New Years Haiku
New Years we look back
Rethink sins of days now past
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Genealogy: Collecting Dead Relatives
I took this with my iPhone at today's 40th Anniversary Conference of the Illinois Genealogical Society.
Who says Genealogists don't have a sense of humor!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Last Day for Astroland
Love this shot of Tammy in front to the classic Circus Days posters, while the Cyclone riders summit in the background!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tim Brickley All Points West
My oldest friend and songwriting partner Tim Brickley takes a little shelter from the storm at last weekend's All Points West Music and Arts Festival.
For more personal pics from APW, please check out:
http://davidrheins.wordpress.com
Monday, August 11, 2008
Piper Carr, David Rheins and Tim Brickley
Three amigos enjoy All Points West. Ten dollar beers and all the bands you could drink! Big fun.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Back Home Again In Indiana
Bluegrass band performs at historic venue in Bean Blossom, Indiana. This photograph was taken in the summer of 2006. The venue is now closed and looking for an angel investor.
Photograph by David Rheins
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Beach Blog
I'm taking a couple o' days off. Hanging out with the other seals, celebrating my freedom in the sun.
Hope you all have a happy fourth o' july.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Free Pamphlet and Hit City Songwriter Night
For all you Hoosier hipsters...there is a new place to hang on Wednesday nights to hear original music!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Bluebird Song
Before it was beaten out of me
Before they taught me to color inside the lines
Raise my hand, and wait to be called upon
Before I was schooled to stand up straight
Avoid chewing gum; speak when spoken to
Before being trained to respond to bells
I learned to cipher my words
With poetry and slang and gibberish
Masking the fullness of my feelings
With oblique language
And casual nonchalance
Before my windows were walled in,
With self-medication
Sullen silence and cloudy self-pity
I used to speak directly to God
Connecting to the cosmic voice
Each night, sweaty underneath
The quilted bedspread
I called out to the creator in my head
And God he spoke back to me
In echoed tones and repeated phrases
Like the reverberating sounds
From Drive-In speakers:
Or the call of the bluebird:
Never forget, never forgive
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Shoot the Freak
Shoot the Freak, originally uploaded by DRheins.
Coney Island treat
First you pays your money and
Then you shoot the freak
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Gas
________________________________________
solstice starting gun
gentlemen rev your engines
roadtripping gas up!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Flaming Lips Live at Sasquatch
Great Citizen Rock Journalism now live:
Featuring the rock images of g. piper carr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/citizenphotog/pool/
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Barack and Michelle Obama -- America's First Couple
Congratulations on winning Democratic Presidential Nomination!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Memorial Day
Three hundred fifty
And fourteen
Days to wait for this
One time a year
To lay down our pencils
And remember those
Who lay down their lives
++++++
What would Walt Whitman say of the state of the Union?
He who imagined us from way back then, remembering him
He who walked the fields of death in that least civil of all wars
Brother fighting kin, dying and maiming
And bleeding in Northern and Southern woods
With awful musket balls, rifle shells, sharp shrapnel
Canon fodder, flying lead and all manner of projectiles thick overhead
In cold wet fields and in dark old barns
On crutches in stretchers in backyard they bled
They came in troops with uniforms and left one by one
We all die one by one, naked and alone
What would old Walter have to say?
He who loved brother, sister, sailor, soldier, footman
Recognizing we are not connected, but are one.
One country, under God, indivisible
The great Revolution and since then
So many wars and so many gone
Or returned home with scars and lack of limb
Lack of opportunity, save mercenary
Naked and alone we come into this world
And back that route so we shall go
David Rheins Blogs at:www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
this post first appeared on free pamphlet:
www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
And fourteen
Days to wait for this
One time a year
To lay down our pencils
And remember those
Who lay down their lives
++++++
What would Walt Whitman say of the state of the Union?
He who imagined us from way back then, remembering him
He who walked the fields of death in that least civil of all wars
Brother fighting kin, dying and maiming
And bleeding in Northern and Southern woods
With awful musket balls, rifle shells, sharp shrapnel
Canon fodder, flying lead and all manner of projectiles thick overhead
In cold wet fields and in dark old barns
On crutches in stretchers in backyard they bled
They came in troops with uniforms and left one by one
We all die one by one, naked and alone
What would old Walter have to say?
He who loved brother, sister, sailor, soldier, footman
Recognizing we are not connected, but are one.
One country, under God, indivisible
The great Revolution and since then
So many wars and so many gone
Or returned home with scars and lack of limb
Lack of opportunity, save mercenary
Naked and alone we come into this world
And back that route so we shall go
David Rheins Blogs at:www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
this post first appeared on free pamphlet:
www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
5-7-5
Unable to sleep
keyboards call me to come play
small joy before work
------
originally published http://www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
keyboards call me to come play
small joy before work
------
originally published http://www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Single Dad on Mother’s Day
useful as teats on a boar
i keep the blinds twisted shut
steam another cup
tweak the strings on martin
and wonder if the son is having fun
across the river’s chasm
May 11, 2008
i keep the blinds twisted shut
steam another cup
tweak the strings on martin
and wonder if the son is having fun
across the river’s chasm
May 11, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Lady Liberty’s Lightshow
Awoken in the dawn of sleep
bombs bursting in mid air
To my naked feet I leap
to investigate the scare
Post 9/11 my nightly drill
one eye open, bed near cell
Last night Lady Liberty and I
were roused by rockets red glare
I grab my digi-cam and snap away
Capture the New York festive air
here’s a blog op, point and click
what the hey, this is it!
http://davidrheins.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/lady-libertys-lightshow/
bombs bursting in mid air
To my naked feet I leap
to investigate the scare
Post 9/11 my nightly drill
one eye open, bed near cell
Last night Lady Liberty and I
were roused by rockets red glare
I grab my digi-cam and snap away
Capture the New York festive air
here’s a blog op, point and click
what the hey, this is it!
http://davidrheins.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/lady-libertys-lightshow/
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Hope Springs Vernal
rain brings life from mud
seed bursts into shiny lines
miracle beyond the concrete
happens every year!
Go figure
http://www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
seed bursts into shiny lines
miracle beyond the concrete
happens every year!
Go figure
http://www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Blah Blah Blah Blog
Statistics will tell us that the majority of blogs are personal in nature. Millions of people around the world take to the typepad every day, twittering away about the dullest details of their daily lives.
Opening my Facebook page each morning, I am greeted with a news feed of non-noteworthy activity of faint friends and business acquaintances: Marcy is feeling her oats; Janet is having another latte; Jake is blogging about Brooklyn; Rip is tearing it up.
Why do I care? I don’t know, but I do. I regularly check the profiles of ex-lovers and former colleagues, not with any intention of making contact; I have no desire to reconnect or even to reminisce. I am just a curious yellow voyeur. I enjoy the fact that I can browse the photos from last week’s picnic, or vicariously enjoy the wedding festivities of the most casual acquaintance: though I wasn’t close enough to merit an invite to the reception, I did get to see the bride, and while I don’t know the family, it was fun to see them all dressed up in their Sunday best.
The blogging habit has been a natural one for me to acquire. I have since childhood been an obsessive keeper of journals. I keep a file cabinet bursting with moleskins, binders full of scribblings, pages of poems, thoughts, and daily drivel.
I journal compulsively for an audience of one – myself. I do not share my notebooks, and , despite a background in journalism, do not harbor any serious pretensions of publication. I simply put pen to paper in hopes of divining some patterns; I long to put some order to the cacophony of thoughts and the randomness of life’s curious curveballs.
Occasionally, I get a comment on my blog posts. It is always surprising -- and edifying -- to make connections with strangers based solely upon the synergy of search terms – the coincidence of keywords. We are all looking for connections.
Like the proverbial message in a bottle, I post and pitch my little contributions into the choppy waters, and wait. A day, a week, a lifetime, for the echo of the cosmic giggle to ping me back.
Opening my Facebook page each morning, I am greeted with a news feed of non-noteworthy activity of faint friends and business acquaintances: Marcy is feeling her oats; Janet is having another latte; Jake is blogging about Brooklyn; Rip is tearing it up.
Why do I care? I don’t know, but I do. I regularly check the profiles of ex-lovers and former colleagues, not with any intention of making contact; I have no desire to reconnect or even to reminisce. I am just a curious yellow voyeur. I enjoy the fact that I can browse the photos from last week’s picnic, or vicariously enjoy the wedding festivities of the most casual acquaintance: though I wasn’t close enough to merit an invite to the reception, I did get to see the bride, and while I don’t know the family, it was fun to see them all dressed up in their Sunday best.
The blogging habit has been a natural one for me to acquire. I have since childhood been an obsessive keeper of journals. I keep a file cabinet bursting with moleskins, binders full of scribblings, pages of poems, thoughts, and daily drivel.
I journal compulsively for an audience of one – myself. I do not share my notebooks, and , despite a background in journalism, do not harbor any serious pretensions of publication. I simply put pen to paper in hopes of divining some patterns; I long to put some order to the cacophony of thoughts and the randomness of life’s curious curveballs.
Occasionally, I get a comment on my blog posts. It is always surprising -- and edifying -- to make connections with strangers based solely upon the synergy of search terms – the coincidence of keywords. We are all looking for connections.
Like the proverbial message in a bottle, I post and pitch my little contributions into the choppy waters, and wait. A day, a week, a lifetime, for the echo of the cosmic giggle to ping me back.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Happy Earth Day
Back in 1970
we saw the big blue marble
circling the heavens
and we knew
our goddess gaia
deserved a holiday, too.
Technorati Profile
we saw the big blue marble
circling the heavens
and we knew
our goddess gaia
deserved a holiday, too.
Technorati Profile
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Good Day Sunshine
my natural alarm has me greeting the dawn
Saturday morning and a glorious spring
sunshine gregarious birds
and the low slow horns of the harbor
the light rail screeches and calls out Essex
I remember the Pope is in town
and wonder what he'll do to mark Pesach
The first seder begins tonight
the stories of slavery and unleavened haste
but now the spirit calls me to come out and play
log off the blog; go seize the day
http://freepamphlet.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/good-day-sunshine/
Saturday morning and a glorious spring
sunshine gregarious birds
and the low slow horns of the harbor
the light rail screeches and calls out Essex
I remember the Pope is in town
and wonder what he'll do to mark Pesach
The first seder begins tonight
the stories of slavery and unleavened haste
but now the spirit calls me to come out and play
log off the blog; go seize the day
http://freepamphlet.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/good-day-sunshine/
Friday, April 11, 2008
Martin Luther King Remembered
I was only 8 in 1968 when Dr. King was murdered, but I clearly remember watching the images flicker across the black and white set in my parents’ bedroom. My family stood around open-mouthed, not fully understanding the impact of the events in Memphis.
First the shock that another voice of peace had been silenced, then the fear that America was spinning out of control, and the very real feeling that something BIG was coming down. Notions of conspiracy, and of revolution, and talk of what we would do if the violence reached us.
America burned in the days to follow. One hundred cities saw rioting. Days later, driving through the gutted, burned streets of Cincinnati with my Uncle Joe and Grandpa Sandy, we surveyed the damage. It felt surreal. It felt like a War Zone.
My Rabbi at the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation had marched with Dr. King, identifying with the civil rights struggle as so many liberal Jews did. He spoke to our congregation about the widening division between Black and White, rich and poor, capital and labor. He preached the need for involvement. I embraced that notion of social activism, and made a commitment that I would be part of the solution, not the problem. A commitment that eventually led me to join the Peace Corps and serve as a volunteer in Central Africa for 2 years.
So it is 40 years later, and the cities of America have long since stopped smoldering. And yet, while much progress has been made, the same struggle for human, civil and economic freedom continues to rage on. Today a stifling political correctness pervades our culture. Gone is the heady sense of freedom and potential that the Sixties and its imminent change suggested. Today our ‘leaders’ feed us a steady diet of fear and fabrication. Tracking chips in our passports, and invasion of our privacy, and armed soldiers on our streets and in our subways is a fair exchange, we are told, for a sense of security. The enemy is terror, and he is everywhere and coming for us soon. We are engaged in a moral war, and yes, a very real global war as well.
The prospect of our first Black President gives me occasion for hope. Barack Obama is a man who epitomizes the social activism we espoused back in those brutal days. His candidacy suggests that the country might just be ready to transcend the ugliness that drove the events of that April day back in 1968. One can only hope.
This is a day for reflection.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Off the Garden State Parkway
All that time in cubicles
has made our racers anxious
They honk and weave
then flip the bird
in theater cantankerous
Today I took a mid-day ride
and nearly lost my life
A large-framed man
in a too-small car
cut me off on the Garden State
He desired my place in lane
first sped up, then hit the brakes
I swerved and skidded to avoid a scene
and the loss of time that an accident takes
He waved his finger
Fuck you he screamed
red-faced and bloated
behind the Kia’s tinted screen
I breathed
out the stress
and in the bliss
before I saw the exit
that I had just missed
New Jersey doesn’t care about convenience
ten mile breaks before any off ramps
and then you end up behind mom in the mini van
at CR-657 and the Junction of 22 West
www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
Monday, March 24, 2008
Jersey City Saturday
The scene is quiet beneath the crane
with flag snapping from its extended arm
luxurious calm at the condo site
envisioned back when the boom was still on
cheap money and no-interest loans
Now the crews scramble to align
all the mirrors on the all-glass tower
gluing the facade into perfect short order
with luck the bust will bottom-out soon
with flag snapping from its extended arm
luxurious calm at the condo site
envisioned back when the boom was still on
cheap money and no-interest loans
Now the crews scramble to align
all the mirrors on the all-glass tower
gluing the facade into perfect short order
with luck the bust will bottom-out soon
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Barackmania
Obama we love ya
our new JFK
young and eloquent
and progressive all the way
Its not that we don’t like Hillary
and it would be nice to have Bill back again too
but Barack reminds us of our innocence
the exhuberant dreams of our youth
Maybe there is a bright future
when the greedheads have finally gone home
back to their oil and evangelism
when they leave us poor workers alone
Sometimes I start to get worried
as our man surges ahead in the polls
will there be another series of shootings
like martin, and robert and john
www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
our new JFK
young and eloquent
and progressive all the way
Its not that we don’t like Hillary
and it would be nice to have Bill back again too
but Barack reminds us of our innocence
the exhuberant dreams of our youth
Maybe there is a bright future
when the greedheads have finally gone home
back to their oil and evangelism
when they leave us poor workers alone
Sometimes I start to get worried
as our man surges ahead in the polls
will there be another series of shootings
like martin, and robert and john
www.freepamphlet.wordpress.com
www.davidrheins.wordpress.com
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