The Underground

I remember the beats more than anything else. Dark, tribal, intense. Wall-shaking bass, kick drum machine gunning, hi-hat cymbals crashing. Through the air in a torrent of beautiful cacophony while the strobes flashed around the silhouettes of others like yourself, night creatures inhabiting a realm of shade.

Frolicking in the shadows and out. Going down the Tunnel, off to the Playground, surrounded by the magic mushrooms' reverb in Twilo. Ah, you know what I'm talkin' about, don't you? Ecstatic moments with strangers who become your friends with the blink of a gobo. The bliss of a union blessed by the nation of house.

I often imagined everyone, black, white, Asian, Latin, man, woman, gay, straight, old and young dancing around a massive bonfire under a perfect ebon night, shooting stars lighting the skies. Dancing through an endless evening. And the beat goes on. Dark, tribal, intense. Can you feel it?

Where has it gone? Lost by a world too rushed and worried to notice the loss of something special. The mainstream water washing it away, the magical interplay, the underground. The soulless seriousness of everyday, turning it to ashen grey. Gone but not forgotten. Over your head but under your feet, it resides inside you, stays beside you. Dark, tribal, intense. The underground baby, yeah the underground!

© 2009 Paul Caracciolo. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

Supremely Redundant

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings seem to have confirmed one very blatant reality in our currently flawed political system, partisan behavior is as bad if not worse than ever. While the GOP is of course frightened by the realization that a Latina woman might have a say in the most important judicial decisions of our time and rightfully so, they are for the most part old white men, they cannot come out and say that their opposition is largely based upon their own prejudices. This would not become the party of Lincoln ( I know, Abe is turning in his grave and has been for decades now). Instead they mask their fury as disgust for this woman's remarks about latina women and white male judges because she must obviously think she is better than said white male judges and white men in general, and they cannot stand an effront to the white male power structure that gave them their dominance in the legislative and judicial branches of our government for lo these many years. Let's tell it like it is good old boys of the GOP, you cannot stand this uppity latina questioning your hierarchy. Guess, what? She's right. A latina woman's experiences will influence her and make her judge things in a certain way, just as you and your cronies have done with our laws for many many years. I am not saying she should go in lock, stock and barrel and rage against the white man but a little variation in the thought process of our highest court is only a healthy thing if we are to survive in the uncertian future. Our country is more diverse than ever. It is high time our government started to reflect that in a real tangible meaningful way.

This behavior is all so mundanely predictable and it is not all about deep seeded prejudice. In American politics today the opposition feels the need to puff up and be contrarian to the nth degree because I suspect it has become their only strategy. It has become the norm. Our society is a bit lazy if you haven't noticed and it goes all the way up to the top, our leaders. Why strike a conciliatory tone in matters of massive importance of which the appointing of a Supreme Court justice is merely a drop in the bucket? Partisan politics is simply rote behavior by lazy uninspired pessimistic people in cold difficult times when we need more from those who lead us. We need compromise, hard work, effort and forward progress. I don't know about you but I heard an awful lot of non-partisan promising being bandied about just before I cast my vote in the last election. I suppose it was naive to think it would finally be attempted when the easy way is to continue butting heads while the excrement hits the fan.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings continue our now well crafted tradition of partisan politics. This time the Republicans brandished their opposition with the now requisite pride. They aren't the only ones and take that as a hint Democrats. You play the partisan game too although probably not nearly as well. I think you tend to catch your reflections in the mirror sometimes and your conscience gives you a little kick in the gut. That being said, the partisan game is a non-partisan disease. It is bad for the mind and the soul and the heart of our country.
Yet again this was blatantly played out in the Sotomayor hearings. It is all so supremely redundant, don't you think?

© 2009 Paul Caracciolo. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

A beginning of the Musings

My first blog post and hopefully not my last. It has been quite some time since I have written something for a purpose beyond the strictly utilitarian. I used to write poetry, keep a journal, and even took a stab at writing fiction. I have always had the writing bug but lately a career dealing with numbers all day long has stifled that little critter and I find myself years removed from it. Lately however I have been feeling the desire creep up inside again. The bug lives!



While blogging seems to fulfill many purposes for many people, I think I want my blog to be a way to express my thoughtful side as opposed to demonstrating my proficiency with the mathematical. Math is neat, exact, precise but I am afraid the world we live in does not neatly fall within such parameters. I feel the times call for us all to share our thinking with one another to try and make the world at first more bearable and then perhaps a better place. Collective efforts to deal with the "down and dirty" aspects of our world while aspiring to move to a better place even if it is just within our hearts and heads. I cannot say I will always be optimistic or upbeat but I will vow to never be insufferably negative or utterly devoid of faith in mankind.


I want to challenge myself, my friends, family and even interested strangers to share thoughts, ideas and feelings on things of tremendous import but also on things of a much meaker reality as well. I think the blog will take shape as time goes on, changing, growing. My purpose is to make it a dynamic organism developing every moment into something new while always influenced and firmly based upon that which has come before it. Sort of like us.



Musings from the Ether. I thought it was appropriate. Musings being thoughts or meditations but also conjuring up those mythological Muses that inspired the creation of art and literature. The ether to me being both quintessence or the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water that was believed to be the substance composing all heavenly bodies (from http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=ether) but also on a less profound level merely the air all around us. Musings from the Ether, magical or base, complex or simplistic, vast or singular.



Before I end my first posting I want to thank a few appropriate Muses from my life to both share with my readers and give them their due. I would not be who I am without them.



My mother. Always looking down on me from above. Her influence on every single event of my life and upon every little aspect of my humanity has made me who I am.



My favorite author as a child, Edgar Allan Poe. A little awkward boy with a definite dark side and a desire to write found exactly what he was looking for in this brilliant, tormented, macabre man.



Anthony. The person who has taught me more than anyone that it is okay to be happy in life. Appropriately, my first post is on his birthday and I am thrilled! Thanks for encouraging me! Il mio amore!

© 2009 Paul Caracciolo. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.