I haven't updated in some time. Haven't really had a lot to say...there's nothing I could talk about in the political realm that wouldn't be better covered elsewhere, I'm doing roughly nothing worthwhile or entertaining, and have nothing really interesting to say.

I should say I'm optimistic about this election. I'm not enlivened by what Iraq has become, by the thoughts of new generations of people with new reason to hate the country I live in, by thoughts of people who might have been getting on fine and had their shit ruined in Afghanistan/Iraq. Not really thrilled that Saddam was made into such a huge issue and Osama, who um, attacked us? Yeah, attacked us, was kind of swept under a rug. Rather than continue with a laundry list of reasons to be disappointed in just about everything that's happened that's important since 9-11, I'll just say that it seems very many people are feeling the same discontent, and are eager to go another direction. Hopefully a direction that doesn't include fixing problems by directing attention at other ones, then making both worse, but eh. Problem is going to be, if Kerry gets elected, he's basically handed an untenable situation which has no right answer, so of course he's probably not going to be able to do fuckall with it, and pundits will blame the negativity of whatever happens on Kerry getting elected over Bush. Spin rules. Kind of like how Kerry voted against all those weapon systems. Oh wait, actually Cheney did? Right, that's what you meant to say. I'd think it'd be hard to try and call into question the patriotism of someone with three Purple Hearts, but um, nevermind.

I'm no huge Kerry fan. But I'm seeing this as a character vote. And I'll take the character of the war hero who then opposed the ethics of the war in question over the guy who was bought out of actual duty, and filled his freed-up time with excess drinking and narcotic experimentation, retiring those addictions in favor of questionable business practices and personal dialouges with God himself, allegedely. One of those sounds like a person who might have a shred of decency and the other sounds like a lunatic. I'm not implying that I think someone is a bad person if they were addicted to alcohol or tried heavy drugs, or even if they did all that and then just traded it for religious fundamentalism and screwing old retired people out of money. I'm sure such a person could be a total stand-up guy, a real hoss, the kind of guy you want to play raquetball and then go get some dinner with. I'm just implying I don't think that's the kind of person I want running the most powerful country in the world with the largest military by three times over. If we're going to have a total shit "everybody dies!" situation (you know, like the one right now) brought about through house-of-cards intelligence, I'd prefer the guy who knows what that's like be the one rubbing his chin with a furrowed brow in the oval office.

On that note, in addition to a character vote, it's also a For The Love Of God Let's Try Something Fucking Else vote. I'm sure alienating the entire world will prevent the possibility of further attacks. That might work, if we killed the whole rest of the world. If that's their intent we're off to a slow start though.

I like Prince a lot, he's a ridiculously gifted musician and has stood the mainstream music test of time (which doesn't necessarily mean anything, since Aerosmith, as far as I know, sells a lot of records too). His new album is pretty good. It's basically more Prince. He plays all the instruments and backs himself up on nearly every song (i.e. most songs are 100% him, except for a few with people playing horns and shit, or when a female backup singer is required), which is pretty crazy. Hey speaking of pop music, that Maroon 5 album is very acceptable also. Guy's name is Adam Levine or something? He's only 24, 25 or something but has voice that sounds more developed, I wouldn't guess he's that young. His delivery is also more croonerish, if I can use that word that I just made up, than I've heard in a while, it kind of recalls Stevie Wonder, so big surprise I read an interview with that guy and he said Stevie Wonder is his idol. An ode to run-on sentences, by Joe.

I also like Robert Service a lot, if you haven't read some of his stuff you should. He's my favorite structured poet, his rhythm and internal rhymes are awesome.

I hope you've enjoyed this update. Feel free to leave remarks in the comment sectio below. I would be happy to provide my address, should anyone feel the need to support me with cash, checks, or money orders. 
¶ 1:29 AM