Your White Trash Moment of the Week

Is brought to you, this week by the great State of Alaska!
DID PALIN HELP POSTPONE THE BUST OF HER DAUGHTER'S BOYFRIEND'S MOM?

Perhaps, according to the Anchorage Daily News:

A Mat-Su drug investigator and the union representing Alaska State Troopers are alleging political meddling in the Sherry Johnston drug case, including a delay in serving the search warrant because of the November election.

Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, who became nationally known in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their daughter, Bristol, was pregnant and he was the father.

... Kyle Young, a troopers drug investigator who was involved in the case, wrote in an e-mail last week to all members of the Public Safety Employees Association, the union that represents troopers and other law enforcement officers around the state ... that after it became clear who Johnston is, "this case became anything but normal."

"It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant service WAS delayed because of the pending election and the Mat Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots," Young wrote.

... John Cyr, executive director of the union, said it's clear to him that the investigation was handled differently because of who Johnston is.

"This really does smack of political favoritism. And if that be the case, it's another example of the Palin administration's direct influence on the public safety unit," Cyr said....

All this, it should be noted, is disputed by the Alaska public safety commissioner, Joe Masters, and Colonel Audie Holloway, director of the troopers.

My favorite detail, from Kyle Young's e-mail, concerns a drug purchase by an informant that was apparently delayed:

"Text messages from Johnston to the informant indicated that she was afraid to meet and conduct one illegal transaction, because of Secret Service presence at her home," Young wrote.

You know, if I'm a hillbilly heroin dealer, and suddenly the Secret Service is hanging around because my son has impregnated the daughter of a VP candidate ... er, I might think of trying to find a new way to earn money. At least temporarily. But hey, that's just me.

Apology

In the earlier post, 5 Lies About The Israeli Invasion Of Palestine, I posted a video purported to be of a Gaza urban sttreet market moments after it was hit by an Israeli rocket. It was posted on RAW STORY and was originally put up by an Egyptian blogger who claimed it was shot that morning with a cell phone. It was a pretty horrendous scene that went on for about 5 minutes. When the video was first posted on YouTube it was removed immediately and each time it was reposted during the day, it was removed within minutes.
It was very easy to assume that it was being censored by the Israelis in their attempt toi control the information getting out of Gaza. It was reposted on LIVE LEAK and in respose to the Egyptian bloggers plea to get it out to the rest of the world, I posted it.
Earlier today, I saw that the video had surfaced in European Network News and was being reported as fact.
In actuality, the video was a fake. It was shot in 2006 in Lebanon and was the carnage in a refuge camp after a Hezbollah munitions truck exploded.
I was mistaken. The media was duped as well. It was all too believable, the unreported carnage and the censorship. I took the video down as ssoon as I learned the facts.

Ladies and Gentlemen! The New Democrat Senator-elect From The Great State of Minnesota!

Al Franken and Tom Davies appear on Solid Gold in the 70's as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger impersonators....Not bad! Not Bad at all.....
I think perhapss Norm Coleman should work on his Elton John routine.......

Waltz With Bashir

This is the English language trailer for an amazing animated film that I believe is now showing across America. It was made by Israeli artist, Ari Folman and it was released last year and it won best animated film at the Cannes Festival, A Golden Bear in Berlin and a Golden Globe. It is a stunning piece of work technically involving the full array of animation techniques, hand drawn, rotoscoped action (involving tracing moving figures frame by frame from filmed live action) and computer digital techniques.
I saw it last year and found it one of the best films made about the experience of being a soldier, the violence that stays with an individual after the combat.
It deals with an Israeli Soldier suffering from Post Stress Trauma Syndrome after the War with Lebanon in the early 80's.

This is an autobiographic fantasy documentary. Ari really was a young 19 year old Israeli soldier and 20 years later, he is dealing with the suppressed trauma of his own real nightmare of being involved in the massacre to avenge the death of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel.

He relives the nightmare symbolically, trying to dig up the real memories of the event and the effects and toll it has taken on his life. It documents his own psychological struggle and therapy.

Ari manages to create true art. He uses the tools of modern comics and Japanese anime to their fullest. The powerful disturbing poetry of his attempt to come to terms with his nightmare is one we can all relate to in one way or another.
I am a real fan of animated film and both on a technical level and the story level, this film is heroic!

The Top 5 Lies About Israel's Assault on Gaza

Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.

Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.

Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack under international law. This was a war crime.

Other of Israel’s bombardment with protected status under international law have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in addition to residential buildings.

Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies to treat the injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but directly designed to punish the civilian population.

Lie #2) Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket attacks.

Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it announced a “special security zone” within the Gaza Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of not only the cease-fire but international law.

Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into effect on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce on November 4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and injured several others.

Israel’s violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response by militants to the Israeli attacks.

Israel’s actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.

Lie #3) Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.

There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel defines as “human shields” in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this interpretation under international law. In circumstances such as these, Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international law.

Lie #4) Arab nations have not condemned Israel’s actions because they understand Israel’s justification for its assault.

The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel’s actions and at their own governments for not condemning Israel’s assault and acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not represent their respective Arab populations. The populations of the Arab nations have staged mass protests in opposition to not only Israel’s actions but also the inaction of their own governments and what they view as either complacency or complicity in Israel’s crimes.

Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel’s actions, but because they are submissive to the will of the US, which fully supports Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon US aid, and is being widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas’ past perceived betrayals in conniving with Israel and the US to sideline the democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of Abbas’ Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.

Lie #5) Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.

Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the border. It is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza have no electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.

S. CLAY WILSON

Underground comic icon S. Clay Wilson suffered a severe injury in November. He is out of the hospital now, but will need extensive rehabilitation, and friends and family are putting on some benefits to help with the massive medical costs. If the incredibly troublesome and twisted art of this man has entertained or helped you in any way, please consider helping out if you can.

Here's some info and links:

S. Clay Wilson Noise Benefit
Jan 11 at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco, starting at 6 p.m.

Mojo Lounge Benefit
Jan 24th at the Mojo Lounge in Fremont, CA. The Dave Walker Band will play from 3 to 7 and there will be a raffle afterward with CDs, artwork, amp repair coupons and other donations, as well as comic books and art for sale during the performance. All proceeds will directly help pay for S. Clay's medical expenses. For more info, email Dan Fogel of HippyComix at comixpr@comcast.net.

Steve Duin's Oregonian columns covering the story.

There's also an address where donations can be sent:
P.O. Box 14854
San Francisco, CA 94114

Matchbox

A Holiday Weekend and long lost friends are showing up for visits. We just had a visit from friends from Paris who got lost trying to find the way here and we had to guide thme in by cell phone...third cow on the right, turn left at the busted tractor....
So, I'm posting some 1955 Carl Perkins. This is a great version of his hit Matchbox.
The Beatles were fans of Carl and Ringo sang Matchbox and George covered another big hit of his, Honey Don't.
Carl was on his way to becoming the biggest country/rock pioneer of the early days of Sun Records when his career was derailed by a tragic car accident in 1956. That happened right as is his iconic anthem, Blue Sueds Shoes was becoming a monster hit.
The accident took him out for a few years, but the mark he made on music was indelible.
In the 70's he started touring with his sons and I saw him quite a few times at The Bottom Line in New York City.
Carl died in 1988, but his classic songs will live on as long as people play guitars and have attitude.....Let's All Get Dixie Fried!

Lean Pipe Palin

What would your name be if Sarah Palin was your mommy?
I asked the Sarah Palin Name Generator and it told me Lean Pipe Palin....
What does it mean? I don't know, but neither do I know what to think of Trig, Track, Willow, Bristol or Piper Palin.
Go there, ask and let me know.....

The Madness Of John Bolton

BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman interviews neocon former US ambassador to the UN and Bush-buddy John Bolton, and crushes Bolton's false notions about Iraq (watch Bolton turn red). If only American TV news was this good...

Bonne Annee, Tout Le Monde

High Wire

This is my last post of 2008 and I have had a few songs in my head lately. For some reason, this riff...the funk beat of this piece keeps surfacing.
One of the artists who I really felt deserved wider recognition and should have had a bigger solo career was the youngest of the Isely Brothers, Ernie.
He grew up playing guitar for the Isely Brothers Band and was a great vocalist as well.
He was the distinctive silken distortion lead on the Isely Brothers classic "Who's That Lady?" from the late 70's and gave the band it's updated sound.
Ernie was a left handed Strat player. He claims his early teacher and inspiration was Jimi Hendrix, who played for the Iselys in the mid 60's. Though, Ernie is primaraly right handed, he learned everything backwards.
He record one great solo album, Ask The Ages, in 1989. He sang and played some great stuff including this piece "High Wire". Interestingly enough, he dedicated the record to Emily Dickenson and quoted her poetry.
Ernie is still playing studio work and tours with the latest version of his brothers as well as the artist R.Kelley.
Have a great New Years and my next post will be dated 2009!
Bonne Annee!

YOU NEED STUFF!

In the last few weeks, I have had some drastic problems with my internet and phone service which are not resolved yet! Many aging connections are getting corroded as the line signal wends it way to and fro here at the end of the line in La Sechere.
In our attempt to communicate with the rest of the world and mainly, FranceTelecom, we were forced to finally break down and get a cell phone.
Yes, here it is the end of 2008 and I finally have to figure out how to program this rather simple cell phone. Because of the demands of the rest of the world, a cell phone became something I NEEDED!

The idea of what you need to be happy is an elusive one. Because of the rapid progress of technology and the constant drumbeat of marketing, for many people, as soon as they acquire one device, they NEED another.
Consider computers. In the 1980's, a personal computer was the cutting edge and in the 90's with the advent of the internet, it became a neccessity for most people.
I resisted computers and email...I was a graphic artist who was involved with the printing process. Until the mid 90's, I was convinced that all I needed was a sharp pencil, rulers, exacto knives and technical pens to rule the world. I was buying up end lots of press type and dot screens to do layouts.

Then, I grudgingly started to learn photoshop as the little company I worked for expanded and tried to compete in a modern market. I bought an iMac when they came out and learned I could work at home and email my work or save it on zip disks and work on it on another computer.
I still have the original iMac I bought in 1998 and I have somehow kept it running and upgraded. It made it possible for me to do freelance work here in France after I moved here.
I guess I NEED the internet and since this region of France has cheap high speed ADSL, well, I guess I NEED that as well.

As you can see, I am caught in the trap.
But, how much stuff do you own that needlessly consumes and wastes energy in the illusion that it is making your life more convenient and saving time?

Do you NEED Air Conditioning?
Do You NEED a Microwave Oven?
Do You NEED Car Air Conditioning?
Do You NEED an iPod?
Do You NEED wifi game set ups?
Do You NEED that Blackberry?
Do You NEED a Clothes Dryer?
Do You NEED to use your car as frequently as you do?
Kitchen Appliances? The Myriad of labor saving electronic devices you take for granted every day but 10 years ago, did not exist.

There is a series of surveys available on line from the PEW Research Center regarding Social and Demographic Trends and what we thing we NEED. It's interesting to see how things we considered luxuries only a few years ago are now considered neccessities and how fast the list of NEEDS has grown in the last decade.

I am happy to have a chainsaw. It gives me time to cut wood and have more time to waste at the computer. I don't have a clothes dryer, I have the sun. I never had a car with air conditioning or owned an air conditioner now that I think about it. I worry that being in an air conditioned environment will make me unable to tolerate heat.
I like to sweat.
When I was a kid, it was the cliche, the box the toy came in was more interesting that the toy. I realize we are all different, but at the end of this dizzying ride that was 2008, perhaps it is a good time to ask ourselves....
What do you really NEED?

FUCK OFF!

Excuse me, but I seem to have a cockeroach problem here on the blog....you know how it is. You turn on the lights in the kitchen in the middle of the night and there's a little cockeroach scurrying across the counter...You'd probably say to yourself, "What's one little cockeroach?"...but you just know the next time you walk into that kitchen and turn on the lights you would find an entire cockeroach tropical island vacation resort booming with beach chairs, little umbrellas, water park rides going on right in your sink!
So I called in a cockeroach specialist, Mr. Jayne County, who has come out of retirement to perform his big punk hit from 1978, "If You Don't Wanna Fuck Me Baby, Baby Fuck Off" This is Jayne, what? almost 30 years later in 2005.
I'd call it a sound track for a cockeroach rapturing party........

brainpolice bonus bucks!

Special Year End thebrainpolice bonus!
These first appeared on this blog almost a year ago, on January 22 and they have only increased in value!

In a surprise move, the Federal Treasury announced that the 500 Dollar Happy Meal will now include a Big Angus 1/3 pound Burger with CHEESE!, super sized fries, a 1 liter soft drink of your choice and HOT APPLE PIE!
This should get the markets jumpin'!

Just click on the image to see it full size, download it to your computer and print it out!
They are not even worth the ink it takes to print them, but it's the thought that counts!

---

On Changing Reality

Regarding the ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip by Israel which have so far as of this writing killed almost 500 civilians and uncounted injuries, the Conservative yes men of Israel are attempting to justify this crime against humanity with some pretty bizarre rhetoric. The Israeli Goverment itself explained last night on BBC that they are trying to change the reality on the ground in Gaza. When ever a nation starts talking about changing reality, it's time to start running! The Neo Cons used the line that America "Creates its own reality" as a justification for the Iraqi Invasion. The historical evidence is damning proof that when ever a nation tries to control or change reality for it's own purposes, it creates another reality which it could never have anticipated.

A very good example of the unreal rhetoric coming out of the neo conservative noise machines is this quote by NRO’s Andy McCarthy wonders whether the strikes will “demonstrate that terrorism is a loser for those who vote for it.”

The question is whether the Palestinian people are educable. Which brings me back to the first point: the Palestinians voted to put in power — i.e., vest with the power of a quasi-sovereign government — a terrorist organization which thinks legitimate governing consists of bringing about the annihilation of its sovereign neighbor and, meantime, targeting the said neighbor’s civilian population with bombing attacks. When you do that, you make yourself a target.

It’s one thing to defend Israel’s disproportionate attacks as a legitimate attempt to destroy Hamas’ capacity to launch rockets into Israel, but it’s quite another to defend them as an attempt to “educate” the Palestinian people. The former is debatable, the latter is a forthright embrace of terrorism, the use of force against civilians to achieve a political goal.

McCarthy’s advocacy of violence against people who vote the wrong way raises an obvious question. Granting, for the moment, McCarthy’s simplistic interpretation of Hamas’ election, (which was more a vote against Fatah’s incompetence and corruption than it was for Israel’s destruction) if Palestinian civilians have made themselves targets by voting into power a party that advocates the destruction of Israel, have Israeli civilians made themselves targets by voting into power successive governments that have continued a military occupation while expropriating Palestinian land? Have Americans made themselves targets by voting in governments that support that occupation? According to McCarthy’s reasoning, the answer to both questions is yes.

This is very similar to the justification offered by Osama bin Laden for attacks on American civilians in his November 2002 “Letter to the American People“:

The American people are the ones who choose their government by way of their own free will; a choice which stems from their agreement to its policies. Thus the American people have chosen, consented to, and affirmed their support for the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, the occupation and usurpation of their land, and its continuous killing, torture, punishment and expulsion of the Palestinians. The American people have the ability and choice to refuse the policies of their Government and even to change it if they want.[…]

This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of all the crimes committed by the Americans and Jews against us.

Allah, the Almighty, legislated the permission and the option to take revenge. Thus, if we are attacked, then we have the right to attack back. Whoever has destroyed our villages and towns, then we have the right to destroy their villages and towns. Whoever has stolen our wealth, then we have the right to destroy their economy. And whoever has killed our civilians, then we have the right to kill theirs.

YEAR END RANT

History is very interesting to read and study. You can read accounts of the same events written from different viewpoints and find convenient omissions and radically varying interpretations, but usually, it is impossible to change the past.
I have read a lot of late medieval European history with an emphasis on The 100 Year War between England and France. If you read the basic history, it would seem that the events were predestined, but it's the wild cards that always determine the events.
The English War against France, viewed from our lenses, centuries in the future, seems obvious as a doomed venture. How could a little island kingdom that depended on a very specific trade ever expect to conquer and keep France?

We look at the Kings of England during this period and see the upheaval of dynasties as the fuedal system collapsed under its own weight. There were strong leaders who had the vision and management skills to inspire and lead during their lifetime, but then there were the tragic figures, Richard II, who ended up smothered while imprisoned after one ridiculous, insane conciet after another led to his downfall.
The Lancastrians seemed destined to suceed, Henry IV began to put it together until dying early and his son, Henry V is still regarded as the greatest English King who almost succeeded in his lifetime in suduing France, but at the apex of his victories, he died.
He was succeded by his infant son, Henry VI. Henry VI makes a pretty good case to be the worst English king ever, in a modern sense. The events of the Hundred Years War took place over the course of generations, but they took their toll on the concept of Royalty. The kings power was eroded constantly as he had to make concessions to his magnates to raise ever more money to govern and wage war. The concept of royalty changed as it became more of who could sieze power and hold it rather than the undeniable right of blood.

The Hundred Years War bankrupted England. It in effect ended the Middle Ages and the Feudal State. It had the opposite effect of uniting the French as a people in a way they had never experienced before. We see the roots of modern capitalism arise as merchants become upwardly mobile and break class barriers with created wealth.
Henry V in his success laid the traps that his weak son fell into and plunged England into the next brutal shock of emerging modern times, The War Of The Roses.

600 or so years later, America's once vital democracy was manipulated to choose a weak president, the son of another weak president, George Bush Jr. After his election, it seemed as if he would become a one term president, a footnote to the end of the 20th century. We all laughed at the affable idiot who claimed to have graduated from Yale on the grace of his family name.

Then the wild card...Osama Ben Laden and 9/11...again, this changed everything and suddenly America was in the hands of a group of men labled Neo Cons who were able to manipulate us into believing we were fighting a War On Terror, which history will show could never be won. The War On Terror mutated into the Iraqi Occupation which to many who supported it, was an attempt to establish American domination for control of petrochemical energy reserves.

The NeoCons, of course were really playing another game. They involved us in Iraq for the regional domination for the sake of Israel and when things didn't pan out they way it was sold to the American people, they walked away, leaving a world enmeshed in a snare that became an economic whirlpool, virtually destroying the American economy.
On the home front, this had its toll as a preoccupied, incompetent administration sat on its hands as Katrina hit, the infra structure of the country crumbled. The cronies of Bush, though, were able to use their connections to reap huge profits.
We have seen nothing more than the collapse of the so called deregulated market system. Capitalism as it evolved and mutated since the days of Reagan and the insanity of the "Trickle Down" theory imploded in an orgy of greed. The financial markets became an unregulated swamp of Ponzi schemes with as far as we know, Bernie Madoff as the ugly tip of the iceberg.
We are watching changes that once took generations occur in a matter of years and accelerate at a sickening rate, like the effects of global warming. This weak venal president allowed his cronies to fleece the planet while stalling research on all environmental issues.
He set us up all right for events should never have happened and a future that shouldn't be.

Now Karl Rove is hitting the airwaves claiming that history will be kind ot George Bush Jr. He claims we don't have the proper perspective to judge the wisdom of his judgement and acts.
George Bush leaves office with a country that has lost its moral and ethical compass, leaving behind a nation in ruin with little to show for at home and big loss over seas. No administration ever engaged in systematic destruction of our constitional rights and liberties like George Bush. His administration engaged in torture, illegal detentions, invasion of privacy and wiretaps without due process or constitutional restrictions, engaged in racial profiling not seen since slavery. I am certain he will not be missed by this nation or the world. he has done so much to damage America and the world that he should be tried for his failings, alone! His legacy is economic ruin, a middle class all but wiped out, failing wars on two fronts and the largest economic heist in history and over a million needless deaths!

This was a grandiously epic failure on all fronts, domestic and international. If anyone can think of anything that we should put in the history books that could negate the label "WORST FUCKING PRESIDENT EVER!" please, let me know.

IF THIS DOESN'T DO IT....

Then nothing will, you are hopeless...
Everytime i see this video, I just want to pop another bottle of cheap New York State Champagne type beverage and finish off a vial of brightly holiday colored tranquilizers!
I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, dammit!

A Quiet Christmas

Well, my attempt at fixing the phone lines here only lasted so long...then it rained and it was the death knell...zilchorama...nada....so, I was without internet or phone for the last few days....
Not bad, but there were people who were trying to get in touch with us. We had invited a neighbor over for Christmas dinner and in between other chores, I made my traditional Buche de Noel. My wife did the dinner, a pintade with girolles....
The Buche truned out great, this year it was a white genoise with raspberry jam and dark chocolate ganache. The little green leaves are marzipan and the shiny things are non edible decorations...the little guy is the dwarf that I have had for many years and always sits on top the Buche!
So, I have some catching up to do, but in the meantime....
Joyeux Fetes!

The War Against Christmas...The Ugly Truth

Bill O'Reilly didn't invent the war on Christmas. It wasn't started by a bunch of Godless Liberal Atheist activists trying to shove their Santanic agenda down your throat. The war on Christmas has historical basis....It started in 1607 in Holland!
The creeps who were trying to destroy Christmas weren't godless atheists either, they were the Calvinist Protestant Leaders of the Dutch Republic, who in their zealous efforts to stamp out "papist idolitry" and "Baal Worship" tried to ban the Feast of St. Nicholas. The feast of St. Nicholas was a Dutch Tradition. They claimed a special affection for him and cookies and candy and special treats were very much a part of the culture. It was a childrens festival and children occupied a very special place in Dutch Culture.
In 1607, Delft banned the sale of gingerbread men and Dordrecht succeeded in banning the festival altogether in 1657. In Amsterdam, the officials made the sale of special gifts and candies and idolotrous dolls illegal in 1657. Finally on December 4th, 1663, the magistrate finally published a proclamation banning the festival and imposing a 3 guilder fine for any violation. They even banned the traditional Speculoos cookies because they had figures stamped into them.
This was the straw that broke the camels back! No Sinter Klas? No Speculoos? No presents? Suddenly, Amsterdam had a riot of enraged 11 year olds on its hands. The children were encouraged by their parents to riot because the authorities would never dream of lifting a finger to harm the most precious possession of the Republic!
The results? Next year Sinter Klaas was back handing out presents and everybody had ginger bread and a good time.
The irony is that the Religious Right saw Christmas as a sinful holiday that had to be suppressed. 350 years later? You can't make these people happy! They were born to make us miserable and impose their stupid rules on us!
The picture is of the traditional Sinter Klaas and his helpers...the ones who punish bad children, The Black Peters......

La Pere Noel est un Ordure

In 1979, the Parisian theatrical Troupe Splendide created a piece of Theater called La Pere Noel est une Ordure...I suppose to translate this into English with the same linguistic weight, you could say, Santa Claus is a disgusting asshole.
The Troupe Splendide gave france some of its best loved and popular comics and actors.
Gerard Depardieu, Josianne Belasko, Thierry l'Hermitte, Anenome, and Gerard Jugnot among others rose up in 70's, as well as one of Frances most beloved comedians, The incomparable Coluche.
The play was a controversial smash hit. If there ever was an anti It's A Wonderful Life, this is it. The play was filmed with the original cast and is presented occasionally on French television, but in 1982, a full length movie version was made by Jean-Marie Poire with the original cast.

It is my favorite Christmas movie of all time!
In fact, it seems to be Frances biggest modern Christmans tradition. Two years ago, the networks didn't show it and they were innundated with complaints. Maybe some of the bigwigs were embarrassed by the film?

If you saw the smash French international hit movie a few years ago, The Chorists, you will recall the mild sweet choir master, who was played by Gerard Jugnot. As Pere Noel (Felix, a psychotic wino to say the least)Gerard shows the true range of his comic talent.
The movie takes place in a few sets, slightly enlarged from the stage version, the action is breakneck as the dialogue. It is a Christmas Eve set in a SOS Rescue Suicide Prevention Hotline office. The cast includes, the deranged Pere Noel, his very pregnant wife, the hotline workers, a trashy transvestite with a broken high heel and the lonely upstairs neighbor of some unidentified eastern European origin who wants to share the Christmas customs of his country....Strange artisanally made sweets, which the women traditionally roll in their armpits, a Christmas cake that emits a foul gas when cut, his traditional Christmas music and in the stage version, a toast of his countries native drink, with a large preserved toad in the bottle.
After a drug overdose, escape from a mental ward, the transvestite being shot in the foot and the death and dismemberment of the elevator repairman, destruction caused by Eastern European Pastrys....well, there really isn't a happy ending.....

The clip above is the scence culminating in Felix's (pere noel) drug overdose, then the pregnant, homeless wife of Felix and Chazette, the transvestite alone in the office.
Every time I see it, I undwerstand the dialogue a little better.

The Last Miracle of Zappadan

This evening, I experienced the last and final miracle of the festival of Zappadan.
After almost 2 days without phones and internet, it was miraculously restored....
Well, the miracle involved me climbing up on a ladder on the side of the barn and jamming France Telecoms 4 year old temporary line splices back together by hand....
It was an inspration that occured to me about 5 pm, as the sun was going down. I said to my self, the chances are fifty/fifty......
So in thanks, I am posting the recording of Fifty/Fifty from the Overnight Sensation Record with the manic warbling of Ricky Lancelotti. I love the violin solo by Jean-Luc Ponty, but my favorite part is when Franks guitar comes blasting in after Ponty's solo.
As I said, the chances were 50/50 and it worked..........