Joy

Friends--

If there is one thing that Audubon Park is about it is joy. The joy of playing solos, the joy of making noise, the joy of friendship. Overall, we are a pretty joyous bunch.

But, today is an awful day--one that I am personally having a hard time getting through.
But, the wrong thing to do is withdraw--to accept our defeat and turn our backs.

Yes, I am disappointed.
Yes, I am angry.
Yes, I am mystified.

But we--as people who still believe that social justice is attainable, that equal rights for all people is not immoral, and that each American--no matter what their philosophical persuasion--can get along and work together for the benefit of our country and the world--need to make a louder, more joyful noise so as to make ourselves heard over the dull roar of disenfranchisement and discrimination, over the din of greed and oppression.

I have asked myself all day what else were we to do. Didn't we do it all. We registered new voters. We got the voters to the polls. But somehow, it wasn't enough.

We can't let this discourage us. There is still happiness to be had in this world--we just need to work harder to find it. There is still hope in this world--we just need to strive harder to protect it. We need to start work on the 2006 and 2008 elections. We need to focus on our communities. Where we see poverty, hunger and discrimination, we need to reach out and give some of the happiness and joy that we all find in ourselves and each other to those that need it more. The next four years, I fear, are going to be devastating for those at the bottom of the American social order. We have to be there to help them.

Yesterday, while volunteering for MoveOn outside a polling place, Jennifer and I befriended the Republicans volunteering there. They were obviously a little sketched out by us at first, but by the time the poll closed we were all getting along and having a nice time. Of course, this was during a time when I was pretty confident that Kerry was going to win, but it was the most incredible feeling. It was a time when I really felt that I was making a difference. These two Republicans were going to leave that night with a better idea of what liberals are like.

Bush won, but he didn't win by a lot. Most Americans, no matter what side of the vote they ended up on, want the same things essentially. We need to help them see that this administration is not Conservative.

It is not Christian.

It is not Moral.

It is a perversion of the values that it pretends to hold dear. It is our duty to help those that can't see this understand. No matter what, I still believe that most Americans, when you can talk one on one can agree on most issues at their core or at least come to some understanding of each other.

I am pretty sure that I am stupid for thinking this--America has such an awful history of injustice (against the world and against ourselves)--but there is something essential to it, something deeply ingrained, this idea of America, that, even if it hasn't ever been achieved, even if it has, to date, failed spectacularly, there is an idea of what America can be that I think we can achieve.

This country prides itself on being a country where you can start with nothing and succeed. A country with a document, the Constitution, that protects the liberties of its citizens. A country that was born as an underdog that defeated a juggernaut. This self concept of America runs contrary to what this administration stands for: advantages to the rich, but not the poor; a Constitution that takes liberties away; more power centered in the hands of a few, reaching around the world to protect our interests with no regard to the repercussions. But it is because of this American Myth that I still think we can achieve something greater than we have yet. The idea is there. We need to make it real.

We can't give up.

The flaws of the administration were laid bare before us--and some chose to turn their eyes away and proceed as though they knew nothing.

People can close their eyes, but they can't close their ears.

Info:
"Don't Mourn, Organize" from Daily Kos
Sen. Elect Obama's speech from the DNC
War is on the Stereo by the Nein

Lessons

Basically I learned two of them last night:

1) The desire to exclude gays from society makes you "moral."

2) We never need a reason to invade another country.

At least I'm in a band I really like. And at least I had a guy ask me to take a picture of him and his friend last night in front of the Vote Here sign outside his polling place in Chavis Heights. Both of them had just voted for the very first time and were grinning from ear to ear about it.

--Ben

For goodness sake, stop what you're doing and vote.

Go Vote!

Vote!

Please vote!

Happy Hurt-O-Ween!

Hobbits?

Things I Learned While Standing in Line to Vote

1) David Carradine is tall
2) And an asshole
3) Who, despite vast riches, demands free teabags
4) Politics kept Bruce Lee from being in "Kung Fu"
5) The man standing behind me predicted 9/11
6) But he was off by two and a half months
7) He predicted 11/26
8) Atlantis was off the coast of Florida and Cuba
9) They had crystals the size of three football fields
10) Said crystals were placed in machines
11) They knew the world was flat
12) They had a war with China
13) They could fly
14) Sedona, NM, is the nexus of all positive and negative energy on the earth
15) The man behind me has evolved beyond religion
16) He is a higher being
17) He is into karate and judo now
18) Of course reincarnation is true
19) There are sixteen columns in Morehead Planetarium
20) This is funny for some reason
21) Souls are drops and there is a cup of water and how do you find that drop?
22) Drink the water

VOTE!

Sad News
Cool dude.

Wallpaper

Here's a wallpaper for you.

Like a dove of fire

Very rare footage of Audubon Park playing live. We asked guitarist, Matthew Kalb, what happened?

Mr. Kalb: I don't know. David's voice descended from heaven at the wrong time and we stopped and looked at each other and then began to dance like enchanted bears in the forest of tears. I don't know if we will ever play again.

ARE END TIMES UPON US?

Uh, oh.

Wha?

Oh my God!

All has been prophesied.

MY FACE HURT!

WARNING: YOU MAY BE ROBERT BIGGERS!!!

Signs that you may be Robert Biggers:

1. You are wearing Robert's pants.

2. You are eating a Nutty Bar.

3. You are semi-hype to hype, depending on your mood.

4. You "don't know about that."

5. It's Saturday, 12:56 pm, and you are asleep in Robert's bed.*

6. You philosophise. Yeah.

7. When you go to Wendy's, you ask them to "me-size it".

8. If you were a tree and we cut you open, you'd have one more ring up in that thing. (Please do not cut open Robert, this is an analogy.) Props a little after the fact.

*If there is in fact a glob of mayonaise on the nightstand beside you, you may in fact be Nomad Stylo.

Third Party Candidates Debate

Please! a few moments for a political advertisement

Please consider for President:

Joe Champion

and his running mate:

Lil' Vlodya Tufts

of the FORLORN PARTY.

These candidates aren't afraid of the ISSUES!

Education: Why the fuck are we throwing all of this fucking money at these damn kids? They're stupid as shit already. I say to the children of America: Get a job or a stick or a spinning top or something. Just get off my sack about schools and computers and lunch and shit. Damn, if you suckers spent half as much time working or painting as you do sucking on the sweet utter of public education this country would be a lot more painted and worked on.

Prisons: Maybe this is the solution to our problems with school. Can I go back and change my answer on Education to "Lock the bastards up?" Except for the football teams. Give them a hundred dollars and cigar and nudie photo.

The War on Terror: Terrorists can suck a nut. And I don't mean the foreign ones cause they don't scare me--though if they want they may also suck a nut. I mean the longhairs here at home that can get up in my grill. I know where they are hiding--in Quaker rec rooms and Public Libraries and shit--and I'm going to smoke them out. You think I don't know what you check out. Candide indeed. I'm on your sack like a tarantula on a banana motherfucker! Can you feel my BREATH! It's ON!

Taxes: Fuck taxes. They are a pain in the ass and I'll be the first to say that the damn roads in the country are all fucked up. Especially in Indiana. So rather than taxing the good people of America I will make SUVs mandatory and then we won't have to worry about roads. Or the environment. Any way, when did a publicly funded institution ever help anyone?

Environment: Taken care of. Also, you're a pussy.

Tort Reform: What the fuck is that? Get that mess out of my face before you feel the power of the horns! Also, all lawyers can bite the knob except for my tax lawyers that help me get my shit off shore. Thank you boys.

Judicial Vacancies: I want a justice that will interpret the Constitution strictly. Except for the part about the separation of church and state. That was put in there by some activist founding fathers and has no place in America. Well and the part about all people being created Equal. I KNOW that that's a new idea, so we can strike that. Wait, maybe that's in the Declaration or Magna Carta or something. Nevermind. We don't have to worry about that. Just a strict reading of the Constitution--as soon as I get around to adding a few things too it about marriage and who can vote and maybe who can walk on the sidewalk.

Are you American enough for this President?

Or do you need a lesson!

paid for by the Champion for president campaign and the "Balogna for a Better America for Some" PAC

GOOD MORNING FROM AUDUBON PARK

Please sup from the cup of American happiness.



This explains everything



Do we deserve better?

Excerpts from SPIKED: The Benjamin Spiker Story

"Then after I climbed out of the car, which apparently was now on the bottom of the pool I decided it was time to sell the watermellon farm. It just wasn't going to work."

"Taco Dragon's lasts show was very moving because of an eathquake, and then a mudslide, and then the flood of girls on rollerskates."

"Then of course, after realizing that it wasn't the courthouse, and that the paper I was holding wasn't a fishing lisence and that the thing in the cooler wasn't a fish, I decided it was time to sell the Cajun restaurant and postcard shop. It just wasn't going to work."

"It was embarassing because I had been calling them 'cats' and that's just not what they were. It was then that I decided to sell the cattery."

"Happiness is salsa plus ketchup. It just is."

"I'm only young once."

"Neither of us knew how the flounder got into the tub, or at least neither of us was going to admit it, but it really made me think: 'How did the flounder get in the tub?' That is when I decided to sell the ice cream truck. This was just getting out of hand."

Much Respect

1921-2004

Here,

Have a chuckle. On me. Please.

Make sure you watch the video. Free chuckles.

"Oh, my snap runneth over", or, "The Nein=rodentia"

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/neinferrets/

CROOKKSHANX!!

I am crookkshanX. I've been to the Isle of Missed Diddles. I have consumed my own death without ceasing to be. I am of everything. Dead? The diddles bring me to life, to luf, to the isle. Worship me. I consume all. All others mislead you. Misread you. Misbleed you. I like tuna.