Redux quidem est..!

Been re-reading the blog looking for inspiration. How much of a narcissist do you have to be to look to yourself for inspiration, a misanthrope? Nevertheless, I decided to come clean and reveal that the quote below, a January 8, 2008 entry, originally attributed to Jonathan Swift, is nothing more than one of my own rantings.... speaking of misanthropic narcissist, just stop what you are doing and wallow in what feels like prophecy..... Been busy with a Samsung job and then a "common cold" of uncommon ferocity. Sniffling around the blog....

“…………… those affected foragers, manipulating other, less disingenuous characters, elephantine rogues and agitators who rise to pomp and circumstance by playing to that imminent and gullible mind, of a market of believers.

Perpetrators, thinly disguised speculators, obstructionist and talented frocks, biding the acrimonious bile of some authority or power: The backslapper, apple polisher, flatterer and glad hander; within whose easy compliance lies the carbonized core of a hateful, bullying and fearful deceiver; a coddling messenger who seeks compliant listeners, like so many fools before them in respectful demeanor…. you shall forgive me, should you derive any pleasure from thy efforts, but ….. ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture as crawlers.” Jonathan Swift.

Nailin' Palin...

Interesting day today:

A- Casting on "Nailin' Palin", the porn version of Sarah Palin's life begins in Los Angeles.

B- My first cousin, Anne Laude, is awarded the "Legion D' Honneur" for outstanding civilian service to "La Patrie" (that 's France to you and me), and the highest honor a french citizen can receive.

C. It's my birthday. No special honors are awarded on this date but I think I have a pretty good shot at being the male co-star in "Nailin' Palin*. Crossing my fingers and knocking on wood (no pun intended).

*Other titles we are currently considering are: " In Palin, Sarah", "Drill Baby Drill" and "Country Fist".

" A crap sandwich"!.....How cute is that?

PS: Down 777 points, damn, those are lucky numbers...! I wonder what they'll call this one " Crapwich Monday"? I think " Black Monday" is already taken....

"Come to America, where your profits are privatized and your losses socialized."

Smells like sex, and snowmobiles....Part Deux.

As previously mentioned I spent the month of August in the country of my birth. It had been at least twenty years since I had spent that much time with my family and as expected it was both wonderful, but equally enervating, in no uncertain way.After all, I have spent he better part of the last thirty years living in the US or traveling the world which for all instance and purposes has turned me into a creature few of my countrymen can understand, let alone tolerate.

Of course France had much to offer, especially when it comes to food, which is always far and away superior to anything I could ever find in this country, lest it be "ethnic" cuisine, therein such choices become clearly superior in the States.

As a matter of course I rarely eat French or Italian food in the US as it pales to what I have grown used while visiting or vacationing. This country does not have the artisans and dedicated professionals which are "de rigueur" in any self respecting french city. I can actually go to a quality fruit stand and ask for today's peaches or to my local butcher and purchase the best damn squabs you've ever tasted, lovelingly cage raised in some god forsaken hole in some long forgotten provinces; far, far, far, from the nearest PETA branch offices.

Anyway, my fellow Americans, tis not why I sat down today. Is just wanted to talk to you about the utter consternation which awaited me as I made my way back to the good ole US of A, right after labor day, to discover, to my continued dismay, that Ms. Palin had just been nominated to replace the honorable Juan McCain; should he be forever dismissed, from his presidential displays.

Unfortunately, since I am still speechless, and can't think of anything else to say, I have carefully chosen an image to stand in and demonstrate wherein my true political allegiances, lay....

Smells like sex, and snowmobiles....

Been sniffing around the blog ever since I've been back from France. The damn thing smells like old feet and unkept hippies. Frankly, I have also been far too busy dictating love sick notes to Govn'r Palin and saving my pennies for one steamy night of sex and snowmobiles. Consequently, I find blogging, as of late, utterly unsatisfying. Touch down...!

PS: Those white specs are frozen bananas...

Healed by steel?

Why the long silence? Well it appears that on the morning of May 28th I was rudely awaken by a Kaiser administrator, who promptly inquired as to wether I would not mind getting sliced and diced a few hours earlier. The first patient of the day seemed to have chickened out of his or her procedure at the last moment.It now appeared that for a few hours the OR would be empty of patients and would need someone to fill its cavernous and sterile walls; someone, desperate enough to submit their temple to a few hours of controlled butchery.

I agreed, and the rest of that day was spent languishing in an induced coma. When I woke up five hours after watching an IV enter my right hand, I knew that a new, 13 inch scar would forever embellish my posterior, as previously discussed on this blog, and that the next few weeks would be less than amusing. Indeed it was, and so much so that any thought of keeping up this blog, vanished; proportional to the large amount of idle time given to me by this surgical handicap.

Regardless, I am, and continue to assume, that I am moving towards a full recovery, and look forward to returning to work at the beginning of September. Consequently, I'll be back to blogging at such time, unless I am too busy with real work or have lost interest in keeping up 'Dear leader", which is always a possibility.

July 6th.

Back from the depth, but not for long...... I shall recap the last two months in a post shortly but not right now. My personal trials and tribulations pale in comparison to standing by the Indian Embassy a week or so ago and being blown to smithereens by a religious zealot desperately looking to get laid. My friend and Afghanistan fixer(who shall remain nameless) sent me these images in desperation, along with this caption: " The bomb went off while the suicide bomber trying to enter the embassy with his car in the Indian embassy right after the ambassador's car entered the embassy at around 08:30 am this morning. There are about 44 people killed, including women and children. Among the victims, there are many civilians who were waiting to get their visas".

Since the mainstream media tends not to publish but the tamest of images, here a re a few of the "not edited for content". As for myself, I have stood at these very gates of the Indian embassy, waiting for a visa, more than a few times... Sobering.

We interrupt this program......

OMFG.....this is better than Libyan porno(well almost)...I have hit the motherload.....no pun, haa, haaa.....(and OMFG, fade to red, this gives me such great happiness).

Is the Dear Leader Healthy?

Wonderful gala last night in my honor. I danced and danced, great pleasure....aaaaahhh......!

...... a million Casiotones for the People, great pleasure....aaaaahhh......!

Later, after party, took Wangjaesan Dancers, for a spin, ha, ha, no pun... The generals watched "Dear Leader" perform "Honored Bukkake".... Great pleasure.......aaaaahhh......!

the people, they whistle while they worked.....great pleasure....aaaaahhhh......!

and then we really confused the fuck out of the Chinese. The generals and I had them sing "Frère Jacques" and think it is revolutionary song.....ha, ha...great pleasure....aaaaahhhh......!

and of course, the best part about all this is that, after all is said and done, our very own brand of variety and propaganda pabulum differs little from our North Korean brethren's; rendering our own opprobrium as entertaining to the educated North Korean...... as the doppelgänger boomerangs.....

In the immortal words of Lily Tomlin(via Laura Penny, whose work I shall discuss shortly) "No matter how cynical you become, it is never enough to keep up"

New York Photo Festival, May 14-18.

......couldn't resist......

Les Wanyika.....Ochieng Kabasselle

I have been a huge fan of African music since I was 5 or 6 years old. My father had brought 78 RPM LPs from Madagascar and I remember listening to them and being completely transfixed. From then on I kept on searching for African music without much luck. Not until the late 70s and early 80s that anything resembling contemporary African music became available; at least where I shopped in Paris. Being that it was the FNAC, we had always assumed this was the best music store, and it was, but besides the odd African drum or scratchy thumb piano field recordings, African popular music was nowhere to be found. Slowly but surely African emigrants in Paris and London brought their LPs along with their instruments and these sounds and the music started to become more and more available.

Over the last 30 years I have amassed a gianormous collection of continent wide African music. I have always wanted to bring this up on the blog but did not want to just post songs on-line.

Anyway, Raphael is learning to play guitar and he has been spending a lot of time online watching the myriad tutorials and guitar virtuosos on YouTube. On a whim I typed in "Les Wanyika" to see what might transpire. They are one of my favorite african bands of all time, and lo and behold.....

African music resonates with me like no other music and fills me with absolute joy..... A bottomless thanks to all those African musicians who have provided me with such happiness in the last 37 years.... I foresee that searching for my favorite tunes on YouTube might become an enormous and unavoidable time suck....

and Wuora Ogolla Adoyo, for now....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxhOV1gvVTI

Smoking the dream....

Here are a few more resources to help you understand your future. 1- On the Threshold: 2- Evidence from cases. 3- The project on: 4- Environment, population and security: 5- Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict: The Case of Pakistan 6-Clausewitz vs. The Scholar:

I'll stop right there for now, will add to it later..... Enjoy. Sweet dreams.

Mantras....

At the bottom of a returned email. Adrienne woke up in Taipei and sent me an email telling me she was awake. Somehow, overnight, the signature morphed into a mantra.....

I have to admit that texting or emailing, in real time to my girl(in Asia) is a real pleasure.

"Driving to taichung, sleepy. This guy had a radar detector that blares something in mandarin every 5 mins. You might like it actually. :) I should try and get u this detector. Its called THE SNOOPER. Practice yo mandarin." She knows what I like.....can't wait for my SNOOPER.

Rube Goldberg and then some....

Anyway, since we've featured this one long enough, we have removed it and replaced it with clean white space. Enjoy.....

Wow, someday, I'll be just like them...

How to reduce your carbon footprint....

Alexandre, here is your answer. I hope this helps. Enlarge by clicking on the image.

I wanna be an Exit Poll.

A little image searching today, instead of doing what I am supposed to.... Keyed in different "Jesus"(G-Zeuses). A nice smorgasbord to store away, for future inspiration. German Jesus:

West Texas Jesus:

Dear Permian Basin,

If my people will pray, and stop their wicked ways, I'll forgive their sins and heal their land. Love God. (Nice scientific use of Geological term in the prayer there, preacher.... Dem Christians are crazy bitches...).

Golfing Jesus: Hey, just key wording.

Indian Jesus:

and last but not least a little a black Jesus: Oh Lordie, lord, I shutter to think, where honkey would be, without thee....

The flipping point....

Great interview with George Soros in the New York Review of Books. Been thinking the same kinds of things for a while now but could never have sat down and put it all together like that. Not my skill set, that's for sure..... I highly recommend it. Not that he is says anything new but it is about the best synopsis of the world today I have read in a long, long, time. Kinda reminds me of reading Robert Kaplan's "The coming Anarchy" in 1994. That also was a fine piece of intellectual ass..... and all along, ya'll thought I was an idiot......

No T, just Ass ... my Juliana Mieas....Part four.

Now then; now that we have laid the ground work for Miaes (pun), it stands to reason that I might deservedly, so to speak, perform a public function and post a little human anatomy.For those of you who come to me, "Dear Leader", by any other means than the photographic, please ignore my creatives, and rather, study the anatomy of a certain aphorism, a general truth and function of our common and quite unique bipedal reality.

The posteriora, the first and last part a lover sees and the first of the lares and penates one yearns to kick as it propulses one forward and onward, quite nicely.

And, if you shall be so bold as to click, you shall be rewarded with a larger posteriori.

PS: Part V: The Lower extremity. Fig 430: The middle and deep gluteal muscles and the Sciatic nerve. Anatomy. A Regional Atlas of the Human Body. Carmine D. Clemente. 3rd Edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg.

Looks good enough to eat....