Thursday, October 17, 2013

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 scenery,

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---

Marvin Gaye's isolated vocal track for "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

By Jack Brummet, Music Ed.



I have been amazed at the a cappella (actually, isolated) vocal tracks coming out from classic albums the last couple of years—especially Abbey Road, Queen, a bunch of Karen Carpenter songs, and this, which I just heard tonight.  Wow.

   
---o0o---

Drawing Flowers & Plants #26 - Jade

By Jack Brummet


---o0o---

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Poem: I don't believe


By Jack Brummet


[apologies to John Lennon]


I don't believe in transubstantiation
I don't believe in Papal Infallibility
I don't believe in no-knock warrants
I don't believe in the divine right of kings
I don't believe in smooth jazz
I don't believe in rock instrumentals
I don't believe in jazz vocals
I don't believe in the Second Amendment

I don't believe in the Trilateral Commission
I don't believe in the international Jewish banking conspiracy
I don't believe in Republicans
I don't believe in The National Front
I don't believe in the vegan taliban
I don't believe in repressed memory
I don't believe in John Lennon not believing in Beatles
I don't believe in Richard Gere and the gerbil
I don't believe in the Ku Klux Klan

I don't believe in Tea Parties
I don't believe in libertarians
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Caligula

I don't believe in Idi Amin
I don't believe in Draco
I don't believe in reactionary figurative painters
I don't believe in dinosaurs being 4,000 years old

I don't believe your child can paint better than Jackson Pollock
I don't believe in astral projection
I don't believe in angry Buddhists
I don't believe in angry Baptists
I don't believe in Halie Selassie as a deity
I don't believe in Upanishads
I don't believe in The Psalms
I don't believe in the sutras
I don't believe in Jack Chick
I don't believe in the Book of Mormon
I don't believe in Bhagavad Gita

I don't believe in granola camp
I don't believe in nazis
I don't believe in fascists
I don't believe in the 22nd amendment
I don't believe in Osama
I don't believe in free trade
I don't believe in Christian Science
I don't believe in Busby Berkeley
I don't believe in partitioned countries
I just believe in me. . .and ye.
            ---o0o---

Painting: Black-eyed Susan

                                By Jack Brummet


[flowers series #28]

---o0o---

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

This is weird. . .from staggeringbeauty.com

Use your mouse! Shake it vigorously. . .

/Mona G

 

Mugshots of Montreal prostitutes, circa late 1930's-early '40s


By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.


These mugshots of prostitutes are from the Montreal Police in the late 1930's and early 1940's.  The photographs are now part of the collection of the Archives de la Ville de MontrĂ©al.













---o0o---

Drawings: Faces No. 540


By Jack Brummet


[9"x12" scratchboard and the same image digitally reversed]


---o0o---

Former President Richard M. Nixon with Robocop






via Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.


POTUS 37, Richard Nixon, ca. 1987 (13 years after he resigned) with RoboCop at a national board meeting of the Boys Club of America. RoboCop was on hand promoting Orion Home Video’s RoboCop release and donating $25K to the charity. [Photo: Billboard]

---o0o---

Monday, October 14, 2013

Four poems

By Jack Brummet



Zombie Breakdown

The undead walk 
Sloughing tendrils of putrefied flesh

And the living
Are made of cardboard.

The border between
Being and nothingness

Is erased.
Fee Fie Foe Fum.



Torches & Pitchforks

The whole
Is far less than the sum
Of its parts.


The fleeting and migratory nature of inspiration

If you don't write it down,
Type it, or tape it,

It's gone,
Like a hit and run driver

Or a pickpocket
Merging into the crowd


Evil Konks Out

In the end, evil konks out
Like a squid simmered in its own ink,
Because evil fails the moment

It overcomes good
By consuming the energy
To which it owed its duration.
       ---o0o---

Poem: Your Wooden Leg

By Jack Brummet



Run
If you still can.
Drag that wooden leg
Behind you, but keep up,
Jogging after your pipe-dream.

Think bullet-proof,
Dodge the ghosts,
And always remember
The way back
And the door out.
---o0o---

Painting: Daylily

By Jack Brummet


---o0o---