Author: cbcrenshaw

C.B. Crenshaw is a musician, artist, writer, coder, gardener, and maker in Alabama.

“Democracy”

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Lately, every time someone writes about “democracy” in some piece of urgent online hand-wringing, I stop reading. It’s not because I disagree with their politics, necessarily, but because I can’t shake the uncanny feeling that the writer has stopped thinking.

“Democracy” is exactly what we are living with. Rule by populists and demagogues is one of its outcomes. What these people seem to want is something else, a Utopia of Rules, in which the adults swoop in to save us from our mistakes. It’s the world of Report Cards and Crossing Guards, where the rules and consequences are written on the board. That’s not the world we’re living in.

Economy

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My new hobby is walking around the store and taking notes on all of the things I can make myself for a fraction of the cost. For example, I can spend $17 on a jar of Chili Crisp, or less than $5 (often far less) with ingredients I already have.

1. Take a picture, 2. Pull the recipe, 3. Profit

I know this isn’t anything new, but it’s new to me. Lately I’ve been making my own bread, dog treats, soda (because the SodaStream is amazing!), barbecue sauce, and other staples that would otherwise cost a lot of money or result in a lot of waste. Making as much as possible at home saves both money and waste, and. I try to cook every meal at home, and focus on buying ingredients, rather than products.

I’ve always been amazed by the people in cookbooks or on TV who can just stock a pantry and be ready to make just about anything at home. I’m learning how to do that now, and it feels good.

New Music and Cover Art, Too

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Earlier this year I stopped by the SCAMS studio in Tallahassee to lay down a bass line on my friend Gamble Cosmos‘ new track, “Helene Serene.” It’s a great song, and I had a blast throwing down the bottom end.

Later, I was thrilled when Gamble asked me to contribute even more to the project by creating original cover art for the track’s release on Bandcamp as a “double A-side 7-inch” with another Gamble Cosmos single, “Kew Gardens Contigo.” We talked about some of his inspirations–hurricanes, ’90s shoegaze records, old 45s–and went over some of his other artwork for consistency’s sake, and then I was off to the drawing board.

I’m mostly satisfied with the results.

Here’s the record.

Steamboat Sublime

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Edit: this poem was published at The Lake, a fine online journal of poetry and reviews. Please check it out there and read all of the other amazing work!

On General Pershing Street
the crows eat Lo Mein
from styrofoam cartons
while down at the museum
of the Second World War
the Ardennes Offensive
plays on a digital loop.

The projectors over there
decode streams of numbers,
signifying suffering
in the dark forest room where
the sound of Howitzers exploding
among the artificial trees
tends to bore the children
down from the Midwest.

Tonight the Carnival Liberty
will carry those children
down the Mississippi River
churning quietly by
flaming oil derricks and
ghostly lights in the delta.

Roll, Jordan, roll
the old folks used to sing
down on the German Coast
watching dark blades churn
the oilblack current.

Black oil, the wings on the
Pershing Crows.
Rust on the wind.

Poem: Dry Up Otis

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Each day a new
old thing is peeled away
with a desiccant smile.

Zen, I’m told, is
the photons drying
the molecules to memory.

Tell the truth,
it’s stuff like this
that makes me take the elevator

instead of the stairs,
and stop at every floor.
Anyone here going up?

I ask, peering out into
darkening passages.
Fact is, somewhere up there,

I know not where,
the car will start
to come back down again.