Author: admin

  • The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch

    So I was talking to one of my brothers last night, and we agreed that this Pynchon book has bedeviled us long enough. Me, I’ve started Gravity’s Rainbow at least 3 times. And let’s just say I’m very familiar with the first 30 pages. OK, sentences. OK, consonants. Hell, I’ve never even finished The Crying of Lot 49 and that’s a damn pamphlet.
    So we made a pact. We made a death pact. You know, minus the death. 50 pages a week, starting the first week in January. No stopping till we reach the other side. Then we thought: hey! There must be other folks out there who’ve been similarly confounded. Let’s see if we can gather together a tribe of like-minded long-suffers and tackle this beast en masse. Thus was born The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch.
    We’d like to use this site as a forum, post an open thread once a week for shared thoughts, comfort. Mebbe I’ll even spring for some exciting incredibly cheap end-of-journey prizes for them what make it all the way through, and manage to check in each week, all depending on how many people are interested.
    So that’s the shpiel. All are welcome — friends, foes, strangers, passersby. If you’re reading this, and if you’re interested in joining, drop a comment here, or send me an email. We’ll work out the details in the next couple of weeks.
    I hear the clamor of boots, the clatter of coffee cups, the straightening of glasses. Today we order paperbacks and shuffle through dusty shelves for old unread college copies. For tomorrow we ride!
    -Cecil
    update: if you’re buying a copy, I’m told one handsome option is this swank Penguin edition. That’s the one I’ll be picking up, fwiw.

  • For Every Man There’s a Woman

    Good golly do I love the standards. A while back, you may recall, I posted covers first of “Bye Bye, Blackbird,” and then (with a lotta help from eb and Eileen Dahl) “Second Hand Rose.” Great tunes, both.
    Here’s the third in this ongoing series of let’s-just-say-non-traditional piano/vocal/guitar takes on jazz standards — For Every Man There’s a Woman,” written in 1948, with ok-they’re-sorta-dated lyrics by Leo Robins and absolutely timeless music by Harold Arlen. Wotta tune. Seriously: Big ups for Harold “Harold Arlen” Arlen, author of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “That Old Black Magic,” “I’ve Got the World on a String” and a gazillion other bits of genius.
    Let me just put it this way: If Harold Arlen was alive today and had a web site, I’d give him a free link. That’s how much I like Harold Arlen.
    Press Play to play.
    playtime:1:34
    file specs: nought but 1.4 MB mp3
    Enjoy! And thanks for dropping by…

  • She’s Quite Old

    That Victorian isn’t old. That car
    isn’t old. My Sinatra records aren’t
    old. Not that old. Not really.
    Even that old tree isn’t old.
    That old woman
    who just walked past
    like she just stepped out
    of Deuteronomy
    with a flock of goats trailing behind
    and a thin little stick
    and a plan
    to get them all
    to water by nightfall.
    That old woman is old.

  • All-American Me

    I’m wearing big pants today
    big comfy pants
    size none of your damn business pants
    so big, so comfy
    makes me want to have a piece of cake
    a piece of chocolate cheese cake
    stretch these big pants out.

  • Somedays

    Somedays
    he looks at me
    like I’m sleeping
    with his wife.
    And I’m sure.
    I’m almost sure.
    That I’m not.

  • x-post: Lumpy Monkey and the Vortex of it all

    More Monkey Vortex madness. This week, Tony Jonick goes for two, with another episode of his Minute Murder Mysteries. .

  • Summer

    Checking in to find them
    lying side by side
    in the dark
    like sisters
    comparing notes
    on what had been
    the best part of the day.

  • Everybody’s playing Yu-Gi-Oh!

    It was a more innocent time, way back in October of 2004 when I first wrote about Yu-Gi-Oh! and Zach Braff, and my secret rage. We’re all a lot older now, hey? And perhaps a bit wiser too.
    “What is Yu-Gi-Oh!?” Well, it’s a card game. And a movie. It’s a franchise. It’s a way of life. It’s like Pokemon, see? Only much more…Yu-Gi-Oh!
    One thing’s for sure: YGO! and all the YGO! cards referenced in this tune, including but not limited to “The Mad Dog of Darkness,” “The Nobleman Eater Bug,” and “The Axe of Despair” are all copyright (c) Kazuki Takahashi. I mean, if nothing else, we can all agree on that, right? Alright then. Enough already! On with the rock n roll!
    Here’s a little ditty I wrote for my son. It features Eileen Dahl on back-up vocals. Enjoy…
    Press Play to play.
    time: 42 seconds flat
    file size: nary 670K

  • x-post: and the monkey and the murder and the minute mystery of it all

    More Monday, more Monkey Vortex Radio Theater. This week: Tony Jonick busts it 1930s-style with what some say may well be the greatest piece of recorded entertainment since Edison invented tiny, pocket-sized people who remember what you say and then repeat it back to you whenever you press on their head!
    It’s a little number we like to call Caught in the Trap. Featuring the considerable voice talents (and auspicious MVRT debuts) of Robin Brady and Jerry Williams!

  • By the window

    There's a man there
    by the window.
    And he's speaking
    with such precision
    you can see the letters spit forth into air
    shiny newborne
    serifs spinning.
    And his words are just hanging out there
    piling up there
    in a loose stack
    by the window
    free dialog for the taking.
    I'll pass.