It should be this way.

Georgie would do a much better job if he were as stoned as this photoshopping makes him look.

Tip o the space helmet to Winston.

Bowie believed and accepted enough to write and sing about it.

“He told us not to blow it “cause he knows it’s all worthwhile.”

“Starman”

(pics of yesterdays rainout not available. no rain expected today so look for pics tomorrow)

Thats one of the top draws for tourism attractions in and around Roswell. There is much more to this city though. We have a small but nice arts community here as well as many parks and nearby mountain fun. I will show you around a bit as the International UFO Festival starts tomorrow and I wont have time for non festival posts for a few days. (hang in there I will get back to my rantings soon.)

A small eastern New Mexico town located on the Pecos River Roswell has been steeped in the cattle industry. Still known as the “Dairy Capitol Of The Southwest” it was on the Chisholm Trail.

This cool sculpture sits downtown across Main Street from the Chaves County Courthouse shown here Ten Commandments out front and all.

In front of that very courthouse I was told my sign memorializing fallen soldiers in Iraq would get me arrested and charged as an enemy combatant.

As you can see they won that one and I no longer carry my memorial sign even though just at the other end of the block there is a big granite or marble memorial standing.

I guess my sign wasn’t fancy enough.

Although this picture has nothing to do with our towns history or attractions I just wanted to remind you that McCain loves Bush and his policies.

I got kinda thirsty taking these snapshots so on the way to the art museum I stopped at our local Mc Donalds for a Coke. The alien theme extends to the business world here as you can see from the flying saucer shaped play area there.

Arbys is in on it too.

As well as the Christian coffee shop.

Even before the crash in 1947 Roswell was steeped in space travel research. Robert Goddard experimented with rockets here from the early 1920’s through the early ’40’s. There is a great exhibit of his workshop and some actual rockets at the Roswell Museum And Art Center.

The museum faces the Spring River.

Yeah, I know. Huh? The river side of that curb is about 18 inches. I have seen it almost to the top once. Kinda seem more like a ditch to me after living in Louisiana for so long.

During World War 2 there was a big POW camp just outside of town. The German inmates were put to work on projects around here and one of the things they did was lay rock walls along the river bed. One day while they were quite unsupervised they laid the rocks in an Iron Cross. The Roswaliens were pissed. A group of citizens poured congrete over the cross to hide it. The mixture was too thin however and soon washed away. It is now a National Monument and there is a small pocket park overlooking it.

The POW’s were treated well here. Nothing like the POW’s are treated in Gitmo today. The people of Germany remembered the treatment and when the Berlin Wall came down they sent our city a piece of the torn down wall. Both a thank you and a symbol of world unity. It sits in the park where the cross is.

The nearby mountains and villages scattered through them offer summer coolness and lots of winter sports. The Bottomless Lakes State Park is just 9 miles east of towm amd the Bitter Lakes Nature Preserve is just minutes from downtown as well. Lots of local wildlife abounds in the area and at the risk of sounding like a travel agent I want to invite y’all to visit.

I will be covering the Festival in the next few days so hang on and stay aboard my big rig to insanity. I may go interstellar on you.

The Big Muddy is set to overflow in Iowa and Illinois. The levee system there isn’t high enough to keep the big river back.

Reading so much about this brings me back to when I left Louisiana on the Thursday morning after Katrina hit. Days after the flooding started FEMA is still asessing the way to help. Not really doing much except looking.

We left that day heading west on Hwy. 190 til we got to I-49 north at Opelousas. There were rescue crews form all points north and west lined up on the shoulder of the freeway headed south towards New Orleans. I-49 ends at Lafayette and Hwy 90 continues to N.O. from there. The FEMA rats had all of the volunteers stopped and forbidden to go any farther. Fire departments, water rescue groups and hospital/emergency health folks had poured from their hometowns to rush to the needs of a city which had fallen to disaster, but the feds wouldn’t allow them to go do the work they had gone for.

I wonder if the people of Iowa and Illinois will think about this response and equate it to the FEMA disaster that was the Gulf Coast just a couple of years ago. Wonder if they will vote according to the response come November.

The Political Cat wonders which of the candidates you would want to be in office if disaster hits your town. McSameolBushit or the kid with the big ears who actually turned a hand to help?

(UPDATE) Sorry if I gave the impression we were Katrina Victims. We had moved to Roswell one month before and had just returned to get our last load of furniture and stuff. We were just as appaled as we would have been if we had still lived there though. We were some of the lucky ones.

The Divinyls

“…I’ve been to somewhere
and found it was nowhere at all.”

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show 1976

I looked for some concert footage but…

I like the non editorial video stuff in this though.

“A Couple More Years”

Buzzcocks

“Ever Fallen In Love”

July is right around the corner. Gas prices in the United States are skyrocketing. Godless Liberal Homo has a story about the media refusing to talk about why.

Independence  Day, at the beginning of the coming month, is a time when families come together to celebrate the founding of the U.S. Traditionally people travel from all over to be with their loved ones. Family reunions are usually planned by now. This year however the plans are out the window for many. Fuel prices rising, without any type of wage hikes, have caused the average American to tighten those purse strings.

I was thinking about another, kinda different, family gathering which occurs on the week of July 4. I got an e-mail yesterday with directions to the spring gathering of the Rainbow Family in Wyoming. They are there to get ready for the big Gathering Of The Tribes in a few weeks. Knowing that so many of the folks who will be there have vehicles that operate on alternative fuels, from methane from chicken droppings to the more common salvaged vegetable oil, I don’t think fuel prices will affect a lot of them when it comes to driving a ways for a reunion. Because of medical procedures scheduled I can’t make the trip this year but thats cool. The hippies are still gonna be runnin’ nekkid in the woods.

They have an important message concerning the ease of using alternative fuels. It’s way past time for the piggies in Washington to go to a gathering and just “Listen”.

Spinal Tap from the timeless classic movie, “This Is Spinal Tap”.

“Nuff Said!

On a forum I visit, and sometimes contribute to, some of the members sling bitter barbs and insults freely. Political and social issues are argued there with a venomous, name calling fervor. Some of the people on the forum are so ready with names for those with opposing views. A couple have a long standing feud that seems to drive some of their posts. One with extreme right wing views the other extreme left.

“M” is always ready to find flaws in “P”’s statements and calls him a filthy liar. “P” counters with slurs and name calling that equates “M” with the commies of the outdated Soviet Union. Both “know” they are right and the other therefor has to be wrong. It’s an interesting online fight. They hate each other. Or so you’d think.

But this weekend I saw how their relationship really is. No matter how opposite their world views are they still would not let the other down in an emergency. “P” lives in an area affected by the fires in the Santa Cruz mountains while “M” lives in town. When the fire was threatening “P”’s home and evacuation orders were coming down “M” offered his home as a refuge. An act of community and kindness toward his neighbor.

Shows how folks look past differences when the chips are down. No matter how different they are they can still be friends.

At least for now.

 Dixie Chicks. You figure the title out from the lyrics.

Jerry musta been feeling good this day.

Grateful words to live by ’til you are Dead.

Short and to the point.

Doing a great country rendition of that ol’ Cheap Trick classic, Dwight Yoakam with “I Want You To Want Me”.

Makes me want a new shirt.I’m already home from work.

More David Peel

Cypress Hill

Rita Marley

At Hyde Park, just a few days after the London subway bombings, Paul Rogers fronted Queen with an incredibly moving rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

After the Bushit we had to listen to yesterday from Washington it’s great to sit back and IMAGINE.