The Seattle Diaries
Chapter One: Proving I'm Me
I'm gonna just write this and worry about putting it in the right order later. I know that some parts go before other parts, like you've got to know my wallet was stolen the instant I moved from Palm Desert to Seattle, and this rudely constructed sentence is the only way I could work that fact in early, but I've got to get things down in the order they occur to me, not the order they happened, otherwise what have you got? Reality, and no one's looking for that. Reality is what happens to you. Fiction is what happens to others. So let's just say this is fiction, from your point of view, and leave it at that. You can believe or disbelieve anything I'm about to tell you, knowing full well I've previously written fact, fiction, and gonzo hybrid. That's what's cool about writing. You can start anywhere and show everyone how your mind works, never mind taking into account how their minds work and what a jerk you might look like for stubbornly sticking to ridiculously twisted and obscure points of view, no matter how subtle, just to show off how easy it is. Since I am, in fact, indulging myself in the pleasure of capturing thought as it happens, right in front of you, measuring the milliseconds in the treasure of typing, you are forgiven for thinking me self indulgent.
It is also, I've found, the most effective way of proving I'm me, which has become an issue lately due to the aforementioned lack of papers that are still the inhabitants of the wallet that's no longer in my possession. Someone other than me, a me with ID, could be trying to pass themselves off as me right now, which explains why nobody totally believes that I am who I say I am. I might be someone else. Who could I be? That's the problem.
Since I have no driver's license and no social security card, the only way I can REALLY prove I'm me is to do what I'm doing. Who the fuck else writes like this? Not me.
As proof that I'm the Michael Dare I say I am, I can do nothing but construct sentences only Michael Dare would write, like this one, too many commas, going on long past the point of common sense and into the Infinityland Wax Museum and Old Age Home for Thoughts You'd Thought Long Extinguished. Yeah, I know, it's obnoxious, when am I going to shut the fuck up and get on with it, and the only excuse I've got for linguistic leaps of the spastic kind is the task set before me, to prove who I am, fact or fiction, who the hell is writing it, why are you reading it, what do I mean by WHAT, what do I mean by DO, what do I mean by I, and what do I mean by MEAN, it's up to you, believe me.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Video: Protect Loving Marriages from Being Torn Apart (Just under 4 minutes long)
Josh Marshall: A Turning Tide? (talkingpointsmemo.com)
This week, out on the broad wastes of cable news drekdom and the uplands of Beltway journalistic drivel, a simple fact has gone almost entirely unreported: virtually everything congressional Republicans are saying about the Stimulus Bill wouldn't cut it in remedial economics.
Paul Krugman: On the Edge (nytimes.com)
Washington has lost any sense of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again.
JOEL STEIN: Economics according to Plies (latimes.com)
The rapper behind 'I Got Plenty Money' may understand our values better than the experts.
Mark Morford: Spanking the Future (sfgate.com)
Are you in sufficient awe of just what the hell you can do with that thing?
Roger Ebert: I'm reading newspapers again
Of course I've never stopped reading the Sun-Times. That's the start of my daily ritual. But while I used to read four newspapers every day, I found that, gradually, I wasn't. You know how it is. You get mired in the matrix of the web and think you're reading all the news you can handle. You have the papers, but they're unopened at the end of the day.
Catherine O'Sullivan: Proposed cuts would destroy the University of Arizona as we know it (tucsonweekly.com)
Whenever I think of Arizona legislators, I think of Nathan Huffheins. He's the guy in Raising Arizona with five babies, one of whom gets kidnapped by Nicolas Cage. Huffheins is a rich, self-made businessman with a tacky business, a tacky wife and a tacky house filled with tacky brick-a-brack. His life is tacky, because his mind is tacky. He equates material wealth with success. He doesn't know any better. He never went to college.
Tom Danehy: There was much knowledge to be gained over Super Bowl weekend, and Tom's full of it (tucsonweekly.com)
Some things I learned during Super Bowl weekend:
* People appear to be comfortable wearing replica jerseys of sports teams for which they root. I just find that odd.
Roger Ebert: Paul Galloway: A beloved legend
We will never hear his Sheep Story again. Nor will we enjoy his presence in a room, which was an invitation to good cheer. Paul Galloway, the most incomparable raconteur I ever met in a newsroom, is dead. Everyone who knew him will know what a silence that creates.
Veronica Schmidt: No hoax? Joaquin Phoenix says he's launching a hip-hop career (timesonline.co.uk)
In one of the most comic reinventions showbiz has ever seen, Joaquin Phoenix has confirmed he has ditched acting to become a rapper.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Stimulate me... Please!' Edition
Are there any aspects of the pending 'Stimulus Bill' that you find to be inadequate or inappropriate?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
Results Tuesday
wrote:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another rainy day.
Closet ABBA Fan?
Putin
A British-based ABBA tribute band said Friday the Kremlin whisked it away to perform a private concert for Vladimir Putin - offering a rare glimpse into the private life of the secretive Russian prime minister.
The four-member Bjorn Again band said it traveled 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Moscow for the Jan. 22 gig on the shores of Lake Valdai to perform before an exclusive audience of eight people - Putin, an unidentified blonde woman and six other men in tuxedoes.
Putin's spokesman denied that the prime minister attended any such concert, but band members gave plenty of details and said they recognized Putin at the show.
But revelations that Putin could be a closet ABBA fan run counter to his traditional strongman image. The prime minister is better known for manly displays on the judo mat and in fighter jet cockpits, and for robust outbursts against the West.
Rod Stephen, founder of Bjorn Again, originally thought it was a hoax when he received a phone call requesting that his band travel to Russia to perform at Lake Valdai.
Putin
Visits Burmese Refugees
Angelina Jolie
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has called on Thailand to respect the human rights of Myanmar's Rohinyga boat people, after Thai authorities pushed hundreds of them out to sea, a U.N. spokeswoman said Friday.
Jolie - who is deeply involved in the plight of refugees in her capacity as a United Nations goodwill ambassador - toured one of several camps in Thailand sheltering refugees from Myanmar's military regime with her partner Brad Pitt on Wednesday.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Kitt McKinsey told AP Television News it was a coincidence that Jolie visited the border camp just as the plight of the Rohingyas was catching the world's attention.
Some Rohingyas - who are denied citizenship in their native land - tried to land in Thailand recently after treacherous sea journeys only to be towed back to sea and cast adrift by the Thai navy. Indian officials rescued some but believe hundreds perished.
Angelina Jolie
Shutdown Bolder, Riskier Than Most
Analog TV
The U.S. has planned for more than a decade to have TV broadcasters turn off their analog signals, yet when the Feb. 17 deadline loomed, it flinched, delaying the mandatory shutdown for four months.
The delay, which causes confusion for TV viewers and havoc for broadcasters, is a symptom of the unique way the U.S. conceived the shutdown: No other big country has dared to, or plans to, end its analog TV broadcasts all in one go.
All developed countries are looking at turning off their analog TV signals because of the obvious benefits. Going digital improves the quality of TV reception and frees up large swaths of the airwaves for other services like wireless data.
The U.S. "all together now" transition plan was set by Congress in 2005. It was only in May last year that the FCC decided to have limited tests ahead of the national switch-over.
Analog TV
Leaving 'America's Got Talent'
Jerry Springer
"America's Got Talent" isn't getting more of Jerry Springer.
Springer says he won't return as host of the NBC talent contest this summer.
In a statement Thursday, Springer said he's leaving the show because of other commitments, including his syndicated talk show and a stage role. He didn't offer details about the play.
Jerry Springer
Ponders Run For NM Governor
Val Kilmer
Fresh from the inauguration, actor Val Kilmer is pondering running for governor in 2010, when two-term Democrat Bill Richardson will be forced from office by term limits.
"I'm just looking for ways to be contributive," Kilmer told The Associated Press on Thursday. "And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I'll run."
Kilmer, 49, grew up in Los Angeles but has called New Mexico home for more than two decades. He's currently registered as a Democrat and said he cast a ballot for Barack Obama from Bulgaria, where he was filming.
A Kilmer candidacy could throw a monkey wrench into the well-oiled Democratic machine of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who's already running for the job.
Val Kilmer
Joins HBO
Joe Buck
HBO Sports has drawn on Emmy-winning Fox Sports play-by-play announcer Joe Buck to replace Bob Costas at the network.
Buck will host a quarterly talk show for HBO Sports beginning in May. It will replace "Costas Now," which the NBC sportscaster did at HBO for much of the past seven years. Costas left HBO Sports earlier this week to take a new job at the MLB Network.
Buck is Fox Sports' play-by-play announcer for the National Football League and Major League Baseball telecasts. That won't change. But he'll add the talk show, which HBO said might include a live town-hall-style format.
Joe Buck
Video Portrait On Display
Mankind
What does Hollywood movie star Martin Sheen have in common with an Afghan farmer, a Brazilian fisherman, a Bolivian miner, a German artist, and a Rwandan refugee?
They all took part in the latest project of French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, "6 Billion Others," a video portrait of mankind currently showing at Paris' Grand Palais, and with ambitions to travel the globe.
Arthus-Bertrand, 62, is best known for the UNESCO-sponsored "Earth from Above" project, an aerial photographic study of the planet found on coffee tables around the globe. With 6 Billion Others, he has turned his attention to the men and women he photographed from the skies.
Since 2003, over 5,000 people in 75 countries were asked the same questions: "Are you happy?" "How do you define love?" or "What would you like to change about your life?" Their answers are at times poignant, funny, sad, and inspirational.
Mankind
Ships Collide In Whaling Clash
Steve Irwin
A group of radical anti-whaling activists said they were pelted with bloody chunks of whale meat and blubber after their boat collided Friday with a Japanese whaling vessel in a dramatic Antarctic Ocean clash Japan condemned as "unforgivable."
It was the second battle this week between the whalers and their foes. No one was injured, but the skirmishes mark the resumption of potentially life-threatening run-ins in a contentious fight that has become an annual fixture in the remote, icy and dangerous waters at the bottom of the world.
"The situation down here is getting very, very chaotic and very aggressive," activist Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessel, told The Associated Press on Friday by satellite phone.
Protesters aboard the Steve Irwin set off from Australia in early December for the Antarctic Ocean, chasing the whaling fleet for about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) before stopping two weeks ago in Tasmania to refuel. The group found the whalers again on Sunday and resumed their pursuit.
Steve Irwin
Lives Up To Screen Name
Vincent Pastore
Vincent Pastore of "The Sopranos" is in a New York court to fight a lawsuit accusing him of assaulting his former fiancee.
A trial began Friday in 47-year-old Lisa Regina's civil assault suit against him. She is asking a Manhattan state Supreme Court jury for unspecified damages for what she calls physical and psychological injuries.
Pastore pleaded guilty in 2005 to attempted assault on Regina. He was sentenced to 70 hours of community service.
Pastore played gangster Sal "Big Pussy" Bompensiero on the HBO series.
Vincent Pastore
Shocking! Banks Overpaid In Bailout
Congressional Oversight Panel
The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year's overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms.
Financially ailing insurance giant American International Group, which the Treasury Department deemed to be too big to be allowed to fail, received $40 billion from the Treasury for assets valued at $14.8 billion, the oversight panel found.
Overall, the panel and the analysts it retained to conduct the valuation study found that the Treasury used taxpayers' money to pay $62.5 billion more than the value of assets in the 10 transactions it examined. By extrapolating to the more than 300 institutions that received money, the panel concluded that the government in effect paid $78 billion more than the actual value of the assets at the time.
Congressional Oversight Panel
Blowback
Venezuela
As President Hugo Chavez intensifies his anti-Israel campaign, some Venezuelans have taken action, threatening Jews in the street and vandalizing the largest synagogue in Caracas - where they stole a database of names and addresses.
Now many in Venezuela's Jewish community fear the worst is yet to come.
Chavez has personally taken care not to criticize Israelis or Jews while accusing Israel's government of genocide against the Palestinians. He vehemently denies inciting religious intolerance, let alone violence.
But Venezuela's Jewish leaders, the Organization of American States and the U.S. State Department say Chavez's harsh criticism has inspired a growing list of hate crimes, including a Jan. 30 invasion of Caracas' largest synagogue.
Venezuela
Thoughtful Mailman
Robert Holding
A milkman who admitted he delivered cannabis as well as pints to elderly customers to ease their aches and pains, was spared jail Friday.
Robert Holding, 72, from Burnley, told police he supplied the drug to 17 customers after detectives raided his home and found nearly 6oz (167g) of cannabis in an egg crate in the van he used for deliveries.
"He said he sold the cannabis to existing customers because they were old and had aches and pains," said prosecutor Sarah Statham.
"He said he sold a 9oz (255g) bar about every three weeks and sold it for a relatively cheap value. He said that customers left him notes saying, for example, 'Can I have an ounce this week or can I have an eighth.'"
Robert Holding
In Memory
James Whitmore
The son of James Whitmore says the versatile actor has died of lung cancer.
Steve Whitmore says his father was diagnosed with the disease a week before Thanksgiving and died Friday afternoon in his Malibu home.
"My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," said Steve Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family."
Whitmore was a many-faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in movies, television and especially the theater with his popular one-man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt.
The Tony- and Emmy-winning actor, who was also nominated for an Oscar, was later known as the long-time pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food.
Besides Steve Whitmore, James Whitmore is survived by his third wife, Noreen; sons James Jr. and Dan; and eight grandchildren.
James Whitmore
In Memory
Dewey Martin
Dewey Martin, drummer for the groundbreaking but notoriously feuding and short-lived rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield, was found dead February 1 in Van Nuys, Calif. He was 68.
Martin and his bandmates -- Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Bruce Palmer -- formed the group in Los Angeles in 1966, carving out a unique sound that melded elements of country, folk and rock. Their first single, 1967's "For What It's Worth," captured the zeitgeist of youth culture, touching on themes of community, paranoia and the generation gap and becoming a top 10 hit and rock staple.
But that was the band's lone national success, and its famously sparring members called it quits in 1968 after only three albums -- none of which made the top 40. Nonetheless, the group heavily influenced the country-rock scene of the early '70s.
Martin played on all of the band's songs, which also included "Bluebird," "Mr. Soul," "Rock 'N' Roll Woman" and "On the Way Home." Its second album, "Buffalo Springfield Again," ranked No. 188 on Rolling Stone's list of greatest rock albums. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Martin attempted to keep the band's name alive after its split, recruiting members for the New Buffalo Springfield. But lawsuits by Young and Stills prevented them from using the name.
Bassist Palmer and Martin played the oldies circuit during the mid-'80s and early '90s as Buffalo Springfield Revisited. Martin also formed other bands that failed to catch on.
Dewey Martin
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