i have been here for awhile: watching, thinking. it seems that the world is becoming increasingly more complex. we earn more money, but the money becomes worth less. we discover new medicines but new diseases spring up. we locate new food sources, yet millions of people starve while food lays rotting in storage houses.



perhaps there was a time when life was easier and there was less to think about, when there was less non-essential information to contend with. now some people talk in terms of light years. men have landed on the moon but has a man ever landed on earth? once, but we crucified him.



once we lived in houses we built with our own hands, ate the food we grew in the fields, and walked whenever we wanted to travel - but people wanted a better life. so now we are a "civilized world" with technological conviences like automobiles (to breathe) industries (to drink) and insecticides (to eat) - science presumes to replace God = with technology our bishop, chemistry our high priest, and the atom bomb our pope. scientists say that soon they will be able to create life in laboratories. i sometimes stop to wonder, did man evolve from the animals? or did man become an animal all by himself?



-Larry Norman, So Long Ago The Garden

(linear notes, 1976)

From today's Marianas Variety,

Letters section:



"This is regarding the Washington Merry-Go-Round column that runs in your paper, written by Jack Anderson and Douglas Cohn.

In the most recent column, they state, “President Nixon launched the war on drugs in the 1970s, with Elvis Presley as his poster boy. Presley died addicted to drugs, and drug use has remained constant despite the government’s best efforts.”

A common misconception is that Presley was on LSD, cocaine, marijuana, acid, whatever, you name it, while ironically being named Nixon’s top DEA enforcer. In actuality, Presley was being PRESCRIBED pain killers and the like by several different doctors, none of which he should have been taking together for the period of time that he did.



In another recent column, the authors claim that “Tokyo Rose” was Filipino. According to my research, there never was a person broadcasting anti-American propaganda for the Japanese under the name “Tokyo Rose.” “Tokyo Rose” is more of an urban legend if you will, a product of the imaginations of several thousand lonely U.S. soldiers in the Pacific. It was they who gave that name to a combination of women who were hired by the Japanese military to demoralize U.S. troops but wound up having the reverse effect.

A journalist landing in Japan after the war promised a reward of $2,500 to “Tokyo Rose” if she would come forward and tell her (exclusive) story. The woman who stepped forward was Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American citizen of Japanese descent (married to Felipe D’Aquino, a Portuguese national) who had gone to Japan to visit relatives shortly before the war broke out. She found herself stranded without her passport and no money to return to her family and subsequently confessed to being “Tokyo Rose” if only to collect the money and return home. She was tried for treason and eventually pardoned by President Gerald Ford after spending a number of years in prison. She now owns a small store on the north side of Chicago.

Hope you’ll do more research in the future, gentlemen!"



RICK VAUGHN

San Roque, Saipan

Good Friday today; all the local businesses are closed 'cause they feel like tormenting all of their customers who aren't Catholic like them.



Bush League

(Lost Dogs, from the album "Scenic Routes")

written by Gene Eugene and Terry Taylor



1,2,3,4

I don't know what I think about it

But I know what I think of you

Well I know I can live without it

And I know what I want to do



I'll pack you a lunch, clear your desk

It's going to be hell to clean your mess

All I know is that you gotta go



I don't know what I think about it

But your bush league days are through

Will you give me a job I doubt it

Here's a bird in the hand for you



Next time you start a storm

You better get you a mess kit, canteen and uniform

Cause we feel like livin' so you've got to go



Your points of light are almost gone

So here's your yellow ribbon-burning song



For Millie and Danny and Saddam and nanny

Babs and Ronnie and Clyde and Bonnie

Clarence and Ollie and the Beave and Wally

And Maggie and Gorby and the new world ordey

First update in a month!



Nothing new really; just found out that the Cutting Edge as a 'zine has been discontinued (www.geocities.com/baptistboy_46), so I guess that means no Siamese Connection review. :-(

Volunteered at the Saipan Xterra Triathlon this past weekend directing cyclists off the road, down a muddy slope and into some bushes (honestly, that's where they were supposed to go!) for 2 1/2 hours...

My wife and I came up with another idea to raise some funds part-time: convert our car into a taxi (let's see if it works).

The aaugh! records site has been updated finally: go to www.aaughrecords.com and click on the graphic in the middle of the screen. also check out the Phantom Tollbooth's CD review of Siamese Connection at www.tollbooth.org/2003/reviews/rwilliams.html.

Sorry it's been so long in updating this. If these sentences are gramatically incorrect i apologise for any inconvenience but my brain's in a fog due to a cold i picked up, i think at work the other day. Just went to see my friend's band play a new gig at the Dai-Ichi Hotel the other night. The place was packed, mostly w/ Japanese tourists and gay Filipino hairdressers (!). At the moment I'm listening to Phil Keaggy jammin' with the 77s; it's something I downloaded from MP3.com last year. I might go see the new Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Knights this weekend, if my head clears.



Later!

At last, another week of school done with..... today was a 1/2 day, due to report cards so the children went home at 11:00 a.m.

Janet and I may try to get out with some friends and go to the Pacific Islands Club. Thay have a great buffet and some cool waterslides.

Checked at Blockbuster again today but "Pumpkin" is still checked out. I read some favorable stuff about it in the Chicago Reader online edition.

More thoughts on "Gangs":



My wife Janet preferred "Catch Me If You Can". She didn't care for the starkness and grimness of "Gangs Of NY".

Also, before the movie we were browsing over at Price Costco an someone was listening to a different U2 song- "Elevation".



Just started watching Woody Allen's "Curse Of The Jade Scorpion" this morning- very funny! I'm about halfway through...

I also borrowed "Barbershop" and "1941". I love how Blockbuster lets you borrow movies for a full week now! Only problem is they can't seem to keep "Pumpkin" (starring Christina Ricci) on the shelf.....

Just returned from seeing "Gangs Of New York"; we only got it this weekend at the local theater (kinda like if we lived in Dubuque).

I enjoyed it but would not recommend it to those easily turned off by violence or nudity. The opening sequence contains a massive battle scene between the "Dead Rabbits" (Irish immigrants) and the "American Nativist Coalition" or something like that (a bunch of white guys born in the US of English stock, mostly opposed to new immigrants and freed slaves taking their jobs). It takes place in the later half of the 19th century in lower Manhattan, in an area known as the "5 Corners". Rumour has it director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver) was working on this for the better part of two years. Now I know where the Irish immigrant footage in his short film during the Concert For New York City came from- that's the one where he gives a guided walking tour of lower Manhattan, post 9/11. I really appreciated the last shot of the NYC skyline in the film... I only didn't appreciate the kid in the projection booth shutting off the projector a few seconds into U2's theme song "The Hands That Built America" during the end credits.

Just recieved in the mail last week: Larry Norman, Upon This Rock (2CD) & Randy Stonehill, Welcome To Paradise- both released by Larry on his Solid Rock label. Very impressed by the sound quality and artwork; these haven't been available on CD, much less available at all since the mid '70s.

Read a good quote today in Newsweek magazine:

"Send us off to foreign land to fight the infidels


God protects the oil wells


God saves gas prices


God saves Texas family fortunes."


-Conor Oberst, Bright Eyes

My wife went to Bible study tonight but I may be coming down w/ a cold so I stayed home to "rest".... work starts up again tomorrow (Monday) after a long holiday. We had a good time, going with my sister-in-law and her husband & 2 kids to a water park/buffet at a nearby hotel that was jam-packed with Japanese and Korean tourists. The tourists couldn't get to Guam because a recent typhoon knocked out a lot of essential services there, so they came to Saipan instead.

The other evenings we played Scrabble and ordered in from a local Thai restaurant. This morning a group of people from Chuuk (formerly the island of Truk) came by the house singing Christmas carols. It's the 5th of January already here but I could listen to their singing all day.

Bought Rolling Stone (w/ Eminem on the cover) and Blender(w/ "Xtina" (?) Aguilera on the front) last night... both had good reviews of Bob Dylan: Live 1975 and George Harrison: Brainwashed. Modern Drummerhad an interview w/ Abe Laboriel Jr., where he mentioned Paul McCartney leads the band in prayer before they go onstage (although I was watching VH1 awhile back and a scantily-clad "Xtina" (?) led her backing dancers in a prayer also). Hmmm.....

New Year's resolutions:

1) excercise more


2) take some college classes


3) brush up on Tagalog & Korean languages


4) try not to spend so much time online!

my current playlist, end of 2002


derri daugherty: a few unfinished songs


yoko ono: blueprint for a sunrise


shuggie otis: inspiration information


paul mccartney: driving rain


booker t. and the mg's: mclemore avenue


lost dogs: green room serenade part tour


adam again: ten songs by adam again


smashing pumpkins: machina II


moby: play


jimi hendrix: blues


red elvises: i wanna see you bellydance


shonen knife: strawberry sound


sonic youth: nyc ghosts and flowers


these are what i listen to while i'm on the computer


plus a large dose of national public radio, esp. thistle and shamrock

i asked zhenya of the red elvises recently why he was quitting the band. he sent me this response:

I do remember that I put that on the message board. But things got heavier. I just don't see any point in playing the Red Elvises' music the way we've done it in the past 3 yrs. It became very sloppy, no rehearsals, old songs, same old "wanna get laid -six pack o beer" type of "simple" topics. I think that's over for me; my soul needs something that I could share with people when I get on stage. True words, true feelings, not just a bunch of b.s. Sorry, but it just died for me.



"I Wanna See You Bellydance" was the only song that I really enjoyed playing the most. After Avi left it was pretty much an anti-musical trip; somewhat amusing or whatever, that's all. My new project will be missing the big red balalaika bass and the beer songs but it will say what I wanted to say from the bottom of my heart.



-Zhenya Rock

watch out for a new issue of the cutting edge, published by dan kennedy in orlando. i'm thinking he'll include a review of siamese connection. go to: geocities.com/baptisboy_46

just decided to update this now... i have a lot of free time during the xmas holidays. school starts again next week but i'll try to do what i can if i'm not too tired from chasing kindergarteners around the playground, pushing them on the swing, and giving free piggy back rides (or veggie back rides, to quote homer simpson). the children pay me in spicy cheetos, so i'm not complaining!