This is a virtual cafe where all ideas are entertained all facts discerned, all topics discussed. And just because the proprietor has a passion for Christ, books, and the Acoustic guitar, that doesn't mean you can't veer wildly off into different subjects. So, come in, have a coffee (imported especially from Verble's finca in El Salvador), and talk about whatever you want.
Someone had printed this sticker, about the size of a paperback book cover, and had smoothed it into the wood surface of Booth 3. Verble has decided to leave it. He feels that it is an acknowledgment of what we need to rebel against - and the surrepticious placement is evidence of the strangled voices of the Cultural Resistance.
That, and he thinks it just looks cool and is darn funny!
It is as absurd to say that a man
can't love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs
several violins to play the same piece of music. ” — Honore de Balzac
I don't really know what I'm doing any more, I get to work and I can't really focus, because if it's not managing the asset depreciation it's working on four years of deceased claims, then I have to train my staff on their GL recons, because they've been working in reverse for ten years. Then there's these debit card posting outages that happen every other day for the past six months that neither our core nor our card processor can help with - they keep blaming each other. Then my COO is completely down my shirt because she tells me to my face I don't have the skills for this job,
then I get home and my kids are always punching each other and making dents in walls and my wife is telling me that I don't give her what she needs and she says our love life is stale, and then she wants to quit her job and start her own house-flipping business, and then she talks to one of our church friends who works in the oil industry and so now she wants to take $10,000 in classes to become a facilitator/inspector, and then every day I gotta rush to pick up my son form track, even though he shouldn't even be doing it because his grades are in the tank,
and on top of all that, I forgot to walk the dogs last night, so I get up this morning and there's shit all over their cages and the all over the floor!
Well, it could have had a bit more editing. There were some pacing problems.
Like what do you mean?
Like, personality traits that were introduced in the same paragraph in which they were used. Like a dog who liked to slop up food right before that was necessary for a certain plot twist. Little stuff like that, a bit of foreshadowing would have helped.
Preparation of the reader, you mean.
Yes. And a character that was introduced late in the book. Then never shown. Strange stuff like that. But other than that, it was a great idea. A school where kids go to get rid of their phobias. At first I thought it was going to be a slight bit of a horror novel, such as "scaring" them out of their fears, but it turns out that the premise was to force them out of their fears by a simulated test that caused them to pull together for a positive cause. That was very nicely done.
Overall, then?
Overall - it would probably make a nice little movie.
Well, that seems to be the goal of literature these days.
You're right. Books now seem to be plot outlines for scripts, rather than actual literary accomplishments.
Van Halen's version of a pub ballad. Shows fantastic acoustic guitar work by Eddie, who - don't laugh now - would have made a fantastic classical guitarist. I can imagine him playing anything by Tárrega ... I can hear his rapid fire style just bringing those pieces to new fire!
MR says, "OK Verble if you stop doing my job, here, and lemme gittdownta bizness, I got some lines you want me to penscribe here, so . . .
If I told you I sailed out tomorrow,
Would your eyes they fill with such sorrow
That you would bring me a beer
And sit beside me, my dear,
And present me your maidenhead to borrow?
[a pause a the café]
Verble: That's terrible!
MR: Wha - !
Verble: "maidenhead to borrow." You don't borrow a maidenhead - you take it -
Lucky Moran: . . . and for a limerick it doesn't scan at ALL.
MR: What do you know?! Philistine! The narrator is ASKING to borrow it - that don' make no pretense that izz actually real. He knowzzit - but the GIRL don' knowzzit! See?
Verble: I don't care. I'm not paying you for that.
MR: You never payzme anywayz!
Verble: [walking to the back] Still doesn't scan right.
MR: [mimicking] 'still duzznt scan right' - everybuddy's a critic!
Lucky: Well, he's right. Here. Run it by me again . . .
Otis Redwing: If you wanna turn it into a pub ballad, you could give it a refrain, something like "Sail away with someone's daughter"
Lucky: Dude - that's part of the song.
Otis: Hey, don't get bent. I'M not the poet here - HE is! and right now it looks like he's chewing the counter.
The Barista comes down the counter with a rag and a new mocha and says, "As Oscar Wilde once wrote 'a poet can survive anything but a misprint'"
Ian Anderson is brilliant every time he plays at the Zen and Tao Acoustic Café - his wild-eyed performances simply capture the emotion of this place. Enthusiastic, spastic, acoustic!
"Wife had the radio on this morning to the Christian station and they were going through all the skeletons and skulls and debunking evolution, showing how none of these puzzle pieces really fit and all that, and they were talking about how serious it was not to take anything over the literal interpretation of Genesis, and I get all that - I really do - but don't you think it's a better use of our time to get out there and show people what the Love of Christ can do, rather than all this fighting?"
