Good riddance to 2009, and the entire decade past.

Good riddance to 2009, and the entire decade past.

Good riddance to 2000, the year we suffered our first Shock to the System when The Supreme Court placed a Village Idiot in The White House.

Good riddance to the American Hysteria that re-elected him in 2004.

Good riddance to 2001, where in the fall of the year, we fell into a seemingly irreversible catatonic state.

Good riddance to the war without end that began in Iraq in 2003, and has since been franchised.

Good riddance to the tea-baggers and the birthers of 2009, who for years cheered on W. as he created The Waste Land in which we now live, but who now harbor no Faith in an American President who admirably seeks to clean up the mess he left behind.

Good riddance to bad habits; like willing yourself to believe there exists an Alternate History where Gore rightfully served his term, and we were spared the horror that was the 00’s.

Good Riddance…

Alas, we can only hope that a few of us are able to exhume a few beautiful moments out the ugly past; maybe some day we’ll be able to look back at this decade and only remember the good things that may have happened.

Somehow maybe we can still feel a certain sentimentality that alludes those mired in the muck and heartache; Thus, we have our generation's Auld Lang Syne, Green Day's ironic ode to days gone by, Good Riddance:

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

And in the end, one can’t help but wonder if there’s no where else for us to go but up; as John Lennon’s famous adjunct to McCartney’s optimism so rightly stated (in brackets):

I've got to admit it's getting better
A little better all the time (It can't get no worse)

Untitled Poem

He imagines he is young again,
running, running, through a water path,

dripping fingers of sap;  
he fears he has lost something since:

a pocket, a penny, a space, a sense.

He says, “I can now be a seed unseen by sin,

where no anger has cut me, 
no monsters can awaken me.”

Catch Up!

Catch Up!

Inglourious Basterds on DVD:

Inglourious Basterds is an embarrassment of riches; providing the viewer with countless scenes of action and drama, spiked with black humor, all equally compelling; perfectly balancing bloody, red meat action sequences with rich, full-bodied, red wine conversation pieces.

Last but not least, there's Lt. Aldo Raines, leader of The Basterds, played by Brad Pitt channeling Warren Oates, possibly channeling Quentin Tarantino, as he delivers the triumphant last line of dialogue (and sure-fire conversation starter): This may well be my masterpiece.

Read more at Suite101: Quentin Tarantino's Conversation Pieces: The Auteur’s Much Talked About Work – Including Inglourious Basterds  
My Latest Poetry Essay:

After the imagist movement became the modernist movement, William Carlos Williams focused his art on the things that mattered to him personally, like human compassion for the weak and suffering. And as both a man of science and of art, his poetry reflected a view of the natural world at once beautiful and fruitful, and cruel and harsh.

Read more at Suite101: William Carlos Williams – Two Winter Poems: Blizzard - Winter Trees

Our Winter Wardrobe (a poem)

Our winter wardrobe deteriorates

before our very eyes

leaves leave

our lonesome lives longing

dissembled in a cloak,

a decoration, a disguise

of tattered strings

unraveling

the season breathes,

our hearts drain,

our lungs unair

The Cove, World's Greatest Dad, and Bowie

I watched two excellent films on DVD over the weekend, The Cove and World's Greatest Dad. The two films have absolutely nothing in common.

The Cove is a documentary about a heroic band of scientists and naturalists who risk life and limb attempting to expose the exploitation of dolphins in a small fishing village in Japan. The film is beautiful and tragic, and compelling. The Cove is the rare film that will make you want to do something, to save these dolphins.



World's Greatest Dad is a dark comedy about a writer (and of course, English teacher) whose teenage son is a bit odd, a bit dumb, and (of course) a lot horny, all traits that will lead the boy to some kind of trouble; and when tragedy befalls the writer/English teacher, he is presented with a once in a lifetime chance to fulfill his dream, to be a respected, published author; only snag is, he'll have to exploit his son to get what he wants. World's Greatest Dad is a funny, sick and twisted satire on our sick and twisted society.



Even the most seasoned pop culture aficionado would be hard-pressed to contrive subliminal connections between these two films; but, oddly enough, there is one thing they have in common: David Bowie. Both films play David Bowie songs over the final credits.

World's Greatest Dad ends with Under Pressure, taken from a hilarious scene in the movie where a student attempts to pass off Bowie's lyrics as his own poetry. For the The Cove, no song could be more fitting than Bowie's classic Heroes; it's actually kind of spooky how much the song mirrors the film:

I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We can beat them
For ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes
Just for one day

MusicAppreciation

MusicAppreciation


Almost as much as the music itself,
when I was young 
and my father played,
I loved the squeaking sound
his fingers made
as they slid across the strings of his guitar.

To this day I get chills
anytime I hear the squeaking,
baby-bird-like sounds
emanating from strings.