Tijuana in the morning.

Its warm in Mexico, its sunshine in Tijuana. I’m staying at the ‘Hoteles Camino Real’ a real top shelf joint with marble everything and that trashy Mexico style trim with gold and blues. The hotel sits on the corner of the plaza camino right in the heart of the “arts District” and is in fact a bona fide fashionable place. Well-dressed locals talking on cell phones, buying Paintings and Retro Nike’s. I’ll get some more photos in the next few days.

TJ.

GONE TO MEXICO.

Missionary Attacked.

Surgeons in the east African nation of Kenya have had to remove an eye from Tigard-based missionary Carol Briggs after gangsters stopped her car and shot her in the mouth Feb. 4.
Briggs, 64, moved to Kenya in November as a medical volunteer to help orphans with HIV. She's in a hospital in the capital of Nairobi.

What do you think about the work of the modern day Missionary? Do they help or hurt?

Fidel Castro’s not dead.

Fidel Castro is a word and fashion icon. Gray beard, green military fatigues, a forbidden cigar located between his lips and a one-word name, “Fidel” precedes Cuba’s president. He is the world longest serving political leader and the last tree in the communist forest. Some give the one word name he possesses adoration and some revulsion; all of us have ideas about Castro.

Fidel Castro is both myth and reality.
The fall of communism came November 9, 1989 with the removal of the Berlin wall. A symbol of the end of the cold war. Castro must not have got the memo- his revolution began before the cold war and holds firm as he dies in his beloved Cuba. Fidel Castro is not a hero of freedom or choice. He sends anyone who opposes him to prison. But he is a study of power, ideas, and a history firmly in the past, yet affecting the present.

There has been a lot written about the life of the revolution and it's leader. His place in history will be disputed forever by his fans and foes. I wanted to gaze into a side of the Castro story, both as a point of history and caution. Castro’s relationship with religion.

Cuba is not Poland, where the Catholic faith was strong and decisive against communism. Before Castro, many to strongly identified with the Batista dictatorship viewed the Catholic Church poorly. While paradoxically, Castro owes his life to the Catholic Church. In 1953, one year after Batista's coup, Castro led a failed attack against the Moncada Garrison where many young revolutionaries lost their lives. After the fiasco, Castro ran to seek refuge with Santiago de Cuba's Archbishop, Monsignor Perez Serantes, who got from Batista the warranty that Castro's life would be respected and that he would receive legal due process according to the constitution. However, in 1959, after Castro's rise to power, he turned his rage against the Catholic Church. August 1960, Castro-controlled mobs attack worshippers emerging from mass; all Catholic radio and TV programs are cancelled. April 1961, all Catholic publications are halted; churches are vandalized by Castro's mobs; Cuban Cardinal Arteaga seeks political asylum in the Argentine Embassy. June 1961, Castro expropriates all religious schools(about 350 Catholic), removing parents' right to determine their children’s education - their only choice is Castro's public schools where the children are discouraged to believe in God and are indoctrinated for a communist society where hatred for Castro's enemies is highlighted. September 1961, Castro expels Bishop Boza Masvidal along with 131 other Catholic clergy; by years end, 3,400 priests and nuns are forced into exile. November 1965, Castro calls remaining priests and believers "social scum", sending many of them to the newly created UMAP concentration and labor camps, in the province of Camagüey along with gays and others “unfit” for his communist revolution. By 1971, the population of Castro's Cuba was 100,000 - while conservative estimates place the number of executed at 5,000.



February 2007, Castro is 80 years old and in poor heath.

Black Jesus.

This seems like a depraved B-movie. 31 year old Steven Tari, leader of a cargo cult in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea is the objective of a massive man hunt. Cargo Cults are a creepy trend in and around Melanesia, from what I read they are based on a belief in a new age spirit that brings blessings in the form of “cargo”, such as goods and gifts. It's also believed, brave men will bring back “cargo” from heroic quests. I know it seems unreal. Steven Tari(black Jesus)the leader of a significant cargo cult has taken the faith to a disturbing new level. Human sacrifice, so far three young women who were reportedly sacrificed to the devil and then eaten by the black Jesus. He is also known to have dozens of sex slaves. CREEPY!

The Black Jesus started his cult last year, after he was expelled from a Bible college for stealing from fellow students.

Hitler wanted to be a painter. A Leonardo if you will.
The Black Jesus wanted to be Billy Graham.
Charles Manson wanted to be John Lennon.

Does anyone know of any other resentful-reckless-mad-men, who lashed out on a world that crushed their aspirations?

THE 700 FIGHT CLUB!!

Phillip Busch VS, Pat Roberson...... the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Pat Robertson says the televangelist threatened his life and that of his family at a legal proceeding Wednesday.Robertson has been touting his "age-defying" weight-loss shake for five years on TV. You know the man can leg press 1000 LBS, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d3AxvKCH7U

Busch, a Texas bodybuilder, contacted the show in 2005, saying he had slimmed down from 400 to 200 pounds drinking the shake. Busch, The 700 club showed his before-and-after photos in a promotional spot. Robertson has recently licensed his shake for commercial distribution by a nationwide health-food chain in a ready-to-mix powdered formula. He sued Robertson in September 2005, alleging that the broadcaster used his image for a commercial purpose without compensating him.

The case is set for trial in April.

This is not the first time Robertson has been accused of threatening an adversary.

After the failure of an earlier Robertson commercial venture – a multilevel sales outlet for Bible study courses and discount coupon books – the broadcaster fired Mark Peterson, the venture's top executive. The two blamed each other for the business' failure in what became a public feud. And a leg press death threat!

Kansas City is the place to be.

The union station in K-city is pulling the curtain off of a 3 million dollar ancient history exhibit, together with the Dead Sea scroll foundation running until May 13. There are no bones, tools, or head stones in the exhibit. The exhibits focus is on the set of fragile scrolls found around the Dead Sea 60 years ago. Hand tools and bones are tangible objects that can help us speculate about their lives - how they worked, the homes they lived in, even there diet. But the scrolls are precise, they tell us what these people believed about God and the great mysteries of life, in their genuine hand written words. The Dead Sea scrolls plummet even deeper with links to the Hebrew Bible. The further back we can go to the pure text, without mans discrimination or tampering, the clearer view we can get of ancient Jewish life. And from that, follows the birth of Christianity, the dawning of the Muslim movement, and the founding of the western world.


I know no one will make a trip to Kansas City. I’ve been only once, loved the downtown. Kansas City has more fountains than Paris France, 200 dotted around the city. It's also home of the Kansas City Jazz sound, founded in the cities jazz clubs by Count Basie.

Transgender University.

A private, Christian university is firing a transgender professor, who began appearing as a woman on campus in 2005. The professor’s name is John Newecek, he is 55 years old, but goes by Julie Marie. Julie Marie often wears a dress and wig to class. Julie is an ordained Baptist minister and has worked for the school for 16 years.
“I have worked hard for this university, have been praised for my performance, and I have done nothing immoral or sinful,” Nemecek told the papers Sunday.
The school, in a letter stated; “We expect our faculty to model Christian character as an example for our students.”
Nemecak has filed a discrimination claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
This story dose raise a lot of questions. I find it particular that this same week Rev. Ted Haggard has marched out of his Arizona treatment center, well I should say his “restoration center,” Pastors are restored like old Corvettes or brownstone town homes. Us “every day” people are “treated”....Like cancer or rabies. Whatever the case, he has found himself “Completely Heterosexual.”
It’s not a battle of semantics. It’s a battle over this very resolved line. “What is Christian character? What is moral? I'm not trying to make the waters of character cloudy, I do see the black and the white, I see two sides. The agreeable thing about the modern age, is the options we are given. Such as gay or transgender groups like; www.godandgays.org and www.gaychurch.org.

The root of personal ethics is each persons own journey. The independence to travel along our own path is truly beautiful.
In fact, there's a new film out talking about more of this… www.godandgaysthemovie.com

The north American Railway/John Steinbeck/ Daylight Fading

The Train trip was agreeable. The train was late arriving in Seattle pushing our boarding time back to 11:30am. Esther and I had coffee at Elliot Bay Books, one of the more respectable coffee shops in the district. I was looking for a used copy of Ricky Moody’s “The Ice storm” they had a new copy with a fierce looking new cover for 15$ more than I had cash.
Esther had never ridden from Seattle to Portland via train, and for my “always in the know” wife it was vary cute. Am-track is unusual in its activity, no baggage checks; bring your own food, never on time. She found her flow quickly flipping pages of a ‘real simple magazine’ and I-pod-ing the countryside away.
The view out my Widow was fog draped, showing just the toes of the scenery. We made camp in the dinning car, Esther had a tuna Salad and I dinned on a Hebrew national all beef hotdog and a mugroot beer. I love train travel.

Shelby left a comment to my last blog post ... ‘ roadhouse blues’ relaying an expedition to the lower Utah Desert reading Steinbeck’s “the pearl.” I dig that book at just fewer than 200 pages; it’s full of feral images of Island life and a childlike belief that the path to riches is a road that wrecks us all. Then Sheldon fired off a list of CC Albums, and of a Seattle long gone the way of the Buffalo when “107.7 the end" still meant something and Starbucks was still a fairly cool place to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Knowing Sheldon at that time and hearing him talk about ‘Recovering the Satellites’ you would have thought he was discussing Plato. But it’s hard to contest a line like.

“…Waiting for the moon to come and light me up inside
I am waiting for the telephone to tell me Im alive
Well I heard you let somebody get their fingers into you
Its getting cold in California I guess Ill be leaving soon…”

Follow this:
Late fall or Early spring I can’t really say it’s all the same in Bend. 3 house-broke boys, one Red Volkswagen bug (Sheldon’s girlfriends car) and an endless night of “round about” marathons, Dumpster diving, me screaming like a girl, stained front seats, and as the sun pulled it self over the end of town, singing at the top of our lungs
“ And I’ve been up all night I might sleep all day. Get you dreams just right and let them slip away….”
Burned into my brain like a tattoo…

Roadhouse Blues..

I’m prepping for the train trip to Portland, with an I-pod play list. Something for a misty railway morning.

Asleep- the smiths

Do you realize? - The Flaming Lips

Sail to the moon- Radiohead

Crown Of Love- The Arcade fire

I love you –Black flag

Taillights Fade- Buffalo Tom

If you could read my mind- Gordon Lightfoot

Roadhouse Blue-The doors

I was thinking about the doors tonight and a strange spring I spent in New Mexico building the ‘Mesa Ridge Wind Energy Park.’ It was a 70 min. drive from our hotel to the Job, we had a “contracting gatherings” at 6:30am. That meant a 4:30 wake up call, six-seven days a week for six weeks.You just go numb to it, its nice. We had The Doors greasiest hits with us. All those unspoken mornings, stopping for coffee at all-sups, windows rolled down, smoking,a warm southwest wind propelling the mood. I love that line “ Death for the people, like to go down slow, let it roll baby roll, let it roll baby roll, let it roll all night long”

How many times have you only had one CD or one book and consumed it over and over tell in melted into you?

Names- dates???

A Walk on the wild side....

I’ve been reading, ‘a walk on the wild side’ by Nelson Algren (Yes this is where Lou Reed got the idea for his song) I found a used paperback copy for just $4 at Fremont street books. Nelson Algren is best known for his book ‘the man with the golden arm’ and the movie with the same name, Frank Sinatra won a best Oscar for his role as Frankie Machine in 1955. A walk on the wild side is like folklore, ancient feeling even in it's modern time, early 1950’s I would say. I love Dove, this cheerless utterly lonely kid who’s fire & brimstone father and atheist brother spend there nights drinking and fighting over God. (A them as real to day as ever). Dove lights his small west Texas world a blaze with a bonfire of lust and violence, in a poetic way ☺
I’m only 67 pages into the book but thus far thus good.

Dose anyone besides me love the statistics about pizza and soda consumption on super-bowl Sunday? It so sick yet so amazing. Since I love soda and pizza and have shame for it. it's therapy or something for me.

I have a long week in front of me. Monday: Esther and I take a train from Seattle to Portland at 9:40am , from there we walk 5 blocks to Yamhill street and catch the max to the airport. During the ride to the airport I well get a text message giving me the parking lot number and letter to a parked truck. The keys well be hidden in “the spot’ …its all vary 007.
Anyone who has ever worked for my dad understand this, he has a way of making things extensive… I well wait for instructions from there. Sunday nights the Merle Haggard Neco Case show, that’s something to look forward to.

Off for coffee with my wife and mother, Esther got a swell haircut and Mother a fantastic color. I would bet 7bones that they well talk about how neat they look (and they do look real neat-o) and about there plans for the summer. Should be nice, I’ll bring my I pod.

The truth about mac.com.

The down side of the slick hip white on white world of Mac is the never-ending cost to do all the riotously-hip “things”. I set up my site to post photos from my travels and too rant and rave about useless expressions of nothingness. Mac.com made it easy at first, I’m a Mac user and it’s all varying hand-in-glove to use. I’m a SUCKER for all things “modish or “chic”. After the mania the bones are weak. Allow me to list the weedy parts of my beloved Mac….

1. They don’t post a good 25% of my ramblings. And then deletes them.
2. After your sucked in to the world of seeing all you photos and bad poems on-line, and feel like a part of the extensive data powered world. They pull the rug and ask for 20$ a months to participate.

Is two things even a list?
Well the sheet has been pulled off the bed and reviled the ugliness under the lily-white plastic.


Steven Ray