Special note to Maria, added the morning of 7/3/10: In the deepest part of our souls it is always three o’clock in the morning. At 3am today, I was moved to write Out of the Rain II for you. And me. And everyone. Perhaps you should glance at that before reading what’s below here. Added note of 7/5/10: There are FOUR Maria Muldaur-centered pieces posted consecutively… starting with this. Please see “The First Christmas Again and The Death of Bessie Smith” and “Maria Muldaur as James Earl Jones” too, heartbeats permitting.

NOTE: This is an archived site. Each piece, each section was written for a specific audience, for a particular purpose. Please only read what was recommended directly to you. What’s below was rushed; it is unedited, truly a first draft only. People from New York, including those in DeStefano’s quarter should glance at the previous posting, not this. JUST TALKED TO MARIA M. HEY, MARIA: 100 HOURS+ FROM NOW IT’S A DIFFERENT WORLD, I PROMISE, I PROMISE ON MARCEL… you go directly to http://oxtogrind.org/archive/628 to get the flavor. Lt. Governor Mavis Staples? No more sleeping. No more arthritic snail’s pace. So we can die easy. So Marcel can live well.

Well, Well, Well
Dedicated to really addressing this deadly bullshit and several other matters equally urgent
by O’Xman

“I humbly thank you; well, well, well.” –Hamlet

“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t curse.”– Mike DeStefano

“The well is empty, Rich, that’s why.” — Mitch Hedberg to the author, just before he put the finishing touches on himself

Gonna fucking stop this uber-shit. We’ve very serious deadlines looming, little blooming.

Career politicians = Defecation Central, and getting us into deeper, irreversible, total/utter bullshit daily, and everyone knows it. All that crap about our not being able to do anything about it? Well, well, well… just get off of your ass* and get a hold of me ASAP as per some version of TOSCA. [Pause.] You gotta start somewhere. Always. You got a better idea, you let me know at 831-688-8038 at any hour in Aptos, CA. I’ve got a variation of TOSCA for each state in the union, so… you don’t have to be from California to get with it.

*Those who are already involved — even if experienced, especially if experienced — probably need to simply get over what Beckett called “the great deadener,” their attachment to obsolete paradigms, habit. [Marching in circles with placards is a habit, and not sufficiently effective. Attachment to any career politicians and/or permanently marginalized, well-meaning third parties is also a function of habit. Ditto for fund raising. And raising hell with your head on the chopping block, or in the cell block.]

“What if your wings fail you, Papi?” — The author’s ten-year-old son 7/2/10

“Fail. Fail again. Fail again better.” — Beckett

Let’s go.

Blessings in solidarity,
Your Ox
You know where I live:
1713 Jennifer Drive
in the Vienna Woods of Aptos, California
tosca.2010@yahoo.com

“You do this, Richard. You do only this.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay to the author, close to his eighth birthday, close to her death (1950)

“The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.” — Edna, from her Renascence, written when she was only 19….

P.S. I say that Maria will feel like she’s 19 again mid-week. When I spoke with her on the phone this morning — Bless serendipity! — she mentioned Dylan as Prophet in passing… as per Well, Well, Well. Well, the Cassandra in me says that Maria will accompany me with some friends of hers when I rendezvous with Dr. Susan Block and her hubby Max (and their loved ones) on Wednesday… in their L.A lair., where we will lay the groundwork for creating a watershed in history in 2010. By Friday or so our core group should feel they have a shot at feeling really well again. Well on their way.