12.17.2

just got up. still cannot post to this extravaganza. going to bed at 8-9, my rule for waking up is if NPR is on the radio it's 5 AM or after so i'm up. before than the BBC is on and i just roll over. i seem to be in the midst of reconnecting with quite a crew of old old friends but my web site is stuck in prescott az. can't update it - yet.

this is the first year in many years, maybe 15, that i haven't made my own xmas cards.

m,lkj <=== from my kat miss kitty.

1`2.16.2

maaan i'm tired. so tired. i wanna go to bed. but...
to be continued

12.13.2

ok i am back in aville but due to incredibly complicated server migration i cannot FTP to this blog, therefor you cannot see this posting. right now. soon, i'm told.

so i'm just going to keep on posting and someday you'll see this.

within the month most likely i'll have redesigned site somewhere else, will keep you posted.

i figured out this AM that i was home a total of 6 or 9 days - i forget - during nov 12 - dec 12. some hard traveling, esp with 3 fractured ribs. had a nice civil thanksgiving with the aycocks and 3 children, 1 grandchild.

this was the first thanksgiving in many years that we did not gather at sally's, my ex-wife and children's mother. she passed away last january. so it was especially kind for the aycock's to have us over. no fiends like old friends. [typo - i'll leave it in.]

then i spent some time at the Meher Spiritual center in myrtle beach SC. while i was there i found a st christopher medal that i had lost. it was the only piece i have of my mother's, and they were getting ready to take contents of lost and found box to goodwill the same day i started looking. i feel good about wearing this medallion around my neck because i remember it hanging from rear view mirror as a kid, and 6 months at the center comes with some blessing i am sure.

more about trip later, especially as you won't see this until later.

meanwhile a little bit about my latest obsession - one of the few artists of the century who i would put in the same league as picasso, bob dylan, ricci (the director of koyonaskatsi). on the list of links to the left click on ken nordine - wordjazz, and listen to the first 30 minute radioshow. yes, 30 minutes, the same time wheel of jeapordy takes.

12.11.2

Back in Aville

12.4.2

i am in prescott arizona at the public library. totally unable to access email. my ISP, ioa.com must be in terminal stages of tech implosion and i will be changing all this when i return home. so if you are emailing me, i haven't gotten it yet.

i hear big ice storm is hitting western carolina. hope my cat doesn't freeze.

headline on phoenix paper this am:

CIA can kill bad guys
or something like that. and bad guys, as i understand it, are decleared to be bad by prez. can't blame republicans, they are just doing what they've always done, whatever they can get away with. the democrats are clones. blame the public, you and me, for letting this fantasy continue. or don't because we are anesthetised:

just say "numb".

11.27.2

We're Gone for Two WeeksIt's a mean looking gray day, snowing somewhere nearby. i'm entering the Dysfunctional Holiday Zone in a few minutes. the road. won't be back until around dec. 12, so of course Modern Peasant will be hibernating, approximating homeostasis for a short spell.

11.26.2

i dunno if it's the changing seasons, weather or light, my internal biorythms are changing from getting up at 5 or 6 to (lately) 10 or 11.

today i'll pack and load truck. i am going to make an effort to reallytravel light.

and don't forget what's upon us right now: in addition to everything we know wobbling around, there is this: (i wonder if you can get a t shirt from them?)
Wired News: You Better Shop Around -- Not!

11.25.2

Lagoon Boathouse
running around trying to get packed and ready for 2 week trip to chapel hill, warrington NC, and tucson az.

11.24.2

just finished a small volume of paintings and some very interesting commentary by lyn ott, In Quest of the Face of God. i met lyn in the 60's, and am thankful for the conversations i had with him. he died a while back. in some ways his paintings have become part of my universe. he was a painter who lost his sight.

"Man has no real work. He is at best a pilgrim on his way to the beloved. His only task is the quest for the face of god. All real work is done by the father, the creator of all that is. Man makes his work as the imitation of the creator.This imitation becomes the reflection of the creator. Being the reflection, it pleases the creator, and that act of pleasing is called Art."

11.22.2

Nov. 22 - anniversary of kennedy assassination. watched Washington week in review, and the panel members recalled their memories of that day, or ""where were you when...?"

where they were was grade school, grades 3 through 6 I think. once more I was floored by time's time. personally I can hardly remember grades 3 -6, only an image here and there, a few events in a small world.

Nov. 22 '62 I was in Paris, France with a Swedish girlfriend named "Gabrielle", she was 19, and an American acquaintance, jack smith. jack was from Wyoming and his father was a banker who had made him a banker. he was maybe 35. he had taken a sabbatical from the bank biz to "find himself", which involved learning French and how to smoke kif. we all 3 lived in Tours and studied at a small institute there. we were in Paris for the weekend, about 2 1/2 drizzly hours in a deux-chevaux.

we had just been to a concert at a small theater, string quartet. after the concert, walking down the crowded streets - must have been 9 PM or thereabouts, we all noticed a man walking towards us holding an open newspaper in front of him and reading it. the front page appeared to be all white space with a huge centered headline:

KENNEDY
ASSASINE

(imagine a whatchamacallit accent over the final "E").

it was such a strange layout that we managed fairly easily to regard it as one of those joke newspapers where you can roll your own. about 45 minutes later we knew it was real.

stayed up all night wondering around and wondering what was happening. two incidents stand out. one was we were eating soup in les halles when this party of 4 to 6 rich texans were seated nearby. they were loaded and loud and you couldn't help but hear them. they had just arrived from USA that day and were laughing and joking about Kennedy's death. making toasts. honest.

the second was about 5 in the am when we were accosted by a drunk Frenchman who was some kind of communist and wanted to fight. with that exception all the French were stunned and sad. draped notre-dame in black. watched the funeral parade on black and white TV in shop window. crying in cafes and bars.

end of story. now for something totellment differant:

The critical flaw in the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), which provide database access for Windows software platforms, can enable an attacker to run any code, gain control of networked databases and possibly use hijacked machines to launch denial-of-service attacks.
MS Patches Windows Flaw, But IE Hole Still Gapes

11.21.2

here is most of the story of my present condition. last week i drove to chapel hill for my grand daugter lily's 5th birthday. she showed me 3 brand new kittens tucked away with mother kat in the laundry room. it was kind of tight in there, and i lost my balance, fell against the sharp corner of a wooden shelf. thought i might have bruised ribs so i put ice on it.

in the morning i drove to myrtle beach to the Baba center for some rest, relaxation, and contemplation. got lost on the way and had a tough time with the steering wheel. i gave it a few days and it just got worse, to the point of had to sleep in a chair.

so i turned myself in to a walk-in medical clinic where x-rays revealed i had 3 cracked ribs. some pain medication and an extra day or two, then made the long drive back across SC to aville NC - home. barbar k., who also was visiting the center needed a ride because she had her car totaled by 18 wheeler at the gate.

moral of story? still working on that.

11.19.2

painted last week
good to be back home. i'm about halfway through God Speaks by Meher Baba. i promised myself i would read it this year. i guess i'll finish it in time. also promised myself i'd read the bible but - oops - i'm only a couple of books into the old testament. also reading sex ecology and spirituality by ken wilber. 800 pager i think.

the rest of the week will be tech stuff: need to get quadra 650 up and running, install new modem. finish an old watercolor with water-soluable oils. and on and on.

and on.

meanwhile here's a bit of good news for wintel users:
First Virus Unable To Spread Through Microsoft Outlook

11.18.2

ok it's monday, i'm back in town. funny things going on with ISP, will straighten them out tommorrow when i can think straight - i hope. i'll be switching the location of this site, stay tuned.

my trip: fractured 3 ribs looking at grandaughter lily's new kittens. pleasant and productive time at Meher center. it rained so i couldn't do watercolors. discovered camper leaks a little so must get out the old caulk gun.

got a 450 page manuscript from jeff w. which i'll be laying out for pre-press, 100's of photos to scan etc. friend barbara k. totaled her car, she's ok, delayed return a day to give her a ride back to aville.

also got a xerox copy of book, out of print, which old friend dick anthony co-wrote with ken wilber - (thanks heddie).

tommorrow will begin process of transferring site, if i can untangle the switch my ISP has already begun.

meanwhile for those of you who suffer the new universal condition of insomnia, this might help:
insomniacs home page

11.12.2

modern peasant will be out of town
back next monday

11.10.2

it's sunday and i went to church. at least i think it's a church, better known as friend's meeting - quakers. i've been trying to make a sunday sevice for weeks now, attracted by the idea of no preaching, no ranting, no polite protestant homilies.

i really liked it and will be making it part of my weekly routine. the 45-55 minutes of silent contemplation went by in a flash. silence is so quiet.

interesting observation pointed out to me by marsha in myrtle beach. i haven't looked at the rest of the stuff at this site, but this piece is very much influenced by ken wilber, who is well worth checking into:
Paradigms and the Power of Vertical Thinking by Tom Russell

11.7.2

i took the redo of the picture below away. i couldn't see which one was the real one until this am. sometimes artists wobble.

about the 'lection: i was disappointed, had hoped that somehow bush and friends would have failed at fooling the pipple, but noooooo... didn't happen.

what has happened is i believe a sort of "official" stamp on the 50/50 grouping of the pipple. this has been brewing since last election, "the nation is divided down the middle" etc.

divided into what? right-wing conservitive ideologues who have never read calhoun or pitt. conventional. they like a figurehead who reflects their feelings on emotions, image and style - appearence - as litmus test for leadership. they think of the family unit as the basic social building block - and yet their vicious darwinian economics only let's the wealthy easily maintain the family. looked up to are the "movers and shakers". they have very little feel for the marginalized, in fact do not recognize or see them.

the other 50% are "left-wing liberals". for over half the elections i have voted in, this description has been the kiss of death. as it was this week. big government that helps the needy, suspicious that the role of business is to make money for the few. maybe making a fetish out of "diversity" when it only exists in the social realm and is fast disappearing in the mental realm.

personally i think we are lucky that the split is 50-50. it at least means no one will be knocking on my door in the middle of the night. yet.

i have recently instituted a custom in my house which keeps me aware of this split. in the living room NPR plays softly on the radio, reasonable discussions on little known phenomena, a slightly raised level of discourse. in my work room - refuse to call it an "office" - the am radio crackles with a whole host of talk shows lorded over by curdled, indignant, self-styled right-wingers, whose manner is vitriolic and superior.

and to think this division is obsolete, anachronistic, shallow, and has very little to do with the way we experience life today.

11.4.2

i'm inside a booth. a cold sensitive tooth. i think i have to vote. someone left a note.

11.3.2

midterm elections crescendo. the winter of our disconnect. politics = entertainment. public discouse captured by a �circle-the-wagons� mentality.

more and more build-up of the false domain, the place where nobody really lives. ads etc. first election cycle about absolutely nothing, i mean nothing in the absolute sense. all of the "issues" and "white papers" and "polls" and "debates" are patently unreal. or not real enough - (read "the image" by boorstein).

don't get me wrong: i'm going to vote: straight democratic as a protest to the invisible transfer of power - psuedo coup d'etat - taking place right now. we don't know about it because it's a aecret.

we do know madonna's current breast size. we know oj was guilty.

the domain of the conventional public known things is under no one's control right now. anyway not mine.

so the conversation about this world is not an easy or comfortable one, and there is that constant thought: politics isn't worth it - or i'm too busy to vote.

which i am. i only vote as a ritual, an obeiscence towards the time we used to talk.

10.32.2

email fowarded by tucker:

----------------------------------------->

"October 30, 2002

To: Charlton Heston, President, NRA
From: Michael Moore, Winner, NRA Marksman Award
Subject: Your Visit to Tucson Today in the Wake of Another School Shooting

Dear Mr. Heston:

When you showed up in Denver to hold your pro-gun rally just days after the
massacre at nearby Columbine High School, the nation was shocked at your
incredible insensitivity to those who had just lost loved ones.

When you came to Flint to hold another rally in the months after a 6-year
old boy shot a 6-year old girl at a nearby elementary school, the community
was stunned by your desire to rub its face in its grief.

But your announcement that you are on your way to Tucson today, just 48
hours after a student at the University of Arizona shot and killed three
professors and then himself, to hold ANOTHER big pro-gun celebration --
this time to get out the vote for the NRA-backed Republican running for
Congress -- well, sir, I have to ask you: Have you no shame?

I am asking that you not go to Tucson today. Do not cause any more grief,
any more pain. Let the relatives and friends of the deceased mourn. Why
show up to play the role of the bully, kicking these good people when they
are down, just so you can prove that you have a right to your big, bad
guns? These are not the actions of a once brave and decent man. They are
the acts of a coward, as no man of courage would think of picking on his
fellow citizens when they are so consumed with tragedy.

Obviously, you couldn't care less. Because to you, The Gun is supreme --
and wherever it is used to kill multiple people (preferably at a school),
there shall we find you gloating about some misbegotten right you think you
have to own a device that is designed to eliminate human life.

Well, Mr. Heston, this time I think you have crossed the line. I hope that
your efforts as a gun supremacist -- you are now, I understand, in the
middle of a 12-state tour to help elect Republicans -- backfire on you in
the surest way that it can: total rejection of you, the NRA, and the
candidates you back come next Tuesday. The American people have had enough.


To the people of Tucson and the students at the University of Arizona, I am
so sorry for the tragedy you have suffered, and I feel terribly sad that
you will have to endure the sight of Charlton Heston and his gun nuts
today. Take some solace in knowing that your fellow Americans by an
overwhelming margin want tough gun laws -- and that the day of obtaining
them is not far away. There is one small way to make sure Heston and the
NRA are stopped in their tracks -- just check out the website of the man
(http://www.grijalva2002.com/) they have come to Tucson to defeat. Let them
pack their guns -- we will pack the polls!

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mike@michaelmoore.com"

10.30.2

found this in a water color magazine:

"the 20th century is, among other things, the Age of Noise...spoken or printed, broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy has one purpose - to prevent the will from ever achieving silence. desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illuminatiiion. the condiition of an expanding and technologically progressive system of mass production is universal craving. advertising is the organized effort to extend and intensify the workings of that force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the greatest obstacle between the human soul and it's divine ground."

aldous huxley in 1946.

oops gotta go the telephone is ringing.