In the Cathedrals
In the shadows of tall buildings
Of open arches endlessly kneeling
Sonic landscapes, echoing vistas
Someone is listening from a safe distance
The line moves slowly into a fading light
A final moment in the dead of the
night
Season 4, Episode 16
When
Captain Picard asks Monkey LaForge to escort a visitor,
Dr. Leah Brahms, aboard the Enterprise, Monkey is thrilled. He confides to
Guinan that Leah, the woman who designed the U.S.S. Enterprise's engine, is the woman of his dreams.
During a crisis, he recreated a Holodeck image of Dr. Brahms to help him and felt a strong rapport with her. But when the real Leah finally transports aboard, he is crushed to discover that she is cold, cerebral and humorless. She puts him through his paces, icily examining and criticizing the adjustments he has made to the engine she helped design.
Meanwhile, Picard and the crew discover a large energy source floating in space. When they approach the creature to learn its origin, it suddenly latches onto the starship, bombarding the ship with deadly radiation. In defense, Picard fires the ship's phasers to release the U.S.S. Enterprise from the alien's clutches. Picard is saddened when the phaser assault kills the lifeform, but he is intrigued when
Data detects another energy reading within it. To everyone's surprise, Data explains that they have discovered a "baby" struggling to escape its dead mother's womb.
Later on, Monkey hopes for a fresh start with Dr. Brahms when she agrees to have dinner with him, but she is put off by his informal demeanor and leaves him alone with his
homemade pasta getting cold. The next morning, Leah arrives in an improved mood. Monkey is happy to finally be working closely with his dream woman — until she informs him that she is married. On the Bridge,
Beverly and
Worf perform a Cesarean section with phasers in order to free the alien offspring from its dead mother. Unfortunately, it begins to follow the
U.S.S. Enterprise, thinking the starship is its mother and nurses on its hull. The crew tries to devise a plan to deliver the alien baby to its mother's destination, a nearby asteroid belt, and Monkey and Leah are forced to work together again to increase the ship's energy sources to provide for the baby until they reach their destination. Things go well until Leah accidentally discovers Monkey's
Holodeck recreation of her. Infuriated, she chastises Monkey for using her as a plaything. Angered by her accusations, Monkey pleads guilty only to wanting to be her friend.
Upon reaching the asteroid belt, the crew tries to disengage the baby creature, but it will not let go. At this point several larger energy beings approach the Enterprise as if to attack the ship. Working together one last time, Monkey and Leah devise a plan to alter the frequency of the energy the creature is feeding on to make it foreign to the baby and send it away. With seconds to spare, the baby creature lets go, and is enveloped by the larger creatures who float off together. Later, in the
Ten-Forward, Monkey and Leah exchange apologies and laugh about the "Holodeck incident," having reached a new level of understanding through working together.
Pompous, Grandiose Pretensions
The gray-eyed goddess kneeled
she said, "My Lord, Almighty Ruler of the Universe,
most just, most wise, I pray you, do not forget the needs
of Corinth, Queen of Cities. I have tended her lovingly,
cherished her, guided her gently through stunning catastrophes.
Throne after throne I have watched kicked down through the whimsical will
of malicious, barbarous gods -- gods who amuse themselves
like boys pulling wings off butterflies. Yet I've kept her pillars,
shrine of the arts, seat of all taste and nobility.
Preserve my work! Give Jason the throne -- for the city's sake.
Surely a city means more in your sight than one mere woman!
Pity Athena as she'd have you pity our beloved Aphrodite!
Grant my request, and grant Aphrodite some other gift
still dearer to her."
Hera smiled, but the gray-eyed Athena
maintained her mask of innocence. Those who attended her
bowed, heavy with solemnity, and tapped their scrolls,
their money-boxes, crowns, harps. Aphrodite's cheek
burned dark red. Zeus said nothing.
Her head bent
as in in supplication to the Father of the Gods, Aphrodite
rolled her eyes toward her sister. "Don't play games with me,"
she whispered, "immortal bitch! How wonderfully reasonable
you always make your desires sound! Do you think they're fooled,
these gods you play to? They know what you're after. Power, goddess!
You want your way no matter what -- no matter who you walk on.
But you can't come right out and say it, can you? That wouldn't be civil,
and the lovely Athena is NOTHING if not civil! -- Well, so are
sewers! indoor toilets!" She trembled with rage. Athena
smiled, as calm and serene as the moon above roiling, passionate
seas. Suddenly the goddess of love burst into tears,
wept like a shepherdess betrayed. The gray-eyed goddess of cities,
magnificent queen of mind, shot a quick glance at Zeus, then widened
her eyes as if in amazement. "Why Aphrodite!" she exclaimed,
"my poor, poor love!" She gathered her sister goddess gently
in her arms like a child, and Aphrodite cried on Athena's breast.
Hera smiled.
But the brow of Zeus was troubled. He looked
from the love-goddess to Athena. "Enough!" he said. The hall
grew still. The stillness expanded. The eyes of the Father God
were like thunderheads. After some minutes had passed, he said,
"You're clever, Athena. You'd outfox a gryphon. Yet even so,
you may be wrong, and Aphrodite right. You talk
of cities, of how they're more important than a single life.
But the city in which that's true would be not worth living in.
I've known such cities. One by one I've ground them underfoot,
slaughtered their poets and priests and planted their vineyards to salt.
You pleaded against such a city yourself for Antigone, goddess!
Has it slipped your mind? 'Where the dead are left to the crows,' you said,
'where a life means nothing, let the whole white hovel be crows' fodder.'
Justice demands that I grant Aphrodite's wish." He was silent.
Then Hera turned to him. Her eyes flamed. "And my wish, sir?"
she hissed. "I knew I was a fool to leave my business to Athena!
How can mere reason compete with THAT?" She pointed. Aphrodite
covered her bosom, blushing. "I agree,
it's wrong to make cities more important than the poeple who live in them.
Cities exist to make possible the splendid life -- the life
of mind and sense in harmony, fulfilled to the utmost. Good!
But what of Jason's life? But that doesn't matter, of course. Not to you!
Not with HER there, pleading with her big pink boobs! What counts with you,
O mixed-up Master Planner? You reason by whim, like the rest of us,
for all your pompous, grandiose pretensions. Fact!
You purse your lips, you muse in beatific silence, you nod,
and you do what you damn well please! Well no to me, husband!
I want what I want, and I'm not putting elegant names on it."
Hardly moving, Zeus glanced at her. The queen's lips closed.
Tubby Little Cubby
Deep in the hundred acre wood where Christopher Robin plays
You'll find the enchanted neighborhood of Christopher's childhood days
A donkey named Eeyore is his friend and Kanga and little Roo
There's Rabbit and Piglet and there's Owl, but most of all Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff
He's Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Willy nilly silly old bear
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff
He's Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Willy nilly silly old bear
Most Mundane
The Indifferent Monkey was dreaming.
We are unlikely wise men.
Seeing the end
will not prevent
the end from creeping on up,
singing “Surprise!” to those
who spoiled the prize from the start.Go headlong, mouth open.
We say what we know is the wrong thing to say.
We hear Spanish Guitars
in auditoriumsfull of faces --too quick,
We’ve lost it.UpsDowns
Sing it, Señor. We hear loud talkingacross the quad,
smiles shrill and chillechoing strikes --Wickets, green grass, lost points.We shake our heads and deny
that we could ever miss that sound. The most mundane always values most.We take it forgrantedthroughout our lives.
Quis Beatus Est?
[Caesarem] qui beatum fuisse putant, miseri ipsi sunt. beatus est nemo qui ea lege vivit ut non modo impune sed etiam cum summa interfectoris gloria interfici possit.
Those who think Caesar was happy are themselves miserable. No man is happy who lives on such terms that he can be killed not only with impunity but to the supreme glory of his killer.
Stasis
The Indifferent Monkey constantly mutters these days, but I don't have time to listen right now. Don't think that he is sick, or has fallen silent. I just need the keyboard for other things this month, and he doesn't have opposable thumbs anyway. Right now he's strumming some gloomy blues tune out in the living room. Let us listen in on what he's raving about right now...
"...'not in reason that my curses should miscarry. You are inflexible. But wait awhile. You and your friends think that this covenant has solved your problems, and I am nothing in your eyes. You will learn better soon. '
Medea boiled with rage. She longed to set the ship on fire, to break it up and hurl herself into the flames. But Jason calmed her. Her rage had stricken him with fear."
Getting my Sea Legs.
How did I get here?
I am made of wood and nails.
A little dinghy.
Rolling seas abound,
foaming - moaning - full of ire.
Riding on the swells.
"Monkey, hold on tight,"
I say with waves crashing down.
The ocean...giggles.
Yukimi-gata
Monkey waiting there.
My Happy Place will save me!
Made sense, at the time.
Poor Lepidus
"...[T]he peace with Sextus Pompeius [not Magnus] did not last. Octavian was presented with Sardinia through the defection of one of Pompeius' lieutenants, and planned to invade Sicily, but Pompeius and a storm shattered his fleet and his hopes[.] Octavian's chief diplomatic agent and adviser, the Etruscan Gaius Maecenas, helped to persuade Antony to send reinforcements; Lepidus agreed to bring his legions over from Africa. When the attack was finally launched (1 July 36), Octavian himself was defeated, but Agrippa saved the day. Sicily fell, and Pompeius fled to the East, where Antony's generals hunted him to death. Lepidus thought Sicily should be his and ordered Octavian to leave the island. Octavian, 'though unarmed and dressed in a civilian cloak, bearing nothing but his name' (Velleius ii.80), entered Lepidus' camp, and Lepidus' soldiers came over to him
en masse. Velleius omits to mention that Octavian had already been tampering with their loyalty (Appian,
Civil Wars, v.124). Lepidus begged for mercy, was magnanimously allowed to retain his property and the office of
pontifex maximus, and departed to twenty-four years of inglorious retirement at Circeii, a small town in Latium famous for its oysters."
Experted from Colin Wells,
The Roman Empire, 20-21.
Are you one of the beautiful people
Is my
name on the list
Wanna be of the beautiful people
Wanna feel like I’m missed
Hey you with the walkie talkie
I know my clothes are not right
I wish I had my own walkie talkie
That reached to God every night
Everyone needs to be somebody
Everyone needs to find someone who cares
But I don’t know if you know what I mean
’cause I’m never on your list
Are you one of the beautiful people
Am I on the wrong track
Sometimes it feels like I’m made of eggshell
And it feels like I’m gonna crack
Everyone needs to be somebody
Everyone needs to find someone who cares
But I don’t know if you know what I mean
’cause I’m never on your list
De Sole
And so she woke up,
Woke up from where she was lying still.
Said I gotta do something
About where we're going.
Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night.
---
Sweet the sin, bitter the taste in my mouth.
I see Seven Towers, but I only see one way out.
You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking,
Scream without raising your voice.
You know I took the poison from the poison stream,
Then I floated out of here.
-----
She walks through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under a black belly of cloud in the rain.
In through a doorway
She brings me white golden pearls,
stolen from the sea.
She is raging.
She is raging.
And a storm blows up in her eyes.
She will suffer the needle chills.
She's running to stand still.
Maybe We Can Make a Deal
The Gnome sang along:
I remember we were driving
driving in your car/
the speed so fast / I felt like I was drunk/
city lights lay out before us /
and your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
and I had a feeling that I belonged /
and I had a feeling that I could be someone
be someone
be someone...
---
The Monkey just shook his head and he wondered if he could belong, be someone, be someone. Of course, the city lights always had that effect, and soon they were receding in the rear view mirror, and The Indifferent Monkey was himself again. The Gnome was oblivious, but the city lights were always only a short drive away.
The Tip of the Iceberg
Sonny: Alright, listen to me. You pull up right where she lives, right? Before you get outta the car, you lock both doors. Then, get outta the car, you walk over to her. You bring her over to the car. Dig out the key, put it in the lock and open the door for her. Then you let her get in. Then you close the door. Then you walk around the back of the car and look through the rear window. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in?: dump her.
Cologero 'C' Anello: Just like that?!
Sonny: Listen to me, kid. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in, that means she's a selfish broad and all you're seeing is the tip of the iceberg. You dump her and you dump her fast.
Life is very long.
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between
the emotionAnd the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
