The Madness of March

It hearkened so merrily

Give unto us the rites of spring

with thy Madness of March

dribble dribble shot

oh look at that dunk

oh look at that three

didn't he walk?

We scream at the TV 

as though they can hear us

and they better listen

we pick our brackets

our trusty brackets

brackets crafted with care and love

in two minutes

because I've never heard 

of some of these sacrificial lambs

so we shall laugh 

and cry and lo

for this means spring has sprung

oh thankies from my power bill

 

I'm sorry you misspoke

who beat Virginia?

they are a No. 1 seed 

surely you jest

Who?

No. 16 University of Maryland-Baltimore County?

Not even the main campus?

that's not a community college?

Madness indeed

who would have thought

who would have dreamed

so it would seem

Arizona has lost as well

oh hell. 

And down the rabbit hole we go

fate dealing brackets body blows

But my picks fear no such turn

for I plucked from the muddy tides of the future

UNC as my champion

and even they be nigh victorious

they'll make the elite eight

final four for they are great

and the pool shall be mine

lest someone pick by mascot

or uniform color

Argh

Monday morning

brackets torn asunder

picks lay strewn like cut grass

oh my poor picks! 

faulty, futile, foolhardy

kicked in the ding ding by fate

felled by Texas A&M

and Loyola

I know a guy named Xavier

why couldn't you be that cool Xavier?

Everybody knew Cincy was lunching

now they're worth punching

UNC felled as I slept

All the pool money gone

a brother wept

Sweet sixteen my ass

Who ever ranked these teams

was just playing

That's all I'm saying

Tis done

we've all seen better days,

Hey, can we get a do-over?

They wasn't going to class noways

Bracket just...done.

And so, they go...

"There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope".
~ Stephen Hawking (or at least the guy who played him in the movie)

In what will surely be one of my more convoluted posts, I'm going to honor two men who recently passed who couldn't have been more different: noted physicist Stephen Hawking and rap legend Craig Mack, who sadly passed around the same time. Two from a time when talent got you everywhere you wanted to get to.

Seriously though, Stephen Hawking did put some brand new flava in ya ear.

See what I did there?

I'm going to start with Professor Hawking, who a few years ago agreed to appear on the Big Bang Theory and insisted on delivering his own lines and not having them recreate his electronic voice. When you consider it takes sometimes an hour for him to compose a sentence, it was an enormous commitment on his part. And he made the most of it, much funnier than I expected. For a man who was supposed to die before I was born and who lived everyday trapped in his own mind, he had a cracking sense of humor. But then I guess he had enough time to make the inside of his mind rather nice, so maybe we were all the ones being left out.

As you may have guessed, I didn't know Stephen Hawking personally. But from a wheelchair in a frail body in need of constant care he changed our understanding of the universe we live in. He picked up where Einstein left off. Those who did know him called him engaging, funny and brilliant - from tales of nights in dive bars to extraordinary work in the lab. Because despite the more esoteric nature of his work, it is those understandings which contribute to the continued existence of the human race. And by that I mean things involving items not of this planet that in time will effect this planet. Good stuff. He funked the world...

Yes, that is an odd and awkward segue here...

Craig Mack is however, for us old heads. One of the original Bad Boy artists, the inimitable Craig Mack was a genius of rap in '94 of a kind of rap that artists have kept pretending to discover ever since. His freestyle free verse rap, unlike the story telling style of the contemporaries, consisted of songs that made more sense if you just let the lyrical word play shine through. The intelligence of the rhyme, the patter, smoothness was undeniable. A wicked talent for improvisation along with fat beats made for quite the combination in an age where every song had to have resonance.

But while his single “Flava in Ya Ear” became the label’s first hit, at least to me, he was unceremoniously buried by his label mate the Notorious B.I.G. whose banger of an debut album Ready to Die was released first. The scant few DAYS, not weeks between that musical avalanche  and Mack's Project: Funk da World album release effectively knocked Mack out out the hype he'd started. We remember B.I.G. as an icon, but we have mostly forgotten the artist who was the first to walk away from Puffy's music machine. Mack became a legend more what he could have become than for what he did.

Hawking and Mack have things common. You wonder what these men would have accomplished had they been able to run free in their prime. 

Going to the Movies...maybe.

Rambling Post #344
I like movies. As you may have read if you read anything about my past, like on this blog, yeesh, I've written a few scripts and have a few story ideas of my own. And one day, lord willing and the creek don't rise (and I can scrape together a few hundred bucks I don't owe anyone) I'm going to make something. Technically the few hundred bucks if for some good lunches and one of those director chairs, but a man has to have standards.

I caught the trailer for "Sorry to Bother You" this past weekend, and I'm interested. It's a film out this summer starring Lakeith Stanfield from the hot show Atlanta and Oscar nominee Get Out.

Yes this looks silly, but then that's on purpose.

I found the trailer both incredible and troubling. It was incredible in that it looks like a pastel infused explosion of just on the edge of reality semi-ideas, that's been dropped in a blender with generous dash of ridiculous, served through a sugar straw with a side of that sticky icky icky. It looks fresh, different, as if it touches on social issues and yet is still just plain funny. And troubling because once again, it looks like Hollywood has shown us the whole damned movie in two minutes. The trailer looks like it shows everything but the end! I think I know most of the story at this point - Down and out guy, love life and home life rocky. Gets job. Discovers secret to job. Advances up the ladder using the secret. More money, different problems. Guy has to make a decision about his life and...profit? (Sorry, underpants gnomes joke there.)

I can't be the only one this irks the crap out of.

The premise looks interesting. The hero Cassius, who lives in his uncle's garage is desperate to get something started. He lands a telemarketing job and learns very quickly from a co-worker that to be successful he needs to find his "white voice." If you're not a minority, you're probably not familiar with the concept of a particular voice for a particular situation, but this is a very real thing. the white voice he finds - which you hear in the trailer - is the whitest. And from there, things take off. Along the way to wherever this is supposed to go, the hero meets a broad and eclectic cast of characters on a trip through a only slightly weird version of the world of the average professional. Kinda.

Express yourself

Now, I've watched enough movies with insane premises - I used to watch a lot of late night TV and at one point USA had a show called Up All Night which made you wonder if you were hallucinating as a young teen. This film looks like something from someone who watched a lot of TV like that, but still has a social conciseness. And if they don't that's okay too.

Promotion Time.

Let's go to the movies. Well, maybe. Let's see how this all plays out. I am excited though.

Barkeep. I'll have whatever the man in bowler hat is drinking. Yes, I'm a bit scared, but you only live once.

Who hath wrought this winter?

I sit, cold. 

cause it's cold outside

which runs my heating bill up inside

keeping me in one room

I snggle into my blanket, 

a room cold save a space heater that hums

hums in a steady drone that soothes and hypnotizes

and provides a warmth

it said it would on the label

and I am warmed

under blanket, sheet, and other sheet

semi warm

enough to make me tarry in my morn

moving from warm bed to hot shower

seeking warm embrace

did I shave?

oh that water too cold

I'll grow a beard instead

heat on in my car

Just gets warm enough when I finally get to work. 

Ugh

I long for the heat heat

like the summer sun 

which gleefully beats down upon my soul during a long walk

that saps the strength and makes my sheets soak with my body dew

which makes me sweat from breathing

ah, glorious

let the glorious man juice

my essence

pour from my armpits

did I use deodorant? 

I do so love me some heat

but now I sit, cold. 

 

I sit, cold

layered up

undershirt, shirt, sweater, jacket and scarf

that is quite jaunty

fashion forward

but still nippy with that bit of wind full of chill, 

my skin bits exposed

where my not quite summer body

its work in progress, work with me

where my not ever quite summer body

slips from it's coverage 

and the cold seeps in 

like stiff gravy

like molasses

like something cold that moves slow and sticks with you for a while

which keeps me in the house

against the blustery weather

not that I go outside a lot in the heat

but it's the heat damnit

I do so love me some heat

but now I sit, cold. 

Who hath wrought this winter off of backorder?