150,000 CANDLES CAN’T BE WRONG

Just got back from this.



Turnout: 150,000.

It’s the biggest turnout ever. The biggest ones I remember since I arrived here in 1996 never topped 60,000.

I’m tired, so I’ll post some of my own pics and extra details tomorrow.

Meanwhile, check out this photo from (I think) the top of the Regal Hotel [via Twitpic]..



That’s six soccer pitches worth of candles, my friends.

City on fire,

This is dF

150,000 CANDLES PART 2: A RUSH AND A PUSH AND THE PARK IS OURS

So, as I was saying, we went to this little candlelight vigil last night. I took some pictures. Here’s half of them.



Yes, they’re crap, but all I had was a Nokia N95 with a Nightshot function. And even some of the blurry ones aren’t that bad. Just pretend I’m being stylish and arty.

[Notice the students liveblogging there in the upper right hand corner. I like that one.]

( Tiresome mutterings follow back here if you want to humor an old man ... )

So ... will any of this make a difference? Not in Beijing, no. It took the CCCP 30 years just to admit that the Cultural Revolution probably wasn’t one of their better ideas. And I don’t think they’ll ever revisit the Tiananmen incident until they can at the very least figure out a way to do it without implying that the students were right about anything.

But that’s no reason for the rest of us to stop talking about it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.

Never forget,

This is dF

FRANKENSTEIN’S RED-BLOODED AMERICAN SENSE OF HUMOR

So yes, I did hear about David Carradine, though I understand that the exact cause of death is not 100% clear.

Anyway, I know that most people will remember him as Caine in Kung Fu, but believe it or not, I never really saw it. I was seven when it first came on TV, and it just never appeared on my young radar. And I don’t think any of the TV stations in Nashville ever got the syndication rights, so I’ve never caught it on reruns, either.

Which is why when I think of David Carradine, I think of Frankenstein in Death Race 2000.

Like so.

FUN FACT: Even though I was only 10 when the movie came out, by the time I was in middle school, we picked up lots of jokes about how many points people would be worth.

I eventually saw the movie in the late 80s. It was everything I hoped it would be: cheap, violent and bizarrely hilarious.

Good night Mr Frankenstein,

This is dF

PITCH A WANG DANG DOODLE IN THE INSANE ASYLUM

ITEM [via bedsitter23 ]: Not to bum you out with celebrity death trips, but Koko Taylor is also gone now.

All I can really add to the tributes is I like me a woman who hollers like that.

And while my first instinct was to post my favorite Koko track (“Insane Asylum” with Willie Dixon), I also came across this kick-ass version of the obvious selection, “Wang Dang Doodle” (which Dixon wrote for Howlin’ Wolf), featuring Little Walter.

So I’ll post them both and leave it up to you.

Tonight we need no rest,

This is dF