sitting pretty

whenever i get satisfied that we have the ultimate in advanced gadgetry in the u.s. it's time for a visit to japan.
the toilet seat in my hotel room in tokyo has a console of control buttons that resembles the cockpit of a 747--choices of sprays at various temperatures and warm air blasts are included with a heated toilet seat. there is of course a flush control as well.
the bright lights of shinjuku make times square's illumination seem dim but that's true for several other asian cities such as shanghai as well.

cheney reaction

there are many parts of the cheney shooting story which don't seem to fit with the information given to us so far.
we are now told that one or more birdshot pellets penetrated the chest and "migrated" either into or abutting the heart muscle.
we were led to believe that the victim was many yards away from cheney when the incident occured.
for birdshot to penetrate the victim's street clothes and outer clothes including a padded orange hunter's jacket and skin and tissue between two ribs (it would not go through the sternum or a rib-bone itself) it would have to have been shot from fairly close. close enough so that even in the very short time it takes to decide on a target it should have been obvious that the victim was not a quail (that's why they wear orange--right?).
so what did happen--well,obviously we can only guess---but what happened was very probably NOT what we've been told so far. possibly the gun went off by accident when cheney tripped or got bumped who knows ---certainly not the press or the american public.

now to get to the cheney pr mavens--isn't it interesting that the hospital called the event a heart attack---all the information they gave us actually suggests that the victim suffered a direct heart injury as a result of a penetrating gunshot wound.
no one uses the term heart attack for this type of event. if this happened (as it does with bullets on the streets of dc it would be : victim shot in the heart!).
of course (like clinton's meaning of "is") technically the heart was "attacked" or injured----but the term heart attack is a label which removes the onus of guilt from cheney: the poor guy's heart weakened by age ,stress or bad eating habits wimped out
after an unfortunate accident.

of course all the newspapers and tv newscasters use this line without a moment's reflection-----once again; game,set,medal to the bush/cheney pr machine.

fountain of youth

once again mick jagger and the boys strut their stuff without a hint of arthritic limbs or aerobic limits.one wonders:
drugs,sex and rock and roll couldn't be all that bad. indeed it brings to mind burroughs in his very interesting if demented book -junkie. he argued that heroin was quite good for you.
in any case all this comes to mind after going to a concert by ed trickett--a stalwart of clean ,granola,hippie living
who certainly does look his age ( calm down,his singing is still beautiful).

brokeback to the future

for all you brokeback fans, check this out:

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfODSPIYwpQ

bye bye krater

there are some works of art that have an aura--special power to awe,inspire,transform,transfix--elicit an emotional response of pleasure ,surprise,sympathy.

one such work is the head of cleopatra now in berlin---another ,for me, is the euphronios krater which since 1972 has been in new york at the met.

it is now recognized by the met to have been looted from an archeological site near rome and is being sent baaaack. no more krater visits on my trips to new york.

thank you dubya

it's reallly hard to stay tuned to any speech by george w. but all of a sudden last night i heard "switch grass". ????switch grass ---never heard of the stuff, but waddya know it grows right here in wisconsin on marshy land---and, get this can be used to make ethanol as a source of energy. i have a totally marshy back yard--are you getting the picture--first global warming so that i can put in an orange grove and now energy crisis so i can put in a switch grass farm and grow my own fuel.
thank you george!

hyper-major cd

every now and then you hear a catchy tune which grabs your attention and simply won't let go.
here we have much more than a one-tune hook.
run do not walk to your nearest cd outlet and grab: dimanche a bamako by amadou and mariam.