Saturday, September 22, 2007

WELCOME TO THE WEEKEND





This is meat. Doesn’t it look yummy? Don’t you just love vintage advertising? The red tint alone is an argument for vegetarianism. Or liquid nourishment. See how it coordinates with the nail polish. But don’t expect anything too profound from me in the next 48 hours. Even Strindberg had a day off.

The secret word is Cocktail

Friday, September 21, 2007

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 27


Maybe I should join the Hordes of Mekh. A strange adventure on another world in the company of an erotically implausible redhead with a double edged axe might do my mental health a power of good.

AS IF BEES DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TROUBLES



At least enlisting in the Hordes of Mekh might get me away from the gratuitous madness of this damned planet where the military is now attempting to turn bees – who have enough trouble already – into little flying bomb detectors. (Also Valerie notes "If you check out the applications on the company web, they´re already marketing all this, which means they´ve been messing with the bees for a long time.")

“Honeybees are trained to recognize particular odors (for example, that of explosive compounds), and then to associate that smell with a food reward. Bees are able to recognize odors that are as faint as only a few parts per trillion in an air sample. When the bees detect the special odor, they extend their proboscis in expectation of receiving food.” More

IS THE PERUVIAN METEOR A DEAD SATELLITE?



Ready for the latest conspiracy theories in the matter of the Peruvian meteor and the unknown X-Files-class contagion that would appear to be emanating from the crater? I would also note that I have seen at least a dozen science fiction movies or read stories that have started like this -- including, of course War Of The Worlds. (Not the film version with Tom Cruise.)

“Reports from Peru now claim that more than 600 people have fallen ill after coming into contact with the "glowing rock" or having inhaled 'toxic gases' while visiting the massive 30 metre wide crater. The Peruvian Regional Health Directorate has been forced to set up medical tents near a health centre in Carancas to deal with the casualties, which most reports now claim are well above 600 people.” More

FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
I had previously failed to notice that GEheimSTAdts POlizei freely translates as Homeland Security

HCB
Our pal has a piece on the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in American Heritage.

MUSIC? Fancy some Brecht/Weil by Bowie? (The end, I would add of the current Doc40 Bowie cache.) Although I do know the way to the next whisky bar.

The secret word is Mekh

Thursday, September 20, 2007

HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE GIVEN UP COMMUNISM



ATHENS, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - A prisoner in a Romanian jail is suing God, Greek state television reported from Bucharest Tuesday. "God received different material valuables from me, as well as prayers in exchange for promises of a better life. In reality, this did not happen - I found myself in the devil's hands," the plaintiff said.
The convict is serving 20 years in the west Romanian city of Timisoara. He apparently blames God for the troubles in his life and wants God brought to account for failing to fulfill the commitments He undertook and for taking bribes. The plaintiff said that when he had been baptized in childhood, he concluded a contract with God that had legal effect - God was supposed to protect him from evil. The plaintiff said the Romanian Orthodox Church, which, according to him, directly represents God, should compensate him for the alleged God-inflicted damage. In line with the law, the lawsuit was submitted to court. However, as the defendant is neither an individual nor a company, and is not subject to a civil court of law's jurisdiction, the case is unlikely to be heard regardless of how justified the plaintiff's demands may be, court officials said.

OJ'S BACK -- WE CAN STOP THINKING


OJ, the ultimate distraction, has been deployed. Forget the war, forget the planet, forget the election, forget health care. Forget it all and sit and drool at the smirking, smug, sociopath, murdering sonofabitch like it was 1994.

WHAT US WORRY?





Meanwhile, in this week’s LA CityBeat, I re-discover MAD magazine. And wandering YouTube, I re-discovered the Grateful Dead, which is always tricky. Middle-aged punks stare at you like you were a puppy molester caught en flagrante. (Or maybe OJ) “Farren is a closet Deadhead!” Which is actually not true. As Boss Goodman used to put it. “You like the songs and the singing, not the solos.” Whatever fashion might dictate, though, I am unashamedly fond of New Speedway Boogie.


The secret word is Tromp


Wednesday, September 19, 2007

BLUE LAKES BOB



The following story, forwarded by Doug the Bass, but I believe to be circulating on the net has a naïve neo-Norman Rockwell quality that suggests those in power can't fool all of the people all of the time forever and ever, amen. On the other hand, how long and how much does it take for supposedly decent citizens to wise up to what is being done to them and theirs? Does it always require mutilated children before they grasp there's something wrong with this picture.?

THE BALLAD OF BLUE LAKES BOB ! (In memory of 9/11) by Purple Gene. I remember that Monday morning when I was driving to work ...9/11/01. I'll never forget it...ever!
The following weekend I was walking on a little dirt road behind our cabin on Blue Lakes. I ran into a larger than life old Vet named Bob walking his aging black Lab. I said Hi and the first thing out of his mouth after Hi was, "Fuckin' Ragheads!"
A year later, around September of 2002, I saw old Bob again and he told me that his oldest son had enlisted in the Army and was going to Afghanistan. I said, "Bob, I'll keep your boy in my thoughts. I mean it"!
A year later, around September of 2003, I saw old Bob again and he told me that his youngest son had enlisted in the Army and was going to Iraq. I said, "Bob, I'll keep your boys in my thoughts"! And I did!
Another year later, around September of 2004, I saw old Bob again and he told me that both his boys were doing O.K., but he started complaining about what his sons were saying in term of lack of protection on their Humvees and body armor and the heat and the sand and. I said, "Bob, I hope those boys of yours stay safe!"
A year later, around September of 2005, I saw old Bob again and he told me that his oldest son was back from Afghanistan but that his youngest boy re-upped in Iraq. Bob said, "my youngest is kinda crazy and I'm a little worried". I said, "Bob, I hope we can get him back home soon!"
Yet another year later, around September of 2006, I saw old Bob again and he said that his son was writing him less and less and that more of his buddies had been blown up by I.E.D's and he didn't give a shit who won the congressional elections. They’re all the same up in Washington...I said, "Bob, I would like nothing more than to see thiswar end and your youngest come home...and besides, I think they're spending too much of "our" money over in that "shit hole"!
Well I just saw old Bob this last weekend (September of 2007) up at Blue Lakes. He had on his usual army fatigues and hat and his black Lab was still limping along behind him. This time Bob said something that really struck me hard. "I think these "Chicken Hawks"in Washington have been lying to us all along. They just want that black gold. Oh and by the way my youngest made it back in one piece, but his head is kinda screwed up." I said, "Bob, tell your sons thanks a lot for trying over there...and I think you're rightas rain about Washington and the War!"
I wonder what he'll have to say next year?


And all I can follow this grim Americana with is Elvis singing “Trying To Get To You.”

THAT DAMNED PERUVIAN METEOR



(See yesterday’s comments. I felt challenged.)
"A meteorite fell Saturday night in the Peruvian area of Puno, close to the border with Bolivia, forming a crater with a 30 meters diamater, and six meters in depth, the local press reported today. A luminous object fell a little before midnight of the day before yesterday in the town of Carancas, in the province of Chucuito, about 1.300 kilometers to the south of Lima. According to sources of the Territorial Direction of the Police, the alarmed inhabitants of the area heard a great noise, similar to that of an airplane falling. Later, the witnesses saw a luminous object in fire in the sky that hit the ground, producing an explosion that left the earth charred. The meteorite didn’t hurt anyone, but the authorities are investigating if the remains found in the area are of animals that may have died because of the explosion. The farmers of the place fear the appearance of some disease, since chips of lead and silver were liberated in the shock of the meteor with the soil, the local broadcasting station “RPP” informed. The member of the National Academy of Sciences, Modesto Montoya, told to the “Andean” state agency that the fall of meteorites in Peru doesn’t present any danger, unless they hit some structure. “None of the several meteorites that fall in Peru and make perforations of varied sizes are harmful for people, unless they fall over a house”, Montoya said. In June, another meteorite fell in the Mascapampa hill, in the province of Arequipa (south), leaving the population alarmed. Curiously the meteorite fell exactly one month after the terrible earthquake that hit Lima on August 15.
Other more dubious stories told of tiny people emerging from the meteor."

The secret word is Scully


NOW… You wanna see the Sears Tower struck by lightning?

The advanced societies of the future will not be governed by reason. They will be driven by irrationality, by competing systems of psychopathology.- J.G. Ballard

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, MR RINGLING



Doc 40 was never designed as an animal rights blog, but humanity is spends so much of its time fucking over the other inhabitants of the planet it becomes impossible to ignore. I am not fond of zoos, and I loathe circuses that feature animal acts. (I don’t much like clowns either, but that’s a whole other story.) Part of my loathing for circuses stems from knowing, from nothing less than personal experience, that much of so-called animal training is based in calculated cruelty. This clip send by blu reveals a little of the nastiness involved in training an animal act, in this case elephants. Be warned, though. This video is not pleasant.

The secret word is Bastards

Monday, September 17, 2007

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 26


(Do I feel the depression coming back or is it a conversion to nihilism?)

FLEEING THE MENACE OF THE BOB DYLAN MACHINE...



Now here’s where it really gets complicated. In this message from Dan, Bob Dylan (helped by Antonio Lopez) warns us of the Cylon menace, while out there across the galaxy, the human survivors have All Along The Watchtower ringing in their ears, and we poor schmucks back on Earth are going to have to wait maybe a year to find what the fuck is going on and what the writers are up to. (Why do I watch TV? It only makes me dissatisfied.)

But if I actually lived in the TV all of this would be the primary mythology, not to say some high-octane motherfucker metaphysics of possibly catastrophic dimensions and I’d be thinking, right here, roll on 2012 and let’s see what that’s going to bring. In space no one can hear you scream, but on Earth, mind-snapping terror is completely audible. (Although if I lived in the TV I would be nano-tiny and speak in binary code. Word?)

CRYPTIQUEGod is just an out-of-control vending machine. (But what currency does he/she/it accept?)

The secret word is Relief

Sunday, September 16, 2007

WATCH THIS ADMIRAL



Munz has sent us this highly salient warning about how Admiral William Fallon, commander of CENTCOM, which covers the Middle East and Southeast Asia – and who is essentially the boss of Bush lapdog Gen. David Petraeus – “privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy." Since he remains CENTCOM commander, there does not appear to be an imminent invasion of Iran. If he quits, get nervous. (He also called Petraeus an "ass-kissing little chickenshit.”) Click for chapter and verse.

AND I clean forgot with all that’s been going on that I have a couple of snappy riffs on drunk driving in the current issue of LA CityBeat.

FIFTEEN CENTS?



I have a nickel and a dime and one fuck of a toothache. I’m off to Hudson Avenue, Albany.

The secret word is Bicuspid