In his own words....

Remember what it was like, once upon a time, when "newspeople/news anchors" really had true journalism backgrounds, integrity and intelligent minds? Remember what it was like before there was such a media concept as "info-tainment???" For years now I've really been missing the sanity and dignity of Walter Cronkite....

A LOT.

Goodbye, you wacky, bizarro McCarthyish rodeo clown. May flights of racist, conspiracy-ridden chalkboards sing thee to thy rest (and whatever new demented creation Murdoch will allow you to have -- and the damn radio waves you'll still befoul).  

Times like this really make me miss Bill Hicks and George Carlin....

A LOT.

Something I've been thinking about "Flash Mobs"...

Peculiar things.  Kinda funny.  Kinda strange.  Kinda makes a nagging statement about the wacky era we're living in.  But what I really can't stop thinking about??  Imagine what could happen if all the thousands of flash mobbers and all the other potential mobbers who feel inclined to put on their sneakers and dance a synchronized jig....would instead take a stand (or sit-in...or even "dance-in", for that matter) about social justice and political issues in their cities.  Take that same energy they lovingly pour into yet another umpteenth dance routine of Jackson's Thriller or Beat It video and organize marches and protests against the wars we're in.  Organize marches against discrimination and racism.  Organize pro-union marches.  Organize community marches against gang violence and a host of other pressing issues.  Really make some noise and a loud, resounding meaningful statement.  And, yes, there would still be plenty of room for dancing -- synchronized or otherwise.  How did Emma Goldman put it -- If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.

                                                                

                                                                       

 

photo by Jeff  Moore

photo by Pam Brackett

Creative thoughts for the week...

"The artist is only responsible for 50% of the process....
the viewer is the other 50%."
--Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp descending a staircase

Nude descending a staircase -- Marcel Duchamp

Rotoreliefs -- Marcel Duchamp, 1953

Fountain -- Marcel Duchamp, 1917

 

Self-portrait -- Mark Rothko, 1936

No. 9 -- Mark Rothko, 1954

 

Red on maroon -- Mark Rothko, 1959

Here's to love and equality for ALL....

Here's to all of my LGBTQ friends and relatives.  The ones in this world and the ones who've passed on.  The ones who held out hope that one day gay marriage would be seen as equal and as real as interracial marriage between blacks and whites.  No more barriers and polite civil unions.  No more limitations and violations of civil and human rights.  

Here's to the many amazing gay men I watched pass from this world during the early years of the AIDS holocaust.  Loving couples who stood by their partners, daring to call them beloved husbands when so many others looked at them like vile freaks of nature.  Love endured.  And hope still burns.  Here's hoping great cleansing waves of sanity, empathy and equality continue to push and spread further and further across this troubled country of ours.  Washing away the hate, revealing the hope for equal justice and human rights.

Here's to the victory in New York.  I think it's such a powerful coincidence that this all happened in NY close to the anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the spark of the gay rights movement.  It's so fitting.  And here's hoping California can finally get it right very soon. 

Have a Happy Pride weekend! x0x0x

   

  

Thoughts for the day....

"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break".  
~William Shakespeare

Vincent Van Gogh --- At Eternity's Gate, 1890

Sunflowers in the Provence by BVisser

 
Throughout my childhood, teens and young adult years my mom was frequently very ill.  When she finally passed on from this world, and now ever since, the dreams and conversations I have with her are never in her form as the sickly woman she was....

They're always with her as her vibrant, healthy younger self.  Jet black long hair.  Those sweet dimples and freckles.  Clear, beautiful sparkling eyes and the sweetest smiles.















  

 

  Same is true for dear Ari (the last dream I had of her she was smiling and dancing  all by herself in a room with beautiful blue and green light.  I felt so much lighter when I woke up from that dream).







A few weeks ago I had a lucid dream about Poly.  She was smiling and waiving as she stood still amidst a bustling crowd of people passing by me.  She looked so happy.  So healthy and vibrant.  It was so good to see her again.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal (author unknown)

 

Punk rock thought for the day.....

"Ordinary people do fucked-up things when fucked-up things become ordinary." -- Propagandhi

Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, NYC 1962 -- photo by 
Diane Arbus

The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith -- photo by Lawrence Beitler

The lynching of Laura Nelson in 1911 -- she was trying to protect her son -- photo by George H. Farnum

A lynching in Texas

 

 

Detainees

 **Click for powerful article and images by Anthony Karen from an article in The Independent in 2009:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/america-unmasked-the-images-that-reveal-the-ku-klux-klan-is-alive-and-kicking-in-2009-1625732.html?action=Gallery

Thought for the weekend.....

"Anyone can slay a dragon...But try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. 
That's what takes a real hero." 
-- Brian Andreas (storypeople.com)

[Thank you, Karen :o)]
 

 

Punk rock thoughts for the day....

"Better lives have been lived in the margins, locked in the prisons and lost on the gallows than have ever been enshrined in palaces" -- Propagandhi 

 

Thoughts for the day....

One can travel all around the world and never find anyone more worthy of compassion than oneself 
--- The Buddha 

[Thank you, Karen]