From Thunder Sandwich Issue 25

Thunder Sandwich, a journal edited by Jim Chandler, has been inactive/closed for a while now. Ron Androla recently was digging through the archives and posted a couple of his poems from an old issue on Pressure Point Press Board. That prompted me to look up the two I had in the journal shortly before it closed. We're trying to rouse Jim to bring out another issue. He's on that board too and is thinking:-)


See these online in the archived Thunder Sandwich

Guarding The Edge


Outside my bedroom window,
dealers meet their daily quota
pumping the walking dead.
Hookers bargain for memories
in the back of run-down Chevrolets.

A man screams Armageddon
Nobody cares what he says.

The Buddhist sits on my doorstep.
Mud stains coat his feet.
He says we're all connected;
muggers hiding in alleys,
old ladies prone on the street.

I laugh at the distant rumblings,
flip on my wide screen TV,
ignore cracks already cobwebbing
my carefully guarded space.


Bedding the Butterfly


I watch you watch her wriggle
center stage, bait for the guy
with orange hair and bad voice
netting the throbbing crowd.

The guitar worships her,
kisses her sweet ass,
pubescent hips gyrating
in the doo-whap thick of the night.

I know you will grope me later,
imagining her instead,
her halter top tossed free
and floating-

your red sequined butterfly
of receding youth,
flutterdying
on our cold hardwood floor.


Pris Campbell
in Thunder Sandwich

A Gigapan shot of the inauguration crowds. Taken at 1,474 megapixels!!!!

The below text came from my daily Kim Komando newsletter. I wish there was a way to link to it, but go to Gigapan.org and play with different pans of the crowd. Fun and amazing detail. You really have to see this on site to fully appreciate it. (Sometimes I get error messages when I click on the link, so this is the URL direct to the site: http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=15374 They have messages up saying there's a big load on the site today)

This is the long range shot (click to enlarge)




This is a pan down to Obama.




From the newsletter:
A close look at the inauguration
Barack Obama's inauguration drew huge crowds to Washington. The Washington Post estimated that 1.8 million people attended. That estimate was accepted by the National Park Service. It is believed to have been the biggest crowd in Washington's history.

So, what does a crowd of 1.8 million look like? Well, I'm sure you've seen the news photos. They sure are impressive. They really give you a good feel for the size of the crowds.

Well, David Bergman has created a photo that is even more impressive. It's a panoramic image of the crowds.The image is an astounding 1,474 megapixels. No, that's not a typo!Bergman actually created the panorama from 220 individual images. He took the shots with his 14.7-megapixel Canon G10.

You will be amazed by the panorama. You can make out the faces in the crowd. Or, see the secret service agents on the rooftops.

You can see the panorama on Gigapan's site. You can also see thousands of other gigapixel images.

The Inaugural Poem

If you want to both watch the video and read the poem, go to Ed Byrne's blog.

I'm among those hoping this would be a chance for large numbers of non poets to see that poetry has a strong voice and was disappointed in the reading. Where do you weigh in on the inaugural poem?

The link opens in a separate window, so you can read there and leave reactions both on his blog and here, if you like.

Pris

Best Movie Dances

These are three dances in movies that continue to stand out in my memory. I could watch them over and over. I'm not trying to include the oldies with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire...another whole group of wonderful dances in those, too. What's your favorite??



The Scent of a Woman (tugs at heartstrings)




The Sound of Music (most romantic)



Shall We Dance (sexiest)

Empowerment4Women is out

Find the poetry page HERE. My poem, Streaking, is from the collection of sea poems I've been writing based on my 1977 six month trip in my Tanzer 22 and have now submitting to the Main Street Rag annual poetry chapbook competition. I really enjoy this journal.

Mama Mia

I understand that this movie has been panned by a lot of people, the singing, as well. I found the movie to be delightful, personally. It was fun seeing a movie depicting people who lived through the 'hippie' generation in the here and now--and done in musical form. While it was no Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar, or even Tommy, doing it this way took me back to those and the days when I saw Hair live in San Francisco. The actors looked like people out on the streets. I saw Hair again in the eighties and the actors wore wigs. It was no longer a statement, but a period piece. Yes, I'm getting older:-)

So, if you've seen it, tell me what you thought of the movie and your general age group, ie were you of age enough to remember the late sixties, early seventies??

In The Still

I took out the poem I had here. I'm not happy with it, but left the old photos that were related to the era of the poem.

Band bus, on the way home from a game:



Me, age 13. I grew 4 inches that summer. Wearing a pony tail in this picture. Our band formed when I was 11.

Yes, it's okay to laugh:-)

A taste of the past

Video removed from youtube.

The Fall Winter Issue of Haigaonline is up!

I love this journal. Enjoy this issue, starting with this Editor's choice page. One of my haiga is in this section as an illustration of the use of white space in haiga. You'll find me again in contemporary haiga. The theme of this issue is 'earth'. Good work, Linda P., editor!

This one's for you, Mike!

Back in late November, a man from England I knew online who visited Orlando, three hours north of me, came to visit me with his wife. This meant a six hour round trip for them in one day and meant a lot to me. We hadn't known each other well enough for them to feel comfortable overnighting here.

He'd had surgery for intestinal cancer earlier in the year and chemo, but mentioned on his visit that there was another undefined mass. I just learned that it was the cancer, this time come back harder. His options, according to his doctors , were to leave it be and 'die sooner' or remove his intestines and 'die later'. Imagine being given that type of choice. He's opted for the operation. I'm hoping the doctors are wrong and it's not that advanced.

I was in pain with what led to a root canal two days after his visit and am glad now I didn't cancel out for that reason. I did this haiga shortly after the visit.

I'm thinking of you, dear Mike! Your wife, too.

Pris
(click on the image to enlarge

When our lives as we know them are cut short.

Recently, in googling a link for my audiologist who has a friend with CFIDS and is still feeling the pressures of the disdain given to so many people with this illness, I ran across CFWarrier.blogspot.com. This is a blog by a young woman with the same illness I have, but who developed it in 2007 shortly after finishing her Ph.D. in Psychology and while working to get her hours of clinical supervision needed to apply for liscensing. Oddly, enough, her last name is the same as mine and as readers of my blog, know, Clinical Psychology was my profession, too. I was lucky enough to get in 16 years in my chosen work, to have many adult years of freedom, to travel, to sail before this illness took me down. Now it's grabbed her before she's even begun and as I read her blog, I see me in those pages, struggling to make sense of this monster, trying to find a doctor who might know a pittance about the illness and trying to avoid the ones who label you nuts and dismiss you.

Even though most of you reading this don't have CFIDS, I would recommend a visit to her pages. Her writing is sensitive and articulate. She's open. She's very bright. I liked her immediately when I first began reading her blog.

So many of my online cFIDS friends were hit by this illness much earlier than I was. One, still in her teens. Another, the first year into her marriage and plans for having children and going on with her career had to be scuttled.

Despite the toll this illness takes both neurologically and immunologically, despite its tremendous impact on our lives, it's still largely ignored by the general public. Laura Hildebrand, author of Sea Biscuit, has written a moving account of her struggles and helped tremendously in getting us a public voice. She wrote her book mostly in bed lying down with the room spinning, food in a small fridge she kept in her room for times she was too weak to go to the kitchen. She was denigrated, called 'lazy'. When the book was accepted, she had to face her fears of telling the publisher she wouldn't be able to tour. Her agent already knew. An arrangement was set up for telephone interviews instead, or interviews at her home. When finally she went public with the illness in a prize winning essay (which took her a year to write) and a feature on national television, two disc jockeys made fun of her afterwards (well, her illness). In the past, the shame would've hit her again, no matter how much she knew her illness was legitimate. This time, the act of going public, of becoming a role model and advocate for CFIDS sustained her. She was given the chance to speak for those who couldn't speak for themselves. She was able to shrug off their inane remarks.

I'm focusing on CFIDS because that's what I live with, but so many other people have had their lives rearranged by illness or disabilities. It takes changing your life view to come to terms with it. It takes courage. It takes a sense of humor. It takes the ability to say it's okay to grieve.

Pris