Snowmen Days

by Garrison Locke

frigid winter air

brings monochromatic days –

snowmen come to play

Easter Morning

by Garrison Locke

A relentless 72 miles per hour,

Weather changes,

Doesn’t matter.

Send us a prayer.

Echoes recoil

compressing

hope,

help,

heart.

Aftermath of vision

consecrates

fluorescent sunrise

– unnatural nature –

cold,

stale,

hollow,

insincere.

Simulacra

by Garrison Locke

Intense like splines

reticulating in my mind;

Cities raised and

cities razed.

Roads and rails and lines are laid,

plans are made to desalinate,

trash is sold to neighboring towns,

the military solicits a base on your grounds.

Sims arrive and sims depart

the young metropolis upstart.

I haven’t posted since October, and this isn’t going to be one of those, “I’m definitely doing to post more” kinds of posts.  I’m going to try for a specific goal this time, instead of some vague commitment to increased posting.  I’m going to post a new poem every weekday in February, starting today.  I’m going to try to mix up the styles.  A haiku or three, maybe try my hand at a sonnet.  We’ll see how it goes.  The first one is below. Enjoy!

Continuation

by Garrison Locke

There is a black tear in the sky tonight;

A hole where your heart should be.

Stars submit to their electric apogee –

Consumed by antimatter compression.

Saturn burns in supernova splash,

a supernal sign that time has come

for the days of man to end.

But we will prevail.

Our generation ship sails past the Kuiper belt,

across the termination shock,

on our way to Andromeda.

Here are a couple of pics of the jack-o-lanterns Amy and I made for Halloween this year.  She made a wolf howling at the moon and I made Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons.   I think they came out pretty good this time.  But I’m not sure they are as awesome as our 2006 pumpkins.

If you’re interested, here are the MP3′s from my jazz band’s last performance.

Download MP3′s or view the entire concert on YouTube!

Track Listing

1. Begin the Beguine
2. I’m Beginning to See the Light
3. Broadway
4. On a Street of Dreams
5. Saint Louis Blues
6. Jeannine
7. My Foolish Heart
8. Manhattan
9. Empty Pages
10. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
11. Green Onions
12. Work Song
13. Birdland
14. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
15. Stolen Moments
16. Let’s Do It
17. Someone to Watch Over Me
18. You & the Night & the Music
19. Mission Impossible Theme

Amy and I bought a house a few weeks ago, and we wanted to make some changes before we moved in.  The entire house had popcorn ceilings and we hate those, so we decided to remove them and then paint the ceilings and the rest of the house.  Since we had a couple of weeks before we had to be fully moved, it was good timing.  It took us about four days to scrape and sand the ceilings of the entire house, and then about a week to get all the walls and ceilings primed and painted.  Here are some of the pictures from the before, during, and after process.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have met some of my favorite authors and musicians.  I’ve met Billy Corgan, Chuck Palahniuk, David Sedaris (twice!), and just last night Augusten Burroughs.  I love getting to see and actually talk to these people.  They’re always really nice and accommodating – signing your books, chatting with you for a few minutes, sometimes taking pictures with people, etc.

My problem is that I always seem to freeze up when it comes to having something to say to them when I get to the front of the line.  I don’t know if it’s some kind of star-struck thing.  I don’t think it is.  I think that mostly it’s that I tell myself that there’s nothing I could possibly say to them that they haven’t heard before.  And I know that’s not necessarily true, but what could I say in my minute or two of seeing them that would be worthy of their listening?  I can never come up with anything at the time.  Maybe I should start thinking about this stuff beforehand and write it down so I don’t forget and freeze up.

I always think of something as soon as I’m leaving though.  Like last night, I should have asked – indeed, wanted to ask – what advice he would give aspiring writers.  But I failed.

Well, next month I get to meet a couple more of my favorite authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and I’ll be sure to make sure I have my question written down so I don’t forget it this time.

UPDATE: Added a couple of pictures from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child reading at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh.

In no particular order:

1. Finding out my cousin didn’t like Forrest Gump, and in fact doesn’t like Tom Hanks.
2. Finding out my friend has never played Clue.
3. Witnessing two people get kicked out of a college classroom.
4. Completely understanding the implementation of OAuth.

Yesterday the NC House tentatively passed a bill that would ban smoking in businesses that serves or employs anyone under the age of 18. While it’s not a 100% ban, it’s one step closer to a smoke-free NC. The final vote is scheduled for today, and if it passes, then it will move to the Senate.

The opposition to the bill doesn’t even sense to me. Someone said in the debate on the bill that “if you ban smoking, you should also ban fast food because that can cause obesity.” That argument fails completely on it’s relation to smoking. Sure fast food isn’t good for us, but if you eat fast food in public, I don’t get fatter because of that. If you smoke in public, then I am directly affected.

Similarly, a lady on the news last night was angry because, “It’s a personal choice. Everyone should be able to choose.” Does that apply to me? If I choose to not want to get lung cancer from your secondhand smoke, what choice do I have? Your choice to smoke ceases to be strictly personal when you do it outside of your own home, directly affecting my health.

If it were up to me (and I’m aware that my view is very extremist) I’d charge everyone who smokes in public with negligent homicide.

Go here -> http://www.capitolconnect.com/smokefreenc/ to contact the NC legislators and let them know we want a smoke free North Carolina.