Chesapeake Energy finished the noisy, messy part of its operation, across the street from my abode, a long time ago. Leaving behind, I thought, a hole in the ground that was spewing natural gas.
And then yesterday, a new drilling rig appeared. You can see it in the photo, between the two blooming crape myrtles. Or is it crepe myrtles? I guess either crape or crepe works.
I don't know why Chesapeake Energy has put up a drilling tower again. They don't let the neighbors know anything. Like when the convoy of water trucks arrived, spewing clouds of dust. We weren't warned. Chesapeake Energy never came around offering to pay for a car wash. Or a new air filter. We just got to read how lucky we were. On billboards, on TV, in the paper and on park benches.
I can hear my new neighbor right now, making a rhythmic pounding. Did something get clogged up? Did the gas quit flowing? Should we be careful about making any sparks? Like they say, I mean Chesapeake Energy says, this is "Living with the Barnett Shale!"
Last night my TV viewing was again on Bravo TV. The always amusing, Kathy Griffin in her My Life on the D-List show.
I made it through 2 episodes, bailing by the time I got to the new episode.
In the first hour Kathy and her entourage went to Sidney, Australia on something called the Pink Flight, which consisted of a plane full of drag queens on their way to the Aussie Mardis Gras.
On the plane Kathy passed out her D-List Condoms and encouraged the fliers to join the mile high club. I'd never seen so much boisterous activity on an airplane. At one point there was a "Who has the Best Chest" contest, where bare-chested drag queens paraded down the aisle. Kathy then took her top off and did the same. I suspect she won the contest, but we did not see the result.
When they got to Sidney, Kathy and entourage met up with Lance Bass. Much double-entendre humor ensued. They all went to a zoo where they got to pet a kaola bear, which was very cute, and play with kangaroos and a giant snake. Kathy made a number of giant snake jokes, mostly directed at Lance Bass.
Then Kathy met up with Margaret Cho and Cindy Lauper to pick out a Mardis Gras costume. Kathy was offput to learn that Margaret was the Grand Marshall of the parade. Margaret invited Kathy to ride on her float. Kathy said she would. But when Kathy and entourage got to the parade they could not find Margaret's float. So Kathy and group just hopped on other floats or just walked along hoping someone would recognize her. Eventually, due to her own camera crew following her, Aussie news crews started interviewing Kathy as she marched along.
And so her goal of getting some more Aussie publicity had been reached. She was in Australia to promote her D-List show which was about to premiere on Australia's biggest network.
In the second hour it was all about being banned, again, from ABC's The View. And going to New York City to perform at Madison Square Garden. Before going to New York City, Kathy and entourage dropped in on Rosie O'Donnel, who is oddly obsessed with arts and craftsing.
Kathy told Rosie about her sad banning from The View. Rosie, having experienced similar bannings, asked what happened. Apparently, off camera Kathy had mentioned, to Barbara, something about KY Jelly, to which Barbara Walters replied that she preferred Astroglide. Kathy then worked that into her Bravo Special Straight to Hell, which aired right before she was to re-appear on The View. When Barbara learned Kathy had shared Barbara's Astroglide secret with the world, she ordered Kathy banned. Kathy is quite proud of being banned twice from the same show. She believes it is a show business first.
Of course, Kathy has now worked the banning, not only into her comedy routine, like at Madison Square Garden, it's also mentioned over and over again on the show. If they'd just gone ahead and had Kathy back on The View, I would never have had the unfortunate mental image of Barbara Walters and Astroglide etched into my memory.
To get publicity in New York City, Kathy was ordained as a minister and officiated at the wedding of an amusing pair, who told her she could say anything, nothing was off limits, but the word titties. So, of course, Kathy told the wedding crowd that she'd been told she could "say anything but titties, so I won't be mentioning titties during the wedding service, because for some reason the bride and groom do not like titties."
When the ring bearer brought the ring, Kathy stopped the proceeedings and asked why this was a grown man, instead of the usual little kid ring bearer. The groom told Kathy that because she was the minister no kids were allowed at the wedding.
Two hours of Kathy Griffin and her Life on the D-List show goes by real fast. I find her very amusing. Though I do grow a bit tired of so many word bleepings on Bravo TV. It ain't like you don't know exactly what they are saying.
I forgot to mention an amusing thing. While they were at Rosie's, Rosie asked Kathy for a favor. Knowing that Kathy was dating Apple Billionaire Steve Wozniak, Rosie wondered if Kathy could ask The Woz if he could get her into some online hi-tech seminar, that is very exclusive and to which she'd had no luck getting in. Rosie said she give Kathy anything she wants.
Anything? Yes, Anything. Well, Kathy said. Wait, Rosie said, I know what it is you will want. You want to meet Cher. Is that it? Yes, Kathy said. So, Rosie promised front row seats at Cher's show in Vegas, an overnight state in a penthouse suite and a backstage visit with Cher. Deal. Kathy then called Wozniak and he instantly said no problem. Rosie was elated. As was Kathy.
How can you not like a girl who can call Steve Wozniak on a whim and get what she wants?
Here's a video from a show from a couple weeks ago.......
I love admitting it when I'm wrong. So, I'll admit it. I was wrong about Chesapeake Energy. Last week I wrote that it appeared Chesapeake Energy was backing off on their multi-media propaganda onslaught. It seemed the TV ads and billboards with Tommy Lee Jones had gone away. The full page ads in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had not appeared for over a week. I'd not seen a Fort Worth bus plastered with Chesapeake slogans. I'd not seen a Chesapeake/Barnett Shale billboard in weeks.
And then yesterday I saw 2 buses plastered with Chesapeake Energy propaganda. I thought, I guess they've not totally scaled back.
And then, this morning, I learned not only has Chesapeake not scaled back on their propaganda onslaught, they're amping it up by launching an online Shale TV Video channel to help their ongoing attempts to counter all the objections from urban citizens to having their yards dug up, trees knocked down, parks compromised and peace, quiet and clean air messed around with.
For Slate TV, Chesapeake Energy somehow lured the D/FW Metroplex's longest running news guy, Tracy Rowlett, away from CBS Channel 11. I imagine quite a sum of money was involved to get this guy to agree to be a shill for Chesapeake.
Of course, Chesapeake is claiming they will have those who object to their drilling practices on their show. It will be interesting to see if Don Young gets an invite.
Regarding Chesapeake's attempts to counter the online battering they are taking from various blogs and websites. I have a suggestion. Since you are willing to pay so much money to counter your bad public image, have you considered simply making an offer to people like me to get us to shut up?
I certainly would consider such an offer. I am no less willing than Tommy Lee Jones or Tracy Rowlett to sell out if the money is right. I eagerly await Chesapeake's Energy's offer.
In the meantime, yesterday, for some likely un-Godly reason, my next door Chesapeake drilling tower reappeared. I had no idea they came back after the drilling was done? Why? I'll take a photo of this this morning and share it with you later in the morning.
An amusing sidenote, everytime I blog about Chesapeake Energy and the Barnett Shale, I see a huge number of readers pop up from Oklahoma City, headquarters of Chesapeake Energy. I think I can extrapolate from that that Chesapeake Energy, for some reason, really really closely monitors what is being said about them. Such a sensitive company. Except when it comes to disturbing people's sleep, messing up their property, polluting their water and just being an all around nuisance.
Tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, 2008, the Parker County Peach Festival takes place in Weatherford, Texas. Weatherford is the county seat of Parker County, about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. I've been to the Peach Festival a couple times. Texas does this type festival really well, small Texas town festivals and parades are a good thing.
It's hot in July in Texas, so the Peach Festival uses multiple walk through misters to cool people down.
The Peach Festival is a one day affair. I learned this a few years back when I tried to go on a Sunday. It is odd that this is only a one day thing, as the Peach Festival is huge, covering several blocks surrounding Weatherford's cool county courthouse square. A lot of bother for a one day event.
The Peach Festival has multiple music venues and 100s of vendors. And peaches. You can get them fresh, in cobblers, in ice cream, in juleps and in forms I've likely forgotten.
Now, Parker County does not produce many peaches, but they are intensely proud of their peaches.
Me, being a Washington boy, having lived most of my life in a state that produces peaches for export, in addition to apricots, nectarines, cherries, berries, grapes and apples, has a high flavor standard expectation regarding the quality of my fruits. Washington's eastern Washington soil, climate and irrigation are perfect for producing big, sweet, flavorful peaches.
In other words, both times I tasted a Parker County peach I said, "are you kidding me?" It barely even tasted like a peach. Maybe they were bad years, not enough sun or water.
At the last Peach Festival I attended there was a peach bobbing tub full of peaches floating in water. You bobbed for prizes. A big sign assured Texans that none of their precious Parker County peaches were being desecrated in this tub of water, that these are all California peaches, purchased at the local Albertsons.
See what I mean? This is a fun festival. I don't know if I'll go tomorrow. 6o miles roundtrip is a huge investment in gas. I suppose if I start walking now I could make it in time.
I learned from my little sister in Tacom this morning that Michelangelo's David is returning to Italy after two years of touring America. I don't know if David made it to Tacoma. It appears David may have spent a lot of time in the South part of America.
Last night I finished reading Voices From The Third Reich: An Oral History. I have read more books, than I can remember, about the Nazi era. Years ago, after reading Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich, no more, I was done with WWII books.
But then, a couple month's ago, I read a book about the Japanese atrocities during WWII, and before WWII, that shocked me. After that I happened upon the definitive Hitler bio.
Ever since I was a little kid, 10 or 11, and learned of the Holocaust, I have despised Germans. I've always thought they got off too easy after the war, due to the Cold War starting up between the U.S. and the Soviets. I've always bought into the idea of the German's collective guilt. How could they not know the Jews were being killed? How could they not know of the mass slaughters in the occupied zones of the Soviet Union?
After reading this Oral History I've changed my mind. The majority of the German people were just as much victims of Hitler as was the rest of the world. By the time these oral histories were taken, the older generation had died off, so most of the stories are those of men and women who ranged from 11 to in their 20s during the war.
Survivors of the Holacaust tell their stories, survivors of the Russian Front tell their stories, survivors of the Allied bombing tell their stories, survivors of the mass executions that followed the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt of Hitler tell their stories, survivors who worked with or met Hitler tell their stories, surviving German POWs, of both Soviets and Americans tell their stories (which do America proud, and make an American, me, a bit more ashamed of how the Bush wars have treated prisoners), survivors of the brutality of the Russians as the Soviets overran Germany tell their stories, survivors of the Western Front tell their stories. All in all, all types of German surivors in all sorts of situations tell their stories.
The German stories of their first encounters with American forces after the Normandy invasion was new information to me. The Germans were used to fighting the Russians. The Russians would just advance into a line of fire. In their first encounter with Americans, the Germans would find that the Americans would quickly retreat. In their first encounters, the Germans thought the Americans are easy. And then, about 5 minutes later, the Germans would be hit from the air and by artillery and tank fire. The Germans quickly learned that the Americans used heavy fire power to protect their soldiers.
Also interesting was how desperately both German soldiers and civilians tried to get under American control rather than the Russians. In the book there are several accounts of how amazed the Germans were at how well the Americans treated them. One told of being brought to America on a troop ship, well-fed on the way, landing in New York City, being put on a glass tourist boat to be brought to a camp in New Jersey. The German could not believe how prosperous America was, how much food, how many cars and how well they were treated. One German was shocked to see Black American soldiers. He was hungry when captured. The Nazis had convinced him that Blacks were sub-human. This American drove the German to a food supply bunker and loaded the German up. This was the point in time when this German realized he'd been lied to by the Nazis. This German ended up thinking the Black Americans were nicer than the Anglo Americans.
Anyway, after reading this book I realized that I was ridiculous in my attitude towards Germany. All Germans were no more guilty of all the Nazi crimes than are all Americans responsible or guilty of the various dubious acts of the Bush adminstration, you know, things like invading another country, on trumped up charges, and using a Blitzkrieg method to do so, and then putting prisoners into concentration camps, like Guantanamo Bay, where the prisoners are held, without trial, many of whom have been shown to be totally innocent, just like those the Nazis stuck in camps.
So, I know there were Good Germans, and others who were afraid to speak up. Just as I know the majority of Americans are Good Americans who are horrified that America, in even the most slight of ways, has acted in the same manner as Nazi Germany. And just like in Nazi Germany, it will be those who resisted the evil-doing, who will soon restore America to its rightful place as the Number One most decent, respected and admired member of the family of nations.
So, I am almost certain that in about 5 months or so, either Barack Obama or John McCain will begin that process for America and America again will be seen as America was seen during World War II, a beacon of rightness and goodness and power that made the world feel safe. Not scared.
I read an interesting article in this morning's Seattle P-I about the evolution of Seattle's relationship with the now departing Sonics and how, among other things, Seattle has become like Los Angeles, being at the point that the public is ready to shrug off a sports team. LA has been without a Pro NFL team for well over 10 years. With the West Coast often starting trends for the rest of the nation, I'm hoping this bodes well for the coming end of the bizarre pro sports world of ridiculous salaries and billion dollar palaces to play the children's games in.
I can not imagine an honestly introspective self-aware type of article appearing in the more propagandaish, Chamber of Commerce boosterizing, often outright misleading and dishonest, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
"Before, (Seattle) aspired to be big," Brewster said. "Now it thinks it's probably bigger than it really is.
"So it can behave like Los Angeles (which has been without the NFL for 14 years) and say, 'OK, we don't have a professional basketball team. We don't need that. That's for smaller cities like Oklahoma City.' So we have almost a condescending view toward cities that are dying to have professional sports."
Most Seattleites have never been to a Sonics game. Some view them as a nuisance that gums up downtown traffic 41 times a year. Instead of a sprouting town eager for events, we are now a crowded metropolis inundated with them. But Gorton doesn't think that lessens the value of our pro sports institutions.
"I don't think there is any leisure activity that involves all of the people," Gorton said. "Certainly the majority of people (in Seattle) have never set foot in Safeco(Mariners) or Qwest(Seahawks). An even greater majority has never set foot inside Benaroya Hall or the art museum. I don't think that cuts down on the desirability of those things."
In 1967, the Sonics were part of Seattle's identity, part of the recognition that helped it grow as a center for business and tourism. Now, the bottom line is that Seattle no longer needs the Sonics for those things.
Last night I was in the mood for doing nothing. So, I popped a bowl of popcorn, turned on the TV and found it already on the Bravo channel, due to having watched Flipping Out the night before. Sheer Genius was already a few minutes into the show. About hair cutters. This can not be at all entertaining I thought. I was wrong.
My local disinformation purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has made mention multiple times of 2 local guys being on this show. One, named Matthew, from Dallas, one named Daniel, according to the Star-Telegram, from Fort Worth, but according to Bravo, from Dallas.
Of course, it may be possible that Daniel is from Fort Worth. When I'm on a road trip, or back in the northwest, I say I'm from Dallas, because few people know where Fort Worth is. It's like when I lived in the northwest and I was on a road trip, when asked where I was from, I'd say Seattle, because no one would know of my actual hometown of Mount Vernon. When people here, in Texas, ask where I'm from, I usually say Seattle.
Sheer Genius is similar in format to another Bravo show, Top Chef. Instead of a Quick Fire, Sheer Genius does a Quick Cut. Whoever wins the Quick Cut gets an advantage in the Elimination Challenge.
The first episode of Sheer Genius last night was a re-run of last week's show. In that re-run, the guy the Star-Telegram thinks is from Fort Worth was over the top stereotypical not a guy who likes girls. He went all emotional when he realized their challenge was to do the hair of people on another Bravo show, The Real Housewives of Orange County. Apparently Daniel was a rabid fan of this housewife show. I've not seen it. Most of the haircutters had.
Later in the show, or was it the next hour, Daniel said he got so excited over the OC women, that he wet himself. If such a thing happened to me, which it wouldn't, I would not be telling a TV camera about it. He also let it be known that when a person on the OC show got married, that he had a wedding party, where the guests came dressed for a wedding and celebrated. Another Sheer Genius person, a girl, said if she'd did something that embarrassingly weird she wouldn't be telling people about it.
At the Elimination part of this episode, Daniel had an emotional crying breakdown upset and collapse to the floor at one point during the booting process. The proceedings had to come to a halt while ex-Charlie's Angel, Jacyln Smith inquired if Daniel was all right. By the way, Jacyln Smith has held up really well. She looked like she could easily still be an Angel.
The other Texas guy, Matthew, won the Quick Cut in the second episode. This upset the others, because they did not like him. Apparently Matthew is quite socially inept, grating and constantly bitching and saying things that are offputting or make no sense. I thought, welcome to Texas.
Matthew's advantage in winning was he got to pick the first dress in that episode's Elimination Challenge. And then pick who got to pick next. And on til all the dresses were gone. The dresses went on models on whom the hair cutters had to make their hair red carpet worthy. Whatever that means.
Matthew over and over and over again mentioned his wife. How much he loved her, and she him, how he missed her, how he didn't need to relate to these juvenile fellow hair cutters, because he has a wife back home. When he picked his dress he said something like I'm picking one for my wife, to which the Germanic Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes in a supermodel's body type guy, named Rene Fris, said "Your wife's not here." It seemed like everyone was sick of hearing about this Matthew guy's wife.
I thought all the wife talk was typical reality show editing, foreshadowing that Matthew would get the boot. But he has immunity, I thought, because he won that Quick Cut Challenge. That's how it works on Top Chef.
So, Daniel, the other Texas guy, was all worried that he'd wet himself again, because he was sure that since this was a red carpet thing, there'd be a celebrity there. There wasn't. At one point, Daniel excitedly said this was just way too much excitement for a Texas boy, seeing all these famous people.
We see the haircutters work on their red carpet girls, then the girls go down the red carpet in front of the judges, including someone I've never heard of from some soap opera I've never heard of. But Daniel from Texas had. He was so excited.
And then the judging occurred. I thought Matthew was safe from getting booted, but no, you are safe from the next week's boot if you win the previous week's elimination. So, Matthew was in the bottom three and got the boot due to not listening to his model tell him that her hair would not hold a curl, so his red carpet hair was a disaster.
Matthew did not mind getting the boot. Once more he told everyone how happy he was to be going home to his wonderful wife and friends in Texas. We cut to another hair cutter who said something like, "That damn wife of his must be one wild cat in bed."
I likely will not be watching this next week. I will watch Bravo again tonight, unless I forget, to watch Kathy Griffin's Life on the D-List. She's funny.
One of the judges on Sheer Genius is some, apparently, well known hair guy I've never heard of named Kim Vo. He is one odd looking guy. Constantly with a really goofy grin. Below is a video of this Kim Vo guy getting interviewed after he'd been in Britney Spear's house fixing her hair.
I'm going to be in Tacoma in 11 days. Tacoma was in the news today. Because Miss Washington is from Tacoma, well, Wapato, to be precise. Apparently Miss Washington was runner-up in the latest Miss America Pageant. I didn't know that quaint practice still took place. I thought it'd been turned into a reality show, then cancelled.
Some embarrassing photos of Miss Washington, Elyse Umemoto, showed up today on the Internet. She apologized for the photos, in which she was shown flipping off the camera, while wearing her crown, then playing a drinking game that ended with her making suggestive hand signs. I assume involving her middle finger.
And in another scandal, Jesse Jackson was caught using some unfortunate verbiage. Again. He had been interviewed on some Fox News show. He'd been asked questions about Barack Obama. Apparently Reverend Jackson did not like Obama's Father's Day lecture to the Black Community.
Jesse Jackson thought the microphone was no longer hot. But it was. He was over heard saying something along the lines of Obama had made him so mad he wanted to remove Obama's testicles. The Reverend used more colorful language to express the sentiment. I believe the word 'nuts' was involved.
Jesse Jackson quickly apologized for his choice of words. I don't know if Obama accepted the apology or if he told Jesse Jackson that his was an example of the bad behavior he was talking about on Father's Day.
Matthew McConaughey is a native Texas boy. He has a house down in Austin where he likes to get naked and play his bongos late at night. He and I have a lot in common, because I enjoy naked bongoing, too. Earlier in the evening though. And my preferred herbal stimulant is tea. Red Zinger.
When Matthew is visiting the D/FW zone he likes to run in River Legacy Park.
I am very grateful to Matthew McConaughey for one good reason. He taught me the right way to do the Cobra Yoga position. I've been doing the Cobra Postion correctly for a year or so now. It's made my back so much stronger. And when I do get a back a bit out of whack, like a couple weeks ago, I think the proper Cobra gets my back back working real fast.
I don't remember when last Matt was here running at River Legacy. He's been busy because he got himself in the family way with his girl friend, a model named Camila Alves. The pair are not married, but yesterday they became proud parents of a little boy named Levi.
Levi will likely be taught the proper way to do Yoga Positions from a young age. I wish I'd had that advantage.
Chesapeake Energy finished the noisy, messy part of its operation, across the street from my abode, a long time ago. Leaving behind, I thought, a hole in the ground that was spewing natural gas.
