Having a Great Time, Wish You Were Here.....Big Brother, Janeane Garafolo, Fundamentalist Christians, and 24 Hours of Sheer Torture; But, I Digress...

Here I am...vacationland, USA, and any notable news that Ive been able to pick up here is pretty blunted in that I haven't had the time to look at the TV news with the sort of depth that usually allows me to digest it and spit it out as an integral part of my own life story...is that narcissistic?
So, heaven forbidding that I ever skip the daily grind of life with me, below what I could glean of the newz from the supermarket rack and the Boston paper, is my vacationland posting of current musings on the other side of summer...for anyone who reads that far...and here, for the rest of you, are the newsy things that have struck me in the past few days. Forget hurricanes and politics, lets talk TV!

Apparently, after a terrible last season, the suits at 24 have wised up and made a cast addition that makes sense on so many levels. Yes, the rumors are true, Janeane Garafolo has been tapped to be an agent investigating Jack Bauer's latest escapade. More interesting than the casting is that there is some talk about the ever reworking storyline and how the interaction between Janeane and, executive producer, Joel Surnow, will likely add a breash of fresh air to what has become the stagnant old Bushco torture-the-terrorists plotlines of late. Hopefully, Janeane's intelligence and liberal sensibility will be apparent, even subtly, in the writing, but I'd hope also to see some onscreen debate about the very real issues that are gripping the country right now.

The country has started to turn towards the realization that the big lie that this war is built on is not just hard luck on strangers far away or fodder for a People Magazine cover story, but is hitting home, if it hadn't already, in direct full fledged hardships on all of us.
The one reliable thing about most Americans these days is that they definitely will look out for number one, so you can be sure that as this thing starts to touch more and more people directly, the numbers abandoning ship from the promise of lotto winnings and big shiny prizes of tax cuts, will grow. Maybe its petty to not look up from your National Enquirer until gas goes above $3 a gallon, but hey, whatever works. Money talks, and in America, its a very fine line between selling your rights for the empty promises of the possibility that one day YOU TOO could own this timeshare-win the lotto-be a millionaire through the power of 10, and not being able to afford that gallon of milk or a doctor's appointment.
Its time for the producers of shows like 24 to follow suit in focusing more attention on the part of Jack Bauer that wrestles with what he has done in the name of his country...what people like him are doing in real life every day in OUR names. It's a worthwhile discussion to have with an audience , considering the resounding reconsideration of who we'd like to have a beer with, as opposed to who we want to plan our wars. The big issue for me also is the huge number of vets who are returning from a war based on a lie, and who will likely, in a reversal of the bold propaganda out there about the liberals, (really the majority of the country at this point,) being anti war and anti soldier, find a welcoming public and a less than welcoming government and a system that is not prepared for the numbers of them, nor the types of problems that they will have, from brain injury to PTSD. This government is not set up for the people, and unless there is a subsidiary of Halliburton that is outsourcing veteran's administration duties, we can be sure that there will be little governmental interest in what society will do with the people who have served our country so bravely. Planning is not a big strength with this crew. At the same time, we will hopefully be seeing a resurgence of patriotic feeling for that fabled New Deal of yesterday, and a renewed interest in how we take care of our own, and who we want to be as Americans. Hell, at that point its only a hop, skip, and a jump to ethics, philosophy, decision-making, and all that other trivia that we used to try to teach our youngsters.

So, any cultural icon like Bauer who might want to last in the coming climate, will want to take a look at whats happening out there in America. And who better to usher in this new era than our pal Janeane? Controversial? yes! Intelligent and neurotic? Yes! Missed horribly by her former listeners? Yes!
In bullshit news, via E! Online, is the silly tidbit thrown in that Janeane left AAR because of a "rift" with Sam Seder, which may or may not have played a part in things, in that they squabble like brother and sister...but it seems to me that she is doing plenty in her career, and from what I could tell at the time, AAR wasn't the happiest place to work, and she herself said that what was going on in the country was pretty devastating for her. In any case she had stopped taking a salary long before she left, and was already coming and going on the West Wing There are so many reasons that I oculd cite, with Danny Goldman's management being my favorite guess...but the one I would focus the least on is some huge rift with a guy who she regularly guests with. Sheesh! It is just downright belittling to thrown that crap at the end of an article as if to say that sure people hire her and shes great, but look at how petty we heard she was back then....who and what does that serve?

Another fantastic thing...and I don't say this lightly in public...is that this season of Big Brother is the best that Ive seen maybe ever! The wild card estranged father and daughter have turned into quite a story, and the fact that the guy is a wild, tattooed, bar manager, Dick, who is not only really smart, but also a good guy underneath it all, is compelling for me, and not only because I always cheer for the tattooed lunatic in any game!
I guess that what got me is that there is a black girl in the house who is a fundamentalist Christian, (yes I am going to parlay this into something political,) and seeing how she prays and talks to her Jesus, is as eye opening as Jesus Camp (which I watched the other night and highly recommend,) in that the weeping, eye rolling, craziness, and the need to "testify" and then feign rightous indignation when Dick questions her, and finally starts to snipe at her about her Jesus failing her. Just listening to her conversations with god, are enough to illustrate how any cult could get past the predicted dates of armegeddon again and again, and then happily drink the kool-aid when all else fails. "Oh my Jesus, I guess I am not meant to understand your ways...so I will have to just trust you my Jesus, that you have another plan for me, rather than to allow me to win this million dollars and become one of those people who are benefitted by President Bush's tax cuts...oh Jesus, I trust you so, I do, I do..." (cue the tears, clench the fists, shake violently, roll around...cut!...Print!...thats a wrap!)

The ongoing gameplay by Dick, which has allowed him during some of these weeks to really take the religious element down, has been worth the price of admission in itself. Its apparent to me that Dick is a liberal guy and also that he really doesn't care to tear anyone's god down...but why does this crazy girl need to vomit her belief all over everyone? That overly agressive proselytizing is taught at the Jesus Camp....where, before Haggart was shamed out of his pulpit and the camp itself was shut down, children were groomed to be soldiers who are willing to die for Jesus; broken down and built up, along with the obligatory pounding music and terrifying dance numbers.
You see, out there somewhere, everywhere, are christian conservatives who are looking to the radical Muslims and saying, (out loud,) that if they can groom an entire generation of western hating child soldiers in Madrasas, that we'd better get on the case. This is an arms race and the nuclear weapons are humans who are willing to die for a cause. It takes alot of brainwashing to accomplish that, and obviously, its being done. There is a reason that the Left Behind series of books is the biggest seller in America...and also why the Left Behind mission went to so much trouble to make a video game aimed at children, where you choose your weapon, ride next to Jesus, and smite all the sinners left behind after the rapture. This is sick!
Thanks to the producers of Big Brother for the interesting casting choices which have given us a chance to look into some very different worlds and maybe gain a little knowledge along the way.

And on to the good stuff...not!

Greetings from the the Cape of Cod, where I've been catching a few cool overcast days and trying to not spin too far back to my childhood of hot days in the back seat of the VW bug, lost on back roads, looking for Scargo Lake Potters (where I hope to never again go...and which Mom can't seem to shut up about today,)...and how differently every one of us perceives all thats happened and the lives we've led. And then there is also what we agree on, which usually involves politics and anti organized religion sentiment; social issues, which stand in for the ingrained pain of who was or is an active alcoholic, and how exactly things went back then, driving around in the second hand VW bug in the heat, my sister and I, and Mom in her world of endless beauty and possibility, which definitely has its moments in escapism, but is not where I'm able to go these days.
So, here I am in this incredible place, where the bay tide recedes out for what seems like a mile, leaving pools of hermit crabs and little quick darty fish, before it turns on a dime and roars back in by nightfall, making a deep water beach where you could be up to your neck in dark waters unexpectedly quickly, doubting the rip tide and hearing the Jaws music in the core of your primal brain ...such is the slope of the sad; unnoticeable during the day when the flats stretch out forever, then somehow, the curve of the earth becomes apparent in the power of the tide and you could slide right under for how steep it seems.
Anyway, of course, this is a week where my William is having a terrible time, and its exhausting for me...couldn't reach the Dr. because my cell phone lost power in the night and then I somehow slept late after a pretty sleepless night; apparently too late.
Ben does not love this place the way we do, but maybe you have to do this from the time you're a little kid to ingrain it properly, and also Will has not been easy to be with (to say the least)...and I know that Ben's experience with beaches involved some long ago seeing of his father in Haiti and hating the heat, humidity, and bugs. I realized a long time ago that Ben may just be a city guy, which will be really good for him if he can end up at a college like NYU, Colombia, or Yale. I tend to automatically write those off for Will because the setting is just wrong for the kind of person he is...too much hustle and bustle and noise. But anyway, everyone is sort of born into who the are, and then slowly confirms it by how well they weather their surroundings and what they are able to get used to.

I dont know what draws me to the cool overcast days, except for the summers of my childhood which were spent on the shoulders of the season up here, when the prices drop and the tourists beat a path back to their regular lives; I see them now, tired moms with double jogger strollers and a straggling bunch of kids pushing heavy loads of beach necessities after a long day at the public beach with all the little kids...doing the summer thing with other moms and their kids, pushing that load back to the little houses up the street that are better for younger kids because one has to go much further to get in trouble on the shore. We get a place that is on the actual beach. I cant remember a time when we didnt, even when I was a little kid... I guess you takes your chances....but I feel for those tired moms of multiple toddlers who all might go and drown themselves out of curiosity, and the crushing responsibility that they share in small groups of sunburned women and their sandy kids....walking tired up the road.
Its been a long summer that has flown by so fast...and besides the issues of they day, impeachment possibilities, Big Brother, and the great fun of the Yearly Kos, I feel like I've been running ragged, and like I have to simplify if Im going to make it through this year in one piece.
So I am resting finally on day 3 of my "vacation"....as I wait for the Dr's call and contemplate the real possibility of having to bring William home tonight or tomorrow if things don't get better.
And meantime a chicken hatched...yes, don't ask...I am travelling with chicken eggs in a traveling incubator...what else would anyone expect of me? How else would I, could I plan things?

The great thing is that this location is perfect and the people who own it allowed me to bring my bird, Kitty the Jardine...which I extrapolated to be permission to being Vince, the new Indian Ringneck Parakeet...and then of course, I have the chicken eggs in the incubator which are either all gonna hatch in the next 2 days or...they smell for a reason. Its not a rotten smell, but a barnyard smell...so Im hoping to get at least a few live hatches. If not, I have 5 more chicks coming next week, so Pearl doesnt have to live alone.
















I finally downloaded my pictures from Kos onto this laptop, and there at the beginning were pics of some of the chicks that were tragically lost while I was galavanting 'round Chicagoland...and they were really beauties...I must say that even though they were only chickens and all that, I'm so very sorry for the timing that made me have to leave them when I did...
But hell, they could have been scrambled eggs or fryers...when you do this egg and chick shopping thing you realize that people are buying 20+ fryer/BBQ packs of chicks to raise for meat. So, my little paradise is worth a shot for any old egg even if it sometimes turns out badly.

Back at the homestead, look what Rosie laid....
What to do, what to do?...