once was goth, but now am found
Five, Seven, Five Power Capsules
I’d meant to post this closer to the insurrection-anniversary, but here goes (starting with a haiku from 2021)…
True Traitriots
january sixth
hoisting traitor flags, boasting
patriotism
I find it fascinating that certain “law & order” loving Americans seem obsessed with thwarting or evading our legal frameworks.
Continue reading “Crimicops & Traitriots”When I first heard of David Bowie’s death (Jan 10, 2016), I was mostly indifferent and even slightly annoyed. It seemed my entire (non-work) social sphere expected me to be devastated. Normally, I find it irksome that our celebrity culture encourages people to think they “know” celebrities and be emotionally invested in celebrity lives, so it was that my first knee-jerk response was a “So, what?” mild annoyance, as I’ve never touched or talked with this person. And to be honest, I’ve loved only a small portion of DB’s music, most of it older stuff that I listened to as a teen in the 1990s. I’ve paid little attention to DB or his albums in the 21st century, so it seemed I had little cause to be “affected.”
That said, DB was important to me, so much so that I made a “self-portrait” collage all about him (as me or vice versa) when I was 20: “Rock Starr” (the prints hang in my bedroom). For a time, I even had an email address ending in davidbowie.com (when he had a social networking site in 1999 or so, long before facebook or patreon). David Bowie was a beloved cultural icon/pioneer and hugely important to counterculture as a non-conformist superstar, in the pre-internet days where finding out about independent musicians was quite difficult. DB was a Gender Outlaw inspiration (not only to male-borns, check out 1967’s “She’s Got Medals,” a tale of a drinking, fighting, cross-dressing woman soldier), as well as a White Ally, long before I had any concept of institutional racism (e.g., this 1983 video of him criticizing MTV for not including more black artists in their lineup). Continue reading “Bowie-esque Requiem”
Sometimes I get a bee in my bonnet about archaic technology that should be obsolete, but for no good reason (other than inertia) is not. My perennial example is Fax Machines – why is anyone still using such a ridiculous & poor quality method of transmitting pictures when quality scanners/printers and email are available?
The recent snowstorm (Juno: Jan 26-27) got me thinking about snow-blowers. Like leaf-blowers, these are amazingly inefficient machines (especially with strong winds). They can accomplish the intended job faster than manual labor, but with significant wasted energy, contributing unnecessarily to fuel costs, hassle (more refills), pollution and all that entails.
Why don’t we have technology (using the same or less energy) to compress and deposit leaves & snow in blocks? This would reduce the piles on the side and eliminate the problem of wind blowing the top of the pile right back into the “clean” spot. It would also make removal much easier.
Prayer to the Deus ex Machina
snow blower don’t blow
create nice ice blocks instead
stack into neat rows
The concept of neutrality (or moderation) seems to embody a sort of lofty wisdom in our culture, an ability to stay “above” the fighting. However, in reality, maintaining a strict neutrality is more often a sign of severe apathy, unwillingness to engage or fear of confrontation.
I’m not the kind of person who thinks in binary, so I won’t say that every dispute requires that one pick a side, but I will say that in the case of heated debate on an issue or set of issues, the underlying opposing viewpoints are often complex and merit some consideration. Moreover, the two (or more) sides are frequently uneven (i.e., one side often has a much stronger case), so if the neutralists could weigh the issues and involve themselves, they might help solve the issue in the most favorable way.
About 10 years ago, I was living with 2 roommates who were “random” in the sense that we’d met online and interviewed in person. While they weren’t friends, we were all civil and got along fine, I thought. Then after about 1 year, there was a conflict. I’d brought up some concerns regarding our landlord and was trying to bolster support for asking the landlord to take care of some things. After a few rounds of discussion (in person and on email), one of my roommates began cursing me out on the emails and became a complete jerk in person, slamming doors and refusing to talk to me. I did not respond in kind, rather I tried to re-open dialog calmly, to no avail. Baffled and upset, I asked the other roommate (who had witnessed this behavior) for help and she said that she didn’t want to get involved, that we were both being “extreme.” Continue reading “Neutrality (it’s not as neutral as you think)”
F#$% Boston Strong, we got Boston Relief over here.
1 year (+ a few days) since the original Boston Marathon Bombings and my worst fears of a 9/11-style train wreck of police state + violent revenge fantasy NEVER happened. Sure, there was an unnecessary and largely pointless media frenzy and plenty of military style vehicles (and more violence) for the chase and capture of the bombers, which was scary at the time (as I described here and here). And I heard there was a huge and intimidating presence for the week leading up to the marathon this year (e.g., helicopter patrols and radiation testing). However, as far as I’m aware…
Stronger is Stranger
(or Chinese finger trap on my ventricle)
stranger is release
wound so tight you can’t unlatch
squeeze in to set free
Following the hellacious Marathon Monday last week, I wrote up about my reaction to the news coverage and politicos (see Boston Bomb-Buster post here), unaware that suspects had been identified and that a terror-filled Friday (April 19th) awaited me.
That Friday morning, I awoke as usual in April, a bit groggy from the pollen seeping through my leaky window (allergies), and pulled myself together for work, only to receive a phone call as I was about to leave. It was my boss calling to inform me that our office was closed, due a “shelter in place” order covering various towns, including Waltham (my office location) while there was a man-hunt on.
I was utterly shocked. I don’t know why, but it never occurred to me that the perpetrators of the bombing would’ve stuck around in the area, nor that they would be identified so quickly. I certainly would never have guessed that their capture would’ve involved multiple gunfights, a car-jacking, improvised explosives, nor shelter-in-place orders for multiple nearby towns. I kept wondering, “Is this real?” Continue reading “We Are One Boston (Bomb-Busters pt 2)”
For the sake of posterity, on Monday, April 15th, Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts and the day I needed to resubmit my tax payment (for the largest tax I’ve ever owed, which bounced on first attempt due to lack of funds in my checking account), 2 maybe 3 “explosions” occurred in downtown Boston near the Boston Marathon finishing line, injuring a bunch of people and killing a few. That’s all I knew on Monday, but of course further investigation has uncovered that these explosions were Improvised Explosive Devices, i.e., home-made bombs, and that more than 170 people were injured and 3 (so far) have died from the numerous sharp metal bits included with the bombs.
This Boston bombing and the news handling of it has elicited a complex mix of emotions and reactions from me. It is tragic and it happened in my adopted hometown, so it feels very sad and in a way personal, even though I didn’t know any of the victims. My heart goes out to those who were hurt and their family and friends. On the other hand, I am feeling a lot of anger at the news people and politicians, many of whom seem to be pumping fists and fears, trying to make this into another “9/11” style world-changing tragedy. And I feel proud of my city, proud of my friends and fellow Bostonians who aren’t going to let that happen.
To all those directly impacted by these violent and unprovoked attacks, I send my sympathy and support.
To those who are not directly impacted, I want to say, OK, it was sad for a few days, please continue to support the victims, but otherwise move on. Let the justice department do their job and find the perpetrators, let the hospitals care for the injured – nothing is needed from you, there are other things going on, just move on. Continue reading “Boston Bomb-Buster”
A good friend of mine received a haiku game as a gift, which involves lots of words on dice as well as some general concepts (the players choose from the random assortment of words after a massive dice roll). Here are some of the haikus we created (with each guiding concept in parentheses):
(a desire for my work life)
L:
heavy god partner
glorious, etcetera
violet clamor
T:
my trunk melodic
opens dilemma for your
putrid sneaky flock
My friend Tim and I were hanging out last week and on a lark decided to try some four-letter word communications and made up a little haiku, which amused us greatly. I decided to try my hand at some four-letter haikus on my own, here are a few:
Liar
sell them some real fake
that will turn into burn mark
well hell swim fire lake
———————-
Yell
self fell hurt left limb
send help ring bell very loud
hope that care come fast
Please share your caveman haikus in the comments (reminder: haiku is 3 lines of 5-syllables, 7-syllables and 5-syllables, which with 4-letter words is nearly always the same number of words).
1,000 Paper Cuts, my first book of haikus has been “published” and sent to requesting friends/family.
If you haven’t gotten one, but want it, let me know.