Madman rather likes this one

Drum Set

Yes, it’s up to me
To zing like a bee.
On my tracks,
Travel the trends,
To carry the rhythm.
Behold how constant,
A shaken, stirred combatant.
Thundering explosions,
Or lulling rattling river,
Tatoo the soundscape with.
time, trembling and shiver.
Boom your primeval sound,
Erupt when a roar is bound.
Then try to take me,
Through the crescents and the meadows,
To a vibrating tranquility,
Tapping with cheer and fertility.

Guess the album that inspired this

The Sound That Soothes

To heal is but to hurt a little,
Perhaps tonight with a fiddle
To cast away pain and sorrow,
Or for beats now to borrow.
In peace, perhaps, the sounds to follow,
In a gust of emotion, to forget about tomorrow.
Thus I listen to music.

Strike me with cymbal, hit me with a snare,
Flow through me without a care.
Frighten me all throughout,
Let my mind loose all whereabout.
Thus I love music.

I sway about the rhythm, dance my spirit free.
My soul is aflame. I cry in pure glee.
Let me in to Abbey Road!
There my shaking conscience is sown.
Thus it shall never be.

I shall carry my weight,
Only visit you at night,
Love you, love you,
Rocking to the bones, a fool for you,
Thus I sing to you.

May her Majesty too have a belly full of wine!

Madman on Iran

The recent US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran and the halt of its nuclear weapons program marks an important development in what is the most sulfuric geopolitical zone in the world. It appears that the war drums need not be beaten so hastily, if the intelligence community was prudent in making its assertions.

President Bush is still wary of Iran, as one should be when dealing with the likes of Ahmadinejad and the amalgam of clerical puppeteers that run that country. Iran has rushed to proclaim this development as a victory for their nuclear power program and to denounce spying on it (side comment to Iran: quit while you're ahead - you might just escape getting blown off the face of the Earth). So, Iran plans to continue its uranium enrichment, and Bush, Cheney and the hawks aren't down.

The case for military action against Iran weakened after this week's unfolding; this is for the best for all parties involved. Iran is a country with a vast population under 30, many of which are educated and with friendly views of liberalism, and a military intervention would certainly have the effect of jading and radicalizing this population against America. Moreover, by not allowing the Iranian government to assert that the US is on the war path against them, the politics of fear used by Ahmadinejad will not be as effective on the Iranians, and perhaps it will be the masses that get rid of that nutjob.

The issue of Iranian nuclear energy still remains unresolved, however, and it is an issue with significant implications on a larger scale. The world as a whole needs to take on the issue of clean energy, and one of the options on the table is going nuclear. That is, if you ignore all the risks involved with nuclear power, including the possibility of its diversion to other aims as well as the lack of appropriate nuclear waste management.

Will pushing for further sanctions prevent the Iranian government from attaining nuclear energy? It remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely given what inflows Iran has from its oil. Such sanctions should not play a part in the impoverishment of Iranians, both for humanitarian reasons and because they may be counterproductive in refueling anti-western sentiments.

How about ignoring Iran, at least out loud? In other words, keeping an eye on this nation but ignoring the rants of that crazed premier of theirs. Perhaps the problems the country faces will make Ahmadinejad fall under his own weight. Or, if a western nation feels gracious enough, collaborating with Iran on non-nuclear clean energy alternatives (the old charm offensive). The entire world needs to get in on this anyway, the sooner the better, so why not make an example out the most rotten apple of the bunch?

But war, good God y'all, what it is a good for?

Madman on Romney and Religion

Today, among the most emailed articles at nytimes.com, I found the paper's editorial in response to Mitt Romney's speech in defense of his own faith. The editors let Romney have it with poignant references to the hypocrisy in his words at the Bush presidential library.

I must say, if there is one particularly disgusting candidate for the presidency it is Romney. The words "Gosh. I love America. I’m afraid I’m going to be at a loss for words..." still pain my mind (for those of you wise enough not to watch the first republican debate, this is what the governor said in response to the question What do you dislike most about America?). This disingenuous naïveté, coupled with his hypocritical wishy-washiness and convoluted views on national security (another heaping of Guantanamo, anyone?) have always cast this man in my mind as particularly distasteful.

Of course, he needed to confront the issue of his mormon faith at some point. In doing so, Romney came up with a muddled speech in which he tried to both defend religious freedom and play the victim of a cultural war (against religion). This snake charmer tried both to conjure up both separation of church and state while defending a profound place for religiosity in the public square, all while disgracing the foundational values of America and the founding fathers' intentions. In other words, he wanted to capitalize on the Christian voters deep rooted insecurities while assuring them his Mormonism didn't make him too much of a weirdo. Despite his sordid attempt at this, it seems even some right-wing commentators aren't buying Romney's brand of religious America (but many apparently are, so guess he'll keep at it).

To be honest, I know very little about the church of latter day saints, basically what South Park taught me. But I don't care to know, nor do I think anyone should consider the issue when electing the leader of the free world. It is the case, however, that the subject of faith has been of primordial importance in American politics, and for the past couple decades the Christian right has written some of the most retrograde chapters in the country's history. But haven't we had enough religion already?

You know what happens without a strict separation of church and state? Ayaan Hirsi Ali had a few particularly disheartening examples of such cases (not to mention her life's struggles). When will Romney & Co. stop reducing America's great roots to being able to practice medieval rituals? At its essence, America was founded on liberty and tolerance, not the freedom to be intolerant under the guidance of some faith. No, it's not called killing babies, it's acting on a woman's best interest under the circumstances. Gays are people too, free to love whomever they want to love, regardless of what went down in Sodom. Stop calling your blind convictions morality and go read some philosophy!

There is little defense for religion's stranglehold on the unknown, and you'd think it'd be radically unacceptable for government to be submerged in religion's murky waters since the Enlightenment. But alas, troops can be sent to war because it's the good war against the others, and if they catch a bullet, God's grace would lift them up to heaven. And I'm not talking only about jihadists (although they are the crazier of the bunch), but soldiers of the free world.

So God Bless America.

Madman Poeta in Equatorial Hell

EC.

En un microcosmos
Donde el Sol siempre marcó la pauta,
Arde la Luna, la madre naturaleza deslumbra.
Bosques de pasión, furia y agonía,
No falta quien no quiera tocar su flauta.
Montañas de notas, sulfúricas playas,
Temblores, volcanes, sopranos y tenores.
Cacofonía enardecida en mareas de abundancia.
¿Cómo escuchar la música,
Faltando compositor, orquesta y clave?
Afinen sus instrumentos,
El tempo ya está dado.
Y Lorca ya lo quiso verde, sí,
Pues sus razones tenía.
Pero verde es el moho,
Como también el cesped de esta tierra.
Del amarillo y el azul no se hace la batuta verde
Mas el rojo brinda a la memoria
El valor para no repetir la misma disonancia.
Y entonces no formar un verde chillón.
Sino el verde del latir de un corazón en armonía.

Madman Musician

Among the many things I'm not, musician is what I'd like to be the most. So throughout the past year and a half or so, I've taken to playing around on GarageBand.

If you're bored, have a listen to the few tracks I've made. You can listen to them here.




But keep in mind, I'm no musician. I guess, at the time I made these, I was a dude with a lot of restless free time.

Madman Poet Inspired

To Fredrick

In a class in a forgotten nowhere,
A man dared not explain the truth.
Were it the government, the teachers, the school,
The shepherds of laymen made child into brute.

But one day, oh Fredrick
Oh Fredrick, you lit up the room.
You brought drums in your backpack,
Boy you gave us a ruse.

During fifth period science,
He blabbed on ‘bout a baboon,
And he’d just put up a tree on the board,
When you started to play.

“Stop it!” He said,
But you kept banging on.
“I mean it now, Fredrick”
But you slapped even harder, boom, ch-ka boom.

Beat by beat by beat,
You angered him further.
His fists on his fat hips.
His stare so to warn of his impending approach.

The children all laughed, all cheered in joy.
Some joined in the fun and tattooed too.
With their pencils, their notebooks, their pens and their paws.
They began dancing and howling, the man frightened froze.

“Behave!” He cried out,
But he had no hope.
They turned their desks over, broke up the wood,
And flooded in flames this philistine fraud.

Turned into satyrs,
Around the pyre they danced,
In a forest of knowledge,
Burned on into the night.

Madman Poet in Love III

[Editor's note: this is a work in progress, untitled as of yet, and rather crazy]

I don't write haiku,
My golden girl in New York,
but I'll write for you

I'm not japanese,
Five, seven, five I do count,
Albeit not with ease.

but your voice I miss,
your eyes, your face, my lovely,
make poetry a breeze.

How very silly,
I thought I'd be good to you,
so I wrote freely

But do not take me,
All that seriously. For you,
My try at haiku.

I know it's quite bad,
But if you smile at this poem,
Then it was worth it.

Madman Poet in Love II

Luz de mi vida

Plainly clad in modest robes,
Found I a purpose amongst my woes.
Fair and pristine northern star,
Be my guide and cast away my throes.

Need you no guise but your smile,
To turn to ashes all that is vile.
White flame, fulgor of my soul,
Burning cease not, lest you love defile!

Shed no light upon the land,
Let the giving Moon avail, be grand.
Save your glow, make it my own,
Shine upon me, always by me stand.

Inspire me always, burn bright,
Tend me all throughout the lonely night.
At my bedside keep me warm,
Oh candle of life, the cold do fight!

When the noble Moon has run,
Brighten my daylight, dazzle the sun.
I need you, I need you, love,
Light of my life, ‘till my time is done.

Madman Poet in Love I

Sonrisa Eslávica

Por cada segundo de tu reír,
Amor mío,
La ilusión empata con el destino.
La luz de tu ser
Rompe la fría cordura,
Revelando tu misterio
En un fugaz momento.
Y por una efímera eternidad
Es serenidad lo que he sentido,
Del creer en un amor,
Solo tuyo y mío.

Madman Poet (with translation)

I know I'm no poet. No soy poeta.

But I like to think of myself as such, and lord knows I've tried.
Pero gustarme pensar yo as such, y lord sabe intentar.

Not to bore you with the details,
No aburrirlo con los detalles,
I'll let what poetry I've written speak for my mind.
Dejare poemas hablar my mind.

It's not much, so please do read.
No ser mucho, so por favor leer.

It's feeling and thought of an amateur, so please do laugh.
Ser sentimiento y pensamiento de amateur, so por favor reir.

Finally, it's somewhat chronological, so relate to your experience if you like.
Finalmente, son algo chronological, so relacionar su experiencia si querer.

I love spanglish.
Yo amar Spanglish.

Enjoy!

I'm Back

It has been nearly a year since I began this project. Not that it had a very auspicious beginning, but that shouldn't lead anyone believe this isn't important to me. Nor should it be surprising that I've now decided to retake Mentonia. Put simply, I've been lazy about it; dig a little further and my negligence had deeper-rooted problems. Let's call these problems writer's block.

Ah, yes! Since I last blogged, I have become a writer, thus deserving of a block of the sort.

I have become other things too, most interesting of which a madman, a philosopher and a critic. But I have only begun to become all these things. A madman needs to rave, a philosopher needs to ponder and a critic needs to bitch.

So please, enjoy the becoming.







(Oh, I forgot to mention that every now and then I think of myself a poet, just don't take me too seriously)