Let's Talk About Blue and Red

The map puts in red hues every state that gives President Bush more than a 50% approval rating. Just as a red/blue map should. Of course that's why we've been hearing about how GW Bush is profoundly unpopular on all the news channels and that the country is almost entirely blue...oh wait.

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iPod Mishaps

I am assuming, because you're here, that you can read. But there wa a time that you couldn't. I mean when you were four you could just make out the symbols and begin to construct basic phonetics. But it's not like you really could read, you couldn't "get" a basic story. Before that (hopefully before that) you used to shit yourself and chew things for entertainment. By the time you were in first grade you were just beginning to be able to understand simple sentences. Middle school is when you read your first "real" novel, often Catcher in the Rye or Huckleberry Finn. And if you read the latter later, you will "get" it on a much more satisfying level. And it wasn't until middle or high school that you finally knew what a semicolon was; neither could you properly place one to divide independent clauses that would otherwise make seperate sentences, were they not so closely related. So imagine what it was like to be completely illiterate. You can't. You simply cannot imagine how to not be able to read. Even if you go to foreign country, after a few days, you'll start to recognize certain words and assign them contextual meaning. Once a human child assimilates symbolic thought and a recognition of visual patterns that human is literally incapable of not doing it. You read automatically. That capability is one of the things that defines humanity, it is as much a characteristic of the human species as a whale's tail or an insect's six legs. (Another human characteristic is the ability to recognize consciousness in other entities, and assign agency to that consciousness outside of basic--like the ones that beehives have--social rules).
I have an iPod. Much as I cannot imagine the lack of ability to read, I cannot imagine not having an iPod. It completes me. And I listen to my iPod on "shuffle" because I have thousands of songs and the shuffle brings many a fine suprise. Few things are better than that "hey, I haven't heard that in a while" feeling. But here's what happens from time to time: I'm walking down the street, listening to the iPod on shuffle and there's a Rolling Stone's song, a Postal Service song, a Shins song, a bit of Bach, it's all good. And then, well let me preface this. I listen to harder music when I work out. I mean Death Cab for Cutie is all well and good but it doesn't exactly pump you up to run for a few miles or go to the gym. So I listen to metal and hardcore when I work out. Pretty soon, you're walking down the street to the dulcet tones of Arcade Fire or Air or Astrud Gilberto and then...BOO YAH!...Iron Maiden or Misfits. That kind of sucks. I'm just chilling and Slayer "South of Heaven" comes on and it totally freaks me out. I'm just chilling and all of a sudden "Six six six is the number of the Beast! Sacrifice is going on tonight!" And then I'm all out of wack because now I'm all metalled out and I was just enjoying my quiet MidWest college town, but now I have to kill to satisfy my satanic bloodlust.

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While we're on the topic...

...of ethnicity in America, Justice Scalia is being whiny.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a scathing letter to the editor of the Boston Herald, accused the newspaper's staff of watching "too many episodes of 'The Sopranos'" for interpreting a hand gesture he made at a cathedral as obscene.

The Boston Herald reported Monday the justice made "an obscene gesture, flicking his hand under his chin" in response to a question about whether lawyers might question his impartiality in matters of church and state.

The incident occurred after Scalia attended Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. (Full story)

But Scalia said in his letter the gesture is not obscene at all, but dismissive. Scalia said he had explained the gesture's meaning to no avail to the reporter, whom he referred to as "an up-and-coming 'gotcha' star."

To back his interpretation of the gesture, Scalia in his letter quoted from Luigi Barzini's book, "The Italians:" "The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means 'I couldn't care less. It's no business of mine. Count me out."'

Scalia said in the letter, written to Executive Editor Kenneth Chandler, that the reporter leapt to conclusions that it was offensive because he initially explained his gesture by saying, 'That's Sicilian."'

"From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene -- especially when made by an 'Italian jurist.' (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)," he wrote, referring to the American television series about a fictional mob boss and his family.

The Herald had referred to him as an "Italian-American jurist."

I call Shenanigans. First off, he didn't make the gesture that the book describes. The book describes a gesture I call "nix" because of it's association with forties mob movies. Scalia did the brush from back of chin to front, which is in fact obscene. But this wouldn't be the first time Justice Scalia eroneously cited a text for self-serving political reasons instead of addressing the obvious issue (ha!). Second of all: When you make it a point of being all Italian-y all the damn time (and he does--just look at the incident itself, he starts this whole thing by making a point of his Sicilian-ness) you can't turn around and get pissed when someone then refers to the fact that you're Italian-American.
I seriously think that he's losing it. I mean, he's a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. What the hell does he care what the second most popular newspaper in Boston says? Why would you even issue a statement? I had already forgotten the incident after a couple of days and I follow the Supreme Court. The vast majority of people out there could give two shits, but now it's become a story.

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More on Immigration: Drunken Potato Eating Edition

One reason that I think that we might end up with sensible immigration reform (but probably not, the Senate passed a tolerable bill--which the House will kill in conference and replace with their crazy assed bill) is that there are tens-of-thousands of illegal Irish immigrants. And they're organized. (They can be vocal, in my experience illegal Irish get really pissed when you don't go to medical school--sorry, inside joke).
Since the Irish have given us a couple of presidents, the FDNY, and most of Boston, I'm willing to bet that there's no politically feasible way to use anti-Irish rhetoric the way that politicians get mileage out of anti-Latino rhetoric. There was a rally in Washington for illegal Irish immigrants (see the above link) a few weeks back and Senator's Schumer, McCain, Clinton, and Kennedy attended. They never would have attended a similar rally for Latinos. The Irish are as important an immigrant (more often former-immigrant) voice. Just as important as Latinos in this debate--I hope.
The number of Latinos and Irish are comparable. According to the Census Bureau 34.5 Million Americans claim Irish ancestry and 35.6 Million Americans call themselves "Hispanic." (Warning, that's a PDF.) And that number is only going to grow. You can't criminalize an immigrant group that is becoming increasingly politically powerful (and an already powerful immigrant group) just because the system we have doesn't adequately regulate the otherwise neccessary and good influx of said groups. Or you can, but you'll get your ass kicked at the polls down the road...and we'll have a economic crisis.

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Immigration and Mexico, the late silliness

So go read this right now. Ms. Valdes-Rodriguez pretty much sums up why I have to turn the channel whenever the media talks about immigration.

Open letter to CNN and other mainstream US media outlets:


1. The vast majority of Hispanics/Latinos in the U.S. (75 percent of us) were born and raised here, including many of us who have roots here that predate the arrival of the pilgrims.

2. "Immigrant" is not synonymous with "Latino" and the media should stop pretending they mean the same thing.

3. The CNN analyst who said today "Keep in mind, Latino voters are LEGAL immigrants, not illegal immigrants" should be FIRED for sloppy thinking. MOST LATINOS ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS AT ALL, PINCHE CABRON.

There's more goodness at the link.

Also, real quick. Even if you think that Mexican workers are a net drain on the US economy (they aren't but let's say you just listen to different sources of numbers than I do), here's why you don't want to lock down the border. Mexican wrokers send money back to their families south of the border. It's called remittance. It's the single largest source of direct foreign money coming into Mexico. The Mexican economy is dependent on it. Mexico is our second largest trading partner (after Canada). A collapsed Mexican economy severely damages the US economy; and we really, really don't want a failed Mexico sitting right across the Rio Grande. This is the reason that we bailed out their economy in the '90s, and Mexican political stability has been a top US geopolitical/strategic priority for the last 100 years or so. And we especially don't want a bankrupt, unstable, failed-state sharing a border with the US that blames the US for it's misfortune.

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A little somethin' for those that don't know me.

Who am I kidding, nobody who doesn't already know me reads this blog.

1. How tall are you barefoot?
5'10

2. Have you ever smoked heroin?
Nope

3. Do you own a gun?
Yes

4. Rehab?
No

5. Do you get nervous before "meeting the parents"?
No

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
There is a time and a place...not recently

7. What's your favorite Christmas song?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?-
Earl Grey Tea

9. Do you do push-ups?
I should

10. Have you ever done ecstasy?
Uh huh

11. Are you a vegetarian?
I try, but sometimes you just need a bacon cheeseburger

12. Do you like painkillers?
My word Yes

13. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
Dark and poetic...also my wicked pompador

14. Do you own a knife?
for cutting my veggies...and my enemies

15. Do you have A.D.D.?
Sorry, I was watching cartoons

16. Date Of Birth?
4/18/81

17. Top 3 thoughts at this exact moment:
I can see through time.
The world is far too good for me.
I can't wait to see the end

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought:
Bourbon, smokes, a nice oxford shirt

19. Name five drinks you regularly drink:
Tea, Coffee, Water, OJ, whiskey

20. What time did you wake up?
Today? 5:30 (am)

21. Current hair?
the sweetest black pompador in four hundred miles

22. Current worry?
gradjeeaytin'

23. Current hate?
day light savings is coming soon

24. Favorite place to be??
Santa Fe, NM

25. Least favorite place to be?
Anywhere East of Colorado

26. Where would you like to go?
Back to Prague

27. Do you own slippers?
No, I don't even like wearing socks, only the week don't go barefoot

28. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?
waiting, biding my time, soon...yes, soon the time will come.

29. Do you burn or tan?
tan

30. Last thing you ate?
Fallafel

31. Would you be a pirate?
I am. Yarrrrr!

32. Last time you had an alcoholic drink?
Hold on...yep, just now

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
Love Is a Battlefield
(Whose House?) Run's House

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a kid?
the monster under the bed

35. What's in your pockets right now?
Camels

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
Harold and Kumar...Daily Show, too

37. Best bed sheets you had as a child?
Tansformers! More than meets the eye.

38. Worst injury you've ever had?
busted shoulder, it's still crooked

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
1/none sometimes

41. Who is your best friend?
Jesus

42. Who is your love?
my highball glass...and Darwin, he's dreamy

43. Does someone have a crush on you?
I hope not, for their own sake.

45. What is your favorite book?
Moby Dick

46. What is your favorite candy?
I don't like candy

47. What songs do/did you want played at your wedding?
The Cure--Pictures of You
Love is a Battlefield

48. What songs do you want played at your funeral?
Mozart's Requiem

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Dreaming dreams no man should dream

50. Do you love the pain a tattoo brings?
More than life itself...thus the painful, amateur ink.

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The Undeservedly Obscure Dead

Today: Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

Ms. Goldman was an anarchist, a first-wave feminist, labor adovcate (she used to do speeched for the IWW), social revolutionary, and an all around cool chick. Though she would have decked me for calling her that--and rightfully so.

Here various and sundry words are shockingly reasonable, which one doesn't oftend expect from Lithuanian-born turn-of-the-century anarchists, but I'm beginning to think that we should get more of those. She believed birth control was a human right, and that if you wanted to limit abortion, you should help poor women afford child care. She was jailed in 1893 for telling people to, "Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, take bread."
J. Edgar Hoover called her, "One of the most dangerous women in America."

I'm not advocating anarchy. But one must remember that in Goldman's time anarchy wasn't a bunch of spoiled white kids who don't think that they should have to pay rent or listen to their mothers tell them to go to business school...it was a social movement that advocated a sort of direct, localized, social democracy. I still think that the movement had it's problems. But all that just makes Emma Goldman's good sense and balanced ideas that much more breathtaking. Her goal wasn't violent overthrow, but a peaceful liberation of the human spirit (pace her portrayal in E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime). It's also a pretty convincing (and sad) argument for why we don't read more about her in the history books. She's the person who once said that, "If voting accompished anything, they'd make it illegal." And while that was surely an overly cynical statement, she gives voice to an anxiety about American civic life that has never really been addressed.

But she also said some far less cyncal things. Let's hear from her 1931 memoir Living My Life:
"The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society."

Splendid. Emma Goldmann, we salute you.

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Now this is a Passion movie.

The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer in 1928, stars Maria Falconetti as the Saint herself. And sweet, merciful Jeebus is it a great film. The Criterion Collection DVD is scored by modern composer Richard Einhorn (it's a silent film) in what may be my favorite piece of movie music ever. The story is exactly what is sounds like, the trial and conviction for heresy of 15th century French warrior-saint-female icon, Jeanne D'Arc.
Falconetti drifts across the screen in the single most haunting performance, the single greatest performance, ever committed to celluloid. Her eyes convey more pure emotion in her scenes before the tribunal of ecclesiactics than a thousand other actress have done with so many millions of words. One hates to even use such a cliche phrase as "haunting performance" but Falconetti creates the first true haunting performance: subtle, disturbing, empathetic, lovely, beautiful, heart-wrenching--all others but imitators. Her eyes look like they were painted on. And with her hair cut and she is given the crown and the arrow in mocking tribute to her status as warloard/martyr by the court that burns her she strikes the viewer as an image so iconic that it transcends recognition--in this as in all things, we realize that the visual language we work with everyday in movies and television and art was partially assembled by this movie. The sound of Einhorn's strings and woodwinds behind her is the music of the spheres bearing aloft the silent prayers of a martyr. Good God, you must go see this movie. Now. Go. Shut off the computer. Go to the library, they'll have it. Get it. If you're not affected by the story and the imagery then you are dead inside. Dead Inside.

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Indie Rock and European Imperial Political History...

...two great tastes that taste great together. From The Onion:

Franz Ferdinand Frontman Shot By Gavrilo Princip Bassist

March 17, 2006 | Issue 42•12

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—Lead singer and guitarist for pop band Franz Ferdinand, Alexander Kapranos, is in critical condition today after being shot by a man identified as the bassist for rock group Gavrilo Princip. "We ask fans to cooperate with Interpol to find the assailant, and call upon British Sea Power, Snow Patrol, and The Postal Service for help," drummer Paul Thompson told music magazine NME Monday. "The suspect had links to The Decemberists and The Libertines, and we are following up on all leads." It is unclear whether the shooting was linked to The Polyphonic Spree's invasion of Belgium earlier this week.

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Truly, We Live in a Time of Miracles

SNAKES. ON. A. PLANE.

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Today's cliche: Opening Old Wounds

The US Marine Corps is hunting down deserters...from the Vietnam War. The article speculates that the reason is to discourage current Marines from deserting the Iraq War. And while I'm not familiar with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, apparently there is no statute of limitations on these sorts of things and it's entirely fine to track these people down and even prosecute them (though I doubt they'd do that). That's the law, they broke it, no problems. But as a policy it's kinda stupid. First of all, it was four decades ago, so, yeah, let it go. Dudes got away to Canada, let 'em go, why do we have to chest-pound and track these people down. Yeah, we all hate hippies, but this is one of them, whatcha call, bygones that need to be let bygone. Isn't it largely acknowledged that deserting the Vietnam War wasn't exactly the worst idea? Second of all: really, really? You're afraid that Iraq desertions will be that much of a problem? 'Cause I'm willing to bet that a lot of Vietnam deserters were ill-prepared draftees who shouldn't have been there to begin with or at least people who signed on, went to Vietnam, saw the fucked-upness factor hit 10, and just checked out, consequences bedamned. Now the armed forces are all volunteer and there's still a desertion problem? How fucked-up is Iraq? Vietnam level? Because if we're approaching Vietnam levels of nightmarish-parody-of-civilization-comparable-only-to-the-depraved-feaver-dreams-of-jungle-outcasts, then I gotta say that maybe we should go ahead and rethink this whole operation, cheif.

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The first tower post

Here's the Zizkov Tower in Prague. It haunts me. It troubles me. Here we see it from afar, but make no mistake--it towers over the city, over every city, even from afar. The Zizkov Tower is strong in dark magic. It will creep up on you. Fear the tower. It comes for thee.

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From the Onion

"Meth's a bigger problem than weed, coke, and heroin? No wonder popular music sucks now."

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Of Movies and Douchebags

Man, I can't wait for this. When right wingers get all up in everybody else face because movies don't reflect their exact political views, in this case V for Vendetta. Even when shit is close, they bitch. Seriously, remember when Million Dollar Baby got all that shit for the euthanasia scene, because right wingers think euthanasia is the worst thing in the world, ever (at least they did last year when it suited them to do so)? But people without douchebagitis noticed that the movie was profoundly ambivalent about Hillary Swank's death, and perhaps--perhaps--the point was that the right to die issue is full of conflicting emotions that must be decided carefully and with full cognizance of the moral ramifications of the choice; after all, the movie was directed by Clint Eastwood who is nobody's idea of a liberal. Of course, rightwingers didn't get this because they have douchbagitis and they hate everything that isn't in perfect lockstep with the current talking points.

This kind of crap happens all the time. I know that the idea of a profound intersection between politics and art is as old as both, but the cultural right seems like the only group of people that are worried that the fact movies they don't like are produced at all may mean the destruction of the American way of life. This is one of those problems that internalizing certain amounts of conservative crap. It's not that conservatives can't do art, and great art at that, it's that the position is a priori against the pushing of boundaries. Which is to say, that while I can get behind some conservative movies, many conservatives can't seem to get behind any liberal ones. Or maybe, to be more precise, they can't seem to not go apeshit at Hollywood.

And let's get to this, Hollywood is a business. A business. If that many people hated it, they wouldn't make it. Brokeback Mountain doesn't reflect American values and it'll be rejected? $80 million in domestic box office begs to fucking differ (and I'm willing to bet that the nature of the movie precluded most kids and adolescents from going to see it, so that's a handicap in potential box office that a lot of less succesful movies don't have to contend with). And vice versa, if it was so popular, America would go see it. That's why nobody will make Jesus Stops the Abortion Doctor, because most Americans are neither that serious about their Christianity that they need to see Jesus in everything, nor are most American's anti-choice on abortion. Do you know what American's like to see? weepy love stories, explosions, hot dames, masochistic revenge fantasies, and special effects. Every once in a while that combo creates Casablanca or The Godfather.

Which gets me to V for Vendetta and Red Dawn. V isn't out yet, but I'm familiar with the story and I've read some reviews. And already, rightwingers hate it. But what's so different between a British revolutionary, scarred by a horrible global war and it's aftermath, turning to terrorism to realize the principles of the nation that he loves, which has been taken over by a totalitarian government whose authoritarian practices can only be opposed through violence; and that very same plot, but with American high school kids instead of the solitary Brit? I'm gonna put forward my guess as to why Red Dawn is okay, but not V for Vendetta. This reason is threefold: 1) In RD it's Americans doin' the killin' and that's always morally acceptable to some people in an international context; 2) In RD they're taking on communists, in V he's taking on the otherwise legitimate government of Great Britain--it's just that it's not legitimate because fascits governments are per se illegitimate and must be brought down, preferably from the inside, but the modern rightwing has sworn fealty to authority in all it's stripes especially conservative, paranoid, Christian authority, thus the encroaching government police power under the current incarnation of the "party of limited government"; 3) basic contemporary politics dictate that terrorism was good in the '80s--when we were supporting those mujahadeen freedom fighters--but terrorism is bad in '00s--now that we are fighting those mujahadeen murderers.

Why is this though? What causes this kind of douchebagitis? I'm thinking that the existance and the popularity of politically unacceptable movies confirms the thesis of liberalism (lately used to losing) and denies the thesis of conservatism--namely that politically inconvenient art raises the specter of dissent. This idea is one that threatens modern conservative politics in this country. A politics that maintains power by putting on a convincing show of unity and homeostasis. The cultural conservative says to himself, "I am right in my thinking, and good in my behavior. And what's more, I have always been right, the problems we face can be traced to deviation from the perfect formula of my fathers." To see a movie cast a terrorist as protagonist this year is not a challege to look at the different ideas of freedom and the legitimacy of the different methods that people use to acheive ends; rather it's an affirmation of the suspicion that everyone doesn't agree, and that is dangerous to our hypothetical rightwinger. But all of this paragraph is speculation. I don't know what cultural critics like this actually think. Mostly I'm just concerned that they make these weird totalitarian judgments of movies whose points are that you shouldn't make simple totalitarian judgments.

All this is to say that people should watch the damn movie and if you don't like it, then you don't like it--but political judgements of art and culture outside of their individual contexts, even pop culture, are kind of Stalinist. But let me put it this way: Red Dawn is a bunch of silly rightwing propaganda surrounding absurd stereotypes, cold war paranoia, and even anxiety about early culture-war issues like gun control. I never switch the channel when I catch it on cable. Why? Because Red Dawn rules, and I can enjoy something that presents ideas outside of my own political views. Again, that's because I don't have douchebagitis.

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When the time comes for a great nation to make hard choices

Some eras give rise to great questions.

• 1776: Should men who resolve to live free resort to violent revolution if it the last means available to secure freedom and dignity?
  
• 1861: Shall we resolve as a great nation to shed blood in order to fulfill a promise unkept and redress an ancient wrong?
  
• 1941: Shall a nation shake off the isolationism that is the will of a put upon people and join a great war engulfing the globe in order to defeat vilist tyranny abroad in the name of principles we hold most dear despite the assurance of sacrifice and economic crisis at home?

Today, gentlemen, there is also a great question. An issue that ecapsulates all the ideals of a nation and the concerns of a worried people. But we shall not wait for war or desolation for an answer. Tonight I will ask and answer the question that strongly pulls at the sinews of all men of the day.

That question: Why--why dear men of conscience--is 6 afraid of 7? And the awesome answer, like the music of dark angels? Because, because gentle readers, oh I cannot stay my hand any longer, you must know though that knowledge might change your very soul! Because 7 8 9.

There. There, now you know. Though that understanding hath come at a terrible price. A numerical pun to chill the spine. May god have mercy on us all!

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Dinner conversation

You ever have one of those nights where you finish your dinner of grilled cheese and leftover microwave lasagna, and wash it down with tap water because the bodega around the corner raised orange juice to $3.50 a jug? And then you smell sauteed onions and steak coming from the apartment upstairs? And you stare at the crumbs of off-brand cheese and stale bread on the paper plate you've re-used for the second day in a row and think to yourself: "Livin' the dream, baby. I'm livin' the dream." And then a single tear falls on the plate finally wetting it beyond re-usability and then you start laughing and laughing, and the world gets just a little bit darker at the edges of your vision. Yeah, one of those nights. I'm having one of those nights.

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The Winnebago Man

Watch this man go from salesman to deep victim of an existential crisis instantly. Hear and be astounded by the sound of despair in his voice. It is no mortal terror, but the deep knowledge of a man slowly opening his eyes and confronting the single all-seeing void of eternity werein neither life nor death have meaning. All the sales, all the RVs sold, his wife, his family, they are empty. He is not a man, he is a puppet. And then, upon his recognition, observing his own absurdity, and then finding contentment in the struggle and the filth and the fury itself, knowing that there is no meaning, no point, no order, only the meaning he creates for himself. This manifests in a rage, a great primal anger at the universe that has abandoned him. After the rage passes, he is blind to all visions but the truth. Also, he drops some f-bombs.

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The Undeservedly Obscure Dead

Today we return to that loftiest of blogging traditions, indeed, the mind of man hath rearely birthed its like into the world of ideas. I speak of course of The Undeservedly Obscure Dead once known as "Dead Europeans". Today's installment, Jan Žižka. Žižka was a Czech nobleman of the 15th Century who joined the Hussites. After the First Defenestration of Prague he defended the city from the forces of King Sigismund by running armored peasant carts down a hill and routing the superior forces. The tactic is cleverly called the Wagonburg (wagon hill). He moved around Bohemia, even attempting an abortive invasion of Hungary to strike at Sigismund's heart. He is notable for having never lost a battle. I speak of him for two reasons. First, I stayed in the Žižka neighborhood (home of the Television Tower...about the evil of which there shall be more anon) whilst in Prague. And second, he moved his forces to, and helped found, the town of Tábor some miles south of Prague, a Hussite stronghold. Some four centuries later some dry-goods merchant from Maine whose ancestors hailed from that town would grubstake a silver claim and become the first silver tycoon of the Colorado rush of 1859, and Horace Tabor would help build my birthplace of Denver, Colorado. So I salute you Jan Žižka. Truly you are the father of the Mother of Cities (though Prague was already 800 years old). You sly dog you. More importantly, now both of my readers salute you. Also, most of Europe is aware of your ginormous equestrian statue that stands over the city. But mostly my two readers.

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Tha Prizzle

This may begin a series of posts about Prague. In which ancient and lovely city I spent the last week (got back last night). I say "may" because I'm not sure about it. While I find the idea of an American student going abroad for spring break and then writing about it on his blog (his blog!) to be the instant definition of triteness in the XXI century, I am nonetheless full of shit to say about Prague and, by God, you may have to read it. I'm fickle and spontaneous in this way. Consenting to nothing but that I go where my heart shall yearn. It adds and air of mystery to me, and it's why the ladies like me...I'm a loner Dottie, a rebel.

Anyway. Here are two kick-ass art related things that I will link too. I'll talk more about them later. But suffice it to say I was lucky enough to see a bunch of cool shit while in Prague, and this is some of it.

The first is performance group Krepsko (website here). I saw their show "Mad Cup of Tea" and it was magnificent. I can only hope that they make a DVD, as I rarely get a chance to go to theatres in Prague on my weekends. Seriously, how can I return to the muted visual and audio tones of mere mundane existence knowing that such expression thrives elsewhere? I submit to you that I cannot.

The Second is this dude, Jeremiah Palecek. He is both a stand up guy (who will talk to Russians with you outside a store at 6am), and excellent painter, his stuff is here. There's a new painting--and sometimes a plush Star Wars huggable character of dubious quality--every day!

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