the gift of common sense courtesy of frank o'hara

As a graduate writing student, I had to read Frank O'Hara's manifesto Personism, which was fine by me as I liked his magnum opus, Lunch Poems and Personism turned out to be quite good too, funny, name-drops LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka) and Alain Robbe-Grillet and is to date, the best piece of literature to cite the act referred to in the contemporary quotidian as the Lucky Pierre.

That said, I took to heart most seriously from Personism, not a discourse the nostalgia of negative capability or the benefits of abstraction versus precision, but the following piece of conventional wisdom i.e. common sense: "You just go on your nerve. If someone's chasing you down the street with a knife, you just run, you don't turn around and shout, 'Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep.'"

Go on your nerve.
Don't brag about high school athletics when being chased.
Honestly, the applications are endless. . .

originally titled new york beat

you go with me my gentle boy?
-Downtown 81

I remember when New York looked like this. I remember a New York without yarn shops and baby boutiques. I remember when an anonymous band of poets raided the marquees of long abandoned showgirl theaters on 42nd Street with plastic letter lyrics. I remember the greatest noise.

beautiful child

from Tusk, Fleetwood Mac, 1979

dance antics

Dance, dance, dance. Lights out. Uh-huh.

singing the blue

There's something about this record that reminds me of looking out the backseat window of my family's grey Volvo station wagon at dusk on the way home from the beach. It's bittersweet and comforting.

ecoutez!

I don't hate New York.

But this Thorns of Life song is great with a capital A for rad.