Saturday, November 29, 2008

Zappadan: A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat

For Zappadan this year, I'm going to be playing a variation of the Six Degrees of Separation game. I call it the Cosmik Debris of Zapparation. The general idea is to tell the stories of people that are somehow connected with Zappa. Todays contestant is Lord Buckley, A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat.

"Lord Buckley left behind a substantial, if generally unknown, legacy. Honey Bruce in her autobiography says, "Lenny did vocal impressions of famous stars, but I believe he learned he could use his voice to create many comedy characters from his experiences with Lord Buckley. With Lenny's talents there was no problem coming up with the voices, but it was the dear Lord Buckley who did it first."

Larry Storch, Jonathan Winters, Whoopi Goldberg, and Robin Williams have acknowledged their debt to him. Henry Miller, Greer Garson, and Charlie Parker were some of his admirers. Frank Sinatra was his friend, until His Lordship supposedly marched sixteen naked people through the lobby of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel where Sinatra was performing.

George Harrison's 1977 hit song "Crackerbox Palace" was indeed named after Buckley's tiny Hollywood dwelling. The Mr. Greif referred to in the song was once Buckley's manager, and "...the Lord is well inside of you..." refers to the earthly, not the heavenly, divinity. Jimmy Buffett has recorded and performed an original Buckley number called "God's Own Drunk."

Bob Dylan fell in love with "Black Cross," the story of a black man who is lynched for his supposed lack of religious beliefs. Written by a Cleveland poet named Joseph Newman, it was one of the few works Buckley recited in its original form. Dylan performed "Black Cross" in concert and two bootleg recordings from 1961 and 1962 do exist. If you look closely at the cover of Dylan's album, Bringing It All Back Home, you will see a copy of Buckley's album, The Best of Lord Buckley (Crestview), on the mantle over the fireplace. And Frank Zappa edited His Lordship's LP, a most immaculately hip aristocrat".




"In California Buckley found the perfect place to continue the free-spirited lifestlye he had pursued back East. It made no difference whether he and his family lived in dilapidated places like the Chicken Coop or the Crackerbox Palace or in a mansion (The Castle) in the Hollywood Hills. The latter, complete with moat, once belonged to the silent movie actress Barbara La Marr. It was owned by an old widow and Buckley used his considerable charm to talk her into renting it to him for a song and a dance.

The Castle had its own throne from which His Lordship would hold court for the likes of Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Tony Curtis. Also welcome were junkies, musicians and virtually anyone else who wanted to join the party. It was at the Topanga Canyon art gallery owned by his friend Bob DeWitt that Lord Buckley started the first jazz church, which he christened "The Church of the Living Swing." Said Lady Buckley, "All the people sat on railroad ties, and it was the first time they had a light show. His Lordship would perform, and there would be music. It only lasted four weeks but it was wonderful."

Friday, November 21, 2008

Deer Hunting With Jesus

Photobucket“Dead serious and damn funny ... Joe Bageant writes with the ghosts of Hunter S. Thompson, Will Rogers, and Frank Zappa kibitzing over his shoulder ... Takes Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter With Kansas, to the next level. “
—Mother Jones

Joe Bageant is a brilliant writer. He evokes working class America like no one else. The account of his revisit to his Virginia roots is sobering, poignant, and instructive."
—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"This book is righteous, self-righteous, exhilarating, and aggravating. By God, it's a raging, hilarious, and profane love song to the great American redneck... I have been waiting for this book for years. We ignore its message at our peril."
—Sherman Alexie, author of Reservation Blues

“..has the power of an old-time Scottish Border ballad. It is maddening and provocative that the true believers in 'American exceptionalism' and ersatz machismo side with those stepping all over them.”
—Studs Terkel

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Monday, November 17, 2008

Bushwa



More animation experimentation to get a feel for the rudiments. Big hat tip to BlueGal for steering me towards the Audacity audio program.

When I was finally ready to record some audio, I flipped on the TV and Condi was on one channel competing with Care Bears on another.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Sarh Palin Animated Cartoon



I don't know how to create an audio file yet, but while reading the tutorial in the animation program, they were kind enough to supply a couple of short audio files as demonstrations. One of them is this classic Bushism! How Sarahndipitous!

Animation



I've started experimenting with a new animation program. Here's 8 seconds of silent footage after a few days of fooling around with the program.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Support The Troops?:The Rescission Act


"I, Magdaleno Sanchez Duenas, do solemnly swear...that I will bear true faith and allegiance...to the United States of America...that I will serve them honestly and faithfully...against all their enemies whomsoever...and I will obey the orders...of the President of the United States...And the orders of the officers appointed over me...according to the rules and Articles of War."



Magdaleno Sanchez Duenas 1914- February 27,2005

The Philippine Islands became a United States possession in 1898 when they were ceded from Spain following the Spanish-American War. The Islands remained a possession of the United States until 1946. In 1934, the Congress enacted the Philippine Independence Act (Public Law 73-127), which provided a 10-year time frame for the independence of the Philippines and, in the interim, established a Common-wealth of the Philippines with certain powers over its internal affairs. Full independence was delayed for two years due to the Japanese occupation of the Islands during 1942 to 1945. Between 1934 and final independence in 1946, the United States retained certain sovereign powers over the Philippines, including the right, upon order of the President of the United States, to call into the service of the United States armed forces all military forces organized by the Commonwealth government.


On July 26, 1941, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order calling members of the Philippine Commonwealth Army into the service of the United States Armed Forces of the Far East. Under this order, Filipinos were entitled to full veterans' benefits

In 1941, Duenas answered the call of President Roosevelt for Filipinos to take up arms and join the fight against the Japanese. In 1943, he joined guerilla forces in the mountains and was captured by the Japanese while procuring food for American Soldiers. He never gave away any information regarding his fellow guerillas. He managed to escape and later helped free 10 American soldiers from the Japanese POW camp.

In October of 1945, Gen. Omar Bradley, then Administrator of the Veterans Administration, reaffirmed that the Filipino Veterans were to be treated like any other American veterans. But on February 18, 1946, the Congress passed and President Truman signed Public Law 70-301, known as the Rescission Act of 1946. It said that the service of Filipinos "shall not be deemed to be or to have been service in the military or national forces of the United States or any component thereof or any law of the United States conferring rights, privileges or benefits."


Duenas is one of thousands of Filipino World War II veterans who were betrayed by the United States. Congress rescinded Roosevelts promise of citizenship and full GI benefits to the Filipino Veterans. In fact, Filipino Veterans were the ONLY national group singled out for denial of full US Veterans status, while more than 66 other groups received full benefits.

Initially, there were 250,000 Filipinos Veterans. Today there are about 18,000, and they die at the rate of about 10 a day. Various bills have been introduced over the years to rectify the injustice of The Rescission Act of 1946, but they have never been passed. The latest bills: Last April, the Senate voted 96-1 on S.1315, an omnibus veterans bill that included a $300 a month benefit to Filipinos WWII veterans living in the Philippines and $900 a month to those living in the US. In September, The House overwhelmingly approved on a voice vote the same Senate measure, but with the benefits for Filipino veterans stripped out. Thanks alot, you Blue Dog Bastards and your Republican buddies!

The next day, the house passed H.R. 6897, sponsored by Bob Filner (D-CA) and Darrel Issa (R-CA), providing for a one time lump sum payment of $15,000 to the Filipino Veterans who are US citizens and $9000 to those living in the Philippines. The resolution authorized an appropriation of $198 million as a compensation fund.

Because of the different measures approved by the House and Senate, a conference was needed to reconcile the bills. Senator Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate veterans affairs committee and sponsor of S.1315 called for one, but Senator Dick Burr (R-NC) is blocking the motion.
Veterans groups prefer S.1315 to the House lump sum measure because it amends the Rescission Act and restores full recognition to the Filipinos as American Veterans as well as compensation. The lump sum measure requires a 'quit claim' amendment that releases the US from all obligations, including the exclusion of veterans widow from compensation, and a break in eligibilty for medicare and disability benefits.

91 year old veteran Celestino Almeda of Washington D.C told news reporters that "accepting payment without being recognized by the US Government as a valiant soldier who fought alongside American troops during World War II would make me a mercenary. I cannot sell my soul."




Information for this post was gathered from TESTIMONY OF SENATOR INOUYE BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS ON S. 623, THE FILIPINO VETERANS EQUITY ACT, PBS The American Experience, The Veterans Equity Center in San Francisco, and Jon Melegrito for Filipinas Magazine

Monday, November 10, 2008

Link Button Tutorial: How to make a link button

Zappadan is right around the corner. It's time for me to replace the old link button in my sidebar with a new one. The latest Blogger templates make it pretty easy to create the buttons in your sidebar without knowing the HTML, but of course not everyone uses Blogger. For folks who do use Blogger, you can still use this information to create link buttons in the body of a post.

First, start off with an image. I offer up this image free for anyone to use as a link button to The Aristocrats.

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Next, resize your image to the size you want for your link button. I find 225 pixels wide works well for the sidebar in Blogger.

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Here's the code, written as one continuous line

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I use Photobucket for image hosting. I've used imageshack in the past. Whatever you use, just plug the web address of the image into the second set of quotation marks. The first set of quotation marks contains the address of the site you want to link to. So, if you click on the last image in this post, it should take you to The Aristocrats. Enjoy!


Thursday, November 06, 2008

The Straight Talk Express

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Yesterday's post wasn't meant to be a downer, but more a tempering of the euphoria.It didn't take long for that whole test if he has a spine thing to start up.

It's a common myth that cartoonists want the idiots in charge so they can have someone providing them with material. The idiots don't need to be in charge. I voted for Obama knowing that even with an Obama Presidency, there will be plenty of Republican ass-clowns, ass-hats, moonbats, wingnuts, and dingbats providing us with comic fodder. So, yes, let's celebrate!

I've compiled a handy list of ways to celebrate Obama's victory.

1. Bake a pie. No, bake 2 pies, and give one to that old man with the McCain sign in his yard a few doors down, the guy that chases leaves on a daily basis with his leaf blower. This will not only help the pie based economy, it will help usher in a Golden Age of Pie-Partisanship. Spread the wealth!

2. While the pie is cooling, do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonite.

3. Eat some pie.

4. Rewrite the song Lonesome Cowboy Burt as Lonesome Plumber Joe. Perform the song in a garage with the garage's owner, Joe. Be sure to include lyrics with Joe The Plumber eloping to Vegas with Ashley Todd.

5. Visit your favorite Progressive Liberal Think Tanks, and say hello.

Just a short list to get you started. I'm all for dancing in the streets, too, just don't go getting carried away thinking Obama's going to feed all the hungry gasoline engines with a bag of fish and a couple of loaves of bread. The "Lower Gas Prices to $2.00 a Gallon Right Before The Election" strategy didn't work out for the McCain cronies, so you can expect gas prices to shoot up fairly quickly.


The "John McCain: Apocalypse Now Redux" T-Shirt can be purchased at The Zencomix Online Market.

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Zencomix

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Credit Crunch

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I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade, but let's face an ugly political reality. The Secret Cabal's Secret Cabal ( Illuminati, Shadow Government, call it what you will) doesn't just roll over or disappear with the election of Obama. No, what you'll see is what Joe Biden was talking about a few weeks ago. Someone will "generate a crisis/Obama will have steel in his spine".

A test. Is Obama going to play ball, or is he going to fart rainbows while dancing 'round the May Pole? If he plays ball, and he's given all indications he will, he gets to keep presidentin'. And if he's farting rainbows...well, they know where he lives, and they know where his kids go to school.

So, it's not if, it's when. Do they Cheneys in our government jerk off their Iran War Boners now, or do they wait until Obama is inaugurated before whipping out their inflatable Gulf of Tonkin dolls?




The "John McCain: Apocalypse Now Redux" T-Shirt can be purchased at The Zencomix Online Market.

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Zencomix

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Sunday, November 02, 2008

The Batphone!

Hello Governor Palin? This is Prince Albert in a Can.









Prince Albert in Cannes! Go ahead, I've got you on speaker phone!








Governor, I'm looking for a Miss KnowBupkiss, first name Ida. Is she with you?









Hey Ida Knowbupkiss! IDA KNOWBUPKISS!?!