u don't have to understand japanese...

...to appreciate this candid-camera-like clown routine!

http://images2.jokaroo.net/videos/grandpajapan.wmv

Soldiers, a disaster, a journalist, and spooky shit happening in voodootown

...they all say teyre seeing ghosts in New Orleans.

not sure if this should be taken seriously, but everyone on camera seems to be doing so.



http://cbs5.com/video/?id=6789@kpix.dayport.com

So I lied...

...here's another blog (slightly) related to Go-Go.

My coworker Jill wrote to me to say that apparently I'm not the only one having a shitty week.

Her friend, writer Michael Thomas Ford, sent her this and i just thought I'd share it with you cuz it made me chuckle (he works at home, hjas two chihuahuas and a newly acquired 10-year-old labrador):

So here is the condensed version of what happened to me yesterday between 10:30 and 11:15. Vacuumed house to rid it of dog hair, sucking computer headphone cord into vacuum roller and rendering headphones useless. Replaced comfy headphones with uncomfy headphones from iPod and commenced listening to Appalachian Spring and thinking nice thoughts. When Appalachian Spring suddenly interrupted by static, looked down to discover elder chihuahua chewing through cord. Abandoned attempts at listening to music and went outside. Decided to remove stumps of apple trees cut down earlier in the week. Dug and dug and dug until very sweaty and very dirty. While pulling stump out, noticed that small chihuahua was missing from yard and suspected forbidden visit to neighbor's back yard. Stump chose that precise moment to yield, resulting in backward fall and long scratch on arm from random piece of wood. Simultaneously, small screw in eyeglasses fell out, followed immediately by lens. While blinded, attempted to locate chihuahua, stanch bleeding arm, and undergo futile search for miniscule screw in dirt. Located chihuahua, scaled fence and returned with same, and ordered everyone inside, all the while looking through single lens. Got upstairs, smelled poo, and discovered labrador had stepped in some and was spreading it through newly-vacuumed house. Dragged lab downstairs, washed foot in bucket, came inside, and pondered death by hanging. Rejected that as too much trouble and ate chocolate.

A step away from depression

I'll post one more blog about Go-Go as soon as I get her ashes back from the crematorium. But after that, I''ll try to refrain from using this Web log to talk about her any more.

While I'm waiting for the call to pick her up, I figured I'd just let you all know about this kick-ass band I discovered last week. If you like latin music with an upbeat funky sound, you have to check out Yerba Buena's web site at www.yerbabuenamusic.com.

I don't know if they've ever been described this way, but I've come to think of them as the Blackeyed Peas of Latin music. Almost all their songs are highly infectious. (Shit, they almost make me wanna dance despite my recent loss!)

I believe its a Flash site. Songs from their current album stream almost as soon as you load the page. By pressing control buttons on the bottom of the screen, you can navigate to other songs.

My favorites so far are La Candela, Sugar Daddy, Bilingual Girl (two tongues are better than one, you know), and Bla Bla Bla (if you listen very closely, whenever Bush is speaking, you can hear someone farting).

But all of their songs rock. Check them out.

Go-Go's Gone

I wiped the blood off of Go-Go just now and tried to shut her eyes. Border Collies are known for staring. In fact, they're the only breed known to be able to herd cows and sheep just by looking at them. I hear it pisses off some people when Border Collies stare at them with that intense gaze. Never pissed me off, though. When she was alive, I found Go-Go's eyes extremely expressive; most of the time her eyes simply said "Is it time for a walk?" "Make me do something!" "You're going off to work now?" and "Welcome home!"

I tried to close them just now, but they didn't want to stay shut. Apparently, she was a Border Collie to the end. In part to acknowldge my friend's stubbornness and in part so I could look into them for one last time, I decided I'd let her keep them open for a few more moments. And as I looked into them, still seemingly full of life even in death, I thought I could see her saying one last thing to me -- "I'm going to miss you."

I'm going to miss you, too, Go-Go.

My friend is dead. I just got down toweling off the blood from her white fur and wrapping her in a blanket-turned-shroud. My companion... my best friend ... is no more.

She died on my watch, while we were out for our semi-nightly walk. As usual, I took her to the sports center softball fields, where I can take her offleash and let her run around freely. Tonight I actually chased Go-Go around the field. It was the first time I did so since I screwed my ankle four months ago -- while chasing her -- so we were having a lot of fun together.

I got tired quickly (cuz im an old fart now). She stopped running and let me come to her so I could hug her and pet her. We sat next to each other on the field. It was about 9pm.

After our break, we walked around the edges of the field. Then she disappeared.

She often runs off on me, but she usually stays within earshot, so if I call her, she comes running quickly. If and when she disappears for any small length of time, or if she doesnt come when I call her, I play a game of hide-n-seek. As soon as she realizes she doesn't know where I am, she comes running right back, and everytime, she finds me.

Because I was in the middle of the expansive field this time, I decided simpy to lay down. Go-Go isn't very good at seeing me if my profile isnt clear.

I was on the ground for about 5 minutes, when I realized she wasn't gonna find me. So I called for her. But she didn't come.

I called again.

She still didn't come

Then I got up to walk around the fields. I heard birds flying around the nearby football field. And because Go-Go chases birds, I went there thinking I'd see a white flash of fur streaking across the field in hot pursuit of feathered prey.

But by the time I got there, the birds and the field were quiet.

I started calling more loudly for her, and making noise by banging the metal bleachers. But she was nowhere to be seen.

I thought that maybe she might have gone home looking for me, so I decided to head back. On the way home, I saw it: in the distance there was what appeared to be a white lump in the middle of the road. I ran toward it, and it became clearer that it was Go-Go.

She had been hit. The car that did it was nowhere to be seen.

She was intact. No easily discernable injuries and no sign of blood, even with her white fur. So although I could see she wasn't moving, I hoped and prayed she was alive. Even if she were injured to the point that a visit to a vet would be pointless, at least I wanted her to know that I was there for her at the end.

But I was too late. She was lifeless.

No breathing. No heartbeat.

She was dead.

At first I was pretty stoic about it. I understand that death is a part of life, and that shit like this is bound to happen. But as I picked her up, I couldn't hold back the emotion. She just wasn't reacting to me the way she normally did. The lack of movement and her limp, warm body in my arms, shocked me. Then blood started to flow out of her nose, painting her white fur and my white shirt in blotches of red. I might have walked 15 yards before I had to sit down on the curb, crying like a kid, cursing at the bitch for running off like that and apologizing to her for hiding from her.

Two police units arrived minutes later, as apparently someone had reported a dead dog in the middle of the street. They saw how distraught I was and offered to take me home, or to contact someone to pick me up. I refused, tears rolling down my cheeks and dead Go-Go limp in my arms, and told them I'd be fine.

They left. And a long while after they'd gone, I collected myslf enough to walk the rest of the way home. With her no longer pulling ahead of me on the leash, my vision blurred, and her once shining eyes growing dimmer by the second, the road home never seemed darker.

Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned...

...but Bush riffed while New Orleans drowned.

(image not from mag)

From "How Bush Blew It," Newsweek.

"By the predawn hours, most state and federal officials finally realized that the 17th Street Canal levee had been breached, and that the city was in serious trouble. Bush was told at 5 a.m. Pacific Coast time and immediately decided to cut his vacation short. To his senior advisers, living in the insular presidential bubble, the mere act of lopping off a couple of presidential vacation days counts as a major event. They could see pitfalls in sending Bush to New Orleans immediately. His presence would create a security nightmare and get in the way of the relief effort. Bush blithely proceeded with the rest of his schedule for the day, accepting a gift guitar at one event and pretending to riff like Tom Cruise in "Risky Business.""

What don't they eat?

Faced with being punished for selling dishes whose main ingredient is illegal tiger meat, the owner of an eatery in China came clean. Despite his advertisements to the contrary, he said, he really wasn't serving the illegal meat, at all.

He was serving donkey meat marinated in tiger urine!

As reported in the Associated Press, the man said he used tiger urine to give the dish a "special" tang.