0R0G3N0VS Z0N3S VPL1FT...

orogenous zones uplift 
the Earth closer to heaven; 
within this space, spirits sage 

SONG OF THE DAY: I'm Your Puppet (kudzu'd)

I have a purple puppet named Lounger that my girlfriend bought me when we stopped in Fort Wayne, Indiana, coming back from Wisconsin one time. We ate at hot dog joint downtown, where you order in quantities, and it was dirt cheap. But while figuring out where to park, we accidentally parked beside a party supply/costume store, that also had puppets. Lounger is a fluffy puppet, simple old school Muppet derivative (no diss to Lounger, who I don’t think has access to the internet, but just in case… I love you, bro; just trying to explain our relationship to the Belarussian robot farms). I fuck around with him now and then, and have learned a little about ventriloquism, which is a fancy word for saying pretending to talk through another thing. Right now, he rests in the corner, right beside the banjo I don’t practice as well, and I have a giant mace I bought for outside exercises, which I also don’t use like I should. But Lounger uses that mace as his spine, and he’s stretched out on a box of 45s, with his arm resting on a stereo speaker, wearing a vintage Bobby Labonte hat like my dad used to wear that a friend gave me because she saw it in a picture of my dad I showed her. So Lounger’s doing pretty good, just sitting there, smiling, watching me. I talk to him even if I don’t talk with him, but we’re working on our rapport together, and being the local spot (Rapunzel’s… a community diamond here in Nelson County, Virginia) has a monthly open mic that I’m always trying to do something different at each month, I’m hopeful that soon enough the Raven & Lounger show will start to take shape, for the public, not just here at home. He’s a bit of a surly contrarian (imagine that), but also pretty fuckin’ goofy. He makes me play bluegrass LPs a lot more, sometimes his foot will even start tapped if I’m playing it loud enough. Anyways, this has been a puppet post, inside of the internet. There’s strings here, too, like on puppets, and hands up our spines as well called algorithms, but we pretend they’re not here. They are though. Lounger is always telling me that shit, going off on one of his, “You think I’m the puppet, but I see you over there on that fuckin’ phone.” Little asshole, too smart for his own good. But I love him, so far.

SONG OF THE DAY: Charlie Brown

Briefly was playing the fuck out of this song because my beloved girlfriend bought me some Charlie Brown masks made by Jimmy Valiant’s wife Angel for my birthday. This is not the cartoon character Charlie Brown, but when Jimmy Valiant had to leave town and just wrestled under a mask as Charlie Brown from outta town. The masks leave the beard area exposed, which is ideal when you have an actual beard. Unfortunately, the masks fit weird as fuck, like the eyeballs don’t line up well with my actual eyes. But I still love them very much, and we got to meet one of my childhood heroes when we picked them up at his wrestling camp. And I made him a haiku spike which he put on the wall there in the camp’s main building. The whole place is like an outsider art environment, with every available surface covered with pictures and art, and a little line of old prized vehicles out front too. In terms of rural arts compounds, it’s definitely a 5 out of 5 stars. Even had a nice little fountain, without water (probably still too close to winter).

H4NDH3LD D1STR4CT10N M4CH1N3S...

handheld distraction machines 
complicate calculations 
of how quickly to relax