update; how to not get rich/drunk on eggnog, etc./part 3

update; how to not get rich/drunk on eggnog, etc./part3

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Update

Breaking news

Yesterday INO.  Inovio Pharma announced plans to issue 18,900.000 [million] shares of common stock at $2.90 per share in a few weeks. This is the same INO that author had touted but not recommended recently.

Management always seems to know when to issue more stock.  Let's hope they do as well in the phase three trials in pursuit of a cancer cure.

As author mentioned in December dilution of common stock is always a risk for investors who unlike management must buy their stock with real money. No bit coins accepted.

California's budget update; please things aren't that bad

California's budget update; please things aren't that bad

fiction
edward w pritchard


I must have read a dozen articles between 2008 and 2012 about the imminent demise of the grand State of California because of reckless spending and a widespread inability to raise taxes and fees to pay for things. Please, things aren't that bad in California it seems. 

I had a chance to see a chart in "Investor Daily" from the California department of Finance showing Revenues are ahead of expenses in California and based on their projections [ department of finance] will be so at least for the next year or two barring a recession or unforeseen occurrence.

How many times have we read that California and other States should run their shop like an American business would? Well, of late California has it's house is in order and is chipping away at the long term debt ran up by previous administrations. Like any government entity there is a propensity to over spend and over promise in California but for now Governor Jerry Brown has silenced most of his critics. At least critics of his budgetary policy and the results achieved to date.

Critics, I can't hear you. Wasn't California the poster child for all the Government entities that were going to implode under mountains of debt? By now wasn't California supposed to be bankrupt?

Run California like an American business? I might have missed it but I don't recall California lining up for TARP funds back in 2009. Critics of public employees and bureaucrats, I can't hear you.

Apologize to the grand State of California and Governor Brown.

certainly one of the world's finest paintings

certainly one of the world's finest paintings

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

author will post the picture soon, temporary technical difficulties, assistance needed

Rogier Van Der Weyden's 1435 painting " Deposition" displayed at the Prado, Madrid Spain is certainly one of the world's finest paintings.

Christ is dead and about to be removed from the cross and will be placed in his Mother's lap. Mary in grief and agony has fainted.

Some  men support the body of Christ as it is lowered, a man and a woman support Mary as she swoons. One women, another Mary cries genuine tears of grief and another Mary, Mary Magdalene cries and prays.

Van Der Weyden presents extreme emotion but it is personal, contained and appropriate.

If you were there and saw the holes in the backs of the hands and feet would you be able to believe that this crumbled dead body would rise again? Could you see anything more than a dead man?

Mindfulness. Is it an appropriate philosophy for us to have to always see things clearly and rationally?

Could you believe in resurrection if you helped lower a limp lifeless form from a bleak Roman cross?

 How do we reconcile what are our eyes see, our mind knows and our hearts feel?

Author saw this picture. It's a haunting image.

just a dreamer looking for the romantic side of life

just a dreamer looking for the romantic side of life

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


When I go to see Romeo and Juliet performed I don't want to see Juliet break character before, during or after the performance.

When I am introduced to some ones new baby I don't want to hear a cynic tell me that the beautiful child will soon be old, bent and gray.

When I see a bride at a wedding throw a bouquet enthusiastically over her shoulder I don't want to be reminded that there is a 50% chance one of the couple will fly the nest.

When I watch a son skillfully kick and dribble the soccer ball from foot to foot I want to pretend he will make the pro's someday and buy his family a mansion on a hill with his signing bonus.

If I fail in my paternal duties as the guardian of community morality and upholder of the common good now a days, forgive me. Life has become too real for me.

I wish children to be always unique, brides always enthusiastic, boys always budding superstars and the world to be really a stage where all the lines are delivered genuinely and timely by beautiful characters.

I am just a dreamer looking for the romantic side of life. Let mornings be breezy, afternoons be filled with warm gentle rains and evening skies be pregnant with swirling galaxies, winking stars, lonely planets and sorrowful Moons.

Don't break character, things look so much better when we stick to the script.

update; how to not get rich/drunk on eggnog, etc.

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Let's revisit the two stocks mentioned in my irrational exuberance article on December 26, 2013.

The stocks were INO and VISN. Both are still flying high in the stock market.

 INO was up 15% yesterday and is strong out of the blocks today. Since mid December 2013 INO is up 60%.

VISN has somehow held it's magnificent gains made in December. VISN still trades in the mid 20's.

Author does not give stock advice. If He did it would be to be careful of buying stocks with no earnings to speak of. Still stocks with no earnings are what the stock market today seems to like.

Not in the stock market? Real people will have to work real hard to keep up with their friends and neighbors who are fortunate enough to be fully invested now.

Original story below for reference.


drunk on eggnog; why the stock market is crazy around Christmas

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

It happened again, two concept stocks that I once owned are going ballistic today to the up side. INO and VISN, the first INO a biotech with " a one of a kind technology to deliver a treatment for prostrate cancer" and the second VISN a Chinese advertising company once the first of it's kind in China to post ads on cross town buses. Both are up to recent highs with VISN now trading in the stratosphere with no earnings in sight and up 400% in the last few weeks at 500% above it's 200 day moving average.

I own neither stock, my stock ownership now days is limited to stocked two pound boxes of oatmeal saved in the pantry for coming hard times.

Why do some stocks behave like this around Christmas? VISN is  difficult for American investors to short and financial updates are sketchy. With a small float and limited analyst coverage it is a favorite of the pump and dump crowd [IMO]. It trades on hope and hope abounds at Christmas time. Watch it soar until the professional traders return to work Jan 2, 2014 and market irregularities are corrected by sober analysis.

INO has potential but regularly needs more cash to continue research which is dilutive to existing shareholders. It negotiated  an arrangement  with a large pharmaceutical last year but such companies are quite fickle in their affections in my opinion. Additionally it has a limited pipeline IMO.

Why do small companies successfully trade on a wing and a prayer around Christmas? Professional traders take a few weeks off and the wing and a prayer crowd control the market for a few days around year end, or perhaps traders are drunk on eggnog temporarily.

Note
author does not give stock advice and has no financial interest in anything concrete anymore, but if I did own a small cap speculative stock now, up 400 % in a few weeks, near Christmas,  I would sell, sell, sell and take my profits to the Goodwill and buy myself some new clothes.

NSA prism program; I hide in plain sight from you

NSA prism program; I hide in plain sight from you

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


NSA, I hide in plain sight from you. I am flattered to hear you have been reading my " stories" and mining my data.

Since I do not use facebookings or twitterers I appreciate the extra effort your agents must take to find information on me. It is difficult I know for your agents to read these "convoluted ramblings" as my critics call my writing and I do not hold it against your people for not finishing reading the majority of my blogs, reading only until they get the gist of what is not being said in each posting.

As far as reporting and monitoring my whereabouts, as revealed by where I log into the Internet from or where my phone is, for national security reasons or selling such information at a profit to advertisers, profilers and the pervertedly curious; I am ashamed to report that I have become rather boring in my old age. I no longer frequent strip clubs, dive bars and seldom stay at gambling casinos for more than a few hours at a time and never all night.

Still I appreciate your including me as an important member of your Orwellian network and if I should ever join facebookings or another social network I understand that your information gathering efforts will become easier for you since those publicly traded companies voluntarily act as your middle man and are willing participants in your Orwellian activities.

Last and most important I am glad your prism people read my writing. I have so few readers, I am flattered by the attention. As for your staff not understanding what I mean when I write, don't criticize them, no one understands what I write. That's half the fun I believe.
end
Inspired by "Mother Jones" magazine;
rage against the machine

it's all about Plato's analogy of the shadows on the cave wall

it's all about Plato's analogy of the shadows on the cave wall

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


I don't understand what you mean.

It's a feedback loop. That's all. Self correcting.

I hear you but I don't understand.  

It's all about Plato's analogy of the shadows on the wall of the cave.

But, life is but a walking shadow.

It's time to go soon.

the American chakra

the American chakra

fiction
Edward w Pritchard




Located in the hands, the American chakra's symbol is a $ sometimes in the middle of a  gold bar. Color is gold [or silver] . Smell is unguent but may become foul.

The will to grasp precedes arms and hands. Original urge is security and warmth, ancient urge to nest, to engulf oneself in piles of leaves for protection. Once that basic need is mastered acquisition matures to storing of items and eventually to hiding of valuables. Related is the desire to live on after physical deterioration and destruction, hence gold which cannot be destroyed.

Counter energy is hands pushing away as if enough or no more. Asceticism or voluntary denial may become pathetic if observed too openly. Also suspect is desire to please by giving.

Flower for American chakra would be an extravagant bouquet of vanishing multicolored rare, endangered orchids that must be kept in a hot house. Each day new beauties must be added.

Balance is sharing as in hands pulling, hands pushing way as appropriate. Each according to their needs. Union or reunion resulting in temporary balance is difficult.

resting on my elbows I carefully picked plants and herbs for a Spring tonic

Resting on my elbows I carefully picked plants and herbs for a Spring tonic

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Winter would not subside this year and all of the innate goodness in me had perished. No one had slapped me in two quarters of a century; my body, my soul and my mind were disjointed and fractured and I had a burning unquenchable thirst to connect to the earth I stood above.

Frozen and alone up Looked I. Stars and galaxies were aligned in the southern sky. Sharp as stomach pain star light replenished my sapped original being with vitamin D and elemental potassium.

Dropping hard to the cleaving ground, resting on my elbows I carefully picked plants and herbs for a spring tonic. Using a leaking bucket I sloshed half frozen water from the pond being mindful to scoop a few appropriately reflected stars and galaxies from the skies above into my concoction.

Crossing my arms in front of me I tapped my open palms to my temples three times and repeated a few foreign forgotten chants from my ancestors before I drank and gulped half of elixir in the bucket.

Hearing returned first; turning my head to the West I searched for the wind. I felt the pulse of small animals moving behind me.

For a long time I sat with crossed knees on the chilled ground and thought and planned this years garden. As I sat under the stars, heavily on the ground the cold wind caressed me from the West as new thoughts and inspirations were born unto me. Renewed I wait for Spring.   

my plan is to do a little sight seeing here at home until the stock and bond markets settle down/ part 2

my plan is to do a little sight seeing here at home until the stock and bond markets settle down/ part 2

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


All these mobile app and ghost in the machine companies like Facebook, Pandora, Groupon, Twitter and LinkedIn have got me nervous. Does anyone do any actual business anymore?

In the 1955 movie " We're No Angels"  Humphrey Bogart plays the convicted Accountant who helps the nice family he stays with while he hides out from the guards at Devil's island, where he is imprisoned for stock fraud. When asked why and how he cooks the books and the balance sheets for the companies he represents suave Humphrey Bogart dryly says " [there are] no factories just stockholders".

That's how these multi billion dollar market cap mobile app ghost in the machine new age companies seem to me, " no factories just stockholders". Not enough hard assets to justify the elevated stock prices and market capitalizations. The new social media companies attract large groups of ordinary followers into a sort of club and then the new generation of social media companies propose as their business model to refer their club members to other potential businesses such as dry cleaners, restaurants and to link job seekers with job providers. Membership and referral fees finance the entire endeavor.

Problem is the club members herded together into the clubs and social networks are having difficulty in starting their economic lives because jobs are scarce. For a hundred reasons real factory jobs no longer exist much in America. The club members are under employed and tapped out.

Does anybody do any real business in America anymore? Don't ask me, I post on a blog while I patiently wait for the imaginary advertising revenues to begin to role in when I attract an imaginary  network of followers.

circle the wagons

circle the wagons

fiction
Edward w Pritchard




Women are running the Federal Reserve now

It was becoming difficult and cumbersome for voting members of the federal reserves open market advisory committee to meet all the time because of the frequency of face to face sessions required by turbulence in economies and markets. Using The Federal Reserve systems petty cash account voting members of the Federal Reserve system were permitted and encouraged to buy a super large RV motor home to travel to various meeting locations.

Each mobile RV used and owned by Federal Reserve members cost a hundred thousand dollars or more to purchase and up to one million dollars to decorate. Female voting members of the Federal Reserve were required to have pink RV's and male directors of the Federal reserve had blue RV's. The RV were luxurious and well laid out cool; even a rock star, Diva or major league baseball player would be jealous of how neat and homey the interiors of the expensive RV's were.

Each week a secret spot in Florida or California would host a secret budget meeting of the Federal  Reserve committee to stimulate or contract the economy. Twelve Super large RV's would be gathered in a tight circle and using a sliding window/ patio door that interconnected all the RV's the twelve members could sit in their own RV, sip brandy, Cognac or wine for the ladies and talk and decide how to keep the economy on track by expanding or contracting credit primarily through the interest rate mechanism but other fiscal and monetary methods were sometimes tried.

A cottage industry of reporters and spies watched major highways and roads in Florida or California  where the federal reserve emergency meetings were usually held to set interest rates and discount rates. Newspaper articles about how many pink RV's were seen this week in Florida moved world markets. Female voting members of the Federal Reserve open markets committee are notoriously soft hearted and often favor easy money policies so more people can have jobs and children can eat properly and not freeze in winters. The old saw in the Financial pages is more pink is more stimulation.

I learned about the RV's and Federal Reserve efforts to regulate and stimulate the economy by watching videos on You Tube about monster million dollar RV's of the rich and famous hosted by a famous rock star, although I hadn't heard of him myself. He would start the show about the Federal Reserve super large RV motor homes by taking a sledge hammer and bashing in the side of one of the pink RV's that needed redecorated.
end

London blitz, American indifference

London Blitz, American indifference

fiction
Edward w Pritchard



As London endured the blitz of German bombing in World War 2 while neutral American remained preoccupied with peace so tonight London financial markets confront economic news from China, Japan and Australia while New York Wall Street and America sleeps.

Sit underground in the tube, pull the curtains over the windows, send the children to the countryside; tell us cousin Britain what kind of financial mayhem can we expect from Asia when we wake from slumber tomorrow morning?

some people don't smile much

some people don't smile much

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Some people don't smile much and unfortunately for me I am one of them. Nature and nurture combined to make me this way.

Be assured though I smile in my heart when I see those I love. Also it makes me happy to see those I love able to smile.

Here's what I wrote before:

Saturday, October 22, 2011

wow them with the old smile

wow them with the old smile

fiction
edward w pritchard

Something significant happens in a movie and the camera pans from actor to actor allowing each movie star a few moments in the spotlight as they give tacit approval of the significant happening in that scene at that time in the movie; tacit approval being their award winning smile. Of course each actor have become a movie star because of their confident engaging smile. Not just the beautiful people in movies flash the old grin; even the aging and uncomely smile a lot in movies; unless they are bad guys and then they scowl mostly.

Some people don't smile much in real life. Too bad, no one understands why. There can be a lot of reasons why some people don't smile. Ask them, maybe they don't quite know how to express themselves that way. It could be cultural, it could be personal, it could be from way back, maybe three or four generations.

Life isn't really like a movie. Let everybody have a role and a part in what's going on. Everyone has something to add, even those who don't smile much.
end

a wing, a prayer, a frozen night and a continuing loud annoying noise

a wing, a prayer, a frozen night and a continuing loud annoying noise

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Brute neighbors, they come in all forms and they interrupt your serenity from all directions.

1:30 AM on a Friday night and a small plane has decided to circle one or twice over my neighborhood. It's too small a plane for secret military surveillance and it's too cold out for a sight seeing tour of my sleeping neighborhood. It's too cloudy out for astronomical studies of the mysteries of the night sky. There's nothing to see and nowhere to go except about and over a silent sleeping neighborhood.

What would motivate someone to spend the money on airplane fuel to buzz over and about a sleeping  suburban neighborhood at 1:30 AM. Why fly on a wing and a prayer just to interrupt a serene frozen night by creating a continual loud and annoying noise barrage?

Brute neighbors, they interrupt your serenity from all directions. If I could Understand my neighbor's  motivations I could know what God would be.

The Goddess with one million faces is my Valentine

The Goddess with one million faces is my Valentine

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Where I originally come from there is a Goddess with one million faces who bewitched me.

An enchanting face has one million components. One million components has an infinite number of combinations. An infinite number of combinations has one ultimate manifestation of consummate beauty. Consummate beauty glows blushed, percolated from darkness like a vanishing sound on a still wind in a black night.

Blow wind. Guide me back to the sound of my ultimate beauty. Let me see the chosen face once.

Once, once we stayed together in the cliff dwellings. In a soft stone wall we carved one room to habit.

From room to room I wander searching . Centuries pass.

Where is the Goddess with one million faces who bewitched me?   Subtle and exquisite is her seeping beauty. Directional winds bid me gaze upon her; into her net I seek frozen passion.

Valentine wishes from an self styled intellectual

Valentine's wishes from a self styled intellectual

fiction
Edward w Pritchard






Take what others see and transform it.  Jascha Heifitz plays his transcription of Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife."

Many can appreciate the music but only an artist can transform the emotion inherent in an idea.

Jascha Heifitz plays "Mack the Knife", "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" and " Old Folks at Home". It's not what we expect.

A little different perhaps, not odd just a bit unusual.





    

   

keeping up on the news at the all night barber shop

keeping up on the news at the all night barber shop

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Two or three times a month late at night I stop in at Howard's Barber shop in Greentown and catch all the latest gossip happening from Canton to Akron and get a very light trim on my haircut. Billie Howard the owner of Howard's Barber shop stays open all night. It's the only all night barber shop in these parts I suppose although I never checked into the matter.

Billie had some strange ideas but I loved being in his shop. First off the girls from the Canton Surge cheerleaders used to come in at all hours after a night of partying to have their hair dyed or their eye brows contoured so there was always a lot to look at Billie's all night Barber shop. Other nights if no beautiful women were around Billie would be pontificating on the economy or jobs situation locally.

Billie had an opinion on everything. That's not unusual for a barber but Billie used to listen to the news from Asia or Australia late at night and then predict what would happen locally with the stock market, jobs situation and interest rates. Billie was a real gas. Everything is connected Billie used to say.

Billie also would hear something about the civil War on television, or the underground sewer system in London, or how almonds were a cure for melancholy in a magazine or on television and then lecture for a few nights there at his shop on the subject. It was interesting to listen to and many nights even when I didn't need a haircut I would drive down and read a magazine and listen to Billie talk while he cut hair.

A few weeks ago I got into an argument with Billie Howard at his shop and I don't think I will be going back. Well maybe just for haircuts. Billie took me aside one night when no one else was around to hear and told me I should get some things to do in the middle of the night rather than to sit around in his all night barber shop when I didn't really need a haircut.

Billie hurt my feelings by what he said to me but even though I don't need  a haircut or a trim yet three nights in a row I have wanted to go down to his all night barber shop when I woke up in the middle of the night at three AM with nothing to do.

Billie Howard's Barber shop is bright late at night and sometimes there is a cheerleader or two there and I enjoy listening to Billie talk about interest rates in Australia or unemployment in America.

I think I will wait a few more days and then drive down to Billie Howard's all night barber shop if not for a haircut maybe to keep up on all the news happening overseas late at night and to get Billie's spin on how the world will be changed by what happens late at night in Asia or in Europe.

ambient music rained from the heavens above/ part 2

ambient music rained from the heavens above/part 2

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Sometimes I forget where I am but I never forget who I am. I had awoke in what looked to be Detroit. A future version of the city I had visited often as a boy. Only I was not a boy I was man of about fifty and I looked like a vagrant as I walked the eerie dark streets. I surveyed my dirty image in the broken windows of the crumbling department stores. It was no longer a glib teenager I saw but a scared looking old man. Sacred for good reason, I was in Detroit, the most dangerous city in America.

I had awaken from my unconscious fog again and I saw what my life had become clearly. I was a homeless vagrant, dirty and inconspicuous wandering about the most dangerous city in the world.

The vicious inner City gangs about paid me no mind as I stumbled about. I was humming to myself, sometimes singing aloud. I could see I was nearly invisible to others as they went about their dirty business of survival.

I was looking for something. It was near, in these narrow alleyways. Of course all the doors were locked, people here are inherently dangerous.

I had found it at last, the Catholic Church where I had stayed at night for the last two years. Of course all the doors were locked. I pounded tentatively on the thick oak door.

I was too early, come back in an hour said the smiling Brother.

I wandered about aimlessly. One of the drone police was following me overhead. A red laser light flickered across my face and back. I remembered the searing pain caused by the times I had been DNA scanned before. I remembered when I had been stunned and rinse fried by the overhead drones in the riots.

I put the backs of my hands over my eyes in the palms forward subservient position and began to loudly sing the " Sacrosanct" the anthem of the machine human interaction movement. The Police drone flashed me the green light; I was saved for now.

After the incident I was nauseous. I remembered the last twenty years of my life and how I had arrived at living in Detroit the most dangerous city on Earth and become a ward of the Drone police.

An hour was up, I hurried to the Catholic church for sanctuary. As I rushed through the streets even the most dangerous criminals avoided me. I had the mild burns of the red light from above still on my face.

Using the open palms of my hands I silently knocked on the oak door of the church. Brother Phillip helped me inside. Another night of preaching, cold soup and sermons awaited me.

Laying in the barracks late at night with the other vagrants I remembered when I was a small boy and worried about demons, spirits and devils late late at night in the Dark. As if on cue the green light of Drone police flickered across the stained glass windows of the church hall where we slept. Rocking slowly side to side out of habit I hummed the "Sacrosanct". Although I obviously was disturbing others no one objected tonight to my choice of music.
end part 2

my plan is to do a little sight seeing here at home until the stock and bond markets settle down

my plan is to do a little sightseeing here at home until the stock and bond markets settle down

fiction
Edward w Pritchard



My plan is to do a little sightseeing here at home until the stock and bond markets settle down and the PE ratios return to a more normal level.

All these mobile apps and ghost in the machine companies like Google, Facebook, Pandora, Twitter and LinkedIn have got me nervous. Does anyone do any actual business anymore?

When was the last time you met a farmer? There are loads and loads of over sized trucks on the road nowadays but employment in construction has plummeted. It's the same thing with horses; there are a lot of cowboy hats and shirts around but no one rides a horse into town anymore.

I am confused by the new economy here in America. Folks text each other over and over but they don't seem to have much to say at least when I hear them talking about their ordinary lives. These ghost in the machine new age companies spend millions to capture the eyeballs and ears of viewers and listeners but no one much is working, at least full time and no one much has any real discretionary income if you back out what they spend at restaurants, lottery and expensive overpriced designer beers, and premium gas for their monster trucks.

All these technology Internet providers are mining the same groups of customers who are struggling to make it in the economy of modern America because secure full time jobs and careers are difficult to find and it's axiomatic the ordinary people will have ordinary lives. At some point the details of our routine mundane lives do not justify being breaking news on social media. Also we really don't have to worry much about identity theft.

Me, I react to the drop in earnings, spending, and net worth in my life caused by drastic changes in the American economy by using brick and mortar companies rather than Amazon, not buying on line groceries or not posting what I will do day to day on Facebook or twitter.

If anyone is interested today I will go the goodwill for used books and the dollar store for a few supplies. I don't have a monster truck but I might wear a recycled cowboy shirt. I definitely won't post the details of my boring every day life on social media. About twice a month I go to the local community bank on business. That's another thing that confuses me about the modern American economy, how can Finance be 70% of the economy? It might be a sweeping statement for me to say that the finance sector is 70% of the economy, but I read it on a chat board.

How do all these new age businesses justify such large PE ratios and bloated market caps? Me, I won't be buying any of their stocks for now. My plan is to do a little sightseeing here at home until the stock and bond markets settle down and the PE ratios return to a more normal level.

staying one step ahead of the news

staying one step ahead of the news

fiction
Edward w Pritchard




Some one from the village had to make the arduous journey up the snowy steep mountain sides to give old hermit Crenshaw the news of the world.

Usually it was one of the elder men but if it was too snowy or cold one of the teen age boys would be sent.

When I was about seventeen they sent me in a blizzard to tell the hermit that the German armies had over run France and the Nazis were in Paris.

Mr. Crenshaw asked me into the cabin and gave me some heated brandy as we talked about the causes of War among civilized nations and people. We also talked a long time while I warmed up about life in the village and how different people hermit Crenshaw knew had changed in the last few years.

Before I left I spent a couple of hours splitting wood for Mr. Crenshaw's fire and used his axe to crack and carry ice from his pond to be boiled for water during the next cold snap if the well froze up.

Years later when I had children of my own I enjoyed telling my daughters about hermit Crenshaw and they used to enjoy trying to figure out the motivations of a hermit who chose to live in inaccessible places when there was so much going on in the villages and towns of the world.

spin a "b" side Mr. Fantasy

spin a "b" side Mr. Fantasy

fiction
Edward w Pritchard



Spin a "b" side Mr. Fantasy I am ruined with chasing the mystery woman in red.

Perhaps I will jump in line and covet riches or wait for fame.

Spin a 'b" side Mr. Fantasy I forget sometimes what to do when I swing that girl. Play guitar, make the song long; I have much work to do to reorient myself.

Hum along if you wish, Mr. Fantasy is about to play again. "Make us happy."

end

reference
Traffic
"Dear Mr. Fantasy"
"Make us happy"

Blue Oyster Cult
" I am burnin for you"
" time to play b sides"

ambient music rained from heavens above

ambient music rained from heavens above

fiction
Edward w Pritchard







After the drone armies gathered over head to find and liquefy Jimmy Johnson the car thief and revolutionary ambient music rained from the heavens above.

The drone police had taken the drastic step of using the liquefaction process to take out Jimmy Johnson and to soothe the riotous crowds the soft atonal melodies of the "Sacrosanct" drifted to our ears time after time until the crowds dispersed and we returned to our lives.

Twenty or twenty five flying drone officers cruised nervously overhead producing the eerie space surrounding half hour "Sacrosanct", the anthem of the machine human interaction movement until calmness and serenity returned to the City.

As I returned to my duties about the farm I could not get that tune out of my mind although while it played over and over I didn't really notice it playing, raining literally from the heavens above.

 Later that week, at the church where the services were held for Jimmie Johnson they played the " Sacrosanct" in Jimmie's tribute.

roadie etiquette

roadie etiquette

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Rules of etiquette change for roadies as the original band changes. Members of the group come and go but the original band name usually stays intact. Individual band members change with the success and failures that come with a life in and out of the spotlight and fame scars people in different ways.

Over the years a roadie's stamina will wane. A roadie may work at one thousand successful gigs but one blundering failure obscures decades of diligent effort. Sadly one bad setup is how a roadie will be remembered. Ultimately no one remembers a roadie or prints his picture on an album cover.

A roadies nickname will change occasionally. The changes that a roadies nickname go through are often more revealing of a roadies reputation and status with the band than the tone of voice the band members greet the roadie with in meetings after work or the fact that the roadie must stay at a cheaper hotel than the band members or no longer rides to gigs in a limo or a taxi when hitting a new town or exotic location.

A roadie knows he has become obsolete when instead of being moon scar or boner he becomes Mr. Johnson or "nuisance" to members of the group.

Of course original members of the band who are still around after half a century don't want to be reminded of their age especially by a roadie when he is carrying their guitar cases or setting up drums. Roadies should address band members only when necessary in the course of business and not be chummy or touchy feely with them. Roadies should not talk during meet and greets and shouldn't express personal opinions unless solicited. After work don't ask band members about their health or their private lives.

Roadies don't have pension plans and no one writes books or magazine articles about retired or replaced roadies.

Rules of etiquette for roadies change over time and a good roadie will have thick skin and not confuse proximately and access to band members with friendship or fame itself.

roger ebert; "celluloid heroes never feel any pain"

roger ebert; "celluloid heroes never feel any pain"

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

with reference to the "Kinks" "Every body's a star", "Sunny Afternoon"


See you in the movies said Roger Ebert although he never met me.

Judge me well Roger I only wanted to be a contender in life. Short on execution but long on hope; hope and dreams were my goals, plans and objectives.

It's a Kink's kind of day today. No sunshine, no dreams and the world collapsed in on itself.

A good day to share popcorn, a good day to sit with a girl with beautiful eyes. A good day to meet a movie star.  "Celluloid heroes never feel any pain". A good day to sit indoors at a movie on a sunny afternoon.

"Every body's a dreamer, every body's in pictures no matter who you are."

Let me live on the big screen instead of the window of my mini laptop computer.

Movies are timeless. Back thousands of years I can relive a hundred successful lives.

To the movies, "lazing on a sunny afternoon". I should have been a star. "Celluloid heroes never feel any pain".

Give my life four thumbs up Roger. An authentic performance, but short on execution.

as if in a cliff dwelling

as if in a cliff dwelling

fiction
Edward w Pritchard



A call from someone past
first a reminder that your number is lost
business done, irritation
it's been so long, for others you express information
silence, without feedback or humanity
as you talk
you are as if in a cliff dwelling
in the vacant, barren rock enclosure where native Americans kept the children, the nursery
it's is the warmest room, where the children played in the facing sunshine, in here cut into stone
the room now barren, empty,
silent, indiscernible weeping seeps from the rock walls
you continue talking, hopeful
silence, without feedback or humanity
talk quickly, time is your enemy.

Was it a proverb or an aphorism?

Was it a proverb or an aphorism

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Was it a proverb or an aphorism? When I woke up in church without my shirt on?

I tried to cover up with my hymnal. Go to my locker and bring me back something to wear, please.

The congregation filed in and it was nearly time for service. The choir was shuffling about and a last few stragglers were pushing to their seats with small rapid two steps, left, right, left, excuse me, sorry.

How did I get here? With the itch of wisdom to understand waking up in church without a shirt on.

I hate to be distracted when the sermon starts. I won't listen anyway. It's a high ceiling, candles burn blue, and the little niche's dedicated to the Saints are interesting. I could sit there.

Sit still eyes forward. Time for liturgical comment. The congregation needs to be still.

Jump,  jump run from pew to pew stepping only on the backs of the chairs without stepping on anyone's hands.

Sitting in church without your shirt on.

four seasons of a music career

four seasons of a music career

fiction
Edward w Pritchard






When the incredibly talented lead singer who made you all very wealthy begins to march in place in a purple suit on stage before singing the song that got you here, when the paunchy guitar player aggressively arches his back before hitting a couple of new licks that don't belong in your style of music and when the drummer has his hair permed before a gig; time has moved on and the band is in the late Fall of it's run.

Money, fame and notoriety are blasé now, its a chore to face another audience and here you are in Peoria Illinois on a Saturday night singing about thirty years ago in New Jersey.

Incredible talent manifested changes people and musicians are changed by money, fame and notoriety.

Time for a new venue, seasons and locations change but the song remains the same to the audience. Only the performers evolve, the audience are stuck in New Jersey's culture forty years past. "I can see there ain't no room for me"

tribute to The four Seasons

another clerk at the convenience clerk/ part 2

another clerk at the convenience store/ part 2

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Like many a woman I got my job at Caterpillar because of my looks. It's not what you think. I got my job as receptionist at the Caterpillar testing grounds because I am not pretty to look at. My boss Sharon Owens told me during interview she would not have another receptionist she trained and nurtured leave the company to get married to one of the handsome salesmen that came from all over the world to bid orders for industrial equipment to the purchasing staff engineering division large equipment earth moving White Oaks, Indiana complex.

My boss at the convenience store referred me to Caterpillar. Medari was about to lay off one of his staff and although I was his best worker it was me or his secret girlfriend from his wife Sally so I had to go. It was a lot more money to me and I was glad to get out of convenience store work.

Surprisingly I do very well as a receptionist for the purchasing staff. Everyone one is very busy and there is a lot of money involved for our suppliers who can win a large order from us so the salesmen who come here to bid the jobs are very aggressive. They will try anything to win an order. I enjoy being the go between between the purchasing engineers and the outside salesmen for our suppliers.

I handle myself well on the phone and I have a good memory for detail. Our engineering purchasing group have taken to calling me Mom; that's a misnomer, I doubt that I will ever get married or have children. I have never been on a date.

Still despite not being on dates I get a lot of male attention. These supplier salesmen who come here to bid orders are pretty boys extraordinaire. We get a lot of ex college athletes who think they can charm their way through life on a smile and a shoeshine. That's how my boss here Sharon Owens described the salesmen I work with when she interviewed me. It's from a famous play, smile and a shoeshine, Sally said.

When I arrive for work in the morning there will be two or three salesmen waiting in their fancy cars to be first to get into our lobby area. They want to be first to see our purchasing group even though we only see salesmen if they have an appointment and at pre-set times. They bring me Starbucks coffee or fancy pastry or a fashion magazine to read to keep on my good side. The salesmen coming in always remember my name and they joke a lot with me and after the second visit to our complex they will ask me if my Mother is feeling better or if I have decided to start college on my two year business degree and things like that.

Did I mention how good looking these salesmen are? They are always tall and slim when they are young and wear expensive suits to work. I like it when they wear colored shirts with their suits with French cuffs and Italian shoes. They always smell nice and even though I know they are trying to con me just to get in the door here I enjoy the attention. Sometimes one of the salesmen who is a secretly a little disorganized will stand real close to my desk and I will straighten their tie or help level the shoulders on their suits before their presentations. I like how they smell.

Very seldom will a woman salesman represent one of our suppliers. They are insincere from the other salesmen we see here in a different way. Still I always do what I can to help the women sales persons.  I know it is hard for women in business so I help them when I can.

Sometimes one of the outside salesmen will offer me a bribe. I just won't go there.

So far I have done two reviews here at work and I have received two substantial raises. All in all I think I have done well in my new job as a receptionist and it sure beats being a clerk in a convenience store. In addition I like the fringe benefits that come with this position.
end part 2

when a god loves a person inappropriately/ part 2

when a god loves a person inappropriately/ part 2


fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Mildred " Millie" Walters was born in Dashmore, Indiana in 1967. Famous for playing in 79 American films all as uncredited bit parts. Mildred is sister of director Sheila Walters well known for bringing to notoriety the only never shown film in American cinema due to legal complications to win a best director Oscar. Mildred Walters played an uncredited role as the gender confused girlfriend in her Sister Sheila Walter's Directorial debut of "Epona Goddess of Hope."

 Mildred Walters died in Riverside California of complications of cancer in 1999.

In popular culture:
Mildred Walters is the basis of the fictional hologram Dyslexus in the mind game "Pony Rider".

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end part 2

summer 1965 wishing for the invention of the cell phone

summer 1965 wishing for the invention of the cell phone

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

The three of us we inseparable the summer I was sent to Aunt Erma's cabin on Lake Milton to learn manner's and keep me out of the detention home in Akron. I was on a bad track with my life and my Mother couldn't control me so they sent me to be bored to death fishing, swimming, rowing a boat and sleeping till noon with my cousins Eddie and  Jack.

My uncle, Eddie and Jack's Father stayed at their big house in Cleveland during the week to attend to his law practice so only My aunt Erma was around. We three cousins had a lot of fun.

Eddie and Jack's family had a lot of money; the refrigerator was stocked, there was beer and cigarettes everywhere and at the beach club across the Lake girls our age fourteen to seventeen always had a new string bikini to show off in every week all Summer. Me and Eddie spent a lot of time at the beach with the girls but Jack had a girl friend back in Cleveland. Mostly Jack stuck around the cabin and talked and talked to his girl, Clara on the phone. She was a gorgeous looking girl, his age seventeen and his friends and others back in Cleveland tried to snake Jack with Clara while Jack was away. Jack used to wrap up the phone receiver in a towel as he talked to her for hours and hours so his ear wouldn't get sweaty in the heat there in the cabin or on the porch. Also me and Eddie used to razz Jack for being on the phone all the time, we called it being whipped then if you spent all your time chasing one girl even a spectacular one like Clara Mitchell so Jack sort of hid the phone by wrapping it in a towel.

One morning when I got up early to go to the beach with Eddie there was Jack laying on the floor talking to Clara with a towel around the phone stuck to his ear and I said something like someday someone should invent a miniature cordless go anywhere phone so a guy like Jack could still go to the beach with me and Eddie and at the same time talk on the phone to his best girl. Jack liked that; Jack and I fussed a lot but he was along with being my cousin, like an older brother to me and that Summer Jack straightened me out and it's because of Jack that I never went back to reform school again and my Mom was able to raise me herself until I went into the army two Summer's later.

I was in the army training in North Carolina when I heard Jack had been killed in Viet Nam in 1968.

 It's been 45 years since I heard Jack was shot in the neck in Viet Nam during the Tet offensive but I always wish that the cell phone had been invented back in 1966 so Jackie could have talked to his best girl while at the beach there at Lake Milton with me and Eddie and maybe Jack could have called me from the field in the Tet offensive one last time to say goodbye before he got shot in the neck and died from hemorrhage while in transit to a field hospital in Viet Nam back in 1968.