Oversung at the Counter: Song of the Day, "The Mothers of Portland"

The Mothers of Portland

Well they gassed the mayor of Portland
On the city streets last night
and they've been shooting at the faces
of the protesters on sight

And they're running down the taggers
with their jackboots and their guns
and they're beating on the journalists
with their shields and their batons

And they ain't got no insignias
Just their camouflage fatigues
You can not see their faces
But you can hear them laugh with glee

And all the Mothers of Portland
Are out in Yellow shirts tonight
Forming a line with their bodies
But they too get shot on sight.

Don't matter who you are
You all gonna get the gas
You gonna get your bones broken
You gonna get your face all smashed.

You gonna get shot in the face
But don't worry, the rounds ain't lethal
And we'll beat you twice as bad
If you dare say this ain't legal.

We don't care if you're the Mayor
We don't care if you're a mother.
We're gonna make you shut your mouths
One way or another.




MR
2020-0723
[to the tune of The Mothers of Invention's "Trouble Every Day"

Overread at Booth 1: Poem of the Day "Memory of a Most Perfect Day"

Memory of a Most Perfect Day

All afternoon in the rain,
under umbrella,
reading "Trout Fishing in America"
to the ducks in the pond
behind the gazebo of
the art museum.

No rain since
ever smelled so sweet.




MR 2020-0721

Overheard at Booth 3: Movie Idea

So, my wife and I were taking our evening walk around the neighbourhood one day last week and we saw one of our neighbours at one of the house at the end of the street pulling a bunch of palm branches from the back yard to the front yard for the trash to pick up the next day.

We commented that it looked like she was doing a lot of yard work that day, and next thing I know we were getting this story:

"Well," she said, "I finally divorced my husband and my two boys are off in college.  Well the other one is, the younger just graduated high school.  But of course, you know, this year, there wasn't all that much of a graduation, with Corona and everything, and he doesn't even really know if he wants to go to college in the fall.  I don't really want him to but I don't want him to stay with me either.  The only time he comes out of his room is to ask me when I'm going to make dinner.  If he is gonna be like that, he can just go live with his dad.  But on a day like today, when I have to clean up the back yard to get the house ready to sell?  No help at all, neither of them.

"The older one can't be, of course.  He's my miracle baby.  Dad left when he was born and when he was five, my husband - the one I just divorced - was supposed to be watching him while they were out fishing, but he wasn't watching and he fell over the edge of the boat and smacked his skull open on the outboard motor - I thank GOD every day it wasn't running because it would have killed him right there.  They thought he was going to die.  They thought he wouldn't make it, and if he did they said he would be unable to finish fifth grade or even be able to walk. 

"But he made it!  He was varsity basketball in high school.  Then he went to college on an academic scholarship.  But even he never wants to come home to help me.  He just wants to stay on campus, but they've closed campus, so now he's just in the apartments on campus and I got NO clue what his plans are for the fall.

"But I'm downsizing.  So they can figure it out.  I'm 52 this year.  52!  Can you believe that?  But everyone says I look good for my age, so I guess it's time for me to get this 52 year old butt back into school and finally finish that degree and boy it's gonna be interesting getting back out into the work place after all these years.  I tell ya... I gave up any chance of a career just having my oldest and then nursing him back to health after the accident.   But he's my miracle boy, so I guess it was worth it.

"But it's my time now, don't you think?  Don't you think it's my time now?"

And the wife and I agreed.  I mean, how could we not. 

And to home, and processing, and as we discussed the 52 year old woman who was downsizing and restarting, what came to mind was the movie that we had just seen, "Just One of the Boys."  That movie, in 1985, this woman would have been 17 at that time - the same age as the main character.

Imagine this: a movie set in 2020, the time of Corona, the character of that movie, who had been so set on becoming a journalist.  Imagine that character as this woman... who had a child, whose father left, then married another man, who let the child get hurt horribly, then she had a child with that man, and now is divorced and looking to reclaim the career that she never had. 

What kind of movie could you make of that?   Definitely you would have to bring back the brother, but all the other characters from the original movie would be long gone.  But the possibilities are endless - for comedy, for tragedy, for introspection, for a deep delving into what it means to be successful, a peeling back of the sacrifices that we make for our children.

I think it could be a great movie.

My wife, on the other hand, thinks it would be boring.  Like "My Dinner with Andre" ... which she will never let me live down making her watch one time back in 1995.

Overheard at Booth 1: Donnie Darko (2001)

I must be the only person in the world who doesn't get this movie.
This movie is a lot like Radiohead to me: something that I apparently am supposed to be in awe of its genius, but which for some reason left me cold.

And usually I like strange movies.
Usually I like movies with odd characters, dry dialogue, and plots that wrap around themselves.

But something about this movie just seems forced, rigid, and overall, insipid.

So, more than likely, if you've seen it, you've liked it, but if you haven't seen it, well, don't let this negative review stop you.

Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Overheard at Booth 3: New Christmas Movie idea

Houston to New Orleans

A Family trip to the city of Sin.  A comedy.   Along the way, they see the weirdness.  Perhaps they learn to love each other more, perhaps they learn to accept each other.  Perhaps its a movie of the parents looking for their almost adult daughter who wanders off into the crowd.

Perhaps they find some sort of solace in the decorated Catholic cathedral in the middle of town.

I dunno, but if someone can find a couple of million dollars to throw at this thing, I wouldn't mind filming it in the French Quarter.

At the Counter: Three Days in the Canal

John Payton Payne took a sip of his coffee and told Niall Carter, "I keep thinking about this thing that I heard last month, on BBC, Witness - "

"I love that programme," said Niall Carter, "They always have this particular date, what happened on it x-number of years ago, that sort of thing, right?"

"Yeah," said Payne, "And this was last month, maybe last December, I dunno, but they had this guy talking about the First Gulf War, when it started, a ....


[and at that point, our stenographer passed out and missed the rest of the conversation, which has now been posted here as a copy from a lost conversation circa 2012]

[The editors of the Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe do apologise in advance for the error.]

Overheard at Table 2: Asian Fly Swatter

I was at the Asian market nearby and I saw in this bag something called a mosquito swatter.  This thing looked like a thick-rimmed racquetball racket.   And the cover of the bag, it was awesome!  Had the cartoon character of a kid with Super Saiyan hair, and the title said, "Mosquito Killer!  Fun Size!  Family Helper!"

Family Helper?

I think something was translated literally, because, well... I guess you COULD consider it a "family helper."