“I, who have also been betrayed, assassinated, and cast into a tomb, I have emerged from that tomb by the grace of God and I owe it to God to take my revenge. He has sent me for that purpose. Here I am.”
~ The Count of Monte Cristo
N.P.: “Dancing On Your Grave” – Motorhead
“Father, beware, our revenge will be terrible when we take it.”
~ The Count of Monte Cristo
N.P.: “Kicking and Screaming” – Blues Saraceno
“For all evils there are two remedies – time and silence.”
~ The Count of Monte Cristo
N.P.: “Trouble’s Coming” – Royal Blood
“Woman Laughing with Salad 2” by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2023
It kills the very brave and the very good and the very gentle indiscriminately. If you are none of these, it will kill you too. But there will be no special hurry. ~ Ernest Hemmingway
Hey, dearest reader…I’m back. Where I’ve been I can’t say, as per our usual arrangement, but suffice it to say I’m glad to be back. Wandering endlessly in the Darkness…felt like I was gone for ages. Sorry about the lack of notice. You know how it is, dear reader: when it’s time to Go Dark, it’s actually kind of rare that you get any notice. Occupational hazard, I suppose.
Anyway, things have been Weird and I need a nap. We’ll catch up soon.
N.P.: “Sho Been Worse” – Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown
Remembering the life and love of Mary Wallace and her family. “Always and forever.”
Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2023
Remembering the life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson today. Cheers.
N.P.: “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” – Warren Zevon
Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2023
To the other people in the waiting room…yes, I am looking at you. Though you’ll never know. I’d even admit to what I’m doing technically as watching you. Not in a creepy way…not really. And I’m told I have a subconscious tendency to stare. I’d apologize, but even if I am unintentionally staring, you still will never know. I’m just watching you not watch me. Or anyone else. I’m watching you and everyone else in this room stare at their screens. Oblivious to everything else. Obsessed not with observing life, but observing other people’s observations of life. Free thinking is gone. Critical thinking is gone. No more active thought…just one-directional, unquestioning intake. What the hell happened to you people? I don’t want to know any of you. I wouldn’t drink with you even if you were paying. You actually volunteered for slavery.
I want to help you…I really do. But first, you need to look up. To make any change at all, you’re going to need to put away your phone, and just look up.
N.P.: “Until It Sleeps” – Metallica
Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2023
For the last several weeks, California has been under both a drought emergency and a flood emergency. Simultaneously. In the same exact place. Weird as tits on a bishop. When asked about this ludicrous incongruity on the steps of the Capitol this morning, the governor grabbed a spokesperson from Water Resources and thrust her in front of the camera. The chick from Water Resources blathered on about global warming for a bit…just long enough for the governor to climb into his motorcade and escape. What the chick from Water meant to say was, “If this looks like egregious incompetence from the state’s executive branch, then that’s likely what it is: this state is run by absolute morons.”
N.P.: “It Serves You Right To Suffer – The Avener Rework” – John Lee Hooker
Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2023
And now for some verse…
Petrichor
And so much for all that. Today is for serious book work…not for windy walks in the rain. The time has come to kick ass! In fact, it’s long overdue. I am behind schedule, and that means that there are asses in desperate need of kicking walking around unkicked. So I’m gonna get back to it.
I’ll leave you with this note from Fitzgerald:
“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late, or in my case, too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you have never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find you are not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Indeed.
N.P.: “I Don’t Care About Nothing Anymore” – Beasts of Bourbon
Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2023
Happy New Year, dear reader!
I don’t typically make the changing of the calendar year a big deal, but typing “2023” just now felt great. See, 2023 means that next year is 2024, and 2024 is The Good Year. Which makes 2023 The Absurdly Busy Year, but I am here for it.
Fun Fact: I have an unusual startle reflex and I don’t jump at all at nearby gunshots or explosions. Some of my friends know this, but not all of them. Certainly not the one who gave me the bag of Ambien™ to help me “sleep through the fireworks at midnight.” She gave me careful instructions about when and how many to take, and of course I thanked her profusely, shut the door, and took everything in the bag. I don’t have a solid recollection of much, but I know I stayed up quite some time making bizarre art. And like Christmas morning, except better, the morning after an Ambien™ binge is always full of surprises. For instance, this “poem” I have no memory of writing:
Happy New Year, my friend
I say to my friend.
The dash between us is like the space
between strangers on a train;
it’s not what we know about each other that matters,
but what we don’t. The dash is how it feels
to live in two states at once, the territory of the hyphen,
here but not quite, home but not really.
The dash is how it feels to be in exile,
the space between where I am and where I want to be,
or so I tell myself.
But the truth is I’m happy here.
I’m just not used to being happy.
What the fuck does that even mean? The dash? What dash? There’s no dash here. God knows what I was thinking. Doesn’t even sound like my style at all. Maybe I’ll get back in to writing verse (sober verse) this year. My sober stuff isn’t that great, but it’s quite better than this dash nonsense. Never mind. Happy New Year. Let’s get weird.
N.P.: “Reduced Voltage” – Blancmange