A Rain of Frogs

Live music nights are always slow now
it used to be that live music night
was a riot for flesh filled with barely dressed women
hypnotically grinding against each other

on a dance floor of wet dreams
while the band filled all the available space with
deep eclectic complicated crunchy beats
with powerful juicy tasty energy

but live music nights are always slow now
crushed by commerce, crushed by those other places
with their dirty-cheap beer, dirty floors and
dirty staff. places that have killed what used to be

the best night of the week, places where
girls in too-short skirts get the clap – or worse
from sitting on the red vinyl bar stools
dirty mind and dirty soul. dirty lives

the musicians stir their drinks listlessly
remembering the good old days
even now there’s a crowd, but who wants this
screaming hip, baseball-cap wearing farmers

harassing their stunned bovine girlfriends
harassing the waitress, grabbing her ass and
screeching the off-key din that is their drinking song
slamming back cheap domestic courage.

doing the do, the musicians take the stage
hearts devoid and minds empty, another live music night
the ball caps scream, shellshocked with glazed eyes
consume as the air fills with that crazy live music sound…

endless hours later the screaming has ceased
baseball caps and lovers of hip lost in the fog of the night
and the musicians and the waitress mourn the loss
of another slice of threadbare soul they’ve sold tonight

live music nights are always slow now
empty halls full of empty eyes and empty ears
listening to empty music made by empty hearts
welcome to dead music night.

Once, a long time ago, there was an old goat that lived among the sheep. Because the goat was different than the sheep, it was easy for the light-minded sheep to blame all their problems on the goat.

“You eat everything, leaving nothing but grass for us poor sheep!” they would lament, and the goat would gaze his impassive gaze. “Your stomach groans and makes noises. You smell!” they’d complain, again to be met by his empty, uncaring gaze.

For his part, the goat didn’t care much about the sheep. They were sheep, and were merely doing what it was sheep do – eat, shit, and complain as loudly as possible about anything and everything. It was their way.

One day a fox happened by the field where the sheep were grazing. Seeing no threat to him, he stealthily sneaked up upon the flock and quietly plucked a juicy sheep at random. Fearing reprisal, the fox quickly dragged his kill behind a tree, where he began to munch contentedly.

After a while, the sheep, finally noticed something amiss – one of their numbers had vanished. They looked high, and looked low, back and forth across the field, for the missing sheep. But no sheep was to be found, the fox had made quick work of his prey and slunk off to a hole to rest.

“You! Goat! You have gone too far,” the sheep exclaimed, “you have eaten one of our own. Have you no decency?” The goat did as goats do, he gazed aloofly. He uttered no response, save to fart loudly. Shortly, the sheep forgot what it was they were upset about, and went back to grazing.

The next day, the fox repeated his murder under the noses of the docile, foolish sheep, and again, when the crime was discovered, the sheep blamed the old goat. The fox laughed gleefully as the goat was berated for the murder.

On the third day, the fox again slunk among the flock, seeking the juiciest and roundest sheep on which to sup. Just as he about to lunge, he found himself unable to move. Turning around, he found the goat calmly chewing on his tail. Pull as he might, the fox was unable to escape, and was eventually consumed by the goat.

The sheep, having forgotten the murders of the previous day, blamed the goat as they always did. It was too hot. It rained too often. The sky was the wrong shade of blue. The grass wasn’t as tasty as it had been before.

The goat merely gazed, as goats will, occasionally picking bits of red fur from between his teeth.

After a great deal of effort, the large community site I run has finally been relaunched with its entirely new systems. It was tough work, but well worth the effort and heartache.

Interestingly, a different huge community site I used to be a part of is also in the midst of a massive relaunch. The site has thousands of members, dozens of features, and a massive infrastructure. That’s not the interesting part though.

The interesting part is that they have a team of programmers (a crack team of german software engineers they once proudly proclaimed), a management team, and massive support from subcontractors (the site is a business, unlike my community site, which is strictly a community site and not-for-profit), and they’ve completely blown their launch.

It’s been something like three weeks since they closed their systems for migration, and they’ve barely managed to get their infrastructure online. A bare skeleton system, basically a chat and discussion forums, are all they’ve been able to bring back to the public.

That’s scary. The site has paying customers who pay for storage, email, and integration with desktop applications. This is a business! They’ve utterly dropped the ball on this migration, and it’s got to be hurting.

I think the very worst part is that there has been no communication from the company to its customers. No message saying “Yes, we screwed up, give us a bit and we’ll get it back together.” Not even a “please stand by.” Well, that’s not true. They posted an update once to blame their subcontractors for the problem.

And they did, in fact, hang one of their staff members out to dry in the withering rage of customer dissatisfaction, and that only because he’s a fundamentally good guy who feels bad for the mess.

It looks bad on the company. All that support, money and expertise behind them, and this is the result. It makes me happy that my community site is just that.

A community.

Men appear emotionally inferior to women. Men appear increasingly socially inept. Boys are falling behind girls in education, both at the early schooling level and university level. Scans of the brain reveal that women can think of many things simultaneously, while men can only think of one thing at a time.

Men are increasingly irrelevant in society as women dominate the workforce. Men face emotional challenges they are not equipped to handle when challenged by strong, ambitious women. And its not just societal, there seems to be scientific proof.

The X chromosome is larger than the Y chromosome by a factor of six – not only larger, but far more dense in terms of information capacity. Many of these “extra” genes are associated with brain function. While I am the first to admit genetics is in its infancy, there is at this time significant evidence that women are, in fact, genetically superior to men. And that the gap is widening.

While women have made very strong strides toward equality in western society, the fact has always been that women have always had an ace up their sleeve when it came to equality – reproduction. Since western society has rendered the role of protector/provider obsolete, men have become irrelevant except for the few moments it takes to supply source material.

Now women have all the aces. Reminiscent of science fiction stories (such as Consider Her Ways, a short story by John Wyndham) in which society exists without men, scientists in Britain are busily creating a fetus that has two genetic mothers and no genetic father at all. Is it the last offense in the battle of the sexes?

The male is in decline. No wonder I feel out of place.

This whirly turbulence
carves a trail of destruction
littered with puzzlement
and confused distraction

I am whirlwind, thought:
temperamental, consequential,
reverential, existential,
I am a potential elemental

I am 24k malleable,
and flexible, and bendable,
and volatile, and tensile,
But I am not changeable

I say it like I see it
And I see it like I say it
I will be it like I see it
and it will be it as I see it.