Poem: [The streetlight’s blue shadows]

By Jack Brummet

The streetlight's blue shadow
Pools on the macadam of 24th Avenue NW

As stars coruscate through a nebulous fog.
I tilt my head to see The Big Dipper,

Polaris, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda.
The streetlight's falling shadow

Marks a twilight world I take for granted.
The bats' sonar

And the muffled bark of sea lions
Are the songs I hear

When I go outside to watch stars

Twinkle in the briny air.

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Please don't pee here! - a poster

By Pablo Fanque, Nat. Affairs Ed.


This is such a great PSA/poster—the style in general, but also the look on the offender's face, the dog angrily whizzing (are they hoping to convince dogs to do the right thing too?), and the--what appear to be--gringos in the background. . .

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Painting: Ranunculus

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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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.
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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.

   

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Drawing Flowers & Plants #26 - Jade

By Jack Brummet

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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.

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Painting: Black-eyed Susan

                                By Jack Brummet


[flowers series #28]

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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 Montréal.

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Drawings: Faces No. 540

By Jack Brummet


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

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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]

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