It's goin' to be a long time gone

I was all of two months old when this aired.  Happy birthday, Mom.  Miss you.  A long time gone, indeed.  

津波

The Great Tsunami:

She recognizes its crest in the way he looks at her.
The wave is as vast as the roiling mass in the Japanese
Print they had paused in front of at the museum,
Capped with ringlets of foam, all surging sinew.
That little village along the shore would be
Totally lost. There is no escaping this.
The wave is flooding his heart,
And he is sending the flood
Her way. It rushes
Over her.

Can you look at one face
For the whole of a life?

Does the moon peer down
At the tides and hunger for home?

Michele Wolf.

Die gesamte Generalität ist nichts weiter als ein Haufen niederträchtiger, treuloser Feiglinge!

Lmao been waiting for this….absolute cinema….no notes! https://t.co/KhrE5Uxa68

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) November 5, 2026

The most gratifying version I've ever watched.

In conclusion: Der Krieg ist verloren.

Ooh, a storm is threatening my very life today

Lisa Fischer.  My.  God.

Public Thing

Respublica:

The strident high
civic trumpeting
of misrule. It is
what we stand for.

Wild insolence,
aggregates without
distinction. Courage
of common men:

spent in the ruck
their remnant witness
after centuries
is granted them

like a pardon.
And other fealties
other fortitudes
broken as named—

Respublica
brokenly recalled,
its archaic laws
and hymnody;

and destroyed hope
that so many times
is brought with triumph
back from the dead.

Geoffrey Hill.

#throwbackthursday

Popped up in FB memories today.  Last picture by the field office in Littleton, NH, where I lived in a motel for months while campaigning for Obama.  Ericka joined me for the final few days.  It was magical.  (2008)

Why do we never get an answer when we're knocking at the door?

Quoth Nancy about Crazy On You: "We were listening to a lot of Moody Blues back then. There was a [Moodies] song called Question that had this fast, fiery guitar rhythm. That was our idea for the groove."

It's Complicated

I Hate:

I hate how this unsummoned sigh-sound, sob-sound,
not sound really, feeling, sigh-feeling, sob-feeling,
keeps rising in me, rasping in me, not in its old disguise
as nostalgia, sweet crazed call of the blackbird;

not as remembrance, grief for so many gone,
nor either that other tangle of recall, regret
for unredeemed wrongs, errors, omissions,
petrified roots too deep to ever excise;

a mingling rather, a melding, inextricable mesh
of delight in astonishing being, of being in being,
with a fear of and fear for I can barely think what,
not non-existence, of self, loved ones, love;

not even war, fuck war, sighing for war,
sobbing for war, for no war, peace, surcease;
more than all that, some ground-sound, ground-note,
sown in us now, that swells in us, all of us,

echo of love we had, have, for world, for our world,
on which we seem finally mere swarm, mere deluge,
mere matter self-altered to tumult, to noise,
cacophonous blitz of destruction, despoilment,

din from which every emotion henceforth emerges,
and into which falters, slides, sinks, and subsides:
sigh-sound of lament, of remorse; sob-sound of rue,
of, still, always, ever sadder and sadder sad joy.

C. K. Williams.

It’s as Though the Lord Wanted Me to Be Happy

😶😶😶 https://t.co/8EtFPN1wCA

— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) November 4, 2026

Parade celebrating the Purple Wave on the same day we all are celebrating the Blue Tsunami?  I guess G-d really is good.

No further analysis from me.  Also no demands of the Democratic majority as to whom they should select for their House and Senate leadership.  And no predictions or wishcasting about '28.  Just basking in the glow, tempered a bit by my residual anger over how we could have just done the right goddamned thing in '24 (and/or '16).

Anyway, post title is an Ericka-ism.  Wish she were here to see the worm turn.

Selah.

No way to breathe easy, no time to be young

Is that...Luke Skywalker playing guitar?

credidimus fatis

Caesar crosses the Rubicon:

"Fortune, it is you that I follow. Away with bargaining! We have put our trust in fate. We must proceed with war as the judge." Then he pressed straight on at the head of his men through the darkness of the night, swifter than the bullet from a Balearic sling or a Parthian’s parting arrow; and, full of menace, moved on nearby Ariminum. Leaving only the morning star behind, the stars fled before the fires of the sun, and the day broke that was to see the first upheavals of the war.

Lucan.

Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway

A place where nobody knows.

Sim, não tenho razão

“No, you’re right, I’m wrong”:

No, you’re right, I’m wrong ... 
Allow me to drift off from this pointless argument,
I’m wrong in my opinion, that’s fine, I’m not deeply attached to that opinion anyway ... 

I’m not even listening, you say? I don’t know.
I think I am. But repeat what you just said.
Love should be constant?
Yes, it should be constant.
But only in love, of course.
Say it again, will you? ... 

People make life so very complicated!
Yes, fine, I’ll bring the money tomorrow.

O great sun, you know nothing of this,
A joy we cannot even contemplate in the serene blue unreachable sky.

Álvaro de Campos.

Onward and Upward

26 years ago, today, Expedition 1 began our continuous habitation of space with NASA astronaut Bill Shepard and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. Earth is just as stunning and station is still a platform that opens the doors to our future on the moon and, eventually, Mars. In this orbit, on this day, we passed by the blue fishing boats and, in the end, even a little aurora. See if you can spot the landmarks from the map. You’re looking out of the port window of the cupola, so to the left of the line.

— Anil Menon (@astro_anil) November 2, 2026

I appreciate how Anil Menon doesn't explicitly go out of his way to make me feel old like Jared Issacman does:

If you’re under 26, you have never lived a day without someone orbiting above you. 26 years ago today, the first resident crew arrived at the ISS. Humanity has had a home in space ever since. The research and advances made possible by our crews, teams on the ground and international partners have helped prepare us to live and work on the Moon and Mars. As we transition to the next era of our presence in low Earth orbit, we build on everything they have made possible.

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) November 2, 2026

I am...significantly older than 26.  In fact, when I was 26, manufacturing ISS components had barely begun, and assembly wouldn't start for another 3 years.  While I was growing up, such a station was merely a dream (sorry, Skylab, A for effort).

Anyway, it's the kind of cool thing we can do if we put our minds to it.  What learning and wonders will the next 26 years of crewed spaceflight bring, in Low Earth Orbit and beyond?

Excelsior!