Yes, I voted yesterday, 30 OCT 08, using a vote-by mail-ballot. To be exact, I marked that ballot, but didn't actually mail it in; instead, I'll hand it in on Tues, 04 NOV 08, here where I live (Valley Village, 310 apts) which has 2 precinct polling places. If that sounds odd, it really isn't here in Northern CA; just about anywhere can be a polling place & so many are. On the actual voting day, I'll 1st go to the hospital (not a polling place as far as I know, but might be), then drop off my sealed mail-in ballot back here at Valley Village, then ride the Caltrain up to S.F. where a friend's house is a local polling place.
So, you can vote at so many places from 8am to 8pm (as well as by mail) that you really have no excuse for not voting unless you're too unwell to mark the ballot, but even then you can get someone to help you who must co-sign that they did: "Due to illness or disability, I am unable to return my ballot in person and hereby authorize the following (circle one) spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister or a person residing in my household." (also in Spanish).
Worku Negash, VP of Mission College,Santa Clara, an Ethiopian by birth, is greatly impressed by the efforts of the U.S.A. to make it possible to vote, compared to many African countries. Abuses, however, abound & the Democratic Party is busily documenting them: e.g., flyers telling Republicans to vote on 04 NOV, but Democrats to vote on 05 NOV, etc. are being circulated by Republican Party operatives who have previously stolen blank ballots, or dumped marked ballots in bodies of water in FL in 2004. Sheer desperation drove them then & still does now.
Last nite on Bill Moyers' Journal (PBS, Sat. eves.) he showed some of the flyers that GOPeratives are currently circulating against Obama: one showed Obama with a piebald (brown & white = bi-racial) pig's head, with a caption about lipstick on a pig (alleging he used that against Sarah Palin) thereby using any excuse to make Obama into an obscene animal, exceeding anything I've alleged in my poems, e.g. my imaginary flyer with a man-sized bunch of over-ripe brown bananas with a naked Obama next to them. I'm obviously too far removed from the target zones to really know what plays among crackuhs. (My reportorial poem "Bubba Redneck" is historically retro.) Apparently cross-breeding 'niggers with pigs' is leading-edge inter-species racial-biotechnology for today's crackuhs.
Appropriately enuf then, I'll be stealthily dressed all in black as a beret-wearing beatnik (with silvered sun-glasses) stalking malfeasing Republicans at a Halloween party here at Valley Village tonite. [PS] Norcal is 70/30 Democrat.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
One Less Lie
(a round for Maya)
One less lie,
& we move ahead,
One less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we grow strong,
One less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& the wall falls down.
One less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we move along,
(ad lib.)
(26 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v1
One less lie,
& we move ahead,
One less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we grow strong,
One less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& the wall falls down.
One less lie,
& we move along,
one less lie,
& we move along,
(ad lib.)
(26 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v1
Friday, October 24, 2008
Political Dolls
“Share the Wealth, Comrades!”
shouts the Obama political doll
in a red jump-suit;
“Country First!, Country First!”
shouts the McCain political doll,
in a white USN uniform,
“Much less tax, much less tax!”
shouts the Bob Barr political doll
in a shiny sharkskin suit,
sold by GOPolitical-hucksters
to gawking suckers on corners.
Now they’ve seen their colors,
who’ll buy which doll to carry
home to bemuse the family?
[Ans. is color-coded.]
(24 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)6
shouts the Obama political doll
in a red jump-suit;
“Country First!, Country First!”
shouts the McCain political doll,
in a white USN uniform,
“Much less tax, much less tax!”
shouts the Bob Barr political doll
in a shiny sharkskin suit,
sold by GOPolitical-hucksters
to gawking suckers on corners.
Now they’ve seen their colors,
who’ll buy which doll to carry
home to bemuse the family?
[Ans. is color-coded.]
(24 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)6
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tourette-Banker
“Make it worth, make it worth my, make
it worth my while,” stammers a Banker
suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome.
No one around the table reacts badly:
regulators, accustomed to his behavior,
know no Banker tips his best/worst hand
while drawing the next card when he
fears there’s no Luck of the Draw.
The Banker sits on his shrinking assets,
lubed w/Preparation H, his barking
regulated down to Tourette’s palilalia.
Regulators know how much to tolerate
the whine of a badly failed fiduciary.
“Ow, ow, hurts” he whines, “Go easy
easy easy!” (“We haven’t even begun.”)
(23 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v1
it worth my while,” stammers a Banker
suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome.
No one around the table reacts badly:
regulators, accustomed to his behavior,
know no Banker tips his best/worst hand
while drawing the next card when he
fears there’s no Luck of the Draw.
The Banker sits on his shrinking assets,
lubed w/Preparation H, his barking
regulated down to Tourette’s palilalia.
Regulators know how much to tolerate
the whine of a badly failed fiduciary.
“Ow, ow, hurts” he whines, “Go easy
easy easy!” (“We haven’t even begun.”)
(23 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v1
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Taped to a liner's Keel
“Where’s that OH Plumber I know so well?”
asks McCain, laughing as he mounts the steps
of the stage in Dayton, OH “Where are you, Joe?”
Joe cowers somewhere out of camera, fearing
the OH Dept. of Taxation will subpoena him.
“Jeez!” Joe whispers to his best friend, Jim
who works for the RNC in OH, who whispers:
“Chill out, Joe; this is during campaign-time,
they don’t dare serve you. You’re protected.”
Protected’s the word Joe was waiting to hear,
& now that he’s heard it, he can finally relax.
As long as he stays near McCain, he’s safe.
Nobody he knows is anywhere as connected;
or has taken such a beating & still keeps ticking,
like a TIMEX watch, taped to a liner's keel.
(22 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v2
asks McCain, laughing as he mounts the steps
of the stage in Dayton, OH “Where are you, Joe?”
Joe cowers somewhere out of camera, fearing
the OH Dept. of Taxation will subpoena him.
“Jeez!” Joe whispers to his best friend, Jim
who works for the RNC in OH, who whispers:
“Chill out, Joe; this is during campaign-time,
they don’t dare serve you. You’re protected.”
Protected’s the word Joe was waiting to hear,
& now that he’s heard it, he can finally relax.
As long as he stays near McCain, he’s safe.
Nobody he knows is anywhere as connected;
or has taken such a beating & still keeps ticking,
like a TIMEX watch, taped to a liner's keel.
(22 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v2
Monday, October 20, 2008
Cheney's covered
Ivo worries about Cheney’s need
for medical coverage post-Nov. 4th.
“Who will carry him after that? Will
he be covered until Jan 20th? Or the
anniversary of his 1st-day of work?”
Ivo’s more worried for Cheney than he
is for Ivo's having Parkinson’s disease.
I don't even try to tell Ivo that Cheney
may COBRA coverage pre-covered by
his many pensions: Halliburton CEO;
congressman, SECDEF, VP. Ivo asks:
“Will he retire to Abu Dhabi where he
moved Halliburton's HQ?” "Hardly; its
back to WY (where he grew up.)"
(20 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v6
for medical coverage post-Nov. 4th.
“Who will carry him after that? Will
he be covered until Jan 20th? Or the
anniversary of his 1st-day of work?”
Ivo’s more worried for Cheney than he
is for Ivo's having Parkinson’s disease.
I don't even try to tell Ivo that Cheney
may COBRA coverage pre-covered by
his many pensions: Halliburton CEO;
congressman, SECDEF, VP. Ivo asks:
“Will he retire to Abu Dhabi where he
moved Halliburton's HQ?” "Hardly; its
back to WY (where he grew up.)"
(20 OCT 08, Santa Clara CA)v6
Sunday, October 19, 2008
"Carousel" (class-analyzed)
For the 1st-time, at 66 (2008) I've seen Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "Carousel" (Broadway 1945; Cinemascope film, 1956, principals: Gordon Macrae, Shirley Jones.) on DVD here at Valley Village as a Fri nite free movie shown in the central Social Center.
I really only went for the story, adapted from a 'dark' 1909 Hungarian play by Ferenc Molnar (Neumann), "Liliom" (Hood/thug)" http://www.litweb.net/biography/92/Ferenc_Molnar.html - that R & H reset in coastal ME sometime pre-automobile. Apart from its songs & dances, it's a study in social class & one outsider's failure.
Billy Baxter (Liliom) is a carousel-barker who tries to go ME-mainstream (girl, wife, child due), but desperate for money, is persuaded by local thug, Jigger (cited as having done time in prison in Bangor) to try to rob a member of the local upper-middle class (his wife's employer), fails, falls on his borrowed knife, dies. Post-death, he bargains with the heavenly station-master for one day to come back to see his daughter, now 14, does, finally whispers to her to go mainstream Mainiac. She listens, & presumably does. Ends with the nobly uplifting chorale sung by all at her h.s. graduation - "Walk On, Walk On" - & his over-the-shoulder glance of final redemption as he walks back uphill to heaven. (The only visible transportation is on foot or by boat.)
What struck me (coming from MA Bay's near North Shore) was the easily discernible class & caste differentiaton between characters - Billy, as just a seasonal circus carousel-barker, the carousel-owner as his middle-aged mistress & employer, the girl he falls for, a quasi-cloistered shopgirl whose aunt owns a fish-restaurant on the dock; a herring fisherman named Snow who owns his own boat & becomes prosperously middle-class (presumably as Snow's canned Clam Chowder), the father of 9, etc. - as well as its easily visible local class-hierarchy.
The film was re-sited as a variation on Mt. Monadnock-area NH-sited Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" (1938.) Barker Billy, laking any real commercial "trade or skill" (as his young wife explains to people) fails because he fears to seek a righteous path to substance as the small coastal-cove ME town defines it. Seduced by a crafty ex-con thug who illustrates his class-situation (if caught attempting this robbery, he will only go before a police-court, not the supreme-court), now unemployed, Billy does, fails, falls on his borrowed knife & dies (implausibly) quietly, unbloodily. Neither waked, eulogized, nor seen buried, his face is touched gently after he dies by his widow-wife, then his ex-mistress.
"Carousel"'s building pathos depends upon a constantly plucked thread of class & caste, which I'd certainly never expected. Fluff, it (actually) wasn't.
I really only went for the story, adapted from a 'dark' 1909 Hungarian play by Ferenc Molnar (Neumann), "Liliom" (Hood/thug)" http://www.litweb.net/biography/92/Ferenc_Molnar.html - that R & H reset in coastal ME sometime pre-automobile. Apart from its songs & dances, it's a study in social class & one outsider's failure.
Billy Baxter (Liliom) is a carousel-barker who tries to go ME-mainstream (girl, wife, child due), but desperate for money, is persuaded by local thug, Jigger (cited as having done time in prison in Bangor) to try to rob a member of the local upper-middle class (his wife's employer), fails, falls on his borrowed knife, dies. Post-death, he bargains with the heavenly station-master for one day to come back to see his daughter, now 14, does, finally whispers to her to go mainstream Mainiac. She listens, & presumably does. Ends with the nobly uplifting chorale sung by all at her h.s. graduation - "Walk On, Walk On" - & his over-the-shoulder glance of final redemption as he walks back uphill to heaven. (The only visible transportation is on foot or by boat.)
What struck me (coming from MA Bay's near North Shore) was the easily discernible class & caste differentiaton between characters - Billy, as just a seasonal circus carousel-barker, the carousel-owner as his middle-aged mistress & employer, the girl he falls for, a quasi-cloistered shopgirl whose aunt owns a fish-restaurant on the dock; a herring fisherman named Snow who owns his own boat & becomes prosperously middle-class (presumably as Snow's canned Clam Chowder), the father of 9, etc. - as well as its easily visible local class-hierarchy.
The film was re-sited as a variation on Mt. Monadnock-area NH-sited Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" (1938.) Barker Billy, laking any real commercial "trade or skill" (as his young wife explains to people) fails because he fears to seek a righteous path to substance as the small coastal-cove ME town defines it. Seduced by a crafty ex-con thug who illustrates his class-situation (if caught attempting this robbery, he will only go before a police-court, not the supreme-court), now unemployed, Billy does, fails, falls on his borrowed knife & dies (implausibly) quietly, unbloodily. Neither waked, eulogized, nor seen buried, his face is touched gently after he dies by his widow-wife, then his ex-mistress.
"Carousel"'s building pathos depends upon a constantly plucked thread of class & caste, which I'd certainly never expected. Fluff, it (actually) wasn't.
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