For Kurt

Yesterday I was reading an old article by Kurt Vonnegut in the Atlantic Monthly. Funny thing he wrote about being in war. Seeing that Vonnegut is someone who really affected me, I think about his words DAILY, I decided I would share the article on my blog. I wanted young people to read him and hear of him and be moved by him like I was. But it was 7 PM and I was running late on my way to a concert to go see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah So I said “Baah, I’ll post the article in the morning.” Well morning is here…and uhm he’s dead. Kurt Vonnegut died last night. So yeah…

Heres that funny article titled Der Arme Dolmetscher.

And below are some thoughts I scribbled this morning.

FOR KURT

And so it goes
and so it goes
sanjaya sanjaya
nappy headed ho

terrorsist health care
Stem cells galore
nuclear enrichment
global warming al gore

saabs are junk
but dresden was art
fox news loves the troops and you but
jesus loves you more

And so it goes
and so it goes
sanjaya sanjaya
nappy headed ho

My Space ipods
Iran’s got the bomb
Xbox 360’s
no more polar ice caps

Lady Di is dead
Lindsay Lohan is not
Kramer’s a racist
Bono is not
The queen is old and alive
The president stubborn is still young and dumb
But He’s no clinton so full of ___

And so it goes
and so it goes
sanjaya sanjaya
nappy headed ho

Billy Pilgrim if you were here
You would tell me that my notebook is a kind of device
that humans use to keep information and communicate
with each other. It is a portable computer. A computer is
a human invention which was originally built after the atomic bomb
to add numbers that humans didn’t want to add
because the results weren’t really important enough.
So they pawned off the busy work to a machine.
A machine is a human invention that enables them to accomplish tasks a little easier.
A task is a human construct of the idea of an action that is necessary.
Necessary means you got to do it or ….Damn..

Kurt I fear for life without your mind.
I fear for us all.
You taught a class near my house toward the end of your life.
I knew someone that thanked you for all your books.
He said you were a jerk to him and you told him to piss off.
It was the right thing to do Kurt.
But thank you for the gift of objectivity. Thank you for your insanity.
Thank you for going nuts. Thank you for helping me see my world as the insane
pile of meaningless random things that it is. Thank you for helping me discover the absurdity of a human killing another human.
Thank you for going “batshit” crazy. Now when my life gets batshit crazy I know I’m not alone.
Thank you for the courage to stand up to all of the world and say. You are all batshit crazy! Everything you know is only what you know! Your information is random! Your pop stars are nothing. Your inventions are nothing! Your words are nothing! Your civilization is NOT civilized!

Dammit Kurt you are gone.
I can’t write anymore.
Next time I try to conjure up your ghost.
Visit me in a dream
and kindly tell me to “piss off!”

And so it goes
and so it goes
sanjaya sanjaya
nappy headed ho

Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007
“He is Heaven Now” LOL