making the rounds

I discovered Jeffrey McDaniel from my dear ole pal Eddy this last trip home to Buffalo. I was on a mini-tour de Great Lakes, in search of Library Science grad programs. So, I found myself in great many conversations on the raising societial need for skilled digital sherpas in the information age. I offer up this as inverse mediation on love in such an epoch. McDaniel masters gritty imagery in a conversational style that I’m really quite taken by.

The Quiet World
Jeffrey McDaniel

In an effort to get people to look
into each other’s eyes more,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it
to my ear without saying hello.
In the restaurant I point
at chicken noodle soup. I am
adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long
distance lover and proudly say
I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn’t respond, I know
she’s used up all her words
so I slowly whisper I love you,
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.

I used to talk to my New Jack City hotshot friend Mr. Peter Kim almost every Sunday on the phone. This ritual has slowed down the last 6 months or so.

Around that time, I made him this wee lil mix . Peter, or what the people in BK call him POOKIE,  is one the finest people to help you pick out music at a jukebox. He can also help you campaign for local office and daydream about cross country road trips.

http://www.zshare.net/download/6334269746616ab4/

Songs Include:

The Zombies- This Will Be Our Year

Airwalker-Jeremy Jay

Micachu- Golden Phone

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Hysteric

Today is a cool dude’s burrrrthday. Since the traditional fare is copyright protected: here a few of my fav songs on the subject matter:

Any other suggestions?

I am finally admitted to myself after quite a bit of time, that the Avvett Brothers are just too perfect for me. Silly pride, who was  I fooling?  A complex  and yet simpley soulful and sweet alt-country harmonies?   The ” Heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt , the light pop concision of  Buddy Holly , the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of the Ramones.” ?  Please, they saw me coming.

Just start diving into their repertoire, so here are a few a dig at the moment.:

UPDATE:

I am seeing them live. Hey, that one person,  who reads this damn thing wanna join me?

I have a pretty pre-Renaissance attitude about germs, but all told I really appreciate this X Ray Spex song

If  you ever  can’t sleep, I suggest you research your beloved old pastimes on the webs.

I happened to be raised on lil ole card game known as Pinochle.  As any of my cuzins can attest, I am an  entertaining player at the best and at worst someone other then their parents to hold 1/4 of 48 stacked deck .  What I lack in basic strategery skills, I make up with wit and charm that lower your guard as I proceed to hand your ass to you as my luck eventually comes cashing in.

And now 5 things for my nightly investigative report:

1) ” Pinochle derives from the game bezique, which is virtually identical to the original two-handed version of pinochle that is still played by some. The French word “binocle” also meant “eyeglasses”.The word is also possibly derived from the French word, “binage”, for the combination of cards called “binocle”. This latter pronunciation of the game would be adopted by German speakers. German immigrants brought the game to America, where it was later mispronounced and misspelled “Pinochle.”

2. Wikipedia also includes one little line in their article about Irish immigrants playing it in there as well.  Those two “facts” I imagine how it made it way into my life in the immigrant rich Buffalo.

3) The most helpful website on the topic is without a doubt National Pinochle Association. I know I am not messing around when I say anything in w/ the scrolling text, so clearly,  ” Pinochle . . . PINOCHLE . . . Pinochle Really Turns Me On!!!!” is not to be taken lightly.

4) Apparently it is understood that card  games such a Pinochle it stimulates brain activity well into the golden years ( p.s. score one for the Internet Generation  cuz what what so does web surfing)

5) How did we, Pinochle lovers of the world, miss this during US election season ?!? Pincocle was a political metaphor for a split second and we let it us pass by !

3, no 4, intense conversations deep , on this tuesday eve i wrote an ill advised, quickly convinced poem.

After me, the flood…

our minds are clearest ,
when the tree lines are gone.

illogical everyday,
force de majeure

could be late afternoon
maybe early morn’

damp, warm.
scattered, and swarmed

where’s that piece
of humid’s guns

a roofs still floating
in our swimming pools

the laughs of
durable fools

the wails of
missing mules

damp, warm.
scattered, and swarmed

I happened upon these eerily fantastic and extensive collection of animated classic poetry recordings on Youtube. I tend to spend sleepless nights scouring the web for just such an oeuvre. When St Patty’s nears, I go all misty-eyed for the aesthetes of my ancestry on the Isle. The videographer, Jim Clark, of an Irish blood himself , has over created 288 animations set to recordings. Enjoy it my moo-cows and baby tuckos…

And one neighborhood (that’d be Columbia Heights/U Street Washington DC y’all) poet for good measure: