Monday, November 10, 2014
Friday, August 1, 2014
Fun & Rage
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Right upon the trees
right upon the trees
with a caustic lady who tells
you’re not within
try a new life and see
drugs will not help
the heavy beast
searching out there
with a scrapbook all written
so who cares
you wrote tons
in your first life
you were a town lost
going out west
see the highway men
lean over the iron bend
another plastic family
eating all the slop
outside the refinery
*****
Fun & Rage
back in ol' days of '49
of 1949
I got lost in a swamp
in a swamp
all doctors told me
boy you’re weird 'n' insane
coz of I shot him
a bullet in the face
coz I shot him
for fun & rage
back in ol days of 49
of 1949
got a job near the coal mine
the soft coal mine
they got stuck and they died
little flaming pieces in da coal mine
owner so proud to live
in the golden house
with his cozy family
hard to believe
back in ol' day of 66
of 1966
we vote for democracy
red utopia of socialism
the president passed away
a bullet in the back
that was rage
of a terror attack
he was buried down the hill
with cannon balls rollin’
buried down the hill
funny place to live*****
Lost her
this is a story hard to tell
even to a sad priest
this is that kind of story
that has not an happy leave
it narrates how a lonely man
found his unexpected end
but the sun is shining
and it won’t remind me
how I lost her
this a really vain story
difficult to tell
this is an ancestral story
and no closing end
if you glad I could tell ya
for thousands maids
but the sun is shining
and it won’t remind me
how I lost her
I have to begin this story
or it will be too late
I don’t want this story anymore
down in my grave
a little far away just from here
there’s a blanket ban red sign
but the sun is shining
and it won’t remind me
how I lost her*****
Steeltown
In Steeltown
there’s a road called
2 minutes hiring
in the past there were a lot of workers
fighting in downtown riots
when the town gets the dawn
the crowd get so excited
the unions were corrupted
the police beat ‘em to exhaust ‘em
out of the factories there are human needs
many people talk together about a new equal society
get more rights and balance the greed of plutocracy
but when they declare the town went bankrupt
people in the streets lost a lot
it was very hard to go forward without a loan
so I went every day to a pawn shop
to got the money for the raise of my honor
but when they declare the town went bankrupt
people in the streets lost a lot
now I see all this sad stories on tv
they interviewed a lathe turner who lost the job in the last spring
he got a triple mortgage and three kids
but when they declare the town went bankrupt
people in the streets lost a lot
*****
Blackened skull ring
taking off
now
plans to do
somehow
get to find that girl
barstool blues above
get a book
and see
reed a lot
a way to be
with your feet
right on the street
talk about politics
her brain is so sweet
married a woman
maybe
got a kid
no-way
see the homeless men
counting nickels
buy them coffee
respect 'em always
love that woman
with fancy hair
write a poem
on the dark age
try to understand
all this messy dirt
buy her flowers no gray
find an ashtray
all the employees
laughing at me
pay that blackened skull ring
*****
Thru SouthWest
the place closed very late
people crawled outside and waste
rusty mornings aside
you could say it won’t be nice
hauled down talks down the line
crazy women don’t share their wine
the churches are closed every time
the major had a new ticket for his wife
hey people I’ve got
two three words to share
the first one begun in a burning hell
the widow was cut & nuthin’ else
would you try ‘nother man
sitting up straight with the preacher man
sucking him with whole bare hands
and you know that it will not end soon
the child of a single mother, a child on the moon
ripped it out talking loud
eating what you have found
looking for sex looking for balloons
never trust a man who is drunk at noon
the main things I don’t care
money god sweet sis & dad
I grab the car in the alley
going thru southwest, thru southwest
*****
Ride on
They came to us
to have the lands
to steal our land
they were about
just a few men
but they were
so damned bad
they’ve been already
in the other town
they robbed a bank
they left deads
some bleeding heads
and a woman called
Rusty Heleine
me my mum & dad
we wore fine hats
we had the farm
but this was not
a good reason
to still believe
in it
I was so scared
when I saw ‘em
we were in the fall
of the lowlands
months passed
me my mum & dad
we worked for that people
we share food wine
believe or not
and some barrel
of gun powder
grandpa is not so proud
of this situation down
but it keep us alive
I’m not worried
in seem to be
a really good guy
of this ol’ town
I was so scared
when I saw ‘em
we were in the fall
of the lowlands
years go by
I have changed
a little my mind
I’ve got a pump
right off the road
but I keep on telling’ me
ride on
*****
The Distance
Out in the distance
animals ride
out in the distance
no flag to fight for
you can hold a gun
toward the sky
you can hold a shotgun
and do no harm
a warm applause
when you turn off
a warm applause
for your song
out in the distance
coyotes round the fire
out in the distance
borders are free
red hills & ground
make you feel about
changing weather
and all it was ever
a warm applause
when you turn off
a warm applause
for your song
out in the distance
no nations across
out in the distance
you can’t find a white cross
walking with no doubt
the rise and fall of a dawn
chasing evil thoughts
going on and on and on
out in the fields
the distance is not
out in the fields
the distance is not
what I was thinking of
what I was thinking of
Sunday, May 11, 2014
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Saturday, May 10, 2014
The NolaEastman Series
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Almost every year I go to the U.S. & every time I land overseas I have a promise or if you prefer, a debt: I have to spend some time in New Orleans.
There is a word that gives a sense of all that New Orleans is: N.O.L.A.
This abbreviation, which is typical of a certain American practicality, is nothing more than the union of two acronyms: N.O. (New Orleans) & L.A. (Louisiana).
To a stranger these four pointed letters, maybe if he’s just a simple tourist who travels to New Orleans to paint the town red in the most famous Bourbon Street, they don’t mean much, for sure.
In the word N.O.L.A. there are the sense and the spirit of the town, the real town with its citizens who live & stay in the boundary lines of the small & hot-humid city of Louisiana.
In this series there are shots taken a year ago with a Nikon Fe 1978 camera body with a 20 mm fixed lens. The film is the Eastman Double-X 35 mm medium speed, 250 asa.
It differs from traditional films for general applications, such as 400 asa films of other well-known producers, that despite the fact that they have a large reliability but the result remains a substantial uniformity of the subject.
The film in this series, furthermore if used in a mode privileging the timing, provides, both in development phase of the negative & even more in the darkroom & then in the printing process, a significant differentiation of tonality of contrasts. These features are made possible by the fact that the Eastman Double-X has been conceived & used for the the cinema in order to obtain & maintain a wide depth of field, stability of the structural components of the image, making they stand out in the presence of contrasts.
Leaving aside the technical details, this series has been realized to narrate New Orleans: for this purpose, I chose the expressive vehicles of writing & photography.
You can find the life in the streets, in the endless bars in the french quarter & around the french quarter: they are places for meeting, sharing & conversation, where even a stranger can get in touch with the various souls of different communities & become what they define with an American-English term: a “local".
New Orleans is one of those towns, that with its history, its people - its strong influence of European extraction of people from France, Spain, England, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Portugal etc. - with its traditions, its cults, with its ubiquitous overflowing music, with its contrasting colors, with the plagues over the centuries - from the battle of 1862 during the Civil War to the passage of greedy murderous mother known with the name of Katrina - with its story of ups & downs, becomes a place of the mind.
It’s a town of passage and of recovery too, also for people from Europe who want to start a new track or want to embrace the American way of life, bearing in mind that Nola is not any place on the territory of the United States: it’s more an exception, it’s an island that floats, something which stands with its own rules; it’s not comparable to the great metropolises of the East Coast, to those of the Midwest, to those of the West Coast and even less to small rural or industrial towns.
In fact it is a stratified conglomeration of those geographic parts of the United States that I just mentioned in the previous lines & of the migratory waves coming mostly from Europe.
New Orleans, Proud to call it home.
Nick
Sunday, May 4, 2014
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