Egghead

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Egghead

“Pretend inferiority and encourage

his arrogance.”--Sun Tzu

                                                             Back

                                                            in June

                                                         but only being

                                                  reported today, Simon

                                           Cowell, while judging his talent

                                     show BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT, got pelted

                                with raw eggs. A viola player, Natalie Holt, while

                            performing on stage, leaped up mid-song, & rushed in

                         front of the two singers down stage & tossed a pack of raw

                      eggs at Cowell, soaking his jacket, & splashing his face. Security

                    dragged Holt off stage. She stated that she was protesting against 

                      people lip-synching on TV, & against Cowell’s “dreadful influence” 

                        on the world’s entire music industry. Holt immediately apologized

                           for doing a “silly stupid thing”, so Cowell did not have her

                              arrested. But she shot herself in the foot. Sadly, even

                                 though she is an accomplished musician, after this

                                    well-publicized incident, who would actually hire

                                       her now? Probably no one would take the

                                          the chance of raising Simon Cowell’s

                                                considerable ire; true that,

                                                       damn rights,

                                                              yes.

  

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets FFA

                              

                                                      

                                       

Blackthorne: Scene 2

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Blackthorne

Cinemagenic Two

The Long Death

“One out of four hides were usable, the rest ruined through

clumsy skinning, and spoilage through poor drying and insect

damage.”--Ralph Andrist

1(extreme wide shot) large buffalo herd grazing.

2(sound cues) birdsong over soft violins.

3(medium wide shot) the quiet grazing herd, covering the hills,

waves of bobbing heads, humps, horns, & swishing tails.

4(freeze frame on previous shot)

5(sound cue) the violins become strident, throbbing, screeching.

6a red wash starts at the top center, & upper corners, seeping

into a rapid stream of blood--soon covering the frame.

7(cut back to former medium wide shot) the grazing herd.

8(medium tight shot) a pair of buffalo calves frolicking, an old

scarred up bull stamping his foot and snorting in annoyance.

9(sound cue) Indian branch flute trilling, deep reedy line.

10(another freeze frame of previous herd shot)

11(silence for a two count)

12(camera roaming the still frame)

13(sound cues) dozens of rifle hammers clicking back, followed by

popping sounds in the distance, then louder multiple cracking, then

the lethal roar of several rifle squads firing Creedmoor & Sharps

big-bore rifles.

14(jump cut between close-ups & medium shots) of buffalo being hit

by bullets & thudding to the ground,

15(using some CGI, but mostly real stock footage) of the Montana

sports kill shots, and game warden tranquilizer dart shots; real bison,

real blood, snorting blood spittle as they go down hard.

16(sound cues) beginning with hundreds of pounding hooves, reducing,

fading into mere dozens, finishing with the sound of one buffalo running

through the kill cloud of alkali.

17(cut to medium close-up) thousands of buffalo skulls piled high, &

bleached white in the sun, shot against an electric blue sky.

18(Loman crane shot pulling back) to reveal huge hillocks, many a 

hundred feet high, of buffalo ribs, broken spines, & leg bones,

foothills of bone pyramids,

19(crane shot continuing to pull back & back further) revealing hordes

of hunters scraping & staking the buffalo hides to dry,

20(overhead helicopter shot traveling over the hunters) and we see a

railroad siding, with two large water tanks, coal & wood bins, and on

sidetracks there are flat cars with fresh-cut tree stakes sprouting out

of the edges, being loaded with the buffalo pelts.

21(sound cues) trumpets fading to the sound of one pair of large hooves

galloping across the hard ground.

22(medium wide shot) the white spirit bison bull charging through the

hunters & staked hides, running right to left across the frame.

23(sound cues) Spanish flamenco chords over breaking of wooden stakes,

hunters cursing, yelling, some screaming, a few random rifle shots.

24(cut to medium wide shot) the white buffalo running flat out up

a grassy hillside. 

25(sound cue) harmonica, guitar, violin riffs.

26(medium one shot) the albino bison comes to a halt near the

crest of a hill.

27(cut to tracking shot moving toward the bison)

28(jump-cut close-ups) blinking pink eyes, ivory horns, frothing nostrils,

heaving shoulders adorned with two broken arrows, & a broken lance

imbedded in his hump, an eagle feather still tethered to it, fluttering

in the soft breeze. 

29(reverse tracking shot) pulling back until we see on the green flats

below the brute the town of Blackthorne standing blue in the shimmering

distance.

30(sound cue) a pair of saloon pianos playing counterpoint tunes.

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over at dVerse Poets OLN

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?

Blackthorne: Opening Scene

painting by marcia baldwin

Blackthorne

Cinemagenic One

Monarch

“I had the best buffalo horse that ever made a track.”

--William F. Cody

Fade In

1(medium wide shot) midday, vast open prairie.

2(sound cue) violin, sweet pioneer strains.

3(camera POV shifts to helicopter, opens up to wider shot) prairie stillness.

4(sound cue) soft wind in tall grass.

5(close up) wildflowers midst undulating grass, butterflies, bees.

6(sound cues) first a distant sound of hooves, then a lonesome train whistle.

7(dolly shot sliding left) revealing a railroad track, empty to the horizon.

8(medium close up) single track rail, with the sun glinting off the metal.

9(sound cue) acoustic guitar making the rolling train melody.

10(extreme close up) track rail, rust spots, grease, & dust on the side,

rubbed shiny-smooth on the top.

11(sound cue) buffalo approaching, rolling up like distant thunder,

ringing through the metal track Indian-style, the steel quivering. 

12(cut to arroyo, medium wide shot, most of it lit brightly, but dark shadow

on the right quarter of the frame)

13(sound cue) french horns bleating low.

14(sound cue) hooves getting progressively louder.

15(hold medium wide shot for a 3-count)

16jackrabbit scurries into the frame, zig-zagging, kicking up dust, followed

closely by a coyote--they exit frame quickly. 

17(sound cue) hooves reach a crescendo.

18(sound cue) french horns & coronets announce royalty.

19a great white bull albino buffalo bursts out of the shadows

and gallops into the bright sun.

20(Loman-crane traveling shot tracking the white buffalo) this bull bison is 

as big as you can find. The buffalo runs without tiring, its tail straight up

like a charging lion.

21(sound cue) jazz riff, all horns; clarinets, saxophones, trumpets.

22(cut to wide shot) frame filled with stampeding buffalo herd, a sea

of shaggy heads held low, dust filling their nostrils, hanging over them

like ocean mist.

23(cut to a medium shot, a still of the previous frame, with camera 

zooming into close ups & extreme close ups of buffalo heads, eyes,

horns, shoulders, hooves; each shot backwashed into different primary

colors--all except red.)

24(cut to medium wide shot) a speeding train traveling fast toward the

camera, black smoke billowing out of its stack like a prairie storm.

25(sound cue) the iron horse applying panic brakes.

25(medium close up) fat sparks spraying into a shower of fire as

the tall iron wheels lock down.

26(cut to wide shot) the train in the near distance, skidding, blasting

its horn, billowing black & white exhalations.

27the stampeding buffalo herd enters the right side of the frame, spilling

across the shot quickly, crossing the tracks, filling the frame, moving in

waves of muscle & horns.

28(cut to medium two-shot) train engineer and brakeman, panic on their

sooty faces

29(close-up) engineer’s angry face.

30(extreme close-up) engineer’ eyes.

31(sound cue) Voice-over: engineer-”fucking buff!”

32(cut to very wide shot from helicopter) above and behind the train 

as it barrels down on the buffalo herd.

33(traveling shot from caboose over the top of the passenger cars,

over the coal car, and over the locomotive, deep into the black smoke;

bursting immediately out of the smoke and down into the herd)

34(medium close up) the locomotive’s cow catcher plowing into the herd,

buffalo being lifted into the air, several bison thudding to the ground.

35(sound cues) buffalo bleat-screaming, train brakes screeching, train

horn blaring, thousands of hooves clattering, base drum pounding.

36(medium wide shot) train stopped, belching smoke like a dragon,

steam throbs punctuating the air, dozens of buffalo dead or dying,

as the great herd continues to surge across the frame.

37(hold previous shot for a four-count)

38(sound cue) harmonica huffing, cello bowing.

39(cut to medium wide shot) the white buffalo on a high knoll,

overlooking the mayhem.

40(medium close-up) the white bison monarch shaking its shaggy

head, its thick ivory horns humming, its bleating a challenge, a plea,

and ultimatum. 

49(close up) it’s reddish-pink albino eye.

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

Would you like to hear the author read this Cinemagenic poem to you?

Zealots

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Zealots

“It is not God who fucked up, it’s the screamers who say

they believe in him, & who claim to pursue their ends in

his holy name.”--John Irving

God has multiple faces,

every pigment of skin,

speaks all languages,

but it never

has made any sense to

me that as

many choose, or

are chosen to follow a

specific faith, they

immediately fan their own hubris,

plunge into pitfalls of elitism, 

condescend to everyone named Morris,

& condemn all the other ‘isms.

The world’s religions break down to

the Big Dog Clubs, the strays, and non-members;

33% of us are Christians,

23% are Muslims, 14% are Hindus,

7% are Buddhists, 2% follow Judaism,

about 10% are considered non-religious,

and everyone else falls through the cracks. 

Are we all slaves to our own base nature?

If we belong to or favor a sports team,

a fraternal organization, a city, a state, a country--

this somehow makes us feel superior

to everyone else? 

We belong, they don’t, so fuck them?

Citing our unalienable rights to fight

for what we believe in, versus what

they believe in, giving us impetus

to declare war on them. 

Our Founding Fathers believed that

we should always keep Church & State

as separate entities, & yet throughout history

more wars have been fought,

more lives have been lost,

more blood has been shed,

over religious conflicts than

any other single factor. 

The entire American Military Complex

is in crisis, it seems, facing

a suicide epidemic. Last year more

active duty servicemen & women

committed suicide than died in combat.

Within the US Marine Corps,

in another lame attempt to promote

well-being among troops, they force

those on active duty to fill out

a training document, asking them

to check boxes that pertain to them,

as their commanders hope to prevent

loss of life by monitoring warning signs

like substance abuse, criminal records,

prior suicide attempts, implied sexual orientation,

and the latest is “lack or loss of spiritual faith.”

In the Army they require soldiers to complete

a survey that measures their “spiritual fitness”,

because spiritual people have decreased odds

of attempting suicide, spiritual fitness has a positive

effect on quality of life & mental health,

and no one is ever allowed to put the word

atheist on their dog tags. 

Come on, how in hell are we to keep religion

out of the armed forces,

out of politics,

out of our schools,

out of our workplace, &

out of our wars.

Are there truly no atheists in foxholes

during a devastating mortar attack?

Have there been wars in heaven

as the angels did battle wearing

white or black wings?

Is there a war within our own hearts

between greed & compassion?

Rhetorical inquiries I suspect, since

belief in one’s faith often denies logic

and fully embraces conundrum.

Midst the maze, each of us must seek

our own answers, adopt our own conclusions,

and then face the consequences

of those actions--regardless

of what we are told, mandated, preached to about,

dictated, forced, cajoled, or manipulated

by the powers that be. 

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets

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The Woman Who Knew Too Much

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The Woman Who Knew Too Much

“I don’t care if there’s panther piss in it--

as long as it makes me feel good.”--

John F. Kennedy

Today was the 51st anniversary 

of Marilyn Monroe’s death by suicide.

It is also President Obama’s 52nd birthday.

It was in May 1962, after being warned to stay away,

that MM showed up at Madison Square Garden

for JFK’s 45th Birthday gala celebration, and

sang the most famous breathy sexy version of

Happy Birthday on record, in front of the guests

and the media; later

at the After Party, the White House photographer

snapped dozens of images of MM & JFK together,

the negatives & prints of which were confiscated;

but yesterday a famous 1 out of 10 framed print

of MM, JFK, RFK, & Harry Belafonte surfaced

and sold at an art auction for $23,000.00. 

Less than two months after that event

MM was found dead in Brentwood, then

JFK was assassinated in Dallas the next year, &

RFK was assassinated in LA a couple years later;

Death was a popular dance partner it seems.

JFK first met MM as a Hollywood starlet in 1951,

three years before he married Jackie in 1953.

They met again at a social event in 1956.

Shortly following her divorce of Arthur Miller,

on the rebound from an affair with Frank Sinatra,

she met the Kennedy brothers in early 1962

at the home of Peter Lawford. 

She started having affairs with both of them.

RFK really fell hard for her charms, but Monroe

had set her sights on JFK, screwing him in

bathtubs in Lawford’s home, at her own house,

& several times in Palm Springs.

The Affair sent serious ripples through the halls

of power--Hoover started an FBI file on MM--

Sam Giancana started a Mafia file on her.

Most people think that unwittingly, Monroe

bedded down with dangerous people in

a very deadly game. The Love she felt

for Jack Kennedy probably cost her life. 

Monroe confided to friend, actress Terry Moore,

that she could imagine herself as the next First Lady.

Jackie’s marriage had long been on shaky ground.

She complained that JFK always “Went too fast, and then

fell asleep”, while the White House spin doctors spread

vicious rumors that Jackie was an ice queen, totally frigid. 

In a drugged-out stupor, Monroe called Jackie, and informed

her of the details of the affair, & of her intentions to become

the next Mrs. Kennedy--”That’s great,” Jacqueline replied,

“ You move in, I’ll move out, and you can deal with all

the problems.”

Always tolerant of JFK’s varied infidelities, with the likes

of Angie Dickinson, still this time Jackie became angry,

calling Monroe “ A sick slut, a loose cannon,” who could

obliterate their marriage, JFK’s reputation, and hold

Jackie up to public ridicule.

There is no doubt that Marilyn Monroe was indeed

a “disturbed woman”, in and out of several psychiatric

clinics for borderline personality disorder, and a severe

addiction to barbiturates & alcohol.

One dark day in the spring of ’62, Monroe was notified

by the Justice Department & the White House

that her relationship with the Kennedy brothers

constituted a national security risk, and she was

being forced to “cease all contact with the Kennedys.”

The weekend before her death, she met with Joe DiMaggio

at Lake Tahoe, and they talked about getting remarried.

Her nude body was discovered dead by her maid on

August 5, 1962.

“Hollywood killed her,” said DiMaggio.

Oh, Joe, I think it might have been a bit more complicated

than that. I believe it was the same collusion, the same

gang of political & criminal thugs that first protected

JFK, and then turned on him like a pack of Rotweillers

the very next year, the moment he supported

the Civil Rights movement.

Then some of that murderous pride had late

night rendezvouses with Hendrix, Morrison,

& Janis Joplin. Who ever said fame & power

were safeguards against calamity?

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets OLN

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Black Angels

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Black Angels

“Negro pilots cannot be used in our present Air Corps units, 

since this would result in Negro officers serving over white

enlisted men, creating an impossible social situation.”

--General Henry “Hap” Arnold

John Henry Allen died today at 84;

drafted right after high school in 1945,

he was assigned to the 332nd Fighter

Squadron Wing of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Black pilots were prevented from participating

in WWI. After tremendous pressure & lobbying,

in April 1939, Congress designated funds for

the training of African-American pilots.

Of course there were strict racist protocols

regarding the training, & they only accepted

those applicants with high IQs and good educations,

& the resulting units formed were fully segregated,

staffed by all white officers.

So what was the Army Air Corps to do with these

“black gorillas with wings” that Congress had forced

upon them--of course, that became as little as possible.

At first the black pilots were trained at the

477th Bombardment Group to fly the

American B-25 Mitchell Bombers, but

they were never allowed to fly in combat. 

But in 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

inspected the Tuskegee Program, and she

was taken aloft for 30 minutes by veteran

black pilot Al Anderson. And gosh, right after

that the 99th Fighter Squadron was formed.

Still, the 99th was held in reserve until 1943,

when they were finally deployed to N. Africa;

only allowed to fly ground attacks, & were

prevented from flying air to air combat missions.

One bright note in the chaos was that their

aircraft kept improving; they cut their teeth

on the Curtiss P-40 Airhawk, then got the

Bell P-39 Aircobras, followed by the

Republic P-47 Thunderbolts-that were

the first planes to have their tails

painted blood red. 

In July 1944, when I was a month old,

they received the first shipment of

American P-51 Mustangs. After drenching

their tails red, the squadron was finally

deployed to Europe, where they were

“allowed” to fly as fighter escorts for several

B-17 Bomber Groups. The bomber losses

had been as high as 50% on some raids,

but the Tuskegee unit flew 179 escort missions

and only lost 25 bombers, earning them the

affectionate nickname of Red Tail Angels.

Those black pilots fought like demons, unleashing

all their pent-up passions, sensing that they had

a chance to change history; and they did.

In desperation, the Germans sent up their super-fighters

against them, the FW 190 radical propeller fighters,

the ME 153 rocket-powered fighters, & then the 

ME 262s, the world’s first jet fighters--and the

Red Tails shot them down by the dozens.

Three Tuskegee Airmen officers went on to become

generals in the Air Corps. In 2007, 300 of the surviving

airmen were awarded Congressional Gold Medals.

180 survivors attended the first inauguration

of Barack Obama.

I tell you we were very fortunate that a band

of black brothers rose up and sprouted angry

wings when we needed them, distinguishing

themselves against incredible segregational odds.

The survivors inspire us to strive to become

better Americans, where all of the Jim Crow

racism is pursued and punished with righteous

“extreme prejudice; and one day, I hope it will

be as extinct as polio, and that no one will tolerate

its regeneration. 

Glenn Buttkus

August 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

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