I must strike while the irony is hot! Alas, there’s nowhere else to turn, but back to this, my belated, deflated blog post, No. 6.2. In this case, to you, my trusted, faithful readers over these many, many, um, months.

Bernal Hill, 2012, ink & saliva, T.S.

For where else, but the inter-webs to extrapolate my absence from this website, as I found myself employed & embroiled by a local construction outfit. I was officially hired by UpScale Builders, in San Francisco, a new and promising company, only to be, “let go”, as the owner ever-so cautiously put it. In actuality, I was fired for no reason at all, left twisting in the wind with my own family to support. The job-site was broken into, burgled, all the power-tools stolen and I, your faithful soldier of artistic change, veritable soothsayer of wood & words & dovetails, was predestined to take the fall. Even trying to summons the courage to talk about this is not easy, as I find myself, once again on the ground-floor of life, building my way up & out, at least, that is the nonsense we’ve been spoon-fed as hard-working Americans! Phooey!  

So as to speed things up, since I’m a terrible typist―as students in the 1970’s typing was an elective course, for girls & boys who were expected to become secretaries―now I’m trying to use this voice recognition on my Apple iThing, however, it would seem it doesn’t really work or else I’m merely opening the gates of hell, Pandora’s Hideous Box-Set Stream-of-Consciousness!

Seiobo at Ocean Beach, 2013

Perhaps, being “let go” by the UpScale people was the best thing, a real blessing in disguise; though I’m financially panicked, now, at least, I can try to get back to the real work I was meant to do on this earth! Since I have no Sugar Momma and no Sugar Dada, I must further turn to help and assistance from the Inter-Borg Collective. I’m serious, I must subsist in order to painstakingly complete my novel, “Paper Jaguar”. Please, contribute whatever you may, to Tamás Fund for Future Development. It is easy as pi or cake, ah, that is, it will be easy when I figure out how to set up a PayPal thingy and hook it up to an actual, “something”, that I can offer in return for your, ah, generous help. It is a straightforward arrangement, simply a way of supporting the arts and those who are not the elevated, pre-established, pre-approved wealthy members of our otherwise ridiculous, so-called society. Not that I am complaining, mind you, it’s just that anyone, and I mean anyone with any education at all, especially those with no education, in fact everyone can see that we humans still live in a completely barbaric state; Orwellian & Darwinian and even worse, viz-á-viz, the disparity of wealth and available resources planet-wide! It is appalling and we are all in some kind of denial about this. Having a sense of reality and proportion about these things is key, but the key cannot work without the lock it was meant to fit, and that lock is inside us. I will continue as I’m sure, you, yourselves are determined to do and in exchange for your help & support of any kind I offer these, the Pre-Prologue and first chapter, “A Bunch of Pious Piss-Wads” of my novel-in-progress. Stop, I said, typing, did you hear me, Siri, “Stop typing!” Siri explanation point (!) Period! Oh, hell with it! Hello? Anybody in there?

Statistical Poverty, 2013, Stolmar

It is because of you, my growing readership, your encouraging comments over these many, many, um, months. Yes, there is nothing to do, at 52 years old, it is become quite clear that the capitalist machine eats us alive and has no more use for builders when we are old and past our expiration date. As iMentioned eerily and early in weblog No. 3, I did not want to get into, “Politix” and I’m trying not to! Yet it is difficult, especially for those of us who work not only for a living, but for survival! This is the New Frontier of Civil Rights and so it is here, in the spirit of the “Blogosphere”, this place for which we had such high hopes, once upon a digital wet-dream, I return to speak with you, hereto henceforth, faithful to my art, to myself and to my family above all and the god of creativity and freedom.

As I happened to watch a documentary on PBS, the other day, on the theme of Bhutan, a country I knew nothing about, I learned that the entire country of Bhutan is founded upon the principle of, “Gross National Happiness”. It is a kind of mantra for them, GNH! This is fabulous, I thought, at least somewhere on our planet, they seem to be evolving in concert with the universe… I’m exhausted and believe this precise/ physical work I’ve been doing, as a carpenter for 25 years, rebuilding multimillion dollar Victorian homes here in San Francisco was killing me! I was told by the owner of UpScale Builders, that they were suddenly, downsizing, so I was laid off. Voila! I was hired as an advanced journeyman carpenter and now the journey goes on. Thanks, Bob!

Pedexing: Suspicious Persons Shot On Sight” (Dolores Heights) 2013,

Yes indeed, it’s a tangled inter-web we weave. I almost forgot, my backup is backing up, beep, beep, beep, I need to visit the Apple genius people to tell me how to think, but deep, deep down, they don’t really know how any of this works either, only that it makes an ocean of money, so they keep expanding and upgrading the latest downgrades, at hyper warp-speed! “Well, hard drives are like car tires,” they say, “do you have a tire iron?”

Working people are so happy in America, (aren’t we?) this new computer-reality is proving to be a great boon, especially to the wealthy children of the wealthy, lockstep and free-bird, they’re buying the entire city of San Francisco as a Theme Park/ Play Land for The Google Kids, it is a real feeding frenzy for the rich! “Beep, beep, beep.” New millionaires & corporations are buying up houses & property, left & right, evicting all & everyone in their path. How unenlightened is that for a progressive city like ours? Shameful really, just let the poor people, mostly Mexicans do the hard work―voice record, just record… This seems to be the extent of things before we get this ship of state moving again towards that new horizon!

I suppose it comes to this, Alms Across The Internet, whatever it takes to create a more universal distribution of wealth. Capitalism while the lesser of some other evils is still evil and needs desperately to evolve. So let us each help each other, let us all help all of us; from each according to his ability to each accordingly on his knees! God bless the avant noblesse oblige… Beep, beep, beep… (Done?) > function >function… Let the games begin.

SF Park, 2013, pen & saliva

Thank you all for tuning-in and baring-with my first attempts to utilize voice recognition… though, I’m not really sure who is recognizing who, if anybody in our so-called, “Intelligence Community” is even remotely enlightened! Spies are one thing, but real intelligence is another creature altogether. Just watch highlights on “The Daily Show with John Stewart” and you’ll know we’re not entirely alone in our collective gag-reflex and proto-telepathic knowingness; a growing necessity for survival! We don’t want Tesla Cars only for the hyper-rich, but increased “Gross National Happiness”! Hallelujah, Voice Recognition for all! 4-3-2-1… Blast off!?!?

 Yes, because I’ve been absent, because of the overwhelming demands upon us all, I humbly proffer in the meantime, these first chapters of my novel, halfway through its genesis, “Paper Jaguar” for your pleasure and providential perusal. Future chapters will be forthcoming at feasible rates, contributions or otherwise… Gracias…

Verbally, acrobatically, lovingly, constructively yours, 

Roger Amsterdam, aka, Tamás Stolmar. 

Publishers are also welcome…