Golden in Chicago

Pearl, the Bird and the Little Brown Jug

Flip Your Whig

Just when I was making a joke about bringing back the Whigs, I learn that they have come back. Is this just another Reform Party in disguise or could these be actually sane people who could worth taking seriously as Palin, Limbaugh, Cheney and Fox News nibble away on the rancid carcass of the Republican Party?

Oh, What Next?

Ready to Lead?

With the State of California deficit reaching something like $750,000 Trillion, it's hard to think what things will be like next year when the Gubernatorial race comes up again. This cool comparison photo in this morning's consistently underwhelming San Francisco Chronicle (not nearly as entertaining as the San Francisco Examiner which frequently misspells San Francisco on the front page and has been knowing to leave Greeking in places where they ran out of time to insert actually) accompanied this article suggesting that it might come down to a race between Newsom and Brown. It makes you wonder if Gary Coleman and Mary Carey might throw their hats in the ring again. Though seeing Mayor Newsom in that little sailor suit the year Nixon resigned was a great way to start off a Monday.

Speaking of politics but on a more local scale, this post by The Angry Young Man was rather interesting about retail battles on the avenue they call Valencia.

Oddest Reference Ever to Kipling

I Kept My Head Down and Carried On

With the potential of reversing eight years of night, this tune plays in my head often. Having kept my head down and carried on, it's hard to trust too much optimism and easier to retreat to cynicism. The local references may not be relevant, but the spirit of a hint of blue in a dark sky is. It's one of my favorite anthems by The Divine Comedy.

His Time Has Come - And Away We Go

Perhaps it was all that LSD ingested earlier that year in Skidoo, or maybe he just needed to feel safe. We'll reserve any judgment here and just let you hear Jackie in his own words make an important endorsement for the campaign

Yes, But What's the State Rodent?

Am I a bit behind on this one, or could someone bring me up speed? Remember, I had that great visit to the Parque Condor in February, and I preferred those birds to either the parrot or the quail. Grouses have always appealed to me. In the Midwest, subdivisions are often named after grouses and quails, so they're both kind of tired to me. Anyway, go visit that website and weigh in on this meaty issue of our times.

UPDATE: Following the comment dialog with Gavin, I'm inspired to post this piece with Huell and another California bird. Is it just me or did Carole Migden get her fashion sense from Sydney Kross?

In Your Heart, You Know He's Right

Just as Barcelona's L'Eixample has a Dreta and Esquerra (left and right) or that there's a Left and Right Bank and an Upper East Side and Upper West Side, so there are two sides of the Mission. It's hard to say if it's Mission or Valencia that is the dividing line. There's more than a couple of blocks that separates these two main arteries, but it's surely Valencia that would be the Passeig de Gracia of the Mission. You'll see outdoor dining on both streets, but on Mission it's usually people eating out of trash cans.
I wanted to venture over to 17th and Guerrero where I'd noticed earlier the great window shade (at the top of this post) of Barry Goldwater in the same flat that is campaigning to protect rent control. As LBJ said, "In your gut, you know he's a nut." Just a few doors down is the equally glorious sign for the 500 Club that is (not) open at 6:00. AM. (Pardon my journalistic training, but shouldn't that be 6 p.m.?)
All of you surely know about the famed troll altar run by Alfie at 18th and Valencia, but is the juvenile division of the Mission Police Station now trying to copy him? Or were these dolls taken from the clutches of naughty little children and are left in the window to taunt them until they shape up their acts? They certain lack Alfie's great style and creativity.

I didn't have time to linger and ponder this question since I was cutting it close for lunch at Picaro with an individual whom I can't refer to even with an alias here and am being risky just by giving out this much information. It was pleasantly foggy and cool enough to allow for perfect outdoor dining, though I faced the street and the aforementioned individual sat facing me to avoid being seen by the passing pedestrians/psychopaths.
Paying the bill and parting, I soon heard a ruckus coming up the street as this little group came marching up the street and handed me their handbill for PROUD/UNION/QUEER.
And barely a block later, I turned and saw this sign for a seance being sponsored by Gay Shame, a group I keep thinking I should get involved in but have been waiting around for Gay Avarice instead.

My visions of L'Eixample must have driven me to enter Forest Books with its nearly Zen by Oppression air of incense where I discovered a book by Catalan author Eduardo Mendoza called The City of Marvels. This book set in late 19th century L'Eixample was too hard to resist with this promotional blurb:

Young Onofre first stays at a boarding house whose permanent residents are a distingué closet transvestite, a lady fortuneteller who treats her clients to large doses of doom, a garrulous barber who also pulls teeth, and a scullery maid who protects her virginity with the aid of a ferocious cat.

My kind of book. And what else did I see. Here's a peek.

Will, Grace & a Donkey

Like Jackie Broyles, I can't stand having bats or gay people getting in my face, so I've avoided talking about this whole gay marriage thang. So I thought I'd leave my thoughts to the always spot on Red State Update boys. And, remember, don't sue the Bible 'cause you don't want to take on a book full of Jews.

JTTV - Season 2, Episode 16 - Changing of the Guard

This is a bittersweet episode as we don't really say goodbye to our favorite Kremlin daddy but see him pass the torch to the Dan Quayle of the East. Sentiment evolves to sensuality as we go fishing.

The Nominee

Okay, let's just get on with the damned thing, okay. Six months later, this is still the only political video or ad that speaks to me. I ask that this be the only thing run in heavy rotation for the next six months. No negative ads, please. I suggest that McCain lip sync to Piaf. May the best drag queen win.

Putin on the Ritz

The transfer of power in Moscow today was described as having Czarist splendor, religious blessings and no moldy cabbage. Russian leaders keep getting younger and better looking, a far cry from the chubby bald men I recall from my youth, though even they did not scare me away from the erotic dance of the hammer and sickle. Andy Warhol caught onto that appeal too in what I consider his greatest series and one of his least remembered works. (See below.)

I'm just glad to see Russia is getting glam again, and surely it's just a matter of time before the royal family is reinstated (I'm a distant 18th cousin, by the way).

Regardless of what you think of their politics, aren't Vladimir and W a fetching pair enacting "I Want to Hold Your Hand"?










Medvedev makes me think of what Dondi would have grown up to look like. That's not a bad thing, though readers here know that I preferred Sluggo over Dondi.

Now that Vladimir is making a career change, I sure hope he doesn't join a think tank or academia and instead pursues a career as an action hero movie star. I also think he's destined to play the lead in the FOX Network bio-pic The Daniel Craig Story. Any suggestions for the casting of Kate Moss? After making a few big budget flicks, I predict he'll ultimately become Governor of California.

Another Classic Soul Sunday

Focus on Final

Though I won't dignify his vomiting out of words mildly resembling the English language and will decline from watching the State of the Union address, I will cherish and repeat like a mantra the word "final". There is light in the darkness of a wintry Monday night among the muck of the modern world.

There Will Be Blood at the Polls

While the pundits are babbling about how New Hampshire and Iowa are deciding the future of, if not the U.S., at least the two reigning parties, only a fraction of airtime and newsprint is pointing out that you could fit all ethnic minorities from those two states into the back of a Prius. Worse case scenarios be what they may, even Huckabee does not speak with that dumb ass cracker accent of the current administration. Although that's my sole recommendation of Huckabee.

How fitting that I picked up Upton Sinclair's Oil at SFO on my way to Red State land. I read it and The Jungle as a teen, having first been turned on to that other Sinclair -- Mr. Lewis -- around the age of 12. Both of them shared a similar critique of capitalism but Mr. Lewis was less didactic and, to my mind, painted more compelling images. But, for all his propaganda, Upton can pump out some terse, muscular prose. Only a few hours on the road, and I've breezed past 25o pages.

Much reference is given to how Paddy Chayefsky's Network was prophetic three decades ago. But try to fathom for a moment, that these words are at 81 years old:

___________________

All this summer and fall, Dad and Mr. Roscoe had been carrying a heavy burden -- they were helping to make over the thinking of the American people. A presidential campaign was under way; and the oil men, having made so bold as to select the candidate, now had to finish the job by persuading the voters that he was a great and noble-minded statesman. Also they had to pay a part of the expense, which would come to fifty million dollars, so Bunny learned from the conversations at Paradise and Monastery. This was several times as much as would get recorded, since the money went through local and unofficial agencies. It came from the big protected interest, the corporations, the banks -- everyone that had anything to get out of the government, or could be squeezed by politicians; the process was known as "frying out the fat." The oil men, having grabbed the big prize, were naturally a shining mark for all campaign committees, county, state and national. Dad and Mr. Roscoe received visits from Jake Coffey, and from the bosses of the state machine, and listened to hair raising stories about the dangers and the situation.

It was necessary to persuade the American people that the Democratic administration for the past eight years had been wasteful and corrupt, ignorant and fatuous -- and that was easy enough. But also it was necessary to persuade them that that an administration by _______________ was likely to be better -- and that was not so easy.

________________________

The name that I left blank, in this case, was Warren Harding. But I'm sure you can insert more than one contemporary Republican sewer maggot.

Interactive Monday Assignment (A Day Late)

Sorry for the delay, but it was a busy Monday.

We all heard about the big Oprah (or is it Oprah!) endorsement of Obama.

I ran into Oprah's friend Gayle at the Best Buy in Colma (cemetery capital of northern California) last night, and she said that Dinah Shore is also endorsing Obama. Apparently there is a huge push to get endorsements from other dead celebrities. Although dead people still can't legally vote (except in North Dakota and Mississippi), there is no law against them making endorsements.

Thus, here is your assignment. Who do you think these dead people would vote for if they were alive?

• Groucho Marx
• Karl Marx
• Eva Gabor
• Tammy Wynette
• Dora Hall
• Totie Fields
• Rudolph Nuryev
  
• Elvis
• Jackie Coogan
  
• Charo (Oops, even if she's not dead she can't vote in the U.S.)
• Thelma Ritter

• Papa John Creech
• John C. Holmes
  
• Roebuck Staples
• Arthur Treacher
• Wendy O Williams
  
• Wilfrid White-Hyde
• Barry Goldwater
• Jerry Falwell
• Amanda "Kitty" Blake

Bonus question: Who was Benji's favorite First Pet?

Bigger Than The Boys in the Band

One of the interesting revelations from Mitt Romney's speech today was the discovery that we live in a land that is filled with a "symphony of religions." Shown here is a member of the percussion section.

Don't Dance in the Streets Just Yet

He may be physically leaving D.C. and the White House, but I don't buy the "going back home to spend more time with the family". Anyone who knows him or the course of Republican politics knows that's code for dreaming up some evil, new plan. Instead of that hideous attempt at rap we were forced to see at the press dinner last year, I'd rather see him do a retake on this lyric:

So come up to the lab.
And see what's on the slab.
I see you shiver with antici... pation!
But maybe the rain isn't really to blame
So I'll remove the cause, but not the symptom.