Hammer Mill Days

Good evening, Mr. Phelps. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to read this blog entry from top to bottom without falling over backwards. This blog will self-destruct in ten seconds. Good luck, Jim! Don't mind that first paragraph. I sometimes rent my blog space out to sixties television shows. Has something to do with the space-time vortex through which we ordinarily travel when on these interstellar tours. Don't ask me to explain - I'm not an actual scientist. And unlike some of my blog renters, I don't even play one on television. Anyway, here's a rundown of how Big Green's [INSERT NAME HERE] Interstellar Tour 2011 is going so far, ripped straight from the pages of my log book. 10.08.2011 - Negotiated our way through the asteroid belt. We needed to lighten our load somewhat, so we tossed a few things overboard, like Marvin (my personal assistant)'s Lowery organ he borrowed from our one-time promoter and second keyboard player, Tiny Montgome...

Can't call me a cynic quite yet. The Occupy Wall Street movement seems a very positive development to my jaundiced eye. Hell, there were reportedly 400 people at the rally in Utica. When we brought out more than 200 for the big demo on the eve of the Iraq war, that seemed amazing for a place like this. 400 is practically unheard of. There is a strong undercurrent of resentment about the financial crisis and the fact that virtually none of the large institutions that caused the meltdown have been held to account, just as no executive in any of those firms has faced the threat of prosecution. Nay, they have continued to receive obscene bonuses, showboating their excess as if to flaunt their immunity from the restrictions of either the law or the marketplace. Like Dick Cheney bragging about his support for torture, they seem to be daring us to do something - anything - about their transgressions. You can't touch me, they laugh. Well.... maybe we can. There seems to be an overwhelm...