Category Archives: Lucubrations

December 13, 2021

Last week, NBC’s Brian Williams suddenly quit/retired from television news with the following statement:

Well, look at the time. I’ll try to keep this brief. After 28 years of peacock logos on much of what I own, it is my choice now to jump without a net into the great unknown. As I do for the first time in my 62 years, my biggest worry is for my country.
The truth is, I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m an institutionalist. I believe in this place. And in my love of my country, I yield to no one.
But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It is now at the local bar, and the bowling alley, the school board, and the grocery store. And it must be acknowledged and answered for.
Grown men and women who swore an oath to our Constitution, elected by their constituents, possessing the kinds of college degrees I could only dream of, have decided to join the mob and become something they are not while hoping we somehow forget who they were.
They’ve decided to burn it all down with us inside. That should scare you to no end as much as it scares an aging volunteer fireman.
To my coworkers, my love and thanks…
As a proud New Jersey native, this is where I get to say, “regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.”
What a ride it’s been. Where else, how else was a kid like me going to meet presidents and kings and the occasional rock star? These lovely testimonials that I can never truly repay make me hyper-aware that it has been and remains a wonderful life. It’s as if I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning in Bedford Falls.
The reality is though, I will wake up tomorrow in the America of the year 2021, a nation unrecognizable to those who came before us and fought to protect it, which is what you must do now. My colleagues will take it from here.
I will probably find it impossible to be silent and stay away from you and lights and cameras after I experiment with relaxation and find out what I’ve missed and what’s out there.
Every weeknight for decades now, I’ve said some version of the same thing. Thank you for being here with us. Us, meaning the people who produced this broadcast for you. And you, well, without you, there’s no us.
I’ll show myself out. Until we meet again, that is our broadcast for this Thursday night.

N.P.: “Losin’ Your Mind” – Pride & Glory

December 12, 2021

When victimhood becomes currency, there will be counterfeiters.  Jussie Smollet should be sentences for the crimes he’s been convicted of, then tried for perjury.  For both crimes, the sentence should be punitively augmented with “hate crime” designations.  I find the notion that this country has anything called a “hate crime” abhorrent, but if you insist on having it, then you need to deal with false accusers just as harshly as you would any other hate crime perpetrator.  Staging a hate crime is a hate crime.

Rain has returned to The Creek, finally, thank Christ.  The end of October, it rained 6″ in one day, and then that was kind of it.  Until today.
I didn’t write nearly enough last week.  I have dim, dark hopes about the coming week, but honestly, no decent literature will be committed this week either.  Things are a bit hectic now, as things are this time of year.

N.P.: “Dashing Dame” – Deathproof

December 10, 2021

It is cold in The Creek tonight, dear reader.  Cold for here, anyway.  Fucking California.  This state is absolutely swirling the drain.  Anyway, it’s cold.

N.P.: “Satan – 30 Something Years Later Mix/Edit” – Orbital

December 8, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Today was a far, far better thing than whatever the hell that was yesterday.

“To have major  media outlets like CNN, people like Don Lemon, supporting this garbage?  Growing up in Texas, I never thought that I would see a day where youd have two high profile black gay men on television supporting this type of nonsense.  It’s unbelievable, the message that we put out and portrayed to these kids across our nation.  America is better than this,  Black America is better than this.  Every African-American leader should be standing up against this nonsense right here.  It happens too much.  Its happened hundreds of times where people are using hate crimes and faking them for their own personal gain.  Stop it!  We’re better than this.”
~ Jack Brewer on the ignominious Jussie Smollet case

N.P.: “Red Right Hand” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

December 7, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Today was just a pain in the hole.  Woke up at 03:30…just wide awake.  So I’ve been up for ages.  Then literally everything I tried to do went south, and turned into more problems, more items on my To-Do list.  Then I placed an emergency call to my accountant, only to find out the bastard has closed his office for two months and kited off to Costa Rica or some such.  Then my favorite place to get wings quit serving wings and started serving thighs.  This is a terrible idea.  Nobody likes thighs.  Wings have built-in handles…thighs are simply unwieldy.  And a pain in the ass to dip in any sauce cups.  I may need to compose a letter of invective to whatever hipster idiot decided this was a good idea.
There was really no need for today.

N.P.: “Back to the Hotel (Original)” – N2DEEP

December 5, 2021

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Working on The Book this evening, dear reader, and it is rather daunting.  I’m not daunted…fuck no.  But I would be less than truthful if I said it wasn’t daunting.  And progress is just glacial.  But there is progress.

N.P.: “Rapture” – Dub Pistols, Terry Hall