Overheard at the Counter: White Anxiety

After listening to white racist tv (AKA Fox News) commentator Laura Ingraham spew bullshit about how the "America we know and love" no longer exists because of "illegal and legal immigration," combined with the rising legitimacy of White Supremacists in the USA, Mel Brooks' song "High Anxiety" came to mind.

Especially since news outlets have now legitimized racism by calling racism by a name specifically designed to make racism palatable to their viewers.  "White Anxiety"

As though we are to have some sort of sympathy for those who already have a greater advantage, simply by the nature of their melanin content.

HIGH ANXIETY

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks, arranged by John Morris

High anxiety whenever you're near -

High anxiety - it's you that I fear.

My heart's afraid to fly - it's crashed before ...

But then you take my hand;

My heart starts to soar once more.

High anxiety ... it's always the same;

High anxiety ... it's you that I blame.

It's very clear to me I've got to give in.

High anxiety: you win.

White Anxiety

by Verble Gherulous

inspired by Trump and the Magats, 2018

White Anxiety, whenever they’re near

White Anxiety, it’s them that I fear

They take our jobs away, they move right in

They take our daughters hand

So they can breed more – and MORE!

White Anxiety, they all look the same

White Anxiety, it’s them that I blame

It’s white genocide by black and brown pride

White Anxiety, we’ll die!

Overread at the Counter: Kill the Pope

Verble says, "I love this guy!  I show him a cool tweet and give him a song idea and within a week, he comes up with a  full lyric.  It's like I have the ideas and he puts in all the blood, sweat, and tears!  Speaking of tears though, I don't cry.  He got that part wrong.  I wouldn't cry.... OK, maybe just a little.  But not like a little baby.  Like a grateful grown man!"

Kill the Pope

1.

Twelve blokes outside a Tesco, shouting “Kill the Pope”
They buggered off quite nicely when I said, “Someone get a rope”
Met a girl from Derry headed for a street parade.
She said, “Are you out or in?”
I said, “My mind’s not made.”

2.

This Derry girl she laughed and led me to Royal Avenue
I lost her in the crowd and rain and din of the revue.
Then two lads tugged my sleeve, and handed me a beer
They said, “You’re from Texas, mate,
But fook, we’re glad you’re here!”

3.

Just then I turned and bumped into one from Tullamore
A woman I had dated some thirty years before
I recalled the nights we’d watch Nighthawks and she would call me “Pet.”
I said, “I bought your novel
But I haven’t read it yet.”

4.

She introduced her lover, a girl from Ballina
Who had a tattoo on her wrist, it was the eye of Ra.
Those three eyes stared through me, laying every secret bare.
She said, “That day at Shannon,
You just left her standing there.”

[SOLO]

5.

The Derry girl tapped my arm, said “Let’s head to Ryan’s Bar.
The regulars know every song in the Wolfe Tones repertoire.”
She said “You seem a man who’s lonely in a crowd.”
“That’s because I’m old,” I said,
“Though I’m not ready for the shroud.”

6.

Then she and I, those two lads, Tullamore and Ballyna
We sang Ryan’s rafters down until the final call.
Then we walked toward the docks to watch the sun arise,
Where Tullamore
Said she forgave me,
and hot tears
welled in
                my eyes.

7.

I was always taught of one Apostolic Church
And I’ve seen religion leave many in the lurch
But redemption, kindness, decency, these things give me hope
That God loves little children and every misanthrope
And protects the pure of heart and those who cannot cope
And those who make a fortune selling Daddy’s dope.
And one day will make straight every slippery slope
And that He even loves twelve Tesco boys
Still shouting “Kill the Pope!”
He even loves twelve Tesco boys,
Still shouting “Kill the Pope!”

Kill the Pope!

 

 

MR

2018-0805 – inspired by a tweet by Caoimhe Ní Dhónaill, first line of this song.
2018-0806
2018-0807
2018-0808
2018-0814 – completed work on lyrics

NOTES: the good Dr Dhónaill is, for the purposes of this song at least, from Derry.  She may or may not be from that lovely town IRL (which stands both for Ireland and also means “In Real Life” in ‘netspeak, interestingly enough).

The woman from Tullamore is real, and everything about her in verse three is true (as well as the last line in verse 4).  However, I do not know if Tullamore truly has a lover from Ballyna.  That town was chosen merely for its rhyming capability.

Verse 5, line 2, is also a nod to the good Dr, as she once sent Verble a song by the Wolfe Tones.

Verse 5, line 3, is inspired by her paper, “Emotions and Masculinity”

Verse 7, line 6, is an homage to the Ramones’ “Happy Family” which seemed oddly appropriate for this song.

The phrasing of the song is 4/4, and while writing it, I had in mind both Bob Dylan’s “Motorpsycho Nitemare” and “Bob Dylan’s 115^th Dream.”  I also imagined the chords of those songs being played in the same guitar style as The Clash’s “London Calling.”  Additionally, the song should also be considered played in the style of the Pogues album Red Roses for Me.

Overread at the Counter: Cthulhu McQueen

I was inspired by a Twitter friend of mine, PK, from the band Blisstique, to write a song called "Cthulhu McQueen."  The name was inspired by a couple of songs we were trading back and forth.


While I am not, myself, blessed with the gene to sit down and write a poem or a song, my nephew-in-law and great friend, a shy man who wants to be known only as "MR" was able to write the song based on the parameters I gave him:  The name, and set on Long Island in the state of New York.


What he came up with, he hopes that PK may one day make into a song.   MR says it can either be 4/4 or 6/4 and has placed emphasis on the stressed syllables as they hit either 1,2,3,4 beats (4/4), or 1st and 4th beats (6/4).


He also says although he was unaware of it at the time, he may have been channeling a bit of Bruce Springsteen's "Spirits in the Night" (a song made a hit by Manfred Mann's Earth Band).


Enjoy!

Cthulhu McQueen

1.

I was driving through Brooklyn with Cthulhu McQueen.
We were looking for that Goth/Bohemian scene.
Gail O’Grady in the back seat, drinking styrene,
She said, “Brooklyn is dead, boys, let’s head out to Queens”

2.

At the Shepherd Metro exit there on Pitkin Avenue,
Meryl G was pacing in glittered platform shoes.
She was singing a song she called “Angelmint Blues”
Gail shouted out the window, “Girl I love your Jimmy Choos!”

3.

Cthulhu hopped in the back, Meryl took over shotgun,
Then she slipped a pink tab under my tongue with her tongue
Gail said, “What kind of mom would give that name to her son?”
He said, “The kind who reads Lovecraft from the dusk until dawn.”
4.
4.

At the lighthouse at Montauk ‘bout a quarter past three,

I was smelling the colours of the wind through the trees.
Cthulu’s arms became tentacles sliding out from his sleeves
That wrapped around Gail, then both slipped into the sea.

[Solo]

5.

I awoke to the sun  chasing away the last star,
Meryl G was snoring loudly in the back of the car.
To this day I can’t say exactly what I had seen,
But that’s the last I saw of Gail and Cthulhu McQueen.

Overread at Table 1: Poem of the Day "At This Time, On This Day, America"

At This Time, On This Day, America

 

These are the angels of our bitter nature:

time, they unfold their wings, and assault the sky,

caring nothing for what they leave against the ground,

not the sound of their dying afterlives, or

their good fortunes, no,

these angels are not made a little less than men,

they are made of acrid moisture

that seeps out between the foetid toes,

they are the bile that churn from the spleen

and drips out the rotten nose,

these angels are the angry noises

that we make at night to the children

that we spit on, those little faces,

that stand just outside our windows, looking in,

their tiny fingers curled around the diamond shapes

of the links in the chain,

fences that keep them forever out

and which allow us to pretend that we are all

free.

 

MR

2018-0713

 

Overheard at Table 3: Notes on Liberals vs Conservatives

There is a fundamental difference between the ways in which Liberals and Conservatives approach any issue.  Below are three examples:

 

What makes the Conservative message so appealing to so many people is that it is easy.  In a world where people hate to think, and when empathy takes a lot of emotional energy, a Conservative mindset is, frankly, the easier path.   Let’s face it: to be loving, sympathetic, and understanding takes a lot of work sometimes.  To be apathetic, no real energy at all.

 

 

 

Overheard at Booth 3: Our Twenty YO Selves

"I think we owe something to our twenty-year-old selves."

"Really?  What?"

"You know... all those dreams we had.  All those things we were going to do.  Climb mountains.  See Paris.  Write novels.   Rappel down the sides of skyscrapers.   Learn new languages.  All that stuff.  Now that we're pushing fifty, it seems like we owe it to our younger selves to do some of those things."

"Me... I don't think we owe our twenty-something selves a damn thing.   In fact, I think just the opposite.  I think our twenty-something selves owe some things to US!"

"How do you figure?"

"They could have taken better care of our bodies.  They could have not smoked so many cigarettes, or burned out so many brain cells or stayed up so late or slept with the people that they slept with without using proper protection."

"Yeah, that would have been nice!"

"So yeah, I think our twenty-something selves can go piss up a rope!"

Overheard at Table 2: TG Men to Women

I was in Walgreens the other day and I was in the checkout line and there was this kinda pretty Asian in front of me and I couldn't really tell if she was a she or if he was a she, or a he who wanted to be a she, whatever, but anyway, this pretty Asian lady-person was buying a whole bunch of makeup stuff, base, blush, lipstick, some of those eyebrow pushy things, lotions, you name it, whole bunch of women's makeup. 

And the cashier rang it up at $119.38, and I thought to myself, "Man, if a guy wants to become a woman, then he must really think of himself as a woman.  Because no guy who thinks of himself as a guy would change his whole life if it meant laying out so much cash for all that makeup, every time he goes to the store!"