Internet Superstar

My dressing room is a basement where the heating pipes leak until early March. The Internet Superstar loves Spring's warm enclose.

At work I am one with the machine. After the spiritual blight of day I return home to ascend from rubble into the pixellated firmament of Internet Message Boards. Constellations rise from every word I type. A Superstar strolls, bashful as a Deus Absconditus, midst the common folk of town. My secret is guarded fervently as Holy Men keep vigil over Sacred Relics. The strain of living this masterpiece erodes my spine.

An Op-Ed by a Friend(With an Excellent Comment)

Emergency help: Supply vs. demand Federal Way lettersFeb 09 2010
I have advocated for homeless children and their families in XXXXXXXX for 21 years.
Every day, I witness families desperate to keep their kids together and safe. Many times my staff and I can help with emergency services and temporary housing. But for too many children and their families, we must turn them away because we do not have room.
I looked back at how many children (MSC) in Federal Way had to turn away last year. Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 9, 2009, 2,712 children and 1,887 of their adult family members were turned away from shelter. That totaled 1,331 families struggling to stay together. Often, families have to split up to be housed. Many shelters do not allow teenagers or adult male family members. These staggering numbers only include those who contacted MSC for shelter space. Currently at MSC, there is a three- to six-month wait list. Shelters in XXXX County operate at full capacity on most days. Waiting for space likely meant disrupted sleep patterns and irregular school attendance for these 2,712 children. Some slept many nights with inadequate heat.
Unsheltered family homelessness is the hidden sect of homelessness. They stay hidden for many reasons, including safety and not wanting the homeless label for their children or themselves.
Think of that number 2,712 — that is enough children to fill six schools with an enrollment of 400-450 students. All 2,712 children without a permanent home! Isn’t it our ethical and moral obligation to insist that our government, at every level, is aware of these numbers and make housing for these children and their families a priority?
Please join me in contacting your local representatives and senators at (800) 562-6000) to ask the question: “How are you supporting the end to homelessness?"




Perhaps we should ask the so-called TEA Partiers how they propose we provide such services. Yesterday in XXXXXXX the mantra of these new champions of anti-Americanism was "Cut, Cut, Cut". They do not want to provide for those in need; they want to provide for their wallets, their gas-sucking SUVs, their height-of-market high-rate McMansions. They bark at the poor and homeless to "get a job" in the midst of nearly 10% state unemployment when even the jobs once only wanted by teenagers looking for mall spending money are being snatched up by postponed-retirees and offshored pink-collar workers looking to make ends meet. They don't have answers, they don't even seem to have a concept of the real world, but what they do have is an inordinate amount of sway in our state and national government run by nervous incumbent politicians.Call your senator all you want -- s/he's getting 10 times as many calls by loud, inept armchair pundits with lots of free time telling him/her to cut, cut, cut, and cut. They don't care what. They wouldn't even know what TO cut -- or realize the consequences of what they would cut -- they just want our government to stop doing anything that costs any money. (Except blow people up in the name of Jesus, of course.)

CPACalypse Now: The US Gov't Is What Glenn Beck Used to Be

There is a dark spectre undermining the greatness
of America. Akin to the Alcoholism that afflicted Glenn Beck
for years, it is making this great nation an addict in need of
"Drying Up". This enemy, or "addiction", is "Progressivism".
Yes, living wages have stayed static for 10 years and are on
the decline. Employee benefits have never been lower. Corporate
Executives are making more and paying less taxes now than
ever. Workers' tax dollars have gone to prop up the banking
and investment industry, and Progressivism, an Historical
movement to protect Workers and Citizens from being exploited
by Corporations and Government is to blame; even though they
have lost more than anyone in the past economic collapse.

Glenn Beck, a Radio DJ and Entertainer on
FOXNews(his own words for his vocation), is bewailing the
fate of a Nation he no longer knows. And he sees, like many
Dry Drunks who see everything they disagree with as being
similar to the problem they have overcome, it is drunk on Big
Government, hand-outs and continuing the sinful ways of
"Progressivism". He is drunk with these fermented ideas and
now, as a bizarre Minotaur of Self Help Guru and Televangelist,
preaches that Americans must face the truth, take some(more)
lumps and allow "Free Markets" and "Conservatism" to overcome
the evils of "Progressivism".

Only then can it wake up, "with a headache, tired, and bleary eyed",
to a new day. The United States must become the emotional development
of a recovering drunk. Now, Mr. Beck warns, it "won't be easy", but it
must be done to return to the sober principals of the "Founders":
Austerity for the people and more rewards for Corporate America.
Sobering up is tough folks. Ask any millionaire.

The Founders demand we continue killing Native Americans,
deny women and men without property suffrage, and consider
minorities as subhuman.

It is fitting he's a Mormon. Mormonism posits, explicitly, Native
Americans were cleansed from this continent as punishment for
denying Jesus during his alleged appearance in the Western
Hemisphere. They also have a history of bigotry towards other
minorities. A dry Mormon, like Mr. Beck, can't help espousing
his "cure" in this manner. A twelve step messianism drawn from
from his own battle with the bottle. How conservative.

Ganglion

The Sun pales,

shades unfurl.

Forests of frayed nerves 

shoot up tall weeds.

Night's implacable skeins tear.

Death discreetly forges havens.

Memorial

Voices pulse
softly, like rainfall,
into the ear
as sleep
neared.

Heels click
and a purse snaps
shut.

Lightning figures
it all
so brightly

the child
buries his head
under covers.

I-Peregrination

It was cool and overcast. Winds were at 20 to30mph. I put my
clunky headphones on and began to run.........The following
are the songs from my Pod and comments upon them. Yeah,
it's fatuous, but it's also fun to find an occasion to opine.

"Pray" Clem Snide

A song that sings a dreamworld. Beginning slow with an eerie
organ carrying a slow tempo. It builds to a Gospel Chorus end.
But it is not a Religious song, more a Morality tale, the moral
landscape of dreams.

"Ten Storey Love Song" The Stone Roses

Spatially grande. Epically simple. The guitar work pushes through
the tonally flat vocals(rightfully so) to make both seem two pieces
of the same Whole. Hearing this song makes one feel Human Love
is the greatest Cosmic Force.

"11:11" Andrew Bird

Noir type song about chance and mortality. Interesting that a
violin and backing vocals from Neko Case aren't as outstanding
as the hook--the swooning "soon" as a warning.

"Moving" Supergrass

Great uptempo song. Supergrass puts out gems like this in their
sleep. They are the best rock n' roll band in the world.

"Hum" Clem Snide

Strange wah wah opens this song. The rhythm section kicks in
and introduces a beat custom made for jogging. Again, a song
about the struggle of life against death. And also about the
desire for measure...And, oddly, it's not a sad song.

"Run" Ghostface Killah featuring Jadakiss

Awesome song about escaping arrest by two of the best rappers
alive. Rarely does a guest artist upstage Ghostface on a jam,
but Jada's verse features one of the best rap performances in
the past 10 years.

"Shelter from the Storm" Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has a beautiful singing voice. This song exhibits a master
vocalist hitting every note with the acuity of a Raphael painting every
nuance in his tones. It is stupid to argue Dylan can't sing after hearing
a song as beautifully sung as this. The depth and emotion of the vocals
is true and thereby makes the clarity even more astonishing. You can
actually hear the storm die in his vocal. He carries and contains it
in song. Shelter is found in singing storms away. The irony(or weariness)
in his voice hints that more loom in the future.

"Lately" British Sea Power

This is how love sounds when it crashes. An ominous doubt builds to
an unpassable gulf between two people. In 13 minutes we go from a slow
plaint to a spaceship of sound exploding in the sky. A beautiful song---
---an orchestral movement of love, loss and rage. It ends with a bang,
not a whimper.

There were 6 other songs I listened to during the jog. They were fine, but
did not inspire me to make a comment.

Durchfall in Copenhagen(The UNFCCC 2009)

(Durchfall: German word which can mean both "failure" and "diarrhea")

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Control
Copenhagen December 2009


"Man and nature have grown phlegmatic, and yawn in each other's faces."

---------------"The Town of Lucca", Heinrich Heine, Chapter 1.


Days upon days of voluble concern from governments, economists and
scientists fell heavy over the white shoulders of Copenhagen. It was
very cold and hearts were constricted. Strangely the same chill did not
stop the mouths.

Austerity was preached by wealthy nations to their smaller, less wealthy,
brethren. This austerity filled the conference rooms and flowed off every
tongue even, at times, jaywalking across the streets of Copenhagen. The
strident flow of words failed to move hearts.

Veni, Vidi and talked a good game accomplishing nothing. Pop musicians
were filled with Holy Rage. Al Gore never showed! He must have been
hibernating or partying in Bali courtesy of his stock profits in Occidental
Oil. Or maybe engaging in a preemptive celebration of Occidental's win in
the Iraqi Government's Oil Well auctions?

Nevertheless, the "Free Market" had it all, a priori, in the bag. What
merchant cares about polar bears or melting ice caps? What G10 nation,
during a Global Recession, would dare curtail emissions and perhaps place
a handicap on consumption? The Golden Calf of "Free Markets" needs the
consumer to be a stupid Ox denied the ability to reflect upon the consequences
of any actions.

The growth of Carbon Emissions(an essential part of the present Climate
Crisis) has a human face which is inexplicably unmentioned in activist circles
or covered in the Media Outlets. There has been a exponential rise in Respiratory
Illnesses due to the air quality in most major urban centers in the Industrial and
post-Industrial nations. Cities as diverse and far away as Los Angeles, Atlanta,
Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tokyo, Manila, Sao Paulo and many more have seen an
explosion in children born with respiratory ailments. The rise in children
suffering from these types of ailments is costing the Global Economy trillions
yearly. This does not factor in adults and elderly with pulmonary conditions
whose conditions are worsened by breathing in dirty air.


The Climate Crisis is a Global Health Catastrophe. People are
suffering, mostly
children and the elderly. This is costing the Global Economy trillions of dollars
every year. The failure in Copenhagen is all the more galling when one considers
limiting emissions might inconvenience "Free Markets" in the short term but
save trillions of dollars long term. Does it make sense that this failure harms
the most helpless segments of our society? That children and the elderly could
live more healthy and in less pain by breathing cleaner air? This, alone, should
be enough. Respiratory ailments in children also lead to other health problems:
Obesity is one. Children who cannot respirate healthily often avoid exercise
because of the strain it puts on the pulmonary system.

One could go on and on and damn the leaders of the "Global Economy" and
"Free Markets" to the lowest regions of Hell(and they merit much worse).
It wouldn't matter as long as run of the mill folks refuse to act accordingly
and cut their own consumption and speak with their dollars --The only speech
Markets hear.

"Free Markets" fashion a Hell on Earth with profitable intentions.