Up Against the Wall Motherf***er!
Some 40 years ago, a friend had a cassette tape of some guy belting out a song called “UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERF*CKER.” Tonight, Martine was telling me about one of her new exercises, which is basically a form of “planking,” but done with your back against a wall. In one of those things where time collapses — like in those illustrations of how faster-than-light speed could be possible by folding space/time — the song came back to me.
It took about 15 seconds to find it on YouTube. I encourage you all to play this really loud, over and over again.
Oh, BTW, you should read up on the anarchist group the “Up Against The Wall Motherf*ckers” — usually abbreviated as simply “The Motherf*ckers.” No particular reason why. Just a thing to do. You know… inspiration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Up_Against_the_Wall_Motherfuckers
[Originally published on Facebook, November 11, 2016.]
Holiday Progress Report
Half way through the 2010 end-of-year holiday vacation, I hereby present the following progress report regarding planned activities:
- Lasagnapalooza: 100%
- Reading of books: 5%
- Reading of backlog on Instapaper: 5%
- Web site maintenance and enhancements: 40%
- Shopping for after-Xmas bargoons: 1%
- At-home video/movie/Illico backlog watching: 20%
- Paring down the 600+ items in my “do to” email folder: 1%
- Household maintenance and repairs: 0%
- Laying around like a big fuken slob: 800%
Verdict: I need at least two more months of vacation.
Suburban Bird Drama
We get a lot of birds around our house in the ‘burbs. I’m not an ornithologist by any stretch, but the longer I live here and the more birds I see, the more I learn about them.
My interest was piqued last weekend as I was getting ready to make huevos rancheros for Sunday brunch. I was banging a few pots together when I heard a thunk and “eek!” from upstairs. I ran up to see what was going on and found Martine in the bedroom all bug-eyed, saying that a bird had crashed into the patio door and then another bird had come along and carried it off. We looked around, and sure enough, there was a bird perched on a TV antenna about 60 metres away with what appeared to be a dead bird dangling from its talons (the fact that our neighbourhood is full of TV antennas is a whole separate discussion).
I grabbed my binoculars and saw that it was a small bird of prey–later identified as a merlin–and he had what appeared to be a dead mourning dove. Speculation from a birding friend is that that the merlin deliberately chased the dove into the patio door.
I ran downstairs and got my camera. It doesn’t have a long lens but I figured maybe I could crop the picture and get something faintly interesting. I came back upstairs and as I was getting the camera ready Martine said “It’s gone!”
I looked over and sure enough, the the TV antenna was empty. A second later I see the merlin flying straight at us at top speed, still clutching the mourning dove. It was being chased by two other birds (unidentified). A second later, just before the merlin crashed into the patio door, it pulled up “top gun” style and whizzed over the house, passing over our heads by just a few feet. It still had the dead dove in its grip.
Not a chance of getting a photo. Everything happened too fast. So I went back to my huevos rancheros knowing Martine and I were not the only ones eating well in the neighbourhood that day.
The mourning dove left quite an impression. |