Beck covers - Velvet Underground, Skip Spence & Leonard Cohen

Beck - All Tomorrow's Parties - Velvet Underground cover



Beck - Femme Fatale - Velvet Underground cover



Beck - Book of Moses - Skip Spence cover



Beck - Weighted Down - Skip Spence cover



Beck - Grey/Afro - Skip Spence Cover



Beck - Stranger Song - Leonard Cohen cover

Bobb Trimble - Killed by the Hands of an Unknown Rockstar

"Killed by the Hands of an Unknown Rockstar" by Bobb Trimble

ok prudence, you've won your case
put the smile back on your face
used to be real to me long ago
now i know that it isn't so
so tape the smile upon your face
that you once had
although i know you're alright
try to see me now for that's not bad

although i know your retracted
from your life and all of your sins
try to start a new life
and you'll see that it will begin again
keep me wandering keep me searching
for the times that have gone by
killed by the hands of an unknown rockstar
yes you were
killed by the hands of an unknown rockstar
yes you were
killed by the one playing on this guitar

so please won't you remember me
and the times that used to be
running faces and running wild
won't you hold me for a little while
although i know you're retracting
your going to cause more lies
make up your masquerade face
and then put on your disguise

keep me wandering, keep me searching
for the times that have gone by
killed by the hands of an unknown rockstar
yes you were
killed by the hands of an unknown rockstar
yes you were
killed by the one playing on this guitar

so please won't you remember me
and the times that used to be
running faces and running wild
won't you hold back the clock for awhile
killed by the hands of an unknown rockstar
yes you were
killed by the hands of an unknown rockstar
yes you were
killed by the one playing on this guitar
killed by the one playing on this guitar
killed by the one on this guitar

Iron Curtain Innocence


Harvest of Dreams

Animated Word Video - air and dust

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

      A penny for the Old Guy

      I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

      II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

      III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

      IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

      V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
                  For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
                  Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
                For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Complete Poems and Plays,: 1909-1950 

Breathe Baby , Breathe

Breathe Baby, Breathe

breathe baby, breathe---
you were a good grape,
that's why they took you
and crushed you and rubbed you
and bottled you up
and sold you to me.

my sweet dry pinot,
baby girl, breathe,
i need you to breathe now
and tell me your name
before i take you inside
where its warm.


So I wrote this poem "Breathe Baby, Breathe" for Conjunction. Susan Katz, Conjunction's moderator, gave the poem a better life than I could ever have pairing it with jazz music, a sexy set of breathy vocals and a comely array of visual art.  The rendering was brilliant. And I now look forward to the next collaboration. 

note: in the video, Susan changes baby girl to baby boy to match gender. Perhaps I wouldn't mind being changed to a donkey if she set a few more of my poems to music and offered her vocals again.

lunacy exposed

The Citadel

The Broken Window Fallacy and Bastiat's Parable

the following is an excerpt from 19th Century French philospher Frederic Bastiat's essay collection That Which is Seen, and That Which is Unseen known as The Parable of the Broken Window.

I. THE BROKEN WINDOW

Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James B., when his careless son happened to break a square of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact, that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation - "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?"

Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.

Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier's trade - that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs - I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.

But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, "Stop there! your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen."

It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.

Let us take a view of industry in general, as affected by this circumstance. The window being broken, the glazier's trade is encouraged to the amount of six francs; this is that which is seen. If the window had not been broken, the shoemaker's trade (or some other) would have been encouraged to the amount of six francs; this is that which is not seen.

And if that which is not seen is taken into consideration, because it is a negative fact, as well as that which is seen, because it is a positive fact, it will be understood that neither industry in general, nor the sum total of national labour, is affected, whether windows are broken or not.

Now let us consider James B. himself. In the former supposition, that of the window being broken, he spends six francs, and has neither more nor less than he had before, the enjoyment of a window.

In the second, where we suppose the window not to have been broken, he would have spent six francs on shoes, and would have had at the same time the enjoyment of a pair of shoes and of a window.

Now, as James B. forms a part of society, we must come to the conclusion, that, taking it altogether, and making an estimate of its enjoyments and its labours, it has lost the value of the broken window.

When we arrive at this unexpected conclusion: "Society loses the value of things which are uselessly destroyed;" and we must assent to a maxim which will make the hair of protectionists stand on end - To break, to spoil, to waste, is not to encourage national labour; or, more briefly, "destruction is not profit."

What will you say, Monsieur Industriel -- what will you say, disciples of good M. F. Chamans, who has calculated with so much precision how much trade would gain by the burning of Paris, from the number of houses it would be necessary to rebuild?

I am sorry to disturb these ingenious calculations, as far as their spirit has been introduced into our legislation; but I beg him to begin them again, by taking into the account that which is not seen, and placing it alongside of that which is seen. The reader must take care to remember that there are not two persons only, but three concerned in the little scene which I have submitted to his attention. One of them, James B., represents the consumer, reduced, by an act of destruction, to one enjoyment instead of two. Another under the title of the glazier, shows us the producer, whose trade is encouraged by the accident. The third is the shoemaker (or some other tradesman), whose labour suffers proportionably by the same cause. It is this third person who is always kept in the shade, and who, personating that which is not seen, is a necessary element of the problem. It is he who shows us how absurd it is to think we see a profit in an act of destruction. It is he who will soon teach us that it is not less absurd to see a profit in a restriction, which is, after all, nothing else than a partial destruction. Therefore, if you will only go to the root of all the arguments which are adduced in its favour, all you will find will be the paraphrase of this vulgar saying - What would become of the glaziers, if nobody ever broke windows?

This is Why They Are Our Best Friend

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Elephant

Sassy Gay Friend -- Othello

Natural Hallucinogen (view full screen, stare at center, look away and enjoy)

Walken Goes Ga Ga