OIL SPILL

The birds are dying.

Sweet creatures suffocating

An oily demise.

The picture isn't pretty. There

is no way of dancing around this

abomination. We have fucked up

and we are fucked. We sit on the

sidelines cheering for our favorite

NBA teams, on the edge of our seats,

popping beers, throwing down

Doritos, shopping at the malls,

as an ecological disaster spews

out millions of gallons of oil

and spreads its evil viscous blanket over

beautiful beds of sea life and sweet

flocks of birds. We are all complicit,

every time we turn the ignition and

suck down more oil without demanding

safeguards, alternatives; not tomorrow

but today. It's not really big oil's fault,

although they are complete assholes;

Beyond Petroleum (BP), my ass. Let's

face it, if we weren't sucking it down

they wouldn't be sucking it out. The fault is

ours for being so pathetically apathetic.

We must get off our butts and get going.

We are flushing our beautiful world

down the toilet. I wish this rant made

me feel better but it doesn't. I am

shaking with rage and crying with despair.

I don't know how to apologize to the

wild things. I am so sorry. You deserve

better from us. What to do?

At the very least contact both senators,

your congressperson and Pres. Obama

and tell them no more offshore drilling

and make alternative energy mandatory,

hybrids mandatory, help us off our

addiction.

Then make a concerted effort to walk rather

than take the car at least a couple of

trips a week. Change your habits, ever

so slightly. Do something, anything; but

don't look at the destruction on the tube

and simply change the channel with a sigh.

THE DUMP

Sweet sips now acrid

Mountains of urban decay

The message is "less".

Took a trip to the recycling center

at the Miramar Landfill. Got run

off as I was taking shots of mountains

of our discarded what nots that were

once must haves. Streams of aluminum

cans, compressed bundles of paper,

endless reams, toilets, big screen TV's,

refrigerators, every form of plastic,

once treasures that have lost all value

as our every purchase becomes obsolete.

Yes, the amount of recycling may be

impressive, but more impressive still

is the amount of unnecessary consumption.

Endless. Our system counts on it. Throw

out the cell phone that's perfectly fine and

pick up an iphone, heave your PC out the

back of the truck bed for a shiny new one

that converses with you, chuck the

obscenely gargantuan 52" TV for an

equally obscene flat screen that has

high definition. I'm not suggesting we

all become Luddites but, come on, is

this really necessary? Perhaps the

answer is each neighborhood must

have its own landfill that serves a couple

blocks of housing. Perhaps we'd think

twice about the cavalier heaving when

we have to look out at our mess.

CANCELLED

Eyjafjallajokull 

Spews ash on tundra and ice

Heathrow cools its jets.

Wow, dare I even try to pronounce

the Icelandic volcano? 

GOT STRESS

Body electric

Sparks internal circuitry

Adrenaline pumps

What if...maybe I'll be....

The head starts pounding,

the heart beats more rapidly,

the chest tightens, maybe I'm

having a....the chest tightens

more, the mouth gets dry,

there's a lump in the throat,

a pervasive dizziness, the skin

feels tingly and hot, clammy,

the stomach hurts, the back

aches, really aches, there's a

buzzing in the fingers, shaking,

the body is shaking, there really

is something wrong. Really?

 Got stress?

p.s. The cool head drawing is

called "The Cosmic Mind" and

is from the 1400's(saw it in

a recent exhibit at the Getty

called Migrations of the Mind)

 and The Scream speaks for

itself and Edvard Munch.

 

NEON

Noble gas sculpture

Illuminates

messaging.

Orange haloes

beckon.

I was looking through Phoebe's

pictures of Las Vegas neon and

started thinking about what a

unique art form neon signage

represents. Neon is known as

a noble gas (odorless, colorless,

not highly reactive) whose name

comes from Greek, meaning "new

one". Its chemical element symbol

is "Ne" and it glows a reddish-

orange when used in discharge

tubes. Neon discharge tubes used

for advertising signs were first

introduced in the U.S. in 1923 and

were revolutionary in their appeal

and draw. While the look of "neon"

draws in a wide array of colors (i.e.

the entire Las Vegas strip) which

come from other noble gases or

fluorescent lights, true neon gives

off its telltale bright orange-red hue.

I included a picture of Phoebe's from

"The strip". Hope you don't mind

sweetie.