Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Poem: Changes 33/Retreat Is Not Surrender—


click the white flag to enlarge

I've been writing these Changes poems since March, 2006—very loosely based on the I-Ching. Today I have worked through half of the i ching hexagrams. No. 33 is the turning point. I crib from three versionsof the book—James Legee's I Ching: Book of Changes; Wilhelm, and Baynes' The I Ching or Book of Changes, with a suitably strange forward by Carl Jung (my favorite version, and it's a beautiful book with a great dust jacket); and a version I keep at the office, Rediscovering The I Ching.

______________________________________________


Poem: Changes 33/
Retreat Is Not Surrender—


We are at not at liberty to retreat
When the way ahead is fogged
When doubt and darkness set in

When reason degenerates
And bedevils the heart
Flight is not retreat

Flight is a mad scramble
For the exits
Flight is throwing in the towel

Retreat is tactical
A gathering of reason
As the dark forces assemble

A provisional retreat
Is choosing the right moment
While you are still under

A full head of steam
And biding your time
For the counter-attack.
---o0o---

Lyrics and video to The End Of The Line By The Traveling Wilburys

The End Of The Line is an rollicking tune, with slyly shifting choruses, and the all so familiar (and beloved, for me at least) voices trading verses and choruses. Supergroups have always been a mixed bag (*cough cough* Beck Bogart and Appice; Blind Faith; Super Session; The Highwaymen). Does anyone even remember the Super Super Blues Band (Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Howlin' Wolf)? Crosby Stills, Nash and Young pulled it off frequently. So did Derek And The Dominoes. Supergroups have mainly been short-lived, primarily due to the difficulty of reigning in multiple massive egos. The Wilburys decided to not reach for the stars, and just write, play, and sing music together. It was funny, it was touching, and it was at times moving. They refused to become ponderous and collapse under the weight of their egos. They just made music. The lineup:

Volume 1:
Nelson Wilbury - George Harrison
Otis Wilbury - Jeff Lynne
Lefty Wilbury - Roy Orbison
Charlie T. Jnr. - Tom Petty
Lucky Wilbury - Bob Dylan


Volume 3 (there was no Volume 2; it was skipped in memory of Roy Orbison):
Spike Wilbury - George Harrison
Clayton Wilbury - Jeff Lynne
Muddy Wilbury - Tom Petty
Boo Wilbury - Bob Dylan




You may have to hit the play button twice!

The End Of The Line
by The Traveling Wilburys

(chorus 1)
Well its all right, riding around in the breeze
Well its all right, if you live the life you please
Well its all right, doing the best you can
Well its all right, as long as you lend a hand

You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring
Waiting for someone to tell you everything
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring
Maybe a diamond ring

(chorus 2)
Well its all right, even if they say youre wrong
Well its all right, sometimes you gotta be strong
Well its all right, as long as you got somewhere to lay
Well its all right, everyday is judgement day

Maybe somewhere down the road aways
You'll think of me, and wonder where I am these days
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays
Purple haze

(chorus 3)
Well its all right, even when push comes to shove
Well its all right, if you got someone to love
Well its all right, everything'll work out fine
Well its all right, were going to the end of the line

Dont have to be ashamed of the car I drive
Im just glad to be here, happy to be alive
It dont matter if youre by my side
Im satisfied

(chorus 4)
Well its all right, even if youre old and grey
Well its all right, you still got something to say
Well its all right, remember to live and let live
Well its all right, the best you can do is forgive

(chorus 5)
Well its all right, riding around in the breeze
Well its all right, if you live the life you please
Well its all right, even if the sun dont shine
Well its all right, were going to the end of the line
---o0o---

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Zombie Survival Guide


click the zombie, Tor Johnson, to enlarge

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead (2003), by Max Brooks, is a detailed physiology and genealogy of the undead, with a road map for survival against zombie attacks—random attacks as well as more concerted, global uprisings. I am reading this book now. The Survival Guide delves into the zombie myth from the ground up and explains the role of the solanus virus in creating the undead. It's a good read. . .at least if you're a zombie fan. There are clearly parallels with the world of greys and aliens, although the promulgators of the zombie myth seem to have—shall we say?—more of a sense of humor about their subject matter than the UFOlogists. This isn't surprising when you consider that Max Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks.


Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Some of my favorite horror movies star zombies, notably, Romero's The Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead/Day of the Dead/Land of the Dead series. But don't forget White Zombie, and Zombi II, Peter Jackson's Braindead, and of course, the recent Shaun of the Dead, and 28 Days Later. As for videogames, I do have a soft spot in my heart for games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, House of the Dead, and one of my quirky Japanese favorites, Typing of the Dead.



The guide goes into detail on:

1.1 Myths and Realities
1.2 Weapons and Combat Techniques
1.3 On the Defensive
1.4 On the Run
1.4.1 Terrain types
1.5 On the Attack
1.6 Living in an Undead World
1.7 Recorded Attacks
1.8 Appendix
2 Solanum
2.1 How it works
2.2 Cross-species infection
2.3 Symptoms
3 Cultural appeal
3.1 Humor fans
3.2 Zombie fans


Brooks' suggests that the best defense is an M1 Carbine semi-automatic rifle, a good handgun with a mounted sight, and a machete. Shotguns and swords also do the job, of course. Brooks warns against fully automatic weapons (only one bullet will takw down a zombie; using any more is a waste of ammo). If you love zombies, you'll want to buy this book! The chapter on Recorded Attacks provides enough ammo to spook any group ranged around a campfire.
---o0o---

Monday, January 29, 2007

Poem: toast

Down the hatch to the tapsters, barkeeps, barmaids, bartenders, and Mistresses Quickly; l'chayim to the vintners, brewmasters, corkers, rumrunners, and distillers; skoal to the grogshops, ginmills, roadhouses, bars, taverns, rathskellers, and saloons; here's how to the supporters of coffin varnish, hootch, whiz, crazy water, and gargle; a toast to those twisted, boiled, hammered, wrecked, tanked, corked, tight, pie-eyed, oiled, shellacked, crocked, ripped, and fried to the hatline. Tomorrow the bill comes due again.
---o0o---

The Tooth Fairy

If you're already thinking about this year's Halloween get-up, may I recommend the Tooth Fairy costume?
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 31/Influence



A mountain lake
Is egalitarian
It gives and receives in equal measure

Taking in rain
And glacial runoffs
And giving water back

To the animals and bugs
That carve tracks
To the shore.
---o0o---

Barrister Harry Coy & Me & How My Ship Is About To Come In



I recently had an interesting epistolary exchange with a London Barrister, Harry McCoy. Read from the bottom up. . .

___________________________________________

Sat. 27 Jan 2007

To: BARRISTER HARRY COY
HARRY ASSOCIATES AND CHAMBERS
128 DESTMOND AVENUE KENT LONDON
Tel PHONE ; +447031945240,
DATE 26th JAN 2007 .

Dear Barrister Coy:

Enclosed in the personal information you requested. Please let me know if you need any further information to effect the transfer of funds.

As to meeting with you, rather than forcing you fly all the way over to the states, I’d be glad to fly over and meet with you in your London offices. I guess once I have the funds, I can probably afford to fly first class!

Let me know when you would like to meet. I, of course, look forward to hearing from, and meeting with you soon.

Sincerely,

Jack Brummet
___________________________________________

From: HARRY COY To: johnbrummet@hotmail.com
Subject: Can we proceed? FROM HARRY COY ESQ
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 03:49:19 +0000 (GMT)

DESK OF BARRISTER HARRY COY
HARRY ASSOCIATES AND CHAMBERS
128 DESTMOND AVENUE KENT LONDON
Tel PHONE ; +447031945240,
DATE 26th JAN 2007 .

Dear Jack,

It’s my pleasure to receive your mail dated 26th Jan 2007 , well I must tell you that the contents of your mail were well noted, and to make you really Understand that I am who I claim to be I will need you to Work with me and be honest in all things, its rightfully said that a mans word is his bond, so let us keep to what ever we agree on.

I must also make you understand that it’s my duty to educate you in your role in this transaction and to provide every document needed for this transaction, of which I will need your consent in some aspect.

I will need you to send me some information which Shall help me open a pay file in the security company Where these funds are deposited, note that in due Cause of this transaction I will need you to give me An address where I can meet up with you in your Country to have my own share of the funds of which I Will need also a good business to invest on with your advice.

Here are the following information’s ;

[1] Complete name
[2] Phone number [cell phone]
[3] Address
[4] Age and sex
[5] Marital status
[6] Job type and years of experience.

Note that whatever information I give you here should Be kept under the confirms of your person and should Not be disclosed to any one, it is also applicable to me as I will keep every information about you secret.

Finally I must also reminder you that you should be rest assured that this transaction is 100 % risk free, so keep your mind relaxed.

Sincerely,
Harry Coy Esq.
+44 703 194 5240

___________________________________________

Fri, 26 Jan 2007

To: BARRISTER HARRY COY
HARRY ASSOCIATES AND CHAMBERS
128 DESTMOND AVENUE KENT LONDON
Tel PHONE ; +447031945240,
DATE 26th JAN 2007 .

Dear Barrister Coy:

While I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Martin Brummet, I am glad you contacted me. I am, of course, eager to discuss the disposition of the $5.4 million dollars. Please let me know what your fee will be, and what information you might need from me.

Will I need to make a good faith payment to you to set this transfer in motion? If so, please give me the information as to where and how much I need to send.

I am naturally eager to set this transaction in motion. Again, I thank you for seeking me out. And I also greatly appreciate your offer to protect me from commiting any legal trangressions as we move forward.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Jack Brummet

___________________________________________

From: "HARRY COY" Reply-To: harry_coy1@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: YOUR DECEASED RELATIVE, BRUMMET
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 07:46:21 +0000

HARRY ASSOCIATES AND CHAMBERS
128 DESTMOND AVE KENT LONDON
DESK OF BARRISTER HARRY COY
PHONE +447031945240
DATE 25th/JAN/2007

ATTN : Jack Brummet

I am Barrister Harry Coy, a solicitor at law.I was a Personal Assistant to late Martin Brummet,a national Of your country, who died on the 30th of April 2004, my client was involved in a car accident in London .All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several enquires here to locate any of my clients extended
relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to search through with his name which motivated me to contact you, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.

I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the fund valued at US$5.4 Million (Five million, Four Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) left behind by my client Before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Security Administration, which has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have his account confiscated within the next Finance Firm (Bank) where this huge amount were deposited. The said Security Finance official has given us ten working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives,I seek the consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased
,since you have the same last name with my client, proper documentation will
be made so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you.

Therefore, on receipt of your positive response, we shall then discuss the
sharing ratio and modalities for transfer. I have all necessary information
and legal documents needed to back you up for claim. All I require from you
is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through. I
guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement that will
protect you from any breach of the law.

Thanks as i await your urgent response.

Yours Faithfully,
Barr Harry Coy (esq.)
---o0o---

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Joni Mitchell Performs "Coyote: With The Band Circa 1976


---o0o---

"Not suitable to live in this world" — A new collage of a grey alien (artist unknown)


click this grey image to enlarge. . .

I bumped into this collage/image on an Italian website. I ran the text through free translation which produced this bizarre (and unedited) Italian to English translation. It didn't tell me much about where the image came from, or what it meant, but it did provide a interestingly bent Italglish text:


"Awful days. rare the moments in which I take again myself from my autismo. in those moments - rare - I leave me. I is not suitable to live in this world. learned to do it. and the results are better of those of those who retain themselves native. but to live in this world does not stick to my nature..

"I like Isserly already. I like Isserly - That you are a sort of Mantis to hunting of vodsel I had had to long strokes the suspect. Then it dispels from the empathy. To find myself it it nude and raw here I confess you a little one puts the shudders. But you put however the shudders. "

The Itaian version:

"giorni pessimi. rari i momenti in cui mi riprendo dal mio autismo. in uei momenti - rari - mi abbandono.io non sono adatta a vivere in questo mondo. ho imparato a farlo. e i risultati sono migliori di quelli di coloro che si ritengono autoctoni. ma vivere in questo mondo non attiene alla mia natura..

"io come Isserlygià.io come Isserly

"Che tu sia una sorta di Mantide a caccia di vodsel ne avevo avuto a lunghi tratti il sospetto. Poi fugato dall'empatia. Ritrovarmelo nudo e crudo qui ti confesso un po' mette i brividi. Ma tu metti comunque i brividi. "sottopelle"

---o0o---

Jumpers From Seattle's Aurora Bridge Become A Hazard On The Ground



An Associated Press story today by Donna Gordon Blankinship goes into the toll Aurora Bridge jumpers take on office workers in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.

"Seattle is becoming hazardous to the mental health of the dot-com employees and other office workers below, who keep seeing people jump to their deaths from the span.

"Thirty-nine people over the past decade have committed suicide off the 155-foot-high Aurora Bridge _ eight in 2006 alone _ and counselors are regularly brought in to help office workers deal with the shock of seeing the leap or the bloody aftermath. "

The bridge now has numerous signs
and billboards and ads for the local suicide prevention center.




Bridge graffiti "You are magnificent."
and "Don't jump."

---o0o---

Friday, January 26, 2007

Poem: Changes 30/Clinging


click the sunset to enlarge

1
Fire has no form but clings
To the burning object.
Water pours down from heaven

And fire flames up from the earth.
What is dark clings to what is light.
A luminous body emitting light

Must have within itself
Straw for the fire,
Or it will burn itself out.

Everything that gives
Light depends on the object
To which it clings.

The sun and moon cling to heaven,
And the bugs, trees, and people
Cling to the earth.

2
The mind shut off from the outside
In sleep reconnects with the world
And the yellow light streaming down.

Later, in the setting sun
We bewail the approach of old age
And peek with dread

At the day
When all the revels
Are ended.
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 98 - UFOs Over Charlotte


PHOTO BY CHARLES MILLER;
cropped and lightened by Charlotte.com for clarity

According to Charles Miller: "Last night just after 8:30, I was in the backyard smoking a cig and saw a light coming in toward Kings Mountain from the south-southeast. ... I went in the house and got my camera and came back out in the front yard to shoot it. "

"Emergency dispatchers around Charlotte handle wacky 911 calls each night. But Wednesday, agencies got the same type of unusual call: A hovering light was in the sky. Others described it as a plane that might be in trouble. A blueish glow. A fire in the sky. A light moving too slow to be a plane. The calls came into Iredell, Lincoln, Mooresville and Huntersville emergency dispatchers around 8 p.m. -- with even a dispatcher's dad calling in a sighting and one Lincoln County officer reportedly seeing it. "

There were, however, "No immediate reports of little green men with ray guns." read the entire story in The Charlotte Observer.
---o0o---

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Why I Deleted The Comments From The Toxic Doctor Story



The editors of Al This Is That have deleted all 13 comments from this thread, as well as the stories that engendered all the comments. The whole thing has become a tilt-a-whirl ride of people pretending to be other people; people attacking other people who were pretending to be other people; people posting with aliases stating only who they were not; and a raft of accusations and cross-accusations; moves and countermoves; posing, posturing, lies, and delusion. You probably know I don't place a high premium on The Truth, or more accurately, what often passes for The Truth, because The Truth is usually not all it's cracked up to be.

If you know me "in real life," you know that truth may now and then take backstage to a knee-slapper or a twisted, 98% fictional, and often libelous, side-trip. There are some things better than the truth. No. 1?: The music of human laughter. This whole Michael Toubbeh trip suddenly became a karmic burden, and the vibes were beginning to stink the place up.

Once I start editing comments and removing stories, well. . .then, it's no longer All This Is That, but a blog for everyone who agrees with me, where those victims of parody, or targets of stories, can't respond. Democracy is for everyone, and I'm just not ready to change the name of the blog to Some Of This Is Sort Of That Sometimes.
---o0o---

When you strike at a king, you must kill him

When you strike at a king, you must kill him - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you come at the king, you best not miss" - I can't figure out who said this (tell me!).

People claim Machiavelli said: "It's the downside of conspiracies that they have to succeed." I don't think downside was au courant in Machiavelli's time. It's either a bogus quote, or a shabby translation.


click Old King by Georges Rouault to enlarge...

Every one of these quotes are really about the consequences of failure. I've seen this dilemma in office politics more than once. If you're going to attempt to take out the guy above you, or many levels above you, you do not want to strike to wound. When you wound your target, the consequences of failure are catastrophic.

We're often told that police are trained to shoot to kill. Or you don't shoot.
---o0o---

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Happy Birthday to canned beer!



It was 72 years ago today that canned beer was first sold to the public. Eventually canned beer led to the demise of the literally thousands of local breweries, as the big national breweries were now able to ship their product all over the country.

In 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to the thirsty in Richmond, Virginia. It mushroomed from there, and today half the beer sold in this country comes in cans.



To learn more, go to This Day On History. They even have a canned beer video. Indeed, there is even a Canned Beer History website.
---o0o---

Lyrics to Jimmy Driftwood's Tennessee Stud

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite bluegrass songs by one of my favorite bluegrass performers. Doc Watson performed a masterful version with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?," the album that hooked me on the 'grass.


Tennessee Stud
by Jimmy Driftwood


Along about eighteen and twenty-five
I left Tennessee very much alive
I never would have got through the Arkansas mud
If I hadn't been a-ridin on the Tennessee stud

I had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa
One of her brothers was a bad outlaw
I sent her a letter by my Uncle Fud
And I rode away on the Tennessee stud

CHORUS:
The Tennessee stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
And there never was a hoss like the Tennessee stud

One day I was ridin' in the beautiful land
And ran smack into an Indian band
They jerked their knives with a whoop and a yell
But I rode away like a bat out of hell

Well I circled their camp for a time or two
And showed what a Tennessee hoss could do
And them redskin boys never got my blood
'Cause I was a-ridin' on the Tennessee stud

CHORUS

We drifted on down into no man's land
We crossed the river called the Rio Grande
I raced my hoss with the Spaniards bold
Till I got me a skin full of silver and gold

Me and a gambler we couldn't agree
We got in a fight over Tennessee
We jerked our guns, he fell with a thud
And I got away on the Tennessee stud

CHORUS

Well, I got as lonesome as a man can be
Dreamin' of my girl in Tennessee
The Tennessee stud's green eyes turned blue
'Cause he was a-dreamin' of a sweetheart too

We loped on back across Arkansas
I whipped her brother and I whipped her pa
I found that girl with the golden hair
And she was ridin' on a Tennessee mare

CHORUS

Stirrup to stirrup and side by side
We crossed the mountains and the valleys wide
We came to Big Muddy and we forded the flood
On the Tennessee mare and the Tennessee stud

Pretty little baby on the cabin floor
Little hoss colt playin' 'round the door
I love the girl with golden hair
And the Tennessee stud loves the Tennessee mare

CHORUS

©1958 Warden Music Company, Inc. (BMI)
---o0o---

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park Opens!



Last weekend's New York Times article told the story. NYC has sculpture park envy! And well they should. Somehow Seattle assembled nine acres of prime land and beach north of Pier 70. We couldn't get our act together to build a train or subway system, or to fix our decrepit Viaduct or the Rosselini Floating Bridge, but that's another rant. This is a time to celebrate. The park is a home run, as much for the sculpture as the park itself—a tour de force of architectural landscaping. WEISS / MANFREDI Architecture created this z-shaped park running from Western Avenue to Elliott Bay. The PACCAR Pavilion has sweeping views of the Olympic Mountains. My only regret about the park is that they couldn't somehow level one office building so you could view the Seattle P.I. globe, just up the block from the park. It's a nineteen-ton pop masterpiece.

We attended the park's grand opening on Sunday. Online, you can take an interactive tour or visit the Seattle Art Museum's web site.

Unfortunately, none of the photographs I've seen of the park do it justice. If you follow the trails, the park leads, eventually, to a beautiful pebble beach, with piles of driftwood to arrange and rearrange into forts and ad hoc sculptures. The beachfront includes a salmon haven (habitat?) of some sort.

There are three levels of art at work: bridges over the road and railroad tracks, trellises, native plantings (I think Salal and Oregon Grape, etc.) , cool benches and walkways and paths up the hills and down to the beach; sculptural works by the likes of Louise Nevelson, Mark di Suvero, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, and many others, and installations and exhibits in the pavillion. Is this cool, or what?
---o0o---

Monday, January 22, 2007

Poem: Changes 29/The Abysmal



1
Every step forward or backward
Leads into danger
With no hope of escape

Only survival
Like a manacled prisoner
Behind grey concrete walls

2
The abyss
Is filled to the rim
And action only mires

You in danger
Plunging you further
Into the abyss

3
To survive you must be like water
Surging in over around and through
Filling up all the places

Through which it flows
From the cataracts
To the waterfalls

In your cage you must be you
Where nothing makes you
Lose the way

Where nothing
Makes you
Lose yourself.
---o0o---

Sunday, January 21, 2007

For Pete from NYC, Robert Hershon's poem Ichabod

Responding to Pete's comment here.

I seem to recall a poem you published once (in email I think, not in the literary sense) that ended something like 'the shitheads that run the show.' Always like that one. How about reprise? --Posted by Pete to all this is that at 1/21/2007 07:03:23 PM

Alas, it wasn't mine, but the poem of Robert Hershon, a guy we knew in NYC, a poet, publisher, and editor. He has published over 10 books of his own poems, and through his press, Hanging Loose, published hundreds of other folks. Hershon's Hanging Loose does two incredible things: 1) They never ever let a book go out of print; and 2) Their literary magazine always includes the works of fledgling poets (high school students). Bob writes some of the most trenchant and funny poetry I have ever read. This particular poem was written at least 20 years ago, but it might very well have been written about the current Presidential Administration. Here is his poem Ichabod.


Ichabod

Everyone's first name means
Beloved of the Lord
or Bearer of Glad Tidings
or Valiant in Battle

except Ichabod
which means The Glory
has Departed

and must be considered
the name for the future
along with The Liar is Thriving
Unbearable Cruelty and
The Shitheads are Running the Show

- Robert Hershon

---o0o---

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Index to Jack Brummet poems on All This Is That

The I-ching poems (18-28 are new):

Changes One/Action
Changes Two/The Receptive
Changes Three/Trouble Ahead
Changes Four/The Young Shoot
Changes Five/The waiting
Changes Six/Conflict
Changes Seven/The Army
Changes Eight/Holding Together
Changes Nine/The taming power of the small
Changes Ten/treading
Changes Eleven/Peace
Changes twelve/standing still
Changes 13/Fellowship
Changes 14/Possession
Changes 15/The Armies Of The Night
Changes 16/Enthusiasm, or, the king begins to falter
Changes 17/Following
Changes 18/Fixing what has spoiled
Changes 19/The Approach
Changes 20/Contemplation
Changes 21/Biting Through
Changes 22/Grace
Changes 23/Splitting Apart
Changes 24/The Turning Point (for S.A.D.)
Changes 25/The Unexpected
Changes 26/The Taming Power of the Great
Poem: Changes 27/Taking Care
Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great

New Poems (i-ching poems 18-28 are also new):

Poem: 3 A.M.

I'm agnostic about atheism

Snow Day In Kirkland, Washington

Squirrel poem

Going Mad Might Be Like A Bad Eight Track Tape Deck

Fall Haiku

Jericho & How Joshua Caused The Walls To Come Tumbling Down

The Orgy In The Pantry (starring Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, Pilsbury Dough Boy, Aunt Jemima, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and more)

Poem:With Or Without The Words

Hello. . .My poem is. . .

_____________________________

Previous poems:

You Gather Your Friends
The Way We Were
Scarred for life
The White Flag
The Cover-up
The Good German
Dream Of The Grey
Torches & Pitchforks
The Red Flag
Don't look back
The Tenth Planet (Or An Incredible Facsimile?)
Anger management is a slippery slope
the vault
The Moon's In Tune
Another politician resigns in disrace
Changes Nine/The taming power of the small
Rub-a-dub
Tendrils
The Candidate
Reds
Making Room
The revolt in heaven
Found Poem: The Richmond Hill Oracle Poem (and painting): The Robot Wars
I don't believe I'm here
Ten ways of looking at lies
The Broken Chord
With our heads in the sand during the transit and eclipse
the sun plays its red song
Litany
Poem: The Developers
A raindrop's life
The mystery of the first amendment to the Ten Commandments
The Bay Of Delusion
Mad Song
Reasons To Keep On
Conspiracy Theory The Moon Race
Mr. Flue's Grave In Hillcrest Cemetary, Kent, Wash.
The World Seems Especially Calming And Verisimilitudinous Today
Kent, Washington
Rollover
[It's the Lee Harvey Oswald smile]
Zombie Breakdown
Heaven
The Variations
You Rehearse Dying
Sonnet For Hari
Defensive Daydreaming
The Dream
Dogpaddling
The Prostethic Head & The Absence Of Blood
Tetuan - "No Paranoia, My Friend"
The Grey Visitors & Painting:
The Grey Ambassador
The Bad Movie
The Bucket
The Man In The Mirror
Liftoff
Optimism
Perspective A Flight Of Swallows
Audioblog - The Prevaricator
Weather Report
Your Wooden Leg
The Revelations Sermon At The First Church Of The Mojo Apocalypse
Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch The Late Excavation (Text And Audio)
Jack Kerouac, Meet John Barleycorn
The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand
At The Acropolis
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
The sous-chef is a sociopath]
James Wright
Falling
[Life Is Not A Hardy Novel]
Seven
Coyote Comes Home Like A Salmon
Shorts For Jerry Melin ca. about 1988
Bird
Monism
The Golden Rule
The Countdown
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
AT HILLCREST CEMETARY IN KENT, WASHINGTON, I WALK BY THE GRAVE OF SAM THE GRASSEATER
Notes On Flying
Daybreak
Explosions
Not Past Tense Yet
the glass is not half-full
It's Getting Crowded Here
Li Po In Disgrace
The Clock
A Love Song
Bad Timing
The Killer
The Absence of Footprints Growing Up
Gone Fishing
The M.D.s
A Poem - Acrylic
The Marriage
Driving Home To Seattle, We Watch Deer Drinking from the Skookumchuck River
---o0o---

Friday, January 19, 2007

Poem: Changes 26/The Taming Power of the Great



A good horse
Follows the others
Because they have somewhere to go

It furthers one
To cross the great water
Because Heaven lies within

Heaven lies
Nestled deep within
The windswept snowcapped mountain
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 25/The Unexpected

If someone is not as he should be
He develops
The reverse Midas Touch

Under heaven
Thunder rolls
Thus the old kings

Fostered everything
With a heartbeat
We cannot lose

What really belongs to us
Even when we throw it away
The gathering winds

Blow through my heart
Reverberating in the echo chamber
Of regret.
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 97—Air Force Colonel Sees A UFO In Arkansas


photo by Col. Brian Fields - click to enlarge. The yellow lights in a
triangle were seen on Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights
are from a local radio tower


WorldNetDaily.com has reported a retired Air Force Colonel, Brian Fields, spotted a UFO in Arkansas last week. This UFO sighting follows closely on the heels of the very recent Chicago sightings.

"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," Col. Brian Fields told World Net Daily. "I have no idea what they were."

Just before 7 p.m., on January 9th, he saw two bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.

"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."

Fields' wife thought the lights may have been ground-based, but Fields says he's certain they were airborne. The retired colonel spent close to 32 years in the military, flying F-16s as a member of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard.

"I'm certain it wasn't an aircraft [from Earth]," said Fields. "
Click here to read the entire story on WorldNetDaily.com.
———o0o———

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great



1
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point
The wood is stout
At the center of gravity

But the pressure
Is at the margins
You cannot change the pine

Because it is what it is
So you must change
The triggering condition

But you
Are not
God

2
The lake rises
Over the treetops
Caution 'though it seems exaggerated

Is no mistake
The enterprise cannot succeed
Without caution

In laying the foundation
And bracing
The ridgepole

3
You must go through the water
Even when it goes over your head
Even when you surrender life

So goodness
And the right prevail
There are things more important

Than life
Or so they say
But I can't think of what they might be.
---o0o---

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Is this cool or what? 4D scanning...


Triplets: in utero

A new, highly developed form of ultrasound is allowing us to see things we've never seen before. The fascinating article, with picture gallery is here.
---o0o---

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The majority of women are now living without a spouse



According to a New York Times analysis of census results, in 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

"In 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

"Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom. "

As Aimee Mann wrote:

"You fucked it up
You should've quit
Till circumstances
Had changed a bit

You fucked it up
You jumped the gun
I swore you off but
You climbed back on

And when you said
Of course you know
Could I be blamed
If I'd wished it so
I don't think so."

---o0o---

Monday, January 15, 2007

The C.I.A. and the creation of Osama bin Laden

The illuminati conspiracy archive recently published a fascinating article by Norm Dixon on how the C.I.A. created Osama bin Laden, and his nefarious operations.

“Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are on the defensive — on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the political and economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man — in the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters.”

Is this statement from a bin Laden fatwa, or from the Taliban? Not so much. This encomium of the terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban stooges was uttered by President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985. The “evil empire” was, of course, the Soviet Union, and other Third World groups fighting US-sanctioned colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship. . .in the third world.



We created the monster and we engendered the toxic fundamentalist theology that lead to the war in Iraq, the savage deaths of thousand of Americans, and has us waiting for the other shoe to drop. As horrorific as 9/11 was, it was just a ride on the tilt-a-whirl compared to what might happen next.
---o0o---

Sunday, January 14, 2007

President Bush's secret plan to go down in the history books revealed

In the spring of 2006, President Bush came up with a plan to salvage his presidency in the history books. Phil Ronson of the All This Is That National Affairs Desk in Washington, (1580 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003), was informed earlier in the week of White House conversations that have apparently guided Administration policy for the last year.

A highly placed Administration aide told Ronson that the President told a group of advisors that if he couldn't be remembered as one of the great Presidents, at least he might be remembered as the worst. "OK, so things haven't exactly gone according to plan," he told the meeting of political aides, "well then we might as well be remembered as the worst." Two other White House personnel independently confirmed the tenor of that meeting.

"We'll give Grant, Harding, and Nixon a run for their money," President Bush said. "By the time I'm through, people will barely even remember those c***suckers!"



According to the leaker, White House staffers all agree the plan seems to be quite successful.
---o0o---

Photograph: The Mannequin Factory


. . .click photograph to enlarge. . .
---o0o---

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Painting: Birds Of Prey


click painting to enlarge
---o0o---

Dave Stodden Takes Polygraph Test In The Murders Of His Wife And Daughter

Following up a sad story from last summer, investigators in the deaths of Mary Cooper, and Susanna Stodden, including the FBI, have pushed Dave Stodden to take a polygraph test. Once he took the test, they wanted him to take another. Invetigators have apparently uncovered nothing in the last half year. You never know what really lurks in the heart of men, but Dave Stodden was my daughter's soccer coach for many years. From everything I know of this gentle man, you are more likely to be guilty of this terrible crime than he is.


Dave Stodden

According to The Seattle Times today:

"David Stodden has come to accept that Snohomish County sheriff's investigators might suspect he had a role in the slayings of his wife and an adult daughter while the women were hiking last summer near Mount Pilchuck.


Mary Cooper front, Susanna Stodden back

"Stodden, 58, knows that spouses are often the first suspect in homicide cases, which he says is why he said he never pushed detectives for more details about their investigation into the July 11 slayings. When he was asked in November to take a polygraph test, Stodden said, he was angry but eventually agreed.

"But now, after undergoing questioning by a polygraph examiner on Wednesday — the results coming back inconclusive — Stodden says his patience with the investigation's focus on him is wearing thin.

"Nonetheless, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart wants Stodden, of Seattle, to take the test again in hopes of obtaining a conclusive finding. But Stodden says he doesn't want to.

"I've done everything they've asked me to do, and I want the focus to be on the investigation and not me," Stodden said Friday. "I want them to solve the case. I think if I told them 'I'm not going to do this,' it could become their focus."


Earlier update: Detectives keep pursuing leads in hikers' deaths
---o0o---

Friday, January 12, 2007

The Tears Of A President


click the weeping president to enlarge

What would cause The President to weep? Click here to find out.
---o0o---

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Texas teacher charged with felony for zooming in on wrestler's nether regions



A Grand Prairie, Texas high school teacher has been charged under a Texas' peeping-tom law with videotaping girls' wrestling matches for sexual gratification. Sergeant John Brimmer claimed David Ware, 28, took numerous close-up shots of the wrestler's crotches.

"Improper visual recording" is punishable by two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The 2001 law is supposed to protect people from small cameras shooting in bathrooms or up women's skirts. Filming a person without consent for sexual arousal is a felony under the law.

Ware shot two hours of videotape, drawing the suspicion of a coach. Sergeant Brimmer claims the close-ups are "a purposeful act of zooming in." Ware's school was not entered in the tournament; his lawyer says Ware was just interested in girls 'rasslin.

It seems unlikely this law is constitutional. How DO you determine intention in a case like this? To prove sexual gratification would require the police to catch the culprit in flagrante, performing the gratification. And, in fact, schoolteacher Ware was not focused on the genitals at all, but the clothing covering those genitals—a maddening 1/4" beneath those tights.

Ware's attorney, Scott Palmer, asked "If you go to a Cowboys game and take a close-up shot of their cleavage, are you committing the same offense because you think that has sex appeal?" Would all the paparazzi in the world be guilty?
---o0o---

The Arctic Blast Continues



I know how laughable it is to many of you to hear what kind of chaos an inch or two of snow can cause in the northwest. We just don't have much experience. There is a narrow band of temperature here—the overall average is 52°F, the August average is 66°F, and the coldest month (January) averages 41°F. In our last cold snap, everyone's power was off; at least we have juice this time!
---o0o---

Poem: Snow Day In Kirkland, Wash.


In silhouette
Against blue bisque skies,
Crows bounce

On white tree branches,
Shaking snow to the ground.
They survey the valley

For prey
In stark relief
Against the powder-white fields.
---o0o---

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

One More Reason Why I Am Scared Sh**less To Fly: Video Of Fixing A Jet's Wing With Duct Tape


If this video doesn't play—and, for some reason, they don't
always want to play—just go here on YouTube to see the clip.
Or go to Turbanhead's blog to the clip.


This is one of the reasons I need to be well-medicated to even approach an airport. I have flown more in the last few months than I have in all my life, and I have even made some of the flights without Xanax or any other sundry pharmaceuticals I beg from my Doctor and various people I know. A second reason I am terrified of flying is that about half of my high school classmates ended up as shoprats at Boeing. Knowing who actually builds these 'planes might give you pause as well, dear readers. . .
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 96 - Alien Sex: Antonio Villas Boas' Mad Night Of Alien Debauchery

23-year-old Antonio Villas Boas is the star of what is probably the most famous case of sex with aliens. It all went down on October 16, 1957, although Antonio believes he had seen the alien ship(s) for about two weeks prior to his abduction.


The grey temptress as described
by Boas

The ploughboy was working a field on his family farm when the engine of his tractor died and purple lights came down from the sky.

Greys in spacesuits emerged from a flying saucer and took him into their craft, and ran him throhgh a battery of what seemed to be medical tests. They took his clothes off (a recurring theme in most of these stories), spread a strange liquid over him and took a blood sample. And then, a beautiful, fair-haired, naked woman appeared.

Without speaking or kissing, they made love. She growled like a dog. Perhaps due to the alien liquid (a sort of interstellar Viagra?), Antonio was soon ready for seconds. "Before leaving she turned to me, pointed to her belly, and smilingly pointed to the sky."



Post-coitus, the aliens gave Antonio a guided tour of the spaceship. It was about 5:30 in the morning when Boas returned to his tractor, by his reckoning four and a quarter hours from the time he had been picked up. Antonio become a successful lawyer and still stands by his story 50 years later.

To read a detailed account of Antonio's wild night of Grey love, go to one of my favorite paranormal/conspiracy sites, the Illuminati Conspiracy Archive. There is a link to the main site on my links sidebar. You might also want to check out one of these books that also cover the story:

Architects of the Underworld: Unriddling Atlantis, Anomalies of Mars, and the Mystery of the Sphinx, by Bruce Rux; pp. 109-116

Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds, by Jacques Vallee; pp. 113-115

Beyond Earth: Man's Contact with UFOs, by Ralph Blum with Judy Blum; pp. 182-184

If you read Spanish, check out this web site: LA ABDUCCION DE ANTONIO VILLAS BOAS.
---o0o---

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Alien Lore No. 95 - Are The Greys Out There Watching The Sopranos?

TV signals will be sent into space in 2008, according to Scotsman.com, to establish whether aliens—if they are indeed Out There—are watching television. Astronomers will search 1,000 nearby stars for TV broadcasts and other signals that may indicate extraterrestrial life. A Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics spokesperson said the project, will use a new radio telescope to search for radio traffic.

Our current efforts to smoke out extraterrestrial life are almost always focused on searching for messages beamed across space, which would miss a civilization that is not actively seeking contact, as some of our earth folk do.

David Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics director of communications, said: "We may pick up spurious signals from people that never meant for us to hear them and get an inkling that something's going on."



A telescope under construction in Australian will avoid most terrestrial radio interference. The project will detect signals within roughly 30 light years of earth (about 1,000 stars).

This project will be rolled out right here in Seattle, at a conference of the American Astronomical Society this Wednesday.
---o0o---

Sunday, January 07, 2007

President Bush sets new goals for Iraq


click photograph of The President to enlarge

According to The New York Times on Sunday, President George W. Bush President will establish "a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday. "

Wait, didn't we do that two years ago? The difference is this time we really really really mean it.
---o0o---

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Poem: Changes 27/Taking Care

1
Pay heed to nourishment
And with what a person seeks
To fill their own mouth—

2
To know what anyone is like
Observe how they bestow love and mercy
And what part of their nature

They nurture
A person of goodness takes care
In order to take care of others

3
At the foot of the mountain
Thunder—
An image of nourishment

Thunder and lightning
Feed into the earth
And charge it like Frankenstein's monster

4
You let the magic turtle go
And train your sharp eyes
Like a tiger with a craving

5
Awareness of danger
Brings good fortune
As you cross the great water.
---o0o---

Lyrics to The Band's (And Marvin Gaye's) Don't Do It



The Band came to this tune late in their career. And when they did, they owned this song (with all deference to the late, great Marvin Gaye, who covered the song in the first place). It was the opener at the fantastic Rock Of Ages New Year's show, and brought down the house. The Band often played this song as their encore, as they did in The Last Waltz, where the song plays at the beginning of the movie, over the credits.

Levon and Rick sang the song, sometimes in dual leads, and sometimes with Danko coming in mostly on the chorus. It's a very piano-ish song, with a great rumbling bridge by Richard Manuel on piano over Helm's lead vocal. There is a spirited live version on the compilation The Genuine Bootleg Series - Crossing The Great Divide 1961-1991 in addition to the Last Waltz and Rock of Ages versions. It opens The Last Waltz movie, but they did not put the song on the soundrack--at least on the more common 2 CD set. It did appear on the 4 Disc Last Waltz box set. The Last Waltz version, alas, only includes one verse. They were eager to get off stage. As that song died down, things would never be the same again.

Don't Do It
By Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland, Jr.


Baby don't you do it, don't do it
Don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart

A sacrifice would make you happy if nothing for myself
Now you wanna leave me for the love of someone else
My pride is all gone whether I'm right or wrong
I need you baby to keep on keepin' on

You know I'm trying to my best
Oh i'm trying to do my best
Don't do it, don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart

My biggest mistake was loving you too much and letting you know
Now you got me where you want me and you won't let me go
If my heart was made of glass well then you'd surely see
How much heartache and misery, girl, you've been causing me

While I've been trying to do my best
Well I've tried to do my best
Don't do it, don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart

Go down to the river and there I be
I'm gonna jump in girl, but you don't care bout me
Open up your eyes
Can't ya see I love ya?
Open up you heart, girl
Can't ya see I need ya?

Oh baby don't do it, do it, do it
Don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it don't you break my heart

My biggest mistake was loving you too much and letting you know
Now you got me where you want me and you won't let me go
If my heart was made of glass well then you'd surely see
How much heartache and misery, girl, you've been causing me

While I've been trying to do my best
You know I've tried to do my best
Don't do it, don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart
---o0o---