The River, Year Two
July
I wrote plenty about Fahrenheit 9/11, but you don't wanna go there again, suffice it to say, as I sufficed it to say back in July 2004,
Michael Moore has made a film suggesting the Bushies are anti-democratic warmongering profiteers and the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq are complete fuckups, mass murder for money, oil, and power lust, covered over in transparent lies enabled by the media.
Good on ya, Mike.
Better to buy an obscure film guide like Barry Gifford's Out of the Past,
and let the chiaroscuro flow over you.
Of all the misguided crap I wrote about the election and John Fuck You Kerry, ABB -- Anything But Bullshit, please best captures the predicament, thanks to the inspiration of the documentary The Corporation.
August-September
I know you dont' want to look back on The Horror that was The Election Game,
The...horror
because, as The World's Oldest Curmudgeon says, it's all about Fatigue. I wrote a boatload on it, including wondering is our candidate learning?. Obviously not.
Much better to concentrate on seeing the natural-born artist in your child, or seeing art on candy wrappers:
October
By October, election season was making me crazy. I had delusions about one man’s war, and fantasies about Jim Learer, staff writer for PBS, moderating a presidential debate. It was a shocking night.
November
By election night, my nerves were shot. After the election, there was, uh, things to write about:
No way all that energy, new voters, etc. generated more homophobic, religious crusade fucktards at the polls than it did Americans pissed off at Bush’s hideous four years.
Right? (tell me I’m right)
I was definitely right. The election was stolen, again. Work was slow at that time, so I was rather busy covering the travesty. But the picture below best sums up my reaction:
Over 5,000 people hit the streets in San Francisco the night of November 3 to protest the re-election of the worst president in living memory. The demonstration was sponsored by Not in Our Name and included the participation of the ANSWER Coalition and many others.
-- www.indybay.org
I tried to be philosophical:
Democracy, such as it is
Consumerism is what emerges when we are duped into having desires that we would not normally have. -- saw it on Yule's blog
I remember during one of the debates when President Bush said the Iraqis long for elections. I said to myself, disbelieving, “you mean they want *this*?”
December
Being completely spent, I turned the blog over to The World’s Oldest Curmudgeon. At least he was doing well (they say it’s the best revenge).
January
Nothing. Nothing left. Darkness. Saw a Van Gogh exhibit. Felt like this:
February
What’s the point?
March
Still nothing. Although a post from the future, from some poor working sap way worse off than me, did strangely appear on The River.
April
That time of year when a man’s thoughts turn to buddhism.
May
And, of course, rock-n-roll, such as it is in the hands of Mr. Bruce Springsteen.
Not dead yet.
June
Remember when “Star Wars” was just a scrappy, crowd-pleasing '70s movie? Don’t you just know Han Solo would love to blow up Skywalker Ranch?
Yep, screw politics. Culture will save us. Not the media monster we’ve created, no, no, not that. But…something. Someone, somewhere said something about blogs. Dunno. Guess we just have to be patient.
That about does it for year 2. Thanks for stopping by. Let’s do it again sometime soon.
