Thursday, March 04, 2004

what am I listening to..?
basketball, what else...


a reminder...

if you watched the opening episode of either Steven King's Kingdom Hospital or SciFi's Mad Mad House, stop on in the Cafe Chat Room the Friday night at 8PM Eastern time and let us know what you think of either or both of them.
See you then!


Wednesday, March 03, 2004

what am I listening to..?
Rutgers versus Virginia Tech on the wireless... GO R-U!


sorry...

about the rant earlier today. I've always tried to keep politics out of this mess, but that really got me in a twist. Maybe it's my western hemisphere upbringing... I've been taught that when someone does something nice for you, like kicking your blood-thirsty dictator out and trying to help restore basic human freedoms in your country, you usually say something like "thank you", not throw a piss fit when something happens that's not to your liking. I'd like to say that I can sympathize with their emotions, but that would not be true; I've never had to live in fear of being carted away in the middle of the night, tortured and murdered, nor have I had to suffer being persecuted for my beliefs, so I can only imagine what's going on in the minds of the Iraqi people these days, but enough is enough. They, like we, don't have many options right now - we can't and shouldn't abandon them, we're as much responsible for their future now as they are. (personal politics aside, thanks). Whether or not I agree with the situation or the rationalizations behind it, I subscribe to the old Chinese saying, "when you save a life, you are responsible for that life...". We are responsible for setting it straight. We will sometimes have to take it on the jaw, both over there and at home. (we = the free people of the world). "And", as Forrest Gump said, "that's all I have to say about that.".

Other than that, life is grand. I'm sitting in the lair, a glass of organic red wine at hand, listening to a basketball game on scratchy AM radio. There's a sort of comfort listening to AM. The signal wavers in and out, giving the broadcast a sort of phase shifter effect, like an old 60's psychrock song. There's varying degrees of static and background noise, sometimes the ghost of another station tries to haunt the broadcast. I grew up listening to AM radio. My childhood home was always filled with music, either on the wireless, or the old mono recordplayer. I have very fond memories of waking up every morning and hearing one of the local AM jazz stations on in the kitchen, sharing the air in the house with the ever present aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Any time I was in the car with my parents, the radio was on, the radio competing with the hum of the tires, pouring out more scratchy jazz or, in the summer, a ball game. My musical tastes were honed by the likes of radio shows such as "The Milkman's Matinee", which was on from four in the morning till eight, then it was the Clavin and Finch show, with more jazz and big band stuff and crazy clean fun. On Saturday, there was a real treat in the morning, a local New York dj by name of William B. Williams. That man had a wit drier than the Saraha. I can't tell you how many times my father and I laughed to tears at his comments.
The world of FM was way off... The first time I really listened to FM was when the famous WNEW 102.7 came on line in, I think, 1967. Rock and roll never sounded so good! But you know, when it comes down to it, I'd rather listen to some big bands and swing on good old AM, than the slicked down stuff of FM. Maybe it's the nostalgia factor. Maybe it's the adventure of AM radio... wondering if it will come in clearly, spinning the late night AM dial in the summer, when the clear air brings in stations from so far away. Maybe that's why I like my old dial-up modem. It's an adventure all it's own.
well, I'm going to go listen to the second half of the game. have a wonderful evening.
and, what ever or whom ever your gods are, take a minute to pray for peace. it can't hurt.
later.



what am I listening to..?
myself... seething...


you ungrateful fucks...

thank you for ruining my lunch break. All I wanted to do was sit here, eat my salad and catch up on the news on the web. And what is the first thing I see on FoxNews? The Shiites in Iraq are blaming lax US security for the suicide bombings yesterday that killed in excess of 250 of their ilk. Here's a byte from the FoxNews story, chanted by the Shiite mobs: "No, no, Americans! No, no Israel! No, no, terrorists!" they chanted, carrying red, black and green flags, symbols of martyrdom traditionally used for Ashoura ceremonies. (the italics are mine). Let's see... just a little over a year ago, these same Shiites were hiding in their basements, terrified that Saddam might send little Uday or Quasy over to root them out and hand them a free pass to go join the quarter million others that lay in unmarked mass graves, and now they blame the US for an attack by their bretheren that killed and wounded scores of them celebrating a Shiite Muslim Holy Day.... I guess the idea that your fellow Muslim factions are nothing but a bunch of murderous, blood-thirsty murderers hasn't yet entered you recently freed minds. You know what? I think the coalition forces should pull out of your miserable sand trap of a country and let you fuckers sort it out yourselves. Maybe after you kill yourselves off, we can come back and "liberate" all of our oil drilling and refining equipment that you former despot leader "claimed" in the name of Iraq. That way I won't end up paying three dollars a gallon for gas this summer so I can drive back and forth to work to pay taxes to support keeping our armed forces over there to make you assholes behave. Maybe you liked it better when the Baath Party was in power? Fuck you. Fuck all of you.
Oh, yeah, here's a little tidbit for you to read about the coalition forces that are over there getting killed making it safe for your sandy little asses to celebrate your holy days:
There have been 647 coalition deaths, 550 Americans, 59 Britons, five Bulgarians, one Dane, 17 Italians, two Poles, 10 Spaniards, two Thai and one Ukrainian, in the war as of March 2, 2004.
... how many more?

Fuck you. Fuck you all.






Monday, March 01, 2004

HA..!

seek and ye shall find!
This is from the wonderful Winemaking Home Page of Jack Keller of Pleasanton, Texas!
Thanks Jack!!!


COFFEE WINE

* ½ lb freshly ground coffee
* 2½ lbs dark brown sugar
* 1½ tsp citric acid
* ¼ tsp tannin
* 7½ pts water
* 1 tsp yeast nutrient
* Sauterne wine yeast

Pour water in pot and put on to boil. Stir in sugar until dissolved. When sugar is completely dissolved, stir coffee into water and wait until it boils. Remove from heat, cover and allow to cool. To a sanitized secondary, combine citric acid, tannin and yeast nutrient. Strain coffee through double layer of muslin into secondary, discarding the grounds. Add activated yeast and cover mouth of secondary with napkin held in place with rubber band. When fermentation is vigorous, fit airlock. Rack three times, 60 days apart, topping up and refitting airlock each time. If desired dry, rack into bottles. If desired sweet or semi-sweet, stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. [Recipe adapted from Leo Zanelli's Home Winemaking from A to Z]