Some Heat in January

Last night, T and I went to see Estaire Godinez at the Dakota in Minneapolis. Backed by Serge Aku on bass, Peter Schimke on keyboards, Erik Leeds on saxophone, and Stokely Williams on drums, the fiery rhythms took the chill out of the arctic night.

Democrats

I've been drifting away from the Democratic Party in recent years, probably every since Bill Clinton cozied up to Big Business and sold out working people.

The tendency of the Party to cannibalize its older constituency of workers and unions to curry favor with its new corporate masters has reached levels to provoke revulsion in anyone who recalls the reputation of said Party as the "party of opposition."

The recent criticism of centrist democrats directed at progressives over the further dilution of health-care reform is but another example of behavior beyond the pale.

Diet

She rails at him about his heart,

foretelling a constriction, a grave marker on the

course of his life.

He tries to coax enjoyment from this lean

fare,

And even as his waist shrinks

He loses his heart's content.

Strategy

(Pre-) Historical Theology

My back into the New Year!

Walking home from a lovely dinner at Samba, a new Brazilian eatery in Hopkins, I stumbled on the uneven icy surface of the street and wretched my back. By the time I got home, shuffling through the frigid temperatures like an arctic Igor, grumbling and cursing, I collapsed into bed at 9:30 p.m. and fell into a restless sleep.

It is a new year, and there can be no birth without pain.