Swag

When you live as the Mole does, those things which are inexpensive or free are especially helpful, expecially in the world of entertaining oneself. Dollar stores are fun, and the 50 cent bins at the comic shop can be helpful, but as a certain buzzcut stereo and tv hawker from Portland usedta say (and if you're a real Portlander you know of whom I sprechen): "Free is a very good price."

This is whatcha call swag -- free stuff. I learned the term from the "Bam Builds His New Skatepark" episode of Viva La Bam, and am now on a near constant swag radar fix. Free stuff. I have discovered that record stores, especially those independent wrecka stows (see Prince, "Under The Cherry Moon", or better yet, don't) that still sell paraphrenalia and mood candles, are willing to divest themselves of their excess free promotional crap that their reps bestow on them, and occasionally that includes some decent music.

Case in point: yesterday I was able to visit a couple of Baltimore-area record stores and in one of them there was a veritable treasure trove of stuff, supplying new music and samples. A lot of smaller labels will allow their up-and-coming artists to include theyselfs on giveaway discs and you are then able to acquire some pretty decent music for free. Here's a bit of what I picked up, FYI:

John Prine: I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Silver Bells -- this little sampler disc is apparently a re-release of the first single from Oh Boy! records back in 1980 -- Mr. Prine does Christmas favorites. The music is fun and will add to the holiday repertoire nicely; but the really cool thing here is that the original single was on red vinyl, and I used to collect colored-vinyl singles (dont ask me where they are now, its a sad, sad tale of woe) -- but with this little 2-song CD they have tried to replicate the feel of red vinyl with a partially see-thru redvinyl disc. Very cool. And yes, it was FREE.

This Bird Has Flown: Bonus Tracks -- This is a couple of bonuses from a recent album celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' Rubber Soul album. The first track is Slow Runner's I've Just Seen A Face, turning the semi-frenetic original track into a slow, laid-back slacker version that is very endearing; the second is Sam Champion's version of "It's Only Love", which is also nice, though I must admit I dont recall ever hearing the original version. But certainly the quality of these two extras speaks to the potential of the album itself and getting these for FREE endears me to the makers and would certainly incline me more toward purchasing said compilation.

Coheed and Cambria: Welcome Home -- this was a gasper, an honest to God vinyl 45 from the brand new Coheed album. Coheed is growing on me, I love any band that is relentlessly individualistic and does what they want to do no matter what, and the fact that they would be willing to actually commit a track to vinyl says a lot about their character. I miss my 45s, this is true, and I am glad to have this one; there's just something about vinyl that has a depth and resonance that CD's don't. I dont know how to put my finger on it, but listening to music on vinyl requires a real commitment from the listener -- you cant go anywhere, you have to stay and listen, and pay attention. CD's are like cell phones; they have made life more portable, yes, you cant imagine life without them, but we've lost some kind of communality (whoosh theres a word) because of them. I need to smell the vinyl. And, by Jiminy, this sucker was FREEEEE.

Anyway. There was more swag in this trip, but not worth mentioning. But isn't it nice to know the giant corporate death monster throws you a bone every once in awhile? Keep your feet on the ground, and keep looking at the stars.....

Imagine There's No Heaven

or, "Questions That Pop Up When You Surf The Web With A Nice Glass of Red Wine".

So, I'm surfing around and looking at blogs and I come to one where the girl doing the blog says, in so many words, because God loves me, I'm going to build a camp for disabled kids. I have no problem with camps for kids with disabilities, in fact I think we need to do all kinds of things for all kinds of people whose lives are affected by things beyond their control...yknow, like hurricane victims and such.

Anyway, my question is, why do we have to do these things because God loves us? Why is it "better" if we do these things because of God? So many people are so quick to say, well, God told me to do this and I did it. But isnt it just as good if we do a camp for disabled kids because, well, disabled kids got a raw deal on the old genetic roulette wheel and we should do whatever we can to make up for it? Why do we need a concept of God to be good? Why cant we just do things because we're all stuck here on this rock together and wouldnt it be nice if we just did stuff like that to make the generally difficult go of it that 99% of us, Christian Jew Muslim Hindu Atheist Whatever, have most of the time rather than having to do it because God loves us?

See, here's the thing I suspect -- what Jesus really said back there wandering around in Palestine is, life sucks, and then you die, and there's a lot of it you have no control over, but it seems to me if we all took care of each other and appreciated the short time we have and treated each other with the same dignity because we're all in the same stupid predicament, it would be much more palatable. How good would it be, said the prophet, if everybody would just be nice to each other for a change?

Again, if we're just racking up points so God will like us and give us cushy new digs in his Vegas-style heaven, that's stupid and pointless and worthless. And if the real point of religion is to get us to be nice to each other, why cant we just DO that? Why do we have to put in place all this pointless power structure crap that seems to result in discrimination and child abuse and things that just make our time more difficult? Why does religion not make things EASIER in a world where things are already tough?

Anywho. This is what you get from a guy who lives underground by himself on occasion. Hope your All Hallows' Eve is good -- next up, spooky stuff from the great Inkling, Charles Williams.....

Give Till It Bleeds

The Mole has a job, yes, it's true, he doesnt just sit around all day dreaming up what will be the next Motherbox exclusive, he actually works all day in the Magical, Non-Stop Fun world of Fund Raising! No, the Mole does not supply pepperoni sticks and magazine subscriptions to middle schoolers -- he works in the world of axing folks for the beeg dollah, mon -- five, six, seven figure gifts for major non-profits.

There's a lot of us out there, you know. My guess is you know one of us because most fund raisers dont start out to be fundraisers. Very, very few decide in college they are going to raise money for non-profits - -not terribly sexy or lucrative. (As an advisor once told me, "When you start working for non-profits, you find out they mean 'non-profit.'") They start out to be bankers or lawyers or sales people or trashy novelists and one day find themselves needing to put food on the table and so they get a gig ("for now") raising money for their alma mater or something and twenty years later you're an AFP member and you find yourself using terms like "donor base" and "if you could see your way clear" and "leadership gift" without thinking about it.

It grabs hold of you and doesnt let go -- not like a drug, more like a creeping fungus.

Anyway, it creates some strange bedfellows sometimes. Case in point: today I am sitting in my office, trying to clear some of the many trade publications that have piled up on my desk, and on the back page of one of them is an article, actually a very good article, about how to better run your solicitation mailings, by a guy named Herschell Gordon Lewis. Herschell Gordon Lewis? I think. Where do I know that name? That sounds like...hmm....the Mole's brain chews on the words and then suddenly spits out....

Naw. Couldnt be. Maybe it's his son.

But no, a quick check of Mr. Lewis's website confirms it. Not only is Mr. L a nationally renowned expert in successful techniques for direct mail fundraising, he is something even more important: He invented splatter movies.

In 1963, Mr. L was the creator and director of Blood Feast, a movie about, well, a serial killer violently -- really violently -- hacking people up and killing them and tearing them apart, ostensibly to bring an Egyptian god back from the grave. While I have not seen Blood Feast, I have had the pleasure of seeing its follow up, 2,000 Maniacs, the plot of which is two nice, fresh-faced teenagers driving into an odd southern town and then being chased, eaten, and killed by the lunatic residents (all 2,000 of them, get it?) Poorly filmed, atrociously acted, and often careening between avert-your-eyes revolting and roll-your-eyes unintentionally hilarious, they still hold a place in film history as being the first truly all out gory horror films, percursors to Halloween, Friday the 13th, et al. John Waters is a big fan, if that tells you anything. Lewis later went on to make exploitation flicks in the '70's like She-Devils on Wheels.

I guess my point is, you just never know: next time somebody comes by or calls asking for money, and you turn them down or hang up on them, consider Herschel and his predilection for movies about people getting their limbs hacked off and their hearts torn out. You might just rethink your response.

And if you want to learn more about Mr. Lewis, go here: www.herschellgordonlewis.com

The Information In The Grid Below May Not Apply To Special Features

Four days! Yeesh. And there I was trying to be so good. Ah, well. A bit of catch up (or catsup, for you old timers):

Item! Rented Layer Cake off the new arrivals wall at Blockbuster, a British gangster movie in the tradition of recent flicks like Sexy Beast (which, by the way, you should see for Ben Kingsley's supremely creepy and Oscar-nominated role as the Anti-Gandhi, the toughest meanest thug since Cagney in White Heat) where the guys are just regular, middle class-type blokes who happen to run millions in drugs or whatever. This is a terrific, fun, twisty movie; I love flicks where you honestly dont know the truth about what's going on till the very end. Some very clever acting from everyone involved.

Especially of note is the lead actor, Daniel Craig, (the guy in the middle there) who has just been chosen to be the new 007. He's a quiet, steely type (at least in this), not a prettyboy and very good. I will be interested to see his Bond...but then I was interested to see Pierce Brosnan's Bond and we just got more Roger Moore. This could (please God cross your fingers) be a bit more Sean Connery...but we've been horribly lied to and cheated by the Broccoli heirs before.

Also excellent in this is Michael Gambon, playing the Anti-Dumbledore, in a very underplayed, scary, thoughtful mob boss role that is great fun to watch. Also some very interesting music choices throughout which shows the director was actually interested in that sort of thing.

Item! The new guy at work is a music fiend (thank the powers!) and is already pushing his personal religion on me, which is something called Guided by Voices. Apparently, GBV is (or rather was) the brainchild of a guy named Bob Pollard who has now gone solo, and which has engendered some kind of cultlike following over the past decade. I was allowed to listen to the first record, Bee Thousand, and enjoyed it -- every track will remind you of at least 2 or 3 other bands or artists, but not in a derivative way. Be warned (as I was) that many of these songs dont last longer than about a minute. If you are interested in GBV (and I am feeling the interest grow, I have now been allowed a second album and have been asked about getting a snake tattoo and wearing a special fez), you can also check out the website (see to your right over there) where a couple dozen free tracks are available for download.

I have a feeling that for those of us who like to do mixtapes for friends and family, GBV could be very important when you want to fill up those last 42 seconds at the end of your 80-minute allotted slot on the CD-R. Some of these songs are literally shorter than that (there were 17 songs on the first CD I was loaned, and another 28 on the one I am listening to now.) Enjoy. It's weird, but in a cool way.

Item! In conclusion, the new Rolling Stone has Bono on the cover and a very extensive interview. I have to say, he comes off pretty well and mitigates some of my recent distaste with his political ubiquitousness. His best quote is this: "I'm sick of Bono. And I am Bono. It's like, oh, man, shut up. But there it is. You just don't want to be dull. We might be annoying. But we're not dull."

Spoken like a true egoist, and I can get down with that. Stay dry and watch for cooties. More soon.

Motherbox Letterbox

Letters! We get letters! For those of you who dont want to search south for the details, we here at Motherbox have received some excellent comments of late -- nice to know somebody besides family and friends are reading....for those of you scoring at home, here's what we've learned...

Iceland Rocks Dept. Simon was nice enough to comment on the recent blurb on Icelandic atmosphericists Sigur Ros with some suggestions of his own: "At the moment I'm really into atmospheric nordic folk-band Gjallarhorn, one of the members plays a large 'contra bass recorder', which sounds like an electronic didgerydoo, and the noise is reminiscent of parts of Sigur Ros. I'm also listening to a band called Bazar Bla, which features nyckelharp, and they play a mix of folk-styles which they call 'trip folk' - really worth a listen." Thanks for stopping by, Simon, and we will seek your suggestions out shortly on the Information Superhighway.

Oh, Yeah, Them Dept. A couple of anonymous posters reacted to my own effusive, hyperbolic and poorly-thought out comment regarding H.G. Wells "The War of the Worlds", to wit: What other story can you think of that a hundred years later it has not one, not two, not three, but four major retellings / reworkings, all of which are classics in their own right? Well, my anonymous friends were kind enough to gently remind the Mole about a few other - ahem - apparently significant writers like Shakespeare, Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Arthur Conan Doyle whose creations have been interpreted and reinterpreted successfully. I'm sure there are more...I stand corrected.

(Apparently there is a new Sherlock Holmes with Rupert Everertt playing up the "stoner" version of Holmes premiering on PBS Sunday night -- they will have to go a long way to replace Jeremy Brett in my mind but it is an interesting premise. We shall see.)

Thanks to all our readers -- we're in touch, so you keep in touch. TTFN.

By The Beard of Odin!

No, this is not a Ron Burgundy post, sorry -- just a quick note about Sigur Ros, an icelandic band that seeks to convey the beauty of their country through their music. Equal parts ambience, myth, and folk, they are sort of the flipside of my other favorite scandinavians, FinnTroll (think, Finntroll=Mordor, Sigur Ros=Lothlorien). Their music gives you the feeling of windswept, icy crags; dramatic icy-green seas crashing on rocky, ancient coasts...runes, elves, all that good stuff. Excellent chill music, or going-to-sleep by music.

I hope to procure their product soon, but they are nice enough to provide a whole cartload of freebie mp3's at their website, now added to the links over there to your right, including some live tracks (including some that feature readings from ancient icelandic poetry, having something to do with the Raven of Odin) and so far everything is very mood-perfect for the wandering soul thirsting for dramatic landscapes. Hit that dang link and head for the north pacific....you wont regret it.

Yes, I am a moron, wanna make something of it?

Yes, I know, Lost is on tonight, not last night. The whole week's been like that, stupid full moon. Between the bathtub clogging up and the zombie people wandering at me at 6:30 in the morning in the Acme parking lot muttering "It doesnt open until 7" and then when it did open and I went to buy Drano to clean out the tub and turns out That Was The Day They Switched to the new Acme computer system (visions of Wile E. Coyote dancing in my addled brain) so it took ten minutes to buy one item while the poor befuddled clerk tried to figure out what buttons to push and the sad looking guy ahead of me just need to buy some damn Ibuprofen and coffee and he looked like he needed it then I finally got home with the Drano and the tub had already drained on its own.

Made some cosmetic changes to the blog, dumped some links I never use...any complaints see the headmistress, she's the one in the leather boots with the whip.

SO, for tonight, I'll watch Lost, then go to bed. Happy? Everyone? Good. More tomorrow. Peace.

Orion Rules!

Just a few words tonight to meet deadline: hadda go to a "work thing" tonight and shmooze the area glitterati; the food was good, the wine was better than these things usually have. Unfortunately I had to miss Lost which has been intriguing so far and I wanted to see what happened with Walt's dad and the "Others" -- I guess I'll read the recap on the website tomorrow.

Not much to say here; along with the below-mentioned Godland I pulled Orion #'s 11-13 out of the dollar bin at the Comic Book Shop the other day; I am now one issue away from the complete run of one of the few decent spinoffs of Kirby's Fourth World and really probably the best of them all. Walt Simonson, always at home with the gritty and mythic, gives the best take on the Darkseid / Orion relationship I've seen, and these particular issues where Orion masters the long-sought Anti-Life Equation and uses it to subdue both Apokolips and Earth are very exciting. This was a great series start to finish and Simonson is a force to be reckoned with on this kind of material. These three even manage to fit in a nice Billy Batson / Captain Marvel cameo.

I think the first five issues of this series are available in a trade, otherwise you may have to haunt the back issue bins. But I have found overall that the effort is worth it. Too tired to put up scans, maybe tomorrow. And now I am going to bed.

The Torture Never Stops

The latest issue of Godland, the Lee-Kirby inspired cosmic superhero series, appeared in my box this week, and it was another fun issue; the thing that is terrific about this series is its sense of humor, its lack of self-consciousness (House of M#7 came out this week, too, but you dont see me writing about that, do you?), and its creators' willingness to admit that no, they are not creating a graphic novel or a thinly-disguised film treatment --this is a comic book, and gloriously so. There's even a positive review from Entertainment Weekly on the cover!

Key elements: the hilarious interaction between villains Friedrich Nicklehead and the disembodied Basil Cronus (above); Maxim, the giant Lockjaw-like alien who has information about the hero's cosmic purpose, and hell, giant robots! Tom Scioli is in his element as an artist and it shows. Cool, baby. It's like reading Marvel in the '70's, only on better paper and swear words.

Worth the effort. Get it now before they option it, so you're not a wannabe when the movie comes out. Peace.

Her Majesty's A Pretty Nice Girl

One of the three Beatles albums of my father's that I ruined from repeated play as a child was Abbey Road; though it never got as much play as the instantly accessible A Hard Day's Night or the mostly fun Sgt. Pepper, I did give it a shot now and again, if only for Octopus's Garden. It is a dense, complicated record -- only later did I understand that one side, the more experimental side with Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam, was to keep the Yokofied John happy, and the songier other side with Come Together and Oh! Darling was to keep the Lindafied Paul happy; to me it was just weird, way weirder to my ten-year-old ears than Pepper and too much for casual listening. It's still not what I would consider "the" classic Beatle album. Today, my fellow XPN listeners voted it the #1 album of all time, while the one I thought would come in at number one, Sgt. Pepper, came in at #2. Rounding out the top five were Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at #3, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run at #4, and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks at #5. I can live with that lineup, especially Bruce and Bob. If you want to see the whole list of 885 albums on the chart, head over to www.xpn.org.

Let's Go Somewhere Where There's Cheese

If you dont know Wallace and Gromit, the brilliant creation of Aardman Studios, you should start with the original 3 short films produced in the '90's by these geniuses, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and, uh, the other one. I'm pretty sure they're on DVD at Amazon. Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the new W&G feature film, is very good, though not as good as the original trilogy of short films (two of which won Oscars). Also, despite its apparently kid-friendly ad campaign, there's a lot here that kids will simply not get. W&G has always been a gentle satire of the British by the British that is probably more subtle than American youngsters will be prepared for. But Were-Rabbit still has many charms for all ages, with gentle chuckling humor and tremendous leaps forward in clay animation, almost a lost art. It is definitely an improvement from Aardman's Chicken Run, which appeared to suffer from too much studio involvement; Were-Rabbit seems pure Aardman if a bit diluted, but if this is successful enough to warrant a sequel, I would hope this would give the animators enough confidence with their great comedy team of cheery, dumb Wallace and brilliant, frustrated Gromit to stretch out a bit on the next one. All in all, a fine outing, with nice and blessedly unobtrusive voicings from Helena Bonham Carter (last month's Corpse Bride) and Ralph Fiennes (next month's Harry Potter).

885

One of the good things about being in the Philly Metroplex is WXPN 88.5 FM, a public (as in pledge breaks) rock and roll radio station; they focus usually on new artists, singer-songwriter types, and other people who sound like they could be in the mainstream but arent. Some of the artists you may have heard of that get a boost from XPN are people like Jason Mraz, Amos Lee, My Morning Jacket, Shelby Lynne, and they produce a daily nationally syndicated show called World Cafe that plays this kind of stuff and has in-studio performances and interviews.

Recently XPN asked listeners to list their top 10 albums of all time, resulting in over 5,000 votes and a list of the 885 greatest albums of all time. It's pretty eclectic - they're up to number 85 and expect to be done playing tracks from the list on Monday the 17th. Lots of music XPN wouldnt normally play -- so far this morning, we've heard Guns and Roses' Appetite for Destruction, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and now the Grateful Dead's Live '72. They've been playing three songs for every album and when they hit the top 25 they will play the whole thing.

In any event, if you want to see what made it on the list, or even (with the properly powerful computer) get the live broadcast feed over the web, go to www.xpn.org. Be warned, they will take every opportunity to make you feel guilty and become a member....this is public radio, y'know.

This Song Is Not A Rebel Song

I finally figured out tonight what has been bothering me about Bono. A couple weeks ago a friend gave me a copy of the New York Times Magazine with Bono on the cover, with a lengthy article focused mainly on the fact that Bono is apparently saving the world. Now, as a two-decade and longer U2 fan, the size and scope of Bono's ego is no surprise, nor is his commitment to worthy causes and I really dont have a problem with him using his position to influence world opinion or anything, for that matter.

But what has bothered me is something about how Bono has become more important for being Saint Bono than he has for being the lead singer of one of the greatest rocknroll bands in history. Tonight I was watching my LiveAid video (I have my reasons) and watched the boys rip through Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bad and it still brings me to tears. In 1984, with the Joshua Tree and all the other stuff still ahead of them, U2 was the most important thing in the world, but all they wanted to be was a rock an roll band. Now, they're a pretty good rockandroll band, but all they seem to want to be is the most important thing in the world. They havent really put out a decent album since 1990, and though the last two have been pretty good, with flashes of brilliance, they havent hit the heights of the '80's ever again.

So tonight it dawned on me: U2 arent cool anymore. I am so sick of hearing about Bono like he was the pope it isnt funny. This does not mean I want him to stop doing what he does or trying to change the world, hell, we all want to change the world. I'm just sick of Bono being known for changing the world. I want him to be known for being the lead singer of U2.

The short version: in 1984, u2 embodied all the hopes and dreams of everybody who heard them, who cried when they sang Gloria or Sunday Bloody Sunday or Bad....now in 2005, they embody a guy who hangs out with senators and congressmen and has a backup band that he tours with. It should be the other way around.

Or maybe I'm just like the guy who yelled Judas at Bob Dylan and should stop living in the past and get a life. Bono does things like erase world debt and feed the hungry: what am I doing? Still, I cant help but think that if Bono would put more of the energy he puts into those things into producing good music, there wouldnt be any lame tracks on their records, and that's just not the case.

Rant over. I'll read it in the morning and probably think I was nuts. But there you go.

El Motherbox esta en la casa!

from Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #1, November, 2005; script, Grant Morrison; art, Pasqual Ferry. So far so good.

The Space He Invades He Gets By On You

Well, hallo there, fellow people in the blogosphere (I assumer you're all people) -- the Mole here, much absent of late doing the work of Mundania (ref: Piers Anthony - shaped like Florida - again, why would anybody live there? Bugs, hurricanes, and now alligator-eating exploding Burmese pythons and yes put those search terms into Google and see what you come up with better yet look here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051005/ap_on_fe_st/gator_python but dont do it when you are about to eat, rather gruesome Doncha Know?) and dealing with the whole 9th Anniversary of turning 30, as well as the upcoming 15th anniversary of the birth of MoleSon; mortality, slight depression, blah blah how tedious that's all of that for now and forever. On to:

Item: (just housekeeping) If you did not and why didnt you see the Scorsese Dylan thing go get it now or more likely just turn on your local PBS affiliate, from what I can see they are running it nonstop and god help us when when pledge month comes again. But this is worth it. Makes Dylan a human being again, and an interesting one at that.

Item: Currently in the Den we are smoking cigars and drinking brandy and reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which is 900 pages rectangular pages made up of paragraphs like this one:

Epiphyte corp.'s business plan is about an inch thick, neither fat nor skinny as these things go. The interior pages are slickly and groovily desktop-published out of Avi's laptop.The covers are rugged hand-laid paper of rice chaff, bamboo tailings, range hemp, and crystalline glacial meltwater made by wizened artisans operating out of a mist-shrouded temple hewn from living volcanic rock on some island known only to aerobically gifted, Spandex-sheathed Left Coast travel bores. An impressionistic map of the South China been dashed across these covers by molecularly reconstructed Ming Dynasty calligraphers using brushes of combed unicorn mane dipped into ink made of grinding down charcoal slabs fashioned by blind stylite monks from hand-charred fragments of the True Cross.

There are many paragraphs like this one, some longer, some shorter, appearing in many places throughout the book. It is a wild ride, and funny, one which I am only a third of the way through but love every minute of. I have to be careful not to re-read the lengthy plot summary on the inside front cover because I have largely forgotten it from when I first got the book free at the Book Thing and Do Not Want To Know What Happens.

Item: Is anybody else scared that the offspring of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might be the Scientology Messiah, come to remove our engrams once and for all and turn us all into people, well, like Tom Cruise and John Travolta and (angels and ministers of grace preserve us) Kirstie Alley? Just think about it, but not before bed time and not after looking at the exploding, gator-eating burmese python explosion.

Item: Bush -- NOW does everybody get it? I wouldnt trust him to bang the erasers together after school for fear he'd need written instructions. What's next? His college baseball coach as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs? His kindergarten teacher as Secretary of Education? I think anybody he likes should be automatically disqualified from everything forever because they have all proven to be criminals, incompetents and whiners. Oh, Hunter, why couldnt you have just waited a few more months? The game is afoot. Release the hounds, they smell blood. Sic semper tyrranis.

Item: We now have 61 cards in the sequence and are heading into the third inner loop. A few are beginning to drop and have been repaired. Once we reach the center we may have to relayer and head into other areas but that seems to be a long way off. We'll keep you posted. You know who you are, and I am watching you.

Item: I am nervous about Wallace and Gromit -- movies with puppets are stinky with death and corruption of late -- Corpse Bride and Team America both technically brilliant but heartless and dull (same with Nightmare before Christmas). Please, Jesus, oh please let us have big larfs at Were-Rabbit, or I will never see another puppet movie again, you just watch me, and I dont make idle threats.

Oh, and thanks Friend, u no hu u r....

Pacem in terris. There'll be more when it occurs to me....

Why, oh, why is this guy not President?

Read this, please. It's long but worth it. If this doesn't make you scream, it will make you cry. If it doesnt make you do either, then They've Won. Nice knowing you.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2IU703.html

Been busy, folks, but I haven't moved out of the hole. More soon, love, the Mole