Slumberland

Slumberland

Slumberland: A Novel

Slumberland

Poetry, or metrics, anyway.

“I’m not the “it all happens for a reason, God has a plan, everything will work out like an HBO television show” type.” Page 41.

The language itself, mastery of almost verse.

Same author, some years back — The Sellout.

When I started reading Slumberland, I recalled that author’s “voice,” and assured, and confident tone that moved rhythmically, almost musically, as the words danced across the page.

Music plays the central role, really, as the novel’s about a DJ who leaves America to find a mythical recording artist in Germany. Against the backdrop of East and West Germany, stoic Aryan behavior against the soulful, jazz underpinnings of the improvisational and musical stylings?

Weird, that I didn’t figure it out, but the copyright on the book is long before the author’s award-winning The Sellout. Clear, amusing, and distinctive “voice.”

“In English you label groups of people by their moral intentions and collective needs. A mob tries to convince itself it’s right and needs to prove it. A crowd knows it’s right because if it weren’t right, they would all need to be someplace else. A throng doesn’t give a fuck about moral imperatives, it just wants and needs something to happen.” Page 185.

Even better in light of current definitions and political conditions.

Slumberland


Slumberland: A Novel

Sunday at the Rim in San Antonio

Sunday at the Rim in San Antonio

Today in San Antonio — at the Rim — with some answers to questions….

Sunday! In San Antonio!

astrofish.net/travel for details

star card rim

Sunday at the Rim in San Antonio

Keep Calm and See Kramer

Curious as to the astrological details?

There are two sources of data, seeing me in San Antonio this Sunday — or the weekly horoscopes.

Sunday at the Rim in San Antonio

It’s really him.”

Technically, it’s a private event and at the discretion of the promoter, masks are required, like Shakespeare said.

Portable Mercury Retrograde – Kramer Wetzel

Portable Mercury Retrograde: astrofish.net’s Mercury in Retrograde

San Pedro Creek

astrofish.net/travel

Vincit Qui Primum Gerit

“First to arrive gets the best deal.”

Weekly Notify Email

Deep Imagery

Deep Imagery

The catch phrase, the spacing, typography, and placement?

Leaves me with more questions then answers, but for me?

Deep Imagery

I love you more than bacon.

Supplies for Mercury’s Retrograde

Supplies for Mercury’s Retrograde

Trolling the local CostCo, looking for a few cold-weather items, crap to have on hand for the imminent threat of sub-freezing temperatures.

I do, indeed, have an outline of ritual and responses for Mercury Retrograde.

Perhaps I should call this, Mercury Retrograde Revisited.

Supplies for Mercury’s Retrograde

Costco Espresso It started, years ago, with my Sister, and her proximity to one of the original Peet’s Coffee locations in old Oakland. Before the influx and hyper-inflation, when it was an almost outlaw shop. Peet’s Italian Roast was the de facto family favorite.

Darker than an espresso roast, oily beans full of that “coffee” flavor. The Italian Roast was one of the default blends I would defer to. Better? I’m not sure. Certainly was exotic at the time.

Loved that coffee, and by extension, over the years, as my pallet has expanded and contracted, based upon location, availability, price, and other sources? One of my favorites — especially when Mercury is headed into a Retrograde pattern?

Costco Coffee.

Coffee from warehouse store, served in bulk, distributed in bulk, and purchased for price consideration, first, and only afterwards, for the possible flavor. Quality is important, but there’s that sliding scale, price versus flavor and performance?

Where the lines intersect on the graph?

Lavazza Espresso Italiano Whole Bean Coffee Blend, Medium Roast, 2.2 Pound Bag (Packaging May Vary) Authentic Italian, Blended And Roasted in Italy, Non GMO, 100% Arabica, Rich bodied

Found it at the local Costco, and the sale price was $9-something. Even rounding it up to $10, tax and all? Still about $4.50 a pound and cheap enough to be usable while Mercury is Retrograde.

Supplies for Mercury’s Retrograde

The Mercury Retrograde Rituals, the supplies are simple enough, coffee, in quantity, and some of those good reversing candles. Picked those up on my way into the Rock Shop for work. There’s store nearby, but just about any grocery will do.

Lavazza Super Crema Whole Bean Coffee Blend, Medium Espresso Roast, 2.2 Pound (Pack of 1) Authentic Italian, Blended And Roasted in Italy, Produced in a nut-free facility center, Mild and creamy

Candles and black coffee: it’s only going to get different from here on out.

Mercury isn’t a menace but must be respected.

Supplies for Mercury’s Retrograde

The Portable Mercury Retrograde

App Icon Apple Books
Portable Mercury Retrograde: astrofish.net’s Mercury in Retrograde

San Fernando

Mercury Retrograde.

San Fernando

MercRXMercury Retrograde? I was flipping through older posts. One I stumbled across, San Fernando in the morning — just a phone image, I’m guessing, of the downtown cathedral that is the spiritual (and otherwise) center of Bexar County. As such, it is still a functioning parish, and it is a historical complex, parts the church dating to Canary Island immigrants in 1720.

I don’t have any recent images of the downtown area, having long since decamped for calmer suburban climes. Quieter in the burbs.

Mercury in apparent retrograde fashion, though, what that means? Looking and seeing where we were, at one time, helps point to where we can go. Bonus, as a moment of reflection. Which is what the picture was a moment of reflection, that recollection of pre-dawn hours when downtown was sullen and silent, with detritus of some celebration, trash, skittering in the cold streets.

The sole human traffic, the one guard at the office building, watching the trash trucks beep in and empty dumpsters.

Situations change, people age, and it’s another Mercury Retrograde.

San Fernando

the Portable Mercury Retrograde

Portable Mercury Retrograde – Kramer Wetzel

Portable Mercury Retrograde: astrofish.net’s Mercury in Retrograde

Do as I say

Not as I do

MercRXAustin, TX: I’m a big fan of indigenous coffee places. The local, mom & pop stores, where the beverages are a labor of love, not a required drink. Towards that end, I was in Austin, for work. I’ve been working weekends — and odd Tuesdays — for most near 30 years or more.

Memories run deep.

That would be about a hundred Mercury in Retrograde periods?

What to do. What not do. What I did?

Sunday morning, Austin, cool winter morning, and on my way to work I stopped at a Starbucks. Pulling in, I noticed the ‘drive-thru’ line looked to be ten cars long, and I wanted to avoid that. Not out of impatience, but more to my own amusement.

I stepped quickly from the truck’s tiny cabin to front door, dashing between two impatient Starbucks customers, as they were fiddling with the knobs on their cars’ dashes, and more to my loss? Not a one looked up and locked the car door as I approached.

This was by the old NorthCross mall, now a wal-marts, kind of across the street.

So I’m not a scary-looking person in tawny North Austin, super-gentrified neighborhoods anymore. Way it goes. Approaching the sidewalk entrance, there was a cone, street marker, and taped on it was a letter-sized piece of paper, with a long notice about someone who didn’t show up for work, and the store was short-staffed, so the lobby was not open, and please use the drive-thru.

The exact same note was taped inside the glass front door, facing out. It was before the show, so it was easily before 11 AM. Peering in, the interior, except behind the coffee bar, was dark.

Venus started a retrograde pattern at 26° Capricorn December 19, 2021 and Venus will remain retrograde, turning direct January 28, 2022 at 11° Cap. Mercury goes retrograde January 14 to February 3, 2022, starting at early Aquarius and slinking back into the last few degrees of Capricorn. The Mercury Retrograde stops where the Venus Retrograde started, creating an extended dance mix version of this dualistic “inner-planet” pattern.

I reached out and tried pulling open the door, anyway, just a half-assed attempt, you know, make sure it was really not open. Door didn’t budge.

Listed in a horoscope (Scorpio) someplace, I recall observing this exact same behavior pattern, where someone reads the sign, “Please use other door,” or “closed,” and I pointed out, observed, everyone seems to try the door, just to be sure. I think I noted that it was wasted motion, when I was the observer but when I was faced with a “closed” sign, I had to rattle the door, just once, you know, make sure.

As I was reaching towards the door, I thought about this behavior, and I remembered how I mocked other people for doing exactly what I was doing.

Do as I say,
not as I do?

Kind of an obvious one, to me, the signs, the portents, the indications all point in one direction. The label clearly indicates a certain warning or a particular disposition. Like a door’s sign that says, “Closed.”

Looking at the planets, looking at how this all forms a simple pattern? Simply put? Read the sign.

Another way to say it?

Do as I say,
not as I do.

The Portable Mercury Retrograde