Friday, December 28, 2007

"Lick the roof of your mouth," she said.

He took too big of a sip - too big of a sip too quickly. The third factor leading to his gulp that swallowed him is that he doesn't often drink these and they're strong. Extreme. They are the type of refreshment only voracious individuals indulge in. And indulging in such risky liquid takes courage. Just a sip is like a quick dip into the low end; a straw suck is much different. When thirsty, when craving for the all-consuming swirl of its intoxicants, it is near impossible for such a man, a man with such curiosity, such passion, to not take much too much on the initial sip.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

STORY OF STUFF


with Annie Leonard> <-----click here for the exposé.


* When speaking as "we" in this post, I mean to speak of the average American. Of course everyone varies in terms of their degree of being part of the "we".

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The most prevalent problems in American society are interrelated:
- our economic cycle is linear in all the wrong ways.
- our social line of thinking is cyclical to the point of mindless sickness.
- our political power is in the hands of puppeteers and we are allowing ourselves to be the marionettes. We've attached ourselves to their strings by listening submissively.


Instead of creating a system of reproduction, we have a system of Production - Consumption - Disposal. The product is made, used and disposed of when a new product comes along to be consumed, used and disposed of. The problem is the disposal rarely contributes positively toward reproduction. Sure, we've all learned about our blue bins and bottle & can centers, but it is not anywhere near 100 percent and the flow of production - consumption - disposal surges so rampantly, it mostly just goes in ONE direction.

Instead of thinking linearly - rationally - toward an action worth executing, we think cyclically: Work - Watch - Buy. The mindset used for this cycle is ingrained and unchanging; we must Work more to Purchase more, and the ads in between propagate these inclinations by telling us we are not important unless we have more STUFF. We are being duped.

We need to switch: shift gears out of our cyclical ways of thinking and create more of a circular flow for our environment.

And it's not necessarily about EXTREME measures. No one expects EVERYONE in America to NEVER drive their cars to get to work faster, to STOP watching TV for entertainment, or to completely abandon shopping malls or those neat-o devices like I-pods and Wii games. What is expected is an UNDERSTANDING: we must begin to see the level of hypnosis we are under; we need to become conscious of consumer habits and the effects.

It's not just hip to be sustainable. It's not even necessarily hippie; if you consider people who hope for the best for our future to be hippies, than hippie I am.

It can be BETTER.

I consider myself more of a hope-y . . . or a hippo: a human being with hope, not despair. One definition for "hip" is: to be understanding, aware. - - - So, I'm a hopey hippo, not a hippie.


Let's get back to what Christmas is really all about: love, sharing, family, faith and happiness.

Merry Holidays! and let's keep this Christmas less red, more green!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Symmetrical and Systematic

Every December I come home to 16 fake poinsettias, consistently vacuum-patterned carpets, an orderly tree of ornaments (bulbs carefully placed so no colors are repeated within a foot of one another) and three cats sitting in an equilateral triangle.

This year the mantle goes (left to right, as easy as reading): one gold-bowed, green foiled, red leaf dipped-in-yellow-precious-metal poinsettia, two skinny evergreen trees, Christmas bowl, two red tapered candles, one gaudy gold poinsettia, one silver Christmas tree, poinsettia wreathe above santa-in-the-fireplace, one silver Christmas tree, one gaudy gold poinsettia, two skinny evergreen trees, a Christmas nutcracker, three metal cup trees, one gold-bowed, green foiled, red leaf dipped-in-yellow-precious-metal poinsettia. A fake skinny garland snakes through the things.

Mom skewed this year: there are three of something on one side and pairs on the other. She’s getting risky, drinking Carolan's on ice and mixing up the symmetry. But below the stocking is a stuffed Santa with two stuffed reindeer facing inward, with two poinsettias in similar baskets flanking them. Red and green everything, even the plaid couches, plus blue of course. We haven’t had a different colored Van since I was eight.

I wonder if she meant the pictures to the right of the deck door to be set up that way: Jackie, Meghann/Jackie picture, Meghann. I think, mathematically, methodically, symmetrically, and make-sensibly, it would look more mom-like with my senior picture on the left, then Meghann/Jackie, then Jackie. For one, my picture is looking off into the distant left. For two, having the girls flank their respective sides of the central photo would indicate which is which in the middle.

On the other side of the deck door, there is a block shelf chock full of San Francisco-esque houses - looks like the hill of Full House. Where a townhouse wouldn’t fit, mom placed a snowman, a lamppost or an evergreen tree. She hid the huge speakers for Patrick on the backside of the tree because it doesn’t look even with the DVD shaped scatter of all the other presents. There are holiday throw pillows with mistletoe and snowmen, button trees and suddenly, out of no where, dad’s blue bed pillow for comfort. I am surprised it wasn’t placed back in its place after last night’s movie time. Everything is always in its correct bin, Tupperwear, shelf, drawer or compartment. Laundry every day. Fudge in plastic tins and cookies in the freezer. Haystacks and trail mix. Plenty of milk and French Vanilla flavored coffee. This year, two bottles of Kahlua and CafĂ© mixer. Never much alcohol lying around, just coffee mixers. This year, we’re mixing it up.

Even carefully proportioned people and purposeful systems need a surprising element tossed in every now & again.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Gollum Sentences.

Who's car is that?
Heidi's car is that.

Heidi purchased a new pseudo-Saab (Elantra 2005, in the new shiny 'hide-n-seek' black) and I nearly burnt it down with hot coals from our new Hookah.

I asked 'Who's car is that' and couldn't figure out why it sounded so cajun, or uneducated, or Gollum. Bill explained: "It's like saying "Bill's water is that." Very Gollum-esque.

Going to a Croc's Christmas bash tonight. If anyone is wearing those fluorescent foam sandals, I will personally heal them with my short dagger, tapered blade stilettos. Okay, so the shoes I'm wearing aren't that 'Kill Bill' hazardous, but it is a black and white (and red and green) event and I'm polishing up.

Also, we received a new refrigerator shipment this afternoon and Bill created a 'leftover' shelf. If nothing else, that shelf shows how warm our hearts are for unfinished food. We're leftover rescuers!

If you're looking for a thread to follow in this post, give up now.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Kerouac's New School for Comedians

Wed. 6:30-8 WM Burrough, "How to Play Horses"
Wed. 4:20-6 H Huncke, "WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE BEAT"
Wed. 8:30-10 Joan Adams, "The Atomic Disease and Its Manifestations"

Thurs. 4:20-6 N Cassady, "How to Dig the Streets"
Thurs. 6:30-8 A Ginsberg, "Hungarian Politics"
Thurs 8:30-10 L Carr, "The Fair and Foul in Our World"
Fri 4:20-6 J Kerouac, "Riddles & Roses"
Fri 6:30-8 W Burroughs, "Semantic Confusion"
Fri 8:30-10 A Ginsberg "The Types and Meaning of Visions"

Mon 4:20-6 N Cassady, "Love, Sex, and the Soul"
Mon 6:30-8 H Huncke, "Modern Drugs"
Mon 8:30-10 Joan Adams, "The Meaning of the Veil"
Tues 4:20-6 L Carr, "The Appreciation of the Vale"

Tues 6:30-8 A Ginsberg, "Seminar: Poetry, Painting, Dead Eyes and the Unknown"
Tues 8:30-10 W Burroughs "The Immortal Bard"
Tues 8:30-10 N Cassady, "New Psychology, New Philosophy, New Mortality"

Wed 4:20-6 J Kerouac, "The Myth of the Rainy Night"

Coming Spring Semester...
H Huncke "Manifestations of Electrical Phenomenon in Texas and the Caribbean"
W Burroughs "Supernatural Elements in Horseplaying"
A Ginsberg "The Dolmen Realms"
N Cassady "The Green Tea Visions"
L Carr "Dolls and Pollywogs"
J Kerouac "The Holy Final Whirlwinds"
Joan Adams "Hints"

And a General Seminar and Chorus, conducted by Aldophus Asher Ghoulens, held each Friday Midnight in the Grotto of the moon, admission by application only to Monsieur H. Hex, 429 Hoax Street, Grampion Hills. Fee: --- Gifts, including (but not excluded to) Puppets, Roaches, Roses, Rainwater, Socks, Maps, Onions, Fingertips, Roast Beef, Confessions, and Frogs.
Requirements: Sixty points in elementary realization, largesse, comedown, sorrow, and truest love.
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That's the school, there the faculty, thus the courses. Could one learn there? Don't you think one could really learn there?