Ujima by Jersey Campbell

VERGE- Vicariously Enter the Realm of Good (motherfuckin'*) Entertainment- is performing a skit tomorrow evening at this event:

I was charged with writing the script... and directing... and acting. Three things I have inconsiderable experience in. Yet, the show will go on- and it will be off the bomb. SO IT IS SAID!

Here is the script**:
(Video coming next week)

 *This is not a part of the official VERGE name
 **Script is loosely based off an anecdote about Ubuntu, which was also the famous rallying cry for the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, the eventual NBA Champions.

Jersey Campbell's Quote of the Day: the passion of the masses

This quote garnered a "same shit I was saying yo!" from me as soon as I read it.  Because really, this is the same shit I be saying.








  
"The masses have never thirsted after truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced by what is untrue as by what is true. They have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two."

- quote taken from The Art of Seduction by Robert Green

JC and NYC Rob on the radio and shit

This past weekend, Jersey Campbell and NYC Robert- on behalf of VERGE- were invited to Best Kept Secret. Judging by the name, we're guessing some of y'all don't know what Best Kept Secret is... let's clear it up. It is a web radio show on the SUNY Old Westbury Web Radio network hosted by Lady Rae. But shhh, keep it a secret. 

Here is a brief clip from the interview showing our very own JC performing some poetry for the listeners. Yeah, we video record radio shows, because there are no morals. Listen.. and be enthralled. 

Jersey Campbell's Vocabulary Word of the Day: Pillory

Pillory: a wooden framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used to expose an offender to public derision.


In a sentence: The pillory could still be effective today. It is often public sentiment that helps maintain our morality.

Empathy Flashlight by KV Sart

We speak in muted tones

Earthy muds and forest greens

Take me in through the back

Shelter me from the storm

I’ll give you my kidney

Take care of the child

Let him free upon this plane

Tell him his pain is the same

As your pain

Rise above the scree hand in hand

There is a dip in the boulder

Water collects in this place

The early morning rain has passed

But here it remains

Reminiscent drops of past

Be civil young man

For this place is a civil one

Do not forget your head

Stubbornness is the starless night

Empathy is the flashlight

It's about time by Jersey Campbell

Time lacks the eternal strength it is attributed

For with time our physical beings become old, brittle, stale and feeble

With time, rises fade while roses bloom

With time, eyes observe cycles of birth and death

So with time, we live

With time, we seek a fulfillment of magnificent proportions

Yet in time, the sands of the hourglass eventually run out, only to be flipped over, so that another cycle may begin

The meaning is too elusive, so with time we grow and learn

Only for the hourglass to be flipped over once again

Lessons re-learned and new flowers bloom

In time, we forget all truths granted to us because when the hourglass flips, time resets

Time is no more eternal than the souls traveling through its corridors

But what a novel concept! Time ushers enlightenment… a spiritual awakening is an inevitable result

The only inevitability, is the loss of time itself and the eventual resurrection of the eternal paradox

A realization is in order. An epiphany of divine nature

Time waits for no man, and no man will wait for time

In time we act, decisions made determining the fate of our lives which, in time, will end in death

It is with time we grow, and in time we decompose

An inquiry: what have we learned? In which way have we grown?

Time is simply a paradigm

Moments in mirrors which mimic the times passed

Reflections of fallen eras haunt our contemporary dreams

With time we become corrupt

In time our minds expand to see the vast wasteland that was once promise and hope

The hourglass is reset, and time, laid to rest

Election Thoughts by KV Sart

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Jersey has asked me to write a brief essay concerning the election.  Even if he had not asked for something “brief”, I can’t honestly say that I have a great deal to write about the election.  For me, the election has the feel of sporting event, something like the Super Bowl.  There is a side which I have chosen as my favorite, I root for that side to win, which is fun for a time leading up to the event and during the event itself, and then, the next day, I am left feeling slightly let down.

            For some reason we build the election up into this massive marker of whether or not the country is fucked, and depending on which side you agree with, you either think its time to leave the country, or you spend the next 2 months fantasizing about how much better the country is now that someone who you think you agree with is in power.

            Not only is the presidential election an undertaking in ego masturbation for the candidates, it is likewise for voters.  It is a time when people allow themselves to say, “see, I am right, you are wrong, the majority of the people believe what I believe.”

            The greater reality to remember during these times is this: it is hardly ever the president who makes the biggest social changes.  For sure, there have been good presidents who have done good things, but it is hardly ever the ones we “elect” to do good things who end up being the ones who do the greatest things.

            So, for those who voted for losing candidates, relax, your day-to-day reality remains unchanged.  For those who voted for candidates that won, congratulations, you were on the right side of what is essentially a 50/50 bet.  Sorry to be so cynical, but both sides seem to have neglected honest discourse and sound reasoning during the campaign, little seems to have really changed.

Jersey Campbell's notebook ramblings: thoughts on the election

Sources tell me there was an election in America last night, and now a black guy is president? Wait, wait? He’s been president for four years already! Wow! What progress we’ve made!

If I can be super cereal for a minute, I’d like to share my thoughts on the election:

Jersey Campbell's Quote of the Day: The Fifth of November

Remember, remember the fifth of November...   I can't even act like I completely understand what V is saying in this amazing monologue of ambitious alliteration. The acutely accurate words aim at abolishing a despotic English government. All credits attributed to the astute authors of this awesome film. 

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valourous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

- V 

TWD by KV Sart

Give me the first line

            Public drunkenness in a private

            place    The street paved with

uneven cobblestones

Awaken in the

            same panic-state

            Same as yesterday    Same as today

Swimming in thoughts

            Broken in utility    Continuous

            in stream    Forged with the

strength of a Chinese finger cuff

Don’t let go of the dream    All you have is the dream

Jersey Campbell's passage of the day: give me liberty, or give me holidays!

Greetings all, we've got another edition of "passage of the day" for y'all. (Why do I insist on referring to myself as "we", as if some force were beside me, guiding my fingers through the perilous terrain of a MacBook keypad as "we" write this?)
Today's edition comes to us from deceased former slave and forever fighter of freedom- or as the common folk say, "freedom fighter"- Fredrick Douglass.
Most of us had the privilege of learning to read and write via school. Mr. Douglass had some help early on, but customs of the Antebellum South quickly turned his teacher into an inhibitor. True G's learn to read in silence like Brother Fredrick.

I've often been criticized due to my focus on studying history. Why am I living in the past, wasting time reading about ancient wars and brooding over slavery? History teaches us lessons about human nature, and what we are capable of. History is about reflection, which is necessary for anyone who considers perspective a virtue. So when I am studying history, there is always one eye on the present, trying to figure out how the lessons of yesterday apply to the conditions of today. 
With that in mind, upon completion of the selected passage, I urge you to identify the parallels from his time to our time . (Obligatorily, I also urge you to publish your personal discoveries below in the comments section. You don't have to if you don't want to, but it would be nice if you did, nah mean?)

History is useless if not used as a tool for cognitive growth. Read, and expand your understanding...

Take it home my dear fellow:

A name is never yours until you accept it. by NYC Robert

Though from birth we are given a name; and do summon ourselves to responding to it. We do not, at that age, have the competence to make a decision if we want to change it. In many cases, if not all, that decision cannot be made,at that age, mainly because we have not been exposed to other names. A contrasting similarity is food. When an infant is first exposed to food it picks and chooses what it likes and doesn't. However, if you only had one type of cereal, milk, bread, chicken etc... You would then have no choice other than to eat what is given. Thus, an infant truly can't make decisions whether they want there name or not because they know no different.