Song Of The Day

Word Of The Day

crotchet \KROCH-it\, noun:

1. An odd fancy or whimsical notion.
2. A small hook.
3. In British musical nomenclature, a quarter note.
4. A curved surgical instrument with a sharp hook.

"The Wild haired Scientist threw one crotchet after another at me in hopes I could be persuaded to his own personal utopian vision of reincarnation and rebirth. The crazy fucker."

The Further Adventures of Lewis and Clark

So, what'd you do today?
                  For Lewis and Clark and the rest of the group one spring day they came upon some Buffalo carcasses where Buffalo had tried to cross the frozen river in winter and drowned when they broke thru. Judging by the tracks near the carcasses, grizzly bears had been feeding off the mess. They hadn't encountered one yet but many tribes have told them about the dangers of the grizzly bear, how warriors never fight one unless with six or seven other men and even then one man usually dies. Lewis and Clark witnessed tribes preparing to go attack a Grizzly, how they went thru elaborate dancing and prayer rituals, 'superstitions' as Lewis called them.
                 Then a few days later they wander thru areas that had been hunted by local tribes to the extent where they couldn't find live game for half a week. That soon changed when Captain Lewis shot and killed a dear. For dinner they had venison steak and beaver tails. I had spaghetti with a hot spicy red sauce and Italian Bread in my apartment in Astoria. Two French Beaver Trappers hopped a ride for a bit. They cruised the Missouri River in the spring when the land was alive with the sounds of nature and Only nature. Think it was all fun and games? One of the men stole a little whiskey from the barreled rations and when the Captains found out, he got 75 lashes across his bare back.

Water and the Journals of Lewis and Clark

                              
                                 As I was at my sink the other day letting the faucet fill my glass with cold water, I let some spill over and even set the glass down while the faucet continued to run and I thought, 'well that's wasteful' because I remembered back to the book I'm currently reading; 'the Journals of Lewis and Clark' and how at times the men in the expedition as they studied the land in Southern Minnesota or South Dakota were desperately thirsty. When they got back to their main boat(keelhaul) and resumed their path up the Missouri River (they don't call it the 'muddy river' for nothing) several of the men came down with dysentary. This also had to do with their lack of vegetables probably but still. I'm only about 100 pages in. Sacagewea hasn't even showed up yet but already you get the feeling that for what we take for granted without question was for them at times an extremely laborious and difficult task; to drink fresh water day in and day out.
                                  Though that was just one of many challenges the explorers faced it was perhaps the most vital. After all, we humans Need water to live. There was no Coke or Gatorade or Paul Newman's Lemonade or Vitamin Water or Walmarts to stock up on plastic bottles of water back then. No Snapple either. Really, no Snapple? Really. Most of the time it was the mighty and muddy Missouri River and its tributaries. Two Hundred and Seven Years later, in the heat of Summer I can go to the faucet and let it run until it gets cold. I can watch the water go down the drain and then quench my thirst. Or I can go to the fridge and pour forth a delicious river of my own. It is called Minute Maid Tropical Punch and I can drink it cold right out of the carton. It reminds me to think of the expression, "Nectar of the Gods", as I do.

Song Of The Day

On Being Without a Cell Phone For Almost a Full week

    

            

                     At first, of course, you feel liberated. That annoying appendage has been sheared off and once again you feel free, breezy, like a child tossing himself into the wind. (It was especially nice Not to have the phone jammed in my pocket during the MAN MAN show where I was in the middle throb of the gleeful yet borderline violent shoving and bouncing crowd.) (Incidentally, they are the best live band in America right now I think with maybe the exception of 'Of Montreal'.) So a few days pass and then one day you are walking in Greenpoint with an urge to call your best friend who lives in Portland. Shit. No phone. Or you're on the train here in Queens and you want to check in with the family back in Ohio-- Shit. No phone. But you move on with your day and its fine. The next day you wake and at some point you remember how lonely a person could feel back in the days before cell phones. You had totally forgotten. Back then, when you needed some ones attention, when you needed that human contact, you had no choice but to deal with it on your own. Does anyone remember this? And I don't just refer to the times before cell phones-- but to how utterly stuck with ourselves we once were. I certainly do not mean loneliness in general but that particular feeling is gone from our way of being these days for better or worse. So by the fifth day without a cell phone you begin craving it. Maybe not like a meth head yet. But maybe like a pothead. You begin picking yr. nails and wondering what people in your life who live far away are doing at various moments. Then the next day you wonder what the hell bullshit is UPS up to and why the fuck they have not delivered you your new phone  when it was supposed to have arrived three days ago.  You curse ashes and postcards. You see phantom brown UPS trucks with flames and clown faces painted on their sides. You hear squirrels out yr. window mocking you and your contemporary human need for such things. You read somewhere that Doctors now know cell phones may cause cancer. You don't care. And so you wait like a miserable fiend or a disgruntled child. Cars and trucks pass outside without stopping as you sit down at the computer and pray to the Gods of the Internet.