THE ABSENT

THE ABSENT
THE ABSENT - out now!

CRIPPLED HEARTS

CRIPPLED HEARTS
Out Now - For sale on Amazon and other onlne book sellers

SOLIDARITY WITH THE FLESH EATING MOSAIC AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju

SOLIDARITY WITH THE FLESH EATING MOSAIC AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju
Out Now

THE RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT NINNY AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju

THE RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT NINNY AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju
My first book of poetry available through Amazon and other online booksellers www.rajbooks.com

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT THE 28TH ANNIVERSARY OF VIVA HATE BY MORRISSEY


It's The 28th anniversary of Morrissey’s first solo album VIVA HATE.   

Not his best solo record but an excellent start to his career with no bad songs on it.  I remember it came out less than a year after The Smiths last album and break-up and immediately after that the music magazines were all saying Moz would be nothing without Johnny Marr who they said had a bright future ahead of him.  This was not the last time they would write premature eulogies for Moz’s career.

I also remember when this record came out and being happy because it was actually pretty good.  Producer/co-songwriter Stephen Street was a very good writing partner and sympathetic arranger for Moz framing his voice in a number of different situations.  Aside from the hits Suedehead and Everyday Is Like Sunday, I especially like voice and strings Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together, the epic Moz freakout Late Night, Maudlin Street (which introduced me to poet Elizabeth Smart whose verse Moz “borrows”), Booming Vini Reilly guitar showcase Alsatian Cousin and the weird little fragment Little Man, What Now?.  I can even ignore the casual racism of Bengali in Platforms (great tune nonetheless).  

However, my favorite tune and one of Moz’s greatest solo songs, for sure in my top five, is The Ordinary Boys.  Beautiful mournful tune with a brilliant piano part as an inspired Morrissey, his raw nerve pure expression voice here exactly tuned into what he wants to say, describes in painstaking detail the high school losers he grew up with.


Ordinary boys, happy knowing nothing
happy being no one, but themselves
Ordinary girls, supermarket clothes
who think it's very clever to be cruel to you
for you were so different
you stood all alone
and you knew
that it had to be so
avoiding ordinary boys
happy going nowhere, just around here
in their rattling cars
and ordinary girls
never seeing further
than the cold, small streets
that trap them
but you were so different
you had to say no
when those empty fools
tried to change you, and claim you
for the lair of their ordinary world
where they feel so lucky
so lucky, so lucky
with their lives laid out before them
they're so lucky, so lucky
so lucky, so lucky


Monday, March 14, 2016

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT THE POETRY OF OCTAVIO PAZ


The last week or so been I have been working my way through a collection of the poetry of Octavio Paz.  I have liked the individual Paz poems I have come across occasionally (years ago had an instructor in college that was really really into his work) but have never sat down and read a bunch of his poems together at one time.

Two things I like about his poetry and one thing I don’t like….

1.) His poetry in terms of language seems well thought out but the language he uses is always simple but never repetitive.  He can move feeling that way and that’s a hard thing with such modest verbiage 2.) I like how he breaks up his stanzas.  That may be taken for granted, a given for the poet but I am often reading garbage modern poetry where a guy writes a line then two spaces then one word then a space then three lines of a run-on sentence.  That’s not a poetic/literary device, that’s just gimmickry.

What I don’t like abut Paz is I don’t think he has a lot to say.  I think he has visions in his mind of reliving encounters with other people, women etc.  and he compare all those to the usual (nature, space, emotion, geography, weather)but there’s no universality to it….At least none a word Marxist like myself can detect.

Paz is basically like a more calm, less grand Whitman.  He is not as anywhere near as explosive or powerful as Walt W. but sees some connections between himself and the object of his desires, between the world and love/lust/desire.

Many consider SUNSTONE his best poem….It really reminds me of Whitman, only more dreamy than thunderous.  http://www.mysterium.com/sunstone.html







US WAR CRIMES IN SOMALIA AND US INVOLVEMENT IN AFRICA



The US using a combination of drones and airstrikes kills 150 people they’ve categorized as militants in Somalia which brings up a few points.

1.) This sounds like an act of war.  Where is the congressional declaration of war on Somalia?

2.) These 150 casualties are described as ”terrorists”.   I don’t think it is out of the question to ask for proof.  In both Vietnam and Afghanistan, it is been proven that the US tagged anyone, women, children, basically anyone they killed as enemy combatants

3.) It is reported that the drone and airstrikes were meant to kill – no prisoners.  That sounds like a war crime to me.  The Nazis were prosecuted for similar offenses

4.) US behavior in Somalia has been disgusting.  Basically, they’ve stopped the country which is  in a state of anarchy from having an Islamic government which might not be everyone’s cup of tea but is the largest, most well organized group in the country and the ones most likely to be able to form a government.  At the same time, the US has funded and armed warlords, criminals, who extort the populace and commit rape and murder.

5.) Africa or more specifically African resources and mineral deposits are what the US, competing with China and Russia, are after.  Expect more incursions like this (The US is currently active in at least 27 other African countries in some fashion) in the future under the facade of democracy and fighting terrorism.

6.) For every step forward President Obama takes (opening up relations with Cuba, trying to close Guantanamo Bay, the Iran deal) he takes two steps back as those behind empire change their focus to resources they need to keep the empire alive and cut their losses in other places.  It will be exactly the same whether it be Hillary Clinton as the next president or Cruz/Rubio/Kasich. 






     

HOUSE OF CARDS SEASON FOUR


Season Four was better than Season Three which was kind of transitional not so much action, more storyline build-up (did love Lars Mikkelsen as a Putin type Russian president. Glad he is in the new season too). Of course still more holes in the plot than Swiss cheese but a lot more happening, major developments, this season. Kevin Spacey is as usual excellent.

What I especially liked about this season is how it addressed issues that have come up recently in real life. I have felt in the last three seasons The HOC world was a parallel universe. But the handling of phone records and the NSA was excellent and made a very good argument about why it's wrong. You may like or trust Obama but what happens when a sociopath like Frank Underwood becomes president and gets access to that kind of power? The issue of gun control (SPOILER as filtered through an assassination attempt) was interesting as well especially since it was merely another way for the Underwoods to manipulate the public and other politicians. Also like the oily, narcissistic Republican candidate - He reminds me of a cross between Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Obama.

The final episode of the season was chilling….President Underwood starting a war to wag the dog – distract from the giant scandals of the first three seasons now finally exposed by newsman Tom Hammerschmidt….And that last line “We make the terror” Like Walter White “I am the danger”. This season was great but next season should be even more interesting and eventful. Wish we didn’t have to wait another year for it to come on TV.