First Month Of War Over

SAT 30 SEP 1939
Rear Admiral Hayne Ellis relieves Rear Admiral Alfred W. Johnson as Commander Atlantic Squadron on board the squadron's flagship, battleship Texas (BB-35).

Vice Admiral Adolphus Andrews (Commander Scouting Force) assumes command of Hawaiian Detachment, breaking his flag in heavy cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35). Andrews will shift his flag to carrier Enterprise (CV-6) on 3 October prior to the detachment's move to its operating base (see 5 October).

European war again comes to the Americas: German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops and sinks British steamship Clement 75 miles southeast of Pernambuco, Brazil, 09°05'S, 34°05'W (see 1 and 5 October).

U.S. freighters Ethan Allen and Ipswich, detained by British authorities since 20 September, are released. Cargo destined for Bremen and Hamburg, however, is seized and taken off Ipswich.

Skyline

Look, a story I can illustrate w/ some recent shots. Here, for example, is the eventual 73-story Wilshire Grand whatever.

Used to be a Hilton (&/or some other hotel brand later maybe or not) had nice restrooms.

Going to assume that's not the finished product (The New New Brutalism!) but the concrete core mentioned:

[N]ew advances in building technology involving the structure's elevator shafts to be reinforced within a concrete core, which actually elevates the fire safety standard making the building even safer in emergency situations."

And you must admit this is an imposing edifice, even if it's made of four buildings.

On the other hand, this isn't really much.

Oh, Please

The sooner newspaper columnists & their ilk stop living in denial (How old is Roger Cohen anyway, 206? How can he not know any better by now?) &/or come to the realization that "slaughter for its own sake" is merely the natural reaction of rats in a cage w/ too many rats, not the very manifestation of existentially threatening "evil" the better, if only because it would spare us hand-wringers like this pretending-to-be-horrified-&-uncynical (I may actually be the cynic here; Cohen could well be the fucking moron he appears to be, rather than someone unwilling to face grim reality but more than willing to crank out the platitudes for rent money & status.) whining drone.

Any paragraph starting w/ a sentence as obviously inane as: "It is human to seek for reasons" should be shredded w/ extreme prejudice. Esp. if it never concludes such idiocy w/ the note that there are seldom to never "reasons," no matter how many times the inner columnist asks mommy or daddy "WHY?" at the top of its whining little voice.

Poland Partitioned; Arizona Sabotaged

FRI 29 SEP 1939
Poland is partitioned by Germany and the Soviet Union.

U.S. freighter Executive, detained at Casablanca, French Morocco, since 27 September, is released by French authorities, provided that she proceed to Bizerte, Tunisia.

British warships operating on the Northern Patrol continue to stop neutral merchantman; between this date and 12 October, 63 vessels are stopped, of which 20 are detained at Kirkwall for the inspection of their cargoes.

Battleship Arizona (BB-39) engineering plant is sabotaged, San Pedro, California. A thorough FBI investigation into the occurrence opines that the deed is done to embarrass certain ship's officers rather than cause serious damage.

Labor

Tomorrow's Excuse Tonight

Between the stronger-than-aspirin tendinitis killing my right shoulder & incipient carpal tunnel or arm-falling-asleep-from-resting-it-on-the-edge-of-the-desk syndrome forcing me to mouse about left-handedly, expect even less nothing around here.

Continuing Undeclared War

THU 28 SEP 1939
Hawaiian Detachment, U.S. Fleet, is established in response to Japan's continuing undeclared war against China that has been underway since 7 July 1937. The establishment of the Hawaiian Detachment, to be based at Pearl Harbor, necessitates changing the schedules of the supply ships and oilers needed to provide logistics support.

Tee Vee Phrase Of The Day

"Boneless flap meat"

Courtesy Stater Bros.

C.D. Siren #3

Wasn't even looking for it, but there it was when I got off the bus having spotted some especially ugly shit nearby to preserve for eternity. Sez it's at "W. 5th St. & Beaudry St.", I say bullshit, it's on Beaudry alright, but closer to 6th street.

Also, Beaudry is a fucking Avenue (it goes north-south). How fucking stupid/ignernt can people be? (DON'T ANSWER THAT!!)

Blends in well 'though, once it rusts enough.

People Of Hong Kong: Time To Start Beheading The Police

Unless you want to be murdered Tienanmen style you'd better start defending yourselves against the slave-labor regime that you let take over in 1997. Don't make another mistake.

Bailiffs try to remove a protester from the Occupy Central movement,
at the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong. Photo by Reuters.

Next time it won't be this white glove bullshit, it'll be guns. Protesters like the guy above will be shot & thrown on the Soylent Green truck. Unless you resist!

Pepper spray & tear gas for the cowards of the Hong Kong Gestapo.

Home Sweet Home

Just after I snapped this the guy who lives/sleeps in there got up & started moving around.

Proud of your country, American sheep? Every last one of you Yankee drone motherfuckers should spend a wk. living on liquor store food & scraps in there, the better to understand your future under capitalism & the "free market".

Local Perceptions Of Reality May Vary

Our immediate assumption was that this was a prop (We've seen a Hollywood chopper before, & were very disappointed when it turned out to be hollow.) since it's in front of L.A. Center Studios. Investigation, however, tells us it's legit. Apparently getting a new paint job.

Missed It By That Much

Ugly World

Shame on you pigs. You're as ugly as the world of shit you've made.

Fuck You, Channel Two!

Up at the crack of 1000-ish to catch the Raider-Dolphin game from Wembley Stadium in London, but the KCBS brain trust is instead offering Proactiv+ infomercials, to be followed by Jacksonville at San Diego. I realize they're both pretty crummy games, but ...

Warsaw Falls, Poland Surrenders, Sitzkrieg Starts

WED 27 SEP 1939
Warsaw falls; Poland surrenders unconditionally to Germany and the USSR. After the fall of Poland, the war on the western front degenerates into a stalemate, sometimes derisively called the sitzkrieg ("sitting war") after the blitzkrieg that had crushed Polish resistance in September.

Commandant of the Coast Guard informs Commander of the Boston Division that upon withdrawal of destroyers from the Grand Banks Patrol, the patrol will be maintained by two Campbell-class 327-foot cutters.

U.S. freighter Executive is detained by French authorities at Casablanca, French Morocco (see 29 September).

Eat Shit, Richies!

Or drink it raw, what-fucking-ever.

MERCER ISLAND — The city of Mercer Island is advising all residents to boil their water before drinking after routine tests came back showing the presence of E. coli.

Public Health – Seattle and King County ordered all food establishments to “suspend operations” until the boil water advisory is lifted, according to Mercer Island officials.

Ha ha ha.

Gettin' Meta Wid It

Here we threeplay someone on telebision replaying someone else on telebision commenting on something & then the first someone (the replayer) comments on the commenting. Were we to add any commenting we suppose the very fabric of the space time continuum would be ripped asunder, &/or viewers/auditors would decide they'd seen/heard enough — why read about it too?

Orders

TUE 26 SEP 1939
German armored ships Admiral Graf Spee and Deutschland, poised in the South and North Atlantic, respectively, receive their orders to begin commerce raiding operations.

"Not A God Damn Thing"

This world is so numbingly dull & repetitive (Most recent & blatant example, the Values Voters Orgy of Hate Pain & Fear: Same shit, same buffoons, different yr. maybe; a blur of buffoonery.) I have to get off it before I kill someone*.[start after "for now we live in the Space Age" for full effect]

---

*About what this reporter said (Threatened? Me?) to get fired from Borders. Can I be fired from the whole planet?

Drooling Cretinous Sub-Human Morons Recap [Updated Constantly]

Or just severely disturbed & delusional?More, even.Much too early in the a.m., but this asks (& answers) the one serious question about the annual mess, which is "Who among the future losers in the already-endless 2016 slog to the White House had the sense not to pander to these devout ninnies?"By this time Sarah Palin had made an idiot of herself for the 8,249th recorded-in-public time. (Think of how awful she must have been before she was in the public eye. Or does celebrity make it worse?)

Police Terror Up-Date

How much'll you bet me that if the (alleged attempted) killer cop Sean Groubert (Pig of the Yr. 2007 or something) were actually a capable shot & his victim Levar Jones were dead instead of wounded & talking that, even w/ dashcam video, there wouldn't be enough evidence of Jones' humanity to have fired/arrested the oinking bastard?

And fuck, when I posted the video I didn't watch/listen long enough to hear the victim (pretty obviously in fear of a beating or worse if he didn't immediately produce his license, judging by his speedy reaction to the request for it) say "I'm sorry" to the thug who just tried to murder him while he's lying there w/ a round in him.

Certainly not what I would have said.

More (less than an hr.) later.

Things Falling Apart

From the schadenfreude, nihilism & almost-relieves-the-deep-ennui-that-consumes-my-non-soul dep't.:
I hope your fucking wknd. is ruined!

Aviation officials: At least 700 US flights canceled after fire deliberately set by worker shuts Chicago-area FAA facility - @NBCNews

Thank You For Skull

When he said goodbye two years ago to Natalie Nickerson, 20, a war worker of Phoenix, Ariz., a big, handsome Navy lieutenant promised her a Jap. Last week Natalie received a human skull, autographed by her lieutenant and 13 friends, and inscribed: “This is a good Jap—a dead one picked up on the New Guinea beach.” Natalie, surprised at the gift, named it Tojo. The armed forces [LIFE pointedly noted] disapprove strongly of this sort of thing.

(May 22, 1944, issue of LIFE, p. 35.)

And ICYMI, more 70 yrs. ago oddities, at Anzio. Via, which noted,

[S]hrapnel holes in canvas casting what look like stars and galaxies ...

Caption from LIFE: "In a riddled tent five men were killed and eight wounded by a German shell.
The tent is a ward in the beachhead hospital."

Not published in LIFE. Pvt. Robert Scullion holds the Purple Heart he was awarded after
being wounded by shellfire while in the hospital, Anzio. (Note shrapnel holes in tent wall.)

VP 21 Arrives

MON 25 SEP 1939
VP 21 arrives at Manila, P.I.; it will be tended by Langley (AV-3), which arrived the previous day.

Experiment Concludes, Exactly As Expected

After many, many yrs. testing our theory*, WEB OF EVIL is confident in announcing that it is a physical impossibility that enough coffee or caffeine could exist to wake me to the point that I could possibly have the slightest interest in stupid damned monkeys & their idiotic activities.

---

*We've suffered for Science, now it's your turn!

1932 Called, It Wants Its Clichés Back

Much iNternet yip yap about the Heritage Foundation Festival of Fuckheads on the Future of Liberalism.Noted previously here, but I didn't read the entire mess w/ great attention to detail. Going over some quotes at No More Mr. Nice Blog I paid enough attention to note this:

In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile the subject to their servitude which is their fate,” he said, quoting Huxley.

"Dope," movies & the radio? Hah! Wait'll he finds out about telebision! (No one tell him about the iNternet, it'll kill him.)

Training Day

At least this one's been arrested.

WARNING: Graphic dash cam video released in trooper-involved shooting

Warning: This video may not be suitable for all viewers.

Magic Number: Zero!

Love that AP style.

Doesn't mean the Gigantes are history quite yet.

Killer On The Road

Big serious question time*: Who is to blame for these human cancers that are appearing w/ greater frequency on the skin of the body politic ("scab of a nation, driven insane") trying to kill as many other little law-abiding citizen cells as they possibly can before being excised? (Don't you hate it when people try to "write"?)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of shootings in which a gunman wounds or kills multiple people has increased dramatically in recent years, with the majority of attacks in the last decade occurring at a business or a school, according to an FBI report released Wednesday.

The study focused on 160 "active shooter incidents" between 2000 and 2013. Those are typically defined as cases in which a gunman in an attack shoots or attempts to shoot people in a populated area.

The goal of the report, which excluded shootings that are gang and drug related, was to compile accurate data about the attacks and to help local police prepare for or respond to similar killings in the future, federal law enforcement officials said.

"These incidents, the large majority of them, are over in minutes. So it's going to have to be a teaching and training of the best tactics, techniques and procedures to our state and local partners," said James F. Yacone, an FBI assistant director who oversees crisis response and was involved in the report.

According to the report, an average of six shooting incidents occurred in the first seven years that were studied. That average rose to more than 16 per year in the last seven years of the study. That period included the 2012 shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as last year's massacre at the Washington Navy Yard in which a gunman killed 12 people before dying in a police shootout.

The majority of the shootings occurred either at a business or a school, university or other education facility, according to the study, conducted in conjunction with Texas State University. Other shootings have occurred in open spaces, on military properties, and in houses of worship and health care facilities.

A total of more than 1,000 people were either killed or wounded in the shootings. In about one-quarter of the cases, the shooter committed suicide before the police arrived. The gunman acted alone in all but two of the cases. The shooters were female in at least six of the incidents.

Not all of the cases studied involved deaths or even injuries. In one 2006 case in Joplin, Missouri, a 13-year-old boy brought a rifle and handgun into a middle school, but his rifle jammed after he fired one shot. The principal then escorted the boy out of school and turned him over to the police.

Law enforcement officials who specialize in behavioral analysis say the motives of gunmen vary but many have a real, or perceived, personally held grievance that they feel mandates an act of violence. Though it's hard to say why the number of shootings has increased, officials say they believe many shooters are inspired by past killings and the resulting notoriety.

"The copycat phenomenon is real," said Andre Simons of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. "As more and more notable and tragic events occur, we think we're seeing more compromised, marginalized individuals who are seeking inspiration from those past attacks."

Monkey see, monkey do. How futile & sad.

Beyond studying the shootings, the FBI has promoted better training for local law enforcement, invariably the first responders.

Fuck the F.B.I. & fuck training. Training was always the answer in Vietnam & The School of The Americas & Afghanistan & Iraq & now Iraq again & Syria. How'd that work out? And they think American police ossifers (Oinkus donutti) are trainable? Really?

---

*Like hell it's big question time. There are no answers, only stupid questions.

"5 Teachers With No Panties"

You sicken me: Children can see this!

Course they probably can't read it, & I've no idea if they could order it. I do know I should clean that screen.

Filthy diseased liberals.

Black Condor Released

SUN 24 SEP 1939
Seaplane tender Langley (AV-3) arrives at Manila, P.I., to serve as the flagship for Commander Aircraft Asiatic Fleet (Commander Arthur C. Davis) (see 25 September).

U.S. freighter Black Condor, detained by British authorities since 17 September, is released.

Today In Hegemony

So far beyond actual interest or concern we just don't know why we bother ...

In the area of international relations, it's not a healthy thing when the world's dominant military and economic power has a policy based on vagueness."
-- Former Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), quoted by the Wall Street Journal, while saying he's "seriously considering" a White House bid in 2016.

This guy for Prez. Be honest about it, let them furriners know who's boss, they'll all shut up & get off "our" oil.

Does this mean the Democratic nomination will be between former Goldwater Girl Mme. Clinton & an Annapolis grad, ex-Marine, former Reagan Admin. Defense Dep't. flunkie & Secretary of the Navy, whenever it does happen? (How many yrs.? Almost two? Maybe we'll all be dead from Ebola by then. That's a happier future!)

Surf's Up!

A classic comma shaped weather system. (N.A.S.A. image, we believe.)

Don't you bastards up there go hogging it all. (Note endless & cloudless high-pressure zone over the civilized world.)

Roman &/Or Maronite Catholic Jesus

Is the statue w/ the mystic gang signs/pimped up king-wise out front a specific Catholic (Roman or otherwise) deal?

It's like The Da Vinci Code man!

Architectural Holes W/ Flag

Tixe Ylno

Lee's (A-Frame) Liquors

Distress Signal

SAT 23 SEP 1939
Squadron 40-T arrives at Lisbon, Portugal; en route, flagship, light cruiser Trenton (CL-11) (Rear Admiral Charles E. Courtney) intercepts distress signal from British freighter Constant which reports being pursued by what she believes to be a German U-boat. Rear Admiral Courtney sends destroyer Jacob Jones (DD-130) to provide water and provisions to the English merchantman.

Asshole Generation

There's a generation of them, & they are being generated, per one of Andrew Sullivan's reader/subscribers:

As with their actions against the Nuns on the Bus, American bishops have been dismantling little liberal congregations like mine – and their best weapons are young, conservative priests.

We realized that the priests and nuns we had grown up with – Baby Boomers who started their careers with Vatican II – were all retiring and dying. Their messages of peace, acceptance and mercy and their commitment to good works for the poor were dying with them. Though young Americans are much more progressive on social issues like gay marriage, the young American men becoming priests now are decidedly not, and their influence as leaders in the Church will be felt for decades to come.

Sounds like they R.C.C. is weeding out the decent humans (many of them gay) & returning the priesthood to little Hitlers only. Interesting how the "universal" church varies so from shitty little country to shitty little country.

Targets

Report: US military strikes 2 targets inside Syria on Tuesday, 1 target inside Iraq , official tells @NBCNews

Later:

US Central Command confirms new airstrikes damaged, destroyed 2 Islamic State vehicles in Syria, 1 in Iraq - @CENTCOM

So. Three Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles at around a million smackers apiece, to blow up three Toyota pick-ups worth what, U.S.$20,000 each? Return on investment, baby!!

Comic Book War

Bombs away!

Whirling Bird

Dot in center of image two items below.

Stop Economic Terror! Death To Management's Pig Overseers!!

UPS shooter, fired Monday, returned day later to kill supervisors at Birmingham facility

And he did it, too!! Justice is best served the very next day.

Riders Of The Purple Clouds

Ooops!

FRI 22 SEP 1944
German submarine U-30 arrives at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, where her commanding officer, Kapitanleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp, informs Commander U-boats, in private, that he [Lemp] believes himself responsible for sinking British passenger liner Athenia (see 8 November).

U.S. freighter Syros is detained by French authorities (see 10 October).

Gone Like A Cool Breeze

Summer's over: Back on your heads!

Today In Polar Bears On Wall St.

Uh-oh. Has anyone seen nedbeaumontjr?

Polar bear arrested #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/dVCSPpMP2Z
— Christopher Robbins (@ChristRobbins) September 22, 2014

Last Yr. In Equinoxes

From N.A.S.A.'s A.P.O.D.:

At equinox, the dividing line between the sunlit half of Earth and the nighttime half of Earth temporarily passes through Earth's north and south spin poles. This dividing line is shown in clear detail in the featured video, taken by the Russian meteorological satellite Elektro-L during last year's September equinox.

I at first assumed it was an Electrolux satellite.

The Whore Of Babylon: Mother Mary Full Of Profit

Your Cups Runneth Over

Drink up, sheep!!

PRODUCE! CONSUME!! PRODUCE! CONSUME!! PRODUCE! CONSUME!! PRODUCE! CONSUME!! THEN DIE!!!

Roosevelt Opposes Neutrality

THU 21 SEP 1939
President Roosevelt asks for repeal of arms embargo provision of Neutrality Act of 1937 (see 4 November).

Overkill

Ethan Allen Gets Detention

WED 20 SEP 1939
Squadron 40-T departs Villefranche, France; flagship, light cruiser Trenton (CL-11) (Rear Admiral Charles E. Courtney) and destroyer Jacob Jones (DD-130) head for Lisbon, Portugal; destroyer Badger (DD-126) for Marseilles, France (see 23 September).

U.S. freighters Ethan Allen and Ipswich are detained by British authorities (see 30 September).

Can't Top (Or Title) This

Another Terror Flag

Previously in fossil fuel.

Signs

Not Jerry Brown

Happy birthday to a wonderful son who grew into a great man, @PSchwarzenegger. I’m so proud of you & I love you. #tbt http://t.co/aGuINcB555
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) September 18, 2014

Stole from ESPN's Highly Questionable, where Bomani Jones was amazed that a governor was recalled so this bozo could run things, & Dan LeBatard reminded us that at one time two guys who'd been in Predator were running states. What a country, huh?

(We went to the trouble of finding a different image of the two buffoons.)

This Week In Local Law Enforcement

Local M.R.A.P. news.

L.A. School Police Dep't. will return grenade launchers but keep rifles,
armored vehicle

If they police like they design websites the kidz are in biiiiig trouble.

In other reports it might appear to the cynical that all the coppers locally may still be suffering the effects of lead poisoning, even as crime, specifically murder, has gone down around them.

Los Angeles Law Enforcement Officers Kill About One Person A Week

From 2000 to 2006, the report says, overall homicides in L.A. County ranged between 1074 and 1231 per year. During that period, officer-involved killings made up between 2.5 and 4.5 percent of that total. However, since 2007, as overall homicide rates have trended downward -- there were 941 total killings in 2007, but only 595 in 2013 -- law enforcement use of deadly force resulting in homicide "doubled to between 4 and 8 percent" of the total, the report reads.

No doubt stodgy & academic report cut up & pre-chewed by a PuffHoor.

Midway, Wake, & Guam

TUE 19 SEP 1939
VP 21 (PBYs), assigned to the Asiatic Fleet to provide aerial reconnaissance capability to safeguard the neutrality of the Philippines, departs Pearl Harbor for Manila, P.I. The squadron will fly via Midway, Wake, and Guam (see 25 September). Seaplane tender (destroyer) Childs (AVD-1) will provide support at Wake, the least developed place on the movement westward.

U.S. freighter Black Hawk is detained by British authorities (see 4 October); freighter Black Eagle, detained by the British since 12 September at the Downs, is released.

(Not Actually The) Last Sunset

Knee Slapper Of The Wk.

[TRIGGER WARNING: Philosophy]
"Wk." because it happened three days ago, whatever day that was. From the fetid comment swamp 'neath an NRO "Huckabee's not a real glibertarian Christian" ("He’s more of a liberal Christian populist than a limited-government conservative.") screed, a rib-tickler I hadn't heard before.

For one thing, he's Catholic, which means there's two millennia of the world's most distinguished philosophy behind his beliefs, which cannot be said for Huckster and his fellow televangelistas. However, Santorum is also something of a naif, and has found ways to spoil his own chances. Too bad, really, but he's not quite presidential candidate material.

Left unspoken is that Rick is not quite actual President material.

But back to the "world's most distinguished philosophy":

The Catholic Church does indeed have a vast history of great theological and philosophical minds working on Her behalf. But it is a great mistake to think that Santorum partakes in that legacy in any way.

What's most frightening is that these people appear literate & typo-free. (Except calling the church "Her.") You might encounter them in meatspace & not even realize they were so inane, insane & potentially dangerous.

Fine. GTFO, & Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out, Chumps!

California doesn't need any of your crummy little states. Your uselessness is confirmed by your desire to secede. Get lost already!

Then the results came in. You can see them for yourself here, and you can filter them any way you want—by age, region, income, party affiliation, etc. Any way you slice it, the data are startlingly clear: Almost a quarter (23.9 percent) of those surveyed said they were strongly or provisionally inclined to leave the United States, and take their states with them. Given the polling sample —& about 9,000 people so far—the online survey’s credibility interval (which is digital for “margin of error”) was only 1.2 percentage points, so there is no question that that is what they said.

Conclusions are drawn:

By the evidence of the poll data as well as these anecdotal conversations, the sense of aggrievement is comprehensive, bipartisan, somewhat incoherent, but deeply felt.

This should be more than disconcerting; it’s a situation that could get dangerous. As the Princeton political scientist Mark Beissinger has shown, separatist movements can take hold around contempt for incumbents and the status quo even when protesters have no ideology in common.

The United States hardly seems to be on the verge of fracture, and the small secession movements in a handful of American states today represent a tiny percentage of those polled by Reuters. But any country where 60 million people declare themselves to be sincerely aggrieved — especially one that is fractious by nature — is a country inviting either the sophistry of a demagogue or a serious movement for reform.

A cursory survey of history suggests a demagogue will show long before anyone gets serious about anything.

Out There

Woulda played the original but Mr. Dylan's "people" do not seem to take kindly to it being available on the iNternet.

7-Eleven® Terror Flag

Hey, it's close enough for fear-mongering.

Birthday Boy

Once owned the entire album, an excellent example of English eccentricity & "the avant-garde"; didn't know until quite recently the artiste & I shared a birthday. (Used to own a hot soprano, too. Managed to masterlearn "Louie Louie." So much for commonality.)

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill (born 19 September 1932, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England), is a free improvising saxophonist. He usually plays the soprano or sopranino saxophones.

Coxhill has collaborated with many other musicians during his career, including Kevin Ayers, Steve Miller (ex Caravan), Mike Oldfield, Morgan Fisher (ex Mott the Hoople), Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, The Dedication Orchestra, Django Bates, punk rock group The Damned, Hugh Metcalfe, Derek Bailey and street theatre performance art group Welfare State.

For many years Lol was compere and occasional performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, renowned as a raconteur as well as a musician, indeed it was following a performance at Bracknell that he recorded the legendary monologue Murder in the Air.

The avant-garde is an odd beast. In the case of saxophonist/singer Lol Coxhill, that can range from the virtually unlistenable squawk of "Feedback" (which is exactly what the title says) to '30s music hall songs performed with keyboard player David Bedford. Cobbled together from live tapes and a few studio sessions, much of the backing comes from the Whole World, the Kevin Ayers backing band of which Coxhill was a member. But not all: "Rasa-Moods," a 20-minute spontaneous performance taped in Holland, brings in Dutch free musicians for something that travels through moods; "A Conversation With Children" is exactly that; and the cover of "I Am the Walrus" is sung by kids, to offer an odd, disquieting effect.

And, he invented "Lol."Almost made 80 (d. 10 July 2012), & was still wailing at 76.

Today, here & now (As opposed to earlier, when this was scheduled.): Video above did not make it either. Nor can I remember which cut it was, but it seemed the only one available then. Ah ha. Here's one, though not the one planned.More eccentric than avant-whatever. "I Am the Walrus."

Fading Fast Now

Germs On The Ground

3,000 military personnel deployed in an apparently literal war on the Ebola virus. I was skeptical, but I didn't realize the virus was equipped w/ rocks & knives.

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- The prime minister of Guinea says seven bodies have been found in rural Guinea after a group of local residents attacked Guinean health workers carrying out Ebola awareness efforts in a rural area.

In an announcement made on state television late Thursday, Mohamed Sa�d [sic] Fofana said authorities had located the bodies a day after the group was abducted by assailants armed with rocks and knives in the village of Wome.

Among the dead were three Guinean radio journalists who had been covering the education efforts.

An Ebola epidemic in West Africa first emerged in Guinea earlier this year.

Many residents of rural villages have reacted with fear and panic when outsiders have come to conduct awareness campaigns and have even attacked health clinics.

© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reversed. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The AP kills me. (Or would probably like to.)

More Guns & Family Values, Gawd Damn It!

Gilchrist Co. Sheriff: 6 children shot to death by their grandfather. He also killed 1 daughter and himself. @ActionNewsJax #bellshooting

Editor's note: The man identified by Gilchrist County, Fla., officials as the suspect in a Bell murder-suicide had pleaded guilty to a felony arms violation in 2003. He accidentally shot his son to death in a hunting accident in 2001, the Orlando Sentinel reported at the time. In a press conference Thursday night, the sheriff said the Bell shooting suspect had a criminal history. - Stephanie
Breaking news - breakingnews.com  1h

Word to the youth: Kill your parents before they kill you. Gunz for Kidz, Not for So-Called Grown-Ups!!

Radio Silence

MON 18 SEP 1939
President Roosevelt authorizes Coast Guard to enlist 2,000 additional men and to build two training stations.

Heavy cruiser San Francisco (CA-38) arrives at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and reports that Dominican authorities are exercising proper precautions to learn promptly of the entry of any belligerent warship into Semana Bay, Dominican Republic.

U.S. freighter Warrior, detained by British authorities since 7 September, is released after her cargo of phosphates is requisitioned. Freighter Shickshinny, detained since 16 September at Glasgow, Scotland, is permitted to sail without unloading cargo deemed by British authorities to be contraband. Shickshinny, however, is to unload those items at Mersey, England.

U.S. freighter Eglantine is stopped by German submarine, ordered not to use her radio, and to send her papers to the U-boat for examination. The Germans allow Eglantine to proceed, but advise her not to use her radio for three hours.

FTFY

Americans know surprisingly little about their governmentmuch of anything, survey finds

Surprisingly? How fucking much ivy has grown over the windows of your ivory towers, academics?

Moments later: From the things I should know not to click file, a glibertarian buffoon concludes voter ignorance is rational (& I don't disagree w/ his conclusion, "that, for most people, it is perfectly rational to pay little attention to political issues, because the chance that any individual voter influence electoral outcomes is infinitesmally small") but he (of course) concludes that this is yet another inane reason for smaller gov't. Not "news," exactly, but a prime example of that sort of thing.

Legacy Of Slavery II

Dimly-bulbed Don Lemon of CNN needs a lesson.

CNN’s Don Lemon: We Should Beat Our Kids
Because It Worked For Slave Masters

Go cut me a switch, Donnie!

I'd like to "whoop" the living shit from racist adulterer Newt Gingrich, who is not man enough to stand up on his hind legs & shout "Nigger nigger nigger!" at the President (Can't even squeeze out an "uppity" or two, Newt?) but instead spews shit like this:

Newt Gingrich blasts Obama for
“the arrogance of the way he golfs”

Yeah. "Now watch this drive."

Does Newticles mean the Prez should only golf on public courses? (Note to self: Stop it already. Attempts at deriving/attributing actual meaning to the bestial hatreds & idiotic inconsistencies of such political grifter scum are the way to madness.)

And what's more "arrogant" than adultery? Proscribed right in the Ten Commandments, unlike golfing.

Seldom has the "Urge to Kill" label been more apt. Can you read this if you fool around w/ it? Sure you can, I left it that way. And since you think you're so smart, consider it a threat, snooper! (Also: If you're reading this, you have too much time on your hands.)
[Warning (more harshly expressed) to both of those nimrods to stay out of L.A. if they know what's good for them deleted. I don't need a visit from thugs w/ guns & badges who might just summarily execute me if I exercised my alleged First Amendment rights.]

Glossary Confirmed!

A senior US Defense Department official says that 1 of 2 Islamic State targets hit overnight was a large ground unit which consisted of approximately 40 fighters - @NBCNews

See?

mikey said...

Glossary:
Fighting Position = Hole in the Ground
Checkpoint = 55Gal Drum in the Road
Command Post = Tent or Shack
Bunker = Hole in the Ground w/ Sandbags
Large Ground Unit = Platoon of Infantry

Glossary ©2014 mikey.

Fingers Crossed, Ears Open

Although alternating current in the WEB OF EVIL 'hood is more likely to go when it rains (or when some sumbitch cutting branches drops a few on the Dep't. of Water & Power lines, as happened recently) than during a heat wave, this is a helluva heat wave. Just dared the outside now the sun's down, took out the trash & saw a box that had until very recently contained a brand new box fan in the dumpster. More demand.

Remembering that at the croaker's office in Santa Monica yesterday the overhead fluorescent lighting kept flickering, & once went out completely, noting that 1,200 customers are w/o power in NoHo, & reading another local on the iNternet complaining that his juice was intermittent, I figured it was only a matter of time until a transformer explodes around here & everything goes, but why bother anticipating agony? (Why not, also.) Now it appears inevitable, as I can hear the fans slow when the voltage drops.

Stalin Moves On Poland; HMS Courageous Sunk

SUN 17 SEP 1939
USSR, its western border secure after its 23 August 1939 ceasefire with the Japanese along the Manchukuo-Mongolia frontier, invades eastern Poland.

British use of Home Fleet aircraft carriers to hunt German submarines, begun on 3 September, ends after U-29 torpedoes and sinks HMS Courageous southwest of the British Isles, 50°10'N, 14°45'W. Courageous is the first capital ship lost by any of the combatants. "A wonderful success," the German U-boat High Command War Diary exults, "and confirmation of the fact that the English defense forces are not as effective as they advertise themselves to be."

U.S. freighter Black Condor is detained by British authorities (see 24 September).

MorYork

This “neighborhood portal in the exchange of information and ideas” is pretty keen. I have photos taken inside but won't bother looking for them, because it's 910°F in here. (Give or take a factor of ten.)

Haven't read all five of the questions yet, but it was rumored they were going to close the place. Guess not. No mention, anyway.

And Today In Ironic Idiocy

Ooops!!

Who's an idjit now, smart boy?

For all the world to see.

Heh heh.

Stairway To The Bars

Santa Monica

Yesterday In Inane Ignorance

We mentioned that whoever types the body of the Breaking News items appears to be an idjit, confusing Palm Beach (which is in Florida, California's more evil & humid sibling state) w/ San Diego's sleepy little Pacific Beach. (Redundant for a spot on the Pacific Ocean, don't you think?)

Photo: Palm trees catch fire after reported lightning strike in Palm Beach, San Diego - @kitcorry

Someone at BN also confused the PB abbreviation w/ Pebble Beach, a rather shitty beach (of pebbles) in Monterey County, about three zillion miles north of S.D. County.

Photo: Residents in Pebble Beach, Calif., rush to put out fire on palm tree after reported lightning strike - @kitcorry

Residents of Missouri Street in PB try to put out the tree fire created by a lightning strike. @nbcsandiego pic.twitter.com/INtibPxcbF
— Kit Corry (@kitcorry) September 17, 2014

Bad enough that young people in general are stupid, ignernt (I blame their parents: Nature or nurture, you fucked up mom & dad!!) & make idiotic assumptions, but why let them type incorrect shit that confuses people?

Today In Bouffantery

Another in an infinite series of days spent resisting entropy, terminal iNternet boredom, existential agony & heat stroke.

How's your empty meaningless existence?

WARNING FROM G-D?

I believe the PB means Pacific Beach, not Peanut Butter. Not Palm Beach either, as Breaking News claims.

Lighting strikes a palm tree on Missouri Street in PB and starts a fire.@nbcsandiegopic.twitter.com/7BWus1DJrJ
— Kit Corry (@kitcorry)September 17, 2014

It would appear there's been trouble to the south. Whatever the hell they've been up to they'd better knock it off. And maybe they could sue Pat Robertson for not praying it away.

PB is TBogg country, I think. What's he typed lately?

Today In General Aviation

Lots of damage at Montgomery Field planes on cars, planes toppled and leaking fuel #SanDiegoWX@10Newspic.twitter.com/JTL6tVO3rp
— Rachel Bianco (@10NewsRBianco)September 17, 2014

Stereo Cooling

Clouds Over Babylon

Babylon, Beverly Hills, who can tell the difference?

(Is there one?)

Note apparent human. Walking! In Beverly Hills!!

More inane photographic representation of clouds, sunsets, the beach & the like tomorrow.