Various

Take my hand, a garden of fingers--
they'll dance whispers across your belly
and sing of skin,
our only Eden

-from a poem, WRITTEN BY Allan T. Grohe, Jr.

English doesn't borrow from other languages - English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
-Author Unknown

Life is action and passion. You must share the action and the passion of your time or else risk being judged as not having lived at all.
-Oliver Wendle Holmes

My hands are two travelers they've crossed oceans and lands
yet they are too small on the continent of your skin
wandering, wandering
i could spend my life
traveling the length of your body each night

- Jewel Jupiter*

You had to know perfect happiness to feel perfect despair, and he knew, now, that he was going to hell, whether he died or not. He was going to pay for his sins, and then some. And that death wish he'd been nursing for so long was still there, lingering in the back of his mind, squashing down the hope, trampling on any dreams of a future. It hadn't gone away, had just taken a brief holiday.
(...)
You don’t know the real me, what I’m capable of. What I’ve done. I can’t take it back. Can’t say sorry. I just have to live with it. And it’s hard, so bloody hard.
-Moxie, "Setting Him Free"

every 3 minutes a woman is beaten
every five minutes a woman is raped
every ten minutes a little girl is molested
yet i rode the subway today
i sat next to an old man who may have beaten his old wife
...
i bought the paper
looking for the announcement
the discovery of the dismembered woman's body
the victims have not all been identified
today they are naked and dead
refuse to testify
one girl out of 10's not coherent
i took the coffee & spit it up
i found an announcement
not the woman's bloated body in the river floating
not the child bleeding in the 59th street corridor
not the baby broken on the floor
" There is some concern that *alleged* battered women
might start to murder their husbands & lovers
with no immediate cause"
i spit up i vomit i am screaming
we all have immediate cause
every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes
in alleys & bedrooms
at the top of the stairs
before i ride the subway
buy a paper
drink coffee
i must know
have you hurt a woman today
did you beat a woman today
throw a child across a room
are the lil girl's panties in your pocket
did you hurt a woman today
i have to ask these obscene questions
the authorities require me to
establish
immediate cause
every three minutes
every five minutes
every ten minutes
every day
--Ntozake Shange, 'With No Immediate Cause'

The biggest misconception people have about me is that I'm stupid.
-Billy Idol

There's an old saying in Hollywood: It's not the length of your film, it's how you use it.
-Ben Stiller

"In this world, there are many like me who have killed their emotions. Don't forget that."
-Shadow, from Final Fantasy VI

"As long as you don't get your hopes up, you can take anything. You feel less pain."
-Squall, from Final Fantasy VIII

TV has brought murder back into the home where it belongs.
- Alfred Hitchcock

Either war is obsolete or man is.
- Buckminster Fuller

This is how the world ends,
Not with a bang but with a whimper.
- T.S. Eliot

Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure.
- Lord Byron

There is but one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.
- Christopher Morley

Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some.
- José Marti

[Television] ...A medium - so called because it is neither rare nor well done.
- Ernie Kovacs

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
- B.F. Skinner

[Hatred] ...The anger of the weak.
- Alphonse Daudet

Each of us has within us
A world of possibilities
And unimaginable power...
Power to crush stars...
Power to alter dreams...
Power to change destiny!
- 'The Bard'

If we resist our passions, it is more from their weakness than from our strength.
- La Rochefoucauld*

The time between meeting and finally leaving is sometimes called falling in love.
- Lisa Loeb*

Love takes hostages. It gets inside of you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple 'Maybe we can just be friends' or 'How very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart.
-Rose Walker in The Kindly Ones, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
-Dream in Dream Country, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

We do what we must, Lucien. Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all.
-Dream in Season of Mists, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

Hotel rooms are Lonely. All the crazinesses that you aviod in the day to day buisness of life come to you in hotel rooms and eat your mind. The people they find dead in hotel rooms wouldn't have killed themselves at home.
-Fox Glove in Time of Your Life, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

Rules and responsibilities: these are the ties that bind us. We do what we have to do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves.
-Dream in The Kindly Ones, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

Here you go, little sister. Greek Coffee. Don't drink the sludge at the bottom of the cup. And don't drink the cup, either. Just the coffee.
-Destruction in Brief Lives, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

You people always hold onto old identites, old faces and masks, long after they've served their purpose. But you've got to learn to throw things away eventually.
-Death in Dream Country, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

"When the first living thing existed, I was there waiting.
When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished.
I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights,
and lock the universe behind me as I leave."
-Death, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

Our existence deforms the universe. THAT'S responsibility.
-Delirium in The Kindly Ones, Sandman Comic by Neil Gaimen

You can never loose while you're fighting. You only loose when you stop.
-Birch Street Gym*

"To know a thing well, is to know its limits. Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen."
-Paul Mu'adib, Dune, Frank Herbert*

The difference between mailing lists and newsgroups is the difference between inviting a group of friends over for wine on a Sunday evening and putting a billboard that says 'FREE BOOZE HERE!!!' in your front yard.
- Lazlo Nibble*

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
-William James*

Imagination is more important that knowledge.
-Albert Einstein*

Until you've lost your reputaion, you never realize what a burdon it was or what freedom really is.
-Margaret Mitchell*

The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.
-May Sarton*

I personally think we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.
-Jane Wagner*

Windows 95: n. 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition.
- Author unknown*

I woke up one day and realized I was a closet hetero.
- David Bowie*

If you're crazy, there's two things you can do to make yourself feel better: one is to get yourself cured. The other is to make everyone you have to deal with crazy.
- Alan Dean Foster*

Kate: I'm sure I don't do anything you would find exciting. I don't open beer bottles with my toes,I don't sit around and count what's left of my teeth, hey, I don't even enjoy a good tractor pull.
The Cutting Edge*

There is no such thing as Mr Right. There is, however, Mr Trainable!
- Author unknown*

We don't see things as they are, we see them as *we* are.
- Anais Nin*

*found at Quotes

What goes around, comes around.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
- Anonymous


And so all the night tide
I'll lie down by her side.
My lovely, my beauty my life and my bride,
in her sepulchre there by the sea,
just me and my Bobby McGee.

I used to think I was Goth, until I realized I just had the blues.
- Author unknown


I fall to pieces each time I see you again,
I fall to pieces. How can I be just your friend?
You want me to act like we've never kissed...
-Patsy Cline


Oh drat these computers. They're so naughty and complex. I could just pinch them.
- Marvin the Martian

Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and the man. This has been figuratively taught to princes by ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable. A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about.
- Machiavelli

---

A woman should dress to attract attention. To attract the most attention, a woman should either be nude or wearing something as expensive as getting her nude is going to be.
- Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People, by P.J. O'Rourke
(It always amazes me what people say and think.)

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)


"How come you never know they're the good old days when you're actually living them?" she sighed. "If I'd known, I'm sure I'd have tried to ... I don't know, enjoy myself more."
-from Contagium


Comedy is what happens to other people.
-Unknown


Beauty is America's lottery, stardom is Americas royalty.
-Tony Curtis (as close as I can remember it)


Art is not the truth, it's a lie that allows us to approach the truth.
-Pablo Picasso


Health is merely the slowest possible rate which one may die.
-Unknown


People have one thing in commen, they're all different.
-Unknown


There are some qualities - some incorporate things,
That have a double life, which thus is made
A type of twin entity which springs
from matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.
-"Silence", Edgar Allan Poe


The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
-Aristotle


Cats were smarter than dogs. Dogs always came running when they were called. Cats showed up when they were damn well good and ready.
-"Imbroglio", Jessica Zyvarek Taylor


A truth that's told with bad intent,
Beats all the Lies you can invent
-"Auguries of Innocence", William Blake


The crow laughs under a streetlight, the voodoo smile of one who lived, and died, and yet still lives.
-"The Crow", J.O'Barr


From deep inside, he sang to the wolves' god, the moon.
-"Wolves Don't Cry", Bruce Elliot


I think he loves the lady night and feels akin to her whose footsteps are as still as his, whose touch is in his fur.
-"Night", Lois Weakley McKay


First and last and always, till the end of time;
first and last and always: mine.
-"First, Last and Always", Sisters of Mercy

Let me see you stripped down to the bone.
-"Stripped", Depeche Mode


The mating habits of Treefolk, particularly the stalwart ironroot Treefolk, are truly absurd. Molasses comes to mind. It's amazing the species can survive at all given such protracted periods of mate selection, conjugation, and gestation.
-Ironroot Treefolk, M:tG

Everyone knows that to ward off trouble, you knock on wood. But usually it's better to make a wall out of the wood and let trouble do the knocking.
-Wall of Wood, M:tG


Haunting cries we hear in our dreams
As the forest dies, a death from machines.
-Argothian Treefolk, M:tG

You know what a camera is? A mirror with memory.
-from a movie


A photograph is neither taken nor seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer


Edge is when people have too much of a preconceived idea of what they want to create and don't just let themselves go and find out what can come of something that doesn't exist yet. When you don't give up control you have edge. There's no realness, no romance, no humanity to it - it's just about being hip.
-Ian McFarlane, photographer
When asked about the decided lack of "edge" to some of his images


One is never so naked as when dressed for a party. Everyone's aspirations are on view; everyone is hoping for something; everyone is trying to look their most beautiful. I became fascinated with the poignancy of self-invention. The Cannes Film Festival was wonderful for photographs because people invented themselves before they went out for the night — people who had not achieved but craved the spotlight — and the chaos of the festival allowed for a spectacular vulgarity of appearance that would get you in, even if you didn't have an invitation.
-Jessica Craig-Martin, photographer



I think I may be falling in love with you, but don't get your hopes up.
--Author Known, but will be kept anonimous. A young woman said this to someone I know, a few years back.


Criminals today have guns. Soon they will have computers and other weapons of mass destruction.
-- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno


Brunch, it's not quite breakfast and it's not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantalope at the end.
-Jacque, The Simpsons TV seriers


Nobody swears an oath of fealty to *enter name of a company here*. There is no loyalty in the *enter type of industry here* business. None. Just a collection of connected businesses all trying to look out for their own interests as best they can. Sometimes those interests overlap with other companies and sometimes they don't. That's not an ethical or moral lapse - business is amoral; it stands outside human morality and ethics. Business is just business - the flow of goods and services from providers to consumers via the most efficient paths.
-Author Known, but will be kept anonimous

---

Guys are visually stimulated. They're easy to manipulate. All you have to do is dress up in a sexy outfit. Girls just have this power over guys. Guys are sort of stupid that way.
-Jessica Alba, from Dark Angel , TV series (I think that this is a rather strange thing to say, if not stupid.)


Is it better to try and fail, than to never try at all and spend the rest of your life wondering what would've happened if you had?
-from the e-comic book "A life Less Empty", written byTed KcKeever
From Concepts by Larry and Andy Wachowski, creators of, "The Matrix"


Beauty is only skin deep, but deadly goes right down to the bone.(...)
Before, he'd thought that sex was a weapon to be withheld, that it was a currency to be spent. He'd never known that it was possible to do so much damage by consenting.(...)
Everything happens for a purpose, he thought. The trick is making it work for you instead of for God.
-from "Deny Nothing", by RivkaT


It is terrible, the way these thoughts sneak into your consciousness, thoughts so bad they can leave a stain.
-from the comic book "Shade: The Changing Man", written by Peter Milligan


When one is angry for a long time, they become accustomed to it, like old leather. Eventually, they can never remember feeling angry.
-I don't recall the source, but for some reason I think it's from ST:TNG


Death Valley. It represents life and its problems. There's a fine line between good and evil, happiness and loneliness. There is always the unknown over the next sand dune or the next rise. Ripples represent problems, people, events and choices. Shadows hide the unknown, our fears and our hopes. Remember that even if you're depressed and down that there's always something to strive for over the next ridge. Relax and enjoy life to its fullest. What you wish for yourself will come true if you work on it. Hork hard and sweat makes the difference.
-I don't recall the source.


We are all the cattle above the ground, groomed, fatted for the day of reckoning, when the balance sheets will be checked in the lightning violence.
-Joe Rosenblatt, from the poem "Ecology"


I'm not anxious to run around in my birthday suit, but my vanity wouldn't prohibit it.
-Mel Gibson, Vanity Fair Magazine, August 1997


The smith also sitteth by the anvil,
And fighteth with the heat of the funace,
And noise of the hammer and the anvil is ever in his ears,
And his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh.
He setteth his mind to finish his work,
And waiteth to polish it perfectly.
-Ecclesiasticus

FOR BRUCE
The fires are out,
And banked for the next days work.
But no one will come today.
The anvil is silent and the hammers are waiting, For the master's steady hand.
But no one will come today.
The tongs are ready to hold the work, For the master's steady hand.
But no one will come today.
I wait for my master's voice.
His fiery wit, his steady smile, His ability to touch my heart and soul. His ability to teach.
But he will not come today, For my master died today.
I know the tools miss him much.
His sure, strong swing. His skillful touch.
But all I can say is,
For this lowly apprentice.
Bruce was more than a master.
He was my friend.
I miss my friend very much.
-Terry Riskebr

There is but one temple in the universe and that is the human body. We touch heaven when we lay our hands on it.
-Thomas Carlyle, 1840

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who no longer pauses to wonder and stand in rapt awe, is as good as dead.
-Albert Einstein


There's a big difference between kneeling and bending over.
-Frank Zappa


Stupidity has a certain charm. Ignorance does not.
-Frank Zappa


History is in the mind of the teller. Truth is all in the telling.
--Unknown source


I have this incredibly passionate feeling about what I do, that it can make me annoying, and I reconize it. Sometimes I'll talk about a movie that I've seen and then I'll start seeing foam coming out of my mouth, I go, 'and then they did this and they did that!' People ask me if I could just lighten up a little bit... Sure. Just give me a hot dog and tell me to shut up.
--Jodie Foster on E!Online


The most difficult actress I ever worked with was my sister Penny (Penny Marshall, a director as well as actress, best known for the LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY TV show). She'd call up my mother and say, "He's yelling at me again."
--Garry Marshall, director of PRETTY WOMAN, from a chat on AOL


I give the talkies six months more, at the most a year. then they're done.
-Charles (Charlie) Chaplin, 1931


We could change things back. If we believed. If we dreamed. We are dreams of the carrion kind, they say, and perhaps it is so. But if enough of us dream...if a bare thousand of us dream...we can change the world. We can dream it anew!
-"A Dream of a Thousand Cats" by Neil Gaiman from the award winning SANDMAN comic book series


I take my fear, my humiliation,
I crush it in my fist,
I open my hand,
I've got a diamond.
My diamond is Rage.
I've got diamonds in my eyes.
-Rollins Band, " Just Like You"


Secrets I hide
They twist me inside
And make me weaker.
-The Cure, "Sinking"


I've allies in Heaven,
I've commrads in Hell.
Say hello for me....
-The Crow - J. O'Barr


This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once scene, actor, rompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.
-Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), Psychological Reflections: A Jung Anthology

It's only after we've lost everything that we are free to do anything.
- Fight Club*

You can never loose while you're fighting. You only loose when you stop.
- Birch Street Gym*

BLOODLETTING (the Vampire Song)

There's a crack in the mirror
And a bloodstain on the bed-
There's a crack in the mirror
And a bloodstain on the bed-
O you were a vampire and baby
I'm walking dead
O you were a vampire and babyv I'm walking dead

CHORUS:

I got the ways and the means
To New Orleans I'm going
Down by the river
Where It's warm and green
I'm gonna have a drink, and walk around
I got a lot to think about,
Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah

There's a rocking chair by the window
Down the hall
I hear something there in the shadow
Down the hall
O you were a vampire and now I am
Nothing at all
O you were a vampire and now I am
Nothing at all

(CHORUS)

Used to dance in the Garden in the
Middle of the night
Dancing out in the Garden in the
Middle of the night
O you were a vampire
And I may never see the light
O you were a vampire
And I may never see the light

(CHORUS)

(CHORUS)

Written by: Johnette Napolitano
Performed by Concrete Blonde

Suicide is Painless

Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
the pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see...

[REFRAIN]:

that suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make
all our little joys relate
without that ever-present hate
but now I know that it's too late, and...

[REFRAIN]

The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
so this is all I have to say.

[REFRAIN]

The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I'm beat
and to another give my seat
for that's the only painless feat.

[REFRAIN]

The sword of time will pierce our skins
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger...watch it grin, but...

[REFRAIN]

A brave man once requested me
to answer questions that are key
is it to be or not to be
and I replied 'oh why ask me?'

[REFRAIN]

'Cause suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

...and you can do the same thing if you choose.

Lyrics to the M*A*S*H theme song
Music: Johnny Mandel
Lyrics: Mark Altman

Copyright: 1969

 

Paint It Black (The Rolling Stones)

I see a red door and I want it painted black
no colors anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars and they are painted black
with flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
like a new born baby it just happens every day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it's heading into black
maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
it's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

I wanna see it painted painted, painted black, oh baby
I wanna see it painted painted, painted black, oh baby

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the setting sun
my love will laugh with me before the morning comes

I wanna see it painted, painted black, oh
black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted from the sky
painted, painted, painted black oh baby
painted painted, painted black

INVICTUS

or 'Unconquered'

Out of the night that covers me,
---Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
---For my unconquerable soul,

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
---I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
---My head is bloody, yet unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
---Looms the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
---Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
-How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
-I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley


pit=Hell
fell=deadly,evil
shade=netherworld, abode of disembodied ghosts
strait=narrow
charged...scroll=punishment's listed on the individual's records

EARTH
'A planet doesn't explode itself.' says dryly
The Martian astronomer, gazing off into the air-
'That they were able to do it is proof that highly
Intellectual beings must have been living there.'
-John H. Wheelach

ISTANBUL

( NOT CONSTANTINOPLE)

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night
Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've got a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul

Even old New York
Was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks
Istanbul

-written by J. Kennedy and N. Simon
-performed by: They Might Be Giants


*I love the "They Might be Giants" video of this song, it's so quirky.


M&Ms: They were made for WW2 soldiers so that it wouldn't melt in their hands.

Panic
Pan (the eldest son of Hermes/Mercury) father of Paganism and earth worship. Represents unbridled male sexuality. Liked to lie in wait for travelers in desolate areas. Jumped out and spooked them and made them feel panic.
-word origin of the term panic, source unknown

Video-Film Declaration

Date: _____
To: _____(3 blank lines)

Decription of Contents
_____(3 blank lines)

Length of film/video: _____
Duration of film/video: _____
Brief synopsis of content: _____

I/we declare that the film(s) / video(s) contain no obscene or immoral matter, not any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States, nor any treat to take the life of or inflick bodily harm upon any person in the United States.

Signed: _____
Title: _____
Air waybill number: _____
EIN#: _____
Return to: _____

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams --- this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness, and maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
-from 'The Man of La Mancha'

Few love to hear the sins they love to act.
-W. Shakespeare


"Gonna scream his name?" (refering to sex)
Her eyes narrow. "I don't scream."
"You're using me."
"And it's not going both ways?" she asks sharply, grinding against me. "Give a dying woman a break. I need a body. You need a body. The rest of it's unimportant."
-"When Devils Tell the Truth", Jennifer Stoy

I'm not a big birthday fan generally speaking. I never really understood what there was to celebrate in another year passing, another 12 months closer to death. I suppose that sounds pretty morose. I guess I am a big, clumsy, morose oaf.
-"Eat it Too ", Rachel Anton

She likes to know where she stands with things, and it's not fair when you look at something pretty and then you see it's not pretty at all, it's horrid. (...)


As he leans down over her, some childhood memory makes sense - a child enfolded by the wings of its guardian angel; because here she is, under the wings of an angel of death.

His gaze is blazing, and she suddenly seems to see some sign, some cryptic significance in the very shape and tilt of his eyes, in the narrow elegant form of his skull, in the careful restraint of his features. (...)

-"Wrestling with the Devil", Rachel Lee Arlington

---

Heat. Not ashes at all. Embers. She can feel the warmth on his cheekbones. She touches the fingers of one hand to his mouth. He exhales hard, and she feels fire. Ice, thawing, melting, falling away. His mouth is open, soft, stunned, vulnerable. He gives a sudden gasp, and a cry like a cry of pure surprised pain. And the clean hard quality of his body just goes. He is suddenly a warm living man. Lost in so many wrong turnings, like a rat in a maze: forced to be smart, forced to be cold. But found now in the hot bare simplicity of her body. He gives a single long shudder, his eyes close, he frowns hard, a deep crease etching across the bridge of his nose. And he bites his lip. (...)


...she makes a sound she never heard coming of out her mouth before. The sound of the devils watching the damned burn.(...)


(He) is smoothing the palms of his hands over his face, over his close cropped hair. For a second she is reminded of an animal cleaning itself after it feeds.

-"Wrestling with the Devil", Rachel Lee Arlington

 

"I think you've got a Smurfette complex."

She stops moving, stops talking, just stops for about a minute. Then she lifts her head up and eyeballs me with a mixture of curiosity, annoyance and disgust.

"A *what*?"

"Smurfette. You remember the Smurf show?"

"Yeah, I remember..."

"Remember Smurfette?"

"Vaguely."

I guess she was too old for the Smurfs by the time they were on. Probably didn't watch too much television as a kid anyway. Probably had too many other things to do. I get another image in my head, far more pleasant than the original young (woman), of a smudge-faced tomboy in overalls and pigtails running around with a toy gun, pretending to kill her brothers. That's probably a lot closer to the truth. Or maybe they're both true. Either way, she was the kind of girl I would have died for. The kind of girl I would have teased mercilessly just to get a morsel of attention from her. The kind of girl who would have hated the very sight of me.

"Smurfette, she was the girl Smurf. Gargamelle created her and sent her over to Smurf village to make trouble. But Papa Smurf's magic made her good and all the Smurfs fell in love with her. But here she was, the only girl, in this town full of guys. And all the guys had their individual personality, Brainy Smurf, Vanity Smurf, Painter Smurf, and she was just Smurfette, girl Smurf. That was her only distinguishing characteristic, that she was a girl. So she had to do something interesting in every episode, ya know, to distinguish herself a little. But in reality, she was a lot cooler than the other Smurfs. She would have been a lot better off going off on her own and forgetting about those losers. Building a separatist, feminist, dyke Smurf colony or something, gotten Gargamelle to make another girl Smurf for her to play with."

Wow. I don't know where that came from but it's pretty damn good. She doesn't just have Smurfette complex, she IS Smurfette. She doesn't see it. She's just staring at me like I'm from another planet. Her confusion is actually kind of cute. She's kind of cute. God, she'd shoot me in the head for thinking that.

"Oh my God," she says, shaking her head.

"What?"

"I don't know...Why did you just tell me that?"

"Cause, you're like Smurfette."

"God, I can't believe I'm even asking...how am I like Smurfette?"

"Well, think about it (). You've got (your boss), I guess he's Papa Smurf. And (your partner), he's Brainy Smurf. And Enamored Smurf too. God, (your partner) is like every Smurf. And all the other men you deal with every day, you're the only girl. You're Smurfette living in an all male colony, trying to distinguish yourself by something other than your sex. That's why you feel like you've gotta find it. Bring home the prize and be more than Smurfette. But, it's never gonna work. You'll always be girl Smurf if you keep playing their game."

"Wait a minute, I've got as much personal stake here as anyone else. I'm not just some tag-along child."

"But you don't need it (). You don't need to be part of this."

Even as I say the words, I realize that they aren't true. Not anymore. Maybe if I'd tried this five years ago, but it's too late now. She's buried just like the rest of us. I wish I could find her a shovel.

She sighs and rubs her face for the twentieth time.

"So, I'm Smurfette huh. What Smurf are you then?" she asks, probably thinking that I don't have an answer already.

"Apprentice Smurf."

"I don't remember that one."

"He was only in a few episodes."

"What did he do," she asks and even though she sounds condescending and bored out of her mind, it makes me smile that she asks.

"He was Papa Smurf's assistant. He wanted to do magic like Papa Smurf more than anything but he could never really get it right. So one day he snuck out of the village and went to Gargamelle's place and stole one of his magic books. He did one of the spells in it and turned himself into a green, scaly monster with a big, fat, ugly tail."

Her expression is completely unreadable. She's just staring at me again.

"I know what you're thinking," I tell her even though I don't. For possibly the first time since she walked in here I really don't.

"What am I thinking?"

"That I know *way* too much about Smurfs."

-from "Cherry Ripe", WRITTEN BY Rachel Anton and Laura Blaurosen

"Alex," I correct her and then cut her off with a deep kiss before she gets her wits back. This woman really knows how to kiss. Lots of guys talk about womens lips in relation to blow-jobs but personally I've never found that terrifically important. Some lips look better when you watch but they feel pretty much the same. But kissing, you've gotta have good lips for kissing and she has got one set of amazing lips. Big and wet and soft and best of all, encouraging. I could spend weeks just nipping and sucking at those lips.

And her tongue, holy God. I'll bet she's one of those girls who can tie up a cherry stem into a little bow in her mouth.

-from "Cherry Ripe", WRITTEN BY Rachel Anton and Laura Blaurosen

 

BTW, it's not hard to "tie up a cherry stem into a little bow". There are a few things that make it easier: a long cherry stem (at least 1.5 inches) that's flexible, a dextrous tongue, patience and practice.

1) Using your teeth and tongue fold the stem in half.
2) Fold either side once again in half. Meaning that the stem now has two folds in it, one at the center and another one quarter the length away from the end. Using your teeth and tongue manipulate the stem so that it starts to curl up abit more.
3) Keep trying to get the short end to pass through the curled up section like in a basic knot.
4) Practice, practice, practice.

She's clinging to me, curling up into me like a mattress. I can be a mattress. It's good to be a mattress.
-from "Cherry Ripe", WRITTEN BY Rachel Anton and Laura Blaurosen


I almost have myself convinced but reality is a difficult thing to escape for very long.
-from "Cherry Ripe", WRITTEN BY Rachel Anton and Laura Blaurosen

I love the beautiful young girl of this portrait, my mother, painted years ago when her forehead was white, and there were no shadows in the dazzling Venetian glass of her gaze. But this other likeness shows the deep trenches across her forehead's white marble. The rose poem of her youth that marriage sang is far behind. Here is my sadness. I compare these portraits, one of a joy radiant brow, the other careheavy; sunrise and the thick coming on of night. And yet how strange my ways appear, for when I look at these faded lips my heart smiles, but at the smiling girl my tears start.
-Emile Nelligan, 'Before Two Portraits of my Mother'