Part the first

Off from splintering wishes comes the pain that it won't return. Found amid the oil stain'd water mildew willow leaves steeping gray. Head down as always and only half a mind for sight, I'm rushing against conclusions i must face. Narrow against the falsehoods the rain begins to break. Off a few minutes It's coming into view, cold and cubist against cyclone suburban skys. In measures I'm holding on but there are no songs today.

White Flag

There is a light running threw the plum trees far up the street, breaking against winter frost mornings, gold on bark and slumber. Nearer wash the road ways ablaze with hope and free. Lined with low end housing that glare through iron grates. And fences that I peer in walking, through slats at unmowen wildwood yards that rust in mystery, and what little I see.

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Absolutely Curtains

Here on the shallow roads
its moving without time
Sliding against wooded
streets that rhyme

and decay in memory bound
Fences mourn and split
without sound
Under leaden skys

light is ladder wrought
hiss against being caught

Over streams on snow caped rock
and gladly merging with the shadow
chasing for the other side
Bringing feelings one can only despise

Gilgamesh

Summer's coming and I can't escape closing my eyes I'll just wait Throw away the regret and delay that is cracked along the ridgeline Without much to say Wish down the gails racing from the shore and dream something i can ignore

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Sorry...I've been sick

Still not feeling well really. Coughing up nasty things and sleeping most of the time.

Resolutions

Im not sure what you folks have resolved for the year, but I'm working on somethings. I resolved 2006 is year of Rock and I gotta take 2005 to get ready. Gotta work on a svelte gangly rock n' roll style body and a hard rockin new attitude. Gotta get a three octave C scale going and a solid grasp of the D minor chord, its the saddest of chords really. Gotta let the fro grow out to Gene Simmons like demonic might! Well perhaps not.

I really just want to work off some of my extra tonage and post here with some differently formatted material. Maybe a serialized novel or a screen play, keep up the posts and maybe get some more readers.

Well Happy New Year
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Still Life

Sinks below the water and radiates out of sight
On horizons yielding too pang'd night
Sinking ships turn to beleaguered highways
Which nurse hurts that i need to stay

Ashes Ashes

Knots in the wood are sliding into water with hands grasping like straw Hours gone turning towards home with rush and a wind and hiss Soon steps are drowning Upon ice that draws in crystal and cold Near shelter burns and cracks all around porters weight Sleighs lined burdened and race with wold and wood around There we will see sunrise and mock


I guess this is very obsure but it comes from a trip to Yosemite around Christmas. Re-Entry was playing while i worked on it.
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Early Morning Rain

Choke the birds from the sky
littered in abattior rot
Feather and bone festooned fence lines
though in the sky not

Sheer'd in night drape
weeping lake bridged stone
Burnt and finally broken
quiet yet becoming alone

Gleam on glass prism in breaks
drive with wind still and lace
Lye like linen palsy and shake
Tie with ribbon bleed in place

Drink til violence claims sleep
in widow ears tremors creep

Finally tying up the poetry process. Well i think one thing stands out is the jumps you get when you don't write a poem straight through. It seems all messed up like the ones in the New Yorker, not a compliment. Also you get the modes jumping and shifting abit. I would almost rip this appart and make pieces of it. But i dont really care for it that much to save bits. Its here if i must come back to it.

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Bring Me My Arrows of Desire

Meters and leagues that wash in and away with cars to roads that race up high and find sepulcher lens'd nights Amid the furrow cut fog and fruit trees are the sad little cities that want us to stop Down ravening in the vales and delight Finally race summer eves and Christmas lights Biting into morning with wishes for eternal night

White is the light that shines through the dress that you wore

Goldensward hillsides
sperate from light
Weary eyes whining
shaded foresite

Feral tooth ridgelines
Gnash upon the sky
Halal smalt voilet
to say blue; a lie

This is the unfinished beginning of something. I am trying to work more on meter on this. Keeping it short and to the point is part of the exercise. This actually goes back to a poem that has been brewing for sometime. Maybe exploring it here can give me a direction on it once again. At least i know i am trying to work within a particular frame now. I see it having at least three more stanzas like this. Maybe couplet at the end though not sure, I have always liked finishing in stanza.

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Poetry Process part the third

Gleam on glass prism in breaks
drive with wind still and lace
Lye like linen palsy and shake
Tie with ribbon bleed in place

This really isn't driven by music or visions more words. I liked the sounds of some of them and they kept jumping to mind. It also is rather obscure which is fine.
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Pieces of your Presence Here

Silent on streets drained dark creeping to places we might meet On marrow nights it could be alright And I'm breathing ghosts as I'm stalking Passing prickly clubs we could have haunt Alone hollow steps with stars we may have held close Cigarettes burn long stain fingers then into the car Window down riding tides hoping for connection out of the communication that's built Fighting frequencies for songs that fill the mood Whispers could name it our song Amid the slumber and morning I can't feel anything to feel it slipping away


I guess this is a Colin Hay song mixed with downtown San Jose. I used to run down to the movie place or club on winter nights way back when. I am trying to move away form a narrator that is myself though. Not sure why just feels ok to do so.
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Retro Gaming 101 part 3 Retro Consoles

When you are talking about getting old consoles you get into some serious work. The problem is you very seldom can go into a store and just buy what you want. EB Games does have some Nintendo games usually but generally your are picking over crap. What you are left with is prowling thrift stores and the internet. Lets take a closer look at both.

The internet is a fantastic resource for retro gaming. eBay makes it all possible really, you can find most anything you are looking for if you check back enough. Also EB games and other online stores often have exactly what you are looking for. The benefit primarily is fast access to tremendous selection. The problem is these are people who know the older games have a value to the burgeoning retro gamer counter culture, so the ream you. Or on eBay you get sniped or bided up should you find a good deal, Though you usually can get by if you are looking for an Atari 2600 or NES. There were so many produced the market is flooded a bit. Popular systems should run you around 30 with shipping and a few games. One deal of note is the EB Games 15 games for 50 dollars. It is an easy way to get yourself started once you have a system, here is the link:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/groups/15games50bucks/nes.asp

When it comes to thrift stores and garage sales I am certainly not an expert. I have hit my local Savers from time to time but seldom found much worth my time. A buddy is a big garage sale shopper and his tips are get out early like 6am and hit as many as you can. Don't get attached to one thing, so if your after NES games and you see a great deal on Genesis at least consider it. HAGGLE. Generally i wouldn't buy anything for more than half the net price, unless it was ultra rare. Remember the people selling on the internet are often buying from Goodwill and garage sales.

Ok when it comes to systems I personally feel the Atari 2600, NES and Sega Genesis are must haves that make up the core of a collection. But certainly concentrate on the system you enjoyed most, go odyessey2 if that's what you had. I kept all my Atari stuff from way back so that is my most solid system, my NES collection is poor at best. I recommend those systems as they were well supported with games and accessories. Also being popular many were made and lots are still out there. Finally classic games which are still inspirational to the industry were created on these systems. If your plan is to get all the old systems then you are going to be spending some money, Fairchild systems sell well above 50 bucks on eBay. I am close to being on this path myself but I don't want my wife to kill me. I would recommend everyone to check out the console museum on Classic Gaming to get an idea of just a few of the systems out there:
http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/

Next time I will take a look at emulation
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Crescent Star Rock Score Card

Play at home it's fun!

Bright Ambassadors of morning: A line in the Pink Floyd song Echoes on the Meddle Record.
Deep Puddle Dynamics: A group that has a song called The Scarecrow Speaks, Anticon label.
Call Few People enemies, Call fewer friends: A line from The Scarecrow speaks.
Goodbye to romance: Ozzy song off Blizzard of Oz.
Bacchus Plateu: My farvortie Rush song part of Lamneth off Caress of steel.
Curse of Desdemona: Grant Lee Phillips song off Virginia Creeper.
Upon the insturments of death: A line in King Krimson's Epitaph on in the court of the crimson king.
August and Everything After: Counting Crows record.
We sold our souls for rock n Roll: Black Sabbath record.
Toepnikcufecin: An allusion to the metal band Anthrax.
Aboutface - Murder: David Gilmor song off aboutface.
Here comes the Flood: Peter gabriel song off energy i think.
A 60 ton Angel falls to the Earth: Line in a Porcupine tree song Trains off in abstenia.
So Far Away: David Gilmour song off David Gilmour.
Time Stand Still: A Rush song off hold your fire.
Piece of Mind: An awesome Iron Maiden record.
1,2, Free Four: Pink floyd song called Free Four on the Obscured by clouds record.
Alms: A Grails song on Redlight.
High time Cymbaline: Pink Floyd song off More.
New Lystra: A Grails song on Redlight again.
Amoung the Living: The Anthrax record.
Cymbaline: Again im such a hack.
Tales of Brave Ulysses: Cream song.
Peace on Earth Sells: A Megadeth record.
Revelations track two: The is an iron maiden song on Piece of mind.
Burnt Offerings: A Testament song on the Legacy record.
No Birds Caught: Goes back to anticon with DoseOne Bird Catchers Anthem.
Love and hope put to the test: Bruce dickinson song only on his extended greatest hits.
Quicksilver: A Pink floyd song off More.
Wicker Man: I am specifically talking about the bruce dickinson solo version not the iron maiden

Well that will hopefully de mystify things a touch.
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Wicker Man

Steps took with rite ritual pace
Stones crumble and chalk once life imbued
Apprehensions rushing with wind on my face
Gaul and gold proceeds the gate

Bled on borrowed throne wrought repose
From Beacon hills wicker flames broke
Calling those to reap wishes sown
yielding only sorrow as I spoke


I have been trying to look at what i do when i right to help people along. I'm not saying this shit is any good, just saying it's here and this is how i got it here. Anyway, abstraction is my tool. As you can guess by the titles there is a lot of music in it. Also many places that I have build up with some emotional connection. I sort of try to boil them down to as few words as I can and then stick them together. The sounds in my mind are often more important than the meanings im thinking about. From there i sort of work it until they pieces sort of fit. A Maiden song with a Sierra road by my high school and stuff like that. A bunch of it is fragments that i stick together. This one was Bruce dickinson's Wicker Man, not Iron Maiden's, and acoustic song. The place was the little statue garden in Villa Montalvo.

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Retro Gaming 101 part 2 "Modern Consoles"

Game compilations are nothing new especially those that bundle up a few old games into a new package. Usually this was something you would see for early games release in the life of a particular system or ports to the PC. Recently retro game packages hit, bundling old arcade perfect ports to home game systems. This has created a renaissance for retro gaming. Below is a guide to some of the modern titles.

Personally I feel Midway arcade treasures is the best package to come out to date, with Midway arcade treasures 2 a strong second. They offer around 20 old school games for about 20 dollars; which I see as an amazing deal. The games range from early 80's to mid 90's which allows for a fun trip down memory lane. By these NOW!!!

For old school console games I would look at Intellivsion lives and the Atari Anthology. These offer TONS of games for a bargain price. Intellivision even includes histories and documentaries; a first rate product for game historians. Atari offers both arcade and cartridge ports for a total of 85 games. Finally Playstation owners can also grab the activision anthology of atari 2600 games, this package looks to offer all the activision and some of the imagic games. There is actually a PC version with more Imagic and some homebrew games.

Nintendo and Genesis era gamers will enjoy the Sonic Mega plus and Megaman anniversary collections. These offer a histories of the venerable game lines that equal hours of play. My fellow Xbox owners can look for the Megaman game in March. Konami has gone a unusual route and offered a collection of 5 nes ports only to the PC. I hope we will be seeing something like this hit the consoles soon but it will need to include a few more games to be of significant value.

Finally I am left with Namco Museum. Good I hate this thing, it shows up everywhere, it is the grand father of console retro gaming. It has few games and all from the early years of arcades. It just isn't worth the money unless you see it cheap. I could recommend it if they had included just two more games. Of not for Playstation owners, this was something of a line on the PS 1 and there were something like six versions. With a little digging and maybe some eBay you could grab the PS1 versions of the games.


Game Xbox PS2 Game cube
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Midway 1 Yes yes yes
Midway 2 Yes yes yes
Intellivsion Yes Yes Yes
Atari Yes Yes No
Activision No Yes No
Sonic Yes Yes Yes
Megaman Mar 05 Yes Yes


Next I will take a look at some of the costs and pains of tracking down old school consoles. Also I will take a look at emulators, Jamma and Ultracade.
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Quicksilver

Walking stones rise as bones on ridgelines arched against the canopied blue Sunlight blind here shadowed down the eyes as she steps lined with light Shadowed hazy burnt with golds and woods Oaken vantage point on high circling in the sky Maybe she loved me perhaps just here



Ok ok, it's full on Green is the Colour. With some of the sights near the mercury mines near my home.
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Love and hope put to the test

She whispered away the terror when the neddle bit the skin Her eyes raced with the bleeding down the line and surge of the return Chemicals in the mix I taste the swine In measures my arm shakes when giving out After hours its grown cold and static blurs the edge of sight But it ends and in time was gone

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No birds caught

Through the sawdust streets of the shattered glass steppes the fog is hanging low Whispering amid the wanting stones Here the houses glow on holiday eves Clasp with family an only a wash with vain though through distance and fog it begins to wan Closing my eyes the panic bites and shake like a dog Holding on hard cus im afraid to let go Afraid to see the last whispers serpent away Afraid for the day the dreams all forgot

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