I know I promised not to rant on this blog - no one wants to hear it, fortunately no one's listening - but it's just impossible not to vent.

<rant> America has become a truly terrible place, and in such a short time (FISA (no right to privacy), Habeus Corpus (no right to due process or a trial), Iraq (no sovereign rights), torture bills (no human rights), Gitmo (no right not to be kidnapped), religion (no intellectual freedom), pollution (no right to healthy environment), oil (no forward thinking), concentration camps (no memory of the last century), extraordinary rendition (no moral backbone), an election process (no power to the people) that makes Zimbabwe look honest and the list grows by the week). There I said it. Now I'm turning my back on the lot of you.

Shame on you all. It's not enough to say you didn't vote for him, you also didn't revolt.

FYI your right to bear arms was never about hunting, it was to protect yourselves from your government. Do so.

Pussies.

</rant>

You break my heart. Unfortunately I can't take you out on the lake…

(apologies to Desert Sessions for even being associated with the venom in this post, but something has to drown out the horrors)

shardcore has created a simple, astract, ever-so-slightly subversive, and completely wonderful chatter bot on twitter, known only as the__truth.

I run this every now and then, and my mac speaks the__truth to me.

curl -s http://twitter.com/the__truth | grep ‘”entry-title'”| sed  '''s/<[^>]*>//g'” | say -v Vicki

Follow him for at least 1 free smile every day.

Lovely new chair. But the label struck me as odd.

Snowflakes are patterned using a nearly lost art pioneered in 1950? What did they look like before?

Slow news day.

George Clinton - Meltdown

Most amazing gig ever. If I'm half as much a man at 69 I'll be happy.

update: posting a few flickr pics from the second row to last.fm can increase one's traffic… briefly.

Before the fall (below) I was having fun with my new mono pod (inverted).

I'm certain Vans will want to sponsor me now…

When my head's clearer I might, you know, throw a filter over it and find some hard rock for a soundtrack

A lovely day in Battersea Park came to an abrupt stop when my wheel hit a berry…

youtube link: Beastie Boys - Tough Guy (wipeout)

A cursory inspection failed to reveal a concussion but there's a big bump on my head.

1st time I've ever not known who or where I was, though. For about 10 minutes. It was quite fun having to deduce why I was in a heap, tangled up in a monopod and camera, and skateboarding at what feels like an advancing age. I didn't fully answer that question, but before long I realised ‘where' and ‘why' drifted again into the shadows.

I need more cameras strapped to me…

The music is the Beastie Boys' Tough Guy. Whenever I hear them I feel a bit childish so it seemed appropriate for this predictable silliness. The fall shook things back into place

Beastie Boys - Tough Guy lyrics

Butcher Me On The Court
Too Many Elbows To Report
Now You're Poking Me In The Eye
Bill Laimbeer Motherfucker, It's Time For You To Die

Tough Guy, It's Time To Check Yourself
Dribbling The Ball Like The Biz Can Be Bad For Your Health
Tough Guy, What You Got To Prove
Moving Like An Elephant, That's Your Favorite Move
Tough Guy, Your Shit Is Going Out

Box Me Out With Your Fat Ass
Throw Me Around Like A Bounce Pass
You've Got A Tombstone Hanging Over Your Dick
Cause A Minor Earthquake When You Throw A Moving Pick

Tough Guy, You Think You're Like The Shaq
Keep Running Around, You'll Catch A Heart Attack
Tough Guy, What Are You Giving Me
The Way You're Playing Ball, You'll Stop Me From Living B

Tough Guy, Tough Guy
Tough Guy, Your Shit Is Weak
Tough Guy, You Fucking Freak
Tough Guy, I'll Stick Your Shit
Tough Guy 

timelapse looking out the window. To The Melvins, Copache.

youtube link: The Melvins - Copache

Yeah. I know. But I had the footage lying about…

You can feel like a hole in the shoulder 
My roll little grow 
Little chromer 
I know I can get a bit older 
Let it grow 
Let it grow 
Let it grow 
Yeah!

or possibly

You can feel like a hole in the groaner
For rolly grow
lil' Crover
I go like a piece of minola
Tramp go like terminal
wow

That's what I'm talking about.

If you heard something different, add it below.

I had this odd footage, and found an odd song to match.

youtube link: King Crimson - Radio I

It's King Crimson, Radio I.

Skating in Hyde Park to Black Sabbath's Paranoid.

youtube link: Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Finished with my woman 'cause she couldn't help me with my mind
People think I'm insane because I am frowning all the time

All day long I think of things but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify

Can you help me? Occupy my brain?
Oh yeah

I need someone to show me the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind

Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal

And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it's too late

Wherever you are, happy cinco de mayo.