Metamorphosism

John Keats was sitting at his kitchen table. Everyone else was asleep. He was drinking filter coffee and wishing espresso wasn’t such a pain in the ass to make.

It was very humid. He was trying to write something.

He wrote, “Blah, blah, blah.”

He wrote,
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou … Continue Reading

So it’s been what, nine years roughly. And my teacher just now shows me this thing, a composition for three or more cellos, four basic patterns to be played at will, over and over, composed in such a way that no matter which patterns you play, or how you play them, they sound good together. And I was all, Wow, because I could, for once, not freak out about reading the notes or my intonation, I could concentrate on hearing and making the music.

And I was all, motherfucker, why didn’t you show me this nine years ago? And defenestrated him, … Continue Reading

Gamma played in a piano concert last night and afterwards she was drinking Seven Up with her friend who also played and I was drinking beer with the friend’s parents at a table on the sidewalk outside this place that makes its own beer and sometimes, like apparently yesterday, hurries the beer a little with the result that it accelerates your digestion to a very remarkable degree the next day, because, man. And somehow I got on the subject of utopias, and how I think right now is a good time to be thinking about them, and about how things … Continue Reading

Maria, Argentina, Cry, etc. etc.
or
Everything is better with slugs
an Opera
by
Mig Living

Scene I
Governor’s Mansion
Advisors:
Rising! Rising! You are a star!
Opportunistic cutthroats all
we drive the nation into the ground
and you are rising among us!
you are a star!

Chorus:
Sic!

Scene II
Governor’s office. He is alone, typing on computer.

Governor:

You are glorious!
I hope you understand!
Who needs shrinks???
Did you get my eamils?

Chorus:
Sic!

Governor:

Are you basking gloriously?
Are you holding something in the fading light?
Wow, what a rack!
I miss you unbeleivably

Chorus:
Sic!

Maria:
(Whom we hear but not see, only her words on a computer screen)

Hi beloved!
You’re a great kisser!
Crisp as new lettuce!
You make me feel like a … Continue Reading

THE WASTE LAND

(from a manuscript recently discovered in the stuffing of a sock puppet)

“Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam
possit materiari?”

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

I take it back, April is not the cruellest month,
But June, breeding
Slugs out of nowhere, geeze
Where do they all come from, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, they say
Not much snow, and April, so hot, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised you, didn’t it, dude?
Everything looked fine, the tomatoes so tall
Lettuce so lush, until, with a shower of rain, we swarmed
And went on in sunlight, into the Salatgarten,
And ate radishes, … Continue Reading

The theoretical astronomer looks at the sky one night and thinks about watching the tears of St. Lawrence in August and remembers, as every time he thinks about the tears of St. Lawrence falling in August a girlfriend with a birthday then and with whom, one year he broke up on that birthday. As mnemonic devices go, unpleasant yet effective. They were backpacking, and she sang Happy Birthday to Me all the way back to the car.

Maybe it doesn’t sound all that bad, but it’s what the theoretical astronomer thinks of when he remembers what a dick he was. He … Continue Reading

A study by Mig Living

Abstract:

Darkness, moisture, sliminess, hunger, thirst: tasting, drinking, drowning. Death.

Brief explanation of the study:

Motivated by a desire to protect my vegetable garden from slugs without the use of toxic chemicals or spending an arm and a leg on tin slug fences of unknown effectiveness, I performed a study last Saturday night to see whether placing beer in containers in said vegetable garden would kill slugs and, if so, which shape/size of container was optimal. In order to test slug beverage preference, I employed several brands of beer and one non-beer beverage.

Containers used:

1. Catfood cans (both the full-size … Continue Reading
   

The slugs all have mobile phones and have been organizing flash mobs in my lettuce patch.

Via Twitter, I suspect.

slimy2009 MIG HAS SET OUT SAUCERS OF BEER! PARTAAAYY!!1! #lettucemob

My wife told me she saw a mob of slugs around one of the dishes I’d set out, drinking beer.

I thought they were supposed to get drunk and fall in or something, but they just have a drink and then go eat lettuce.

slimy2009 DUDE I AM SO BUZZED.

mucouslvr @slimy2009 GO EAT SOME LETTUCE AND CLEAN OUT YR SYSTM.

My wife thinks I didn’t put enough beer in the dishes. All I have is good … Continue Reading

I would like to compose a tune with that title, “The Cripple’s Reel”. With some unusual time signature, such as 7/3 or something. Or, perhaps, being a reel, 19/8. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, Always the odd shite, Mig, because you don’t know enough about music to make something normal that’s interesting. To which I reply, What’s normal about being interesting? I mean, interesting about being normal? Unless the normality is merely a mask behind which nefarious or subversive intentions are implemented? That would be somewhat interesting.

I’ve been thinking about writing a clinical study on the interaction of … Continue Reading

1. I’m guessing catchy titles are important.
2. Otherwise, don’t do what I do, because I have never managed to make a cent with this, except for some Bug merchandise I made $30 selling on Cafepress a few years ago and oh, yeah, a part-time job I really like that I found through a friend I made blogging.
3. And probably other stuff I forgot.
4. I had a dream last night, sort of a nightmare. My wife and I were driving seperate cars in the pitch dark. Our headlights didn’t work and we were trying hard to stay together and not crash into anything.
5. Weird, huh.
6. I bought … Continue Reading