Zig Zag Claybourne's Blog, page 2

In The Guest Room

I'm on my best behavior over at Dave Robison's house. Check out my essay on science fiction literature's past by way of its problematic present and highly promising future. The place? The Vex Mosaic~!

Don't Be Carl. Joy Whizzes. While Carl Waits.

I don't know who made that pic, but it's the internet so somebody out there has pics with what I'm sure is a hilarious caption of me in a thong selling hotdogs. It all balances out.

So I was talking to my wife about art and creativity, and
how that whole thing of the tortured artist (be it writer, painter, singer,
musician, dancer, etc) just won’t go the unwashed hell away. And she brought

Six Short Graybles

Anybody who's watched Adventure Time knows that a grayble is a little story meant to heighten introspection and clarity. Thus:



As the GOP gets into full batshit mode for the presidential campaign, here are 6 Short Graybles to Reassure Politicians and Their Support Base That Gays Are Not the Issue:

1) Worried that they’ll locust all the available mates away from you? Overpopulation took care

I Have Good Feelings About Me

...how often does that roll through your head? Not bloody often enough. Change that. Change it now. Unless you're a cold, mean, psychopath who enjoys the suffering of others. Do not feel good about that.

That is all.

The Checklist O’ Diversity

Because it’s not so much fight the power as it is fight the
weakness, since the inability to see others as people is not a strength, here is the Fuck That
checklist for creators, beginning thusly:



If the only time you describe a skin color is for the
‘ethnic’ types, fuck that.



If the Black dude dies, fuck that.



If the woman is put in sexual peril because, you know,
wimmin, fuck that.

Where To Find Yes In Today's World

Do this without thinking about it. Say “yes.” Say it out loud. Breathe it, make love to it. It will make love to you. Tell your body you love it out loud. It’s not a dictatorship, you in that shell, it’s a symbiosis. Your body has needs and wants you to acknowledge them. Say yes like the last prayer before the final burst of your solar system’s star, its light spreading so wide and bright

I Went Outside And Told The Night Sky I Loved You, Hoping Something Somewhere Was Listening

There are times when thinking about anything other than love
is impossible, especially during our holiday seasons where love everlasting
gets lost searching for us in the bustling crowd. There’s love that goes beyond
marriage—and few ever experience it. There’s love that transcends physical
intimacy, sometimes bypasses gender entirely, hopping the turnstiles to catch
you unawares while you wait

Ferguson, MO Grand Jury Nov 24 2014

We can have video from a hovering news chopper of a gang of
police beating a man to the ground. We can have video of a gang of police
choking a man to death. We can have video of police killing people for holding
toy guns in a store that sells toy guns. We can have video of police officers
abusing their authority every day of the week.



We can have candlelight vigils. We can have spiritual

Time Has Come Today

My query is this: what time do you go to bed, and why? Is it to save energies you might have used today for work tomorrow? Did you stop writing because tomorrow there's a meeting? Pencils down because tomorrow's inbox is sure to be a bear? Are you soaping your hands, and especially getting the clay from beneath your nails, because you'll likely be shaking hands with some guy tomorrow who will

Rage

Ferguson, Missouri, 2014



I’m not going to pretend to understand racism. It’s a
disease. An affliction of the mind. Self-curable. Nor will I accept that anyone
with any appreciable training in peace keeping—and let’s call it that instead
of “law enforcement,” a terminology which includes the very brutish word
“force”—needs to shoot someone whose arms are in the surrender position six
times in