Extortion

I am currently hiding in the shadows of Guatemalan extortion gangs. but I want to write an essay about the civil war engulfing America. There are two different wars that people of my generation are ignorant of. Of course they are ignorant, I went to high school in 1986 too, I had Reagan as a mentor too. No one could escape that black hole of ignorance. So of course we all grew up and if one followed the easy path to production and consumption then the ignorance never budged. Wisdom requires sacrifice of ignorance and I think most people from my generation realized they sacrificed their entire youth to acquire profound ignorance that to sacrifice it again to pursue the chance of wisdom was too great a risk. I can see that argument. You may not win wisdom but you will definitely alienate the ignorant masses and become a loathed outsider. Why upset the status quo? Well, here is what you would know if you had sacrificed your ignorance, stood before the gale of objections from the ignorant leaders and their strong armed goons: you would know the country is at war on two fronts. I say War because if the news was from bosnia or Sao Paolo or Mogadishu then we would call it Civil war. because it happens in Dallas or St. Louis does not make it terrorism or spree killings. It is still a skirmish in a civil war.

the first front is a civil war involving outsiders or marginalized folks. this is complicated to explain knowing the people who read this are not outsiders, and I have no time and the extortion gangs are hijacking my internet service, but outsiders are those who do not belong, who will never belong, who were not content with the status quo, who are alienated from the dominant culture. This group can be broken into three groups: The group that wilts into a depressed exile and dies nameless. Another group that rebels and is silenced and institutionalized. the third group knows they will never belong, knows the paradigm has required them to be alienated, and they decide to murder those they believe caused their alienation. now, the victims are not guilty of anything, in fact might consider themselves outsiders, but the assailant wont bother with details. all are potentially guilty of causing the alienation so everyone is a target. that is the first front of the war and it is more complicated but I dont have time to elaborate.

jesuscristo vive!

the second front are actual, material victims of the dominant paradigm. I think the propaganda machine is very effective in presenting a false mantra of truth and justice. that is all bullshit. U think Halliburton would write in their mission statement that they devour cultures and shit out Miley Cyrus clones? No, that would be crazy. they lie, and then do everything in secret. the truth is an international assault on anything that is not enslaved to American values. If America exists then nothing can challenge it. There isnt room for any other country but America. The propaganda contradicts this but a casual study of post 2nd grade history will contradict the propaganda. So, is the contradiction of the contradiction a lie too? Well, that would mean many people are dying for a lie and I am inclined to believe the many faces of American enemies are not dying for a lie. Oh, their propaganda might be also be a lie, but they have concluded American policy is indeed a material attack. So, this is another front of the war.

And this is a war that has causes to cry over, but they are in the past, and the call to disarm people in a time of a complicated multi-front civil war makes no sense except if you look at it as coming from the same people who are the propaganda merchants. violence definitely solves problems. you think the emancipation proclamation freed slaves? no, it was a 4 year civil war that freed slaves. But I would caution anyone considering violence because the objective should never be to fight. the objective, as Royce Gracie said, should be to END the fight. end it. Ask yourself how to end the fight, not how to fight. So unless you got a good plan to end the fight then put the sharp toys away and renounce everything like Uncle Oggy. You get 100 protestors going to jail and nothing changes; you get 100 post office mail deliverymen not going to work and shit will change very fast. If 100 police officers did not show up for work until the city council passes a law limiting extrajudicial executions of unarmed children playing alone in parks then shit will change before the sun comes up tomorrow. Nothing changes when people protest in the street. Boycotts and strikes work as long as the right people are involved.

The best thing to do is not trust anyone in the media or politics. Start absolutely fresh like a baby with vomit on his chin. dont even trust Oggy. Then you might stand a chance, but if you refuse to surrender your ignorance then it is like the ghost of Ronald Reagan has posessed you and has his hand in your ass and is making you move your mouth. Intellectually you have not matured beyond 1986. I don{t really care one way or the other but my mission in life is to translate wisdom into words for my own satisfaction.

I will try to revisit this topic when the extortion gangs release me but this is a teaser of a longer essay I will write in the future. all conflict I see today is either from the front of alienated others, or threatened foreign communities. sometimes the two fronts collide and overlap. there are other details and I dont mean to defend one or the other, because choosing sides is something Reagan would do and he was a fucking idiot fuckwad, and I am trying to mature beyond a babbling shitty actor mumbling his way through genocide rhetoric. does that make me a hero? no, it is my path. I dont like fences.

Sign of the Times

When I first heard a gorilla was killed to save a kid I thought, "Jesus Christ, what has Trump done now?"

One problem with predicting the absurdity of the future is trying to imagine something more absurd than the present.

Feeling Baker

This is a cool recording because Baker is evidently too blue to blow his horn and there are two rhythm instruments but no bass. Kind of breaks all the rules but is still solid.

Chet Baker, vocals
Bobby Scott, piano
Kenny Burrell, guitar

Grasshopper Tacos

Because one Phylum per taco is not enough. Grasshoppers on top of a Gringa taco

Cinco De Mayo in Chiapas is just another party. Do they celebrate Cinco De Mayo? Yes. Do they celebrate Dos de Mayo too? Yes. And come the end of the month they will celebrate Veinte-Cinco de Mayo. Because Mexico celebrates every day. You think they need a special day to set off fireworks or eat grasshopper tacos? No. I've heard fireworks and fiesta music every day for a year. The world could end and the biggest party would be in Mexico. Births, deaths, weddings, birthdays, Wars = Party Time. Mexicans have two types of activities: working while partying, and partying while working.

Gringas are pork pastor tacos but distinguished by a flour tortilla and cheese. Flour tortillas might be some kind of reference to pale skin. And the cheese is yellow like a blonde woman's hair, so that might be the reason they are called Gringas. I personally prefer the fresh flour tortillas but Mexican corn tacos are not bad either. Nothing like the Nicaraguan or Guatemalan thick blue corn tortilla that is dry like eating a ten day old corn pancake with no sugar. God, I will never eat one of those again.

Picante garlic and peanuts and some crispy legs too!

I went to a Oaxacan fair in Chiapas and bought some spicy peanuts that also had spicy garlic and spicy grasshoppers in them. The garlic caused my eyelids to roll open when I ate one. The grasshoppers are not bad. They don't have much taste, like a dehydrated sardine.

Not just a dance. If I drink enough Mezcal mixed with pina colada juice I might start to think Tarantino is a good director.

This is how they are served in Oaxaca

Pathetic

I was going to post a clip of myself revisiting some melancholy songs on the piano and I'll get around to it once my chops are back in gear. As you can imagine, living in a bathroom next to a car wash parking lot in Mexico, under a Zumba studio is not super inspiring. 

I like Mexico in general and am now on a first-name, "Your regular table?" status at the local Senor Pastor Taco joint as well as the Yong Feng Chinese Buffet. But this familiarity does not transfer to piano skills, which were painfully acquired and easily forgotten. Many mornings find me wearing only a stained tank top with a pillow over my face to block out the sun. I don't want to get up and the ringing in my head has reached Edgar Allen proPOEtions. I don't get to use Poe in a pun very often so I took my chance.

...Sigh...the fucking trials of life, brother, are really wearing me down. I weather one storm after another, one ridiculous blunder after another. Reliving all my mistakes, cursing my fate, my luck, my personality, my choices, my parents, my era, my culture, my van, God. It's pathetic and that's the name of this Piano Sonata #8 by Ludwig: Ode to Pathetic Oggy.

Enjoy Beethoven. If you like classical music then go support some symphonies. See a recital. Beethoven music is one of the few guaranteed joys in life.