Thursday, February 26, 2009

My sister, comedic genius

Me: Josh Lyman on The West Wing is rumored to be based on Rahm Emmanuel.
Sister: Really? Cool.
Me: And his brother Ariel Emmanuel is the inspiration for Ari Gold, Jeremy Piven's character on Entourage.
Sister: And they say Jews don't run the world.

-------------

Me: [at the end of a long rant about Republicans] Why have any government at all? Then there would never be any taxes or spending! Problem solved!
Sister: You have to have the government to stop people from having abortions.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Other Sunday

The phone never rings on
Sunday, silence and it's
all around, only the radio
playing, and all quiet
above the whispers
and the screams, and on the
refrigerator sits a message.

untitled

hi or hello?
what did you
say to me because
I can't remember--
I saw you walk
by but your
words missed me--
so what did you say, hi
or hello, or
was it even
me?

Epic silliness

Hickey-pokey, we ride along,
Under the purple tree,
Through the mountain and over the wood,
Comes the gallant three.

They watch, they wait, they listen,
And when they hear no sound,
They run, they shout, they bounce,
Because the square is round.

Never such a turquoise day,
Or such a polka sky
Will ever be seen by two or three,
As like the fuchsia hound.

As like the fuchsia hound, my son,
As like the fuchsia hound,
It moos, it gurgles, it holds its breath,
For a duck walks upon his sword.

This is the end of our adventurous ride,
Though the trolley finishes the way,
We hope you had a caucus time,
And never plant corn in May.

Firecracker

Bark and run,
sniff and scratch,
sleep and eat--
life for me--
clueless but loyal
and loving
jump and run
off

untitled

as the wood moves
in black and
brown on my pen--
swirls--
white smudge along
the table powdery and
flowing in and out of
a dot in creases;
it won't wipe off--
while gold leaps out
and tells
truths I didn't
dare to think be
cause they are
too reassuring.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Inspiration? Motivation?

I have not posted in a while, partially due to the usual laziness, but also because my mind has been consumed by nervousness and terror and excitement about moving. But I got everything packed; the drive went well; and I got to see some friends. Now back to real life, but in a completely different place.

Two bits I stopped at a small gas station around the Windsor/Hartland area for some caffeine and a bathroom. It was small and quaint and sold homemade pastries and had country music playing on the radio. I could've just as well been in Georgia; rather than being depressing, it was reassuring. Most places are pretty much the same. But sometimes we need to be in there, to turn things over so they can start again. And there's a sadness in it, and loss, but simply feeling is good rather than your insides being in stasis, a festering of emotion and intellect.

Sadness tends to bring hope with it.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Where were we going without ever knowing the way...

An excellent piece of music journalism.

This was just one of those blog posts that sneaks up on you and ends up making your day. Not only is the story well told, but it's told personally, in a way that makes you feel what he is feeling. I did not love Fastball like he did, but I did love other bands that way, but what this article really did for me was make me remember that one song, "The Way", one that's stuck in the head of anyone my age, inescapable.

The song that I loved most from Fastball, though, the one that I still listen to, is of off the same album: "Fire Escape". I still have that song in my music library and still enjoy listening to it. As I got older, I realized that Bob Dylan sang the same sentiment, and sang it better, 50 years ago with "All I Wanna Do", but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment of either.

But I do agree with the author--not only is music transcendent, I think it might be the one consistently transcendent thing in this life. So here's to the music that is beautiful and that "has a purpose, even if we can’t always define what it is", to the songs that I "will always know the words, until the day when I know nothing else."

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Contrarians at work

Last time I felt a cold coming on, I intensified my efforts--drank tea, Vitamin C loaded, made a toddy of whiskey and lemon and honey, rested, didn't smoke, made sure the humidifier worked...

And did it do me any good? No, still sick as crap. So this time when I feel the sore throat coming on, though I do lay off smoking, I'm still drink martinis and just generally don't give a crap.

A brief tangent into 'celebrity' news, which I can't promise won't happen again

Ooh! Michael Phelps smoked marijuana??

So many thoughts...

1) I don't give a fuck about Michael Phelps
2) Who gives a fuck about someone smoking a 'water pipe'?
3) It's disgusting that he is forced to apologize to every one in the fucking world for this
4) He was already arrested for a DUI when he was underage?
5) Michael Phelps is just an idiot
6) I pretty much knew that already.

Updated: Hear, Hear.