"There was a sudden troubling thought that nobody seems to know much of anything. Everything in our culture seems to be marinating in the same plastic sack and the ingredients are deeply suspect."

-The English Major, Jim Harrison

Guilty Pleasure

     "Just another fucking day in Liberal, America," Jake said sarcastically.

     "Just another fucking day at The Butchery," Ricky corrected.

     Jake, a high school sophomore, is a twiggy person in too-big, dark-colored clothing that moves like Jell-O in his more energetic moments. A self-proclaimed 'punk rocker,' he lives up to the stereotypical portrayal of a goth of the United States. He sits on the rear bumper of an old Volkswagen Passat, a car with the bone structure of a tank, nodding his head to a hymn of System of a Down.

     Ricky, a high school junior, would be a candidate for future bouncer employment; to say that he has 'filled in' would be an understatement, and one wonders how his frame holds him aloft. He is the owner of the sedan and reclines in the back with his feet sticking out the end.

     The Butchery: fueling point for the bodies of the affluent and well-known. Owned and managed by obscure  - but upstanding - citizens who are members of the Conscientious Entrepreneurs for Profit, CEP for short. Bleeding hearts who serve bleeding hearts (unless ordered well-done) to other bleeding hearts.

     The music slows and fades, signaling they are one song late in clocking in. Ricky groans, stretches and rocks himself to a sitting position.

     "Guess it's about time," he said, spitting onto the asphalt.

     "Matter of fact, it is," exclaimed Jake, entering one of his brief euphoric, energy-laden bursts. He dances about the lot throwing jabs at the air behind Ricky, who is closing the hatchback.

     Ricky began plodding toward The Butchery, across the small parking lot along a two-lane road in a sparse part of town, with Jake still dancing around him.
     
     The boys were getting an advance lesson in a topic their peers didn't yet have to face: 'the real world.' This is a politically correct time in America, and also a time when the number of jobs available since their birth will have largely desiccated by the point of their graduation. They saw no harm in dropping out of the educational queue and getting a head start to lock in a position in life. Besides, there aren't many people remaining in the country willing to do the dirty jobs that still had to be done.

     Everyone has appetites and desires that seek fulfillment, perhaps it's genetic, but not everyone has the alacrity to provide for those appetites. In the case of The Butchery, the plutocratic customers desire meat from fresh and well-treated animals, and the well-to-do management wishes to provide it for a price. However, neither party comes from that thin slice of society with the willingness and know-how to get its hands dirty.

     Enter Jake and Ricky. Each shoulders half of a double door at the back of the restaurant. They walk a narrow corridor lined with cages of chickens and pens of pigs, the wall covered with an inventory of butcher's tools, and enter the kitchen.

     A squirrelly looking man in an odd bellman-like suit faces the two dogs who entered with a stern look and pursed lips. He speaks with a squeal that raises pitch every fourth or fifth word.

     "Where have you been? Dinner service is just a few hours away," squeaked the little concierge. 

My Own Private Idaho

Stand Out with These Latest Trends

In the Teen section of a bookstore is a poster featuring the image of a barcode that reads "Do Not Conform" in place of the standard integers. The poster is well-hung in an affordable, ubiquitous, black frame with an obvious plastic sheet in place of glass, likely of IKEA origins.

Salt

      Once upon a time, salt (among other spices) was extremely valuable and systems of slavery were in place to procure it. Today it's essentially given away. Also, today, we continue to have systems of slavery - often self-imposed - in place, which we refer to as the employee.
      Rather than once-valued salt, the employee works for "valuable" paper money, which has lost most of its worth since being removed from the gold standard in the 70s. Little do they realize, employees are being paid in the salt of today.
      One should scrutinize what's considered valuable today. How long before it is today's salt?

Tsubasa

Life's Waiting Room

Within life's waiting room,
people who have come after
are already called forward
and I continue to wait
I would leave, or inquire
at the reception desk - but
the magazines are quite good.


(Tedium in Seven Syllables)

Lost in Translation

A dog in France will not understand a command given by an American. A French dog and an American dog will be at ends with each other in the same way a French human and an American human have trouble communicating. Both rely on nonverbal kinesics for common ground, but other animals likely have the universal cues more refined.

V

Crumbs

Individual Realities

"Things have been feeling different lately."
"I'm liking the new you, so don't change."

Innocent words, variations of which we overhear every day. Simple phrases and requests we may quickly let pass. And we experience a comfortable feeling if we aren't paying close attention to the comments that seem to pertain to us. It's the feeling of something overtaking and overlapping something else; it's the feeling of realities clashing against each other like the shifting colors of an anole. Humans are continually usurping each other in these small ways and it's important to be cautious of the language with which we are presented.

An interesting idea would be the concoction of an opinion so subtle that it moves from person to person until all people believe it. What would that say or mean in general and of the person who concocted the opinion? Does it ever stop at just that person?

Magnolia

Tsubasa

Magnolia

Dengue Fever

American Society

A strong hailstorm that looks like oxygen bubbles floating in reverse, downward from the surface of the ocean. Called a "catastrophe," people huddle - with refreshments - under "relief tents" as dents and windshields are repaired on their damaged, ever-depreciating, assets. No deaths occurred during the storm, just the rending of clothes and wails toward the sky because the vehicle was a recent purchase and the loan still accrued interest. Yes, it was a catastrophic time, as declared by those who had to financially cover it.

Odd Consideration

Not too long ago, humans kept reading material by their toilets. Those were the days of 100% fiber diets.

Those Who Die Alone

A Person collapses in the street and you hurry over and call an ambulance. Because the Person is alone, you travel with the ambulance to the hospital where a nurse asks if you are a relative. You say no; therefore, you have to wait outside. No relatives come because the Person has no living family. The System has dictated they must die alone. And so it goes.

Tsubasa

Tsubasa

The Note

The note read: "Chose the wrong species. Will try again."

The Mean

Most people will be frugal for a day, healthy for a week, and that’s about the gist of it. They are continually looking up averages and statistics, and forgetting them, because the averages don’t apply to those who aren’t average.

Wolf Children