I Didn't Know That I Could Play a Blue Guitar

The lady at the Café Trieste told us of Ginsberg and Corso setting right over there in the corner. Had I read Corso? Yes, some years back I did. Did we  know who Ginsberg was. Yes, of course, everyone did. I had read some of most of the other beat poets. And I had even met of few of them. A few of them were still alive. I even knew the location of the former garage in which he first read “Howl”. The site was now occupied by a hardware store with yellow, blue and red plastic pails in the window. I had sat at the bar across the street and talked with Ferlinghetti sipping a Chianti. Who, him or you? Who? What do you mean? Who was drinking the Chianti, Ferlinghetti or you? We both were. At a bar across from a garaage? No, across from here, at the Cafe Vesuvius. Ok. You can continue now. Thanks!

Brian I say, this is Bohemia. This is North Beach. He says, Uh huh! The woman in the orange flower print and orange high heels continues to dance. She is singing something by the Beetles  Tie me kangaroo sport. Tie me kangaroo down. Not that that it has anything to do with anything else that was going on, but it just entered my mind like a cyclone in Saigon. And Brian says. You’ve got it all wrong, it should be Tie Me Kangaroo down, sport. I didn't say anything, I said (I had thought that I only thought the lyrics - that it was only a brainworm) And its defiantly not by the Beetles. Well if you know everything you sing it. And he graps the blue guitar from the man in the blue shirt and sings:

Watch me wallabys feed mate. 


Watch me wallabys feed. 


They're a dangerous breed mate. 


So watch me wallabys feed. 


Altogether now!

Tie me kangaroo down sport,

 
tie me kangaroo down. 


Tie me kangaroo down sport, 


tie me kangaroo down.

Keep me cockatoo cool,

Curl, 
keep me cockatoo cool.


Don't go acting the fool, Curl,

 
just keep me cockatoo cool. 


Altogether now!

Take me koala back, Jack, 


take me koala back. 


Brian I say I didn’t know you could sing. And Brian, I say, I don’t think we are in Bohemia anymore. And Brian said, I didn't know that I could play a blue guitar either. And flying monkeys were coming out of assholes. And Judy is wearing sapphire slippers. And fields of poppies were making me sleepy. I want to go home and go to sleep in my own bed.

Intoxicated witnesses remember the same number of details as do sober witnesses.

It’s hard not / to jump out / instead of / waiting to be / found. It’s / hard to be / alone so long / and then hear / someone come around – Kay Ryan – The Best of it, 2010 p250

Terror is an action of a government – terrorism is an action against a government. War is a sustained period of induced terror resulting from systematic terrorism. A war stops when a nation refuses to live in terror any longer or when a land becomes depopulated.

Authority ensured that it is obeyed only if everyone is convinced that it is ‘the authority’ – Vincent Descombes – Modern French Philosophy, 1980 p169

What does technology want?

What does capital desire?

Whatever it is,

It gets

What does it mean for

            Technology to want?

What does it mean for

            Capital to desire?

What does it mean to

            Give in?

Knowledge may only be countered with knowledge… Only another power can oppose a power – Vincent Descombes – Modern French Philosophy, 1980 p170

Aeroplane parts, laminated walnut

            Propellers and ash spars awaiting

            Doped fabric

Then carried away on drays drawn

            By Suffolk horses with heroic

Names

Timber-haulers and sawyers

            Delivering a steady supply

            Of fine English wood

Just so that young boys can

Watch them come

Down in flames

Just so poets can leave a few

            Tracings on muddy

            Scraps of paper

That shall get trodden
            In the mud under

           Soldiers' jackboots

Deep travel has some of the qualities of sunlight after rain – details stand out – but in other ways it more resembles moonlight, because it changes your sense of what has become possible and of what might happen next – Tony Hiss – In Motion, 2010  p12

64% of the baby boomer generation see the Social Security system as the linchpin of their retirement earnings. The first boomers turn 65 this year.

One of his favorite daydreams was to cancel gravity and act out the joy of leaping telegraph poles – Guy Davenport – Tatlin!, 1974  p30

Wars are not made up of wars. Wars are made up of battles. Battle are either won or they are lost. If you get killed you have lost, so for goodness sake survive to fight another day. Run away if you can.

The discontented are those who have not understood the reason why they should be happy; they must learn to reason better [Eric Weil] – Vincent Descombes – Modern French Philosophy, 1980

The solar oven solves a problem very few real poor people face how to cook lunch on a sunny day

Men in aeroplanes, you can see are not flying. They are merly sitting in a machine – Guy Davenport – Tatlin!, 1974  p47

Why drive miles to the grocery store only to discover that you spent your food budget on fuel  (and you still have to drive back home)? You’ll have to make fewer trips and buy more. But do you have room in the freezer? And what will happen when you can;t afford to pay the electrical bill any more? The sale of can goods is on the increase.

All around you, the known, usually a set of already told tales, has been eclipsed by the only just met up with, the yet-to-be discovered – Tony Hiss – In Motion, 2010 p13