STUDIO DIARY

OK. Now it's getting good. Pride is creeping in. That isn't as bad as it sounds because in a moment, hours or minutes, the fear and questioning will return.

Enjoy your pride.

He Just Knew it was Over

"It is his special curse: to be able to fill his body with alcohol and drugs, and always have it function; never to be able to blot out what he has seen, what he knows. And looking around, he knows that it is over: the revolution, the fighting, the chance to be different. The counterculture has become The Culture, and out there in the streets is the proof...." (1976)

- Robert Sam Anson

STUDIO DIARY

I've been hand's off, for the most part. I need space. Space to forget. Space for the ears to heal. Space to think.

Needless to say, the record is always on my mind. In everything I do.

Listening to everything: music, sounds, noise, rumblings...words.

Getting closer. Will it be the masterpiece? Dunno. Will it be laughable shit? Dunno.

I see the mountain of work left, but am already saddened that it has to come to a conclusion.

Albums are trippy like that.

apostrophe

Cleverness is never as entertaining as blatant stupidity, failure and public humiliation.... The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a bi-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit.

- Banksy

From late 1998:

It's a Very Different World Again

Between all this Presidential blow-job cover-up nonsense and the bombing of terrorists (us & them, here & abroad), our world is again a very different place. Privacy doesn't exist. Peace does not exist. We've fooled ourselves to believe that they both exist. Our culture stagnates while cigar bars flourish. How did we become so deluded? Well, times have been good. Money is in the bank. Porsche sales are at an all time high. Well, believe me, there are more desperate poor in America today than at any other time. There are more people in prison in America than at any other time. The good old USofA has more internal and external enemies than at any other time. But times are good, remember.

This is a country for the young and the rich. If you are not either, you are nothing. If you are both, you're fat and happy (Americans are the fattest beasts on the planet). Why are we so consumed with Presidential fellatio? Why does the TV news compete to dictate what is important? We've forgotten what's important...because times have been so good. Individuals have grown selfish and narrow. The American economy is strong and the rich and the young are in control. Have you watched network television or listened to commercial radio lately? We live in happy-talk times, folks. We're dim to the ills of our own old and poor and we are completely blind to the relevant issues of the world. We're over-sensationalized ourselves into a coma. History predicts change.

For those who keep our eyes open and our ears to the ground, it's in the air. Things change. Someone has to take advantage.

On another note, I'm almost at the point with this new record where I sell a few more bones to the devil and leave a pint of blood on the floor. The point where one puts one's heart into the project. Sometimes that comes early and you clean it up in production. Sometimes you do the left brain stuff up front and build a solid foundation, then you color out of the lines.

Once I cocoa up, I think I can put the emotion in and go into the middlespace. I may or may not come out with shoes.

I'm almost there. It's a defining point; the point where the result is art or product. The point where, if you're lucky, you fall squarely onto the favorable side of the conceptually stellar ^ random nonesense razor.

STUDIO DIARY

Something was bothering me. Specifically, I couldn't pinpoint. But, something was wrong with track seven, The Mighty Judge.

After the preliminary mixdown, I knew that it would require major work to make it usable. At some point a couple of nights ago, I woke up, went down stairs and deleter track seven. Scrapped in total. Delete, are you sure? Yes! Bye-bye.

I've never flet better.

The replacement tune, tentatively titled Track Seven, makes me happy. Very happy. It's not nearly as technically difficult or conceptually challenging, but it's warm and cozy. Safe.

Good for me.

STUDIO DIARY

First full-length mix-down today.

Some stuff finished, some with great potential. Some work remaining, some fixes and adjustments to be made. Lots of nitpicky crafting to accomplish. Perfection to attain.

At one section of the seventh cut, I wrote in my notes "More sonic adventures?" Is that possible? What does this piece of work mean?

At ~45 minutes it's already pretty dense (and strange (and confusing (and fucking beautiful!))).

I guess the good news is I did find 18 seconds to cut...

There's a couple of months left in this project yet.

Today's words of wisdom: What may sound great on headphones may sound completely ridiculous on speakers.

STUDIO DIARY

When is too much too much?

When does "conceptual" become noise?

When does "creative" become insanity?

Working alone, it is difficult to perceive the thresholds.

STUDIO DIARY

TY: This album is getting weird, even for me. It's kind of scaring me, but I have no context or feedback. So far it's completely in a vacuum. I just hope it doesn't suck.

DAVE: I hope it doesn't either. What an embarrassment and tremendous waste of time it would be for you if it did.

OK, just echoing your fears. Of course that's not true! I guess that's the way you start to feel sometimes when you tell someone you're going to do something as opposed to doing it first. It can get in the way, the expectations, or imagined expectations I should say. Okay, just projecting my fears on you.

Weird and scary. I like it already.

TY: What's interesting is I'm working on projects all the time - constantly - most of those no one sees or hears. They're just filed away, maybe for practice for sharpness.  But, I stay somewhat productive: writing, photos, design, music/sound. And, I'm thinking about art all the time. But, nobody knows or cares, right?
 
But, by announcing, "Hey, look at me, I'm gonna make a new album, aren't I cool and interesting?!" it intentionally puts a great deal of pressure on me, self-inflected pressures.  I become very sensitized and cognizant of expectations.  Rich, Dave, Dan, three or four others...me!  Each step of the process becomes double-filtered:  What I want to do and what impact will it have on/for others.  Makes it hard, but helps me build in surprises or the unexpected. Makes me work for quality. Makes me sweat the details.
 
And expectations are great.  For me and hopefully for others.  I mean, what could people possibly think this will sound like? That's so interesting to me.  I mean, what if I produce a clean, professional, pop album full of light, safe topics?  I mean, we killed god on OFR. What if it just sucked? Everything about it, sloppy technique, bad ideas, amateurish attempt at being relevant or a desperate attempt at being fresh? Happens all the time; artists lose it, writers get blocked, rock stars buy the act and cannot see the forest any more. Happens all the time.
 
I don't know.  I still feel that most people will never get what I do. That's why my attended audiences are so small.  Hopefully, maybe Brennan can do this, someday my lifelong body of work will be placed into some context.  Or, maybe it'll just die with me like my deepest, darkest secrets.

Suck or not, it'll take years for me to understand or appreciate the efforts. I'm just beginning to understand my earlier work.

I have finally posted my 2004 fav pics on Middlespace:

At least it's off my list.

But by all accounts and all means, far, far from over.

Tip of the iceburg, mon.

Studio Diary

So this is it. Now, it's starting - starting - to actually make sense.

Clearing the deck. Leaving it on the field, as they say.

I'm fucked!

Side A: 18:50

Side B: 9:31 of ?

28:21 so far. Tip of the iceberg.

Did I mention that I'm fucked!

mining the past for the sake of the future

my attention span has decreased by a factor of 6.

blog this motherfucker

six tracks into some really weird shit.

duration-wise, 'bout half way.

pray for me.

STUDIO DIARY

Don't mix tired.

STUDIO DIARY

today

while sitting on the toilet - nursing a mild tramadol hangover - i picked up a copy of "Middle Spaces" the book.

now i know my mission in the studio.

to make the audio analogy of this autobiographical masterpiece.

that's all.

So far:

Heaven and/or Hell

Devil Tsunami
Devil's Lady
A Global Test
Fun on the Bayou (need new title)

For consideration:

Nigger Rich
State of Emergency
The First 40 Years
Trademark Violations


Too many ideas, not enough brain...
Too many ideas, not enough time...

Daniel Lefcourt is a non-painter's painter.

He's an artist who happens to make paintings—although maybe this could be said of all painters.

Studio Diary - Ponderings

Why do I even have to describe what I do to anyone (anymore)? Maybe it's that I don't understand what it is anymore.

Is it that I aspire to make music or complicated sound patterns? Sometimes I use the word "music" to describe what I do. Whatever it is I do. Art. Whatever art is. Knob turning, sampling, stealing, amusing.

Some sounds are appealing, some not. But this is a case of individual differences... "Dissonance is my harmony; chaos is my rhythm."

Can you feel that baby
It's called Funkadelic music
It will blow your funky mind
Yeah!

Twenty questions from a course in Music Cognition:

Why do people make music?

How do composers know what to write?

How does music give pleasure?

Are musical preferences related to personality?

Why do we need so much music and so much musical variety -- why don't we limit our listening to just the dozen best works?

Does music always have to involve sounds?

Are there certain life experiences that contribute to a person's understanding of music?

Why are melody and rhythm so important in music?

What makes something "musical"?

How are musical memories stored in the brain?

How does repeated listening to a work change our experience of it?

How does music evoke emotions?

How is it that some people are able to improvise music?

Is music a spiritual phenomenon?

Are there musical hallucinations?

Can drugs enhance musical pleasure?

Are there brain structures specialized for just music?

Does a music tell us something about the people who make it?

Are there different ways of "listening"?

What is the relationship between music and the other arts?

Some shit never changes.

Dresses like a roadie.

Money is time.

Time is money.

The waiting kills.

Tuning.

Load in.

Good roadies/techs are hard to find.

Studio Diary - Discussions

A Four-Way:

Although I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for the song (the craft, hooks, construction, etc.), I cannot remove myself from the album. The big piece, the opera, the whole rodeo. It’s like continents fitting together to form a planet, or better, finding the right planets to construct the perfect solar system. Song = hard. Album = impossible. Why sell your art short?

I just had a complete shift in thought. I have always been pro-album. As in the songs should be taken in context, the album as "whole," etc, that kind of shit, you know what I mean.

Noise, amp buzz, street sounds, it's all part of the final package.

You’re right about wanting that message in a bottle to come back to you. I mean, what do you put in a bottle you throw in the ocean? Your address so you can get it back. But getting it back isn't the important thing, it's the person bringing it back - you FOUND that person. You and this person are now connected in a way you aren't with anyone else. Possibly this is the person you were looking for? Or maybe it's to see if you can effect change over great distances in space or time. Yeah, that too.

For example, I prefer headphones and conceptual, obtusely narrative albums because those aid me in the hijacking. The experiences I create are intended for full immersion rather than background or sing along music. And it's has more than a little to do with the fact that I don't perform live anymore. And the experience, if successful, should continue after listening by posing questions, leaving messages, creating mysteries, and establishing a compelling and reflective (if imaginary) world to be considered between listenings.

Being half white/half black, I’ve always felt comfortable making both highly uncomfortable. That’s why I drove people like R.J. crazy. Not from a race perspective, but they can’t comprehend what I’m doing or what I’ll do next.

I’ve always wrapped my art around the conceptual. As far as audiences, I maintain that I make stuff for a limited audience, but I really make stuff for me to rediscover many years in the future, what I call future gifting. I’ve spent most of my adult life stumbling across future gifts. It’s like finding stash from last winter in your heavy coat.

I wish I had a pony.

We, the family, were talking over the holiday about the supposed demise of albums (CDs, etc.) because, as we are being told by some pundits, everything will be available electronically and everyone will just go out and download (buy or not) what they want to hear, etc. We all agreed that this won't happen as quickly as some say (some are saying by the end of this year). As I was listening to "The Wall" (the album), one of Petey's presents, I realized another reason it won't happen that easily: many albums exist in their form for a reason. Albums are wholes with the parts generally in intentional arrangements. Infinite mixing, unlimited electronic shuffling would be tantamount for many albums, many artists, to shuffle reading a novel -- chapter 12, chapter 3, chapter 43, chapter 8, chapter 34. (Of course, I suppose albums can become single files -- i.e., a single "son.")

Anyhow, good you're working on this. Must be a creative thing in the air. About a month ago I began working on a bread cookbook that I have been mulling over for years (I do a lot of bread baking - have published many recipes). Something in the air?

So now it begins. It's wonderful how easily the mind slips back into create mode.

Studio Diary - THREE

Devil Music

Studio Diary - two

Yeah, I've had a similar shift too.

I enjoy songs. If a group is not up to an album, they make two good songs and fill with shit.

I've just started a new project. I'll know when I'm finished. Maybe a couple long songs, or an album. I don't know yet.

But, it won't contain a bunch of filler since I'm not making it for a corporation and have "contractual obligations."

But, there are still classic and perfect albums; full pieces that deserve the room.

But, yeah the fucking devil. Great title, by the way: "The Fucking Devil"

Studio Diary - two

STUDIO DIARY - one

Excuses behind me, loads of work before me.

Department of Experimental Accounting.

Drums
Guitar - acoustic
Guitar - electric
Piano - baby grand, out of tune
Keyboard
Toy piano
Soprano Ukulele
Bass - electro/acoustic
Years of recorded samples and field recordings
Bunch of other shit

Tsunami

I'm getting kind of old to again make the best album ever. This might be it. You know, "it."

The Floods of Lexington Pacheco

Music to Nod-off to

Funeral

Dark

Joyous

Stolen Democracy

Here we go...all these ideas I've incubated (all somehow magically lost right now) over the years are ready to do something.

The best thing about this effort will be getting it out of my head.

black box

Miles Smiles

It's a long story.

[Post Originally Untitled]

They say write [about] what you know
But what if you know very little or practically nothing?

What if the only thing you know about
Makes little or no sense to anyone – including yourself sometimes?

There are the absolutes

I know that fire is hot; it also burns and you can cook with it
I know I cannot breathe under water

I know that if my heart stops beating, I’ll die
I know if I don’t eat, I get awfully hungry

My intestines work involuntarily

But about the pain and confusion
About the pondering and observations?

And the loss of vocabulary regarding
Banal discussions about lines or weather?

Does anyone really care?

I know about the urges and the want
Bottlenecks of energies unfulfilled

I know that it’s all make believe
The politics the religions and the careers

Smokes and mirrors – sleight of hand - knots

The arts and some crafts make happiness
As do simple moments unspoken unpromised

I know it’s all going to come to an abrupt and brutal end
I know, I know, it’s all so depressing

I suppose the answer it to not write - this I know

Step Aside, Clyde

It's complex, really
Chemistry of the brain
and the tweaks and nudges
We add
50 milligrams, or so, at a time

Confidence sans agression
Socialization sans pretense
You will know -- you will know
Since we are still unlike the rest

Get over your disrespect
Educate yourself
This is it
And we're all in the together
in this short, short life

Make fun not wars
Vacations for the arts
Inorganic in conjunction with the organic
I suffer no trauma, doll

Deep, very deep
Inside the brain

There's a place I go
A space I go

In the middle
You get the drift

The middlespaces
of middlespace

Cellular
microbiotic
the DNA

Half-lives and dangerous buildups.

To that end, it was crucial to curb formal education and abstract thinking.

 Binge over, of sorts, I've been to the top. The core.

Prison of the mind
Detention of the soul
Welfare torture static
No more rock 'n roll

Redneck washout nazi
Ghetto homeless stars
Debilitating pathos
No more oil for the cars

Less said is best stated
One nod or shrug a time
Survival has become
Less rhythmic than divine

When the last vote is counted
After the last soldier is dead
When the final baby
Has been dropped upon his head

I will be sitting there
Watching judging scoring
Hoping your holy afterlife
Lets you stop this whoring

blog me
blog you
like i care what you think
like i care if you care what i think

blog this

today i woke up
had a terrible pain in the neck and upper back
took a shower
washed my ass

drove to work
slept on the floor for most of the day
back still hurts
(but ass is sparkling clean)

getting ready to go back home
eat dinner and dim my pain
on cocktails of man made pleasures
and suffer through televised belittlement

like you care
like i care
like insanity of humanity
we can take comfort in safe doses

the pain is pretty bad
the fear is even worse
and the consequences are dire

sometimes you might need to detox
it could help you with your rhyme-flow and your beatbox.

Madvillain

Fuck hip-hop.

Wear a belt!

- Banksy, U.K.

It was decided at a very young age that an artist I was to be. Clearly, that was the direction to head. Clearly, it was intuited that creating overshadowed consuming.

This so-called dabbling has taken me to many places and on many journeys that I probably never would have embarked, nor expected. Or survived. I’ve been to the bowels of middle spaces.

All the experimenting. The tests. Litmus. Educating. The building of infrastructure. Future gifting. All for what? For self or for humanity?

Through many slogans, logos and campaigns, I return to where it all started. Fate intervening, as usual, generally for the betterment. Will imposed by force or by subconscious processing. But, I have indeed returned to the beginning; full circle.

The mind as the finest art. The heart as the barometer. Souls bartered for returns to glory’s past. Fuck or be fucked. Naked, alone, and afraid.

Belief that whatever you’ve wanted, you could have. All of it. You just have to have the want enough. You just have to transform desire into necessity. Forced, by will of mind and psychological jiu-jitsu.

And, when it hits, it hits hard, man. Blocking taste, rest, and erotic desires. We are the junkies. We are the powerless. We are all so fully empty.

Hacky sack is just as queer as can be.

You don't pick up chicks kicking the 'ole footbag around.

What the fuck is wrong with people?

Rove = Over [move over Rover and let Jimi take over]

I'd have to move to Mopetown.

Okay, wouldn't it suck...

So, we know The Election will be a huge deal and very, very close, right?

But, some of us have the balls to sit around guessing that it won't be as close as polling predicts. We're all convinced that Kerry will really crush; resulting in a humiliating Bush tail-between-the-legs defeat. We: the so-called Liberal Intelligensia.

But, what if?

What if the reverse somehow happens? Bush in a Nixonian, Reaganian LANDSLIDE! A fucking mandate!

Wouldn't it suck?!

Once I got out of the psych ward, I'd have to move to Canada, or France...

today's Bethesda graffiti:

"Ku Klux Fag"

Funny

Six for six
feel the burn
reel the yearn
letting the addiction of insanity
take the mind and body to places
undesireable yet unavoidable

Time to make contingency plans
because the big brave facade
is starting to crumble
into heaps of fear and remorse
shit yeah I'm really, really scared

If I should survive myself
I would be the luckiest man alive
postponing death for at least another year
so I can really say
looking forward at forty

What do they take us for?
Fools?
drunk and high on the power of chickenshit

Save the Troops

...for a rainy day
...for target practice
...for political gain
...from themselves
...the pain and suffering
...from the humiliation
...from the president

1) I forgot what goes here.

2) Halloween is the next, new Christmas.

3) I forgot what goes here.

Shallow processing of complexities
Confidence in data-less facts
The WILL as dictated by mysterious higher powers
And the toppling of a keen experiment
After only 228 short years

Six for Seven
Wallowing in cornography
Momentum building upon momentum
Skulls & Bones of
The Idle progeny of the ruling class

A shock treatment imposed
Upon cities aflame

Pink-eyed self-abuser
of various nouns - indiscriminant

Nuns and homosexuals
sharing psychic spaces if not similar gods

Straw for hair
hammer-headed sharks
bobble-head upon racks of pointy bones

[and I don't like what you got me hangin' from]

RED power tie
WHITE crisp shirt
& BLUE pinstripe suit

Shit for phone hanging from your ear
you got a fucking hole in your shoe!
no one alerted you

Lying motherfuckers
It's time to shut 'em down
Symptom relief without surgery
Hit 'em hard ('cuz this is hard work)
Play the blues

So Partisan It's actually quite painful
Ideology entrenched into competing camps:
I Am Right & They Are Wrong
A universe divided
Split into halves and "haves"

Take me by the hand
Lead me to places where care
Doesn't exist anymore
To states united intelligently
Effectively and carefully

The achievement of balances
Across many multi-layered dimensions
Harmony the ultimate destination
A journey fraught with misery
Unimaginable pain and suffering

Lying motherfuckers all

It was Andy Griffith meets Barney Fife

Cycles.

Binge days have begun, in earnest.

Karl Rove.

Listen, children. And, if you had listened the first time, we wouldn't all be in the situation we're in now.

Listen. Follow. Obey. Serve.

I'm here to take the chill off. To soothe the needy.

Karl Rove, my main man.

Let's feast. Let's binge. Let's pillage.

Karl Rove.

On vinyl, "Voodoo Chile" is the end of a side, and "Little Miss Strange" is the beginning of the next side. This makes sense.

Anyhow, the sequence design was for one to take a break after "Voodoo Chile." Rest, roll another. Pee. Eat. Then settle in for the next leg of the tour.

But, after the massive journey of "Chile," even on CD, "Strange" serves a distinct purpose: juxtaposition. It's the cold splash of water that prevents one from becoming insane. It's a life saver. After you realize that you've set yourself on fire, "Strange" is a handy, helpful hose.

It works, think, "Tom's Three Minute Single."

Karl Rove

From 09.02.04 Washington Post

Hollywood, Calif.: The Republicans must be euphoric. Their leaders have been impressive, especially McCain, Schwarzenegger and Giuliani. The street demonstrations have just shown that the Democrats are not the kind of people you want to trust with important decisions. This convention looks like the turning point in the election. Are they taunting you yet?

Al Franken: Obviously I disagree. I thought Schwarzenegger made a huge mistake with the girly-man comment. I saw Giuliani disgrace himself by lying about Kerry and by exploiting 9/11 in a way that was shameful. For example talking about seeing a guy jump from the Trade Center and then making up this thing about thanking God George W. Bush is president. I don't think the demonstrators who misbehave were Democrats. And while I respect McCain I thought his comments about Michael Moore were unfortunate considering he had never seen the movie as he admitted later.

As far as taunting: you are going to lose, loser.

We really are living in frightening times now. Surrounded by liars, psychopaths, and evil people in it for the money.

I can't help to wonder what the hell is really going on? How will history reflect on the turn of this century? Will the label CWII stick?

[new toy]

I mean, we won the Olympics, right? So, there's some good for US sure.

We still have TeeVee and microwave popcorn...we're fatter and lazier than ever. Using up all the oxygen and oil.

Pinch me so I can wake up to my miserably wonderful life.

And so it begins, er, continues.

Like genitals exposed for everyone to see.

I have had many thoughts lately.

The New York Times reports that not only was "much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions ... three or four years old," intelligence and law enforcement officials "reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terror plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way."


Anyone consider this yet: So, if it's 3-4 years old, the information is probably about the World Trade Center, you know, September 11...2001. Doh!

They're marching all over town with guns and body armour for what again? Oh, to drown out any John Kerry news. Clever, I suppose. But, pretty damn insulting.

> good
>
> i have cameras
>
> i have list
>
> i am waiting for forms from steve and doug
>
> still waiting to hear from hamilton
>
> then can pitch clark
>
> peter will be back on mon to sign your invoice.

Realizing that I've been alive through eight presidencies, the thought has occured: I am getting old.

Still, no friends
No real enemies

Oddly neutral and somewhat feared
Respected yet avoided

It's a funny time to be me
Or is it?


"The radical right are to conservatives as anarchists are to liberals."
- D.P. Moynihan

"The—Pet—Goat. A—girl—got—a—pet—goat. But—the—goat—did—some—things—that—made—the—girl's—dad—mad."
- G.W. Bush

Why do republicans hate Americans?

Salon.com News | Bush urges blacks not to back Democrats

ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha ha ha haaaa haa ha ha ha-ha haaaaa hu-hu haaaaa ha ha ha haa ha hah hah aha ha ha!

"What we can say with confidence is that none of the measures adopted by the US government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaida plot.

Mr Kean, a Republican former governor of New Jersey, said it was not the commission's job to assign blame on a particular administration. Instead, he said: "Any person in a senior position within our government during this time bears some element of responsibility for our government's actions."

The commission also faulted Congress for failing to monitor the intelligence and counter-terrorist agencies properly and recommended it create a single committee to oversee homeland security. "So long as oversight is undermined by current congressional rules and resolutions, we believe the American people will not get the security they want and need," the commissioners wrote.


Analysis: This ALL happened under a wack job (R) administration and a wack job (R) congress way too busy looking at the president's penis to notice the world coming apart at the seams.

remember back in oh-one september
remember how scared we all were?
we were running around sorting out who would live
who would die
but where are we now?
nowhere
nowhere at all yet
 
My Life of Proabability

"My final prediction for today is that the U.S. will not send any teams to the Olympic Games this year. And the World Series will also be canceled or at least postponed for a National Security emergency that will never be explained in public until long after George Bush is gone from the White House, which will happen in early November -- or at least before Groundhog Day next year.


We are all going for a very wild ride for the next few months. So good luck and drink all the cold beer you can get your hands on for as long as necessary to guarantee victory and lasting peace in the nation and the world.


Buy the ticket, take the ride."

HST - 07.06.04

"So I had a choice to make: either take the word of a madman or defend America. Given that choice I will defend America."

George W. Bush on Saddam Hussein
July 12, 2004

--------------------------

"So I had a choice to make: either take the word of a madman or defend America. Given that choice I will defend America."

Ty Hardaway on George W. Bush
July 12, 2004

Whew.

Maybe Patrick was right. Maybe the election is a lock after all.... Isn't this convenient? You don't have to compete if there's no competition.

The King of America is planning to eliminate democratic elections:

-------------------

The Boston Herald
Feds plan for disruption of elections
By Andrew Miga
Monday, July 12, 2004

WASHINGTON - Two Bay State congressmen yesterday scoffed at emergency plans under review by Homeland Security to postpone the November election should al-Qaeda launch a major strike to disrupt it.

``That would be the ultimate surrender to terrorism for a democracy,'' said U.S. Rep. William Delahunt [related, bio] (D-Quincy) in a Herald interview. ``It just creates more fear, if you will. I can't imagine postponing an election like that.''

The presidential election delay contingency planning, first reported by Newsweek, comes in the wake of public warnings last week by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge that al-Qaeda may seek to influence the Nov. 2 election with a ``large-scale'' attack.

``I find it difficult to believe that al-Qaeda could attack the country in such a way that the election would have to be postponed,'' said U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano [related, bio] (D-Somerville). ``It seems pretty extreme to me, but we live in a new world after 9/11.

Capuano has been a leading critic of the Homeland Security Department, which he said has focused on the wrong types of anti-terror measures.

Homeland Security officials last week asked the Justice Department what legal steps would be needed for the federal government to postpone a national election in the event of a terrorist attack on the day before or the day of the election, Newsweek reported.

Officials believe such authority could require constitutional changes as well as new election laws on the state and local levels.

``I hope they don't spend a lot of time on this election postponement (proposal),'' said Capuano. ``I'd rather have them figure out how to handle the Democratic National Convention more smoothly.''

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Malden), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, was less critical, saying emergency election plans would be a ``drastic step'' that could pay dividends.

``The best answer to this threat is prevention - don't let an attack succeed in the first place,'' said Markey. ``Unfortunately, there are too many gaps in our homeland defenses to say with any confidence that we are ready to thwart any threat.''

Homeland Security sought legal advice from the Justice Department after receiving a letter from DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which helps localities conduct federal elections.

Soaries urged Ridge to press Congress for emergency legislation that would permit the Election Assistance Commission to postpone federal elections should catastrophes such as a terrorist strike occur near the voting.

Numerous intelligence sources suggest senior al-Qaeda officials are behind the planning to sabotage the U.S. presidential election, Ridge said last week.

The Madrid railway bombings by al-Qaeda in March helped spur the ouster of Spain's prime minister, who had backed President Bush [related, bio] in the war in Iraq.

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All hail!

When you never eat the cocoa
You don't need much
Of the cocoa
To whet your whistle

Thank you and good night
Or as Brennie sez

"Nite nite"

"Thanks. It's probably neurochemical. Someone told me that I sometimes talk in my sleep in a hash of English-sounding phonemes that are not real words but are arranged in paragraphs and have the tone of someone engaged in a rational argument. Stuff just skitters through my brain all the time. A constant chorus of associations."

S. Erfurth, 07.08.04

Will I survive this lifetime?
What is it I ascribe to be?
Have I lost all humor?

A Dissection Begins:
Detailed analysis of Rich Walkling’s The Floods of Lexington Pacheco


No more southern precedents
Headphone insanity
Shit, goddamn motherfuckin’ yeah!
Lay your hammer down upon me

[Perhaps the best six minutes I’ve ever experienced]

Forget this shit
Time to turn on the Visualizer, man
So goddamn luxurious
Vowed to serve people in poverty, sickness, and ignorance

After the wars we will all wear headphones
Cannot concentrate on anything anymore
All focus is on floods
Floods and more floods

A patience that exceed all lessons
And I still have no idea what any of it means
Yet so painfully jealous and happy
A resounding joy – I hear you

Canons and angels and Asian chicks
In one song
So intentional
Such a wonderful noise

Reduced to tears
Like an insane toddler
in a Chinese prison
Beaten like a goddamn egg

You broke my shovel
Don’t push me there
You know how hyper-competitive I get
I will too hunker down

[Perhaps the best nine minutes I’ve ever experienced]

Thank you - bless you

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Take it back:

:: Give to save America ::

It's ours!

[Previously Untitled - July, 06, 2004]

The Floods of Lexington Pacheco

Aborted poetry in light of a
Casual nastiness that is less a
Surrogate for a knowing haughtiness
But more the hideous mask of
Personal insecurity
The kind that screams:

"What kind of American are you?
You don't even have a flag on your car.
Your car! Your fucking Car! Jesus Christ,
it's like you're some kind of God damn retard!
I don't know, are you retarded?
No flag, no yellow ribbons, no nothing. Jesus!
God damn you. God fucking damn you! I would
kill you now if I didn't know you were going
straight to hell. At least get a 'National Pride'
air freshener for crying out loud! What is your problem?!
This is America!"

I certainly appreciate a good, well-placed snap; one born quickly and smartly. But, typified of our lost and dying cultural intellect, cold, dumb remarks that attempt to enhance one's own stature only expose the chinks, the cracks and Achilles vulnerabilities.

In us all.

What floor?
Infinity.

Itching like the dope fiend I am

Trying desperately again
to not only find but
dramatically improve upon
the style and sheer perfection
of Zone's past

But you leave psychological
fingerprints anyway

With a Buddhist's detachment from things of this world
The Popes and the Anti-Popes duel for softball supremacy
Americans. Federal. National. State.
Political Correctness: a quaint throwback to the end of the past century
Intellectually immature like a
Miss America for the 21st century
I'm pretty sad about my daughter's broken arm
But as "they" are "always" fond of saying:
This isn't a democracy (no, no-no-no no)

Sometimes it feels like the beginning of the end
A shot of sake like a tug on a joint

Going...

Coming...

...Just like her mom.

And, doesn't really give a damn.

Here's What's News: She got the tough genes.

[Previously Untitled]

Yeah, something like that...

Because I don't want to die
Because I can see through the knots
And because I don't want my brain to explode

Now that the stakes have been raised
To near impossible levels
In the whole world (nothing bothers us)

Two years. It counts.

Six years. It counts.

Living in a different world
Of make believe and reality entertainment
A field recording of a juice box culture
Down twenty or up ten only matters
When you believe in external loci of control

What was the war like, daddy?
Smug, elitist intellectuals
Decapitating all nonsensical thoughts
Through their snooty depictions of
Heightened security times

My crack opposition research on you
Suggests that you are, if not more,
At least as big of a scumbag as me
We poll identically in America
Hearts and (land)minds

Anthropologists will shrug
Historians will cower
The Chinese will laugh
The gods will cry
Life in the Daddy State Global Order
Promises to be a
Somewhat mixed affair

Sellout watch, day 194

The new and improved Company Man
If I could kill myself right now
I would
Love of me deeper than love of all
All that remains is the music in my head
Rippling muscles
And stocking feet

In-appropriate distractions however
Soothe relieve pacify
(lift and separate)

Gang of five...kooks

"Some of these memos may be classified in some ways for some purposes..."

At least Nixon, as a character, was interesting.

And, Brother Ray, by comparison, was a national treasure.