Tag: Ragtag Daily Prompt

Mother Of All – 28th September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

George is getting excited now
He really seems quite upset
His words are getting shorter
The angrier he will get

The world has pissed him off
And quite rightly so
The lying liars are lying again
It’s really time for them to go

The sweat is across his brow
His hat looks about to fly
The answer to every question
Is always, ‘why?’ ‘why?’ ‘why?’

An angry man shouts at clouds
Morning, noon and night
The thing is that what he’s saying
Seems to be quite right

Reading Al Franken’s ‘The Truth With Jokes’ and watching George Galloway’s ‘Mother of All Talk Shows’ recently. It’s easy to get worked up.
11th May 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – mother.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to watch a misty sunrise this morning as I prepare for an easy day at school.

The days and nights are full, they go too quick. Even if they are full of nothing particularly special, the time just disappears. But I’m filled with happiness.

My student Aomsin is interested to be an exchange student so I thought I’d help out with some investigation. I can’t imagine that her family is that rich and I also haven’t been able to find any pricing. I’m just not sure how feasible it might be for her.

Considering whether perhaps Sharon might be able to house her but then don’t know how she might apply for local schools there. I guess I can ask at least.

I’d love to get every willing student overseas to see something of the world. It should be compulsory! In my Utopian world, anyway!

Maybe my enquiries will crush her dreams. That would make me sad.

Time for my one class of the day.

Dust – 1st September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

We are dust under the dust of the feet of the king
Now unsatisfied with the problems that you bring
Rising up to challenge centuries-old traditions
That led the country into these downtrodden conditions

What made sense once no longer really applies
The world has gotten smaller for information supplies
The dust, the people are not prepared to let it be
They are motivated to be the change they want to see

7th Nov 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – dust

Weight: 78.0kg
Resting heart rate: 48

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to get through another month mostly healthy – just a little pain. Let’s see what excitements September brings.

Stuck at school all day but that’s ok as I can keep myself occupied wherever I am. Having pen and paper, a book and internet help and the two coffees I picked up this morning have kept me charged up well.

I’ve updated things on my blog, written my daily poem, played guitar for ten minutes – I brought my shitty guitar to school just for this purpose and bought a better one a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve taught three classes, marked their work, which I can feel is always improving; helped another teacher with their work – warning them not to ask questions that they themselves cannot answer!

Only thing I haven’t done yet is read some of my book, which I normally do at the cafe. I have read a bunch of articles online, though. My eyes are a bit blurry from staring at the screen.

The best thing about today is seeing my students ‘ improvements through the semester. For some reason, these things stood out a lot today. Anyway, it makes me happy. Some kids are sneaky and try and trick me but it’s out of laziness more than anything. I think I catch them most of the time.

The Week That Was – 25th March 1979

Stupid Rain – 14th June 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Stupid rain, you wet my shoes
Flooded the car park badly
Jump right on in the river
Now my socks are smelling, sadly

Left my umbrella in the house
When yesterday’s rain abated
No sign of a break in clouds
No matter how long I waited

27th Jun 2024 – Shared with the RagTag Daily Prompt
28th Oct 2025 – Shared with Poetic Bloomings

Does anyone read promotional blurb anymore? Is it necessary? I say No! But this is what is done, so this is what we’re doing.

For those in the know, Trumans Water have been deconstructing indie rock conventions (and grammar rules) for more than 100 years now (or at least since the early 90s) and there’s a reasonable chance you have totally missed out! But Trumans never stop.

Too true, the vet American “spazz-rock”/”squiggle-core” quartet has been scarce in their native land in recent years: releases mostly on Euro-labels (and now a label based in Thailand!); touring almost exclusively “over there.” One co-founding Branstetter brother, singer-guitarist Kevin, even settled down in France; the other, guitarist-vocalist Kirk, remains in Portland, Oregon, where TW set up in 1995 (formed in San Diego circa 1991).

The 14 tracks of O Zeta Zunis, album #13,14,15 or 16 depending on how you may wish to count, manage one helluva collective double-feat: sounding like distinct, engaging, chance-taking, raw-boned guit-stoked rock to any given listener — whether they know the Water or no — and coming off to TW fans as strikingly fresh while hearkening back to classic Trumans material.

Yes, the latter means going all the way back to 1992’s debut Of Thick Tum — enthusiastically tracked by legendary Brit radio DJ John Peel in its entirety, c’est vrai — and their 1993 2xLP follow-up, Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox & Ass. (Note: you’re still on your own in unravelling Trumans-ian title-age.)

O Zeta Zunis sports a few slowed-up passages that help accentuate the melodic riff-drive of “Last Time” or the balls-out whizz-bang of “Greased Water,” the twitchy-catchy frolic of “5-7-10 Split” or the rubbery buzz-chug of “You Live Out Loud.” There’re loping jams and snappy sonic sputter-blasts as well. Essence of Trumans.

Chèvre Au Lait slows things down with subtlety, yet remains as twisted as ever, in the fashion of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, fusing madness with restraint and even devolving into post-punk reminiscent of England in the early 80s, which has become popular again with the punk youth of today.

Folks, this ain’t history — this is … living, loopy rock and/or roll! Trumans Water never left so won’t you please welcome them back?

Thailand based label tenzenmen has long been a fan of Trumans Water and was so disappointed that their last two albums were not available on CD, and unable to complete the collection in their music library, that they invested their inheritance monies into bringing these albums to the most unpopular format in recorded history. 

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be contacted by one of my old students, Kamboom, and to hear that she got into Sammakhi – which is one of the better schools in Chiang Rai. She will study science and maths but wants to keep up her English study too.