"Telephone"

Well I have a telephone. One that I speak to people on or they dial me, and speak to me. That's all it does. I had a time finding something that did just that, and only.

A few years back while looking for such. I had a youngster in a shop trying to sell me all sorts of nonsense. It does this that the other. I said I just wanted to talk on it.

A blank look from the sales kid.

He actually said, "...I don't understand". I said I watch TV on my TV, and listen to radio on my radio, and take pictures with my camera. I email on my computers, and blog on the same. I have no use or need to drag all of that around with me. Blank look...stunned actually. He said, "I don't think they make anything like that now."

The manager came over he was older...in his early 30's so may have seen a large black piece of plastic on a table at his grand mother's house when he was a baby. "You're the man that wants a "telephone?"

"Yeah" I sez.

I tells him in the nicest way I can that at my age I know more dead folks than live ones. I tells him he "may be so lucky" one day. He smiles. That's nice. it's nice to make folks think, and smile.

Anyway I tell the youngster that I've never texted anyone in my life, and was unlikely to do this since every one still alive I know has also never done such foolishness. That or watch movies on a bleeping phone.

I mean whose idea was that?

Anyhow he taps on his hand held looks around, and sez, "Eh,...I think we actually have something you can use. It's Korean, and made for elders."

Really?

Anyway he sends junior to the storeroom to fetch the rare, and prized item. It's a smaller than palm sized 2005ish looking thing. It makes call, and takes them. Period. Though he said "it could text if you,..." I said thanks I'll take it as it is." I said the only thing I need this for is for my sister, and friends to call me to see if I'm still alive, and me them. That's it. After over 50 years my pals and I have said all we need to say...other than to make sure we're both alive.

Good thing I got it when I did as I doubt anyone on earth makes this sort anymore. Bleeping goat herder in Mongolia are more connected than I am. 

'And they're welcome to it too!

The End.

"...Steady"

My friend Shelton Walden over on his page is remembering this night 40 years ago. July 13, 1977. There was a great regional Black Out. Like the first one in late fall 1965. However this one was not a night of neighbors helping neighbors. Volunteers directing traffic with flash lights or as they say in the commonwealth..."Torches".  2003 when a mass power failure happened once again was exactly like 1965. This since our culture had stabilized from the post 1960's chaos by then.

On July 13th 1977 I remember New York burning. One could smell the smoke. Your eyes burned. Yet because all the lights for hundreds of square miles were out the sky was full of bright stars. 

Green copper colored meteors streaked above our burning urban capital.

An extreme heatwave drove the mobs into a chaotic wave against their wrongfully inflicted poverty despair. Rage fueled the madness driven unwanted. 1970's New York had been a downward falling city for near a decade. Cocaine was snowing freely at studio 54 where the elite partied. Culture fuckers ran wild. It was Rome Burning! This at it's party! party! End!

I was there that Night of Nights. I was part of the fall of the middleclass, and the hyper wild world of the mad arts whose story has still not fully told.

It was very like the night the Barbarians broke through. The night they broke the last brave lines of Roman Legionaries. This as they smashed the gates of eternal Rome itself, and had their bloody way with it. Looting burning shooting stabbing killing on a scale not seen since the Civil War Draft Riots was all around us. I recall with relatives, and my brother, and father defending my brother's in law's furniture shop. When we got there it was half looted, and shops across the street were looted out, and burning. We parked our in-laws company van in front of the showcase window to stop further mayhem.

We were armed.

My brother had an AK-47 he'd shipped home from the war to me in pieces to keep for him...never told my folks till he took it out to get to the shop. Surprise. My In-law had a licensed .38, and he gave me an M-1 'light carbine which I had no idea how to use. My decorated Vet brother showed me. He taught me much that night. At last we were together in war. This is what I wanted when he was overseas. I wanted to be with him.

So there we were.

He taught me how to know if shots were coming 'towards' us or away. With several practice shots into the concrete wall across from the shop. He showed me how to shoot. That, and as the police who came by to check on us told us,..."Shoot, and shoot to kill".  Hearing this my brother John explained weapons discipline. That no matter what the cops said one only used deadly force as the very last option. Like if they break through, and are trying to kill us.

This freaked me out serious.

I was in an actual war. Shots were being fired everywhere, and it sometimes was coming closer. Like in the movies John my soldier brother softly, but actually told me, "...Steady...steady." We were soldiers together at the first fall of America's Rome. 

More collapses were to come.

"Smoke"

This a dream I just awoke from. A book I was holding a book in my hand. I knew it was the history of humanities faiths religious cultural political. It was all described within.

I opened it. There on living three dimensional pages was a pile of human skulls. Burning. Burning, but not consumed. Black smoke towered from it to the eternal skies.

So it was for the next thousand pages. Skulls. Burning. Unconsumed. Smoke billowing to eternity.

    ( When I have a Nightmare I don't fool around.)

"Smokey Comments"

Uncle Syd:

"Apparently the visions are still with me."

"Clearly I was some sort of crazed Shaman back in the day,...if that other life jazz is so. I can see myself drawing with the burnt end of a stick on the cave walls. Images of F-16's bombing the hell out of stuff. That, and me trying to tell the tribe that one day we will fly, and have great wars in the sky."

"You see my problem."

Uncle "Z":

"Drawing with charcoal on a cave wall is a good way to make your pictures last quite a bit longer than, say, the average photo album."

"Are all religions evil?"

"I don't know. The ones that I know about are mostly awful. There's a guy who wrote a book called "Saharasia" who argues that desert religions are the worst, being inherently violent, and that religions originating in the forest tend to be kind & gentle. But that wouldn't seem to account for the Aztecs and their habit of human sacrifice, would it? Nor for thuggee. So I'm a bit confused. On the whole, I think I could go for an ayahuasca sex religion." 

Uncle Syd:

"Well a religion of humor sex, and parties of course makes the most sense. I mean if one 'has' to have any sort of religion. Thing is with religions we're born into them, and take their insane brutalities as a given."

"Okay right we stone these people rape these, and take all their stuff...right."

"Most folks, mostly men, are fine with it since it doves tails so well with their natural urges. That is to pillage murder get drunk, and assorted swell stuff like that. Me I should have voted for that giant asteroid which was going to destroy the world. She ran in the last election. I hope she tries again in the mid-terms. 2020 for sure."

( Where would we be,...besides just watching TV, without this slender digital thread that hold us together.)

"This Just In..."

The National Weather service today announced that after Tuesday July 18, 2017 at 11:48am. After this date, and time there will be no more weather. At least none as we currently understand it. This being because of our coming encounter with the Black Hole "Wolf 359".

Black holes as most know are profoundly mysterious. A feature of their nature as we now suddenly know is that they can appear anywhere at anytime. This some astro-physicists  belatedly say may explain some aspects of Dark Matter.

Not that this matters now,...so to speak.

The outer Event Horizon of Wolf 359 will touch down 250km from the coast of California, and move with the rotation of the Earth westward. Boiling the seas in front of it as it goes. Behind this the earth possibly to a depth of 50 miles will be stripped into the Hole. Some think to the core as the earth itself is devoured whole.

In front of the event horizon wave the boiling ocean will slowing scald all life slowly to death. There is no possible shelter. This as reported will take a full earthly rotation to complete. So 24 hours from the initial contact the world will be no more.

If the surface is stripped to the 50 miles anticipated it's possible that within two to three billion years the planet will "heal".

Though it would not be an "Earth" we would recognize. Some scientists project that it would be closer to the current "Mars" model with a possible light atmosphere. Whereas some kind of life 'may' re-evolve this is unlikely.

As for reactions to this sudden interesting news President Trump says he will stay in France. He also just resigned. "Fuck this shit. I did it on a dare anyway"

The new President is Slone Gibson the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and 17th in line of succession. The rest had other plans. The President has announced a "National Block Party" to begin at 9am Monday, and to last till the consumption of the earth that Tuesdays morning.

The party will be funded by the National Treasury.

"Basically all the material needs, and wants of the American people will be met. "Of course" said the new President, "...we could have been doing this all along, but the evil shit heads that ran things thought you were no better than slaves so treated you accordingly."

The new, and now very popular President also opened our national secret archives for both scholars, and the curious to examine. Turns out them UFO guys are real. Their recent disappearance no doubt linked to the approach of "Wolf 359". It btw was in humor named after an episode in the "Star Trek" mythology.

Also yes it was a combination of wealthy elites the intelligence community of this, and other nations that killed the Kennedy brothers as well as Dr. MLK. Cures for most kinds of cancers were found in the mid-1980's but kept from the population for economic reasons. Those wealthy elites of course has access to them.

This, and flying cars jet packs no glasses needed for real 3D-TV, and hyper-quantum internet have been in existence for 20 years, but were also kept from the world. With the exception of the military.

The reaction from the religious leaders of the world was predictable. The Dali Lama is reported to have said, "...I told you so" Pope Francis, "...and you deserve every bit of it you selfish greedy shits!". Also that guy on the "700 Club" stunned wept into the camera, "...'The Fuck?!!"

Locally obscure blogger collage artist, and even more obscure former radio personality Uncle Sidney was rather at ease with the whole thing. Uncle on hearing of the coming weird, and rather painful end of the world revealed himself as a minor member of the Angelic realm. 

"I was in lower middle management" said Uncle.

"I finally pissed off enough bosses to get sent to earth as a clerk. My job was cataloging comic books, and really bad novels." "Btw" Uncle went on. "This shit is not just the end of you guys down here." 

"All of the human made religions, and gawds are toast. This includes their spiritual bureaucracies as well."

Uncle mused, "Sorry, but that whole Abraham thing from which us Angels came was sort of made up. However with so much human energy poured into it for so long it became,...well sort of real. Hard to explain. Anyway when humanity goes the energy goes with it so all your heavens hells or whatever is toast on Tuesday along with everything else around here.

Me I'm taking president what's his name's offer to get neat stuff. I gots my eye on a hot pink 1956 "Thunderbird" if they can find one in time.

However all may not be lost,...Uncle goes on.

"Um,...I must say at this point. I mean still having a bit of connection with all that spirit jazz." 

"Nothing may happen."  

"The Ultra-verse is weird. Ya know like that big Blizzard we were supposed to get here in NYC the other winter. At literally the 'last' moment it went north, and we got drizzle instead." 

"Well "Wolf 359" may well do the same, and disappear back into whatever dark matter corner it came from. Just saying."

"Also Trump may want his job back."



More on this developing story as events warrant.

"I'm 67 Today"

This an ink sketch of myself as a lad from a class photo.

                                I was about eleven when the photo was taken.
                                That, and perhaps 23 when I made the sketch.  
                                   I was 64 when I tipped in the colored foils.

                                                       Art takes time.

"A Dream"

A dream. I just dreamed this little dream. I was walking, and seeing. walking, and meeting. People are good. Each in their way. Like the woman in the old hat. I liked her hat, and in a moment I liked her. She didn't say anything, and I didn't do anything.

She was just nice is all.

We passed each other. However as we passed she smiled a good smile at me. One that tickled my soul. Touched in such a way as I'll never forget.

She changed my world.

Worlds change. Sometimes even for the good. She smiled gave a wink, and her feet just a hint of a jig as she passed. All this in a second. Worlds can change that fast.

Just two folks going their ways. Tending to their cares. Then the world up, and changes,...for the good. I think this is the way of 'good' folk. They 'are', and they 'do' as they are.

We all know this. Each in our way we know this. It's that knowing that keeps us okay with facing what the world takes, and gives.

"Without Us"

The seas risen.

The moon closer.

The stars brighter.

Ice covered the drowned city.

Polar bears swam though undersea libraries with their now cold, and floating stories. They slept on broken ledges of skyscrapers. These jutting from a new Arctic sea.

All beneath a vast moon on a slowly healing Earth.