Yesterday,
between heavy showers and depressing newsflash from Indonesia, I drove 33 miles up highway 1 to Ana Nuevo State Reserve to look for elephant-seals. Most access ways to the beach had been closed because of the winterstorms, so I stood most of the time glazing and nauseous from the vastness and size of the Pacific. The sea was still but black only scattered dots of gold from the sun trying to break through the clouds queing up for another attack. It almost looked as if the sea said "I`m sorry, I`m ashamed...", but then I remembered that I heard a telltale: That in some parts of Mexico, the locals calls the Pacific for the "sea without memory", and therefore: it would never be ashame, I mean ofcourse it wouldn`t, but the telltale: The precision was sickening, it takes the lives of 125000 people, and then forget about it! And another thing hit me: the title of an Manfred Mann album: The Roaring Silence. This was it. Never had I felt the silence so...righteous, because what can you say? But then again the outcry, the aftermath should be an awakening.
Looking for shelter and a discret place to smoke a cigarette, I found a path leading to the beach. Crossing an abandoned old bridged, once a part of highway one, down some slippery steps, was the beach, and there - behind a dune, a 2 ton elephnat seal. At first I thought it was dead, but it soon started yawning and scracthing it`s belly: so layed back, so out of touch. A creek divided the strip of beach in two. I repaired hole in a dam some boys had been building, using seaweed and debris. I closed the hole. Found some strange looking rocks in the creek. The patterns, the line in the stones looks like somebody dripping paint on them, resembling the Jackson Pollock routines. The elephnatseal, the creek, the dam, the rocks: small things that made sense, a feeble attempt, but...sense: it is so much your own doing, because sometimes the world is just to big to give a shit about you. The forces, the determination. The curse of intelligence, it is none of our doing.

a day of silence in an attempt to grasp the tsunami disaster and excuse me for being corny: If 9.11 kicked off the international war against terror could these apocalyptic days be the closing argument to lift-off the long-awaited international war on poverty?

but hush...

one word: monoculture.

and some words ind danish: http://www.leksikon.org/art.php?n=1769

At the movies:

www.nordkraftfilmen.dk

another opening i`m gonna be missing out on. Now its up to you in-crowders to do the scandal, to attract the attention of the papparazzi. i expect at least one shot in the local tabloids...

today,
a ride to Pinnacles National Park. Escape forward in divided flocks...23 million year old rocks does that to you. Your minds wander off, the earth and space stands open, just one step to oblivion.

feeling educational. klikken sie hier:
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/Parks/pinnacles/pinnacles.html

today,
the day xmas came and went, I went up to three mile creek to watch the surf. A beautiful swell, the waves came in in set of threes, the pelican racing the winds in front of the break, dolphins cutting the surface, the sun and sand warm enough to lie back and meditate on the endings of all things.

ASK THE BRAIN -5

Thought I might contribute to our quiz:
Name of third world national leader who was at war with a major western power (plenty to choose from...) and said:

"You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it"

(Hint: the philosophy points to a part of the world where the individual is of less importance...)

Its gotta be said, so here`s a sample:
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kind Kwanzaa, Rockin' Ramaadan, Delightful Diwali, Super Spring Festival, Wonderful Winter Solstice and Saturnalia, and then the best in the new year, which would be respectively, 2005 (birth of JC), 5765 (beginning of creation), 142 (emancipation proclamation), 1383 (Mohammad moves to Medina), 5107 (Krishna dies), 4702 (Yellow Emperor starts ruling), 2758 (Romulus founds Rome). Happy Mary Fucking Everything.

Oh no not the gun-issue,
and fuck that because I can’t do the math, it’s going to be short and scattered – it exempts my logistic abilities. But, here`s my dilemma: What makes a war a war?
Firstly: The course for which it is fought, and secondly the number of fatalities that keeps the reasoning at hand, and thirdly an excessive presence of arms and related industries.
The piece of math I couldn`t do would have consisted some of the following set factors: The death toll of American GI`s in the Iraq-war – which today reached 1321, and the death toll of dead Americans killed by guns on domestic American soil, which statistics marks at 30.000 per year (including suicides, lawful protection or accidents)

The unknown factors would be:

An argument for going to war in Iraq was to eradicate the Baath-party, though single-handedly ruled by Sadaam Hussein, non the less constituting a system that over the last two decades has killed in the neighbourhood of 250,000 people, some same up to a million or more…Fair enough. The bully had to go, one way or the other.

Any potential US engagement in any foreign country taking the lives of 30.000 Americans per year would create a national and international rampage. Most definitely such an engagement would be called a war, and would – besides the sorrows and yellow ribbons and a fully erect military industrial complex – be taken seriously, that is: grab the evil by the root, smoke it out of the cave.

But: with 30.000 Americans dead by means of weapons on domestic American soil, 90.000 since 9.11 2001, 600.000 in the same two decades that Hussein rocked the boat in Iraq, do we hear anybody claiming that America is at war with America? Not blaming the system only, but not ruling it out either, the ideal America is imposing is battered beyond beyond.
Its old news, its sad but true, its pure math. I love you but I have to kill you.

today,
while I`m busy guiding family through the vicinity and sights of SC an busy collecting facts on a piece of math which is absolutely not my stronghold, but nontheless, an important issue in the ..., and maybe the posting you have been waiting for, namely: when is he gonna write about the american gun-craze? Hold your horses, I`m coming, but while waiting, this little note from a local freebee newspaper:

MALL WALKING: Walk for health, fitness and fun in a safe environment. Ongoing Mon-fri 9-10:30 a.m Capitola Mall.

ABOUT “ASK THE BRAIN”:

Again, we have a winner. Lennard Grahn takes first but sure win in "ASK THE BRAIN" part 4: The correct answer was Charles Darwin, and not Sai Baba, Buddha, Jason Priestly or Jens August Schade, but funky old evolutionist: Darwin, the guy with the Apes.

And now I`m at it. I`ve been asked: “what`s with the quiz, isn`t that just too plain stupid and oldschool…? I just google the question and get the answer…”
Well, it`s oldschool, but educational, and its true to the all American hearsay: First to come, first served.
But moreover: The quiz is also an acknowledgement of the true competitive spirit of homo sapiens, and an attempt, while in the States, to integrate another all-american fact of life in the general structure of my thinking: When in Rome, act like the Romans.

today,
enough talk. Let`s shop!

today,
beat and the most interesting accomplishment will be driving to the german butcher Ditmer in Mountainview and pick 5 kilograms of pork for the loving spirit of christmas time, then hit the 101 to San Bruno and San Francisco International Airport just in time to pick up 5 family offsprings.
So if silence hits notes of a second rate poet over the next three weeks it`s due to overconsumption...

But however: We launch part 4 of the Flottenheimer Quiz "ASK THE BRAIN". Here we go. Who said:

It is difficult to believe in the dreadul but quiet war of organic beings going on in the peaceful woods and smiling fields....

the prize this time is a a pack of "I love my Penis" chewing gum, and the "Gaybreath" lipstick that got declined by the winner of "ASK THE BRAIN" part 3. Post your answer as a comment. If you are new to this site and quiz, remember to leave your email adress or snailmail adress.

I`ll be damned,
busy danish writer takes second win in The Flottenheimer Quiz "Ask The Brain".

The answer was correctly John Forsythe who played Blake Carrington in "DYNASTY".

WHY THIS secondrate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS part 31:

As this is posting number 31 in the on-going I found it necessary to line up the foundation, the wider perspective of my heartfelt hate. I know its late, but is should never be too late. When you hit 30 and more is my piss point, you got to make sense:

The apparent goal of international trade negotiations is to safeguard multinational corporate investments by eliminating regulatory control by nation/states and local governments. They call it: MAI: The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and are plans to set in place a vast series of protections for foreign investment. It would threaten national sovereignty by giving corporations – BIG BUSINESS – nearly equal rights to those of nations. MAI delegates from an estimated 30 of the world’s richest nations have been meeting in France for the last decade. A draft of their work surfaced I 1997. More wide reaching than NAFTA or GATT, MAI would thrust the world economy much closer to a transnational laissez-faire system where international corporate capital would hold free reign over the democratic wishes and sociecnomic needs of people, not The People, but people!
Pushed by, in particular the International Chamber of Commerce and US Council on International Business, the major goal of MAI is to safeguard direct foreign investments, defines broadly as encompassing any assets: factories, products, services, currency, stocks, etc., -which may be located in one country but owned by another. US direct foreign investments have more than doubled within the last decade.
Foreign investments often involve enormous risks, mostly in developing countries where the social, political and economic climate is not always as conductive to foreign investments as the corporations would like. Governments have commonly a tax system at hand, tariffs and subsidies favouring the home economy. These provision shrink foreign profit and reduce the dollar amount can haul out of the host country.
The MAI agreement requires a national treatment for all foreign investors. National governments will no longer be able to treat domestic firms more favourably than foreign firms. It will be illegal to implement restrictions on what foreign firms can own. Subsidy programs focused on assisting and developing domestic industries will be eliminated. Host nations will also be liable and can be sued by corporations for lost competitiveness and profits.
Moreover the MAI could also have devastating impact on different nations legal, environmental and cultural sovereignty. It could force nations to relax(!) and nullify human, environmental and labour protection in order to attract investments. Necessary measures such as food subsidies, control of land speculation, agricultural reforms, the implementation of health and environmental standards can be challenged as “illegal” under the MAI. This same illegality is extended to community control of forests, local bans of pesticides and hormineinduced foods, clean air standards, limits on mineral, gas and oil extraction, and bans on toxic dumping.
In general: The MAI will undermine the capacity of local communities and governments to govern sustainly and according to the democratic tradition.

In his book “The five mysteries of Capital” (2000) Hernando de Soto writes as a comment to the MAI negotiations and the parallel riots in Seattle and Washington DC, 1999:
“…many has begun recalling the economic historian Karl Polanyi`s warnings that the free market ultimately can collide with society and lead to fascism (…..) These whispers of alarm, disturbing though they are, have thus far only prompted American and European leaders to repeat to the rest of the world the same wearisome lectures: Stabilize your economy, hang tough, ignore the food riots, and wait patiently for the foreign investors to return.”
In other words: Work harder, run faster, buy more stuff!! The mercy of Big Business or just the Mercy Seat?

This and other postings in the on-going… is inspired by the following:

The Republican Noisemachine: David Brock (2004)
The Five Mysteries of Capital: Hernado de Soto (200)
Lead Us into Temptation: James B. Twitchell (1999)
I Want That: Thomas Hine (2002)
Steeling Innocence: Henry A. Giroux (2000)
RAMPAGE, The social roots of school shootings in America: Katherine S. Newman (2002)
Globalisation: Zygmunt Bauman (2001)
San Francisco Chronicle: www.sfgate.com
And various website hits. Google this (!): Multilateral Agreement on Investment (670.000 hits)

more to come...

THE FLOTTENHEIMER QUIZ: “ASK THE BRAIN” part 3:

Which American actor played the detective Alvin Dewey, closing the case on the two mindless drifters in the 1967 Richard Brooks movie “In Cold Blood” (based on Truman Capote’s novel), and was later to become world famous for his part as an patriarch in a 1980s state of the art soap-opera?

The prize this time is a pack of “Instant Afro Chewing Gum” and a “Gaybreath” lipstick as a compensation for the Leary-stickers, which was out of stock.

post your answers as comments.

today,
I also learned a new word. Put into a linguistic context - see if you can spot it- a sentece could go:

114 days into my stay here I`m at a nadir in terms of social encounters. Where The Beatles in "Come Together" sang of "hair down to my toes" or was it "between my toes"; well, I`ve got them both, only it`s my tits.

tomorrow: a new quiz and more serious stuff in the on-going...

today,
for the inescapable social determinism of christmas and all you parents outthere, this quatation from Consumer Union Education Services: If notning new, then another elaboration, a cum-shot, a facial and an anal:

School is the ideal time to influence attitudes, build long-term loyalties, introduce new products, test markets, promote sampling and trial usage and - above all - to generate immediate sales.

Do I have to say that this posting goes out as part 30 in the on-going soap called WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS. But there, I said it, didn`t I?

today,
a comment to Lennard, because his log do not have a comment function:
reality? that`s why we have drugs!
As a friend of mine once said: reality is just a crutch for those who can`t cope on drugs.

Today,
Some scattered attempts to make sense out it all. Firstly, the FLOTTENHEIMER QUIZ “ASK THE BRAIN” part 2, was won by none. The answer to the question was: Michel Crozier. If you are not familiar with him look him up. It’s worth the effort. This weeks prize is thus included in the bundle of joy you can win if you participate in the next round of “ASK THE BRAIN…” Info on that one will be coming shortly.

Secondly: If you an illiterate, klikken sie hier: www.goog.dk/flash/abc.php , and when you have done that and learned to read and write, read the novel “NORDKRAFT” by danish writer Jakob Ejersbo, kick back and await the opening of the movie und klikken sie hier: www.nordkraftfilmen.dk

Thirdly: Some good news from the world of BIG BUSINESS, which makes this feeble posting number 29 in the on-going soap called WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS, which coincide with my buddy Lennard equivalent called “ART IN BUSINESS SPÀCES…”
Thomas Kinked, aka “The painter of light” have scorched American taste over the last decade with his reproductions, is experiencing a setback. Thomas Kinkade Gallery’s have so far, as any mainstream franchise-million dollar business, popped up nationwide.
Oscar Wilde once said that “there is only good art, and there is bad art”, thus in my humble opinion pointing out that taste entirely an individual thing to judge, and therefore I feel absolutely free to say that Thomas Kincaide`s – I wouldn’t even called it art – but e art the most hideous production ever to have surfaced. I am then strongly opposed by the millions of people who have purchased his art. I am strongly opposed by the fact, that outside San Francisco, near Vallejo, a full town is being built in his image. I am strongly opposed by the fact that he during a one-hour appearance on TV-shop sold for more than a million dollars worth of..art.
My hate though is strongly fuelled by the fact that he is a born again Christian, a loudmouth supporter of El Presidente: He is in my opinion what you very well could call an art-predator, an art-molester.
Why I mention this: Because the local Thomas Kinkade Galley in Santa Cruz is closing down, the demand is diminishing. That`s the good news

don`t explain, aber klikken sie hier: www.thomaskinkade.com

Today,
the very day the bodycount of dead American GI´s reached 1301, George Tenet, the longtime director of central intelligence, who built the case for going to war is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this nations highest civilian honor, as did General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the invasion of Iraq, and Paul Brenner, the chief civilian administrator of the US occupation of the country.

As vulgar as it seems to honor someone for something, that is perceived El Presidentes strongest doing - to honor the success of a war, whose outcome is still a question, is as easy it would be, if I stated that the 1301 dead Americans would post as 1301 good reasons WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS, which would have taken the number of postings through the roof to a staggering part 1328.
But honoring the dead GI`s I`ll leave this posting as counting for one, thus taking the actually number of postings to part 28 in the never ending story…

is he dead and forgotten?: http://img.kelkoo.com/pdb/22301/cds/img08187.jpg

THE FLOTTENHEIMER QUIZ : "ASK THE BRAIN" - PART 2:

I was working on a list of books I`ve used writing these postings, when I fell upon this quote which I for a day or more will leave on the blog in danish, untill the translation (and the list) is done to uphold my ambivalent ambition of getting through to an international market: And for those of you who didnt get a chance of answering yesterdays competition, won by Jakob Ejersbo, take a wild guess on who said this:

I ethvert struktureret og organiseret kollektiv tilhører førerpositionen de enheder, som slører deres egen situation og gør deres transaktioner uigennemskuelige for udenforstående – samtidig med at de holder hinanden informerede – ingen blinde pletter og ingen overraskelser. Strategien for enhver eksisterende eller kommende sektor i hele den moderne verdens bureaukratier består altid og konsekvent i bestræbelsen på at frigøre egne hænder og pression for at indføre strenge og nøjeregnende regler for alle andres opførsel inden for organisationen. Størst indflydelse får den sektor, som formår at gøre sin egen adfærd til den ubekendte i de ligninger, som andre sektorer opstiller for at foretage deres valg – mens den med held holder de andre sektorers adfærd konstant, regulær, og forudsigelig. Med andre ord, de enheder der formår at holde andre enheder i usikkerhed, udøver den største magt. Håndteringen af usikkerhed er essensen og den væsentligste faktor i kampen for magt og indflydelse.

The prize this time is a sticker with Timothy Leary`s famous words: Tune in, turn on, drop out. Post your answer as a comment to this posting.

Today,
Some second rate notes on incidents that relate to an earlier posting (november 24th, part 12) in the on-going soap called WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS, this one being part 27:

Around Thanksgiving I was poor, and as I posted it then, that is a very good reason not to be head over heels in love with Big Business. I was poor and poverty is embarrassing and paralyzing. I was poor and I was out of cigarettes. Two things that is not a sociological surprise in The States; being poor and a passionate smoker, but nonetheless: I needed my smokes, and I’ll be damned not to get them.
I had about 3 dollar and 75 cents in coins, that’s about 140 coins because I was down to counting one-cent and five-cent pieces, and 2 dollar 16 cent, sitting on my debit-card. I took the car down to the local Seven Eleven Foodstore(!), on the mercy of big business reluctant to shop there, but that was as far as the car would take me, running really low on fuel. When you are poor, it’s hard to uphold your principles.
Once in the shop not wanting to disclose my poverty to the afro-American woman at the register, I asked for a pack of American Spirit Lights, and ran my card through the slit.
And no surprise to me: the display says: “Declined”.
“Let me just try again” I told her, and I did, and it did. The card was declined again. “I don’t understand. I’m awaiting a transfer from Europe, and it should have gone through…like…days ago” I lie in total self-denial. I’m ordering the transfer tomorrow, and only threw in the Europe fact to deroute the focus of my situation.
“You know what, let me just run to the ATM-machine on the other side of the street to see if it looks different.”
I actually did it, and I almost believed that it would look different, but I knew very well that it didn’t, I was in other word HOPING that it did, knowing that it WOULDN`T and it didn’t. No tengo dinero!
The three dollars and seventy-five cents I meticulously had counted before leaving and left in the car in a plastic bag, were just waiting to picked up and spend. And so it goes: I picked up the coins in the car, which I wouldn’t even call money, and went back into the shop.
“Well, the money hadn’t come, but if you would be very patient with me, I’ve got my parkometer coins here, and I think if I count them, it’ll pay a pack of smokes..”
“No problem” said the clerk, and I emptied the bag on the counter, just as about a group of people entered the shop, and lined up behind me. I had counted as long as 2 dollar 80 cents, and piled the coins up, when the sweat started to drip. I looked at the price tags under different pack of smokes and saw the cheapest, a pack of Gold Coast: 2,79.
“Allright, give me a pack of those” I said and pointed to the Gold Coasts.
“Which?” says the clerk, and brings out a pack of Chesterfield, 3,89 dollars, from the rack next to the Gold Coasts.
“No, no, the ones left…”
“Oh, the cheep ones…-of course…sorry” she says.
“No problem” I reply, as I get the pack and scrape the rest of the coins into the bag. I leave the shop stumbling, pushes the door instead of pulling, though it says PULL on a big sticker. Once outside I rip the pack open, not having smoked for hours. The smoke is good, but loose, and disappears in 6 drags. A one-minute fag to ease the long pain of being poor.

A week later when the money had finally come through I went back to the same shop to buy more smokes and in that sense expecting to prove my credibility to the same clerk: I`m not poor. It was a freak situation. But she wasn`t working.
Instead it was this incredibly fat, toothless woman, who almost took my craving for a glassy donut and a cup of coffee away. On the counter lay a laminated pricelist stating the many prices of different donuts, which I by accident push of the counter with my coffeecup. The woman then picks it up places it on the counter again and with a smile saying.
“Oh you guys! All you wanna do is to see me bend over….”

I havn`t shopped there since.

We have a winner! Congratulations. The right answer was Karl Marx.
A postcard is on its way.

WHY THIS secondrate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS part 26:

Back from a lazy, unproductive, drunk and shitfaced weekend, we at Flottenheimer are back, and dare you - whoever - with a little competetion to sparkle up a good start on your week. Who said the following on the ways of development?.

"The bourgeoisie, by rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian nations into civilazation. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls...It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image."

You answers can be posted as comments and the winner will be rewarded with a postcard from America!

Paper, gunpowder, rice and now this.... Though in the past China holds the future.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996759

Yesterday,
I was running through the paper to find out which movie I should go see today, instead of wanking off in front of the computer. Weekends are quality-time, ¨meaning family and soloactivities. Though I hate the concept per se, it is an unescaple part of the post nuclear family thing. Well, I wanted to go se Christian Bale in "The Machinist" - I liked his performance in "American Psycho", - but it hadn`t opened yet in any of the local cinemas. Then I noticed something odd. Going through the reviews, I saw that every one ended with a little advisory about the language and other issues in the films, among them ofcourse sex.
About OCEANS TWELVE the advisory goes: This film contains sexual situations and adult language.
About BEAR CLUB: This film contains sexual situations.
About SHORTCUT TO NIRVANA: This films contains nudity.
About: WWD (Weapons of mass destruction): There are graphic images of wounded childen.

I didn´t go. I liked to be surprised by sex and dirty language. I don`t want to be FUCKING warned. But I would like to know why so many FUCKING issues in the country is about religion, sex and race?
It is, by far, one of the most surpressed sexual cultures. It`s really strange as the sex-drive here, the pursuit for perfection is so strong. But maybe that`s it. Sex is too natural, body make-overs, plasticsurgery aren`t. Religion, well as I concluded, has sold it`s soul to Big Business. Race: I don`t know. On that one I will not yet burn my bridges so I leave it there, unattended...oop does that ring a bell? Oh FUCK YES!

So now, tonight I stay at home: Anybody outthere wants to FUCK a pale european with a heart and soul not as white as it looks, a total lack of faith, and a dirty tongue with which he can tie a knot on a cherry-top?

A few years back the Santa Cruz City Council had an ambition to clean the streets, parks, parking lots and of homeless, drunks, punks, freaks and what not. Over the years Santa Cruz have become a safe haven for such, due to the fact the City one of the few places in the states having something that resembles a social consciousness, a definite remnant of the 60ties. The campaign failed, and was met by a protest campaign called “Keep Santa Cruz weird”. And it was kept weird. Here are some of the day to day types you bump into asking for a bit of your time and money:

The militant Pan-flute-player, the ultimate juxtaposition:
All dressed up in camouflage-gear he plays an aggressive speed-pan flute with leg-coreographi as Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. He doesn’t get my money, and I didn`t get his picture. But heres someone who looks almost like him, the pose that is - not the outfit. http://www.themusicindex.com/rockahead/interviews/ian_anderson2003a.jpg

Robert:
“The umbrella man” or the “Slow walker”; aint no sunshine when he’s gone, I want some of his LSD! He must be the friendliest man on earth. Twice a day he walks up and down Pacific Road, the mainstreet of this here city, in a never-seen-before persistent slowpace - step by step. He`s up against the highspeed world he says, and he is being noticed: At Halloween, noless than 15 people in the streetparade had dressed up like him. 5 dollars. http://www.lg-c.dk/flottenheimer/blogger/november0001.JPG

Adam:
the 6 pack halfnude toothless viet-vet: just plain fucked up and intimidating. Gave him 50 cents in a thrift store if that can keep his pants up, and thats where the fun stops there: no picture pleaaaaaaase. You don`t wanna see it..

The Cadillac Blonde:
She is all tits, we are talking D-sized-no-implants breed-on-fat, but the tattoo saying “Cadillac” across them, visible because she wears lowcut sweaters or open shirts. 20 years old, she dosnt get my money. It`s not too late for a mc-job, because tattoos are the norm more than not, so that’s not an excuse. Sorry no photo. Wasn`t up for the beating.

The Ghost of Cobain: http://www.lg-c.dk/flottenheimer/blogger/merenovember0001.JPG Fashion! Turn to the right! 1 dollar for the snapshot.

The Mexican Fiddler: a dollar for even trying. http://www.lg-c.dk/flottenheimer/blogger/november0004.JPG

And that’s just scratching the surface….

One more go on religion and I will kick back and relax as recommended - in an attempt to enjoy the ambience of the true christmas spirit, in this city of Santa Cruz, which for the last three years have won the national race for being the most lit-up-city-by-outdoor-christmas-decorations. Seeing is believing.

But:
Why is religion currently to be identified with economy?
There are 3 significant features.
1: With the free market religion has changed and is now anchored in three specific capitalist characteristics: competition between religion and churches, commodification and choice. This makes it a part of market economy.
2: Religious ethics makes people choose economics, that is, religion determines economic decisions.
3: The sacredness of religion is applied to the understanding of economy.

And this concludes part 25 of WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN`T LOVE BIG BUSINESS.

I`d rather be the devil than creeping to the cross...

WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN`T LOVE BIG BUSINESS part 24:

The on-going soap was fuelled by this short announcement in San Jose Mecury News today:

Fremont police will shop today with 20 children, who will be given a 100 dollars to buy gifts for themselvess and their families at a Target store.
The first annual Shop with a Cop event is sponsored by the Police Officers Association, the Mission San Jose Rotary and Target.
The children, ranging in age from 8 to 13 will be chauffeured to the store in police cars. Present will be gift-wrapped. Everyone will be served lunch courtesy of McDonald`s. Police dogs, motorcycle officers and a visit from Santa Claus are a few of the other attractions for the children.

conflation? it goes without saying.

It was with great pleasure I read todays posting at "Don´t ask me I just work here". Thank you Lennard for the comment if it was headed it this direction, and: that`s what I`ve been getting at: The selling of Christianity.
It is not so much the individual doing the christian thing, as it is christianity putting itself up for sale as any commodity. Result: Religion fills the same void as shopping, hence the 64 congregations, the 326 phonenumers I mentioned some days back, and what not.

The road home goes through the church or the Mall to the sizzling BBQ. Either way, the sudden smell of burning flesh...

the mindset of a religious shop-a-holic:

you have questions about politics
you have question about your eligibility
you need to report vandalism
you are having an ongoing problem with your neighbour
you want to go to the playing field but you are too old
you want an apartment waitlist application
you are having problems meeting society`s requirements
you are not sure of community resources
you need to talk to someone who understands
you lose your keys
you need a rental payment plan
you need to see The Manager
you want a pet
you are having a pest control problem
you want to make a change
you need your fire extinguisher replaced
you need to report laundry room flaws
you notice suspicious persons
you are locked out of your apartment
you have an emergency

due to constructionwork todays posting is prosponed till tomorrow. in the meantime, check the similarities between these two words: vejarbejde : wirebiter

New Boots and Panties.

Hello all, a small message from the administrator (Lennard) about some new stuff here at the blog:

1) - Nope, there was nothing wrong with the mushrooms you bought from that Estonian guy, the title of this blog HAS changed to : Notes of s second rate poet.

2) - "You talking to me?!?"
have something to say about what's written here on the blog?
well, why don't you just use the brand new "comments" link right there under each posting, and don't forget to leave your e-mail so we can direct tons of spam and hate-mail to your mailbox
(tip: leave your work e-mail and let your employer pay for the anti-virus software and spam filters)

Sunday:
I forgot that I, among at least 1000 people and a 1000 reasons, pointed out the conflation between state and church, was in fact a fact, the conflation between state and big business is in fact a fact called liberal democracy, therefore on this lazy sunday the last three posting are hereby announced to be parts 20 - 23 in the on-going soap called: WHY THIS secondrate poet DOES`T LOVE BIG BUSINESS.


let your pencil do the talking, baby! klikken sie hier
http://jesusoftheweek.com/

I guess what I getting at is really this: Fuck Hope! It`s so in the future. It`s so numb, paralyzing. It so out of your hands, it is stigmatizing. It`s wanting it but not actually expecting it to happen or doing anything to make it happen. It`s the pillow of religion, the prayers, the destiny, the determination, the guilttrips. Could that be what caused such a segmentation I mentioned earlier today. If your hopes doesn`t cash in at one God, or Church you go find another? And another? The more churches the less room for other beliefs with in a beilef? I think so, so fuck it. I do not underestimate the results and help that individuals through the cause of time have gained from believing or hoping or praying, I`m accusing religion of being an impossible task, I`m saying unity is a fucking illusion, I`m saying it`s all about food. Eating is the root of religion nd democracy, and you got to keep your congregation full to keep them hoping and praying - and that sucks.

I’d been working up a serious pain in my back, maybe due to the fact that I stated in an earlier posting, that I have become a net junkie. Or maybe because I seriously, or just plain pathetic, strained my ankle in a tennis-workout about two months ago, and it never really healed, which a chiropractor told me was the most likely reason, trying to convince me from her stand at “alternative day” at campus. She did, she convinced me. I got her card which I later lost, why I a couple of days ago was going through the yellow pages in the local phonebook to see if I could somehow recognize her name. I couldn’t, and I soon forgot about my business, as from the chiropractor-section, naturally and in alphabetical order, my eyes slipped into the church section.
5 pages in the phonebook covering Santa Cruz County, which means: Aptos, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, Capitola, Felton, Scotts Valley and Watsonville. 5 pages, from pages 214 – 219. 326 phone numbers to different churches divided between no less than 64 different congregations to cover the needs for a population off approximately 175000 people:

Advent Christian, Anglican, Apolistic, Assemblies of God, Assemblies of God (cont`d), Assemblies of God (Independent), Ba-ha`i, Baptist, Baptist (cont`d), Baptist American, Baptist Conservative, Baptist Independent Fundamental, Baptist Missionary, Baptist Southern, Bible, Bible (cont`d), Buddhist, Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel (cont`d), Catholic Roman, Catholic Roman (cont`d), Charismatic, Charismatic (cont`d), Christian, Christian (cont`d), Christian Evangelistic, Christian & Missionary Alliance, Christian Science, Christian Science (cont`d),Church of Christ, Church of God, Church of God In Christ, Church of God In Christ (cont`d), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Community, Community of Christ, Congretional, Covenant Community, Episcopal, Episcopal (cont`d), Evangelical, Evangelical & Reformed, Free Methodist, Greek Orthodox, Interdenominational, Jehovas Witnesses, Lutheran, Non Denominational, Eastern Orthodox, Pagan, Pentecostal, Pentecostal Church of God, Pentecostal United, Presbyterian Korean, Presbyterian American, Presbyterian American (cont`d), Religious Science Church, Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Scientology, Seventh-Day Adventist, Unitarian Universalist, United Church of Christ, Unites Methodist, Unity.

I’m trying to emphasize the segmentation of, not as much religion as Christianity, which leaves me with serious doubts if this outspoken plurality on longer terms will survive the core of the written word and the common interpretation of: love, forgiveness and understanding.
Sure, it’s a lot of people hoping and praying for it, and if you add it up to a national scale, it’s even more congregations and more people. But it is also, and more than anything else it is a frightening amount of people not being able to agree on anything, even though they are on the same surf. And surfer lingo here in surf city goes: first man on the wave has the right of way!
The consequence ultimately could be devasting, parallel to the accomplishment of the stated purpose, with which I mean the on-going global war on terror. Success is a random factor fraternizing the religious ghost.

today
I said I would issue a go at religion. Well, I have been working on it, but it`ll take more than a wink of the eye. In the meantime I watched the whatever news at a friends house last night. News on US troops coming and going in the Phillippines. The Pihillipines? Oh yea right? I forgot about that, I guess a lot did, with focus on another front. But the news wasn`t so much about the troops per se as it was about sex. The booming phillipinian sex-industry however kept very much alive by loving american GI`s, among these one GI filmed outside a base wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a philippine woman and a text saying:
Little Brown Fuckingmachine Powered By Rice.

Now thats culture, that defense, thats compassionate foreignpolicy, thats as anti-terror as it gets!

today
I`m just too messed up and tired to do any serious posting. Been up all night finishing my 2nd last exam ever(!) with all it takes of computer fuck-ups, doubts yellow and ugly, loneliness, longing, secondthoughts, dreams, smokes, beers, coffee, food, music that couldnt match the moment, boredom: I wanna go to Lennards opening and flash my tits and rub my nipples, but I remain....just remain here. Stone.
Maybe I`ll go hug a tree. They do that here you know. They hug trees. They hug trees and put stickers on theirs cars saying: I`m a tree-hugger. They give birth to their babies at home and put stickers on their cars saying: my child was born at home. They put their kids in school and they put stickers on their cars saying: My child shines at Westlake High. They go to church more than ever and put stickers on their cars saying: God put my Son in Iraq. They endorse the right to own a gun and put stickers on the cars saying: When guns get outlawed only outlaws will have guns. This is - if nothing else - car country, it is that.

Tomorrow, I´ll ditch religion.

December. For the sake of my own sanity, and the little word "peace" I`ve however come to doubt - who is this world can truly be a pacifist - but nontheless, I wont be posting any hatefull outcries at Big Business today. I think I`ve made a point, which on the other hand doesn`t mean it stops here.