Oakland, My Oakland, originally uploaded by itchy biscuit.
A hoop full of blue sky
Held high over the green and yellow trees
By the sturdiest, polished steel
Brand new from the catalog
And useless without the plywood and nails
And duct tape and determination
Somebody decided to leave behind
I get it now–she’s wearing a red hoodie because she’s little red riding hood. Except she’s the wolf. Which is to say that Hard Candy is every bit the taught psychological fable of abusers and victims and tables that turn which I expected when I first thought it was a movie by Andrew Vachss, who wrote a book by the same name but with a different set of victims and wolves and tables. There’s no relation, in fact, but I think Vachss must love this movie anyhow. It is ugly and brutal and filmed in a lingering and loving way that ratchets up the viscerally disturbing plot to the point where I was quite glad in the end that I wasn’t watching it alone at my apartment. And watching movies at my apartment but not alone… Read the rest of this entry »
I caught up on one of my old friend’s postings, and gave him a sample plate of my reactions… In all caps, of course.
The internal candidate is doing a solid job keeping everybody happy, keeping the work flowing, maintaining morale…
But there may be some crises coming yet. It’s remarkable how different her approach to solo-ing is to mine. Of course it’s very different circumstances, but she’s running a very loose group with a lot of decentralized (effectively delegated!) tasks going on. There’s some folks that are at least off-ranch if not AWOL, due to our very own Fred Astaire doing his Alfred E Neuman impression. Really, is it so much to ask that all of his people get the same memos that ours are getting? Or that he not countermand the things we agree to, especially in the areas of projects he takes charge of? Well, actually, yes, it is.
For all the news articles and web posts about the Pope’s new edict on Pastoral Care of the Road, I can’t find any links to the actual document. How am I supposed to print this out and put in my car if I can’t find it? What good is the news cycle about the novelty of this thing if it doesn’t actually direct people to the thing itself? Read the rest of this entry »
That’s what religions provide, we agreed. “Here is what is right, and here is what to do about what feels good!” Read the rest of this entry »
I apologize in advance, it’s not easy for me to say.
It’s important to cue the severity but not cue the wrong thing.
As of today, they are no longer whatever the euphemism was. Read the rest of this entry »
leaves where I leave, originally uploaded by TfUnQ.
I owe Tfunq a call or five, and so I choose him to test drive this flickr-blogging thingizmo.
Tfunq is a splendid fellow and I miss him not being out here on the streets where I twist and spin.
Also his naming conventions are, by me, appreciated.
Perhaps up those steps, just inside the building, in about 42 months?
Circumstance will suffice to make the arrangements, and I’ll take responsibility for remembering it,
both because I’m the teetotaler, and because I’m the hungriest.
The one with engine trouble, stranded out there on the rickety pier,
Diesel fuel internal combustion engine on top of a hundred or so splintering, rotten two-by-fours,
All on the verge of collapse?
That might have been a premonition of yesterday, if at the end of the dream,
I’d taken a deep breath, checked my to-do list, asked for faith, said thank you to everybody,
And stood with them as we all got out and pushed.
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