and lately pie...

Ode to Blog

2011-10-25T08:13:00.000-06:00

Oh sallow fallow hallowed Blog,
Who will feed you now that you are free?
Who will feed you now that you are me?

Oh the things you will see...

2011-06-01T09:16:00.000-06:00

2011-04-13T11:13:00.000-06:00

Creating A Successful Viral Video

2011-03-03T11:58:00.000-06:00

The moment you have any success with anything, you can quickly become the go-to person on that topic. I’ve been asked a couple times to help create a viral video and how I had done it before. Being asked to create a viral video is always a funny thing to be asked because you really can’t call it a viral video until it goes viral. And what really makes a successful viral video? Is it people sharing, the sales from the video, number of views, or the recognition? For me personally, it’s the recognition or talk value that really defines a successful video. I’ve been told by many people how much they loved the Money Money Money music video. That tells me that one, they watched it and two, since they are telling me that they liked it that means they likely shared it with friends as well. I wish I could say there was some sort of secret formula and I had that magic to share but really there are only good strategies and practices. In the end it’s keeping your fingers crossed and hope for the best. With that said I wanted to share some thoughts on how we were able to get over 200,000 views on the Money Money Money video in only a few months.

First and foremost, the number one driving force behind every viral video is having a good idea or concept. I’m sorry but just uploading the same commercial you put out for TV doesn’t make for an online viral video. There is 35 hours of content uploaded every minute to youtube and most of that has under 500 views. The likelihood of catching the attention of the web audience is small.

After someone watches your video you want them to say to themselves I have to share this with my friends. What makes a video sharable? Simply think about what you like to have forwarded on to you and what you like to forward onto others. There is either a wow, that’s the coolest thing I’ve seen or I can’t stop laughing after seeing this. I’m a big fan of the wow that’s funny kind of videos. Humor is always sharable, so funny videos have proven to be very popular and have been the genesis of multiple cross-media promotions. If a video makes you say, "Wow!" it has potential to go viral. But if a person isn’t getting some visceral response from it, chances are they won't ask their friends to see it.

So you have a video that you think is great and ready to share but you should think about when and where you share it first. There are a lot of factors to take into account when you decide to upload and release your video for the first time. Don’t launch your video on a Friday night, the audience is going to be small mot people are not checking Twitter and Facebook at this time. You really are not going to gain traction till Monday when most people are online checking to see what happened over the weekend. This isn’t a tested day; I’ve only had one video go viral but we launched the Money Money Money video on Wednesday in the early afternoon. Launching a video on a Wednesday or Thursday is the perfect time. Most people are looking for something to help lift their spirits till the weekend. If your video can do that they are going to want to share that joy with friends. Where to launch is almost as important as the when. Most people will tell you to get the video distributed on every video site and platform you can. But knowing how your audience watches is also important. I knew that Vimeo had become the place every motion graphics artist is posting their work. They are active on the site, trust the content from Vimeo to be quality and as a result are most likely to watch a Vimeo link in twitter then a YouTube link. So first I posted the video onto Vimeo and Facebook and then the next day or so I began to post it on other sites including YouTube and MySpace. Rather then dumping the video and over saturating the web I was able to make the Vimeo version of the video the most active and shared version. Depending on your audience though YouTube or Facebook might be a better launching site for your video.

If I’m given the option to create and promote another video I would go about it the same way. I hope I was able to help guide you in the right direction but there is no easy answer for the question. Just be sure that you make quality work and hopefully the rest will fall in line.

Happy Turkey Day

2010-11-22T18:07:00.002-06:00

Costume Store 2010

2010-10-29T15:46:00.008-06:00

For your young, morally-ambivalent daughter.

In the foreground is supposed to be Toto.

The perfect costume for half a dog.

I don't know why they say that hip hop is dead.

Bear

2010-10-29T14:51:00.002-06:00

The newest member of the Daily Planet family

'tis you must go, and I must bide.

2010-03-12T10:19:00.005-06:00

From 2002, an unholy fricassee of umteen versions of Danny Boy, rammed together with a jeweller's eye and a tinsmith's ear by Oswald Wang.
A pint of plain, to be taken aurally.

And they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them

2009-12-18T16:46:00.006-06:00

Crap Banners

2009-12-18T16:39:00.005-06:00

Poor fallow blog...I'll feed you.

How's that? Feel better?

Note: This Is Possible

2009-09-05T07:12:00.001-06:00

A special message from the head office:

Do you remember that day when you ran for the train? No? You squinted against the sun to cross against the light and your eyes looked like root beer, flecking brown and yellow as they pierced the middle distance? Well, then you must remember that strand of hair you tucked behind your ear just before you stepped off the curb. Your right ear. Your left foot. ...No? Your lips looked like they did on your deathbed, a little pale though a little painted on, and I thought: these are the lips that ate, that kissed, that formed air into expression; and then they pursed in anticipation of the evening and what must be done in its fading light. No recollection, huh? That's fine. I'll remember for you.

Remember how you sat restlessly in Algebra class, your adultifying body struggling against the confinements of the desk? Your face as inchoate as the volcanic ocean floor, every labored shift dislodging discomfort, and potential. No? How about your voice, filtered like a chained animal's, curbed to a taut coil yet ready to speak, to answer against its weight? Wow. OK then, try this one: Remember how you would eat lunch, your shoulders tightly hunched, your arms a gate, on guard? You would quickly sneak food into your mouth, and chew as if with shame? You would save your milk for the whole meal and drink it at the end without a breath. Hmm. Later you became a minister and nurtured a whole community with your patience and dedication. Oh, THAT you remember. All right. I got the rest.

Remember when you sat alone at the bottom of the stairs, underneath Michigan Avenue, right outside Billy Goat's? You looked so despondent, or high. Did you know you looked high? Drunk at the very least, and at 7 p.m. Maybe that's why no one came to help you, even though you looked so in need. You sat at the base of those dirty stairs with your hands covering your face and your hair covering your hands and you looked like someone whose whole spirit had been crushed. Remember? You thought the entire world was lost to darkness; you were falling, alone, with no hope of redemption. And now you don't even remember it. See? Sorry to bring it up. But see?

Do you remember that train ride out to your parents? It was Labor Day weekend and the light had already turned. Do you remember you had that red-penny hair then, thinning? You wore those thick lenses, it was before the surgery. You were thinking, "Can I do better than this one?" And everyone who knew you was thinking that, too. You were still wearing the leather, it was before it looked like an affectation, or more of an affectation. Your mind was absent but wandering, you were thinking of a dish with ginger, and of Tammy from college, and who was the actor in that show? You breathed in and out forty-eight hundred times on that trip and the Earth rotated five thousand miles. We were idols then. False idols, but idols nonetheless. No memory? It's OK, it will always be OK. You just stay on that train, and I'll meet you there.

Banadir Restaurant: Detail

2009-08-28T08:13:00.007-06:00

Located in the heart of the Chicago neighborhood known as Near Where Amy Lives, Banadir Restaurant serves delicious Somali food to cabdrivers 24 hours a day, except during Ramadan. Flavorful rice, vegetables and fruit drink for one low price. Friendly people and friendly service.

But writing about delicious food is like a novel about a happy family. It is boring. The story I must tell is about the washroom, and it must be told in pictures.

Fig, 1: East view. No more or less yellow than the other views. I do confess I looked in the cabinets. Upper: the usual collection of long-ignored construction and cleaning tools. Lower: more unidentifiable tools, and glops of blackened paper towel in the corners. Note the botanical feature: a woman was in here once.

Fig. 2: South-east view. The toilet worked, and that's all I care to say.

Fig. 3: West view. It says, in marker on the wall: "Please do not step on the sink. AND Don't put (used) toilet paper in the sink. Thank you." Initially, the mind boggles, but actually it's a religious thing, so judge not.

Fig. 4: North view: This door is what you touch after you have washed your hands. This is in the best case scenario.

All this being said, the food was very good. What? What's the matter? You don't go to a restaurant for its restroom, do you? Well I know I don't.

IN July

2009-08-13T11:38:00.014-06:00

Free Translation

2009-08-13T10:36:00.000-06:00

I do not know because the history attracts but that the present, do neither I understand because one is claimed with the history, but in the end seems to be that passed every time was better! Do neither I know because all today they complain that one must pay to touch! I am going to count you a history more than crap that live the TRICICLOSCLOS in an of so many adventures at night and stay up late, loads and discharges of teams, a history more than losers, bah! Idiotic people as we that raises the flags of the rock so that its life make sense! !!!. We had a show in Branches, one of those so many shanty town hidden, we arrive at sunset with desires of rockear and to touch.

I saw the sign

2009-08-13T10:11:00.003-06:00

At the Modern Wing, 071209

2009-07-13T10:03:00.006-06:00

It's the Culture: as seen @ The Wit

2009-06-18T16:20:00.004-06:00

from the wall of the employee room at The Wit:

Words to avoid @ The Wit
yeah
you(s) guys
you know
sure
mmhmm.-
I don't know.
no
my bad
friggin'
shoot
fudge
"you know..."

USE
yes
my pleasure
of course
MADAM / MISS
SIR
"I'd be happy to"
functionality
may
assist
thank you
absolutely
certainly
gladly
"I can do that for you"

Data Loss

2009-05-15T14:23:00.010-06:00

Winter retrospective

2009-03-06T15:17:00.016-06:00

The Sphinx 2

2009-01-23T10:18:00.002-06:00

The sphinx has seen them come and go. The strong and the wrong, the wise and the wicked, the haughty and the lowly. She has seen elegant structures and torrents of chaos. Great swirling embers of power, and heart, and loss. She has stood both outside the gate and inside the gate, and found them to be the same place. The sphinx has endured the chattering sandstorms of the ages, and has remained unmoved. In her defense, it must be noted that she is made of 270 tons of stone. The sphinx is mostly sedentary.

The sphinx has lived through alphabets and minarets, prophets and parapets; she has emerged smoothened and wizened and so free of fear. She has eaten the choking dust of memory and been fed. She has seen breadths of time lap against impossibly distant shores and even still, she has not yet seen everything. Why is there always something new? What fresh momentum moves these crossing currents, turns these driving wheels, dances these many, many feet?

It's worth considering that the sphinx may not know. Her tears are long dried, baking daily in the punishing heat. For all her years, what has she accrued beyond survey? Her untold wrinkles are untelling. What has she seen but the sights? The world is set in motion, adrift but alight, and our human countless nows weigh nothing.

Our time is weightless but our actions have force. We can run circles around the sphinx, but we can also run forward. Run ecstatic, run through the gates, run in time as though time could never catch up. No, the sphinx does not know. She will never blink or lift a paw. We are the ones, the sands that blow, and breathe, and build.

This Is Marketing 3

2008-12-23T11:27:00.007-06:00

Business card, lobby, Beggar's Pizza, Blue Island IL

Banner ad, some old train, Union IL

Food vendor, Washington Park, Chicago IL

Website, Neptune NJ

Billboard, Baltimore MD

2008 Business Forecast - University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

2008-12-23T10:19:00.004-06:00

After Slow First Half, U.S. Economy Will Grow in 2008

"A continued surge in exports and modest gains in business investment will support 2 percent real GDP growth for 2008, with about a one-third risk of recession that will be particularly acute during the first half of the year, said Michael Mussa, senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. 'This risk reflects the danger that a number of things could go wrong and slow the economy below its stall speed.'"

"Marvin Zonis, professor emeritus of business administration, predicted that Democrat Barack Obama, senior lecturer at the Law School, will defeat Republican Rudy Giuliani for the U.S. presidency in November."

"'The next two quarters will be painfully slow, between 0 and 1 percent growth in GDP,' Raghuram Rajan, Eric Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance said, 'But barring a low probability default by a major financial institution, trend growth should resume by the second or third quarter of next year.'"

from Chicago GSB Magazine, December 2007

This Is Marketing 2

2008-11-21T14:35:00.010-06:00

Come with me on a journey for a high-res picture of an office desk. Don't worry, it's for work. Ooh, here's one!

Sexy - It looks like money! Must know more.
Here's a product explanation:

Aha. It's an "office desk." You know, 办公家具. Who sells such beauty? Salama-Worldwide-Business, need you ask? Their slogan?

Couldn't have said it better, if at all. Must know more!
About us:

Perverse! But righteous. And curious. What other products might such a company offer?
Ooh, a wine cabinet:

It seems America has some catching up to do in the wine storage department.
Here, I've saved the best for last. Mmm, steel sheet soft bed. And the product explanation: so very true.

The Fundamentals of the Economy

2008-11-21T14:28:00.002-06:00

We have

2008-11-07T12:26:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the world and all of its gifts. Of skins and heart. Of caves and congress. Gently undulating flagstones that hold the rain and reflection, pine needle sprinkles, the cooling edges, the warmer front. Edible ice cubes in a drinkable drink. A moon that sees you in your bed and takes nearly a month to wink. A corridor of infinite direction and capriciously finite duration. The doors are infinitely ajar.

We have blades of grass that wave back at us and food that grows straight out of the ground. We have eyes that can see not only what is but what can be. We have coffee in the morning, pizza in the evening, and summer in the summertime. We have voices in our head and a song in our hearts. We have a rotating world and we sleep in shifts so the little ones will always be safe.

We have playing fields, most of them level, but all of them for playing. We have beckoning breezes that smell of heat, salt, winter, love or tortillas. We have fruited plains and fruity pebbles. We have made up questions so the answers will make more sense. We have sowing, ripening, and furrowing.

So here we have: a world of difference and a world of differences. A space and a space to dance. The brighter the sun, the darker the shadows. Don't forget the sun, don't resent the shadows. Don't forget, don't resent. Do. Don't forget to do.

thanks

2008-11-05T00:24:00.003-06:00

but no thanks.

Welcome from October

2008-10-16T09:21:00.010-06:00

the equator

2008-09-25T21:28:00.001-06:00

We were learning about geography the other day, about physical boundaries versus political, when it struck me (for the first time) that the equator doesn't exactly exist. The equator is an imaginary line. Imagine! The borders of nations, like the borders of states and cities and etcetera, are imaginary as well. While we're at it, money is imaginary too, but through consensual hallucination, it is agreed upon to be real, though temporary. Like breath.

We take about six hundred million breaths in a lifetime. If eleven hundred people could breathe dollars for all of their seventy one years, we'd have a bailout package. It's like a t-shirt I saw on a corpse the other day: "Pain is weakness leaving the body." Do you feel stronger yet? Or are you pain-free, yet weak? I can imagine.

If you're anything like me, there was something in your childhood room that scared you. For me, it was a block, from the bin of blocks. This one wasn't a cube or conic or cuboid, but flat on two ends and oddly bent and unevenly curved in the middle. Once, in the throes of fever, I imagined that evil block filling my room up with gurgling otherness that flowed and pinned me tightly to the bed. Because I was a child, I never considered getting rid of it, though. Today, I see this block (as I write) and I see its long-dormant discomfort, the craft of its woodwork, and I see now it looks like a horse's front leg.

Physical boundaries are real, but vary with the changing landscape and are thus not entirely objective. Surprising! that the surface of the Earth, the solid ground you stand upon even now, is open to interpretation, while the imaginary lines of government are true, demonstrable, and held fast in the arms of the law. While we're at it, the law is real, temporary and consensual, but cops hate it if you call the law a hallucination. If you - Umm...I was just watching two women going through my recycling bin, picking out the aluminum cans. The fundamentals of the economy. Sorry, where was I?

If you're anything like me (though I do pray you are not), you are wishing fervently for things to stop happening. What is the deepest part of the ocean? Can I go there and hear nothing about anything, or will the other human-hewn waves, of radio and HD and satellite and cellphones sift their way downwards, where the information (sinking and clinging to the side of chinese Hannah Montana flotsam like the opposite of white blood cells) reveals itself to be a revolution of no reveal, late-breaking news both late and broken, unmissible and unmissed. Can we pour the emptiness, or fullness, of these days into this trench of deep, imaginary, sweet stasis?

Where am I going with all of this? Now you ask! OK, let's say you are holding a live wire and you wish to describe it. You hold it in your hands and it rattles your brain, melts the rings on your fingers, and rolls your eyes back into your head. Though you are robustly aware of an undeniable feeling of live-wire-ness, you'll likely have trouble coherently depicting this feeling. It's a lot like life. The experience itself has made unreliable your testimony of the experience.

It's sometimes said that your freedom ends where my nose begins. Personal boundaries are imaginary but certainly real. Personal space varies by culture - Latin cultures require less, European more. Cut me in half, though, and it would reveal more about me than about you, I imagine. The equator divides as it conjoins. But it doesn't properly exist, so no, it's not like us at all.

Another September Song

2008-09-17T16:18:00.001-06:00

Now on this stage the planes alight, a sweeping and a shape,
the turning screws of another time tightening.
Hectoring drops of rain or sweat crash and splatter
and disappear, a hot griddle these thoughts, this time, alive.

We sweet, we offer this ripeness soon desiccant,
parenthetical fringes on autumn's billowy blade,
lowering light on the breakwaters, fading
into sharp relief, cold comfort, and hard candy.
It's this answer that reminds you to ask...

Smiling and circumspect,
watching the buses go by -
tectonic weights of why? and OK, and so? and so not.
If these wounds are treated, if they are at all,
they are treated as a dog at the heels,
down there at the heels.

Sometimes these layers fall away
and the hands of the clock fall off, reaching up
for you to catch them;
or they will catch you.
Anyway, someone will be caught.

The last cone flowers dust the last bees' knees
and here we stand, always within
and beckoned, to the fuzzy orange distance,
and there we go, always without.
That head of steam,
these feet of thunder,
this sweetlight portrait.

A little circle

2008-09-10T13:36:00.003-06:00

I wish I were smarter -
Why didn't my wish come true?
I wish I were dumber -
Then I could believe in wishes.

Unconventional Speech

2008-08-28T16:45:00.002-06:00

Countryfolk! I stand before you tonight as a humble remainder of the hope that was this Nation's legacy, the pride that is this Country's most forgivable venial sin, and the embodiment of the idea that things will get better as a direct result of the actions of government.

When I began this primary season more than 40 years ago, I was like you - way down there in the audience, wearing a silly hat, uncertain and underfunded, wondering how I was going to secure reliable help to care for my summer home in the off-season while I was criss-crossing this great Nation, not attending Congress hardly at all. Now of course I am up here with you today, and I thank you for your support, and for these supports, without which this platform would literally fall down, injuring many of you, and myself, for I am with you all the way.

My opponent would have you believe that he (or she, though in fact this time it's a he) has all the answers. Of course he's wrong, because I have all the answers. Can there be two correct answers to the same question? Well, yes and no. I won't pretend to tell you, and won't even actually tell you, that we live in a world without shades of meaning. I haven't forgotten the lessons of Nuance-Gate. As per regarding the fact of clarifyingment, I offer you this analogy - when you drive - and I have driven, believe me, in my own car and with me at the steering wheel - when you drive - you drive like I have, with respect, experience, and most importantly, in only one direction at a time. It is in this direction I will drive this Country.

Some have said, and this despite my having met most of you personally - not to mention that you didn't say it to my face - some have said that I am out of touch with the concerns of the average citizen. I reject this position with every fiber of my suit. Would you really rather have a president who knows the price of a tomato or a president who knows what to do when our great Nation's banks start caving in? Anyhoo, you might even say that a guy with multiple homes has an even better idea of the troubles a homeowner faces in these difficult times. Sure, I've never pumped my own gas. Why would I want to? But I am told it is expensive. In fact, I had to attend three extra fundraising dinners, where the food was frankly abysmal, just to pay for July's airplane fuel. So I feel your pain, and am raising money to assuage that pain. I hope to lead by this example.

As I stand before so many familiar-looking faces, I am brought to mind of my travels across this great Nation, and the stories that I thought were interesting enough to remember. I have met this Nation and her people, a mildly-irritated people with burning questions and a persistent rash of troubles...

I have met the silver-haired iron worker in Harrisburg with the heart of gold whose health care plan is too meagre to replace it with a less malleable metal alloy.

I have chatted up the watery-eyed waitress in Cheyenne who makes so little that after taxes, she had to pay me for my coffee and coq au vin.

I caught a nasty cold from the toddler in Huntsville who asked me, in the tiniest of voices, why her mommy and daddy couldn't afford a unicorn when they had six jobs, three alimonies and a ranch - sorry, a ranch house.

I knocked back some beers with the dudes from the line in Mt. Pleasant, men whose hard work at the Studebaker factory, year after year, goes unsung, unappreciated, unsold and unpaid.

I gakked a bag of meth with a group of young baseheads in Council Bluffs who are so disenfranchised that they can see no future for themselves in this Nation which is for them, a Flophouse without Pity.

I roughed up a man in Minot who said some awful things about my wife. I'm not gonna stand for that. He better get an absentee ballot, because he's not going anywhere soon.

I shared a BBQ with the brave firefighters of Amherst who have suffered a budget reduction of 770% and are now forced to douse fires with Faygo Red Pop, enduring a crippling shortage of CO2 tanks and massive ant problems.

I took tea with the animal psychic in Santa Fe whose cats are so upset at the idea of my opponent's tax plan that they can barely finish their dry food.

I texted with a young man from Beaumont who wanted to know Y x$ 4 CL B/C I wana B N GIN IR. It was sad really, but hard to say why, specifically.

I played phone tag with an old woman from Nantucket who asked me why her cereal is so expensive. Her answering machine kept cutting me off when I tried to explain the complex global economic factors involved, so let me now offer this to the dear lady: please consider a less expansive lifestyle. At your age, you've had your turn. Move over.

If you knew these people like I know these people then you would know, like I do and am telling you now, that this Nation is hard-working, optimistic, resourceful, caring, energetic, and in deep, deep trouble.

And that's why tonight I am honored to accept whatever it is that you want to give me, for I am a politician - without your approval, I'm just a guy who talks a lot about what is wrong with our great, messed-up Nation. Thank you and good night. Try the veal.

The Television Revolution

2008-08-27T13:07:00.003-06:00

The first letterbox debate.

Just imagine...

Greetings

2008-08-14T14:32:00.002-06:00

Life is sweet. So's the iced tea. So good so far.

Goal Post

2008-07-29T12:42:00.003-06:00

Do you remember the day we tore the goal post down?
Then do you remember the next day when we tore the goal post down again?
How about the third day when we were feeling lazy so we waited in the car across the street while the goal post company finished their re-installation, then, before the cement dried, we tore it down?
The fourth day it was getting a little tedious but look - there's another goal post on the opposite end of the field! We tore that one down too.
On the fifth day we were really exhausted so we just intercepted the goal post truck and threw the disassembled bars around until they were good and dented.
The sixth day was Sunday, we did nothing but pray.
That seventh day we were feeling well-rested, so we tore both goal posts down, trashed the gym and beat up the groundskeeper.
Don't you remember any of this? Really? I do, like it was yesterday, though it was really seven days ago.

This Is Marketing 1

2008-07-18T12:32:00.009-06:00

FSI, January 2008. Man, that looks cozy. A dog, a cat, and a kid in a 300-square-foot cinder block apartment. Seriously, Howie, we've got to get out of here.

Postcard, February 2008. Interesting angle and scale with that golf cart patch. Eccentric shadow work, too. It's a shame their cars wouldn't fit, though perhaps they live on the golf course. It is worth mentioning that Tom and Mary did find love in the world's cleanest garage, and enjoyed many more happy years together, six to be exact.

Scrap of paper, March 2008. Speaking of the search for love, this piece of guerrilla marketing was found crumpled on the street, hopefully not dropped by its target audience, here known as "female." An exciting, timeless mix of scribbled screed and interweb. Take a dollar to Kinko's, use the free paper cutter, and never be lonely again.

Storefront, July 2008. Oh, that scrappy little CVS and their "can-do" attitude! Give the people what they want with a no-nonsense sign that even the drunk can read. Clear, inexpensive, eye-catching asterisks. You had me at "*****Liquor****."

America, Totally

2008-07-03T09:07:00.004-06:00

You should totally come to America where the streets are paved with pavement. No one steals the sewer covers and it wouldn't matter anyway because the streetlights stay on all night. All drivers are licensed and so are the dogs! They even have dog weddings. Nobody eats them or the cats, even though they totally could.

You should totally come to America where you can drink the water, right from the sink! Who would believe? Plus it smells so good in America. In the morning it is bacon and lilacs, afternoons tomato sauce and sunshine and in the evening wafting pot roast and ozone. The food is plentiful and cheap, mostly a dollar if nutrition is not a priority. Do you like corn syrup? You should totally come to America.

You should totally come to America. Who told you it is not safe? Did you know you can carry a gun almost anywhere? Plus there are police all over the place, everywhere you look! The thieves always get caught because they can't afford gas for the getaway car. Why, you have a greater chance of being robbed by some guy in an office that you'll never meet. Are you afraid of that? Don't worry about it, it will probably never happen. Most likely never, almost hardly. Doesn't hurt anyway.

You should totally come to America where the sun always shines - at least it does on the shows I watch. The houses are numbered, in order, and the carrion often leave you alone. One eensy caveat: It is true that if you become sick you are totally on your own. But the air is clean, the mosquitos are healthy and the food has so many preservatives you may certainly live forever!

They've got Motown and Jerry Springer and R. Kelly and Adam Sandler and Highlights Magazine and Tom Waits and Check Into Cash and Netflix and baseball and caffeinated gum and chocolate chip cookies and meat-flavored water and Swiffer and Clapper and Twitter and Napster and Webster and Fluffernutter and you can worship whoever you choose even if it's a kumquat that looks like Don Knotts and no one will tell you not to, and then you can sell it on Ebay!!!

You should totally come to America. You can be anything you want to be here, someday even an American. They'll let anyone in. Probably even you. It's the greatest thing this side of the Atlantic and that side of the Pacific.

New Mint Ephemera

2008-06-19T16:22:00.002-06:00

It is born! A city made flesh, in trunk and in limb,
hidden allegiances and unknown heretofores,
borne aloft on the shoulders of itself.
Data rains down on inverted rooftop umbrellas,
puddles enmassed to sustain the need for puddles amassed.
Did you chase me out of the garden?
No, I left of my own accord, just as you made me to.

Did you see? Thoughts receding into nesting dolls,
outcomes flickering in the silverspeared tallgrass.
The front turns sharp, and scrapes
her steely bow across the wire fence;
clouds grow heavy like eyelids, the lattice of sky ever narrower,
the evening soil tilled and turning and turned.
Two harts in murky wood, foraging,
the rain held in swollen creeks, crenulated flatleaf veins,
trickling ploughlines down half-regarded bark.

(Listen! The singing of a song:
The alien heartbeat of another's faith?
The wheezing hurdygurdy of a lifetime's disagreement?
The hammered pelt of sheeting rain?
A single cricket and her answered call
From a porch-swing pendulum?
A twilight's accounting, these enduring freedoms;
The sky is rent, and so there we fall through.)

At last! A clearing of the mist:
Or does it re-form? Re-sume and
resemble into something you can lean on,
Something reliably vague,
Something comfortingly absent?
Ashen-pansy tinted tufts dot the curtains of the day,
The sky-bowl's dregs; the barring of nature's gate.
How indeed, to temper such endless erosions?
To embrace or withstand such beauty so given, so withheld?

Hope without action is like a picture of food.

2008-06-19T08:30:00.003-06:00

Someday my Prince will come. Until then, we can eat our dreams.

Happy Fathers' Day.

2008-06-12T12:22:00.004-06:00

What is green?

2008-06-12T10:54:00.006-06:00

"What is green? What does that mean? Americans in general need to take a look at what makes America great." – Lee Vince, sales manager, Woodfield Hummer

Lear

2008-05-23T15:05:00.003-06:00

the King and

soft.

2008-05-23T14:31:00.006-06:00

Well lookee there. Now that's soft. Look, it's pegging the Soft-O-Meter. That roll is off the scale! Even the technician is surprised, and you can bet he's seen some soft things in his day. You might even say it's the softest – in fact, they did! So fucking soft. Whoa.

A simple-minded...

2008-05-16T08:10:00.003-06:00

...opportunistic juxtaposition of no true depth.

Vacant Storefront in A Town Called Hope

2008-05-16T08:06:00.002-06:00

Freedom-market economy.

There Is Terrace: Properties for sale in Chişinău

2008-05-07T12:26:00.012-06:00

A cosy, warm, limestone block house, away from the industrial zones easy to reach on route 178. A total area of 67 m2, a floor space of 4 rooms: 3 separate, 1 common area. An internal bathroom can be found in the house, there is an additional toilet servicing the garden. Water supply independent - well with the pump. Limestone block garage (16m2) and a cellar. € 18,885
Commercial Property: Hall with a live music. Terrace. Kitchen. Stuff room. WC. Bathroom. € 22,662

3-room apartment in area of railway station. An individual lay-out, euro - style (with use only German and Italian materials). 14/17. The general area 68 m2, inhabited 43 m2. Repair is made 2002. Independent heating - heating of the floors, the warmed walls, false ceilings, external seams are closed up. New the sanitary technician (metal-plastic pipes), new posting, a boiler, an extract in a bath, a pendant toilet bowl. Glass packet, 2 iron doors, 2 phone numbers (one of them on city is not limited - concerns to railway lines), Sun TV. On all perimeter of a ceiling it is located 60 halogen lamps. € 27,698

Limestone block house, one floor. Easy to reach the centre of the city. 2 room house. The total area of 47,7 m2, floor space 35,5 m2. An internal bathroom can be found in the house. Stove heating. There is terrace. € 11,961

Land area ï¿½ 800 m2. Basement was built. There is possibility to conduct gas and phone. € 3,777

For more information, please contact MDomus. I want my finder's fee, I'm saving up for an internal bathroom.

Step Inside – Oprah Try Us!!!

2008-05-05T12:36:00.006-06:00

Mr. Kite's Candies & Nuts, State & Division, Chicago

Monkey! (and peanut)

2008-04-25T16:43:00.003-06:00

When your default test Google image search is "monkey," you are bound to find treasures such as this:

Though my personal favorite is this guy. What a nut!

Thank you, Akron Design & Costume Co., for making my week better.

Stay!!

2008-04-22T15:42:00.000-06:00

Good dog.

Keep On Pushing

2008-04-22T15:37:00.004-06:00

I had no idea the song was about car trouble.

Everybody know' it's spring again... 2

2008-04-11T10:42:00.002-06:00

Everybody know' it's spring again...

2008-04-10T12:37:00.001-06:00

Spring Break! 2008

2008-04-01T08:03:00.004-06:00

General Zebulon Pike Lock and Dam No. 11, March 27, 2008

From the Desk of Wilbert F. Morrow, President, Wilbert F. Morrow Company

2008-03-25T09:52:00.009-06:00

Gentlemen,
Here at Wilbert F. Morrow Company, business is growing like gangbusters! It is our distinct pleasure to announce the opening of our fifth location to serve you. And remember, if you are in any way dissatisfied with any one of our vast array of Wilbert F. Morrow products, please press zero and stuff it! Business is so good, we feel free to say farewell to you bellyaching gripesters – from all five locations!
As ever, WFM

Our worldwide headquarters is located in the historic Brookfield Theatre Building – the heart, soul and all other vital organs of the Brookfield Theatre District. Ring twice. If no answer, call the number on the taped post-it. If there's a pile of faded mail on the lobby floor, we're probably out to lunch.

¬ ı˜◊oS`–Er Inn, 3rd stool from the cigarette machine. Ask for Larry. Don't be afraid to shout for Larry. Larry needs to stretch occasionally.

Kangemi, West Nairobi, Kenya. Above Auntie Jane Supermarket. Please visit us before dark, or try tomorrow. Day after maybe.

Downtown Baku, Azerbaijan, near the Palace of the Khans. World's dirtiest city, my eye! Look how clean! Is very nice. No elevator, take stairs.

Presenting our newest location! 1-something-6 West 35th Street. We rescued this evocative tribute to the elegance of yesteryear from the auction block, and now we pass the savings onto you. Plenty of free parking, too. See you soon!

This is a picture of food.

2008-03-25T09:30:00.004-06:00

And they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

Einfach supersüß!

2008-03-18T09:49:00.002-06:00

February colors

2008-02-28T14:58:00.004-06:00

This

or this.

I am the God of Hell-Fire and I bring you:

2008-02-27T10:17:00.003-06:00

Fire.

Kind of a let down, actually. It really shouldn't be – fire is quite useful, but it's just so, you know... expected. Honestly, you thought I'd bring you something else? That would have been odd. I don't even know why, or if, I am apologizing. I am the God of Hell-Fire, this is what I bring. So what if it's not exactly counter-intuitive? You get fire. If you are really in the mood to question a God, we can discuss what other items you may appreciate more, but personally I am in no mood for negotiating.

...

OK I've thought about it for a bit and I'm officially cheesed off. You came here with your eyes open – it's all written on the sign. Do you go to Ming the Merciless for absolution? Does Joan of Arc travel in a straight line? If you wanted something instead of fire, then why are we even talking? Go and spend your fire-forsaken life with the God of Paper-Doilies or whatever. Rot somewhere far away from me. Ingrate.

Actual virtual problems

2008-02-21T17:34:00.002-06:00

• Why does my Sim get no comfort from sitting in a recliner?
• My Sim has a night job. How can I take a night off without getting fired?
• Why did my Sim suddenly start twitching and then melt into ashes?
• Why does my Sim's carpool fail to arrive sometimes?
• I always go to work, but I'm not getting promoted. What's going on?
• Sometimes, after a burglary, I can't move or sell my table.
• How can I remove a snack from the floor? My Sims can't clean it up and I can't move it.
• Some neighbors seem to be "stuck" on my property. I can’t talk to them or anything. What do I do?
• Anyone know how the monkey butler works? I call it out of its tree, but most of the time it does nothing and simply climbs back into it.
• The repairman keeps showing up -- even when I didn’t call him -- not fixing anything, then leaving! Sometimes, he won’t even leave! What is his problem?
• Why does Sims2 completely slow down during 'create a family' and bathroom use?
• My Sims's hunger motive does not improve when he or she rents a picnic basket?
• Why Won't My Sims' Relationships Save?
• How do I score with someone at the party?
• HELP how do you get kids?
• Alien babies crashes the game.
• Help! My Sims Can't Sit Down!
• Help! my Sim is stuck on the couch!
• How do I keep the repairman from getting killed?
• Can I import a family from another country?
• How Come I have no bathrooms downtown?
• Once a visiting friend remained in the house after being asked to leave and I couldn't pick him up. He spent 3 days fainting from exhaustion, then coming round and bawling that he was uncomfortable!
• My mad scientist, having made it to the top of the science career ladder suddenly turned into a master criminal. Does this always happen?
• My photo journalist lost his job. Can you tell me what career path he was on as I'd like to get him back there? Jeff Pleasant also lost his job. Can I still get him to Mars?
• I have a nightlife install problem.

Welcome!

2008-02-08T13:22:00.000-06:00

Irv Kupcinet, Chicago. February 7, 2008

The Dragon

2008-02-07T17:41:00.000-06:00

The dragon walks to bring you luck now. In actual fact, she walks to travel from place to place using her feet. She brings luck though, not on her back or in the fibers of her sparse coarse hairs, but in a flaming pearl, a surrounding sphere that covers and reveals. The dragon watches the vicissitudes of life move like traffic through its grid, calmly breathing her cigarette-warm breath, crystalline vapors drafting across the troposphere.

The dragon comes to hear the burstings of firecrackers. She loves gunpowder, lychee and neatly-folded napkins. She will incinerate you if you only ask. The dragon has arrived with her prince regent The Rat to wish you a Happy New Year. For her part, the hard-working Rat brings aggression, wealth, charm, order, pestilence and atrocities. It's going to be that kind of year.

This time, the dragon has been called by your silence. Her gentle heart (or hearts) beat throughout the rain, bright pantograph sparks and scattered shadows on the passing underbrush. She knows the song you want to sing, warms the air you cannot touch and sears a path of light through the brambles and thickets of time misunderstood. It's going to be that kind of year. All happiness to you.

Great Job!

2008-02-01T10:45:00.000-06:00

As the elevator ladies say, Happy Friday. Could you get off the roof though, please?

Meat Week 15

2008-01-25T16:00:00.000-06:00

The End.
Photo from GimmeCorn.

Meat Week 14

2008-01-25T13:11:00.001-06:00

Fig. 40: Unsuitable transport of a pig in a basket

Meat Week 13

2008-01-25T11:30:00.000-06:00

Meat Week 12

2008-01-25T11:23:00.000-06:00

Meat Week 11

2008-01-25T11:21:00.000-06:00

Meat Week 10

2008-01-25T10:49:00.000-06:00

Damn.

Meat Week 9

2008-01-25T09:25:00.001-06:00

Meat Week 8

2008-01-25T09:20:00.000-06:00

Picture taken by Tombland @ Flickr.

Meat Week 7

2008-01-24T09:27:00.000-06:00

Meat Week 6

2008-01-23T16:33:00.000-06:00

"Would you like a slice of cheese 'n' Aunt Sooie pizza?"
"No thanks, I'm enjoying a sandwich piled high with your mom."

Meat Week 5

2008-01-23T08:58:00.000-06:00

Support the troops! Your extra grease and lard will help make ammunition and small pox vaccine. Fill up a can and receive red ration points.

Meat Week 4

2008-01-22T17:31:00.000-06:00

Kennen Sie Ihr Fleisch. Try the Skank!

Meat Week 3

2008-01-22T09:48:00.001-06:00

Part Two of the two-part Diptych in two parts, Bosch's "Go Meat #2," second in a series of two.

Meat Week 2

2008-01-21T15:16:00.000-06:00

"Chickens are shackled by their legs onto a conveyor line. This must be done gently to avoid injury and stress. In a small slaughterhouse, birds can be placed headfirst in cones (Fig. 50)."

Meat Week 1

2008-01-21T09:34:00.000-06:00

Part One of Hieronymus Bosch diptych, "Go Meat!"

Unsafe at any speed

2008-01-10T09:24:00.001-06:00

Dick Cheney on the campaign trail, 1976.

the most time of the year

2007-12-27T17:00:00.000-06:00

The broken and ploughed stalks blow listlessly
utterly stuck, unneeded, unknown
under endless meaningless grey;
The crows that shriek their oaths
outside of time, unanswered
by December's silent roiling bristles;
The distant highway's empty endeavor;
A thought diminished, broken in mid-life,
gone underground, a seed for another season.

To the fixed hissing song of the radiator
and its redeeming, knocking-far-away heart,
we draw faces on the windows
in the afternoon's cranky half-light.
The sun is young and already waning,
the bed is warm and us-enveloping,
the day so crisp and blank as if anything
could happen – anything!
Even nothing.

The last tinsel-strewn trees dot the roadside,
a canopy of wishes now supine,
while in the air, accounts are settled
or unsettled, trimmed and redressed,
and the choirs are returned to their homes.
A gesture of glittering sleet tickles the night's curtain,
and she laughs, with a dry heavy howl that
hollows out the valley,
ripples on the static lake,
tears into the skin, the bones, the walls, the pillow.

A taxi sweeps the dusty pavement,
barely breathing its brittle trail.
Two streaky red eyes trace the mottled
building faces,
holding hardly a memory of before and
the barest hint of the next.
What left to open but these boxes of light?
These lives of four corners, four seasons,
for doing, foregoing,
forgiving, forever.

Profiles in Letting Go

2007-12-20T17:12:00.000-06:00

You sit there, in a rare moment of sitting there, looking out the windows and watching the sun dodge behind drifting clouds. You sit there, watching, wondering how it is all going to turn out. Maybe it will never turn out. Perhaps it already has. What is this phrase – "turn out?"

You stand at the top of a long hill and instead of walking down it (and certainly instead of rolling), you walk further along its ridge. From here you can see the town, and the town behind the town, and the steeples of towns that aren't even any of those towns. From this land's shoulder, stray beams of sunlight illuminate patches of somewhere, nowhere. All of this, and you are the figure on the ridge, someone else's epiphany.

In Japan, December is the bounenkai season, or the "Forget-The-Year-Party." Alcohol is an excellent amnesiatic agent, so you see many drunk people on the street on Japanese December nights. Me, I prefer the classic flowerpot-
dropped-on-the-head method of forgetting, but this is not always practical, especially in a Northern climate.

Then there is the King who was crowned Master of All He Sees. Turns out it was a curse as well, because every time he blinked, chaos took a step closer. He tried not to blink, but his eyes dried out and soon he had more than made up for the not blinking. In time of course, he grew tired in his vigilance and fell deeply asleep, where he became master of nothing. Well, perhaps of his dreams, we don't know, he's not a king anymore.

You soar across this bountiful land. You soar across oxbow lakes and skewbald fields, past the ring road and the warehouses, over the neighbors and their fences, joined together on this land. You soar as an angel, ministering shared concern and individual outcome, a siren without a name. You braid these concerns into a heavenly rope. You soar ever higher, past the airplanes and the oxygen, past the questions and the answers, past the moment into no moment, into a peace that is all that peace is. Yet, from the ground you can see that far. You soar.

peace to you
from all of us

Happy Hanukkah

2007-12-10T15:25:00.000-06:00

from NBC Tower. December 5, 2007

Wang From The Holidays

2007-12-06T15:02:00.000-06:00

"The Little Drummers Boy"
The newest Oswald Wang deproduction.
Josh Groban v. John Bonham and a side of Shitmat.
Not recommended for newborns.

Jan, Jan, Jan!

2007-11-08T12:52:00.000-06:00

Presenting the Jan Terri Fall Collection,
currently on YouTube.

"Losing You"

"Baby Blues"

"My Little Brother"

"Get Down Goblin"

"Journey To Mars"

"Rock And Roll Santa"

A message from Steve Howe

2007-10-24T16:18:00.000-06:00

Dear Fans,

Despite my best efforts otherwise, I have become ugly. Some of you may quibble with my choice of the word "become," but I hear no dissent on the adjective "ugly." For it is true, I repulse. Though no one will tell me directly, it is as clear as the face on my face. I feel I owe you an explanation.

Why has Lady Time left others ennobled and dignified in their accrued appearance while rendering me analogous to a moldering stump of lichen? Why have I been especially chosen as canvas for her full panoply of ravagements? It is not karma, for I have been as good, or bad, as many others. Neither is it hereditary, for I could easily afford to gaze upon my parents, even upon their deathbeds, though I may more closely resemble them in their current states.

Did it happen suddenly, I hear you ask, ominously attentive to your possible future as a craggily dissolute, loathesomely-visaged sexegenarian? (Who, I might add, is to this day still very popular in Japan, where they enjoy a thriving horror film industry as well as greater sympathy for the Hibakusha.) Or did it happen slowly, bruised and burnished like the icy, pock-marked surface of Ganymede? Perhaps it was the drugs, or lack of drugs, or the injurious ultrasonic vibrations of Jon Anderson's voice? Would death have not been preferable, my mirror asks me, daily?

I suppose by way of explanation, I have no explanation. In my defense, I do not force myself upon your eyes. You do not see Asia music videos on your television. I did not appear in "Rocky Horror Picture Show." All of my public appearances are witnessed voluntarily by paying fans. My website does not feature a photo section. You do not see me on the cover of People, Fangoria or The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. You will not see me on a package of Ipanema or Iams. It is not me on the Preparation-H instructions of use.

I would hope that my music would speak for me. I play a mean guitar. Close your eyes and that's what you need to know about me. The rest is gravy, or looks like it. If you poured it over kimchi, offal and barbershop dustpan. But enough about me.

regrets,
Steve "don't look now" Howe

New Products Review 2

2007-10-24T12:27:00.000-06:00

Unlike most spiritual packages, this "one size fits most."

City in a garden 2

2007-10-16T09:31:00.000-06:00

City in a garden 1

2007-10-16T09:30:00.000-06:00

Chicago without XRT would be...

2007-10-15T16:08:00.000-06:00

2:00 Arcade Fire "Keep The Car Running"
2:04 Talking Heads "Burning Down The House"
2:07 Melissa Etheridge "Imagine That"
2:10 Crosby, Stills & Nash "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"
2:17 They Might Be Giants "Climbing The Walls"
2:26 Marvin Gaye "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
2:30 David Gray "Babylon (live)"
2:41 Mark Knopfler "Punish the Monkey"
2:45 Goo Goo Dolls "Name"
2:51 My Morning Jacket "Off The Record"
2:57 Tom Petty "Won't Back Down"
3:00 The Cure "Why Can't I Be You?"

...one step closer to the future.

Corner Store

2007-10-08T23:48:00.001-06:00

I'm just popping down to the corner store. Need anything?
85th & Burley, Chicago IL

New Products Review

2007-10-05T20:42:00.001-06:00

Inside this beaten bottle, under this nicked and rotting cap, is preserved the gloriously dodgy "Put it een Wine." The Jamaican woman told me she drinks one every day. The Jamaican men said it will help me "get my buck on."

Like me, you are probably interested in what is inside this glass of ill-repute. But not interested enough to open it and drink some. Here are the eengredients:

Find yours wherever ugly, frightening FDA-free Roots Drinks are sold with a wink.

Art.

2007-10-05T20:41:00.001-06:00

"spoke"

2007-08-31T16:12:00.000-06:00

A meditation on faith, not exactly for the E79FF07. File under Oswald Wang.

End Less Summer

2007-08-30T16:15:00.000-06:00

O wall of heat, blast of purely sensual, carry this message across the murmuring villages -
O bad news, its bitter certainty between the teeth, a swan song come to call -
O end of Summer, and her echoes of ends gone by, how do I measure this proof of life in fading light?
O Tessa, tumbled in torn and turning waters, chasing the last in churning repose.

The strolling glowworms of the ending embers
The heart of the valley in so dense a mist
The springs of heaven & her illusion of give -
The answer is again and again and again.

When, with the turn of a wind, long shadows are nailed to our quickening footsteps,
Tongues are tightened and the branches sway: "Speak low," and "Whisper not."
A wave breaks on lowly shores, and it is gathering time.
In the sweet spiralled smoke of encampments' remains
what we have found? Or: what are we not missing?

She thought about the boy.

2007-08-30T12:07:00.000-06:00

An especially wan installment of The Timbertoes.
Highlights for Children, February 2002.

internet cafe

2007-08-30T08:40:00.000-06:00

This is one of those Third-World internet cafés you've read about. In the front of the store by the registers, near the winter coats, next to the partially-stacked boxes of undershirts, behind the pallet of disassembled what? Also, no "cafe." The spirit of Zayre is alive and well at Kmart store #9360, Forest Park, Illinois. August 29, 2007.

In case of emergency

2007-08-09T16:16:00.000-06:00

In case of emergency, break glass. If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to go to your basement and run around in your footie pajamas and scream. Or air raid shelter. Or Underoos, if it's the warm season. You would have been instructed.

In case of emergency, break glass. Break hearts, break dance, break out. In case of emergency, melt the ice caps and move to higher ground. If this in itself is an emergency, invent a time machine, go backwards in time, and do everything right. If this creates a space-time continuum emergency, you've really mucked it up now. Come back forward in time and see me after class. In case of emergency, clap erasers for an hour. "Will this help?" I suppose you know better, Mr. Thundercats-On-His-Underwear-Time-Traveller? When you have all this cleaned up, go forward in your little machine and tell me if it helped. I won't be there. In 100 years it will be no concern of mine.

The broadcasters in your area, in voluntary cooperation with the Board of Directors who own them all, have established that email is effectively used in case of emergency as proof that we did try to contact you. See here's proof, what do you mean you didn't get it, or deleted it, or were outside on the beach having a life? Anyway, we sent it. You would have been instructed. Hey, what's all this broken glass?

In case of emergency, write something down in the middle of the night and try to decipher it in the morning. "We are [something] ratsbag-angel 7-into..." oh for heaven's sake. In case of emergency, call someone you know and speculate. Filter and calibrate blame. In case of emergency, drink. Water, silly. It's good for you and keeps indefinitely. It's really refreshing. In case of emergency, press zero to speak to a representative. Para Español, oprima el numero dos. "No es el defecto de representante." In case of emergency, sweep up all this glass. There. Feel better? That's better.

A face to meet the faces...

2007-07-31T15:25:00.000-06:00

Various street art: Springfield, IL; Grand & State, Chicago; Hyde Park, Chicago.

Country Single

2007-07-21T09:39:00.001-06:00

This is my favorite personal ad from Country Singles newspaper, available for $1 at the Beloit Wisconsin Welcome Center, or on the internet at Country Singles.

No longer a Virgin

2007-07-16T20:42:00.001-06:00

Virgin Megastore closes July 14, 2007.
Overheard at their 35%-off closing sale: "I could get this stuff cheaper at Wal-Mart."

Three parargraphs about politics, and money.

2007-07-16T20:38:00.000-06:00

We know of a recent high school graduate who is working as a part-time research assistant for Chicago Public Schools. His supervisor recently told him, "You know, when school starts, you can work full time." He explains that this won't be possible, he is going to college in the fall. She tells him, "That's OK, we'll just make you full time anyway."

The supervisor later tells him there's someone he just has to meet. So he goes to lunch with a big-time Chicago political operative. The operative suggests he should go to work on Clinton's campaign, we'll send you to Iowa, etc. Though not especially fond of Clinton, the recent graduate is interested in politics, he will probably do this. The operative gives him $50 to take a cab the two blocks back to work.

Senior advisers to President Bush have recommended that the president veto Senate legislation to increase funding for children's health insurance. The plan, which expires September 30, subsidizes health care for children and adults who have too much money for Medicaid and too little for insurance on their own. The legislation calls for a 61-cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes.

This news just in:

2007-06-28T10:59:00.000-06:00

Dishes Indigenous to Pyongyang
Pyongyang, June 27 (KCNA) --
There are many famous folk dishes indigenous to Pyongyang.
Pyongyang cold noodle, Pyongyang boiled rice in hot soup, soup of mullet of Taedong River and green gram pancake are typical of them.
Pyongyang cold noodle is tastier than buckwheat noodles in other areas.
The glossy brass vessels for noodle, kimchi, and minced meat, egg and others on it tempt the appetite.
Foreigners who tasted the Pyongyang cold noodle at the Okryu Restaurant are unsparing of their praises.
The mullet soup seasoned with black pepper is good for health.
Pyongyang boiled rice in hot soup garnished with chicken, mushroom and others is an essential folk holiday food.
Green gram pancake mixed with sliced vegetables and hog-fat has a special taste.
The indigenous dishes of Pyongyang thick in national flavor are the pride of Korea.

from the DPRK News website: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm