The Skinny White Boy KastPod

Now before you get any ideas, no I am not leaving. I am also (although you may think the post title suggests that) not giving up podcasting. And while it can be argued that I already did give up podcasting, I was simply looking for a title to this post that would explain my gratitude. The title of the Abba song seems more appropriate than “So long and thanks for all the fish”, because then I would have to explain it to everyone who never had the chance to read the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy….

It is however, thanksgiving today… At least in this part of the word. Now, I do not subscribe to the whole pilgrim story. Not because I don’t believe in it, but because i am not an American, so some 100 odd people getting on a boat just doesn’t seem like a very big deal to me… Matter of fact, in Sydney Australia more than 100 people get on a boat every hour, just to go to the zoo…

I am however thankful for several things. I wasn’t yesterday, when I got papers served on my ass, and I wasn’t yesterday because I was dreading a long lonely day when everyone else would be having turkey (stuffed or not) with various configurations of (brown or white) gravy. None of that stuff for me! Just me, a few beers and a dog in an otherwise EMPTY apartment.

So what am I so grateful for? What makes me think twice and say thanks?? Let’s see…
My brother, who hasn’t talked to me in at least 5 years sent me a care package with all kinds of food items, I haven’t had since I was a kid…. One of my best friend’s dogs beat cancer… A new friend I made checked in, even though she was super busy with family, just to wish me a happy thanksgiving… Another friend said I should come eat pie (even though that would have involved a 13 hour drive) just so I wouldn’t be so lonely… My dog is still alive and still loves me… I know I will get the best Xmas present anyone alive will ever receive… And while strictly virtual, a new friend I made had turkey with me in pixelated form…

Where as yesterday I was the loneliest guy on the planet, today I got calls from Holland, Scotland, Australia, Ohio, Virginia, Kansas, and beyond…

I am truly blessed for being so well connected!
Thanks should be given to those who give so freely!
I love you!!

I love the circus that is American politics. To someone coming from a country with another political system, the American elections seem more like a boxing match, then anything else. Having said that, I follow them and pay very close attention. Why? I live here! And while I don’t always agree with the way thing are done in the US, and because I am not a citizen I can’t vote, I still consider this my home country!

It’s fun to watch the news coming in on election day, there are constant updates from Fox, CNN and all other large media outlets. Even if there is nothing to report, they will make news out of nothing! Like the fact that the small town of Dixville Notch (opening their one and only polling station at midnight) was the first to announce election results. 15 for Obama, six for McCain. That will really influence the results!

It’s even more fun to see how foreign media reports on the US elections. While CNN is all about the numbers, it takes a Dutch newspaper to provide us with a list of where the candidates stand on major issues. It seems that the US media has all but forgotten about what politics should really be about, clear goals!

What really gets to me though is the hatred that seems to have cropped up recently. Maybe it was the rhetoric of Mr. Bush in late 2001, when he said “If you aren’t with us you are against us”, but where does the big division come from? I hear stories from friends who have their McCain/Palin sign stolen from their yards. True, I don’t agree with republican politics, but I don’t hate my friends because of their political choices! Another friend doesn’t dare put an Obama sign in the yard of his own house because he is afraid that the otherwise republican neighborhood will fire-bomb his property.

Don’t be like the democrat in a small Ohio town that had so much trouble not having his Obama sign vandalized that he electrocuted a kid from a republican family when he attached the sign to a 220 volts line.

But if I voice my support for the other candidate [WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE FOLLOWING] please do not tell me to shut the fuck up, go back to my own country or tell me you don’t listen to foreigners bashing your nation. This is my country! Get along people! Stop the hate…

Elections, Gun Control, Maceo Parker, T-Rex, Porn Stars

Yeah… Yeah… Yeah!

The hottest new thing in web two point oh land is Plurk.com. Plurk is a site that lets you you follow your friend’s time-line. Like twitter! No wait this is better, really! Plurk allows you to post comments to your friend’s time-line. Oh, like Jaiku? Yeah! and it let’s you upload photos. Wow, it’s just like MySpace! Now, don’t get me wrong there is no problem with having a choice. After all, car manufacturers have been building copies of each other’s cars for decades. I like my Kia Sorento, you like your Hyundai Santa Fe.

But Plurk, “plurks” with my privacy! It did something to me today (for as much as a website can do anything to you) that I really am upset about. So upset, that I will never return to that damn web site ever again! I don’t care how cool they are, or how Canadian Plurk is. After 5 minutes on their site I am totally, and forever, done with these clowns. So what happened?

I decided to check out what the buzz was all about. I open my fave browser and type in www.plurk.com. After a while the page loads, and what is on the top of the page? “#insert friends full name here# invited you to plurk”. Mind you, #insert friends name here# was the name of someone I actually know. This was not some bogus message! So how in the hell did Plurk find out we are related? How could it have known? So I call my friend and asked if he invited me to Plurk, What he answered was that he tried to use the “Find friends on Gmail” facility in Plurk but that it never worked. Also, on checking his Plurk profile, it shows that he invited ZERO friends. So how does this damn web site know we are related?

Let me get this straight. I do NOT have an account on Plurk, none of my friends have EVER invited me to join, yet Plurk tells me that a person I know has indeed invited me, even though that person has never invited anyone?

At this point I cleared as much of my personal information as I could. I closed the browser, deleted cookies, cleared my cache. Yup! When I went back to those fuckers dot come, the invite was gone. So what is Plurk looking at to get this info? I am not going to trust these bastards for as long as I live! Is it looking at my Gmail account? Is it looking at Twitter activity? What?

Never again will I visit that site! NEVER!

Otherwise known as… No wrong. Part of Memphis in May is the “Beale Street Music Festival”. Locals simply call it the Music Fest. Three days, some god-knows-how-many bands, blues, soul, rock. Bottom line: Fun! A short overview…

FRIDAY:
Missed it completely. It was raining way to hard. This is supposed to be fun. Instead BBQ at Corky’s

Saturday:
Arrived too late. Walked in during Colbie Caillat (or however you spell that). As much as I like the tune “Bubbly”, she really isn’t all that good on stage. Buddy Guy was phenomenal! Not in the least because he decided (as always) to walk into the audience and he was *THIS* (imagine forefinger and thumb less than inch apart) from where I was standing. Lou Reed? He gives the sixties a bad name. There just aren’t enough drugs to make those spacey jams interesting. He would do well to just perform his songs without the experimental crap. Left after 2 songs and went to the Blues tent. Watermelon Slim. Interesting… I thought his voice was a little off. A buddy told me his voice is ALWAYS off. Hubert Sumlin was cool, but not as cool as Pinetop Perkins. If I get to be that age and still play the piano like that. Oh wait, I don’t play piano!

SUNDAY:
Porta-potty was the first stop. Aretha Franklin was top-notch. Never mind she was a royal bitch. Poor Mike, the sound guy… “Mike I don’t pay for that buzzing”. Never mind she was just presented with a key to the city (presented by the mayor, who got boo’ed off stage). Overheard during the show: Honey, Aretha Franklin has something to say to you! Guy then held his cell phone in the air to the tune of Pink Cadillac (We go riding on the freeway of love…) Blues tent boring, one can only stand so much Fergie before having to see the Black Crowes who were giving the sixties a bad name, and they weren’t even born back then. Time to head out. Out, where we had to change a flat in one of the more unsavory parts of town, only to come home to a dog that puked on the carpet.

WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND. GONNA DO THIS AGAIN NEXT YEAR