Spelling Bee

I am home and watching the Spelling be and feeling so, so, so dumb. I still struggle with words like "restaurant" and "Wednesday" and these kids make me look foolish and inadequate. This video is dynamite. So, the kid faints, but then he gets up and spells the word correctly. That's freakin' committment.

I am rooting against the Canandian. It is our national spelling bee. We are on the last round and I just want to see the Gray's rerun.

Book lovers unite

I love this courtesy of yourdailyawesome

Enjoy the whole site

Off to teach Play Production and begin the work of a saint!!!

About to start my day....

Full day of teaching. I need to submit about forty pages of fiction today so of which I am not too happy about - oh well, I guess that is the whole point. I have been writing feverishly

All the while, I have been dreaming lately about Bill Richardson - in a non-sexual, man I hope he makes a serious bid attempt

Here comes the calavary!!!!1

Writing and Listening

Work on grant writing for my drama program. Our goal is raise over 10,000 dollars next year - I have my work cut out for me this year in Fundraising...GRR - I actually am enjoying it.

For the drama in the Fall, I get to compose some of the music - so I have been busying listening to things for inspiration - mainly decemberists

eli, the barrow boy

Eli, the barrow boy
Of the old town
Sells coal and marigolds
And he cries out
All down the day

Below the tamaracks
He is crying:
“Corn cobs and candle wax for the buying”
All down the day

“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
But she is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove
And I must push my barrow all the day
And I must push my barrow all the day”

Eli, the barrow boy
When they found him
Dressed all in corduroy
He had drowned in
The river down the way

They laid his body down in a church yard
But still when the moon is out
With his push cart
He calls down the day

“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine gown
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread
But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground
And still I push my barrow all the day
Still I push my barrow all the day”


does sharing song lyrics make me a fourteen year old girl or is that I own Gilmore Girls on DVD? HMMM - back to writing!!!

Interesting Interview

Mired in the prospect of fundraising for Play Production and avoiding grading senior finals, I have been scoping the internet and have come upon a great article about the Kennedy assassination. I have always erred on the side of conspiracy - because it seemed pretty fantastical for Oswald to pull the shot off, but this article and the requisite book seems to have uncovered a lot and put to rest many of the disputes.

Also, in the interview with Thomas Mallon about his book, he addresses what the Kennedy assassination would look like today:

The cell phone camera does represent a kind of sea change, even well beyond the video camera, because there were a lot of people taking movies of the president that day. And a lot of people had little silent home movie cameras back then, just as, 30 years later, in the ’90s, the video camera became commonplace.

...We now live in a world where everybody is carrying a camera all the time. So there are very, very few things that are going to go unrecorded...Certainly if the Kennedy assassination had taken place today, within minutes it would have been all over the Web, and it would have been looked at from a million different angles.

My suspicion is that in some ways all of this would have allowed for more evidence of a lone gunman. On the other hand, I think that there’s something about the Web that is in itself conducive to conspiracy belief; the way that everything is literally linked to everything else, and the way everything proliferates, and the way everybody has a soapbox upon which to rant. So I think, maybe if I had to take a bet, I would say that you would’ve had widespread conspiracy beliefs starting even earlier if everyone had been filming with cell phones.

In other news, no more Cindy Sheehan.

Also, check this out: it hard to make sense of it - but basically is comparing Bush's justification to torture with Nazi's justification of torture practices - Sick stuff.

Back in Town

The official start to summer and I am growing a beard - grrr, man time.
New Hampshire was wonderful. I ate and drank and wrote and finally am starting to get an idea where my novel is going. Characters are starting to become more flushed out and I am not shying away from dialogue or really being quite non-diagetic in my approach. I am trying to play around with time in the work, which I think works well, I just don't want to be obnoxious about it.

Back at school, things have calmed down - I'm thrilled.

I love this poem and I think it speaks to us all:


Dilemma
David Budhill

I want to be
famous
so I can be
humble
about being
famous.

What good is my
humility
when I am
stuck
in this
obscurity?


Enjoy.

Ice Cream and Auden

I am a huge WH Auden fan and also a fan of Christina's ice cream. Having just finished some Coconut Butterfinger ice cream - I have decided to re-read and post one of my favorite Auden poems. I love the line - "you shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart".

Good night - off to bed, then to NH to write by a lake for the next three days -


As I Walked Out One Evening
by W. H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

Of potential Interest: NOT FUNNY

From Andrew Sullivan

Bloggin' in the Spring: American Idol

All right - I was told to be funnier. I don't know how to respond. I assumed all of my loyal readers (all three of you) enjoyed my long political diatribes and educational polemics. Instead, you are just like the rest of the American Public and enjoy Two and a half Men and want to see some old guy fall off something and get a rake to the balls.

Speaking of a rake to the balls, I watched San-vaginya sing last night with Joe Perry from Aerosmith. Now when I was thirteen year old, I loved Aerosmith. I adored Aerosmith. I had fantasies about Alicia Silverstone in the Cryin' video - oh, sweet sweet Alicia. To me, Aerosmith was everything raw, sexual, kickass about rock and roll. Last night, any shred of kickass went away when Joe Perry stepped onstage and put his arm around San-vaginya - It was horrible - world were colliding, the earth stopped spinning for a brief moment.

As for the rest of AI6 (that is American Idol Six for all you living in a cave), there were all notable signs of the apocalypse:

- Taylor Hicks signing "A Day in the life of..." - I almost "blew my mind in a car".
- Paula Abdul crying and watching her face start to melt.
- Simon Cowell's exposed nipple when his manboob popped out of his open shirt.

All and all, our culture is on the decline, especially since Joey Fatone lost Dancing with the Stars - what a crock!

Final bit on Falwell

Coming out of a conservative religious perspective in college, I think I can empathize with the conservative Christian. I understand the feeling of marginalization. I also understand the unwavering committment to the Gospel and I can recognize the empowerment in the (blind) faithfulness in the Second Coming and need to purify one's self for the end of times.

What is most interesting is the way in which Scripture can be taken so literally by the fundamentalist, yet world events, particularly catastrophes, are viewed in a metaphoric sense, symbols of the impending raptures and signs that we need to repent.

Perhaps, this duality is reconcilled with the funadamentalist idea that one can train themselves to "see" with the eyes of God and "know" what God truly wants for him/herself and the world.

It is a weird thing from the outside, but within the systme of fundamentalism, it makes sense - it is simply a framework, albeit a dangerous and alienating one, to view the world.

Last bit on Falwell from the New Yorker. Frances Fitzgerald writes:

In the seventies, Falwell brought together a group of fundamentalist pastors who had independent churches to discuss what should be done. Then, in the late seventies and early eighties, he preached that Christians—by which he meant evangelical Christians—should engage in the world and save America from moral decline and secularism. He essentially said, “Look, we’ve made this false distinction between the sacred and the secular. In fact, everything is sacred. For too long we’ve left business to Wall Street and politics to the people in Washington. We need to train men of God to become lawyers and businessmen and members of Congress. We have to mobilize our people to turn this country around.” It was this message that permitted fundamentalists and many conservative evangelicals, who at that time were moving much more into the middle class, to aspire to “worldly” success and to involve themselves in politics.

Education on the Brain

Newsweek published their recent rankings on America's Top 100 High Schools. The issue of labelling high schools comes up again and again in Education. With NCLB, a school that meets AYP does not get labelled, while a school that does not meet AYP is labelled. The psychological effects of the label cannot be overstated.

To label a school as "needs improvement" regardless of what factors or specific areas in which that school fails to meet AYP is dumbfounding. Many affluent schools carry such labels due to small pockets within their student population. For the struggling school, be it urban/rural/underfunded, the label further perpetuates the movement towards charter school and school vouchers. As the school moves to "corrective action", the best and brightest will start fleeing the school and find them in schools such as "Dallas' HS for the Gifted and Talented" - or Newsweek's top school.

So, Newsweek has tacitly shown its approval of the brain drain of urban schools. As the best and brightest leave, the school, regardless of its extracurriculars, programs, social work, etc., will continue to be labelled as such. So long as the comprehensive high school remains a panacea for community ills by providing breakfasts, health, physical education, social services, etc., it can not sufficiently teach to a test, especially in areas where the communities do not readily provide these resources outside of school. These schools will have to choose now: Do we meet the community needs by providing extra care, breakfast, social services or should we just be more concerned with AYP so as not to lose a portion of our student body?

So that is on my mind - just wanted to vent.

AD : Bill Richardson Job Interview for 2008 President

All right - I'm all over the map when it comes to 2008. Let me run down my current thoughts:

I have discounted everyone on the right, yet I am intrigued by the libertarian Ron Paul.

Hillary - I despise her

Obama - so so charming, but is there any meat?

Edwards - HAHAHA, no way

Biden, Dodd, etc. - sure, white guys!

Bloomberg - if he runs, i'd consider it - why the hell not? He is some one who I respect and who has proven himself and succeeded in everything that he has down.

Bill Richardson - the man I love - man, I want him to make a serious run.

Enjoy the AD.

Poem

I have been spent much of the weekend working on my manuscript for Lesley. I need about forty to fifty pages of workable fiction for June 1st. HOLY SHIT!!!

I have been messing around with poems, even though I always feel like a fish out of water working in this genre. I decided to post a poem today that I have been working on. It was inspired by an ice cream purchase and my general disdain for when others make decisions for me and how we often let people make those important decisions:

Decisions

"I'll take the Ben" I order,
while she contemplates,
"The Susan" or "the Kevin".

Last night, we watched a Nick Pick
after sharing a Mickey Mantle
with cheese at Rosie's place.

With uncertainity, she leans over &
invites the barista to help her.
"What do you recommend - The Susan
or the Kevin?" "Well - I'm Susan."

"Oh that changes things." I grow
impatient, sipping Ben slowly.
I could tell she secretly
decided on Kevin - for he had cream.

Behind us, a burly man chimes in:
"I'm a huge Kevin drinker -
a Kevin a day, I say" Ben is starting
to cool off.

If only our names
were up there on chalk, our drinks
described - The Don or the Melanie -
ready for consumption.

She steps back to examine
the board with intensity, the barista
politely, recognizing the difficulty, says
"Don't let me decide for you."

2007

Dreary Saturday - Radiohead

Rainy day in boston. I've been working on my manuscript and listening to Radiohead. nothing like Thom Yorke - Here is something interesting I found on yourdailyawesome.com.


fifth grade drawings of radiohead songs

Ron Paul

I can't help but feel bad about Congressman and lunatic Ron Paul for saying that we should explore why 9/11 happened. It sounds like a reasonable start to question our interventionist policy, rather then saying we deserved 9/11. I do not believe he at all said that, but rather simply wanted to discuss foreign policy in a way that was not about being tough or pre-emption. Here is his comment:

They attack us because we've been over there, we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East. I think Reagan was right. We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics.

What is he saying? Where is it that we deserve the outcome?

I see him critiquing how our misunderstanding and meddling with Middle Eastern affairs comes back to us.


I love this from Andrew Sullivan from the atlantic monthy:
Has anyone else noticed the bizarre spectacle of many Bush-backing blogs demonizing Ron Paul for not saying that we deserved 9/11, at the same time eulogizing a man who absolutely and explicitly said that we did deserve 9/11: Jerry Falwell.

Off to see the terrible shrek the third...it is so cold outside.

God Bless You, Al Gore

We are so in want of a clear national voice. A voice to articulate that pandemic loss of checks and balances and sanity within our American political system. We need a voice that will not promote partisanship or create caveats or double-speak. Occassionally, a voice does arise - that voice is Al Gore.

We need him to run for President. He is the boldest and bravest American in the last ten years. He does not split hairs like Hillary - He is not speaking only with lofty rhetoric - Obama, Guiliani, etc. - He does not pander to a base - Edwards, McCain, Romney. The robot is real - He has come to life.

In this new book, he speaks eloquently and with unabashed determination about the ills of this country. Politics is not a bad term - but it needs to be about the good and we have forsaken our responsibility to perserve and protect our democracy.

Amen - God Bless You, Al Gore

From his new book - Assault on Reason via Time

It is too easy—and too partisan—to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America's public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power—remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.

American democracy is now in danger—not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas.

Speak it brother.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

The burgeoning competitive sport of rock, paper, scissors fascinates me. I wonder how is this game any more than chance. Is there a psychological component? strategy?

What dictates the outcome other than luck? Are there special ways to throw a certain sign? What about probability?

This game and the aforemention competition is a just metaphor for the ever-masculine need to for justification and prowess - though women are beginning to flock to this "sport" as well. It also shows how we, as a society, are wiling and able to commericalize and create competition around anything. What's next? Full-contact hopscotch, No Holds Barred Red Rover, Team Bubble-Gum Bubble-Gum in a Dish.

Check out mentalfloss for some insight into this sport.

From Mental Floss:

Don’t know what to do for your next throw? Try playing the throw that would have lost to your opponents last throw? Sounds weird but it works more often than not, why? Inexperienced (or flustered) players will often subconsciously deliver the throw that beat their last one. Therefore, if your opponent played paper, they will very often play Scissors, so you go Rock. This is a good tactic in a stalemate situation or when your opponent lost their last game. It is not as successful after a player has won the last game as they are generally in a more confident state of mind which causes them to be more active in choosing their next throw.

Also, wikipedia never fails to provide random information about everything - including RPS and how to cheat.

Apparently, our legal system is also overun by RPS:

From Wikipedia:

In 2006, Federal Judge Gregory Presnell from the Middle District of Florida ordered opposing sides in a lengthy court case to settle a trivial (but lengthily debated) point over the appropriate place for a deposition using the game of rock-paper-scissors.[6] The ruling in Avista Management v. Wausau Underwriters stated:

“ Upon consideration of the Motion – the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts – it is ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED. Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one (1) game of "rock, paper, scissors." The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location for the 30(b)(6) deposition to be held somewhere in Hillsborough County during the period July 11-12, 2006.[7]

More on Falwell

I totally forgot about this - then TMZ.com helped me remember. Falwell really was a jackass.

Psychologically, why is hard to be honest about the dead? Why do we pretend they were someone that they weren't?

Jerry Falwell and Shakespeare

First, Jerry Falwell has died and while I never wish for someone's death, I can't help but see the irony in a man so against human sexual expression, art, women's rights, minorities, etc. who has succumb to his own vice - gluttony. To prohibit one "sin" and accept another proves dangerous, or perhaps deadly.

He has done more for bigotry and prejudice in this country and in the "name of the Lord".

A little Shakespeare and Falstaff for a Tuesday:

FALSTAFF: I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-house once in a quarter--of an hour; paid money that I borrowed, three of four times; lived well and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compass.

1 Henry IV, III, iii

Somehow I see Falwell and Falstaff as all too similar - except Falwell had no charm and didn't stab a dead man (at least - not to my recollection)

Our Next Prez?

All right - while I am trying to be a loyal Obama supporter and Hillary-basher, I must say I am a little upset about Obama's lack of a definitive second act. He has come out strong, but needs to define his ideas and make the case that we no longer want a legacy candidate.

Meanwhile, the idea of a Bloomberg and/or Hagel joint run intrigues me. I really think this country needs a third party candidate. While the idea of buying the presidency is deplorable. I believe that the system needs a drastic shake and some one who is not suspectible to pecuniary influence ala Bloomberg.

I think what Bloomberg lacks is overwhelming though:

1) Experience at the national level
2) A clear third party message
3) Likeability

I believe a smart VP choice - Hagel - could counter one.

To overcome number two, I would advise him to run on management, fiscal restrain, socially liberal values, and anti-war fervor. Split the two parties and watch them squirm.

While not an enthralling public speaker, I would go the Perot route - Outline the details clearly, make smart engaged presentations - say Al Gore in The Inconveinent Truth - teach the public!

He could sway me - if the left elections Hillary the despot. Democrats you have been warned.

Bali - this Summer

Dana and I just booked are plane tickets to Bali this summer. I'm off to Asia in July. WHOA

Enjoy

Nothing is better than looking at old album covers and thinking "Jesus, who came up with this crap?" and "Where can I find a collection of these works that I could poke fun at and enjoy?"


Artwork

daily awesome

The Woes of a Monday

So I have a case of the Mondays...Generally, I want to avoid grading and be whisked away and think nothing of school anymore.

I have been thinking of late in some areas that I would like to get involved:

1) Doing voice-overs for books on tape - I would be awesome!
2) Playing an obscure instrument
3) Sculpture - Why the hell not?
4) Financial Guru

I read this article and I wanted to point out the worst teacher in the world. Whenever I get down about my profession, I think of jackasses like these people.

Here is an excerpt:

Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

I think I'll get tacos for tonight.

Sunday laughs

I got this website from Tardville - which is consistently the funniest site on the web. I long for Will Ferrell to go back to sketch comedy and leave the likes of his recent movie streak behind. Ok, I enjoyed Blades of Glory and Stranger than Fiction was intriguing and thought-provoking, but Talledega nights sucked royally.

Phillies game last night awesome - today - terrible...Back to grading and house stuff. Peace

Seasons of the Apathy

I feel wallowed deep in apathy about my job. I have trouble putting forth and being creative and enforcing school policy. I don't think it is a sign of burn out as much as it being a sign of the seasons. I think I have generally resigned myself to certain behaviors, which is a dangerous place to be in.

I hope to escape this and need some backbone to go forward and end the year.

My seniors are starting to drop like flies as far as effort, which has caused me to stop doing anything.

So to compensate for all this, I have managed to become pretty anal about my house life and bills and everything else - I long to just get started with my MFA and start working and being creative and having the freedom to write and not feel guilty like I should be grading or preparing lessons...Good grief! I think this desire accounts for my renewed blogging.

Tonight - BBQ at Redbones - Phenom! I'm thoroughly thrilled.

I am contemplating taking up cigar smoking. I think is an appropriate vice for me.

Poetry

A buddy of mine sent me this great website of spoke poetry done at Upenn. Check it out for yourself.

Mario: Game Over

Basically youtube is full of Ninetendo nostaglia from mid-twenty slackers - this is actually pretty well conceived. the best is the sad interpretation of the music - haunting, powerful...I like the idea of Mario as a mushroom addict.

Oh well, back to being an adult and paying bills.

Bukowski and Gender

Thinking about Hillary and how much I hate her. I don't hate her because of her gender, but rather her carpet-bagging and pro-Iraq vote and general devisive personality. So to deal with my gender issues I turn to the great Beat Charles Bukowski:


Cows In Art Class

good weather
is like
good women-
it doesn't always happen
and when it does
it doesn't
always last.
man is
more stable:
if he's bad
there's more chance
he'll stay that way,
or if he's good
he might hang
on,
but a woman
is changed
by
children
age
diet
conversation
sex
the moon
the absence or
presence of sun
or good times.
a woman must be nursed
into subsistence
by love
where a man can become
stronger
by being hated.

Charles Bukowski


What about that title?

ah, spring

I'm outside with a cigar sitting on my deck - viewing my piece of land, not worrying about finances and reading poetry. They don't do this in Baghdad. The best part of this picture is this is me in twenty years - notice the diet coke.

Weight-y Issues: Diet Coke

I just wanted to go ahead and mention a wonderful article in the recent Newsweek regarding Diet Coke addiction. I suffer from an insatiable addiction to diet coke/pepsi anything with a morphine amount of caffeine. I am not alone - thank you Bill Clinton.

The part that shocked me was the fact that diet coke drinkers are more likely to be overweight - I guess from the fact that many drink it with a large fry and big mac.

Speaking of weight - Read this article

Thoughts for a Wednesday

It is spring and teaching is wearing on me. I wish to frolic outside among the fields and wrote poetry under a blossoming tree, instead I am cooped-up in my classroom in a tie, biding the time and wishing it were late June.

I have been writing lately - I have expanded my manuscript by about ten pages and I am starting to think of some short story ideas. I want to be able to mix it up and work in different genres. I think my troubles with short stories are their inherent focus on a single incident. I tend to think too grand, not willing to look at the metaphoric or didactic possibilities of the everyday.

Thinking a lot about school and how I am going to approach teaching next year - Again, I long to have more control. I read a great article from Salon.com, which has some wicked good commentary, when you sneak passed having to pay - bastards! Here is a snippet from Camile Paglia

In other news, my reading of last month's horrific Virginia Tech massacre (which I discussed with the Sunday Times of London's perspicacious Sarah Baxter) is that it is yet another warning, after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, that our present educational system is an insane pressure cooker, dangerous above all for boys, with their restless physical energy.

High school (which has become just a frantic, callow rat race for brand-name college admission) is not an eternal principle of the universe. It was invented relatively recently -- a point solidly made by Jon Savage in his interesting new book, "Teenage" (which I reviewed last weekend in the New York Times Book Review). Age segregation by grade, in my opinion, is a mechanistic atrocity that spawns ruthless social cliques, who oppress and enrage the losers in the provincial pecking order.

As I have argued for years, we desperately need a return to vocational training. The virtually universal conversion of American high schools to a pre-college track over the past half-century has watered down the curriculum to its present deadening uselessness. Lower-middle-class and working-class families who pay taxes have a right to expect that primary schools will prepare their children for a productive life.

My platform calls for a revalorization of the trades (which are related by craftsmanship to the art schools where I have taught for most of my career). Upper-middle-class families should be ready to support their children's unorthodox choice for a career in carpentry, masonry or landscaping. We need to strip the elite aura from the claustrophobic "prestige" jobs in sterile corporate offices, where high salaries drug the worker clones from recognition of their own imprisonment and castration.

We need to think about alternative methods of educationing our children.

Also, the Phillies need to learn how to clutch hit. Wankers.

Some faithful musings

So true, so very, very true...I can't wait until he is gone. Come september, when the surge has failed and soldiers have died, finally when the gutless Republicans rebel - only, maybe, then will something change. It sickens me. How much money, how much blood! Enough - I will not be angry...

Occassionally, I think about my religion and wonder how I can be involved in something so misrepresented in much of the world. Lately, I have been trying to reconnect with the spiritual side of my life - whether it be more constant prayer or conversation about God or faith or just generally more openness to the movement of the spirit.

being a liberal Christian has opened my faith to acceptance to other practices, but has left me without the clear definitions or disciplines I had when I was more conservative - by no means, am I going back?

i enjoy the UCC or at least, enjoy the idea of an open and all-accepting God, not the fire and brimstone church experience. Born-again, salvation is around the corner, here comes the rapture experience I witnessed in college.

Perhaps, it is the spring, with the gorgeous weather in Boston, that makes me want to reconnect and find God in nature and in long walks.

Well, enough of late evening mediations, I am off to buy glassess.

Speaking of faith, enjoy these church signs of the deep south.Here. You have to scroll down in the article to get to the slideshow. Enjoy.

Sweet Dreams are Made of These

One of the freak news stories that pops up on the drudgereport from now and then is about how a Myspace party and party crashers destroyed Annie Lennox's home.

If there is not another reason to hate myspace...I generally distrust internet social websites and yes, I have reluctantly joined the world of Facebook and all of its addictions.

But, Annie Lennox - I couldn't help but think of she hummed to herself the hit "Walkin' on Broken Glass" while stepping into her destroyed mansion that was graffiti and pillaged.

In other news, Dubya made a fool of himself with the queen. Winking at an 80 year old monarch. Classy. Fratty McHillbilly Prez.



Phillies can't manage to put together a winning streak. God Almightly, the NL is so weak - just get your shit together and win some damn games.

By the by, the woman, Royal, who lost the French presidency to the conservative -not bad, not too bad...I'm going to get in trouble for writing this.

Great Idea for Advertisement

So, I have a great idea for a McDonald's cross promotion advertisement with Grey's Anatomy.

So, McDonalds' is trying to promote its coffee and Grey's Anatomy is taking off. Why don't they adveritse their coffee as McSteamy and McDreamy?

Imagine it: At the counter are three middle-aged, well-dressed, and racially diverse women arguing about what to get - I'll have a McSteamy or no, a McSteamy - yap, yap, yap, then they go to get the attention of the counter boy and Patrick Dempesy turns around - with a cup of coffee. Cue - orgasmic reaction - I'm lovin' it.

COPYRIGHT -ME


Great website courtesy of yourdailyawesome.com -vThis site contains come great lectures on art, literature, and philosophy. Good for a daily listen.

Lately, I have been trying to expand my creative curiosity. I heard John Lithgow on NPR talking about the importance of being constantly creating. So, I have been trying to expand into writing poetry, regaining my love of piano, and I really want to begin trying to paint. Though, I have no skill - yet - Lithgow spoke wonderfully about the fear of running out of creative fire, so he saw the need to always explore a different medium whether he had success or not. I like this way of thinking.

Poem

I love this poem. I love the idea of being out of place or taking something on bigger than yourself. I love the humanity of the humorous image and the tuba being seen as a "love" instrument beckoning others and providing comfort.

I love the simplicity of the poem and what it says about choosing and being chosen.

Obviously too, this poem is also about sex, of which I am a big fan.

Any-hoo enjoy,


Instrument of Choice

She was a girl
no one ever chose
for teams or clubs,
dances or dates,

so she chose the instrument
no one else wanted:
the tuba. Big as herself,
heavy as her heart,

its golden tubes
and coils encircled her
like a lover's embrace.
Its body pressed on hers.

Into its mouthpiece she blew
life, its deep-throated
oompahs, oompahs sounding,
almost, like mating cries.

"Instrument of Choice" by Robert Phillips, from Spinach Days. © The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Art Day in Somerville

So today was the Somerville Open Studio Day, wherein all the artists open their houses and places of work to the public to come through and check out their artwork.

I am consistently impressed with the creativity and ingenuinity of individuals. One photographer, who lives around the corner, had some really net pieces. You can check out his work at www.east3rd.com - Sorry for not being able to provide the link - the new Blogger Beta doesn't like to work with my Mac. It is bullshit and makes me want to abandon blogspot, but what good is that,

Above is the photo I am thinking of purchasing. I think it would be awesome in my large red kitchen. any thoughts?

Getting ready for the Derby, then going out for Quesadillas - hence cinco de Mayo.

Got my money on Nobiz like Shobiz and Scat Daddy. I'll probably lose.

Great Website

One of my favorite things to do in theater was to write graphic or explicit things on items used in the play to try to get actors to break character.

I love this from Leave it Beaver.

Oh the 1950s. thanks shorpy.com and yourdailyawesome.com

GOP in 2008 - Grey's Anatomy

First, I have accidentally become obsessed with Gray's Anatomy. It began with my wife watching it and slowing deteriorating into my show of choice on Thursday night. Granted, I always catch CSI the following day on On Demand.

Last night, the show was a royal disappointed. Okay, generally, I hate when television shows waste an entire show prepping you for a spin-off. The show needs to focus on George and Izzy because they are the only characters anybody cares about.

Enough about McSteamy and McDreamy - I caught the GOP "debate" on MSNBC after Gray's. I wanted to live blog this and be one of those hip insiders - but quite frankly. I didn't have time or energy to roll over and grab my laptop - too many burgers.

General thoughts -

Tommy Thompson - Ant-gay scrote for saying it is okay for employers to fire someone if he/she is gay - basically, pissing away any sense of legal precedence or human decency.

McCain - people said he was fiery, he looked nervous and awkward. Plus, he has really bad teeth. Really bad.

Dr. Paul, the libertarian - slightly crazy, but at least, stood for something.

Brownback - He was hit with too many bibles as a child.

Romney - almost likable. occasionally, blinked.

Guiliani - came close to being honest and exhibiting candor, still unsure of how to come off as socially Conservative and moderate, when he is a turncoat liberal in many people's eyes.

Beers tonight. Glad the Phillies are starting to turn it around. I like that Myers is saving. Hooray for Golden State - suck it Cuban.

BBQ - time of you - I got a great BBQ rub from Christine's - vital to do the rub before the marinade.

Peace.

Oh read this article by Peggy Noonan about the GOP and what is really missing.