Iraq slaughter NOT an aberration

The WikiLeaks video is not an indictment of the individual soldiers involved -- at least not primarily. Of course those who aren't accustomed to such sentiments are shocked by the callous and sadistic satisfaction those soldiers seem to take in slaughtering those whom they perceive as The Enemy (even when unarmed and crawling on the ground with mortal wounds), but this is what they're taught and trained and told to do. If you take even well-intentioned, young soldiers and stick them in the middle of a dangerous war zone for years and train them to think and act this way, this will inevitably be the result. The video is an indicment of the U.S. government and the war policies it pursues...

a happy 80th to composer • Robert Ashley • who has a new collection of writings/scores out...

PERFECT LIVES (excerpts)

out this month: Danny Trejo in Machete

poster tributes to Iconic Televsion

Parkway

Beaver Creek Road

(march 2007)

No need to get
into a stewpot
with the sacrificial horse

the days of course
streaks of Bovril hot
from a tartan thermos

& the battle of the trees
& the battle of the letters
& the battle between the

the letters & the trees
has got my paternoster threading
his beaded naps past dawn--

I am the falcon
I fly blind
through a progressive sky--

Hampton Hawes
of Hermosa Beach his
harmonium gently weeps

a pastel streak
down a marble cheek
while evening recluses

abandon conclusions
to come in out of the rain
& a lighthouse beam passes

over an eagle-eye
copper moon dangling
over the folds of a felt sweater

in a truck more likely to buck
than switch to premium
for the Parkway--

I am the circling bird
I can smell
your meaty hesitations...

after all's been said the
hammer still falls
on an empty chamber:

Joanna to Goldfinch
a row of Specials
nestled in a ravine

where worn hoops swoon
& the sun don't crest
' til afternoon.

Parkway

(November 1992)

(March 2007)

1.

The Rural Parkway-Wooded is characterized as a "cut through the forest" quality created by the regularity of the forest edge and by the relative closeness of the forest to the roadway. However, where the opportunity to separate the bikeway exists, it should be seen to enter the forest; not just make the road right-of-way wider.

2.

The edges of this type of Parkway are defined by the "loose" or "feathered" landscape edge which may include rural fencing. In this type of Parkway visibility into developments is expected and therefore the controls focus on establishing a relatively consistent building setback, controlled signage and mitigiating the negative impact of loading areas and other unsightly elements of development.

3.

Fencing should allow for feathering, undulation and fragmentation of the landscape edge to occur so that the fence is sometimes in front of and sometimes behind random groupings of indigenous coniferous and deciduous plant materials. Open views to pastoral settings should be retained. There are frequent views through the landscape to the rural development beyond. There are view opportunities to the valley below.