There Ain't No Mo' Eskimos

[Lightning Rod]

There Ain't No Mo' Eskimos
for release 11-25-06
Washington DC

There ain't no mo' Eskimos. I'll bet you couldn't find an igloo in Alaska these days. All the Inuits live in double-wides and have satellite TV.

There ain't no mo' cowboys. They do rope tricks in shopping malls now or wear 800 dollar hats and live in Nashville and sing warmed-over sixties rock and call it country because they are wearing patent leather boots.

And there ain't no mo' Hell's Angels.

I seem to remember when a biker was a kid who couldn't afford a car. Motorcycles were dangerous, romantic, masculine and affordable transportation. But that was another time and another place.

Today, if you take a drive on a fair Sunday afternoon on the W. Virginia side of DC, you might see a modern bike club riding through the Shenandoah Valley. But you won't see Marlon Brando leading a gang of oily misfit renegades with their hair flapping in the wind, high on drugs and youth and desperation and wildness. No, you will see perfectly coiffed and helmeted gray-beards wearing boutique leathers that probably cost more than James Dean's motorcycle. They are riding custom Harleys for which they paid as much as they did for the Mercedes that is sitting in their two-car garage in Georgetown. These week-end warriors all have jobs working for the government or for somebody who is contracting with the government. They are hardly the outlaws who beat the crowd at Altamont with cue sticks.

And there ain't no mo' two-by-fours.

My only claim to being a deconstructionist is that I once dismantled an old house that was framed in two-by-fours. The two-by-fours measured two inches by four inches, that's why they call them two-by-fours. But things tend to shrink in our modern world--telephones are smaller and Almond Joys and two-by-fours only measure one-and-a-half by three-and-a-half inches. Why do they still call them two-by-fours?

And there ain't no mo' statesmen.

We only have politicians now and even politics has degenerated into show business. Being telegenic is far more important than representing solid ideas and policies. Why are political pundits and commentators sounding like sportscasters? It's because politics has become a sport even tawdrier than pro wrestling.

I suppose that American politics has been a sport since about the time of Andy Jackson, but in our contemporary age of faux everything, we have managed to squeeze every last drop of statesmanship out of the political occupation and we are rendering it for what it is--a professional sport and a beauty contest. Our leaders are having trouble distinguishing Public Policy from Public Relations.

The Poet's Eye is looking out for things that disappear.


There ain't no mo' leaded gas
There ain't no mo' season pass
There ain't no mo' Eskimos
There ain't no mo' two-by-fo's

There ain't no mo' adding machines
There ain't no mo' Dodo birds
There ain't no mo' plain blue jeans
There ain't no mo' dinosaurs

There ain't no mo' telephone booths
There ain't no mo' absolute truths
There ain't no mo' smokin' inside
There ain't no mo' virgin brides

There ain't no mo' oleo
There ain't no mo' polio
There ain't no mo' chicken pox
There ain't no mo' bobby sox

There ain't no mo' silent movies
There ain't no mo' cools and groovies
There ain't no mo' vaudeville show
There ain't no mo' buffalo

Things they just come and go
but
when there ain't no mo'
There ain't no mo'
--Lightning Rod

[Dave The Dov]

Der be no mo because de well run dry!!!!
_________________
Honda 70

[Jeff]

No mo moore in town either

[Kreddible Trout]

as a long time documeteur of things disposed of and a several-year appreciateur of the word of L-Rod I must raise a glass to things forgotten. In a few short years my life went from Lite Brite to Atari and that was the beginning for me...

some other things we've lost, forgotten or discarded:
-accountability
-integrity
-balls (or 'clit' depending on your packaging and knowledge of L7 allusions)
-craftsmanship
-good prizes in Cracker Jacks and the box it came in (I lost my virginity but I still have...)
-civil liberties or the understanding as to what they are (were)
-the station wagon
-photographs (now we have 'digital images')
-my puppy's ability to reproduce (the poor girl is sitting here with a lampshade around her neck wondering why she can't lick where it hurts. Maybe one day soon Monsanto will be breeding dogs that will be devoid of sex-parts. Or at the very least breed us some dogs that can understand us so we can explain to them that they'll be ok.)
-Magic
-rotary cell phones
-Saturday Night Live (what's it been, 20 years now?)
-Thousands of waterfront towns
-The Fonz
-LPs

etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... (Yul Brynner)

[mnaz]

there ain't no mo' o' dat
and plenty o' dis.

love the politics-as-wrasslin' bit.
pundits as sportscasters?
"the score is 14 to 63, but only due to liberal media bias"....

the hells angels run boardroom gangs now
there's always a gang around, rubbin' out competition,
plenty mo' o' dat at least.

excellent.
thanks.

[Arcadia]

yes!, Yul Brynner in cosaco's clothes looking hard at you..!!
well, there are a lot of others things
and maybe in 2050 somebody will do the list

[stilltrucking]

There has never been a

W. Virginia side of DC

There may not be any mo hell's angels
but there are more one percenters than ever




Best eye ever
thanks Clay

[jimboloco]

vaudeville
gimme a little ol soft shoe
sho nuff
we got heart
and
know
no bullshit
amigo

[Zlatko Waterman]

Michael Martin Murphey's immortal country song:

"Now all the Indians dress like cowboys,
and the cowboys put leather and turquoise on . . ."

[jimboloco]

Actually there is truth to that as discussed by R Persig in his immortal
Zen an th Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as he is pondering the mystery of "quality" as it pertains to cultural assimilation, as the western settlers became somewhat like the native peoples, as did the southern whites assimilate, perhaps unconsciously, some character traits of southern blacks.

But he went farther than that. He differentiated between the ascribed pseudo-qualities intoned by academic anthropologists as linear heratige patterns, marraige patterns, adolescent rites of passage, etc, without really appreciating the life perceptions of these peoples, as evidenced by the mystic visionary group sweat lodges.

Looks like whitey pseudo culture is having a golden age, but the undercurrent is deeper.

[Lightning Rod]

This is a response that I received by emal to this edition of The Poet's Eye:

_____



I have to take exception
to some of your so-called disappearances
Here in LA you can still buy 100 octane leaded gas
for all the muscle car freaks
I have a season pass to the Library and the LA Museum of Contemporary Art
A young lady rubbed noses with me last week
claimed to be an Eskimo
She was wearing bobby sox
You're right - there ain't no mo 2x4's
there is a rather notorious sushi bar here in town
where the wife of the sushsi nazi chef adds your bill on an abacus
There are Dodo birds all over Hollywood
Those birds can't fly
In my perception there are far too many blue jeans
Dinosaurs? You think there are no more dinosaurs?
You obviously haven't been out to the desert outside LA
where ignoramus christian fundamentalists have
installed a tourist attraction to poison young children's minds
by showing dinosaurs with saddles on their backs
claiming that men domesticated dinos about 5 thousand years ago
but then came the flood and blah fucking blah
yes it's true
Jim Fittipaldi - nephew of the race car driver - is a friend of mine who
lives in a three story industrial brick building downtown which serves
as a living space, an art gallery, a film location (especially for porn)
- he recently installed an old fashioned phone booth complete with phone
- the phone doesn't work, but during a party the booth is a good place
to duck into to carry on a private conversation on your cell phone
there never were any absolute truths
when i smoke - i smoke inside - and outside of my house
i'm not smoking now - but i did last saturday night
if you are so desperate to smoke inside you should come to Hollywood
there are clubs here where you can smoke inside
they are called private clubs - you seen the outside of them in tabloids
as Paris and Lindsey take leave with paparazzi in their wake
i only get into them because i film in them and know all the owners
there never were any virgin brides - except for obese diabetic christian
fundamentalists
what the fuck is oleo?
and did I get this straight - you are bemoaning the fact that we've
found a cure for polio?
chicken pox - not so - there still are cases of chicken pox - but still
why would one complain?
bobby sox ? see eskimo
there are two very popular silent movie theaters here in LA - each
boasting stupendously virtuoso organists
philip glass recently scored and performed live for the 1931 Silent
Classic Dracula. He also wrote and conducted the scores for two great
modern silent films Powaqqatsi & Koyaanisqatsi
i'm cool and groovy and not afraid to admit it
no vaudeville? what was that show we were in this summer? there is
vaudeville and burlesque - in fact, a very hot draw these days is modern
burlesque shows - there are clubs here in town totally dedicated to
modern burlesque
no buffalo? ever been to the Badlands?

I think you stay in your house too much
You'd be surprised at what hasn't disappeared

This morning I heard another obit for VHS technology - I have two decks
and scores of tapes
Some have already been ringing the death knells for DVD technology - get
ready for Blue-Ray and/or HD DVD
We'll see about that
Some people think LP's are a thing of the past
These people obviously are not audiophiles and don't go to raves or hang
out with DJ's or even visit your better record shops - LP's are the
ultimate in audiophile-land

----Barry Gremillion
http://www.barrygremillion.com

[Michael]

I’m not sure of what there ain’t no more of or what there is more of---I guess I could make a case for what I think there’s way too much of.

I’m responding here because it’s about time!

…sing warmed-over sixties rock and call it country because they are wearing patent leather boots.

I’ve been trying to convince people of this for a long time.

I’m old, so I know first hand.

I remember rockin’ out to “Party Doll” by Buddy Knox and “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

I know that Bill Haley and Buddy Holly would be wearing those hats you talk about.

Ricky Nelson was feeling like a “Poor Little Fool” and The Everly Brothers were having “Problems” “Bird Dogging” “Little Suzie” to wake up.

“Great Balls Of Fire”, Jerry Lee Lewis would be playing at half-time at NASCAR races (they don’t have half-time at NASCAR races, do they? I should have known that.).

Country my ass! These “country” singers are beginning to understand how Rock n’ Roll got started.

Um, think you could give me the address of that Fittipaldi film studio? Just curious.

To friendship,
Michael

World Conditions and Action Items
Speak Your Mind And Read Mine
CDs
Gods Of The Factory

[the flaming ace]

hey zueus
fer mozez'z sake bomber
alamozt soundz like a lament
after monsieur g'z infusion of enerchi
mercy
where is jack la lane when we need him?
hangin with monsieur g an th mad friend,
ganja sutra!
well,
in pilot training my radical underground amigo,
fresh from th peaze corpz, lesotho,
wuz in my pilot training clazz,
yeah,
in th massassachussetz guard, f-86'z
retro,
antiquez,
he said,
it's cañada, jail, or th guarddd,
he warnt a goin t Nambo
, he was another part of my disillusionment,
an so i volunteered for nambo as a cargo pilot,
in part from johnbo,
in part from th kidz at kent state an jackson state who went down in flames from th Guard an from th fuzz
an so a yaer an a half later
rest in peace
me aN john bo tripped on acid with th nam vets agin th ewar
an th dude who smuggled back 75$$ of cocaine pure
sold it to th cal mafia for 7.5grand
th squadron intell occifer
me an him waz th only dudes who didn't gett a DFC
shit
i told them to forgetaboutit
what has this to do with el pararrayos?
nada mucho
except the resilience of the spirit
can not be masked
by the ap·prais·al of th absurd