Peace

powering down for earth hour

3.28.2009 8:30 - 9:30 PM

What the Hell...?

though the dancing may be bad,

this is pretty awesome ...

Matt Harding believes interacting with so many different people challenges him to understand what unites humanity.

Ludwig Van R.I.P.

Return to Vienna
by Rita Dove
Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me.... Three miles from my adopted city lies a village where I came to peace. The world there was a calm place, even the great Danube no more than a pale ribbon tossed onto the landscape by a girl's careless hand. Into this stillness I had been ordered to recover. The hills were gold with late summer; my rooms were two, plus a small kitchen, situated upstairs in the back of a cottage at the end of the Herrengasse. From my window I could see onto the courtyard where a linden tree twined skyward — leafy umbilicus canted toward light, warped in the very act of yearning — and I would feed on the sun as if that alone would dismantle the silence around me. At first I raged.Then music raged in me, rising so swiftly I could not write quickly enough to ease the roiling. I would stop to light a lamp, and whatever I'd missed — larks flying to nest, church bells, the shepherd's home-toward-evening song rushed in, and I would rage again. I am by nature a conflagration; I would rather leap than sit and be looked at. So when my proud city spread her gypsy skirts, I reentered, burning towards her greater, constant light. Call me rough, ill-tempered, slovenly— I tell you, every tenderness I have ever known has been nothing but thwarted violence, an ache so permanent and deep, the lightest touch awakens it...It is impossible to care enough. I have returned with a second Symphony and 15 Piano Variations which I've named Prometheus, after the rogue Titan, the half-a-god who knew the worst sin is to take what cannot be given back. I smile and bow, and the world is loud. And though I dare not lean in to shout Can't you see that I'm deaf? — I also cannot stop listening. Ludwig Van Beethoven 12.16.1770 - 3.26.1827

Nano a Nano

Tata Nano

Apple Nano

I think they are about the same size...

Tata Motors' 'People's Car'

the 4-door Nano, which will be the world's cheapest car with a dealer price of 100,000 rupees ($2,500).

Magical Thinking

Life changes fast.






Life changes in the instant.



I had the good fortune to see Vanessa Redgrave in
"The Year Of Magical Thinking"
in 2007.

As they dim the lights on Broadway tonight

my heart aches again in much the same way.

The play is based on Joan Didion's memoir about the loss of both her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and then her daughter, Quintana.

Ironically Quintana was hospitalized after a collapse and bleeding in her brain.

"Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it."

"I can think of no more cruel example of life imitating art. As Vanessa Redgrave so convincingly inhabited Didion's pain she cannot have known she was rehearsing for her own strikingly similar tragedy.

On stage, Redgrave skilfully morphed into the grief-stricken writer, playing Didion with muscular conviction.

To prepare for the part, Redgrave will have pictured the life-support machine, relived the sadness of her own ex-husband dying, tried to imagine the horror of losing a daughter. In this light, the death of Natasha Richardson seems linked to Joan Didion's own loss; an aftershock rippling out from the tragedy that exploded her life and spawned the memoir.

The arc of Natasha Richardson's life mirrors that of Quintana, too: both born to well-known artistic parents, both blonde, talented, their deaths shocking and inexplicable. The dreadful irony cannot have escaped either mother this week.

In this work Joan Didion has given us all a blueprint for grief."

added quotes from Charlotte Ross - Evening Standard UK

--Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking (2005). Joan Didion lost her husband five days after her only child lapsed into a coma (her daughter died, two years later).
Natasha Jane Richardson 5. 11. 1963-3.18.2009

Canada shoes up? Na

Nobody has big enough "shoes" to stand up to the Bush dynasty.

About 1,500 Canadian business and oil executives paid $400 per plate during the luncheon speech of Bush while some 200 protesters gathered outside the convention center calling the former U.S. leader a war criminal and blowing whistles. Polcie arrested four demonstrators, including a man who tried to enter the venue without a ticket.

Thanks for the Beatles, Bozo and Bonanza

Alan Livingston

Capitol Records President

Dead at 91

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

Daniel Kreps - Rolling Stone

Music industry icon Alan Livingston, the man credited with signing the Beatles during his time as president of Capitol Records, passed away on March 13th due to age-related causes. He was 91. Livingston was at the helm during a tenure that saw Capitol also sign acts like the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, the Steve Miller Band and the Band. Livingston is also noted for creating the Bozo the Clown character.

According to Billboard.biz, it was Livingston who decided that the label should release the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” as a single. The record company rejected earlier singles by the Fab Four, deeming them unsuitable for America. After releasing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1963, Livingston brought the group over in 1964 and Beatlemania began. Livingston is also credited with reviving the career of Frank Sinatra after the Chairman of the Board saw his popularity lull in the early 1950s. Livingston recommended Sinatra work with composer Nelson Riddle, resulting in songs like “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “Young-at-Heart.”

Livingston is also responsible for inspiring the famed Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles, LA Weekly reports, making that landmark the first circular office building ever constructed. Livingston received the Lifetime of Laughter Achievement Award from the Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee in 1998 for Bozo. Livingston is survived by his wife, actress Nancy Olsen, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1950 for her role in Sunset Boulevard, a son, daughter and two stepdaughters. (Another son, Peter, the one who showed some of his father’s shrink-wrapped “Butcher” cover albums to disbelieving dealers at a Beatles Convention in 1986, pre-deceased him.)

Livingston hired his brother, composer Jay Livingston, to write the theme song for a new TV western he was developing as vice president of programming at NBC in 1959. It was called “Bonanza” and ran for 14 years and 431 episodes.

Alan Livingston 10. 15. 1917-3.13.2009

Peace is Bombing...

How long has this been going on ...

and people have let it happen in their names??

Before Orwell and long before this

and the beat goes on...

Perino: Bush Deserves Credit For Recent Market Uptick

Former White House spokesperson Dana Perino said on Sunday that the Bush administration, while presiding over the start of the current recession, nevertheless deserved some credit for the modest uptick that Wall Street experienced this past week. Appearing on CSPAN's Washington Journal, the last of Bush's press secretaries said it was "not a secret" that the current economic mess started under her boss's watch. But, she cautioned, the public had yet to realize the full extent to which the past president's policies "alleviat[ed] the downturn." Take, for instance, the improvement in the Dow Jones Industrial average this week. "You were just speaking earlier about the possibility that since we had a little bit of a better week on Wall Street does that spell a turnaround?" Perino said. "Can all the credit go specifically to President Obama? Well, I would say no. We are just going to have to take a while to let all of this settle down and let the policies that our administration and the new administration are trying to put in place have a chance to work." The Dow Jones Industrial Average had gone, roughly speaking, from a high of 14,000 to a low of just over 9,000 in the last two years of Bush's tenure. It rose from slightly below 7,000 to slightly above 7,000 this past week. The effort to credit the market boost to Bush administration fiscal policy comes at a time of renewed debate over what role the former president played in the recession. On Sunday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he didn't think it was fair to blame Bush for creating the current economic woes. That followed a speech by Barack Obama, saying that he had inherited the mess from which he was trying to dig the country out. Asked how long, Obama would be able to cast blame on his predecessor, Perino responded: "For a while, I guess. He can do it as long as he wants. The question is, is this the smartest communications strategy to be doing it? Remember, President Bush inherited a recession as well. That is when the Internet technology stocks and the companies all fell apart. The question is not who the blame. You couldn't blame the technology bubble all on President Clinton himself, absolutely not... That aside, every president inherits big problems because you are the leader of the free world and there are going to be problems that you inherit. The danger I think - and I would say we fell into this a bit as well - is that if you constantly blame the person before you, you are not able to move forward and look forward and I do not think that necessarily the country wants that right now."


Sam Stein Huffington Post

Wayne LaPierre = Archie Bunker redux

Even by the standards of the Conservative Political Action Committee event where he recently spoke, the NRA's Wayne LaPierre was over the top.
I honestly can't tell the difference.




He explained to all of us in America that "the guys with the guns make the rules."

Most of us believe that in a democracy, the voters make the rules.

Two days ago, a deranged man in Alabama killed 10, including women and children, before taking his own life. He had the firepower of assault weapons to execute his plan of mass carnage.

Americans who have lost loved ones to gun violence are tired of the guys with the guns making the rules.

Brilliant!!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Drop the Rock

Drop the Rock Advocacy Day 2009

Tuesday, March 10, Albany

YOU can help repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

On Tuesday, March 10, New Yorkers will have an historic opportunity to promote the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. On this day, Drop the Rock’s grassroots coalition will unite hundreds of people from across the state to meet with legislators and pressure policy makers to enact repeal.

Get on the bus! Buses to Albany are leaving from throughout NYC.

• Drop the Rock Advocacy Day Flyer 2009
• Register today: Participant sign-up form Advocacy Day 09
• Organizations interested in participating in Advocacy Day should complete this form by February 24: DTR Organization participation form Advocacy Day 09

If you have any questions please contact Caitlin Dunklee, Drop the Rock Coordinator, at 212-254-5700 x 339 or cdunklee@correctionalassocaition.org.

If you are on parole or probation, and need a letter in order to join us for Advocacy Day, please contact Caitlin Dunklee, Drop the Rock Coordinator, at 212-254-5700 x 339 or cdunklee@correctionalassocaition.org.

Our garbage...

is TerraCycle's treasure.

how 'bout that??

Good Day and R.I.P.

Paul Harvey

columnist and renowned talk radio host, has died at the age of 90.

I may not have shared some of his opinions but I do approve of the work he did towards a "good day" for animals.

Two years before the Federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act was enacted, Harvey began reporting on decisions the House Agricultural Committee made in regard to animal slaughter. After visiting a slaughterhouse, he urged for the end to some of its practices through his syndicated newspaper column.

He endorsed recent initiatives protecting farm animals, such as the recent Proposition 2 in California and Proposition 204 in Arizona.

Involved in many animal rights issues, such as puppy mills, animal fighting, seal clubbing, and factory farming, Harvey personally worked with all six CEO’s of the Humane Society of the United States.

- for more please visit the Humane Society’s blog.

Paul Harvey Aurandt 9. 4.1918 – 2. 28. 2009