Saturday, March 31, 2007

Time to pimp for vegan ethics ....

OK, it's a celebrity, but it's anything but wishy-washy. Casey Affleck just lays it straight out in very plain, graphic language. The accompanying images are horrifying. Is it any wonder this was banned from the networks? Nevertheless, feel free to comment if you can challenge any of Affleck's facts.


Watch more videos at PETA.org
“Order a FREE vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com.”

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, March 30, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

Hello again, pantheistic Spring celebrants!

Friday tiptoes in on teensy bunny feet, bringing a bulging basket of ROCK FIGHT! on kscl 91.3 fm.

It’s another mellow show this week. In fact, I’m going to be taking the show into a more chill, down tempo direction in general. Oh, you’ll still get your spicy bits of punk past and modern blast beats, but, overall, it’s going to be more contemplative and cerebral, more opiate than amphetamine.

This week features Radiohead, but only expect two of the three listed songs. You’ll also get a pair of pop tunes by Joe Jackson, an ode to romantic shooting by Blondie and plenty of chill from the likes of The Orb’s Dr. Alex Patterson, Tosca, Bebel Gilberto and Calla. There’s even an oft-overlooked classic from Queen.

Tune in: kscl 91.3 fm this Friday 6 to 8. Call in, too, at (318) 869-5297.

Listen to the podcast sampler version here, or use this miniplayer:

Here’s the lovely radio lumps:

Song                                Artist
---------------------------------------------------------
Mesopotamia                         B52´S
Bananeira                           Bebel Gilberto
Bloodhounds On My Trail             The Black Angels
Youth Nabbed As Sniper              Blondie
Talk To The Bomb                    Brazilian Girls
Astral                              Calla
Instinct                            Dr. Alex Patterson
Flames Go Higher                    Eagles Of Death Metal
Pride                               Echo & The Bunnymen
Alice In My Fantasies               Funkadelic
Contract                            Gang Of Four
M1 A1                               Gorillaz
Bates Motel                         The Hitmen
It's Too Late                       Jim Carroll Band
One More Time                       Joe Jackson
Baby Stick Around                   Joe Jackson
You're No More                      John Weber
We Have Joy                         Killing Joke
Discipline                          King Crimson
Etape 3                             Kraftwerk
Thee Ol' Boozeroony                 Kyuss
Awake On A Train                    Múm
Maybe Sparrow                       Neko Case
Dragon Attack                       Queen
Pyramid Song                        Radiohead
Where I End And You Begin           Radiohead
Idioteque                           Radiohead
Bowels Of The Beast                 The Raveonettes
Behind The Wall Of Sleep            The Smithereens
Get A Shot Of The Refrigerator      Stereolab
Stay Hungry                         Talking Heads
Ocean Beat                          Tosca
While I'm Still Alive               Ultravox
Tecumseh                            USA Is A Monster

Gerritsen Sex Crime Trial Set For June 11

Roy Gerritsen

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for!

As you know, Roy Gerritsen had a day in court yesterday. The result: May 16th has been set for a status conference, and June 11 has been set for trial. A status conference is when Roy’s attorney and the Bossier Parish District Attorney meet. If any deal is made, that will be where it happens.

Roy, the former GM of Red River Radio, was arrested last October in a sting operation accusing him of soliciting sex from a juvenile over the Internet. He faces charges of computer-aided solicitation of a minor and attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Bossier City police said Gerritsen arranged to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex but who was actually a police officer posing as the girl. He was arrested when he arrived at a pre-determined location in Bossier City.

Gerritsen’s docket numbers in Bossier Parish District Court are C149466, attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile, and C149467, computer aided solicitation of a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum 15-year sentence and $12,500 fine, according to reports.

Monday, March 26, 2007

But it's such a small 600-pound gorilla!

NPR’s Guy Raz did a sneaky thing with statistics on Morning Edition. He noted that the U.S. defense budget is at a historical low, only 3.7 percent of gross domestic product. “We actually spend significantly less on defense today than we did at any point over the past sixty years,” he reports.

The trick is the comparison. If you stand next to an elephant, you’d seem pretty small, too. Putting the very large defense budget next to the vastly larger GDP makes it look small, but in terms of dollars, it’s at a historical high. According to Congressional Quarterly, “total national defense spending is larger now than at any time in history,” and “Bush’s request for fiscal 2008 stands historically large.”

U.S. military spending, Wikipedia notes, “is larger than the military budgets of the next fourteen biggest spenders combined, and nearly seven times larger than the official military budget of China. The United States and its close allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the US is responsible for the majority), and spend 57 times more than the six front-defying nations combined (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria).”

Federal military spending is over 50 percent of the total budget. Even before the so-called war on terror that percentage was similar. That sort of militarism harms our government, our democracy, our culture and each of us personally. But perhaps we are addicted to the money because it “accounts for the majority of federal spending in nearly every state.”

Don’t let Guy Raz’s sneaky diminution of military spending fool you. Listen to this old hippie instead. (Edited 03/28/07 to remove annoying Flash.)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Gore can't get a break at NPR

Richard Harris

NPR gets a few raspberries from Media Matters for its coverage of Al Gore and global warming. Media Matters contends that NPR took part in right-wing smears and attacks on Gore.

First there’s “NPR's Harris faulted Gore's global warming ‘facts,’ while getting ‘facts" wrong.” That story points out factual errors from science reporter Richard Harris, shown at left. Further, host Renee Montagne says “some scientists” question Gore’s data and conclusions but doesn’t name a single one. In fact, on the NPR website, the headline is “Gore on Climate Change: Scientists Respond,” although not a single named scientist is mentioned.

The Harris gaffe is mentioned again in “Myths and falsehoods about global warming,” a good summary of the right’s attempt to debunk good science. This article relates Harris’ reporting to the larger right wing effort to portray Gore as an exaggerator through “false comparisons and misrepresentations of his claims.” This is noted again in “Media revive, retool, and create anti-Gore smears and attacks.”

I didn’t vote for Gore in 2000, but enough is enough. He’s not going to run for President again, or likely any national public office. He’s performing a valuable public service educating people about global warming, and, if you have a beef with that, attack the arguments fairly. Ad hominem arguments don’t cut the mustard.

Hit Counter Update

Updated uniques per day from the ol’ hit counter:

Day         Date            Unique Visitors     Above/Below
Friday      March 23, 2007      9                   -6
Thursday    March 22, 2007      19                  +4
Wednesday   March 21, 2007      23                  +8
Tuesday     March 20, 2007      19                  +4
Monday      March 19, 2007      11                  -4
Sunday      March 18, 2007      10                  -5
                      Average:  15

Chill, Rick -- still as unpopular as ever.

The best day ever so far was when I posted the Conservapedia entry. Next best was the UFO post.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Businesses and Blogs

BBB

How should a business or organization respond when it is getting negative press in a blog?

Our local Better Business Bureau offers this advice:

“Given that BBBs act in the spirit of resolution and neutrality, our first suggestion to our members is to attempt to address the issue directly with the blogger. Use your own posting on the blog itself to respond – either in a posting that all readers can see or by attempting to obtain the individual email address of the person who posted the critical message.”

That’s from an essay called “Should a business respond to criticism in a blog?” Despite the source - the generally internet-clueless BBB - this is actually the best advice on the subject I have read. One quibble: sending a private email is not the same as “posting on the blog” as the article implies. Still, great advice there, so go check it out!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, March 23, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

Hello again, stoned Shreveport trilobites.

Friday. Time for ROCK FIGHT!

Keyword: mellow.

After nearly two weeks of noise madness at Cooper Manor and more old school punk than I care to admit to, I need to give the old eardrums a rest. Plus, when Spring weather hits the burgh, isn’t it great to just sit on the porch sipping a beverage, watching the world go by and listening to some mellow tunes as the sun goes down?

We’re gonna chill this week with trip-hop artists Massive Attack and Zero 7, Vancouver, BC, art rocker Dan Bejar’s Destroyer, the sexy Brit band Goldfrapp, Nick Drake, supposed Shreveport refugees The Residents and many others. Even the Alien Sex Fiend and Skinny Puppy are low key this week.

Tune in: kscl 91.3 fm this friday 6 to 8. Call in, too, at (318) 869-5297.

Listen to the podcast sampler version here, or use this miniplayer:

And here’s the whole playlist:

Song                                Artist
--------------------------------------------------------------
Girl Sun                            12 Rods
Alien Sex Fiend                     Alien Sex Fiend
Secondscepe                         Autechre
Little One                          Beck
So Here We Are (Four Tet Remix)     Bloc Party
Hover Over Nowhere                  Calla
Get Up On Down                      Dead Meadow
Good Good Things                    Descendents
Watercolours Into The Ocean         Destroyer
Pilots (On A Star)                  Goldfrapp
A Fistful Of Peanuts                Gorillaz Vs. Space Monkeyz
Heat Miser                          Massive Attack
Poor Boy                            Nick Drake
Crest                               Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Beach Sequence                      Passengers
Blue Veins                          The Raconteurs
Sad Eyes Kill                       Rain Parade
N-Er-Gee (Crisis Blues)             The Residents
Coelocanth                          Shriekback
Love                                Skinny Puppy
Blueskies                           Soma Sonic
New Orthophony                      Stereolab
All Fires                           Swan Lake
Molfsee                             Ulrich Schnauss
Bad Data                            One By Four By Nine
I Love You                          Yello
Home                                Zero 7
In The Waiting Line (Dub)           Zero 7

Cooper Manor March 21, 2007: God Stewart, Church of Snake, Clipd Beaks

Eric of God Stewart

Here are 23 photos I took last night at Cooper Manor: Cooper Manor March 21, 2007 - a photoset on Flickr.

The bands were God Stewart (mostly), Church of Snake and Clipd Beaks. God Stewart were sloppily entertaining. I'd call them Crunk Rock.

Church of Snake have really grown as a band since the last time I saw them -- they're tighter, louder and harder. They sound like what Devo might have been if Devo were a thrash band, and that's meant as a positive review.

Clipd Beaks were freakin' awesome -- loud psychedelic doin'-it-to-ya-in-your-earhole madness, swirling machismo miasmas of echo and strobe throbbing with bass pulsed shamanistic intent. They actually had a physical effect on me akin to taking a few Valium with vodka shots. (Kids, don't do that.)

This photo is Eric performing in God Stewart.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Cooper Manor Pics, Competition for Morning Edition and World of Warcraft

A few things to blog about today.

Elisa Ambrogio

First, check out the set of photos I took at Cooper Manor last Monday night. Kenny and The Flesh opened, followed by Black Helicopter and Brooklyn’s manic noise merchants Magik Markers.

To the left is the Markers’ Elisa Ambrogio playing her metallic red Strat with a Maker’s Mark whiskey bottle. The noise she generated was astounding. Click and look close at her eyes. That’s not “red eye.” That’s the Rock and Roll devil spirit shining out. The Markers summoned Papa Legba.

Kenny and The Flesh elevated the violence level. Eric, pissed at his malfunctioning drums, destroyed his whole kit in the middle of the show. He slammed, beat, slashed, poked and kicked and that was the rhythm section. You don’t know what to think when you see a band like this. There’s always going to be a surprise.

Black Helicopters were a nice surprise. They played loud drone rock from back in the day, reminding me of my old outfit, Chevrolet Stegosaurus, and also Too Many Douglasses. Just good straight-ahead rock with no frills.

I enjoyed all the bands. I missed Green Milk From The Planet Orange and Yip Yip last night, but I had seen Green Milk before. Tonight at Cooper Manor, 122 E. Dalzell, you can catch Church Of The Snake from Hot Springs, AR, and Clipd Beaks from Oakland, CA.

Competition for Morning Edition

There’s good news for public radio listeners looking for alternatives to corporation-friendly, über-branded NPR News: PRI And WNYC(R) Radio Announce New Morning Drive Time News Program For Public Radio.

Essentially, Public Radio International, WNYC, New York Times Radio, The BBC World Service and WGBH, all stalwart names in public broadcasting and journalism, are teaming up to create a morning news show to “reinvigorate morning drive time with a dynamic and lively new two-hour national news program.” How tasty does that sound?

Here’s more:

The program will represent an entirely new sound in public radio’s morning drive time. Departing from the highly-packaged format -- with pre-recorded interviews and long features -- that has become the medium’s hallmark sound, it will bring a wholly live, open, and unprecedented personality-driven format to public radio's renowned news and information programming.

Up-to-the-minute local, national and global news will be delivered by a charismatic host – to be announced later this year --- and a vibrant team of national and international contributors. The breadth and unique capabilities of the show’s media partners will allow in-depth news coverage and live reports from the field from within the US and around the globe, with BBC reporters and analysts joining in on the discussion.

The show will launch as a multi-platform program, and will be interactive and engaging, inviting listeners to respond immediately to news and participate in editorial decision-making, as well as to build a significant online community around the broadcast.

I particularly like the multi-platform approach which means it will be available over this new medium, the Internet, hopefully both streaming and as a podcast. And though it’s way too soon to speculate how listeners will participate in editorial decision-making as claimed, I think it can be a real exercise in participatory democracy.

Can you imagine stuffy NPR doing something like this? Me either. I also think it’s a safe bet that Red River Radio won’t carry it, despite the fact it could save them beaucoup coin by not paying for the increasingly tiresome Morning Edition.

The new show will be produced in Manhattan and is scheduled to launch in 2008.

I first heard about it from this NPR Check post. People are looking for alternatives, which is a good thing.

World of Warcraft

Here’s my latest World of Warcraft character, Anchovy, a dwarven hunter, and her pet, Charlotte, a green recluse from Duskwood. She also has a wolf from Dun Morogh named Pellegrino. The realm is Muradin. You got some Horde? Bring it, bitch!

Anchovy

Thursday, March 15, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, March 16, 2007, 6 to 8

Rock Fight * kscl 91.3 * fridays 6 to 8

Hello again, modern young Massachusetts moonlight lovers with the radio on.

FRIDAY! At freakin’ last! Gimme your paycheck and tune in to ROCK FIGHT! on KSCL for all your fine broadcast needs.

This week it’s an unapologetic flashback edition with lots of old punk and new wave and a few newbies for that little sumpin’ sumpin’. Thrill to the sounds of yore with double plays from The Violent Femmes, Art Of Noise and Robert Fripp’s dancy League of Gentlemen. Recall the dance floors of nightclubs past listening to Ultravox, Echo & The Bunnymen and digital sampling pioneer Herbie Hancock. Plenty of punk classics, too!

Check out the podcast sampler:

Call in, too: (318) 869-5297

One last thing before this ends -- ATTEND A COOPER MANOR SHOW THIS WEEK! There’s some ridiculously great bands we are lucky to have playing Shreveport.

And quick -- dial 911 ‘cause I’m dropping the bomb:

Song                                Artist
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action Time Vision                  Alternative TV
How To Kill                         Art Of Noise
A Time For Fear                     Art Of Noise
I'm So Bored With The USA           The Clash
Lorelei                             Cocteau Twins
Journey To The Center Of A Girl     The Cramps
Mongoloid                           Devo
The Days Of Wine And Roses          Dream Syndicate
Heads Will Roll                     Echo & The Bunnymen
Inductive Resonance                 Fripp, Robert & The League Of Gentlemen
Trap                                Fripp, Robert & The League Of Gentlemen
Ward 81                             The Fuzztones
Love Like Anthrax                   Gang Of Four
The August Engine Pt. 2             Hammers Of Misfortune
Chinese Rocks                       The Heartbreakers
Sound System                        Herbie Hancock
Search And Destroy                  Iggy And The Stooges
Lust For Life                       Iggy Pop
Circles Of Sorrow                   Jennifer Gentle
Nuages                              King Crimson
Teenager(s)                         Meat Puppets
Where Were You                      The Mekons
Let Me Dream If I Want To           Mink Deville
Roadrunner                          The Modern Lovers
Trash                               New York Dolls
You Really Got Me                   Oingo Boingo
Another Girl, Another Planet        The Only Ones
2+2=5 (The Lukewarm)                Radiohead
(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures      The Rezillos
Everyone's Rooting For You          Sondre Lerche & The Faces Down Quartet
Steady Rollin'                      Two Gallants
The Thin Wall                       Ultravox
Black Girls                         Violent Femmes
Confessions                         Violent Femmes
Target - Mr. Disney - War           Zounds

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Conservapedia! ROFLMAO!

church sign

I am shamed for National Public Radio.

The network actually lowered itself to cover Conservapedia and to take it seriously! Conservapedia thinks Wikipedia and Google are biased: "Tired of the LIBERAL BIAS every time you search on Google and a Wikipedia page appears? Now it's time for the Conservatives to get our voice out on the internet!"

There's a good critique of the coverage at NPR Check, Wickipedia v. Wackopedia. For extra fun, check out Conservapedia's entry for Liberal.

Cooper Manor 03/13/07

Crazy Israeli Trashes Cooper Manor!

Cooper Manor March 13, 2007

The show at Cooper Manor last night was awesome. Monotonix from Tel Aviv, Israel, performed along with The Apes and Kenny and The Flesh.

Monotonix was insane. This is a photo of the lead singer belly-boarding over the remnants of a salad he had thrown all over the dining room floor. He also set himself on fire.

All the bands were great, and I took almost 300 pictures you can see at the above link.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

ROCK FIGHT kscl 91.3 fm March 9, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

IABD

Hello again, manic meme mongers!

Friday approaches with another ROCK FIGHT! on the best rock radio station in Shreveport, Bossier City and the surrounding rebel countryside.

It’s the sellout show this week. Look at all these made-it-big bands: XTC, Death Cab For Cutie, The Killers, The Church, Blondie, Bauhaus .... Why, there’s even a staple of San Francisco hippie rock, “White Bird” by It’s A Beautiful Day. That’ll put flowers in your hair!

Food punks Rachael Raybies and the Yuck-Os say tune in!

KSCL 91.3 FM * Friday 6 to 8 * (318) 869-5297

Here’s the seafood platter:






Song                                Artist
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wake Up                             Arcade Fire
Silent Hedges                       Bauhaus
Wildcat!                            Be Your Own Pet
Where Is Home?                      Bloc Party
Dreaming                            Blondie
She's So Modern                     The Boomtown Rats
I Feel Like Myself Again            Brendan Benson
Subject To The Ladder               Broadcast
Pete The Killer                     Calla
Reversal                            The Church
Mama, Won't You Keep Those
Castles In The Air And Burning      Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Junkie                              Dead Milkmen
Transatlanticism                    Death Cab For Cutie
Top Tim Rubies                      Deerhoof
I'm Sixteen                         Dengue Fever
Statue Of Liberty                   Descendents
Makyo - The 2nd Gate Of Dreams      Dr. Alex Patterson
The City Is Here For You To Use     The Futureheads
Thursday                            The Futureheads
As Time's Gone                      The Fuzztones
Lights                              I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
Moiré                               Ian Boddy & Bernard Wostheinrich
White Bird                          It's A Beautiful Day
Andy, You're A Star                 The Killers
From The Air                        Laurie Anderson
Return Of Django                    Lee Scratch Perry & The Upsetters
Faces                               Lene Lovich
Beneath                             Meshuggah
I Think I’m Going To Hell           My Morning Jacket
Last Supper                         Panzerchrist
Monkey Gone To Heaven               Pixies
Now It's Time To...                 Poxy
Bones                               Radiohead
Paper And Iron (Notes And Coins)    XTC
Jason And The Argonauts             XTC

OH! And I’ve put a few songs up as a ROCK FIGHT! podcast. If this goes well, I’ll make them longer and enable iTunes subscriptions. Please tell me how it works.

Please click on the above link, but there’s also this player:

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Triangle Craft Update

My friend Richard sent me a clarifying email about his black triangle sighting. Also, after I posted the first sighting, this blog received its first ever visit from a computer at Barksdale AFB. Hmmm.

Here’s Richard’s second email lightly edited:

To further clarify....

My sighting was late thursday night just after midnight. Therefore it was actually Friday, March 2, 2007, 12:01 am.

The reason that I was so aware of the time was because the TV was on and just transitioning to the top-of-the-hour next program while I was preparing to go outside. As you know from your broadcast background, programming times are exact.

I then allowed for about 1 extra minute as I was having to gather up the dog and leash and flashlight and prepare to carry him down the stairs (because he his blind, he can no longer walk down them himself). This gathering-up process has become routine and typically only takes a minute if not less.

The stairs descend downward towards the south with a clear (enough) view of the southern sky. It was as I began walking down the stairs that I clearly first saw the light(s) of the approaching craft in the distance. I am at Haystack apartments. The craft may have at the time been (3000 ft. AGL) over the Lucas Wastewater Treatment Plant or perhaps even a bit west of it, and traveled on a heading that (estimate) would be 10 degrees west of due north. It never seemed to change altitude whatsoever.

Clarifying the exact time and day seems important in case anyone else can provide a corroborating report.

Of further note, although not a trained pilot, I have always been an aviation enthusiast, in all aspects, including experience flying in about a dozen different GA planes not to include the usual variety of commercial passenger jets and commuter aircraft. I am an excellent spotter as well, easily able to correctly identify most modern U.S. military aircraft with a good enough glance, some foreign military aircraft as well.

I also feel that I have a better than average ability to estimate visual measurements from any given ground location (speed, distance away, altitude agl) but will admit that given the unusual circumstances of this sighting, nightime (but nearly full moon) viewing, strangeness, etc., that I would allow for a +/- 50% margin of error in my estimates. More in favor of higher numbers, actually.

Summary of estimates:

  • distance at closest point: 1 mile or more
  • altitude above ground level: 3000 ft or more
  • speed 35 mph or more

Please inform me if you hear that anyone else saw it. I would be happy to meet them and discuss it.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Triangle Craft Over Shreveport

Triangle Craft

Saturday night, I was at Barnes & Noble where I met an old friend of mine, Richard. He asked me to withhold his last name.

Richard related to me that he had seen a triangle craft over Shreveport the night before, the night/morning of March 1/2. We talked about it, and later he mailed me an account of his sighting.

A triangle craft is a common UFO sighting, more so after 1990 than before. They are so well known, that you can fly one in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.

Whitley Strieber provides what I think is the best explanation for what they are in his recent novel The Grays. He writes that they are covert blimp-based craft very highly stealthed and run by the most secret of our governments agencies. They are used to conduct surveillance, both foreign AND domestic, which violates current U.S. law.

I lightly edited Richard's account for spelling, grammar and readability. Here it is:

Last night right after midnight (12:01 this morning) I saw one of those flying triangle-shaped vehicles pass right over the city.

Because our dog has Cushing's disease and drinks copius amounts of water, he needs to go outside and pee a lot. I have become used to staying up till about midnight generally in order to walk him so he can pee, usually after that he can hold the next one till morning. As soon as I took him outside last night I immediately noticed a light in the direction of the southern horizon and then a few seconds later knew that it was not normal.

The glow was not typical nor was the intensity, which was too bright. It was headed generally north, which was generally in my direction but off-angle. I stayed focused on it and my mind actually told me that it must be a helicopter (air-ambulance perhaps?). So I listened for that sound for a few seconds as my amazement continued to grow. No sound ever occurred, although the dogs behavior become markedly stranger as the vehicle approached and passed to one side (east of me) and continued maintaining a straight course generally headed north. I suspect this was due to some strange high frequency sound detectable only to him. He is fully blind as of mid-January so I know he couldn't have seen it himself.

By the way, my view of this craft was clear and unblocked with clear sky and 20/20 vision. It was distinct and sharp and easily could have been seen clearly by anyone else who happened to notice. It had to have been at least a football field in size, at the minimum, possibly two or even three times bigger than that, depending on it's height and distance from me, which was difficult to ascertain.

I did remember to reference its apparent size, which was about the width of my thumb knuckle (arm extended) when it was at it's closest point to me, my best guess being about 1 mile (line-of-sight). But it could have been further away than that. I didn't think it was flying. It seemed more to be gliding or even coasting or cruising like a large ocean vessel when seen from a distance would look while crossing a calm sea. The force of gravity didn't seem to be an issue. If my distance estimates were correct, it would guess it was going about 30 or 40 mph, which is too fast to be a blimp (this was obvious to me, it was also much larger than any blimp), but way too slow to be a conventional known aircraft. Period. Too huge and too slow and silent.

My gut says it's a new type of aircraft being flown by the top-secret whoever. The Air Force base would have seen the same thing as me only passing to their west instead of east. I stood there for half an hour looking for anything to follow, which could have included interceptors or who knows what else. Nothing came or went after it.

My viewing time was as follows (these are reasonable estimates):

  • First noticed it approaching 12:01.
  • By 12:02 (about 1 minute of initial observation), I finally realized (or conceded) that this was indeed one of those triangle large vehicles we've been hearing about.
  • By 12:04, two minutes of detailed viewing followed by at least three or perhaps several more minutes of decreasing visibility as it went into the distance, red light blinking. Basically, look for three golden-white marker-lights at each of the corners, (front and each rear corner) and an obvious and tantalizing (to me anyway) single blinking red light centered on the "underside", blinking in steady one-second intervals.

No noise, nada, it was a relatively quiet night and I listened closely. I'll tell you what the dog did when I talk to you next, something he's never done that was weird but in a funny way.

I love stories like this.

I've only seen one UFO in Shreveport. That was in 1986. I have seen a few crop circles in the area, though, including one by the Shreveport-Barksdale bridge.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Stats

How many people read this thing?

Not many. On average, 8 per day.





Day         Date                Unique Visitors     Above/Below
Friday      March 02, 2007      6                   -2
Thursday    March 01, 2007      12                  +4
Wednesday   February 28, 2007   7                   -1
Tuesday     February 27, 2007   9                   +1
Monday      February 26, 2007   10                  +2
Sunday      February 25, 2007   12                  +4
Saturday    February 24, 2007   6                   -2
                      Average:  8

Free Gary Tyler

Democracy Now!

Respected human-rights organization Amnesty International is again calling for Governor Blanco to pardon Gary Tyler, “a 49 year-old African-American man who has been in prison in Louisiana since the age of 17, and whose 1975 trial was infected with racial prejudice.”

Gary’s case was featured recently on Democracy Now! It’s a fascinating piece that includes details of his torture by police and his first jailhouse interview ever.

Please read and listen to those hyperlinks. And if you are further inclined, visit freegarytyler.com, where you can sign a petition urging Gov. Blanco to pardon Gary.

And remember, Democracy Now!, which airs on numerous public radio stations around the nation, is also a free iTunes podcast download every day. I get that audio version, but, there’s also a TV version.

ROCK FIGHT! March 2, 2007

Hi again, children of the pleasure culture!

Friday is here. Time for another ROCK FIGHT! on KSCL 91.3 FM.

It’s a a groovy show, so call in with your love offering. Our fun-raising goal is a million smiles! The number is (318) 869-5297.

Here’s why the bastards can’t get me down:

Song                        Artist
------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm Alive                   999
Pussy                       Brazilian Girls
..And More                  Can
Nine Hundred Samosas        Crucial Unit
New Rose                    The Damned
Under The Mountain          David Byrne
Dinosaur                    David Byrne
The Red House               David Byrne
Genetic Engineering         Dazzle Ships
Thanks-A-Lot                Dengue Fever
Romantic Adventure          Fila Brazilia
Sanctuary                   The Fun Boy Three
Liquid Coffee               Jennifer Gentle
Jackson                     Johnny Cash
Lady Of The Dancing Water   King Crimson
Maybe Tonight               The Knack
Like A Pen                  The Knife
Saturday Waits              Loney, Dear
Herculoid                   Made Out Of Babies
MB11                        Melt Banana
MB13                        Melt Banana
Snow                        Gustavo Santaolalla
Chocolate City              Parliament
Gloria                      Patti Smith
Optimistic                  Radiohead
Shaking Through             REM
Separation                  Robert Miles
Nightingales                Sondre Lerche & The Faces Down Quartet
(No More) Mr. Nice Guys     Sparks
Suspect Device              Stiff Little Fingers
Tonic Bit                   Tetsu Inoue
We Came To Dance            Ultravox
Bad Man                     Juicy Bananas
Powers                      Blackalicious
Heroin                      The Velvet Underground

Thursday, March 1, 2007

My Prediction

My prediction for the final total: $188,465.81.

Now some Radiohead lyrics -- "Optimistic" from Kid A:

You can try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
This one's optimistic
This one went to market
This one just came out of the swamp
This one dropped a payload
Fodder for the animals
Living on an animal farm

It is, after all, one of the greatest songs from one of the best bands of all time. Any grief? You can see the comment link .....