On Your Knees (to) Bowie

With screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo, what is it about David Bowie?

Like a leper messiah, he ranks somewhere between minor deity and major historical figure.

Hey man: he was ranked a few notches below Queen Elizabeth but a few above such luminaries as Thomas Paine, William Blake and Charles Dickens in the 100 Greatest Britons of All Time list. He was the first rocker to have his persona offered on the stock market, the first to offer his music via the internet and the first to appear in a video game. He presaged and pretty much single-handedly spawned glam-rock, being among the first rockers to consciously approach music as art. He has certainly had the most successful acting career among all the rock musicians.

The Thin White Duke sang in "Station to Station" (1976) about traveling down the Cabalistic tree of life: "...from kether to malkuth..." or, from godhead to earth. He became incarnate for us...for those of us able to hear him...he came offering a kind of aural pathway to enlightenment.

Waiting at the light, know what I mean...Jesus leads some to the light...others go with Muhammad or Buddha or Adam or Joseph Smith or The Three Friggin Stooges...me, I'm keeping all my dead hair for making up underwear: the holy undergarments we need to wear when Ziggy returns on the tail of comet, taking his true believers with him.

Top 10 Reasons Bowie is Better than God :*

1) You cannot reasonably deny Bowie's existence
2) Bowie has cooler clothes
3) David is less likely to cast sinners through the gates of hell
4) If you hear Bowie's voice in your head, it's probably because one of his kick-ass song's is stuck in your mind; if you hear God, you are probably whack
5) God couldn't tease His hair up that high - even with all the angels' assistance - even during the 80s
6) David has better shoes
7) Bowie looks better in drag
8) People don't accost you in malls to tell you, "Bowie loves you."
9) Attending a Bowie concert is much more life-altering than attending church
10) God doesn't paint His toenails

* Partially snagged from a site that snagged it from a (now-defunct) fan site

Dr. Fool, Ape-arms and the Political Pendulum

Earth, Milky Way Galaxy --

My family keeps thinking I will become more conservative - more like them - as I get older. Well, perhaps I wear my political black-sheep-ness a bit too proudly, like a baa...baa...badge. The more they speak of such absurdity, the more left I lean.

Family dynamics and their psychological influences are downright Joycean in their complexity. Hell, there are entire industries based on them: Psychology and psychotherapy and psychopharmacy...not to mention all the Dr. Fool/self-help/codependent-TV-and-book markets. Many people spend an hour a week for the bulk of their adult lives on the proverbial couch trying to unravel such labyrinthian mysteries.

So, I am not going there. The point of bringing this up is to acknowledge the fact that my liberal beer belly just keeps expanding, despite my daily regimen of feasting on the anarchist's cookbook...and I don't really know WHY.

I guess if I had to wager on the biggest influence, I'd lay that thorny crown soundly upon Baby King George's ugly southern-fried cokehead. (And I'd do it with all the power my skinny ape arms could muster.) If the past 7 years haven't made you lurch at least a little leftward, there are too many droppings in your squirrel cage. Clean the fucker out!

I think most people are feeling this way right now... a friend told me this week that she was ready to try socialism. For some reason, I was reminded of a political philosophy I first heard about during the golden years of Clinton:"Communitarianism." I prefer to oversimplify rather than lull you to sleep: The philosophy contends that liberalism (the true definition - not some hijacked Lush Rimblah version) places too much focus on individual rights - to the point that it is (often) detrimental to the greater good. It is not hostile to liberalism; rather, communitarians prefer shifting toward a greater focus on community and society, rather than always emphasizing individual rights as being of utmost importance.

This philosophy is already influential...consider such notions as imminent domain. I suppose the most rudimentary example is the repression of free speech: no jokes about bombs or guns are allowed in an airport. No yelling "fire" (at least, if there isn't one) in a theatre. Etc.

For the environmental movement to succeed, societies will have to embrace some aspects of communitarianism. It will necessarily involve limiting people's (and companies') choices.

Like it or not, the same principle is behind Congress' approval of allowing wire-tapping on American citizens...or waiving the writ of habeas corpus.

Given the crumbling state of the states, the so-called Union, and - literally - the world, I am ready, willing and enthusiastic for a serious shake-up. There is a popular axiom about how the pendulum has to swing too far in the other direction in order to counter imbalances once things get out of whack.

Well, shit is whack alright. The pendulum on the American timepiece is gonna have to do a full 180 after George the Chimp is finally thrown from the tree. Either that or it will quickly cease to function. Not to be too Chicken Little about it, but shit! we seem to be running out of time.

I doubt most Americans have the cajones for it (not yet), but I say: apportez sur la révolution...

...or at least gimme Obama for 4 to 8 years. Por favor?