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Archive for the ‘Lady’ Category
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
Tonight’s occupy Cleveland General Assembly meeting – foto Smith
Just stood in the cold for an hour for tonight’s Occupy Cleveland General Assembly so Lady could offer a proposal to help slow down a bank evicting a woman with cancer. It was 29 degrees Fahrenheit but felt like 16 according to weather.com. It’s going down to 20 tonight – what’s that going to feel like . . . 7 degrees?
Tonight’s hour out in the freeze and blow hurt my feet, hands, neck, and ears. How do these young adults stay out there 24 hours a day 7 days a week manning the open Occupy Cleveland info tent without heat, without tents, without sleeping bags, without electricity, without gas to cook hot food?
I know their youth makes them stronger, sturdier, able to acclimate and endure more. And I know their protesting our country’s rigged money game is going to be one of the moral highlights of their lives, perhaps one of the most important things they’ll ever do for themselves, and us. But still, it’s so cold, bitter.
Lady tries to make it a wee bit better every morning by taking down 4 hot egg and cheese sandwiches for them (or a quiche and fried potatoes, or this morning it was a Spanish omelet) plus a large thermos of coffee one day, cocoa the next (all of which is seriously damaging our low income budget and is forcing us to shop at the Great Satan Wal-Mart so we can afford supplies),
The 8-14 constant info tent occupiers (who refer to themselves as the Troglodytes) wanted December 24th off to rest and shower and drink and party and get warm so Lady decided she would start her 39th birthday off by having us take the 5am to 10am shift.
We started off comfortable and warm in the 29 degree cold, but as the hours pass, the heat seeps from your body and cold creeps in. We spent most the time huddling on the heated sidewalk around the steam grate trying to keep various body parts warm — something I’ve seen the homeless do for years.
By 10am when our relief shift was to arrive I was cold, miserable and more than ready to go home, so of course our relief didn’t show up. Three hours later at 1pm a couple of the regulars returned and we took off. But that 8 hour shift in the cold on the concrete gave me a whole new appreciation for what these occupiers are doing.
And they needn’t have to. Cleveland’s Mayor Frank Jackson is just being petty, pissy, shitty in denying them electricity, heat, tents, sleeping bags, sleep, cooking while hoping that the elements will defeat us where his police mercenaries can’t.
This is especially galling because Cleveland lets Christmas shoppers set up tents in parking lots so they can camp out over night to be first in line for the Big Box Store sales, and they let the Cleveland Brown fans have grills and fire barrels for their illegal tailgate parties, so Mayor Jackson is selectively enforcing city laws — if breaking them benefits his Corporate masters, he looks the other way; but if breaking them involves free speech and the use of our civil rights which embarrass his Corporate owners, he has his SWAT team arrest us.
According to the recent U.S. census, one of every two Americans is slipping into poverty, while less than 1% of the rich own 90% of this country’s wealth – in fact 6 of the Wal-Mart descendants own more wealth then 50 million Americans combined.
This is sick. Just plain wrong. And very shortsighted.
Occupy Wall Street has changed the conversation in this country. Before OWS, this gargantuan disparity in wealth was seldom mentioned in the news; now it is talked about everywhere.
And if the rich and corporations and politicians listen and heed and actually do something about this grotesquely unfair rigged con-game that brings such disparity, we can turm America into a nation we can finally be proud of. If they don’t, then blood will run from boardrooms and mansions into the streets, as it morally should.
Making things fairer might also turn out to be financially more rewarding and definitely physically safer for the elite.
The rich need to realize there are repercussions to their theft and lawlessness. It is in their best interest to start paying their taxes, start paying their employees decent wages, establish universal free healthcare and education, and to stop raping the Earth.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I will remember Mayor Frank Jackson’s corporate ass kissing actions when I walk into the voting booth next election and vote for anyone but Frank Jackson. And that includes any other politician I get to vote on who is not actively supporting Occupy Wall Street.
People and politicians forget that protesters changed the racist segregation laws in this country, forced Nixon to get out of Viet Nam, forced men to give women the vote, forced slave owners to free their slaves. Principles and protest and persevering actions and dedication can and has changed things for the better.
It’s all up to us.
Occupy Cleveland 2012 – foto Smith
Posted in america, cleveland, Lady, news, Occupy, Photography | No Comments »
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
Holiday Lady – foto Smith
Lying in bed she says “So what do we do day after day?”
“We walk the rat wheel.”
“What am I going to do with you?”
She says that a lot when I let truth slip.
“Nothing you can do, I’m incorrigible. You thought I was corrugated cardboard you could mold at will, but I’m incorrigible; I remain beast.”
Four months into our seventh year and she’s still trying to civilize me. That shows hopeful heart.
May 2012 be good to us all, and we to it.
Especially we to it.
Personally, I’m going to try walking this brand new 2012 rat wheel with softer, steadier steps (so maybe her persistence is working a wee bit after all).
Piano Lady – foto Smith
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Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
Composition by cat and Lady – foto Smith
Composition of Lady and mirror – foto Smith
Composition of Lady by Lady – foto Smith
Composition of cat by Lady – foto Smith
Lady Gray
Well I got a little lady
Maybe she a shady grey
But when I lap her lapidary
She the only way
She make me sweet begonia
She jolly up my jam
She make me sweat petunia
She amp my is with am
I want to be her front door man
O lady let me light your darkness
Won’t you lead me late to sin
Let wicked lie be my harness
And my whip lip on lip
– Smith, 2005
Posted in Lady, Photography, Poetry | 1 Comment »
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
This is the letter I emailed Carlos Slim Helu today. According to Forbes, his family’s monetary wealth is estimated to be 74 billion dollars.
Dear Mr. Helu:
It has recently come to my attention that you and your family have the most monetary wealth in the world. I refer to a web page that I see on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires/list.
I see that you are from Mexico. I have read that there are a lot of financial problems in Mexico. We are from the United States. My husband and I lived in Mexico for 18 months, and just like the United States, I see that there are people who are begging in the streets for money. In Mexico, there are also children who beg for money. Some children suffer from malnourishment as well. When we visited there we met a teenager who had suffered such that her hair, which was supposed to be black, had portions in it that were brittle and pale.
Seventy-four billion dollars is more than enough money for you and your family. I have a proposal for you and your family. I would like you to donate the excess money you have–like roughly seventy-three billion dollars and a half–to people who have suffered from poverty in Mexico. I am sure many people will be appreciative of this and this will make your life and your family’s lives much more happy.
I think it will also be good to reject NAFTA as I have heard first hand from people that this has harmed them–both in Mexico and in the United States. It especially impacted the cost of tortillas.
Can you please help with this issue?
Peace,
Lady
. . .
Contact information – Mr. Carlos Slim Helu:
Telefonos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
Consejo de Administración
c/o Carlos Slim Helu, Presidente Honorario Vitalicio
Parque Via 198
Oficina 701
Colonia Cuauhtemoc
06599 Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
–
Phone: +52-55-5703-3990
Fax: +52-55-5545-5550
E-Mail: ri@telmex.com
Posted in activism, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Mexico, Peace, Philosophy, spirituality | No Comments »
Friday, December 9th, 2011
The family that disarrays together, stays together
fotos of Lady K & Smith by machine
Dada Greybeard
A lady poet followed me home
and asked if I could keep her.
I replied
it must be denied
for I had no room in my freezer.
She engineered her stay
of relocation with play
charm and elocution.
Praised this and that
allowed a wee pat
counted on evolution.
I may be cheap
and easy too
but for female I’m hard-wired.
And too
it’s sort of cool
this once being the one that’s desired.
Though I question her taste
her need of rat waste
a too hasty fade
will shatter shades
I cannot replace.
Best to see
what she reweaves
what treasure in her trundle.
Though it fracture my plan
I am but man
and man is meant to bundle.
— Smith, 2005
Posted in Lady, Photography, Poetry | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
The collages and words below are by Lady K . . . she created them for the Occupy Cleveland Daily Digest which she posts every other day at OccupyCleveland.com.
Venusians – collage by Lady K
Collage riffing on the idea of revolution being implemented in a peaceful way–army of “Venusians” as opposed to “Martians,” as Mars has been associated in our myths with war whereas Venus with love. Hopefully we can retrofit our myths, though.
Peace Be – collage by Lady K
Person scaling the Free Stamp. The words “FREE” are upside-down and backwards on the stamp. This particular crop seems to indicate the word, “be” and also the peace sign.
Peace Sign Language – collage by Lady K
Sign language for peace, my husband’s sun avatar and my mirror. Spell for comfort and warmth (albeit not global warming).
Perpetual Dreaming Organic Be I – collage by Lady K
Collage of advent candles, moon, sky and hiker in green woods. Was thinking about use of resources on this planet vs. creature comforts–the fire seems to both burn the atmosphere and also offers hope of renewal. The hiker is starting on a platform of cloud through a path into the forest which goes to the moon. The advent season is a season of hope. Also wondering about the antigravitiness of it all.
Prayer For Cold Winters – collage by Lady K
Collage of midnight sun, polar bear family, and prayer poem to keep habitats intact for these creatures of the cold.
Push Environmentalism and I – collage by Lady K
The word “Push” is from a door on Carnegie Avenue next to Aladdin’s Baking Company. The “Push” pops out of the page, pushing local purchase and economy with an eye towards keeping the globe safer. We can keep the globe safer by stopping so much shipping, so much international trade–this will sustain us better. But we need to sustain ourselve sustainably. Much money is to be made in this, and the use of the color green is meant to allude to not only money but making sure we are environmentally-oriented (albeit not by creating so much greenhouse gas). The peace sign is used to kind of counter the spread out hands and the concept of push–to show that it is a peaceful push rather than an aggressive push popping out of the page.
Sparrow Song for Earth – collage by Lady K
Collage of sign language that means “ant,” sparrow, shadow of myself on paint-spattered steps and earth. Sparrow is singing to Earth–sparrow is a sign of the song of God. Bone heart after Smith’s having written a poem about his secret name. Skeleton hand in head unknown and curious–would like to think of it as the ability to build infrastructure from thought–shadow. My womb will be barren as well so this photo is also about transcendence–how to transcend being barren. The bird’s beak is pointing in the same direction as the opening of the legs, but if the legs were fingers coming from a hand they’d sing “peace.” Mother Earth calls us to breed but we can sing songs for its fecundity as well–and fecundity does not have to directly translate into literal birth. Also playing with the ideas of rebirthing Earth and what this means. Paint spatters symbolize cosmos, stars as well, concrete steps symbolize the utility of concrete measurement in spiritual times. Also wanted to utilize the idea of ant on a couple levels; first being that it is important have more of an altruistic worker-mindset and focus on solving immediate problems for Mother Earth; second, the word play on aunt and ant and how that plays into my personal context & compensation since I am not having literal children; third, the idea of using mass mind to solve problems.
Ether – collage by Lady K
Collage of photos taken on Train Ave. I like the multiple levels of transcendence- diving through a window through a puddle on a road on the ground into ether.
Field and __ject – collage by Lady K
Meditation on context, subject, object, field, happiness, concern, black, white, gray, color, face, 100, .01, activism.
Heart heart Heart heart – collage by Lady K
Original digital collage inspired by Tinman song by Trenchcoat Manifesto. Was thinking our movement needed to think about its heart–in terms delineating too much from not enough–how does one tell? Also was thinking something about syncopation but can’t remember the context. Am interested in the symbolism of the words “Trenchcoat Manifesto” in terms of the slacker generation and unburdening ourselves of apathy and regaining heart.
Monad – collage by Lady K
For me the zebra first calls to mind my husband, the agent of chaos. He used a zebra in one of his most excellent collages, “e=mc2,” and also has a collage called “self centered,” so the name “Self Portrait” reminds me of this.
The name “Self Portrait” also reminds me of the oneness of everyone and I like the thought of looking at the collage and realizing that I am Self Portrait.
Zebras are also symbolic of how to hold dichotomies within the whole, and sometimes they are symbolic of the ability to blend in. The colors black and white also make me think of my husband as he is an ex-prisoner and uses the colors black and white in dichotomic yet integrative ways in many of his speculative photo compositions and samples of reality.
The zebra in this is spray painted on a train, which makes it fine art. It is standing under a rainbow of a single band of white, which is all colors.
Choices and Being I – collage by Lady K
Choices and Being. Chimpanzee contemplating death. We share 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees. We have called ourselves omnivores but we do have the choice to stop eating so many of our fellow animals. So very much eating our fellow animals causes much destruction to the environment in terms of additional plants to raise the animals that are raised for slaughter. It is much more efficient to obtain protein from plants rather than our fellow animals. In addition, the fertilizer required to grow the plants to feed the fellow animals for consumption is hurting our ecosystem–not only our water–the production of use and fertilizer also creates more greenhouse gas production, so it hurts the air as well. Let’s stop hurting our air, water and fellow animals on such a large scale.
Posted in Art, Lady | 3 Comments »
Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Car Lady – foto Smith
Lady wrote a poem to accompany her Occupy Cleveland every-other-day daily digest but didn’t post it for the rest of us, so here it is.
IN SOME HOWS REASSEMBLING HEAVEN
In some hows
knowing words real
we produce the caveats of our vocabulary
to reality under rocks or in our private maybes.
Do we say under shadows for each other
what was made by halves?
By halves and halves again in labyrinth
the vision looks behind and deletes
the pillars of salt
when possible intention intuited
Associations stick on every noun.
In some hows
wish that being naked not such hard diamond
knowing words real
In some hows
wants to know the nuances and the asterisks!
In some hows
wants calligraphy mapmaking mindmaps writing breathing
truth come clean
put back together
all the diamond slivers
forgiveness
sans deletes
In some hows
knowing we’re one good and how in some hows
we want to reassemble heaven
in some hows
in Some how
with art poetry activism all
children brothers sisters
moms dads families
mother earth father sky
rivers waters dirt air
dirtily clean
in-some-how-the-right-to-respire-when-I-am-old
- Lady Smith
The Lady & the Grinch – foto by Smith
Posted in Lady, Photography, Poetry | No Comments »
Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Mind frost – foto Smith
wife sez
I’ve got a black hole in my head
only my black hole’s a good hole
that’s where I send all my thoughts of my ex
Brick brain
Posted in Lady, Photography, Poetry | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Dear Friends New and Old, Family, Artists & Poets…
On behalf of the spirit of compassion, kindness, unity (yet with infinite individual voices), I ask for your help (via direct participation, spreading the word, and/or thinking and meditating) on three events pertaining to two seemingly distinct movements:
1) The Climate Issue, especially at this moment the Keystone XL Pipeline(stopping the building of and very soon, the extraction of oil from tar sands).March and Rally Sunday, 1 pm, starting at CSU.
And please, there’s this event Monday from 6-9 pm near Case Western to help people understand nonviolent civil disobedience (the event Sunday probably does not involve civil disobedience). Even if not planning civil disobedience in the future, if you have a friend or family member who might be, this training is useful because people who do participate in civil disobedience benefit from having help if they are incarcerated.
2) The #OccupyCleveland movement today and/or tonight, Friday, Oct. 21.
Please Occupy Today and/or Tonight. Occuping Tonight helps, as the “permit” for using Public Space is being expired by people who have no actual authority to expire it, as all space is Public Space, particularly Public Square. There is a group of overnight occupiers who need our support as there is the possibility that they might be arrested tonight for civil disobedience. Main events start at 1 p.m. and include food, music, and speakers. At 10 p.m. the curfew at Public Square starts.
And if you are not able to Occupy Public Square tonight (like me), then Occupy Today. And if you are not able to be seemingly physically present in Public Square today, please spread Word. And if you are too shy to spread Word, please think kindly about everyone on the planet.
A value of the Occupy Movement is that it tends to maintain a visible, persistent presence of concern. The people who are actively participating in this presence ask for time and for consideration of the complexity of this unity in which we live. I ask on behalf of you as my friends and acquaintances to please understand that we who identify immediately with the Occupy Movement and who are working for it are working with two main ideals of process which might seem to at first to be opposing poles. The two main ideals of process are individuality and unity. The end results desired are happiness, health and sanity. The intermediate vista involves as much kindness as possible while grappling with complexity and seeming contradictions, such as how does one deal with the concepts of unity and class consciousness simultaneously. The bounds are time and practical deadlines of effective thresholds with respect to particular tangible issues the movement can help.
Fundamentally, at a scientific level, all this that “you” see before you is unity–buzzing unity
We can see ourselves not only as margins, but as centers. We are each at the center of a canvas. We are the centers. We are the center of a moving canvas. Our skins are illusions which trap identity temporarily. Skin is just a focal point for movement of temporary persistence. Fundamentally, we are very much interconnected, very much one. Even if talking about spirituality makes one nervous, one must admit that the human animal is a bundle that extends into the air, into the water, that the human bundle is not so much a bundle as a smear of leaf in rain. That the smear is a pigment dot in a pixelist painting. That the smear is related to all the other smears. That if one opens ears and sees with eyes and remembers and perceives, one can see that the wind of sentiment is a universal wind with currents and eddies and turbulence–or maybe even a river. Many metaphors apply.
Having said all this shtuff, I feel that it is our very real responsibility to deal with the news that a person might have been raped by another person while staying overnight last Saturday night.
I believe in the ideal of truth and transparency, and I believe in full disclosure to an ethical threshold based on faith and reason.
I also believe in appealing to a greater understanding of complexity and human frailty.
I ask for compassion and help.
I ask for compassion and help and I have witnessed much compassion on the part of people who are participating daily and nightly in the Occupy Cleveland movement. I visit the overnighters every morning to bring hot water and sometimes food, and to get news for the daily digest as best I can given the complexities of humans.
I’ve witnessed overnight occupiers give homeless people shelter under the main tent so that homeless people can get out of the wind. I’ve witnessed overnight occupiers helping homeless be part of the movement and regain responsibility and participation.
Tonight is Robert Ritchie a.k.a. Dickhead’s celebration of life service. Smith and I are attending. Robert Ritchie was a friend of Daniel Thompson. Daniel Thompson was intimately involved in humanitarian issues and grappled with complexity. There are metaphors that apply to this situation–some themes: involvement, passion, heart, complexity and simplicity, and life and death. LIVE!
I ask you all, poets and artists, to be part of this movement in a very tangible way. LIVE!
Poets and artists are part of the divine, and a tradition of the divine, and a tradition of being carrier waves and ways of change. Be part of this voice and action, and understand it, and grapple with complexity. LIVE!
This is my personal appeal on behalf of the universal and immediate.
Peace and much love,
Lady
Tags: #OccupyCleveland, cleveland, Cleveland Tar Sands Action, nonviolent civil disobedience, Occupy Wall Street, stop Keystone XL Pipeline Posted in activism, dreams, Environment, ethics, Events, Family, Lady, Letters to the Universe, On Writing, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Relationships, spirituality | No Comments »
Monday, September 19th, 2011
R Lady – foto by Smith
Weather Report
Whether rain or slime
my love for you will remain
in or outside time
~ ~ ~
Me She Me
“I need to gargle.”
“Does that make you a gargoyle?”
“No, I’m male, more garguyle.
You have to be female to be a gargoyle.”
Art Lady – foto by Smith
Posted in Lady, Photography, Poetry | 1 Comment »
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