an unseen force
they walk the streets by day
and by night.
their home upon the back
a pack to go.
ready to blow.
you don’t see them
but they’re always there.
their’s is to strike fear
in our hearts
for they no longer care
if they live or die.
why would they care about you?
I’ve always detested the expression ‘buyer beware’
coz it usually means some poor bastard has signed a contract while simultaneously dropping their drawers and bending over…
plot:
high energy couple walks in to a cellular store in music city, Nashville USA
they tell the personable salesman that they are artists, movie makers & composers
they need a service, MOBILE (to mean they spend a good deal of time on the road…)
that supports their work, their lifestyle…
for once in their lives…money is no object
not a problem Sir…
maximum unlimited everything
- Great.
the couple are so excited…
even the deposit and initial gouging barely unnerve’s our heroes
second billing cycle…
to settle account: $1400…
now money flips from being of no object to a very important one
why? why? why?
frantic call to customer service.
quick…where’s the 35 page, tiny densely printed contract.
data usage = 74Gb
‘customer service’ sounding like dad…
have you two been watching movies?
Err…YES, of course
its kinda what we do
well…we dont recommend that.
but, it says in the small print
on page 26
DATA SERVICES: PERMITTED USES
item #IV:
may use for UPLOADING downloading,
AND (GETTA LOAD OF THIS)
STREAMING of audio, video, games…
excuse me ???
nah, we always warn customers don’t watch movies…NEVER
folks, JUST DON”T DO IT
one flick will use 12Gb
WHAT!!!!
but the lady at american cellular said
you’ll never scratch the 10G allowance each month
warning, you are super dangerously close to the maximum data usage allowed…
we queried our dutiful sales person
she even fixed our phone so the text messages would stop
final scene:
in a flash the couple decides happily,
no, ecstatically
that really one monthly bill is quite frankly one too many anyway
please connect us to financial services
yes, yes, yes…of course we will pay your ‘$289 bill’ on friday
and in december we will pay the remainder in two
payments of $560 each
thanks dude, you’ve been awesome today
that sounds great…
thank you once again
VERIZON
couple kicks back, turns on netflix movies
and lets ‘em stream for four days until there’s no signal available
midnight friday
fade out….
downtown Presbyterian church
So, in my dreams last night, Vern and I were walking around downtown. We had nowhere to rest our weary heads inspite of trying very very hard to be resourceful, self reliant and motivated humans. In fact, we’ve been pretty darn proud of us.
Vern carried his bulky yet precious guitar in-case and a 40lb backpack. Me, a 30lb art portfolio, a heavy purse and a big smile. It was warm with a breeze blowing in hot sticky and possibly tempestuous skies. We needed the rain. We needed shelter more right now.
My dream meanders here and there. As they do. But we wind up curling up like puppies in a small cardboard box on the toppest most steps of a downtown church. We go to sleep easily, tired from hiking around all day with our entire lives’ possessions and obsessions on our backs. As freeing as it is to have so little, it still weighs 15lbs too heavy…
A ’rap rap rap’ wakes us up…
Maybe it was a “rat rat rat’.
A policeman looms over us…
He states we were criminally trespassing and how on earth could we have missed the sign. We look up and see nothing (not even the church!) but a do not even try to sleep comfortably, safely and together out here sign. It wasn’t there when we arrived. I could have sworn my life on it!
He arrests us but doesn’t take us in. He verifies on his screen that we are very good puppies and that we always show up for animal farm, I mean court every time we’re arrested.
We packed up and head down the street.
Big fat raindrops finally start to fall.
The cop barked at us.
And rather unpleasantly told us to
‘stay out of sight, out of mind’…
heck…they probably do some good, I’ve just never seen them around except on the little white info sheets ‘where to find meals/where to find help’ in Nashville. However, I have a problem with these ‘parking meter style-lets put an end to panhandling’ and feeble, silly attempts to ‘help’. I’ve not seen one coin depositied, emptied, distributed or stolen. 
the 23rd April 2012:
Thats about how long we’ve been in the car together.
It’s probably even longer.
Heck…some days it feels like an eternity.
Definitely in a good way.
Anyway.
What a day it was last night!
It all started around 02:00 when we’re both awake @ the Wal-mart on Charlotte.
We’ve secured a safe and quiet camp over there.
There are fewer drunks. Less Mad-TV.
Only a bearded zz-top-man with cans stuffed in sacks.
Piled in to a shopping cart, waiting at the bus stop.
He catches the #10 at 04:50. Flannel shirt open over Tee.
I’ve had a hard time sleeping lately.
Ask any ER doc downtown.
So we’re trying to find a cup of coffee.
I’ve never seen a city quite so dead.
Its that hour though. Between 3 and 4. Not much going on.
In fact nothing at all.
Just because.
‘There’s an undercover!”
And ”another pullin’ someone over there”.
“Look at that poor S.O.B’
Oh…’No…its whoop, whoop ‘ on you.
Excuse me…
‘ Why are you both in sleeping bags?’
Because.
Just because.
“Sir, you can sleep in your car, but a man can’t drive a house”
This is what we do.
Live our art.
Live in our car.
And film it too…
Not one word from the cop
Up ahead two more cars like sharks sulked around a corner.
Double whoop, whoop…
Nocte interruptus…
For all four of us.
Our cop was totally cool.
I hope the others were too.
Told us to slow down.
No ticket. A friendly smile.
We almost asked him for a cuppa.
Better not push our luck.
Instead we pulled in to the hospital mapco,
And sipped coffee until the sun came up.
this week’s nashville scene
“what distresses me about this story are the gaping holes in it! the defendent’s initial bloodwork (and results) go missing, conflicting stories from officers and a huge sense of closing ranks among the police department, the use and misuse …of restraints by hospital staff, the fact that the coroners report stated ‘homicide: complications from an asphyxia event…during a struggle with others’…WOW…lets back up! Nashville Scene this is not a story about illegial drugs as your titilating cover promised ‘Acid Bath’ but about a young defendent horribly mistreated and failed by societies systems of ‘justice’ and ‘healthcare’. Your cover should have promised the reader with a headline like ‘Police Brutality’ but hang on, thats not quite as explosive. Or is it? Pray hang your heads in shame.”
Helen Bird
FOR MORE ON THIS INJUSTICE AND ARTICLE:
with gladiatorial glee
I had a bird’s-eye of the ;black friday frenzy; from an incredibly discreet and unique vantage point. I was cocooned safely from the madness. an island of sanity amid an ocean of shoppers.
Wal-Mart is and has been on many occasions our home for a night or two over the past year. they welcome travellers and truckers alike. responsible people. folks that pick up other people’s’ trash. eyeball the vicinity as a neighbor hood watch scout. you get kinda protective about your neighbor too. hope they’re warm ’cause there’s an extra blanket just in case. make more healthy wraps, they might be hungry…
we tried to feed a few people yesterday. there’s no mistakin’ the look. the look of embarassment…it was funny, we selected good-for-ya life-sustaining grub but by the time we rounded the corner they had gone. I believe someone helped them as one in three nearly always does. There’s a heck of a lot of good ‘out there’ and I call it that affectionately. To some of us it’s a very scary world and I applaud the ease at which you enjoy the fracas…the circus…the crazy colorful wheel of life.
well…back to my story. I sat quietly drawing when a raucous of voices, car doors and screeching brakes pulled me back to reality and the current surroundings. ‘what on earth???’ Vernon called sleepily from the all wooden sleep cabin ‘it’s black friday…’ ‘at 10 o’clock?’ no response except softly sawed logs…
I could not believe the insanity! cars lined up as far as the eye could see. big happy faces clutching coupons, ads and flyers. near accidents punctuating the night as spaces were fought over. I had never seen or experienced an energy like it…Romans racing for the best seats at the Coliseum.
a frantically excited couple showed us that they ‘had got two big flat screen tv’s’ and ‘they were all $700 a piece for $300 each, y’all’…they had lined up for five hours to score such a deal.
Wow, I thought ‘who said they were worth $700 in the first place?
Leave a comment | tags: abstract, art, commentary, country music, creativity, documentary, expression, frenzy, friday, humor, inspiration, life, love, music, nashville, people, reality, shopping, social, street art, travel, vernon rust, wal-mart-black | posted in abstract, art, experience, expression, humor, inspiration, life, love and friendship, music, news, opinion, people, travel, vernon rust