The Cusp

The Cusp is composed of images in a far away place in the hours between July and August and were inspired by Sunset Amy. The choice of music accompanying The Cusp was suggested by the inspiration to the poem From Love and Squalor.

In the Night-time Heat

In the night-time heat,
June bugs buzzing on the screen
- don't they know it's July? -
I sit motionless,
feeling the sweat roll down my chest.

Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

The ice is drinking my Absinthe
Ethereal worms dance in my glass
I have to improvise while wearing spats
My TV is wearing a Hawaiian shirt
(the shirt is red if you are into details)
and speaks to me only in Italian

The Sordid Architecture of Urban Hieroglyphics

solitude and loneliness
make me miss
raw happiness

angels and demons
blood spit and semen
pirates and conquistadors
show me what pain is for

¡Cogeme!

¡Cogeme en la basura!

¡Cogeme!

Preludio a mis pensamientos.
Preludio a mis emociones.
Preludio a mi cobardía.

¡Cogeme!

Venice Biennale: A Gallery of Words and Images

For more than a century the Venice Biennale has been a global showcase for promoting contemporary and avant-garde art. The current incarnation - Illuminations - runs through the end of November. In the coming days we will look at the various artists and countries that are participating through our own virtual art gallery. The Bar None Biennale is open 24/7 and we would love to hear your thoughts and share your pictures if you have attended. The Venice Biennale is worth the side trip on any European excursion.

The Way of Life...An Excerpt

The reading of Lao Tse at the first meeting of the Dharma Bums of Barra de Navidad.

Before creation a presence existed
Self-contained, complete
Formless, voiceless, mateless
Changeless,
Which yet pervaded itself
With unending motherhood

The Barra Songbook: Angel Orozco, Jr.

Angel Orozco, Jr. by Susan Watt

In due time.

Barra de Navidad's most versatile musician, the multi-talented Angel Orozco Jr. is finally getting his due after years of paying his dues. Along with this profile in the Barra Songbook, Angel was recently featured in Voices of Latin Rock as one of the key players in the Latin rock vanguard that swept Southern California and the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s.

It was the days of Carlos Santana with hits like Oye Como Va and El Chicano with Viva Tirado. Angel played with both at one time or another and breathed life into Evil and Thee Midniters.

First Lines Second Thoughts — The Merchant of Venice

First Lines Second Thoughts is a look at the first lines of well known literary works. On second thought, do these opening words stand alone as poetry? Today we take a look at William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. First performed in 1605.

In Search of Hemingway Daze

The dimly lit world of Hemingway's Captain Tony's Saloon.

I had come full circle, and a circle in Key West isn’t as long as you would think. I was back in front of Hemingway Days headquarters. I took a deep breath and went over to the patio bar and ordered my beer of choice. There was no one around, I guess I missed it all. I do seem to recall that this was a patio event and the early morning rains had ended by the time I woke up.

After my second beer in silence the barkeep asked me if I was here to attend the workshops. I told him that it had crossed my mind but that it looked like I missed it.

“It’s upstairs,” he said while rinsing out some glasses.

Prosperity Calls

The charges are set
We’re ready to blast
There’s no need to worry
The mountain will last
This rubble is needed
For factory walls
We’ve no time to rest
Prosperity calls

Gelato with Dante

(parvi Florentia mater amoris)

Dante is my next door neighbor
We sit on the bottom step
of my eight flight walk-up
on the Via Corso
eating gelato pistachio

Autograph of My Love

The distance of your voice, surrounds my heart like a rainbow

embracing heavens edge. The love in which I feel for you ~ is 

unfamiliar to my soul. Soul mates lost in time, only to regain our 

secret feelings without touch… millions of miles in time.

Unleash Your Inner Sam Spade with The Noir Issue

Five minute fiction for less than a fin.

"A naked woman with a gun can be a lot less interesting than you’d think. When the gun is pointed at you. And when the lady in question — as lovely as she is with high, pointed breasts, razor-sharp hipbones, and knee dimples cuter than Minnie Mouse— has killed twice before, without pause, without guilt."

So begins Monkey in a Barrel by Richie Narvaez, one of the contributors and one of the stories in Black Heart Magazine's The Noir Issue published by Smashwords.

Remembering Facundo Cabral

Lovers of Latin American music are mourning the murder of Facundo Cabral, the Argentine folk and protest singer shot and killed in Guatemala Saturday.

It's not clear why he was gunned down and his concert promoter may have been the target, according to some news reports. Still it's a terrible and ironic death for a man who was called a "messenger of peace" by the United Nations.

"Violence has become globalized. The violence...is a stupidity," Cabral told the Prensa Libre newspaper in a 2009 interview in Spanish. "Pope John Paul II said we had to globalize the solidarity. We are all brothers, and we live so much better when we respect each other."

La cultura chilena volverá a la FIL en 2012

Es “una oportunidad de gran trascendencia para estrechar los lazos de amistad entre ambos países”, señaló Luciano Cruz-Coke Carvallo, ministro presidente del Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes La cultura chilena volverá a ser invitada de honor de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, que recibirá al país andino en 2012.

The Barra Songbook: Ian Hoffman

With Grupo Exito at Piper's Bar.

The hardest working man in rock and roll. Ian Hoffman plugs the musicians of Barra de Navidad mercilessly and has played with most everybody in Jalisco at one time or another.

Not just at Chynna's or Piper's.

Ian Hoffman, drummer extraordinaire, has played with the likes of Bob Weir, David Grisman, to Sam the Sham and Pharaohs. From Jennifer Warnes to the Big Man - Clarence Clemons - Ian has opened for Bob Dylan with The Sorentinos and closed Rey Momo's with Justin and Hugo.

Yes, the hardest working man in rock and roll is not an understatement. Ian is that man in Barra de Navidad.

Street Poetry of Firenze

Four poems by the Movimento.

From statues of David to crypts of Dante, Michelangelo and Elizabeth Barrett Browning I have wandered the streets of Firenze kissing history and embracing the art and culture.

In the birthplace of graffiti you can no longer write on ancient walls for fear of penalty. Yet the lovers and the poets are undaunted. They will not bow down. They will not acquiesce. They will not be quiet.

First Lines Second Thoughts — A Farewell to Arms

First Lines Second Thoughts is a look at the first lines of well known literary works. On second thought, do these opening words stand alone as poetry? Today we look at A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.  Published in 1929.

Star me!

Fuck me!

Prelude to my thoughts
Prelude to my emotions
Prelude to my cowardice

Fuck me!

Beach Reading: Bar None Anthology Discounted for Summer!

Put the Bar None Anthology on your summer reading list!

In time for the Fourth of July and the onset of summer The Bar None Anthology is now being offered at the low summertime discount of $14.95

Whether your enduring the summer rains in Barra de Navidad or the summer swelter north of the border The Bar None Anthology will bring you closer to your friends and to the center of your soul - Barra de Navidad!

Intima

Yo te diré los sueños de mi vida
En lo más hondo de la noche azul...
Mi alma desnuda temblará en tus manos,
Sobre tus hombros pesará mi cruz.

For The Big Man: Springsteen's Eulogy to Clarence Clemons

The following is an excerpt of Bruce Springsteen's eulogy to Clarence Clemons who passed on June 18 at the age of 69. The complete text can be read at The Boss's website.

Standing next to Clarence was like standing next to the baddest ass on the planet. You were proud, you were strong, you were excited and laughing with what might happen, with what together, you might be able to do. You felt like no matter what the day or the night brought, nothing was going to touch you. Clarence could be fragile but he also emanated power and safety, and in some funny way we became each other's protectors; I think perhaps I protected "C" from a world where it still wasn't so easy to be big and black.