The beatles are most good, sports

Sorry for all the videos lately - and the general Stalingrad of it all - but this is irrepressible. Love this song deeply, but spot check reveals - A BEATE SVERION OF THIS SONG. Tell me, fuckers, there is no God.

rolph harris's original, so beautiful:

Beatles and rolf: So beautiful.

pop music!

1969 in time and space and on

Enjoyable long talk w/ mom on family history. Always thought we had somewhat of a normal family @ large, but there are some differences. Very spread out is my parents generation - well, generally America, Ireland, and England, and sometimes Scotland and Wales depending on the fishing and the kids college choices. Not so unnormal. But there are some chacets(sic).

My Dad was in family of nine kids(mom 10). Two sisters - one died in childbirth, and the widower married the next sister - she also was to die in childbirth (Ireland, man). (one of these sisters, btw, is the ancestor of cousin MAC who some know). the widower died after his wife, and the four kids were shipped to America to be raised here. However, the two aunts of mine in America to whom they were sent had ...... um harsh reputations as parents. Two of the four kids (one died at like four, the other drank himself to death, if i am rite) hated her and ended up moving into an apartment for awhile. This ended (Why?) after a bit, and eventually one just ran away from it all (tracked down to Georgia, of all places, years later- now a total member of the family. he drives up to Chicago to see people a lot, so I see him often). I remember both of these aunts - one I knew quite well and totally loved me (being the baby of all babies has its goods and bads), but the other I have hazy memories of someone who was fairly scary.

A warming thing Ive heard before was the cross family friendships. My family, when they came over, quickly bought a house and brought over the others when they could. Bit by bit they dribbled over - some on my Dads side moved back. But they all lived in the same 'hood, centered around maybe 87th and Racine. So, it's cool to hear the stories of MAC's dad Martin (Dad side) and uncles Mike and Tom (mom's) being frenz. Macs dad was also Dads Best Man, and it seems that Dad and Martin were pretty close.

One thing. Uncle Mike now lives in Boston and is a total fan of their teams. however, I cant imagine that he was anything but a Sox fan first - basically, the grand proportion of the family are Sox fans, and im guessing that the Sox's historical identity as the "Irish Catholic working class" major league team was still an issue @ that point in history Although Boston has an irish identity to it a bit, the Red Sox fans are pure 'white people'. Next time I see him I will bring this up.

Also, deeply depressing. My brother died of leukemia when he was six - it's 90% curable these days. I have no real memories of him - just the feeling, popping up through my life whenever i see brothers interact (I especially got this when I lived w/ Jackson and bro and being w. them so much) of how much I miss him. He died in November. My Moms Mom died suddenly. A four year old cousin (one of the four kids who were brought over from Ireland)died of a brain tumour 2m later. My Moms Mom died (20 August), and the next November (2 Nov.), my cousin Martin died in his sleep. Terrible tying times for the family. I remember none of these people w. a single caveat: i remember combing my hair when little in the wet style of Martin - and here, its only that I remember when I was doing it that I knew it was Martins style - not that I remember Martin now.

Mom told me a story of when the little girl - my cousin - died - on top of losing their brother 2m before - she called up St. Rita grammer and asked them to be easy on my sisters because they were so upset @ the dual losses. The gratifying part of the story which made both of us smile and weep was that the school held the girls in their prayers.

Nothing in life is ..... whatever. But, wonders on what I'd be like w. an older brother to beat the hell out of me and tuffen me up for life. My closest cousin is of course MAC - a close friend - but wonders on what would be the relationship w. the fouryearold cousin who died. Martin seemed cool as hell - so kool I copied his cut. What was he like? Dunno.

Like the Africans w. their deep voices who we played pickup soccer w. back in the 1990's on Belmont and Lake Shore drive (Africans, Mexicans, East Asians, Southeast Asians, Arabs, crackers, etc etc etc - it was a pitch in Chicago, but it was like walking in London and hearing every accent that ever existed in a typical 30m walk). When a guy was on the ground injured, they would clap twice or thrice and just say "Football. Football." - as in, 'we're playing a game and we all know this happens. Let's keep playing!'. Comme life. I die. You die. He/she it dies. We all know this. And, of course, the grand answer is "Football. Football."

colour!

genetic freak

Sorry for the offkilter presentation of the snap -stuidassblogger - but what a fucking strange bird thats taken up residence in the feeding systems of my yard. Ive looked through bird books and i cant find anything near. My guess is that its some sorta genetic freak. hopefully it isnt selected out of existence.

icantgoonsoigivein

medicare for all

Here's the 'article' that goes w/ it - its fun.

"...and there's one pulled back, at least..."

So, neverhired @ the place i wanted to work despite 3 1/2y there, the loss of my soccer program, and the loss of my wife. Quite the disasterous summer - what am I, amry Group cetre and this is June 1944? Guess so.

But once in my life I dansed @ the front @ jesus lizard shows, I remember that OT goal into the north goal in that away game in the fall of 1999, and I remember young lovers who were so certain that they and only they knew that 'big secret' between them and only betwen them truely I have lived.

And so today, I'll acknowledge that there has been a job offer put into my hands (and hopefully, untruth to my forever sonicstatement 'nothing can be held in my hands for long') - not 2 my school, bitterly - but @ another - a grammer school. My salary now triples (Yes - 3 times what I made last year). And today, when going over to an old school to try to set up some games they offered me the head coaching job of the sohmore team - and ill be paid!

So - switching feelings now - no longer am I the Whrmacht in early 1945- now i am the soccer team that's down 0-5 - but my guys just pulled one back. down 5-1 still, but .... I understand that i stil have awesome striking abilities that ths world desperately needs ...

funnyfunnyfunnyfunny

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Rules of the Game

This is what im sorta into rite now - and its a total skitzophrenic(sic) book. I'd entered this spring not in a Jutland mood -well, always a little- but because of secret reasons (secret only because it's a little red on my face if i out it) i decided to make a few week of coverstars of the German battle cruisers from WW1. As I posted them every few days, i had to look over the Internet for good and large snaps so i could so adorn Securityout! but then I wandered onto an article which was mainly a review of a book which'd come out a few years before and was the hottest and latest shit on the battle. I read the article, realised that i needed to read the book, and then set about ordering it. Not in CP libraries. fist foray into ordering it from borders online worked - but it arrived smacklack in the middle of my Russian adventure - so it had to wait.

In the meantime, I picked up a book that id gotten a few years back but never read - Death in the Grey Wastes, an oral history of the battle of Jutland. Long book - but oral histories are candy often, and this was very-best-candy. I'd put down the Road to Berlin slog for a bit and ate up the Jutland. It was a loved read, this oral history book - it'd been maybe 6-7-8 years since last ad on Jutland, and boy this book throttled me goodly.

So, i finished the Road to Berlin and jumped rite into Rules of the Game. This book is strange - obstinately it is about the battle of Jutland - but the book i rally more that just about that. For as the shells crash and the ships turn and the battle cruiser fleet finally sights the German High seas fleet - rite @ that chaos crazy moment - it halts the battle and takes us on a 250 page examination into the history of the Victorian Navy and their propensity to follow orders.

@50p detour. Rite when the battle cruisers had turned north and the 5th Battle Squadron was first feeling the High Seas fleets guns on them. Bamm. Story halted.

So, the jutalnd part was thilling. But the Victorian part? Well ...... thriling is surely not the word. it's funny, too - i have speant a lot of time in this world. Remember how I concentrated on English history as an undergrad and a grad student? My natural interestes were in this sprhere. But, th dual sections juxtaposed leaves one dying for th return of the Jutland part of the book (pag 400 or so brings us back to the barrle) and dyig for th end of the Victorian section.

But that Jutland section - and why the 250p diversion? Simply put, the Jutland section is Love - a great writer writes and teaches me on a battle I know inside and out. Or thought I did. The point of the 250p diversion is to examine a oint in the battle that I never really gave much thought to. The point is when - as stated above - the smaller faster scouting detachment of the English fleet (the Battle cruiser Fleet supported by the 5th Battle Squadron ((the real heavies, but only 4 ships)) ) chased the German equivalent south (The Run to the South) in order to locate the main German fleet (The High Ses Fleet). Then,it happened - th English battle cruisers sighted the main German fleet and turned back north (th start of The Run to the North) - but something messed up, for as the battle cruiser turned north - the 5th battlesquadron kept sailing into the 'jaws' of the German fleet- they were sailing 34 knots towards destruction.

So, the point of the book is "What happened that the 5th BS kept going south, even though the oher half of the fast detachment turned around?" Thus begins the 250p discussions of following orders in the Victorian Navy. im complaining about this 250p detour - but realise that this writer has things to teach me. Never would i have put so much thought into that particular point of the battle. Then again, he is a PhD in that era, so .....

And boy is it a skitzo book. Part detailed thesis about jutland, part thesis about the Victorian Navy and English soiety, but also a history of th battle - so, along w/ thesis havy sections, you also have some very popularised parts about the battle. he's not vying for a "this is a complete history of the battle", but he still inputs enough information, explanation, and oral testimony to create an overall pleasing and informed reading on the battle itself - i supose he didnt want to cheat anyone picking up th book expectin that total history of the battle.

So, 100p more of the Victorian Navy, then back to see what this author makes of the 'Turn to the North'.

zero

the bloc party

It's blox party time - kinda neat tradition that has really taken hold in my later days where each bloc gets to-gether and has a sorta celebration on the block. cars are parked @ ach end of the street to cut off traffic, and no cars are parked on it - idea open sace for kids to run up and down and for dogs to run free.

Some blocs take it more seriously than others - and some people people on the same blox take it more seriouslythan others. But usually our blox's party is usualy pretty straight. I ususally dont take part - but my sister does.

But summer in this neighbourhood is kinda kool - every Saturday there are a patchwork of blox throughout the neighbourhood, so any kinda walk can take one thorough six or seven parties. I have been thinking of inviting people over for a cookout - but as usual, dont want to bother people. However, it is kinda kool and a kool trad., so ... maybe next year.

insane are people/ (repeat in french)

kool kool kool finally aroud here

Micheal Parenti speaking engagement closeby!!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 7 pm

"Rulers of the Planet: Method or Madness?"

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
University of Milwaukee
UWM Union Building,
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.

contact: sperling.erik@gmail.com

soccer in the summer

Even thought i no lonfger teach @ this school - and i wont be getting paid a dime - im still coaching soccer. Im low man on the totem pole here - assistant on the freshman team - but its been fun. Ive had to wake @ 9am every day, but practice is over by 12 or 12.30. Im so old @ this point - ill get in gol to sub for a player for a bit - but the knees, man!!

But what I really wanted to communicate is that I haven't showered allw eek!! really!! And Ive been out in the sun every noon, baking, sweating, etc etc etc... Now I have brushed my teeth - but since an afternoon shower on Mondy before the shellac show - stink!!

Reminds me of the summer sof 1972 and 1980. hese were the first two summers i spent in ireland - all summer, basically - and where my parents were born, there still were no indoor plumbing or electricity in 1972 - and no plumbing in 1980. Since i was reasonably young back then, showers were not really needed too much - well they were, but i didn't care. I bet i went both summers w/out washing my pitts - ys, disgusting, i know - and washing my hair once a week.

Water was collected into one of those old oil drums chicago used to have as garbage cans. The rain would wash off the roof and into these buckets - then it would be heated over the turf stove (1/2 turf and 1/2 coal) and dished over us. But- since 1980, Ive always loved rainwater for hairwashing - for whatever reason, it's great for the hair.

i will wash today - after I say helo to Matthew J. fer a bit

Shellac, shicago, shot'b'me: Monday Mite min Milinium Mark

one of my favourite of all Shellac songs - it was first on me in 1997 @ the Lincoln Park outdoor fest deal for Lounge Ax back thn - Dragon taped it an since it was a few years from being released, we never knew the name of it.

But, for me, that intro ( i can skip the middle section, and the end section - th cymbals deal - always gets more elaborate year after year).

But, here's my contribution to it all, or so ...

Berlin, 1945, April

Somewhat of a disastrous season of campaigning so far in the spring and summer for my force of arms. Like Hitler @ the end, I've developed a habit of ordering disastrous offences into the teeth of the enemies armies only to be smashed back time and again. No matter the reserves I assemble, whatever wonder weapons I deploy, the density of the air cover, the weight of artillery, the experience or the planning - it's a smashing Stalingrad time and again.

Wonder i dont listen.

Berlin, 1945, April

I've drifted into the Beatles again. Easy to do. I was @ Gf's library stopping by like I do (two days after the Klas - last time I s'awer) and maybe for the fiftieth time I checked out the Beatles Anthology collection. Her library has it on VCR - when I first rented them, I had no dvd) Something dragged me to it that last visit, and I again went through the first four vcrs in order- Im rite before Shea Stadium yet again.

I know this will make me totally unpopular, but I have a strong preference for th early Beatles. All that early excitement, the newness of it all, and th' rocking beat - I really love that part of the story. When I was young, part of my Beatle upbringing was the Beatle cartoon series - and it featured all the early stuff. I know most prefer the later more accomplished Beatles- but I like the idea also of th power of youth and my own time 'as a Beatle', so to speak.

This song was never one of my favourite back when, or back whenever - but it has become a deep favourite this summer. And it's this version of this song that made me the madfan of late= Pauls attempt @ french intro, the raggeded harmonies, and the beat. Again, the power of the early Beatles.

And another thing - the shots of the fans are worth watching this video in itself. There are many songs from the same show in Paris and each song features snap shots of fans reacting to the Beatles live - and each shot is funny as hell (especially the cumulative effect).

So, forwhatever reason, its a song and a tune and feeling thats been running through me all summer. And i'm not what I appear to be.

Berlin, 1945, April

Finished Road to Berlin a bit ago, and as always rekindled especial interest in those last days of the war in Europe. Sometime in high school I'd read Cornelious Ryan's The Last Battle, and anecdotal driven history of the last days in Berlin. Great read - Y'll like it - but what really got me back then was the insane atmosphere in Hitlers bunker. Doomed men, but still attempting to stave off final oblivion. And the leader of it all is flat mad, and only having fleeting glimps of reality through all the attempts at rearranging unreality.

The Russians basically started their last attack on Berlin in late April, and in context of other battles, it didn't really last too long. Stalin had assembled two massive army groups to encircle the city, and the Germans had no chance. The Russians had been alternatively steamrolling through Germany and then being held at certain strong points. For example, there were advances where the Russian tanks would burst into German cities while the trams were still running and shoppers in the stores; then there was the Seelow Heights to the east of Berlin - an important obsticle that really halted the Russian advance. Reading the first of Ericksons two books on the war really taught me a lot about the strenght of the Russian defense in the beginning of the war. The second book likewise taught me a lot about the German defense. We always learn, I guess.

Berlin '45, too - what a setting. Heavily bombed before the battle by the Allies trying the destroy the city, it was hit one last time before the final attack. Nightmare world. Cut off, encircled, total defeat in the war imminent, there came a time when Hitler finally realisased it was over. There was a final 'situation conference' where the top Field Marshal basically informed the conference that 'there's only 24h left' before the Russians overrun the bunker. Here - and I love this - Hitler then turns to the Waffen SS commandant of the bunker and asks his opinion - he had to get on final opinion from a dude far less in rank than the field marshal. Erickson writes that Hitler then prepared to kill himself w/in a few hours.

If you've seen that film "Downfall", you know of the atmosphere of the bunker at the end. Hitler trying to defend Berlin, trying to regain Vienna , armies still in Norway and Curland, and him trying despertley to get two different German field armies to attack through the russian encirclement of Berlin. Wow. The end.

This whole summer has been like Berlin 45 for me. The end of the war for me is leaving the school ive been @ for the last three years - i didnt get ejob here. For sure I thought i was gonna get the damn job, but they brought in someone from outside. Terrible. I know full well that th school had every rite to hire whoever - but fuck, I also know full well I worked well and hard there for three years. I kinda got a bad feeling in the interview - it was too short and the principal seemed really preoccupied with my classroom career. Coulda been a superlibrarian they brought in, somebody the principal knows, or someother reason - whatever it is, I know I have to leave th school as I have no future there.

I now have to leave the situation I loved so much, library, frenz, soccer teams, etc. And I have to enter a totally new situation, somewhere. Really terrible. I figgerd I'd not gotten the job a ahile ago - but like hitler, i denied it. What - no call for s few weeks? Lets wait another! I tried to keep my empire - when I was working during the summer, i still used my desk in the library, got the library magazines from the mailroom, and coached soccer. Bit by bit, theyhave been all carried away. I know full well i will have to step down as the girls varsity coach, since my JV coach will actually be working @ the school. What i am left with is to be an assistant coach on the freshman boys soccer team, unpaid. Sorta like vienna, I guess.

But my time @ a school i love deeply now ends. I cannot fucking believe it.

Glory be to Us

What i love especially about this version of "Happy" - an incredible version of the song - is how mick designs to hogg the centre stage in what obstinately should be Keiths song (indeed it's his signature song these days). Version taken from a movie of the 1972 Stones tour of "Exile on Main Street" - the LP from which "Happy" was taken.

As ridiculous as Mick can be, ist gut so.

The taking of Pest and Buda

Still slogging through From Stalingrad to Berlin by john Erikson. It's long and dry and tedious mainly, but since ive wanted to read his two deeply authoritative books on the Russian-German war sine the early 1980's. I finished the first volume before school let out, and have cut this book into three parts - 1943, to be read (successfully,a s it turned out) in june; 1944, to be finished in July(finished on 1 Aug.- close enough); and 1945, to be finished in August before school starts (to be seen). The book is so sloggish that planning out some sorta schedule was necessary for myself.

Per usual for long tedious books that I read, there is an initial rush when it first starts, then a period where I drop it completely, then a determination to finish it - and finally a rush and a push to finish it when 'a lite @ the end... ' appears. Seems I'm near the final stage. I got 200 pages to go - but it was 310 only 5 days ago - so I am working @ it. If i don't get to another lull, I mite kill it by next week. here's hoping.

A big issue with reading this summer was to get Ericksons books read, and then read stuff on the Russian German War that was published after 1990 and the fall of the Soviet union. (Yes, I know I have written of this before- persevere) I was expecting lots and lots of new revelations that had been hidden behind the Iron Curtain and all that - but I have a feeling that a lot of stuff had already been out. I am in no way a Soviet expert or whatever - but I think basically that what you get in Ericksons books (written 1975 and 1983) is to the most part generally what happened. And a lot of that credit, i think, goes to Erickson. He uses a vast array of sources from the Soviet side as well as stuff that the Germans had captured in the early parts of the war. He had numerous talks with many of the living Soviet officers (no, no Stalin or Beria - or Hitler, for that matter). It may get tedious, but it also supports a lot of what I have read post 1990 published. Now I know full well there are various parts and points where this statement by me isnt supported - but mainly ..... the phrase I think of is that the general outlines of the War remain the same - although the details dazzle ... and if the 'god' I seek in reading these books is new views on the War, then in this case maybe God truly is in the details.


And part of Ericksons success is that he really did popularize and publised the Soviet side of the story in the West. Again - and I am a prime example - most in the West were fed their particular countries war context in the post war period- despite the fact that 9 of every 10 Nazis soldiers were killed by the Russians. So for me, it was all Midway, D Day, Battle of the Bulge, Pearl Harbour, and the daylight bombing campaigns growing up. Only older me was able to sample the various theaters and then o to various ages of war. The Russians really appreciated Ericksons efforts to give the Soviet side of the story out for the record. This, i think was a huge help in opening doors for access to sources for his books.

Again - Pest and Buda have been finally taken, the Russian drive to the Oder is on and the end is near - well, in 200 pages, that is.