Archive for ‘Othe blogs and other interesting things.’

November 14, 2013

Noah and his new movie

by jhon baker

Apparently there is a movie coming out next year about Noah of biblical fame. Hey, it stars Russell Crowe so it ought to at least be entertaining. The reason I am writing about it here is it is my hope that these questions I’ve always had about the great flood will be answered in this Aronofsky film.

A selection of my questions:

1. Was everyone evil? even the little babies who couldn’t do anything for themselves yet? the unborn who were unwittingly killed – I mean talk about abortions – I think the flood takes the abortion cake.

2. Just how did Noah organize all the animals on the ark? Did he separate the herbivores from the carnivores and have the omnivores in between. Where did he get the marsupials from and why then were they essentially left to one continent after that? Dinosaurs? Arctic animals? how did they make such a journey and survive not to mention the journey back without a proper GPS.

3. Considering that the size of the Ark would leave only .06 inches for each animal living today (not including dinosaurs and the many species that have gone extinct between now and then) where was the food stored and how was it organized – was it kosher? were all the carnivores put on vegetarian diets and such?

4. how did this old man (600ish) build a stadium sized boat? How had he managed to live even that long? wasn’t everyone on the Ark in their 500s or better? This strikes me as odd.

5. The Ark had but a single window (poor design feature) how was the dung managed? Memory tells me that there were about 8 people on the ark (all related) to shovel all that literal shit out of a single window – that is really impressive management. Elephants alone can create a hundred pounds of dung a day – and there were two!

6. Why did Noah need a dove to locate land that with a rudderless and sail-less Ark they could only hope to get to? Wasn’t he in communication with his God the whole time? – Fuck the dove – I would have eaten it and food must have been scarce at that point.

7. Re-population. All eight of the seafarers were related – there was no racial mix – this supposedly happened – what, like 4,000 years ago? – where in 4,000 years did we come up with such a massive population and such a diverse one at that? One would imagine all that inbreeding would have created an eventual completely helpless species that likely would have died out within a few generations – the genetic DNA swap aside – how did a mess of middle-eastern Jews populate Africa with Africans? Japan with the Japanese and China with the Chinese and every other ethnic variable there is?

8. Once the flood waters receded – where did the water go? why is there fresh water in some places and salt water in others – wouldn’t the mixture of these two killed quite a few of the aquatic life? What did Noah and crew eat while they were awaiting re-population or all plant and animals? the leftover bloated dead bodies of their former neighbors? Oh yea, there would have been a ton of dead shit just lying around everywhere.

9. I thought God was omniscient – didn’t he see this need coming? I mean when he created a species ill and then demanded upon pain of death that they be well – didn’t he know ahead of time that he might have to brutally drown them all (save 8)? Why wouldn’t he just change the plan and make the species better or vaporize all but the 8 in the first place instead of having to go through the strum and drung of a global flood? Leaving 8 to clean up the mess which is somehow never really commented on.

10. In the sequel will they cover why there is no evidence left from this supposed flood?

 

I hope that they cover some of these questions – they won’t, I know it. But one can dream? or not. I think that it will probably be an impressive film considering the cast and director and like all films about mythology – someone will take it too seriously and there will be busloads of people coming in from churches to see it and weeping over the beauty of it all which will make it impossible to enjoy the film in the first place.

That is if I am going to see it – which I don’t think I am.

 

 

 

July 20, 2013

Sitting

by jhon baker

Waiting at the music school my son attends for him to finish an hour and a half of lessons. There is nothing to do except scan Facebook, Twitter, and search around for news of the coming apocalypse (there is one isn’t there? There is always one coming down the pipe.). But, the coffee never lasts long enough and there isn’t entertainment going on in the waiting area of the school for any length of time – though this time I get to restring a guitar and make an unintentional dollar.

As noted above – I’m on twitter now – I am officially a twit or one who twits or whatever. Follow me or not  – @JhonZBaker  – I’ll not be offended if you do not or cannot or will not.

I refuse to be offended personally by anything – because no one fucking cares.

 

and outside it’s storming

 

temporary black out

and the keys on this machine hesitate

and stop momentarily.

 

my heart jumps as I am in the middle of a poem

and will be left sitting in the dark

with only drink and silence

 

and no poem

 

but the lights flutter and return

and the machine hums again

scenting the room with ozone

 

it’s January in Chicago

and raining, with intermittent thunder

and lightening keeping the cats awake

July 16, 2013

A revision of the 10 commandments or a Decalogue for the 21st century

by jhon baker

I try not to post things here that I haven’t been the author of but I just became aware of the following and decided to maybe offer it to my limited audience. So for your reading pleasure I offer “a revision of the ten commandments” or “a Decalogue for the 21st century.”

 

by Christopher Hitchens

 

  1. Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or their color
  2. Do not ever even think of using people as private property or as owned or as slaves
  3. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations
  4. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child
  5. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature
  6. Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, try and think and act accordingly
  7. Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus
  8. Turn off that fucking cellphone – you can have no idea how unimportant your call is to us.
  9. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: Psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions and terrible sexual repressions.
  10. 10. Be willing to renounce any God or any religion if any of the holy commandments contradict any of the above.

In short: Don’t swallow your moral code in tablet form.

 

July 3, 2013

When the coffee maker starts on fire

by jhon baker

I don’t post much but there isn’t really all that much I want to say. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately but the concentration has been one pointed and into a realm that I don’t want to harp away at on my blog – see the previous post – but I need a new roof as this one has failed me (still thankful to have one), a new washer because the old one had failed me (so did the new one which I am receiving a replacement for today), the basement flooded and we are drying it out ever so slowly before relaying the carpet, and the coffee maker lit itself on fire of which we are using a back-up until we get around to replacing the old one.

It is important to always have a back-up coffee maker that gets occasional use to keep it working properly.

I haven’t been putting much out for publication either, though I spent the first few months of this year writing and a lot got written. I am wondering how it all turned out mostly. I am never a good judge of my own poetry – I either think it is all crap or all beyond compare – depending on my mental state and state of medications. At the moment I cannot recall the last submission which is still waiting in the wind for acceptance or denial and it is bad form to have simultaneous submissions which I have done and there is a handful of poems with multiple publishing credits. I’ve been hoping no one noticed and I don’t think anyone has. So, I wait for this last batch to be rejected or accepted before I start to send out more.

some poems

 

some poems take years to write

some only minutes

every other poem is in-between

and none so far has taken more.

 

like Bukowski, Williams, O’Hara

I am a writer of poems

short poems

long poems

most a few in-between

like all creatives I am

notoriously unreliable in action

chasing down the inspirations

with a stick in one hand

a pen in the other

months of missing my prey

and weeks of eating well

and growing fat

 

but I write on this IBM Selectric III

and drink coffee like it was religion

no longer getting drunk or drugging

my days away

and slipping into the nightgown of poetry.

now they all come fully dressed

with ten fingers typing

furiously in fits and starts

mostly done during the day.

 

I am nostalgia interrupted

a willful resemblance of another time

before my iMac and laptop dominated

my final drafts and submissions

email rejections or acceptances

 

I haven’t stamped an SASE in years

or walked to the mailbox hopeful or dreadful

waiting to throw away another poem

such as this.

 

– Hoc Scripsi

 

My beard is long and the shampoo that we are using makes it wiry. it is too wet to ride my motorcycle today. I am waiting for the new washer and I hate to wait. Not that I am impatient, but that I am interested in doing other things while my son is at camp and I can do other things. Tomorrow is the annual holiday of our independence (in the USA) and I don’t do much to celebrate it – even when invited to a party there are other things I’d rather be doing. I’d rather be writing even though I’ve no ideas and, for the moment, the inspira has found other avenues for its own expressions.