You Know What Your Problem Is?

Your problem is you don’t want to have any problems
Every rollercoaster has ups and downs
Do something foolish
Jump off a cliff (before your friends do)
Those who don’t make mistakes
Don’t do anything

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Credits: Poetry and Collage by Jay Larsen and the Blue Chinas

Obama on Interbeing

Heard Prez Obama talk about Education the other night. He said:

"And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country -- and this country needs and values the talents of every American."

It is good to hear the president talking about how we are all dependant on each other, about how we can't make decisions without thinking about how we will impact others.

But what he said could be applied to the economy as well:

It’s not just laying off your workers; it’ laying off your country.

It’s not just denying working capital to your creditors; it’s denying working capital to your country.

It’s not just ripping off your investors and customers; it’s ripping off your country.

It’s not just avoiding paying your taxes; it’s failing to invest in your country.

Message 23

I had some dreams
They were clouds in my coffee
I talked to god
Those prayers are on his machine
I felt some love
It was the jam in my sandwich
I had teachers galore
I left them down on the beach

You joined the army
I wanted fries with my orders
You followed the light
Its source was obscured by clowns
You said my circle was a square
It made me drag the river in the rain
You broke my heart
Find your stuff out in the street

Want to get a cup of coffee?
There’s a place by the parade ground
We can get a sandwich
Or talk of the eternal
If that gets too dreary
You can teach me to juggle
If it is raining we can dance in the street
Or we can collect shells on the beach

Pick up if you’re there…

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Credits: I wrote the poem and cut and pasted the collage

You got the message...

Non Blog

No time to blog today.

So here are some pics to pick your pickles to.

Wool Rabbit Replica

A cat walks into the bar
Even better people than me
Could see where this cat had been
We were in for an uncomfortable conversation

Transformations happen
Haunt me, ghost of woolen space
Transformations happen to better people
This conversation is uncomfortable not forbidden

The signal has gone dark
Won’t lose sleep over unshorn sheep
Better people than me swallow that pill of doom
Uncomfortable cats leave rabbit feet on the burning bar

Get that cat out of the bar
Can’t you see where his rabbit has been?
Conversations happen to better people than me
My name is transformation fading into silence replica

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Credits: collage and poetry by Jay Larsen Replica

When you find yourself in a hole

So wrong. but I had to repost it.
I have no idea who drew it, so I can't give them credit.

This Analog Life

The walls are thin
There is not much silence
In the movie we are in
I’ll put up with the hiss
If you don’t leave out the pop
This analog life lends itself
To some distortion
And signal loss
The wettest and wildest
Parts of my experience
Cannot be neatly contained
In the clean room austerity
Of a digital rendering
The feedback of my heart
Cannot be reproduced by any MP3
So are you ready to roll, baby?
This might get dirty
But let’s rock
Tap the faders
Stomp that distortion box
My tubes are just starting to warm up
Roll the tape across my head
This analog life has just begun
So let’s lay down tracks so heavy
That only their echoes
Can be lifted--although freely gifted--
By the white headphones
Of your iPod

Ahh…this analog life…

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Credits: poetry and collage by Jay Larsen

No Extra Cost for Awesome

Your constant amazement is our primary mission
No extra cost for swing, swing, swing
Your mild nausea will ever appear on your bill
You need this special offer like a
Whole lot of love
Get a head of the others
No extra cost for spin, spin, spin
Or heart palpitations
All this and more
Included in the price of admission
You did pay the price, right?
Awesome!

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Available now on Trepanation Records

Poetry and Collage by Jay Larsen, who just had to layoff more of his friends and coworkers.

Bulls, Bears or Lions?

Which better describes our economy?

None of the Above...

Signs of the Times

Pass Me a Ray Gun

Red Alert klaxons are whimpering
It time to take a seat
I’m ready to make a first ditch effort
Prepare for a subhuman feat
I’m leveraged with no fulcrum
But I’m spinning this camel straw
Into sticky golden butter rum
Can’t take the heat in this kitschdom
I’m blind - flashlights are worthless
Pass me another ray gun

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Credits: poetry and collage by Jay Larsen

Right and Left Ready to Declare Obama a Failure

Almost a month and nothing has changed?!?!?

Americans are addicted to the 5-minute fix. You know, that fictional wave of the magic wand that happens at the end of television shows where no matter what kind of trouble our heroes got into, it is all magically made better in the last 5 minutes of the show. This is great for episodic television producers who need everything reset for the beginning of next week’s episode. But in real life it doesn’t work that way. Catastrophe can strike in an instant, but healing takes time.

Almost everyone seems to have had 5-minute fix fantasies about our new President. Liberals believed he could undo decades of corporate cancer and economic addictions with the wave of a hand and few speeches. But even more surprising is the extent to which conservatives must have secretly believed Obama could magically change Washington and the world. Yes there have been some fairly incoherent arguments against the Stimulus Bill from the Right, but when tempers really flair most of my Republican friends end up saying something like, “Obama has been president for nearly a month and nothing has changed!”

I was expecting lots of liberals to be disappointed when the whole world could not be remade in 100 days, but now it looks like the conservatives may have secretly believed Obama was magic after all.

Here’s my advice:
Lefties, you still have a lot of work to do. Obama made it clear during the election that he was not going to change everything himself. He is expecting people (that’s you and me) to push him and to push Congress to make progressive changes. Quit feeling betrayed and keep advocating and educating to change the things that need changing. You don’t get a vacation just because one guy got elected to one job. It was easy to blame Bush/Cheney for obstructing all your best ideas—maybe too easy. Keep the heat on and Obama will respond better than the last group, but he was never the great liberal messiah—he’s just an intelligent and reasonable guy who is willing to wade in and try his best. Help him out.

Righties, chill out. Take a deep breath. It sucks when your team doesn’t win. But you let that last group mismanage your team to the point where it is not recognizable any more. Quit acting like you didn’t approve of actions that resulted in a huge loss of dignity, honor, cash and lives over the last 8 years. Bring some real ideas to the table and don’t reward Republican politicians for just saying NO every time Obama says anything. Enough with the fake outrage. You can admit that you are angry, confused and sickened and not lose your identity. Conservative used to be a good brand with some solid truths behind it—rediscover that and make a contribution.

Everybody, Admit we have long term systemic problems. Our political and economic systems did not get like this overnight and there is no overnight solution. Our culture did not get to be like this overnight. Obama cannot provide us with a 5 minute fix. All the anger and denial and negotiating makes perfect sense. They are all symptoms of mourning. We thought we had our addictions under control. We thought they wouldn’t cause problems in your professional and political lives. But we are not in control. It has taken us decades to screw our system up this bad. It is going to take decades of work to reshape our systems and rebalance our lives and our culture. First we have to admit we have a problem. Then we need to be honest about what caused them and what we can do to avoid them. But most importantly, we need to rediscover our basic humanity and take small steps everyday toward the culture that we want to live in. There are no sidelines here. There is nowhere to hide. The sooner we get to acceptance, the sooner we can begin to heal. We need to be the change we want to see in the world or else our show might not get picked up for another season.

Cheer Up!

Girlie Film

There's nothing quite as sweet
As walking down the street
Running a girlie film in my head
Running a girlie film in my head

That's it! No deep meaning.
That's just the way I'm leaning.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone.
Happy Birthday to my Brother and Sister.
And a cute puppy for my girls.

Essence of Phenomenon

The essence of phenomenon is phenomenally essential
to any commercial enterprise in this market we call music
Who buys these records?
Who makes this crap?
We have created this mess together: oppressors and oppressed
Perhaps it would be more fruitful to inquire why,
in general and in particular cases,
there is so marked a discrepancy between values and actions?
The best way to resist such a depressing system
is to validate our experience alongside other people
What is the state of your desire?
Have you been experienced?
Or are you truly dumber, weaker, or fewer in numbers
Than your oppressors?
Don't think about it
Just act as if it were true
This phenomenon is essentially you
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Credits: Essentialism by Socrates
Phenomenon by a Self Organizing Universe
Poetry and Collage by Jay Larsen, sort of

Existential Rut

Does the mole prance
Perform interpretive dance
For an audience of voles
In his hole?

Does the ocelot
Compose verse a lot
When he should
Be hunting moles?

Does that cat complain
“Hunting mole does not
Fulfill me
Even though it surely does
Fill me?”
Does it leave him empty inside?

You and I cannot know
Because words will not flow
In mole speak or squeak
And we cannot begin
To defend or comprehend
Ocelot ethics or philosophy

We might be completely
Enthralled and amused
By our human ingenuity
Speaking man to man

But does our man art
Mean more than a fart
Or a tiny mole squat
To a bird, to a bee
Or a depressed ocelot?
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Credits: Poetry and Collage by Jay Larsen

200 years of evolution by Charles Darwin

Do You Remember?

I hear you laughing
But know this
Many times the hyena screws up
And the lions take it down
But sometimes the roles reverse
And the hyena takes a lion
I know you are not in Africa
But take this as a warning
Those animals will kick your ass
You feel safely removed
In your thoroughly modern life
Deep down however
An ancient part of you knows

Do you remember forgetting?

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Credits: Poetry and Collage by Jay Larsen

Law of the Jungle by the law firm of Red, Tooth & Claw

Culpable

You need to stop being so opinionated
In my opinion
Stop telling me what to do
Quit using declarative sentences
The way you resort to violence
Makes me want to strangle somebody
I’m gonna dedicate my life
To putting fanatics like you out of business
Don’t look at me like I’m crazy
We all have equal blameworthiness here
This is a democratic regime we are all enslaved to
Mi culpa es su culpa
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Credits: Poetry and Collage by Jay Larsen

Search for Eagles

We had a sunny day on Saturday. So we went up the river to look for bald eagles. We only saw a couple--none close enough for a picture. But Chani found one on a quarter she found with her metal detector.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

My MP3 Player is Watching Me

My Zune tracks every thing I listen to and reports it to Microsoft. Winston and I aren't sure how we feel about that.
That is the new Travis album I'm listening to by the way. But if you work for Microsoft you already know that.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Anopheles Elephant

It starts as a mild buzz
You are enjoying the moon light
Then you feel the reverberating thuds
Before you even hear the crashing timbers
In a flash your life has changed
Hurry, hurry. Grab a net
The beast is in the room
But we aint talking about him yet
We still have our scruples
Bet they won’t pay the rent
Hurry, hurry. Grab a net
Anopheles elephant has come unbent
In the room, but he aint talking yet

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Credits: Another great album that never was.

Collage and Poetry by Jay Larsen, who may be a fictional character.

Are you sure you are really reading this?

Greatest Album That Never Was

It is unclear how this masterpiece remains undiscovered, relegated to the dustbins of want-to-be's and has-been's. This luminous barrage of unbridled human emotion made sonic by the Black-Daylites mystifies with its wisdom even as it caramelizes in the heat of the critic's fire. Flung full force into a world unready for such strains, this musical tour defarce turns hearts to wax even as it conspires to conscript the unsteady into an army of transcendent ants in a steamy jungle of feathery pomp and vivid contrasts. Ole! I say again, Ole!

Listening To: Kula Shaker

If you love rock 'n' roll, you must like these guys.


And a Link for those who can't see the video: Video Link

These Brits are terrific. Just plain groovy. I haven't heard a bad track yet.
Here is their website: http://www.kulashaker.co.uk/

Original Message

Your Original Message
Was just delivered by the bicycle messenger
The contents were not original
But apparently with you it did originate
It contains your signature line
Not that I need proof of delivery
Just authenticity
Maybe some electricity
I’m just that kind of organism
But you guessed that already
That’s why you summoned
An anonymous messenger
Instead of delivering bad news
Man to man
I understand
Even though you’re in the same building I am

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Credits: Poetry and Illustration by Jay Larsen

On Seeing Golden Mountains

A damp chill of flooded lowland farms
Seeps into my boots
Ears turning red in the biting cold
Delivered by a threatening gray sky
I am struck suddenly calm and dumb
As the mountains catch the winter sun
Cold light, but oh so regal and gold
Afraid to breathe, lest they fall
I stand awed by the might of those icy peaks
The world seems to stop
Poised and perfect

But to stand thus enthralled by the heights
Gold in the crystalline light
I must turn my back on the sea
Treacherous and immense
Chomping and chewing rocks of ages
Into shifting sand
The hungry, patient sea

This precarious winter will recede
I tell myself as I stamp my feet
And feel them tingle like steel pins
But the return of warm languid evenings
Seems less certain than in younger days
Shall we see such springs and summers again?
We shall see—we shall see

But at least I have seen the mountains
Caught in gold

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Credits: Collage and Poetry by Jay Larsen

No one except a mountain knows a mountain's heart.

No one except the sun follows the sun's course.