Preludes for Prepared Piano 11: Half the Fun
By Estill Pollock
City slang,
you and I, stubborn, long-suffering long distance lovers:
has it been three years already, you on your side of this border,
me on mine?
I saw the simple solution to making teleportation work.
A scientist could reduce that action to equations of force,
friction, plotting paths with trigonometry,
to jump, to run, to breathe.
Loves cats, genealogy, and Elvis,
would you "Love Me Tender"
loves espresso, discreet tattoos, plays an unsettling mortician,
whispering death has a design,
the scene is half tongue-in.
Early on, we played with reckless abandon.
That's what we have to do in the second half.
We haven't reached our potential yet, he said, half a second ago.
Man, I was much higher,
commandeered the shell of an old school bus.
Sure, somebody can read the telescope manual, type in a number,
over half a million photos, fast
streaming hardcoresex videos.
Where is the exit, groove merchant… night
and day, a matter of intensity.
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The county had announced that schools would close early on Tuesday within an hour of my kids leaving the house, so I had another fairly disorganized day. Removed cat sleeping over heating vent. Ran out to get a bottle of wine for Valentine's Day, tried to rent The Illusionist but apparently everyone in Maryland decided to rent a movie before the snow hit full-force and there was a line winding all around the store so bagged that idea and went home. Removed cat sleeping over heating vent. Picked up kids, dropped older one off at a friend's house, tried to get younger one's best friend to help him search for his missing Pokemon Leaf Green game which has caused a great crisis. Removed cat sleeping over heating vent. Wrote up a reasonably long, interesting Scott Bakula interview and a reasonably short, tiresome Richard Arnold Thinks-He-Knows-Everything article. Removed cat sleeping over heating vent.
I see that Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker won BAFTAs (and The Queen, though not Stephen Frears, aww). And that a British actress I don't know, Michelle Ryan, is going to be the new Bionic Woman on NBC, and Battlestar Galactica will have a fourth season, and The Dark Is Rising movie is finally going forward with Ian McShane as Merriman Lyon (I guess maybe they're planning to introduce the Drews later if the film is successful enough to warrant a sequel?)
A capibara (a.k.a. "world's largest rat") goes to play ball.
One seal wants to get frisky but the other isn't having any of it.
The sea lions debate whose turn it is to chase the other.
The ever-popular wet beavers. (Come on, you knew that was coming.)
And while you're back here:
Pervvy Valentine Series by Laurel_tx
Watched the carnival episode of The Prisoner -- trial by Elizabeth I and Lord Nelson! -- then Ancient Discoveries, a three-part History Channel series on ancient Greek and Roman technological developments; in this case the episode was "Super Ships" and much of the episode was focused on underwater battering rams and large transport vessels. Then it was time for Boston Legal, where Clarence tried a case, Denny got Alan to represent him -- again -- and Jeffrey went to infinity and beyond.
Clarence volunteers to become a public defender because so many people from that office are out with the flu, but he's nervous the first day, therefore late, and therefore doesn't know what hit him when he gets a first-degree murder case. The pregnant woman tells him half in French that she was sold as a slave as a child in Haiti and killed her owner because he threatened to sell her child. He runs into Bethany, who offers to sit the case with him, but Paul is worried about the reputation of Crane, Poole and Schmidt and insists on being on the case as well. He and Bethany immediately do not hit it off when she suggests that he's too old to give the closing.
So far as the reputation of the firm is concerned, Denny has been arrested for solving America's obesity problem and energy crisis all at once: he ships human fat to Norway, where it is converted into fuel. The only problem is that apparently dealing in human waste may be illegal in Massachusetts and the D.A. is determined to make an example of such a visible figure as Denny Crane. "You're going down, Denny Crane, at last," he says, but Denny retorts that he never goes down except as a lover: "I'm a giver in bed." In court Alan points out that the containers were leak-proof and no one got sick, but the case is up in the air until Denny gets on the stand and makes up a story about the tragic death of his Uncle Bill, who inspired him to try to better humanity. Then the entire jury weeps along with him while the DA shakes his head in disgust and Alan shakes his incredulously.
Denise overhears Brad asking Shirley to represent him against her -- he says that Roe v. Wade should be invalid since a woman no longer has to carry a pregnancy to term but can hire a surrogate to do it for her, insisting that it's worth the risk because abortion will kill the baby anyway. Shirley and Denise both insist that it is her choice, not his, and anyway the point is moot because Denise is going to have the baby. Jeffrey congratulates her again and says that when his daughter was born, it changed everything -- it's a fantastic thing -- then asks whether she's absolutely sure it's Brad's. Even she can see that he's disappointed when she says Jeffrey doesn't have to worry. Soon after, Jeffrey hands Shirley a letter of resignation, saying that he wants to be at a smaller firm, though he has no job over yet. He explains that he feels isolated, doesn't really fit in, and he's done trying to be happy there. When Denise asks whether it's because of her, Jeffrey admits that it is. He doesn't believe in "friends with benefits"; he thinks that if a person can make love with someone and not feel anything, there is something wrong with him or her.
Clarence questions Anya, who describes life as a slave, being unable to avoid sex with her owner and having nowhere to run. She killed Wattell when he told her he would sell her baby in the midst of a beating. Bethany gets Wattell's wife to explain the Haitian custom by which Anya, whom she claims to have loved like family, was given to herself and her husband as a child of seven to serve as maid and servant. The wife says her husband would never sell a child, and Bethany retorts, "Right...you only buy them." Paul thinks that Clarence did a better job winning the jury's sympathy and asks him to close, since he feels that he was unable to convince the jury by way of medical experts that Anya was temporarily insane. Though nervous, Clarence argues very convincingly that his client was born into a culture of slavery and had no free will to escape it. He asks the jury, if someone who owned any of them was beating them and saying he was going to sell their baby, "You sure you wouldn't snap? You sure?" The jury finds Anya not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, but she has no idea where she will go now that she is free.
Shirley finds Jeffrey stuck in his Buzz Lightyear suit, which he admits he wears on occasion to make himself feel good -- "as stupid as that sounds" -- but he damaged it in the fight with Brad. She tells him that people like him at the firm, but he admits that's not really it; he was hoping that the baby was his so that could try to relive the time he missed with his daughter while he was busy being a lawyer. She tells him to leave with his head high before closing time, then warns Claire, Brad and Denise not to laugh when they see him as Buzz. Jeffrey goes to infinity and beyond as "You've Got a Friend in Me" plays.
Denny is not worried about going to jail because a whole lot of sex takes place in prison and he can't possibly lose this case since he didn't try it. The DA argues that Denny put the community at risk, but Alan points out that the law doesn't explicitly cover medical waste, then picks up on Denny's humanitarian theme and says that Denny was trying to save the community from global warming. "We find the defendant Denny Crane," reads the jury foreman. "Oh...not guilty." After ragging on the obnoxious DA, Alan and Denny go off for their drink, where Denny admits that he likes being arrested -- makes him a center of attention -- though he dozed through Alan's overly long closing. He didn't even have an Uncle Bill, he confesses, though he did have an Auntie Billie. When Alan asks whether he planned the story ahead of time, Denny says, "You don't plan sincerity! You have to make it up on the spot." Typically, Alan is thoughtful about why people are so recalcitrant to explore new sources of energy, thinking maybe oil companies interfered, but Denny says no, they didn't undercut research or sabotage the electric car...fat IS the future of energy. Alan suggests that they have steak and Baked Alaska to show they care, and they toast themselves, visionaries...fat.
I hope Jeffrey shows up across a table later in the season, as he promised. And Uncle Bill...hahahaha! Next week, apparently, Denny is going to object to going to synagogue with Bethany because it might make him look Jewish. I love that when he tells Alan he can make a jury cry, even in the most over-the-top Shatneresque manner, he's right.
Happy Valentine's Day! Thank you so much
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