Politics-- COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.

All the news that gives you fits. Really, as Rob Cowddry would say on The Daily Show with John Stewart, COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. Being involved in local politics is nuts. Here I am running for re-election as Sr. Bldg Rep ( a position that I have served faithfully and thanklessly for over fifteen years) in my school and for the 2nd year in a row an unqualified young buck is looking to usurp my position. I put out a policy statement that said since I have no kids at home nor coach sports that I have more time to serve. This was twisted by the spin machine to read that I was anti coaches and anti parents, COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. I run the scoreclock for virtually every team and am more involved with the coaches than any other teacher. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.

This upstart has virtually no experience yet he is trying to cause dissension in the ranks by starting this young vs. old nonsense!?!? COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. He was hand picked by a former president who was known for her nebulous and self serving unilateral decisions and thinks he's the golden boy and the heir apparent. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. This former president's last decision created a cushy administrative dean job for her and now she (an administrator) is giving advice to run our UNION COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.

I told this pipsqueak upstart usurper that if he should sway the vox populi to vote for him that I would not help him. He spun this to mean that I was anti union for not helping him!??! COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. If you need help doing the job, don't run for the position. Two years ago I asked this young buck to be a junor rep and I would train him to take over when I retire in June 2006 but Mr. Little Bigshot did not want to be trained. He's perfect the way he is. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.

This upstart was picked by the aforementioned nebulous president to be on the "prestigious" negotiations committee two years ago. He missed half of the meetings and is now calling anyone who says he missed any meeting a bald faced liar!?!? COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. Last year he lost to me by a surprising single vote and now thinks he's hot stuff or the cat's pajamas or that his stuff doesn't stink. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.The two deans who pumped him up last year can not vote this year so there goes at least two votes for him. Yet somehow he's convinced a number of younger teachers to feel sorry for him. If he should win he's on his own. I will be like Puntius Pilate meets Dr. Hunter s. Thompson

I have half a mind to let him win so that the vox populi will find out how inept and unquaified he really is. If it were not for the few veterans who know how unions should work I would let the NewBees have their young buck and laugh my butt off as it all falls to pieces. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. After all I work at AGHS and I can do absolutely nothing for my last year. It would be far easier for me to let someone else deal with all the BS and agida, but I feel responsible to the union and those people who care. Well--the election is in two weeks. I refuse to curry favor and lie like that upstart weasel to win. It's like a baseball game. Would you start someone on your varsity team who has not played for two years and missed practices? COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.Of course not. Yet this is what the NewBees plan to do. It is out of my hands. Either way I win. If I should win, I will gladly share my wisdom and experience in serving those of the vox populi and training a worthy successor from one of my junior reps who has gone about things in the right way. I would want the union to succeed, not suck as it would under my very unworthy opponent. If I should lose, I will feel sorry for the union faithful but "Obla di obla da. life goes on" for me.

There is no comparison to my experience and to his hubris. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. If people are logical instead of wogical, I will win by a landslide. If they are hypnotized and are proselytized by this young buck, then they will get what they deserve. COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!. It will be like electing a president who has killed thousands of your sons in a war that should not have been fought, looking for WMDs that were never found, driving up gas and oil prices and hurting the average J. Q. Public in the middle class pocketbook. People would not elect such a shallow and inept person as president would they? COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!!!!.

USA Next to slime AARP

All the news that gives you fits.The same people who brought us that equivocational (at best) and bald faced lying (at worst) Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth mendacity (and we all know how truthful that turned out to be--about as truthful as Mr. Clinton's never having had sex with that woman) are now branching out to discredit the AARP for daring to question the sanctity of Mr. Bush's (apt name, eh?) Social Security Reform (or is it deform?). Karl Rove and his crew would have you believe that the AARP is just a bunch of "homo-kissing liberals" who live to see our brave soldiers dying in Iraq. (Wasn't it Mr. Bush who was responsible for sending those soldiers into Iraq to look for WMDs that were never found despite Mr. Bush's grandiose aircraft landing with the slogan "Mission Accomplished" hanging from amidships?... but I digress) You've all seen the AARP ad that caused this furor. The AARP ad in essence said "if the sink is leaky, you don't tear down the whole house." Certainly this would make sense to any logical and sane person. However, these rabid NeoCons would have none of either. Their absence in criticizing the AARP when the AARP supported Mr. Bush's vapid and bush Health care reform speaks volumes now. Is it Alzheimer's disease or the dreaded CRS disease that seems to have inflicted the AARP leadership now that they have dared to disagree with Mr.Bush? These incongruities in logic should just jump up and smack you in the face. Hopefully, the American public will see that indeed the emperor has no clothes, despite the lies and the smear campaign being foisted upon us by this aptly misnomered NeoCon offshoot. If this is what America is going to be next, I for one would think to move to France. At least in France they care less about sex and more about what's good for the world. Alloors et bonjour, mes amis toute suite.

The Gonzo King is Dead, Long live the Gonzo King-Dr. Hunter S.Thompson

All the news that gives you fits. "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." Those immortal words exploded like an atomic bomb in our collective literary consciousness and the fall out has continued to radiate into the far reaches of my soul. A great literary star has exploded in a super nova and a black hole now exists where light no longer permeates. My first exposure to the Gonzo journalism of Dr. Thompson smacked me right in my third eye chakra somewhere in the late 60's at Stony Brook. I was sitting in professor Erich Goode's (author of The Marijuana Smokers--hence why I even took this class) class, "Deviancy and Delinquency" which we affectionately labeled "Nuts and Sluts" when I noticed Hell's Angels, by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson on the required reading list. After devouring this book and grokking on its versimilitude I fell into Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, bats and all. I since ingested Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, The Great Shark Hunt, The Curse of Lono, Genration of Swine, Songs of the Doomed, Screwjack, Better than Sex, and The Proud Highway.

Dr. Thompson was my idol. I even tried to put a little gonzo journalism in the small column "Stewed News and Skewed Views" that I've been writing monthly for my local union newsletter for the past seventeen years. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. In the 80's on the way up to Boston to see a Frank Zappa concert we stopped at theaters along the way to catch "Where the Buffalo Roam" at the beginning. After a number of misfires we succeeded in seing this film that sucked royally. Bill Murray did not capture the essence of Dr, Gonzo and the lame script did not help. After the Zappa show we attempted to try to see this insipid, vapid film again but neither the shiny blue and green pharmaceutical capsules of quaaludes, nor the shiny diamonds of rock cocaine brought this film to any kind of life. It wasn't until Johnny Depp took over that Dr Gonzo was done justice on the silver screen.

Upon hearing of Dr. Thompson's untimely self destruction a few weeks ago I was thrown into a maelstrom of mixed emotons that I am only beginning to climb away from now. Perhaps in some small way in this humble blog that no one ever sees will the seeds of gonzo journalism live on. In my small moments I too "felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger...a Man on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident," Hunter, we hardly knew you, you left us all too soon. Give me a whiff of amyl and I too, like you can be one with the universe. Alpha and Omega call you home but drop by in my dreams and guide me to Gonzo Journalism, In your spirit I will gonzo blog on.

The Gonzo is dead, Long live the Gonzo-Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

All the news that gives you fits. Few writers have affected my writing and life as did Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. My first exposure to Gonzo, journalism was @ SUNY Stony Brook in the wild and crazy late 60's or was it the early 70's. I was taking a sociology class called "Deviancy and Delinquency" which we affectionately called "Nuts and Sluts." It was taught by a radical professor, Erich Goode, who had written a book, The Marijuana Papers, hence why I was drawn to this course. One of the books on the required reading list was Hell's Angels, by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Wow--I was totally enveloped by the versimilitude in this writing. Then came Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. What a slice of life about Americana!!?!?!? My college buds and I attempted to re-enact many of the encounters of this book. "As your attorney I recommend that you take two hits of the blue acid and suck on a little nitrous." Many of these buds have actually become attorneys-life mirrors art, huh? Then came Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972. I just devoured everything that Hunter wrote, even his collection of letters. In the late 70's or was it the early 80's (my mind is clouded by mists of purple haze) my buds and I were a tad disappointed with the film, "Where the Buffalo Roam" which was loosely based on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. On our way up to a Frank Zappa concert in Boston we stopped at a theater to see it. Bill Murray did not capture the essence of the Gonzo man. Later on after the show we went to see the film again and even the blue and green capsules of pure pharmaceutical quaaludes did little to make this horrid film any better. Finally Johnny Depp saved the day with his dead on balls accurate portrayal of Dr. Gonzo in the film aptly titled, "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas." Even the sound track was excellent...in fact it is one of the few movie soundtracks I own. Later on I had to buy the deluxe version DVD. Over the years I have written a "Stewed News and Skewed Views" article for my local union newsletter and I have tried to keep this form of Gonzo Journalism alive. I bought into this whole blog thing to keep on Gonzo-ing. It was with great shock and regret that I learned of Dr. Thompson's untimely death a few weeks ago. In fact I have been so upset with the passing of one of my icons that this is my first attempt to try to put into words my feeling of great loss. There is a vacuum in the journalistic world. Certainly I do not have the hubris to imagine that I can carry on Dr. Thompson's Gonzo legacy, but I hope that in some small way, I can keep his spirit alive in my meager ramblings. Hunter, you are still my muse and I hope to do you justice. Long live the Gonzo King.

But is it ART?

All the news that gives you fits. Well, we finally dragged our sorry butts into Manhattan on Tuesday last to see the transient Gates. I went in with little expectations, but was not disappointed. We walked into Central Park right by the Met and were enthralled by the fluttering saffron tinges all around us. We went up to the Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (those A.A.R.P. cards came in handy) where this photo was taken and the views were quite spectacular. Now I heard all the naysayers--what a waste of $21 million --how can you call that art if it is not permanent? Etc., etc. etc. ...Hey, I liked it. It was unusual to look at--it colored up the otherwise grey landscape (and we were there on a sunny day) and its evanescent made it even more beautiful. It was like watching a snowflake evaporate--a moment caught in time... never to be repeated. Now I admit there were some things in the Met I did not get--like those huge white canvasses with the big circle of blue or orange or red. Jackson Pollack I don't get. We sat in front of his huge canvas for a half an hour waiting for it to speak to us and all I could think about was Ed Harris spilling paint on the floor in the film, "Pollack." If you see it as art then it is art. Art speaks to different people in different ways. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So I enjoyed The Gates, despite the naysayers. It was a pleasant experience that I will never forget--so maybe that's what art is.. it is perhaps a shared experience that speaks to you, touches your soul in some way, and leaves a faint or indelible imprint forever despite its temporality.

The Gates on Washington's Real Birthday