"We're Number One in New York City,

Missy's a member of the GOP, the dudes never get married, and Audra's still pure.

Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Cincinnati, Jackson Mississippi, etc, ... " ... The "lovers" next door are about to foreclose.  They left the Legal Notice on their door far too long.  Renee & I both got a look.  The 28th is when the process starts, tomorrow ... Yaphet Kotto was in a good Big Valley I saw the other day.  1967.  He played a prisoner, who the Barkleys "hired" to pick peaches from their orchard.  (Major thing Renee & I have learned about the Barkleys and their Party-Sized Valley:  It is better to ask what the Barkleys do not do, than to ask what they do do.)  The Barkleys are ranchers, run a vineyard, make wine, grow stone fruits, grow frickin' rice (?!), of course Jared is one of the top lawyers in California and has an office in Stockton, and they do a little sheep raising as well.  Plus, the Barkleys are big-time, late 19th century Liberals. (?!) They are not against the death penalty but they do believe in prison rehabilitation and were the first people in California to get legislation rolling on parole.  (I wonder what the GOP Barbara Stanwyck thought about that.  But then, as we learn every fucking day, that was a v different GOP back then.  Ugh.)  Anyhoo, Kotto was a buffalo soldier and nearly saves Audra's colt.  Well, actually, he does save the colt but then the colt gets caught in the crossfire when another prisoner tries to rape Audra (The Big Valley, mid-60s mind you, had no compunction about showing rape scenes.  The guilty are always punished, natch, and usually die within a few minutes of the rape, itself.)  ... Another thing I have learned watching The Big Valley:  Just because someone has a life-size Buddha statue in their front parlor does not mean that that person is a force for good.  I learned that during the most psychedelic (1967) Big Valley I have seen yet, which involves Chinese gangs and the Barkleys all trying to corner or prevent someone else from cornering the (apparently massive Stockton/Big Family-Sized Valley/Sacto-Northern Cal [h/t Pavement]) rice market.  This is one of the worst Big Valleys I have ever seen, btw (even if it does include Missy Stanwyck going mad through some weird-ass hypnotism/gaslight The Pink Floyd-like light show.) ... Tabloid was splendid.  And you believe Ms McKinney right up until she has been home for a while after the whole sensational kidnapping furore has blown o'er.  And the Interrortron, invented by the filmmaker, Errol Morris, truly has changed documentaries forever.  It is especially funny to see past subjects of his, so furious, and threatening (or actually) suing.  The Interrotron seems to capture folks at their most vulnerable and honest.  (There was one "spy/intelligence" guy in Standard Operating Procedure who was not fooled.  He was obv "properly brainwashed" [h/t Swimming to Cambodia]).  That must be why they sue.  They are seduced and then betrayed.  Brilliant. ... Just like late last year I am fed up with politics again.  Boehner's got the votes, he does not have the votes.  Sensible friends of mine are willing to not raise the debt ceiling, something mother-fricking Hamilton stressed was of utmost importance to the health of our nation.  These friends are aligning themselves w/ idiotic, ludicrous Teabaggers.  (Tho, it was mildly satisfying to see "Ayn" Rand Paul and Jim DeMint lead a Default Teabagger Rally today.  There were aboot fifty folks there, at the most.)  Obama had already capitulated to an early GOP plan (that was fucking awful) & the GOP walked off in a huff, constantly talking aboot how mean Obama was.  Your GOP.  Your Teabagging Reps you elected in 2010 would rather see the global economy wrecked than deal with the black dude in office.  Fucking sad.  See why I am watching so much Big Valley? ... And back to The Big Truly Indescribably Monstrous-Sized Valley for a sec.  What happened to Stockton? Obv, according to this very lifelike, historically-accurate teevee program from the 60s, Stockton was the big playa in the 1880-90s, not San Francisco.  So, what went wrong? Did the Barkleys (who never seem to marry- well Jared did the other day but she was killed before the fucking reception, they eloped in Denver, you see) not reproduce, and shrivel away, letting the City boys muscle in on their Empire? I wonder what the Bay area would be like with Stockton (where The Sure Thing was shot, starring local Walnut Creek actress, Daphne Zuniga) as the The City.  I don't know.  Might not be my thing.  ... "Drinking Douro/Say goodnight/To the last pyschedelic band/From Sacto-Northern Cal." ...

PS:  I saw this Pavement tour.  One of the greatest shows ever.  Mark & I arrive in Prague by Trabant and I see flyposters for Pavement/Stereolab at the Jean-Paul Belmondo Theater that night.  We get tickets (the tickets were huge heavy cardboard affairs, v cool) and go.  The theater/"club" only served Pilsner-Urquell in 8 oz plastic cups so you had to wait in line forever, holding your two empty cups.  Above the long bar was one photograph:  Kafka, natch.  The Mighty 'Lab blew oot one channel of the PA w/ their encore of We're Not Adult Orientated (but it did not seem to bother the ultra lowfi Pavement much.)  When Pavement hit the boards, a drunk, loose twenty-five year-old Michael Spitler yelled out to SM, "Whoo! Stockton, Yeah!" Malkmus found me in the crowd and gave me the dirtiest look evah.  I was the Ugly American FratBoie in Prague, according to him, I imagine.  That was mid-March 1994.

PPS:  Before we left Wurzburg, Deutschland (home of Dirk Nowitzki) we heard on Armed Services Radio that Kurt Cobain had nearly died from an overdose of Champagne and painkillers in Italy.  When I arrived back in Berkeley on April 6 (a day before my birthday) my Mother asked if I had heard the news.  Cobain (at twenty-seven, i.e. see Jimbo, Joplin, Hendrix, Pete May, Brian Jones, Amy Winehouse, et al, ... ) was dead.  He got home just before I did.