did you see the words?

as of late.

2006-03-02T17:23:00.000-08:00

my beard is huge. and you should go to intotheunordinary.blogspot.com if you want to find me from now on

the sunlight sounds like moonlight in our ears

2006-02-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Ak Ak is something i can get into....
something i can secretly love and horde.

and aspire. go: akronfamily.com

perhaps i cannot love without reservation.

[Re]presenting Dr. Human

2006-01-26T17:23:00.000-08:00

Top to Bottom:

Da Merit aka JHP
Mo'Teef aka JAT
Platinum Grill Sheezy aka Shizzle

Headlines

2006-01-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

Soul Animates Body, Coffee Animates Soul!!

Mo-Teef, Da-Merit, Platinum Grill Sheezy form rap supergroup Dr. Human!

Meloy's Melodramatic Melodies Make Men Meek!

Asian American Found Sleeping On Oxnard Road

Kelly's Cup of Coffee Lacks Fullness [this one just happened as I watched Mr. Kelly ask for more half and half at the coffee shop].

Tip of the Hat to Local Record Store. Weekly Buying Plan!

and more...

reflections on the first week back

2006-01-12T19:58:00.000-08:00

tell me how he lost his eye?
the corinthian came by.

on the ridges there were turtles
galopagoses. from below
their lumbering shells could be seen
looking like old army helmets.
Giant british soldiers creeping
behind the ridge toward the shore.
this island was where i first learned
how to roll my own cigarettes,
while reading Plato or something.

the shadows of a ficus on the wall looking very oriental.

"...the veil of night and clothes the Lord of light and golden god of morning/... but now the youth is opulent.../with honesty./'it was Joseph my Lord, my love, my only one!' .../ with courage on his lips.../running naked through the alleys while many at home hurry to see a glorious god.../ 'it was Joseph took my cloak, it is from Joseph that i am disrobed. my husband, listen.'"

panda panda panda

2006-01-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

just when you thought he would come save you, he gets it handed to him by Ari.

back to school.
i just want to nap a lot...

stuck in my head

2006-01-06T22:40:00.000-08:00

Baby, C'mon

On Hip-Hop

2006-01-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

"Hip-hop, herald of life, I actuate/My haikus increasingly broaden your IQs..../My intention's/To take Hip-hop to new dimensions" -Binary Star 'New Hip Hop'

i'm not the expert on this subject. my love of hip-hop is sort of innocent. i stand on the fringes of it and look in, a wallflower. but only figuratively, because if i was an actual one in a hip-hop world, i'd be thrown out unapologetically. which is kind of what i want to think about right now. the culture and life of hip-hop. Jean Henri mentioned a few weeks ago how rap is a legitimate and often discredited art, as poetry. listening to more of the legitimate hip-hop, which is a highly qualified term, there are elements of poetry not seen of late in the majority of modern poetry. [disclaimer: because this is more of a thought-pursuit and not an article of any definitive quality, i'm not going to bother with loads of examples on both sides.] and however simple the paradigms of rap might be, following deviations within a handful of forms, they are composed with a certain sort of art that exceeds the limits of beats and melodies.

and concerning the culture and life of hip-hop, there has hardly been such a highly active collective lifestyle centered around an art form since.... the beats? or hippies? but even their influence was hardly as widespread as the pervading and peculiar quality of accessibility of rap music. this is probably most attributable to its constant appeal to the more rhythmic side of music, being prior and certainly more 'earthy' and basic.

this has actually come up in recent conversation: a new wave of modern alternative music that implements the role of vocals not so much as a means for a melody but as instrumentation, cf. animal collective, deerhoof, panda bear. it might be necessary for this shift to balance out the redundancy of melodies by even most quasi-mainstream musicians. i, for one, enjoy this shift. however, i can see why it would be frowned upon, what with the lack of a certain unifying aspect or any one focal point. good and bad all the same.

back to hip-hop.
i think that there is virtue in rap, which is approached as poetry, as a craft and a habit. most rappers have the art in them literally "flowing" out in a way that is all too reminiscent of the daily task of the poet to write and write and write and write with and without deliberation.
so check out Wu-tang [and all subsequent off shoots], MF Doom, Madvillian, Mos Def, Buck 65, even Run DMC, Binary Star. these are conscious, artful rappers.

rambling....

as of late

2005-12-31T15:33:00.000-08:00

i have been in austin to visit my cousin, who you might remember was in a car accident in august. he is in the most bizarre condition, responding in practically every way but vocally. minimally conscious, they say. not comatose, but not awake. bizarre. and lately i have been using that word much to describe the events of my life and thought.

last night, dear Kat and I headed into Downtown to check out Good Record's 30% off sale. i purchased a spoon single and the Akron/Family and Angels of Light split cd as well as the new animal collective[which i mentioned at first that i was disappointed in, which is true for some songs still, while for others, it's been quite a pleasure having them stuck in my head]. along with that i got my hands on a copy of Petra Haden's remarkable take of the Who's Sell out album. she's such a charming little girl. Kat and I proceeded then toward the Coffee Haus in arlington, Tx. there, we joined ourselves to Jack and Mary anne, enjoying the humor and music stylings of Paul Stadelman, known to most as Abraham the Giant Killer.

This Akron/Family is incendiary.

she is good company, Katherine. tonight is minimally planned for minimal celebration. I've written three poems since october. thank you to Jean Henri and Jenny S***** .

gosh, it sounds like i just might take the plunge.

remember this?

2005-12-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

joseph's top 5 songs of this year:
imogen heap - hide and seek
decemberists - on the bus mall
final fantasy - this is the dream of win and regime
sufjan stevens - the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us!
sufjan stevens - come on and feel the illinoise!

runners up:
fiona apple - extraordinary machine
spoon - i summon you

joseph's top 5 albums
spoon - gimme fiction
decemberists - picaresque
m. ward - transistor radio
sigur ros - takk
sufjan stevens - come on and feel the illinoise!

runners up:
danger doom - the mouse and the mask
final fantasy - has a good home

joseph's top 5 shows:
spoon, gypsy tea room, june
colin meloy, night two, hotel cafe, january
decemberists, music box, september
sigur ros, hollywood bowl, october
showcase showdown, valley ridge ampitheatre, august

joseph's top 5 books he read
Confessions St. Augustine
Physics Bk.2 Aristotle
Republic Plato
Madame Bovary Flaubert
Ulysees Joyce

change of plans

2005-11-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

last night while falling asleep i got fed up with my dirtiness. this morning i bought soap and shampoo and floss and the things that most people have to keep themselves clean.
we must not cast off our bodies so soon.

discuss.

2005-11-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

i just might make it through an entire semester on one bar of soap.

oh petey..

2005-10-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

Here's the deal:
1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

"and a persistent wonder if i'll ever need a denim jacket."

an advertisement...

2005-09-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

my friend michael has been perfecting his brainchild. and i'm trying to support as best i can...perhaps you should too?
click

guess

2005-09-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

who had the best Decemberist-sperience last night!??!?!?!?!?

Tradition and This Individual's Talent

2005-09-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

"[The Poet] must be quite aware of the obvious fact that art never improves, but that the material of art is never quite the same..."

Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent" deals with the poet's self-destruction. He discusses the tradition of the poets that come before and that art is "always contemporary and contemporaneous" [McNeela]. This being the case, the poet/artist must form the pattern of the past in the present not by creating "new emotion" but rather by using "the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all." Thus, he destroys everything of himself, his personality, his emotions[specificicicically], and becomes a catalyst, unaffected and entirely effective.

"The emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done. And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living."

i'm....excited.

this is an update

2005-09-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

we have a car, the wife and i.
i might have a job with new age hippies and a wisconsonian philosopher.
there is family here, but not mine. they have accents and big smiles.
somehow i overdrafted yet again.
somehow we've gotta play a show
somehow we have to learn to say no.
and i wonder.....

raising cain

2005-08-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

i luff skewl.

website

2005-08-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

UPDATED NEWS SECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://home.comcast.net/~joshua.thompson/panda.htm

the wandering jew

2005-07-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Visit Mt Thor!
Visit Lake Baikal!
Honeymoon in Aitutaki!

or...just google them and dream.

by the way....

guess who might not have enough money for school this fall! ooh pick me pick me!!!

summer fun

2005-07-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

The 3rd Annual Thompson Summer Mix-off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

updated

2005-07-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

http://home.comcast.net/~joshua.thompson/panda.htm

attention

2005-07-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

for all who will be in texas the second week of august who don't have romantic ties to me, i'm sorry to inform you that there is no room at this inn for you and i am forced to help you find lodging and to ask you to find lodging that isn't my house.

terribly sorry.

this little piggy

2005-07-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

...jiggity jig.

two week notice

2005-07-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

if, upon a rare whim of your rash and less rational
selves, you choose to contact me within the next two
weeks, i am sorry to inform you that i will be unable
to receive, respond or correspond.

you see, my beloved banshees, this is the occasion of
dissolving the bulky binary bonds. mountains are
nearer than you might think.

and so, my counterfeit consorts, this is the
end.....of june.
and i will try to start yet another sentence with a
conjunction.
but i hope you'll forgive me.

ciao.

[texas]

joseph andrew.

what's happening

2005-06-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

this is, southern man:

the thunder from down under and the raffle ticket are traveling to the House on the Hill during the second full week of the month named the first Roman emperor. that weekend, on the unlucky day, there will be the second annual Showcase Showdown.

the raffle ticket will be pulled out of our Hat on the Hill sometime to travel to a different Empirical State before the panda and his ever-so-rare mate travel to Time's Auspicious Chalet.

needless to say, you[and this is extended to many of ewe] are cordially invited, with all southern graces.

Peregrine Thoughts

2005-06-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

upon finishing the book, i suppose i feel accomplished primarily. but then upon investigation, i haven't done much. i have messed and mucked and muddled within Joyce's mire[effervescent] and have come away soiled ony to the shins. "so proud you are" i tell myself. how am i to begin troweling through that which those with shovels have only yet begun?

yet it is the most. it is well worthy of all superlatives and in-comp-rubble to anything ever inked and papered.

excerpts [and why not]:

With what intonation secreto of what commemorative psalm?
The 113th, modus pergrinus: In exitu Israel de Egypto: domus Jacob de populo barbaro.

The seer raised his hands to heaven, murmuring: The vendetta of Mananaan! The sage repeated Lex talonis. The sentimentalist is he who would enjoy without incurring the immense debtorship for a thing done.

[and for that matter the entire chapter of the Oxen of the Sun].

could i? of course.
i shan't.

st. john's wort

2005-06-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

thumb on my shoe
i've made an assumption on a gumption.
and persistent wonder if i'll ever need a denim jacket.

announcing

2005-06-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

wedding.
dallas
friday
7.
down_the_liffey@yahoo.com
if you wanna.

2005-05-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

someone, oh someone, let me know how to get a hold of one m. simpson.

oh ... .and if weewa has sent my package yet, that means you raf.

the thompson

2005-05-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

i think i'll end up in Austin eventually.
it's the greatest city in the greatest state.
neighbor my hood.

The Fat Boy Sings

2005-05-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

my brother bought this book, published by Kelley School Publishing Center in 1991, from a garage sale...for those fans of The Very Fat Walrus and other Christyana Mellein tales, sit back and enjoy as The Fat Boy Sings is read to you now:

The Fat Boy Sings by Adam Ridge Grade 4

Dedicated to Jimmy

The Fat Boy Sings

On Saturday I woke up and got ready to go to the Ringling Brothers Circus, so i could sing with the show. At school the boys call me the Fat Boy. I like being fat. You are always warm and you can swim far. Well I have to go sing. "Bye."

I always look at the audience first. The conductor said, "Fat Boy, you are on?" I said, "O.K." So I walked out and looked at the audience.

I sang my opera song. Everyone had ear plugs on. I yelled "Get those out!" They took them out faster than a Cheetah can run. I finally sang and the circus was over.

I went home and got a good nights sleep. The next day the same thing happened. Everyone in town said, "oh MAN!!!!"

The End........

About the Author:

I have a dog and two rabbits. i love animals.
i want to be in the army. i lived in Minnesota, Dallas, Texas, and New York. I had a dog in Minnesota and he ran away. I am ten years old.

the weatherman just said....

2005-05-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

"in the next couple days we'll see a sex change in the weather."

uh.....

is it?

2005-05-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

home? you could call it that. perhaps.

ow

2005-04-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

i did it again. i don't know what happened. i don't nkow how to not do it. i don't know where to go from here. i don't know how to make it better. i don't think it ever will be.

oh my god i am heartily sorry..

a break from the norm

2005-04-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

Pirate Name: The Baron Bulfinch
Ship Name: The Sweet Contessa
Handicap: Missing Left Ear

Wrestling Name: Alamo Joe
Finishing Move: The Bowie Knife

top 5 of my own songs

2005-04-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

shameless indeed:

hither alight!
moonshine
amelia jayne
funeral march
i promise

top 5 decemberists songs

2005-04-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

on the bus mall - picaresque
california one/youth and beauty brigade - castaways and cutouts
the gymnast high above the ground - her majesty, the decemberists
i don't mind - 5 songs
mariner's revenge song - picaresque

top 5 ever

2005-04-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

the way she smiles, but fails at kissing.
the way we act like girls.
cold when you're hot, hot when you're cold.
sweaters.
tuesday.

Top 5 Rock Screams

2005-03-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

dave grohl - foo fighters[cf. Enough Space; Colour and Shape]
jeff tweedy - wilco[cf. misunderstood[live], kicking tv[live], i got you]
frank black - pixies[cf. tame]
britt daniels - spoon[cf. mountain to sound]
isaac brock - modest moust [cf. shit luck]

Albums of the 90's

2005-03-14T21:35:00.001-08:00

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Radiohead - Ok Computer
Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Portishead - Roseland Ballroom

This is what i'll use this for from now on

2005-03-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

Top 5 Concerts i've been to:

Damien rice, Gypsy Tea Room
Damien jurado, Ridglea Theater
Broken Social Scene, Coachella 04
Wilco, Gypsy Tea Room
Decemberists, Dan's Silverleaf

stay tuned for more...

four tet on a tuesday

2005-03-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

11 days.
15 days.
20 days.
this is the blood i love to shaaare.

the guitar is almost gone, and i'll have to try harder at a new one.
i think me with money is probably the most despicable thing in the world.

late nights with the double l

2005-02-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

nights that are lonely. they breed productivity with people. wow, probably not the best verb/direct object to use in that sentence. well, i'll leave it for the shock value that doesn't exist.

it's kind of frustrating when i walk out into what i know is rain but be unable to feel it for about a minute, and only then on my pants, because my hair is too bloody big.

in any case, i got a record player and if anyone is ever curious about what to get me for birthdays, bar-mitzvahs, wedding showers, or kwanzaa... get me records.

guitar for janie.

i'll don my rags on thursday and demand for Donna Rags to maintain political correctness.

on the john

2005-02-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

there was a day when i was taking a crap in the handicap stall. someone walked into the bathroom and milled about at sink stations. and when i started to acquire the toilet paper, Prophet spoke up and said, "is that you joe?"

never has anyone been able to recognize me by the way i pull toilet paper off the roll.

i'm listening to tortoise

2005-02-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

i had my first cigarette today.
flying the little kite.
i couldn't pay attention to both.
i lost the kite.
she laurghed.

adventures in good music

2005-02-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

RIP

no no no no no

2005-02-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

nononononononononononononononononononononononnonon