kollektief

earlier in the month i came across this song in one of my notebooks, i think i wrote it one day when i was living with laura, and we were improvising together. i like the way it came out and wanted to share, in case anybody is interested. i’m transferring songs off of my tape recorder in order to make myself feel like i’ve spent a productive summer and i may have more up in the near future.

it’s been a super busy month, irene and i worked with theo on a play that showed last week in whistler in the dark’s feverfest 2008, and i am just now beginning to work on other things again.

i’ve been terrible about keeping up with email, so for anybody who’s curious, my plans to move to san francisco are temporarily on hold while i find out if a job that came across my radar is going to pan out, and i scrape enough money to make it across the country. i’ll know soon i think what my actual schedule is, but i fully intend to be out there before it gets cold here. and i’ll be catching up on email soon.

what is the original phrase that means something like ‘there are more things in this world than your philosophy permits’?

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/obit-chittick-0722.html

Chittick was also an alum of Phillips Academy, where he roomed across the hall from–and feuded with–Humphrey Bogart, who was a classmate. He was Phillips Academy’s oldest living alumnus, recently celebrating his 90th reunion there this year. He was also the oldest living Beta Theta Pi member and oldest living patent lawyer.

After leaving MIT, Chittick was offered a job by Thomas Edison, but ultimately turned it down to take a job with a manufacturing company that produced golf clubs.

“I had to tell Mr. Edison ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ I went to work for a company that manufactured golf clubs. I guess I was more interested in golf than I was in a laboratory,” Chittick told the News Office in 2001.

sitting at harvest overhearing conversation between christian outreach woman, african, trying to counsel homeless man, black. I mostly can’t hear or understand her except when she got very flustered mostly repeating you’re not listening back to him. the man across from me is sketching them in his sketchbook and the man next to him is just watching them intently over his laptop. maybe it’s rude that i started writing it down, but … 

i’m so positive you can’t handle it
i’m so positive you can’t handle it
i’m so positive you can’t handle it

this has been going on for eighteen years
you want to help or
you’re going to help
you want to help or
you’re going to help

i’m listening
i’m listening to you
you’re not listening
i’m listening
you’re not listening
i’m listening

obama don’t have sons
he has daughters
like bush has daughters
like nelson mandela daughters

are you listening to to that
you’re not listening
you say you’re listening
but you’re not listening

they have responsibility
they have the responsibility of raising daughters
but they don’t have the responsibility of raising sons
they aren’t raising sons

i’m listening to you
you’re not listening to me
i told you the same thing over again
you repeat the same things
you told me to listen
i’m listening but you tell me the same thing over and over again

you asked me how old i was
i told you how old i was
i’m 56
you asked my age
i told you how old i was
it was your culture that sold my culture as trash
let’s be clear about it
it was your culture that sold my people as trash

that’s ok
that’s ok

don’t talk down to me
don’t talk down to me
you’re lying to me
you’re lying to me
age matters
age is very important

you’re humoring m
that’s not relevant
you need to be responsible
don’t tel me
you told me there’s this computer class

you’re not listening
you keep telling me
i listen
i don’t bow down
i listen but i’m not bowing down

i’m not bowing down for that
i’m not bowing down for that
i have my pride
what is this pride
why is pride a good thing
i’m not gonna let you mislead me.

you are 55
you are too old
no i told you my age
you’re not listening
i’m 53

what’s wrong with you
you just write down information on a piece of paper
but the information i need you need to just write that down.
he’s put shackles on your mind
jesus put shackles on your mind
and jesus told you to shackle me

i have to think about how you think you have fresh ideas

you think your ideas are fresh
but have you thought about maybe your ideas aren’t fresh
you think your ideas are fresh
but have you thought about maybe your ideas aren’t fresh

he was like you
he did nothing
he did nothing
he put it off
he said
he put it off
and again

I know this I’ve grown up all my life with this
Why are you telling me this
It’s important
Why are you telling me this
It’s important
is relevance important