Hillary Limbaugh

12/20/07

“Angry men are blind and foolish…”
- Pietro Aretino, 1537

Life can be tenuous. Don’t you love the holidays? They’re so, so, material -- time for friends, relatives, and associates to gather and remind themselves of something, but of what? Different things: love, hate, annoyance, and other stuff. Anonymous said they liked T. S. Eliot. R.J., I hope you dug the Francis Bacon, as you may know, he is a contemporary of Lucien Freud (see right), whom I also like. Bonnie, don’t worry, you’ll see something cool, and knowing your taste in music, that thing we do won’t disappoint. All: have you seen “Flight of the Conchords” (HBO Series)? Way cool. Sophia gave me the first two seasons as a birthday present, of which I’m very appreciative.

Health-wise, I’m feeling better. Tomorrow I go in for a TPET Scan, and then, assuming all is well, I go until February before participating in what I expect will be periodic exams to monitor my remission. As I move out from the chemo (it’s been a month and a week) I can slowly, but ever faster (if that makes sense?) feel my body recovering. I guess it goes without saying that uncertainty will follow the rest of my days. We all live with uncertainty, of course, but in that same abstract sense that we all know we’re going to die, this is a much more concrete concept for those with illness.

While I was out doing some errands, I listened to one of the CDs Les and Diane Bloom sent me for Xmas. One of the recordings was a March 1979 live “Incognito” show at “Mr. Floods Party.” Pretty cool. I assume the lineup is Wendell Bigelow on drums, R.J., Les, and myself. Les, or R.J., a question, who wrote “Encounter”? Writing about music is a bit like writing about drugs or sex, nigh on impossible. Instrumental, rock-jazz-fusion, high octane and I love it. I can’t wait to play it for my son Russ. Love the Relentless drum attack of Bob Sweet (the influence and frienship of Jack Dejohnette is much in evidence here). Thank you Les. The other CD has the 1972 recordings of Walrus in the studio doing “Helen O’Loy” and T.V. Twinkle. Praise God!

I don’t know about you, but I feel blessed that we have men like Rush Limbaugh to guide us through the cultural wasteland that is contemporary Amerika. As the gospel according to Rush would have it, “men aging makes them look more authoritative, accomplished, distinguished. Sadly, it’s not that way for women, and they will tell you.” Rush is, of course, referring to Hillary Clinton here. While I am not a follower of Hillary Clinton, I would appreciate it if all of you withering old bags out there would respond to this blog and confirm Rush’s wisdom. Rush wonders, “ Will this country want to actually watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?” I guess Rush thinks everyone watches T.V. or listens to the radio. Given the literacy level of his constituency, this makes sense. Some of us actually read, so the depth of intellect or policy positions of a given politician have nothing to do with the way they look. I mean if being handsome and charismatic were the markers of success wouldn’t our fearless leader’s charm and guile make us numero uno on the world stage. Rush says, “there will have to be steps taken to avoid the appearance of aging.” If anyone should no how to do this it would be Limbaugh. How many fat farms, cosmetic surgeries, balding comb-overs and re-hab programs has this homely windbag endured to secure his place on the air waves?

The beauty of being the leader of the most powerful nation in the world these days is that you’ll never have to worry about having to face war crimes tribunals. Heil Cheney!

Happy Holidays All