i flew via the extinct SkyBus to Los Angeles, CA, from Columbus, OH, in September, 2006, to see my friends Mel Scott and Amanda Beede get hitched. i had a VERY good time.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Chuckie "Sunshine" Baudelaire
yeah, that's right. Charles Baudelaire's G.I.Joe name was "Sunshine". a lot of people don't know that. i remember reading some of his poetry when i was in high school and equated it with over-wrought gothic-overload subjects... not unlike oh, musical groups like The Cure, Muse, Depeche Mode. baroque. is that a better term? i don't know. but i recently found a copy of Baudelaire's collected works at a used bookstore and decided to give the ol' sourpuss another go. i'm glad i did because i found this poem:
Scrutiny At Midnight
The clock ironically summons us
to account for what we did with this day past,
Friday the thirteenth, ominous date! And yet,
knowing the risks, we have defiled our life---
blasphemed the most incontestable of Gods
and (worthy slave of Hell) like a parasite
at Croesus' feast, to please our monstrous host,
mocked what we love and what we loathe acclaimed!
oppressed the weak we wrongfully despise
and (servile bully) cringed to stupid Power,
genuflected before the throne of Things
and blessed the phosphorescence of decay!
Last, to cheat our moods with madness, we
whose Muse's priesthood serves a world of death
have drunk without thirst and eaten without hunger!
---Let darkness hide us: quick, blow out the lamp!
~Charles Baudelaire ( translation by Richard Howard )
in light of some topics i've covered in some of my Sociology and Geography classes and also in light of movies i've seen lately (The Road) and some documentaries i've watched (Collapse, Standard Operating Procedures), this poem seems very appropriate. ~xtian
Scrutiny At Midnight
The clock ironically summons us
to account for what we did with this day past,
Friday the thirteenth, ominous date! And yet,
knowing the risks, we have defiled our life---
blasphemed the most incontestable of Gods
and (worthy slave of Hell) like a parasite
at Croesus' feast, to please our monstrous host,
mocked what we love and what we loathe acclaimed!
oppressed the weak we wrongfully despise
and (servile bully) cringed to stupid Power,
genuflected before the throne of Things
and blessed the phosphorescence of decay!
Last, to cheat our moods with madness, we
whose Muse's priesthood serves a world of death
have drunk without thirst and eaten without hunger!
---Let darkness hide us: quick, blow out the lamp!
~Charles Baudelaire ( translation by Richard Howard )
in light of some topics i've covered in some of my Sociology and Geography classes and also in light of movies i've seen lately (The Road) and some documentaries i've watched (Collapse, Standard Operating Procedures), this poem seems very appropriate. ~xtian
last one in.
i guess i'm going to start typing in a few of my recent favorite poems to share with anyone who happens to come across this blog. is anybody following this blog? hmm. don't think so. anyway, recently... and by "recently" i mean "over the last 6 months or so"... i've come across some poems that i've really enjoyed. some of my favorite poets are Robert Creeley, Anne Sexton, Frank O'Hara, and many others, but i'm always on the look-out for good new or old stuff. so here we go. hopefully, i -and they- are off the radar and no one will object to me re-typing these poems. if anyone does object feel free to e-mail me or message me or whatever and i'll correct the offense. get ready. get set... here's the first one:
A Northern Wind
Every second the question comes,
How long will you stay dregs?
Rise. Do not keep stirring the heavy sediment.
Let murkiness settle.
Some torches, even when they burn with spirit,
give off more smoke than light.
No matter how hard you stare into muddy water,
you will not see the moon or the sun.
A northern wind arrives that burnishes grief
and opens the sky.
The soul wants to walk out in that cleansing air
and not come back. The soul is a stranger trying to find a home,
somewhere that is not a where.
Why keep grazing on why?
Good falcon soul,
you have flown around foraging long enough.
Swing back now toward the emperor's whistling.
~ Rumi ( translation by Coleman Barks, 2010 )
A Northern Wind
Every second the question comes,
How long will you stay dregs?
Rise. Do not keep stirring the heavy sediment.
Let murkiness settle.
Some torches, even when they burn with spirit,
give off more smoke than light.
No matter how hard you stare into muddy water,
you will not see the moon or the sun.
A northern wind arrives that burnishes grief
and opens the sky.
The soul wants to walk out in that cleansing air
and not come back. The soul is a stranger trying to find a home,
somewhere that is not a where.
Why keep grazing on why?
Good falcon soul,
you have flown around foraging long enough.
Swing back now toward the emperor's whistling.
~ Rumi ( translation by Coleman Barks, 2010 )
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Who's the most underrated musician?
Keyboard Cat is the tops. i eagerly await the day he teams up with the runner-up on my list of underrated musicians. yes, i speak of none other than Rebecca Black. i think we could very well be blessed by another Captain & Tennille combo/incarnation. seriously. seriously.
Have you been able to keep your New Years resolutions or have you broken them?
i've never made a New Year's resolution. ever. it would be useless. i'm a rule-breaking naughty so-and-so.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
dung beetle fortified
blog post blag post slog post... i don't utilize this thing enough. ad infinitum.
current status: Columbus Limbo, but Triumvirate Kitten Heaven. i am a little bummed out that i didn't get to nap with Kipling today. today was one of those glorious days when... when... when I THOUGHT I WAS OFF WORK AN HOUR EARLIER THAN I ACTUALLY WAS. so i missed my Spider Kipling Kat Nap. booo. hisss. so it was run home, take a shower, poke kittens, run out the door and go to school.
yep. back in school, but (again, ad infinitum) to what end? i'm now 40 and i'm an artist. the plan was to take classes at Columbus State Community College and then transfer to Ohio State University to major in some art field... Printmaking, Illustration, Art History, SOMETHING... but quite often it's overwhelmingly Sisypheian. ( no, i don't even know if that's an actual word, but i'm using it. no, YOU look it up. hmph. ) my former Drawing teacher, Shawn Hennessey said, yeah, i can draw. my former 2D Design and Painting-Independent Study teacher, Stacy Leeman, said, yeah, i can paint. both of the English professors i had were so impressed by individual papers that i had written that they asked to use them as examples in future classes. last quarter, when i walked forward to hand in my final exam and retrieve my essay from her, this professor -a PhD no less- looked at me and said, "Wow." she docked me 2 points for writing a paper that was twice as long as required. 98%. she also was of the opinion that i should be getting paid to write a column or something... >guh.< people do that, i know. i have no idea how to go about that. none whatsoever.
let me say at this juncture, that NO, i do not capitalize most of the time except for proper nouns or to add emphasis to words. i don't always indent either, but this is just the case with blogs or e-mails. papers are another thing altogether. i mean, if i can get through the anxiety and all that crap first, once i do write, i try to do it all "by the book". HOWEVER, i try to punctuate the best that i can remember how and i generally often have a thing for double-spacing after a period. i guess it's a leftover from typing classes in the late 80's when i was in high school. i'm told most people don't give a rat's ass about double-spacing anymore. WAY more importantly, i try to correctly spell everything and stick to general grammar rules, though i have been caught making some of the most base and vile misspellings that i ridicule others for doing. i hate it when i do that.
okay, where was I? okay, some professors think i should be a writer, some think i'm an artist, i think my Pre-Algebra teacher thought i might lean more towards the maths or sciences, but i have not liked Geology or Algebra one bit since having to get back into those areas as pre-requisites. bleh.
me? i think i'm an artist. i think i always have been. unfortunately, the last few years... i really don't do a whole lot of art. there are so many reasons and/or excuses... that i'm going to choose at this moment to not chatter on about them. yammering on about them, as i often do, doesn't seem to yield results.
...
...andohmygosh, i'm getting tired. maybe you are, too? not only do i have to get up at 6am tomorrow to go to my day job, but i also have an Algebra exam tomorrow at 3pm. so that's it 'til next time.
current status: Columbus Limbo, but Triumvirate Kitten Heaven. i am a little bummed out that i didn't get to nap with Kipling today. today was one of those glorious days when... when... when I THOUGHT I WAS OFF WORK AN HOUR EARLIER THAN I ACTUALLY WAS. so i missed my Spider Kipling Kat Nap. booo. hisss. so it was run home, take a shower, poke kittens, run out the door and go to school.
yep. back in school, but (again, ad infinitum) to what end? i'm now 40 and i'm an artist. the plan was to take classes at Columbus State Community College and then transfer to Ohio State University to major in some art field... Printmaking, Illustration, Art History, SOMETHING... but quite often it's overwhelmingly Sisypheian. ( no, i don't even know if that's an actual word, but i'm using it. no, YOU look it up. hmph. ) my former Drawing teacher, Shawn Hennessey said, yeah, i can draw. my former 2D Design and Painting-Independent Study teacher, Stacy Leeman, said, yeah, i can paint. both of the English professors i had were so impressed by individual papers that i had written that they asked to use them as examples in future classes. last quarter, when i walked forward to hand in my final exam and retrieve my essay from her, this professor -a PhD no less- looked at me and said, "Wow." she docked me 2 points for writing a paper that was twice as long as required. 98%. she also was of the opinion that i should be getting paid to write a column or something... >guh.< people do that, i know. i have no idea how to go about that. none whatsoever.
let me say at this juncture, that NO, i do not capitalize most of the time except for proper nouns or to add emphasis to words. i don't always indent either, but this is just the case with blogs or e-mails. papers are another thing altogether. i mean, if i can get through the anxiety and all that crap first, once i do write, i try to do it all "by the book". HOWEVER, i try to punctuate the best that i can remember how and i generally often have a thing for double-spacing after a period. i guess it's a leftover from typing classes in the late 80's when i was in high school. i'm told most people don't give a rat's ass about double-spacing anymore. WAY more importantly, i try to correctly spell everything and stick to general grammar rules, though i have been caught making some of the most base and vile misspellings that i ridicule others for doing. i hate it when i do that.
okay, where was I? okay, some professors think i should be a writer, some think i'm an artist, i think my Pre-Algebra teacher thought i might lean more towards the maths or sciences, but i have not liked Geology or Algebra one bit since having to get back into those areas as pre-requisites. bleh.
me? i think i'm an artist. i think i always have been. unfortunately, the last few years... i really don't do a whole lot of art. there are so many reasons and/or excuses... that i'm going to choose at this moment to not chatter on about them. yammering on about them, as i often do, doesn't seem to yield results.
...
...andohmygosh, i'm getting tired. maybe you are, too? not only do i have to get up at 6am tomorrow to go to my day job, but i also have an Algebra exam tomorrow at 3pm. so that's it 'til next time.
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