Things tend to get squirrely sometimes...

Link here The other two links in the Guardian article are spuirrely as well...

Oh... we have another horriday today...

Maria's trip to heaven. Mariahimmelfahrt.

Now the word 'fahrt', means trip. ot travel, whichever you like.

But when you pronounce it, it can cause confusion, because the 'h' is silent.

And if you grew up english-speaking, it can be embarrassing.

It reminds me of something an old teacher told me on a train once, who could speak English very well. And after the war, she was on another train with an English soldier, and they got along famously. And then he had to get off the train, and she pipes up with 'I hope you have a good fart.' 'And he LOOKED at me. Of course I knew what I had said wrong, and was totally embarrased.' She said.

Language is treacherous, believe me.

So ok, Maria's fart to heaven. I hope she and her son ate enough beans beforehand. You need rocket sized ones to get the fuck up there....

This has been another episode in your daily silliness chapters.

And wasn't meant to offend or be mean...

Just saying.

Men seemingly wish to be pregnant...

It is not a joke. The NY Times said so today.

If you have a 'Wampe'. big belly, you're sexy somethow?

Whoever wrote this piece of malarky deserves to be force fed till his abdomen stretches out and he looks nine month's pregnant and feels that way.

This is what passes for journamalism nowadays?

Just give me a break, hey...

DVD review... Milk

This just came out this week....

Sean Penn deserved that Oscar, and how...

I found it very moving, and it brought back some memories, and cried buckets at the end.

Because I remember following that when it happened. I was already in Europe, but he made international news even before he was assassinated. He gave a mess of young people hope and the belief that you can live your life in a dignified way, even if 'the outside' put you down.

One scene, a young man in a wheelchair, calls him and says his parents are going to 'fix' him and send him to a mental institution. Well, I had this 'wired connection' to my experience and had to think of a cousin of mine. Who was only sixteen, he got caught experimenting with a friend by his parents, and they threw him out on the street.

Yes, just like that.

He was incredibly nice. And one day, in the early 70's, he turns up where I worked, and was all warm and friendly, but so shrill, I backed off with my eyes, just didn't wanna know him. And I hurt him... badly. Because I didn't know where I belonged.

If we had had a Harvey Milk at that time, that would never have happened.

Everyone thought they were alone.

And outside the parameters of 'normal'.

And I wish I knew what has happened to him since, if he is alive at all.

So... the film brouht back the past when someone had the balls to say 'Fuck YOU', and demand to be treated equally.

Reading what happened in the NY Herald Trib, and the result, and the aftermath, made me very very angry.

And made me come out, as painful as that can be.

But it gave me my freedom back.

So yes, this is a very subjective review. It brought things up where 'hope' is so often brought up.

But for me.... Harvey Milk was a very positive influence. Where you have an issue in your life, and say, 'Yes, I can DO this, and just fucking don't cross that line in the sand, and get out of my way.'

His nephew just received the highest honour of the US posthoumosly. The medal of freedom award. That's been a long time coming... But gratifying.

And I hope some young people (am thinking late teens here) will see the film, and take courage, and not be afraid of who they think they are.

So... this review is decidedly biased.

And I have never liked any of Gus Van Sant's films till this.

But this one was good. Near perfect. You can't get any better than that.

The DVD I got has some good documentaries from contemporaries who were there.

Very interesting.

I can highly reccomend it.

Am going to the doctor tomorrow... promise, cross my heart....

And I fucking hate it already, but am going, promise... cross my heart....

And I just KNOW he's gonna put me in the fucking hospital, and I don't wanna go.

But at the moment, I do not see any other way.

So I can suck it up, hey.

If I am gone for a few days, well that is why.

No one should feel like I feel at the moment.

And every time I go to the bathroom... there is blood.

I am so going to hate what they are gonna do to me.

I am supposed to go out with my former bosses tomorrow.

My phone keeps ringing off the hook. I do not pick up.

What am I supposed to say? 'Sorry I can't go, because I tend to throw up in public, and when I do number two, I see blood in my stool, and around it, and my one hemmaroid isn't active at the moment?' That would NOT be an ice-breaker, belive me....

So YES, will go to the doctor tomorrow. And he's going to slap me into a hospital, and I don't wanna go....

A very nice lady from Texas has been encouraging me to go, but not like Annti, just using logic....

So I guess I am gonna haveta go...

Have been using every excuse in the world not to go... but had to face the fact that I can't be of any help to anyone if I feel so sick myself, that I can't do what I wish.

At least I will not get into debt.

They keep calling, and so I finally picked up.

It was my old boss.

So I told her what was going on, and wanted to excuse myself.

Over thirty years, we could drive each other fucking crazy. But it was always with the utmost respect for one another, when we differed. And I love her very much.

I understood where she was coming from... I think she understood me. And she never lost one mean word about my life choices. God, that word looks stupid... Am tired, I guess....

But she was always there for me when my life seemed to be falling apart. And always truly liked me.

And I have always truly liked her.

She has always been my living history person, family sort of from the dark side....

Whatever, tomorrow... I take action.

Riding the busses, another special edition...

So, hokay, I got on the number 40 which takes me to Jacki. Lots of Turks and Islamists on it for the first three stops, and Africans too, increasingly, who seemingly like to propogate often like the poor Lippizan horses, only the latter get forced to do that....

There was a poor woman in front of me who obviously had Parkinsons, which made me think of Rush Limpballs, and Michael J. Fox, and that was not a good place to be in my head, you know? So I was happy to reach my transfer stop, just before Jacki. And relieved. I didn't want bad thoughts in my head....

So along comes the 34, and was trying to think of what to make for Peter for his hot lunch of the day... Where I get off, there is a supermarket, you see. And one stop down, this tiny elderly lady gets on with her cute dog. A well-behaved cute one, probably part Labrador, black, and slavishly attached to her. And she made him sit, and slipped a muzzle on him--or her...don't know the gender...

And this idjit in the seat in front of her with his two children begins berating her for not having put it on it before she got on the bus. She was obviously hurt by his tone, and behaviour, but calmly said, 'My dog doesn't bite. I need it so he doesn't eat trash off the floor of the bus.'

Well, the whole thing escalated till the man got off with his kids at 'The Museum of Perception' stop. Now that is what I call ironic....

The poor thing was so agitated, as well as the woman across the aisle, they went ON about the incident, and then it was nearly time for me to get off.

So I pressed the button for the next stop, and said to 'no one in particular', 'Sometimes I think it is people who need muzzles so as not to blather on about nothing that is important. Your dog seems very gentle.'

She looked at me gratefully. And said, 'You know, I am eighty years old, and I don't understand how older people can be so hateful and biting.'

And I said, 'Well, I just got retired, so am not there yet. Except I 'never have time', which made her laugh. And added, 'After all, it is the 'dog days' of August.' Which made her laugh out loud. And then it was my stop, so I said, 'Just don't take it to heart, you hear?'

And she smiled....

I think you know what I am inferring here....

Yes, am talking about the below-the-belt level of discourse going on in the US.

Ok.

So... Peter's neighborhood is almost white and very poor. But one thing has struck me. You walk down the street? People greet you. Say 'good morning', or 'good afternoon', or whatever. The first time I went into that supermarket? A lady came up and asked me what I was looking for and showed me what aisle it was in. Helpful, but they have a darker side. They get into fights with their significant others and threaten violence. Mostly it stays with just threats.

Returning home, I just caught the bus and got on at the back of it. I LIKE the back of the bus, it is raised up, and you see really good, you know? And I have always thought, 'man, if I were of a different color, I would LOVE riding at the back of the bus. Because if that mofo driving crashes into someone driving crazily, it will be the ones in the FRONT who get killed....'

Just a satiric thought here... and no, I didn't get that one from anybody, gawd inspired me... whoever she is....

Whatever, I want to get off at Jacki, and it turns out there is a problem with the back of the bus, and my multi-focal glasses. If you are lost in your thoughts, you don't concentrate on what you are doing, and miss the last step, because you didn't see it. They can tend to compress things if you aren't looking correctly.

So I mis-stepped and landed on my arse on the last step of the back of the bus.

(See, it has it's drawbacks, as does everything....)

Some guy wanted to help me up, which I can do myself, thenk you veddy much....

Are you HURT? he asked.

And I said 'No, only my pride.'

And then....

SHIIIT!

Soooo... every day another adventure... if you look and observe....

Well trained....

Joe in NY finds the oddest things.... this one is creepy on many levels... but analogous to people who jump through hoops and fight health care reform, and become 'birthers' and 'deathers'.... Question is, who is dumber????

Here is the longer version

of the guy in Portsmouth who turned up in Portsmouth N.H. openly wearing a gun when Obama held a town hall meeting.... The link is here... not so edited, but he is still crazy and paranoid.

OMFG!!!!!

Rick Sanatorium, (where he belongs, he is so crazy,) yes the 'man on dog' super asshole is planning to run for presidink. His name really means this. But I like Sanatorium better, because it means where he should belong.

The guy who brought home his miscarried child so that the kids could take leave of it.

He should have gone into a Sanatorium right then and there.... but no one intervened.

Dammit. I lost my link. It said he is in Iowa, testing the waters to see if he wants to candidate as president.

Why can't that mind-aborted simpleton just find a lobbying firm to work for and earn kajillions of dollars off simarly simple-minded unsuspecting folks and not want to run for president?

If, which I do not believe, he were to win... he would turn Murka into moron-land once and for all. (I think I was on the site 'Think Progress', but couldn't find it again.

Update next morning: But Keith Olberman commented on it last night, so I didn't imagine it.

The debate is becoming somewhat frightening...

And this clown in Portsmouth isn't playing with a full deck. Why didn't they tase him and get him out of there?

Well, lookee lookee here!

I got my yearly letter from my health care people.

And noooo, it wasn't a bill.....

It is a PR sort of thing. They tell you what you have incurred in costs over the past twelve months, and how much they paid for you. So let's see.... hmmm...

My GP collected €78.34. Ok, cheap, I see him once a month. My internist got €99.33, and that was only one visit. My optomitrist got a whopping €82.31... that is Hedwig, the angry inch, as I call her, because she gets really testy if you don't follow orders. I had to see her three times. Some guy who did my one blood mock-up got €7.34 for letting me know my results weren't all so good. My blood pressure pills and eye drops were over €200.00

So all in all, I cost the system €478.32 for the past twelve months.

Again, this is not a bill. Just information, letting you know what they have done for you.

And an avviso that they have a new programme where they check you out, and try to catch early signs of diabetes for people of my age, the so-called diabetes prevention exams. They check your eyes and feet, seemingly. Again, this is also 'free', you do not get a bill.

And they aren't 'death squads', they want you to be healthy, and it is preventive, because if you do have that and they catch it quick, it will ultimately cost them less in expenses, ok?

The one thing I mock about these yearly reports is they don't tell you how much you paid in. Am fairly certain that I did pay in more than the costs I incurred. But I have said this before, and will say it again with emphasis. If it was more, that went to cover other people whose costs were higher than what they put in, and I really do not mind that at all.

My take on it is... if I really become seriously ill and not have the usual things that ageing brings onto us, I know that I will get good care. And that amount for my little ills would have hurt me in the pocket muchly.

No one will shove me aside in that case, or let me linger and die.

Am disappointed that the single payer model never got to the table there, and horrified at what is going on, and the gullibility of some people who believe the absolutely hideous and perfideous lies being bandied about these past couple of weeks.

People there deserve more than that and not being scared out of their wits till they nearly shit themselves.

And the stink of the undercurrent of racism beneath all that can make you gag even over here, so far away.

Those are no longer dirty politics. They are sewer politics.

Sigh.... I have been trying for over eighteen months now to do something in my miniscule way. Because I have experienced both systems, and felt I wanted to contribute something positive. And again, I have to reiterate... no system is perfect. So it hasn't been glorifying it as if it were, here. But it is much better than what most people have there.

So I have to say... am already disappointed, no matter what comes out of this. And will refrain from scathing criticism until I see what does get passed in the end.... I'm an optimistic pessimist, after all. Hoping for the best, and sort of expecting the worst.

Waiting for the bus today....

I had a wait of eight minutes for my transfer. We have these bus stops, that shelter you if it rains, and so on, and whoever was there before left all their trash on the bench, even though there is a trash can two steps outside of it.

So I dumped the trash, but there were wet spots where the coffee spilled out.

Along comes a guy and nearly sat in the mess. So I pointed out that that wasn't a good place, and we got to talking.

The first subject was about what 'the man on the street' is talking about these days. Two kids, 14 and 16... got shot some days ago in a burg in upper Austria, trying to rob a supermarket. The fourteen year old was shot in the back. The sixteen year old got shot through both thighs. Seemingly, they were working for a Rumanian guy who put them up to it. And seemingly, he had accomplices.

Can you please tell me why the first thing that shot into my head was 'Oliver Twist' ?

Tja, we have come so FAR since Dicken's day... Really. Not.

So this GUY was going on.... but blamed it on the parents, and said that the people now in their Fifties were the worst in the worrrrrlllld. 'How can you let a fourteen year old child be out at three o'clock in the MORNING????'

He was outraged that the kid had been shot dead in the back, but more angry with the parents. Apropos, the man is 70, had a very physically hard job in his life and is decent, and interested in what goes on in the world....

But what he said kicked off a memory in my addled head. From the Sixties. And they used to have this thing on the tee-vee.... Bong! It is eleven p.m. Do you know where your children are?

So I told him about it, explaining why... He thought that was like Zeus throwing a lightning bolt and illuminating your brain, hey.... He thought they should do that here.

So we talked a bit more, till the bus came, and cordially wished one another a nice Sunday.

I guess parenting is a blessing and a curse as well. Peter and I are agahst at how kids are out on the streets very late at an age when we used to have to be in bed at eight p.m. And we didn't get to be out till midnight till we were eighteen.

That wasn't a bad thing.. although we hated it.

Whatever, the local media is feeding on this. Big time.

But the guy asked the right question, and no one is gonna answer it. Where were the parents in all this shit? Too busy trying to work to FEED them?

And as to Dickens.... well, there must be a Fagin who pulls the strings, and the guy who put those kids in there was just another Bill Sykes.... with or without the pit bull.

Just sayin'

You should read this....

About what happens when a prominent US blogger has a health crisis in France, and what happens in their socialised medical system, and what the costs are, and how it all works out.

link Here.

Are there any 'question'?

So why all the yelling over there, huh?

I remember things like this....

You'd meet someone on a Saturday night, fall 'in-love', only to run into him Sunday morning, out with the wife and kids, and of course he didn't recognise you... Same principle here, and Dan Savage is right.

link HERE.

This man deserves to be arrested... or fired immediately

And contained in a prison for the criminally insane.

And I thought Bill O was just fucking pompous and insane.

But Glenn Beck just runs the asylum. Lock him up, call the advertisers and get him into the fucking gutter where he belongs.

Drop the popcorn, get out your wretch bag, and try to stomach this.



The man is unstable. He needs real help. And he is dangerous for all the nuts just ready to do violence.

This is all just not funny any more, and dangerous white men who feel they have gotten cornered somehow, because they cannot deal with the fact that the majority of the world have sorta kinda different colors of skin they have, and don't play by corporate rules....

MAKE THEM DANGEROUS.

Have fun with that one.

Except.... I have to ask... what gain do corporations get if they can start of civil wars they instigated themselves?

Cui bono?

So let's get this right... Beck isn't a clown. He is fucking dangerous and inciting unstable people to violence. And as such, I believe he should be fired at the least, and imprisoned at best. Inciting people to riot.

Sure, Beck is just a tool. And with all his eye-rolling, and histrionics? Gay, hate to even say that because I do not want him in my ranks. And to counter his self-hating self, and his oh so righteous stuff about family and so on. He's gay, and frustrated, and afraid, and attacks.

If I had acted like he does now in high school, I would have gotten beaten up... every day.

As it is, I'd like to humiliate him so that he NEVER gets out of the corner I would put him in.

But even better, I would like to see him indicted for inciting riots and violence that I think are going to come if he and his ilk, 'O'Reilly, Limp-balls' are doing the same.

We KNOW what corproations pay them.

We should hurt them in the pocket.

Oh dear... of course it is only soap opera....

but they can DO this on tee-vee nowadays even if it is only 'One Life To Live'?

I am shocked, I tell you shocked.... on a couple of levels. Back in my youth that wouldn't have been even thought about. Here, never a theme. Was with a person way way back, and he said, 'I'm a cop.' I thought it was an entrapment. So I asked if I were arrested. And he said, 'No, am just confused.' Life imitates art, so to speak... or vice versa...

NSFW

And some other culprits....

Whoever thought this one up

hit it right out of the park. Love it, and it is right on target.

La Tal from Spain with 'Carillo'

Ok, kept my promise and the weather held, thank whomever. Peter was so happy to be out of the house, as you can see, and since we got to the main square early, I let him have his piece of apple Strudel at café Sacher before the show started.





As above, he was happy to be out---except for the woman next to him with a young baby, when she popped out her breast to feed him. 'Take a picture of THAT, ' he said. I asked, 'Why, it's the most natural thing on earth...' 'Because they would arrest her in America,' he replied. Well, I guess in some places they might, but saw no reason to take umbrage... He can be so weird, hey.... or Europe ruined me...


And all the kids got the front seats, as it should be...








So it starts with a gnome-like figure who comes out with a key, puts the hands into the clock and then winds it up.





And then a Glockenspiel, carillon, begins to play....






Now a good Glockenspiel has lots of figures who come out of doors and go round and round for a while. Graz has a boring one, but those of you have been with me in Munich will know what I mean. It was sort of like that... at first...





There were only three artists, but you could have sworn there was a whole troupe, they changed so fast.






Whereupon came little 'stories'. I had seen the first one last night. A guy with his gal, he goes to get a newspaper, a 'filou' tries to horn in on him and steal his girl, and they go confrontational.




Wherupon it comes to a duel. Of course. They miss, both try to kiss the damsel, miss, kiss each other instead, and go off together, with the damsel beating them with her umbrella.
And by the way, all movements are as if they were mechanical figures....


Every fifteen minutes they set the hands of the clock ahead.






Then there was slapstick of the finest sort, with sledge hammers that kept bigger and bigger.
































Followed by one of the funniest Carmen parodies I have seen in years.












And then a boxing match between a big guy. The little guy wins and the macho goes Rambo on the judge.




















By that time, the crowd was huge.... they loved it. And then the gnome took off the hands on the clock and went off stage right. It was a nice show, and typical of 'commedia dell'arte' of the 1500's onward from whence comes slapstick and Punch and Judy, for instance. I know, lots of pictures this time, but was making up for the rained out days. And yes, Dad, I took extra batteries this time, but didn't need them. Last night my extras were being re-charged. Hope you get a sense of the good side of what this festival can bring. Free of charge, but... oh yeah... that must be Socialist or something, so must mind my mouf.

Back to La Strada

Went into the center at 8:30 p.m The streets were just packed with crowds out to get some air and hear music.







The view from the footbridge on the way in.








Actually, I just wanted to make sure it would be worth pushing Peter into town to see this, after being disappointed with the last show. And my damned batteries were giving out, so I didn't get the quality I wanted and was too far on the edge of the crowd. It was a clockwork with a carillon, and all these weird figures come out. Funny, and cute.


And part of it had two 'men' pistol duelling over a damsel, who wasn't so distressed. But all with the jerky movement of clockwork figures.

So will push Peter into town tomorrow for the six p.m. performance on the main square. The light will be better, and I can re-charge the damned batteries overnight. My camera zaps them to empty in the wink of an eye....

Now you can receive your very own Kenyan

birth certificate, as fake as they come!

Link is here.

The weather feels toxic to me....

So have mostly stayed home, other than to wheel Peter to the supermarket, which is so badly air-conditioned that I get a wretching fit if I stay in there too long....

Have had to face facts today, and go see my doctor tomorrow. Which I have been putting off, and putting off... Because I have the sneakret suspicion that if I go, am gonna land in the hospital, and then what the hell is Peter gonna do? It won't be good, whatever it is...

On the other hand, getting sudden throw-up attacks in unlikely places isn't exactly fun.

Overheard on the bus yesterday: two elderly ladies talking about what ails them, and the one said, 'My daughter told me to see a doctor.' And the other, horrified, 'Oh, NO! You have to put that off to the last possible moment because they will FIND something!'

Now that is as austrian as apple pie is in Murka. I must have learned it through osmosis, I swear...

Which brings me to my blathering of the day. We have national health-care. And what I have been seeing on the net the past few days regarding the subject is just disgusting. Some people will do anything, anything at all for money. To have an organised disruption of Town Hall meetings paid for by big pharmacy and insurance companies there is absolutely disgusting.

Democracy is about the exchange of ideas, civil discourses, and mutual respect, and finding a middle ground to promote the general good for everyone. What I have been seeing, however, is beyond the bounds of what civilised nations do. Those with the most to lose have been rabble-rousing.

I can't express that in any other way, and there are so many crazy people, they just go with it. It would be as if I were to encourage W. in his paranoia, and then he would go out and kill someone.

And that is what the Faux News idiots are currently doing. There are others, but Faux is the worst going. And CNN right behind them.

I KNEW something horrible was gonna come up, but this ploy is really disgusting. And I hope that the majority of the public will understand where it is coming from, and find a way to shut the crazies up. Without violence.

I never thought Obama and co would have it easy. But the other side is really despicable at the moment, and their ploys are insidious.

People need to be heard, not shouted down.

The rain stopped...

And the Gregory Bros. are back. Maybe it will be a nice day...

Since it is still raining cats and dogs, puppies and kittens

Today doesn't look too good for being out and about, and I think a lot of events will literally 'fall into the water' as we say about cancellations...

So I went looking at news. And found the wonderful Orly Taitz meltdown over at Joe.My.God. Last week Jon Stewart called her 'the lost Gabor sister'. That was too much of a compliment, because none of them were ever that crazy.... just saying... enjoy this train wreck.

Ok, I got my pictures, but not the way I thought I would...

Of course I went out in the hope that the rain would stop... No one on the street, hey... Only I am crazy enough to hope... your in resident pessimistic optimist, you know?









So I went to Pierre's out on the square. You can smoke there. This is very important to me. And there were screens with things from last year, and a little white sign that means 'smoke at your own risk'. I like that... Really....






So there were these guys smoking at the end of the bar, and seemingly they had to do with the live music coming up. Sometimes I am outrageous. I admit it, I am. I thought they were late hippies, or something.... So I walked up and explained to the guy why I wanted his picture, as he was smoking, and he was really cool with it.




And then he went over and tuned up his mandolin, and I felt foolish.










And then they played Tunesian music, but really the good stuff. Have heard enough in the hood to discern good from bad....







And they just rocked, but I got tired...
And then I went home, but it wasn't a waste of time....

And have to thank whomever it was for smoking so blatantly into the camera after I explained what I wanted. I didn't know he was Tunesian. I thought he was a hippie who never got out of the 60's, hey. I can sypmpathise with the Colbert constructed character. He says' 'I don't see race', which is foolish. But on another plane... He was just a guy who looked cool, I told him what I wanted to do to piss off the Amis, and he was delighted to do it.

Turned out he was an artist.

We interrupt our regular programming for La Strada because....

The weather Gods, are saying 'NO WAY'.

Heavy thunderstorms forecast for this evening, and evening it is. Lots of thunder on my left.

Sultry.....

Stifling....

And Thor, God of Thunder, is thundering outside of my winder... in the distance....

And the so-called weather experts have been forecasting really bad thunderstorms all day, after a horrendous hot spell, and high winds.... oh wow, it's beginning.... Thor is mad... and up to one hundred litres of rain per square meter of land during this spectacle, as opposed to 78 litres last week, and flooding.

Now, HOW, I ask you, is someone supposed to get his piano lifted 18 feet in the air, with him sitting on the chair somehow, get a film projected onto the surface of it, and play something nice and sometimes funny on it in the verticle? With a thunderstorm going on?

Oh dear, it's begun to really piss down torrents.

This is not, repeat NOT to happen during La Strada week.

Flooding is predicted in many parts of the city. I live not far from the river. Am so glad I live one flight up, but dejected because I do not have a boat tied up beneath my living room winder.

Ok, letting up for a moment, but it seems to be an outlyer.

There is still grumbling in the distace, and no one in their right mind is gonna let their pianer get hoisted 18 feet in the air and play in this weather.... And the people across the way are going sorta kinda crazy.... the people on the ground floor sound drunk, and the 'preacher' up on the second floor is doing his evening 'songs' (7 a.m and 7 p.m.) is singing away, and praising Jeebus. I really wouldn't mind, except... He can't sing. He sounds as if you got Joe Cocker fully drunk on an Obama beer summit, and set him off with something Baptist, and .... oh well, the result is at least an alarum clock.... You always KNOW it is seven, whether a.m or p.m....

Come to think of it, I get La Strada every damned day lately.... except they aren't artists.

Planes are rummaging around above the house, loud.

You would think Bush was back and planning an invasion, and they start playing 'The Sound of Music' above our houses....

Just to remind us, for pity's sake...

And yup, we got wind, and it is raining heavily, and thunder in the distance.

I should have gone up there yesterday, and gotten my photos. Because this is never gonna happen this evening.

At least I won't be out there fighting off hail with an umbrella, because NO ONE would be so stupid as to do 'the show must go on' in this weather...

But... there is a second performance scheduled for 11:30 this evening. So will set the alarum, and see how things look by then.

If still bad, well, I missed it. Damn. I should have gone over there yesterday....

Heaven on Earth

Saw an Italian duo this afternoon. They erected a plastic 'home'. And then a few dance numbers to very odd music. Some confrontational, others a bit humorous, but I wasn't all too taken with it....






One guy had a turkish bread in his mouth, and made it look like a duck bill. Then he started eating it, and the other was catching the crumbs to eat as they fell, and this little kid, maybe five, piped up next to me, with 'Well that isn't sanitary...



























You can make elephant masks out of bag paper. Who knew? And then they did 'magic' tricks with small hankies.... Uh-huh...

La Strada is back,,,, and HOW

Went to look at a wreck downtown... (smile)








Well, I had a very nice evening, must say, and that doesn't come up too often, does it....

I got to the 'iron gate' square and you see that red thing? It was where it was all gonna happen....





Families were gathering, and there were kids, and balloons. Sorry I caught this one at a bad second....








but as above, there were balloons...








And then the red thing that had been making lots of noise got uncovered, and it was a locomotive. A really, really, decrepit one that the engineers were trying to repair. There were short circuits, explosions, fog, and so on, but they kept playing brass music. It was delightful, loud, and very much fun.



The group is Zic Zazou, from France, and they did jazz that rocked the audience till they nearly freaked out, and there had to be about one thousand people there. Many people might not know that Graz is a bastion of jazz music in central Europe, btw... They know and appreciate what is really really good, and oh, were these people ever! I mean, I don't dance, sorry, but they had me bouncing on my feet, and grooving with the groove. That good.


All the while 'trying to fix the machine'. But they were using machine parts as instruments as well. It was mind-boggling.








And for the last quarter of the show, they got it going, and everyone followed them to the main square down the street.








It was one of the best shows I have ever seen in this series, and cheered me the hell up.








They ended with some pyrotechnics, and the crowd went into frenzied applause. (Sigh) I love La Strada. You never know what you are gonna get. I was just sorry that my friend Clemens wasn't in town, because he takes wonderful pictures, and it would have been fun to go to Pierre's afterward, and check out the live music.

But then, nothing is perfect, ya know?

I hope you have some eye bleach handy....

Because Peter is always complaining that the people where he lives hang out fresh wash.. Every day. At three-thirty in the morning, even. Being brought up Catherlick, I opined that it was probably a mass psycho Pontious Pilate complex. You just don't wash your hands, you wash EVERYTHING you possess, and it certainly looks that way.

And some of the people in the hood are so vast in their beings, you would think they get their clothes from 'Omar the tent maker.' (Thanks to Gore Vidal, I think, for that concept... I've never forgotten it.)

So imagine my surprise today, looking out of 'REAR WINDOW', without the cast and binoculars, and saw THIS:



CAT WOMAN and ACQUAMARINE MERMAID LADY BLEW THEIR COVERS. Totally.

They have been hiding out where you least expected them to BE.

I was in such merriment, Peter got skeered. He did. When the hilarity died down... and it took some time... I said, 'I just do never want to know what scenarios those are used for.... EVER.'

So lady heroines... please hang those things up on the inside of your balconies, so that a.) you don't reveal your sneakret identity, and b.) make people want to run to the bathroom. Thank you.

As to 'Rear Window', a friend of Peter's said my view was nonsense. The people were vulgar in the hood, and crass about saying what they feel.

I was INSULTED, my friends. I KNOW that something is going to happen over there, I do. Now, across the way, there is a young lady whose only role in life seems to be washing chlothes, and hanging them out. At three-thirty in the morning, for instance. With search-lights in the yard, and everythng. I mean, this goes waaaaayyyyy beyond the Pontius Pilate syndrome. Way beyond...

Well, there is trouble where this Stepford wife is. Because she and her person are fighting loudly. And at six a.m. Peter wakes up to 'Ich werde Dich kalt machen.' Literally? 'I'm gonna make you cold.' Which is slang for dead.

And I said, 'See? I was right, and Hans was not. Rear Window. You are going to have to stay up all night every night, and catch him in the act.

Wheelchair or not, and wear your fucking glasses.'

So yes, it is the dog days, and nefarious things going on behind the scenes.

And that was my Steven Colbert number, but the facts are true...

This is not safe for ANYTHING

Just stumbled on a comedy central video clip and fell apart laughing. Do not play this in front of children.

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