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Tuesday 8 September 2015

How To Speak American

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Photo from accident on Marin Avenue last night @berkeleyside: image via Big Hammer @UOHammer, 6 September 2015    Marin Circle Fountain (4 Bears Fountain)

the morning after
the remnants
the leavings
the traces of
the car crashes
under the dirty yellow leaves
of the dirty yellow trees
the broken glass
the car parts strewn
like bits of fairy dust
in the empty street

their meanings their feelings
their cultural markers
their speech patterns
their life style 
their lunches
their brunches
their launches 
their speeding vehicles 
on the freeway feeder 
their screaming children, their 
celebrations
of their national holidays
going on all through the night

their barbeques
their meat
their beer
the morning after
the remnants 
the leavings
the traces of
the car crashes 
under the dirty yellow leaves 
of the dirty yellow trees 
the broken glass
the car parts strewn 
like bits of fairy dust 
in the empty street


76 degrees and rising in Berkeley! Happy Labor Day! @berkeleyside: image via Steven Fruhmoto @StevenFruhmoto, 7 September 2015

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Stuck in #construction on #Labor Day. Ugh!: image via Evgeni Malkin's Ego @EvgeniMalkinEgo, 7 September 2015

Freeway gone digital: Caltrans is testing its Integrated Corridor Mobility project on westbound I-80 near Berkeley.: image via Jonathan Bloom @BloomTV, 3 September 2015  Berkeley, CA

Ted Friedman shares this close-up of [NSA/Homeland Security] 'radiation' chopper over Berkeley. It's so low it's "mowing the lawn" he says!: image via Berkeleyside, September 3, 2015  Berkeley, CA

@berkeleyside Huey coming in close!: image via Brian Bednarz @brianbed, 3 September 2015

@berkeleyside seems to be doing figure 8s over eastern half of Berkeley incl base of hills: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015  Oakland, CA

 
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@berkeleyside still going, just flew right over lower Panoramic Hill: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015

@berkeleyside
just passed over the stadium a 3rd time: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015  Oakland, CA


@berkeleyside 2 laps over the stadium, now over N.Berkeley
: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015  Berkeley, CA


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@berkeleyside just flew over the stadium after 4 laps of Strawberry canyon
: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015


@berkeleyside did 4+
laps over Elmwood, Telegraph, Campus, N. Berkeley hills ~10:30: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015 


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@berkeleyside spotted radiation helicopter flying low over university at the bike path: image via JP @JPCali411, 2 September 2015 

@berkeleyside now going up Strawberry Canyon towards LBNL
: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015


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@berkeleyside
Is this the low-flying helicopter measuring radiation you reported recently?: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 2 September 2015

 
Berkeley Police cruiser, Officer Jennifer Coats. Photo: Emilie Raguso 

Police are investigating a robbery at gunpoint at a Solano Avenue pharmacy over the weekend. The robbery took place at 5:10 p.m. Saturday at Pharmaca at 1744 Solano Ave., at Ensenada Avenue. According to Berkeley Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats, a man entered the North Berkeley business with a gun and demanded prescription medication from the pharmacist. The robber “jumped over the counter with a gun pointed at the employees and told them to fill his backpack,” according to unconfirmed scanner traffic. Coats said the man fled after the robbery. Police looked for the man but were unable to find him. According to scanner traffic, he ran down Ensenada to Marin Avenue, where he continued running “downhill.”: Officer Jennifer Coats is seen in a file photo: photo by Emilie Raguso via Berkeleyside, 3 September 2015

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I am so honored to accept the National Humanities Medal from @POTUS Watch live 9/10 @ 3pm EDT 3 September
: image via Alice WatersVerified account @AliceWaters, 3 September 2015


Guess where? Thanks to @grove for the @berkeleyside visit to @googlenewsweb: image via Tracey Taylor @tktaylor, 2 September 2015

150905_donald_trump_gty_1160.jpg

 Trump walks the rubberized walk of the shrieking dead at Yeehaw U
.: photo via Politico, 6 September 2015

 
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To the great relief of U.S. Republican leadership, #Trump signs loyalty pledge to GO
P: image via China Xinhua News @XHNews, 3 September 2015


 #Trump blasts @hughhewitt as "third-rate radio announcer" after "gotcha" questions: image via China Xinhua News @XHNews, 3 September 2015


The Pledge #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
: image via Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump, 3 September 2015


Behind the scenes picture of my father signing the “pledge” --- I am very proud of him! @RealDonaldTrump: image via Eric Trump @Eric Trump, 3 September 2015

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 "@ryanamberwhite: Check it out, @realDonaldTrump, all the way from Wyoming! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain" Thank you.: image via Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump, 3 September 2015 New Jersey, USA

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While speaking in tongues Sarah Palin calls on immigrants to speak 'American' #PalinOnCNN #Murica
: image via Jade Helm Commander @Anomaly100, 7 September 2015


Sarah Palin Goes Full Potato: Calls On Immigrants To 'Speak American' #PalinOnCNN
: image via Jade Helm Commander @Anomaly100, 7 September 2015


Sarah Palin says we need to stop them there Mexicans from crossing the ocean #PalinOnCNN: image via PoliticalGroove @PoliticalGroove, 6 September 2015


Palin: I’d Like To Be Trump’s Energy Secretary And ‘Get Rid’ Of Department
: image via Jade Helm Commander @Anomaly100, 7 September 2015


The most American football player: image via 'MURICA @AMERICAFUCKYEAH, 6 September 2015



San Francisco Bay as seen from The Lawrence Hall of Science: image via Bay Viewer @SFBayViewer, 3 September 2015

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@berkeleyside Still
glowing and glowing: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 4 September 2015



@berkeleyside thank you, Sun, see you tomorrow!: image via Fred Werner @SustainableFred, 4 September 2015

#Sunset tonight as seen from the #Berkeley hills @nbcbayarea @berkeleyside #smokey
: image via Ariel Nava Photo @Cocolito23, 15 August 2015

San Francisco Bay as seen from The Lawrence Hall of Science: image via Bay Viewer @SFBayViewer, 3 September 2015



  America a Prophecy: William Blake, 1793, relief and white-line etching with color printing and hand coloring, object 8,  23.7 x 17.1 cm (Morgan Library and Museum/ William Blake Archive)



  

 America a Prophecy: William Blake, 1793, relief and white-line etching with color printing and hand coloring, object 1, 23.4 x 16.7 cm ((Morgan Library and Museum/ William Blake Archive)

Missing Tortoise | by efo

Missing Tortoise. About this big.  [Kensington, California.]
: photo by efo, 7 August 2015


Helm and sons Nº 5 | by efo

Helm and Sons No.5 [North and East, Richmond, California.]: photo by efo, 21 August 2015

RP (Rumrill) | by efo

RP (Rumrill). Wehman Field camera with Schneider G-Claron X-Ray film. [North Richmond, Richmond, California.]
: photo by efo, 2015


Notice to Passengers | by efo

Notice to Passengers. Earl Scenex with flipped lens. [North and East, Richmond, California.]
: photo by efo, 21 August 2015

 
Home | by efo

Home. Tent living in Oakland. [Clawson, Emeryville, California.] Iskra 1, T-Max 400 (400 TMY-2) Rodinal 1 + 50.: photo by efo, 7 September 2015

Art or junk | by efo

Art or junk. [South, Berkeley, California.]
: photo by efo, 2015

7 comments:

Unknown said...

A VISIT WITH MR. BLAKE

William Blake across from me sits here
insisting on whatever it is he insists on and a

great red cape opens up to show an illuminated city he says
is Jerusalem

Not quite the one over there in Palestine
but translucent walls and gates of light as only
Blake can envision

Even pinkish and silvery angels elongatedly
bending above it barely discernable in the
clouds and blowing on long glass trumpets

I look into the lively fire in his eyes those
limpid English blues of his and his

mild-mannered countenance and his almost
whispery elocution of these weighty matters in which

the whole cosmos is swept along in calamitous clouds

and he levels a look at me his right hand raised by his
face and says

“Behold the things we feared have come to pass
but the things we feared the most

may still be abated”

Black horses of smoke whinnying horribly and various
towers tumbling forward

I gaze through transparent Mr. Blake across
wispy ruins that run on for miles hoping he’s
right as usual

“Shall I sing you a song?” he says
I nod and he sings in a soft falsetto of things so
elementally near they become distant as if in a
play within a play in the mind

of the Divine upraised finger of light attesting to what among
all these phantasms is real

and of the graves of the terrestrially wronged
who open their stony mouths to
sing with one voice the sweet
mercy of God and their

ultimate rectification against all forms of
injustice including tyrannies theological

and while he continues singing I can
almost see the Holy One’s smile like buttery golden flakes
slowly descending over everything

Mr. Blake
your hat

the wide-brimmed felt pilgrim’s hat you
wore when you first came here

Your stick
with which you touch the stars Mr. Blake
all aglitter

and the tiny chanting flames you
leave in the air
__________________________________

5/26/2004 (http://ecstaticxchange.com/2007/02/10/112/)

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

SPEAK American? Shouldn't Sarah have said TALK American?

Mose23 said...

One great car crash all over.

We get the Eton Rifles to drive us over the precipice.

I hope against hope this Trump is the last.



TC said...

Yes, loveable great beast that he is, virtually a national treasure, it's said his great beastly giant steps can be heard for miles, and the trumpeting -- which reminds me, I understand the Minnesota dentist has now renewed his lion hunting zeal, with application for renewal of license doubtless soon to follow, presuming a license to be at least a formal requirement.

But why go all that way, when one's own continent features such enormously attractive game.

It'd be like, y'know, so much nearer, and maybe even patriotic, plus no safari fees.

And as for the rest... gad, let us not touch upon that car crash. Speaking of nearer, Or talking of nearer -- In like, y'know, uh, American?

Undoubtedly a matter of pure coincidence that, as coincidentally happened last year at about this time, we've been having the spooky nuclear-detection low-level flyover traffic, perhaps some consolation for those who feel the pain of being left out of Permanent War, making what the POTUS calls "folks" feel all like, y'know, uh more secure kind of.

Actually it's the run-up to a massive trade fair that goes on every year... occurred annually in Oakland until people saw Ferguson on tv last year... and this year they've switched it over to the county fairgrounds, in a little patch of heaven known as Pleasanton. Have I shared that it's called Urban Shield, and gathers together, for four days, the world's high-tech weapons manufacturers (even perhaps including a few not sourced in Israel, which seems to have a national specialty in this area), and security experts, together with police from, like, just everywhere.

Here's a fellow who had a fun time at the trade fair last year, and lived to tell his story.

Inside Urban Shield, the Convention for Warrior Cops: Mother Jones, 5 September 2014

And just to give a taste of this year's excitement, and too to help you understand why all the annoying chopper flyovers may very well be playing an important role in defending your many and several freedoms, should you accidentally have any, a bit of this year's first-day schedule (excluding vendor presentations and happy hour):

0800 – 0900 hours Domestic & Global Trends in the Use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and an Introduction to the DHS Office for Bombing Prevention
0915 – 1015 hours Regional Catastrophic Plans
1030 – 1130 hours Nuclear Threat Devices and How Easily They Might Be Smuggled into the U.S
1200 – 1300 hours Understanding the Rad/Nuke Terrorism Threat: Knowing the Adversary
1400 – 1530 hours Large Scale Event Planning – Super Bowl 50, Santa Clara
0900 – 1030 hours The Police Foundation’s Review of the Bank of the West Robbery and Hostage Taking
1330 – 1530 hours Aurora Colorado Theatre Massacre

Acute awareness, paranoid dread, omnidirectional fear, righteous anger, high violence-potential alert in permanent neuro-iteration loop, and all good stuff like that, yeah?

billoo said...

Can Ben Carson fix Trump's brain? Maybe, but where's all that stuff about hearts and minds when you need it?

I'd love to see Palin speak to a Native American..

"Speak American, goddamed you!"

"American speak with forked..."

Sandra said...

no sé porqué me vino a la mente esta frase : "atrapados por la realidad"

Nora said...

I speak American, but there's a bit of a language barrier.