I love this woman and I hate what is happening to her. This is not the fake Promises attention-whoring that is happening; this is behavior that will end in death. Addiction has absolutely torn my family apart — domestic violence nearly claimed my mother’s life and mine — and the thought of it claiming someone so precious to today’s music world tears my heart out. This cannot stand.

Filed by Trevor at 10:12 pm under Pop Culture, The Arts, Fightin' Words
1 Comment

Days with you
and the footage to prove it,
tapes that stretch for over eighty years.
Six of them
(a windy old gal, you said)
that seemed so many at the time
but now
is a pitiful pile.
Grant that I should go bankrupt
buying enough to fill them all –
rooms of them –
and what should ever have prevented you from doing so?

I hope you’ll forgive me.
Oh God
Please.

I’m pulling anchor.
Please.
Forgive me.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen,
for those who have gained everything
stand to lose everything.
And those that have lost everything already
have lives that are abandoned galleries of regret.

Bother her, I say –
anyone should be so lucky to have such a nuisance.

You have ceased to be permanent –
lance the statue in the arm
and warm blood pours out.

It’s only a matter of time.
Brace yourself.

She’s been there all the time.
Oh God, help me.
Waiting.
Waiting for you.

She’s pulling anchor (don’t you see?)
And she’s throwing things ashore –
are you ready?

It’s begun.
Brace yourself.
Oh, God.

Please.

Don’t wait to put flowers on her grave.
Put them on her table
and do it now.

Filed by Trevor at 11:16 pm under Fightin' Words
1 Comment

I’m gonna lay it out there: I’m a little bit tired of all this talk about truth. Truth with a capital T. “Truth” in quotes. Truth with a cherry on top. I’m up to my neck in truth.

I will avoid naming them because of the nature of this entry, but lately I have been reading some blogs by some very sharp minds. Without commenting my fair share, I have been privy to some very interesting blogalogues, rife with wit and insight. It feels a little bit like stealing. Like pirating intelligence.

But goddammit already. The more they write about it, the more impassioned they become, and the more impassioned they become, the sloppier they get. On some blogs it’s like everybody is shoving their version of truth down each other’s throats.

To what end, I ask?

Don’t get me wrong. Discussion is good, respectful disagreement is even better. People should have these kinds of discussions. But for as much as I hate to be a hater, I’m starting to hate when people talk about truth in art. It feels like lies.

Or maybe it’s just that I don’t believe it. I can suspend my disbelief for the most absurd of absurd, but when you start telling me things like “art is useless without truth,” the first word in my head is bullshit. Why is it useless? For that matter, why is truth useful?

I think what gets me is the fact that there is this overbearing pretension in that mindset. What a lot of these bloggers are doing is separating their artistic working life from their real life, putting it on a pedestal, and saying, “look how much truth this contains!” I can almost guarantee that when you inject truth into your work, that truth is fake truth. Which is both amusingly ironic and maddeningly comforting. To me, at least.

But that’s what it’s all about. Truth is subjective. Truth is everywhere and in everything, very much in the same sense that art is everywhere and in everything. And aside from blunt scientific fact (as it is, not necessarily as we know it), there is no such thing as universal truth. Because truth is what you believe to be true. You can take that as deep or as shallow as you like, but that’s the bottom line. There are certainly things that certain amounts of people happen to agree upon, and artists like to tap into these things in order to reach out and communicate to people. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s part of the fun of creating a piece of art. But there is no be-all/end-all truth with a capital T, and there is certainly no more truth in any work of art than there is in the dried-up leaf still attached to the plant in the corner of my apartment that I haven’t watered since April. So — bloggers — artists — let’s take that pressure off each other, huh?

Filed by Bil at 8:42 pm under The Arts, Fightin' Words
1 Comment

Go.
Go now.
Are you angry yet?
Are you disgusted yet?
This is criminal.
What kind of country has this turned into?

Go.
I don’t know how long it will stay on the site.

Filed by Trevor at 3:19 am under Fightin' Words
3 Comments

“There is something very sad about an empty dressing room. It’s like a discarded pair of underpants, which it resembles in a number of respects. It’s seen a lot of activity. It may even have witnessed excitement and a whole gamut of human passions. And now there’s nothing much left but a faint smell.” –Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

Hi. I’m your dresser.

I’ll be here, in this dark theatre, hours before you every day to prepare for your arrival and a clean, smooth show.

I’ll press your shirts, steam out wrinkles and remove stains from where you carelessly dropped food onto your self whilst in costume.

I’ll be here well after you leave, doing laundry and hanging up all of the items you shed during the course of the show.

I am educated, well-spoken, competent and capable. I will help you get dressed and back onstage as quickly as possible. I will grab your water for you. I will have a safety pin, a needle and thread, and a cough drop available should you or your costume need them.

I will do your laundry. I will have spare pantyhose. I will be prepared for nearly anything that comes my way backstage. And I will do it all quietly, with a smile on my face, and a positive outlook.

You are the one onstage, the performer, the “talent,” as they say. You might think of me as your support staff. In this vein of thought, and while we’re on the subject, let’s get some things straight right now:
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Devon at 3:47 pm under The Arts, Fightin' Words
3 Comments

I think I will always have you
clutching at my brain.
Once upon a time,
I dreamed you up
and you ran off with what was mine.
It’s amazing
how many excuses a person can make
for another’s behavior –
as for me,
no matter what pep talks I can give myself
you manage to grip your place
between index and middle, even
like an unfiltered cigarette.

There’s a room in my mind
where you’re holding me –
we’re dancing in your kitchen.
I followed a trail of roses to your bedside
(forgive me for not tearing up)
and perhaps that should have clued me in.

There’s a room in my mind
where our hands are linked across the table
as we make peace with ourselves.
I waged war for so long, friend.

I’m pounding
tearing down the door,
racing inside
shrieking,
two sets of bleary eyes greeting me.
No God ever heard me
as I paced the streets,
but they did –
the unlucky bystanders.

There’s a room in my mind
where I am kneeling
(for some reason)
pleading for you not to take it all away.

We’re dancing now.

I sat across from you,
tacitly acknowledging
this hand life had dealt me.

There’s a room in my mind
where I’m fidgeting with my tie
making silent oaths to myself
to quietly disregard you.
Oaths that dissipated as quickly
as each drag from my cigarette that afternoon.

You considered me silently,
hating me.

I held my arms wide and cherished your lingering scent
for what I imagined to be the final time –
the very thing I grew to hate.

There’s a room in my mind
where you’re leaning forward,
no hesitation,
on the precipice.

There’s a line down my life.

Once upon a time I dreamed
of what could (should never) be.
No God ever heard me,
and no God will ever hear you.

There’s a room in my mind
with white walls
and a box full to bursting –
that’s all you’ll ever be
as long as I’m alive.
In the meantime,
pleasant dreams to you.

I snatched my good wishes from the bookshelves,
and so I snatch my good wishes from your heart –
pleasant dreams to you.

May flights of angels sing you to your rest.

Filed by Trevor at 2:17 am under Fightin' Words
3 Comments

Well…this is about the funniest news article I’ve seen in a while…

Spat gives Alabama Senate black eye

I was so geared up when I read the original headline (something along the lines of “Alabama State Senator punches fellow State Senator”). My first thought was Awesome, it’s about time there was some kind of action in the Senate…

Unfortunately, as I read the article, I learned that not only was there just one punch thrown — one single punch — I discovered that the senator didn’t even punch the other senator in the face. He punched him in the neck. The neck. Talk about a wussy fight. I guess his hands were too soft to punch a guy in the face, he had to go for a more tissue-y target.

And so, once again, the Alabama State Senate disappoints me.

Filed by Bil at 3:13 pm under Politics, Fightin' Words
1 Comment

God is not irrelevant,
only Hell;
Faith is not irrelevant,
only Fear.

There is only Joy.

Struggle is not irrelevant
(for we must reclaim that which should never need reclaiming)
only Complacency.

There is only Truth.

Pray, hide not your hate
behind holy words.
Expose it to air –
let us all bear witness,
for Morality is never irrelevant,
only Dogma.

There is only Peace –
like a river,
fed by its tributaries.

For we each owe a debt to o(urselves)ne another,
and from this there is no escape.
So spare us your lies,
for Reason is never irrelevant –
only God.

There is only Mercy.

Alleluia.

There is only Mercy;
there is always Grace.

Filed by Trevor at 11:45 pm under Religion, UU, Fightin' Words
2 Comments

Dear President Bush,

I can only assume that the sudden revelation that bin Laden sought to turn Iraq into a base for al-Qaeda — the implication being, of course, that he is still pursuing such a goal — was intended to bolster your defense for our continued presence in the Middle East. And right as our Congress eliminated timetables from the legislation you hate so much, too! Tell me, if this is truly a viable threat, and thus meant to strike fear in the hearts of American citizens, why have you kept a lid on this information for two years? Now, some will nevertheless interpret this as proof of an Iraq - al-Qaeda link, I have no doubt. But consider the date, if you will. We were attacked in 2001 and we’ve been at war with Iraq since 2003; do you think bin Laden would have turned to Iraq as a terror cell in 2005 had you not falsely led us into this war in the first place? Besides, wasn’t this the guy you swore you’d apprehend “dead or alive?” Whatever happened to that?

Conservatives who falsely assert that it was actually Clinton’s fault for letting bin Laden get away absolutely astound me. How blithely they ignore the fact that this man led the largest terrorist attack on our soil in the history of our country and was subsequently allowed to get away with it. This means, of course, that if Iraq truly does become an al-Qaeda terror cell, you are doubly to blame for it: once for disbanding a unit of the CIA that was for an entire decade (note: since the beginning of Clinton’s second term) dedicated to the mission of capturing bin Laden, and twice for leading us into a war against a sovereign nation in no way responsible for the Trade Center attack.

And yet, somehow you’ve managed to trump yourself. Sir, kindly explain why you’ve relegated the mission of tracking down bin Laden to Pakistan — with a price tag of a billion a year with absolutely no accountability? We’re all waiting.

You are not my president.

Filed by Trevor at 10:40 pm under Fightin' Words
4 Comments

There is coming a time soon when I will no longer be absent from these things. I wish I could be there. Break a leg.

Filed by Trevor at 2:16 am under The Arts, Fightin' Words
1 Comment