[puddles amplify holiday lights]

puddles amplify holiday lights

shooting stars, ricocheting

across the parking lot

bouncing through gray turning black

I’m slogging through

a wet Christmas

Tuesday night so warm

I peel off a light jacket

three days before Christmas

I’m told the days are getting longer

Anderson texts from the desert

a celebration of the return

of the light

soon, Daytona and lent

Easter and pitchers and catchers report

madness, thunder, derby and beyond

reaching for warmth

before retreating from the heat

the year tumbles forward, lopsided

a raining new year

a Christmas to smother the soul

Power Rankings: Lager

 On the positive side, the craft beer boom really pushed the quality of American beer to new heights. On the negative side, the trendy obsession with boutique hops led American beer makers to HOP THE LIVING FUCK OUT OF EVERYTHING CONSIDERED A BEER. Here is the in-house power rankings for the simple, clean, golden lager:

1. Asahi (Japan)
2. Braxton Garage Lager (Covington/Cincinnati)
3. Founder's Solid Gold (Grand Rapids)
4. Taj Mahal (India)
5. Kingfisher (India)
6. Gravely La Bamba (Louisville)
7. Rhinegeist Cheetah (Cincinnati)
8. Negra Modelo (Mexico)

That California Jangle

David Crosby's tone-deaf comments upon the death of Eddie Van Halen reminded me of my long-standing annoyance with the solipsism of 60s/70s California hippie culture. I remember in particular the front porch hangs I used to have with Elijah Pritchett, and how our mutual animosities to that hippie culture came to be animated primarily by one band: The Byrds.

I also have to admit that my first interest in rock music was The Byrds, from a band biography and four song seven inch sampler I got from Scholastic Books when I was in grade school; obviously the book was deeply sanitized to the point of not at all being useful as a story of the band, but most of the band's music goes down pretty easy, so there wasn't much need for sanitizing that, save holding off on some of the band's more obviously druggy songs (though it really seems "Eight Miles High" was on there . . . but of course, that was a song about flying in an airplane lol). I don't remember exactly what was on the record, but one song did stand out: "Lover of the Bayou". That one was dirty.

Anyway, it got me to wondering if I was just done with The Byrds, so I did what it is I do: put together a giant Spotify playlist, based on fan's favorites from the band, and immerse myself in it until I figure it out. This was, in fact, probably the first band I did that with, many years ago, when I joined Spotify not too long after its birth. The playlist was just over three hours to start (three hours is kind of the magic playlist number for me, because that was my average DJ shift on WQAX back in the day). Unlike the Bob Dylan playlist that I have been working on this year, which started out at just over six hours then was lightly trimmed back to about five and a half, the Byrds playlist was cut down to under an hour and a half after I lived with it for a while. A lot of The Byrds's output leaves me cold and bored; some I consider downright repulsive (Crosby's "Triad" immediately comes to mind). The sheer length of the playlist was overwhelming to me as well: I could never handle that much Byrds. On the other hand, once I got it to the point that it would fit onto a 90 minute tape, it became a useful playlist, and one I listen to a fair amount. I emailed Elijah to let him know of my work, but he remained unconvinced.

To be fair, I did have to follow it up with a Minutemen playlist when I listened to it last Tuesday.

Anyway, here it be:

And yes, "Jesus is Just Alright" is on there. And yes, I'm still down with "Lover of the Bayou". And yes, if this band disappeared into the mists of time, I would barely miss them. But here it is.

The Byrds Power Rankings: Most Overrated/Underrated

1. Graham Parsons/Gene Clark
2. David Crosby/Clarence White
3. Sweetheart of the Rodeo/Younger Than Yesterday

The 4 x 4 Mixtapes

 So, yeah . . . string quartets.

Turns out that string quartets are among my favorite classical music forms, along with large ensemble symphonic pieces and solo piano (or exclusively piano recordings, be they solo or multiple - Ives's pieces for two pianos tuned a quarter tone apart are stunning). I tend to approach composers I am interested first through either large ensemble symphonic-style pieces or through string quartets. I think in general the reason I like string quartets is that they put compositional ideas in stark relief, without having them buried in potentially obfuscating orchestrations. For my own creative education, they are also important for studying how string instruments relate to each other, which is important if you ever find yourself in a room full of guitar players & you don't want to sound like a jam band.

Several of these pieces are benchmarks for me. I discovered the Debussy a couple years back when I was on a Debussy binge. Interestingly, this is one of the pieces that I have a clear favorite version I listen to: the Kodaly Quartet plays this faster and jauntier than most, and it's definitely how I like it. The next to cuts are performed by the Kronos Quartet, a gateway drug for classical music in general and string quartets in particular. Their Black Angels album made a huge impression on me. The pieces they play are notable as well: Gorecki before he went all tonal, and perhaps the best known female composer in the west, Sofia Gubaidulina. Shostokovich was another binge for me, and I think his string quartets are his real signature, not the more famous symphonies. Beethoven follows up some twelve tone & modernist guys, and is in turn followed by the out-of-time Bartok. Rochberg & Carter round out the first mixtape, from late mid-century when tonality was gauche (Rochberg) and modernism was hip (Carter).

The second mixtape starts with Mr. Twelve Tone himself, Arnold Schoenberg, and travels through Schnittke to Steve Reich's minimalism. Morton Feldman's pointillist abstraction is up next, then side one rounds out with some lovely Brahms. Side two devolves into that time Karlheinz Stockhausen sent up the members of Arditti Quartet each in their own helicopter to play a string quartet, the loopy bastard. Apparently Karl was a bit less concerned about his carbon footprint than his reputation as an avant-garde enfant terrible. Side two is rounded out by two of my favorites, Ives and Ligeti, who are perhaps less known for their string quartets.

Indeed, you can, if you wish, dub these on to 90 minute cassettes and play them in your 81 Tercel. But why bother? Hit the Spotify button and enjoy.

String Quartet Power Rankings:

1. Beethoven (late)
2. Bartok
3. Gubaidulina
4. Shostakovich
5. Debussy
6. Carter

Rory Gallagher Redux

 Seriously not stonewalling here, but I got another pop/rock/blues playlist for y'all. I'm a huge fan of Rory Gallagher's first two solo records. I first became aware of them from a Polydor compilation of the highlights of the first two released in America under the name Sinner . . . and Saint. I'd had records of his pass through my possession before, but this is the one that stuck, until I realized it was actually a comp & just picked up the first two on CD. I have to say that they were dead on with the track selections. I love the songwriting on this: after these albums, he mostly stuck to white boy blues and boogie, loosing the variety of songwriting that he demonstrated here.

For my money, he should have been the white blues boy who got all the accolades that fell into Eric Clapton's lap . . . part of that is I just never understood what made Clapton such a god-like guitarist to so many people, and part of it is about Clapton being a lazy, generally bad songwriter. On the last count Gallagher too ended up being a slacker, but this is some quality stuff right here. In the end, like all guitar heroes, he wasn't really called to account for his songs, as long as he played that guitar.

And indeed, while I consider the songwriting a couple steps above decent, the main reason I'm here is for the guitar. Despite all the dissimilarities, there is something about Gallagher's best solos that remind me of Coltrane . . . though for the life of me, I can't put my finger on exactly why. Perhaps it's the fact that the solos are simultaneously explosive and economical: that for all the notes, there doesn't seem to be a lot of excess.

Anyway, here's a playlist, essentially Sinner . . . and Saint re-imagined as a double LP. If you are interested, I have written about Rory at greater length elsewhere.

Liner Notes to *The Materialist*

On October 2nd, I will be releasing a spoken word recording on Bandcamp: almost 60 minutes of poetry from my last 20 years if writing. As a bit of a preview/teaser, here are the liner notes. Won't make much sense out of context, but that's ok. Previews never do. I will, of course, update on this site when the album drops.

The Materialist: Selected Poetry 2000-2020

NOTES

 

You’ve heard the phrase “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual”? Well, I’m neither. I’m the Materialist. I write immanence. Some will have you believe poetry is spiritual, but I write the dirt of existence. I have no interest in castles in the sky.

·        Slipping Perhaps the oldest poem of the batch, it originally ran three pages. Those three pages said nothing more than these five lines.

·        Eileen Myles She’s a swell poet. For real; if you don’t know, check out Not Me. First published in Industrial Lunch no. 1

·        RONA Fragment The bourgeois denouement, the soft apocalypse. 

·        Wallpaper Fires are lit & graves are filled by the kaleidoscopic moods of old white men staring into mirrors.

·        Strangers Talk Only About the Weather (poems 5-25) You may hear that in Tom Waits’s voice, I will always hear it in Marianne Faithfull’s voice. Or sometimes I hear it in Lotte Lenya's voice, though to my knowledge she's never sung it. Not much to be said that wasn’t said in the spoken intro. All poems are untitled & identified by their first lines.

·        from The Bridge God, this one makes me sound old. Charley Anderson staring down into the swirling gingerbread river in The 42nd Parallel, only older and more alienated than lost.

·        John Cage One of the few surviving Desert Poems from the early aughts.

·        Recasting an Elliot Prelude That night not long after the operation where I accidentally doubled up on Percocet.

·        Variation I: Ezra Pound Driven Batshit Crazy For Want of Sound Money Seriously, dude goes on and on and on. The Lyndon LaRouche of modernism.

·        Variation II: Ol’ Ez Thinks Them Could Be Useful, After All Essentially a mildly altered version of a chunk of Canto XXXII. Don’t try to pin this shit on me.

·        Man Who Loves Scenery A true story. First appeared in Industrial Lunch no. 4

·        Darkness & the Percocet In-Between A cut up: sources Hardt & Negri’s Empire; Raymond Rousell’s Locus Solus; and Harry Cleaver’s Reading Capital Politically. Probably see this one overhauled at some point . . . still feels a little like raw material to me.

·        Moving Into Lent Ash Wednesday is the last Catholic Mass I attended of my own volition. I have a handful of Lent/Ash Wednesday poems.

·        Busted Loop Really wish I had a recording instead of a poem.

·        from The Ethics Another long poem that will likely remain unfinished, starring Spinoza as Zarathustra. Root source is a cut up of Spinoza’s Ethics, though this section is virtually unrecognizable as such.

·        A New Kind of Television I was on a poetry-writing binge during the early RONA days, as I recovered from my first knee replacement. I had a few lines of this in the notebook . . . and then the murder of George Floyd, the news of Breonna Taylor’s murder, the video of Ahmaud Arbery’s assassination . . . I could no longer write. I had to speak, I had to face these atrocities, but I could not bury them under artifice: so you get it straight. I did my best with the names; I looked up pronunciations on all I could find. I sincerely apologize for any that I did not get right – the last thing I would want to do is profane your memory.

·        A Small Thing From Industrial Lunch no.1 . . . there is always a spring.

Texting Frantz Fannon

the cafes are forgotten, the arguments about elections,
the spitefulness of some cop or other
ears that hear wind through the trees
eyes that see the broken shacks
time has been wasted on the colonial regime,
liberation only to be seen in terms of violence
in terms of neighborhood struggle
in terms of armed struggle
 
militants running from the police
learn the hard lessons of the people
peasants bowed too long
generous, and ready to sacrifice
driven by stony pride
rebels by instinct,
swelling into the villages
to test the strength of their own muscles
to push the leaders into action
 
the militants in turn tutor the people
in ways political and military
 
the second-in-commands,
the rank and file proletariat
foot soldiers for intellectuals & consolationists
no longer, no longer willing to absorb rebellion

*** please see the author's note in the comments ***

We've Got the Seventies Covered

  So, what we have here is songs of the seventies, covered. I mean, in case you couldn't figure that out from the clever title just above. 

  The big joke in the 80s and 90s was to take an incongruous songs and do "punk" covers of them: virtually every punk/alt rock/roots rockabilly/experimental/indie rock band had a cover or two in their pocket. The covers ran the gamut from jokey to sincere, to mark sharp contrasts or deep affinities. Sometimes bands would ditch incongruities and shout out similarities, or even do tributes to favorites: my own 80s/90s band, The Belgian Waffles!, covered God and State, Pere Ubu, Flipper, Crass, Joy Division, the Ramones, and the Flesheaters, among others. These were all meant as tributes, and they were songs that were important to us. I would say the "jokiest" cover we did was of Nancy Sinatra's "Lightning's Girl", though we were all fans of that song as well.

  The Dickies pretty much made a career out of the goofball side of the coin, with covers of "Nights In White Satin", the theme to the Banana Splits ("The Tra La La Song"), and "Paranoid" being much more memorable than their original material. On this playlist, they are represented by their Sabbath cover. Killdozer as well had a reputation for destructo covers (of which they did many, including an entire album called For Ladies Only), though fans of the band are generally at least as interested in their original material. Here they are represented by their ridiculous version of the 75 Jessi Colter country crossover hit, "I'm Not Lisa" . . . and while the absurdity of Michael Gerald's growled vocals are the first thing you notice, it's the sweet guitar work that really closes the deal. On the flip side, covers like Big Black's "Heartbeat" (Wire), the Minutemen's "The Red and the Black" (Blue Oyster Cult), Nirvana's "Man Who Sold the World" (David Bowie), and Galaxy 500's "Isn't It a Pity" (George Harrison) not only shout out their subjects, but show affinities between the bands covered and the bands doing the covers. Metallica in particular is known for their "Garage Days" covers, and that remains my favorite Metallica work, by and large.

  Then there are the more or less contemporary covers, which for reasons not clear to me, tend to get called "versions" instead of "covers". There are three popular versions of Bob Dylan's "If Not For You": Bob's original, George Harrison's version on All Things Must Pass, and Olivia Newton John's 71 version, which had the most chart action. Harrison's cover is included here. Also of note: Gloria Gaynor's 74 disco hit version of the Jackson 5 hit "Never Can Say Goodbye", and Viola Wills's disco (?!) version of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind".

  There are some brilliant re-interpretations here: Corrine Bailey Rae does a deep, soulful piano & bass cover of Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jimmy Page's slow blues were always a guilty pleasure for me, and I can't tell you how nice it is hearing one of them without having to put up with Robert Plant). The Contortion's ripping no wave funk version of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" is legendary. "Damned for All Time", Judas's song from Jesus Christ, Superstar, is a perfect vehicle for David Yow and Scratch Acid's blitz (and honestly not too different from the original). Shockabilly's explosion of T Rex's "Life's a Gas" is similarly faithful and revelatory. Jon  Langford and his Waco Brothers manage to overhaul and improve one of Neil Young's best songs, "Revolution Blues". And there is probably no version of a song more destroyed and at the same time more appropriate than the Butthole Surfer's "American Woman".

  I could go on, but y'all are getting the point by now. My favorite cover here: the Jesus Lizard's Chrome medley. The cover that gets to the very soul of a song, essentially beating the original at its own game: American Music Club's "Goodbye to Love" (Carpenters) and Thou's "Supernaut" (Black Sabbath). The most epic cover: Television's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" (Dylan). The most brutal and disrespectful: The Resident's nightmare fat Elvis rendition of "Burning Love". The worst cover here: The Bongos take a totally "meh" cover of T Rex's "Mambo Sun" and make it intolerable by mispronouncing the word "mambo" all the way through the song. If you follow this playlist, don't be surprised to see that one disappear at some point.

  And finally, what are all y'all's favorite 70s covers? I'm taking suggestions. No more versions by bands already represented - yes, "Sweat Loaf" is brilliant, but "American Woman" is even better, so that's the Butthole Surfers song included - unless you can convince me that they do another cover that is even better, in which case it will replace my choice. Make sure to put it in the comments, and I may well add it to the playlist. Let me know what I have missed!

70s Covers Power Rankings, Original Artist

1. David Bowie
2. Bob Dylan
3. Michael Jackson/Jackson 5
4. Elton John
5. T Rex
6. Black Sabbath
7. Neil Young

Ezra Pound Driven Batshit Crazy For Want of Sound Money: Variation I

“the temple is holy  because it is not for sale”

 

                              The crucified Jesus

                              of the prosperity bible

                              bleeds green through red

                              interruption of pale skin.

 

droplets water the ground like the blood of tyrants

water the tree of liberty

Sound Money

 

green viral nutrients seed & animate the capsid of the

 

               pathogen capital

 

(don’t worry, you won’t catch it – it’s under

 control – it reduplicates but accumulates

 rather than spreading)

 

“the temple is not for sale because all the flows have been shut down”

 

tl;dr: it’s a cash flow problem

Playlist: The Beatles + (???!!!!)

  Gonna slam you with playlists over the next little while, 'cause I been busy! We're going to ease into it with . . . The Beatles?!

  Well, sure, just consider this my reckoning with The Beatles. I often have talked trash about the Fabish Four, not so much because I dislike them but because I was sick of hearing about them. They continue to be, to my mind, as over-rated as a band can be. Which is not quite the same thing as saying they are no good. This list is part of a continuing series of playlists I put together to examine bands that I am somehow undecided on: the first was a six-hour Bob Dylan playlist, and actually led to an appreciation of Dylan, some 40 years after people first tried to brainwash me into the cult of Bob. I listen to the playlist frequently, and while I remain unconvinced of his status as deity, I nonetheless count myself a fan, if somewhat on the casual side, relatively speaking.

  The second was Steely Dan. I will still confess an appreciation of the first album (Can't Buy a Thrill), as well as "Rikki Don't Lose That Number". Other Dan, on the other hand, makes me homicidal. I sifted through the internet to tap into others' opinions of the cuts that displayed the genius of the Dan, and put together a 3 hour playlist. Lived with that for a couple months, then shaved the songs that I really hated. Spent some time with that, then cut some more. At the end, I was pretty much left with the first album and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number". The rest left me with angst on a scale that ranged from mild annoyance  to rage. Ordered a 7" of "Rikki" off discogs and deleted the playlist. 

  Next was Z Z Top. Love Tres Hombres. Remember from high school that I was down with everything through Fandango! Definitely not a fan of Eliminator on. Mined the stacks for any riff that caught my ear and stuck it on a playlist. Lived with the playlist for a couple months, decided all you really need is Tres Hombres, then deleted the playlist.

  And now, The Beatles. Well, I know I like a lot of Beatles songs, and I like couple John Lennon songs. What really inspired this, though, is that this year I have fallen head over heals for George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. It has lately become quite the obsession for me. I decided to put together a playlist with Beatles and Beatles related material, so I could get it all in one place. I would never try to convince anyone that this is in any way definitive, a "best-of", or even coherent and logical. This is a Beatles playlist I thoroughly enjoy, that is all. It has been sequenced for your listening pleasure, but hey - John Cage sez that "random" button is never a bad idea.

  Two more notes: this playlist is subject to change, since the only Harrison solo album I took anything from is his first. Nothing else he did has caught me yet, but I will continue to sift through his albums to see if there's anything else. I imagine I'll find another song or two here and there. Same with Lennon, though I actually have spent time with his records over the years. Paul and Ringo, on the other hand, are as represented as they will ever be. Second: my favorite Beatles-related material is mostly by Yoko Ono, and she does have a couple songs on this playlist. However, even if I like both The Beatles and Yoko, they do not live together very well. Otherwise, this would be a lot heavier on Yoko.

  So there you have it. If you are in a Beatles mood, give this a spin: it just may provide a worthwhile slant for you. And now, on to my Thin Lizzy playlist. I promise the next playlist posted will be of quite a different sort.

Bill's Plague Year 2020 Beatles Power Rankings

1.  Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band

2.  George Harrison All Things Must Pass

3.  The Beatles The Beatles (the white album)

4.  John Lennon Plastic Ono Band

5.  Yoko Ono Fly

6.  The Beatles Abbey Road

A New Kind of Television

A New Kind of Television

Lying in bed at Audubon watching Better Call Saul the night of the operation before the sedatives wore off.

In bed with my laptop two days later, under the spell of narcotics, watching Star Trek: Picard.

A new kind of television, my cell or my tablet, lying in bed or sitting out on the porch.

Apparently the stories run by the new kind of television are horror stories.

Breonna Taylor was gunned down by policemen’s bullets as they served a no-knock warrant. Breonna’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, awoke to find persons unidentified, heavily armed, breaking into his apartment. Walker picked up a rifle and fired – as is his right according to Kentucky’s “stand your ground” laws – and the police responded with a hail of gunfire. More than twenty rounds were fired into Taylor’s apartment as well as adjacent apartments. 8 of them struck Taylor, killing her. Walker was arrested for firing on the police officers, but later released, when the story hit the national news. The warrant that the police were serving turned out later to be problematic on several counts: the suspect named in the warrant, though known to Taylor, did not live at the location. The suspect was actually in police custody at the time of the warrant service. It also came out later that the warrant was obtained with information falsely attributed to the Postmaster General, who said he had no knowledge whatsoever of the “suspicious packages” alleged in the warrant. Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker are both Black.

A nameless Black man was beaten by a cop in L. A. while he had both hands handcuffed behind his back. The cop’s partner, a woman, seemed to make a couple meek attempts to dissuade him from what was very clearly a tantrum. The man’s injuries did not appear serious, as the cop’s blows were largely ineffective. The beating apparently stopped when another squad car showed up.

Several videos of Black folk being beaten by police in New York City (Brooklyn) and New Jersey surfaced in April, ostensibly for not “social distancing”. The same weekend, a video surfaced of New York cops chatting and handing out facemasks to white folk enjoying a beautiful spring day in the park (in Manhattan), but also not social distancing.

Appliance delivery driver Travis Miller was blocked in an Oklahoma City gated community by two residents for almost two hours after making a delivery. The residents demanded to know what his business was there, in spite of the fact that the name of the company he delivers for is on the side of his truck, and he is wearing a uniform shirt with the company’s logo on it. He refused to give them his customer’s information. Miller filmed the entire encounter on his cell phone in case the nature of his interaction with the men was called into question. The men decided to call the police, at which point Miller called the police himself to report being detained, just to make sure the police were aware of his side of the story when they arrived on the scene. Eventually, the customer to whom Miller made the delivery arrived on the scene and asked his neighbors to stand down. He apologized to Miller, but missed the obvious subtext of the situation when he described his neighbors as “over protective” of the community. Travis Miller is a Black man.

Ahmaud Arbery was stalked and gunned down while out jogging on February 23^rd, 2020 in Glynn County, Georgia. While he was on his run, he stopped by a house under construction, wandered around for a short bit, and left. He was spotted coming out of the house by Travis McMichael, who with his father Gregory McMichael and friend Roddie Bryan, pursued Arbery in their pickup trucks, boxing him into the Satilla Shores neighborhood. Travis McMichael then got out of the truck with a shotgun to confront Arbery. Arbery tried to grab the shotgun away from the younger McMichael, and two shots were fired. After regaining control of the gun, McMichael then fired a third shot, hitting Arbery in the torso. Arbery then took a few steps and fell to the ground, mortally wounded. All three shotgun blasts had hit his body. Police on the scene were reportedly ready to arrest the McMichaels, but were stopped by DA Jackie Johnson, who later recused herself from the case due to a previous work relationship with Gregory McMichael. Waycross Judicial District Attorney George Barnhill then took over the case, and also advised no arrests. The case was on Barnhill’s desk from February 27^th to April 2^nd, at which point he also recused himself due to a connection between himself and the elder McMichael. The Cobb County District Attorney’s office took over the case at that point. On May 5^th, a video of the confrontation shot on Roddie Bryan’s cell phone appeared on radio station WGIG’s website. The video had been provided to the station by an attorney acting upon the wishes of Gregory McMichael, apparently believing the video would exonerate him and his son. After the public outrage generated by the video, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested the McMichaels for felony murder and aggravated assault. On May 21^st, Bryan was also arrested. Later evidence suggested that Travis McMichael shouted “fucking nigger” while standing over the body of Ahmaud Arbery, who was a Black man.

Sean Reed was gunned down by officers May 6 in Indianapolis, in a shooting that was captured by Reed on a Facebook livestream purportedly watched by thousands. Reed was observed by officers “driving erratically” on an interstate and began to follow him, at which point Reed went on Facebook Live and asked the viewers to “come get him”. A high-speed chase followed. After Reed stopped his car, he attempted to flee on foot, at which point the video on the livestream became indistinct. Reed was first tased, then the officers opened up and hit him with 13 shots. Reed was reportedly armed at the time; officers on the scene were heard laughing and remarking that Reed would have to have a closed casket funeral. Sean Reed was a Black man.

Austin, TX police responded to a 911 call reporting an armed man sitting in his car doing drugs. When confronted by officers, Mike Ramos exited his car with his hands above his head but refused to walk toward the officers, as instructed. At that point an officer fired a non-lethal beanbag round at him. Ramos got back into his car and proceeded to drive away, at which point an officer fired into the car, striking Ramos. Ramos was then transported to the hospital, where he died. Seventeen days after the shooting, the Austin PD held a news conference to announce that an investigation launched after the shooting found no weapon in or around Ramos’s car. Mike Ramos was a Black man.

San Leandro, CA police responded to a call about a man brandishing a baseball bat and trying to rob a Walmart. They arrived to find Steve Taylor in an agitated state, waving a bat around. The first officer made a token attempt to grab the bat, to no avail. He then attempted to tase Taylor, to no significant effect. The first officer then shot Taylor “in the upper torso”, while the second officer tased him again, at which point Taylor fell. Then officers then hooked him up and, noticing the extent of his injuries, called a Paramedic. Taylor died at the scene. Steve Taylor was a Black man.

George Floyd was murdered by police officers on Memorial Day, May 25^th, 2020. Employees at the Cup Foods grocery store called police, stating that Floyd had passed a counterfeit $20 bill, and that he seemed intoxicated. Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, both of whom were on their first week with Minneapolis PD (both being certified in August 2019), responded to the call, and managed to get Floyd cuffed without resistance. After briefly talking to him as he sat on the sidewalk, they told him he was under arrest and walked him over to the car. Floyd fell to the ground by the car, claiming that he was not attempting to resist, but that he felt claustrophobic. Kueng and Lane picked him up and placed him against the car door. At that point, officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao arrived on the scene. Kueng was struggling with Floyd in the back seat of the car when Chauvin reached in and pulled him out the other side, throwing the handcuffed Floyd face down in the street next to the car. At that point Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck while Kueng applied pressure to Floyd’s torso and Lane pinned Floyd’s legs. Thao watched and kept the crowd at bay, several of whom were filming the arrest. Chauvin continued to grind his knee into Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. Floyd repeatedly asked for mercy, telling them he couldn’t breathe and asking for his mother. He was unresponsive and apparently unconscious for three of those almost nine minutes. Floyd was pronounced dead when the ambulance got him to the hospital. George Floyd was a Black man.

The programming looks the same on all the stations, but they are not reruns

it keeps happening again and again and again and again

Eric Garner

John Crawford III

Michael Brown

Ezell Ford

Michelle Cusseaux

Laquan McDonald

George Mann

Tanitia Anderson

Akai Gurley

Tamir Rice

Rumain Brisbon

Jerame Reid

Matthew Ajibade

Frank Smart

Natasha McKenna

Tony Robinson

Anthony Hill

Mya Hall

Philip White

Eric Harris

Walter Scott

William Chapman II

Alexia Christian

Brendon Glenn

Victor Manuel Larosa

Jonathan Sanders

Freddie Gray

Joseph Mann

Salvado Ellswood

Sandra Bland

Albert Joseph Davis

Darrius Stewart

Billie Ray Davis

Samuel Dubose

Michael Sabbie

Brian Keith Day

Christian Taylor

Troy Robinson

Asshams Pharoah Manley

Felix Kumi

Keith Harrison McLeod

Junior Prosper

Lamontez Jones

Paterson Brown

Dominic Hutchinson

Anthony Ashford

Alonzo Smith

Tyree Crawford

India Kager

La’Vante Biggs

Michael Lee Marshall

Jamar Clark

Richard Perkins

Nathaniel Harris Pickett

Benni Lee Tignor

Miguel Espinal

Michael Noel

Kevin Matthews

Bettie Jones

Quintonio Legrier

Keith Childress Jr.

Janet Wilson

Randy Nelson

Antronie Scott

Wendell Celestine

David Joseph

Calin Roquemore

Dyzhawn Perkins

Christopher Davis

Marco Loud

Peter Gaines

Torrey Robinson

Darius Robinson

Kevin Hicks

Mary Truxillo

Demarcus Semer

Willie Tillman

Terrill Thomas

Sylville Smith

Alton Sterling

Philando Castile

Terence Crutcher

Paul O’Neal

Alteria Woods

Jordan Edwards

Aaron Bailey

Ronell Foster

Stephon Clark

Antwon Rose II

Botham Jean

Pamela Turner

Dominique Clayton

Atatiana Jefferson

Christopher Whitfield

Christopher McCorvey

Eric Reason

Michael Lorenzo Dean

on and on and on

Captain Beefheart Playlist!

All y'all shut-ins are sick of your record collections - admit it! Well, earlier in the time of social isolation I came to your rescue with this beast (you're welcome!), and now I've got another for you: a Captain Beefheart playlist! That's the good news. The bad news: Troutmaskreplica is not on Spotify, so this is not a proper Beefheart playlist. It does include some Troutmask instrumental tracks from the Grow Fins box set - which are either rehearsals or instrumental tracks from the actual album, I can't remember and my box is downstairs, and stairs are not really my friends right now - so the album is not totally unrepresented. But hey, don't let that bother you! Plenty of goodness in these three hours. BTW, I did go to the trouble to sequence this & I think I did a good job, but shuffle is always your friend in these situations.

Enjoy! I'll try to hit you with one more playlist before I go back to work . . . we'll see.

BEST CAPTAIN BEEFHEART ALBUMS
(an unassailable list thing)

1. Troutmaskreplica
2. Lick My Decals Off, Baby
3. Safe As Milk
4. Ice Cream for Crow
5. Doc at the Radar Station
6. Bat Chain Puller
7. Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
8. Clear Spot
9. Strictly Personal*
10. Mirror Man
11. Spotlight Kid

*would have jumped at least three spots
if they had gone with the It Comes to You
In A Plain Brown Wrapper mixes

does not include compilations or the Tragic Band

RONA Fragment #4

time, day, what is that?

lie across the bed at odd angles

in various states of undress

& listen to noise on shuffle

sun sketches the house next door

in glaring relief, so it’s day

early-ish day

a little later clouds will show up

to wash time

off the neighbor’s siding

random meandering walks divide

the infinitely divisible into chunks

of indeterminate timelessness

pomegranate, tequila, and simple syrup

spell an endless parade of bourbon & sodas

in the kitchen washing a stray plate

a moment sudden and crystallized

I become inexplicably emotional

& cry during a Bob Dylan song

I’ve heard passively for 40 years

the rage I have lived with since the age 16

feels now diffuse and unearned

even if circumstances suggest the opposite

            flit moment to moment

            of incredible & subjective vision

            is this the world now?

            is it even different

            in any qualitative way?

RONA Fragment #3: Recasting an Elliot Prelude

Recasting an Elliot Prelude

emerging, swimming up to dark

shake

shake

shake

nothing’s moving

then move

and everything hurts

slowly merge w/body

tentatively roll shoulder, it hurts

then moves

other shoulder same,

though less so

first one leg, then the oth—

oh, right

as sparks shoot

& lightning tears up the thigh

reach for the dim lamp

quarter to three

close enough for the next Percocet

swallow, chase with tepid water

from the coffee mug bedside

toss sheets

& roll back

staring, soul projects itself

onto the ceiling

be those shadows

or the face of a cop

where am I

that the room surrounds me

& what is this movie, this vision

ghostly string quartets

- is the Bluetooth still on? –

abstract frescos

paint themselves around the ceiling fan

dirt browns & steely blue grays

whiffs of fascism & de-evolution

things are getting worse

as shadows pirouette

as my body shrinks back

slowly settling into a dark haze

sparks & lightning in my body fade

film rolls on

I lay back

warm but uneasy

not conscious, not asleep

in gently shifting brown/black stasis

until the sun sketches

the white siding of the house next door

through the louvres of the window

as the line of illumination

renders the top of the triangle stark white

& moves slowly down

slotting the siding as it goes

the awareness comes that,

as the line clears the attic room window

four hours have passed

& my throbbing leg confirms

time for another dose

sit on the edge of the bed

staring at the wall on the other side

of the window

grab the walker

take a piss

move around the house

repossess the body

take another dose

settle back

the movie's over now

the disquiet lives on