Walls

I'm getting into this terrible habit of copying whatever Anet and Sharon have on their blogs, because they come up with such better concepts than I do. To wit, house walls and the art adorning them: Living room, looking west, you could see Pikes Peak out this window.


Living room, Georgia O'Keefe print
on the left, fireplace with various fetishes on the right, the fireplace has bricks from the original Penrose Hospital.





Dining room angel alcove, where all the angels fly to hide.


Kitchen photos, left is the strange indoor charcoal pit and wine rack made from Penrose bricks, at right is the chile pepper memorial wall.


Below, the front hallway of random hangings
and odd-shaped doorways.
Above, my chaotic office, with music posters, political diatribes, and discarded napkins from Cecil Taylor performances.

Two more images of the office, framed Sleater-Kinney and cross-stitched Michigan on the left, the door of doom on the right.

Th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

John Darnielle in Colorado

John Darnielle of Mountain Goats sings Your Belgian Things

I feel sorry for the people who attended the full weekend of Folks Fest in Lyons, Colo. in mid-August, as the entire state was subjected to a 60-hour downpour that left the Friday and Saturday performances of Dar Williams, Amos Lee, Patty Griffin, Nancy Griffith, et. al. a soggy mess. Jakob Dylan was supposed to play mid-afternoon on Sunday, but canceled at the last minute. John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats replaced him. Sunday turned out to be full of sunshine, and his performance was full of fun and inspiration, as were the sets from Missy Higgins, KT Tunstall, Ellis, Melissa Ferrick, and others. I got to say hi to John after the set. Check the links here for performances of San Bernadino, Dilaudid, International Small Arms Traffic Blues, and No Children.

Imperialism and Seven-League Boots

At the end of the day, Georgia's "ownership" of South Ossetia or Russia's "dominance" of Georgia doesn't matter, except insofar as citizens of any nation respond best to home-grown jingoism that makes their dominance of others feel good. Certainly works for us, eh? But now we have open war in Georgia at the start of the Olympics in Beijing. (Notice how the Soviet Union waited until the Suez Crisis of 1956 to invade Hungary, and global student protests in 1968 to invade Czechoslovakia? The Kremlin loves diversionary tactics, whether under socialist or authoritarian management.)
Yes, Saakashvili is a jerk. So are Medvedev and Putin. All three are popular precisely because they go to war in the name of the Motherland. The numerous stories at antiwar.com can help you sort out the claims from both sides.
There are some rather stupid progressive groups in the U.S. and Europe who would like to see the U.S. as the primary hand in all this, because the Pentagon wants to expand bases in Georgia. As Bob Anderson from Stop the War Machine points out, the U.S. is becoming such a minor player, such a paper tiger, that other nations can take the role of lead imperialist without consulting us one way or another. And it is our job in the peace community to say that Russians and Georgians are equally wrong in exploiting each others' territority, and that it is time to call in the UN to resolve border disputes before this spirals further out of control.

Abby's Tattoo

So here's Abby's tattoo, it's Albert Camus' quote, "Live to the point of tears," in Chinese ideograms.

Personal Flikr Meme

1. Loring Pasha, 2. Thai curry and plantain lunch, 3. Grand Ledge, Grand Ledge High School, 4. Purple Passion, 5. Listening to Music on the Train, 6. North Market Microbrew Festival, 7. Aegean Caldera, 8. Natalie's delicious turtle pumpkin pie, 9. detatched, 10. Light experience, but not lightly, 11. Exuberant, 12. DRI Image - Garden Of The Gods, Colorado Springs, 13. Editors_0056, 14. Blueberry Kuchen, 15. Mercury droplets, 16. Autumn Tones, 17. Nordic Ski on the Jura, 18. Guided by Voices at Terrace Club, 1997, 19. Gravity’s Rainbow, 20. Charalambides_11142006_009, 21. Rainbow in Rockport, MA, 22. CWD482: Winter Activity, 23. Sour Patch Kids, 24. Columbine, 25. mercy hospital tour

Shout-out to Sharon and Anet for pointing to such a neat self-portrait trick. Here's how it works:

A. For each of the 25 questions below, type your own answer into Flikr Search.
B. Using only the choices on the first page, pick an image.
C. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the corresponding line in Mosaic Maker.

1. What is your first name? Loring
2. What is your favorite food? Thai Curry
3. What high school did you go to? Grand Ledge High School
4. What is your favorite color? Purple
5. Favorite pastime? Listening to music
6. Favorite drink? Microbrews
7. Dream vacations? Aegeans
8. Favorite dessert? Turtle Pie
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Detatched
10. What do you love most in life? Experience
11. One word to describe you. Exuberant
12. What town do you live in? Colorado Springs
13. Occupation? Editor
14. What did you have for breakfast? Kuchen
15. Favorite element? Mercury
16. Favorite season? Autumn
17. Favorite seasonal activity? Nordic skiing
18. Favorite music when you don't know what else to listen to? Guided by Voices
19. Celebrity you'd most like to meet? Thomas Pynchon
20. What's on your computer desktop? Charalambides
21. Favorite shoes? Rockport
22. Favorite alcoholic drink? Single-Malt Scotch
23. Favorite candy? Sour Patch Kids
24. Favorite flower? Columbine
25. What did you do today? Toured a hospital

Foolish Fusion Blues

Hats off to the Center for Independent Media chain for launching a nationwide series on intelligence fusion centers, providing local centers of excellence to augment the notorious Joint Terrorism Task Force. At the end of July, articles appeared about centers in Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan. The ACLU had conducted a fantastic national survey, distributed on CD-ROM and PDF files, "What's Wrong with Fusion Centers," but this is the first series to go local.

Those with long memories might notice the similarities to the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, turning police forces crooked since the 1960s, but ever since 9/11, the pseudo-private intelligence effort has gotten big federal bucks. If you have to ask what's wrong, you haven't checked your Constitution lately.

Who to Believe?

Gee whiz, the Pakistan government insists there is no truth to the front-page NY Times story Aug. 1 that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency planned the bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan. Well, let's see, the new Pakistan government tried to put ISI under the control of the Interior Ministry last week, and the ISI told the government it could not do so. ISI was a key sponsor of the Taliban and al-Qaeda for years. It sponsored the A.Q. Khan nuclear weapons shopping network. It is more powerful than Musharraf and the new civilian government. Any questions?