8.29.2

Happy Birthday Jane

well this is getting ridiculous. the current political situation. i tried to keep my mouth shut and just paint. didn't work.

i think mr. hussein is a danger in our world today. but there are ways to handle this danger besides neo-war.

personally i think that the corporate oligarchy that has been building for years is by far a bigger danger. with their control of the language and discourse, electronic bread and circuses, specious logic and mega-money i don't know how they can be stopped or even deflected. except by lots of people.

"The current incumbents in Washington are at an extreme of reactionary jingoism and contempt for democracy. The question we should ask, I think, is how far citizens will allow them to pursue their agendas."

Amen.
ZNet | Interviews | Chomsky Interview

8.28.2

i've been updating this weblog every day for over a year. i'm going to start skipping a day every now and then so my mind doesn't resemble the above drawing.

i'll catch up the image archive page so it includes the last 4 weeks or so pictures. i'll also be converting the MP3's to q design codec QT movies which should result in a file size reduction so dialup modem folks can download easily. and lastly i'll be changing ISPs in a month or so.

as elvis used to say, "takin care of bizness".

8.25.2

quiet sunday around the ranch, just woke up from short doze. got an oil painting started, first one i've ever attempted.

here's something i jotted down. i was hoping it was going to turn into a country & western song, but naaah, i don't think so:

someday maybe i'll feel new
but these days those days are mighty few
the sky leaves clouds like a clue
hangs question marks in the blue

atmospheric ice-crystals are cold
artificial memories i've been told
pathways lost in wars so old
plans of life bought and sold

8.21.2

no. 7 of 12 for top-secret hypomaniacal notecard project

there is a foreign car repair shop in town i often pass. they have cutsey sayings displayed on a large display. today i saw the first one i liked and will adopt it for whatever obscure use i can find for it:

"i feel like i am parked diagonally in a parallel universe"

8.19.2

number 6 for skunkworks notecard project

now we (our nation-state) are bombarding all of the seas with mega-sonar that destroys sea-life. the lack of public response to the oligarchic cabal that runs things is quite amazing. but then maybe there is no "public". just consumers.

i'm trying to use watercolors on a plastic material called "yupo". it's the closest thing to fingerpaints i've used in a long long time.

8.18.2

the song i have been remembering the most - "i'm not talking - thaaaaat's what i've got to say". yardbirds first album i think.

cause i have nothing to say.we live in a time of institutional decay and the only thing that might stop the coming "drama" of big money, oil, corporate oligarchy and world-wide electronic pt barnum is if everybody went to sleep tonight and woke up realizing that they have been touched by the hand of god. or something. maybe day after tommorrow might not be too late.

otherwise i'm gonna keep painting and doing like i did today, sampled charley mingus, looped a bunch of bits, added effects and played it backwards. no hidden message but you can dance to it.

8.17.2

something a little different

I am trying to throttle back and at the same time bring some projects to completion. realizing how pushed i feel - roll with it i guess.

8.16.2

today's piece for project notecard
another day inside the moonship. various things lurching forward, maybe a few taking a timeout here and there.

lots of visitors the last few weeks - ninian, doug, hearing from various old friends via email. took me all day to finish 10 minutes of "music".

8.15.2

i may use this for famous notecard project. i may do something else with it. i might even do both.

[publishing techno problems at blogger kept this post from appearing for a day or 2]

8.14.2

toxic haze hovering over southern Asia. i can remember landing in an airplane several times in asia when you could smell the earth at about 6,000 feet. it didn't smell like chemicals.
Early warning on Asia's toxic haze

number 3 image to be a part of obscure notecard project. if i can scan one a day which i can because i am, save for print and then spin-off the jpeg that you see, it's a good production rhythm for me.

8.13.2

"Brooks minted the title for the film, "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control", a phrase he uses to describe his philosophy for creating robots."
Slashdot | Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us

here is 2nd watercolor i will work with in anticipatory hypothetical notecard project.

8.12.2

had a faaast monday. the digital audio thing has worked out so that in order to use it i have to constantly finish stuff, meaning i create an MP3 and delete all of the audio files i used to mix it. disk. space. picture above is the first of 12 that i am trying to work up for note card project.

8.9.2

well i have been fooling with FTP path settings so i can blog away again. and think i got it now. my heart wasn't in it, so i just sort of pecked away at it rather than obligatory adrenalized teeth-clenching techno-marathon. hope it's fixed.

it's not.

[later] now it is.

and here is a picture to prove it [Later still:don't like this watercolor: am going to change it in rare backdated move. you'll see.]

8.7.2

up at 4:30 this morning. i really enjoy the days when this happens. i get real busy.

here's todays thingy: at least i hope it is here, some problem with transmission from blogger to my site. [many hours later]. just got back. this webpage does not exist yet. i"ll tinker more. keeps me off the streets. so if you don't see this it's not here.[still later] there is a techno-glitch somewhere. but i've been trying to post this since tuesday.

8.5.2

"Brock Enright, an artist and entrepreneur in New York City, has an offer for you. For a few thousand US dollars, he and some co-workers of his come when you least expect it and kidnap you, holding you hostage for up to a few days. You even get videos of the event detailing your ordeal as his company does their best to make you feel like a real hostage..."
Plastic: Being Abducted For Fun And Fulfillment

i was reminded by this item of an alarming trend that has been growing for a few years in our culture. i don't know what to call it, but here are some examples:

1) theme parks
2) reality tv (oxymoron)
3) micheal moore's idea to make trent mich into a theme park
4) my cousin bob's and my idea about 15 years ago to start a business that charged middle-class people a fee for putting them "homeless" on the street for awhile.
5) book i read awhile back where idea was to build "sinful" environments, for example gangster run las vegas, where customers could visit but was perfectly safe.

what is this trend? sanitized experience? it's all make-believe anyway? we've gotten to the point where experience without cash payment doesn't feel "real"? nothing feels real? nothing is real?

8.4.2

good place to hang out:
( blogdex )

where you can find news (if it doesn't find you first.):
"Friendly fire deaths linked to US pilots 'on speed'"

8.3.2

another one a day

8.2.2

you can install a "get a (random") blog" from this page. it will take you to a random blog somewhere. why? i don't know.

i feel the need to outline what i think: probably because i have been immersed in music, no writing. so here goes:

1) humans are concious. trees, snakes, apples are not. altho the cartesian split ("i think, therefor i exist, but trees don't, so they don't") has been found to be lacking in it's catagories of what is and what isn't.

2) the objects of human conciousness are a little tricky, because they are not what they seem. (don't believe everything you think.)

3) conciousness seems to be a small part of a bigger entity, the unconciousness. it would not matter except the latter pushes us around into postures we had not planned to be in.

4) conciousness (and unconciousness) creates culture, and the collective that goes under that name feeds back and defines ego conciousness. that is, it effects the experience of being a person. this experience is different in different times and places.

5) the subject of conciousness (the "I") is therefore contingent, a handy device. what exactly this "really" is will be a subject of great debate in the near future. because when you come to a fork in the road, take it.

6) working on the last point is the core of the answer to many of our social, economic. and political perplexities.

7) therefor today, problems can only be solved on the personal level. the corporate oligarchic flavor of reality is replacing the personal with the commercial, so better hurry.

8.1.2

i just put up 6 mp3s here. mp3s are still a long download for someone in the stone age like me, but the sound quality i think is really good.

7.31.2

Osama bin Laden: is he is or is he ain't?

"the suspected terrorist mastermind will appear in a taped recording . . . they also said bin Laden was well."
Today's Daily Briefing -- The Heritage Foundation

"Sources believe that if the bodyguards were captured away from bin Laden, it is likely the most-wanted man in the world is dead."
CNN.com - Sources: No bodyguards, no bin Laden - July 30, 2002

7.30.2

an old one.

7.29.2

Breaking this law--even if it's to share music by your own garage band--could land you in prison for up to five years. And that's not counting the civil penalties of up to $25,000 per offense.
from
Pirate this, go to jail - Tech News - CNET.com

7.29.2

"WASHINGTON--Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading."

read this. i don't think it has a chance in hell of becoming law at this point, but in a few years or less?

7.28.2

friend ninian dropped by with lots of banjo's, fresh from a musical learning week at warren wilson.

it was so hot so long we stayed indoors, visited, played some, listened to tape of dylan playing winston-salem last march.

i demoed my latest hobby horse, mp3s made with opcode oms, vision DSP and Vision Pro, also using soundedit 16 and SndSampler, quicktime voices and some editing in quicktime audio, lots of VST filters, a good mike with line outout adapter for mike in on G3, and midi keyboard Roland D20. all this stuff is at least a generation behind today, but i find it strangely fascinating to make this stuff work together. and it can do so much more than the last time i played with this stuff, 10+ years ago.

Later this week i'll put up about 5-10 pieces and you can judge for yourself. i consider these to be potential soundtracks and they are all works in progress.

meanwhile figuring out away to add small economical visuals to quicktime midi or movie files (audio).

lately haven't had the urge to ponificate. i don't know what to say. i am aghast not just at what is going on in the privilaged domain of the rich and powerful (R & P), but even worse, the so-far lack of any reaction to it from the pipple. there are at least 2 things that might be contributing to this lack.

one is business as usual, same old thying, began with reagun when the blue collar folks especially SE bought into the picture and from then on acted as if they were future candidates for this elevated standard. in theory. and it is still happening in a mutated way i guess.before this phase pipple wanted to be rock and roll stars.

or 2) the discomfort and unease of living in the whole picture, time, speed, confused identidies, loose numbers careening around the place, where does a trillion million go? where does it come from?

ninian opines that 9/11 in some way shook all this stuff loose. maybe. for sure it is affecting a whole lot more people than the early-adapters-misfits. i think more and more folks will be ruminating on how to get off the wheel of work. personal downsizing, part time employment, shared living expenses, it's a movement..and there is no one size fits-all solution.

if the latter is what is happening it will be cool - just very quietly folks slipping away.

and the war (now that i'm going i'll ride it down, i'll write it down). war against terrorists. war against drugs. war against cancer. these are not the recent 2-300 years of what war was; that was btween 2 institutions (flags, maps, uniforms, conscription, but civilians progressively incorporated into the show, wwii air marshall tedder began satuation bombing of german cities.).

war against the formless is a whole new thing and the ongoing shutdown of govt. procedures, plus the secrecy, is often part of the wars against the evil invisible.

7.28t00.2

one a day keeps the doctor away.

7.26.2

in the past, since WWII, the word "fascist" has usually been used in an overblown, over the top manner, especially when criticizing the US guvmnt. that's changing.

"Don't be alarmed by the word fascist. It's a term that is used for mindless respect for authority and uniforms, oppression, use of force, nationalism.

Whenever I'm in the USA, I see this all around me."
from
Plastic:

7.25.2

one a day keeps the doctor away

7.24.2

an interesting stop on the cyber byway.
Fresh Art Text

7.22.2

this is what i want to do when i grow up. amazing. let it do it's thing, have fun.
snarg

7.21.2

"He argues that the marketers do more than mirror the splits in the American social fabric, they accentuate them by designing media and advertisments that encourage contact between the narrow marketing segments and discourage those from outside the segment from coming in contact with the customized media using "signaling" and "branding" techniques."
from turow

7.21.2

i pruned my overwhelming number of bookmarks today and looked around to see what they were. a lot had disappeared into the cyber-ozone. Newcity was still around. check out the dick cheney piece:

"And for the first time, there were some faint signs the cows might be coming home to roost. Polls showed that the issue was beginning to stir the public, some of whom were starting to make vague connections between the corruption of Bush�s corporate pals and the fact that their nest eggs had been wiped out."

7.20.2

latest watercolor, finished yesterday
still don't have much to say about current war situation. massive reorganization of any institutional flow chart including federal govt. seems beside the point. the bizness metaphore that has invaded all aspects of our culture may be imploding, but the greed, dishonesty, and use of power to solve all problems has been around a long time, obvious to all, with no reaction from the populice except to ape the "biz" style and mode. the coming election will be interesting: my prediction: democrats lose, wheeler dealers, oligarchs, financial aristocrats win despite present unraveling.

a lot of my "ilk" have maintained an interest in ancient history during our short stay on the planet, despite it's disappearence as part of popular culture. this is a very full site you might want to bookmark and browse:
Ancient Classical History

7.19.2

a lot of nooks and crannies featuring various creative endeavors in various stages of completion and/or confusion. can you relate? i can.
artnetweb HOME

7.18.2

the FBI is checking out library patrons and what they have been reading. no information will come of this misguided and unamerican activity, only noise, thank god. more files somewhere. maybe some of them will wonder into the stacks and pick up a book or two. who knows?
Zara Gelsey: Who's Reading Over Your Shoulder?

you've got to logon to this site, but the breadth of the reportage and the detail of current inanities is mind-blowing, no matter how bad you think our current "situation" is, you ain't seen nothing yet.
kuro5hin.org || technology and culture, from the trenches

7.17.2

things i've learned in the past couple of days:

the army spent 10 days recently investigating an enlisted man who called our president "a joke" in a letter to the editor in a newspaper.

in the world of academia, there are courses taught with titles like "transpersonal psychology", "conciousness", and "introduction to tibetan buddhism". maybe some of the extra-curricular activities of 40 years ago had more of an effect than i realized. i thought the only result was the reagan revolution. i wonder what goes on in these classes; are there questions like "will that be on the test?"?

the culture is in denial about the changing climate.

the next 20 years will see the largest migration of peoples worldwide in history (and prehistory).

it's an open question whether the turn against bizzness will translate into realization that we are living in disney themepark. pay your money, stand in line, get thrilled/tittalatted/adrenalized, feel proud you did it.

systems cannot save the system. there is a feeling of dread in the air (not to mention tangible pollution in the smokey mountains), everyone feels it, nobody knows what to do about it.

"crypto-fascisism", an offhand phrase coined i believe by gore vidal, may enter the lexicon. but it will be spoken very quietly. "star-chamber" may creep in too.

people are alarmed by the invasion of privacy, but the demise of the inner concious life has not hit home yet. there is no privacy to invade where there is no inner life.

it's been a couple of days like that.

7.16.2

A collection of good-looking websites that are built with minimalism in mind. Spare, sparse, elegant. Fast-loading. Good idea:
Textbased.com - minimalist web design, theory and discussions

"New York and Milpitas, Calif.-based Nielsen//NetRatings also found Mac users are 58 percent more likely than the average surfer to build Web pages and 53 percent more likely to seek out product reviews.

"The Apple elite also have a higher propensity to purchase online than the average surfer, with the most popular purchases falling into the computer hardware, software and music categories.

"On the other hand, Mac owners are less likely to read horoscopes online or play any kind of online game."
enuf said. from
Mac Users Rule Says Study

7.15.2

haven't posted in a day or so, i must have taken a few bad turns. so here:

7.13.2

This is a book i did the cover for, newly published. it is also a good read about a time and place that have slipped away.

to buy the book send a check or money order for $14.00 ($12 plus $2.00 shipping and handling) to:

barbara scott
481 Turkey Ford Rd,
Dobson, NC 27017.

it will be available at select bookstores and a website soon. i'll post these when it happens.

7.12.2

i've spent a lot of time lately lost in the wilderness of digital audio production. here's my first MP3: give it a listen and have fun wondering what the hell i am doing.

7.11.2

a conversation the other night i had with richard about the nature of the workplace started me looking for an article i found many years ago in a short-lived magazine, don't remember the name. i found it and link is below. amazingly prescient for it's time, all i remember about the author is that he was not some kid, but worked in the technical field. this is my favorite article of all time, read it.

"Directly or indirectly, work will kill most of the people who read these words."
from
The Abolition of Work

starter went out on truck, delayed malfunction from a few months ago when i broke down in son eli's boondok house i think. meanwhile more flowers:

i've been so unverbal lately. politics, the economy, the corporate oligarchy, the changing mental-world (no, not mental-ward) that we inhabit, they all seem pretty distant. i've been painting flowers.

fat band people, poke around in this: the head-space project : v5

blogger is down, don't know when this will appear. BUT i had a very nice 4th, potluck at the reily's, thank you tom and cathy. plus when i got back no fireworks extravaganza at the grove park inn, thank you whomever.

at the library today, due to lack of funds they can't purchase "shaky", neil young bio i'll read one of these days.

about the corporate oligarchy we live in today: it's new, it's different, and it works because the public buys into it (literally) because they get something in return. like the 9th century serf who got something in return. "Feudal lords protect underlings in exchange for obedience and labor. The basis of feudal empires --power and glory" from A Shambhala Interview with Ken Wilber.

what we get today is the illusion or hope that we can be "our own boss", plus glitter, glitz, and adrenalin. in exchange for a world where there is "no room to be anybody" (bob dylan).

the 2 g. bushes and laura are on the cover of "the nation" this week wearing crowns.

early morning thunder outside, i guess i'll shut this thing down soon. here's is a noble weblog experiment i stumbled on, lot's of potential implications. i guess it's necessary but not sure why.
RAM otherwise known as Random Access Memory. lives up to it's title. could probably use a javascript button that randomly grabs and displays a content selection.

really frustrating day. working on a watercolor that is just not going anywhere, but i gotta go with it. then long hours twitching midi software, getting down to kinks and bizarre crashes, self-generated sequences combined with aliatory audio tracks. fascinating stuff but i think i better step away for a day or two. pleasant phone call from friend jim, the only voice i heard all day. until this evening when i got out of the house and attended a small discussion group concerning the work of ken wilber who nobody can understand. pleasant interesting bunch of folks, thanks richard.

if you are curious why noone understands wilber, try this. the interesting thing seems to be that somewhere in there he is articulating something many of us feel but have not figured out how to say - because we don't know what it is.

"Moreover, for the last several decades, the various Third World groups, factions, insurrectionists, and even terrorists have actually adopted the postmodernist lingo coming out of American universities in order to justify their actions. Green pluralism maintains, in its extreme--and most common--forms, that culturally there is no good or bad, no better or worse: there are no universal standards by which we may judge one culture to be better or worse than another. In fact, we cannot say anything about an Other that the Other would not say about itself. Period. To attempt to speak of the Other in terms other than those of the Other is to commit a horrible crime known as a 'metanarrative.' Rather, all cultural values are essentially equal..."

from
Ken Wilber Online: A Summary of Integral Psychology

"Great art suspends the reverted eye, the lamented past, the anticipated future; we enter it with the timeless present; we are with God today, perfect in our manner and mode, open to the riches and the glories of a realm that time forgot, but that great art reminds us of: not by it's content, but by what it does in us: suspends the desire to be elsewhere."

-- The Eye of Spirit, p. 135-136
The world of Ken Wilber

"Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Kanter, in her book World Class, tells us that the future belongs to those who are willing to give up their loyalties to community and nation to seek personal financial success in the global economy. She warns that those who remain loyal to people and places will be left behind."

that's what i'm afraid of.

from
cj guidebook citation

i wish i could comment on the politics of the day, but words fail me. a populice ruled by corporate oligarchy almost totally involved with electronic bread and circuses and easy ignorence. the biggest problem i see is the acceptance of the status quo and the need not to know. the only faint hope is, it seems to me, the slowly increasing visceral discomfort people are beginning to feel. feeling, not thinking. as if there is...something wrong.

"this i want to give to you because i wrote it down this morning. [he laughs as i read the the paper he hands me.]

judge me not by the number of times i have failed, but by the nunber of times i have succeeded, which is in direct proportion to the number of times i've failed and kept on trying."

from
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith
by Studs Terkel

Happy Birthday Eric & Nicole

nother pome. song? chosen at random.

Since I fell
Through empty air
I can't tell
Here from there

We need to talk
From then to now
While we Walk
Tell me how.

email fowarded by a friend of a friend of a friend:

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft
error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict
construction rules - each poem has only 17 syllables; 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, 5 in the third. They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity. Here are 16 actual error messages from Japan.

Below, the essence of Zen:
---------------------------------------------------
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
-------------------------------------------
The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
-------------------------------------------
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
-----------------------------------------------
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
------------------------------------------------
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
--------------------------------------------------
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
---------------------------------------------------
First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.
---------------------------------------------------
With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
--------------------------------------------------
The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao- until
You bring fresh toner.
--------------------------------------------------
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
---------------------------------------------------
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
--------------------------------------------------
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
---------------------------------------------------
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
---------------------------------------------------
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
------------------------------------------------
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
---------------------------------------------------
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
---------------------------------------------------

6.23.2

since i've got nothing to say today i thought i'd post the following from the following; it is from a collection of words i have been assembling from notes i wrote here there and almost everywhere. i'm going to make a book out of them, or maybe songs.

Keeping track of traffic
There's nothing else to do
Forget about the roadblocks
It's strictly up to you

I stood there for a moment
And forgot why I had heard
The lonely hum of light rays
Singing like a bird

The trees flex and wave
Slowly like the breeze
That stirs the clouds above
And puts me on my knees.

6.22.2

well today is still today. so far so good. thoughts i have briefly received this past week:

the story is the essence of life. we all have a story. something is telling our story. failing that, we try to tell our story nonstop somewhere in the back of our brain. so we can live.

if there is no story there is no us. and if that were so, the statement would be meaningless. maybe there cannot not be a story because if there were no story there would be no statement to that effect. or maybe that would be the story.

what if our situation here is one of exile? put here by a mystery and then the mystery departs. deus abscandus, the god who split.

maybe we are left here, as the gnostics seem to think, with just a hint, a spark of something real within, but we hide from that the way god hides from us.

when and if we finally know we're going to die, the question becomes how to live.

robin williams says: "You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."

what else? oh yeah, i broke my guitar string again.

6.21.2

chris in jim's kitchen when he realizes it's after 8 o'clock
"In the last 15 years alone, software defects have wrecked a European satellite launch, delayed the opening of the hugely expensive Denver airport for a year, destroyed a NASA Mars mission, killed four marines in a helicopter crash, induced a U.S. Navy ship to destroy a civilian airliner, and shut down ambulance systems in London, leading to as many as 30 deaths."
Technology Review - Why Software Is So Bad

a good description of the tech hallucination so many of us believe is real. rush to market = profits = klunky software.

bookmark this: CounterPunch. newsletter edited by alexander cockburn and jeffrey st. clair. in todays climate, this is necessary muckraking.

ran across this by old friend tucker. intresting story with a moral.

6.20.2

from an old email (cleaning up my inbox): more on the bush dynasty:

> Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates
> and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, reacted with
> disbelief to The Wall Street Journal report of yesterday that
> George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin
> Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an
> international consulting firm. The senior Bush had met with the bin
> Laden family at least twice. (Other top Republicans are also
> associated with the Carlyle group, such as former Secretary of State
> James A. Baker.)
> The terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had supposedly been
> "disowned" by his family, which runs a multi-billion dollar
> business in Saudi Arabia and is a major investor in the senior
> Bush's firm. Other reports have questioned, though, whether
> members of his Saudi family have truly cut off Osama bin Laden.
> Indeed, the Journal also reported yesterday that the FBI has
> subpoenaed the bin Laden family business's bank records.
> Judicial Watch earlier this year had strongly criticized
> President Bush's father's association with the Carlyle Group,
> pointing out in a March 5 statement that it was a "conflict of
> interest (which) could cause problems for America's foreign
> policy in Middle East and Asia." Judicial Watch called for the
> senior Bush to resign from the firm then. "This conflict of
> interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the
> President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business
> with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror
> attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not
> ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle
> Group," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel
> Larry Klayman.
> "This has the potential of making 'Billygate' (Jimmy Carter's
> brother's dealings with Libya) look like small potatoes," added
> Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
> See "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense
> Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," by Daniel Golden, James
> Bandler, and Marcus Walker, The Wall Street Journal,
> 9/28/01(www.wsj.com, subscription required).

6.19.2

so far today is today. at the local convenience store i had a chance to chat with a very nice palastenian clerk there. no politics, but he talked about the difference between daily life here and there. at home during "normal" times he worked in his garden and flower shop until about one in the afternoon, went home, cleaned up, maybe took a short rest, and for the rest of the day lived a life consisting of friends, conversation, etc., the way we once did here in this country. he kept a stack of books by his bed which he read daily. here, he worked and slept a little. no reading. no time.

i once worked with a couple of indians who agreed that here we have a time-based culture, but when they returned to thier villages they enjoyed a relationship based culture, where there was time to visit with friends and family. a disappearing world.

why? profit and big money, speaking of which you might check this (long) piece out: Clamor Magazine - Heir to the Holocaust. ps - the bush dynasty featured.

6.17.2

the 2002 republican strategy as revealed by lost file can be found here. warning: it's a slow loading pdf file. i believe the origional disk lost by an intern contained a powerpoint presentation that the .pdf may be made from. it certainly looks like powerpoint: ugly, klunky, minimum amount of information contained per k.

there are those that think that the wide-spread use of microsoft powerpoint is partly responsible for the lack of real thought in so many institutions: corporations, politics, any large organization where a headline followed by three bulleted generic items passes for discourse. i'm one of them. but i think it's use has just reinforced lack of thought, not caused it.

6.16.2

it has come to my attention that the political and social commentary i used to ramble on about on this site is slowly evaporating. why is this? well, it just seems so distant and unreal to me. the deluge of "current events" has left me behind. none of it seems real.

however there is no doubt that unfortunate things are happening behind the scenes that may impact our daily existence way beyond what is apparent:

the nature of our government and the world of business is changing rapidly. most of these changes are "secret", that is not immediately visible in the public arena. this despite, or because of, the "war" and enron etc.

the neo-democracy that our government is transforming into has more to do with public relations, advertising, and profit than democracy.

the citizenry of USA is in a state of denial about just about everything.

dissenting voices are hard to hear.

most folks are willingly ignorant of some of the most extreme changes the country has ever experienced.

but even those of us who refuse to think are feeling the pressure and "wrongness" of the current situation.

the underlying unease of the current situation can be felt by all, but is attributed to the wrong sources.

the country has been taken over by the mega-rich in a very real way - most of them have been working on this for a long time, and their time has come.

profit justifies anything, including secrecy and manipulation of an uncomfortable but compliant populace.

6.15.2

Plastic: PwC Consulting Changes Name To: Monday
Awesome Gary keeps it appropriately brief: "The consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, has decided to change it's name to Monday."

6.14.2

i took my daily walk today for the first time this year. flowers are blooming and it's not winter. hope i can get back into this habit.

No More Mr. Nice Guy!
Take the No More Mr. Nice Guy! Self-Assessment

Plutocracy and Politics
a ny times piece on kevin phillips new book "wealth and democracy". he seems to be saying that the out-of balance present situation and cultural denial that this is so doesn't look good for the future of democracy. and it doesn't, does it?

6.13.2

watercolor i painted for my dad - father's day
haven't been thinking about anything much lately. except the thought that thoughts are disguised emotions and emotions are disguised...something. i recall james hillman saying something along the lines that the subtle body we hear so much about from various sources may be the somatic unconciousness. stuff like that.

6.11.2

last week's ink
todays plan is to finish watercolor and get it in mail for father's day. and add a few more scribblings to manuscript of odd notes i have found in my pockets and other places over the last 2 years. then i think i will hide under bed for a few days.

received an interesting petition fowarded by tucker, "not in our name". excerpts:

----------------------------------------
A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE
NOT IN OUR NAME

Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression.

The signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world...
[snip]
...But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic script of good vs. evil that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that asking why these terrible events had happened verged on treason. There was to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political or moral questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and repression at home...
[snip]
...In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President's spokesperson warns people to watch what they say. Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act along with a host of similar measures on the state level gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before secret courts...
[snip]
...We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights.

for more info:
Contact the Not In Our Name statement at: nionstatement@hotmail.com
----------------------------------------

6.10.2

monday morning. if i can finish living maintenance chores today i plan to hibernate for a few days. i've been on the go since last fall when sally my ex-wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. she died early january. my mother died early april. i spent 3 weeks in arizona with my father. a visit to Baba Center was much needed relief. then my daughter was victim/witness in serial-rapist trial. that was over last week. today i want to finish watercolor for my dad (father's day). then i'll hide under bed for a few days.

very useful link for bibliophiles like me:
The Internet Classics Archive: 441 searchable works of classical literature

and some internet pizzaz for you high bandwidth folks:
theculture-simon tyszko

6.9.2

having a nice quiet sunday but did manage to spend the whole day in front of the computer working with songs. here's one:

another interesting link, a little heavy on tech, but something real interesting about old maps:

"...about some stone maps that have been found in China that may date to some 120 million years ago. The map appears to be a topographical relief map done on a scale 1 : 1.1 Kilometers. To blockquote:

The map indicates the use of civil engineering to
create a system of channels about 12,000 km in
length and 500 meters wide, and 12 dams that are
300-500 meters wide.

Their work is being peer reviewed in the scientific community, so there is some hope and reasonable possibility that this is not a hoax."

kuro5hin.org || technology and culture, from the trenches

6.8.2

seen on highway 40, heading west:

"the best things in life
aren't things".

6.7.2

after a long and exhausting trip i am ready to drive back to aville. i visited friends jim and marsha/doug, my children and grandchildren. truck towing and repair was added bonus.

but i spent most of the time in a hillsboro courtroom. serial rapist dwayne edwards was convicted yesterday. my daughter was one of the victims and a witness.

the wait for a verdict, the reading of the verdict, and the sentencing was highly emotional and brought tears to many eyes including my own. the other victims, their families, the assitant DA and his staff, the detectives, and the ladies of the rape crisis center were all great people who went beyond the call of duty in the interests of justice. the judge said the system worked. it would not have worked without these folks

story

6.2.2

after a long day yesterday of phone calls and waiting 2 hours for a tow truck, i said let's do it tomorrow. i didn't feel well at all during the whole day, reckon it's from the 2 or 3 preceding days, too much exhaustion, even tho i've been sleeping well.

woke up early and painted a watercolor i would very much like to finish because i've got another to paint right after it.

truck towed to tim's auto shop, they've already got the clutch fixed, it was the master cylinder so i guessed right on that. but it won't turn over, starter motor is asleep. i think it has something to do with electricity, not the starter motor. but then doesn't everything?

6.3.2

the content of this blog suddenly shifts (again) (no pun intended) today to the personal foibles of yours truly. truck quit at eli's out in the country, had it towed into the urban remainder of chapel hill usa yesterday. i think the clutch master/slave cylinders, or at least one of them, is kaput. no loss of fluid. trying to monkey with it early sunday morning i somehow activated the do not start if not in neutral or clutch depressed interlock so now it won't turn over.

as soon as i sign off here i begin the find-a-shop-to-fix-it routine. breaking down on the road has it's own quality. it could be worse, i unloaded all my camping gear and toys (guitar, shortwave radio, watercolors) which are temporarily housed in daughter nicole/husband doug's garage. trial in hillsborough plods on. if i am still here when final arguments, summations, whatever they are called take place i'll attend. meanwhile it's off to the world of auto repair.

6.1.2

sunday evening, parked under a tree at my son eli melissa, and grandaughter lily's. big rain storm finally got here, i hope it cools the sultry weather. i am experiencing some kind of clutch linkage problem, will look carefully at it in the am when i can think (i hope). big decision coming as to whether to nurse it back to asheville or (shudder) try and get it fixed in foreign country (chapel hill usa).

i am here because my daughter is a witness, along with two other women, in a rape and assault trial. spent some of thursday and a lot of friday at trial. the defense is hitting on the police procedures:

"you mean you didn't keep your hand written-notes after you input them into computer??!!"

answer i hope is given next week:"no, i am trained to take notes and create reports from them".

the defense objected non-stop to the reading of any police report that quoted anyone unless it was corraberating (i'm on the road - don't know how to spell this) someone's testamony. the judge sustained these objections.

i'm not a lawyer but i play one on tv. why can't a police report, filed on a certain date, be read in court, presented as what it is, a police report, a"snapshot" of what the police thought was going on at the time?

anyway to see a lawyer doing his business picking apart methods of work on a highly technical and arcane basis instead of dealing with the suspect's guilt or innocence is a sorry sight indeed. he is a public defender and "just doing his job". see article in durham herald.

5.31.5

i'm at jim c.'s typing this and the keyboard is doing strange things. jim says that taking typing is what makes going to high school worthwhile. this is about word wrapping or word rapping so it just keeps going.

5.30.2

i'm at eli, melissa, and lily's. overcast heavy day. will visit with nicole this afternoon i hope.
meanwhile been looking at this site with ie/windows. definite problem with quictime (even after updating it. what's wierd is sometimes the midis play and sometimes they dont. and picture below (hill.jpg) doesn't show. will fix the latter, hum a little about the latter.

5.29.2

i'm off to chapel hill for the next 7 or so days. hope to visit a lot of friends. my 3 children, -in-laws and 2 grandchildren are all going thru a lot of changes and i hope to have some quiet time with them all.

here's a quickie i did early this morning. some mornings the quickest way for me to get going is to work with the muse:

and here's a midi file i just did. will switch to mp3's soon; this will take a lot of the guesswork out of what you hear.

now i gotta get outa here, i'm running late.

5.27.2

pleasant afternoon at the reilys. i don't have much to say these days so i'm dipping into my collection of random scribbles. here's one i found today.

"you cant have your question and answer it too.
i knew too far when i knew it was you.
three am madness weathers the storm.
already gladness is fading a form.
i walk without magic without a care.
because if im here you must be there."

5.25.2

memorial day weekend - heading out to party at john r.'s. i've been dinking around with blog archive formatting all morning. still isn't making any sense. for such a "laid back" guy i must have a touch of compulsevness because simple curiousity could not drive a person to spend so long tapping at the keyboard with such a beautiful day waiting outside.

5.244.2

now here is a home page that is to be admired. check out the stuff on the working world.

"a platform for self-expression"
analyticalQ presents self-expression, world travel, flexibility

5.24.2

here's an item i stumbled across; something we all already know i guess. wonder why it's news?

ABCNEWS.com : Hippie Culture Just Keeps Truckin' On
"The truth of the matter is that there are literally millions of people in this country who still live with and are interested in the ideals of the counterculture."

maybe the interesting part about this item is how we as a culture recycle the past, usually turning it into a cartoon in the process. time keeps movin' on.

5.222.2

interesting item:

from Letters to the Editor, The New York Times, May 21, 2002:

To the Editor:

It was perceptive of President Bush to discover that "second-guessing"
the president is "second nature" in Washington (front page, May 18).
It's called presidential accountability.

The Constitution gives every member of the Senate and the House - not
merely the members of the toothless intelligence committees - the right,
even the responsibility, to question, censure and criticize an unduly
arrogant, incompetent or secretive president, to advise him, to investigate him, to subpoena, debate, denounce, impeach or even second-guess him.

After President Richard M. Nixon sought to be above all that, James
Mann, a South Carolina Democrat, warned his colleagues on the House
Judiciary Committee considering Nixon's impeachment, "If there is no
accountability, another president will feel free to do as he chooses."

If Congress fails to second-guess the president, the press will. That's
also in the Constitution.

TED SORENSEN
New York, May 20, 2002

The writer was special counsel to President John F. Kennedy.

5.22.2

i got back from the Baba center last night. delightful, extrordinary visit, the first in over 30 years that i have made. i was asked repeatedly why it took me so long to come back and all i could say was "time". i finished the watercolor above while i was there - it is not of the center which is a very beautiful place; i hope some of the photos i took while wondering around i can turn into watercolor. i met a lot of new and old (sometimes both) friends there.

meanwhile i gotta do laundry.

5.17.5

leaving for a 6 hour drive to the Meher Baba Center in myrtle beach sc. i'll be back monday.

meanwhile here is an email fowarded to me by tucker clark. pay attention:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Gephardt,

Today's news says you are about to convene inquiry into what the Bush
administration knew of possible terrorist plans before September 11.

To which I say, Finally! Thank goodness someone in Congress is waking up
enough, and summoning enough courage in the face of seriously slanted
polls, to start questioning.

While you're putting together your questions, you might consider these
points:

1. the Bush family-Bin Laden family connections

2. the Bush family (father and son) and Carlyle Group connections

3. the Bin Laden support for Dubya's first job in the oil business

4. Bush hosting the Taliban in Texas in 1995 in an effort to gain
approval for a trans-Afghanistan pipeline

5. the Unocal connection, including Karzai

6. Bush's continued support of the Taliban right up until early
September

7. the recent announcement that Unocal is, after all, going to be able
to build a pipeline across Afghanistan, now that there is an amenable
government in Kabul

8. the real question: what deal went so wrong that Bin Laden wants to
kill a lot of people for it?

No, I am not a black-helicopter conspiracy theorist, but I do read the
news from sources other than the very narrow reporting of the Washington
press corps, and I put together the pieces, and I ask questions.

Millions of other Americans are asking these questions, too, worried
about where their government is headed and why their civil rights are
being abridged. If the Dems are going to be anything other than a lapdog
for Bush and Ashcroft, they'd better start asking tough questions, as
well.

Sincerely,

Mary Grace Butler

5.14.2

a look at the (possible) self-organizing principle that may happen in the weblog world. like so many things on the web today, this involves google:

"The bloggers have the potential to do something far more original than offer up packaged opinions on the news of the day; they can actually help organize the Web in ways tailored to your minute-by-minute needs."
Salon.com Technology | Use the blog, Luke

and another google wrinkle:
net art : adwords happening

5.13.2

here's a pen and ink and watercolor i did recently while in arizona.

here's a huge and (to me) interesting site, lots of odds and ends, james hillman is highly visible, probably needs to be taken in small doses: Archetypal Psych Talk

5.10.2

had a great morning and a dark, moody afternoon. what's up? i got to thinking a little about jung's typology and the myers-briggs personality test. the personality types that jung posited are not set in concrete, and he was the first to say they represented just one useful way to look at personal temperments.

i have taken the Myers-Briggs test over a 30 year period, and the results are always the same: INFP. so what?

well "know thyself" seems to take all the time in a liftime, besides it can be kind of fun to decode this information; almost none of the attributes mean what you think they mean.

whole lot of stuff about this here: The Psychology of C.G. Jung Body and Temperament Types of W. H. Sheldon.
5.10.5

5.10a.5

new search engine; a little buggy on my system, ithe idea is to present google search results (ranked by traffic) combined with statistics on the site, plus user reviews. if the reviews catch on, that is if users take the interest and time to review the site, it might turn out in time to be interesting and maybe even useful:
Alexa Web Search - In Association with Amazon.coms

5.10.2

speaking of swarms, check this out :BioMedNet News and Comment

5.8.2

i love this kind of headline; maybe it's the use of the ex-oxymoron "swarm intelligence". my swarm intelligence reminds me that the opening line of one of tom dellilo's books is: "the future belongs to the crowd".

Swarm Music is believed to be the first application of swarm intelligence to music.

5.7.2

still don't have much to say. installed new memory in G3. took a walk and some pictures of flowers. put the 10th wash down on a watercolor. if i weren't trying to slim down the number of books to read in my old age, i'd add a bunch of these:
The Professor's Bookshelf: Recommended Reading Charles T. Tart Home Page and Consciousness Library Online

5.7.2

added a new midi file to multimedia section. my latest theory: midi files and mov files play fine on macs (via quicktime). on windows, midi files play via MS media player (altho i'm not sure what voices it uses) or some other midi internet helper app. movies play only if QuickTime is loaded (80% of PCs last count).

so maybe you want to do something collabortive with your computer. (i do). link below might do the trick, altho i'd rather my digital machine be used to predict meme patterns (or something like that).

BBC News | SCI/TECH | Worldwide weather watchers wanted

5.6.2

i'm finding it hard to write about anything because it all just seems the same. an endless wind of sameness. so i'll guess i'll do the quote thing while i'm banging out the shape of this blog.

Quotes "Memory believes before knowing remembers."
-William Faulkner

5.5.2

back home in the bunker.

thinking about how i avoid talking about the personal on this site. a virtual denmark. but maybe some sort of narritive will emerge.

this dicussed in general in interesting interview of blogger creator ev:

"And for day-to-day intelligence gathering and staying informed, amused, or even entertained, browsing a few blogs from well-informed, articulate, like-minded people who are out there finding things that may be interesting to you and commenting on them is way more efficient and rewarding than going from news site to news site."

..."Also, not being afraid to add your own personality is important. A big part of what attracts people to blogs is their personal nature, as opposed to corporate media, but some people aren't comfortable enough to let themselves show, so they tend to be less interesting than they could be."

on the other hand, there's this - seems like a joke now but might become...something new in a new world:BBC News | SCI/TECH | Here come the ratbots

5.4.2

cool. someone told me today this site was reviewed. probably he forgot address, tried search engine, and found this review.

i think it's pretty fair.

[BTW i was suppossed to review "dramimine" which i did but never put it up because of mother's death and lack of time. will fix thix.]

"thinking outloud" is i believe mentioned, and that is what i guess i am doing. not only does this demonstrate the pointlessness of thinking, but also samuel butler's quip:"life is like learning to play the violin on stage in front of a packed audience" comes to mind.

cause i don't know what this site is for. never have. just some blips off the top of my head, don't know how to document minute-by-minute life with words, more twinkle and blinkle needed to comminicate mood, perplexity, muse beyond words, cold eye on passing scene. passing very fast. sprinkle with images that have arrived from somewhere special delivery.

in arizona i hope to record my father who in mid 80's is youngest of 4 living brothers and sisters. want to talk to them all together at rosie's (the eldest) 90th birthday this december. now that would be content, because the world we each live in is in the process of dissappearing fast. whether written text can preserve part of these worlds is an open question but i like the idea of doing it just for the doing of it. (BTW our turn to lose our world is next.)

daughter nicole phoned tonight, her testimony not required till june trial rather than next week.so i'm not leaving monday for chapel hill and moral support which is a blessing. i need some free recovery minutes.

in order to keep off the streets the rest of the year my program is to 1) fix midis and quicktimes so they'll play under windows; 2) link image archive thumbnails to bigger images; and 3) watch my nails grow, watch my breath, learn some music; and 4) be ambivalant about death.

5.2.2

Modern Peasant is Back

been in arizona since the 12th of april. mom's funeral and spent some time with my father who needs a little moral support but i think he is going to be all right, has clear priorties and knows what he will have to do, for example flying again, getting out a little. he knows it will all take time.

saw lots of relatives and friends. enjoyed meeting patrick and kathy and hannah in prescott. seeing cousin joe who i see once every 15 years, hope we can make it sooner next time. pleasant visit with sister jane, husband fred and children jon and anne in phoenix. thanks much to ann and janet for a very fiendly and peaceful bar b q send off.

jet lag is a lot like confusion; something is different but i'm not sure what. above watercolor painted on dad's front porch. cold turkey on computer time but did find out that midi and quicktime i have up is not playing well at all under windows. will fix.

4.19.5

i'm in prescott az updating this thing thanks to my father's neighbors katy and patrick. i arrived last monday (i think). my mom's funeral was last thursday; it was a roman catholic service - mom converted last year - first time i have been in a roman catholic church in 30 years or so. service was very nice, preacher was great (i guess i should call him a "priest", southern roots showing).


i'm staying awhile with my dad who is doing really well under the circumstances. i'll be here until last week in april, maybe first week in may. i need to be back in chapel hill nc by the 6th of may for a trial my daughter nicole is testifying in; she needs moral support.


been trying to paint the western mountain landscape, very different than smoky mountain green. will visit some relatives in phoenix i don't see often enough before i leave. after that "the future is uncertain, the end is always near" (jim morrison). reading "the crackup" by f. scott fitzgerald. a couple of chapters in it are the best thing he ever wrote in my opinion. aftermath stuff, after it's all (almost) over. here's a sample:

"i felt; therefore i was"


not as negative in it's context, but something to think about. i'll post more about it later. gotta go now and catch a coyote.

4.7.2

Modern Peasant on Hiatus
back april 29th.

going to arizona to attend mom's funeral and spend some time with my dad. meanwhile, here's the word on my week.

i don't speak astrology, but this guy seems to hit the nail on the head quite often. rob brezsney:"free will astrokogy". i believe that dealing with the realities is a good thing to do, depending... but maybe all at the same time is not such a good idea. i also believe this is the artist's delimma.

4.4.2

Winona Parsons
my mother passed away last night. she was a unique lady. she fought cumulative heart problems right up to the end. she knew what she was up against but never gave up. may she rest in peace.

"I rise above the crescent moon to the seven stars, beyond the history of man, beyond numbers and words that bind us. From the earth I rise like a falcon of gold released from a blue egg. I fly above and below the great worlds. I take the shape of a young girl working. In my belly I carry the seed that becomes me. Praise the corn that rots and the sedge that rises. Praise the emerald heart of earth. Praise the coming and going of creatures, the constancy of the world and the word.

I come from light and to light I return. My talons grasp the ring of colors: the gold beak of dawn, the blue eye of day , the deep red blood of dusk . I rise . In truth I burst on the world like an arrow flung from darkness, sparks of fire from my forehead like burning stars streak the sky. I gather myself, thought and bone, and burst again into flight. I soar and know the god who speaks with the voice of flame.

I am one of the great ones sitting in a field of corn. I eat and I am nourished. In turn I offer myself, the bread of air, the white spirit of fire. I am a falcon of gold. I burn with a passion and lie still . I flare and smolder, live and die in a breath. I sail on gold wings that fan the blaze. I am consumed by fire. This is what I was born to do: to live, to love, to know, to change and embrace the infinite. I shall not forget my becoming."

from "awakening osiris: the egyptian book of the dead" translated by Normandi Ellis.

4.3.2

about the middle east today i'm speechless. about the citizens of the usa and israel i'm stunned. so much doublespeak. we're paying for the distruction of a people.

yesterday when i noted that bush was "a jingle a day" man, i meant that in this time of disintegrating public discourse when we could use someone like charles barkley to stand up and talk sense, we have instead president bush who seems to get programmed each day to say one snippet, slogan, glib alliterative phrase over and over and over until the next day. i'm sure his handlers are from the ad world where the same principle has been gradually eroding the minds of "the consumer" for some time now. hitler used the Big Lie. today the powers that be in the usa (and believe me, they do be) use the little, short, catchy lie repeated endlessly for a heartbeat until the next one is churned out.

have a nice day.

4.2.2

maybe i'm not seeing what is happening in the middle east clearly. to me the problem seems simple, though not the answer. a people from far away dispossess another people, takes their land, fields, and homes, and puts the inhabitants in refugee camps. they do this on the on the authority of god. the victims and fair-minded onlookers see it as unfair.

the initial dispossession is done with the help of a few powerful nation states, and the invaders are continually financed and assisted by the world's most powerful nation state.

it might be worth mentioning here something from tom friedman's book "the lexus and the olive tree":

"if you planted a tree between jerusalem and tel aviv, visit it soon. it may not be there much longer because by 2020 the area from haifa to tel aviv to jerusalem is likely to become one big, seamless urban megalopolis. israelis are building as if they lived in australia-more is better, bigger is better, wider is better. if current population trends continue, israeli, outside the negev desert, will soon be one of the most densely populated countries in the world." (p.309)

and now they finish off the refugee camps, shutting down (or worse) arafat while blaming him and his people for the whole rout. and this from the people who invented the mossad and the stern gang.

so what is absolutely the worst thing about this horrible mess? there are a lot of candidates but my vote goes to the american citizen who seems to listen to "a jingle a day" bush and beam at the atrocities being committed right now. you've heard of the "good germans" during WWII, the stable, conventional citizens who went about their business while the jews were being exterminated? the "good americans" who ignore the sordid, prolonged, and vicious treatment of a people being eradicated are much worse. the germans could not see the warsaw ghetto destruction while it was happening

enough. i'm going to go watch disneyland.

4.1.2

i'm back home and glad to be. heard via electronic grapevine that there was concern for my health because my recent posts have been so short. i'm fine. the reason posts have lacked customery incisive commentary is that i've been camped out in 4 cylinder yurt for 6 of the last 11 days (where i sketched the scene above). also engaged in a lot of projects all of a sudden:

• paint watercolor landscapes, print via giclee, sell, pay bills.
• kludging together some kind of digital recording/mixing setup, operating out of my hip pocket
• programming various little utitlities and applets using realbasic. definite challange for dyslexic like myself
• edit and print book of 150 ditties i have accumulated, later add color a la "illustrated rumi"
• finish image archive links

so tommorrow back to the digital grindstone with the question "how is rumala 2002 different from warsaw ghetto whatever year that was?"