It's a Shame...

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/ron-paul-nomination-reach-continues-campaign/story?id=16351827#.T7KJgO3rR0c


The above link says that Ron Paul cannot make presidential campaign. What a shame to live in a country where justice is a game! Bob Dylan wrote that. It truly is a shame to live in a pseudo-democracy who parades around the world rigging so-called free elections, and in the US elections are so rigged and fraudulent, that you can only come up with a phoney like Mitt Romney. Why should anyone even take the time to vote? There has never been one candidate in my lifetime who was decent. To continue voting perpetuates the falsehood that the citizen vote can actually make a difference. It cannot. If you give me a choice between two things I can't stand; like rap music versus Justin Bieber why should I go through the charade of choosing? So between President Obama and Romney, why should I choose. It is a facade. In fact, the kind of men who run for political office are never the kind of men who are really qualified to lead. Democracy is a joke, either way you lose.

Belgian Sketch circa 1990

                       

Here is a sketch I recently discovered in an old book from the days in Belgium, and I added some color to it!

Forest Song

Late Spring’s tributaries are muddy encasements

joining into a larger stream, 

following its source

the forest song 

murky stream murmuring

the sharp whistle of wood thrush

diaphanous light filtering into the canopy 

lime-yellow shining!

I am listening to the forest song

and all that it tells me is ancient and perduring.

Kneeling on the rusty yellow Winter mosses

shielding new red sprouts and tendrils;

lone hanging oak limb

pale buds silhouette the setting sun,

mist on steely grey Glendale.

The song of ripples and wavelets

soothes me in rhythmic caresses.

Giving praise to God in all things, 

worshipping the beauty of the Lord

in this Springtime kingdom;

shining and opening before me

envelops my musing 

gives me a sweet new song. 

Stalker: by Andrei Tarkovsky

The Stalker---what an incredibly rich and original person! I love the film more each time I see it. The 'zone' is completely relevant in the context---the film's theme grows more poignant as we advance into the 21st century. He is the priest of our time!

Ian Anderson (finally) Plays w/Justin Hayward!

Forever Autumn at Canterbury Cathedral

Rob E. Rooster

Here is the rooster that has taken to visiting my porch. He enjoys the bird feed and cracked corn---what a beauty! 

Glendale-Gopala Krishna

Muskrat Beach-Glendale

I returned today to Glendale to find that the water level has been restored to its pre-autumn level. There was ice today and a biting wind, a feeling of vitality, the cold wind biting... 

We Miss You JoePa! 1926-2012

Joe Paterno Vigil

As Megan states in this video Joe Paterno was a "class act"---and in a total sense. The tragic end of this great man full of virtue was fouled upon by the Penn State Board of Trustees. 

Johnny Cash Covers Neil Young's Pocohontas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRoGr24KWyo&feature=related

Happy New Year 2012--- Delve into Twelve!

The year is off to a good start. I feel that this year is about clarity and manifestation; clarity in self acceptance and manifestation in clarifying my desires precisely, visualizing them and allowing them to come into focus.

Portlandia

I discovered my Portlandia files written in the '90s: poetry et al. and I will type a section here: Hornblowing squealing out of rhythm/ warm breeze blowing over. A drunk lays on top of his radio, passed out not a half block from the parade. Everett is the beginning/ fat sticked snare drummers/ electric bassplayers with their amps on rollers---Nerf footballs in the air. Energy building in the last few minutes before the parade begins. We got casualties and statistics/we got flowersellers and ice cream vendors and Burger King overflowing. We got authorities on the streets and in cars/ we got pillow-lined curbs and runners/we got skaters and fags and dragqueens/we got streetpeople, bag ladies and young families. There are little ones and fat ones and old ones and lovers. There are flagwavin' balloon wavin' color bedecked plastic toys wavin'. There's walking down the middle of streets, walking on sidewalks, steppin' on toes and walkin' between... There's folks on trucks propped up/there's music players in costume---red and white and black all shiny and new. They were drinking coffee and coke, and beer and fruit drinks---eatin' fruit bars and candy---everybody getting ready for the parade. Leaning on walls crazy bastards screaming..too many runners running. Sure as hell if I ain't part of it....

The Cars perform "don't cha stop" live. enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhdddmLnBe0

Van Morrison Live

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/van-morrison/video/caravan_-409168056.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20111123video

Buns and Chou Chou: American Idol

http://www.youtube.com/user/bunsandchouchou#p/u/7/BSoEXCj4EVE

Buns and chou Chou

http://www.youtube.com/user/bunsandchouchou#p/u/4/uwUY3MmHmJM

Buns and Chou Chou

http://www.youtube.com/user/bunsandchouchou#p/u/5/_6DxffYN8I8

Buns and Chou Chou: Rabbit Bites

http://www.youtube.com/user/bunsandchouchou#p/a/u/1/uQ3FH07gB-I

Like a Rolling Stone Jam Session

This video includes Al Stewart on vocals, and Dave Nachmanoff on keys, and others.

http://www.youtube.com/user/davenach?feature=grec_index#p/f/5/QQDNDptPcjo

How I Think: Debate with Richard Dawkins

Here is a photo of Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and well known proponent of atheism.

I agree with Dawkins on so many things---natural selection, the preponderance of religious myth and its destructive role in American intellectual life, particularly with Christianity. It is simply anti-intellectual.

I am also anti-religious and I agree with Christopher Hitchens as well as Dawkins that the world would be a much saner and safer place without religion, especially Christianity. However, I am still a theist in that I understand that the entire universe is based upon a 'god' particle, if you will.

I say 'god particle' because I do not want to mythologize 'god' as the great religions have done. To my way of thinking, the essential point about god is that god is incommunicable, ineffable and radically mysterious in a natural sense. That is to say of all the natural species, there is a species which is not natural which makes possible for the coming to into being of other species---it resembles Aristotle's 'unmoved mover(s)'.

This god species or particle is entirely simple and underlies every complexity in the universe---for example if a physicist discovered the most simple particle that composes the material universe, this is the direction we are looking in. Even though the universe may have begun in a simple unified singularity and then moved in a direction of complexity, this point is unchanging, always the same. As in music, a wonderful chord from which all complexity (nature) springs forth and into which all nature falls home. Further this integral is continuously present to every point in the universe as its origin.

There is more to write but I leave it for another day...

enjoy the slide show

https://picasaweb.google.com/crunchkin9/Crunchkin?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLPgMTfstupzwE#slideshow/5060541178159993906

Gopala Krishna/Muskrat Beach

http://www.youtube.com/user/apokalupsis3#p/a/0/tkPxqwWWEJI

Justin Hayward Solo VH1

I find this performance (two songs) to be truly inspired music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZTHjbjO43E&feature=related

Conversations with a Rabbit

Portland Art Museum--July 2011 Class on Heidegger

L.to.R: Sarah, Stephanie, Pete, Greg

Arts Fest 2011

Gnome Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IMjGdk4LJU&feature=related

Bunny Cafe in Tokyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOPFvrFSQ3Q&feature=related

Bunny Cafe in Tokyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOPFvrFSQ3Q&feature=related

Al Stewart Show in Harrisburg-Whitaker Center: 2-01-11

Al Stewart (with Dave Nachminoff) surpassed my expectations. I had seen Al Stewart back in the day with his band in Seattle. After the Seattle show, I actually met Al Stewart and Dave Mason (who was touring with Al Stewart and His band. It was not as early as "Year of the Cat"---No, this concert must have been in the early '80s, perhaps 1983. I recall all of this in detail. There are many stories to relate concerning that show, however, let us not linger too far from last night's show!

The last time I saw the rhyme master, Al Stewart, was in a much smaller club though still in Seattle. He may have done "Roads to Moscow" at that show, though my memory be soft (pints of strong british beer!!). And he did not do "Roads " in Harrisburg, but he truly mesmerized my musical sense. A reward of last night's show at the Sunoco Performance theatre was the mystical Scotsman's verbal genius. In between songs Mr. Stewart often spoke of historical figures, battles, as if he were a gifted schoolteacher.

Have a look at the poster I bought last night----it is quite a work of art. The poster is called "Sgt. Al" as a spoof on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Here we are above the Columbia River Gorge!

Having an excellent year so far. Much planned for the New Year.

Hopefully more incredible, magic trips like the one Mary Frances and I made out to see Tee (in picture) and all of my Portland family which was a total blast--Hi Tai, Hey Donald!)

The news is bizarre as of late---"bombs away but we're OK."

Wish everyone a great Year and remember: HAVE A BLAST.

Hogue Road Carrolltown

Going Back to the Family

Jethro Tull: Going Back to the Family

Enjoy!!!!

Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull: Skating Away on the thin Ice of a New Day

Kokopeli Project 6

Kokopeli Project 6

Kokopeli Project 4

Kokopeli Project 3

Kokopeli Project 2

Kokopeli Project 1

An eastern cottontail in my little garden!

My Latest Blog!

http://firewheelstudio.blogspot.com/

The House Band (Altoona); Live at Family Pizza

Randy Jackson, guitar-prs

P, Wolf, congas

Live Acoustic Gig at Starbuck's 2-13-10

Live acoustic guitar!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ6u2XA3ox0

Poet of the Mean Streets

poetry scraped off
the soles of my keds while walking down Mr. Mean street...

We, too, are spoken into the world

Held always in Your hand---
the hand that holds being in the void.
Time trickles drop by drop.
I hear each drip and the slow measure of space falling in between another day.

Beauty, manifest at the edges surrounding each created thing.
the entire world held together is artwork too exquisite to tell.

We, too, are spoken into the world all at once, not appended,
but consummated and spoken in symphony.
To perceive anything at all means that we have already grasped the ensemble of all things.
So that this green frog might leap out and come to be.
A whole universe must appear just so this little frog may be!

New Psalm

My Lord, My God!
This love I have for you is immense. It fills me up.
I want to shout it from the highest mountain and plunge it into the deepest blue sea!
I want to wave it as a banner for all the world to see.
In the wee hours of the morning when your Spirit guides my thoughts---
I find you in my waking.

In love with you, every lover's face or hand I felt,
is so once more. Just a glance from You sends me reeling.
How I want to see you and know you and be with you forever!

I was broken and Had given up living---my life and dreams tossed to the side, every moment of life became a total chore. Hiding from th0se who loved behind a locked door.
When You came and knocked at first I turned astray.
How could I let myself be seen such a broken and sorry state?
Whatever I had earned through my wanton will I ascribed to my deserved fate.

Yet your rays of light were not entirely obscured though my window shades and shudders were pulled tight.
Day unto day I let the world slip away, submerged beyond the glory of Your day.

A single ray of light can magnify into a streaming flow, a tiny whispering word can echo majestic choir above and below.

Seeds of Your love mixed into weeds and trash took root in my rocky heart---
grasping, reaching, growing climbing to the height of my thought and filling my soul with knowing.

Then I found You were not so far away or hidden,
but answering each of my heart's silent prayers.
You answered me and sent a Shepherd to rescue my soul.
Amazing Grace filled my deepest yearning and prepared my soil for the Savior's dear cross.
The Redeemer's healing blood wetted the dry, thirsty rocks, seeping into my veins and capillaries, pulsing toward my broken heart.

It was then that I awoke to Your mighty love--
Love exceeding fleshly caress,
Love exceeding glistening eyes
and the beauty of a smile
Love surpassing earthly trial.

I love you now dear Lord as I have always loved you
as you have always loved me from out of the darkest hours of sin.
Drowning, you came into my life and set me free.

I love you Jesus---
as I love all of the creatures that share in Your life;
I love Your streams and high mountain pastures;
Love Your oceans and lush valleys;
I love all that lives in You---
winds and stars and fish!

When the enemy siezes me I reach out to You and You are there,
though I am held captive Your light is a steady candle to beckon me home.
In the dawn of a new day
I am healed and life seems worth living once again.
You are there in all of these transformations. ("I will be with you always---even until the end of time." "What has been is now.")

Great Film!

http://www.viddler.com/explore/ConspiracyFact/videos/73/

Muskrat Beach Video

http://www.youtube.com/user/apokalupsis3#play/all/uploads-all/0/tkPxqwWWEJI

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