Watching the Wheels: a Blackbird Issue III

2007-05-12T02:27:00.001-06:00

The Enemy

2007-05-12T02:21:00.000-06:00

"In abundance of iniquity, many loves wax cold" -
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmllllChrist

I/we/you/they turn to enemy:

microbes chew the teeth
in nights in winds
in time of the breaking of hymens
in the infamous dens
with the infamous denizens
a judgement from's guts
the dirty man of Europe
loin to loin
and knee

a vindictive 'fuck you' officialdom

"a cry for more money by MI5"

God's fingerprint on things

210

I would have you believe that you're a scoundrel
an imposter

here's my card

I eat on you

I shit doubt

Back>

In Memorium

2007-05-08T17:22:00.000-06:00

Soldiers of the World

(Past, Present, and Future... )

Virginia Tech
(April 16th, 2007)

Kurt Vonnegut
(November 11th, 1922 - April 11th, 2007)

Betty Hutton
(February 26th, 1921 - March 11, 2007)

Richard Jeni
(April 14, 1957 - March 10th, 2007)

Brad Delp
(June 12, 1951 - March 9, 2007)

Stanley Andrews
(October 18th, 1944 - February 13th, 2007)

Scott Kelman
(1936 - February 22nd, 2007)

Anna Nicole Smith
November 28, 1967 - February 8, 2007)

Frankie Laine
(March 30th, 1913 - February 6th, 2007)

Merilene Murphy
(March 20th, 1955 - Feb. 2nd, 2007)

Molly Ivins
(August 30th, 1944 - January 31, 2007)

Sidney Sheldon
(February 11, 1917 - January 30, 2007)

Steve Lowe
(1947 - January 20th, 2007)

Darlene Conley
(July 18th, 1934 - January 14th, 2007)

Ron Carey
(December 11th, 1935 - January 16th, 2007)

Alice Coltrane
(August 27th, 1937 - January 12th, 2007)

Art Buchwald
(October 20th, 1925 - January 17th, 2007)

Robert Anton Wilson
(January 18th, 1932 - January 11th, 2007)

Saddam Hussein
(April 28th, 1937 - December 30th, 2006)

Gerald R. Ford
(July 14th, 1913 - December 26th, 2006)

James Brown
(May 3rd, 1933 - December 25th, 2006)

kari edwards
(December 2nd, 1954 - December 2nd, 2006)

Ed Bradley
(June 22nd, 1941 - November 9th, 2006)

Brad Will
(1970 - October 27th, 2006)

Table of Contents>

2007-05-08T14:10:00.000-06:00

Storm the Whitehouse!
a note from the editor...

In the last two introductions to this journal, I've offered readers a mild behind-the-scenes glimpse into my life as I went through the process of putting the journal together; however, considering the state of the world, at the merciless clutches of the American fist, it is far more fitting to gear this short introduction to the worthy work of the enclosed artists, toward the more public, social domain. With gas reaching $4.00 this summer, and some places higher, pet food killing off our lovely friends, soldiers dying on all sides for a variety of causes, known and unknown, the environment left to settle itself like a popsicle on hot pavement, no end in site for a variety of deadly diseases, no world-wide health care, an over-abundance of neglect in respect toward the world's indigenous peoples, our own food, when it is there, processed so fine and cost-effectively, it leaves us with no nutrition, amazing shelf-life and profit (for some), and Leaky Gut Syndrome - and then there's homelessness, a president willing to veto a hate crime bill and send troops to a battlezone for six and seven tours (tours, I like that - and over here, on the left, you'll see famine and a group of soldiers slaughtering innocent civilians; and on the right, a lovely American flag. Look at her shimmer!) - and all of this, all of it, merely for profit, for money, for paper and its invisible power.

I'm much more "direct action", myself, coming from a family of Mother Jones. It's time to help each other remember that government does not own the people it represents, but quite contrary, the people own that government. Government is merely a service provided to the people it services. It's time to show government, and the businesses who own it, who is in charge. Let's get off our asses and storm the damn White House, surround it, camp out and don't leave until we've got things looking the way they should be. Ransack the place, burn the furniture, string Bush up by his heals like they did Mussolini. He is certainly a worthy candidate for being a criminal of war. This has all been done many times before, but it's as if people have forgotten and simply bow under the swagger of pomp and circumstance. Anyway, this is just one idea of thousands that can be carried out; but picture the solidarity of 10,000,000 citizens surrounding the White House, or parliament, any government building, and peacefully saying by their mere presence, things need to change and we're here to see that it does.

The artists enclosed in this journal are doing their part, as art is, by all means, revolutionary, and works contrary to the bogus notion of capitalism. Their work was provided for free. This journal is free. Let's make sure the world, is free. Truly free; not the American "free" that dictates you can't go to Cuba, can't smoke a joint, can't love another of the same sex, can't can't can't... Let's create freedom - true freedom, health, peace, art, knowledge, understanding, and by all means, let's stop ruining our food, bodies, and earth.

Fuck it! Let's storm the White House! Summer, 2008... ?

Table of Contents>

2007-05-08T13:42:00.001-06:00

Submit to

Watching the Wheels: a Blackbird!

For Issue 4, please email the following to
killcolumbus@hotmail.com:

the work:

artwork, photography, prose, poetry, music, readings,
essays, reviews, storytelling, comics, videos,
recorded stage pieces, translations,
etc.

bio:

including any websites or blogs by the artist

small headshot:

(optional but encouraged)

Rolling Submissions Accepted

Table of Contents>

Credits>

2007-05-08T02:43:00.000-06:00

Watching the Wheels: a Blackbird

is a one man project
slated for the web to ease pocketbook strain
and reach as wide an audience
as possible.

Editor in Chief

Dylan Hock

Cover Art:

"Flight"

by Keith Kumasen Abbott

Cover Design:

Dylan Hock

Other sites of note:

Subday Press

One Less

Artifact Reading Series/Artifact Press

Jim Goar's Blog

Melissa Benham's Site

Kyle Kaufman's Blog

Teresa Sparks' Blog

Pirooz Kalayeh's Blog

Marlowe Fawcett's Blog

John Sullivan's Site

Richard Froude's Blog

Richard Lopez's Blog

Ellen Redbird's Blog

Pun Plamondon's Site

Wanda Cline's Portrait Art Site

Ronnie Hock's Site

Ron Silliman's Blog

Lisa Jarnot's Blog

kari edwards' Blog

Juan Jose Martinez's Blog

Kristin Prevallet's Blog

Pamela Lu's Blog

Rod McKuen's Site

Museum of American Poetics

Ruigoord: Cultural Haven

Harry Smith Archives

Shakespeare & Co. (Paris)

Naropa University

Poetry Project @ St. Mark's

Study Pound in Italy!

Etymology

10X10

Sentence Diagrams

Modern Times Bookstore

Henry David Thoreau's Journal

The Digger Online Free Store

Penn Sound

Lit. Kicks

Poetry Less Than Daily

E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S

The Page

The Literarture Network

Plagiarist Poetry

Chicago Postmodern Poetry

Starving Arts' Site

E-Poetry

Watching the Wheels: a Blackbird

Modern American Poetry

Can We Have Our Ball Back?

The World

Typo

Bullfight Review

Knock

pip.lit

42opus

nidus

The Literary Brothel

One Less

No Tell Motel

LIT

El Pobre Mouse

The Tiny

Snow Monkey

Elimae Books

The Burning Chair

Octopus

Milk

Jack

Conjunctions

The American Drivel Review

Gut Cult

Moist Towelette

Rain Taxi

Chain

Evergreen Review

Cranky Literary Journal

Small Press Distribution

AK Press

Abe Books

Subday Press

One Zero Zero

Flood Editions

Effing Press

Blackbird Letterpress

Artifact Reading Series
The Desert City

Melissa Benham's "Codeswitching"

Pirooz Kalayeh's "The Whopper Strategies"

Pirooz Kalayeh's "How to Build a Lightsaber"

Pirooz Kalayeh's "The Burt Kristbaum Adventures"

Pirooz Kalayeh's "Blood Red Skies of Shikow"

Pun Plamondon's "Lost from the Ottawa: the Story of the Journey Back"

Bombay Gin 28

Bombay Gin 29

Ink: a Literary Brothel

Sean MacInnes' "Critical Series"

Sean MacInnes' "A Room of Trees"

Matt Langley's "(...)"

teresa sparks' "a string of noun"

summer rodman's "a train came by and slowed"

Kyle Kaufman's "The Steely Dan Project"

The Literary Brothel

One Less

El Pobre Mouse

Subday Press

Artifact Reading Series

"Artifact Reading Series" Mentioned in Poets & Writers

Vox Pop Internship

PEW: Fellowships in the Arts

Ronnie Hock's Site

Beto Hale's Site

Ivan Kral's Site

Michael Moore's Site

Move On

Ralph Nader's Site

Human Rights Campaign

Operation Truth

The Digger Archive

Erowid

Table of Contents>

Submissions>

2007-05-08T01:27:00.000-06:00

W a t c h i n g t h e W h e e l s :

a B l a c k b i r d

2007-05-07T23:05:00.000-06:00

Shut The Fuck Up!

shuck n jive squawk box

2007-05-06T00:32:00.000-06:00

Achingly stupid the illusions
I put up with
mmmmmmmmy own for the most part
lately I’ve developed
mmmmmmman extra sensitive vision
notice every wart blotch
mottle broken blood vessel mole
can it be that at this late date
my world is suddenly more distinct

write mainly for that reason
to record my views my vistas
my visions
mmmmmmmgauge
how easily I can be fooled

“humanity will achieve greatness
but madness will continue
mmmmmmmto rule in high places”

how early light illuminates
the leaves transparent new
when after a night of rain garden
under clear skies glistens
I with my coffee sit on the back
step sip contemplate the sparkle

my Irish soul sings in any language

reciprocal gestures are mine to give
both with pleasure and apprehension

the way faceless fear eats at me
there should barely be but a crumb
ever-present concern the micro and
the macro of it by sheer force of will
this poem held together
mmmmmmmmmmmlas I am as well

what’s that word that keeps me from myself

blanching pain after a long week
like an ice cream headache from
taking on too much too fast
mmmmmmmmmmmlgenerous to a fault

Back>

2007-05-05T23:20:00.000-06:00

(Click the page for the larger image.)

Back>

2007-05-05T22:52:00.000-06:00

Separatedmnno number touched
in parkmmmmnlmarbles
chasingmmmmmnlmoney
baseballsmmmmmnplatforms
lltennis ballsmmmmmnshe messed with him
thrown at headsmmmmmlhe wore woman’s
llhead huntingmmmmmsweatshirt
the Brown Paper Bagmmmmhow
picked them upmmnlshe walked in
llthe groupmmmmmmndemanded it back
the lot of themmmmmlwithout saying a word
lnot the baseballsmmmmmlhe was being taken
lbetween the buildingmmmmthe rules posted themselves on the walls
not the tennis ballsmmncharacters in hoods
visited the Natural Blondmnin lines
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmlllin boxes
one business overlookedmmmlltribal
the betweenmmmmmmmmmmnlstreet
lltook the stairs to 2mmmmmncombinations
equipment shrine collectormlof tribal street marbles and scalesmmllweight
looked out window
Blond was sport fanmmmmmthe Supplementary waited
lsold old broken-in mittsmmmmmmnameless
mOther carried laundrymmmmmmllfaceless
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmllnameless
Brown Bag drovemmmmmmmmllllllfaceless
lno licensemmmmmmmmmmmmmjust like that
knew shortcutsmmmmmmmmlhands in hood pockets
llFrontage Mom new allmmmone by one loosing patience
lesbian gossip
llnothing to hide butmmllplatforms
everythingmmmmmmmmmllwhy platforms
lsnide remarkmmmmmmmmmlstones
road an uphill steepest-mmmmnnommmmllno marbles
in world battle
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmlthey were again between buildings
wondered how to turn ontommmmmbrown brick buildings
lhow to merge off ofmmmmmmmmmngrey concrete wlkwys
why not stopmnfall backmmmmmmmmngrass summer green
mhood – slide down to stripmmmlaundry on spin cycle
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhallway half warm
roadsidemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmldamp
the strip was French – no reasonmmmmmmmmmmsteam pipe winter airy
just French – gypsy game
m
platforms

Back>

6 Poems

2007-05-05T22:33:00.000-06:00

Separated

Drive Happy Postcards

Sleep/Night/Dreams
or the definitive coffee poem

The Secret Art of - Burp

Calling all Blues

Second Coat

Once upon a time during the very recent past, Jean-Daniel Louis attended the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, where he had the pleasure of working on the Bombay Gin’s editorial board - culminating as poetry editor for # 32. At present, he lives with his wife and daughter in the Upstate New York hamlet of Phoenicia, within the woods and mountains made famous by a sleepy fellow: Rip Van Winkle. He currently attends Bard College in pursuit of an MAT in English and moonlights at Upstate Films, dealing dollar popcorn with real butter, arty films, local chocolates & coffee, and for the most part, having a good ol’ time of things.

Table of Contents>

Permanent Trailer

2007-05-05T21:43:00.001-06:00

Top of the Line

2007-05-05T21:42:00.002-06:00

Twentysix

2007-05-05T21:42:00.001-06:00

An Illusion of How to Dance Dead

2007-05-05T21:33:00.002-06:00

Europa

2007-05-05T21:33:00.001-06:00

Foxes & Marionettes

2007-05-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

January

2007-05-05T21:31:00.000-06:00

Mouse

2007-05-05T21:30:00.000-06:00

Anyway

2007-05-05T21:29:00.000-06:00

Again (Stars, Mars, & Cars)

2007-05-05T21:28:00.000-06:00

The Company

2007-05-05T21:21:00.000-06:00

Winter Song

2007-05-05T20:21:00.000-06:00

The Company

Again (Star, Mars, & Cars)

Anyway

Mouse

January

Foxes & Marionettes

Europa

An Illusion of How to Dance Dead

Twentysix

Top of the Line

Permanent Trailer

Jeff Bridges and Nick Butner met nearly ten pink balloons with the face of stranger years ago and formed clay into wood paneling inscribed, the seminal, Miami Death Machine, known star systems more for their theatrical stage antics, excessive drunkeness, and broken-bones faces than for innovation. Because of their wildlife stage shows, they quickly built a rapport with animals they kept, building a devoted fantastic base that elevated them to local cult status quo. Soon after the new moon of the new year, Nick Butner, Jeff Bridges, and guitarist Lindy Thompson started a side-bending project away from the band, which heavily intensified the apearance of the muscles on their left sides and also strayed with dogs from the bone-head image of the said to be known group, Miami Death Machine, and focused with newely discovered focus machines of recorded images, capturing more on song writing. Jake Frye was also brought in on drums. The first song given a right to life by way of being written by the band was entitled, "Anyway" - a driving, yet hauntingly soft pop song. Soon after the gold rush, the Miami Death Machine fell into a pitfall which drove them apart due to musical differences and Salmon;Beastman took center stage. Jeff Bridges and Nick Butner, now in their late 20's, had been playing a cow bell flinging prism game, invented by the Russians, post-WWII, to the punk rock crowd for nearly ten years, and they wished like little blown-out god damned candles to do something of grand proportions a little differently. The new band drew more sketches from the likes of the Pixies, Elliot Smith, and Guided by Voices, than the Germs or the Cramps; although a faint, barely discernible whisper of punk rock still drove their snow plows to clear the roadways of Russian song writing. While the Miami Death Machine was embraced with open arms, the new band, which didn't easily fit into a genre, was rejected by way of torturing the same crowd that still wore their Miami Death Machine shirts to local peep shows. Awash in a sea of shifting trends, Salmon;Beastman forged ahead. They knew Frodo must see the ring of power safely destroyed or other star systems would meet the same fate as Alderaan's, finding one or two listeners at each show who sawed their bones styled as a refreshing change of pace. They recorded their first album, Winter Song, on an 8-track in a bedroom. The album exhibits ambitious song writing, with songs ranging in Alps, to the length from 26 second miles, to seven and a half thousand minutes. Although much of the writing was promising hogwash, the recording was a first testament to the bands first two years of victory to the best of 7, which had seen wild mood changes in style and, therefore, resulted in a disjointed shoulder which would godspeed the effort. One year later, it was a year later, and the band returned to recording, this time with long-timed triathalon friend Mike Council as producer. The album is more cohesive but still holds to the same diversity and ambition of the first record. When most people are asked to describe Salmon;Beastman, most think for a moment before admitting they can't really describe it. Salmon;Beastman, despite a straight-ahead approach rock and roll, defies any sort of description or genre. Perhaps an apt description, for lack of a better word, would be Indie rock, albeit, a different breed of Indie rock, from the many slick and polished Killers clones of today. Indie rock with greasy, ripped jeans. In a scene dominate by hyperbole, fashion, flashy acrobatics, and disposable hardcore, and emo, Salmon;Beastman offers up a genuine and simple return to a kind of song writing that is both new, refreshing, and as old as creepy song writing itself.

Table of Contents>