I said this place was for seekers of the Jewel. Regular, everyday posts are often leaders to the Jewel, which is why they are also here; but now, here is a more pointed and direct path...

Heroines

The Gods and Goddesses once came down from their lofty mountain-top dwellings and decided to mingle with the common folk. They stayed so long with the commoners that they became like them. That left the mountain-tops uninhabited and seemingly devoid of meaning. This was no good because the commoners needed someone to look up to. So, eventually two of the commoners—two seemingly quite ordinary women—decided they would not repeat the mistakes made by the Gods and the Goddesses of the past, the ones who had decided to descend. “We have seen the empty places and have decided to fill them; we shall not take for granted any place on this Earth, as others before us have done,” they said.

So, these ordinary women (who now became visionaries), beheld a particular empty mountain-top as a desirable place in which they might dwell quite happily and decided to ascend to its top and make right what they felt the mighty had made wrong. When they reached the summit, they saw it wasn’t simply just a mountain, but rather, it also had a flowing, rich, crystal-clear river that seemed to sparkle with the truth of whoever looked into it. The mountain was also teeming with rich wildlife; birds sang and bears slumbered peacefully. They looked deeply into nature and proclaimed to all the wildlife, to each other, and to all the commoners down below, “We are the ones who decided to ascend to this realm; but, despite our differences, we are you, and you are us. It’s true that we now live on this mountain’s garden-like palace and have made use of what was once empty. But, it was the land below that begat to us the need for a higher place and it was the sacrificial vacating of the land by those we formerly looked up to that yielded this bountiful place for us to dwell. So, we owe a great amount of respect to everyone and everything that helped this become possible for us. We saw the mountain-tops, and that they were empty; no heroines filled them, as they all had fallen and so we knew inside ourselves that we must move and live in this grand, sacred land.”

After their speech some commoners seemed to understand and secretly thought, “I want to be like them,” and yet some others simply scratched their heads and went back to work, toiling the tough fields to make way for continued, new life. Still, a few said, “They said they would take no land for granted and yet they left this common ground—their home and humble beginnings—which is also our home and a place sacred to us. Was our place here not good enough for them?” It seemed that there could be no clear consensus on what the two women, who had decided to ascend, had done. Meanwhile, the two transformed women—way up high now and beginning to feel that their new home was quite satisfactory—looked around and saw many other empty mountain-tops; in fact, there were too many to number.

“Many other mountain-tops in the world must be vacant places like this one,” they thought, “and they are just waiting for others like us to step up to their challenge.

“Any commoner can become a hero or heroine.”

Now, I do not drink caffeine at all, but one day when I was in a "religious" person's house, I noticed that the amount of coffee, caffeinated drinks, and coffee supplies he had versus the amount of religious writings and accoutrements, was far outweighed by the coffee. So, I thought, "Why not just make coffee your God?" Then, I went home and wrote this poem.

Caffeine
Oh great God of False Energy, what do I owe Thee?
For, Thy already are the Bean Lord,
With angels frantically serving You in plastic and aluminum.
You, a Great Giver of contrived hopes,
Cunningly dehydrating masses of loyal followers—
How Your people shake at the delight of another headache with You!
Oh Dark God of Nervous Beings, what else do I owe Thee?
For, another morning's drink of loyalty whisks away the frustrations of the night,
And addictively reminds us how happy we are,
To be brainwashed by You.

The poem is in the book A Glimpse to Open Pt Eye [I] Deluxe, by me, Danielle Sainte-Marie. Find the book at my website: Official Website of Danielle Sainte-Marie, Books Page

I have to add my quick two cents here (and I speak for Chloe my wife too): whenever a SNL actor breaks character, we find it delightful. People say the stupidest things, like, "But the joke is ruined when they break character." Well, no it isn't. It's just that the joke that was about to be told got trumped by an even funnier joke: breaking character.

The hopes of someone breaking character is our favorite thing; in fact, it's why we watch the show! Keep up the unexpected laughter!

Leaves fall to the Autumn Dance,
trees and earth spin romance—
as you and I walk along,
into dusk with some forlorn.

Wind pushes your soft auburn hair,
sometimes I have to stare;
jealous at nature for touching you,
while I wish to do so too.

A chill creeps in,
and you offer your arm in pretend;
yet I latch on, happy to be at your side—
wondering about a life as your wife.

I fall then, but no one catches me,
I am in heartbroken misery!
What can I do, oh what can I do?
You may not love me, but I...

And the night goes on,
I find myself alone and gone—
lost in that brief Autumn World,
when, if only for a second, I was your girl.


(From the book A Glimpse to Open Pt Eye [I] Deluxe, available now at Danielle Sainte-Marie.com.)

Hello Bangertv and metal fans of other stripes! I am going to give my picks of the best metal albums of 2017 and 2018, right here, right now.

But first, you may ask, 'Who is she and why should I care?' Well, honestly, I don't know that you should care, but let me fill you in on some pertinent details of my life. First, I am a full-time poetess and authoress of over 30 books. My website, daniellesaintemarie.com will fill you in a bit more. I am the daughter of Jim Morrison, and no, I don't care if you believe it or not. It's very true. Second, I am a world-class martial artist in Ninjutsu, having attained the rank of hachi-dan (8th degree black belt), and I have trained with everyone from Hatsumi-sensei to Hayes-sensei to Bud Malstrom-sensei, and Shawn Havens-sensei. I live on my ranch and have my own private dojo.

But third, and probably most important to all you metalheads out there, I am a lover of heavy fucking metal. I have been in love with metal ever since some of its earliest tunes began creeping into my ears. I started out with Judas Priest's Rocka Rolla, which blew my young mind and helped me understand the melancholia of Winter. I then got into the hard rock of AC/DC, with the song Whole Lotta Rosie being a particular favorite. And, over the years, I listened to and studied it all. Grim Reaper's See You in Hell My Friend was played ten thousand times (don't you know, some young punk vandal spray-painted that in two foot high letters across a wall in Shoreham, NY. Now, imagine that! :-)). Celtic Frost, Death, Satan, Exodus, Tank...the list goes on and on. I have filled my soul with metal. And, Judas Priest? Well, I have their logo tattooed on my left arm, and I own every single album. Does that tell you how I feel about them? And, guess what? I found my way into Primal Fear's Nuclear Fire liner notes. When you're a writer you can help with lyrics, it seems. I also became friendly with Al Atkins, the original lead singer of Judas Priest. We shared some quality time discussing the origins of Caviar and Meths. So, that's just a little bit about me.

Before I get to my picks for the best metal records of 2017 and 2018, I want to remind you to support Bangertv and head over to their Patreon site and make a donation.

For the year 2018, I pick the following:

1. Spectral Wound, Infernal Decadence


This is the most unique black metal album I have ever heard. With dissonance drumming and singing in the background, and the sounds of a hulking, mystical, satanic force rising in the foreground, these guys created something that lies really beyond description. Buy this record and sit there mesmerized!

2. The Ocean Collective, Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic