"Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves -- and the only way they could do that is by not voting." -Franklin Roosevelt

A Scary-Ass Pumpkin. A Lovely Weekend.

The Missus and I had one of those rare weekends where we managed to get the balance just right. Just enough activity. Just enough relaxation. Between social obligations, chores, errands, etc., we hardly ever get to have the kind of weekend we want to have. So this was a real win for us.

Friday night got things started off right. Dinner at home. Good wine, good music. The kind of vibe where preparing the meal is just as satisfying as enjoying it. The Missus made pumpkin burgers which were, to quote Thomas Jefferson, "Off the goddamn HOOK." After dinner, we prepared to carve our first pumpkin since 2004, a real beaut we picked up in CT last weekend. 30 pounds of plump, perfectly-shaped pumpkinity.

I switched the iPod playlist from dinner-making jams to something more appropriate for pumpkin carving. A melange of dark 80's alt-classics. Early Bauhaus, Siouxsie, Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division and the like. The decision at hand was whether to do an "OBAMA" pumpkin or to do a super-scary one. Given the fact that my wife and I both seem to be nurturing our dark sides at this particular moment in time, we went for super-scary. The results are above. Note the detail work on the eyebrows and the scar on the left side. We're pretty damn proud of it.

The rest of the weekend fell in line nicely. Saturday started with coffee and waffles followed by a thorough but totally quick and painless housecleaning. Then later I met K in the City after her accupuncture appointment and went to see this. Not the best movie ever commited to celluloid but funny, engaging and a good escape. I think The Missus was more impressed with the fact that I didn't just agree to see a movie in the theater, but that I actually suggested it. That's growth, people.

Sunday was manicures for the both of us followed by finally watching this Netflix movie which has been laying around for weeks. It was WAY RAD, but Kanga didn't love the SurroundSound. The explosions make her ears go flat.

After that it was last week's Mad Men from the DVR, followed by the Mad Men season finale in real time. Have to say I wanted more from it - being a season-ender and all - but the show is just SO GODDAMN BRILLIANT I'll let it slide. If you haven't been watching, get it on disc and get to work. It's incredible.

We both remarked on our way to bed Sunday night what a nice weekend we had. Just real nice. That kind of balance and genuine in-the-momentness is something we both strive for and very rarely achieve in life. Here's hoping we might just be getting a little closer to it in the future...

God Bless J.S.

I just came across this while cleaning out my e-mail. It's dated but brilliant.

An Open Letter To Two Average Joes

Dear Joe the Plumber & Joe Six-Pack,

I don't know how you guys got so thoroughly co-opped by the McCain/Palin ticket, but I have to say... If we get stuck with another 4 years of douchebaggery because of you two folksy, oversimplified caricatures, I'm going to personally kick both your asses.

Sincerely,
-IMBA

You Wanna Party With Us???

The Missus and I just bought our tickets for this.

It's going to be fab.

Let's make it a party.

JOIN US...

GOGOL BORDELLO

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Webster Hall

(clicky for tickeys)

P.S. The Gogol doc "Gogol Bordello Non-Stop" will be coming to town soon. If you need any more convincing to come check them out live, watch THIS...

GOGOL BORDELLO NON STOP FILM TRAILER
by Guespa

A Mid-Afternoon Chuckle From Me To You

You may or may not have seen this already. I enjoyed it...

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF

Every onece in a while I'll come across something that I REALLY wish I'd written. I think this Palin piece is the most absolutely spot-on assessment of what the choice of her as McCain's running mate says about the GOP and more importantly about the state of the country itself.

Thanks for sending this my way, Vic.

A Little Something For The Missus On The Occasion Of Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

The Better Parts

I am my left eye
the weaker one
the one that droops a little
the one that goes dead in photographs

You are my right eye
the one that winks
the one with the arched brow
the one that brightens when I laugh

You are both lips
Partly because they are one of my finer attributes
And partly because
without you
they have no purpose anyway

My hair
I am the gray ones

My teeth
I am the two obnoxious ones up front
begging in vain to go unnoticed

My tongue
You are salty and sweet
I am sour and bitter

I am my cheekbone
at the end of a frat boy’s fist
I am my wrist
after slamming my sled into the side of a tree
And you
Are every other bone in me

Solid

Unbroken

The frame


I am my hands on a rainy day
Cold, stiff and uncooperative

You are my hands
around trekking poles in the Grand Canyon,
mixing mortar in the village of Taviefe,
breaking bread in Florence
You are my hands when they are folded in prayer

I am the finger forever pointing at someone else
And you are the three pointing back at me

I am my middle
At 165
And you are my middle
At 145

You are my back
Strong, smooth, even in tone

I am my legs carrying me from City Hall station
to the World Financial Center
on a snowy Monday morning

And you are my legs
tangled up in yours
on the first sleepy Sunday of spring

You are my right knee
The reliable one
The one that bent to propose

I am my left knee
The one that disappears at the most crucial moments
leaving me flat on my back like a dusty turtle
in the middle of the South Kaibab trail

I am the shirt I should’ve thrown out three seasons ago
And you are the jeans I look good in no matter what

You
are those rare occasions when I just go ahead and say “Yes” to something
without overthinking it
You
are action,
operation,
spontaneity,
forward movement,


Life for the sake of living

And I

am a stick in the mud

I am the part that’s about to turn down a free plane ticket and an
extra day in Paris because I’m worried we won’t get someone to feed the cats
And you are the part
That sees an overbooked flight
as an opportunity

You are the wine we drank
later that night
on a sidestreet café in the Quartier Latin
And I am the time I lost 'if'-ing

My heart?

Yeah.


That’s all you.

-not the metaphor
-not the idea
-not poetry

But blood.

Cells.

Function.

The essential.

The part that cannot be removed
without the rest of it slamming violently into

indistinction


And somewhere down the road
when all my parts
-the lovely ones
And the ones less so-
come to crumble under the weight of

inevitability





You will be my epitaph.





And I will be the dandelion

creeping up at its base

plucked unceremoniously by a hired hand

So that something more productive


can grow in its place.



x,o

-IMBA

10/08