A Complete Set of Nude Photos of You, Taken by You and Sold Back to You - at a Discount

Siouxsie born fifty-seven years ago today. She was on the daily soundtrack of my twenties. I think the music has aged well, but then I think I've aged well, so take that into consideration.

For the few of you following along: We did the two-car tandem and the eight miles on the Appalachian Trail this past Sunday. It was admittedly the easier north-south down to the Potomac than the south-to-north climb to South Mountain's ridge above the Potomac. Combined with Friday's five miler around Blockhouse and yesterday's six miler finishing up Little Bennett's twenty-three miles of hikes (we've just two miles left to do) that makes nineteen miles for the three day weekend. We'll go for the same or more in two days this coming weekend.

Other than this photo meditation on a Robert Creeley poem and this meditation (with songs) on Queen and this article on what to name my future hell (I vote NoBeSoRo if it's not to be called Rockville, which is what it is) you get nothing else but more Siouxsie and two poems because (I needed to get that Gregg Popovich gif off the top of the page) because.








BRAND NEW PRODUCTS

Linh Dinh

A vigilant gun that always picks out

The right target—even if it’s you—

No matter who you’re aiming at.

A computer that listens and blows you,

As you blow it, to your favorite tune.

Meat that cleans your teeth

As you’re masticating it.

A truck so awesome, only the President

Of the United States of America’s allowed

To careen in it, to his own beat.

A dictionary with positive adjectives only.

A dictionary with no wet verbs.

A dictionary with negotiable definitions.

A dictionary that defines words by their antonyms.

All the greatest hits from the last millennium

Performed live, on stage, on the inside

Of your state of the art, acoustically-enhanced skull.

A complete set of nude photos

Of you, taken by you and sold

Back to you—at a discount.

A sex doll with a mirror for a face.

A sex doll with a Ph.D.

A sex doll with adjustable skin tone.

A sensitive sex doll that just wants

To be friends—a Platonic sex doll.

Rain water in a bottle, sunshine in a box

And ambience sounds from a bus stop

Down the street, recorded on a CD.

A 24-hour video of what you did yesterday.

A 24-hour video of what you’ll do tomorrow.

A super realistic photo of what’s outside

Your window, pasted to your window.

A baseball game that never ends,

To be played simultaneously with

A football game that never ends.

Cluster bombs that scatter copies of Leaves of Grass

Over a thousand mile radius, for a thousand years.

Landmines made with dough,

Topped with mozzarella and all

Your favorite toppings.

An airplane that never lands.

And, finally, your favorite fairy tale

Painted on your new plastic limbs.

SOFT MONEY

Rae Armantrout

They’re sexy

because they’re needy,

which degrades them.

They’re sexy because

they don’t need you.

They’re sexy because they pretend

not to need you,

but they’re lying,

which degrades them.

They’re beneath you

and it’s hot.

They’re across the border,

rhymes with dancer—

they don’t need

to understand.

They’re content to be

(not mean),

which degrades them

and is sweet.

They want to be

the thing-in-itself

and the thing-for-you—

Miss Thing—

but can’t.

They want to be you,

but can’t,

which is so hot.

chơ ăn đa gá ăn sôi

BODY EATS

Linh Dinh

The word minh, body, has wide application in Vietnamese. It is sometimes used as a first person pronoun, as in “body has lived here for a long time,” or “body does not know him.” Body is I. It is also we or us. As in: “Body eat rice; they eat bread.” Body is also used to address one’s spouse. As in: “Body, what would you like to eat today?”

A spouse can also be referred to as “my house.” As in: “My house is not home at the moment. Please call back later.” To be married is to live in a new house, to be engulfed in another body.

The core of the Vietnamese body is not the heart but the stomach. Instead of saying “I don’t know what’s in his heart,” a Vietnamese would say, “I don’t know what’s in his stomach.” To be in contentment is to have a happy stomach, vui long. To be in grief is to have a rotting stomach, thui ruôt. To be in extreme anguish is to have one’s stomach chopped into pieces, dut ruôt.

Eating is the body’s primary function. Whatever else the body does, it must an, must eat. To dress is to an mac, eat and dress. To talk is to an noi, eat and talk. To have sex is to an nam, eat and lie down with somebody. To be married is to an o, eat and live with somebody.

To win at anything, a bet, a soccer match, is simply to an, to eat, an echo back to the days when to win is to swallow one’s opponent whole, perhaps. To dominate or decisively defeat someone is to an song, eat raw.

To indulge in pleasures is to eat and play, an choi. To celebrate is to eat with happiness,an mung. To go to a party is to eat at a party, an tiec. One doesn’t celebrate the New Year, one eats during the New Year, an Tet.

To look for work is to look for something to eat, kiem an. To work is to make and eat, lam an. A good business prospect is described as having something easy to eat, de an. To do well in business is to eat customers, an khach.

To spend money is to eat and digest, an tieu. To take a bribe is to eat money, an tien. To work an illicit job, thievery, prostitution, is to eat dew, an suong. To steal is to eat in secret, an trom.

Eating, and how one eats, becomes a metaphor for nearly everything, as these proverbs testify:

A magpie, starved, eats banyan fruit. A phoenix, starved, eats chicken shit.

Fish eat ants, ants eat fish.

Have vegetable, eat vegetable. Have rice gruel, eat rice gruel.

The smart eat men, the stupid are eaten.

Tailors eat rags, artists eat paints.

Father eats salty food, son's thirsty.

Eating new rice, telling old stories.

Eat in front, swim behind.

Eat for real, fake work.

Arrive late, gnaw on a bone.

Ate rice gruel, pissed in the bowl.

A bowl of sweat for a bowl of rice.

A piece of meat is a piece of shame.

Selling ass to feed mouth.

Two hands, two eyes are just enough to feed one stomach.

Better to die sated than to live hungry.

To be homeless is to eat the wind and lie with the dew, an gio nam suong. This phase used to refer to the hardships of a long journey, a concept similar to the English “travel,” a variation on travail, from the French travailler, to work.

To inherit property is to eat fragrance and fire, an huong hoa, which refer to the incense and oil lamp on the ancestral altar present in most Vietnamese homes.

A remote place is described as where “dogs eat rocks, chickens eat pebbles,” chơ ăn đa gá ăn sôi.

To be primitive is to eat fur while living in a hole, an long o lo.

To die is to eat dirt,an dat.

A common Vietnamese greeting is, “Have you eaten yet?”

One should always answer: “After eating dew all night, I’m more than ready to eat and to lie down.”