Well...

that just about settles it.

A few days ago the Olympic torch passed through Pyongyang. As in, the capital of North Korea, sometimes known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. As in one of the most totalitarian countries on the planet, one that completely denies its citizens basic human rights or freedom of expression and just generally parties it up like it's 1953. Holding the Olympics in China is bad enough, but this kind of tops all. To acknowledge North Korea? To give it even the slightest nod of approval? I already bore my friends with my frumpy anti-commie rhetoric, but come on. Yeah, no Olympic-viewing for me this year.


Another guy, another suit, another pose, another photo-op, another strategically extended hand. At the risk of sounding like Good Charlotte, I'm a bit disgusted.

Keep your coins...

I want change!

Living as I do in this beautiful state of Pennsylvania, known variously as the Keystone State or the We-have-screwed-up-liquor-laws-and-a-conspicuous-lack-of-cool-stuff State, I felt it my duty to go take a stand for what I somewhat believe in on Tuesday. Being at the same time a great idealist and an incurable skeptic, I found the experience interesting but slightly futile. I really do want Barack Obama as the future leader of America, mostly because if he manages to do even a quarter of what he promises about lobbyists and open-book contracts, things will be considerably fairer over here in the good old U.S. of A, and because I agree with his stances on most of the social issues. My agreement is fervent enough to merit me skipping school to wander around a neighborhood handing out flyers reminding people to get out the vote, which is exactly what I did on Tuesday. I'm not sure how effective that ploy was, since:

-The Obama campaign seemed to have forgotten that people work during the day, making them unavailable to listen to me persuade them to vote.
-People who were home tended to hide from us under the kitchen table.
-My noticeable accent identified me as either a) a terrorist or b) a spokesperson for the Foreigners for Obama campaign
-My canvassing partner pinned his Obama button to his crotch.

Well, clearly we lost, but no matter. In three months' time I'm emigrating to our friendly neighbour up North, and in the meantime I'll pay attention to Czech politics, which are the kind of train wreck you can't help staring at. And anyway, who needs an excuse to go wander around in the sun for five hours?

Dear angry Jewish boy

Dear angry Jewish boy
from,
Duluth and Woodstock no less
the times well,
they have long since changed
And Maggie's farm, well,
it was bought by Smucker's Berry
so the employment dilemma you enjoyed
has become defacto
impotent
but the roads are still there
overgrown with ivy
and bypassed by the interstate
but after all isn't that better?
so let me follow
at the risk of becoming
another one of them
and meander with you
down Highway 61
with eyes wide open
and bloody fingers
and my glorious lack of rhythm
which doesn't matter anyway
let me follow
through the subconscious of Captain America
the seedy underbelly of a whale
an unknowing collossus
through school halls and living room gatherings
radio signals and nights that you remember
I'll be right behind you
we'll walk together through the
mining towns of appalachia
and witness the beauty that is
West Virginia in the spring
we'll stand together under the signpost to Albright
and then I'll take my leave
because some roads shouldn't be trodden more than once
and wave goodbye to you
as we both turn toward the dawn
facing in opposite directions

An Ode to West Virginia in the Spring

As luck would have it, I'm spending three weekends in a row in West Virginia, and I couldn't be happier about it. I'm in love with that place. Bruised and battered by Big Industry, it's still wild and open and ethereal. On a morning jog/ halfhearted bleary-eyed stroll I utterly failed to capture the beauty of that place in the following photos:




-old buses are the best

-I wish I had a name like that...

-the view from the road at 7:17 in the morning

-telegraph lines. I wish they were telegraph lines. wouln't that be better?

She conjugated her heart along the lines of Ferlinghetti

The title is an ungraceful translation of a graceful song that exemplifies how I feel right now. It's spring, and I'm gloriously happy, and the world is a good place. There is a bit of a haze around my head. I've started reading more Ferlinghetti, and although I've been chided by a cocksure friend that I act like I discovered him, I can't hide my rabid enthusiasm. Perhaps rabid isn't quite the word, but nevertheless:

A Coney Island of the Mind
# 10

I have not lain with beauty all my life
telling over to myself
its most rife charms
I have not lain with beauty all my life
and lied with it as well
telling over to myself
how beauty never dies
but lies apart
among the aborigines of art
and far above the battlefields
of love

It is above all that
oh yes
It sits upon the choicest of
Church seats
up there where art directors meet
to choose the things for immortality
And they have lain with beauty
all their lives
And they have fed on honeydew
and drunk the wines of Paradise
so that they know exactly how
a thing of beauty is a joy
forever and forever
and how it never never
quite can fade
into a money-losing nothingness

Oh no I have not lain
on Beauty Rests like this
afraid to rise at night
for fear that I might somehow miss
some movement beauty might have made
Yet I have slept with beauty
in my own weird way
and I have made a hungry scene or two
with beauty in my bed
and so spilled out another poem or two
and so spilled out another poem or two
upon the Bosch-like world

Bosch-like. What a thought.


I feel indescribable.

There is always a reason to celebrate.

I sound like a Hallmark executive or a sappy something-or-other.

However, it's true. Today, April 4th, is:

-National Walk to Work Day (first friday of April) I don't work, but I biked long distances!
-Hug a Newsman Day -not quite sure how one would go about doing this. I don't see my newspeople, and I don't actually know who they are, as I don't have television, but hey, whatever works.
-Walk Around Things Day (if something looks dangerous, walk around it!)
-School Librarian Day - my librarians run the gamut from cheerily bubbly to horrifying, but I do appreciate them
-Tell a Lie Day

None of these are very official, or widespread. But if you have nothing to do, you might as well celebrate!