Happy Birthday to one of my heroes. Lenny Bruce was born this day in 1925. Here are two poems inspired by Lenny: “A Photograph Of Lenny” and “Gerry & Lenny”.
2 CommentsMonth: October 2010
Another video poem inspired by the work of Dave Bonta.
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I had the distinct pleasure of having dinner with the poet Albert Glover tonight and then hearing him read at Caffe Lena. Thanks to Alan Casline for putting the event together and for inviting me to tag along. If you’re not familiar with Albert’s writing, look him up. He’s well worth the effort.
Here are the photos I took tonight of several of the poets who read, including Albert:
And here’s a video I shot of one of Albert’s poems:
I also have an audio recording of Albert’s entire set, which is going to be part of a new project I’ll be announcing soon. Stay tuned!
Leave a CommentI’ve been a vegan for 24 hours and have already started fielding questions from friends and acquaintances about why I made this decision. Many of my friends (in particular, Jenn Cornish) have offered words of support and resources for navigating this new world. Thanks, all.
The Chain Of Events
If you’re reading this blog, you probably know something about me and the various things I’ve done with my life thus far. I’ve been a fairly active progressive as a union organizer, Green candidate for local office, anti-war organizer and bicycling advocate. During all that time, I’ve also been eating beef and chicken and fish and dairy products, and lots of them. Given that 99% of that meat comes from creatures who are abused, caged and tortured to varying degrees, that practice is ethically inconsistent with how I try to live the rest of my life. Up until this weekend, I just compartmentalized that issue and chalked it up to “it’s a complex world and you have to pick your battles.” Plus, I really like sushi and tonkatsu and eel and karaage and chicken flautas and and and.
Over the past week, I’ve been overdosing on past episodes of the show Citizen Radio, hosted by comedian Jamie Kilstein and political writer Alison Kilkenny. They are both vegans and couch their veganism in terms of social justice. That’s a very compelling argument and one that, as I mentioned, I’ve been willfully ignoring. On a recent show, they interviewed the progressive punk band Rise Against. At the end of the interview, Alison and Jamie asked the band to recommend things they found inspiring, and one of the band members recommended the book Eating Animals
Why Not A Vegetarian?
I initially thought I’d become a vegetarian and then maybe move on to being a vegan. The more I read about the issues, though, the more vegetarianism seems to fall short of the mark from an ethical and social justice perspective. It’s nearly impossible in this country to get dairy products or eggs from a source other than factory farming. I’m slightly more ambivalent about folks who raise their own chickens in small numbers to collect their eggs. Some of my very closest friends do this and care deeply for their chickens. They treat them humanely and let them live natural lives. These people are certainly the exception, not the rule, however, so it’s easier for me to cut those things out completely. (There’s also the fact that even the most humane treatment involves caging animals, but I haven’t really reached an opinion on this yet.)
I also like the idea of limiting animal consumption in other ways than just food. Being a vegan can impact the clothes and chemicals I use and some of the social interactions I have, and it also fits well with my anti-corporate philosophy.
Now What?
Well, now I have a lot of learning to do. I bought a vegan cookbook and got quite a few other resource suggestions from Jenn Cornish. I also need to examine the other areas of my life and the other purchases I make to see what needs to be modified and what alternatives exist. Citizen Radio is sponsored by Vegan Essentials, which is one source of products (not just food) made to vegan standards.
I also need to find more vegetables that I like and more ways to prepare them. I’ve never been a huge veggie fan, so I’m looking forward to expanding my horizons. I already eat (and in some cases cook) a lot of Japanese food without meat or fish or chicken, and I’m also a big fan of Indian food. I hope to add some other cuisines to my diet as well.
Another book I’m reading, Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World (Tofu Hound Press)
tornado watch
the restaurant sign is lying
on its side on the sidewalk
we have no hatches to batten
in this city of weak wind
but the world is changing
and you don’t need a weatherman
to know the wind is stronger
I went backward on my bike today
with the wind like a wide-open palm
pushing again my chest
Inspired by Dave Bonta’s one-minute video poem, here’s my first-ever attempt at mixing video and poetry.
Here’s the text of the poem:
sideways world
I ride my bicycle in a sideways world
keeping my balance while the cars pass overhead
and the cars path beneath
I wear a helmet in case I should fall
though I don’t know in which direction
gravity would take me
I am the only inhabitant of this sideways world
everyone else appears to be walking
at a right angle to me
we don’t make eye contact
I asked you once to go for a ride with me
you tried, but you couldn’t balance
and so I ride by myself in this sideways world
looking for a sideways companion to join me
what we choose to remember
in the park on the hill
trees shade the monuments
to the dead, the killed
mottled sunlight hits the plumes
of a fountain, the breeze
carries mist down the hill
toward the center of the city
a man with twitching legs
smokes pot on a bench
in front of the courthouse
do this in memory of me
there’s a rainbow on the east side
of the fountain
I’m glad I don’t live here