Ummagumma

For weeks I have been telling Jennifer, friends, family, work colleagues, whoever will listen that the winner of the 2012 Presidential Election will go down in history as the worst president since Herbert Hoover . This has not overly troubled me. I will not vote for either Obama or Romney this time around. I am from a Red State. It will go for Romney in a big way so my little vote doesn't count in the grand scheme of a close election race. In fact, the only way to make my vote truly count is to vote my conscience - which is more than a lot of people will do, voters trapped in the antiquated knee-jerk two-party system that has brought this country to the brink of economic ruin. My conscience tells me to vote libertarian . So, my vote will be for Gary Johnson . He at least understands that Romney is "without one molecule of brain." Kudos on that insight. Don't blame me, etc. when it all turns to crap. Well, technically it is already crap so, don't blame

George McGovern died recently at the age of 90 . He was a man admired for his gallant idealism . For his symbolism against war . As a vibrant candidate of liberal hope and change who enjoyed strong grass-roots support and perhaps deserved a better memory than his fate of being beaten soundly by Richard Nixon in 1972 . With Nixon's approval rating down to just 25% post-Watergate scandal , it was possible for a majority of Americans to say they would vote for McGovern over Nixon in 1974 .  It was in that moment of Watergate and anti-war frustration that liberalism reached its full expression in America, just as it had in the 1930's with the New Deal . The last 50 years, many liberal ideas such as abortion rights, Medicare, feminism, peaceful foreign relations, civil rights, education, environmental protection, and disarmament of nuclear weapons have all become mainstream ideas, though no less controversial. There is a tenuous voting majority to sustain most of these liberal

Proof of purchase. Earlier this month Neil Young's autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace , came out. It was a quick, easy read when I got around to it. 493 pages. I tore through it as I was finishing up Dhalgren , over the course of about a week and a half. It is not a traditional autobiography. It is more like a rambling monologue of someone who refuses to logically follow any of the patterns they clearly see in themselves. It sort of starts out in roughly chronological order, but then it veers off in several directions at once, eventually circling back around to some of the many themes Neil shares with the reader. This is almost stream of consciousness writing where Neil mixes in what is happening right now as he writes about all these memories of various times of his past.   Linear time has no meaning in the book. It is a book that will be most appreciated by Rusties, avid fans of Neil like Jennifer and myself. I'm not sure how much someone only casually interested in

Clapton's Richter being auctioned last Friday by Sotheby's. Last Friday, an abstract painting by Gerhard Richter which was owned by Eric Clapton sold at auction for $34 million . This is  a record amount for any painting by a living artist . Not even Andy Warhol saw any of his works reach such heights of monetary success. I have mentioned that Richter is my favorite living painter . His abstracts get most of the publicity these days and not without merit. I was initially drawn to Richter because of the amazing imagery and raw emotion exhibited in his abstracts. But, there is so much more to Richter. His photography and photorealistic painting is worthy of note. His installations are famous, though I admit most of them do very little for me. His recent stained glass work is pretty incredible, however. Richter is an artistic genius not only for his depth of creativity but for its extraordinary range as well. The St.Louis Art Museum holds my three favorite Ric

Felix Baumgartner about to jump from the stratosphere . Felix Baumgartner made history yesterday by jumping (falling?) some 24 miles from the edge of Earth's atmosphere to the eastern desert in New Mexico.  The previous record had been set back in 1960 .  The event was another step toward the commercialization of space, being sponsored by Red Bull .  The primary scientific purpose of the jump was to test a pressure suit for future space missions . The fall lasted about 8 minutes and Baumgartner broke the sound barrier by reaching a maximum descent speed of 834 miles per hour.  He was the first human being to ever break the barrier without the aid of vehicular power .  He also broke the record for flying higher in a balloon than any human in history .  I watched the entire thing live on my iPad.  I was plugged into one of 8 million livestreams watching the event , which was history in and of itself.  You can watch it here .

Recent and current reading.  My original Dhalgren paperback on top of the usual stack of books that always awaits beside my reading chair.  I often read multiple things simultaneously. I recently finished reading Samuel Delany’s long science-fiction novel Dhalgren for the second time. My first reading was in the early 1980’s, sometime around my college graduation, I think. Back then, it was a challenging read and did not meet my expectations since the narrative was very light on science-fiction, which is what I was predominantly reading at the time. The novel surprised me on my second reading. I had forgotten almost all of the narrative and this time I read it more as a work of literature than as just a genre book. I found it just as challenging as ever to read but this time it was much more rewarding. The narrative churns in a soup of ambiguity, switching back and forth from third-person to first-person, and the last 100 pages or so contains a sort of novel within the novel w

My daughter gave me this gift on Senior Night 2012. You can’t really measure something like exposing your child to competitive sports (as opposed to mere recreational sports) in dollars and cents. The value to their growing minds and bodies, to their physical development and to their ability to perform under the pressure or rebound from adversity goes far beyond the sport itself. But you can try. In my case, about 8 years ago my daughter was into soccer, machine-pitch baseball, basketball, and tennis. Soon her focused narrowed. Soccer went by the way-side first. Then basketball. Then the baseball became fast-pitch softball. Then tennis switched from playing doubles to playing singles. A lot of money could be spent on any of these sports, especially if you play – as my daughter did for several seasons – travel ball. There are professional lessons, learning mechanics that I cannot teach. The travel, occasional lodging, and food adds up quickly. You have to factor in the expens

Chipper Jones was on third base a few games ago, having doubled to lead-off the bottom of the ninth inning, when a walk-off home run by Freddie Freeman put him and the Braves into the playoffs.  It was only the seventh walk-off home run to put a team in the postseason in major league history .  The large Atlanta crowd was definitely into the moment as well. On Saturday the baseball sub-cult of my 'Dillo friends went to see Chipper Jones play his next to last regular season home game. Jones went 0-4 but his glove is still quick at third base. He made two or three fine defensive plays. My most distant memory of Chipper Jones is of the night the Braves won the 1995 World Championship . I have the moment on VHS in my library. Someday I must digitize all those Braves tapes. Abundant hours of them. Anyway, that night long ago Chipper was a kid and he looked like one . He was away from the celebration on the field and pointing into the crowd at someone, maybe his parents.