Percent

Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 6:50pm

Pour hearts out
and shout percentages
with sources solid and sound

Hesitate before the pen

begin, again.

Into the night a fight
waits obligingly
to swing a right.

Cartoon man plays the music

did you hear

why we're here

colliding mysteries of communities

in time,

histories of wisdom bled from

friends near and far

learning at the bar

tender, helping understand

what is it to be?

One individual stands in constitution

but many confuse the better ways

as Harvard sunscreen rues the day

Rapids ahead, 'untoward' leaders

making hay, and hay and

hey, ain't that fallacious

smoothing the fascist way

ignoring the wars of today

mixing metaphors of cap and sol and com and the church into greed

needs?

Hijab or freedom from oppression?
"These boots are made for walking"
"Everybody's talking"
"Do you hear the people sing?"

Queens don't listen

children don't eat

drones fly

and the beat goes on.

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 6:56pm
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Submitted by JekyllnHyde on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:22pm
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It's good to see you again.

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:51pm
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Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:30pm
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Thanks for the poetry and music.

Check out the open thread banner.

I managed to get Sweetie out for:

Time is growing short.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:50pm
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often; reading the morning threads and the blues of late; been a testing summer of dizziness. Feel best the one time a week i have beers and a toke; otherwise, should I get in the way of the meteor?

Please stop in when you can!

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 11:27pm
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but your good reach touches many.
Sending love.

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Submitted by Mark from Queens on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 8:35pm
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night past at BB Kings in NYC. Was a treat to not only meet him, but to be offered his drum kit to play on and have my 7 month old son there for soundcheck where he met him too. Cherry on top, he had a Friedrich Nietzsche shirt on with a quote, that led to an affirmation of the Kurt Vonnegut quote by both of us that all anyone ever needed for proof of the existence of god was music.

On a more political aside, when I first approached him to thank him for being so magnanimous to lend his kit to the opening band, he was deep in conversation to presumably family members, or more precisely a rant (which included a Bible passage), about having to maybe leave the country in a few months and move to France, and never to see his grandson again. His manager, sitting to his back and the side, gently called to me and explained it would be better to speak with him later. Unfortunately we only had the aforementioned brief encounter. But his 14 yr old granddaughter, who was sitting backstage with us while they were on, filled in the blanks. Spotting the Bernie pin on my knapsack (she had a wool hat covered in pins, though I didn't get anything from my glance other than she liked cats) she said she and her dad were Bernie supporters, but her grandfather Butch was a Hillary fan. Wow, I thought, pretty much the demographics for the country (and also how lame it was that he was supporting Hillary). Reminder folks, always wear your political pins - great conversation starters!

Thanks smiley, for all the art. Poetry and music keeps us all alive in these dark days. Thank you for yours.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:52pm
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especially of the city, if you will.

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Submitted by shaharazade on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:37pm
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your presence here is so needed. The beat does not go on without people like you noticing just exactly what they are drumming up. Hope your doing good. Take care my friend.

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 8:03pm
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morning crew writing on, gives me heart a daily lift. This is a special place. Smile

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:38pm
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Way behind on my personal correspondence, forgive me. I seem to have spurts of energy or maybe it's cabin fever released; love to you, sir. Play on.

Smile

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Submitted by Dallasdoc on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 8:43pm

The wonderful Jarvis Cocker, directed by Todd Haynes

[video:https://youtu.be/N9P5nuKQjts]

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:14pm
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thank you!

...

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Submitted by mimi on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:42pm
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fifty years...but it came back, all, as it would be yesterday... makes me shed a tear for all the emotions I once had when I was young. Bygone. Thank you, Smiley7.

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 10:09pm
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a favorite of Brel's "Old Folks,"

Shedding tears and baggage, here; I hope, my friend. It's hard to be, at times, confusing to the best of humans. Great to be loved. Thank you for being here!

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Submitted by riverlover on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:42pm
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Concussions made one lose typing ability! You free verse makes me happy.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 8:09pm
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wow, we're coasts apart and you are here. May i share a favorite:

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Submitted by dancingrabbit on Sat, 08/06/2016 - 3:40am

Concussions are hell to deal with. Have had a couple of bad ones myself.

Take it easy. Hang out here with your friends as you can. Because we understand, and care about you.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Submitted by riverlover on Sat, 08/06/2016 - 3:52am
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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Submitted by Dallasdoc on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 7:48pm

I thought stride piano was a lost art -- great to see it on a street!

[video:https://youtu.be/Awn_B4QjDfw]

Daily Twain:

I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying "Flee at once - all is discovered."
They all left town immediately.

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 8:23pm
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Laughed so hard the aortic valve fluttered!

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Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 8:46pm
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so glad to see that you're still doing the boogie. Smile

how are you feeling these days? i hope that everything's going swimmingly.

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:02pm
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surgeons wish to mix me with a pig, in time. Smile
Fantastic tune, thank you, Sir, for everything!

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Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:15pm
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at the risk of making your aortic valve flutter again, check out this modern spiritual...

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Submitted by Oldest Son Of A... on Sat, 08/06/2016 - 10:27am
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ROFLMFAO...

I can't believe you dug that up...
I had forgotten all about that being played on the Lawrence Welk Show...

Brewer & Shipley derived the name of their next album, Tarkio, from a regular gig they played in Tarkio, Missouri. This album was their most successful commercially, featuring the song "One Toke Over the Line", which they wrote as a joke while preparing backstage for a performance.

"One Toke Over The Line" was performed on The Lawrence Welk Show, a television program known for its conservative, family-oriented format, by a duo known as "Gail and Dale". At the conclusion of the performance of the song, Welk remarked, without any hint of irony, "There you've heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale." This caused Michael Brewer to comment:

The Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew, named us personally as a subversive to American youth, but at exactly the same time Lawrence Welk performed the crazy thing and introduced it as a gospel song. That shows how absurd it really is. Of course, we got more publicity than we could have paid for.

That one deserves another...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEVVOaPMj08]

And a couple more for the helluvit...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8NJ5fWCwAg]

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Submitted by smiley7 on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:37pm
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saying good evening; i've learned a lot, loved, been loved.

Remember when you said a few years ago, paraphrasing, "I built a family from friends."
Timely advise to me back then; so many of those simple "being there's"

Music cuts right into your subconscious, it speaks right past your head and into your soul. It sublimates the whole process of communication like no other language. Why is it that you can play one note, and it can make people cry? I find it hard to talk about, but it’s the level I live on.

My mother knew how to pull God’s coat tails and get what she wanted. She didn’t do it for herself, she did it for the family. We didn’t get lost, we didn’t go to jail or get into any kind of trouble. We just learned to ask the right questions and be who we are.

It’s always been about conveying a feeling through the guitar. BB King told me before he died, “You have to keep playing, Carlos, you have to keep the flame ~ Carlos Santana

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Submitted by Mark from Queens on Fri, 08/05/2016 - 9:42pm
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I mean, it really is a neat little country tune and lends itself quite nicely to the LW Show. But you have to wonder if they had any idea about the song's subject...or were they another in a line of subversive folks who occasionally dropped a hint?

Funny, as a school kid in the 70's I only knew about this show because my grandfather would watch it - and I hated it. To my child's eyes it was everything that was uncool, old fashioned and boring. But I understood it meant something to him, so I sat with him. Accordions, fiddles, big bands, sterility and wholesomeness - now I kind of dig it in a weird way, and find myself somewhat intrigued.

Ha. What other nuggets did Welk have that we don't know about?

Thanks again Smiley. Your fun wordplay and music references inspired this.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by joe shikspack on Sat, 08/06/2016 - 10:28am
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i think that one of my facebook friends posted it some time ago. the first time i saw it and heard it described as a "modern spiritual," i fell out laughing. i wondered how it got into their repertoire as well, i was wondering if there was some secret stoner in the welk family that snuck that brewer and shipley tune in as a religous tune.

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