Piano drinking

The piano has been drinking

And the bar stools are all on fire
And all the newspapers were just fooling
And the ash-trays have retired


The frightening truth is that the forces of “the future” without the reins of strong human moral will become a socioeconomictechnological Frankenstein, a global mechanical monster assimilating humans into its ahistorical, acultural, omnipotent soulless sovereignty. mutilated spirit. The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values.

The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values, as the beauty of traditional human culture has fallen under the heels of an alien mechanical aesthetic of harsh noise, violence and anarchic spiritual brutality, as a shambles of civilizational ruin theaten to emerge as the true legacy of “modernity,The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; And now the long simmering tension between human values and techne’, the Enlightenment world of technology, seemed to erupt in the ugly triumph of a technology that molded human beings in its image, digesting bits of culture into its non-human alimentary canal, spitting our ever new cyberdevices from computers to cell phones to digital cameras and iPods, toys through which Patriot Americans and the world following in its footsteps was able to find distraction from the pain of lost hopes and sensibilities of a truly human heart. Increasingly the authentic prophet of the contemporary age has seemed to be Aldous Huxley who, in the classic “Brave New World,” depicts a triumphant technology creating humans in accordance with a hierarchy of five genomes—a role reversal in which the human spirit has been all but completely suffocated by the machine. Mutilated spirit. The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values. As the beauty of traditional human culture has fallen under the heels of an alien mechanical aesthetic of harsh noise, violence and anarchic spiritual brutality, young citizens of the United States seem to be sinking into a quagmire of barbarism devoid of cultural and aesthetic sensitivity, embracing a pseudo-aesthetic that reflects the mutilated spirit of humans raised under the tutelage of an alien cyberworld with which they have identified—and thereby all but destroyed—their very soul.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes
hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn-
ing their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through the wall, who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York,
who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in
Paradise Alley, death,



UGLY TRIUMPH??

NO.

SORRY.

I CAN'T READ ANY MORE.

IT IS COMPLETELY ALIEN TO MY VISION OF REALITY, .


WE CANNOT CLING TO OUR DARKEST FEARS. WE NEED TO SEE PAST THEM. ENOUGH TALK OF MUTILATED SPIRITS. OF HUMANS RAISED UNDER SOME NON EXISTANT HUXLIAN TUTELAGE OF AN ALIEN CYBERWORLD.THAT HAS ALL BUT DESTROYED OUR VERY SOULS.

beautiful writing. right up there with yeats and ginsburg, dylan and dylan thomas and leonard cohen. nobody pays attention to the meaning, its sonorities, soaring poetry. detached from meaning. of course the ceremony of innocence is drowned, and the second coming is at hand. somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun. slouches toward bethlehem to be born.

apocalyptic poetry is all very fine. but there is no apocalypse. just poetry about it.



I WON'T BUY THAT.

PROGRESS, PROSPERITY, TECHNOLOGY, MEDICINE, SPACE TRAVEL, COMFORT AND HEALTH, COMMUNICATION, EDUCATION, PRODUCTIVITY, TOLERANCE, CURIOSITY, COURAGE, PATRIOTISM, LOYALTY, FAIR PLAY, LOVE, THESE ARE THE BONDS AND THE VALUES THAT CAPTURE THE ESSENSE OF THE EVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT.

LOVE IS THE ONLY ENGINE OF SURVIVAL. LOVE IN ALL ITS FORMS. LOVE OF LIFE, LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE, LOVE OF ADMIRATION AND PRESTIEGE, LOVE OF FAMILY, THESE ARE THE VALUES THAT HAVE ALWAYS MARKED THE UPWARD SURGE OF MANKIND.


FORGET WHAT YOU THINK reflects the mutilated spirit of humans raised under the tutelage of an alien cyberworld with which they have identified—and thereby all but destroyed—their very souls

I'M SORRY. THAT JUST DOES NOT, AS THEY USED TO SAY, DOES NOT COMPUTE. I SEE NOTHING OF THE KIND. TRUMPED ALL MERELY HUMAN VALUES??
AN ADORING FATHER WATCHES, AND DREAMS. YES, HIS HEART AND SOUL DREAMS AND EXPECTS A WONDERFUL NEW LIFE TO BLOSSOM AND LIVE LONG AND PROSPER .. HE SAYS "YES WE CAN" HE SAYS "WE CAN DO THIS". HE SAYS I LOVE YOU. HE PROMISES THE WORLD TO HIS WIFE AND NEWBORN SON. PROMISES HIS VERY SOUL TO PROTECT AND CHERISH AND PROSPER AND LIVE AND THRIVE AND BE PRODUCTIVE, COURAGEOUS AND LOVING.

I WAS THAT SON. SO WERE YOU. THE WORLD IS NOT HARSH, NOISY AND SOULLESS. THE HUMAN SPIRIT HAS NOT ALL BUT COMPLETELY BEEN SUFFOCATED. HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!?

THERE IS NOTHING IN THAT SCENE OF HARSH NOISE AND VIOLENCE AND ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BRUTALITY. IT IS THE QUITESSENTIAL TRUE SPIRITUAL MOMENT OF LOVE AND HONOR AND BEAUTY AND TRUST AND HOPE, AND THE LIVING BREATHING SOUL. NOT TRUMPED BY TOYS THAT FILL THE NOW HOPELESS WORLD OF CRUSHED SOULS. HE CALLS HIS MOM ON THE CELL PHONE, NEVER HAVING TO LEAVE THE BEDSIDE. HE SNAPS A THOUSAND PICTURES ON HIS DIGITAL CAMERA, STILLS AND MOVIES. FOR FREE. AND YOU CALL THAT A TOY. THAT FILLS OUR SAD AND RUINED SOULS.

I'M SORRY. THAT IS NOT A TOY. AND THAT IS NOT A SOUL IN RUINS. WHERE IS THE BARBARISM??? UNDER THE HEELS OF AN ALIEN MECHANICAL AESTHETIC OF HARSH NOISE VIOLENCE AND ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BRUTALITY.

ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BRUTALITY. UNDER THE HEELS?? THAT IS AN IMAGE, SET AGAINST THE PICTURE I PRESENTED, THIS TRUE WORLD OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS, OF HOPE AND TRUTH AND SINCERITY AND REAL VALUES AND GOOD. YES GOOD. WE ARE NOT UNDER ANY HEELS, NO ALIEN MECHANICAL AESTHETIC OF HARSH NOISE, AND VIOLENCE, AND ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BRUTALITY. DON'T LAY THAT ON ME OR ON MILLIONS OF STRANGERS, WHOSE HEARTS YOU DO NOT KNOW, CANNOT KNOW.


I KNOW THIS GUY, HAS HIS OFFICE PAPERED WITH THOUSANDS OF PICTURES OF HIS GRANDDAUGHTER. SO MUCH LOVE, CAPTURED AND AMPLIFIED BY THIS "TOY". SO MUCH PROSPERITY, SO MUCH HOPE... NOT SOME DREAM OF A NEW AGE. A CONTINUATION OF THE DAY TO DAY LOVING AND LIVING REALITY.

CHUCK. C'MON! LOOK AROUND. SEE THE GOOD WORLD, THE PASSIONATE, LIVING WORLD. NOT OF CRUSHED SOULS WITH NO ACCESS TO CULTURE. THAT IS A DARK AND TERRIBLY INACCURATE DEPICTION, OBSERVATION OF REALITY. THAT'S THE THIRD WORLD.

YOU WRITE WITH GREAT ELOQUENCE AND GRANDEUR. BUT NOBODY WILL SEE IT YOUR WAY. IT IS NOT THAT BAD. YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE THAT GIVES ANYV CREDENCE TO YOUR THEORY OF THE END OF DAYS.

IT'S POETRY. THE CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE IS DROWNED. A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. The falcon cannot hear the falconer. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight; somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun.The frightening truth is that the forces of “the future” without the reins of strong human moral will become a socioeconomictechnological Frankenstein, a global mechanical monster assimilating humans into its ahistorical, acultural, omnipotent soulless sovereignty. mutilated spirit. The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values.

The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values, as the beauty of traditional human culture has fallen under the heels of an alien mechanical aesthetic of harsh noise, violence and anarchic spiritual brutality, as a shambles of civilizational ruin theaten to emerge as the true legacy of “modernity,The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; And now the long simmering tension between human values and techne’, the Enlightenment world of technology, seemed to erupt in the ugly triumph of a technology that molded human beings in its image, digesting bits of culture into its non-human alimentary canal, spitting our ever new cyberdevices from computers to cell phones to digital cameras and iPods, toys through which Patriot Americans and the world following in its footsteps was able to find distraction from the pain of lost hopes and sensibilities of a truly human heart. Increasingly the authentic prophet of the contemporary age has seemed to be Aldous Huxley who, in the classic “Brave New World,” depicts a triumphant technology creating humans in accordance with a hierarchy of five genomes—a role reversal in which the human spirit has been all but completely suffocated by the machine. Mutilated spirit. The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values. As the beauty of traditional human culture has fallen under the heels of an alien mechanical aesthetic of harsh noise, violence and anarchic spiritual brutality, young citizens of the United States seem to be sinking into a quagmire of barbarism devoid of cultural and aesthetic sensitivity, embracing a pseudo-aesthetic that reflects the mutilated spirit of humans raised under the tutelage of an alien cyberworld with which they have identified—and thereby all but destroyed—their very soul.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes
hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn-
ing their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through the wall, who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York,
who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in
Paradise Alley, death,


Destroy another fetus now We don't like children anyhow I've seen the future, baby: it is murder. Things are going to slide, slide in all directions Won't be nothing Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned the order of the soul.

Don't push me 'cause I'm close -To the streets, the bitches, the niggas,the women, the children, the workers,the killers, the addicts, the dealers the quiet, the livest, the realest and that's close
Don't push me, 'cause I'm closeTo the edge, back, middle and frontStrong back shit liftin' it up From the big and the small



The piano has been drinkingAnd the bar stools are all on fire And all the newspapers were just fooling And the ash-trays have retired
And I've got a feeling that the piano has been drinking It's just a hunch, The piano has been drinking and he's going to lose his lunch.The bouncer is this Sumo wrestler Kinda cream puff casper milk toast And the owner is just a mental midgetWith the I.Q. of a fencepost. And you can't find your waitress with Geiger counter.


ABLE TO FIND DISTRACTION FROM THE PAIN OF LOST HOPES AND SENSIBILITIES OF A TRULY HUMAN HEART.

My necktie's asleepThe combo went back to New York, and left me all aloneThe jukebox has to take a leak Have you noticed that the carpet needs a haircut?And the spotlight looks just like a prison break And the telephone's out of cigarettes As usual the balcony's on the make And the piano has been drinking, heavilyThe piano has been drinking And he's on the hard stuff tonight.

.white spades hangin' on the telephone wire, gamblers reevaluate along the dotted line, you'll never recognize yourself on heartattack and vine.doctor lawyer beggar man thief, philly joe remarkable looks on in disbelief,if you want a taste of madness, you'll have to wait in line, you The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense Take what you have gathered from coincidence The empty handed painter from your streets Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheetsThis sky, too, is folding under you And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

A CAREENING AMERICA LED THE WORLD INTO ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BREAKDOWN.A QUAGMIRE OF BARBARISM DEVOID OF CULTURAL AND AESTHETIC SENSITIVITY THAT REFLECTS THE MUTILATED SPIRIT OF HUMANS RAISED UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF AN ALIEN CYBERWORLD WITH THISH THEY HAVE IDENTIFIED AND THEREBY ALL BUT DESTROYED THEIR VERY SOULS.

I'll probably see someone you know on heartattack and vine. boney's high on china white, don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk, well this stuff will probably kill you, let's do another line, what you say you meet me down on heartattack and vine. Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight,And nobody flinched down by the arcadeAnd the marquees weren't weeping, they went stark-raving mad,And the cabbies were the only ones that really had it made.

I now find myself dealing with a constant barrage of argumentativeness, bickering, abuse, arrogant self-righteousness and adamant defensiveness. Think about it. Look at your behavior. See why no self-respecting human being can tolerate such abuse. Whatever the cause, the behavior is intolerable. When you've had some insight and are able to acknowledge that a conversation isn't all about you, we'll be ready to talk about some protocols to minimize/avoid such behaviors in future. Please meditate on this and learn the lessons of how acrimony often starts flying between us. And work on limiting it. Only a child has footstomping fantasies of omniscience and omnipotence--and that you can take not as a putdown but as a sober observation of behavior that all of us should seek to avoid, as I'm sure you'll agree. Arrogant self-righteousness and adamant defensiveness. Overbearingly intimidating. Meanspirited.childish. Infantile, rude, ill-mannered and ungracious? Incapable of understanding elementary etiquette or of taking responsibility for your misbehavior. beyond rude, cruel and hostile belittling, deprecating and insulting" ... ill-mannered and ungracious How about "Look jerk, you're talking to someone who knows somethingI've truly had it with your penchant for arguing and your conviction that you're invariably right by definition. No more bullshit.When you've had some insight and are able to acknowledge that a conversation isn't all about you, we'll be ready to talk about some protocols to minimize/avoid such behaviors in future.
Anyone who's convinced that they're perfectly
decent is in for a shock--not only you, dear boy.

SUCH POETRY. SHEER NONSENSE. DISGUSTING CRAP. THE CEREMONY OF SHMINNOCENCE IS DROWNED. A CAREENING AMERICA LED THE WORLD INTO ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BREAKDOWN.A QUAGMIRE OF BARBARISM DEVOID OF CULTURAL AND AESTHETIC SENSITIVITY THAT REFLECTS THE MUTILATED SPIRIT OF HUMANS RAISED UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF AN ALIEN CYBERWORLD WITH THISH THEY HAVE IDENTIFIED AND THEREBY ALL BUT DESTROYED THEIR VERY SOULS. AND THE FIRE HYDRANTS PLEAD THE FIFTH AMENDMENT. CAUSE THE DREAMS AIN'T BROKEN DOWN HERE, THEY'RE WALING WITH A LIMP. AND THE SPOTLIGHT LOOKS LIKE A PRISON BREAK. AND YOU CAN'T FIND YOUR WAITRESS WITH A GEIGER COUNTER. AND ANYONE WHO'S CONVINCED THAT THEY'REPERFECTLY DECENT IS IN FOR A SHOCK. AND WHEN YOU'VE HAD SOME INSIGHT AND ARE ABLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT A CONVERSATION ISN'T ALL ABOUT YOU, WEL'LL BE READY TO TALK ABOUT SOME PROTOCOLS TO MINIMIZE/AVOID SUCH BEHAVIORS IN THE FUTURE. AND I'VE TRULY HAD IT WITH YOUR PENCHANT FOR ARGYING AND YOU CONVICTION THAT YOU'RE INVARIABLY RIGHT BY DEFINITION.

IT'S SHEER POETRY, AND TOTAL NONSENSE.


And his cold trousers were twisted, and the sirens high and shrill,And crumpled in his fist was a five-dollar bill And the naked mannequins with their Cheshire grins,And the raconteurs and roustabouts said "Buddy, come on in, 'cause
'Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now, they're walking with a limp Now that Small Change got rained on with his own thirty-eight"And nobody flinched down by the arcadeAnd the burglar alarm's been disconnected,And the newsmen start to rattle
And the cops are telling jokes about some whorehouse in Seattle
And the fire hydrants plead the Fifth Amendment
And the furniture is bargains galore
But the blood is by the jukebox on an old linoleum floor
And what a hot rain on Forty-Second Street,

SEEMED TO ERUPT IN THE UGLY TRIUMPH OF A TECHNOLOGY THAT MOLDED HUMAN BEINGS IN ITS IMAGE.


truly human heart. Increasingly the authentic prophet of the contemporary age has seemed to be Aldous Huxley who, in the classic “Brave New World,” depicts a triumphant technology creating humans in accordance with a hierarchy of five genomes—a role reversal in which the human spirit has been all but completely suffocated by the machine. The frightening truth seems to be that the forces of “the future” without the reins of strong human moral will become a socioeconomictechnological Frankenstein, a global mechanical monster assimilating humans into its ahistorical, acultural, omnipotent soulless sovereignty.

mutilated spirit. The non-human principles of technological advance have trumped all merely human values.

as the beauty of traditional human culture has fallen under the heels of an alien mechanical aesthetic of harsh noise, violence and anarchic spiritual brutality,

NO IT HASN'T!

A QUAGMIRE OF BARBARISM??!! DEVOID OF CULTURAL AND AESTHETIC SENSITIVITY??!!! THAT REFLECTS THE MUTILATED SPIRIT OF HUMANS RAISED UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF AN ALIEN CYBERWORLD WITH THISH THEY HAVE IDENTIFIED AND THEREBY ALL BUT DESTROYED THEIR VERY SOULS.

A CAREENING AMERICA LED THE WORLD INTO ANARCHIC SPIRITUAL BREAKDOWN????

ERUPTING IN THE UGLY TRIUMPH OF A TECHNOLOGY THAT MOOLDED HUMAN BEINGS IN ITS IMAGE, DIGESTING BITS OF CULTURE INTO ITS NON HUMAN ALIMENTARY CANAL, SPITTING OUT EVER NEW CYBERDEVICES FROM COMPUTERS TO CELL PHONES TO DIGITAL CAMERAS AND IPODS, TOYS THROUGH WHICH AMERICANS ANBD THE WORLD FOLLOWING IN ITS FOOTSTEPS WAS ABLE TO FIND DISTRACTION FROM THE PAIN OF LOST HOPES AND SENSIBILILTIES OF A TRULY HUMAN HEART??!!!