District 9 is a throwback of a movie. Yes, there’s lots of explosions, and special effects, neat CGI aliens, and of course the now obligatory giant hovering ship (remember when space ships used to actually land?); but it is in many ways a throwback to the thinking man’s sc… Read full post »

There’s an old saying that comes to mind, about how nothing dates faster than one’s vision of the future. That seems true for Arcosanti. Though it manages to feel classic, new, and stuck in the 70s all at the same time. The master plan (there have been many) has a… Read full post »

Left El Paso with my new rental car and headed north to Phoenix. .

I’d been told earlier about how El Paso was a “unique” situation being such a border town. I didn’t realize just how much that was true until I drove through downtown in the morning light. I… Read full post »

El Paso, TX: Texas is a big f’ing state. I’ve just spent one long day traveling across most of it. I got to watch the relative lushness of the Austin Area and it’s oaks, yield over time to scrub, then prairie, then just out right desert. Likewise, the sandstone canyons… Read full post »

Highway 10 through Texas doesn’t have any of the large oil fields, but you do spot the occasional lone rusty well or sometimes a small cluster. What you do see though are the massive wind farms of Central/West Texas. Driving west the first batch are off in the distance behind… Read full post »

STARBUCKS, AUSTIN - After leaving Gonzales, LA hit the road through southern LA and TX, This is a land of bridges, being down in the wetlands and where so many of the great American rivers come to the Gulf (see poem below). I’m reminded of the power of rivers and… Read full post »

Post-Katrina new bridge construction I-10 coming into New Orleans

GONZALES, LOUISIANA - I’ve had to come up with a new cover story. In striking up conversations with people, the whole “I’m a writer and blogger” thing has been a conversation killer, people don&rsq… Read full post »

STARBUCKS, MOBILE AL -I got little sleep last night with final technology glitches and coordinating trip details, but my friend Collin was nice enough to pick me up and drop me off at the subway station pretty much at the crack of dawn.

I was surprised to see… Read full post »

On the 40^th anniversary of Stonewall we were faced with what seems to be a rather questionable raid on a gay bar in Ft. Worth. The police say they were just answering complaints, others say it was just good-ole-boy homophobia. The details of the police raid keep coming out.… Read full post »

How appropriate that Mark Sanford's political career would become so tied to a country that gave us one of our greatest political divas of all time Eva Peron. Argentina, that land of passion and politics.

Below is a found poem combining the lyrics of "Don't Dry for Me Argentina"… Read full post »

Last night there was a candle light vigil held in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park for those who have fallen in the recent violence in Iran. It’s interesting as an outsider (non-Iranian) to bear witness to the pain and suffering felt by this community. I feel though that as an… Read full post »

Okay a light and fluffy post – a cleaning the palette post – before developments in Iran on Saturday unfold. Between being in job search mode for weeks now, sending out book manuscripts and now the world facing what may be a revolution in… Read full post »

I’m a chronic organizer, evaluator, and list maker. Which is sort of an odd thing for a poet, but it also comes from the always competing sides of my brain, and from my work in training and management. Writing a training guide for or quantifying anything poetic or art… Read full post »

The ongoing protests in Iran have demonstrated just how powerful a force new media and social networking have become. Historically, when a dictator staged a coup or there was a government overthrow or revolution you sent a couple of soldiers over to take over the main state-run… Read full post »

It used to be my mall, back when it
used to be my old neighborhood.
It used to be a lot of people’s mall.
Back when the now barren empty
asphalt ocean was once full of cars. 

One of the first real malls
long made small and obsolete
by ever leapfrogging, ever mega
megamalls… Read full post »

Adam Lambert and newly visible boyfriend Drake Lebry were seen out on the town, dancing, holding hands, and people still, still, coyly seem to be wondering about his sexuality – huh? I just don’t get the mystery over Adam Lambert being gay. Has the whole country’s ga… Read full post »

It’s the big Hollywood dream, someone with a great voice or they’ve just written the great American novel, or the next big broadway show; they just need to be discovered. I think we all sometimes see ourselves in that scenario, that we have something unique to offer, s… Read full post »

Not that I’m making light of that situation. If anything it’s become a deepening mire that’s becoming a heavy burden on our American psyche. Almost daily now, what’s torture, do we torture, what did we learn, when? Now these new pictures that were to… Read full post »

We’re celebrating Walt Whitman’s 190^th birthday and here in Atlanta there was a marathon reading of Song of Myself at Composition Gallery sponsored by Poetry Atlanta. The marathon reading included some 25 area poets and took almost three hours non-stop. The program/… Read full post »

I guess it’s a sign of summer. No one wanting to go all wild n wooly, but keeping things trimmed, close cut, and cool. As consumers we’re getting barraged with more and more marketing messages for bush trimming, manscaping, bikini trims, going Brazilian  – whatever you want to/… Read full post »

I’d heard of this story and seen the pic, but once I found the video, it was even more shocking that I had even imagined. The old man sneaks around the barricades, runs and shimmies up the bridge structure, then after tricking the befuddled man into shaking his hand, sends him… Read full post »

I’ve been thinking about this word a lot lately. Over the past few weeks I’ve been going back and forth. I’m involved with a local literary festival in Atlanta, known as the Atlanta Queer Literature Festival. Now I’ve always had reservations about that name, and if I’d b… Read full post »

It seems a sad state of affairs, but the LGBT community is increasingly upset with what they see as a lack of action in Washington on some of our key issues such as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Marriage Equality, and a whole laundry list of other items. Having been… Read full post »

 Yet another reason I refuse to step foot in a Wal-Mart. It’s policy of demanding that CDs that might otherwise require a parental warning sticker be edited or cleaned up for sale in their stores. Wal-Mart is the 800 pound gorilla of retailing and I suppose if th… Read full post »

I just got back in town from spending a long weekend in New Orleans for a writers conference. It was great meeting a lot of new people, getting to do a reading, attending classes, workshops; but the thing I’m most excited about--my new sunglasses. Not to diminish the confer… Read full post »