August 2009 archive

    I hope you enjoy this edition of the Docudharma Writers Jam fest, and please, feel free to contribute.

For more detail on different styles of poetry, please go to poetryonline.com

   As my first contribution to this series, I thought it would be beneficial to all to start with a review of different styles of poetry with an example of each. This is a useful tool to show which styles there are and how you can use different styles to convey different emotions.

   I have written poetry since I was 16. I am now 29.

   My first writings were free style rap. I was influenced by Krs One and Rakim, as well as other early 90’s rappers like Jay-Z, Tupac and the Notorious Big. I was what you might call a wigger.

    Krs One, George Carlin and other influences were a strong in my early political and literary life.

    When my father died I dropped out of school and entered the workforce. To excersize my mind I would go to the public (socialist) library and devour books on all subjects, politics, economics, history, and the classics of prose and verse.

    After a year of experiencing the wage slavery of class war head on, I went back to high school. My first class of the day was Poetry. I feel in love and graduated as an honors student 2 years later.

    The problem with hip hop is that it is so highly structured, so fast and so short in phonetic flexibility that it is difficult to say much without being overly repetitive.

    Also, the english language simply lacks the rhymes. French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are romance languages that are full of rhymes, most words end in O or A, and the depth of communication is certainly more rich than the large and overtly technical English language we use in American discourse.

    As George Orwell wrote of poetry

“Did you know there are only 10 words in modern Newspeak that rhyme with Rod?”

   Therefore, Engliish clearly has it’s poetic limits. The point here, and what makes the works of Shakespear so brilliant, is how we can strcth those limits and expand the boundaries in order to make our language so much more vivid and Descriptive.

   We can create a world of words that goes beyond the limitations of the world around us.

TPM has a story that needs to get out:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…

Tea Baggers are hoping for a literal “riot” at an upcoming town hall event, in order to create a spectacle for CNBC’s cameras. And the event will be hosted by a Democratic congressman who this week had a swastika painted on a sign outside his district office.

Yesterday, Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin sent an email, obtained by TPMmuckraker, to a Tea Party google group. Martin told the group: “We have a media request for an event this week that will have lots of energy and lots of anger. This is for CNBC.”

snip

Later that day, a Tea Bagger named Pat Wayman responded with a suggestion, also obtained by TPMmuckraker: “This one should be a riot! literally….” he wrote.

Wayman then posted information for an upcoming town hall meeting hosted by Rep. David Scott (D-GA).

So, if this is true, CNBC is asking Teabaggers to create a riot or near riot so they will have good footage and their right wing TV personalities can play Glenn Beck.  If it is true.

There are at least two things that CNBC/GE Legal really should look at: (1) Potential criminal liability as a co-conspirator if any laws are broken; (2) Potential civil liability for any personal injury or property damage under joint and several liability principles.  

WTF is all I can say.  GE needs to rein in CNBC before someone is hurt.

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Fiction is the truth inside the lie. ~ Stephen King

Okay here we go!

Round Robin… Pretty simple. Spontaneous. We’ll figure it out as we go. I think I’ll go ahead with One A Day, they will be ongoing, open ended. No end time imposed.  But, if you missed it or came in too late, there’s a new one on the way the next day. I’ll give them a theme or kick-off sentence or even a pic maybe of some kind.

PLEASE drop me an email if you have an opening line or kick off to suggest!  ladylibertine22 AT yahoo DOT com

Just pick up where the previous person left off. You can certainly write MORE than one sentence, but don’t get too carried away. It work best if you set the next person up for… something. No pressure. heh.

We’ll just see where it goes.

As the health care reform issue continues it’s way through the legislative process, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that there will be a moment in time where many progressives will face the difficult choice of whether or not to support a health care reform bill that looks nothing like what we wanted.

At the end of the day, however, the question will inevitably be: given that people are desperate and dying unnecessarily right now, and given the political realities impeding a better solution, how can we not support whatever incremental improvements survive this legislative process, while still pushing for better things down the road?

I’d like to argue that there is a better way, a politically-realistic way of providing health care for all, without getting into bed with the insurance companies and big Pharma . . .

Phew! Finally!!

Welcome to a few days of silliness and, hey, maybe I’ll learn something. Heh.

UPDATE (noon-ish CDT) ALERT! The very first Round Robin is now up!

DD Writers Jam Fest… a five days Docudharma exclusive (!) Writer’s… uhm … focus group? no… er, Workshop? well, sorta, maybe. Free For All? hmmm, yah.

Okay the main thing we’ve agreed to do is a Round Robin.  We’ll see if some of the other stuff comes together…. it’s up to us, you. Shake it up in the comments.

DATES: Wednesday through Sunday, August 12 – 16th, 2009

WHERE: Here, mostly, but also in your Brain, CPU or Journal

WHO: You. Everybody. Dharmanoids. Whoever wants in, jump in (as long as you play nice). You don’t have to be a “Writer”, no ID card or credentials art the door required. No Registration Fees either

HOSTED BY: moi but it’s a community thing

REWARDS? PRIZES? MEGA BONUSES? Er, no. Free ponies though!

So what’s this Round Robin thing? Fun. Da Rulz TBA. Well. I forgot where I was for a minute. “Rules” are just the standard issue Rules of Docudharma: “be excellent to each other”.

Here’s the links to the previous brainstorming, which might give you a little of background of how this Jam Fest came about: Part One and Part Two.

I’d like to add that Docudharma has some ongoing Series for writers (and readers) here … in particular, Robyn posts Muse in the Morning every morning. Robyn celebrates the Muses and encourages everyone to contribute their talent there anytime.  

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

1 ‘Toxic’ seaweed spreading on France’s northern coast

by Clarisse Luca, AFP

Tue Aug 11, 7:08 am ET