Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s iPod dished out an REM song he’d not heard in forever, but one he just loves. It is “Photograph.” (Written by REM and Natalie Merchant.)

Sadly, your Maximum Leader can’t find a non-rights protected copy of it anywhere to post.

It is a wonderful song. Take his word for it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has discussed “totalitarian gothic” in the past here on this site. The first time was back in 2006, and again earlier this year in reference to the Martin Luther King Memorial.

On the balance your Maximum Leader has a soft spot in his heart for totalitarian gothic. In the right situation he likes it… In this stream of thought… Your Maximum Leader has often thought that if he was going to build a huge skyscraper in a dense urban area he might build something similar to the Moscow State University or the Warsaw Palace of Culture.

Speaking of the Warsaw Palace of Culture, it turns 55 this year.

Your Maximum Leader didn’t realize that the Warsaw Palace of Culture was still up. He sort of figured that it was torn down after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly it was not, in fact now it is a protected historic site. Your Maximum Leader can’t speak to the feelings of Poles about the building. He suspects that the population is split on the building (as the linked article suggests). Your Maximum Leader knows that if he was oppressed by a foreign power for 50 years he’d be disinclined to want to preserve such a huge symbol of that oppression. As an outside observer it seems like a nice building (with a high degree of utility) to keep around…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is something of a sucker for the light news in newspapers. This isn’t to say that he likes the myriad “fluff” pieces you see on TV news (stuff like surfing dogs, and squirrels that “sing” or anything like that), he doesn’t like those pieces on TV. But you find cool articles in newspapers that are worth reading and are light compared to straight news.

For your reading pleasure in the Washington Post: ‘Casablanca Rick’s Bar of Kabul’ serves up its last drink.

Money quote: “All non-muslims smell like this.”

Go thee and read.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader recently received an email from a close friend. The contained a link to a You Tube video and the comment “…this provides an argument why Germans should not be allowed to play rock and roll… EVER.
Note that this is a Queen cover tune.

Your Maximum Leader clicked through on the link and got this:

Now, first off your Maximum Leader should apologize to any of you who did watch the video. Sorry about that…

That is some awful shit. Your Maximum Leader didn’t think that Germans were allowed to wear brownshirts and boots like that any more… He is also glad he doesn’t speak any German (mostly out of fear of what the lyrics might actually say). Your Maximum Leader’s friend says it is a Queen cover. Your Maximum Leader admits that he can’t place the Queen song at all. He should try and google a Queen song with the lyric “Get me a light beer!”

Of course, for all your Maximum Leader knows, the singer might be saying “Get me a light beer or I’ll remilitarize the Rhineland! Watch your back Czech Republic!”

What ever happened to the happy anti-war sentiment of Nena and 99 Luftballons?

Oh Nena… Your Maximum Leader hopes you’ve shaved your pits at some point between 1984 and today…

(NB to readers: Your Maximum Leader remembers, back in the day, that he thought that Nena was rather attractive. Then one day on MTV he saw a live performance of 99 Luftballons. At first he was pretty excited because Nena was wearing some sort of torn up sleeveless white t-shirt on what appeared to be a humid day. (Wink Wink Nudge Nudge) He thought he might get to see a little side boob or something. Sadly, what he did get was an eyeful of armpit hair that he’ll never be able to un-see. After that day, your Maximum Leader never thought Nena was that attractive. Martha Quinn however…)

Anyhoo… Note to our German friends… Please no more…

Should your Maximum Leader be a little ashamed for invoking the name of Leni Riefenstahl in this post? She was an innovative filmmaker after all… And there was nothing innovative in that video…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is returned from a few days down in beautiful Key West. You want to know something? Your Maximum Leader might be the only normal person to go to Key West for 4 days, experience beautiful sunny 80 degree weather; and return home just as pasty and fish-belly white as he left.

Your Maximum Leader might recount more of his trip in a later post. Let us give a quick summary for you if you are so inclinded…

High points: friends’ wedding, “Little White House” visit, Hemmingway house visit, eating fish caught by friends at Eat it Raw (fish was cooked), drinking so many cuba libres that your Maximum Leader figured he might just go and try to libre the island of Cuba.

(NB to all: Your Maximum Leader takes his cuba libres in his own form. He likes white rum, coke, splash of lime juice, crushed lime wedge, and a float of 151 proof rum. He found that the bartenders at Eat It Raw thought his variation on the popular drink was particularly good.)

Low points: listening to a mediocre piano bar singer at hotel for longer than he wanted, waking up early due to cruise ship horns sounding at dawn, blister on heel from shoes

Regrets: not going deep sea fishing when friends did go with Captain Keith on the Lucky Strike.

There might be a photo of your Maximum Leader and a more detailed post coming… Or not…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has had a shortage of quality blog time for you all. This situation isn’t going to change over the next few days. He admits that he could have blogged some last night, but he got distracted by the Akira Kurosawa film extravaganza on TMC last night. (BTW, Happy Birthday Kurosawa-san. You would have been 100 years old yesterday.) After putting his villainous offspring to bed he spied “Rashomon” on the tv. Next thing you know, the “Seven Samurai” was on. Then your Maximum Leader fell asleep. He’s such a wuss that way.

What to blog? What to blog?

Well… First of he should congratulate the President, but most of all Speaker Pelosi for getting the damned health care bill passed. It was tremendous work on their parts. Your Maximum Leader gives most of the credit to the Speaker who must have used every bit of parliamentary/political/personal knowledge she knew to twist all the arms to make the deal happen. Your Maximum Leader wasn’t sure that she would pull it off. He wasn’t sure that is until she saw Steny Hoyer and the Speaker announce a vote would be held on Sunday. Once they actually gave a day for the vote and were adamant that it would happen your Maximum Leader knew they had the votes. So… Congrats to them. It was a tough slog, but they got the job done.

Is your Maximum Leader happy about the bill? Of course not. It sucks. But you have to give credit where it is due. And it is due in this case.

So what next? Well… One hopes that the Republicans can run an effective campaign this year and take the House or Senate back and work on serious modification of the bill. Your Maximum Leader thinks Fishersville Mike is right on with a slogan of “Change - the right kind this time.” Why does your Maximum Leader say serious modification and not outright repeal? Let’s be honest. Even after a few months there is inertia that sets in on any legislation. There isn’t going to be an outright repeal. Major modifications is the best course. It is the way the system works. Why did you think they were pushing so hard to pass something? Once it gets on the books it is there… Some portions of the law just enacted will remain no matter how hard one tries to remove them.

Ah well… One hopes that Republicans (for lack of a better alternative) can get their acts together and run a tight campaign and put themselves into a position where they actually have some institutional power in Congress…

Did you Wagnerians out there see that Wolfgang Wagner died this week? The grandson of Richard Wagner and longtime Bayreuth Festival director passed away at age 90. His daughter (and teutonic hottie) Katharina Wagner is currently the festival director.

Your Maximum Leader may, or may not, post again this week. He is off to Key West, Florida for a few days of sun, fun, and marriage. A good friend of his is getting married in Key West on Friday night. It should be fun. It has been a long time since your Maximum Leader was last in Key West. If you have any suggestions of things for him to see or do, leave a comment. (No need to comment that he should leer at drunken spring-break co-eds. Please accept that as read…)

This good friend getting married is the owner of Key West Key Lime pies. If you want to get yourself get best key lime pie EVAH (EVAH!!!) feel free to clicky on the linky and buy…

Later gators… Perhaps your Maximum Leader will get some sun…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, although having no Irish ancestry, does enjoy partaking in a little corned beef & cabbage and Guinness beer on St. Patrick’s day. Yesterday evening he found himself singing along to the refrain of this song (which was playing on his iPod)…

While your Maximum Leader greatly enjoyed himself, his family was not as impressed with the singer or the song.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader realized that some of you might not want to go and name your own price to download any of the lovely and talented Lola Astanova’s music. So he thought he might entice you with a sample of her playing from her You Tube channel…

Here you go, clicky here to hear and see Lola Astanova playing the 3rd movement of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata #2.

Or you can clicky here to visit her You Tube channel and choose a video for yourself.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader debated last year about dropping the dreamy Jennifer Love Hewitt from the premier position at the top of the list of objects of his platonic affections. He toyed with dropping JLH in favor of Lola Astanova.

Well… Recently your Maximum Leader has decided to just make the break… JLH is still sorta dreamy, but she is just desperate and weird. She bedazzels her vay-jay-jay. (Ewwww.) And the way she seems to talk about dating and relationships makes your Maximum Leader think that JLH is Jennifer Aniston lite.

So… Your Maximum Leader proudly announces that the object of his platonic affections is the lovely and very (VERY) talented Lola Astanova.

Wanna learn more about the lovely Lola? How about checking out a nice peice on her in the Wall Street Journal?

If you really want a taste of why your Maximum Leader is drawn to Miss Astanova, go visit her website and download one of the pieces from her “Debut” album. You’ll not be disappointed. Your Maximum Leader gladly paid full price for it on iTunes…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would apologize for going so long without posting. But then he thought that this is his own damned blog and he don’t owe you nuthin’…

So there…

Sorta…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader had an action packed weekend from Friday through Sunday. On Friday - Saturday your Maximum Leader went out with some friends so celebrate a “bachelor party” of a very good friend who is getting married at the end of the month. The party consisted of going out for a wonderful dinner at Chima in Tyson’s Corner. (Your Maximum Leader nearly ate enough meat to get the “meat sweats.” Then we retired to a private suite at the Ritz where we consumed fine liquors and played poker through the wee hours of the morning. Lest you think there was anything more going on allow your Maximum Leader to go on the record and say that there is a distinct difference between a bachelor party where the attendees (and honoree) are in their 20s and a bachelor party where the attendees (and honoree) are in their 40s. We had the more civilized type… The 40-something one…

Then on Saturday your Maximum Leader spent some quality time with the Wee Villain and the Wee Villain’s friend, Thomas, who came by the Villainschloss to play.

On Sunday your Maximum Leader and his family went to Falls Church, VA to stand as Godparents to your Maximum Leader’s lovely little niece. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t mean to sound like he is complaining… But… The Mass at your Maximum Leader’s sister’s church was a bit long. This is not to say that your Maximum Leader objects to the long-form of the Mass; he does not. What he does have a little problem with however is a long rambling homilies that don’t have any apparent point other than to relate some disjointed experiences in the priest’s life to various readings of the day. Sadly, your Maximum Leader didn’t get anything out of the homily, except that the priest has tried to minister to lots of stray souls who didn’t seem to get the message. After the Mass, there was a rather long delay before another service for the baptism of the three young girls. That was a little long too, but it seemed to go much faster (as he was participating). Your Maximum Leader marveled at how well behaved the Wee Villain was as he is not used to sitting quietly (in any environment not just church) for nearly 2 and a half hours.

So… That is what your Maximum Leader did over the weekend…

In other news…

Some Swedes have discovered a whole bunch of new shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea while surveying the bottom along the path of a gas pipeline. Some of the wrecks are over 1000 years old according to the piece. You know what that means… That means they are Viking ships… Could there be some type of “Mary Rose“-esque Viking ship waiting to be brought up from the bottom? Perhaps a great example of the style (like the Gokstad ship) is ready to be salvaged and displayed… That would be cool… Perhaps they will find the ship of Urferd Forkbeard.

In news of the art world… Through use of ultraviolet rays art restorers have found the details of Giotto’s work in the Peruzzi Chapel in Santa Croce in Florence. Your Maximum Leader wants to go to Florence almost as much as he does Venice. (In fact, in decending order the cities he wants to visit in Italy are: Venice, Florence, Rome, Ravenna, Pompeii, and Naples.) Our friend Mark, who blogs over at WitNit, actually was kind enough to take some photos of the tomb (& monuments) of Machiavelli in Santa Croce while he was on vacation in Florence a few years back. (NB to Mark: You still rock! Thanks for those photos again.)

Apparently the restorers in the Peruzzi Chapel have done their ultraviolet scans and are leaving the paintings as they are for future restorations. Here is the salient part of the piece:

Even though they are often referred to as frescoes, the Peruzzi scenes were actually painted “a secco,” or on dry plaster, unlike his famous frescos in the Bardi Chapel, which is also in Santa Croce, or his works in St Francis in Assisi.

He painted the Peruzzi Chapel toward the end of his life and some experts believe he was striving for a different effect than he achieved with the fresco technique, in which the painting is done while the plaster is still wet.

“It allowed him to obtain something more rich in terms of colors, of decorations,” Frosinini said. “But over time, dry painting is very fragile,” she said.

Even after the 1958 restoration removed the “non-Giotto” parts added by 19th century “restorers,” the paintings were left faint and anemic, like a patient who had never fully healed.

But they come to life under ultra-violet light.

In the scene where God is accepting John the Evangelist into heaven, the wrinkles in John’s forehead, the threads of his beard, the whites of his eyes and God’s welcoming gaze appear like fleeting but powerful visions.

Unfortunately, they will remain fleeting forever.

The lush details are only visible when they are bathed in ultra-violet light and subjecting them to such constant bombardment would be not only impractical but harmful.

Your Maximum Leader hopes that the ultraviolet images can somehow be distributed digitally so that those of us who are interested in seeing the full scope of Giotto’s work are able to do so.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has in the past expounded on the architectural/sculputral style he likes to call “Totalitarian Gothic.” He first introduced this term to you all in this post in Sept 2006. For those of you who have visited Washington DC, you will see quite a bit of “Totalitarian Gothic” sculpture and building. Afterall, the Federal City as we know it was built in large part in the 1930s, when Totalitarian Gothic was pretty chic.

Now, you may have gathered that your Maximum Leader is a fan of Totalitarian Gothic. Well… He is and he isn’t. In some circumstances it is fine. But in others it is not.

Which brings him to the object of this post…

The impending memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the Mall in Washington. Not exactly on the Mall but pretty close, near the Tidal Basin across from the Jefferson Memorial actually…

According to the Washington Post, the monument to MKL is ready for pickup in China.

If you have no idea what this monument looks like you can see a graphic by clicking here.

Now… Before anyone goes berserk over these comments… Your Maximum Leader is not a racist bastard who doesn’t think Martin Luther King Jr. should have a monument on the Mall in Washington. A monument or other memorial is just fine. Your Maximum Leader just really doesn’t like this one.

So… Where to begin… Let us start back in the 1980s when the Congress of the United States decided to put a statue of MLK up in the Capitol Building along with other great Americans . The bust that was put in the Capitol is here. Now let us look at some of MLK’s company in the Rotunda of the Capitol. Here are: Jackson (in bronze), Garfield (in marble), Reagan (in bronze), and Washington (a bronze replica of the much greater marble which resides in the Virginia State Capitol and which the Federal Government has tried to appropriate from time to time with no success). At the time your Maximum Leader thought that the MLK bust in the Capitol was ugly and not in keeping with the style of monumental statuary in the Capitol building. Now he finds himself harping on the exact same issue, only this time the problem is writ large.

Writ 30 feet large to be exact.

The MLK monument near the tidal basin has a lot of problems in your Maximum Leader’s opinion. The first one is scale. If you clicked onto that graphic you would see that the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial is 19 feet tall. The MLK monument is 30 feet tall. That is just too big for a statue on the mall. Way too big.

Now you may be saying, “Hold on there, the Lincoln Memorial building is much taller than 30 feet. Shouldn’t you compare apples to apples?” Fair point. If you want to consider the whole MLK monument as a you would a building, then you are faced with a classical temple versus a large rock with a man coming out of it.

The scale of the large rock with a man coming out of it is just too great. It will dwarf many of the trees (cherry trees in many cases) in the area. Also, in terms of human scale it is not approachable. One of the many things that works with the Lincoln (or Jefferson) Memorial is that you are faced with an impressive ediface, but then the statue is scaled down proportionally and you can “feel” closer to it. The MLK carving is just huge. It will be five times taller than a tall man. Five times taller! Not only that, MLK will just be staring off into the distance above the visitor. The strength of the Lincoln statue is that he looks down to the visitor. Your Maximum Leader just can’t think of a way in which the MLK monument works on the National Mall. Not a one. It is too big, too impersonal, and too out-of-place.

When your Maximum Leader first saw the MLK monument the first thought that popped into his head was, “Dear God. It looks like something Kim Jong-il would have built in honor of his father, Kim Il-sung.” It does. The impersonal face. The crossed arms. The imperious look. It does seem like a monument more akin to a communist dictatorship than a democratic republic. (Indeed, in the MWO expect to see many similarly scaled monuments to your Maximum Leader. They will be omnipresent.)

Our National Mall is a communal space for the Nation. The monuments that adorn it should reflect, in scale, in material, and in composition our democratic ideals. The Lincoln Memorial harkens back to classical Athens. The Jefferson Memorial harkens back to Republican Rome. The WWII Memorial is a bit of a stretch with its monumental arches, but it fits closely enough to be passable. The Washington Monument is a bit out of place, but it is the distinctive mark (along with the Capitol Dome) on the city skyline. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t see how an artificial mountain with a man coming out of it will work in this communal space.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t like it. No he doesn’t. Not one bit.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is preparing for more snow. He is sick of the stuff frankly. He made a last trip to the store to get some extra charcoal. This is in case the power at the Villainschloss goes out, he’ll grill food. Sadly, his back-up generator will not be able to be repaired for about 2 weeks. That, put succinctly, sucks. But there is naught he can do but complain about it.

Your Maximum Leader noted that Venice’s Carnival started this week. (NB: Effectively, Mardi Gras in New Orleans began Sunday night.) Sadly, your Maximum Leader is not in Venice, but snowbound in Fredericksburg. According to a Reuters report, there is still hotel availability at some higher-end Venice hotels right now. The bad economy seems to be putting a little bit of a damper on the celebration. You can see a Reuters video report on this story by clicking here.

The snow that is headed towards your Maximum Leader has not yet arrived. It was originally expected to begin about midday. It looks now as though it will not start until later this evening…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will, in the tradition of his Scottish ancestors, wish you all the word “rabbit” as it is the first of the month. Tomorrow he will likely have to wish you all “groundhog!” As he thinks he mentioned before, he doesn’t know why all his relatives rush around calling everyone on the first of every month and saying “rabbit” but they do.

Your Maximum Leader should also wish his wonderful sister-in-law a happy birthday. Since she is not a regular reader of this space, he’ll have to do better than this forum for birthday wishes.

So, your Maximum Leader has mentioned a few times how much he is enjoying his own home-cured bacon. He is going to have to start changing up his receipe as he does this more. Before he can start experimenting however he is going to need more pork bellies. He’s having a dickens of a time trying to find someone who can supply them. The local grocery stores can’t special order them apparently. (Even Wegmans - who hithertofore had seemed to be able to order just about anything.) The local butcher shop seems to be able to get some, but your Maximum Leader would have to order at least 100 pounds of pork bellies to meet the minimum requirement. That sucks. So he continues to work on getting pork bellies…

Speaking of bacon… Did you see this rating of widely available bacon? The only one he’s eaten off the list is the Oscar Meyer Turkey Bacon. Sometimes Mrs Villain feels she’s doing us a favor by purchasing turkey bacon. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure about that line of thinking; but it is better to have turkey bacon than none at all. If your Maximum Leader is using the bacon in a dish (like omlettes or something) then turkey bacon is passable. But in dishes where bacon is a key player (and not part of the supporting cast) then only pork will do.

That is about it right now. He’ll possibly post more later tonight…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is a pathetic excuse of an American of Scottish ancestry. Why you may ask? Well allow him to explain…

As you may know, tonight, January 25th, is Burns Night. The night when Scots and those of Scottish ancestry around the world celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns. Often the night is accompanied with feasting and toasting and poetry reading… It is not uncommon for your Maximum Leader to try and have a fancy dinner and a wee dram with his family (and perhaps a few close friends). Burns would be read and a great time would be had by all…

But tonight…

There was no feasting. Indeed the dinner consisted of the remains of a pan-fried round steak, powdered mashed potatoes, and some re-heated frozen veggies (a carrot, broccoli and colliflower mix). It was eaten in about 20 minutes. There was no toasting, there was no poetry. There was no dram.

It was pathetic.

There is only one promising thing to say about the evening… That is that there is still a chance that your Maximum Leader will have himself a little dram of uisge beatha.

For those of you reading this blog closely you may recall that last 4th of July your Maximum Leader swore off alcoholic beverages of foreign make. (There was one exception - he had a Guinness on Arthur Guinness’ birthday in October.) His promise to himself to forego foreign alcohol expired on January 1. But since January 1 he has consumed two Guinness’, one Chimay Ale, and a few glasses of Italian wine. He’s not had any of the greatest drink in the world, Scotch whisky. That should change a few minutes after he finishes this post…

Cheers.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wanted to be sure that none of his readers missed this, the 75th anniversary of the birth of Elvis Aron Presley, the late King of Rock and Roll.

Your Maximum Leader is a big Elvis fan. His iPod contains over 740 Elvis tracks. (Many different versions of the same songs from different recording sessions…) He has watched a number of Elvis movies and TV shows (but only owns one video of The King - a gift from a friend that contains highlights of his career). If you happen to look over at the right sidebar you will see “Saint Elvis” over under the Pantheon of Greatness area.

Yes… Saint Elvis…

In the MWO (or Mike World Order for those of you just visiting for the first time), your Maximum Leader will exert some pressure to proclaim Elvis a Saint. Your Maximum Leader knows that this may be a contraversial view. But he (Elvis that is) is a unifying cultural and spiritual figure. Your Maximum Leader is sure that we can find someone who has been healed of their illness by heartful prayer at the grave of Elvis. Indeed, your Maximum Leader and his college roommate once made a pilgramage to Graceland. We stood at the grave of Elvis and sang (a cappella) “Heartbreak Hotel.” We also made sure to sing with British accents. Yes… Like in Spinal Tap… Whilst we were singing, a middle aged woman in a “be-dazzeled” jean jacket came up and listened to us. Upon our finishing, she declared that what she had just seen “Warmed her heart” and that she was sure that “The King in heaven is smiling on us now.” Your Maximum Leader told her he was impressed with her “be-dazzeled” jacket. The “be-dazzling” rendered a profile of Elvis with his name beneath. The woman was glad that we liked the jacket. She apparently made them for friends, and sometimes profit.

Anyhoo… If that woman knew that Elvis was smiling on us in heaven for a song, then your Maximum Leader is sure that we can find some (former-) cripple who was healed at Elvis’ graveside…

Anyhoo (again…)… Your Maximum Leader will get the traditional Elvis Day celebratory dinner tonight. Steak. Mashed Potatoes. A veggie (likely ochra). After dinner there will be a big cake and the singing of “Happy Birthday Elvis.”

He hopes you will celebrate as well…

Carry on.