Pics of the house

I took a bunch of pics when I went to meet the house inspectors.

I've got them on my Flickr page, which is here.

It's not much to look at yet, but transformations will occur!

Inspections

So, I met with the building inspectors today. The roof guy had apparently already come and gone, so I didn't get the "on the spot" report from him, but I did talk with the house inspector and the termite guy.

There are some issues. The downstairs bathroom essentially has to be completely ripped out and repaired, as it's got leaks around the toilet and bathtub, and the walls and floor have gone spongy. I thought the tub and toilet were a bit grotty anyway, so this isn't horrifying, and the upstairs shower and toilet are in great shape. So, the first project will be the downstairs bathroom, which will be otherwise off limits to any guests I have.

The other major issue was with the stove that the selling bank just put in. There is no external vents for the gas stove, which makes it a health and safety issue. We need a downward vent stove, otherwise I've got to install a big ugly duct going out the side wall. A downward venting stove would be more elegant and cheaper. So I need the selling bank to take back the stove they put in (which isn't even hooked up) and put an appropriate one in.

Other than that, there was a single pipe issue that seems pretty easy to fix and the myriad little details around the house that I plan to fix over the next several years. For a 100 year old house, it's in really good condition.

So, we'll get the full report, get some hard numbers, and see if the bank will at least fix the stove and push for a price drop due to the bathroom.

Status Updates

It seems a good idea to get a list of status updates going, so I can get it straight in my own head if nothing else.

Sweetie Tanya soundtrack: In Process.
Due to litigation concerns, Steve Kahn has rewritten the opening and closing number, and I've given the new tunes the thumbs up. Steve is working on arrangements and we'll go back into the studio soon to record them. Neil Howard is locating a singer to do his tune "Vengeance is best served hot", so we'll add that to the recording list as well. In the meanwhile, I am going to get our final contracts worked up for all the artists and see if I can start releasing the finalized songs on iTunes or CD-Baby as individual tracks while we wait for the last few numbers to get finished.

iScan: Feb 2009.
Peggy Powell's one-act will be remounted with the original cast for the 2009 Bay Area One Act Festival at the Eureka Theatre in February. We'll go back into rehearsal on Feb 2nd and open on the 19th.

The One-Eyed Man is King: May 2009.
I'll be performing as the blind thief Bendalli at the Phoenix Theatre.

Radiostar--Improv: Ongoing Production. We're still meeting pretty much weekly, and I've committed to getting a new audio show out every OTHER week. Ostensibly this should allow me time to work concurrently on the animated series.

Radiostar--Animated Series: Limping in production.
Episode 4 is about 2/3rds through the first of its seven scenes.

411: In writing stage.
Progress is slow on this, but I'm 36 pages into the first draft. The goal is to go into production the fall of 2009, but we'll see.

Tales of the Planes--Unification : Limbo.
I'm seven chapters into this novel and haven't touched it in a year and a half. It's not dead, but sleeping.

Sick Fucker: Gestating.
I have the story in my head, but haven't gotten the first word on paper.

Mammals in Collision: Limbo.
The first two acts are written, but have been for a couple of years.

Wings to Fly: Limbo.
I need a composer to turn my draft into a musical, and will start a second draft when I find him or her.

Called to the sea: Gestating.
This short story still wants to be told, but has to wait.

Submergency: Uncertain.
There has been talk of doing a show in March, but I'm not sure I have the bandwidth and recent events combined with other nascent projects may have soured enthusiasm on this one.

Tom Sup: Limbo, probably dead.
The third chapter in The Adventures of Tom Sup may be a graphic novel someday, but it's unlikely.

Pinch: Limbo.
I'd love to do a film version of my malformed nightmare-play, but it's little more than a flicker on the back burner.

Pond: Uncertain.
Conceived as a warmup to making 411, I have the notes and outline all ready, but until get the 411 script done, it sits neglected.

Pharmarsupial: Dead of improv overdose.

The Knifies: Gestating.
Diana Brown is working on an outline for this improv-film for me to review once I get 411 off the ground.

Vagina Dentata: Resting.
I need to see if I can find anyone interested in producing the show, which was well received.

Sweetie Tanya: Resting.
I need to see if I can find anyone interested in producing the show, which was well received. This, of course, needs to wait until we get the new songs done.

In a Distant Country: Resting.
I've given this play to a church that I know has an interest in readings, and possibly production, but who knows. It'd be nice to see my first play remounted, though.

On the Radio

So, it looks like I was on Peter Finch's "Beat of the Bay" on KFOG. Peter came and saw "Pulp Scripture" and covers the event, including about 95% of the Isaac and Abraham story (me, Dennis McIntyre, and Linda Ayers-Frederick). The rest of it is an interview with playwright William Bivins and the very beginning of the Adam and Eve sequence with me and Emily Jordan making very naughty noises in a church.

It's on the KFOG site, Nov 8th, 2008 episode, at 17:30.

A frequently asked question

I did a staged reading of some short plays based on the saucier moments in the Old Testament. It was a delight to do, and I felt spurred to forward the church coordinator a copy of my first play, "In a Distant Country". This led, as many conversations inevitably do, to the question of why I left the church after completing a four year degree in Biblical Studies and three years of Seminary.

I get asked this often enough, that I figured I might as well post the answer here. It doesn't deal with the specific circumstances around my departure, but it explains, in my mind, why I continue to maintain my distance from the church I had dedicated so much of my young life to.

---------------------------

Ah, yes. It's, as I'm sure you can guess, a popular inquiry and one that could fill an evening in discussion.

While there were personal aspects to the decision to change my vocation and move towards a broader theological perspective, there were also spiritual and intellectual ones as well, which are probably more vital.

Through my study of church history, I began to become more and more uncomfortable with the exclusivity of the messianic message, and less and less convinced that it was what Jesus had in mind. The rise of codified doctrine as the church moved out of a place of persecution and into one of power, and the radically different ways that the "one way" looked when viewed from different points in history/economy/race/class structure... all this presented me with a real problem. The vast majority of what we call Christianity has seemed to do mostly with maintaining power structure, contemporary moral codes, and social mores.

Much of this goes back to what, in my mind, has been the supplanting of the teachings of Jesus for the exhortations and governmental mindset of Paul. Paul's very authority was questioned repeatedly by those who actually walked with Jesus, and has been established by a particular form of circular logic: Paul's churches, which were attractive to wealthy "god-fearing" Gentiles who admired Judaism but didn't want to deal with being circumcised as adults or obey the dietary laws, grew and succeeded. Because these churches were successful, while others were not, the letters of the founder get exalted to the writ of the Holy Spirit.

Paul's conversion became the model of Christian faith (and the basis for the idea of being Born Again) starting with Augustine, continuing to make Paul and his perspective the normative one in the church. As time moves farther and farther from the source, Paul's ad hoc attempts to bring his fledgling churches under control become used over and over again to apply universal rules of behavior to the believing community. The vast majority of ills the world has suffered at the hands of the church have, in my mind, come from Paul's often misunderstood comments about women, his attempts to calm down unruly behavior, and his vitriolic defense of his authority from the skepticism and denouncements of the Apostles.

I have no issue with Jesus, but I do believe that he viewed himself and his mission as essentially Jewish in nature. He only dealt with gentiles when they forced themselves upon him and became an object lesson of the kind of faith and passion he was trying to inspire in his own people. My issue is with Paul, and the hellenization of a jewish spirituality that came to owe as much to Plato as it does to Moses and the prophets.

Again, there was much going on in my personal life as well when I made the actual split, but the concerns from a theological level had been developing for years.

I don't know if that qualifies as a story, but the more narrative part of this deals more with the circumstances that forced me to take a good hard look at myself, what I was doing, where I was going, and why. It tells why I stood back at that time, but this explains why I have remained on the outside, sympathetic to a compassionate theology and believing community, but separate from it.

Joy and Sorrow

It feels like I should write something about the last 24 hours.

I'm deeply, profoundly glad and relieved that Barack Obama will be taking over as President in January. In many ways, it feels like I'm getting my country back.

At the same time, I'm incredibly sad that Proposition 8 passed here in California. I'm also sad because I feel that it passed because people believed the lies put forth by the proponents of the proposition. "Our schools will be forced to teach gay marriage," "churches will be punished if they don't perform gay marriage ceremonies", etc. This is what is known as "bearing false witness". Schools don't teach marriage now, so why would they have to teach gay marriage? Churches don't have to perform a wedding for anyone who asks for it, so why would they be punished in the future for it? My church, growing up, was very clear that if the pastor didn't feel good about the proposed union, he wouldn't do the service.

So we had a conservative religious push to change our state constitution that felt the need to lie to get its agenda passed.

I believe that a large number of people voted for Prop 8 because they believed the lies. They believed that it was going to force a worldview they weren't totally comfortable with into the public schools. They believed that their religious freedom was going to be curtailed. They were lied to, and they were lied to by people who are supposed to believe that "the truth shall set you free."

Hypocrisy and hate disguised as moral uprightness are nothing new for the church (regardless of whether it's the Catholic church, the Baptist church, or the Mormon church). Still, it makes me sad that the voters of California took away the liberties of others in the belief that they were protecting their own. It makes me sad that people who claim to be "Pro-America" do everything they can to subvert the very democratic process they are supposed to protect.

God's gonna be pissed

Thanks to Dave over at Terminal Velocity for this.

Christians praying over a golden (technically bronze) calf (technically bull).

I find this seriously baffling. Then again, in my experience many Christians have an appalling ignorance of their own sacred texts. Let's just say that that last time the people of YHWH dealt with graven images of bulls it didn't go over so well.

In other news. I've put an offer in for a house. I should hear something at some point in the next week.

adventures in home shopping

So, I took a long lunch yesterday and visited (and re-visited) some properties with my realtor. We started out at a place I've been looking at in West Oakland. It's a cute little place in what is turning into a nice little oasis neighborhood. For those of you who aren't local, West Oakland doesn't have the best reputation and large parts of it deserve that reputation. This place was nice, though, and had the benefit of a large basement level that had been converted into an extra room and bathroom. It would make an ideal sound studio. I was wary, however, due to the extensive work that needed to be done on the roof, the kitchen, and the floors throughout. Still, all that would come out on the Seller's end if I made getting it all fixed a precondition of sale. We left, and I considered the little Queen Anne's cottage an ongoing option.

The next place was a home I'd been interested in before, but had gone off the market for a few weeks. It only a couple of blocks from MacArthur BART, which was very appealing to me. There were many things about the place that I liked: interesting floor plan, lots of built in wall cabinets, good wood floors, a fully updated kitchen, lemon and pear trees in the back, and a somewhat odd DIY covered and elevated back porch that extended a good twenty feet into the back yard. It was enclosed with plastic windows, and a small window opening to allow someone to feed laundry out to a long pulley operated clothesline. My realtor guessed that whoever had lived here was afraid to go outside, but after seeing the bathroom, I suspected that she simply couldn't get up and down the stairs. The bathroom was incredibly tiny, with no shower, bright pink bathtub and toilet, and lots of guardrails around the bathtub. The attic entrance was directly over the bathtub. It looked like at some point the bathroom had been moved from a normal sized room at some point and that a little hallway had been turned into the bathroom instead. It would have to be completely redone and an existing "Bedroom" turned into a bathroom. The home was across from a High School campus, which made it a bit noisy, but not too bad. What was a killer was the family of three pitbulls on one side of the house, and another very loud barking dog on the other side. As soon as they saw activity, the dogs began barking furiously, spurring each other to new heights of volume. The family of pitbulls settled down after about 10 minutes, but the other dog kept on furiously. That became a dealbreaker. Between having to completely redo the bathroom and the potential of non-stop barking, this home fell down on the list.

We scratched another house off the list due to complications with current tenants and possible other offers that had been made and headed down south to Fruitvale. Fruitvale had a similar reputation to West Oakland, but has been seeing significant changes over the last decade. That said, certain parts are still referred to as "Murder Row". Fortunately, the parts I was interested in were a good ten blocks from there. Crime stats for the area were reasonable, or at least reasonable for Oakland.

Thus, the third house we actually looked at was one I'd had my eye on for the last two weeks. A cute little home on 36th ave that needed an appointment in order to view. We hadn't been able to look at it the last time we checked properties, but now had the chance to check it out. It was occupied by a family of six: husband, wife, grandmother, and three kids. We quickly moved through the house, but I knew after about three seconds that there was no way in hell I could evict this family. I let my realtor know that I'd seen enough and we left, with the kids peering at us through the back fence. He let me know that they were renting, not owners. I hope that whoever buys the house buys it as a rental property. The thought that I was looking over the home with the intent to dispossess them was the most horrible feeling I've had in some time. I might as well have been wearing my top hat and greatcoat, twirling my mustache.

All this took us back to the first property I looked at a week and a half earlier. Less than half a mile from Fruitvale BART, a nice tree lined street, low crime (and extremely sturdy and pointy fence as well), no yard to have to deal with, two stories, and in pretty good shape across the board. I had been uncertain about it when I first saw it, but after seeing over a dozen properties in my price range, it's clearly the best deal available (not counting the dream victorian that was never to be mine, despite my weeping a million tears). What I didn't know then, but know now, was how easy it would be to replace the carpet upstairs with a hardwood floor and how trivial it would be to reroute the washer and dryer outlets so that they lead INTO the building instead of the back yard. Most everything else visibly wrong with the property is long term cosmetic fixes and improvements. Clean up the floor, soap and paint the walls, re-paint or stain the cabinets... nothing that I couldn't move in and to over the next several months or years.

So, I'm placing an offer with the bank.

Whazzup

truth being stranger than fiction

Neil Gaiman posted this little slice of life over on his journal, and it so tickled me that I thought I'd post it. It's the kind of thing that Douglas Adams might have invented.

"I opened the Google window and found myself looking at an advert for a G1 phone. A couple of clicks later I was on the T-mobile website, checking prices and thinking, "Well, I do need a new phone..."

But randomly buying a phone I haven't even held seemed like, well, something that I couldn't imagine myself doing. I wanted to hold it. I wanted to know the specs and such, so I put dog in the back of the car and drove to the local T-Mobile shop.

I knew I was in the right place because there were huge posters everywhere, some bigger than I was, all advertising the new t-Mobile G1.

"Hello," I said, like a man entering a cheeseshop. "I'd like to play with a G1, please."

There was a man and a woman behind the counter. They said they were sorry but they didn't have a G1 for me to play with.

"When will you get them in?"

"We won't get them in."

"No?"

"No."

"Look, are we talking about the same thing? G1 phone. The one on that poster. And that poster. And that one..." The posters were staring at me from the counter. They were all around me.

"No. We won't sell it. We're out of the range and the Google and things that the phone comes with, they won't work on it."

I pulled out my phone, a Nokia N 73, with a T-Mobile SIM card, that happily spends much too much time on the internet doing, er, Google and things. "But this works here..."

"The G1 won't work. It won't do the Google here. So we aren't allowed to sell it."

"But...." I tried to think with this. then I said, "But you have posters." I gestured at them. All pictures of the phone in question, extolling its virtues and explaining that you could only get it here.

"We're a T-Mobile franchise. They send them to us. That's what we have to put up. The posters they send."

"Well, can we talk about the G1 specs?"

"We don't know them." The man and the woman behind the counter seemed very sad about this. The man added, wistfully,"We don't even know the price."

I knew the price, from the website earlier, and I felt guilty about this.

"They have them in the Twin Cities," said the woman. "You could buy one there."

"But if I buy it there, it still won't work here?"

"No," she said, with sadness and with, I suspect envy in her voice. "but they sell it."

There was a bit of a pause. I think I may have said, "Sorry about the posters," as I went out, or I may have just thought it very loudly. They all had pretty pictures of the G1 on them, a phone I don't think I'm going to bother getting."

Some funny

This is one of the funniest parodies I've seen in some time.
Yeah, it's old news, but still....

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

rise and fall

Sunday was an unusual day, and worthy of note for me.

I spent the afternoon driving around and viewing properties in Oakland with a realtor. Given the dual circumstances of rapidly dropping home prices and actually having some money for a down payment, I've decided that I'd be a fool to not start looking.

The first place we went to was on a very cute street, and has some potential, although I ripped my pants jumping the fence since the folks handling the property weren't answering their phone to give us the front gate key-code. We had the code to get in the front door though. Quite a bit of potential, but oddly enough the hook-ups for the washer and dryer were on the outside of the house, leading into the non-existent backyard. I don't mind the lack of yard, but I'm not particularly interested in having my washer and dryer out in the rain.

Some homes we couldn't get into without an appointment, which we didn't have, and one or two I vetoed as soon as we pulled up to them. One had clear dry rot in the eaves, which suggested that the entire roof might be in need of replacement. One new home in a nice new development had a particularly vile carpet that looked like ghouls had been using the place as a larder. (Not soaked in blood, just disgustingly filthy.)

Then we came to a property that I had shown up in my inbox a couple of days ago, and I was curious to see. A Victorian home, built in 1891, not far from the West Oakland BART station. 1,600 sq ft, two stories, six rooms. At $232,000 I was sure it had to be a disaster area, but I still wanted to see it, just because of it's age.

Lush foliage peeked over the fence that surrounded the property, and as we opened the gate I was struck at how the front yard space was crammed with a blue spruce, a lemon tree, large ferns and many other plants I couldn't name properly. While my realtor got the front door open, I walked along the side of the building, moving through the plants and checking out the back "yard", which was a study in contrasts, acting as a fully paved two or three car parking area. I moved back to the front and climbed the stairs, walking inside and finding a marbled floor, curving stairs in classic red patterned carpet to the right, and a front room to the left that had clearly been used as a recording studio, with dozens of outlets along the walls, and new cabling everywhere. The kitchen was enormous, with a large fridge and a very nice gas stove that couldn't have been more than a couple of years old. Lovely dining area, and up the stairs were four bedrooms. Everything was in good condition. Some of the carpet would need to be replaced, of course, and while I loved the vibrant red of the stairwell and entryway, and the blue of the kitchen, some of the walls would need to be repainted. Overall, however, it was a dream. A vision.

As we left, the neighbor inquired how long it had been on the market, and what it was going for. His friends had lost the home, and they had been using it as a base of operations for their music business. The large portable storage in his lot was all the equipment, and they had been hoping to get the house back, but didn't realize it had been on the market for a week. I felt bad for them, but still desperately wanted the house.

I had fallen a bit in love with it. It was more than I could ever have dreamed of.

We viewed a couple of other properties, including one that would need to be completely refloored, but that I could otherwise have for a song. But compared to the ancient victorian, nothing could catch my eye.

I got home and looked up the property online. I wanted to double check transportation routes and crime stats. I wanted to be sure that there wasn't something I was missing before I moved to make a bid on the house.

It wasn't there. Many properties weren't there. My saved search had been five pages of results, and now it was two. I went to my "Saved Properties" and saw my precious, and next to status it said "Pending." In the four or five days since the listing had appeared in my inbox, someone had made a bid on the property and it had been accepted by the bank. I had been looking at a home that wasn't even available.

The Race

A big thanks to Pema for posting this. It's the best reflection on race and the election that I've seen, being succinct, focused, and clear.

------------

You may have seen this in your inbox. If not, cue up your considerations.

WHAT IF...?

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin. What if things were switched around? Would the country's collective point of view be different?....think about it.

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had walked five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama had left his first wife after a severe car accident disfigured her?

What if Obama met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the candidate's wife who became addicted to painkillers and acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker and Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama were the candidate whose military experience included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama were the candidate known to display publicly a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

If these questions reflected reality, do you believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

Could racism be the culprit?

Racism covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Consider educational backgrounds, and the opinions they might effect, were the switch to continue.

Barack Obama -
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude (that means "top of class")

Joseph Biden -
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)


John McCain - United States Naval Academy
Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin -
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters -journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

No politics, really

Things are quiet at Casa Wilson.

I'm still working from home, which I still love and wouldn't change for the world. The screenplay is coming along slowly but surely, and I've started working on the fourth Radiostar cartoon. Mostly, though, I'm being social. Seeing shows, having movie nights, and spending time with people whenever possible.

Ultimately though, I've been feeling a bit lethargic. I need an exercise buddy. Someone to do regular lake walks with or something. I don't tend to do such things on my own because, well, they're kind of boring on my own. I'd rather hibernate, or watch something, or read, or create, or do anything than just exercise for exercise's sake. It's always been that way.

Nothing much is currently happening on the relationship front, other than me periodically meeting someone, getting interested, and then getting a kind and flattered but ultimately uninterested response. At least, that's how I perceive it. I've never been good at telling when someone isn't interested versus wants to be pursued. Generally, if I make a move and don't get a response, I move on.

This makes it sound like no one has expressed interest, which isn't true, but the challenge is getting interest on both sides. If I could rationally decide who to be attracted to, life would be so much easier.

I had a conversation about this very recently with a friend, who expressed the sentiment that if such and such a person she had been dating wanted kids (and wanted them now), she'd overlook her general lack of attraction to him because he was such a win in every other way.

This kind of horrified me. I understand the impulse, sort of, but it seems like a good way to sabotage things from the get go. I don't believe in "the one", but I do believe that you need something at the core of love other than "works on paper".

Granted, this is also a conversation between someone in their mid twenties and someone in their late thirties. Heaven help me, but I think I've got the "Perspective."

See, age has been a frequent area of reflection lately. As I'm doing less theatre producing right now, my savings is increasing and I'm watching the declining price of homes with interest. I'm 38 and have always rented, and done so happily. I've made little moves every three years or so and really like where I am currently at. I explored buying about six or seven years ago, but just didn't have the resources. Since then I've been doing Cassandra's Call and making periodic jaunts around the globe, so my savings aren't what they might have been had I hunkered down to work up a solid down payment.

Now I'm looking at a 30 year mortgage and wondering how that works when you're almost 40. This also ties into the relationship thing, as the kind of house that I would prefer over my apartment isn't something I can afford on my salary. A dual income, absolutely, but otherwise... not so much. I could get nice places, to be sure, but it would force me deep into the suburbs or even out of state, and I've built too much here to seriously consider that.... or have I?

Deep questions about lifestyle, age, and love are my preoccupations currently. And of course, there is the big question of what happens next with the election next month. But I did say there wouldn't be any politics in this posting.

pushing it

Big surprise, this emergency bailout is flooded with earmarks.

I got this from SoulCamp

"Included in the new rescue plan are such doozies as "INCREASE IN LIMIT ON COVER OVER OF RUM EXCISE TAX TO PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS" and "SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MOTORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY", as well as a "PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION RELATING TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES"?!?

These clowns simply have no limits."

You know it

Thanks to DeJong for this.

what wasn't said

First off some significant links.

Over on CNN.com there is a very interesting analyses of missed opportunities in the Obama-McCain debate. What I found most edifying was a list of factors that contributed to the decrease of violence in Iraq, *other* than the surge.

While the entire article is worth reading, there's the list of factors:

Lost in this discussion was the fact that while the surge of some 30,000 American soldiers certainly put more American boots on the ground in neighborhoods from Anbar province to Baghdad to "clear, hold and build" them and was clearly an important element in the sharp decline in violence in the country, there are several other key underlying factors that tamped down the mayhem in Iraq that neither of the candidates addressed:

• First, the appearance in 2006 of the various "Awakening" movements, in which Sunni tribes once allied with al Qaeda turned against it.

• Second, the implementation of the Sons of Iraq program consisting of some 100,000 Sunni militants, many of whom used to be shooting at American soldiers, who are now on the U.S. payroll. Now that's a surge!

• Third, the previous ethnic cleansings in Iraq and the millions of Iraqi refugees who have fled their homes, meaning there are fewer potential targets of sectarian violence.

• Fourth, the large size and increasing efficacy of the Iraqi army and police, some 550,000 strong, who are now beginning to operate with some level of professionalism.

• Fifth, the increasingly nonsectarian approach of Nuri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister, who has taken on Shiite militias in Basra and Sadr City, an important signal that the government will act in something like the national interest.

• Sixth, the cease-fires ordered in the past year or so by the leader of those Shia militants, the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose position in Iraq has weakened significantly since 2007.

These underlying factors made the surge a force multiplier for the fragile peace we are seeing today in Iraq. And now that the surge is over, it is those factors that might ensure that the fragile peace holds, yet neither Obama nor McCain discussed how these factors might change their own Iraq policies going forward.

---

As for me, I'm a pretty firm Obama supporter. I don't think he's the second coming, but I support him more than I've supported a candidate... well... ever. They way I see it lately, if he can deliver on a third of his promises, I'll be delighted. If McCain delivers on even a third of his promises, I'll be horrified.

---

Things are pretty mellow on this end. Work is slow, and with the third Radiostar cartoon up, and new Audio shows posted, I'm trying to turn my attention to the 411 screenplay. The Sweetie Tanya soundtrack remains in limbo for legal reasons and I need to get some work done on that front as well.

Occupying most of my attention, however, has been a pinched nerve in my shoulder that has severely limited my neck movement. After recommendations of Flexirol and acupuncture, I was assigned to be bartender at Djoke's murder mystery bar-be-que and proceeded to make super strong drinks and send everyone flying... including myself. I woke up today still in pain, but with increased range of movement. Rum beats pharmaceuticals and needles, hands down. Still, I am looking forward to being pain free in the next couple of days.

-----------

The Evil League of Evil is accepting submissions. They want applicants to sing, although it's not required. I have a few ideas, so perhaps I'll make my submission tomorrow night. If so, I'll post a link here.

Hollywood Burn, episode 3

It's finally done!


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So, I was going to a film festival last night, but my movie buddy came down sick. I decided to spend the night working on the third Radiostar cartoon instead, and am very pleased to say that it may be finished as early as tomorrow!

In the meanwhile, David Austin-Gröen posted this video, which brought a part of McCain's history to light that I had completely forgotten about.



and Eden Gallanter brought my attention to this SNL clip about sexism in the media that cracked me up.



Hopefully tomorrow I'll be posting my own video.

Radiostar spreads

An animation student used some audio from Radiostar for an animation test.

The original show, "Rebound" can be listened to here.