Wednesday, May 31, 2006

if you care, you must be evil...

I don't understand the constant "Swiftboating" of Al Gore that is going on in the media. it is sickening that the instant someone does something that indicates real concern about a topic that affects all of us, they are "do gooding elitists, hippie tree huggers" or worse. in reality, I defy anyone to name ONE REAL SOCIAL BENEFIT that has arisen from ANY rightwing, capitalist initiative. sure, SOME people are making a shitload of money these days, but WHERE IS THE MIDDLE CLASS? how many are one emergency away from a bankruptcy they can no longer even file, thanks to legislation passed by an ENTIRELY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED GOVERNMENT. I mean liberals have only done one or two things for America after all (I am too lazy to footnote all of these). and really, GLOBAL WARMING: is there any reason to say FUCK IT and hope for the best? the Jaded Prole has more, observing that it might be smartest to err on the side of survival, right?

anyway, you can believe that if this criminally stupid administration's unchecked bloodlust for control, for power, and for money is ever reigned in even slightly, you will have some liberal to blame for it. you can count on the "fair and balanced" folks at Fox News to take care of that for you.

damn do-gooders.

our new clothes...

is something different? (no, j.b you're not having a stroke) indeed. we here at the compound got curious about some HTML shit after Mom said she couldn't easily make out some of the links because of the prevous subtle color shadings. so we did a bit of scrounging and came up with this here. look around. does it work for you? I kind of like it, a bit more dark and heavy, if colors can do that. so now the active links are in olive and the spent links are in maroon.

a real post forthcoming...

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

a first step...

towards having a proper webpage where you, the accidental reader, can purchase my literary offerings when available. I plan on putting up some of the limited edition stuff I do sometimes as well as information about my various bullshit, and eventually, poems too.

right now it is under construction (and kind of sad), but there are a couple of photos and I will shape it up when I have time. of course, the blog here at UPRIGHT is still the place to go for current events, art/political madness, and edicts from the Compound.

go and pledge your devotion to The Church of the Black Pearl.

you won't be disappointed with the heavenly rewards you will surely receive.

Monday, May 29, 2006

justice for all I guess...

I hadn't heard about this until tonight on The Majority Report (which isn't surprising considering the financially motivated right wing slant of the media CONGLOMERATES that "own" the news), but it sure is tragically hilarious in its ironic justice.

I mean, the Repugs do nothing except battle for the rights of Big Business in this country, they bow and scrape for their lobbyists, they play poker and nail hookers for the contacts within Industry for the Greater Good of All Powerful Capitalism, so it is a fine thing when they taste the diseased fruit of their labors.

and when their children one day cannot step outside and draw a lungful of even terribly polluted air with a few scant molecules of oxygen left in the sea of CO2, when the coastlines vanish and slip inland, when the world is a miserable place for humanity, THEY will be held to account in the historical record.

if there is anyone left to read it.

some non-blogged comments...

UPDATED:

as a writer, it often appears that you work into a void. there is usually a long lag time between a magazine/journal's acceptance of and then final publication of a poem or bit of fiction. certainly there is space between book publications if you are lucky enough to find anyone who cares enough and has cash enough to put one out (and that is if you have the work to fill one) into a world that cares very very little for poetry. at least on a daily basis, as it is my experience that when people hurt, when the pain is more than they can communicate, when the emotions fill up the guts and threaten to destroy them (and of course, me by extension, or better yet, us) most folks reach for a poem in some form. this form could be the Bible (full of metaphor) or Buddhist texts or plain old secular literature or some fragment of a poem they heard someplace, etc; they reach for an old familiar song (poetry in motion), they reach out crying, they reach and the right line, the right word, the right note can ease the suffering a bit, can act as a lifeline to sanity, dragging us back from the brink of despair.

but sometimes you get lucky and you get some feedback while you're alive. and in a subtly veiled self-congratulatory effort to help Bill at Bottle of Smoke Press sell some books of mine that he has courageously decided to publish, I offer some damning praise heaped upon the broadside words like terror from the forthcoming And Still The Night Left To Go: Poems & Letters. thanks to Bill for sending these along to me:

HI cc,
Here are some comments on the little poem... More later

Thanks for the great "Words Like Terror." Great poem..very nice design/print job... -- Jeffrey Weinberg - Waterrow Books

I got the remarkable poem, so needed in my poet's heart right now, from Bottle of Smoke, by C. Cunningham. I am so pleased to have it. Great friggin job! -- Ann Menebroker, Poet

Thank you for Words Like Terror. First of all, the poem is good; I can "hear" it. The choice of font, paper and execution of the presswork is excellent. And the binding, or presentation, is about the finest thing I've seen for something of comparable size. Just a mind blowing item. -- Richard Krech, Poet & former Publisher

Got the mini-broadside, WORDS LIKE TERROR by Christopher Cunningham. Excellent! Beautifully printed, and a great little poem. I've already read it a dozen times and it just gets better. Please thank him for inscribing it to me with the cool little typer drawing. You both outdid yourselves with this one. I know the book will be exceptional. -- David Barker, Poet

cunningham's poem is just unreal, like all of his stuff....i cannot wait to see that book....oh, it will be so amazing....thank you so much for sending all this stuff! :) -- justin.barrett, Poet and former sufferer of writers block


now go there and preorder a copy of And Still The Night Left To Go: Poems & Letters, and Bill will send you a copy of the broadside gratis. help the small press rise up and destroy the pasty thin walls of the academic, anemic, Pinsky-esque, empty headed, worthless, incestuous and cockshaking University Boys. real art is made daily with blood and timeclocks and hard fucking work. real art is made with sweat and spit and wild singing in the darkness. real art is improvised and unstoppable.

it is the concrete soul of man.

now: please tell me I'm full of myself and give me some coordinates for sticking it. I'll understand...

back in the saddle redux...

and we here at The Compound take a moment to celebrate the glorious return to the blogosphere of our buddy and occasional UPRIGHT contributor, fantastic poet and writer, general Friend of Mankind and all around good sort: justin.barrett.

check out a good site for all sorts of real life shit as well as some great small press poetry world reportage.

more later kids...

good ol' Grateful Dead...

sitting here in the first wave of the coming summer heat, drinking wine and pecking away aimlessly at the typewriter. nothing immortal yet, thought I'd take a moment to post something The Girl and I were watching/listening to earlier today. here is the video. it is Jerry and the Dead on Hugh Hefner's 'Playboy After Dark' from 1969. we were struck by a number of things (not the least of which is the obvious fun the band is having in the midst of such strange surroundings) but mostly the fact that this is 1969, and the height of Vietnam is raging in the far east. an ugly war full of misery and death, war protests rocking the country, Woodstock in the offing, Nixon and the Hell's Angels and the popularization of the so-called 'hippie' lifestyle, whatever that was/is. a truly unique time in our history, as HST noted, a time when "the wave broke and rolled back." and in the middle of it all, the band is concerned with the creation of music; with the making of ART. this is a facet of the Dead's organization that I've always appreciated: their unwillingness to make noise about their personal politics. they never did political benefits (maybe one or two), they never lent their name to causes (other than purely social causes, such as via the Rex Foundation they started, and etc.), they decided early on to let their music say whatever needed saying.

I plan on letting my poetry do this for me.

much like jazz, the Dead are a purely American anomaly, something that could only exist here, that could only grow out of the convergence of American musical styles, culture, hell, the drugs (after all, it was the CIA's project in Palo Alto that tested LSD on willing subjects such as Ken Kesey, Robert Hunter and others that helped spread the whole thing in the first place, building on an existing desire in the subculture to explore the mind, the "doors of perception," etc.), the literary movement of the Beats, and many other factors. their music is a vast exploration of the universe, as well as a comfortable talk on the front porch with a wise old friend.

enjoy my favorite band at the peak of their weirdness, just before settling down somewhat and composing the American masterpieces "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty" (sometimes called "American Reality").

I hope you explore the music (and the scene) furthur.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

and please welcome...

j.b and -H. to the fold as occasional contributors to UPRIGHT. both stellar poets of the highest caliber, published all over the world and also quite well-versed in the methodologies/philosophies we employ/live by here at The Compound. they understand What's Right. you will hear more from these guys in the future I'm certain.

UPDATE:

please also welcome Luis to UPRIGHT as well. a fine human being and brilliant poet. maybe these guys will make this blog readable at long last.

"sanity time..."

dig this, kids, some sanity courtesy of the Jaded Prole

and then:

dig this.

I don't know what captures the beauty and tragedy, the gentle melancholy of this animal life better than Buk and Miles.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

how's this...

for a sickening exchange between a reporter who cares and has actually won a Bronze Star and some Rumsfeldiean minion with NO APPARENT CLUE about what is really important here.

read on.

DO THIS FOR MEMORIAL DAY...

and any time we pause and think about the misery our Dear Leader has inflicted NEEDLESSLY upon these TRUE HEROES, these fearless defenders of a Grand Idea, a Great Experiment in Democracy that has been miserably hijacked by greedy, sick evil deviants, twisted freaks oozing up from the foulest, most diseased shitpile, horrible miscarriages of humanity. it is IMPORTANT that those who REALLY CARE are supported.

I mean, jesus, that vets and their families have to DO THIS AT ALL is one of the worst, the absolute fucking worst things I can POSSIBLY IMAGINE. if you look at this administration's record in the Vet benefits department you will be sickened. I will look around and find something later.

more soon...

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I'm sure you've seen this...

more bird flu...

from Daily Kos comes an interesting diary with more information on the whole thing.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

variety pack of fun...

it isn't enough that the companies in this country can screw us at will, but now anyone can be Dear Leader, if Dear Leader wishes it.

there have not been many who've spoken out against the violation of seperate branches of gov't after the AG ordered an invasion of alleged bribe recipient Jefferson, but good ol' Denny Hastert did: no wonder he is against the FBI raiding Jefferson's office (no matter how UNCONSTITUTIONAL it is anyway).

I've not seen "Baghdad E.R." as I don't have cable (not that I need television to prove to me that this war is ugly and wrong on many many levels) but I'm sure I couldn't have said it better myself.

just observing what folks are sayin'. I'm not sayin' nothin'. hear that NSA? I HAVE NO ACTIONABLE OPINION WHATSOEVER. thanks for listening and reading.

the Enabling Act gave a group of madmen the authority to disobey any law they didn't care for and create any law they wished. this couldn't be anything like that, could it?

but at least all of our carefully monitored communications will be safe from thieves, hackers, ill-intentioned politicos, etc. right?

this is for The Girl's father's edification.

please check out the new link to live music. there are many great shows to download for free and/or stream while you pluck away at the typewriter/computer. listen to some good Grateful Dead or some Georgia-bred Blueground Undergrass, or how about some Calexico (one of my most favorite bands). enjoy browsing. (Luis, check out the list of Cracker).

I stumbled on this while digging around YouTube, but didn't think to post it. glad someone did: enjoy. (this is almost as funny...)

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

and then...

there's this.

bottled water and duct tape. buy some shares of Tamiflu like Rumsfeld (too lazy to find the link...).

neat.

quick literary update...

my publisher and I at sunnyoutside are finalizing the layout/design for my first trade paperback of poems called Flowers In The Shadow Of The Storm, which will be released sometime in early September. this book features all new, unpublished poems, perfect bound with a cover handpainted in acrylics. of course, each cover will be unique and different from its siblings. I did some samples for David the other night and they turned out pretty damn fine. more on this release as it draws nigh.

I've signed copies of the mini-broadside words like terror from Bottle of Smoke Press, and they should be available soon. check with Bill and get yourself one, they turned out great.

got my copy of the magazine STUDIO from Australia. this edition is their 25 year anthology and I've one poem in it. this is a magazine that bills itself as a "journal of Christians writing," and I find that inside are poems that rarely directly address the concept of "Christianity." mostly they dance around the periphery of spirituality, using ordinary life's myriad metaphors. I stumbled on the mag accidentally, seeing a listing in some obscure small press publication. I've had a long discussion via letter with the editor inre: religion vs. art. at first I clearly spelled out my boderline atheism to him, wanting full disclosure after he accepted a number of my poems. in his reply he evinced a genuine spirituality that, to me, transcended the concept of "Christian," especially as it is practiced in GW Bush's Official God-Fearing America. like the article on atheism indicates, What's Right (which conceptually I stole straightaway from HST) merely IS; it is an idea that operates independently of "God's Watchful Eye." it needs no list of rules, it needs no chants, no iconography, no hypocritical selfishness nor exclusivity. it DOES however require sacrifice (often going against CW, ideas of 'normalcy,' etc.), it requires one to rise above oneself at times to discover new realms of truth, to leap from high places unsure of what lies below knowing that the leap is what matters. it is the face that looks back at us from the foggy bathroom mirror.

it is interesting that someone with such a vaunted anti-organized religion bias as myself can reach a clear understanding about the power of the poem to describe our condition as humans with someone who believes so strongly in the "Church." this guy is a fine example of how I find art to be a transcendant link that crosses such arbitrary boundries as which God you think is the right one, is something of an equalizer between competing ideologies (or at least a middle ground where conversation and communication can occur). the Right Line/Right Word slices effortlessly across such articles of Control, neatly cauterizes the wound caused by superstition and fear of death. always, great art serves the cause of What's Right. it pushes the human being forward, ignoring all 'isms.'

and as for old man Death, great art helps us step into the boat, knowing that the best part of us, the deepest essences of our selves, have been preserved in poem, in skipping notes from trumpet bells, on thick paint splattered canvases, upon the cave walls. this is important, is more real than a magician in the sky. this is the tangible hand to hold that helps us along, thru the very real mystery of this animal life.

more later...

Sunday, May 21, 2006

sunday night religion...

check it out, see what you think: atheism is the better christianity

I've always held that What's Right is beyond debate. there are some things a person does because to not do them would be Wrong. and vice versa.

it is why we question the answers here at the compound.

and why we have never particularly cared for labels.

do What's Right. it'll suffice.

(more from Pharyngula)

Thursday, May 18, 2006

this animal life...

as each bleeding morning fades into another smoke blackened midnight, as each howling dog in rusted chains seeps perfectly into the next and the next, as each face you meet dissolves into dust and shadow then is replaced by another ghost with missing eyes, as each lie is repeated until it becomes an ugly truth another part of my mind withers, another rough diamond in my spirit is pulverized into glittering atoms.

here at the compound we struggle mightily with our mortality, with that of others close to us. we wrestle with the equation of time versus meaning and how these factors interact with and intersect the strange realms of politics and men diseased with power, with money, with animal desires. we weigh the value of art, of creation with the battle for the soul in the world of ordinary human affairs. we are curious if any effort in any direction can ever be called worthwhile when held up against the real fight for What's Right. I mean, wringing poems from an old filthy typewriter while the red wine is poured and the smoke is thick and the broken windows keep the heavy darkness at bay for a while, this is a fine life, a good life.

but could this life be possible in pre-Hitler Germany? could one sit by and write poems in a cocoon of uneasy comfort while the war drums thundered in the distance? how can it matter, these small words of illumination, when the tumor has grown maligniant and obvious below the surface of the skin? when the tanks are massing and the Memory Hole is burning hot? when we cannot even look into the mirror for desperate fear of what we are certain to find in its crystal depths?

we struggle with this, here at the compound. but we write on in the face of it. we keep our eyes narrowed to peering slits and finger the cold steel of the revolver. we are ready to fight but we are thinking about curling lines of mysterious poetry.

dangerous times for art. and all of us.

Monday, May 15, 2006

monday...

Saturday, May 13, 2006

good news, bad news...

Friday, May 12, 2006

read this...

how much is it to change my service?...

okay. it has REALLY gone too far. we must call our providers and make some noise on this. here is some verizon info, the comments are also very informative.

creeping fascism, growing bolder with each terrible midnight, gathering power.

read what our good friend the jaded prole has to say about it.

dangerous times indeed...

UPDATE:

look at the Preznit's defense of this sick violation of our privacy. I do note that Verizon Wireless (my carrier) "flatly denies" participation in the program. small fucking relief, as if they AREN'T monitoring the cellphones, WHAT DO THEY THINK THE TERRORISTS ARE USING?

fuck.

I mean

fuck.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

somebody tell me...

if Michael Moore or any of his charities, investment porfolios, etc. own HALLIBURTON STOCK? I read this recently and it seems to be true that he (or one of his direct affiliates) own some 2000 shares. now, I found this at a rightwingnut blog, and of course take it with a grain of salt. FOR NOW. but I took his link down because if it IS true, then I cannot in any way support such a hypocritical stance.

and why do NONE of the blogs that garner respect in the blogosphere as well as the MSM link to him or his site?

I definitely need more info on Mr. Moore personally.
here is the moronic rightwingnut blog. it doesn't bother to SHOW the tax return, but I also cannot find on Google any serious refutation.

I dunno.

Monday, May 08, 2006

more 1984...

is it a perch or is it a large mouth bass?

read Daou and you tell me.

the folks at the Ministry of Truth have been very very busy.

it's a small catch but very indicative of what swims in a larger, more putrid ocean.

but this is really all I've been able to think about. glad the folks at Hegemon found the video.

if you haven't seen this yet...

I swear...

I'm not begging electronically, but you will now find buttons to make donations to the cause of Starving Artist. all money will go directly to funding poetry related projects, i.e. time to write poetry, make broadsides, etc. also, the buttons can be used to purchase copies of my work until I get a proper webpage. any new books, old books (that are still in print and available), broadsides and ephemera you read about here or elsewhere can be purchased directly from my greasy ass.

currently available:

1. a few copies of Thru the Heart of This Animal Life, A Measure of Impossible Humor, the prize winning chapbook with handpainted covers; $6 ea.

2. about ten copies of 18 Blue Collar Abstractions with handmade 'workshirt' covers (real buttons, real name patch); $5 ea.

3. two copies of the broadside This Dying Flame Like Gold, a poem on handmade Indian paper set on a black board with handpainted acrylic fire; $20 ea.

4. two copies of the limited release broadside from Bottle of Smoke Press of the poem "all these things recline unconcerned" from the all broadside magazine Bottle #4; $2 ea.

5. two copies of the limited release broadside from Bottle of Smoke Press of the poem "punch;" $1 ea.

6. ten copies of the broadside "a hard love waiting for death," a five poem broadside narrative from the now-defunct Kitty Litter Press; $1 ea.

7. one copy of the handmade booklet/broadside "Letter To McCreesh"; $10.

just shoot an email to thelastpoet@hotmail.com inre: which item you want.

more later. thanks.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

one way or the other...

WWIII

aliens. really?...

I dunno about this here. sounds kinda Dale Gribble to me. but jeez, who knows? the BBC? NASA? Dubya? you?

we'll know for sure when we are toiling away in their underground sugar mines, enslaved to the bubbleheaded, big eyed Close Encounters freaks.

neat.

saturday spin...

a few goodies from the blogosphere recently:

lipstick on a pig

hookers? no, spend more time with family

fluency, sweet fluency

is he or is he not?

indirect spin

a masterful spinner faced with the truth


the president either speaks Spanish or he is pimping spanish to gullible voters. either way it is a sickening way to abuse an entire culture for political gain. he is a master of pandering, for sure. Goss either played poker with hookers or he just doesn't play well with Negraponte (h/t the Jaded Prole). I mean, nobody EVER resigns in this speedy fashion, without appropriate hoopla, unless there is SERIOUS trouble. listen to THEIR MAN KRISTOL. where is the media's Carwreck Index of Hideous Slack-Jawed Gawking on the whole hookers/congressfolk/Watergate Hotel thingy? they sure love it when babies die or houses burn or citizens get murdered or there's traffic. this is SO six o'clock news sensationalism. it will SELL ADSPACE, I promise, if they'd just DO THEIR JOB and report what is REALLY going on in our government. and really, Rummy, does anyone believe there are any "known unknowns" left? jesus christ, you said this shit, my man. it is on record you "bulletproof" liar. this is a disgusting sampling of how reality can be easily twisted by a compliant media and an overworked, undereducated, apathetic population ready to believe the easiest answer. hard truth sometimes demands radical and painful reorganizations of our thought processes. it requires us to accept that we may have been wrong. it might shatter some illusions. it might bring some disturbing clarity. but it also frees us.

some things are true. some things are real. it doesn't matter how it is 'reported' and it doesn't matter what someone 'believes' and it isn't a matter of 'faith.' the truth IS.

spin that, Bill O'Reilly.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

back in the saddle...

a very big thanks to all who offered their sympathies to me and my family over the last few days. your kindness has been deeply felt and appreciated.

and now, be dismayed. at least we won't be surprised by the next Dubya: the children are our future

much more later...
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