Erick Lyle/Iggy Scam & Bucky Sinister Reading Their Writing

"The Epicenter of Crime: The Hunt's Donuts Story" read by Erick Lyle @ Needles & Pens from Andrew Scott on Vimeo.

fuckin' great writer. for sure.

same with bucky...


"The Berlin Wall" by Bucky Sinister @ Needles & Pens in San Francisco from Andrew Scott on Vimeo.

they're reading at a place called Needles & Pens in San Francisco. I've been gettin' all up in San Fran shit lately. you bet your sweet ass (i'm a turtle).

i ripped these videos off lovingly from a website called: fecalface.com

here's the real link to the right page:

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1179&Itemid=63

alright, hope you dig!

word. it's been awhile.

if i feel a song coming on

it's interesting how lyrics work. some people can craft a feeling or emotion out of some fucking words. some people just straight up tell a story. like, "boy named sue" or something.

jazmine has a good mix song: it's not quite a story, but starts "sitting here watching you fall apart in my arms / and i don't know what to say to make it better..." it goes on to detail some of the pain and sadness that her friend is going through. very nicely done. it's called "cry away yesterday," if you're wondering.

like josh's "bucket" - not quite a story, not quite pure abstract feelings.

i think my songs fall into the abstract a lot. it'd be good to write a story song.

i suppose haiku's aren't always self-contained. they conjure up a feeling: not necessarily a concrete example of anything.

max wrote a song that's a little like this, i'm not sure what the lyrics are exactly, but it's like, "we can climb a roof and ride a bike..." that sort of shit. it's not as ridiculous as some of the shit he's written. or he and charlie have written for that matter: "ooh baby, she's got critters!"

hell, i've done this too..."rub it raw" - for real? what a fuckin' joke.

even when i've got a song that's pretty serious, i can screw it up right in the middle "9 to 5 punks" is a damn fine example. it's all going good. real good. then, "raise a cup for the nine to five punks / we don't get healthcare but it's full time work / so if we die out then we die together / let's have some good times first..." okay, so it's a bit cheese and that might make the cut - except - EXCEPT - it's done over a bit of a break down. so the audience can clearly hear it: it's designed that way.

bullshit.

so, there are probably a million - but i think i've got it narrowed down to three types of songs - 1) the concrete story (first or third person it doesn't matter) designed to bring out emotion 2) the abstract, lines fitting but needing to be deciphered - you can sometimes hear these songs, understand the feeling right away, but not really know the nuances of it yet, or 3) fun crap. this can take care of stupid stephen lynch style joke songs (hate that guy. i hate tenacious d, too - if you're wondering) or bizarro shit about pirate ships

i think there are lots of examples of blurring these things. i just really like it when bands can do the first two well (and there are multiple examples of mixing the third with one of the first two and having it work, but the third cannot stand alone and be cool with me very often, the "critters" example from above is alright. i think it's saved by the self awareness of its chorus, "whaddya want from me?" almost like baiting you, "c'mon, you don't like these lyrics? what the fuck do you want from me?" so it works...it's a combo!)

the third can exist even with posturing, trent is usually really good at writing but there are a couple songs that i've even asked him about...what the fuck does "we're all near dead sheep wearing corroded crowns" mean? it sounds better than the songs max writes about pirate ships, but you know...

actually, trent is probably my favorite lyricist in town.

don't tell him though.

so, for lyricists there aren't all that many folks around here (that i'm readily familiar with) there's me, jazmine, josh, alex, watson, charlie, max, micah, joe, and eli? not sure about the last one. my guess is eli does write lyrics. i'm just not sure how those duties are split in the crooked gospel.

micah is really fucking good, too.

okay, so i've got a few favorites. jazmine's lyrics have really grown on me, despite the fact that i don't listen to ANYTHING remotely resembling her stuff.

i think i'm just into darker things. maybe that's why my favorite song of hers is either "cry away yesterday" or "settling" she's using her voice for affirmation. like reaching out from the darkness with song.

i can get behind that.

trent sometimes seems like he's promoting a style or posture more than writing a song, like he thinks, "what can i say here that will allow me to mention whiskey?" but that's kinda like what i do. maybe that's why i like his shit.

josh writes really well.

and - hey - joe andrus has "seeds and stems" or whatever he's calling it. fuckin' great words. if that song were played right before "settling" - that'd make a good little story.

fuck. i'm trying to think of this song micah has. it's like his latest tune, or something. i don't really know its story.

i called joe first, thought he'd know that song of micah's. then tried micah's house. then called charlie because he'd videotaped the simple infant men (an outfit that plays the song i'm talking about) and put it all on youtube or something - so, thought he'd know the song. finally got through to eli - and then micah - via eli's cell phone.

just got off the phone with him. the song is called "cajun cliffhanger" - he doesn't know what that title means. the lyrics are "the centrifuge is taking us all for a ride" - hmm...or something. i didn't write it down and our conversation went further and i maybe have forgotten.

he's gonna read this. he'll be the only one!

he asked me to mail this to him. yep, gave me his address and everything.

so, now this isn't as...hmm - without audience? his request - by my letting on that i was doing this - has shifted this from, "maybe someone will read this" to "yep, micah's gonna read this."

micah, i didn't go back and put the line, "micah kicks ass in here." i'd already written it.

i haven't changed anything but the tone here at the end. since, you know, now i've got an audience.

so, for micah, and for you - dear reader - let me say, this is just a bit of discussion on song lyrics that are local. i don't think i was very harsh. i don't know that i was very insightful either - that said - if you think i WAS a meany, i'm sure i didn't mean it. surely.

i just really like lyrics.

My Poem and Its Story

okay, so i'm sitting in brit lit class, right? and the teacher is singing songs and telling us about william blake. then he's telling us about robert burns. maybe he was telling us about blake first. anyway. so he's singing "auld lang syne." and telling stories about the young generation letting minot slip silently away - because he tried to sing "auld lang syne" at the bar on new years and no one knew it or something. i thought, well - hell - maybe i'll start teaching the youth. beat back the decay!

my mind started wandering while i sat there. i started looking over my "to do" list. not wanting to be overwhelmed, i start daydreaming. of other things i need to do - things that are more "me" and less "pressing." i thought about adding some things to my "Get Better."

my Get Better is a list i've got up on the fridge. well, not a list as much as a tally-keeper. a scoreboard for personal achievement that i started this month. more because a new month had rolled over than that this was new years' month. i made a little calendar of january and put a "+" a "-" and an "x" for each day. sort of like a totem. then, there's a key on the side. the plus is cigarettes, the minus is drinking, and the 'x' is eating meat. i circle the symbol if i don't do it. if i "win" for the day. pretty simple concept. i can use it to evaluate my habits. i wrote "Get Better" across the top because that's what my friend Alex wrote on his drums so that while he was playing 'em his past self would be encouraging progress...

i've smoked eight days, drank 14, and ate meat maybe 12? these numbers are off 'cause i'm in the living room and lazy. anyway - you can see what a louse i am at all of this. back to class. well, i'm sitting there thinking, "if i can get through the rest of the month alright, i should add another symbol to fight against. maybe jogging - or writing everyday!" the teacher kept talking about poems and william blake and william blake's poems. blake's poems sometimes talk about god and beasts and spirits. i wrote this poem while i was listening to all of this. just 'cause i thought writing everyday could mean poems.

For Trials In the Grocery Line

today's a day like any day
my ups and downs you'll find
have more than once this morning
shone bright with light from the divine

you see, i'm at least part angel -
more than one-third, surely
but it seems i'm having trouble
making class - 'cause it's so early

and i wouldn't doubt if later
i couldn't get much done -
there's a lot of evil out there
and i've got to keep it on the run

i'll hunt down all the vampires
the monsters? kill 'em good, i will!
so if you'll just gimme a break
i'll be right back to watch the till

but for now i just need patrons
who understand and give me slack
'cause i got a lot of issues
and feathers sprouting from my back

i showed the poem to jake thomas, master of insight, who wrote at the bottom:

"For religion to have any hope, Angels must organize along the lines of the Mafia."
- Kurt Vonnegut

what lunch can tell you about a person

well, i've sacrificed ideals again. had a cheddar-dog for lunch. i'm drunk on a monday afternoon. the dog hasn't been walked and i've got homework i haven't done.

it wasn't a new years' resolution that brought me back around to ideals. it was the break. christmas break lasts a few weeks. i thought with the extra time i could think a bit more. and it fell over a "first-of-the-month." firsts are always good for new beginnings. instead, i've drank a bit more. i have a plan. we'll see if it ever gets implemented.

i don't want to eat flesh. i didn't for awhile. then things went awry. i deviated from the diet. i left the path. why?

hmm.

last year around this time - or was it two years ago? - i think it may have been two, actually, anyway - i had to leave minot for awhile. things were too rough for me. then i left and things were a little less rough in the abstract and a little more rough in the concrete. it was hard for me to face all of the talk - the rhetoric - when i didn't have a dime in my pocket and food was being given away and the food was meaty.

it was tough to deal with all of the questions. i was my biggest critic - and i've still got questions - how does a leftist reconcile his advocation for sentient beings with a workers' struggle that is at least partly composed of dealing with the meats industry? in the event that what you hold to be our only humane future - an absence of meat and animal byproducts - is to pass - where and what will have happened? nothing i've read maps out the future; it only criticizes our present. hypocrisies abound. i dunno.

i used to live by a sort of "platinum rule" - do unto others as you would wish they would do unto you. error on the side of good. and i think i may be gravitating back towards that. sure, the questions aren't answered for me, but does that mean i should participate apathetically in the slaughter of beings who, however speculatively, may share my emotions and dreams?

well, the cheddar dog. jaz bought 'em - i'd said i wanted to be vegan for a month. she still brought the shit around, trying to help. i think she'd thought i meant just no dairy (it gives me, and about 30-50 million other americans the badness) - but i still don't get the purchase. maybe she thought it was minimal cheese? it is one of my favorites. anyway, i just eat it. and a month is nothing. i should be able to do this. i used to do this shit for a long time. in fact, when i asked josh plogue about it all and he'd said, "i've been vegan three times." i didn't know what he was talking about. really? he'd fallen off?

at the time i was new to it and a would-be martyr for it. how could he have changed?

well, now i think i get it. some convictions can't hold and while you're busy dealing with the realistic the idealistic takes backseat. my real problems are family and friends and insecure-chips-on-the-shoulder - what can i do?

i'm also trying not to drink (strike against me right now) and smoke (if i could break this without buying a pack, i would).

but none of it's working much. i'm tired and lazy and things are hard. not harder than other people have it - far from - so fuck you and your guilt-giving. i understand where i'm at. it's not a hard life, but i don't deal well regardless of this evidence of leisure.

what to do? i cannot justify my diet. i cannot justify my vices. in fact, i know better. i know that for the fight a clear-headedness is important. i'm an avid fan of proactive living. i'm an activist of sorts.

but goddamn does it feel nice to just lay around and drink and smoke and eat some pizza.

how to reverse the cycle?

long day

tonight there should be a lot of people excited to get down and dirty with ideas, scissors, glue, paper, and a trip to the photocopier.

this might make me happy.

i'm hungover and tired. that might be why i'm sad. i guess jake braaten reads this, hi jake.

i listened to living on the edge, then came across this song.

i'm not quite a blubbering mess right now. i just feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and as though i lack focus or control.

here's this video. it's sad.

fun with links!

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