Arclist

Journal

Ralph Melcher

Ralph Melcher
Location
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Birthday
April 13
Title
Writer
Company
Arclist
Bio
Ralph Melcher is a poet and essayist living and working in Santa Fe New Mexico.

MY RECENT POSTS

MY RECENT COMMENTS

Ralph Melcher's Links

Salon.com
JANUARY 16, 2011 6:01PM

Apologies to Arizona

I'm forwarding this message from a friend who lives in Arizona. I apologize for what seemed like a blanket condemnation of Arizona and its residents. My remarks referred only to my own very limited experience of the state prompted by recent events that appeared to confirm them. I could make… Read full post »
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JANUARY 9, 2011 2:37PM

Arizona

"We have become the mecca for racism and bigotry."

- Sheriff Clarence Dupnick, Tucson, Arizona


______________________________________

I've only been to Arizona a couple of times, the last time with my son on the way to Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri's intentional architecturally based community nor

… Read full post »
1 Comments
DECEMBER 21, 2010 9:20AM

On Pulling the Plug


In response to my recent post on Wikileaks people posed the question of what will happen if the government just "pulls the plug" on the Internet. My thought at the time was that this was impractical in that pulling the plug on the free flow… Read full post »
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DECEMBER 16, 2010 12:33AM

A Public Service

"Democracy without transparency is not democracy. It's just an empty word."  
                                     - Kristinn Hrafnssen - Wikileaks spokesperson

The power of government over… Read full post »
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DECEMBER 5, 2010 12:29AM

infowars

"The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is Wikileaks. You are troops."   -  John Perry Barlow, the founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

http://vimeo.com/14233896

Trust what you see, not what you read.

Trust no one.

The Best Commercials Ever.

Bang, B… Read full post »
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Editor’s Pick
OCTOBER 25, 2010 8:23PM

Dancing With Ginsberg

I danced with Allen Ginsberg.

It was in 1980 at the Mercury Cafe in Denver at the coming out party for his recording of 'Birdbrain' with the punk band The Gluons.  "Birdbrain wrote Das Kapital ! authored the Bible ! penned The Wealth of Nations !...Birdbrain runs the world!" /… Read full post »
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OCTOBER 6, 2010 11:07PM

Democracy Is Comin'

"Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad."    - Euripides

 

One must repeat again Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Every time we have an election these days one has to question o

… Read full post »
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AUGUST 1, 2010 8:44PM

August 19th

August 19th

"Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By "they" I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no place has no value, that… Read full post »
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MAY 1, 2010 5:30PM

Bill Moyers Journal

A couple of months ago I subscribed to the Bill Moyers Journal podcasts on the iTunes site and proceeded to download every program that has been broadcast since the show went on the air in 2007. I've been listening to every broadcast from the beginning in my car as I go to work/… Read full post »
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APRIL 12, 2010 11:59PM

Tuning In

Once in a while the universe delivers a message in a way that's hard to dismiss. If you don't get it the first time, it comes at you again and again in various forms until you pay attention.   

About two weeks ago I attended a short talk and book signing… Read full post »
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APRIL 11, 2010 2:20AM

The Present

"But neither empathy nor compassion is an American trait."  - Gore Vidal

I just finished watching a documentary film about the life of Ram Dass (Richard Alpert), before and after his stroke in the late nineties. Ram Dass, Fierce Grace, besides being a beautifully done review of the path tha/… Read full post »
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JANUARY 2, 2010 7:13PM

Two Movies at the End of the Decade

I finished the last decade and began this one watching two movies that address the underlying mood of pessimism that I sense growing all around me in these days at the end of Empire. Is it the end, or is pessimism just the product of a generation getting old and more paranoid? Time/… Read full post »
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DECEMBER 27, 2009 6:54PM

Holidays at the End of the World

My son mentioned to me the other day that he was feeling kind of pessimistic about things in general. He's an artist, and artists tend to live in the 'next' world, while most of us struggle to survive in this one. Artists perform for our culture the function that shamans, seers,… Read full post »
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NOVEMBER 29, 2009 6:16PM

The Brink

The other night I saw a wonderful movie by the Canadian director, Atom Egoyan. His latest which just came out on DVD is called Adoration. Egoyan's movies are like magic boxes, shells within shells, meticulously crafted with deep mystery, the truth hidden at their core, each story a jou/… Read full post »
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NOVEMBER 10, 2009 8:44PM

A Precipice

 

"It's not just a question of worrying or of hoping for the best, but of finding new weapons." 

                       - Guy Deleuze "Postscript on Control Societies"

 

I purchased my first personal computer in 1984… Read full post »

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NOVEMBER 10, 2009 8:41PM

A Precipice

"It's not just a question of worrying or of hoping for the best, but of finding new weapons." 

                                          - Guy Deleuze "Postscript on Control So… Read full post »

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OCTOBER 30, 2009 10:50PM

The Facts

The child is given a puzzle as a preparation for life. We go through life surrounded by puzzle pieces that we call 'facts.'  We assemble these facts into shapes and narratives in order to make sense of it all. We are given maps by our elders that we either accept or… Read full post »
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OCTOBER 10, 2009 4:34PM

Hat's off to Michael

 

Something has changed in these past few weeks. My own life has turned a corner and I feel like I’m coming out of a long dark tunnel. Still the world of battle calls to me as it always has. I look at those who fan the confusion and desperation in… Read full post »

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SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 8:20AM

Big Creek - 1981

 

Next week I head toward Cleveland by car and toward a reunion with my oldest friends. I was sorting through my papers and came up with this poem from 1981 (slightly edited). It tells of our adventures together (even before we went to Woodstock and witnessed that barbarian dream/… Read full post »
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APRIL 18, 2009 5:13PM

Movies and Machines

by Ralph E. Melcher

 

 

I told myself after the election that I would try to avoid writing about politics. In spite of all of the passions expended trying to get one or another candidate elected as president the actual impact of politics on the things that effect

… Read full post »
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APRIL 9, 2009 8:01AM

Two Sides of the World

A Country for Wandering

I had a dream last night.
It was full of friends
and full of ceremony,
a very sweet dream.

Now, awake, these things have mostly gone away.

Friends have gone, ceremony has gone.
Have I pushed them all away?
Do I carry only my guilt
… Read full post »
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FEBRUARY 15, 2009 10:31PM

Political Bullshit

Bush-Cheney

 This priceless photo taken of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at the inauguration of their successor captures a glimpse of two sides of the American character. On the one hand Bush looks distracted as he fiddles with something in his hands (It looks like he's playing a video game!).… Read full post »

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JANUARY 25, 2009 9:14PM

Viva Las Vegas

Mascot

I guess spring is coming early this year. When I drive the eight miles of my increasingly constricted world between home in the woods and bookstore in town the patches of snow along the road grow everyday less while between the occasional threat or promise of oncoming storm the

… Read full post »
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DECEMBER 14, 2008 11:46AM

The Church

There was a large wooden clapboard building in the middle of that semi-rural Florida neighborhood. A single floored structure that stretched clear to the end of the property line where the trees and tropical bushes clustered at the edges of a creek. The place had few windows and those that it… Read full post »

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DECEMBER 8, 2008 8:56PM

Sketches of My Father

My father never talked about his war. He was an enigma to me in many ways. A heavy smoker and someone who liked to tell a joke to lighten up a room and who liked to argue for the enjoyment of an argument. We argued often, until my mother would

… Read full post »
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