i wait to be asked. neglect all tasks unless they are addressed specifically to me. say my name, yes. otherwise, watch things pile up: a spilled ashtray swept up with a sock then tossed beneath the bed, a cup encrusted with milk, no beer, or both. in every direction, a distraction. a drop in temperature, i stay in bed all day. encumbered by library ( Read more... )

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no sound in the house. a silence maintained by force. shut door, cat curled in the closet, fifteen unplugged appliances. a silence interrupted only by the most basic of daily noises: neighbor coughing, mouse scratching, trapped behind the bedroom wall. the heater clicks on, releases three puffs of steam. seventy-five, eighty degrees. when i sweat, ( Read more... )

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All night a high wind swings the hammock back and forth and back and forth. Sometimes I get seasick just lying in the hammock, much less sleeping. Every morning I wake: sour stomach, face slicked with sweat. When I try to lift my head, my neck snaps back, falls flat against the fine-knit hemp. From my spot on the hammock, I can see Susan’s lover ( Read more... )

also, two weeks with little to no sleep. although i lack hard evidence, i blame mccain. home from work at five, i undress, grab a beer from the fridge & watch exactly 50 minutes of news tv then fume all evening. not even a cigarette after months of no cigarettes can calm me. i leave nasty notes on every suv i see with a mccain sticker plastered to  ( Read more... )

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The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, ( Read more... )

Lester Bangs on Astral Weeks

from Stranded (1979)

Van Morrison's Astral Weeks was released ten years, almost to the day, before this was written. It was particularly important to me because the fall of 1968 was such a terrible time: I was a physical and mental wreck, nerves shredded and ghosts and spiders looming and squatting across the mind. My ( Read more... )

trees going black as my mouth falls slack, head drops to the side, swings a little to the left. the truck vibrates beneath my touch. the road lifts up & floats. roll down the window: the fog has no smell, the windshield clouds. on the radio an oldies station, barely audible, why can't he see how blind can he be.  my head begins to swing again, roll ( Read more... )