The Mimosa Effect 2

axis of view / axis of you

When the currents went against gravity
she was always on the swings
(the magical element of water:
shades of blue & grey, wet & leaves)
I’m trying to find out
what the dots represent
melted into aggregates
expansion of complexity
(but only as a fallback)
he knew the material was toxic
(but not how it would break down over time)
he was controlling the vibrations
trying to fool the seismic interpreter
sink holes a result of drilling in playgrounds
he never listens when they say
that viewer discretion is advised
to blink or not to blink is a matter of survival
(everyone knows that angels move faster)
you speak of collaboration but
this feels more like tyranny
I think I should get to use
the wild card for something wild
(but that might mark the end
before we’ve even begun)

- T.H. (more found poetry here)

I snapped a few photos while I was on the road going to and coming from Goderich for the Celtic Roots Festival & Celtic College, back in August of this year.  Thought it was about time I posted a few here.  This first batch was taken from the bridge overlooking the river valley on the outskirts of the town, on my way back to the B&B where I was staying. (Click on the pics to get a bigger hi-rez version.)  I believe this was the first day of the festival.  You’ll notice a distinct lack of people or instruments – I was far too busy playing harp or singing (either in class or at the awesome late-night jam sessions) to bother pulling out my camera, unless it was to film one of my teachers demonstrating a particularly tricky musical bit.

It’s the epitome of a beautiful fall day outside, and what have I been doing for the past hour and a half?  More damage control on the Harp Blog, one of my WordPress sites that was recently hacked.  I had already wallowed through a mess of tedious tasks getting it cleaned up (about a month ago now), only to discover today that the hack was far more malicious than I had previously thought.  It turned out that the junk spam code had been inserted into every single one of the Harp Blog posts (!!!).  So my fun job today has been to go through and delete all non-essential posts, and clean up any remaining posts.  Since the Harp Blog is an informational site, I was reluctant to just nuke everything and start over – there are all sorts of things I wanted to keep (beginner tips, free print music, harp pics, you get the idea).  Thankfully about half of the posts were expendable (obsolete links to events that are long since past, and so on).  The most insidious part being, the only way the spam code is visible is in html mode – so it wasn’t apparent just by looking at the site.  It was sheer dumb luck that I decided to go in and edit one of my earlier posts.  Hopefully this will be the last of it!  (grrr, argh)

At least we got to enjoy the first part of the day – Miss Kitty Fantastico’s first day out! (supervised of course, on a harness and leash – pics will be up on Magpie’s site soon).  Her brothers were both out too, so she had great fun chasing them around (with us in tow) and generally romping in the vast outdoorsiness that is our rambling backyard (okay, vast for a kitten, maybe; otherwise relatively normal sized).  I’m still hoping to get a Saturday Scribes writing post up later today, if my fingers and shoulders aren’t totally dead (my wrists are already going numb).  First, a well-deserved break in the sunshine, then it’s back to the grind – after making more coffee.

Update 5:06pm: In total, 40 posts + 4 pages rescued, 44 posts deleted

I dreamed I saw Gabriel
holding a Tommy gun
who knew he fought gangsters
in his spare time (yo)
his eyes changing colour in the
shifting light (sideways)
he walks through the mist like
some dime-store cowboy, like
an anime demon hunter
black coat flapping in the breeze
breaking the rhythm with his
thrift store army boots
scars cover his body like
a maze of tattoos, his
story etched in blood and skin
and ink dark as sin (word)
shedding light, leaking goodness
into darkest corners, from
countless ancient wounds, he’s
an avenger, and a saviour, and
a damn good shot, so you’d
best be on your game, boy
he can see right through your soul
if he lays his healing hands upon you
you’ll never be the same, so you’d
better run, run and hide
‘cuz luck is something you ain’t got
when god is on the other side.
(peace
/out)

- T.H. (inspired by the Saturday Scribes picture & headline prompts; also partially responsible: having just watched the first season of Prison Break on DVD, followed by roughly half of the low-budget Australian auteur genre flick “Gabriel” (2007), and the fact that it’s after 2 a.m.)

I sometimes imagine
I’m flying with crows
over autumn fields
and deep river valleys
telephone wires catching
the last of the evening sun
shining white mercurial fire
against the slate dark sky
hills lying like a giant’s body
elbows crooked, cradling a head of stone
how long does it take
for a forest to grow up and cover
this still sleeping form?
I don’t believe in miracles
or divine intervention
the universe is what it is
but if I could find the market
where they sell time
I’d find the merchant with the cold, dead eyes
the one who never smiles
and while his back was turned , I’d steal
as much as I could carry
it’s not fair, getting old
I want to reinvent myself
every day
want to disappear
in a crowd of twenty-somethings
ravers, curb-sitters, students & slackers
I want to go to a Coldplay concert
and not look like somebody’s mom
I can still cheat at this game
(no grey hairs yet)
but I walk hand in hand
with a boy
trapped in a grown man’s body
only it’s crazy to think
of our friends in their forties
like holding back the surging tide
(we can’t be that old, we just can’t be)
I hold onto 36 like it’s a ledge that’s crumbling
I want to reach out and strangle time
want to steal more than I’m allowed
I have so much more I want to do
but someone cut the brake lines
and here I am, reaching out for anything
to grab onto, to stop this insane headlong rush
I’d write myself a thousand lifetimes
if I could.

- T.H. (in Perth, ON, while listening to Coldplay Live 2003)

The Dr. Horrible soundtrack is now available for download. Huzzah! Now I can have the songs stuck in my head 24 hrs a day. … Just finished downloading. Currently listening to “My Freeze Ray.” For some reason I have this overwhelming compulsion to join the Evil League of Evil.

Speaking of which, fun bit of legalese for the day, from the iTunes license agreement:

THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Wow. And I was just about to try playing my new Belle & Sebastian MP3’s using my heart rate monitor, while simultaneously trying to land a Boeing 747 on the airstrip outside of Chalk River. What was I thinking?