Tag Archives: history

The Drock Files

Sometimes Drock writes me emails that are works of art… modern art… pop art. So without further adue… another one from the D-Rock files:


    Bicyclemark writes: I just remembered something… flashback… you wrote a check to me before I left DC… you were all fuckin sleepy… and in the memo part you wrote “Hot Sex”

    As if that shit wasn’t funny enough… I passed that check to dad for him to deposit… man did I feel weird handing my dad a check with a memo “hot sex” I just said to him ” dont mine the memo.. thats Drock being funny.

    Dad said nothing.

    Drock replies: Yeah that shit was fun…the check thing… I think your dad wrote in “Sextet” to hide the pain

By now you must be ready to spontaneously combust after those US presidential debates. I never heard so much goddam agreeing, once again I swear they were gonna make out on stage. They both love guns, war, xenophobia, faux tax cuts, religion, the middle class, the American worker and announcing that they have “a plan.” You can try focusing on the differences all you want, but the sad truth is, there aren’t that many. So in all my cynicism and nylism… I seek inner political peace. And miniclip.com has provided just the Oasis I need. Experience for yourself the joy of “The Hip-Hop Presidential Debate.” My personal favorite move is the W “Money Walk”, plus his gang of Baby Rice, Hollyburton, and Big C look like one badass crew. While you’re there look into Royal Rampage, where GWB and the Queen shoot up the town. Actually the list of fun goes on, most involving Bush and Kerry in awkward positions.

Moving away from that dead horse, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Deconstructionist– aka Asia- is studying to be a brain surgeon. Thus making her the first future brain surgeon blog that I read, which is quite exciting. I’m hoping I learn more about my own melon through her teachings. Plus, if that weren’t enough, she’s interested in BOTH pinball AND history. Two very intensive disciplines, both of which require good thumbs.

This weekend being my first ever time off since becoming a daily blogger, I’ve started to worry about the effects of so much writing on my wrists. My desk is actually a table and its far to high off the ground in relation to my chair. I’m like a toddler reaching for the cookie jar… for hours at a time. Whenever I read about Tony Pierce’s arm problems… spiders crawling up his arms… I worry about my own future. Then again.. he is 111 years old, and did have a great love affair with Anna Kournikova (photoessay alert – click through), so maybe there are benefits.

Today’s Sounds: Stars – Live Last Night.. still echoing in my head

State He’s In

The basic elements of a good breakfast in my world: Special K, Organic Soymilk, and banana. This morning I added one extremely unhealthy ingredient: the Vice Presidential debates. It sounds more like a “who loves to bomb and kill people more” competition. I can barely tell who the “liberal” is. To his credit Edwards sounds human, versus MechaGodzilla.

Last night I chatted with the Brian, the man behind The State I’m In, and man was it entertaining. Highlights are posted on his bloggy. Turns out he’s a huge MST3K fan and he’s good with his mutants. We both agree that the best name for the future baseball team should be: The DC Comics.(credit Ron and Fez callers for that one)

Before I make my official Peace Prize selection-prediction, I wanted to announce a new blog exercise: This ol’Park. A little background: Being as though I’m the part-time work king, I have Friday off. I use my free time to explore Amsterdam, and the internet (more often). Therefore every Friday until it gets too dam cold, I shall visit and review a different Amsterdam park, complete with photo. It shall begin Friday and I encourage questions in the comment section. oh and one more announcement, I shall be featuring a guestblog or an interview (depending on which she grants me) with THE Torontonienne as she’s back from the beer gardens tomorrow.

Now to thin the herd, the bicyclemark Peace Prize finalists are:

3. President Obesanjo of Nigeria, for appearing in most peace negotiation photos of any world leader last year.

2. President-Select Karzai of Afghanistan, for visiting many shithole towns and evading death, so far.

1. Bono, no the singer. Although Sonny might posthumously deserve something.

I hope they don’t go and just give it to an organization, that’s such a cop-out. Good luck to all finalists this Friday, and good luck trying to claim a prize from me, punks.

Someone made a video version of Tony Pierce’s How-to-Vote blogpost, dam the blogosphere is fun. And for all the historians out there, recording history as it happens: I’m looking like a strong write-in candidate in New Jersey. If I win, it will be a very Lenin-like return to the states for me, out of exile. Somebody find his old armored train and convert it to a plane for me.

Today’s Sound: Waking up to the Veep Debate on CSPAN.org

My Guy

Lately it’s around 3am that the Jogging King and I meet for our kitchen meetings. We’re like the white house staff, making sandwiches and discussing strategy in our pajamas. The king has been offered one kick-ass job in Oslo, Norway.. city of cross-country skiing to work, and not far from one Jill/txt. His majesty has always wanted to work there, and more importantly has been itching for a change in his life, like so many. Trouble is now that he’s getting what he wanted, he’s worried about making the wrong decision. During the discussion he referred to me and said “You knew you wanted to come live in the Netherlands, that’s why you came.” I had to stop the king right there, cause he was committing royal blasphemy: I did not intend to stay here when I first arrived.

Rewind to October 2002, when the blog was just a tadpole, I was focused on my masters degree and not much more. I was not even learning Dutch yet, and I can tell you that at that time I thought I would get a masters and hop over to another country for a cool job. It was only during the course of my first year that I started to see my love for the ‘dam, and that I fit in like Castro at a military surplus store.

I just wanted to clear that up… very little of my present life was planned. So Jogging King… I hope you stop thinking so much and embrace the Nordic madness. I’ll water your plants.

You know who my European leader of the year is: Jos? Luis Gonzalez Zapatero. Maybe because my father’s side of the family were shoemakers, or because he beat the pants of Aznar, whatever the reason, I’m becoming a great admirer. This week he’s been pushing to recognize gay marriage, good man! Why do we always have to think of Spain as conservative or old-fashioned, have you been to Spain lately? – Those dogs are progressive with a medium sized P. Sure they might say they’re 80% catholic, but 50% or so say they don’t actually practice a dam thing, cept maybe football. But I digress, the Prime Minister is also increasing spending on social programs and R&D, in a time where everyone else is obsessed with cutting everything. Plus, he’s a feminist. So keep it up Se?or Zapatero, you’re a breath of fresh air on the old continent, no matter what the rabid Barcepundit says.

And yes, there’s only one week until the announcement, so I’ll be running down my own list and predicting the next winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today’s Sounds: Calexico – Feast of Wire

Got that Style

My brother, the man behind Foggy Recollection, send me a mpeg video of A-Ren being fed. Like any loving and far away uncle, I was captivated. I kept replaying it over and over, each time noticing something different about where he’s looking, how he blinks, how he seems to forget the spoon is coming towards him, because he noticed something far more interesting in the galaxy above. I think it’s time to book my December trip to New Jersey to experience these feeding rituals first-hand. And furthermore we have similar diets, Organic-Soy something something.

Oh and while I’m on the subject, I must welcome my associate in Lisbon, J.P., to the secret society of uncle. ::insert fancy handshake:: He has just become an uncle: Antonio Porfirio is the lad’s name, or as I have renamed him T.P. (nothing to do with Tony Pierce.) Viola, only a few days old and he will already be listed in google after this post.

Before settling down to my long-fall nap last night, I was enthralled with reading this post on Weblogg-ed, which is a great blog for all you blog readers interested or involved in the world of education, nudge-nudge. It concerned blogging styles as well as how using weblogs in the classroom fulfills core curriculum requirements. Here are my highlights of how he breaks it down:

-Engage in the full writing process by writing daily and for sustained amounts of time.

-Use the computer and word-processing software to compose, revise, edit, and publish a piece.

-Write a range of essays and expository pieces across the curriculum, such as persuasive, analytic, critique, or position paper.

-Use primary and secondary sources to provide evidence, justification, or to extend a position, and cite sources, such as periodicals, interviews, discourse, and electronic media.

-Foresee readers? needs and develop interest through strategies such as using precise language, specific details, definitions, descriptions, examples, anecdotes, analogies, and humor as well as anticipating and countering concerns and arguments and advancing a position.

-Demonstrate personal style and voice effectively to support the purpose and engage the audience of a piece of writing.

Interesting no? Let’s get beyond the ol “Put Computers in the Classroom” battlecry, and actually put those computers to use – through weblogs/

One last thought, in politics, or history really, did you know Donald Rumsfeld is on the Watergate Tapes? Yeah… telling Nixon that he had connections with the Gallup Poll people if the president wanted some under the table info. Majikthise was talking about it and I was left with two thoughts, 1 – Never believe polls especially from Gallup 2- Do you really trust a man who’s on the Watergate tapes? Why isn’t he embarrassed and resigning? OH yeah.. he has no shame.

Today’s Music: Azure Ray – Hold on Love (I love sleepcore)

No Stoppin Me

It was inevitable, the communiqu? is going DAILY! Yes it’s true. I’m tired of fighting the urge.. everyday I feel the need to blog, so therefore I’m giving daily blogging a go. If it turns out no one likes it, or I suddenly write like crap, I might just revert to my every-other-day methods. But nevermind that.

This weekend I’ve a visitor from Siam… which apparently was renamed Thailand in 1939. Did you know Thailand was the only country never to be colonized by western powers? I did.. I learned it not from Wikipedia or reading history, but in fact from that semi-decent flick Anna and the King. What? It was pretty good, what can I say.. I like Jodie Foster and if she wants me to shoot Reagan… then she is my queen and I will do her bidding.

Umm.. oh… where was I? Oh yeah.. Thailand… my dear Thai visitor is having a fine time in Amsterdam I hope, even though she has to deal with my insisting on hopping on the internet for hours at a time, instead of running around doing tourism. I’ve also decided I will definitely go to Thailand soon, it will be my first destination ever in South-Asia.

During a mad news reading rush I had yesterday morning, I started going through every single little article in the Village Voice… just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. And sure enough, I ran into Ward Harkavy’s blog-style net-column called the Bush Beat. Now although I never got to meet him during my time at the voice.. I did see him often.. I think he’s an excellent journalist. What I do not understand is why his column looks like a blog: published daily, with what look like permalinks, filled with external links, and lots and lots of cursing like a sailor. I love that.. but yet its not a blog. No permalinks.. no commenting system. A blog without comments is like breakfast without soymilk. What are you doing Ward? Is it the Voice that won’t allow you to run a real blog? Do you need my help? I could advise you as to what a blog really involves and how to go about it! Yes. I shall email Ward and offer my help. Maybe I’ll get mentioned in his semi-blog.

Today’s Music: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros – Old Stuff

Devil Cats

It feels like months since I blogged at 2am. Still kicking around the idea of going daily. One blog per day. It’s really tempting. I remember when Hugh in Indiana talked about going daily, and it seems to work well for him. On occasion, bloggers such as he get into baseball. I admit I don’t really follow organized sports of any kind, except what I hear via the blogosphere.

But I was interested, as an admirer of DC, in the idea of the Montreal Expos moving to DC. So who better to consult on this subject than the infamous DC mover and shaker: D-Rock. Now my initial thoughts were: BAD IDEA. Bad for the Orioles in Baltimore and generally ils sont toujours les Expos, always French-Canadian as far as I’m concerned.

But again… what do I know.. so D-Rock broke it down: they should be called the Senators, new stadium, a short metro ride and you’re there, lots of Virginians would come, Baltimore is too dam far. But then we started talking team names, to which he declared:

I hope they don’t name the baseball team a stupid freaking name like razor bob devil cats, or some stupid crap like the wizards what was wrong having the Bullets? Oh look at us we’re the wizards…we dress up and play dungeons and

dragons…ohh I’m going to put a spell on you, oh did you read the

newest Harry Potter? Fucking Horrible!

The devil rays, thunder, raptors, avalanche all of its crap!

Giants, Redskins, Yankees, Cubs, White Sox, Flyers, Brewers (my favorite)

Those are team names!

So there you have it.. direct from one DC horse’s mouth.

Crazy Dr. M who was hanging out at the bicyclemark ranch this evening, referred me to NEWSMAP. This project takes all the news stories.. I guess via the google news aggregator.. and shows the prevalence of certain stories based on square sizes. Well, something like that, see for yourself what stories are getting big squares. I still find it annoying what a big square this Dan Rather story is getting. Go away Dan Rather, I promise this blogger doesn’t give a shit what you and your network do or don’t report on. PS- You can Take Fox or NBC or whatever call letter network you want, with you. Maybe leave us the BBC and NPR.

Hey doesn’t it seem a bit late in the game for debates? I mean, usually don’t the US presidential debates take place by now.. end of september? I did a quick yahoo search (as opposed to the usual google) and found this debate between Bush and Gore from Oct. 3rd, so we haven’t missed that date yet. THIS JUST IN– I just noticed the first one scheduled for the 30th of Sept. My money is on yet another in the long history of bland, empty talking, back and forth, with no direct answers. I’ll be counting how often the candidates agree with each other… because with Bush-Gore I thought they were going to make love on stage. (just sex would be too crass)

Today’s Muic: The Hidden Cameras – as per Torontonienne’s recommendation