Nakba

There's only one word for

the military occupation and ethnic cleansing

taking place in Palestine

29 July and
15 August 2017

Wangdangdoodle on 9th Street

Last Friday a party for Swan's market

 100 year birthday

with cake and ice cream

calling it my birthday party

(birthday which is today)

 

 

It's strange new world

on 9th Street

in Old Oakland

Try not to look like

some kind of white alien

Super Juice

They also serve

Mayor  Libby Schaff's special sauce

they use it to make a thick

Guap cover-up

We so far out

we down home

The drummer was heroic

 

The lead guitarist

didn't get his name

from Texas he said

that the Oakland blues

is Texas blues

Recently I had two strange incidents

of apparent prescience

The first I thought of trying for the first time

Berkeley Goodwill for a pair of pants

I imagined I'd get a pair of slim green chinos

and then found the one pair, new with tags

in my size. maybe because of the Leo effect

 

Then before this party I went to my nearby pad

for earplugs and a toke and I fantasized

that I would go back and be allowed to sing

"Smokestack Lightning" by the great, great

Howling Wolf

 

I returned to the party as

this singer took the mic

in what was a sort of review

with various woman taking turns singing

First thing she asks
Anyone remember Howling Wolf

I had to ask the guy next to me

what she had said

then when I said

Howling Wolf, he's my favorite

The guitarist who sat right near me

overhears and loves the fact I do,

Then they start the song
"Ooooh Smokestack Lightning"

and she ain't doing the howl

So I do the howl,

I do it quite well

She thinks it's one of the band

 and says thanks because she can't sing like that

The guitarist flips and comes over

to get me to do it a couple more times

He's talking to me while playing just fine,

Meanwhile the highly gifted drummer et al

are just kicking it

A troop of black West Oakland

Blues ladies file up and begin a very cool

synchronized dance

We over the top and I am in

A very happy time all around
I throw in the howl
in the places where it goes

 

The guitarist later said,

This

is Oakland

 

 

 

 

Despite the years and

perhaps a few extra pounds

these blues ladies could move

 This one didn't focus well

but it captures a great array

of moves, y'all

There followed soon afterward

 an intermission

with a lot of palaver

Then came a colorful

but ear-splitting

Chinese

Lion Dance

 

I call this

Abstraction on a Lion Dance

Then the band

came back in black

starting with

Ain't No Sunshine

 

At another point the guitarist

is talking to a lady next to me

and a real pro back up singer

has to get his attention

to play the bottom of the song

You gotta play the riff

I tell him

 

Little kids

Chinese, Mexican,

African-American

and European Americans

enjoying themselves

in spades

 

 

 

Leroi Jones

Inamu Amiri Baraka

(who well-remembered me

30 years after our first meeting)

calls us

Blues People

 

 

 

 

 

Cake and ice cream are served

I have some then get in another line

for some of fancier cake

and take it on home to have

with coffee after I make me supper

 

That's how a poor man

stands such times

and lives

 

 

 

 

 

21July 2017

 

 

 

Theoretical Mail Art

Mail Art by design

that never went through the mail

is Mail Art in theory

Bad Dharma

 
Snuff Hustler

Golden State Summer

Alive Baby

June-July 2017

America Great Again

Independence Day

Class Warriors

The Museum of Capitalism, Part Two

I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the

Police State of America

and to the Plutocracy

for which it stands

Onward with our bad 21st Century

Late Capitalism has

decayed into Post-Capitalism

I'm the

Chairman of the Bored

We won an award

Each page represents

a different position

We've taken on the same stock

--it's not morbid!

Why do you hate America?

New employees receive

orientation and indoctrination

here

Corporate logo banner atrium

 Performance work

was in progress

A brawny fork lift vehicle

moves forward slowly

while holding up a large

steel coffee mill

which was running

One of the collaborating

artists runs the machine

Duchampian

Don't get hold of

the wrong end of the stick

There's no right end

You are not the target

I once said to a slick detective

from OPD on a free shuttle bus

Regardless of your ideology

you have to admit

if judges are too liberal

with trigger-happy cops

there's going to be a social cost

He had just chuckled about the

remodeling signs outside Bevmo

after they were looted in a recent riot

Black men smiled when they heard me

the handsome cashmere cop

was taciturn

Universal

handcuff keys

In future

artificial intelligence

will guide our ideas

of punishment and reform

The chamber is lit

only by a narrow window

of green glass

My smart phone lights up

the otherwise very dark room

where you lie on padded shelves

and hear indecipherable voices

and subliminal rhythmic tones

-- advanced relaxation tapes

It is a sinister relaxation

that is achieved

Police persuaders

tasers crops stingers

security wands, whips

and a Yad

Happy vapor trails

to you

20 July 2017

The Museum of Capitalism, Part 1

Huge high-quality show

up now at Jack London Square

across from the main Marina

Up until 20 August 2017

 I want to get some

boots on their grounds

It's a free admission

full-blown museum-style show

Here we  are now

info-tain us

Corporate Logo

Hall of Honor

Commodify thyself

Better consider

the alternatives

Separation fence

The armies are at the borders

to stem the human tide

The rough industrial finish

its materials and textures

echoes the artworks

It is the perfect site-specific location

for this synthesizing

yet ground-breaking experience

With my whole heart

I stand with standing rock

Against the Koch family,

Against Rex Tillerson

Against Sheldon Adelson

Against the whole class

of the earth-despoiling

predatory wealthy

I'd call this the centerpiece

of the show

Hilarious

this is a Banksy work

appropriated and sold

 by Walmart

And yes

there is a gift shop

although on knowing

and somewhat ironical one

It expands into

a figurative 13th floor

a twilit zone

devoid of merchandise

In the capitalism study

two vending machines

one is free

the other requires 50 cents

Plastic globes with

mini Hershey bars in both

The Capitalist Bathroom Experience

Classic really,

California law prohibits pay toilets

for the most part

But this is more post-capitalist than those

This is one that requires that

one contain oneself

and supplicate oneself

to acquire a punch-in code

Core sample

with handcuffs in amber

Steel shibboleth stencils

 retail display

Super-funded

Government toxic site

Join the GMO parade

Toxic waste from like

fracking or deep water drilling

or tar sands or something

The Earth is

private property

Its landscape

flora and fauna,

its water

The soil

the minerals

the fossils

Its primitive

indigenous people

All jewels

in billionaires crowns

Anywhere out of this world

  bateau ivre

Its not without

risk

The oiligarchy

Text to follow
I'll continue to fill out this post

How has Capitalism
change the Bay?

San Francisco with its new
donkey-dong TransBay building
Alameda shipyard on the left
Port of Oakland on the right

July 2017