I'd like to talk to folks who have a grasp on leisure, yet know how to support themselves and quell the anxieties of those around them.
Writing.
Writing.
...and enough reading to keep me writing.
Media reform.
Walking and other alternative modes of transportation.
Truth, Justice and the American way (when it doesn't involve tyranny, imperialism, slavery and waste, waste, waste).
Spoken word, theater, real live entertainment. The dreams of naptime.
I'd be interested in you if you could look me in the eye and calm me.
I'd be interested in you if you could tell me it is all right when I need to be told so and kick me in the ass when it is time to go to war.
I'm interested in people who don't wear their ignorance like a badge of honor. You know, the same people that think that their role as consumers lends them some special type of priviledge making it all right to walk all over everyone in front of them and three feet to the left and right of their already bloated and besotted torsos.
OOH, he does go on a bit, doesnt' he?!
Music
This myspace thing originated b/c I was promoting my radio show, The No Show. I quit that in January, 2007, but fill in on air sometimes. Scroll down through the blogs for playlists and what not and if you catch it in time, you can stream the show online.
...and for fuck's sakes, become a KDHX member!!@!
Otherwise: John Cage, Eric Satie, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Elliot Carter, Grand Ulena, The tape-Beatles, Ghostigital, Rhys Chatham, Steve Reich, Devo, Ennio Morricone, Erik Satie, Shelia Chandra, Beck, William Elliot Whitmore, Angels of Light and all the rest, more, more, more, more...I like a lot of music...sometimes I shy away from the fanatics, though...like I might not want to hang out with a bunch of fans 'cause they are all geeked out and sometimes I might want to hang out with a bunch of fans 'cause they are geeked out. I used to drive with folks in the the Alternative Cunt Tree and I'll occasionally climb up on those branches for the whiskey, but...
...and here's a band that played live on The No Show once.
They're called Y Toros and I've booked that at the Tap Room and now I don't know if they're together or not.
Movies
"A Thousand Clowns" is a great movie, so watch it or else you might grow up to be a chair.
"The Incident" is a great movie as well...especially if you like to watch "normal" folks squirm.
Television
There was a show on PBS in the 70s, which I watched with my father, a history teacher and historian. It was called "Meeting of Minds" and was hosted by Steve Allen. On the program, actors would portray famous characters from history. The only episode I remember specifically was the episode on which the actor portraying Atilla the Hun made the actress portraying Emily Dickinson cry.
No surprises.
Then we had ice cream.
Outside, a snake and a rat choked on pesticide.
Jack Kerouac sneezed in his coffin, rolled over to reach for the bottle and crumbled to dust.
...and this one time, I was drunk on a hot, summer day and I went back to the pad I shared with some other guys and one of them was there, so we got some more beer and drank and watched a Black Flag video to which we passed out...when I woke up the video had stopped, but I didn't know it 'cause I'd never seen Bob Ross' painting show and there he was, this weird dude painting on TV and I thought it was part of the punk video, but then all the PBS shit rang through and I was left to laugh at my besotted brain.
Books
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander
A Night of Serious Drinking by Rene Daumal
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Crash by J.G. Ballard
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Empire City by Paul Goodman
Working by Studs Terkel
Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Place of Dead Roads by William S. Burroughs
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs
Heroes
Imperial IPA drinkers and pumpernickel breadmakers...those people with the instruments that play from the heart and make space for good naps after lunch.
Men of leisure and the women who love them.
Dancers, culture-jammers, nurses, physical therapists and sexy chaufers.
Calmers and exciters. Patient lovers and gangbangers.
I also tend to think a lot of those who can transcend moments and make the world better for those around them when the fucks are doing all they can to suppress and keep things mired in some sort of human suckitude.
I have those abilities sometimes, but...I see these spirits at work from time-to-time and they can be my momentary heroes.
The cat I saw riding a bike into a stiff wind in Chicago last winter...silent warriors...or those who save their verbiage for the moment:
The tilted lamp in the corner of a room
A crazy, sincere laughter
The revolutionary spirit of the un-hypnotized soul.
Unbridled lust.
Thirst.
Hunger.
Disgust of ignorance.
Your viscous parts in times of cholera.
St Louis University
Saint Louis,MO
Graduated: 1986
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: Punk Rock
Minor: Communications
Clubs: Baseball, Film Committee, SLU News
Greek:
Gamma Delta Iota
1984 to 1986
Lake Land College
Mattoon,IL
Graduated: 1984
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Associate's Degree
Major: Journalism
Minor: Baseball
Clubs: Lake Land Lakers Baseball; Sports Editor and Associate Editor---The Lighthouse
1982 to 1984
Brussels High School
Brussels,IL
Graduated: 1982
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Clubs: Baseball
About me: ..
I'm a sometimes surly bartender and an occasional writer in the magic land of Saint Fucking Louis.
I promote shows and am amazed that people are able to sit at home when there is so much happening after the sun goes down. I call them drugless, home addicts. But maybe that's too harsh.
Maybe I should stay home more often...and wonder why we feed hegemony...wonder why our women want to save money on socks by shopping at Walmart...wonder why windows glow with cathode rays...wonder why I look into this screen and type these nothings.
It was once written of me, "BRETT UNDERWOOD doesn't just pour drinks; he fills a cultural void from behind the bar. In addition to being a passionate bartender--in seven years at the Schlafly Tap Room, he's learned to love "big ales," such as the Belgian Dubbel--Underwood is a fierce arts activist, DJ of The No Show on KDHX (88.1 FM) and organizer of the yearly Day of the Dead Beats poetry event. This cat's cup runneth over."
http://stlmag.com/media/St-Louis-Magazine/A-List/2006/
index.php?tableid=9&view=details&itm=4513
Who I'd like to meet: Wet nurses, frogmen and kindly audio technicians. Thems what got their cash ready and know what they want to drink!
Also, those who appreciate: art, poetry, Dada and crapping in the gears of the patriarchy while remaining appreciative of the whiskers. A senator like Wayne Morse. Real American heroes who understand genuine freedom and what it takes to achieve it: massage, yoga, beer, wine, home cooking and self-reliance over malls, pop trash, consumerism and a yearning for economic growth and development...that's not to say that I don't like to go out to nice restaurants and enjoy travelling when I can....and I've got the itch to wander. Let's go to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Cooperstown!!!!
Oh, and I'd like to meet someone who is much better than
me, but who will never mention it because (s)he is so
friggin' wisdomic that (s)he understands that doing so would crush me.
I'd like to meet someone who is fun to watch as she walks,
talks, dances or stares off into space and who is crafty enough to sneak up un-noticed and give the world a good goosy-goosy.
Or howzabout:
A frog with no legs that doesn't bump its ass a hoppin'.
A free-lance writer who has never written the phrase, "nestled in the heart of"...or "this community once bustling with" blah, blah, blah...
A white girl who has never said "actually, I'll have a Diet Coke".
An alabaster nymph with a lisp and a limp and a father who's a gimp.
A neurotic, American soccer mommy in war-torn Europe.
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