Category: Musicness


You Leapt Into the Abyss But Find/ It Only Goes Up To Your Knees.

Filed under: Art & Literature, Musicness, Politics, Work — 4 Comments
April 9, 2013

So…today.

Today was the day that my master plan paid off.

The master plan being: Don’t worry. Don’t waste your time. And I didn’t.

Instead, I made a conscious effort to relax with breakfast and reading on the porch every day.

Today's reading material

Today’s reading material

And long walks – taking time to witness the life cycle of a pomegranate

Life Cycle of a Pomegranate, Pt. 1

Life Cycle of a Pomegranate, Pt. 1

Life Cycle of a Pomegranate, Pt. 2

Life Cycle of a Pomegranate, Pt. 2

And irony.

Sanctuary?

Sanctuary?

And Texas.

We Don't Dial 911

We Don’t Dial 911

And then, just as I was heading out the door for a meeting, the phone rang. It was The Job. I mean, not THE JOB OF A LIFETIME, but the job I’d been hoping for. Because it pays enough, and demands little, and has growth potential…if that’s what I want to do. And, frankly, I’ve had jobtopia. It was quite a coup there for a good run. I feel like I’ve had excellent job karma thus far, and I can find a way to enjoy just about any kind of work.

But it sure is nice to have it. Guaranteed. With a month to relax and REALLY enjoy before the training begins.

*Bliss*

I think I’ve done it. I think I’ve pulled off another coup.

Now I can focus on art, activism, and Education Never Ends. And maybe a nice mama retreat road trip for good measure, while I have the time.

And breathing. And walking. And being mindful of the life cycle of the pomegranate.

And listening to lots and lots of Nick Cave. Particularly Abbatoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus, like these gems:

And now…the news:

Haven’t gathered many links today, but I have some saved up…

Remember the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a circumvention of government. Its draft statement is not a product of the deliberation of U.S. legislators or apparently legislators in other countries, but of the Obama administration and representatives of deliberating nations and roughly 600 corporations. The talks are held multiple times a year and always in secrecy. Helicopters hover overhead while paramilitary teams patrol the conference grounds and a near-total media blackout ensures little is learned by anyone outside. As U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, the chair of the congressional committee that is supposed to have jurisdiction over the TPP, said in a statement to Congress:

“The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations—like Halliburton, Chevron, PhaRMA, Comcast and the Motion Picture Association of America—are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement.”

If ratified, what would the agreement do? Much in the favor of big business. Signatory nations, including Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam would agree to give “multinational corporations unprecedented rights to demand taxpayer compensation for policies they think will undermine their expected future profits straight from the treasuries of participating nations,” journalist Nile Bowie explains in CounterPunch. “It would push the agenda of Big PhaRMA in the developing world to impose longer monopoly controls on drugs, drastically limiting access to affordable generic medications that people depend on. The TPP would undermine food safety by limiting labeling and forcing countries like the United States to import food that fails to meet its national safety standards, in addition to banning Buy America or Buy Local preferences.” http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_trans-pacific_partnership_more_power_for_the_global_on_percent_20130405/

TPP has been criticised for being negotiated in secret with no drafts of the text being released to the public. In August last year, the Australian Labor Government and Opposition joined forces in parliament to vote down a motion by two Greens senators to disclose the full draft text.

Leaks of the TPP negotiation drafts suggest the treaty would contain several intellectual property law clauses, inserted after lobbying from US industry representatives, which may or may not affect local laws. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/339017,deadline-slides-for-trans-pacific-partnership-agreement.aspx

Courtesy of the Roundup, the Real News Network recently did an interview highlighting the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and the stunning implications this rarely discussed treaty would have on labor, environmental, and internet rights. TPP is the next step in expanding Corporate Power at the expense of democracy and free expression. http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/04/01/trans-pacific-paternship-targets-internet-and-labor-rights/

This:

White people who are confronted with their white privilege and the white supremacist acts they perpetuate have been known to cry, “You’re being a reverse-racist!” That is completely true: people of color have the power and control to create, perpetuate, and maintain brutal systematic reverse-racism that oppresses white people every day.  As such, we have created this handy list on how to continue this oppression. http://blackgirldangerous.org/new-blog/2012/11/27/9csnr2cmsrexpoxro1f16csj18zgcy

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Key Lime Pie

Filed under: Art & Literature, Food!, Love, Musicness, Nerdgasm, Politics — Leave a comment
April 8, 2013

It’s not spring until I listen to Key Lime Pie by Camper Van Beethoven. I was holding out in hopes of…but, no. It’s time for spring to begin.

Camper Van Beethoven - June

…and I wrote you this letter…

Weekends are sort of redundant when one is unemployed. Regardless, I had a relaxing one.

Saturday began with Bitch Magazine, coffee, and raisin bran…

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions

A trip to Vegfest, to help serve food for Unity Vegan Kitchen.

Unity Vegan Kitchen at Vegfest 2013

Unity Vegan Kitchen at Vegfest 2013

Though they didn’t need help, I was thankful for the excuse to make it out to the festival, and enjoyed some yummy food.

Chole Samosa

Chole Samosa

Accompanied a friend to The Great Outdoors, where we gawked at greenhouse flowers before he bought bags of soil for his garden.

Pitcher Plant

Pitcher Plant

Pitcher Plant 2

Pitcher Plant 2

Bougainvillea galore!

Bougainvillea galore!

Nerded out at the opening of the Hats off to Dr. Seuss exhibition with one of my very favorite superheroes…followed by dinner and giggles at surreal-0-vision.

I think this one was called

I think this one was called “Ejecting a Surly Cat.”

Sunday was about much needed solitude.

Abundance

Abundance

Manifesting the inspiration from the preceding day into art.

Yertle the Tortuga, Pt. 1

Yertle the Tortuga, Pt. 1

They Obeyed

They Obeyed

Contemplating…

Journaling…

Maintaining…

When I was working, this time of night on a Sunday was a time of mourning for the lost weekend hours. Now, I celebrate the time spent in pursuit of more esoteric goals. I am memorizing the contours of a simpler life-measuring the hours of the days and comparing them to the important things that need to fit within them. I am taking time to listen to birdsong and track the daily growth of the leaves on trees. I am paying close attention to my kinder instincts and (internally, silently) admonishing those who would wish me to be more cruel because that is what they would do. I am appreciating the fact that my child quotes Neitzsche when confronted with my angst (specifically, though paraphrased: “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”)

I am listening to Camper Van Beethoven, and welcoming spring.

❤

And now…the news:

Troubling reports continue to come in from the Pegasus Tarsands Pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas about the apparent control of the proverbial chicken coop by the foxes:

Now, Exxon is trying to limit access to the animals impacted by the tar sands crude. A wildlife management company hired by Exxon has taken over all oiled wild animal care. The company, called Wildlife Response Services, is now refusing to release pictures and documentation of the animals in their care, unless they are authorized by Exxon’s public relations department. http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2013/04/04/is-exxon-trying-to-hide-the-damage-from-their-tar-sands-pipeline-spill/

On Friday morning, Inside Climate Newsreported that an Exxon spokesperson told reporter Lisa Song that she could be “arrested for criminal trespass” when she went to the command center to try to find representatives from the EPA and the Department of Transportation. On Friday afternoon, I spoke to the news director from the local NPR affiliate who said he, too, had been threatened with arrest while trying to cover the spill. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/04/reporters-say-exxon-impeding-spill-coverage-arkansas

Thankfully, the residents of Mayflower are fighting back:

On Friday, homeowners filed a civil lawsuit against Exxon in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Arkansas Western Division. In the class action suit, homeowners said the pipeline was unsafe and its rupture hurt property values. http://thecabin.net/latest-news/2013-04-06-1#.UWJPgpPvuSr

And there are superheroes on the ground, gathering information:

Elsewhere, “an activist indy news team” duo called JNL, has been using Ustream and Twitter to report from Mayflower and interview local residents. Yesterday, they were detained by police and forced to leave private property where they were reporting from, despite having permission to be there. http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/mayflower-arkansas-lockdown-following-exxon-oil-spill.html

(sample of the coverage JNL is providing: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/30996411. You can find them here: https://twitter.com/jak_nlauren)

We have reports that because Exxon had already partially destroyed this wetland, they pumped diluted bitumen spilled in other areas here to get it all in one place and keep it out of sight of the media. We went in anyway.

This is how we comfort ourselves when we feel helpless:

An Exxon parody Twitter account is tweeting fake public relations updates about the oil company’s ruptured Pegasus pipeline, which spilled at least 84,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into residential streets in Mayflower, Ark., last week. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/exxon-fake-twitter-account_n_3024663.html

And I did a little studying up on the history of May Day, in preparation for the planning of picnic/potluckness:

Originally a pagan holiday, the roots of the modern May Day bank holiday are in the fight for the eight-hour working day in Chicago in 1886, and the subsequent execution of innocent anarchist workers.

In 1887, four Chicago anarchists were executed; a fifth cheated the hangman by killing himself in prison. Three more were to spend 6 years in prison until pardoned by Governor Altgeld who said the trial that convicted them was characterised by “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge”. The state had, in the words of the prosecution put “Anarchy is on trial” and hoped their deaths would also be the death of the anarchist idea. http://libcom.org/history/1886-haymarket-martyrs-mayday

The farmers, workers, and child-bearers (laborers) of the Middle Ages had hundreds of holy days which preserved the May Green, despite the attack on peasants and witches. Despite the complexities, whether May Day was observed by sacred or profane ritual, by pagan or Christian, by magic or not, by straights or gays, by gentle or calloused hands, it was always a celebration of all that is free and life-giving in the world. That is the Green side of the story. Whatever else it was, it was not a time to work.

Therefore, it was attacked by the authorities. http://libcom.org/history/incomplete-true-authentic-wonderful-history-may-day-peter-linebaugh

And I’m still listening to Camper Van Beethoven’s Key Lime Pie. As per tradition. ❤

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Freshly. Made. Bed.

Filed under: Art & Literature, Being Mom, Food!, Love, Musicness, Politics, Time Management, Uncategorized — Leave a comment
April 2, 2013

It’s really my favorite thing in the world. Tonight, I listened to punk rock & the rain & wrote in my journal. All in my freshly. made. bed.

❤

I also had this conversation with Cole:

Me (taking a picture of my food): I’m blogging again, which means every moment of my life is way more interesting than it actually is.

Cole: yeah, that’s pretty much blogging on a nutshell.

Image

And read several items on the internet through the day:

Time Budgeting: https://medium.com/products-i-wish-existed/4f631ebb9b80 (I’ve written about this very topic here: http://choredork.blogspot.com/ and probably other places I cannot currently find. I’ll probably write more about it in the coming weeks, as I’m earnestly looking for someone(s) to help create the product that Ev is wishing existed.)

Watching Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon do Barry and Andy Gibb, and cracking the fuck up: http://youtu.be/E7c44rtpzPg

Dreaming about a positive outcome for this lawsuit against the EPA being brought by beekeepers, environmentalists, and consumer groups.

Looking at pictures of yesterday’s Tent City Action taken by John Jack Anderson of the Chronicle.

Finally putting some information up on the Education Never Ends Facebook page.

Reliving Nick Cave.

Reading this article comparing Online learning to University, which I will probably opine about later, when I’ve set up the Education Never Ends blog. (Also, really guys? MOOCS of Hazard?)

…and the day began with a confirmed appointment with a mentor at SCORE.

Which really just proves that the following also applies to jobs:

Image

❤

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…

Filed under: Art & Literature, Being Mom, Love, Musicness — 1 Comment
November 4, 2012

How many blog posts start out with “I’m suffering from a severe case of writer’s block.” It’s like the modern day equivalent of a zinesters “Sorry this issue is late.” But it’s true in my case. I’ve been in denial that my lack of online presence has anything to do with internal factors, instead blaming it on the externals of Being Busy and Having Other Obligations.

If I’m honest, I’m not too busy. Creativity is a priority for me, so taking time to write should be part of that busy-ness. Yet, I find myself avoiding writing, both publicly and privately, even though I’m in serious need of an outlet.

Things here at the house are good, in spite of the overarching stress of an impending, potentially disruptive event. Both children are making progress towards their individual goals, and I’m doing my best to balance the needs of all of our family members with the resources available to each individual family member. I have plans in my head of perhaps traveling to New Orleans in December or January to visit a friend and get away from all of this…stuff.

In other words, we’re surviving. Sometimes thriving, sometimes not. Surviving You, Always…

Success, and Failure…

I am working on trusting myself. Assessing the damage. I’d like to assume I am bulletproof, but I am not. The other day, I surprised myself by bursting into tears, an act which used to occur far more frequently. Is it that I feel less, or that I’m better at suppressing? Has honesty become a commodity too precious for me to spare?

There’s a part of me that wants to hide…become anonymous. But there’s another part of me that says I am anonymous. If I don’t actively seek to share, no one will know I said it, and that’s fine. Those who seek me out will get what they seek.

In general, everything is fine. I’ve been playing the Sims a lot lately, attempting to exercise/exorcise my need to control by controlling my little e-families. I turned to Monk one day and said “My SIM doesn’t complain about his schoolwork.” Yes, I realize it’s ridiculous, but you do what you can. This world is a very strange place to live. This time is a very strange increment.

The writing prompt from WordPress is to write a letter to yourself at 14. I feel like I’m trying to do that in raising my children the way I am attempting to raise them. My letter would say this:

Dear L (or M…or C)…

Stop working so hard to be perfect.

None of the things you think matter matters nearly as much as you thought. And the things you think do not matter? Turns out those don’t really matter much, either.

Listen to the tao. Don’t just hear…absorb.

Be open to experiences, but maintain your distance from them. Remain critical, in a hopeful way. Trust your instincts, but please learn to differentiate instinct from fear.

Listen to punk rock.

Listen to folk rock.

Listen to the anarchists.

Read zines. Learn about community. Don’t forget, but if you do forget – you will be reminded, so don’t worry.

Don’t worry.

Live freely.

Love openly. Err on the side of kindness. It really fucking hurts to trust. I know. But trust anyway. Stay in touch with loved ones. Pay attention. STOP WORRYING. It really is true that within the margin of error and certain parameters, everything really does turn out ok. But don’t forget those who dwell outside of those parameters for whom things do not turn out ok. When taking risks, consider them, as well as yourself. Don’t confuse luck for skill. Don’t mistake circumstance for predestiny. Give more credit than you accept. Worry is negative goal setting. DON’T GET INVOLVED IN RELATIONSHIPS UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND FULLY WHAT YOU ARE GETTING YOURSELF INTO. It’s not selfish to conserve your own energy, provided you don’t make promises you can’t keep while preserving that energy. Be nice to your mama.

❤ Really think about what means the most to you & don’t let anyone interrupt or destroy those things.

And be thankful for what you’ve got…

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