Are you a jihadist?

Not Sure?

The French Government just published this handy chart to help.

Mystic Eyes

Buh-Byeee!
Does this mean it's Clinton/Bush in 2016?
cheezofrikin pizza.....

Der morgige Tag ist mein

From the 1972 film version of Cabaret.

Don't Drool On Me

After the fall out from the last few public appearances by Sarah Palin, most notably her debacle last weekend at the Iowa Freedom Summit, many of her former very best friends are desperately trying to wash the taint off of their hands. Palin is running out of options to make money stay in the public’s eye and she’s nothing if not an attention whore. But she’s 50 years old and her looks are starting to fade. That might sound sexist but there’s no way around it: Palin’s looks have been a vital component of her success. Americans are kind of shallow but American conservatives are really really shallow. Or did you think it was a coincidence that all the women at Fox News are pretty blondes in tight skirts?
The future is not looking too bright for Sister Sarah and her clan (other than the millions they’ve already banked). Personally, I hope she sticks around for another decade or two. She really is the embodiment of the American right wing: Shallow, proudly ignorant, intellectually lazy, tasteless, narcissistic, phony beyond belief and just plain annoying.

Even her trolling of the left is starting to get stale. The Tea Party has degenerated so far into lunacy, it’s incredibly hard to stand out as exceptionally crazy. Palin’s just not smart enough to generate any real outrage with any kind of consistency. Even Ann Coulter’s star is fading because of this and, love her or hate her, Coulter is way smarter than Palin.
I can’t think of a better spokesperson for conservatism.

So in the interest of keeping Sarah viable and useful to a politically progressive America, I would like to offer a few career options that just might revitalize her prospects!

1.Plastic surgery: If (at least) 50% of your appeal is a pretty face, going under the knife is your best bet. It worked for the Kardashians, right?
2.Degrading Reality TV: No one cares about the Palins talking about America or dancing on TV. But sooner or later, the Palins (already a white trash family) are going to figure out that people will pay money to watch them makes asses of themselves. It worked for the Kardashians, right?
3.A “leaked” sex tape: It’s a toss up if it will be Sarah or Bristol. It worked…ehhhh…you get the idea.
4.More “Victimhood”: Screaming about how everyone is out to get them will curry sympathy with the terminally stupid for a little while longer.
5.Country Music (God help us all): In a world where “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses” is a hit song, anyone can sell an album to southern rednecks with no taste in music. But then again, I think I might prefer the sex tape.

Les Reels

A preview of the upcoming Chapitre V recording to be released in March. 

Totally accomplished traditional Correzien musicians who have their roots in the past and their imaginations in the future! 

The Storm Of The Century

One night crawling around my Avenue B apartment stoned and looking at all the different textures, I heard a gasping laughter. I froze, listening intently to the matted shag rug under the bed. Eventually, I realized it was my demented roommate Johnny Bubble in the living room. He was hooting and hollering. I found him on the sofa pounding his fist into his thigh, breathless from laughing so hard. Finally he pointed at the TV.
“Ahhh! The evil weather man!” was all he could say.
I sat down and looked. He was right. The weather man was cartoonishly evil. We stared transfixed for hours. We watched while burning our mouths on TV dinners of Salisbury steak and apple cobbler. We smoked Lucky Strikes and drank cold cans of 16 oz Rolling Rocks all with eyes glued.

Transfixed.

He was sooo fucking evil, yet no one seemed to notice over their own ridiculous fake cheer. But it was so obvious, his gleaming hatred of everything.
After a while we stopped laughing. It was beautiful, like an opera where he sang of his lust of wind and barometric pressure. “The storm of the Century,” he sang into the camera. Into our eyes and ears. Hypnotizing us to believe this was the pinnacle of evolution, crashing into our destiny. That we were here to witness it, this bright gift of the moment. A billion years of stardust fucking, coming down to this one blessed pinnacle of devouring destruction. All coming down to this. “The storm of the century,” we whispered to each other, long after the power went out. Long after we lost all hope of survival.

I Think My Appetite Is Coming Back...

After 3 days of the epic influenza....2 days spent in bed, one day against all common sense on horrific journey to Bordeaux to take my wife to see a specialist who is going to do a stem cell cornea transplant in her eye when a donor is available...Horrific? I had to get up at 6, my brilliant plan was to take the train and then a taxi to the university hospital so we could be there for the 11:15 appointment. We got off the train, only to be confronted by a massive taxi strike blocking the station and the mass transit! I somehow figured out how to find the bus that would take us to the hospital which was a massive complex, a maze of buildings with no indication of where we were to go. I have to thank all the very nice helpful people we met in Bordeaux who gave us instantly good direction. We got to the Opthalmology clinic on exactly on time, but we didn't get out until almost 5:30!

By that time, we had missed the return train I had counted on....and we got back to the station with only minutes to spare to catch the train to Perigueux that would connect with the last train to our little station, Condat le Lardin, where I had left the car. We didn't get home until 9:30 pm...Luckily, the dog didn't destroy the house. I didn't pull a Ratso Rizzo and die on the train. I thought that the entire experience would set my recovery back...but I woke up this morning feeling almost okay.  I actually have aching bruises on my ribs from coughing so much! 

Then my appetite began to come back and this video made my stomach rumble....

Monochromatic Regressive Therapy

In a previous life you were an entire forest. Selling life insurance in one of those big skyscrapers downtown. You could actually feel the thoughts alighting from your mind like so many birds. And you’d stop off at the bar after work on the way to the train. You’d down your first drink in blur and then maybe a second. You’d sniff and suckle the very air. Stale smoke, Murphy’s oil soap and some kinda of flower. Maybe it was perfume but it felt more delicate. Often some guy would start chatting you up about “Hey, where ya work?” or some wildly boring one liner. And you’d toss back your drink and roar blood all over the horizon.

French Lesson

A great song from 1958 by Serge Gainsbourg, Le Poinconneur de Lilas.

I was thinking of this song and I found this version with subtitles.

Once upon a time, when you entered the Metro, you had to have your ticket punched by a little man who did nothing but put holes in tickets all day long, every day.

One day he put a hole in his head.

The Apology

The FOX NEWS ACTION BOYS, John and Mikey attempt to personally apologise to the people of Paris. John and Mikey appear at the 1:33 point in the video, but the entire segment is worth watching. Eric Metzger and Quentin Margot are writers for Le Petit Journal and they are hilarious.  Tonight they presented their second instalment of their new smash sit com, Notre Belle Famille, The LePen clan at home, hanging out. 

SOTU SIMPLIFIED 4 U

The Grand Petulance

Ted Cruz, a sad sack, sorry tea bag licking mother fucker.
I hate to even go there, but what kind of abuse did he endure as a child to to get his face like that?

He posted this response to the SOTU last night but his staff even told him to make it go away ASAP!

They frantically tried to wipe it off of YouTube.

Too late, loser boy!

Magret de Canard Seche

It is that time of the year again!  All the markets are having sales on duck. I stock up on confit de canard, clarified duck fat, duck legs and thighs and one of my very favorite things, magret de canard. Those are big duck breasts. The ducks raised here are barbary ducks, the size of geese, so each duck has two nice sized magrets. The meat is red with a layer of fat. I love to barbecue them on the grill, but in the winter, they can be cooked in a hot skillet. You have to score the fat side. I've extolled the virtues of duck fat many times on this blog. It is not like chicken fat, Ducks and geese are aquatic and the fat is actually healthy, an omega 3 fat. It is traditionally used in place of other fats in cooking here and has been found to be part of the "French Paradox".  It acts like fish oil and has been cited as part of the reason this part of France has one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world.

A very traditional way of preserving magret is dry curing it. The result is very much like dry cured ham...In fact, this technique is a part of Spanish Seraphic Jewish cuisine. They developed it because it is so much like the traditional Jambons de Bayonne or Serrano. 

So, I made one 3 weeks ago and started 2 more today. It's very simple as the video I posted above demonstrates. I trim the breast neatly, then cover it with gros sel...I think the equivalent in the USA is Kosher salt. I have reused the salt a few times. I put it in a non reactive dish and cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 24 hours in the fridge. Then take it out, wipe off the salt and grind fresh black pepper over the duck breast and push it into the surface. Be liberal with the pepper. I carefully wrap the breast in a clean towel. I have a plastic box with air vents which I put the towel wrapped breast in to keep it dry, then put it in the fridge and let it sit for at least 2 weeks while it dries. The one I unwrapped today was in the fridge for 3 weeks and it was perfect. It really is like prosciutto when you slice it thin. You could also use thyme and paprika when you put the pepper on as well, but I like to keep it simple.

One more winter thing I like. I haven't had a lot of time to write lately because of my wife's ongoing eye problem...tomorrow I am taking here to Bordeaux on the train to see a specialist who is going to do a cell transplant if it is possible. We have to get on the train from our little station in Condat-le Lardin and then go to the big city. I'd rather take the train to Bordeaux than drive, just because of the logistics and parking and the train is actually faster than the autoroute It's a simple 15 minute bus trip to the clinic from the station. Maybe the doctor will have good news for us. She is almost totally blind in one eye and it could very well be reversible.
Here's a picture of my magret I unwrapped today!

Because stereotypes exist only in your mind.

Meliani Siti Sumartini is an incredible 15 year old Indonesian Thrash Metal guitarist.

She demonstrates her chops here with Hourglass by Lamb of God.

Thrash Metal is pretty popular in Indonesia . The President of Indonesia,  Jobo Widodo is a self proclaimed Metallica Fanboy.

Toledo Terminal Bridge

I ran across this video this evening. I operated this bridge in the mid 1970's for almost 4 years from 11pm to 7am. This is the first bridge on the river at the mouth of the river on Maumee Bay. This bridge was built in 1917 and is still powered by the original DC motor and turns on a bearing the size of Volkswagen. There is a an emergency electrical generator powered by a Bucyrus Erie diesel engine that is bigger than the room I m in now. Once a month, to the utter annoyance of everyone in North Toledo, I would have to fire up the engine to make sure it was running properly. When I did that, usually about 3am in the morning, you could hear it all the way to the Michigan/Ohio State line! I also had to change the signal light bulbs. The Coast Guard delighted in calling me at 4am in the freezing rain and fog to let me know when a light was out.  I worked up in the little house you see in the bridgeworks when the train gets to the middle of the bridge. The train is heading north from East Toledo to Point Place. Once I was stuck out there for 3 days when a blizzard hit. I would get off of work, go have breakfast and then go to school at The University of Toledo. Funny, though this video brought back many memories, I don't really remember ever sleeping during that period...I must have.

One day, I quit and moved to New York to become a punk rock musician. I didn't get very much sleep then, either.

And while I'm forcing you all to be French, lately...

Did you ever see the great French animated film, The Triplets of Belleville?

C'est Genial, oui?

SHUT THE FOX UP!

Fox News et les No Go Zones à Paris-Eric et... by oliu1977
Watch This! It's hilarious!

Upping Zee Ante....

Ken apologized, well, sort of, kind of...not really, but his fee fees are really hurted:

To the people of France
by Nolan Peterson on January 23, 2015 08:30 PM19 Comment 10,790 Views
To the people of France,
I've been eviscerated in your media and online for my interviews last weekend with Fox News.
I’ve been called terrible things and sent death threats. It's not much fun to see your name dragged through the mud or to receive hundreds of hate emails. Especially in a country that you used to call home.
I lived in Paris for two years, from 2004 to 2006, and I think it is the greatest city in the world.
In 2005 I witnessed some very serious riots there, and what I said in my interviews were personal observations from that tumultuous time.
Unfortunately there was a map that accompanied my interviews, which implied the areas I was describing were in neighborhoods like Montmartre. That is, of course, ridiculous. I didn't make the map, had nothing to do with it, and didn't know it was on the screen with me. Nevertheless, it was connected with me and my name, and so I take responsibility for it and apologize for its inaccuracy.
I have been ridiculed and taken out of context in the past few days because Fox News draws the ire of a lot of media outlets. But I was asked to share experiences from my time in France, and that's what I did, truthfully. And I feel fortunate to have been given that opportunity.
I was in France in 2005 when, in response to the accidental deaths of two boys in the Paris suburb Clichy-sous-Bois, hundreds of schools were torched nationwide, about 9,000 cars were set on fire, thousands of rioters were injured and arrested, and President Jacques Chirac put the country under a state of emergency for months. In the end, the riots caused about 200 million euros in damage.
My comparisons to Iraq and Afghanistan were in reference to what I saw during the 2005 riots. I was in Paris for that difficult time and I visited the affected areas and saw the fires and other troubling things firsthand. You may not agree with me, but I stand behind what I said I witnessed in 2005.
I also stand by my claims that France's immigrant population needs to be better integrated, and that there are sections of Paris that are isolated from the whole.
If I ever have the opportunity, I would love to visit Paris again to see how those areas have changed from the way I experienced them in November 2005. I'm sure it would make me proud and hopeful for France.
Again, I did not make this distinction clear. That's my responsibility and I apologize.
For those who reached out to me in a kind and respectful way, I thank you for that. Your sophistication and grace in disagreeing with me reveals that at the end of the day we have much more in common than otherwise.
It also proves that, unlike the terrorist scum who attacked Charlie Hebdo last week, we can disagree with each other and still be respectful as human beings.
I understand that France is in mourning and this is a popular story. Yet, I was being truthful in my recollections. In the context of the time I was in Paris, and remembering what some sections of Paris looked like during the 2005 riots, I believe my observations and opinions are not absurd as they have been characterized to be.
Again, I take responsibility for whatever was televised in connection with my name that caused offense to the French people and if any of my observations or comments caused additional grief.
My years in Paris were some of the best of my life, and I served alongside the French military in Afghanistan with pride. If you believe my intentions are sincere, then hopefully your country can go back to discussing something more important than the recollections of a foreign journalist—healing.

If you would like to email comments, you can do so to Nolan@blueforcetracker.com.
I’ll respond to the best of my ability.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully,
Nolan Peterson

If you watched the video of Nolan and compared what actually was in the video to his lame response in this pathetic attempt of pull off some kind of PR Band Aid, you might kindly say that he is bald face liar. Nolan is a paid tool of the FOX Propaganda Machine. He is following orders from above. The motive is to spread as much disinformation and paranoiac anti immigration manipulation as possible to assist in the Republican Congress putsch to destroy the Obama Administration Immigration Reforms. But this is far from over. STAY TUNED, BOYS AND GIRLS! This is going to turn into one of the most uncomfortable episodes that FOX has ever experienced! More on this tomorrow!