Sunday, 31 October 2010

Humble Abodes or Water Front

The cabin/suite hunting continues on an island that I both love and hate. Love because it is beatiful with ocean and mountains and trees and hate because it is an island and i'm never sure why the hell i'm here. This time the pretext is to work on some writing and get the hell out of the suburbs, so just to be clear, it will be a spring board to buxom babes, warm sand, crashing waves and pure clear vibration

ok yes i'm delusional.

Now the short list is:

a small, maybe 350 square foot cabin right on the beach. There is barely room inside to change your mind let alone your underwear...so it is small but very private and is literally on the water.

The other place is a loft style suite, concrete walls, finished concrete floors, modern kitchen with convection oven, room for entertaining, a private bedroom, a beautiful view, a new bathroom and really, really is, kind of cool.

Privacy may be an issue as the owners live above, are retired and the lady is a bit of gossip and probably a nosey Nancy.

Both places are in a small ocean side village and close to the ferry...really i would not need a car...for either and if it gets too much i can always whip over to the mainland for whatever it is I want to do in the city.

If cards are played right i'll still have access to a beautiful condo in the suburbs so it will not be jail...

is easy to lose context and forget that these choices are for the very, very fortunate and really there is no bad one...

a little place on a beautful island will not be the end of the world.

There are still two places that i need to see, one a carriage home, on the southside and a secluded house which is available from the 15th of Novemeber until the 31st of March...

I'll be in China from the 22nd of Novemeber until Decemeber 10th so that would give me three months on the island...which in some ways is plenty.

Next Sunday we will explore larger more interesting issues like God.

Peace out.

The life...

Saturday, 30 October 2010

AN ISLAND

Spent yesterday looking at cabins on the biggest gulf island. Saw four, two with ocean views, one with a lake view and one in the middle of the forest, next to a main road. One of the ocean views, was quaint and was available because the old guy died, which my chinese girlfrind thought was bad luck, the second ocean view was half way up a mountain the views were soaring. You felt quite literally like you were on the edge of a cliff. It was very private but a little too big, too expensive and isolated for my taste. The last one was a small self contained cabin in a little resort on a lake $795 all inclusive and would be suitable for my needs. The guy who runs the place, Jim is a fireman and seems like a nice guy. When he bought the place it included the most notorious drug dealer on the island and other unsavoury charactors. Another eight places to look at today so... Went for dinner with an old friend who has taken a vow never to fly again as an enviromental support measure. We ate at a restaurant which is owned by a lawyer who is spearheading a lawsuit, instigated by the Cree (Indian tribe), regarding land claims on alberta oilsands projects. Rumour has it he is raising money and 60 or 70 lawyers are working on the project. The restaurant gets all its vegetables from its organic garden and none of the locals go there any more or so i was told. On a more important note my homeless friend has an agreement to rent a humble abode. Local bookies are giving him 2-1 odds he survives the winter with out being kicked out...being a betting man i'll leave this one alone... The laws in BC, regarding drinking and driving are the most onerous of any province. Anything over .05 and you get an automatic 90 day suspension, car impounded for thirty days, (you pay) and twenty lashes by a righteous teenage activist who lost her best friend to a drunk driver. It is not pretty. In bars you can know longer smoke or drink and over 400 establishmnet have been closed since the law came into effect. In BC they are now considering making hot yoga mandantory as the do gooder wet their panties in glee. As bad as this island is, it is still a massive improvement over richmond, which has been over run by the chinese who make little or no atttmept to speak the language, and though polite and amiable, create a culture of a vacuity. God how i hate the suburbs. Today the sun is shining and the wars seem far away.

Friday, 29 October 2010

Citizen Wealth

Cabin fever is setting in as food poisoning has kept me basically bed ridden for the last few days;

there is a constant noise in my head.

I should be doing something to help others less fortunate than “moi.”

Instead i do very little…

Privileged with wealth and health

through no effort of my own.

                                  good fortune

Citizen

working poor

not too much fun

as i sit in my bathrobe

on a late Thursday afternoon,

high, 

listening to kids play soccer

and the birds squirmish 

                                                

The working day is almost done.         

 

Capitalist

This morning, attended a general meeting, for a small junior mining company who believe because gold has been found in the mountains of Nevada it can also be found in the valleys. The stock trades at less than a dime and they’re the largest land holder in the state. An experienced geologist has a hunch that water samples collected in the desert will show similarities, in terms of mineralization, and those areas should be explored,

its obviously more complicated than that,

but basically                                               that’s it.

It’s kind of a good story and a billion dollar producer has bought in,

four million dollars worth of drilling...and if they hit

I could get a bingo 

                                    from a dime to a dollar.

The vice president said

i could participate in a financing,

                                                      which i thought was nice

.07 common

and a free 1/2 warrant at .10

                                        A million shares for 70k…

and 500 thousand free ones at a dime…

                         and with four million dollars being spent on drilling…

                                       it’s a bet

The Unconscious conscious

world vision says I can buy a well

for 15k and help a village

in some starving part

of the world

                          THE QUESTION

                     Can i be a working poet,

                              an activist and

                                        a stock market investor?

I ask a friend

He says not to worry

they all rhyme

                                  

and the popular author whom i have not read:

 

 

Wall Mart

                                                                                                                            2  employs 2 million poor Americans

and sells to families making under 30k,

which is half of America,

at a wage of $7 an hour

which for the third and second world would be good news…

                       the problem is the system

             this we all know…

a 100k plus crowd lives well by all standards

                                  except their own…

                                                     Is greed still good?

ME

off to an island,

populated by

liberal elites,

conservatives,

old hippies

and the usual suspects,

including Dr Ether

to look for a cabin

to “sink into my dreams”

Townes Van Zandt.

STREET

And the word on the street

my alcoholic homeless friend

has found an apartment 

through a social agency

                           he’s a  fuck nut

                                                           “home is where the heart is”

as my old girlfriend Linda Pasic use to espouse

                            My blog roll is cool…oops… i made it uncool.

an eighty year old heroin addict

living in a basement

of an apartment building

and sometimes

when his friends come over at 2AM

they bother other residents in this over 55 complex

he still hasn’t been evicted

so i don’t for see any problems.

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Feeling Better

Only the stools are loose,
most of the poison
i have deleted from my system,

or rather like an organism
the bacteria passed through me...
objectively speaking...
emotionaly i wanted to blame
the restaurant
my girlfriend,
the waiter,
my father (patricide),
myself (suicidal)
and we are still all alive

..it was quiet
and i conserved my energy
for a move to an island...

and spend a few months mercifully away from Lady Gaga and her crew...
1 billion hits on you tube...wait to a go you little monsters.

Read this today:

Don't be scared of life,
loneliness will set in...

and life is tinged with death
in a conscious unevolved
sort of way...

the conversation is narrow,
between conformists and hipsters,

the individual the last counter culture,
attacked with "ink" and "peircings"

but impossible to sell...
so those who sold out...

for those who chose
personal advancement
over
art
money can never
get you
back
what
you missed.

living once

Another part

The hungry eyes
of the pale anorexic
youngish hot yoga
instructor

who preachers a perversity,
absolute health

ultimate health for that moment
is the best we can be
or so they say in the army,

at an absolute level,
it is only for a moment
and then our bodies start to slip away,
our hair recedes,
little aches and pains
become annoying,
we notice changes in weather,
more affected by the cold,
our laughter softens
and gracefully
and well lived

we will die...

"Is that true?" asked the young monk of the old bhuddha.

She said

"I welcome death"

He didn't believe her,

"But liked the lie."

Eminem and Kid Rock are good poets...yes

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Sweating in Bed

Food poisoning strikes again...a Thai restaurant where we unwisely ordered ostrich and duck. The place was unclean and the kitchen dirty. The waiters are new imigrants trying to survive and the owner i'm sure is more concerned about his profitability than he is with his healthability.

Man oh man, sweating in bed and everything i eat runs right through me.

A good dose of unhealth reminds "moi" of death and immortality...drink lots of water and now i'm scared to visit China...

we're not gettng younger..

Sunday, 24 October 2010

Sunday Morning Again

on Sundays i propose i blog about religion and

the spiritualists;

who have,

             all made

                        a leap,

                                    of faith,

                              committing intellectual suicide

As the great author Margaret Atwood muses

                         what changes if you don’t believe in god?

 

 

(When i asked a Canadian, of Indian descent,

after a 10 day meditation retreat,

he said he couldn’t imagine an

answer.

 

OK

The birds are flying around the house,

Patsy Kline is on the cd player and i know

how too blog.

Will miracles never cease

 

B.

I am tempted to enter a poetry contest…but still i hold out.

a judgment of artistic endeavors is always suspect,

guilty apriori to innocence

capitalism is based on power

(in a heart of hearts good poetry is better than bad)

first place, second place is good to weigh animals

but ranking poetry is best left to the masters

and the codifying and quantifying

are two steps in a sales plan…

                                                           and fuck you

                                      I will  not be sold.

http://georgecarrstudio.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

C

I’m sure we’ve lost the war

to corporatism and

that is the way she goes…

Why are we so obsessed by money?

                      Freud would say a fear of death  and a love of pleasure

for the liberal elite Ken Wilber

evolution is improving the way humanity lives

?????????????????????????????????????????

evolution is not a proof of spirit

the eternal is not guaranteed  

I won’t have kids in this life unless i see improvements

 

Word up!!!

There’s a new kind of poetry,

beyond the catholic confessional,

I felt it as sharply as night becoming day, on an acid trip…

                         jumping in the pool 

                                           stars kept laughing 

                                                                      dogs barking…

My friend from Home Depot lives in the basement, with a wife and an adopted daughter, of a house worth 700K+…two student from asia

live above as home stay…

he lives a poor life but is real estate rich…

from my liberal elite perspective

materially and size wise

but i like it.

His daughter is beautiful

she still has scars on her ankles

from the orphanage in china.     

Map picture

coherence coming  

Saturday, 23 October 2010

Stairway to Heaven

october 028

Last night as is my habit, headed into the city to drink my fill on the lower east side.

And drink i did with usual enthusiasm and abandon.

The bar where i start is quiet and i know a few locals. Cam the machinist, George the wise guy and Clive, a veteran who recently threw out his back.

A cute bar maid by the name Brook serves the beer and when i drink draft i have a pounding headache in the morning. Last night i drank draft.

The last four Fridays i have blacked out the second half of the evening. Last night the police found me at a train station close to a junior college i  use to attend, twenty or so years ago.

Map picture

They said they wanted to help me detoxify but i preferred to go home. They were quite firm but not aggressive or abusive and i too was polite. They gave me a $173 ticket for not having a ticket and called a cab.

A night on the cheap turned out to be expensive.

The good news is i didn’t wet my bed, breaking my streak at three.

This morning i went for a walk, bought a coffee and a muffin at Tim Horton's, made soup for my beautiful girlfriend and pondered my black out experiences.

A psychotic split is how i have heard it described,

and it seem to be affiliated with trauma

and where do i go when i’m not here,

if i can’t recall where i was…was i really there…

                                                                                bring a camera

deeper and deeper into my head exploring regions all together unknown and unfashionable…and even unintelligible…

i am less than present…

“all neurosis is vanity but that too will be misunderstood.”

So said a famous person in the helping profession

To develop and acknowledge all aspects of yourself would be a worth while pursuit…and this could lead to more narcissism.  Over…http://in.integralinstitute.org/naked.aspxoctober 023

Friday, 22 October 2010

Friday

 

I am permitted

to smoke

and drink

whatever i choose…

october 2010 044

longevity

in good taste

 

Part 1A

a health movement is

dis-spiriting

when it becomes ideology,

which it has

(and very few notice…

another norm

another Foucault.)

 

Part 2

Camus wrote a book which i haven’t read regarding suicide as a philosophical question…or should we say answer…a belief in a higher power requires a leap of faith which many consider intellectual suicide…physical suicide means life …so i’m leaving

and the paradoxical one

create

                                            and here’s the hard part

where the spiritualists get off 

                                                               “ and life has no meaning “

                                                                                  and create

religious people believe in an eternity an ever present now

can i say a “timeless forvever”

artist aren’t

too sure

 

Part 4.

“different worlds are possible”october 2010 060

imperialistic capitalism is

a remnant of feudalism

slave master realities

are a thing of the past

and i include wage.

 

Part 5.

Most of the jobs where i live are in the service industry and the pay is not sufficient to support a three hundred thousand dollar mortgage, a 150 years ago they came over as wage slaves and now they are the capitalists and probably the wage masters in immensely, people rich China, who have politely invaded by buying up the houses and the prices,

but we’ll take your money no matter your color…bling bing…$$$$$….adsense my ass…or so they say on the west coast of canada…

The humans from moderate climates seem to have done the most damage, Europeans and North Americans…parts of Asia…a good balance of availability and planning…some winters you can grow no food…or perhaps the violence allows for new interpretation…october 2010 095         

Thursday, 21 October 2010

http://www.acorninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=18&Itemid=5

Where’s the bacon?


The gross domestic national product has increases by over 5 since 1980, then i was 14 years old and getting over the death of a childhood friend. 

Since then wealth has increased by a factor of five yet wages for the average American have stagnated for the last thirty years…in economic terms “greedy”…that is why we retire to gated communities…we know what we have done…

Preying on the poor, is a past time of the rich, and a job for the banks.

I know i owned a pay day loans company.  

My father being a capitalist has profited immensely during this golden age. And for the many, say 1%, things have got much better

In old simple math if the end result is finite then what each person consumes must be deducted from the total.

Saw a movie last night at an “Acorn Meeting” from India about children who made a dollar or two a day picking garbage to sell. In Mumbai there is no sanitation system going door to door i.e. no garage pick up…

The moral of the story:

Upper middle class people who recycle hurt poor people…of course not in Canada..but for sure…in India.

I know a guy in LA, who wants to do everything in his power to get everyone a home, a football pro, earns a living gambling, which would be controversial in some integrity circles…

and met the founder of Acorn Wade Rathke,  (Citizen Wealth)

a legendary organizer and a good union guy…

an NGO that relies on donations…doesn’t work…

an NGO that relies on empowering the people in sustainable systems, for example a group of people who negotiate the terms of their employment at least allows for more freedom, more choice and more time.

If it wasn’t for unions we’d be working 16 hour days and not 40 hours weeks says Camus form The Rebel.   poetry reading youth 003

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Poverty

Ninety million people in the US earn less than 30k a year, another 30 mil are out of work,

120 million are not rich.

This would be excellent in India,

that is...to earn thirty thousand a year,

dark deep poverty,

not hot dogs and beans poverty,

in Canada, west coast, even the homeless do not do…too bad…there are shelters and food banks that are excellent a couple of friends say so…

(in Edmonton they are not so kind…or soft…”just get a god dam job and stop whining”…they echo George Bush with a dose of liberalism…)

I got money i don’t have to…
or as a book called “
“What We say Goes;”
Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World.””by Noam Comsky.

While i mean independent.

The US foreign policy states

“i got lots and i want more.”

I say

Let’s abolish the slave wage mentality.

If i sell my time i can never get it back, money you can print, seconds you cannot…

time; a bank account that only runs down

J was born in Shang Hai raised very poor, being a fourth girl in a family of five she did not often get meat or even vegetables with her rice…

and now our fridge has lamb from New Zealand, Kim chi from South Korea, milk, mustard, you get the picture it’s full…

she had to work extremely hard and take many risks and she was lucky to boot…

and she enjoys her Las Vegas home and the i enjoy the openness of the desert which dwarfs a few man made buildings…

in the text books they’ll say..”they developed quite an advanced technology, they were even able to communicate through wires…but they could not settle their differences”…perhaps 100,000 years will be our limit, that’s the average of a species…

does evolution call for HTML to replace English as the crossover language.

Tonight I will be attending a report on slums being displaced, shoddy workmanship, and the use of child labor, for the commonwealth games, in India by the President of Acorn International Wade Rathke.

Also showing a Parasher Baruah’s powerful DOC called WASTE. Illustrating the need for ACORN India’s rag pickers union.

These are my problems;

a parking ticket at a $60 dinner

a trip to Shang Hai…

where should i winter?

how can i make the most possible money in the least amount of time?

how much is enough?

why am i living in the suburbia where i grew up?

is freud relevant?

how does the internet change psychoanalysis,

and what is the new archetype?

My problems are self absorbed and trivial…it is choice and not survival …but from my perspective it is personal,

and as the perspective changes,

as new platforms are developed, new meaning is required…

beyond the personal, is an empathy

for other personals,

that are very similar to yours…

i am often reminded…

Jesus was a bit of a drama queen but he seemed concerned with others and the “selfless” term is a common translation from Buddhists texts…and if that means helping people…. that’s fine



they have very little and we have very much…

This blog is helped by apeture…highlight a word and click,

cohesion arrives later…

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

Youth Poetry Slam

Attended a youth poetry reading last night with the notable poet BP McRae and an x English teacher Vincent; that was well attended. There was a slam poetry contest primarily in the genre of the personal narrative and a headliner, I believe they were all under the age of 25, though these days no one can be sure. 

Poetry and technology and as the theorists predicted the mediumpoetry reading youth 014

will become the message.

Now what could this possibly mean…

well first things first,

we seem to have put our trust in technology and growth…and so far, most would admit things are getting better, over the last forty years or

so…in terms of many personal freedoms for non white male people.

Many aspects of humanity have opened up…and nothings perfect 

not the music, or the poetry,

maybe in the fine arts things are improving, maybe cinema, maybe theatre, multi media, mixing, repeating…

for sure a lot of strong minds will be pulled towards the mainstream, which is just beginning to have massive participation.

At the world council the usage of the internet is considered an essential human right.

Even on this blog

u can touch

any word

and see what it

means. Try this

Brian Brett.

Stop.

Go back highlight

the word

and it should say search.

Information is at our fingertips,

quite literally and here

in Vancouver it is  sunny,

my stupid budgies are chirping

and the world is as she is…

 

here’s to a youth poetry movement…      

Monday, 18 October 2010

Palestine and Chomsky

 

This video is long  by today standards and boring. Somebody else reading some one else who has been transcribed into a newspaper.

i.e. that is some one reading a newspaper article about the Jewish Palestine slaughter.

Palestine has no chance, they are out muscled on every front, except perhaps, the ordinary people.

The Zionists are supported by the Americans who are after the oil…

we all know…

and the West Bank and Gaza are not pretty pictures

with international law being violated more than once. 

We enacted these laws so atrocities against humanity would not be repeated.

To violate them is to regress to barbaric times.

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: ,,

All who know are complicit

Map picture

Blogging

Blogging


Reading a book about blogging; and supposedly three categories, in a rough approximations,

1.diary style,
2. political
3.blogging about blogging; (which is a classic case of post modernism)

This blog is about blogging, verb style,
which is different than writing,
It’s like the audience sees
every brushstroke and not

the final painting.

It will revolutionize the craft of writing
by maybe making it flatter and less interesting.
We will all begin to sound the same.

More writers fewer voices?

I see it in basketball and soccer
Where, children are brainwashed
How to play by adults
Who were never very good
at the game,
or worse yet professional coaches…

Professional sport has taken away “play.”


Because this is not a pro-labour blog

I will describe an excessive spin money game
The VSE is a game of numbers. see dead cat bounce..
ISBN 0-9698684-0-5 by Duck Savage

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewwork.asp?id=30790

Unlike bigger stock they do not
pretend at having a lying business.
They raise money quite easily now,
a couple million dollars anyways,
to drill holes and pay themselves well
the looker of resources.

The newsletter I follow,
knows the game and as he says,

“It’s the story we’re interested in and not the happy ending.”

like life,
you want get off,
before you die…

though this does not stop death,

there is a chemcial released in ur stomach
when you make 10x your money and it is addictive
your existence goes on forever,

We need not take a long term view
as we reside in the ever present -present-.

or so the says "The Power of Now" and people on SSI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNXM4Sq-GIA&feature=related






Technically this is being written in word 2007.

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Sunday Morning


The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, god is on the rise, i mean gold, and my friend C won't stop drinking and is now living in a homeless shelter.

A bottle of brandy a day keeps the doctor away, for a while.

Tomorrow night there is an open mike poetry evening at Cafe Du Soliel on Commercial in East Van.http:

//www.cafedeuxsoleils.com/


I will be attending with the acclaimed poet BP MacRae who has just released a book call the "So Called Sonnets." I have ordered a copy.



I was heartened to hear Noam Chomsky say we may learn more about human beings from literature than from science. He also says America is a Failed State and wrote a book of that title. He argues convincingly that the US has been acting in defiance of international treaties and harming civilians.

The evil crede of the elite:

"More for us, none for you."

From Publishers Weekly

America is a failed state, argues America's most controversial Left intellectual. Chomsky (Imperial Ambitions) contends the U.S. government practises military aggression (ex)the Iraq war, Vietnam); ignores public opinion on global warming social spending and foreign policy; and jeopardizes domestic security by under-funding homeland defense in favor of tax cuts for the rich; Chomsky's views American interventionism as imperialist power-plays motivated by business interests. Mainstream critics are catching up...his moral sensibility, icy logic and withering sarcasm remain in a class by themselves.

Required reading for every thoughtful citizen.

He also makes this startling realization; if someone kills a family member for no apparent reason, even if it is a bomb, the remaining members may seek revenge...and do everything in their power to retaliate. Maybe...

When was the last time you knew someone who was hurt in war?


Thursday, 14 October 2010

Thursday

Don't feel like it...

1.
the submission to despair
is a difficult emotion to resist

where ever
meaninglessness
as an expression
is emitted
survival is assured

the person fighting for life
literally does not ask him/herself
this question...

2.
a chomsky would say
we must be decent
and help as able

each offering utility
and fairness

3.
a real estate agents job
is easier than

a farmer,
a city worker,
a factory worker,
a dishwasher
a telemarketer

any labour
or even retail

and they get paid
much more

and working
is neccesary
for health,

mental
and otherwise

but lets be fair

why are we rewarding salesmen?

there could be
much more...

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Ralph Nader

In the movie An Unreasonable Man produced by genius entertainment Ralph Nader is presented, an egghead, who thought it was a goood idea to help people.

He was influenced by his Father's questioning; daily they would be asked in the morning and discuss their answers in the evening. For example

"How can we improve the parking in our town?"

His Mother was an activist and one story in particular stands out.

A flood destroyed much of mainstreet and the president came to purvey the damage and shake hands. When he came to Mrs. Nader she asked him to stop any future floods by building a dam upriver. He said he would; she said "promise" and he walked on. She held his hand and he stopped and said, "Promise." And the dam was built.

Ralph was affected.

Dedicated his life, really, to helping people and now, the democrats or the liberal right, have silenced him, because they blame him, for losing the election.

Even the democrats are cruel mother fuckers as an old timer mentions in the above mentioned film...

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Tuesday

Quickly the days run together and the simple question, "Why am i alive?"

still remains...
mysteriously
answered
and
...unanswered...

on Thursday a grassroots group called Acorn is celebrating the fair wage policy that has been adopted by the municipality of New Westminster, an old suburb of Vancouver b.c. Canada. The party will be held on Thursday, two days from now, at 620 8Th St., commencing at 6:30 PM.

I will be in attendance.

Free food will be served.

I have heard the term slave wage more in the last few weeks than i have in my entire life. I'm in my mid forties and growing up in an upper middle class suburb, this term was not used, at university this term was not used by either teachers or students, as an enterpeneur this term was not used, as a dishwasher this term was not used, a carwash, no, construction, no, teaching, no, retail, no...but "us," being "people," have just come to the realization that labour is not something separate from the person, you don't rent or sell a part of you, you rent and sell your time, your heart beats on this planet, for a price.

We are all for sale.

But i thought slaves didn't get paid...?

But a dead slave is no good, the labour dies with him or her, a subsistence lifestyle is required...

get born, eat, shit, copulate love, talk shit, brag, eat and die...there's no special requirement everyone has the same,
but we should establish a baseline...

otherwise as all good post modernists know the system will run away with it self.

And people have been talking about this inequality for some time and wages for the average American I'm told have stagnated for the last thirty years... a good generation has swallowed the lie...there is some pissed people...and some very rich ones...which can be an interesting mix and a fair fight.

As western power drifts east, over the next few decades, we'll see then, how capitalism copes...or perhaps things will be different.

Here's to a fair wage in Canada

Monday, 11 October 2010

thanksgiving monday

More thanks today.

I am thankful that i am not a prisoner in an American military prison. The movie "Taxi to the Dark Side" a stark reminder of the atrocities of war.

The values we are defending "freedom and liberty" are not being extended to prisoners in "The War on Terror," as this movie makes clear.

I am thankful i am not a prisoner and i am ashamed that i belong to a civilization/society that condones and supports this behaviour.

Some commentators will argue this is another sign of the decline of the American empire, others will argue we know no better. i.e. we don't know the damage it is causing not only to others but also to ourselves.

The Geneva Code of Convention should be adhered to otherwise we learn nothing from our mistakes.

I am thankful my streets are safe and my thoughts and prayers are with those who are chained to ceilings, being sexually shamed, sleep deprived, terrorized by dogs and are having water poured down their throats in the name of liberty;

and with those who are being ordered to do so...

Human cruelty is a result of pettiness, fear, and righteousness and I'll say it again "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS WRONG"

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Thanksgiving

Today i would like to give thanks to canadain literature and fine authors it has produced like Laytnor, Atwood and Purdy. The scene is vibrant and open. Though the eye is now on the prize the poetic experience is less objectifying than facebook or other forms of social media..poetry is better than facebook ha ha ha...especially canadian.

Three Poems by Irving Layton

The Slaughterhouse


In the absurd slaughterhouse that is history where there are no heroes but only butchers and the slain, no matter what fables silly poets tell and theologians believe, make certain the cleaver is yours and the bared throat someone else’s. But best if, from a safe niche away from the roar of those whom power maddens you can observed the flashing blades and the beautiful rosettes their spilled blood makes on page and floor.


Xianity



Brother and fellow poet is this what you wanted?
The muttering of bead counting hysterics? The snufflings of joyless misfits and cripples fearful of death, more fearful of life? The misereres of the doomed dregs in every large metropolis of the world? The hosannahs of the conformist hordes stinking of money and respectability?
Is this what you wanted: the grey suburban church and the greyer people shambling into it each Sunday you who openly consorted with whores and drunkards and so loved laughter and joy that you were willing to be crucified for them?


After Auschwitz

My son, don’t be a waffling poet; let each word you write be direct and honest like the crack of a gun
believe an aging poet of the twentieth century: neither the Old Testament nor the New or the saying of the Koran or the Three Baskets of Wisdom or of the Dhammapada will ever modify or restrain, the beastliness of men
Lampshades were made from the skins of a people preaching the gospel of love; the ovens of Auschwitz and Belsen are open testimony to their folly
Despite memorial plaques of horror and contrition repentance my son, is short lived
an automatic rifle endures a life time

Saturday, 9 October 2010

Adbusters

Is a glossy magazine that uses the supply chain of capitalism to distribute a magazine which is highly critical of capitalism...they clearly state they want to jam modern society and awaken people to the danger of the road, we are travelling...the magazine has orgins in canada i have heard...and having spent most of my life in canada i am relatively proud...as far as countries go we have a good one...we should not sell our resources to foreign ownership...resources will be needed by the people and we should all benefit...not just a few shareholders and bankers...here specifically, i am referring to a potash company, in saskatechewan.

I am enjoy reading adbusters and commend them for bringing the plight of the palestine people into view

a mythic war in an information age will not get much global sympathy...that particular situation has been going on now for over thirty years

Friday, 8 October 2010

A Patricia Young Poem

a poetry magazine in Canada awarded the 2ND runner up $200 for this third place poem. The first two are no better, but poetry seems addicted to prizes, at least in Canada.

The winner writes a poem about "it" and "i" and and its sad being lonely...an empty profoundness permeates all of it...Owl on the Roof by Jolene Heathcote..the second one is a travel poem in reverse and i enjoyed it's small town charm... Leap by Leslie Vryenhoek and now for the third place poem..drum roll please..

The Big Siesta (or: The End of Modern Warfare)

On Tuesday night all the soldiers in the world fell
asleep and didn't wake until two days later when

they blinked twice and said, Hell we're inn no mood
for fighting
, then fell back asleep. And the marines

and the navy seals and the snipers on rooftops, they
all groaned, So damned tired . And the newest recruits,

the peach faced boys, lay down their weapons and
plunged into a slumber from which their sergeants

could not wake them, no matter how they barked
and kicked and threw cold water over the boys'

sleeping faces. Electric shocks zapped a few eyes
open before they close again, heads sinking into

pillows and fields seeded with uranium pellets.
And the generals gathered in bars and canteens

all over the world to compare medals and shining
careers and also to rage against all the lazy mother-

fuckers under their command. If word got out,
their five star asses were gonna be toast. But after

a bit the generals grew sick of hearing themselves
fret like old women who couldn't find their bus

passes. How tedious their schemes of death--
what wedding party to blow to bits, where to

drop the latest bunker-busting, daisy-cutting,
phosphorescent bomb? The generals knocked back

one last whiskey, then stumbled into parking lots
and foreign hotels, muttering, The wars, the wars,

the beautiful wars, while the soldiers sank deeper
into a sleep more profound than the arch of a

bridge or a girl's sandaled foot, boys who babbled
unintelligible sentences as the fax machines whirred

and the phones started ringing and the emails shot
through cyber space with orders to get back to it, but

the sleepers slept on, hands slack at their sides, fore
heads smooth as water, every rank and file soldier

having closed his eyes and ears to the petulant howls
of the leaders of the free and not so free world, yes

even the hot shot pilots in their high tech jets, even
the gunners inside their explosive-resistant tanks

turned off the ignitions and voices yammering inside
their headsets. Slumped forward, cheeks pressed against

control panels, they slept like newborns for three more
days and nights, and then it happened--all the soldiers

on earth rolled in unison onto their backs like a flock
of starlings changed direction mid flight then dropping

as one onto bare winter trees, the branches now trembling
with leaves that only moments before did not exist.

Patricia Young

Thursday, 7 October 2010

Capitalism

the wealthy countries are well armed and well fed
the poor ones not so

capitalism/exchange
with out the military
would probably do just fine
tribunals of fellow citizens

extreme wealth would not be seen as a virtue but as what it is "greed"

little men like buffet
would be
ostracized and not lionized

the old story

of the chief who killed
the deer and kept it all
to himselves

the hungry villagers killed him
and helped themselves

but demilitarizing the planet
is a lofty long term goal

poetry is good

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

money in wires

The information age is upon us...that probably seems obvious...now i can create wealth hitting bottoms on a keyboard which manipulates a large system of bid and ask...if i sell higher than i buy and i am long, i am in the black...if it goes the other way, i am in the red...the shorts go opposite...nothing is created and i am participating in an excess economy...there is no utility value created..."money for nothing and chicks for free" as the old song goes...now this seems intrinsically problematic from a moral perspective...in a zero sum game if I get then some one else loses...but capitalism is based on expansionary realities...i get, you get, the peasant in Guatemala gets... to grow coffee because in the west we all need that and so on...so to jump around we now are in a bull resource market due to an increase in population and the growing confusion over valuing fiat currency which will drive the price of gold higher...and where gold goes the other metals will follow...even diamonds...mmm...or maybe things will be different...I'm long junior stocks

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

An Inspirational Poem

Hope for the Best

Follow your heart,
never surrender your dreams.
Constantly work towards your goals.
Believe in yourself, and always be truthful.
Take time to enjoy life's pleasures.
Keep your mind open to new experiences.
Think before acting,
but don't forget the joys of spontaneity.
Make your own decisions.
Look out for yourself, but remember
that you share this universe with others.
Look for the good in others,
everybody has their own song to sing.
Live each moment to the fullest,
for a moment too soon becomes a memory.
Look for opportunities, not guarantees.
Hope for the best.
Give people a chance to love you,
for that is how you learn to love.
Live your life for yourself,
but always be considerate of others.
Believe in tomorrow, for it holds the key
to your dreams.


Melisa OSOSKI

more on tuesdays with morley

waiting for a call back..to change an airline ticket for shang hai...my girlfriends name is zhi not khi but i never call her that...it's all changing...my shoulders are softening as i realize even my most modest ambitions will not be satisfied...and that's not so bad...positive is more enjoyable when you're trying to get things done...why would any one want to feel bad?

now on to cold cash money...here we're go...let's make some dough...in this material world a little paper makes for easier sailing...to suffer and the ensuing salvation may not be worth the comfort; as again, i resort to a cost benefit analysis

the birds seem content to sit in their cage eating and shitting even though i've left all three doors open...that must be a sign.

A grump tuesday

At the Car Wash

She is 64 and owns the car wash where I work

yells at everyone equally her oldest employee

has been with her 27 years he gets paid $7.11 an hour

the rest of us get six


 

we spend ten hours get paid for eight

she keeps the money from the tip jar all to herself


 

lets the staff run a tab at the snack bar

$2 hot dogs, $1 pops, fifty cents bad coffee

(one guy had a $163 deducted from a cheque)


 

holds are pay ten days


 

she grosses about $20 a car

300 cars some days

her husband died two years ago


 

There is a picture and a newspaper article

of a thoroughbred she owns hanging on the wall

and a big safe with no security


 

but I'll leave her like she is alone

Monday, 4 October 2010

Monday morning poem

Nature Calls

i was having a cigarette

on my balcony

enjoying the trees

when i saw a moth

trap itself in a

cleverly placed

spiderweb.


 

the moth fluttered

and the spider appeared

many legged


 

and when the spider

came near

the moth would flutter

and the spider

would retreat


 

i watched terrified

and determined

to let nature be


 

and eventually

the moth tired

and the spider climbed

on its head

ready to deliver

it's lethal bite

or sting

ot whatever it is

they do.


 

the moth fluttered desperately

and the spider retreated barely


 


 

the moth tired again

and the spider approached

and this time

even though

the moth fluttered

the spider stayed


 

i sprung and groped

at the web

wanting to save life.

the web was destroyed

the spider disappeared

the moth disappeared


 

i felt better


 

two days later

i was having a cigarette

and i saw the moth

dangling from a stray

spider strand


 

the spider was hungry

the moth was dead

and i felt no better.