Friday, May 11, 2007

DBT TDU - Great American Music Hall - SF - Night 1

The review and night 2 pictures will be up on Monday.

The review preview: Transcendence, tatters, Helen Keller, handboning, Idols, loafers, purty shirts, drankin', San Francisco Values, Christmas trees onstage, how abso-fucking-lutely excited I am for this 'new' band and the musical future in store for us fans..... plus much, much more.

In the meantime, here is the night 1 setlist from Monday, May 7, 2007 at the beautiful and historic Great American Music Hall followed by pictures from the first night. (setlist supplied by "Elvis" on the Nine Bullets Board).

Bulldozers
Ghost To Most
Heathens
9 Bullets
Vegas
Scene Dies
Bob
Daddy Needs a Drink
2 Daughters
Panties
Tails Facing Up
Annette
One Of These Days
Livin Bubba
Sinkhole
Pin Hits the Shell
People on the Moon
Zip City
George Jones
Gravity
World of Hurt
Buttholeville - State Trooper - Buttholeville









Mr. Josh tellin' folks to be quite




I'm tellin', Shonna!


















Neff can play the fuck out of a guitar, y'all.
































I'm tellin' on your too, Neff!


_______
_____
___

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Heckuva job, Brownie

First: Happy Birthday, MaddyC!

2nd: I'm covered up with shite to do, folks, so we are gonna get down and dirty today and do a quick-hit rage against the machine.

I'm really hoping to have the TDU review up tomorrow but it may just be pictures from night one.

Regardless, I'm busting my ass to get the review and pictures up for you guys.

Colorado people, you better get your asses to these shows!

From the "Best Show on Earth" to the worst show on earth:

Poll shows 39% of Americans support impeachment:

"A poll published Tuesday shows that close to 40% of Americans favor the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, according to an article at Townhall.com."
_______



_______

Isn't a "traditional value" cooking with your loved ones? What's the problem here?!

Mich. cop avoids charge for pot brownies:

"DEARBORN, Mich. - A police officer will avoid criminal charges despite admitting he took marijuana from criminal suspects and, with his wife, baked it into brownies.

_______
_____
___

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Dirt Underneath SF Preview

Wow.

Two of the most amazing shows I've ever seen.

Here's a few of the 1000 pictures I took over the past two nights. I'm working on a full post of pictures and a review of the onstage excellence and some back stage hilarity. Hopefully be finished for Friday... if not Monday for sure.

How about this setting....




How about this much fun....




How about this much booze...




How about Mr. Cooley. More on his fancy shirt later....




How about the preacher man....




How about Ms. Shonna and a stand up bass.... *droool*






How about this 'new' band taking it up a notch.....




"Lookin' out the window...."


Tuesday, May 08, 2007

tran-scen-dent

tran·scen·dent
Pronunciation: \-dənt\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English, from Latin transcendent-, transcendens, present participle of transcendere

Date: 15th century
1 a: exceeding usual limits : surpassing b: extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience cin Kantian philosophy : being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge2: being beyond comprehension3: transcending the universe or material existence











Much more coming Friday.... or Monday... depending on how much damage I do tonight.

tran-scen-dent. All that needs to be said for the moment...

________

Stuff you should read:

Daily Kos: Help Fight Fake History That Powers The American Right:

"IN 2004, The Texas Republican Party platform declared the United States to be a 'Christian nation'. Christian nationalism is probably the driving ideology of the Christian right, and that ideology rests on a falsified version of history that tens of millions of Americans believe to be true. This post concerns that problem and introduces readers to one historian who rightfully deserves to be called a hero for her work combating that falsified American history."
_______

Cliff's Corner - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Another Week. More preposterousness to report.

Well, that illustrious group of geriatric honkeys known as the Republican presidential wannabes disembarked last night in what is for them the political equivalent of Taj Mahal, The Torture Museum in Amsterdam and a night out in Bangkok trolling for "massages" all rolled into one: Ronnie's Library. Also known as The House That Illicit Funds From Iran-For-Hostages Built. So what did we learn from this inevitably regal event?

1) Being a Republican means not only that Bin Laden is "Wanted Dead Or Alive" but also that "Bin Laden Is Going To Pay And He Will Die" (Romney) and you'll "Follow Bin Laden To The Gates Of Hell" (McCain). Because among your atavistic-anthropoid base, talking like you're in a John Wayne movie makes up for the fact that you guys couldn't catch The West Nile Virus--while sunning on the banks of The Nile, in the Full Monty and more sweat-drenched than Bill Bennett dreaming about the Bellagio.

Is the Mission Accomplished yet?

2) Being a Republican means 30% of your candidates for Leader Of The Free World (or so it used to be) don't believe in evolution, even though all you have to do is look at James Inhofe to know that Intellgent Design is simply not possible.

3) Being a Republican means you one day find yourself thinking, you know what, I need a massage. Should I go with the Swedish or perhaps the deep-tissue? Nah, I think I'll go with the hooker.
_______



Craigslist Founder: People Who Run Printing Presses 'Screwed':

He told the crowd to start taking cues from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert who hold politicians and lobbyists to the fire. 'We should see the equivalent of that in newspapers,' Newmark instructed adding that he also listens to NPR, reads the San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, watches CNN, has a 'bizarre fascination with Keith Olbermann' and checks in with blogs like Gawker and the Huffington Post.

When asked by one audience member if he were to start a newspaper today what would it look like, Newmark said, 'I haven't really thought about it.' He did say it would involved lots of investigative reporting in 'big areas,' would be Web friendly and easy to print out. "

Monday, May 07, 2007

Ear Spiders and Mr. 28%

Woo-hoo, TDU and DBT at the GAMH in SF! Tonight and tomorrow. Very excited!

Gonnna intersperse some pictures I took yesterday during a beautiful San Francisco Sunday. Too freakin' hot, though. It got up to 80 degrees... thought I was going to die. Slept buck nekkid on top of the cover last night. That's a once/twice a year deal in San Francisco.



Capital "L" loser. Nobody but the lizard brains like Georgie any more. Boo-fuckin

Newsweek: Bush approval hits all time low of 28 percent:

"May 5, 2007 - It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ‘08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ‘08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups.



So who are the Republicans going to get behind in '08?

Is it the third rate 'actor' Fred Thompson and his big-fake-tittied-much-younger wife? First 'Lady' will be a stretch. (And, no, I am not biased against fake titties. I love all titties. Ain't nothing wrong with a little renovation)

Daily Kos: Ten is Not Enough

Many are betting that Fred Thompson is the man they're searching for. After all, calling everyone in Hollywood a loon, then fawning over any third-rate actor who will give them the time of day, is a Republican tradition. Sonny Bono, the terminator, the guy who played Gopher on the Love Boat, and don't forget the deified Pharaoh Ronald, in whose golden shrine the debate was held -- ah, for more Republicans like these. They'd crawl all over the guy who played the body on last week's CSI if he'd only mouth the phrase 'pro-life.' On the right-leaning actor scale, Thompson's a prince. Besides, he's already played the president, so he certainly has experience at the primary Republican qualification: looking presidential.

Trouble is, what the Republicans are looking for can't be found in Thompson, nor in arch-hypocrite Gingrich, nor even work-wife Rice. That's because what the Republicans are missing isn't a person, it's a philosophy.

For four decades, the right has been peddling Rugged Individualist Soap. If they just had the opportunity to rip the reins away from the liberals (and all the actors who had not provided comic relief to a chimp), they could Set Things Right(tm). Funny, that's not quite how it worked out. On every front -- every front -- the Republicans turned out to be miserable at turning their points into practice. "Staggering Incompetence" might as well be the party moto. The Republicans' problem now isn't that they don't have the right candidate, it's that they still have the right's talking points. And those talking points are played out. Like a commercial that's run ten too many times, people are simply tired of it.



Fuck, I wish the NRA supported the other amendments as radically as they support the 2nd.

NRA: Don't Ban Gun Sales to Suspects:

"WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms.

Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

In other redneck news:

'General Lee' auction ends at almost $10M:

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If the bids are real - and the eBayMotors.com auction was stopped once for fake bidding - a modified 1969 Dodge Charger, painted to look like the General Lee from the TV Show 'The Dukes of Hazzard,' nearly became the most expensive car ever auctioned.

The auction closed at $9,900,500 at 1:00 pm Friday. That puts it just $1.1 million away from the $11 million paid for a 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Sports Coupe sold by the auction house Christie's in 1987. To date, that is the highest price ever paid for a car at auction, according to Christie's.

The car was used in the show, which typically went through several cars per episode during its 6-year production run in the early 1980s. But this one is owned by John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in the series, a role that was only slightly less central than that of the car.

'I'm excited as I can be but I'm not going to believe it until my banker calls and says 'buy me a beer',' said Schneider after the auction ended."
_______

Gran-Gran was RIGHT!

Doctor Finds Spiders in Boy's Ear:

"These guys weren't exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop. What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy's ear — 'like Rice Krispies' — ended up as an earache, and the doctor's diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear."
_______

Values via Atrios


_______
_____
___

Friday, May 04, 2007

DBT Week in Review - 5/4/07

DBT - TDU

And the first reviews are in and.....

dbts : Message: friday

Wow. Just... wow.

Jenn Bryant
_______


dbts : Message: Re: [dbts] Friday night show:

"One of the best DBT shows I have ever seen.

I had tears in my eyes by the end when they started into that Angels & Fuselage.

I don't cry a lot."

Jayne Clamp
______


dbts : Message: Saturday Dirt Underneath

I wasn't lucky enough to hit them both but I'll echo Jayne's sentiment but towards the Saturday show. All the arrangents were strong staying true to the way most of those songs were played as of late but making you look at them at least a little different. Even though it was a seated and almost overall acoustic affair the biggest compliment I can give is that I never felt like I was seeing the Drive By Truckers un-plugged or anything. Of the standards highlights for me were Uncle Frank,Sinkhole,and Lookout Mountain. Someone asked about One Of These Days. Man I thought the version of this was especially well done. It just sort of crept up and then they were playing it. Fucking white men wearing ties! And all the new songs. Man Cooley has some new doozies. The new Patterson song Two Daughters and A Wife moved me to tears of a different sort. Focker(Thanks Chris!) let me go down to his front row center seat. I'd read the lyrics on Patterson's site but still was not prepared for this song. I mean I think about The Harvey Family when I lock my doors,turn on my alarm system,double check the locks and go look at my kids before I turn in each night. Anyway, upon hearing the song for the first time I went from having a high time on a Saturday night in Athens Georgia to being back at home in Richmond,VA locking my doors and just dwelling on the saddest most fucked up thing that I've ever heard about. I love the song and I like how that positive image of "Laying round in bed on a Saturday morning,Two daughters and a wife..." is the thing to hold on to. Just like the first time I heard them do Dress Blues in Austin(just about one year to the day) I was almost ready to leave except this was worse because it was about something close to home. It took a while for me to get back into the show. Which wasn't the shows fault. Just mine. This stuff can sometimes take you places you don't want to go and never imagined that you would. If you'd told me five minutes prior that I'd be sad as shit in the middle of this show in that festive atmosphere,I would have never believed you. It was all OK by the end because life's got to go on and you have to except things even if you'll never understand them. It's hard to stay with those kind of feelings at A DBT show with a your freinds and those songs though. Zip City began just in time. It's always been my favorite DBT song since the first time I heard it. That might have been the best sing along at the end that I've ever heard. I ain't got no good intentions. Wow.

I guess I was all over the map at this show. I went from Richmond to Athens on Saturday afternoon and back home on Sunday Morning but went further than both of those trips combined inside the Georgia Theater on Saturday Night. And the feeling of being home on Sunday was with a greater appreciation than it was when I left and I didn't think that was possible. I was still thinking about it when I locked up the house last night and left for work this morning and I don't even know what exactly I was thinking about. What a show. It was great to see a different Drive By Truckers and all the usual suspects and meet some new ones. Thanks as always for the hospitality.

Mark Lynn
_______

Of course, Ninebullet's has got the complete down-low on the dirty under-carriage:

Nine Bullets.org: a DBT fansite - All I can think about’s The Dirt Underneath...

Plus the Austin Setlists:

Nine Bullets

_______

YouTubage of the Athen's show:

YouTube - Drive by truckers- two daughters and a wife

_______

I'm very excited to get a two night dose of.....



_______

DBT News

- Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) : Athensmusic.net

"Kenny Aguar: When you were a kid, what did you want to be?

Patterson Hood: Either Orson Welles or Bruce Springsteen. My father is in the music business (David Hood studio session bassist from 1966-present ) so it never occurred to me that I couldn't follow suit. I was always a movie fanatic and actually started trying to write screenplays at about seven. [It was] an ultra violent story of twin boys, one a young cop and the other a mass murderer called 'Asylum Connection.' It ended in ambush shooting totally ripped off from 'Bonnie and Clyde.'"
_______

Truckers to make Austin stop before they drive on by

_______

JamBase | WILLIE'S 4TH OF JULY PICNIC:

"Seattle, WA – Live Nation welcomes Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic featuring Willie Nelson & Family, Son Volt, Old 97's, Drive-By Truckers and Amos Lee to The Gorge on The Fourth Of July, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.

For the first time in 33 years, Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic will venture outside his home state of Texas. From its beginning in 1973 in Dripping Springs, Texas, the event has been hosted in various incarnations in cities throughout Texas. Its main purpose was to bring musicians and fans from all walks of life together to celebrate the day. From 1995-1999,"
_______

dbts : Message: 18 wheels & The Shield:
"for those of you who don't watch the Shield... Walton Coggins' (The Accountant) character on 'The Shield' was feeling down and depressed because he got his ass kicked and the wife booted him from the house for cheating....what to do? sit in the car and snort some drugs and listen to '18 wheels of Love'. more national play time for the dbts.my guess is that it was Wally's choice.

jfield
_______

Ten crucial Drive-By Truckers songs

_______

dbts : Message: Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp (marginal DBT):

"The SGRRC comes to Memphis this summer for a one week run at Gibson Guitar Factory!!! As most of you know, my daughter Audra Brown, got her start at SGRRC and now her first CD is about to be released. It is a great start for girls in not only music but in being a girl in general. There are courses in herstory, zine making, photograph, songwriting, etc etc etc plus instrument instruction from beginners to advanced. The very best of the memphis music industry have volunteered to help...it will be incredible!! For girls from 10-17, it is a don't miss opportunity!! No one has ever been disappointed. Sign up now at www.sgrrc.org for either the Memphis camp or the Murfreesboro, TN camp. Both are awesome.

Don't be surprised to see some big time folks at camp. I cant guarantee anything but groups like the Indigo Girls, Atomic Blonde, Tasha VAlentine, etc have played and members of lots of big bands have/will be volunteers including Glossary, Nancy Apple, etc...

go to www.sgrrc.org for info...

your friend in Memphis

Mark"


Jason Isbell

blog.myspace.com/jasonisbellmusic:

"So we're gearing up for a monstrous tour starting around release day, and the response so far has been fucking great. Looks like we're planning to head up the East Coast in early July, cross over the midwest, and hit the West Coast. It's shaping up to be about a seven or eight-week trip. Since this group gets priority now, we'll be hauling ass until pretty much the end of the year. A European tour is also in the works, but we don't have any solid dates yet. News to come.

If you get a chance, check out Centro-Matic's page. They have some tracks up from their excellent new record that should be available soon. It's good stuff indeed.

We had a blast with Son Volt. Wish I could've done more of those dates, but I'm sure we'll be playing together again at some point. Ya'll keep your ears peeled."

_______

Music News

Lyrics by Sting coming out in book form:

"NEW YORK - The lyrics of Sting, almost every word he wrote, from his solo records to his years with the Police, will come out in book form this fall.

'Lyrics by Sting' will include the words of such hits as 'Roxanne,' 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Spirits in the Material World,' along with commentary by Sting.

'Over time, the meaning of a song can continue to reveal itself,' Sting, the bassist and lead vocalist for the Police, said Monday in a statement released by The Dial Press, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group.
_______

Musicians unlock mystery melody in Scottish chapel:

"It's not something you would want to put on in the car and listen to, but it's certainly an interesting piece of music,' he said. 'It's got a good mediaeval sound to it.'"
_______


Joan Baez banned at Walter Reed hospital:

"WASHINGTON - Folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she doesn't know why she was not allowed to perform for recovering soldiers recently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned.

In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker
John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.
_______

Rage Against the Machine rages at Coachella music festival:

"INDIO, California: Thousands of sunburnt fans roared in unison and pumped their fists in the desert air Sunday night as reunited political rockers Rage Against the Machine took the stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Lead singer-rapper Zack de la Rocha's fist was right up there with them.
.....

He also railed against the war in Iraq and likened Bush administration officials to Nazi war criminals.

_______
_____
___

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Commander Guy saves Space City!

Look! Up in the sky! It's a moron... it's a dipshit... wait... it's COMMANDER GUY!

Dumber than a box of rocks. More powerful than anyone else in the world. Able to leap reality in a single bound!

COMMANDER GUY!

Bush: Im the Commander Guy

"President Bush coined a new nickname for himself — ‘’the commander guy” — on Wednesday, as he criticized Congressional Democrats in a speech to the annual gathering of the Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry trade group."

Commander Guy, huh Shrub?

Cheney thinks it's cute when you play make-believe

Former British defense secretary claims Cheney called shots in Iraq:

"According to former British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, Vice President Dick Cheney has been calling the shots in Iraq, and has even overridden decisions by President Bush and former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
______




_______


Space Shitty

Puttin People on the Moon

"Me and my baby on a run away train...." (AHC)

Daddy's Cup

And on, and on, and on.....

Train with space shuttle parts derails in Alabama:

"BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - A Union Pacific train carrying space shuttle rocket booster parts to Florida derailed in Alabama on Wednesday, but the accident will not affect the next space shuttle launch, a NASA spokeswoman said.

The train went off the tracks when a wooden trestle collapsed beneath it near the Tombigbee River in western Alabama, a local emergency management official said.
_______

I've actually remember feeling a couple of shakes when I was growing up in Alabama.

Source of Major Earthquakes Discovered Beneath U.S. Heartland:

"Scientists have finally figured out what might have caused a series of devastating earthquakes that struck the Midwest nearly 200 years ago at a set of faults that have confused geologists for a long time.

And the results suggest the region, still seismically active today, is going to keep shaking for a long time, and another big one will hit on the same 500-year cycle that has rocked the Heartland for as far back as records, legends and memory serve.

The largest of three or four big seismic events that stretched from December 1811 to February 1812 is called the New Madrid Earthquake and had an estimated 8.0 magnitude, strong enough to cause the nearby Mississippi River to temporarily flow backward. Its epicenter was in the town of New Madrid in southeast Missouri, near the Kentucky and Tennessee state lines. Hundreds of aftershocks followed for several years.

The damage from the New Madrid quake was bad enough in the early 19th century—half of the town was destroyed, but with many more people and buildings now in the area, a similar event in the region today would be devastating, seismologists and engineers agree."

My fraternity at UNA had a party complete with Iben Browning t-shrits due to this prediction:

Iben Browning, New Madrid 1990 incident:

"Iben Browning based his 50-50 prediction of a major early December 1990 New Madrid quake on peak gravitational pressure on the earth's crust from the moon and planets."
Speaking of Buttholeville, check out the breaking stories yesterday on The Shoals online newspaper. Burned body found in Rogersville and a police officer busted for coke in Florence.



Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Banned from 'Dega

Bush is worse than a pre-schooler who just learned the word 'no'. He needs to be put in a corner.

‘This is called a ‘bunker mentality'’

ThinkProgress highlights this disturbing item from yesterday’s Nelson Report:

[S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK…etc., etc.

This is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.

.....

This isn’t encouraging. In fact, if Bush starts wondering what he can do to prove everyone wrong about his greatness, this kind of thinking could get scary.

______


Kurt Vonnegut wrote this in 1983

The Worst Addiction of Them All:

"If Western Civilization were a person, we would be directing it to the nearest meeting of War-Preparers Anonymous. We would be telling it to stand up before the meeting and say, 'My name is Western Civilization. I am a compulsive war- preparer. I have lost everything I ever cared about. I should have come here long ago. I first hit bottom in World War I.' Western Civilization cannot be represented by a single person, of course, but a single explanation for the catastrophic course it has followed during this bloody century is possible. We the people, because of our ignorance of the disease, have again and again entrusted power to people we did not know were sickies."
_______

Fucking Amish. They almost let Harrison Ford bleed to death in The Witness.

Daily Kos: It's time to deport the Amish:

"But before we start rounding up the 12 milion illegal Hispanics roaming around America -- you know, the folks committing all sorts of horrendous acts like working and taking care of their families -- I thought maybe we should practice on another group of people whose loyalty clearly lies with the Old Country.

The Amish. It's time to send them back to Germany and Switzerland.

Consider:

1. They have been here for more than 200 years and they have refused to assimilate. They still live in their own enclaves, for Christ's sake.

2. They refuse to give up their language and speak English exclusively. The Amish still speak Pennsylvania German at home and High German during church services. They only use English when they speak to us 'outsiders' -- folks they derisively call 'The English.'

3. They refuse to serve in the military, meaning they are perfectly willing to allow al Qaeda to overrun Iraq. They want the terrorists to win.

4. They wear strange clothing.

5. They don't watch 'American Idol' on TV.

6. Over the years they have demanded and received special exemptions from the law.

7. They claim to be a religion of peace -- just like Islam."
_______

These guys deserve a medal. Not for throwing shit at Jeff Gordon but for getting banned for life at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Do you know how much of a redneck jackass you have to be to get banned? This is harder than a double-eagle in golf.

Talladega track bans 14 fans for life:

"TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- Talladega Superspeedway has permanently banned 14 fans from buying tickets at the speedway following their arrests Sunday for throwing objects on the track after Jeff Gordon's victory in the Aaron's 499.

The fans were charged with disorderly conduct Sunday and posted bond at the track's jail facilities, Talladega County Sheriff Jerry Studdard said. Track officials can't prevent the 14 fans from buying tickets through a third party.

A number of fans began throwing beer cans after Gordon won the race under caution, passing the late Dale Earnhardt -- a Talladega favorite -- in career wins."


_______
_____
___

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Nekkid Diving



_______

These people have huge balls.

I've done two cave dives, both in Chandelier Cave in Palau. (click throught the pictures to see the inside.

Chandelier cave is pussy as far as cave dives go. Large underwater opening. 3 chambers. But, trust me, it is still scary as fuck. Turn off your light and it is the blackest of black.

So, I can't imagine doing something like this.. especially to retrieve a dead body. *shudder*

Drowning in the Desert: Cave Divers Face Death

Bushman's Hole, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, is one of the strangest places on Earth. It's a prehistoric crater on an otherwise endless track of desert, and for an elite but extreme fraternity of explorers, what happened there is the stuff of myth and legend.

The terrible beauty of the place can't be seen from the air, or even the ground. But if you trace the walls down, you reach a tiny pool covered in algae. Keep going, through a narrow shaft running for another 150 feet, and finally it all opens into a vast freshwater cavern tall enough to hold the Eiffel Tower, and deep enough -- nearly 1,000 feet -- to mesmerize the most experienced, technical cave divers in the world.

Don Shirley is one of only a handful of divers who has "gone deep" at Bushman's Hole.

_______

Remember this from last Wednesday's post?

What kind of world do we live in?

What's next, an NBA star moonlighting as a Florida State Trooper?.... wait...

Miss America Helps Catch Sex Predators:

"Miss America can add crime fighter to her resume. Lauren Nelson recently went undercover with police in New York for a sting targeting sexual predators.

Well guess what....

Sex Stings Imperiled by Miss America:

"An undercover sex sting that used Miss America as bait may be in trouble after the beauty queen told prosecutors that she does not plan to testify against the men she helped arrest.

Lauren Nelson, 20, of Lawton, Okla., worked with police in Suffolk County to target would-be Internet sexual predators, taped for an episode of the TV show 'America's Most Wanted.'"

Law enforcers should be law enforcers... journalist should be journalist... it all doesn't have to be like fucking American Idol.

_______

Speaking of 'journalist being journalist'...

Good! In a vibrant democracy journalist and politicians should not be bosom buddies. You can't hold somebody accountable if you just spent a weekend duck hunting with them.

Hopefully this will start a trend so we don't end up with another goddamn MC Rove.

Frank Rich: 'NY Times' Will No Longer Participate in WHCA Dinner:

"NEW YORK Tucked inside Frank Rich's Sunday column in the New York Times is indication that the newspaper will no longer play ball with the annual White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington, which he calls 'a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era.' He writes that the event 'illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows....

'After last weekend's correspondents' dinner, The Times decided to end its participation in such events,' wrote Rich. 'But even were the dinner to vanish altogether, it remains but a yearly televised snapshot of the overall syndrome. The current White House, weakened as it is, can still establish story lines as fake as 'Mission Accomplished' and get a free pass.'"
_______

Yay college kids!

About 200 Grads Caught Skinny Dipping:

"As many as 200 students decided to celebrate
graduation at Concordia College by skinny dipping in a murky campus pond early Monday, authorities said.

A security officer tried to shoo the students out of the pond but they wouldn't cooperate, Concordia security chief Sherri Arnold said."

Arnold said 10 people were identified because they left their clothes and wallets behind.
_______
_____
___