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Bar essentials

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Bare essentials

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
---Albert Camus
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Posted by Tom Bombadil : , , ,

34 comments:

  1. Utah Savage5/7/09, 2:20 PM

    I always loved Camus. And everything is political except natural disasters. Everything that happens after a natural disaster is political.

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  2. Utah Savage5/7/09, 2:22 PM

    I just looked at the membership roster. Quite a lovely bunch of people. I'm liking this watering hole more and more.

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  3. jazzolog5/8/09, 4:28 AM

    I hope you visit more often then, Utah. Actually many natural disasters are political too, having been caused by neglect or rape of the land, air, sea, and sky.

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  4. Quinty5/9/09, 4:07 PM

    And between nature and ourselves who does more damage?

    Somehow, it's easier to put up with a hurricane or earthquake (I've been through a few) than any manmade disaster. At least a natural calamity is that, or seems that: natural. Whereas the manmade variety shines a mirror back on ourselves. And what we see ain't pretty, is it? In fact, it's downright depressing.

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  5. jazzolog5/11/09, 4:30 AM

    We await the Refresh of illustrating photo.


    "This site is blocked by the Athens City School's Content Filter Service.

    URL: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rUr0KsdYGI0/SgMpYtA2uGI/AAAAAAAABHA/17V7zv5OIrE/s400/FH1.jpg

    Reason for restriction: Forbidden Category 'Nudism'"

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  6. Tom Bombadil5/11/09, 10:28 AM

    LOL - I wonder how the Athens City School's Content Filter Service handles George Orwell:

    "The girl with dark hair was coming towards him across the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her body was white and smooth...
    What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With all its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought."
    ---George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

    Meanwhile, today in the online edition of the Matrix (Athens High School's student-run newspaper).

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  7. jazzolog5/11/09, 10:53 AM

    Ah yes, Mary Wryst, faculty advisor to the paper, lives right across Rhoric Road from us. I worked with her for a year, eating lunch every day, before we discovered we're neighbors. Privacy out in the sticks. Only Tom would research so diligently.

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  8. Tom Bombadil5/11/09, 11:46 AM

    Gadzooks! Do you mean Miss Louisiana Queen of Boats Mary Wryst?

    You sly dog, you, Jazzolog!

    It does make sense, somehow. It looks like the woman always had a passion for jazz: at age 16, she formed her own Jazz Band called The Harmonics that lasted through her Senior year.

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  9. Nausicaa5/11/09, 11:55 AM

    Er... That would be "Mary West," Tom, not "Mary Wryst."

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  10. Tom Bombadil5/11/09, 12:05 PM

    Oh...

    Never mind, then!

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  11. Nausicaa5/11/09, 12:09 PM

    That's how rumors get started, you know...

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  12. Tom Bombadil5/11/09, 12:13 PM

    It's a good thing that this site is blocked by the Athens City School's Content Filter Service.

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  13. Ben Trovato5/11/09, 1:54 PM

    Would you believe that the Pope is more progressive than the Athens City School in this matter?

    "The human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve intact its splendor and its beauty... The human body is not in itself shameful..."

    That's John Paul II ("Love and Responsibility," translation by H. T. Willetts, Farrar, Straus and Giroux). I don't know what Benedict XVI's position is on this.

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  14. Tom Bombadil5/11/09, 2:12 PM

    Well, it's probably safe to say that no one ever accused the Pope of being a puritan :-)

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  15. Ben Trovato5/11/09, 2:40 PM

    There is no arguing with that. Giulia la bella most assuredly wouldn't.

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  16. Nausicaa5/11/09, 3:45 PM

    Nor would Donna Olimpia.

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  17. Nausicaa5/11/09, 3:46 PM

    The Bartender would probably tell us that "those were the days!"

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  18. Quinty5/11/09, 4:25 PM

    The Catholic Church v. the Athens City Schools? I wonder who would win in such a contest?

    The gentlemen on this site have a fine sense for dealing with delicate matters. In some places a nude man or woman could walk down the middle of the thoroughfare without anyone blinking an eye. Anthropologists go out into the bush to study such foreign ways, foreign to those of us who have always assumed one at least gets dressed first before going out onto the street. No matter that he or she may be half drunk or on drugs. The thing being to protect ones modesty.

    Now in the bush it may be acceptable to walk about in an advanced state of undress. It is taken for granted. Why, such nudity could precipitate a riot here in the United States. In fact, I once saw a cowgirl in San Francisco on New Year's Eve undress on the street as she fired her pistol into the air. Within the span of less than ten seconds at least a thousand revelers quickly gathered and surrounded her as she undressed. All male, of course. The sad part was that two or three of San Francisco's finest slowly made their way through the crowd and put a blanket over her and led her away, utterly crushed. It was a sad thing to behold. All she was doing was firing a gun into the air and taking off her clothes.

    Now, in the bush, would they understand that? Or would they think this is just more of the white man's peculiar ways?

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  19. Ben Trovato5/11/09, 4:51 PM

    Forget the Renaissance, Nausicaa - the Middle Ages, now, those were the days!!! I wonder whether the Bartender ever got to make the acquaintance of Lady Marozia c. 900.

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  20. jazzolog5/12/09, 2:52 AM

    And here I was complimenting Tom's research abilities. Mary WRYST is a beauty to be sure, but her modesty forbids any photos on the Internet.

    The Wulfshead SITE is not banned by the Athens City School filter, but the accompanying photos to this entry are---and the expression on the horse's face is the reason why. As for a showdown with the Catholic church...or any other...the schools would fold at once. Just about any institution in the land is more powerful than the schools---and has lots more money for lawsuits to boot.

    Just last month, the director of special services here escorted a student to Special Olympics personally after parents threatened to sue the county MRDD for its refusal to let him go because of his history of tantrums and violent outbursts. Education doesn't have a leg to stand on in America anymore. Hey waiter, how about a refill over here?

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  21. Ben Trovato5/12/09, 10:34 AM

    Oh, come on Jaz, snap out of it! (Here, this drink is on me.) And don't flatter yourself about Athens City School. The Athens City School filter is pretty standard and is nothing but an electronic bed sheet - just following in the foot step of John Ashcroft, you know. None of this is truly new, really:

    In 1993, in Vermont, female employees in a state office building, complained that they were feeling sexually harassed by the presence of a mural of Christopher Columbus arriving in the New World, because the painting depicted native women without shirts." (Gasp!)

    State officials hung bed sheets over the offensive mural. (Phew!)

    State Officials do what States Officials do.

    Bed sheets are hung.

    Art is censored.

    Music is banned.

    Books are burnt.

    "E pur si muove"

    And it cannot be stopt.

    For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

    I am sure that Mary Wryst is a nice person. She is also apparently a safer topic of conversation than the one submited in the actual article that Tom's link to that Athens High School's student-run newspaper (The Matrix) was actually pointing to.

    The article, which was studiously and painstakingly ignored by the gentlemen on this site, who as Quinty put it, "have a fine sense for dealing with delicate matters," was about SEXTING (double Gasp!!). And, since I am no professor and I am in no way affiliated with Athens City School, and have always been somewhat of a libertine, I feel it comes to me to quote the opening paragraph of the article:

    "Snap. Upload. Send. That’s all a young girl has to do these days to make her pictures accessible to the public. More teenagers are sending or posting nude photos of themselves to others, leaving authorities puzzled on the proper course of action. According to Dahlia Lithwick in “Newsweek,” “sexting” is the new term that describes, “the act of sending, receiving or forwarding naked photos via your cell phone.” An alarmingly high number of teenagers (one in five) has admitted to committing this newly developed crime."

    For every action: an equal and opposite reaction.

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  22. Nausicaa5/12/09, 11:46 AM

    "An alarmingly high number of teenagers (one in five) has admitted to committing this newly developed crime."

    LOL

    Okay, I haven't read the rest of the article (where is the rest of the article, anyway?) but the bias in that paragraph alone is quite telling:

    ""Snap. Upload. Send. That’s all a young girl has to do these days to make her pictures accessible to the public."

    What about them boyz?

    (I mean, is it OK to ask, or would that fall "alarmingly" under a "newly developed crime" category?)

    Teen girls (22%) are not the only ones sharing sexually explicit content. Almost one in five teen boys (18%) say they have sent or posted nude/semi nude images of themselves. One-third (33%) of young adults—36% of women and 31% of men ages 20-26—say they have sent or posted such images. So why the emphasison on "a young girl"?

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  23. Quinty5/12/09, 11:46 AM

    Having carefully considered the evidence which has been presented so far I still think John Ashroft has all entrants and contenders here beat.

    After all, covering up the statue of Madame the Goddess of Justice in the Justice building in order to conceal her boobs is a shocking thing. For this glimpse into his personality and inner life is surely unsettling.

    Think of it. He couldn't go to and from his office without being torn by this display of nudity. All the weighty legal problems, momentous affairs of the nation, burdens he carried would be suddenly nocked out of his head by...... LUST! DESIRE! PRURIENT THOUGHTS!

    What a sin it must have been for him! What a burden! And to think of all those young lawyers passing by, snickering, thinking lewd thoughts, become sexually excited before going into court. How could he allow that! And all the unborn children entering a sinful world. Ah, what filth. He had to act!

    Justice begins with little things, and the big, too, no?

    If you don't believe me about Ashcroft..... (Notice the pained, sweaty expression on his face as he stand before that shameless harlot.... )

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1788845.stm

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  24. Lockwood5/12/09, 7:18 PM

    Fascinating... Earthlings never cease to puzzle me. Jazzolog, I hadn't realized you were another Athenian. I graduated from AHS in '77. Were you in the neighborhood during the seventies? There's a lot about that town that I miss...

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  25. jazzolog5/13/09, 1:33 AM

    No I wasn't here, having been washed down the Ohio in a flashflood several years later. I haven't been able to scramble back to higher elevations ever since. My wife grew up here though, being a Kuhre...but they lived outside New Marshfield (gak) and she had to suffer Alexander while you tore up AHS.

    All this talk about Ashcroft, nudity, boyz 'n gurlz is just too shocking! Anyway that horse is starting to look better and better.

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  26. Tom Bombadil5/13/09, 10:29 AM

    Is all that talk (not to mention the Athens City School barred bare essentials photograph) going to compromise the Wulfshead's G rating, you think?

    I hope this doesn't get me in trouble with the bartender.

    What to say...Life is Habicht?

    During the past years Frank has compiled a portfolio of images juxtaposing the diverse extremes of our society in Cities and Places without their traditional landmarks. He observed the human contradictions, absurdities, the mystical, the fragilities, reality and fantasy - capturing togetherness, despair, rebellion, joy and sadness. Simply, life's beauty and drama...looking for what hides behind the human soul.

    Please, please, Jazzolog, quit horsing around and do reassure us: the rest of Frank Habitch "Amazed to be" collection is not being censored by Athens City School is it?

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  27. Ben Trovato5/13/09, 12:36 PM

    Filtered or unfiltered? That's the real question, isn't it?

    Take beer. Home brewers have long claimed that unfiltered beer is healthier for you.

    To test that theory, I have been subjecting myself to repeated nights of studying the affect of filtered vs. unfiltered. It is a hard job but somebody has got to do it. The study is still underway and I've resolved I would not speak on the matter until I have studied it to the utmost. But then again, I will only be speaking for myself. I cannot urge you enough to conduct your own studies. One cannot dismiss the importance of a good education!

    The problem with the world is that there are so many people out there trying to control other people's thoughts and actions. This is why we need censorship: to protect us (and our children) from these people!

    Jazzolog's point about the horse is right on. (Shame on you Frank Habicht!)

    Did you know that "children ages 10-17" tend to like beer ads featuring animal characters more than ads that focus on products or adults?

    A study from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) showed 66 beer ads to 253 children and found that 35 percent said ads for Budweiser that feature a talking ferret made them want to buy the beer. Only 5 percent wanted to buy beer after viewing an Anheuser-Busch ad focused on the company's "Legacy of Quality."

    "Alcohol advertisers should do a better job of avoiding exposing underage youth to beer advertising," said study author Meng-Jinn Chen, "particularly the kinds of ads with cute animals, humorous story lines, and other features that kids find appealing."

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  28. Nausicaa5/13/09, 2:30 PM

    My thoughts have been wandering to Tizian's enigmatic allegory Sacred and Profane Love. Which figure is which? Which way is each looking? What are they holding? What colour are the clothes and draperies? What is in the background of each? What is the putto (small cupid figure) doing?

    It's all Quinty's fault.

    He's the one who called my attention to that disturbing BBC article about Ashcroft and "the female art-deco Spirit of Justice statue with one breast exposed." Little did I know about her "male counterpart," the "Majesty of Law".

    Don't let Ashcroft's description of it (lower right picture) fool you, the truth is there is actually no way to tell: the statue is sculpted with a cloth "strategically placed" around the waist. Which, all things considered, might be a good thing---things could have gotten dicey otherwise. I mean, remember what happened to that art student's sculpture in South Kingstown High School?

    A student’s sculpture project at South Kingstown High School was mutilated by her art teacher even before it was completed. The reason was that the anatomically correct figure sported a penis. Apparently penises could be viewed by students when they are studying art, but not reproduced in their own art work. While requiring student sculpture to be true to the human form, the school apparently finds some parts of that human form undesirable and better left out. The sculpture showed a man in a crawling pose, completely naked. Instead of a head, however, the sculptured featured a television on top of the man’s neck. The student found out what had happened to her sculpture when she returned from a week-long leave of absence and discovered her project "on its side. One finger had been broken off, the head had fallen off, and the penis had been torn off.”

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  29. Quinty5/13/09, 3:53 PM

    A shout out down the bar, in the middle of the night. When the lights are roaring and the voices are bright. "I'm outa here, gents. It's on to Paris and Madrid with a stop in San Sebastian for two days. My voice will not be corrupting anyone, youth, oldsters, the mentally feeble, the teetering or the near mad, for more than three weeks. Do you think I have no conscience? Then I leave you with a poem. (You know, of course, that in places like San Sebastian the sun bathers wear no tops? And scant little else.) Watch it boys.

    On a Far Off Beach

    Tempered by heat and cold
    their glazed bodies grow ripe fecund
    And the tanned sand glazes the mind with sun.

    Radishes stand out like imperfections.

    Perforated by feet, the beach
    yields up chunks of tiny seashell
    cracked by the waves, the action of the surf.

    Perfect conches looped smooth
    round, appear dry in the golden brown sand too.

    Numerous beach towels
    spread out above the sunny waves
    Many bathers take the sun
    flat without physical motion
    Nothing more to do in the day
    but wait, and idle
    in the heavy bundle of pure time.

    The hard sun boils the sky, churns the mist.
    Packed with a relentless heat bodies trundle over sand
    and the lips of cool waves slide up
    over their feet, the monotone surf
    grumbling, stalking broad along the horizon
    rising and relentlessly sliding
    over all their eager feet.

    Naked breasted, black bodied
    sun bathers bare their all to the beating sky
    and the drifting eyes of passers-by
    their gazes discretely glimpsing
    tiny cherry black breasts.

    At its height the sun crowns the sky
    beating saltily upon the waves, the beach.
    A thirst growing with all this heartless heat
    A Budweiser would quell the beating of this sun
    in the shadowed cool sanctity of a dark bar.

    Landlocked high on dry cement, far from the sea
    in a mindbuzz roar of its own
    the laughter of drunks, and the jukebox:
    the tarred souls of bare feet cling high
    to bared aluminum rungs
    raised high up from the unseen sandy floor.

    The sundazed mind growing bright
    in the shadows of the bar, far from the sea
    within the beat, the loud beat
    of the mechanical jukebox roar
    and the laughter: the drunks,
    within black solid shadows
    far from the glazed heat over the beach
    where mind and body surely would roast
    at ease now in the world of peaceful drink.

    Time changes its nature
    and unlike lying out on the beach
    the time here becomes full
    of night's approaching expectancy
    its noise and boisterous roar
    as we grasp
    the bar's comforting cool
    worldly promise
    and thoughtful hope.

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  30. jazzolog5/14/09, 4:25 AM

    Even with the perhaps-returned Bartender and the new US president, Quinty must regain radiant mental health with an annual trip to Europe. Besides, there now seems to be continuous progress in Spain with recognition of his father's great artwork. Business, pleasure, renewal of father-son things, perhaps his lady companion---who could ask for more? Thanks for the poem, and bon voyage buddy!

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  31. Bartender5/14/09, 10:48 AM

    There is that wind blowing from Spain, called the Balaguere. It comes from the Sahara and as it makes its way through Spain, it eventually reaches the Pyrenees where it blows across the mountains and the plains below. It's a South wind, sir, and they say it brings with it the perfume of adventure.

    They say it drives men wild...or mad.

    Or so Gastibelza used to say, sir.

    Victo Hugo who happened to be at The Wulfshead on one of these nights Gastibelza has had one drink too many was inspired to write a poem about it.

    Gastibelza, with gun the measure beating,
    Would often sing:
    "Has one o' ye with sweet Sabine been meeting,
    As, gay, ye bring
    Your songs and steps which, by the music,
    Are reconciled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "You stare as though you hardly knew my lady--
    Sabine's her name!
    Her dam inhabits yonder cavern shady,
    A witch of shame,
    Who shrieks o' nights upon the Haunted Tower,
    With horrors piled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "Sing on and leap--enjoying all the favors
    Good heaven sends;
    She, too, was young--her lips had peachy savors
    With honey blends;
    Give to that hag--not always old--a penny,
    Though crime-defiled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "The queen beside her looked a wench uncomely,
    When, near to-night,
    She proudly stalked a-past the maids so homely,
    In bodice tight
    And collar old as reign of wicked Julian,
    By fiend beguiled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "The king himself proclaimed her peerless beauty
    Before the court,
    And held it were to win a kiss his duty
    To give a fort,
    Or, more, to sign away all bright Dorado,
    Tho' gold-plate tiled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "Love her? at least, I know I am most lonely
    Without her nigh;
    I'm but a hound to follow her, and only
    At her feet die.
    I'd gayly spend of toilsome years a dozen--
    A felon styled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "One summer day when long--so long? I'd missed her,
    She came anew,
    To play i' the fount alone but for her sister,
    And bared to view
    The finest, rosiest, most tempting ankle,
    Like that of child--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "When I beheld her, I--a lowly shepherd--
    Grew in my mind
    Till I was Caesar--she that crowned leopard
    He crouched behind,
    No Roman stern, but in her silken leashes
    A captive mild--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "Yet dance and sing, tho' night be thickly falling;--
    In selfsame time
    Poor Sabine heard in ecstasy the calling,
    In winning rhyme,
    Of Saldane's earl so noble, ay, and wealthy,
    Name e'er reviled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "(Let me upon this bench be shortly resting,
    So weary, I!)
    That noble bore her smiling, unresisting,
    By yonder high
    And ragged road that snakes towards the summit
    Where crags are piled--
    Oh! this chill wind across the mountain rushing
    Will drive me wild!

    "I saw her pass beside my lofty station--
    A glance--'twas all!
    And yet I loathe my daily honest ration,
    The air's turned gall!
    My soul's in chase, my body chafes to wander--
    My dagger's filed--
    Oh! this chill wind may change, and o'er the mountain
    May drive me wild!"

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  32. Nausicaa5/14/09, 11:09 AM

    Oh, I do so hope that Quinty will send us some postcards from his trip to Europe.

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  33. Tom Bombadil5/14/09, 12:06 PM

    Or perhaps some photographs of San Sebastian?

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  34. Lockwood5/14/09, 12:31 PM

    @Tom Bombadil- but that would further encourage Athens City Schools to block the Wulfshead...

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