So now we have Scott Baio whining that he can’t get roles because he’s a conservative.  This is funny considering that Vince Vaughan and Clint Eastwood have little difficulty in getting work in spite their conservative views.

Let’s analyze things in a more realistic manner.  Scott Baio has always been a good looking guy.  He’s never been a particularly gifted actor.  He benefited from the looks.  Hollywood producers making movies and TV shows will very often need eye candy in the film.  We usually think of this for women but it also applies to men.  There are times that they want eye candy for the ladies so they look for a male bimbo.

So when they needed a good looking guy for the ladies, they would seek out an actor like Scott Baio to fill the role.  Now, we’re several decades past his prime.  He’s still a good looking guy—for his age.  So when producers need the male bimbo, they aren’t going to call him.  There are younger and prettier boys available.  They’re going to go for the newest 22 year old flavor of the month.  It’s their turn now. 

Nobody cries political bias for the actresses that got by on their looks as young ladies.  We just accept that they filled a purpose as eye candy in films and now they’ve been usurped by younger prettier models.  Why should it be any different for men?  If all you are is a bimbo—male or female—you will stop getting offers. That is simply the shallow culture in which we live. 

The younger ladies the filmmakers are trying to woo don’t want Grandpa Scott.  For fantasy purposes, I don’t even think the women his own age want him anymore.  We alL go for the young Adonis or Aphrodite in our fantasies.  There is very little prejudice at work here.  It’s simply a matter of a one trick pony going past his expiration date.  Take a few acting lessons and you might get some roles on Hallmark movie specials.  There might be room for him in the fantasy lives of the elderly women watching those movies.

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1092094

the mini skirt

has a name

I’ve been told

but I was

too shy to ask

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/fuche_bu/poem/1082371

also published in Failed Haiku an online journal of senryu

http://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue49.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0X9GlTs4AjMedU…

INSANITY PERSONIFIED | PostPoems

It seems to me that every 4 years you have a presidential election and all of a sudden, they come out of the woodworks:  The people whining that we need more than two choices; that we have to have more than two parties. They extol the virtue of voting for a candidate that will be lucky to get half of one percent of the vote.

Now, I agree that we need more options.  I agree that we need more ideas on the table.  We should have more than two viable parties.  My problem is that elections don’t only get held every 4 years.  Elections get held every single year.  You have all levels of government be it federal, state or local.  I vote every year and yet when I vote on odd number years, I never see any third party candidates running for school board, city council, sheriff, constable, comptroller etc.

If you want to build successful third parties, you need to start on a grassroots level.  These are the elections that are winnable and can form a foundation.  You could get a libertarian as the town constable or get a Green party candidate on the city council.  You could get an independent candidate on the school board.  These are small elections with a small base of voters.  It would be easy to capture the imagination of enough voters to win some of these elections.  That would make it easier to start getting into state senates and houses or even the federal House of Representatives.

This is where it’s time to call out bullshit.  School boards and city councils aren’t really sexy.  Who cares about the comptroller?  Or the constable?  The presidential election is nationwide and it gets a lot of election.  For a lot of people, it’s really more about wanting to complain or wanting to be contrarian.  I don’t even see many people propping up third party candidates for congress or the Senate during the Presidential election year. 

Now if you actually are out there trying to get independent and third party candidates elected to school boards and city councils, this diatribe is not directed at you.  I respect what you are trying to do and support that cause.  This is directed at the people that only turn out every 4 years with their holier than thou self righteousness.

Now I’m not going to tell anyone how to vote.  People should vote for whomever they feel is the best candidate.  I also won’t tell you that you are wasting your vote if you want to vote for a third party or independent candidate.  Since only one candidate wins, you could argue that 54.1% of the people wasted their vote in 2016.  Vote however you please.  I won’t tell you that you’re wasting your vote.  I am asking you to stop wasting my time.

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1091949

Train stations provide the cliché observation of people running to and fro trying to catch that train.  It’s a microcosm for our crazy society. 

I’ll be meekly showing the Amtrak cop my train ticket lest I be banished from the station.  Good that I have a train ticket and also purchased a burrito at the food court.  Wouldn’t want a homeless person crashing out on the floor, now would we?

Think of the children:  we can’t allow them to be scarred and marred by the sight and scent of these trod upon bums.  Let’s just sweep the problem under the rug and pretend that it doesn’t exist.  It’s the Reagan deal all over again.  We’ll push it out of sight and out of mind.  If we pretend hard enough, it might just go away. 

But for the moment I am safe from being jettisoned from the station since I am a paying customer.  Lah Dee Dah, aren’t I something special?

I sit there chomping away on my burrito. I see self-important people with their cellphones.  They make unimportant phone calls to unimportant people.  Their smugness reeks worse than any of the homeless.  I’m not too impressed by any of it.

Now I’ve heard on numerous occasions that Penn Station is a microcosm for America and that scares me—especially when I am threatened with arrest for buying food for a starving person while so-called good Christians, many of whom laud Mother Teresa, look on approvingly at the cop’s efforts.

So this is America in a nutshell and it ain’t a very pretty sight anymore.  It sure as Hell isn’t even what those dead white guys envisioned a couple centuries ago.

Someone fucked it up and this is what is left:  a rebuilt train station populated by heartless, soulless people who bought a latté which will donate an entire nickel to charity.  They can walk about holding their noses high and marvel at their good deed.

And it really sucks regardless upon whom we finally decide to pin the blame.  Guys that couldn’t make the grade at the Academy are all self-important in their little station.  I’m just left feeling a bit nauseous and I no longer have an appetite to finish my food.  Maybe I will just give the rest of my burrito to a homeless woman who needs it more than me.

I just watch the people scurrying for trains.  I’ve much been an admirer of rats—and less so the human kind.  I’ll be delighted when it’s my turn to leave.

5-25-98

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1091889

There are still times that I get carded in bars or venues.  It’s usually an indication that the establishment sits in an uptight municipality or they recently got tagged for selling booze to (too) young’uns.  I won’t give them too much trouble since they’re really just doing their jobs.  And also, a lot of venues have guys at the door with necks thicker than a redwood tree.  I just show them the card and move on with my life.  People say that I should take it as a compliment.  Hardly, they aren’t looking at me and thinking that I might be under 21.  They’re doing it because some asshole council member wants to make a statement.  It would be great if it was a compliment but I’m not that naïve.  I’m not standing there thinking “Gee that new moisturizing cream is really reaping dividends.”  I’m usually just anxious to get in the door and get settled. 

Largely not nessa

a delay in the next beer

thirst waits to be quenched

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1086114

There’s an age old adage in American football that goes: “Offense wins games.  Defense wins championships.” Everyone loves the quarterback and the offensive skill positions.  It’s sexy to run up the score with the touchdowns.

But the truth in football has always been that defenses are what wins championships.  It’s held true throughout most of the history of the NFL.  Offensive juggernauts routinely cruise into the playoffs with lofty records only to be knocked off by a potent defense.  Look at what the Seattle Seahawks defense did to Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl.  Offense wins game. Defense wins championships.

It’s sexy to go on offense and try to run the flea flickers and try to complete the 60 yard TD passes.  But there are times that you need to settle for a field goal to pick up points and stay in the game.  And when you don’t score, your defense needs to step up and make the stop and get the ball back.  You win the game and you win championships by playing on both sides of the ball.  It also doesn’t hurt to have outstanding special teams.  A well placed punt pinning your opponent on the 2 yard line can change field position.  A good kick return setting up good field position can ease the strain on a struggling offense.

So what does this have to do with politics?  Well, politics needs to be played a lot like a football game.  It helps to have a game plan.  It helps to play well on both sides of the ball.  It helps to perform in all phases of the game.  Too many people just want to obsess on the quarterback and not build a complete team.  Yes, the quarterback is an important position.  But let’s be clear about it:  The best quarterback in the world can’t complete a pass if he’s laying on his back buried underneath a blitzing linebacker.  The offensive line has to give him time to complete the pass.  The wide receiver has to get open and catch the pass.

Too many people will champion a single candidate for president and forget all about the down ticket.  They’re too busy to vote in the off year elections.  You want change, you have to vote in every election.  You need to get good senators and House representatives on both the state and national level.  You need to hire good mayors and governors as well as good council members.  You need effective leadership on the local school board.  Games are won in trenches.  The president isn’t worth shit if the people down ticket can’t get the job done.

You can’t throw a hissy fit and walk away because your preferred presidential candidate didn’t get elected.  Wallowing in self pity and crying about how unfair everything is doesn’t bring about change.  You may have to play defense sometimes.  You didn’t convert the third down conversion, you need a good punt to back the other team up.  The defense needs to show up and make the stop. 

To say it doesn’t matter just because your personal favorite didn’t win is asinine.  Am I to believe that allowing companies to pollute the air and water is no different than continuing to disallow companies to pollute the air and water?  That is fundamentally the result of this apathy and self pity.  Wah, my favorite didn’t win.  So fuck the environment!  Fuck women’s right!  If my person doesn’t win, I’m just going go on twitter rants about how unfair everything is.  If there’s 100 problems in the world, wouldn’t it be better to solve 5 of them rather than create 10 new problems?

This really is the issue.  Do you want real change?  Or do you just want to wallow in self-pity?  If you want real change, you have to develop a game plan.  It also helps to have alternative plans because you might have to make half time adjustments.  You may have to throw a block rather than carry the ball.  You need a great defense and great special teams to complement the offense.

Are you really so selfish that you can’t celebrate if your teammate scores the touchdown rather than you?  Are you going to lay down and pout because your teammate got the QB sack rather than you?  If your teammate scores then your team has a better chance of winning.  Yes, the quarterback is the sexy position and the offense makes most of the highlight reel but the teams that win the championships are the ones with a deep roster.  Keep in mind that the quarterback may get the lion’s share of the glory but it’s the defense that brings home the ring.

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1088442

Going to Amsterdam was always a blast.  It was always easy to get cheap flights into Schiphol.  A lot of Asian and Middle Eastern flights used it as a fuel stop.  It worked out well for me and I got to discover airlines like Royal Jordanian and Tower.

Getting off at Schiphol was easy enough.  The train station is connected to the airport so one could easily just jump on a train and go.  It was an easy train ride and then you were getting off the train at Centraal Station.   I had a hostel on Warmoestraat that served as a go to place for a cheap bed.  

Generally speaking, I would get off the train and fall in with English soccer hooligans.  These drunk limeys found me every time.  We’d have to hit up In de Wildeman and T’ij for some good Dutch beers.  We’d be best friends politely overlooking the insurrection/revolution.

Of course, Amsterdam offers all sorts of stimulation.  One needn’t stick to just to beer.  There’s the old Hill Street Blues Coffee Shop sitting next door to a police precinct.  You can walk along the canals on those old streets.  There’s a lot of overcast weather in Amsterdam.  You get a good deal of mist and drizzle.  And yet somehow, Amsterdam always seems to have the most luminous grays.  It often feels like walking through an impressionist painting.  The funky centuries old buildings are off kilter and the sky bleeds right into the canals.  Bicycles whiz by and I avoid streetcars finding my way out to the Dam Raak.

And one must indulge in the arts.  The RijksMuseum and the Van Gogh museum are lurking in the shadows calling out to me.  You have to see The Night Watch.  Frans Banninck Cocq needs our support.  Prometheus was chained by Vulcan but I narrowly make my escape.  After that, it’s time to slide over to the Van Gogh museum.  

You can peruse the pedestrian underpass to get from one museum to the next.  That provides entertainment on its own.  Two street musicians with accordions are playing “Tocata and Fugue.”  The sound is majestically ricocheting off the bricks.  That’s about the time that the psilocybin begins to kick in.  The echoes are causing seismic tremors to run down my spine.  Haunted houses are no longer required.  There are no doubt many ghosts and spirits dwelling in this tunnel way.

I nearly forget I’m supposed to go visit Vinnie Van.  It’s always a treat to wander through.  The irises and sunflowers slowly seep into my consciousness.  The crows invade the wheat field and stir up subconscious memories.  It’ll become all too much to handle.  Time will come to cautiously step back out into the open air of the city.  Nearing sunset, orange, pink and purple are starting to puncture the gray clouds.  It’ll be a long walk back to the hostel to catch some sleep.  The jenever procured from Wjinand Fockand should help settle me in for a few hours.  New adventures will wait tomorrow afternoon.  

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/fuche_bu/prose/1063241

AUTHENTIC STONER GIBBERISH: Schaefer, George: 9798811598632: Amazon.com: Books

I remember when I saw Anthony Bourdain do a performance at the Academy of Music.  During the questions from the audience portion of the show, someone asked him what his favorite trip to take was.  His response was that his favorite trip was walking his daughter to the bus stop each morning.  It got the requisite “awws” from the crowd. 

I didn’t really think that much about it until a couple years later when he committed suicide.  When the story of his suicide broke, we were all trying to make sense of it.  How could this possibly happen to him?  I started thinking back to his comment about walking his daughter to the bus stop being his favorite trip.  If that statement was true, it certainly wasn’t the life he was living.  He was doing anything but that.  He also was a person who had the means that he could have walked away from the show and simply wrote a couple books and still made millions and lived off his reputation.  He didn’t have to continue living the life he was living if he wanted a simple, family life.

It occurs to me that the line he gave at that performance is a bit of a cliché.  Everyone who is a parent will have some variation of that story. It’s always how this was the monumental moment that changed their life.  Someone else was now the most important being in their life.  It can’t be true for all of them.  You can get mad at me for saying this but there are too many bad parents in the world for that to be true.  I have to wonder was this line from the show how he really felt or was it something he said because it’s how he thought he should feel?  Our society does like to force people into roles and positions they may not be meant for.

Maybe he was wracked with guilt because he didn’t feel that way.  Maybe he really did love the travel and the adventure more than the family life.  We will never know.  We can only speculate.  But I think part of the problem is that we do try to make people into something they are not.  There are people who can be perfectly happy getting married and living that life.  Other people are polyamorous or even asexual.  There are people that legitimately don’t want kids.  Of course, a person isn’t allowed to be single at a certain age or else they must be gay or they must have something wrong with them.  Then you end up with people in relationships built on lies. And at the risk of pissing some people off:  If you’re too obsessed with someone else’s life, it’s really a reflection of your own unhappiness in your own life.

People buy a lot of shit they don’t really want or need.  If I buy one more pair of shoes or if I go to one more concert or ballgame, it will fulfill me.  They get into relationships that are toxic or unhappy because they think that’s what they have to do.  How many couples do you see that are spiritually dead?  They go through the motions.  Zombie movies are so popular because we have a lot of walking dead among already.  A lot of people see themselves in the zombies.

Ultimately, we have to find happiness within ourselves.  If you aren’t happy with yourself, you won’t find happiness with another person or with vast possessions.  Bob Marley sang those immortal words of wisdom:  “They don’t love themselves so they can’t love anybody else.” We really do need to work on ourselves and learn to love ourselves.

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1091341

I guess some guys just don’t realize what they’re saying or what they sound like to anyone with a brain in their head. He’s entirely too proud of himself telling me his joke “What do a fat girl and a moped have in common?” The answer was “They’re both fun to ride but you wouldn’t want your friends to catch you on either one.”

Damn! My first thought here is “Buddy, you need to get better friends. You also need to grow a pair and stop caring what your friends think.” If you enjoy something, you should pursue that activity. If you like someone, you should pursue their company. Are you really going to let some morons dictate your life just because you think they’re your friend?

Why are you so afraid of being seen with a girl if you like her? I mean, it’s one thing if you’re just not attracted to her but that’s not what you’re saying. You’re telling me you have fun with her but don’t want to be seen with her. Truth is, you’re not good enough for her. If you like someone then that’s who you should try to be with or spend time with. “Gee, I’m miserable and chronically depressed but at least I look cool to my friends.” Don’t be that asshole.

Think of how many people out there are passing up on someone that they really would like and appreciate because they want to impress their friends or make a good impression on their family. I hear people about not being in someone else’s league. This isn’t baseball. This is life. In life, there’s only one human league. We’re all in it together.

Ride the moped or listen to the John Denver CD or whatever it is that you like. And for the love of all that’s decent. If you really connect with someone, don’t let it pass because you feel some subconscious need to impress morons. If they really are your friends; they’ll be happy for you. Fuck ’em if they can’t be happy for you.

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1091717

Some people get upset when friends go off on sidebars on their posts.  They want everything on the post to be about them. I guess that’s fine for some people.  Me, I don’t really care if my friends—or even members of the general public go off on little sidebars.  I’ve always been a reactive artist.  I feed off of stimuli going on around me.  I overhear something on a train or see a newspaper headline or look at graffiti on a bathroom wall and I react to it.  I try to turn it into some form of literature.  I may post a half-hearted gentle reminder to folks leaving me behind on my own post but I won’t have a temper tantrum or unfriend them.  I do issue a caveat though:  You would do well to copyright your thoughts if you place them on my post.  I will steal them shamelessly if the spirit so moves me and I find a way to crystalize it into what I would like to believe is art.

https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/prose/1091870