My Greatest Hits

"There are no problems, only solutions." - John Lennon

There are THREE (3) complaints about me on Ripoff Report.

One of them was an attempt this year (in 2013) to 'cash in' on a business failure of 2010 and the resulting public castigation / successful ruination of my personal name and reputation ... Those were the other two on Ripoff Report.

Then there was this guy who put me and my failed business on vrwd, suggesting I was running a "Ponzi scheme"; and who also (same guy) placed my photo on Ripoff Report, with a snarky little caption saying, "This should say 'WANTED'" ... Dude.  What??

All bets became off when you made those moves, and some others hysterically followed suit:  being prompted to claim I had "disappeared", that I had changed my name and was "operating as" ... that I'd established some elaborate "fraud" network - "Jeff Glovsky is a THIEF and a SKEMER [sic]", scremed emails ... Jeff Glovsky kills babies ... Jeff Glovsky invaded Poland ...

"DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THAT MAN!!!!!!!"

... Sorry, am I "whining" again?  Probably.  Flailing and pissed off (again)?  Absolutely.  Does this post sound "paranoid"?  Am I "in denial"?  Maybe and Nope - though I'm denying the "right" that you felt you had to attack and destroy me personally, publicly ... and permanently.

I bring these black eyes up and point them out now -- these permanent online scarlet letters -- because a) they're out there, and the ones that are still out are not going away.  And b) there are only ("only" - I know, it's a joke!) THREE (3) complaints about me on Ripoff Report, as described above.

This url description:  "jeff glovsky directory of 1498 Complaints & Reviews: Jeff Glovsky ... "

is not accurate.  They did spell my name correctly ... However, "1498" complaints??  Not quite.  A click on the accompanying link will show that there are THREE (3) complaints about me on Ripoff Report.

Now let's say you don't feel the need to click through ... or don't have the time ... and you're searching for "Jeff Glovsky" by name (my personal name ... my reputation) ... Look!  You've 'stumbled upon' Jeff Glovsky on Ripoff Report ... and the description says he's got 1500 complaints about him!!

He must be a "FUCKING CRIMINAL!!!!!"   Says I should "BEWARE JEFF GLOVSKY!" ... Hey, let me weigh in here, though I don't know Jeff.  I'll just contribute a little bit, and call him names too, and try to cause problems ... It says here, Jeff Glovsky's a "scam artist".  I'll bet he's thinking about 'scaming' me!!!!!

Of course, people don't bother to click, and read things in full and contextualize.  One-sided "yelps", emotional "reviews" and malicious, extortionate "ripoff" reports are the order of the internet day.

I became informed too late about what I can do (could have done) to protect myself and fight back legally against personal libel and defamation.  Now I am beyond informed.

And whatever I can do from my small, sad platform here ... my blogosphere soapbox ... I will do, tirelessly, to encourage others to THINK - before they "yelp"and bitch and blame, and name-call, and SCREAMINGLY pound on the keys, then press "Enter".

In the hopefully Happy New Year(s) to come, I urge you to think:  before bullying and becoming irrational.

THINK.  Before destroying potential.

THINK.  Before publicly branding, defaming.

Think.

Before anyone else gets hurt.

Winter Mood(s) II

“Tundric Technicolor”, ©Jeff Glovsky

“Winter Landscape”, ©Jeff Glovsky

“Lunar (New Year)”, ©Jeff Glovsky

“Heat Loss”, ©Jeff Glovsky

“Afterglow”, ©Jeff Glovsky

Winter Mood

Mixed emotions at the holidays ... I get cheesy when I get to Wisconsin;

to the ever-grey, ice blue winter town I grew up in ... If I had thought, nearly thirty years ago, that this would be my 'homecoming':  riding in on an overnight bus, in a blizzard ...

"Dancing Pines", ©Jeff Glovsky

I might not have bothered to leave in the first place.

Happy, always, to spend time with loved ones and families, and rekindle friendships, renew plans and dreams ... Generally less happy at being halted:  my plans and dreams, and life overall, kept on ice until the middle or end of January.

It's at least until then that the world has its annual slow-down, if not shut-down, imposed upon it.

Pope Francis is everybody's friend this year ... He'd be my friend if he could scale back the celebrated winter holiday period to a distinct and manageable 10 or 12 days (like the song):  from roughly December 22 until January 3, there's Christmas Eve/Day, New Year's Eve/Day, face-stuffing holiday parties, Kwanzaa ... That's more than enough time to be spending with families, rekindling friendships, binge-eating and drinking, and driving snowmobiles!

Do we really need most of the month of January to begin to straggle back to work?  And all of December, to put work off until 'next year' or 'after the holidays'?

Bah, Humbug!

Between developing businesses, hassling with creditors, battling and trying to surmount past failures and prioritizing which promises to keep to loved ones and families -- not to mention those made aware, and part, of my biggest past failure -- my days are literally 25/8, and my year needs to have at least 400 days.

Frustratingly, it doesn't even approach 3-6-5.

Nonetheless, I'm nonplussed.  Keep creating and working, doing, being and living through the imposed slow-downs, if not shut-downs ... That's all I can do to keep sane, keep alive.

When families become not enough, friends flee to enemies and goals and promises remain unmet, I keep trying, to meet them ...

and keep alive.

"Pooped", ©Jeff Glovsky

12/24 MERRY CHRISTMAS 12/25

& Happy Holidays

2 0 1 3

Where It's @

Crying Wolf ...

medium.com/@JeffGlovsky

I Belong?

Hey, thank you, Nina, for the reblog.

So I've just joined Goodreads, which on the surface would seem to be an excellent fit for me and my online networking needs.  While admittedly not an "avid" reader, I read a little ... I love words and literature, and relate psychologically to numerous authors, if not (necessarily) to some classic characters.  I'm well-rounded enough to appreciate "dead white authors" and "negro music", and can easily find on Goodreads all the titles I've read (many of which I still own, proudly, dog-eared, physical copies) and the hundreds of other like-minded souls who have come before me in reading and "sharing".

But then the question becomes, "Now what?"  Now that I've arrived and stepped into the party, I'm not really sure what to do with myself.

Just like in real life ... I become a wallflower.  Too shy, or indifferent, to try to "engage".  In the same way that musically, I'm not a "creator", so technically, don't belong on SoundCloud ... to me, Good Reading -- not to mention, good listening -- is something to be appreciated silently, privately.

No offense, but I don't care to "share" with you, the books I've read ... or when I've read them, as Goodreads disturbingly prompts me to do.  The 'pride of ownership' which comes from slogging through Ulysses, or the vague whiff of pretension earned from being able to discuss intelligently Céline, or Milan Kundera, or Amiri Baraka's acclaimed Blues People, dissipates in the communal trough ... becoming meaningless, to everybody.

Simply put, what makes me special?

It's my tired old saw about individualism, and how Personhood seems to be going going, gone the way of Privacy in our "sharing culture".  If everybody's doing something, what's the point, why bother?

I have no idea how to "use" Goodreads ... No idea which one's the Mayor, right?  Who's the hostess, or who to be mingling with ... but it seems to be a noisy party.

I suppose the night is young.

December's Children

A big and special Danke to some dedicated 'likers':

M. Funk FineArt // Photography

seedbud (Leaf and Twig)

Ming Wang Photography

Leanne Cole Photography

Thank you for checking out and checking into, regularly liking ...

Dead Letter Days (JL, JFK)

Recently the world (or the U.S., anyway) "celebrated" the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"I am a jelly donut!" I toasted at one point during the November 22nd weekend ... not only refusing to "celebrate" death -- as we all tend to do, versus wallowing in it -- but also trying to be vaguely amusing while alluding to the wince-making "jelly doughnut misconception" which prevails, half a century later, in pieces of Germany.

Back in New York, there is today the annual celebration of a local, as much as a global, icon.  December 8th, 2013 "celebrates" the 33rd anniversary of the death of John Lennon.

While I missed having a memorable "Where were you when....?" JFK moment, I was alive, and do know where I was and what I was doing, when 'I heard the news that day (oh boy)' regarding JL.

I was watching a little football on Monday night ... which in 1980, was a treat.  Game days then were reserved for the weekend.  Football on Monday (plus at night!) meant I was going to be staying up 'late' -- usually well beyond my (unenforced) pre-teen "bedtime" of 10:30 -- and laughing with my parents at Howard Cosell.  This particular Monday night was no different.

Until, watching the Dolphins take on (and ultimately take) the Patriots, the blustering buffoon that comprised the persona -- the "Howard Cosell" (in quotes) brand, if you will -- became suddenly real.  Twice announcing that Lennon had been shot and killed, referring to it on-air as the "unspeakable tragedy" that it was ... and perhaps most sincere and heartfelt of all, reminding millions of us tuning in that night that in the Big Picture, what we were watching, what he was announcing, was "just a football game" ... Howard Cosell put the Big Picture back in perspective.

To be honest, my actual memory of Cosell's announcement is fuzzy.  I think I was in the bathroom ... or in the refrigerator ... or maybe I'd gone to bed already.  But the 'John Lennon dead' part ... 'John Lennon shot and killed' ... is the part that registered.  I remember then actually asking my parents, "Was John Lennon in the Beatles?" ... sort of confirming things for myself ... processing the weird and terrible news, delivered out of context that Monday night on a football broadcast, by a cartoonish sports icon who was clearly moved, clearly stunned ... a bereft and grieving fan himself.

There followed fifteen years or so of John Lennon being not only my 'favorite Beatle', but also sad, often inappropriate efforts on my part to infuse his spirit and a few of his reportedly defining qualities -- the cynicism, the sense of humor, a dry, often devastating wit and sharp tongue -- into my own thing ... whatever that was or I believed it to be.  I didn't outgrow my "John Lennon Phase" until I met and bedded Yoko Ono in the '90s.

Just kidding.

I still haven't outgrown John Lennon ... and of course, me and Yoko ... Well, that should go without saying (though just in case, I was JOKING:  I have never "bedded" Yoko Ono!!).

ANYWAY, Sachs Media Group recently offered what it thought would be a few music icons had they lived to see, and be seen, today:  Kurt Cobain, for example (of course he'd still be wearing flannel ... with his hair unwashed since '91!), and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson (who of course, would be wearing a Hawaiian beach shirt ... Really?).

While some of the 'aged rock star' images are laughable (especially Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas ... What the FUCK??? :), the projection of John Lennon, had he lived to become 73 years old, I think could not be more perfect:

It's exactly how I would 'imagine' the guy now.  Good work on that one, SMG!

And RIP JL / JFK.

Hysteric Indulgence

"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying." - Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

I'm ill-fitting, and self-absorbed.  Upon hearing of Nelson Mandela's death, I posted a picture of myself, and a link to my page on Writers-Network.

Here is what I was thinking:  I was trying to illustrate his quote about saints and sinners and perseverance, by putting up a "selfie" that might have sort of worked as a visual, sort of, 'Should I or Shouldn't I?' ... 'Done that (too late!), now what's the next move?'.

And then I linked that photo to my page on Writers-Network, because the apropos quote, attributed to Nelson Mandela, has always been a part of my profile there.

The move backfired, though, when that one guy who's following me intimated that I seemed like an asshole for doing this.

Beyond which, my sincere and timely post on Tumblr -- a humble homage to one of history's great leaders, and a light and inspiration to millions -- could have achieved 'maximum viscosity' (i.e., re-blogging) if I'd only decided to bag the link ... or better yet, do away with my own photo completely.

I did end up choosing to lose the linkage.  But my photo's still there ... first of all, because I think it does, in a way, sort of lend itself to the above quote, and this was my intention.  Secondly, because it's my damn Tumblr (just like Lil Wayne's cup) and I'll post what I want there!

Generally, I prefer to let my WordSpeak (and my Photos by Jglo) without boring, pretentious exposition.  'I wrote this piece when I was not in a good place' ... 'This next song...'.

"Shut up and sing!" I used to scream, when I'd drop into an open mic. to read my words, or be trapped in a sound booth mixing a gig, and some insecure windbag would get up before me.  'And then my dog suggested, "Eat the bone!"...my dog is my muse.  Why, I'm just a vessel.  But I can't do an English accent...'

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I used to scream ... as the audience assembled would invariably chuckle in indulgent, embarrassed anticipation at what the insecure windbag might utter next ...

Now the internet screen has become the stage ... but other than this, there is little that's changed.  I still become hysterical when I visit most blogs and read all of the reasons and rhymes for each posting; the gestation behind each creation, the excuses for what, why and how each exists.

I BECOME HYSTERICAL with explanations which have themselves no need for existing, and only serve to pad the word count (or cleverly populate search results).  Rather than letting the words, or the various images, speak -- and rather than allowing me to absorb them subjectively -- there are zillions of  "creators" all telling me what, why and how I should feel, follow, "favorite" or "like".

Of course, zillions respond to this becoming-less-and-less-subtle steerage, and the "blogosphere" gets born and is an ever indulgent, happy place ... I become hysterical!!

Though all things considered, I am happy to be weighing in.  I will steadfastly be keeping your two cents to yourself ... but I know you'll continue to 'stumbleupon' sundry Random Poetix and other works, and Wor(d)s in Progress, by Jeff Glovsky, and take what you may from them ... without any boring, pretentious exposition.

I just wanted to take this moment here, to elucidate my self-absorption.

Thank you very much.  Thanks for reading.

Good night!!!

"All of Me", ©Jeff Glovsky

New Time of Year

"Winteresque", ©Jeff Glovsky