Weekend Music Video

Rage Against The Machine - Guerrilla Radio

Sweet Jesus!

The timing couldn't have been better for a follow-up to my last post....

Holy Week Angst Over Naked Chocolate Jesus
Sculpture By Cosimo Cavallaro To Debut At Gallery In NYC

(AP)- The Easter season unveiling of a milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ, dubbed “My Sweet Lord” by its creator, left a sour taste Thursday in the mouths of a Catholic group infuriated by the anatomically correct confection.

“This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever,” said Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League. “It's not just the ugliness of the portrayal, but the timing — to choose Holy Week is astounding.”

The 6-foot sculpture by artist Cosimo Cavallaro was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Roman Catholics mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit at the Lab Gallery inside midtown Manhattan's Roger Smith Hotel was planned for Easter Sunday.

“The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate,” said Donohue, whose group represents 350,000 Catholics nationwide.

He called for an economic boycott of the hotel, which he described as “already morally bankrupt.”
More here.

It looks sinfully delicious. All it needs to finish it off is a cross made out of peanut butter.

Update: Chocolate Jesus Show Cancelled - Deities made out of food deemed the unholiest of sins against God.

Hat-tip to D.K. Raed

Man, I'm getting a lot of mileage out of this story.

The Gospel According to PT

It's a beautiful day today in the San Francisco area so I decided to get up off my lazy ass, load the car up with some signage and hit the road with my main man, J.C. as my co-pilot.

Jesus told me that he wanted to help me get the message out to some of his mis-guided followers that he most certainly does not support acts of war, even wars against non-Christian types. He wishes everyone would remember his true message of Peace.

So off we went....

Not too bad for a day's work. What do you think, Jesus?

"You da man, PT !!"

Amen to that, Jesus. Now let's all bow our heads and ask the good Lord to protect these signs from evil.....

Wha???

"Any president who says, I don't care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed -- if a president really believes that, then there are -- what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that. He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment."

- Senator Chuck Hagel, (R)-Nebraska (That's right, folks. Republican.)

“I have said it before and I will say it again: Impeachment is off the table.”

- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D)-California

Maybe it's time to put it back on the table, Nancy. If you don't want to do this job, step down and let someone else do it for you.

Vote Different

1984



Full story on the guy behind the creation of this video and his connection to the Barack Obama campaign can be found here. Hat tip to Kommander Kvatch for prompting me to dig a little deeper on this one.

Back from Merced

As a follow-up to my earlier post and at the request of two of my biggest fans, I thought I'd give you an update on how the competition in Merced went this past weekend.

We arrived in Merced on Thursday night and settled in to get some much-needed rest for the full day of competition that awaited us on Friday. I think I was more nervous than the dancers. The deal with these Tahitian dance competitions is that if any of your dancers advance to the final round, you are expected to provide your dancer(s) with their own drummers (limit of five drummers) for the finals.

Our dancers were outstanding on Friday as I and the rest of the drummers sat and watched in anticipation of how many girls we would be playing for on Saturday. I was beaming with pride as I watched all of our young ladies display their dancing skills. They had most assuredly been paying attention in class for all the previous months, taking what our Kumu Hula (dance teacher) had taught them and polishing it to perfection.

At the end of eliminations on Friday, our halau advanced 9 dancers to the finals on Saturday out of approximately 30 who entered from our school. The drummers had their work cut out for them on Saturday.

We went back to the house that night with the nine dancers who made it to the finals and played for them so they could put the finishing touches on their routines. All of their families came along with them and we turned it into a real party with all of the dancing, music and barbecueing that went on.

After a good night's rest, we headed off to the fairgrounds for the final round of competition. We played for all nine of the girls and even had our drum instructor jump in and play with us for the last three dancers. I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next dance competition. Of the nine finalists that we fielded, two of our dancers received third place trophies at the end of the day. Not too shabby, huh?

Our Keiki (young dancers) looking beautiful and ready to dance.

Shopping for drums at the vendor booth. We buy the majority of our drums from this guy.

Two of our drummers showing the girls how they think Tahitian dancing should be done.

(That's me in the background banging on the log)

Our dancers, showing the drummers that they should probably just stick to drumming and forget about the dancing.

New Product from Apple

MadTV - iRack


Hat tip to my friend, Jim Kelly for sending me this one.

Gone Drumming

I'll be out for the rest of the week and through the weekend. We're headed to Merced, California for a Tahitian Dance competition, where my drum group will be performing in competition for the first time. I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited. My daughter will be competing in the dance competition along with about thirty other dancers from our Halau, Te Pura O Te Rahura'a. All of our dancers have worked very hard for this and I wish them the best of luck.

I found another Tahitian drumming video on Youtube. This one is a much better recording than the last one. If any good videos of our group are made over the weekend, I'll see about posting them here. Have a great weekend, everyone. Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.

LEIISA drumming in MERCED '05

Weekend Music Video

Anti-Flag - Turncoat

FREE MUNI !!!

Free Muni ride? It's possible, says Newsom

Rachel Gordon, San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said today that he has asked the Municipal Transportation Agency to look into the possibility of providing fare-free public transit in the city.

He told The Chronicle that when all the costs associated with collecting the fares are factored in, the idea of letting people board for free may not be a big financial stretch.

"When you add everything up, this idea certainly deserves consideration,'' he said.
He said Municipal Transportation Agency officials are still crunching the numbers, and should have their report concluded within a month or so.

The city hopes to collect a projected $138 million in fares in the upcoming fiscal year. And while that may seem like a lot of money, it accounts for about 22 percent of the annual Municipal Railway budget -- below the average national fare-box collection rate.

Muni charges $1.50 for a regular adult fare, and $45 for a standard monthly FastPass. There are discounts for seniors, children and the disabled.

Newsom said the costs to purchase and maintain fare boxes, to count the money and to pay a crew to catch fare cheats are major expenses that could be eliminated if people could ride for free.

But allowing free boarding no doubt would increase the number of riders, which in turn could put an increased financial burden on the system. There likely would be a need to expand the fleet of buses and street cars and to hire more drivers, security officers and maintenance workers (music to my ears).

"All of these issues are being analyzed,'' he said.

Well, he's got my vote.

I like the idea of allowing the people who live and work in this beautiful city to ride public transportation for free. It really puts a smile on my face. I've been working at MUNI for a year now and truth be told, it's the best damn job I've ever had. I absolutely look forward to going to work every day.

I get the feeling that they'll still be complaining big time about the service, though.

Weekend Music Video

Flattbush - Question Authority


Hat tip to my comrade, The Portland Maoist.

More Dick Than You Can Shake a Stick At

Cheney warns against hasty Iraq "pullout"*

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

A quick withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq could allow victorious Muslim extremists to fan out into other countries, with some militants going to Afghanistan to fight alongside a resurgent Taliban, Vice President Dick Cheney says.

The vice president, just back from a trip that included unannounced stops in Afghanistan and Pakistan, addressed a conservative conference Thursday night where he sharply criticized efforts by some Democrats to restrict funds for President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq or to place restrictions on their deployment.

While noting that the House already had passed a nonbinding resolution voicing opposition to Bush's Iraq policy, Cheney said that "very soon both houses of Congress will have to vote on a piece of legislation that is binding."

The legislation would, among other things, help pay for the additional 21,500 troops Bush is sending to Iraq.

"I sincerely hope the discussion this time will be about winning in Iraq, not about posturing on Capitol Hill. Anyone can say they support the troops, and we should take them at their word. But the proof will come when it's time to provide the money and the support," Cheney said. "We expect the House and the Senate to meet those needs on time and in full."

Full story here.

There seems to be a great obsession with "winning" expressed here. I've got news for you, Mr. Cheney. We "lost" the moment you baboons decided to invade Iraq for no legitimate reason.

*Maybe if his father had "pulled out" the world wouldn't be in quite the mess it's in now.