Thursday, April 30, 2015

Alice Duer Miller on "Why We Oppose Votes For Men," ca. 1915

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

[click to enlarge]

---o0o---

Poem: [Strangely green beneath the shadows] - generated with the poetry generator

By Jack Brummet


1
Strangely green beneath the shadows
  We converse with evil goats below the air

2
We confound fluorescent witches near the virgin
  The fun has died
Dark and glowing beyond the sea
  You pull lustful devils below

And grind blue demons against the sky
  Awaken, awaken! The evil was good:
Unsure, silent on the edge of the world 
  Down streets where guests
Look for landmarks while the snow falls

3
Mournful signs beside the fog
  The Queen is going,
shifting, restless across the water

  A phone ringing somewhere 
Out of whose dream 
  The lost man 
Asks his way 
  Trying to remember

4
Sinning beside the sea
  We hobnob with illusions beyond the spirits
Totally red under the gods

  I shove angry tomb stones beneath the virgin
The day is born and clouded hesitant,
  Saying goodbye with no words left 
In how many harbors does a stranger 
  Look for love and never knowing how

5
Strangely poisonous beyond the water,
  I divine illusions above the shadows,
Strange and mournful over the air

  We beat murky devils below the slime
You beat brilliant witches about the grave

  The life is becoming opaque, fighting back 
And crossing the frontier 
  The victim loses his way 
While the snow falls

6
  Darkening awake and blurring at the edges 
For whose sake the other 
  Leaves his home while the crowd watches.

7
We breed invisible idiots beneath the sky
  The devil is vanishing, a shadow seeking 
Another country with nothing left to lose 
            ---o0o---

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Drawing: Faces #1099

By Jack Brummet


---o0o---

The Baltimore Orioles' COO John P. Angelos' amazing statement on what is really important (not baseball)

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

A local Baltimore reporter/radio broadcaster, Brett Hollander, posted a series of tweets explaining how protests like this negatively impact the people of Baltimore. Hollander retweeted numerous examples of property damage and concluded that, "any really important message out of these protests is lost when the rest of the community is disrupted."

Amazingly, the best rebuttal to Hollander came froma Baltimore Orioles Executive Vice President and COO, John P Angelos. Angelos is the oldest son of the team's owner. Here's a transcript of Angelos entire Twitter reply:

 "Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.

"That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state. 

"The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans."
---o0o---

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Orioles to play White Sox in an empty Camden Yards tomorrow

By Jack Brummet

This has to be a first, right? Camden Yards empty? It's strange, and makes me think of the tree falling in the lonely forest. Is it really a baseball game with no fans to see it?


---o0o---

Drawing: Mt. Rainier at midnight

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

---o0o---

The Doors' Jim Morrison melts down again in Seatte, ca 1970

By Jack Brummet, Music History Ed.



There is a very good piece on John Densmore's website on The Doors final appearance in Seattle. It was a disaster (as was their previous appearance at a festival). 

Only 5,000 seats in the Coliseum were filled. At one point Morrison claims, "You know, I haven't been to Seattle in about two years; And good riddance they say." The audience corrected him, reminding him of last year's Seattle Pop Festival (another disaster).  He then asked "Was it a year ago?" 




According to my friend Francis, the audience was unrelenting and kept calling out for "Light My Fire," which he swore he would never perform again.  The audience was also asking him to "Play Miami" referring to the show and his subsequent arrest for indecent exposure.  Jim tried to infuse some humor into the situation with, "Well you know, driving into Seattle from the airport... Seattle reminds you of a late 1930s version of twenty years in the future. You know what I mean?!

Francis said he was pissed both figuratively (e.g., very drunk) and literally.  The power was pulled in the middle of a song, and The Doors walked off stage.



---o0o---

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Burst mode double exposure

By Jack Brummet

I was taking taking burst mode iphone shots at a gathering last night.
One ended up being a sort of double exposure in which KeeKee disappears and doppelgängers of Jimmy and the dog Remy appear.
 



---o0o---

Friday, April 17, 2015

Images of the Sasquatch, Yeti, Bigfoot, and Abominable Snowman

by Jack Brummet








 ---o0o---

Poem: Li Po In Disgrace

By Jack Brummet


Four hundred and forty-thousand
Moons ago, Li Po sits
Drinking wine on a bluff.

The Sun fades into blue mountains.
On the other side of the ball,
The sun scales the horizon.

Crickets tune up
And the first bats
Sail from roost to roost.

I think about Li Po drunk again
In the mountains, waiting for word
And listening to the wind songs.

Lost and alone,
He stares at the cup
And wonders when his pardon will come.

He holds a inkpot, scroll, and brush.
He listens to his skin fold
And his hair turn grey.

Between the mountains and stars,
A crow wheels over fogged red pines
Spiring in moonlight.

LiPo shakes wet peach blossoms
From his coat
And fills the cup.

Moonlight dances
On the golden wine
In the silver cup.

Who needs a clear head this night?
         ---o0o---

The great place names of Missouri



  • Tightwad
  • Crybaby Holler
  • Barely Do
  • Old Dishrag
  • Hell on the Line
  • Not
  • Rat
  • Competition
  • Koshkonong
  • Peculiar
  • Frankenstein
  • Romance
  • Braggadocio

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

"It's like it's always right now"





---o0o---

Poem: Turn

By Jack Brummet

1

The host and tenant lock
        In benign equilibrium.

2
Each valley followed by a slope.
         Every going followed by a return.

3
There is no relief without an ache,
          And no virus without a host.

4
Bricks tumble into the moat.
           The king's body hangs naked from the flagpole.

5
For a fleeting moment

            The condition for change exists.
                     ---o0o--

Digital art: Slices/Faces #1087

By Jack Brummet

[digitized from pen drawings and acrylic paintings - click to enlarge]

---o0o---

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Poem: The Quest

By Jack Brummet



It’s all one story—
                           A ragged
                                        shape-shifting tale

Of incredible coherence and constance,
                                                           Encompassing all you know,
                                                           All you don’t know you know,
                                                           And all you one day will know.
There is more
                     To be
                             seen,
                             tasted,
                             heard,
                             and felt
                                         Than can ever be known or told.

Our myths flourish and spread,
                              Person to person, 
                                          And the mysteries of the seas and skies and stars
                                                             Fill our collective conscience

With mystical scenes,
                      Quests, and tales of greatness.
                                           These myths, tales, and fables
                                                               Cannot be invented, ordered, or denied.

When you strip away
                       The stage flats, makeup, and costumes,

                                            It’s all one story
                                                                Starring our private heroes and dreams.
                        ---o0o--- 

Poem: [you can’t see earth]

By Jack Brummet



1
You can't see earth
From the dark side of the moon
But maybe that changes

With the accelerating deceleration
Of the moon and earth.
A waning Gibbous moon

Dangles 1.3 light seconds away,
The Sea of Tranquility
A menacing sinkhole.

2
The moon
And the fog
Are in cahoots.

Fog slithers in,
Wrapping around houses,
Trees, shrubs, and churches,

Threading its way
Along the ground
Like horror movie fog.

3
Do the fog and moon
Trigger m
ayhem, madness, and murder?
Do our brains have tides?
---o0o---

Photograph: The test flight

By Jack Brummet (and an unknown postcardmaker)

- click to enlarge - 
---o0o---

Painting: The Crowd

By Jack Brummet

[click to enlarge]

---o0o---

Monday, April 13, 2015

Republicans versus Democrats

[Author/originator unknown]


A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."
---o0o---

Three drawings: Faces #1081, 1082, and 1085

By Jack Brummet

[click to enlarge]




---o0o---