They all wanted to have a monument built to themselves

but the problem was not so easy to solve.

The monument required a hill—for it is said that

one needs to look up to the one that requires celebration.

Well then —if we could not find a hill what would we do?

Well then—people could get down on their knees.

hmmm? that was possible.

When Walt Disney died he asked to be 

frozen—so he is lying around in some freezer

somewhere?

Where?

I don’’t know.

Mickey Mouse is with him but not with him

the image of the mouse lives on and is making money to this 

day—Mickey funds it all and we can’t even draw 

the mouse without paying some kind of royalty fee.

Yes Mickey is a perpetual cash cow.

It does not seem fair—

“FAIR” is not part our the language now

we are not permitted to say that word

since when?

the emperor declared the word “FAIR” to be

eliminated from the people’s dialogue–

at the beginning the the era of Neo-Nero

 sometime near the beginning of the 21st century

during the neo-civil war.

You see there was war declared but it was a war 

without the usual signs….first skirmish was at the Bank

at the bank???

Yes at the bank.

First they sold people stuff they could not afford.

Then they took them to the cleaners and collected

it back so they could sell stuff again.

Then they took away the cash so every one needed 

a card

and if you didn’t have a card you could not have stuff

and if you could not get a card that meant you had

no cash and no ID

You were kind of in a state of non-existence

You know this sounds familiar.

No you think you know but this was the Neo-Nero era

kind of deal——sort of the results of

too much shopping first in stores then shopping moved

on the tv then shopping moved on line

then the shopping moved into the neighborhood

and people started to sell stuff like way beyond

Tupper-ware parties—it got so bad this shopping

biz that people became crowded out of their houses

and then they had to rent storage units to store the stuff

Yes stuff in storage

became the rage

People became more full

as time went on and 

they had to get more storage

and more locks and keys

and more and more

until

Until what?

The landscape littered with box cars

Yes box cars everywhere—

even in back yards and any empty spaces 

that were possible to put a storage unit and fill it with

stuff—

people were more interested in acquiring stuff

than voting or reading the paper or watching tv

or talking to their children or or….

We were lost in the land of storage with no

hope and no future…we were full and at the same

time empty.

How did we get here—from legacy to storage?

It is never easy —these transitions.

Yes like magic

If you don’t keep your eye on the rabbit and the hat

the sleight of hand can kill you.

pass the mashed potatoes.

LIVE BAIT  by Mussmann

Sunday Dec. 16th we will be presenting LIVE BAIT. This is select writing by Linda Mussmann.

I have assembled some random Blogs that I have posted on the TSL site —Blogs that I have posted over time. I have invited 4 people  (Berta Leone, Sheri Bauer, Richard Gillette, John Moletress) plus Claudia Bruce.

This is a chance to hear some words read by the people I have invited to assist.

In addition there will be some music by Claudia & Sheri. and some visual pieces that I have assembled for this project.

A “free event” please check in—my work is not narrative—so there is no drama—i think about events from the times that I wrote these pieces. Some of the pieces are about people I have read at the moment —some pieces are about events that happened at the moment—and some are memories triggered by the time of my “Blog” entry.

So there you are & here I am.

see you Sunday.

Thanksgiving 2018 

November 22nd 55 years after John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas

Oh the day of thanks is tainted with the stain of JFK.

We who were witness now mourn the day as if it were now

time the illusive glass remains the glass  darkly through which we strain to

see the three times—past present future.

it is now and forever all wrapped up in our cloak

a kind of cover where in we write our biography.

yes it was

I was

They was

and so is was

a kind of now and forever.

but we too die in time

and leave the print

as we tread toward the dark light 

of our good night.

can we sleep and dream

at the same time 

or are we fixed forever

with eyes wide open.

Section #2

Naming is Knowing

It is said until we name it

we cannot know it

It is said until we see it

we cannot imagine it

It is said until we sing it

we cannot praise it

It is said until we dance it

we cannot feel it

It is said until we lift it

we cannot understand it

It is said until we write it

we cannot read it

It is said until we buy it

we cannot own it

It is said until we thread it

we cannot sew it

It is said until we kill it 

we cannot eat it

It is said until we love it 

we cannot live it.

So when all was said and done and done and said

it was clear that then silence would come

Yes 

Yes this was perhaps the answer 

to the big questions

But 

she was sure she was not sure

yes really 

she was 

she said

Yes
she said this to herself

and to others

but no one was there to hear what she was saying

Yes it was too bad

and no one recorded it

Yes well without a record a recording then

she was certain she did not exist

she was like the tree that fell

in the forest

Yes the fall of the tree

that no one hears

some say

Yes some say –that because

no one hears the tree fall

then did the tree fall?

This is a big question

Because she said it and

no one heard it 

did her words exist

the same can be said

of her image

that if no one saw her

then did she exist

sound is a fact

sight is a fact

yes she thought about 

all the words and all

the books and wondered

what would be heard

and remembered after

all was said and done 

and done and said

who would care about

Dick Cheney’s heart for example?

or the mystery of the 

sacred heart?

who remember the story of

Louie the XIV’s heart

or Joan of Arc’s heart?

or the heart of Chopin? 

It is said that a revolution lives in the hearts of women and men and men and women.

So then how do we advance the revolution after all was said and done

Would the discovery of water on Mars start the fire

that would it burn in the

hearts of the next

revolutionaries

or what 

or what

or what

Hey did you hear the tree fall?

Hey did you see me?

did you did you

or did you fall or did you fail

to set your heart on fire?

(July 18-2018)

If you were not certain about where we stand it should be clear now as the tumble of institutions come thundering down on top of the citizens of this “Yet to be America”.
Now we have lost the credibility of the Supreme Court as well as the Presidency, the Church, and the State will soon follow——By this I mean the Kavanaugh appointment is yet another over reach by the ultra-right. This is/was a power grab and the “grabbing” will continue.
How to combat this tilt is the key to the future of generations to come.
My hope is that people will put down their electronic devices and connect in person with one another.
The act of conversation and organizing is key to turning back the tide that is overwhelming us at this moment in the history of the 21st century.
We must stand up and question the random acts of oppression that we watch daily.
And we must support those that are hit the hardest….those that are the “least” in the eyes of the oppressors that place the heel on our necks (to Quote Ruth Bader Ginsberg).
We now face the loss of the rights of women, voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, clean air/water rights, and the list goes on.
Greed is a force — it knows no bounds—it is monster that is all consuming—like a hungry dog lapping up the spoils of each thing it conquers— remember “cash is king”.
As the resources of the world diminish we are at a greater risk of losing our little place on earth.
So what to do??
We must organize circles of security—and it needs to be done off-line and in the shadows of the night.
Yes we are being watched and monitored.
It is time to go under ground and rally the forces to fight to re-gain our well-tempered and balanced view of the way of the world——
Hope is not yet lost—but if it is??? then we have nothing to lose by fighting ruthlessly for what is right. (Written on the day after Kavanaugh is appointed to the Supreme Court Oct. 7, 2018

Section #8
Grant woke up from a long sleep.
Grant had been asleep since 1885.
Sleep or death (these are just words describers of things )
states of being
states of non-being
everyday speech
language—the stuff of tongues
terms, certificates, contracts, deeds, etc etc.

Yes “lies” Grant could hear the “lies” from inside his tomb.
“What fresh hell is this?”
—thought Grant

“…make America Great again?”

What “again” is “he” talking about???
If Grant could roll over he would.

But the uniform, the sword
and all the stuff
he was laid out- in- was not permitting the “roll”.

Grant was facing the nation from the bottom up
watching from the “tomb” located in New York City
looking over the mighty messy polluted Hudson River
wondering what this “new”
saving of the nation
was all about????

“I wish I had a cigar
or whisky and a plate full of truth.” Grant said.

WOW!! all those who fought for causes
still cast about in the bardo….
they crowd one another pushing and shoving
wanting to get to the light
they seek a second chance
but are caught in the space of limbo.

Grant says …”and me too…
Me too…
I am not done.
I can’t be still
I see
I hear
The lying Liar….
Rise up—or do you sleep too!!!
Rise up—You all who see
and know.
It is time to save the nation!!!
“Julia wake up help me–help them–!!!”

Complicity is a state of being according to the dictionary—that book  (the dictionary) which has ended up in the landfill with the rest of the books that clutter our shelves—yes “Webster” you have lost your place on the shelves of our new 21st century life-style.

Convenience is key to living—books are heavy—require holding—need to be dusted—re-read—underlined—loaned—borrowed—loved…..all some how inconvenient in this hyper post-modern century model of living.  

We like empty rooms.

We like no clutter.

We like a place that resembles ourselves perhaps?

I am not sure I am ready for the “cell” are you?  

The “cell” has captured us so far—the dancing digits keep us engaged with our wires that connect us to the big world…now what does the big world offer us?…  that is the big question ????….from the cell where I view my little world (here in Hudson, NY) ..here is what I see ….I see a community that is pretty much like other America here.  

We have a division between the rich and the poor,  between the sexes, between the races, and between those who worship and those who don’t.

We are typical of the trends of our early 21st century experience—someday they will define this trend—but it is hard to know the thing when one is in the middle of a thing.  

We see the acts of resistance fade as the work load piles up on the folks who have 3 jobs and 4 children.  

The kitchen table has been taken to the dump as well—no time to gather here either—cola has trapped us —convenience reigns supreme.  

Lately I have been wondering about Russia….how about you????  

I am wondering about a country that has failed to bury Lenin—just a reminder about that little incident.  Lenin the father of the Red Bolshevik Revolution lies pickled in a mausoleum in Moscow.  He died in 1924 —still waiting to be buried.  

And on another note the Romanov’s —too are waiting to be buried—they expired on July 16-17, 1918. Yes! a 100 years ago.  

The Romanov’s were the Russian Tsar’s family & servants murdered by the revolution.  

You see time does sometimes stand still.  

I am always looking forward and looking back…it is a bad habit….(some say)…yes..no…maybe???… but for me it is a way of measuring how things are going and how I am doing in this time of complicity, convenience, and a collapsing of time and space.  

Loneliness and isolation are the ingredients of authoritarian rule.  Eternal hopelessness is another tool used to kill the spirit of the individual.  The chant “that nothing will change no matter what I do” keeps the wheels of tyranny happy.  The idea that my vote does not count keeps the powerless in check and the powerful in positions of absolute power.  We see political power as the highest form of power—power arrived at by not playing by the rules.  Remember it is the little people who pay taxes and the rich who don’t.  It is too often the poor who go to jail while the rich buy their way out of a jam.  We need to band together and fight the malaise of this time in which we are now living. We need to look away from the magician that tweets and steals our focus. The rabbit and the hat do not satisfy us —we see the sleight of hand as it tries to steal our focus.  It is a time to act — freedom is a rigorous exercise–  be scared—take risks—move out of your zone of secure insecurity and fight the 1% who are stealing your future. We must resist.  Act now.  Do not wait.  Tyranny is at hand.  We cannot afford to lose what little we have.
It is now time to stand up and force change.  We cannot leave it to our politicians.  The political class has for the most part abandon our needs….the distance between government and the people is greater than ever. Rise up Rise up and defend your ground before you have no ground on which to stand.  The lonely must stop listening to the masters of spin—it is time to turn off the media and find an ally. The time is NOW.  There is not much time left.  No fooling this is real.

---

Philip Roth. RIP

The writer takes an exit after leaving us with the grand body of work.

I am reading  American Pastoral.(written 1997).  

The story takes place in New Jersey.  Roth captures the 20th century by his genius.
The century that I have spent half of my life living.  The post war boomers and the product of their wealth is the content of this book.

What strikes me about Roth’s writing is his ability to get the spirit of the time–like a surgeon he cuts deep and with precision capturing the post WW 2  American landscape that quickly morphs into the Vietnam War  ( you have to read the book to get what I am saying).

I will give you one quote from the book which struck me as brilliant—here goes:

“The daughter who transports him out of the longed-for American pastoral and into everything that is its antithesis and its enemy, into the fury, the violence, and the desperation of the counter pastoral—into the indigenous American berserk.”
That about sums up what happened to the America that Roth writes about in this brilliant work—this is of a time that our generation—witnessed and we did arrive at  berserk….so smart is Roth’s critical eye.

Check Philip Roth out—if you have never read him—try it—if you have read him —— read him again.

Bang Bang Bang

The school shootings are now so common we hardly blink when the news crosses the various media wires that are hooked to our lives.  The information highway is streaming with kid in school killings.
Here in America we feast on the extinguished lives of our children—who are mowed down like hay.
School was a place to learn now it is a place for terrorists.
The empire eats its own.
We watch the landscape race toward more security and more guns.  Somehow the two don’t mix but it seems to be the solution that we look toward for survival in our post-modern 21st Century life.
Gun’s r us.
We now train to defend ourselves against the odds of a gun man with shot guns and military style machine guns that can and do kill the innocents in our hometowns—most likely at our schools.  

Bang Bang Bang is the tune heard more often than not in our homes, hamlets, movie theaters, churches, malls, & just about everywhere USA.  

No place is free from the fire from guns.
The guns that appear in the hands of the disgruntled minority who resort to violence as a way to settle grief is all too common.  

So now what? as the pols pray and continue to accept cash for for votes from the gunners best friend (NRA) we are caught in a moment that seems like we live in tar.  

How to get out of this mess –is daunting.  

I think it requires a revolution and the revolution is now.   

Not a new idea but each generation has their axe to grind and this for now is the moment for those who are adults in the 21st century.
18 is the number to settle the score.

2018 is a good number to rally around…for now 18 year olds can vote.  

YES —a small step but one that shows contempt for biz as usual.

As Malcolm X said “the ballot or the bullet “(you choose.)