THE TREVI FOUNTAIN IS NOT A SWIMMING POOL

Unless yr Anita Ekberg. With a gun.

 

Good morning, Monday.

When in Rome,

This is dF

TRAITOR: THE WARREN ZEVON COMEBACK SPECIAL

I had the strangest dream last night.

I was attending a Warren Zevon comeback concert to promote his new album Traitor.

The stage show was a satire of the healthcare industry, with flatscreens running footage of naughty doctors and nurses from old Carry On films and Benny Hill skits.

Leotard stooges with cardboard egg-carton eyes painted in blacklight neon danced before curtains embroidered with a fake corporate logo for Vagina Industries.

Warren rode a mountain bike through the audience. He came right up to me, did a magic trick that involved vomiting a pen out of his mouth, and autographed a copy of Wired magazine I happened to have with me.

“Good to have you back,” I said.

“Good to be back,” he said, returning my thumbs-up.

It was a great night.

Then I woke up.

Words cannot express how disappointed I felt when I realized I’d dreamed the whole thing. And that was before I remembered Zevon died six years ago.

Damn. I do miss him.

Here’s one of a thousand reasons why.

"Black Friday (1940) trailer" (Watch on YouTube)

DISCLAIMER: Warren Zevon never released an album called Traitor. And he never ever did a stage show that elaborately artistic. That was probably an artifact of me currently re-reading Naked Lunch and watching Laurie Anderson videos on YouTube again.

You'd have thought the bit about the bike would be a dead giveaway.

At the mountain bikes of madness,

This is dF

WAR GAMES

If you don’t already know, vintagephoto is one of the more fascinating communities on the LiveJournals. Here’s one image (hipped to me by nebris ) that really burned itself into my brain.



[Click the pic for context]

No further commentary required.

Cycle of violence,

This is dF

LOWD INVISBUL ARMEY: GLENN BECK HAZ ONE

ITEM: The New York Times puts forth the proposition that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity et al are not nearly as in control of the GOP as they would like you to believe, and in reality are in command of a lunatic fringe with plenty of volume but no real power.

So what lying liberal dink is writing this wishful-thinking hoo-ha? Why, conservative columnist David Brooks.

Of course, Brooks has considered the likes of Beck and Hannity and the whole teabagger movement to be an embarrassment to the Republican Party for some time now. So I’m not surprised he wants to downplay their real influence.

And he does have a point – at least when it comes to elections. If these people had half the influence they claim, Mike Huckabee would have been the GOP nominee and, if he’d lost, Hillary Clinton would now be president.

On the other hand, Brooks kind of shoots down his own thesis by expressing alarm that his fellow Republican politicians seem to be falling for the hype:

They mistake media for reality. They pre-emptively surrender to armies that don’t exist. They pay more attention to Rush’s imaginary millions than to the real voters down the street. The Republican Party is unpopular because it’s more interested in pleasing Rush’s ghosts than actual people. The party is leaderless right now because nobody has the guts to step outside the rigid parameters enforced by the radio jocks and create a new party identity. The party is losing because it has adopted a radio entertainer’s niche-building strategy, while abandoning the politician’s coalition-building strategy.

Now wait just a minute Dave. If that’s not influence, what is? I ask you.

And anyway, it’s not like Limbaugh’s fans give a flying flip what fake "conservatives" like David Brooks thinks.

Asleep at the wheel,

This is dF