Bar-Tending with Writers

Ty Cobb

One Shot Southern Comfort
Water
Honey
Stir in the Southern Comfort into the Water and Honey.

Dear Friends,

My computer died today, so I will write by hand, until the problem is solved.  Stay tuned in;  there will be more to come. I promise.

Bye for now,

Gregory D. Rothbard

As Mentioned...

"I like the pottery but do  I need it."
A good question raised today by one of the many visitors to May Fair at Lake Morton.    Then my wife states, "See Greg, I need to get a kiln, so I can make all sorts of cool pottery."

Art to me is an inspired creation.  Art should be invested in because it inspires the ho-hum citizen drones to think more than eat - sleep - eat - sleep - procreate- eat-sleep-sleep-eat. Art makes our lives more colorful.  The role of art is to encourage us when we need to be inspired, or to make us rethink the common routine, or our role in society.   Art is important because it makes the broken into meaningful mosaics.  
We need to create because we are made in God's likeness.   God is creative; we are creative.     
Art also preserves the beauty that is fleeting, here today, gone tomorrow.   The light is captured forever, or at least till the pigment fades off the canvas.  So what was once there in an instant is perserved for others to view.   ART reminds us that there is more to society than mere progress.   

Book Previews

A Shot of (Faith) to the Head by Mitch Stokes

 

Mitch Stokes guides believers, through the quagmire and battlefield, in the atheist and believer's civil war.  A war that is being fought in the media, and between the faithful of both camps.   Mitch is an aide de camp  leading leaders through the trenches; by providing an outline and tactics utilized by the atheist apologists.   The book requires ones attention, and most be attended to.  A Shot of Faith is not a beach read; one that you can relax with, rather it is one that will encourage your mind.
 If you work through the book then you will be more equipped the next time an atheist asks: "Why are you smart and still believe in a kindergarten notion like God?" Why most you people always go back to the concept of God?  What right do you have to abuse your children by indocternating them into the Christian Faith?

Final Reflection of Jewish Literarture 2012

David Mamet examines the roll of being a jew amidst gentiles in his play Goldberg Street;  it is not that we want to be strange, it is that we are strangers in a land not of our own making, and one where at any time someone can attack us for being the JEW.   The JEW is the perfect foil, the scape goat for all that ills a society; because they stand out separated from others.   This separation is not of their own choosing.

Best of 2012 First Quarter

Top Three Books, I have read, from January to April 2012.  These books were chosen from twenty books read in this period of time, so they did stand out, and were not just the only books I finished. 

1. The Stand by Stephen King
Stephen King gets the zeitgeist of the times. He writes his books with America's psychological phobias in mind. This book introduced me to the love for Stephen King. King knows what it means to be human.

2. Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

This book is a great adventure into the minds and hearts of our American founding patriots.


3. The Devil All The Time by Ray Pollock
A great Southern Gothic read set in southern Ohio.

Writing Prompts:

The Ripple Effect circles out and avenges my IPhone with static, and maybe a Mexican Radio here and there, on this Cinco-DeMayo Morning.  The phone reports of a battle long past fought between Mexico and France.  France?

So what is this cryptic piece of writing? I took the key trending words for the date of May 5th and attempted to put them into a quick flash writing.   This activity is quit fun and one should try it out.  The key words were ripple effect, Iphone and Cinco De Mayo.   

50 States of Reading: Ohio

Ohio, a land of great writers, including Donald Ray Pollock. The book was recommended to me by the Horror Aficionados over there in Good Reads.   The book was an original in the field of Southern Gothic, as it takes place in Ohio, not in the deep south of O'Connor. The rural descriptions were eerie,  especially when I was reading it in Cedar Key and Monticello Florida. I was feeling like these could be my neighbors; I didn't go out of my way to be friendly.  The book will also cure your need to hitch-hike.*  The characters are all flawed and all in need of redemption.   However, the redemption they find is straight from the devil. At times the book bogged me down, and the flow was difficult.  I found myself re-reading sections where the novel skipped a beat.   But, all in all, I loved the book and would recommend it as an alternative to Flannery O'Connor or Raymond Chandler. 
  

*you need to read the book to find out why.





Reverand Gary Davis

Declaration
Shout To The Devil
"son" said the preacher " ‘for i break the news
Let me take you to the heart of this promised land"
Built on the green hill far away
Where somebody cried somebody died in the wind
You don’t have to run to the palaces of gold
Bricks and mortar one day must surely fall
And son you will look monroe right between the eyes
And pray that somehow
Someone’s gonna come along
And save her, save her soul
And we're gonna
Shout to the devil shout to the sky
Shout to the gods almighty high
Preacher teacher
Preacher teacher
It’s in the hearts it’s in the soul
Look no further than your own backyard
Live your life as it should be lived
Follow your heart for the truth is everlasting
And the wine runs cold in the blood of men
The bread is dry, stale pushed in the back of your mind
And the senator’s dream is running wild today
And the big duke’s star in death
Still fighting off the hounds of hell
For we all fall short of the glory my friend
Even all the king’s horses and all the king’s business men
I’ve got a golden eagle flying high
But i and i still find it hard to keep the wolves at bay
And we're gonna
Shout to the devil shout to the sky
Shout to the gods almighty high
Preacher teacher
Preacher teacher
It’s in the hearts it’s in the soul
Look no further than your own backyard
Live your life as it should be lived
Follow your heart for the truth is everlasting
And we're gonna
Shout to the devil shout to the sky
Shout to the gods almighty high
And we're gonna
Shout to the devil shout to the sky
Shout to the gods almighty high

(preacher)
This train is bound for glory
This train
It's pulling away
Right away, right away, right away
I'm born tonight
Yeah we've got to ------ child
And over here
A young man, i call him the leader of our band
I name our band the quarrymen
Yes that's right, sirs
And also, we've got the harmonica band
Yeah, come aboard, come aboard
It is finished
Declaration
Shout To The Devil