Oh hell, don't get me wrong. I know lots of people are out of work right now. I know it's a damn good thing that I have a job, but that's because my only choices are a soul killing 70 hour work week or homelessness. That is not a good set of options. I know a lot of people who are out of work. If I could give them some of my hours, I would.

Click here for a really good book about work.

Click here for some strong words in defense of people who work. I mean really work.

This is so cool

How We Celebrate Christmas

The guy with the sign is a famous SF crazy person. He is clean and and walks around with his sign.

There are lots of filthy miserable crazy people suffering on the street, but in SF there are a fair number of well cared for crazy people. There's the guy who commutes on the ferry from Marin every morning. He sits at the end of the California Street cable car line and shouts gibberish.

There used to be the guy who walked up and down Lombard Street and cursed the buses. One time I was sitting in traffic while he stood by the door to my bus and shouted. I opened the door and listened to him, "You suck!! Your bus company is shit!!!"

After a minute or two, I said, "That's not true. I'm a great guy. We're a wonderful bunch of people." After that, he still screamed curses at me, but if I caught his eye, he would nod to me.

I'm so tired of getting up in the dark and coming home in the dark and spending all of my time at work. I think I might like walking around being crazy as a change of pace.

Thanks to the good people at Big Rock Candy Mountain, here's my new favorite Christmas Song.

A Heartwarming Christmas Memory

It was Christmas 1963. John F Kennedy had been assasinated a few weeks earlier. I was a kid. I don't know what the "mood of the nation" was, but I'd imagine Walter Kronkite would have called it somber.

The neighbors across the street had done the house up for Christmas in a big way. In addition to the usual lights, plastic nativity scene and 2 dimensional rooftop Santa with sleigh, they had installed speakers on the outside of the house. Starting late in the afternoon, and continuing long into the night they would serenade the neighborhood with Christmas music. As i recall, they favored Bing Crosby and Burl Ives.

It had snowed and the lights twinkled on the pristine whiteness as the neighbors sat in the living room, drunk, and listened to their Christmas records. The whole street listened as the needle was roughly jerked from the vinyl, abruptly ending the Xmas songfest.

Then we all heard various stereophonic fumblings as a new record was placed on the turntable and cued up. They played side one of the Vaughan Meader "First Family Album". My mother sniffed and said that was "tasteless". I expected some responsible grownup to go knocking on the neighbor's door to remind them that the outside speakers were still on. No one did that.

After a while, the record ended. The neighbors must have fallen asleep, because I lay awake in bed and listened to the needle bumping up against the end of the record, "sssssBump, sssssBump, ssssssBump" etc. Everyone else had turned off their Christmas lights, but the lights across the street continued to shine until I fell asleep.

Nothing was said about it in the morning.

Christmas is here

I watched Bad Santa today. I was going to put up my Elvis Tree, but I never got around to it. I'm so full of the Christmas spirit I could pop.

Click here. It's cool. Really, it is. I'm doing without badly needed sleep to post this.

I'm busy with real life. Dammit this actual reality stuff sure does eat up the time.

My friend at Hagar's Daughters has given me a 'Superior Scribbler Award'. HD has always encouraged me to blog and I certainly appreciate the honor.

I'm not going to follow the rules for the award though. It reminds me too much of a those chain letters that threaten bad luck if they are not forwarded. I love the blogosphere. I could spend all day reading posts by real people. Sometimes I do just that. Most of my favorites are linked on the right side of this page. I try and update my links from time to time. Check them out.

Back to real life.

I am so old that I barely have enough energy to watch this, but almost 40 years ago I was a White Panther and a follower of the MC5. I just saw this video today, on a big screen and loud. Turn it up as loud as you can. These guys are the first worthy successors I've ever heard to the mighty MC5!

Feel free to leave comments telling me how wrong I am.

The Greatest Gus and Fin video ever

Gus and Fin perform 'Grow Fins' by Captain Beefheart, on melodica. I was disappointed that they did not include some ukulele, because I think the world is ready for ukulele Beefheart. Offering a dance interpretation of their melodica interpretation is Sheree, performing her Tiger Dance. Seriously, why aren't these guys big stars? Because I'd resent them and get all snotty about it if they were big stars. They are big stars to me.

Here they are with the greatest ukulele instructional video ever.

Gus and Fin, otherwise known as GUGUG are from Glasgow, in Scotland, which is the same country that our friend Ib from Siblingshot lives in. Ib is a really talented guy; been sounding a bit down lately. Maybe he needs to look these guys up and take some ukulele lessons.

Why am I watching videos and posting them here? Because Mike Whybark is coming here with his wife, tomorrow. I'm supposed to be scrubbing the bathroom and putting all of the glasses in those little plastic wrappers, not to mention the paper strip sealing off the toilet.

More about Madame Pamita

Amusements!
This Saturday!
The Grand Annex

Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys
and
Madame Pamita, the World's Foremost Euphonious Prognosticator



Here's the Former!



Here's the Latter!


A Splendid Orchestra
is in town, but has not been engaged
Also,
A Den of Ferocious Wild Beasts
Will be on exhibition across town at the Los Angeles Zoological Gardens
Magnificent Fireworks
Were in contemplation for this ocassion, but the idea has been abandoned
A Grand Torchlight Procession
May be expected; in fact, the public are privileged to expect whatever they please.

The Trouble to Begin at Eight O'clock!

Do not fail to attend!

Saturday, November the 22nd
At 8:00 PM

The Grand Annex
434 W. 6th St
San Pedro, California 90731

All Ages
$15 Pre-Sale

Janet Klein takes you back to a gentler time with her quirky, clever and sweet style of entertainment. Her enchanting voice, expert ukulele playing, and interpretative take on songs from the 1910’s, 20’s and 30’s immediately draws you in. Her reverence for a bygone era and her uncanny ability to make it come alive is a rare treat for the sentimentalist in all of us.

Madame Pamita takes you back to a time when people were shot in bars over Stetson hats and all manner of illicit substances were available over the counter in pharmacies... in children's remedies! Ah! The good old days! Musical Mayhem and Mystical Marvels! Fortune Telling, Mirth and Music from the 1800s through the 1920s on a bizarre amalgam of curious antique instruments.

Edward Sanders is my favorite living poet. He's come out with a new book, 'Poems For New Orleans'. This one seems sort of timely.

Groups Puling Groups

Just as Earth First!, Greenpeace andEdward Abbey novels
Pulled environmental groups
                                        to take stronger stances

so too the "Share Our Wealth" plans of
Senator Huey Long

sang Franklin Roosevelt
to the left- helped bring about
the WPA, government pensions
artists in post offices
                           & interventions in the market
                           to lessen the depredations of capitalism

Yay, Huey!

This is not my first economic crisis. It probably won't be my last. On my list of dubious accomplishments are brief careers as an Autoworker and a Steelworker. I could care less about investment bankers. I don't care much about automobile company executives either. I do care about the few remaining American manufacturing workers.

I've signed the online petitions and sent emails to my elected officials, yawn. I want some of this bailout money to go to the auto industry. Failing a better plan, it seems like an idea worth trying.

However, Carl Bloice at The Black Commentator might just have a better plan: "Nationalize the industry." I like it.

Here's part of what he suggests:

"The potential devastation of bankruptcies in any part of the auto industry is being understated. There are a couple of million retired autoworkers whose pensions and health care coverage are at stake. Many of them have yet to reach the age for receiving Social Security and yet would be severely disadvantaged in today’s labor market. Then there are the millions employed in auxiliary services dependent on auto making.

We could simply takeover the industry with the understanding that thousands of engineers and technicians would be mobilized to design and make functional and efficient “green” cars. And, tens of thousands of auto workers could be put to work building them. Of course, this would not employ all of those about to be laid off. They could be retrained to work in other new green industries, building wind turbines, solar panels, mass transit lines and recycling factories. It would provide jobs for hundreds of thousands and provide new hope for young people entering the workforce in Michigan, Kentucky and elsewhere."

Makes some kind of sense to me.