Saturday, December 14, 2016

 For whatever reason, I wrote a thing about the Royal Guardsmen's hit "Snoopy vs. Red Barron," rock & roll's Missing Years, and just the general recognition that we're answering the wrong question, as is my wont. It's all on the Tumblr site and it's a pretty good sized chunk of gibberish, so if that's you thing, go dig.



 Well, I know why. Wired & inspired, indeed. Probably the most respectable trip on that particular train, and I pretty much had the house to myself all day. So it was a pleasant afternoon. A bit cooler than one would like, but pleasant nevertheless.

 I had some interesting strokes earlier, but they've slipped away with supper. I have been thinking a lot about just what I'm doing with this, where I want to take it, and how it all fits together. I've said before that during my journalistic career, I was a pretty average reporter, if I want to be extremely generous, and it never was my bag. I was a good journalist, though, as odd as that may sound. There's a difference between "reporting" and "journalism" like there's a difference between "Chicago blues" and "music".

 So, this is obviously not "reporting" and I don't think it's "essaying" or "journaling". It might be and I just don't want to admit it, but there we are. I don't know if "blogging" really exists to any extent anymore, and "freelancing" implies getting paid. "Writing" is too vague and open a concept, as well, but it's definitely not "science fiction" or "literary journalism".

 I'm not really "storytelling" or "chronicalling", either. Certainly not an autobiography. What else is there? I guess we'll call it "gonzo-influenced Journalism with a small 'g' and a large 'J'" until something better comes along. I'd love to figure out a way to monetize it, but that requires a desired product and I don't know if I can color the eggs of my day-to-day that much.

 Not much noteworthy in the News today, apart from New Jersey Representative Jeff Van Drew decided to cut the shit and announce his intention to change parties, from Democrat to Republican. You'll remember that Van Drew got more attention than he's ever got in his career by announcing he was voting "no" on impeachment, the only one to swear to that.

 Actually, since the D's are probably going to have the votes to impeach with or without this stooge, this is the only choice Van Drew has. He's struggling mighty and has lost a lot of support from his Democratic constituency. He might as well jump, as he'd probably see a Democratic challenger when he ran for re-election. This is all still rumor at this point, and you should never, ever trust a politician to do something until it's already done.

 The Washington Post published an excellent if depressing piece detailing how the military and Pentagon has been blowing smoke up everyone's ass, inre: Afghanistan and whether or not the last 18 years of blood, death, and money was worth it. Turns out it wasn't. After you read that, read this nice story from The New York Magazine Intelligencer about we haven't learned on useful thing from that whole experience, particularly the country's legislators.

 And everyone has to go to work Monday anyway.