SNL: Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton (Tina Fey & Amy Poehler)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnRUKIMegn8

6:23 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Help Obama/Biden today, okay?
Current mood: awake

Hey,

I just made a donation to support the Obama campaign before the August fundraising deadline.

Make a donation now and receive a first edition Obama-Biden supporter kit:

https://donate.barackobama.com/

Thanks!

Currently reading : Unbought and Unbossed By Shirley Chisholm

5:08 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Mountain High
Current mood: curious

I'm up at 7,000 feet in Big Bear, CA. Big times in Big Bear as local boy comes in 10th in the Olympic Marathon. Pretty good showing for a young man in his first Olympics. And a good time, 2 hours & 13 minutes. What can you do when the Kenyans & Ethiopians are running nearly 13 mph, running 26 miles in just over 2 hours.???

Coyotes? We got those, there's a big old guy with a ratty coat who saunters down from the mountain every morning. Looks like he's headed toward the highway. Maybe to check his mail in one of those boxes at the end of the road. There's some crazy calls coming from a grove of trees. Disoriented parrots? Escaped sub-arctic monkeys? Dick Cheney on LSD???

Well, what else. Obama chose Biden. Smart move. Will Cheney pick Condoleeza???? Will Hillary's annoying white ladies come to their senses and support Obama, or continue the time-honored tradition of giving feminists a bad name?? Like the bumper sticker says, "Obama y'all".

Currently reading : Mining California: An Ecological History By Andrew C. Isenberg Release date: 2006-07-25

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blog experiment

okie dokie folkies,
here's my first scribefire blog. what does that mean? i'm not sure yet, but i hope it will improve your experience with my leetle blog.
stay tuna'd
--nj

7:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Bicycling to the Tall Ships
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Travel and Places

Sunday, July 27, 2008
9:51 PM PST
San Francisco, CA

I left home on my bike a little after 2:30. My plan to take Folsom Street to the Embarcadero was slightly derailed by the annual Folsom Street Fair, in which numerous fellows who should not set off pasty white thighs by black leather jock straps do so with abandon.

No bother, by means of a slight detour that might have involved a wrong-way maneuver down a South of Market alley - but I ain't saying - I bypassed the fair and found my way to the Tall Ships. They were spread out all along the waterfront, so I had to ride all the way to Hyde Street Pier to see a replica of the Nina. What a tiny vessel to sail all the way from Spain.

On a summer Sunday, the Embarcadero is crowded with cars and pedestrians, but almost everyone was surprisingly considerate of cyclists.

On the way back from Hyde Street Pier, I stopped at the Cannery, drank a cup of coffee & listened to a couple of boys playing guitar and djembe at Lee's old stage. Dropped a dollar in the tip jar in memory. They thanked me & I thanked them for playing.

Near the Ferry Building, I heard screaming overhead and looked up to see one of the city's flocks of wild parrots careening over the farmers market. Soon I found an area with bike parking where I could go for FREE, enjoy the Green Fest and board the Eagle, a Coast Guard vessel out of Connecticut. Docked right behind her was a replica of the Bounty. As in Mutiny On. The nice folks at smart bars gave me a blueberry bar to fuel my ride home.

On Brannan Street, I came across my friend Charles Pitts near the Hotel Utah. We chatted for awhile, which gave me a chance to rest my legs… Riding home against the stiff breeze of late afternoon, I followed streets with the least hills and the most protection from the wind, but there's no way to avoid the final climb up Bernal Hill. I tackled it head on, straight up Folsom. It seems like a 150 degree incline when you're pushing a bicycle. The cafes at Precita Park were closed, but one house had stuff leftover from a garage sale out front. There I found a Carnivale headdress of glittered white feathers. I used the thing's fine wire and a scrunchie to attach it to my black helmet. The scrunchie's elastic made it tilt to the right, so I was on the lookout for something to straighten it out. By now the hill is pretty much vertical, so I leaned against a mailbox in the next block and saw a piece of string tied around a signpost. A couple of slices with my pocket knife & I had just what I needed to straighten out my headdress.

Rather than go straight home (avoiding a final block uphill) I coasted toward level Cortland Avenue and bought a crown of broccoli for dinner. Smiles from all who looked my way. It felt like I'd ridden to heaven and returned with an angel wing. The wind at my back and a small built-in sail carried me home.

This trip of maybe 14 miles took me through just about 4 neighborhoods and 5 centuries in 4 hours. They say San Francisco is the best walking city in the country. It's pretty good on bicycle too.

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Walkin’ Tall
Current mood: pretty fine
Category: pretty fine Goals, Plans, Hopes

See that woman walking through SF with the shit-eating grin? That's me, walking everywhere I need to go. Clocked 15 miles or so this week. I've always wanted to walk all through San Francisco & now I have the time to do it. It's making my whole body feel better including my messed up left hand.

Also started Pilates and will go to a Hand Clinic on Monday (7 mile walk roundtrip). I finally got a medical practicioner to listen to me, so I got a referral to the Hand Clinic. It helps when you find a nurse practicioner who's a bluegrass fan.

Meanwhile, I'm still teaching myself Dobro thanks to Cindy Cashdollar DVDs and everything I can find on Netflix with Jerry Douglas playing ;-)

Alritey then. walking tall, stealing licks and wishing you well from Frisco by the Bay,
--Nina Jo

Currently watching : Learning Bluegrass Dobro Release date: 2004-05-14

2:12 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

People, Places and Sings
Current mood: rejuvenated
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

It's a wonder to be working at home, able to follow the sunlight through the house during the day. No florescent lights, no toxic carpet, dead office air. Quitting my day job, a good move.
My labors are accompanied by the singing of a Mockingbird in the tall cedar tree next door.
The house has good bones, I'm painting one room at a time in the color that suits its mood.
Watching DVDs & taking notes on the scores.
Late afternoon,golden light, swaying in the hammock, plotting songs.

Currently watching : I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Release date: 2008-05-06

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People, Places & Sings
Current mood: adventurous

July 7, 2008
5:06 PM
San Francisco, CA

So there I was, minding my own business, doing my daily check of latimes.com, when up jumps a story on Highway 33. Ooh. The first big road of my life.

So I immediately copy the URL to post for my Alabama music friends, saying, hey, here's this great part of California nobody knows about & I wrote a song about it!

Then I read the 2nd paragraph - where the writer says nobody's likely to write a song about it. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oncal7-2008jul07,0,4182889,full.story

Laughing out loud, I email the writer, Peter H. King, & we proceed to have an email exchange…. He thought it was hilarious I'd written a song about the place. I suppose he thought songwriters would think Highway 33 was too mundane (little does he know that's what inspires…. dust on the boots – poetry!)

I told him one Highway 33 story; here's another. The road runs right through the little town of Ojai where I grew up. North. South. Ojai is a valley so small it's like the watchpocket in a pair of Levis. Held about 3,000 souls at the time. Over the mountains to the north was Taft, Bakersfield…. San Francisco; south was Ventura, Los Angeles… When I decided to run away from home, I took my bindle and headed out Cuyama Road to the Maricopa Highway (the name for that stretch of 33) and turned right. I was headed for San Francisco, where the beatniks were. I figured they'd understand.

I think I got about as far as the first set of hotsprings, Matilija, and turned around, defeated by the mountain, but having survived many turns in the road. I think I was about 8 years old.

The song I wrote is not about that… it has more to do with the secret lives of backroads and backseats. Looks like I'll have to dig it up, dust it off and see how it goes.
--------------------
Hope you enjoy the story. If you like it, check out the Highway 99 anthology - these are about the real California, the one that wears workboots.

Currently reading : Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California's Great Central Valley By Stan Yogi

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N Cal fires
Current mood: accomplished

We have some blue skies and clearing air. It's nice to breathe. Hope for the best.

Currently listening : The Essential Willie Nelson By Willie Nelson Release date: 2003-04-01

10:29 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

California Fires
Current mood: worried

1400 fires burning in Northern California... and counting. Big Sur still the worst but Butte County is hit hard too.....

Currently watching : Birdman of Alcatraz Release date: 2001-03-06

9:48 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment