Second poest contains the moest woeds.

Yes, I know. It’s been a bloody while. I should have known that I set myself up for a fall when I committed to do a two part post. Stupid eewah.

I know nobody really cares, but I feel as though I should explain my delinquency. On the one hand, I wrote this towards the tail end of vacation, when I knew my window of free blogging time would be closing. Stupid Eewah. On the other hand, I decided to say that my next post would also be poetic in nature. Stupid Eewah. I hadn’t gotten the time and inspiration to finish this post until just now, but I HAVE had several other ideas for posts that I set myself up not to develop. What where they you ask? I don’t…remember. Because I didn’t make them. But I bet they were genius and would have improved the world. Oops, sorry.

So…now to the meat of the post. I suppose that last bit was the gravy… I am stepping out of the serious for a second and introducing you to

Gregory K, from gottabook.blogspot.com

This man I recently found by watching a vidcast that mentioned a new form of poetry he invented: The Fib. More on that in a second- first allow me show you some of his other material:

HOLD MY BREATH

On Monday at the swimming pool,
I acted like a total fool.
“Hold my breath? No way!” I cried.
Then little Joe came to my side.
“I’ll hold it for you,” Joe did say.
So I gave him my breath... and he ran away!
Now I can’t speak or sneeze or cough.
I can’t blow the fluff of a dandelion off.
I can’t call Mom or Dad or you.
There’s really nothing I can do.
So if you see Joe somewhere, somehow
Tell him I want my breath back NOW.

I think this piece is one of my favorites. I was going to do another one of these little funny ones, but I think in the interest of brevity (ha! Riiight…) I will move on. You can get more at his web site.

Like I mentioned earlier, he also has invented a new form of structured poetry called the “Fib”. Fib is short for Fibonacci, a simple mathmatical sequence in which the pattern consists of the last two numbers combined. A fib applies this to how many syllables each line has- clever, eh? So the pacing goes like so: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc. They are a lot of fun and he suggests that they are good for warm ups for getting yourself in the ability to rhyme and match rhythm in your poems. From what I can tell, it seems it really does work. But enough of my jibber jabber- lets here some by him:

One
Small,
Precise,
Poetic,
Spiraling mixture:
Math plus poetry yields the Fib.
---
Ants
Can’t
Wear pants
When they dance.
Plus I’ve heard the news
They never put on dancing shoes.

There a lot of fun- and now you know what I was doing 2 posts ago! As you can see, Greg K. has only takes his to 8 syllable lines. I think I went to 20 something- of course, my friend GreenDragonRider had to not only 1 up me, but out do me by about 30 syllables. Her amazing achievement in literacy can be viewed here.

I’ve thought about this and my imagination was sparked- the flame caught a small flash fire of paper and I came up with a whole bunch of different schemes for poetry: Mirrored Fibs, backwards fibs (other people have also thought of this though), and Pi poems (poems written in 3, 1, 4, etc.) The flames quickly died down however, though they did not go out until after I had produced this ‘mirror fib’.

Math,
Art-
The two join
To create beauty
The syllable count ticks to eight
Then hangs gracefully in mid air
Falling once more down
It dissolves
And fades-
Art,
Math.

For some reason the balance really makes it cool for me.

Ok, now back to the serious…
Previously on uttereast.blogspot.com I asked my readers to give their interpretation of a song. Well some people at least said they tried, but I'm still waiting, lol. So here my humble interpertation of the song BLEED SEASON. I believe this song is all about a man who becomes a believer and is experiencing the struggle of maintaining a holy life…In my oppinion, if you read the whole song it follows a man from becoming a christian to dealing with the fact that there are still life issues to be dealt with even when Christ is with you. The title Bleed Season is about the times of peril or struggle in our lives-

“Is this my time to feel? Is this my time to breathe? Is this my time to bleed? Change the season”

For is not their coming as sure as the changing of the seasons?

Here is my interpretations for the verses I posted earlier:

Trace the tree and the veil will flee me <--Think of a crime scene- when someone dies, they trace the position in chalk. The tree obviously here is the cross. The veil- the infamous veil in the temple that separated the holy from the holy of holies- and symbolically, us from God.
And now I see with salty eyes <--Seeing through his tears
Consistent tragedy persisting in me
This disability's my soul's demise
Deaf to self and mute to mind
Muddled wallowing nebulous blind <--Something’s still wrong in him…

My crippled confidence is chafed away <--Its getting to him
With the answers I'm pulled astray <--He now knows what is wrong and right-
The habits laced embrace me <--Yet his old patterns are not broken
With a cold, chaotic flinch
Kiss of old deaths erase me <--Love this line… the things he thought he had killed are coming back to him…
Soft, subtle, inch by inch <--Baabbby steps…. But very EVIL baby steps, lol.

Awesomeness…. You gotta hear it. It rocks really hard.

OK.. moving on number B... Though not officially a ‘poet’, while we are on the topic of hard bands with amazing lyrisicsts, I think I should mention Bean Bag.

Bean Bag
By the time they had gotten to only their second studio released album, Bean Bag had obtained a polish and artistic maturity that is not seen in many other bands in their entire career. Their last album, Well Adjusted was a masterpiece. Unfortunately, just as they were hitting their artistic stride they were not hitting their business stride. They dissolved the band and, as sure as I know, all went to get ‘real jobs’. Check out the lyrics to the song These Stains off of their last album:

I am shame, can I enter?
I hold your name on my placenta
it has fame to see adventure
call its name to find dementure

oh, why did I leave you? I am
here but shame told me
'always' and it is soldering out these stains

sold my peace for anarchy
it took me to the sea
holding all I have to be
I shook the rug out so delicately

oh, why did I leave you? I am
here but shame told me
'always' and it is soldering out these stains

if I had just listened to you
if I had just focused in on you

oh, why did I leave you? I am
here but shame told me
'always' and it is soldering out these stains

oh, these stains

Hahaha, tell me what THAT one means… its probably even harder then the last one. I didn’t get it until I was depressed enough. Then it sort of snapped into place, and that made me happy and I haven’t solved any Bean Bag songs since then. What do you folks say?

Poetry post one, take two. Action.

Some of you are looking at the size of this post and going “oh lord, that’s a big post” (or something to that effect). First of all, allow me to congratulate you on your observational skills. VERY GOOD!

Second- uhh, Sue me, I guess. Yeah. I’ll take a Leah approach and say “This is my blog, I don’t care if you don’t like it” even though that is total hogwash since I get a lot of satisfaction from the comments area. But wait! I am a considerate blogger- that’s right! You see, this is actually a cut version. Or rather, a sliced version. I have decided to slice up my poetry post- hereafter referred to as my “poest”- into smaller, more digestible mini-morsels or poest perfection.

This poest I supoest, (sorry) will include (I)ntroduction through (S)hwab… I know that doesn’t mean anything to you, but it made me laugh. Anyway…

Like many things in life, I respect, admire and attempt poetry- but I usually end up being too distracted by other things to do much of any of those verbs. And so, like most everything else, I will go on a binge, or a mood, and just take in or write poetry. This is basically how I operate; I do the same thing with computers, movies, electronics or anything that fascinates me. It is probably a blessing or a curse, but more likely a mix of the two- but alas, that is another topic altogether. This is a poest after all.

My current poetic kick probably started with lit class- We were to get some 20^th century poems to read. I chose my friend, Mr. Frosty. I decided to do In a Disused Graveyard.

I heard a lot of good stuff, including some pieces by people with weird names like E.E. Cummings, and people who’s names half of us mistook for the wrong gender. Next class is 21^st century American authors. We are supposed to bring our own poetry or short stories. I of course, am not intimidated by this; I have a good poetic arsenal I can draw from as you can see by the new link on the right side bar to my poetry and prose page. But there are so many other people I wanted to share that I am fighting hard for the ability to show case their work as well… In case it doesn’t make it, here are some of the contestants:

Andrew Shwab

First the lead singer from the hard rock band Project 86, Shwab has recently self published several of his own short books. If you were a fan of his lyrics, it would seem a no-brainer that he would cross over to poetry; his lyrics have always been amazingly poetic, despite his hard-edged aggressive vocal style. As I have seemed to misplace my book of poetry by him, I will instead give you this example from his song “Bleed Season”. See if you can spot the symbolism:

Trace the tree and the veil will flee me

And now I see with salty eyes

Consistent tragedy persisting in me

This disability's my soul's demise

Deaf to self and mute to mind

Muddled wallowing nebulous blind

My crippled confidence is chafed away

With the answers I'm pulled astray

The habits laced embrace me

With a cold, chaotic flinch

Kiss of old deaths erase me

Soft, subtle, inch by inch

You can find the full lyrics here.

I will go into some more, cooler yet poetry in my next poest. Until then, discuss! Comment like you care. Humor me. What do you think the song is about? (Read the whole thing for context). I think I've cracked it, but I'm interested in other interpertations.

I just lost a billion words... give or take.

I was about one or two sentences away from finnishing a HUGE post. It was all about poetry, and I had it formatted beautifully, with exerts I had gathered from everywhere. It was LONG. It was probably coming up on three pages, at least. Then firefox crashed. BLOODY BROKEN BROWSER!!

I'll see if I can recreate it tomarrow. I can rebuild it. Better, badder, stronger. More better. Betterist. Dang, its late. Dang, I just lost a big post.

I will close this post with a type of poem called a 'fib'. I am not going to tell you what it is tonight (cause I just did, and then lost it), but here is a little 'teaser' if you will (and I hope you do):

It
Is
so late
All work lost
My sanity gone
Where, blogger, did it all go wrong?
The big bit bucket in the sky has ate my data

----

One
More
Strange Verse-
A poem.
Spot the pattern, try!
Perhaps soon now you will get it.

The infamous SB 268

(This is Little Man hamming up for the crowd control. Just kidding.)

Today I went over to Concord to protest SB 268 with some others from the home school gang. SB 268, for those who do not know, is a bill that would hike the mandatory age for attending high school from 16 to 18. It also has a lot of negative effects on current home school law.

Anyway, the protest was great. We had probably about 30 people or so, spread out all around the main building where the representatives were going in to vote on the bill today. It has already passed the house, but we have a real chance of getting it killed or brought to further discussion with the representatives. I only have the above pic of Little Man because, even though I brought my camera, I was to stupid to remember to take pictures with it... we had a lot of fun anyway though. New Hampshire is so cool- we have a house of representatives second only to the Brit's house of commons and most of them are very approachable. We had a lot of reps tell us that they were going to vote no on the issue, and we even had a few who were undecided come up to us and ask what are reasons were. Most people are cool like that in the house- they only get paid something like $100 plus parking, so they are not really career politicians.

We should be able to find out what happened with the bill later today. Stay tuned...
----------
UPDATE: The bill has been rejected by the house! Read about it on WMUR. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Lynch is not happy with this at all of course, and neither are a few reps. They have tried to make it look like the house has "given up" on the problem. One of them vowed to get it passed, possibly by sneaking it into another bill. So... looks like we might have a fight on our hands. All I can say is...

BRING IT ON!

I love music as if it were indeed my job

Seriously guys- I love music so much, I should just up and marry it.

I don't mean just the light and fluffy listen-to-the-radio love for music.
Not the top-40 love for music. The hold-an-obscure-album-in-your-hands-as-if-it-were-a-lost-treasure sort of love for music.
My siblings have seemed to also developed this trait- all of us like to sit down with a new CD and just read the lyrics and listen to it with our undivided attention.... well, thats the plan anyway. Usually thats impossible in our house, but we try, and thats what counts. Little man just rocks out to it, which is cool- though I can't tell if he has a finer appreciation for it's nuanices. But it sure is cute.

I have listened to the new P.O.D. album several times- each time paying attention to the vocals or the drums or the guitar specifically. With really good bands, you pick up all these little flavorings they throw in that could easily be missed if you were just savoring the whole pie of musical goodness.

And to brag on my family a little bit, everyone pretty much has a nice diverse taste in music. Yes, I tease my mum about her honky tonky artificial twange country, and some of my more abstract electronica gets on my parents nerves, but other then that everyone basically enjoys all good music over here. Here are some things I've been listening too recently:

P.O.D. - Kind of hard, hybrid of several influences including rude-boy-rock, rastafarian, metal, and rap. But it actually sounds good.
Joy Electric- Pure retro electronic goodness. This guy prides himself in being a purists- building all his sounds from scratch on a moog synth. Also sings crazy lyrics- his latest full length album was about a family of asassin archers in the 17th century or some such craziness.
Nickel Creek- Awesome blue grass rooted band. Amazing music- lots of energy and very well crafted songs. Plus you have to check out their site cause right now they have a hillarious version of toxic they played live. Great band.)
KJ-52- White rapper. Wait, come back! He's good. Funny sometimes and rocking when not. I didn't always like him but after after seeing him at inside out soul fest and listening to his newest album (thanks Becca!), I officially like him. He's officially cool in my book. Not that that matters, but I bet he sleeps better at night.
RelientK- Borrowed their second to lastest Album from Becca (again, thanks!) and I like it. What I've heard of their newest one (titled "mmhmm") I like even better. I dunno exactly what to call them... mellow rock? Emo/pop punk? Good stuff, whatever it is.
Eisley- CRAZY CRAZY GOOD BAND! Melodic harmonic awesomeonic sibling rock. Holy cow they are so good. They are so good they homeschool. I'm just to tired to try and describe this band to you, so I wont. But seriously, check out the site I've linked but also Eisley.com. Wow why do they rock so hard? Can you tell me- can anyone tell me?

Guess who's still alive? No, me stupid!

Well, long time, no update. Forgive me. Either my life is too boring or its so darn exciting I don't have time to blog. You can choose one.

So whats up with me? Well.... Theres the pygmalion play, which is going along pretty well. Each rehersal it gets better. Were getting some good chemistry up on stage between the characters and its going to make it all the better. All lines are not down pat yet, but we've got all the scenes basically blocked out. We'll probably be straight up running the play through in a few more practices, which is beautiful. This play is so much fun- everyone of you have to come and see it!

What else have I been up to? Well, I've been on a bit of a vidcast kick as of late... vidcasting- also known as video podcasting, IPTV, etc. is basially TV shows made for the internet. The great thing about them is that it levels the playing field- anyone can start one and because of that, people can get as creative or boring as they want. They can have a 2 minute show or a 45 minute show- its totally up to them. Sure, there are a boatload of mediocre wannabes out there right now. But the beautey of this medium is that a good idea can get out there quicker, and with out so many people having to put their spin on it. But as Levar Burton says, you don't have to take MY word for it....

Here are the shows I'm watching:

Ask A Ninja (Comedy write-in show- One guy dressed up as a ninja, answering questions. Pretty hillarious)
The Scene (Experimental drama about a DVD pirating group- when I say experimental, I mean different. When I say different I mean totally shot on a webcam and screencapture software of the guys desktop. Probably not for everyone, but I get it because I am always on IM clients and the computer, so the drama works for me)
MobuzzTV (Very good weird news show, with real news and usually funny commentary. This show seems to understand that people like to keep things brief, and so the pace is nice and fast as well, which is something alot of vidcasts haven't quite figured out yet)
CommandN (Tech news. Good way to keep tabs on whats going on in tech. Ok, and I admit- Amber is hott. Kind of long, but tries to justify it by having all sorts of neat things like links to different sites every episode as well as some tech tips that actually are pretty darn usefull)
GeekBrief (Another tech news program, a bit more in the quick and witty style of Mobuzz. She keeps it pretty short, which I enjoy- though sometimes her antics aren't always up my alley. But hey! Its vidcasting, right?)
Hak.5 (Ahhh, one of my favorites. This is a full 45 minute show that covers everything geeky, which means that I just lost half of you reading this. Its true though- and the other half will thank me for it once they watch it. They show you everything from how to build an arcade cabinet to how to mod a CVS digital camera and how to exploit and protect all kinds of security problems. But what makes them really great, is that they work very hard at it and have a new episode every month. Good stuff)
Venus Rises (Ok, this is a new show that isn't out yet- so I don't really know how good it is. But from what I have seen so far at their site and wherever I could find it, it really looks like they are raising the bar. It is the first sci-fi show to be developed for vidcasting, and its totally indipendent. They are still waiting for some more modellers in order to release their first finnished episode, but the attention to detail and everything in every frame that I've seen screams quality. I can't wait.)

There are a few others, as well as some that have been started but seemingly abandoned. For a really good site that keeps tabs on all of them, check out vidcast.org.

Oh, and heres a picture of another one of my brother's lego creations.
Later everyone,

---R3p1ch33p