a candidate, the capitol and chords, oh my!

i was frightened to see dean's concession-speech-without-actually-conceding statement from last night. i think i would have been completely fine with it (well, fine, i would have been amused, but not frightened) had he not included the primal scream after going through a list of states. may i note that missing from the list was vermont?!?!?!

i only hope the rest of the country does not view vermonters from such a speech. just think about it ... he's pretty much forgotten vermont, so why should we have to be roped in with him? according to time (or was it newsweek?), he's just a former governor from "somewhere up north."

state of the union tonight. it's interesting to think of last year at this point ... from the archives:

let's see--where to begin? the state of the union address was well-written, i must say, and well-structured, from a strategic point of view. let's butter up the audience with mentoring and AIDS research!!! then they'll like us! but wait--where is all of this money for the war going to come from? the money for mentoring and AIDS research. but they don't mention that part...whatever. i'm not a bush fan, nor will i be a bush fan, so it's just how things are. so the highlight for me was seeing him stumble over a part of the speech and have to squint so he could read the teleprompter, which must have been rewound or something. i took pleasure in that. so sue me. ;)

there was a moment before the address, however, when nbc showed a gorgeous shot of the capitol lit up on top of the hill, and i was, as i often have been in the past, amazed by how powerful and beautiful it was. but then i realized--wait! that's right next to where i work each day! i see that all the time! it added to the surreal nature of this experience, something that was only more evident the following evening (how about that for a transition, eh?)

so after the crazy day of wednesday, i decided to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me here and made my way over to dirksen to sit in on the judiciary committee hearing. i'd been interested in seeing what the hearing experiene was like for awhile now, and the added bonus of being able to sit in on a controversial hearing was too much to pass up. so i sat in for about twenty minutes (i would have loved to have stayed longer, but it was already approaching seven and, frankly, i was exhausted and needed to get home!) and, for a few moments, couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that i was sitting in the same room as influential and powerful people i'd never dreamed of sharing space with. i mean, whether i agree with thier politics or not, whether i like their personalities or not, i still can't help but be impressed by the presence each of the senators have. and when a bunch of them are together--wow. so i was sitting there with this smile on my face as i tried to focus on looking responsible and whatnot, thinking dopey thoughts like, "i can't believe i'm listening to ted kennedy!!! i can't believe my boss is up there!!!" etc. etc.


tomorrow includes movie extra time. but standing between me and my moment as extra #137 is this article ... which can't be completed until i hear back from my medical source ... aurgh.

bollocks. i'll relax for a bit instead. perhaps i'll milk cows, drink domestic beer and go vote democrat while i procrastinate. much love to my favorite bastard in the windy city - you forgot tapping trees, making maple syrup and snowshoeing.

or perhaps not. the guitar seems more appealing. i've been working on the intro to "curbside prophet" and am making progress ... granted, it's no "watchtower," but it'll have to do.

side note: watch out paul, when you get up here to visit, i'll be all set for our dave & tim-esque guitar collaboration. hells yeah ...

relaxin the third verse ...