Poem The Meaning

By Jack Brummet

1
Some people say
Life would have no meaning

If we lived forever;
Others among us say

Life would have meaning
If we did.

2
The meaning of life
Is like the rings running circles

Around a tree trunk.
If you remember back

On your last trip
To the natural history museum,

The best tree sections
Have pins on their rings:

Jesus born;

Magna Carta;

Mayflower arrives in America;
Declaration of Independence;

Civil War ends;
Man walks on moon.

3
Wouldn't it be something
To not konk out

And see rings marked
Race wars end;

Israel and Palestine merge;
Poverty eliminated;

The return of Jesus;
Alien diplomats arrive?
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Painting: The Big Bang

By Jack Brummet

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A John Peers clown painting (probably of Emmett Kelly) I bought years ago at a junk store

By Jack Brummet, Outsider Art Ed.

I know a lot of people don't like clowns. I'm pretty neutral on clowns (except maybe John Wayne Gacy). I bought this oil for $5 about 20 years ago at a junk/antique store on Lake City Way (it's about 2'x3'). I did some searching and found out the  artist is John Peers, a somewhat well-known painter of clowns. 

"This is Famous Bohemian San Francisco gallery artist (of the time) PEERS, from the 1950's. My mother and father both knew this man and he painted many paintings for them. I still have some of the nicest ones." Someone else: "Peers lived in South San Francisco and liked to drink. He was a friend of my Uncle Giovanni and should be about 75-80 is he is still alive. He would go to bard on Third Street (near Candlestick Park) and sell those clown paintings for $25.  My Uncle has 3 and they are rather good." 

I think the subject of the painting is Emmett Kelly who was a kind of hobo/clown amalgam (like Red Skelton)?

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Stunning Paul Cadden drawing

Can Paul Cadden draw, or what?

Painting: Hula Hoops

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Hitchcock, Cobain, and Orbison on go-karts

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Painting: Caldera

By Jack Brummet

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The Axial Seamount volcano may (or may not) have erupted off the coast of Oregon and Washington

By Jack Brummet, Rim of Fire Ed.

Over 80 scientists from around the world gathered in Seattle last week to discuss the first time that seafloor instruments were providing a real-time look at the active, submarine volcano Axial Seamount off the Northwest coast. The signs all pointed to it erupting soon. it might erupt soon. Sandi Doughton of the Seattle Times wrote: "But even the researchers most closely monitoring were stunned by what happened next" (doesn't that sound like clickbait?!), As it turns out, Axial may have actually erupted.

On Thursday, April 23, the new sensors placed on and near the volcano (see photo below) recorded 8,000 small earthquakes in a 24-hour period. The volcano’s caldera, which had been expanding rapidly with magma, collapsed like a deflated balloon.

Scientists are debating whether  this was actually an eruption, with actual molten rock flowing over the seafloor. No instruments were destroyed and there was no temperature spike. It is possible the volcano didn't erupt, but filled subterranean fissures, with lava.

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

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

[click to enlarge]

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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 

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Drawing: Faces #1099

By Jack Brummet

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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."

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