Writing poetry

I haven't written a poem in a while because I haven't awoken with one in my head. This is how they happen. Very mysterious. I don't plan them. They just appear in my head, usually just a portion, and I get up and work them through. Not lately, however. I have no idea how to make it happen and no idea why it does happen when it does. It's like a mysterious gift.

A rational important book

What makes this book special is the cool rational approach of the author entering a controversial subject matter full of hoaxes, exaggerations and true believers. The result is an argument far more mind-boggling than others because the evidence here is so solid. Something is out there. Period.

What is it? Difficult to say but an extraterrestrial origin stands high among possible explanations. The United States stands alone in the world in its aggressive debunking of solid evidence, and the author looks into this curious cultural phenomenon with interest.

This is the most important book ever written on the subject: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record. Very highly recommended.

Football

Watching replay of last year BCS...quite fun...love Chip Kelly Ore coach...calls a daring game...too bad Nike has to own the team

rainy sunday

student script to look at on a slow wet day...

The Y Article - By John Norris | Foreign Policy

The Y Article - By John Norris | Foreign Policy:

"By investing energy, talent, and dollars now in the education and training of young Americans -- the scientists, statesmen, industrialists, farmers, inventors, educators, clergy, artists, service members, and parents, of tomorrow -- we are truly investing in our ability to successfully compete in, and influence, the strategic environment of the future. Our first investment priority, then, is intellectual capital and a sustainable infrastructure of education, health and social services to provide for the continuing development and growth of America's youth."

Oregon senator Wayne Morse made the same argument decades ago, endlessly, to no avail.

The sun! the sun!

Like the end of Ibsen ... but rain returning tomorrow so enjoying the day while I can. And making a pot of blackeyed peas.

a mellow day

like slow days like this...learning new tricks with kindle

test message

written on kindle

Rewards of writing

Someone just posted this comment to the Juniper Tavern trailer on YouTube:

I just wanted to say, that Xmas at the Juniper Tavern was a New Years Tradition in my family as I was growing up. From the time I was six, until I was fourteen, New Years was all about making a big bowl of popcorn, digging out the BetaMax, and watching an old OPB recording of XJT. Thank you for making this!

From TV Guide

I know several families in eastern Oregon used to do this as well. We writers don't often get the news. It's always appreciated when we do. Maybe we don't live in a vacuum after all ha ha.

And here is an informative piece by Bob Hicks on the 25th anniversary of Juniper Tavern, including my revelation of the true DNA of Swami Kree.

Running On Empty

A really fine film. Rewatched it tonight for maybe 6th or 7th time, always moves me.

The tone of the "news"

In my lifetime, what is considered "news" has changed considerably. By prior standards, maybe 90 percent of what we hear on the TV news would have been considered "fluff" and ignored. Moreover, the tone of how the news is delivered has changed dramatically. News used to be serious -- because the stories were serious. But today the news is entertainment and newscasters use a chatty, informal, "friendly" tone that drives me up the wall. Aaron Brown may have been the last "old school" newscaster I admired. Local news especially has gotten so bad it's all I can do not to throw things at the TV if I heard it. No wonder I get my news from Kindle these days.

Two approaches to jazz singing

Jazz singers generally fall into one of two camps: those for whom the song comes first, and those for whom the voice comes first. Most singers fall into the second category. Their song interpretations are free and creative, taking advantage of whatever special vocal talents they have. They pull out all the stops. In essence, their voice gets front billing, not the song. The first camp pays more attention to the intention of the songwriter. The interpretation is determined by the song, not by their special skills. Thus scat singing belongs in the second camp, not the first, unless the songwriter specifically wrote it with scat singing.

Song first

The King and Queen of the song-first school are Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. You never hear either scat sing. The King and Queen of the voice-first school are Mel Torme and Ella Fitzgerald. Vocal histrionics are usually central to their interpretations of songs.

I prefer the former, as you might have guessed. Respect for the songwriter and all that. But the other camp has many more followers, in both singers and audience, than the former.

Voice first

I cringe whenever a singer in the voice-first camp sings the Star Spangled Banner before an event. I cringe! Give me the U. S. Navy Chorus any time, singing the song in a straight forward manner.

Politicians

2 JFK miniseries on assassination

I finished watching the 1983 miniseries today. Nowhere does it differ more from the new 2011 miniseries than in its interpretation of the assassination. What surprised me is that the new version goes out of its way to endorse the Oswald single-assassination myth. And it is a myth unless you disregard considerable medical and eye-witness evidence that shots came from two directions because the president was shot from the front as well as from the rear. Every doctor first seeing the body described frontal entrance wounds. Witnesses saw gun flashes and smoke from the grassy knoll. Yet the new miniseries spends time with Oswald, establishing a sole gunman theory, and this after a Congressional investigation decades ago presumably put the Warren Commission's error to rest. And there was no dramatic reason to do this whatever. Why? Perhaps because the author is a conservative and all the conspiracy theories blame forms of extreme right politics for the assassination. But who knows? It was unnecessary but it was done.

In the 1983 version we not only don't see Oswald, we don't even see the Book Depository. When the president is shot, he grabs the front of his throat -- the front -- and this is the only clue about the nature of the assassination. The miniseries ends when JFK dies.

I prefer the 1983 version but neither is as strong as it could be and the 2011 version has much going for it. Maybe the third try down the road will be the charm.

Time

I experience Time differently than I used to. What's curious about this, a result of aging, is that it works both ways: time slows down in the short run and speeds up in the long run. On a day when I don't have much that I'm required to do, time can really drag. Then I can turn around and something that seems like it happened yesterday happened several years ago. Interesting phenomenon. I wonder how one might build this into narrative, slowing down the short run (without being boring) and speeding up the long run. Well, maybe that's what is done in that brilliant Coover short story in the NYer recently, Going For A Beer. Hmm.

Lessons From Flip: What We Lose As Our Gadgets Gain

Lessons From Flip: What We Lose As Our Gadgets Gain:

"The Flip video camera Cisco discontinued this week marks the latest casualty in consumers’ migration to all-in-one gadgets. But what do we lose as our gadgets gain?"

Super Rich See Federal Taxes Drop Dramatically | Common Dreams

Super Rich See Federal Taxes Drop Dramatically | Common Dreams

Parallel Universe (poem)

Parallel Universe

In a parallel universe I'm a
retired high school math teacher
with three ex-wives, five children
and three grand children.
I spend a lot of time playing chess
at the neighborhood senior center
and talking to my kids on Skype
and watching grand kids play soccer
and trying to convince a local
topless dancer to go to law school
like she dreams about. Now and
again I drink too much and go
home to feel sorry for myself,
imagining that in a parallel
universe I'm a writer who produced
a very large archive of work
that he's very proud of but
which for some reason doesn't
satisfy him so that he sometimes
imagines that in a parallel
universe he's a retired high school
math teacher with three ex-wives
and ...

--Charles Deemer

American History In My Lifetime (poem)

American History In My Lifetime

So there was this President
and he actually was going to
change the power structure in
the country, which of course
threatened those who held the
power. They conspired to protect
what they considered theirs
and successfully assassinated
the sonofabitch President who
dared to think he could change
the status quo. They killed the
sonofabitch. They actually did.
And the plan was so good they
even had a fall guy and they
killed him too so he couldn't
talk. And there was so much
dirty laundry everywhere that
an actual honest investigation
was impossible without dire
consequences,"national security"
and all that, so they made
a half-ass investigation they hoped
would put the matter to rest
forever. Unfortunately a few loonies
didn't buy the official results
and investigated on their own
and came up with unbelievable
frightening theories about what
actually happened, which in fact
was pretty close to what happened,
and many people believed them except
for some reason they didn't get
pissed off enough to take to
the streets and demand full
disclosure. Instead they just
shrugged and said, Well politicians lie
and there's nothing to be done
about it. So nothing actually
changed even though many folks
realized they'd been duped.
They went shopping and forgot
about it. And the original
criminals who assassinated the
sonofabitch President in the
first place retained power
and now could relax because
they learned a profound lesson:
in the end shopping wins out
and if you let people shop,
hell, they'll put up with
anything.

--Charles Deemer

Climate (poem)

Climate

I feel like I'm in a room
wired with bombs about
to go off and most know
this, yet everyone carries
on as if there were no
danger, as if there's nothing
to be done about it.
No one, however, has announced
that we're having a wake.

I feel like I'm on an alien
planet where one plus one is
three and gravity is random
and all roads circle back on
themselves and the best among
us strive in school to earn
a Doctor of Stupidity and
everyone is waiting for Jesus
but not like in the play
because no one has a sense
of humor.

I feel like I'm under water
at the moment just before
I give up, unable to hold
my breath a second longer,
my lungs ready to explode.
The thing is, the fish,
the reefs, the light in
the water, everything is
so goddamn beautiful.

Everything is so
goddamn beautiful.

--Charles Deemer