Thursday, January 31, 2008

"It's that song from that commercial."



Not sure what happened when I first posted this but it all disappeared. This is supposed to be the You Tube clip for Israeli singer Yael Naim's "New Soul". It is currently stuck in my head from the Macbook Air commercial. This place has been neglected of late but I will attempt to keep it going. My main reading obsession at the moment is Michael Chabon. More to follow if this actually works this time.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Lazy posting. This was passed on to me by friend down in Tucson. I am probably the last one to see it but here it is anyway. Working on a post about recent stack of books from library.

Thursday, January 10, 2008


Here is a belated shot from my caucus station at Hoover Elementary. It was quite the clusterf*ck. Still I am glad I went. Below is a poem soon to be retired from the Poetry Daily archives. There is also another Marvin Bell poem from Ted Kooser's most recent ALP column here.


Five to Seven


It's a dog straining at its leash
that sets the day
against the dawn, the new sun spotting
the sidewalk, and a slow ratcheting up
of machinery and a beehive of voices
picking up the pace of gossip, a humming of
harmonies, a layered chorus of order
and disorder, a knife blade shining briefly
in an alley, a car tire over the curb,
the siren, the clanging, the electric buzz,
now crisscrossing Times Square,
and the Staten Island Ferry spewing commuters
shaven or lipsticked from the bathrooms,
the mirror coated with steamy grimaces,
the workday rush to reach the rainbow
of a pension and a porch. Add in a bagel
with a schmear, some joe, a donut for ten,
and you've got America without a pennant,
a horde of faces without a flag,
up from the hole of night talk and beer,
ready to rumble in the subway, earplugs,
headphones, whatever it takes
to get back with a full shopping bag
emptied on the kitchen counter
while trying to cook and listen
to one person at a time.



Marvin Bell


The Georgia Review
Fall/Winter 2006

Thursday, January 03, 2008

"The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.” - Joseph Stalin

Found this site over at CNN that wants locals to submit photos and such from their caucusing. I will bring my camera to the my caucus station tonight and see if I can get any interesting pictures. Perhaps some Obama supporters slugging it out with some shrill Clintonites. I think I will be sitting in the Edwards camp at least initially to see how things play out. Do they still close the bars on voting day?