little blue

2012-01-08T14:09:00.011-06:00

JAMES LACY REDCORN

OSAGE ARTIST - AND POET

jim redcorn was a friend and regular visitor to our house during the time he lived in oklahoma city in the 70's and early 80's. he also welcomed us to the osage dances in pawhuska. he moved back to his home studio in pawhuska and we all saw him less. he died some time ago while living in pawhuska. jim's son talee printed a poem online that jim had written causing me to think back on him and be determined to write a few words remembering him.

jim was an old school indian artist trained in santa fe and mentoring others including richard whitman who came after him. he painted in gouache or watercolor and favored images of his osage tribe. he proudly claimed knowledge from classic european painting.

he came to oklahoma city in the 70's to head a project documenting undercounting of indians in the census working with our friend helen fourkiller among others. art remained his real love and he was particularly proud of an ornately framed oil painting that hung on the wall of the border crossing restaurant in norman.

he brought his own brand of happiness to me and my family and i am glad to reprint some of his art from the internet and that poem

I am a painter,

Not a writer.

I only want to paint

The beauty and the dignity

Of my people, the Osage.

One painting reflects this:

"The Playground of the Eldest Son"

The oldest son is our most favorite.

Our most honored.

Other siblings revere him.

The dance reflects this - - -

The eagle flies looking down - - -

Looking to the earth

Dignified.

If the mood of the people in the Osage village is good

The dance is good.

If the dancers are exhilarated by this reverence,

The people know it.

If my paintings are good

The viewers will know it.

Jim Redcorn, 1973

* Pictured in the photo are Jim's brother Charles, his son Talee, his father Harold and Jim. I have no idea why he wore the blanket that day but somehow i'm not surprised.

2011-11-05T16:09:00.032-05:00

oklahoma house rockers

this week jesse ed davis will be inducted posthumously into the oklahoma music hall of fame class of 2011. during his oklahoma musical days he was associated with two other musicians whose place in oklahoma musical days has been at best belatedly recognized - conway twitty and wes reynolds. i've written a bit about conway twitty* here. so today i'd like to write a few words about jesse ed davis and wes reynolds

jesse ed davis is and was beloved to his kiowa people and the world of rock and roll. his cousin mary helen deer smith reports he was know as 'eddie' and was the son of vivian saunkeah, a full blood kiowa, and his father jesse edwin davis who was creek and comanche but apparently identified himself primarily with the creeks. jesse ed's death at an early age is clearly comparable as a loss to the death of another kiowa of his age, t.c. cannon because of the world class artistic talent they both demonstrated. after his death one of his national friends, jackson browne, told an oklahoma city audience how fondly he remembered jesse and his mother vivian who treated him as a son and whose home he still returns to. [courtesy: bernice benefield]

he graduated from northeast high school in 1962 and played locally with johny ware and others, attended ou and taught guitar, before leaving school and town to tour with conway twitty in the first days of his rock and roll times.

his life is chronicled by rock historian jas obrecht in part because of the list of rock superstars with whom he was associated from taj mahal to individual beatles: Jesse Ed Davis: “I Just Play the Notes That Sound Good”. near the end of his life at 43 he played with john trudell in the graffitti band. one night in 1987 while playing in the palomino club with taj mahal they were joined spontaneously on stage by bob dylan, george harrison and john fogerty producing what turned out to be a particularly special tribute to his career and ability.

wes reynolds, known as wesley during high school years, grew up around oklahoma city and spent time at northeast high school in the 1950's and according to my memory at least performed at my high school, northwest classen. i can remember him still for having the famous 'greaser/rocker' look and playing his hit 'trip to the moon' in the northwest classen high school cafeteria. his memory stuck with me all these years and i went internet searching for him and found that he was live, well and still playing in tulsa after some heady musical times of his own.

turns out he had abandoned high school [a move i wouldn't have understood at the time] to began a musical career described by his friend john wooley in a tulsa world article: Wes Reynolds has been all over America -- on and off the rock 'n' roll radar. i found that he had honed his musical skills in part at a studio run by one of child musical heroes about 100 feet from where i now live. he used to venture to the legendary studio of gene sullivan in capitol hill. sullivan as gene of 'wiley and gene' had been a local musical hero for me for as part of their bluegrass/country singing and comedy routine. his studio up the block from me now was obviously a local music epicenter featuring appearances by the likes of leon russell before he was leon and others. and wes got to play with them all. but i didn't know all that firmly north of the south canadian river.

'trip to the moon' was the result of a somewhat byzantine story of music in the first space exploration days of the 50's. nonetheless it's publication in 1957 officially began wes' rock and roll career with 'the house rockers' and other bands and took him to venues from tulsa's hard rock scene to a good part of the united states. a south dakota rock and roll association notes his playing there and being part of the bands listened to and brought there by oklahoma city's KOMA as a clear channel station. wes lived in los angeles, las vegas and miami and played with rock and roll blues legends as diverse as ricky nelson and bo diddley. he even appeared in television shows during his l.a. days.

in 1970 he returned to tulsa to raise a family and continue music as a documents his touring and tulsa years. his current web site showcases his entire career. he is an accomplished rock and roll pianist, ala jerry lee, and blues guitarist. in 2009 he was inducted into both the oklahoma historical society rock and roll hall of fame and the oklahoma blues hall of fame.** a tulsa fan, 'nurseeroc' has given included a number of wes' videos on his youtube channel. earlier this summer he wrote, produced and performed a new video 'for good'.

a recent video shows him at his simple blues man best:

i finally got to see wes perform one song in tulsa earlier this year 50+ years after that school cafeteria and am eagerly awaiting a next time. he wrote to me this morning and reported he and jesse ed traded guitar licks and rock and roll star dreams in oklahoma city in their teens and saw each other shortly before jessie ed's death. so today i happily celebrate two of my oklahoma city contemporaries who followed their rock and roll dreams.

* suffice it to say that conway twitty has not been in made a member of any oklahoma hall of fame musical or otherwise and that is just plain wrong.

** his nomination for the oklahoma music hall of fame without election in 2005 is clearly a blot on that group's reputation. but it's probably not a good week to push that cart.

2011-07-17T11:17:00.018-05:00

courthouse deco

i often notice that aging produces a variety of seemingly surprising or inappropriate reaction to thoughts of things newly or always around me whether natural or manmade. simply put, i get into them what seems to be more than i ever have. one result is a desire/need to record or pass on my new 'discoveries'. but there is an even more surprising aspect of the phenomenon. i find that often what catches my eye has been literally in plain sight and maybe even all around me all along. art deco generally and what i call courthouse deco has in fact been all around my workspaces, courthouses at a number of venue, and within my view all round oklahoma city, even in capitol hill, and not just in tulsey town.

tulsa is still legitimately oklahoma's official art deco capitol and my official starting place for appreciating art deco. art deco is instantly in sight downtown and elsewhere and the community trumpets its art deco. oklahoma city's art deco came into view for me more when the courthouse was massively - and wonderfully refurbished in the late 90's. the refurbishing accented the art deco within, particularly by wonderful subtle but strong painting of the interior. once my eyes were reopened i noticed that city hall and the civic center auditorium directly to the west had art deco exteriors and the first national bank building was art decvo all the way. and i started noticing the art deco in other courthouses around here, particularly grady and pott counties.

the courthouses

by my count there are ten courthouses that have some claim to being art deco and one that i think deserves mention with an asterisk. most were built in the 1930's. two architects, solomon layton and walter vahlberg were responsible for 5 of the 10 but apparently did not collaborate. almost all have the outside trappings of art deco and some show art deco on the inside. [1] the outsides typically display half sculptures coming out of the granite walls - i saw them described as friezes. these sometimes geometrical design and other times iless than successful attempts to show indian people and white settlers symbolically. the building also often use aluminm for elaborate window grills and sometimes the sculpture.

oklahoma county - oklahoma city

the oklahoma county was built in 1937 with pwa funds. here is where it all started for me. art deco abounds inside and out. check out the whole front of the building, the mailboxes by the elevator with the streamline airplane image, the light fixtures. there are so many things to see that i suspect i'll need to make some kind of slide show and the whole outside but especially take a little while to stand on the second floor and look around. bad and good has happened to me on this floor in the 40 years i have been visiting. today i often stop just to take in the view to make the day bearable. the floor was originally the first floor which you entered from the front steps until 'security concerns' closed those doors. that's truly sad because walking past the outside onto this floor was meant to be.

'There are many art deco structures, but none with a space to match the two-story lobby with its third-floor overlooks, its terrazzo compass in the floor or marvelous abstracted wagon wheel chandeliers. And none with the whimseyed art deco meets American West ornament," he said.'

grady county - chickasha

the courthouse in chickasha was designed by the same architect as oklahoma county courthouse some three years earlier and like it contains wonderful interior art deco details in the stairways, halls and courtrooms. unfortunately it has not had a similar spruce up update which it very much deserves. the entrance includes lantern structures which reappear before later in oklahoma county and a more bizarre than average version of the classic frieze.

okfuskee county - okemah
i include this courthouse here because it was designed by the same architect some eight years before grady. 1926 is a little early for art deco and there would seem to be a question whether it qualifies for the term. i spot the decorations at the top of each floor and on the second floor east wall facing to the right. one person described it as having 'an interesting wedding cake look'.
cleveland county - norman

the cleveland county courthouse was built in 1939. it's been described as the popular combination of ' the classical revival form with art deco ornamentation. the upstairs courtooms in the old building and stairways continue art deco based looks.

haskell county stigler

i've included this 1931 courthouse here because the architect is the same. this courthouse is obscure to me but it has two claims to fame, one for art deco period. it's arguably art deco in design but has a somewhat bizarre color scheme - a kind of turquoise blue upper floor. the courthouse is also famous for posting a copy of the ten commandments on the grounds. the tenth circuit court of appeals had to order its removal for obvious constitutional grounds. the fact that adultery was misspelled on the sign was not listed as a grounds.

pottawatomie county - shawnee
i've always liked the inside of the pott county courthouse - except for the stairs. signs of art deco are present in the stairways, the courtrooms and on the outside. the single relief aluminum indian images are singular but i don't yet have a picture of them.
pawnee county - pawnee

the pawnee county courthouse is genuine art deco on the outside but the most memorable decoration is the 4 relief works. two on the left, literally the west, show indians facing off against the images on the4 east of approaching settlers.

other counties

for now i'll content with myself with notes as to four other counties. the adair county courthouse in stilwell was bilt in 1931 and includes indian images in the art deco front decorations. the woodward county courthouse built in 1936 has classic art deco accutrements on the outside. the wagoner county courthouse in wagoner was built in the late 30's but seems to have has its art deco moments covered up. it is however still decribed as art deco. I have not been in the refurbished pontotoc county courthouse in ada but two things have always made me think art deco when i'm near the place. first the suggs clinic, a classic art deco building is right across the street. second, the courthouse elevator doors have always sported a clear art deco pc insignia.

i'd love to add inside pictures to this blog and have the whole subject develop more. for now i just suggest you avoid the classic courthouse bad times by looking around at the art deco.

Notes:

A number of flickr sites have courthouse pictures. One of the most comprehensive is available at 'courthouselover's' oklahoma collection. I combined other pictures on flickr for two collections: oklahoma courthouse deco and deco ii.

Three websites provide good materials on the oklahoma county courthouse: two with good histories of the courthouse: oklahoma county's site and living places. oklahoma county lawyer doug loudenback's blog includes a Civic Center page which gives the history of the whole area from the courthouse to the police station which was a major civic improvement plan in the 1930's.

A tulsa art deco website has a good art deco primer.

2011-07-07T19:55:00.021-05:00

PART TWO TWITTY BURGERS, ROCK N ROLL, POETRY AND THE LAW

HAROLD JENKINS, A.K.A. CONWAY TWITTY

‘HIS MUSIC WAS AS GREASY AS HIS HAIR.’

’"Conway Twitty, ... seems to have been written out of rock'n'roll history for some reason. Perhaps his rock'n'roll output was overshadowed by his incredible success as country singer. ... Compared to George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard who all made their best country sides during that same time period, Twitty's country output is nothing special. But his rock'n'roll sides (1957-63), to my ears, are much better, in fact he cut out a pretty nice niche for himself as a rocker, with a penchant for making histrionic ballads sound just a tad sleazy. "’

A blogger who calls himself Hounddog and is responsible for my title.

When Conway Twitty opened his Twitty Burger restaurant in 1970, he was 36 years old , a resident of far south oklahoma city, and an established country music star, and he had settled comfortably into life under a stage name like few others. [Check out: TWITTY BURGERS, ROCK N ROLL, POETRY AND THE LAW - PART 1.] By 1975 he had moved on to Nashville, and our local memories had begun to get more remote, particularly after his death in 1993.

What had also disappeared was the story of his transformation from a small town country boy talented in country music and baseball to a career as an early years rock and roller with a new name, records, movies and a life living and performing all over the country. In fact the story really lasted less than 10 years but it was full of action and featured his performing music in a way his later country career belied. I continue to write so we won't forget either part of the Conway Twitty story.

HAROLD JENKINS - THE ROCKABILLY YEARS

Conway Twitty was born Harold Jenkins 1933 in a town called Friar's Point, Mississippi, some 70 miles down the Mississippi River from Memphis. His family moved across the river to the Helena, Arkansas area. The area up to Memphis along the delta was a musical hotbed for the beginning intertwining of black and white country music that would become rock and roll and rockabilly. Harold had his own country band by the age or ten, performed regularly in the area as a teen-ager and even had a radio show. At 21 his career was interrupted by the Army which sent him to Japan until 1956 where he managed to play a lot of music and a little baseball. [1] The Army had taken him away from the delta area right when Sam Phillips and Sun Records were overseeing the real beginnings of rock and roll. Harold /Conway was never known to be slow and he turned his life over to rock and roll in the next 5 years with such speed and gusto that I’m hard put to actually assign dates to the happenings except as dates on his pictures give clues.

1] As Harold he formed a rockabilly band called the Rockhousers.

2] He took his band with him to audition for Sam Phillips and placed himself under the wing of Sam Phillips who, no doubt, did help train him:

Phillips didn’t bite at first, but he liked Jenkins’ original composition,

Rockhouse, enough to acquire the publishing, and then pass the tune

on to Roy Orbison. Orbison rewrote some of the lyrics and recorded it.

Jenkins recorded several songs for Sun, but none were released until

well after his later success on other labels.

3] He recorded a small number of songs for Sun but they didn’t pass sam’s tests and Sun didn’t release them. He never appeared in publicity with Sun’s big boys. But later when his career took off with other labels Sun released the songs and included them in compilations. I played history detective and found a picture of a wall in sun with various sun performers’ pictures. ‘On closer inspection’ I found that they did have a picture of conway but it was in fact a photo of him from another label.

4] He acquired a manager Don Seat who may or may not been responsible for Harold officially changing his name to Conway Twitty, using the names of small towns in Arkansas and Texas, which was officially adopted in 1957.

5] Seat got Conway a deal with Mercury Records which went nowhere. Then he sent Conway to play at a club called the Flaming Lounge in Ontario, Canada where he polished his act and became a local star. He also spent similar time in Des Moines, Iowa., somewhere along the way.

6] And then Seat managed to get him a deal with MGM records where his career as a successful rocker began with his first national hit “ It’s Only Make Believe” in 1958. [1] Check out Danny Boy from the MGM years and tell me doesn't sneak up on you and get you rockin along.

7] Seat even steered Conway into hollywood and 3 unexceptional teen movies. In one of them "College Confidential', he got to 'neck' with Mamie Van Doren, a sex symbol of the time. And there was one story from along those time that produced a truly singular item on Conway's resume. His name was adapted for a musical based on elvis’ going into the army. The main character was called 'Conrad Birdie', and the musical, which later became a movie, was entitled 'Bye Bye Birdie'. I didn't research whether he got credit or remuneration

8]. Conway continued to travel and perform, even in Oklahoma City. But in 1960 he began writing country songs again and sang a variety of songs. In 1962 MGM let him go and in 1965 at Tony Mart's nightclub in Summer's Point, NJ, Twitty ‘put down his guitar, walked off stage, and made his move full time into the "Country" arena. It wasn’t too hard because he had been recording under a new label’s Nashville branch anyway.

TWO STORIES FROM ALONG THE WAY

LEVON HELM

Levon Helm, later of fame with 'The Band' backing up Bob Dylan gave us a personal vision of conway/harold and the delta rockabilly days. I was lucky enough to borrow his 1994 autobiography, This Wheels on Fire”. [2] There Helm tells of the local music scene that included ‘Elvis, Jerry Lee and ‘our own Phillips County hero Harold Jenkins, before he was known under his stage name: Conway Twitty.’ He also tells of then Harold and his Rockhousers performing at a local store opening where he and his sister sang a few songs before the rockhousers kept the crowd dancing with rockabilly. More importantly for Levon that turned into his first real public performance when Conway let him play a song when was appearing at a West Helena club and includes the following:

One night I'm in there listening to Conway Twitty and the Rock Housers, who were the best band around. Oh boy, were they. Conway was from Friars Point, Mississippi, but moved to Helena when he was about ten so his daddy could pilot Charlie Halbert's ferry. His first band was the Phillips County Ramblers, a country-style group but that changed when Elvis's "Mystery Train" inspired young Jenkins to begin writing rockabilly songs. He went up to Memphis worked with some of the Sun musicians, like Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee, and often came through our area with a series of good bands. ...

So I'm in the Delta Supper Club, and Conway's doing "Jenny, Jenny," and the place is just going nuts. He had all the rock moves—the stutter, the twitches, the strut—and the band, ..., provided a raw rockabilly jolt. Girls loved Conway's big, heavy-lidded good looks and long hair reminded 'em a little of Elvis.”

The next day Conway left for his Canada adventure.

OKLAHOMA CITY REAPPEARS IN THE STORY

Harold was Conway Twitty when he came to OKC to play at the old Springlake Amusement Park back then and gave me one of my few tastes of real rock and roll. I’m not sure if I was there for the time he caused a mini-riot there 1961. His friend Gene Jones tells the story and provides these two picture of one of the quiter moments.

When Conway appeared at the Springlake Amusement Park Amphitheater in 1961, a riot resulted with fans mobbing the stage and Conway retreating to a small building behind the stage that served as a dressing room. The band and other Members of the show barricaded the doors to keep fans away for fear of harm to him until Park Security arrived to restore order. After that show the Park installed an eight foot cyclone fence between the stage and the audience to keep that from happening again. From that time until the Park was closed several years later, the fence was known as the "Conway Twitty Fence.

So truth is Conway's rock and roll years are worth viewing and listening to, both for the music and to watch his hair style evolve.

footnotes

[1] His Army music days were documented by Gene Jones who played with him in the army in stories and photographs including one of Conway playing with legendary Kiowa guitar player Jesse Ed Davis. His website is good for stories and pictures. I have also used photographs from an 8 CD set which in fact has all of Conway's rock time music. The photos were provided to a newfound internet friend in Finland, Marko Velijalainen, who used some of them in some youtube videos of Conway's rock songs. I have these and a number of other links as a word perefect file if anyone wants to check it out.

2] From Gary Ackley, a long time Assistant District Attorney in oklahoma county, who, much to my pleasure, has always been willing to discuss much more than just the law. He and I both recommend the book for a wonderful range of stories from the front lines of the best of the rock world.

3] The later picture in bad color of Conway at springlake was provided by Kitty Houston who apparently is still singing around the city. She tells stories in her website about hanging out with him because she was married to one of his players.

2011-06-28T16:26:00.011-05:00

TWITTY BURGERS, ROCK N ROLL, POETRY AND THE LAW

go by 7200 south western in oklahoma city and you’ll see the current home of southwest monuments, a company apparently dedicated to entirely obliterating and ignoring the iconic status of their building in the history of oklahoma city music and restaurants, bad poetry and even bankruptcy law. the building was built in 1969 or 70 as the center piece of what the late conway twitty envisaged as a chain of restaurant celebrating his personal creation, the twitty burger.

we used to go there in my baby lawyer years and the place had genuinely good food - the first place I ever knew that served the now ubiquitous ham or other meat biscuit. at the time it entranced me as an almost illegal mixing of the biscuit and meat. the twitty burger itself was distinguished by inclusion of a breaded deep fried pineapple slice. maybe it would have done well ion the new era of bread and fry everything but it didn’t do much for me at the time.

the building itself was - and is - actually well done. an oklahoma city history blogger, who managed to publish before me, described it as: ‘western décor with rough hewn beams on a cathedral ceiling, natural stone and leather.”*

Steve Lackmeyer - The Famous Twitty Burger. the building was shaped like a ‘t’ and parking was under a ‘c’ shaped covered canopy - in other words, conway twitty’s initials were incorporated. part of the ‘c’ has since been removed. one of my most enduring memories was driving behind the c and t in the back and almost getting run down by conway himself in a cadillac convertible - he was there sometimes as I remember . this slideshow includes memorabilia of the restaurant and a goodby sign on another of conway’s enterprises:

early this year i ventured into the building in hopes of confirming my memories and discovered the interior still looked good. unfortunately this is where and when I got to deal with present property owners. actually i only got to deal with the owner’s daughter who worked there but i was denied an ‘interview’ with management and refused the right to take pictures. maybe i should organize a boycott of their business by avid conway fans, most of whom are probably perfect for their company demographics. but for now i propose to tell you two more stories in separate editions: the story of conway in his rock and roll years; and the postscript to the demise of the twitty burger chain which is a story in itself. stay tuned

p.s. when i do my blogs, i usually do a bunch of research which creates a word perfect file with copies of all my internet sources. i am happy to send them to anyone who wants to check further.

2011-05-21T14:46:00.004-05:00

take me home little blue, take me home

i haven't been here lately but i see there are new ways to use google, etc. to make short blog entries. so i'm using a story on some hard times for the little blue and a burst of energy helped by a wonderful penquin quilt from a special friend to slow down my facebook dependence and make something i can be permanently proud of. this is tentatively entitled: capitol hill - where elegant penguins live.
the sad story with an upside, people helping little blues for whom this blog is named - and a picture of their cuteness: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/20/la-nina-causes-mass-penguin-deaths-in-new-zealand/

2009-12-25T13:35:00.012-06:00

black hawk for christmas
in april 1832 black hawk began a year and a half that defy easy summary, heavy on the worst of times but with a sprinkling of the best. he had spent nearly 30 years fighting against white encroachment and an 1804 treaty allegedly giving up substantial land. in april he and his entire band recrossed the mississippi to go to those lands. this led to a period of white hysteria that became the ‘black hawk war’. It ended in august with a massacre of men, women and children and black hawk’s eventual capture. the ‘choleric’ winter was spent with 60 of his men including his son in a military post south of st. louis.
by contrast spring was spent in mandatory white man’s clothes headed east to meet andrew jackson and travel with him as his designated defeated indian. by june, 1833, "black hawkania" had swept the country and he was a public hero outshining jackson in various east coast cities. but he was in fact a captive headed back to imprisonment in wisconsin and white outrage greeted him more and more. before 1833 was over he had been formally placed under the authority of his political enemy keokuk and finally allowed to live in iowa until his death 5 years later.
as tiring as this time was for this great man, it turned out that a gift was being created for all of us - a chance to experience black hawk in a way that makes him almost real nearly two centuries later. a wonderful record of black hawk was made in media appropriate to the times, and now available online. a number of artists were given access to black hawk while he was a prisoner. he was able to dictate an autobiography thru a translator named leclair. a biography and numerous shorter publications memorialized his life and the black hawk war. a life mask was cast of him somewhere along the way. he was even subjected in 1838 to a phrenological portrait that was used to analyze him favorably in the questionable science of the times.

the images ranged from black hawk and his people in their own buckskin clothes or 'ribbon shirts, to images of black hawk in military coats, to those picturing him as andrew jackson really wanted in non military black coats. the latter included those who did so respectfully and managed to show his dignity particularly when side by side with his son in traditional garb. the contrast between black hawk in a frock coat and his son was part of what first attracted me to the gilcrease image. some of the images were simply bad art.
so my christmas present for the world today is a slideshow of some 30 images of black hawk with some notes on the images and artists afterwards. my primary thought and perhaps yours in looking at the images is that black hawk remains strong and dignified at 66 whatever he wears. his son remains loyal to him and the similarity between the two is striking. as an afterthought i give you an image of current sac and fox principal chief george thurman, a black hawk descendant with some obvious resemblance to him.

notes - some history of the artists and images in the slide show
george catlin really was good. go to the gilcrease or the smithsonian and you’ll see he went where indians were in the first half of the 19th century, including oklahoma - and he painted them as they were. like other artists he struggled to market what he had - and had a lot of it burned up in a fire at the smithsonian. he also got me personally past my inability to see real people in water colors.
catlin was the first to visit black hawk and portrayed him before he was jacksonized. he also offered an allegedly accurate image of black hawk’s funeral which is included in the slide show. black hawk is pictured sitting upright before a tree with a log wall surrounding him. i have not yet read whether catlin was in fact present at the funeral.
robert sully is the obvious opposite end of the rainbow. there are two images of black hawk here. one from 1833 and one from 1855. the first is political following the jackson symbolism of ‘westernization’ of black hawk. in 1855 he redid the picture obviously lightening black hawk’s skin and literally making him even more ‘an older, more wrinkled warrior’ and more white. quotes from the artist make clear his disrespect and detail his acceptance of the jackson symbolism.

james westhall ford. his image of black hawk, whirling thunder and the prophet has become special to me now because i have been granted a very good copy of it by a representative of the library of virginia.

charles bird king was another special artist of the time. he is perhaps best known for his contributions of water color/lithographs to the mckenney-hall portrait gallery of indians. the images there are consistently of noteworthy indians of the early 19th century apparently accurately shown in their best, only occasionally the jacksonian white man’s clothes. his mckenna hall image showed the ‘ribbon shirt’ image which i mentioned above and I’m not sure when he saw his. but it provided an image not strictly in the jacksonian frock coat which i think is good.
king in fact produced an oil image of black hawk that showed him in a buckskin shirt like catlin had. the original of the work is in a mississippi museum and is duller and black hawk faces left. an available copy is lighter and he faces the other way.
james otto lewis was another artist of the times imbued for a time with an official mission to portray indians of the the then midwest. the result was something he brightly called his ‘aboriginal port-folio’. his originals were also burned in the smithsonian fire so he can only be seen in. he painted black hawk in detroit in 1833 in a high collared blue military jacket sometimes with whirling thunder and the prophet. there are a number of other images in color or black and white which are either seem to be his or based on his works. he is said to have been the original artist for 27 of the 150 prints that were eventually published by mckenney[-hall]
the 1835 boston maybe lewis is a story being worked out as we speak. the image is from a wall in boston or cambridge. the website person where i found it has kindly provided me with three enlarged portions of the work. the first of black hawk’s face is so striking that i put it at the begining of this blog. another shows the name duval and sons of philadelphia as the lithographers; the port-folio was produced by lehman and duval of philadelphia. the blog author suggests that a nearby lincoln portrait may be from a long ignored office of a harvard professor: http://www.nine3.com/guestbook.html. I suppose this one might be also.

2009-12-06T20:01:00.005-06:00

xmas for the pengophileophile - 2009
i always have a somewhat tepid response to the ‘holiday season’. It probably began when i first noticed that having a birthday 3 days after christmas produced birthday presents less special than i thought i deserved. in my private practice life the season meant a decline in income as people decided presents for their family were more important than paying the family lawyer. then there’s the penguin thing - penguins are trotted out as part of the celebration and given to pengophiles like myself. but basically the penguins of xmas tend towards the schmaltziest or kitschiest - penguins as way too cute ‘collectibles’ [sic]. and the prior results in this blog have been consistent only in their inconsistency, except for referral to my favorite penguin cartoonist, jen. so for this year’s seasonal penguin angst presentation i offer possible purchases for people who love - or tolerate - people who love penguins. slideshow included. spread the word or take the hint.

1] the pooping penguin. baron bob who sells the pp says it all: ‘this windup candy dispenser will let loose tasty pellets (use small chocolate bits for the full effect) from his butt, even when he walks! we're sure kids will love him to bits due to the small presents dropped everywhere he goes.’ bob also offers the tum tum penguin plush cd/dvd holder [no picture] and the avenging narwhal action figure playset with interchangeable magical tusks and victim that allows you to impale penguins, koala bears, or seals on the single tusk of a narwhale. you’ll have to figure what they’re all doing in the arctic.
2] tactical nuclear penguin beer. it comes from a scottish brewery brewdog which claims this beer sets the new world record for the strongest beer at 32% alcohol content. per a warning on the label: "this is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. in exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a frank zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost." the brewers include a somewhat cute video about the beer showing them in penguin outfits. warning - they claim there will only be a limited supply.
3] penguin flashdrives. these are cute and would be helpful to pengophiles who use flashdrives between their home computers and public computers, e.g., at the law library. i would personally happily settle for the 1gb model, one of many from amazon. http://www.amazon.com/16GB-Rubber-Penguin-Flash-Drive/dp/B002CKC8ZG
4] everything from jen. the maven of the penguin cartoon has a variety of items from her home on café press. she has i brake for penguins bumper stickers like the one that begun me on my penguin internet wanderings. http://www.cafepress.com/pengcognito/

so if you don’t have a personal pengophile maybe you should find one. their love can definitely be bought by one of these.

2009-11-28T19:43:00.011-06:00

blackhawk, my mother and me - introduction

the long weekend gave me time to get serious about a story that i’ve long known i had to tell. it involves family, art, irony, and celebration of the life of a very special 19th century indian warrior - and a genuine story line.
makataimeshekiakiak, [in english: blackhawk or black sparrow hawk] a sauk, lived from 1767 to 1838 in the parts of the midwest that became wisconsin, illinois and iowa. then and now he has been described as one of the most famous of indian ‘chiefs’, but he was not a hereditary chief. his military exploits involved continuing defense of traditional lands and ways. his last battle was a defeat by a numerically superior force that included 2 future american presidents and jefferson davis in the infamous ‘blackhawk war’ of 1832. after his defeat andrew jackson attempted to humiliate him by forcing him to tour as a captive in white man’s clothes but he became more of an icon than jackson during the tour. his life is recorded in an autobiography, at least one biography,and more images than you can imagine.
but i knew nothing of all this 20 years ago when i first found my way to a now longtime super favorite painting in the gilcrease museum in tulsa. the painting was of two somewhat similar indian men against an unusual black background which emphasized their images. the older of the two was in formal whiteman’s garb; the younger was in traditional or warrior’s garb. the painting was the work of one john wesley jarvis and was entitled ‘black hawk and his son, whirling thunder’. my love of the work resulted in regular returns to it and my almost always having at least a small copy somewhere around my home. but it did not result in my pursuit of blackhawk, the man.
meanwhile, my mother and i maintained a dialogue about the white oklahoman indian creation myth*. originally she maintained the classic oklahoma indian ‘heritage story’ - descent from a cherokee princess. she slowed down on the story when i told her the flaws in these claims from indian people’s point of view and my own. but somewhere along the way she started speaking of a new, apparently more sophisticated, story. i didn’t pay much attention but tried to explain when she received what she considered an offensive/offended response to her letter repeating a new family myth about an ancestor from a distinguished ‘chief’ of a different tribe. at the time of her death it was one of our few areas of active misunderstanding and disagreement. after her death i found the sources of the claim including her research materials on the chief and her written summary. who was that ‘chief’ - blackhawk, of course.
today i began a blog journey to tell the story. the family part deserves a little time, but blackhawk deserves much more. so stay tuned for bwendo, the accidental historian. meanwhile here’s my first slideshow including the painting of blackhawk and whirling thunder, an image of blackhawk with some of his words, a bad copy of the response letter from a blackhawk descendant, a picture of my mother and me when the blackhawk blues band played for my last best birthday party and a picture of my very impressive great aunt who was supposed to be an example of the ‘indian look’ in my ancestors.

*a sly reference to the nonindian habit of labeling indian traditional stories of creation as ‘myths’. see,e.g.,

http://www.crystalinks.com/nativeamcreation.html. this from a people many of whom refuse to believe science based explanations of their own evolution preferring to rely on words in a 2000 year old religious text.

2009-11-25T21:54:00.015-06:00

IN 1974 OR SO I WENT TO OKEMAH - A WOODIE THANKSGIVING

I GREW UP IN OKIE LAND BUT SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE I FOUND OUT THERE WERE THESE PEOPLE WHO DIDNT ACCEPT THE OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN MYTH, INCLUDING A HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND BILL ALSPAUGH WHO SCOFFED ALONG WITH THE BRITISH ACTIVIST PHILOSOPHER BERTRAND RUSSELL. THE SIMPLE TRUTH WAS THAT THE CHRISTIAN WHITE OKLAHOMA THAT I GREW UP IN WAS WRONG A LOT OF WAYS. IT CRUSHED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE THAT I NEVER EVEN GOT TO KNOW.

I HEARD FOLK MUSIC AND THAT WAS ONE OF THE HINTS. BUT IT WASNT TILL I LIVED AGAIN IN NEW JERSEY THAT I GOT TO REALLY KNOW THAT FOLK SINGERS WERE ONE PART OF 'POLITICAL' PEOPLE WHO HAD SPOKEN AND SUNG OUT LOUD WHILE I LAY PROTECTED IN THE OKLAHOMA COCOON. `AMERICAN MASTERS TONITE HAS CELEBRATED WOODIE - I'M REMINDED AGAIN WHAT A MIRACLE HE IS. IN NEW JERSEY I MET PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY KNEW HIM AND WERE PRACTICING OLD RADICALS- ANNAMAE AND HERB. AND I HAD FOUND ARLO, THE SPECIAL SUN/SON. AND WHEN ARLO’S RECORD OF ALICE’S RESTAURANT INCLUDED ARLO AND PETE SEEGER, I WENT TO THE MOVIE AND FELT LIKE I SAW HIM AND THEM FOR REAL.
TODAY I SIT IN THE NEW OKLAHOMA AND WONDER IF THERE IS ANYTHING MAGIC HERE EXCEPT INDIAN PEOPLE AND WOODIE'S LEGACY. I FOUND THE HOUSE IN OKEMAH WHICH I NOW KNOW WAS ONE OF THE HOUSES THAT WOODIE LIVED IN - PROBABLY AFTER HIS MOTHER FIRST GOT KNOCKED OUT BY HUNTINGTON’S CHOREA. I WAS THERE ALONE AFTER HAVING HAD TO SEARCH AND ASK FOR THE HOUSE. AND I WAS THERE ALONE WITH NONLOCALS WHO WROTE ON THE WALL. THEY SAID WOODY WE LOVED YOU AND I DID TOO. AND THEN LATER OKEMAH ALLOWED WOODIE TO BECOME ITS HERO [PUT UP A WATER TOWER FOR HIM BUT THAT’S A WHOLE NOTHER STORY THAT ARLO SHOULD SING.]
PBS COMPARED WODDIE TO WILL ROGERS BECAUSE HE TOLD THE SIMPLE TRUTH ARTISTICALLY AND SPECIALLY. AND NOW I LIVE IN THE NEW OKLAHOMA WHERE WOODIE HAS A FESTIVAL IN OKEMAH WHERE ARLO COMES; AND OKLAHOMA CITY HAS MAPS AND AND INDIAN FOLKS HAVE OFFICIAL BARGAINING POWER. THE NEW OKLAHOMA SOPHISTICATION OVERCOMES MANY OF MY SPECIFIC OBJECTIONS WHICH ALLOWED & FORCED ME TO ESCAPE AND FORM MY SOUL. SO FOR A BRIEF MOMENT I HAVE TO ASK OR ARGUE WITH ANY POSSIBILITY THAT WHAT I HAVE CAME NATURALLY FROM HERE - AND I GUESS I WOULD HAVE HAPPENED ON WHATEVER WAY I WAS HERE. GOD DAMN IT OKLAHOMA I HAD TO FIGHT YOU FOR ALL THIS TIME AND ALTHOUGH WE HAVE MADE OUR PEACE WHILE I DO WHAT I KNOW IS RIGHT, YOU KNOW YOU’VE MOVED TWO STEPS FORWARD BUT YOU ALWAYS MAINTAIN THE RIGHT TO TAKE ONE STEP BACK. AND YOU CONTINUE TO FUCK OVER EVERY ONE THAT’S NOT YOU - AND WHEN I’M GONE YOU WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO. AND HOPEFULLY SOMEONE OR ONES WILL CONTINUE TO SAY THAT LIVING IN OKLAHOMA REQUIRES SPENDING YOUR DAYS SMILING WHILE YOU FIGHT THE RACISM AND PREJUDICE WHICH IS HERE. MAYBE THE QUESTION IS WHETHER THE CURRENT SOPHISTICATION HAS ACCOMPLISHED THE PRODUCTION OF PEOPLE WHO REALLY CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR AND WITH YOU WITH THE CALMNESS OF KNOWING WE’RE RIGHT AND YOU IN THE LONG RUN ARE ALWAYS WRONG. I‘M NOT SPECIAL BUT I DO WANT TO BE REPLACED. I AM SOMEHOW A PRODUCT OF WOODIE GUTHRIE AND WILL ROGERS ...AND OKLAHOMA. BUT DEEP IN MY HEART I SIMPLY CANT BELIEVE THIS PLACE IS ANY DIFFERENT TO FOLKS IT OPPRESSES THAN IT WAS LONG AGO OR THAT IT WILL PROVIDE SOMEONE NEW TO DO THE JOB I DO WHEN I'M GONE..
LLATER IN THE EVE AND THEY’RE CELEBRATIN PETER SEEGER’S 90TH BIRTHDAY ON PBS AND I’M GOING TO LISTEN. FIGURING OUT ME AND OKLAHOMA REALLY DOESNT COUNT IN COMPARISON TO KNOWING HOW LONG PETE SEEGER - AND WOODIE - FOUGHT THE FIGHT. THEY QUOTE PETE SAYING ON THE INAUGURATION THAT THIS ERA OF THE MULTI-CUTURAL IS TRULY TO BE CELEBRATED. WHO AM I TO SAY DIFFERENTLY

2009-10-17T14:00:00.007-05:00

penguin hoomer and the north pole faux pas

you've probably wondered when i'll revert to penguin stuff. here's some my kind of penguin cuteness that i happened on courtesy of b3ta.com, an english based website that operates as an outlet for a bunch of young computer players with creative skills and irreverence. one of those folks calls her[?]self mata and has a website with definitely interesting contents including cartoons, animations and corsets: http://www.matazone.co.uk/theotherside.html. the cartoon above comes from her. she also has a penguin flash animation that's good notwithstanding its inclusion of polar bears and the north pole and a non-upbeat ending:

http://www.matazone.co.uk/animpages/krark-the-penguin-animation.html. i'm trying to figure how to include it here as we speak.

i hope that mata will not be offended by reference to her arctic penguin faux pas. she dealt with it in a neat way in the animation. putting penguins in the arctic is an off repeated mistake and at least she didn't stick in any polar bears. i recently spotted a hundred year old version from france and i've included it above. i found it in an article talking about the equally old dispute over whether either frederick cook or robert peary was the first person to travel to the north pole: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Cook-vs-Peary.html. the article is a good historical tale. and there is no reason to point out that the claim ignored native 'discovery' of the area long before. natives apparently had had no reason to go to this inhospitable spot whose importance was mostly theoretical until being called into service by 'explorers'.

2009-10-10T14:08:00.005-05:00

love’s labo[u]r lost - meatloaf for the mind
i saw meatloaf on a closing season monk show a couple of weeks ago. the memory coils sprung back to some 15 years ago when i finally found my way to meatloaf courtesy of the jukebox at a no longer existing bar that treated me well. the loaf was, of course, the musical backstop of the rocky horror pic, the cult movie classic with an oklahoma branch cult assembling for years at the may theatre. the may was the saturday spot of my youth for movies and serials but i didn’t make it there in adult life probably because i didn’t have my big ol bicycle anymore.
meatloaf sang love stories that didn’t require you to be in love at the time. paradise by the dashboard light was one of the best. it was a rock operaesque retelling of love’s first gropes on the dimly lit streets and in the drivein movies. this was the rule in the late 50's of my growing up when all groping was forbidden and secret and the baseball - first base, etc, imagery was seriously understood. the object of my first love and hoped for lust was nancy hill and my attempts were made in just those venues. i came back to visit her from college to see her and be pictured with her and an unknown baby, not realizing that it was already over. the newspaper image is the announcement of her marriage - not to me. [i apologize to you and her, wherever she is, for the quality of the pictures.] meatloaf replayed the agony and ecstasy of the times wonderfully for me. so i take you there courtesy of meatloaf and youtube.

its not too far of a stretch to another meatloaf’s love insight songs which was also on my favorite list - 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. i think i should present it without comment:

finally a little perking up with jack black and meatloaf. i’ve noticed jack black popping up all over with old hair, rock and roll love and happy irreverence. wikipedia gives a good little history talking about his group tenacious d: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenacious_D. he seems a natural ally of, or inheritor from, meatloaf and in my last youtube offering there’s a direct connection. the video is called kickapoo in honor of a town in missouri and has meatloaf playing the straight father of a young rocker jack. the story-telling is as efficient and musical as a meatloaf song. and it will wake you back up after my words.

2009-10-08T21:03:00.006-05:00

and now for something mostly different

tired of my too cute penguins, try a website that’s dedicated to disapproving rabbits:

http://www.disapprovingrabbits.com/.

the rabbits there are obviously committed to disturbing their too cute anthropomorphized image. the titles are a little lame and unnecessary - but there’s still giggles there for us undeserving humans in pictures like the one above.
flowers are a less complicated pleasure. hibiscus are one of my favorites. my morning wakeup puzzle today from jigzone, http://www.jigzone.com/, was a hibiscus and here it is for you to play with. [it will route you to jigzone to work, so please come back if you work on it before you read on.]

p.s. the pythons of completely different are out and about again. They’re coming back for a special week on ifc and the times has a good article with current and past news about them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/television/04mcgr.html

here's a quote that taps into my personal history memory including beyond the fringe. i would apply the terms happily to my oklahoma growing up:

With the exception of Mr. Gilliam, the sole American, the Pythons all grew up in middle-class families in provincial towns and were very much a product of postwar British culture: cautious, decorous, respectable, nice. They wanted to blow it up.
“That culture wasn’t hard enough to be rigid,” [John] Cleese recalled .... “It was more stuffy — it was like wrestling with a sponge. I
remember going to see ‘Beyond the Fringe’ in 1962 and hearing screams of laughter. They were screams of liberation.”

2009-10-04T13:05:00.009-05:00

turn on the tv quick - rabbit proof fence
i spent the late morning watching one of my absolute favorite movies, rabbit-proof fence. i wrote quickly without much decoration to try to catch anyone who might want to see it at 330. now i'm to the after the fact edited edition to which i am adding a worthy youtube video
the movie rabbit-proof fence is a 2002 retelling of a true story of of the 1931 escape of three aboriginal girls from a boarding school and their 1000 mile trek courtesy of the rabbit-proof fence. american indians will make the obvious connection to their boarding schools. nonindians need not fear the underlying truths - the movie is beautiful and exciting and sad and wonderful.
here's some links and the promised video.

ifc on the movie:

http://www.ifc.com/movies/262133/Rabbit-Proof-Fence
imdb on the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252444/
a good trailer:
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi144572697/
the schedule for future showings on ifc: monday, oct. 19 at 11:00 am edt; monday, oct. 19 at 4:05 pm edt; wednesday, oct. 28 at 7:35 am edt; wednesday, oct. 28 at 2:35 pm edt.

and last but not ... a beautiful 'tribute video which mixes still from the movie and peter gabriel soundtrack material.

2009-09-27T09:29:00.012-05:00

john canny, words can not tell how i miss you

it was a week that began badly and hit bottom when i received a call telling me that my closest, but far away, friend, john canny had died from brain cancer. we often spoke of the perpetual choice between cynicism and optimism in the face of an all too real world. i suspect he would now gently smile watching me struggle to celebrate him with a broken heart.

we met over 40 years ago when we each were law clerks to federal court of appeals judges, his in cheyenne and mine here. he and his wife and son lived in evergreen colorado in a special house just far enough into the mountains to allow peace to him and his and to me and mine every time i came to visit. john began his life of lawyering and following the democratic political road. i bounced around towards being what was called a 'street lawyer'. we usually met at his place and i can easily say that every visit was special. i brought my life to him and his awaited me there. i watched the house grow always better and more comfortable always with the poster of young justin swinging. the many friends and family i brought there were always made to feel welcome and left better for their time there.

anytime i was there we eagerly talked and shared discoveries - and even without him i happily wallowed in his always increasing library. one of those mutual discoveries was kenneth patchen whose poem you see above. we shared personal joys and tragedies of all of our lives in ways that i believe occurred no where else each for either of us. and we experienced the joys of colorado.

in the more recent years there were fewer trips but the internet and the phone provided some measure of repeating those moments and keeping alive the friendship. when last i visited it was only for a short time about a month after the onset of the cancer and his first operations. he had newly imposed restraints of mind and body but i went home believing that my friend was still there and would be until i returned. of course, i was wrong to my eternal regret.

i believe that john and i were initially brought together by a kinship of heart about right and wrong. we both grew up in days when economic and racial discrimination and prejudice were the rule and the rules were enforced - and enjoyed - by conservative white protestant men. but our college age included the beginning of protest against all this and the brief presidential life of john kennedy gave hope that we could live life differently than our past suggested. our friendship remained because we each played out our resultant lives acting on these instincts, tempered with a determination to allow ourselves the joys of reading, listening and thinking. the sad irony that john was felled by an attack on his brain can not dull my belief that he lived a good life following thru on what he believed and had a marriage and family that he could be proud of. i will miss him as a special friend and a very special person.

a p.s. sitting alone late monday night still wrestling with reality after writing. i happen on the documentary channel showing 'the last buffalo' a wonderfully silent 30 minute flick that takes me far away magically until its conclusion. and i am taken back to a special moment flying in from newark to denver 35 years ago and going with john and jeanny to see another movie. it was after a snow and downtown denver was quiet and snow covered. we went directly from my plane to a showing of a movie called 'el topo' by a mexican director jadorowsky which i havent seen since but go back to in memories ever after. the mutual enchantment we felt with it was only accented by seeing something more mundane but popular the next day.

2009-09-20T15:14:00.015-05:00

nitebird art

saturday began for me with my usual visit to jen’s place. she offered on the rocks dedicated to her father and also mentioned that she has been ‘reallowed’ to offer her parody nightpenguins. apparently cafepress, through which she sells her penguintoons as posters, etc., had briefly concluded that she was actually selling edward hopper’s nighthawks. this sent me on a day reminding myself about hopper and the work and today you see the results on rosh hashannah which begins the jewish new year 5770.

i first discovered edward hopper during the early 1970's while living in new york and new jersey. i think i most hooked on to the sparse, big city and east cost reality including people who retained the precious anonymity i felt when i was there. neither i, nor they, needed to tell the story - or be judged for it - unless we felt like it. later i learned more officially about about the artist.
the chicago art institute, which houses nighthawks, describes hopper somewhat succinctly:

‘although trained as an illustrator, Edward Hopper spent five years studying painting under Robert Henri, a member of the Ashcan School of painters who focused on the gritty realities of the city. The Ashcan School influenced hopper’s style, though he tended to depict not the chaos of urban living but the sense of urban isolation.‘

and in an introduction to a hopper exhibit

'Edward Hopper (1882–1967), creator of art that novelist John Updike described as "calm, silent, stoic, luminous, and classic," is one of the most enduring and popular American painters of the 20th century. His paintings have been celebrated as a part of the very grain and texture of the American experience.’

nighthawks has been described as iconic and one of the most recognized american art works. it’s the cover art on my most recent american painting survey find. it also appears to be the most ‘covered’ image in art since the mona lisa. check out wikipedia and nighthawks revisiting and revisited.
one way or another nighthawks took over an even more special section in my when i found out something new in the immediate post 9/11 days. hopper painted nighthawks in 1942, the year of my birth and the year after the japanese pearl harbor bombing. apparently hopper began the painting immediately after the attack. it symbolized a generally dazed american public and perhaps the thought of an attack even on new york. i sent out an email to whomever which is now lost so today i’m happy to try the blog way of keeping my discovery around.

p.s. that's van gogh's night cafe trying to take over the art spaces at the top; sorry the real nighthawks is so small.

2009-08-24T09:04:00.012-05:00

the law according to parkinson, rodriquez, moore and bwendo
yesterday a newspaper story about filmmaker robert rodriqeuz reminded me of my continuing love for something called ‘parkinson’s law’. rodriquez’s mother had taught her son to get into multiple projects by citing her rule ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy man’. momma rodriquez’s law was a presumably unintentional update of parkinson’s first announced in parkinson’s law, a 1955 tongue in cheek article written in the economist by one c. northcote parkinson.

'it is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. thus, an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and despatching a postcard to her niece at bognor regis. an hour will be spent in finding the postcard, another in hunting for spectacles, half-an-hour in a search for the address, an hour and a quarter in composition, and twenty minutes in deciding whether or not to take an umbrella when going to the pillar-box in the next street. the total effort which would occupy a busy man for three minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person prostrate after a day of doubt, anxiety and toil.’

in 1958 parkinson used the concept and name as the basis of a best-selling book which a wikipedia bio says ‘led him to be also considered as an important scholar within the field of public administration’.* the law itself maintained speed over the years and apparently developed a new following and even opposition in the computer/internet age.* a writer calling himself ‘lazy man’ applied parkinson to space/clutter and personal finance and has informed me the comparable term is ’lifestyle inflation’. are your resources swallowed up by parkinson's law?. he also came up with my lead picture.
a less sanguine author wrote wrote debunking parkinson's law which seems to stem from a belief that parkinson had actually written a law. parkinson himself came up with a couple of logically similar sayings: ‘the man who is denied the opportunity of making decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to make.’ and something called the law of triviality.
in 1960 i began securing a liberal arts education in the guise of a freshman year at the wharton school of finance and commerce. in the class room of one of my dearest professors, richard rowan, i was first exposed to parkinson’s law and i repeated it at various times for the next 40+ celebrating both it’s meaning and applicability and the fact that it had been delivered as a ‘law’ with classic british humor.
a few years ago i discovered that i had been regularly misquoting the original law during one of the more interesting interactions i ever had with an oklahoma judge. i was in the blaine county courthouse in watonga, oklahoma, during a no court time. I was visiting with judge mark moore and somehow we got around to talking about parkinson’s law. we ended up doing a kind of google-off looking for the original statement of the law and i found out that i had substituted the word ‘allotted’ for parkinson’s ‘available’. judge moore and i both agreed at the time that there was a corollary of the law - a shorter time available for a task often results in its completion more efficiently. judge moore then incorporated the latter version of the law into a an inspirational judicial directive to lawyers moving a bit slowly - and, for better or worse, let parkinson and me share credit for the concept.
but i meander. i must exit because it seems i have followed bwendo’s blog and other writing law - the work of writing expands so as to exceed the time available for its completion

* parkinson continued a successful career in the area until his death in 1993. a couple of side notes suggesting other aspects of his life: 1] the northcote parkinson fund, now called the train fund, sponsors a civil courage prize honoring very special people. a lyndon larouche backer claims larouche was the victim of a conspiracy involving parkinson, john train, and the fund and paints a politically bizarre picture of all three: john train and the bankers' secret government. 2] on the other hand a fan of his fiction tells us that parkinson wrote both naval historical fiction and his own take on p.g. wodehouse’s jeeves character: happy birthday, c. northcote parkinson

2009-08-22T18:23:00.007-05:00

footprinz - a youthful king penguin.

official title or reference - 'leave only a footprint', as in the "eco-traveller’s mantra" . i sense a better message if we allow for the possibility that the penguin may not believe the footprint should be there at all.

2009-08-17T07:09:00.011-05:00

égalité and anatole

"autre motif d’orgueuil, que d’ tre citoyen! cela consiste pour les pauvres soutenir et conserver les riches dans leur puissance et leur oisivit . ils y doivent travailler devant la majestueuse galit des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain."

an august weekend indulging in my somewhat predictable melange of physical and mental meanderings with penguins and the computer always lurking. then came the convergence moment which i love so much. the result is an opportunity to begin a blog with one of those nonenglish quotations that imply sophistication in the writer.
i never put together two things i knew about a nobel prize winning french writer who chose the pen[guin] name of anatole france. françois-anatole thibault lived from 1844 -1924. wikipedia describes him as a french poet, journalist, and novelist. ‘ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal french man of letters.’ his official nobel prize bio has a formal history of his literary life which concludes coyly: ‘in his later years france became increasingly interested in social questions. he protested the verdict in the dreyfus case and developed some sympathies for socialism'
it seems that monsieur france and i share a healthy disrespect for the religion of our upbringing, christianity, and a perhaps resultant appreciation for irony* to help deal with its omnipresence. france let his feelings out in a wonderful satirical novel which i am finally reading on line as the weekend goes on. it’s the only novel i know of featuring my little flightless friends: penguin island. in it france tells us about an aging nearly blind priest who lands on an island inhabited only by penguins and mistakes them for humans needing baptism in his faith. his actions provoke a meeting of the divine powers that concludes the only solution is to convert the penguins into humans**. so far i have read what happens as the now human birds are lead to the need to wear clothes and have their own property. i wont force feed anyone his description of the results and their religious base except to note that they do fit with my own preconceptions.

france is also responsible for another literary statement of things i myself believe. i have long quoted one english version of the quotation i started this thing with.

"the law, in its majestic impartiality, forbids the rich and poor alike to sleep under the bridges of paris."

france identified a basic flaw in application of the principle of equal treatment of disparate people. today, as in his time, the law creates crimes and procedures that fall harder on minorities and the poor. a current bad example: paying for your jail stays. in many cases they are more likely to have orders to pay for their jail stay and less able to pay while richer lighter defendants are less likely to go to or stay in jail and can buy a more comfortable incarceration.
it recently occurred to me that there is also a parallel fault in those cases claiming ‘reverse’ discrimination against white people and/or males. i’ve always been deeply offended by this whole idea. i have lived thru the time when discrimination went from an unchallenged norm to a time when the constitutional protection of equal treatment was brought into ‘real’ law by being acknowledged in statutes and judicial decision. there have been positive results - can you say barack. but those claims are part of a recent history of coopting and undercutting of the protections. suddenly equality is what lawyers sometimes call black letter law - law that must be enforced literally. those who received the benefit of discrimination now receive the benefit of laws against it. the fight against real continuing discrimination is demeaned by reinforcing the right of all to sleep under the bridge.
i wonder what blind justice translates to in french

* "irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom."
** france’s description of the formal conclusion reminds me of the comments of bertrand russell who first taught me that i need not believe everything i was told: "'let us not deliberate any longer,' said [god]. the opinion broached by gentle old hermas is the only one conformable to my eternal designs. these birds will be changed into men. i foresee in this several disadvantages. many of those men will commit sins they would not have committed as penguins. truly their fate through this change will be far less enviable than if they had been without this baptism and this incorporation into the family of abraham. but my foreknowledge must not encroach upon their free will.
in order not to impair human liberty, i will be ignorant of what i know, i will thicken upon my eyes the veils i have pierced, and in my blind clearsightedness i will let myself be surprised by what i have foreseen."

2009-08-09T11:28:00.007-05:00

birthdays and betties
sunday, august 9, the 89th birthday of betty the boop, two days after the unlisted birthday of a special friend and colleague who retains the formal elizabeth officially. for this sunday morning i offer a minibirthday party for both of them complete with a picture of a white hibiscus for all of us.
i have now lived and worked in the capitol hill area of oklahoma city for at least 30 years. when i arrived there were still remnants of its past as the home of lawyers who represented the indian, white and hispanic, often poor, people of south oklahoma city, which was itself an unknown and unloved foreign country to my northside upbringing. southside economics picked up and eventually many capitol hill lawyers prospered and moved, often further south.
capitol hill itself caught little of the new economics except for the influx of hispanics and the rich variety of businesses they support. but elizabeth richards and i remain the 2 survivors of the old era, still happily basing our legal lives here. she continues to practice probate and domestic law in a wonderful office converted from a home on commerce street while i have occupied various spots around the intersection of commerce [southwest 25th] and robinson which officially define capitol hill. for her friendship and help over the years my gift to her is this page and two appropriate betty boop’s cartoons: betty’s birthday party from 1933 and judge for a day from 1935.

2009-07-26T15:08:00.006-05:00

sunday musings while wondering whatever happened to volney meece and why i haven’t made it to the indian hills powwow locally or the blackeyed pea festival in athens, texas [southeast of dallas, right past gun barrel city].

the opening line there is a takeoff on what my memory says a longtime daily oklahoman sports write, volney meece, used to say: ‘midweek musings while wondering whatever happened to ....’ the line would be a spring board each time to his reminding me and the rest of oklahoma about some temporarily forgotten person in sports history.

volney meece went from tonkawa, to norman and ou sports, to oklahoma city and the daily oklahoman and times and eventually served 21 years as the executive director of the football writers association of america, who created a scholarship in his honor that keeps his name alive now . He was a member of the oklahoma sports hall of fame. he also was one of the few people to have created a later occasionally imitated phrase - he reported a diminution in oklahoma city university basketball talent in 1985 as the bottom dropping out of the 'talent bucket'. the only pictures online of him do not reflect what i remember as a somewhat jonathan winters like friendly round face.

when he died in 1995 his friend and student max nichols memorialized him in Focusing on Success Made Volney Meece Great, that perked my memory bank. it talked about his choice to report the positive in sports and provided one quote that seems destined to be repeated when i write about more modern times and news reporting in general:

'He is one of few newspaper men and women who managed to avoid becoming a cynic or an expert.'

but it nichols description of meece's reporting which reminds me of how he made me happy and the era i grew up in:

'Sports pages once were enjoyable _ an escape from the real world of war, crime, corruption, budgets and all the problems that go with money. Volney joined The Daily Oklahoman and Times staff during that era _ in 1950, when Bud Wilkinson was at his peak as University of Oklahoma football coach and the Oklahoma City Indians played baseball in the Texas League.'

this was my growing up story. we went to every oklahoma football game and believed the sooner myth even when notre dame destroyed the 53 game winning streak. and i worked at texas league stadium, home of the oklahoma city indians, for 2 years and imagine now that i saw him in the press box. my memories of him are also contemporaneous and consistent with mike mccarville, a troglodyte whose blog is presumptively irritating otherwise. [link on request] but he was part of my happydays memories and i quote a bit more of nichols article with respect and a hope that i would be judged well by his standards. anyone with a back then picture or the accurate opening quote please contact me.

'He called his column "So They Tell Me," and every day he managed to lace his column with several yarns that brought chuckles. It was great for the digestion of readers like my father, who read the Times after dinner every evening before television led to the death of afternoon newspapers. He disliked the strikes, problem athletes, prima donnas and increasing emphasis on money as much as anyone, but he never lost his sense of humor about it. In the press box, he would joke such things, but he rarely complained about them. At the same time, he maintained his stance as a professional reporter. He avoided the temptation to become an expert _ a major pitfall for sports writers. He reported on what others said and did, rather than what he thought should be done, through four decades of covering champions and losers alike. He accepted the humanity of coaches and athletes.'

2009-07-19T14:33:00.005-05:00

ps on owm and sontamayor

after completing the entry below, i decided to look for a cartoon to add. a daily oklahoman entry got the most space on google, as folks all over the country tried to figure out whether it was racist, stupid, poorly conceived, or all the above. check out a local lawyer of interest's take on it along, with the cartoon itself and a good array of comments: okc law dork

in the end above you see relevant 2007 and 2009 cartoons. blogger insists on putting them at the top against my wishes.

2009-07-19T12:28:00.008-05:00

[old white] mens and sonia sotomayor - the ‘honorable senators’ from alabama and oklahoma put the moron back in oxymoron

a choctaw woman i know had a wonderful way to express women’s somewhat jaded response to the silliness of my gender. she would say with simple exasperation ‘mens’. as the honorable sonia sotomayor faced questioning by male senators, she would have probably been happy to say the same thing, perhaps making it ‘old white mens’.
oklahoma’s dynamic owm performed predictably: tom coburn, the doctor, tried to play lawyer and then dropped in a ricky ricardo joke/quote - would he have dropped in a stepnfetchit joke line if clarence thomas - or barack obama - was testifying. tulsa world.
jimmy imhofe decided early against her and made sure the hearings didn’t change his own bias.

’From the outset, I have opposed the nomination of judge sotomayor based upon her record and past comments. the theater of this hearing does not change that.’

of course he was speaking of the wise latina woman quote which provided the fodder which the owm ran into the ground. it was up to one jefferson beauregard sessions iii* , a son of selma, alabama, to symbolize the ultimate intellectual and moral depravity of their performance and position. in 1986 sessions and sotomayor were both nominated as federal judge by ronald reagan. both had been federal prosecutors and to varying degrees advocates for their own people. no one found sotomayor's prior advocacy inappropriate and she was approved. sessions record of unbelievably prejudiced/racist remarks and actions was so offensive that even the not notable senator from alabama who had sponsored him voted against him and his nomination died in the judiciary committee. shan .
before these hearing, sessions said he was was hurt by accusations that he was a racist back then and said that use of accusing sotomayor of being a racist was not appropriate now. the briefing room but of course when the hearings began he was right up there with the rest of the boys using her comments to call her a racist in fact if not words. all these guys’ shenanigans brings out a response that’s been sitting in me for a long time. I’m not going to thank them for it but i am going to offer my own words and then turn the stage over to a white woman and a black man whose comments I’ve only barely been able to edit down.
This is the most recent example of my mind and heart wandering to thoughts of the good/bad old days of out front prejudice when you didn’t have to look behind the words and deeds of white men and institutions for racism and sexism. i still remember cringing when i first heard heard the term ’discrimination’ applied to white males when injustice to minorities was finally being partially remedied. the underlying concept was bogus then and is still now - but it has become enshrined in the law and everyday life. offense against prejudice expressed in derogatory language or jokes has become ‘political correctness’. elimination of prejudice and discrimination in our society and institutions has been subsumed under terms like ‘multi-cultural’ and ‘diversity’.

notmine comments: maureen dowd talked about a ‘gaggle of white republican men afraid of extinction’ in her white man’s last stand

'After all, these guys have never needed to speak inspirational words to others like them, as Sotomayor has done. They’ve had codes, handshakes and clubs to do
that.
...
Like the president who picked her, Sotomayor has been a model of professorial rationality. Besides, it’s delicious watching Republicans go after Democrats for being too emotional and irrational given the G.O.P. shame spiral.
W. and Dick Cheney made all their bad decisions about Iraq,
W.M.D.’s, domestic surveillance, torture, rendition and secret hit squads from the gut, based on false intuitions, fear, paranoia and revenge.
Sarah Palin is the definition of irrational, a volatile and scattered country-music queen without the music. Her Republican fans defend her lack of application and
intellect, happy to settle for her emotional electricity.
...
And then there’s the Supreme Court, of course, which gave up its claim to rational neutrality when the justices appointed by Republican presidents — including Bush Sr. — ignored what was fair to make a sentimental choice and
throw the 2000 election to W.
Faced with that warped case of supreme empathy, no wonder Sotomayor is so eager to follow the law.'
From a huffington blogger:

Never have I wanted more to throw a brick through the screen of my television.
But yesterday's cavalcade of conservative GOP Senators decrying Sotomayor's statements about her heritage and the role of judges in making law -- boldly honest statements she had to know would come back to bite her someday -- also
reinforced that age-old Republican canard, that conservative and white people don't make decision based on their culture. It's what I have often called the privilege of being generic.
When Chief Justice John Roberts reaches back to his heritage and personal values to make decisions, he's simply allowing timeless principles to guide his thinking. But Sotomayor using the experience of being the first and the only in so many places of power is shrugged off as bias -- an unforgivable unfairness for GOP Senators, mostly because it doesn't benefits their causes.

eric deggans
ps. there may or may not be a cartoon at the to p of this page. i decided to google for an appropriate one and was brought back to the daily oklahoman's bizare most 'internetted' entry. check out a local lawyer of interest to see the cartoon and her and others' take on it:
* yes, that really is his name.

2009-07-03T09:22:00.009-05:00

i'm home, dear
oh, were you gone
i suffered cyberinterruptus a month ago
oh that's what it was

this particular holiday celebration has never excited me. both terms in 'liberty and justice for all' always strike me as somewhere between inexact and irrelevant to the real world. but i always enjoyed the quality time the 4th gives me with my puter. and this time i can celebrate my return to the net with unabashed joy.

three noteworthy additions
1 - i'm now living on the second floor so i get to actually watch the free fireworks show for the first time while listening to my neighbors celebrating their liberty with real guns.
2 - i'm working hard at getting down adding my liberty slideshow to today's blog and with a little luck it will appear in the final version of this blog somewhere along here.

worth 1000 runs 'contests' to encourage photoshoppers to play with photos on particular thems. they recently ran one i've called their most recent one liberty redux using the statute of liberty as a base. somewhere within or elsewhere, there was a suggestion that the white house press office should have simply photoshopped airforce one on a pic of the ol girl instead of sending the real thing by for a flyover. at least obama wouldn't have had to apologize.
3 - and that provides me a not bad seque to some good ol gw irony. even in the new era, living in oklahoma still invites comparison to living in utah with baptists substituted for mormons. and northwest oklahoma had a firm lock on redness way before it became symbolic of your politics rather than the color of your neck*.
so it shouldn't surprise me that gw should take the lead from richard nixon and pick the area for public return from an ignominious end to a presidency. nixon went to enid; gw is going to the 4th of july rodeo in woodward, oklahoma, as part of his going to small venues with 'real' folks plans. here's some notes from the washington post story:

WOODWARD, Okla. (AP) — When the middle-of-nowhere town of Woodward invited George W. Bush to its Fourth of July celebration, no one really expected the former president to accept. But he did. Now this community of 12,000 is scurrying to get ready for what some locals are calling the biggest thing ever to happen to Woodward, a place where cattle outnumber people.
...
About 9,200 tickets have been sold, which would be the biggest crowd for Bush since he left office in January. Over the past five months, Bush has made about a half-dozen public appearances. He seems to especially enjoy rubbing elbows with regular folk. He paid a visit to a Dallas hardware store in February. Three days later, he dropped in on a political science class at Southern Methodist University.
Asked why Bush accepted Woodward's invitation, his spokesman in Dallas, Rob Saliterman, said only: "President Bush believes there is no place better than Woodward, Oklahoma, to celebrate the Fourth of July and looks forward to being part of this event."
Though Bush left office with a dismal 34 percent approval rating, he remains popular in Oklahoma. The state hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and was the only state in 2008 where every county voted for Republican John McCain. Bush carried 81 percent of the vote in Woodward in the 2004 elections.
"Maybe some young kids and old Democrats didn't vote for him, but I think the rest of us did," said Kris Day, who owns The Cowboy's Tack Shop with her husband. ...
Seats for the speech range from $25 to $500 for the "Oval Office Ticket," situated in the first rows, close to Bush, VIP parking and
complimentary beverages. ...

*note to self - remember when conservatives used to affiliate red with badness and communism.

2009-05-17T10:42:00.008-05:00

postscript on flight and anthropodenial

as usual on sunday morning, i began the day by looking for what gifts wiley miller and gary trudeau had left for me overnite. i discovered wiley had provided me an afterthought to yesterday's edition. he combined the fantasy of flight with a gentle, but all to real, commentary on a current example of human's lack of superiority to animals. i offer it as a link, non sequitur today, since i haven't yet mastered the art of getting non sequitur to fit on my page.

meanwhile i'm already in love with anthropodenial as a word and concept. in my lawyer world i work with professionals of all sorts who deny their part in the system's discrimination and prejudice and clients who deny how they've taken their anger out on others who don't deserve it.

on a more personal level, i hear the denial of the holocaust by certain loudmouths and cry when i some special people deny their own anti-semitism. appropriately a jewish congregation offers another special non sequitur on the subject which it calls simply in memoriam.

the author of my newly discovered term finishes his piece with an appropriate last word:

we must be very careful not to exaggerate the uniqueness of our species. The ancients apparently never gave much thought to this practice, the opposite of anthropomorphism, and so we lack a word for it. I will call it anthropodenial: a blindness to the humanlike characteristics of other animals, or the animal-like characteristics of ourselves.

2009-05-16T19:51:00.012-05:00

anthropodenial and flightless creatures

this is [ad]man’s newest attempt to prove that penguins not being able to fly on their own can be made into a pretty good bit of humor that might sell something. the first part is right and probably the second too. this is the always mixed blessing of human's enjoyment of my little flightless friends and other creatures.

check out this official analysis from adweek that manages to 1] use ‘anthropomorphize’ and a bad pun in the same sentence and 2] ignore penguins and humans equal inability to fly on their own. then see if the wikipedia piece seems relevant to you.

The star is cute and this Pepsi spot packs a potent visual punch from start to finish. But why would BBDO choose to anthropomorphize such bird-brained behavior to tout a soft drink in the first place? The tagline, "I can," provides as good an answer as any. This approach makes about as much sense as polar bears pitching Coca-Cola -- but that proved popular, so maybe it's a smart strategy for these beverage behemoths to flock together. --David Gianatasio
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of uniquely human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, natural and supernatural phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. Subjects for anthropomorphism commonly include animals and plants depicted as creatures with human motivation able to reason and converse, forces of nature such as winds or the sun, components in games, unseen or unknown sources of chance, etc. Almost anything can be subject to anthropomorphism. The term derives from a combination of the Greek (ánthropos), "human" and (morphe), "shape" or "form".
Humans seem to have an innate capacity to project human characteristics in this way. Evidence from art and artifacts suggests it is a long-held propensity that can be dated back to earliest times. It is strongly associated with the art of storytelling where it also appears to have ancient roots. Most cultures possess a long-standing fable tradition with anthropomorphised animals as characters that can stand as commonly recognised types of human behaviour. The use of such literature to draw moral conclusions can be highly complex.
Within these terms, humans have more recently been identified as having an equivalent opposite propensity to deny common traits with other species—most particularly apes—as part of a feeling that humans are unique and special. This tendency has been referred to as Anthropodenial.

2009-05-03T09:46:00.010-05:00

sunday morning with hank, betty and connie

a sunday morning with trial preparation and legal paperwork pending. serious blog work must await another day. luckily no-work saturday gave me two simple pleasures with which to celebrate the beginnning of another may.

first a tulip from a new found blogger friend from kansas city whose blogs and connections are worth a visit on any day when our beauty sensors need recharging: q - walking in beauty .

then an unlikely coupling of hank williams and old cartoons on youtube which works well enough for me to offer two twofers for our other sensors: jambalaya with ms. boop and move it on over with a distinguished detective.

happy may wherever you are.

2009-04-25T18:47:00.005-05:00

lozzy penguin day - april 25, 2009
april 25, 2009, is a a special day in history. first it is the day when lozzy, alias stephanie, second oldest of the grandchildren on the benefield side, reaches the magic age of 18. second it is national/international penguin day.
of lozzy, i’ll hold off the long version. the important thing is that she is a beautiful intelligent person who has fought the powers that be for many a day and today achieves legal control of her life which she richly deserves.
of penguin day, a variety of happy stops. A few years back i wrote to penguin types about the unofficial penguin day. there were actually at least two different claimants for the prize. today when google reminded me of the day, i found that the variety was in uses of the concept. One of those is so good that i must feature it and give you links to the other celebrations.
a woman named connie celebrates penguin day with humor and history - and links it to chocolate. her happy penguin day 2009 is the kind of page that really deserves to be seen by itself rather than quoted. but, of course, i have to include some of it and there’s really nothing that can be left out:
penguin day began many years ago when someone at nwc (naval weapons center in ridgecrest, california) became aware of the migration habits of the antarctic penguin, the harvest cycle of california strawberries, and the shipping data of worldwide chocolate exporters.
On april 25th of every year, the formally-clad penguins of the antarctic continent begin an incredible northward migration. Penguins are unique in that they are the only migratory birds that don't fly (they swim). They are also unique in that unlike, say, the crested egret, apparently penguins don't take migration all that seriously. In fact, the
penguin's migratory habits are an embarrassment to most instinctively compulsive species. They start their migration in that same wonderfully grand fashion that, say, the canadian geese do. On cue, in synchronicity with some mysterious call of nature, penguins of great number and varied breeds all dive into that "wild blue under" and head north.
Curiously, they only swim about a hundred miles or so from the ice shelf (or whatever) and, after enjoying an extended "krill break", they all shrug (as only penguins can) and seem to lose interest in migrating. After bobbing about for a while like millions of undecided, leaderless penguins (which they are), they all head back south and are home by suppertime.
Incredibly, on april 25, on that very same day that the penguins are involved in the above-described odyssey, the great california strawberry harvest takes place. More strawberries are picked, washed, and boxed up in the san joaquin valley on that day than in all other places worldwide all year long.
Finally, just to round out the symmetrical convergence of these otherwise unrelated events, the world's biggest chocolate exporter, nestle, always ships its greatest tonnage of chocolate during the week of april 25th. It all has to do with cocoa bean futures, swiss bank practices, and international export regulations.
One may be hard-put to imagine another day of the year that
cries out for recognition more eloquently than does april 25th. We call it penguin day.
a hockey fan from philadelphia does an almost as cute bit on happy penguin day 2009 while waiting to see if the pittsburgh penguins will eliminate her team from the stanley cup playoffs. they did and she deserves a quick look at least in sympathy.
on the technical side of the world: first, it turns out that a bunch of computer folks with good politics have a super-organized set of events which make today national penguin day . i am nowhere close to being able to literally understand what they are doing. but i do know that they seek to keep the internet free to the people in the tradition of the original internet developers and
linus torvalds
. torvalds is the maven of linux and he and his followers have always been the natural enemies of microsoft and the internet as big business. i learned about torvalds early in my penguin internet searching/learning because he made tux, the penguin, the mascot of linux and one of my first internet guides was a young english woman who sold his software. today i learned we share the same birthday.
second, i refer you to a page about a german company that has developed a robotic penguin] which the author says ‘ must surely get the prize for most awe-inspiring robot of 2009.’ I always thought the japanese had the lock on penguins [batz-maru] and robots. little did i know the germans have been making penguin robots for a while and now have one that swims and can communicate with its robot penguin siblings. check the site for a youtube video - i won’t impose it on you.
happy 18 darling lozzy. happy penguin day world.

2009-04-12T15:06:00.008-05:00

willard stone - bwendo's silence and awe

sculpture isn't usually a form of art that leaves me speechless. the late willard stone is a cherokee whose sculptures in wood have created a series of happy silences - often while looking for words to aim at various friends along for a trip. the first stop was at the gilcrease and i think i was alone. the sculptures were in the middle of others but they grabbed me. dark reddish wood made into beautiful long and lean horizontal and vertical sculptures.

along the way i spotted a series from the 1940's reacting in a personal but political way to the first a-bomb and atomic power. the picture at the top is our atomic baby' in this pic from a 2002 gilcrease trip with my friend patann.

later i ventured to the official willard stone museum outside of locust grove with my friend gladys. it's actually the old stone home and studio where his sculptor son and family kept him alive in a real way.

last thursday may have been the nicest willard stone surprise of them all - and the reason to write today. i went to the gilcrease with my sometimes sculptor and potter friend calvin and there was a major exhibit devoted to stone's work and life: Willard Stone: Storyteller in Wood. thomas gilcrease was an early patron and the museum was the perfect place to put together a really complete exhibit. it included a large number of works which is a wonderful to really see and feel him.

it also included pictures and stories in his personal history. one surprise item - like django reinhardt he lost parts of his fingers on one hand and later converted the loss to part of his method.

the exhibit also created a dvd which i actually purchased which repeats his personal and gives you a chance to see the sculptures from all sides. as a commentator this is one of the things that is special about them - they are beautiful no matter which way you look at them.

from the exhibit and my net looking when i got home i found out more. one more happy surprise was that he was part of a white house exhibit during the clinton years and they linked him with that other love of mine [and tulsa's] - art deco.

for now i'm suffering html difficulty and can only promise to talk a bit more latter and to offer some links that i can't seem to get working now. but i do want to suggest you go to the exhibit if there's any way you can. the gilcrease is always special but this is one step up. i am available to go along and talk of not as you wish.

2009-04-12T14:11:00.003-05:00

a quick addition to penguin animations - penguin graphics
i just stumbled on this page which has a bunch of penguin gifs, some animated and some not. it also includes penguin backgrounds and headers/lines which i don't know how to use. i can't get the html code right to make it a sophisticated link so i'll repeat the url for you to copy into the browser. pengophiles will find it worth the extra work. the rest of you feel free to go on to the next blog, rollin in my sweet baby's flippers.
http://www.webcreationsbyjumpy.com/gifs/animalgifs/animals/penguins/penguingifs.htm

2009-04-12T13:14:00.004-05:00

rollin in the morn
the memory of leon russell singing flatt and scruggs' 'rollin in my sweet babie's arms' visited me last nite and i determined to offer it before today's official blogging. i offer you the youtube version from the record where i first heard it and links to 3 other versions.

If that's not enough for your check out a page from internet archive with a 1971 one mic instrumental version, leon and buck owens, and junior brown, ricky skaggs and more.

2009-04-05T09:58:00.009-05:00

don't poke the penguin - my continuing penguin/puter saga

most people who know me personally know that, starting around 'the turn of the century'*, i learned the internet by really learning about penguins and vice-versa. today i offer the latest result of that matching. [*i really like to say that.]

i've wanted to share my anti-poking animation for some time but i just didn't know how to install an animation in a blog. [actually there's an interactive version of don't poke that will take more learning.] blogger help and my near adult granddaughter stephanie pushed up my learning curve and i found you do it by embedding the animation from one of those internet 'storage sites' like photobucket. it turns out that i already had one of those housing my way too extensive collection of penguin animations. a little cleaning up and updating and i am now prepared to offer a few of my favorites hoping it might entice even the non-pengophiles to look at more of them at some other locations.

MONKEY BALL:

RESERVOIR PENGUINS - stephanie's favorite:

ICEMAKER - my other favorite pengie joke:

more penguin animations online - you can copy from all of them to your own computer as i did back when for some of my current collection:

mony’s curry and potluck - animations. from sweden - one of the original penguin supersites and the first really good collections of animations i found. get it while you can. she's going to have to shut down in august.

penguin dance - all penguins all dancing. diabetics beware.

bwendo’s penguin animations - the remaining 130+ i didn't inflict on you. most of the best are up front.

2009-03-29T10:25:00.008-05:00

a grammatic response in capitol hill

i shared with my mother a joy in the oddities of the english language as written properly and improperly. oklahoma court history provided my most usual explanatory example - the 50+ years before someone figured out the implication of having a 'criminal court of appeals' and changed it's name to 'court of criminal appeals'. today i officially dub that almost automatic response to this kind of thing a 'gramatic response' and note that the joke is sometimes on me.

in grade school the designated teaching media was the film strip, a set of images projected on a screen one by a teacher with a clicker. it is only vaguely comparable to the slideshow of today and probably even some 40+ers don't remember the form. one of those taught be an apparently simple truth in what i think was the 5th grade, a picture of a capitol dome was forever linked in my mine with the proper spelling of that particular form of government building, the capitol with an ‘o’. i didn't come up with any such specific image for the other capital with an ‘a’. the irony was that i learned this lesson in the state with the capitol that didn't have a dome. now years later oklahoma has a dome, i live in capitol hill named after the building a developer hoped to house here, and i am left with a need to detail my grammatic response to the words capitol and capital - a phenomenon that occurs more than i care to admit.

a new oklahoma supreme court opinion in this week's bar journal was the actual catalyst for this blog effort. justice yvonne kauger is on my a list because of her relationship to, and support of, oklahoma indian people before and after becoming a justice. last week i read where she backed into the classic capitol mistake by quoting a former justice:

"¶22 Perhaps the most strikingly similar cause is the case of Johnson v.
Walters, 1991 OK 107, ¶22, 819 P.2d 694, wherein the challenged legislation involved two sections which empowered the Legislature to allocate space in the State Capital Building and to relocate various state officials, and a third section which authorized the sale of surplus water from Sardis Reservoir." Fent V. State ex Rel. Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority, 2009 OK 15.

reading this i realized it was time begun my research online in preparation for the definitive blog on the subject.

the first step was oklahoma state government. two items in an oklahoma governmental summary netstate- oklahoma confirmed my theory but gave me my first clue to miss [emphasis added of course]:

On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was admitted to the union. The state capital, Guthrie, was moved to Oklahoma City in 1910.
OKLAHOMA CAPITOL BUILDING: Location:Oklahoma City; Date Erected:1915-1917; Dome:2001-2002.

next i journeyed to definitions to confirm my capitol dome theory. merriam webster on line assured me that capitol means a building in which a state legislative body meets or a group of buildings in which the functions of state government are carried out; or when capitalized, the Capitol in washington. the word capitol, it seems, came from the latin 'capitolium', the temple of jupiter in rome on the capitoline hill. but again there was a clue in the definition for me to miss.

so finally it took another online dictionary, the free dictionary, to teach me i was both right and wrong. capital means economic capital, big letters, murder for which the penalty is death, and a british adjective for a good thing. the roots included the latin word for head. but the most important part of the definition of capital which i missed is this: a town or city that is the official seat of government in a political entity ... [or] , the center of a specific activity or industry ... [e.g. a] financial capital'.

so now i'll continue my reeducated grammatic reaction to printed misuse of capitol/capital and hope you join in this one and others. by the way the picture at the top shows the oklahoma state capital company in guthrie which wanted to house the capitol and be the capital and in the end got this company which at least had the decency to spell its name right.

2009-03-29T08:46:00.008-05:00

start the day with a non sequitur smile
i'm not a particular yahoo fan. i started yahoo email early because it was free and bill gates didn't own it. but i'll always pick google for a search and most everything else i can think of. one exception: my 'my yahoo' homepage which allows me to start the morning with 3 cartoons. my perhaps predictable personal choice: doonesbury, non-sequitur, and pat oliphant. to varying degrees all three allow me to smile in the face of the real world by mixing whimsey and a point of view. doonesbury, in particular, regularly teaches me. the current series taught me about a concrete result of bush’s war - aphasia and tbi [traumatic brain injury] in iraq veterans before i knew much about it. [check out Veterans Affairs: About Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Brain Injury in Iraq’s War Veterans if you want the in-depth course.]
for this particular Sunday its non sequitur which made me chuckle as you see above.

2009-03-21T17:43:00.004-05:00

moving graffiti

i was amazed by this the first time i saw it and it gets better on reviewing. i happily do not know what the artist wants to say if anything. the video is everywhere but i can't yet find the original website. here's a nice little description: 'MUTO an ambiguous animation: animation and editing by blu. assistant sibe : music by andrea martignoni :produced by mercurio film'.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

2009-03-21T13:08:00.004-05:00

aig+ or what we forgot to tell indians before they signed the treaty
i remain somewhat tongue-tied in response to the depression. I don’t have stocks or 401k’s to see plummet. i don’t have an employer to tank along with my job. i mostly have clients who are made even poorer by the trickledown. i do remain amazed by the absolute lack of shame shown by rich folks and their media and corporate manifestations. one of these causes me to talk a bit - the claim that the aig bonuses are untouchable.
if there is any simple lesson of the day to day practice of the law it is that the written law whether from statutes, constitutions, administrative rules or judicial opinions is ultimately only words. The day to day working of courts and systems affected by the written law require working near it but not following it literally. it is the background music, but not necessarily the theme.
i work mostly within the criminal law court systems. there regularly procedural niceties are ignored and plea bargains made. defendants do not receive the absolutes of constitutional and statutory protections. law enforcement is not allowed to arrest people knowing that they will be punished exactly in keeping with the written law. lawyers and judges find they can occasionally use the written law as the basis for their position and actions. but we all gain something from acknowledging that the written law is only as good as the situation allows.
so perhaps its not surprising that i cringe when i hear the claim that the contracts between a corporation and it’s resident malfeasors to pay them a so-called bonus in spite of their lack of performance trumps all. the lawyers who gave this advice and the clients who accepted it are basically all foolish. for them and anyone who cares to dabble in legal yacking, i recommend a times oped thing in which a professorial type sets out the various things they didn’t think of: A.I.G.’s Bonus Blackmail.
there’s another theory i’ve seen mentioned. these people need to be kept around because they’re the only ones capable of declawing their own monstrous creations. making this the basis of these people’s future would at least add a little truth to the farce. if i was their lawyer, i might suggest that a lotta mea culpa and return of the bonuses might allow them to become part of the cure with whatever benefits accrue to their souls and maybe pocketbooks. unfortunately they’ll probably ask ‘what would rush do?’ and ignore my advice.

2009-03-14T09:36:00.013-05:00

happy pi day+
saturday morning with 3 - count em 3 - generations of benefield women in the immediate area - 4 if you count the continuing impact of my mother margaret jean benefield on my surroundings. later on i'll happily find nick spitzer and american routes on the internet in a continuation of the love of music old and new which she began in me. more about that later.
but first a new discovery: pi day.
it took me a little time to figure out why 3.14 is pi day. there's a group that doesn't have to go pack to its mathematical memory to figure it out. they actually want to know how many of the infinite numbers of pi you've memorized. they have a few other clues on how to celebrate pi day. my daily bleed provides a better description of pi and its day and a quote from some other intellectuals on the subject:

1998 -- US: Pi in the Sky?: At the Exploratorium in Frisco, California, mathematicians assemble, as usual, to celebrate pi (3.14159 etc.). One of probably dozens or maybe hundreds of such assemblies worldwide at which people sing songs & recite poetry about pi, have pi trivia quizzes, & eat pie. (Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, is a
mathematically irrational number, & is thus considered to be a symbol for the mystery of the universe.)

Moe: "When the roll is called up yonder I’ll eat pie."
Curly: "Pi r²?"
Moe: "No, pie are round; cake are square."
Curly: "Oh."Moe: "No, O are round, also ."

i probably won't spend too much time pi'ing but i guarantee i'll spend quality time later in the day with american routes after finding when it's on on the public radio link over on the right. as i probably mentioned before, nick spitzer who is american routes attended the same college as i did. for this reason my latest alumni magazine includes an article on him and the show: digging routes. i recommend the whole article if you have the time and interest and include the introductory portion that speaks to me as a true believer and a show description by spitzer himself:

A Saturday afternoon, maybe a Sunday. You might be driving;
you might be in the kitchen chopping onions. The radio is on, and when you notice the hour, you flip it to a certain NPR station, just in time to hear the rolling opening bars of “Tipitina,” Allen Toussaint’s interpretation of the Professor Longhair classic.“You’re traveling on American Routes, from Basin Street Station in New Orleans,” comes the voice-over: "songs and stories from the bayous to the beltways, from crossroads to crosstown, from coast to coast.” The voice, which belongs to Nick Spitzer C’72, is at once laid back and revved up, friendly but
erudite, somewhere on the wry edge of folksy. As Jelly Roll Morton breaks into “Doctor Jazz,” or Nat King Cole slides into “Route 66,” or Louis Jordan digs into “Five Guys Named Moe,” Spitzer offers a teaser of the week’s installment. It might be the Medicine Show, with rollicking songs of lovesickness and snake-oil healing; it might be Classical Routes, with the likes of Gershwin, Gottschalk, and “Concerto for Cootie”; it might be The Spirit World of New Orleans, with odes to voodoo queens and interviews with Fats Domino and a Louisiana Creole healer. Or it might be a live performance of Arlo Guthrie’s “The City of New Orleans,” as he and Spitzer ride the train of that name, riffing down to the sea.Whatever—for the next two hours, if it’s at all possible, you’re not budging. You’re cruising.

Spitzer himself describes the show as a “Creole document,” explaining that “it contains Creole music, like Zydeco and the roots of jazz; it
contains creolized forms, like the way that Klezmer or country music and rock ’n’ roll represent minglings of culture to create new music out of old traditions; and it’s an assemblage of many different styles that makes the totality of what is a kind of aesthetically creolized, purposely creolized, mixed and mingled document.”

here's a couple of other all purpose blues sites with history and music connections: blues history and the blue highway
i'll close with a seque i think is worthy of the name. roy rogers and dale evans are part of my way back musical history including their signature 'happy trails to you'. during my psychedelic period quicksilver messenger service brought it back to me in a way which, as they noted, blew my mind. after a rambling and wonderful trip around 'who do you love' they provided a 'coda' of a soft happy trails. i can't find a video version of the latter, so here's the original by roy and dale:

2009-03-08T10:24:00.007-05:00

st penguin's day - irish notes

my claim to 'heritage' happily includes ireland and the irish. i put heritage in quotes to differentiate myself from the ubiquitous oklahoma nonindian claim to 'indian heritage'. i did not grow up in any way irish and my claim to a relationship with things irish comes from consuming and enjoying ireland as delivered to me in books, movies and sounds. i do not choose to insult the irish by claiming i are one whether or not i may have an ancestor who was in fact irish.

my penguinista friend jen [see her link to the right] gives me a chance to prepare for st. patrick's day with some words and a pic that combines two of my loves - penguins and the irish - without claiming i am of penguin heritage.

first a moment in the catskills with my lost new york friend tom hoffman and his family. when bernice and i travelled to new york with our new van and 6 children back when, tom and kathy took us to an 'irish festival' . the festival is like a number of summer tourist drinking events nomiminally dedicated to an indentifiable group. this one however also includes first and later irish expatriates. they demonstrate the absolute angsts of being irish and of being a hyphenated american [cf. american indian.]. they fervently sang 'give ireland back to the irish' and then were just as loud when the song was 'god bless america'. they have escaped - but can not escape - the agony of the 'troubles', the 200 year long reaction to great britain's claim to own ireland and its people. . there is an interruption to the violence but within the week there has been more. i mention all this in part to recommend one of the most beautiful and sad short stories i have ever read: frank o'connor's 'guests of the nation'. it is the story of two new ira recruits assigned to guarding two captive british soldiers who they are ultimately ordered to kill after all have interacted as people. it obviously speaks to the sadness of war - implicitly it also speaks to religion as the basis for war and conquering between neighbors. i couldn't find it online but i unabashedly recommend the story for real reading.

in more modern times 1972's 'bloody sunday' united rockers from both side of the pond to sing against the british in ireland. u2 and beatles john and paul all sang out and in fact it was paul who wrote the first song the irish americans were singing. i'll close with his version of the song and a recommendation that you read wikipedia's account of bloody sunday that gives a capsulized history of the day and the troubles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)

2009-03-07T17:35:00.004-06:00

evolving 1

in 1960 i left the littlest big city in the west to go to school in philadelphia. i found numerous new joys including row houses, real public transportation, people who were different in appeance, sound, and religion from me and philly steak sandwiches. all were important in freeing me to become who i am.

still they were dwarfed by an intellectual experience that would probably be called an 'epiphany' today. i came to know evolution thru a series of classes including one loren eiseley. i found it to be a beautiful, elegant, yet simple, explanation of my existence. perhaps most importantly it made it unnecessary to confront what i consider the obvious foibles of man and christianity. i was free to do and be what i wanted to be and determine my own moral path

this year is the 200th anniversary of darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the origin of the species and a long time since my evolution moment. i want to think and write about it all. for now i offer this wonderful image to you.

2009-02-19T07:45:00.005-06:00

a pengie puzzle to start the day courtesy of jigzone. i get one every morning by email to wake my fingers and brain:http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/2009-02-19

2009-02-16T18:07:00.005-06:00

wish i'd said this

We Are a Nation of Junkies Hooked on Media-Fabricated Outrage

I'm not sure if it's because we're strung out on "Lost" episodes, or if it's because we're still suffering from a post-9/11 stress disorder that makes us crave "breaking news" alerts, or if it's because the economy has turned us into distraction junkies. But one thing is painfully obvious after Michael Phelps' marijuana "scandal" erupted last week: Our society is addicted to fake outrage -- and to break our dependence, we're going to need far more potent medicine than the herb Phelps was smoking.

If you haven't heard (and I'm guessing you have), the Olympic gold medalist was recently photographed taking a toke of weed. The moment the picture hit the Internet, the media blew the story up, pumping out at least 1,200 dispatches about the "controversy," according to my LexisNexis search. Phelps' sponsors subsequently threatened to pull their endorsement deals, and USA Swimming suspended him for "disappointing so many people."

America is a place where you can destroy millions of lives as a Wall Street executive and still get invited for photo-ops at the White House; a land where the everyman icon -- Joe Sixpack -- is named for his love of shotgunning two quarts of beer at holiday gatherings; a "shining city on a hill" where presidential candidates' previous abuse of alcohol and cocaine is portrayed as positive proof of grittiness and character. And yet, somehow, Phelps is the evildoer of the hour because he went to a party and took a hit off someone's bong.

As with most explosions of fake outrage, the Phelps affair asks us to feign anger at something we know is commonplace. A nation of tabloid readers is apoplectic that Brad and Jen divorced, even though one out of every two American marriages ends the same way. A country fetishizing "family values" goes ballistic over the immorality of Paris Hilton's sex tape...and then keeps spending billions on pornography. And now we're expected to be indignant about a 23-year-old kid smoking weed, even though studies show that roughly half of us have done the same thing; most of us think pot should be legal in some form; and many of us regularly devour far more toxic substances than marijuana (nicotine, alcohol, reality TV, etc.).

So, in the interest of a little taboo candor, I'm just going to throw editorial caution to the wind and write what lots of us thought -- but were afraid to say -- when we heard about Phelps. Ready? Here goes:

America's drug policy is idiotic.

Doctors can hand out morphine to anyone for anything beyond a headache, but they can't prescribe marijuana to terminal cancer patients. Madison Avenue encourages a population plagued by heart disease to choke down as many artery-clogging Big Macs and Dunkin' Donuts as it can, but it's illegal to consume cannabis, "a weed that has been known to kill approximately no one," as even the archconservative Colorado Springs Gazette admitted in its editorial slamming Phelps. Indeed, it would be perfectly acceptable -- even artistically admirable in some quarters -- if I told you that I drank myself into a blind stupor while writing this column, but it would be considered "outrageous" if I told you I was instead smoking a joint (FYI -- I wasn't doing either).

That said, what's even more inane than our irrational reefer madness is our addiction to the same high that every pothead craves: the high of escapism. Nerves fried from orange terror warnings, Drudge Report sirens and disaster capitalism's roller-coaster economics, our narcotic of choice is fake outrage -- and it packs a punch. It gets us to turn on the television, tune in to the latest manufactured drama, and drop out of the real battle for the republic's future.
the article comes to you courtesy of an organization called Alternet which offers a variety of interesting out of the ordinary online articles with what some would probably call a liberal bias in their analysis. i subscribe and check out what catches my eye.

2009-02-08T09:51:00.008-06:00

today's latest from one of my favorite comics non sequitur. the artist hates lawyers but uses a bit of lawyer-like latin joke for his title. i have him on my 'my yahoo' page along with doonesbury to start even the worst day with a knowing smile.

visiting the official non sequitur home page will give you a larger version of the cartoon [in case you can't read it here] and some good comments. one of the better ones:

take away the insects and in 50 years the earth dies. take away the humans and in 50 years the earth flourishes

wiley, the cartoonist, has some words himself.

my response to this and many other non sequitur cartoons: a sense of irony is necessary to respond to life as lived by humans. it is a nonsequitur - it does not follow.

2009-02-06T12:13:00.012-06:00

renaissance richard

i'm proud to have had richard whitman as a friend for many a day. his resumes accurately describe him as an 'artist, actor, poet, and community activist and commentator'. lately he has added 'active grandpa' to those credentials. he is an undeclared keeper of the names and family relations of indian people all over the united states and canada. lately he has added 'active grandpa' to those credentials. hence the 'renaissance' thing.
today's words are devoted to the most recent multiple richards.
first we go to richard the actor. richard has become one of the actors working with a wonderful young seminole filmmaker sterlin harjo. i loved sterlin's 'four sheets to the wind'. richard began the movie by dying but went on to narrate in creek/seminole. now sterlin has made what might be called a prequel 'barking water. its the story of an earlier time in richard's character's life and richard and casey camp are the primary characters. the flick was at the sundance festival successfully and hopefully will be on our local screens soon. check out the official website and the trailer: barking water

on the flip side richard has been backed in to a recent series of events that give insight into oklahoma's true relation to indian people. when two young girls were killed in a small town in the same county where sterlin harjo was born. the horror at the killing was automatic and universal. however finding the perpetrator has proved impossible so far. along the way law enforcement folks published a drawing of a so-called person of interest. the drawing was of a 30ish indian man with long hair wearing a ball cap. the result was a state of paranoia/interest among law enforcement and the nonindian public whenever any indian man with long hair and a cap appeared near them. richard received some of this backlash more than once even though he was disqualified by age from the profile. he spoke out along with others. but the story took a personal bizarre turn for him when a journalistic faux pas turned him into a former 'prime suspect'. check out the native american times story post correction: Racial profiling follows Weleetka murders

in richard's honor i, for today, amend one of my regular comments on life: none of us gets much 'creative control' over the movie[s] of our life.

2009-01-20T07:34:00.006-06:00

the day in history - random thoughts
maybe i need to call this bittersweet two. check out the comments already down there from a thoughtful 'younger than those of who cant help but remember how we got here generation'. the moment, the day and Barack and Michelle Obama were perfect. he wove together everything and everyone. he was everything george bush and his minions were entitled to by birth and education but never were.
but in some sense the question is why this is so extraordinary. and why did this country continue to indulged in racism, discrimination against everyone, and a lack of beauty and soul for 40 years after the civil rights movement, american indian movement and other brave people spoke the truth to the government and people.
but for the moment i will focus on the sweet. i have walked and been inspired by the singing of 'we shall overcome' in an oklahoma city church before a march, bette midler's singing of 'gotta have friends' before a gay rally in washington square, folksingers singing woodie guthrie's 'this land is your land' and american indian singing, poetry and speech. and i listened to recordings of bill broonzy singing 'if you're black...' which was expanded so magnificently by a true civil rights veteran to my joy and that of barack obama
it's not for me to determine whether my actions lived up to the what these moments should have inspired. but i do know that january 19th and 20th, 2009, were better days than any of us deserve. thank you barack obama and all those who have gone before you.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

2009-01-19T12:13:00.003-06:00

say goodnite george - remember the nixon

some 30+ years ago, i stood at fisherman's wharf in san francisco with a happy crowd celebrating the exit of richard nixon from public life, the presidency and washington. i suspect that's the first time i truly began to understand the word 'bittersweet'. there seemed to be some at least poetic justice to nixon's exit in disgrace. but actually nixon's own words in an earlier exit told more than we wanted to hear.

'I leave you gentleman now and you will write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know — just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, ...' press conference after losing the election for governor of
california, (7 november 1962)

nixon did leave us with his mess not to return until a public appearance in little ol enid, oklahoma, in support of outgoing governor henry bellmon. my political junkie father took my mother to that event even tho he was an adamant and lifelong democrat. enid and northwest oklahoma had been the red state portion of oklahoma before it became a statewide phenomenon. enid was the home base of my mother's side of the family and the only small town i visited regularly during my childhood.
[the only 'citation' i could find for the event: http://paperson.blogspot.com/]

fast forward to this day in history when george bush continues to make his own version of a cheesy exit that for me is both satisfying and irritating. he has done badly and left a terrible legacy for his successor. but i and some others have lost the special joy of sharing our distaste for him. we will no longer be able to enjoy the wonders of the jokes about him that the new technology gave us. they and he now pass into the artifact stage of history and our individual selves. my original intention was to offer a few last humorous images of him. but at this moment that seems as unnecessary and inappropriate as pursuing the crimes he and his folks committed against us all. face it friends we simply won't have george bush to kick around anymore

2009-01-03T13:35:00.005-06:00

betty boop and the wayback machine
my morning wanderings have given me an old penguin cartoon from betty boop's creator, a website by which you can find lost websites and a penguin website that will allow me to impose my penguin love a little bit less on this particular blog. i'll pass these on as links along with a musical suggestion.
the wayback machine is part of the internet archive, a wonderful place to look for things by itself. the wayback machine allows you to search for lost or discontinued websites. check it out at: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
the 1937 penguin cartoon is called peeping penguins. it came from max fleischer's fleischer studios which is most famous to me for its relation to betty boop. the archive includes other betty boop cartoons which you can navigate to thru his name if you look at this cartoon: http://www.archive.org/details/Peeping_Penguins_1937
for the penguin crowd here's the link to all about penguins. http://allaboutpenguins.ning.com/
and finally my musical note. i continue to love american routes for its wonderful weekly show which acts out its new orleans base in an amazing array of real american music. i end up catching it on saturday afternoons often. to see if its on check on the my public radio link on the right and see what else is on on public radio on the net.

2008-12-31T10:23:00.009-06:00

words fail me as 2008 ends.

the yin and yang of the 2008 to 2009 cusp seemed to require some comment. then the classic dickens, 'it was the best of times, etc.' popped into my mind. i factchecked my recollection and found the whole quote was more than worthy of repeat. so today i offer it followed by a wonderful youtube piece. together they speak to my thoughts and mixed emotions today.

'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we are all going direct to heaven, we are all going the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities on its being received for good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.' Charles Dickens, the opening words of A Tale of Two Cities written in 1859 imagining the days of the french revolution some 70 years before.

New Lang Syne 2008 [Thank god It's Over]

Courtesy of Larry 'avguy' at filmstrips original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkkCJpJiEhk

2008-12-28T07:34:00.007-06:00

DECEMBER 28, 2008, AND I AM 66
its 7:30ish and a small but nice sunrise follows a yesterday rain.
the year seems determined to blow my mind up to the very end and my birthday morn continues to provide the agonies and ecstasies which i suppose define life. i wish for my friend john who soon will get to go home from the hospital in denver after surgery that is the first part of treatment for a condition we didnt know he had until a week or so ago. and my thomas is home from denver beginning a long regime of physical therapy from the wreck that took his mother from us. the family continues give both warmth and fears that dealing with its agonies will be part of my personal and legal job description until the end.
in the end i am above all still here because of - or in spite of - my factory second body. and i suspect i will still cling hard to my determination to find joy and beauty everywhere and every day. and i bet life will continue to support my plan and make it a challenge.
so today i begin with the always wonderful cbs sunday morning show. and i read my email and find my distant friend jen has published her pengotoon today rather than on saturday and every part of it feels like it was written for me: http://pengcognito.blogspot.com/.
happy whatever day it is to you world.

2008-12-25T22:53:00.001-06:00

senior music videos +
here's three animated videos that are - dare i use the words - oldtime sweet. first two music videos. then one not so oficially musical that allows about as much romance as i can enjoy these days. their common source is a place called frogprintz that might be somewhere in texas. http://www.frogprintz.com/

amphibian blues

nite cafe

a time for love

2008-12-25T16:29:00.002-06:00

2008 PENGO PICS FROM LITTLE BLUE [PICTURED ABOVE]

xmas day 2008. bernie and i have been cooking the official meal very slowly and deliberately. it seemed like a good time to organize my 2008 penguin pics and publish them. so i decided a slideshow added here would do so and allow those less enamored of penguins to look quickly and get a giggle or two. the problem is this required me to learn and practice. and it turns out i'm gonna have to do just a little more learning and trying so for now i can only offer a quick link to my slide show. but i'll keep working on getting it over here for easy viewing.

http://bwendo.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=6915682&AlbumKey=Cvndz

2008-12-24T09:23:00.001-06:00

EARTHSTRUCK

a new york time editorial strikes me as a nice 40 year lookback appropriate for the beginning of a 'holiday season' that leaves me not quite sure what or how much i want to think. so i offer this along with a special greeting to some friends who aren't here with me in okie land at the moment - thomas littlebird, john canny, tommie rose cravatt, tom and kathy hoffman.

Earthstruck
December 24, 2008
Editorial

Forty years ago today, the crew of Apollo 8 gave the planet what this page called “an ennobling Christmas present.” The astronauts — Frank Borman, James A. Lovell Jr. and William A. Anders — orbited the Moon, beaming pictures home in two live broadcasts, one in the morning and one later that evening. They read the first verses of Genesis, then signed off. “Goodbye. Goodnight,” Colonel Borman said. “Merry Christmas. God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”

Much has been made of the well-timed solace that the broadcasts gave at the end of a horrific year. From Vietnam to the Middle East to the streets of Paris, Mexico City and across the United States, the view from the ground was bloody and bleak. But not the view from afar.

“To see the earth as it truly is,” wrote Archibald Macleish on Page A1 of The Times, “small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold — brothers who know now they are truly brothers.”

Ah, optimism. This page felt it keenly, likening Apollo 8 to the discoveries of fire and the wheel. Our editorial looked ahead to the moon landing in 1969, then to the building of moon bases that would be a steppingstone for manned voyages to the planets, “even to distant Pluto.”

It hasn’t worked out that way. Humans have outdone themselves with unmanned spacecraft, of course, sending probes far beyond distant Pluto. But manned space flight quickly went down a dead end, with an aptly named shuttle making trips to an orbital parking lot about 240 miles up. (Apollo 8’s voyage to the Moon was 240,000 miles, one way).

War, poverty, disease, genocide are still with us. Humans have not evolved beyond greed and foolishness.

The world may never again be able to gaze at its photo with awestruck wonder. But two startlingly fresh images of our planet come to mind. The first is the virtual globe that appears when you open Google Earth. The planet as information tool, waiting to fly you anywhere you choose. The other is a haunting image from the movie “Wall-E” of a brown husk left lifeless by consumption.

The real Earth seen from the Moon is surely as lovely as ever, even with thinner ice caps, smaller forests, fewer gorillas and tigers and a few billion more people. We are still brothers and sisters in the eternal cold, but increasingly connected by invisible threads, able to see — and hear and understand — one another as never before. That, at least, is reason for optimism.

2008-12-19T21:27:00.002-06:00

friday nite and team penguin works quietly to prepare for saturday

somewhere in new york state, jen, the world's most dedicated penguin computer artist prepares the cartoon that will bring joy to her fans on saturday morning. we've never met and probably never will but we each enjoy the other's expression of appreciation of penguins. it seems the least i can do is a little penguin inserting while she does the same but with originality.

actually i probably should consider the holiday season a celebration of penguins. i don't really qualify for hanukkah, christmas or kwanzaa. but it is the time when the penguins appear magically everywhere. so why not offer up some of my own.

first i lead you to jen's blog site that shows both this week's cartoons and some of the wonderful and usually hilarious penguin products she sells online. http://pengcognito.blogspot.com/

then i offer one youtube evil penguin xmas thing and two ads with nice penguin tales. the bbc ad offers the penguin fantasy - flying. the guiness is a special story 2 penguin buddies with a nice surprise ending. at the bottom of youtube you can end up watching related videos there are links to other related videos just like you you were viewing the video directly on youtube. these are not part of my official show but the guiness ad leads you to two of my favorites which i can recommend - the penguin mother on the ice with her yellow [?] chicks and the penguin and the ostrich. if you liked the evil penguin one you might well get into some of the other down on christmas videos like 'depressing times funny christmas card' and the country classic ' dammit i'm vixen.

i'll offer an link to a mastercard christmas ad with a penguin star even tho they have the bad taste to keep youtube from allowing them to circulate the ad. sounds like more free advertising to me, but i don't have a mastercard. to quote my words to master card in the comments section on youtube: 'there's some things you don't need money to buy.' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liGKqk3Ay1g

2008-12-18T20:23:00.000-06:00

the original green
i noticed back when that its was hard for people who were within a few generations of the irish homeland to decide what it meant to be an irish american is. one place i heard consecutive singing of 'give ireland back to the irish' and 'god bless america'. in oklahoma its more clearly fiction or fantasy to claim to be irish. its like the folks who claim indan based on their 'heritage'.
so i'm a happy irish lover without claiming i are one. i go for the joys given me in irish fiction, music, movies, political passions and views of the land.
in that spirit i offer you a chance to hear broadcasts from radio ireland. originally i had the little video itself but they seem to be recycling the same shows so i'm going to change to just offering the link to get you there: So far this hasn't worked as a link so for the moment i'll put the url in and you can cut and paste if necessary: http://www.liveireland.com/

2008-12-17T19:39:00.001-06:00

the new plan and clifton chenier

newest plan. write something everyday if possible and clean it up later as necessary. get an email way to send out alerts until i can find a better way.

decided to look for some background evening for my night and thought of zydeco. its an old love of mine. one of the nicer live moments in my history was hearing rosie ledet at the no longer existing teddy's.

today what i found was a web site called zydeco online which offered music online and an homage to clifton chenier on the anniversary of his passing - transitioning - with a video. check out site and the video if i can get it on for your pleasure
http://www.zydecoonline.com/dev/index.php

2008-12-15T08:34:00.001-06:00

penguin games

penguins have always been the subject of games on the internet. the cute thing seems to bring out something strange in game makers except for those who actually like children. there is also a regular tendency to make the classic mistake - mixing polar bears and penguins even tho exist only on opposite poles
today i offer a few of the more fun and/or most notorious. for you non pengophiles consider showing them to your younger grandchildren and then maybe play them secretly if you want.

poke the penguin. this really isn't a game - just a little bit of fun and minor tension relief. i'm trying to add it directly to this thing but the html the website tells me to add is rejuected here. [help anyone?]
http://gamesville.com/html_downloads/pokePenguin.php

slide the penguin and other games. yesterday i happened on a new site with a bunch of penguin games and the unlikely name, magicafro.com. here's a link to a simple game which i haven't yet learned slide the penguin:
http://magicafro.com/playgame/15797/sliding-penguin.html
search the site for 'penguin' from the home page and you can find 13 more with thirteen different images of penguins. at least one contains the mandatory polar bear and another allows you to help the penguin deal with the effects of global warning. The description of the most interesting: Do you have what it takes to save the world from an Alien Invasion dedicated to stopping Christmas?
http://magicafro.com/

yetisports alias pingu throw. this is perhaps the most famous penguin game of all times and the most imitated and stolen. it even has its own wikipedia entry. unfortunately the penguins [pingus] do not do well at all. they are battered and tossed about unmercifully. but it is the most famous pengin game.
Yetisports (also known as Pingu Throw) is a web-based Flash game that originally appeared on the Internet in January 2004. The goal of the original game is to have a yeti smack a penguin with a club and try to get it fly as far as possible. The original Yetisports game features no name other than the words "1978 Reinhold + Yeti", a reference to Reinhold Messner's claim to have found Yetis.
The game is humorous and addictive at the same time and therefore very popular on the Internet. Very soon after release, there was a quick succession of many variants created by multiple people on the internet. None of these are officially sponsored by Chris Hilgert, even though many copy the original almost exactly save certain small changes. [Wikipedia]
Here's the link to the real yeti sports site: https://www.yetisports.org/
Play on mcduffs - i'm sure there will be more nominees in the future.

2008-12-12T20:35:00.001-06:00

pictures at my own exhibition
i've sometimes hoped that our brains function somewhat like computers and our memories are simply files buried out of our immediate reach. i fantasize that someone will find a way to allow me to internally replay the feelings of those special moments in my life that i recall but don't actually remember. the computer model suggests to me a way but i have no real idea if my guess is right or possible 'in our lifetime'. its for the moment simply a nice 'logical fantasy'.
and then on the same day i happen on two relevant stories. first i read that '[japanese] researchers ... have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor.' the scientists are said to imagine the benign use of the technology for assisting the creative processes and therapy.

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain.
and then i happen on a blog in something called adlab which had also reported the first story earlier. these guys tell me that that '[american] scientists have developed a computerised mind-reading technique which lets them accurately predict the images that people are looking at by using scanners to study brain activity. the study raises the possibility in the future of the technology being harnessed to visualise scenes from a person's dreams or memory.' [emphasis in the original as i say in lawyer things]

http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/03/future-brain-scanner-to-visualize.html
perchance will my fantasy be made real by modern science? will scientists go on from accessing files currently open in my brain to the stored ones? will i get to see or feel my own replays? probably my grandchildren will but here's the rub. the scientists imagine the display on a public monitor: i'm not even sure i want any kind of display at all - just something that allows my brain to do a replay. and the public display of my - or anyone's secret memories - obviously leads to possibilities that my anti-paranoid self finds scary. advertising and social scientists look forward to the brave new worlds suggested but i'm afraid the price for my fantasy might be too high to pay. i hope my grandchildren notice.

2008-11-30T11:35:00.000-06:00

obama wins

here's my obama reaction previously in an 11/10 email.

FRIENDS
I WAS AND AM SIMPLY HAPPY ABOUT OBAMA'S ELECTION. CELEBRATING IS OF COURSE COMPLICATED BY CELEBRATING IN OKLAHOMA WHERE NO COUNTY GAVE HIM A MAJORITY, THE OBNOXIOUS OKLAHOMAN IS OFFERING A COPY OF THEIR FRONT PAGE FOR SALE FOR MEMORIES AND KIDS ARE FIGHTING OVER RACE POSTELECTION AT CAPITOL HILL. BUT HERE'S TWO VERSIONS OF CELEBRATING WITH SIMPLE JOY THE DAY THAT WE TRULY NEVER IMAGINED WOULD HAPPEN AND WHICH REASSURE ME THAT MY DAYS MARCHING AND MY LIFE SINCE GET SOME SMALL REWARD FROM THE REAL WORLD

HERE'S A LIFT FROM AN EMAIL FROM RICHARD WHITMAN'S FRENCH FRIEND PIERRE REMINDING US THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS AMAZED; CHECK OUT HIS SITE THAT GIVES IT LIFE: http://lobstein.pierre.free.fr/obamerica.htm

How do you feel in your new country?
Do you remember [Robert] Mitchum
showing his right & leff fists
where was written
HATE / HOPE

2008-11-29T19:02:00.000-06:00

my beloved penguins are having a few long years. disney loves them but global warning does not. conservatives, after watching March of the Penguins, have chosen them as representative of monogamy when they pair up to parent for a year in antartica. but they are the subject of outrage when two males pair up in a public zoo and raise a son placed with them - particularly when a children's book, And Tango Makes Three, details all this.

so today i offer the cover and links to two pages:
wikipedia about the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Tango_Makes_Three
and a page with more of the story told well. read about the swedish lady penguin brought in to try to convert two gay penguins in a german zoo: Gay penguin couple accused of stealing eggs from straights.
[i'm not sure if i just made a link - it printed up underlined; if not: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9701.html.]

2008-11-29T10:29:00.000-06:00

NEW START WITH AN OLD FRIEND. ARRANGING AND SCANNING PICTURES AND FOUND AN OLD ORIGINAL QUICK SKETCH FROM WALT KELLY, THE CREATOR OF POGO. I WAS IN COLORADO SPRINGS FOR A LECTURE BY HIM IN ABOUT 1963. AT THE END HE RIPPED OFF SKETCHES FROM HIS SKETCH PAD. I LOVE TO GO BAK TO HIM - HE SKEWERED THOSE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE SKEWERED BACK THEN. HERE'S A SCAN OF MY 'ORIGINAL', A HAPPY PICTURE AND A SMALL VERSION OF A SIMPLE TRUTH HE COINED

2008-03-07T23:40:00.000-06:00

something wonderful while wondering why its so cold in march
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=281576

truly wonderful pics that nobody saw
soft and gentle games
http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

2008-01-21T19:04:00.000-06:00

war without end, amen
iwrote this to some friends and someone else's blog:
i'm an only slightly more serious pengophile new to blogging. i join in your claim to my spot in this world.my daily life is given to defending indians and others accused of crimes. so i wrote this morning to my friends about the times articles on iraqi vets who kill at home after being sent where they should never have been sent: this is a followup to a thing i sent around last week. its a link to an article so if you don't want to r ead it you don't have to. the times is still doing this series on one dramatic effect of the war on systems some of us work with every day - crimes and the courts. this long article is all to real and a bit hard to read but i think you/we should - and i suspect gw and others aren't no matter how much they claim to be backing american soldiers
barry
January 20, 2008 An Iraq Veteran's Descent; a Prosecutor's Choice By DEBORAH SONTAG Walter R. Smith’s identity as a psychologically injured veteran shaped how a murder he committed was handled. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/us/20vets.html?ex=1201496400&en=b3d9f5e6dc364515&ei=5070&emc=eta1

2008-01-20T15:58:00.000-06:00

team little blue broadcasts on football day:

check out the story of edinburgh zoo and its first out of the southern hemisphere pengy nearly 100 years ago. pic above comes from the article. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/LIFE/801200310/-1/NEWS04

and from toronto here's the results from a penguin cartoon title contest:

http://www.thestar.com/living/Starship/article/295664

2008-01-13T20:04:00.000-06:00

the blog find that caused me to go looking for my own - nice pengie pics: http://thepenguinkeeper.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-does-penguin-courtship-look-like.html

2008-01-13T20:00:00.000-06:00

almost a year later and i have a new burst of energy and a new co-editor, ms. stephanie benefield, late of muskogee oklahoma. stay tuned

2007-02-04T11:32:00.000-06:00

sunday morning in february a few weeks after i've finally started placing my penquinia in a front window.... and a tall blow up penguin to startle folks as they walk in so 'magine my su'prise when i came on the story of a story of a blow up 'tux' being at least briefly on a street up north. tux, if you don't know, is the mascot for linux, the original anti-monopolist of the internet.
check them out at: http://jamon.ca/main.php?g2_itemId=474
and then along came a blog link of beauty, art, and penguin to which i could not resist praising to the son storyteller.
http://nastybrutalistandshort.blogspot.com/2007/02/death-and-penguin.html

2007-01-12T17:19:00.000-06:00

an icy weekend in the heartland. actually timothy mcveigh should be credited for giving oklahoma city official status as the heartland. before the bombing there was always a presumption that the heartland is a little north of here.
i decided to move penguins to my front window in honor of a local much awaited [by weatherman] ice storm. so i'm doing my inhome penguin too. here's my list of penguin related bloggers which manages to include a bit of penguin based snidery at gw

PENGUIN BLOGGERS
bb
http://blog.myspace.com/76097708
the penguin chronicles
http://thereasoner.com/item/2006/11/05/the-blue-screen-of-death-more-sourness/
world peace, angry penguin
http://ccrashh.blogspot.com/
penguin-blog
http://www.penguin-blog.com/
penguins lab
http://www.penguinslab.com/
Logo - A microwave oven transformer rewound for a low voltage, high amperage configuration is short circuited using a loose wire as a 'pen', and a sheet of aluminium foil as 'ground'. A camera set for 1.6s exposure shoots the action whilst the pen is touched to the foil and dragged in a semicircle behind Mr. Penguin.
Mr. Penguin is the trademark logo of Penguin's Lab. Once an innocent toy from McDonalds, Mr. Penguin has evolved into an important part of the experiments on this site. Throughout my experiments, he is subjected to quite alot of discomfort.
In high voltage projects, a short stubby plastic object can often be useful in seeing how electrical arcs behave around it.
Lonely penguin blog
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/spenc148/blog/
naked penguin blog day
http://frogsdong.blogspot.com/2005/04/Thursday-is-naked-penguin-blog-day.html
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Thursday is NAKED PENGUIN BLOG DAY!
In honor of BadTux the Snarky Penguin, and in response to his request that AT&T fork over some penguin pornography, the editorial board at Blanton's and Ashton's has decided to expand its foray into the world of smut by publishing naked pictures of an additional species: penguins! We may not be AT&T, but we know how to get our hands on a nude bird.

Abstract penguin
http://www.abstractpenguin.com/index.php

penguin blog/flying penguin
penguin repair guy among other things
http://soldcentralfl.com/flyingpenguin/penguin_blog.shtml
gay penguin for president [2004]
http://www.gaypenguinforamerica.com/
Gay Penguin: Just as Good
Two of the Bush is worth a bird in the White House:
"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things." - President George Bush, aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
Many commentators will observe that Gay Penguin himself is not very analytical, nor does he spend time thinking about himself and why he does things. You see, Charles Darwin once wrote about animal intellect:
"It may be freely admitted that no animal is self-conscious, if by this term it is implied that he reflects on such points, as whence he comes or whither he will go, or what is life and death, and so forth." - Darwin, "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex."
So, if this lack of self awareness is, as Mr. Bush suggests, a political strength, surely no one can "out penguin" an "out penguin"?
But there's more. As we know, a penguin has no real depth of understanding regarding his own death, or the death of others. But perhaps you will agree that Gay Penguin's grasp on such matters is at least as intelligent as Bush's. Consider this thought, but instead of coming from the president of the united states, coming from a telepathic communication with a penguin:
"Look at these different places around the world where there's been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill." - President George Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004
While an animal like a monkey or elephant may be able to understand death as well as Mr. Bush does- that indeed, what a killer does is kill things- a Penguin might, too. You see, something that Mr. Bush, a Monkey, an Elephant and a Penguin all have in common is that they are all mammals ahem- creatures of instinct. So, it would be safe to say that yes, a Penguin, too, understands that "killers kill."
That's why Gay Penguin walks away from loud, scary people, as well as any natural predator, such as the terrorist Leopard Seal, which eats penguins alive because it "hates freedom".
(both quotes via McSweeney's "Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush")
Posted by Scout @ 1:19 PM
penguin magic - apparently penguin magicians
http://www.penguinmagic.com/blog/
mobile penguin
http://web.mac.com/mebpenguin/iWeb/Mobile-Penguin/Mobile-Penguin%20Home/Mobile-Penguin%20Home.html
the angry penguin
http://www.andyjessop.co.uk/blog/index.html
kpg - kelley penguin girl
http://www.kellypenguingirl.com/
Swedish frappr penguin guy
http://www.frappr.com/?a=myfrappr&id=568734
another frappr penguin friend - th si ones from australia
http://www.frappr.com/?a=myfrappr&id=1071662
kaiser penguin - a bout mixing drink but with cute logo
http://www.kaiserpenguin.com/
Kaiser Penguin is a blog about cocktails for the erudite mixologist.
Why on Earth did you name your blog "Kaiser Penguin?"
It is a well-known fact that penguins are members of high society and enjoy fine cocktails. Our very own kaiser penguin would also like me to mention that he also enjoys various treats from the sea.

visions of a penguin
http://www.apenguin.com/
0Hot Product: Penguin Lamp, March of the Penguins on Your Desk
http://blog.stylehive.com/index.php/weblog/entry/hot-product-penguin-lamp-march-of-the-penguins-on-your-desk/

2007-01-06T15:06:00.000-06:00

a little bird told me
i just was visited by the friend who told me a while back that it was time for me to blog. i had been trying to find this thing right then.
i just wrote a bit to a linux penguin lover which i'd like to repeat:
Just linux
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/6345/1/
I'm trying to add a simple comment about the article Year of the Penguin. I don't really want to become an active member. Just say something nice. Please feel free to do anything you want with this comment.
I am a technically challenged computer user of less than 10 years duration. I'm nowhere near the ability or interest level to use linux although I know enough to know i would like to if it was appropriate. My at home learning the internet was based on finding things about penguins including images. In a word tux was the first and best and i had the joy of a young linux person in England giving me clues. Now i am a constant searcher for anything penguin anywhere on the net and someone trying to pass it on to anyone who will listen. So google got me to your article on the year of the penguin, and i can help but draw a little comparison to the theme if not the details.
2006 was the year of the penguin outside the linux world. Happy Feet took the documentary penguin march into the cartoon world. Penguins suddenly have appeared in all kinds of advertisements with occasional accuracy. In general penguins have become so in that there were suggestions that penguins had replaced reindeer as the symbol of you know what holiday.
But as your article hints, the world discovering our private joys doesn't feel quite as good we hoped it would. the world of internet penguin lovers has been almost totally quiet this year; penguin club types have stopped writing in about the cutest new penguin thing or even serious issues. And they haven't switched to blogging either. the best mixed blessing has been the conservatives deciding to say things like penguin movies and same sex penguin couples are part of liberal plots.
so we are penguin lovers from the amateur side of the fence like me and you all from the serious side. and none of us are quite sure what, if anything, the past and future years mean. i just want to express my continuing belief that we're all on the right side. if we can just keep global warming and computer robber barons in their place we will have done well by penguins from tux to my favorite, the little blues.

2006-12-10T10:59:00.000-06:00

good morning blog world
i just found i had started a blog probably while trying to comment on someone else's blogs. at least one friend had suggested i should consider a blog to deal with my habit of finding things all over the internet on my 3 areas of preference: penguins, indians, and dissatisfaction with conservative antipeople politics ala gw