July 14, 2006
Clear skies and fevered thighs. Hot and semi-miserable. I say “semi” because I choose to live here and don’t really have any excuse to complain, although I often walk around mumbling, “Thankyou Thomas Edison for electricity.” Before AC, Arizonans slept outside, or on the roof, and hung wet sheets next to their beds hoping to cop a breeze, which probably cooled the nighttime air to a frigid 99 degrees.

Evidently Pioneertown, California didn’t burn. Here’s a report this morning from Stephen Lodge:
"...everyone is grateful that Mane St. and its historical buildings remain."

And Stephen was also quick to remind me that it was on this date: "In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney, alias "Billy the Kid," was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, N.M."

America The Chasm of Culture Generalizations Update
“Toby Keith is bellowing in Boston, and my favorite arts blogger Terry Teachout (http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/) is traveling from New York City to Boise to attend the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

“Class and culture generalizations about the US of A—or the world, for that matter—are hard to make. Ever heard of the Finnish honky-tonk band Ranch Riot? They do a mean ‘White Lightning.’

“In the late 1970s, Annie and I were in a bar in Puerto Montt, in southern Chile. A local trio was playing nothing but Norteno music. Norteno in southern Chile is as odd as madrigals in Cave Creek (a gross generalization—for all I know Cave Creek is the fecking madrigal capital of the Western Hemisphere). Anyway, I chatted up the musicians and it turns they learned Norteno from Mexican movies that played there in the 1950s.”
—Dan Buck

That’s enough for this morning. Need to go uptown for the Madrigal Festival.

”If I need any crap from you, I’ll squeeze your head.”
—Mickey Free, to the alcade in Fronteras, Mexico