Literary Zen XII
I don’t know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn’t make sense. Continue reading Literary Zen XII
Tag: culture
Alright is not…
All right. #notetoself Continue reading Alright is not…
The Pandemic of/and Poverty
If I were king** for a day of these less than United States, I would mandate UBI and the only requirements to receive it for those subjects of mine so impoverished would be for the entire household to receive regular health checkups and for all school-age children within the household to stay in school… Continue reading The Pandemic of/and Poverty
Where do all the dreams go
In the 12-month period that ended in April, more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses, up almost 30 percent from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year, according to provisional figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. The figure … Continue reading Where do all the dreams go
If You Believe It, You’ll See It
I really, really wish I could believe all the bizarre hocus pocus things like astrology and palm readings and other pseudo-sciencey, pseudo-religiousy things so I could lay all my blame for all the unpleasantries going on all over this pretty yet petulant planet of ours (those dang locusts in Africa are biblically unrelenting) on a misaligned moon or star… That said, Claire Comstock-Gay of The Cut has an interesting take on the subject, whether you want to believe it or not. “Astrology’s skeptics and detractors like to make a fuss about how foolish it is to imagine that, simply by … Continue reading If You Believe It, You’ll See It
Empty Words of the Privileged
It’s hard to believe so many people have to live so miserably in the richest, most powerful country in the world. This has become cliché and empty to say, especially from those of us speaking from our privilege, but since there are so many pockets of wretched poverty all around the country such as described in the following article, it’s hard not to say it. “Hundreds of miles of roads are unpaved, so it can take up to three hours to get a sick person to help. It’s difficult to self-isolate because families live in one-room homes called hogans. Up … Continue reading Empty Words of the Privileged
Say what you will…
Be it be an exploration of loneliness or light or whatever, but ”Nighthawks,” to me, is the most colorful expression of the beautiful bleakness of noir that I know… From Those who say Edward Hopper is the artist of social distancing may be wrong: But while some Hopper experts appreciate the wave of [social media] interest in the American painter, who died in 1967, they say it’s a mistake to brand him as a patron saint of loneliness and social isolation.” Washington Post April 27, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. EDT #alonetogetherwithhopper Continue reading Say what you will…
We are what we… read?
At least according to the Big Think article The Books You Read Really Make You Who You Are: “The takeaway from all [the studies] is that no matter the culture, humans are intimately attached to stories. They’re part of our makeup as a species. Stories can literally transport us into the mind and body of a character. They can move us toward empathy or action. Nothing has the power to inform, change our minds, unlock our potential, or transform us and our society in the most powerful and profound ways. Now, we’re starting to unlock the neuroscience behind this and … Continue reading We are what we… read?
Just Imagine
Imagine what the response would have been if these heavily armed “protesters“ were of any other race than white… – A lot of dead and incarcerated non-white “protesters,” that’s what the response would have been for those of you with failed imaginations. Now, try to imagine that none of these “protesters” are trump cultists emboldened by their dear leader’s violence-inspiring rhetoric… – Unimaginable, isn’t it. Outside the House chamber, the protesters crammed into the hallway and stairwell, periodically chanting, “Lock her up!” and “Let us in!” Their chanting could be heard faintly from the House floor — and ultimately, the … Continue reading Just Imagine
Regarding That Which Despicable Beings Create
Always a conundrum — what to do with something good created by someone bad.
I mean, take HP Lovecraft for instance. Are horrors authors and readers still praising him so for his early contributions to the genre? Fortunately for me, having read his work long before learning he was such a virulent racist, I find his writing flat and uninteresting and way, way overrated so shunning him to the dustbin of the disgraced is no problemo.
But there are a lot of other types of situations and scenarios out there that can put one in such an unpleasant conundrum…
Continue reading “Regarding That Which Despicable Beings Create”How to Make a Veteran Happy on this Day in Their Honor and Every Day Thereafter…
#letsallbecitizensworthfightingfor #notetoself Continue reading How to Make a Veteran Happy on this Day in Their Honor and Every Day Thereafter…
Two Learnings from My Recent Rememborizing Efforts: One cool; One cautionary
As I discussed in my last post, I’ve embarked on an effort to memorize stuff that interests me. I’m finding that the more I memorize stuff, the easier is to memorize and retain new stuff.
So as I just finished up memorizing the poem Invictus, I decided to go large and take on the grandest, and perhaps greatest, of all letters penned on behalf of these United States, The Declaration of Independence.
Yeah, maybe I am getting a little cocky/in over my head taking on such a significant body of work — significant as in packed with meaning, and, especially, significant as in packed with a lot of words. One-thousand, four-hundred and fifty-eight of them to be exact.
Continue reading “Two Learnings from My Recent Rememborizing Efforts: One cool; One cautionary”Poetry is for Girls
I may occasionally write the junk, but rarely do I read it.
And it is not because I don’t like it that I rarely read it…
It’s because it, the really good stuff anyway, is so durn hard to read.
I’m talking Poetry here…
Poetry with a big, bold capital P.
And it is so hard for me to read (And by read I mean read. I mean really digging into the poem and fighting through the initial confusion and the complicated and often archaic words. I mean, not just reading the poem, but studying it and trying to close the gap in time from when the poem was written to when the poem is being read by learning about the poet and where and when and why and how he or she is from and where and when and why and how he or she lived and then coming to my own understanding of what I think the poem means and then trying to apply that meaning to my own life and where and when and why and how I live it. That’s what I mean by read.) because it takes more than a little bit of effort to read it.
I certainly don’t have time for all that junk.
Fake News is so Poe-thetic
I read an Edgar Allan Poe story today entitled The Angel of the Odd.
It’s a fun, fast, Kafka-meets-Twain, easy to forget kind of read.
But what is most memorable to me about the story is that it is entirely set up around the protagonists drunken dismay over what we would call the “fake news” of the day…
Poetry Is My Balm
Many of the haiku and other poems in Short Verses & Other Curses were written as a therapeutic balm in response to my cancer. I don’t know why or how I survived all that nonsense but I suspect writing the … Continue reading Poetry Is My Balm
No Point In Asking
When I first began articulating this post in my head, it was framed around the question, “When will it all end?” But after just a few seconds of contemplation around it I quickly realized that question is quite ridiculous. Obviously, … Continue reading No Point In Asking
No Gun, No Respect…
First off, I’m not anti-Second Amendment (if you’re an American (of the U.S. persuasion) and you don’t know what the Second Amendment is then that’s a problem)… See, I live out in the sticks and I had to call 911 … Continue reading No Gun, No Respect…
Crossing One Thin Line After Another
History shows us there is a thin line between outrage and unrest, between unrest and riot, and between riot and revolution. And it seems lately that we are constantly crossing these lines, that we are constantly on the edge and on the verge of being pushed to the limit, that every day, somewhere in the world, individuals, families, communities, countries, and regions are fluctuating and transitioning from one point of frustration to the next, even more frustrating point. From the economy, to the environment, to intractable politics, to intolerance, to technology, to terrorism, to any number of other issues, who … Continue reading Crossing One Thin Line After Another
There’s something I really need to tell you…
But, in all honesty… I’m a little scared… I am afraid that when I tell you about that which lays so heavily on my heart… You will immediately lose all respect for me… And end our friendship… But it’s really something I have to do… Something I have been yearning to do for some time now… But society says it’s bad… That good boys and girls should never, ever do this… That it’s against “the law”… The “law”… Who makes these “laws” anyway… The pious… The pedant… You know, those kind… The beautiful ones… The ones oh so righteous And … Continue reading There’s something I really need to tell you…
My Subjunctive Mood Always Brings Me Down
If I was were a less sensitive grammarian, then I would care less whether my grammar were was more or less correct. However, if it was were true that I were was less sensitive grammarian, would it then mean that I were was a less caring person? Continue reading My Subjunctive Mood Always Brings Me Down
Sons of Anarchy: Hollywood’s Shakespearean Expression of the American Way of Life
FILM | TELEVISION | DRAMA | ACTION SONS OF ANARCHY RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★ Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and since I am American I must, like all Americans are doing across the nation and all over facebook, offer my thanks. There are many things for which I am thankful: my family, my health, my freedom, football (football, the real kind, not soccer), you know, all the standard things a standard American is standardly thankful for. But in addition to those standards, I am also thankful for the miracle of technology, for it allows me to … Continue reading Sons of Anarchy: Hollywood’s Shakespearean Expression of the American Way of Life
KURT★BRINDLEY 