"Wisdom" isolated from compassion is a treacherous form of ignorance.

I need to find the Taoist candidate for Prez....... Of course those are mutually contradictory states of being... I don't know if anyone who has made any spiritual progress would want to run for the office. I think that maybe Jimmy Carter was an exception..I only saw him in person once at the Span..he was sleeping on a couch in the green room, then had to carry about 25 copies of his book to a back room to sign. I'll never forget the picture of Jimmy loaded down with a stack of books up to his chin, that huge smile, and the SS guys keeping thier hands free by not helping an elderly man carry a heavy stack of books. It seemed that at least one of the guys could have lent a hand to JC. There were a number of agents in the room, and I think one or two of them could have held us crazy C-SPAN potential Lee Harveys off..considering that they had Uzi's and we didn't. At least I didn't.. I'm not so sure about Brian Lamb.

Radio Nowhere

One of the great examples of what radio ought to be: The day Nixon resigned I recall listening to WABX on my car radio hearing them playing " I Fought The Law" and blowing party horns like it was new years eve. The larger point is this: That's was a perfect example of a media source that was embedded in the culture it served. I didn't want to hear what the news station said about the news that day.. I had to hear what the guys on 'ABX were saying and playing, and doing about it. I sat in my car in a parking lot late for an appointment to hear more. I felt part of something, the music was about more than music, the cause was just, and we were all in it together.. much like the folks talked about in the recent Ken Burns War series... a sense of shared mission, and shared joy at victory.

I was looking at R&R today. Which one of those stupid sons of tricky dickey profiled in that rag are programing a station, or a channel as relevant to its customers as Station X was to me? I've asked the question before, but I'll ask it again..who the fuck dreams of growing up to program a "Jack" format? How fucking lame.........

Another Poem

This one from a few years ago. I think I wrote it with Tasha for some silly class thing.

November Cats

Our two cats circle each other carefully,

Like planes lumbering on the taxiway. Making sure imaginary wingtips don't touch.

Whiskers twitching like strobe lights.. navigating safely out of range of a quick claw.....

A fast slash.

Our two cats find spaces to sleep on November afternoons,

Curled on rugs in spotlight circles of sunlight...

vacuuming the last ounce of warmth from a fading Autumn day.

Outside the windows winter heads our way like the last flight from Chicago...

And our two cats close their moonlight eyes on November afternoons and dream

perhaps of flying

perhaps of winter.

Rock and Roll Moment

I watched most of Peter Bogdanovich's Rockument on Tom Petty the other night on Sundance. Good stuff, but 4 hours????? Yikes that's a lot of TP from FLA! The early Heartbreakers footage was very very cool. Tom had that guitar slung low and a whole lotta snarl.. yeah buddy thats rock and fucking roll right there. For some reason that scene made me think that all bands have kind of a peak moment.. a moment when they are at the height of their powers..they may not know it at the time, but in retrospect it becomes clear. ( I suppose that's true of our life's as well.)

One that leaped to mind was seeing my old pals the Romantics warming up for the National Breakout tour. I remember a show at the old Traxx on Gratiot ... an East side dive if ever there was one.. I recall leaning against the side wall in MY leathers from Irene ( 28 inch waist pants, even my kid can't fit in em these days!) .. when Coz Canler laid into Little Latin Lupe Lu on the lead. pink leather shiny, Marshall stack cranked, Wally looking like a man on a mission, and Jimmy M pounding the shit out of them skins. The fucking joint rocked. For that minute, for that one night, they were the best band in the world.

I understand that the Jews used to say on a couples wedding day that "today you are the King or Queen of Israel".. Maybe it's the same principal at work..and I've always thought it a privilege to be present at such affairs.

Torquemada for Attorney General

The vote on Mukasey in committee is Tuesday next. I think that since so many of the supporters of this regimes polices claim to be "Good Christians" we should expand the list of questions to the nominee:

Senator Irish Guy With Famous Dead Brothers: Er ahh Mr Mukasey would you be er umm kind enough to tell this committee your view on the legality and constitutionality of the practice of head crowning?

Mukasey: Umm Senator I'm not sure I am familiar with that technique ...

Senator Drunken Mick: You know where sharp thorns are placed into the detainees skull like a crown.. would that be OK? What about scourging? Nailing to a tree? Any thoughts here???? I'm waiting...... Damn I need a drink......

Breaking News- Mutt Up Date

Final bill on Mutteration at Vet = $767.00. I think I could buy 2 or 3 smaller dogs for that much money. Still I love the fella, and the least I can do is share his post op pain by having several large bills removed from my wallet. Ouch!

Davida

Maybe it's because of Anicee's death that I just discovered, maybe it's just the Halloween Day of the Dead trip, but I found myself this morning remembering what it was like about 12 years ago to stand in front of the coffin of Davida. Davida was a girl I knew in high school, she and her mom had a country western singing cowgirl act going, which was pretty bizarre even then. Anyhow I was crazy about her and only made it to 1st base once ( got thrown out trying to steal second..).

I recall standing looking down at her as she lay dead, her children crying, noticing how large she had become, and all I could think about was that one night in the backseat of my car...and how red her lips were and the shine of her eyes...and here she lay dead. It is a weird fucking experience to see a dead body that used to be someone you were in love with, and made out with. I hate death, I hate the silly preoccupation folks have with "scary" bullshit. I've seen enough dead people for real.In EMS here we don't like to say DOA very much..I'm not sure why..but we use DRT (Dead Right There) a lot. Which reminds me of a sick, but true, EMS story. We ran a working code one night when an elderly woman came out of the family loo, and hit the floor of the family room DRT. We of course have to try to resuscitate, so we have a full assignment there; Medic crew, BLS Crew as 1st Responder, and Truck Crew for manpower. We have Grand Ma Ma on the floor, and one of the medics who was a new girl, meant to ask for the french catheter for Granny's airway. Instead ( maybe because she was nervous ), she asked for the French Tickler. So here we all are, doing CPR, trying like hell not to laugh while the family is in the other room freaking out over the dead Grand Ma Ma on the carpet and all the assholes from the Fire Department trying not to look at each other so we don't crack up. Later when we got to the hospital, we checked the info one of the truck guys got from the family. He had written exactly what the family told him in response to the question: Who is that in the other room? The name on the card he filled out was: Grand Ma. We had to write her up as Grand Ma Doe. And when the family showed up asking where is Mrs. such and so, of course the hospital had no idea what room the body was in. It all eventually got sorted out, and there really are a lot worse ways to go than suddenly, at home, surrounded by loved ones.

Still, I hate death.. and sometimes I miss Davida.