AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

shuffle nuff . . .

September 26, 2021 No Comments

shuffle nuff . . .

Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores – Bauhaus
Teenagers – My Chemical Romance
Restin’ Bones – Primus
Chaise Longue – Wet Leg
Hoochie Woman – Tori Amos
Give Me One Reason – Tracy Chapman
I’m Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails edit) – David Bowie
The Snake and the Moon – Dead Can Dance
Egyptian Blues – Ellen McIlwaine
Pedestrian At Best – Courtney Barnett
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Bob Dylan
Bad Karma – Miley Cyrus & Joan Jett
Thanks A Lot – Ernest Tubb
War Pigs – Cake
Family Pain – Swamp Dogg
The Resignation vs The Comeback Special – Todd Snider
Backward Country Boy Blues – Duke Ellington, Mingus, Max Roach
Nuages – Willie Nelson

well dressed thieves

September 2, 2021 No Comments
Republican policy – kill people for money
Democratic policy – kill fewer people for slightly less money
Politicians’ creed – I got mine, screw you

f**k s**t b***h

August 12, 2021 No Comments

13 shuffle songs in which our A.I. Alexa won’t say certain words . . . she’ll say instead “My [silence] [silence] Up’. However Google Assistant does say the words Alexa censors.

My Shits Fucked Up – Kinky Friedman
Fuck That Guy – The Dirty Knobs
Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do – Robyn
Fuck and Run – Liz Phair
Fuck Your Acid Trip – Modest Mouse
Fuck All The Perfect People – Chip Taylor & The New Ukrainians
Fuck With Sad Girls – Bonnie Whitmore
Sex with Your Parents (Motherfucker) Part II – Lou Reed
Never Fuck A Spider On The Fly – Modest Mouse
Bitches Brew – Miles Davis
Wide Wide River (of Shit) – The Fugs
I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch – Courtney Barnett
My Shit’s Fucked Up – Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon wrote My Shit’s Fucked Up after discovering he had cancer.

from The Designated Mourner

July 30, 2021 No Comments

*If you look at the world . . . most people in it are the ones we can only refer to, rather nervously and gingerly, by means of those terribly melodramatic and almost hysterical words like “wretched,” “miserable,” “unfortunate,” “desperate,” “powerless,” “poor.” . . . And these particular people — and, you know, God knows why — well, they just don’t like us. They don’t like us. They simply don’t like us. So it’s not hard to see what will happen one day.*

– from The Designated Mourner,” a play by actor / playwright / director Wallace Shawn

shuffle humor

July 6, 2021 No Comments

sometimes shuffle has sense of humor

Walk Like An Egyptian – The Bangles
Eternal Consumption Engine – Primus
Tried to Be a Man – Rickie Lee Jones
Dig, Lazarus, Dig – Nick Cave
My Brain – Mose Allison
Johnny – Suicide
Misterioso – Thelonious Monk
Church of Anthrax – John Cale & Terry Riley
I’d Rather Be a Devil – Guadalupe Plata
Know Your Rights – The Clash
Mother Tongue – Dead Can Dance
Friction – Television
My Shit’s Fucked Up – Kinky Friedman
Walking Into Battle With The Lord – Chumbawamba

6/12-17/2021

June 17, 2021 No Comments

6/12-17/2021

~ ~ ~

Day is rock
life is hill
wife keeps me going

~ ~ ~

I know the status quo
wife above
husband below

~ ~ ~

My flesh
my bone
what’s me?

~ ~ ~

Good bad
bad good
that’s life

~ ~ ~

Lilacs
soft slow sun
park bench heaven

~ ~ ~

my May Medusa

June 7, 2021 No Comments

I quite like my May feature on Medusa’s Kitchen — 9 poems, 10 fotos.

This isn’t always the case since I submit them a month before they appear, and I’m not always happy when I read them 4 weeks later.

Publisher/editor Kathy Kieth’s blurb is much appreciated as well:

“Our thanks to Steven Smith for rocking our poetry world today with his sounds and senses (dogs piss, rocket hiss, cricket creep, frog peep)! Poetry is about the music of words, and Steven is definitely a composer who knows all about that. Thanks again, Smith, for the melodies and rhythms of your poetry and visuals.”

https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2021/05/spirit-to-bone.html

68 features so far – 563 poems, 596 fotos, 32 songs.

all day I face the barren waste without the taste of water

June 7, 2021 No Comments
They’re fixing a hole gushing water in our one-block dead-end street, and turned our water off with no warning. I drove out and got 3 gallons of water, and the street was closed when I got back, so parked and walked in. It looks to be at least an all day thing. I feel helpless relying on civilization for water, food, electricity – pretty much none of which I can supply myself. Felt this way ever since Hurricane Sandy cut off our electricity mid-winter 9 years ago and we sat in cold uncertaintly for 24 hours.
“Only a pawn in their game.”
On the other hand, water and electric folk seem to be adept at getting things working again, so I’ll make myself another cup of strong coffee using store-bought water and wait, hoping the toilet holds up.

select shuffle

June 6, 2021 No Comments

select shuffles…

Bad Woman Blues – Beth Hart
I Asked for Water (He Gave Me Gasoline) – Lucinda Williams
God & the FBI – Janis Ian
Hell on Heels – Pistol Annies
Give Me One Reason – Tracy Chapman
It’s My Way – Buffy Sainte-Marie
Woman – Susheela Raman
The Boy Can’t Help It – Bonnie Raitt
Down By The Water – PJ Harvey
Criminal – Fiona Apple
Dancing Barefoot – Patti Smith
This Is – Grace Jones
She Bop (slow acoustic) – Cindi Lauper
Blood Makes Noise – Suzanne Vega
Black Caffeine – Emmylou Harris
Strange Girl – Laura Marling
The Way I Talk – S. G. Goodman
Broken English – Marianne Faithful
4th & Vine – Sinead O’Connor
Walk Like an Egyptian – The Bangles
Only Happy When It Rains – Garbage
Weed Killer – The Kills
Raised on Robbery – Joni Mitchell
Grow Mama Grow – Dominique Fils-Aimé
Devil’s Got Your Boyfriend – Tracy Bonham
Germ Free Adolescents – X-Ray Spex
Deep Dish – Ani Difranco
God – Tori Amos
Kill Your Mama – Alicia Keys
Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do – Robyn
Think Twice (Version X) – Lavern Baker
Trailer Trash – carolesdaughter
Tried To Be A Man – Rickie Lee Jones
Never Say Never – Romeo Void
Scary Latin Love Song – Mary Margaret O’Hara
Bad Kitty – Liz Phair
A Swamp Dog’s Tale – Goat Girl
Welcome to Hell – Hen Ogledd
You’re Dead – Norma Tanega
Indus – Dead Can Dance

flesh in the life lane

May 29, 2021 No Comments

companion to Life in the Flesh Lane
and Life in the Smith Lane

Flesh in the Life Lane

There’s life before and after
laughter’s led to slaughter

so, gonna drink my coffee
smoke my dope
and go

it’s good to have a plan

can’t feel bad
just cuz bad people do bad things
and I can’t stop em
or teach em
or make em be one

especially with my past

besides, who’s looking who
down here in the zoo?

– Smith, 5.29.2021