Muffin Bottoms [not] Just another WordPress weblog

04/02/2024

My Most Recent Gig was Mediocre at Best.

Filed under: Music and Stuff — admin @ 8:17 am

31mar24 — Groton, Conn.,

So I have to admit that this morning’s sunrise Liturgical music did not represent my best guitar work by any stretch.

Between the cold fingers, having my face right in the sheet music to see the first song and not noticing quick enough that everyone was looking for me to lead another song’s last line each verse it felt like an epic fail.
But it seems like overall the service went well for everyone attending.
I’m glad about that at least.

I felt like 2022 and 2023’s guitar work went much better.

 

 

 

Reflection: I guess having an off gig now and then makes a good gig feel extra sweet, right? 

 

03/21/2024

OLD FOLKSINGER – Covers, Parodies & Renditions by Marco Frucht Dedicated to Cathy Moore

Filed under: Music and Stuff — admin @ 8:42 am

1. I Hate a Song (Woody Guthrie) This speech featured many times at the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua voiced in by a guy who sounded just a bit like Studs Terkel. I’m told it was a speech Woody Guthrie gave somewhere, but it might’ve been something he published. Look around the Internet for provenance, the journey itself is worth twice the price.

2. Old Folk Singer (Merle Kessler) Ever heard of “Duck’s Breath Radio Theater”? They were a comedy troupe that began at the University of Iowa in the mid-1970’s but moved to San Francisco. Soon after, they released their first (self-released) album, “Out Of Season”, then moved to performing skits for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”. Eventually, they created and starred in “Dr. Science”, an offshoot of a popular “All Things Considered” skit, which was a parody of scientific TV shows. It was also one of the first shows on a new TV network called “Fox”.

Kessler, who performed under the stage name Ian Sholes in DBRT, and lab assistant Rodney on “Dr. Science”, wrote this as a parody of folk music in general, much in the same way Steve Goodman wrote “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” in the mid-1970’s.

3. How Come (You Do Me Like You Do) (Gene Austin – Roy Bergere) First recorded in 1924 by Marion Harris, this song, written by the vaudeville duo of Austin & Bergere, has become a jazz standard. Over the years, the song has been performed in various styles, such as New Orleans jazz (Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrong), straight pop (Teresa Brewer) and lounge (Julie London). Note: Speaking of London’s version, it was produced by her husband, Bobby Troup. Aside from Troup being the writer of “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66”, both he and London became well-known outside of jazz circles through their starring roles on the TV series “Emergency!” as Dixie McCall, RN (London) and Dr. Joe Early (Troup).

4. Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms (Traditional; arranged by Frucht) This is a song about arms! Inspired by British sea shanties and Appalachian folk tales, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs released their version in 1951. Though not a “hit” at the time, it soon became a part of their live shows. Of course, it was often played in Folk circles in the early 1960’s. Oddly enough, Buck Owens had a major hit with it in 1971.

The “arms” in the song are the outstretched ones you race to when you come home or meet a loved one. That’s the only “arms race” worth participating in!

5. Completely Different Voiceover; Stacy Wilson


6. Gotham City 501 Blues (arranged by Frucht) Observations from the Summer of 1989. Also, a cautionary tale of not paying heed to laundry labels.

Picture this: Two of the biggest movies in the country are “Batman” and “Honey I Shrunk The Kids”. The Walkman, a personal cassette player, is the preferred means of taking music on the go. Lita Ford duets with Ozzy Osbourne on a song called “Close My Eyes Forever”. Barbie and Ken are, well… Barbie and Ken. After over a hundred years, Levi’s introduces their “501” line of jeans… for women. Neneh Cherry, fresh out of punk band Rip Rig & Panic, has an international hit with “Buffalo Stance” Take all this, blend it together with a bit of humor, and you have a song that captures the summer of ’89 quite well!

7. Mueslix: A Juicy Fruit Commercial Parody (parody lyrics: Frucht) In the late 1980’s, the W. K. Kellogg company introduced a new cereal to its lineup: a whole-grain and fruit cereal called “Mueslix”. The cereal, based on a traditional European whole-grain and fruit dish with the similar name “muesli”, was launched with a $33,000,000 advertising budget. Of course, you can make your own Muesli very easily and cheaply!

Around the same time, Wrigley had a promotion for its Juicy Fruit chewing gum, alongside the Doublemint twins and Spearmint’s “Pure Chewing Satisfaction” (long before it became the title for Lard’s second album). The “catchphrase” used for the commercial, “The taste is gonna move ya!” seems to fit Mueslix/muesli rather than fruit-flavored chewing gum. Here, Marco plays the jingle as it should have been written!

8. Hey Mon (Frucht – Franklin) You may have heard this song before. You probably didn’t know the name of it, but if you’ve ever dealt with MIDI files in any capacity, chances are, you’ve heard it.

Originally composed in the 1980’s, this tune is best known by its more common name, “REGGAE.MID”. I first heard this catchy little tune in the late 1980’s, while Marc and I were stationed at Fort Carson, CO.

Fast forward a couple of years, and “Hey Mon” becomes a part of the PC boom of the 1990’s, due to its inclusion in Creative Labs’ SoundBlaster 16 PCI/ISA sound cards, as part of the driver installation and MIDI demonstration package. The package proves to be a success, and millions of copies of “Hey Mon” are included in the package.

Only one problem, though. Nobody at Creative Labs sought to get permission from Marc to use his song!

9. Telephone Me, Baby (George M. Cohan) First published in 1899, this was among the first songs to celebrate the telephone’s use in romance. Even with the sometimes poor connections and (relatively) high costs of phone calls in those days, nothing stirred one’s soul like hearing your partner’s voice over the miles and miles of copper wire. The first verse of the song mentions mail and wire, meaning postal mail and telegrams. Both were replaced over the years by e-mail and text messaging, but there’s still nothing like a phone call from your loved one.

10. Is This Thing On? Voiceover by Staci Wilson

11. 1979 To the Tune of the Ancient Congregationalist Hymn “Were You There.”

12. Internet Killed the Video Star (music by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley; new lyrics by Frucht) As you may know, “Video Killed The Radio Star” was the first music video played on MTV in August 1981, although the song itself was issued two years earlier.

Unwittingly, MTV had opened a “Pandora’s Box” of issues in regard to its use of music videos and promotional films as the main source of its programming. Often, record companies would supply MTV with the videos (free of charge), but despite being shown nationally, few artists saw any reward for their efforts. On the other hand, if you were Michael Jackson or Madonna, you had the power to tell MTV how and when to play your video. But if you were Eye To Eye, Split Enz or Ebn-Ozn, you were lucky if your video got played at 2 AM, if they even played it at all. But, take heart, readers: The Free Design lambasted the MTV-originated ethos of style over substance in 2002 with “The Hook”

When .mp3 became a go-to format for listening to music, the recording industry tried to capitalize on it in the worst way possible: offering obscure music for several dollars per track. I doubt Andre Kostelanetz or Bert Jansch was on many people’s playlists, but that’s what the major labels offered. Unless, you went to the dark side… and used Napster.

As the PC became more and more a multimedia device, an application called RealAudio became one of the first media players to combine audio CD, *.mp3 and internet radio, all in one place. Those who have never heard streaming audio through RealPlayer, consider yourselves lucky. In the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s, dial-up internet was still used widely, and attempting to stream live content over a dialup connection was an exercise in frustration. As internet speeds became more robust, so did the quality of streaming audio and video.

Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much over the past 40 years. With the founding of YouTube, videos by major stars sit beside those by new artists. But getting compensated properly remains a challenge. And with audio-only subscription services such as Spotify, Tidal or even Apple Music, the majority of artists are paid in hundredths of a penny per stream. Not a good ecosystem to foster creativity!


13. Burma-Shave (Frucht) Before Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s were even thought of… there was Burma-Shave, one of the first “brushless” shaving lotions. Before, one had to put hot water in a mug containing a cake of shaving soap at the bottom. Using a shaving brush, one stirred the water/soap mixture until the lather was the desired consistency. Burma-Shave, on the other hand, was ready to use, right out of the jar.

In pre-World War II America, the majority of paved highways connecting towns and cities were two lanes. As functional as they were, a major trip would still take several days if not longer. Speed limits of 40 to 50 miles per hour in open country were common, and lower speed limits were in place in more populated areas.

One of the most famous pre-war highways was US Highway 66, or simply “Route 66”. If you drove on Route 66 or any other major road in that time, one could reasonably expect to come across a sequential series of five or six small signs, the first four or five containing one line of a poem, the last sign being the name of the product. Here’s an example:

Shaving brushes / You’ll soon see ’em / On the shelf / In some / Museum / Burma-Shave

The signs certainly propelled the Burma-Shave lotion to major popularity, and became part of the landscape of rural America. Unfortunately, with the rise of the Interstate Highway System, the signs soon disappeared from America’s roadways. And Burma-Shave itself began disappearing from store shelves as well.

Burma-Shave itself may be gone, but the signs continue to live on in American folklore. Roger Miller and Tom Waits paid tribute to the signs in song as well.

14. I Saw Elvis (to the tune of Groove is in the Heart by Deee-Lite) Considering that if the King were to avail himself to fast food, there is no shortage of options on Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis. Which ones may cause gastric turmoil remain to be seen!

15. Rumble (Acoustic Cover) (Link Wray) If there ever was an instrumental that rocked the world, this is it. But the story of how it got there is no less amazing. Fred Lincoln Wray, Jr. and his family had experienced discrimination due to their Shawnee Indian origins, living in profound poverty. After being in several local bands in Virginia, Wray served in the U. S. Army during the Korean War. During his enlistment, he had contracted tuberculosis, which saw him in the hospital for over a year and the loss of one lung. Link knew his days as an occasional vocalist were over, but after hearing Elvis Presley with Scotty Moore’s guitar, and a Creator-inspired vision, Link became a no-nonsense guitar player, refusing to be bound by convention. After his surgery and treatment for TB, his doctors had told him his performing days were over, Link told the doctors, “Well, there’s a mightier power than you that’s gonna tell me I can’t go out and play my music.” Archie Bleyer, head of Cadence Records (the label that released “Rumble”), had demanded Link recut the song at Cadence’s New York studios. Link told Bleyer, ‘Well, you either accept this, or you don’t get it at all–If you don’t want this one, f–k you. I’m not coming to New York.”

Regarded as the first single to use electronically-distorted guitar, Link’s “Rumble” influenced guitarists all over the world, from the British invasion of the 1960’s to today.

Some Songs produced entirely by Marco Frucht.

Others were Engineered by Carl Franklin and Produced by Neil Sheppard
Song list order organized by John Carta
Liner Notes in the Nat Hentoff tradition by Patrick Moore

11/27/2023

Almost Famous – A Movie and a Musical and a Way to Be.

Marco Frucht pictured here with Cameron Crowe at Blue Gene’s Pub, National Theater Institute, Waterford, Conn. 18nov23




Corny joke alert:

— So yesterday I met Cameron Crowe
— Oh I know that name, what’s he famous for?
— Almost Famous
— Oh, what’s he almost famous for?


One morning I was telling a 7th grade class about how I used to sell cassettes of my music out of a van while busking on street corners all over the U.S. I found an old 4-track cassette tape the other day with early masters, and a girl raises her hand and says, “what’s a cassette tape?” And a boy goes, “Oh my dad has those, it’s like a VHS tape with the two little spinners but they’re smaller,” and she asks “what’s a VHS tape?” Not picking on her. I polled the class right away and there were only two other children besides that boy and myself. Everyone else had no idea what either of those two old pieces of technology are/were.


Last week Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt were here at the O’Neill reworking their B’way production of Cameron’s movie “Almost Famous.”

It was so neat to meet Cameron and see Tom again. He were here a few years ago workshoping his play “Superhero.”

Even more neat was seeing some of their work as a staged reading with Equity actors and production crew. I have a good feeling about this play and it’s journey back to Broadway and everywhere else it will go. I sure do hope it gets licensed for High School productions and then Little Steven’s TeachRock.org group can include it in curriculum, right?


https://www.playbill.com/article/tom-kitt-and-cameron-crowe-to-redevelop-almost-famous-at-eugene-oneill-theater-center

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Workshop-Residency-for-Tom-Kitt-and-Cameron-Crowes-ALMOST-FAMOUS-to-Take-Place-at-Eugene-ONeill-Theater-Center-20231017

02/07/2022

I’m staying with Spotify, but here go some of my thoughts.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 7:38 am

OK so while we’re having hot discussions about Spotify, let me say a few things this way: 

If you refuse to listen to me over at Spotify (I totally understand by the way. They only pay me .003 of a penny each time you stream a song there, that’s nearly criminal) you can get my songs completely free many places. I make a tiny bit of money at some of these when you listen for free, and other places I get nothing, but racking up “hits” helps me feel heard, to be sure. 

http://www.reverbnation.com/modemandguitar

and

http://www.soundcloud.com/atizine 

are some good places to start. 

Some of my electronica work is over at https://soundation.com/group/SoundDesignAnswers/tracks?page=2

And if you want to actually buy some of my songs, you can still go to amazon or itunes. When you listen to snippets before buying there I get a tiny bit too. Perhaps more than at spotify, I’m not actually sure. I haven’t checked lately. 

And frankly, the best place to listen to my songs where I’ll recover many pennies instead of .003 of a penny is over at TikTok. 

Yes, the place mainly driven by teenagers and preteens dancing the Carlton, Orange Justice and the Jerk. Maybe if we’re lucky they’ll start reviving the Locomotion, Electric Boogaloo, Charleston and Jitterbug or something right? 

I bumped into the whole tiktok thing when I didn’t even have a username and password there because one month I was looking over my revenue stream and saw that I made 7 cents for about 10 streams of my Frybread, Swedish FolkSong and Follow the Drinking Gourd. When people choose to use a song of mine in one of their 15 second videos, then the people watching the video hear the song, and some extra “crumbs” are sent our way. I had to ask around, but quickly found out that when I printed my first commercial CDs and opted for open distribution of digital publications too, that included places like TikTok, Deezer, Napster, etc. 

https://www.tiktok.com/music/Swedish-Folk-Song-6859339400266909697

https://www.tiktok.com/music/Fry-Bread-6859339392826247169

That’s like 3/4’s of a cent per stream. Something like 250% more revenue than Spotify gives. Yikes! 

Yes, tiny but it all adds up eventually right? 

So that brings me to my next point. I’m fine with Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren joining others in turning their back on Spotify corporation. They’re big and sacrificing hundreds of dollars when they’re making low millions or high hundreds of thousands of dollars a year is just a little pinch compared to what us smalltime indy artists would face if we joined such a boycott, buynot or cancelban, right? 

So for the mean time, I’m staying at Spotify just like I’m staying everywhere else. I’m actually hoping this current fiasco will widen to a more discerning eye on each and every place there’s injustice in the Music Industry. Because it really isn’t fair. And Spotify is just one of the perps. 

I remember when Spotify first began and artists all over Europe and Asia were making their living honestly by giving people links to their Spotify pages. 

https://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/artist/Marco+Capelli+Frucht/a/albums.htm

There was about a one-year period where Spotify was blocked in the United States until the major labels could figure out how they could participate without going bankrupt. Well did these labels even think about how to keep all the rest of us from heading for bankruptcy while we waited? While we watched all the other streaming sights go down and down to match what Spotify was starting to do as it entered the EEUU market? Ouch. I remember that well. No one except the Taylor Swifts, Jason Aldeans, Neil Youngs of the world could figure out a way to make more than say 10 dollars a month or 10 dollars every three months out of that part of the game. 

So when Taylor Swift had a big fight with Spotify over her collection, I thought, “ooh, maybe that will benefit all the rest of us too.” 

It didn’t. 

And now I think the same thing out loud about today’s growing fiasco, “ooh, maybe…” 

And maybe it will, or maybe it won’t. Remains to be seen. So far Neil Young has accomplished one major change over at Spotifylandia. They’re now going to put disclaimers on hate radio from the right AND the left. That’s a start. 

Now one rhetorical question I’ll have to ask. 

Can they keep paying someone like Joe Rogan a 100M a year when they lose 2B a month? or 2B a week? Yikes. 

Of course after tightening their belts, and then seeking out all the other wide margins they can exploit around the world, maybe they’ll throw an extra penny or 3 to some of the rest of us “little guys,” right? 

A guy can dream. 

02/03/2020

ZOMBIE JAMBOREE: An Ethnomusicologist’s Reflection on that Frito-Lay Superbowl Thing Last Night.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 4:17 pm

We’ve come a long way from Paula Abdul’s choreography, and Janet Jackson’s for that matter; but where to? Ouch. I don’t think I like where we’ve gone to. 
All women, men and children throughout the entire 14 minutes and 20 seconds looked 100% possessed. And you know what other-peoples’ world ethicities I have to compare them to? There is no other group I can find to compare this with.  But North Korea. 
Yes I know there were attempts to give a Latin feeling, and even an African one, or a Colombian one and now a Lebanese one. Sort of. But it was never fully there. I hate saying this, it felt North Korean! 
If you don’t believe me, compare for yourself. A hypersexualized version of a Pyongyang propaganda performance. 
North Korea children playing the guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl6f_XwMhMM

Concert marking North Korea’s 70th anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GntyBJE0ht8

Shakira & J. Lo’s FULL Frito-Lay Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILCn6VO_RU

I think maybe they should just ditch the pretense next year and have the whole thing take on a Jerry Springer theme. If there even pretends to be music, let it just be a bunch of background mood stuff. 😛 
marco 
oh: ps. what’s with the Gibson Firebird guitar she pretended to play. Capo to the back of the 6th fret, almost touching the 5th behind it??? I *think* she fretted the right three chords, eh? Maybe an open E chord at the 6th then an A and a B sort of? So that’s what, Bb Eb F? Hmmm. It looked like she was sort of playing those, but the strumming seemed way off. She was common law married to both Tommy and Tony Mottola, (pronounced guitar central, right?) You mean to tell me she never quite got the hang of at least faking a ripping rhythm guitar, right??? Yikes.

02/09/2019

A quick reflection at the end of a great Longterm Sub assignment.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 10:53 am

Ooh, very stressful but oh, so fulfilling.

Over the past month and a half I took 4 core classes in 8th grade science from approximately 2/3’s failing to more than 80% passing across something almost resembling bell-shaped curves we used to come to know and love. They were a little heavy on the B’s and C’s but much better than all those F’s so I feel pretty good about the whole thing.

I bridged the gap between when a teacher quit and a new certified teacher could come in.

So what helped me accomplish this? Everything from Sahana Srinivasan’s brand new “Brainchild” videos to Little Steven Van Zandt’s teachrock org curriculum such as the “sound breaking” episodes.

https://cptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/fuzz-tone-soundbreaking/fuzz-tone-soundbreaking

I found clever ways to show them that music cuts across all of the Gardner multiple intelligences and relates directly to the concepts they had to focus on like Kinetic and Potential energy.

Now I don’t want you to think it was all fun and games and Romper Room. There were some grueling issues of classroom management to overcome such as repeating the same “Do Now” requirements every day and moving on from the fact that more than half the students at any given time refuse to do anything they’re told to.

I doubt any one of those 4 core classes will resemble a “perfect” Harry Wong classroom but I have to be honest with you, those “goals” only worked perfectly in the 1990’s. These days even award winning K thru 12 classes have constant issues throughout the day that leave teachers wondering just who “Teach Like a Champion” and “First Days of School” were written for. Certainly not the 2019 classroom anywhere in THIS nation.

Good pointers, great guidelines. Be all to end all? Not even close.

But I digress. Long story short, I saw some totally disengaged students become enthralled with science experiments and final project essays and posters, and learning in general. I have to hope some of them now see themselves as scholars or life long learners. At the very least, I think most of them now realize that the scientific method is a great way to be wrong and then figure out what’s right instead of some scary monster to procrastinate away from or fight.

08/06/2018

Sharing Lyrics Of My Song Song.

Yes there’s Redundant Song, Hate A Song, Arms Song, Verseless Song, and Song Song.

Of all of them, most are talking about my “Song Song,” lately. So I guess I should paste up lyrics.

I’d always hoped the bots and search engines would do it for me!

hehehehe.

Cheers, marco frucht songwriter, guitarist, poet and van driver.

I got a song I wrote today Thought up the music the other day Came with the words and the chorus line

I got a song it goes like this Sounds kinda country with a little bit o’ soul a little too mellow for rock and roll

I got a song I wrote in school Right in the middle of English class Added the music the following day

Here is my chorus line Not too bright but it’s catchy Listen to my chorus line Daddy Addy Oop Op Ay…

I got a song about politics Buerocrats and all them pricks All about how they get their kicks!

I got a song about sour grapes Kinda people who make you hate Just when you feel like callin’ it quits

[ CH ]

I got a song about hating guts Kinda people who drive ya nuts Just when you feel like beatin’ ’em up!

I got a song I’ll sing for you Only if you got a minute or two If you don’t then be on your way

[ CH ]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kOEmdkGOD24

05/12/2018

Blame your state’s governor for gas prices, not Trump or Obama.

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,News,OpEd,Tech — admin @ 8:38 am

Please don’t blame presidents for local summer gas prices. Governor Malloy and State legislators in both parties are to blame here, and I trust that the other 49 states have similar issues.

 

 

Back in 2014 I caught Governor Malloy in a lie right in a coffee shop, right in front of the New London Day newspaper, and he responded by dropping Groton’s gas prices for 5 or 6 months. It was nice while it lasted.

Asking Governor’s Promise He’ll Represent People Who Pay At The Pump

 

During his visit at Muddy Waters, Marc Frucht of Groton slipped Malloy a card with a list of gas prices, hoping he could inspire an investigation into price gouging.
“Right now we have the highest gas prices in the state,” Frucht said.

“Maybe it’s worth investigating. He said he was going to look at it.”

https://www.theday.com/article/20140818/NWS12/140819700

 

 

Well now that gas prices are soaring again we all seem to be busy trying to blame either Donald Trump or Barak Obama.
I guess that’s a natural first reaction. But if we think it through maybe cooler heads will prevail.

I’ll leave all that behind this round, and ask the following rhetorical question.

How come New London CT’s gas prices are so much higher than Grotons, and how come Groton’s are higher than the rest of Connecticut?

Again!

10am 12may 2018 Cumberland Farms regular fuel.

Groton 2.89 /gal
New London 3.06
Weathersfield 2.97
Fairfield 3.11

Holy cow! It looks to me this time that Hartford is even gouging Fairfield and passing on the savings to itself and Groton. 😛

Seriously though. Gas was 230 something in Groton a few months ago people. Will it go past 4 dollars this time? We managed to keep it from doing that the last time. I’m not even cautiously optimistic this time. I’ll have to research this more deeply when I can, this just scratches the surface really.

Cheers,
marco

03/11/2018

POTUS SCHMOTUS: A Metaphorical Ending.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 3:37 am

SIR ISAAC NEWT: A Fig For Ishmael’s Hate.
by MF.
Dedicated to Presidents Of The United States Of America

I
O new Hank eighth, I pity thee
Ye who serveth wives three.
One in Heaven, dead too young,
Another Lovely Lady One.
Third a Pope who you helped stuff,
By robbing goat and billary gruff.

II
So count your cash all you so skimmed
Three pouches full, you black sheep you;
Chucking scepter into lake of fire- son, so swim.

Swim, swim mariner — lest passing piranhas rip your flesh
Look starboard. See Orion’s belt; hides nothing
Yet vexing, churning: you’re ripe for gulfs to wash.

Hank Hate, O you moved heaven and earth
Have your way you miscreant — for you —
A murky mire, lake of fire, craggy barren hearth.

III
So stuff your pockets lawless one
Matthias, Jason’s lizard son.

Still whore and rob and symonize
Whilst our welfare slips past your eyes;

All the turtlewax in the world,
Can never mask the freedom you have furled.

 

marco frucht

Pine Island, 1997

11/10/2017

Poem For Veterans Day

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,News,OpEd,Poetics — admin @ 1:55 pm

I stand here
One leg on the bottom step
On the stairs above me
Thinking deliberately
About just the right next moment
To lift my other leg
Just the right way
So my next step
Won’t trip me up
And leave me in a wheelchair
The rest of my life.

Every time

And I create this poem
As I think it.

hey vet
take a look at yourself
and smile at what you’re made of

we are the 99%
we gave 100%
110% really

ain’t a zero sum
game
ennit?

we get any real respect
or just buy one
get one free off the kiddy menu
at dennys and apple bees?

you say you support the troops?
where’s my frickin’ healthcare.
why am I missing teeth
when root canals would’ve cost you pennies on the dollar
why do bush and clinton and obama keep moving me in and out of Priority group 7!
when did the gi bill
become
in reality an insurance program
not a benefit
why does my college degree get me no new jobs
no raises
no additional health benefits
and no burial coverage unless I wanna just go in one of those statewide rows?

why does my eczema only respond to
agent orange meds
and I’m afraid to even find out if
gulfwarsyndrome
meds
would actually
get rid of it!

oh you fund raise off of me
you make yourself look good
you get yourself elected
you line your pockets
you say you support the troops
you wear your shed, right and true colors one day
you think a meanstreak
and you talk a mean line
and say you can’t thank me enough
then pardon
my
french
where’s
my fucking
healthcare.

and why are one out of four
homeless
panhandlers
and will-work4food signs
my brothers and sisters?

I’m a veteran
I’m the neo urban american warrior society
I bury my dead, I take care of children and elders
whether they’re mine or not
I think large thoughts on behalf of you and me and everyone else
And lastly me, really.
I’m the warrior society, the 99%, the bled, the light and the glue.
I served all of yall

I got your Veterans Day
hangin
right here.

roo ha!

 

[Hear this here…]=[http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFv6DtDLHPw]

 

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