Thursday, April 26, 2007

Poem: Changes 64/Before Completion


click to enlarge


The transition from disorder to order
Is not yet complete—
You walk with the caution of a fox

Over rotten ice,
Ears tuned to the cracking of the ice
Or a rumble from below.

As mother nature
Puts the knife to your back,
You glide circumspectly across the safe spots.

Fire over water
Is the image before the transition,
Where everything settes into place.

If you wish to achieve an effect
Investigate the nature of the force
In question and ascertain its proper place.

If you bring these forces to bear on target,
They will have the desired effect
And completion will be achieved.

But to handle external forces properly,
You must arrive at the correct standpoint yourself.
Only from this vantage can you work.

You brakes the wheels.
The time to act has not yet come.
You must have a vehicle

To make the crossing
—Patience in the highest sense—
Means putting on the brakes.

A new situation must be created.
You engage the energies of able helpers
So this fellowship can take the decisive step

And cross the great water
Into the Devil's Country.
The sun shines forth in redoubled beauty

And the new era appears
All the more glorious by contrast
With the misery of the old.

We must be in heaven.
I don't see many people,
But the animals are all here, reporting for duty.
---o0o---

The end of the line. . .

Some expected ends of the world, including at least one that did not actually trigger an apocalypse:

The Arrival of Hindu's avatar of Krishna in 2003
Gaia 2012 - A Sweden-based site explaining Carl Johan Calleman's "Venus Passage" discoveries due in 2012. However, Calleman has now decided that the Great Cycle will actually end on 28th October 2011
The End of the Mayan Calendar After Dec. 21, 2012
Planetary Alignment Sept. 8, 2040
Variously predicted chains of successive earthquakes
The End of the Muslim Calendar, 2076
The end of the Jewish Calendar, 2240
The 13 Month Calendar

End of the world songs:

Waiting for the end of the world - Elvis Costello
End of the World (album)- Aphrodite's Child
End Of The World - COLD
End of the World - The Cure
The End of the World - Skeeter Davis
End of the world - Ayumi Hamasaki
The End of the World - Angela
End of the World Party (Just in Case) (album) - Medeski Martin & Wood
Until the End of the World - U2
When the World Ends - Dave Matthews Band
Happy End of the World (album) - Pizzicato Five
Smile, It's The End of the World - Hawk Nelson
The Light at the End of the World - My Dying Bride
It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.

End of the world books and films:

The End of the World (novel)- Camille Flammarion's 1893 science fiction novel La Fin du Monde.
End of the World (film), a film by John Hayes
The End of the World (animation), a viral Flash animation depicting the modern nuclear crisis
The End of the World - the second episode of the 2005 television series Doctor Who
The End of the World, a film by Verdens Undergang
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - a novel by Haruki Murakami
Le Phare du bout du monde ("The Light at the Edge of the World" - a novel by Jules Verne
The Light at the Edge of the World, a film version of the novel by Verne
Until the End of the World - movie by Wim Wenders
Panic in Year Zero! (AKA End of the World) - a 1962 film

Places now or once thought to actually be the end of the world:

Cape Finisterre, Spain
Kent, Washington
Madagascar
Montauk, a beautiful town on the end of Long Island, New York
New Zealand
Verdens Ende (literally "End of the world") south of Oslo, Norway
Yamal Peninsula, in northern Russia
Patagonia
The lighthouse at Isla de los Estados is better known as Faro del fin del mundo ("Lighthouse at the end of the world")
Timbuktu, as in the phrase "from here to Timbuktu", at the end of a Saharan trade route
The South Pole
---o0o---

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The New Earth: Let the carbonizing begin



It has the same climate as Earth, plus water and gravity. A newly discovered planet is the most compelling evidence (so far) that life might be out there (that is if you don't believe in our Grey visitors). A huge red sun rises in the sky. . .ten times the size of our Sun as seen from Earth. Small waves lap at a sandy shore and there may be things crawling, walking, and wiggling around.

This may be the scene on what is possibly the first truly Earth-like planet to have been found outside our Solar System. The discovery was announced today by a team of European astronomers, using a telescope in La Silla in the Chilean Andes. It is the first exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun) that is anything like our Earth.

Read more in the complete Daily Mail story here.
---o0o---

Video And Lyrics: Dave Clark Five Having A Wild Weekend

I remember serious debates, probably in 1964 or 1965, about just who were destined to become the Kings of Rock and Roll. At a certain point in rock history, there was debate over who would triumph: the DC5 or the Beatles? And there was also the Rolling Stones vs Beatles angle too.

The DC5 are probably now held in less esteem than even minor groups like Herman and the Hermits or Gerry and the Pacemakers, not to mention that middle tier of bands like The (always underrated) Kinks, Animals, and others. The Dave Clark Five have not aged well at all. I have a two disk "History of Dave Clark Five" set that includes about eight great tunes, some middling work, and virtually an entire disk's worth of drek.

This tune, Having A Wild Weekend, is the title song from a movie ala A Hard Days' Night. HAWW was released in Britain as Catch Us If You can...





HAVING A WILD WEEKEND
(Dave Clark / Mike Smith)

Saturday night, everybody havin' fun
You don't know it but I'm havin' me some
You left me at home, thought I would die
Down and lonely, thought I would cry

Oh, we're havin' a wild weekend
We're havin' a wild weekend
Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin'

I met me a girl, she thought I was fine
Oh-oh, chick come with me we'll have a good time
She got all dressed up when I took her out
Well she's not that cute but she treats me right

Oh, we're havin' a wild weekend
We're havin' a wild weekend
Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin'

Oww!

------ saxophone solo ------

Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin', wooo!
Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin', rockin' and rollin'
Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin', ohh!

Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin', wooo!
Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin'
I said, Reelin' and a-rockin'
Rockin' and a-rollin'

---o0o---

Giuliani warns of a "new 9/11' if Democrats take the White House

Republican presidential wannabe, the Mayor of 9/11, Rudy Giuliani responded yesterday to a question at a campaign stop in Henniker, New Hampshire, saying that if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for a terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

If a Republican is elected, however, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.

“If any Republican is elected president—and I think obviously I would be the best at this—we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it,” Giuliani said.

Yet. . .yet. . .who WAS in charge on 9/11? As we've asked before, how does being the mayor of a city that was attacked give you credentials for preventing anything at all? I think what we did see is that Giuliani is capable of multiple photo-ops and press conferences, none of which—as far as I know—actually prevents anything.

Recent articles on Rudolph Giuliani in All This Is That:

Running on empty—Send in the clowns—Announced, probable, and possible candidates for President of the United States
Giuliani: The Candidate For 9/11—See The Onion
Republicans tied to the whipping post
Giuliani son: "I have problems with my father, but it doesn't mean he won't make a great President."
Rudy Backs Off
Photomontage: Presidential Contenders And Wild Cards
Front-runners Clinton and McCain losing ground fast/All This Is That's dark horses are mired in the back of the pack
---o0o---

Painting: A Dall's Porpoise in Puget Sound


click painting to enlarge
---o0o---

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Video: South Park & The Hippies


---o0o---

Painting: In the Bunker, Hitler contemplates the fall of Berlin


Poem: Changes 63/After Completion


1
The transition from confusion to order is completed
And everything is in its proper place.
Even in particulars

—When perfect equilibrium has been reached—
Any movement may cause order.
In transition from the old to the new time,

Indifference is the root of all evil.
Take thought of misfortune
And arm yourself against it in advance.

2
The finest clothes turn to rags.
Be careful all day long.
While man sees what is before his eyes, God looks into the heart.

3
After crossing a stream
Your head can get into the water
Only if you are so imprudent as to turn back

As long as you move forward
And do not look back,
You escape the danger.

With each glance
You're tempted to sneak
You remember the woman with no name—

Lot's Wife—
Standing in the hail
Of fire and brimstone.

She glanced back
At Gomorrah and turned
Into a pillar of salt.
---o0o---

Monday, April 23, 2007

Happy Birthday Willie Shakespeare!




Happy birthday to Willie the Shake. . .maybe! Tradition says the great poet William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon, England, on April 23, 1564. Church records show that he was baptized on April 26. Three days was the normal amount of time to wait before baptizing newborns.
---o0o---

Hillary puts on her cracker accent for an African American audience in NYC

I knew she did this when she was in the hustings, way down south, but now she's using the southern twang in New York City. . .to a black audience. Here's the video:

Sheryl Crow's Solution For Saving The Planet



"I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting."


It's these kinds of statements
that are not winning the hearts and minds of the people you actually need to convince Sheryl.

Ms. Crow said on April 19, in Springfield, Tennessee (Gore Country): "I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of forest conservation which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required."
---o0o---