Pumpkin Seeds: Countdown to 35 Sedition

1. I turn 35 in 26 days! If you order my gift now, Amazon's free shipping offer will get it here in plenty of time. :-) 2. I know it's wrong to take pleasure in others' drama, even in an I told you so situation, but if this is true, I can't help but be tickled pink. 3. In related news, I found out yesterday that I'm the only feature at next week's First Wednesday reading at the Blue Ox, which may mean some flexibility on the 20-minute set. Considering a good chunk of my "audience" will be regretting the money…

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Fun with form, thanks to Jeff Knight. Sonnet for Salomé I said to you then that “you complete me.” Though cliché, and stolen from a movie it nevertheless, remains true today. In the beginning, I was skeptical convinced there were hooks attached to strings and barbed wire fences on the horizon. As you sleep, I look for signs of regret and find only lust and satisfaction. Afterwards, your scent remains in my ear reverberating through fingers and palms a pulsing freestyle beat that curls my tongue. I lick my lips as a genuflection – you linger sweetly like ripe mango…

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For the last time…?

Truth or hyperbole? I've learned to never say never but in all likelihood, Wednesday, August 4th will be the last time I appear on stage as a featured poet. I fell into the slam scene on a lark back in the summer of 1997, competing in my first Friday night slam at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on August 8, 1997. In the years since, I've attended four National Poetry Slams, written a lot, met a lot of people, visited places I wouldn't have otherwise, got married, had two kids, returned to the Bronx [twice!], and tapped into a side of…

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Racists say the darndest things: "In the end it is an historical fact that if you mess with white people too much, they will destroy you."Because this quote came from a "friends-only" post on LiveJournal - excerpted from the reposting of an email sent to the LiveJournaler in question - I won't name the offender other than to say that he's a published author of genre fiction and not known to me personally.While his quote is ironically true - to a degree, as we know that, historically-speaking, white people haven't usually waited to be messed with before destroying someone - it's the context…

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PUMPKIN SEEDS: Short Weeks Feel Longer Edition

1. Sixth anniversary weekend was a big hit as we caught a couple of movies, had a great dinner with friends, hit a street fair, bought stuff and slept until 12:30pm on Sunday. I even got some Xbox and GameBoy time in. (Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay rawks! Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is one of the hardest games I've ever played.) Cool gifts were exchanged, including a belated autographed copy of Matt Ruff's Fool on the Hill. My own, thrice-read, beat-up paperback that Salomé mailed to Ruff to sign, which he did, and threw in a fresh, autographed copy…

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Democratic Party’s Identity Crisis

My issues with the Democratic Party Platform: Strong at Home, Respected in the World, aka Identity Crisis.

from the PREAMBLE

That is the America we believe in. That is the America we are fighting for. That is the America we will build together – one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Boilerplate, I know, but still annoying for it’s pandering to the south.

from A STRONG, RESPECTED AMERICA

Time and again, this Administration confuses leadership with going it alone and engagement with compromise of principle. They do not understand that real leadership means standing by your principles and rallying others to join you.

“Standing by your principles??!” How did that get in there when Prince Flip-Flop is at the top of the ticket?

Today, we face three great challenges above all others – first, to win the global war against terror; second, to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; and third, to promote democracy and freedom around the world, starting with a peaceful and stable Iraq.

Did anybody proofread this thing?  How did George Bush’s platform sneak in here?!?!

To meet these challenges, we need a new national security policy guided by four new imperatives:… Second, we must modernize the world’s most powerful military to meet the new threats.

That’s not a new imperative.  That’s business as usual!

from DEFEATING TERRORISM

With John Kerry as Commander-in-Chief, we will never wait for a green light from abroad when our safety is at stake, but we must enlist those whose support we need for ultimate victory… Democracy will not blossom overnight, but America should speed its growth by sustaining the forces of democracy against repressive regimes and by rewarding governments that work toward this end.

And this is different from Bush’s stance how?

We will attack the exploding opium trade ignored by the Bush Administration by doubling our counter-narcotics assistance to the Karzai Government and reinvigorating the regional drug control program.

Ah, the return of the war on drugs! What next? “Just say no!”

(more…)

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Pumpkin Seeds: Comic Book Roundup

1. These days, most comic books are written in story arcs of 3-6 issues; more for limited series. At best, this means fuller stories with more complex plotting and deeper characterization. At worst, it's filler and fluff. Typically, it's the worst that dominates the bookshelves and sales charts. 2. There are way too many X-Men-related titles coming out every month and the Reloaded stunt seems to have killed the only one - New Mutants - I was interested in. 3. Ultimate Fantastic Four: Like most things from the House of Ideas, I love the concept of their Ultimate line but have little…

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