My Visit With Paul....

Grianan of Aleach...



Buncrana...



Beach- Buncrana, Co Donegal...



The Car...



Dicey's...



Farmer's Home...



Felix's...



Engagement Party...



More Of the Party...




Afterparty- Karaoke Madness...




More Madness...




Playing Pool...




Random...



Strabane...




The Tinnys- Strabane...




More Random...




Depart...

Dear Mr Bush...

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.( REPOST)

Gay Marriage...

12 Reasons To Be Against Gay Marriage...

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.

2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can't legally get married because the world needs more children.

3. Obviously, gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if Gay marriage is allowed, since Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.

5. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are property, blacks can't marry whites, and divorce is illegal.

6. Gay marriage should be decided by people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.

7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

10. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven't adapted to things like cars or a longer lifespan.

12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a "separate but equal" institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

WOO! HOO!

I got a call from my friend Sean Burns the other night, asking if we could get together for dinner and discuss some thoughts he has about his weekly radio show.

Sean and his wife Jamie are the founders of the Sangamon Valley Roots Revival here in lovely Springfield, IL. Over the past 5 years, the SVRR has played host to many top-notch roots and rockabilly acts from around the world. For me (as well as many others), the SVRR has been Springfield's one true saving grace- it's redeeming feature, the ONLY reason to go out at all. The SVRR have brought us a consistant stream of wonderful, talented, live musicians in a town obsessed with top 40 cover bands.

So, this past Friday night I go to see what Sean has to say....

Oh Boy!!! I'm gonna be a DJ!!!!

Sean asked if I'd be interested in taking over his radio show later this fall! The show- "The Sangamon Valley Roots Revival" airs on WQNA 88.3 every Wednesday night from 7-9 pm. I have to say that I'm MORE than nervous to be doing this- I have no experience barring the fact that I love music. Fortunately, Sean is going to have me into the show to explain how the engineering works. When I take the show over this fall, I may swap time slots with Tom Huber - host of "Crop Circles". The SVRR show would then air on Saturday afternoons from 11am -1pm.

I'm getting geared-up about some ideas for theme shows. You know- "Men Behaveing Badly", "Songs from the grave", cars, fight songs, love songs, maybe a chain thing with members of bands who cross over and interconnect to other bands- whatever. (Any suggestinos would be appreciated). I thought that this might be the easiest way to break myself in. I'm also going to have to figure out how to approach bands and recording labels to make requests for CD's and Demos. I'd love to do interviews and have some guest DJ's in the studio with me. It will be a lot of work, but I'm hoping it will be worth it!

For now, you can hear the show on Wednesday nights on 88.3 FM in the Springfield area or live on the web- just go to WQNA's website.

Wednesday, August 3rd will be my first show with Sean.
Listen in and love me....

More later-

We Are The Music Makers...

Thanks to whomever posted this...

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamer of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties,
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

A breath of our inspiration,
Is the life of each generation.
A wondrous thing of our dreaming,
Unearthly, impossible seeming-
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.

They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising.
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broke,
A light that doth not depart
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.

And therefore today is thrilling,
With a past day's late fulfilling.
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of tomorrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for it's joy or it's sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.

But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!

Ode - Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1844-1881

PUNK ROCK TEST!!!

I THOUGHT THIS WAS PRETTY FUN...

I am 72% Punk Rock.

The intelligent punk. Tuff and Smart. I may be able to maintain a train of thought long enough... What the fuck was I talking about?

Take the
Punk Rock Test
@ FualiDotCom

We Are The Music Makers...

And We Are The Dreamers Of Dreams...

This is one of my favorite quotes on the planet. It's the name of my Blog for a reason. Do you know who said it?....

If you guessed Willy Wonka- you'd be correct.

I adored Roald Dahl books growing up and remain a huge fan. I related to all his child-heroes in the way that many kids feel about Harry Potter today. So... when I found out one of my favorite books- "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" had been turned into a movie ten years earlier, well... I waited with bated breath until I could see a screening of it.

Mind you- this was back in the days before you could just skip on down to video store and rent your favorite flick . I think I was 8 years old when I finally got to see "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" . The Barrington Library had a children's summer movie series that year. I sat on the foor right up front, curled up in a bean-bag chair, loving every minute of it.

Aside from "Grease", this is the first movie that I truly remember falling in love with. I wanted to be Charlie so bad. I wanted to win a golden ticket and meet Mr. Wonka! I knew I could be a good girl- not like that spoled brat Veruca! Ahhh... the fantasy life of an 8 year old.

Well, I'm 32 now, and I STILL love this story. Many of you probably already know that there are making another film. The film is due out on July 15th, and supposedly follows more closely to the plot of the book. I'm guessing that why they actually titled it after the book this time- "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory". Johnny Depp will be playing Mr. Wonka with Tim(who else could do it?)Burton directing. Again, I'm waiting with bated breath.

Watch the trailer for the new film HERE


Dez- Thanks for reminding me of a post that was loooong overdue.

CBGB Faces Possible Closure...

Over some owed back-rent.

Tell me that would not suck.

YOU CAN'T- CAN YOU?

I'm sure they will come up with the money they owe. It's a historical musical institution- A million bands have got their start there!

Read the article ...