i am the four horsemen

poster from Mariano Gonzalez's exhibition at Anchorage's Out North Contemporary Art House












A somewhat dated but interesting quote from Bill Maher. These are the closing words from his show last Friday(passed along by shy gun willie):

"Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no moremoney to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another warbecause you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of yourterm has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listento your Mom. The cupboard's bare; the credit cards maxed out. No one'sspeaking to you. Mission accomplished.

"Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest andwalk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil companyand the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the nextfantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you'resaying: there's so many other things that you as President could involveyourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do.There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts.Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security toFannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

"But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you governlike Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised thatyou haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks likea man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never concededan entire city to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we've lostalmost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two tradecenters, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybeyou're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'mjust wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

"So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.' "

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The second issue of I49 hits the streets today. Be sure to pick one up. It's even got a crossword puzzle this time.

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Not too sure how things are in the lower48 but the metal kids up here sure do love their Manowar. I've heard the name kicked around quite a bit, seen the albums (here's a sampling of titles: Sign of the Hammer, Into Glory Ride, Battle Hymns, Return of the Warlord, Hell On Wheels, Hell On Stage Live, etc), and seen terrible promo photos of the men of Manowar shirtless in leather vests. Yes, all of them, look:

I hadn't actually heard anything from these guys until i watched this. Whoa.