Poetry: Shel Silverstein-- No Difference and Nobody

Today I cleaned house and I watched movies. I took a very lazy day. I think the trip to Denver took quite a bit from me. I will write about pirates tomorrow. For today I am posting a couple pomes by Shel Silverstein who was thought of primarily as a children's poet but many of his poems are just plain good poetry and full of word play.

No difference
by Shel Silverstein

Small as a peanut
Big as a giant,
We're all the same size
When we turn off the light.
Red black or orange,
Yellow or white
We all look the same
When we turn off the light.
So maybe the way
To make everything right
Is for God to just reach out
And turn off the light!

Nobody
By Shel Silverstein

Nobody loves me,
Nobody cares,
Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
Nobody listen and laughs at my jokes.
Nobody helps when I get in a fight,
Nobody does all my homework at night.
Nobody misses me,
Nobody cries,
Nobody thinks I’m a wonderful guy.
So if you ask me who’s my best friend, in a whiz,
I’ll stand up and tell you that Nobody is.
But yesterday night I got quite a scare,
I woke up and Nobody just wasn’t there.
I called out and reached out for Nobody’s hand,
In the darkness where Nobody usually stands.
Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,
But I found somebody each place that I looked.
I searched till I’m tired, and now with the dawn,
There’s no doubt about it—
Nobody’s gone!

Puppini Sisters

I was driving back from Denver today and while listening to the radio I heard several songs by the Puppini Sisters. They have a marvelous swing era jazz sound with a sense of humour.

Here is the link to one of their rather funny videos titled "Jilted": http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb0v2e_the-puppini-sisters-jilted_shortfilms

It features a gypsy, pistols at dawn, and spectators with popcorn.

Here is the You Tube video for a second song titled "Millionaire": http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x52h4e_the-puppini-sisters-millionaire-v-2_music

This one is about the singers' disbelief that they aren't millionaires.

I have several thoughts brewing about stuff I learned in Denver about pirates but it will have to wait a day because I am just too tired tonight to write about it coherently.

Zoos

In the episode of Firefly titled "Shindig" the character River Tam says, "They weren’t cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see sky and they remember what they are."

I went to the Denver Zoo today. There were many families with small children and school groups going through the zoo. I watched many people stare at primates until the primates turned away, children howl at the wolves, fingers tapping on the glass of aquariums, and a Komodo dragon blink when a flash went off. I also saw an arctic fox, a tiger, the lions, and several other animals find those odd corners of their enclosures where it was difficult for the humans to see them and they could rest without hundreds of pairs of eyes on them.

It bothered me to watch the snow leopards pace back and forth within their enclosure. I remember reading the book The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen several years ago in which he described going in search of the snow leopards and how rare they were. Back in 1973 when the book was written it was thought that they were possibly very close to extinction because so few had been sighted. For a long time their pelts have been valued and they are still very much endangered. But the animals that I watched today appeared tense and neurotic. I grew up with animals and animals that are not getting their needs met develop coping behaviors. Dogs will chew and misbehave if not allowed to run enough or given enough attention. Horses left in the barn in a stall for too long will begin to do comforting behaviors to soothe themselves and occupy the time. The behaviors are things like weaving from side to side or sucking air which is called "cribbing" and can cause colic. I wondered if the snow leopards were waiting to be, but have forgotten.

I have very mixed feelings about zoos. I think on one hand that zoos might be the arks of this disastrous environmental age and may save the genome of species. I think zoos introduce animals to humans and perhaps a less specist view might be sparked in a few individuals. Perhaps if the humans can watch the other denizens that we share a planet with long enough they can see them. Really see them as the magnificent creatures they are. We are not the height of anything-- certainly not evolution because there is no pinnacle. If we are to look at success of species, bacteria are more successful. The dinosaurs were more successful than humans may prove to be.

But I don't like this displaying of the animals for out and out entertainment purposes, out of their natural habitats, and where their lives are distinctly altered to meet the needs of humans who have placed them in a zoo. When I was in Africa, I had several amazing experiences not the least of which were seeing penguins at Betty's Bay and Simontown and going to Addo National Elephant Park. In these places the Nature Preserve is set up around where the animals already are. The animals' habitat is preserved for them. Humans come in to visit as guests. In Addo, the humans stay in their cars and drive through the preserve where the elephants roam free and are protected.

Biodiversity is not something that we, the humans, should worry about just because it is the morally right thing to do. Biodiversity should be a priority because we have so much to learn and by creating greater diversity on the planet we may end up saving our own skins.

Erotica versus Pornography

Why are some images, movies, and writing labeled pornography and others are labeled erotica? Where are the lines of distinction drawn?

Well, first off there is this weird schizophrenic view of sex in Western society. In the media-- movies, magazines, etc.-- there is quite a proliferation of images that could be designated as sexual. But sex is considered "wrong" somehow. Never mind that the species would not continue without sex, that we have evolved over billions of years to be programmed to pursue sex, and the best way to hook folks into some religious notion is by setting up a psychological conflict involving sex in which they have to continuously ask for forgiveness for something that we have a biological mandate to do. (Which is why abstinence programs to prevent HIV infection or pregnancy don't make a great deal of sense to my mind.)

All of this sets up this weird swirling mix of confusion around sex.

People don't talk about sex. Have you ever asked a male friend what an orgasm feels like for him?

And then there is this notion of what constitutes erotica and what constitutes pornography. There are always exceptions, but I think that images of naked humans or written stories and novels intended for women tend to get labeled as erotica. Materials aimed at men are labeled as pornography.

Again this all feels very confusing. "Good girls don't", but it is supposed to be healthy and liberating for women to explore their sexuality and view such images or read erotica. Hence the label of "erotica" which has less severe connotations.

Men are supposed to be manly but control their sexual urges. Images of naked women that might be arousing for men suddenly get thrown into a strange category. Men are supposed to not get aroused by the images which are arousing potentially because this is an "objectification of women". So men are only supposed to explore their sexuality within a relationship and they are not supposed to open up to other areas of exploration. Hence sexual images and materials for men are labeled pornography which has a negative connotation.

All of this is very general thoughts, it doesn't get into the multitude of specifics that can and do arise, and I think power dynamics within the situation need to be attended to. No one should be exploited or harmed in any way, but neither should anyone feel guilty or ashamed of having healthy sexual urges. I don't think that children should ever appear in sexual imagery. If a man is aroused by the sight of a woman, that doesn't automatically mean that he is objectifying her by looking at her.

When young people come of age, there is so much misinformation, confusion, and shame around the issues of sex. Sex is one of the pleasures of having a physical body and it should be enjoyed. Healthier attitudes with less conflicting messages and more acceptance and openness so that sex and pleasure are less mysterious would be good for everyone.

Over at Schlock magazine Benjamin Jones had written a piece about a young man coming of age titles "The Erotic Schlinks of Unreason". Here is the link: http://schlockmagazine.net/2011/03/28/benjamin-jones-the-erotic-schlinks-of-unreason/

Dorje Drolo: A Wrathful Buddha

This painting of Dorje Drolo was created by the 17th Karmapa. His website where the image can be found is at: http://karmapaeurope.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/dorje-drolo-painting/

Recently, I have been thinking a bit and reviewing some of my choices. Many, many years ago I took refuge as a Buddhist with Tana Tulku who was an emanation of Dorje Drolo. My dharma name that was given to me was "Karma Yangchen". I took refuge as a Buddhist because a Buddhist lama and the nun who worked with him offered me totally non-judgmental emotional support at a very difficult time in my life. That support buoyed me through one of the darkest periods that I have experienced.

So now I am many years in the future and thinking about my choices and where I would like the next chapter of my life to go. I was re-arranging my room the other day to set up a silk screening station and I found an old journal. Out of it fell a couple old email printouts from October 1996. In the emails Sheila Richardson who worked with Lama Sonam Rinpoche wrote to me about taking refuge, what the refuge ceremony involved, about doubts and overcoming disbelief, miracles, and about having confidence in my innate ability to transform and transcend. She talked about healthy doubt and skeptical rigid doubt. She recommended that I meditate on Dorje Drolo and sent me a mantra, that I travel to gain experience, and that I foster a sense of calm because by transforming my inner state it would manifest outwardly as calm. She wrote that by focusing on negatives there is less time and energy to focus on positives, but the goal is not to focus on positives. They are just the flipside of negatives. The point is to go further. To find calm, the unborn void, totality consciousness, etc.

It seemed serendipitous that I found this mantra and image now while thinking about things. I looked up Dorje Drolo because I was intrigued that Sheila had written that he is a wrathful manifestation of Guru Rinpoche who I had been meditating on the time I took refuge. I never think of the Buddha as being a "wrathful" being.

One website that I found described Dorje Drolo as follows: "Guru Dorje Drolo is the crazy wrathful Buddha of the degenerate era. He has no regular pattern to his wrath. He is completely out of order!" He is a manifestation of crazy wisdom. He is an ecstatic manifestation of Padmasambhava, the deity Dorje Drolo embodies the forces of insight and compassion beyond logic and convention. Invoking in the practitioner the fearlessness and spontaneity of the awakened state, Dorje Drolo transforms hesitancy and clinging into enlightened activity. Dorje Drolo's energy overcomes distinctions of life and death, representing instead a continual process of giving birth to new circumstances and possibilities. Padmasambhava manifested as Dorje Drolo at numerous pilgrimage places in order to subvert indigenous Tibetan beliefs in demons and malevolent gods, redirecting their powerful energies toward the path of wisdom and compassion. Dorje Drolo, the subverter of demons, looks very wrathful. He has fangs, an overbite, and three eyes. He wears Tibetan boots, a chuba and monk's robes, two white conch shell earrings, and a garland of severed heads. His hair is bright red and curly, giving off sparks. To show how truly crazy he is, he dances on the back of a pregnant tigress, surrounded by flames which signifies the latent power of our intrinsic Buddha Nature. The tigress is often depicted as also dancing, so that everything is in motion. Dorje Drolo had 5 dakini consorts/acolytes who he worked with and engaged in tantric practice with.

This Buddha is not your typical serene, passive Buddha. He is dynamic and brings calm and enlightenment in unconventional ways.

Myths Change, Archetypes Change, The Sea of the Collective Consciousness Does Not Stay the Same

Our myths change and the myths that still circulate and are popular are those that change the most. A story or idea gets a life when somehow it captures the imagination of the times. It might be that there is some aspect to it that hits a particular nerve in the consciousness of society.

For instance, vampires. Vampires have been very much in vogue off and on for a very long time. Anne Rice wrote "Interview With a Vampire" in 1973 and it was published in 1976. Her vampires were not so much evil monsters but souls who had had vampirism inflicted on them. Louis was positively tortured by his need to kill and eat. Lestat wanted to be seen and drink deep of the world and his torture was to have to hide his newly acquired nature. Claudia could not live with never growing up. Maybe Rice's vampires were a reflection on the hedonism of the late 1960's through the mid 1970's. A creative time in society when boundaries stretched. Perhaps her books and their popularity were an early sign that values would shift and views would become more conservative again.

Prior to Anne Rice's vampires, there were the vampires of Hollywood and before them came Bram Stoker's Dracula and before them a creature of folk lore that was pure monster and most people would not recognise them as what we call "vampires".

And then there is Stephanie Meyer's Edward Cullen who cannot go in sunlight. But not because he will burn. Because he will sparkle. And he is a protector of a young woman. In many ways Meyer's hero/vampire is an inversion of the traditional vampire. By his nature he is dangerous, but his natural instincts can be over-ridden and he can choose to be something less threatening. But is he? Keep in mind Edward watches Bella at night in her room without her knowledge. Is he as harmless as he appears? She does keep getting hurt because of her involvements with the Cullens. Perhaps, the underlayment of the Twilight series is an admonishment to look closer at things and discern their nature. The Cullens are still vampires.

So how did we get from a creature who rises from the grave, eats people, might be a shape shifter, and is obsessed with counting to Meyer's pretty boy girl fantasy?

The myth changed. The trope rotated and mutated on one of its points through several progressions until the logic of the starting point to where things are now makes little sense. The only common characteristic is that the vampire still needs blood to survive.

But the vampire trope is not the only trope to change. Consider magic users. I don't think in the past the thought of magic was anything short of a terrifying notion. Merlin had incredible power to sway who would be king. Witches and warlocks were burned. Magic was nothing to be taken lightly. But now we have Harry Potter. A story of a boy wizard who defeats the greatest evil wizard of all time. The books hit on some weighty points, but how dangerous magic really is is never fully explored. Despite the introduction of the Unforgivable Curses. The idea of magic as being the infliction of one person's will on the rest of reality is not really delved into. Perhaps, we feel in our modern age as though we have more complete control over things? Perhaps what was so frightening in the past about magic was that there was so little control over circumstance and the thought that someone could control things ran counter to how the universe was thought of?

What other tropes/myths have changed?

Mermaids no longer sing sailors to their death, they swim in aquariums while people eat seafood in the posh restaurant.

Fairies no longer steal small children to be their attendants or food, they are pixies that help children fly and grant wishes through their special talents.

Werewolves no longer terrorize the rest of the tribe with the threat of attack, they are love interests in romance novels.

But why have all of these changed? None of these are seen as threats. Imagine Pandora's box, but update the story. What would Pandora be forbidden from opening? A million quantum bit processor with a solar activator and if the box opens, the computer begins to fire? What changes might be sent out into the world? Perhaps fairy dust is aluminum being spread throughout the atmosphere to geoengineer a cooler world and it is the cause of autism?

How might the myths change?

Flow

Flow is a concept that was first conceived of by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. It is characterized by single-minded immersion in an activity. It has been suggested that perhaps flow is the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. Sometimes when people are referring to "flow" they call it being in the moment, present, in the zone, wired in, in the groove, or keeping your head in the game. Flow is an amazing experience. It is feeling spontaneous joy. Almost rapture. It is being effortlessly in such a focused and yet relaxed state that nothing else matters. Not even one's self or emotions.

I have experienced flow. Not for many years. I am hoping that I will experience it again. I can remember being in the flow state while painting and being so focused on discovering new colours and new ways that the colours could be combined to work with one another that I lost track of time and over 12 hours passed. Another time I was dancing under the stars in a courtyard and reggae was playing. I closed my eyes and focused on the music hitting my breast bone and let go to synchronize my small movements in my body to the tempo of the music. I was pulled out of flow by a friend who commented that I appeared to be in a state of rapture. I can remember being in flow while drawing, writing, doing watercolours, and making collage. Sometimes reading, studying, and pursuing knowledge will do this as well. There is a lightening that happens with flow.

Ten Factors accompany the experience of flow according to Csikszentmihalyi. They are as follows:
1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
10. Absorption into the activity, narrowing of the focus of awareness down to the activity itself, action and awareness merging.

The things that will prevent flow from happening are things like depression, stress, and anxiety. Csíkszentmihályi hypothesized that people with several very specific personality traits may be better able to achieve flow than the average person. These personality traits include curiosity, persistence, low self-centeredness, and a high rate of performing activities for intrinsic reasons only. People with most of these personality traits are said to have an autotelic personality. One cannot force a flow experience to happen but there are three conditions that are necessary to achieve the flow state:
1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction and structure to the task.
2. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.
3. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.

Flow can enhance learning, performing musically or in other arts, creating art, hacking, writing code, writing, doing science, or in athletic performance. Group flow where an entire group of people pulls together to create flow in a kind of brainstorming session is possible. Csikszentmihalyi has proposed that it might be possible to create playgrounds to elicit the flow phenomena more frequently and Montessori education has been studied and found to allow children to experience flow more frequently.

Flow is akin to spiritual states described in such world religions as Buddhism, HInduism, and Taoism. Flow is an innately positive experience. It is a feeling of bliss. It is also a positive force because it allows for optimal performance and skill development.
Flow has been documented and shown to correlate with performance enhancement. Researchers have found that achieving a flow state is positively correlated with optimal performance in the fields of artistic and scientific creativity. Flow also encourages the further development of skills and personal growth. When one is in a flow state, one is working to master the activity at hand. To maintain that flow state, one must seek increasingly greater challenges. Attempting these new, difficult challenges stretches one's skills and creates greater confidence. It becomes an upward cycle where the skills are expanded, performance improved, there is greater confidence, and greater willingness to attempt more difficult challenges and strive for more. It is self rewarding.

Had a Great Day, a Wee Bit of Frustration, and Woohoo!

At the end of the day today I found out that the townhouses where I live got a second T-1. This is totally faboo! More bandwidth, faster downloads. And yes my internet connection at times is an addiction/life support. I live halfway up a mountain. A herd of elk plays in my backyard. Actually they don't play. Mostly they are peaceful and orderly creatures that will line up single file and calmly move up the mountainside if they are bothered. Elk are kind of British in that regard. I think their motto is "Stay Calm, Carry On." Well except in the fall when they go into elk orgy mating frenzy and bugle their pleasures. I don't think the British do this.

But anyway. I live halfway up a mountain. My cats have delusions of grandeur and fantasize about catching the really big mice that eat grass near the edge of the house that they can see through the window. You know-- the deer. The cats sit all twitchy on the edge of the Comfy Chair and chitter at the deer. I almost feel sorry for the cats.

Mountain lions, coyotes, fox! Oh my!

That's where I live.

Having internet is a big thing because the cable company gets confused when you tell them the location of my house and tries to tell you that it doesn't exist. Maybe my house is in some other dimension?

Oh. And the postal service. You know those guys that will deliver despite rain, sleet, snow, and dread of night? They don't deliver to my house. I have to get my mail at the post office. But that's cool because Sherry is really cool. She's the postal lady. Post mistress? That sounds funny. Has connotations. If you know what I mean. I should ask Sherry which she prefers.

So. We have new, faster, better internet. I went to change the settings on the wireless router and...

Cisco products don't like macs.

Oh well. I went to the Cisco webpage to get directions to change the settings using my mac. Sigh. The webpage directions really didn't help and weren't accurate in terms of what was in my mac's drop down menus and such. My current router is a year and half old and out of warranty and Cisco won't support their products with live chat support if it is out of warranty. I don't think I am going to buy another Cisco product if I can help it. Luckily a friend who has a PC with a Windows operating system came by. What took me 45 minutes, a certain degree of frustration that soon will be remedied with a frozen fudge bar, and ultimately ended in failure, took him about 20 minutes. And he got the router reset.

I was getting twitchy without internet. I have a satellite modem for emergencies when my internet is not working. But I did not have to resort to using up bytes. I am now on the new T-1 and happy dancing.

Time for some happy dancing!

A little warm up with Toots and the Maytals singing "Monkey Man": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EtnqlpcmhQ&feature=related

The Kingsmen singing "Louis, Louis,": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cec1JInytH0&feature=related

How 'bout a bit of the master Jerry Lee Lewis singing "Great Balls of Fire": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3oP727gZbE&feature=related

And then some Chubby Checker singing "Let's Twist Again": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVQ0MXp-8ds&feature=related

A little Elvis singing "Jailhouse Rock": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je9kxGsp1pU&feature=fvst

And the incomparable Aretha Franklin singing "Think" with the Blues Brothers. Worth renting the movie to see this one. The Youtube video is just an image of the Blues Brothers but this is the best audio I could find: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0y2dDlFmLg

A great version of "Sweet Home Chicago" by one of the best guitarists alive, Buddy Guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6O9DaIGy9M

And rounding out this happy dancing with "Rock Me Baby" as a group effort with B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Jim Vaughn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4OXrmxDp44

What's Playing Tonight in the Jukebox in My Head: Eve 6, Foo Fighters, and Cowboy Junkies

I have this thing where I just have music pop up from nowhere in my head. Often it is a refrain from a song. Sometimes the whole song. Weird huh? Oh well. Just the way I am. Can't help it. When I took refuge as a Buddhist, a story for another post, my dharma name that was given to me is Karma Yangchen which means "Great Melody." I always figure that as long as the music keeps playing and I keep wanting to sing I am in good shape.

Sometimes this "jukebox in my head thing" can be a great deal of fun. Like playing name that tune with yourself. I have had a run of classic rock in my brain for the last several weeks so I have been listening to stuff from the seventies and eighties lately. I one time had a week of 1940's swing wander through. Some swing I like. I could have done without Mitch Miller and the Gang but my mother used to play the Mitch Miller sing along records when I was a kid so it surfaces every once in awhile. The Andrew Sisters get tuned in every once in awhile also. Oh, and John Denver. Although he had a nice voice.

Today I swung into nineties alternative:

Here is the Youtube link for Eve6's "Inside Out": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Xb_7YDroQ

Here are the lyrics to "Inside Out":

"I would swallow my pride,
I would choke on the rinds,
but the lack thereof would leave me empty inside,
swallow my doubt
turn it inside out
find nothing but faith in nothing.
Want to put my tender heart in a blender,
watch it spin 'round into a beautiful oblivion.
Rendezvous, then I'm through with you

I burn, burn like a wicker cabinet,
chalk white and oh so frail.
I see our time has gotten stale.
The tick tock of the clock is painful,
all sane and logical.
I want to tear it off the wall.
I hear words in clips and phrases,
I think sick like ginger ale,
My stomach turns and I exhale.

I would swallow my pride,
I would choke on the rinds,
But the lack thereof would leave me empty inside.
I would swallow my doubt,
turn it inside out,
find nothing but faith in nothing.
Want to put my tender heart in a blender,
watch it spin 'round into a beautiful oblivion.
Rendezvous, then I'm through with you.

SoCal is where my mind states,
but it's not my state of mind.
I'm not as ugly, sad as you.
Or am I origami?
Folded up and just pretend,
demented as the motives in your head.

I would swallow my pride,
I would choke on the rinds,
but the lack thereof would leave me empty inside.
I would swallow my doubt,
turn it inside out,
find nothing but faith in nothing.
Want to put my tender heart in a blender,
watch it spin 'round into a beautiful oblivion.
Rendezvous, then I'm through with you .

I alone am the one you don't know you need
take heed, feed your ego.
Make me blind when your eyes close,
sink when you get close, tie me to the bedpost.

I alone am the one you don't know you need,
you don't know you need me.
Make me blind when your eyes close,
Tie me to the bedpost.

I would swallow my pride,
I would choke on the rinds,
but the lack thereof would leave me empty inside.
Swallow my doubt,
turn it inside out,
find nothing but faith in nothing.
Want to put my tender heart in a blender,
watch it spin 'round to a beautiful oblivion.
Rendezvous, then I'm through,
now I'm through with you

through with you

rendezvous then I'm through with you..."

I guess this song is actually from 2007. The Foo Fighters debuted their first album in the nineties. Here is the Youtube link to the Foo Fighters "Stranger Things Have Happened": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzCStf_u798&NR=1

Here are the lyrics to the Foo Fighters "Stranger Things Have Happened":

Lyrics to Stranger Things Have Happened :
Goddamn this dusty room
This hazy afternoon
I'm breathing in this silence
Like never before

This feeling that I get
This one last cigarette
As I lay awake
And wait for you to come through the door

Oh maybe maybe maybe
I can share it with you
I behave I behave I behave
So I can share it with you

You were not alone
Dear lonely miss
You forgot
But I remember this
Oh stranger stranger
Stranger things have happened, I know

I'm not alone
Dear lonely miss
I forgot
That I remember this
Oh stranger stranger
Stranger things have happened, I know
Oh, oh
Oh, oh

You'll dream about somewhere
A smoke will fill the air
As I lay awake and wait
For you to walk out that door
I can change I can change I can change
But who do you want me to be
I'm the same I'm the same I'm the same
What do you want me to be

You were not alone
Dear lonely miss
You forgot
But I remember this
Oh stranger stranger
Stranger things have happened, I know
Oh, oh
Oh, oh

I'm not alone
Dear lonely miss
I forgot
That I remember this
You were not alone
Dear lonely miss
You forgot
But I remember this
Oh stranger stranger
Stranger things have happened, I know

You were not alone
Dear lonely miss
You forgot
But I remember this
Oh stranger stranger
Stranger things have happened, I know

I'm not alone
Dear lonely miss
I forgot
That I remember this
Oh stranger stranger
Stranger things have happened, I know
Oh, oh
Oh, oh

Lastly, "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboy Junkies, here is the Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHRFZFmEq9o

And here are the lyrics:

Anyone who's ever had a heart
Wouldn't turn around and break it
And anyone who's ever played a part
Wouldn't turn around and hate it

Sweet Jane, sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane
You're waiting
For Jimmy down in the alley
Waiting there
For him to come back home
Waiting down on the corner
And thinking of ways
To get back home

Sweet Jane, sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane
Anyone who's ever had a dream
Anyone who's ever played a part
Anyone who's ever been lonely
And anyone who's ever split apart

Sweet Jane, sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane
Heavenly widened roses
Seem to whisper to me
When you smile
Heavenly widened roses
Seem to whisper to me
When you smile

La la la la, la la la,

Sweet Jane
Sweet, sweet Jane

Gargoyles

"What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters before the eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these strange savage lions, and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man, or these spotted tigers? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here is a quadruped with a serpent's head, there a fish with a quadruped's head, then again an animal half horse, half goat... Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities, we should at least regret what we have spent on them." St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Gargoyles are the fantastic carved statuary that adorn temples and cathedrals. Some look like elongated monsters and creatures from a nightmare induced by pickled cabbage and too much sour beer. Often they bring a bit of whimsy and a certain reminder of the horrors of a potential fiery afterlife, but they served a very important purpose for the buildings that they were placed upon. They were downspouts. They collected rainwater and runoff and spat it away from the stone masonry of the building. Buildings made of stone were built using mortar between the rocks and water running down the sides of the buildings would eat away the mortar and weaken the buildings.

The term gargoyle is thought to originate from the French gargouille, originally "throat" or "gullet" and similar words derived from the root gar, "to swallow", which represented the gurgling sound of water. It is also connected to the French verb gargariser, which means "to gargle." The Italian word for gargoyle is doccione o gronda sporgente, an architecturally precise phrase which means "protruding gutter." The German word for gargoyle is even more direct. It is Wasserspeier, which means "water spewer." The Dutch word for gargoyle is waterspuwer, which means "water spitter" or "water vomiter." So gargoyles were made to "spit" on passersby while removing the water from the sides of the cathedral.

There is a legend that I think might make the basis for a pretty cool fantasy about the first gargoyle. Back in the Dark Ages in the region of Rouen there was a chancellor to one of the Merovingian kings who saved the countryside from La Gargouille who had batlike wings, a long neck, and the ability to breathe fire from its mouth. After hacking the dragon to bits St. Romanus as he is called could not get rid of the fire tempered head and throat and so it was used on the church to scare off evil demons and protect the church. Because St. Romanus was accompanied by a volunteer who was a condemned man on St. Romanus' day it is the custom to set one prisoner free.

Of course gargoyles predate the medieval Dark Ages. There were lion-headed spouts on the Temple of Zeus,


wooden crocodile head water spouts on Egyptian structures,


and some gargoyles evidenced a sense of humor such as this Hellenistic water spout of a servant from Afghanistan.


So many of our modern buildings are built with little imagination. And we have lost the past sense of building public structures that are meant not only to be serviceable but beautiful and add distinctive character to an area. I like the freely artistic sense that these gargoyles brought to their buildings. They weren't just a piece of pipe. They had character. That little extra that made something unique.

Synthetic Telepathy

Synthetic telepathy is the art of electronically transfering thought directly to and from a brain. And in 2008 the US military gave a $4 million dollar grant to develop such technology to a team of researchers at the University of California at Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland. More recently a $6.3 million grant was given to the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center at Albany Medical College. A lot of money is going towards the goal of being able to read and transmit thoughts.

Mediums, clairvoyants, and psychics aside, the idea of reading minds and creating a "thought helmet" is not a new idea. E.E. Smith proposed such an idea in his 1928 serialized novel titled "Skylark of Space." Further, in the 1960's a researcher strapped an EEG to his head and, with some training, could stop and start his brain's alpha waves to compose Morse code messages. In the last few years there has been a great flurry of activity around the notion of using EEG technology to detect brain wave patterns. Recent research has included using this technology to help comatose patients to communicate and to scan people to look for guilty subjects that might be terrorists. A recent issue of the magazine Discover has an article titled "Silent Warrior" and it examines the research being done at Albany Medical College. At Albany Medical College, researchers are studying where exactly in the brain different words appear as thought. To do this neurosurgeons have placed directly on the surface of volunteers' naked cortexes 64 electrodes that monitor brain activity. The volunteers who have had a portion of their skulls surgically removed are patients with severe seizure disorder and they will benefit from participating in the study because it will be determined where exactly their seizures originate so that those areas can be removed and healthy tissue left untouched. So far the location of the vowels "ooh" and "aah" have been determined.

This might not sound like much, but keep in mind when babies learn to speak they start with crying and vowels. Babbling consonants comes later. And word formation follows.

So perhaps soon we will have the technology that will allow a swat team to enter a dangerous situation in silence and to remain silent as they communicate via synthetic telepathy to allow commands to be issued and locations to be reported. Or maybe the technology will be used to develop more responsive video games. Or to allow a paralyzed person to move a prosthetic limb. Or maybe TSA will use a type of thought helmet to scan people's thoughts in the airport to hunt for terrorists.

Perhaps we will no longer be isolated in our own heads.

Poetry: W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats lived from 1865-1939. Much of his poetry exhibits romantic and fantastical elements. Born into the Anglo-Irish landowning class, Yeats was part of the Celtic Revival, a movement against the cultural influences of English rule in Ireland during the Victorian period. The movement sought to create a vision of Irish nationalism by promoting the spirit of Ireland's native heritage as they envisioned it. Yeats never learned Gaelic, but his writing drew extensively from Irish mythology and folklore. Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, whom he met in 1889, and who was a woman equally famous for her passionate nationalist politics as her beauty had a strong influence on his thoughts and poetry. While she married another man in 1903 and grew apart from Yeats who married someone else, she remained a powerful influence in his poetry and appears as a figure in his verse.

Ezra Pound, who founded the Imagist movement and influenced scads of poets and writers also had an impact on Yeats' writing. After 1910 and while Pound and T.S. Eliot were in London Yeats work became more modern in its concision and imagery following the ideas of the Imagists, but Yeats never abandoned his strict adherence to traditional verse forms. He had a life-long interest in mysticism and the occult which drew him some criticism but he continued throughout his life to write of mystical and fantastical ideas and images. His poetry grew stronger as he grew older. Appointed a senator of the Irish Free State in 1922, he is remembered as an important cultural leader, as a major playwright (he was one of the founders of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin), and as one of the greatest poets of the century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923.

PRESENCES

THIS night has been so strange that it seemed
As if the hair stood up on my head.
From going-down of the sun I have dreamed
That women laughing, or timid or wild,
In rustle of lace or silken stuff,
Climbed up my creaking stair. They had read
All I had rhymed of that monstrous thing
Returned and yet unrequited love.
They stood in the door and stood between
My great wood lectern and the fire
Till I could hear their hearts beating:
One is a harlot, and one a child
That never looked upon man with desire,
And one, it may be, a queen.

THE HOSTING OF THE SIDHE

THE host is riding from Knocknarea
And over the grave of Clooth-na-Bare;
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away:
Empty your heart of its mortal dream.
The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,
Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound,
Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are agleam,
Our arms are waving, our lips are apart;
And if any gaze on our rushing band,
We come between him and the deed of his hand,
We come between him and the hope of his heart.
The host is rushing 'twixt night and day,
And where is there hope or deed as fair?
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away.

TO A CHILD DANCING IN THE WIND

DANCE there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?

Story Start... Where will it go?

Here is the first installment of a story. A week from now I will post a second installment. If you have suggestions about where you think the story might go, leave them in the comments and I may construct the next part using your ideas.


Evie lit the last of the black candles around the circle. There was a whuff as a cold wind rushed through the old factory and stirred the dust on the floor. The flames flickered before flaring to renewed life. The flames glowed an eerie black with licks of purplish light. The circle suddenly vibrated with an expectant void. Evie’s shoulders rose with the tension—a pregnant moment as if waiting for a car to crash into the tree straight ahead while the road wended away. She glanced to the catwalk above the arena.

In the dark she could see the golden glow of the wailing woman who rode the shoulder of Detective Washington. His demon lifted its head and stared at her with eyes of cold fire. It shook its head, blinked, and folded itself back into the lump like a cold tumor upon Fly’s soul.

Evie felt the heat being leached away from her. The spell was taking her life force to summon the demon that must ride with the killer. She felt a quiver begin at the base of her spine and convulsed involuntarily as it coursed its way up and through the top of her crown. She put her head back and cried out as minutes, hours, perhaps days were ripped from her as payment for the summoning.

The steel front door beside the large garage door of the factory was torn open. A single solitary guttural utterance screeched and echoed against the steel and concrete walls of the factory. Officers cried out in pain and there was a general clanging clamor as men dropped to their knees covering their ears from the onslaught.

Evie’s eyes focused on the wavering red sigil that paused above the arc of the sphere delineated by her circle. Her eyelids fluttered and she moaned, “No. Obeng. No.” She fell as though the tendons in her body lost their tautness, the muscles turned to water, and the bones were reduced to air.

Please leave suggestions for the next installment and I may use ideas to create something, but this story is my work so credit me if you do anything with this and link back to my blog. Thanks!

Dragons

I dreamt last Friday night of dragons and the dream has stayed with me. In the dream they first appeared as yellow light behind blue-grey clouds. The dragons in my dreams were hungry, fire-breathing dragons that came out of the clouds to chase and devour people. They chased me to the foundation of the house that I was in and there were small dead mice and things hidden in deep dust. The dust was disturbed and things found beneath the foundation of the house.

It struck me that this was a strange mixing of Eastern and Western dragons. Eastern dragons tend to be very benevolent and wise. They do not breathe fire and only attain their wings after living a thousand years. They do move from cloud to cloud or they live in the sea and can cause floods if they have been slighted.

Western dragons tend to be a bit brutish and dumb. At best they are anti-social and bad tempered. They live in caves and hoard gold and strike out against humans who conquer them.

But this dream featured fear and threat, but things were found. Revealed. I am not sure what insights I may get ultimately from this dream, but as is often the case things fall in the between areas. While there may have been fear, I survived in the dream and found things. The dragons were brutish, but they illuminated the clouds and pushed me to find the things. Perhaps wisdom will come. The dragons fell in an ambiguous area between East and West.

I have been thinking about this in relation to stories and storytelling. Ambiguity allows an exploration of both sides of a theme or a position. Curious elements that defy instant stereotyping challenge a reader to know what they are-- they cannot be easily dismissed. Going beyond mere novelty and into the realm of challenging people to figure out the puzzle of a character and their situation while still giving enough for the reader to empathize and identify with the character strikes me as a way to hook readers into a story and have the story stick with them.

Like dreams of dragons.

Today Was a Good Day

I just came home about a half hour ago. It's late. When I stepped out of my car I looked towards the night sky and was stopped by the expanse of stars and clouds. The stars shine like multi-faceted diamonds sitting on a deep indigo velvet and the moon is an opal. There is nothing more beautiful than light in the dark. And when the stars are spread across the heavens like Nyx's scattering of waking hints of dreams to come, it takes my breath.

It leaves me standing in the cool spring air of the mountains where I feel a part of the whole and dwarfed by the immensity of creation and knowing that I am but one small reflective being in a blinking moment of the eons of time.

Today was a good day...
because the child that I worked with this morning anticipated that song time was coming and began signing that he wanted the song "The Wheels on the Bus,"
because I deduced a way to test a hypothesis about how a child processes information,
because I spoke with a friend for awhile this afternoon,
because I made the most delicious Brazilian Black Bean soup last week and there was a serving left for me for dinner,
because I could walk around in a light wool blazer in March in Aspen, Colorado,
because I tracked down the phone number for one of my uncles who I haven't spoken to in several years,
because I went to ceramics class this evening and learned how to glaze the bowls that I have been making,
because when I checked my post box there was a card saying that I have a package to pick up,
because I got to talk to a friend of mine this evening and sample his macaroni and cheese made with evaporated milk,
because I have a gardening catalog to look at,
because I am warm in my bed,
and the stars are shining so brightly outside in the night sky.

Music: Steve Miller Band's Dreamweaver

I heard a snippet of this song the other day and it has been hanging with me. I caught myself singing it earlier. I grew up with classic rock and roll playing on the radio. It is like comfort music to me. Which I am sure my mother's generation would be horrified by me saying that, but... well, it's the way it is.

Here is the You Tube link to the Steve Miller Band's Dreamweaver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XzpSZWMkTk

Here are the lyrics:

Dream weaver

I've just closed my eyes again
Climbed aboard the dream weaver train
Driver take away my worries of today
And leave tomorrow behind
Ooh dream weaver
I believe you can get me through the night
Ooh dream weaver
I believe we can reach the morning light

Fly me high through the starry skies
Maybe to an astral plane
Cross the highways of fantasy
Help me to forget today's pain

Ooh dream weaver
I believe you can get me through the night
Ooh dream weaver
I believe we can reach the morning light

Though the dawn may be coming soon
There still may be some time
Fly me away to the bright side of the moon
And meet me on the other side

Ooh dream weaver
I believe you can get me through the night
Ooh dream weaver
I believe we can reach the morning light
Dream weaver
Dream weaver
Dream weaver

Money

Money.

I just finished calculating my 2010 taxes. I am always very cautious and probably pay the US government more money than I should. I am always a wee bit timid about deducting the costs from the money I bring in for my freelance work. In the past I have always not deducted any of my costs. This year I did after speaking with a tax preparer who told me that I should have been deducting expense for the last few years. Even with this tax preparer's advice, I could not figure out how to deduct on turbo tax the internet service for my research and writing, mileage for my car for driving to get supplies and mailing things, and I did not deduct any of my art supplies or materials for items that I have been working on to put up for sale.

I have decided that I need to become bolder and more comfortable with the idea of money. I have always kind of seen money as a necessary nuisance that must be paid for necessities and that I have to lay out every once in awhile for things I would like to do. I like to travel, love books, and have more clothes than I should-- but I don't like to spend a lot of money and the thing that I own that is probably worth the most money is either my 2003 PT Cruiser or my macbook.

I have heard it said that there are three types of people. People who money gravitates to and they always have more than they really need. People who have enough. And those who are chronically without enough money. But I think that much of this has to do with mindset. For me as long as I can pay my bills I am good.

I am hoping in this next year to find ways to create more abundance and to expand the opportunities for me to earn more income.

Art Quilts

For two years while I was in college I took art classes with focuses in figure drawing and textile arts. Since then I have returned and taken more art classes periodically in design, color, drawing, and ceramics. My love of art goes back to when I was a child and I tried for a few years to be a textile artist as my primary occupation. Recently I have been looking at my accumulated bins of material and thinking that I would very much like to make quilts for some of the people that I love. Quilts are an investment of time and energy in addition to materials and making them for someone else is to accumulate positive energy and give it to another person to wrap them in warmth. It is a tangible talisman that represents caring.

But quilts are not just the colorful scraps of material sewn in traditional patterns anymore. Quilts have always been very individual things and they have become even more so.

I went looking across the internet this morning to find ideas for quilts and to admire things that other people have done. Here is a sampling of the art quilts that I came across:



This quilt was presented by Alessandra Bravo of Lucuma Designs and the link where I found it is: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/1/prweb500012.htm The description next to the image it says "Much like American quilters, arpillera makers work in small groups and often collaborate on larger pieces. Since a large arpillera may take weeks to finish, Silvia shares her gift for layout and fine detail by overseeing the work of other artists." This post was from 2007. The link to lucuma designs is: http://www.lucuma.com/ Lucuma designs offers items created in Lima, Peru and is dedicated to a fair trade ethic.


This quilt is titled "Under Northern Lights" and it was created by Regina Browne. She is a textile artist from Montana and Arizona whose website can be found at: http://reginabrowne.com/index.html Several of her pieces are for sale and are being exhibited through various galleries.


This quilt was made by Rose Rushbrooke whose website can be found at: http://www.roserushbrooke.com/index.htmlOn her website it lists the various exhibitions and galleries that have displayed her art, there are tutorials for creating art quilts, and she discusses fractals and the link between science and art. She has a very interesting website with much to offer.

These are just a few of the beautiful images of quilts that I could find this morning. I could easily post dozens more exquisite examples of art quilts and I may dedicate another post to art quilts. What started as a way to recycle bits of worn or extra fabric has turned into an art form of its own.

Do I Need to Lay This Out Anymore Clearly?

Today as I drove home from work, I listened to the news and I had a sinking feeling as more and more of what is happening in the US was reported on the National Public Radio station.

Let me give you the rundown. And if you are not as horrified as I am, then frankly you are not thinking critically and analyzing the situation with a complete perspective of the potentialities for how utterly devastating to the ideals purported by the US Constitution that current affairs in the US present.

Before I begin my list, the definition of fascism is a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism).

1. Wisconsin. Governor Walker praised the actions on the part of Wisconsin State Senators to decide to remove the collective bargaining portion of his budget bill from the budget bill which required a quorum, called an emergency meeting that was in violation of Wisconsin's opening meeting act, and the Republican senators in a 14-1 vote passed the bill to remove the collective bargaining rights of the state's public employees' unions. All but one of the Democratic Senators were in hiding in Illinois trying to avoid this vote and then were not allowed to represent their constituents in a hastily called meeting that was specifically arranged to circumvent their being able to vote. This afternoon the Wisconsin state house approved the measure as well. Wisconsin farmers have vowed to bring their tractors to the capital and encircle it this weekend. Where can I donate to the fund to fuel those tractors?

2. Michigan. While all the wooha has been happening in Wisconsin, Michigan Governor Snyder, another ultra-conservative, pushed through the Michigan Senate and House a bill granting broad new powers to emergency managers appointed out of the governor's office who will oversee financially "struggling" cities and schools. The powers that these emergency managers will have will include the authority to void union contracts and remove elected officials. The only thing at the moment stopping this from being put into law is that the Republican held Michigan state House has to work out with the Republican held Michigan state Senate the exact wording of the bill. Let me remind anyone reading this that Michigan was ground zero for the current Second Great Depression and in southeastern Michigan the unemployment rate has remained consistently high and above the national average. The wave of home foreclosures that has swept the United States began in Michigan as the auto industry shrank. Struggling is a subjective term.

3. Chairman of Homeland Security Peter King has begun his hearings on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response.” Witnesses have begun coming forward and testifying that mosques in the United States are recruiting young people to be terrorists. Purportedly one witness described a family who were informed that their son had been recruited by the mosque, sent overseas for terrorist training, and that they should not report it to the FBI because they would be thrown in Guantanamo Bay. One Democratic Representative, who is a muslim, protested the hearings. Rep. Keith Ellison gave impassioned testimony and cried at the end as he described the actions of a Muslim-American paramedic who lost his life in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Ellison warned that Chairman King was implicating the broader Muslim community with his approach.

4. National Public Radio and James O'Keefe's Project Veritas to "investigate" NPR. Never mind that Governor Scott Walker was also taped saying to a person he thought was one of the Koch brothers that he would take care of the Wisconsin protesters by sowing the seeds of violence in the protest to discredit the opposition, a couple more tapes have surfaced to push forward the ultra-conservative agenda. O'Keefe states on his website that he wants a full investigation of NPR after releasing a recording of the head of NPR's fund-raising arm, Ron Schiller, who was caught on video making disparaging remarks about the Republican Party and the tea-party movement to two men posing as members of an Islamic civic group. He called members of the Tea Party xenophobic. Schiller, who has already resigned, also said NPR would be better off without federal funding. Betsy Liley, another executive at NPR, was secretly recorded speaking to a person she believed represented the Muslim Education Action Center Trust-- a fictitious group created by O'Keefe. The man dubbed "Ibrahim Kasaam" asked if he could donate $5 million dollars anonymously and was told that he could. In the lengthy conversation, he pressed Liley asking if the donation could be kept from the US government. Liley did not agree to this, but said that she would have to check with NPR's legal counsel. Anonymous donations are legal and acceptable in the US, but all donations must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service in the US. These tapes are coming out at a time when the US House and Senate are embroiled in creating a new budget for the US government. The current funding legislation for the US government expires in about a week and a government shutdown is looming. The Republicans have been advocating cutting things like Planned Parenthood, the Environmental Protection Agency, monies that would be used to make healthcare reform possible, monies for the arts and education, and monies for NPR-- all items considered "liberal". Vivian Schiller (who is not related to Ron Schiller) the CEO of NPR has resigned. I would like NPR to be investigated and at the same time I would like all the CEOs and executives that were involved in the financial meltdown from two years ago and who's banks and corporations were handed over $800 billion to be investigated as well. The NPR budget is a drop in comparison. A good thorough examination of corporate life and ethics throughout the United States with appropriate regulation put in place may help remedy much. Of course, as an alternative, we could just rely on the news from the Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News. Personally, I'll keep reading the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and the Christian Science Monitor for now.

5. Wikileaks. The rhetoric around Julian Assange and wikileaks continues and is increasingly bound with words and phrases like "balancing freedom and security" in regards to the internet. Wikileaks continues to be condemned as a "terrorist" organization that had as its intent to damage the United States. The releasing of the US State Department documents and communications continues to be labeled as a criminal act. When the FBI report about Abu Ghraib was "leaked," it was not considered a "terrorist" act that it was reported in the media. How is this different than Wikileaks publishing the reports and communications that they began releasing last October? Assange did not steal these documents. The organization he works for published them to make them widely available. From what I have read, if anyone damaged the United States, it is an administration that made waterboarding and threatening prisoners with dogs an acceptable practice and redefined what torture is. It is an administration or series of administrations that chose to act unethically and cannot stomach to look at the damage on the world stage they have caused by their actions and rather than admit the mistakes now brought to light would prefer to deflect the blame elsewhere.

6. Guantanamo Bay. It exists. Still. Do I need to say anymore?

So, if the flow of information is "regulated", news options are made fewer, and what is to be reported on is decided on editorially by a few with an agenda...
So, if democratic procedures are circumvented and the government begins to seize control and become more autocratic...
So, if workers' rights are dismantled...
So, if due process is taken away...
So, if one religious group is persecuted by political policy despite a Constitution that states the right to freedom of religion...

Do I need to lay this out anymore clearly?

Once More With Feeling, Please Respect the Meat, And Xena Sings War

Ok. I have to totally confess...

I love the episodes of television programs where they do a musical version of the show. These are the shows that always impress as way over the top creative and everybody looks like they are having a blast.

Tonight I watched an episode of My Name is Earl that was not entirely a musical. It was about Earl getting in touch with his creative side and it was a good episode but for me the best part was the character of Darnell singing his ballad to the crabs at the crab shack titled "Please Respect the Meat."

Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FcXSkHnqsE&feature=related

My favorite all time episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the musical episode titled "Once More With Feeling." The episode begins with Buffy singing "Going Through the Motions." Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M56ypIiVjcM&feature=related



Another favorite musical number from the episode is titled "I've Got a Theory/Bunnies/What We Can't Do." Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0VCvJFXBOI&feature=related

I vaguely remember an episode of the television show Moonlighting where Cybil Sheperd and Bruce Willis sang and danced their way through the episode but I cannot find any You Tube videos of it. But there was a Xena: Warrior Princess musical episode that had several truly outstanding numbers. Here is one with Lucy Lawless singing "War" as she pushes her way through a line of opposing warriors with spears: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Snc8_MV2w&feature=related

Dalai Lama: Be What You Wish Into the World

I read an article a week or so ago about the reincarnation of the second in power amongst the Tibetan Buddhists and how the Chinese government discredited the boy who had been chosen in the traditional spiritual way and instead appointed another boy. The Dalai Lama has at various times said that he may stop the tradition of reincarnating, may reincarnate outside of Tibet, and may appoint someone to be the political leader of the Tibetan government in exile. The Chinese government has flat out issued a statement saying that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will continue. Of course they also call the invasion of Tibet and the taking over of Tibet, which was a sovereign nation, an uprising. And they routinely discredit the Dalai Lama as a matter of policy. In 2008 when there were riots in Tibet they closed Tibet to the outside world for over a year. Recently they have closed Tibet again because of the anniversary of those riots.

I have heard the Dalai Lama speak twice. Once 16 years ago and again almost two years ago. Both times were in Ann Arbor. I am not terribly prone to magical experiences anymore, but both times held mystery. The man gives off waves of joy, peace, and happiness. He is what he wishes into the world. He is the Buddha who brings hope and serenity and happiness. I hope the Dalai Lama or his reincarnation will continue in the world and keep bringing this sense of positivity to people, but I think it is arrogance to decree officially that it will happen. In my opinion it makes more sense to be what we wish into the world. Perhaps the Chinese government would get farther to sow the seeds of peace, joy, happiness, and positivity.

For today, I for one am going to try to bring those things I associate with the Dalai Lama to my encounters with others.

Limp Noodle

I just finished a freelance writing assignment and I am feeling quite limp noodle-like. So instead of writing a profound post on politics, introducing an artist of note or a poet (they really are not like broccoli and only good for you), writing about writing, or posting whatever, I am going to start a list of the uses of limp noodles. Here goes:

starchy and ineffective show laces
lumpy wallpaper paste
to make a 3d fresco
guardrails on construction paper for matchbox cars
to squish between one's fingers
a facial masque substance
edible clothing
fringe on a lamp
a toy to tease the cat with
a one use bookmark for a book I don't like
to put on a door to monitor if someone uses it (like in an old detective novel)
to put on someone's chair who doesn't like worms to freak them out
compost material
to glue to paper to make a 3d tracing pattern to teach kids the alphabet
something to stick to the ceiling as a conversation starter
a freaky false mustache
a Barbie doll belt
to stick to a mirror to leave messages, well maybe a countertop
to hold in an earthquake and woggle back and forth like a bobblehead doll
to use in a food fight to mark the opponent

Well, that's 20 uses off the top of my head. If I think of more I'll post them.

No Arrow, Spear, or Sword in Schlock Online Magazine

I have a story in the current edition of Schlock online magazine. The issue is a prehistory issue and my story is titled No Arrow, Spear, or Sword. Check it out at: http://schlockmagazine.net/2011/03/05/the-prehistory-issue-mar-2011/

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

This week I have been working diligently on a freelance writing assignment, but I have taken time out here and there to watch episodes of Dr. Who season 5. One of the episodes featured Vincent Van Gogh. The Impressionists changed the way art was viewed and created. Vincent Van Gogh viewed the world differently. His genius is evident in the paintings. I have seen some of his works and had the opportunity once to be able to get close to one of his haystack paintings and thoroughly examine it. The man carved with colors and built up and took away his images. In spots on the canvas there is little paint and in other areas the paint is in peaks and you can seen where his palette knife moved through the paints. His compositions are alive with line and shape. He lets the viewer's eye lead the brain and he comments on the order of things by way of involving the viewer. His paintings are a challenge to see the universe differently. He was a tortured soul and a revolutionary who changed art and nothing was the same after Vincent Van Gogh.

Author Interview with Erotica Author Cari Silverwood

"Her wrists were drawn taut, above her head, secured to the headboard by ropes of thorned red rose and bougainvillea...."

I had the chance to interview erotica author Cari Silverwood who was very generous and responded to my questions about the writing of erotica and the genre as a whole.

1. You write erotica. What writing elements do you think are important to include in a piece of erotic fiction to make it of the highest caliber?

"Writing erotic fiction is no different from writing any other fiction in this respect. You have to write something that will engage the reader. The sex and the romance may be a large part of the story but if you have characters the reader can’t connect to, or bland description, or a plot that goes nowhere, the story will fall flat."

2. Do you feel that having a romantic plot helps or hurts an erotica piece of fiction?

"Without the romance I think you’ll find the story becomes pornography -- a mere cataloguing of sexual acts. You can write it that way but you’ll get far fewer readers."

"One of the favorite comments by readers on a good piece of erotic fiction is how much they were dying for the people involved to get together. Happily ever after endings aren’t an absolute prerequisite anymore but happiness at the end has to be there -- and by that I don’t just mean having orgasms!"

3. How do you describe the sex acts and keep it from becoming repetitive?

"Aargh! Good question. There are, I think, a limited number of ways people can ‘get it on’ but surprisingly you can find innovative ways of describing. There is always some repetition due to the names of anatomical parts being set in ..um, well, in flesh (concrete would be a bit much) but readers won’t notice if you write it well. Just think of how many times in any story someone walks or talks or sits down. You don’t notice these being repeated either.

Another way to avoid staleness with description of sex is to vary the people (obvious, I know) the place and setting, the motivations, and even -- if you’re like me -- you can get really kinky with the props. I do love inventing strange new ways to do bondage."

4. Do you think it is best to call body parts by their anatomically correct names? Or come up with euphemisms?

"The names used may depend on how erotic you want the story, and even on the people involved. Historical correctness may play a part but you have to remember to make any story accessible to the reader. Calling a part by some name that’s really been lost in the mists of time will end up with readers scratching their heads and putting the story down.

I tend to vary things and use different terms as a way to avoid that dreaded repetition. So both euphemisms like pussy and more direct words like clitoris and labia appear in my writing."

5. What do you think helps to make erotica something that the readers would call a satisfying read?

"That comes back to the first question but also I think most erotica readers are definitely looking for the sexual tension in the story to be high. You don’t have to have sex on page one but there needs to be a great expectation that the characters will get together and have sex at some stage. The definition of true erotica seems to be that it must be a story where if you remove the sex, you lose the story."

6. Which authors or works of erotica would you recommend to people for a good read?

"I have to say here that I’m not a long time connoisseur of erotica. I’m still working out for myself what I like to read. Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart series has some highly erotic scenes and her writing is of a very high standard. I’m not into m/m erotica but in the m/f BDSM range, Joey Hill is excellent and close to literary quality, in my opinion. Of my crit group, I adore Cherise Sinclair for BDSM, and for straight m/f, I’d have to say that Lauren Fraser and Lillian Grant are excellent."

7. Where do you get the ideas for the plots of your works?

"The same places I get my ideas for other genre stories -- from the mish-mash inside my head. If I’m looking to write a story, I pull ideas from the radio, the newspaper, TV, people I meet…it’s a very strange and organic process. Imagination is king at the end of the day however."

8. What in your mind distinguishes erotica from romance?

"Oh, heavens, I’m so not a romance reader. Both genres have romance so the difference of course is in how far the characters go. Second base is not an option in erotica, and once they’re in bed, or wherever it is -- and in my stories they could be doing it anywhere, since variety is the spice of life -- once they’re having sex you cannot pull away the camera and leave them in peace.

You describe what happens and make sure the reader sees what’s going on in the heads of the characters. A mistake often made in erotica writing is to just describe the mechanics. That can be as dry and tasteless as cardboard. You often can even use the sex or it’s aftermath to progress the plot and the way the character is changing ie you use it to develop the character arc."

9. If you were asked to argue for erotica as an important genre in the canon of available fiction, what arguments would you use?

"Mainly, that it is like any other fiction. There’s good, bad and great out there to be found. As it becomes more mainstream, I think the general quality will increase. Right now there are a few publishers who churn out stories like sausages.

What comes out on the page, or screen with ebooks, is as good as the writer makes it. Some authors are very dedicated to the art of writing erotica and put an enormous amount of effort into researching backgrounds, history, psychology etc Joey Hill is well known for having a great curiosity about the reasoning behind women’s sexual fantasies."

10. Which of the characters in your erotica would you most want to run away with for a weekend?

"Mmm. A little early yet as I’ve only penned two works of erotica in full. Out of the two men who feature in those stories (I’ve not written ménage yet, though I may), I’d have to say Theo out of my steampunk novel. He’s rich, handsome, caring…a little too happy with using ropes, but hey, you never get perfect. lol"

11. What are the titles of all of your works? Where are they available?

"Three Days of Dominance is coming out late spring from Loose id. My other work, very tentatively titled, Steam Assassin, is still in the beta reading phase. I know it will get published but can’t guarantee it will be with Loose id yet. My editor will have a say in that. Alas."

Three Days of Dominance...
When a man with mint-green eyes steps from a lake and offers to rescue Danii’s dog in exchange for three days of total obedience, it’s obvious he must be either joking or crazy. Being a police officer, she knows how to handle the crazies, but when it comes to Heketoro, she’s the one being handled. Each day their lovemaking becomes wilder and Danii discovers exactly how far this man can take her. Though the tattoos drawing themselves on his body make it clear he’s not quite human, to Danii what’s more important is their burgeoning love for each other.

An ancient curse prevents Heketoro from returning to his world. With one last ritual of love needed to break this curse, Heketoro’s enemies return and threaten to destroy him by using his only weakness — Danii. Will love, or their enemies, triumph?

Cari Silverwood's website can be found at:  www.carisilverwood.net

She is part of an online erotica writing group whose new blog will be up and running soon and can be found at: http://somewriteithot2.blogspot.com

Cari Silverwood can also be friended on Facebook! Check her out!

Music: Banish Misfortune

When I was in high school I learned to play the mountain dulcimer in addition to guitar. I ended up giving away my dulcimer to a friend named Euphemia who I haven't heard from in years. At the time it impressed that she needed the dulcimer more than me. Dulcimers are happy instruments and quite easy to learn. That's a good combination.

A long time favorite cd of mine was titled "Banish Misfortune" after the 3 part Irish jig of the same name that is the title track and it featured Malcolm Daglish playing a hammered dulcimer and Grey Larsen playing a variety of instruments. I cannot find any of the songs on YouTube, but here is Malcolm Daglish playing the hammered dulcimer:

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjHia3CIUA&feature=related

And just because "Banish Misfortune" is such a wonderful piece here is a version with guitar and flute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQl9phWMTk&feature=related