Unassailable

Unassailable
My arguments are
Without a doubt
Come what may
Poetry makes them so
Unassailable
----------------------------------
Echoes:
Wishing it were so with words and images: Jay Larsen

Good Company?

"capitalism is losing friends around the world. A recent BBC poll in twenty-seven countries found that on average only 11 percent believe it works well. In just two countries did more than a fifth of respondents believe that it works well “as it stands.” One was the U.S.; the other -- Pakistan." -- Francis Moore Lappe

--------------------------

Congratulations Capitalists! Your good friends in Pakistan still agree with you that unbridled capitalism is still a good idea.

Personally, I have never been able to figure out how capitalism and democracy were supposed go together so well. Democracy is all about giving everyone a voice in the functioning of society. Capitalism is about giving control to capitalists. The owners of capital control all of it's economic expressions and actions, concentrating power in the hands of a few increasingly wealthy individuals. A verifiable fact that capitalists are seldom called to defend. Maybe because they keep wrapping their actions in the flag of democracy. But as we have all learned, the actual products we buy are not as cool in real life as the companies make them appear in the advertisements.

Happy Birthday Chani

We took Chani and her friends bowling for her birthday.

The TSA Will Not Touch Your Monkey

I feel much better now that the TSA has posted new guidelines reguarding the handling (or non-handling) of monkeys at the airport: From the TSA

• When a service monkey is being transported in a carrier, the monkey must be removed from the carrier by the handler prior to screening,
  The service monkey must be controlled by the handler throughout the screening process.
  


• The service monkey handler should carry the monkey through the walk through metal detector while the monkey remains on a leash.
  When the handler and service monkey go through the walk through metal detector and the detector alarms, both the handler and the monkey must undergo additional screening.
  


• Since service monkeys may likely draw attention, the handler will be escorted to the physical inspection area where a table is available for the monkey to sit on. Only the handler will touch or interact with the service monkey.
  


• Security Officers have been trained to not touch the service monkey during the screening process.
  


• Security Officers will conduct a visual inspection on the service monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey during the visual inspection.
  The inspection process may require that the handler to take off the monkey’s diaper as part of the visual inspection.

Thanks to Boing, Boing for the link.

Invisible Holdings

I have a vocabulary
So do you, I assume
But where do we keep it?
How many terms do we hold?

Let me pluck a word or two
From the invisible potential:
Dandelions
Curse
Brushes
Fondle
Bankers
And Purse

See!
I spent no energy to store them
Some small effort to unfold them
To pluck the words out of nothing
Into space and into time
Ah, the wink blinkiness
The kink slinkiness
Of this vocabulary of mine

How’s yours doing these days?
Much the same you say?

If words are pulled out of a hat
And no one hears them
Or reads them
Does that tree in the forest
Or that bear in the woods
Make a noise then
As it shits then
Like only words could?

Out of nothing
Such wondrous
And wild coalescing

I think this invisible holding
Where vocabularies live
Must be the place we keep
Art, music and laughter
And all of the love that we give
Give and give
Haven’t you wondered why
We never run out?
That unseeable space
Is where all the coming and going
Does its going and coming
That invisible holding
Where the words come from
Must also be the space
Beyond time and space
Where waiting to be unfolded
We keep, for lack of a better word, god

There, I said it!
But keep it under your hat
At least until I find a word
That blossoms more fully
To describe such an indescribable thing

-----------------------------
Echoes:
Words and Collage unfolded from that place
By Jay “The Undescriber” Larsen
Who never puts a bag of holding in another bag of holding

On a Train

If you leave this poem on a train
You will buy another one tomorrow

Organ Lettuce
Recital Wrap
Science Pizza
Fiction Rolls
Hold Avoid
Hands Temptation
Just what I said

If you recite this poem on a train
You will try another one tomorrow

----------------------
Echoes:
Words and Collage by Jay Larsen
Try & Buy brought to you by Tomorrow

You Can Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd

If you're the King of the Road

It is easy to forget

It is easy to forget
It’s what you pick up
That sometimes puts you down

It is easy to forget
It’s the colors you choose
That paint your whole room

It is easy to forget
It’s the thing that you resist
That you’ll wear like a crown

It is easy to forget
---------------------------------
Echoes:
Words: to be forgotten by Jay Larsen
Image: Head 6 of the 10,000 Things…

Silent Running

Anyone else remember that film?

Silent Radio

Silent Film

Silent Type

Playland OK

It’s OK to say FUCK
If it means something
It’s OK to break rules
If the rules mean nothing
It’s OK to care
Even if there’s no irony there
It’s OK to feel OK
It’s just OK

----------------------------

Echoes:

Jay OK Words and Collage

The Future of Publishing?

Clever video:


LINK for those who can't see the video above (you know who you are....)
I palindrome I, as TMBG would say.

And another joyful bit of fun for those who click here.

Unheard Of

If you don’t know me:
The only difference between me
And a famous person
Is that you haven’t ever heard of me.

If you know me:
The only difference between me
And a famous person
Is that you have heard of me.

If you are a famous person:
The only difference between me
And you
Is that I am a different person

If you are me:
You are the most famous person
-----------------------------------------
Echoes:
Words by the most famous person in
Head 5 of the 10,000 Things collage

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone

Steam Punk St. Patrick's Day Video:


LINK for those who can't see the video above.

Vantage

Today's blog brought to you by the letter V.
And the number 7, because 7 is just a sideways V.

Village

Van

Huffington Post: Keith Olbermann's Father Dies

 

		Keith Olbermann's Father Dies
	My father died, in the city of his birth, New York, at 3:50 EST this afternoon. Though the financial constraints of his youth made college...

 

Jay Larsen

Sent from my iPhone

Thanks Hun

I had a great birthday.

Our fellow passengers

Were mostly Japanese school girls on a field trip.

Lots of native art

Cooking Salmon for our dinner

Totems on the beach

Tillicum Long House.

Eve took me on a cruise

We went to Tillicum village on Blake Island for salmon dinner and a
native dance show.
It was very nice

Left

Life

Listening to: Plastic Beach

The new Gorillaz album is out, Plastic Beach.
I love the Gorillaz first 2 albums, so I had high hopes for this one.
Especially since they made it sound like they might never do another album.
Well it has been 5 years, and the virtual band of comic characters has done it again.
I don't think Plastic Beach is a catchy as the previous albums, but it is more cohesive.
The Gorillaz combination of post-punk pop music, rap and DJ loop magic isn't as unique as it once was, but these guys are still very, very good at what they do.

Plastic Beach is definitely worth a listen.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars and a big thumbs up.

In the Company of Whales

Space Whales.

Only 65 Congress People Vote to End the War

Only 65 Congress people voted today to end the war in Afghanistan. But only a handful of reporters covered it. I'm not sure which is worse.
But I am constantly amazed at how uncontroversial our wars and war spending is.
Over 60% of the Federal Budget went to the Pentagon this year, but those measures sailed through Congress and the Senate without any controversy at all. Health Care Reform could be paid for by ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but THAT would be too controversial.
---------

Published on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 by The Huffington Post
Patrick Kennedy: Press Corps Is 'Despicable' for Not Covering Afghanistan War Resolution
by Ryan Grim
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) excoriated the national press on Wednesday during a debate over the war in Afghanistan, charging reporters with shirking their duty to cover the issue and instead focusing on the peccadillos of former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.).
"There's one, two press people in this gallery," he thundered. "We're talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We're talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!"(AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)"There's one, two press people in this gallery," he thundered. "We're talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We're talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!"
The House is debating a resolution written by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), which would require the military to withdraw from Afghanistan within 30 days or longer if it couldn't be done safely that quickly.
"You want to know why the American public is fit? They're fit because they're not seeing their Congress do the work that they're sent to do," railed Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of this term. "It's because the press, the press of the United States, is not covering the most significant issue of national importance and that's the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country. It's despicable, the national press corps right now."
Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc

Lame

Blind

Mute

Where are the Footprints?

Where are the footprints
of the birds in the sky?
Where are the strings
that connect you and I?

M is for Monkey Boy

Make friends with your chattering mind or it will fill your life with
confusion and nonsense.

The World of Tomorrow

Brought to you by Your Old Future.

Why do we look out there?

Compassion is not out there.
Love is not out there.
Meaning is not out there.
If compassion is not this current mind, where is it to be found?
If love does not arise from this current mind, where will it arise?
Meaning, mind is meaning.
-------------------
Echoes:
Meditation on the Bodhisatva's path &
Photo by Jay Larsen
From the iPhone

Where did all the wealth go? Look up...

  

		Top 400 U.S. Earners See Income Rise 476% In Last 15 Years
	The 400 American households with the highest incomes also have enjoyed a much faster pace of income growth than the vast majority. And, because tax...

 

Jay Larsen

Sent from my iPhone

Breakfast

Something Has Changed

I agree. Something is changed.

I agree. I do not know what.

I agree. Work done in the same period has a common feel.

I agree. The difference is probably me.

What my brain is working on, I am not sure.

--------------------------------

Echoes:

Words: A Letter to Steve.

Image: "Head 4 of the 10,000 Things" to Me

String Theory as an Aid to Navigation

Garage Sale

We Lived Our Lives Backwards
We used improper tools
Square One
--------------------------------
Echoes:
Collage, “Head 3 of the 10,000 Things” by Jay Larsen
Words by Nesral Yaj

Head Trip X2

It’s a new trip
But it feels the same
New trip
Feels the same
Trip the same
No sense in even trying

What’s your trip?
Feels the same
New trip
Feel the shame
Trippin’ shame
Gotta keep on trying

Shake your hips
Brand new game
Shake hips
New game
The crowd aint buying

New trip
Shame game
Shake down game
Feels the same
No sense in not trying
------------------------------
Echoes:
Words sound the same, Jay must not be trying
Collage looks the same, Jay must keep trying
Sung to the tune of “Gimme Shelter”

OK GO go Gold, Goldberg that is.

OK Go, the band, have a history of wacky music videos.
They have just released a new Rube Goldberg Machine video for their song This Too Shall Pass.
Check it out: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/02/ok-gos-rube-goldberg.html

The Unseen Head of the Market

The sheer numbers overwhelm
When measuring scale and scope
Of the pseudo choices
And pseudo possibilities
Presented in Hyper Real 3-D
Projected on the psyche
Of the typical human dope
Who maintains his human hope
Despite the total infiltration
Of his core identity

You are what you eat
What you smoke
What you watch on your TV
You are your prescription meds
You are the goop on your head
You are your iPod
You are a shiny red hot rod
You may be a jazz head
Or an indie rocker instead
It matters not a bit
As long as you keep your wits
And consume, consume, consume
Consume, consume

Getting tired?
Don’t worry son
Although this game
Cannot be won
We would never consider you
To be a commodity

Lean back and relax
We will loan you some cash
For what you should never ever ask
Or we’ll knock you from your perch
In the shrinking middle class
And at the bottom
You’ll have to clean
Your own shirts
And mine
Lay off the starch!

Who gives a damn
About the market’s unseen hand
Who is taking care
Of the system’s unseen head?
I’m pretty sure it isn’t me
I’m fairly sure it isn’t you
Oh well, belly to the bar
We are all here to consume

------------------------------

Echos:

Words and Collage by Jay Larsen

Created on computers and software

Owned by giant corporate cats

Who allow me to squeak like a mouse

Caught in their trap

Because they also own the network

That brings this to you