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28 June 2009

1st Day Issue / Tierra de los Sueños / the New Appalachian Trail / Maine to Buenos Aires

Oh yes by all means
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I am SO PSYCHED! I am packing my backpack and gettin out my hikin' boots! If I leave Right Now, I should be in Buenos Aires oh maybe ... gee, I don't know, this is a real schlep. But what an adventure! Even with my lousy feet, I am confident I will succeed, nothing can stop me, nothing can possibly go worng!

10 comments:

patfromch said...

Philosophical Question: As a public personality, person of public interest where is the line that needs to be drawn where we say this is private and this is public ? Watch this development very closely, it will have massive effects on our lives.
The fact that this idiot failed to inform even his staff where he would be (even if it had been a lie) is his own bloody fault. But I for one don't care if a politician has a mistress or not as long as he is doing a good job.

Vleeptron Dude said...

The entire USA White House press corps knew about Franklin D Roosevelt's longtime mistress -- they knew his special arrangements to switch his presidential railroad train from NYC to Long Island to meet her -- but never whispered a word about it.

Likewise the White House press corps were well aware of John F Kennedy's many extramarital trysts, but never said a word. Both these presidents's libidos were never mentioned until decades after their deaths.

Europeans found Bill Clinton's impeachment -- which paralyzed national government and politics for more than a year -- unbelievable, astonishing. Euro journalism *seems* to not care about the Prime Minister's sweetie-pie in the condo across town.

(Well -- Berlusconi, on the other hand, acts like such a Public Clown in his Love Life that even the media can't leave him alone.)

One difference is the deep Puritan background in American history. Puritan = Calvinist. The Bush-era Republican fundamentalist religious "base" has proven itself easily manipulatable by scoundrel politicians who preach that Jesus will send all unfaithful political husbands to Hell.

And unsophisticated churchgoers in the USA "Bible Belt" keep swallowing this crap. On the one hand, it's a great weapon for the worst Bushie Republicans to use against Clinton and other straying Democratic politicians.

But reliance on this "He had an affair!" and its increasingly obvious hypocrisy has shrunk the Republican party from its historical size and strength to a tiny marginalized bunch of creepy fundie scoundrels. Increasingly, even Bible Belt Christians are seeing what a scam this is, and resent being played for ballot-box suckers.

I am always very proud of USA scandals that fly around the world so well and popularly. Most of the world and most of the USA couldn't find South Carolina on a map. But EVERYBODY all over Earth loves the Hiking Governor!

Here are the English lyrics to what I am sure is a very famous EuroPolka. Now I'll never be able to hear it without thinking of South Carolina's governor:

* * *

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back.

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!

patfromch said...

Yep, I think I know the original from various visits to the local fairs and bierfests where they sing stuff like that for hours and hours and hours...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_Wanderer

How about King of The Road by Roger Miller, that one fits as well.

In any case, it is a fun story, almost as good as Berlusconi. Did you see that press conference he gave after coming back from Argentina ? Even tha swiss broadcasting service had a story about it during the evening news. That was a pretty warped event.

It has been quiet in Italy over the last few days, but as soon as I have something to report, you will be the first person in North America to hear it.

Big D said...

Happy Trails! Should be a lot of fun :)

Vleeptron Dude said...

Althugh "King of the Road" isn't my favorite of his songs -- mercilessly overplayed on the radio -- I love Roger Miller, and think he was one of America's greatest song-poets.

The kid in me (my Inner Child never grew an Outer Adult) loves the teenager's song about his fondness for Moonshine, White Lightning, untaxed and forbidden country-cooked powerful whiskey.

Chugalug chugalug
Makes you want to holler Heidy-Ho!
Burns your tummy don't you know
Chugalug chugalug

Every verse after that is funnier than the previous.

But there are deep, sad, powerful love songs. They seem dressed in Country & Western ... but Miller was never quite mainstream (and crappy commercial) Country. He always sang to a huge crossever audience -- anyone who had accidentally listened carefully to one of his songs.

This is my favorite waltz, his voice does a magic of synchopation

It's my belief Pride
Is the chief cause
Of the de-cline
In the number
of husbands and wives

(50,000 Country tunes are about Divorce -- but only this one is beautiful, moving, mournful.)

I think, if Miller and George and Ira Gershwin and Stephen Foster and Kurt Weill found themselves in a Time Machine Waiting Room or V.I.P. Lounge, they all would have had a great deal to chat -- and sing -- about for many hours.

Not QUITE the quality of Roger Miller, but who can forget George Jones' Country classic -- covered by the Grateful Dead ... The lyrics, of course, are the horse racetrack loudspeaker announcer's Speil ...

(Written by Don Rollins)

I feel tears wellin' up cold and deep inside
Like my heart's sprung a big break
And the stab of loneliness, sharp and painful
That I may never shake.

You might say I was taking it hard
Oh, she wrote me off with a call
But don't you wager that I'll hide the sorrow
When I may break right down and bawl.

Chorus:
Well, the race is on
And here comes Pride up the backstretch
Heartache's a-going to the inside
My Tears are holding back
And tryin' not to fall

My Heart's out of the running
True Love's scratched for another's sake
The race is on and it looks like Heartache
And the winner loses all.

(I was married in my Cowboy Boots, they were the nicest leather shoes I owned. I don't think most of the guests noticed.)

Do you know the king of Texas Swing, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys? It's just amazing that white people who dress like that from Texas can play and sing and write songs like Bob and the Boys did for about 25 years.

Later in the Hippie Days, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen recycled all the old Bob Wills classics, added just a little LSD-25 to them, but made them all hugely popular again in the 60s and 70s.

Jesus, I haven't thought about Shitkicker Music in years ................. some (not much) is Very Wonderful.

I saw a Tammy Wynette concert once, in Georgia. She was weird. Talented and ... Dumb and ... Evil. What a combo. She could fill up a big stadium all over the South and the West.

Vleeptron Dude said...

Hi Big D!

Do you know the commentor Paul P? He's the On-Line Gambling Site guy, you're the On-Line Poker Site Guy.

Vleeptron has verifited that Paul P is not a spambot. Signs likewise point to your being a Carbon-Based Sentient.

This is an American song from 1914, superpopular during World War I:

There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding

Nights are growing very lonely,
Days are very long;
I'm a-growing weary only
List'ning for your song.

Old remembrances are thronging
Thro' my memory.
Till it seems the world is full of dreams
Just to call you back to me.

Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams:

There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

All night long I hear you calling,
Calling sweet and low;
Seem to hear your footsteps falling,
Ev'ry where I go.

Tho' the road between us stretches
Many a weary mile.
I forget that you're not with me yet,
When I think I see you smile.

Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams:

There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

patfromch said...

OK so this bloke made a grave mistake, his own bloody fault if buckets of Schadenfreude are pouring over him. When you decide to make your private affairs (ahem) public then you must be able to stand the pressure. How could he just be so bloody stupid to hink that he could get away with such a stupid stunt ???

Hey, speaking of Schadenfreude, I got another travelling song he could have sung on that trip down south:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftn1kvQXnHs

Now this one is obvious, but such a cool version by the same band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uv0c9kMcf0

Vleeptron Dude said...

Whoops I misspoke, I meant to say Paul P = Mr P, our On-Line Gambling Site commentor.

==========

Well, you got that right: Stupid. In the actual machinations for his Love Tryst, he thought he was James Bond, or the head of the Impossible Mission Force -- master of the secret arts, the Ninja of the South Carolina government.

More details and confessions emerge today: He announced he had strayed with many women while he was governor and married ... but said he never "crossed the line" or committed "the ultimate sin" with any of them. Nobody knows exactly what he's talking about. He just seems compelled to have a Fiesta of Confession.

Earlier he voted to impeach Clinton, and, regarding the governor of an entirely different state, demanded Eliot Spitzer resign. He has very rigid standards about how a married elected official should behave.

Paul P said...

Know him well :) We are brothers from another mother.

Big D said...

Yes - what he said.