St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 video

Students in my and Dr. EY Hammer's Freshmen Seminar classes, for their Service Learning project, researched some of the famous people buried at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. This was in an effort to promote our community partner, Save Our Cemeteries. Here is their video:

Worst Muses Shoe Ever

I have a God given gift for getting the prize shoe throws at Muses parades. I've gotten at least one every year. I'm like eye candy for the Muses, and I tell the lovely ladies who are riding that I will do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, for a shoe. But this past year I received the worst Muses shoe ever. It's a crappy thrift store tennis shoe that was partially covered by ineffective glue and sprinkled with bargain store glitter. No laces even:


Compare this to some of the awesome shoes I usually receive from the lovely Muses:




I've concluded there are only two options. One, somehow Muses was infiltrated by one of those biddies from Iris. Two, the shoe was actually meant for Adrastos who was standing next to me.

No Heroes Home Movie

Back in Omaha from about 1983-1987, I documented some of the punk scene by shooting my band No Heroes and many other things. Members of the first incarnation included Greg Spence on vocals, Dave Loomis on guitar, Mark Blackman on drums, and me on bass. Later we added my brother Jim Homan on guitar, and I took over on vocals. The sounds on the video comes from Mr. Fink, who recorded a No Heroes show in Kansas City at the Foolkiller in 1984. Also check out R.A.F., several parties, Sol Liebowitz getting pelted with rocks and garbage, and a frozen squirrel named Rocky. My friends Matt and Marc have big roles, especially Marc's evolving hair. Sorry for the poor quality. The film is old and we were all on drugs.

Hortons (Sequel)

Continuing with the Super 8 movie theme, this was a sequel we made to the original movie my mom called The Hortons. I shot this with a super 8 camera back in the early early 90's, and it stars Therese, Chris, Jim, my mom the Spider Woman, our first 1966 Catalina, Omar and Tigger.

Canoe Trip on Niobrara River ca. 1992

Some good friends, four canoes, a river, and all kinds of beer back in 1992. A super 8 movie I recently had digitized. Warning: more super 8s to come when time permits. Movie shows me and Therese, Patrick Chase, Matt McAllister, Marc LeClerc, Jackie Sterba, and Vicki and Scott Castleman.

Blue on a Green Day

Lately I've been overwhelmed by tragedy. Nothing too personal, as my grief stems from the events unfolding in Japan, the Middle East (especially Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Palestine), Haiti, and any number of places in Asia and Africa. But mostly I'm saddened by events in Japan. I lie in my bed and think about people I'd seen in many videos that day running or driving as the tsunami hit. I wonder if they survived, or if their death was violent rather than peaceful. I wonder what thoughts were going through their minds as they drowned. I think about all the children watching from nearby hillsides as their towns and families are swept away. I think about all of the bodies washing up on the shores, and how I can't comprehend the long term effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

I know that much of this tragedy in Japan reminds me of Katrina, with a natural disaster made much worse by old and poorly designed infrastructure. And yet I'm upset when people compare disasters, often arguing which one is worse. Not knowing what exactly to do to help the people of Japan, who were so incredibly generous with time and money after Katrina, I've decided for now to donate $100 to the NOLA Japan Quake Fund. Also I plan on drinking more than a few black and tans at Finn McCools. Erin Go Bragh, My Goodness, My Guinness, and Sinn Fein.

Conservatives Attacking Teachers

I was very impressed with this segment from Jon Stewart, and as always, thanks to all the hard working teachers out there. I, unlike these talking heads, appreciate your efforts.

LINK: CRISIS IN DAIRLY LAND

Who's Your Favorite Dictator?

Several years ago my librarian polymath friend Alison invited me to participate in the "Who's Your Favourite Dictator?" game. Did you notice the excessive "u" in her spelling-she's British. With all the recent political changes in the Middle East, the game has become decidedly more complicated. But back in 2008 the game was much easier. The Redcoat librarians favored Mugabe, Franco, and Hitler, though special mention went to Ghengis Khan for trashing the libraries of Baghdad. I preferred the Hittite ruler Suppiluliumas, and more recent, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. But that's for selfish reasons, and here's my logic: Like all Americans, I know deep down in my apple pie heart that Democracy is God's favorite government, and it should be implemented world-wide at any cost. This gift at times must be accomplished through guns. Such was our present to Iraq. But more recently, Jesus has been working through facebook and twitter and we've been getting democracy all over the Middle East. And though at times democratic people are influenced by Satan and elect hateful socialist governments like Hamas or Obama, these are short lived and Jesus smiles when they leave and finally give us our government back. So back to Saudi Arabia. I've always wanted to visit the Kaaba in Mecca. King Abdullah the evil dictator won't let me. With a democracy I'm convinced I'll not only be able to visit this holy site in Mecca, but I'll be able to buy a beer and toast God, America, and the Tea Party. Rock on America!

i-Confession Dooms Me to Hell with Onan

So I confess, I bought the i-Confession application for $1.99. I'm a Bible scholar, Mac addict, and a Catholic, so had to check it out. The application is interesting, but frustrating in its ignorance and obsession on sex. First, the authors like most traditional Catholics count the commandments different from the way the original authors intended, leaving out the commandment about false idols (Protestants read Mary statue worship) and dividing up the commandment about coveting into two. But let's leave that aside for now. My biggest problem comes with the application's focus on abortion, birth control, and masturbation.

I drove my friend a while back to get a vasectomy. Turns out I broke the commandment "You shall not murder." Even worse, and bad news for my wife of 20 years, but on a weekly basis I've violated the commandment "You shall not commit adultery." This is due to the adulterous sins of masterbation, contraception, and my favorite: "sexual acts in my marriage have not been open to the transmission of new life."

There is nothing in this application about the Catholic virtues of promoting peace and social justice, or objecting to capital punishment or unjust wars. Nothing about the sin of supporting governments that torture people. So again it seems a very vocal part of the Catholic church focuses on the fate of semen and little else.

Birthday Infrastructure Katrina

This afternoon near my house a water main broke and water shot more than 40 feet in the air, closing down Banks Street in front of Jesuit High School. Here's a picture I just took. Notice the rainbow:

This sort of thing happens all the time in New Orleans. Since Katrina, the Sewerage and Water Board averages 17,000 repairs per year, and only half of the drinking water pumped into the pipes makes it to homes. The infrastructure of the entire city is old, and furthermore it was damaged by the flood after Hurricane Katrina.

Similarly, today I'm 45-years-old. Like my city, my infrastructure is both antiquated and damaged from Katrina. Here's a picture of me right now as I type this. Clearly the infrastructure is broken. Notice there is no rainbow. Just Saints magnets and a paddle to stir crawfish: