Doc Watson

I bought an older 1987 Ranger (clean truck with very low miles) with the 2.3 L engine. Here’s the problem: When you first start it the engine idles and drives smoothly. But when you turn off the engine after awhile (like a trip to the market) and start the engine again it idles really ragged. I checked for vacuum leaks and found none, replaced the EGR valve and oxygen sensor as suggested and still the same thing. It idles fine when the engine is colder but runs ragged when starting it after it’s warmed up. Any suggestions?

Seriously, it seems like at least 95% of the poems posted here seem to be about broken hearts or odes to love found or gone astray. What do you think of this verse that addresses the abundance of broken-hearted poems? Think this hits the mark?

Poetic Priorities

When ten thousand poets, pen in hand,

scream outward in anger with their might,

their words flow like blood upon the land

as ten thousand blinded by the light ---

when ten thousand lovers do no right.

With ten thousand muses from above,

each one involved in them finding love

or losing love or forsaking love,

poets always seem to feel it worse;

those broken hearts seeping endless verse.

As ten thousand souls, misunderstood,

in relationships they know that would

ultimately slam them to the ground,

ten thousand poets will soon be found

explaining pain to the world around.

With ten million single men out there,

ten million single women somewhere,

what would happen if they wisely chose

a good-hearted mate from one of those:

a returned love that they could share?

Would their words aim towards a broader sight?

Would they express anger at the plight

of oppressed people, of greed’s forced pain,

hypocrisy’s evil and war’s gain,

or nature’s demise — worlds gone insane?

If words are mightier than the sword

can’t personal anguish then afford

to stop itself from being self-gored?

Or does it somehow let them feel sane

if they secretly relish their pain?

For awhile I’ve hinted around that I really get turned on by ankle tattoos and she finally went out and got one. Now that tattoo of an ankle she had tattooed on her hip is a major distraction. I know she meant well, know she did it just to please me, but seriously, wouldn’t you be a little upset?

(This is a work in progress, so feel free to make suggestions, trash it or encourage it’s completion.)

Pondering The Outer Values

How about the conceptualization

of intra psychic structures, just for fun?

Balderdash, say you? Tennis, anyone?

Tennyson, then? Not keen on Lord Alfred?

Can’t say I blame you. His being long dead

explains to the mass why he’s under-read.

Stephen Hawking taps his thoughts to the beat

of Coleman Hawkins, as their quarks collide

with octaves, music and math glorified,

compelling the less inclined to retreat.

While starlets and scalawags share a bed

near genius rarely keeps the family fed.

Though there is seldom true correlation

between pure art and gross capital gain,

if neither evil, both provide rewards

dictated by what the spirit will afford.

Sadly, fair profit will not placate greed

that poisons itself with vile karmic seeds,

or skew the perception that the profound

can’t flourish if rooted in common ground.

So how much is bartered to ensure

inspired vision or stock options galore?

I started this several years back, then realized it order to tell the complete story it would end up being as long as an actual Book from the Bible. Four pages into it I stopped working on it. Because so few people read poetry these days, other than poets at heart, the odds would be pretty slim that something long would be published, much less read, right?

Here are the first few stanzas to help you understand why I’ve never finished Jana’s Book.

*

THE BOOK OF JANNA

1.

During Earth’s mad destruction,

as multitudes slaughtered each

other in their own god’s name,

yet another child was born.

Metaphorically conceived in a pure infant state,

wrapped in paupers blankets and left in a basket near

the oft disputed intersection of Lost and Found

where hypocrites daily judged everyone but themselves.

While the fragile waif softly cried out to be nourished,

comforted and loved, the faux pious falsely assumed

this newborn the consequence of original sins:

pre-condemned by dogma’s wrath as deserving her fate.

As these righteous turned away

a young woman, disdaining

denominational ire,

embraced the child as her own.

2.

Given the name of Janna,

the girl was raised in a home

that revered natural life as

the Creator’s precious gift,

an enclave where the women were perceived as equals

and could be wives by choice, mothers by desire, scholars

by inclination, leaders when circumstance allowed:

a safe haven holding destiny’s child in faith’s hands,

an environment that was clandestinely maintained

because they lived in a time, in a place, where fearful

males, doubting their own self-worth, collectively proclaimed

weakening the natural partnership granted men strength.

Warping The Creator’s will,

they banished healthy women

to lives of obedience

as man-made baby makers.

It’s a serious question actually because the feedback I’ve gotten from some suggest that they don’t understand that justifications and excuses mean the same thing here. But actually saying so detracts from the verse, don’t you think? It can't be that obscure?

If Only -

Too old, too young, too large, too small,

too rich, too poor, too fast, too slow,

too meek, too bold, too short, too tall:

justification knows them all.

Disdaining self initiative,

security in excuses,

fortified by kindred failings,

lets justifications prevail.

Not fed, under read, can’t be said,

has gone, takes too long, might be wrong,

no calls, hits the wall, tears might fall:

justification knows them all.

Embracing justifications

accompanies those descending.

Curtailing justifications

gives flight to the soul ascending.

This is just one of those dummied down things I put on canvas as a short mental ‘vacation’ from the more serious work. Though finished this morning this stupid thing (and I mean stupid in a cutesy sort of way) is still deserving of it’s own title. I’ve already discounted ‘DNA Block Party’ and ‘Popcorn Entropy’ as possibilities. And am open to any suggestions you guys might have.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/unmired/10709364/58...

(a) Women own their own bodies and don’t want to lose the option of choice. The majority of women in this country, including many of your own Republican women, voted for Obama to keep this right. Duh! (b) Quit trying to appease the far right fraction within your own party. If you want to win back the presidency and control of the Senate you’re going to have to nominate more moderate candidates. Duh! Romney lost a great deal of the independent votes (including mine) by swinging too far right to appease the fringe in your own party. (c) Try sincere honesty without the obvious lying you’ve become infamous for. The Rove style propaganda machine simply won’t work in this internet connected world we live in. 65% 0f the younger voters rejected the same old smear tactics that worked so well for Bush. So those days are long gone. Try admiring people like George Romney instead of supporting people like Mitt Romney. Duh! If you had kept it real, kept it morally honest, you would have easily won this election.

A few may be easy, several a lot harder (requiring considering what a few specific words refer to) and the last question is just plain silly. But this is all in fun. So, here goes ...

1. This soprano has sung the same lead as both a black women and a white woman. Can you name the soprano and the lead character?

2. In the art imitating life and life imitating art category two men falsely accused their wives of infidelity and both murdered their wives. And in their own way both are prominent figures in the realm of classical music. A semi-easy question, but can you name both?

3. The $1,000 ballet. This may be too easy, but who commissioned it, who composed it and what was it’s name?

4. One of the endearing characters from this long symphonic work is a lovesick seahorse. Can you name both the composition and the composer?

5. This classical Bond girl is someone even a snob like Miss Moneypenny would have approved of. Can you guess who this girl is?

6. Don’t like the music of Schoenberg or Adams or Arnold or Milhaud or Hindemith? You’re not along in rejecting music outside your comfort zone. In fact, there is a Latin phrase defining what you find unappealing. Can you name this phrase and it’s English translation and, for some super-duper bonus points, name the music it was first commonly applied to.

7. The photo is of a page from a specific score. Can you name the composer and the composition based on this photo?

http://unmired.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/2385/5...

8. The driver of this SUV is most likely:

http://unmired.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/2385/5...

a. An auto thief with very little taste?

b. A car-jacker with very discerning taste?

c. A good ‘ol boy truck driver from Butte, Montana?

d. An old fart like me who put these stickers on the rear window of his Ford Explorer because there are thousands like this in his area of LA and the decals make it easier to spot his SUV in a crowded parking lot?

Okay, one or two of these may be fairly easy. Or maybe not. Too easy takes the fun out of playing along, don’t you think? Too difficult keeps the replies to a minimum. So here is a little of both.

1. Although Henry, Frank and Trapper John were not around to witness it, a segment of chamber music received the highest rated viewing (as background music) ever for a chamber piece as it was performed during the closing minutes of a television program’s final night. Can you name the composer and the work?

2. Listening to the later symphony by this Russian composer, one wonders if he was paying homage to Classical Music’s Greatest Hits? It doesn’t take much imagination to recognize the influences of Wagner, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Stravinsky (and this is just in the first movement). He even seems to pay homage to his own past greatness, Can you name this composer and this symphony?

3. This 20th. century composer rated himself the ninth greatest composer ever, even ahead of Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Can you name him? Also, though worlds apart in the pure scope and complexities of their music, this ego-driven composer shared, besides an inflated ego, another infamous trait with Wagner. Can you name this infection?

4. Speaking of 9ths., the premier of Beethoven’s glorious 9th. Symphony pretty much forced classical contemporary composers, and the generations that followed, to take music into different directions because few believed they could ever match The 9th. So far-reaching was the shadow cast by this great symphony that it hounded some later composers. One later composer, after finishing his own 8th. Symphony, refused to label his next full work a ‘symphony’ in fear that it would be compared to Beethoven’s. Another composer, perhaps believing in the ‘Curse Of The Ninth’. literary worked himself to death composing his (unfinished) 9th. Can you name these two composers.

5. This world renowned concert pianist (an easy question for some of you) had the habit of humming the music his was playing. In live concerts this was not so noticeable but in recording sessions? Well, it proved to be a night mare in the studio. Can you name this pianist?

6. This composer (a fairly easy question) was a sixty years ahead of his time metaphorically. Before the New Age movement became fashionable in the 1970s he was composing New Age style music back in the early 1900s. Can you name this composer?

Some of these may be a little tricky, some a little obscure, but this question is all in fun. So, enjoy!

1. One of Haydn’s early symphonies is noted primarily for it’s ‘walking 8s.’ Musically, what specific technique does the phrase refer to? For bonus points, which symphony and which movement is this quirky interpretation of physical movement found in?

2. Originally presented in 1910, revised or otherwise re-scored in 1911, 1919 and 1945, which version of this well-known composition is the more often one found in today’s symphonic repertoires? Knowing the answer, you already know both the composer and the name of the composition.

3. The son once said of his father’s orchestrations, “One thing the average layman doesn’t understand about my Dad’s perfectionism is this, when he replaced a C-sharp with a gunshot it had to be a C-sharp sounding gunshot or he wouldn’t use it.” Which rather well-known conductor, arranger and composer is the son referring to?

4. From F-major to sixty-something compressed Es, nothing like it had ever been composed before and nothing composed since is comparable. Name the composer, the name of the composition and the movement if you can?

5. Alfred Hitchcock once said of this well-esteemed contemporary composer, “Many composers express the world through rose colored glasses but he expresses the world without needing a prescription.” Which composer was Hitchcock referring to?

6. When Disco music was becoming the newest craze during the early 1970s a reporter asked Leonard Bernstein what he thought of the new sound? Bernstein, somewhat agitated, replied something like this, “New? What’s new about it? If I want to hear the original all I have to do is pull out the score to (here he mentions the name) and we play it ourselves.” What specific composition and what specific part of that composition by what famous composer was Bernstein mentioning?

Being honest here, most people these days, even lovers of poetry will not take the time to read any expanded work of poetry unless assigned to them (like ‘Idylls Of The King- or ‘Beowulf’) in some literature class. This one I’m about half-way through will have about 900 hundred lines when finished. Like reading a novel you’re not familiar with, most readers won’t read on if the first chapter doesn’t grab them. So the question is, does this pique your interest enough?

THE BOOK OF JANNA

1.

During Earth’s mad destruction,

as multitudes slaughtered each

other in their own god’s name,

yet another child was born.

Metaphorically conceived in a pure infant state,

wrapped in paupers blankets and left in a basket near

the oft disputed intersection of Lost and Found

where hypocrites daily judged everyone but themselves.

While the fragile waif softly cried out to be nourished,

comforted and loved, the faux pious falsely assumed

this newborn the consequence of original sins:

pre-condemned by dogma’s wrath as deserving her fate.

As these righteous turned away

a young woman, disdaining

denominational ire,

embraced the child as her own.

2.

Given the name of Janna,

the girl was raised in a home

that revered natural life as

the Creator’s precious gift,

an enclave where the women were perceived as equals

and could be wives by choice, mothers by desire, scholars

by inclination, leaders when circumstance allowed:

a safe haven holding destiny’s child in faith’s hands,

an environment that was clandestinely maintained

because they lived in a time, in a place, where fearful

males, doubting their own self-worth, collectively proclaimed

weakening the natural partnership granted men strength.

Warping The Creator’s will,

they banished healthy women

to lives of obedience

as man-made baby makers.

It was written a while ago as an exercise: one of those games where you’ve got x number of minutes to write something new. Most of the verse I’ve written over the years is free form where the last thing in the world I worry about is rhyming words in old-school form. That several of the early lines ending up rhyming was by accident. Then I decided they matched the tone of the poem. The point is: I don’t exactly dislike this poem but am not sure if it has any real creative merit worth being proud of? Your honest opinions are encouraged and welcomed.

LOVE AS ANTIMATTER

If I should write a poem, a frivolous endeavor

of emotional disdain, the implications would

suggest that the temperature in Hades has dropped below

thirty-two degrees and has held steady as it should.

If I were to write a poem, assuming sanity

had finally succumbed to it’s more staunch opponents,

casting a heart’s skepticism into the abyss,

it would be to trade a fool’s caution for a love’s kiss.

If I were to write a poem

it would imply that life as

I know it has run amok:

resistance is out of luck.

If I were to write a poem

if would be an ode to the

demise of a protective

nature exchanged for shared bliss.

(Yeah, I know the title sucks. It originally was simply called 'If...')

Before any of you get goofy on me and state the obvious, I’m not talking about the standard composition written for both hands. I’m talking about a unique (some would consider quirky) composition where separate parts of the composition is written for just one hand, where both hands would alternate playing?

Most of you are aware of the oddities, like Ravel’s ‘Piano Concerto for the Left Hand’ and why it was commissioned. Or piano exercises written for just one hand. But I’m wondering if any composer ever wrote serious music where both the right and left hands parts were performed separately during part or all of the composition?

And if not, why not?

A Famous Line From Baroque Bach Mountain: A lonesome cowboy sits by the fading light of a campfire with his I-Pod earphone plugged in while he listens to classical music. Sadly, he laments to no one but himself ‘I wish I knew how to quit you Johann.’

(It’s not my joke. by the way. It’s from a daily comic strip called ‘Bizarro’ but still just about the funniest one I’ve ever heard.)

I’m guessing Beethoven’s or Mendelssohn’s will win out in this quirky quiz contest. Still, this should be interesting fun. Just remember, I said first five bars.

My choice? Mahler’s Fifth, with it’s soulful solo trumpet opening the funeral march style of the first movement.

The Latin phrase, generally translated, means ‘The true essence of art is to conceal the artistry’ or sometimes translated as ‘The true value of art is in it’s subtlety.’

http://pics.livejournal.com/unmired/pic/000k40cf/g...

Using this mantra as the criteria, would more flamboyant, over-the-top, modern abstract art (from Abstract Expressionist to Pop) qualify? Or it art for it's own sake enough to qualify it as true art?

About this new painting itself, your opinions are welcome.

I'm honestly not sure what my motives were (outside of trying to make a satiric statement) for painting this but I do love the inner-action of the grids with the color fields.

(The image can be enlarged to view more detail with your basic double-click of the mouse.)

I call it dumb because I’m not sure yet what I think of this newer figurative style I’m playing around with. I am trying to do something weirdly figurative, not too realistic but not too cartoonish. Anyway, I may come to love it or to hate it and not do any more like it.

http://pics.livejournal.com/unmired/pic/000hy183/g...

But the point of the question is this: Right now it’s called ‘Alice Noir’ but could certainly have a better title than this. I thought of ‘Alice Now’ or ‘Alice Asking’ but these sound lame.

Any suggestions on a better title?

(If you wish to you can double-click on the image to enlarge it. Or, being a modern Alice with an attitude, to enrage it.)

Which accomplished composer or composers do you feel, from the past to the present, would have been intrigued enough to have wanted to compose music for this really strange and weird instrument?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJSu12sWPFY

Ift's just a fun question to ponder, my friends, and there are no wrong answers. But personally I disqualify Phillip Glass in advance because even if he did compose a concerto for this thing every note would sound the same anyway. So who then? Perhaps a John Adams or Claude Bolling or Igor Stravinsky? Maybe even Mozart, being the fun loving sort of goofy type guy he was?

Who would you pick? Or petter yet, who would you select to commission a concerto for this weird thing?

Would the child most likely be:

1. a Base?

2. a Tenor?

3. a Falsetto?

4. a tone-death auto mechanic?

5. or whatever your imagination can come up with?

It’s just a fun question not to be taken seriously, but I have, over the years, noticed that the offspring of gifted, creative people seldom inherent the gifts of their parents. With the exception of families like the Wyeth’s (who have produced a long line of noted artists) or the Bach or Strauss composers, it is rare indeed.

So the real question here is: How many offspring of noted composers, singers, etc. can you name who have carried on, or even surpassed, their parents in a related field?

And to play fair you can't use the names I've already mentioned.