Sunday, February 26, 2006

proud of myself, fat and happy

or "unnecessary weekend party wrap up, pt. deux"

1:10: I love you but I must bid you ado. The wonderful people are trickling from the Glamarchist Benefit. The rum is gone.
1:15: Why is my phone not working> I always pay my bill. Can I use yours?
1:30: The Twinkie Party looks like it was a thing not to be missed. Nevertheless, it ended promptly at one. The only people I know are the only people under thirty. They are poets, all three of them. They are also the only blacks and hispanics at this cavernous place, and they were kicked out more harshly than I.
1:45: Hi Ramon, what's up? You're at a party, where at? Oh, the people are assholes? Maybe I'll see you there. I'll call you if there are better things to do.
1:46: There are better things to do.
2:00: We arrive at the Monkey Haus, or what once was the Monkey Haus. Never trust a place with bouncers that look different than the rest of the crowd.
2:01: I decide to play with them.
Bouncer: Show me your hands [the nails are bitten, they are unmarked}
Me: What's goin on in here?
Bouncer: Five bucks.
Me: [coy] What for?
Bouncer: What do you think? [the last time I paid five bucks, it was for an Anarchist legal defense fund, and also beer. I don't think that's the case here]
Me: Well. I want to know if it's worth it. [I want a sales pitch]
Bouncer: Look... [and he's looking mean] I'm not here to accomodate you.
Me: [Wondering how close I am to getting hit] What an odd thing to say. Am I going to have fun?
Bouncer: Look [he is defeated?] it's crowded and sweaty, there's good music, beautiful women, and shitty beer that 'll cost too much because you don't know anyone.
Me: Here's five.
2:05: Alex is here. This is nearly a given.
2:07: His name isn't Marat?
2:08: This is an afterparty for some band called The Gaylords which features suckbags from lameass bands Kill Hannah, Local H, and the Smashing Pumpkins. I do not see any local celebrities I know/hate/recognize, they are probably all doing blow at the VIP party downstairs.
2:10: A cute, boyish lesbian type nods to me on the dance floor. I nod back.
2:12: Cute, boyish lesbian type is really trying to work my dick with her ass on the dance floor. Uh oh, I think.
2:13: Cute boyish lesbian type starts kissing my neck.
Me: Umm, I gotta go. I'll be right back.
2:14: Me: So, what's the deal with drinks.
Bartender: We got beer left.
Me: Cool, I'll have one.
Bartender: [pouring already] That's three bucks.
Me: I don't have it.
Bartender: Well ya gotta give me something if you wanna drink.
Me: What's the least I can give you?
Bartender: Three dollars.
Me: Lady, I ain't never had a beer at a house party worth three dollars [technically, this is a loft]
Bartender: Really?
2:17: I walk in a small circle, Cute Boyish Lesbian Type finds me.
Me: Drinks are fuckin expensive here.
CBLT: Yeah, you wanna go fuck?
Me: Um, I can't.
CBLT: Why not?
Me: I'm trying to be monotonous. It' like, a trial thing I need to see if I can do [Why do I say this instead of something like, 'I'm in love' or 'I'm really not into you'? I think I'm trying to sound cool and noncomittal. I hate that I do that. Also, it's the same answer I give when people ask me why I'm not eating red meat this month]
CBLT: That sucks.
Me: Yeah, I guess, but not really. What's you're name?
CBLT: Mike.
Me: Nice to meet you, Mike [perhaps Cute Boyish Lesbian Type is actually Cute Girlish Gay Guy Type. It doesn't matter]
2:25: Fight between two very tall, pretty effeminite hipster boys wih bad haircuts. It is broken up too quickly for my tastes.
2:26: Dance awkwardly.
3:10: DJ plays "Sex on Wheels (Motor City Remix)" by My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. I dance awkwardly but with much more force.
3:15: D.J. Demchuk rolls me a cigarette. As a nonsmoker I have had very few cigarettes and the ones I've had were of the mass produced variety. This tastes plain and harsh in comparison.
3:20: So long suckers.
3:30: I am a much better tipper when my girlfriend is in the car. I'm not a bad tipper, but as a former waitress and dater of Indian men, she respects cab drivers and people who rely on tips for a living more than I do. At the same time, I am not a shitty tipper and have him drop me off a few blocks from home so I can give him that much extra money.
3:35: Nick is looking for typewriter stores in the phonebook. I like living with him.
4:00 Write blog, dick around online, go to bed.

I am happy with this evening. I am proud of myself for my restraint but I expect that I will get some shit for letting Mike get close enough to kiss me. I have had a wonderful friendfilled week. It is somewhere around my tenth annversary of writing and for two shows this week, I broke out a dusty old book of poems spanning the many phases I've gone through. I'd like to thank Chris Basaraba, Christian Duckworth, Meshell, Sam, Deanna and Breanna for coming out to the In One Ear on Wednesday, anyone who took the time to actually look at my photos at Inventive Expression yesterday or listen to my poems at A Cold Day in the City tonight, all the people I just met, anyone who reads my blog, and especially Sarah for dragging her ass out to nearly every performance I have. I know that a lot of what I do isn't particularly most of your cup(s) of tea, but I spend a lot of time working on it and I feel really good about myself when you give it a chance. Namaste.

Somebody once called my blog 'banal'. I'm here to prove them right

As guaranteed, the saved google searches from my parents' house. They're fairly shallow, but I think that's what interests me. Almost everything I've typed on this computer involves looking for -or- promoting parties and shows. There's some stuff I searched to link to in my music-y blog, a lot of stuff from my Dad's judicial campaign, evidence of my Mother's decades-long battle with weight loss, and some random shit that could've only come from Shayna. I'm surprised my own name didn't come up, but I rarely google myself. Whenever I see results, I don't like them. Sigh.

sterzinger reader
"2125 N. Halsted"
"barry manilow cover"
"boy born with horns"
"boy born with horns" god
"boy born with horns" rish
"boy born with horns" scientific
"boy born with horns" scientific classification
"carol's pub" specials
"cherry bomb" tattoo chicago
"grace kulp"
"haunted trails" chicago golf
"hotti biscotti"
"house of payne" chicago
"human born with horns"
"hurricane katrina" "school bus" jabbar
"i attack" self-titled chicago
"i attack" self-titled chicago south kore
"james paul costello"
"jeremy jacobsen"
"joanna angel"
"learning disability" tutor "writing center"
"lonesome organist" live
"lyricist loft" chicago
"lyricist loft" poetry
"man born with horns"
"nervous center" "hotti biscotti"
"nervous center" chicago
"nervous center"..
"no hope no fear" tattoo chicago
"reversible eye" black bear combo
"sensory motor integration disorder"
"sin orden" brutalidad juvenil lengua armada
"sin orden" chicago punk
"sin orden" "limp wrist"
"Tomata du Plenty" "don was"
"Tomata du Plenty" "Was not was"
2125 N. Halsted
2201 Fascinating Facts by David Louis horns
2925 N. Halsted
acro-cats
ad33
ad33 christ
aim
america's next top model
amtrak
are there any home remedies to get rid of fruit flies
ares
babies r us
banana king
beat kitchen
body challenge
born with horns
burnteggs.com
burnteggs.comburnttoast.com
cerebus "high society"
chart your body measurements
chicago park districts
chicago public school mail
christian band
christian band beach'
christian rock
citing websites
columbia college writing center
comcast service locations
comcastsportsnet.com
comics
compass
compass login
contact us
corpsebride trailer
dad's weekend
definition draft
definition draft beer
delilahs chicago
diclonius
doonesbury
doonesbury phred
Dr. William Small
Dr. William Small Jr./ Chicago
Durbin Park Restaurant, Boston
Durbin Park, Boston
Durgin Park Restaurant, Boston
end of songs is cut off
enterprise
fall 2005 grades
Fannuil Market, Boston
flying spaghetti monster
forever 21 stores/ Chicago
geoge westin bakeries
grace kulpa
heartland cafe
Heinz frozen foods
Hot Tix
Hot Tix theatre chicago
hotels
house of payne circus chicago
how do I get rid of fruit flies?
how do i show my calender on myspace
How many Oscar Meyer weinermobiles are there?
howard hughes
human born with horns
igor wakhevitch
igor wakhevitch faust
igor wakhevitch faust tracklist
indian boundary + chicago
irwin cafe
irwin cafe CHicago
james brown
james paul costello
japanese chin puppy
john heder
kazaa
kerri kenney
klaus nomi
konono
konono the ex
konono the ex tour
langoustine
ld statistics
learning disability statistics
liar's club
limewire
limp wrist crudos
lohan
lohan + bulimia
lonesome organist
loto ball show
loyola medical school
lyricist loft chicago
mango + Calories
measurement chart
mia
michelle kwan
mideval times chicago
mucca pazza
my measurements
nationalbody challenge
Newberry Street boutiques, Boston
Newberry Street, Boston
oscar meyer weinermobile
political cartoons
puma roma
reversible eye
reversible eye "grace kulp"
reversible eye black bear combo
reversible eye grace kulp
Rishiism
rohene ward
rolling stones bang cancer
rolling stones bigger bang
rolling strones
rolling strones bigger bang
rush medical school
scott patterson
sensory motor integration disorder tutor
service locations
sharkula
shining redux
shining redux download
south union arts
southkore records
southwest airlines
st. louis university medical school
st. louis university school of medicine
student doctor network
sudoku
sudoku works
sweet pea clothes
sweet tomatoes
tattoo healing
temple
temple university school of medicine
the deviants ptoof
the scorpions hit single
the studio punk chicago
tlc what not to wear
tommy
town hall pub
triptophan
trudeau rolling stone
turino
tv listings
uic college of medicine
uic school of medicine
univercity of illinois, champaign
uptown cycle center chicago
vietnam doonesbury
vietnam war timeline
weight charts
weight watcher international foods
weightwatcher.com/magazine
weiner company + urbana
what is a truffle?
wicker park
wicker park futon
winter olympics

and also....
more saved subject headers!

"it is the dream police whom you must fear for they live inside of your head" or "ustradrama"
10 things to do the next time you're in New Orleans
1st concert
2 months/15 signatures? Piece of Cake!
2 shows this weekend, spoken word and sketch
3 questions
773-615-5446
Additions to Sherry's FAF List
aee me perform shit
aging
alicia
an honest democratic convention
an honest republican convention
anecdote
annual superbowl party (run on sentences galore)
another successful new years
another successful new years (first pointless list of the season!)
another WZRD playlist
ATC
blah fag blah gay blah homo blah
blogs
books
boring diary entry/playlist
burn knee mcsomething
but you were the one who did just that
campaign
cheap date
Chicago Animal Thug types paying their debt to society
Chicago Poetry Lovers
Chicago Zine and Blog Lovers
CNR funder
Col. Les Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains
Co-sin
Court Revelations Goes To Tennis Court
datsun
David Villar. Rest in Peace.
Democracy When? Democracy Now!
dream journal (that's right, i'm a 16 yr old girl aspiring to be a writer, eat it)
dream journal (that's write, i'm a 16 yr old aspiring writer, eat it)
duckworth a l'orange
duuuuo
earlier today
ewwww...NO
ffffffffffffffffffff
finally
fireside bowl
free gallery show tonight
free outfoxed screening/dj set thursday night
free zine reading. i'm hosting it. nov. 5. go there
friday
fuck a valentine's day bar scene
fuck layne staley
gee um okay
ghjkghikgk
go to the mutiny tonight
Good Luck From Michael Strom
Good News from CCL
Good to see you!
goodnight moon
grades
green eyed bandaid (adhesive stripper)
HA! christians
Halloween fun in Chicago
happy birthday
heartland cafe
help a pirate get his ass at some rum
help an animal thug out
help an artist make some money to waste some money
Help Sherry Walk to Fight Breast Cancer
Here's that phone number for Bonita Cohen
hi
Hip Hop
hola
i got that back in 95
i had to pay 17 bucks for text messages last month
i remember you?
i think you mentioned this at one point
i waste time here too
if epicurians killed my metaphysics professor midsemester...
Illinois Judicial Candidate Questionnaire - Michael Alan Strom
i'm gonna be FOURTEEN this year
ISBA Judicial Evaluations - Michael Alan Strom
Ivan
jewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
join me on my radio show this monday
Jud, Can I List You An Honorary Co-Chair of My Committee?
Judicial Candidate Cleveland Bernstein Still Claims CCL "Endorsement"
Judicial Candidate Michael Alan Strom
just fucking throw a party already
kaaaaaaaa""
last night's cry for help
last night's cry for help (whiny)
legend in my own mind
lets do something NOW
like we always do about this time
listen to wluw 2 - 4 AM
listen to WLUW 2 - 4am
los crudos t-shirt
Manny, Can I List You As an Honorary Co-Chair of My Committee?
mi corazon
Michael Alan Strom
Michael Alan Strom Campaign
Michael Alan Strom Campaign Results
Michael Alan Strom Judicial Campaign/Meet The People
Michael Alan Strom/9th Judicial Subcircuit
Michael Strom Campaign Update/Great Bar Assn Ratings/Final Push
Michael Strom/9th Judicial Subcircuit - DPOE Board Meeting Presentation
Mike Strom
Mike Strom Campaign
Mike Strom/Jan Schakowsky & Jeff Schoenberg
mildly amusing
nationality
no radio show tonight
nooner
nurturing an unhealthy obsession
oblgbltbl;
one last chance
part one
partEASE
parties at the elks lounge this week
party party always a party
pederast
Pledged Campaign Contribution - follow up when back from Hawaii
pooooo its
quick bits
RD shows
RE: 'allo!
Re: FW: YCL event? Nah -- How About Petitions!
Re: Michael Strom Campaign
Re: PLEASE IGNORE!!!!!!! It's a VERY OLD HOAX
Re: Strom final bill
RE: Strom Reception/ISBA Evaluation
reminder
renting transmission
Reservations
rest in peace David Villar
roger's park
rugga bugga
saturday! saturday! saturday!
see me perform shit (and then some)
showroom dummies
so lets party like it's 1995
Some Good News for My PR Guy
something
sonia
sorry I've been posting so many bulletins lately. do this.
spoken word show tonight postponed
St. Athanasius Angel Ball Ad
Strom Campaign - How 'Bout a Press Release?
tag
thank you Captain Off-subject
Thank You For Meeting With Me
the business of being a gentleman
the coctails are playing at rotofugi tonight
the extent of my geekiness
the hurricane in america's wang
The Michael Strom Campaign
The Michael Strom Campaign Website
The Michael Strom Campaign Website Is Up & Running
The Trib endorsed Henry Singer
this day in history
today's soundtrack
toooooonight (saturday)
track me down
twothirtynine
um, yeah...reMINDerr
unititled
Vote a Wizard into Congress!!!
vote for my photos in thing (i need money)
vote kerri
Voting and Pestering on Tuesday
voting is really going to hurt this year
weak end
what the hell does that even mean
yard signs
yep
yo
yo pete
you can check out the place friday
you can lead a horse to a hipster fashion show but you can't make him appreciate a feathered mullet
you comin to my parties this week?
you smell
Your Yard Signs Will Arrive Soon
Zip Codes For Strom Campaign Mailing
white label friday
why the quote doesn't really mean much
wow you ARE gay

my life as a series of saved subject lines saved on a single work computer

[there's something oddly comforting about looking at these. also chilling. the computer's name is galileo. it is one of about 15 that i login under different accounts. they all know too much. i'm glad i'm out of a job in a few months; sooner or later I'm sure to get fired for computer abuse. also, i think brandon's on to something, about me swearing unnecessarily when i write. also, apparently i'm a whore. ]

Stag Party at the Elks Lounge
FX project
Fwd: Thanks!
Fwd: dinner in the orchard
Gov. Rod Blagojevitch tells Ald. Dick Mell he's gonna fuck him in the face
Performing Artist
RADEK's email
RE: 4 Skulls Saturday
RE: Eric's Blog -- This Might Be Children's Fiction, But It Would Traumatize Most
RE: Hmmmm....
RE: Let me in fo free....
RE: No Party..Boo!!!
RE: RE: i want to dance with everyone all the time
RE: RE: kick out the jams, motherfuckers
RE: RE: see me perform shit
RE: Send it back
RE: it's me biotch
RE: poets
RE: the big show tonite at hey cadets!
RE: things and stuff.
Re FONE call!!!
Re: Moxie
Re: RE: Elissa P
Re: Rock 'N' Rollers TONIGHT!
Re: T shirts
Re: Take a look
Re: War of the Worlds
Re: [wluwdj] GODAMMIT
Re: article, pt. 2
Stag Party at the Elks Lounge
Stag Party at the Elks Lounge
[wzrd-chicago] sub needed times two
hey sweetie
letter regarding Institute Merger
new media
ooh, that's that new shit
party info
re:
re: HEY
see me perform shit
sup ho
test
RE: RE: RE: Let me in fo free....

coming soon, my ridiculous google searches from my parents' computer

already been chewed

my favorite TV show, based on what I watch the most regularly, would have to be World News Now. It's a lightweight news magazine that airs on ABC from like 1:55 to 4:00 in the morning, in between the rerun of the local nightly news and the similarly titled World News This Morning. It runs for a little less than an hour and repeats two-and-a-half times. The only thing I can really say in its favor is that wacky banter and entertainment news makes up less than ten per cent of each broadcast and that the newscasters or veejays or whatever the fuck you're supposed to call them don't give a fuck if I know who tthey are. For all I know they switch the smiling guy and ethnic girl every week and send the old ones back to the mailroom. Whoever they're using, they're familiar, can easily be placed in the background, and are far less unpleasant than the locals.

They just had some music industry dick with a sandblasted face and a Pat Riley haircut talking about the new acts to look for.

I hate when magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin do shit like this and I hate when TV stations do it. It's really easy to predict which 'underground' acts are going to make it when you're already privvy to who the labels have decided they're going to pour money into, and when you only need one or two of the artists to actually make it to pat yourself on the back a year later.

So they've got this man, who looks a little like a lizard who's got it in with the Brooks Brothers and he's talking about Matisyahu (who's already got songs on mainstream radio) and he says

It's all about the forelocks, not the dreadlocks with this guy

and for some reason that pisses me off. I think because it's a catchphrase, a catchphrase that no one would actually use. Not only that, but it's a catchphrase that was just a little too clever for this reptile. Some executive ordered it up and told him to say it. Obviously.

There's also something a little sinister about it, like finally, reggae without all those Jamaicans!

I'm fine with Matisyahu being a novelty act; he does some good shit and if novelty is the only way people are gonna hear it, that's fine. My sister was playing the cd for my Dad today. He hates reggae but he loves giving Jewish musicians a chance (as opposed to, you know, liking reggae while not being that fond of black people). He couldn't jive with his fellow Tribesman though, pondering for a second and saying, "you know, if Bob Marley had a couple of rockandroll Latinos, maybe a guitarist and a timbale player from Santana's band, I probably could've dug his music."

I was reading one of the Rolling Stone's my dad keeps around the can. Another music industry dick was talking about Matisyahu:

and Matisyahu's got some real reggae credibility, we're not talking about Snow, here!

That's another thing that sounds clever and in-the-know when some asshole tells some other asshole about it, but anybody who listened to Snow's album (the admittedly terribly-titled "12 Inches of Snow"), they would see that Snow wasn't just faking it. Snow came off as Vanilla Ice ..2, but he wasn't. His music hasn't aged well but he was serious about his reggae, working with cats like Ninjaman and Junior Reid. The reason he was dismissed so quickly is that half his album was much reggaer than his single "Informer" and half his album was poppier (think K7 and the Swing Kids).

Nevertheless, here are things I like about Matisyahu, that have nothing to do with music:

1. He's got a beard that no one else but Will Oldham or ZZ Top would leave the house with.
2. Because of his extreme, adopted orthodoxy, he has taken concessions that guarantee a poorer performance, i.e. refusing to do shows on Friday nights, not stagediving out of fear that he might come in contact with a woman he's unrelated to, not signing women's autographs for the same reason.
3. He's obviously not in anybody's pocket
4. His upcoming album with Bill Laswell will either develop his guitar heavy rasta sound or deepen the dub elements (though really, I think he should be working with someone like Manu Chao who could get some interesting shit out of his vocals)
5. Any Jewish-identified rap that can be taken seriously as real hiphop is a step up from Hip Hop Hoodios, Blood of Abraham, Remedy and the goofball JewBu dreck the Beastie Boys put out on 11/12ths of their last few albums.

still, he's not the best

I've been on a serious white-guilt, racial aggression trip lately, but it seems kinda suspect to me that Matisyahu is becoming a staple with the khakis-and-sandals crowds at dorms everywhere (see: Dave Mathews, Jack Johnson, and John Mayer, who isn't entirely terrible). For years, the familiar sounds of Bob Marley's Legend album have plagued quads and residence halls across the country. It's become nothing less than cliche but until now, no reggae crooners have come along to carry the torch.

No classics like Toots & the Maytals, the Wailers, Desmond Dekkers, Lee Perrys, or Peter Toshes. No 2-tones or third wavers like the Specials or the Skatalites. No crooners like Barrington Levy or Max Romeo. No scatmasters like Eek-A-Mouse or dubmasters like Lee "Scratch" Perry and Sly & Robbie.. No rap hybrids like Beenie Man, Just I.C.E. or Mad Lion. No dirty motherfuckers like Yellowman. No Pato Bantons or Mad Professors or Buju Bantons, most-if-not-all of them, better than Matisyahu and at least as good as Legend.

I want to decry the racial element, the inherent country clubbiness of the Greek System, but I've been doing that a lot these days and I don't want to be a one-trick pony. It's not most frat boys fault that they like reggae but have never heard it. Perhaps, it is just that none of these artists were lucky enough to have a record exec box them into a neat little phrase.

But please, please, don't call that forelocks

if all is right in the world

"weird al" yankovic has already cooked up a blistering* kanye west parody
but is having trouble finding another ten songs to make an album

my suggestion:

"Jesus Woks"

it practically writes itself

*by blistering, I mean to say, you know, familiar

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

in search of legs

[based on a poem from 2001]

It's a fools bet minting pennies on a Gold Standard. Some years, as much as they try to dilute itm the metal's worth more than the coin. Other years, well, it's worth much much less. Somehow, the only way it works is that people lose them. They pluck them into fountains and wish on them, they launch them into the air just to watch them fly or to hear them land, they acquire them and stow them away. A couple of pennies just aren't worth the time. It's impossible to track how many pennies are circulating at any given time. Just like pets and computers, dollar bills have chips in them. Trackers. They're counterfittable; you can do some damage if you start making your own. Not pennies. I've got a theory that you could bankrupt this country if you had all the lost pennies no one was ever going to spend, but it's just a theory.

A few years back, three men were standing over the edge of a ship back East. The whether was fine where they were but shitty where they were going, so they knew that they probably weren't going anywhere that day. You'd be surprised how many days like that you'd get in the Navy, even during wartime. Still, a Sunday is a Sunday, and these guys were half a continent from anything resembling action. So they sat there, trading stories about girls. A big guy named Jerry was going on about these two prostitutes he rolled over in Holland a few years back. He had spiderwebs tattood on his hands that seemed to breathe alive as he gestured. A blonde guy talked about the girls in Japan.

"So we're doing shit-all at the base, right? And we're here for six months, so I ask my Commanding Officer, like, 'Hey can we get some fucking instruments over here?' so he gets like an upright bass, the shittiest drumkit I've ever fucking seen and a saxophone. Me and these other two guys, a black dude and a medic, we form a jazz trio and we're playing all these Yakuza bars around the base and these Japanese girls were tearing each others hair out trying to get backstage. The medic, who was our bass player...he was ugly as shit, face like the ass end of a pit bull but he was American, and he played a mean bass and he had em comin hand over fist."

The third man was a young guy named R.J. who wasn't much for conversation as it was but especially wasn't enjoying the one taking place. He had a sweetheart back home but he didn't want to tell stories like that about her, and was embarassed to say that he hadn't been with too many girls outside of her. He screwed around a little since he shipped out but it never worked out quite right so he just kept his mouth shut and fiddled around in his pocket.

In his pocket he found a pack of matches from a club called The Shadow Room, a few sticks of Wrigleys, a soft box of Marlboro Reds, and exactly forty-three cents in change. As his focus drifted from the back-and-forth sex talk, he extracted the coins from his pocket and peered out over the water. When he squinted he could see the storm far off in the distance. He could see the dimensions of it, how wide it was, how far, he could see the walls of darkness that made up its borders. He could even see above it, where the sky was clear and blue again. One by one he flicked the coins off into the water. One quarter, one nickel, one dime and three pennies. The last coin was a penny.

He had already forgotten how he'd acquired the coins, but he received the penny as change a day earlier when he bought the gum. The penny was minted three years earlier and shipped off to Virginia. As it changed hands, it had been spent on two Playboys and an issue of Stag, a Twinkie, fifteen colas, two bags of groceries, one pack of baseball cards, thirty gumballs, a crossword puzzle book, and a paperback of the Catcher in the Rye. The last person to own the coin before it first got dropped was Natasha Pruit, a tall girl who worked for the phone company. It fell out of her pocket in front of the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio as she looked for her keys. It was picked up by a superstitious gentleman named Harold Kerney who kissed it held it upo to the sun, spun it three times and stuffed it in his pocket. At a poker game that night, he found himself red-eye drunk with three kings in his hand, he put his last bill on the table to Call and reached for the penny to Raise. The house rule in Michael Sharbach's rec room is that when someone puts in their last cent to raise, it constitutes the final bid. Officer Don Gregory fished into a change purse grabbed a penny and matched him. He had three Aces and a hundred new dollars to call his own. He shipped off the next day. The shopkeep was named Adair Al Maleq and made a meager living selling magazines and candy to the men stationed nearby, but his real draw was hash, black and sticky in little red bundles behind the counter. Don never used the stuff in America but as soon as he could see it he could smell it, and he smiled pulling a few bills from a roll of twenties. He shook the mans hand at his wrist as was local custom, smiled, dropped a penny in the Leave-A-Penny, and walked away humming. Adair found the till a bit short when making change for R.J.'s dollar,so he took the penny out and handed it to him.

After a depth of a thousand meters in the ocean, there is no light. Some of the smallest minnows and carp our able to navigate that low, and do regularly, where our lungs would collapse on themselves. Most fish do, in fact,m as a thousand meters makes up for less than one tenth of the ocean's depth. Because of this, most fish don't have eyes, at least not good ones. They navigate through ancient migratory patters, find food and places to meet all through senses of smell. The fish that tend to keep near the surface have eyes. Their senses of smell get a bit lazy and they'll bite at anything that catches their attention. As it sailed aimlessly towards the bottom, a blowfish snatched up the penny and continued its own retreat downward where it was soon eaten. This was the penny's life for the next few years, running through the difestive tracks of uglier and uglier scavengers until it found it's way to the bottom.

No man has ever seen the bottom of the ocean. No vessel has ever made it there alive. At a depth of twenty thousand meters below sealevel you could catch pneumonia in an hour, even in a wetsuit, but at the bottom it was warm. The ground breathed alive with volcanic pockets of earth. Few things lived hear, few things lived anywhere even close. The penny found itself lodged in a piece of primordial mud, twenty miles under a tropical storm. At this depth, the waves were mild, but each one was significant. It was unknown how many lives each one had taken with it, how many ships had been topsized and torn, how many whales had been ripped into the mouths of the creatures that eat the biggest creatures man has ever laid eyes on, but we can take solace in the fact that the whales surely drowned before they got there.

It was four bones that fell onto the penny and into the mud and lava which washed over them for years. Legs are pressed and formed in this primordial soup, in the murky depths off the coast of Africa where all life is derived. And now there are feet, toes, a tail, a kick. It kicks its feet and tail for years. The sun, which it cannot see, is calling it home. Instinctively, it looks for warmth. It finds one in a hydrothermal vent, an underwater geyser that bleaches it as it rides the stream towards light and life.

I don't know what it is about that part of of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, or the beaches Somalia, that draws creatures from their homes in the water, but it is there, in that gardenless Garden of Eden that all life originates and chooses a path, and there for the first time in generations, that something new has crawled onto the land.

As far as history is concerned, the girl had no name but I assure you it was quite lovely. As you know, there is little responsibility in the life of four year old girls, and their day is given almost entirely to distraction. It was distraction, in the form of a moving glimmer on the beach, that took her from her napping grandfather's lap and brought her skipping to the shore. She wore a stitched and tattered patchwork skirt that floated behind her, and clutched a wooden doll with animal hair. She could have stayed in the sun all day, and hoped her grandfather wouldn't rise from his nap very soon. The salt from the breeze cooled her flush face and neck. The warm tide licked as her toes like a blessing.

She had never seen American coinage before, and was not surprised to see a copper piece with a pair of legs. Even when they started to wiggle and catch into the sand and scuttle, she was not amazed. "Wow," she thought, (or perhaps it was "Hmm") A new type of crab. I hope it doesn't sting me. That's another thing you must remember about being four, almost every day you see a dozen things that are completely new to you. You are rarely amazed and if you are raised right, you know that most of those things can hurt you in one way or another.

The coin rolled over, caking itself with sand, wobbled back and forth and onto its feet again. Then it began to move. Bent at the waist she followed itr. She ignored nautilus and jellyfish she passed, watching this animal that seemed almost as confused as she was, when she heard the booming call of her grandfather's voice. Lacking pockets or other options, she scooped her new find up in her hand and put it in her mouth.

She recognized the tinny, copper taste of blood and assumed she'd been bitten in her mouth, but felt no pain. Her grandfather started dozing off as soon as he saw her head bobbing up over the horizon, and she skipped past him with the penny in her cheeks. Sitting down on the floor where the bed and the wall hid her from anyone who might try to look in, she stuck her tongue out and let the penny crawl onto her hand. Holding it on two sides she examined it. She hadn't learned to read but even if she had sho would not have understood the E PLURIBUS UNUM or IN GOD WE TRUST, she wondered about the carvings like a mans face across his spine, the strange grate on his underbelly. He crawled around for a while before she put him in a box under his bed, where he lived alongside the wooden dolls her mother and grandmother made for her.

Every few leaves she would search for moist leaves and weeds to put in the box. The penny never ate them but seemed no worse for the wear with not eating. It was over thirty now, as the date on its back could attest to, but still learning how to move. It was a long way from Virgina, the US Mint, and even Adair Al Maleq's convenience store of the coast of As Sidrah, and was constantly bumping into things in its small confines. One day, when she was playing with it, her grandfather came in. Though he had seen pennies before, he did not have his glasses on and knew a beetle when he saw one. "Stop playing with that filthy thing!" and she dropped it, instinctively. The impact stunned it, or maybe it was just too stupid not to run when things got too excited but it didn't do anything to guard itself against the bare foot coming towards it. "Ow! Damn thing stung me." Her grandfather yelled, hopping and holding his foot as it ran off under the door. She knew that it hadn't stung him, that its thin shell was too hard to try and smash with a foot, but at four, she also knew better than to argue with her grandfather when he was in pain, so she said nothing.

She never saw it again, no one did, but she did not cry. She was an emotional child but she knew tthat her pet was a bug, and even if she had been told that it wasn't, she knew that it would be pointless to cry that a thing she loved was free.

Friday, February 10, 2006

"Hey Remember the 80s" or "History Lesson, Pt. 2"

I can't hear my favorite album. It's been more than a decade since my first listen. I've worn through one tape, one cd, three cd-rs, and now itunes is shot. It was the cassette, the first I bought when I was in sixth grade, that lasted the longest. I heard the song at 2 in the morning, and I had to have it. Somewhere in my parents house, I have half a dozen tapes of late night radio. Like television, radio is a different beast at 2AM. Unlike television, it is, or was, decidedly better. The songs would break the formulas I heard during the day, the formulas for speed and instrumentation. The lyrics were more meaningful, or less meaningful and more anachronistic. There was a lot less posturing and a lot less pop. I'd wait for the deejays to announce the songs and scramble for pencils and markers.

When I was little, I didn't believe in my imaginary friend. I think his name was Robert, but I would never call him my friend Robert, only my Imaginary Friend Robert. That's how I know he wasn't real to me. I think I saw children on tv with imaginary friends and felt that I should have one too, or maybe felt like I wanted another thing to draw and talk about. Robert had three brothers. I think that the friendship I had with Robert was like the friendship I had with a boy who lived by school. I couldn't go to his house, I don't remember why. I think it was too far, but now I know that those torturous rides to and from school were never really more than twenty minutes. I haven't thought about him in years, and I don't remember his name. He lived with his Mom and his brother in an apartment that overlooked the playground. His brother wasn't really around that often. His room was empty except for scraps and piles of old Fangoria magazines everywhere. We sat in his room and launched Madballs against the walls for hours on end . The rest of the time we played Nintendo, but we usually couldn't because the only TV was in the kitchen, and his Mom was usually watching that.

Seperated by time, however, I can no longer tell you whether or not I believed in Toon Town. For my sixth birthday, my parents took me and some friends to an afternoon showing of Who Framed Roger Rabit. For about a year after seeing the movie, I claimed to everyone who would listen that I was married to Jessica Rabbit. Roger was too, but it was more for the movie. Like in the movie, Toon Town was real. I went there after everyone else was asleep. To get there, you had to wrap yourself in a blanket, so that it is completely dark around you. In the darkness, you can't tell if the blackness ends an inch from your face or a hundred feet ahead so you crawled through it until you reached light and came out the other side. If someone didn't believe me, I cried and threw a fit. When I saw a making-of documentary that claimed an uncredited Kathleen Turner, some chubby middle aged blonde who wasn't even credited in the movie, played Jessica, I was outraged. Slander, I thought, Libel! Eventually, my parents became worried that this was more than a healthy imagination and took me to see a shrink. At six, this was was not the first nor last gradeschool shrink or specialist I would have to see.

At random points throughout early adolescence, boys will occasionally sprout erections. Groups like NAMBLA claim that this is evidence of existing sexual feeling in children, but it is actually completely spontaneous and, for me, rather torturous. The first and only erection I can remember before hitting puberty happened when I was five. I was out with extended family having dinner at Bakers Square when it happened. I don't know if it was because my five year old penis was not ready for the strain or if it was that the sensation felt so alien and unfamiliar that it registered as exruciating pain. I fidgeted and climbed under the table and excused myself and tried to pee it out in the bathroom with no luck before trying to explain it to my father in whispers and sobs.

Saturday mornings, as I sat facing the eternal flame and the Western Wall, I would stare at the single light on the wall until it burned the image of an amorphous green blob into my head. I would blink and then follow the green blob as it drifted across the room. It would nearly always go in the same direction but never on a distinct route. I entertained a number of theories as to the origin of the blobs. One was that, by temporarily damaging my retina, I was allowing myself to see things that were otherwise unseeable. They were clouds of germs, perhaps, or spirits. Perhapds some of the other students, the ones I didn't get, were aliens that fed off the stuff. I did this for years.

Sometimes I heard voices. Usually I'd hear them in my sister's closet. I would hide in her closet on days when I stayed home sick, in an attempt to avoid going to the doctor's office. There was a man's voice and a woman's. I could never make out what they were saying. Surely they were ghosts.

There was a noise that I heard on occasion, it was this loud dissonant thing like a screech that existed in my head and brought me to my knees every time I heard it. I haven't heard it in years, but if I think really hard I can almost grasp at it.

The first time I was sick, really sick with the chicken pox, I spent a week on the couchbed in the den. I made my parents clear Blockbuster of all the episodes of the Muppet Show. I watched them all day and late into the night, when the good programs came on.

The last tine I was sick, real sick where I lost all that weight (and how I wished to get that sick once the weight came back), I spent two weeks straight on Cowboy, Chris, and Ramon's sofa, drinking Gatorade and watching movies. I wasn't with anybody then, but there was always someone there so I never felt lonely.

Yesterday, Elijah Chris and Ramon came over to watch the game. So did Devon, Nell, Sosa, and my father. Before they came and after they left, Sarah and I watched the Muppet show, and I held her in my arms and she felt warm even though I had the fever, and memories flooded back. I told her things I thought I'd forgotten, little factoids that I couldn't feel anymore but vaguely remembered.

I don't think that I can write this right, without listening to my favorite album, but I need to write something, even in silence. I'm under 200 pounds again, and coughing. I wish there was someone around to watch movies with.

why do white people insist on ruining chicago?

chicago avenue, on my way to the tapas place

i flicked my tongue
to soothe a sore, and chapped lip
caught an errant snowflake
and remembered why i love the season




...meanwhile, a few blocks east
a particulously heinous stretch of concrete oft-called magnificent
where reigned horses still trot for cooing couples and you can still see dancing in the street in front of the all-night mcdonalds

a room full of honkies

they are sick of the clamor
of black children with white buckets
'these [black] children are creating a warzone'

they we can't sleep in their towers
they say

I've lived with drummers; I know how they feel

but these drummers aren't drumming for practice
they only drum for people,
crowds of people who do not linger to listen to drummers
during sleeping hours

so now
at noon
are the streets silent?

do they whistle at all
like they used to?
like white gloves and orange vests helping ladies and children navigate through stopped cars
do they click?
like the changing of the lights on the signs at the crosswalks
do they beep and honk?
like the endless parade of 18-wheelers loading and unloading all sorts of unknowable luxuries, forcing traffic to a halt
do they screech?
like the rubber-braking friction at the too-short yellows at the too-busy intersections
are the sounds hollow and mulling?
like the collected conversation of a hundred thousand herding
do they flap?
like billfolds and litter

I wonder

are speeches performances?
(i've always thought the good ones were)
what about preachers? eccentrics?
pampleteers and streetwise?

do you feel safer now?

there wasn't much for me on the mag mile, anyway
they've probably just pushed the good stuff closer
it's still sad though, every day is the end of another era in the city by the lake
and I can't stop blaming white people