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brendan_of_bonsai

Storm, a beat poem

brendan_of_bonsai
15 years ago

Embedding flash videos is disabled here to the best of my knowledge, so I'll just link it enjoy. There is adult language.

Comments (2)

  • silversword
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I found this poem interesting and fairly reliant on cursing. Especially the part where he says:

    "By definition", I begin
    "Alternative Medicine", I continue
    "Has either not been proved to work,
    Or been proved not to work.
    You know what they call "alternative medicine"
    Thats been proved to work?
    Medicine."

    What an eloquent example of Brendans point of view. I took the liberty of removing the swear words. If anyone is interested in reading it in it's entirety I've posted a link.

    Little Kitten - Lyrics to Tim MinchinÂs ÂStormÂ
    by podblack on December 30, 2008

    "Storm"

    "Inner North London, top floor flat
    All white walls, white carpet, white cat,
    Rice Paper partitions
    Modern art and ambition
    The hostÂs a physician,
    Lovely bloke, has his own practice
    His girlfriendÂs an actress
    An old mate from home
    And theyÂre always great fun.
    So to dinner weÂve come.

    The 5th guest is an unknown,
    The hosts have just thrown
    Us together for a favour
    because this girlÂs just arrived from Australia
    And has moved to North London
    And sheÂs the sister of someone
    Or has some connection.
    As we make introductions
    IÂm struck by her beauty
    SheÂs irrefutably fair
    With dark eyes and dark hair
    But as she sits
    I admit IÂm a little bit wary
    because I notice the tip of the wing of a fairy
    Tattooed on that popular area
    Just above the derrière
    And when she says "IÂm Sagittarien"
    I confess a pigeonhole starts to form
    And is immediately filled with pigeon
    When she says her name is Storm.
    Chatter is initially bright and light hearted
    But itÂs not long before Storm gets started:
    "You canÂt know anything,
    Knowledge is merely opinion"
    She opines, over her Cabernet Sauvignon
    Vis a vis
    Some unhippily
    Empirical comment by me
    "Not a good start" I think
    WeÂre only on pre-dinner drinks
    And across the room, my wife
    Widens her eyes
    Silently begs me, Be Nice
    A matrimonial warning
    Not worth ignoring
    So I resist the urge to ask Storm
    Whether knowledge is so loose-weave
    Of a morning
    When deciding whether to leave
    Her apartment by the front door
    Or a window on the second floor.
    The food is delicious and Storm,
    Whilst avoiding all meat
    Happily sits and eats
    While the good doctor, slightly pissedly
    Holds court on some anachronistic aspect of medical history
    When Storm suddenly she insists
    "But the human body is a mystery!
    Science just falls in a hole
    When it tries to explain the the nature of the soul."
    My hostess throws me a glance
    She, like my wife, knows thereÂs a chance
    That IÂll be off on one of my rants
    But my lips are sealed.
    I just want to enjoy my meal
    And although Storm is starting to get my goat
    I have no intention of rocking the boat,
    Although itÂs becoming a bit of a wrestle
    Because - like her meteorological namesake -
    Storm has no such concerns for our vessel:
    "Pharmaceutical companies are the enemy
    They promote drug dependency
    At the cost of the natural remedies
    That are all our bodies need
    They are immoral and driven by greed.
    Why take drugs
    When herbs can solve it?
    Why use chemicals
    When homeopathic solvents
    Can resolve it?
    ItÂs time we all return-to-live
    With natural medical alternatives."
    And try as hard as I like,
    A small crack appears
    In my diplomacy-dike.
    "By definition", I begin
    "Alternative Medicine", I continue
    "Has either not been proved to work,
    Or been proved not to work.
    You know what they call "alternative medicine"
    ThatÂs been proved to work?
    Medicine."
    "So you donÂt believe
    In ANY Natural remedies?"
    "On the contrary actually:
    Before we came to tea,
    I took a natural remedy
    Derived from the bark of a willow tree
    A painkiller thatÂs virtually side-effect free
    ItÂs got a weird name,
    Darling, what was it again?
    Masprin?
    Basprin?
    Asprin!
    Which I paid about a buck for
    Down at my local drugstore.
    The debate briefly abates
    As our hosts collects plates
    but as they return with desserts
    Storm pertly asserts,
    "Shakespeare said it first:
    There are more things in heaven and earth
    Than exist in your philosophyÂ
    Science is just how weÂre trained to look at reality,
    It canÂt explain love or spirituality.
    How does science explain psychics?
    Auras; the afterlife; the power of prayer?"
    IÂm becoming aware
    That IÂm staring,
    IÂm like a rabbit suddenly trapped
    In the blinding headlights of vacuous crap.
    Maybe itÂs the Hamlet she just misquothed
    Or the eighth glass of wine I just quaffed
    But my diplomacy dike groans
    And the arsehole held back by its stones
    Can be held back no more:
    "Look , Storm, I donÂt mean to bore you
    But thereÂs no such thing as an aura!
    Reading Auras is like reading minds
    Or star-signs or tea-leaves or meridian lines
    These people arenÂt plying a skill,
    They are either lying or mentally ill.
    Same goes for those who claim to hear GodÂs demands
    And Spiritual healers who think they have magic hands.
    By the way,
    Why is it OK
    For people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
    Is it not totally ______ in the head
    Lying to some crying woman whose child has died
    And telling her youÂre in touch with the other side?
    ThatÂs just fundamentally sick
    Do we need to clarify that thereÂs no such thing as a psychic?
    What, are we _____ 2?
    Do we actually think that Horton Heard a Who?
    Do we still think that Santa brings us gifts?
    That Michael Jackson hasnÂt had facelifts?
    Are we still so stunned by circus tricks
    That we think that the dead would
    Wanna talk to pricks
    Like John Edwards?
    Storm to her credit despite my derision
    Keeps firing off clichés with startling precision
    Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition
    "YouÂre so sure of your position
    But youÂre just closed-minded
    I think youÂll find
    Your faith in Science and Tests
    Is just as blind
    As the faith of any fundamentalist"
    "Hm thatÂs a good point, let me think for a bit
    Oh wait, my mistake, itÂs absolute bull____.
    Science adjusts itÂs beliefs based on whatÂs observed
    Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.
    If you show me
    That, say, homeopathy works,
    Then I will change my mind
    IÂll spin on a ______ dime
    IÂll be embarrassed as hell,
    But I will run through the streets yelling
    ItÂs a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
    Water has memory!
    And while itÂs memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite
    It somehow forgets all the poo itÂs had in it!
    You show me that it works and how it works
    And when IÂve recovered from the shock
    I will take a compass and carve Fancy That on the side of my ______."
    Everyones just staring at me now,
    But IÂm pretty pissed and IÂve dug this far down,
    So I figure, in for penny, in for a pound:
    "Life is full of mysteries, yeah
    But there are answers out there
    And they wonÂt be found
    By people sitting around
    Looking serious
    And saying isnÂt life mysterious?
    LetÂs sit here and hope
    LetÂs call up the ________ Pope
    LetÂs go watch Oprah
    Interview Deepak Chopra
    If youÂre going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo.
    That show was so cool
    because every time thereÂs a church with a ghoul
    Or a ghost in a school
    They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
    The _________ janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide.
    Throughout history
    Every mystery
    EVER solved has turned out to be
    Not Magic.
    Does the idea that there might be truth
    Frighten you?
    Does the idea that one afternoon
    On Wiki-____-pedia might enlighten you
    Frighten you?
    Does the notion that there may not be a supernatural
    So blow your hippy noodle
    That you would rather just stand in the fog
    Of your inability to Google?
    IsnÂt this enough?
    Just this world?
    Just this beautiful, complex
    Wonderfully unfathomable world?
    How does it so fail to hold our attention
    That we have to diminish it with the invention
    Of cheap, man-made Myths and Monsters?
    If youÂre so into Shakespeare
    Lend me your ear:
    "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
    To throw perfume on the violet is just _______ silly"
    Or something like that.
    Or what about Satchmo?!
    I see trees of Green,
    Red roses too,
    And fine, if you wish to
    Glorify Krishna and Vishnu
    In a post-colonial, condescending
    Bottled-up and labeled kind of way
    ThatÂs ok.
    But hereÂs what gives me a hard-on:
    I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant lump of carbon.
    I have one life, and it is short
    And unimportantÂ
    But thanks to recent scientific advances
    I get to live twice as long as my great great great great uncles and auntses.
    Twice as long to live this life of mine
    Twice as long to love this wife of mine
    Twice as many years of friends and wine
    Of sharing curries and getting _____
    With good-looking hippies
    With fairies on their spines
    And butterflies on their ______.
    And if perchance I have offended
    Think but this and all is mended:
    WeÂd as well be 10 minutes back in time,
    For all the chance youÂll change your mind."

  • rusty_blackhaw
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It's now an animated film.

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