beer. So far we have made a German Alt beer, California Common, and a bourbon porter. Brewing beer is a lot cheaper and easier than I thought. Recently I made an IPA. Here are pictures. The wort.
add malt.
add hops
I also met and discussed health care with my old friend and political hero one Howard Dean. It was great to hang out with Howard in SF. He is a true patriot.
Not a very good picture of either of us.
I
In June through my job I got to go to AT&T Park and take pictures of Giants catcher Bengie Molina before batting practice. I am a huge baseball and Giants fan. Bengie is a great guy. Totally cool and laid back. Here are some pics.
Best of all I got to swing Bengie's custom bat!
At another event I got hang out with Bengie's mom. This is the same Mrs. Molina that gave birth to three major league catchers. Bengie, Jadier, and Jose.
The next Saturday my friend Jesse had a pig roast in Oakland. Jesse is a chef and this pig roast was off the hook. On July 4th we rented a house in Dillon Beach which is on the mouth of Tamales Bay. That next Sunday some of my musician friends played bocce ball at aquatic park. Look at those balls!
In the end of August I went to Burning Man. It was my fourth time going. May 24, 2009 As a satirical joke about the specificity of posts I posted this ad on the musician section of Craigslist: Italian-Ukranian Classically Trained Dwarf Upright Bass Player Needed (pacific heights)Reply to:comm-jxkyr-1184285422@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?] Date: 2009-05-22, 3:12PM PDT
We Are: Serious ethnic dwarves that like to play music hard and
live hard. We have many gigs lined up and are looking for that
certain someone to fill out our lineup. We are constantly
posting on CL but can never find that exact person but we know
you are out there. Our influences include the Angry Amputees,
Radiohead, Rocket Culture, Big Head Todd and the Monsters,
Radiohead, Whitesnake, Widespread Panic, Camera Obscura, Gustav
Mahler, Radiohead, Mr. Bungle and Yo Yo Ma.
You Are: A part Ukranian (Russians not preferred but we're flexible) part Italian dwarf who rocks the upright bass. Creative and open minded, has a good job, their own transportation, the newest Guitar Center fresh smellin' gear, you care strongly about the environment, vegan or at least dairy-free, are okay with playing a lot of shows in Antioch, are preferably mute, and have similar musical influences. If you don't fit this description please don't waste our time. Looking forward to making great music with you sister. I actually go this response: My name is Boleslawa Giordano. I am a little taller than
a dwarf (4'2") - I hope this is not an issue. I went to the
Berklee School of Music to study the harp but switched to the
upright bass and did my senior thesis on Mahler. I am mute but
can speak through a voice box but prefer not to most often. I
like the influences you mentioned except
Radiohead. I work for
Greenpeace
and have not eaten meat since 1985 (a BBQ pork sandwich which
made me ill). I like to play hard and live hard. Who doesn't? I
have played several awesome shows in Antioch including one
blowout at the Sh Boom Night Club (in San Ramon but close). I
have been looking on CL for three years for a musical project I
fit with and I think I finally found my match. And this one: We prefer little people. May 23, 2009 A good safeword or phrase would be: Dick Cheney. Because that should easily eliminate, very abruptly, any sexual thoughts that could possibly exist in the air for about 2 square miles. May 16, 2009 A prospective bumper stickers gleaned from friends: "All true environmentalists should kill themselves." May 5, 2009 I am sometimes quite shocked about the amount of people who see other human beings simply as tools to get what they want. Maybe I'm pious. Not maybe, I am pious but it is still true.
April 29, 2009 Back in March I found myself in Dallas, TX. I wanted especially to visit one place and that is the site of JFK's assassination. After visiting the 6th Floor Museum, learning more about the event and JFK's presidency I have several questions. And granted I am no conspiracy theorist by any means. 1. If it was just Oswald on the Sixth Floor why did he not shoot as the motorcade was coming toward him down Elm St. He had a much clearer and easier shot than going away from him towards the underpass and grassy knoll? 2. Why when the Dallas Police Department is moving Oswald, the chief suspect in the killing of the President, do they not have somebody walking in front of him. They just sort of led him out to slaughter with two guys on either side. note: I so want to be Dallas Detective Jim Leavelle for Halloween (left of Oswald). Where am my going to find a suit like that? 
Ellard on the grassy knoll
Puff of smoke, cigarette butts?
X marks the spot where the path of history took a sharp turn. That's my foot.
April 28, 2009 I camped in Yosemite National Park this passed Friday night. It turned out to be one of the coldest April days on record there - 28 degrees. It was a damp cold and I was sleeping in a tent I bought for $25 and an inadequate sleeping bag. As I sat there in the cold and froze not sleeping much I started to feel serious compassion for those that sleep outside in our city every night. I also started to realize how much I am dependent on the creature comforts of heat and hot water whenever I want them. Kind of an attitude shifting experience for me - I don't recommend it. The next day after the freezing night from hell, my friend Tim and I hiked up the Four-Mile Trail where I got this picture.
April 25, 2009 I have been saying this for a while but I have to believe we will be the most photographed era in humanity. Since we are the first people to move from film to digital I think many individuals are taking too many pictures. When historians look back on us they are going to think we were extremely vein - which we are. When they say a picture is worth a thousand words the rest of the proverb should read but a thousand pictures do not even get you past 1050. March 18, 2009 You know one major problem with the U.S. currently is the amount of lawyers around. While medical schools are extremely selective and tend to graduate a small number of students, law schools crank out the lawyers. And what happens when you end of with a lot of lawyers with nothing to do - they decide to make laws and litigation. This litigation is extremely costly to everybody. It amounts to a slow bleed on societies resources, innovation and energy. And you have to pay lawyers to navigate the system of laws they helped create because it is so complicated. Of course not all lawyers are bad. But if you want to improve things in this country put quotas on the amount of lawyers eligible to pass the BAR. March 17, 2009 I like this quote: Twitter is just one more arrow in the quiver of self-importance that is setting up an entire generation of youngsters for a harsh reality. March 16, 2009
If a million people say a foolish thing it is still a foolish
thing.
People talk before thinking, choosing words with abandon, do not listen carefully to what you say, and color the gaps in their memories with their own subjectivities. Careful analysis has given way to invective screaming and character assassination in order to win an argument not establish an objective truth. And for some watching American Idol is a creative outlet.
To me the most exciting and admirable characteristic in a
person is intellectual honesty. To me it means that a person
is always challenging their own assumptions about the world
and the things they perceive to be true. It also means that
they tend to believe less of their own bullshit and can be
relied upon to provide an objective opinion which will be
closer to some objective truth.
A post-modernist would argue there exists no real
objectivity but I do not think that is 100% correct. I do
feel people have the ability to believe and regurgitate
information that is completely false or misleading b/c they
simply do not care that it is so -
George W. Bush.
And other people are cautious about believing or espousing
something until they have gone through a process of
empirically and/or philosophically vetting something. These
people are courageous enough to ask the tough questions.
Questions that may have no easy answers, may gain them
social scorn, or cause conflict. I enjoy the company of
these people the most.
March 9, 2009 If you end up on this page check out the music I have been creating for the past ten years here http://cdbaby.com/all/ellard71 February 23, 2009 So I went to Hawaii over the past week. Actually the island of Kauai. Here are a few pics. Kauai is the oldest populated island. I had been there about ten years ago but forgot how beautiful it is. I was fortunate to be able to surf six days in a row.
Found this gravestone in a Japanese cemetery in Kapaa.
follow me...
to the sunset over niihau.
February 13, 2009 I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own. A costive reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself. - Thomas Jefferson February 5, 2009 Sometimes forcefulness is a proxy measure or signal to people your belief in your vision. January 27, 2009 Thinking aloud is habit responsible for most of man's miseries. -Benjamin Franklin January 23, 2009 Don't try solving your existential crises through your relationships. January 22, 2009 Reality has a liberal bias. -Stephen Colbert January 13, 2009 The Full Moon Over Russian Hill To me romance is not about chocolate covered strawberries, champagne and hot tubs. It's not even about hot passionate lovemaking, although that is nice. To me it is about a very warm January evening in San Francisco spent walking with you. Sitting in Alta Vista Park and watching the gorgeous moon over Russian Hill. Looking at the stars as we stroll the quiet streets eyeing the unique Victorians, entranceways, and stained glass doors that line Sacramento Street. It is the idea that even though we are not rich and have to work everyday to survive, we have access to this peace. And the notion that we, you and I together, are smart enough to take advantage of it.
January 8, 2009 The North vs. The South
So I know Francis Ford Coppolla. Yes, the director of the Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and American Graffiti. Francis Ford Coppolla the wine producer and gregarious curator of things non-Hollywood. How did I get to know Francis? Homelessness. Yes homelessness. No no, I wasn't homeless - it's not that good of a story, but when I first moved to San Francisco I became fascinated by homelessness. I'm still fascinated by it in today. At the time I was unemployed and I was walking around North Beach getting acquainted with the "Italian" part of San Francisco. I myself am 1/4 Ukrainian, 1/4 Jew, 1/4 Northern Italian, and 1/4 Southern Italian. Noticed how I separated the Northern and Southern Italians in the last statement. This is an important distinction because as Italians know there has always been some animosity between these two groups. The North part of Italy feels like the Southerners are heathens, uneducated, stubborn, brash and hot-tempered. The Southerners feel the North are aristocratic, intellectual, arrogant snobs. Kind of like how people from Massachusetts and Mississippi feel about each other. Anyway, I was unemployed and walking around N. Beach when I came across a small sign that said, "Are you interested in homelessness? Come to a community meeting at St Peter and Paul Church hosted by Francis Coppolla about homelessness in North Beach." I thought to myself, is that Francis Ford Coppolla the Director? Sure enough when I went to the meeting it was in fact the maestro himself. Francis was up there explaining to about 30 interested citizens like me, some North Beach' business owners and some church goers how he wanted to start a homeless organization to assist the homeless in North Beach whom he would see everyday hanging out in Washington Square Park. He wanted to help the people he considered the citizens of North Beach even though they had no place to live. Now I thought it was a great idea and after all this is why I moved to San Francisco. To be with people who were compassionate and wanted to help other people in their community and North Beach is a community. After Francis said his thing the group started to talk. Now this is where I fully expected everyone to rally around Coppolla's idea and start throwing out ideas on how we could build a great organization to help the homeless of North Beach. What happened next is that many people in the audience expressed their displeasure with even having homeless people in North Beach. Many of the business people said that Francis' idea would just attract more homeless from the Tenderloin or SOMA to North Beach. I was surprised at how uncompassionate and petty these San Franciscans were. Francis just sat and listened until the owner of Grefeo Coffee, a geeky squirrelly looking white guy stood and said, "Francis you and your family have been messing around in this neighborhood for years. And I don't..." And that was it. The guy never said a word after that. As soon as his family was mentioned Francis got up out of his seat like a friggin lion on the hunt, went up to the guy, and with the force of a baritone opera singer said," Sir, no matter what you think of my idea you do not insult my family!" The guy literally fell backwards. Francis didn't hit him or even raise his hand but his presence was enough to make you step back. I of course was loving it. One thing about Italians - don't insult their families. Especially Southern Italians and Francis as I would later find out is a Southern Italian. Anyway, I would go on to cook many dinners with Francis as he would do a fundraiser for the homeless organization he did finally start. The fundraiser was called 'Francis Cooks for North Beach'. The idea was Francis would invite 700 of his closest and richest friends to sit in the gymnasium of St. Peter and Paul Church while Francis and many volunteers, yours truly being one, cooked a meal. Of course most years we would cook an Italian meal. Over several years we did pasta, eggplant parmesan, meatballs, sausages, antipasti typical Italian fare. Francis really would sit there teaching volunteers how to roll and fry meatballs. He once showed me how to grill an eggplant whole, with the skin on by placing it on directly on the burner of the stove. One year we burned the sauce and Francis had a blowout. Sometimes George Lucas would wander into the kitchen to observe the organized chaos that s Francis Cooks for North Beach. Francis never really had a system. I hear it is kind of how he makes movies. And he thinks big. He is a big thinker. One year Francis announced that for the fundraiser 'Francis Cooks' we weren't going to do Italian, we were going to do a good ole New Orleans crawfish boil. So Francis ordered 100 pounds of crayfish, 100 pounds of lobster, artichokes, onions, and of all thing cumquats. In the courtyard of the church we had 20 burners with 20 40 gallon boiling pots. Each pot had a team who upon command would put the next item in the pot to cook - first onions, then spices, garlic, lemons, cumquats, artichokes, crayfish, lobster, and shrimp. After the pot was done each team would pull out the colander and bring it inside the gym where 700 of Francis' closest friends were waiting and we literally dumped the pots out on the tables which in true New Orleans fashion where covered with the Times Picayune. At one time during this year Francis and I were in the gym drawing lobsters, and crayfish, and other New Orleans stuff on these newspapers covering the tables. He asked me how to spell Creole. The picture above was from that year. Anyway, as is true Coppolla fashion for the next year Francis wanted to cook for his 700 closest friends who were paying nice chunks of money for seats at this fundraiser none other than that delicate little Italian pasta known as gnocchi. One of the organizers of the fundraiser got in touch with me and asked if I had a good gnocchi recipe. Well it just so happens that previously that year I had visited my Northern Italian relatives in Torino and they served my girlfriend and I the absolute best gnocchi I had ever tasted. I told the organizer I would e-mail them and get the recipe. Below are pictures of my relatives and the best gnocchi ever.
The Rigassios
the best gnocchi ever the story continues I quickly e-mailed my Italian relatives whom I adore and told them that Francis Ford Coppolla was going to cook gnocchi for 700 hundred of his closest friends - could they send me their recipe. Well in true and classy Nor-Ital fashion they sent it to me and here it is - Rigassio Gnocchi Recipe So I e-mailed it to the organizer and when the Francis Cooks event came around I printed it out and brought it to show to Francis. Of course Francis never looked at the recipe before the fundraiser. So on the day we were making the gnocchi for the fundraiser all Francis could focus on was needing the little balls of cut dough. He has kind of romantic notion of making gnocchi as he portrays it in the Godfather II. Anyway, when we are ready to start putting the ingredients together which is basically flour and potatoes Francis seems to forget the ratio of flour to potatoes. "Is it 1 to 1?" he asked. Or is it 2 parts potato and 1 part flour. I said I thought it was more potatoes then flour. Aha! I whipped out my recipe. A great chance to impress the Big Man and prove my Italian credentials. I said "Francis my relatives from Torino sent me this recipe." I handed it to Francis. If you look on the recipe they sent it calls for more than 2 to 1 ratio of potatoes to flour. Francis studied the document as we all waited to mix the ingredients. He looked up at me and said, "Ah, Northern Italians what do they know." Francis called for 1 part flour to 1 part potato. We mixed up 50 pounds of the floury hard mixture. It turned out to be 50 pounds of the heaviest, inedible, indelicate, gnocchi imaginable. The 700 hundred closest friends wouldn't even eat the first batch. In the second batch Francis called for more than 2 to 1 ratio of potatoes. "Northern Italians, what do they know?" Anyway, like I said I know Francis Ford Coppolla. December 15, 2008 A sad poem I wrote about a sad event.
November 12, 2008 "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn November 11, 2008 I know, I know, there are actual blog style pages out there in cyberspace. There is also facebook and all those other places where you can have a blog so why do I keep this space up. Tradition. I want to see how long I can do it. From what I can tell my first blog entry was in 2001. I used to do funny political comics under this heading. check this one out http://web.archive.org/web/20010805193842/www.ponomusic.com/page14.html Check out this picture of me in 2002. Look at that hair! This was taken in the New Haven Athletic Club after a show.
November 10, 2008 "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.[ " John Stuart Mill. (interesting quote from quite a liberal for his time)
November 5, 2008 It is interesting that in California, the State I have adopted, we voted this week to give animals more rights and people less. fucking ironic. November 4, 2008 WE MADE IT! October 23, 2008 I am slightly in a state where what i say can be used against me. we are on the verge of an obama election. meaning i think he is headed for an election win. a black man is headed towards leading our country. and a black man with patience, understanding, ambition, a vision, we don't deserve a god leader like him. We don't deserve it! but we got him! he is a pragmatist. he is really a centrist. And in the U.S. we are exuberant. ideology is shit. it causes wars, oppression, racism, and waste. Yes there are times when it is important to take a stand. But those times are not now. We need somebody to steer the boat in the right direction. Another important bit of fact is that selfishness is like a disease, passed from parent to child. The antidote is love and kindness, But if you don't have enough to spare, move on. In a lot cases lack of kindness is rewarded in kind! October 3, 2008 Sliding doors July 15, 2008
July 10, 2008
July 3, 2008
June 25, 2008 A profound quote by a moderate republican David Brooks:
June 16, 2008 The fog encompasses the city. A cold damp June evening in San Francisco. The valets outside the swank Italian restaurant on my block sit bundled up next to their podium keeping watchful eye on the shiny Maserati parked on the corner. As I walk down the block past the giant eucalyptus tree the night reminds me of how lonely life can be. I count my blessings to overcome the ennui, my love, my bank account, my job, my next vacation... I get to the corner store and the Palestinians are watching Dr. Phil arguing over what brand of paper towels they should order to restock their store. I grab a quart of milk, pay, and head back. They say the abolitionist voodoo queen Mary Ellen Pleasant haunts this corner at Bush at Octavia. She herself planted these eucalyptus trees. I call for her in my mind. I try hard to summon her for better or for worse. I beg her to show herself to me. But nothing. No Mary, no supernatural, no emotion. Just a cold, foggy, and lonely San Francisco summer night, with the ennui that has become my constant companion. June 1, 2008
May 27, 2008 If this country does not hold Bush and the Administration officials that lied us into a 3 trillion dollar responsible our democracy is a farce. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Rice, Fleisher, and Rove should be tried for conspiracy and war crimes. They should get jail time for their role in misleading us into an illegal war on a sovereign nation under falsified intelligence. This needs to happen following Bush's term. May 14, 2008 We are having a heat wave in San Francisco currently. Obama looks to be nominated for President on the Democratic ticket. Seriously. weird things are in the air. The guy/gal I like never gets nominated. And the Republican Party is coming apart. YAHOOO! http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-14-gopfallout_N.htm . And the press is giving all the credit to Bush and the Repubs for stinking (which they certainly have over the past 8 years) but what about Dean's 50 State strategy? Victories in Mississippi and suburban Illinois? No one gives Dean credit but he started this whole trend in 2003. And remember that boy genius Rove who said the Repubs where headed for a 'permanent GOP majority'. HA. Laughable. Rove is an idiot. The Republicans can thank him for their current situation too. The Republicans are getting what they deserve for hitching their wagons to a gutless, moron. For jettisoning anything that was honorable about their party just for power. And I my friends love it! April 18, 2008 I love Mark Shields! There I said it, I love this guy. He makes me happy to be alive! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shields
April 5, 2008
February 12, 2008 i like to drink cold chocolate milk out of an Atlas Mason jar at 1 a.m. on a Wednesday. February 6, 2008 It seems many of my friends are alcoholics and are starting to come to terms with the fact that alcohol and drugs used on a constant basis catch up to most people. January 26, 2008
The biggest problem in the world January 25, 2008 Just got back from Baja, Mexico. When we left SF it was raining and cold and it has been raining and cold since we got back. Baja was beautiful. We drove to Todos Santos a little hippieish Mexican town. We stayed at Flora Del Mar - a sweet B&B on the ocean. Watched grey whales bringing their babies down the coast into the Sea of Cortez. Then we drove down to San Jose del Cabo. I surfed at a break called Old Man's in front of the Cabo Surf Hotel. On my very first ride I fell off my board and put my hand down in between a rock and received a palm full of sea urchin spines. Kind of painful. But in a lot of ways pain makes feel like I am alive. The morning we were leaving the surf picked up, glassy, 4-5 footers. I skipped breakfast and caught about 6 beautiful long rides. I was surfing on a 12 foot board. Those rides have kept me energized for almost a week now. Surfing is a great sport. Especially when the conditions are right. In rekord label news. Things are going well. We have two excellent bands up and running. I am excited about the prospects for both the Interchangeable Hearts and Rocket Culture. Stay tuned. Politics is equally as hopeful. It is the eve of the SC primary and i think my boy Barack is going to take it. It is so exciting for Democrats to have two candidates we are excited about. Maybe we can get out of the Bush era with a bang. When the pendulum swings one way it usually swings the other with more force. Hopefully Americans have learned their lesson from the past 8 years of incompetence and dishonesty. Stay tuned. December 25, 2007 I can't stand people whose egos exceed their talents or accomplishments. December 20, 2007 There is more tryptophan in pork and swiss cheese than in turkey.
December 19, 2007 Why do 20 and 30 something middle class professional women still say words like: like, so, gross, eeeeew? I thought you were supposed to grow out of that shit after high school? November 16, 2007 Something struck me recently. The terms moron, idiot, imbecile, and retard at one time were all scientific terms developed and placed by academic and other institutions to describe people who were born with a mental developmental disability. Some of them had/have Down Syndrome, Autism, and other birth defects and abnormalities. While I'm not sure of the history of the words what happened is that every time a label was put on people who are mentally challenged the general public started using those words in a deragatory manner, labeling someone who just made a mistake a moron. Or using the term idiot or retard to describe an action seen as stupid. So after a certain amount of time the word has to be changed so as not offend the group of people it describes. We are at that point with the word retard thanks to people who use it to casually to describe something they feel is stupid or inane. "Oh, that's retarded." or "What are you a retard?" But you have to admit that the institutions may have won the war with the term developmentally disabled. That is not one that seems to lend itself to casual conversation. "Johnny you are so developmentally disabled." November 15, 2007 So I do not believe in marriage. I know this proposition seems radical to some but to me it is perfectly logical. People say, "When you meet the right person you will change your mind." As if I hadn't thought of the prospect of ever meeting someone and wanting to start a family or make a commitment. Like the statement that I do not believe in marriage is just some whim I am feeling now. It seems to me that just because holding views you can not strongly defend has become endemic in our society people think that my feeling on marriage is based on a political whim. One that will quickly change when the right person waltzes into my life and makes all the beliefs I have held disappear. My opposition to marriage started at about 9 years old. I used to attend Fourth of July BBQs that my parents would throw. A lot of times friends and family would sit around and talk, make jokes, and such. One statement I heard over and over is 'don't get married kid'. My strongest opposition to marriage stems from the fact that I do not believe it strengthens a relationship. I believe it weakens a relationship. And I do believe having kids and raising a family requires a strong relationship - one that has trust, committment, love, and shared giving. But you can have all of these without marriage. What marriage does is to make one partner or the other feel comfortable about the security and future of the relationship. And in my estimation this allows one partner or the other or both partners to stop trying. Stop trying because the artificial bond of marriage is holding the relationship together so neither party is responsible for that. People stop trying because they rest back on the fact that bond of marriage presents a formiddable obstacle to getting out of the relationship. Kind of like, you are stuck with me so get used to it buddy. I do believe you need to accept things about your love partner b/c nobody is perfect. But marriage seems to push the balance over to the side where trying your hardest to be a better person and a lover and friend are not required b/c marriage is holding us together. Another rather glaring problem with marriage is the death doeth part part. As people grow they find out that they like different things, they change, they discover different parts of themselves. In many relationships people stop being sexually attracted to each other. And unfortunately or fortunately this is how nature designed it. Sexual attraction wears off. Lust wears off. But the marriage and the promise you made lives on. Until death doeth part right? In other words, it sets people up to be hippocrites to proclaim in front of friends and family that they will be with this person until they die. They how do they know if they will lose interest, become a platonic friend, develop a disdain for their spouse or simply grow apart. So death doeth part is a false, empty promise being made by someone with very little information. A person doesn't know if they will be in love with this person for the rest of their life. I think the promise you can humanly make to someone and be completely honest is that as long as I am happy, growing, and having my needs met I will stay in this relationship. But that is not a marriage promise is it? Another problem is statistics and divorce. In the U.S. 45% of marriages end in divorce. In countries like Sweden the divorce rate is 55%. Why is this? It is because society is changing in such a way that marriage is not needed. In places where women can survive independent of a man marriage is not borne of necessity but choice. But marriage definitely benefits men more than women. Women who are married have lower life expectancies while men who are married have higher life expectancies. After men get divorced the majority are likely to get married again in less than year. After women get divorced the majority never remarry! Women are starting to figure out that they do not need to get married anymore. And doesn't the fact that 1/2 of people get divorced sort of nullify the big deal in getting married. I mean how sacred is it anyway if half of people do not fulfill their promise in the end. Which brings me to the next point. While some people simply make promises that they don't keep with socities blessing some same sex couples are denied the marriage "privelege" that others so readily abuse. This to me is unfair and I believe that in getting married I give my tacit agreement to this type of discrimination. This is not my main reason for not wanting to get married but it certainly doesn't help convince me it is a sacred, noble, institution. My belief is that most people get married because that is just what you do. This is less the case now than say 40 years ago but still true. And I do not think marriage should be abolished but I think if many people just opted out and engaged in loving, caring, relationships that didn't involve the church or the state our society would be better. It is also likely that most people would select to have several love partners throughout the course of their life which is kind of our natural inclination as homo sapiens anyway. I think it may also force people to try a bit harder when they were in a relationship. My idea is to invent an alternative to marriage involving a ceremony or rite of passage, the forum to proclaim publicly your love for someone and a place to celebrate peoples ongoing relationships. These are the things that I think are positive about weddings. But let's lose the naive idea that people are forever bound to one another by a license from the State. When you love someone, that love never really goes away and in this way you are kind of married to them just by loving them. In general, I think marriage is an institution that has outlived its usefulness - just like another institution: war. November 2, 2007
November 1, 2007 Right now I am listening to the Clientele. Blissed out English pop. Very sweet and floaty. Also Lizzy Mercier Descleaux and the new Ween record. I am going to put out a record under the moniker - Public Health someday. I also want to do one last Pono record that compiles some older live tracks (we played CBGBs) and some stuff recorded last year. This is a song about something there October 18, 2007 This is the sorry state of the current time in this country - two headlines next to each other on google news are: US House fails to overturn Bush on kid's health Pentagon orders 2400 armored vehicles I will be having a huge party on January, 19 2009. I can not think of a better reason to celebrate than on the last day of George Bush's Presidency. October 9, 2007 If I choose certain keystrokes my life will change drastically... I want to write a book called 'When Your Heroes Become Fools' I think some humans really need this book right now. No matter how much you think you have shit figured out, you don't. something always confounds the human spirit. that is how things are designed. October 8, 2007 I love baseball. I mean I am fanatic about it. Of anything it makes me the most proud to be an American. note: As long as this country fights unjust wars I remain seated during the Star Spangled Banner with my hat on. B/C I am a patriot. And I want the seventh inning stretch back. October 7, 2007 I really like this guy Josh Rouse. He makes me feel relevant and sweet. http://www.joshrouse.com/ I do not like to link to myspace or anything else besides the artists website. September 27, 2007 I have had a great summer. i finished the short film I AM FRANCE and had a film screening party. I did some great fishing in Charlotte Harbor and Boca Grande Pass, Florida jumping several tarpon and catching a cobia. Stayed on Key Marathon with my girlfriend Kim and road jet skis in Tranquility Bay. I camped on the Tolumne River with my friends and jumped into the rapids. I jumped off several cliffs at Rainbow Pools. I went to Burning Man - and had a blast riding my bicycle naked through the desert. I went to Austin where I went to Emo's and saw some cool bands and to San Antonio and ate mexican food while my girlfriend and I were serenaded by a very decent mariachi band. I went to many Giants games and watched Barry Bonds pursue Hank Aaron's record and was there the day before he reached 756. I camped at Arroyo Seco National Park, mountain biked in Downyville and surfed quite a bit in Pacifica. I discovered my love for grilling. I bought a Coleman propane camping stove. I discovered that California is a naturally beautiful State and to me is well worth the higher cost of living. I am discovering my love for exploring the wilderness. The peace I feel when I am in nature strengthens my resolve for life. Never knew I was such an outdoors type. September 23, 2007 I still think that each of the 50 million people that voted for Bush in 2004 owe this country an apology. September 22, 2007 I have never had problems creating music. I can pick up an instrument and write a song at anytime with lyrics. Knowing this of myself it has almost lost the challenge. And in some ways I am tired of my own stuff. That is why I like to collaborate. It adds an element that I am not in control of. September 17, 2007 I bought a rug today. a white shag rug. chah, chah, chah, August 22, 2007 Observations: 1. The U.S. is addicted to war. 2. In San Francisco right now there are a ton of non-American tourists. This is b/c the dollar is very weak against other currencies - purely economic. Anyway, at first it is kind of exciting hearing strange accents and other languages being spoken and in general I like it. But waiting in line to get my morning coffee and killer raisin bran muffin on Polk Street behind a Norwegian family of like 10 got me a little peeved. In a way I felt a little invaded upon. This is my town. For a second I understand how Native Americans, Hawaiians, Maoris, or other native cultures living in areas that have been 'invaded' by foreigners feel. I can only imagine how the Iraqis must feel right now. 3. And stereotypes are never completely true but usually based on the observation by the general population of a loud, flashy minority in a large group. Well a minority of doctors have serious God-complexes. I mean pathologically they absolutely believe they are always right. Not all doctors but a definite present minority exhibit serious megalomaniacal tendencies. 4. People project their hopes and dreams onto other people and things. In general, this is why people have such an easy time loving their pets. The Romans believed their slaves loved them when they secretly despised them. The girl or guy across the room is always the one. The person who will bring to me all the things I am missing. People have children in the hope that they will achieve the greatness they haven't. Love them unconditionally in a deep way. But really everything is give and take. If you treat your pet well, respect and love them, your slave or your children, the love you feel from them is just the love you gave to them. July 12, 2007 The other day I was sitting in my bathtub thinking about God, reincarnation, and such things. I tried imagining what my God would be like. I mean my God, not THE GOD, mine. The one I could totally invent in my mind. And honestly I could not. I could only think of people whom I already knew. I thought of my grandparents (all deceased). Kurt Vonnegut. George McGovern. And other kind people who have wisdom and compassion. In another topic - is it me or are people just not that competent. I don't mean just lazy, I mean incompetent. Lastly, are there really millions of people living today who will never die? Never die because physically, scientists and doctors will figure out how to transplant or regenerate every organ. What will happen then? Will we not need to have children? This idea might seem remote but I do not think it is that far away. July 4, 2007
June 3, 2007 It appears Edith Piaf was someone who acted tyrannically and was very manipulative. This apparently stemmed from her fear of being alone. A quote from Marion Cotillard who plays Piaf in the new movie La Vie En Rose, "When your mother abandons you as a child, you live with the fear of being abandoned. And it can drive you to tyrannical behavior. It affected all her relationships." Maybe if Piaf was able to reconcile with the fact that her mother's actions weren't her fault it could have helped her. Who knows? June 2, 2007 What I am amazed by is how quick people are to judge someone else for their actions without even a small understanding of what the the person they are judging is feeling. It easy to point fingers but the finger pointing usually has more to do with our own unhappiness than it does with the actions of others whom we judge quickly.
May 30, 2007 Charles Nelson Reilly he's our man, he can't heal the sick with a touch of his hand, he can't walk on water, can't make wine flow, he's just another greedy actor on the late, late show. I don't piss, I don't shit, I'm getting no relief, people shake their heads in disbelief. GO.
May 29, 2007 Here we are still at war. The country is now completely numb. The soldiers in Iraq are lining up to be that last dead soldier for a lost cause. And the long bloody crawl until magic September comes. When our stubborn leader can come up with an excuse to help our country 'save face' for starting a losing, bloody war that inflicted major scars on this country probably worse than Vietnam. Cindy Sheehan said she resigned today. She tried to stand up and force people out of there apathy. She may not think so but she made a difference. Her efforts always reminded me that I could do more as a citizen. History will look back at her as hero. But our heroes pay a price for standing up. They are shredded by the hate that lingers in this country. They become lightning rods for the self-loathing, jealousy, and arrogance of it's citizens. A self-loathing that allows people to drive in gas guzzling vehicles, eat until they become obese, maintain their racist, homophobic attitudes and gorge themselves on the feast of denial that has been prepared in their honor. http://www.cbs47.tv/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=2ad249e2-740a-42b1-9d92-48b0de54a71f Today I will make a sign and sit in front of City Hall after work in honor of Cindy Sheehan's efforts. My sign will say: YOUR COUNTRY IS KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE WITH YOUR MONEY. YOUR COUNTRY IS INVESTING $500,000,000,000 IN FUTURE WARS. WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT!? I know people criticize Cindy Sheehan because she supported Chavez or brought her politics into what she was doing but most of the time she just reminded people that they could be doing a lot more to stop this war. She took action when most of us did nothing. May 23, 2007 I say this all the time but the flaw in ones character that causes them to abuse power when they get it is directly correlated to the character traits one needs to obtain power in the first place. I marvel constantly at the paradoxes in life set up a lot of times to keep human beings in check. It does strike me as the makings of some divine monarch playing chess or an organic video game with us as the pieces or protagonists, respectively. Another interesting paradox is our ability to record history but our inability to learn from it. It''s like we hold the key to the door but can't figure out how to get it in the keyhole and turn it. We just keep repeating our mistakes. May 20, 2007 Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Will the true patriots please stand up. What is wrong with this country? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/18/AR2007051801608.html
May 19, 2007 I love what Ron Paul is doing to the Republicans. He is so purely a libertarian it is driving them nuts. Of course Rudy had to grandstand like an ass for all the non-intellectual low lying Repub idiots. But to see a real libertarian expressing his views up there makes me all tingly. Go RON PAUL. I have been a fan of this guy for years. Oh the fresh smell of actual principles. I would love to see him and Kucinich in a debate. That would be something.
May 17, 2007 Zeitgeist Rekords Update: I founded Zeitgeist Rekords in 1999 when I wanted a label to release the first record I produced which was Pono's - Mao Tse-tung was 13 years, 13 months, and 13 days before Gandhi's Circumcision. At the time there was already an electronic music Zeitgeist Records in Australia which is why I change the c in record to a k. Well that label has since disbanded. There is also a Zeitgeist Films which to my knowledge is still making films. Last but not least there is a Zeitgeist Bar here in San Francisco but this label has no affiliation to the bar except that its owner has spent many a beer and sun soaked afternoon in the backyard at Zeitgeist. Since founding the label I have released seven records. One day I will go through and talk about the making of each of these on this blog but not right now. Just to let you know though this label will be around as long as I am and I am only 35 and in fairly decent health. Let's just say I make it another 40 years can you imagine the catalog of craziness that will be zeitgeist rekords and films in the year 2047. Now I'm not going to suggest that we will be anything close to prolific - i mean 7 releases in 9 years is not exactly cranking it out - but i do guarantee that everything released on this label will have a purity and originality that you will not find anywhere else. So with that said by the end of 2007 there will be several new Zeitgeist Rekords releases including a short film. So please check back every month or year and see what we are up to. See you in 2047. Cheers Ellard. April 27, 2007 My personality is such that everyone that knows or has a relationship with me has a love/hate feeling about me. I mean they both love me relentlessly and despise me. I mean everyone. Isn't that weird. Such is my place. At least people feel strongly about me either way. April 17, 2007
…so we walked off O’Farrell into the Great American Music
Hall. It was Noisepop 2003. Another band was on stage. I decided to go
look at the merchandise. I approached the table and who was manning it
none other than Nathan from
Trans Am.
I had met him before and I am always happy to talk to a member of my
favorite band - who isn’t. I chatted him up, bought the TA record on
vinyl, had him sign it, asked if he would be willing to take a picture
with Shelley (Shelley is a plastic rat that we used to say was a member
of Pono - whom I would take to shows and get
pictures with semi-famous musicians).
He agreed. He is a really nice guy. The entire band are really cool
people. I told him I was a huge fan and went on my way.
I have always felt that even though Trans Am’s music can be kind of rock that much of their music has a good beat and is in fact very danceable. And besides, when I as growing up, when we went to shows - people always danced. There was always a section of people dancing. I intended to dance at this show. I had written with a sharpie on the back of my shirt “dancing is not a crime…yet”. I wrote this because John Ashcroft was Attorney General at the time and the current political zeitgeist was starting to appear quite Taliban-like conservative in this country. And lately people stopped dancing at live music shows. And I knew Noisepop can bring people of the hipster sub group that do not necessarily like dancing or like to tolerate others dancing. I think some of these people tend to simply be jealous that others are having a better time but that is a subject of another e-mail. I went to the bar and had several shots of tequila to loosen up. Trans Am went on. They sounded great. This was my favorite band at my favorite venue in SF. I was bouncing up an down. I as usual was one of the only ones dancing. Some hipsters started pushing as if to imply that not only should they not dance but nobody should. Wow wanting to dance to music - now that is really out there. Anyway, not to be intimidated, I started dancing around these people in a slightly taunting manner. I was pissed off that not only did people not dance but they were trying to prevent me from dancing to an obviously danceable band. Just then Trans Am proceeded to launch into the song Afternight which is a very hypnotic and powerful tune with some very heavy rock drums. At that moment I started running towards the stage. The anger, the tequila, and Trans Am’s music had taken over me. I proceeded to climb onto the stage right between Nathan and Phil right in front of the drummer. I put my back to the crowd and started pointing to the writing on my shirt with my thumb, arm outstretched, clutching my record and Shelley in the other. Witnesses said I looked like Chewbacca. I think the band was rather shocked which surprised me because I know I am not the only person that Trans Am’s music affects in a primal way. Anyway, after several seconds I noticed the Great American Music Hall bouncers closing on both sides of me. I looked at Nathan and he noticed that the crazy man on stage was in fact that peculiar fan from before the show - I yelled over the music as loud as I could to him, “You do want people to dance to your music, right!?” He responded with a resounding and emphatic, Yeah! The Great American bouncers grabbed me (don’t mess with these guys, they mean business) and pushed me through the crowded club right down the stairs onto O’Farrell Street. Sweating, and out of breath, I stood on the sidewalk with my signed Trans Am vinyl in one hand, Shelley in the other, and one of my best rock and roll memories fresh in my mind. The best band Trans Am are playing at the Bottom of the Hill this Saturday Night. Please join me and help me prove once and for all that they are in fact a dance band!
April 15, 2007 Imitators are a slavish herd
and fools in my opinion. [Fr., C'est un betail servile et sot a mon avis
Que les imitateurs.] Everything that irritates us about others can
lead us to an understanding of ourselves. April 14, 2007 Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) March 31, 2007 This is the reason Vermont continues to be the most important State in the U.S. from a political standpoint. The home of true liberal democracy. This is where I will live sometime in my life. Read this:
The Once and Future Republic of Vermont
By Ian Baldwin and Frank Bryan Sunday, April 1, 2007; B01 BURLINGTON, Vt. The winds of secession are blowing in the Green Mountain State. Vermont was once an independent republic, and it can be one again. We think the time to make that happen is now. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. government has grown too big, too corrupt and too aggressive toward the world, toward its own citizens and toward local democratic institutions. It has abandoned the democratic vision of its founders and eroded Americans' fundamental freedoms. Vermont did not join the Union to become part of an empire. Some of us therefore seek permission to leave. A decade before the War of Independence, Vermont became New England's first frontier, settled by pioneers escaping colonial bondage who hewed settlements across a lush region whose spine is the Green Mountains. These independent folk brought with them what Henry David Thoreau called the "true American Congress" -- the New England town meeting, which is still the legislature for nearly all of Vermont's 237 towns. Here every citizen is a legislator who helps fashion the rules that govern the locality. Today, however, Vermont no longer controls even its own National Guard, a domestic emergency force that is now employed in an imperial war 6,000 miles away. The 9/11 commission report says that "the American homeland is the planet." To defend this "homeland," the United States spends six times as much on its military as China, the next highest-spending nation, funding more than 730 military bases in more than 130 countries, abetted by more than 100 military space satellites and more than 100,000 seaborne battle-ready forces. This is the greatest military colossus ever forged. Few heed George Washington's Farewell Address, which warned against the danger of a permanent large standing army that "can be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." Or that of a later general-become-president: "We must never let the weight of [the military-industrial complex] endanger our liberties or democratic processes." Dwight D. Eisenhower pointedly included the word "congressional" after "military-industrial" but allowed his advisers to excise it. That word completes a true description of the hidden threat to democracy in the United States. The two of us are typical of the diversity of Vermont's secessionist movement: one descended from old Vermonter stock, the other a more recent arrival -- a "flatlander" from down country. Our Vermont homeland remains economically conservative and socially liberal. And the love of freedom runs deep in its psyche. Vermont seceded from the British Empire in 1777 and stood free for 14 years, until 1791. Its constitution -- which preceded the U.S. Constitution by more than a decade -- was the first to prohibit slavery in the New World and to guarantee universal manhood suffrage. Vermont issued its own currency, ran its own postal service, developed its own foreign relations, grew its own food, made its own roads and paid for its own militia. No other state, not even Texas, governed itself more thoroughly or longer before giving up its nationhood and joining the Union. But the seeds of disunion have been growing since the beginning. Vermont more or less sat out the War of 1812, and its governor ordered troops fighting the British to disengage and come home. Vermont fought the Civil War primarily to end slavery; Abraham Lincoln did so primarily to save the Union. Vermont's record on the slavery issue was so strong that Georgia's legislature resolved that a ditch be dug around the "pestiferous" state and it be floated out to sea. After the Great Flood of 1927, the worst natural disaster in the state's history, President Calvin Coolidge (a Vermonter) offered help. Vermont's governor replied, "Vermont will take care of its own." In 1936, town meetings rejected a huge federal highway referendum that would have blacktopped the Green Mountain crest line from Massachusetts to Canada. Nor did Vermont sign on when imperial Washington demanded that the state raise its drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1985. The federal government thereupon resorted to its favored tactic, blackmail. Raise your drinking age, said Ronald Reagan, or we'll take away the money you need to keep the interstates paved. Vermont took its case for state control to the Supreme Court -- and lost. It's quite simple. The United States has destroyed the 10th Amendment, which says that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The present movement for secession has been gathering steam for a decade and a half. In preparation for Vermont's bicentennial in 1991, public debates -- moderated by then-Lt. Gov. Howard Dean -- were held in seven towns before crowds that averaged 230 citizens. At the end of each, Dean asked all those in favor of Vermont's seceding from the Union to stand and be counted. In town after town, solid majorities stood. The final count: 999 (62 percent) for secession and 608 opposed. In early 2003, transplanted Southerner and retired Duke University economics professor Thomas Naylor gave a speech at Johnson State College opposing the Iraq war. When he pitched the idea of secession to the crowd, he saw many eyes "light up," he said. Later that year, he and several others started a loosely organized movement (now a think tank) called the Second Vermont Republic, which has an independent quarterly journal, Vermont Commons, and a Web site. In October 2005, about 300 Vermonters attended a statewide convention on the question of secession. Six months later, the annual Vermont Poll of the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies found that about 8 percent of respondents replied "yes" to peaceful secession, arguably making Vermont foremost among the many states with secessionist movements (including Alaska, California, Hawaii, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas). We secessionists believe that the 350-year swing of history's pendulum toward large, centralized imperial states is once again reversing itself. Why? First, the cost of oil and gas. According to urban planner James Howard Kunstler, "Anything organized on a gigantic scale . . . will probably falter in the energy-scarce future." Second, third-wave technology is as inherently democratic and decentralist as second-wave technology was authoritarian and centralist. Gov. Jim Douglas wants Vermont to be the first "e-state," making broadband Internet access available to every household and business in the state by 2010. Vermont will soon be fully wired into the global social commons. Against this backdrop, secessionists from all over the state will gather in June to plan a grass-roots campaign to get at least 200 towns to vote by 2012 on independence. We believe that one outcome of this meeting will be dialogues among different communities of Vermonters committed to achieving local economic vitality, be they farmers, entrepreneurs, bankers, merchants, lawyers, independent media providers, construction workers, manufacturers, artists, entertainers or anyone else with a stake in Vermont's future -- anyone for whom freedom is not just a slogan. If Vermonters succeed in once again inventing vibrant local economies, these in turn may reinvigorate the small-scale democratic town meeting tradition, the true American Congress, and re-create the rudiments of a republic once again able to make its own way in the world. The once and future republic of Vermont.
Ian Baldwin is publisher of Vermont Commons. Frank Bryan, a political science professor at the University of Vermont, is author of "Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How
March 30, 2007 I was called up the other day by music magazine covering indie record labels. They asked me what I was listening to currently. The answer: the Ponys, Bonnie Prince Billy, Neko Case, Audion, the new Trans Am record, Dressy Bessy, and Ted Leo. And on vinyl Johnny Mathis. March 21, 2007 Denial is a powerful way in which some people go through their whole life without improving that part of themself which is broken. That part of themself that prevents them from being happy. Prevents them from trusting people and in the end pushing them away. Put your head in the sand about the things you do. Deny the things in your life that keep you from loving yourself - just like your parents did. Use substances to keep you from facing your fears. Relationships require two honest and engaged people who want to get better and aren't afraid to look inside of themselves and make changes. Anything else becomes keeping up appearances. And for some people that is what their life becomes. March 13, 2007 a man a plan a canal Panama. February 28, 2007 duh duh duh, does the virus of stupidity infect us all. yes February 27, 2007 My favorite band is Trans Am. Trans Am are sweet. They have a new record out called Sex Change. It is sweet. Get it. February 23, 2007 I was walking down the street and this crazy homeless guy was talking to himself - a pretty average occurrence here in SF. As I passed I heard him saying," the thing you are searching for is inside you. It is inside all of us. Humanity is..."and then he went passed me and I couldn't hear the rest. Sometimes crazy people say the most true and profound things. The thin line between genius and insanity, truth and malarkey is very thin indeed. Indeed. I felt my first Earthquake today - it was a 3.4 on the scale. February 14, 2007 I agree with this guy. If the people, the media, and the voters that gave Bush another four years haven't learned any lessons nothing will improve in this country. If 50 million voters were honestly fooled by the Rove/FoxNews propaganda snowjob than they can be fooled again. Our only hope is that a portion of those people learned something. Until then we will just sit back and watch as Bush spends our money and tries to provoke Iran into a war.
February 13, 2007 One of the first feminists on record was actually a man. John Stuart Mill made a simple argument for women as equals in society. It makes men better. Think about it - being in a position of power where you are never challenged rarely makes you a better person. In fact the more unfettered power you get - generally the uglier and more distorted your values, views, and actions become. Women were never and still in many parts of society are not allowed to challenge men. This doesn't do a justice to the men in those parts of society. J.S. Mill recognized the importance of women's points of view making for a more balanced and better social world. Men who recognize this are better, more courageous, more intellectually adept, and make better lovers baby! Balance is probably the most important ethos on which to base one's life and one's society. How do you balance yourself, think about the points of view you never get, think about places you never ever would go and go there, not ready to judge but with a clean slate. In other words, challenge the things you fear or don't understand. I have said it before but courage is really the thing that most people lack in this day and age. Once you have courage you find you can do anything. Maybe I should have been a preacher?! February 8, 2007 Voltaire said "Those who can get you to believe absurdities can get you to commit atrocities." Here it is. If you are reading these words, you are an American citizen who pays taxes, and you haven't called your elected representative about the illegal war that is being prosecuted in your name then you are complicit in the murder of innocent people. It is your fault. To do nothing is to be responsible for children and families in Iraq to continue to get their lives taken. The rest of the world is waiting for you to do something. The Executive Branch of your government is run by criminals. They have lied, cheated, killed, and stolen. You can no longer ignore this. These criminals are on the verge of starting another war with Iran. What do you do you ask? Call your Senator, call your Congressman, don't pay your taxes, make a sign and stand in front of your work, write a song. Have I done this you ask - yes many times. I have done all of the above (except not pay my taxes) but nothing will work until people who haven't done anything do something. Simply voting is not enough. Don't wait. The Iraq War is an illegal war. It must stop. The criminals who lied us into it must be brought to justice. The world is waiting for you. February 7, 2007 I get home from work where i make money that pays for a war that rages on in places in the world barely felt on this rainy San Francisco night. Where we eat the the fancy food of special interest, drive on the gas that is supplied cheaply through the killing of innocent people, and live in the decadence that leads us to our existential crises'. The security that we gain through our wealth prevents us from reflecting on the present. Man turns into a computer, computers become more human and life speeds up. Happiness, truth, and honesty don't seem scarce, they seem irrelevant as our omnipotent 'divine monarchs' caprices' have grown steadily farcical, even sardonic. The streets are filled with people who have turned into human cockroaches, hard, ugly, adaptable, impossible to get rid of. A reflection of our own inability to feel compassion. Our 'busy' lives don't have time for compassion. Our heroes keep turning into bad guys and our bad guys into normal people. Worn out by a world that seems even more impossible to understand. It is a strange time to be in love.
February 8, 2007 The wise person speaks when they have something to say, the fool speaks to say something. - Plato kind of January 30, 2007 So here we go again and this time with Iran. Let's see if our country has learned any lessons at all when the Bush Administration tries to start a war with Iran. It is surprising that in such a supposedly 'democratic' country the citizens are powerless to stop their leaders from making bloody and wasteful blunders. What the American media never reports is that the Iranians dislike their President too. So we have two Presidents of two countries who are thoroughly disliked by their electorates starting a war with each other. Maybe the Romans were on to something with the whole gladiator thing. Take Bush and the Iranian Guy and have a cage match. It would save billions of dollars and thousands of innocent lives and we could go on living our lives with two less egocentric morons in the world. January 25, 2007 When love is good it is really fucking good. January 22, 2007 So I stopped by my favorite donut shop Bob's Donut's to pick up an entry form for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure triathlon and also a maple covered cream filled éclair. And I got to thinking how pompous and self-righteous I can be sometimes. And how my ego can push people away. People accuse me of being a know-it-all if not in front of me definitely behind my back. But then I thought since I was at least 20 I have been thinking about the world, human beings, myself, and how all these things work together. I went to graduate school based on an intellectual question about the benefits of capitalism vs. socialism not based on which major would make me the most money or give me the best career. Few days have gone by where I haven't given a lot of contemplation about the plight of others, about my own actions and how they affect the world. Then I meet people who haven't spent time thinking about these things at all. Just about how they can get stuff for themselves. Not a moment considering how their actions affect the people and world around them. Me, me, me. I want this, I deserve that - and these are not children mind you - these are grownups acting like children. So don't I have a reason to be a little impatient with self-serving people like this? Don't I have a reason to get a little peeved when I hear people worrying about the most trite things. And I'm not talking about unsophisticated people. I'm talking about people with good educations and affluence. Don't I have the right to call people on their shit values. I know judge lest ye be judged right? Live by example right? people have a right to get what they want. Just surround yourself with greatness and it will rub off. But these child-like people are everywhere. They are unavoidable. And I react to them with impatience, with disgust, with annoyance. I think where have you been living? Have you looked at the world around you? Have you even read any books or even quotes by successful people. I mean the answers are all written down. The messages are everywhere. The temptations are there to but are people really this weak? Does anybody even care about doing things that are noble anymore? Don't people realize that the things they want so badly soon become the things they discard so easily and with disdain? Yes I'm impatient. But my impatience may be a blessing or a curse. I'm not sure which one. January 11, 2007 Just got back from Europe. London, Paris, Geneva, Torino, Florence, Siena, Tuscany, Rome. Some of my thoughts; Londoners are some tough motherfuckers - terrorists could never bring them down. At 7 in the morning they are sharply dressed and deadset on sorting out the world. I heard at least 15 different great pieces of music in the shops and stalls of the Camden market. Besides Indian they ruin every kind of food possible in ways you can't imagine. Paris can get fucking cold. The tap water in Geneva is the softest, sweetest, most refreshing liquid I have ever tasted. The train ride from Geneva to Milan is breathtaking. I want to live in the Italian lake town of Stresa one day. Italians are kind, laid back and have an insatiable desire for the cheesiest music possible. When one goes to Roma one must get on a scooter. For those that do not understand how Italians drive - it requires more instinct than precision. They drive like they live. Here is a video taken from the scooter my girlfriend and I rode on. ROME SCOOTER VIDEO Lastly, the airport in Newark, NJ is one possible manifestation of hell. So be good or you will spend eternity there. Or an overnight layover. December 4, 2006 I am fucking mad. mad when people complain about nothing. When they have never been pushed to a place that ever even tests their metal. Not even close. I am mad. About people who seem so fucking cool that they can sit around and observe, and make fun, while other people try to make it a better place, a better world, in which for all of us to thrive. We are all here. Get used to it. December 13, 2006 Have YOU ever been haunted, have YOU ever been free. The need to explode outside of who you are. Like trying to pick up off the ground someone who is much bigger than you. And when you pick them up the fact that no one cares. No one cares, there are no rock stars anymore. Have you ever been poor. Do you fucking have any idea what it's like to be poor. Try it. I dare you. December 12, 2006 In the beginning the days seemed slow and the gap between now and then seemed to be growing. Soon the minutes felt like hours and now it seems I have a lifetime to kill before I can touch you again. Now I do not mind wanting for things and I must admit I find some pleasure in the longing but never before has a damp, dark evening seemed to move so slowly by. It's presence and silence are as thick as molasses. I hope I make it to London. December 6, 2006 "I have given my body to the Mexican Army but my heart belongs to you my love." - Devotchka "As a base of operations you can not beat a fucking saloon." - Al Swearengen "Being a piece of work is better than being a piece of ass." - KW Mendoza "But being a piece of ass is better than being a piece of shit" - Ellard December 3, 2006 who really fucking cares! December 1, 2006 it always appears to me that the people who really enjoy being right are the ones that are most often wrong. November 13, 2006 spiritual experiences on your knees - with the shower hot washing over you - the pain you feel is your own preaching coming back to challenge you - it will always come back - i do believe i was strong enough to take it on - i feel both stronger and weaker today armed with the knowledge that i am neither. on with the challenges. February 17, 2004 after much substance taking i started having this intense pressure in my heart. was i dying? don't know but what i can say for sure is that i certainly met a lot of my demons and i learned that we choose to worry about things that generally will not harm us. November 10, 2006 the interesting thing is that the world is getting harder and harder to understand as individuals get more and more control over their surroundings. Things are speeding up. Change comes more often. You can treat life like a tidal wave or a water slide. It's your choice really. November 8, 2006 i feel for the first time in a long time proud to be American. November 1, 2006 I don't believe in false modesty. In fact I find it distasteful. There seems to be an epidemic of it nowadays. If you are good at something and you know it just fucking say it. It took me a while to learn that. October 27 My Mom once cured the hiccups of a guy who came into her ER unit who had the hiccupps for 14 hours straight. All the ER residents tried their trick and home remedies. My Mom tried hers. Put a pencil or pen in your mouth - take a sip of water and repeat until you count to ten. This works. He stopped hiccupping and my Mom became a hero to me. October 29-31, 2006....... People like me always want... October 24, 2006
Here are some of my favorite movies:
Amistad Fresh Down by Law Stranger than Paradise Audition Funny Games Benny's Video Real Genius Hard Candy The Killing Fields the Squid and the Whale Ferris Bueller's Day Off Night Train Splendor the Doom Generation the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1972 version) the Doors Apocalypse Now Burnt by the Sun 9 Songs the African Queen JAWS Waking Life Wings of Desire The Book of Life Philosophy in the Bedroom Citizen Ruth Dead Man Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (original) Young Frankenstein Stroszek Badlands The King is Alive Careful October 23,2006 Here is a link to my friend Tim
talking about CA Proposition 90
http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=0F874A24632911DB8B5F5A856F9CC894 October 15, 2006 "Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were. "
September 19, 2006 If you are reading this and you know you are in a relationship that isn't working make sure you summon the courage to end it. Or at least consider moving on as a choice. The longer you wait and deny the more pain all parties involved will likely endure. Just because a relationship ends doesn't mean it was a failure. I think there is to much emphasis placed on preventing relationships from ending as opposed to making them better or celebrating what they accomplished. I read a quote from Bill Maher the other day. He said a relationship is like an airplane and sex is it's fuel. Once the sex stops working the relationship stops flying. There may me some truth in that.
February 12, 2006 It's time we stopped blaming our problems
on people in the past, and -Unknown February 6, 2006 What I like about life…and what really sucks by Ellard I like life because people that truly want to be happy find happiness. It sucks because people who really desire power get power. I like life because death makes us equal, we all die period. It sucks because in life there is always something missing. I like life because honesty feels so good. It sucks because we are all liars. I like life because security feels like a warm pillow. It sucks because too much of anything, especially security, is bad for you. I like life because it is dangerous. It sucks because it is dangerous. I like life because I love people. It sucks because people are idiots.
February 1, 2006 The age that women are physically ready for child birth is decreasing one month with every new generation. Why?
December 3, 2005 -The greater a person's illusions about life the worse they are as a lover. -When you have a noblewoman, you want a whore. When you have a whore you want a noblewoman. -When the plane takes off I sometimes wish for the most fiery, bloody, chaotic, quick, and esoteric crash possible. When it doesn't happen I am both relieved and disappointed. -If you want to be inconspicuous make yourself as obvious as possible.
Put Your Toys Away anonymous
The smell of your shirt washes over me like the rain over the Paris
streets.
Cleaning wounds, healing scars.
But I'm in Central America where rain mixes with the dirt roads
making mud and dirtying everything, bringing the town and I to a
stand still.
God (if there is one) is a cruel jokester with the divine caprices
of a two-year-old. And love is his rattle toy which he leaves around
all over the world for people to trip on.
November 29, 2005 Sometimes I get scared by the idea that I actually have this living thing licked. What do I do now? -Ellard November 15, 2005 I'm not really that disappointed in Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rove. I'm disappointed at my fellow Americans for believing their lies. -Ellard
Oct 5, 2005 Some Serious Wisdom from an Iranian Blog Have we ever asked ourselves, why there is a close connection between being a genius and having some dosage of madness? Have we thought about why Picasso was misogynist? Have we ever asked why Nietzsche became insane? Why Louis Althusser killed his wife and was pronounced insane? Why Charles Bukowaski, Hemingway and thousands of other artists, writers, and poets were alcoholic? And why the suicide rate is much higher within artist than say scientists? All these go back to unconscious, which is repository of all artistic, and scientific and other intellectual activity. If we believe in unconscious and it’s being the “ master of the house” we need to answer, what is the content of it? What is it made from? According to Freud (discoverer of unconscious) and psychoanalysis, the content of unconscious is all sexual (not sex, sexuality means libido, the life’s sustaining energy “ Life is nothing but desire to find the lost object (object petit a, as Lacan calls it) In artists this libido (mental world) is not as organized as say in scientist, so the mental life is more fluid. How many homosexual scientists do we know? Not too many. How many homosexual artists, painter, fashion designer, poet, and musician do we know? A lot. Any how I would recommend reading a very well written book by Parveen Adams titled “ Art, Sublimation or Symptom”. She is director of postgraduate psychoanalysis Studies program at Brunel University in UK. I am not even going to reply to your criticism of Shamlu, Barahani etc, because your defending of the past without a critical thinking remind me of Einstein who said “ the breaking of the tradition is harder than the splitting of the atom.” The Turkish director, screenwriter Yilmaz Guney in the interview for his film “YOL” said, “ People are prisoner, some locked up behind bars and some inside their mind.” No wonder why we all complain about why we the Iranian have not progressed too much, we read Kant’s article on “ enlightenment” just for intellectual curiosity but deep down we mostly are traditional, some with bow ties, and some without.
Oct 4, 2005
"rationality itself, tied to moral
decency — (is) the most powerful joint instrument for good that our
planet has ever known.”
-Michael Shermer
June 24, 2005 (Several Poems) Bartender at a Tapas Bar So you want to be a rockstar or a bartender at a tapas bar. Be the ladder and let your blond clientele swirl their giant bulbous glasses as you stop in for a check and a stare. The Madalena '02 is what you'll pour with its Monterey NorCal blend for your clean, sculpted SoCal hair. A pesky "so not cash" customer says, "you charged us for six Andreas' - we only had four." No problem, with the rockstar cool you deduct two and no doubt, one more. Be a rockstar at a tapas bar. The blondes with their pinot buzz and their bright disposition will project their fantasies on to you. Intent, apathy, grace. Being a rockstar as a bartender at a tapas bar. Shyness is Nice You know the drill, the first move is the best move. One needs a closing cache, but the first stroke takes boldness, timing, beauty. Wait, check for the rock. No rock? Rock? You mf scoundrel. It takes presence and persistence, God dam persistence. Like 2 minutes left, down by five, full court persistence. In the end the large glass and the small glass add up to experience. The experience of being beautiful and never, not even for an instant planning your own demise.
May 28, 2005 "With weird stains appearing on the ceiling of the Oval Office, Bush now has the same problem as Scott Peterson: No matter how well planned your heist or how deep the harbor, bodies have a disturbing habit of washing up on the shore." -Nathan Means of Trans Am May 11, 2005 What constantly amazes me is how there are really two types of people - those who get it and those who do not. Get what? The idea that you do not have to do something just because people will approve of you for it. People draw boundaries around themselves because they think that is the way things should be done. Bullshit. There is nothing that should be done any particular way. That kind of thinking is a prison. When things become mainstream and accepted it is only then that the majority of the people pay attention long enough to appreciate it. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. If people listened to Charles Ives as much as they listened to Mozart, Ives would be revered. Now he is obscure. There are bands and artists out there as original and talented as the Beatles and Rembrandt, most people simply do not take the time to look for them. These bands are creating things right now as I write this. They are playing amazing music in a bar with 5 people watching, right now. I never realized there were so many posers out there. There is this certain set of things that are acceptable and than this other set that is outside the norm. For me things that are acceptable and normal have always been less exciting. I've heard the Beatles many times, especially the songs that are played all the time. I enjoy obscurity because obscure things are unfound treasures. Things you and I have not yet appreciated. The world is full of treasures to be discovered and appreciated. Full of brilliant bands, filled with people of great genius and compassion, full of bright, crazy artists, full of inventors, full of gifted, inspired, unusual people. Don't forget to stop and listen, observe what you see - does it make you happy, do you find it to be valuable - that is what is important. Eliminate the thought of whether other people would like it. You will never be fulfilled simply by the approvals of others. Approval is like cocaine, its fun for a little while but soon it takes more and more to get to where you feel anything at all. Make your own path and do not try to bring down others who make their own paths. May 6, 2005 Autism is a fascinating idea. There are higher-functioning Autistic people who lack social skills but have advanced intellectual abilities and low functioning autistics that can't even care for themselves. I don't have any autistic children so I can't speak from experience but it seems to me that autistics are a deviation from the norm just like homosexuals are deviation from the norm. Is it genetic or environment? Always the question. Genetics or environment. Nature or nurture. Could be that nature needs to produce analytical non-social creatures simply to concentrate on some of the things that will keep humans alive. Perhaps there is too much noise to rely on us and, evolution or God whichever you prefer has provided us autistic people to focus on important deep analytical questions and homosexuals to keep the population down and our creativity up. Seems like a perfect design. By the way, the U.S. is going to attack Iran this summer.
April 18, 2005 As I write this the Hyde Street Cable car cruises past my apartment. It is a classic sound and one that makes me feel like I'm getting old. Another thing that makes me feel like I'm getting old is being less and less excited about things. Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone. I walked around Chinatown tonight and it was hollow and dark but there seemed to be a definite rhythm (of course I was listening to Joi). Quantum physics proves we are all connected, so how come I feel so isolated?
March 30, 2005 - The bullshit is really growing thick in this century. read on War leads to peace (MSNBC Commentator Joe Scarborough)
War leads to peace. If you don't believe me, just ask the leaders of terrorist groups across the Middle East who are now suing for peace. Last weekend anti-war activists took to the streets in New York and across the country to protest America's war effort in Iraq. This despite the fact that there is no doubt among all neutral political observers that removing Saddam Hussein from power led to the first-ever free elections in Iraq.
Even the dazed and confused editorial page of the NY Times reluctantly admits that. Reasonable people simply cannot disagree on the geopolitical reality that those successful elections led to freedom marches in Lebanon, where this week, 1 million citizens demanded the end of Baathist rule and Hezbollah-sponsored terrorism. Today, we learn that the terror organizations Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad are all declaring an end to terrorist attacks while they seek, for the first time ever, a peaceful settlement with Israel and the United States. Like President Bush, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon has told the world that strength is the only way to bring terrorists to the negotiating table. He is being proven right. Likewise, George Bush learned from Ronald Reagan that thugs do not respect concessions, but rather, strength.
That simple truth has led to free elections in Afghanistan and the inauguration of the first democratically elected president there in the nation's history. U.S. troops also insured the same for Iraq, which led to a flowering of democratic activity in Lebanon, and Palestine, and even Egypt — who responded to US scolding by promising free elections and releasing from prison its most well known democratic activist. Ironically, the same protesters who will be cursing this war of liberation, this president, and this country's troops are many of the same forces who opposed Reagan's liberation efforts in Central America and Europe. They convulsed in protest when Reagan dared to call nuclear weapons deployed to Western Europe the "peacekeepers." Millions marched in the streets and predicted Reagan's actions would destroy U.S. alliances with Europe and lead to WWIII. Sound familiar?
Is there any doubt that if these liberals had their way, Communists would still be ruling tens of millions in Central America and hundreds of millions in Eastern Europe and Russia?
Of course not. And now that freedom is on the march again in the most repressive region in the world — the Middle East — it is disturbing that these left-wing radicals will take to the streets to condemn the very actions that have led to the spread of freedom across the world.
Sadly, it proves once again that too many Democrats and leftists hate the president so much that they would rather see American troops lose overseas than see George W. Bush win at home.
And that's today's Real Deal.
So War is A Good Thing...Oh Now I Get It (Andrew J. Resignato)
Ya know Joe for a little while I thought war was a violent act used as a method of control but you have set me straight, now I see it is an act of generosity, kindness, and enlightenment.
War is great. War is good. I love war. I get it. It is not something to be avoided, but something to be practiced as often as possible as a means to a peaceful end. And if that peace has to be established at the cost of a few hundred thousand human lives, well, it is worth it. As long as it isn't my life or yours, right Joe.
Yes, war might just be the answer to all of our problems. I see now. If you want people to believe in your ideas, force them into believing. Don't let them choose their own clueless path. They will just flounder, like they have in the Arab countries. War is a great way to spread freedom, or at least our version of it <wink, wink> right Joe.
And those Iraqi children who lost their mothers and fathers should be thankful that we in this country have come to our senses and figured out that violence and war is the way to peace. Not wimpy 'French' notions like understanding and reason. And those civilians that are alive right now in Syria or Iran, who will die in the upcoming wars should await their deaths with acceptance and the knowledge that it will mean freedom for the rest of us. Maybe the ones that live in Damascus, Tehran and elsewhere should start happily building coffins for their soon-to-be-dead relatives - a small sacrifice for the march of freedom, right Joe.
You have convinced me. Things like compromise are only things that weak people and countries do. We don't have to do that, we can make people do what we want right Joe. We have the power and we should use that power. Can we force them to give us things to Joe? Like money and oil and resources. Sorry I got caught up in the excitement of it all. It is about freedom isn't it.
But Joe, what about, thou shall not kill? Isn't war technically killing? Don't innocent people get killed when we drop bombs. I guess you will have to enlighten me in a future discussion on how I reconcile that with my conscience.
But regardless thanks again Joe. I used to think war was just a violent, destructive way of seizing power. A way that killed many innocent people in the process, but you have indeed set me straight. War is a good thing. Let us use it as much as possible and the world will be exactly the way we want it. American. God bless you Joe and God bless war. I can't wait for the next one.
Thanks again, Andrew J. Resignato(Ellard) formerly anti-war but now pro-war whenever and wherever possible
March 4, 2005 Sometimes it's fun to tell the future or even influence the future, so here goes. This whole keyboard, CPU monitor, aesthetic is tiresome. I love the knowledge computers offer but hate the position I have to assume to receive that knowledge. Somebody (techies, entrepreneurs) think hard about how else we can deliver the information from the computer in a form that is not so unpleasant to my body. It hurts my eyes, it hurts my back, it hurts my neck. I repeat figure out a new way - you will make a lot of money. I'm sure there are companies working on it but sometimes a little well-placed elemental thought can surpass the structured, forced, deliberations of industry. If and when you do figure it out I will be your first customer.
March 2, 2005 Funny thing about people is they are all for democracy until it's time for them to be democratic. Robert Frost said what we need is half of a revolution. February 26 2005 The thing is, in life there are only brief moments of total clarity. Like dreams that we can only grab parts of. But if you take those clear moments and add them up it amounts to enough clear thought to guide you life. The painful emotions and feelings seem to be the big weeds and bushes in the jungle that seem ever-present and one has to wade through to find the clearing. However , the painful thoughts like the brush provide cover and it almost feels good to see nothing but pain sometimes. People like pain because it makes them feel alive. Sex makes you feel alive, fear can make you feel alive also. But the destructive nature of fear is not fear itself but the reaction people have to fear. Those who run from fear develop a taste for cowardice. It becomes their soft , cuddly, blanket. Those who resist their fear, challenge their fears, cross an important step in human evolution. February 17, 2005 Just for the record: the War on Iraq was illegal (against international law) and launched for reasons that turned out to be false (WMDs). Again: War on Iraq - illegal and false reasons. With the money from the War in Iraq we could have solved our solvency problem with Social Security. We could have eradicated polio. We could have given every child in the U.S. pre-school. War is a waste of resources. Another note: Torturing prisoners - not good for your human rights record. The U.S. States government is torturing people in Guatanamo Bay and in other countries. The CIA is actively kidnapping people and sending them to countries where they can be legally tortured. I write these simple facts b/c all the stuff written in cyberspace is indelibly marked on cyberspace. Maybe history will actually remember what a dark period of American history the W. Bush Administration has been.
February 9, 2005 No matter how you look at things the world is both very simple and very complex at the same time. The key here is 'at the same time.' If you can read the above statement and easily agree you are asking the right questions of the universe. Side note: Today is Ash Wednesday and the Chinese New Year on the same day. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe not.
February 8, 2005 World ends at eight, details at 11.
February 2, 2005 I hope we do not forget the lies and deceit that led up to the illegal invasion of Iraq. Here is a brilliant list/timeline of all the conflicting statements, the lies, the arrogance, the mistakes and ignorance that have characterized this tragic U.S. foreign policy misadventure. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n03/wein01_.html Do me a favor and peruse this list so that when the shit really hits the fan in this country someone will remember the slippery slope that got us there. January 17, 2004 History Repeating? by Ellard As I enter these words into cyberspace I hope that someone who reads them in the distant future will understand that there were many people who dissented to the ideas and lies that took control of the United States of America in the beginning of this new millennium. Unfortunately, many in this country (a little over half) have been fooled by the language of fear used by our current government. Another segment of this nation have refused to see the gravity of the situation facing their country. Many have been lulled by a state of listlessness because of the wealth they enjoy. Still others have been whipped up into a state of anger fueled by a nationalism and an egocentric notion that America has the might and the right to force it's will on the rest of the world whether they like it or not. We have started down the slippery slope where war and torture have been justified as a means to an end. Where the word peace is used commonly in the same sentence as kill and eliminate. Where the government tells lies to justify war and suffers no repercussions for doing so. The worst part is that as someone who wants to end this era of stupidity and arrogance I do not know what to do. For over two years I have fought against the destructive policies of Bush Administration by protesting in the streets, writing, talking to my friends and relatives, writing songs, making art. I feel as if my efforts have been in vein and I feel like a person watching a car crash powerless to stop it. It is more than obvious to me that we are at an extremely dangerous time in history which has been documented by many people including myself. I only hope that when the smoke clears that the truth will not be the ultimate casualty. Much of idealism and hope that I had in the end of the last century has been replaced with bitterness and disbelief. I am in disbelief at how easily people can be fooled and motivated to do things simply through the use of fear. I am shocked at how complacent people are in the face of an out of control government. I am in disbelief that history teaches us nothing, and how easy it is for people to ignore it or forget it. Sometimes I think that worst that can happen is World War III and I think why should I care? Hasn't war always existed. Is there anything you can do to stop it? If there isn't why waste energy. Just create good music, good art, register your dissent, live well and move on. But, what about all the innocent people caught in the crossfire of stupid, powerful, men playing their savage games? Can't I save them? Can't I help them? I will continue to march in the streets, try to nudge my friends into thinking a little more about how they are contributing to the destruction of the world with their purchases and their lack of dissent. I will continue to do a lot less than those people who used themselves as human shields and more than most people who shop at Wal-Mart and accept the terrorist moniker that is labeled on anyone who disagrees with the policies of this administration. So for those reading this in the future some of us tried to defend the quaint ideas that once made the United States an experiment in hope. Unfortunately, this experiment has turned into a Frankenstein, one that may destroy the town before it is destroyed. But isn't that just history repeating.
When the institutions fall will you be under them?
Insecurity is the route of all human destruction.
Lydia Lunch comments on our current political climate (if you don not know who she is get a life and look it up) Dr Rock: What do you make of
the current political climate?
Friday, December 03, 2004 to Senator John McCain 241 Russell Senate Ofc. Bldg. I write to you not affiliated with any organization but as an American extremely disheartened about what my country is doing in the name of “national security”. The indefinite detainment and ‘torture’ of “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay is a black mark on human freedom. The detainment and lack of any kind of objective due process at “camp X-ray” reeks of hypocrisy. It strikes me as the exact kind of intrusion on freedom in the name of security that our founding fathers warned us about. As an American and a true believer in freedom I would rather take my chances getting blown up in a terrorist attack (although there is much more chance I will be killed by a bus on my street) than systematically take away peoples’ inalienable human rights in the name of security. How do we expect anyone in the world to believe that we value freedom when we are willing to compromise it so easily? I do not care how many words are parsed or hypothetical scenarios are floated to justify this. Torture is torture. Rights are rights. You know in your heart that this is wrong. It is hypocrisy and a moral slippery slope that leads to a darker place that is profoundly un-American. As a trusted national leader you are responsible for what is done on your watch by your political party. I write to you because I feel like you could be one of the only people with the power and credibility to help put an end to this embarrassing violation of human rights being perpetrated in the name of all Americans. I also want to write so that when history judges this gross violation of human dignity I will be on the record as having expressed my views, to the people I thought had the most chance of speaking out against and actually putting an end to this travesty of human justice and lapse in national judgment. Respectfully Submitted, Andrew J. Resignato Concerned American
Submitted by Salad Von Baco: “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron” H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956)
The Situation by Ellard So here is the situation if you do not know as I am shocked at how many people do not realize what is really going on: The United States did not go to War in Iraq b/c of Weapons of Mass Destruction, or Sadaam Hussein, or to liberate the Iraqis. You have to be really naïve to believe that the U.S. would spend billions of dollars to "liberate" anyone in another country without a serious self-interest. There are millions of people living in countries with despotic regimes today that the U.S. has no interest in fighting a war to "liberate". To name a few: Equatorial Guinea, Turkmenistan, Libya, Eritrea, Uganda, Maldives, Belarus, etc. The U.S. has not entertained the notion of liberating these people. A lot of these nations either sponsor or have sponsored terrorism. So why the invasion of Iraq? The country of Iraq has the third largest oil reserves and untapped resources of any country. What you do not hear much in the news or from the U.S. Administration is the plan to build several inconspicuous military bases in Iraq. This was the plan all along and is still the plan. Control over oil is the reason we are there. Plain and simple. So the question becomes – why do we need to control the oil? Well it is not only for our own consumption but according to neoconservative doctrine as espoused by Leo Strauss the ideological father of the neocons, it has to do with the emerging economic superpowers of China and India. If the U.S. has control over a main oil producing nation, and a strong presence in the Middle East, it maintains strategic control over nations whose oil consumption is likely to rise significantly in the next decade. In case you aren’t aware China’s economy is growing at an annual rate of 9%. They are well on their way to being an economic superpower. India’s economy is also doing quite well at 6-7%. The U.S. is growing at a slow 3.4%. Unfortunately, our aging population coupled with a slowdown in immigration do not bode well for our 20 year economic future. Instead of trying to compete economically the neocons (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfiwitz, Kristol) believe the U.S. can use it’s current military might to wage wars that will allow us to maintain our superpower status even if our economy isn’t that strong. Instead of competing in open world markets they would choose a game of international geopolitical hegemony, war, and espionage. What is so hilarious about the whole thing is that nobody reads between the lines. You never hear anyone on the mainstream news networks (ABC, CNN, FOX etc.) talk about this. Nobody ever mentions the construction of military bases in Iraq. Democracy, elections, liberation are just distractions for a public footing the bill for these foreign policy adventures. Over the past 40 years the U.S. has chosen it’s own interests over democracy in many countries across the globe. Examples: Greece, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela, and Haiti etc. China has always been a threat for the neocons and September 11 and Sadaam Hussein’s hubris gave them a political excuse to invade a foreign country, establishing a lasting presence in the most oil rich region of the world. Future protection from a surging Chinese economic power. Of course, anyone that resists this strategy will have to be punished or ignored. In other words killed or censured. So please do not continue believing in this naïve idea that the U.S. ingenuously wants to liberate the Iraqis. It is time we know the real reasons we are paying for this war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_system_of_government#Authoritarian_republics – types of governments in the world http://www.daviesand.com/Perspectives/Forest_Products/Oil_Reserves/ - Oil reserves by country http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041023/news_1b23china.html – China’s booming economy http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/927453.cms – India’s economic growth http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0305friedberg.pdf – the neocons and China“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag." -Huey Long
If you have never been to www.anti-war.com you must go. On this page, all the wisdom about war and the tragic follies of the Bush administration comes from the right. That is what makes it unique. Please check it out.
November 8, 2004 Is America Becoming Fascist? This is the questions we must ask ourselves and if you care about this country and probably the world if it is true, we must stop it. Kerry accurately quoted Bush as saying he does not think much about Osama bin Laden ( and is not all that concerned about him. The president protested: "I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations." But in March 2002, Bush indeed said, "I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run." He described the terrorist leader as "marginalized," and said, "I just don't spend that much time on him." "Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country." - John Kerry to President Bush Oct. 14 2004 _________________________________________________________________________________ People in San Francisco are currently wearing I Love NY shirts. It is currently very hip in SF to openly express your undying love for NY. If I loved New York so much I would be fucking living there. UUUGGH. This quote captures a lot of people in SF: "You're talking about people blinded by their own need to define themselves according to their own perceived oppression. They look around the world seeking "victims" to identify with to reinforce their own sense of victimization, to afford themselves the psychological and moral satisfaction of joining hands with the world's other oppressed. Unfortunately, since they're ultimately acting out of narcissism, they blunder into the most embarrassing possible contradictions without even seeing them. Then, when they're called on their inconsistency, they get the added benefit of feeling misunderstood and persecuted yet again." The philosophical price of freedom is purposelessness, which ultimately gives rise to the alienation, anomie, and nihilism of modern life. -Robert Locke In case anyone is interested in the movements within varying socio-political-economic disciplines here it is: Three different ideologies have infiltrated three different disciplines in the U.S. to become the majority schools of thought. libertarians - economics neoconservatives - political science Marxists - sociology
Friday, September 10 2004 I write poetry in between orgasms.
I like to say motherfuckin' by Ellard I like to say motherfuckin'. Something about saying it feels right. I like to add the prefix motherfuckin' to words. The motherfuckin' city, the motherfuckin' car, that motherfuckin' dry cleaning. When you think about it, all mother's had to be fucked, that is copulated with, or else we wouldn't exist. So maybe it's the motherfuckin' truth in it that makes motherfuckin' so motherfuckin' fun to say. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I've lost the thing that used to make me interesting. An intense yearning to explore myself. Now all I care about is getting fat. ______________________________________________________________________ Untitled by Ellard I never thought that I knew everything. Only thought I knew how to know something. Something that would hold me over until I could know more. Now, everything is lost. Gee it feels good. ______________________________________________________________________ Naked Dreams by Ellard In a moment of clarity my dreams were stripped down. Sitting there naked in the night air my dreams shivered. A distraction caught my attention. I looked away. When I looked back my dreams were gone. _______________________________________________________________________ The U.S. has turned into a joke of a country. I'm not sure there is room for intelligent discourse in this country anymore. The lowest common denominator has won. ______________________________________________________________________ Everyone thinks it's so easy to be anyone else,
except themselves. October 10, 2004 We are not electing a game show host here people! Friends tell me, "John Kerry is boring." You know what Jackass is an exciting (not boring) show but I for one do not want my country run like another episode of Jackass. Who cares whether or not you can sit down and have a drink with the president, you never are going to have a drink with president - so why does that matter to you. You are hiring a leader. I want my leader to be smart, smarter than I am, as a matter of fact. I want him to have good judgment. I want him to be a man who knows his virtues and his vices. Why do we hide them. Why not tell everyone about your vices. You know what, Howard Dean has more fucking charisma than Robert Plant for Chist's Sake! But that doesn't necessarily make him a better choice than Kerry (although I think he is - I'd rather have a Vermonter running my country than a Bostonite.) Get over the charisma thing America! _______________________________________________________________________________ "...I know there is this part of me that wants to grab the yolk from the pilot and just fly the whole mess into the sea." - the Shins +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Submitted by Doug Pizzy You mhgit fnid tihs itnretsenig:
You didn't hear a peep out Rick Santorum about "activists judges" when the Supreme Court picked the President of the United States.
If you are an honest conservative (for small less intrusive government, pro guns rights, for fiscal responsibility, against wasteful government policies like wars of choice, Nation-building and the drug war) honestly consider voting libertarian. The Bush/Cheney leadership has lead the Republicans into a an ideological and morally bankrupt ditch.
In Case You Didn't Realize Where Your Tax Dollars Are GOing The United States led the world in defense spending, accounting for 47 percent of the total, followed by Japan with 5 percent and Britain, France and China, with 4 percent each. That's : U.S. - 47% of world spending on military then with 5% Japan, Britain, France and China at 4%. The U.S. spent more on defense (or is it offense) than Britain, France, China, Japan, and let's throw in North Korea combined.
You know journalism has hit a low when the only reliable political news above an 8th grade level is on Comedy Central.
While it's true that not all conservatives are stupid people, most stupid people are conservative. -- J.S. Mill
American arrogance is a plague. If you are an American but do not think you are complicit in the violence perpetrated by this country you are wrong. I am complicit, you are complicit. Now stand up. Don't just fucking sit there.
More irony: Religious conservatives in the U.S. want governments in the Arab world to become more liberal and less religious. But I thought liberalism was bad. So it's good for everybody but us. I see.
LET'S DISSECT THE DEFINITION OF LIBERAL and CONSERVATIVE ACCORDING TO WEBSTER'S liberal a. tolerant, receptive, nonconformist, progressive, advanced, left, radical, interested, wide-awake, broad-minded, understanding, permissive, indulgent, impartial, unprejudiced, reasonable, rational, unbiased, detached, dispassionate, unconventional, avant-garde, left-wing, objective, magnanimous. conservative a. conserving, preserving, unchanging, unchangeable, stable, constant, steady, traditional, reactionary, conventional, moderate, unprogressive, firm, obstinate, inflexible, opposed to change, cautious, sober, Tory, taking no chances, timid, fearful, unimaginative, right-wing, in a rut*, in a groove*
June 2, 2004 How's this for irony: Putting the CON in Neo-Con Chalabi, the guy who put the con in neocon, whom the boys at the Weekly Standard and all those admirers of Leo Strauss seemed to believe wholeheartedly, may actually have been working for the Iranians. Remember them, one of the fulcrums of the "axis of evil." So the Iranians may have used our friendly Chalabi to convince the Americans to get rid of their arch rival Sadaam Hussein and they didn't even have to pay for it. Add to that the idea that Iraq may end up being a Shia-run state, a notion that would delight the Iranians. Yes let's re-elect George W. And let's have Elmer Fudd replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon - he owns a mansion and a yacht. Maybe America is the land of opportunity - if a moron can become the president anybody can do anything here.
A Message to San Franciscans: Clear Channel Owns The Fillmore Yes one of San Francisco's oldest and most respected venues is run by the San Antonio based company Clear Channel. I have been to one show at The Fillmore before I realized it was run by Clear Channel. I moved to SF from Florida where I found out all to well how Clear Channel homogenized and sterilized the musical landscape. They are avid supporters of the Bush Administration, war, and purveyors of conservative Christian values. Find out more about the corporation* that controls the music you have access to. And please don't go to The Fillmore! http://www.salon.com/ent/clear_channel/ http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0314/barrett.php *I am not anti-corporate, I believe in globalization but corporations are just tools to create wealth, - to the extent that they decimate your artistic or cultural landscape they should be reined in or at least not patronized.
Bush Vs. Bin Laden? It's ironic that Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush are almost perfectly similar. Religious ideologues. Sons of rich, politically-connected families. Both espouse peace but consistently choose violence to resolve conflict. Both have blindly loyal followers. Neither has a strong mandate from the groups they say they lead (i.e. Muslims or Americans). Both belong to sub-cultures where the power of women tends to be marginalized (militant Islamic extremist, right wing Republicans). And neither man is a great public speaker. Wake Up America Watching the Bush administration trying to intimidate the world on behalf of Americans is disappointing. Seeing Americans denying what is happening is devastating. The mainstream U.S. press is flailing. We have a regime that has used and openly espoused the use of pre-emptive unilateral war and regime change when and where they see fit in order to proliferate the "right" ideas. If that is not empire, if that is not hegemony, than nothing is. All Americans should be outraged. If you are not outraged then you are not paying attention. America open your fucking eyes, because your tax dollars are funding a dead end, ideological war that will haunt us for years to come. The Patriot Act and detentions at Guatanamo Bay are direct assaults on our Constitution. I am disgusted by the ignorance that most citizens of this country have about world affairs. I think quite a few Americans see it as funny that most Americans know very little history, geography or politics outside of the U.S. I think it is an increasing indication that many Americans have become fat, egocentric, and stupid.
Monday April 5, 2004 I Repeat: The Bush and Blair Administrations must be prosecuted for war crimes after their administrations are ended. The War in Iraq is an illegal occupation of a sovereign state. The U.N. Charter signed by the U.S. and ratified by Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution forbids the occupation of a sovereign nation unless there is an imminent threat. There was no imminent threat. The U.S. has broken International Law. If we do not hold Bush accountable our country will never again have international credibility.
If Nader really cared about viable third parties he would put all his energy in getting Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation enacted in our voting system. Oddly it is not that hard to change the voting laws. So when people say Nader is in it for ego, they are probably right.
Proportional Representation would Change this Country and Eliminate Voter Apathy This country needs proportional representation! Winner-take all elections suck! Both liberals and conservatives feel unrepresented. If we are serious about democracy like we say we are, we should be using the instruments that will help us to get the most people to the polls in general. The majority is actually scared to let the minority have it's voice in this country. Proportional Representation will make the minorities voice louder. Read about if you don't know about it here http://www.proportionalrepresentation.com/ . It is literally real easy for us to make this change in this country! _________________________________________________________________________ Why don't the Democrats just talk to Nader and offer him a decent sized role in a new Democratic Administration. How About the Justice Department. He'd clean up that place in a hurry. They make him out to be this bug but he is powerful isn't he. He knows what he is doing. So do what politicians do best and cut him a deal. ___________________________________________________________________________ Dean represented the social liberal, fiscal conservative that we haven't seen in some time. Dean is a manager, he would have made a very good president. _____________________________________________________________________________ (In English Voice slowly) "If you have some money and you don't know what to do with it, try doing something nice. He did..." The Will of Alfred Nobel "...and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Compound interest used for genuine good. ________________________________________________________________________________ It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. - Abraham Lincoln _____________________________________________________________________________ Perversions by Ellard Never judge other people's perversions! We all have them and they are all perverse. _____________________________________________________________________________ Interview with Ellard from PONO for Athens’s-based Restless Art/Music ZineÓ2004 Restless Zine - *Please give attribution to source if quoted in other publications PONO: Ravioli Rock for Aliens and Swordfish Believers Restless: Tell us about Pono’s beginning. Ellard: It all started with words that I read in 1998 by Percy Shelley the English-born writer. “Rise like Lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number - Shake your chains to earth like dew which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few.” After I read that PONO was born Restless: There are other band members? Ellard: Yes. Core members are Singer/songwriter/bassist Barbara Brownell and a plastic rat aptly named Shelley. We bring all kinds of other people into the PONO fray so our composition and instrumentation change often. And at the risk of sounding new agey the universe is sort of the fifth member. 25% of what happens on our recordings and live happens by chance. We like letting chance happen. Restless: What is up with the Swordfish thing all over your website and you’re CDs? Ellard: The Belief in Swordfish is a reference to a Dead Milkmen song, one of the truly independent “punk” bands. You Believe in Swordfish if you believe in doing something purely for the sake of doing it. Not because someone else wants you to, not because it will make you friends or enemies, not because it will make you lots o’ money or get you laid (still a noble cause). Just doing something simply because you want to. That’s the belief in Swordfish. It sounds simple but many self proclaimed “hipsters”, “hippies” and “punks” have forgotten, lost, or never had a belief in swordfish. Restless: Your music tends to be very eclectic. Do you think it turns some listeners off when they buy your CD and hear different styles of music that they may not like? Ellard: Yes. I hope so. Restless: How do you describe your music to someone who asks what you sound like? Ellard: Ravioli Rock or Melodic Indie Electronic Folk Rock Terrorism. Restless: Is it true you recorded a song in a grocery store in Florida for Pono’s second album Aisle 3. Ellard: Yes. It’s called Supermarket Bliss and was recorded in a quirky Supermarket called Stuart Fine Foods in Florida. The announcements you hear on the album were said through the PA system in the store. Restless: How did you get the owners to agree to that? Ellard: We asked. Restless: So it appears there is a theme to the covers of your albums. What’s up with that? Ellard: The people are all very interesting inhabitants of Earth. On our first album is the Rabbi Nachuum Shiffrem a surfing Rabbi. He lives in Santa Monica and is a dedicated longboarder. He actually gives surf lessons on the Sea of Galilee. He finds wisdom and spirituality in surfing as the original surfers did. Our second album features Mary Hoover Reiner (pictured in a wheelchair). She happened by when we were recording our song in the Supermarket. She is a retired Harvard educated PhD. physicist. She claimed to have solved the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (look it up) in 1981. She was working at Vanderbilt University at the time but they pushed her out in 1982 when for some reason the D.O.D. of the Reagan Administration wrote a letter to the Dean accusing her of falsifying her work and stealing classified documents. The U.S. Government confiscated her work and the University offered her early retirement. Interesting huh? Restless: And the guy on the cover of your new album? Ellard: He’s an alien protester living in San Francisco named Frank Chu. Restless: <laugh> Yeah there a lot of aliens living in SF. Ellard: No seriously. He is from another place. He speaks an entirely foreign language - kind of coded English. I’ve seen him without sunglasses only once. He has the strangest eyes I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried three times to follow him to see where he goes at night but for some reason which I can’t explain I always lose him, and not because he runs or hides. I don’t know why but I will get distracted and sort of fixated by something very simple and forget that I am following him - and he's gone. Ask anyone in SF and they have seen him. It’s like he is everywhere. SF is a perfect place for him as there are many strange people here so he fits in. From what I understand of his talk he is searching for some sort of nexus portal which will open when certain political and natural events take place. He says he was wronged by the 12 galaxies. And believe me I am not a conspiracy theorist, I couldn’t stand the X-files, I am generally a skeptic. This guy makes no sense in all the right ways. Restless: Your new album with your “alien” friend on the cover is called Indie Rock to the Blues. When and where can people get it? Ellard: It will be out in August 2004. In San Francisco you can go to Amoeba Records and online go to CD Baby.com and TowerRecords.com. Restless: So I heard Pono is breaking up? Is this true? Ellard: Yes, it’s true Restless: When? Ellard: August 14, 2008 Restless: Why? Ellard: Why not? _______________________________________________________________________________ January 22, 2004 The Yell That Didn’t Play Well: Get a Grip America With each day I am more amazed at how trivial and sensationalized the mainstream media has become in America. We are starting to look downright ridiculous to the rest of the world. For the past 48 hours or so I have watched the television media play a 10 second video clip of Presidential Candidate Howard Dean intensely yelling and making hand gestures to try and pump up a defeated group of volunteers many of whom traveled thousands of miles to support their candidate. And the media is telling me this is a bad thing; Howard Dean is not “presidential”. It didn’t play well on TV. When Al Gore ran in 2000 almost all the media and many voters were complaining he was too scripted, to stiff, not real enough. So Dean was trying to do the right thing by keeping his volunteers fired up – many of whom are young and have just entered the world of politics for the first time- mostly because of Dr. Dean’s intensity and unscripted campaign. Well yeah, but it didn’t play well on TV. So since it didn’t play well let’s play it 25 times in 12 hours, that’s the ticket. So it must mean the daily casualties and explosions in Iraq play well because you never see much footage about them. And let’s see, is this the first time the American media has lost focus on real issues. Is it just some anomaly in an otherwise sane media world? Or is it a wake up call to some smart investor out there that wants to develop a revolutionary new TV news program - one that will actually try to be objective (not especially liberal, not especially conservative) imagine that, report the facts even if they are boring and require me to pay attention for more than a minute, report international yes international news (that is news happening in other countries), while maintaining even a slightly sensible historical perspective and grip on reality. I’m an American who’s ready. And I’m not the only one. Unfortunately, the American mainstream media is so warped it is like an old useless VCR tape that is frustratingly unwatchable. The media has compared Dean to McGovern. Like the word McGovern itself is a curse or something. ‘Get your head out of your McGovern.’ But in reality didn’t McGovern do several positive things that indicate in hindsight America, yes, America made a huge mistake in not electing him. He campaigned against a war that most Americans would agree was questionable at least and completely detrimental at most. He was right. He ran against a man, President Nixon who was corrupt and that corruption led to several bitter years in this country where no one trusted their leaders at all. Remember that little thing called Watergate. Yet the press uses McGovern as a curse word instead of as a perfect example of where our fallible country made the dead wrong choice. Despite what the media would have us believe we are not perfect. And back to this whole notion of “presidential”. In 1972 Edward Muskie got caught doing something almost as bad as Dean’s trying to encourage his young supporters with an emotional yell, he cried on TV. Or was it a snowflake? It doesn’t matter because it didn’t play well on TV. Crying was not presidential back then although now you see Presidents and Presidential Candidates well up and it is considered, as it should be, a sign of strength, confidence, and compassion. See we have learned this. But the media has not. They still believe that Muskie was wrong. It didn’t play well and that’s all that counts. He cried, he lost, he was wrong. Meanwhile back at the ranch the media follows our very “presidential” president whose speeches are well-scripted and who looks very disciplined indeed. And while we focus on the “scream” heard round the world, the rest of the world tries to sort out what exactly it means to them that the leader of the most powerful country in the world believes he can attack them militarily without a real, legal reason. But preemptive and unilateral are big words, they don’t play well on TV. Yes the scream is exciting; it’s funny, look at the funny faces Dean made. We are going to spend another $40 billion on a questionable war, look at the funny face. No weapons of mass destruction, no real imminent threat, hear that funny yeah or was it an arrrrgggg? Get a grip America. __________________________________________________________________________________________ The Neocons don't see any contradiction in wanting to kill the enemies of peace. - Caitlin Ryan __________________________________________________________________________________________ It's Always Just the Simple Things Locked in a Box in a distant world, A man with his finger on the pulse. Up on the top of the biggest building in the world, a girl with her mind and her mouth full. And justice just blown by on the 3 O'clock train, and down the gutter trickling down the storm drain. You might think I write this with anger in my heart, but my friend, you'd better think again. Scratched on a tablet in small drops of blood, the old boy tries to tell us who he loved. It's not you, it's not me and not the devil up above, it's his reflection, his inception, the purple mountain shoved, down the throat of the mother, who's child and his brother lie beneath the sand that will cover over all of us. The sand that will cover over all of us, in time.
Thank God, Christmas Comes Only Once a Year On Friday, Dec. 26 I was walking through a drug store in Florida and heard Come All Ye Faithful playing over the PA system. I thought to myself, "Jesus, every year they start earlier and earlier with the whole Christmas thing!"
Maybe Gary Coleman Should Have Been Governor Bush has been amused by California before. In mid-August, the topic was Gary Coleman, the former child actor who jumped into the California gubernatorial recall race. "I'm glad that Gary Coleman lives in California," Bush said. "A guy like me that believes in limited government probably would have a tough time against a fellow like that because he probably symbolizes smaller government." Coleman took the comment in stride. "I don't know about Jeb Bush," he said. "But if I become governor, I will represent the little guys, the people that big people tend to step on when they want to get somewhere." More of the Same by Ellard Midwesterners are excruciatingly nice but mainstream. Artists are interesting yet narcissistic. Security feels great until it makes you blind. Sobriety is clean, clear and endlessly endless. Addiction is out of control but so easily attainable. And fellatio is a nice word.
The Truth Cupids arrow came streaming at me. I ran for a while in the playful kind of way you run from someone who you hope catches you in the end. The arrow whizzed by never to return. I should have sat fucking still.
How Stupid Are We? Very Stupid The irony of the new millennium lives on as the dumbing down of America continues: Bush said that a team of U.S. weapons hunters in Iraq led by David Kay has found proof that Saddam, Iraq's deposed president, had the ambition and ability to use weapons of mass destruction, even though the team has found no weapons. Bush said that Saddam really didn't like us much and wanted to blow us up. Make no mistake. He's bad and we are good. We smoked his holes and said bring it on you evildoer. We are liberator. United we stand, God bless us. Let's roll. Make no mistake.
A Closed Mind is a Terrible Waste I met this girl born and raised in Calif. in a bar. We started talking politics, the recall election and such. She seemed fairly knowledgeable. Then we got a little more philosophical and I told her I believe in capitalism; in fact I am a capitalist. She said to me, "what?" And I repeated, "I believe in the free market system and I'm not necessarily against globalization." And she said, "Oh, end of story. Conversations over." And I said, "Wow, why are you closing your mind." And she said, "what do you mean closing my mind, conversations over." Then she said, "Didn't you ever see these two movies "??????????? and ???????????" And I said, "No. Can you repeat those I'd like to write them down?" And she rushed off saying, "I'm going to get a smoke!" So the conversation ended, apparently because she was afraid I might convert her to a capitalist. If her arguments and movies are so strong as to turn me into a socialist, why was she so afraid to talk to me after I said I was a believer in the market system. Probably because she knew my arguments were stronger. She was afraid of the inevitable. But she came back to the bar and sat down next to me. So I said, "I forgot to tell you, I can't stand Bush. I've never voted Republican. And I think what Western cultures have done to Native (indigenous) people is appalling. I believe very strongly in equality for women (economic and political), I don't believe in recycling, I don't believe in the Death penalty, I believe strongly in public (universal) education and spending a lot of government (tax revenues on it). I believe strongly in a universal health care system. I think all drugs (not just pot) should be decriminalized at least, taxed and regulated. I believe in proportional representation and (IRV) instant runoff voting, and maybe even the elimination of our Jeffersonian Republic representative style of government replaced with all ballot measures and an electronic voting system via cyberspace. (You would see the real politicians float to the top. Not people who were just interested in power.) I said I don't believe in California (maybe on a city level, actually I 'm still pondering on that one) eliminating smoke free bars, even though I'm a non-smoker and I love it that all bars are smoke free. And I am anti-war. I believe war is an outmoded way of resolving conflict. It destroys infrastructure, kills people, and creates larger conflicts. We (Humans) use it because we are use to it and some countries like the U.S. addicted to it. She looked very confused. I said I don't believe socialism and capitalism are opposed to each other like a light switch. That's black and white. To me it is a continuum. With socialism on one side (probably the left) and capitalism on the other (probably the right). Of course, where you are on the continuum dependant on how much control the government has over social and economic matters. Then I drew this on a napkin: Socialism ------------------------|----------------------------Capitalism I said, "I believe we (the U.S.) should change our governments' output to less producing guns (currently $400 billion), and more producing butter (excellent universal education, art, music, health care, protection of property/person law enforcement). We could probably tax at the same progressive rate, no need to raise aggregate taxes. And stay more towards the capitalistic side of the continuum. And then... " She said, "I'll see ya." And left for a second and final time. So I walked outside because the bartender called last call. So everyone was standing in front of the bar. I saw her going back in and I asked her, "What were those movies that would change my perspective on capitalism?" And she said, "I forgot." And hurried inside.
Serendipitous Sayings Spawned from the Summer of the Swordfish Tour "You perceptions are your sauce puddle."* "It was worth the diarrhea."* *names of those cited to come
The Shock and Beethoven Strategy by Ellard We spent $80 billion on war so far and we have killed thousands including over 2000 children, destroyed infrastructure, and created enough bad will towards Americans to last us a decade maybe two. Imagine if we took just $10 billion and honestly tried to create peace with it and create jobs at the same time. Okay given the fact that symphonies in the U.S. are going bankrupt faster than you can say Mozart, leaving many full-time musicians struggling to make a living. Lets say you give 50,000 musicians each $200k a piece to go to Iraq and Afghanistan for two years. Study and learn native Afghani and Middle Eastern music as well as Islamic music. Hold concerts in towns and cities throughout both war torn countries playing a combination of Islamic, Afghani, Iraqi, and Western classical music. Not only would you gain some needed good will from both countries, you would employ musicians, bring understanding between the two cultures, and create a revolution in new symphonic music. Music facilitates understanding, stimulates ideas, and soothes the tired spirit. Of course there would be practical issues about what songs to play, where to play, who should go, why musicians and not carpenters, but it is a much better way of facilitating peace and understanding than through guns. Ask yourself why we always choose guns? The Dalai Lama says war is an outmoded means of solving conflict however there are nations who are addicted to it. The U.S. is addicted to it. Let's end this addiction. Make music not war.
Barbara Brownell from PONO "We do not know how to create peace, only conflict."
The Bush and Blair Administrations Should be Prosecuted for War Crimes It is time that we face the facts that the administration that took power in the U.S. in 2000 has lied to the American people and the International Community. Their lies have cost the lives of thousands of people; Americans, British, and Iraqi. They lied and in doing so breached international law - the international law that states that no country shall invade another sovereign nation for the sole purpose of regime change. This law is clearly stated in the United Nations charter which is signed by the United States and backed up by Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution. So after we try Sadaam Hussein's regime for war crimes as we should, we should try the Bush and Blair Administrations for war crimes. Anything short of this will be seen for what it is by the world - hypocrisy. The United States of America is not above the law. We can not have double-standards - those for the rest of the world and those for the U.S. The document the United States sent to the U.N. to justify the use of force in Iraq was tied to international law. It stated that invasion of Iraq was justified under International Law because Iraq posed an imminent threat to the U.S. by possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, no weapons have been found and we now know that Bush administration used evidence that they knew was false as proof that there were weapons. When we prosecute the Bush and Blair administration for war crimes it will set an example for the world that if you are going to assume the leadership of the most powerful democratic nations in the world, you must lead with honesty and justice or you will be held responsible for your actions. Is there a better way to preserve the ideal of democracy than this? To quote former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, "How we (Americans) as people respond will dictate how we are governed and how we interact with the rest of the world for years to come."
the Universe is filled with clues by Ellard the universe is filled with clues. when something moves fast enough it looks like it is standing still. phi (the golden ratio). The fact that things are infinite and one. Nothing worth shit is ever easy. the tradeoff between security and freedom (there is one Hitchins), capitalism has quantity down but not aesthetic quality, answers are never right only questions are, the only constant in the universe is change, the majority and the minority can never have similar ideas, preferences are subjective, expectations become reality in the market; in life, You are God and vice versa, everything is cyclical - politics, economics, fertility, agriculture, colonization, disease, moods, the ocean. humans are at once wildly egocentric and undeniably social/compassionate. the universe is filled with clues that confuse.
The Currency of Influence by Ellard I think the proverb, "Money is the root of all evil," is wrong. Money is nothing more than a tool for facilitating individual interaction and exchange. People acquire power, influence, and security with money but they also acquire these things with love and hate. Money is a neutral way of acquiring power. I believe the "Root of evil" (if there is such a thing) is insecurity. Insecurity rooted in fear of change and difference. Insecurity drives racism, discrimination, violence, corruption and most other bad behavior. When all people learn balance, to embrace change and keep their fucking minds open - "evil" as we know it will disappear. Then "evil" will be redefined.
A Comment on the State of the U.S. on May 25, 2003 by Ellard When we let prisoners of the fear paradigm rule, they do it without vision, courage, compassion, and cooperation. We have a leader in George Bush who will say anything to forward his agenda of arrogance, division, economic self-interest and moral posturing. The U.S. has regressed further backwards in the past two and a half years than anytime in the last thirty. Our image around the world has been irreparably hurt by two wars - one an unprecedented, bogus, pre-emptive war to "protect" Americans from weapons and a threat that was never there. Now not only do the people that have always hated us hate us more, but the countries who used to be our allies hate us and worse yet do not trust us. Our economy is crawling along now saddled by a huge Federal deficit. Our educational and health care systems are broken; they a filled with gaps that let students and patients fall through leaving them helpless and trapped. The failed War on Drugs has been escalated, further filling our already overcrowded prisons with non-violent drug offenders. Some of them there for selling pipes!? Our cities are crawling with homeless people crying out for drug treatment and mental health services that are being cut to pay for wars, prisons, and tax cuts. Our media has proved to the world, by waffling to political pressure during the War in Iraq, that it does not have the ability to make objective news. Backwards, we are moving backwards.
You'll do better by Ellard In the land of lattes, lounge, and lugubriousness, everyone nods their head if you play pool badly. "It's okay, you'll do better." But, put out a bad piece of art and you'll be the herpes town pariah with a flaring case of the wannabe withs. Too much of everything is no damn good.
The Uninvited, Invite Me to Supper by Ellard In a city that buckles, a city that's bent. In a city that came and came and came again and went. In a city that's foreign, in a city that's bright A city that is dark then fills with light. A place so dramatic, both harsh and pristine Oh, even though it's dirty, it looks so clean.
Using God as Weapon or a Weapon as God by Ellard Is there anything your God believes that you disagree with? Of course not because you are your God.
UNTITLED by Ellard I realized today that the world is never going to be how I think it should be. I realized that the East is spiritually rich and materially poor and the West is spiritually poor and materially rich. I realized today that good smells are fleeting and tend not to last to long while bad smells seem to last a long time. I realized today that people who have an unhealthy and insatiable desire for power usually get it. I realized that the guy who paints himself gold in Union Square may be imitating a statue or the little man on the trophy that I got from the bowling league. I realized today that unfortunately what I realized today I will realize again tomorrow.
The following is a dialogue between
Ellard from Pono and Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin which occurred in a
Taqueria in North Beach, San Francisco October 23, 2002. (a true story)
RP: Yes I am. |
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Grave Croquet by Ellard (8/02)
Don’t sit around in black outfits with a solemn demeanor sipping decaf and feeling bad. Jump up and down, piss on the remains, think of joyful, mischievous things to do to the things around
Celebrate life and the fact that people have and have had it. With its confusion, its splendor, its rough side, its grandeur.
Call out of work the next day. Go to the park and play croquet. Don’t let my un-being fell your life or fill your soul with dread. Laugh, dance in the rain, revere or curse my good name. I don't care, I'm dead.
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The End of an Era of Innocence By Ellard From peace and economic
expansion to war and recession. Never before in American history has one
event changed the direction and psyche of Americans so quickly as the
events of September 11, 2001. Before the attacks it was easy to brush off
paranoid people with their conspiracy theories and apocalyptic predictions
as antiquated cucks or people with simply too much time on their hands.
Unfortunately, the attacks and the events since then have forced
Americans to understand certain truths which we were able to collectively
ignore or deny before September 11: 1. You can not be a superpower on one hand and an isolationist at the
same time. We must be an engaged leader at
all times. a zeitgeist rekords production |
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