Monkeyfister

Y'all-- Give me a couple of weeks.

My Spirit needs some serious healing time, and I have a LOT of work that needs done right now.

Follow those names and sites that I recommended in the post below, and I'll not run away forever. I promise.

I've got a LOT of garden chores to get done, I've got a field of corn to plant by hand, I've got an orchard to establish around it, My garden beds need to be rehabbed, and built up, and time is wasting.

Let me get this very important work done, and I'll rejoin you in a few weeks or so.


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Labels: My Life As It Is

Everyone is looking at the Rick Santelli/CNBC segment of the infamous Daily Show of 3/4/09. This was the important segment no one else seems to be posting. Watch it twice:



I posted the Joe Nocera article on Saturday. There were no comments, and I was close to weeping. I was torn up by this article. Everything I sort of wanted to write, but was afraid to say it, was right there in the New York Times. Like a Rosetta Stone.

Jon Stewart got it all down pat with Nocera's article. When I posted it, it was my hope that all of a sudden there would be a wave of A-HA!s. I thought I was clear in posting a big chunk, and then saying, "There is much, MUCH more at the link," and the other points there... This article, is huge. No comments. No re-linking elsewhere. That's when I made my decision, but, I held off out of habit.

Let Jon say it all. He saves you at least 15 minutes of critical reading.

Like I said TV is the SHIT! wev.


For those who like to read, these are the best lead-names that I'll kick up for their goodness and honesty:

James Kunstler, Sharon Astyk, Richard Heinberg, Paul Krugman, Dmitri Orlov, Joe Bageant, Bloomberg News, Joe Stiglitz, Barry Ritholtz, Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Nuriel Roubini, Energy Bulletin. Follow these names and sites, and take care to read carefully and critically, and you will be able to survive in your personal status-quo, or if you lose that s-q. The links are in my sidebar for most of them, now. I'll update the sidebar to include as many as possible for you.


The Cohen post really has nothing to do with my need to step away. I am trying to live what I write, and I have lots and lots and lots to do this year, and it is time to get down to doing it on a tight budget. Spring is now right here, here. I've no more time to waste on reading shit-tons of depressing articles to decide what's important enough to post here. I need to devote that time to getting Monkeyfister Manor set up to survive this crash in order to help others properly.

I've pretty-well laid out what is coming, and that we are nowhere near the bottom, and that there are trillions of dollars of shoes left to drop. You know that. I have laid out a fantastically easy way to garden, and have provided tons of super-small scale alternatives to fit the most modest of needs.

It is time for us ALL to get done with the data gathering, and get down to the DOING. There is no more time for dicking around with blogging, and non-productive activities. We know what's happening. Get growing, learning those skills, and living as simple as possible.

Those who looked at the NPR Cohen article would have noticed that there are hundreds and hundreds of beautifully recorded whole and generously excerpted concerts, from the best musicians available for free at NPR... ALL FOR FREE. I couldn't even nudge readers to discover something grand... Months of free entertainment. The Nocera article is terrifically important, as it shows, indirectly, where MBIA and AMBAC (the OTHER two insurers are) As I noted over the past two years, if any of the three go down, it is all over.

Finally, I also noted recently that when the FED starts buying our Treasuries (as it is standing by to do) it would also be a final bell moment.
Britain's Federal Bank, the Bank of England, started doing just that... Printing Pounds to buy British Treasury assets. At this point, we are barely weeks or perhaps a few months behind them. Do you think that Brown really came over here to Knight Teddy Kennedy?

The Central Banks are beginning the process of eating their own tails.

Get this: The UK is set to take a 70% stake in the venerated, and legendary Lloyd's of London. I'm so old that I remember when Lloyd's was synonymous with rock-solid stability. If Lloyd's backed you, man-- you had everything going right. Now, they're tits up.

Citi hit NINETY-EIGHT CENTS today, before settling at $1.02, with an ACME anvil. Two years ago, they were at $55.00. Citigroup holds the US Government contract for purchase and travel transactions. Rock on. Yeah. BIG FAT BAILOUT IMMINENT. Speaking of BIG ASSED BAILOUTS-- The Pension Guaranty Fund is fucked to the tune of a Trillion bucks or more. Credit Cards. STULOANS... The list is long. Lots of ZEROS attached to the end of that list.

Massive deflation will continue for a few-six, eight more months, and then, between July and October, when most of the major economic powers are buying their own assets, and in-bred, wet-ink money is sloshing around, THEN the inflation builds and explodes.

Unfortunately, because Demand is being destroyed everywhere, in cascades, through every sector, Productivity is dropping like a stone, and that means there is excess Labor, and that means several more BRUTAL waves of mass lay-offs. Starting at GM and its related industries, and rippling out from there, Big-Box Retail, and Service Industries will be right alongside GM, and the Malls and Commercial Real Estate will crumble starting in April, in earnest, and getting to (out of) business by October.

So many facets to this lump of coal.

As long as the Banks, Ratings Agencies and Loan Processors keep denying Reality, this will continue for at least another year before we even come close to seeing a bottom.

It is all perfectly clear, and being spoken of plain as day in major media. READ CRITICALLY. Avoid CNBC and FOX News. We already know that.

What else can I possibly say? Major moves are on the Quarters, Lesser moves are monthly, and minor moves are weekly. All those reports matter. They have a rigid and set rhythm. Tune into that, with the knowledge you are armed with, and you are an Oracle.

Some hope: The Stimulus money (yes, it is wet-ink money, but being translated into tangible products and earnest services) is beginning to get into the system. The Blue Dog Democrats and the Republicans made sure that it was just a bandage, and not a tourniquet to the bleeding. It'll help, but, not fix for a while.

What to do:

DEMAND honesty and openness from the Financial Industries. If you only write ONE letter in your life to your Congressperson or Senator, make it about bringing the Financial Industry to Justice, the Law, and Reality.

If you fall under Foreclosure-- stay in place, don't trash your house, and in Court, force the company to SHOW THE NOTE. If they can't... You're living free for a while, so take the time to pay down those debts and GET RIGHT.

Push back against the political spin in your own way. Join a protest. Do it LOCALLY, first, work up when and if you can.

Finally. For the sake of all things good and proper-- no matter what your personal condition turns out to be... ENCOURAGE COMMUNITY where you are. Take care of your neighbors. GARDEN EVERYWHERE. Share food, clothes, and shelter. Help one another to live. Get to know your neighbors-- they are who you have. Support your Food Bank-- "Plant A Row For Hunger" is a GREAT program.

Be active at City Hall meetings, and KNOW what is going on in your town.

The resources are available in one way or another either in this blog, or through this blog. I put a lot in this little dohickey. I mean to mine it as I need as well.

If I do anything more with this blog, it will be to update the Sidebar to add links in my Bookmarks that need to be available to you.

Get busy. Do what YOU need to do, and I honestly, and earnestly wish you all the very best in this coming period of bad.

PLANT A HUGE GARDEN. Start your seedlings RIGHT NOW.


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Labels: Bye.

The time I spend on this blog is meaningless for both you and me. You don't want what I post, and I don't want the disappointment of not being read any longer. I thought I was posting meaningful stuff that wasn't getting posted and discussed elsewhere, that was of some importance to others. But, really, I was just deluding myself. Most people really do want to just be blindsided by what's coming down on them.

There is always TV, folks. I hear that it is the SHIT! I am the one who hasn't owed one since 2003. You have options.


So. From me, and the cats-- Mountain Girl, Murray, Spot... Good bye.

Thank you to the few of you that hung around this long. Good luck and the finest of life's blessings to each and every one of you.


I've nothing else meaningful to share here. I'll probably keep posting time to time at Blah3, Corrente, and PolitiCook.

The Blueprint of how to survive this collapse is in the post archives and in the many fine sites in the sidebar. Good luck and all the best to you.


GROW A HUGE GARDEN.


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Labels: Last Post

I secretly wish that the Good Lord had blessed me with an ear for good music, instead of this curse of falling in love with pure fucking audible crap. Thank the Bloggers' Pantheons for Atrios' musical acumen, and I understand that TBogg has better musical taste, too, so there ya go...

I'm beginning to understand that I need to apologize for doing this to you for the past 3-4 years. I wish someone would have mentioned it to me, and spared us all for all this time. I s'pose there's a 12-Step program I could undertake.

Anyway, I'm going to foist this bullshit on you, because I am cruel like that.

-- Lou Reed, Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ on April 24, 2008.

-- Radiohead, live at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Aug. 28, 2008.

I promise. This is the last of hurting your ears for my own personal pleasure. Someone send me the final three of every "American Idol," and I'll just stick to that list from now on, and stab my eardrums with bamboo meat skewers every time I think I hear something "good" that I might be tempted to post.

I think I have a winning weekend line-up here: "The Hannah Montana Fan Cover and Karaoke tribute Weekend." Coming soon, to YOU, at this blog, only!

My sitemeter is going to spin red hot this weekend, bitches!


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Labels: Totally Bullshit Excuse For Music

I couldn't decide which I liked more, so, here you go...

Lal Meri Pat-- "Junoon":


Lal Meri-- "Give Your Light":


Lal Meri comes from the Sufi's, IIRC. If someone has more information on the origin of "Lal Meri," I'd love to know more.

While I'll throwing the Lal Meris...

The late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn-- "Laal Meri Patt Rakhi Bala Jhoole Lal":


Listening to this all a second time, I'm rather fond of Lal Meri Pat. They have a lot of energy, and pure Spirit. The Westerners make nice music, but, it's pretty schtick, and Fiona Apple wants her voice back.


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Regular commenter and ol' friend, skip, turned me onto via Fungi Perfecti.

I had been curious about raising my own culinary mushrooms, and perhaps inoculating my garden beds with some. So I was pleased to find a three-month "Mushroom of the Month" subscription for $70.00 at the site.

Month 1: The Shiitake Mushroom Patch™
Month 2: The Pearl Oyster Mushroom Patch™
Month 3: The Maitake Mushroom Patch™

So, I plunked down the cash, and Monday afternoon, the first cube was waiting at my door. I scooped up a five-gallon bucket full of snow, and brought it in to melt down. Yesterday, I put the cube into the water to soak for 24 hours, and now, it is on a plate with its humidity bag over it. Hopefully, in a week or two, I'll have a nice bloom of Shiitake mushrooms to harvest. The instructions say that it will bloom every two weeks or so, for sixteen weeks, and then I should bury it in the garden to inoculate the garden. It's the gift that will keep on giving... I hope!

Meanwhile, I just took a trip out to the garden beds. Even though I have a huge pine branch over one of the beds, the Spinach, Strawberries and Garlic all survived the cold. I'll be ready to put in the Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Brussels, and a few other cold crops on Saturday. I have a couple of loads of compost set for delivery to the very large Corn patch in the back meadow, which I'll have to spread around.

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Labels: Food, Grow Your Own

Look. I could show you these shitty, shitty audience videos every day for a month, or you can take the visual memories of this show that I have already given you, and go listen. to that NPR recording, and REALLY experience something sublime.

Performances like this do not happen every day, and I'm not going to stop talking about it. This is some very important musical history happening, and is something very special-- and you need to listen to it, whether like it or not, Dammit!

"Tower Of Song," January 28th, Sydney Entertainment Centre... You could be hearing it the way it SHOULD be heard, right now...


This video cuts off at the really good part.

Honest folks. I ain't fibbin'. Leonard Cohen already owns next year's Grammy's, and the CD/DVD premiere release is set for 31 March 2009 @ Amazon.com. "Live In London". Tour dates at
leonardcohen dot com.

Cohen might not be on your favorite genres list. But, I'm talking about pure performance and engineering quality, here. I'm diminishing the word when I say this is transcendental.

It's the Books of Ruth and Job, it's the Song of Solomon, it's Matthew 5, it's everything that Kahlil Gibran and Richard Bach ever wrote, plus a dash of Burroughs and Thompson, with the ghost of Cassidy thrown in for fun. It's pure Tarnish, it's tarnished Purity, it's Health and Life. It's THE TRUTH, with music. AND, you can dance to it.

Looky here: It's doo- da- dum-dum- da- doo- dum- dum, in spectacular three part harmony.

Seriously...

Listen.

I ain't never steered you musically wrong, yet, and I ain't plannin' on startin' now, dammit. Not with something this damned hot.


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Labels: Hot-Ass Music

Well.

Well.

Ummm... That 2-4 inches of show turned into FOURTEEN inches of snow. It's freaking cold in my house. Another huge branch of one of my pine trees came down on one of my garden beds, the magnolia tree that I have been nursing back to health has snapped in two. The roads are a perilous mess.

It's pretty, but, the South is not made for this sort of snow event.


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Labels: Extreme Weather, My Life As It Is, The Weather And The Elements