Planet Bleu

We've been slow to pick up on the Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" - it was daughter Mara who drew it to our attention last weekend, leading to Sunday night viewing. Incredible camera work. Hard to imagine how many hours of film were left on the floor to produce the final product. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing - the key example being the aerial photography of flamingos in "Out of Africa," which interferes in some basic way with my ability to respire, as did some of last Sunday's PE show.

Believe me, you don't want to miss this.

The admirable Christy Hardin Smith, posting at Firedoglake, is apparently a fan of the show also:

In our copious spare time (Ha!), Mr. ReddHedd and I have been devouring the latest Discovery Channel wildlife series called "Planet Earth." It took five years of filming with high definition capability — and the production is nothing short of breathtaking in the episodes that we have watched thus far. The majesty of life on this little blue planet of ours, the chaos in some places and order in others, the loss and the fight for survival — it is all there in its infinite pain and beauty.

And we are mesmerized.

Our little blue planet holds nothing short of miracles, and the work that must have gone into filming all of this is as outstanding as it is jaw-dropping in its scope. Discovery has uploaded a few more videos to YouTube, which you can find here, and they are all worth watching. If you are not moved by the beauty and the fierceness of these shows, then you truly have no heart. How could anyone not want to protect this beautiful orb of blue of ours?

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That's Mister Peeps to You!

Listening to audio-books has definitely impacted my opportunity to indulge my love of music, but hearing books is also gripping. A headset by the bed helps to make up for some of the lost music during bedtime reading.

I'm now including the "listening-reading" with the conventional sort in my reading log, on the basis that "reading" does not demand eyestrain and my actual literacy and vocabulary are not at issue. For what it's worth, the time invested is likely comparable, and one could argue (as one chum already has) that hearing the words may even be more influential in some ways than reading them. Unquestionably, hearing words is different from reading them; whether more or less influential, the jury is still out. For better or worse, a "read" and a "heard" book will from now on be on a par in my reading log.

Listening so far has been a great experience. It's been mostly non-fiction for some reason, a smattering of political and philosophical stuff, but mainly historical - big events like Johnstown Flood and Krakatoa and a potpourri of other items, dictated largely in this case (vs. "real" reading) by happenstance in browsing the stacks at the library. Come to think of it, much as it used to be in my youth on those great occasions when I got to browse the UW bookstore. I delight in the "aha" aspect, somewhat like the used bookstore random encounter, but purposeful audio search is on the horizon.

I just finished listening to an abbreviated version of Samuel Pepys' Diary (standard pronunciation is "peeps"; timely, eh?). I believe I first became aware of the existence of this diary a few years back, possibly from reading The Professor and the Madman. But this was a classic random encounter. I had no idea whether I would be able to get into this dusty business, but was keenly aware that it is one of the seminal documents for English history in what I gather is called the Restoration (I'm no historian). The diary covers something like 1661-1669. The complete written version goes on I gather for five to ten volumes. Had I been faced with that on the shelf, we'd never have met. What I heard was definitely an excerpt, though something like nine hours worth, and it was certainly not a case of love at first listen.

Samuel Pepys is a character that cannot help but fascinate you. I don't think I can honestly recommend taking on a bookshelf's worth of his diary, but if you can find a more modest encounter, I highly recommend it. It's a flannel-to-fancy suit story in an epochal period in England for one thing. This dude transforms from a lowly critter (admittedly at diary start he is resident in the house of a gentilhomme, not actually collecting dog-leavings) to a member of the Royal Society, a worth of thousands of pounds, and kudos from royalty along the lines of "never heard a better speech." While we are appropriately cynical regarding the remarks of politicians, I am still enough of an over-the-rainbow guy to think that this meant a lot in the case of our Peeps - oops - Pepys.

But there are also fascinating dark aspects to the diary. Mr. P, no doubt pretty representative of his society, was quite the scalawag (he was in early 30's in diary period, I believe). He covers his tracks with fascinating polyglot material. Hearing this weird stuff, obviously x-rated, reminded me of the terrific final Molly erotica in Joyce's Ulysses (but why is that something I have an audio memory of - could it be Firesign Theatre??) The listener/reader can have no doubt that he is a philanderer. Yet he's enraged when his wife is intrigued with her dance instructor and terminates the lessons. He repeatedly lies about his personal assignations, but is forced more than once to thoroughly shame himself in apology, and yet feels compelled to pursue his amour again. Quite the Peyton Place.

And then there is the business of Business as it was carried out back in the 17th Century. I found it astonishing how often what seemed conventional business transactions expected of a representative of the government were accompanied by big-time payoffs to Mr. Pepys (and presumably others in comparable roles). There is one element of his activity, connected with spoils from captured Dutch vessels (likely high-value cargo like nutmeg and clove, this being the heyday of the Dutch East Indies trade) that does eventually subject Pepys to criticism and court action. But in general, from what I understood, this was an environment that cried out for an Upton Sinclair. Not to mention regulatory oversight.

The diary includes a great mix of bureaucratic ho-hum and true sturm-und-drang. Mr. Pepys does an awful lot of "up betimes and to the office all morning, working on my accounts," but on the other hand the diary covers a period that included a nasty plague as well as a horrendous fire that destroyed good chunks of London. Not to mention the on-and-off-again wars with the Dutch - and that garrison in Tangiers was quite a project too.

Highly recommended if you have a yen or even tolerance for history or just a willingness to try something different. Mr. Pepys' diary is one of the primary exhibits I gather that documents a key period in the evolution of the British Navy.

A few links:

Wikipedia's main Samuel Pepys entry, which includes links to diary text.

"The Diary of Samuel Pepys" website.

The Project Gutenberg's Pepys holdings.

George's Timeout

The inimitable TRex, posting at Firedoglake, has some cheerleading for the recent Democratic Congress activity, as well as a reference to a terrific Lehman piece that does a superlative takedown of several sycophantic midway politicos. That L piece is long, but definitely worth your while.

Well, I don't know about you guys, but so far I think the 110th Congress is an unqualified success. I especially liked hearing Grandma Pelosi quietly and patiently explain to the Toddler-in-Chief today that he needs to suck it up and learn to effing cooperate before she pulls this country over and tans his behind out in front of God and everybody.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Calm down with the threats. There is a new Congress in town. We respect your constitutional role; we want you to respect ours. This war must end. The American people have lost faith in the President’s conduct of the war. Let’s see how we can work together. This war is diminishing the strength of our military, not honoring our commitment to our veterans, and not holding the Iraqi government accountable.

That's riiiiiiiight, y'all. The Imperial residency has run aground on the submerged reef of accountability, suffered massive damage to its hull, and is currently taking on water at a high rate of speed.

Frankly, I don't understand why we don't just go ahead and impeach the little turd. And his minder, Dead-Eye. And absolutely anyone and everyone that their vipers'-nest of an administration has appointed to any job at all since the 2000 elections. I mean, what further proof could we possibly need at this point that every little thing Republicans touch is irretrievably corrupted and infected, rotting from the inside from unchecked necrotic politicization? The Justice Department, the GSA, the War and subsequent "Reconstruction" in Iraq, the Patriot Act, the nation's intelligence agencies, the educational system, everything these filthy kleptocrats have turned their hands to has been sullied almost beyond repair by the "loyal Bushies'" insistence on politicizing EVERYTHING.

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TRex also tags that terrific Lehman New York Observer article I mentioned that definitely deserves a full end-to-end reading for anyone pretending to be a true patriot or otherwise paying attention to what is going on.

You Still Can't Hide the Scumbag(s)

I'm just sous-cheffing at the roux in this case. Bob Geiger is the head chef/cheerleader for this week's scheduled work related to government reform in DC. Doubtless there is off-schedule stuff that could be equally entertaining. But frankly, I can't imagine how I could make it better (other than constant stirring). Enjoy:

It's another huge week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which we knew would constantly be the case as soon as Democrats took over and oversight of a crooked White House actually started happening.

On Tuesday, Judiciary will call FBI Director Robert Mueller in to testify on what kinds of Constitutional corners his crew has been cutting over the last few years in a hearing called “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Another big day in Judiciary is Thursday when a hearing is held on "Preserving Prosecutorial Independence: Is the Department of Justice Politicizing the Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys?" Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will be grilling D. Kyle Sampson, the former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

And I like the follow-up notice for the Thursday meeting that indicates time will be allocated to "discuss the possibility of the issuance of certain subpoenas in connection with investigation into replacement of United States Attorneys."

Foreign Relations Committee: You can bring up eight nominations for a vote in one day but you still can't hide the scumbag. In addition to seven other people, Sam Fox, of Missouri, comes back to the committee to get a vote on whether he should get to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.

It's been a month since Fox, who gave a whopping $50,000 to the Swift Boat Liars to help them tank John Kerry's (D-MA) 2004 presidential campaign with smears and lies, was slapped around by Kerry and Barack Obama (D-IL) in his first visit to this committee.

Let's see how many Senators agree with George W. Bush that it's a good idea to have someone who has proven himself to have no character as our chief diplomat to an important European ally.

Here's the full Senate Committee schedule for the week:

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