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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

 

On Greed:

 

“If you grasp too much, you cannot hold it;

when you take a little you can.”

 

“More die from over eating than from under eating.”

 

“If you look for cake, you’ll lose your head.”

 

“What is grabbed will be lost.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Intrepid (fearless, not shaking or trembling, dauntless)

 

The intrepid hero was given a great ovation when he came home.

 

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Psalm 23:4

 

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

 

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

 

3 He restoreth my soul:

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

 

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

 

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

 

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Catch 22

 

            To Our Dearest American low-wage / slave-wage workers; “forgive them for they know not what they do.” And then they threw down the dice and gambled for Jesus’ shroud while the Roman soldiers got drunk and poked spears into his side, long after the sun went down. (What a horrific tale of corporate America.)

 

            Our dearest American low-wage / slave-wage Brothers and Sisters; you’re not alone in these desperate American corporate / consumer times.

 

As for those of us who understand the deepest of corporate manipulation and cunning, we also understand that our valuable low-wage workers are caught in the middle of a greedy war of false idols. May Godspeed.

 

            Let me begin with the following; if no one in corporate leaderless America is going to say it then I will; I’m sorry that our starving low-wage workers are made to suffer at the hands of the corporate and greedy CEO’s and shareholders without any sort of moral compass or core values.

 

What a terrible time in America to be low-income / wage-slave workers in which our very own “working class” and “blue collar” and “working poor” ever so stupidly sit outside in the cold and wait for some irresponsible corporate stores to give them the cheapest deals of the year just so that our ‘poorest consumers’ may save a few bucks while the rest of the year the corporations choke the life out of them, just as well.

 

            I could stop here; I made my point but I’m here to bring solace, strength and strong / quiet leadership to those low-income and wage-slave workers who are ever so abhorred by their CEO’s who ‘rake in’ about $16.1 million dollars per annual income salaries, plus health benefits and, and, and...

 

            What is there to be said for those irresponsible corporate multi-millionaire CEO’s of ‘Toys“R”Us’, Marshalls, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Kmart, J.C.Penney, Macy’s and Staple’s? Nothing. (Ouch.)

 

Except that their companies must either be hard up or ignorant or mean-spirited or devilish or greedy or hateful of the human race or the devil incarnate. (Pick one.)

 

            If I were to make the decision to stay closed on Thanksgiving; Yes, if I were to make the decision then as a corporate CEO I’d make the right decision such as those of Costco’s CEO’s and Menards who made the correct decision to stay closed on Thanksgiving because they know and they understand all, too, well that National Holidays are meant to be a time for naps, food, a break from the ‘hustle-and-bustle’ and time to relax by yourselves or surrounded by beloved ones. Period.

 

            I’m totally surprised that corporate CEO’s are allowed to economically ‘rape’ their low-wage and slave-wage workers into shamelessly forcing them to work on a major Holiday, no matter how much time and a half CEO’s may pay their low-wage workers; those irresponsible CEO’s are never going to make up for the time lost away from families, children and elderly and downtime.

 

These corporate CEO’s and ‘shareholders’ are the thieves of American familial values and relaxation to drink and be merry.

 

            I bet you a hot coco with lots of whip cream on top that you’re not going to catch a junior or senior corporate executive ‘lending a hand’ and on the floors of those stores over the Thanksgiving Holiday because their fat asses are already hidden away in some cabin in the woods, licking their wounds away that the “Middle Class” and the “Upper Class” hates their guts for making the ‘wrong’ decisions over those without a voice, power and money.

 

There’s nothing uglier than a fat cat who can’t make the right choices and the right decisions in the overall wellness and kindness for their subordinates.

 

To be a fat cat, with a fat ass, who can’t imagine the severity, the devastation and the heartache in which to be ripped apart from families on a National Holiday is to have the cold stone heart of ‘Scrooge’ and that nastiness catches up with one sooner than later.

 

The angels keep score and they know everything that we do.

 

The Gods laugh in the face of such desperate corporate CEO Scrooges without a heart because the Gods know that when our irresponsible corporate Brothers and Sisters stop taking their responsibilities seriously, to the culture at large, and turn into demons, quietly, cunningly and divisively then they don’t stand a chance at the afterlife because they chose to ‘sell out’ instead of ‘doing the right thing’ for other humans in dire need of their families, beloved ones and friends over this National Holiday.

 

Cash in your chips and say ‘goodnight’ to your beloved ones because it’s going to be a bumpy ride in your sleep.

 

            I love the story of mean old Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens because just when you think that nasty mean old fart is going to get away with raping, pillaging and destroying culture then bam!

 

Three spirits come to Scrooge in his sleep and he realizes a few things: a) He’s life of wealth has been for nothing because he’s a mean old, ugly, empty soul and vessel without anyone to really love b) He’s made all of the wrong choices and decisions which lead him to kill his heart, early on c) He hates with the passion of demons, especially his subordinates who are kind and friendly to him simply because he’s a quiet and contemptuous ‘loose cannon’ and no one cares if he were to live or die d) He hasn’t been ‘laid’ in five decades and that makes a nasty old man out of him because all the money in the world isn’t going to buy him love e) “You can’t take it with you” (Ha!) (How’s that for a summary? I could write book jackets. Just kidding.)

 

I love “A Christmas Carol” for so many reasons but mainly because by the end of the story, no matter how much Mr. Scrooge still feels a slight sense of greediness the morning after his visitations, he still realizes, that it took the three spirits to wake him up from his slumberous sleep of a wasted life. (Ouch.)

 

It takes the past, present and what could be: to give Mr. Scrooge the ultimate ultimatum: either get it together and share his good fortune, wealth and get kind about it or go to the place where all souls ‘never’ rest. (Yikes.) Yes, Sir!

 

Could you imagine three spirits calling upon you in your sleep to get you to wake up to your senses and become a decent and respectable human being?

 

What a wasted life to be so ignorant and uncouth to so many but particularly to his subordinates who are so kind, respectful and well wishing of Scrooge no matter how cruel he is to them.

 

            Look: Like any other adult; I’ve lost significantly in my life but like mud if that keeps me from turning into a sour mean old Scrooge.

 

I’m so surprised as to why some of America’s CEO’s and shareholders have turned into Scrooges? Why are they so cruel, vicious and mean?

 

I can’t imagine that it’s all about the money when most of their part-time employees barely make $9,744 dollars on minimum wage without any health care coverage for themselves and their families, while our low-wage workers must work three part-time jobs just to put bread on the table and a roof over their little babies’ heads.

 

God, you guys could almost bring me to tears but I have work to do and thus up and onwards we go on this joy ride.

 

            Do tell me: What’s happened to America?

 

            Why does our government allow for corporations to get away with this type of cruelty?

 

            Since, corporations are persons: wouldn’t we stop a man from beating another man senseless upon our streets? (Don’t answer that.)

 

            Since, corporations are persons: wouldn’t we stop a man from robbing another man blind?

 

            Since, corporations are persons: wouldn’t we stop a man from starving another man from his keep?

 

            Since, corporations are persons: wouldn’t we stop a man from starving another man’s children?

 

            Show us, that America still has a moral compass and core values, no matter how much our “working poor” and “blue collar” and “working class” refuses to stop and consider their low-wage Brothers and Sisters while they slave away on Thanksgiving Day.

 

            Show us, that this is still the land of the free and the brave.

 

            Show us, that this is still the land in which all men are created equal.

 

            Show us, anything good to get us to believe in this land of ours, once again.

 

            No, don’t tell us anything.

            Be quiet.

            We’re tired of the damn lies.

 

            Show us, that this is still the land of the Pilgrims.

 

            Show us, that we can unite as One Nation Under God and boycott these nine nasty Scrooge corporations for one single day, Thanksgiving Day 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and...

 

            Show us, that we can unite as One Nation Under God and boycott these nine nasty Scrooge corporations that one decade ago outsourced our jobs to Mexico, China and India while for the rest of the year corporations sell those very outsourced products back to us at steep prices and large chunks of land in the United States of America are sold to China from right under our noses.

 

Please, little ones, what are you thinking?

You’re not.

 

Wake up, I whisper to you with all of the power of your Viking Ancestors.

 

Don’t let them ‘lick us’ ever so quietly.

 

If they’re going to lick us, at least, we won’t go down without an ideological and boycott fight because we represent the ‘working man’ of any Nation who’d give their right arm for a chance at democracy.

 

            Show us, that we can unite as One Nation Under God.

 

            At least, in America we believe in ‘worker’s rights’ and that’s what makes us so damn bloody incredible if we can stand together against the corporate pressure and the shiny devilish objects dangled before us.

 

We’re stronger than that.

We’re better than that, damn it.

‘We take care of our own’ because, otherwise no one else will.

 

We care about our low-wage / slave-wage workers because if we don’t speak up for them then when it happens to us, no one will speak up for us.

 

We must not allow for the cycle of corporate malice, malevolence and CEO and shareholder cruelty to continue.

 

We can’t let that happen to this great Nation that’s bled, cried and sweat for a little bit of bread just so that we can break it together one day out of the year.

 

            In other words, why have Americans become such suckers when we’re so smart? I don’t think so. Nope. Not here.

 

We’re not idiots, are we? Nope.

 

            Why do we rush out to purchase cheap products that stole our very way and quality of life and starved our American babies?

 

What gives?

Are we such ignorant Peoples?

I don’t think so.

 

We’re simply misinformed.

Don’t you know how this game is played?

 

            You buy Chinese products at a low cost on Thanksgiving Day and the rest of the year you have to make up for the low prices sold to you once a year while the consumer blindly forces the wage-slave workers to be torn away from their families, beloved ones, and homes. Duh! What cruelty indeed.

 

            Show us, that the consumer still has boycott power over greedy corporations.

 

Are we going to let corporations ‘lick us’ with their sly ways? Nope.

Are we going to let corporations rob us of our American way of life? Nope.

 

I mean really.

We know a thing or two about competition don’t we?

Yes, we do.

 

Go get ‘em Americans!

 

On Thanksgiving Day fight the urge to buy anything at a store or online.

 

On Thanksgiving Day eat, laugh and be merry!

On Thanksgiving Day drink apple cider with whip cream.

On Thanksgiving Day get tipsy and laugh but don’t drive drunk.

On Thanksgiving Day watch a movie, read a book, rake the leaves.

On Thanksgiving Day shovel snow.

On Thanksgiving Day make love.

On Thanksgiving Day stay in your pajamas all day long.

On Thanksgiving Day come up with a new hairdo for the new year.

On Thanksgiving Day gather together all the clothes you’d like to donate.

On Thanksgiving Day play a board game.

On Thanksgiving Day sleep most of the day away, if you can. Yummy!

 

On Thanksgiving Day relax and do nothing and be thankful that you’re not living in cold Pilgrims’ log cabins, chopping wood and barely finding anything to eat and on the brink of starvation.     

 

On Thanksgiving Day just be…

 

Americans prove to each other that we’re not Scrooges!

 

 

With Love; (I gave you everything that I had.)

Now, I need a well deserved nap.

 

Cheers; (I raise a glass to your health, intelligence and kindness.)

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,153

 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

 

“Too beautiful is sometimes a fault.”

“What good is beauty without luck?”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Foment (to arouse, cause, incite)

 

To foment trouble is not characteristic of a gentleman.

 

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Yes, corrections were made.

 

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Mr. Ben Elton

 

            Yes, I normally abhor musicals with a passion because as the critics have pointed out, indeed, “We Will Rock You” is “shallow” and so on and so forth, however, it was the music that moved me to the deepest places of my core vibrations.

 

            Yes, indeed I’d rather pay seventy-five bucks to go and watch great musicians play Queen’s music and Ruby Lewis sing, instead of a musical any day of the week (hands down).

 

However, I support anything that Ben Elton touches because I believe in his genius and all of the little socio-political and socio-cultural digs he gets in and you know that those statements will sit in the audience’s subconscious forevermore and it’s worth every penny to us to have ‘knuckleheads’ think about the future.

 

            Yes, we caught many technical mistakes but that’s only because we’re professional broadcast engineers and some of the ‘nerdiest’ in the business.

 

            [When the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) comes crashing through the airwaves, we’ll be able to put you back in business with a shoelace, a wire and a tube. (Ha!) No joke. (I’m not very good at terminology but I know what things are and how to work them and if need be then we can fix them which is an invaluable skill set.)

 

I no longer work as a broadcast engineer, per say, but I was a part of the movement that got the Twin Cities up and running on High Definition back in 2006. How splendid.

 

We did that for the Twin Cities because we’ve always kept ‘ahead of the curve.’ One High Def deck costs one-hundred thousand dollars and it was an expensive operation to get the Twin Cities into the future of broadcast but it was worth every penny.

 

It’ll be the techies who’ll get this country back up and running if it ever were to shutdown and we can do that because that’s our background and our professional standing for over forty years in this broadcast Television business.

 

Don’t ever give up on analogue.]

 

            Yes, even though we catch every single mistake, we’ll go there with any performance and give it ‘the benefit of the doubt’ because we know exactly what it’s like to run a multi-billion dollar operation. We just do.

 

            The only time I cringed was when Jacqueline B. Arnold’s microphone was off and it was obvious that the audience couldn’t hear what she was singing because of audio levels were off and all I could do was sit back in my seat and pretend like it wasn’t happening to her and hoped that she’d take it like a professional, which she did. Calmly.

 

            Yes, we caught it, also, the helmets but I won’t go there because it would be rude of me and I don’t want to line dry the dirty technical laundry in front of the entire world. Moving on.

 

            Yes, I think that Mr. Ben Elton is not only brilliant, honest, straight forward and hilarious but also quite politico and socio-culturally attune indeed.

 

I think that Mr. Elton has 'a finger on the pulse' of culture and understands all too well what’s happened to us as docile and scared Peoples, especially after nine-eleven.

 

            If you ever get the chance to see this man do stand-up comedy then go and cash in your piggy bank’s savings, pennies and nickels and purchase a ticket to one of the most extraordinary and fabulous of times in a theatre as you watch the bright light of an incredibly brilliant human radiate truth unto this world.

 

(Yes, I could gush and allow for me to do so… because I’m neither going out of my way to meet Mr. Elton nor do I need to kiss his ass when I’m a lucky dog and get my three square meals a day. I, too, work for a living and I don’t need anything from anyone that I don’t know. Thank you very much.)

 

            I’m not so sure as to why the British posh abhor Mr. Ben Elton’s work when his literary gifts have been nothing but short of a miracle.

 

I’m sure I can ‘give it a good stab in the dark’ as to why the British posh abhor what he writes and creates.

 

Let me take one guess: classism?

 

Oh, I ‘hit it on the nail,’ didn’t I?

 

I most certainly did.

 

            Aside from the classism, one must give credit where credit is due, even if one were to hate the man, himself, and especially a literary modern genius such as Mr. Ben Elton, one, must still be ‘a good sport’ about it.

 

Don’t you know what Mr. Ben Elton has contributed to the world?

 

Please, tell me that you know. Of course, you do.

 

It would be like the Americans hating Stephen King because he wasn’t born East Coast blue blooded. Please. Don’t be so insulting as all that.

 

Some of Mr. Ben Elton’s written contributions for Television are as followed in no particular order: “The Young Ones,” “Al-fresco,” “Happy Families,” “Blackadder 2,” “Filthy Rich & Catflap,” “Saturday Live,” “Blackadder the Third,” “Friday Night Live,” “Blackadder Goes Forth,” “Ben Elton The Man From Auntie,” and “The Thin Blue Line.”

 

I haven’t listed his other accomplishments in the form of novels and standup.

 

            No, I can’t stand “The Young Ones” because it closely resembles real life and it leaves a terrible taste in my mouth however I can give all the credit in the world to Mr. Ben Elton for creating something all, too, true and a reflection of young people and their woes centered around the decade of the 1980’s.

 

The main reason as to why I can’t stand the Tele show “The Young Ones” is because it reminds me of the horrible politics and policies former president Ronald Reagan implemented and created an “MTV generation” of starving punks, “latch key kids,” and took away lunch programs from kids that needed it most, along with former Prime Minister Margaret Hilda Thatcher, who did the same thing to Britain’s 1980’s youth.

 

The reason as to why punks exist at all, today, is because Ronald Reagan and Margaret Hilda Thatcher created such a culture of a ‘forgotten generation,’ the MTV generation.

 

Punks are their creation, to the world at large and these two remarkably ‘out of touch’ politicians, must swallow that creation to the grave just as every mad scientist must swallow his Frankenstein; (which by the way Frankenstein is supposed to represent kindness and innocence, go reread your ‘cliff notes’ and get it right this time.)

 

I can’t stand the destruction, madness and filth of the characters in “The Young Ones.” I can barely get through one episode without looking away. It’s one of Eric’s favorites so I go there with him but my stomach turns each and every time.

 

            As for “The Thin Blue Line” I can’t drink almond milk and eat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies while I watch or it’ll come spilling out through my nose from hard laughter. No eating anything while I watch comedy!

 

I can barely contain my laughter when we watch this show. It’s too funny, silly and the main character ‘weirds me out’ yet I can’t look away from the character’s “train wreck.”

 

            I’m grateful that Mr. Ben Elton has bestowed upon culture his literary gifts because without him the Western world wouldn’t be the same or who we are without harsh and difficult reflections to swallow down with historical commentary in the aftertaste of bad stomach acid that won’t stay down.

 

            Now, I can actually understand hating someone’s creations, however, what I can’t ever seem to reason out is as to why anyone ought to ever hate the creator.

 

Isn’t that a bit crude and ignorant? Indeed.

 

            I’ve been informed that one of the main reasons as to why the upper class or Britain’s posh are disgusted by their Son, Ben Elton is because he’s not like them (in other words he’s working class) and as a comedian he can get away with stating ‘his truth’ about what he perceives the world to be and there’s nothing that they can do about that.

 

I’m bewildered that British posh are as snobbish and shallow as all that.

 

I’m shocked that they’re such snobs when literary brilliance belongs to them in the form of their Nation’s Son. One would think that they’d have better taste, articulation and understanding for contemporary literary brilliance.

 

It must be the age, in which we live in that those who don’t or won’t create anything worth a valuable contribution to humanity abhor the creators but not their creations and that’s backwards thinking, that’s ‘dark ages’ thinking.

 

Allow for me to be the greatest East Coast blue blooded snob all around; please don’t “kill the messenger” because to create something from nothing is to give birth to thought and that’s not quite as easy as it looks, otherwise you would’ve tried it a long time ago.

 

Don’t you know, to embrace your creative Sons and Daughters no matter what their class system?

 

How revolting, how insane, how ludicrous and how mundane to turn one’s back upon their own, simply because he speaks his truth to the masses.

 

His writing, then, must feel more like a hard slap across the mouths of the upper class, each and every time he writes to his beloved Britain, while the British posh spew out their hatred of him and his works along with the taste of blood upon their lips.

 

            Well, I can tell you this; Mr. Ben Elton isn’t crying all the way to the bank because 15 million people have seen “We Will Rock You” around 17 countries and the show banked $1.05 billion dollars (I wasn’t listening all too closely but after one billion all those zeros start to look the same to me) in just a little over a decade.

 

I think that Mr. Ben Elton is indeed laughing his ass off all the way to the bank no matter how much the British upper class may hate his guts or his work and as a matter of fact I do believe that he’s now the upper class, thus I’d be more mindful with the insults.

 

            In conclusion; today’s lesson is that one may hate the work but one may not hate the creator.

 

We no longer live in the ‘dark ages’ even though it feels like it much of the time. It’s not okay to be so crude as all that. It’s not okay to implement social ‘witch hunts’ and want to derail people’s careers simply because we hate their intelligent brilliance. And, if they’re not brilliant well, then, they just suck and everybody knows it.

 

It’s one thing to hate those who create entertainment through violence, rape and murder of women because it’s the ‘fun’ or ‘lazy’ thing to produce along with filthy content but it’s quite another to hate a creator who’s intelligent brilliance resonates with our very own, as audience appreciators.

 

If creators aren’t willing to ‘stick out their necks’ for the rest than nothing much will get accomplished and we have so much work to get done in the decades to come because many of us will retire within the next five decades and that’s when we’ll really start to produce our masterpieces.

 

Mr. Ben Elton may cross the pond anytime he wishes and become America’s Son because we’ve kept an eye on his fabulous work for close to two decades and even though “We Will Rock You” isn’t perfect, it still fulfills the outdated KISS.

 

Keep It Stupid Simple for American audiences yet leave them wanting for more, and make sure to get your socio-political and socio-cultural digs in so that the ‘knuckleheads’ never forget that they, too, have a responsibility to the future creators, innovators and thinkers. (Ha!) Cheers!

 

You do know that ‘KISS’ is no longer acceptable, because, well, American audiences are way smarter than most producers nowadays. Right? Right.

 

Best Wishes;

Gabriel

 

R.I.P. JFK

 

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R.I.P. Dick Wallack

 

(Yes, Eric worked closely with Dick as his Director.

 

Both men held a close and professional working relationship as most professional relationships are in this Television business even if no one wants to admit it. Techies and cast do mix because we can trust each other to do well by each other even though everybody’s competing ‘to get a leg up’ above the rest or if talent is cruel then no one cares if they live or die.)

 

May his soul rest in peace.

 

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Note:

No, my family wasn’t Puritan.

We’re W.A.S.P.; “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.”

 

Work count: 2,105

 

Monday, November 25, 2013

 

“Beauty fades, but a good name endures.”

“The beautiful is not dear; but the dear is beautiful.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Fortuitous (accidental, happening by chance)

 

He gained his fortune in a fortuitous manner.

 

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Yes, corrections were made.

 

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“We Will Rock You”

 

Music and Lyrics

Queen

 

Story and Script

Ben Elton

 

            No, this shan’t be a musical review of “We Will Rock You” because I’m neither a theatre critic nor do I pretend to be one nor do I care to become one. (Thank you very much.)

 

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            We sure got rocked on Saturday’s matinee at 2:00 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

It was a fantastic and well spent time.

 

Since, we’re ‘old people’ we make it a point to go to events earlier in the daytime so that we get home before the sun goes down, climb into pajamas, eat an ‘early Finn supper’ (on weekends by 4:00 or 5:00 p.m.) and watch a film all before eight at night.

 

I love getting older with each passing year.

 

I’ve given myself more reasons to get out earlier in the afternoons than in the evenings and I make it a point to be home by no later than 8:00 p.m. on weeknights.

 

I’m no longer ‘young’ and I don’t ever want to be young again. I’m young in spirit but in body I’m aging and it’s an incredible metamorphosis indeed.

 

One thing is for certain; we are born, we live, we age, we die.

 

Youth is overrated, plus as you get older you may not have your looks but you sure do have money and wealth to spend it on human comforts and that’s all I care about.

 

No, I haven’t broken my ten year boycott of plays (2020).

 

A musical isn’t a dry-and-cut, boring, irritating and mean-spirited play that everybody hates with rude front desk personnel; it’s a ‘song and dance’ performance that can either leave one with inspiration or ready to…

 

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            The First Act left me wondering if the spirit of Mr. Mercury hovered over the audience and my eyes filled with water and I believed that his spirit became present in those fleeting seconds in the introduction of Virtual High School.

 

(No, I don’t tend to cry in public. I’ve got way, too, much of a stiff upper lip for such nonsense and if I do cry in public then it’s because I’m exhausted and irritated and I can’t seem to make sense out of the manipulative and cunning miscommunication going on between parties, which it doesn’t happen any longer because I retired from documentary filmmaking, all together.)

 

I lost moments of my life during the First Act.

 

            As I sat in my seat and thought about Freddie Mercury’s soul, his spirit and life, I swelled up with immense compassion and deepest emotion for the many gifts this man bestowed upon societal culture and history at large.

 

I lost track of space and time while my only thoughts were with a man larger than life who endured so much for his music, his friendships, his family and eventually his health.

 

            I became ever so still and quietly overwhelmed with emotion to consider this man for the true and real angel that he is. I thought I could feel an immense sense of love as I sat there and imagined Freddie Mercury smiling down upon the performers and crew and a theatre full of “Q-Tips”.

 

As I looked around at a sea of ‘white heads’ I realized that the music must mean ‘the world’ to their generation and that their intrinsic youth still lingered on with the smells of baby powder mixed in with foot sweat worn by stockings instead of real socks and stiff inexpensive alcohol on their breath.

 

For me, it was the real, live music that caught a hold of my soul and held me suspended above myself for over two hours.

 

            It was the music and the all dressed-in-black musicians who played real instruments that became ‘stage-center-front’ for me, throughout the entire performance, even though the musicians were kept hidden by a scrim, on a platform, much of the time.

 

I felt the thunderous clap of emotion inside my chest while they carried on and played with finesse, integrity and musical superiority.

 

I sensed that the musicians were the ‘real deal’ and because of that reason, alone, they earned my deepest regard and respect.

 

They shall have my respect until they become old men and tell their grandkids their stories about touring and playing the music of ‘the greats’ in a musical titled, “We Will Rock You.” Indeed. Thank you. (May Godspeed and return you safely to your families because so much can go wrong on the road. I would know. I researched the lives of ‘roadies’ and ‘riggers’ for two long and arduous years while I went undercover and pretended to be ‘stagehand’.) (Ha!)

 

            The makeup and wardrobe, the lighting, the stage setup and even the stage management were all well executed, professional and well done. I liked it all. I felt like a kid in a candy shop and happily overwhelmed by trying to catch sight of everything that moved across the stage.

 

            No, I don’t mind, if I miss a thing, here or there, because I’m smart enough to consider any stage setup and recall it upon my peripheral view from memory.

 

No, I don’t need everything ‘spelled out’ for me because I like to remember and think about a live performance for days, weeks and months afterwards and recall little details that I missed out, the first time around. The more I recall, then the more I remember the little details. It’s so much fun!

 

I can remember details like how a pleated gray skirt swirled and that a male performer wore it instead of a female and how it caught me off guard and I liked to get challenged in such a fashion.

 

I can recall the intricate patterns and articulate bright colors of any cast member’s hairdo in their performance. I can recall the different beautiful body types and navels of performers as their outfits showed off their athletic bodies.

 

I can recall…we’ll see what happens months from today.

 

            Aside, from all of the fine performances and creative details, I was amazed at the great sound and light quality as well as the articulation in the singing voices of the performers.

 

You don’t know what that means to me to hear real singers, sing, in an era in which hardly any ‘pop star’ can sing (for real), much less without lip-synch.

 

The reason as to why so many pop stars lip-synch is because they can’t really sing. They’re not very good and since they sell millions of singles then they can’t come out in the open and ‘spill the beans’ about the fact that they’re talentless hacks and everybody knows it except their twelve year old fans. (Ouch.)

 

            Okay; for one single moment, we’ll make it about my experiences because it’s the only thing that I have to compare it to; when we’ve Premiered our independent feature length documentaries here in Minneapolis, not only has the house been full to the brim, but also the energy has been through the roof.

 

To have so many incredible and amazing people take the time to step out and attend our Premieres has left me overwhelmed, grateful and beside myself, not to mention exhausted as well.

 

            I was not only honoured but also beside myself to realize that the cast and crew and producers of “We Will Rock You” decided to launch their Premiere here in Minneapolis.

 

I suppose because we’re a tough and tight lipped audience to please.

 

I know how overwhelming those emotions can get because wherever one Premieres it means that that particular audience is to send you off into the Universes with pride, joy and well wishes on your successes.

 

I wish this incredibly hardworking and magnificent cast and crew nothing but success, happiness and joy as they took off on their tour.

 

Minneapolis sends you off with warm wishes, love and gratitude for using Minneapolis as your launching pad. We’re honored to be the first (or second) American city to see you off and to see you perform your incredible talents and gifts for the public.

 

We shan’t forget you, as you travel the United States of America that is so in need of your tremendous energy and vibe and talents.

 

America requires to be ‘rocked’ and ‘moved’ to their senses in a time in which so much has been lost to our workers and as the “Middle Class” has turned into an endangered species and there’s so much police brutality in our nation.

 

As you step out to do your bits each night, please don’t forget the Americans.

 

We love and if our American love can only be returned on performing stages by the dedicated few, who understand, what creative magic means then so be it.

 

Even if others have turned their backs on the Americans, when it comes to the creative, we, too, understand that no matter how crabby they may become from lack of sleep or overworked, that they shan’t turn their backs on us because that’s one of our last bits of hope for this nation, for our truest to shine and to give meaning to an era of so much empty and shallow nothingness disguised as dollar signs.

 

Americans can make ‘stone soup’ all right, but we can’t live on air alone because our bellies ache and our hearts may just harden at the hatred of today’s leaderless nation of political haters.

 

We fight with what we’ve got, our intelligence, our creativity and our peace as any and all great creators do of any era in time.

 

We wish you rest, patience with each other, peace and endurance.

 

-----   -----   -----

 

            The only aspect of “We Will Rock You” that startled me in the same way that the audience did is that almost the entire cast and audience were Caucasian.

 

            In a far off future of an “iworld” there only seemed to be enough room for Caucasians.

 

            I’m mostly always startled to go to the theatre and realize that much of the minority population can’t or won’t or isn’t able to afford live performance entertainment and I can understand that.

 

            As I sat in the Orpheum Theatre, I quickly did the math: 2,579 X’s a median ticket price at $70.00 equal one-hundred-and-eighty thousand dollars ($180,000) and I’m low balling it. (Sorry, the producer in me deals with figures, always. Math never lies.)

 

            There were three aspects about the entire experience that turned me off; A) The rude, heavy and bragger of a Minnesotan old woman (a season ticket holder), we dealt with when we got our seats wrong and sat in the wrong section before finding our correct seats, goodness, you would’ve thought she was a monkey in heat and territorial B) The lack of minorities in the audience and cast C) At the very end when the cast members came out and ‘begged’ for AIDS research donations from the audience after the house had racked up about one-hundred-and-eighty thousand dollars in one single afternoon’s matinee, at two in the afternoon, nonetheless.

 

Once, the cast began to beg, we ran for the doors.

 

Leave them wanting for more.

 

As a producer, I would never do that to any cast because it’s in poor taste and inappropriate.

 

If the cast seeks funds for AIDS research then have the house donate 15% to 20% of each performance towards that particular cause because the audience had already paid for their admittance therefore there’s no need to ‘milk them’ for any more money. It’s considered tacky.

 

Plus I just don’t like to see embarrassed looking ‘cast members’ holding out hats or buckets at entrance doors, like the beggars we were about to face out on the streets.

 

It cheapens any theatrical experience all around. It just does and there’s no other way for me to say it but East Coast direct and straight.

 

            If I had more social currency in Minneapolis, which I don’t, not like on the entire of the Eastern Sea Board then I’d start an ‘elite club’ in which the wealthiest who can afford it, would anonymously donate a seat (or more) to minority adults.

 

No, not minority youth, rather minority adults who hardly ever get the chance to get to the theatre.

 

There are many programs which allow and open up opportunities to minority youth but hardly ever to minority adults.

 

I’d love to see different types of minority Grandparents and adults have the ability and the opportunity to have a seat donated to them in exchange for their youth getting high marks (all A’s and B’s) in school for an entire year. Wouldn’t that be fabulous! Extraordinary, indeed! I’d be proud to sit next to those folks. Truly.

 

Alas, I’m no one special, but some kid from Brooklyn thus my words dissipate with this dark cold night air.

 

------   ------   ------

            Yes, I’m the one who rolls her R’s when in attendance of any live-performance.

 

            Why?

 

            I roll my R’s in remembrance of our eighty-thousand (80,000) dead Mexican Brothers and Sisters in this drug-cartel holocaust going on six long years.

 

No, the Costa Ricans don’t roll their R’s but the Mexican peasants, Native Americans and farmers do and they taught me to roll my R’s whenever the spirit moves me and thus I do it in the name of love.

 

I do it for them, so that they may not be forgotten, ever.

 

Bravo.

Bravisimo.

Viva la musica.

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

P.S. May the Gods watch over you and keep you safe while on the road. Be kind and respectful of the crew because they work their asses off for the cast. Ruby Lewis can really belt it. What a set of pipes on that tiny little woman! Ha!

 

Next; The Maya Exhibit or bust.

 

Word count: 2,292

 

Friday, November 22, 2013

 

“How many lament their looks, and how few lament their brains.”

“It is good to look at the fair--and live with the wise.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Gouge (to make grooves or holes in, as with a curved, hollow blade; to scoop out; dig or force out.)

 

As she fell, the broken broomhandle gouged her arm.

 

---  ---  ---

 

Yes, corrections were made.

 

---  ---  ---

-----------------------------------

Vinegar sure is sweet to the last drop

 

            Look: you’ve not sat across from me and held a respectful, kind and relaxed conversation face-to-face thus you have no clue as to the type of person I really am in real life other than on the page and the page is well, linear and one dimensional; thus you shan’t judge me solely by what I write on a one dimensional and linear space otherwise it’s considered lunacy to do so.

 

            Okay; let’s get to it. I haven’t got much time today. I got caught up doing many other things and fulfilling responsibilities of immense proportions.

 

            Personally, I love vinegar because I’m prone to sore throats from time to time, not often, however, when I do get them then they tend to take me out for a while, that’s probably why I don’t go around screaming, yelling or raising my voice too often. I’ve got tender vocal chords.

 

When a nasty sore throat catches a hold of me then I like to gargle with apple vinegar (it’s quite tasty). I’m telling you, it’s like magic. Within less than twelve hours my sore throat disappears and I’m able to get on with life.

 

            Yes, when I write, I become literary vinegar incarnate and my soul goes there, so I let it, because I write with the wisdom of the Maya Ancestors, Kings, Warriors and Priests and not with the influence of mass media, mass culture and subtle manipulative conniving methods.

 

My soul hovers above and slightly behind me where it ought to be when one writes to a mass public of over one million worldwide readership.

 

I try not to think about how the readership is going to negatively or positively react to this linear writing.

 

More so, I write, from a place of the sacred and allow for my soul to take its charted course just as any vessel does once a navigator sets it on autopilot without crashing into shallow waters.

 

            I like vinegar because it has a tendency to be incredibly potent, straight forward, healing and incredibly amazing all around for all sorts of things like; “Frito Feet.”

 

I learned that dogs get the most awful smell on their paws when they sweat and the only real way to alleviate that ‘stale chip odor’ is to place them inside the bathtub with a little bit of vinegar and baking soda (I think?) at the bottom of the tub and bam. The pee like odor on their paws is gone. Wonderful.

 

            I recently learned that instead of laying down salt on one’s front walk to melt down ice in the winter, lay down vinegar and something else (?) so that one’s dog doesn’t have to deal with salt kernels stuck inside their paws all winter long because that just sounds painful.

 

            I recently learned that if one places vinegar and something else (?) inside a plastic bag and hangs it overnight, over their showerhead then one can get rid of the skuzziest build up on the showerhead. Fantastic.

 

            I recently learned that if one’s toilet bowl gets water stains on the inside of the toilet bowl then one can pour vinegar inside the bowl and then bam! Gone. The inside of the toilet bowl looks as good as new. Amazing.

 

            For as much as Americans are constantly peer pressuring others to act like sweetness there’s a lot to be said for vinegar. Vinegar won’t spike your blood glucose count and send you into a deep sugar coma.

 

            Personally, in person, I’m quite a naturally sweet and straight forward human because the culture calls for women to be obedient, kind, accommodating and so on and so forth, nevertheless, when it comes to wisdom and writing there’s a lot to be said for the health benefits of literary vinegar.

 

            No, I don’t want to fake anything on the page simply because I might be afraid of what others may think of me.

 

No, I don’t want to lie because there’s enough of that on the Earth, already.

 

No, I don’t want to sway others to believe or think the wrong things because the media already does that for them.

 

No, I don’t want to get it wrong because people are counting on me to get it right, even, though, they realize that I’m an imperfect human who makes many mistakes and corrections for their benefit.

 

I get to come to the page and even if I use literary vinegar mixed in with imagery, I get to tell the truth no matter what.

 

No matter how much others may get jealous, envious or hateful, I get to speak my truth and that’s worth all the wealth and gold in the world. You know it, I know it and everybody else knows it. This is a fountain of wealth.

 

When I write I come from a place of love.

 

A deepest love for humanity even if I have to hand out harsh lessons of the soul to get others to resonate with their own Mother Earth vibrations.

 

I believe in life, the ever after, the goodness of people and the kindness of strangers. I do. I believe.

 

I was born and I’m married to life.

 

I took an oath to always do well by others even if sometimes my English gets jumbled and I have to go back and make better sense out of what I previously wrote.

 

            Look: allow for me burst your bubbles and bust your balls.

 

The Arts are the Olympics of emotional and cerebral intelligence, finesse, philosophy, creative genius, and, and, and…

 

No, not any old ‘schmuck’ can be an artist because that’s a lie.

 

Either, one, has the gift or, one, doesn’t.

 

            No matter how many hours of practice one puts in, if one doesn’t have the gift, then one isn’t going to make it, because there’s a lot of drab, crap and horrible art work out there by people who think that they’ve got the gift but it’s obvious to the naked eye of the gift beholder that they don’t know what hacks do, no matter how much they may lie to themselves.

 

One has the freedom to explore art until about the age of sixteen and after that if one is mediocre and simply ‘ordinary’ without the gift, then art becomes nothing but a hobby because the hardest profession to get ahead in is the arts.

 

It’s better for a youngster to become a mathematician, a manager, a scientist, an astronaut because a world of hurt and disappointment will drive them to madness if they don’t, first, have the gift and, second, if they can’t ‘tough it out’ in one of the most competitive of all fields, the arts.

 

            No, I don’t want to disappoint you for the sheer joy of being a bitch but there’ll be many who’ll lie to you to get you to part with your money and well, there’re far more hustlers in this business than there’re in Wall Street.

 

The truth, that inartistic people won’t disclose to you; that even if you do put in your first and second ten thousand hours of practice, it won’t turn you into a genius, if you don’t already have the gift in your DNA. (Ouch.)

 

You’ve got to be born with it in the same way that you’ve got to be born with beauty in order to become a model or with a certain body type to become the next Michael Jordan, if that’s even possible, which it isn’t.

 

So you see I’m letting you down gently because so many will lie to your face and stroke your egos simply to have you bust your balls for nothing at all.

 

Many users will tell you that your art is ‘wonderful,’ either without knowing anything about art themselves or they’ll laugh at you, behind your backs, because a painted fork is just that; a painted fork and it has no luminary function only cash symbols, and in the overall tenor of the art, it means absolutely nothing and everybody knows it but so long as you can cash in on it, then they’ll stroke your ego but secretly they’ll call you a ‘hack’ and that’s more painful than finding out the truth early on.

 

I’m sorry but others will rob you blind of your money and especially of your time to get you to practice or study under them, but it’ll be a complete waste of life because the worst aspect in life; waking up at the age of twenty-five, only to find out that one is ‘ordinary’ and without the gift and the most you’ll ever become is an art dealer, art manager, or an art teacher watching the real geniuses leave you in the dust, because that’s as far as your natural skill set can carry you and not to the major leagues with the Mozart’s, Beethoven’s and Vivaldi’s.

 

It’s the truth, and you know it, I know it and everybody else knows it.

 

If one is ‘ordinary’ then one’s perceived more like a ‘cash cow’ then the real thing. (Ha!)

 

            No, I’m not afraid of a little competition or a lot.

 

I’ve been at this ever since I was sixteen only because I have the gift and practiced writing ever since I was twelve.

 

I have the gift because I was born with it but it was up to me to do something with it. I’m somewhat of a genius in my own right even though I don’t like to admit it but oh, well, there it is for you to read and it’s spelled out for you because I love.

 

            I’ve met more people who committed suicide because they discovered all too late that they’d never amount to much in the arts.

 

            I’ve met more people who became depressed because they discovered all too late that art is one of the most competitive of sports.

 

            I’ve met more people who cried themselves to sleep because no one ever told them the full extent of the truth that their art wasn’t even bad. It’s simply ‘ordinary’ and that’s worst than horrid art work, although bad art is bad art and we know it to be true.

 

            I’ve met more people who self loathed because they couldn’t hide the truth from themselves and it’s always there underneath the surface festering away like acid.

 

            I’ve met more people who are self destructive because they hate that the truth is full of vinegar yet it heals the sick, the wounded and those under the influence of delusions of grandeur.

 

            No, no amount of money that one may earn from ‘ordinary’ art will make them into great artists.

 

            No, no amount of success that one may earn from ‘ordinary’ art will make them into great artists.

 

            No, no amount of ego stroking from the mass media or an “ignorant” public about art will make them into great artists.

 

            Only the divine will of one’s genius will make one into great artists.

 

            Only the truth about one’s gift will make one into great artists.

 

            Only the skill set and the complex subject matter of one’s ability will make one into great artists.

 

            Great art is about humanity and not about dollar bills or painted cups.

 

            Only the power of one’s DNA will make one into great artists.

 

            No, I didn’t have it easy as I came up through the ranks.

 

I’ve had masters and literary peers rip out my throat. I’ve been scolded, told that my comma placement, parenthesis and quotations were all wrong. I’ve been made to rewrite drafts in the upwards of fifty or more times of the same story.

 

            Yes, a great storyteller either has the gift or not.

 

            To be a great storyteller is to be mindful, truthful and capable of intelligence above average.

 

            A storyteller isn’t something that the mass media poops out.

 

            Storytelling is something that is sacred and honed for decades and nothing that’s cheapened like a whore just because everyone wants to be great at something without having to work at it.

 

            Look; just like with any greatness you’ve got to bleed for it but make sure that you, first, have the gift otherwise what a waste of a life, indeed.

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

Word Count: 2,071

 

Take it away Mr. Bill Maher.

Break a leg and good luck.

Now, that man has the gift of hilarity and intelligence.

 

Thursday, November 21, 2013

 

Happy Thursday!

Aloha!

 

“Whoever helps or caters to a barbarian causes the exile of his children.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Ignorance (lack of knowledge, unawareness)

 

The arrogance of mass media made them ignorant and unaware of contemporary mass culture.

 

---  ---  ---

 

Yes, corrections were made.

 

---  ---  ---

 

Vinegar Heals

Vinegar’s a remedy and not an infliction

Vinegar’s highly sought after by The People

 

            What I like about HGTV is that the hosts don’t (for the most part) go out of their way to belittle, insult or to be mean to their viewership, audience or demographics.

 

            To the mass media at large: one may not call their viewership “ignorant”, ever. It’s quite inappropriate.

 

Only, individuals or bodies of groups can call themselves “ignorant” but the mass media and celebrities can’t call the general public “ignorant” because the public already has enough disdain for the mass media and celebrities as it is.

 

Also because it’s unprofessional to do so especially when hawking a documentary that The People have known about the topic and subject matter all, too, well ever since the early 1980’s.

 

(It’s the same old broken record, recycled by the plutocrats to care about the problems they create).

 

            Look: to call the general American public “ignorant” about “white gold” is to have the media and celebrities stick their fingers up the audience’s arse and wiggle their fingers around and expect the audience to like it. Yeah, right.

 

            Please, the general public has known all about elephant killings and murders ever since the early 1980’s.

 

            Remember: It isn’t the “middle class” or the “working class” that can afford “white gold” elephant tasks; it’s the plutocrats and the oligarch and the politicians that got themselves into that massive hole and can’t seem to get themselves out of it without the help of the “middle class” or the “working class” to purchase their manipulative and corrupt documentaries about slaughtered elephants, so that the plutocratic celebrities and politicians can make more money from the general public, than they already stole from The People by selling them lies and crap and guilt the public into giving them donations.

 

If the celebrities and political plutocrats were really serious about saving the slaughtered elephants then they ought to donate all of the proceeds from the documentary if they really meant what they said or donate their bloated speaking engagements’ pay. (Ouch.) Reality bites. (Bugger off.) The public can see right through the bullshit.

 

            Now, that would make for a fascinating and terribly great documentary, to tell the truth for once, without manipulating fame and fortune into celebrity martyrdom.

 

It would be awesome to see a film about bloated plutocrats, celebrities and politicians begging for donations from starving and hardworking Americans who can barely make it by as it is. Oh, my! You’d have the Americans rolling on the floor in laughter.

 

The Americans suffer, greatly, get your heads out of your undignified arses. You’ve got shit all over your faces and your assistants won’t tell you, so the general public will politely point at your foreheads without a single word so as not to make you out to be anymore ludicrous than you already are.

 

The Americans aren’t as mean as you are. They won’t laugh at you and starve your children, they’re not like that, just don’t piss them off because, eventually they do get even, especially when they’re slow to react to cruelty, injustice and lies.

 

            It’s so insulting to have any so called “journalist” name-call the general public “ignorant” about a problem that already exists and occurs due to the wealthiest 1% of the population. What a bunch of hypocrites.

 

It’s not the “middle class” or the “working class” that keep elephant task figurines in their homes; it’s the rich and bloated fat plutocrats, celebrities and politicians who purchase that sin. Please. Shove it where the sun don’t shine.

 

            “Nobody’s ‘ignorant’ about nothin’,” It’s just that the plutocrats are always whining about some cause or other that they helped create like “white gold” but then they want everybody else to jump on that band wagon, and cry tears over it, when the Americans can barely feed their families. As if.

 

What a bunch of losers who don’t have a clue about the price of milk, today. Milk’s filthy expensive for the average American and full of hormones.

 

            Yes, I do think that the first to be drafted and / or to enlist in the next American war ought to be the plutocrat and politicians’ children, before anybody else’s, because that would keep the government from going to war at all.

 

It would mean that the bloated plutocrats and the oligarchy would put pressure on war mongers to stay away from war.

 

Simple and easy solutions sure are common sense ideologies.

 

Have an amazing night;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 757

 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

 

“No office can dignify a man, but many a man dignifies his office.”

“The man who cannot control himself

becomes absurd when he wants to rule over others.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Precluded (prevented, shut out, kept from happening)

 

Because he did not pay his dues he was precluded from the benefits of the club.

 

---  ---  ---

 

Afghanistan War 2024

I don’t think so

No, no, no!

 

            In Ancient times, any man or woman who called themselves a prophet or a leader, and, one, whom was incorrect or corrupt about their decisions or wrong about their predictions was ‘put to death’ by the people because information and leadership are ever so important, vital and noteworthy in the survival of the human species, in which there’s no room for error when a leader or a prophet places themselves on high pedestals and decides to lead above the rest.

 

To lead is to put everybody else before the self without lies, malice or ill intent towards others, so the leader must get it right or it’s death by the hands of those who trusted them ever so implicitly with their livelihoods, families and beloved ones.

 

            I’ll be as diplomatic and as eloquent as I can possibly be however (don’t hold your breaths because I don’t feel like it and I don’t have to be.)

 

I’d rather turn into a literary raging wild Congo gorilla ape because the American People’s territory and safety is about to get compromised by corrupt officials and lying politicians who love ‘to finger’ war mongers under the negotiating table and call it freedom, liberty and justice for all.

 

(How’s that for eloquence? The literary masters taught me to swear along with the best of them such as Mr. Kurt Vonnegut, especially when everything’s on the line and there’s much to lose. Thank you.) (How vivid.)

 

            I’d like to begin by advising you not to be as naïve, ignorant and as stupidly optimistic about politics and politicians as I’ve been.

 

Learn your lesson. Here it is for you, neatly spelled out.

 

The point of this lesson is: don’t trust any politicians, ever.

 

Don’t trust any politicians, ever, because at the end of the day, all they care about is to ‘go pass go’ and collect their untaxed kickbacks from the most corrupt, their corporate bed fellows, lobbyists and special interest groups that love to ‘eat out’ our politicians.

 

Our politicians love getting free ‘blow jobs’ because they love to get their egos stroked, gain rapidly steep pockets, without working for those stolen hard earned dollars and a ‘hand job’ on the side, all with the People’s hard earned taxed dollars.

 

            Personally, I’m a pacifist and I don’t believe in revolt, however our Founding Fathers wrote into the constitution provisions, in which, We, The People ought to overturn corrupt governments; in that if our politicians became lost, wayward, crazy, destroyers or corrupt when it comes to the American human race, and keep Our People under the thumb of economic oppression and starvation and poverty then the American Constitution is there to overthrow any American government that stands in the way of freedom and prosperity against The People, that goes specifically for the Republican Tea Party branch that desires so badly for this country to march in chains however they’re no different than any other political slave masters.

 

            What I can’t seem to understand is this: Why would president Barack Obama even so much as consider extending this Afghanistan war into 2024?

 

Has President Barack Obama gone completely mad with greed?

 

What types of financial kickbacks is president Barack Obama receiving from war mongers and corrupt officials?

 

Why would president Barack Obama leave his second term knowing perfectly well that the American People’s Sons and Daughters would still be at war because of him and his war mongering cronies?

 

What gives?

 

Why is president Barack Obama so corrupt in this potential decision to extend the Afghan war well into 2024 and afterwards?

 

What does he know that no one else knows? Absolutely nothing.

 

Perhaps, he needs to smoke a cigarette and really consider the moronic tendencies of his wishes and those wishes of his cronies.

 

Why would president Barack Obama hold secret and behind-closed-door meetings with Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai (his staff) and not even so much as notify The American People of his ‘evil plan’ and mean-spirited intent? (Rhetorical)

 

            It was president Barack Obama who got in front of the tube and promised that our troops would come home by the end of 2014.

 

Why would he go back on his original promise? Oh, no. President Barack Obama’s turned into a complete liar. How devastating indeed.

 

            Look: to leave ten thousand (10,000) troops (or so) in Afghanistan until 2024 would cost about one hundred and fifty billion (150) of the taxpayers’ money (that Americans need for infrastructure and education and housing and job creation and…) and it would also give the supposed and often wayward President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai the chance to have his own American army in place at his disposal and that will not do.

 

American troops aren’t to be used for some Middle Eastern presidential dictator’s amusement and for private bodyguards and a private army because we’re talking about Our Sons’ and Daughters’ lives.

 

Get with the program.

 

            No, the American People aren’t going to put up with that type of bullshit from this current president.

 

We’ve had enough of a stupid and defunct health care website and Congress’s inept ability to pass secure voter right laws that aren’t racist, secure reproductive laws that allows for women to uphold steadfast to their constitutional rights about abortion and immigration reform. Nope.

 

Step back because The People are ready to burn down Washington D.C.

 

            As much of a friend as I can be to anyone, I tell you, be careful.

 

If the government fucks over The American People’s Sons and Daughters then The People will take down Washington D.C. because they just need one good reason to do so and this would put the icing on the cake. Wouldn’t it? Yep.

 

Give the veterans one good reason to leave Washington D.C. smoldering in ashes.

 

I’m almost afraid to write the stark realities about how much veterans abhor the United States of America and how deeply wronged they’ve been treated by their own government and brainwashed our troops to do the dirty work of politicians and plutocrats and the oligarchy and stuffed bureaucrats who can’t do much other than push papers whichever way from one end of their desks to the other and then wipe their butts with un-recycled paper.

 

            Yes, President Barack Obama does owe the Afghanistan People’s an apology for his administration’s secretive drone strikes and the killing of so many incredible Afghanistan innocent bystanders.

 

If president Barack Obama is going to make an apology during his presidency then this would be the one to make because this is proper and correct however… there’s always al-Qaida, isn’t there? Yep.

 

            No, the American People won’t allow for their Sons and Daughters to be kept in Afghanistan any longer than December 2014 otherwise, the plutocrats’ children, Chelsea Clinton, the Bush twins, the Obama daughters and the Cheney women will also have to fight and endure rape, suicide and killing until 2024 alongside our bravest.

 

Mark the People’s words: They’ll drag the politicians’ daughters off to war to fight alongside their own Sons and Daughters. (Ouch.)

 

I wouldn’t force your losing hand because it doesn’t look good from where I’m standing and I’m no one special. I’m just some kid from Brooklyn, a “middle class” writer.

 

 

-----------------------------------

            In my heart-of-hearts, I’ve held a special place for political leaders in the hopes that they’d do well by their People but that’s turned out to be a false hope along with President Barack Obama, his corporate bed fellows, cronies and his corrupt officials and war mongering.

 

I’m so disappointed in president Barack Obama and his behind-the-scenes cronies that after today I shan’t waste ink upon him because he’s turned out to be one of the most quietly corrupt political fellows along with the Republican Tea Party branch, the Clinton’s and the Bush’s and the Cheney’s.

 

Oh, don’t get me started about the Clinton’s and the Bush’s. Please.

 

You couldn’t pay me enough money to vote for Hillary Clinton even if she came to me, got down and begged me on both knees for my vote. After the debacle in Benghazi, yeah right.

 

What do I look like?

A dog’s shaved, rear end, walking backwards?

I don’t think so.

 

Elizabeth Warren for President 2016!

Elizabeth Warren for President 2016!

Elizabeth Warren for President 2016!

 

            Look: My beef with the Clinton’s is that when Mr. Clinton left office he had one million in retirement and within one decade Mr. Clinton went from one million to eighty million. Yeah, right. (Corrupt or what? Sh. We’re not supposed to talk about that. We’re not as stupid as all that. Please. It all catches up with people sooner or later, doesn’t it?)

 

Elizabeth Warren for President 2016!

Elizabeth Warren for President 2016!

Elizabeth Warren for President 2016!

 

What a real and true disappointment it’s all turned out to be, this present administration and president.

 

These, four sets of families have done more damage to the country than they’ll ever care to know. (May their families live with that guilt and horribly bad luck for the next seven generations for their deeds and actions. They’re all the same and now I see the light. I get it. It’s nothing but greed and money disguised in humanitarian efforts and hot air rhetoric.) What an insult to have these four families call themselves Americans when what they do is destroy America instead of contribute to it.

 

            I want you to be way smarter than I ever was about politics and politicians.

 

I can’t believe that I’m thirty-six and a half years old and I’m so naïve and ignorant about politicians.

 

I just fully woke up, late last night.

I’m here.

I’m present and fully awake today.

 

I’m on the right side of history and on the side of the hardworking Americans that get continually economically raped by politicians.

 

What a disgrace our politicians are.

What a shame they’ve turned out to be.

What a sorry lot of liars…

 

            Over the phone my father said to me, “fuck the United States. Take care of yourself because this is one corrupt, mean and violent country.”

 

How correct my father is about so much.

 

            I want you to understand that I get it when it comes to politics being a sneaky and strategic corrupt game that takes place behind closed doors.

 

I get that.

 

I’ve always gotten that, however and nevertheless, I trusted that any American president would have the best interest at heart for The People.

 

I just thought… that Politicians cared enough about The People to take care of them, respect their wishes and… (it doesn’t matter.)

 

(I’ve been so naïve and ignorant it’s almost painful to put it to ink. I almost don’t want to write about it but I think that I ought to forge forth and get it out of the way so that I don’t have to come back and cover this bloody topic ever again.)

 

            For as long as I live, I shan’t trust any politician’s slogans, campaigns, advertisements, statements, sentiments or rhetoric, especially if and when they’re negative and against their opponents.

 

I want politicians to concretely describe (without too much retarded rhetoric) to The People how in the hell they’re going to govern.

 

How are politicians going to make things happen, damn it!

 

Since I can break down, how, I would, hypothetically, govern then so can others otherwise kiss your rear ends, goodbye. Next!

 

I want politicians to answer questions in a straight forward manner.

 

I want politicians to concretely describe (without too much retarded rhetoric) to The People what strategies and policies they mean to implement.

 

I want politicians to concretely describe (without too much retarded rhetoric) to The People their budgetary understanding of implementation and economical short and long term goals.

 

I want politicians to concretely describe (without too much retarded rhetoric) to the American People how they will divert and stay away from war mongering for the next one-hundred years. Yes!

 

Since I can then so can they.

 

I want politicians to concretely describe (without too much retarded rhetoric) how they’re going to implement new and modern industries and get the Americans back to work.

 

Since I can then so can they.

 

Don’t sell The People the politicians’ stupid campaign trail, dogs, children and plastic wives.

 

We don’t care where politicians come from, who they say they might possibly be and all the other nonsense and lies.

 

We, The People don’t want their children sold to us for possible future politicians, reporters or slimy corporate vendors.

 

Just tell The People ‘what the fuck’ politicians mean to do with The People’s taxes and our country and our babies otherwise politicians stand to lose far greater than The People do because The People are already starved, sick and tired of this political bullshit.

 

Just because Washington D.C. is rich and they stick dollar bills up their arses it doesn’t mean that the rest of the country affords such a luxury.

 

You’re right; The People ought to go out into the streets and revolt and burn down Washington D.C. but they’re too, hungry and poor to move.

 

People have told me over the years that if they weren’t so hungry then they’d revolt and they just might because hunger is hunger and it’s not going away anytime soon.

 

Return our troops home by no later than December 2014 as promised.

 

No, it’s not a threat.

No, it’s not a question.

No, it’s not a plea.

 

Yes, It’s a statement.

 

Peace at all costs;

Gabriel          

 

*) Of course, I’m aware of Sardinia’s cyclone. Our family members are all right.

 

*) Congratulations to the Minnesotans for raising 16.1 million dollars last Thursday. Did you know that’s the median annual income of corporate CEO’s?

 

*) I really like listening to coach Mr. Glen Caruso (spelling ?) speak about the philosophy of athletics. 

 

Word count: 2,261

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

 

“The unrepentant go to Hell, the shamefaced to Eden.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Stark (stiff, rigid, bare, unadorned)

 

We must at some time or other face the stark reality.

 

---  ---  ---

 

            Yes, that’s correct.

 

            I like to test all sorts of people with my “village idiot act,” however, don’t think, for one moment, that it’s easy as all that, to pull off when one has the I.Q. of a…

 

When one is highly developed, brain-witted and emotionally intelligent, one of the most difficult acts to pull off is the act of the ‘village idiot’.

 

One can’t botch such a fine performance because then others will ‘catch on’ and start to act sweeter and kinder than their natural dispositions; and then that becomes a waste of my time because they, too, will ‘put on an act,’ only, so, that they may be perceived as something kinder than what they actually are.

 

I love to find out as much as I possibly can about other people, their sensitivities, their biases and their value system by simply challenging them to be more humane, empathetic, patient and considerate no matter how much of a challenge it may be to become genuinely kind especially in a moment of duress, stress and difficult miscommunication with someone whom they perceive as the ‘village idiot’.

 

Oh, my Gods! It makes me howl with laughter but never in front of others or it gives the act away.

 

It’s amazing how difficult it is to put-on a straight face and hold in your laughter when all you want to do is laugh really hard, nevertheless, it’s a fine art to develop such a skill set. Hiding my laughter has saved my skin many times and I’m grateful because I’m a ‘smart ass’ who passes off as intellectually serious. (Ha!)

 

            Once, I find out what others are really made out of, I run! I run for the woods and I don’t ever look back. A second chance with me is like “Waiting for Godot.”

 

Good luck with that unless… but that’s rare because it takes a genius to come up with that and most people aren’t that intelligent to begin with.

 

            Once, people find out that I’m not a “village idiot” at all then they either laugh or get extremely angry with me.

 

Well, if they’ve been complete ‘jerk offs’ to begin with, during my psychological tests then I become completely distant, cold and turned off to the marrow and there’s no reason for us to ever meet again, much less interact. Why? What would be the point? There isn’t one. Moving on.

 

            Yes, I like people just fine.

 

In fact, I like listening to people’s opinions, values, debates, conversations, deepest felt emotions about anything.

 

No, I’m not anti-social by any stretch of the imagination.

I’m introverted. Major difference.

 

I can speak with anyone from any background and find common ground in which we can respect, admire and resonate with each other.

 

            If I’ve ever continually annoyed the hell out of others (as a group and gotten under their skin) it’s only because instinctively I understood that they were bullies, abusers, users and mean-spirited and willing to misuse their power against innocent bystanders for the sheer sociopathic joy of getting away with doing so.

 

I have the endurance of a long distance runner to take a lot of pain, not because I like pain but because when it comes to shielding others from the violence of abusers, I’ve always had the courage and the will power to take the abuse head-on like a strong head-wind, lean into it and navigate my course to social justice.

 

In the end, I always win because by the time I’ve become continuously annoying to abusers then their hatred has been diverted away from innocents and towards me and I’m able to keep the innocent bystanders free from harm and from getting the shit kicked out of them.

 

Yes, I always win, because doesn’t kindness always win? Yes, it does.

 

Yes, I’m always thinking of others’ well fare because I like people.

 

            No, I don’t like to see anyone get hurt but that doesn’t mean that I can’t put on my emotional ‘shit-kickers’ and leave abusers hurting with tremendous psychological welts, those, which, their psyche will never let them forget that I am better than them because I’ll place others before me and that’s a great sign of strong leadership and not some delusional maniacal sense of egocentric megalomaniac lunacy that my shit doesn’t stink just like everything else organic.

 

My shit does stink, however, I learned how to wipe properly and well early on as a child in the jungles of Costa Rica without letting the red ants bite my ass off. (Ha! Now that’s funny!)

 

I know what it’s like to get kicked in the leg. It hurts.

 

            No, I’m not willing to participate in the abusive measures of bullies, however and nevertheless, if I sense that as a group dynamic, jerks, even so much as think that they can get away with abusing others because they consider themselves better than all the rest, all the while, underneath the skin, they’re nothing but ‘white trash’ then well, the gloves come off because I’m ‘King’ and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Oh, well, get over it.

 

I’ve always sat at the throne.

Always, always, always. (I know that chaps your arses, doesn’t it?) (Ha!)

 

The Gods are on my side, and they’ve been ever since the day I was conceived. I have the most tremendously amazing good luck in the entire world. I just do. I was born with it.

 

            I was meant to be successful in ways in which my abusive peers could not. Not alone, and not on their own, anyway.

 

My abusive peers require a lot of assistance through nepotism and it shows. They have to call in all sorts of favors because on their own, they’re nothing; and they’ve always known that to be the truth about themselves.

 

They live for nothing and they’ll die for nothing but their egos, farts and bad breath which is centered in the stomach bile, too, much anxiety about being found out as the ‘white trash’ abusers that they truly are.

 

            No, I’m not willing to manipulate social scenes to have innocents get the shit kicked out of them just because girls / women get envious or jealous of others’ beauty, smarts and kindness.

 

I’m far more honorable, classy and kind than that bullshit.

I just don’t have time to be mean to other women.

 

            No, I’m not so shallow as to step on anyone’s face while I’m ever so slowly climbing to the top of the summit because you do know what happens once you get to the top and you’ve kicked everyone in the face on your way up there?

 

You already know, right?

 

Okay, I don’t have to spell it out, but it’s not good.

 

People will pull the rug out from under you after you’ve become most successful, especially then, if you’ve ever so much as injured, harmed or hurt their beloved ones then it’s only a matter of time until one will find themselves in the gutter, eating dirt, after everything the abuser has manipulated so hard to steal from others. (Ouch.)

 

            My proudest moments in life have been when others have granted me the compliment that I’m one of the kindest people they’ve ever worked with, hung out with or lived with.

 

I’ve been a lucky dog to have so many acquaintances, non-abusive peers and equals admire my strength, but more so, genuinely like me for the very real and humane person that I am.

 

            Almost everywhere I go, people platonically ‘fall in love’ with my kindness and that’s a gift from the Gods, but also, almost everywhere I go, women can get extremely jealous and envious and want to ‘take me out,’ even if it means coming close to murdering me, which it’s almost happened on more than one occasion and it’s scary as hell to observe such lunacy.

 

Jealousy and envy will eat away at people’s hearts like acid because they know that they’ll never be able to measure up to their ideals and thus they fall short of their own expectations.

 

            Personally, I thought I’d be dead by the age of thirty-five and I almost was. About two years ago, if I would’ve laughed too, hard then the four bloody benign grapefruit sized tumors would’ve ruptured and that would’ve been the end of me.

 

No laughing! Ha! Fun!

 

But, no, seriously, as a child I didn’t think that I’d make it beyond thirty-five because most indigenous women of Central America don’t. Their life expectancies are much shorter than most and that’s just their reality thus I always thought I’d be dead by that age and instead here I am one year and six months later typing away my life to you, so that you may better understand this soul of mine. (Ha!)

 

            No, I’m not very smart when it comes to cruelty because it takes too much brain power away from the really important things in life.

 

I’ve not had it in my bones to torture anything much less anyone however, like the water droplet in her innocence she can cause insurmountable cruel pain upon her victims.

 

No, I don’t believe in torture of any type, especially psychological torture.

 

The Chinese came up with an ‘ingenious’ and cruel way to torture their victims through something called the “Chinese water torture” in which they slowly allowed for a single drop of water to drip upon the foreheads of their victims until they confessed or went mad or died from getting worn down by such a simple device.

 

            When I’ve encountered social injustices, cruelties and bullying I’m innocent in the sense that I don’t want to torture anyone but like the water droplet I can continuously be a reminder of how annoying others’ reflected misconduct and misbehaviors are.

 

I can and will innocently reflect back the misconduct or misbehavior of others until their misbehavior either changes, redirects itself or until it stops all completely and all together.

 

If bullies are braggers then oh, my! They really have it coming to them. They’ll hear me chirp about how great I am on a daily basis and I won’t let up because it’s my job to put them in their place before they cause further harm to the rest of the social body and I have the endurance and the strength to do so.

 

I can become the burn of a well infected and picked over scab but never the scab.

 

I can become the droplet but never the torturer.

 

Simply and only the device which conjures continual annoyance and irritability in the process of everyday living.

 

I can get in the way of enjoying life to the fullest when bullies are out to hurt and injure others.

 

I can reflect back at them and make them miserable all the time just as they make others miserable. Why suffer alone? Everybody now! Sing along.

 

            I can become a ‘royal pain in the ass’ and well, I hate to tell you this, but it’s hilarious to watch bullies react with self importance as if they’ve not done anything wrong.

 

As if I’m the only ‘jerk off’ all around, but deep down inside it’s aimed at them, and they, only, and they know that something deeply profound and psychological is taking place for the rest of their lives and it’ll plague them in life and in their sleep till death do us part. (Ha!)

 

One can’t be the daughter of a psychologist and not have a few psychological tricks up one’s sleeve. Please.

 

            I love annoying bullies because it’s not like you have to go out of your way to be mean to them, you can just be without having to work, too, hard at reflecting back egomania, narcissism, ego-centric cruelty and general social cruelty upon those who’ve never done any harm to bullies and their cronies.

 

Oh, my! You ought to see me in action.

 

I’m beautiful and powerful in the most annoying of possible ways.

It’s like a ballet on a bicycle, well balanced and original.

 

Either one wants to make love to me or insult me with a bloody nose but if one were to start brawling with me then one might as well be quite willing and prepared to get a broken nose, a broken collar bone, a few broken fingers or death by scalping, if it came to protecting my body and my life.

 

No, I’m not fucking around when it comes to my physical safety and neither should anyone else.

 

It’s annoying as hell to fight (in any sense of the word) and well, fun to be the water droplet because it’s its nature to be natural.

 

            In order to become the water droplet, one, must come to realize that the tortured bully will most likely hate your guts forever but they can’t live without a drink of water, either.

 

What a conundrum, indeed.

They love to hate what they love most, they’re own image.

How weird indeed.

 

            What?

 

            I haven’t done anything wrong.

 

            I’m innocent.

 

            Like the droplet all I’ve ever done is to let gravity do its work.

 

            If bullies, go out of their way to abuse innocent bystanders and make their lives a living hell then, too, can make any bully and their cronies’ lives a living hell because I am the burn and the droplet when ‘push comes to shove’ and because I have perseverance on my stubborn side. I can keep it up for years, if that’s what it takes, no differently than the “Chinese water torture.”

 

Supreme to be anything at all.

 

With love to all those who’ve ever been bullies in my life;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,219

 

Monday, November 18, 2013

 

“Arrogance is a kingdom without a crown.”

 

“When you turn proud,

remember that a flea preceded you

in the order of divine creation.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Cliché (a trite phrase, hackneyed, expression)

 

“The early warm gets the worm” is a cliché.

 

---  ---  ---

 

“Affordable Health Care for America Act”

(Let’s talk about it)

Don’t be afraid, dearest Americans

 

            One: Okay, let’s get it out of the way; The Republican Tea Party branch abhors the current President of the United States of America because he’s a black man and there’s nothing that he can do about that because hence, one, is born with a particular skin pigmentation then one is stuck with it for life and it’s out of that particular individual’s control. (Moving on.)

 

            Two: Yes, there’ll be a one-hundred dollar fine ($100.00) implemented come 2014 or 2015 (I think 2014?) if one isn’t signed up for any type of health care plan at all and that’s a lot of grocery money.

 

            Three: I can only hope that the president doesn’t make any more concessions to the “Affordable Health Care for America Act.”

 

No, real Americans can’t afford to have the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” hacked and chipped away by whiners, the mass media that fueled the fire about nothing or republicans who complain about everything but hardly ever come up with any decent, positive, healthy or inclusive solutions, that’ll care for the overall health of our nation’s most impoverished and in dire need of health care.

 

            Four: the way that I see it, the only reason as to why the president made any concessions about the (ACA) “Affordable Care Act” is because there was so much pressure from the mass media about a kept promise in the overall affect, however, that promise neither had to be upheld nor kept because cheap, bad and horrible health care coverage plans only helped out the steep pockets of the insurance companies, their cronies and senators that get a kickback from their lobbyists and not the patrons, consumers or customers covered under rotten health care packages that sold them cars without seatbelts.

 

I can’t understand the stubborn ignorance of the Americans: Why would they want to purchase a car without a seatbelt that’ll send them flying through the windshield of their cars?

 

What’s the point other than a cheap product / coverage? There’s no real point to any of it and the president ought to have never bent to the will of the wrong peer pressuring idiots. I mean, really.

 

            Five: let’s do the math: five million (5 million) American complainers and whiners who whined hard enough about nothing with poor and cheap health care plans which were sold to them, “cars without seatbelts” is just ridiculous.

 

Let’s see: fifty million (50 million) (times) five percent (5%) equals about two-point-five percent (2.5%) of the population who complained really hard and the mass media made it happen for them while, together, they stole great and affordable health care coverage for about forty five million Americans.

 

What a bunch of thieves.

They have to return that to the rest of the Americans.

They just do.

 

Talk about mass media having to apologize to the American public?

Oh, my.

Misinformed sure does mean misinformed.

Who’s running those newsrooms, anyway?

By the looks of it…

 

It takes your breath away doesn’t it? It sure does mine.

 

Math: 50 X’s 5% = 2.5% of a whining population which is nothing in comparison to doing the right thing for the majority.

 

Remember, it’s a democratic system and its lead by the majority and not the whining minority. (if I did the math correctly and if not then I’ll come back to correct it. You already know that.)

 

            Six: one aspect that bewilders me the most about the president’s decision to make any concessions about horrible, empty and shallow health care plans is that it appears as though he listened to health care companies and insurers and not The People, but again, what would I know? Plenty.

 

I sense that the president is continuously and incorrectly informed about many aspects of policy and culture. (I can make a list in which the president’s staff has made him out to seem like a ‘donkey’s arse’ and that’s just not fair to do that to the leader of the free world.)

 

            Seven: The president neither had to apologize nor make any changes to the “Affordable Health Care for America Act.”

 

He just didn’t have to apologize to anyone, however, the insurmountable pressure from whiners who don’t have the best interest in the overall health care coverage for impoverished Americans have warped this valuable law with incorrect logic and fruitless reasoning about what’s going on and the mass media just loves to get on band wagons about hot air because well, journalism is neither educational nor informative any longer, it’s a clown car. Welcome to the freak show!

 

Aside from the fact that the president is sometimes incorrectly misinformed by an inept staff and makes incorrect and improper decisions by bending to the will of men who’d love to see the country destroyed, the president is now off the hook but don’t think that the American People’s don’t have a bone to pick with him about caving in every time there’s incorrect pressure applied to him. Who are his advisors? Goodness. (Don’t answer that, it’s meant to be rhetorical.)

 

            No, the president doesn’t owe any one any type of apology when it comes to people losing their crappy health care coverage and plans.

 

Please, don’t be so arrogant as to ride upon that wave of ignorance.

How annoying, indeed.

And you call yourself policy-making surfers? As if.

 

            Aside from the fact, that I disagree with the president’s drone strike policies, and as far as the excellent and valuable “Affordable Health Care for America Act” is concerned, I like his overall leadership.

 

I believe that this man means well, even though I’m sure his bosses “behind-the-scenes” sometimes get stupid and crazy ideas about how to pilot this country through the dark.

 

It seems like a bunch of captains who know nothing about navigation and probably cheated their way through their examinations like many Ivy Leaguers do.

 

How do The People know this to be a certainty; this policy-making dysfunction?

 

Just look at some of the war and corporate decisions already made because they’re horribly mismanaged and government has no business getting into bed with corporations and war mongers.

 

            Eight: What was the mass media thinking? They weren’t.

 

What I can’t seem to understand about our incredibly hardworking journalists and investigative reporters and producers is why they reported upon the basis of so much hype instead of upon the basis of education and factual information.

 

Our mass media isn’t off the hook by any means.

 

I do sometimes wonder when information, facts and reporting fell by the wayside and infotainment took over such a valuable service to The People.

 

Just because ratings drive the market of mass media, information and made-up news, it doesn’t give them the right to sway the people incorrectly because then we’re getting into some serious legal grounds in which the mass media could be sunk under by The People’s attorneys.

 

            I mean, look at 60 Minutes. For as long as they are on the air and kicking, we’ll not believe what comes out of their mouths, not ever.

 

CBS has now entered the age of poke-fun, point and laugh at the fact that their producers and reporters could be lead by their balls and vaginas by a liar (con artist) about a story as important as Benghazi.

 

There’s only one way for CBS to build the trust of the people but like hell if I’m going to give it to them for free and no, it’s not an apology, it’s… Ha! It’s the easiest thing in the world and right in front of their faces.

 

Oh, my Gods what a bunch of ninnies.

 

Do your homework, do your homework, do your homework, no matter how lazy or misguided one becomes by their own fame and fortune.

 

            When did hot air become news, information and educational?

            It never did. It never has and it never will. Hot air is farts.

 

            We the People need, we need for our mass media outlets to get their heads out of their arses and begin to help out The People in the correct and proper understanding about “The Affordable Health Care for America Act” and the times in which we live in otherwise they’re no good to us and unnecessary.

 

            Internet killed the Television star.

 

            What is it about the mass media that’s willing to waste our valuable air time in the pursuit of hot air and not teach or inform the American public about the “Affordable Health Care for America Act?”

 

Is it that hardly anyone’s staff has read the “Affordable Health Care for America Act?” Yes, most likely and it’s obvious. It shows.

 

            No, I don’t get paid the overly stuffed and bloated salaries of news liars and I still made the point to get through the bloody 1,990 pages and I’m still unsure as to what to make of it, at times, however, I do like it, overall.

 

Get going with your homework because that’s the mass media’s “bread ‘n’ butter”.

 

Do your homework, once, you’ve done your homework, then put it into terms that the American public (with their crappy sixth grade reading level) can understand or there’s no reason for you to have jobs tomorrow morning, smirking away at cameras as though you’ve shit your pants.

 

The Americans hate mass media with the passion of… because they’re right, the media does make fun of them. It’s a joke and the public’s not in on the joke, instead they’re made to feel as though they’re made fun of at the expense of their livelihoods, their families and their safety and health care.

 

Why does the mass media hate Americans so much? (Rhetorical)

 

Why does the mass media make so much fun of the Americans? (Rhetorical)

 

Doesn’t the mass media understand the very harsh realities of their people on the ground? (I guess not.)

 

Why is the mass media so damn egocentric, maniacal and cynical when the Americans work their butts off for morsels of food? (Rhetorical)

 

            Nine: In conclusion: Don’t believe all the hype.

 

            I do. I love the “Affordable Health Care for America Act.”

 

            I think that it’s a beautiful, valuable and excellent contribution to our country because Americans ought to have affordable health care for all.

 

            The one main thing that I love about the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” is that it’s inclusive of those with pre-existing conditions, prenatal services and mental health services.

 

            While reading the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” it took my breath away at how inclusive it is.

 

At times, I felt tears in my eyes but I held steadfast to my proud stiff upper lip and didn’t shed one single tear, however, I understood what this Act means for the United States of America.

 

            The “Affordable Health Care for America Act” is no different than the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Movement, Medicare and Social Security. I was overwhelmed at how this “ACA” Act will change our nation once more to become a leader of the technological world.

 

There’s nothing weak in wanting to care for our impoverished citizens.

 

            It’s now up to our corporations to raise the minimum wage to at least $10.50 an hour to keep up with the rate of inflation because if the corporations keep our citizens impoverished, starved and overworked then the taxpayer has to pay for corporations’ hires, (their workers at wage slave,) then the taxpayer has to front the money through welfare and food stamps because our American corporations are greedy and cruel and uncaring about what happens to their workers.

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

*) Yes, of course we’re keeping up with direct news from people across the world about this Philippines’ Typhoon which has been on my mind for about a week and three days. Our prayers and behind-the-scenes connections and dollars have been sent out to that part of the world. Of course, I keep up. I get updated on the hour as to what’s happening worldwide. Thank you.

 

*) To our dearest Americans in the Midwest; in Washington, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, our prayers, aid and donations are on their way. We think of you on this cold and deadly Midwestern night for those of you who are now homeless, keep the faith. We never forget our own. We take care of our own.

 

*) Yes, I’m aware of the anti-discrimination law that just passed the Senate about two weeks ago. An anti-discrimination law in which none of our beautiful Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Queer Straight Alliance can be discriminated in the work place due to their sexual preference. Thank you. Now let’s pass it in the House.

 

Word count: 2,139

 

Friday, November 15, 2013

 

“A man who praises himself will shame himself.”

“The man who despises little things will gradually fail.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Cauterized (seared with hot iron with the purpose of sterilization)

 

The physician cauterized the wound immediately.

 

---  ---  ---

 

Happy Friday!

Aloha.

Happy 50th Birthday to Eric!

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

What a gorgeous and sunny morning.

 

---  ---  ---

 

-------------------------

            No, I’m not some fiction character in a novel. Au contraire.

 

            Yes, I’m human and real. I feel just as you do.

 

            Look: the toughest aspect about pulling off a non-fiction blog such as this one is the following: weekly dense material, a high level of performance, excellent craft potential, editing and analysis, and teaching valuable lessons that will resonate with the readers’ souls for many years to come without having the reader become overly immersed in my private or personal life and come to think of me as some character because then I fail the reader, the reader fails me and we fail each other. We can’t have any of that.

 

            Look: In real life, I lead one of the most beautifully disciplined, organized, spontaneous, calm, friendly, caring, loving, quiet, fulfilling, laughter and music and cinema filled and full of excellent company types of lives with mentors, close friends and beloved Minnesota family members with incredible support, unconditional love and respect.

 

I’m a lucky dog with my three meals a day, a walk once a day with relaxation, play and work.

 

            No, there’s no melodrama, no drama, no rewrites and there’s no screaming of any type, (any longer) (I’ve proven to be a stronger person than, I was previously, when I lived through dire physical illness and pain and doctors kept telling me that it was psychosomatic but it wasn’t, it was real uterine pain from benign tumors the size of grapefruits pushing against all of my vital organs,) there’s no conflict with rude and mean-spirited neighbors who trumped around in the upstairs flat all day long, no rudeness on my part, or delusions of grandeur, or mental illness.

 

None of that.

I won my mature adulthood.

 

            No, I don’t hear voices or see visuals that aren’t there, I’m not schizophrenic, bi-polar or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disordered or Post Traumatic Stress Disordered, aggressive, confused, or impulsive, however.

 

I can become irritating and annoying in public if people go out of their way to be rude or hurtful to my person then the gloves comes off and tea time is over.

 

There’s no drama, here, and well, I’m so sorry to disappoint.

 

I’m more or less ‘normal’ by modern cultural standards and feisty if it calls for me to be so, otherwise, I’m lazy and relaxed and inclusive in my demeanor.

 

I’ve been called ‘boring’ by some. Okay. I’d prefer it that way. I can be one of the best conversational partners and social animals but according to the Myers-Brigg test I’m the most introverted of all of the personality types as an INFJ. I can be a party animal yet I’m extremely introverted.

 

No, I don’t consider myself special or more interesting than others.

 

I’m, however, on birth control because as of this September 2013, two cysts were found in my ovaries and thus it causes acne and womanly hormonal inflections, thus, I’ve been humbled, and I’m diligent about taking my birth control and it’s made a real even keel person out of me without causing weight gain or further acne.

 

            No, I’m not getting, too, personal.

 

The reason as to why I write like this is so that maybe, just perhaps, women’s lives will be saved in the process to more correctly medically diagnose them instead of calling them “insane” or dismiss them and rather deal more acutely with their ovaries and reproductive systems that, which can contribute to tremendous illnesses and health problems.

 

            Yes, my hormonal imbalance is all in my ovaries and not in my head, per say. Ha! That’s awesome! I’m not insane I just happen to deal with two quite painful cysts in my ovaries. Wonderful. I can deal with that.

 

Yes, like any other human I’ve had great financial, emotional and physical loss, but hey, if you haven’t had any of that by the time one’s thirty five then one’s…and that’s just weird.

 

            No, I’m not a broken porcelain doll.

 

            No, I’m not damaged goods.

 

            No, I’m not mean-spirited in person.

 

            No, I’m not in need of rescue.

 

            No, I haven’t lost my soul.

 

            No, I’m not an instigator.

 

            No, I’m not a caretaker.

 

            No, I’m not an enabler.

 

            No, I’m not cruel.

 

            No, I’m not a narcissist.

 

            No, I don’t have a virgin / whore complex.

 

            No, I’m no longer in pain.

 

            Yes, I can be a literary pain in the ass.

 

            Yes, I can be literary crude.

 

            Yes, I’m brain-witted however not as funny on the page as I’m in person (or so friends tell me so.)

 

            Yes, I’m serious on the page so I don’t have to be in person.

 

            Yes, I pick up accents if I hang out with foreigners for too long.

 

            Yes, I have great moral and ethical standing.

 

            Yes, I know where I’m going.

            I started on this path long before you ever started reading this.

 

            What seems to chap any readers’ rear ends is that I’m not a lost cause, a rebel, a martyr, a victim or a beggar or a drunkard. I know, I know. How boring indeed. Yes!

 

            People who’ve worked with me have told me that I’ve been ‘fantastic’ to work with and that’s been a great compliment.

 

There are only six white women and two black women who hate my guts because I stood up to them while they bullied, stole and hurt others in the workplace or in my private and personal life and I got feisty because like hell if I’ll let anyone abuse their power in such a demeaning manner against others.

 

I’ve had white women, (Unit Production Managers) get me fired as a 2nd Assistant Director on a film set because they couldn’t control my direct East Coast style of communication and threw out my personal belongings on the ground for an entire film crew to witness.

 

I’d never felt so ashamed of others’ misbehavior. I held back hot tears.

 

I’ve met ‘white trash’ Los Angeles types in the film industry that I could’ve gotten them black listed by big time film producers but I’m not like that and so I’ve kept it to myself all these years later and now my powerful friends will read this and the phone will begin to ring off the hook and I refuse to explain. I have until July 2015 to disclose the juicy details.

 

I’ve lived through the shaming, embarrassment and injustices of people’s cruelties because what else is there to do when people are out to get you and they hate with the vengeance of devils? Nothing.

 

What are you to do but to pick up your belongings from the ground by a garbage can and drive away, quietly and peacefully even though you’ve been made to feel like the smallest person alive? There’s nothing to do but to hold your head up, over act the pain with a smile, and wave goodbye like it doesn’t bother you.

 

I felt as though my entire skin had been peeled back and I’d been stripped down to my bare soul like a concentration camp prisoner.

 

All I could do was to pretend like it didn’t hurt.

 

What a bunch of cocaine induced fruit cases.

 

I’ve had white women get me walked out of my very own production as a producer of one theatrical show for almost unveiling her as an embezzler, the night of her performance, and cheating the cast and crew out of paychecks, because the director kept all of the previous proceeds of two other productions and didn’t pay anyone a cut when she stopped the tally from getting reported to me by our door personnel. I got frozen out of my own productions. How unprofessional. I mean, really. The injustices and I kept my cool even though I could’ve metaphorically…

 

Aside from these insane, greedy and power hungry people who took it upon themselves to be so insulting and abusive of their power in front of entire cast and crews, aside from these insane peoples, others told me that I’ve been one of the most delightful, fantastic and fair co-workers who they’ve ever worked with and would do it all over again, anytime.

 

I’m pleased to hear them say this because I’ve been to hell and back again with cheaters, haters and embezzlers and I don’t regret any of it. I wouldn’t change anything about my life. None of it. It all happened for a reason and I’m glad that it did because I don’t abuse my powers.

 

Oh, I’ve got to run!

Party time!

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 1,575

 

P.S.     I’m almost through reading the 1,990 pages to the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” and I think it’s a great law.

 

            No, I don’t think that President Barack Obama has to make concessions for all of the whining, crying and immaturity of the Republicans when it comes to America’s Health Care Act.

 

            Yes, the Republicans have to come up with five different ways to make this health care law a better law because this law is Romney’s blueprint and because of that reason alone they ought to love it.

 

If one’s against the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” then one’s a modern Fascist.

 

If one’s against the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” then one’s unpatriotic.

 

If one’s against the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” then one’s moronic.

 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

 

Gettysburg Address

By former President Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863

 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

 

-------------------------------

 

Everybody chill out!

 

Happy national pickle day!

Happy relaxation and non-judgmental day!

Happy day to our hardworking fellow Americans!

 

*)         No, I don’t believe that the white race is ‘screwed up’ however I do believe that the culture of ‘white privilege’ is screwed up. (I made changes to the previous text, only, to be fair because that counts in life. Moving on.)

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         Yes, I love, admire and respect many white people and they do me.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         The best and most improved Target store award goes to: the Crystal Target.

 

We hadn’t been to that store in over a year and oh, my! Today it was beautiful, splendid, clean and fantastic!

 

The first time that Eric and I frequented the Crystal Target store last September 2012, the parking lot was a garbage dump and there was garbage all over the inside of the store.

 

I almost ran out of there screaming I was so grossed out.

 

It truly was a ‘ghetto Target’ and to be fair, we stopped in, again, this morning and oh, my word; it was absolutely beautiful, clean, well maintained, organized, well run and worth our time and money.

 

We loved our time there this morning. I could’ve spent hours shopping there however because we shop like Finns; we go in, we shop and we get out. We left soon after we purchased what we’d gone there for.

 

Thank you to the entire floor staff, managers and service workers and the entire team at Crystal Target for making it such a lovely place to shop.

 

The improvements are tremendous and worth the ink.

 

I was moved by the organization, the care and tenderness for such a lovely establishment.

 

We must not allow for our stores and country to be taken over by any ghetto because that’s just what the Nazis expected from the world, to go ghetto and that would’ve given them a reason to murder in cold blood. We’re better than that.

 

I could go on gushing but I’ll stop here. You already know how proud I am of the Crystal Target staff.

 

If you become a patron at the Crystal Target store then you shall respect the hard work our workers put into that establishment otherwise, get the hell on out of there. We won’t stand for ‘ghetto fabulous’ lies and bullshit.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         I had no idea that there was a Dairy Queen grill right there in Crystal. Oh, so many discoveries were made this morning. I’ll be running out this afternoon to purchase Eric’s birthday cake for tomorrow, at that particular store.

 

I really enjoy all of the choices patrons have to shop in that outdoor strip mall in Crystal. I’m totally excited by the diversity and the vastness of businesses right there behind the Target with a Marshall’s, Michael’s, the Panaderia, a tennis shoe store, a dress store, so many other stores I’ll have to make a point to frequent in the year to come.

 

I do like to shop near home then I don’t have to hike it out to St. Louis Park or other places. I like the clean parking lots of this Crystal outdoor complex. Crystal Target could give downtown a run for their money, just kidding.

 

Well, well, well the world’s making positive changes after all. Hip! Hip! Hooray! I’ll give credit where credit is due any day. I’m humble enough to notice positive changes and mention them. Why wouldn’t I be?

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         One of my very favorite aspects of downtown, Minneapolis is an electronic digital display (at corporate Target, I think?) that portrays creative electronic graphic displays.

 

The creative electronic designs are absolutely stunning. The displays take my breath away each and every single night that I’m downtown. I can’t do anything but smile to myself and to my dog harnessed in the backseat of our car.

 

I do pay attention because the beauty that such a creative display brings to the world is worth taking notice.

 

I like that there are no marketing logos of any type, only, pretty and lovely electronic designs displayed on that tower.

 

Talk about the intelligence of those artists and engineers who bring us such beauty and not commercial or advertising ugliness. What a gift from the Target Corporation to this amazing Twin Cities. Thank you, we appreciate it (now let’s not get big fat bloated heads about it.)

 

Beauty never goes unnoticed. Why would it? It shouldn’t.

 

When this type of aesthetic enlightenment happens to any corporation, then one realizes that that corporation’s really made it, because when they don’t have to push for their corporations’ logo, too, hard then one knows that they’re not hard up for money and desperate.

 

When corporations stop being overly greedy, smug and a show off then they begin to contribute to the world’s beauty and not take away from it.

 

When corporations slap their logos all over the entire topography of the land of Mother Nature then it’s like cutting and slashing a beautiful woman’s face and calling her ugly because he’s cut her open and it’s he’s fault not hers yet he blames it on her. (Ha! Wonderful metaphor!)

 

If something is peddled really hard then it makes me think that they need the money really badly and thus they can’t create, they can only subtract and suck up all the air out of aesthetic beauty.

 

Over Halloween I saw pumpkin designs on the tower display. I was reminded of Charlie Brown’s Halloween Television Special which is one of my favorites. Anything Charlie Brown moves me because the author and illustrator was such a remarkable human.

 

*) Charles M. Schulz, the man is one of my heroes.

 

I’ve seen unicorn designs and as of late there’s been an electronic display that looks like the Aurora Borealis’s or sonic waves or I don’t know.

 

I love it all!

 

I, too, love more than I hate, believe it or not; it just depends on what I think is more pressing material to cover and that’s what gets ink, nevertheless, I could gush about beauty for years to come.

 

Oh, this colorful and electronic and digital little design films take my breath away and I never get sick of them. I want to see more in the years to come.

 

In a world in which all that corporate America does is to push and peddle for their logo’s it’s so refreshing to see the Target Corporation draw so much attention to their tower without shoving their logo or any other logos down the civilians’ throats. It’s a visual break from commercialization.

 

The best non-commercial award for beautification goes to Target Corporation and tower, especially their designers and engineers of the tower designs. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

I’m so proud of your work.

It’s so special, important and amazing to modern civilization.

What a contribution.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         It had been over a year since I’d frequented “Kinhdo” Vietnamese restaurant in Uptown, Minneapolis.

 

The food has always been great.

 

We never got ill from it in the six years that we we’re monthly patrons there and the staff are people that we highly regard and respect. They’ve shared their life stories and the reasons as to why they work so hard to send money back home to their loved ones and to finance trips back and forth to and from Vietnam.

 

I admire and respect the staff at “Kinhdo.”

 

There’s one waitress in which we respect each other so much that we’ve become comfortable with hugging each other when we greet.

 

We have so much admiration and respect for the other and the wait staff respects Eric and warmly tease my beloved instead of insulting him and being rude to him, which has happened in other restaurants and it’s almost left me in tears each and every time because I’ve gotten so angry by the injustice.

 

I can handle people being rude to me but when it comes to Eric I get so angry I could almost cry in public but I don’t because I was raised to have a stiff upper lip. No, like hell if I’m going to cry in public if I can help it. Please.

 

The Kinhdo staff and cooks are truly amazing and we’ve come to know them as patrons over the years. Thank you. Saturday night’s meal was fantastic. Going to “Kinhdo” is like going back home.

 

I feel like that’s one of my homes away from home even though I hardly set foot in Uptown anymore. I’ll make more of a point to stop in at 28th and Hennepin Avenue more often because the food and the people sure are worth our time and effort. I could gush.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         I’ve been waiting for all of votes to come in and be counted then I can congratulate all of the candidates who are now officially elected officials.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox on their win and success. I’ve yet to watch the game on DVR. Please, don’t tell me anything about the game I have yet to catch up on our viewing enjoyment and entertainment pleasure of the World Series.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         As for the Crystal Perkins, we’d like to send out a big shout out to our favorite waitress who’s going to be married this weekend.

 

Congratulations sweetie! She deserves nothing but the best and always a 20% tip. She had a hell of a summer purchasing a new home and installing her own kitchen cabinets. What an amazing human.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         Congratulations goes out to all of the work crews seen picking up garbage in downtown, (our city) this morning.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         We’re so looking forward to the specter and magic of the “Queen” musical.

 

---  ---  ---

 

*)         We’re so looking forward to the Maya exhibit.

 

---  ---  ---

 

What gorgeous and sunny day it’s turned out to be.

I’ve got to stop here for now and take our little puppy for a walk because he just vomited. Poor little pup.

 

My deepest apologies but I didn’t make it back to the page.

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 1,706

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

 

“One strong point is worth ten weak ones.”

“He who seeks the truth must listen to his opponent.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Intense (strong, powerful, forceful, concentrated, deep, passionate, extreme, severe)

 

Her intense arguments won the debate.

 

Baffled: (foiled, puzzled)

 

After watching the magician the boy was baffled at his skills.

 

---  ---  ---

 

---------------------------------

            Yes, my writings are exhaustingly intense.

 

            Yes, I get to be intense for two hours a day when I write.

 

            Yes, it’s exhausting work to write intensely, just try it, sometime.

 

            (It’ll make you physically tired. It does me. I feel like taking a nap afterwards because it’s hard work. Much, too, difficult at times.)

 

            Okay, if, one is intense all of the time then one needs to practice better socialization skills. (Ha!)

 

            I hate to be intense because it’s exhausting work, however, English is such a violent and harsh language that most English speakers come across as ‘intense’ and violently speak primarily about themselves instead of general concepts so I’m sometimes on guard; I meet them where they’re at and at times they’ve been hypocritical enough to tell me, that, they hate to interact with me after verbally abusing words such as “bullshit,” “fuck off,” and “go to hell” with me, when I’ve stated my personal opinions, without swearing at them, once, about anything, especially when they’ve asked me what I thought about anything at all. What a bunch of…

 

I’ve been physically and verbally abused in America so what’s there to do but to shield oneself, get ready to verbally strike at self-centered and entitled peoples and put them in their place without biting them yet jolt them awake to their egotistical cries and maniacal self importance.

 

I meet them at their energy level however, if they just want to sit around, sip papaya juice and listen to the sounds of the wind then I’m all for that.

 

It’s only others who are intense with me that, tell me that I’m intense with them. People always want to tell me what I am to them, however, I’m not a chameleon.

 

I’m more of a mirror.

 

            If a man tells me that I’m ‘intense’ then it’s either because he is, or he’s manipulative, or he’s cunning, or he’s an instigator or because he’s exhaustingly the most quietly boring human, alive, pretending to be the most exciting human in the room, or he doesn’t speak about anything of much consequence, so I like to egg on people who contribute nothing of value yet want to be entertained by others and waste their time, or who are so guarded against the world that they shut out the world. (Fun!) Sometimes, I like to push buttons but that, too, makes me exhausted so I don’t go around looking for a bloody nose.

 

I most definitely don’t tell others what they come across like to me, yet in the United States people love to tell others what they seem like to them without first, asking for permission, so that the instigators feel good about themselves in ‘helping’ others further themselves or bend them to their will.

 

It’s a conniving, manipulative and sneaky way to interact with anyone in communication. It’s an injustice to any language.

 

            In America people like to tell others what they seem like to them so they can either break one’s hope or self esteem; but oh, boy, if you were to ever tell them what they truly came across to you, then watch out because Americans have neither the thick skin nor the backbone to take it.

 

It’s a social game of hypocrisy and double standards.

 

It’s the easiest game to play with English as a Second Language peoples because we don’t think quickly on our English feet but it’s a cheap point to win to insult another just to see us melt or shoved against a rock and a hard place.

 

It’s a dirty and perverted and sneaky little game to play when one tells others what you think of them without first humbling oneself to ask, if, one may criticize the other, but without the expectation to be criticized in return. As if. What a bunch of… (Ha!)

 

            No, I’m not like most well mannered foreigners when it comes to getting insulted, fucked with, manipulated or abused by American tricksters because I took abuse lying down as a young adult.

 

I refuse to ever yell or scream out in pain ever again, however.

 

If, and by the time I’ve raised my voice and I’ve calmly told or warned someone to ‘please leave me alone’ then you better realize that there’s an instigator pushing my buttons and wants me to either kiss their asses, kneel before them or they want my self esteem as the main entre and that won’t do.

 

I’m finally catching unto the Americans with their power struggles and perverted verbal instigations. People sure are crazy scary.

 

            If Americans insult me then I insult back with politeness or I can become an ice queen but then I want metaphorical bloodshed ice cream for dessert.

 

I can mock anyone until they cry out for their mommies and daddies but I’m not that cruel.

 

If I have to go for the calm and quiet jugular then it’s all over because Americans are rude while they pretend like they’re not.

 

Americans either play the defenseless victim card or cower in corners and pretend like they didn’t do anything wrong. How annoying when they’re the ones who instigate verbal violence.

 

I’ve been told that I look like a ‘monkey’ by white Minneapolis women.

 

I kept my cool and thanked them. What the fuck! Don’t I get to be treated humanely also? Don’t I deserve at least just that? If I would’ve told them what I thought of them then I would’ve broken them because I have that power so I don’t abuse it.

 

I’ve been told that I’d ‘make a great Central American servant’ to white Minneapolis women with way, too, much botched plastic surgery that they were just way, too, scary to look at straight in the eye for any length of time.

 

I kept my cool and thanked them. What the fuck! Don’t I get to be treated humanely also? Don’t I deserve at least just that? If I would’ve told them what I thought of them then I would’ve broken them because I have that power so I don’t abuse it.

 

            Just because people are English as a Second Language, well behaved, well socialized and don’t come across intense at all, it doesn’t mean that their emotions aren’t swimming and blistering throughout their bodies.

 

Anytime that anyone is culturally rude or wrong towards another, then chemicals begin to bubble to the surface and the trick is not to show any emotion no matter how rude Americans are, however, if one’s to ‘match force with force’ then Americans become mean-spirited weaklings and pretend to become victims, especially adult white women.

 

They’re so fucked up so just amuse them, what else is there to do? Nothing.

 

I have to force myself to thank people in Minneapolis for being blatantly racist against me out in the open.

 

I’m forced to pretend like it doesn’t sting because when one deals with passive aggressive racist abusers the entire goal is to never let them see you sweat and the only time that I yelled or raised my voice was when I was violently verbally attacked and manipulated by a real estate agent at Edina Reality and she called herself a defender of the African people by selling goats while in supposition she most likely pocketed the money for herself because she was the ultimate embodiment of white trash and a hater of women of color here in America. Ouch.

 

The truth stings, doesn’t it? It sure does, far more so than racism.

 

She was a true racist and classist instigator.

 

I could’ve yanked on her brittle ugly yellow hair but no, people of color must always keep their cool because it’s us that’ll go to jail and not white people.

 

We know, we know.

 

We’ve known since the Civil Rights Movement to always be the better man no matter how many ‘white devils’ want to see us fly off the handle and get us arrested while they pretend to cry wolf while they hunt us down and burn us at the stake.

 

She’s nobody and will continue to be nobody until the day she dies because she proved to be a swindler of American women of color.

 

She gladly took my money over some such bullshit about raising funds for an African village and donating goats, yet she was racism incarnate to my face.

 

What a fucked up culture of white privilege. They’re so screwed up, they don’t know their heads from their arses and that’s because they’re belligerent and hide behind hoards of money and business schemes.

 

She’s white trash dirt but Americans don’t like to hear that about themselves because they like to play the politically correct card.

 

I can’t tell you how much white Minnesota privilege has dragged me through the mud and I’m supposed to like it otherwise they look at me like I’m the crazy one and I look at them like they’re insane because they are, their actions spell it out.

 

It’s foreigners, who, tell me that they hold their tongues all the time with the Americans because they’re afraid to come across as ‘rude’ but if they gave the Americans a piece of their cultural minds then oh, boy.

 

Hell on Earth would be unleashed upon the Americans because Americans are rude, yet, if one were to stand up to them or challenge their moronic cultural beliefs then there’s hell to pay so it’s best to be quiet, docile, and extremely well behaved and on one’s best behavior and let them believe whatever the hell they want to without realizing what ignoramuses they truly are when they go around telling others what they are to them. How rude, indeed.

 

You won’t catch me telling the Americans that they’re whiners, bad breathed manipulative instigators, abrasive, brash, coarse, foul-mouthed, vulgar, boorish, selfish, self centered, narcissistic, self important, closed minded, bad mannered, uncouth, loud or to the other extreme, manipulative and strategically silent pseudo-victims of others’ demise. I don’t tell them that they’re…

 

If a man tells me that I’m condescending then it’s only because he is.

If a man tells me that I’m melodramatic then it’s only because he is.

If a woman tells me that I’m a bitch then it’s only because she is.

If a woman tells me that I’m a cunt then it’s only because she is.

If a woman tells me that I’m ugly then it’s only because she is.

If a woman tells me that I’m crazy then it’s only because she is.

 

            I reflect.

 

I reflect especially when others tell me what I am to them, most likely it’s because they see themselves in me.

 

            Reflection is a skill set and it’s a tough one to pull off, well, so if people don’t often like how I interact with them then it’s because most likely they don’t like the way they interact with me.

 

I simply reflect rude behavior back or I become awkward and then game over. A second chance, fat chance. One only gets one chance to make a good impression.

 

I love to sit quietly by bonfires and stare off into the distance because well, really, what’s there to say that hasn’t already been said before? Nothing much.

 

If I’m talkative then it’s not a performance.

 

It’s done more so for the benefit of the other party so that I don’t stare a hole into their skulls because it’s so much more fun to ‘people watch’ then to interact with speech. Anything can go wrong with speech.

 

As women, we’re taught to socially cater to others, so I do it, at times, however and nonetheless I have gone silent for years at a time. Try it. It’s not so difficult. Once you get the hang of it well, it’s more fun than you think.

 

If I’m ‘chatty’ (which is never) and make negative comments about any public place or its people then it’s because that’s my woman’s prerogative to be as foul and as irritating as possible to create positive change. I know, I know counter intuitive but it works.

 

            I’ve been taught by Finn women to make a social ruckus if the service sucks, if people are mindlessly crude and if others are annoying as hell or dangerous then one’s allowed to ‘beat them at their own game’ by digging into their space and private moments in public.

 

I’ve witnessed Finn women yell, “That’s the worst waiter I’ve ever had!” for an entire restaurant of patrons to hear her opinion and I almost fell over because it was, too, rich.

 

            Look: I come to this space to ink about anything and to practice my freedom of speech no matter how much someone may wish me dead with the exception that then I’d become a martyr (which I’m not) and then the American veterans would really burn down the “motherfucking country.”

 

            (You know that I’m referring to the poem, “The Motherfucking Country”? Correct? Right? Right.) Moving on.

 

Ha! How’s that for intensity? (Ha!)

 

Yes, I can be the shallowest of bitches because it’s a way to rub peoples’ noses in their own bullshit but I don’t go there because I’m not that disrespectful.

 

I gave you everything I had in me, in the same way that I used to with speedskating, college intramural volleyball, squash, cross country ski and snowboarding.

 

What more do you want from me?

 

You get my soul when I come to this space and write with my shielded heart and my words upon my sleeve.

 

Don’t you think that I feel vulnerable as it is already?

 

Gosh, you guys are drab, opinionated, a drag and ‘heavy’ with all of your wrong judgments about me while I’m inching my way towards somewhere wonderful. (Ha!)

 

Love;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,225. Yes!

 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

 

“A goat has a beard--but that doesn’t make him a rabbi.”

“The man who lives in a house did not necessarily build it.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Balmy (soothing, refreshing, mild)

 

There are many balmy days in spring.

 

---  ---  ---

 

----------------------------------

In the year 2013,

over 200 oil spills occurred in North Dakota

 

            “Everybody knows that the easiest thing in the world is to sell out their neighbors,” a man said to me and I listened.

 

            Now, I don’t have all of the details but I hear whispers about some oil company trying to get a foothold in Minnesota (Carlton County) to get a pipeline built right across the entire state. (Yeah, right. What a bunch of losers.)

 

I’m surprised that in the land of 10,000 Lakes that we haven’t yet arrived at new viable resources to replace oil.

 

I have nothing against oil except with the way that it’s run.

 

I have nothing against oil because our Minnesota family runs an oil company as well as they got in on the ground with Google. I have nothing against advancement however responsibilities are vital resources as well as what any company produces.

 

            Don’t skuzzy oil executives know that this is the land of 10,000 lakes?

 

Go take a hike in the woods, literally.

 

Get in touch with Native American Gods. Get in touch with something deeper than your egos. Get in touch with natural beauty. Get in touch with anything real other than your shallow and plastic selves. Who does anybody think they are? Gods? I don’t think so.

 

            I’m not sure as to how to formulate the following composition but let’s just get it out of the way; what a bunch of corporate assholes to want to build an oil pipeline across the beautiful state of Minnesota and leave our citizens living on top of filth and oil spills. (As if.)

 

Oil is a dirty business and I mean it literally.

 

Oil spills are inevitable when it comes to that dirty business.

 

            You do realize that there are many dire and significant health complications that come from oil spills that no amount of money will help out our children and civilian populations to recover from such a devastating health blow.

 

            Simply put; I’d say that any governmental officials or elected civil servants that allows for such a travesty ought to never see the light of governmental office ever again for as long as they live.

 

Since government likes hotdog factory work so much then elected officials can go work at hotdog factories (literally) because they have no business working for The People or in public office when they cut secret deals under the table with devils.

 

            What’s there not to get? I mean, really.

 

            Why do skuzzy oil executives get away with building oil pipelines and rigs on natural preserved government lands when those lands are meant to be preserved for future generations, long after, all of the corporations have ruined Mother Earth and repeatedly raped her while pretending as though they’ve never even laid eyes on her.

 

I believe that skuzzy oil executives are no different than rapists who the government allows for them to get away with murder because it’s a lucrative business for them to be in bed together fucking each other’s brains out while they murder their American civilians and public lands and nature reserves.

 

(There I wrote it in black ink for future readers as a historical reference / foot note, even though this isn’t a ‘legitimate’ historical record yet damn close because I’m writing in the first person and in the non-fiction genre. Eat it.) (Somebody had to say it and since I’m neither bought nor sold, I’m no man’s slave then I get to say anything and have a clear conscious about it because I sleep like a baby at night.)

 

            None of this is new. Every single word I write is stuff that everybody already knows so it’s a broken record tune. Welcome to the fun house! (Ha!)

 

            Now, I was shocked out of my socks when the Minnesotans allowed for motorized boats on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

 

I almost fell over, spilled my coffee and burned my thighs when I read about it. I was in shock for about an hour afterwards because I thought that if any Peoples on Earth could keep motorized boats out of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area then it was going to be the Minnesotans but that wasn’t true because some neighbor sold out his neighbors for a few pieces of metal.

 

What I can’t seem to understand is why pockets of neighborhoods and communities sell out when they know better. They know that if they contribute to the raping of Mother Earth then they, too, shall spend all of eternity in hell, forever and ever to the sounds of motorized boats without ever getting a break from the roaring sounds of engines.

 

Are the Minnesotans drunkards? I hardly think so. Sometimes.

 

As much as the Minnesotan culture rubs me the wrong way and they’ll keep me out for as long as they can because I’m a foreigner, hear me, when I tell you that I love to watch the Minnesotans be so feisty when it comes to their clean air, their wild nature reserves, their precious natural beauty and wonder and their old growth forests.

 

I’m right there with them because I believe that particular tune they sing out in unison and in harmony is one of leadership, love and tenderness for the Earth.

 

I love to watch the Minnesotans fight for what’s right when it comes to preserving natural public lands because it means that they’re intelligent about the one natural resource that’ll save them well into the future.

 

            “A man is nothing without land.” Here! Here!

 

            “The People are nothing without their preserved natural public parks and forests, spaces and areas.” Here! Here!

 

            I almost fell over when the Minnesotan corrupt elected public officials overrode the overwhelming public majority against funding a football stadium.

 

I almost burned my thighs, again, but instead I held the cup far away from my body and cleaned up the spill. It’s hilarious to watch me read little local newspapers.

 

            Now, The People of Minneapolis, don’t want to fund an NFL playground because most of Minneapolis and its inhabitants make around twenty-eight thousand dollars per annual income, per household of four so the money isn’t there when Minneapolis is in dire need of well constructed affordable housing, better and free public education (all the way through college,) public safety, homeless prevention, and, and, and… the list goes one.

 

            The mare fact that the Minneapolis government was, too, chicken shit to roll out a memorandum vote upon the basis of financially bankrolling an NFL stadium is because the Mayor and the Governor both knew that they’d lose that battle, hands down. Their constituents would prefer better public education for all and safer and cleaner streets and more public grants to individuals to start-up their independent businesses so Minneapolis can flourish like Venice did in the 1500’s.

 

We need more artisans, crafters, and independent business professionals, better housing and education for minorities and better overall professional opportunities and on and on.

 

            I’m totally against the NFL getting bankrolled by the Minneapolis constituents because they’re held at gun point. I’m totally against motorized boats in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I’m totally against Northern Minnesota mining. I’m totally against an oil pipeline rig across Minnesota.

 

            Why? Because if Minnesotans don’t know that their natural beauty and wonders are a thousand times more valuable than all of these retarded industries combined then Minnesota doesn’t know what they’ve got on their hands.

 

Although, I do believe that the Minnesotans know what they’ve got otherwise they wouldn’t fight so hard to keep it so.

 

            Look: football is on its way out because whether the NFL admits to this or not; CTE is quite real and our greatest and most valuable asset are our children, who can’t lose their memories at any stage in life.

 

It’s unfair for Minneapolis to be forced to hand over their taxes to a sport that’ll take away the high quality of life in their children without so much as a referendum vote.

 

No parent wants CTE for their children and in the economically depressed rural and urban areas of Minnesota the parents ought to be fighting tooth and nail for better funded public education instead of NFL football stadiums because that hotdog smells of rectum, anus and butthole.

 

            There’s no richer asset than natural beauty and wonder when so much of it gets destroyed every single second of the day.

 

More trees means more oxygen which means a healthier way of life. Period. Fact.

 

            In the future when the East Coast, New York City and Los Angeles have sunk into the ocean and Japan, North and South Korea and China deal with the aftermath of excruciating pollution and overwhelming toxicity from high levels of radiation and all of the wildlife will glow in the dark, when Brazil has become a desert from deforestation, when most of the Australian and Brazilian jungle Native Americans have been murdered by their governments for raising a stink about deforestation and there’s nothing left, and the Middle East increasingly becomes more of a desert, there will be a Minnesota with its trees to stand tall and untouched and that’ll make billionaires out of the Minnesotans because the entire world will want to show their children what a tree looks like.

 

            “If you build it they will come.” (Ha!)

 

            Minnesotans have to think long term goals and solutions and not sell out no matter what because that’s our ‘golden ticket’ to the candy factory instead of the hotdog factory.

 

Although factories have their dangers and disadvantages so we must not think of our forests as commodities instead we must think of them as living entities, as our Brothers and Sisters because if the forests don’t survive then neither will the humans and we’re far more fragile than the Earth is. She’s a tough Lady but she can only take so much of our collective bullshit.

 

            I know that the devil is shinny and good looking and it makes promises to exploit and kill and corrupt anything that is righteous and good like trees, plants and nature reserves however “You shall not pass here!” (Ha!)

 

            Minnesotans must stay strong and united in their decision to look towards long term goals and solutions because when all other natural wonders and areas of the world have become deserts, then we’ll become leading experts in our ‘field’ to put our capital where our mouths are, into nature preserves and free public education all the way through to Ph.D. studies.

 

            Don’t we want to be the global leaders in these two areas? Yes.

 

            The United States is no longer a manufacturing country.

 

We have to get over that notion.

 

We’ve entered into a new century of enlightenment.

 

We must produce with our brains, our wits and our creative scientific and mathematical brains. We must, because manufacturing now belongs to Mexico, India and China and Brazil.

 

            Recently, I read that there’s a company in Edina (I think?) that makes cars from printers and they run on electricity (I think?).

 

My heart melt at these new ingenious and smart and intelligent producers.

 

I’ve been trying to come up with other modes of transport for the past fifteen years and they beat me at ingenuity.

 

I was so proud of them for being so forward thinking.

 

I was astounded at their brilliance and that’s what Minnesota ought to be embracing, new modes of advancements and innovations. Their cars will be sold at around sixteen thousand when they hit the market and you know what? That’s wonderful. That means that the upper middle class will be able to afford to save the planet and the future with such a purchase. (If I wasn’t so timid I’d love to meet these people, but I don’t make it a habit to go around and meet strangers.) (These people are some of my heroes and I have lots of heroes and mentors. What a lucky gal.)

 

            Don’t you understand, that, brute sports, which cause concussions such as soccer, hockey and football are now obsolete.

 

            Don’t you understand that dinosaur industries such as oil and deforestation are now obsolete.

 

            Why? Because the world just got itself into a whole new market of brilliant ideas in how to save the Earth and the human race.

 

If our children aren’t as smart as other leading world countries then the Americans don’t have a leg to stand on and they’ll end up leading quiet lives of desperation because they won’t get ahead as their parents have found out all, too, well.

 

            This is a new era of intelligent brains whether uneducated parents like it or not.

 

            Your one ticket out of impoverished hell holes, barrios, and economically depressed areas across the United States of America is: brilliance, compassion, and sympathetic ideas combined with how to save the planet and the human race from extinction and overcoming starvation and deforestation in a country that’s richer than the rest of the leading countries.

 

            No, one may not be shallow in this new era or racist or discriminatory or prejudiced because it leaves one out of the running.

 

If one can’t rise up to the expectations of a new empathetic and intelligent world then working class will do for your children and that’s no longer an option in a world of fast technology and brilliant ideas.

 

No, emotional intelligence has nothing to do with being a poser or a hack or a cheater because the thing about the human cerebral engine is that it either runs or it doesn’t.

 

If the brain becomes fucked up, by one, too, many concussions then well, its drool time and food stamps for your offspring and that’s about it.

 

Come on, little ones.

 

Let go of all of your dusty and outdated ideas from the last century and start reading because that, alone, will save this nation.

 

We’re a culture of retards and we stubbornly know it to be true and that’s why we’re thirteenth in the world when it comes to our children’s intelligence. We’ve fallen far behind because of laziness, lack of resources and dusty old ideas about economics.

 

Trickledown theory has always been awful and anyone with smart brains has always known that because to be the truth because the logic doesn’t make any sense.

 

According to inflation the minimum wage ought to be at ten dollars and fifty cents ($10.50). Do the math.

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,380

 

Monday, November 11, 2013

 

“Only one type of worry is correct;

to worry because you worry too much.”

 

“Riches bring anxiety: wisdom gives peace of mind.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Profligate (wasteful, reckless)

 

His profligate spending of money soon made him a poor man.

 

---  ---  ---

 

            Happy Veterans Day 2013!

 

            I had so many wise words to write but now I seem to have lost most of my literary concepts I was going to ink about.

 

(It’s been a long day and soon approaching five in the evening so I get tired easily as we head into the night. What a long and fulfilling Monday it has been. I’m tired so most likely my sentence structure will become vile passive rot.)

 

            I listened to a bit of information about how veterans are some of the most surveillance of individuals because if anyone’s going to start a revolution in American then it’s going to be veterans. (No, I don’t have the facts about this, however, the theory did make me sit up straighter and I listened harder to the speaker.)

 

From the very little that I learned about this theory, it was, that, veterans are angry, injured, wounded, hurt, in pain and cast aside by our government and by societal culture at large thus this is a great and natural driving force when it comes to igniting a revolutionary fire by veterans.

 

I have to admit that I’ve been completely in awe at how many homeless and impoverished veterans I’ve met over the years.

 

            No, I’m no one special but my work as a former documentary filmmaker in the field brought me to so many different places, environments and situations in which I’ve listened to many different types of people tell me their life-stories, trials and tribulations and thus I’ve learned the many realities of these wounded soldiers and their families.

 

I’ve been honored to have been bestowed upon the harrowing stories of our veterans. Again, I’m no one special but I have the gift to listen to people and not fall asleep on them or get bored or space out, while they’ve told me about themselves because they trust that I’ll put their stories and information to good use thus I write with an open heart and an open mind.

 

            I’m bewildered by the insurmountable backlog of veteran medical records. We have physically and mentally wounded and injured soldiers and there’s not much that can be done about that because the backlog is unorganized, mismanaged and inept like the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” website.

 

I’m not sure as to why that is, when it comes to the Pentagon which has deep pockets of one-hundred billion dollars (I’ll recheck that number) to “play with” in Afghanistan, that, they can’t set aside some of that taxpayer’s collected monies and sink it into a veterans’ medical relief fund because our soldiers on the ground don’t have a need for any more tanks, that’s for sure.

 

As for our family members who’ve fought in Afghanistan they still await for medical relief funds from our government and this war has dragged on for over three years since our family members, our veterans have returned home with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

 

            No, I don’t have Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and it’s been proven by psychologists that I don’t, although, (I lied about it, once (about two years ago) to a drunkard to test him in his own vile of lies and well, it’s so juicy to play the village idiot when you’re so much smarter than most.)

 

I’m simply a writer who likes to perpetually rub it into the faces of this nation that great injustices do occur while the culture and government looks the other way.

 

I’m someone who loves to annoy the culture and hopefully like a puppy that paws away at one’s face to wake up and be taken out for a walk, the culture will indeed wake up and get some exercise because they’ll come to comprehend that what I have to say, like a broken record, is of consequence and importance.

 

I write to create balance and justice in a zombie-like culture, in a drugged up nation of self importance and ignorance about the injustices of others.

 

I care otherwise I wouldn’t be here annoying the hell out of the Americans by repeating myself which I hate to do.

 

No, I’m not here to shock anyone.

 

I’m here to bring about awareness as any great sailor knows how to tackle into a head-long wind with speed and finesse while steering the helm with one hand and pulling on a rope with the other. I’m like that, and I’ll take to the literary waters for as long as my time ticks away and the clock winds down. I shan’t capsize this literary vessel because may Godspeed.

 

            Thus, as someone who comprehends the dire significance of those who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (our Afghanistan veteran family members) I can’t imagine what it’s like to relive flashbacks of bombings of innocent Afghanistan bystanders and otherwise, vicarious executions, military rape, brute force, bullets whizzing and flying overhead and next to our soldiers’ faces, not knowing for sure who the enemy is and getting lied to by the locals, who, want provisions and help from our soldiers yet want them dead with the lie that Allah permits such an atrocity.

 

I can’t imagine what it’s like to come back to America and relive war torn oppression inside their heads, over-and-over again with the mental concrete awareness as if they were back there all over again reliving a hell on Earth.

 

I can’t imagine what it’s like for our American soldiers, our Brothers and Sisters to have to endure military rape amongst their ranks and have to cover up for their bastard commanding officers who believe that bullying and heinous crimes are a part of a culture that’s all too alive and thriving behind the closed doors of America yet Americans are still horrified by our culture of rape which is so prevalent.

 

It’s our military men who get raped much more than our military women. What does that say about our war culture? It’s a power hungry culture and we wonder why our veterans are so pissed off.

 

Hypothetically; If I were a man, and I had been raped by a commanding male officer, I’m telling you, I’d want to come back home and burn down the motherfucking Pentagon. I’d want to destroy with a vendetta and show Washington D.C. what real power of the People is.

 

But because I’m an American woman I expect to get raped at least once before I die. It’s the honest to God truth about being a woman in America because every sixty seconds a woman gets raped, here, upon our soil.

 

(Except, that, as I get older, I would expect to kill my potential perpetrator, in self defense. Yes, there would be a cold dead male’s body on the floor with his scalp missing. I’ve made up my mind about that and so have many other American women who’ve been sexually assaulted without much harm brought upon them like myself. I won’t look back because I’ve become stronger than before. The hippies should’ve killed me when they had the chance because what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I love to expose assholes. I just do. I no longer keep silent as I did in my youth about injustices. Since I’ve never been raped there’s no need for dead bodies but if rape would’ve occurred then I would’ve become a complete animal and disappeared into the bush never to be found again. If I would’ve been raped then I would’ve left a trail of dead bodies behind, anyone, associated with my hypothetical rape. I would’ve gone Maya. I would’ve scalped and culturally not felt bad about it because that’s any woman’s prerogative as a Maya Sister. What would you know about the modern Maya? Absolutely nothing. We live by a much honorable code than we do here in America. I would’ve killed with my bare hands because this is a country of filth while the Americans look the other way or I would’ve made one phone call to the East Coast and that’s all it takes. If I ever go missing or get harmed again, then there will be bloodshed. I promise you this: because there are enough pissed off people in power in the East Coast that would love to sink Minnesota into the mud but I keep reminding them that I live here and I’ve given my life to this place, planted roots and I stay here. Careful, women do have value to their persons even when you think they’re nobody to anyone.)

 

Oh, that felt so good to write like that.

 

I could spend hours scalping with the plume.

 

I suggest that our veterans pick up the arts and sculpt away at their injustices instead of really seeking out vengeance and killing their perpetrators in cold blood when they return home.

 

Yes, one can metaphorically kill just as hard through the arts as one can in cold blood reality.

 

I can understand why the veterans want to burn down the “motherfucking country,” however, hear me Brothers and Sisters, it’s best to get even through success, healthy lifestyles, and positive self assurance and building for the future.

 

It’s best to get even by bringing light, love, peace and balanced power to these dark ages, bring balance to the force.

 

I’ve forgiven my perpetrators but I shan’t forget for as long as I live, as I don’t expect you to ever forget the injustices brought upon your persons in a made-up war.

 

No, I’m not like you.

 

I didn’t sign up to be heroic like you.

I didn’t sign up to defend this nation of ours, except through penmanship.

 

I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you’ve fought for us especially when it’s a war of lies, that, which the Bush and Cheney Administration made-up this war in spite of their vanity, insanity and more insanity.

 

            These two men will go to hell for all eternity for murdering so many of our American soldiers overseas. You know it, I know it, and everybody else knows it to be true and so do their cronies and their corrupt families who eat off of the poverty of the Americans. Criminals and the whole country knows it to be true.

 

If no one has said it before then allow for me to be the first one to say it; I’m sorry that you’re so hurt, in pain, wounded and forgotten however you’re not damaged goods.

 

You’re our hope for a better future. You’re our lesson for a better and smarter tomorrow. Because of you; we get up, go to work and run the country even when corporations and the Republican Tea Party rapes our very way of life as Americans and forces us to carry to full term their raped babies.

 

            Alas, hear me, when I tell you that we must believe in peace, kindness and keep it together for the sake of future generations.

 

Destruction doesn’t get us anywhere and forgiveness does.

 

I’m a true pacifist and have been my entire life.

 

I can only hope that our men, our troops, our women, our troops, find it in them to become civic leaders in these devastating dark times. May you find it in your hearts to help out the civilian population because we, too, have had a cultural raping while you’ve been gone.

 

I can’t imagine what it must be like to live inside a head-trip of reliving the worst moments of your lives again-and-again for years to come.

 

Now, if anything, that, ought to make some troops bitter yet believe that We, The People love our American soldiers.

 

Believe that we believe in you because you fought our war, you fought our battles while our children starved here in America and our cost in lifestyle quadrupled and our wages went down and inflation is through the roof without any benefit in salary increases.

 

Could you imagine having to relive memories you’d soon rather forget about? I mean really. For those of us who don’t have Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome our brains don’t force us to have to relive rape, murder, and war torn hell every single day.

 

We can and do forget.

 

We don’t have to relive such horrible memories and if we do write about them then it’s only as harsh lessons to chap the arses of this nation with them, to smear shit all over the faces of this country’s corrupt who look away and believe they have nothing to do with these crimes against humanity.

 

Dearest soldiers, while you’ve been gone, your people have been fighting real tremendous civic wars of their own. Welcome back. We’ve missed your leadership.

 

I love, I respect, I admire, I forgive, I believe, I dream and so shall you in time.

 

Love;

Gabriel

 

Word count; 2,115

 

Friday, November 8, 2013

 

“When you have a new coat hanging on the wall,

your old one doesn’t feel ashamed.”

 

“A homely patch is prettier than an ugly hole.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Prolific (reproducing rapidly and numerously, fertile)

 

The dense growth of young trees shows how prolific nature is.

 

---  ---  ---

 

---------------------------------

Flirtation

 

            I’m not sure what to write about flirtation because well, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.

 

On Wednesday, around four in the afternoon, I stopped-in at a shop and a young black male in his early twenties stared at me, straight in the eye, for about thirty seconds or longer while I stood in line behind him.

 

He had a beautiful, open, happy and kind face, yet, nonetheless, he stared at me in what is considered extremely rude fashion; hence, once a strange man has stared at a woman straight in the eye for longer than five-to-eight seconds, then he’s crossed a fine line in which women consider the men creepy no matter how handsome he may be.

 

After the first fifteen seconds, I felt that he’d crossed over into the creepy zone. I became annoyed with him seemingly willing to take up so much of my personal space.

 

I thought: Oh, God these weird Minnesotans haven’t travelled enough to know large city etiquette. They haven’t been socialized properly. They’d be eaten alive in the East Coast.

 

I thought that perhaps he was either dumb, stupid, or had never encountered a woman in his young life. He stood there and looked stupefied and possibly thought that I must’ve been flattered to be stared at for so long by his incredible doe like eyeballs. How wrong he was.

 

            It’s one thing to mutually have a woman and man look at each another, it’s quite another for a strange man to continually stare at a woman, without a break, after she’s looked away several times because it becomes quite obvious to anyone near, that she’s not flirting at all, instead she’s become quite uncomfortable with the flirtatious empty stare of the male gaze.

 

She’s become quite uncomfortable because she’s realized that she’s become hunted and that she’s crossed over into the realm of meat to be devoured. She stopped being a human to that man and becomes an object of the male gaze. Gross. Women are so much more complex than that of the male gaze.

 

Every port in the storm, I guess.

 

Uncouth and ignorant men, more often than not, seem to think, that if they “make eyes” at a woman, then she’s just going to roll over and let her vagina hang out to be fondled. Absolutely not. Keep on dreaming. I get it. It’s tough for men to get laid in general and it’s always been that way since the beginning of time and it’ll probably be that way until the end of time.

 

He wouldn’t let up.

 

He wouldn’t let go of his male gaze.

My skin crawled and I thought: what a little pervert.

 

I thought: oh, he’s just crazy with lust, self importance and out of his wits.

 

It was apparent that his ego drove him therefore his private parts were hanging out and visible a yard away.

 

I thought about his small penis because only a man with a small penis thinks that he can get away with secretly insulting a woman out in the open, make her into a piece of meat and make it seem her fault. What freaks. She knows the difference and so does everybody else.

 

            I knew that he wasn’t a creep but he was pulling all the stops to be noticed like one, by noticing me, all, too, deeply and too long and that’s considered freakish at the best of times.

 

A man doesn’t have to be creepy to come across as creepy. It was clear that he was a fine fellow but again devilish aspects of life are shiny and attractive, not ugly and grotesque.

 

He might not have been a creep but his demeanor was and that took him out of the running all completely. Women can see straight through that.

 

            After thirty seconds of getting stared at, I looked back at him and frowned to make it clear that whatever he was selling I wasn’t interested.

 

            “Hello,” He said to me in his velvety voice as though I was lucky to be in the presence of a Demigod but really he was just a male-child.

 

            “Dude, it’s been a very long day,” I said to him in the most nonchalant skateboarder style of communication possible, to convey, ‘chill-out,’ ‘relax,’ I’m not going to bite but I sure will put you in your place.

 

            “You’re staring at me,” I said.

 

            “No, I was looking over there,” he protested. But that wasn’t true, he’d been staring straight at me the entire time and I caught him in a white lie. I got even more turned off by him.

 

            He jokingly and slightly sneered and caught himself from a full sneer because he couldn’t believe that I was dead serious in my approach towards him.

 

He looked away and became slightly uncomfortable by how straight forward I was. He pretended to look at objects on a shelf. Now, it was my turn to stare at him with his back to me.

 

            “It’s been a long day,” I told his back. “It’s been one of those days,” I kindly repeated myself with exhaustion in my voice because I was terribly tired. So much had already occurred by four in the afternoon on Wednesday.

 

            He half sneered again to shield and protect himself because whatever he’d tried out on me didn’t and wasn’t going to work. It was apparent that I could’ve been his mother yet he wanted to pick me up so badly and well, Oedipus.

 

            I think that the new generation of male in their early twenties must’ve read something about the “three second eye stare” and thus they believe that if they stare down women with a Fabio look then women will roll over however what they don’t take into consideration is that the three second eye stare is just that; three seconds.

 

By the time thirty seconds have passed and a strange man is still staring at a woman with utter and creepy fascination then all she’ll want to do is to get as far away from that man as she possibly can. I did. I was like: Oh, get me the hell out of here and ran.

 

            Yes, I think that no matter how much time passes by and that no matter how many generations pass on that the three second eye stare is three seconds because after that we’re getting into a deeply intimate and strange place for any stranger to want to go there with another who they know nothing about.

 

For all I knew, was, that, he was a male prostitute and there’re plenty of those in this city or any other city for that matter. I wasn’t going to go there or anywhere else with him in public relation as strangers to one another.

 

If you know people and are acquainted with them, then do look them straight in the eye, no doubt about that.

 

I hate to write this because it’s the goddamn truth, however, women, especially petite and femme women, can stare as hard and as long as they want at men and other butch women.

 

Why? Because when it comes to weaker body frames, everybody already knows that a smaller and weaker woman isn’t going to drag a man off into the woods and rape him. It’s the law of nature.

 

If I wanted to, which I don’t but if I wanted to stare at another then I’m granted that because at 5’2” I’m neither as muscular as others nor aggressive in my approach.

 

It’s apparent that I’m not going to take on a 6’1” and two-hundred pound male, drag him off and rape him. It’s obvious that that’s not my intension so I may stare at him even if it creeps him out because the balance of nature is so, however, as a modern sophisticate I don’t go around and stare at people unless I’m in the car and safely guarded from others or if others are performing on stages.

 

At times, I have stared at people only because I was interested in doing a photo shoot but people never believe that I’m a professional photographer so I don’t ask, rather I soak in their looks and take a moment to memorize people’s facial structures, knowing perfectly well that I’ll not get to photograph them, ever, because there are so many creepy people with that line and that’s just not so with me. Anybody who’s ever sat for me as a model knows perfectly well that I take my work seriously and that I’m not after their underwear, private parts and so on.

 

            If I do stare at people it’s because they either have boogers, food or stains on their faces or clothes. No, I don’t make a habit of staring because I know exactly what it’s like to be stared at with fascination while in public by strangers.

 

Plus, people tell me that I have the most intense dark brown eyes and people feel like the entire universes reside there so I have to be quite careful as to where and how I look at others so that they feel comfortable with me and not flirted or mistaken by…

 

            Flirting is a fine art, which, I’ve never been good at, so I just stay away from it all together and am sincere, which, I guess, sincerity is a form of flirtation, but it sure beats having to be over the top, overt and with one’s vagina hanging out and drooling for the other. Please.

 

I, too, am human and get turned on by…

 

Yes, believe it or not; as a married woman, I can get turned on, however, it doesn’t mean that I want to rip my clothes off and go at it. Please, don’t turn me off.

 

I’m the type of woman who’s turned on by intellectuality, great discussion that seems flawless and not stuck in reverse throttle, going backwards almost ramming into a dock.

 

I like people who can speak just about anything other than themselves, their work and their egos. It’s a great turn on to meet people who know a little bit about many things but that’s rare because it means that people have to educate themselves to read a lot about a whole lot. I’m more turned on by the brain than by the body.

 

If a man does make me feel awkward then it’s no good because like any communication or miscommunication it takes two to tango and it’s not possible to believe that one person can mess-up an entire dialogue all by themselves, thus it’s considered a dialogue.

 

Once, I’ve been personally made to feel awkward and turned off then good luck with that because a second chance is as far away as Sri Lanka is to us now.

 

If something’s gone wrong in miscommunication it’s because there was a glitch between all parties involved. Miscommunication can’t be blamed solely on one party, it’s not possible, it’s considered a lie to put the blame only on one party, unless...     

 

            In conclusion; different people are turned on by many different things and I respect that because that’s sacred.

 

In my twenties it wasn’t possible just to go out, dine and have many different dates at once, that, one, didn’t sleep with, but, rather got to know each other, slowly over time.  Plus, the men in my generation were dirt poor and most still are so it’s not like they could take women out other than to their beds.

 

Most of my generation wanted to sleep with as many people as possible and as quickly as possible. That wasn’t the only standard in the Midwest that goes for most of the United States. Dating in other nations is quite different than in the United States.

 

            I love watching people fall in love and make a go at it in life because there’s nothing more difficult than people falling into mutual respect, liking and mutual admiration for one another.

 

You’d think that people coming together in friendship or in romance would be the easiest thing in the world, but in reality, it turns out to be the toughest thing ever because people are scared, stubborn and afraid that the other will deny them, eventually.

 

I can understand that.

 

            I’m one of the most timid people when it comes to making the first non-romantic move, although, I will, because I’m the woman.

 

It’s any woman’s prerogative to invite any man out for a meal since she feels that she’ll be safe in his presence otherwise she wouldn’t.

 

Yes, welcome to the twenty-first century.

 

The reason why women will ask men out is because in a world of so many creepy men it is up to the woman to choose a mate, a partner, a friend as to whom she’ll feel safe with.

 

Men will always be safe for the most part but women aren’t and it’s up to her to choose well so they are safe because it’s also the women who have the money now a days and not the men.

 

What a changed world it’s become.

 

It’s any man’s honor to have a woman work up her courage to ask him out. It just is. Men don’t realize how intimidating it is to ask them out but it is and that’s the reason as to why it’s such an honor to have a woman ask.

 

With all due respect a man has the right to say, no, however why should he? He’s got nothing to lose and an entirely free meal to take down.

 

I’d rather have a man tell me that I’m, too, ugly for his taste than give me the brush off. Although, if a man gives a woman the brush off, then a woman gets to know more about his character than she ever would over a meal.

 

She gets to learn that he’s either a coward or self important and that he probably could not defend her if he needed to. Ouch. If a man can’t be straight with a woman then he can’t really be straight with other men, either.

 

I’m a modern woman.

What can I say? Not much.

 

            Now, that I’m married, I don’t make romantic moves. I get laid just fine, thank you, and its great and often since you’re so curious about my sex life.

 

I mean, “friendship moves” with potential opposite-sex friendships.

 

No, I don’t want potential male friendships to even so much as consider that I have a romantic interest in them.

 

I reserve that right for my husband, only, however in a culture of so much jealousy and envy it’s quite difficult to make male / female friendships in adulthood without wives and live-in-girlfriends losing their brains about it.

 

Gosh, the human species hasn’t come far.

 

Peace;

Gabriel

 

Work count: 2,481

 

Thursday, November 7, 2013

 

“Through intelligence and knowledge

man comes to resemble the character of angels.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Prolix (wordy, lengthy, long-winded)

 

His speech was so prolix that his audience grew restless.

 

 

---  ---  ---

 

-----------------------------

Note:              You’ll get over the negative criticism. I did.

 

I got my ego ripped apart while in world renowned writing workshops and well, I’m a better “man” for it. I’ve became thick skinned through that literary process of ripping my heart out and placing it back together.

 

What you don’t seem to understand is that I’ve already gone through everything I’m putting the reader through. I’ve been there, done that and more than thrived.

 

I came out on the other end able to take-on any brute, liar, enemy or hater in conflict and debate. What. Do you really believe that people in world renowned writing workshops are best friends? Please.

 

For the most part, not, however, some of my closest friends are indeed from world renowned writing workshops, but I think it had something to do with the fact that I was considered the worst grammatical writer and thus I wasn’t considered any type of real competition to my peers, even though confidentially the Masters told me, that, I was the best writer however rotten at basic syntax and because of that reason, alone, I had no other choice other than to continue writing unless I wanted to waste my natural talents.

 

The Masters told me to get an editor when I was ready to publish my first novel and forget about how rotten I was at basic grammar and syntax because it takes a certain type of emotional talent to be gifted at writing and that I had it no matter how much I couldn’t remember where commas went, quotations and parenthesis.

 

Thus I kept quiet amongst my literary peers about been considered one of the best storytellers and realized early on that my peers liked reading my juicy storylines even though they tore apart my writings with a vendetta to possibly make me cry if they could but I never gave them that satisfaction because I’d already known the truth about my natural life-given talents and I was elated that I could write at their caliber at all, even though I was English as a Second Language and stupid when it came to perfect grammar.

 

Other world renowned workshop writers were the competition and I learned rather quickly that they were there to rip apart anybody’s writing who got in the way of their success. As a naïve Costa Rican I had no idea how much writers hated their competition but I soon found out.

 

------------------------------

Note:              No, I don’t need your pity however I’d like to share that we’ve lost our Moose Lake, Willow River friend three weeks ago, today.

 

It’s been a tremendous loss to that area and to our family and friends. Our friend was a respected and well liked teacher at Willow River School and we shall forever remember her memory. We keep her family in our prayers.

 

As we age, we’ve been watching our friends pass away in their late forties and early fifties. It’s difficult to lose so many young people to cancer. I can’t say anymore than that because I don’t have the will to write about it.

 

R.I.P. Alana Marie “Alaina” Privette

 

----------------------------

Note:              I love seeing all of the pink lit-up buildings throughout the Twin Cities in the united fight against cancer.

 

Upon a nightly basis I look at the Foshay Tower and my heart swells with hope for this continuous fight against cancer.

 

Our family and friends have dealt hard and crushing blows, watching our beloved ones fight cancer and ultimately lose that battle all together.

 

Because we’ve lost so many to cancer, I feel a sense of hope when I look upon pink lit-up buildings at night. I don’t feel so alone in this fight; which our family members and friends deal with on a daily basis, in the fight for their lives, literally.

 

As innocent bystander all we can do is support and love others however it’s not enough. It’s so weird not to be able to do more for them.

 

            I want you to know that my literary alter ego is a crabby and curmudgeon old man however in my woman’s heart I hold deeply felt sentiments in which I cherish so many wonderful and incredible people that have touched me deeply, especially the Minnesotans.

 

If you really think that I hate the Minnesotans then think again. I’m challenging them to become better, to strive for better and to be better as we watch our friends die gruesome and harsh deaths to cancer.

 

If you really think that I don’t have a heart then do so, however, I, too, am human. If you’ve never been dealt such a blow as to watch family members and friends die of cancer then you have no idea how much love, one can carry inside their hearts for another.

 

We love, we live, we give thanks, we rejoice and we keep those that we love in our memories and in our prayers.

 

-------------------------------

Note:              Please keep in mind that it’s prostate cancer awareness month. Please make time for regular checkups because that’s a painful way to die.

 

For three months, I closely watched one man die such a terrible death and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemies. The pain seemed unbearable and difficult as I watched him go through such a struggle as I helped run his company in the last year of his life.

 

---------------------------

Note:              There’s so much to be said about the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

 

I really like the entire concept to forge forth and create health care coverage for our American People. What a decent and thoughtful thing to do for so many who suffer in America and go bankrupted and homeless because they can’t pay their insurmountable medical debt.

 

Hip! Hip! Hooray for the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

 

Now, I’ve just recently been informed that our health care insurance will go up by thirty percent (30%) on July 2014 and that’s a lot of money. I hope it’s worth it when we already pay five-hundred dollars ($500.00) per month for health care insurance coverage for me, alone.

 

Please don’t gouge us because we work so hard for our every morsel of economic dribble as “Middle Class” Americans.

 

I hope that we haven’t been manipulated about what’s to take place because as Middle Income Earners we already pay taxes through the roof and we don’t mind because we’re the backbone of America but we, alone, can’t carry this nation on our backs or our backs will be snapped in two and broken.

 

Yes, Middle Income Earners are an endangered species and we have to do something about that just as we did for the American Bald Eagle.

 

I’m so proud to call myself an American in these trying and difficult times as we transition into a caring health care system for our lovely citizens and civilians who so dearly require and need the assistance of a compassionate health care system and from their fellow Republican politician Americans.

 

            In the terrible decade of my twenties, I went seven years without health care insurance and I learned how to care for whooping cough, a dislocated shoulder, chronic bronchitis (because I lived in some cold flats and slums without much heat) and re-occurring pneumonia as well as hemorrhaging without annual physical checkups or pap smears.

 

It was a trying time for sure, to say the least. The pain in my body was quite real. There was nothing psychosomatic about my pain.

 

I was devastated and quite saddened at the very fact that there was no one or any system to help me out in such trying times.

 

I have to admit that I kept the pain and the devastation all to myself and never let on how difficult it was because I was already undernourished and starved and I was quite ashamed to be poor.

 

I felt that it was my fault that I had no help in such dire and tremendously grotesque circumstances as mine even though I worked sixteen hours a day and still couldn’t afford to purchase an apple in a three year period. You want to talk about thick skinned. Let’s. (Ha!)

 

I suffered in silence and alone.

 

No, I don’t wish such devastation upon any American or human to endure the type of suffering that I did because it’s the type of suffering that cripples the weak, and strengthens the mighty.

 

You have to be a strong willed soul to make it through that and if you aren’t strong then it’ll break you and we can’t have none of that, for sure.

 

            I don’t want to write too much about the dysfunctional health care website because we all know that’s a bummer, however, be patient and realize that our American dream is being created before our very own eyes just as social security was.

 

To work out the kinks of this grandiose operation can’t be easy even though I disagree with our American government hiring a Canadian company who had already been fired by the Canadian government, previously.

 

What I can’t seem to understand is this: America with Silicon Valley and all of our tech savvy professionals; why didn’t our government hire one of our own?

 

It goes back to the previously sewn U.S. Olympic uniforms that were made in China. It just doesn’t make any sense, does it? Nope.

 

Someone dropped the ball, hardcore and that’s a pity to watch badly played basketball in the making but overall our health care system is racking up the points because believe it or not; our American citizens are so excited about affordable health care that I’m also happy for them in winning this battle and this fight towards affordable health care for all.

 

I rejoice in such an incredible accomplishment.

 

No, I don’t write about my sad and difficult history to get pity out of the reader.

 

I write about such a difficult history, because I kept my silence all those years ago, when I should’ve been raging against such a terrible system and wage slavery, however, the theme of that story at that time was that it was my fault for being so poor, and, that, I wasn’t working hard enough, but I almost killed myself working sixteen hour days, three part time jobs, while undernourished, so I could barely raise my voice for others much less for myself and now that I can, well, I’ve become a “hellion on wheels” when it comes to writing and fighting for the poor of this American nation of ours.

 

I always knew that if I made it into my mid-thirties as a healthy and well-fed individual that I am today then I would fight a philosophical fight for the poor because I owe it to myself, to speak up, all these years later, when no one had or did for me when I most needed it.

 

I’m classy like that and you have nothing to say to me about that because I could beat anyone at debate when it comes to the injustices of the poor, the wage slavery and the malnourished of contemporary America. Just try it. I’d lick you dry. We wouldn’t want any of that, would we now? Nope.

 

No, I’m not bitter about what happened to me because I’m here today to raise a stink about it and for those who can’t because they’re too hungry or devastated to do so.

 

Yep, I was meant for greatness even if you hate my guts because of it.

 

Yep, I was meant for success even when you deny me my failures.

 

Yep, I was meant to be happy even if you wish me ill intent.

 

Yep, I was meant to be me in this century even if you wish me dead.

 

Yep, I was meant to be beautiful even if you consider dark skin, ugly.

 

Ha! I’m laughing my ass off all the way to the bank. Eat it.

 

There’s no shame in being poor, anywhere.

 

----------------------------

 

Note:              As for Minnesota, the Twin Cities and Minnesotans, let’s flirt in a literary fashion for one moment before I leave for the day.

 

Now, without staring at me in some creepy fashion, I want and desire for the Twin Cities to become the next New York City but I refuse to give it to you in a handheld basket when I deal with so much racism, discrimination and prejudice on a weekly basis just running errands around town. Pity.

 

Why should I hand it over to you when you can’t practice decent and fair communication with others especially when it comes to positive conflict resolution?

 

I would like to see the Twin Cities make a decent bagel to start off, because that’s the staple of life when there’s nothing else for the poor and devastated.

 

I would like to see more “Mom ‘n’ Pop” shops in this city because that’s what New York City thrives off of.

 

I’d like to see less bicyclist hit and runs.

 

I’d like to see better distinguished bicycle lanes in hot neon colors because forest green is invisible at nighttime whether urban engineers like it or not or whether it’s expensive or not; it’ll save lives and that’s all that matters.

 

I’d like to see more minority run businesses.

 

I’d like to see more minority business grants and business loan investments.

 

I’d like to see better education and housing for minorities.

 

I’d like to see a sea of racial faces in the workforce.

 

I’d like GMO food labeling.

 

I’d like for food subsidies and food stamps to be given credit where credit is due otherwise our working poor and poor will starve to death.

 

I’d like to see downtown, Minneapolis thrive like Manhattan because downtown, Minneapolis is our Manhattan and must become alive, stay alive and have a real and constant value to it otherwise visitors will fly over.

 

I’d like… I’ve got to run.

 

Love;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,319

 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

 

“If you know, tell; if you can, do; if you have, hold on to it.”

 

“The virtue of angels is that they cannot deteriorate;

their flaw is that they cannot improve.

Man’s flaw is that he can deteriorate;

and his virtue is that he can improve.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Passive (inert, inactive, unreceptive, submissive, reflexive, reactive, flaccid)

 

Aggressive (violent, hostile, destructive, belligerent, antagonistic)

 

---  ---  ---

 

            Oh, my! Thanks for the information.

            “Minnesota Nice” is code for quiet racist.

 

            I finally get it.

 

            It’s taken me all these years to figure out why “Minnesota Nice” is such malarkey, chaos and two-faced hater.

 

One more note: “Minnesota Nice” was also made up by advertisers and the culture bought into it so that they could sell the state. “Minnesota Nice” isn’t a cultural perspective, it’s an advertising one. What a bunch of shallow…

 

            Yes, I find that Minnesota is one of the most quietly racist, discriminatory and prejudiced places one can ever encounter. It’s boring in that regard and nothing much can be done about that.

 

Now, the politics might be moderate and left-winged but the culture is a racist one that hates with the passion of devils because white Minnesotans self-loath, are envious and jealous types.

 

I’m not really sure as to why Minnesotans hate so much. It’s not like many of them are well travelled, know much about good food, or dance.

 

Yes, this is a culture that’s exclusive and not inclusive and that’s why it’s one of the dullest places in the world to live in because everybody sticks to their upbringing classes and that’s about it.

 

            I’ve been informed by psychologists and professional medical experts that incest is ramped in white culture while brutality is ramped in black culture of Minnesota. Pity.

 

No wonder there’s so much hatred amongst the Minnesotans. Their hurt is a deep one that goes far back to their childhoods therefore they can’t really allow for others to be included into a cultural scene, or Minnesotans are quite frightened that they’ll be found out to be the children of incest and brutality.

 

The cat is out of the bag, we all know perfectly well what Minnesotans hide and what eats away at them.

 

Aside from the fact that it’s a dull and racist culture and only white people get ahead; it’s also one based upon cultural fear.

 

It’s the weirdest and oddest thing to see that Minnesota has been left far behind in the dust by contemporary culture. It’s as if Minnesotans are proud to be “hicks,” “trailer trash,” and “ignoramuses,” thus leave them be. They revel in their ignorance while the rest of us move on.

 

            No, I don’t believe that neither Minnesota nor the Twin Cities is conducive to become the next New York City unless they change their act within the next nine years but don’t hold your breaths.

 

I’ve lived in the Twin Cities for nine straight years and I can’t stand this culture of hatred, inclusiveness and shallowness. It’s a luke-warm dumb culture that pretends to be smart.

 

            I’ll tell you why Minnesota isn’t conducive to become the next New York City. The Twin Cities aren’t good enough to become the next New York City because it’s a culture based upon racial prejudice and discrimination and hatred therefore one can’t plunk the next New York City here and make it wealthy beyond its wildest dreams when it quietly hates so much, especially minorities.

 

If a landscape of people or a culture are exclusive to minorities then it has no business conducting the world’s business because then it means that when it comes to global economies then the weird culture will insure that only whites get ahead and it’ll create an even deeper divide between the have and the have-nots.

 

We can’t have any of that because then we’d allow for ‘white devils’ to get away with crucifying their brothers and sisters of color at the financial stake and well, you already know how I feel about philosophical murder; it’s bad, really bad.

 

            Another reason as to why the next New York City can’t be plunked down in the Twin Cities is because the worst drivers in the world exist here and we just can’t have any of that.

 

Minnesotans are drivers who refuse to learn what “Merge” means and therefore they almost get others killed on a daily basis. Nope.

 

Yep, the worst drivers in America are Minnesotans even though they chuckle and think it’s funny--its serious business indeed. The second worst drivers are those from Wisconsin and the third worst drivers are from Iowa.

 

Plus, Minnesotans love to text and talk on the phone while they drive. Very dangerous, very dangerous drivers indeed, be careful.

 

In the Midwest, young people are taught that it’s okay to drive drunk out of their wits and that’s just a cultural habit that requires to be nipped in the arse. Why does Minnesota care so much about drunken athletes?

 

I’ve never met so many alcoholic athletes in my entire life as I have in the Midwest. Drowning their sorrows away, I suppose. Maybe, the pressure is too much for them because that’s all they have, to get out of their current devastating economic situations.

 

            Another reason as to why the next New York City can’t be plunked down in the Twin Cities is because the food isn’t very good and that’s putting it mildly.

 

The food is mostly God forsaken awful but Minnesotans don’t know it because they’ve hardly ever travelled anywhere else to know any better so they swear by their food without knowing how ignorant they come across to those who do know better.

 

I mean in order to become the sole proprietors of the global market; the culinary arts must be extraordinary and the main populous can’t ever get sick off of the food because you only get one chance to make a go at it.

 

There are no real delis or bakeries to speak of here in the Twin Cities therefore it’s not a real metropolis because without those two main inexpensive culinary sources and modes of food to feed all types of classes then a city can’t prosper because every established and well thought out metropolis must guarantee it’s populous inexpensive and excellent food in which no matter how selfishly rich a city may get, it guarantees families great food at inexpensive prices because families come first, or the city knows, all, too, well that it can’t survive without a strong backbone thus it guarantees great and fresh foods at a low cost, forever.

 

            Another reason as to why the next New York City can’t be plunked down in the Twin Cities is because Minnesotans are passive aggressive cruel and believe that the rest of the world communicates in such a manner but really it’s only the narrow minded dusty Minnesotans who stick to their guns about this without realizing that the world left them far behind when it comes to sophisticated communication.

 

Most Minnesotans will sabotage others in the work place especially white women who embezzle thousands-upon-thousands of dollars from companies and get others fired upon the premise that they aren’t “team players.”

 

Get over the “team work” notions because those don’t exist and that concept is outdated by twenty years.

 

Every true professional knows that it never worked out, anyway, but it sure makes for a great lie to force victims to work alongside bullies who take all the credit.

 

In Minnesota, people make themselves believe that “team work” is everything but then everyone stabs each other in the back because they’re afraid someone’s going to steal their tips.

 

I believe that Minnesota is one of the most dangerous places to professionally work because if the Minnesotans don’t like you, if you’re not sheep like they are, or if you don’t want to be like them or won’t agree to everything they say, then they’ll do everything in their power to create malevolence against others; and steal their co-workers livelihoods away from them, and for that one reason alone, Minnesota can’t be the next New York City because we must guarantee future professional workers stability in the work place and their livelihoods otherwise Minnesotans aren’t worth anything as a culture of hypocrites and double standards, two-faced donkey’s asses.

 

            The reason as to why Minnesotans take pride in their passive aggressive modes of communication is because they’re a dusty and outdated peoples therefore they’re no competition upon the global markets.

 

Minnesotans are terrified of conflict however they quietly create it and more so they’re afraid to communicate with empathetic compassionate straightforwardness because they’re afraid of straight forward truths without harming others and they hate to give credit where credit is due.

 

Minnesotans hate conflict but they sure are a deviant bunch who’ll help put out a fire they started.

 

It’s tough to figure them out and they like it that way because confusion evokes fear and a culture of fear is unstable because they so badly want to be winners but they can’t keep up with contemporary culture and they take great pride in their wicked dusty and stale ways.

 

Minnesotans are full of envy and jealousy which creates misguided quiet and subtle anger and hatred in their hearts which sits there and festers away until it turns to acid and they eventually end up throwing it in your face when they can no longer take the coldness of their hearts, any longer.

 

            Yes, I dare Minnesotans not to speak ill of others hence they’ve walked away but it’s close to impossible to do so because they’re a culture of two-faced hypocrites.

 

            I dare the Minnesotans to hold their tongues once someone has turned their backs. It’s not possible because the culture is one of corrupt gossip.

 

It’s sad to live in a land in which people are so hateful that they’re constantly looking to sabotage others especially if they believe others to be better than them at anything.

 

Minnesotans take great pride in their passive aggressiveness but it’s a great way to create injustice, fear and confusion upon those who weren’t born here or aren’t originally from Minnesota.

 

Oh, the Minnesotans hate that they’ve been raped by their fathers and brutally beaten by their mothers, so leave them alone because it’s not like they’re ever going to be inclusive anyway so what’s the point in seeking out their friendship? There isn’t one not when it comes to making this place 'stinkin’ rich'.

 

No wonder Minnesota is a fly-over state.

 

Yes, Minnesotans come across as sweet people to your face but I’ve sat in rooms and listened to women talk about how they were going to “rip apart” other much prettier women’s lives and make their lives a living hell just because the Minnesota men liked the prettier foreign women and not the Minnesota women who much of the time look like German men or horses. (Ouch. Its Minnesota men who’ve told me that about Minnesota women. No, don’t Kill the Messengers.)

 

I’ve listened to Minnesota men who’ve talked about raping women (as a joke) to get even with them for being snobs. Oh, my Gods, my breath left my body to discover how cruel, insensitive and nasty these cold-hearted and devastated peoples truly are.

 

I feel sorry for them.

I feel true pity for the Minnesotans and their self-loathing.

 

Yes, I’ve stopped going out of my way to make any type of friendships with the Minnesotans as a mature adult.

 

I already know what’s out there and well, what’s the point?

 

There isn’t one thus I guess I’ll grow old and alone without a social scene of my own because I’m considered a foreigner in these parts and a married woman who refuses to put out just because it’s expected of me as an artist.

 

(It’s not as dire as all that. We do get invited to parties all the time. I do have friends however not one large social scene and I guess that’s as well.)

 

            Another reason as to why the next New York City can’t be plunked down in the Twin Cities is because downtown Minneapolis is constantly unstable with their businesses.

 

It’s been brought to my attention as to the reasons as to why downtown becomes a ghost town every several years or so and it’s because the owners of buildings, kick out their tenants to have the spaces renovated by contractors in which the contractors make massive fortunes but then the culture is left destitute and a ghost town resides and none of the owners care so long as they make money for the contractors.

 

There’s no logic or long term goal oriented solutions when it comes to conducting dysfunctional business under such terms.

 

If there’s no consistency then why should we care if downtown, Minneapolis continues forward?

 

There’s no reason to sink money into something that’s going to become a ghost town within a few years for interior decorating and remodeling. It leaves the topography of our city destitute and everybody else knows it.

 

You should see, downtown Minneapolis as of late. The rent is high as hell and it’s become a ghost town within the last several months. It’s horrible and well, pointless.

 

            What more is there to say?

            Nothing.

 

            Minnesota and more so the Twin Cities has to prove that it can be inclusive, that artists don’t have to sleep with manager types in order to get grants, that passive aggressive is the most uncouth and un-cool thing in the world because the world is leaving Minnesota behind. That mean hipsters for waiter staff aren’t worth frequenting their restaurants because it leaves a horrible taste in one’s mouth and it’s not worth anybody’s money.

 

            Minnesota has to prove that it can learn to drive, that it can learn to make a kick ass bagel and pastries, that it can make great food and feed the masses without making them ill or broke.

 

            Minnesota has to prove that it can hold its tongue when people walk away from them especially after positive conflict has been resolved.

 

            Minnesota has to change and evolve because the bullshit of passive aggressiveness is neither something the stockbrokers, billionaires and sophisticates do make time for nor are they going to make time for it when real and serious business is on the line and must be conducted accordingly.

 

Global economies won’t stop to pet egos on the back especially passive aggressive mean-spirited egos. To have to slow down and pet a passive aggressive human on the back is to slow down productivity, progressiveness and development just because they’re stubborn to new change.

 

Only a snot nosed abuser conducts themselves in a passive aggressive manner because they can’t get their way.

 

            Nope, the rest of the world isn’t going to put up with Minnesota’s bullshit and that’s what will keep the Twin Cities from becoming the next New York City.

 

You know it, I know it and everybody else knows it to be true.

 

“Nobody’s pretendin’ nothin’.”

 

I hate having to spell it out because it pains me to be so goddamn honest about it.

 

Yes, Minnesotans are hard workers, but they also sabotage their co-workers and that’s a sixty-thousand dollar loss per year.

 

Every time that a company has to hire and train an entirely new employ it costs a company a whopping sixty-thousand. Think about it in such terms if you don’t like it the other way.

 

            I want the Twin Cities and Minnesota to continue to prosper and in nine years I’ll let you know if this place deserves a major metropolis and as for right now I say, no.

 

Love;

Gabriel

 

P.S. As of this August 2013, we have one pedestrian per average on a daily basis run out in front of our car. We no longer have ten pedestrians per average run out, only one but that’s all it takes to get us killed while we drive.

 

Yes, the best Pizza in the world is: “Pig Ate My Pizza” and that’s no exaggeration. I’ve had pizza all over the place and this is the best pizza out there. Sorry, New York City but “Pig Ate My Pizza” has got you beat by a long shot.

 

Word count; 2,630

 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

 

“God prefers your deeds to your Ancestors’ virtues.”

 

“Jews accord special honor (koved) to a man or woman

because of the notable merits, virtue, good deeds,

or learning of his or her ancestors.

The commandment to “honor thy father and mother”

carried power in Jewish thought

second only to that accorded the Almighty.

 

Affluent Jews would try to marry their daughters to young men of illustrious intellectual background, however poor;

and for their sons they sought scholars’ daughters as brides.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Abscond (to steal off and hide, to depart secretly)

 

There was no reason to believe he would abscond with funds from the bank.

 

---  ---  ---

 

(Excerpts)

On Writing; A Memoir of the Craft

By

Stephen King

 

Page 150

 

            Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps, even ecstatic. That goes for reading and writing as well as for playing a musical instrument, hitting a baseball, or running the four-forty. The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate--four to six hours a day, every day--will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing these things and have an aptitude for them; in fact, you may be following such a program already. If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and writing your little heart desires, however, consider it hereby granted by yours truly.

 

 

----------------------------

            I don’t feel like writing today, not because I don’t love it or because I don’t have anything to write about but because and actually I have much, too, much to write about, however, I can’t seem to organize the insurmountable material floating around inside my mind.

 

I love to write, as it is already common knowledge and obvious that I come to the page Monday through Friday, diligently and with joy, however, as much as I don’t like to admit this to anyone, the weather does things to my body. The weather greatly affects me.

 

Mainly, it’s been cloudy here for the past two days.

 

I simply want to curl up under a soft blanket with a great book, a small cup of ice cream, excellent tea and deliciously high quality cookies and read for hours on end, yet, there’s much still to be done, today, thus I’m forcing myself to write if for any other reason other than to be disciplined and to give this disciplinary cause, justice.

 

No, I’m not a bragger when it comes to writing or about any other art medium for that matter, however, if I’m to prove myself then I must come to the page and fill in the blank spaces.

 

            Most ‘loosely’ acquainted people I know, don’t even know that I’m a private playwright, a screenwriter or that I write a weekly blog.

 

Most of my short term acquaintances of the past have been lead to believe that I’m a dishwasher, so you see, there aren’t, too, many people who realize that much of my work is one of thought and consequence.

 

No, I don’t mind playing the part of ‘village idiot’ because it says so much more about others than it does about me. It’s amazing how much one learns by watching others beat-up on someone whom they supposedly believe to be a village idiot. It’s lots of fun because one comes to realize quite quickly that their ignorance and arrogance drives them and their humility is stuck up their…bonnets. (Ha!)

 

            Anyway, back to the weather; on such cloudy days I don’t want to do anything but read or watch old black and white films. On days like these I could climb into a hot bathtub and forget that the world exists. On days like these I’d love to spend an hour training myself how to walk on stilettos or try on makeup. On days like these I like to draw close the blinds and at a turtle’s pace fulfill my responsibilities. On days like these I want to look at fashion magazines. On days like these I want hot coco with lots of whip cream on top. On days like these I could curl my hair and think about romance novels that I’ve read in the past but alas responsibilities, responsibilities.

 

So you see I could be as lazy as a… and not mind it at all, however.

 

I do have a lazy streak in me.

 

No, it’s not often that I’m either lazy or slothful.

 

It’s very rare that I become lazy simply because I know myself all too, well therefore I have to go against my nature to want to do nothing. Since I know myself I make sure that I don’t gravitate towards doing nothing. Although I have to admit that I have an agile and intelligent mind therefore she likes to work more than my body does.

 

I like to do absolutely nothing when I take up the Sabbath.

 

I was gifted with the talent to think therefore I’m grateful because otherwise I’d be three-hundred pounds and happy as a clam or as a puppy with a new and kind owner riding around in the backseat of an old fashion car with the windows rolled down and warm and fresh air on my face with my tongue sticking out.

 

I’d love to do absolutely nothing but all God’s creatures work for a living. I take my cues from nature and she sure is one of the hardest workers I know otherwise nothing survives.

 

I could very happily sit around, gain weight, eat to my heart’s content and read nothing of importance however I thank the Gods each and every day for giving me an intelligent brain for a strict coach who makes me do laps around a park with the dog.

 

A brain that has taught me not to gorge myself to death and a brain that has taught me to stay on schedule even though I could go sailing in the Caribbean and forget all about the work glaring back at me, from my desk.

 

I’ve been gifted with a brain the refuses to stay in pajamas all day long. A brain that makes the bed immediately in the mornings after getting up and doesn’t return there until the right and proper time of night. A brain that gets dressed and ready for anything in the day.

 

I’ve been gifted with a brain that can and does force; itself; to cook healthy meals, read substantial works by the masters and does read through the qualified research of the experts to learn anything of value, importance and consequence.

 

I was gifted with a brain that likes to get information right, therefore it’s a brain that will go back and make as many corrections as it takes even though corrections are a tedious task at the best of times.

 

I was gifted with a brain that likes to be clean and tidy up therefore I wash myself, brush my teeth, floss my gums and keep myself clean each and every single day.

 

A brain that likes to wear perfume in her hair, a brain that likes to put on deodorant, a brain that likes to wear lip balm, a brain that likes to wear baby oil, a brain that likes to run a comb through her hair, a brain that likes to look in the glass and know that everything falls in its proper place.

 

A brain that likes organization and an orderly lifestyle because it’s peaceful and for no other reason than that, I do these things because my brain tells me that it’s the correct and proper thing to do but more precisely because it feels so good to do so.

 

Unfortunately my brain also loves sugar therefore it must be disciplined enough to only eat moderately otherwise I could become a gluttonous raging lunatic on sugar (not literally). (Once I lose the taste for sweetness and the bitterness becomes rough on my tongue then I can’t bring myself to swallow it for months at a time. I do keep a healthy relationship with sugar or I lose the taste for it and I won’t go back no matter what the craving may become.)

 

            There’s much to be said about weather and work and lifestyle.

 

            Since we live in a part of the world in which cold takes over our landscape about nine months of the year, I’ve mentally adjusted to the notion of moderation otherwise it’s easy to lose oneself in the winters and eat until the elastic pants have to be taken out of the “fat drawer.” (A special drawer for all of the baggie clothes when nothing else fits.)

 

I find that as uncomfortable as my skin is with cold winters that my mind finds it refreshing and no matter how much I’d rather live near the ocean and surf all day long, somehow I finally belong in this cold Northern Tundra.

 

My heart calls me to the tropics but my brain tells me to stay put and thus, as the years go by I fall more and more in love with this wild place even though I’ve been kicking and screaming all the way down the aisle of culture. (Ha!) (No, there was no kicking and screaming on the morning of our wedding. It was such a glorious and beautiful ten minute ceremony at city hall, amongst some of our twenty closest friends, family members and co-workers however I did slightly turn and sprained my ankle running in high heels. Back to that silliness.)

 

            No, I don’t want to admit to anyone that my brain loves the Twin Cities however my skin doesn’t.

 

This is where my brain would love to retire however it makes for difficult weather and with already frostbitten fingers and toes, well...

 

It’s unbearable to go through the numbness of such defeat. I can do it. I do it however it’s a strength of character to get me out of the house in cold-cold winter days.

 

As for the nights. Yeah, right, good luck because I’ve not been much of someone who goes gallivanting around, beyond eight at night for most of my life, only for a two year period doing research on marijuana smoking hippies and prostitutes and pimps and well, I’d rather be in bed reading a book then doing that type of research.

 

If I’m out late at night then there better be great music otherwise it takes effort and it costs money to go out and I’d rather just as soon buy cute leather gloves then give my money away to… Plus, cities in the United States can’t really guarantee women and men their safety so what’s the point of going out, anyway? There isn’t one. Everything I need and want is at home. Like books, for example and whip cream. (Ha!)

 

            I love the Northern Tundra because there’s a passing of seasons and somehow that measure of time helps me define my life into categories of events in which leaves turn color and fall, snow blizzards come and go and springtime is such a time for life, tenderness and sweetness.

 

            My brain and my heart are constantly at odds with one another because my heart belongs to Costa Rica and it’s the only place it wishes to be however there’s a lot to be said for sunburn and a culture in which women really are second class citizens and a culture in which they hate Native Americans with a passion so you see my choices are limited when it comes to making a life in a place in which women and women of color are cared and looked after less than this one.

 

I want you to know even though I shouldn’t say anything, that, one of my greatest resentment is coming to the United States without my choice to know what I was really getting myself into. Like the African slaves we didn’t know what this was going to be all about.

 

I mean, I could’ve been a young bride at eighteen with about five children all by the age of twenty-five, without much economical prospects and without any education however that type of ignorance might have been great for me.

 

I could’ve been some Tico’s wife and not known the difference between life and work. I would’ve probably been dead by the age of thirty-five from a ruptured benign tumor and happily lived out some mundane existence of ignorance, picking fruit and farming coffee on a mountainside.

 

It’s wild, when I think about.

 

No, I’ve never been a prostitute or an exotic dancer or a beggar therefore I don’t think I would’ve been one in Costa Rica either. I’ve got way too much stubborn pride for any of that. I’d rather starve and die then take on such…

 

My heart calls me to Costa Rica but it’s my brain that calls me to this place I can’t seem to make complete peace with because the culture rubs me the wrong way but alas I know that I belong here even though I have to shield my heart much of the time and that’s not so bad.

 

I want you to know that I love the Northern Tundra and that I want for it to give me a good and strong reason to stay here forever even though the culture and I don’t always get along for the most part because it’s a selfish, haunted and mean-spirited culture with its racism, discrimination and arrogance about nothing much.

 

But please don’t ever forget that as an adult, I’ve love to cash in our… and surf for the rest of my life without a worry in the world. I could take our little family and make surfing babies and call it a day’s work. Wouldn’t that be fun? That would’ve been a blast.

 

Love;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,062 

 

Monday, November 4, 2013

 

“Failures are the pillars of success.”

“Even to fall from a fine horse is worthwhile.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Success (Achievement, accomplishment, victory, triumph)

 

Her success stands upon the foundation of her many failures.

 

---  ---  ---

 

(Excerpts)

On Writing; A Memoir of the Craft

By

Stephen King

 

Page 154

 

            I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book--something in which the reader can get happily lost, if the tale is done well and stays fresh. On some days those ten pages come easily; I’m up and doing errands by eleven-thirty in the morning, perky as a rat in liverwurst. More frequently, as I grow older, I find myself eating lunch at my desk and finishing the day’s work around one-thirty in the afternoon. Sometimes, when the words come hard, I’m still fiddling around at teatime. Either way is fine with me, but only under dire circumstances do I allow myself to shut down before I get my 2,000 words.

 

 

---------------------------------

            No, I’m not really sure as to why Americans dog success. To dog success is to dog failure and well, one can’t have success without failure.

 

If one believes that they’re a success without any failure at anything or going through adversity in one’s life (at one time or another) then that can only mean that one is; extraordinary, but then that can only imply that one’s inhumane, out of touch with the human race or an object.

 

To be a human who’s never experienced failure can only mean that one isn’t quite human because what human being can really justify that they’ve never had anything rotten, horrible, terrible or difficult happen to them?

 

If they haven’t dealt with an adversity then it can only mean that they must live inside a bubble of mommy and daddy’s money and well, we all know what the means; spoilt, cruel and mean-hearted brats without anything to show for other than to make commands and take all the credit for what others accomplish.

 

            I suppose one of the many reasons as to why Americans dog success is because by the very definition it can only come to mean a variety of definitions to such a large American populous. In other words; everyone has a different definition of success.

 

Even though by the very definition of success it means achievement, accomplishment, victory and triumph, why is it, then, that Americans dog such a concept as success?

 

Is it because they’re afraid of failure? Is it because they hate to admit failure? Is it because they rage with jealousy and envy at those who overcome their failures? Is it because then it means that success isn’t something that’s simply handed over to people but rather they have to work for it? Is it because then one has to admit that in order to succeed one will have to undertake the difficult hero’s journey? A hero’s journey to overcome personal demons, hatred, starvation, poverty, and mass media confusion and lies, cynicism, language barriers and roadblocks placed there by others? Spiteful and cheating competition by those who are in positions in which they ought to know better but don’t act upon the basis of simple, justified and standardized principles and codes of ethics?

 

            Simply put, I think it’s because by today’s American standards, it’s no longer a success to achieve to create basic cultural and economic accomplishments such as “The American Dream” to own a home, collect great and standard wages and live-out a content Middle Income Earning lifestyle towards retirement.

 

That outdated cultural concept no longer exists and it makes bitter cynics out of the Americans thus they make fun of anything remotely successful without giving the credit to those failures that created the success in the first place.

 

It’s a misguided anger that drives a wedge between goal-oriented immigrants and bitter citizens already established but stuck in their day jobs, neighborhoods and shallow social scenes that compete against the tides of change to be more inclusive rather than exclusive of those who do try to make their way through a culture that seems to loathe immigrants with a passion even though Americans are all immigrants except for the Native Americans, starved, raped and murdered in any of today’s reservations as I write this.

 

By today’s recession and economic bloated standards of the rich; average income Americans simply consider success the ability to place food on their tables and roofs over their heads to the best of their abilities, and that’s real success by any contemporary Western standard when so many Americans lost their homes to the banks and food subsidies due to a cruel and mean-spirited Republican congress.

 

---  ---  ---

Interlude

 

I’m going to stop here and take out the fresh baked bread out of the bread maker and walk the dog. Cheers. What a lovely life. The sun finally came out for the first time just now at: 3:37 p.m.

 

---  ---  ---

 

            About success; I don’t really know what to tell you about success because it seems as though Americans no longer believe in it. To no longer believe in success and overcome failure can only mean that fairies die (metaphorically speaking).

 

I mean, we all love those success stories about the underdogs who go on, to complete the hero’s journey and overcome unbearable obstacles against all odds. We all love a great story about success and failure. It’s a great American pass time to believe in such glory and I do. Why wouldn’t I?

 

Now, when it comes to success I don’t necessarily fall for all of the glorified nonsense of bigger than real life stories.

 

I believe in the real down to Earth stories in which the hero overcomes his ego, his personal demons and his selfishness and self-centeredness and becomes a hero to all.

 

The reason as to why the underdog represents so much to so many is because it means that we all have a real chance at becoming successful ourselves and not only those with highfalutin connections, mommy and daddy’s money, the Ivy Leaguers or those who rose through the ranks of nepotism and special privileges.

 

            To me success is when children learn to read and write against all odds, violence in the home and neglect, starvation and poverty. Success means someone’s able to pay to replace their flat tires and still put food on the table. Success means winter coats for American citizens and civilians. Success means that mothers are educated enough not to feed their toddlers juice because it rots their toddlers teeth or to feed their children a sugar diet because it makes their children crazy drunk, stupefied and raging maniacs.

 

To me success means that others will do, well, by others without jealousy or envy because it’s the right thing to do and not because it makes them look good but because they believe and stand for what is righteous and for the health and well being of all.

 

Success means that immigrants can still come to this great nation of ours and carve out a little place of their own without having to subject their children to poverty, gang violence and racism and prejudice and discrimination. Success means that Americans will indeed create positive change especially in hard times and in good times. I could go on but why?

 

Success means health care for all Americans.

 

            I don’t mean to undermine the strength and durability of success because then it would mean that I’ve overlooked the failures of our American families and the many meaningful histories upon the basis of what this country was built upon.

 

I believe in success because then it means that our American families have overcome against all obstacles and the nay say-ers and discriminatory laws in the ability to move forward and go on to become pillars of hope and strength for others who’ll follow their examples as exemplary solid and bold definitions of faith for another tomorrow, another future and further knowledge to become fruitful and multiply to strengthen those who’ll come along, long after we’re gone.

 

Success means that one knows, realizes and understands the difficulties, complexities and sorrows of the human race as well as the happiness, the joy and the balance in what it means to be a gracious and respectful human.

 

To have absolutely no respect for what our American families go through on a daily basis is to overlook what America was established for.

 

Now, without patriotic overwhelming neglect for our contemporary American families I do have to admit that Americans have been taught to loathe with the might of the devils because we’ve been lied to for so long therefore when one comes along and tells the truth we want to beat such individuals into a bloody pulp because “nobody’s pretendin’ nothin’.”

 

Yes, our American Peoples work themselves into the ground for meager morsels of wages to purchase food for their families however they do it because it’s the right and stable thing to do; to work hard for their families and that has nothing to do with patriotic malarkey, that has everything to do with the survival of their beautiful and gorgeous offspring.

 

Failure: (Breakdown, stoppage, malfunction, crash, collapse)

 

            I can’t possibly believe, not for one moment, that the most successful of all people haven’t had failure in their lives otherwise I feel lied to when people pretend or lie as though everything’s been handed to them and if they have then we have absolutely nothing to say to one another because it means that they’re not really human, they’re more like caricatures, grotesque drawings of their egos, their envy and self-loathing.

 

            I love to read stories about people’s failures because it makes them more human and realistic. I love to read about how they’ve overcame such adversity and obstacles in their lives. What steps they took to step out of their devastation, their hunger and discrimination.

 

I love to read anything that comes with a great deal of hope and trust for the wellbeing of the reader to learn that they’re not alone in the world even if the writer’s voice and alter egos are indeed crabby and curmudgeons.

 

No, I don’t hold any sense of illusion when it comes to successful people and their developments. I’m not so shallow as to believe that everything’s majestic all of the time.

 

I love stories in which the hero has overcome and succeeded but that hasn’t stopped them from being human and continuing to overcome even and especially in the middle of success.

 

Just because people are successful it doesn’t mean that they stop having to overcome obstacles. If anything the hero’s journey is not complete until the very end with death. We’re not done striving for better until we’re dead and that’s what’s so incredible about the hero’s journey. One is never done striving for excellence, for better and for more benefits of the others.

 

Once a hero has more than enough for themselves, then it’s their duty to make sure that they implement ways in which others, too, can commit themselves to success and glory because the hero has set up foundations and funds for others without ever collecting a penny for their own personal gain otherwise it’s called a swindle.

 

            In conclusion; No, I don’t believe that I’m successful I know that I am and I have been for quite some time. (Ha!) No, I’m not stuck at a dead end.

 

If anything I don’t want to come to find out that all of my failures are for nothing because the Americans have become cynical about success.

 

If the Americans no longer believe in success then it means that they no longer believe in failure and, that, we can’t have none of that because then I ought to have starved and failed in another nation under God other than America.

 

No, I’m not as serious as I sound here upon the page however if I’m going to take the time to write then let’s have it out.

 

            I want to believe that everything I went through in the decade of my twenties has value, significance and consequence otherwise I could’ve just become a couch potato and collected welfare from the government. I mean it. I had no idea people could live off of welfare until recently because I didn’t seek it out as a young person.

 

If my failures mean absolutely nothing then we have absolutely nothing to say to one another and I have absolutely no responsibility to anyone much less this nation but that would be a lie that I can’t bear to tell myself because I’m too smart for such nonsense.

 

I want to believe that even though Americans are sprinkled in misguided angst and cynicism that they can still give credit where credit is due, to those who continue to apply themselves and contribute to the overall wellbeing and health of this nation not because it’s expected of us but because it’s a great honor and joy to do so.

 

Cheers;

Gabriel

 

Word count: 2,077 words. Wonderful!

 

Yes, as a matter of fact and indeed Mr. Rand Paul did plagiarize in his speeches.

 

Yes, one is able to plagiarize, away from the page and that can only mean that the speaker or writer doesn’t know, understand or take their responsibilities as thinkers quite seriously and that takes them out of the running for anything they apply for because plagiarism makes liars, cheaters and sad sods out of anyone who tries it. Pity.

 

Friday, November 1, 2013

 

“The Jew who can’t be a cobbler dreams of being a professor.”

“Eggs want to be smarter than hens.”

“Man strives and God laughs.”

 

(Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations)

 

Hatred (Abhorrence, detestation, hate, loathing, odium, revulsion, disgust, extreme dislike) Antonym: love.

 

Jealousy (Envy, covetousness, resentment, protectiveness, suspicion, distrust)

 

Envy (Jealousy, greed, desire, resentment, site, covet, begrudge, grudge)

 

Bitter (Sour, acid, acidic, tart, astringent, vinegary, pungent, harsh, acrid) Antonym: sweet.

 

Messenger (Courier, envoy, herald)

 

---  ---  ---

 

“Kill the Messenger”

(The title to a Twin Cities’ band) (Ha!)

Kill the Angels

 

Kill the band

Kill the band members

Kills the band members’ grandmothers and grandfathers

Kill the band members’ mothers and fathers

Kill the band members’ children

Kill the band members’ friends and neighbors

 

Kill, kill, kill!

(That’s all you can think about, isn’t it?)

 

            Oh, my! Please don’t make me laugh that hard. I’m rolling in laughter. Seriously, this town makes me laugh. No, I’m not smirking. No, I’m neither the Joker nor a devil worshiper.

 

            No, I don’t, personally, take the band’s title to mean anything of significance to me, however, other people do and they’ve asked me to break it down for them as to why they feel so mocked or terrible when it comes to this band’s title.

 

Here goes nothing.

 

            No, I have no idea what this band is, their sound and so forth nor have I gone out of my way to learn much about them.

 

            No, I really don’t care about this band because obviously I don’t go out of my way to purchase any music by them. Why would I? They weren’t even in my radar until last night’s heated debate and conversation. (I have no idea.)

 

            Yes, I can only imagine that any band with such a title for a name is a band that is either bitter, jealous, envious, lost or cruel when it comes to their audience, simply, because with a title such as theirs so much more is implied than just mockery for their fan base and it’s done with sheer joy and stupidity hence they have no idea as to what their responsibilities are as adult members of the human race.

 

A title such as “Kill the Messenger” can be expected from teenagers but not middle-aged, gray-haired, homely men without talent, from what I’m told.

 

            Okay, I’ll try not to read, too, much into it however with a title such as that one, immediately it made me think that the band members are bitter at life and can’t get laid by intelligent and kind people so they have to take whatever scum with venereal diseases there is out there on the road. (Sorry, fellows, nothing personal, nevertheless with a title such as that, it makes one consider many horrible aspects forcibly implied upon the human psyche, especially with a short man complex.)

 

            Now, first and foremost, consider that musicians and bands like to shock for no other reason other than they can and that doesn’t really make them real musicians, it only makes them fodder for mockery.

 

Any empty and shallow band’s title that makes the old Jewish and Presbyterian ladies and men cringe is only there to do just that.

 

I would neither place much stock on the band’s title nor the band’s music, no matter how much of a social crusader they may come across as(s).

 

            To be adult members of any band with a shocking title is an inverted way to insult their neighbors, communities and cities.

 

            Remember that Minnesota is the land of the passive-aggressive “Minnesota Nice” that self loathes with a raging passion because they’ve not been quite loved or forgiven and it shows.

 

            So, with that said: to imply to “Kill the Messenger” is a way to give the audience the middle finger or to tell them “to go fuck themselves” without having the courage, the guts and the ability to come out and say it to their faces.

 

It’s a way to show the world how badly they really do feel about their lot in life and the fact that they’re nobody to anyone other than to their parents, families and friends and small city groupies. (You don’t want me to get into the psychology of it because three little words can give anyone away for good.)

 

            A title such as: “Kill the Messenger” is a great way to kill one of the most sacred and revered hopes of the American People.

 

You do know that eighty percent (80%) of Americans believe in Angels (Messengers) whether they’re religious or not. I mean, really, that’s a higher percentage than congress has for an approval rating.

 

Or maybe the title implies kill the bike messenger but then where would we be without our hard working blue collar bike messengers? (I don’t get it. I don’t need to.)

 

            I really don’t have much to say about it except this: with a title like that it invokes fear into the psyche of humans, never to carry out a message of any type because then our citizens and civilians will start to believe that retribution will be held against them.

 

A title as this one, implies such a severe retribution upon any messenger that it'll cost people their lives to speak up for their nations, states, counties, cities, communities and neighborhoods, therefore to title a band with such a dumb, stupid and moronic title as “Kill the Messenger” is a great way to tell any civilization to shut up and forget about courage and bravery.

 

The level of implied violence is such a bore. I’m yawing over here.

 

            No, I wouldn’t put much stock on such a band with such a violent title because you already know what you’re getting yourself into.

 

What amazes me is that such a band of musicians would title their band just that when every sixty seconds a woman is raped in America and every seventy minutes a woman is killed for speaking up for themselves.

 

In such a country, in which, violence is paramount one would think that any band would want to bring harmony, hope and balance to the force. What a bunch of weirdoes, to say the least.

 

            One last point about this dorky title: Why do Twin Cities’ musicians hate so much?

 

Twin Cities’ musicians hate so much, because on their journey of lies, they told themselves, deep down inside, that if they could just learn to play any instrument badly-enough to pass off as something mediocre, then the devil would cut a record deal with them and make them a real success through fame and fortune and that fame would be theirs however it proved to be a lot harder to become something spectacular because well… I won’t finish that sentence.

 

            Yes, I came here to destroy the imploded egos of men, however, I didn’t come here to destroy the men, themselves, because to metaphorically break any man’s penis off without ever touching it, is far easier than men know anything about women and their real opinions of small city washed-out wonders. (Ouch.) I know, I know.

 

I swung the blade, too, fast and struck. A scratch. A scratch, I tell you.

 

You’ll get over it just as I did with all of the Twin Cities’ jealousy, envy and hatred of women who don’t put out just because they’re expected to.

 

I’ve learned to live with the violence of mediocre Twin Cities’ quasi-artists, violent musicians and their dirty groupies and drunkard braggers.

 

The problem that others have with me is that they pretend like I don’t know but I do know when it comes to this town and its inhabitants.

 

No, I don’t have dirt on everyone but I could with one simple phone call to… Their enemies are my friends and so forth and so on.

 

Oh, how you love to hate me because I won’t hand it to you in a handheld basket. I know what it is that you want of me however I refuse to amuse you with… I know that I’m hated. We’ve established that and so let’s move on. I’ve grown a thick skin about it.

 

             In conclusion: from what I gathered from the heated argument is that these musicians volunteered at a benefit concert for homeless youth yet the title of their band is done in poor-taste and what does that say about them?

 

It says that they took a hypocritical oath, especially with the attention of youth who consider many deep aspects of life because they starve and they’re not as dumb as they look.

 

Words say a lot about people and since I studied the psychology of writing I’m quite sure that what I write is a way to create complex challenge to get the reader to think and if they’re insulted then it’s because they’re afraid to face the truth about themselves.

 

In a culture in which we’ve been lied to for far, too, long why is it that people get so pissed off when one writes the truth? (Don’t answer that it’s rhetorical.)

 

           

-----------------------------

A Short Story:

 

             One decade ago over dinner: One of my many influential and wealthy friends said to me: “‘we both know that eventually New York City and Los Angeles will sink into the ocean. Where do you think the next New York City ought to be established?’”

 

I looked up from my caviar and red wine and saw that he was absolutely serious.

 

“I’m not qualified to answer that.” I said.

 

“‘Yes, you are. You’re the most qualified person I know for such a task. Come now. Tell me. Where do you think the next New York City ought to be?’” He brought his proper glass for expensive red wine to his lips and I wondered… I licked my dry lips as he drank like the powerful man that he is and thought.

 

“I’ve got some ideas but will you give me time to consider it?” He eye-balled me and I, he. He was dead serious and so was I.

 

“‘Take as much time as you like but don’t wait until New York City is under water.’” I spun the base of the wine glass around with my pointer finger and thumb in hopes to arrive at a smart answer that night but none came to me, not then, anyway.

 

            Now, I think that the Twin Cities is the perfect location for such an endeavor but the culture rubs me the wrong way because it’s a hateful culture of whiners who ask “why do you get to?” Because I’ve worked my ass off for it. 

 

I think Chicago is much too violent and in St. Louis, they’re killing each other off as I write. So that can only mean that Nebraska might be the ideal place however there’s drought there. I don’t know.

 

I took another bite out of my fancy cracker and the baby fish eggs.

 

I took a swig from the red wine glass as my friend stared a hole into my skull. I became shy and didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He sensed that I was beginning to clam up and once I closed up it was going to be nearly impossible for him to get another word out of me about the matter.

 

“‘This is all I’m going to tell to you: when you get a good and strong idea about it then tell me and we’ll make it happen. No questions asked because I trust your good opinion. If you don’t know then no one else knows much less those with capital. Culture doesn’t live in a vacuum or inside vaults.’” He changed the subject.

 

He went on to ask me about my work and troubles on the ground as a documentary filmmaker (at that time) and I told him in detail.

 

He listened and he knew better than to ask if I needed anything from him because even if I did, I wouldn’t ask. I’d rather die than ask for help, although I’m getting better at asking for information and humbling myself.

 

I’m not one to ask for much help, much less, when I starved and he knows about that all, too, well, even though we don’t talk about it. He reads my blog and that’s all that he needs to know.

 

If I were ever to talk about it then I can but he knows that I’d become a puddle on the floor so I stay away from speaking such history with him, directly.

 

He hates it that I refuse to ask for any type of help from anybody but he has to live with my pride, because while he lives in a mansion, eats out at expensive restaurants every single day of his life, gets driven by a chauffeur in private limos, and has his three-piece suits tailored in London, he knows perfectly well, that, I was having the dickens of a time making it at that time in my life and all I had to do was to ask, but I never did and now that I’ve made it, I know for sure, that, I made it on my own with Eric by my side and that’s a point of great joy for me.

 

I’ve worked for everything that I’ve got without a handout from anyone much less those with mass fortunes and connections and that’s why I’m respected, loved, revered and greatly admired by the Social Elite and others of this nation and other nations for that matter.

 

They know that I’m making my way in the world and that I, too, know where the river bank is and have refused to drink from its waters. I’m on my way to make a mass fortune without a piggy back ride and that’s considered admirable even by the haters.

 

Yes, success is important especially when an artist carves it out with their own two hands like a fine bronze sculpture.

 

So, you see, I have another nine years to find a kind, intelligent and city savvy landscape to plunk down the next, New York City and that’s a lot of fun pressure for one person. I’ll have fun with it. I’ve got to start studying landscapes and cultures for such an endeavor.

 

I know, I know.

Life’s stranger than fiction.

I’m telling you.

I don’t know what to make out of life, sometimes.

 

Peace and with love;

Gabriel

 

Take it away Mr. Bill Maher. Good luck and break a leg. We’re cheering for you. We’re ever so grateful for your work.

 

(Nope, not even in the slightest, am I going out of my way to meet Mr. Maher or other celebrities for that matter. We live worlds apart.)

 

Word count: 2,345

 

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