Death Wears Jockey Shorts

Hello and goodbye. We are about to disappear for 2 weeks, to an undisclosed location, to stay low and wait out the holidays. May you have the kind of Christmas and New Year's you want most dearly, and I look forward to 2004 with you, my small cadre of readers. While I was wrestling with a futile attempt to print out a boarding pass, I noticed that if you hit the drop-down button next to the word "title" (as in Mr., Mrs., etc.), you will be thrilled (I guarantee it!) with the possibilities for self-aggrandisement afforded you by United Airlines. It is truly astounding that there are so many titles used by United's customers. Check it out....

https://www.ua2go.com/ci/Registration.jsp

I confess, my favorite is "Swami"

See you Jan 2, 2004.

Quite a cold, brisk day. I was struck by many small things while out running errands. I have the car washed and it is well and cheerfully done by the immigrants who curry our horses. Many homeless people are on the corners begging. When I look in their eyes as I extend a few paltry dollars out of some forced holidy generosity, I see good humor and courage. I wish they wouldn't say "God bless you". It always makes me want my money back. In the comic book store the sheer weight of creative ouput makes me weary. An embarrasment of riches. Then through downtown and by the mission, with a hundred or so homeless on the sidewalks, on their blankets, their own social structure working away. Some laughing. A white gull, a thousand miles from the sea, calling above them. Over the bridge into our part of town; here a man in his electric scooter, towing a smaller person (child, lover?), hunched impossibly in a wheelchair. Finally a small Mexican boy on the corner, practicing landings in dirty snow with a small metal airplane.
I am happy not being so attentive most of the time.

Things are cold and good here. As you know, all the old ways of finding out about music are changing fast, and there is reason to believe that buying CD's will soon vanish as a distribution model. Intellectual property certainly isn't what it used to be, which may well turn out to be a good thing for listeners. Old ( and I mean OLD) friend and Lothar and the Hand People bass player Rusty turned me on to CD Baby, an online outlet that has a seemingly endless array of independent artists, and virtually no "mainstream" acts. The site is arranged by style, with good descriptions, and the samples available to listen to seem to be much longer than the Amazon-style 15-second sound clips that often contain nothing more than someone shouting "1-2-3-4!" and 7 notes of an inroduction to a song. Also, CD Baby has most styles, including an intriguing Classical section, so if you have ears, this is just for you. Have fun!...

http://www.cdbaby.com/home

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Okey dokey. My daughter, Dr. J, is visiting and we are embroiled in a happy round of holiday festivities. The other night we saw a play in which the marvelous Thaddeus Phillips performed his unusual version of Henry V solo, with GI Joe dolls and little green army men as the rest of the cast. In his adaptation, the play was used as an analogy for the Iraq war, with France taking the place of Iraq. I have a feeling this won't mean a hell of a lot if you weren't there, but here is an amusing anti-France link to fire up your Francophobic full-moon frenzy:

http://www.pavefrance.com/blog/

It snowed about 4 inches here last night and we had fun betting on how far into the television news it would be before someone said "the white stuff". It wasn't long. I love it when it snows and they dispatch millions of dollars worth of equipment to various parts of town so we can sit and watch people who look bad in hats, standing in the snow, talking seriously about the fact that snow is falling, when that is obvious to anyone whose dwelling has a window or door to the outside. Local TV news is "da bomb".

So much to comment on today. David Hemmings is dead. Some of us remember him as the photograhper in Blow Up, in which he chased a very sexy Vanessa Regrave around the swingin' London of that period. Now he's dead (after appearing as a really large, old looking person in several recent films including Last Orders (recommended) and others.) He was a really good actor. Watching people one's own age grow old on screen, while their images as young people linger on the screen and in the memory, is odd. Aging actresses, like the aforementioned Ms. Redgrave, are particularly strange. She was so lithe and attractive, and now she's so ancient. I must be ancient as well. Topic #2: Keith Richard has spoken publicly and profanely about Jagger's looming Knighthood. Keith is pissed and threatening not to appear with Mr. Jagger in the future. He is so right. As Ray Davies of the Kinks remarked at the 1990 Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, looking out at the tuxedoed crowd, "Rock and Roll has become respectable. What a bummer..." Topic#3; Warren Zevon has been nominated for 5 Grammys. I think he's dead. It is always interesting to look at all 75 ,or however many, categories, because all you hear about in the press in Beyonce or whatever other flavor-of-the-month got the "big" nominations. The complete list from the Academy is really interesting. It includes Polka, Classical Engineering, several categories of Gospel, awards for design and packaging, etc. I always find something I hadn't known about. Ry Cooder had an album this year. Who knew? Anway, here's the link.Take a few minutes and check it out. Youssou N'Dour is nominated (good album). There's a collection of Bob Dylan gospel songs. And more more more!

http://www.grammy.com/awards/grammy/46noms.aspx

Winter holiday #1 is behind us and now we face the big X. From that sentence, I would say I'd best keep my temporarily negative thoughts to myself. I'm usually such a sunny kind o' guy, why ruin it? And besides, you just want me for my cheap links. Here's one that is perfect for those moments when you just gotta have a schadenfreude hit:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/index.html