Dickens on the Strand this weekend

My favorite festival of the year. Edit (12/3): The photos previously appearing in this space can now be found here.

More photos here. Taking the little nephews for their first trip. Weather should be perfect; see you there.

He's Still the One

The WaPo, Firedoglake, and Stephen Colbert have extensively covered John Hall, the first professional rock musician -- "rock" being a loose description, IMHO -- elected to Congress, so go click and read.

He was/is the lead singer for Orleans, which had two megahits in the Seventies, "Still the One" and "Dance With Me". My personal connection is that this music was released in 1976, my senior year in high school. It got plenty of play at our prom, and contained some good makeout tracks from what I can recall; you can listen to a blast from the past here.

That's the album cover of "Waking and Dreaming" on the right (Hall, with more hair, stands in the middle); it's obvious that the radical homosexual agenda was even then seeping into American culture.


Hall made two appearances on the Colbert Report; the first was in the recurring "Better Know a District" segment in which Colbert sends up an always-hilarious parody of a serious interview. In his bit with the future Congressman, Colbert produced a set of 'smear flash cards'. Hall drew the "My opponent smokes marijuana" one. After he was elected, Hall returned to sing a National Anthem duet with the host (the video snip is linked above).

Congratulations to John Hall, and thank goodness musicians and their fans finally have representation.

This Week in Irony (and it's only Monday)

One of the companies hired to build a wall to deter illegal immigration is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring undocumented workers.

Senator Dan Patrick -- the general in his self-proclaimed army of douchebags conservatives -- might just be a bleeding rectum. And the other Republicans in Austin might have to curb their fascism alter their strategy.

The oil companies could be -- surprise! -- squeezing production in order to prop up the price of gasoline.

The Bush twins, Jenna and Not Jenna, went buckwild in South America for their 25th birthday celebration. Apparently they did oversee a little family bidness while they were there: their dad purchased a hundred thousand acre property in Paraguay and Jenna took a meeting with the president of the country and the US ambassador. I hope she didn't have to take her clothes off.

NBC and MSNBC decide to call it a civil war. They are not joined by the rest of the corporate media yet. Kofi Annan says it is almost civil war. The Bush administration calls it a "new phase".