One of life's lessons is that those in charge are the ones who write the rules. Usually this just means that might makes right and the powerful set the standards. Often to their own benefit. On a more fundamental level though, it means the opposite. Those who figure out what the rules are, set the standards by which society functions. Rather than spend my life trying to … [Read more...] about Answering to Reality.
Pretty Much Anything Else...
NEWSPAPERS
by John RossAFTER MEXICAN BILLIONAIRE SAVES THE NEW YORK TIMES, WILL THE SINALOA CARTEL RESCUE TROUBLED U.S. NEWSPAPERS?SAN FRANCISCO (March 17th) - Ink drizzles through my punctured veins. Indeed, the toxins that ooze from chemical inks and pulp during a lifetime of reading and writing for newspapers may well have contributed to the tumor that now weighs upon my liver. … [Read more...] about NEWSPAPERS
Forget Me Not
by Jonathan ForemanAt midday we spot a village. Dunphy tells us to wait and he trudges ahead, his boots struggling against the brown sand. We lie still on our stomachs, very still, feeling the skin on our ears bubble. We wish for our helmets. Time passes. The sun beats high in the sky. Marcel says he’ll find Dunphy. Rodrigo nods. I stay perfectly still. I think I hear a … [Read more...] about Forget Me Not
Why Songs About Polar Bears Are Better Than Songs About Sex
by Johanna WarrenI wonder if I will ever stop cringing when the title “singer-songwriter” is employed in reference to me. It makes me feel squeamish, like I am slitting open a frog belly in Bio Lab. Strange, really, that I should find the term so nauseating, when on paper it is an undeniably apt description of what I do: I write songs, and I sing them. Perhaps I … [Read more...] about Why Songs About Polar Bears Are Better Than Songs About Sex
The Filth and the Fatwa
(Editor's note: I don't know what to make of this. It arrived thrown over the electronic transom in response to my inquiries about the origins of the group THE SEX PATELS. I tried to track down this Julie Parsons, and at first it seemed she didn't exist. Then I found her, but she denies all knowledge of the following. In the meantime, someone … [Read more...] about The Filth and the Fatwa