Lou Reed says

life's good but not fair at all.

Joe Strummer walks into this radio station

or more accurately can't get anyone to let him in to this radio station although he explains he was with The Clash once. He's got his new CD with him and wants to plug his Atlantic City appearance with the Mescalaros that p.m. He stands outside the station on the Security phone after trying the back door explaining all this as the taxi waits for him. What he needs is pirate satellite or student-run station. Liberation from mainstream constrictions this humiliation in the humble neighborhood of abandoned Jersey radio parking lots. These shores never deserved him.

Radish King is king

of all she rules and rattles. Everything left in flames. Feverish. Desiring more heat. Everything she touches turns to hot. Burner left on High. Bunsen lapping lips. Inside of the windshield steamed. Touch at risk of being 3rd degreed. Flame. Flame. Flame.

Sometimes it's like

you're the only one missing the point. You can't figure out a simple riddle. (It's a bathtub.) You're not sure why he doesn't get a job himself. You hear the one about the swamp. And just when you're ready to pass out, you hear a voice not unlike Wm Burrough's voice if the Ol' Bull had smoked less and hadn't swallowed. Then ...

Her counterpoint comes through loud and clear. You comprehend the honoring. You know what they mean when they say it rains from the ground up.

Peter Whitehead shows up

with his camera at a beat reading at the Royal Albert Hall in 1967. Wholly Communion! He finds Corso, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg and some British beats. Audience swings madly between bad acid trips (shouting one skinny poet almost off the podium) and marijuana ecstacy (swaying hippie-like to Ginsberg).

Whitehead seems to wait, wait, wait (as chaos and foreground interference run their course) and then nearly freeze-frames on this incredibly transcendent shot -- beatifully framed and concise in its capture of fleeting moments. Picture perfect!

US vs John Lennon wherein

Peacenik upsets Commander in Chief. Commander in Chief is a criminal and asks Immigration to deport the pothead. Peacenik fights Immigration. Commander in Chief gets J. Edgar Hoover to help. Peacenik writes songs, talks with Talk Show hosts. Commander in Chief resigns. J. Edgar Hoover cross dresses. G. Gordon Liddy puts a cigarette out on his hand. Peacenik wins.

P.S. Yoko Ono deserves more screen time.

I'm Your Man,

the new Leonard Cohen tribute concert film, is an interesting tribute to Leonard Cohen. You get a bunch of young artists singing old Cohen songs and a new Leonard Cohen version of Leonard Cohen's Tower of Song with U2 as his backup band. What I enjoyed most about the Leonard Cohen film is the Leonard Cohen interview between the Leonard Cohen numbers. Leonard Cohen talks mostly about the creative process and the influence of cities (Montreal and New York) and friends (mostly Canadian poets that only the uber-hip will know as well as Roshi, his Zen master) on his poetry/songs. All poets -- go listen to Leonard Cohen, his wit, memory and dignity intact, his "nuggets of wisdom" are instructive and insightful.