Zebra

ZEBRA
Lyrics © John Butler 2004


I can be loud man, I can be silent
I could be young or I could be old.
I can be a gentleman, I can be violent.
I could turn hot or I can be cold.
I could be just like the calm before the storm
Waiting for all hell yeah to break loose.
I could be innocent or I could be guilty
Doesn't mean that I man believe in no noose

I could be rich like a wandering Gypsy
I could be poor like a fat wallet lost.
I could be first or I could come last
Its not who breaks the ribbon
It's how you get across.
I could be red blue black + white sunset
Darkest at day man brightest at night
I could be the sun man I could be the moon
I'm made up from the stars man
I shining so bright.

I could be asleep man, I could be awake
I can be alive or be the walking dead
I can be ignorant, I could be informed
I could lead my life or i could be led
I can be anything i put my mind to man,
all i gotta do is give myself half a chance
I can bring love back into my life
and share it with the world if i got some balance.

Just like Chicken

In a recently released medical report, investigators at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center have stated that proteins secreted from frogs are natural antibodies and potent blockers of HIV infection. Yep, you read it right. They continue by saying that the findings could lead to topical treatments for preventing HIV transmission.

Now I've given this some thought and I think there may be some initial hesitancy in the market place for such a product, but I'm fairly certain the conversation would go something like this:

So you topically apply the frog protein --

Frog protein?

Um.. yes, it's ahh... basically it's frog fat.

Frog fat? How do you get the fat from said frog?

Well, we have to kill them.

You kill them??

Yes, but it's in the name of science. But that's not the... see, after you get the frog fat, er, protein, the frog protein, you apply it topically to the erect penis and--

You what??? Let me get this straight. You kill the frogs and then want me to rub frog fat on my weiner?

Well, I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but yes, it's--

OH MY GOD! Of all the sick perverted piece of--

It kills the HIV virus.

What?

Naturally. The frog fa--protein has natural antibodies in it that actually kills the virus.

I rub frog fat on my weiner and it kills HIV?

Correct.

Well, that's uh... Miss Piggy's gonna be one weeping bitch, cause Kermit's deader than fried chicken.



How many billions of dollars have been spent on HIV and a possible prevention method is found in stagnant ponds and creek beds? If this wasn't so ironic, I'd laugh about it. I'd just like to know what brainchild actually considered testing this out in the first place.

I'm off to get a Red Bull and some frog legs.

mickey mouse and broken trust

It's been over a month since I've written anything on this blog; I think the longest stretch I've had without posting. I've tried a bunch of times but nothing seemed to flow; the words seemed clunky and out of order.

I'm sure the tiny handful of you who read this are scratching your head and wondering what in the hell that title means. But I'm not going to tell you. Sometimes you share the fruits of your labor with the world for all to see... other times
you have to keep the garden you tend all by yourself.

So, no. I won't tell you what that means. If you know, you know. And if you don't, you don't.

What I will talk about is connections.

There are three men I've known for close to twenty years and I don't consider them my friends. I don't consider them acquaintances. And if you know the majority of my family, you'd realize why I don't really consider them family either. I mean, if I told you about my Uncle Squeek alone, you'd probably... no. That's another story for another time.

I don't see these three men nearly often enough. The day to day ornaments of marriage and fatherhood and life in general have weighed things down to where it's become impossible for all of us to spend as much time laughing together as we used to. Each of us are tending our own gardens.

But I'd lay down in traffic for each of them without question.

I've tried explaining to others that these are the type of men who, if I got a knock at three in the morning telling me there was a body in the trunk of their car...

well, I'd get dressed, grab gloves and a shovel and figure out where to hide it at.

They're the type of men who, with a glance, can throw me into hysterical laughter; with a badly timed action, can have me shaking my head in dismay.

With a single sentence in an email, can make me well with tears and know that the opposite is true of them as well - that what I feel for them is what they feel for me.

So, no... friends, family, brothers... those terms don't quite apply.

I've been going through a very dark time in my life as of late and on this side of it, I now see the threads and themes and contexts that have permeated everything I do. Titles of stories I'm working on. Themes, phrases...

See, the thing is... I know I have some great connections with people. I know they're there.

But that's not enough to know they're there. You have to actually "connect" in order to have a connection.

Without them... nothing else matters. No amount of trinkets or cash or women or cars or anything material under the sun.

But with them... oh... with them, colors are more saturated, foods taste richer, songs take meaning, a hawk streaking across the sky is meant just for you. And light begins to shine in that dark place.

Sometimes you have to lose the connections you have in order to know you have it at all.

take care of yourselves and now that the light's on, I promise I'll write again soon.