Skip to main content

Episode 5: The Cow Song (Libretto)

Episode 5 - Header
Support Provided By

Although the local witch has been killed, farm animals are still dying, and at Vireo’s home, a cow steps forward to give its perspective on the situation. 

Featuring

Vireo Wind Octet. The San Francisco Girls Chorus, Shadow Hills High School Regiment of the Realm Marching Band, Indio, CA
 

Although the local witch has been killed, farm animals are still dying, and at Vireo’s home, a cow steps forward to give her perspective on the situation.
Episode Five: The Cow Song

(A breath. Back a brief jump in time; Vireo and Mother each in their own space)

Episode 5 - Screengrab

VIREO
If you don't want my fear, then
Where do you want my fear to go?
Later, later, farther down
Further
Further
Further out we go

MOTHER
Invisible hands touch my ears and
Tell me words will come later
Invisible lips touch my own and
Tell me breath will come –

MOTHER + VIREO
Later –

VIREO
Later, farther down

MOTHER
Fire comes and burns me down and
Tells me: farther down
I say my piece full extent, out of breath
Falling
All the way down
I pay out
I pray flat out
I say my name to the good and
Cows are still dying

(Milkmaids take the field. A dying Cow appears.)

MILKMAIDS
Ah!

Episode 5 - Screengrab

COW
The meadow was green and the stream was laughing
The last day I stood alive
With an udder full and proud of my cheeses
I laughed, so pleased to survive

MILKMAIDS
With our simple tools:
Buckets, stools
Slim hands made by God
We hish to brim
Whole, less, and skim
We pray Him, pray Him –

COW
But fate laughs last to catch you napping
And I stood asleep in the sun
Knocked utterly flat, no thanks or pleases
I fell, as beef, all undone

MILKMAIDS
Find our purity...
Minding rods and rules
As the milk flows
As the lily grows
As the snowflake blows
May soul dispose
Save me – rosary –
Soul reposes spotlessly

Episode 5 - Screengrab

COW
Knocked utterly flat, no thanks or pleases
I fell, as beef, all undone

No thanks or pleases...

MILKMAIDS
As the lily grows

As the snowflake blows
As the milk flows

COW
No thanks or pleases
May soul dispose
Save me – rosary –
Soul reposes spotlessly

Support Provided By
Read More
An 8mm film still "The Kitchen" (1975) by Alile Sharon Larkin. The still features an image of a young Black woman being escorted by two individuals in white coats. The image is a purple monochrome.

8 Essential Project One Films From the L.A. Rebellion Film Movement

For years, Project One films have been a rite of passage for aspiring filmmakers at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. Here are eight Project One pieces born out of the L.A. Rebellion film movement from notable filmmakers like Ben Caldwell, Jacqueline Frazier and Haile Gerima.
A 2-by-3 grid of Razorcake zine front covers.

Last Punks in Print: Razorcake Has Been the Platform for Punks of Color For Over Two Decades

While many quintessential L.A. punk zines like "Flipside," "HeartattaCk," and "Profane Existence" have folded or only exist in the digital space, "Razorcake" stands as one of the lone print survivors and a decades-long beacon for people — and punks — of color.
Estevan Escobedo is wearing a navy blue long sleeve button up shirt, a silk blue tie around his neck, a large wide-brim hat on his head, and brown cowboy pants as he twirls a lasso around his body. Various musicians playing string instruments and trumpets stand behind him, performing.

The Art of the Rope: How This Charro Completo is Preserving Trick Roping in the United States

Esteban Escobedo is one of only a handful of professional floreadores — Mexican trick ropers — in the United States, and one of a few instructors of the technical expression performing floreo de reata (also known as floreo de soga "making flowers with a rope"), an art form in itself and one of Mexico's longest standing traditions.