———————-

The pulse rises, sickly loud
And pushes blood and bile moreso today
Than any kind of music like it should

It wracks the brain
It bites and screams
And moans and shakes
And hacks and coughs
And spits and growls
Hackles raised.

It sits and sinks
And melts and bleeds.
It sniffs and breathes
And sighs relief
But not release.

A wound heals before your know it,
But the scars fade all too slow.
And on those days when the pulse rises,
It beats and bleats and fills the skin.
The old scars burn. The heat will fade
To a cold throbbing, worming, sobbing,
Sopping up what’s left.

There’s a wry disregard
And a mutter and snort
Sometimes knowing nodding
Sometimes pretending not to know

Then it stands and walks
And smiles and talks
Cool and metered
Brighter, sweeter.

In the faces scattered,
To know which are disguises
Or transient phases:
It doesn’t matter
When the pulse rises.

———————-

Though I’m actually pretty happy with how this turned out. I think I write a decent poem about once every 2-3 years.

John McCain’s ability to be older than things

vs.

Barack Obama’s ability to transcend things.

Obama could be in trouble due to McCain’s familiarity with the Eldritch Powers of the Forgotten Age, from before the dawn of Mankind, but perhaps before the old man can get that kind of thing in gear, Obama will already have transcended, not just race and partisanship, but space and time.

John McCain is so old that he has actually, non-ironically, called his wife a “trollop”.

I’ve heard that in business and politics many issues are settled on the golf course. On the one hand, McCain may well be old enough to have witnessed the entirety of this sport’s modern age, but I’m pretty sure Barack Obama has 65 career PGA Tour wins. Even if I’m wrong, he can probably transcend the sand traps and perhaps even the putting green.

Hopped up to Starbucks to grab some cold tea, and one of their, like, quintessential organic vegan fair trade environmentalists responded to mention of AC: “Yeah, I turned on my AC last night. I don’t care about global warming. I don’t care about energy conversation. It is waaay too hot.”

Also apparently a new asian fusion place is opening where que tal’s chalk outline currently resides. Who the hell ate at Que Tal anyway? This place is going to have to compete with Mint Cafe and Pac East, but there might be enough zomg-is-dat-sum-asia hipsters around Coventry to support it. Also they have a picture of a chef posing with hulk hogan.

Headed up toward Coventry Road from Overlook, Fitz pointed up ahead on the sidewalk and said “Hey, that guy is proposing to that girl.”

And so he was, kneeling down, presenting ring, etc. She was apparently pretty keen on the idea, judging from the subsequent kiss.

We clapped.

They blushed.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever actually seen a marriage proposal take place.

Also, there are ninjas, and the supporting cast includes Shaft.

I pretty much watched this for the visual effects and was satisfied. Wachowski Brothers are still pretty inventive in that avenue. The rest of the movie was actually pretty good, so long as you accept that it is targeted at a young audience and thus has a lot of corresponding comic relief.

At the meet-up…
Saul: Tory I think you should have sex with Baltar…because, uh, he might know something useful.
Tory: Ugh. No.
Saul: It’s not like you have to bend-over for him!
Tory: *glower*
Saul: …
Tory: Yeah okay.
Saul: And just in case he lies about it later, take this video camera.
Tory: I mean I guess he is sort of…handsome.

Later…
Tory: *sob*
LOLtar: Are you…crying?
Tory: Yeah, it’s uh, something I do during sex. I’m sorry.
LOLtar: Oh don’t be sorry baby. I get it. You’re a woman. You’re full of these “feelings”. Hey, I have feelings too. One time when I accidentally betrayed the entire human race for the second time, I felt really…uh, what’s the word. Like, hmm. “Squirmy.” Very squirmy. No fun at all.
Tory: Really?
LOLtar: Yeah! But I mean then I figured, it’s okay. Feeling squirmy sometimes just means I’m human.
Tory: Wow, you’re so wise LOLtar. Wise and…sexy.
LOLtar: I know, I know.
Tory: What about cylons? Do you think they have feelings?
LOLtar: Sure, whatever.  Bend-over for me baby!
Tory: Okay!

Later…
Saul: I can’t believe I got her to tape this.
Saul: Arrrrrrrrr!

For each of the following events, state whether it would make it more or less likely that Lt. Geta is a cyclon?

1. Geta strangles a cylon to death.
2. Geta sleeps with a 6.
3. Geta sleeps with Starbuck.
4. The last model is revealed to be Starbuck.
5. The last model is revealed to be Adama.
6. The last model is revealed to be Baltar.
7. Geta sleeps with Baltar.
8. The last model is revealed to be Geta.

I think anyone who really likes watching movies should take some of these archaic films like 10C and watch one or two of them a year. They really do not make movies anything like this anymore. I mean, they make them much better. There is a very particular idiom to the acting in old Hollywood films. This is back in the day where complex internal character drama is not as important as the ability to deliver Grand and Sweeping Speeches. So you get a lot of those. These entertain me in much the same was as I am entertained by anime protagonists declaring that JUSTICE WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL. There is also this entire manner of speech the actors have in movies from this era that I think is part southern California accent and part diction training executed by a prim German headmistress with a whipping cane and horn-rimmed glasses. I spent the first hour trying to resolve this against the setting until my brain finally gave in to the cognitive dissonance.

Watching old movies usually makes me respect directors like Hitchcock who helped re-invent cinema, whether I like their movies or not. Watching The Ten Commandments made me respect Mel Brooks.

The fact that this movie is three and a half hours long might normally make it unwatchable for someone of my abbreviated attention span, except for two things:
1. It is so fricking long that I had time to take a brief nap in the middle
and 2. The popcorn-joke potential is huge

The best example of the latter was probably our biggest running callback gag, which basically went like this:

Pharaoh: “Rameses, you have falsely accused your brother.”
(Response): HEY! He can’t do that! It says so in the ten co–oh right.

These were followed distantly by my highly uncouth “hey what happened to my wallet” jokes, and remarks regarding Yul Brynner’s head.

The best part of the movie is probably the climactic ten commandments scene, where you can witness the very beginning of the Bruckheimerization of cinema props, when Moses hurls the stone tablets at MoobyThe Golden Calf, and it EXPLODES.

It reminds me of the Morlocks.