I was in NYC for a conference this weekend. I spent Friday night at the Beacon theater doing the “I feel like a college kid again” thing — seeing Guster. My newly old boyfriend offered tickets to RAIN for Saturday night, and Igreedily took them excepted them. He wondered slightly out loud, but not without humor, at the curiousness of the fact that I was rarely able to travel to see him while we were together, yet here I was. I reminded him he most often wanted me to meet him in places like Morocco or the Iberian Peninsula — neither a quick weekend getaway, unless you live in Spain.
There was no way to make it home for the sanity rally, but I heard there were a millions of people there, more than at the Beck rally. I guess one could non scientifically assume that sanity won. Nevertheless, just as we can’t kill the boogeyman, we can’t daunt Beck’s over active imagination with reason. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said “Where there is no imagination there is no horror”, and he was right, with Beck and his mantra being a perfect example of the horror of imagination. Imagination bolsters creativity, good for Halloween and for a horror fiction writers, bad for media pundits — who need to turn their demons off once in awhile, to at least try to remain credible.
I got back from NY around 11 this morning and spent a couple of pre-promised hours calling out the vote. I then came home, gathered some friends, and bolstered by a kick-butt 92 point cab from a local vineyard (that we told anyone who asked was blood), passed bags of bubbles, pencils, and crayons (or sidewalk chalk, bracelets, and temporary tattoos), along with sugarless gum and caramel popcorn, to puny people. A great time was had by all. Especially the last three kids who got three bags each of everything.
One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
~Emily Dickinson
Peace
The Iberian Peninsula?
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It’s a nice place to surf, off the coast of Spain, but not quick trip accessible.
I like the rhyme and liked at least as well when I thought it read “marital place.” But then Dickinson might not have written it.
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Ah.
I like it because of the Material place wordage.
But you know what they say. Opposites attract.
I think the rally numbers are going to end up somewhere around 1-2 billion. Not sure, but I heard that China helicopter dropped a couple million into the park. Plus, I’ve been told that we were to count pregnant women as two people. Either way it’s the largest gathering in the Milky Way, EVER!
Thanks for helping get out the vote Coop!
Chris recently posted..Fear and-or Sanity is Restored!!!!!!!!!!
Since we are restoring sanity, let’s compromise, at 1.5 billion.
Your weekend, your treats, and your wine all surpass mine by leaps and bounds.
I hope horror does not prevail for all of you on Tuesday.
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We’ll find out soon enough.
“Newly old”, a perfect description if ever there was for an ex.
I’m think/hope most of Beck’s time is spent preaching to the converted.
On a different note, have you read the book “The Empire of Illusion”? It’s a fascinating read on the emotional/economic/political state of the country by Chris Hedges.
Stewart in ’12?
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No, but I just bought it for my kindle thanks to you.
I love Halloween, passing out candy to little kids, seeing their coustumes and scaring the shit out of them.
I worked so that didn’t happen I had to look at adults in coustumes, that is tedious.
Ah Guster,….the good old days.
You are still wearing the mask that had been passed down in your family for generations. That is why you are my friend.
I love the “newly old boyfriend” description too, a little understated…great stuff.
Sounds like a good weekend, except for the conference part. ;).
The Sun endorsed O’Malley. It took me reading a 2006 editorial in the Washington Post to remember the reasons Ehrlich is not currently our governor.
I think that his whole, let gambling in, privatize schools, and blacklist journalist who question you, is going to keep him out, that and he was partnered with Michael Steel, and didn’t they do something slightly unethical during the last election?
I voted last week. They only have one early voting location in every county. Did you know that?
ben recently posted..So Sue Me
I voted early too. Yes here it’s in a senior center in the center of town, and that is for the whole county so for the most part unless those in the more rural parts of the county don’t vote early.
It was odd here in Sweden; only 3 groups of wee ones showed up at the door asking for candy, and then during the middle of the day! Apparently they do it again on the 6th of November for All Saints Day (at least they used to). Then again at Easter, dressed as witches. It wasn’t that many years ago that Halloween wasn’t celebrated here at all. But, like many things in America, they tend to find their way into the rest of the world (there are more McDonalds within walking distance of her place than back home for example). Funny, there was a line that ran for probably 100 meters out the door of a costume shop in downtown Stockholm for probably most of the day Saturday; most in line looked like they were 20-something.
Dickinson was brilliant.
No one ever trick or treated at my home in Maryland, as it was on a country road and everyone went into the developments to do it. In Tasmania we actually didn’t have Halloween that I can remember. My parents told us about it and I spent one fall when I was 4 with my grandmother in Ma, and got to do but that is it really.
Maybe that is why I’m obsessed with movies like Halloween. ;)
The rally was large. Very large and very sane. People came from all over the country. I’m still exhausted from it
I stayed in Federal Harbor which is now my favorite place
You were at my favorite theater–the one I lived two blocks from. Oh how I loved walking home from a concert.
I’m glad you were there if I couldn’t be. I can’t say I was sorry I was in NY though.
I heard a controlled quarter of a million, controlled because no one was trying to light false fire underneath them. But then they would not have been there had they been the kind of people who let that happen. We were in a tavern in Gettysburg watching the goings on .
Guster is not a bad band, getting long in the tooth they are though, I know people think of them strangely but seriously who doesn’t love…fa fa fa.
It’s easier to be somewhere when no one expects anything from you.
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Seriously I love them, but I am likely to love something I grew up with, I am a traditionalist at heat.
I find Dickinson sometimes obtuse, but I’ve stated my history with poetry. This one works nicely for the holiday.
Sounds like a fun weekend. I worked in the morning and watched the rally from a bar in Fells Point. I think people who lived around here stayed home to allow for all the visitors. Those who went said the metro was jammed, and for the first time in awhile didn’t have some catastrophe or another befall it.
What’s RAIN?
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It’s a Beatles thing …easy to google. ;)
Obtuse? Naw.
I like the “newly old” lable it works.
I’m jealous about RAIN. Guster played at BC when I was there but I don’t think I saw them. I could go forever and not listen to music. I’m jealous about the Beatles thing though.
We don’t celebrate Halloweenit in the school system during the day, but there is an event put on by the PTA at night that is very elaborate. It’s the gym and the hallways and outside, they decorate make fun houses, and have games. It cost a couple of dollars to attend, but they’ve had it since I started working here, probably for years, and it has been quite successful. The PTA people work hard and some teachers also help. I worked it Friday night and had fun with it.
We get no tricksters here so I close up shop on Halloween.
I get them and I like it a lot. It’s fun. I could see where it would get annoying after a while though.
My wife was down there. I was home with the children, and gladly.
NY sounds fun cooper, even the conference. I feel like breaking into a chorus of happy birthday sweet sixteen because n the time I’ve read you, you’ve gone from posting on the floor of a college dorm, to attending and speaking at conferences.
New old boyfriend, love it.
Aw bless her for going down.
How are the kiddies one is a year or more and the other in first grade or something right?
A toast to new old” boyfriends who give tickets to Broadway productions to new old girlfriends.
An election wipes out a rally, or so it seems. i voted by mail this year for all the good it does. Politics is and always will be ….. Politics.
“A toast to new old” boy friends who give tic kets to Broad way pro duc tions to new old girlfriends”
exactly
Sounds, far better than my weekend, I was on all weekend, but I did get treats. The nurses stations are full of candy and goodies, either from physicians who bring them in, families of patients, or the nurse themselves.
Guster was popular at Bucknell.
I don’t like candy a a rule, but would probably eat everything in sight anyway so it’s best I don’t buy candy.
Remember cowtails?