Thursday, September 05, 2013
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Monday, June 27, 2011
BAD DATE AMERICA - September 24, 2011
Larry Sawyer, myself, and Jen Karmin are hosting a Chicago-based event on September 24, 2011 called Bad Date America as part of an international event titled 100 Thousand Poets for Change.
Poets will be sharing their "bad date" stories and use the metaphor to describe the "relationship" they've been having lately with our lovely country.
See the above link for details.
Poets will be sharing their "bad date" stories and use the metaphor to describe the "relationship" they've been having lately with our lovely country.
See the above link for details.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
One Hundred Thousand Poets for Change
Do you want to join other poets around the USA and across the planet in a demonstration/celebration of poetry to promote serious social and political change? 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE is organizing a global event for September 24, 2011. If you think you would like to participate or organize your own event, please sign up on Facebook or contact 100 Thousand Poets for Change at walterblue@bigbridge.org.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Friday, January 02, 2009
My Dream About '"The Snuggery" (from 2007)
Ok. So I had this dream last night that I was at "The Snuggery". Do youse suburbanites remember this 80s coke den? I only was able to get into a later Southside suburban incarnation of The Snuggery, BG Fellows, in Alsip, IL. One of the delightfully sleeziest places I've been in. I think there was a "lingerie show" going on and the bartenders were visibly coked up. In addition (extra points): wood paneling and velvet strips of fabric staple-gunned to said wood paneling.
I found this entertaining essay about a dude who worked at "The Snuggery" after college (Northwestern, in fact) during the height of its popularity--a neon-tinted time warp back to a place in Chicago suburban history, circa 1985, gone forever--enyoy.
In addition, I totally remembered The Sabre Room--the Southwest Suburban Cheese Factory complete with genie sign in Aladdin pants wielding a huge "sabre". Check out the story about "The Flaming Sabre".
Highlights:
1. coming home and tripping over the aquarium and watching Dom Deluise movies and then making a waffle; and
2. "Always ahead of his time, Arnold brought the magic of fiber optic lights to the Sabre Room before fiber optics existed. Intrigued by the glow of flourescent [sic] colors the original dining room was aglow with this magic."
We should be in awe.
Aside from pre-inventing fiber optics--a key innovation in the progress of the later 20th century--this guy somehow created a dining room conscious enough to be enthralled by its own illumination. Not to mention that his fiber optics somehow ran on flour. A Thomas Edison of Italian dining. It's true. Not only did Arnold (and I picture him as Arnold on Happy Days) pave the way for future "pre-inventors" and masters of anthropomorphics alike, he had several girlfriends in the Niagra Falls area.
Who knew you could run an entire operation on flour? Excelsior.
I found this entertaining essay about a dude who worked at "The Snuggery" after college (Northwestern, in fact) during the height of its popularity--a neon-tinted time warp back to a place in Chicago suburban history, circa 1985, gone forever--enyoy.
In addition, I totally remembered The Sabre Room--the Southwest Suburban Cheese Factory complete with genie sign in Aladdin pants wielding a huge "sabre". Check out the story about "The Flaming Sabre".
Highlights:
1. coming home and tripping over the aquarium and watching Dom Deluise movies and then making a waffle; and
2. "Always ahead of his time, Arnold brought the magic of fiber optic lights to the Sabre Room before fiber optics existed. Intrigued by the glow of flourescent [sic] colors the original dining room was aglow with this magic."
We should be in awe.
Aside from pre-inventing fiber optics--a key innovation in the progress of the later 20th century--this guy somehow created a dining room conscious enough to be enthralled by its own illumination. Not to mention that his fiber optics somehow ran on flour. A Thomas Edison of Italian dining. It's true. Not only did Arnold (and I picture him as Arnold on Happy Days) pave the way for future "pre-inventors" and masters of anthropomorphics alike, he had several girlfriends in the Niagra Falls area.
Who knew you could run an entire operation on flour? Excelsior.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
"Darn, I have been hamburglarized"
My head is about to explode. Wikipedia has done it again, confirmed that I am indeed, a vat of useless knowledge as I turn to its delightfully abundant page of information on McDonaldland characters after trying to prove to my officemate that Grimmace did, in fact, have something to do with shakes.
What you're about to read below is intense, so please, read one entry at a time. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT read Mayor McCheese's bio after Hamburglar's. You must read it before to get a sense of Kroc-ian progression. You begin to clearly see the so-called utopia that Kroc's henchmen tried to create where almost everyone is a thief and all authority figures are bumbling fools (except Grimmace, who is just obviously a mockery of the demographic McD's markets to and relies on: obese with hamburger grease in the brain). Disclaimer: No disrespect to McDonald's consumers.
Notice: No history on Ronald, only that he is the primary icon of all McDonald's characters. This brief description would lead one to believe that he is perhaps the Chalabi of the outfit, an opportunist picked as puppet leader yet, unbeknownst to his creators, has an agenda of his own. Or, perhaps he is a modern-day clown Manchurian Candidate?
Warning: If Hamburger Patch lasts for more than four hours, call the Professor. If McNugget Buddies develop, have a Happy Meal Gang.
Finally, does ANYONE remember this Great Gazoo poseur, "Iam Hungry"? He eats everything and won't go away unless you feed him? I don't know if he is Gizmo or one of my ex-boyfriends from high school.
Ronald McDonald, the primary icon of McDonald's characters.
Grimace aka Neicie is a large, purple being of the "wumpus" species (Note to self: look up the genus of "wumpus"; possibly realted to Snuffleuphagus or ALF) with short arms and legs. One alternative theory is that Grimace is a large, walking, talking taste-bud[citation needed]. He is known for his slow-witted demeanor. His most common expression is the word "duh". He was referred to as Ronald's autistic friend on an episode of Family Guy. Originally, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the "good guys", and his number of arms was reduced by two. Commercials and merchandise generally portrayed him as a well-meaning simpleton, whose clumsy antics provided a comic foil to Ronald McDonald. (Jack Tripper?? Gomer Pyle??)The character was retained after the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
The Hamburglar character was a thief that dressed in a black-and-white hooped shirt and pants, a red cape, a wide-brimmed hat, and red gloves whose primary object of theft was hamburgers. (Fergie??) A "Hamburglar" is defined to be one who Hamburgles or commits the act of Hamburglary- the thieving of ham and/or cheesburgers. Ex: "I think the Hamburglar stole my Big Mac, call Ronald!". Ex2: "Where are my burgers? Darn, I have been hamburglarized." (Fo shizzle).
Birdie the Early Bird was the first identifiably female character, introduced in 1980to promote the company's new breakfast items. She is a yellow bird wearing a pink jumpsuit and flight cap and scarf. In the ads she is frequently portrayed as a poor flyer, and somewhat clumsy in general. Birdie's origin is explained in one old commercial: A giant egg falls from the night sky into McDonaldland, and Ronald McDonald decides to show the egg love. When the egg hatches, Birdie was so happy that she had already made friends that she decided to stay in McDonaldland. (My thought is that she was the spawn of the same creators of Barkley the dog on Sesame Street--completely useless--harbinger of death of the show. See Ted McGinley.)
Fry Kids are characters used to promote McDonald's french fries (and traffic them illegally on the street). When they first appeared, they were called Gobblins and liked to steal and gobble up the other characters' french fries. Accompanying them was the "Keep Your Eyes on Your Fries" jingle. Their name was later changed to the Fry Guys, then the Fry Kids, as female characters (the "Fry Girls") were introduced. They are differently-colored, shaggy, ball-like creatures with long legs and no arms, almost resembling a pom-pom with legs and eyes. (Slash?) Most of the time they are mute, but when they speak they talk in some sort of gibberish. (Dubya?) In other commercials, they all talk very quickly at once. (That's because of the crack kicking in). Their only facial features are bulbous eyes and thick eyebrows. (Star Jones?) The characters were retained after the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
Mayor McCheese has an enormous cheeseburger for a head, (WHO DOESN'T??) and sports a top hat, a diplomat's sash, and a pair of prince-nez spectacles. He is portrayed as a giggly, bumbling, somewhat incompetent mayor with a wavering, high-pitched voice that is reminiscent to that of comic actor Ed Wynn. (Or Sarah Palin?) The character was dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the 1980s, He did, however, appear in a 1999 McDonaldland VHS entitled Have Time, Will Travel.(Or was it a Beta?
Officer Big Mac. In addition to McDonald's signature sandwich, Big Mac was the name of a character in McDonaldland. He was similar to Mayor McCheese in that he had a large Big Mac for a head, except he was the chief of police and as such he wore a constable uniform. As the main source of law and order in McDonaldland, he spent most of his time chasing the Hamburglar and Captain Crook. He was featured in several of the campaign's commercials throughout the late '70s and early '80s. The character was dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
Captain Crook was a pirate and is similar in appearance to the famed Captain Hook from Disney's 1953 movie Peter Pan. Unlike the Hamburglar, this villain spent his time trying to steal Filet-O-Fish sandwiches from citizens of McDonaldland (especially the women-folk) while avoiding being caught by Officer Big Mac, the Chief of Police of McDonaldland. As part of the nautical theme of the character, Captain Crook used ships and waterways as means to escape being captured. In his final appearances, he was renamed simply "The Captain" and his character design made less sinister. The character was dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
The Hamburger Patch is part of the fictional city of McDonaldland where McDonald's hamburgers "grew" like fruit (or weed) on plants from the Hamburger Patch. Even though hamburgers in McDonaldland were anthropomorphized and spoke, they were picked by characters such as Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar for consumption. (Cannibals! It's like using Mrs. Butterworth. Would you seriously put her syrup blood on your buckwheat cakes?) Advertisements featuring the Hamburger Patch were shown as evidence during the McLibel court case in the United Kingdom. During questioning by defendants, McDonald's Senior Vice President of Marketing David Green admitted that showing the reality of meat production "would not be very appetizing". (Really? You don't think showing children how to stun a cow with a million volts of electricty to the skull and then skinning it and bleeding it on the floor amongst scraps of intestines and feces would be appetizing? Why not? I SAY MOO-MENDOUS! HOOF-liciouss!) The Hamburger Patch also featured in books and toys used to promote McDonald's. The characters were dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
Iam Hungry was a short-lived McDonaldland character. He was introduced in 1998 and dropped in the early 2000s. The character was a floating green fuzzball with orange arms and a monstrous face. He would often appear when Ronald was dining with kids and would constantly crave food. He would never leave them alone until he got fed. (See above)
CosMc (aka Spicolli) was a temporary character from McDonaldland. He was featured in a series of McDonald's commercials in 1990 when the McDonaldland gang went to the moon. CosMc was an alien who wore a large space suit, and he talked like a surfer dude. CosMc was featured as a character on the video game, M.C. Kids.
The Happy Meal Gang. Cheeseburger, soft drink, and fries, all regular size, later joined by the McNugget Buddies.
The Professor, a mad scientist type character in a lab coat. He was introduced in 1971. (Mengele?)
Uncle O'Grimacey was created for an advertising narrative of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain both in celebration of St. Patrick's Day and to mark the annual appearance of the Shamrock Shake. (And so that McDonaldland could have a local pub to drink themselves into a coma in, to remind themselves that they just imaginary, and nothing in their miserable existences really matters, and that no one needs anyone, you hear? I don't need your pity or your shit anymore...yeah? Well f u!) O'Grimacey is the Irish uncle of the character Grimace and is a variant of the Grimace-design in that he is green instead of purple, sports a frock coat covered with several four-leaf clovers, and carries a shillelagh. (And he dances like Michael Flatley). His design motif is not unlike that of a stereotypical depiction of the Irish folkloric Leprechaun,(or from the movie Leprechaun) similar to the mascot of the football team for University of Notre Dame. O'Grimacey resides in his home country for eleven months of the year and visits his nephew Grimace in March, bringing with him his "incredibly delicious" shake.(Do I even need to say it? Secret sauce?) Uncle O'Grimacey is no longer used by the chain for its promotions of the shake. (Because he spent 6 years in Chino for being a pederast).
Many of the dropped characters were still visible to the public years after being eliminated from the advertising campaigns, remaining incorporated among the core characters in the restaurant's "Playland" playgrounds, and in the McDonaldland-themed Happy Meal toys.
What you're about to read below is intense, so please, read one entry at a time. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT read Mayor McCheese's bio after Hamburglar's. You must read it before to get a sense of Kroc-ian progression. You begin to clearly see the so-called utopia that Kroc's henchmen tried to create where almost everyone is a thief and all authority figures are bumbling fools (except Grimmace, who is just obviously a mockery of the demographic McD's markets to and relies on: obese with hamburger grease in the brain). Disclaimer: No disrespect to McDonald's consumers.
Notice: No history on Ronald, only that he is the primary icon of all McDonald's characters. This brief description would lead one to believe that he is perhaps the Chalabi of the outfit, an opportunist picked as puppet leader yet, unbeknownst to his creators, has an agenda of his own. Or, perhaps he is a modern-day clown Manchurian Candidate?
Warning: If Hamburger Patch lasts for more than four hours, call the Professor. If McNugget Buddies develop, have a Happy Meal Gang.
Finally, does ANYONE remember this Great Gazoo poseur, "Iam Hungry"? He eats everything and won't go away unless you feed him? I don't know if he is Gizmo or one of my ex-boyfriends from high school.
Ronald McDonald, the primary icon of McDonald's characters.
Grimace aka Neicie is a large, purple being of the "wumpus" species (Note to self: look up the genus of "wumpus"; possibly realted to Snuffleuphagus or ALF) with short arms and legs. One alternative theory is that Grimace is a large, walking, talking taste-bud[citation needed]. He is known for his slow-witted demeanor. His most common expression is the word "duh". He was referred to as Ronald's autistic friend on an episode of Family Guy. Originally, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the "good guys", and his number of arms was reduced by two. Commercials and merchandise generally portrayed him as a well-meaning simpleton, whose clumsy antics provided a comic foil to Ronald McDonald. (Jack Tripper?? Gomer Pyle??)The character was retained after the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
The Hamburglar character was a thief that dressed in a black-and-white hooped shirt and pants, a red cape, a wide-brimmed hat, and red gloves whose primary object of theft was hamburgers. (Fergie??) A "Hamburglar" is defined to be one who Hamburgles or commits the act of Hamburglary- the thieving of ham and/or cheesburgers. Ex: "I think the Hamburglar stole my Big Mac, call Ronald!". Ex2: "Where are my burgers? Darn, I have been hamburglarized." (Fo shizzle).
Birdie the Early Bird was the first identifiably female character, introduced in 1980to promote the company's new breakfast items. She is a yellow bird wearing a pink jumpsuit and flight cap and scarf. In the ads she is frequently portrayed as a poor flyer, and somewhat clumsy in general. Birdie's origin is explained in one old commercial: A giant egg falls from the night sky into McDonaldland, and Ronald McDonald decides to show the egg love. When the egg hatches, Birdie was so happy that she had already made friends that she decided to stay in McDonaldland. (My thought is that she was the spawn of the same creators of Barkley the dog on Sesame Street--completely useless--harbinger of death of the show. See Ted McGinley.)
Fry Kids are characters used to promote McDonald's french fries (and traffic them illegally on the street). When they first appeared, they were called Gobblins and liked to steal and gobble up the other characters' french fries. Accompanying them was the "Keep Your Eyes on Your Fries" jingle. Their name was later changed to the Fry Guys, then the Fry Kids, as female characters (the "Fry Girls") were introduced. They are differently-colored, shaggy, ball-like creatures with long legs and no arms, almost resembling a pom-pom with legs and eyes. (Slash?) Most of the time they are mute, but when they speak they talk in some sort of gibberish. (Dubya?) In other commercials, they all talk very quickly at once. (That's because of the crack kicking in). Their only facial features are bulbous eyes and thick eyebrows. (Star Jones?) The characters were retained after the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
Mayor McCheese has an enormous cheeseburger for a head, (WHO DOESN'T??) and sports a top hat, a diplomat's sash, and a pair of prince-nez spectacles. He is portrayed as a giggly, bumbling, somewhat incompetent mayor with a wavering, high-pitched voice that is reminiscent to that of comic actor Ed Wynn. (Or Sarah Palin?) The character was dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the 1980s, He did, however, appear in a 1999 McDonaldland VHS entitled Have Time, Will Travel.(Or was it a Beta?
Officer Big Mac. In addition to McDonald's signature sandwich, Big Mac was the name of a character in McDonaldland. He was similar to Mayor McCheese in that he had a large Big Mac for a head, except he was the chief of police and as such he wore a constable uniform. As the main source of law and order in McDonaldland, he spent most of his time chasing the Hamburglar and Captain Crook. He was featured in several of the campaign's commercials throughout the late '70s and early '80s. The character was dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
Captain Crook was a pirate and is similar in appearance to the famed Captain Hook from Disney's 1953 movie Peter Pan. Unlike the Hamburglar, this villain spent his time trying to steal Filet-O-Fish sandwiches from citizens of McDonaldland (especially the women-folk) while avoiding being caught by Officer Big Mac, the Chief of Police of McDonaldland. As part of the nautical theme of the character, Captain Crook used ships and waterways as means to escape being captured. In his final appearances, he was renamed simply "The Captain" and his character design made less sinister. The character was dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
The Hamburger Patch is part of the fictional city of McDonaldland where McDonald's hamburgers "grew" like fruit (or weed) on plants from the Hamburger Patch. Even though hamburgers in McDonaldland were anthropomorphized and spoke, they were picked by characters such as Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar for consumption. (Cannibals! It's like using Mrs. Butterworth. Would you seriously put her syrup blood on your buckwheat cakes?) Advertisements featuring the Hamburger Patch were shown as evidence during the McLibel court case in the United Kingdom. During questioning by defendants, McDonald's Senior Vice President of Marketing David Green admitted that showing the reality of meat production "would not be very appetizing". (Really? You don't think showing children how to stun a cow with a million volts of electricty to the skull and then skinning it and bleeding it on the floor amongst scraps of intestines and feces would be appetizing? Why not? I SAY MOO-MENDOUS! HOOF-liciouss!) The Hamburger Patch also featured in books and toys used to promote McDonald's. The characters were dropped during the streamlining of the characters in the '80s.
Iam Hungry was a short-lived McDonaldland character. He was introduced in 1998 and dropped in the early 2000s. The character was a floating green fuzzball with orange arms and a monstrous face. He would often appear when Ronald was dining with kids and would constantly crave food. He would never leave them alone until he got fed. (See above)
CosMc (aka Spicolli) was a temporary character from McDonaldland. He was featured in a series of McDonald's commercials in 1990 when the McDonaldland gang went to the moon. CosMc was an alien who wore a large space suit, and he talked like a surfer dude. CosMc was featured as a character on the video game, M.C. Kids.
The Happy Meal Gang. Cheeseburger, soft drink, and fries, all regular size, later joined by the McNugget Buddies.
The Professor, a mad scientist type character in a lab coat. He was introduced in 1971. (Mengele?)
Uncle O'Grimacey was created for an advertising narrative of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain both in celebration of St. Patrick's Day and to mark the annual appearance of the Shamrock Shake. (And so that McDonaldland could have a local pub to drink themselves into a coma in, to remind themselves that they just imaginary, and nothing in their miserable existences really matters, and that no one needs anyone, you hear? I don't need your pity or your shit anymore...yeah? Well f u!) O'Grimacey is the Irish uncle of the character Grimace and is a variant of the Grimace-design in that he is green instead of purple, sports a frock coat covered with several four-leaf clovers, and carries a shillelagh. (And he dances like Michael Flatley). His design motif is not unlike that of a stereotypical depiction of the Irish folkloric Leprechaun,(or from the movie Leprechaun) similar to the mascot of the football team for University of Notre Dame. O'Grimacey resides in his home country for eleven months of the year and visits his nephew Grimace in March, bringing with him his "incredibly delicious" shake.(Do I even need to say it? Secret sauce?) Uncle O'Grimacey is no longer used by the chain for its promotions of the shake. (Because he spent 6 years in Chino for being a pederast).
Many of the dropped characters were still visible to the public years after being eliminated from the advertising campaigns, remaining incorporated among the core characters in the restaurant's "Playland" playgrounds, and in the McDonaldland-themed Happy Meal toys.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Algebra Suicide
Enjoy Lydia Tomkiw, belle of Chicago's disjointed poetic collaboration, Algebra Suicide. How true and tragic these turns:
"It's was keeps our glands oiling."
I was also given (to borrow) Joe Soap's Canoe from the UK (Copyright 1991) which included essays on poems that poets were assigned. Citics/essayists included Paul Violi, Tony Towle, and Simon Pettet, among others.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
"The Fall"
A visually stunning movie about a beautiful little Persian girl with a wild imagination who worked in the citrus groves of California in 1913, and who is in a sanotorium/hospital after falling and breaking her arm. She meets a young suicidal actor who tells her tall tales while they are both in the hospital. The director is Tarsem, helped with producers Spike Jonze and David Fincher.
An absolutely captivating spectacle of scenery and two great lead actors who make this story of the human condition and connection resonate. Some nods to Fellini and Jordorowsky.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Daumal & Soyinka
I tend to tag-team read, that is, I read about 3-4 books at a time. This past week, every morning on the train, I've cracked open the Rene Daumal book, Le Contre-Ciel (The Counter-Heaven) that Simone bought me for my birthday. Daumal is a self-destructive 22-year old at this point, one who is raging with life questions, specifically how to bring about the realization of the inner-self. Daumal found the teachings of Gurdjieff and with them, took on his approach: to bring out the true inner-self, man must rise up against himself and eliminate any aspect of his extrinsic reality which is not fundamental to what he is. His method was described as "metaphysical suicide".
According to this philosophy, "man must separate himself from those limits by systematically negating the reality of the mind-body complex."
I'll let you know how my voluntary destruction to get my essence is coming along after I read some of the poetry.
In the meantime, I also have been reading A Shuttle in the Crypt by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, Nigerian poet, playwright and novelist.
The first line of the introduction: "The shuttle is a unique species of the caged animal, a restless bolt of energy, a trapped weaver-bird yet charged in repose with unspoken forms and designs. In motion or at rest it is a secretive seed, shrine, kernel, phallus and well of creative mysteries."
Somehow I felt my inner weaver-bird stir as I began to draw an atom-like structure/diagram in my notebook of all the men who have hurt me in my life.
Poems that will flow from Daumal and Soyinka to come.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
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