Mr. Pig’s Barrel Train
“That’s a nice train you got there, Mr. Pig. Ain’t got many passengers yet.”
That is all.
Offer: Elmo toy
Posted to the Dubuque Freecycle list:
Chicken Dance Elmo. A little dirty, but works.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless smartphone
Now what?
2011 was the ninth-warmest year on record:
The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.
photo out of context
for the Texans, specifically
Dallas teen missing since 2010 was mistakenly deported:
There are still many unanswered questions about how an African-American girl who speaks no Spanish is mistaken for a foreign national.
headline of the day
What is the proper way to dispose of the American flag?
Found. December 31, 2011.
Funk songs from Vietnam GIs
If you didn’t get a Christmas present from me, it’s because I’m waiting till the New Year to buy you East of Underground: Hell Below. (Thanks to Valerie for the tip.)
In 1971 the US was pulling troops out of Vietnam, and its bases in Germany were full of draftees at a loose end. “You were painting shovels, picking up cigarette butts – it was a lot of busy-work,” remembers former serviceman Lewis Hitt. “There was a longing by everyone, especially the draftees, to get home and go back to what you were doing before.”
This was the crucible in which were formed scores of raucous funk bands made up of servicemen, four of which have just been compiled by Now-Again Records. Adoring crowd noise was crudely dubbed on top of their records, which were then distributed in recruitment centres. These bands were used by the army to present service as varied, even hip. But the songs they cover – the bitter, suspicious likes of Backstabbers and Smiling Faces Sometimes – undermine any potential propagandising.
OFFER: 7′ Pre-lit Christmas Tree (partially working) :/
Posted to the Dubuque Freecycle list:
This tree is approximately 5-6 years old — it belonged to my parents — I set it up the other night and can’t seem to get one section of lights to work and a few other lights here and there don’t come on. It’s a beautiful tree (well flocked) but I don’t have the time to go through each bulb and figure out what’s wrong with it. It came in a box but the box is pretty non-functional.
It was not used since Christmas 2008. One of the most beautiful artificial trees I have ever seen (when all the lights work).
Please email me with contact information — It needs to be gone before Tuesday night or it’s going to the curb.
headline of the day
Errant ‘Mythbusters’ cannonball hits home in Dublin
Dear Clusterflock: Are You Tricking or Treating?
Danny and I had good intentions. We bought candy, have it in a big bowl. We opted to go dark. Turned off all the lights. Sitting in. Watched an episode of “Once Upon a Time.” (Quick review? Not so good. Maybe even sucked.) Then an episode of “Grimm.” (Better? Maybe. Maybe also sucks.)
I’m in a mood. Prolly better lil chiren don’t see me tonight.
We ate some candy from the bowl. Tasted like a poisoned apple…or peanut butter and chocolate.
Memorandum
All:
Please disregard my recent emails. Forget about the phone messages, too. I know I sounded angry and excited, but I’ve had a chance to think things over and I don’t feel the same as I did when I said all of those hurtful words. I won’t apologize for the basis of my comments—I have a right to my own opinions, especially because they are correct—but regret your exposure to that barrage of toxicity. And the physical threats. You’ll notice I did not say “sorry.” That word is for the weak.
We failed
in our mission, but we learned from our mistakes and will try again.
Next time: different tools.
I did, however, stand in the pouring rain “in a lonely hollow” and scream, “I hate God! I hate the Devil! I hate the living, and I hate the dead!”
And dare lightning to strike me.
So that was all good.
This cuts to the bone
John Doe and Cindy Wasserman performing Never Enough. Sound Fix. NYC. 09.07.11.
OFFER: Baby rats (Dubuque)
Posted to Dubuque Freecycle list:
Offer: I have some baby rats that I need to get rid of. They are obviously free. I don’t know what to do with them and I can no longer have them in my house. You can take one or more . . . . Or even take them all to the pound. But I CANNOT have them.
Three “perfect” self-contained sentences a day…
Tussel bore left on the wye West–North, West-northish. Nosing his old de Ville into wind-chill rushing across glacial tundra and down, from a thousand miles ahead. Forty-five miles an hour, nine miles a gallon, Tussel gripped the wheel, leaned into the accelerator, pressing the head-wind.
I already screwed up. They’re not “self-contained.”
headline of the day
Netflix Doesn’t Own the Qwikster Twitter Feed. This Foulmouthed Pothead Does.
For 24 hours…
our internet connection, at the house, has been off. It just came back on 20 minutes ago. I’m FULL of shit to share. (Well, sort of full.) I feel like I lost the feeling in both my arms and got it back.
“They are tearing out part of the heart of Buenos Aires”
The interior of the historic Cafe Richmond was gutted a couple of weeks ago; a spot once frequented by Jorge Luis Borges and Graham Greene may be replaced by a Nike Store.
The plight of the Richmond has dominated local media since the cafe’s insides were gutted last Monday morning. Apparently to ensure it could not be returned to its former splendour even if the local government rules against the Nike shop, the Richmond was emptied of its historical interior, right down to its grandiosely comfortable Chesterfield wingback leather armchairs, in a 3am raid. The movers took the precaution of pulling down the security camera on the front of the building first.
“It’s against the law,” said Monica Capano of the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission. “The Richmond is one of the city’s emblematic landmarks.”
For a personal view: Oh, no: La Richmond by my friend Charlie.
headline of the day
Police urge holster use after man shoots his own penis
Don’t Forget the Motor City Lawndale
I was looking at pictures of Detroit (from my Flickr friend Jan Normandale and from the archives of the Reuther Library at Wayne State University), and now I have to stop looking for a while.
I’ve visited Detroit a couple of times, and in truth there’s a lot I like about it, but I can’t think about it anymore. This afternoon I’m recollecting a blisteringly hot afternoon in Chicago, late July, when I thought to avoid the expressway and take a parallel route down Roosevelt Road to where I was going.
Read more
negation by inflation
From a Browser link to a review of The Trip:
Recent Michael Winterbottom film, “The Trip”, with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, is a masterpiece worthy of Joyce, or Borges, or Godard, or Beckett.
Um, no. Not at all.
Previously on clusterflock.
You’ve Been Eminent Domain’d
I guess this is what you get when you put an extension on a house this close to the ever-widening DC beltway, but man… I still feel bad for these folks.
help help help help
Glenn Beck is moving to Dallas.
