Something Old in a New Way

My brother told me a while back that he wanted me to record some of my poetry. I didn't jump right up and do it then, but the idea has been echoing around ever since. Recently I thought I might give it try. This means recording things and then finding a way to post them. After some struggle I recorded one of my things and made a video out of it, which I posted to YouTube. None of this was a easy as it ought to be, but I eventually got through it. I know, it is embarrassing for a professional tech geek to admit that he has trouble with technology, but I do.

So here is my first Audio Blog (posted as a video because I couldn't find a way to just post audio files on Blogger). Let me know what you think so I can decide if it is worth the effort to make more.

See the original post from 2005 (if you want to read the words)

Watch the Video below: Backstreet Monsters of LA


Video Link (if you don't see an embedded video above)

Remembering Wanda

From A Fish Called Wanda (1988)[Otto dangles Archie out a window]

Archie: All right, all right, I apologise.

Otto: You're really sorry.

Archie: I'm really really sorry, I apologise unreservedly.

Otto: You take it back.

Archie: I do, I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way fair comment, and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you, or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Otto: OK.

Congrats Evelyn

Congratulations to Evelyn on her best month ever as a Certified Real Estate Appraiser!

You rock Ev. Even the dogs are smiling!

Even Irony is Made in China Now

'Free Tibet' flags made in China

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.
The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.
But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.
The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.
Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.
Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping.
Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there this week.

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Credits:

From the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7370903.stm

Did they check the flags for lead content?

2 Years Ago: New Century

Feeling out of sorts?

Your usual robot efficiency

Failing you at the worst possible times?

Feeling somewhat incomplete?

Or just very, very bored?

Find yourself sailing onThe New Century

But outfitted for the Old?

What do you expect me to do about it?

What do we know?

What?

You still here?

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Credits:

Words and Collage by Jay Larsen.

Originally posted 2 years ago.

Lost or Released?

I love how this cat is named "Foundy" and that the title says "Lost Cat (yes again)",
implying that this cat has been lost before and that it was found originally.
But the look on his face says "I must escape!"
Too funny.

Coming Attractions

Sometimes we all want to know

What next?

There is some attraction

In knowing what is coming

But sometimes

Coming is the Attraction

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Credits:

Words and Collage by Jay Larsen

The Big O by desire, friction and release.

Alphabetter than U Think

Learned my letters
And even at an early age
I liked the alphabet
Thought it was friendly
Maybe not to U
But always nice to me
Because every time
We got past the basic
A B C and D
And the inevitable E F and G
The alphabet always says
“HI J”
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Credits:
Words and Collage by Jay Larsen
Alphabet by the Phoenicians and the Romans
whose Latin alphabet had 23 letters
where I and J are one and the same
Like they are in me.
C U L8R

Synthetic Tape Hiss

Synthetic tape hiss is not the same
As the authentic sound of oxide particles
Dragged across my head
No matter how many discrete channels
Digitally surround my focus point
I have but two ears
Last time I checked
That was still stereo
Evolution has put me into
An isolated system
I may be in a current state of disorder
But time’s arrow points the way
Don’t preach to me about entropy
There is enough multiplicity
Rolling around inside my head
Organic tape hiss does not prove
The existence of thermodynamics
But the friction does cause heat

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Credits:

Words and Collage by Jay Larsen

Monkey Boy's headphones by Sir Issac Newton

The Last Supper

The last season of Battlestar Galactica has kicked off with a bang.
They are advertising the last season with a BSG version of the Last Supper by Da Vinci.
Pompous? Yes. Arrogant? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.
Galactica so far has been the best thing on television. I hope they can wrap it up with the same quality drama they have delivered so far.
I’ll take BSG over the Da Vinci Code any day. In fact I’ll take BSG over the bible any day. BSG sets us up for a big Good versus Evil fight and then proceeds to demonstrate that there are no good guys and there are no bad guys. There are just people, all of them flawed, all of them trying to do the best they can.
If you haven’t watched the show, don’t start watching now. Go get the first 3 seasons on DVD and get caught up.
If you have been watching, hang on to your fraking ass, it looks like it is going to be a rocky road to the final credits. And we might find out that WE are the final Cylon…

When Life Alters Art

From xkcd

Spelling

Syntax is not meaning
But it defines the in and out
Decoders do not make meaning
But they are the feet
The feet that bring ambition
Ambition to the thoughts
The thoughts denied the shout

Instrumentation is not melody
But it helps to pass the night
Singers do not make the words
But they are the cry
The cry that brings aching
Aching to the heart
The heart flailing in the fight

Symbology is not biology
But it calls out a snazzy tune
Characters do not make novelty
But they are the color
The color that brings attention
Attention to the ass
The ass of a virile baboon

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Credits:

Words by Jay Larsen

Painting, Carousing Characters, by Jay Larsen

Spelling ability is not an indicator of Intelligence

Eagle Envy

Lost little lambs
Keep finding their way to our door
Too much snow to be spring
But the calendar contradicts
All the kids walk that arrogant walk
But they got every right
We all want to fly
But the age of our bones
Keeps us leaning against the fence post
The horizon beckons eternal flight
But gravity does not consent
Come inside beside the fire
We have a nest an eagle would envy
And we must prepare our hearth
For the next visiting lamb
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Credits:
Words by Jay Larsen
Illustration, Eagle Envy, by Jay Larsen
Fondness for your presence by Love recognizing itself in Other

3 Years Ago: I Don't Know You

Hello

I know your name

I know what you do for a living

I know your hobbies

I know about those magazines

I know where you hide them

I know about your riding mower

I know your kids are cute

I know you need a new car

I know that look in your eye

I know that shiver running down your spine

I know lots about you

Hell

What Do I Know?

Cardboard Sedition

Found this great video obout the Freeway Blogger. Watch it.

Freeway Blogger Video Link

Now that's what I call freedom of speech.

When GE or IBM put up billboards it is respected and protected commercial activity.

But when a genuine Citizen exercises his freedom of speech, he has to worry about being caught and punished.

More News of the Stu

Writer / Director Eric Schaeffer has offered Stuart Davis starring role in a full length feature film to be shot in Boulder, Colorado this August, 2008. The film will feature an all-Stuart Davis sound track (including live performances) and will be completed by the fall and submitted to Sundance and all other festivals, etc. No working title as of yet.

Schaeffer also announced last week he's using Davis' song Already Free as the theme music in his new 14-part Showtime Series "I Can't Believe I'm Still Single", which will air Sundays and Tuesdays this June, July, and August on two Showtime channels. The series will also be available in Showtime's On-Demand section.

Stay tuned to http://www.stuartdavis.com/ for more details as they come.

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Portrait of Stu by Jay Larsen

Listening To: The Decemberists

I've been listening to this fun band from Portland OR for a few years now, and I still love 'em.



Video Link
eMusic.com Link

In the Silent Spaces

In that moment between waking and worrying about breakfast.
In the pause between a cruel joke and awkward laughter.
In the cracks between asphalt and the gutter.
In every corner of this round, round world.
In every breath as it starts to turn from out to in.
In the midst of things as they move.
And everything (yes everything) moves.
There beats a gentle rhythm
There sounds a whisper of a chord.
There between before and after.
There is a freedom.
There is a suchness.
There is a BIG MIND.
There is a BIG LOVE.
There.
And There.
And There Again

In the Silent Spaces.

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Credits:

Words and collage by Jay Larsen

Rabbits presented by the great magician.

Down In the Street

Buyer beware
As your feet hit the street
Those bastards down there
Are dogs who know how
To make the lambs bleat

Watch your back
Gotta get your piece
Of an ever shrinking pie
Before the corporate pirates
Launch their back-stabbing attack

The carnivores you meet
Eat nothing but meat
And you my friend
Are meat
Down in the street

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Credits:

Words and collage by Jay Larsen

Antz retirement by The Wolfmen

Two Years Ago, a Thunder Echo Rerun

I am afraid…

I am afraid of missing those I love
When they are gone
I am afraid of being bored
Because the bored are boring
I am afraid of hunger and pain
Especially other peoples’ pain
So I look away
Or laugh
I am afraid that my entertainments
Are wallpaper covering empty spaces
Inside of me
I am afraid of long silences
They loom so large
Between us

So I tell a joke
Or laugh
Or roll my eyes
And hope you don’t walk away
Leaving me
In an empty space

I am afraid

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Credits:

Words by Jay Larsen

Collage by Jay Larsen

Originally posted to the blog April 2006

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Pardon Me…

I’m sorry to interrupt, but could you be that person from TV?
My bedroom is a shrine to your second season set.
Your show was really great way back then
Before those money flubbing bastards made you team up
With that horsemeat reflex from that life guard show.

Excuse me, but can you sign my copy of your unauthorized anthropology?
I was like totally influenced by your preemptive use
Of the desperate plea for more emotional openness
As a way to pass the time in airports and bank lines.
That and I really liked your use of black as a sexual strategy.

You must hear this all the time, I’m sure.
But I have every copy of every receipt you ever signed
At that bistro on the south end of the peninsula
The one with the spoons shaped like little hearts.
You were the most likable, deferential person eating there.

Pardon me, but aren’t you embarrassed to go out in public like that?
Do you find it easy to carry the extra weight
Of four underused quadrants
And that quantum collection of ephemera?
I only ask because I would love to blog about your condition.

How naked are we going to get anyway?

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Credits:

Words by Jay Larsen

Collage by Jay Larsen

Hero worship by the B52's

Paper Scars

Paper Scars

You might think it’s nothing serious
You might think you can shake it off
You might not think
You might be delirious

Some events leave their mark on you
Some marks are more visible than others
Some marks have no causing events
Some shit just leaves its mark on you

Is it doomsday?
Or just the echo of doomsday?
Is it your birthday?
Or just an echo?

Paper cuts
Only skin deep
Paper cuts
Oh, but what skin
Paper cuts
Oh those paper scars

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Credits:

Words by Jay Larsen

Collage, AntiContents, by Jay Larsen

Misinterpretation by the Misinformed

Manipulation by the Manifested

Listening To: Dogs Die in Hot Cars

Sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks. And this old dog still likes to discover new music. But as an old dog, I have been around the block enough times to know that you can’t always trust the marketing campaigns of the major record labels. And this old dog does not have deep pockets, so I can’t afford to buy every indi album that has an interesting cover. That would be barking up the wrong tree most of the time.

Have I run the dog thing into the ground yet?

Anyway, my subscription to eMusic.com is an important way that I can discover new music without spending a ton of cash. Many times I discover a new band that is new and energetic and ready to take off. Sometimes I discover mature acts that somehow I never heard before. And I also enjoy finding historical records that I missed out on. All of which is fun and exciting. But sometimes I discover bands that sound great, but have already broken up and then the discovery is kind of bitter sweet.

This is the case with Dogs Die in Hot Cars, a British band that really caught my ear a few months ago. Not only do they have an incredibly strange name, which has the advantage of being technically true but difficult to use as a noun, but they also sound very much like a reincarnation of XTC, one of the greatest quirky bands from the UK ever to make records. And DDIHC (which is hard to abbreviate also) doesn’t just copy XTC, they manage to echo the best of XTC and still sound very much original.

They, the Dogs (who must have gotten into a hot car despite their own warnings), have an EP, Man Bites Man , and an album, Please Describe Yourself. Both of which are worth starting an eMusic.com subscription for. And according to information I have found on the web, the band broke up while working on their second album. It is a shame to get all excited about a fabulous group, just to find out that they have already disbanded. But I will have to keep my eyes open for the names, Craig Macintosh, Gary Smith, Lee Worrall, Ruth Quigley, and Laurence Davey, cross my fingers and hope these talented Brits will get involved in future recording projects. In the meanwhile I will have to console myself with another listen to “I Love You Cause I Have To.” Because I have to, love them that is. And if you are a Brit Pop fan or an XTC fan (that means you Steve-O) then you should love the Dogs who died in their hot car too.

Fraud Complete

Fraud complete

It's down

It's street

Origins lost in a funky back beat

Truth was found

But I'm on the ground

She pulled the rug

Out from under my feet

Never been one to admit defeat

But truth sang her song

From the catbird's seat

Fraud complete

I'm down

In the street

Origins lost in a funky back beat

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Credits: poem by Jay Larsen

Collage, Catbird's Seat, by Jay Larsen

Fraud complicated by sincerity

Back Beat produced by the Kosmos

A life in the day

A life in the day
Don’t alright cause every little worry gonna be thing’s
I see a black paint and I want to door it red
Don’t need the wind to see which way a weatherman blows
Days of these one I’m gonna cut little pieces into you
So don’t you blue suede on my step shoes

Everybody's Got Something To Hide...

Except for me and my monkey, and possibly Mike Gravel, who is still running for President. Who knew?
He has apparently started channeling William Shatner and is doing music videos of Helter Skelter. Like many of his campaign videos, this one is strange and well...strange. But if you enjoy strange white guys speaking the lyrics of Beatle's songs to a video montage, then this might just be your cup of tea. Cheers.


And just for comparison, a classic: William Shatner "sings" Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Vote for your favorite on American Idol: Old White Guys Special Edition.