Aside from partying one last time with the Gueveras and gang, I've been putting together my photo collection for the 26 things scavenger hunt. I was thinking of odd themes to do it, but then just decided to walk around my neighborhood.

I know the commenting system is out of order. Sorry about that. Please pull around. Your order will be taken at the window.

Cordelia in her weekly wrap-up of the events of North-of-Austin-land (a.k.a Raccoon heaven! Sorry about that, C & C), pointed me to the weekly police blotter of the Cedar Park and Leander, Texas police departments. Along with problem children, domestic disputes including home-made bombs, was a quaint story about the modern American family:

July 21

At 8:48 p.m., Cedar Park officers were dispatched to the 700 block of Twin Oak Trail in reference to a verbal disturbance between a man and a woman. On arrival, the officers rang the doorbell and spoke with three young girls who opened the door. The girls were the daughters of the man and woman who were fighting. They were all visibly shaken, upset and crying. They said their father was upset at their mother for playing on the internet all the time and neglecting her duties as a mother and a wife. He took the cable modem from the computer and smashed it on the back porch and pulled the coaxial cable from the exterior of the house. The woman slapped him in the face several times and he responded by pushing her back. The argument continued without further physical contact or threats. (Hill Country News, paragraph 15)

Now not to worry, it doesn't seem like anyone was hurt in the altercation, and the husband agreed to stay with relatives for the night to "cool off," but

The officers noticed that the house was very dirty, with dirty clothes and rags all over the floor and furniture. There was uneaten food on plates in the kitchen and dining room and the house smelled like unbathed dogs, stale cigarette smoke and general filth. The furniture and carpet were dirty and stained. (ibid, paragraph 18)

Unbathed dog? Isn't that the next Febreeze scent?

I've been watching the much anticipated PBS special on Watergate, and find it somewhat disturbing that pbs.org pays little attention to it--hushing it way over in its barely listed program, and that, in fact, much of the U.S. media seems to be ignoring the 30 year anniversary. Now granted one does not necessarily want to relive a nasty political experience, but what the hell. No one covering it? No one covering it aside from the hot story that Magruder fingers Nixon, and that barely makes for any interest? My God, people, we are talking about the biggest constitutional crisis the United States has ever faced and and what do we get? Web pages from the United States Senate that ennoble Nixon along with Johnson and Dirksen, or how fucking wonderful Coke is, or how supposedly the men (yes they were all just men) who met to rebel against England and build a government were pretty much right wing conservatives, but only cursorily deal with the religious plurality that existed at the time, and the issue that many of those same leaders put aside their personal religious beliefs in order to attend a congress with people who did not believe in what they believed (as Unitarian Universalist Samuel Adams says in one of the first meetings of the Continental Congress--more or less--I am no bigot and will respect the beliefs of others.") Anyway, I suppose my rant is soothed in that the Senate has put the McCarthy hearings online. So I guess we just have to wait another 20 for even a Republican Senate to recognize that what Nixon was doing was harmful to the nation?

Enough of that. Back to Ramen and Liz Phair. Blech. Yes I am pissed off.

Went off to the Liz Phair show tonight at ye olde Zephyr, partly because I wanted to see an angry Liz Phair, partly because the Zephyr is moving out of its current digs to what I assume will be something far worse, and partly because it was a chance to hang out with a buddy I haven't seen in a long-ass while. He is a taper, thus there is always the fun of plotting and scheming to get the DAT recorder in and setting up the clandestine microphones and so forth.

Now despite it being a very long while since I've seen any non-local bands play at bars, and realizing a long time ago how people glom on to anyone who achieves any sort of radio play despite their talent, I would say that I was mildly impressed by the set and the bravery of the opening act to do a completely acoustic set (which means he either lost his band somewhere in the desert, or they decided to pack it up and go home). Liz Phair's music, however, was somewhat forgetable, and she changed guitairs more than you've had hot dinners or Mickey Rooney has changed wives. My buddy, who has the scoop on all the shit in the music biz, being that is is a DAT head, told me that Liz is only trying to get a platinum album so she can be set and not have to worry about touring and all that shit. Eh what they hell. Sell out or not, I don't blame her. Anyway, she wore a nipple shirt and was pretty damn hot and was pleasant to the audience so what the hey. I'm still looking forward to something more palatable, however. Maybe I will bust out and get the Radio Head tickets.