I unearthed my fascination for the absurd during high school drama class. It was in there that I was first exposed to Monty Python; Wallace & Gromit; Harold and Maude... and a variety of other plays, movies and television shows that still, to this day, make my "favorites" list (thank you, Mr. G).
It was also in drama class that I first read Samuel Beckett; we started "light" with Waiting for Godot but then graduated to Endgame in Drama II. In both instances, I found myself obsessed with the minimalist stage design and "nonsense" dialogue which sounded like Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" at best; and absolute nonsense, at worst. But I knew there was something more to it... that all of the "nonsense" meant... "something" (even if it was more than I was able to grasp at the time).
I may have been the only student in the class who was actually bummed when we'd end our study of Beckett and move on to someone else. Years later, I wound up extending my literary interests to include Edward Albee and a vast catalogue of postmodern poetry & prose (in other words: just about anything that makes me go "hmmmm").
[The C&C Music Factory song notwithstanding.]
This is just a roundabout way of saying The Onion recently published an article on Mr. Beckett that I found pretty amusing.
And some people call me verbose...
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
Faux Toes (General Washington)
For more photos of Washington, see Haiku/Gesundheit (Volume XII) or my Olympia post.
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Thursday, April 27, 2006
Haiku/Gesundheit
(Volume XII - The Washington Chronicles)
on visiting olympia for the second time
(or, "who doesn't want to visit o-town?")
when someone asks if
you'd like to go to "o-town"
try to not chuckle
lessons on flirting taught by a five-year-old child
(or "man, that boy is smooth")
meeting someone new?
be sure to ask about their
favorite color
on driving past a ‘lover's package’
(next door to ‘larry's guns’)
wish we could've stopped:
i wanted that one for my
ironic pics album
things you notice when jogging rural washington
(or "poetry in motion'")
mountains like adams
saint helens and ol' rainier:
some bison farms, too
on visiting an uber-rural wal-mart
midway between portland and seattle
(or "and you think my hometown is backwoods?!”)
next time you're about
to make fun of my hometown:
remember your hood
(or, "who doesn't want to visit o-town?")
when someone asks if
you'd like to go to "o-town"
try to not chuckle
lessons on flirting taught by a five-year-old child
(or "man, that boy is smooth")
meeting someone new?
be sure to ask about their
favorite color
on driving past a ‘lover's package’
(next door to ‘larry's guns’)
wish we could've stopped:
i wanted that one for my
ironic pics album
things you notice when jogging rural washington
(or "poetry in motion'")
mountains like adams
saint helens and ol' rainier:
some bison farms, too
on visiting an uber-rural wal-mart
midway between portland and seattle
(or "and you think my hometown is backwoods?!”)
next time you're about
to make fun of my hometown:
remember your hood
Haiku/Gesundheit
(Volume XI - The Portland Chronicles)
on seeing a man light up next to a police officer at skidmore fountain
looks like pot smoking
is a low priority
for portland police
on watching three pigeons perch on drinking fountain spouts
(or “i know something you don't know”)
bet you wouldn't drink
from there if you saw what the
pigeons had with lunch
portland 'saturday market' hodgepodge
homeless elvis sings
dancing elf plays on bagpipes
folks eat, shop & watch
