Palmkite - Thanks For The Dinosaur (by jommeez)
i wish this guys had more music and i am said that they probably will never make more music
by Luke High
—
The leaves rustle slightly in the thick summer breeze
and every dog on the playground is just asking for one more game of fetch.
I’ve somehow found myself at the end of civilization, staring curiously down the straight path of what I once was.
What scares me is that it doesn’t…
i finished jack london’s call of the wild last night
a few points of interest:
this novel (novella maybe?) made me feel more despondent than i had imagined it would. perhaps this is only because of london’s excessive anthropomorphism, but i found buck to be a character that made empathy very easy. thus, his troubles and pains seemed very real. of course, i find this to be a great boon to a novel’s status - if literature doesn’t invoke any feelings, then what’s the point? sparing any details about the plot, i’ll just say that london’s depiction of difficult transitions and the hardships that accompany them makes for a very provocative theme.
london’s narration is a little odd. again, this may be due to his anthropomorphism. i didn’t find the plot difficult to follow, but something about the way that he dichotomized buck’s internal environment and the external environment of the world around him (and subsequently brought those two worlds together) made the story seem a bit jumpy. i’ll have to read some more of his works in order to see if this is apparent elsewhere.
i spend most of life thinking of this book as a children’s novel of sorts (and based on some of the editions that i’ve seen, i can only imagine that others do as well) - i was very surprised to read accounts of flesh being stripped from the bone and throats being rent open. “call of the wild,” as it were.
today’s used book store haul: jane eyre and a collection of jack london stories (including call of the wild). $3.50. yeahhhh used book stores.
as a follow up post
the feeling that i get when i really enjoy a band and search around for their music only to find that they have a total of two short releases is quite the bummer.
i fell asleep listening to palmkite last night and it was a wonderful transition into slumber. here is a video of them playing one of their many excellent songs live.
someday, i’m going to brew up a lot of coffee and just read on the road straight through while drinking all of it. i feel as if that’s the most appropriate way to approach that novel.
poetry from 10th grade
this is a poem (or something) of mine that i wrote in 10th grade and just rediscovered. apparently it was inspired by my reading of paradise lost at the time.
“As an artist of the pen I muse, and this is my blackened pride.
A dagger across my skin is my words, and though I bleed,
I weave tales for the masses.
Behold, my mind! My soul! My heart!
Before the beginning, Satan was cast unto Hell,
and this is now earth.
In the beginning, only Adam and Even and Satan inhabited this world,
and they were all.
Adam loved Eve, Eve was of Satan’s romance,
Eve loved nothing.
But she was not without sin.
Though wed unto Adam, Even claimed the seventh of unholies.
She embraced the loins of the serpent; Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer.
Of many names, many countenances, but one evil, he grasps her within his clutches.
Tempted by the fruits of lust amongst a life withstanding beyond the hereafter,
she accepts the sacrilege of her antichrist,
but acceptance is not love, nor lust.
Just acceptance, but not even that.
Sin, as God once did, engendered humanity,
displaying the perverse intercourse of Eve and Satan to Adam, to God,
and to the most wretched of creatures beneath and upon the firmament’s daughter.
The serpent, Satan, impregnated Eve with the spoils of Hell,
and the curses of humanity spewed forth from her womb and her tender thighs,
birthing those pious evils in into these unholy heavens.
Satan would later embrace these curses beyond their sins,
and he would be vanquished by piety for this.
Prior, humanity will suffer beneath Satan, bearing his wounds, his wraths, his tongue.
But still it will remain.
Stronger than Satan, stronger than its creators, stronger even than The Creator.
Piety matches only its strength, piety beyond that of The Creator.
And time passes.
As such, it imposes the eternal question.
How is the beauty of humanity drawn from the pure sin of Satan? From the pure hatred?
Humanity is beautiful beyond its curses, Satan horrid beyond his perfections.
Though timeless in its own sense, this is not for wandering minds to reveal.
Not even I, though indebted, am amongst those indebted prophets.
I have decided that the world needs not knowledge of its sins, but humanity does.
For this I will reveal them.
And I am at rest with my musings, for they will hold true to humanity,
no matter the curses of Satan.”
gorging myself on faust and hemingway (but mostly hemingway)
“last year my brother and i lived near the coast in a town that bordered a forest on the south side. every morning the sun woke us up and warmed the ocean, drawing the king mackerel fish to the surface. these fish populated the shoreline along with the chalky white boulders of the beach and at about seven every morning a group of fishermen sat patiently by the ocean with their reels cast and their hands steady. the summer lasted until the leaves began to fall to the forest floor and even before that, the mackerel had left the coastline for warmer waters.”
inspired partially by my writing out the opening paragraph of a farewell to arms in a bored attempt to learn more about hemingway’s style (writing out sections of an admired author’s works can help to learn the creative process that went into writing those sentences - try it); primarily inspired by the duality of my love for hemingway’s writing and the comfort that i have with writing in that matter-of-fact style. i might try to write a genuine short story modeled around that sort of narration.
radio playlist; 4/07/2012
i’m part of the radio station on my university’s campus (millersville university, pa - the station is wixq). i used to primarily play variety, but i’ve shifted more towards a genre-restricted show. in this case, i play mostly pop punk, emo, screamo, and hardcore. if anybody cares to listen (and to perhaps listen to some bands that aren’t well known but definitely should be), my current show is from 12pm-2pm every saturday. i cohost the show so i only have one of those two hours for my music (and it alternates every week), but after this semester i’m going to try to pick up a time slot of my own. to listen in, go to www.wixq.com and click on the link to listen to the online player. my playlist for this upcoming saturday is (and there are some trainees on the show right now so i only have a half hour):
american football - you know i should be leaving soon
1994! - acknowledge the rage
merchant ships - long term relationships were only cool when divorce wasn’t
midwest pen pals - bobby markos posi talk
park jefferson - a homemade portland
street smart cyclist - pastor of muppets
snowing - methuselah rookie card
spraynard - spooky, scary
the promise ring - b is for bethlehem
we were skeletons - weekend at moleman’s, pt. 2
