Donald A's Blog

I've noticed a common style to a lot of avi art recently.
The anime style has in a sense been modified on gaiaonline.com
by the artists that populate their forums.
Many times the bangs of the hair droop over the face,
and they make the eye itself, yes anime style eyes,
but they make the eye layered on top of the hair
for a casual, free feeling.
There also has been an embracing of this freedom
of being out-of-the-box, not staying in the lines of coloring.
And sometimes a background scribble that looks like watercolor
or highlighter can really add to the mood, without filling the whole page.

Simplicity and cuteness is making a comeback.

I was just looking at the cover I chose for the
Poet's Espresso September issue of the newsletter
(which was initially going to be the August/September issue,
but delays made it just September issue,
don't worry I'll resume the bimonthly schedule for the zine).

I hadn't really though too deeply beyond the
"wow that's cool" factor until this day or so.
The cover has a dragon drinking coffee in one of those
"play house" scenes with a girl and toys seated in little chairs
around a tiny table and teapot.
The conflict that was invisible seemed to suddenly jump out at me!
The dragon was a creature that would likely be carnivore,
and to see it with this sense of innocence was full of uncertainty.

I then thought (like I and many poets do, to compare things
with other things so that they may shed new light on them)
of how this sense of innocence with uncertainty was how I looked
at Obama. I was certain that McCain would continue this
war of conquest-under-fear-of-the-world, war of terror that
has been going on pretty much since 9/11, and I had at one time
thought that either Hilary or Obama was my hope.
I had even contributed $10 to Hilary thinking she was the best
chance to end this war in Iraq and withdraw, then when I
thought that Obama actually had more peaceful intent I
contributed $10 to Obama. But from some of the spiels that
I have heard in the many months since, I feel that none of the
major candidates is out for our best interests and for safety,
they want risk and danger and the power that comes with
positions of power, with the wealth that this war brings from
both abroad and as an excuse to use taxpayers money.
With that said I'd certainly change my mind if any evidence to
the contrary were to come up (independent of the one-sided
mass media propaganda machine that's financed by the big
business and government). It just reinforces my feelings that,
as much as I'm afraid that McCain is going to be worse than Bush,
just the same I'm afraid that Obama would be too,
as the media seems to be promoting preparation for another
conquest, this time with Iran.
From the Republican convention, being of a certain mindset
brings shivers with the similarity that the speeches sound like,
to the old recordings of Nazi Germany around World War II.
I am a firm believer that World War III started with 9/11,
but it has yet to become enough countries involved...
though that might be inevitable.

I have chosen that I will not vote for either major party candidate,
because of their views on the issues,
and despite the media blockout of any other candidates in their
monopoly on who they want to get elected,
I'm still going to vote for either a Green Party or Independent Party candidate this year.
It's our last hope of taking back America.
Slowly.

"If there be one principle more deeply written than any other in the mind of every American," said Thomas Jefferson in 1791, "it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."

Peace

Thanks

Donald R. Anderson

Poet's Espresso September Issue:

http://rainflowers.org/AugSept2008PEFINAL.pdf

Speakers Squeaked from Hell

The concert rocked,
the guitarist rolled,
the band jived
but the speakers squeaked from Hell.

The fans waved
and lit their lighters
and screamed like elves
but the speakers squeaked from Hell.

The critics raved,
the newspapers crooned,
the blogs outpoured their praises
...
but the speakers were squeaking from Hell.

- Donald R. Anderson