Zeitgeist 11/2023

A Time Capsule

I’ve called these thingies writing updates in the past, but I do have other stuff going on, so I’ll include some of that here as well. I’ll try not to wander too much!

State of the World. Not good, really. I think there is a LOT of cultish and ideological thinking going on about things that are essentially distractions. The war in Ukraine was a distraction as much as it was a cash cow, but this Palestine thing is So Much Better. We are draining our coffers on genocide, and in a totally contradictory way to what we were doing in Ukraine. Which doesn’t matter, because they’re distractions. Things to keep our minds occupied while they rob us blind. But the Israel one is extra cool, because it’s one of the ones where dissent from it is a big offense. People are losing their jobs over it.

Also, There were two consecutive November days that were the hottest November days on record, and the month as a whole was 2°C above pre-industrial levels! That’s supposed to be the Line That Must Not Be Crossed.

Well, we done crossed it. Go Progress, Go.

State of Massachusetts. I live in the Western part of the state now, and my connection to what’s going on in Boston is really different from what it was when I was in Watertown. Of course.

Where I live now is so bucolic, quiet, beautiful, old school, elevated, and both the same and very different from where I lived before. There are definitely Trumpers in the area, for instance. I’m friends with some Trumpers. This does not in any way freak me out, even thought I am about as far from being a Trumper as it is possible to be… But we’ve veered into the previous heading’s territory, haven’t we, so maybe we should stick to the subjet. At least those of us who are me should.

But I still have 3 major connections to the city, and I need to honor those. Lesley, Fenway, and Wicked Queer. Once a week, I drive down Route 2 into Cambridge, up Fresh Pond Parkway, to Mass Ave, and then over to Porter Square. If’n I was rich, I’d have a pied-à-terre in Belmont.

State of Mind. Weirdly OK, considering. I have a lot of rage about how things are in this world, and I think I always will, but it is really sad and distressing watching things look so much like they’re falling apart. I look at the world and wonder how anybody thinks the state of things is sustainable. But you know what? It’s OK. I’m in the place where The Coming Doom will come to last. If I can see it coming, I can make peace with it.

People on an individual are OK. On a mass level, we’re a mess. I’m kind of a mess, but I’m a mess in an exceptionally beautiful place, far from the madding crowd, and that makes a difference.

Also, I think critical thinking can help with a lot of things that people aren’t applying it to. The facts are the same for all of us. I know Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kelly Anne Conway think there is such a thing as “alternate facts,” but you know what? There kind of are. The center-left corporate media spins as much of a fake narrative as the right does, it’s just not quite as nefarious. But there are things that lib friends of mine believe that are definitely untrue.

Writing Life. Currently caught in the middle of two tasks. I’m working on a revision of the Ghost Story, and I need to be working on The Faerie Pirate Thingie. Also need to be watching movies for Wicked Queer. Eep.

Read a couple of brief sections of The Faerie Pirate Thingie at Paul Richmond‘s Word open mike over at the LAVA Center. That went OK, but for this work, I need to read for longer than a five-minute open mike slot. I’m still looking for that opportunity.

I’m working with a book coach on The Faerie Pirate Thingie, and our back and forth has been very helpful. I’m seeing the shape and size of the work before me, and.. it’s a lot, but it’s doable. I need to devote more time to it, so I may be stopping in the middle of this current draft of the Ghost Story for a bit while I address the Faerie Pirate Thingie.

I am not working with the book coach on the Ghost Story, but I am attempting to apply what I’m learning.

Current Listening. Pocupine Tree’s Signify is on the box at the moment.

My All-Time Top-Ten Favorite Albums, Until I Decide Differently

As of 10/22/23

1.) The Beatles — Revolver
2.) The Anthology of American Folk Music
3.) Yes — Fragile
4.)Siouxsie and the Banshees — Juju
5.) The Beatles — s/t (The White Album)
6.) Sex Pistols — Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
7,) George Harrison — All Things Must Pass
8.) John Lennon — Plastic Ono Band
9.) Yes — Tales From Topographic Oceans
10.) Buzzcocks — Another Music in a Different Kitchen

Honorable Mention:
Pink Floyd — Saucerful of Secrets
Paul and Linda McCartney — Ram

–

This is me trying to give my life-long top ten. I’m still exploring, so this is still subject to change. So many Beatles thingies on this list…

I am in a proggy phase right now, hence all the Beatles and the Yes stuff. Maybe at some point I will post an all-time favorite Prog albums, which I think the Beatles may not appear on (well, maybe Revolver will show up, because I think that is the original prog album!)

Thoughts, 10/16/23

Somewhere in the distance,
The sound of thunder
Shakes the ground
Banishing the snakes
Under what could soon be
Israel’s newest neighborhood.

Last week,
Hamas took 200 hostages.
It still has them.
They killed 1400 Israelis.
In response,
The Israelis have killed
2750 Palestinians
As of yesterday.

There’s always tomorrow.
Except for the children of Gaza.
What does their tomorrow look like?
Terror breeds terror.

MSNBC has three Muslim anchors:
Their greatest experts on this ongoing conflict
They’ve taken all three off the air.

A Florida Congressman, Brian Mast
Turned up on the house floor
Wearing an IDF uniform.

Maybe that’s him giving cover
To Rashida Tlaib’s Palestinian flag
Which stands outside her office door.

I saw a cockroach
In an editorial cartoon
With a Palestinian face;
A big brown boot
Hovered above it
With the letters
“IDF”
Emblazoned across it.

Truth is the first casualty.

But here is something true:
Israel operates an open-air prison
With over 2 million inmates
–Half of them children–
Which it is now bombing
Again, an action
An Israeli security expert has called
“Mowing the grass.”

This is the exact
Opposite sentiment
Of Whitman’s use
Of this same metaphor.

Grass as life.

Outside my window
A fog is hanging thickly
Above my home’s
Beautiful lawn.

We have been
Letting it become
A meadow.
I have been letting
The grass become long,
Luxurious, and uncontrolled.

There are snakes out there.
I’ve seen them.

Snakes strike when cornered.
Shall we destroy snakes?

But the snakes in my meadow
Are not my enemies.
They do what snakes do.
Catch insects.
Sun themselves.
Make holes in my yard.

But if I had rattlesnakes,
Or cottonmouths,
Or cobras in my yard,
I would only want to rid myself
Of that which is venomous.
Not the bunnies.
Not even the skunks.

But in the fenced-in yard
Called Gaza,
White phosphorus rains down
On the innocent,
And the tractors that will
Mow that lawn
Idle at the ready.

Again:
For the children of Gaza
What will tomorrow look like?




Update About My Incessant Scribbling

I guess this is a thing now.

I recently got published in Meat For Tea: The Valley Review with a piece called The Casserole Tree. I read at their issue release party at Gateway Arts Center in Holyoke. I didn’t read the published piece, I had already read that one out, and there was something else I preferred to share. I liked that event. It’s in a bar, there was music and visual art and poetry and rock music. I’m looking forward to the next one.

As far as the piece I read at Gateway Arts, I plan to read that one again at Paul Richmond’s Third Tuesday Word this week.

Work on the summary of The Story is proceeding. It’s taken me months to even summarize this thing, and all I can think as I go through it is how much work it needs. I am sure it’s going to grow from the current 120K draft, but who knows by how much? All will be revealed in time, I suppose, but this thing is not going to get shorter, and there is so much work to do. It really is going to take years.

I want to read an exerpt from the thing in front of people, but open mike slots are 5 minutes as a rule and I want to read for at least 10. I haven’t found a 5 minute chunk that’s worth excerpting!

In other news, I still have the Socialist Ghost Story sitting out, waiting to be returned to. I was struggling with that one a bit, but I theorize that the reason I was struggling is Too Many Irons In the Fire. Once I can devote my whole brain to it, it will come into sharper focus. I am afraid it might be a while before I do get back to it. Maybe I should drawer it, but I definitely want to go back and finish it.