The Dead Poets' Slam - Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas and the Other Charles Bukowski and Edgar Allan Poe

The Dead Poets' Slam - Two Emily Dickinsons and our Host, Guy Fawkes

Dead Poets' Slam - William S Burroughs, Professor ELLEN PARJEET SEAMUS HERNANDEZ O'FLANNIGAN, The other Charles Bukowski and John Keats

Ladeez PJ Party

The hoody ones gathered on Saturday night to welcome Myrna back to town. We cooked a lovely supper together in our pajamas. We tried on Halloween costumes and played with Halloween candles.

Question: Who do you know who likes to hang out in PJs?

mompoet - lucky to have such warm and fuzzy friends.

Nelson's Vacation

Nelson the rat just got his photos back from Costco. Here he is with Mr. Disney and Mickey Rat. Thank you Kirsi, Allan, Jesse and Nolan, for taking Nelson with you to Disneyland. Thanks especially for bringing him back.

question: where would you take Nelson?

mompoet - (shhhh. Don't tell Nelson about the "mouse" thing.)

frightened by tall lights

They're filming Alien vs Predator on the back street of Port Moody every night. By day it's a busy commuter route. By night it's a movie set. There are explosions, army tanks, smashed cars, dressing room trailers, police cars and orange cones and barricades everywhere. The worst part is the big giant lights on cranes. There are two big lights, as bright as soccer field lights, but horrifyingly temporary and tall and skinny. They disappear in the daytime. At night they sway in the breeze, 5 or 6 storeys above street level, not really crooked and not really straight. They remind me of the creatures in the the movie War of the Worlds. Their scale is scary. Their light is scary. I will be glad when they are gone.

question: what frightens you?

mompoet - don't walk into the light

a great big field trip

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee thinks schools should be closed for 2 weeks during the 2010 Olympics so students and their families can volunteer and attend the games.

Do they have any idea how many students that is? I sure hope there'll be enough seats and free tickets of course. Won't it be fun to take all of the kindergarteners to watch the bobsled races? Well, maybe they can all watch it on TV.

And all of those moms and dads taking vacation for 2 weeks to look after their kids who are out of school. We'll probably also have to close most of the banks and stores and even the hospitals and police station.

Let's all go to the Olympics. YAY!

question: does this sound silly to you too?

mompoet - okay, enough cynicism. I have some sewing to do

bushisms abounding

Matthew Baldwin's blog Defective Yeti is always smart and funny. Here's his riff on GWB's "the war in Iraq is a comma" comment.

question: what's your favourite punctuation mark?

mompoet - I have quite a few I might apply to His Royal Bushiness

dreamsy

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming to a small local theatre near our home. Oh my, It's the James Cowan Theatre in Burnaby - about 500 seats. Michele and I get tickets. We arrive late and I brought the dog with me, so I have to figure out what to do with her, then a balcony materializes but the view is pretty good from where we're sitting, and it sounds good. But I'm distracted and the people in the audience keep getting up and switching seats and saying things like, "What show is this, anyway?" So Michele and I leave, but I don't seem to care. And later I think, "Wow. I missed that show. That's disappointing." And at the same time we hear music and cheering and then see a couple thousand people crossing the street from the theatre and running down the beach all happy and excited and I think, "I could go back there, but now it's too late."

Then I'm in a press conference/fan Q and A session with the band and there's only about 20 of us in the room and we can ask questions and all of the members of the band are just chatting away. But I brought this good novel so I'm slouched in my chair holding a book up in front of my face ignoring the whole thing. I think maybe I look kind of cool, not being impressed by the event. Then some manager person screens the band's latest rock video for us and the band members run to a limousine and drive away and I missed them again.

question: what do dreams mean?

mompoet - thinking maybe I should stop, look and listen?

nesting and sewing

I took last Friday off work to hang out with the kids who were on a pro-d day from school. Then I ended up attending a funeral instead. It was good that I could do that but I felt like my treat day was taken away.

So I booked today off. Only the kids are in school. I am going to nest with my sewing machine and put together my new Halloween costume. Construction-wise it's not that much different from all of the lime green munchkin dresses I sewed last Spring. The main difference will be that it's much more DEAD. Just wait, I'll post a picture when it's ready.

It's been raining for a few days. The furnace is kicking on in the morning. I found my wooly socks. Perfect day to be inside and not in a hurry.

question: do you ever reclaim and misplaced treat?

mompoet - self-indulgent in a positive way

thank you dr. bruce

I got that tooth fixed. Not broken after all. Just decayed. My excellent dentist knows I like to watch so he gave me the mirror whenever I wanted to look. Tooth decay is pinky/brown and yukky. Ooooohhh! such fun to look at! Now I have a beautiful white filling that looks like the day the tooth first erupted. Now I can crunch an ice cube without screaming. Yayyyy! Thank you wonderful dentist!

By the way, while I was not watching the tooth decay and the amazing white stuff and the magical filling-hardening-light I watched my favourite close-caption television. I know I could do this at home, but I save it for a treat at the dentist. The close-caption simultaneous translator must have a very difficult job. The guy on the morning show was interviewing a guest from Science World. They were making SLIME for Halloween. But the close-caption guy did not know how to spell slime, so they were making "slim" for the whole segment. I was killing myself laughing. Do not laught immediately after the dentist injects novocaine. You will feel the novocaine in your elbow. Honest. Also, don't do it while he is drilling. I think I am now in Dr. Bruce's nuisance patient book. Also, the close caption translator captioned "ameliorate" like this: AMELIE OR ATE............AMELIORATE. (I could just hear him/her saying "OH CRAP!")

I still want that job.

question: have you been to the dentist lately?

mompoet - finding sources of amusement in inappropriate places

wednesday night in suburbia

drink three glasses of (wine)
with the ladies and counting
to seventeen is


...impossible...


question: is that too much information?

mompoet - chardonnay blows haiku all to crap

The Clean House

I saw The Clean House at the Vancouver Playhouse on Saturday. Each playhouse season is like a survey of historical periods, dramatic forms and styles. This was "the new play." It is absolutely wonderful. Very funny, absurd, tinged with a bit of surreal, with a big heart. I cried. I want to learn to speak Portugese. I want to write the world's funniest joke.

question: are you a cleaner-upper or a joke-teller?

mompoet - joke-teller

bye mom!

My Mom is in India for a month, traveling with a pack of artists from Australia and Canada. They are all interested in dye-ing (not dying). Fibres and fabric coloration, that is.

I hope Mom will read my blog from India. We will also email one another. She'll be back in time for my birthday. Yay!

Dad's a home. Hey Dad, come over for supper soon, okay?

question: where would you like to go?

mompoet - exploring the infinite boundaries of the internet

when the going gets tough, eat candy

the bowl of eyeballs
on my desk has been eaten
pre-Halloween stress

question: what is it about chocolate?

mompoet - keeper of the candy dish

real beauty is on the outside

Check out this video. I know the company that runs this campaign sells beauty products, but I like how they're selling them, with real size/shape/look models looking beautifully like themselves. This video is an eye-opener in more ways than one.

It's on the outside of all of us. It's just too bad too few of us see it when we look in the mirror. Let's work on that. Together.

question: did you know that you are beautiful?

mompoet - look! I can see it! BEAUTY!

More Halloween

Andy and the girls (Fi and some friends) decorated the carport yesterday afternoon. It's kooky and spooky and lovely. We might get a giant pumpkin today. We'll wait to see if the Great Pumpkin drops one off.

I'm just thinking about the clown hat that I mentioned in an earlier post. It happened about 10 years ago. I sewed matching clown outfits for the kids and me. They were beautiful: red and black with dots, strips and rick-rack, pompoms and ruffles. Harlequin-style and elegant, if I do say so myself. The sewing pattern included dunce-style caps which I stiffened with some sturdy iron-on interfacing and secured with elastic chin-strings. When we got dressed on Halloween night to go out, Andy looked at the 3 of us and said

"Klown Klux Klan."

Now I don't really like the hats so much. He's right, you know. They do look like that.

That's the story of the clown costumes. Maybe I'll post a photo on Wednesday.

question: will you dress up for Halloween this year?

mompoet - creating faux pas and floobdobbles from time to time

procrastinating

some variations

procreastinating - getting pregnant to avoid painting the house

procrapstinating - going to the bathroom to avoid cleaning the bathroom

precrastinating - planning how one will procrastinate in the future

prochristenating - attending a baptism to avoid paying the bills

procroysternating - eating oysters to avoid washing the dishes

pyrocrastinating - burning down your house to avoid cleaning it

question: do you procrastinate?

mompoet - really should be doing something

weekends are too short

If I were the queen, we would all work two days and take 5 off. There are too many things to do for just 2 days.

question: will you join my queendom?

mompoet - freed from the tyranny of work for the sake of work (in my imagination anyway)

A New Contributor for My Generation

Local poet and writer, Megan Hyska has joined the writing team of The Now Newspaper. Here's a link to Megan's first column.

question: who are the artists in your neighbourhood

mompoet - happy too, to live in the city of the arts

Link for the Quiz

Quizbuilder is not talking to blogger beta yet. So I had to post my quiz to ohmyquiz. You can take my quiz here.

question: beta?

mompoet - yeah right

skribbitzes

I just finished reading Scar Tissue, the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I found it to be an eye-opening, depressing and endearing read. I left the book amazed that this man is still alive and writing and performing, after so much drug use and so many accidents, injuries and bad mistakes. The character who emerges is an intense and intensely impulsive man with a good heart. Anthony Kiedis is a young soul. His story provides an insight into the power of addiction, life in the rock and roll fast lane and the interdependence of performers who work together for years. Most surprising to me was that Anthony is really insecure about his singing ability. I enjoyed learning about the events that inspired the songs, and about the process by which the band members write and record their songs together. I was amused by the love stories. It seems like this guy just has to look at a woman, like what he sees and say, "Hey you! Be my woman," and she will, for months or years of intense sex, fighting and sometimes drugs together. It's an adventure to read this life story.

***

I have another broken tooth and my arms are too short. What I mean by the latter is that I now have to take my glasses off to read when I am tired or if the light's not good. I need new glasses and I need my tooth fixed. It's to be expected, I guess. I'll be 45 in November. In the meantime I reassure myself with feats of physical prowess. Yesterday I hopped from one fitness class to another at the gym for a total of 90 minutes cardio flat out AND I LIKE IT! Thank you to Lisa the cycle class teacher for playing "Love Cats" by the Cure and a Peppers song, each at just the right moment. It's amazing what our brains can trick our bodies into doing.

All this is not to say that I'm in denial of aging. Here I am, right in the middle of my walking, talking life. I want to feel zesty now and for a long time. I think I'm on the right track.

***

New breakfast sandwich: toasted baguette with pesto and tomato slices. It's good. Try it.

***

Work continues to be an overwhelming avalanche of everythingness. I have been taking a few minutes to organize my stacks of work so I don't miss anything critical. I am taking time everyday to sit down and talk and laugh with my co-workers. I am not taking work home. I am trying not to take myself or my work too seriously. It's just a busy time. There have been busy times before. Every day there are nuggets of joy and moment here and there of, "Oh yes, that's why I love this job." So it's tiring but okay.

***

Halloween is coming. We'll decorate the carport this week. I'm thinking of sewing myself a new costume. I have a fabulous clown outfit (matching ones for the kids which they have outgrown) with an unfortunate hat (I'll tell you about that another time), and a beautiful kangaroo suit which is warm and snuggly. I haven't made a costume in a few years, since a sewed a cow suit for Fiona. Maybe I'll go to the fabric store after work today. That would be fun.

***

Scribbitz, grzl, skrink. Autumn wiggles in through the crack under the screen door. Let's put on our sweaters and find out what happens.

question: what befalls you as autumn arrives?

mompoet - sap going back down to the roots

what I saw this morning

crouching on wet lawn
chicks fledged and gone, robin stays
habit prevailing

question: what will poor robin do now?

mompoet - finding poetry in my morning dog walk

the perfect husband/the perfect wife

Two illustrative scenarios:

#1
10:49pm, the man and woman have just finished making love
she: Love you sweetie. 'Gnight."
he: Hey wait! You're going to sleep already? What about me?
she:I'ts almost 11. I'm really tired. What do you want me to do?
he: Put your head on my chest and tell me I'm great.
she:You ARE great. Really great. I'm just tired.

#2
9:17am, just before cycle class (the women are talking about their husbands)
wife #1: My husband is willing to help around the house. He just has no idea what to do.
wife #2: My husband eats an apple every morning and leaves the little fruit identification sticker on the counter beside the sink.
wife #1: Well, at least you know where he's been and that he's eating his fruit.
wife #2: Yeah, he's a good husband. But if he'd just put that sticker in the trash he'd be PERFECT.

question: I wonder, is that all it takes for us to go from good to perfect?

mompoet - pondering the nuances of human relationships

oh my gosh

I just watched Kandahar. It was beautiful and surprising and very sad. I am enjoying this movie-watching project of mine. One of the scenes that got me in the movie: a man who just scammed a crappy pair of artificial legs tries to sell them to a man who has legs. Who knows? there are land mines everywhere. It's good to have a spare pair with you just in case.

I need to watch some really funny ones now, for a break. Also everyone who is reading my crying poem is contacting me to find out if I'm really okay. I'm really okay. Really. Toss me a funny movie. I'm ready for laughing.

question: what's your pick for something funny that is not made in Canada or the US?

mompoet - thinking a lot about Afghanistan and looking forward to a day when funny movies will come from there. Can you imagine the Afghan version of Bollywood. Yes! In our lifetimes, I pray.

I could cry for one hundred days

all of the cakes, baked partway, collapsed and discarded
the late-dawning mud clots, slumped outside my window
the bite-down-hard nuggets of resignation
shame parading as forgetfulness
neglected intentions, accumulating like overdue fines
for unread library books
hurts endured, inflicted and ignored
the shortcuts that never tasted as sweet as I thought they would
the whole damn list that I have chewed, swallowed
spit out and written down again

all of these things would come squeezing out, sour and hot
my disappointment in myself
wetting my lap, leaving me soggy-sleeved and empty
snow-blind and pretending

I could cry and cry and go on living
cry while I sleep
cry while I eat
cry at work and in the car
cry talking to my children
walking the dog
making love
praying
washing the dishes

at the end of one hundred days
I would shovel damp tissues into the trash
wring out my sodden sleeves
change into dry pants
and begin the next one hundred

because I simply don’t know what else
I can do.

Question: could you?

mompoet - the rain came today

a video for people who have spent too much time looking at album covers

I found a link on dooce to this excellent YouTube video.

question: which covers stick in your mind?

mompoet - the worst thing about downloads is no cover art

haiku

her ears are soft but
not near as soft as the day
when I first met her

question: whose ears?

mompoet - dog-eared

bad dreams

The brakes don't work on my car, and there's an Indie road race happening in the parking lots along the route where I'm driving, with race cars darting across the road I'm driving and flag-people are trying to get me to stop to let the race cars through and I can't and the kids are in the car with me. My car goes forward and back like someone is moving it with a remote control.

A new houseplant. Someone pushes a button and laughs and the "Little Shop of Horrors" flower spins off the plant like a helipcopter and buzzes around my head and lands and now it's a bug with a green grasshopper head and it bites me on the hand. Everyone is laughing and thinking it's funny and cute but it hurts and I am scared.

question: what do dreams mean?

mompoet - needing to let go of some stress, I think

who couldn't love these lyrics

Oh I could throw you in the lake
Or feed you poisoned birthday cake
I wont deny I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
Oh I could bury you alive
But you might crawl out with a knife
And kill me when I'm sleeping


or these


As I lie between these covers
I wanna tell her that I love it
When she chokes me in the
Backseat of her riverboat 'cause
She's my man
And we got all the balls we need

I'm listening to Scissor Sisters an American group. I got their new CD "Ta-Dah" then I had to buy their first one, "Scissor Sisters." They sound like Elton John meets the Bee Gees in some 1930s cabaret with a bit of Duran Duran around the edges. It's a weird combination that's tickling my music bone right now.

question: what are you listening to these days?

mompoet - oh, and there's a beautiful lisp too

Lotsa Movies

On Thursday, Cathy and I went to the Afghan Film Festival at Inlet Theatre in Port Moody. While we were there we enjoyed the wearable art show, which included a natural turf bra, which no doubt needed watering through the run of the exhibit.

Although the festival schedule promised two short movies we were treated to three, Kabul Cinema, Shabnum and Gulchera. In between the movies two hosts answered questions and gave background information to help put the works in perspective. All three films were very sad. All three featured children as their main characters. Of the three, I enjoyed Kabul Cinema the best. It's the story of a boy who loves the movies so much that he salvages a projector and some reels of film from the burned ruins of the Kabul Cinema. He constructs a miniature cinema on wheels to show bits of movies to himself and anyone willing to pay. The writer and director is Mirwas Rekab, who also made Osama. We felt like we had enjoyed a rare treat to see these films and to hear them discussed by the hosts and audience members.

So now I've rented Kandahar, but I haven't watched it yet.

This morning I watched Nobody Knows from Japan. It's beautiful and heart-breaking.

So many movies, so little time.

question: seen any good shows lately?

mompoet - giving thanks for the world on my tv screen and in a theatre near home

words I like

conch
umbrella
jalapeno
otter
fidget
halitosis
warp
blip
ottoman
mambo
arugula
allegory
dart
amble
bubble
gallop
early
tarantula
fajita
azure
occipital
calculate
burp

question: what words do you like?

mompoet - this is only a partial list

ps - two more

"logo" and "slogan" because they sound ugly.

(see post below)

mompoet - done now, I promise

some words that I dislike

These are words that I think are misused or worn out or should otherwise be discarded:

plight - outdated and hysterical-sounding, usually applied to a collection of people, sounds like a big cow-pie of trouble
suggestion: be more specific about what the problem is - poverty? disease? war? talk about it (but don't say "war-torn" or "poverty-stricken.")

infrastructure - used to describe any services that we or someone else don't have enough of, as in "infrastructure problems."
suggestion: be specific - say "The sewers are wearing out. We need new pipes." or "There aren't enough doctors and nurses at the hospital so people are waiting too long for surgery."

strife - in the same category as plight. With the exception of the plant name, purple loosestrife, I think we should nuke this word. Used mostly in poems and songs, when people can't think of a better rhyme for "life."
suggestion: get a life, find a better rhyme

solutions - as in "business solutions" or what I saw on a sign today "specialty coffee solutions." As if all of your problems can be solved by the right software - or apparently the right caffeinated drink.
suggestion: call it what it is - "business software systems" or "coffee"

concerning to me - as in "It is concerning to me that the school district may cancel programs because of the ruling on school fees." Do you mean, "disconcerting?"
suggestion: be concerned and use the right word

Honest, I am not grumpy today, I am thankful and happy and well-rested for a change. Wrong words are just frustrating me because they distance the speaker and the listener from the real meaning. Most often, a simpler, more direct approach is better.

question: what bugs your ears?

mompoet - going to quietly eat my turkey now, having blown off some steam.

are people still talking about pluto?

I've been meaning to write a poem about Pluto since August but my poem ducts are blocked right now. I'm thinking that by now, Pluto's demotion from planethood by the Official Astronomers of the World is old news so the poem portal has passed. But here's a Weebl and Bob 'toon about it.

question: how do you feel about Pluto losing planet status?

mompoet - still sad about it

au revoir Nelson!

I am over the moon with joy and excitement. Just got an email from Kirsi, who's leaving with her family tomorrow morning for Disneyland:

Susan, Nelson is really excited, he won't go to sleep. I told him to calm down and sleep or he might spend the week with FRITZ ( in the cage, aaaaaahhhhh!!!!)

Kirsi is taking Nelson the rat to Disneyland. I told Nelson we would take him with us in August, then I forgot. I have been feeling so guilty. Now he will go on an airplane (his first trip on a plane) and have a great weekend. We'll take care of Fritz at home.

Thank you, my friends, for making Nelson's dream of the magic kingdom come true. He'll calm down if you rub his belly and give him some potato chips. He likes honey dijon the best.

question: what is your favourite chip flavour?

mompoet - glad that honey-dijon is available only in Sechelt - right??

wordless wednesday

Body Worlds

I have signed up to go on a middle school field trip to Science World, including a visit to the Body Worlds exhibit. It's controversial. I admire the science teacher for taking the kids. They'll have the option (vetted by parents) to see the Body Worlds exhibit or not while they are there.

I am fascinated by how the human body works. I think it will be very interesting to see this exhibit. I believe that when you die, your body is as useful to you as your car or your clothing. What's intensely important in your life on earth is the opposite in the next life. If people want to donate their bodies to an exhibit, and other people want to see them, I think that's okay.

I am an organ donor. My family knows that I would like everything useful that's left of me donated, including the option to donate my used car of a body to a med school. I don't want to be plastinated, but mostly because the idea might upset surviving family members. Also, I've heard there's a waiting list to be in the show, so I'll leave it to those who really want that.

question: what do you think of this?

mompoet - intensely enjoying the outer part while it's meaningful, ready to give it up when the time comes

what the push-button angel said today

"The more you complain, the longer God keeps you here."

question: whu?

mompoet - not complaining

Afghan Film Festival in Port Moody

I just read about this. If you live out here in the 'burbs and are having trouble finding time to get in the the Vancouver International Film Festival. You could catch an Afghan movie at the Inlet Theatre.

question: seen any good movies lately?

mompoet - spongebrain square eyes