Mavericks

We went to dinner on Friday night at a great restaurant in SF called....Maverick. Didn't realize the irony until later, when my uncle Todd gave me a birthday present with a cutout of a winking Sarah Palin on it. Oy. Thank god for Tina Fey, otherwise I'd be crying instead of laughing about the very real risk that the much-ballyhooed moose hunter will be a heartbeat away from being Prez.

Nearly 10 years ago, Norman Mailer nailed it (except for the part about the Dow rising...ugh, don't even talk to me about my 401K) when he said the following in a letter published in the recent New Yorker magazine:
"The point is: the Republican Party is schizophrenic: on the one hand, they are, as I say, for God, flag and family, but on the other, they are for the unbridled expansion of capitalism, and thereby leave out something that might still be important to you which is that Jesus, like Karl Marx, thought money leaches out all other values. Indeed, it does. If the whole country is going to pot, and it certainly is, I think you could graph the decline not only in morals, but in a sense of social eclat and social standards - I think you could plot the decline right next to the rise of the Dow Jones - the higher the Dow, the lower the standards. Money destroys all other values. I can even respect the right wing Republicans for holding to a few standards, as they do, but they never take on capitalism which, unbridled, is the worst scourge of human value that we have right now."

speaking of jamie lidell....

It is absolutely worth it to check out this clip of one of Jamie Lidell's frequent collaborators, Gonzales playing a rousing piano tune with audience humming participation.

jamie lidell & funny palin/mccain remixes

Went to see Jamie Lidell at the Fillmore last Tuesday 9/30, and what a great show! He's ironed out the kinks with his live band, and I really enjoyed his electronic solo in the middle of the show (he loops his voice and beatboxing to create a song live -- awesome!) We were right up front, and John snapped this pic on his iPhone

Speaking of music, I ran across these funny palin and mccain remixes the other day. Watching the VP debate Thursday night, I was just amazed that Palin can muster up so much self-confidence with so little political experience. Biden, of course, provided much more substance in his answers, and I was really touched when he broke down in describing how he felt when that tragic accident killed his first wife and baby girl and seriously injured his boys. Wonder what's going to happen come election day....

disneyland/palin

Disneyland and Palin in the same post? Not as counterintuitive as you might think. As Matt Damon recently said, a Sarah Palin presidency would be like a "really bad Disney movie." I just don't get the Palin appeal. Among her many other negatives, the fact that she had not traveled outside the U.S. until last year proves that she lacks any semblance of intellectual curiosity, in my opinion. Hear more of my and others' opinions on Palin in the following podcast from a discussion on Pirate Cat Radio (it's nearish the end of the California Music Box podcast on 9/2/08.)

Now, for Disneyland. Just went with the family, and I have to say, the old classics are still my favorites -- e.g., the Pirates of the Caribbean. Loved me some Tiki Room too. Unfortunately, both the Haunted House and It's a Small World were closed for renovation. Did not love, however, the bad acid trip of the Pooh Bear ride. Anticipating a lovely and quiet tour through the land of honey and flowers with Pooh and his innocent companions, we were instead treated to outsized and fluorescent-colored panels thwapping towards us as our little honey car made its way through a Pooh nightmare. Not my photo, but this gives an idea of the freakishly psychedelic nature of what's supposed to be a kiddie ride. I'm pretty sure I sustained permanent hearing loss as well. Guess those ride designers try to appeal to a wider audience than the toddler set. Either that, or they enjoy the occasional mushroom.

the circus/robot dreams

Odd-looking clowns with freakish makeup? Check. TB-riddled elephants forced to perform unnatural balancing feats? Check. Sound turned up to earbleed? Check. PETA handing out leaflets afterward? Check. Probably the one and only day you'll spend with your kids at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus? Priceless.

As for written entertainment, the best book I've read in a long, long time has absolutely no words. It's called Robot Dreams and it's the first graphic novel I've ever read. I checked it out from the library for Greta, but I ended up reading it twice, and crying both times. A masterpiece and a great gift for that person whose close friendship you've never been able to replicate.

9/11 anniversary

Since it's nearly our 7th wedding anniversary (we got married October 13, 2001), it reminded me that it will be 7 years since 9/11. Just browsing the other day, I came upon a story about a couple who (illegally) lived in an apartment they created out of an abandoned area in a mall in Rhode Island. The guy, Michael Townsend, is an artist, and did this incredible project where he and others created "tape art" silhouettes all throughout the city of the over 400 firefighters and airline passengers who died in NYC on 9/11. It took 5 years to complete, and is a very cool tribute to those lost.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen

Most people think the news about John Edwards' affair and alleged love child is a big so what. They say that politicians are known to stray, and who cares about John Edwards anyway -- he's not the nominee. For some reason though, I am fascinated! It's the imagery, I suppose, of Edwards running away from reporters in a hotel and becoming "ashen"-faced while trapped in a bathroom and confronted with what reporters from the National Enquirer (who, by the way, continue to break stories about this issue) were saying about him. Also intriguing is the pointlessnes, and potential harm to the child, of Edwards' failure to admit that he is the father of Rielle Hunter's baby. His lawyerly parsing in the recent Nightline interview just stinks to high heaven. Come on John, man up!

Update: Check out deceiver.com's posts on the Edwards scandal. The most comprehensive rendering of the story on the interweb