Occupy (Shoe) Discernment

'The cops now know the whole scene, even the costumes, the jesuschrist strung-out hair, Indian beads, Indian headbands, donkey beads, temple bells, amulets, mandalas, god's-eyes, fluorescent vests, unicorn horns, Errol Flynn dueling shirts—but they still don't know about the shoes. The heads have a thing about shoes. The worst are shiny black shoes with shoelaces in them. The hierarchy ascends from there, although practically all lowcut shoes are unhip, from there on up to the boots the heads like, light, fanciful boots, English boots of the mod variety, if that is all they can get, but better something like hand-tooled Mexican boots with Caliente Dude Triple A toes on them.'

- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)

Cycle of Forgetting

For those who do not rejoice in murder

"When we hate, we cause hate. When we think we have won by vanquishing our enemy, we have lost. In killing Osama bin Laden, “they” lose because one of their leaders is gone. But we lose too, because we have deepened the causes and conditions that lead to more hatred and its consequences. This is not over."

Osama is dead.

From Steven Elliott

"I keep thinking about that line in Howl from a 1959 interview with Allen Ginsburg where Allen says he told his psychiatrist he didn't want to work, he just wanted to lay around and write poetry but he was worried about the future, worried who would take care of him. To live in a big city without a job writing poems, what an amazing feat to pull off."

- (The Daily Rumpus) that poem, this haircut— Housekeeping, 12/2/10

The current nature of the opposite sex

There are frequently
drunks in history
making a mess of things;
men for the most part -

Ladies, ladies, LADIES!
your non-violent ways
work better for the world.

(so stay sober,
forget the alcohol)

When he was electric, he was free

She is the queen of dream and every time
she seems to screen the scene she takes a dim
view to what is being. Nerves are fraying
but this year no one else is saying
that it ought to be replaced with what has been.
With every guess her gambit grows more thin.

-Ben Mazer, January 2008 pg. 37

Gotta Get This Now

This is
how it is
right now

don't just be
another twenty-
something