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renee zellweger & basquiat hit the road

October 8, 2012

When he came out of the bathroom

at Macy’s Coffeehouse in Flagstaff
walking all strange and saying
we had to leave immediately,
right away, let’s go NOW in a hiss,
I could have killed him
when we got to my van
me juggling hot coffee and croissant
and unlocking the doors when
I watched him pull
a rolled up poster
out of his pants. Read more…

October 5, 2012

What’s hardest about being human for you?

Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator's avatarCompassionate Rebel

Hard is it to be born a man;
hard is the life of mortals.

Hard is it to gain the opportunity
of hearing the Sublime Truth,
and hard to encounter
is the arising of the Buddhas.

Dhammapada 18201

Every Friday, Sally McNally teaches one of the best yoga classes in the county–and she does it for free. Any money collected at the class she donates to the An Lac Buddhist Temple located on the corner of Saticoy Avenue and Darling in east Ventura, California.

Sally often jokes how hard it is to

View original post 154 more words

90 Days to 2013 & a 2012 3:15 Experiment Poem

October 1, 2012

August 1, 2012 3:15am Ventura CA

I can’t believe it’s 3:15am August 1 2012
Another year has passed
And it’s a birthday of sorts
A birth day birth way
writing is a birth way of sorts
A fast pen is the fast car
the get away from here to there
taking you from the expected to the
unexpected if you’re lucky
the pen will drive you to find out
what you actually believe in

what’s real at 3:15

may not ever be real again (vertical going up the page)

The harvest moon is gorgeous and full and it’s actually Monday, October 1, not August 1. ‘m celebrating that I got my summer field paper in for my PhD at Pacifica Graduate Institute in community, liberation and ecopsychology. The paper is 28 pages long–cover, abstract, 2 pages of references, and 24 pages of text (including two of my own 3:15 experiment poems on how to write at 3:15am and another on the topic that I call “the dodo.” )

Curious? Here’s the title and the abstract:

Spell of the numinous, search for the synchronous:
A Depth Psychological Approach to The 3:15 Experiment
and To Producing a Social Dreaming Matrix at a Feminist Art Exhibition

Abstract

Using the tools of writing in altered states of consciousness, social dreaming, and active imagination as described by Mary Watkins, Steve Aiszenstat, and others, along with the depth psychological approach of James Hillman of “seeing through,” I prepared to produce a social dreaming matrix that will culminate in dream theater; I facilitated the 2012 3:15 Experiment and invited participants to record dreams; I reviewed past 3:15 Experiment poetry looking for convergences, divergences, and synchronicities; and I began the selection of 3:15 poems for a 2oth anniversary anthology.  Preliminary research indicated the timing, scope, and scale proved greater than the timeframe; however, results suggested pathways for discovering ways to bring aesthetic experiences to daily life, to heal the disease of the absence of Aphrodite (Hillman, 1998, p. 63).  The production of the anthology may lead to more insights about synchronicities in the 3:15 Experiment.

Photo by David Pu’u

WTFU: 2 Funny Pro-Obama Videos Use Profanity to Get Attention

September 28, 2012

I’m not sure which one I like better, Samuel Jackson’s riff on the Dr Seuss book “WTFU” that came out yesterday or  Sarah Silverman‘s video, which came Barack Obamaout a week ago where she encourages would be voters to get gun licenses because if you have a gun license you can use that as ID to vote.

Both of these hilarious recent videos produced and released by the Jewish Council for Education and Research use profanity to get viewers attention and I really had second thoughts about publishing them here but my husband encouraged me so here goes. Remember: DON’T Be OFFENDED! If you have sensitive ears, don’t watch them!

And if you’re an Obama hater, these videos will really punish your sensitivity!

Enjoy.

And yeah, even though it looks like Obama has the election, if we don’t go vote, or if we do go and we can’t vote because we don’t have proper ID, Romney will win. And while you may not be a big Obama fan, I am sure you are NOT going to like living in Romney’s country.

Oh, and one more thing: just in case you were in doubt, Barack Obama is not a Muslim. But if he was, I would still vote for him. Very few Muslims are terrorists just like very few white male Christians shoot guns at co-workers, teachers and students, random people in movie theaters, etc.  etc.

September 27, 2012

Happy Harvest Moon!

Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator's avatarCompassionate Rebel

Audre Lorde:  "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."     ~ Audre Lorde in The Cancer Journals, Special Edition, Aunt Lute Books, San Francisco, CA, 1997, p. 13. When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
~ Audre Lorde in The Cancer Journals, Special Edition, Aunt Lute Books, San Francisco, CA, 1997, p. 13.

AUTUMN!

Monarch butterflies float in the barranca,
grapes harvested and crushed for wine,
pumpkins getting bigger on the vine,
sun, lower on the horizon,
pours light into my living room by day;
by night I watch the harvest moon grow large.

Celebrate this timeen: Vietnamese children celebrating Mid-Autumn... of change by joining the MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL “Moon Festival of Children” SATURDAY (9/29/2012) at the An Lac Mission 901 S. Saticoy at Darling Road in east Ventura, CA 93004.

From 2-pm, enjoy lion dances, music by The Together Band, a magic show, and vegetarian Vietnamese food including tofu pancakes, fresh banana cakes, sugarcane juice, and fried…

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Romney: Fight Like The Dickens? Disclose!

September 25, 2012

Now, after that bit of entertainment, I offer to you today a guest post by Grant Marcus.
Please note that Mitt Romney is spelled Mit intentionally…to rhyme with nit among other ideas…
THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE, OR, WILL MIT (sic) ROMNEY
BE AMERICA’S LATEST FAUSTIAN BARGAIN?
By Grant Marcus, 9/23/2012
The other night, I listened to Mit (sic) Romney promise me he’ll “fight
like the dickens” for us, and something awakened in me that I had
not felt toward a Republican for quite some time. It made me reach
for that one cigarette in the gold case that hadn’t been touched in years.
“Oh, what the hell?  Why not?” I thought.
And that thought scared me and lead me to ask something more
important: What does Romney mean when he says he wants to, “fight
like the dickens” for us?And so, you might have guessed it, I went on the net, and googled
in that square box of SEARCH this: “‘fight like the dickens,’ origination
of the term,”–Because, after all, my vote is important (well, it’s all the
power I have) and I hadn’t heard that expression in such a long time–
And I wanted to know–So, this is a condensation of what I discovered:”Dickens” is related to “dickin,” “dickon,” or “deuce,” all terms
meaning “devil.” It was said to derive from the surname, Dick. (Such
as Dick Cheney). Read more…

Dreaming of Pinot: 3:15 Experiment Poetry

September 24, 2012

Strange this glass I bring to my lips
to sniff has no scent no taste
the pinot noir in it not real
the glass none of it     all of it
an act of active imagination
of the dreamworld
it just seems so real
I could pinch the people around me
and they would squeal

This next yes a winery
glasses on hand wine poured
this is not real either
we are hosting tweeting
there are young men
talking to my lovely young college aged daughter–
except I have no daughter–
I can’t read my notes on the wine
& I don’t remember actually tasting it.

I’ve moved onto another dream
another lifetime    a different dreamtime
come visit over or 2
will tidy you

3/22/12 August 22, 2012 3:15am Ventura, CA

I started this blog in November 2007; in blog years, it’s quite the senior citizen. Over that time it’s amassed over 450,000 page views which is also quite a lot considering it is such an eclectic collection of poetry, politics, and various shenanigans and adventure like Burning Man, wine and bicycling as performance art.

Over the years, I have tried to post poetry on Mondays–a nice way to start the week, I figure. Many of the poems have come from the 3:15 experiment where poets around the world wake to write every night at 3:15am during the month of August; the experiment is in its 20th year and for the 20th anniversary, we are editing an anthology. I’ve been reading through the poems on the 3:15 website looking for those we might want to include as well as looking for synchronicities, convergences, divergences, and just anything that might be of interest considering what we have is a 20 year collection of writing from poets who are half awake and half asleep, writing as individuals and collectively, writing at home and together around the world all at the same time.

The poem above is from this year’s 3:15 experiment. It was written not long after I returned home from the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference.

I’ll also be posting some links to poems that I am finding and liking on the website, organized by year, that we might include in the anthology. Of course, these will be just the ones I like; I’d love to hear about your favorites.

A Grenache Toast for Peace!

September 21, 2012

A toast on Grenache Day to the last day of summer, International Peace Day, and World Gratitude Day!

Guess what I’m grateful for today? Guess what brings me peace, too? That’s right–a glass of grenache! Cheers!

Have a wonderful weekend full of surprises and celebrations of all kinds, great and small!

Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator's avatarwine predator.............. gwendolyn alley

Please join me in celebrating Grenache Day, today, Friday September 21, 2012 by enjoying a glass of this delightful varietal! You can share what you’re drinking on twitter by using the hashtag #grenacheday.

What is there to say about Grenache?

How about it’s one of the most widely grown varietals on the planet!  However, since grenache is used primarily in blends, many people don’t know they’ve had it or that they like it!

I am one of those people who definitely enjoys grenache –with or without its traditional Rhone blending partners, mourvedre and syrah. In case you’ve  heard the term GSM –the g is for grenache, the m is mourvedre and the s is syrah. I prefer my GSMs to be heavier on the grenache and light on the syrah.

On its own, Grenache can be a bit light for some people, and too fruity. Personally, I like its fruit…

View original post 781 more words

You Didn’t Build That: Obama Rap to MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This”

September 18, 2012

I love this video by Aussie where Barack Obama raps “You Didn’t Build That to the tune of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” I loved it even more when I read over the lyrics:

Read more…

In Celebration of “Talk Like A Pirate Day”

September 17, 2012

In honor of September 19 being “Talk Like  A Pirate Day,” here’s an “I Am” poem from a workshop I did with four kindergarten and first grade boys, including my four year old son. After we wrote the poem, my son wanted to make a video, so we did. He found and selected the images and the music, then we did the poem as a “call and response” where I did a line and he repeated it.

International Talk Like a Pirate DayJust recently, his fourth grade class was doing “I Am” poems so I went in and shared the poem and video with them. They loved it! And we all got a kick out of how young my son’s voice was–and how creatively he “talks like a pirate.”

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! Enjoy!

I Am A Scary Smelly Skeleton PIRATE!

I am a scary, smelly skeleton PIRATE!
I wonder where the treasure is.
I hear black rusty shooting fire cannonballs and swords slapping. Read more…

art predator

art predator )'( seek to engage the whole soul

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