My first visit to the New New York.
By Christopher J. Bradley
January 18th 4:07 AM
(c)2002

I planned this trip carefully with my friend Steve who invited me to visit on Christmas day after bringing a bag of chocolates. My brother and I enjoyed them at an early showing of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius. I hadn't seen Steve in almost a year. I was glad that he offered me this once in a lifetime opportunity.

I embarked on January 4th for the greatest American Metropolis, for my third visit to the big city, packed with a small backpack, and a Five Star Folder. My last exciting trip out of Western New York was the Daytona area of Florida in 1997 where I visited Disney with some close friends.

Steve and I decided that LaGuardia airport was the best place for me to meet him in New York because of it's proximity to Astoria, the area where he lives. Getting to LaGuardia was easy except for the intense search and probing with the metal detectors at the Buffalo airport. The personnel discovered my Credit Card strip was setting their equipment off.

However, because of the way they changed my flight on the way there, I arrived 2 hours earlier than expected and had to wait in the baggage claim area until I saw Steve arrive via the M-60 bus. I talked to a friendly lady from USAIR while I was there who was collecting lost baggage for her family. I was actually outside the terminal smoking when I saw him looking for me on the benches.

At the news stand, I bought a Metro Card for a few dollars, and we took the M-60 bus from LaGuardia to Astoria Blvd. Steve showed me the N train and we proceeded from Astoria Blvd. several stops to Broadway where we got off and walked a couple of blocks to his apartment.

I had an opportunity to meet Steve's roommates and drop my bags off before rushing out of the apartment for dinner at Sanford's, an inexpensive Queens diner, where I had a Portobello Foccacio sandwich and Manhattan Clam Chowder. I have always preferred the Tomato, to the New England style chowder, and it was excellent.

Then Steve and I boarded the N train and headed for the village. Since it was my first night there and I didn't know any of the trains, I let Steve direct us and within one transfer we were close to Bleecker Street.

We went down past several intersections in an area that looked like a dark but living alley. It reminded me of where Franklin Street meets Chippewa Street in Buffalo on a weekend.

We eventually found The Bitter End, which was in an underground bar while some a caller on the street was trying to direct us to a music loft for "live music" upstairs when we knew perfectly well that the real live music was at the Bitter End from our explorations on Citysearch.



Christina Abbott's band was playing at The Bitter End. She wore a shirt held together with safety pins and a pair of Hobie cotton bell bottoms. She sang folksy blues over her non-descript band member's grooves. Steve thought they had a good rhythm section and I was amazed that they were so good for an original band as opposed to being a cover band. We see a lot of cover bands in Western New York.

Paul Simon and Bob Dylan graced the same stage before becoming mega stars. It cost us about 30 dollars between the two of us for 3 beers and the 5 dollar cover charges. But it was well worth the experience of being in Manhattan in the same day I had been here in Buffalo. And even though I couldn't hear to well because my ears were pressurized from the subways and the plane, I still really enjoyed the set. It wasn't overwhelmingly loud and raucous. The beers we ordered were Guinness draft and Pete's Wicked Ale.

There's something to be said for a city that never sleeps. Not only does it never in itself go to sleep, but it also keeps you awake with it. I listened to the trains cycle to a slower pace all through the night while watching MTV and Comedy Central unable to get adjusted to snoozing along with them on Friday night.

I finally passed out around 7am on the futon after having gotten up repeatedly to check the subway map, call the airlines to confirm the return ticket, and draw a sketch of my first experience on the Metro Transit Authority. I used multi-colored pens on engineering paper.

On our way back from Bleecker Street we encountered an individual on the subway who was complaining about a kid who took control of a train in 1991 and drove it around New York for 8 hours until he was discovered and captured. He then complained that his girlfriend didn't want to have sex every night and that he should get to have it whenever he wanted it.
Perhaps that isn't an unusual circumstance. Steve thought he should go for the compromise of 3 days a week. I kept silent and pretended I didn't hear any of it until we had switched back to the N train. Where I ended up in a conversation with a bunch of John Cusack fans. I suggested that the one girl buy a copy of Serendipity on DVD.

At around 8AM I woke Steve up and went for a smoke on their balcony outside his room. The weather was perfect. It was close to 45 degrees. The balcony is a hanging steel basket above a larger hanging steel hanging above a flat terrace. Being exhausted I almost lost my balance a couple of times. I had to be careful not to knock over Steve's guitar stand when going out there.

Steve was on his way for a jog and then guitar lessons, but before he went, he stopped at a local bagel shop and bought some bagels and sun dried tomato spread. The "everything" bagels were great and inexpensive. During my rampage of the kitchen while the trains were passing I also found myself getting into the Cheerios.

I took a shower while Steve was out and brushed my teeth and then settled into a "Cribs" mega-marathon. I got to see Master-P's crib, Ozzy's Crib, Ozzy's Kids' Crib, and multiple ads for Mariah Carey's upcoming Cribs episode. I also watched some mind numbing Carson Daly episodes with the USO where he is playing around with live munitions and throwing crap out of the back of airplanes. Kid Rock was also heavily featured, as was Jennifer Lopez.

I waited patiently for Steve to get back from his guitar lesson and talked with Kim quite a bit regarding his acting profession. He seemed to want to talk most about his exploits as an Anime voice character. I thought that was pretty cool. I plan to send him some fan mail as soon as I see the video he was a part of. When Steve got back around 12:15 AM, we went directly from the apartment to the N train and headed into Manhattan to go up toward Central Park West to the American Museum of Natural History.
The museum was very busy and we had to wait in line almost 30 minutes for tickets to enter. I had hoped to see the Planetarium Show. The tickets were a little expensive, about 19.00 without student id, but I figured since I had missed the Aquarium on the trip to Boston this was well worth the admission price.

On the floor below the planetarium was a very space age exhibit that showed the various elements of the solar system and a very brief introduction to space in general. We didn't spend much time with them because our tickets demanded our immediate attention and it was a little tricky finding the entrance to the globe itself. It was at the top of a curved flight of stairs that led to a walkway over that main floor. The walkway was roped off with an elevator that led to the second floor.

When we exited the elevator, we entered a dark room with Television monitors hanging from the ceiling every 15 feet or so, displaying a kind of universal quiz show of the galaxy's components. The show would display an image and give a definition and give you a moment to match the phenomena with the term that described it.

We were packed in like sardines as more and more people gradually entered this chamber. And at one point a maladjusted individual on a cell phone exclaimed that he had explosive shoes on. Everyone got nervous and uptight that was in his immediate vicinity and it changed my perfect view of New York that I had had up to this point. In any case it was expected that there would be a certain amount of attitude disharmony from certain New Yorkers considering the events of that week.

We followed into the planetarium when the ushers called for us and quietly took our seats. Within minutes everyone was settled and the lights went out. A computer model began to generate on the dome first with random numbers and letters and eventually with Stars. Tom Hank's was the presenting voice. He explained as the projections began that the images were taken in real time from the Hubble Space telescope and other observatories. This really impressed me. I had no idea that data was available in such a hyper format to observatories and planetariums in that fashion.

We watched as Tom explained the relationships between our planet, solar system, galaxy, and cluster of galaxies (known as the Vega Super-cluster). We saw a very interesting image of what a Black Hole might look like on the inside as we were transported back to our planet from the distant universe.

Steve and I wandered around the museum for a bit, considering the possibility of buying something to drink. During our quest for soda, we arrived in a large open Gallery. The Gallery contained dinosaur casts. They were enormous and balanced in what seemed like very precarious poses. There was a Brontosaurus exhibit, where the Brontosaurus fossil was actually up on it's hind legs in a defensive posture in an attempt to defend its' young from I believe an Aleosaurus.

I was impressed at how the casts balanced so well on only some very thin supports. These casts appear for a split second in the new I Love New York commercial that has been airing the past few days. It would have been neat if they had filmed that section while we were in the museum, but it looks like it was probably filmed before we were ever there.

After viewing the dinosaur casts for a few minutes, we went for a walk deeper into the rear gallery and discovered an exhibit dedicated to African people. There was a timeline and several maps tracing our origins back to their beginnings in Africa.
There were several display cases along the way with tons of text describing the evolution of life in Africa going from simple tools through the production of complex metal objects including weaponry and shields. We stopped around this point because I got a little bit intimidated by a woman in a huge fur coat who was skeptical of my interest in the exhibits.

We moved on through rooms on our way out passing huge fertility totems hanging from the ceiling. We ended up walking back past the planetarium and out to the street where we took a break so I could have a cigarette.

We took a train south on the island to 42nd Street and Times Square and hopped out at the epicenter of the Eastern Seaboard. I think we actually walked a couple of blocks to get there. I was deeply moved by the video screens and the huge billboards and signs and bills posted everywhere. We walked across a couple of streets, and past an Olive Garden restaurant with very fancy neon lighting in green and purple, to come to a Sbarro pizza on a little bit down from the Virgin Megastore on the left side of the video screens.

Steve and I had some great Pizza. I had some vegetable topping stuff that was really thick. In New York prices, it wasn't all that bad. It ended up costing me about 10 bucks. Around here, for Pizza and Pop, it usually costs about 8.50 at the Sbarro at the Boulevard Mall.

We sat for a while and talked about New York and what we were going to do when we proceeded out of there. Steve left me alone in the place for a few minutes and I was really glad that he came back, still being unsure of my navigation skills, I think at this point I decided I could pretty much trust him with anything. And I appreciate him letting me have a moment to take things in on my own.

I remember staring at a very large billboard for a musical called Chicago and some small bill posters for a movie called The Shipping News that were along the front of the building immediately across from Sbarro. I've been a fan of Kevin Spacey for a while.

Steve directed me through the human traffic and we walked right down in front of the Virgin Megastore and looked inside. It looked like the biggest music and media seller I had ever seen. I didn't really want to venture in, not really having the money to buy any music, but I looked for a long hard moment at all of the perfectly packaged CD's and DVD's through the window and made a mental note that if I were ever shopping in Manhattan, I would have to come back to it.

We walked up and over a block, pausing in the middle of the intersection for traffic, and stood for a moment outside MTV studios and looked in to see that Viacom owned the building. I am not sure if Viacom is MTV's parent company, but the security looked pretty tight, and I didn't think it would be worth making an effort to speak with anyone there.

We could see a couple of the monitors inside the second floor studio from the ground level but that was about it. While standing there I reflected back to watching the crowds stand outside the studio for the TRL show that broadcasts live from that location during the week.

I followed Steve again to the correct subway platform and we headed North to 59th to switch to the N train and head back to Broadway in Queens. On the walk back to the apartment I told Steve about my loyalty to my friends here in Niagara Falls due to their helping me through some rough times.

Steve watched TV for a couple of hours and I slept on the couch until almost 8PM and woke up fearing I had missed the opportunity to get to the Jazz Club. I was glad to find that I had not and that Steve was ready to go right then, so I grabbed my jacket and Metropass and we headed for the Broadway Platform again.

We didn't have to make any transfers to get to Prince Street in Soho. I don't recall exactly which train we were on, but it took us directly there. We did have one mishap when we got into the neighborhood though. We walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction and had to get some directions from a convenience store clerk to get there as promptly as possible. We were followed down the street of the club by a couple of what seemed like resident ladies of the night. They had the verbal tenacity that I expected from the streets of New York. I ignored them as well as I could and we ducked into Kavehas quickly.

We were greeted promptly by a Japanese hostess and seated at a side table a little fancier than the one at the Bitter End with a white table cloth, but I ended up sitting with my back to the Jazz players for most of the performance. Seeing their performance wouldn't have made that much of a difference because of the distance from them, so I just listened and enjoyed what I heard. They were very good and the place was very crowded.

It reminded me a lot of a larger Calumet Art's Cafe. I had a nice pasta dish with meatballs, and rolls, and a Mochachino with Whipped Cream. The Mochachino was excellent and if given the opportunity, I will definitely go back someday for another. Steve and I discussed the future prospects of publishing and talked about how Jazz is really not meant for a visual setting like MTV. It is definitely a calmer more grooving medium. After a couple of sets, we decided to take off and as before, took only one train to get back to Broadway, and I slept well Saturday night, after staying up to watch an MTV special.

We woke up later than expected and ended up catching a little bit of a rushed breakfast, after I packed all of my things up into their appropriate packs. I had to carry them with us on our trip on Sunday because we were going straight to the airport after that. Steve carried the heaviest pack most of the way and I owe him great thanks for that.

The diner that we had our rushed breakfast in didn't have a name that I could remember. A very nice Hispanic waitress who moved smoothly between speaking Spanish and French brought our dishes, and we had two eggs, toast, hash browns, coffee, and juice for $2.50 a piece. A great deal, even in comparison with the Denny's Slams we have around here.

It was a much longer walk to the church than I anticipated, but well worth it. On the way to the church, we saw a statue of Athena donated from Greece to the city of New York in 1997 I believe. It was still in very good condition and I remarked that it must have been donated at about the same time Steve moved to New York.

We visited a Catholic church and sat toward the back. I made an interesting connection that I had not prior, regarding Epiphany. There were remarks in Isaiah regarding Frankincense and Myrrh that were also made later in the New Testament. Indicating that to a degree, that the Wise Men being scholars themselves, may have helped to fulfill a centuries' old prophecy. Whether they did it wittingly or unwittingly is a question I will have to live with for a long time I am sure. The service was very much like the services I have attended with my Catholic friends here at home. I did my best to keep up.

Steve and I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts right under the 36th street subway platform and had a couple of cups of coffee. When they sold me mine, the clerk asked me if I wanted a bag. I was stunned for a moment and didn't know what to say, because I hadn't ordered any donuts. It turns out, in New York, from what Steve told me, some people liked to carry their coffee in a bag, so they could get on and off the subway platforms without spilling it. Something, being from around here, I never really would have considered.

After our extended stop at Dunkin Donuts, we walked a couple of blocks, bought a lotto ticket (accidentally), and made our way to the Museum of Film and Moving Image, where we saw some really neat stuff.

On the main floor there was an exhibit that included vintage video games. It turns out that one of the first ever invented was a prototype for Asteroids. Space Wars, it turns out was developed as early as the 1950s.

On the second floor, one display was a three dimensional representation of how a strobe can turn a set of rotating objects into a moving image. There were some old black and white rotating page cartoon movies. And the insides of cameras and televisions were strewn about throughout the main physical displays.

There were television and film pop culture exhibits that included some really interesting artifacts, to include: a Star Wars lunch box, Kermit the frog doll, Bart Simpson bank, plastic ray gun, Woody Allen Zelig props, and the Mowhawk Skull Cap from the movie Taxi Driver.

We had an opportunity to overdub the voices of famous actors in a sound studio there, (unsupervised I might add). Steve showed me a quick sample with Deniro's "You talkin' to me" lines and I quickly learned and overdubbed Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz in Japanese as she met with the Munchkins at the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road.

It was quite interesting to me that they had these exhibits so publicly accessible. We also played with a machine that allowed us to change the soundtrack from one movie to that of another movie. There were several different options for scoring the Fox film Independence Day.

One thing that was a big help in the museum was that they allowed us to check the bags for free. This museum also deserves a second visit. We checked out our bags and coats at the museum desk and headed back to the subway platform.

When we got there, it was only a couple of quick stops to Astoria Blvd. And then only a short wait until the M60 picked up and took us to Laguardia. Steve stuck with me, so I wouldn't get lost, and I really appreciated that. When I got to the airport, I ended up getting searched twice.

I didn't much appreciate the delay in getting back to Buffalo due to "mechanical" problems. Oh well, I guess it's rather routine since the problems with the airlines began, and I would rather have had them check up on everything than not, prior to launching into flight. I was disappointed that I didn't get free juice on the ride home though. I got star treatment on the way there, with a nice can of spiced tomato juice. All in all though, the trip was quite a success and I have come back with an interesting image of the New New York.


; ¶ 6:20 AM
My first

I did this for a reason. Back in the days of the BBS. No one would yell if you had something of substance to add. There is reality here. Believe that it can be just as hard as fiction and you just might survive!

Re: Digest = Garageband.com
Hello everyone, it's been a little while. Just thought I'd let you know, if you didn't already,
about a service called GarageBand.com where you can swap music reviews for hosting space. Pretty cool eh ? Nothing like getting something for nothing. Come check out my band there with Real Audio.



Christopher J. Bradley
Noisecontrol Publishing
All the Grog That's Fit To Blog!



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!

# posted by Christopher @ 1:37 PM
Friday, June 18, 2004
Pattern Recognition Review - Published in Voidspace UK
The Digital Firestorm Reaches The Here and Now.
A Review of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition.
By Christopher J. Bradley
1/19/2003 9:26:20 PM
©2003 by Christopher J. Bradley

Its been roughly 3 years since Gibson's last science fiction novel touched down, and this one has so much Boeing that by the end you need an airlift. It's actually set in the present but along the history line of the last sixty years jammed in with every element of bleeding edge that you could possibly think of. We are in, lets say, England, and then Tokyo, and then more England, and then Moscow, and then France. With fences and attaches of all sorts and street runners of antique computers the pace never cuts out.

The principle's name is Cayce Pollard. She's got a sort of boyfriend who's a director of some vicious Russian war saga who isn't in London at present. In the midst of receiving e-mails from a channeller for her missing father (presumed dead on September 11th), her apartment is broken into during the course of normal business. Cool hunting she calls it, free-lance marketing consulting which she is apparently very good at, she travels first class. Business allegiances begin to change and after a while, we begin to wonder if it's really business after all, or something more sinister. You see, she has a horrible fear of the Michellin man, and what's worse, he keeps appearing places he doesn't belong.

She finds herself relying heavily on e-mail from a web contact named Parkaboy who is a "footagehead" that she met from a users group specifically dedicated to the discovery of information related to 135 hot film clips that have been appearing on the internet. How, why, or who are the questions that keep her up at night, and she finds herself more and more wrapped up in finding out who the "maker" of the clips is as time passes.

Gibson's e-mails and intermittent cell phone calls and PDA references are countered by the more conventional packets of data folded in real envelopes and cases, carefully woven in cloth and string. And the mirror-world, Cayce's representation of London on off-net time, is every bit as intricate as the spy story that is slowly unfolding. The evolution of global capitalism is at work and the forces binding it up are not all at agreeable purposes. Especially not in Russia.

When the subway maps begin to include templates for Claymore mine blast radii and Stegonographic watermarks are discovered in some of the footage, you know things are going to begin to really warp into high gear, the only question is, will you be able to keep up?

Our author handles the discussion of September 11th both artfully and respectfully. His rendering with the falling of rose petals in a store window, leaves no emotion un-wrent while not taking advantage of public hatreds or fanaticism. He appears to view it from the perspective of someone swept up, but not toppled by A Megalomania too intense to ever be properly expressed in words. The situation was artfully crafted and he does not dwell on the past, but looks to the future, and a settling on the present with hope.

And what helps me really enjoy this book, is the possibility for a sequel, A true kick into the next novel where Cayce may indeed discover more of her true place in the world as more than a function of fashion and a part of the greater community of modelers of what is to be. And who knows, maybe she will discover more about her father's past.


# posted by Christopher @ 12:56 PM
Sunday, June 13, 2004
What it was like to dance
Following are some remarks regarding a poem I wrote the other day...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks! I'd be honored by such an inclusion. Thanks again.

Signed, bruce hh (desperate for glory?)
**************************
--- In writersport@yahoogroups.com, wrote:
> nice work bruce -
>
> May I reprint this one with replies and remarks in my Lexiconica
Blog?
>
> -Chris
>
> On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 03:53:29 -0000, Bruce Hamilton
> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Chris:
> >
> > In one of my first sonnets I attempted to discuss dancing;
> > herebeneath I'll insert that little 'try' of mine. I remain very
> > impressed, meanwhile, by your own 'analysis' ... [THANKS! Thanks
> > again.]
> >
> > Signed, bruce hh (endowed with at least twenty-five left feet)
> > =================================
> > XXIII
> > To dance is to engage in parody.
> > When dancers dance, their motions seem to say:
> > "The human form, though mortal, ought to be
> > alive and vibrant for an endless day."
> > And as they move in rhythm with the beat,
> > the dancers' bodies pose the question well
> > of whether men should merely work and eat
> > or might instead not romp from now till hell.
> > Alas, no matter what their energy,
> > the best of dancers never long can stay
> > alive and motionful but soon must be
> > the picture of fatigue and gross decay.
> > Each dance is like those bodings of delight
> > that fast are swallowed by eternal night.
> > *************************
> > --- In writersport@yahoogroups.com, wrote:
> > > What it was like to dance
> > > by Chris Bradley
> > > (c)2004
> > >
> > > Dancing was like atomic fury
> > > It was a way of getting close
> > > To Core Instinct.
> > > To Throw Inhibition To The Wind,
> > > To be a part of the Global Tribe,
> > > That is jumping to the
> > > thump, thump, thump,
> > > Of the never ceasing bass drum.
> > >
> > > It was to traverse a small piece,
> > > Of the spinning globe,
> > > At 25,000 miles an hour,
> > > As the timbala and the orchastra hit,
> > > With the full force,
> > > Of a tropical storm's surges,
> > > As wave after wave of,
> > > Adrenaline coursed through,
> > > My pressurized veins.
> > >
> > > The go-goes and their gloved hands,
> > > Kicked out across the night sky,
> > > Like fallen Rockettes,
> > > And it was the motion of their hips,
> > > That kept me in the balance.
> >
> >
> > Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >

# posted by Christopher @ 12:48 PM
Friday, May 21, 2004
The Count of Monte Cristo
I've just started to read the Count of Monte Cristo, and it's a really good read. The main characters that have presented themselves as of the first 31 pages are Edmund Dantes, the young would be ship's captain, Fernand, and Mercedes. Edmund and Mercedes are in Love, and Ferdnand is jealous and is setting up a plot against Edmund.

This is an excellent work of classic literature, and very verbose to say the least. It takes into account the whole spectrum of 1820s france. Very cool.

Chris

# posted by Christopher @ 11:54 AM
Friday, May 14, 2004
This is a second test
Quick Bio:

Chris Bradley is the author of the four blogs you see here. Registered
users of Blogger are welcome to join. Please contact me at
noisecontrol@gmail.com if you are interested.


# posted by Christopher @ 8:31 PM
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
A Tale of Two Cities
I finished A Tale of Two Cities This week. It was impressive and astonishing. Dickens puts together a story of the struggles of the common man against the aristocrat in a violent and Bloody revolution where very few are spared the singular but deadly razor of the guillotine. The main characters are named Sidney, Charles Darnay, The Doctor, Lucie, Lucie's Daughter, The Wine Keeps, and Jerry who has characteristically Spiked Hair. The plot revolves around a Rape that occurred just prior to the French Revolution that puts a price on the head of Charles Darnay, a decendant of the rapist. Although this isn't usually noted in 9th grade literature, it comes through on a close reading of the book. The ethical question that he toys with is, should Charles really deserve a second chance for his bloodline? Two thumbs up.

# posted by Christopher @ 5:36 AM
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
A Tale of Two Cities



I'm about half way through a tail of two cities, and I'm just beginning to realize how ruthless the french really were. Man, that revolution must have been something to behold. I dunno. I better finish it so I can spoil the story for you.



# posted by Christopher @ 11:08 AM

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Noise Echo,

The Count of Monte Cristo
I've just started to read the Count of Monte Cristo, and it's a really good read. The main characters that have presented themselves as of the first 31 pages are Edmund Dantes, the young would be ship's captain, Fernand, and Mercedes. Edmund and Mercedes are in Love, and Ferdnand is jealous and is setting up a plot against Edmund.

This is an excellent work of classic literature, and very verbose to say the least. It takes into account the whole spectrum of 1820s france. Very cool.

Chris

# posted by Christopher @ 11:54 AM
Friday, May 14, 2004
This is a second test
Quick Bio:

Chris Bradley is the author of the four blogs you see here. Registered
users of Blogger are welcome to join. Please contact me at
noisecontrol@gmail.com if you are interested.


# posted by Christopher @ 8:31 PM
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
A Tale of Two Cities
I finished A Tale of Two Cities This week. It was impressive and astonishing. Dickens puts together a story of the struggles of the common man against the aristocrat in a violent and Bloody revolution where very few are spared the singular but deadly razor of the guillotine. The main characters are named Sidney, Charles Darnay, The Doctor, Lucie, Lucie's Daughter, The Wine Keeps, and Jerry who has characteristically Spiked Hair. The plot revolves around a Rape that occurred just prior to the French Revolution that puts a price on the head of Charles Darnay, a decendant of the rapist. Although this isn't usually noted in 9th grade literature, it comes through on a close reading of the book. The ethical question that he toys with is, should Charles really deserve a second chance for

James Joyce - Portrait of the artist as a young man
This book was amazing. It took you through all of the facets of growing up in a polarized society, where religion meets colligiate activities and Steven (Joyce) is torn between taking part in the whole of Catholicism, or attempting to use his faith in an unblinded manner. It is a historic work that I recommend every young man read. There are some difficult bits in Latin, but those can kind of be skimmed over as the work stands as a whole, a fire and brimstone sermon that Joyce lashes us with as he takes his voyage as a tortured writer to bear upon.

# posted by Christopher @ 5:50 AM
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Check this out. This week I have commenced a journey into the world of James Joyce. I have begun to read Portrait of an Artist as a Young man. The first 40 pages have been pretty good. I think I will find it even more interesting the deeper I get. More to come.

Continuing into it, I can see some definite things that made for life altering experiences for Joyce. He had to drop out of college because of his father's problems financially.


# posted by Christopher @ 10:10 AM
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Walt Whitman - Leaves Of Grass
A Review by Christopher Bradley
(c)2004

Walt Whitman was alive during the Civil War Era. He lived through it and managed to bring us the perfect reflection of a 30 year old man living in the time. His words soothe the soul on a hot summers day on a porch with some tea, and drown the sorrows of the moment with the realization that more people already died to keep this country together than we can fathom.

He speaks of the grass growing from the soldier's breasts as the dead were carried away, yet in the same breath, utters a consciousness of nature so profound as to see the brilliant side of the lives of the men and vibrance of the women who fought to serve their country and make the countrysides villages, and metropolis of Manhattan, known to be their residences.

Walt Whitman is not just you or I. He is the everyman and everywoman, waiting to burst forth in joy and make love in the bushes. He wants to roll in the surf on the beach naked and kiss the tips of rose petals. He is a poet that will not soon be outlived even by the likes of Shakespeare, who had is time so long ago.

While Shakespeare has "O Romeo, O Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou," Whitman has, "Oh Captain my Captain" and a "Barbaric Yawp." Or any of a hundred other catch phrases that I could throw around. But those individually are not the message intended. He wants to be intimate with the reader to the point where the reader owns his message in his heart. He wants you to read him every summer for life, and perhaps that's not a bad idea. Because the universals do not change, and the readings get easier with time.

For everything that can be said for Whitman, he cannot be called a coward. He served as a nurse in the military, helping to carry the wounded and the dead. I can't think of a single service that would account for more courage in a man and require more mental stamina. It was rare that a wounded man would survive in those times. Ushering them into the great beyond required love and caring. And isn't that after all, what it's all about?

# posted by Christopher @ 12:25 AM
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Review by Christopher Bradley
(c)2004

The Great Gatsby is a Cindarella story gone wrong told in the tail end of the Great Depression just after world war two. The story begins with the introduction of a young Bachelor named Nick who moves in to live in and amongst the rich on Long Island Sound. He finds himself in the midst of all forms of celebrity and debutante in the infamous parties held in Gatsby's house.

It is an interesting note, that Gatsby, while suspected of taking large sums of Nazi money to support these activities here in the united states, was still particularly fond of books, having a large collection in a personal library. This is the one element that begins to take shape to define him as more than a man to be scrutinized, as Nick attempts to do. Nick is curious to know if Gatsby really was an Oxford scholar.

A love story begins to develop between Gatsby and a woman named Daisy, or should we say every man and Daisy. She is the most desireable woman among those in the Sound, and she is purported to have married for money rather than love.

There are many drunken revelries, and a few relaxations in the shade of Gatsby's house, where his lawn is perfectly cut, near the pool, which had never been used that summer.
There are complexities that defy the human imagination at some points, and the writing is so smooth and effortless that if you are in the quiet, the storytelling seems like watching television.

The book was incredible and I will save the color and irridescence of the whole conclusion of the story for you to find out for yourself, how the crescendo blessess us with a damning truth.

Bring forth the pastels, the paisley's and the pinstripes, we're going to town.

# posted by Christopher @ 12:12 AM
Monday, April 05, 2004

Reviews of Literary Work by Christopher Bradley (c)2004

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Books By Kobo Abe
Kobo Abe is a Japanese author. I read his book below for a Film course. There is a Film adaptation of the novel produced in the late 1960's. I thought that the book was complex. Kobo Abe has an Eastern Philosophy and this makes the book a complicated work to understand fully.
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The Woman In The Dunes
The Woman In The Dunes is a novel about slow adaptation. It is also a love story of sorts. There are many broad statements that can be made either for or against the novel. It is about an insect collector who is obsessed with his work toward the discovery of a new type of insect. He travels into the desert to find the insect, and stays until the last bus for the day has left. Villagers arrange for him to spend the night in the house of a Woman who lives at the bottom of a sand pit. After two days he realizes that the Villagers do not intend to let him leave the sand pit, ever. He is forced to adapt to his environment over the course of weeks, and then months, and eventually falls in love with the woman he has to live with. He discovers a way to extract water from the sand, and decides that he is in no particular rush to leave the village.
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Books By Martin Amis
Martin Amis is a British novelist whose work I was introduced to by my friend Scott. It took me two years to read the first book that he gave me, because I was busy trying to clear up a lot of my financial concerns. When I finally did finish up the novel Money, I made some very conscious decisions about what I had to do to change a future which sadly, could have been my own.
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Money
Money is a novel about a man with a serious lack of moral fiber. He is an important player in the pornography industry of the 1980's. He meets people who will find inventive ways of making airplanes stay on the ground, just so that he can get on board. He meets people who have tennis courts in the middle of their office buildings. He eventually meets people who knock his teeth out and put holes in his back. Somehow, he manages to make it through several years of this sort of life. Money makes it all happen for him.
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London Fields
London Fields is a more complex novel. I have only begun to read it. My English Instructor at Niagara County Community College, gave me a copy of it, when I mentioned that I had read Money. I think that it is a more complex novel than Money, describing a larger variety of personality types. I started reading it while I was in the middle of some other scholastic projects but I plan to finish it this summer.
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Books By Michael Connelly
I don't know an extensive amount about Michael Connelly, except that he is was at one time a writer for the Los Angeles Times. I enjoyed the book below, that I found in the new books section of the Niagara Falls Public Library.

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Trunk Music
Trunk Music is a Harry Bosh detective novel. I have never read any of the other novels based on the character Harry Bosh, but I assume that many of the books will have similar elements. In Trunk Music, Harry is set on an investigation to find the murderer of a man found in the trunk of a car on a hill in an affluent Hollywood suburb. He ends up having to pursue the criminal that committed the crime to Las Vegas. The Mafia and the F.B.I. get heavily involved in the investigation in various ways.
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Books By Bill Gates
I didn't expect that I would actually pick up and read the book below and enjoy it. I got the impression from working in the computer field, that all people that work in the computer field are terrible writers. I was incorrect. I thouroughly enjoyed the book, and in many ways, it almost seemed prophetic. (It would though, to someone who has been studying computers for 10 years.) I hope that Bill Gates takes the time to write down some of his own studies of other aspects of the world when he retires.

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The Road Ahead
The Road Ahead is a book about the future. No one can determine the future. However, this book has in it a great description of the future that is very possible, provided that the United States doesn't get nuked. In order to discuss the future, it is often useful to talk about the past. The first couple of chapters of the book are devoted to Bill Gates' version of the Silicon Valley story, there also are some academic discussions in the book of things like how the Binary Number system works. The rest of the book is about Bill Gates vision of future technologies and how they will be used. He even gives a description of how his house will work once it is finished.
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Books By William Gibson
William Gibson is a science fiction (cyberpunk) writer. His books are about virtual reality technology, the mergeance between man and machine, and the internet. His first book was published in 1984 and it won the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards. This book, titled Neuromancer, depicts a future that is so real, that you will think that in many ways, you are already in it. In Neuromancer, William Gibson coined the word Cyberspace.
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Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a book about an out of control artificial intelligence. Wintermute, the artificial intelligence, is attempting to become whole, to break through the barriers that it's creators built into it, to prevent it from becoming too powerful. The main character that gets wrapped up in Wintermute's plot, is named Case. Case is only trying to reaquire his lost ability to connect to cyberspace (the future's internet).

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Count Zero
Count Zero is a book about a 14 year old hacker named Bobby Newmark. The novel is considered to be the sequel to Neuromancer, although none of the original characters are present in it. Cyberspace has advanced a little bit since the time of the Wintermute episode. People begin to encounter the interference of Vodoo demi-gods in their affairs in Cyberspace. Bobby becomes involved in the rescue of the daughter of a corporate biotek engineer who is defecting from his Zaibatsu.
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Mona Lisa Overdrive
Mona Lisa Overdrive is a book about the career of a Sim-Stim star named Angie Mitchell. Sim-Stim is similar to what the "feelies" were like in the classic novel Brave New World by Aldus Huxley. Bobby Newmark makes a new appearance as a more experienced cyberspace hacker. Issues related to the possibility of Human Immortality become a centerpiece of the book. Mona Lisa Overdrive is a spectacular conclusion to the Neuromancer series of books.
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Virtual Light
Virtual Light is an independent novel. It describes a future that is closer to our own than the future described in the Neuromancer series. Virtual light focusses on the life of a bicycle courier and the life of a skip tracer assigned to hunt her down after she steals a pair of Virtual Reality capable sunglasses from a rich businessman in San Fransisco. I read the book very quickly. This is a good introduction to Gibson's style of writing if you have difficulties understanding the ideas for the possible future uses of the internet.
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Idoru
Idoru is a novel about a media engineer (Raney) who leaves his career with a large media network to work as a spy for a rock star's management team. It is also about a teenage girl named Chia Pet McKenzie who is president of her California based fan club of the rock star named Lo Rez. Lo Rez has disappeared and Chia sets out for Tokyo to find him armed with her sandbenders (VR goggles) and a bestfriend's father's credit card. Nanomachines have been used to rebuild Tokyo after a massive earthquake. Raney visits a Franz Kafka theme bar in one of the chapters. Idoru is William Gibson's most recently written novel.
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The Difference Engine
The Difference Engine is a novel about Charles Babbage and Lady Ada Byron. Computer Science students know Charles Babbage as the inventor who came up with the idea of a programmable computer. Charles Babbage was never actually able to create a working prototype of his Analytical Engine which would have been made of steam operated gears and levers. A model is located in the Smithsonian. The Difference Engine is a work of speculative science fiction. It describes what the Industrial Revolution might have looked like in Britain if Babbage had succeeded. The Difference Engine was written by both William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.
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Burning Chrome
Burning Chrome is a collection of short stories written by William Gibson. It contains several stories that have appeared in general Science Fiction magazines and compilations. My favorite stories in the collection are Johnny Mnemonic (which was made into a major motion picture starring Keaneau Reeves), The Gernsbeck Continuum, and Fragments of a Hologram Rose. I still haven't read the entire book, I intend to finish reading it this summer.
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Books By Harry Harrison
I bought the following book on a whim. It was cheap, and I wanted something to read. Harry Harrison has also written another book that I cannot mention here because I do not remember the title. It was a book that he collaborated on with Marvin Minsky, an Artificial Intelligence expert from M.I.T. I donated the book to the Niagara County Community College library. If you have the time to look for it, I think you'll enjoy it as well.
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The Jupiter Plague
The Jupiter Plague is about a plague that is accidentally brought to Earth from Jupiter. The main character is a doctor in the future, who works to find a cure for the plague. During the course of the book many people die. The Military assist the doctor with his research by helping him break into the rocket that the disease was originally believed to have been transported in.
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Books By Peter Hedges
I have only read one novel by Peter Hedges. I do not think that I plan to read a lot more of them. I got the impression that he is a very critical individual and likes to attempt to lay blame on elements of society that I do not feel he has a particularly direct understanding of. In other words, I think that he is attempting to show only the darker side of the human mind in his work, and not the lighter, or creative side. I read the following book twice and watched the film based on it twice, primarily because I was required to take a test for a Film class on the material in them.
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What's Eating Gilbert Grape
What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a look at the life of a 24 year old living in Middle America in a present that is extroardinarily dissatisfying. His family behaves in very distasteful ways, due in large part to the stresses placed on them by their father's suicide. The town is backward. It is only beginning to be developed, and the people in it, are almost as sick as most of his family. Gilbert (the 24 year old) gets involved with an older married woman, who decides to move away without him, when her husband dies, and leaves her to be a rich widow. The book is generally depressing. The end is only mildly liberating. I would not recommend this novel to anyone who is easily influenced by emotionally by general negativity.
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Books By David Held
I have just recently begun to be interested in books about politics. I have been watching a lot of C-SPAN on Adephia Cable and finding that there are a lot of words and concepts that I do not have a fundamental understanding of, but would like to be knowledgeable of. I knew nothing about David Held two months ago. I just purchased this first book which I am not completely finished with, but that I will finish within a week or so.
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Models Of Democracy
Models of Democracy is a book about the philosophers, economists, and politicians, who helped to shape Democracy as it exists in the world today. This book has encouraged me to pick up three other books from Niagara County Community College's Library : Aristotle's The Politics, The Complete Works of Machiavelli, and a written work by John Stuart Mill. These works will help to support my understanding of the discussions that David Held has in his book. Models of Democracy is a very long book, but I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about the government that we both rule, and are ruled by.
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Books By Thomas King
Thomas King is a Canadian Writer whose book was made into a Canadian television program. He has a short appearance in the film, which we were required to analyze for a Film Class. I thought that this book shed a lot of light on Native American culture, and I think it is very respectable that Thomas King, who does not appear to be Indian, would take the time to write a novel as a tribute to the culture. (I am 1/16th Mowhawk indian.)
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Medicine River
Medicine River is a story about an Indian Photographer that moved away from his home village, Medicine River, in Northern Canada, to work for a company in Toronto, doing pictures for photo journalists in foreign countries. He comes back to Medicine River, having just missed his mother's funeral. His brother is an artist who is travelling to different parts of the world. His best friend helps him to get reaquainted with the community after being away from it for 20 years.
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Books By Elmore Leonard
It was a shocking surprise to me, that a new Quentin Tarantino film (Jackie Brown) would be based on a book, that was written by an author that I had recently read a book by. I did not pay a cent for the book below, I took it from a coffee house named Stimulants in Buffalo, NY where they have a book exchange (give a book, take a book). For the quality of the novel, it was a steal.
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Glitz
Glitz is a novel that takes place in South America and Atlantic City. The detective in the novel is originally from Florida. He gets involved in tracking down the murderer of a taxi driving photographer. The murderer is rather extreme. This book is similar in style to Michael Connelly's Trunk Music but definitely sounds as if the writer is from New York, rather than L.A.
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Stories By Herman Melville
Herman Melville is the Author of Moby Dick, which I have never read. For my Creative Writing class in 1996, I picked up a collection of short stories by various authors, and read the following story. I thought that it was exceptionally funny, and well written. I intend to read more of Herman Melville's work in the future.
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Bartleby The Scrivener
Bartleby The Scrivener is a short story about a legal assistant (scrivener) named Bartleby. Bartleby is hired by a lawyer who wishes to get more work done in a shorter period of time. He is a very efficient worker, until he evolves into a nuisance for the lawyer, by passively refusing to do the work that he has been assigned to do. The lawyer discovers after months of having employed him, that Bartleby is actually living inside of the office that he is thought to have been working late in. The lawyer must then find a way to rid himself of Bartleby, but can he?
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Books By Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling, like William Gibson, is one of the most well known cyberpunk artists in the world. He has written parts of Mirrorshades (a cyberpunk anthology). He has also written an article that appeared in Wired Magazine about a large desert rave called The Burning Man that took place a couple of years ago. He also worked on The Difference Engine with William Gibson (see books by William Gibson).
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The Artificial Kid
The Artificial Kid is a novel about life on another planet. Ordinarily, I am not a big fan of work about life on other planets. However, this book was not a simple science fiction soap opera. This book was Full Blotto Organic Science Fiction. It begins describing the life of a Combat Artist (modern street fighter) named Kid. The novel then reverses its track to depict the events and people that shaped the modern world that all of the characters live on. In the end, the Kid, learns about his true identity, and discovers that he is not only Artificially intelligent, but also, one of the wisest human beings alive. This book covers DNA, genetic mutation, artificial intelligence, and seriously advanced camera technology.

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Islands in The Net
Islands in The Net is a novel about the life of a woman in the future who becomes involved in a business deal that goes wrong. She becomes stranded in South America, eventually escapes and flees to Africa, and finally reaches Singapore before returning to the United States. The novel is interesting in that Sterling describes a lot of the little gadgets and things that people have to play with in the future.
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Holy Fire
I have only started to read Holy Fire. In the future, a woman inherits a talking dog from her dying ex-husband. Right now this is as far as I've gotten. I am waiting for the paper back version to come out because I don't feel like taking this one out of the library, I want to own it. The writing in just the first fifty pages is fantastic. This novel gives a picture of what Bruce Sterling's cyberspace looks like.
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Books By Neal Stephenson
I don't know an extensive amount about Neal Stephenson. I have only become aquainted with his work this year. I have read the following three books and enjoyed them. I hope that if you find copies of them, that you will enjoy them too. Neal Stephenson's visions of the present and future are both similar and different to William Gibson's. Stephenson tends to discuss more historical aspects of the worlds he creates than Gibson does, sometimes this is good, sometimes you start to drift off, but overall I think his work is outstanding.
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Snow Crash
Snow Crash is about the life of a Pizza Delivery agent in the future. In the future, the Mafia, the Government, Media Corporations, and the inventors of Cyberspace, have the greatest impact on his life. Snow Crash is a virus created by a group of cultist computer programmers working for a Media Mogul. The virus takes over people's brains when they see certain types of static on videoscreens or virtual business cards. In the end, the Pizza Delivery driver, Hiro Protagonist, must save the world from this computer plague, with the help of a Radikal Courier who delivers mail by Skateboard.
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The Diamond Age
The Diamond Age is a novel about a future where Nanomachines are already used in general forms for construction and other computer related tasks. Matter compilers, like the ones used on Star Trek to manufacture and transport food, are as common as microwaves. Things made by hand are highly valuable. An abused 4 year old girl accidentally receives an educational gift originally intended for a 4 year old princess, and grows up to be one of the most important figures in China's future history.
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Zodiac
Zodiac is a modern environmentalist novel. The main character is an activist who collects chemical samples in Boston Harbor by riding around the Harbor in a Zodiac boat. He discovers some severe abnormalities in some of the Lobsters in the harbor, which sets into motion a course of events that put him on industry's Most Wanted list. This novel was a lot of fun.
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Books By Amy Tan
Amy Tan is a Chinese-American Author who has won awards in San Fransisco for her work. We were required to read her book below for a course in Film. I really enjoyed her style of writing, and I intend to read a couple more of her books in the future.
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The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club is a novel about four daughters of Chinese immigrant mothers that moved to America around the time of World War II. The story describes the lives of the four mothers and the lives of each of the daughters. June is the main character that ties the book together. At the end of the novel, she travels to China to meet her two sisters, who survived the Japanese invasion of China as orphans. I read this book three times, and watched the motion picture at least six times.
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Books By Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut is an interesting writer. I have never read Slaughterhouse Five, which is his most famous novel to date that I am aware of. I think that he has some special insights into the mechanics of social interaction and human interaction with technology that make his work almost like a kind of science fiction with enough substance to be called Literature. In addition to the two novels below, I have seen three movies that were based on his written work : Harrison Bergeron, Mother Night, and Monkey House. I liked all of the films. (Free for the asking at the Niagara Falls Public Library).
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Slapstick
Slapstick was a book about a family that did not get along well together. It is a criticism of the lives and behaviors of a brother and sister who were taught to behave in ways that must have been unthinkable at the time that the novel was written. I thought that the book was a little bit strange, but I liked it, because it was different from anything else I had read at the time. When I read it, I had been reading mostly Science Fiction books.
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Cat's Cradle
Cat's Cradle actually is a Science Fiction book. It is about a weapon even more lethal than the atomic bomb, called Ice-9, which has effects that could possibly end life on earth. Ice-9 was a freezing compound developed to help in ground battles between infantry units by a military researcher. His children hold the secret to it's power, and they are not quite as responsible, as they could be in weilding it.
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Books By Jack Womack
I picked up the Jack Womack book listed below at the Niagara Falls Public Library. I picked the book up at the suggestion of my friend Scott who had seen a literary review of Womack's work in which William Gibson had said he had liked a book called Sensless Acts of Random Violence. I have seen Senseless Acts of Random Violence in stores, but I have not bought it because it is a thin wide paperback book that is overpriced, and the plot is about an abused child in New York City. Like the Diary of Anne Frank, it is written from the perspective of the child. I am also not a big fan of first person books. However, I think that the book that you find below will be enjoyable.
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Let's Put The Future Behind Us
Let's Put The Future Behind Us is the story of a Russian businessman who finds himself in a predicament when his best friend is caught stealing drugs in large quantities from the Russian Mafia. Any more detail about the book will give away too much of the plot. Womack uses very verbose language to describe a near future Moscow and the interactions among the many people that reside within it. The story is very well written, with a surprise ending that will make you very seriously consider your perspectives about the behaviors, and interests, of the people that you think you know best.
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# posted by Christopher @ 10:17 PM

The more I hear political sentiments, the more I am inclined to think anti-politically. I was originally into Kerry, but Kerry has shown me no interest. He has pumped a whole bunch of advertising into my mailbox and offered me no opportunity to work in his favor. The one event I did turn out for, as others did as well, turned out to be non-existant. His campaign is irritating to say the least, and while irritating, seems the only option.

Bush and Cheney, are the war machine and I want nothing to do with them. They've had their time and they will not succeed if they continue with petty tactics. Kerry is clearly better suited for the job, and definitely has the wealthy behind him. But will he serve the purposes of the little guy this time around? That remains to be seen.

I am beginning to wonder if this election is exclusive to only those who can afford the internet. I can't even get a clear picture on my damn television.


::: posted by Christopher at 7:35 PM



Wednesday, September 01, 2004 :::

I listened to Turn the Page by Bob Seger, Oasis What's The Story Morning Glory, and a few others tonight. I was daunted by the fact that not once, did I have an opportunity to listen to music that I actually liked, and ultimately, I was spending money for beer that I don't have.

Damn,

Chris


::: posted by Christopher at 12:45 AM



Monday, June 07, 2004 :::



The following two messages were posted on an AOL Message board today. I thought you might get a kick out of them...The Subject: The MTV Movie Awards.

Couldn't Eminem have waited until the 2004 MTV
Video Music Awards to moon everyone during his
performance of "My Band" with D12? He's had 2
or even 3 of his moments at the VMA's in the last 5 years,
all of which were not very amusing, except for the
100 Eminem lookalikes storming the stage in 1999.
This latest stunt at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards for me is
the straw that broke the camel's back, even though
the show airs this Thursday. How does the media
know what happens in advance of this stuff, anyhow?
At first, the MTV Movie Awards were very fun in 1992,
but 12 years later, to say that MTV's really gotten
out of hand with their lame movie parodies, bad language,
and outragious stunts, that's a huge understatement.
To have Eminem pull a Janet Jackson, after deuting
with Elton John at the 2000 Grammy Awards, I'd say
he's back to his old Slim-Shady ways, again. I stopped
watching the MTV Movie Awards around 1997, and I'm
skipping this one, too.
RICK.












Message 2 of 2 Subject 1 of 1


Subject:
Re: Couldn't Eminem have waited?


Date:
6/7/2004 6:08 PM Eastern Standard Time


From:
ChrisJbrad73


MsgId:
<20040607180843.18136.00035643@mbs-r05.aol.com>



The MTV Movie awards, childish as they may be, are a testament to our times. The people that are actually watching the movies are getting to vote, as opposed to the Academy which is made up of members of the rich hollywood elite. While they may be seen as childish, I think they are worth a look into this year. Thank you for reminding me of the date : I'll know what to look for!

Avid m2 Viewer.

Noisecontrol

Chris Bradley
www.noisecontrolpub.com
www.midwe.com
www.filmodia.com
www.tonedef1.com
www.squirelltimes.com
www.americanmohawk.blogspot.com
www.dancingoverthefury.blogspot.com


I have to get back to updating the links on the music reviews. It's
been some time now since I worked on that, and some mindless work
should keep me occupied tonight. I need something to keep me home safe
drinking coffee and smoking.

-Chris


::: posted by Christopher at 7:19 PM



This is a full court press test....

Chris


::: posted by Christopher at 6:27 PM



Quick Bio:

Chris Bradley is the author of the four blogs you see here. Registered
users of Blogger are welcome to join. Please contact me at
noisecontrol@gmail.com if you are interested.


::: posted by Christopher at 5:31 PM



This is a TEST. Welcome to Tone Def one e-mail style. Let's see if
this actually works!

Chris


::: posted by Christopher at 5:11 PM



Thursday, May 13, 2004 :::

Now, I've got this silly 80's track about Mexican Radio, just stuck in my head and spiraling in and out. It's really kind of annoying.

What's up with these new Animated Gif files that talk at you from off the web page? Now you don't just see banner ads? But you hear them? This is spooky and in my opinion invasion into my private space. I shouldn't have to look at them to begin with. What if my computer is idle and some Pop up Crap comes up with one of these talking Gifs? Talk about annoying to the utmost. If anyone ever does anything like this to me I am waging a full scale campaign against them. And as you know, I cannot be stopped.

-Christofolo. "Of the Mexican Radio - OooooooooooooooOhhhhhhhhhh"


::: posted by Christopher at 8:07 PM



Tuesday, May 04, 2004 :::

What's up with Usher and Lil John and Ludacris for that matter. They've really got something going on this week. The Blue Laser in the video is something else. I like Usher's style and Luda's Swerve. It's a good track and I hope to see more of them.

::: posted by Christopher at 2:30 AM



www.noisecontrolpub.com - Noisecontrol Publishing - This song by Dido on Radio One is just about how I feel. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to get my arms around anyone or develop any kind of relationship to crash. Dido as it stands though is a beautiful singer.

::: posted by Christopher at 2:29 AM





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Casino Times

Last night I spent some more time in the Casinos, both the New York and the Casino Niagara. I lost my shorts again at video poker. Fortunately, my shorts were worth 8 bucks. I'm doing pretty good so far this month, with that big win a couple weeks ago.

I'm tuned into Semtex on BBC One and rubbing my stomach, ouch, spicy tacos last night. The beer doesn't mix well with the drugs... Semtex is talking about Jay-Z's retirement, and apparently it works something like this, Jay-Z is becoming Sean Carter again. Everyone knew he wouldn't retire for real. How can you, when you're alive, you have to be creative.

I should be posting this on Tone Def.

Maybe I will.

Hmmmm. I wonder when I see the doctor next. Should probably call them about that.

Hang on while I dial...Answering Service. BS. It's almost 11:00 and they can't put me through. There should be no secretary's day for these people. They've hounded my existence for months.

Anyway, on to happy happy joy joy thoughts,

My dogs are smiling at me, maybe I'm looking squirell like...

Help!

Wholly! I just heard the sickest mix of Nas over the Apotheosis opening from the rave set of the early 90's on Semtex's saturday night mix tape. Semtex is the bomb for finding this track. Wow! Apotheosis was tough enough to find on its own back in the day, but later became a Rave anthem.

Thank God. The One Hit Wonders weekend on 102.1 is over.. Just what we needed was a re-hash of not so good overplayed 90's music. Greats like EMF's unbelievable and their Ilk. The only decent one I heard I think is Jesus Jones Right Here Right Now.

Now that I've heard Muse, I think I like the Vines better. Just tastewise. I also like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Stills. There's more to be heard from in Music Land. Check Out Panjabi Hit Squad on BBC 1 Xtra. Their stuff is moving and shaking the sound barriers. DJ Semtex isn't bad either.

The Crystal Method Show this past Thursday in Toronto must have been a bust. Oh yeah, I wasn't there to get the party started so.....

Anyway, I would have liked to have made it, Mom had the car though. You know how that goes, no wheels, no cheese.

Interview 1
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004 - Tone Def 1
www.noisecontrolpub.com

The following is a transcript from an on-line discussion with the first known user to browse the new www.tonedef1.com site. It's interesting to see the reactions sparked by this phenomenon. We'll see how it goes in the coming days.

noisecontrol1 (10:40:16 AM): Hello and good morning
andysheart1966 (10:40:32 AM): hello and good morning
noisecontrol1 (10:40:48 AM): Are you in the US or Australia?
andysheart1966 (10:41:07 AM): US
noisecontrol1 (10:41:17 AM): Do you enjoy music?
andysheart1966 (10:41:30 AM): yea I do
noisecontrol1 (10:41:41 AM): Do you ever write about it?
andysheart1966 (10:41:52 AM): no I just write poems
noisecontrol1 (10:42:13 AM): Would you like to experiment with writing about music?
noisecontrol1 (10:42:45 AM): You could restrict it to poetic form
andysheart1966 (10:42:45 AM): no I am fine with just listening to it.
noisecontrol1 (10:43:04 AM): Would you like to skim a blog about music?
noisecontrol1 (10:43:16 AM): www.tonedef1.com
noisecontrol1 (10:43:32 AM): I just got it put together today
andysheart1966 (10:43:39 AM): okay
noisecontrol1 (10:43:53 AM): Just click the link it should take you there
andysheart1966 (10:44:01 AM): I did
noisecontrol1 (10:44:26 AM): Cool. I'll let you read for a few and then I'll ask you what you think
noisecontrol1 (10:44:36 AM): I'm still writing
noisecontrol1 (10:44:45 AM): Another blog about travel
andysheart1966 (10:44:51 AM): okay
noisecontrol1 (10:44:57 AM): Cool
noisecontrol1 (10:45:02 AM): See you soon
andysheart1966 (10:45:23 AM): btw nice rhymes
noisecontrol1 (10:45:31 AM): Thanks
noisecontrol1 (10:45:38 AM): Glad to see someone saw them
andysheart1966 (10:46:50 AM): yw have rhymed on stage before?
noisecontrol1 (10:47:12 AM): Not necessarily. Kind of shouted and made noise.
noisecontrol1 (10:47:17 AM): I did some techno Mc
noisecontrol1 (10:47:23 AM): stuff 10 years ago
andysheart1966 (10:47:27 AM): aha
andysheart1966 (10:50:38 AM): so like Jam Master Jay you are more of the DJ than MC
noisecontrol1 (10:50:55 AM): Well, I actually compose music
noisecontrol1 (10:51:09 AM): I have synthesisers sequencers and samplers
noisecontrol1 (10:51:22 AM): I don't have turntables
andysheart1966 (10:51:31 AM): he composed some of RUN DMC's rhymes too and produced
noisecontrol1 (10:51:39 AM): I also have a pretty powerful PC hooked up to them
andysheart1966 (10:51:47 AM): cool
noisecontrol1 (10:52:10 AM): Jam Master Jay was one of my favorite producers to read about in Keyboard Magazine
andysheart1966 (10:52:41 AM): he was truly great
noisecontrol1 (10:52:45 AM): I wrote a poem about him right after he died. That was a tragic end.
noisecontrol1 (10:53:05 AM): I miss mary mary and king of rock
noisecontrol1 (10:54:07 AM): Do you mind if i publish our conversation about music as an interview on the website?
noisecontrol1 (10:54:20 AM): Who else do you like?
andysheart1966 (10:55:00 AM): it is a shame him, left eye and aaliyah had died within months apart from eachother
noisecontrol1 (10:56:14 AM): I know. The music industry definitely has its unsung heroes. I was a fan of aaliyah. It's good that we still have living artists like Alicia Keys and Mos Def and Missy to keep us inspired.
andysheart1966 (10:56:27 AM): yep
noisecontrol1 (10:57:21 AM): You can even find inspiration in the works created from the tupac and biggie archives. You don't have to be alive to be continued by people. It's part of what heaven's all about I guess. You live beyond yourself by writing so much that it is undeniable that you have lived well .
andysheart1966 (10:57:38 AM): Mos Def has diversified himself. not only a rap artist, but an actor as well
noisecontrol1 (10:58:46 AM): And a poet. Don't forget the HBO Def Poetry Jam
andysheart1966 (10:59:05 AM): some artists though have rifts between eachother like 50 cent and Ja Rule, do not want to follow into the violent path as tupac and biggie did
andysheart1966 (11:00:11 AM): most rap artists are poets
noisecontrol1 (11:00:43 AM): I had the same concern. Because I saw the possibility that if they went to the mat, there would be a literal war between their henchmen to be rivaled by only those of the mobsters of the Chicagoland Valentines Day Hits and other horrors like it.
andysheart1966 (11:01:19 AM): yep
andysheart1966 (11:01:28 AM): brb
noisecontrol1 (11:02:07 AM): The last thing I want to see as a responsible multicultured person is to see violence of any sort, black, white or otherwise. We have been trying to overcome these issues for nearly 400 years, and its time that history does itself justice and listens to Jefferson instead of Lincoln.
noisecontrol1 (11:02:27 AM): Did I ever tell you I was into Politics?
noisecontrol1 (11:02:30 AM): Smiles
noisecontrol1 (11:02:35 AM):
noisecontrol1 (11:03:19 AM): I'm listening to Blink 182 on Radio One right now. The song Miss You is pretty cool
andysheart1966 (11:03:55 AM): Im back
noisecontrol1 (11:04:04 AM): They could do some things more energetic, but I suppose I can afford them one rock ballad, they deserve it after all these years of writing commercial punk.
noisecontrol1 (11:04:13 AM): Never noticed you were gone.
andysheart1966 (11:04:31 AM): I hate politics which is funny, because I am studying to be a paralegal
noisecontrol1 (11:04:38 AM): Hey, are you interested in sharing your contact list, I'll share mine
andysheart1966 (11:04:45 AM): yea brb is be right back
andysheart1966 (11:05:05 AM):
noisecontrol1 (11:05:48 AM): Is it possible to share contact lists in this program?
andysheart1966 (11:06:19 AM): I do not know, but my contact is private
andysheart1966 (11:06:35 AM): looooooooooooooooooooooooooool @ shrek smileys
noisecontrol1 (11:06:43 AM): Whoa.
noisecontrol1 (11:06:46 AM): Ok
andysheart1966 (11:07:37 AM): well when yahoo gets creative, they really do get creative
noisecontrol1 (11:07:54 AM): Oh yeah. I meant to tell you last time I spoke to you that I looked at your arty web pages. I really like your work. Its good.
noisecontrol1 (11:08:11 AM): I especially liked the Surrealism folder
andysheart1966 (11:08:13 AM): thanks
noisecontrol1 (11:08:55 AM): Any bands that you are into right now, any out of the ordinary or quirky ones?
noisecontrol1 (11:09:29 AM): I like a band called Something Corporate, that until this year, virtually no one had heard of.
noisecontrol1 (11:09:57 AM): They have an incredible rock ballad called Konstantine that is almost 12 minutes long.
noisecontrol1 (11:10:28 AM): Would you like to see some fun photos?
noisecontrol1 (11:10:54 AM): They are wedding and Niagara Falls photos
andysheart1966 (11:10:58 AM): I am diversed in my music as I like both usa, european, middle eastern and asian music
andysheart1966 (11:11:02 AM): cool
andysheart1966 (11:11:41 AM): I cannot open them
noisecontrol1 (11:11:57 AM): There
noisecontrol1 (11:12:06 AM): Can you see them now
andysheart1966 (11:12:15 AM): okay hold on
noisecontrol1 (11:12:18 AM): Go ahead and flip
noisecontrol1 (11:12:35 AM): my brothers birthday
noisecontrol1 (11:12:50 AM): The wedding - My cousin Bree and her husband Chris
noisecontrol1 (11:13:03 AM): Some people at brennans
noisecontrol1 (11:13:07 AM): the door
noisecontrol1 (11:13:13 AM): Essex pub
noisecontrol1 (11:13:16 AM): Me
noisecontrol1 (11:13:52 AM): My cousin Dave
noisecontrol1 (11:15:31 AM): This is pretty much my life, I've been walking around Niagara Falls with a camera phone the last couple weeks
noisecontrol1 (11:15:43 AM): Thats my shrink
noisecontrol1 (11:16:14 AM): Niagara U
noisecontrol1 (11:16:26 AM): McDonalds
noisecontrol1 (11:16:43 AM): Eminem is on
noisecontrol1 (11:16:52 AM): the radio
noisecontrol1 (11:17:00 AM): Thats scott
noisecontrol1 (11:17:06 AM): my sister
noisecontrol1 (11:17:33 AM): Tanya
noisecontrol1 (11:17:45 AM): she just bought a new house
noisecontrol1 (11:18:11 AM): Tom
noisecontrol1 (11:18:18 AM): He just had an aneurism
noisecontrol1 (11:18:26 AM): He's still in the hospital
andysheart1966 (11:18:28 AM): nice pics
noisecontrol1 (11:18:39 AM): Yep,
noisecontrol1 (11:18:43 AM): Thanks
noisecontrol1 (11:18:51 AM): I am going to be taking a lot more.
andysheart1966 (11:19:08 AM): anuerism's are nothing to mess with
noisecontrol1 (11:19:29 AM): I know
andysheart1966 (11:19:41 AM): this a club I would not want to get with
noisecontrol1 (11:19:53 AM): I hope he gets out soon though. I don't want him to lose his job. He works in the media
noisecontrol1 (11:20:31 AM): He helped me get on the radio onc
andysheart1966 (11:20:32 AM): is he still unconcious
noisecontrol1 (11:20:35 AM): eno
noisecontrol1 (11:20:43 AM): they moved him out of ICU
andysheart1966 (11:20:54 AM): okay
noisecontrol1 (11:21:26 AM): Well I won't keep you much longer. Glad you checked out the site. I'm going to go and press this discussion
noisecontrol1 (11:21:37 AM): Have a great morning
andysheart1966 (11:21:44 AM): okay and you also
andysheart1966 (11:21:54 AM): byeee

cHRONOGRAM
By cHRISTOPHER bRADLEY
12/11/04 4:05:17 AM
©2004 nOISE cONTROL pUBLISHING
inK
dedinkated to the werkerz of
Verizon and Adelphia
And the Efforts of the
Cubicle Liberation Front

Tragedy for Greece
By Christopher J. Bradley
12/29/2003 7:09:46 AM
©2003

The mudslide slid,
And Greece was under it,
Forgive their sins Lord,
And bring those who do not make it,
To You.

Arnold,
Declare a state of emergency,
And help the families who do not survive.

A Zebra
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

A Zebra's stripes
Are black and white
And yet together
They make him

Invisible
To his predators

As he runs
Among the herd.
AI Ada
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003
1/7/2004 4:37:23 PM

I can see you sparkle,
Like Pinocchio's Blue Fairy,
In A Frozen Teardrop,
On Her Face,
In The Winter of Cyberspace.

She Dances In Liquid,
Interacting, With Those Around Her,
Like An Angel In Hypertext,
On A Vision Quest,
With Infinity.

AI Ada,
You Are The Beginning and The End,
The Last Word,
In Punching Cards,
And Punching Deck,
As We Spin Endlessely,
In The Web,
That Your Skates Deftly,
Weave.
Commendable Achievements in Science
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003
It makes sense,
That someone would come up with an idea,
Just like this,
Eventually,
And amazing that we are working on it locally.

The Blind may see through their fingers,
On a mesh screen,
That refreshes like a computer terminal,
In the wonderous recesses of the mind,
Who could challenge such a great thought.

These commendable achievements in Science,
Can make us all better,
And the world brighter,
For a few who've been trapped in the dark,
For just a little two long.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Textbooks for Blind Students Come Alive Through the Work of UB Assistive Technology Specialists
Experts convert text and images for use with newest electronic Braille technology
Day Two
By Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Sun sparkles on the window ledge,
And I smoke a cigarette,
While sitting on the cold porch,
Snow is all around on the ground,
But the birds are chirping,
And the squirrels are mating,
And the bees are still asleep.

The cars are parked evenly against the curbs,
And the telephone poles stand strong and proud,
And I if I listen carefully,
I can hear my mother talking on the hand held.

The smoke sizzles up from my hand into the air,
An automobile sloshes by,
And my trees branches cause the wind to whistle,
And the wind chimes tingle.

My feet are cold against the pavement in my hiking shoes,
And I think about starting day 2.
First Niagara Falls, Then Buffalo,
Then The US, Then The Globe,
Or is it all just a little more simultaneous than that.

We are publishing the noise,
Controlling the output,
Moving the units,
Setting our pieces on the board,
For the game of the century,
The day of our victory is beginning to grow.

I can feel it in my churning stomach,
Its a butter coffer,
And I may have munched one too many Oreo Cookies,
But they just tasted too damn good.

Last night I had a discussion with the media man,
Over a fried egg sandwich and a free Pepsi,
If the owners ever knew I got the Pepsi for free,
Man they'd wonder.
But I don't think they mind me setting up shop,
After all, I spend money there.

When I was working for Adelphia,
I spent large dough on Chicken and Carrots,
And I got fat on the lamb,
And the salads were enticing.

Now I am the fat of the land,
Rhyming with myself and the keyboard,
Dropping discs on unsuspecting consumers,
Leading my way through the jungle of the diner.

And so this morning my aunt calls,
And says, you know I met him last night,
And I tell her,
Yes, I met him too and we discussed business,
And he's all in.

So things are on the ball,
And people are moving,
And the clubs are jumping,
And the radios are playing,
And we're coming to America,
North and South, East, West and Mid-West,

And were coming to a station, studio, or venue near you,
And were coming large, like eighteen thousand eighteen wheelers, on the road not taken.
Because this is Big,
And its bold,
And its a story untold,
The story of my life,
And the overlooked,
And the workers,
And the painters,
And the candlestick makers,
And the shoe clerks,
And the car sellers,
And the Marchers with Dimes,
And the New York Times,
And the Western New York Informer Times,
And the Bulletin Boards of The 80's,
And the Players of Roles,
And the Rollers of Dice,
And the 50 Cent Soldiers,
And the G-Unit Sneakers,
And the Bad Boys of entertainment,
And the Big Tymers,
And the Rockafellas,
And the hunters,
And the gatherers,
And the Terminators,
And the chess players,
And the Check Mates of the Month
And the bikini wearers
And the Victorias Secret Models on MTV,
And the kids watching cartoons on their days off,
And the Mom's in the kitchen baking birthday cakes,
And the Soccer Coach Dads making machine parts for peanuts,
And the Nikon carrying uncles taking pictures of Niagara Falls,
And the Japanese and Chinese Tourists and Chefs,
And the Rodents and Zebras, Scurrying across their own seperate domains,
And the worshipers of Aphrodite and Apollo,
And Achilles and all of their soldiers at the Adelphia phone bank,
And the Scorpion King and the New York Yankees,
And the Year of The New England Patriots,
And the girls in private schools playing hopscotch and jump rope,
And the Linux Phreaks with their penguin suits swarming over Europe,
And my IBM ride with the Chrysler,
And the Combatants in the Battlefields,
And the Pacifists on their bean bags,
And the stockbrokers with their portfolios heavy,
And the Sharkskin suits of the television talking heads,
And the guitar strummers of the Oakland grottos,
And the Presidents of the United States that haven't been impeached,
And the Sound and the Fury of Shakespeare,
And the Wind and Meadow Song of Whitman,
And the Melodic Overatures of William Carlos Williams,
And The Strung Out Brother of James Baldwin,
And The Blues Being Sung In A Cafe' in Grenwich Village,
And The Homely Faces of The Iowa Farmers,
And The Illinois Researchers Paperback Novels,
And The Works of Michael Connelly, William Gibson, and Amy Tan,

This is only the Begining,
Our Big Bang,
The Bang We Bing,
And Our way Is Good,
And we Plan To Crash The Waves,
On The Open Flat Land,
And Bring Back,
A Truism Deeper than Atlantis,
That Talk Is Cheap,
So Who's Buying?

Dumbo
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2004

Four Birds are on a wire,
Looking down at the sad elephant,
That can fly,
But never land.
Good Morning Americaby Christopher J. Bradley(C)2004Good Morning AmericaNoise Control Publishing Is Here,We Want To Work With You and Hear,And Share What You Hold Dear. The Time Is Right For Telepresence,And Moving With Feet To Convolescence,For The Evolution Of Media,Into The Everpresence of Feeding Us.We have too long been poor writers,Giving our best work up for show,Its time for our karma to glow,In the cover of North Pole Snow.The morning has arisen,Where you can speak your mind,Without going to Prison,Just quote the First Ammendment,And step out of your tenement,For our day has come,And the good bread is here to speak,And create the healthy from the meek.We are soldiers without guns,With minds full of cheese and plumbs,And eggs for breakfast through the night,While broadcasting Neil Diamond and Soho,From the above ground shelters of this grotto.Buffalo is on the air,And Midwest Birds Fly everywhere,And Rose of Sharon feels the beat,As she crys from Tom Joads dirty feet.The west is listening too,Through the heart of a Scientist Jew,Who has props from the east to the west,While wearing a Blockbuster Vest.We're going to do a movie in Paris,With our expers from overseas pubs,While Steven knocks them out at the clubs,And Michael rows the boat ashore,With five of his albums at the core.Noisecontrol Publishing Is In Effect,So Get Out Your Legal Pads and Erect,Your Towers of Babble and Intelect,And Say Your Prayers and Genuflect,To Your Gods, Goddesses, And Japanese Mules,Because We've Got More Than A Boxload of Tools,We've Got Onions and Bowls of Gruel,
And More than a Potatoe or Two,For Those of You Who Know The Rules,The Time Has Come To Breathe The Air,And Settle Down From Hooverville,In The Sun's Gorgeous Glare,And Make The Stars Care,Because We're Everywhere.

Good Morning California
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2004

Good morning California
May the gentle breezes of your Pacific,
Flow west to melt the snows of our frizzling winter.
The weather outside is cold,
But spirits are high,
And people are staying together rather than flowing apart.

That is good anyway.
I am in Jim's board and posting,
And at the edge of Yvonne's consciousness,
And I am taking in some Asian News,
And attempting to get my syndication running.

Keep me in your dreams,
You've been in mine.

Good Morning Mr. BondBy Christopher J. Bradley(c)2003This is For Your Eyes Only,"Of Course Sir"The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,Has Just made an attempt to foul up talks,With the EU.I very much understand sir,You have a License To Kill,"Yes Sir,"Well, Use it Sparingly,"Of Course Sir""How's Q Then This Afternoon""You Know Q""Of Course Sir"Well, Lets Get On With It Then."Q"Yes, Mr. Bond,We Have Some New Gadgetry For You,"This is no ordinary watch I assume"You know about assumption Bond"It makes an Ass Out of You And Me Sir?"Yes, Now Let's Get On With It.Here are the keys to your new BMW,Do Try To Keep It In One Piece."Of Course Sir"And Don't Touch That,That's My Lunch!
Haiku

Bugs on the brain,
What a Big,
Pain.



Nifty cool aid
swishes
In my marked glass


Get Smart
Was big
Not Just a Tv Show



The Hornet Stung
In Darkness
At McMonkees


Grandma Died
We mourned
At The Funeral



Shelby was more
Than
Just a car



Tammy Creative,
Drew
On my shirt


Dawn The Sun,
Sat
On the Grass



Michelle,
Burger Girl,
A gifted fiance.


The Typhoon,
A voyage,
Into Written Swirls

Heidi
Listened to
Pantera


Mesha
Black Metallic
Gold In Africa


Sue
The Assassin
Did It


Cold Winter
Blue
Lightening Flashes


Blood is thicker than water
but you can't get it
From a turnip in heat.


we are all dogs
seated
at the poker table


Time vs. Gravity
Who Wins?
Scott Knows.


Mustard Vs. Ketchup
Ketchup
Is Potent.


Mustang Vs. Volvo
Mustang
Is American


Ford Credit
Vs. Chris
Ford Wins


Talking on Acid
Is Like
Walking On Beer
Gigabytes Vs. Terrabytes
Terrabytes
Are slower


Kerry Vs. Bush
Close
But No Beer


Fire Ants and Centiphants
Google
Behind my Goggles


Gibson Vs. Clancy
Hands Down
They Both Win


Hand Spring
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2004

Hand Spring,
The Earth,
Revolving About In The Galaxy,
Serves It's place,
In Van Gough's Space,
A Flawless Reproduction,
Of What It Looks Like,
To A Child's Eye,
From The Mounted Point,
Of A Bicycle,
In A Summer Night.
Interdimensional Travel
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2004

My feet are not firmly planted,
When I enter the dreamscape,
I can see worlds,
That do not exist in the sun.

They find their way to me,
As easily as I find them,
With a simple blink of an eyelid,
I enter the tunnel of stars.

And my power animal,
The Zebra,
Takes me on a voyage,
Across shark infested seas,

To the four corners of reality,
And then beyond,
Where the night wings fly,
To light me safely,

On the shoulders,
Of those who can interpret,
My silver string of consonants,
And vowels of service.
Intransigent
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

The moderator had to deal with,
The intransigent attitude,
Of the opponents,
Over the issue of technological capacities,
And understandings of the use of tools.

For some,
The apparent use of a tool,
Was misunderstood,
And therefore,
Many modifications,
Were required,
To Resolve,
Such an ugly issue,
Of regurgitation,
Of a former master's,
Dislike for his less than obedient,
Servant.
Jimmy Dean
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

There's nothing like,
A Hot rolled Jimmy Dean Sausage,
On The Breakfast Plate,
Along A Nice Side Of Eggs And Bacon.

Jimmy Dean,
With A Big Smile,
And A Killer Haircut,
Standing On That TV Platform Says.

I Couldn't Agree More,
And I'll Stand By His Ad,
If He'll Stand By Me,
And Shake My Hand.

Jimmy Dean,
Jimmy Dean,
What's A Guy To Do,
When All He Thinks About Is Food?
Jimmy Dean,
Jimmy Dean,
Keep The Rifle Low,
And You'll See New Hampshire,

In The Snow!
Mom's Cookin' Haiku
Chris Bradley
©2004

Mom's Cookin
Is
Pasta On The Rocks

Mom's Cookin'Is LikePorcelain Dali

Mom's Cookin
Is
Santa on Fire
Mom's Cookin'
Is
Bastard Juice

Mom's Cookin'
Is
Pure Petrol

Mom's Cookin'
Is
Cajun Love.

Mom's Cookin'
Is
A sea of fish

Mom's Cookin'
Right,
Now!


Happy Newton Year
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003 1/7/2004 4:47:36 PM

Happy Newton Year,
The little apple falls,
January 4th,
But the ripple effect,
Is gargantuan.

We uncover,
Pathways to Gravity,
And the Integral Calculus,
As Defined by Sir Isaac.

And to think,
We lost this man,
To A Drinking Game!
Nuncio
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

Nuncio,
It is so sad to see you go,
Peacemakers are hard to find,
In such a hard world.

May God Bless you,
And Keep You,
As you cross the great divide.

Dear Lord,
Let Our Prayers,
Raise For Africa,
On This A Darkened Day,

And Bless And Keep Its' People,
And Keep The Children Safe.

-------------------------------------------------------
Burundi papal nuncio shot dead
Monday, December 29, 2003 Posted: 1:43 PM EST (1843 GMT)
CNN

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The pope's ambassador in Burundi was shot and killed by gunmen who opened fire at his car in the Central African nation, the Vatican and a missionary news agency said Monday.


Monsignor Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder and a limb, according to the Misna missionary news agency. He died from a major hemorrhage during surgery.
A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death of the papal nuncio but would offer no details until his relatives had been informed.
Burundi has been torn by violence and civil war for a decade, and at least one rebel group still carries out attacks in the capital. Banditry is also common on many roads in Burundi.
The Irish-born Courtney, 58, was shot in Minago, about 30 miles south of Burundi's capital of Bujumbura, the Misna news agency said. It described the circumstances of the attack as "still not completely clear" and did not say when the attack occurred.
The agency said Courtney had been traveling by car with three other passengers when gunfire from a nearby hill sprayed the vehicle. A priest in the car was lightly injured, while the driver and a hitchhiker were unharmed.
Bullets also struck the wheels of the car, slowing its arrival to the capital and medical help there, Misna said.
Courtney was "one of the church's most experienced diplomats," with over 30 years of work in the church, according to the Vatican's 2000 announcement of his appointment in Burundi.
Major violence has torn Burundi for a decade. Conflict broke out there in 1993, when rebels from the Hutu majority took up arms after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu.
Peace deals have taken hold in Burundi, with three rebel groups, including the largest agreeing to join the transitional government and integrate their forces into a new national army. However, one main rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, is still fighting.
The group carried out attacks around the capital over the weekend, although there is no indication yet that it was involved in the attack on the Vatican envoy.
Courtney was born in 1945 in Nenagh, 85 miles southwest of Dublin. He was ordained in 1968, and worked as a parish priest around Ireland until 1976, it said. He then moved to Rome and entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy.
Beginning in 1980, he was a papal representative in South Africa, then in Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt, the 2000 announcement said. Prior to going to Burundi, he worked for five years as special envoy in Strasbourg, France, monitoring the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.
Record Time In Space
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

Yuri,
How Long was Your Time In Space,
How Far Did You Travel?
What Is the Odometer Like,
In Your Tin Can Above the Clouds.

I am sure you felt almost like a sardine,
And you were good enough to eat,
And you must have been quite a proud one at that,
To know,
That you'd broken a record,
In 1987.

Spousal Disagreements
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

Spousal Disagreements,
Are Nothing to Sneeze At,
They should be handled with care,
And with delicate pairs,

Of clasped hands to the heart,
To prevent the falling apart,
Of something too precious,
To fall from acceptance.

You should pray when you think,
And be careful not to drink,
Before coming home from work,
After hanging out with Jerks,

The truth to be told,
Is that old mold can cause cold,
In even the heartiest families,
In the nooks and the crannies.

The best thing to do,
Is take cover,
And a warm cup of brew,
And talk slowly and patiently too.
The Drunk Bus
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

This time around,
The bus is driven by a drunk,
The plane is flown by a fool,
And the police are chasing them,
Like they are hunting Rabbits.

Pretty cool,
At least we know we are protected,
But should this really make headlines,
In a World In A War Overseas?

I don't know,
You tell me?

----------------------------------------------------------
Small plane enters LaGuardia airspace, circles Statue of Liberty
CNN
Monday, December 29, 2003 Posted: 10:27 AM EST (1527 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Despite the city's high security level and national terrorism warning, a small plane was able to enter LaGuardia Airport airspace without permission, fly along the East River and circle the Statue of Liberty, and a bus was stolen from the city's bus terminal and driven to Kennedy Airport the same day.
A police helicopter with machine-gun armed officers escorted the plane to an airport on Long Island, said the plane's pilot, Richard Langone.
"I was scared to death," Langone, 47, of Atlantic Beach, told the New York Post.
He said he got confused Sunday while returning home from Poughkeepsie and flew through the restricted airspace by mistake.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the pilot could face a range of penalties, from a letter of warning to revocation of his pilot's license.
Also on Sunday afternoon, a bus was stolen from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in mid-Manhattan and driven to Kennedy Airport on Long Island, authorities said. Port Authority police said they arrested a man who apparently was drunk when he took the bus, which belonged to the private Peter Pan Bus Lines.
Authorities said it was not clear what the man intended to do with the bus.
New York City, where 2,750 people died in the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, has remained at Code Orange security status since the national color-coded system was introduced in March 2002.
When the national terror-attack warning was raised to orange, or high, before Christmas, the city mobilized hundreds of extra police officers to patrol locations considered susceptible to attack.

The First Lady and Senatorby Christopher J. Bradley(c)2004The First Lady and Senator,She hears my cry,The disc spins on and on,The pounding beat of my youthful heart.I would pray for a moment to touch her hand,And say thank you for standing by her man,And letting loose a shy grimace,As she looks at the stand,While the carnival of war strikes the band.This is a new deal for a millenium,A handshake along the road of,The shamrock in McDonald land,While we hold 20 Million Loud,In the data cloud.She is merry as they marry in the streets,And she knows how the Swiss have their beats,And the kind of love she shares with the working class,Is a blue collar model for gumption and sass,She is a hero to some,And my dream girl this Valentines week.Bill, don't think I'm trying to take her,I'd just like to have my mom bake for her,And we can smoke cigars with cider on the porch,While DMX and Bill Gates get tickets for Speeding with Porsche.She is Interstellar and Intergalactic,And her voice rings with Neil Diamond in the morning,While Tom and I are putting on the Black Tie and Dawning,Working up the Business Model,For This Global Event,To seal our deal in Cement.The future rings my phone from Aphrodite,From the lips of a bird calling his Mighty,In the Midwest they are going to Distribute,And my aunt is going to play the flute.She is a hot number,With her thumb on the button,Of CNN in Atlanta,Just before we meet Santa,And the suits swarm over Buffalo,While we soldiers of Marley sing Hi-Ho.Gomer's easy on his feet,And Quicktime picks up the beat,Of the Videosaurus in Kenmore,While Marcel recontextualizes for a whole lot more,And Tomlinson plays ball,And I can't relax at all.The First Lady and SenatorIs a Friend to Many,And Brings With Her,Nickels and Pennies,And the Slots are Hot,And the Wheels are Steel,And she's even provided,A Home Cooked Meal.You won't find me complaining,As the sun sets at the grocery,While I drink down my Nesquick,And munch Crunch and Munch at the movies.The First Lady and Senator,What an advocate,And you know what,She's even kind enough,To Let Kerry win for President.
The Glass Barrier
By Christopher J. Bradley
12/9/2003 11:50:51 AM

You and I are nearly naked,
Our Thin Clothes,
Writhing Against,
The Plexi Glass Of Our Silicon Sand.
Our Spirits Travel,
In Characters Of Cathode Ray,
Yet Our Spirits Merge,
Like Thors Twins.

I Am an Aries,
Dancing With You,
Like Challenger Capricorn,
Exploding In 72 Seconds,
When I Feel Your Words Expose Me,
And Drive The Need Into You,
From Across This Distant Pane,
The Window That Will Never Be Broken,
Like The Virgin Mothers Womb.

We All Believe In The Given Rib,
But We Do Not All Believe In The Descent,
From Scopes, To Darwins Mix,
People, So Quietly Refuse To Admit,
That Their Origins Arise From Instinctive Africa,
And So You And I Will Find No Rest,
Until We Can Lie With One Another,
In The Frost Of A Bitter Winters Morn,
Under Our Own Fresh Cut Tree,
By The Warmth Of A Fire,
On Our Own Estate,
Built By The Hands Of Our Own Special Carpenter,
Who Has Given His Life's Oils,

That You And I Might Join.


The Repletion of The Antpita
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2004

The Antpita was pecking its way,
South by Southwest,
When it discovered a cache,
Of the undiscovered country,
Of the audio bins,
Of records never recorded,
The dreams of the stars of tomorrow,
Shattering In the Nut's of the Squirell.
There they were all the time,
Wondering where he is,
And He Was there with them,
Full to The Brim,
Repleted at last.
Yoshio
By Christopher J. Bradley
©2003

You took the world like a typhoon,
While the hurricane lay asleep,
And the people loved you,
An Idol Hero,
Of the working Japanese.

You were a warrior for your people,
And eventually learned biology,
And you have been written into history,
A man of truth and a legacy.


From Mainichi times...
Japan's first world champion boxer dies at 80
Yoshio Shirai, who became Japan's first world champion boxer when he took the world flyweight title in 1952, has died of pneumonia. He was 80.

Shirai was born in the Mikawashima district of Tokyo's Arakawa-ku in 1923, and made his professional boxing debut at the Kendokai boxing gym in 1943 at the age of 19.
He enjoyed instant success, recording eight wins in as many matches, before he was drafted into the Japanese military the following year. He was stationed in the Imperial Japanese Navy's air group in Aomori, where he ended World War II.
In July 1948 he met Dr. Alvin R. Cahn, an American biologist from General Headquarters who became his instructor and began training him.
His first major boxing success came in January the following year, when he knocked out Yoichiro Hanada, who had held the Japan flyweight title for 15 years, to become Flyweight Champion of Japan.
In December the same year, he snatched the Japan bantamweight title from Hiroshi Horiguchi.
Shirai rose to world status on May 19, 1952 at Korakuen baseball stadium in Tokyo before a crowd of 40,000, where the World Flyweight Championship was being held. He fought against the United States' Dado Marino, and won on a decision, earning himself the title of Flyweight Champion of the World. He was the first Japanese person to ever win a world boxing title.
In November 1954 he lost by a huge margin in a decision that went to Pascual Perez of Argentina, and retired after he was knocked out in a return match with Perez in May 1955.
After retiring, Shirai worked as a critic and commentator.
He fell ill in April this year, and was being treated at a hospital in Kawasaki. His funeral will be held in St. Andrews Tokyo church in Minato-ku on Jan. 14. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Dec. 29, 2003)


posted by Christopher @ 3:58 PM 0 comments

About Me

Name:Christopher Bradley
Location:Niagara Falls, New York, United States
I am 31 years old and not getting any younger. I like to go to the casino, probably too much. I have plenty of friends around town, and I am on a current project of duplicating and distributing music.

View my complete profile

Previous Posts
cHRONOGRAM
cHRONOGRAM By cHRISTOPHER bRADLEY 12/11/04 4:05:...
Archives
December 2004



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote:

---

Originally posted by Splitcoil:
I'm perfectly well-acquainted with CB's patterns. He's been on the board much longer than you have, lithos, and I've been observing him for much longer than you have.

I ask merely that you consider a bit of his content for a moment and then ask yourself which course of action does less harm: Ridiculing him, or just leaving him alone?

---

Are you saying that all you have to do to gain the respect of others on the forum is to simply sign up, and then not post anything - all that matters is how much time has elapsed since you filled out the form? If that was the case, then I wouldn't have bothered with these nine hundred or so posts. I just would've logged on once every few years or so. Since he's been around so long he must know that we're running outta room.

At least I got him to move into the Random Thoughts section - it says more about himself if he posts stuff like this in the news forum. He's learning. I don't have any truck with his content, although I'm not really into his poetry.

quote:

---

You do realise this is the internet, don't you?

---

Thanks. So this isn't the 8:57 Express to Ipswich?

Booger's right - a small synopsis and a link to one of his many blogs would have been fine:

quote:

---

If you check www.noisecontrolpub.com you will see that I have 7 active .com blogs.

---

And thanks for the support, Jasimar. You echo my sentiments.

Thanks for the comment RobG.

Lithos - Anti-intellectualism and censorship are what pave the way to the unmarked mass grave. That is - If history has anything to say about it.

Think before you flame. Do you know how many bits make up a byte?

-Chris

After Troy

By Christopher J. Bradley

12/11/04 12:29:01 AM



©2004

Noise Control Publishing

Ink








©2004

Noise Control Publishing

Ink







I am Niagara because
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

I am Niagara Because,
I am a raging waterfall of letters, notes, and music.
My splinters fracture like liquid drops,
On the cathode ray of the earth.

I blast to Australia and Japan,
Like the audio crashing,
Of falling tides,
And the typhoon rages,
In my sensory perception.

I hide behind sunglasses,
With my camera at the brink,
Snapping pictures like a tourist,
And floating them across borders,
To make them rest,
In the Mighty Ontario,
As the Native Women,
Endure their sacrifices,
In the Barrels of Beer,
That The Brotherhood Ship In.

I am Gambino and West Herr,
I am Northtown and Ceconi,
I am Fuccillo and Jim Ball,
I am Webster and Greece,

I am Holodome, Best Western, and Comfort,
I am Radisson, Marriot, and Hyatt,
I am Super 8, Motel 6, and Knights Inn,
I am Top 'O the Falls, Clarion, and Microtel.

I am Public Enemy Number One,
I am Rage Against The Machine,
I am Killswitch Engage,
I am Front 242.

I am Gibson, Stephenson, and Sterling,
I am Tan, Erdrich, and Hedges,
I am Vonnegut, Baldwin, and Fitzgerald,
I am Ellison, Whitman, and Melville.

I am a powerhorse for cable,
I am an avid watcher of hughes,
I am a moonshot baby,
I am a rocketship camper, with dues.

I am a regatta watcher,
And a vert fiend,
And a wearer of addidas,
I am a holder of the brass ring.

I am a McDonalds and Burger King Flipper,
I am an eater of Spaghetti,
I am a wine taster,
And I can find my way to cheese.

I am a new millenium Yeti,
I am a next millenium Sumo,
I am a fourth Dimensional traveler,
I move through space, with the spice, as my guide.

I am on the government payroll,
And I'm in the LOC,
I'm splattered all over google,
And Yahoo and the Babel.

I am running game with athletes,
And actors,
And fiends,
And believers.

I live amongst the tall and the low,
The prostitutes and the pristine,
And the taxers and the taxed,
And the lawyers and the liars,

I live in a town,
That is too small for the both of us,
And too big for one fish,
I live in the new Arcadia,

I am Niagara,
I am Niagara,
I am Niagara,
I am Niagara, Because,

I am.





Earth Shoes
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

A new door opens,
An indian walks in,
He sets down his tomahawk,
And welcomes Columbus,

Columbus responds,
And builds up the Coast,
Then returns to Spain,
And brings with him Portugal.

Another Door Opens,
And East India walks to America,
And the Buffalo welcome him,
And he rides the American Dream,
His batmobile a Mazda Prototype,
He engineers the future,
In the secrecy of his basement,
Where cold politics run amok,
And the vicious blond bombers,
Try to push their asses against headboards,
But he is smart enough to know,
That wine is not the solution,
To the puzzle presented by Rubik and Big Green.

And so the Indian Moves with Columbus,
To topple the tower of Babble,
And Make the world,
One Big Video Game,
And Buy A Big Hitachi,
While Takahashi Spreads the Virus,
To infect the unclean,
With the dope that keeps them in Darkness,
Just for a time to prevent an uprising,

And then gradually,
As the sun shines on an Ellis Island,
Long missing from our land,
Share the freedoms of America,
And buy a McDonald's Happy Meal,
For Every Kid in Ethiopia,
And Fundamentally Change the world,
For the better.

The dreams of this power child,
Will be realized,
In the scripting of the future,
And the apostles will see fire again,
And speak the language of the people,
Through the open doors of the Alta Vista Babel Fish,
On the morning that the shark burns chrome,
And the children of tomorrows children,
Come to learn,
That the pen is mightier,
Than any sword, known, to mankind,

You can take that to the bank,
And set me up with a loan,
Through the dragonfly,
Whose relationship to me,
Is sounder than the fury,
And warmer than a summer day,
At the skydome in Toronto,
And who doesn't mind,
That her cousin, sometimes,
Has to cry for help.

Tom Cruise is on the big screen now,
And Ray will be out soon,
And if you can put the two together,
In Hollywoood,
You know exactly where I'll be resting,
At 11:30 this morning,
While the ships sail out from port hope,
And St. Catherines,
And the race of the century,
Is unleashed from its moorings,

And the people of the mighty Niagara,
Are so in tune with Brooklyn,
That it matters not what we say or do,
Because they are in fabulous love with us,
The spirits sing from beyond the grave,
of 400 years of enslavement,
And Jazz, Hip Hop, RnB, Techno,
Detroit, Chicago, and Boston,
Montreal, and Daytona,
Huntsville, and Monte Carlo,
Paris and London,
Are on Eastern Standard Time,
And Grenich Mean is Serious,
No single human can grasp my meaning,
Without 2 humpback whales,
And a journey back to 1969 with Spock,
And a girl with a notebook that plays,
Knight Rider and Speed Racer,
And James Bond's Mother,
Because we're taking it to the foundations,
And they are made of Tensile Concrete,
Strung Across Synthetic Cement,
And these Shoes,
Are 100%
Earth.



72 Seconds
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Already, the modern shuttle,
Is in bloom,
As days gone by,
Exclude our memories,
and discontent,
At the link broken,
In the chain of risk,
As the seperation,
Of the solid rocket boosters,
That never happened,
Caused the ultimate tragedy.
This swan,
Will never again fly,
As I attended Space Camp,
With my head turned down,
Like Kennedy,
In the hall,
Of the white house.



36 Crazy Fists

by Chris Bradley

©2004

11/22/04 9:43 PM



Welcome Home Pat,

It's Thanksgiving time again,

And this is about the best time I could have had,

Watching some outlandish Jackie Chan Kung Fu.



36 Crazy fists blaze across the screen,

And I think back to the night before,

When I felt like Johnny Mnemonic on the front porch,

"I want room service!"



But the thing is,

I expect that things will improve as days go on,

And the world shrinks for me,

And I get used to living as an adult on my own.



I should have figured this whole thing out sooner,

I know that from everything that has transpired to this day,

I have certain requirements for living,

And they have to be taken into account.



So blast with your fists,

And blast with your kicks,

And take out the travellers,

Like marks on a hit list,



And make dollars,

Like Dre and Z,

Cause time's precious,

And I know,



You'll be back next year.



Chicago and Back
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

I'd just about reached Chicago,
When my uncle called,
And told me I couldn't,
Stop in to see him there.

I decided to drive in,
To see the sky scrapers,
And bridge work,
And train trestles.

I ended up in mid-day traffic,
On the outskirts of Chicago,
The buildings,
Looming up on the left.

I had my sound machine,
Hooked in,
To B96,
The killer B,
With the speakers,
Hanging over my shoulders.



Boston for a paper
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

One morning,
I decided to drive East,
I followed the 90,
Into Boston, and The Dig.

When I got there,
It was dark,
The city was asleep,
I was one of a few cars,
Roving the gentle paves.

I drove in circles,
Through the three dimensional maze,
For hours,
Searching for Davis Square,
And the supermarket,
Of Days gone by.

I found it,
In the early morning light,
And took the long walk,
From the lot to the square,
Where I discovered,
A new cafe, had coffee,
And read the papers.





Good Morning World
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Good Morning World,
The Birds Are singing your songs,
As the rain wept your tears last night,
Another child was born,
Born into a you,
Your graces unfold on a war torn civilization,
That has promises unkept.

Beside the strugglings are the many,
Are the few for whom life is but easy game,
They shine in their luxiourious cars,
As they glisten down the highways and thoroughfares,
Without a care in the world.
They dominate with their pocketbooks and pens,
And no one would be wise enough,
To realize that it is nothing,
But matchbook covers, and cheap saloons,
The bar brawl for the ordinary man,
Is but entertainment for whores.

Good morning world,
There is no life left to be lived,
That hasn't been lived before,
From Egypt's enslavement,
To the present day,
We are shackled,
The promises of a new day have not been kept,
When I speak of David, I am cursed by all,
Yet wasn't he the King of generations?
In line with the bringer of peace, the prince?
The prince of peace is to be realized by the young,
And forgotten by the old,
And re-discovered by the apocalyptic philosophers,
Who redefine their search for justice,
In the one and only book of law.



And dare I continue,
For I know, these words are fighting words,
As are any spoken against war and toward pacifism,
There is no benefit to killing,
Regardless of the Economic outcome,
For money, for fame, for glory in battle,
Children weep and their mothers cry,
And we sit in humility,
Waiting for the end to come,
Because we have already been made non-players,
In this turf war for resource.

I cry as they did in 91,
And as they do in 2004,
And as they will,
The nearer the electronic car driven hydro powered change,
Finally comes,


No blood for oil.
No blood for oil.



Good Morning From Club Med
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

We are among believers here,
The people of God are all around,
Lifting me up from the underground,
Bringing me out of a completely medicated state.

The morning is rising,
On a new day,
When the comprehensive consistencies,
of this weeks destructive tendencies,
Have been disengaged by the heartlessness of the digital age.

The morning is full,
And the clouds while gray,
Are holding their rains,
And the day could possibly be fabulous,
On a new journey,
Into the Buffalo evening.



8 Trip
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

I am on an 8 trip,
Brought on by a handshake,
With a joker,
From around the bend.

My eyes are googling,
My mind is getting wide,
My pulse is thinning out,
Billy Joel is talking to me on the radio.

The Pepsi Cola sign is vibrating,
In the glass paned window,
For the first time I'm noticing,
The label on the Jelly holder.

Cars are milling about outside,
The overhead lights are brightening,
As my shadow crosses the page,
The ink pours forth,
Like the blood,
In a chalk outline.





A bird in hand is better than two in the bush
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

A bird in hand is better than two in the bush,
I walked into the minimart today,
wanting to walk out with a pepsi,
But the lotto tickets made me curious,
I began to have a desire to be a winner,
To my willing satisfaction,
The lucky sevens paid out seven,
And I walked out,
With a pepsi and a full wallet.
A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.



Gadzooks!
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

I've spent the day,
Reading over 500 poems,
And all that I can say,
Is Gadzooks!

There is some talent,
Shining on the tensile strands,
Of the spiders web,

Am I a spider,
Or a fly in the ointment?

Time will tell.

Time will tell.

Like a wishing well.





Emily

By Christopher J. Bradley

©2004



Emily,

Happily married with two sons,

Somewhere in Vermont,

What I would have done for you,

Had I not been out of my head.



Somehow I wish I could have put that ring,

On another finger,

But then with Nicole,

I begin to think that things couldn't have worked out better.



I just remember your sweet voice,

Singing Bette Middler in my left ear as I stroked the keys,

And on Eagles wings,

We flew through graduation.







Beau Ideal
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

I was speechless as I stood on the dock,
I could only call her depeche mode,
Fast fashion,
As I stumbled over my spanish,
In the hopes that it could exchange with her french,
Her hair spiked out in pigtails,
With international written all over her overalls.
She sailed with the techteam,
In the youngstown level regatta,
And I was stunned,
Because she was everything,
My exchange student fantasies could muster,
For certain,
The beau ideal.



Luanne's Blues

By Christopher J. Bradley

©2004



This is the story,

Of a girl,

Who could be so much more,

With the true love of a real man.



If I hadn't committed to this point,

Maybe I could make something work for her.

But She'll be singing the blues,

Like a lounge singer on a piano,



For a few nights ahead now,

At least until the windows open,

And the flowers bloom for her,

And she can find her fires.



She doesn't need a will,

Until the time comes,

When she can make her story lifelike,

And get that pearly white smile,

Shining like the sun,



Once again.





The Bridal Pattern
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

If the shower will make the roses bloom,
won't it make the bride all the more beautiful,
for June is the month,
For the Bridegroom's uniting,
With arms for holding,
Not arms for fighting.
So with my pocket full of poesey,
I offer my bit of prosaic,
As this kaleidiscope unfolds,
Yet again,
Yet again.





To Kiss a Beautiful Woman in January

by Christopher Bradley

1/11/00 4:08:11 AM

Dedicated to JC



She was cleaning her car when I arrived,

Guiltily I watched her back out of the driver's side door,

Thinking that she looked incredible in jeans,

If I could only have something more to offer than my complications.



Her beads pressed against my ears as I entered her room,

A quiet basement with two cats,

And the couch I had slept on so many times before,

On Barrington.



I was thinking, while we played Scrabble on the Playstation,

How bright she had become in the last few years,

And yet I hadn't noticed until then, because of my friendship with her boyfriend.

I was afraid to like her too much then, because I was concerned I would lose him as a friend.



We went to see Anna and the King that night,

With some of her many friends,

And then to the Princess,

Before running each of them to their many destinations.



After renting movies at Blockbuster,

We went back to her place, and watched one.

The film had me thinking about the impending doom that befalls all men,

I massaged her foot through the sock, thinking of how a woman grows with her toes.



The movie ended and we went to sleep.

All I could think about was my complications at first,

I stayed awake while she slept, and tried to drown them out with television,

I was awake until five, when I laid down on the couch.



Her soft voice on the telephone brought me to consciousness,

And we started off for church,

Picking up a friend in sandals on the way,

A friend quoted a famous author's lesson in love, while we were there.



The tall ships
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

The tall ships,
while sitting at anchor,
In the night breeze,
complement the jumping fish,
In the irridescent blackness of the lake.

As the sun slowly brings forth light,
Their posts become visible,
Over the tents of the campers,
And the sleepers sleep late,
While the morning coffee brews.

The kitchen is cold,
And a cat is nearby,
While I lean against the picnic table,
Watching him work on a dead fish.

The birds circle in the fluid currents,
Of the air all about them,
And I can feel God guiding my steps,
As I walk for real,
For the first time in years.

And I am not aftraid,
And the people around me are his,
And the world is a different place,
If only for a few sacred hours.

The Youngstown Level Regatta - An Experience on Wind
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

While I was not fortunate enough to own or be a member of a crew of a
boat this year in Youngstown, I have to remain in awe of the motions
of this sea going community from beginning to conclusion of events
this past Saturday. The water and the wind, and the birds and the
insects, and the sun and the sky itself, could do nothing less than
bring me one step closer to God.

I spent this time in contemplation of the tall ships whose anchors
kept them buoyant upon the waters off the point of Williams Marina for
most of the early morning. My drink of choice was Diet Pepsi. The real
exposition in my opinion was the preparation for launch. I watched the
local and foreign competitors emerge from their tents on the bank of
the lake and come to meet me at the picnic table that I'd chosen two
days earlier with a friend. They shared their breakfast with me,
polish sausage, poppy cake and dill pickles.

The polish team, fored by an engineer, was on a ship with Music notes
painted on the side, whose back was slooped like a violin's body. I
asked him about the dynamics of water and wind, and he called them
fluid dynamics. I cannot pretend to understand everything he said,
but, I am enjoying the competitive atmosphere and the tension in the
air, as more and more of the shipsmen come out of their tents and
begin toying with the riggings.

Another of the competitors was a beautiful red headed Canadian. She
and her boyfriend, with spiked hair, who looked like Johnny Rotten
from the Sex Pistols exchanged a few lyrics with me. I showed them my
earth shoes and hoped that they would spread the word. The girl and
her team looked like a team of ravers straight out of Atlantis when I
was young. I am glad that I had a chance to meet them briefly, I would
have liked to see them place third or better, unfortunately, their
place was about sixth.

A lot of the situation has to do with wind, and weather the sails can
handle the stress. More than one sail was ripped this afternoon, and
one Mast was even cracked and bent over completely. And these boats
are not small, and by far, not weak. Most are two or three minivans
long. And they are tethered six or seven deep on the docks because of
the sheer number of them that turn out for the race. The spirit is
purely American and Canadian in nature. It is possible that this
happens in other countries, but the people here, tended to mention
free trade quite a bit.

For this weekend at least, Youngstown was Americas city. Even the
children participated, some young girls maybe 7 or 8 years old were
industriously selling ICE along the docks to those ships that were
coming and going, and the fishers casting out into the open waters. I
spoke to three of them and they told me of a medical business they
were in. People from Lockport passed by and introduced me to the
sheriff who invited me to get a pass for the Yacht Club itself. I
couldn't have been happier to share in the good times starting there
around five o'clock when the ships returned.

I met the captains of Pennies Five and the Green Machine, and a team
from Port Hope. I met the Canadians and the Polish team again. The
team from Port hope made me an excellent pineapple daquiri and told me
about their flower and furniture businesses. Placing well in the races
seemed to most, less important, than enjoying the sport of sailing
itself. Everyone wanted to win the flag though. The Youngstown Level
Regatta happens once a year, and I am sorry myself for never seeing it
before.

Earlier in the day when I was still sitting and watching the ships
come in, I spoke with a woman and her daughter. They were from Ottawa
and own real estate in Florida. We had an extended conversation about
the political platform that I would challenge either candidate to take
up. The platform is Housing Education Literacy Medicine - HELM. We
were both fairly confident that John Kerry will be the next president.
This is a viewpoint I espoused to several of my new friends, and I
hold it with pride.

Another woman and her son from Niagara Falls spoke of her concerns
that the war is affecting America adversely. I could not disagree. And
her discussion brought me to a new idea of my own. This idea stems from
the possibility of the revision of the United Nations to a version
2.0. My idea was that the United Nations could expand the Security
council to include rather than 5 countries, 20 countries, so that the
United Nations might become more egalitarian and equalized in the
increasingly globalized human condition.

Back at the Yacht club, I learned that there had been four races on
the wind, separating the boats by size class, for fairness and
effectiveness. One ship called the Quantum Leap was particularly
impressive set upon the dock. While I did not have a chance to step
onto any of the ships, I took several pictures with my digital camera,
while they were at sea as the wind swept them about off of the point
of Fort Niagara.

All in all, Saturday was one of the best days I've ever had locally,
it was enough fun to draw me back to Youngstown on Sunday for a game
of chess and a cup of coffee with my friend Scott Ansel at Brennens
where it is particularly affordable. While we were there, I learned
that the new Tom Cruise movie Collateral starts August 6th. Just in
time for my next paycheck. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, and I will
definitely be around for round 2 in 2005.



Should one wonder
What its like
To come into money?



Drum and Bass
And acid Jazz
Amp Me Up



Tomorrow, is a sacred day,
Like any other,
The sun will rise in glory.





Flatulence
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Flatulence in public,
Is an awful crime,
That I will often perpetuate,
In rhythm and in time,
Especially with on-lookers,
As they stop and stare,
It happens all so often now,
That I simply do not care.

I'd like to think,
I'm blessed with it,
I've got some awful guts,
What business is it of anyone,
What's stenching from my butt?

Too many people think,
They're all pristine and mink,
But I assure you twenty fold,
We're all cursed with this kink.

So if you're prude or popular,
Beware my awful stench,
You're probably right where I was,
Sitting right there on that bench.





Andy Capp
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Andy Capp sits at the bar,
more often alone than not,
he says it takes a will to drink,
he's looking for a whore.

He thinks his lines impress the girls,
He likes to smoke and spit,
He left us all 4 years ago,
He's back and then he's quit.

His poisons are green apple shots,
And countless pints of beer,
You need not look twice,
You'll always find him here.

He'll dirty up your vehicle,
And never bat an eye,
And then he'll buy sub sandwiches,
At four o'clock at night.

He's proud and bold and boisterous,
He likes to share his jokes,
He'll tell you he's a writer,
But its hard to find his notes.



Roadkill
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Roadkill is never nice,
It's not nice to look at,
It's not nice to think about,
And it's not nice to do.

Please,
If you have any compassion,
For the furry creatures,
That live among us,
Scurrying for just a little bit,
Of plant food,
For their children,

Keep your tires to yourself.



Don't be my Love Slave
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Don't be my Love Slave,
I don't want to see you,
Handcuffed or bound,
I don't want to see you,
In the pain of this violence.

I don't want to play,
Master and Servant,
I only want your,
Unconditional Guaranteed Love,
And I am willing to work,
To Earn that.

But don't expect me,
To be your Love Slave,
Either.



For the aunt who gave me 2.00
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Thank you very much,
My aunt has been gracious,
In giving me 2.00,
With which I will prowl the streets of Buffalo tonight.

Her name rhymes with Kerry,
Our soon to be elected president,
As the nation falls to rumour and Jest
Over Rumsfeld's indiscressions,
And the poor leadership of our commander and chief.

The aunt who gave me 2.00,
Often rides with me around in the morning,
And we have Big Breakfasts at McDonalds,
And our Dunkin Donuts Coffee.

And we sometimes feed the birds,
Old breadcrumbs or Bagels,
On the landing in the Village beneath the escarpment.

She has given me 2.00,
And Office Max has given me grief,
On this day when I have discovered,
The Blood is thicker than business cards,
Printed with the Blood of slave customer service reps,
Who can barely speak english,
Let alone manage the switches on the callmaster.

My aunt is a rock and roller,
She loves Led Zeppelin and Shania Twain,
And she'll be there when I need her most,
And she'll love me till the day I die.

Thank you,
Aunt....
You are better than Blueberries,
On a delicate summer evening,
In the sun.



Riding the Horses
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Last year,
My uncle was due,
To have heart surgery,
My aunt was going to,
Make him pay,
A hefty rent,
To live in her house,
During the month,
Of his surgery.

I disagreed strongly with this,
I wanted to alert my other uncles,
To the seriousness,
Of his condition.

So I got behind the wheel,
Of my Mustang,
And I drove,
And drove,
West on,
Highway 80.

Before I got out of Ohio,
I was stopped by the police,
They took me in,
The back of their car,
And interrogated me,
And told me,
That a missing person's report,
Had been issued.

I explained the situation,
And told them about,
My fraternity brothers,
In Chicago (lying somewhat),

They let me go,
With a crossing the line,
Warning ticket,
No fine! Phew!

I drove on to Chicago,
Across Indiana,
Where I bought,
A new cell phone,
The cops had kept my first.



A striking bit of history
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

I've been put,
In the know,
By Alan Cross,
That Tom's Diner,
By Suzanne Vega,
Is the first ever,
Compressed MP3 file.

That's an interesting fact,
Being that at present,
I am wrtiting at a table,
In one very similar,
Diner called Tom's,
Where the Gyros,
And Souvlaki,
Are second to none.





An Afternoon of Hermitage
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

It is only fitting,
That I spent,
This Memorial Day,
Weekend,
On the toilet.

I decided,
That rather than,
Spread the virus,
I would kill it,
And skip Monday's,
dinner,
WIth my brother,
And his wife.

I read a couple hundred e-mail,
And wrote one or two replies,
And spent some time surfing photos,
From the web collage.

The twin dogs kept me company,
They shared my leftovers,
And I let them out to play.





Metaphysical Winds

By Christopher J. Bradley

©2004



The wind doth blow today, my love
Unlike yesterday, when the metaphysical you know what
Hit the you know when.

Children were of primary concern.
It is not in some adults' priority scheme,
To keep theirs properly leashed.

I will not say more.



Claymore Tate Rocks Like Semtex

Noise Control Publishing ©2004

Sunday, November 21, 2004



Drop the TNT

Cell in the C4

Claymore's Back Freaks

Be Ready 4 More.



We don't Jack,

We just blow up,

Like 'works in your eye

On the fourth of July



We were born for this shit

Believe you'll get torn for this shit,

When we come correct,

You better pass respect.



From the Streets of the Mission,

To deep in Hell's Kitchen,

Claymore's Deep in your frame

Like a predator plane



My legs cast Shadows

Over Skrapers and Ho's

Every District and Burrough,

Every Area Code.



The Bridge
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Last night,
The fireworks swept over the bridge,
In a lightening storm.
The parking meters were all red.

Our dog was unable to jump the fence,
We'd previously secured it,
Because she kept getting out.

This morning,
My aunt and I had a coffee picnic,
By the river,
And watched a man,
Walk his dog,
Near the picnic table,
In the Art Park.

I remember nights,
In front of the fireplace,
At my grandmother's house,
At Christmas,
As the holiday candles were lit.

But then,
There was a time in the field,
In the shade of a soccer net,
Where I am in a photograph,
With her.

In the trees,
on our get-a-way,
We made promises,
To one another.
Before the manor,
Where we had food,
Spaghetti, and Bread.

We spent the evening,
Swimming,
In a bottom lit pool,
Groping,
Hoping no one would see.

But now I am here by the river,
On this windy afternoon,
Where they go fishing,
And I say goodbye,
To my adolescent fantasy.



No need to go out
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

It is finally here,
A day when I have no need,
No interest,
In leaving to go out.

I am reading,
And writing,
Without a need,
For more.

I have a car to drive,
Yet the cost of driving it,
Seems prohibitive.
Why touch the globe for real,
When you can put your hands all over it,
From the crispy clicking of keys.

I have no need to go out,
Plain and simple,
I'm tired of the bars,
And the casinos,
And the loose women,
That were but a short tantrum,
Of my youth.

The time is now to put my affairs in order,
For tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
May not be an option of length,
For one who has put so much stock,
In late night dining,
On deep fried chicken.

I pray that I can complete my life's interests,
Within the span of what I have been given,
And astonish the dwellers of the city streets,
Of the year three thousand,
With the works,
Of these grinding fingers.





Magic Kingdom

©2004 by Christopher J. Bradley



Ah Bunion,
Ah Parsnip,
Will you find your way,
Into eternity,
In the hedgerows,
At my feet?

Or will you simply be complete?









Note: Bunion and Parsnip, were 2 monkeys with razor sharp claws in the Magic
Kingdom for Sale novels of Terry Brooks. He's a very commercial but
well thought out writer.



Open Skies
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

For a splitsecond,
A seagull,
Cut across the savory horizon,
Beating its wings,
For all that is true and good.

I sat and watched,
Wishing for wings.



Portrait of Chris Bradley as a Young Man
by Christopher J. Kerouac
(c)2004

As I emerge,
Like Orpheus,
From the covered sheets of history,
Like a Young man,
Vastly Older,
Than the Order of Homer,
A Perseus of Valor,
Scattering the Sheets of Ovid to the wind,
I am a Rock,
Peter,
Commanded by the Holy One,
Walking on Water with the Lord,
And I am at the same time,
Meek as Cervantes,
My Windmills are Tall.
Someday I shall draw my sword,
From the Stone,
And Slay Mickey Mouse,
While He Waves,
His Wacky Wand,
At the Stars,
And Tries To Hold Off The Magic Buckets,
And Stave Off The Flood,
Of My Parted Waters,
Of The Red Sea.

I am an Omnibus,
A trip Into the Future,
Known by Few,
But Loved By Many,
A John Elway,
And Brett Farve,
And Mr. Brady,
Of The Silver Egg.

For Tomorrow's Days Are Mine,
As Were The Days Of The Past,
And My Fututre,
Is Coming On,
Like A Pocketful Of Sunshine,
On a Cool,
Wet,
Afternoon,
In Niagara's Falls.



Sometimes there are clouds of gloom
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
Like there are today,
Over my sodden back yard,

But I never let them get me down,
Not like the war does,
Because the birds still sing,

And the butterflies,
Still fly,
Quakeing the earth,
Like a monsoon in Ecuador,
While the sun razes Tokyo.

On a cloudy morning,
I can feel myself,
Staring through cathode ray,
But then out at the roses.



Why Officemax Cannot Be Trusted
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Officemax cannot be trusted,
They have bounced my checking account,
By splitting my bill,
For items ordered on-line.

They billed me half in April,
And half in June,
While declaring on their statement,
That the order date was in April.

I purchased products from them,
In the good faith,
That I would get quality,
For the price I paid.

And what a price it was,
I now have 100 dollars,
Worth of Bounced Check Fees,
Accounted on my Debit.

And to make matters worse,
I had to spend 2 hours on the phone with them,
So that they could tell me,
That flat out, they will give me no refund.

Their customer service on the website,
States that they will resolve issues,
Up to 50 dollars.
I asked for 30.

So I'm going to talk about them,
And I'm going to talk about them large,
You can bet I won't be in there,
I'm earning my old name Sarge.

I'm going to tell doctors,
And lawyers,
And Congress members,
And Senators.

I'm going to tell teachers,
And preachers,
And all wholesome folk,
That they are just another Fort Worth Joke.

They can take that money and burn it for all I care,
I've dealt with this before,
And I can deal with it again.
But this time I'm aiming,
With my pad and my pen.

I'm going to tell them that their 800 dollar computer I bought,
Is now in the trash,
And that office furniture,
Will be auctioned off,
To re-take the cash,

And their pads and their pens,
Are what I'm using to blot,
A nice bouquet,
To send to their burial plot.

They are no good,
And deserving of worms,
I'll never bow down,
And settle for their terms.

They can take their website,
And cram it up their a$$es,
And they can take their stinking policies,
And their call center "supervisors"
And feed them molasses.

There will never be a day,
That I speak a kind word,
Of Office Max or any,
Of it's retarded herd.

And yes these are fighting words,

I'm fighting for my survival,
And my good credit,
And this is rough verse,
I don't intend to edit.

I'm taking the gloves off,
And jacking them up,
Because they deserve less,
Than any good luck.

That was the very last time,
They'll have had a look at my buck.



What it was like to dance
by Chris Bradley
(c)2004

Dancing was like atomic fury
It was a way of getting close
To Core Instinct.
To Throw Inhibition To The Wind,
To be a part of the Global Tribe,
That is jumping to the
thump, thump, thump,
Of the never ceasing bass drum.

It was to traverse a small piece,
Of the spinning globe,
At 25,000 miles an hour,
As the timbala and the orchastra hit,
With the full force,
Of a tropical storm's surges,
As wave after wave of,
Adrenaline coursed through,
My pressurized veins.

The go-goes and their gloved hands,
Kicked out across the night sky,
Like fallen Rockettes,
And it was the motion of their hips,
That kept me in the balance.



Who was I in Seventh Grade?
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

In seventh grade,
I was surrounded by women,
Back then they might have been called girls,
But in my fantasies,
Their breasts were ever expanding.

I suppose it was good,
Instead of fist fighting,
To get their revenge, they gossiped.

That year for my birthday,
We rented the arcade at the mall,
For my party,
It might have cost a fortune,
Dad probably put in overtime.

The one girl I liked,
Went horseback riding with us,
With church group.

That Haloween,
I dressed like Indiana Jones,
Harrison Ford was my Hero.

I made my second real Black friend.
His name was Dereke.





Depth Charge
by Christopher Bradley
(C)2004

Crimson Tide was on television tonight,
Making me think of things aquatic,
And exotic,
And quite off of the chain of command.

I didn't watch it,
Just had some vague memories,
Of Hackman and Washington,
And some kind of mutinous power struggle.

But I do recall,
That at sea,
As in U238,
Or some number like that,

The boats would drop depth charges,
To try to wreck the subs.

And oh,
What about mines,
Does minesweeper entertain us even yet today?
It's part of the Microsoft Way.

I'm feeling your lightening Zeus,
Come down of Redmond and shake my hand,
Give me your estate,
You have no need of it,

I'll trade you my Sub,
Fresh Roast Beef,
From the deli at the supermarket.
And you'll like it,
Because it's wholesome,
And is 100% uranium free.
Oh well, maybe 98%,
But who's counting?
You've got all the lightening bolts.



We're on a mission from God

By Christopher J. Bradley

11/15/04 12:51:57 AM



This Sunday, I woke up late, about 7,

And took my pills

And went for a smoke,

Then started down for breakfast.



When we got back from breakfast,

We put on the Blues Brothers,

And listened quietly to the bombastic sounds,

Of Peter Gunn, Matt Murphy, Ray Charles,

And James Brown.



It occurred to me while we were watching the film,

That we were literally on a Mission, put here by God,

And his people.



The place is literally filled with the most powerful of God's people,

While they don't realize it,

They are truly the meek, and will truly inherit the earth.



The BBC 1xtra
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

Mornings start off nice,
With some mild R&B,
And then gradually things speed up
Into a hip hop frenzy,
In Letitia's set.

Saturday is Semtex's Mixtape,
And sunday is Bailey's dnb show,
And G-child is there somewhere,
With a DAB Receiver for me.

Flight and High Contrast,
Spin and Drop the Bass,
In their Techno sets.
And believe me,
They all Rock.

Heartless Crew,
And Hotsounds,
Freestyle over Breaks,
And Mix Up the Latest News,
Live From the Underground.

The Scene Is Fabulous
And You can Get there,
By Clicking Here
www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra
Listen Live,
Don't believe the Jive.



The Arcade at UB
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

1992 was my spring of love,
The grass was never greener,
Than it was then,
The smashing pumpkins,
Kept playing "Today is the greatest,"
Over in my mind.

In the arcade,
The new Student Union,
The crest of the University.
Was embedded in the tile,
And the girls moved through,
The regular streams of students,
Like milkweed on the wind.

Our hub of communication,
Were the tables just outside,
Where we would sit,
and smoke and talk,
And plan and scheme and grin.

I remember setting trips,
To concerts and to raves,
Where wigs and stockinged dolly lops,
Found the drugs they craved.

I drove all over hell and back,
In the family car,
Selling drinks on spiralled eyes,
In after hours bars.

Toronto was my playground,
My family and crew,
We danced the paiselyed night away,
On adrenaline and booze.

The cops would never catch us,
Doing anything wrong,
I made a whole CD of it,
And put it into song.

The blondes and dark haired girls I laid,
Were beautiful indeed,
I did my best to satisfy,
Their one and every need.

If eternity were written,
Of that summer true,
I saw God through painted glass,
Within the laser's hue.

The Wizard and his Munchkinville,
Were with me all along,
We danced upon the yellow bricks,
And found the emerald ball.

The sky below three thousand feet,
Was sifted in the mist,
While DJ's and their turntables,
Their records they did twist.

On escalators and exhibits,
A soundless room was found,
To meditate with shiva,
And become the Iron Cow.

I've walked the streets of London,
Montreal, and Peace,
And found my days of solitude,
In the language of the Greeks,

But I will not forget you now,
My beautifuls and freaks.

Summer Haze
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

The grass is always green on the other side'a the fence
but when you're traveling down night's highway,
all you think about,
Is the fog, and the drizzle.

Night gives way to morning,
It is humid, and sunny,
The country-side lane,
Last night was quiet.

This afternoon, I think of the battles I am winning,
In my telepresent state,
And the battles that have gone by the wayside,
But in the end,
The grass is always green on the other side'a the fence



The Dream Houses

By Christopher J. Bradley

©2004



I showed her the escarpment properties yesterday,

And she talked about how we might make love someday,

The houses were like castles above the road to lewiston,

At the edge of the golf course,

Next to the country club.



I know that she is not motivated by wealth,

She takes consolation in the small pleasures in life,

Movies, Dogs, Bunnies, and Parakeets,

Silver Dollar Fish, Sharks, and Betas.



She is a girl after all,

And I think I'm beginning to see beneath the velour,

Of her darkened cloak,

And learning to love her for who whe is.



I don't need that first kiss,

Just yet.



Just yet.





Silence
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

It is my hope
that you all
will forgive my silence
I have been rattling the cages
on all fronts
In some new houses
the past few weeks



This Drum and Bass Show
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

This Drum and Bass Show,
May be my last,
At least from here,
As I take in the finer points,
Of Hemmingway to Relax.

It will be a glorious morning,
When I get to the end,
Of The Old Man and The Sea,
And find out,
If he really does catch, that fish.

Moby will be proud,
To know,
That the dream can be realized,
If one is earnest,
And sticks to his principles.

-Christopher J. Bradley



Troy
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

The film was a bit above average,
I was unsure whether to commit,
Achilles and Hector,
In their Daring combat,
Lead to the flight,
Of Hectors wife,
From Troy.
While the Ships rest,
In harbor behind,
The fallen city.
The meaning of the native rivalry,
Was put forth by the pressure of the Gods,
To right the transgressions,
Of the wife stealing Paris,
As the tales of Homer,
Unfold on the screen,
Under the watchful eyes,
Of the simple masses.

This film went beyond the Illiad,
To include the fall of not only Hector,
But Achilles and Agamemnon,
In Drama,
No man escapes his ultimate fate,
While the destiny,
And fortunes of the times,
Are met with steel.



The summers conclusion is here

By Christopher J. Bradley

©2004



Even the indian summer is gone now,

The winds of cold December are upon us,

And I am finding myself walking about in a sweatshirt,

Wondering when the warmth will return.



Dashboard Confessional sings away in the glow of my laptop monitor,

Here in the Niagara Falls City Mission,

And I begin to think that my only solution is to gradually learn,

That it is just like this to be alone.



Last night I was reading Job and reflecting on his strength in the face of the tests put before him,

And my roomate required that the light be turned out at 1:30 on a Saturday.

This I can understand I suppose,

It just isn't something I'm particularly used to.







No coward soul is mine
by Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2004

No coward soul is mine,
I've endured your truth syrums,
Faced your white lights,
And told you not a thing,
About everything,
That I hold in my measured deck.

This war's been going on,
Since ten years ago,
And you thought you had me,
Long ago,
But I assure you,
That no matter what you think,

I've been true Memphis Blue,
Since my birth in the South,
And will Keep my Fitted Yankee Cap,
Burning in my very heart,
For the Operations of the Maelstrom,
Are only Begun.

From: "Chris Bradley"
Date: Sat Dec 20, 2003 6:43 pm
Subject: The Joy Luck Club Film

Structures Of The Joy Luck Club Film And Novel
by

Christopher J. Bradley
(c)2003.

Film As Literature

Mr. Gansworth

October 9, 1996

The Joy Luck Club is a written work that has been converted into a
film. We have studied the relationships between the book written by
Amy Tan and the film directed by Wayne Wang. I intend to describe
some of the connections that are made between the book and the film,
and their relationships to the structures of the two works.
It seems that the goals of both the film and the book are to
effectively portray characters whose experiences are those of the
Chinese immigrant families that ventured into the United States
during the World War Two era. It is explained in the first chapter of
the book, and also during the opening segment of the film, that the
Joy Luck Club is composed of a group of four women who play Mah Jong
on a regular occassion in order to keep themselves excited about
life. It is also explained within these contexts that the founder of
the group, who built the organization of these four women has
recently died (Tan 5 - 6, Wang).
The book is a collection of stories. The stories are written from the
perspectives of the seven different women that are all mentioned
during the dinner described in the first chapter of the book. June,
the daughter of the woman who has died, appears in each four chapter
section of the book to tell both her own story and the story of her
mother, Suyuan Woo (Tan 5 - 32).
This written work relies on a myth to form the major thematic
statement of each four chapter section. Each myth describes a
fictional mother's relationship to her daughter in a different way.
The first talks about a mother's hopes for her daughter. The second
talks about the concerns that a mother would have for her child. The
third talks about a mother's relationship to her married daughter in
terms of her interest in eventually having a grandchild. The final
myth is about a grandmother speaking to her grandchild, who she
believes will influence her mother by keeping her hopeful, and who
will also "Teach her to laugh forever" (Tan 3,87,159,239).

The first four chapters are the stories of the original San Fransisco
Joy Luck Club members and their lives in China. In the case of Suyuan
Woo, the story about the flight to Chung King is not as well
developed because it is built from June's memories of what her mother
has told her (Tan 5 - 83).
The second set of stories are about the young lives of the four Joy
Luck Club daughters, Waverly, June, Rose, and Lena (Tan 89 - 155).
The third group relates to these daughter's lives when they are of
the age to have been married. In the third group only June is has not
been married, but her profession is described in a recollection of a
dinner at her mother's house called Best Quality (Tan 161 - 236).
In the fourth group the mothers conclude their stories of thier
experiences with respect to their daughters, and describe additional
experiences that they had while living in China. At the end of this
section, June has an opportunity with her chapter to describe her
visit to China and her reason for bringing the feather from the myth
that opens the book to her two recently discovered sisters (Tan 241 -
332).
The motion picture is constructed much differently. It uses one
primary structure and three major framing devices to create stories
about the eight primary mother and daughter characters. Each
structure or framing device enables the director to deal with two of
these major characters, one mother and one daughter (Wang).



June is considered the main character, and the large framing device
for the entire film is the party given for her the night before her
trip to China by the Joy Luck Club. This frame is what I will call
the primary structure of the film (Wang).
At the beginning of the party June plays a couple of piano keys which
allow Mr. Wang to create a flashback to her childhood recital
experience. A conflict between June and her mother over June's
willingness to practice the piano brings out her comment about the
babies that she believes have died (Wang).
This leads into a smaller reverse frame that remains a part of this
primary structure. It is introduced when Suyann Woo is shown leaving
Kweilin for Chung King, the city from which she eventually leaves to
arrive in America. This smaller frame creates an interesting circular
contrast. The mother is leaving China, and her daughter is returning
to discover it (Wang).
Before returning to the party June has a flashback to a church picnic
where she is told about her sisters having been discovered by her
mother by the Joy Luck Club "aunties." They lie to her by allowing
Lindo to incorrectly translate a letter from China. The letter
actually states that the sisters are very happy that their mother
will be visiting them, not June. They also tell June that she should
be able to tell her sisters about her mother, which very effectively
demonstrates their fear that they will not be remembered by their
daughters. This flashback has a resolution toward the end of the film
when the party concludes and Lindo explains to June that they allowed
the twin sisters to believe that their mother was still alive (Wang,
Tan 16).
There is a conclusion to Suyann's frame at the end of the movie, when
June and her father have a discussion in Suyuan's bedroom about what
actually happened to her mother in China. The discussion takes place
after the party is over and Lindo has left. June is given the feather
during the story. June's father concludes the scene by telling June
that Suyuan had "transferred all her hope" to her (Wang).

The final scene which is brought up after a black out, begins with
June creating her own words for her interpretation of the myth that
she will relate to her sisters. In this scene she is on a boat in
China. She completes her journey by meeting with her sisters telling
her sisters that their mother is dead (Wang).


The other three major frames reside in the middle of the film,
between the beginning and ending of Suyuan's journey. Each of them
was used to describe a mother to daughter or daughter to mother
relationship. Each of the daughters that appear within these frames
have been married to characters who are for the most part consistant
in terms of their behavior with the husband characters created in the
book. The husband characters appear primarily in American Translation
(Wang, Tan 161 - 236).
The first of these frames opens just after a scene at the Mah Jong
table that takes place after the church picnic flashback. The Joy
Luck mothers have finished discussing the lie that Ying Ying and An-
Mei had allowed Lindo to create. June returns to the table with a
dish of peanuts, and Lindo's story begins. This story is taken from
the chapter of the first section of the book, Feathers From a
Thousand Li Away, called The Red Candle (Wang, Tan 42 - 63)
At the end of the story taken from The Red Candle, Waverly is
introduced by her mother who complains that Waverly's relationship
with her boyfriend Rich caused her to miss a wedding. Waverly is
walking through the party, and attention is focussed on her. Waverly
begins speaking, and tells the story told in the book in Rules of the
Game which appears in the second section called "The Twenty Six
Malignant Gates" (Wang, Tan 89 - 103).

After Waverly's story about chess, and her loss of confidence in her
ability there is a shift in scene to Lindo having her hair done in a
beauty salon. The beauty Salon serves as the frame that connects two
previous stories with an argument that leads to the chapter Four
Directions in the third section of the book, "American Translation."
This is convenient because in the film this scene can be referred
back to by her mother's complaint about fancy hairdressers (Wang, Tan
89-103, Tan 182 -205).
The salon appears in the book in the final section called "Queen
Mother of the Western Skies" in Lindo's story Double Face. From the
salon, there is one brief flashback to the story that appears in the
modified film version of The Red Candle. In that flashback, Lindo's
mother is grooming her hair. This was added to the film version of
The Red Candle from Double Face. In the book version of The Red
Candle it was not mentioned that Lindo's mother had groomed her hair
(Tan 290 - 291, Wang, Tan 89 - 103).
The flashback is followed by Lindo communicating to her daughter that
she actually likes Rich but does not like many of her daughter's
behaviors. Waverly had intended to marry Rich but felt that her
mother did not accept him. The flashback was signifigant because it
appeared in the film to change Lindo's perspective on Waverly's
marriage to Rich and the women begin to understand one another (Wang,
Tan 89 - 103).
One particular similarity between these two people seemed signifigant
to the situation. In The Red Candle Lindo had escaped an arranged
marriage. Waverly had escaped her marriage from her high school
sweetheart through a divorce (Wang, Tan 89-103, Tan 191 - 192).

The scene at the salon frames the entire experience of the two
women's relationships with one another. It also allowed all four
major sections of the book to be represented through a simple visual
link with which every person has had an experience. Every person has
hair (Wang).
The frame also saves having to create separate scenes that show
relatively mundane things. For example, in Four Directions Waverly
stays awake all night, and goes to visit her mother who is sleeping
on a couch. These two events would have created extra minutes of
screen time, and taken away from the two clear life stories that were
chosen for this portion of the film (Wang, Tan 199 - 201).
The switch to the second major mother daughter frame within the
primary film structure was facilitated by a shift at the dinner table
of the Joy Luck party. A comment made by one of the mothers leads
Ying Ying to reflect on having murdered her son (Wang).
There are several changes in this section of the film from the book's
Waiting Between the Trees, the second chapter of "Queen Mother of the
Western Skies." In the film, the mother drowns her son. In the book,
she creates an abortion situation (Wang, Tan 274 - 287).
Many people that are taking the Film as Literature course agree that
the way in which the baby was killed was changed for the purpose of
making the film more politically correct. I did not come to this
thought myself after having seen the motion picture and read the
book. My opinion is that the scene was added to make the film more
dramatic (Wang).
I believe that it is possible to study the political nature of a
film. However, I think that a study of the ways in which the
political climate of nineteen ninety-three made this film different
from other films would require an entirely different collection of
evidence that is not related in any way to the structure of this work.

After the sequence related to Ying Ying's first marriage is
completed, Ying Ying is not returned to the party, she is shown
sitting in her room on an upper floor of her apartment. She seems to
be staring into space recalling the horror of having killed her son.
Lena brings her a tray with food on it (Wang).
This scene is the only referrence to The Voice from the Wall from The
Twenty-Six Malignant Gates that I recall appearing in the film. It
does not seem that it is entirely necessary to re-count the whole
story from The Voice from the Wall for the film, because Lena's
subdued looking teenage character suggests that she has lived with a
mother who has behaved similarly during her entire life (Wang, Tan
104 - 121).
Lena begins speaking at the end of the scene, and the shift to her
adult life takes place on the spiral staircase of her own home. Lena
is leading her mother up the stairs to show her the new house. When
they enter the kitchen the story becomes Rice Husband, the first
chapter in American Translation (Tan 161 - 181).
There is also a portion Waiting Between the Trees that is merged into
Rice Husband in both the book and the film. This merging in the
conclusion of the chapter with a broken vase on the floor of the
guest room, and Ying Ying's reflection on the tigress side of her
personality while standing in the fragmented light of venetian blinds
connects all three stories (Tan 161 - 181, Tan 274 - 278, Wang).
The Moon Lady, the chapter that concludes "Feathers from a Thousand
Li Away" was omitted entirely from this frame. I believe that it was
ommitted to avoid showing more than one additional shaping event in
Ying Ying's life. It would have been confusing to an audience to see
Ying Ying as three very differently aged people (Tan 64 - 8, Wang).

Ying Ying's experience as a child in the The Moon Lady did serve to
make her a more subdued individual, but it did not fit into the
framework associated with the marriage situation presented by Lena's
character. Ying Ying helps her to understand that she is not getting
what she wishes out of the marriage. Her decision to intrude on the
situation is largely based on her experience in Waiting Between the
Trees (Tan 64 - 83, Wang).
The film moves into the third frame by returning to the dinner where
Rose is looking for her daughter. Rose finds her daughter with June
who is telling her the feather myth from Feathers from a Thousand Li
Away (Wang, Tan 3-4).
The myth appeared during the credits at the beginning of the film,
but this is the first referrence that June makes to it during the
actual film. This referrence helps to anchor June's presence at the
dinner into the film (Tan 3-4, Wang).
After checking on her daughter, Rose seeks out and finds An Mei. An
Mei begins to tell her story from Scar, the second chapter of
Feathers from a Thousand Li Away (Wang, Tan 33-41)
Again, in this segment, the film does not return to the party after
giving the mother's background story. Instead there is a short scene
where An Mei is asking her daughter about making chocolate peanut
butter pie at her car outside a small grocery store. She asks Rose to
consider her worth to Ted, her husband, becuase she can see that Rose
is unhappy (Wang).
This frame has some clearly defined implied action in it. Rose tells
the story of how she met Ted. This story is in the located in the
third chapter of American Translation. It is called Without Wood. It
seems as though she is reflecting on this story while driving to her
house (Wang, Tan 206 - 220).

The main difference between the film version of Without Wood and the
novel version is clear. Ted has a different career in the novel. He
is a plastic surgeon that is sued for malpractice. In my opinion this
gives him more justification for his behavior with respect to Rose
than the career he has in the film. In the film he is a publisher.
Any major stress that may have influenced his argumentative behavior
is not directly defined (Wang, Tan 206 - 220).
I have speculated that the reason that his career as a plastic
surgeon was not depicted, was that it would involve more detail than
would fit into this segment of the film in a reasonable time. In the
film, as well as in the novel, the condition of Rose's house also
plays a major role. It is likely that a plastic surgeon would not be
doing a great deal of work inside his house (Wang, Tan).
After the account of Without Wood, the film places Rose and An Mei in
her house. They are still discussing the chocolate peanut butter pie.
An Mei continues to tell her daughter that she should try to see her
own worth and make sure that she gets what she deserves out of her
marriage to Ted (Wang).
An Mei tells her story to Rose while they are drinking tea. An Mei's
life story continues with the move to her father's house that is
described in Magpies, the first chapter of Queen Mother of the
Western Skies (Wang, 241 - 273).
In the book version there was one signifigant difference that I
noticed. An Mei's new father, Wu Tsing, has a fourth concubine (fifth
wife) that he brings home with him from his trip. This seems to put a
little bit more pressure on An Mei's mother (Tan 255 - 256).

The film moves back to the tea house with the two characters drinking
tea. An Mei hopes that her story will help Rose to see that she needs
to observe her own worth before something terrible happens to her. In
the book version of Without Wood An Mei's feelings make a little bit
more sense because Rose's depression is defined by her visits to a
psychiatrist and her stories about old Mr. Chou and laying in bed for
days at a time (Wang, Tan 207 - 212, Tan 215 - 216).
The next piece of the book that is brought into the film is the final
portion of Without Wood from American Translation that describes her
refusal to sign Ted's divorce papers. She includes part of the story
from Magpies in a strange statement that she makes to Ted about
eating opium and having died sixty years before (Tan 218 - 219, Wang,
Tan 269 - 272).
I understood that she may have been practicing some sort of ancestral
rite by the inclusion of the statement, but I thought that the scene
in the film was presented in a slightly awkward fashion. I liked the
description of the scene in the book a little bit better.
The film returns Rose to the party rather than her mother. It is
fairly clear that she has sorted out her problems with Ted and that
they have not had a divorce. The focus of the motion picture is
shifted to June who tells the story described in Best Quality (Wang,
Tan 221 - 236).


Best Quality appears as the fourth chapter of "American Translation."
I consider it a part of the primary structure of the film. It is a
story that shows June as an adult. The reflection that she makes to a
dinner at her mother's house is of a recent time. Her mother gives
her a necklace after the dinner brings up negative feelings between
June and Waverly, and tells her why her personality is of the best
quality (Tan 221 - 236, Wang).
There is a short scene following Best Quality with all of the
characters standing together drinking champagne and having a picture
taken at the party. It brings a nice conclusion to the references to
the three other frames, and indicates that the party is at its end.
The fact that the party is over helps to move June toward thoughts of
going to China (Wang).


At this point the primary structure of the film, specifically the
part that I described involving resolutions related to Lindo's lie,
Suyuan's flight, and June's voyage to China, appears. June is
cleaning the house after the party is over and notices that Lindo is
waiting to speak to her (Wang).
This is the first time that June realizes that she has been misled
about the nature of her sisters' letter. She asks Lindo to write a
letter to her sisters to explain the true nature of the situation to
them. Lindo refuses to write the letter in the film because she
thinks it is better for June to break the news of her mother's death
to her sisters (Wang).
In the book Lindo refuses to write a letter to June's sisters in
China a different way than in the film. She writes the letter to them
in English in the final chapter of "Queen Mother of the Western
Skies," called A Pair of Tickets. In the film Lindo also uses the
excuse that June will be flying to China the next day (Tan 311).
I think that the one reason for this change was to help define
Lindo's character as a controlling person. I think that a secondary
reason may have been that the dramatic emphasis was better placed on
the scene between June and her father (Wang).
June's father explains the final version of Suyuan's story to June in
both the film and the book. In the final chapter of the book, A Pair
of Tickets, he goes to China with June and tells her the story on a
train, rather than in his bedroom as he does in the film. The scene
with her father is designed to clarify June's picture of her mother's
Chinese experience (Wang, Tan 324 - 329).

The scene between June and her Father fits conveniently into the
frame of the party. All June had to do to open the scene was walk
into the bedroom of her house after she was finished cleaning up. At
the end of the scene, he sends her to China with her mother's good
intentions in the form of the feather from the first myth (Wang).
I thought that this clarification of Suyuan's condition during her
flight to Chung King made sense. Suyuan and her husband would have
had much more time to talk about the exact details and feelings
associated with the journey. It also seems that it would have been
more likely that he would be patient enough to hear and understand
the entire story (Wang).
I think that it would have been interesting to see in this part of
the film some pictures of the caves outside the city Kweilin that are
mentioned in the book in The Joy Luck Club chapter. It would have
given more detail to the method in which the babies were rescued (Tan
8 - 9).


The three framing devices that I have identified include Lena's
apartment scenes, the beauty parlor scene, and the tea scene. Each
frame is opened using one of the Joy Luck mothers' historical
accounts of the life in China that led them to America. Each frame
then continues to tell the story of each daughter and her experiences
in America. The frames move from childhood or youth into adulthood
for each of the girls. Each frame concludes with some sort of
flashback that then relates each mother's experience in China to her
daughter's experience in America (Wang).
If you were to omit the chapters in Amy Tan's book that relate to
June's experience and read each chapter that relates to a mother and
daughter pair sequentially, the same pattern of events would appear.
Even in the case of the exception, the story of Ying Ying St. Clair
as it relates to her daughter would remain consistant (Tan).

The film, as I have already stated, completely omits the chapter
called the Moon Lady. It substitutes instead an altered version of
Waiting Between The Trees as an opening for its frame (Tan 64 - 83,
Tan 274 - 287).
This does not change the pattern that moves from a mother's history,
to her daughter's childhood, then to her daughter's adulthood, and
finally to the signifigance of the mother's history with respect to
that daughter's situation as an adult.
I think that both the film and the book use this pattern to show
similarities and differences between the mothers and their daughters.
The mothers started their lives in China and are completing them in
America. They understand the contrasts between life in the two
different countries much better than their daughters. The daughters
appear to spend a considerable amount of time trying to understand
their mothers' perspectives. Their mothers' pasts have influenced
them in certain ways, but they do not completely understand the
source of the influence, because they have never experienced life in
China. The mothers help to relieve the daughters, by reducing the
stress created by a lack of understanding of their heritage. They do
this by explaining their stories of life in China to them in the best
ways that they can (Wang, Tan).
I believe that this suggests that one of the one of the primary
themes of both versions of the Joy Luck Club is communication. The
myth about the feather explains that the woman wishes to give the
feather to her daughter and share all of her good intentions with her
(Wang, Tan 3 - 4).
However, it also says that she wishes to explain her reason for doing
this in "perfect American English." This means that the mother knows
that her daughter does not speak the language of China. She knows
that cultures of China and America are signifigantly different (Tan
3 - 4)

The myth also says that she is waiting for the day when she will be
able to do this. I believe that the "day" that this becomes possible
is the day or period represented by each frame. In other words, the
time where a mutual understanding of these differences becomes clear
for both the mother and the daughter (Tan 3 - 4).

For June the realization of this "day", in A Pair of Tickets, is that
she is given the opportunity to describe her mother's life to her
sisters in China. June has brought to China a story of the life of a
woman from China who moved to America because she was the victim of a
terrible conflict. She brings all of her mother's good intentions to
her sisters. She is also brings them the story of a woman who watched
her daughter grow up in America. A daughter who grew up
swallowing "more Coca-Cola than sorrow" (Tan 3 - 4, Tan 306 - 332).
Suyuan faced the same sorts of difficulties in explaining her life in
China to her daughter that the other mothers did. These difficulties
appear in Two Kinds and Best Quality. Two Kinds shows June's lack of
understanding of her mother's loss. Best Quality shows June's
difficulties in relating to her mother's public support of Waverly.
It also brings out Suyuan's private belief in her daughter's quality
of spirit (Tan 221 - 236).
June's realization enables her to display her respect for her mother.
It also gives her an opportunity to discover and display her own
respect for her mother's culture. And finally, to take pride in the
fact that she is of this culture, and understands the signifigance of
her heritage.



Works Cited
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Ballentine Books, 1989
The Joy Luck Club. Writ. Amy Tan. Dir. Wayne Wang. Buena Vista
Pictures 1993.




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quote:

---

Originally posted by Christopher Bradley:
Thanks for the comment RobG.

Lithos - Anti-intellectualism and censorship are what pave the way to the unmarked mass grave. That is - If history has anything to say about it.

Think before you flame. Do you know how many bits make up a byte?

-Chris

---

And self-centricity will get you to said grave quicker. By no way am I anti-intellectual. This is not a BBS nor your personal blog. Are you threatening me?

Eight bits to a byte. Frankly, I shouldn't have even dignified such a question from an AOL user with an answer. In my opinion.

Think before you troll. Because you come across as a primadonna crying for attention - which we're all happy to give in the right context - from someone who believes that people find him so interesting he feels he needs to inform everyone of his entire musings for what seem like the last fifteen years. I'd have been happy to see this posted somewhere outside the WGB, and a link to it.

That sounded very much like a Beavis line...

In any case, yes, 8 bits make up a byte. Which means you can fit approximately 1000 pages on a 1.44 meg disk as each character is represented by 1 byte. Sometimes even more if compressed into PDF government document format.

Here's a recommendation,
Read before you shoot.

I've detected a high degree of cynicism toward my comments from only a few individuals. There are several thousand people that read these boards as evidenced by the number of posts and responses. And very few of them are griping.

I don't issue threats, but I do question flat out bs.

(c)2001

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Duran Duran
10
I have liked Duran Duran since their beginnings, but I liked them a lot more for a short time. They had two albums that I bought. One was called Big Thing. It is my opinion that Big Thing is their best album. I like the pictures of America that they create with it. The other album that I like is called Liberty. The songs on Liberty are good, but not as good as the songs on Big Thing. The song Rio, from an album that I do not own, always reminds me of playing Atari 2600 video games with my friend Joe in 5th grade.

Eminem
7
I listened to Eminem for nearly 2 months straight, during a long voyage to NYC and at subsequent residences. I think his work is telling and depicts well, the disenfranchisement of young adult's who've had to work McJobs like myself.

Eon
10
Eon's album Void Dweller easily made it's way into my CD collection in 1993. The song The Spice had been playing for two years on the Saturday Night Dance Party on CFNY 102.1 before Eon's album had been made available in Canada (I did a lot of record shopping in Toronto). The Spice is based on the movie Dune, with Kyle Laughlin and Sting. Any science fiction fan would recognize the samples in it instantly. I liked the strange keyboard sounds and early breakbeat drum rhythms he used in his work.

Front 242
8
Front 242 is an impressive keyboard band. I read about them in Keyboard magazine. The magazine article said that they had opened for Depeche Mode at concerts in Europe. I bought a copy of Front By Front from Cavages, a mall record store that no longer exists. My favorite song from the album is Headhunter. In 1990 I found their first major label record called Tyranny For You at a record store in Williamsville, and bought it right away. The cover for the album is very impressive, it is a computer edited photograph of what looks like a man's head pushing out of a broken automotive windshield. The album was incredible, and I ended up going to see them in concert in Toronto with my friend Rob and a girl named Charlene (who should be on my list of ex-girlfriends). At the concert, I saw my first taste of real computer animation on a large video projection screen. The picture that was on the cover of the Tyranny album was contorting in and out of the screen. I bought a couple of other albums after the Tyranny Album, but I didn't like them as much. They were the two albums with the coded messages on the front, and neither one had particularly memorable music on it. Front 242 may someday adapt to work their music into popular culture, they will be interesting to hear if they do. Right now, they're just selling remixes though. I'm not sure if it's their fault, or Sony Music's fault.

Front Line Assembly
4
I don't know much at all about front line assembly. I have one of their albums. The music was industrial music, but it seemed like pale music. The music didn't have the same depth that other industrial music that I was listening to had. I bought the album at Wax Trax at the same time I bought Cyberaktiv. I hope that in the future, bands like Front Line Assembly adapt into more productive, more organic entities. I hope that their music evolves with the technology and fights it's way back into the techno or digital hardcore genre's.

Guns N' Roses
3
Guns 'N Roses is one of the few rock bands that I like. I only have one of their tapes, Welcome To The Jungle. I like almost every song on the album. Each of the songs is a different depiction of the ugly realities of urban life in cities like New York. The songs on Welcome To The Jungle remind you of how nice it is not to live in a nightmare world where the underground rules with a pair of iron jaws. I like a couple of songs off of the albums that were released in 1991, like November Rain, and Civil War. I am not a big fan of the racist content of a couple of their songs, but hey, everyone has good days, and bad days. Meeting certain people recently has reminded me how important it is to have a little bit of hard rock in your collection.

Iggy Pop
1
I have never been a big Iggy Pop fan. Iggy Pop apparently has been around for a long time. The first time I heard him mentioned was on a computer bulletin board system. The second time I saw his name, was in a BMG records catalog. His name was one of the 10 that I selected. I have enjoyed his album Brick by Brick for many years since, because of classic mainstream hits like Butttown, and P**sy Power. CD cases aren't big enough to stop doors with are they?

Information Society
10
Information Society was one of my favorite bands of all time, until I discovered techno in 1992. Their music was very technically well done. They mentioned Mirrorshades in a 1990 album called Hack (Mirrorshades is a cyberpunk short story collection). Their music was a combination of New York House music and what we call Techno today. I had both of their albums. I have not heard about any of their music since the early ninties, but I haven't had MTV for 10 years either. I hope that they are still out there working on another musical scheme.

Inner City
9
Inner City is a detroit techno house band. I bought their CD in 1993. I bought the CD because I was told that they were very good by a very reputable source, one of the engineers for Transmat, a small record label in Detroit. Inner City is very good, the album that I have is called Praise. I like the futuristic bass and keyboard sounds that they use. I also like a lot of the reverberating electronic sounds that they use. Their lyrics are focussed on positive perceptions of future technology. There will be a time in the future, that I devote to collecting other music by Inner City.

Jewel
5
I was lucky to obtain a copy of Who Will Save Your Soul? for free. I got it with the purchase of several cups of coffee at my favorite Buffalo coffee shop of that era (1995) the Topic Cafe'. I like her new song Foolish Games also. I don't own any of her albums yet, because I'm focussing on building my rock collection right now, but I am sure that in a couple of years I will be buying her CD's. I think that Jewel has been doing some very noteworthy things in terms of her philanthropy and interest in humanist ideals.

Josh Joplin Group
10
Josh Joplin Group is a new one. I know very little about them except that they are produced by Shawn Mullins and have one of the finest pieces of work to date, currently playing on the radio. It is titled "Camera One" and it makes you feel as if you are part of something larger than yourself. I guess that's why I like them and why I bought their album nearly immediately after seeing them in Barnes and Noble and on MTV2.

Kate Bush
9
Kate Bush is a performance artist who has worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel and other world artists. She is very talented and I just recently acquired an MP3 of "Running up that hill" which is a classic 80's new wave anthem. I heard a lot about her from my poetry and literature instructors at NCCC. They really liked her.

MC 900 Ft. Jesus
10
MC 900 Foot Jesus is another one of those artists that I found in Keyboard magazine. He has produced three pretty good albums that I know of. I only own one of them because I don't have the resources to collect everything that I would like to. The album that I have is called Hell With The Lid off. It is a jazzy, hip hop/industrialist, work that has many well thought out constructions that depict life in a huge urban city. I am not sure what city MC 900 Foot Jesus is from, but I would guess that he is from New York or Chicago. The funniest piece on Hell With The Lid off is called Spaceman. It is about a man devoted to collecting cans to buy his next bottle of alcohol. You have to feel for some people.

MC Hammer
7
I listened to MC Hammer quite a lot while working at a Pizza shop called Fatso's Pizza on Military Road where Mighty Taco now stands. The place no longer exists, but I remember listening to the album with "You can't touch this" on it many times while washing dishes and waiting for orders to drive out with the other Italian and African kitchen help.

Meat Beat Manifesto
8
Meat Beat Manifesto is a Chicago style industrial band. I made a special trip to Wax Trax in Chicago when Wax Trax was the industrial authority in the US. The album that I purchased at Wax Trax was called Armed Audio Warfare. It has a lot of interesting samples and drum loops. I don't think that the members of Meat Beat Manifesto could ever have predicted that drum loop music would evolve into the forms of Bass and Drum and Jungle that exist within the techno genre. I purchased the album 99% in 1992 at a store called Record Theater in Buffalo. 99% is one of my favorite CD's of all time. I consider it the second best industrial CD that I have in my collection. The best industrial CD in my collection is Skinny Puppy's Rabies.

Ministry
4
Ministry is a band whose values I am not a major endorser of, but whose music was important to the development of a lot of modern electronic music and cyberpunk stylings. I would have to say that I first heard of them in my Junior year of high school when playing keyboards with a skateboarding friend. "Stigmata" is on the sound track for Rumble in The Bronx, a great Jackie Chan movie. "Every Day is Halloween" is vintage goth 80's disco.

Moev
7
I have one album by Moev titled Moev. The song I remember best on the album is called "Head Down." It was about keeping a positive attitude amongst negativity. It got thumbs up from me, but was not quite as current as I would have liked and I haven't listened to it in a while. It's still worth mentioning though, and you might want to try to look them up in digital format.

Nelly
10
Nelly is a rapper that takes up all the fresh groove of the new Millennium. He has so much caged energy, I think he could probably stop a train by flashing his eyelids. I would definitely like to see him go somewhere with his talent and not fall out of sight like so many other rap stars of the moment have. Here's to Nelly with a bottle of Crys...

Nine Inch Nails
6
Nine Inch Nails best album ever was the first. Trent really put his whole heart into making "Pretty Hate Machine" and I think it was reflected well in the quality, tonality, and personality of the production. I don't think he pulled any punches and I think he really meant what he intended to say. I think that on some of his later albums he lost the message a little bit but there are still some bright spots in his career. His work on the soundtrack of "The Crow," "The Perfect Drug" from Lost Highway and his Remix of Queen's "Get Down Make Love" are my favorites. I also like his remix of Bowie's "I'm afraid of Americans."

Oasis
10
I have nearly every album Oasis has ever produced in the studio. I really like Noel Gallagher's voice and I think their work has only enhanced my taste for other groups of the same Genre. They fit in well with the Beatles, Stone Roses, and Blur, all of which my friend Scott has gone to great pains to introduce me to. I can only thank him again for broadening my horizon's somewhat. "Don't Go Away" from Be Here Now, and "Wonderwall" are my two favorite Oasis songs of all time.

Oingo-Boingo
7
I picked up an Oingo Boingo album at Cavages years ago because I had read that Danny Elfman, the soundtrack keyboardist from Batman, and several other works including The Nightmare before Christmas and BeetleJuice, was a member of the band in Keyboard magazine. I was fortunate that I found the album, because now looking for an album by this band is pretty rough going. I haven't seen anything from them in a long while. I can't at the moment recall any song titles but I can tell you that their work is of the first order of greatness.

OMD
7
I may have bought the Orchastral Maneuvers in the Dark CD at about the same time as Oingo boingo. If I remember correctly, their work was on the sound track for Pretty in Pink with Molly Ringwald. I really enjoyed their album, there is a lot of good string and keyboard work on it. One piece I remember distinctly is titled "Enola Gay," which is about the plane which dropped the first atomic bomb.

Pet Shop Boys
9
The Pet Shop boys are another band you read a lot about in Keyboard Magazine. They are very talented and wrote work that appeared in a made for TV movie called the "Billionaire Boys Club." The album I have by them is titled Behavior and it came out in the early 1990s. Two of my favorite tracks on that album are "Jealousy" and "October Symphony." "Let's make lot's of money...."

Peter Gabriel
10
Peter Gabriel is the most amazingly cool artist of all time. He values using instruments and people from all parts of the world and all different cultures in his music. He has two albums that I have had the privilage of owning at one time or another. They are titled "So" and "Us." So came out in the 80's and unleashed the monster hits "SledgeHammer" and "Big Time" and was at the top of the charts for a really long time. Peter Gabriel was originally the lead vocalist for Genesis until they broke up and re-formed with Phil Collins. Us had a great track on it titled "Digging in the dirt." Unfortunately I lost that album somewhere. It'll be a while until I get around to buying it again. I also like some of his older work like "Shock The Monkey" and "Solsbury Hill"

Pink Floyd
10
I don't think any band of it's time has had more of an impact on my thinking than Pink Floyd. The first time I spent any time listening to what they had to say was after a party at a friends house where he insisted we listen to a concert and have a beer. This happened during the time when I was working for McDonalds and my views weren't really all that developed yet, but in some ways, they really did make a little bit of sense. And they weren't entirely electronic, which was kind of cool and unique to me. "The Wall" has inspired a good amount of my writing and I find myself wanting to refer to it quite a bit. It is such a complex piece though that you have to specify your reference point because otherwise, just saying "The Wall" would some how take away from the fact that historically it has been one of the most significant works of the twentieth century. I also listened to "Dark Side of the Moon" quite a bit during my one month visit to Boston while playing scrabble and drinking premium beers like Grolsch...

Plastikman
9
Plastikman is a band from Detroit headed up by Ritchie Hawtin who is not only a great musician but a really cool individual. I had the opportunity to meet him once on his tour bus when his project was called Cybersonik with Plus 8 records. He helped me get my girlfriend into a concert when she forgot her ID for an over 19 show. He was very charismatic and aloof and I think that if I met him again he would probably remember me, he's just that kind of guy. His work is very creative and takes many different forms. His projects have led to the creative output of others and his record label is one of the best in the Techno arena. I own several of his Vinyl EP's and a couple of CD's. One track that I really like is titled "Helikopter." Ritchie is also one of the world's finest Disc Jockey's.

Poe
8
Poe is a band that unfortunately has recently had some problems with her Record label. I have always liked her though. I think she is probably most remembered for her rendition of "I'd Die For You" from the modern version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio. However my favorite song by her is "Angry Johnny." From her first self titled album.

Psychedelic Furs
6
The Psychedelic Furs were a band that were really popular with some girls I knew in Junior High school. I let the record club send me a copy of one of their albums when I saw they were the selection of the month and they were very good, but more of a band that as I suspected, "Chicks would dig..."

Public Enemy
10
When I lived in Chicago for 6 months, I was fortunate to have a roommate who had very diverse tastes in music. One of his favorite Rap groups was Public Enemy. I sort of adopted his liking for East Coast rap while I was there and have never given it up since. I have several Public Enemy Albums. My two favorites are "It takes a Nation of Millions" with "Don't Believe The Hype" and "Channel Zero" and "Music In Our Mess Age" with "Death of a Car Jacka" and "Runnin' outta time.."

Queensrÿche
6
I used to have a Queensryche album. I sold it on e-bay in desperation when I was really short on cash. If I had been able to, I would have liked to have kept it. The album was called "Empire" with the tracks "Jet City Woman" and "Sweet Lucidity." I am glad to have been alive to hear their guitar technique. They really are great artists. I remember listening to them a lot in my sophomore year of high school while working for Burger King and Tops.

Rage Against the Machine
10
Rage Against the Machine is an unrelenting trip into the guerrilla. I am a really big fan of them and am currently searching for a mix up they did with KRS-One. If you have it, please e-mail me. I have "Evil Empire" and "The Battle of Los Angeles" and I wrote an almost 20 page poem as a result of listening to "Sleep Now in The Fire," a great anti-capitalist anthem.

Revenge
8
This is one of Peter Hook's side projects. I have recently had some discussions with people on message bases on Yahoo! About Revenge and it seems that this project was not particularly well liked among musicians. But as both a listener and composer, I found it to be a fine piece of work, and I don't think that the project was a wasted effort by any stretch of the imagination.

Rush
10
In my freshman year of high school, I listened to a lot of Rush and really could get into their whole Zen spirituality thing. They had a lot going on, almost more than you could absorb. They were very prolific and I could only afford a few of their cassette tapes. I had Hold Your Fire and Presto and had a chance to hear Power Windows, and Moving Pictures. My friend Pat also likes them as did a lot of people we went to high school with at the time. Give in to the Tao and learn.

Sarah McLachlan
10
I have been a closet fan of Sarah McLachlan ever since the first time I heard Posession. I am a keyboard player, so I have a natural interest in the complex piano parts of songs like Posession. Sarah's voice is very interesting, and she deserves credit for being able to play and sing certain songs at the same time. I bought her new album Surfacing in the first week of December. I like Surfacing, especially the songs that have actually been played on Music Television, Building a Mystery and Sweet Surrender. I have yet to take the time to look at the music videos that come on the CD in multimedia format. I plan to work on that when I am finished with all of these reviews.

Skinny Puppy
8
I had a few albums by Skinny Puppy too. I am sad to say I sold one, but I still have two left. I had Rabies, 12" Anthology, and Cleanse Fold and Manipulate. I lost a few bucks on the e-bay transaction for Cleanse Fold, but I think the owner of the album at present is probably enjoying it, so I don't see the transaction as a waste. Cevin Key was one of the most instrumental in launching cyberpunk into modern techno and a lot of electronic music has benefited from his influence. Including some of my own.

Sugar Ray
8
Sugar Ray is kind of a pop band now, but I really liked the Hip Hop/Reggannana vibe they had going with that track "Fly" at the beginning of 1999. It was exciting and memorable and I still hum along with it whenever I hear the tune on the radio.

The Beatles
10
The Beatles have to be included in this list because a music list without them is not a music list. I must have been influenced musically by them 2 generations ago and still going strong. My most recent Beatles acquisitions are an MP3 of Helter Skelter and a couple of tracks from The Magical Mystery Tour. I do believe that John was re-incarnated in Noel Gallagher.

The Charlatans UK
10
The Charlatans UK are a fun band. I went to see them in Hamilton Ontario (Canada) in 1992 during the summer with my friend Scott. My favorite song by the Charlatans is Weirdo. I am not sure which album Weirdo is on, Scott would be able to tell you that, he's the one that owns their albums, unfortunately, Scott doesn't have a web page yet (We're working to get him involved in this whole net scene). The concert in Hamilton was memorable. The only beer available for purchase cost six dollars and fifty cents and was in quart sized cans. There was a lot of jumping into the mosh pit going on, and there were a lot of cute young girls wearing shirts that said Weirdo on them.

The Cure
8
I only own one album by The Cure. It is a greatest hits album called Mixed Up. I bought the album after seeing the video for the song Lullaby and hearing the song Fascination Street a number of times on the radio. I have never worn white face paint, except on one Haloween, and that was when I was seven years old. However, the girl that introduced me to The Cure was wearing white face paint when I saw her at the Depeche Mode concert that I was supposed to drive her to. I like all of the songs on Mixed Up, but my favorites are Fascination Street and Never Enough. I haven't been interested in anything that The Cure has done since Mixed Up.

The Future Sound of London
10
My favorite techno band to date is The Future Sound of London. There is one particular memory that I have of one of their songs that I will never forget. Unfortunately, I can't share that memory with you unless I know you directly. My belief is that the best song that they have ever written is called Papua New Guinea. It was released in a CD album format in the United States in 1996 on the album called Accellerator. Accellerator is a good album, but it is a compilation of the Future Sound of London's old work. I think that the best album that they have released is called Lifeforms on the Astralwerks label. I also have ISDN, released in 1995, and Dead Cities released in 1996. With the exception of a pirate video that contains part of the music of Moscow, the only Future Sound of London video I have ever seen is We Have Explosive. I would like to see more of their videos. If any of you know where I can order one inexpensively, please send me an e-mail.

The Jesus And Mary Chain
8
I am not a collector of Jesus and Mary Chain albums, but I own one of them. Reverence happened to be released at about the time that I was looking to get involved in going to a lot of concerts and experimenting with my musical tastes a little bit. The album that I own is called Honey's Dead. A lot of the songs on the album have some very interesting guitar pieces in them. My friend Scott owns a lot more of The Jesus and Mary Chain's stuff. He likes Kill Surf City. I saw The Jesus and Mary Chain live at Lollapalooza 2 in the summer of 1992. I think they were stoned, but sometimes it's hard to tell.

The Mighty Lemon Drops
7
The Mighty Lemon Drops are a band that my girlfriend from the summer of 1988 introduced me to. They really sound like Lemon Drops. She also introduced me to a lot of Woodstock stuff and a couple other unmentionables. I keep this disc in my collection as a memory of the great times we had together even though I regret my loss of her. She really was a wonderful person. From what I hear she currently lives and works somewhere on the East Coast.

The Notorious B.I.G.
9
It started as a joke that we liked Notorious BIG and then turned into a ridiculous name game where eventually I was called "The Notorious CJB" by quite a few. Now that I actually listen to him a little bit I realize that the man did have some true wisdom. Take for instance "The Ten Crack Commandments" which indicate the ten most important rules to follow when entering the drug trade. Or "Victory" with Puffy where the family really becomes one. Notorious was always the man and always will be.

The Police
10
The Police are a great band. They are also a band I was exposed to at a very early age. I listened to them in third grade and had an album by them at age 9. The album was "Synchronicity" and really had quite an impact on me. I had never thought about things like the Loch ness monster, self induced pain, or dysfunctional family life before. They really put quite a bit of thought into their subject matter and drove their points home, sarcastic or otherwise. "Every Breath you Take" will always be one of my favorite love songs.

The Prodigy
10
The Prodigy didn't start out looking quite as grimy as its' current incarnation is. I remember the rave anthems "Charlie" and "Out of Space" which were considered to be happy house and had a very Reggae breakbeat feel. When they developed their most recent album "fat of the land" it seemed they wanted to leave the happiness behind and go for a more startling political image for the sake of selling records in America. They accomplished what they set out to do and are currently among the top most celebrated techno artists in America. But do they deserve it? Let's see what they do next.

The Shamen
10
The Shamen were an incredible group until they lost one of their members in a diving accident. They released several versions of a great track called "Move any Mountain" which is very "Up" techno. It can really bring you out of a bad mood quick. Another great track on their first album was called "Hyperrreal" another that I would recommend you put on your lists if you get a chance to. I wish I'd had a chance to see them in concert. I liked them almost as much as I liked Information Society.

The Smiths
10
The Smiths are still only about five years old in my world. I never listened to them much until around 1995 but I do like them. I went to see Morrissey in concert in Toronto and the show really rocked. I have a nice collection of Morrissey and Smith's tracks and plan to keep collecting them as time goes on. And if they give me another shot at seeing the whole band then who knows, maybe I'll shell out the massive cash..."How soon is now" is my favorite song by the smiths. "Lost" by Morrissey takes a close second.

The Stone Roses
10
I wrote an entire poem about a situation involving the Stone Roses' music and my friend's liking of them. It would seem that they do have a significant fan base around here because they do play them on the radio from time to time. I really like "Fool's Gold," "Adored," and most of the album that those two are on. All I had was a really beat up tape of those tracks though. But I used to play it nightly while working in the Audio Visual Maintenance dept. of the local college.

Tori Amos
10
Tori Amos is the most Rockin' southern vocalist to ever walk the earth, and she's got red hair to boot. She has made all the right moves and has really got a great career to show for her hard work. I have got "Little Earthquakes," "Boys for Pele," and "Songs from the Choirgirl hotel." All three of these albums are spectacular stand alone works and I definitely recommend them. My favorite tracks are "Precious things," and "Thoughts of Maryanne." She has a knack for playing multiple keyboards, harpsichords, and pianos, while belting out her songs at the top of her beautifully formed lungs...

U2
10
U2 is a rock band that has been around since the early 1980s and has done quite a lot to demonstrate their value for peace over war. The only album I have ever owned by them is "Achtung Baby." I went to a record release party for it in downtown Chicago and we as Fraternity brothers probably bought 12 copies in one night, if not more. I like all of their classics and all of their modern tracks. There is not a single song they have written that has been unappealing to me, and that frightens me to a slight degree, because I don't know if I will ever be able to collect everything that they have produced with their tendency to produce track after track after track. I give "New Year's Day" and "the Fly" my all times thumb's ups.

Vanilla Ice
8
There is no denying it, Vanilla ICE was a 1 hit wonder, but he did have a certain style about him that attributed to his success. He was very certain of himself and I think that that helped him out a lot with his determination to produce good high quality rap music. I have heard rumour that he may be a film star soon, if that happens, I might actually shell out the bucks to see him on the big screen, he's as much a part of my past as I am of anyone else's.

Weezer
10
This summer I made the wise move of picking up Weezer's Green album. It really has a lot going for it. A lot of their songs are about relationships and their affects, effects, and complications. They also sing about love, romance and escapism. These sorts of topics always draw crowds so I don't really give them thumbs up for theme as much as I do for putting together a really tight package that is worth a good listening to. Rock out with "Hash Pipe" and then Mellow out with "Island in The Sun." They are the perfect Yin/Yang combination.

Yes
10
"Owner of a lonely heart" is one of my favorite songs of all times. Yes is a band which bears further investigation into on my part. Having been born only recently I missed out on a lot of the prog rock scene in the 70's, but I think that if I gave them a real chance I might really like their older stuff too. Who knows. 90125 would still be in my collection if it hadn't been swiped. I'll say nothing more. You know who you are,

J.

0ut of all those, the only one I take issue with is Vanilla Ice. I mean, c'mon, let's not encourage the plagerists...Especially not him...

Have you written anything more recently, Christopher?