JoeliusCaeser's Xanga

More Poetry

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:52:36 GMT

Hmm... well based on the-- 'eh-- overwhelming number of comments I got about my last poem I thought I'd post another. This one is a sonnet about -- well five points to anyone who can guess what it's about....

* * *

Street Corner Beast

Every eve she waits near the street light:

Six foot two, with handsome curves I adore.

Her jet-black hair melts her into the night,

With legs stronger than the heroes of lore,

She stares boldly at each passing stranger.

Belching seductions that give them a pause,

But most are filled with a sense of danger,

And turn to flee from her bear-like paws.

Some, however, think of themselves as sly,

So she sweeps them away to her own place,

Where she deftly unmasks for hungry eye,

And all becomes clear to a startled face.

Fear fills the night as she sends them to sleep,

Leaving all who knew them to pray and weep.

* * *

Any guesses?

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:05:45 GMT

Hey... just thought I'd share another poem I wrote for my AP Comp class. I love this one... it's in the imageism style of William Carlos Williams. It was inspired by a situation that my mom told me about. So here it is:

I Thought You Should Know

I have just recently

discovered that

I am currently infected

with disease

and perhaps

you should get

yourself

checked out

for we

shared those long

moments

in those lonely nights.

And the moral of the story? Always use a condom kiddos.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 07:10:11 GMT

I wrote this for AP comp... thought some of you might find it worth a read. Haha then again perhaps I'm just being pretentious. It happens. Anywho, here ya go:

The Sparrow

Tweedle-ee-dee! Tweedle-ee-dee!
He soars above the chaparral,
Singing songs of folderol,
That float down past the tamarack,
Taking all the rest aback.
They beg and plead and shout for more.
Such palaver does he adore.
These lovely little sycophants,
Crawling down below like ants.
Their extolations much like hymns,
Place him in a palanquin.
Where he rides out his joke,
Wrapped in a taffeta cloak.
‘Till his wings beat their last death throes,
And in his fall from grace, he goes:
Tweedle-ee-dee! Tweedle-ee-dee!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 04:49:34 GMT

Oy... Lots of stuff has been happening... and I really really haven't felt like writing here in a long time. I don't really feel like it too much right now. Just thought I'd take the chance to let all interested parties know I broke my ankle (again...) today.

I was wrestling at the Hayfield Invite and went to throw the lateral drop. I locked up and as I started the throw I felt him step on my inner ankle and everything came crashing down. Soooo I'm on crutches again... sweet.

Better luck to you all! Maybe I'll even write a decent entry in here soon...ooo wouldn't that be exciting.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:09:53 GMT

Ack... I haven't updated in forever I know. But you're all just loaded with dreadful anticipation now right?

In the interm since my last post I've been quite busy actually. I visited Kansas City one weekend for DeMolay Super Regionals... met some awesome guys from around the country, but didn't do anything wild... not that we've ever done anything wild at Super Regionals...

Then the last week of November I went to Florida for a week. It was an amazing trip... we spent two days in Clear Water Beach, and four more days in Orlando... not to mention 60 hours on a bus with my "band family"... While down there we formed a little band called the Back Seat Bandits and rebelled against the evil Front Seat Facists by playing awesome indie music about sharks, and Santa Claus, and dinosaurs and other fun things. We hit up all the Disney Parks as well as Islands of Adventure at Orlando Studios. That's all the detail I feel like going into at the moment... so if you want to know more get a hold of me elsewhere and ask away.

After I got back from Florida the wrestling season started. I'm wrestling at 189 lbs for the moment but hope to get down to 171 by the latter part of the season... wish me luck, haha. So far we've had two meets. The first was at John Marshal in Rochester.... it was a very bad night. The thing you have to understand is that all but 4 of our wrestlers have been wrestling for less than 2 seasons, and for all but 2 of them this is their first year. All the new guys are showing a lot of promise... but there's only so much you can do 2 weeks into your career. So anyway... back to John Marshal. All of our new guys got pinned, and all of our experianced guys made a stupid mistake somewhere in their match and got pinned... it was the worst routing that I've ever seen in the sport.

On Tuesday we went to La Cresent for the La Cresent Quad. It was a four way match between Winona, La Cresent, Lewiston/Altura - Rushford/Peterson, and my dad's alma mater: Onalaska. My first match was against a kid from La Cresent. I wrestled what was about the best match of my life and absolutely dominated him. Unfortunately the night before I only got 6 hours of sleep and I hadn't had much to eat for a few days trying to make weight so I got really tired by the end of the match. The next match was against the LARP kid. He was only a decent wrestler at best but I was tired as hell as I just mentioned and he beat me. The same thing happend when we wrestled Onalaska. So while the night started out awesome it didn't turn out quiet how I'd hoped. Fortunately though our new guys did some awesome wrestling. None of them won, but they showed more progress in the five days (2 practices) between John Marshal and La Cresent than I've seen other people show in entire seasons.

So that's what you've missed if you haven't talked to me much... it's been a fun year so far. Even better yet, I leave for a week in Texas next Saturday (Christmas Eve) to see my cousin Ashley!!!! It's gonna be hella fun.

Hopefully it won't be so long before I write again... but who knows... surely not me.
Until then, Happy Holidays all:
~ Joe

Friday, November 04, 2005

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 06:00:08 GMT

Back in the turbulent days of mid August I missed marching in a parade because I had to work. Funny thing is we're graded on showing up at those kinda things for band. This left me with a vacancy in the grade book and a need to do a make up. There are several ways to do a make up in our band, all of which are rather silly and boring. One of those silly boring things is to attend a local concert that my band director approves and write a review of it. Well it just so happens that I was going to see the Decemberists at First Ave on friday the 21st anyway so I thought what the hell... I'll ask. Well as it turns out my band director freakin adores me so he gave me the go ahead.

My friend Erik Peatrowsky also missed a concert and needed a makeup. Being a huge Decemberists fan himself he was planning on coming. Unfortunately my scary ass DeMolay friends scared into spending the weekend with his brother instead. Seeing as he's my friend however I told him I'd throw his name on my paper and include him in it, seeing as I had to write it anyway. So he came over and we chilled, watched Eddie Izzard and cranked out a bad ass paper about a concert that only one of us even went to. Ahhh good times. Anywho, the point of this whole story is that I figured everyone should know how fucking amazing The Decemberists are live. So rather then rewrite my experiance at the concert for you all I figured I'd just post my paper. Just replace the name Erik with Tyler, Mom, Travis, and Colette. I'm not sure if the set list is in the right order.. but it's as close as I can remember so shut the fuck up and get over it. So here it is... my experiances on the "slightly damp and chilly evening" of October 21st:

On the slightly damp and chilly evening of October the 21^st of our lord’s year 2005, Erik Peatrowsky and Joe Krall attended a performance by Kill Rock Stars’s band, The Decemberists, at First Avenue on first avenue in Minneapolis Minnesota. We entered the front of the black building and had our tickets ripped while the throng of fans following us in shoved forward. We navigated our way deep into the dark club whilst the sweet low-fi guitar riffs of Pavement assaulted our ears. We ended up in a large black room with a balcony surrounding the inner pit, where already fans pressed forward in eager anticipation. We made our way to the far side of the pit where Joe purchased a green Decemberists t-shirt.

We then filed into the pit itself where college girls and indie rockers pushed in all about us. Finally, the lights dimmed low and the crowd went wild in a screaming frenzy. The projector screen covering the stage lifted and revealed three musicians sitting idly with instruments in hand. The opening act was upon us. Cass McCombs began singing and playing guitar to the backing of his bass player and the alternate sounds of trombone and tambourine coming from the woman to his left. While the guitar was well played both the bass player and trombone showed a lack of proper technique resulting in a sloppy sound. Erik would have produced far sweeter sounds, even on that old rusty trombone. It was a mellow opening act that inspired poor reactions from the crowd.

The screen came back down and was alit with an old episode of Batman. Classical music played in the background in a sort of satirical manner, mocking the episode. Then as the show came closer to a close, the sound checks began, continuing to mock Batman and Robin. Then the fight scene came and the crowd shouted jeers of “POW”, “BANG”, “SMACK”, and “KER-PLUNK.” Finally it came to a close with Batman and Robin saving the lives of the city council.

The screen rose and silence ensued. The lights took on a cold bluish cast over the stage laden with pictures and figures of mistle thrushes. The sound of a bell being haphazardly struck began to ring out as a figure emerged from the fog about the stage carrying the bell. More figures began appearing carrying tambourines, a small gong, and more cowbells. Fans went wild in a screaming frenzy and the crowd pressed forward as the figures made their way to a keyboard, three microphones, an upright bass, and a trap set. The three at microphones picked up an acoustic guitar, and electric guitar, and a violin. Suddenly the slow acoustic guitar shuffle of The Tain’s first movement began and fans died down. The band joined Colin Meloy and the tempo picked up. Over four more movements The Tain stretched while band members bounced between instruments, from an accordion to a banjo, mandolin, xylophone, and electric bass. After the final movement closed itself Colin Meloy stepped forward and introduced himself and the band. We screamed fanatically as each member took their turn to bow. The concert then began in earnest with a rousing bout of July! July!. We went thru the first half of the set list:

The Tain

July! July!

16 Military Wives

The Sporting Life

Eli The Barrow Boy

Red Right Ankle

Each song was played with stunning musicianship. It was obvious that much time and effort had been spent perfecting every aspect of them all; each note was identical to the recorded version, save for the spattering of improvisations and solos accorded each musician. Everyone on stage played at least two instruments. We were wowed by the pure talent and attention to detail they displayed.

At the end of Colin’s solo, Red Right Ankle, a sort of intermission came about. He called it the “mid concert calisthenics” break. First we did a set of squats, effectively stretching out our legs. It was interesting down in the pit where everyone was packed so tightly together we ended up nearly seated on each other’s laps… good group bonding. We then stretched out our arms above our heads. As a good mid concert break it woke everyone up and gave us a good laugh. We were then told to introduce ourselves to the person next to us. Erik and I met a guy named Justin to our left. Our last instruction, to tickle the person next to us, we decided to pass on as Justin didn’t seem too excited.

The Decemberists then came back in full force with the rest of the set list:

Billy Liar

A Cautionary Song

The Engine Driver

On The Bus Mall

The Bagman’s Gambit

Leslie Anne Levine

The Mariner’s Revenge Song

The second half was at least as good as the first. We cheered and sang, wept and danced to the lovely melodies. Their final song, The Mariner’s Revenge Song, was their “crowd participation song.” At a signal from Chris Funk we shrieked and gasped in the terror one would feel at the attack of a great whale upon the open sea. The drummer came down from his trap set to play the bass drum and tambourine with wild abandon. At the culmination of the fantastic song we cheered wildly and the band slinked off the stage. The pit went wild. For several solid minutes the tone was deafening. As the madness died off the chaos condensed itself into a chorus of “one more song” with the occasional “encore!” thrown in for good measure. True to the request of the loving fans Colin strolled back on stage alone. He slowly began the opening chords of I Was Meant For The Stage and everyone quieted down for the lovely major melody. At the proper point the rest of the band members filed onto stage to their respective instruments.

And thus the concert ended. Our Decemberists experience came to a close in a beautiful, hopeful way. We filed our way back out of First Avenue and went our separate ways home.

So there ya have it guys. Sorry I'm not feeling more philisophical tonight... or using fun language. I guess I'm boring tonight. But if you IM me or call me and ask nicely I'll perk up just for you... because I love you all so much. Hopefully sometime soon I'm in a better mood to go off on random tangents and write an awesome post. Until such a time I guess you'll have to content yourself with looking back on my past archives (yes feel free to browse backwards thru my posts... they will give you wonderful insight into the ways of the world... they're each like little pearls of wisdom that I've laid here to share with the world(for the betterment of society)).

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 04:26:41 GMT

Between the Bars

Drink up, baby, stay up all night.
The things you could do, you won't but you might.
The potential you'll be that you'll never see.
The promises you'll only make.

Drink up with me now and forget all about the pressure of days.
Do what I say and I'll make you okay and drive them away,
The images stuck in your head.

People you've been before that you don't want around anymore,
That push and shove and won't bend to your will,
I'll keep them still.

Drink up, baby, look at the stars, I'll kiss you again,
Between the bars where i'm seeing you,
There with your hands in the air waiting to finally be caught.

Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine.
Keep you apart deep in my heart separate from the rest,
Where i like you the best,
And keep the things you forgot.

The people you've been before that you don't want around anymore,
That push and shove and won't bend to your will,
I'll keep them still.
~ Elliot Smith

... Because sometimes songs just fit.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:48:20 GMT

Ack... I've been in no mood for writing like this lately... and I'm still not, but I thought I'd pop in and say hello just to let everyone know I'm still alive. School has started and I'm taking Music Theory 1, Computer Programming in Java, and Comparative Politics at WSU and AP Government and Band at WSHS. Things with DeMolay seem to be going along well, both on the state and chapter levels.

I went out with a girl named Kelly about two weeks ago. We had a good time and despite some outside interference things are looking good for more things to happen between us. If you really want to know more then ask, but as I said I'm not feeling up to writing... ack. So yeah, talk to you all later, and no... I haven't forgotten about you.

~ Joe

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 06:53:30 GMT

So I haven't written in a bitch ass long time... thus here I am striking squares on the keyboard in such a pattern as to convey a message across the electron pathways to the electrodes in your screens that you may read and know my message. I'm gonna warn you now... it's a pretty shitty message. But I know you... you're obsessed with me and everything I do, because I'm cool like that and you're twitchy and wierd like that. Thus I keep writing, despite any lack of coherent thought.

Besides Conclave not much has happened since my last post... and I don't really want to go into Conclave, as it takes too long to write it all out... if you're really interested see Ben (mest_uped182)'s xanga. Suffice it to say that conclave was a blast.

Staying on the DeMolay front, our last chapter meeting went smashingly. We had 13 guys show up... enough that Mark Blacklock (our newest member) was actually able to sit on the sidelines and WATCH the opening and closing. So that was pretty impressive... more impressive was that several guys (2-3 or so) couldn't make the meeting. We started work on planning for our annual bike ride. This year it's gonna be a bit different, not going on until October, in fact. We established a comittee (headed by yours truely) to work on the bike ride. We had our first comittee meeting on Thursday, and despite the fact that only Eric, Paul and myself were able to come it went just wonderfully. We got most everything in order, only need to check some prices and get a few things in order before our next meeting on Thursday. Then next Sunday Paul (is who I think I will appoint in my absense) will present the bike ride information in my absence to the chapter for voting and approval. I predict a blowout bikeride this year. So all is good on the DeMolay home front.

On the non-DeMolay front, I've been playin mah bass a helluva lot lately. Been seeing noticable improvement. And I officially eargasm to the blues. And playgasm. The blues are just ___gasmic in general. Next week a friend of mine (and DeMolay prospect) are gonna get together for a while and Jam. Not that I'm leaving the Joeandtylersrockfest project. Just someone closer to home to play with and get skilled with. So that'll be fun. While I'm talking about a/the band... I thought up the sweetest name ever for a band. My boss at work (Chad) agrees with me. I have decided I want to name a band "The Facist Pornographers." It would be fuckin sweet... and our first album would be called "Mussolini's Member" and if we put out enough material to warrent a greatest hits album Chad and I fancy the name "The Facist Pornographers: Money Shot" or something of that nature. It would be most excilante.

So way back like three weeks ago around the time of my last post I started reading A Clockwork Orange... well things happened and I only got thru the first chapter before getting caught up elsewhere. Since a few days ago I've picked it up again and jumped feet first into that cold, dark, semi-Russian, and wholey disturbing beast of a book. For those considering it as a read: it is truely a masterpiece of literature, Anthony Burgess is a brilliant author and linguist. However, I must warn you, it is not for the feint of heart. If you're looking for a light jolly read: this isn't it. If, however, you are ready to take a book seriously and explore the depths of human thought, barbarity, and depravity then this is highly suggestable. I can't comment fully as I have yet to finish the book so I guess if you have questions ask them later... and thus I am off... to read and partake of my 40 winks.

Talk to you again in a few weeks...

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:58:10 GMT

hmmm.... two weeks seems long enough to hold you all in wet anticipation. so here goes with my latest update:

This last weekend was bbq bash. I began preparations for the weekend vacation by buying my brand new acoustic bass from hardt's music on thursday morning. It's a nice bass and I adore it... though it doesn't hold it's tuning as well as one would hope. That's ok though because I also bought a brand new tuner so I can fix all such problems. Friday morning we (Travis my brother and myself) drove up to Tyler's house in Rosemount and arrived around noon. Tyler and I had a minor Jam session... but nothing near what I had hoped. I hope that it was merely because there were like 8 other people there rather than a sign of growing apart as musicians. Haha I brood unnecissarily though.

After a few hours... 3 o'clock maybe... an old friend of Ty's from high school showed up. She's a really cool girl: lots of fun. Her, along with KP and Tony rounded out our cast of concert goers.... or so we thought. We went out to dinner at Noodles before deciding to bring Colette. It was a short trip out to South St. Paul to pick her up and then off to Minneapolis for the Hennepin Block Party. We got there just as Ben Lee finished. We hooked up with Andy and Ben; Ben and Steph; Shawn; Brandon and his gf: and a ton of other older guys and gals. Mike Doughty took the stage in all his awesomeness and halarity. We rocked out. Then the moment came...Howie Day stepped on stage as fans cheered, girls screamed, men bellowed, women threw their underwear on stage and cast their naked bodies at Howie (ok maybe I'm exagerating about that last part...) and a general sense of joy overtook the crowd. Howie played with a band and they rocked out hard core. After he played Collide like half the concert goes left and the rest of us hard core dudes and dudettes were treated with several more songs AND an encore. It was sweetness.

The concert ended and we headed back over to drop Colette off and then to Ty's. Once we got there everyone sorta just collapsed on couches and beds. I ended up in bed with Tyler and his friend.... we three nestled like spoons (5 points to whoever can recognize that reference). We got up hella early the next morning so we could make it to Camp in time for the State Staff meeting.

We got there just in time to sit around and discuss the business of the state of Minnesota DeMolay. Soon afterwords Ben was installed as MC of Hiawatha chapter for a second time by Andy (IO) Ben Martin (ISC) myself (IJC) Jeremy Davis (IC) Tony Davis (IM) and Eric (ISD) in one of the oddest installations I've ever witnessed. We had theme music to accompany all the odd parts of the installation in a fantastical manner. From Modest Mouse to P. Diddy we seemed to have a tune to accompany every part of the installtion and bring out the full flavor of the event... good times had by all. BBQ bash then started with lots of softball and swimming. And so the day passed.

That evening there was a dance (albiet a shitty one). Tyler brought a girl named Crissy, a six time state sweetheart from Mississippi. She was absolutely gorgeous. In fitting comic irony (that only Tyler and myself will probably get) she actually danced with me first and refused to dance with Ty right away... despite my having never met her before. It inspired a good chuckle from myself. After the dance most everyone left and we spent the night just sitting around chattin and hanging out.

We left the next morning for a return trip but made a stop in South Saint Paul to have dinner with Colette and her mom. It was awesome as her dear sweet mother paid for us all quite unexpectedly, AND I learned that I'm her favorite Krall. So that was sweet... always fun to be cooler than the rest of the family.... .

When we got back we went to our Chapter meeting (oh joy I know) and I met two new prospects... at least one of which will be accompanying us to conclave. That brings Winona's total for Conclave 2005 up to 3 prospect... but wait as of tonight we made final arangements for 2 more and possibly a third... just have to finalize tomarrow. In an equally pleasing turn of events I watched our chapter have a softball practice and found that *gasp* not one of us that is going completely sucks. We might not win the cup (bat) this year but we should very comperably hold our own. We have too many young guys for me to call us easy victors like I did with BBall at Jam.... but all our young guys play baseball... so yay.

In the days since the weekend I've been spending my time working and playing bass... a lot. I've sorta half written a song. If i can make up some lyrics to go with it it might even be something that I'll be proud of. I showed it to Eric this morning and he seemed to like it, so that's a start I guess. It should be on soundclick for everyone to listen to and Ooo and Ahhh at shortly... depending on the ratio of my ambition to my freetime.

Well I seem to have written another outrageously long post and it's 4 am so I'll be taking my leave now. (remember... 5 points to the first person to make the connection).

Later everyone... Happy trails