Day: May 6, 2005

sundry and various
2005-05-07— Posted by: allegra

I woke this morning with a joke. That’s never happened to me before, and it was kind of startling. As I came to consciousness, I thought, “If there’s skullduggery, is there cantankery, and is there gin involved?” I immediately passed this on to Paul, who snorted.

Jeff is off at his buddy’s place, and will proceed from there as a member of the wedding party. Funny thing though, he left the gifts here so he must be coming back.

Paul and I had a simply lovely walk through the neighbourhood last night. I didn’t want to walk all the way down to Dinosaur Rock, so we strolled through the alleys and back ways of Burnaby between here and Robert Burnaby park, and were much rewarded because there were hardly any barking dogs (I like dogs, but not when they sound like their biting decision tree is flopping between my ankle and my throat) and every blossoming shrub is divine. There’s a purple wisteria down on 18th that covers a third of the front of the house; the trunk of it is six inches (15 cm) across at the base. I could smell it before I could see it, and stood there poleaxed, looking around wildly, trying to figure out where the heavenly scent was coming from. Then Paul said, (understatement) “I think this is it,” and even he could smell it (Paul has virally triggered anosmia, which I don’t recommend). Then we saw flowering shrubs with totally bizarre, flat, butterfly shaped, ice cream white flowers, have no idea what they were (no scent) and then in against a fence, a white wisteria, and we had a nice long chat with the woman who rescued it from the dumpster at a garden center. She had a fine, small, pale purple clematis that had self-started in the garage doorway, which she was very fond of as it was quite hardy. Then her rescued animal companion (detecting a trend about this woman), a rotund kitty with a white and tabby pattern reminiscent of Zeek!’s, came out and viewed us. Somebody was playing Bhangra drums live so we went to check where the sound was coming from and Paul admired the new Camaro parked out front, saying that it was a nice looking vehicle. The drums stopped just as we arrived in front of the building.

Pic is of wisteria, borrowed from the taleofgenji.org website.

Muppets bought by Disney
2005-05-07— Posted by: allegra

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-1599218_1,00.html

Now THIS is punchy entertainment news mixed with commentary. Hi YAH!

Jeff is here
2005-05-06— Posted by: allegra

I coulda watched something art-ay about Mongolian camels last night but NO Jeff said here, try Bubba Ho-tep. The plot, if one can so dignify it, is that a guy who thinks he’s Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and a guy who thinks he’s JFK (played by Ossie Davis) team up to destroy a mummy who’s sucking people’s souls through their hind ends. A penile growth, a ‘very large cock-a-roach’, and some truly hysterical dialogue feature prominently. There’s nothing in it scarier than the average Buffy episode and it’s really well acted, all things considered. Part of the charm of the movie is that the guy who thinks he’s Elvis actually IS Elvis, or so we are led to believe. The filmmakers even try to explain how a mummy ended up in West Texas in an old folks’ home. I won’t give away the ending.

Danny Schechter, News Dissector
2005-05-06— Posted by: allegra

http://www.newsdissector.org/blog/

I frankly love this blog. I read it every day. I don’t always agree with what he says, but I don’t always agree with anybody, including myself, so that’s okay.

I love his blog for the following reasons:

1. He allows his critics air time, and he doesn’t truncate their comments or take them out of context.

2. He’s a human being, with a network of family, friends, and children, and that network is crucial to both his work and his worldview.

3. Despite everything, he doesn’t give up. Leading by example is hard, but he’s doing it.

4. Despite everything, he doesn’t lose either his sense of humor or his sense of outrage.

5. This is going to sound sort of fannish, but he was in the crowd, in Washington, watching Martin Luther King deliver the I have a Dream speech. He’s like a living breathing textbook not only about American civil rights (he was 17 or thereabouts when he became a civil rights activist) but of the reportage during Vietnam, Watergate, and every scandal and triumph since. He reported on the election in South Africa and still has very close ties there. For me, he represents everything solid, decent, progressive and thoughtful about America. And sometimes he says or reprints things that are so tragic, and so funny, on the same page, that you’re left gasping at the sheer effrontery of his emotional and logical reach.

Oh, and he’s finally writing about Peak Oil. I wondered when he’d get around to that.

Tex Avery
2005-05-06— Posted by: allegra

I am a big Tex Avery fan. Here’s one of his heroines.