Alright, I defy you to feel low and rotten while listening to this album, “a Rockabilly Session” featuring Carl Perkins, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Roseanne Cash, Dave Edmunds, and, oh yeah, Eric Clapton. I became aware of this amazing cd only recently and I’m sorry for all the lost time when I could have been rocking to it. But the gods and goddesses of rock & roll found me praise be.
Full article at:
Spread The Word To End ‘R-Word’ Day Gains Supporters, Momentum
(KIMT)
March 7, 2012
MASON CITY, IOWA– [Excerpt] There’s a new campaign that is picking up speed. It’s called “Spread the Word to End the Word”.
It’s an on-going effort that is educating people on how hurtful the words “retard” or “retarded” can be, and that message is being heard all around the nation. We caught up with some folks locally who are happy to see the “R” word go away.
“It makes you sick.”
“It’s not really that nice to call people that.”
“It’s hurtful when people hear that.”
The reactions to the word “retarded” are pretty strong with this group.
Lisa Yunek, whose daughter Alecia has Down syndrome said, “no one ever means anything good when they say you are a retard.”
That’s because they have all had some sort of personal experience with it
Entire article:
Eliminating The “R” Word
http://tinyurl.com/ide0307121b
Related:
Special Olympics works to end ‘r-word’ (Notre Dame Observer)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0307121a
Quinnipiac aims to spread respect (Quinnipiac Chronicle)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0307121c
Colorado State fraternity spreads the word to end the word (Collegian)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0307121d
Editorial: Evaluate Your Language, No R-Word (The Ram Online)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0307121e
Spread the Word to End the Word strives to end derogatory usage of ‘retard(ed)’ (Daily Illini)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0307121f
Spread the Word to End the Word
http://www.r-word.org
Inside a man is a man is a man. Inside his dog is a dog is a dog. They go walking with their six legs, four eyes, two hearts two hearts. Together they lose their grip on customary words words. Life fulfilled, careful exercise of duties. Let go. Together, man and dog are two hidden treasures, opened, side by side, intimate and fast in the world the world.
Music, the most mysterious form of time & the century still unfolding its new wings.
I woke this morning without foundation or purpose–which is music itself.
There are whole moments when you get to live in a lucid paradise.
It is customary to learn old tricks and dead languages the hard way. It’s customary to know something about argument as an art if you want to succeed. Charlatans will fool you if you don’t know what’s being said. Propria quae maribus, baby!
When I saw Rick Santorum’s announcement that he was pumping iron in a Steubenville, Ohio high school weight room I saw that synecdoche and pathos are alive and well but just so, the body politic, especially that of the GOP may now be too dumb to vote. Really, Mr. Santorum? Lifting a dumbbell in an impoverished school takes the place of a substantive jobs and education plan?
Given how tawdry and soulless this campaign has been its easy to overlook this moment of rhetorical stenosis.
The guy across the aisle has driven my wife mad. He’s typing on his laptop like a man fighting with the buttons on an elevator–he’s pushing every key with a kind of life vs. death forcefulness. Connie has fled to the next car, so unbearable is this dude’s telegraphic desperation. The problem is that now I’m aware of it. And the dude, who is now my dude, also has some dread form of sinusitis so he makes a sporadic noise like a whale at an arctic breathing hole. Meantime the prevailing temperature in the rail car is around 80 degrees. You can smell the deodorant of the other passengers. The only bright spot is that there’s no wailing baby in this car. Not that I’m against wailing babies–they have human rights that are equal to everyone else’s and by God I’m no 1% snob. Hell, I don’t even mind smelling other people’s deodorant, it’s better than riding a train in some parts of Europe. You know what I mean…
I knew a guy in college who had the same kind of sinus squeak as the dude with the computer. The guy in college wound up having his own floor in the library.
Hello Friends,
We received the following from Andrea. Dust off your saddle shies and get out the door!
SK
I’m jaunting to New York City this week for a wonderful series of poetry readings! Well, I’m only doing two of the readings, but I’m helping with the others and they are going to be fantastic. I hope to see you and your friends!
First, my readings:
Friday, March 9 at 7pm, Bluestockings Cafe: The Politics and Poetry of Clean Water. This is going to be FANTASTIC; I’m reading and discussing with Florencia Ramirez, who is also writing a book on clean water issues. As she said, it’s going to be a great night for clean water. Please join us! Here’s a link: http://bluestockings.com/events/
Sunday, March 11 at 7pm, Bowery Poetry Club. I’m going to be reading with three other Red Hen Press authors and if you know anything about Red Hen Press, you know they don’t mess around. I overheard someone this week in Chicago say, “Man, Red Hen is taking over Los Angeles!” And they weren’t wrong. You’re going to want to come to this baby. Here’s a link: http://www.bowerypoetry.com/?#March_11
And now, the readings I’m helping with:
Thursday, March 8 at 6pm, Cornelia Street Cafe.
Saturday, March 20th at 4:30pm, Poets House.
Here is a link: http://redhen.org/events/rhp-in-new-york/
Seriously, can you believe what’s happening this week in New York City? This is going to be one amazing long weekend of beautiful words. Do please join us–and do please bring your friends!
Last night, at dusk, standing in Central Park, I met an old friend who spotted me because of my dog. It was beautiful. There were horses, my wife Connie holding my dog by the leash and I was turning toward them, having thrown away a bag of poop–for such is my life– and Andre who is admiring my dog looks up and calls my name. A magic moment, cosmic circus, all made possible by a guide dog. I hadn’t seen Andre for 18 years.
If wings, if weather, if the cloudy dead
If potent as scripture
If lit like a match
If & if & the wall of forest
& the blue of sky
& if you come home
& if then, what we say
As if there was no if
If, a black candle we carry to bed
Planet of the Blind 