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Saturday, December 31, 2016
Friday, December 30, 2016
Achieving Nirvana
ü Floating in a poolü Sitting in hot oilü Sitting in a room screamingü Walking for weeks without lying down, not even to sleepü Staying awake for three daysü Sitting in a box with pythonsü Sitting in a coffinü Sitting next to a rotting corpseü Total silence for ten days
These are some meditative paths to Nirvana as practiced by Buddhist monks, nuns, and laypeople in Thailand. [Details from an article by Bryant Rousseau: "Corpses, Pythons, Sleep Deprivation: Meditation Rituals in Thailand Can Be Intense," New York Times, Aug 30, 2016.
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1977 NYC Blackout
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Mystery solved: the Ode To Darwin original by William Holbrook Beard (painted 1891)
by Jack Brummet
This is a painting I bought for $100 at a roadside stand in Jensen Beach, FLA in 2006 (It cost $150 to ship it home in its delicate, ornate frame). The painting is titled "Ode To Darwin" and was painted by David Zarkin.
The mystery of its origins was solved last night by an intrepid member of the Facebook Lowbrowart group, Jon Groobz (see details below).
Detail:
The original canvas, titled "The Discovery of Adam," was painted by William Holbrook Beard in 1891 (30 years after Darwin published his famous book). There is a good web site here with this and some other paintings (he was a fascinating painter). The painting
The painting I own is an amazing copy of this original, but I know no details of the painter at all or how or where he copied this work. Here is the original, which resides at the Toledo Museum of Art.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Take A Load Off Your Feet—one of the very strangest Beach Boys tracks
By Jack Brummet, Music Ed.
After Brian Wilson lost his way, his songwriting became, for a time, extremely bizarre. This is probably one of The Beach Boys top five weird tracks. . .Brian Wilson's ode to good foot care.
After Brian Wilson lost his way, his songwriting became, for a time, extremely bizarre. This is probably one of The Beach Boys top five weird tracks. . .Brian Wilson's ode to good foot care.
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Monday, December 26, 2016
Counting every tree in New York City
From Architecture Daily, 11-28-2016:
New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation has completed its two-year project of assigning ID numbers (with arboreal characteristics) to every one of the 685,781 trees in the city's five boroughs. More than 2,300 volunteers walked the streets, then posted each tree's location, measurements, Google Street View image, and ecological benefits for the surrounding neighborhoods (rainwater retained, air pollution reduced)."
New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation has completed its two-year project of assigning ID numbers (with arboreal characteristics) to every one of the 685,781 trees in the city's five boroughs. More than 2,300 volunteers walked the streets, then posted each tree's location, measurements, Google Street View image, and ecological benefits for the surrounding neighborhoods (rainwater retained, air pollution reduced)."
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Sunday, December 25, 2016
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Friday, December 23, 2016
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Shorts: tiny poems
by Jack Brummet
Resurrection
A roiling thunderstorm clears the air
Like Wyatt Earp's peacekeeper
Resurrection
He was ready to live again
Even if living just meant running
To keep ahead of the ghosts.
Even if living just meant running
To keep ahead of the ghosts.
___________________________
It’s so still and calm
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.
In the mosque,
You could hear a fly expire.
___________________________
Stealth
You think one
thing,
Say another,
And do a third.
___________________________
A roiling thunderstorm clears the air
Like Wyatt Earp's peacekeeper
___________________________
When you strip away the stage flats, makeup, and costumes,
It’s all one story starring our private heroes and dreams.
___________________________
The Marriage
Two tattered mannequins
Prop each other up
In the Salvation Army Store window
Prop each other up
In the Salvation Army Store window
___________________________
Tragedy
Take the worst that could happen
And add two zeros.
And add two zeros.
___________________________
High fidelity clouds gather over
The tattered stage flats of a world on fire.
The tattered stage flats of a world on fire.
___________________________
It's Getting Crowded
We cover the earth with Venn Diagrams
As our steps bisect old steps.
___________________________
Weather Report
Life is a raindrop
Sizzling as it skitters
Across the universal griddle.
Sizzling as it skitters
Across the universal griddle.
___________________________
Waiting
There is no tomorrow
until we get through
the day after yesterday
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Monday, December 19, 2016
Poem: snow day
by Jack Brummet
In silhouette
against bisque skies,
crows bounce
on snow-humped branches,
shaking snow to the ground
and survey the valley
for prey
in dark relief
on the cold white fields.
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Sunday, December 18, 2016
The famous letter the FBI sent to MLK (trying to push him to suicide)
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Friday, December 16, 2016
The Grateful Dead play a free show in my neighborhood in 1967
July 16, 1967 — The Grateful Dead performed at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. Five other local bands perform at the "Be-In." Admission was free.
The Golden Road
Located in Ballard, Golden Gardens was typically a place where the “straights” hung out, far away from the usual hippie hangouts near the University District and Capitol Hill. The crowd of 2,000 people who gathered at the park for the Be-In was a mix of all folks who just wanted to enjoy some rock music in the hot summer sun.
The bands performed on a flatbed truck with electricity provided by a small portable generator. Brick went on first, followed by Karma, The Daily Flash, The Time Machine, and Pappa Bear's Medicine Show. The Grateful Dead came on last.
The Dead were in Seattle for a show that evening at the Eagles Hall, and since they were veterans of many Be-Ins in San Francisco, the band and their manager, Rock Scully, decided to take part in the gathering at Ballard. The Be-In was arranged by Tim Harvey of Overall Cooperative Structure and Jerry Mathews of United Front Productions.
Unlimited Devotion
In an interview with the Helix, a Seattle-based underground newspaper, Grateful Dead lead guitarist Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) talked about the band’s background, noting that he started playing guitar at 15, that vocalist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was heavily into country blues, and that bass player Phil Lesh was classically trained on the violin and trumpet. He described the band’s music as mostly blues.
Garcia also talked about the influence of psychedelic drugs on their music, noting that these drugs were just another part of their lifestyle. “The thing that happens when you get high and play,” said Garcia, “is like new ideas present themselves, new possibilities ... . If you’re a little stoned, you’re less into yourself, less into demonstrating your ability, less into your own thing and more into the total thing. Playing itself is a high, playing is in fact the best high I know. There’s no comparable experience in drugs. Nothing like it.”
When asked about the kind of people who came to their shows, the interviewer pointed out that not all people in the Golden Gardens audience were hippies. “No, but they’re all people,” responded Garcia. “Like the more straight people that come to these kind of scenes, the easier it’ll be for them to see that the hippies aren’t going to hurt them. The whole scene is ... good natured.”
Poster for The Grateful Dead at the Seattle Eagles Hall, July 16, 1967 later that night (a paying gig):
Sources: “The Cool Brave Heat for 'Gentle Sunday,'" Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 17, 1967, p. 3; Interview with Jerry Garcia, Helix, August 16, 1967, p. 11.
This essay was corrected on July 16, 2015.
Fifty years of the Crisis Clinic (video)
A nice video about the Crisis Clinic, where I work two days a week. Check it out, and if you can, donate. . .or volunteer. /jack
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Thursday, December 15, 2016
Irregular roundup of celebrity and other middle fingers
Every few months, we publish the various images of middle fingers our readers have sent to us, along with any choice ones we find along the internet.
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