A Night at the Oscars from My Comfy Couch

I don't always watch them. In fact I did for years and then just sort of grew away from it but I did tune in last night. The funny thing is I really didn't see anything this year that was up for awards.

I think my interest this year was sparked a bit by the fact that in one way or another I felt connected because of a common thread of creativity. There were a couple of nominations that I did hope would be winners.

• An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary Feature - which won
• Two Hands for Best Documentary Short Subject - which didn't
• Happy Feet for Best Animated Feature Film - which won
• Peter O'Toole in Venus for Best Actor - which didn't

So I guess I was batting .500

I think the best line of the night has to go to Melissa Etheridge who won for her song "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth when she said, "This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom."

I know many tune in to see who is wearing what, but from an environmental standpoint it bothers me to see people spend lavishly thousands of dollars for a dress that they will wear one time. Is this really the best use of our renewable resources?

Ground Clutter

Rain and thunder rolled in this morning. A cold chill hangs in the air. It is quiet here, I've already taken the car in for routine maintenance bright and early this morning and back home already. So starts the weekend.

While in the waiting room at the dealership, I let my mind take hold of my pen and scratched out some stuff in my journal. Nothing spectacular came of it.

I kept thinking of things going on around the world this week:

• I thought of Vice President Cheney and I had to ask myself what drives this man to to be so caustic and discordant? His remarks aimed at both China and Iran are not helpful to constructive dialogue.
• I'm wondered what was going through the heads of the Jurors in the I. "Scooter" Libby trial?
• I envisioned the rats running around the NYC Taco Bell. "Which way to the boarder?"
• And the building at Walter Reed Army Hospital with U.S. soldiers who returned home from war facing struggles with psychological issues and housed in deplorable conditions and primarily caring for themselves.

You may think I have too much time on my hands. Perhaps, but in the quiet of a Saturday morning this poet is finding it hard to clear his head of ground clutter.

Poetry magazine creates unity through line breaks - Culture

Poetry magazine creates unity through line breaks - Culture

Interesting piece on Women Celebrating Poetry

Journal Bits

• Global runs both ways- big; all inclusive, / Shrinking; creating less distance, more interdependence.
• Cold War never ended- rather disappeared in hibernation. Recent rhetoric has awaken it.

Going Nowhere

I have today off. Of course Tuesday after a Monday holiday is like a Super Monday with at least 3 x the frustrations and demands.
But I guess that is so we learn to appreciate the regular Mondays. Have I convinced you, because it isn't working for me yet?

Congratulations are in order for Jilly Dybka who has two poems up over at storySouth.

Top News- Children's Book Stirs Battle With Single Word - AOL News

Top News- Children's Book Stirs Battle With Single Word - AOL News

Oh my God.... This is great. A book that won the Newberry Medal and the author uses the word Scrotum on the first page. Why, because she likes the way it sounds and because it conjured up an image of "...something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much. It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

But people are getting their panties all twisted. Take Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.” She said, “This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,”

In the story, Lucky, the main character hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum. Anyone who sees this as something Howard Sternish has a pretty vivid imagination.

Senate Republicans nix Iraq resolution

On a 56 to 34 vote in the Senate today, Democrats with the help of a few Republicans fell 4 votes short of being able to advance the same resolution forward that the House passed - stating it's opposition the the Troop Surge in Iraq. The test vote Seven Republicans broke ranks with the Party Leadership to side with Democrats. While the vote on the on the resolution itself did not occur, it is clear that a majority of the Senate wanted this to happen and those in the majority on the test vote would likely have voted for the Resolution opposing the Troop Surge itself.

Both Houses of Congress are now understanding just how much the American public sees this war as a mistake and not worth the costs of American lives and the hundreds of billions in tax dollars we have already spent on it. Even as President Bush is sending to Congress a request for $100 billion more.