Department of New Jokes

What grew from his eye when he was sleeping?

A tree.

Department of New Jokes

Who picked him up for the party?

A ghost.

In a night marking the official completion of Manifest Destiny, Great White and Slaughter are set to rock a shared bill at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino.

When you said baby it awoke me. Thank you so. I was scared, I was afraid, I was worried sick, I was ashamed, and of what I was unable to say. Out over the skyline of a  city I could not have imagined, before a sunrise the same, we were holding on, we were dreaming ourselves this new day.


I remembered
He was falling and I was able to catch him
I was able to catch hold of him so




.

ring )  )   )    )

The story of us:

Fish Mimics Mimic Octopus That Mimics Fish

"We've never seen anything like that before," scientist says.

 source

"You rang?" -- the void

Right now I am the fantasy--
Of the young boy. . .
Of the young mother and father. . .
Of the dawn.

I keep waiting for all this technology to provide me a new way of communicating with people.

I am in the marrow. I am not the surface.

In the photograph
You were a mess
And I was a mess

And I wish you were alive

you
pre- and post-everything
lollipop gunship

The distance events are near the end of the meet.
Long after the rest have gone,
I stay to watch you run.

The sound of you in you being,
close sphere of purpose:
every breath
a prayer in and out of you,
every stride
a promise lifting you.
"It is simple," you say,
"It is not a race."

Movement as medicine,
intimate interaction with environment.

"Remember:
lighten up."


That I might close my eyes and know everything. . .


Dusk,
you go airborne

I see you
outside time

Check out the great photographs that Next To Me Studios, based in San Diego, produced at the wedding of Lauren and Kesley Brookes in September of this year, for which I wrote a long new poem and conducted the ceremony. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful moment in this life, and I still ring inside at the very thought of it all.

One may contact or find out more about San Diego's Next To Me Studios here on their Facebook page.

 photography by Next to Me Studios

The organism atrophied and became a conduit for self-loathing wit.

When I write my "Baby Got Back". . .

Outside--
the grass, the earth
smelled as it always did
but more so

and the sun too held no secrets

For all the things that did happen,
many more might have.

That one time. . .
in this one place. . .

I cannot remember his name. . .

Here we thought that we might trick the rain.

Clever, gluttonous,
Smug, pleased;
Our special conquest, our timely triumph--
Who won?

This need at the heart of you,
This disconnection--
Black Friday exacts its yearly toll and these fuckers have you exactly where they want you.

No one really told us what we were doing,
But it took listening nonetheless
To fall in love with song.

drumskin

dreams of flying fish
tones
transformation

a series of calls

out here under stars
graced by fire
in love with one another

We had to realize that only a very small part of it was known to us. And we kept moving.

He started going around in a mask but he was not super and he was not evil. He was gray and he was scared. The city was not, nor would it ever be, watching out for itself, but neither could he it. There are no names for the bigger things. The sound of things changing into other things as heard in the well of the body. "Watery you," he liked to say to himself.

As night turned again into morning he took his place upon the skyline. Magic is survival. Survival magic. And unlike everything else in the world magic is quiet.

Not knowing anything.
That old familiar friend
Has come round again.
Not knowing anything.

It was autumn and we held counsel.

Campaign To Re-brand America

"New State Slogans"

Freckle and Sons Media Consultants

Colorado
"Too many white people."

Oklahoma
"It will cost you to drive through here."
"Chicken legs, chicken everything." 
"Toby Keith--he's alright."

Texas
"Homo-say-what???"
"Outsized, unwieldy." 
"The ol' President hole." 
"Evolution stops here."

Arizona
"Move, we dare you."
"Like a hot knife in the sun."
"Land of the mean, dirty sweat."

Florida
"Slip into a pair of big shorts."
"Take your shirt off."
"Get burnt."
"Birthplace of metal."
"Unnatural Anomaly" 

Alabama
"Fuck off; I'm tryin to find this thing..."
"Having another soda-pop!"

Mississippi
"You act as though we give a care."
"Readership Down"

Louisiana
"We bury you above ground."

Utah
"Everything's Normal Over Here"

Nevada
"Anything goes."
"Oh my god. . ."

Arkansas
"It's a state."
"That one guy." 

New England
"You moved away from here."

Tennessee
"A good place to pick up some shit." 
"Knock three times on the door, walk down to the corner."

Montana
"Another thing you can do."

Kansas
"If we could we would throw another right angle in there."
"Your uncle might be in our penitentiary." 

Massachusetts
"Self-involved."

Alaska
"You could hide here."
"Bottom's Up." 

North Carolina
"Still voting for Jesse Helms."
"Still smoking cigarettes."
"Don't."

Wyoming
"Doubling always for Siberia in Rocky V."

South Dakota
"Remembering the buffalo in our own special way."

New York
"Madness is an itch you can never reach."

Oregon
"Less inviting than you would hope."

Missouri
"We used to be the west."
"Make something in a cave."
"Flat on top, hilly down below."
"Show-me-but-I-ain't-lookin State" 

Georgia
"Oh Duane. . ." 


Ohio
"10% Less Butterfact"

California
"We kinda tried."
"It does not make any sense to us either."
"Making another 3 Musketeers."
"Television!"

Television
"A mirror this big should be scaring the fuck out of you."
"Sleeping with the lights on."

District of Columbia
"Trying to cement 'history'."
"Baldly Going Where Every Man Has Gone Before"

New Mexico
"Sencilla."
"Stop and think for a minute."

Always light,
Always humor,
Always weirdness




.

Fearlessness
Then fear
I dreamed
I would meet you here




.

From their easy chair
They laughed, scoffed, shook their heads,
No conception of what we had learned
Or how far we would go

There is no one you




.

First October

Like that between worlds
Veil between us drops





.

Like a long vowel / you make your own name

Bootleg video of me performing my song 'Ambulant's Dream' at a very recent show. I apologize for the sound quality. 'Tis but a glimpse of the songwork I am presently doing.

I posted a few other of my songs from that night on my youtube page here:

Justin Stone's 1 Easy Pieces

Now,
j

the dancer and the poet,
the prayer~






.

A friendly reminder:

MOTEL, GLIMPSE -- a film by Zach Passero and Justin Stone --remains available via Tembloroso Creative Lab. This Special Edition DVD contains the final mix & edit of the movie, a score by Jim Ward (At The Drive-In, Sparta, Sleepercar), original package artwork by Zeque Peña, the first episode of Justin Stone's silently lauded Rookie Night radio theatre, and a 30-minute outtake reel that deserves some late night attention. Sawbones diagnosed us with the summer complaint. Saw dust in a sandpaper suit.

Click here to go to the Tembloroso MOTEL, GLIMPSE page.

Or too, you may click here in order to watch MOTEL, GLIMPSE instantly via Amazon's Video on Demand service.

And if you care, help spread the word. These are do-it-yourself, grassroots efforts. All the way. Where things happen is out in the hinterlands.

More soon. New screenplays are done. 

I offer you a little glimpse of me rehearsing among friends for my performance of this Friday evening, 30 September 2011, following a night of heady theatre by The Border Theatre as part of their ongoing series Exhibitions In Dis/Connection 2011. I attended Exhibitions this past weekend and it was really cool! Come to the Glasbox (1500 Texas Ave, El Paso) this Friday night. I will admit that I am prepping a songpoem cycle loosely called 'The Night Old Dixie Drove Off The Road,' or, 'You Look Like You're Losing Weight,' having accidentally deleted the songpoem cycle 'Read These Tits And Weep.' It's confusing, but we're gonna be there hashing things out, making amends, etc. Anything you can bring to prop this long body up, please do so; I'm suddenly very light-headed.

Dear Black Hole,

I am playing a set of mostly new songs tomorrow night, Friday, September 30, following a night of theatrical exhibitions being presented by the Border Theatre. I'm told I will play around 9:00 pm. Come see the plays starting at 7:00 pm. At the Glasbox. Beautiful El Paso, Texas.

I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert. I hope you're keeping some kind of record.

Sincerely,
j. stone

Song for Lauren and Kelsey

In what was the most exhilarating and purposeful day of my life thus far, I conducted the wedding ceremony for my dear friends and beloveds Lauren Passero and Kelsey Brookes in San Diego, California in a park between a setting sun and a rising nearly full moon on Saturday, September 10, 2011. An electric evening and weekend, full and alive. Thank you so much, friends. I love you.

I will be playing some of my songs on the evening of Friday, September 30, 2011, as part of El Paso's The Border Theatre's Exhibitions in Dis/Connection 2011. The Exhibitions run the last two weekends of September and promise to contain some compelling, vibrant theatre.

Myself, I will be performing songs on the second Friday, September 30, following the night's theatre. It will be wild, weird. Fun. Funny. Good. Come out and support! Tickets are very reasonably priced.

To get more information and/or purchase advance tickets you may click here! Thank you!

Things are building. Growing. Gathering strength and purpose.

What did the person say to the void?


Cleopatra's bath rituals

I had the best arm in the city

Que lindo es sonar despierto

Blue and green and gold and brown

Last night there was a shooting at Liquor Dick's -- but we had got away

We watched lightning approach, the sky bluedark and electric, and us too

"You are the best lightning-watching partner," you said. 

Was thinking about lightning
And you

What I would give....

I have been to this trailer before...

Boots of Spanish omelette

Tonight
Jacob's Creek

Did you mean the left heart or the right hand?

I awoke early to see you off





.

the key to every home you have lived

a town like the one your parents lived

a day like the one you were born


today you laid down in the sun and there was no bottom

Night By River by Slow Western Ghost

A new soundscape called "Night By River" by Burnpile -- featuring Hannah Ebel on flute and vocals, Zach Passero on organ and Justin Stone on guitar.

You may listen to some more Burnpile in progress at my Soundcloud page and Zach's Soundcloud page.

to go and get gone

turn me on

Another era's delight -- here is the music video for the song "Caught In The Rain" by Preston School of Industry (aka Spiral Stairs) that Zach Passero, Chris Heinrich and I made a few years ago in the township of El Paso, Texas. This is a higher quality version of the video than has been on the Interbytes. The song is a great song and this video makes me happy.

Go rapture all the time.



I have gone again to sea

What did the fish say to the fish?

“I’m all wet.”

“Sometimes I feel like a clown-triggerfish.”

“My days of flitting around in a school are long gone.”

“Spawn?”

“What I wouldn’t do for a shiny lure with a hook in it about now.”

“I can’t hear you.”

“I’m pretty sure this ocean is a thinly-veiled humanist agenda.”

“When I go, I hope it’s gills out, fins back.”

“I suspect you are one of these attention whores.”

“If I had to do it all over again I might not have gone upstream.”

“You’ve got a minnow complex.”

“Sometimes I feel like a monkeyface prickleback.”

“I often wish I were a bird.”

“It’s been a long time since I went upstream.”

“Do you ever wish you could just close your eyes?”

“I tell you, I hate bluegills.”

“This large-mouthed bass was going on and on about all the swimming he’s been doing.”

“It’s like, ‘Fucking aholehole: I’m swimming too.’”

“Sometimes I feel like a bigeye squaretail.”

“It’s like we just drift every day awake, swimming and swimming.”

“What’s up your cloaca?”

“The question is: how can we get paid to swim?”

“Last thing I want to do is get caught up in a school of silversides.”

“I heard this shoal of herring going on and on about ‘their watery-ruler Oceanus blah blah blah,’ and I didn’t say anything, you know—judge not unto others blah blah blah—but the more I thought about it the angrier I got. I mean, this lake was founded under a belief in Poseidon blah blah blah, right?”

“Sometimes I feel like a combtooth blenny.”

“I love it when the light cuts through the water like that.”

“There you go chasing every shiny thing in the water.”

“My old man got a rubber worm. I don't wanna get a rubber worm.”

“Don’t even think about drying out.”

“We should know by now that worms do not just drop into the water.”

“Sea you.”

“I could have been a better swimmer.”

“I’m afraid I would taste good baked.”

“Lookit the dorsal fin on that sunfish.”

“Sometimes I feel like a velvet catfish.”

“It is a young fish always going on and on about his feelings.”

“Fuck it. I’m going downstream.”

“I would like to go upstream one more time.”

“May your gills stay wet.”

“He had a thousand little dream of me.”

studying the hidden narratives in the Smokey & the Bandit trilogy
what if there IS an un-released version of part 3?
one in which Gleason is both a Smokey AND a Bandit?
the outcome of our lives is being decided in a southland high-rise
most of us do not have an estate willing or able to buy back the print
most stories are sitting around untold
while a pack brays the same story over and over again...
in Smokey & the Bandit we come to see the caricature of a caricature by a higher-consciousness caricature –
the Dalai Lummox
a floppy-eared dog named Fred holds the entire thing together...
it is unclear why for the Bandit this Job is so hard, or so important,
especially unclear what it is about the job that makes him a Legend...

moose twit, tick turd, lollipop, summbitch

“a long way to go, and short time to get there – watch ol’ Bandit run...”
red button down shirt, vagina pants, cowboy hat and Trans Am—
toss in a mustache and you have a LEGEND





i offer my bald services for your reboot

he had in his hand what he knew to be a ‘calculator,’ but none of the symbols on the too-tiny buttons were intelligible. “now i’m in a fix.” the sums had to be figured, and soon, but he had no way of figuring. right then he gnashed the back of his tongue, fell down a flight of stairs. “if only i had a piano,” he thought. “or a giant clock face.”

her face had been born again, but not the rest of her. suddenly she felt so orphaned.

as far as he could tell Nobody Else Had It

Life has a way of working itself out.

every curve you missed/was a deer/trying to get home

"He said something funny and he fell over."

"You had to lose your illusions while at the same time holding on to some sense of possibilities. But more so your illusions of adult life, and a life without limitation, which I think everyone dreams of and imagines at a certain point. The song that needs to be sung is the song about how do you deal with these things and move along to a creative life, a spiritual life, a satisfying life, and a life where you can make your way through the day and sleep at night -- that's what most of those songs are about."

Bruce Springsteen on Darkness at the Edge of Town

Carry Ann (Burnpile demo) by justin stone

New demo by Burnpile...

my band Burnpile and i working out a new song i'm feeling pretty good about:

it took a while,
what you were doing,
as it was unrecognizable,
even (especially) to you,
but then it was there to stay,
to keep

you blew and blew to get the fire going,
tears warm on your gladdening face

in the distance sounds of celebration--
somebodies when

sit the fire tonight
work tomorrow's light


inscription, relief
the return
the gone here
out of time and place
the dream was
sorrow-joy

go go go
where you always were

My wonderful, longtime friend Kat has a great blog! Check, check it by clicking below:

Perpetual Andragogy: Adventures of an Adult Learner

The most recent post is a great ode to the great book The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I urge you to check it out!

More, Kat has another cool blog:

That Dam Kat

(In explanation of the cool name.... Kat and I are both from Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, and particularly the classic Bagnell Dam area. Couple old dam cats to be shure. Dig it. A good solid part of my soul and heart yet lives there.)

love,
j

and then
the song came

the song came

the song came


you so ready

"I was slinging it up there and hoping something good happens instead of telling myself to have a focus and a purpose for each pitch," Westbrook said. "I really concentrated on doing that tonight and felt I was more locked in on what I was doing."

Coming In (by Burnpile) by justin stone

New song by our band Burnpile -- 'Coming In' -- featuring good friends Keith Kofoed on charango and Caroline Conroy on cello. More soon! Light a pile.

Cousin Joey Wales, The Bunny, and Benmont Jefferson

Another One of Your Easter Miracles


... a glimpse of things to come ...

What did the person say to the person?


I don't know.

Gene

part seventeen

there was a time,
later on,
they said,
every new song Gene started
was 'Stand By Me'





part nine
part five
part nineteen
part two

your world of ideas
a house you lived in alone
old breathing home
seasons many
seasons many

"I came to be here. I came to be."

know you you
for few do

voices come and gone
and come again
a visitor at the end of the path
coming toward
a smile to raise the night
and then others
rooms made light
laugh
harmony
work remembered
shared
stories made full
memory new

"I will outlast little but what is true."

know you you
know others too

morning
quiet and full
at great length
a movement across field
up along the ridge
and out
toward sun
song
a sense of completion

"I was standing right there when I saw you."

breakfast pie:
helpless and swoll
let us face it:
it was disgusting
and you ate the fuck out it

in another restaurant
in another life
being with you was nice

Flicker (demo #3) by justin stone

Ketchikan (demo) by justin stone

old things anew
i never knew ye

In a quiet room...
How the dog put his paw on you...

How she came home,
Lightened that I know is a heavy mood...

It takes longer than you can think
To get over it...

Rough justice, I guess,
For my own abandonment

The wind do not know a time or date

Grace
buffeted by the wind

Long legs
penetrable skin

Outside town
I found my things

for your ache--
comedy, warmth, the weird

With the eyes and help of the incomparable Zeque Penya and Julian Quiamboa, Zach Passero and I just shot this music video for the song 'Earthlodge' by our band Burnpile. The 'Pile's heating up.

Burn a pile.

My Jerusalem - Sleepwalking (Official Video) from My Jerusalem on Vimeo.


I appear in this video for the song 'Sleepwalking' by the band My Jerusalem. The music video was directed by Jess Carfield and shot by Chris Heinrich, the duo with whom I made the Spiral Stairs 'Cold Change' video.

More soon!

inside the cake-tin,
unpacking:
the red sleeveless sweater,
sparkled,
and a frisbee

Photograph and Poem by Arianna Parsons

Also please check out Arianna's awesome endeavor My Green Cities. Doing the good work!

a home filled with music
laughter
art
light

a patio filled with fountain
fire
stars

borges, we miss you
and we are alive

there's something there
moving on the mountain
and we could just be there
if we could just be still

Brown Eyes (demo #3) by justin stone

my brown eyes...
they were really blue, babe
but you were way out there...
I didn't want to say

"We can make it if we try
And if we don't it's gonna still be all right"

Doug Martsch,
"Planting Seeds"

photography by Zaebo Pasca, 1971

Cat On A Hot Tin Rough

"We drove out to White Sands, New Mexico. It was a photo shoot ostensibly intended for an album, but later I discovered that there was no new album. All the same it was an astounding day. Deep, electric, awkward. Benmont kept referring to himself as 'Old Chief What's-His-Name.' Also, 'Whale Bones,' talking about a beach at the end of existence, talking about 'The Whale Road.' At the end of it, a new moon on the rise, Benmont looked at me and said, 'I'm just glad a cat's got nine lives, you know what I mean?' I will never forget that."

If there were a Doc Brown convention on the moon I would surely be there, perhaps even as keynote speaker.

Maybe we ought to look into booking our tickets??

tonight
you


you knew

but not for the first time
and not for the last


.

should you again become lonely and afraid
I will be there, love

listening to Lungfish all the way into Los Angeles
I saw this thing through and through--
the things I no longer need and those I do

life became simple then, skinless--
I saw my skin shed here atop the skinpile

pulse the stark viscera

the gag reflex--
let us admit
we have been riding it

Listen to a new song....

Earthlodge v2.1 by justin stone

"Earthlodge," written by Justin Stone, was recently recorded and produced by Zach Passero in El Paso, Texas. It is the first of a big batch of songs that will exist under the band name Burnpile.

These songs are gonna get walked around.

night on desert--

earthworn
windblown
dusty

take the high road
to see you

you lives here
the body sound

am grateful
glad

to be here






.

you will come to see
that the ghost in the box
is just a hummingbird
a'thrumming his wings





.

the work then
was everything

it blew over you

"Motel, Glimpse" Trailer from Zaebo Pasca on Vimeo.

You may now order the Special Edition DVD of Motel, Glimpse by Justin Stone and Zach Passero over here at the new and spiffy online collective that is Tembloroso Creative Lab.

Bumberhaven, Connecticut
August 14, 1971


...somebody understands something...

He spent years working on what was to be a kind of final statement, his literary master-work. How was he to know that someone else at that very moment was also working on a tome entitled The Little Red Book?

History forgets most of us, disregards the rest.

In a tiny bookshop, beneath a pile of dusty Playboy magazines, lies a tiny red piece of the rest of the story.

WANT ADS

Wanted -- Gutless Roberts rookie card, Kansas City Bucks, 1953, manufactured by Daddy Breath Cigarette Card Company

Wanted -- "A spirit of shared destiny"

Wanted -- lifetime tandem pass, Atlantis Bath-House, amenities included please

Wanted -- The Voynich Manuscript, please return to the family

Wanted -- any teeth of any royalty

Wanted -- a ride on Johnny Hartford's riverboat, preferably under full moon, late spring

Wanted -- faces in the water

Wanted -- one coastal redwood, real

Wanted -- small and thoughtful movements, you

Wanted -- original pressing of Blackberry County Line's debut album, A Wing And That Other Thing, featuring the original "nude creek" cover

Wanted -- camping trip, conversation with Eddie Vedder... Eddie??

Wanted -- wakeful dream

Wanted -- Powerless Joe Jackson rookie card, The Mountain Sox, 1919, manufactured by Ol Brown Eyes Whisky Collectible Card Company

Wanted -- comfortable silence

Wanted -- the all-new two-thousand dollar Gelapi

Wanted -- a minstrel's life

Wanted -- participants for the upcoming reality series Doom & Groom -- "Are you engaged to your downfall?? Contact us and let us know!! We want you! Send us a tape and let us know why you think you're closer to the abyss than the next person! Submissions to Associated TV Production Company Television."

Wanted -- a float trip, cooler full of ice, a friend's dog

Wanted -- a warm place to land

Wanted -- all the love I never gave

Wanted -- a deeper understanding still

Wanted -- lost-porch weirdness

Wanted -- songs by a fire

Wanted -- any original theatrical posters featuring silent film clown Buster Koan

regenerative healing ability

soft and syllabic,
sturdy

"Tembloroso Creative Lab is a collaboration between Jim Ward, Kristine Ward, Armando Alvarez, and Brandon Silverstein. Our goal is to provide a worldwide voice for El Paso’s artists and musicians.

We started Tembloroso Creative Lab on May 1, 2009 with the release of Jim Ward’s “In The Valley, On The Shores”, which quickly sold thousands of copies around the world. In addition to music, we now sell posters, t-shirts, shoes, and other pieces of unique art."


Neat stuff! And a new place to order the Special Edition DVD of my movie Motel, Glimpse!

the room--
a long time ago
and today

all i didn't do
and all i did

all i do

you


dance...?

I would recommend spending some of your time with Slow Western Ghost.

the body told you
but you weren't listening

more, she told you
but you weren't listening

you'd noise on mind,
a thousand little dream of fish,
and you missed the fever gathering in chest,
the coming chills
like sea-borne shivers






underneath

you had to map and know

every square foot of ocean

on a planet covered almost entirely in ocean

and when you were almost done

you forgot all you knew

and had to start over

you had to map and know

every square foot of ocean

on a planet covered almost entirely in ocean

and when you were almost done

you forgot all you knew

and had to start over

you had to map and know

every square foot of ocean

on a planet covered almost entirely in ocean

and when you were almost done

you forgot all you knew

and had to start over






'i want out of this...'


'i want out of this...'















reaching hands reaching

a room to cross
and your legs long

but you can't move

to her

reaching hands reaching






her voice and hands
her body's warmth a dream...

'mira, mira,' she said...
'there be eyes in your head...
there be instinct
borne of your chest...'








to be un-cold...
unafraid...












when you came to
you were soaked through

a thousand years old
and alone

breath
like a baby

you could see and hear
everything all at once


and love,
you are not alone

emotional stuffing
lay all over town



i had not realized i was ripped

Those long-ago days at Bob Valens University...
Our pencils and paper...
Our dreams,
Pride

It was looking together

It was slightly swollen

It was almost too bright

It was morning




I'll see you again