Posted by TheBenBrooks June 30th, 2010
LOS ANGELES, CA. In one of the most innovative and effective cost cutting measures ever seen, the Los Angeles School Board has decided to eliminate learning from all district classrooms.
“This truly is a magic bullet,” said LAUSD superintendant Ramon Cortines. “With this decision we’re able to cut literally millions of dollars in teacher salaries by removing the need for teachers.”
Additional savings will also be realized as the need for books, supplies and even new classrooms vanishes.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who is struggling to balance the city’s budget, beamed at the news. “Learning has long been a divisive factor in our school systems, creating a glaring line between those who ‘know things’ and those who ‘don’t know things’. I’m very excited by this move.”
Students were positive about the changes, saying it would relieve huge pressure to achieve and succeed on tests, projects and of course the dreaded standardized testing.
Education guru Sir Ken Robinson who now resides in Los Angeles was a critic of the measure. “How will America compete on a global stage if we’re not teaching the students anything?” Superintendant Cortines responded, saying, “A, we simply can’t afford the luxry of ‘learning’ anymore, and B, we WILL be competitive on the world stage, but now just in kick ball.”
Posted by TheBenBrooks June 17th, 2010
Advertising isn’t bad.
“Apples for sale! $2″
That’s advertising.
Marketing is the problem.
“Haven’t been laid in a while? Maybe it’s because you’re not eating enough apples?”
Capitalism is supposed to be supply and demand. Things get fucked when marketing enters the picture and we get artificial ‘needs’. We saw this on a grand scale with the US auto industry. Unlike Japan, where Honda made the number of cars they knew they could sell, GM and the others made as many cars as they could then worried after the fact how to con, cajole and coerce people into buying them. Didn’t really last did it.
I’m looking at a box right now. It’s a box for a pair of shoes I bought from Zappos. The box says, “100% Hybrid”. Huh. So, in essence it means the shoes are 100% made from 2 or more things. It doesn’t even make any sense, like a great deal of marketing, simply little word turds, thrown out there like so many shiny objects.
“Free with price of admission!”
OK, I’ll buy it, IF you Mr. Marketer admit you’re an idiot.
Posted by TheBenBrooks April 4th, 2010
I’m sitting down to play piano. No, you said you were going to go through your phone’s voice recordings? Right. OK. 15 minutes of music only. I’ll set a timer. Don’t have a time. Need to get a timer. Get on the net, find a timer. Whoa, I was trying to get to tucows.com and entered twocows.com and those two ARE cows but we are not on a dairy farm. And now I’m writing about not writing. But I’m going to post it, so now I’m blogging. And having some sort of Matrix like self realization that the circle has come full.
OK, returning to task 1. Listen to voice recordings.
Just ONE song.
Bigger Than
“Every day you think you’ve got it made
Had it made
Just for you and only…
Every time you think you’ve saved your face
Out of grace
And now the joke is on you.
Twice alone has seemed to leave you dry
I still try
When it all crumbles to the ground
Even then I want to pick it up
Pack it up
Then I’ll be on my marry way
And I say…
That I can be bigger than
I can be bigger than before.
History to me is, coming soon
Clouds of doom
Will soon be heading for your door
Seems to me we’ve got to
Find the tune
Change it soon
At least it’s something to try for.
Cuz I can be bigger than
I can be stronger than
I can be rich again
I won’t be this dumb next time
I can be free again
I can be me again
Either she’ll love me or won’t
She’ll miss me or she won’t
I’m not afraid to say
I don’t think it’s working anymore
Tonight, I know that
You know something’s wrong
And it feels a lot like death.”
Posted by TheBenBrooks April 3rd, 2010
we keep forgetting to make ice
(it’s been years now)
the cricket behind the fridge
was actually ten crickets
The white plaster spot,
that I fixed
where I punched the door
still isn’t painted
and now seems an integral
part of the kitchen
And the hum of the computer fan
can’t even drown out its own futility
and she sleeps
unaware of all its all-ness
and all its nothingness
sleeps
and perhaps
dreams
Posted by TheBenBrooks April 2nd, 2010
Who’d have believed it
We’d be staring at this day?
Who’d have believe it
Our love did fade away.
Now we must leave it
And go our separate ways.
Who’d have believed it
It would ever get this low?
Who’d have believed it
It’s happening so slow
Now we must see that
There’s no way we could know
Cuz I don’t know
How to get back what we had
And I don’t know
When it went from good to bad
And I don’t know
If it even makes me sad,
Anymore
Who’d have believed it
We could let it get this far?
Who’d have believed it
We lost our lucky star
Now we must see that
We’ll always have the scar.
Cuz I don’t know
How to get back what we had
And I don’t know
When it went from good to bad
And I don’t know
If it even makes me sad,
Anymore
I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know
