Francis Bellamy

The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America was written by a fucking socialist! Francis Bellamy was the first cousin to Edward Bellamy, famous author of the utopian socialist narrative Looking Backward that I had to read (and enjoyed reading) in my history of social thought (or something along those lines) class in college. This is an interesting history, and pretty fascinating to read about considering the assault on our sense of self as Americans this administration is inflicting on us with its distortions and perversions of our laws and documents it is attempting to put through.


Oh, none of this whining needs reiteration. I just can't keep my mouth shut over the cauldron roiling in my gut over these people (because it's not just the president; he's probably the least of our concerns) who are trying to irrevocably take us back to the middle ages in social issues. But, take heart, self and all who feel the same, and read the original feelings behind the pledge. Because despite all my bitching and criticism (because this joint has never, ever been perfect or lived up to the promises it has romanced us into believing on paper--but that's what is so great: sometimes the love affair turns into a really great marriage), I love this country; it's the defiling of what I love about it that makes me feel like a bayonet is scratching at my back, right behind my heart.


http://history.vineyard.net/pledge.htm

Florrie Fisher and Mad Crunk

She's the inspiration for Amy Sedaris' character on Strangers with Candy, one of the best TV shows ever! This site is frickin' hilarious. You can hear the speeches the former "street whore" who smoked "sticks of marijuana" had given to high school students about staying away from drugs in the '70s. The best part is she's real! There was a documentary about her called The Trip Back. Transcript and MP3s(!) here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~thetripback/

I haven't been online in a while, that's why I haven't been putting any posts up. I had the week off for Memorial Day and had a lost weekend that lasted until the following week. How great is that? I feel renewed! It seems as though an entire month has passed instead of a week. Life is shifting in ways I'm not ready to explain here, but it's great. The soundtrack for it is Andre 3000's The Love Below. It's all I want to listen to. "Behold: A lady. I see you standing on the wa-hall. Clap, clap. You dee-serve it ah-hall." Sweet!

An Exhaltation of Larks

I've been working at Entertainment Weekly this week, and they have a wonderful library of all things lexicographic. The sweetest and most fascinating book I've discovered thus far is An Exaltation of Larks by James Lipton. This book has gathered all of the collective nouns used to describe congregations of any stripe you can imagine, called "terms of venery." (A noun that means both the art of hunting and of pursuing sexual pleasure. Also means the act of intercourse and the hunted game itself.)

Here are a few of my favorites (birds seem to have the best):


A Passel of Brats

A Tissue of Lies

An Unkindness of Ravens

A Murder of Crows

A True Love of Turtledoves

A Cowardice of Curs

A Stud of Mares

A Sloth of Bears

A Singular of Boars (my Chinese zodiac sign)

A Mutation of Thrushes

A Charm of Finches (the Gold variety of which is Iowa's state bird)

Probably more to come....

Pantsburg!

Here's the something nice I promised.

That's the name of my band. Without the exclamation mark. We recently played our first show. Here's a link to some photos and a nice little story about the other bands we played with and all that:


http://opsound.org/opsound/events/opmixparty2.html

And here's a picture, if I can figure out how to post it!

If pic doesn't appear, try this link:
http://www.geocities.com/sloecat/pantsburg/band.html