VERSE / Larry Piltz : We're Focused in Going Forward

"Piggy Banker." Painting © Zina Saunders 2009.

We're Focused In Going Forward (a song)

We're focused in going forward
hoping we're not moving backward
that our dreams are not shattered
and we're doing things that matter

We have a laser-eye view
of what we surgically need to do
but first we synchronize our attitudes
to increase the odds we're not that screwed

We'll strategize our paradigm
to turn this tanker on a dime
then magnetize our money bomb
and incentivize remaining calm

Calm, calm, calm, calm
take a powder take a balm
calm, calm, calm, calm
serenity thy name is Rahm

I yearn to actionize my sweetheart deal
get skin in the game and watch it peel
to hybridize across the board
take a flier and pull the cord

I'll morally hazard deep cramdowns
and turn the plunge team into clowns
creatively destroy the ranks
of dualistic zombie banks

I'll deconstruct the stewardship
and ride risk-free the double dip
but why I do this I won't tell
but two key words are soul and sell

soul, sell, soul, sell
I salivate at the first bell
soul, sell, soul, sell
it's later that I go to hell

We're focused in going forward
hoping we're not ass backward
that our dreams were not hackered
by some spoiled rich cracker
we're focused in going forward


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
April 20, 2010

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Duh! Glenn Beck Discovers Springsteen's a Pinko

Glenn Beck finally listens to
'Born in the USA' -- and freaks

By Jason Linkins / March 12, 2010

You wouldn't think this was possible, but Glenn Beck had apparently never actually sat down and listened to Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA," never heard the lyrics, never formed a familiarity with the song's storied history in American politics, until this week, I guess? Anyway, now that he's heard that the song isn't some glorious tongue-bath to American exceptionalism, he's denouncing it on the radio. Per Lindsay Beyerstein:

Twenty-six years after the release of Bruce Springsteen's hit song, "Born in The USA," conservative talk show host/performance artist Glenn Beck finally got around to listening to the lyrics.

Beck was shocked, shocked to discover that for all these years he'd been rocking out to a song about a bitter down-and-out Vietnam vet who has been kicked to the curb by the aforementioned USA.

Via Spencer Ackerman , here's what Beck had to say about it:

BECK: You get filled with patriotic pride, and then you find out that Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' is anti-American. 'Born down in a dead man's town/ the first kick I took is when I hit the ground/ you end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ so you spend half your life just covering up...' [He reads the entire lyrics in an incredulous tone of voice; manages to mispronounce 'Khe Sanh']

Hmm. Yeah! [crosstalk] ... It's time for us to wake up out of our dream state. Out of the propaganda... This is the thing that people who come from the Soviet bloc or Cuba, they're all saying, 'How do you guys not hear this? How are you not seeing this?' Well, because we don't ever expect it.

All of this gives me the opportunity to bring up one thing that's always puzzled me about Beck: his love of the band Muse. Beck follows Muse on Twitter , and he took the stage at CPAC to the tune of their recent hit, "Uprising." Here's the video, you can hear the song pretty clearly:

Don't get me wrong, Muse is awesome. But what's weird about Beck's embrace of Muse is that their lead singer, Matthew Bellamy, is a 9/11 "Truther."

From Spin Magazine, August, 2009:

"When I was younger, my mother communicated with ghosts," says Bellamy as the limo snakes its way to Manhattan's South Street Seaport and the posed and dissected cadavers that constitute the "Bodies" exhibit. "She and my dad would invite friends over to use a Ouija board and talk with spirits. I was allowed to watch. I imagine my interest in the unknown started then."

That curiosity about what lies beyond has never gone away, and it has taken a particularly sinister turn. "I've always been quite interested in conspiracy theory, and I still am," says the slight Bellamy, dressed for the macabre occasion in a light-blue striped button-down shirt, black slacks, and black loafers, his brown hair styled in the irregular thatch favored by Brit rockers since 1965. "But I've learned to be careful in talking about this stuff. People take my curiosity as evidence of belief. I think as I get older, I'll become more and more interested in pursuing verifiable lines of thinking rather than blurting out my opinions."

Until then:

On 9/11: "There is evidence that suggests the powers that be knew of the attacks beforehand and let them happen. There's a video on YouTube called Loose Change that explains it."

I hate to take Bellamy's "curiosity as evidence of belief," but he's been
talking up 9/11 as an "inside job" for a long time.

Music is just music. But Beck very recently torched Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina for espousing these same "Truther" beliefs, so it's sort of funny to see him making allowances for Muse, while assailing The Boss for being un-American for that time he thought we should take better care of our veterans.

Source / Huffington Post

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : You Asked Us To Believe

"Library" by Bernard Zackheim, 1933. Detail from a mural at the Coit Tower in San Francisco. It was part of a series of murals produced under the auspices of the New Deal's Public Works Art Project. The massive effort stirred up controversy due to the inclusion by some of the 26 participating artists of what were interpreted as leftist images.


You Asked Us To Believe
(Oh Yes You Can)

Fear Wins read the headlines
on the papers on the windows
as the sun rose on the anger
of a nation at the headlines

Where's the savior who's in favor
of the humans and the being
and the freeing of the nation
from the bread lines and their danger

There's a moment in the waiting
in the hoping amid the wondering
when time turns into motion
into the surge of a mighty ocean

Hear me now
you asked us to believe
in something more
than what we thought we could achieve
so we carried you
right through that open door
into the sun
now please don't make us grieve
that open door
we can do more
you asked us to believe
we can do more
so hear me now
oh yes you can
oh yes we can
we can do more

It's been an eon in the making
and we're tired of fear and quaking
when time stops but for its moment
to observe just what will foment
what will you do for the people
you of the people
you by the people
will you mount up
or preach a sermon
when the people
are called vermin
cause they're hungry
and they're desperate
will your peace
be one that's separate

There's a champion in the headlines
in the bread lines in the life lines
with a deadline and a dateline
but whose dream will be the byline
will Love Wins read the headlines
in the sunshine will it be mine
and the nation's claim to glory
when history writes its story

So hear us now
you made the world believe
in something more
that it's dreamt it can achieve
we'll carry you
push right on through that door
it can be done
so help us celebrate
that open door
we can do more
oh yes you can
oh yes we can
you've helped us to believe
we can do more
Oh yes you can
Oh yes we can
right through that open door
we can do more
Oh yes we can


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
February 13, 2010

[Note: This poem is a song.
Anyone capable of helping
get it produced and recorded
please speak up in the comments.
Thanks. – L.P.]

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Harry Targ : Season for Hope, Season for Struggle

'I swear it's not too late'
Turn! Turn! Turn!

By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / December 19, 2009

Turn, Turn, Turn

(chorus)

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

(repeat chorus)

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

(repeat chorus)

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

(repeat chorus)

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

Words from Ecclesiastes; text adapted and music by Pete Seeger

We received a wonderful Chanukah present the other day, a children’s book called Turn! Turn! Turn! It is an illustrated adaptation by designer Wendy Anderson Halperin, of words from the Old Testament and music by Pete Seeger.

This present rekindled for me emotions, as I am sure it does for others, as I remembered things past; youth, family, naïve images of peace and tranquility. There is poignancy for us now too as we move towards the holidays at the same time that we struggle over the range of issues that will shape the destiny of humankind: peace, saving the environment, jobs, and health care reform.

This season progressives are debating whether we have been betrayed by Barack Obama; who is the biggest scoundrel -- Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Olympia Snowe; how to revitalize the peace movement; and whether to finally break with the Democrats.

But then “Turn, Turn, Turn” reminds us that “to everything there is a season.” The song suggests that the ebbs and flows of history are not bound by calendars, dates and times, and heroes and villains. A “season” is defined by its historic projects.

And these historic projects, the words suggest, include “a time to reap,” “a time to build,” “a time to break down,” “a time to cast away stones,” and “a time to gather stones together.”

Our projects, our seasons, entail defeats and victories, tears and laughter, but the seasons go on and encompass “a time to love” and “a time to hate.” And in the end the song declares, “I swear it's not too late.”

So if we are inspired by the song, as we were in the 1960s, we remember that the struggles for peace and justice are not about individuals, political parties, and calendar deadlines but about the continued commitments which we have made to create peace, save the planet, put people back to work, and provide secure health care for all.

[Harry Tarq is a professor in American Studies who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. He blogs at Diary of a Heartland Radical, where this article also appears.]

• Find Turn! Turn! Turn! on Amazon.com

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Larry Piltz : These Future Days

"A" is for Android / James "Jimbot" Demski / Idiot Box Artwork.

These Future Days

I've got a clock that runs on water
my dog takes Chinese herbs
I live next door to my dear wife's house
and I'm not a bit perturbed
my car is half electric
and could run on mayonnaise
it's said there's nothing new under the sun
try telling that to my solar shotgun
then tell me you're not amazed
to be alive in these future days

my computer's built in Iceland
my printer in Monaco
my software's written in some nice land
I print out on trees from Idaho
my money's purple paisley
it has chips that make it smart
It tells me that I should spend it
on a wheelbarrow from Wal-Mart
oh tell me you're not amazed
what life's like in these future days

my doctor is an android
her clinic's on the moon
she mostly treats the paranoid
and swears she'll see me soon
my lawyer lives in the ocean
his lawyer lives up a tree
they swear they’ll file a motion
to do something about me
cause they think I'm too unphased
to appreciate these future days

my job's become elastic
and I'm stretched way too thin
though I'm 14% plastic
I know now when to say when
my eyeballs are half vinyl
and I see you’re looking good
are you sure your answer’s final
cause I’m 30 percent wood
I’m so glad this issue’s raised
In these heady future days

my hard drive reads the paper
tells me what I should know
a Nobel Prize went to a man
who could kiss his own elbow
the Oscar went to China
along with Meryl Streep
though no one could be finer
I’m not losing any sleep
we won’t always be in this haze
that’s just life in these future days
I’ll take life in these future days

Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
May 12, 2009

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I Ran

"Drachen 6" / Irena Vezin.
I Ran

I was so scared, and there was no one to stand up beside me –
I was so weak, and I searched, but there was no place to hide me –
I was so lost, and I knew that I'd made the wrong turning –
Was I less than a man?
I didn't know, so I Ran.

I Ran – through the darkness, and I never saw you –
I Ran – through the bombs, without hearing your song –
I Ran – through the smoke of my own soul burning –
I Ran straight through to Hell –
When I got there, I fell.

I was so cold, and there was no one to say I still mattered –
I was so sad, and all my bright colors were tattered –
I was so broke, and there was no job where I could be earning –
Was I less than a man?
I didn't know, so I Ran.

I Ran – though all my friends tried to restrain me –
I Ran – there were funds set aside to retrain me –
I Ran – but I was way too upset to be learning –
I Ran flat out of time –
Can you spare me a dime?

Now it's so late, and I don't see I've got many choices –
And it's so hard, to make sense of all of the voices –
If you love me, you'll know what this song is concerning –
Am I less than a man?
I don't know, so I Ran!

© 6/28/08 mgwizard

Mariann Wizard
June 28, 2008

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