Halloween Blows Pops

It was hard to find vegan goodies for trick-or-treaters. I thought it would be easier. It's amazing what kind of shit is in some of those treats.

I settled on Blow Pops. Blow Pops are not totally vegan if you are really strict, but they're close enough. I don't really care about "shared equipment."

Tonight, I will watch scary movies and give out Blow Pops until they are all gone. I was thinking about going to a party in San Diego, but my friend told me I should brush up on my beer-pong skills for it. I have never played beer-pong. I don't like parties where beer-pong is played.

I just looked at the ceiling for a full minute trying to remember which drinking games I liked when I needed an excuse to get drunk. I stopped playing them in high school. In Europe, there are games involving oddly-shaped glasses that require skill to drink from. The object is never to get drunk or to stay sober, but to drink without making a mess of yourself. The person who spills the drink on their face or front gets laughed at by everyone else. I like those games.

I will have more fun giving out Blow Pops and watching Trailer Park of Terror than playing beer-pong.

Here is a Nugget Halloween E-Card for all of you.

Sri Chinmoy Cult, Kristin Cavallari, and OC Sucks Bowls

I was sitting on my stoop in Berkeley last week when a woman walked by and told me I should find out who was running shit. She said the criminals make everyone do what they do. She said if I wanted to find out who was making me sit like a bump on a log there, drinking my coffee and reading the morning away, I should go to chinmoycult.com. She handed me a little scrap of paper with the address on it. There is no one home at chinmoycult.com.

But check this out. Wikipedia is all messed up about it. Lots of controversy.

I'd never heard about this cult if it is a cult. Crazy that that lady went crazy on me in front of my house, though. Thanks crazy lady! I wish I were still in Berkeley right now.

I am in Orange County right now. Orange County is one of those places in which it seems that all the people you encounter are int he same cult.
It isn't the worst place in the world, but it's pretty bad. They have pretty beaches and women and libraries. The beaches really are some of the loveliest in the world, the women are usually brain-dead, and the libraries don't have enough parking. Everyone drives here. The restaurants all want you to eat crap. Coffee costs more than anywhere on Earth. Traffic makes you want to kill yourself. You cannot escape the sound of engines. You can't walk anywhere. I miss Berkeley very much.

Poetry as Religion, Masturbation, and Science

The Oakland Fuel Dock is more important than any poem ever written, and it demands more respect. The container cranes stand with more majesty and pride over the gulls cracking mussels on the cement sides of slips because poetry, like all art, has no dignity.

It's easy to think of poetry as a religion. We experience poetry alone with a book or with a reverend-like reader in a group. and the more sinister boors of us will always try to make poetry a religion. Boors see a place where they can impose their own beliefs on others who love the art, and they will strive to turn those beliefs into dogma. Every religion has the arrogance to think that their set of rules are the right ones for anyone who loves God; of such stuff are proselytizers made. People who call poetry a religion are arrogant in the same way. When you refuse their dogma, they shake their heads and call you uninformed, like Martin Luther did when he said the Jews of Germany only refused Christ because Catholics had gotten all the rules wrong.

Rules assume that getting to heaven is a contest. They have holy men and saints, whose names act as place markers for ideas that reinforce those rules. These names have the mystical power of convincing people to believe what they know to be untrue.

The zealots of poetry as religion find saints in old critics. They chant their names in a mantra designed to feign an understanding of the ideas behind them. But reading criticism is analogous to watching the muscles of a very intelligent orangutan as he masturbates. Interesting? Yes. Fun? Maybe. But certainly not important or dignified. Poetry zealots watch to find new techniques so that they too can join the circle jerk of criticism, but they will never admit to having fun with it, and they expect you to stay quiet and reverent. Soon they will learn how to tell other would-be masturbators how it "should" done.

The only way to make criticism important is to change its purpose to that of science. Science's only goal is merely to know. Critics have spent so much time telling us things, eared seals barking orders at pelicans, that the pelicans have swallowed too much sea water and have started to believe that poetry and all other art is a religion. Only in religion do people subject themselves to being told so much. But poetry is not a burning bush and will not tell you anything. Moses was a liar, and so are most critics. They cannot ever tell you what poetry is really saying because it isn't saying anything. When art tries to say something, it fails because it has nothing to offer as a reward for your listening to Metatron. In religion, there's, you know, eternal salvation.

If you think that poetry and all other art is more than a form of entertainment, you suffer from arrogance. Art does not mean more than football. It seems like the more people know, the more they enjoy "fine arts," but who knows why that is? And that why is what's important. Why do we value the arts? Why do we enjoy ink on paper and paint on canvas or the sound wet breath makes through pounded brass? If you allow the educated and educators to stop you from laughing and having fun with the arts, you have been duped in the cathedral into thinking masturbation is evil and unhealthy.

But Art, Entertainment, Criticism, they all are very fun and healthy. The only question is how and why we enjoy the sticky mess they get us in.

Scientists are almost always more fun to be around than priests.

Palin's Disgrrace

Sarah Palin and her ilk are talking a lot lately about "Real America." I find the idea behind such a term one of the most offensive that have circled openly in American politics in the last 20 years. That anyone running for office would adopt such Machiavellian tactics as dividing and conquering the country they claim to love marks a sad day for the whole of the nation. Even comedians like Jon Stewart are having a hard time being funny about such an idea. After all, it's hard to have a sense of humor when someone is questioning your national identity and patriotism.

It seems the only person really able to be funny about splitting the country is Sarah Palin herself, who visited the set of Saturday Night Live and had a good laugh last weekend. But it was less the cathartic type of laughter that accompanies good-willed humor, the kind of laughter that reminds us we're all the same, than the kind of awkward chortle that calcifies people's thoughts and hardens their hearts. "Real Americans" loved her dismissive, patronizing tone more than ever, and Americans like me (fake American?) chuckled guiltily and reluctantly gave her credit for showing her face on the show.

The two groups might seem different because they have a hard time understanding each other, but the truth is that they are more similar than either would like to believe. Every American loves this country, and every American wants what's best for it. Sometimes we laugh at ourselves and sometimes we laugh at each other, but no one should ever call into question the virtuosity or validity of another's Americanism when our motives are the same. The fact that McCain's campaign has gone down that road is disgraceful.

Skull-A-Day Published Jack Morgan's Skullicon

I am so proud that my skullicon skull emoticon was chosen to grace the Skull-A-Day Blog!

º..º

Cool Hand Luke @ The Paramount

Entrance to this magnificent theater for one of my all-time movies

Poets on Parade

Hi.
So there is a totem pole in the poetry world, and I am somewhere at the bottom of it. Somewhere wayyy down at the bottom of it. But I know some things about poetry, and I read several books of poetry a year. I'm not in the dark is what I'm saying. I try to be in the scene without being cliquey, and I piss off as many people as like me. Maybe more people in poetry hate me than like me. I'm never sure about that.

But here's the thing: The National Book Foundation just announced its shortlist for the National Book Award, and I only immediately recognized one of the names on it. I figured out that I'd heard of another before writing this. Here are the nominees:

Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems (HarperCollins)

Reginald Gibbons, Creatures of a Day (Louisiana State University Press)

Richard Howard, Without Saying (Turtle Point Press)

Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press)

At first I thought that I was out of touch, that I don't know shit about the thing I dedicate the largest portion of my time to. But now I'm not so sure. Am I the one out of touch because I think that poetry should excite, that it should be the writing mode that influences all others? Am I out of touch because I think that poetry needs to entertain and deserves a readership outside of the poetic community? I understand that the NBA and the Pulitzer are often given as lifetime achievement awards more than for one piece of work, especially when it comes to poetry, but I don't even know who these people are. Maybe I'm a cliquey bitch. Maybe I'm the one wearing the costume. Maybe these are the best poets of my generation, and I'm just too dumb to know it.

But here's what Oprah knows for sure: the big awards committees for poetry are naff.

Davis, CA

This is what Davis looks like.

Retard's Guide to Abortion Rights

The A-bomb was dropped in the debates tonight. I will now explain why choice is only logical.

Meat-eating humans choose not to eat dolphins or apes because they are immediately discernible as something special. They have self-awareness, autonomy, emotions, and complex communication. We don't need to look at their DNA because aside from opposable thumbs (dolphins ain't got em) and super smart brains (Gorillas ain't so smart), they're just like us. If you are a meat-eating human and found an embryo in the desert you would eat it to stay alive and wouldn't consider it murder. Cows, even according to very smart people, have a lower intrinsic value than humans; therefore, most people eat them. That doesn't mean they don't like cows or think that they are worthless, but they are worth less than human beings, and that has nothing to do with DNA. Cows are pretty dumb, and it's hard to tell that they have as complex a hierarchy in their herds as dogs do in packs and a fairly complex form of communication; thus, people feel OK eating them.

What I'm driving at is that "human" is not an elusive thing. We almost immediately see things as human or nonhuman. If we were on an alien planet with species we've never seen before, we wouldn't be thinking about DNA when we were wondering what would ethically be OK to eat. We'd make very quick decisions on who to talk to or befriend and who to eat. For meat-eaters, it seems like the big criterion is self-awareness. Even though cows feel pride and experience an ah-ha effect when they accomplish goals, most people don't think that they are self-aware, and OK, therefore, to eat. It would be the same thing on another planet. The things that seem to know who they are and want to communicate are spared; the things that just mull around eating grass turn into burgers.

The thing about embryos is that they fail every test when it comes to being human except that they have 100% human DNA. Everyone knows that embryos aren't really human, but that DNA thing gets people. If you have 100 per cent. human DNA, doesn't that mean you deserve 100% human rights? No more than Chimpanzees, who have 99% human DNA, deserve 99% human rights. Chimpanzees deserve rights because they behave very much like human beings; that's it. Their DNA is irrelevant. An embryo meets none of the criteria by which we judge something as deserving rights. An embryo is no more human than a head of cabbage, and it behaves no differently.

Some say that its potential is important, and it is important to consider that potential, but that's where the right to privacy comes in. I hope that everyone considers the potential of all things, even wood that can be turned into houses or old aluminum that can be recycled into new computers, but since the consideration of an embryo doesn't affect society, it isn't up to society to impose any regulation. The right to privacy, protected by, I think, the fourth amendment, supersedes what you or I think about what a person should or should not do, and it would take an impossible scenario to make it otherwise (Children of Men).

Late term fetuses become more of an issue for almost everyone because of the self-awareness catch and the perception of pain. If something feels pain that is like yours or mine, it's wrong to kill it because we are ethically obligated to reduce or prevent pain and suffering. The conversation of fetuses is much more convoluted. But even a retard could understand the embryo thing.

Palin as President

This is fun for about four minutes, and then it makes you want to cry.
Palinaspresident.com will be updated every day until election day (Nov 4).
Then the site will remain as a chilly reminder of what might have been.

If Palin's ticket wins the election, the world will probably end more quickly than we thought it would. Nothing as bad as Sarah Palin has happened in politics in my lifetime.
If you thought Bush was bad, think again.

I'm beginning to think that the Republican party is just getting back at the audacity of Democrats like me, who thought a woman might be the next president. It's as if with one fell swoop they patched every one of those 18 million cracks. It's like Republicans never wanted to win in the first place. Palin sets women back 25 yrs. All the ground won, convincing the retards of the world that women are as capable of governance as men: obliterated. Palin is to women as "Deliverance" is to the South.

That Deliverance Link will probably ruin your day. Sorry. If you've seen the movie, you already know which clip it is and get my point.

The Cult of Jack Morgan

This young lady is named Morgan. She loves my poetry.


This lady loves my poetry so much, she named her bird after me.

Grow the fuck Up,

I am always annoyed by people's irrational preferences. I associate food preferences, e.g., "I can't stand onions," with childishness. Kids think things are gross. Kids think kissing and sex is as gross as tomatoes or Brussels sprouts.

Most of us grow out of thinking kissing and sex is gross, so why not the food thing?
I think I can honestly say that I have liked everything I have ever eaten as an adult.
If you are one of those people who gets grossed out by olives, you should consider developing a taste for them; it's part of growing up. Stop being a baby. It was cute then. It isn't now.

Preferences might come from our parents like everyone says everything else does.
But I've been thinking about that lately. How long are people supposed to or should be permitted to blame their parents for everything? 25. After 25, you have to start picking your own friends and thinking differently from how your parents do. Some people start earlier, and some start later, but after 25, you can't use your parents as an excuse anymore.

I know a lot of people who have people in their lives whom they call friends they hate because they grew up in the same neighborhood. Just because your parents bought a house next to some ass hole when you were 12 is no reason to stay friends with him. After 25, if you are still hanging around some racist piece of garbage you met when you were a kid, you need to reevaluate what's important in your life. It's part of growing up.

This goes for religion and politics, too. You can't say that yo vote republican or won't date black girls because it's the way you were raised. At some point, you have to employ your intellect and start doing the thing that separates us from animals: decide your own destiny. The shackles of your upbringing melt with just a little mental effort--way easier than mind-bending spoons.

So when a critical mind asks you why you hate coffee, and you can't reply with a slack-jawed "just cuz" or "I was raised that way," what will you say? Some give up an anecdote set in a much more recent past than childhood, but such anecdotal rambling is just as irrational as its slack-jawed cousins.

If you cannot think of a reason to hate pickles or certain sexual positions or the color purple, and you think you are a rational person in possession of a critical and curious mind, you should feel a great stress called cognitive dissonance. That feeling will go away when you either abandon your idea that you're smart or behave like a grown up.

Irrational preference does not make up for a lack of personality.

Before you email me:
If something hurts, you usually shouldn't do it.
Veganism is about ethics and health based on logic and reason.
If you are drunk or hung over or pregnant or otherwise physically impaired, you're excused. But when you join the breathing world again, you should join it as a full-fledged grownup.

SeeqGeist

I'm blogging at SeeqPod now. It's one of those dream jobs I was talking about. I'd really appreciate it if you would add me to your blog roll and check it out from time to time for new music and whatnot. I really dig this because it's like having a radio show online without having to speak into a microphone. Plus, I've been drawing all the images for it so far. It's really a great place for me to live online. And I think the community they're building around playable search is pretty friggn awesome.

Chester Brown's The Little Man is BIG!

The Little Man
Chester Brown
Drawn and Quarterly:2006
$14.95

You know how Chekov wrote several less-famous one-acts that scholars and other people who care cherish as masterpieces? Imagine if Chekov was Canadian and instead of a playwright, he was a graphic novelist. That person would be called Chester Brown, and his new book, Little Man would be the collection of masterpieces his fans, and the world, even if they don’t know it, have been waiting for.

The Little Man self-consciously takes you through the artistic and emotional development of a frame-sequence story-teller that doesn’t only make you Chester Brown’s most intimate friend but also floods you with a sudden familiarity with the world of graphic novels and maybe a peek into the future of literary arts.

For an American reader, thinking about toilet paper taking over the world, walrus sandwiches, and naked MP’s discussing how to suppress pornography is as odd as seeing what it’s like for a poor artist in Montreal whose biggest dream is to draw super heroes. These are Chester Brown’s “short strips;” they inspire guffaws, WTF’s, and raised eyebrows as often as a-hah’s, ZOMG’s and the occasional wet tear duct. And just like Chekov’s one-acts, they all go together, playing off one another, achieving a symphonic effect that only the best books of poetry can. And while the whole world seems to have gone Batman crazy, you’re presented with the charm and embarrassment of childhood, adolescence, and poverty, and the tragedy of Bunny and Gerbil, which manages to ferry you to a place much more real than Gotham city or anything Hollywood is asking us to buy lately. It might be why Hollywood’s doing so badly right now, and it might be why graphic novels are doing so well.

The new edition of The Little Man contains several pages of notes that include apologies, explanations, and the first strip Brown was ever paid for. You don’t have to read the notes to enjoy the book, but they are refreshing reminders of our humanity and the plight of an artist working in a marginalized genre. Luckily that genre has grown up with the people who were on the fringes with it. The Little Man is a testament to the graphic novel’s keen ability to tackle and introduce themes that any person with half a soul can relate to while being entertained. Hopefully, if people like Chester Brown stick around, graphic novels will change mainstream media more than mainstream media changes graphic novels. That would be nice.

Some Pretty Good Movies I've Seen Lately

"Appaloosa" is a great western. It's super rare for a genre movie like this to be very good. I, for example, hated "3:10 to Yuma." "Appaloosa" is filled with compelling characters in a setting as stunning and gritty as we expect to find in such a film. The characters, though, are the main thing here. The film doesn't rely on huge shoot outs or sweeping shots of the Arizona wilderness. There is one slip where the film forgets to trust the intelligence of its audience when Rene Zellweger actually confesses to the camera that she is afraid to be alone or be with the wrong man, telling us her character's motivation as if we weren't smart enough to figure it out on our own. But I would see this one again. I almost never say that. It's realistic but somehow doesn't lose the romanticism normally ascribed to the wild west.

"Ghost Town" is about a guy who can see ghosts. You'd think that would be boring, since we've seen a million movies with that gimmick, but this movie's funny and kind of touching. It's fresh and interesting and clever.












"House Bunny" is about a woman who lives at the Playboy Mansion until she's kicked out and homeless. She goes to live with a sorority. It's kind of like "Revenge of the Nerds" with boobs. I think what's great about this flick is that it relies on good jokes instead of cheap tricks. I mean it's still kind of a "dumb" movie, but it doesn't act like it. It asks you to meet it halfway and doesn't take advantage of you. It's not like "Nutty Professor," where you go along with the absurdity of a big, fat Eddie Murphy just to get a fart in the face. And it manages to be funny without being mean or crude, surprisingly.

Talk about a Train Wreck; the World's Stock Markets are Tanking like A Bush Twin during Pledge Week

I still don't believe that McCain/Palin have a chance in hell of winning the election, but surely with the economies of the world derailing today, such an outcome would signify the greatest train wreck in the history of the world. If I had children, I would be very afraid about their futures right now. Poets are always the first to hang when the world goes pear-shaped.

Things We COULD Have Done with $700,000,000,000.00

So the bail-out bill passed without golden parachutes and with new tax breaks for people "researching and developing" clean fuel and a greater FDIC burden and oversight that might be as thorough as it was just 8 short years ago. So the argument will now be "shoulda-woulda." Let's start it off with a "coulda" list! Here are some things we could have done with 700 billion smackers.

1. Build enough solar panels and windmills in the desert to power the western seaboard. We could wire them to all the major cities and efficiently power the west from places where no people and very few animals live. The federal government charges the states or individuals, and in the long run makes money, dramatically shrinks our eco-footprint, and becomes the shining star of the world. Every one would want to be like us.
2. Put every American family into a house or apartment rent-free for a year. There are a lot of houses out there owned by the very banks we're bailing out. Those banks who are having men with guns usher financially destitute families into the streets. We could have just taken the homes and given them away. It's on the Feds for a year folks! Then you have to pay fair market. Homelessness solved, and the gov makes some cash once the market bounces.
3. Build a trans-continental high-speed rail system. People are afraid of flying these days, and trains can't be crashed into buildings. Plus, they're a lot cleaner. A mobile workforce helps the economy and is "pro-business." Trains are also easier to maintain. The traffic would reinvigorate the middle of the country. If it turns a profit, great. If not, it provides jobs and commerce across the whole nation. Choo-Choo; All aboard!
   
4. Free Pizza and Beer Day for the entire planet! Everyone will love us and next time we mess up will say, "Yeah, but remember when the Americans bought us pizza and beer that one time?" It will also serve as a guilt trip token. "Please get rid of your nukes; remember that time we bought you pizza and asked nothing in return?" Vegan options and non-alcoholic beverages will be made available upon request. You also get a Hershey bar and a pack of bubblegum. Suh-WEET!
   
5. Space tourism. We could build a space shuttle that actually works and also the pimpest space station imaginable. Then charge people crazy amounts to get to it. How cool would that be. Then, we could have the state lotteries offer going to space as a prize. Every month, we could fly 50 peeps to space, suckah! And we keep the lottery ticket money! Maybe then all those lottery winners will stop killing themselves in a rut of depression and achieve some kind of "perspective" having seen the planet "from a distance" like that Bette Midler song!

Seriously, though, I wish they had worked in a way to forgive student debt. If I didn't have to pay my student loans back, I could pay my rent this month and eat like a king and pay for health care. I would probably buy something expensive like a Harley Davidson or something. How's that for churning the economy? There are millions of people paying off student debt. Most of the money we owe is to the federal government, especially now that Fannie Mae is under that umbrella. Now they want more from us in the form of taxes to give to the other bastards making money off of us and to federally insure the people who have $250,000 sitting with said bastards. It's starting to seem like the financial industry and the US Gov has some kind of deal to fleece the likes of me. Hmm.

Things that Happened while You were Looking Someplace Else

Hoboeye.com, a journal who has graciously published me twice, came out with a new issue! I love Hoboeye.

ForGodot.com decided to publish me and like 3000 other poets without permission! I love ForGodot. I'm on page 1305.

Emaximus

There's this East Bay rapper I like, Emaximus. I met him through his brother, and he gave me his Myspace. Myspace is the musician's calling card now. Everyone has a Myspace, but musicians really love it. They are crazy about their play numbers and downloads. It's kind of funny because I think the Myspace flash player is pretty crap. I'd rather use Seeqpod. But Emaximus isn't on Seeqpod.

Luckily, my favorite song by Emaximus is free to download at his myspace, "Ride the Strip." It's about cruising through Oakland and hitting up Jack London. If you have never been to Oakland or have never ghost ridden the whip on Broadway, you might not understand it, but I think the song is pretty hard but still funny as hell. I like that. The beat kills, too. Low strings and
very west side. I like that too.

His album is coming out in October as an online release. When it comes out, you should support Oakland talent by buying it right quick.

The Economy might be in the Crapper, but there Are Lessons in "Escape from New York"

I think someone was having a laugh when they were painting this picture of Snake. 1997 doesn't sound very futuristic right now, and we obviously didn't mess everything up to the degree that Escape from New York depicts. This is very reassuring right now.

Lately I have been afraid of the economy. It is out of my hands completely, and it seems like it is going to turn us all into scroungers and pack rats who save jars and string like people did in the last depression, living in the backs of their Packards. I've been worrying about living through another riot, and I've been thinking about what it will be like if the doomsday scenarios the media and the politicians have been painting actually come to pass.

It's strange that we don't trust the media or the politicians until they start telling us that we need them so badly that the world will collapse without them. CEOs of mega corporations and banks are telling us things that make us think twice about dismissing them as liars and thieves. They're all talking about 700 billion dollars like it's no big deal even though for the last fifty years they've been saying that hunger and poverty are incurable in this nation and that healthcare for everyone is too expensive. Doesn't it seem a at least a little weird that we're even talking about freeing up 700 billion dollars to hand over to the very people who have been screwing every American man, woman, and child they could? The last time we were talking about this type of thing, the Gipper was prez, and his VP G.H-W. Bush was running. The time before that, a Republican named Hoover was touting bailouts and tax cuts for the rich. The Democrats are not perfect, but the Republicans have the worst track record in history on this sort of thing.

But even if McCain wins, we probably won't end up like Snake and his dilapidated NYC. The fear of such a thing is very real, but we'll probably look just like Kurt Russel at the end of all this, kind of silly.

Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush; those are the Republicans in most voters' living memories. When did that party win the trust of the American people? No wonder dystopian futures are so frightening--you see a trend where people continually put their fates in the worst possible hands, and it starts to look like we're never going to make it to see 1997. I've been freaking out about the future of the country and the world. Writers are the first ones to starve and the first ones to get executed when nazis take over. Escape from New York is where I find solace. If people thought that that was what 1997 was going to look like, I am probably wrong, too. Breathe easy and everything will work out.

If Sarah Palen becomes president, though, Snake save us all!

The Aura of Objects in the Industrial Age

I was looking for cool iPhone things and found GelaSkins Inc. They have the coolest phone guards in the world, and I want one but can't decide which one is the best. They also have artistic protection for Blackberries and Razrs and every other phone you have.

I like the idea of decking out things like people do with hot rods. I wish I had some kind of laser etching on my laptop. Something as permanent as a tattoo, you know? You can't remove laser etching, you just have to learn to live with it until your laptop dies. But laptops never die. I wish more people got their laptops and phones altered for coolness and fashion or for a statement against the man.

I think that people, if they don't have any tattoos, should make a point about getting some scars. Scars and tattoos are important markers of where we have been. They give us little reminders that we have lived and are still living. They are stories we take with us wherever we go. People who don't have any scars or tattoos might be aliens. . . or robots.

Walter Benjamin talked a lot about the aura of objects. He raised doubts about the existence of such an aura in an age of mass-produced goods. Things that are made identically by the million are kind of hard to make unique, to make one's own. I think it's why we value signed books and hand-made things. A telephone is hard to give an aura to. GelaSkins has so many artists making their skins, I think they make it a little easier. Take that Benjamin!