Sunset at Lake Macbride near Solon, Iowa.

Wedding guests mingling near the lake under the moon.

Last Saturday we attended the wedding of a close friend that I used to work with. It was an unseasonably warm day that could not have been more perfect for a wedding. It was good to see some old friends from my days of working at the Co-op.

Ceremonies by the water make me nervous. I am always wary of some ancient guest pulling me aside and telling some war story about dead albatrosses. Thankfully this did not happen. The bride did read a poem that I have always liked by E. E. Cummings. Here it is:

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

"He looked like a dictator on the point of starting a purge."

This is a picture I took last week when I was driving around aimlessly. It appears that the place is no longer a diner but seems to be operating as a sports bar.

I am on P.G. Wodehouse kick at the moment, specifically the Blandings Castle novels. For me reading these are very relaxing, stress relief at its best. Christopher Buckley once said words to the effect that it is impossible to remain unhappy while reading Wodehouse even if you try. He can turn a phrase as very few can. Check out the random quote generator.

Been a bit remiss in posting of late. Random shot from downtown IC. Like most places I suppose, Fall is one of the better times here. Will keep updated soon.

"...Between the moon and NYC..."

I think this is near the 200 block of 8th Ave.

After we checked into the Chelsea and dropped off our bags we went for a stroll around the neighborhood. We were a little hot and thirsty so I picked the first joint that looked like it had room to sit at the bar. Turned out to be very gay (not that there is anything wrong with that) with a 2 for 1 drink special and good tunes. So we stuck around and enjoyed the air conditioning. On our 3rd or 4th drink they started passing out cards for Drag Queen Puppet Bingo. Naturally S. won the first game and the photo above is her collecting her coupon for a Bacardi Peach drink from the puppet MC that was a dead ringer for Madame. I was a little fuzzy and couldn't hold the camera still as usual. It didn't help that S. was hiding behind a fake palm tree to avoid being photographed.

Post bingo stroll towards dinner with my eyes apparently shut. We had a very good and comparatively cheap Thai meal at a place called Spice. Drinks were redundant at this point but I had the Mojito Sake Kamikaze and S. soldiered on and armed herself with a Sake Bomb. Our plans to get up early the next morning and catch a museum did not pan out for some reason. Instead we had some great bagels at Murray's and then off to Grand Central and points east.

Noank, CT

We were craving a lobster roll when we made it to Connecticut....

...and we found an excellent one despite the intitial sticker shock of $13.95 (I have been away too long!) that included cole slaw and beverage... (I do realize that some purists would eschew the hamburger bun in favor of the split top hot dog bun. But since it is supposed to be about the lobster and this was a hot lobster roll and not a lobster salad roll I had no complaints.)

...and then a big sailboat went past to complete the scene while phrases of this poem bounced around my skull along with traces of rum from the previous evening.

Sea-Fever

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

John Masefield (1878-1967).
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967.)

Scenes from the City

From Albany we drove to Greenwich, CT and took the train into Grand Central Station. One of the stops along the way.

Mannequin 3: Dexter in the City

I followed the blond back to our hotel.

Snapshot from the cab ride back to Grand Central. We took the subway bags and all to the hotel for 4 bucks and then realized the cab fare was only $6.50 plus tip.

S. took this picture across the street from the station shortly before catching the train and collecting the rental car and heading to Doolittle's house in Mass.

"...coming home, via Chicago..."

The eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan. The pictures of the Chicago skyline did not come out that well due to haziness.

Our hotel in New York after a late dinner and several drinks and an inability to hold the camera still.

We made it back yesterday after a whirlwind tour through NYC, Mass. and Conn. I don't recommend the pace but it was fun even if we had to jettison some of our planned stops. It was great to see at least some of the big city and spend time with family and friends. Details to follow... eventually.

"East bound and down..."

Tomorrow I am off to Albany and when work is done S. is joining me and we are heading to NYC and points east to visit friends and family. In the meantime enjoy this fun poem. (At first read I can see Keats, Coleridge, Blake, Dickinson, and Tennyson. The other allusions escape me for now.)

The Road to Help

A thong of beauty is a joy forever.
The panty’s over: it’s time to call it a lay.
The shadow of the come of pleasure
and naked singles of the world
are here, under the bush, with her hair.
For Hamlet and Lear are queer.

Myself am help. Shall I part my bare behind?
God bless the grind! I shall walk softly there.
The paths of Laurie lead but to the grove
Of coral babes and amber studs
with black belts in the marital arts.
Of his boners are coral made.

“Dope” is the thing with feathers.
The love of monkey is the root of all evil.
Was she a virgin or a waking dream?
“Deaf,” was all he answered.
‘Tis better to seek, to find, and now to yield
than never to have lust at all.


David Lehman
Poetry
July/August 2007

In the absence of cowbells, more cat pictures.

Iggy is a little broader in the beam than Hopper but he is working on it.

He is also a tad more aloof.

Hopper is now using this as a pillow instead of a cat toy by pulling the strands of yarn out with his teeth.

I am off to Lansing on Sunday and will post if given the chance. Caught up on some movies recently. Really enjoyed Peter O' Toole in Venus but I thought The Good German wasn't ummm....good and The Simpsons Movie was not too disappointing. Have a resplendent weekend.

Athens, GA

Uga- Statues of the University of Georgia mascot where scattered around town like the Herky On Parade statues in Iowa City or the Cows on Parade in Chicago.

The primary reason I was visiting Athens. The project was winding down so I took the opportunity to visit the legendary 40 Watt Club and was fortunate that Jason Isbell of Drive By Truckers was in town to promote his first solo album since leaving the band.

Jason Isbell (above) was excellent as was the opener Justin Townes Earle, (Steve's boy). I thought it was a bit ironic as Justin reminded me of Hank Williams and Hank Williams III sort of reminds me of Steve Earle.

I need to get a new home computer. That is my excuse for taking a month to put pictures up and infrequently posting. I have read some good things of late after the Harry Potter, William Boyd's Restless, which I enjoyed although not as much as his Any Human Heart. I also found an early Alan Furst historical intrigue novel at the library book end store, Night Soldiers which follows a Bulgarian youth around Europe from 1934-1945 from his homeland to the Soviet Union,Spain, France etc...wonderful historical settings, characters transformed from mundane to extraordinary by circumstances, conflicting alliance and betrayals of spies and friends, The Resistance, all in all very solid writing. I love Furst because he expands the conflict beyond Britain, France and Germany to all of Europe before America enters the stage. He also tends to focus on characters who are usually overlooked.

One of Furst's stated background resources is Isherwood's Berlin Stories which I have had on shelf for a couple of years and finally am reading it to continue the theme. One of the two novels in the collection was made into the film Cabaret. If I continue my ambitions I may eventually read the Robert Musil novel of the period that is collecting dust on the shelf, The Man Without Qualities.

Some music to check out.

Jason Isbell-"Brand New Kind of Actress" - The first track from his Sirens of the Ditch album.

Drive By Truckers- "Like a Rolling Stone" - Bob Dylan cover from the bonus ep that came with their Blessing and a Curse record.

The Drive By Truckers will be at the Englert in Iowa City on October 18th as part of their Dirt Underneath tour which according to the band's web site is going to be "...mostly acoustic and somewhat stripped down mode for an evening of stories and songs." Tickets are on sale now. Some cool posters from some of the cities on the tour on the site too.

Decatur, GA

The last Sunday I was in town I was able to escape my strip mall hell of Duluth and just a short ride away thanks to the tip of a friend in Tenn. discovered the comforts of Decatur. I found some good food, a funky book shop where I picked up a short biography of Kafka illustrated by R. Crumb, and then a nice pub, The Angel, to read it in.

I have visited many of the more northern Civil War sites but aside from Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain have seen few of the southern sites. There are a quite a few markers surrounding Atlanta due to Sherman's March.

The plaque next to the bench reads: "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouths of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." - Thomas Jefferson

Some real kids enjoying the cooling mists from the sculpted kids. Have a good weekend.

Happy Birthday Cormac

Sean Penn Anti-Ode


Must Sean Penn always look like he's squeezing
the last drops out of a sponge and the sponge
is his face? Even the back of his head grimaces.
Just the pressure in his little finger alone
could kill a gorilla. Remember that kid
whose whole trick was forcing blood into his head
until he looked like the universe's own cherry bomb
so he'd get the first whack at the piñata?
He's grown up to straighten us all out
about weapons of mass destruction
but whatever you do, don't ding his car door with yours.
Don't ask about his girlfriend's cat.
Somewhere a garbage truck beeps backing up
and in these circumstances counts as a triumph of sanity.
Sleet in the face, no toilet paper,
regrets over an argument, not investing wisely,
internment of the crazy mother, mistreatment
of laboratory animals.
Life, my friends, is ordinary crap.
Pineapple slices on tutu-wearing toothpicks.
Those puke bags in the seatback you might need.
The second DVD only the witlessly bored watch.
Some architectural details about Batman's cape.
Music videos about hairdos, tattoos, implants and bling.
The crew cracking up over some actor's flub.

Dean Young
Poetry
July/August 2006: The Humor Issue

I was checking in on my Myspace page and noticed a bulletin from Cormac about his birthday and a blurb that he recently signed a new two book deal with Knopf. I am excited. So instead of torturing you with more travelogue photos I put up this poem that is scheduled for retirement from the Poetry Daily archives.

UPDATE: I am going to try something new by sporadically adding some tunes to this place with the help of the Box.net file sharing site. Earlier on the way to work I was listening to a mix cd my friend RL in Tucson made for me last year called Pop Tunes 6/6/6. Track # 6 on this sublime mix is a duet of Loretta Lynn and Jack White doing the song, Portland, Oregon from her album Van Lear Rose which was produced my Mr. White. Click on the song title to check it out and let me know if it works. The song has a long intro and White's vocals are bit subdued but Loretta can still belt it out.

Bob Mould has a new Ask Bob column about GNR, Iraq, and the Dutch Queen.

Random Sightings

This was taken in the parking lot of my third hotel in Duluth, Georgia. Due to my late arrival from Dallas because of cancelled or delayed flights and continued bad weather they gave my room away the first night in town. Then due to a co-worker's 'help' making new reservations that ended up erasing my original confirmed stay, I was forced to leave the second hotel early. My room in this last place smelled like it had been underwater until just before I checked in. Unfortunately there were no Carrie Underwood sightings by the pool to make up for it.

My feet on the trail map in the Stone Mountain visitors center. There was a small geological museum that had some interesting history on the formation of Stone Mountain and about monadnock type mountains in general. They were was also showing a short film about the battle for Atlanta and Sherman's march to the sea. I won't say it was completely biased towards the South but it was carefully phrased. "They fought bravely but were outnumbered..." being the primary mantra.

I am still not sure what this means or why you would want your child to wear it.

The sign is an outright lie. The only thing that lay ahead was traffic of the non-calming variety. And lots of it. Atlanta has to be up there with Houston and Phoenix as one of the worst cities for rush hour traffic with rush hour lasting up to 15 hours.

Marching through Georgia

I have returned to Iowa and have some pictures to post and stories to tell about travels from Duluth to Athens via Decatur. Which sounds much further than it really is.

After sifting the wheat from the chaff of my piled up bills, magazines and junk mail I did discover some pleasant surprises. I love the issue of Poetry that was waiting for me in that heap. I really recommend this Summer Break issue of Jul/Aug. with some authors and writers I did not expect. Michael Lewis of Moneyball fame has a hilarious take on the collapse on last year's New York Giants led by Eli Manning. There is a collection of anecdotes in a section called Poets We Have Known such as Christopher Hitchens on Auden's lover, Rick Moody on Susan Wheeler. and there are others. The best line goes to Joseph Epstein on John Frederick Nims as an example of the exception to the rule:

"I do not seek the company of poets, nor would I wish either of my two granddaughters to marry one. I have long admired poetry...yet poets all too often stand in relation to poetry as Christians do to Christianity: far short, alas, of the ideal."

There is a trove of other gems by Billy Collins, Robert Wright has a funny moose poem that I will have to post later but the one that caught my ear initially was the one below by Wendy Cope...this could be a villanelle but I am not that solid on my fixed forms. I know it is probably not a sestina. It reminded me of Elizabeth Bishop. Cheers.

Some Rules

Stop, if the car is going "clunk"
Or if the sun has made you blind.
Don't answer e-mails when you're drunk.

You fire off something fierce. You're sunk.
It's irretrievable. It's signed.
You feel your spirits going "clunk."

Don't hide your face with too much gunk,
Especially if it's old and lined.
Don't answer e-mails when you're drunk.

Don't live with thirty years of junk-
Those precious things you'll never find.
Stop, if the car is going "clunk."

Don't fall for an amusing hunk,
However rich, unless he's kind.
Don't answer e-mails when you're drunk.

In this respect I am like a monk:
I need some rules to bear in mind.
Stop, if the car is going "clunk."
Don't answer e-mails when you're drunk.

Wendy Cope
Poetry, Vol CXC No. 4
July/August 2007

Stone Mountain, Georgia

I went for a hike up Stone Mountain this morning confirming precisely how out of shape I actually am but it felt good to get outdoors. The name Stone Mountain immediately reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Matewan, John Sayles' saga of the coalminers struggling to form a union featuring the relatively unknown at the time Chris Cooper and a very young Will Oldham.
Anyway, there is a huge mural carved in the side of the mountain honoring the holy trinity of the Confederacy (Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson). Not sure how it plays locally with the large African-American community here but I had mixed feelings of it. Not for any political objections as I do enjoy the concept of historical monuments but I think the mountain would be more impressive looking without it.

We also found a good place for Pho in the middle of the numerous Korean establishments.

I am listening quite often to the latest album from The Polyphonic Spree and enjoying it very much despite or perhaps because of how much I hear a bit of Blondie in them. Check out the clip below:

Here are some more snapshots taken from the top of Sandia Peak. Not sure what the flower is but the other shot is part of the cable car system. I am trying to catch up on uploading pictures taken over the past few weeks. The project in Atlanta is winding down. and I hope to back in Iowa soon.

Sandia Peak Redux

Unseen Power of the Picket Fence

Sunset overlooking Albuquerque from top of Sandia Peak. I took a cable car up with a customer.

I finally made it to Atlanta on late Thursday/early Friday after a cancelled flight and many delays. Our office is in the suburbs near Duluth, GA. It is strip mall hell but it is right in the middle of what appears to be the largest Korean community outside of Los Angeles' Korea town or Seoul itself. All the signage around our hotel is in both English and Korean. I dragged some coworkers to a fairly fancy Korean place for dinner. Some of whom had never tried it and it met with some success.

"Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long" - Martin Luther

Triolet on a Line Apocryphally Attributed to Martin Luther

Why should the Devil get all the good tunes,
The booze and the neon and Saturday night,
The swaying in darkness, the lovers like spoons?
Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?
Does he hum them to while away sad afternoons
And the long, lonesome Sundays? Or sing them for spite?
Why should the Devil get all the good tunes,
The booze and the neon and Saturday night?

A.E. Stallings

This poem on a card convinced me to subscribe to Poetry magazine. I am in my third time zone in three days. I'll let you know when I catch my breath. Somtime this weekend in Atlanta I imagine.

"Please Be Patient With Me"

View from our room in the Holiday Inn (Rock Island). It's always fun to cross the Mississippi several times in one day.

I liked the Stroh's sign.

I am not sure if Mr. Xu's style is as renowned as he seems to think it is.

The Wilco show on Wednesday in Davenport rocked but it was a little puzzling. Apparently all shows at the Adler Theater must end by 10:30 pm on the dot. There is some kind of curfew in the vicinity of theater as cops were dispersing the crowd immediately upon exiting from the building. Anyway, there was to a slight delay during final encore because of a fight breaking out so the show seemed a bit truncated. A minor bump in an otherwise kick ass performance. I will be looking forward to trying to see them again when they head back this way.

I will try and update more on the midweek Quad Cities extravaganza. I almost forgot about the Richard Thompson show at the Englert on Tuesday. (Watching and listening to Thompson play guitar with the full band was chilling. He is that good.) His new album, Sweet Warrior, is available.

One of the surviving roses from the bushes next to our house.

Nothing too exciting this weekend some general housecleaning, grocery shopping, and lawn maintenance turned comedy of errors as I yanked out the starter cord and tried to get as much grass cut as possible before the engine died.

Finished Salty this weekend. It wasn't bad but the Thailand setting made me want to read some more of John Burdett's Bangkok series. The third and latest featuring police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is Bangkok Haunts and is the latest addition to my Summer Reading list. I am on the library hold list for it. So if you have it checked out please read faster. I would like to take it on the road with me.

I am preparing for another extended road trip to Ohio leaving this Saturday for almost a week with two days at home followed by a brief and out of the way stopover in New Mexico for four days then straight to Atlanta for three weeks. I will be ready for a break or a breakdown when I return.

Looking forward to Richard Thompson tomorrow night followed by Wednesday night with the incomparable Wilco in Davenport. When it rains it pours. Feast or famine. All that stuff.

"Her name was Lola, She was a showgirl..."

Friends of ours welcomed home a new family member. Meet Lola.

Have a good weekend all. Just leaving work now at 7pm due to procrastination and some Office Space like copier issues.

"PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean? "

Now Playing

I have been listening to this all morning. It is worth hearing. A couple of new and some older songs are on their myspace page.

I also picked up the Stax 50th Anniversary compilation from Record Collector (who are apparently relocating to Linn St.) which was a bargain at under $20. The Stax Blog is streaming songs from the double cd including Booker T, Staple Singers, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes, etc...

Summer (To Be) Reading List (so far):

Up in Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard (This is a sequel to The Hot Kid. )

Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey (Way over the top series that is pure fun to read. Crime fiction on acid with serial killer Serge A. Storms as the hero. This is the 7th or 8th in a series.)

Salty by Mark Haskell Smith ( I just started this one. I enjoyed his last two Moist and Delicious, perfect beach entertainment.)

Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry (A birthday gift I still have not gotten around to yet. It is the first one to be queued up after returning library books. Excerpt here.)

I am attempting to make an effort (concerted or not) to reduce the stack of acquired books that are piling up around the house at an alarming rate. It is difficult as I keep adding to the stacks. I stopped by the Bookend yesterday and was fortunate just to leave with only a Peter De Vries novel I Hear America Swinging (hardback edition and set in Iowa so a must buy) and a paperback version of Confederacy of Dunces. They were charging 3 bucks for all you could fit in a plastic grocery bag because they too were in the process of relocating. I could have easily filled one up but did not. Yes, I do realize bibliomania is a disease.