Don LaFontaine passed away in LA today, after a protracted illness. He was 68 years old, a man of imposing body mass and a gruffness that hid an “I’m just jacking you around,” sense of humor. He could say, “Pass the peas,” and make it sound momentous or ominous. A deep baritone with clipped articulation: you’ll recognize his voice immediately as the one used in thousands of film trailers throughout your years on earth. Known for the tag line intro: In a world…...

I saw this for the first time tonight and watched it several times in pure joy. I loved watching the people in it, I’ve always had a thing for beefy people and skinny people (yes, prob should have a shrink look at that. lol) Catch the fellow at the far right in Brisbane. Or the little children so completely on joyous fire, or the ‘give it everything you’ve got no matter who’s looking’ people throughout; sometimes even the tribal people are more stately than the moderns....

This is the annual Crow Fair at Crow Agency, Montana. Normally, some of us would be there. But, this year, we’ve sent word to ask for prayers for a loved one who is struggling. My grandmother, an old believer, used to say, “There is no distance at all in between hearts in prayer.” The Crow live, as you see, with a mix of modern pick-up truck steeds, and work/heart companions: How it is sometimes said out West: “She owns horses.” The women riders here are wearing traditional...

Well, the Greek column stage-set for Senator Obama’s 20 minute film, speech, followed by fireworks and music after, is seen by some as a bizarre backdrop. But, perhaps the only odd thing is that many Denverites associate such columns with three notable places in Denver, each one ‘columnized’ out the kazoo, and also very well known for one odd thing or another a) The Denver Post Office, which is adorned with nearly identical columns. The Post Office was known as the place to go...

This is the old Denver Post Office, pillarized completely… pillars were meant in ancient times to create a certain geometric grace via formulae: a certain height of pillar and radius of pillar carries a mathematical aesthetic as compared to width or depth of the pediment and other structures surrounding. In that sense, the pillar is more than a set of bones or ornaments for the building, it is also part of an artistic ratio, similar to an aesthetic in painting which is often based on mathematic...

This story is a little too reminiscent of the moat Dick Cheney dug around his secret meetings with lobbyists and elected officials re oil legislation/favors et al when he first came into office a million years ago under George Bush. Cheney claimed he didn’t need to let any journo in, that his private meetings with influential people were not under ‘the people’s right to know.’ None of our beezwax. He stonewalled Freedom of Information Act requests repeatedly. Got away with...

First, scan this from The Denver Post online: Protesters at a Recreate 68 event at the Denver Mint this afternoon swarmed conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, circling around her and shouting at her until she left the area. Malkin, a blogger, syndicated columnist, sometimes Fox New commentator and author of a controversial book defending racial profiling in the war on terror, showed up at the event to “levitate” the mint shortly after 5 p.m. today. She said she was there for work. Protesters,...

Look, maybe pundits are just tired from the altitude in Denver… many come from sea level of zero. Here is it 5280 feet above sea level. Enough to noticeably augment the effects of alcohol imbibing; enough to make many feel short of breath; even faint. It takes about a year at this altitude to acclimate. Or, maybe it’s because I myself ‘don’t get it,’….don’t get the deep meaning behind these repetitious lavings. Forgive me please, I think I must be in a grumpy mood....

I first heard the rumor a couple weeks ago. Two police officers were explaining that the only Interstate North/ South freeway through Denver was to be closed down during Obama’s speech at Invesco Mile High Stadium (where the Denver Broncos play.) The DNCC moved Obama there because the venue could hold so many more people than the Pepsi Center (capacity 17k), where hockey is normally played. The original thrust was to close the highway from 3pm through rush hour and ending after the evening...

Last night, the Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper went on TV to announce that regular Denver citizens should come downtown. That conventioneers won’t get a good experience of the city if citizens don’t fill the downtown and make it come alive. He said regular citizens shouldn’t be afraid of the protesters. The protesters aren’t afraid either. For instance: Here is what shows at ground level: a vociferous protester who says he represents the decriminalization, or legalizing...

For the past week, Denver talk radio hosts have been fissioning and steaming like a bunch of live lobsters tossed into the roil, about The Grizzly Rose, a local cowboy-motorcycle dance hall being ‘rented’ for ka-jillion dollars a night by a mysterious force which is present at The Democratic National Convention this week. At the Democratic Convention Hall, in front of the curtain and high up in the rafters, …. if you crane your neck and “behind the curtain”… it...

I am with a group of aggressive and intense ‘outsider’ blogger-journalists covering the “OUTSIDE” of the Democratic Convention in Denver. We decided to skip the ‘funny hats-balloon-drop-rags-to-riches speeches’ and see throughout the week what happens behind the curtain. Stay tuned. Here I present ‘narrative with few words.’ Photos by my blogista colleague Wesley a/k/a “Eyes”… In front of the curtain: the venue at the convention center…....

Some say protesters, such as Code Pink and Recreate 68 and others, including small church groups and other groups no one has ever heard much about, are being denied their constitutional rights of freedom to assemble, and freedom of speech. Many protest groups have sued to gain access to convention gathering sites in Denver so they can be ‘seen’ and ‘heard’ by conventioneers, pols, and newsmedia. Up close. Like abortion protesters, kind of. That close. But the big D doesn’t...

They’re trying to empty the Denver jails in anticipation of all the protesters the Denver police may need to round up. But, the Denver County jails are overflowing with prisoners nonetheless. So, Denver Mayor Hickenlooper has authorized a unique way to contain protesters: cages. Inside a warehouse. Far from Denver central where all the action will be. One of the guys who does investigative reporting for the local TV channel, Rick Sallinger, says the lockup at a warehouse owned by Denver has...

Rick Sallinger reports from the CBS Denver affiliate Less than two weeks before the Democratic National Convention a man has been found dead in a Denver hotel room with a container of what authorities initially suspect to be the deadly poison cyanide. …the dead man, Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, appears to be from outside the U.S. No passport was found on Dirie, who is believed to have entered the country from Canada. A large container of a white powdery substance was found in the man’s...

Bernie Mac has died way too early. He had Sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disorder that can scar the lungs. The coroner’s office noted his death was ‘natural,’ which seems like such a wrong word for death in one so young. He’d been hospitalized for pneumonia on August 1, 2008. Mr. Mac grew up on the South Side of Chicago. From having lived there in the 60′s, I can tell you South Side had three layers: –the brick two-story homes of the Utilities, Road and Water operations...

More likely pushed out I imagine, and allowed to resign to save face. What damage Phil Gramm did to Senator McCain’s campaign, with Gramm’s archaic and out of touch epithets about American families who struggle so with sudden and huge inflation regarding food, transportation, ARMs, health costs… a ‘perfect mess of an economic storm– while Gramm is a coddled multimillionaire and has NEVER gone without anything even remotely related to stapes and necessities. Never. Gramm...

Phil Gramm of Texas is not known as a man of developed intellect nor steady statesmanship. He’s known for pork-barreling, for speaking in crude ways, for blurting out unseemly epithets at American citizens, and for jeering at the unfortunate. His words this week are not the first time this privileged, pampered and wealthy man has frothed with scorn at the poor, the jobless, the uninsured, the homeless, the foreclosed upon, the working class, and the unprotected. The times he’s done this...

THE SELKIE Starbucks chose the motif of the mermaid, a beautiful and ancient motif about which there are many stories. In one of my books I tell the story about how just such a mermaid sickens and dries out when lured to land by a man who says he loves her. But, she cannot abide his way of living, nor what he requires of her… she cannot become as the man wishes just because he wishes it so. She is harmed by being forced to live endlessly according to land-locked rules. The mermaid–...

So near and yet so far, for so long. Fifteen hostages were rescued from FARC, the left wing guerilla organization in Columbia that has used abduction and holding of hostages to finance and further their bloody guerilla war. Three American hostages, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell were amongst those rescued. The men who had been held hostage for five years, arrived safely in Texas late Wednesday after being rescued by Colombian military forces. The three men were military contractors...

I spoke to Ed Warner last night, a board member of the Sand County Foundation that has great heart and works in Zimbabwe. The Foundation has expanded from being caretaker of The Leopold Memorial Reserve — 1500 acres of cooperatively mananged private land– to advising the managers of hundreds of thousands of acres of land in several countries. The Foundation works with private landholders to improve the quality of their lands through science, ethics, and incentives. Warner is a geologist,...

Update:read here too, a brief but arresting post by Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival about George Carlin as Philosopher/ Shaman. George Carlin who many in the old counter-culture remember for his discourse on ‘dirty words,’ and other anti-parental and anti-establishment topics, passed away from heart failure today in Los Angeles. The contretemps about his “Seven Dirty Words” piece, and whether the Pacifica NY radio station he performed these on ought be fined, went all...

A critical key for the future viability of blogging and the future viability of the msm, that most bloggers and quite a few in the msm already understand, is the strong symbiotic relationship developed, and which continues to develop rapidly and creatively, between certain of the msm and the blogosphere… A symbiosis is wherein two or more hosts are nourished by and from one another, reciprocally, complementarily, so that all thrive even the more. And such is all around us to see. When I drove...

Since the 24/7 news cycle is no longer, and it’s now a minute to minute news cycle, matters of end-game negotiation or denouement that used to take months, sometimes seem to occur within moments too. This is an update to an earlier story at TMV yesterday which ran Robert Cox’s understanding of the legal facts behind the contretemps between Associated Press and Drudge Retort. For those interested in process as much as content, the AP and the Drudge Retort have made peace. For now. The...