ambergrist squeeze a la melville rap (draft)

hopeless, i roll with some dope shit spoke swift

the way water flows post-diluvial

and folks look, sitting on the banks

while uprooted oaks drift,

and  teens feel a touch of  the ageless

hocus-pocus, while they smoke dirt spliffs.

that is to say, i’m trailing

the oldest flow scriptural, burning up my body

to transcend the individual.

salt-runs on my cheeks as if

the sailor’s ritual

lifted me off-decks into the whale’s bowels,

ain’t jonah, i’m no job, i just howl

whirling in my wind, breath stagnant

and foul, like my slave ancestors

under egyptian whips, i slather shit,

pyramid-builder, i eat bitter,

fill my belly up with my parent’s money

every night before dinner

and remove my own liver,

cold-hearted like kissinger,

check upon my eyes where pity doesn't glimmer;

hope i contain

my ways like the lion

in winter, hungry,

chewin’ on my money,

whole life a dung heap --

ain’t no way the reaper’d outrun me:

i gun my soul like a harley--

i’d hardly falter if i had to

put my grip upon the shottie

and use the moss-berg; all those shells


layin’ out your body.

you’re lookin’ at a half-dead man,

ain’t it obvi? ous ?

squeeze my ambergrist the naughti-est,

meaning there’s flecks, and nuggets

of gold in my piss

and shit,

gut a cunt with my thalamus, calamunous,

my game locked down like

a photo in an amulet,

vocabulary ravenous,

peasants make they sacrifice

to volcano-god rhymes,

i receive virgin minds:

kindling to light
the pipe:

an orange fire bubbling;

calmly burning up you troubling

emcees who deceive yourselves

that you don’t know nothing.

all i know holmes, is socrates, birds and bees,

overwhelmed by suffering,

it’s another things:

fools-pick-fools-for underlings;

that’s why

you under him.

my hypothesized boasts a whole ‘nother thing,

y’all pesticide, i’m Rachel Carson writin’ Silent Spring,

my pen, the mic, my voice hoarse

tellin’ stories like Horace

to make your brain porous

as end-of-the-day Hector,

drag both your lobes with the horses,

i fool all your hordes,

they transform to rotting corpses

and i donate your children

to orphanages.

your mothers become whores, diehard fans demand more

the hard-core ones know how the lyric goes.

g i swear only ever with the clan would i hold heat

‘cause they swing swords shinobi

thus my destiny

clear as a glass sea, homie--

permanently solo ‘cause there ain’t no luke

or wookie, just rookies.

cookie monster, all i see is cookies.

my wordsmith hammers out

watery damascus

on the stage i handle it.

no one ever said

to me, “control dis”

so unlike horsemouth in rockers

i grow my own, roll my own and smoke it

and i hope you choke on it.

Great/Occupy/Simulation Redux

there's egypt in america

our pyramids in vegas

must be causing mass hysteria

'cause there's egypt in america

http://zeroreference.blogspot.com/2011/02/great-simulation.html

Initial Exchange/Exchange Meta/Occupy Meta

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/11/15/368978/art-and-occupy-wall-street/

Adam Cahan · Colorado College

I totally disagree. Art can clearly be linked to social activism, but what Occupy has shown is that there is no replacement for people getting together in a space. Occupying space. Whatever it's other merits, a TV show or a play or a film doesn't do that. Both are indispensable components of a healthy culture. However I'd argue the best way to support the goals of Occupy is to occupy! There's no replacement for it.

Reply · Like · Unfollow Post · about an hour ago

• Alyssa Rosenberg · Top Commenter · Washington, District of Columbia

  I mean, that may be true, but if Occupy encampments are aggressively shut down, I'd rather come up with alternatives than let things burn out.

  Reply · Like · about an hour ago
• Adam Cahan · Colorado College

  Alyssa Rosenberg True. I totally agree with you, and my first comment was kind of strident. But I do think the 'big idea' is the importance of action. That any alternative should continue to bring people into the streets and empower them to accomplish something. And I feel that artists and people of conscience can't replace the importance and value of direct participation with art, though art has its own, important value. Though, I have yet to live up to my words..... :/

  Reply · Like · 44 minutes ago
• Adam Cahan · Colorado College

  Argh. Sorry about the egregious name repetition up front.

  Reply · Like · 40 minutes ago
• Alyssa Rosenberg · Top Commenter · Washington, District of Columbia

  Adam Cahan I mean, I tend to think that people have different things to contribute to movements. And if artists can get people talking about credit card debt or the non-dischargability of student loan debt, that's a productive contribution to the movement.

  Reply · Like · 35 minutes ago
• Adam Cahan · Colorado College

  Alyssa Rosenberg I agree. In part. We've all got different things to contribute. But in some ways aren't we overwhelmed and even tranquilized with certain kinds of awareness and talk? Goethe via Nietzsche: "Incidentally, I despise everything which merely instructs me without increasing or immediately enlivening my activity."

  Reply · Like · 15 minutes ago
• Adam Cahan · Colorado College

  That quote is an extreme position, but it's essence and source (The Utility of History) capture my point. Which, I guess, is that in an environment which in so many ways covers facts and rational thought behind a veil, it becomes essential to focus on what's most important - the _reason_ we wish to inspire conversation and raise awareness. That the means are too easily decoupled from the end, and what I see in the emphasis on action in Occupy is an unobstructed view of what our end, as citizens, is.

  Reply · Like · 4 minutes ago
• Adam Cahan · Colorado College

  Maybe I should be writing my own blog post :/...this is, like, sounding like an addendum as opposed to a critique. Thanks for writing a thought-provoking post.

  Adam Cahan · Colorado College

  Turned this thread into a blog post: http://zeroreference.blogspot.com/2011/11/initial-exchange.html

  Reply · Like · 2 seconds ago