Everything is Possible
BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
Jul 072010
“The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.” - Hunter S. Thompson
The most well-received words I've ever strung together
Do I need to expend this precious bandwidth to badmouth the BP Deepwater Horizon atrocity some more? Do I need to worry about technological advancement speeding past the painstaking pace of institutional gridlock? Do I need to speak out about American war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the world?
Yes…unfortunately I do. If enough of us were speaking out than perhaps I could retire to nights of apathy like so many of my countrymen. Perhaps if enough of us cared to take the lead, upgrade to solar, invest in meaningful education, and ‘be the change’ rather than just sharing articles on Facebook about how everything is the same, and the same sucks, we’d all be in a better place. The status quo of my country is choking the Earth, stripping citizens of their rights, and increasing militarism and hegemony around the world. And I refuse to take part. I don’t know how to not take part yet, but I know what I see on a daily basis is failure from the institutions so many still naively trust.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote,
Violence can only be maintained by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
Does this blog need to detail the 30,000-65,000 barrels of lies pouring from the mouths of British Petroleum and the White House on a daily basis? Does THE BRAKE LIGHTS TOLL-FREE HELPLINE need to clarify its position on this physical manifestation of greed? There aren’t enough cages or concrete for some people! The world being built around the rest of us is designed for obedience to a monolithic system that doesn’t pause to reflect when surging forward. ”We’re not looking back,” our President says. ”We’re moving forward!”
Mountaintop removal, regional ecocides like the one in the Gulf of Mexico, and industrial farming using Nazi-designed slaughterhouses are some immediate images that come to mind when considering the avarice of consumption.
I found this book by Bill Knott in South Carolina some years ago. The following lines always wowed me:
To look at things in a new slant is fine
But it’s more fun
To jump into the slant and disappear forever
When you’ve jumped off the edge and climbed back up from the slant, the only remaining abyss seems to be the gulf between what the People want and what the Powers That Be are willing to cede. If you’re like me, waiting on the other side of the rainbow for a golden tomorrow, I have a beer in the fridge for while we wait.
Jun 042010
I love it when the younger version of myself hooks up my current self. In this case, I made my friend Jason Croce a CD of my old songs in 2004 called NEW MILLENIUM DEMONSTRATIONS. This CD is a treasure trove of lost The Brake Lights material that includes a great 5-song demo I recorded at Clay Creek Studio with some old friends as well as demo recordings of songs that comprise the MUSICAL NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND & BEYOND!!! album.
I will post some audio as soon as I get a chance to convert the files into MP3′s. I will make the earlier demos available for download and the same can be said for MUSICAL NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND & BEYOND!!!
This is an extraordinarily busy time of the year for me but I am also working on some new drawings that I plan on posting very soon. Keep your eyes and ears peeled!
May 112010
Not worried about Twitter feeds
I want to go to Mongolia. Living in a yurt, falconing the green plains under crystal blue skies, not worrying about traffic, no Manhattan Projects, no population, just Life. It’s not Facebook that makes people like you. Twitter isn’t making the world more fascinating.
Leaving Philadelphia was a wise decision. You can only glue so many experiences together in one locale with the same folks before the pastiche gets blurred to black. When that happens, the world gets dark. Cops and ambulances, sirens and violence. Freeways filled with Hummers with OBX oval stickers. If you want to change the human world, you must first leave it behind.
Apr 222010
Grandpa died last week and now he’s buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about how badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen, I knew he’d lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street and shot it full of holes
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again – Bob Dylan
Listening to Blonde on Blonde on Peaked Mountain Road the other day, I could almost feel the American utopia of some better yesteryear resonate deep within a core I didn’t even know I had. Leaves are growing. The green canopy of the forest is reemerging. Growth is abundant.
Yet still, crazy ways are evident in the world-at-large. The things we hate about ourselves seem to time and time again manifest themselves in corporate misconduct, elected liars yelling “FIRE!” in a bellicose political puppet theater, needy Facebook messages pleading with strangers to attend events far away. You can make your own list.
An electronic manifestation of the Void
Albert Einstein has that famous quote about insane people doing the same things over again and again and expecting different results. Humanity needs to begin exploring new avenues to the future. Boulevards. 12-lane expressways of creativity and community rather than the congestion leading to nowhere.
Grandpa’s buried in the rocks. The old man lived in a different day, using different ways. The old ways won’t work anymore. Intentional living is what some call it. Deliberate living. It’s OK to realize that you were wasting time, breathing from your mouth, pronouncing banal improperly. That’s growth. Despite Earth’s overabundance, too many live in misery. Until creative solutions are put into practice, nothing will change. The first change starts with yourself. Are you contributing to a better world? I hope so. We only have one Mother. Happy Earth Day.
Apr 092010
Springtime, Vermont
Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! – Chief Sitting Bull
The Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime
[youtube] I1wg1DNHbNU[/youtube]
Animal Collective – Who Could Win a Rabbit?
[youtube] UTbd0Ncsyus [/youtube]
The New Pornographers – The Laws Have Changed
[youtube] Sn-LDCRL8Js [/youtube]
The Hold Steady – Chips Ahoy! (Live From Lollapalooza 2007)
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Rilo Kiley – Silver Lining
[youtube] jVtSSCzASR0 [/youtube]
Refused – New Noise (Live)
[youtube] 72vEVSt6lpo [/youtube]
Jan 192010
I found the work of Shen Plum via the Juxtapoz Magazine website a while ago. The playfulness of her anthropomorphic critters, use of neon colors in her detail, and creative use of whitespace in her design bring a sense of wonder and curiosity that is ever-present among my favorite works. Check out some of her work below.
Jan 142010
Knit and Purl
I talk through you & filter subjects
Little sunsets flare out from your wings
Our words burn out
Pondering surface tension
Kicking eggs into oxygen
A new fragmented experience
They talk through you - abrasive notions
Your wings fold back
Having no home
Gravity guides freefall
Reason can be a string of logical ideas
Or a person perched above an oyster’s pearl
Walkman
My poems mosey wayward
Order a double whiskey
Dousing flames with petrodollars
A canon of words
Feuds with the jukebox
I spur
When the poems start stumbling
Preferring a Walkman to talking
Musical Notes
Everyone says they have the best sex
Like they’ve planned a grand opera
Speaking in symphonies
Are little crumpled up musical notes
Lying beneath your crumpled up clothes
Waiting to be used – incompletely decomposed
Dec 272009
The Culture of Make-Believe – Derrick Jensen
Exploring the manifestations of social hatred (from lynchings to the Holocaust to Iraq and beyond) from a deep ecology-minded perspective, Derrick Jensen condemns the current System in a fast-paced narrative. It is critical to understand the deeper, questionable machinations that control social patterns and impact the well-being of ourselves and our planet. This book also explores the problem of an apathetic populace and the corporate domination of every sector of life as humanity stumbles onwards towards its great cosmic destiny.
Free Cell -Anselm Berrigan Anselm Berrigan’s free radical poetry chops your hands off mid-line, drops the book into your lap, and caresses you with disquiet indie pop allusions and echoes of ubiquitous advertising absurdities as it cheers on that last ill-intentioned pint before the crestfallen exit from the pub on a Monday night while ambitiously and unambiguously telling you it might not be OK, but I wouldn’t know anyway. This small tome, published by City Lights Press, features three poems worthy of multiple sittings. All of Anselm Berrigan’s work is highly recommended; Integrity & Dramatic Life and Some Notes on My Programming are essential must-haves.
Free Cell at City Lights Press
The Last Man (series) This comic book series imagines a future where half of the population immediately drops dead…leaving only women behind the wheel of Spaceship Earth. There remains, however, one man and his male pet monkey to save/perpetuate the world as they knew it. Israeli spies, Amazon women, mad scientists, government agents, and women, many women, comprise some of the cast of this engaging graphic novel adventure.
