Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Friday, October 28, 2005

To Do List: 1. Save dates 2. Read interview 3. Buy 50AR 4. Expose Exxon 5. Fight corruption in Ohio

Posted by Mickey Z on 10/28 at 07:09 AM

keep me up to date if the one being filmed makes its way onto the net. woudl love to see it.

i just got booked to my first hour long lecture (audience of 100 - gulp). done loads of 10 or 20 minute talks to that number of people before but never an hour.

any hints that are ‘likely’ to help

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 08:52 AM

If you’ve already spoken to a large “group” (really, that’s the captcha word), Michael, you’ll be fine. Still, I’d be happy to help. You can e-mail me more about it...or we can talk here.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 09:08 AM

will mail later

sure i will be fine if i just be ‘myself’ (yes that really was too)

the exxon site is good - there is also this one..

http://www.exxonsecrets.org

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 09:25 AM

Exxon get’s 10 Billion? I think we’ve been “had.”

Posted by JOS on from La Isla Del Encanta 10/28 at 09:43 AM

mickey - were u pleased at being called an ‘exemplar’

were u mentioning the expendables there too!

and finally… describing oneself as a radical i find problematic. surely the people who believe in not invading countries and raping the planet are the moderates and its the others who are radicals??

p.s. did anyone like the adams chat on the tub thump yesterday and is todays one a little smug?

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 10:26 AM

I’m not ashamed to admit, Michael, that your blog post today was truly helpful. I was not aware of all those distinctions.

Question of the day: Can one be an expendable and an exemplar? Exemdable?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 10:41 AM

expendar? expander? (stretching it a bit there - get it? that was a truly awful pun, i fully expect mudge to boo me for that one)

thanks mickey. people here don’t even know that stuff properly. but if you call a scotsman english then you get a ten times worse reaction than if you call a canadian american.

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 11:01 AM

Exempendable. It fits y’all like a glove. Where is everyone today? I’m in bankruptcy filing hell, I have an excuse for being gone, but yooooo hoooooo where’s all the Expendables??

You, Michael, are not guilty of smugness in general that I can see. Blog on!

Exxon’s horrifying QUARTERLY profit of near-enough $10bn should be confiscated to pay for a week of their goddam war on Iraq.

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/28 at 11:23 AM

no wonder this guy’s smiling:

but hey, what about him?:

Posted by JOS on from http://www.wdthu.blogspot.com 10/28 at 11:41 AM

Libby’s been indicted on 5 counts…

Posted by JOS on from La Isla Del Encanta 10/28 at 12:05 PM

An excellent didactic piece, entirely without smugness of any sort, Michael. And, like Mr. Z., I also learned from the post. As with all good Americans, I’m generally tempted to forget that there are ANY other countries beyond the borders of the US, our Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Thus, any reminders at all are sure to be helpful. Thank you.
Once, I was conversing with a guy in Honolulu, and I asked him where he was from. He looked me in the eye and replied: “Tonga.”
I thought: “Oh, shit. Beyond the fact that it’s an island, I think, somewhere in the South Pacific, I hope, I have no idea where Tonga is.” I had a similar experience, sometime later, when a white looking guy replied: “The Marshall Islands.”

Exxon: Uh, I guess this would be what is called Corporate Welfare. Let’s see, no money for people left homeless in various hurricanes, but hundreds of billions of dollars and more than 102,000 human lives for the arms and oil industries… Yup, it’s corporate welfare, allright. Socialism - yes, Socialism, for the rich and powerful, and “capitalism” for the rest of us.

It looks like there’s no indictment for Uncle Carl, or for our beloved teddy-bear, Mr. Chaney.
Thank God, I was deeply worried about who would be running the country if these two masterminds were sent away. Now, at least, our most competant helmsmen will remain at the wheel. The path to hell is convoluted and perilous, and only such men have what it takes to bring us to our goal.

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 01:07 PM

cheers all

in gaelic thats slainge va (pronounced slan-je-va)

if true, i take it this means they think he did something but they either
1. can’t prove it, or
2. aren’t going to do anything about it
??

i submit ‘two’ options

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 02:12 PM

Interesting article:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/salv-o28.shtml

“study”

Posted by JOS on from La Isla Del Encanta 10/28 at 02:57 PM

Good morning/afternoon Mickey and all you MZ’ers!
Good luck with your ‘book tour’, Mickey - as you know I have ordered your book and have sent an email to a few people. And do keep us posted on the book appearance which is going to be filmed - I always like looking at good-looking men ..
‘Midnight Cowboy’ is one of my favourite films btw - I’m sure you and Michele will enjoy watching it.
Have a SUPER weekend,
Helga

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 10/28 at 02:59 PM

evening here actually (9pm)

i am off to get superbly drunk. i have been a good boy and not touched a drop for ten days . will be back in a number of hours. i have no idea how many. will post when wehn i get home blootered(thats a colloquialism) and you can all laugh at me!

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 03:02 PM

Hello all...I just flew in from Tonga and boy, are my arms ti…

Helga: I got the check. Thank you. Will mail the book on Monday.

i went to my local video store but in the rapid transition to DVD, “Midnight Cowboy” was no longer available on tape. We don’t have a DVD player yet (except on this computer but it’s not a practical way to enjoy a flick) so we didn’t rent anything.

Michael: Don’t drink too much or you’ll be sick for “days.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 03:14 PM

And what a shot of Cheney JOS! Shows the man in all his hideousness.
Now I’ll be ‘tubbing the thump’, Michael ..

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 10/28 at 03:38 PM

I look forward to reading your latest book, Mickey! Should be here on Monday 7 November at the latest - will let you know.
And have fun Michael but, as Mickey says and as it says on Australian bottles, drink ‘in moderation’.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 10/28 at 03:42 PM

Dizzying ride through the capitalist system today. Storytelling Saturday better look out.

Libby’s indictment made me whoop for joy! Rove’s part in this isn’t over, yet anyway, so there’s hope some justice will get passed around. The Miers flameout and the ongoing Rove probe (ewwwwww) and the Libby indictment...such schadenfreude!

Like Michael, I am off to carouse a widge. In fact, I just “went”!

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/28 at 04:13 PM

Celebrating the Astros, Mudge? Too bad they didn’t win a “game.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 04:20 PM

Now, where the hell IS Tonga, anyway...? Oh, down by the Marshall Islands? Great…

Helga, how nice of your government to warn drinkers to moderation. It’s just the government’s way of using tax dollars from ordinary people to - ahem… - help them navigate through these very confusing modern times. They’re very helpful here, too, requiring stickers and warnings on almost all products. On ladders you’ll find a note reminding you that standing on the very top wrung is dangerous and that - “Hey! You might fall!” On hairdryers it might say (Really!): “Do not use while bathing or showering.” On outdoor barbecues it often says: “If you use this indoors, you’re an idiot, and the carbon monoxide will probably kill you - which might be for the best...”
There’s an acid which can be purchased at any hardware store, which cleans concrete, reportedly. The warning says something like this: “This acid is extremely hazardous to all life. It burns skin, eyes, lungs, and almost all living tissues. Its vapors easily move through the air, and can injure people and animals and plant life even as far as 50 yards - or more - away...” It’s available right now, right off the shelf, as it were…

Meanwhile, if I’m in agony, I need to go to a doctor to see if I can convince him or her that I’m really in agony. If I’m able to afford to see a doctor, and if I can make an appointment to see him or her sometime this week, and if I’m able to convince him or her that my agony is real, and requires - in his or her professional opinion - powerful pain medication, and if I’ve not already slipped into convulsions because of the agony, I might be given a note which says I’m now allowed to purchase strong pain medications, but only the exact number the doctor has said I can purchase - and not one pill more.
Here, we see the medical profession, and the government teaming up to use our tax money to prevent the unscrupulous among us from buying powerful drugs when they don’t really need them.
Thank God!
One does not, however, require a note from a grown up in order to purchase concrete cleaning acid. Hey, it’s a free country!

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 04:24 PM

PS -
Hi Mickey & JOS & Michael and The Mudge! -

Has anyone ever read “The Darwin Awards?”

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 04:28 PM

“Since” MZ is being a snarky no-movie-havin’ Astros basher, I won’t deign to say hello. >tosses tresses<

Joe, those warnings and disclaimers are to protect the corporations, as you know...what point it there in protecting people? Drug adidction isn’t discouraged because it’s bad for you, but because it’s unsightly and bothers soccer moms, who vote and have money to give to politicians. And suicide, for God’s sweet sake, is illegal! Because, IMO, it deprives the state of a taxpayer.

Fuggit. I’m gonna vegan out in front of Outfoxed: Murdoch’s War on Journalism.

Helga, nice to see you!

JOS, you’re in fine lefty fettle today!

Faretheewell

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/28 at 04:45 PM

Joe, you OK, my man?

Mudge, now I have to go and look up fettle.

Posted by JOS on from Home 10/28 at 05:04 PM

Warning: Reading this blog and contributing comments may result in an uncontrollable desire to write a novel in 30 days.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 05:12 PM

Hi JOS & Mr. Z. -
Oh, yes, JOS - I’m finely fettled for sure.
Just recalling an old back injury and the accompanying physical and medically-induced psychological agony…
After hurting my back, I went to a chiropractor who fixed me up, or so he concluded. He added, however, that I would be in very considerable pain and, because of laws against such things, he’d not be able to give me any pain meds strong enough to even touch what was about to occur to me. He suggested I see a doctor. The emergency-room doctor, after “explaining to me” *&#^%%)@”?#%!!! that it was probably the chiropractor who had injured me, and not the 7 sets of dead lifts I’d completed earlier that day, told me I’d have to undergo a series of complex tests before the medical team would deign to finally allow me the medications I requested. This, despite the fact that my wife, a cardiac intensive-care RN, who knew & worked with him, and I, another RN, both swore that I “really was” in pain.
I’ll stop here: This little visit to the ER, took almost four indescribably painful hours, and cost me just under $700.00…

I’m off to purchase some concrete cleaner for my doctor, hehe.
Mudge, there’s an assisted-suicide law, here. The Supremes, led by our new best friend, Judge Roberts, is reviewing the law right this minute.

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 05:35 PM

My favourite (unorthodox) use of the word fettle:

“...me dying quite quickly of radically accelerated Whatchamacallit, I decided, here in the grips of aimless urgency, to sin. By sin, I mean fun, harmless. I got a deal on some pharmaceutical-grade cocaine from the Philosopher. The Mechanic gave me a phone number, instructed me to ask for either Greta or Clarice. I got Greta. Greta brought Clarice. Both of them were tall and bony with bone-colored and ash-colored hair. Both of them were professionally, abnormally delicious. “Kiss the dead man!” I said, throwing off my robe. “Fondle his fettle!” We passed some days this way, prancing, sucking, snorting, heaving, shrieking. We ordered in dinner, Indian, Chinese. Greta, an aspiring dramaturge, directed us in choice bits of Aristophanes. Clarice hand-tinted my knees for a ritual dance of our own device. We built cities with popsicle sticks, baked peanut brittle, fudge. We invented a game whereby each woman pissed down my throat and I, blindfolded, guessed by odor alone whose water it was. Easy, what with Greta’s penchant for wheatgrass juice. When the sun rose on the last day Clarice shook me awake. “Time to settle up,” she said. I figured it was money well spent. What’s seventy-three thousand dollars to a guy with Whatchamacallit? I sat there the rest of the morning wondering how to tell Fiona she was now officially a hardship case.”

- Sam Lipsyte, The Subject Steve

Gearing up for a novel, I´ve got some images and scenes. I never write outlines or plans - not saying that´s the only way to do it, just what works for me, it´s enough for me to know where and how my characters are at the moment.

Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 10/28 at 05:36 PM

...ARE… reviewing the law…
excuse me.

“money”

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 05:38 PM

Hi Owen -
I think I know Greta…

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 05:41 PM

“Points.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 05:51 PM

Owen, good to know you’re getting girded in the loin-al regions for the challenge. Montjoie! Onward!

Oooops, forgot you’re Irish, ignore all that Anglo nonsense. xoxo!

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/28 at 06:39 PM

Joe, I dislike the idea that the government can decide when we can live or when we can die. I understand gettin’ in the middle of murder. It is the involuntariness of murder that bugs me. Assisted suicide is between a person and his conscience on both sides of the equation.

But there I go again, assuming that people have consciences.

“finally’

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 10/28 at 06:43 PM

I remember when Kurt Cobain killed himself, I wrote something along the lines of: “He never let anyone tell him how to live and he didn’t let anyone tell him how to die.” For that, I took some shit...but what else would I “expect”?

Hi Joe. Did you get my warning label earlier?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 06:57 PM

is it just me or does cheney always look constipated? scooter libby? sounds like he should wear a hat with a propeller on top of it.
rumsfeld looks like skeletor or is that just me again?

Posted by tm on from four walls 10/28 at 08:54 PM

i have arrived 6 hours later (truth b told i was in pub for 4 hours b4 last post = 11 hours drinking time)

mduge -don’t deride soccer as a middle class thang till u go to europe, south america or africa...the whole thing operates differently and somewhat more violently in those places.

joe - i have seen the darwin awards and the funniest one was the guy that managed to kill himself and is wife by hammering in a nail with a loaded shotgun.

and all… chiropracty = quackery

in bed

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/28 at 09:05 PM

America ranks #1 in laxative sales, TM. Everyone is constipated. As for Libby, looks like he could “use” this: http://www.scooterhelp.com.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 09:06 PM

Looks like Michael and I were typing at the same time...but he needs more “help” in his post-pub state.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/28 at 09:07 PM

I did, Mickey, but I danced gingerly past it, like a bi-polar manic, too long off the lithium…
I’m in the process of trying to write a review of Mickey Z.’s 50AR, at Amazon. As usual, when I try to write well, I’m paralyzed during construction of the first sentence. Perhaps I’ll let my fingers fly and read the output after I push the submit button. (Vanity, Vanity, All Is...)

Mudge, said assisted-suicide law is one of many reasons why we decided to move to this beautiful but often eerily unfamiliar place. Now, of course, the government of the United States of America will make such things illegal. Can’t smoke, can’t even take my own life, legally.

No matter what ones view of such acts, no one who has seen lots of dying and death can fail to appreciate the opportunity to die with dignity. If one has not seen much of these end times, there is a book which performs much the same “service” to the uninitiated:
“How We Die,” by Sherwin Nuland.
I don’t recall the guy’s politics, or his take on suicide of any sort, but the book examines the process of dying in extraordinary and pretty daunting detail.
He was a surgeon, and professor of surgery at Yale. At some point in the book, he remarked that, given what he had seen during a lifetime of medical practice, the idea of “death with dignity” was obviously absurd. Dying, he said, is generally a painful, nasty, miserable, humiliating business… with little obvious dignity anywhere.

Well, while I think that there are important exceptions to that conclusion, I generally agree. Once one is certain that “all is lost,” but hopefully before one is reduced to an inability to feed and bathe oneself or to attend to ones own processes of elimination, it would certainly be nice to be able to say ones “goodbyes,” take a few pills, and fall asleep quietly, gently, peacefully, and forever.

The elites, of course, will always possess this option. The rest of us, alas, are to be barred by the law.

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 09:52 PM

Michael, the one I best remember is for a guy who was out on the lake with one of those “ski-doos.”
It was electric powered, and as he was returning to the dock area, near his home, his battery went dead. Well, I don’t know what the process was supposed to be, but the guy ran up to the house, plugged a long extension wire into the outdoor socket, and ran down toward the ski-doo to plug in the recharger. He happily jumped right into the water, next to his machine, and was instantly fried.

The Darwin Awards, for those unfamiliar with them, are given to people who die as a result of unbelievably stupid acts… Their death is deemed fortunate, because they are thus prevented from passing on their genetic material to another unsuspecting generation…

Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/28 at 10:18 PM