The record is awesome, and they are nice folks.
Playing for free at the Whistler tomorrow night.
It's refreshing finally discovering local bands that don't make me want to crawl away in embarrassment.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Happy 100th, Akira Kurosawa!
Ikiru is so far the only film of yours I've seen, because every other time I've checked out a copy of anything of yours from the library or rented it from Netflix, the DVD has been cracked or scratched beyond data recognition. I'll get to the rest of them before I die, okay? Or before your 150th, I promise. Let's just say that Ikiru has left an indelible mark on my soul in the two years since I first watched it and leave it at that...for the time being. I mean, there's something about the way Shimura looks at everything as though he has words for it but is racing against his own life to express them, that petrified yet entranced look in his eyes reflecting this THING he's never had an aptitude for in his life just staring him down, that gets me every fucking time.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
KARL ROVE'S DAD WAS GAY
No, really...he was. I'm not being crass or insensitive.
(A side note before I begin: Even the fucking AARP is advocating the legalization of gay marriage. If the AARP AND Dick Cheney can see eye-to-eye on this issue, why can't President Obama and the Democratic Congress stop pandering to moderates and just do the right thing?)
On the Matter of Karl Rove's Father
by James Moore
Published March 16, 2010
In his book and the various interviews and speeches surrounding publication, Karl Rove has made a point of attacking information Wayne Slater and I reported and published regarding Rove's background and the formative years of his political belief system. The topic he has seemed most prickly about deals with his father's sexual orientation. As is his practice, Rove ignores facts to practice skilled denial.
Louis Rove's personal life was nobody's business until his adopted son decided to make gay rights a wedge issue in the campaigns of George W. Bush. Rove, who recently pleaded for privacy during divorce from his wife Darby, pushed policies in campaigns that were designed to interfere in the private lives of gays, lesbians, and transgender people. Rove has no right to demand privacy when he refuses to respect it in the lives of other individuals and families. His relationship with his father is context for his politics and interest in his father is a consequence of those politics.
When he was interviewed by Matt Lauer on The Today Show, Rove said he had no idea if his father was gay. If this is the case, Karl was one of the few people who knew Louis Rove that was not aware of his sexual orientation. In our book, The Architect: Karl Rove and the Dream of Absolute Power, (I disagreed with the publisher's hyperbolic subtitle), I interviewed several people in Palm Springs, California about Louis Rove and his politically ambitious son. Joseph Koons, who was Louis Rove's best friend for 13 years, told me, "Louie didn't hide the fact that he was gay. But he didn't play it up either. We had lots of gay and straight friends. I was never the effeminate type and neither was Louie. We didn't play it up that way, either. But he was gay. And so am I."
Although Joe Koons, a retired insurance company executive, was the only one of Louis Rove's gay friends to go on the record for our book, two other neighbors were quoted and confirmed that Rove had lived openly as a gay man. Koons took Rove to numerous social gatherings with other older gay men but Louis preferred to spend his time at home in his Palm Springs neighborhood. Koons said he was not romantically involved with Louis but was as "close as a brother" and that Karl was completely aware of his father's sexual orientation.
During an interview for our first book on Rove, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, we asked the president's political guru about the causes for the breakup of his parent's marriage and what might have driven his mother, Reba Wood Rove, to commit suicide. At the time, we were not aware of Louis Rove's sexual orientation and were simply asking Karl to speculate because he remembered so vividly his father coming home on Christmas Eve, an ensuing argument, and then the end of the marriage without any real explanation from his mother. An astute observer even at 19 when the marriage failed, Rove continues to claim 40 years later that he had no clue then or now that his dad way [sic] gay. When I went to Palm Springs in 2005 prior to the publication of The Architect, one of Louis Rove's neighbors literally laughed when I told him Karl claimed he didn't know what happened to his parents' marriage.
"He [Karl] was obviously hurt by the divorce. It's just absurd when he says, 'I had no idea what the problems were with my parents and their marriage.' He knew damned good and well what was going on. His father had decided to come out of the closet."
In fact, according to Louis Rove's best friend Joe Koons, Rove not only knew his father's sexual orientation but also was comfortable with it and had accepted his father's honesty.
"I don't recall that there was any great tension over it," Koons told me during the 2005 interview. "I don't know how much impact that plays in the family and when they did find out about it. Karl is certainly not dumb. I am sure he knows more than anyone about his father's position. The times I spent with Karl and Louie were wonderful and Karl was always just very, very nice."
Karl, in fact, according to Koons and Louis Rove's neighbors, was a frequent visitor to Palm Springs beginning in the 80s and vacationed almost annually with his father in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It would have been difficult for Rove to not know this fundamental fact about his father.
Rove does get one thing correct in his book. He said that we wrote his father, "after living openly as a gay man," died quietly at home while his son was in the midst of launching the anti-gay issues campaign that was to lead to the re-election of George W. Bush." In his TV interviews, Rove twisted this around to make it sound like we were portraying him as a man who had denied his father, which was not the case. The chapter in our book regarding Louis and Karl Rove repeatedly makes it clear that Bush's Brain honored and loved Louis and was present for a private memorial service.
Lastly, I want to say bluntly I don't give a damn about Louis or Karl Rove's personal lives. But when Karl decided that the private and personal lives of other consenting adults needed to be corrected to suit the moral imperatives of his party's political desires, well, then Karl turned his family into a part of the narrative. As he promotes his revisionist paperweight around the country, he is allowed to take an aggrieved stand of someone whose privacy has been invaded by amoral journalists. What about the lives harmed or ruined by the sexual politics of Rove's mean-spirited campaigning? How is that measured?
Originally, I had told friends I did not want to be drawn into discussions about Rove's book. I've come to resent the poisonous nature of the discourse in our national politics. The notion, however, that silence is consent is more than a little unsettling. Rove started his political ascension with lies and he has now published a book that is filled with a new set of lies that attempt to convince the entirety of America that during the Bush administration everybody got everything wrong; except for Karl and President Bush. This, too, is another Rove lie. And it's criminal for myself or anyone else to allow his lies to continue to live.
(A side note before I begin: Even the fucking AARP is advocating the legalization of gay marriage. If the AARP AND Dick Cheney can see eye-to-eye on this issue, why can't President Obama and the Democratic Congress stop pandering to moderates and just do the right thing?)
On the Matter of Karl Rove's Father
by James Moore
Published March 16, 2010
In his book and the various interviews and speeches surrounding publication, Karl Rove has made a point of attacking information Wayne Slater and I reported and published regarding Rove's background and the formative years of his political belief system. The topic he has seemed most prickly about deals with his father's sexual orientation. As is his practice, Rove ignores facts to practice skilled denial.
Louis Rove's personal life was nobody's business until his adopted son decided to make gay rights a wedge issue in the campaigns of George W. Bush. Rove, who recently pleaded for privacy during divorce from his wife Darby, pushed policies in campaigns that were designed to interfere in the private lives of gays, lesbians, and transgender people. Rove has no right to demand privacy when he refuses to respect it in the lives of other individuals and families. His relationship with his father is context for his politics and interest in his father is a consequence of those politics.
When he was interviewed by Matt Lauer on The Today Show, Rove said he had no idea if his father was gay. If this is the case, Karl was one of the few people who knew Louis Rove that was not aware of his sexual orientation. In our book, The Architect: Karl Rove and the Dream of Absolute Power, (I disagreed with the publisher's hyperbolic subtitle), I interviewed several people in Palm Springs, California about Louis Rove and his politically ambitious son. Joseph Koons, who was Louis Rove's best friend for 13 years, told me, "Louie didn't hide the fact that he was gay. But he didn't play it up either. We had lots of gay and straight friends. I was never the effeminate type and neither was Louie. We didn't play it up that way, either. But he was gay. And so am I."
Although Joe Koons, a retired insurance company executive, was the only one of Louis Rove's gay friends to go on the record for our book, two other neighbors were quoted and confirmed that Rove had lived openly as a gay man. Koons took Rove to numerous social gatherings with other older gay men but Louis preferred to spend his time at home in his Palm Springs neighborhood. Koons said he was not romantically involved with Louis but was as "close as a brother" and that Karl was completely aware of his father's sexual orientation.
During an interview for our first book on Rove, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, we asked the president's political guru about the causes for the breakup of his parent's marriage and what might have driven his mother, Reba Wood Rove, to commit suicide. At the time, we were not aware of Louis Rove's sexual orientation and were simply asking Karl to speculate because he remembered so vividly his father coming home on Christmas Eve, an ensuing argument, and then the end of the marriage without any real explanation from his mother. An astute observer even at 19 when the marriage failed, Rove continues to claim 40 years later that he had no clue then or now that his dad way [sic] gay. When I went to Palm Springs in 2005 prior to the publication of The Architect, one of Louis Rove's neighbors literally laughed when I told him Karl claimed he didn't know what happened to his parents' marriage.
"He [Karl] was obviously hurt by the divorce. It's just absurd when he says, 'I had no idea what the problems were with my parents and their marriage.' He knew damned good and well what was going on. His father had decided to come out of the closet."
In fact, according to Louis Rove's best friend Joe Koons, Rove not only knew his father's sexual orientation but also was comfortable with it and had accepted his father's honesty.
"I don't recall that there was any great tension over it," Koons told me during the 2005 interview. "I don't know how much impact that plays in the family and when they did find out about it. Karl is certainly not dumb. I am sure he knows more than anyone about his father's position. The times I spent with Karl and Louie were wonderful and Karl was always just very, very nice."
Karl, in fact, according to Koons and Louis Rove's neighbors, was a frequent visitor to Palm Springs beginning in the 80s and vacationed almost annually with his father in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It would have been difficult for Rove to not know this fundamental fact about his father.
Rove does get one thing correct in his book. He said that we wrote his father, "after living openly as a gay man," died quietly at home while his son was in the midst of launching the anti-gay issues campaign that was to lead to the re-election of George W. Bush." In his TV interviews, Rove twisted this around to make it sound like we were portraying him as a man who had denied his father, which was not the case. The chapter in our book regarding Louis and Karl Rove repeatedly makes it clear that Bush's Brain honored and loved Louis and was present for a private memorial service.
Lastly, I want to say bluntly I don't give a damn about Louis or Karl Rove's personal lives. But when Karl decided that the private and personal lives of other consenting adults needed to be corrected to suit the moral imperatives of his party's political desires, well, then Karl turned his family into a part of the narrative. As he promotes his revisionist paperweight around the country, he is allowed to take an aggrieved stand of someone whose privacy has been invaded by amoral journalists. What about the lives harmed or ruined by the sexual politics of Rove's mean-spirited campaigning? How is that measured?
Originally, I had told friends I did not want to be drawn into discussions about Rove's book. I've come to resent the poisonous nature of the discourse in our national politics. The notion, however, that silence is consent is more than a little unsettling. Rove started his political ascension with lies and he has now published a book that is filled with a new set of lies that attempt to convince the entirety of America that during the Bush administration everybody got everything wrong; except for Karl and President Bush. This, too, is another Rove lie. And it's criminal for myself or anyone else to allow his lies to continue to live.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
MONDAY IS TODAY!
The Wedding Album. Year One. 1990. The writing is done. The pictures are done. The massive amount of youtube clips are done. The link to me playing guitar at age 12 has been added. I have a couple, MINOR finishing touches when I get home from work tonight. But for all intents and purposes, it is finished. Please read, watch, listen, and enjoy. And dont forget to add comments, ask questions, tell your own story, etc. This is massive, and it is an epic journey. This is free...this is for you. Enjoy! -------------------------------- ALSO ----------------------- in the name of claiming your history, and your context and doing it fucking right, there is this site, which though we started the Wedding Album before we knew about it, is a total encouragement and a thrill to read--- http://bikinikillarchive.wordpress.com/
ADDENDUM:
And in honour of my man Tim, here's some Wicker Man action!
Never let it be said that Rich Millett doesnt take care of his friends!
And who can forget this! ---
ADDENDUM:
And in honour of my man Tim, here's some Wicker Man action!
Never let it be said that Rich Millett doesnt take care of his friends!
And who can forget this! ---
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