A scarecrow in a graveyard. Headstones mixed with pumpkins. Would a scarecrow fend off a turkey vulture? I suspect a carrion-feeder would be drawn to a stationary body.

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Cliff Steele lost Kay Challis, and that’s a crime. They should be somewhere on DTW, discovering new things about each other and the world every day.

“I prefer New Guinea, it looks like a turtle.”

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I wonder if in this age of the blue-screens, DVD and cable, if anyone will know what television static is, 20 years from now. No white noise, no ocean metaphors. Is radio static next to go?

People still know 10-codes form CB radio. and make little “Brsshkt” noises when talking on play radios. Will little kids in the future make that chirpy-metro phone radio noise instead, like a star trek communicator?

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City of Heroes will be Halloweenificated this weekend. all mission doors will be unlocked, and they’ll be handing out tricks (Halloweeny monsters to fight) or treats (inspirations, random temporary powers, and the like)

I’m looking forward to fighting punkinheads. Sorry, GP.

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I find myself wondering if my blood is really red inside my veins. Lately I’ve been picturing it as a sort of an electric blue, rather than the bright fire-engine of the stuff with oxygen, or the darker crimson of the fluid that needs replenishing. When I look at the blue veins pulsing on my wrists, it’s hard not to think of how life pushes itself around from place to place. The circulatory system is pretty amazing. I’m glad that I have one, and that it works. Something in my mind draws a picture of all of my blood gathering up, and pulsing behind my eyes, making them as blue as they are.

I think about fight or flight, and being able to squirt blood from my eyes as a defense mechanism, like a horned lizard.

That’d cause someone to think twice, eh? Glowing, electric blue blood fired from my tear ducts… maybe high pressure would treat it like a super soaker… get maybe 5-10 yards out of it?

Great…next time someone bugs me, I just know that I’ll imagine coating them with seawater-warm eye-blasts. Blinding bright at first, but fading fast to dark blueberry stains as they dry.

That should scare anyone off, stun them enough for me to get away… or to commit blunt skull trauma with whatever weapon of opportunity avails itself.

I guess that means that Newt has amber eye-blood-beams.

Sakes, that’d make for a messy house when squirrels or raccoons are around.

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From this article

Scientists have discovered a way of manipulating a gene that turns animals into drones that do not become bored with repetitive tasks. The experiments, conducted on monkeys, are the first to demonstrate that animal behavior can be permanently changed, turning the subjects from aggressive to “compliant” creatures.

Then I thought about it for a bit and realized it’s actually really scary stuff:

The experiments … involved blocking the effect of a gene called D2 in a particular part of the brain. This cut off the link between the rhesus monkeys’ motivation and reward.

… The scientists say the identical technique would apply to humans.

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I haven’t shaved since Sunday night, and I’m looking pretty scruffy. I wonder if I should go full-beard for winter… I suspect that goatee is more my thing.

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A tomb for musicians whose families cannot afford a plot

He’d been a member of the Ink Spots from 1945 into the late 1960s. But when Lloyd Washington died in June, his family couldn’t afford to bury him. For months, his ashes were kept in a box at the Ernie K-Doe Mother-in-Law Lounge.

Thanks to another family of musicians, the one-time Tulane University groundskeeper now has a clearly marked tomb – and so will other musicians, rich as well as poor.

Descendants of jazz pioneer Isidore Barbarin, who died in 1960, granted the Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries, a preservation group, the right to use six of the 18 vaults in the family mausoleum as The New Orleans Musicians Tomb.

The idea came from Anna Ross Twichell, a member of the preservation group. Her daughter, harpist Heather Twichell, is a friend of K-Doe’s widow, and had offered her family tomb after the entertainer known for the song “Mother In Law” died in 2001. New Orleans’ rhythm and blues man Earl King, who died last year, also is buried there.

They are far from the first New Orleans musical greats to died without burial money.

Jazz cornetist Buddy Bolden, who died in a state mental institution in 1931, is buried somewhere in Holt Cemetery, a graveyard which has had far more bodies than markers.

A large stone memorial to Bolden was set up in the cemetery in 1996. That same year, renowned rhythm and blues singer Jessie Hill was buried a few steps away. His family set up a piece of plywood in the shape of a note as a marker, though they later were able to raise money for a headstone.

The Barbarin tomb originally belonged to a burial society; as its last living member, Isidore Barbarin took it over. Each vault can hold multiple urns or boxes of ashes.

The cemeteries group has drawn up criteria and a registry for burial; musicians can have one spouse’s remains share the tomb.

Washington’s ashes arrived in a casket loaded in the back of a red pickup truck.

Because his family couldn’t afford a second-line marching band, a funeral procession of about two dozen relatives, friends and curious onlookers filed quietly into the cemetery shortly before 1 p.m.

After a brief ceremony, two porcelain angels and a silver and black urn housing Washington’s remains were placed in the tomb where drummer Lucien Barker and trumpter Charles Barker – both descendants of Barbarin – also lie.

Paul Barbarin, 73, who carries the name of a musician uncle who wrote “Bourbon Street Parade,” flew in from California for Saturday’s ceremony.

“This is the beginning of something big,” said Barbarin, who with his sister, Marie Barbarin Baptiste, signed the legal document granting use of the tomb.

“People are going to start doing what we’re doing. Believe me, they’re going to start doing it because there are so many (musical) greats coming out of New Orleans and they need a place to rest. They’re not able to buy a tomb or whatever. They’re old and they don’t have no families. So, it’s good. I think we did a real good thing.”

Local artist Mitchell Gaudet was commissioned to create an iron cross featuring an oversized, colored-glass note that will be placed atop the tomb soon.

Rob Florence, president of Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries, said it will cost about $20,000 to restore its share of the tomb. Some money was raised a few years ago, but the group still needs $9,000.

A costume party benefit to help pay for the musicians’ tomb will be held Nov. 5 at the Mother-in-Law Lounge.

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Archives –

1 year ago – Twistyland, Hollow celery, New Dawn of the Dead cool Halloween lights web cam, Frankie served notice, body attack dreams, robot-made jack-o-lantern, dick, the albino bowler. palm observations in the office, driver-stink

2 years ago – moon pie contest, the ring, making the bed, Crazy chuck Heston, Orchid Thief, imprints of joy, Electra to belly dancer painting begins.

3 years ago – Clobbered, caravan dreams, primate psychology, Mexican wrestling game, broken cookies

4 years ago – yahoo hiccups, stupid, crazy & full of shit, Phish Movie

5 years ago – Newt learns to use the litter box