SPARKY:
The Good Nancy Wants Our Help -

Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader says: I cannot thank you enough. The DCCC depends on supporters like you to ensure Democratic House campaigns are prepared for the 2006 election battle. We could not do it without you, thank you. The quarter ended yesterday and because of you we surpassed our goals for the Early Match Challenge - we can go into the next fight on firm footing.




That next fight arrived today, when Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement.

Over the past few months, we've seen Republican extremism reach new heights. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist sought to rally the right to his side with the so-called "Nuclear Option" while House Republican Leader Tom DeLay threatened judges for making decisions he didn't agree with - even as violence against judges was raising alarm bells across the country. All of this laid the groundwork for the clash that the extremists have had their eyes on all along: the battle for the independence of the Supreme Court.

With the retirement of Justice O'Connor, who was a key vote in favor of Roe v. Wade, there is is much at stake. The radical right wing will no doubt pour millions of dollars into this fight.

Sign our petition urging President Bush to nominate a moderate, consensus candidate that all Americans can support:

http://www.democraticaction.org/petitions/consensusjudge.shtml

The agenda of the radical right wing is to:

turn back the clock on women's rights

overturn Roe v. Wade

eliminate evolution from school textbooks

intrude into your family's private life and medical decisions

decrease funding for programs that protect the public and the environment

benefit big business and special interest groups

President Bush has an opportunity to nominate a mainstream judge that the American people can unite behind. America enjoys the greatest wealth of legal talent in the world, and there are plenty of Republican judges that Democrats could support. But the radical right sees the opportunity to shape the Court for the next generation by installing an ultra-conservative Justice, and few anticipate that President Bush will turn his back on them for the first time now.

Ask President Bush to nominate a consensus candidate who will unite, not divide Americans:

http://www.democraticaction.org/petitions/consensusjudge.shtml

If President Bush rejects our recommendation to nominate a consensus candidate, Democrats must be prepared to mobilize immediately to make sure that Republicans don't politicize the last independent branch of government. There is nothing Republicans will attack more aggressively than a check on their power, and they will relish the opportunity to install an ideologue for a lifetime appointment. This is but one plank in the unflinching power grab that is the Republican agenda. We will keep up the fight, and we will keep you up to date. Stay tuned, and stay vigilant.

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US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to Retire
By VOA News 01 July 2005

Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, has announced that she is retiring.

The 75-year-old Ms. O'Connor sent a letter to President Bush, Friday stating that she will leave the court when her successor is nominated and confirmed. She said it has been a great privilege to have served on the Supreme Court for the past 24 years.

Over the years, Ms. O'Connor cast the deciding vote in many 5-4 cases that dealt with hotly contested issues such as abortion and the death penalty.

Her resignation is expected to set off an intense political battle between Republicans and Democrats over who will fill her seat.

The White House has been preparing for a potential Supreme Court vacancy. U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist is ailing with thyroid cancer, but has given no indication that he will step down.

This will be President Bush's first opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court Justice. The White House says Mr. Bush will make a statement about the resignation of Ms. O'Connor shortly.

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Sandra Day O'Connor

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1981, although on July 1, 2005, O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court, effective upon the confirmation of her replacement. She was the first woman to serve on the Court. Due to her case-by-case approach to jurisprudence and her relatively moderate political views, she has in recent years been the crucial swing vote of the Court. In 2004, Forbes Magazine designated her the fourth most powerful woman in the United States and the sixth most powerful in the world. [1]

Life and history

O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas and grew up on a cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. She later wrote a book about her childhood experiences on the ranch, "Lazy B," with her brother, H. Alan Day. She attended Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in economics in 1950. She continued at Stanford for her LL.B., graduating in two years (instead of the customary three), serving on the Law Review, and graduating third out of 102 in the class of which William Rehnquist was valedictorian.

In spite of her accomplishments at law school, no law firm in California was willing to hire her as a lawyer, although one firm did offer her a position as a legal secretary. She therefore turned to public service, taking a position as Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County, California from 1952-1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany from 1954-1957. From 1958-1960, she practiced law in the Maryvale area of the Phoenix metropolitan area, and served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965-1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969 and was subsequently reelected to two two-year terms. In 1973, she became the first woman to serve as a state senate majority leader in any state. In 1975, she was elected judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals by a Democratic governor. During her time in Arizona state government, she served in all three branches. On August 19, 1981, President Reagan, who had pledged during the 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court, nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Potter Stewart. She was confirmed by the Senate unanimously on September 21 and took her seat September 25.

Sandy and Ronnie "the Rapist" Reagan get cosy ...

She married John Jay O'Connor III in 1952 and has three sons. She is an avid golfer who scored a hole-in-one in 2000 at the Paradise Valley Country Club in Arizona. [2]

Law in the center of politics

O'Connor is part of the federalism movement and approaches each case as narrowly as possible, avoiding generalizations which might later “paint her into a corner” for future cases. Although she formed part of the conservative axis during the later years of the Burger Court, with the departure of the last members of the liberal Warren Court, she is now regarded as occupying the ideological center. It is both O'Connor's dedication to asserting her judicial power over that of other federal institutions and her pragmatic circumspection that has given her a deciding centrist vote for many of the Rehnquist Court's cases.

On December 12, 2000, O'Connor joined with six other (ruling to stop the ongoing Florida recount) and four other (ruling to allow no further recounts) justices to rule on the Bush v. Gore case which ceased challenges to the results of the 2000 election. Some charged that the Supreme Court made a power grab through its decision. Others note that the Court specifically restricted the precedent-setting effect of the decision by holding, "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities."

Justice O'Connor has played an important role in other notable cases, including Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and Lawrence v. Texas, and was the deciding vote which upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, as well as the vote which upheld affirmative action policies on college campuses. Some suggest that, in making her decisions, O'Connor not only considers the merits of the case and her personal views, but also focuses too much on the prevailing politics of the day. Others counter that she holds very nuanced views and decides each case on its merits. In any event, she is frequently the justice to whom oral and written arguments are directed because she is so frequently the deciding vote.

On February 22, 2005, with Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice John Paul Stevens absent, O'Connor presided over oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, becoming the first woman to preside over an oral argument before the Supreme Court.

Justice O'Connor was successfully treated for breast cancer in 1988, and there has since been speculation that she might retire from the Court, although Chief Justice Rehnquist was widely expected to be the first to retire during President George W. Bush's term. Prior to O'Connor's resignation, the membership of the Court has been static for 11 years, one of the longest standing in history.

Retirement

Justice O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court on July 1, 2005, issuing the following letter addressed to President Bush:

This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor. It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms. I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure.

O'Connor said she expects to leave the high court before the start of the next term in October 2005. Her retirement from active service will take effect upon the confirmation of her successor. If President Bush follows historical precedent, he will announce his choice to replace Justice O'Connor within days, answering months of speculation as to potential Bush administration nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States.

External links

• Official Supreme Court biographies of all current justices (PDF format)
• The OYEZ Project's biography by a Northwestern University law professor
• LookSmart - Sandra Day O'Connor directory category
• Yahoo - Sandra Day O'Connor directory category

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- Sparky wants you informed.

PS Previous blog has a link to the Chickenhawk Flash Movie - it'd be funny if Americans were not dying to enrich the GOP elites ... Stay smart.

PP Guru:
STRANGE STIRRINGS BELOW
THE GURU's BELT -
Special Santa Barbara Edition

The PP Guru had some recuperating to do after he got done attending the 29th birthday of his favorite gal pal, Tantalizing Tara of Tango Toot Tamales. It was a very heady affair of wine stories, cheese & crackers, red velvet cake cupcakes, and some very interesting people- people even more interesting than the PP Guru himself. But of course, the PP Guru came dressed as Batman, so nobody really knew that it was mild mannered eccentric billionaire PP Guru in disguise. The PP Guru has taken pictures of this black-garbed saturnalia and will share them with you next week of Tantalizing Tara in all her alluring sexy vampy glory as well as her friends when Tantalizing Tara herself will be the headline top story of that Peabody award winning series - REAL LIFE STRANGE STIRRINGS BELOW THE GURU's BELT.

So in prose celebration of Tantalizing Tara of the Tumultuous Tumbling Tenderfoots- Tantalizing Tara has requested the PP Guru to feature a celebrity subject of her own choosing to get her extravagant wine buzz going at her private retreat somewhere in Santa Barbara and the PP Guru was more than happy to oblige:

So, without further ado- Tantalizing Tara gets a little damp in the pants over:



Hey little DAKOTA FANNING- Want some PP Guru candy?

What? Whoa- now that's just sick!! the PP Guru must have made a grevious error somewhere- in his memory banks- so, let's pause for some minor readjustment, shall we?

Child porn? Why the PP Guru should hope not- he certainly wouldn't be able to cope with a electronic braclet wrapped around his privates and hey-

Hey, now that idea of an electonic braclet is not such a bad....

Oh, Never mind.

It's just that the PP Guru has been concerned lately about how Tom Cruise is constantly callously flinging around PR for his Church of Scientology beliefs on daytime TV housewife targeting vehicles such as Oprah Winfray and the Today Show - that he's worried about how manipulative a role model Tom can be to poor little defendless Dakota and the PP Guru may have uncovered a fiendish plot of how he may be able to manuever and prey upon her invulnerablilty and coax her into signing up to his cheap bought out 99 cent store religion. The PP Guru is ever on the alert and has deprogrammers standing by and ready.

Now where was the PP Guru with his favorite femme fatale, Tantalizing Tara who is now, as the PP Guru writes this, probably on her way up to the coast to Santa Barbara to enjoy a exciting weekend locked away in some luxorious hotel suite opening up fermented bottles of Chardonnay, staring at the artwork on the walls of vineyards , and being slathered on with grape leave massages by a German masseuse named Hans while falling into a meditative-like state as her unconsciousness slowly drifts towards dirty filthy erotic dreams of ...

... Sofia Coppola?
That's right- Tara's flavor of the month is Sofia, even though the one time Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee for Lost in Translation has been out of the limelight of late - but a little PP Guru investigation has turned up some startling revelations via wikipedia - which states that Sofia has been doing some research in Versailles for her next directorial effort based on the life of doomed 18th-century royal, Queen Marie Antoinette, who was guillotined by French republicans in 1793 with Kirsten Dunst set to play the lead role. Asia Argento, of whom the PP Guru spewed his happy zen seed upon last week is also in this movie in the role of Madame du Barry. The movie will be released through Sony Pictures in 2006.

So how did Tantalizing Tara come to the realization that Sophia was the only kinetic love connection for her? She answered the question in this e-mail reply:




DAKOTA - can you even comprehend what Tom is trying to do to you? - DO YOU REMEMBER during those trailer breaks on the production of the War of the Worlds set when Dianeticrat TOM Out of Control CRUISE hooked some electrodes to the waist hem of your freshly bought K-Mart girly underpants and was sending little electrical tingles throughout your body- just by a push of a remote controlled button secretly embedded in his Cartier wristwatch? Well, Dakota what you would be experencing there is the first step in being assimulated into the evil throes of the Church of Scientology. The PP Guru is here to help break that vicious kind of conditioning. You won't be taken in for a Thetan thumb ride, unlike that poor Katie Holmes who has now solemnly vowed under the control of a personality test hypnosis to lick away Tom's toejam woes for the rest of her misbegotten life.

Tantalizing Tara - the PP Guru apologizes for that rude interruption- that was a DAKOTA Amnesia Pervention Alert bulletin that just came in his via HD-TV Sonor micro wave range patented helmet. Deprogrammers are now standing by and are ready to dispatch.

Anyway, back on the subject concerning Tantalizing Tara's magical wishbone fantasies about Sofia: that's a tough one. i was all about Sarah McLachlan for awhile but her concert was boorish and the long hair doesn't work. Halle Berry I saw in person one night, but I'm not completely sold. Tina Fey was on the list till she got pregnant. Rosario Dawson is certainly attractive. hmmm. help me out here, PP Guru. I need a green-eyed woman with dark hair. can you think of anyone? someone probably about 28-32.

What do you think the PP Guru is running here - a celebrity pimp service? The only rumor the PP Guru heard is that when he takes in his tunics to get dry cleaned at this place in Toluca Lake right next door to the Starbuck's where Talking Ti---

Uh, oh - this just in:




DAKOTA- You must clear your mind of all things TOM CRUISE. The PP Guru knows he plays your daddy in Spielberg's newest overbudgeted TV movie of the week - but you are rope a doped into some sick process of servitude! You must undo the straps that are binding you to that wooden chair. You MUST remove that ballgag from out of your mouth and walk back into the light from that darkened closet that he put you in. YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN ALIVE BY COCKROACHES the way that Lisa McPherson's body was found a few years back in Clearwater, Florida- do you? Hang in there little Dakota - help is on its way.

Ooo, Ooo - I got it PP Guru! Sofia Coppola!! I'm going to choose Sofia Coppola. I liked her movie and her family is in the wine business. and she's definitely hot.

Hmmm- the PP Guru is just a tad disappointed. He was really hoping that Tantalizing Tara would shift her miff towards actress Jennifer Connolly - since she would be such a dead ringer for her younger sister. But then, if we all really really had the choice - could we have sex with our evil counterparts- our doppelgangers for a lack of a better term, if confronted with the scientific wanton need and desire?

Oh come on, the PP Guru would never respect himself in the morning.




But nonetheless, Tantalizing Tara had made an interesting choice that reflects on her interests and the type of recreation that she enjoys to indulge in. Tantalizing Tara could trade secrets with Sofia ( the Coppolas, including daddy Francis are in the wine biz too) on ways to sloush wine around in your mouth and spit it out like Listerine which the PP Guru has heard that the correct terminology in the restaurant field for this kind of sensuous activity (it would to the PP Guru - if he had caught Tantalizing Tara doing it) is called 'wine breathing' - whereas the one hosting the meal at the table has to be the one to taste test the wine for the rest of his guests-

OH NO !- Not again - the helmet is picking up....




DAKOTA - YOU DO NOT WANT TO CARRY AROUND FAKE CREDENTIALS CLAIMING THAT YOU are A LEGITIMATE CARD CARRYING PSYCHIATRIST WHEN YOU GROW UP. Unlike the polemizing scam that Tom tried to pull over Matt Lauer's eyes on the Today Show, you must go to school and finish college in order to be a certified therapist. But the PP Guru is not one to lay complete blame on Dr. CruiseFreud- Tom was simply paraphrasing what American criminal Hubbard wrote in HCO Technical Bulletin of July 22, 1956:

This is true -- We now know more about psychiatry than psychiatrists. We can brainwash faster than the Russians (20 secs to total amnesia against three years to slightly confused loyalty. The "we" Hubbard was refering to was to himself and $cientology.

Like The PP Guru was telling you little Darling Dakota: watch the movie Trading Places and you will see for yourself. The PP Guru has alerted all deprogrammers in your vicinity and they are fixed in on your postition. They will rescue you from Tom's evil diabotical clutches.

Well- it looks as if the PP Guru has run out of room and his glassy zen eyes are starting to get a bit droopy- so we will reconvene next week as he needs to go celebrate the July 4th weekend with the rest of the Gurus.

As fermented and freshly bottled to:

~

Coat

SPARKY:
Some Light Reading While We Await News Of the PP GURU's Party Success ... And Let's Ponder WTF The Heirs to La Jolla Jack's * Media Empire Are Up To ... Follow the links!

Hot Stuff! Go Here Now!
TV cult that's never been aired

GLOBAL FREQUENCY, Free Newspaper

GF Storm Surge

Special Blog Just For All The Reagan Youth Like Tina Out There: 57% of America are traitors.


gives us this:

Two Dozen Hot Dogs Please, and No, They're Not to Go

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ Published: June 30, 2005

Call them Ishmael.

In a pursuit not at all reminiscent of "Moby-Dick," a group of competitors gathered yesterday to hunt and subdue the ferocious unseen eating machine known as Takeru Kobayashi of Japan.

Lauren Holz, far right, a court-assigned police officer, at a qualifying round of frankfurter eaters
Wednesday at the South Street Seaport.

Mr. Kobayashi, 5-foot-7 and 131 pounds, is ferocious because he has defeated rivals many times his weight.

He is an eating machine because he has won Nathan's Famous hot-dog contest four years in a row. Last year, he ate a record 53½ frankfurters, buns and all, in the required 12 minutes, or roughly one every 13 seconds.

And he was unseen because yesterday was not the Fourth of July and Pier 17 at South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan was not Coney Island.

The contest, held in the shadow of a tall ship at high noon, was one of several regional qualifying rounds leading to the final July Fourth showdown at Nathan's. As the reigning champion, Mr. Kobayashi didn't have to be there.

Still, the news media converged, the curious stopped to watch and George Shea, the master of ceremonies, summoned up all the gravitas that can attach to a man wearing a straw hat.

To the beat of Eminem's "8 Mile," Mr. Shea declared: "They say that competitive eating is the battleground upon which God and Lucifer waged war for men's souls, ladies and gentlemen. And they are right!" Mr. Shea is co-founder of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which oversees the Nathan's contest.

Nominally restricted to civil servants, yesterday's contest also included a self-described inventor, a chemical salesman and a journalist.

Among the 14 men and 2 women, the favorite was Eric Booker, 36, a subway conductor on the No. 7 line. At 6-foot-5 and 420 pounds, a Nathan's T-shirt straining at his Henry VIII girth, Mr. Booker looked every inch the nine-year veteran of the competitive-eating circuit.

Nicknamed Badlands for his provenance in Jamaica, Queens, Mr. Booker is now a resident of Copiague on Long Island.

Perhaps the most striking competitor, however, was Lauren Holz, 25, of Staten Island. She was the only eater packing a handgun.

A uniformed police officer for the state trial courts, Ms. Holz was on her lunch break. She also carried pepper spray, handcuffs and a truncheon.

Officer Holz had been teased into entering by a fellow worker and managed to eat only five hot dogs, thoroughly chewing each bite and holding the frank with the fingertips of both hands.

Asked how she felt at the contest's finish, Officer Holz paused, frowned and replied, "Not the best."

Richard Perry/The New York Times

Eric Booker of Copiague, N.Y., ate 22 1/2 Nathan's franks, with buns.

Mr. Booker won. Chewing like a gerbil, if a gerbil wore a backward baseball cap, his cheeks distended like those of Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Booker ate 22½ franks.

The number was less than half of Mr. Kobayashi's record. Will Mr. Booker be ready for the Big Show?

Yes, Mr. Booker said, observing that he had recently eaten 41 Nathan's franks, though not in competition. And, he acknowledged, "they were the supermarket kind," easier to find than the Coney Island kind but skinnier.

Still, Captain Ahab-like, Mr. Booker said about Mr. Kobayashi, "I'm not going to stop until I get him."

* Think Jack Warner kids

- Sparky

PP Guru:

KERRY TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

The PP Guru would like to stay and chat tonight about new DVD releases like he usually does on every Tuesday - but he has to leave early and go to the mall to shop for some black attire for one of his favorite female acquaintances who is having a birthday party tomorrow out in Silver Lake. The Tantalizing Tara of Termite Tattertots has made a request that everyone comes garbed in black and to eat and drink lots of wine and cheese. Maybe the reason is because that black is supposed to be so stain resistant- in case the PP Guru spills it on everyone- it's been a while since he properly held a wine class in his foddling little hands.

Which is kinda silly, because the PP Guru usually comes to these special soirees dressed in purple. The PP Guru in black attire? C'mon Tantalizing Tara of Termite Tattertots - where is your fashion sense? PP Gurus don't come in black - they come in purple.

Silly Bunny.

So - in the meantime - while the PP Guru is perusing through the many men's stores over at the Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks, maybe he'll get lucky in trying to score a mannequin's phone number over at Bloomingdales's - Dry Drunk Dubya will try to justify (once again) the bloodshed going in Iraq on national TV. What a shame, the PP Guru will be missing out on this summer's GOP infomercial - especially when there's nothing good on the tube other than more stupid Fear Factor reruns. But that 's why the PP Guru is continously racking up the APR rate on his fun cards on the infinite barrage of DVD boxsets- so he doesn't have to hear such fresh squeezed anal swill emitting from the mouth of the mindless tonight- when you have such new releases to crack open like the Judith Light Country Club Season 5 - no wait- the PP Guru meant to say the Fifth Season of Oz:



Back when the PP Guru was still kicking back at Parsippany High School in Parsippany N.J. i - he was regarded by his evil-stepfather - EGO MANIAC ROGER with far more frequency as a 'juvenile delinquent' than the local police precinct did. He said: 'and you're going to sit at home and watch this show that's going to be on tv tonight called 'SCARED STRAIGHT'! That will straighten your shit out!!"

Oh pleeeeze! If OZ were around back in the day of platform shoes and draw string pants- you would made a believer out of me then. You ever see the episode where one inmate' s pocket frank and beans gets chomped and spit out by another inmate while he getting his knob polished?

That would be a good reason to go straight right there.

'Scared Straight' - jeez, even Romper Room was more scarier.



If you'll going to be watching the GW Bush version of Wheel of Fortune coming to you live from Ft.Bragg, N.C and you're wondering why you're still watching a damn blasted cartoon - why not pop one of these puppies in instead - because the Bush Administration is starting to look a little bit more and more like a real life cartoon anyway. The second DVD box collection of Ren & Stimpy is partially powered by John K depleted energy sources (John Kricfalusi didn't stay long after most of these episodes aired- due to Nickelodon's infernal interference ). It's certainly better than getting that same old song and dance from Broken Record Bush taking up the entire width of your HD-TV. Once The PP Guru gets this in his collection, he'll talk more about it.



And for those tuning in tonight without close captioning for the hard to enunicate a complete sentence - John F. Kerry gives a translation of his strategy that he has been hiding in plain sight since the last November elections written up in a editorial to the New York Times. Read this in case- you can't decipher what a single fucking solitary word Flop ears and his cabinet of blood thirty cock sucking vampires is coming out of their mucus clotted throats.

Sparky will have something to say for the rest of the week.

As maxed out to:

~

Coat

PP Guru:
WAR OF THE WORLD-LINKS!!

It's one of those light bloggy summer days again- The June Gloom is out making the mornings seem unseasonably cool, the shorts are getting shorter by noontime on the Santa Monica Pier, and there's Tom Out of Cruise Control, showing off his puppet queen at tonight's Gruman Chinese red carpet premiere of the War of the Worlds courtesy of those friendly mind altering freaks at the Church of Scientology and sponsored by the makers of Ritalin.

That's right- it's War of the World week at your local cinema- should fit nice and cozy for the holiday season full of Roman Candles, charcoal snakes, and sparklers - the real manly stuff that the PP Guru likes to haul out of the attic this time of year.

Not only are the movies jumping on the H.G. Wells chic classic express - but comic books and SACDs are trying to break off a metorite chunk of the profits as well.

The PP Guru has a busy holiday weekend ahead of him- starting Wednesday he has to leave work early to attend one of his best friend's birthday party - the Tantalizing Tara of Toltac Terrace- as she will be turning a long in the tooth 29 and a whole bunch of people of which the PP Guru has probably never met before will be ripped on many shattering bottles of either the Cabernet Franc or the Chardonnay or perhaps he'll be passed out in a pool of his own merlot after endlessly nibbing on a gaseous assortment of cheeses in a aid of leaving him bloated and constipated.

But until that final day - in the mean while, the PP Guru has unearthed some earthly daffodils that may appeal to the Martian conqueror in all of us:

Back in the mid-seventies, back when the PP Guru was just a snot dripping Don Juan apprentice, there were comic books that used to cost a quarter. Does anyone even recall what a quarter even looks like these days? Well using these quarters back in the day- one could actually afford something that could bring someone a certain twenty minutes of carefree entertainment- and Marvel comics back in the day actually fitted the bill. Earlier this year, the PP Guru gushed euphoric bliss over when they had packaged 27 issues of Luke Cage: Hero for Hero in one such sticky superfly-sized thick tome - and caved in for the Iron Fist one before that (the PP Guru has had his evil eye on the Defenders volume for a good while now. Steady PP Guru, steady now. ) - now, in conjunction with the War of the Worlds movie release Marvel joins in on the good starship Profit Lollipop - in releasing another spectacular piece of sentimental value: The Essential Killraven.



Killraven was a sort of the super hero experiment that Wells (Howard Chaykin doing a riff after leaving DC to bring a Sword and Sorcery take on HG's ) didn't plan on when he originally wrote his novel at the turn of the twentieth century - a unauthorized sequel as you will concerning a slave trader who turns and breaks free of his imprisonment in order to lead a revolt against his grotesque captors. The 500 page plus tome reprints in glorious b & w (sort of like a King Ted Turner in reverse, huh? ) all of Killraven's entire run in Amazing Adventures # 18-39, Marvel Team-Up #45, Marvel Graphic Novel #7, and Killraven #1 (Marvel Knights). If you haven't seen P. Craig Russell's art on the Marvel Graphic Novel (which was material originally slated for Epic Magazine before that magazine went kaput) then you haven't really seen truly awesome comic book art. Breath takingly beautiful- which was only rivaled by his work in Sandman # 50 or the Elric mini-series. Also Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler and a hidden cache of creative writing and penciling stars join in on the stargazing.

The PP Guru just like....had this....prog rock epiphany of something rare that is missing from his collection (again?) that it might have been a no-brainer for Sony Music to re-release the original rock opera to H.G.Wells' War of the Worlds on SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc - for those in this Tech World of the Haves and Haves-Not ) in tandem to profit along with this summer's blockbuster to beat (yeah, we'll see if Tom really holds on to the top shot with all this hostile publicity constantly hounding him) . Back in 1978 - the summer where the PP Guru first ventured onto the honeycombed highways and the peyote snuff can beaches of Orange County, Ca; he was raised in the echelon of hand to hand crank contest to achieve the ranking of the Purple Pinup Guru of Puberty- until one day he walked into a nearby Licorice Pizza after indulging in insatiable munchies of Dolly Madison fruit pies and a six pack of Squirt that he came across this double vinyl curio:


Written and performed in part by Jeff Wayne, Jeff was a producer and engineer most associated with creating hit records for David Essex and had worked on the production of Godspell- so this was his first opera that was ever set to vinyl. Now with modern technology and some hard to find master tapes of some material never before released, we can revisit some of that lost era again when records were teetering on break through in themes and conceptual as they were tantamount to seeing a play or reading a good book. The PP Guru admits that he was a little puerile in not making the attempt to buy - since the record is now long deleted from it's stock - but the guest talent didn't much impress the PP Guru at the time- the only noteworthy guest musican the PP Guru found worthy on it was Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy fame. Justin Hayward from the Moody Blues and Chris Thompson from the Manfred Mann Earth Band just didn't really grab the PP Guru - until the PP Guru became a big fan of the Moody Blues when the Long Distance Voyager album was released in 1981 (mostly because of ex-Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz's involvement) did he want to become a Moody Blues completist did he realize that as time slipped by, the Jeff Wayne version War of the Worlds became increasingly impossible to come by. To bone up on the making of this album click here
and to reveal what took place in the re-mastering process - prepare for the SACD sonic invasion here . Will the PP Guru fail in his mission of reaching true progressive rock nirvana in trying to own every goddamn thing once it hit the shelves?

GODDAMN THAT DESPICABLE WINNIE THE POOH CURSE OF DEATH.....

Yeah, so Paul Winchell got all the press - the PP Guru twinges in remorse for one of his fab fav voice throwing artists who was world renowned for providing the voice for Tigger ( as well as an inventor of all disposable necessities such as the razor & the invisible garter belt ) on all those Winnie the Pooh cartoon shorts - but how can fate play such a cruel joke and take away two people who provided voices for the exact same cartoon on the very same weekend? What are the freakin' mega-million dollar odds of that ever happening again? Of course, the PP Guru is referring to John Fiedler's passing almost a day and a half following Winchell's. The spectre of A.A. Milne's estate knows no bounds in its's quest for vengeance- is this the justice that they are really seeking for Disney's shredding of public domain evidence that are bilking the family out of billions and billions of dollars?

Trademarking and patents truly seem to be a matter of life and death these days. So kiddies don't buy the bootlegged merchandise and stop downloading those damn movies off the internet- all it will accomplish is you getting a fresh bite in the ass from your Fed buddies.

Told and self destructed in under five minutes to:

~ Coat