Monday, January 01, 2024

Throwing Away The Key or Mykel's January 2024 Blog/Column

  


You’re STILL Wrong
or
Mykel's January 2024 Blog/Column 
Throwing Away The Key    

by Mykel Board

Sexual harassment at work... is it a problem for the self-employed?

– Victoria Wood


The liberal idea of tolerance is more and more a kind of intolerance. What it means is 'Leave me alone; don't harass me; I'm intolerant towards your over-proximity.
- Slavoj Žizek


Being desired is not the same as being harassed, and we do not have to punish or shun the person who sees what is special about us.

- Sarah Schulman


I’m not a pervert. I’m Italian.

--(former) Gov. Andrew Cuomo


Imagine a skeleton key… a metaphysical key… It opens locks others can never open. It opens doors… you can walk right in. Others wait for hours in the cold rain. It’s a key you always carry… You can’t leave it at home… You can’t forget it… No one can steal it… It’s yours and yours alone.

Would you complain? Would you say that the doors you open are dishonestly opened? Would you say that the doors… the treasure chests… the secret passageways... opened by the key... are unfair? Would you kvetch that the locks require a key in the first place? Would you grumble that others are allowed entrance by working for days… weeks… months to be let in, when all you have to do is have a little key insertion and BINGO, the lock opens?

Listen up ladies! You have the key. It rests securely between your legs. Free for your use… at least until menopause… often beyond. Yet you complain. A prominent producer wants to trade a little nookie for a starring role. What do you do? Throw the guy in jail. Put him and his walker behind bars for offering you a shortcut to fame. What did he do? Forcible oral sex????? The guy’s a cripple and he “forcibly performed oral sex”??? All you had to do was press your knees together and stand up. But why bother? Others have to work for their part… audition… do screen tests… wait weeks for a “maybe.” You have the key.

Work for the governor? Your chance to grow in politics… get ahead just by being nice. That squeeze… that hug.. you got… Oh my God, he pressed against my breasts… I’ve seen harder breast-pressing between two disgustingly hetero jocks greeting each other in a bar. You couldn’t put the guy in jail, but you got him to resign.


Then there's 

Stormy Daniels

Stormy Daniels, who did better. Trump pays over $100,000 in a “non-disclosure” deal. What a bonanza… greedy Stormy discloses anyway. Then she accuses the president of “defaming” her and tries to get even more money! Can you get greedier? I’ll take your money then sue you while disclosing what you paid me for NON-disclosure. Ah the profit in #MeToo#... if you’re early. But let me tell you, girls, in your #MeToo#itude, you’ve ruined it for others.

From Theda Bara to Mae West, to Jane Mansfield to Bo Derek to Drew Barrymore. How many others fucked their way to the top? Marilyn Monroe screwed the President of the Untied States… and his brother! How many others followed the same path? All of them? Is that wrong? Evil? They’re sex symbols for fuck’s sake. Sex Sex Sex Fuck Fuck Fuck. Are you saying that someone who represents sex is wrong for fucking? We called them “sex symbols” for a reason. What’s wrong with you... forcing women to throw away that chance?




































Maybe it’s too late. Maybe you’ve already ruined it for everyone... taken away the skeleton key.. the free pass used for decades by beautiful seductive women who want to play the part of beautiful seductive women. Want to make it in the movies in 2024? Go for an interview, fill out a few forms, just like ugly people have to do. No more shortcuts. Your fellow females have seen to that.

But wait! It gets worse. Believe the women! Is the new call… Right up there with It’s not WHEN it happened, but THAT it happened a complete rejection of the concept of forgiveness I’m not a fan of the new mottos. I’m old fashioned. I like innocent until proven guilty, and this one by Confucius: Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass. but that thinking is sooooo last century.

Yes, you’re greedy scum. That’s clear. This is America and that’s the way things work here. But don’t call yourselves feminists… at least not in the sense of people who support women. You’ve ruined the most important benefit you’ve got. You’ve made it HARDER for women to get ahead… to make it big. A few of you will strike it rich with #MeToo#… more will be back in the mailroom with no way out. That’s what you call feminism.

I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve never been a woman. [Aside: One of the few things in my life that I’m ashamed of is that I’ve never even worn a dress. Even those awful frat jocks wear a dress on occasion. On Halloween… or football celebrations… they are at least free enough to express their inner transgenderism. Once or twice, maybe… but they do it. Me? Never… and I’m ashamed.] 

I can imagine the harassment... sitting by yourself at a bar (though there are always the free drinks from strangers), walking down a dark street by yourself, unable to relax at that deserted place in the park, an unwanted pregnancy. Those are things that I rarely –or never-- experience. Womanhood DOES have its disadvantages. I’ll surely admit that.

But I’ve also never experienced a job offer traded for a blow-job. I’ve never been able to a get a better tip by showing more leg. I’ve never been able to shake my tuchus and get an extra $50 bill stuffed in with the Christmas bonus.

Those benefits of being a woman are being destroyed… by YOU… in the name of feminism you’re bringing equality instead of by raising up… by pushing down. Instead of by enjoying those few things that are biological perks of twat-endowment, you’re wringing cash out of them and then destroying them for use by anone else in the future. But wait.. it could (and will) be worse.

Some cultures, like the Italian and Jewish cultures, touch each other all the time. We hug greetings and partings. We make conversational points with a slap on the shoulder or the pinch of the knee. We’ll have an arm around each other’s neck.. gender ignored… just to show friendship.  


You’re killing that now. Both Andrew Como AND Joe Biden have been accused of inappropriate touching. Woody Allen and Steve Tyler too. I’m no fan of Joe Biden, but come on… he hugs kids? How many Hugs Not Drugs bumper stickers does it take to explain that hugging kids is A GOOD THING. In 2024, kids live enough in screen-induced isolation, from phone to computer to TV, Now they have to live where adults are afraid to TOUCH them. That means involuntary lifelong isolation… except maybe for sex. And then, touching WILL ONLY mean sex… not friendliness, affection, or mishpocha. And it’ll be YOUR FAULT. Plus, given the speed of technological development, I would be surprised if sex itself weren’t outlawed. Why go through that gross humiliation when you can be artificially and sterilely inseminated by a machine?

FLASH BACK: Groupies are a tradition in music. Musicians got laid. Ian Dury’s Sex and Drugs and Rock’n’Roll was a report card of what everyone knew. Yet in this millennium, singers from R. Kelley to Michael Jackson to punk rockers I’ve never heard of are accused of sexual misconduct. Look! This is Rock’n’Roll… the only sexual misconduct is NO SEX!

Sorry, forgive the digression. It’s all related but not the point.

So what exactly IS the point, Mykel?

Shit, is that you Literary Device? You come to harass me… tell me its just about consent or maybe age and consent.

Do I need to give consent when Granma Board gives me a big hug hello? Or maybe only women need to give consent. Antioch College (now gone) reached the height to stupidity in it’s required consent forms of last century… with dozens of questions that must be asked and answered in the affirmative before moving from homeplate to first base.

1. Can I hold your hand?
2. Can I kiss you?
3. Can I unbutton your shirt?
4. Can I touch your breasts?

Each act checkmarked and okayed before the next. This was the 1990s, before hugs were bad and the press and all reasonable people laughed at the Antioch requirements. Are they coming back?

If I were of a conspiracy mind (I AM of a conspiracy mind), I’d say #MeToo#, the general re-demonization of sex, the concept of forcible touching, the abandoning of forgiveness under not when, but that, the monetization of “successful” sex-related accusation… and the Internet. All of this IS part of a conspiracy… a conspiracy of isolation. Divide and conquer… or at least control. Stay home by yourself. Don’t touch me! There’s nothing you can do with another human that you can’t do individually from behind some screen or other. Artificial Intelligence becomes the ONLY intelligence. Virtual reality becomes the ONLY reality. Quick, where’s the hemlock?

If I were just plain cynical (I AM just plain cynical), I’d say the complainers are just being selfish… wanting cash and fame… and they’ll sacrifice anyone else to get it. These days they have it easier than Marilyn Monroe did in the 1950s. They don’t need the extra inconvenience of undressing and dressing again. Plus, even ugly people can play. Maybe I was wrong in when I started this blog. Maybe the special key women have to blast their way to the top has not disappeared, it has only changed. Instead of a blowjob for a movie part, all that’s needed is some legal papers… and a muff. If the twat-key user plays her cards right, she won’t need the National Enquirer. Publicity? Read the newspapers in 2024. The New York Times has BECOME the National Enquirer. Entire political parties give news coverage and publicity to talentless women that other talentless women could have only dreamed of in the olden days.

Selfish? Well, if Mae West spreads her legs to become a little chickadee, that won’t hurt Bo Derek’s chances to use her money-maker to become a 10. But if some shlubess is rubbed by Donny Trump in a dressing room… and she uses the media and the courts to earn her fat dollared hold accountable (the drag name for REVENGE), then the chance for the next gal will be lost because of the touch-fear induced consequences. The #MeToo#-ers, the Stormy Daniels, the Rose McGowans, plenty more... those in first get the bucks. The harassment game is just like the stock market. You gotta jump in early. Right now, the average settlement for a work-related harassment is $53,000. Celebrity cases bring ten times that. But the accusers know… and don’t care… that they’re killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They get their money, and people… especially Americans… will stop touching one another ever again. It may be illegal for me to wish a special suffering on those accusers. That’s the ONLY reason I won’t do it.




Prairie Home Companion author and personality Garrison Keiler, puts his arm on a woman’s back to console her after hearing sad news. She accuses him of SEXUAL HARASSMENT. He’s fired from his job… where he’d worked for over 40 years. The nicest, kindest gesture. The touching of compassion gets thrown into court and the kindness is apologized for and punished. It’s just crazy.

See you in hell,

MB


ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at mykelboard@gmail.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Send me an email with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Back blogs and columns are at https://mykelsblog.blogspot.com]


→ Note 1: Some of the ideas and their expression were inspired by a great book called The Invisible Generation by Jason Rodgers. You can find it on the Autonomedia webpage.

→ Note 2: To be fair, there is some controversy as to what went on with Garrison Keiler. You can Google it (DuckDuck Go) if you like. But you really don’t have to. I’m sure your mind, such as it is, is already made up.

Godwin’s Revenge Dept: It thrills me that the Israeli army has discovered the final solution to the hostage problem: KILL THEM ALL. It seems to me that was tried before and didn’t work. But those Hamas folks think they can intimidate with a couple hundred kidnapped women, children and (mostly) men? Hah, Mr Gaza! Just try intimidating with a bunch of corpses! We’ll fix that for you! Send in the corpse makers. As of this writing, there’s about 100 hostages left. Already starting on solving the problem, the Israeli army just shot three of them who were waving a white flag. Some evidence points to 8 more Israeli bullet-riddled hostage corpses. 97 more to go, I guess. Not to mention the 20,000+ goyish bodies scattered to the Gaza winds by Israeli forces…. Hey! I told you not to mention that!

I’m moving there dept: MSN reports that the chief of staff at Paraguay's Agriculture Ministry, Arnaldo Chamorro, was replaced after admitting he'd been conned into talks and signing a memorandum of understanding with representatives of a non-existent country. Chamorro told reporters that purported officials from the "United States of Kailasa" had told him the country was a South American island. I wonder if he’ll sue for harassment.


LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I did a nice interview with The Aither zine. Interesting questions, complete, and questions I’ve never been asked before. You can read it here. It’s a good one.

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends and enemies in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.

Here's a start:

Video of the week: My long-time friend Sid Yiddish appears on a YouTube DatingGame-like video. Guess who wins the bachlorette!

Here’s Richard Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

George Fertakis has a very nice graphics-heavy blog... with music and books featured prominently. If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

And connect to TRUST Zine, a long-running German punk zine… that STILL PRINTS!!! Yeah, they have a website too… of course! It’s here.

Here are a couple video links.

This from Jon Cox https://squelchchamber1.bandcamp.com/album/down-so-low

And this one from my very long-time friend Roger Armstrong.

Jim Testa moved his long running zine, Jersey Beat, to the blogosphere awhile back. You can read it here. Jim also recommended a kind of unique album… in a style you don’t see to much of these days… or any days. Neo-Hassidic Rock Opera. You can stream the album here.

Kyle Nonneman is in prison in Portland. At least he can’t be kidnapped by the secret police… I think. I post his blog for him, he can’t do it from the klink. Lots of stuff about noise metal… and some very weird politics that will either fascinate or repulse you… or both. It’s hard (and costs money) to send him email. So. If you remember how to write a letter… send him one at: Kyle Nonneman, #16534211, Snake River Correctional Institution, 777 Stanton Blvd Ontario OR 97914-8335

My long time pal, Jim Hayes rightfully complained about my leaving out his blog. He’s a great writer, so it was a tragic omission. Here it is.

Oh yeah, then there’s me. I have a blog of stuff I’ve written mostly from last century. You might enjoy it. Then again, you might not. It’s here.


Let me know if you have a blog… or a print zine… or a YouTube and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com


Friday, December 01, 2023

Mykel Off His Meds or Mykel's December 2023 Blog/Column

 


You’re STILL Wrong
or
Mykel's December 2023 Blog/Column 
Off My Meds    

by Mykel Board

INTRO: I used to think it was evil... the end of humans who can feel joy, pain, itch and scratch… know what it’s like to piss in their pants. Evil! Without feelings, without awareness… Now, I’m in love. I’m talking about Artificial Intelligence. I’m talking about the ability to just ask a question about some obscurity and get an answer in plain English… not a link to something with MAYBE a partial answer and a lot of advertising.

I can ask, What is a common first name that can be used for men and women?

And my AI program will answer: A common first name that can be used for both men and women is "Alex". It is a unisex name that can be short for both "Alexander" and "Alexandra".

It’s not my favorite answer (I like LESLIE), but it works. It’s fast and without bullshit. I’m going to use Leslie in this blog, now that I’ve introduced you to THEM.

PART ONE: I want to tear my skin off. I want to dig my fingernails into my wrist, my neck, my leg… grab the skin, rip up... off… down to the muscle. Just rip away the itch, the bites, the creeping knowledge… like Freddy Kruger victims… that if I go to sleep, I will suffer horrors.





















Doctor’s on vacation. The nurse-practitioner says it’s spider bites, not bed bugs… prescribes ointment, Zyrtec. Nothing works… I spray the bed with poison: DEET, OFF, Bed-bug killer. Nothing works. The fumes give me a chronic cough and make my eyes itch.

If I tell the landlord, there’ll be worse horrors. Send in the bug sniffing dogs. Pack up everything in the apartment. Throw away books. Leave for 2 days while the exterminators go through my piggy bank to see what they can get away with. And worse, I’ll be blamed for it. Allowing my homeless pal to sleep on the couch… my nephew… visitors from Japan. I pay $870 rent… you don’t think they’re looking for a way to kick me out?

I guess I could call an exterminator myself… not tell the landlord. Leslie says: Individuals can expect to pay between $300 and $5,000 for bed bug extermination, with an average cost of $1,750. Sure, what’s an extra couple thousand bucks on my $400-a-month teacher’s pay?

Ok, I’ll itch. My homeless pal… my guests… my nephew… Sid Yiddish... will suffer the scabs. The only alternative is to tear off my skin.

PART TWO: Me in 1933: Did you know that the government is infecting Negroes with syphilis so they can see what happens to ordinary people?

Literary Device 1933: Mykel, you’re such a paranoid pawn. So American paranoid. You know in 20 years all the conspiracies will be communist? In 90 years, all the conspiracies will be alt right. You’re just the beginning. Anything you don’t like will be a conspiracy. To quote you, You’re Wrong!

FLASH TO NOW: the syphilis experiments WERE a conspiracy. A real thing. An evil conspiracy, conducted by the US government (Public Health Service) from 1932 to 1972. Leslie tells me The experiments were carried out on a group of African American men in Tuskegee, Alabama, who were purposely infected with syphilis. The goal of the study was to observe the natural progression of the disease when left untreated. The participants were not informed of their diagnosis and were denied proper treatment, even after penicillin became widely available as a cure for syphilis. Don’t you see you fuckin’ Literary Device? Conspiracies are real!

“But Mykel,” is the Device comeback, “because something is true, doesn’t mean EVERYTHING is true. In the 50s it was communism. In this century it’s TERRORISTS. Sure there may be conspiracies, but not everything is a conspiracy.”

For once, old Literary Device is right… well, partially right anyway. Right now, it’s true that anyone who finds a group of people they don’t like call that group’s actions A CONSPIRACY. Try to steal the last election? It’s a conspiracy of Trump supporters or Biden supporters… take your pick. Black Lives Matter? A conspiracy of Anti-Fa. COVID? A conspiracy of vaccine manufacturers.

A friend of mine told me that the 5G network antennas can cause cancer or some brain dysfunction. “It’s a conspiracy,” I reply. “I’ve heard.”

“No conspiracy,” she says. “Was it a conspiracy to say smoking causes cancer? It just happens… side effect –not conspiracy.”

I feel like shit for jumping on the bandwagon. SOME conspiracies are real. The Alabama experiment WAS a conspiracy. There have been secret plots to kill Castro… REAL conspiracy. I can’t be sure, but I’d guess most conspiracies AREN’T. They’re just similar people benefiting from the same action.

I’ve written before about how recycling encourages consumption. “You bought 40 individual bottles of water? Don’t you think that’s wasteful?”

“Wasteful? No! I recycle those bottles.”

Leslie says that only 9% of plastic is actually recycled. The rest goes into landfill… or bird-choking in the Atlantic/Pacific. I can tell you that ZERO percent of plastic NOT bought in the first place ends up around a seagull’s neck.

I’ve written about the recycling hoax before. But wait! There’s more!

EVERYTHING you do is used against you. I just got these two question on a recent survey. What are they trying to sell. A wind-powered router maybe?











Awww come on! But wait! There’s EVEN more!

FLASH TO THE PSYCH WARD: “Good morning Mr. Santos. It’s time for your medication. How’re you feeling today?”

“I dunno… I feel on the edge… not quite ready to make stuff up, but too tired to... you know… get out of bed.”

“Aww poor baby!” says the nurse. “Don’t worry Georgie. Allison is here. Take your lithie, bubeleh, and you can get right back to those big bad halls of congress.”

Yeah, I’m talking lithium. When I was running around breaking windows and sleeping 12 hours a day, lithium is what was in the bathroom bottle that I never used. Anyone who was off their meds was off their lithium.

Today, lithium is in everything. Teslas, that computer or cellphone you’re using to read this right now, e-bikes, where it explodes and has burned to death over 100 people in New York alone. There’s no end to lithium. It’s what powers the tree huggers.

Sure, use electric vehicles and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. You’re helping the earth. Where do you think lithium comes from? A touch from God to say thank you for saving the environment? Think again! (As if you thought in the first place.)

Leslie tells me that lithium comes from the same place OIL comes from. It’s dug up and spurted out. Lithium, like oil, is earth’s ejaculation… but without the balls to replenish it. “Brine extraction,” says Leslie, “is the most common method for obtaining lithium. It involves pumping brine from underground reservoirs known as salars or salt flats. The brine is then pumped into large evaporation ponds, where it is exposed to the sun and wind. Over time, the water evaporates, leaving behind concentrated lithium salts. The concentrated lithium salts are further processed using (deadly) chemicals.

Oh yeah, there is one other way to get lithium. NOT the same as oil, but the same as coal. Yeah, you plastic saver, lithium is MINED. The ore is dug up in mines, crushed and then undergoes a series of nasty chemical processes to separate the lithium from other minerals. One common method is called "concentrate roasting," where the ore is heated to high temperatures to convert lithium minerals into a more soluble form. The soluble lithium compounds are then leached out using other nasty chemicals. Don’t believe me? Ask Leslie!

And then what? After the lithium is made into batteries, those batteries have to be charged. Using electricity from where? Does your Tesla plug into its charger and use the power you supply by spinning the stationary bike parked next to the machine? How many humans’ skin melted away from cars alone? Leslie seems reticent to make a guess:

My knowledge only extends up to January 2022. As of that time, there have been instances of lithium-ion battery fires in electric vehicles, but the exact number can vary, and new incidents may have occurred since then. It's important to note that while lithium-ion batteries are generally considered safe, incidents can happen due to various factors such as manufacturing defects, damage to the battery, or external factors like accidents.

I can see the wealthier of you puffing out your chests. “Hah! I use solar power to power my electric charger. Take that Mykel Board contrarian.”

Yo! Mister environmentalist. What do you think is the main source of power in solar energy batteries? It’s LITHIUM! The same welled and mined chemical that’s dug up to put in your car battery.

Get it? It’s all a trick… a con… Your $200,000 Tesla, your solar roof, your recycling does nothing but encourage consumption. Your e-bike, your e-car, your solar-powered house. It’s marketing… the “e-” is no more “environmental” than the “X-” in X-ray is Twitter.

Lithium mining may not yet surpass the damage that coal mining and oil-drilling is now causing… but it will. And the Radical Chic, shown off by Tesla parading Steven King or Bill Gates is just so much free advertising for Elon Musk.

Environmentalism is a way for rich people to become richer. It’s a way to encourage people to consume more—guilt free. Spend more money! It’s good for the earth, they tell you. No, it’s not a conspiracy, unless capitalism is a conspiracy. Come to think of it…


See you in hell

Mykel Board


ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at mykelboard@gmail.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Send me an email with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Back blogs and columns are at https://mykelsblog.blogspot.com]

The Arab News reports that Islamic pilgrimages to Mecca now “resemble a trip to Disneyland.” The area has been overcome with “selfie fever”… the pilgrims bragging more than praying. Worse, “Mecca is often experienced more as a tour package centered around shopping malls rather than religious structures.” Capitalism can eat anything and spit it out any way you want it. Allah will not protect you.

The Japan Times has a fun story about Tosatsu, a Japanese shoe company. It seems they were making special shoes that included an upskirt camera in them. The wearer could use a toe to turn the camera on and off as the occasion calls for. Local cops got wind of the invention and were soon sifting through the company’s books to find, one-by-one, purchasers of the shoes. The charge: Aiding Voyeurism I wonder if binocular companies will be next.

On a more serious note: Bernie Sanders continues to show his sharp outlook and what SHOULD be called “political correctness” because it’s about politics, and it’s correct:

The horrific war in the mid-east continues. Here is a statement I released yesterday with my thoughts about a constructive path forward.

Gaza is a humanitarian disaster. No more aid to Israel without strong conditions.

Hamas is a corrupt terrorist organization which began this war by slaughtering 1,200 innocent Israeli men, women and children and taking over 200 hostages. Hamas has made clear, before and after October 7, that its goal is to destroy Israel. Under those circumstances, Israel absolutely has the right to defend itself.

While Israel has the right to go after Hamas, Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government does not have the right to wage almost total warfare against the Palestinian people. That is morally unacceptable and in violation of international law. Displacing 1.6 million people from their homes, cutting off food, water, medical supplies, and fuel, and killing some 12,000 Palestinians - nearly half of whom are children - is in violation of every code of human decency. It must stop.

The U.S. provides $3.8 billion a year in aid to Israel and the Biden administration wants $14 billion more. The Netanyahu government, or hopefully a new Israeli government, must understand that not one penny will be coming to Israel from the U.S. unless there is a fundamental change in their military and political positions. Among other conditions that must be imposed upon any aid to Israel are:

* an end to the indiscriminate bombing which has taken thousands of civilian lives and a significant pause in military operations so that massive humanitarian assistance can come into the region;

* the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes;

* no long-term Israeli re-occupation or blockade of Gaza;

* an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a freeze on settlement expansion;

* a commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of the war.

Thank you for reading

In solidarity, Bernie Sanders

Bonus:




















LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I did a nice interview with The Aither zine. Interesting questions, complete, and questions I’ve never been asked before. You can read it here. It’s a good one.

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends and enemies in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.


Here's a start:

Video of the week: My long-time friend Sid Yiddish appears on a YouTube DatingGame-like video. Guess who wins the bachlorette!

Here’s Richard Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

George Fertakis has a very nice graphics-heavy blog... with music and books featured prominently. If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

And connect to TRUST Zine, a long-running German punk zine… that STILL PRINTS!!! Yeah, they have a website too… of course! It’s here.

Here are a couple video links.

This from Jon Cox https://squelchchamber1.bandcamp.com/album/down-so-low

And this one from my very long-time friend Roger Armstrong.

Jim Testa moved his long running zine, Jersey Beat, to the blogosphere awhile back. You can read it here. Jim also recommended a kind of unique album… in a style you don’t see to much of these days… or any days. Neo-Hassidic Rock Opera. You can stream the album here.

Kyle Nonneman is in prison in Portland. At least he can’t be kidnapped by the secret police… I think. I post his blog for him, he can’t do it from the klink. Lots of stuff about noise metal… and some very weird politics that will either fascinate or repulse you… or both.

My long time pal, Jim Hayes rightfully complained about my leaving out his blog. He’s a great writer, so it was a tragic omission. Here it is.

Oh yeah, then there’s me. I have a blog of stuff I’ve written mostly from last century. You might enjoy it. Then again, you might not. It’s here.


Let me know if you have a blog… or a print zine… or a YouTube and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com



Wednesday, November 01, 2023

What Happens in Las Vegas ... or Mykel's Blog for November 2023

What Happens in Las Vegas ... or Mykel's Blog for November 2023


You’re STILL Wrong
or
Mykel's November 2023 Blog/Column 
What happens In Las Vegas    

by Mykel Board

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If it gives you cancer, make lemonade and spike it.” – Unknown

“Las Vegas: all the amenities of modern society in a habitat unfit to grow a tomato.”
                                                 – Jason Love

“For a loser, Vegas is the meanest town on earth.”
                                                – Hunter S. Thompson


Some point to the horrors of the Israeli – Palestinian war… where bombing by the Palestinians is terrorism and bombing by Israelis is air strikes. I point in a different way… to the bulging cotton in my Depends… weighting me down… sloshing right and left… forcing me to walk like a cowboy just dismounted from a 20 mile ride on his appaloosa. Evil to the right. Evil to the left. You cannot doubt that there is a God… and she’s a bitch. So much evil… so much wrong… so much pain… so many embarrassing leg drips do not happen by accident. If there’s a coin toss and after 25 flips you haven’t won once… you know the game is fixed. God did it.

So back to my full Depends. No... further… to the doctor who said my cancer was “still operable.” Just a shot and 5 times with my legs spread for the cyberknife… and I’ll be right as rain. Oh yeah, THE SHOT.

“The cancer feeds off of testosterone,” says Dr. Marrans. “If we get rid of the testosterone, the cancer will starve to death. One shot of this super anti-testosterone magic elixir… and blam! Good-bye testosterone!”

“And what are the side effects?” I ask.

“Nothing good,” answers the doc. “You’ll go through menopause… hot flashes… fatigue… temper tantrums. And…”

He points toward me with an outstretched index finger. Then, he gradually relaxes the finger until it points toward the floor.

I flush hot... right there… before any needles... my testosterone still at my horny 73 year old level. But the shot I get. My insurance company tells me it costs $2180. They’ll pay a chunk of it.

The cyber-surgery itself is no problem. No doctors in the room, just the control panelists outside and a scary robot arm inside. I can choose the artist of my choice to sing to me during the operation. I change it ever day: Louis Armstrong, Patti Smith, Frank Sinatra, John Cale… I avoid any band with DEAD in the name… Boys, Kennedys, Grateful, Milkmen… It might be bad luck or spook the robot operator. You never know. Frank Sinatra should be safe… soothing to all of us. I’m lying there and the first song starts:

And now the end is near...
And so I face that final curtain

This does not bode well

But the surgery goes smoothly… five treatments over six months. After the last one, the technician takes me into a special room with an old fashioned bell. “You’re done with the surgery! Ring the bell.” he says. I grab the rope attached to the clapper and swing it back and forth… heralding in the start of my misery.

On the way home from that final surgery… on the subway… I piss in my pants. It’s only been worse from there. Hot flashes… always tired… farting up a storm… pubes fall out… it doesn’t end. I haven’t had a hard-on in six months. And suddenly, my left eye doesn’t see straight lines.

I look at the edge of a table, or the top of an elevator door and I see a bump… a flare… something that’s not there. My macular degeneration has… like my Depends... gone from dry to wet. Pow! Off to the eye doctor.

“Sorry, Mykel” he says, “it’s not my department. You have to see a retinologist... and you need to do it fast.”

Eyeball shots. I need eyeball shots. A hypodermic filled with some magical –unimaginably expensive– liquid… PACHOOKII! Right in the eyeball… and that fixes it right up… yeah right. Every 5 weeks another eye poke. Feels like I have a small pebble in my eye for a day… for the rest of the week it just itches.

I wonder if the Brooklyn Bridge still has space enough to let me climb over and jump. But I get on with my life.

Now, I should tell you about THE GIRL… but you need some context.

CONTEXT: Couch-surfing,org is like Air BNB for free. Well, you do have to pay a yearly membership fee. But after that, there’s no charge at all. You don’t need to pay to stay. You just flop on someone’s couch, or sometimes even a bed. It’s like touring with a punk rock band. You converse with with your hosts, make friends, maybe go out together. I’ve couch-surfed in at least 10 countries. And the best meal that’s ever been cooked on my NYC stove has been cooked by 2 couch-surfers from Lebanon. I don’t know how they found the ingredients here, but whoa boy… they got it right. They stayed five nights I think. The microwave got a rest.

Every Tuesday, there’s a couch-surfer meet-up at the Peculier Pub just down the street from me. I go when I’m not teaching. I like to sit at the head of the long table where the surfers meet, then go their separate ways to circulate among the crowd. It’s about fifty percent locals and fifty percent people from everywhere… Alaska to Saudi Arabia and most everywhere else.

It’s surfers and surfees… mostly 20/30 somethings… a couple of actual adults. I’m probably the oldest. The crew at our table grows and shrinks… people from Mexico, Croatia, Dusseldorf and the Lower East Side. As a natural show-off, I switch my vernacular when I can and offer to teach “cheers” in various languages. I usually lie. Ask your Serbian friends what Pitchka Ti Mate means. Those couch surfers think it means cheers.

A butch young woman… in her twenties comes to the table. Butch... young... woman… need I say more? If I weren’t just cyberknifed, my throbbing throbber would make me unable to walk from the table to the bar. “Is that a double-A battery in your pocket or are you happy to see me

But tonight, I can only greet her and entertain her with my German translation of “cheers”… Leck mich am Arsch. We talk in English and German. She plays guitar and loves punk rock. And I’m the most famous punk-rocker no one has ever heard of. I’m in heaven… except for the limpy. Her name is Lucie.

She’s surfing with somebody in Brooklyn, but she’ll meet me tomorrow for a punkrock tour of the lower East Side. FLASH TO THERE

“This is where CBGBs used to be”… we walk inside the fashion store.

I walk to the back, and make a broad hand gesture.

“This is where the stage was… yes, I played on it… and around the side in the back was the dressing room. And the bathrooms… I never went to the ladies, but the mens room was a piece of art… The toilet was by itself.. no walls around it… up on sort of a stage.”


Then we go outside to Joey Ramone Way, and I take a picture of her under the street sign. We talk punk.

You know,” she says, “there’s a punk rock museum that just opened in Las Vegas. We should go there.”

I’m in love.

Bonus: I soon find that my old pal Fat Mike from NO FX is a big macher at the museum. AND he now lives in Las Vegas. Hooeeee I could impress her with that. Maybe I could even get him to take us on a tour… show us the Mykel Board Room… I could sign autographs for the other museum visitors.

Let’s do it.” I tell her. “You set a time. I’ll meet you there… in the desert. Las Vegas is a strange city. I haven’t been there in decades though. It’ll be fun.”

That’s what I say. What I think is: “Fuck you God. Here I am with a punk rock girl who wants to go to Las Vegas with me and I’m wearing diapers and couldn’t get a hard-on if a 1976 Joan Jett and a 1979 Leif Garrett danced naked in my living room.” But still... Just to hang out with her. Spend some time talking punkrock. Hold her in my arms as I fall into a farting, get-up-to-piss, snot-dribbling sleep. Ah what a joy that would be.

Don’t worry Mykel,” she says, “I’ll take care of reservations and stuff.”

We split with a hug and the next day she returns to Germany. It isn’t long after that we connect on WhatsApp.

Hey Mykel,” she writes, “dates are fixed and I booked a place for us.”

Ahhhh… If it weren’t for the hormone shot… if… if… if…

So I book my round trip ticket to Vegas. I’ll stay a week… maybe once I can… well, even if I can’t. She’s just so cool, just sharing a bed will bring me dreams to dream about. A couple weeks later back comes the WhatsApp message: All booked, Mykel. Got us three nights at The Sin City Complex. We can walk to the punkrock museum from there.

Three nights?” I whine. “I’ve got a week!”

“I’m meeting a girlfriend,” comes the reply. “We want to go to Grand Canyon and stuff, sorry”

Oy.

The Sin City Complex is easy to spot. It’s across from a mural/painting of a girl puking into a toilet with a graffiti-esque caption “Vegas Night!”:


I go inside to check in. I give my name to the desk clerk and explain that Lucie booked the room. She looks it up.

“I gotcha,” she says. “You’re in room eight… bed three.”

“Bed three?” I ask.

She nods. “If you’d prefer a top bunk,” she tells me, “I think one’s available.”

After I download the room key on my phone, I trudge upstairs to the 8-bed (4 bunk beds) room, stick my backpack into a locker… hold back a tear or two and head downstairs to find some place for lunch. Lucie hasn’t arrived yet and I need some air conditioning. I’m having a hot flash.

See you in hell,

Mykel Board


ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at mykelboard@gmail.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Send me an email with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Back blogs and columns are at https://mykelsblog.blogspot.com]

Admissions dept: It really wasn’t as bad as I made it sound, although we had a horrible snorer in bed number 5. Lucie was a terrific companion, and we did meet up with Fat Mike who gave us a tour of the museum. Mike was really great to us. Besides the tour he gave me a copy of the NOFX book… a NY Times best seller... really! We also got to the Double Down Saloon and saw the great band Franks and Deans… and they had a stripper… 2 strippers as a matter of fact. People were friendly, and Anil, my pal of 40 years, took Lucie and me out for a patty dinner. Delicious! I also went to the Mob Museum, to spend some time with Al Capone and some model electric chairs. You can see my Las Vegas pictures here.

Giving Good (Doll)head dept: Lucie introduced me to THE DOLLHEADS, a very young band (13 year old drummer) with a great sense of humor. We met up at the museum. There is a “jam room” upstairs. The band played up a storm, and Lucy joined in for a rendition of 99 Red Balloons. It was one of the many highlights of my stay. Actually, I had fun.

I missed this in Vegas Dept: After I got back home, I read a news story about what happened before I got there. Mysterious brown or black droplets fell from the sky on some Las Vegas homes. One resident said the droplets had rained on his home, cars, RV, basketball court, and just about everything else for three to four weeks.

"It could be grease? Oil? I don't know," said the home owner while looking at the hood of his mystery liquid coated SUV. "It's very hard to maintain my vehicles. It's very very difficult to be outside in my backyard knowing that I can't even cook or barbecue or anything like that because of droplets on my food."

See you in hell redux,
MB


THE NATION AGAIN

I’m a long-time subscriber to the The Nation. It’s the only lefty publication that I find myself not only agreeing with, but also getting inspiration from. Strangely, when I post this stuff on facebook, no one looks at it. My “friends” would just rather call me a “Trumpist” or a “Republican” for all the times I don’t follow the party line. If it’s printed in THE NATION, it should give me street cred, right? Yeah right.

Just when Bill Gates has almost rehabilitated himself, here’s more information about how he’s working with Big-Farm on genetically modified seeds that help destroy small farmers in Africa.

And Sascha Cohen writes about a new law that supposedly helps “sex-trafficked” people, but actually endangers them.

And I just found an old (2018) article that questions the believe the woman focus of #MeToo# and shows how things can be different (better) without the pre-conceptions.


LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I did a nice interview with The Aither zine. Interesting questions, complete, and questions I’ve never been asked before. You can read it here. It’s a good one.

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends and enemies in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.

Here's a start:

Jason Rodgers sent me his book Invisible Generation… free! And I lost it. Jason, a long-time partner of Suzy Poe, has been bugging me to review it… and I can’t. So the best I can do is promote it. I have a lot of respect for Jason… he is a libertarian (in the best sense of the word), and a super-smart guy. When/if I find the book, I’ll give you some more details.

Video of the week: My long-time friend Sid Yiddish appears on a YouTube DatingGame-like video. Guess who wins the bachlorette!

Here’s Richard Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

George Fertakis has a very nice graphics-heavy blog... with music and books featured prominently. If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

And connect to TRUST Zine, a long-running German punk zine… that STILL PRINTS!!! Yeah, they have a website too… of course! It’s here.

Here are a couple video links.

This from Jon Cox https://squelchchamber1.bandcamp.com/album/down-so-low

And this one from my very long-time friend Roger Armstrong.

Jim Testa moved his long running zine, Jersey Beat, to the blogosphere awhile back. You can read it here. Jim also recommended a kind of unique album… in a style you don’t see to much of these days… or any days. Neo-Hassidic Rock Opera. You can stream the album here.

Kyle Nonneman is in prison in Portland. At least he can’t be kidnapped by the secret police… I think. I post his blog for him, he can’t do it from the klink. Lots of stuff about noise metal… and some very weird politics that will either fascinate or repulse you… or both.

My long time pal, Jim Hayes rightfully complained about my leaving out his blog. He’s a great writer, so it was a tragic omission. Here it is.

Oh yeah, then there’s me. I have a blog of stuff I’ve written mostly from last century. You might enjoy it. Then again, you might not. It’s here.


Let me know if you have a blog… or a print zine… or a YouTube and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com


MB

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