How to stuff a turkey

Enjoy this Red Meat holiday strip on your white meat break...



If you're a fan, create your own Red Meat strip here. Hours of enjoyment to be had!

(Lookie here, I just made this one!)

Dog bites dog, man pays man

Otto's boo boo

So, dear readers, my poor special needs dog, Otto, was attacked by a dog unprovoked and received four stitches for his trouble.

I know, I know... we don't need to hear silly stories from dog owners about their precious 'children', but the interesting thing is the offending dog owner promptly reimbursed me for my vet hospital bills. Dangerous dog laws are becoming common across the US, and it's certainly a factor in the owner settling with me upfront. Two crisp benjamins - warms the... er... right upper buttock.

Playlist Pleasures #2

What's spinning my wheels this week...

1. Nirvana With the Lights Out (3CD Box Set+DVD) - It's a fascinating historical record, for the music junkies like myself. Not something I'd sit and listen to over and over, but well worth the money for seeing their progression (and for Thurston Moore's liner notes essay.) Lovingly put together. Listen via Rhapsody
   
2. U2 "Vertigo" - U2 playing a punk riff? Singing with a spanish intro? (What's with the catorce?) It's a little cheezy at first, but I'm liking this song more and more, even with the ipod ad repeatedly in my face. I suppose if you're going to sellout, that's the way to go. Their performance on Saturday Night Live this weekend was the stuff of legends.
   
3. The Walkmen "Christmas Party" - Is it too early for Christmas songs? It's certainly never too early to have one from The Walkmen. I'll take one in June if need be! This is from their upcoming limited 12", also featuring a song about egg nog and a Jonathan Richman cover. Now, why didn't they play it at The O.C.'s The Bait Shop?
   

Molotar Cocktail

(UPDATE: This site has been taken down today, 11/24/2004. Too many p-shifts.)

Molotar's Castle is a site hosted by one Molotar Seth Pyragent, who is a dragon, evangelist and ranger.

"This site is dedicated to spreading the Gospel in the werewolf and furry communities. It is my hope that many trans-species people will accept Jesus as their Savior through this ministry."

I find it hard to believe that someone could make this up, so I'm taking it seriously. Apparently he's mentally ill (comes clean here) ... how else can you explain this essay on p-shifting (apparently, the biological transformation from one species to another.) He's even found a loop hole in the bible to allow his belief.

If you try the p-shift, beware:

You will need money for tailored clothes, alterations to your vehicle (because humans designed the seats for tailless bottoms), a good veterinarian (this is not a joke, I'm serious, GOOD vets cost ALOT), pin brushes, pet nail clippers, medieval swords, that kind of thing.

Ahem... it get's better...

Another thing concern is this mythical army that wants to capture and dissect P-shifters for weapons experimentation. You'd be best to save up extra funds for a defensible hideout in the wilderness (rocky hills and swamps are best, don't get waterfront because its too expensive), a year's supply of canned goods, and plenty of ammo. If you get a nice rugged piece of land, call me and I can suggest some fortifications to build.

Watch out for those mythical armies, folks.

A day for us bastards

For those that don't know, today is National Adoption Day.

My fare readers may find it interesting to know that I was adopted. You many have already seen a post featuring my newly found half-bro Captain R, and eventually, there will be more about the reunion(s) with my birth mother and rest of the clan.

I'm a very very lucky boy. Statistically speaking, not many adoptees ever are reunited with their birth parents, yet 95% of them want to be found. It's nearly 100% for birth mothers wanting to be reunited with their child.

So, you may ask, if both sides want so much to be reunited, why don't adoptees search and/or why aren't parents found? The red tape is certainly a hurdle, but even in the cases where it's not, it's just enough to leave the average adoptee holding their curiosity in the wind. It was a $350 investment for myself, and even with payment there's no guarantee of a pot of anything at the end of the rainbow.

In my case, and I'm sure with others, I also needed my parents to say "you should do this" or something to that effect. I grew up listening to my sister (who was also adopted) using the search as a threat, "well, I'm going to find my birth parents and live with them." When she finally did do a search, however, it was at both my parents and her doctor's behest. The need for family medical history made any minor hurdle irrelevant in the search process. So my sister at that time did do her search, and found her parents relatively easily and quickly, her birth father actually living within 5 miles of her.

She went through a non-profit called Washington Adoption Reunion Movement (W.A.R.M.), and I followed suit after my mother urged me (a blessing.) Having seen the process already through, it was a lot easier for me to initiate. Most adoptees, however, don't have that leg up and thus are left instead with their curiousity.

Some helpful links on the subject:

• Adopting.org
• Bastard Nation - An adoption rights advocacy group founded in Seattle and now based in Houston, Texas
• American Adoption Congress - National non-profit organization bringing together local and regional search, support and advocacy groups
  

Craig's list is 'da shiznizzle'!

Just how awesome is Craig's List?

I listed a dining room set, nintendo 64 system, and an old speedboat the other night and got 50 responses in 14 hours, and had the deal completed on the set and the system in 24 hours. My mind is officially blown. Of course I've been aware of Craig's list for the last year, but this wasn't the visceral 'glass-dagger-in-my-eye' awareness that I have now. I have to now ask...why would anyone list in newspaper classifieds?

Some quick background... Craig's list is a online community started nearly 10 years ago by one Craig Newmark (of course he's got a blog.) With 800 million page views each month—more than 450 hits per second—craig's list has skyrocketed in popularity, enjoying an almost cultlike following. Nielsen//NetRatings says the traffic at Craigslist ranks in the top 20 U.S. general interest portals, with the likes of MSN, Yahoo and AOL. Users are free to list things for sale and rent, with the sole source of revenue coming from S.F. employers who pay for job listings.

Recently ebay got into the picture via a friend's selling of shares that were a gift from Craig himself. It's a low level entry into operations, but the site still feels personally run, thank goodness.

Some good reads on the subject:
USA Today (9/28/2004)
SF Gate (8/5/2003)
Time (9/27/1999)

Spy games

The Daily Show (as usual) has it spot on with Porter Goss and the CIA partisan cleaning (click on Spy vs Spy video.)

"The administration knows the best way to stop things from going wrong, is to get rid of the people who think things are going wrong."

Rob Corddry, reporting as Senior Intelligence Analyst

Would be a lot funnier if it didn't hit so close to the truth.

The Electrifying Conclusion

Guided By Voices's show was last night and I'm too tired to write about it just yet.

First impressions are both elation and depression. Bob was as drunk as usual, but seemed a bit pensive during instrumental breaks - staring into the distance when he normally would've been high-kicking it.

More later...

For DeLay, a Republican about face

Tom DeLay's buddies in congress have changed the rules to protect him from losing his seat while being indicted. DeLay, the Republican Majority leader is under investigation in Austin which has resulted in the indictments of three allies of Mr. DeLay and several companies accused of illegally using corporate campaign contributions to help Republicans win state legislative seats, a move that cleared the way for redistricting.

Republicans adopted the rule in the 1990's when a couple prominent Democrats were accused and looked like there might be indictments handed down. So what do you do when it's one of your own? Change the rules back!

Rep John Dingell (D-MI) on Majority Leader Tom DeLay (TX-R):
"These folks talk about values and decency, but then think it’s okay to change the rules once it appears one of their own may have broken them. This amounts to a work release program for the ethically challenged. We should all remember that a decade ago, Mr. DeLay helped to create this rule. Republicans said at the time they were the party of reform and good government. Now they’ve become the party of moribund hubris."

Meanwhile, DeLay's cronies (namely Texas House speaker Tom Craddick) are busy working on another redistricting, this time apparently targeting Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle. Who is that, you might ask? Oh, just the feller that oversees the state Public Integrity Unit and thus has the authority to prosecute state leaders for any official misconduct.

Please everybody (media?) let's not gloss over the significance of all of this...

(UPDATE - 11/18)
The media is currently running the opposite way with this... repeating DeLay's false claims that Ronnie Earle is a 'partisan crackpot'. Media matters has it covered.

The Makeover continues...

4 more cabinet members resign, including one of the only rational voices in the administration, Colin Powell. Apparently, this is viewed upon by Bush as an opportunity to centralize power and give Cheney and Rove more power.

Meanwhile the CIA is being asked to purge itself of any disloyal (ie, democratic) voices in the agency:

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

Voices of dissent are being squelched... or, as Josh Marshall puts it:

"Another way to put it is that the folks who were always wrong and often catastrophically wrong are rooting out the folks who were often right and sometimes somewhat wrong. The answer to politicized intelligence, it turns out, is a more thorough politicization of intelligence and the elimination of those who resisted political pressure."

GBV LP sells for 6G

A signed vinyl lp of Guided By Voices' Propeller goes for $6000 on EBAY. The initial pressings all had different hand made covers. Here's the most complete list I've seen (GBVDB.com)

$6 g's is a lot to fork out for lo-fi... sort of flies in the face of the concept, really. It cost considerably less to make the record and it's not even really their 'masterpiece' album - that of course being Bee Thousand.

“Everything fades from sight/ Because that’s all right with me.”
ending to "I Am a Scientist" from Bee Thousand

As you may or may or may not know, GBV is on their farewell tour and have been blowing folks away with their farewell kicks. I have my ticket for the last night of this 2nd leg of the tour, and am ready to pogo and sing along to the 50 + songs they'll be playing. It should be great and hopefully not the last we'll see of Robert Pollard (or Doug Gillard for that matter.)

Playlist Pleasures #1

This is what's spinning my wheels this week

1. Arcade Fire Funeral - "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" is a blood-pumping, fist-raising, hyperglycemic pop masterpiece. The album seems flows out of that song's center, ending "In the Back Seat" with Régine Chassagne's voice soaring over churning strings, breaking your fucking heart. (Update - now you can listen via Rhapsody!)
   
2. The Futureheads The Futureheads - Wire meets The Jam. Throw in Gang of Four surpremo Andy Gill at the recording's helm and you just might think you're back in art school circa 1983. Still feels original, busting at the seams with ideas and hooks galore. (Update - Now you can listen via Rhapsody.)
   
3. Elliott Smith From a Basement on the Hill - The record hangs heavy like a warm wet coat. It ranks as one of the saddest records I've ever listened to, and it's difficult to hear without his tragic end overwhelming the album's every note. But it plays out like a movie you watch over and over thinking it will end differently, every song progressing the story to a happy ending that slips through our fingers. Listen via Rhapsody.
   

Portait of a young progressive

A peek in on lil' Malachai

So yes, Drake is going to be a father. The lil' swimmer is a quick mover and has got a huge melon. A future soccer star in the making, perhaps?

I went to register with mah' lady, Tootie, at the extremely disturbing Babies R Us. Granted, I have problems focusing in most stores that are full of electronic gadgets and things to play with so I shouldn't be surprised when shortly upon walking in my Tootie's head proceeded to spin off her body and fly in multiple directions. But she's normally the focused one and it was (and is still ;) disturbing... the power that aisles of infant commerce can have over a mother to be.

FYI - Malachai is his womb name... kind of like a stage name in reverse.

Sorry Everybody, the site is down

Original, heartbreaking, and uplifting in sort of a group hug way for the anti-bush forlorn, Sorryeverybody.com collects photos from folks apologizing to the world for not defeating Bush.

Overloaded, the site went down, but you can still find it here. (THIS SITE HAS SINCE GONE DOWN)



Update - the site's back up.

It's not red and blue... it's actually more purple

First off, stop forwarding the jesusland map! Sure it's sort of funny, but it comes off as elitist and it also further purportes the myth that there's a mandate (far more red then blue.)

Instead these maps should start making the rounds:

Jesusland don't look so big... red vs blue skewed by population

It's a purplish nation, really... precint by precint with shades reflecting which they the votes tipped and skewed to population 

Progressive base growing not shrinking...

The trend looks pretty good when you look at things this way

1980	Jimmy Carter	41%		vs. Reagan+Anderson	57%
1984	Walter Mondale	41%		vs. Ronald Reagan	59%
1988	Michael Dukakis	46%		vs. George HW Bush	53%
1992	Bill Clinton	43%		vs Bush+Perot	56%
1996	Bill Clinton	49%		vs Dole+Perot	49%
1992	Gore+Nader	49%		vs George W Bush	48%
1992	Kerry+Nader	49%		vs George W Bush	51%

Just some over-reach in the administration away from a majority.

What's that on your lip?

let's start in the middle and eat our way forward and back...

No, that's not a Bush supporter, but a picture of yours truly from the 11th annual Bigelows mustache competion. The culture of the mustache is ripe for a blog... just not sure I'm the one to do it. Had one for a very short time and can't say that I understand the attraction.

You see my new half-bro, Captain R, entered me into this contest...

Bad timing (re: weddings) prevented me from getting the full 4 weeks of growth in, but I still made it to the 2nd round. I've got a mullet and a wife-beater shirt on that reads 'Hide Your Daughters' which made up a bit for the 'stache not growing in as much.

It's really just too bad I hadn't started this blog sooner to follow the growth. On second thought, maybe it'd be more interesting to watch my grass grow.

to start off...

First post impression post-election post-dejection, pre-direction pre-post post

Hello and welcome to thus spake drake, an unmolded time-waster of a blog that won't do much to change how you feel or think... but just might curl a lip or raise an eyebrow (we're reaching high here aren't we?)

What 'the drake' will post is interpretations of our culture, which apparently is about to be under attack, post-election mandate withstanding. Expect full-tilt resistance here to this coming so-called conservative revolution.

I'll post music recommendations both new, old, and forgotten or those that 'slipped through the cracks' (mostly via large record label consolidation.) A great escape from our 'lack of reality'-based administration.

I'll refer to other favorite reads and posts, as we bloggers link to eachothers blogs in an endless chain of referral until you just can't remember who posted what, when, where. Why?