It’s OK to hate your job,just pay into the pyramid and shut up. It’s OK to blame the politicians but don’t forget to Vote. It’s OK to invade nations, just turn off the lights before you go out. You’re encouraged to contribute, but don’t expect a tax deduction. Don’t explain your case, just pay the fine. It’s OK to talk, just don’t let thinking interfere with your work.
Blood and oil mix all too well
Is this You?
The Two Choices
I’m pleased to announce that I will be sharing some of my original visual art at The Barn on 21 August in Townshend, VT.
I asked if I could crash the show, which includes music and beer and for some reason they agreed.
The Barn, in Townshend Vermont represents community, artistic anarchy, and peace, love, and empathy in their purest forms.
“The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.” - Hunter S. Thompson
The most well-received words I've ever strung together
Do I need to expend this precious bandwidth to badmouth the BP Deepwater Horizon atrocity some more? Do I need to worry about technological advancement speeding past the painstaking pace of institutional gridlock? Do I need to speak out about American war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the world?
Yes…unfortunately I do. If enough of us were speaking out than perhaps I could retire to nights of apathy like so many of my countrymen. Perhaps if enough of us cared to take the lead, upgrade to solar, invest in meaningful education, and ‘be the change’ rather than just sharing articles on Facebook about how everything is the same, and the same sucks, we’d all be in a better place. The status quo of my country is choking the Earth, stripping citizens of their rights, and increasing militarism and hegemony around the world. And I refuse to take part. I don’t know how to not take part yet, but I know what I see on a daily basis is failure from the institutions so many still naively trust.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote,
Violence can only be maintained by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
Does this blog need to detail the 30,000-65,000 barrels of lies pouring from the mouths of British Petroleum and the White House on a daily basis? Does THE BRAKE LIGHTS TOLL-FREE HELPLINE need to clarify its position on this physical manifestation of greed? There aren’t enough cages or concrete for some people! The world being built around the rest of us is designed for obedience to a monolithic system that doesn’t pause to reflect when surging forward. ”We’re not looking back,” our President says. ”We’re moving forward!”
Mountaintop removal, regional ecocides like the one in the Gulf of Mexico, and industrial farming using Nazi-designed slaughterhouses are some immediate images that come to mind when considering the avarice of consumption.
I found this book by Bill Knott in South Carolina some years ago. The following lines always wowed me:
To look at things in a new slant is fine
But it’s more fun
To jump into the slant and disappear forever
I love it when the younger version of myself hooks up my current self. In this case, I made my friend Jason Croce a CD of my old songs in 2004 called NEW MILLENIUM DEMONSTRATIONS. This CD is a treasure trove of lost The Brake Lights material that includes a great 5-song demo I recorded at Clay Creek Studio with some old friends as well as demo recordings of songs that comprise the MUSICAL NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND & BEYOND!!! album.
I will post some audio as soon as I get a chance to convert the files into MP3′s. I will make the earlier demos available for download and the same can be said for MUSICAL NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND & BEYOND!!!
This is an extraordinarily busy time of the year for me but I am also working on some new drawings that I plan on posting very soon. Keep your eyes and ears peeled!
Not worried about Twitter feeds
I want to go to Mongolia. Living in a yurt, falconing the green plains under crystal blue skies, not worrying about traffic, no Manhattan Projects, no population, just Life. It’s not Facebook that makes people like you. Twitter isn’t making the world more fascinating.
Leaving Philadelphia was a wise decision. You can only glue so many experiences together in one locale with the same folks before the pastiche gets blurred to black. When that happens, the world gets dark. Cops and ambulances, sirens and violence. Freeways filled with Hummers with OBX oval stickers. If you want to change the human world, you must first leave it behind.
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again – Bob Dylan
Listening to Blonde on Blonde on Peaked Mountain Road the other day, I could almost feel the American utopia of some better yesteryear resonate deep within a core I didn’t even know I had. Leaves are growing. The green canopy of the forest is reemerging. Growth is abundant.
Yet still, crazy ways are evident in the world-at-large. The things we hate about ourselves seem to time and time again manifest themselves in corporate misconduct, elected liars yelling “FIRE!” in a bellicose political puppet theater, needy Facebook messages pleading with strangers to attend events far away. You can make your own list.
An electronic manifestation of the Void
Albert Einstein has that famous quote about insane people doing the same things over again and again and expecting different results. Humanity needs to begin exploring new avenues to the future. Boulevards. 12-lane expressways of creativity and community rather than the congestion leading to nowhere.
Grandpa’s buried in the rocks. The old man lived in a different day, using different ways. The old ways won’t work anymore. Intentional living is what some call it. Deliberate living. It’s OK to realize that you were wasting time, breathing from your mouth, pronouncing banal improperly. That’s growth. Despite Earth’s overabundance, too many live in misery. Until creative solutions are put into practice, nothing will change. The first change starts with yourself. Are you contributing to a better world? I hope so. We only have one Mother. Happy Earth Day.
