MICHAEL MOORE INVADING ~

MY NEW LETTER: "Sidelined by a visit to the ICU, I could use your help" - Please read & Share! http://michaelmoore.com/WhereToInvadeNextArmy/
Friends,

Thank you to all who have written to me about my stay this past week in the intensive care unit. Unfortunately, as you may have heard, I came down with pneumonia. Truth be told, it was pretty serious, and other complications arose. But then, five days later, I was still alive — thanks to a combination of Directors Guild insurance, two I-V drips of alleged legal drugs, and a hospital TV that only got FOX News. I was released on my own recognizance, which I tried to explain may not be the best idea. I am now at home resting and binging on the Real Housewives of The Walking Dead. All my appearances this week and last week supporting the release of my brand new movie, “Where To Invade Next” (Conan, Bill Maher, Charlie Rose, NPR, etc.), plus a special primary eve screening tonight in New Hampshire, were and are cancelled.

Needless to say, I’m pretty devastated. This film means a lot to me. To be sidelined – I can’t fly, I can’t travel, I can’t leave the house – in this, the most important week before it comes out… well, you can imagine what I’m going through. Trying to get back to just breathing is enough of a burden. To think that my film may now not reach the audience I made it for, let’s just say that doesn’t help the healing process.

Many of you have asked if there’s anything you can do to help me. I have thought about it – and, yes, actually, there is something you could do to help me.

I need you to be part of a quickly cobbled-together “army” of grassroots “ambassadors” who can do the work I was going to do this week to let people know abut the movie and convince as many as possible to go see it. I realize you haven’t seen “Where To Invade Next”, so I’m asking you to do this based upon my past work and your hope that I’ve made a compelling film that might affect change in this country, that will inspire people to think about things in a different way. I believe that’s exactly what I’ve done, and many who’ve seen it agree (LINK). I also believe this movie can have a huge impact on the elections this year. It’s won a bunch of film festival prizes, it’s made the Oscars shortlist, and some have called it my best film ever. Possibly, just possibly.

But forget all that. Here’s what I will tell you: You are going to be seriously f***ed up by this film. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done. It will truly make your head spin for two hours while you “laugh AND cry — in the same exact moment,” as an audience member said to the cameras on the way out of the movie’s premiere.

Last week, laying in the hospital, I watched one Presidential candidate attack the candidate from Vermont for his ideas being “unrealistic,” “pie in the sky,” and “ideas that sound good on paper, but aren’t going to happen.” The truth is, all these great “ideas” – free universal health care, free university, free day care, taxing and policing hedge fund millionaires – have already happened in nearly every other industrialized country in the world! And I have the evidence – and the film — to prove it! Throughout “Where To Invade Next”, I invade a whole bunch of nefarious countries, from Slovenia to Germany to France to Norway, and pry loose from them the tools they’ve been using to make their countries happy, shiny places. My goal: to show millions of Americans what these countries have been hiding from us so we can catch up and be #1 again! Remember “WE’RE #1!!”? Don’t you miss being #1 and waving those big foam #1 fingers at patriotic rallies? In my invasions, I don’t use any weapons, and no one gets droned. I show how to actually make all universities free (and great); how to give all workers five to eight weeks PAID vacation (which increases productivity and betters the economy); how simple and easy it is to give mothers (or fathers) up to a year of PAID maternity leave (which in turn benefits the company overall); how in the societies where woman have achieved true equality and power, everything just seems to get better for everyone; how to reduce the crime rate by ending the war on drugs and having a humane prison system (our recidivism rate is as high as 80%; theirs is 20%); how the economy bounces back faster and is safer when bankers are put in prison; how students in countries without standardized tests and needless homework perform better than our students (and that countries which have more arts and music in their schools do better in math and science)… and on and on and on. By the end of the movie, you’ll want to go live in one of those countries. But instead, I’ll show you how we can make all of that happen right here in the USA, right now.

So, what do you think? Can you be a virtual ambassador for “Where To Invade Next”? I know you can’t go on “Good Morning America” for me, but there are a few easy things you could do right now from your computer or mobile device.

Here’s how you can help “Where To Invade Next:”

First, go see it! Text some friends right now and say, “hey, let’s go see this Friday night!” Commit now to go to a theater that’s playing it this coming weekend. It’s opening in every major and mini-major city in the country. If you live in a place the size of Binghamton, NY, or Grand Rapids, MI, then they’re going to be playing “Where To Invade Next.” The final list of theaters will be out later tomorrow, but here’s a partial one for now http://wheretoinvadenext.com/.

Right now, you can TWEET the following: “.@MMFlint’s 1st film in 6 years is coming out and he needs our help with #WhereToInvadeNext! Read & RT! http://michaelmoore.com/WhereToInvadeNextArmy/

Right now, you can FACEBOOK the following: “Michael Moore’s 1st film in 6 years is coming out and he needs our help with #WhereToInvadeNext! Read & Share! http://michaelmoore.com/WhereToInvadeNextArmy/

At the bottom of this letter is the hi-res version of the film’s poster! Feel free to send it around, post it on your social media, download it and print up some flyers, or use it graphically any way that you want.

Send the trailer to everyone on your contact list: (https://youtube.com/watch?v=r4JJvfrkH3M)
Over the next few days I’ll send you other things you can do, like organizing screening parties for this weekend, sending me photos from your theater that I can post, and sharing with your friends exclusive clips from the film which I’ll send you.

If a few thousand of you suddenly became champions and ambassadors for “Where To Invade Next”, then maybe we can pull this off. I certainly would be forever in your debt. Thanks for being there for me.

All my best,
Michael

P.S. – Please forward this letter to everyone! Or share it on Facebook.

OTIS SPANN (1963) ~

AMIRI BARAKA ~

C H A M B E R     M U S I C



There might be someone you love, some one you
wanted to be with, and then, found your self
with, there were such things, such lives and
lovers. I am like that sometimes, I think, some
distant romantic wrapped in music. I wanted to know
myself, and found that was a lifetime's work, the
twists and zig zags, dips and turns, all could
disorient you, that you were no longer you but
somebody else masquerading as yourself's desire.
Rain could come. The sky grow light. It could even be
twilight, in a foreign town. Where you walked under
far noises of invisible worlds. But when you remember
all of your faces, blown now gone forever in the wind,
you'll see that you were always wanting to be you,
you were always wanting to know and love yourself, and you
found a few faces, a few names, that extended your life
into other lives, and as time marches, hours, days, decades
dance, you'll find your hand in someone else's hand, you'll
hear yourself thinking about some person other than you
and then look up and yes there will be some other person
some closeness and echoed tenderness, that makes us more than dots
under the far away, that make us more than split seconds of
light



___________



I' M    N O T    F O O L E D



This is still Slavery

Not fooled at all

This is still Slavery

Even with OBAMA, I'M NOT FOOLED 

THIS IS STILL SLAVERY, NOT FOOLED AT ALL

IF IT WASN'T SLAVERY OBAMA COULD FIGHT BACK

HE'S DONE THINGS, GOOD THINGS, BUT

I'M STILL NOT FOOLED, THIS IS STILL SLAVERY.

So what you gonna act like Miles, tellin me "So What?"

Out yr brains closed mouth, and on the open streets

Not only so what but bump me, chump me, chump us all, you say

Actin like Miles but you ain't Miles, you the dressed up slave master ghost

Just as you always was. I ain't fooled. It's still slavery still is still is. I ain't fooled.

Excuse me

The fone ringing.



________________



A L L    S O N G S    A R E    C R A Z Y



Some are beautiful.

Who could sing

All the songs we know?

How many of us that can, know

How many of those who sing know

What singing is.

So I who have sung and have heard song

Want to know the singers

And the song

I who have learned singing from the oldest singers

In the world and have sung some songs myself

Want to create that song that everybody knows

And that everybody will sing one day.

So what is left to do? That is how the song

Begins.



________________



O N    T H U R S D A Y    I    F O U N D    T H I S
I N    M Y    N O T E B O OK



When love is perfected, when love

           is understood.

        When love is the law

                   & the measure

           The ruler & ruled & body of

                   of what is body mind of

                   what is mind

            When love & the Soul

                    are uncovered

                then you will always

                     sound like

                           Duke Ellington.




A M I R I     B A R A K A

S  O  S
Poems 1961-2013
selected by Paul Vangelisti
Grove 2014 

SUSAN COMES UPON A WOODCHOPPER ~

once in vermont films



 

LOU REED MEETS DION ~

Full  D I O N

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! ~

H A P P Y     B I R T H D A Y     J A N I N E   ! ! !

 

 

KONSTANTIN PAVLOV ~

  K O N S T A N T I N     P A V L O V

P A S T O R A L




I won't be nasty anymore,

nor provocative.

I will choose my means and enemies with care.



Bye-bye Sofia.

I am going back to nature!



In Kurilo, I have a nice little house —

I will mend the old fence,

and live there quietly, invisible.

In the winter, I'll meditate.

In the summer, I'll raise . . .

What will I raise?

Only snakes dart in the weeds.

Well, I'll raise snakes

instead of carrier pigeons.

You can achieve anything with goodness.

They say that snakes become very attached

to their masters.

I'll send them

as a small favor

to my enemies.




_____________________

Konstantin Pavolov
Capriccio For Goya
Selected poems 1955-1995
Ivy Press 2003

THE THREAD ~

KIM DORMAN ~ New From Longhouse!

Owner

 by Kim Dorman

Including photographs by Kim Dorman

Selected &amp edited by Bob Arnold

New and available now from Longhouse 2016 ~

80 pages
 Perfect bound softcover

____________________________________

$40.00
Shipping $5.00 ~ U.S. orders with Paypal



"Kim Dorman’s enduring voice has been with my thinking about poetry for more than a decade. We met when he returned to Texas with his family from Kerala, a state on South India’s Malabar Coast where he had lived many years. Kim’s outpost sensibility and care for our relation in poetry to the world drew me close to him. Our conversations were expansive, attuned to a commitment of seeing in words how time moves in us and through the accidents of our various geographic locations. Those conversations are for me sustained also in his writing. For many years Kim’s newsletter, Gleanings, has arrived with his voice interspersed alongside many others in a generous notational rendering that yokes together unforeseen sources. A generous spirit of listening and persisting into the resistant edges of poetry accompanies Kim’s curiosities. The geographic locations of his living, the sonic gifts of an ear marked by Texas, Mexico, California, and beyond, and the subtle tunings to personal narratives of the everyday inform a rich poetics of his particular stance toward reality. The art I know of him directs attention enlivened by a marvelous acknowledgment of the familiar, and surprising pathways open also through material objects and observations to the heart. I’m delighted to know Kim Dorman’s poetry now comes gleaned and shining forth in a single volume. Bob Arnold has shaped the very best from the many leaves of paper Kim has passed through the inner wilderness of his particular American imaginary. As always, I am grateful for the gift of Kim’s words, and salute the voices they carry."

D A L E     S M I T H

(from Kim Dorman's Owner)

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Link to Other Longhouse titles

MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ ~

M I C H E L     H O U E L L E B E C Q

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6040/the-art-of-fiction-no-206-michel-houellebecq

VOTE FOR BERNIE SANDERS! (SAYS MICHAEL MOORE) ~

B E R N I E     S A N D E R S

 

Tonight I officially endorse Bernie Sanders for President. Share my endorsement letter here: http://michaelmoore.com/myendorsementofbernie

My Dear Friends,

When I was a child, they said there was no way this majority-Protestant country of ours would ever elect a Catholic as president. And then John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president.

The next decade, they said America would not elect a president from the Deep South. The last person to do that on his own (not as a v-p) was Zachary Taylor in 1849. And then we elected President Jimmy Carter.

In 1980, they said voters would never elect a president who had been divorced and remarried. Way too religious of a country for that, they said. Welcome, President Ronald Reagan, 1981-89.

They said you could not get elected president if you had not served in the military. No one could remember when someone who hadn’t served had been elected Commander-in-Chief. Or who had confessed to trying (but not inhaling!) Illegal drugs. President Bill Clinton, 1993-2001.

And then finally “they” saId that there’s NO WAY the Democrats were going to win if they nominated a BLACK man for president — a black man who’s middle name was Hussein! America was still too racist for that. “Don’t do it!”, people quietly warned each other.

BOOM!

Do you ever wonder why the pundits, the political class, are always so sure that Americans “just aren’t ready” for something — and then they’re always just so wrong? They says these things because they want to protect the status quo. They don’t want the boat rocked. They try to scare the average person into voting against their better judgment.

And now, this year “they” are claiming that there’s no way a “democratic socialist” can get elected President of the United States. That is the main talking point coming now from the Hillary Clinton campaign office.

But all the polls show Bernie Sanders actually BEATING Donald Trump by twice as many votes than if Hillary Clinton was the candidate.

Although the polls nationally show Hillary beating Bernie among DEMOCRATS, when the pollster includes all INDEPENDENTS, then Sanders beats Trump two to one over what Clinton would do.

The way the Clinton campaign has been red-baiting Sanders is unfortunate — and tone deaf. According to NBC, 43% of Iowa Dems identify themselves more closely with socialism (sharing, helping) than with capitalism (greed, inequality). Most polls now show young adults (18-35) across America prefer socialism (fairness) to capitalism (selfishness).

So, what is democratic socialism? It’s having a true democracy where everyone has a seat at the table, where everyone has a voice, not just the rich.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary recently announced the most looked-up word in their online dictionary in 2015 was “socialism.” If you’re under 49 (the largest voting block), the days of the Cold War & Commie Pinkos & the Red Scare look as stupid as  “Reefer Madness.”

If Hillary’s biggest selling point as to why you should vote for her is, “Bernie’s a socialist!” or “A socialist can’t win!”, then she’s lost.

The New York Times, which admitted it made up stories of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq & pushed us to invade that country, has now endorsed Hillary Clinton, the candidate who voted for the Iraq War. I thought the Times had apologized and reformed itself. What Is going on here?

Well, the Times likes its candidates to be realistic and pragmatic. And to them, that means Hillary Clinton. She doesn’t want to break up the banks, doesn’t want to bring back Glass-Steagall, doesn’t want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr., doesn’t want Denmark’s free health care system. Just not realistic, I guess.

Of course, there was a time when the media said it wasn’t “realistic” to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. They said it would never pass because only all-male legislators would be voting on it in the Congress and the State Legislatures. And that, obviously, meant it would never pass. They were wrong.

They once said that it wasn’t “realistic” to pass a Civil Rights Act AND a Voting Rights Act back to back. America just wasn’t “ready for it.” Both passed, in 1964 & 1965.

Ten years ago we were told gay marriage would never be the law of the land. Good thing we didn’t listen to those who told us to be “pragmatic.”

Hillary says Bernie’s plans just aren’t “realistic” or “pragmatic.” This week she said “single payer health care will NEVER, EVER, happen.” Never? Ever? Wow. Why not just give up?

Hillary also says it’s not practical to offer free college for everyone. You can’t get more practical than the Germans – and they’re able to do it. As do many other countries.

Clinton does find ways to pay for war and tax breaks for the rich. Hillary Clinton was FOR the war in Iraq, AGAINST gay marriage, FOR the Patriot Act, FOR NAFTA, and wants to put Ed Snowden in prison. THAT’S a lot to wrap one’s head around, especially when you have Bernie Sanders as an alternative. He will be the opposite of all that.

There are many good things about Hillary. But it’s clear she’s to the right of Obama and will move us backwards, not forward. This would be sad. Very sad.

81% of the electorate is either female, people of color or young (18-35). And the Republicans have lost the VAST majority of 81% of the country. Whoever the Democrat is on the ballot come November will win. No one should vote out of fear. You should vote for whom you think best represents what you believe in. They want to scare you into thinking we’ll lose with Sanders. The facts, the polls, scream just the opposite: We have a BETTER chance with Bernie!

Trump is loud and scary — and liberals scare easy. But liberals also like facts. Here’s one: less than 19% of the USA is white guys over 35. So calm down!

Finally, Check out this chart — it says it all: (Note: Hillary has now changed her position and is against TPP)



I first endorsed Bernie Sanders for public office in 1990 when he, as mayor of Burlington, VT, asked me to come up there and hold a rally for him in his run to become Vermont’s congressman. I guess not many were willing to go stump for an avowed democratic socialist at the time. Probably someone is his hippie-filled campaign office said, “I’ll bet Michael Moore will do it!” They were right. I trucked up into the middle of nowhere and did my best to explain why we needed Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Congress. He won, I’ve been a supporter of his ever since, and he’s never given me reason to not continue that support. I honestly thought I’d never see the day come where I would write to you and get to say these words: “Please vote for Senator Bernie Sanders to be our next President of the United States of America.”

I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think we really, truly needed him. And we do. More than we probably know.

Sincerely Yours,
Michael Moore

We have always endorsed Bernie —

any job he wants

and if the country

doesn't want him for President

come home Bernie 

and be our Governor for life

RUTH STONE ~

R U T H     S T O N E

Dream of Light in the Shade



Now that I am married I spend

My hours thinking about my husband.

I wind myself about his shelter.

I watch his sleep, dreaming of how to  defend

His inert form. At night

Leaning on my elbow I pretend

I am merely a lecherous friend.



And being the first to wake

Often wholly naked descend

To the dim first floor where the chairs

Hold the night before, and all says attend!

The light so coldly spells in innocence.

Attend! The cup is filled with light.

And on my skin the sun flashes

And fades as the shade trees bend.


____________________________

R U T H     S T O N E

What Love Comes To
(Copper Canyon Press) 

 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ruth-stone

ONCE DASHING PEDIGREE ~

https://newrepublic.com/article/122631/mystery-patrick-modiano

C.D. WRIGHT TALKS W/ KENT JOHNSON ~

C. D.  W R I G H T

http://poeticsresearch.com/article/c-d-wright-talks-to-kent-johnson-2001/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/arts/c-d-wright-poet-of-ozarks-and-beyond-dies-at-67.html

TWO MANY GOODBYES ~

Photo: Clem Albers, The Chronicle  

 P A U L    K A N T N E R

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/arts/music/paul-kantner-of-jefferson-airplane-dies-at-74.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

 J A C Q U E S     R I V E T T E

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/movies/jacques-rivette-french-director-dies.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat ~

WOODCHOPPER ~

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/16/norwegian-wood-lars-mytting-man-made-things-trees-robert-penn-review

If you've cut trees for half a century as I have

made your income from the same

are still at it just the same

it doesn't matter

you will enjoy this read.

There are certain things you've missed

as I found, plus there is all that Norway.

If you have never cut down a tree in your life

wish to

this book may save your life. 

[ BA ]

ONE MORE TIME ~

TIM ROSE ~

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tim-rose-mn0000499714/biography

WATERCOLOR ~

Dear Longhouse Poetry,

I just like to share a little watercolor illustration I made with (if I’m not mistaken) a poem by Bob Arnold (see the attachment).
I’ve put the drawing on my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/miekesmakes/) and hope I’ve referred to you correctly… :-)

Best wishes,

Annemieke Spruijt (from the Netherlands)

some days arrive just like this. . .

thank you, Annemieke

MAXWELL STREET LIFE & BLUES (CHICAGO 1964) ~

Right off the streets
into your home

CHESTER HIMES ~

Way back in the 50s, re-released by 1966

Chester Himes was years ahead on the

story line of the white policeman

killing African American men

at their life and labor.



http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/30/us/police-videos-race.html

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/HIMES/himes-coffingravedigger.html

C H E S T E R    H I M E S 

(1945) 

BOOGIE WOOGIE COUNTRY GIRL ~

WYNN STEWART ~

HANDSOME FAMILY ~

Drawing out of Chicago in the 90s

and now keeping house and home in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Brett and Rennie Handsome

are the Handsome Family

ZEN KOANS ~

LARRY LEVIS ~

GOSSIP IN THE VILLAGE



I told no one, but the snows came, anyway.

They weren't even serious about it, at first.

Then, they seemed to say, if nothing happened.

Snow could say that, & almost perfectly.



The village slept in the gunmetal of its evening.

And there, through a thin dress once, I touched

A body so alive & eager I thought it must be

Someone else's soul. And though I was mistaken.



And though we parted, & the roads kept thawing between snows

In the first spring sun, & it was all, like spring,

Irrevocable, irony has made me thinner. Someday, weeks



From now, I will wake alone. My fate, I will think,

Will be to have no fate. I will feel suddenly hungry.



The morning will be bright, & wrong.



_______________________________

L A R R Y     L E V I S
The Darkening Trapeze
(Graywolf, 2016)

Last poems, edited with an afterword by David St. John

 he's back