Originally posted on TubeNet, forums.chisham.com. Edited here for context.

I helped out Custom Music International's little inventory clearance sale, and a new silver plated B & S, PT-20 (rotary) Tuba arrived at my door Friday June 11th . They have one waiting for you!

With the encouragement and advice of a certain "RAW" (www.rawtuba.com) tubist (a great guy if I do say so), and from some pretty good write ups about the horn, I decided I'd give it a shot. I'm getting back into low brass, after being away since high school. I did major in music (UC Davis '94, generalized BA), but voice was my performance concentration. This major, today, mainly manifests itself mainly as an avid weekend composer using midi gadgets galore and loving it. I did sing with a local Symphony Choir for a while, but really didn't like it. I'm sort of digging more intimate stuff right now.

The years of playing euphonium from 4th - 11th grade, and finally tuba in 12th have stuck with me, and it was not all forgotten as it turns out ...

The economic stimulus part:

I'm in the very fortunate position here at 40 y/o, to fulfill the life long desire to get my own horns. But, uhm, I think I'm done with the buying expensive things for a while.

Tracey is right: I have lost my mind. But to my surprise, she really liked the sound of the euphonium having never really known of one (though she did play valve trombone in elementary school). At least my lips have already been in shape enough to get her to like it. She thought if I got the tuba, I'd abandon the euphonium. Hardly. They're both gorgeous, but they do different things. Still, tubas can sing and sound pretty too.

Can't report a whole lot about the PT-20 yet of course. But with the tuner out, I'm already amazed at where I'm hitting notes and generally getting around. RAW and then Neal at Custom thought it would be good horn that would naturally slot and be somewhat more forgiving in that sense, and a good horn for my immediate needs (re-learning, some solo recording stuff on my own for a while.) Perhaps they're right.

After playing the horn for the weekend and some last night (Monday), I love it! May even love it more than the euphonium. I think I'm a natural tubist more than anything else. I can hit solidly all notes easily, however, the pedal tones are a little rough on this horn. A bigger horn, and perhaps using a less shallow mouth piece and getting used to it, would help for those notes way down below C below the bass clef staff. Also reading music down there seems to be coming pretty natural. MUCH better than if I was playing a Bflat horn.

It's also the first C horn I've ever played. AND that's kind cool for me, as I've been most proficient on treble clef euphonium parts. In my mind, I'm only transposing down a couple octaves (as if the parts were on the grand staff)... makes it easier for me to think of it that way w.o. entirely new fingerings for the same notes (ie, playing a written C is open in both instruments, etc. in that context.)

So it's been 23 years.

That's all. A long time.

Last time I played euphonium was in 1987 I think in high school. Well, on May 3th, 2010 this all changed. I fulfilled a life long dream and finally bought a brand new horn of my very own.

Probably foolish to post this so early, but I've only had this horn since May 4th, less than a month of busy weekends and a few hours in the evenings, to get the 23 year old bugs out.....

My senior year of high school, I switched to tuba and actually really loved it. Who knows? Maybe a tuba is in my future too. But you can't deny the beauty of the tenor euphonium sound. The cool thing is, it matches my singing range. Voice was my performance concentration in college, so I have and know a lot of music that sits well with the euphonium.

Here is one of those vocal pieces that translates well. I performed this at a big concert for voice during my sophomore year at UC Davis in 1989. It's Vaughn Williams, Songs of Travel - Whither Must I Wander. Words by Robert Louis Stevenson, however this time, the voice part is played on the horn by me.

Another neat alignment of things with the upper video/recording is that I set the piano music with MIDI using samples from a Bosendorfer grand piano. I didn't clean the MIDI up much; I just wanted to get this out fairly quickly but the piano part could use a lot more finese. The audio was recorded with the microphone in frame using Pro Tools LE and a Digidesign 003 audio interface, and the HD video was shot with my Canon 7D SLR camera that does great HD Video. I have Tracey to thank for giving me this camera this past Christmas, and I've only had the new sound samples and Pro Tools/003 since January along with my new computer and office set up. This is the first time all of these elements came together.

I had to manually synch the video with the Pro Tools recorded audio. The Canon camera's audio recording was not used... if you heard it you'd throw it out too. AND as you can hear, I added just a bit of artificial reverberation. So, no, my office/music room doesn't have such a nice, big lofting reverb to it. (The very fact that it doesn't makes it an excellent recording room.) As sound guys know, a little reverb makes anything sound better. At this point, with just about 3 weeks of playing the horn again after 20 years, I'll take all the help I can!

In all, however, I'm happy with this. I have to learn to breath and support my phrasing again, and there are some intonation issues related to breath support and attacks and releases, but I think all of this will come. And, I'll learn the fancy things like vibrato and what-not with time. But I'm amazed that my range so far is coming back. I'm just loving playing this gorgeous horn.

It's a Miraphone M5050, Ambassador Series. Created for and with the direction of Euphonium wiz, Demondrae Thurman. Look him up. He's amazing.

Just wanted to give a shout out for my friends, the Positive Pedalers who are an HIV+ bicycle club and awareness/visibility organization. In doing the AIDS LifeCycle a couple times like I have, it’s hard not to be inspired by this group. Many are good friends of mine, so this announcement is a bit selfish with pride ;-)

Anyhow, Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Newsom are declaring proclamations today in their cities. The San Francisco ceremony on City Hall steps is at 11:30 AM. Kinda cool.

It’s the 15th anniversary of the PosPeds organization, formed in 1995 before much of today’s medications helped curb the mortality rate of this fu*&ing virus. Many members ride to fight the stigma associated with HIV, but many also ride in AIDS charity events all across the country and dedicate their time and fundraising to remember those they’ve loved and lost.

I am not riding this year, but go to http://www.aidslifecycle.org and support a rider in the AIDS/LifeCycle, the ride from San Francisco to LA happening June 6th – June 12th!!!!

In honor of my good friend David Hammond's 40th birthday, I completed a set for brass quintet. 

I thought this was long lost, but I emailed Rhio Barnhart, the UC Davis Music Department librarian, if he could find my 1993 performance of Beethoven's  song "An die ferne Geliebte."

Yesterday I was inspired to write a new piano piece. (Actually probably a "computer" piano piece... not necessarily possible/tolerable for human performance.) Got 5 minutes of it. I'll probably change it to an extent, but I'm happy with it. It's a new approach for me... one that still needs to be nourished to see where I can go with it -- where it will be more unique (personal to my own voice, not someone else's -- always the creative challenge.) Not terribly sophisticated which is probably why I initially drafted it so quickly.

Still, it's the first bit of music I've written fresh in 3 years!!

Genesis:

Tracey heard me improvising chord progressions on our little piano we have in our living room. She liked what I was playing, and wanted music like it to use in a video for time lapse sequences. As you may know, I want to score music for her and Russ for their videos and movies. Very much looking forward to those projects!

This is repetitive and decidedly so, but perhaps "minimalist" is not a perfect term as it's not that "hard core, and what, almost too simple minded to be "minimalist?" Suffice to say there is no distinct melody or "story" to it. It just sort of *is* and evolves.... and yah, you can hear maybe Glass style rhythms, etc.. my apologies. I am not claiming this to be super original.

You'll hear it just being a bunch of piano progressions: descending through ALL of the "Circle of Fifths" Major Keys (C, down to F, down to B-flat, down to E-flat ,etc -- very traditional... and essentially back to C) and arpeggios (broken chords -- meaning chords where each note is not played together, but sequentially). It also sounds a lot like a piano etude, or exercise. Which, heck, I don't mind it being used for at all. I play with rhythms too, with common time (in 4) having triplets (in 3 or in 6) interspersed.

After 1:00 (one minute) I change it up and go into other patterns ... just improvising around...

There is a LOT of virtuosity going on in the fingers... thank god a computer is playing this. I certainly can't. Hopefully the rhythms aren't too repetitive for you...but that's sort of the point. They should however, keep your interest as they do mine. I'd get bored if the piece was absolutely the SAME from moment to moment. This piece however, can also completely annoy you ... which is perfectly fine ;-)

It's probably best listened to with headphones with your eyes closed. Where you can concentrate on the changes and how they make you feel. If you can imagine a video with it too, great... but no dialog per se. Let your mind wander.

John Adams, wrote the opera "Nixon in China", which my voice professor in college had a premier role in btw, and a piece which recently Tracey and I have been listening a lot to. "Nixon" is a fun work to listen to, and the marriage of libretto and the music, pretty amazing. And yet, it's a "modern" or even "post modern" piece of music that you actually ENJOY listening to ;-) Not that this piece is "Adams" ish, per se, I just have to say I'm influenced by him, but I'm not sure how it will manifest itself quite yet.

New Piece

- Hunter

Okay, this time I've really gone nuts.

I've neglected many updates on my site, as I've become so used to using Facebook for these kinds of things! 

The AIDS/LifeCycle 8 - 2009 is now history. Tracey and I did it in great form. This year, however, Day 6's ride was canceled by the California Highway Patrol due to bad weather and a traffic accident which blocked the highway during the permitted time the event had to operate in.

Getting tired of these yet?

Okay... I'll admit to being thoroughly obsessed with this song. I must have 20 versions of it... but this is THE BEST choral arrangement I've heard.

Really however, it's Fred Waring and his choir who are the real stars (beyond the arrangement). Very cohesive. Amazing. An era long gone.

For your Depression and Recession blues

This is an old Irving Berlin song from the early 1930s, and I think it's apropos for now! Courtesey of the Internet Archive

Put a smile on my face.

I just posted the movie montage of the AIDS/LifeCycle 7.

You can find it here:

http://www.hunterleebrown.com/alc7Movie

Remember to support my ride in 2009.

http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/HunterBrown

Tracey and I went to Washington D.C. for the Obamanation! We stayed with David and Anna Hammond who live in Vienna, VA.

It was very cold, but worth it to be there for the big event. We felt like we participated in history.

Here is a video Tracey compiled of our footage while on the National Mall. It's hosted on www.archive.org, where Tracey works.

No one likes protesting, but we went to the rally to protest the results of Proposition 8.

Here is a link to the photos I took:
Fight The h8

I like the sound of that.

I completed AIDS/LifeCycle Training Rider Leader training this weekend.

It feels great. I can't wait to see new riders find their way and watch them realize that they can do this. Helping them out and being one of their first contacts with the AIDS/LifeCycle experience is a great honor.

Included was a day of classroom, and the next day, bicycling maintenance and bike handling skills outside.

Along with me, are the other new TRL's of my class: Andy, Shon, Mimi, Mike, Stephanie, Maggie, John, and Alex.

On Sunday with the outdoor portion of our training behind the Sports Basement in the Presidio, Pete Furgesuon, or Taxi777 showed up on his yellow, sweet fixie right when we finished. Evidently he had just climbed Mt. Tam with it. If you need inspiration for the ALC, Pete is it. An amazing cyclist, always has an amazing story with many amazing blog posts (some of which have brought me to tears), and always is fun to ride with.

Beau Thomson was also there at the end, right when we got out jerseys, vests, and TRL helmut covers. Always great to see Beau, who lead on my very first ALC ride this past January. Beau was instrumental, along with other leaders and PosPeds, Wilfredo, Peter LaVoie, and Bob Katz to convince Tracey that she could do the event. The next day was the official ALC kick off day, and Tracey signed the dotted line.

This is going to be an amazing coming year once again. I think it's going to be even better than the last one, which is hard to imagine.

Just when you thought I was tired of the AIDS/LifeCycle or riding my bike, I'm signed up to do it for 2009!

I just got my new Rider Number: 4848

And I've made my fundraising page here:
http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/HunterBrown

Please support me if you can. I know economic times are tough and there is much uncertainty. But for those on the fringes, like HIV/AIDS patients, troubling economic times are especially dire. Let's not cut off those in need.

I am also considering doing the Training Ride Leader training this year. It would be such an honor to help other riders take on this wonderful event.

We did it!

As a household, Tracey and I raised over $20,000.00 for the event. Not bad for first time riders. AND, we completed every mile and in excellent form.

What a fantastic experience it was. We definitely want and will do it again! I'll post a more detailed post with some journal entries from selected days and try to put my memories in words in the coming days before they get too foggy.

Us at the midway point:

Okay, take two.

http://www.hunterleebrown.com/iphone

I dumped my custom solution for the iphone, and have adopted CNET's CiUI interface instead. It made development for the iphone much easier and has animated page turns. You can read about CiUI here.

I extended the javascript just a bit to handle .jpg content, like gallery images to work smoothly with the rest of the UI. So, with an iPhone, viewing my gallery pictures should be nice. Try viewing them with the iphone rotated, etc. The browser back button will also work with photos.

Thankfully, due to the redesign work I did in December, making new HTML with XSLT from the same XML feeds the rest of my site uses was a breeze. Thus, this new skin for iPhone was born!!

I can't believe it. Tracey bought me a brand new bike! It's the 2008 Trek Madone 5.5. Here is Trek's website page about it. Our bike shop offered the bike at a price much lower than listed on Trek's site. And, since Tracey also bought a bike for herself, the bike shop gave us a two bike discount. Tracey got the Trek Madone 5.2, but it's not built yet and doesn't have the gears set up the way she'd like just yet. She may pick it up later in the coming week.

NO, I didn't expect that Tacey was going to pay for my bike. I put my credit card out there first, but Tracey insisted and put hers out there. Damn. That was SO nice of her. (It's good to be a kept man!) But especially since I love bicycling so much and have been a gear head about it for the last four years, it feels weird to have someone else buy me something like this. I've been wanting it for so long too. It will go to very good use, however, right away. We're training hard for the AIDS/Lifecycle 7 Ride right now. The new carbon frame and lighter weight will make that training and ride better. Right off, my new bike sheds 3 pounds!! Tracey's new bike sheds about 3 pounds too (compared to our old bikes.) Carbon frames also ride less rigid like our older aluminum frames. They absorb road shock and rough road and the engineering of the frame makes it stiff for maximum power transfer from the cranks but yields enough give in the ride quality. You can really feel it on rough roads. Acceleration is also quick from a dead stop.. which indicates a stiff/good power transfer frame.

Today, Tracey and I rode a 60 mile AIDS/LifeCycle training ride around the South Bay, from Mtn. View, over the Dumbarton Bridge, over to Freemont, and back over to Mtn. View again via San Jose for a big loop. During the ride, our bike shop called to tell me the new Madone was in. We have been waiting a month for it. We went straight from Mnt. View to Lafayette to the shop to check it out. We got it fitted out, and I rode it home. (Well, I took Bart to Oakland -- Rockridge -- and then up the hill to home.) AND boy, after 60 miles, riding just 4 more but all of it UP hill, hurt really bad. Still, the new bike was nice. But I'm so tired. I can't really compose a good blog post right now... I'm so tired.

But heck... I had to tell you all about it. My dream bike!

He's my guy. I support him, and he got my vote in the California Primary Election Feb. 5, 2008. I think he's on the way to clinching the nomination.

You may have read an earlier post by me early last year supporting Hillary Clinton. Well, I really like Hillary Clinton. She would be a fine President. Barack Obama, however, has a better message for America. He's convinced me, and that's what politicians are supposed to do. But beyond that, his message is just right on. Many others, and regular people are taking his lead and following him. I think he'll do great things for all of us.

An interesting aspect of his campaign is the grass roots organization of it. It's SO grass roots. Also, this article detailing the net worth of each major candidate is very telling. Obama is sadly, merely just a single ($1) millionaire. All the others are MUTLI-MULTI millionaires and quite rich. He's NOT in this for money, nor has he ever... he's been in the grass roots, organizing business since day one.

He's empowered many. Let him empower us all. And like he said, "we are who we've been waiting for." Let's do it.

I have signed up for the AIDS/LifeCycle 7 ride. That's the 545 mile charity bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles for AIDS funding from June 1-7, 2008.

This will definitely be a challenge, but it also just makes sense for me. As you know, I'm already an avid road cyclist, but I have also had a very good friend die from this dreaded disease and I don't want that ever to happen again to anyone. I especially have my friends in mind who are currently living a positive lifestyle right now. This effort is most definitely for them. Let's make sure there are enough resources and research done to keep everyone now, and in the future healthy and thriving.

Some might think a long bike ride such as this is crazy. Bur really, it seems like nothing compared to the pain, suffering, and sadness this dreaded disease has already caused for so many people on our planet and local communities. I'm sure many of you know someone or of someone affected by it.

Truthfully, this ride almost feels selfish on my part because I get to go on a bike ride that will travel along the majority length of California. That's something I've wanted to do since I went on my first long road cycling ride in high school where I fell in love with the sport. This ride, however, will be with many, many like minded, similarly dedicated individuals. I'm sure many friends will be made and heart-felt experiences will be had. I'm really looking forward to it.

Through the course of my training, I'll be posting blog updates to tell everyone how it's going. I've already done a cold, wet, solo self-inflicted, early morning 6AM (pre dawn) ride this week, but will be joining regularly organized group rides with other participants in the coming months. This training has the aim of ramping my endurance up to be able to handle a 100 mile day, and do it over again the following day. Each month, my weekly riding mileage average will be increasing.

Now, this is always the most awkward part of a charity bike ride. I need your help!. I can not do this alone. You can take part with me in this endeavor by sponsoring my ride. Don't think of it merely as a donation, but really, as a sponsorship. A bit of you will go with me, so to speak, on that ride and I will be representing you. If you can't do the ride, you can certainly help by giving to the event through the link you can find on my official Rider Home page: http://www.aidslifecycle.org/2543.

This very much is a legitimate cause and organization, and if we together can raise the $2500 minimum limit by ride start time, we really will have done our part to help real people in need.

I'm somebody's uncle! :-)

Tracey's sister Nancy Jaquith Kneiss gave birth today to a beautiful boy.

Isaac Sascha Kneiss. 8 pounds, 7 ounces.

Mother and father, Aaron, are doing well!

 

I just recently saw this documentary on Freddie Mercury, of Queen.

As I get older, I'm discovering much more of the rock world that I missed growing up. For me, missing out on rock wasn't hard. I was a die-hard classical music fascist with out much patience for popular music with lyrics. I'm not sure why that is. For me, a lot of rock sounded angry, and darker than say a ligther classical piece like a ballet score or something, that I loved listening to as a kid (even in the crib, I'm told.) Plus a lot of pop and rock was very self focused. Perhaps unlike some socially conscious folk music, pop and rock is usually very personal. A lot of the time, I was turned off by that kinda thing, and for me, never really felt like I personally had anything I wanted to say in that manner. Heck, I never really wrote much prose of my own. (I'm not sure if that point makes sense.) I also didn't really identify with those who stood up in front of the microphone.

My brother's Led Zepplin, Styx, and even ELO albums, however, engrained in me a certain love of heavy rock I just can't deny. I bet a lot of it has to do with the quality of the production of these gorgeous concept albums. Mostly the tracks just sound great, from the channel mixing, sound levels to the intimate vocals on ballads. (ELO being more on the verge of pop to disco then in the late '70s, but having been a young kid in that era, the musical language around me was hard to forget.) Ultimately, if a piece is well composed, it's just "good" no matter what the genre.

In junior high and high school, from 1982 - 1988, the second English Invaision was underway with Duran Duran,  Billy Idol, Adam Ant, Depechemode, and even punk surfacing into more pop sounds. This new pop sort of pushed out heavy guitar stuff, and honest to goodness acoustic-ness. Granted, the camps of heavy metal vs. disco were well poised to do battle into eternity, but the "new wave" pop took the microphone away from those two earlier genres. Perhaps the lighter, pop fair was needed by a lot of kids, who were burned out by disco, but still wanted something expressive and new. Certainly fashion in the "new wave" was beyond compare. Metal fans, however, I think are very loyal and there is a good reason for that. Most great metal and great guitar and drum kit music is done by very good musicians who truly are great craftsmen who have worked long and hard at their craft. I know a lot of metal fans get into the huge, symphonic sound too (ie, Wagner, Strauss, etc.)

In this era, Freddie was also a great song writer. Who doubts he could have written an opera? And Queen's "Flash Gordon" score remains a favorite whenever I watch that movie. He certainly was a great showman too. It's so sad he's no longer with us. A whole generation of talent was struck down by the AIDS pandemic. I truly believe our world would be much better and different if Freddie and all those others afflicted were still with us. From the visual arts, to Broadway, to rock and roll and beyond, the influence these artists had can probably never be properly measured. Amazingly, those creative spirits never got the chance go the distance yet they still managed to have a huge impact. If they did live longer, who knows what more great stuff we would have!

What a wonderful world it would have been!

BUT it is, will, and can be a wonderful world if we channel our heroes!

Freddie is now one of mine.

 

Yup you got it...

I made the switch from Windows to Mac.

I got my Macbook Pro 15" last week, on November 1, 2007. I love it.

Reasons why I did the switch:

• Vista is slow to boot and shutdown and really wasn't worth the wait.
• my Sony Vaio SZ that came with XP, but included the free upgrade to Vista, was nice but a bit too small for a form factor.
• the Macbook Pro is definitely better looking, has a larger screen, and also can dual boot with Windows if ever I wanted to use it again.
• the native UNIX support of Mac OS X is very slick for techie heads like me. No need to install and configure an un-installable Cygwin environment.
• Got an iPhone, had to get a Mac. That was probably Apple's strategy the whole time, and well, I guess I was not above taking the bait. Really, the iPhone is extremely well executed. Knowing that, and also that Macs now use the same CPU chip set (and discrete video cards) and provide the same speed if not better than Windows based systems for a price in a laptop that's comparable, I didn't have much reason to remain on Windows.

So far, life in Mac land is very nice. I'm using iTunes to rip a lot more of my music into mp3's and am excited to do so. iTunes makes it easy to organize the music and the ID3 tags. Sharing my iTunes library with other users is also very cool.

I'll try to post more blog entries on life with Mac as I go. Know too, that I switched only my laptop. My desktop remains Windows XP for the sound hardware and music stuff I do with it. Also, playing a game that is not yet ported to Mac OS is another reason to keep the PC around. My PC also has a TON of storage; so it's quite fine living its life as a giant storage automaton.

by Tony Hoagland from "What Narcisissim Means to Me"

"Success is the worst possible thing that could happen

to a man like you," she said,
"becasue the shiny shoes, and flattery

and the self-
lubricating slime of affluence would mean
you'd never have to face your failure as a human being."

There was a rude remark I could have made back to her right then
and I watched it go by like a bright blue sailboat on a long gray river

of silence,
watching it until it disappeared around the bend.

while I smiled and listened to her talk,
thinking it was good to let myself be stabbed by her little spears,
because I wanted to see what I was made of

besides fear and the desire to be liked
by every person on the goddamn face of the earth --

To tell the truth, I felt a certain satisfaction in taking it,

letting her believe that I was just a little bird
opening my mouth and swallowing
the medicine she wanted to administer

-- a mixture of good advice combined with slow-acting poison.

It is strange to say that there was something beautiful
in the sight of ther running wild, cut loose in an
epileptic fit of telling the truth?

And anyway, she was right about me, that I am prone to certain misperceptions.

that I should never get so big or fat that I
can't looks down and see my own naked dirty feet,

which is why I kept smiling and smiling as she talked --.

It was a beautiful day. I felt like crying.

I knew that if I could succeed at being demolished,
I could succeed at anything.

Here are pics of my office at home where the "magic" happens.

Mrs. Clinton,

With the downing of the helicopter this week in Iraq with the death of American "private security personnel" (execution style), run by Blackwater USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA), I'm very concerned about the use of "private" militaries now under contract by the United States Department of Defense to do out "dirty work."

Such the existence of a private militia makes me very nervous in even posting to your blog for fear of "secret" and nefarious reprisal by "uber" patriots for even mentioning their name.

I believe ALL forces doing the work of the United States SHOULD be under direct control of the United States and wear our uniform, and should not be "private."

As President (and even now as Senator on the Armed Services Comittee), could you please look to stop the trend of "Private Security." America should not be represented by mercenaries. I want full international and national law to apply to any action done in the name of the United States.

This scares me. It also scares me that the President in his State of the Union mentions:

"A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time."

I don't want Civilians... I wan real soldiers in OUR uniform with our training and our jurisdiction.

I'm also writing my Senators (Feinstein and Boxer) on this manner.

Thank you for your attention. You *are* the best Democratic candidate for our country and I believe in you. Please don't let us or me down.

-Hunter Brown

(blog posting to www.hilaryclinton.com, originally posted in Februay 2007. Re formatted slightly in November 2007)

What a good election we had in November. It gives me hope. 2006 has been a memorable year. A lot of things have happened. Looking back on it, I suspect it will be a very important year (as far as all years go.)

From:
http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2883/Newsweek_Got_Gitmo_Right

By Calgacus
Republished from Antiwar
Newsweek caves in to the White House gag rule, but the evidence can't be erased.

Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Prior to the Newsweek article, the New York Times reported a Guantanamo insider asserting that the commander of the facility was compelled by prisoner protests to address the problem and issue an apology.

The Spinning of Tales
by Glenda Rynn

Dear Cousin Beauty,

Yesterday when I was looking for herbs deep in the woods, I saw an old, old woman spinning wool on a wheel in front of her cottage. Although she seemed to smile at me, I was afraid and stayed off at a distance.

Our village priest says witches used to live in villages but gradually moved away into the dark forests so they could work their wicked spells and eat babies and children. (You heard about Hansel and Grethel, didn't you?)

But today when I told Grandmother about the Old Spinner, she looked around uneasily and spoke in a low voice. She said the ones the priests call witches are really just persons who practice the old religion that everyone used to before the priests came. To make people change to the new religion from Rome, the priests said all the old practices are evil and the work of devils.

Beauty, I'm all mixed up. I love Granny, but, yet, the priest is so sure he's right! He also talks about a terrible place of punishment where people go who do not follow what he says.

I look forward to seeing you soon. If you have the courage, we can explore the woods and look for flowers and mushrooms. But don't you even think of going near that spinning wheel if we see it!

Love,

Rose Red

Interesting article here on the pre-meditated political strategy the Republicans had for the whole Schiavo case.

CNN

Here he tells it like it is regarding FOX News.

"LAS VEGAS - CNN founder Ted Turner has called the Fox television network a "propaganda voice" of the Bush administration and compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise in Germany before World War II. "

Interesting article on the electoral map when divided up by counties and population.

This is rather alarming.

Governor,

I contributed to your campaign for president. It was my first time contribution to any campaign. I'm 32, and a life long Democrat. I was extremely excited by your courage and outspoken stance on issues and your ability to cause a lot of excitement and passion.

My girlfriend and I also worked our hearts out for Kerry here in California, and wrote letters to single mom's in Michigan and it worked. My girlfriend also was Jerry McNerney's (on your list of candidates to support) volunteer webmaster and video producer. She worked only half-time at her paid real job until the election ended to be able to do whatever the McNerney campaign needed.

Unfortunately, as you know, Jerry lost, but not as bad as other opponnents to incumbants this year. If you look at the results of the California congressional races, I think Jerry did pretty well. Ok, not 46%, but still a high 30s against a powerful Republican like Pombo. Not bad for a political novice.

I think if you do go for the Democratic National Committee Chairmain spot, it would be an EXCELLENT fit and role for you. I'm not sure how well you'd do on a national ticket unfortunately, and you've already given it your all and done that. But as a man of strategy and excitement, and having you be a national spokesperson for the Democrats for the next four years would be absolutely terrific. The earlier the better. You can get many young, practical progressives excited, especially locally where they can really help get the vote out for upcoming mid-term elections.

The challenge, as you know, is getting Moderates and Conservatives (non-fundamentalist ones) involved with our party. Please connect with them.

I wish I could campaign for you in this venture. I'm VERY excited about it. And who gets excited about who is the chairman of the DNC? I hope our party doesn't hang istself again and get a "ho hum" chairman that they believe is "safe." As a figure head, a true "democratic" Democrat, you're the "evangelist" we need for our causes!

You've got the power Howard!

Do it!

-Hunter

I thought this a very good editorial op/ed By Cynthia Tucker, especially with the Bible quotations and quotations justifying slavery in the pre-Cival War era.

I wrote this November 3rd, the morning after Election Night. It may be a bit too dismal with regard to Democratic chances on capturing the White House.

The bright day will come when Americans realize that those in the interior and the coasts share identical values and begin to respect and love each other. We have more in common than not. It shouldn't be just 9/11 to do that awakening.

The difference and truth in economic policies and their consequences just never come through to the electorate. It's just "buzz" unfortunately. No matter what the concrete issue is, the ethereal, instead, always seems to win.

The President is always treated like a demigod no matter who it is. With that and Bush having a key-in to loyal fundamentalists and preaching "faith" all the time, it's no wonder he has the winning combination.

Candidates need to slip into that "faith" column to win. It's a dangerous flirtation with the separation of church and state, but that's how it is. The head of state in England is also the head of the Church. The President has too much power in the largess sense, being both head of state (a sort of figure-head, spiritual position) and government (a practical, executive position). America may be governed better if we too had a Prime Minister.

I don't think Democrats will come into power in the Presidency again until there is another Depression, or worse, a catastrophic war where the Democrats have a, dare I say it, "Crusade" on their side.

More down to earth, we just experienced 1972 all over again, with another Senator losing yet again. Senators never win. This time, however, we don't have an opposing Congress to impeach the President.

I hate how Republicans, including Karl Rove, go on Sunday monring talk shows and mention how "activist" judges are reversing 3000 years of Human Tradition with allowing "gay marriage". Isn't it about monogamy and love? And isn't this issue just an excuse from doing more important workin for our country, like fighting terrorism and universal healthcare, or even energey independence? All this issue is useful for is shoring up Red states votes for Republicans. The blue states have stronger economies and a thriving educated per-capita populus. Can the Red states say the same thing? Limiting certain people to have a second class citizenry will not help *us* all out. When one person is left behind, we all suffer. Standing behind this issue as champions of Human Rights, Democrats should display this position as a badge of honor. It's the "right" thing to do.

This is my little space for news in my life and brain dumps of current events, etc.