musings on life

Dear Sir Obama: Presidential Advice

2009-01-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

By JORY JOHN
Published: New York Times, January 15, 2009

Every day after school about 65 children come to our center to get help with their homework. The place is always vibrant, but on Nov. 5, 2008, the 20 tutors in the room essentially played zone defense to keep things in order. For the students, the election of Barack Obama had overturned their world.

The children had been interested in the election all year but few of them, truth be told, really thought Mr. Obama would be elected. When he won, their talk quickly and excitedly turned to what would happen next.

We decided to channel this energy into a writing assignment. We asked our students — not just those in San Francisco, but ones in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles; New York; and Seattle — to offer their thoughts, hopes and advice to Mr. Obama in handwritten letters (many of which came with drawings). These were two letters that particularly caught my attention.

Dear President Obama,
Here is a list of the first 10 things you should do as president:
1. Fly to the White House in a helicopter.
2. Walk in.
3. Wipe feet.
4. Walk to the Oval Office.
5. Sit down in a chair.
6. Put hand-sanitizer on hands.
7. Enjoy moment.
8. Get up.
9. Get in car.
10. Go to the dog pound.
— Chandler Browne, age 12, Chicago

1. Make everyone read books.
2. Don’t let teachers give kids hard homework.
3. Make a law where kids only get one page of homework per week.
4. Kids can go visit you whenever they want.
5. Make volunteer tutors get paid.
6. Let the tutors do all the thinking.
7. Make universities free.
8. Make students get extra credit for everything.
9. Give teachers raises.
10. If No. 4 is approved, let kids visit the Oval Office, but don’t make it boring.
— Mireya Perez, age 8, San Francisco

Jory John, program director at 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center, is the editor of the forthcoming “Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: A Collection

Let the Right One In

2009-01-06T14:59:00.001-08:00

One Sunday morning at 11:00 am I attended the Brattle theatre’s Eye Opener series to watch Let the Right One In. I knew I would not like it. I only went for the free breakfast and to support the group; it would not kill me to stay 30 minutes. When 30 minutes was up I thought hum! I can stay another 20 minutes it’s not a bad movie. I ended up watching the entire movie and loving it; what a surprise! I then read the book from beginning to end in three days; that also was thrilling.

It is a great vampire and coming of age film and beautifully filmed in Sweden. It stays true to the book while leaving out a complete chunk around Eli’s so called father. I think this was a problem but understand that it would have made the film run well over two hours.

Oskar is a 12 year old fragile and very anxious boy that is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates. He seems to have no friends until he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him with her father. She is a pale, serious young girl or is she? She/it/he only comes out at night and doesn’t seem affected by the freezing temperatures. Coinciding with Eli’s arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders. One man is found tied to a tree, another frozen in the lake, a woman bitten in the neck.

Being a vampire movie, Blood is the common thread - and for an introverted boy likes Oskar, who is fascinated by gruesome stories, it doesn’t take long before he figures out that Eli is a vampire. But by now a subtle romance has blossomed between Oskar and Eli, and she gives him the strength to fight back against his aggressors. Oskar becomes increasingly aware of the tragic, inhuman dimension of Eli’s plight, but cannot bring himself to forsake her. Frozen forever in a twelve-year-old’s body, with all the burgeoning feelings and confused emotions of a young adolescent, Eli knows that she can only continue to live if she keeps on moving. But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can… and what an end it is; wow!!

Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing and darkly atmospheric, yet poetic and unexpectedly tender tableau of adolescence. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is based on the best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

One Week to Go: Uprising or Celebration

2008-12-31T06:37:00.000-08:00

In 2009 I look forward with great joy to a new president and the hope that Congress gets its act together to support him in producing a new look and feel for our country.

Today's New York Times op ed suggested that we should have an uprising against the outgoing president. Because "this is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job." Check out the entire piece at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/opinion/30herbert.html?th&emc=th

The damage is done, the media do not even talk about him anymore, and our lasting image of him is OF the Iraqi journalist who throw a shoe at him; an apt visual for all that went wrong during his administration over the past eight years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3Z_Kskl_U

And so, I wonder do we show our anger (after all he was voted in despite his ineptitude or do we celebrate a new beginning?)

As the weeks wear on I constantly find pictures of Obama coming into my head and think how goal orientated he was and his "yes we can" has turned in my head to "Just do It." So America, lets get on with our lives, even though we are broke we can still make significant changes to our environment and lives we just have TO DO IT!

What are YOU afraid of?

2008-12-30T12:24:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed lately that so many more people seem to be more afraid now than 20 years ago? Your friends and family are constantly warning you against “life” and when you ask them where they got that idea from it will generally be the news. I myself don’t watch TV and I suggested that they did not either. My fear factor has not changed one bit since my teens. This week in two different journals I found the answer to why fear is on the increase.

In the Fall 2008 issue of The Berkeley-based literary magazine Threepenny Review http://www.threepennyreview.com/current.html they published the proceedings of a symposium they held on the subjedt of fear. A portion was reprinted in the Utne Reader magazine www.Utne.com. In a nutshell it said that the “example rule,” dictates that the easier it is to gin up a memory of something, the more likely it is to be a repeat threat. This worked well before the advent of TV but now we are being bombarded constantly with pictures of plane crashes, superbugs, and child abductions; faced with related decisions, our guts are now make the decidedly wrong decisions. Utne printed three favorite moments from the symposium and I have reduced it to one because each time I read it, it makes me smile and that is what I like to do.

“If I’m tempted to boast that I have no fear that is not because I am fearless by nature, more that I have almost never found myself in situations in which I have had any need of fear…I’ve had no experience of loss. My parents are both in the 80s and still going strong. Also, since I don’t have – and never want to have – any children, I am not prey to the parental terror that they will be snatched any (by pedophiles, illness, or accident) without warning. …So there’s been no grief in my life, only a massive amount of irritation, and I suspect there is a relation between this and living without fear. To put it simply, I’ve just been too childishly pissed off, frustrated, and enraged to feel fear.”
Geoff Dyer, British author of But Beautiful, among other books.

The other article was in the Ode Magazine blog “Avoid Mental Toxins for 2009“
http://www.odemagazine.com/exchange/4208/avoid_mental_toxins_for_2009
In the same vein as Utne Reader they say that “Sadly, the news and media these days are flooding the airwaves with negative, anxiety and fear-producing stories. While it is important to know what is happening, I would strongly suggest being careful about taking in too much of that fear and negativity. It can be bad for your health.”

Hear! Hear! Do something positive in the New Year, skip television and volunteer at a shelter (human or animal), work with kids, help the environment, work at your church, or just meditate. Remember it is important to be in sync with the Rhythm of Life. Happy New Year

Mr. Meow Meow 1996-2008

2008-12-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Mr. Meow Meow had to be put to sleep on Friday December 5th. Fortunately he was only sick for one week; the diagnosis was chronic pancreatic disease. He did not respond to treatment and his daily blood results were deteriorating rapidly so there was no point in continuing. Thank goodness I had the courage to listen to my cat who was telling me it was time to go. A small point I would like to make is that the vet was not much help to me in making the decision. It seems that they just like to keep trying even and no want to give up.

Sometimes life works in peculiar ways those. Two weeks prior I had taken in two foster cats from an animal hoarder’s house. One of these cats was perhaps the most frightened cat that I had ever met in my life. It took two weeks to get him to come from under the sofa. He hadn’t eaten for days. Now he is acting more like a normal cat and has even learned to play with a ball. I think he is well on his way to recovery. So while I mourn by beloved Meow Meow, I was able to help another cat overcome his abject fear and have him ready to move on to his forever home.

His ashes will be spread around his garden in the spring time. Goodbye Meow Meow I miss you! Thank you for being the cat you were.

Brother, can you spare a Dime?

2008-12-19T17:13:00.000-08:00

We live in the world's richest state and we are befuddled, numb, angry and hungry. In fact 30 millions folks are getting food stamps. How did this happen?

It isn't often that I read a piece of journalism that resonates as much as this piece in the Guardian Weekly December 19, 2008. Ed Pilkington reminds me how important journalists are in geting out the information that we need to know and not what corporations dictate. Lets hope that after the technology shake out that they bounce back in a different medium.

Please check out his article on a week in the U.S. economy that we wish had not happened. The only difference between this soup kitchen picture and the line today is that women and children have joined it. I guess this is what happens when the foxes watch the chickens. It is sad that "Brother can you spare a dime" is as true today as it was in the 1930s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU

http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=866&catID=17

Parrot Snatched from the Tarmac

2008-12-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

A Story about an African Parrot

The New York Times “books of the year” includes a book called Alex and Me by Irene Pepperberg. In the first few pages you will realize how much Ms. Pepperberg and the African Grey had bonded. It is a very interesting book and one that I would recommend any bird/animal lover will want to read. But this story is not about Alex but about another African Grey.

Back in the early 1970s, during Idi Amin’s campaign against Asians in Uganda, households and their animals fled to whereever they could for safety. Pilots from the East African Airways would fly in and literally grab whatever was on the runway and take off without ever turning their engines off. One day an African Grey was rescued from the tarmac and made it to London at the beginning of the winter season. Since no one would take him in I did even though I was scared of parrot like birds.

To make a long story short, he was not happy, his feathers began to molt and he looked very sad and never said a word. I tried leaving music on for him to no avail. Then I tried leaving the heat and the music on and still no luck Then I went to Harrods department store who are suppose to know everything about everything and I came back with guaranteed parrot food mix; that did not work either. What was I going to do, he was almost bald now. Perhaps he needed to fly a bit! So I let him out of the cage without any thought of how I would get him back in again. That was a disaster. I tried throwing (from a distance) a large sheet over him so I could than capture him! I guess that God gave birds’ wings so they can evade such primitive efforts of capture. Each time the sheet landed on him he flew from underneath the sheet and squawked and squawked. I think he had a grand old time. I went to bed exhausted. The bird was free and he celebrated by pooping everywhere.

Four weeks later the owners arrived in the UK. They were conservative Hindus. They gratefully took back their parrot and immediately fed him green chilies; this is what the bird was missing and definitely not on the Harrods menu of bird feed. But then, much to my astonishment and shame the bird began to talk. He spoke every bad thing I had said about it along with all the swear words I spoke in frustration because he would not eat.

How you Can do to Help:
Never get an animal that you keep in a manner they need to live a comfortable life.

Sponsor a parrot at Best Friends Parrot Garden

Sarah Palin

2008-11-16T17:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks couldn't help posting this. Dick Cavett is so funny!

http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/?th&emc=th

Sarah Palin: New York Times Nov 8, 2008

2008-11-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

Wel I know that I had removed all stories on the Republican run for presidency but I think this story in the New York Times needs our attention. While I did not think Sarah Palin was suitable as VP of our country that does not mean she should be treated this way. Even if she lobbied for the job, which I don't believe she did, she was picked by John McCain. So that is where the buck stops. She certainly gave him the initial boost that he needed. Would he have done better if he had chosen someone else? Perhaps, but he didn't choose someone else, he choose Sarah Palin. So give her a fair break as we would all want for ourselves.

Here is the story http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/us/politics/08palin.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

One World, One Planet: Lets Sieze the Moment

2008-11-06T05:51:00.000-08:00

Let's seize this opportunity to create a major global moment of unity, reconciliation and hope by sending a million messages of warm congratulations and invitation to work together to the new President and the American people.

Avaaz has built a huge wall near the White House in Washington DC where the number of signatures on our message and personal messages from around the world will grow over the next several hours. Let's get to 1 million signers and messages to Obama! Sign on at the link below and forward this email to others:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/million_messages_to_obama

This is a time for celebration of democracy. So let's act quickly to make sure the people of the world are heard as Obama makes crucial choices in the coming days on how to live up to his campaign promises. Rarely has a US President been more likely to listen to us. Sign below and forward this message on:

PS - You can send them a picture of yourself for the wall - email it to obamawall@avaaz.org

PPS – Here's a link to a report on Avaaz's past campaigning – http://www.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2/

PPPS - And a list of 10 of Obama's campaign promises that concern the world – you can find his full platform here http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

1. Reduce the US's carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and play a strong positive role in negotiating a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol

2.Withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and keep no permanent bases in the country

3.Establish a clear goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons across the globe

4. Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center

5. Double US aid to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 and accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and Malaria

6. Open diplomatic talks with countries like Iran and Syria, to pursue peaceful resolution of tensions

7. De-politicize military intelligence to avoid ever repeating the kind of manipulation that led the US into Iraq

8.Launch a major diplomatic effort to stop the killings in Darfur

9. Only negotiate new trade agreements that contain labor and environmental protections

10. Invest $150 billion over ten years to support renewable energy and get 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015

OBAMA IS PRESIDENT!!

2008-11-05T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's over with a result that most of us of our black elders could only have dreamed about. Visit the YouTube video of Obama/Dr King tribute from Sister Monica Parker - I Have a Dream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04mlGzHyjmg and then remember the words of Obama "It’s been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this date, in this election, change has come to America."

Check out the Chicago Tribune's coverage of last night. http://www.chicagotribune.com/ They are one of the premier papers in the United States

And to the President Elect I would like to suggest that he gets his dog from one of the many rescue groups in the city he loves. New Leash On Life Chicago has a dog that looks perfect. His name is Mr Sniffs and he is a standard poodle.

Well he missed out on this wonderful dog because some else adopted him last week. Way to Go Mr. Sniffs.

Pictures from Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA OctoberFest

2008-10-12T15:50:00.001-07:00

Question 1 is the initiative to eliminate our state tax thereby ensuring that our roads and bridges remain in a mess, a massive layoff of government workers such as social agency workers, and fire and police personnel. We cannot afford this with the current cuts made in the State budget due to the financial melt down.

Should the US lead the world out of the Fiscal Disaster?

2008-10-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

Check out an excellent article in the latest issue of Business Week on the Bush Administration's and the financial industry's involvement in the mortgage crisis which is at the heart of the unravelling of the entire financial system. After you have read this article decide, what do you think?
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_42/b4104036827981.htm

It was only last week that a friend of mine told me how the entire mess started with the excess cash available in China and India that they were begging to invest in the U.S. As a result the U.S. financial industry created esoteric derivatives. Then she went on to say "but I've no doubt we will be blamed for the crisis." Just because there is excess cash does not mean that we should have created what I consider fradulent transacations.

So, yes we are to blame and who will pay the most for this is the countries whose populations are living on the brink. It is unforgivable. The good news is that perhaps we will change drastically the way we view capitalism which would give our ecosystem a chance to recover. Unfortunately though I think it will take five hard years for the financial system to recover as no one is talking about the next major shoe to drop: unpaid credit bills. Many jobs will be lost, less money means we will drive less, buy less, and live more within our means because we will be forced to. many people will be forced to downsize the size of their houses which will save a lot of oil in heating them. Of course, I acknowledge that those folks at the bottom of the economic chain will suffer the most for they don't drive, buy little and do live within their means, but most of us don't. This could lead to a more healthly life style for all.

There is massive resentment in the U.S. at this time, as there should. Perhaps folks will step back now and reconsider the notion that there is no end to growth, because I have always believed there is. A moral I live by is "just because it is available, does not mean that it is the right thing to do." As to our upcoming elections, I would ask our candidates to focus on the crisis rather than mud slinging. This is unappropriate and unappreciated at this time.

Check out the 20-page section in the latest Economist on the World financial meltdown. http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=12373696
The picture at top is from this latest edition.

The Forever War

2008-09-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

The focus of our election over the next few weeks looks as if it will be entirely focused on our financial crisis rather than the War. However, since the war has cost $500 billion to date (August 2008) the two cannot be separated. There is also the question on how the war is being fought, for what, and the number of dead which vary wildly but appear to be around 950,000. When you finish this book you will understand why we are in such a quagmire. The book left me very angry. I wish that every politician who voted for the war had been made to spend time in the war zone and share what our soldiers and the Iraqis have gone through.

I will be the first to say that this is not the type of book I would generally read much less buy. When I started reading it a few days ago, I could not put it down. Once you are a third of the way through the book you will fully understand why the author chose the title that he did, and that all by itself is depressing. In fact this realization made me feel that I had been hit in the chest by a very large object. I don’t want to give away anything in the book except to say that the Iraqis must think that they are living through Dante’s Inferno. One wonders who is better off, the dead or the living and were the Iraqis better off before the Americans arrived? What is the price of democracy, is it possible for an occupier to impose democracy on another, and if so is this democracy?

My biggest surprise reading the book was not the lies we were told about going into Iraq but simply what we were not told. Who knew the numbers of different nationalities involved in the war, particularly the Pakistanis and the Uyghur’s’ from Western China. The book opens with the seize of Falluja in November 2004. Dexter Filkins had gone in with the troops and wrote what he saw from his side of the invasion. This chapter is the best piece of war reporting that I have read in a very long time. You could smell the fear and sweat from the soldiers and the reporter. My heart was in my mouth for that entire first chapter.
Picture U.S.1st Calvary Divison

Also read Jo Wildings report of the same event from the other side. Click on the articles tab and then go to April 11th Falluja. http://www.jowilding.net/archiveframeset.html

Now I have finished the book I will add one more comment. Massoud is not who you thought he was, Chalobi was a chameleon and as to Paul Bremmer less said the better.In fact the only person who appears to be what he says is Muqfada Sadir. So while he may be the villian of the piece, I am left wondering about all the other folks on the Iraqi stage, how many of those are equal vilians too?

Dexter Filkins went into areas in Iraq and Afghanistan that most would not. He talked to ordinary Iraqis and Afghans about their life and what they thought of the invaders. He had high level access to folks on both sides of the war which is what makes this book so invaluable. Read this book and you will understand why the war has gone on forever, why it has cost so much in human lives and money, and what Iraqis’ really think about us.

If you want to understand the U.S. role in Central Asia read Ahmed Rashid's Descent into Chaos, a very aptly named book. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/10/descent_into_chaos_ahmed_rashid_on

At the end of a four year history of the war I felt that the shifting sands of Iraq had slipped through our fingers and what we were left with was a $550 billion dollar debt and counting. So how do the Iraqis feel? If Iraqis cannot go outside without the fear of being killed what kind of freedom do them have? Please read this book. In addition for your teanager is Walter Dean Myers' excellent book Sunrise Over Fallauh http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2008/09/29/2_YA_BOOK_REVIEW.ART_ART_09-29-08_D2_OVBEJLV.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

To keep up to date with what is happening in these areas of the world visit the New York Times site of Dexter's Filkins reporting.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/dexter_filkins/index.html?inline=nyt-per

The Week that Shocked the Global Economy

2008-09-18T07:06:00.002-07:00

Two major bank collapses and one more on its way out, One huge insurance company,and four money markets in trouble for risky investments. The house of cards has collapsed. I don't think that any one party was particuarly at fault but rather our entire government that allowed the deregulation of the banks with no follow up. To say they would self regulate themselves was ridiculous and again who is left holding the price tag for this? The same folks who have lost their houses due to the unethical behaviour of the folks who worked for the financial institutions. So in the huge bail out of the financial institutations we should ensure that the folks who will lose their jobs (the worker bees), the folks who were foreclosed on, and those who need a leg up directly due to this clamity are taken care of too.

Check out Obama and McCain position on this currant calamity. Here is Obama's take on the sitation
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/economyvideo

Alaskian Anti Palin Rally

2008-09-18T07:06:00.001-07:00

Added 10/12/08 picture from the Cambridge, MA OctoberFest

Thanks to my friend in Seattle who sent in these great photos.

Obama for President

2008-08-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hello All

For those of you who could not listen to the Obama Democratic acceptance speech for President here it is

http://my.barackobama.com/barackspeech<

Not Made in China

2008-08-15T10:59:00.001-07:00

Some time ago I sat down in a Borders bookstore and browsed through a book titled “A Year Without “Made in China”: One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy" by journalist Sara Bonjiorni. I found the book a bit disappointing because she still bought cheap, sweatshop-produced products from other countries such as Thailand and Vietnam which are mainly produced in Chinese owned factories. The only lesson she had in the entire book was that the money she saved from not buying cheap Chinese goods meant she had enough at the end of the year to buy quality goods but less.

When I mentioned this to a friend she said that she did not think that anyone could survive without buying goods from China; a challenge was issued! I have spent the last eight months seeing how I could do. So without beleaguering the issue I bought clothes from: Italy, Scotland, USA and Canada. I did buy one skirt, jacket and two pairs of jeans that were made in China. I bought wonderful shoes made in Spain and boots from Canada, socks made in USA/Italy. I bought bedding from Turkey, Pakistan, and Canada. I bought household goods from Germany and USA and miscellaneous items such as pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, notebooks all made in Germany or the EU. I would say it definitely can be done you just have to be willing to pay for design and quality, and fair labor rates for the folks who made the goods that you purchased.

The White Tiger

2008-08-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Update: This book is now on the short list of six for the 2008 Booker Prize. In celebration I bought a second copy.

by Aravind Adiga

What a wonderful read! The story is written as a letter to the Premier of China who will be coming to visit China. This sets the stage for a very funny novel indeed, as the writer compares how these two tigers match up in their new found wealth. A particularly funny line was when, addressing the Premier, the writer says “I gather you yellow skinned men, despite your triumphs in sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, still don’t have democracy. We Indians…may not have sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, but we do have democracy. If I were making a country, I’d get the sewage pipes first, then the democracy.”

In 276 pages I felt that I had lived a life time with the driver Balram Halwai the narrator of the story alias The White Tiger. The book was both extremely funny and at the same time a bitter critic on how the rich and the poor live in India today. It is one of the few books that I wanted to reread immediately. The need to read it again was because I had been so swept up in the tale that I wanted to make sure that I had not over looked some of the social issues that come to play in the tale. As I put the book down to go to sleep I suddenly realized that although Balram had murdered his employee he was in some ways better than him. For when his employer’s wife did a hit and run they had tried to put the blame on him, their driver. Later in the story, when one of Balram’s (now Ashok Sharma) driver’s runs over a child and kills him, Balram immediately goes to the scene of the accident and takes responsibility. Of course, I realize that he does this because he has paid off the Assistant Commissioner to ensure that nothing gets in the way of his success; lessons that he had learned well from his former employer. And so in the dog eat dog world of India, injustices abound, and everything is possible if you grease the wheels of those in charge.

This book is now on the Man Booker Dozen List. Visit the site at
http://www.themanbookerprize.com/>

Are you a Runner or Cyclist?

2008-08-13T07:44:00.001-07:00

If so, what did you forget this morning?

Benji is in need of a home right NOW and he would love to be your loyal companion and friend on your bike rides or daily runs. ++++Update Benji has been adopted. September 2008++++

Benji is approximately 2 .5 yrs old. He is a Black Lab/ Retriever Mix. He was found as a stray - skinny, afraid and hiding under an abandoned trailer. After he was rescued he became a happy young boy BUT he has been crated for far to long now and we are very anxious about his well being under these circumstanes. Benji tells us that he would like a gentle and committed leader who appreciates consistency as much as he does. He is a smart dog who gets along well with other well mannered dogs but would be equally content being the only dog. Benji loves long hikes in the woods and loves being outside. He has excellent house manners. No cats for Benji (he likes to chase them).

If you are interested in adopting Benji or have any questions please feel free to contact Raeann email: ahimsadogwalker@yahoo.com or call 978-808-4994. Benji is currently living in a foster home. You can find an application at www.ahimsahaven.org

Dreaming Up America

2008-08-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

by Russell Banks

If ever there was a timely book to read this is it for it is the Story of America and we came to where we are today. The first half of the book argues that the mythology portrayed by American movies does us a disservice for the fantasy these movies project do not match reality. Our nation was founded for materialistic gain based on the backs of “Others” to produce the American Dream. Others are anyone not Christain and white for there were three distinct groups who populated America. Thus West Africans who arrived here in droves as slaved having never been referred to as immigrants. were originally black slaves rather than black immigrants and yet immigrants they were. So starting with the march across the contintent where we eliminated the American Indian was the beginning of our feeling that we were following a Manifest Destiny which led to Nationalism which led to the invastion of Iraq and on and on.

I have a feeling that many people will take offence at what he says for we do not cope well when people disagree with our general ideas of what makes an American.

For information on Russell Banks and a listing of his books and other writings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Banks

Credit Card Debt

2008-08-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

Is another shoe about to fall in the U.S.; most likely. Who will bail out the credit card companies; tax payers no doubt and just as the folks who created the sub-prime mess were not prosecuted, I doubt one credit card executive will be held accountable for the practices of the companies they lead. Now you may say that those who spend money they don’t have are at fault and that is true, but what about the companies who send cards to folks in the mail who did not ask for them, who are not credit worthy, and in some cases who are not really old enough to have a card. What about the high interest rates that the government allows the card companies to charge? What about the length of the card agreements that are getting to be the size of a mini bible? Why is this necessary if the business is upfront, clear and honest? For me personally there is only one thing I need to know. What is the interest rate and how does the card company treat their customers who are late with their payments. I am not interested in “and”, “buts,” “maybe’s" or any other ambiguous language, I just want a straight forward agreement.

Some time ago I received an offer of an American Express Blue to go with my Green card. The first is a credit card and the latter is not. I read the agreement with the Blue and was shocked. The fees for being late were what I considered of a usury nature and so I called them. The conversation went in circles. There was a large increase the first time you were late. The second time you were late there was also another large increase to the point that you were paying close to 28% at a time when the banks are offering 3% on your savings. They tried to say that the increased interest was only assessed to their bad customers. Of course, when could ask why do you renew cards to your bad customers! This was certainly not the American Express of the old days when you could only get the card if your earnings were above average and your income was checked. If credit card companies no longer do this then who do you think is responsible? I would say the credit card company. I think that anyone who has a credit card should ensure the card is working for them otherwise cut it up, you don’t need it.

The Shaming of America

2008-07-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

**Since I wrote this article I heard that a fund had been established to help these and other immigrants**
www.imigrateusa.us>

Also email the senators for Iowa
Chuck Grassley www.grassley.senate.gov>
and Tom Harkin www.harkin.senate.gov>
they are both big names on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The Representative for the Pottsville area is Bruce Bailey who on all accounts seems to be very socially conscious and active can be reached at www.bailey.house.gov>

Also to keep upto date on events visit the National Immigration Law Center at www.nilc.org>

First we had Katrina, then the Abu Grav prison scandel, followed by the ongoing saga at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and now this immigration scandel. It seems to me that economically and morally, America is falling apart at a spectacular pace.

I have posted the first part of article by a court translator Erik Camayd-Freixas who I thank from the bottom of my heart for bringing the issue to our attenton. The entire artilce is on the WBUR link along with much more.

When I figture out what protest group is trying to close down the factory, or if you know of one let me know and I will post it. IF you are an American, email your sentors and representatives that this is not the behaviour we expect from business in our country. Lastly make a connection between production and consumerism - think; It is your responsibliity.

Quote

Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History: after the Largest ICE Raid in US History:

A Personal Account by Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D.
Florida International University 0 June 13, 2008

On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents,Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors Inc, the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa. The raid –officials boasted– was “the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history.”

At that same hour, 26 federally certified interpreters from all over the country were en route to the small neighboring city of Waterloo, Iowa, having no idea what their mission was about. The investigation had started more than a year earlier. Raid preparations had begun in December. The Clerk’s Office of the U.S. District Court had contracted the interpreters a month ahead, but was not at liberty to tell us the whole truth, lest the impending raid be compromised.

The operation was led by ICE, which belongs to the executive branch, whereas the U.S. District Court, belonging to the judicial branch, had to formulate its own official reason for participating. ...

We arrived at the heavily guarded compound, went through security, and gathered inside the retro “Electric Park Ballroom” where a makeshift court had been set up. The Clerk of Court, who coordinated the interpreters, said: “Have you seen the news? There was an immigration raid yesterday at 10am. They have some 400 detainees here. We’ll be working late conducting initial appearances for the next few days.” He then gave us a cursory tour of the compound.

The NCC is a 60-acre cattle fairground that had been transformed into a sort of concentration camp or detention center. Fenced in behind the ballroom / courtroom were 23 trailers from federal authorities, including two set up as sentencing courts; various Homeland Security buses and an “incident response” truck; scores of ICE agents and U.S. Marshals; and in the background two large buildings: a pavilion where agents and prosecutors had established a command center; and a gymnasium filled with tight rows of cots where some 300 male detainees were kept, the women being housed in county jails. Later the NCC board complained to the local newspaper that they had been “misled” by the government when they leased the grounds purportedly for Homeland Security training.

Echoing what I think was the general feeling, one of my fellow interpreters would later exclaim: “When I saw what it was really about, my heart sank…” Then began the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see, because cameras were not allowed past the perimeter of the compound (only a few journalists came to court the following days, notepad in hand). Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of one of my fellow interpreters would later exclaim: “ They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some being relatives (various Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí…), some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously.

www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/07/the-postville-raid

Beautiful Cat for Adoption

2008-07-23T06:55:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone

I occassionally foster cats. At the moment I have a mother cat and her three kittens. If I had seen a picture of the mother cat or seen her in a shelter, I probably would not have picked her because she looks like a thousand other cats.

However, after only having her for one hour I knew she was a special cat. She is so gentle and nice and a wonderful mother that I want her to go to a very special and loving home. All my friends have made the same comment about her and hope she finds a good home too. So if you are in the market for a cat this is the one. You have to obtain her from Pet Connection in Waltham, MA an incrediable organization whose members work very long hours every day saving cats and finding them homes.

http://www.thecatconnection.org/

Wild Apples

2008-07-05T18:14:00.001-07:00

Today I bought a wonderful new journal called Wild Apples. The journal bills itself as a Journal of Nature, Art and Inquiry and indeed it is. It is one of those rare things in life that lives up 100% to expections. The first issue was lauched May, 2008 and it will be published two times a year. http://www.wildapples.org/master/currentIssue.php

The photographs are the most stunning thing about the journal and are what make you ponder life in general and how we relate to our enviornment. They are much better than what they appear on the website. This journal is highly recommended and like none that you have seen before (in the U.S. anyway). The first issue was primarily about the land around the western suburbs of Boston where the journal was born.

Get a copy, you won't be disappointed.

The Visitor (2007)

2008-06-21T11:34:00.001-07:00

What is it about The Visitor that hangs around in your head for so long? I found myself thinking about the movie on and off for weeks after I watched it. I was much taken by how the two illegal immigrants would take the boat to Staten Island just to be able to view the Statute of Liberty. It is such a powerful symbol of democracy and freedom and yet very few people actually get to experience that; it has become seriously corroded.

In some ways this was a brave film to make because it looks at the face of young illegal immigrants to this country a topic for which there seems to be no middle ground. You are either for or against. But the movie manages very skillfully to humanize the issue and we root for the two young protagonists in the hope that they reach their quest for freedom and democracy. To bad that it is not to be!

It is also a wonderful film of opposites; Family versus single occupancy living; communal music versus singular music, and love and friendship versus just existing. Richard Jenkins was terrific as a middle aged, washed-up professor, as was Haaz Sleiman the optimistic, young Syrian musician hoping for a better life in America.

For me it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

Injured Chicken

2008-06-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

This story was posted in the Christian Science Monitor on November 28 2005 by Victoria Bartlett. Why do I print it so late? Because the story still resonates with me, perhaps because I too as a child had to collect eggs and I too was afraid of chickens. Perhaps too, it was also because I always thought of chickens as dumb and how they were treated was nothing to be concerned about. That was until my friend who keeps chickens introduced me to hers. They all have their own personalities, know your voice, and are living breathing creatures to be cared for just like any other animal. Since there is no link on the CSM web site to the story, I have reprinted it here for you all to enjoy. Thank you Victoria for sharing the story with us. This a timeless story of compassion.

This story is about a chicken coup. There is also a coop in the story. There’s even a coupe. But “coup” is the right word because this is the story of conquest. It all began when I started on my daily walk past the strewn parts of the 1936 Ford coupe my husband was restoring. At the end of the driveway, in the ditch, lay the body of a chicken – a Rhode Island Red hen. I started to walk by on the other side, and then was hit hard by my conscience. So I went back. A staring eye blinked at me! She was alive.

Now I was in a struggle with myself. I hadn’t like chickens since I was a child. It had been my duty to gather eggs from about 200 chickens daily, some of whom were very aggressive in refusing to give them up. But any creature in distress deserved all the love she could get. So I gingerly gathered up her limp body and went back to the carport, installing her in a cardboard box full of hay for a nest – a sort of minicoop.

I had nothing that would seem to be chicken feed, except some dried soup mix containing some barley. So I poured some of that in a container, took a glass of water, and went back outside. The chicken lay as I had left her.

Putting the soup mix by her head, I tried to encourage her to eat. She wasn’t interested. Then I dipped a little water on her beak and she opened it. So I let drop by drop fall into her mouth until she sighed and shut her eyes. I felt relieved that I had helped, even a bit.
The next few days she lay unmoving, interested only in water. However, by the fourth or fifth day, she began to move about, and one day we found her outside her box. She was dragging a wing and a foot, but was bright-eyed and hunting for something to eat. She still wasn’t interested in soup mix, however.

The chicken tried – without success – to reach a cobweb in a corner above her, so I took a stick and gathered the web with its dangling spider. She gobbled up that spider. Recruited for KP duty, my three sons entered into this new game with delight, and the chicken now dubbed Henrietta, was plied with an abundance of fat black spiders. Even my daughters got into the action, albeit preferring the longer handle of the broom for delivering the spider meals.

About this time Henrietta decided – to my husband’s annoyance – that she liked to sleep in the shell of the Ford, and abandoned her box. “I’m not putting all my money and effort into a chicken coupe,” he muttered. However, in return for the accommodation, Henrietta began to give warning whenever anyone came up the driveway. We had a watchbird.

All the family admired the spunk of this bird, her unfailing cheerfulness in the face of disaster, and her bravery in struggling around in spite of her injuries. I even began to lose my dislike of chickens. Finally the day came when her feathers began to sprout again, and she carried her wing in the proper place. One foot, however, remained curled under and swollen. It seemed that an examination of the foot was in order, so I got my husband to hold while I looked. There, buried in her flesh, was a crushed metal band.

It had to be removed, so I got pliers and tinsnips and carefully cut away the metal. That amazing bird never struggled, uttering only one small whimper when I finally peeled it away. Both my husband and I were in awe of her bravery. It was at that moment that I realized the cheerfulness, courage, friendliness and gumption that we all had been admiring were her real being. How could I have not seen that before? I loved that bird.

There’ not much else in this story, except that the last day we saw Henrietta. A neighbor had come to admire my husband’s work on the old Ford and noticed the chicken. “What’re you doing with her?” he asked, “That’s our chicken.”

When my husband explained the situation, the neighbor was incredulous. “That’s impossible!” he said. “She’s too old. All the others in her clutch died of old age long ago.” Under the circumstances that was funny since there Henrietta stood, impossible or not, triumphant even over old age.

After promising to give her a place of her now, separate from their younger hens and the rooster, and to love her our neighbor took her back. That’s the last we saw of our watchbird, but I’ll never forget Henrietta. I try to live up to her example.

Orientalism: A British View - Tate Gallery

2008-06-08T14:38:00.001-07:00

The Tate Gallery's new exhibit on Orientalism is ruffling a few feahters. Go to their website for an excellent over view of the exhibit.

www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exh_gfx_en/ART57918.html

Up the Yangtze (2007)

2008-06-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

A documentary by Yung Chang a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker currently based in Montreal.

This documentary has been receiving rave reviews. As to be expected the documentary opens with some splendid, haze shrouded pictures of the Yangtze. The film focuses on: The tourist trade, the two million people being relocated from the countryside, the modern cities and what ultimately does the Chinese dream mean?

The film begins at Chongqing, a 13 hour flight from Beijing, and the largest municipality in the world of almost 32 million people. You see coolies (peasants from the area being dammed) carrying loads of luggage onto the cruise boats for primarily western tourists who are coming to view history in the making. The documentary follows one particular peasant farmer family, the Yus’ who live in Fengdu one of the areas to be dammed.

The parents live in a dilapidated building with a tin roof and no electricity. They are unable to read and have no basic education. They are farmers and they know how to grow vegetables the way nature intended. They eat by candlelight. All the animals (chickens, a baby kitten, and dogs) lived in or around the house. This family had three children, two boys and one girl. It was not stated in the documentary but farmers in the countryside are allowed to have two children if the first born is a girl as was Yu Shui. In the past at least, extra children were not registered with the government for fear of fines or worse. Not being registered meant you could not receive schooling.

At the beginning we see the family discussing their concerns on how to pay for their kids to go to school. Yu Shui is 14 years old and has completed middle school (representative of 80% of the population). The decide to send her to work on one of the many tourist boats going up and down the River. We do not learn about the length of her work day but I think we can assume that they work from breakfast to dinner (a long day). I would really have liked to know if it was better than working in manufacturing in the big cities as we saw in the wonderful documentary China Blue www.pbs.org/independentlens/chinablue

The difference between the two types of jobs is that I believe skills picked up on the ship were more transferable. They were taught English and many housekeeping and waiting skills. The luxury cruise only applies to the clientele not to the workers who toil long hours below and above deck and Yu wants to go home. The managers in the documentary seemed to be very caring for their young staff and also your work group watched over you and helped where needed.

To see the tourists on the boat viewing the river and towns running along it reminded me of Stephanie Black’s documentary Life and Debt
www.lifeanddebt
The tourists were not interested in the social aspects of what they were seeing. This was just a dream holiday for them. They were taken off the boat to view one of the villages set up for the dislocated people. The selling point was that each house had a refrigerator, air conditioning and a color TV. I could not help but think this was propaganda and not all the houses would be like this.

Perhaps the biggest shocks was how the under 30 educated urban Chinese from middle class backgrounds were so demanding. It was though they thought that they deserved everything in life right now. Making money was a top priority; their passion indeed to be accomplished by whatever means available. During the documentary one of the training managers who fires one of them says that they were over-confident, arrogant, conceited and full of a sense of entitlement. Pretty damming words!

Occasionally we see pictures of the cities and the first thing that comes to my mind is how much electricity is being gobbled up and wasted as neon lights were all over many buildings all night.

At the end of the documentary we see Yu Shui’s family loading up their humble possessions and sadly moving. As food becomes scarcer around the world I wonder if China will lament the flooding of so much farm land.

Find out more about the documentary by visiting the web site
www.uptheyangtze.com

El Greco to Velazquez Exhbit

2008-06-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was over 90 degrees in Boston; a month ahead of schedule. So it was a time to go either to the beach or to a Museum. I decided on the museum to see a documentary on China’s Three Gorges Dam and since it was so cool inside, I then went to see the above exhibit even though I didn't think I would much like the art works.

It was a very large exhibit of which I skipped about half which was all religious paintings. But there were some paintings that I really liked and I loved El Greco's Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino. In fact I liked many of his portrait paintings. The detail in the man’s face was wonderful; such intelligent eyes and a strong sense of self. I felt that the man was there with me in the room. Perhaps it was the way the paint was applied to the picture. Somehow the paint strokes made the hands and the garment “alive.” And this was all achieved in black, brown, and white paints.

Another favorite was Pedro Orrente’s Jacob Conjuring Laban’s Sheep. I was a very realistic painting right down to the crimp of the wool on the sheep’s back and their confusion when separated wondering which way to go. Having researched whether i got the name right or not i see many referenes to the Genesis 29:10 and 30:33-43 as well as the Merchant of Venice which in turns goes back to Genesis so now I am thinking there is some religious meaning behind the picture. Cannot find a picture to put up on my blog though. Another interesting aspect to me that was while I had never heard of him he was born in Murcia, Spain which I had visited a couple of years ago. His mother was also born in the same city although his father was from the South of France.

Some books that I found in relation to Spain and its history that were really good was Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/books/review/wildman.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Saragossa Manuscript by Count Jan Potocki (1761-1815)
The Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving
and Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi

Books our Presidential Candidates Should Read

2008-05-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

This was taken from the New York Times Summer Reading issue June 1, 2008. I bought the paper just for this response from Lorrie Moore. I loved it!!!

For Obama: "The Portrait of a Lady," by Henry James. A virtuous orphan is plotted against by a charming, ruthless couple the orphan once trusted and admired.

For Clinton: "Macbeth," by William Shakespeare. The timeless tale of how untethered ambition and early predictions may carry a large price tag.

For McCain: "Tales from the Brothers Grimm." In case more are needed.

Go Obama, Go!

Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love

2008-05-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

By now it seems most of the folks in the U.S. have either bought or loaned from the library, Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love. I read this book last year when it first came out. While I liked it and recommended it to my friends who had been to India and Bali (they tend to go together on certain people's itinerary's), it was not a great book, and in my opinion does not warrant being on the best seller booklist a year later. However, if you do wish to read a great piece of writing by her then look no further then her The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick piece. I have read this several times now and am always delighted by the way she sets up the story to reach its climatic end. Not only that, it is a just a wonderful story. It can be found in The Paris Review number 141 Winter 1996. I believe it has also been included in a later anthology that the magazine did.

Shakespeare Plays

2008-05-26T14:20:00.001-07:00

Shakespeare might be the greatest playwright England as ever had but I have seen more than my fair share of awful productions. Some years ago, I vowed that I would never ever go to see another Shakespeare play, ever! Then, a couple of months ago I read a review of the Actors Shakespeare Project product of the Tempest. This was a new group that had formed just over four years ago to make Shakespeare's plays more accessible, while maintaining the essence of his works. So I went along without expecting to much and wow was I surprised.

The first play was the Tempest which was the best production that I have ever seen. Alvin Epstein who played Prospero was just incredible and Ariel (Marianna Bassham) and Miranda (Mara Sidmore) were excellent as well but had more carefree roles. The director Patrick Swanson did a great job.

Yesterday I saw King John, a complicated messy play if ever there was one. Too many twists and turns. But again, a wonderful job was done by all especially the director: Benjamin Eett, Bill Barclay (the bastard) and Jennie Israel (Constance, mother of Arthur. The venue for this production was the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, an ideal location given the involvement of the church in the plot that was the downfall of John. The director managed to keep the essential bits of the play that helped used understand a small snipet of European history at the time and that politics are politics and they change amazing little of centuries!

For anyone who lives in the Boston area I would highly recommend supporting this organization by taking out a subscription which is what any new theatre group needs to build and keep growing. Aside from the wonderful plays they also seem a great organization. Subscriptions are "open" so there is no need to pick a performance day months in advance, their T-shirts and other goods are "Made in the USA", they are involved with schools and for the Tempest they workd with tenants of a lower income housing development in Cambridge, to involve them in the play which was playing next door. For a four-year old company this is quite impressive and for Shakespeare - he should be dancing in his grave.
www.actorsshakespeareproject.org

War Requiem

2008-05-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to view Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem on DVD. The first London performance of the War Requiem was on 6 Dec 1962, in Westminster Abbey. The performance on DVD was held at Tanglewood in 1963 and was captured by a new TV station WGBH of Boston where I now live. This piece was composed for the opening of the new Saint Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, UK where I was living at the time.

Although I was quite young at the time, I instantly took to the new cathedral although many did not, particularly older folks as it was anything but traditional. I use to visit the cathedral many times and I was always touched by the many items in the cathedral donated by countries from all around the world. As I look at the pictures again, I am not surprised to see how modern the cathedral still seems today. Maybe I should visit it in 2013 for its 50th anniversary!

I am not an opera fan but as I watched the performance I could not help but see in my minds eye the terrible destruction of London at that time as well as the bombed out site of St. Michael’s. And then, perhaps because the text combines the words of the Latin Mass for the Dead with Wildred Owen’s poems from the First World War, I thought about the terrible destruction that occurred in the “War to End All Wars” and then my mind moved to Iraq where terrible damaged has been done in the name of I don’t know what. But there is no doubt in my mind that wars are a total waste of lives and resources. They are the scourge of mankind and yet we repeat them again and again.

There was a huge orchestra (or so it seems to me) for the performance, along with a choir, two conductors, a soprano, a tenor and a baritone. In the orchestra were many legendary players. All was kept in order by the eloquent Boston Symphony Orchestra director Erich Leinsdorf. The last 25 minutes of the concert is likely to bring you to tears as I believe was the intent. For Britten, through his music and choice of poem – Strange Meeting, pleads for peace; for liberation. Something I think we would have agreed with then and now. If you are interested in the DVD it is Video Artists International 4429 or go to their catalogue www.vaimusic.com.

Little Brown Bats

2008-05-23T12:58:00.001-07:00

First we had large numbers of honey bees dying, then it was frogs, birds (particularly the American Crow) and now Little Brown Bats.

In January 2007 thousands of Little Brown Bats were found dead or dying in Albany, New York State from what is being called White Noise Syndrome because their noses looked like they were dipped in sugar.

This picture was taken by Al Hicks, from the U.S Dept of Fish and Wild Life Services in New York who was the first person to discuss the calamity. In one year it has spread throughout New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The disease has a mortality rate of 90-95%. This has resulted in two-thirds of Massachusetts Little Brown bats dying with over half a million dead in New England and New York. Fortunately it has not spread to the Big Brown Bat (pictured below) or any of the bats that migrate such as the Tree Bats.

Litte Brown Bats are between 4.5 and 5.5 inches long and weight between 0.19 to 0.45 ounces. Since these bats only have one baby per year it will take a long time to replenish the population.

The white is actual a fungus called Fusarium which is usually associated with plants. But biologists think that this is not the actual cause of their deaths but an opportunistic infection. Whatever is the cause of their illness, bats are being found outside in the middle of winter when they should be hibernating in their caves. When their dead bodies are picked up they are found to be severally emancipated with no body fat at all. For the lucky bats that were picked up my wildlife experts and taken to a sanctuary they were able to recover. So this raises the question: did they burn up the fat too quickly or did they not store enough body fat before they hibernated and if not, why not?

To add to their plight Ravens, truely remarkable birds, have been noticed hanging outside the entrances to the bats’ caves and Raccoons are being bold enough to go inside. There are a couple of ideas. One is that the insects that the Little Browns’ eat have dyed or moved on due to Global Warming another idea is that there is now a new family of pesticides developed for the eradication of West Nile Virus. The other possibility is that in August 2007, the State of Massachusetts for the first time in 16 years conducted aerial spraying for mosquitos using a new pesticide developed for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)or West Nile Visus (I don't remember which it is). Needless to say I cannot find what is in this new pestcide.

While many people might not like bats they have their place in the eco system and particularly because they eats lots and lots and lots of agriculutral insects and 20$of our mosquites.

Should you see any bats in your house anywhere, do not attemt to kill them. Call your U.S. Fish and Wild Life Services for they need protecting.

Fuel, Food, and Creativity

2008-05-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

A very personal opinion! Will America never get it? It seems to be that our down hill economic slide in innovation and jobs started about 25 years ago. I would personally pin it to the Rio Conference when George Bush Sr. said that “jobs came before the environment.” It should be the other way around for if we have no environment we have no need for jobs, we will not be able to survive on our planet. Imagine where we would be now with our entrepreneurial energy had we got with the program. We would be selling these products into Europe, China, and India.

Twenty-five years later we still don’t get it. Hilary Clinton and Senator John McCain this week proposed a cut in gasoline tax so that we can drive more in the summer. This is at a time when demand is outstripping supply hence the rise in prices. Enlightened politicians would be offering alternative transportation incentives not encouraging us to use more of a scarce resource. Go Obama, Go! And while I am on the bully pulpit talking about gasoline why are we taking food out of the mouths of the poor to continue our “business as usual” approach. Using pasture that cows and other animals should be grazing on to grow corn for ethanol is stupid; especially as corn gobbles up tons of water at a time when that resource is also growing very short. We need politicians who work for the whole and not for the few.

I know some folks have cut back on their driving but than defeat their effort by flying. I think the amount of carbon that we can use per person is around 8,000 car travel and 5,000 airline travel per year. So how much are you using and if its more whose carbons are you using and did you ask permission? Remember that the amount of gas you use in driving is having an impact on folks half way around the globe who now cannot afford to buy basic food staples. Get creative, rather than saying “I can’t” say “What if?”

EBay and Best Friends

2008-05-03T06:02:00.001-07:00

I am very happy to report that ebay Foundation has donated $1,000,000,000 to be split between Oxfam, Best Friends for a new puppy care home, and First Book. Best Friends will get half of the money immediately. Also the Hush Puppies shoe company is conducting a fundraising campaign for the puppy preschool as part of its year-long celebration of its golden anniversary.

As you will see from the link to Ebay Foundaton, Best Friends is a very good and sound organization that has made a tremondous impact on how we treat and view members of the animal community. It is an organization that I have supported for some years and would encourage you to do the same. Their work both here in the U.S. and in hard hit areas all around the world is outstanding.
http://www.bestfriends.org/puppies

Its hard to beleive that eBay was only founded in 1995; where would we be without it today! They established their foundation in 1998 as a way to give back to their community. The foundation actively works to improve the social and economic well-being of local communities by funding nonprofit organizations and supporting community involvement by eBay employees. Since its inception, the eBay Foundation has contributed more than $16 million to nonprofit organizations.

Bab'Aziz

2008-04-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

This week I hurried off to the cinema to see Bab’Aziz by director Nacer Khemir. As is typical with non western stories it takes many detours much like the shifting sands of where the film was shot. It left me wondering what the movie was about but in the end I decided that didn’t matter, for we don’t need to know everything. Perhaps it would be better to describe the film as a visual poem; certainly the music would support this notion.

While the movie is filmed in a desert, which turned out to be Tunisia and Iran the landscape was beautiful and if music can seduce you than this does. I don’t know whether it will stand up without the visuals but I am definitely going to find out.

The story revolves around a blind dervish named Bab’Aziz and his granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place just once every thirty years. They don’t know where the gathering will take place and apparently none of the other attendees do either, but all believe that their faith will be their guide, which proves to be correct. For they are very in tune with their inner voice.

To keep Ishtar entertained, Bab’Aziz relays the ancient tale of a prince who relinquished his realm in order to remain next to a small pool in the desert, staring into its depths while contemplating his soul. This story is told in fits and starts through the film and it began to remind me of the stories that Queen Scheherazade told her King in A Thousand and One Nights. While Khemir has created a story of longing and belonging it also speaks to death; when our time is up and how we chose to die. It is a beautiful and thoughtful movie; perhaps a love poem to his father to whom it was dedicated. I am going back to see it one more time before it is gone forever!

Art In Bloom

2008-04-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Every April the Musuem of Fine Arts in Boston invites Massachusetts garden clubs to display their artistic impression of various pictures or statues in the galleries. Each year I walk through and pick my favorites. This year I did not complete the tour but the winner was the Chinese gallery which are the photograph above and to the left.

Not a good photograph but a nice flower representation of Gauguin's "Where Do We Come From?"

Runner up in the Egyptian and Japanese galleries but unfortunately you cannot see the calligraphy on the stone behind the flower arrangement.

These two photographs are the rotunda and the stair case leading to the Huntington Ave. exit.

Go Green

2008-04-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

What’s In This Stuff? By Patricia Thomas

This book should be in everyone’s home. It clearly lays out the problems of using many of today’s time saving devices for cleaning your house, cleaning your self, or making yourself look beautiful. It then shows you how to make nice smelling products that will not harm you or the environment. There are two wonderful appendixes at the back of the book that are easy to use. The first is an alphabetical list of chemicals that are in many of the products in your home: cleaning products, cosmetics, perfume, shampoo and toothpaste. The other appendix is a complete list of food additives.

You will find that the ideas will save you money and reduce your trash pile considerably. For example did you know that four items in your cupboard could virtually replace all your other cleaning products: Baking Soda, Vinegar, Borax and Bronner’s, castile liquid soap. Baking Soda and Vinegar are both disinfectants and grease cutters. Baking soda can be used on pans as it is a mild abrasive. Borax will take care of mold and mildew in your bathroom. Castile soap can be used for tons of stuff including washing and conditioning your hair.

Avoid soaps with chemical in them and only buy vegetable oil or glycerin soaps. Or of course use Bronner’s castile soap in peppermint which is wonderful for those folks who live in hot weather climates. You can use the liquid soap to wash and condition your hair. Toothpastes are very problematic and you need to look for one with no fluoride and SLS in it. I good product is Weleda’s salt toothpaste. For dental floss make sure you use a natural product (cotton or silk), unscented and unwaxed and for deodorants look for Neal’s Yard products or use a slight dusting of plain cornstarch.

And read this article in Thursday’s Tampa, FL Tribune
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/17/ho-easy-to-make-cleansers-stand-up-to-bathroom-lau/

Live Free and Die

2008-04-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

Last year I flew to Australia
That was so fun
Last month I drove across country
That wasn’t so much fun
I drive to school;
I drive to work;
And in the summer
I drive down the highway
The hood down,
The wind flying through my hair
going no where in particular
Living the American Dream.

And whose carbons did I borrow?
Well, it doesn’t matter,
I wasn’t planning on paying them back anyway.

The Artic shelf has gone,
Isn’t it a shame!
The Pacific Islands have gone,
Isn’t it a shame
Bangladesh has gone, and the Maldives
Isn’t that a shame!
New Orleans is under water,
The east and west coast are under water
Isn’t that a shame!

Today I drove home
My home was gone
It's under water
I guess I should have listened.

Cash Cow

2008-04-18T06:33:00.001-07:00

Go visit Judi Rotenberg’s gallery at 130 Newbury St in Boston to see a very interesting exhibit by two artists: Mary Ellen Strom and choreographer Ann Carlson. Judy always puts on wonderful, avant garde shows so I would recommend getting on her mailing list at judirotenberg.com

It’s a little bit difficult to explain the show to you but basically the artists are sending us a message about the effects of consumerism. An example is the cow in the show titled Madame 710. As you can see in this photograph, Carlson is projected in the gallery with a cow whose udders are swollen with milk and who has a yellow tag clipped to its ear 710. Carlson is seen dancing around the cow wearing nothing but dollar bills. The cow is looking directly at you. This piece indirectly says some about industrial farming which I abhor and directly about the term “cash cow”; so, not such a great description about the show but please go if you can, the show is on until April 26th

Part of the show will be at the DeCordova Musuem in Lincoln, MA. in January.

Shell Wildlife Photographs of the Year Exhibit

2008-04-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

While I was in London I visited the Natural History Musuem to see the Shell Wildlife Photographs of the Year. The very first photograph in the exhibit really caught my attention and I find that I am repeatedly thinking about the power of that photograph. While the colors (pink sky and blue snow) have the affect of pushing the owl forward it also has the impact of pushing your mental capacities toward the inner sanctum of the natural world. It makes me question what our place is in the universe and how well have we fit into it?

Another favorite photograph of mine, although not at the time but after I had returned home and found that I was thinking about the power that this photographed represented.

Than there was the photograph that literally danced off the wall. A complete joy to behold.

And the one that speaks a thousand words about humans impact on this earth and how vital it is for us all, everyone of us, to change dramatically the way we live on this earth.

Finishing up with the joy of life.
Click here to visit the exhibit
www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

Harold the Duck

2008-04-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to Codman Community Farm in Lincoln, MA (our local farm) to see the new born lambs and goats. I went right up to the lambs but then the mother sheep seemed to be rather anxious and I backed off. As I was doing this something grabbed hold of my leg. I looked down to the see the best fed and groomed duck I have ever seen attached to my trouser leg. I could not get rid of him. I tried pushing him away with bag, no luck. I tried running, no luck. Then I thought I would run up the steps because he would not be able to follow me. Ha! Ha! That’s why God gave ducks wings, he half flew still attached to my trouser leg. As I got nearly to the top of the stairs I yelled out to a young man with a small child that he might want to be careful because I was being attacked by a duck.

“Oh! He said, you’ve met Harold.” “Who the hell is Harold I replied” to which he said “the duck that was attached to your leg and now isn’t. See how his tail is wagging, he wants you to pat him.” Apparently, Harold belonged to a volunteer at the farm and lived in her home. He had his own room even and arrives each day at the farm in style; riding in the back seat of her car. I figured at some point I would have to make peace with this duck. Today, I went to the farm’s open house. Harold was the star of the show. I found out that he LOVES having his belly stroked. But he really does not believe he is a duck. When you stop he cranes neck and gives you a tiny kiss or peck untill you resume again. Here are some pictures of Harold and the other animals who actually live on the farm.

Tibet

2008-04-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

"One World One Dream" is China's message for the Olympics. Let it be so for ALL!

Here are some photographs taken in Harvard Sq. the home of Harvard University on April 8th, 2008.

Benji Look A Like

2008-04-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

For all you folks out there that called wanting to adopt Benji do not dispair. Sammy is looking for a home too and he has a very similar temperment to Benji and is just as beautiful!

He is a 1-2 yr. old springer/lab mix. who weighs about 40 lbs. He is a very smart dog; a good listener and loves to give kisses. He has some puppy left in him, and thus would love to be a part of an active household.

If you can give this dog a loving home please contact Ahimsa Haven Animal Rescue. www.ahimsahaven.org

Cows Grazing in the Rumpus Room - NYT Blog

2008-03-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

Cows Grazing in the Rumpus Room - Allison Arieff - By Design - Opinion - New York Times Blog

What a Week Its Been

2008-03-18T18:24:00.000-07:00

Wow! my head is in a spin.
First we have the spectacular fall of a political figure that literally shook the walls of the New York State senate and vibrated around the country.

Then we had the collapse of a big Wall St Investment Bank and the unprecedented brokered rescue by a Republican Administration - one who believes that we are all responsible for our actions.

That we had the swearing in of David Paterson, the first blind governor in U.S. history and only the third black governor since Recontruction.

And then to cap it all we had the most remarkable speech from a most remarkable BLACK man - Barack Obama.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23695322#23698937

Musing on Life

2008-03-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Calligraphy began with nature
when nature was born,
the principles of yin and yang
were established
forms and momentum emerged.

...Cai Yong (132-192 C.E.)

Reno - ADOPTED

2008-03-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

After Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah my favorite organization in the entire United States is PittieLove Rescue in Framingham, MA which is tiny in comparrison wtih BF but they have an equally BIG heart.

The little dog in the window ha! ha! is Reno his mom was killed by a car when he was only 3 weeks old. He is now 16 weeks old and looking for a loving home. Could it be yours?

PittieLove Rescue Inc. is an all volunteer 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to finding wonderful forever homes for Pit bulls and Pit bull mixes that may not have had the best start in life. They have placed over 100 Pit bulls into loving homes since 2005; a truly remarkable feat. If we had a “rescue dogs” award they would win it hands down. Many of their dogs come from shelters where their time is running short or where staff wants to be sure the dog is placed responsibly. They also work with other rescue organizations and support Animal Control Officers in Massachusetts who often have Pit bulls in need of loving homes.

The organization is run by a dedicated core of volunteers who understand what it means to care for all of the many breeds of dogs that are known collectively as Pit bulls. The backbone of PittieLove Rescue however is its foster homes which allow them to “custom fit” their dogs to the homes they are going to live in. When PittieLove Rescue accepts a Pit bull these dogs make their way to their temporary home and live a pampered life that many have never experienced before. In this setting much can be learned about the temperament, likes and dislikes, and little quirks a dog may have. (See the story on Lenny updated November 6th) For example, does the dog like cats or other family pets? It’s a great service that they provide along with comfortable beds for the now happy Pit bulls!

PittieLove Rescue does all it can as an organization to make sure that Pit bulls get the love and respect they deserve. They attend many events around the New England region where they share their knowledge of Pit Bull type breeds and pass out information to attendees of these events. They often bring adoptable Pit bulls along too to help demonstrate the true nature of their rescued canine companions. They do all of this to educate the public about the remarkable traits of Pit bulls type dogs, their love for people and their clown like personalities. They hope the presence of their dogs will diffuse the hype and myths that are propagated by a media that looks to vilify the very dogs that we all love so much. I LOVE PITTIELOVE RESCUE!!!!

Wool and Cotton

2008-02-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

in the U.S. it has become extremely hard to find merino wool sweater or even good lambswool sweaters and I often wonder why they have practically disappeared off the shelves here. In every shop i go into now i only find cashmere sweaters (of a very poor quality) made in China. For me there is nothing like a nice pair of merino socks or a merino sweater. And the benefits of wool bed covers are well known and are particularly beneficial for babies. Here is a link to a site in Wales for those who would like to know more www.kushtush.com
and another link to New Zealnd who along with Austrlia is the biggest producer of wool.
www.nznature.co.nz/mshop/spi/3_mer_3087

Natural cotton comes from the most pesticide-intense agricultural process in the world. One T-shirt (the one you are wearing) takes 1/3lb pesticides and fertilizers. Please look at alternatives such as organic cotton, bamboo fiber, merino wool, hemp, Model and Lyocell.
www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/green-basics-organic-cotton.php

The latter two items are made from beech wood pulp, are incredible soft, breathable, and pliant. They are a good replacement for the polyester and rayon (which we should not be buying) without taking the toll on environment which rayon and polyester does.

Same old or CHANGE! - Updated

2008-02-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

The Speech.
Everytime Obama is attacked I am more and more impressed with him. I thought this speech was perhaps his crowning achievement for it was incredible, not to mention truthful and to the point. I do hope he becomes our President for we would at last have someone that we can be proud of. Here is the link to the speech. A speech that should be listened to by all not just now but many times over our lives.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23695322#23695322

This is a link to a funny video.
http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/ywc/

For anyone who has not taken the opportunity to go to a Barack Obama rally, visit his website and listen to what he has to say; feel inspired and move forward for the status quo is no longer acceptable.
www.barackobama.com

America can only be great and achieve great things when all its' citizens participate and everyone is doing well. For we cannot be well if our neighbor is not, Boston cannot be well if New Orleans is not, and America cannot be well if Mexico is not. We are all integrated in this new global economy and decisions that America makes affects people far and wide. There is no longer "us" and "them" but only humanity.

Now I know that many say Obama does not have the experience and I was in that camp for a while too but then I stopped to think "where has experience got us so far?" Because of fear we allowed the govenment to go into Iraq without anyone questioning the data. Because of fear we abandonded the citizens of New Orleans. I say "we" because we get the government we deserve, we elect our officials and we pay for them. If they do something that you don't like or agree with you should be banging on their door, or at the very least calling your senator every week to get your point across. Based on the passed six years I want my money back and I definately don't want to see any "insider" in power from any party and that includes Bill Clinton who I voted for twice.

In that vein please read this piece written sometime ago by the editor and founder of the Resurgence magazine, Satish Kumar, a sane voice in an otherwise insane world. It is worth keeping as unfortunately you will refer to it time and time again. And as you read it please think 'do you want the same old same old or will you have the courage to vote for change!!. Sign up for the Barack Obama Avalanche and do some phone calling for the campaign. I haven't yet but I made my first donaton ever to a political party today and I just signed up to make a difference in this race. I don't want to see the Clinton political machine steal the vote, what happened once has set a precedence and it is for us all to ensure it never happens again.

Quote
Fear seems to rule our life. We are afraid of terrorism, afraid of death, afraid of old age, of loneliness, of illness, of being attacked. We build nuclear weapons and than bunkers. We are afraid that we will run out of “stuff” and so we insist that success measured by constant growth and yet growth creates global warming. To save ourselves from global warming we want to cover the earth with wind turbines, nuclear power stations, or corn fields for ethanol which takes land away from food growth and this in turns produces the actual scarcity that that started this revolving door in the first place.

Fear is the cause of our environmental problems which cannot be solved by fear of a global catastrophe. Telling our children to “be environmentally friendly or civilization will come to an end” is the wrong message. We should not be protecting the earth because we are afraid of its demise but because we love Mother Earth. We should promote living in harmony with the Earth, being sustainable, frugal, simple and compassionate to all beings – humans and otherwise. A culture of non violence, respect and reverence for life has to become part of our psychological make up. Even if there was no global warming or oil shortages we should not be destroying life, because life is sacred.
Unquote

Osman Hamdi Bey

2008-02-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

In 1860, Osman Hamdi Bey went to Paris to study law but ended up studying art instead. In 1891 he became the director of the Imperial Museum of Antiquities. In 1910 he died. The painting to the left is a wonderful self portrait by thr master himself.

In Osman Hamdi Bey's short life time he redefined westerners’ notions of the east that had been formed from the Crusades to Islamic Spain. Hamdi Bey portrayed mainly intellectual activities and domestic visions of the orient and denounced the erotic version of the orient saying that nude images of concubines were a disgrace to women I thought however, that his images of women at home looked very European. They were not well received in Europe because they did not portray the “exciting and lustful” vision of women that westerners were use to seeing and thus expecting.

However, as I started looking at nineteenth century painters of the orient I realized that neither the French painters nor Hamdi Bey were reflecting reality. They were all living out their dreams and desires through their art. This was rather a shook, as I initially believed that Hamdi Bey's painting reflected the “real” Turkey because of how different his scenes were to his French counterparts. The fact is that Hamdi was living in a dream world too, that of Turkey’s glorious past – the Golden era of Turkey and so I had to ask what timeframe and which Golden era? His paintings express a deep sense of loss, while not calling for a return to the past. One gets the feeling that he realized that modernity comes with ambiguity.

I came to this conclusion because if you look at his paintings his figures are never dressed in modern oriental clothing but rather costumes and fabrics that depict medieval time which was the time of Islamic Spain and the Crusades. The settings of his paintings are also late medieval/early Ottoman times. His visual reconstruction of late Ottoman period also coincided with historical novels that had similar themes and were immensely popular with the general public. This was also a time of great upheaval in Turkey as they were going through huge changes and thus there was a sentiment of the loss of the glorious past.

Just like Gauguin, he had a huge collection of old photographs that he utilized in imagining the backgrounds in his paintings and many of them are just “make believe native” settings. The Janissaries (a Turkish infantryman in the Sultan’s guard) belonged to the medieval period and are incorporated in several of his paintings.

His painting of the 15th century green mosque in Bursa has different geographies put together: note the Syrian fabrics on the figures. This ties in with the growing interest in cross cultural studies in Europe where he trained as a painter. The Conversing Scholar picture which shows three scholars in traditional clothes, are in fact all pictures of him self.

In many of his pictures the onlookers are not asked to associate with the people in the pictures thus establishing a sense of detachment and distance.

Hamdi Bey's engagement with history and his position in Ottoman society was on a higher level and his main themes or points seemed to be inspired by literary works such as Byron and One Thousand and One Arabian Nights whose stories are partly traced back to medieval Arabic folk stories from the Caliphate era. Osman Hamid kept most of his paintings for himself, he didn’t sell them. When he died the state museum and private collectors along with the Ottoman Painters Society bought them.

What is important about his paintings are not how they were received at the time but how they relate to Turkey’s past.

Quality Merchandise (Updated July 2008)

2008-01-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

In this age of consumerism quality seems to have taken a nose dive.

Be careful about brand names, check they are still made in their country of origin. You will be surprised to find how many goods associated with a particular country have moved their manufacturing to China, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. Some examples: Ugg, Clark, Earth and Ecco shoes are all made in China now. Support manufacturing in your own country for they provide jobs for your neighbors and the money stays in your country. When this is not possible buy from countries whose environmental and labor laws meet your standards. When you are buyig cotton items remember to look for orgnaic cotton. With this in mind here is a list of products whose quality I think is outstanding. **New additions are added at the bottom**

Brora clothes
http://www.brora.co.uk/

Don't blame me if you spend a lot of money at this store. I could have bought everything in the store. In the end I bought a skirt, a scraf, some tops and some shoes. The cashmere is top quality not the cheap stuff that is in the average stores and the products are made in Scotland. Most of the linen is Irish. I want to sleep in the scraf it is so soft and wonderful. Here are some pictures

Dr.Hauschka skin products
http://www.drhauschka.com/about/our-mission

I have been using Dr. Hauschka Skin Care products for many years now primiarily because they are a holistic pharmaceutical company. Everything they do is in the interest of fostering well-being in the world, from their ecologically sound methods of growing and sourcing ingredients to their one-of-a-kind manufacturing processes and international fair trade initiatives. Their manufacturer WALA Heilmittel works with local communities around the world to establish fair-trade organic and Biodynamic cooperatives that provide WALA with the highest quality botanical ingredients while helping promote sustainable agriculture and economic self-reliance.

They also support two of my favorite organizations: Heifer International and Farm Aid.

El Naturalista
http://www.elnaturalista.com/index.php/en/naturalista/eco-policy/

A terrific example of what a company with high aspirations can be. This panish company could write a blueprint on how a company can be both ethical to its employees and the land that we depend on and make a profit. Their eco policy is to use natural materials and dyes, avoid polluting substances,protect and sustain the environment and much more. And check out these goofy shoes.

In 2005 they created the Charity Project Atauchi where they work with non-profit organizations, to provide international development aid. They worked with ProPeru an NGO from Pamplona in the construction and equipment of a school including solar panels, and trained teachers and pupils. In 2007, they received the Solidarity company Prize 2005 from the mayor of Pamplona

Anna Sova
http:www/annasova.com/
Much of her organic cotton is made in coops in India, one of the two largest contries that grow organic cotton. Anna Sova sellls the nicest organic cotton sheets that I have ever slept on. Also she sells orgnaic drapery whichis pretty unusual. Her orgnaic cotten towels ar made in Turkey (the second largest producer of organic cotton.) The dyes and sizing used in our cotton are eco safe and healthy for you and for the environment!
Be aware that “natural” cotton is NOT organic cotton. Natural cotton still uses pesticides and processing toxins.

Many people may consider latex wall paint to be a safe alternative because they do not contain lead. However, there are harmful Volatile Organic Compounds that are released from the paint. Some of these chemicals are petrochemicals, solvents, mercury, formaldehyde, and benzene some of which have been known to cause cancer, allergies and aggravate asthma.
Anna Sova’s healthy Wall Finish contains none of these harmful VOC’s, and is made with 99% food grade ingredients! A much healthier alternative that is safe for children and pregnant women.

Feyem of Italy
http://www.feyem.it/eng/home.htm

Their coats are beautifully made. Quality material, goose down, zips, and snaps over the zips. The warm weather coats close from the top to the hemline. The stitching on the coats are very good also. They are extremley stylish and you feel like a diva when you wear one.

Santana, La Candienne and Martino boots. All were made in Canada until recently when Santana was bought by a group of investors who moved the operation to China. All three of these companies make an excellent product. The boots are completely water proof, very comfortable, and stylish. You can still find a few Santana boots made in Canada. Check the label before you buy.

La Candienne
http://www.lacanadienne.ca/

A 45 year old company in Montreal with and excellent environmental and worker rights record.

Martino is a 50 year old company located in Quebec City. It too has a history of making sophisticated, fully waterproof snow boots built for style and sub zero temperatures. They are made from very fine full grain leather, hand cut one piece at a time by Martino factory trained cobblers.

Natura World
http://www.naturaworld.com/

This is beginning to look like a love affair with Canada. The absolute best cover I have ever slept under. It is an all season wool comforter, quite light weight, perhaps the weight of one and half regular blankets. I love it to death. Be careful as they sell both organic and non organic cotton and wool covers. They are all made in Canada with the exception of the silk and wool cover. I am absolutely in love with it.

Bags: It seems that no matter how many bags I owe I never have one that works for the task at hand. In particular luggage and shopping bags. Here is one of each that work for me.

Tote Bag

Reisenthel a German Company make a super lightweight bag from rip stop polyester that folds into a tiny pocket bag that clips onto your handbag (clever). It is stylish and holds up to 26lb of weight.

. The bags are actually nicer than the photo. The website that they are listed on is an excellent website for a variety of bags.

http://www.reusablebags.com/store/shopping-bags-c-2.html

Suitcase
for luggage nothing in the price range can beat a Briggs and Riley case.
They are stylish designed extremely well have great, solid zips, and an outside pouch for your small umberella. They are guaranteed for life with no questions asked and made in the U.S.A. (finally!)
Ebags is a very good website for getting detailed pictures of products and also for their returm policy.
http://www.ebags.com/briggs_riley/transcend_21_carryon_expandable_upright/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=61500&productid=707036&sourceID=GOOGFEED&color=Rainforest&CAWELAID=26892532ns

Animals, Community, Fairness, Vegan, and Yoga

2008-01-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

What do they have in connection with each other? Well, if you visit the Karma Yoga Studio and teashop at 1120 Massachusetts Ave, in Cambridge you will find out. The tea shop looks very similar to a Japanese tea house (as much as is possible anyway), they sell only vegan snacks, fair trade coffee and tea, and a few fair trade products from the World of Good.

The painting on the far wall is titled Rose Petal Mandala by Lori Schouela
www.lori.schouela@comcast.net

The Karma Tea Cafe donates 100% of all cow's milk sales to the Farm Sanctuary in MA. The teashop was also selling animal cards made by students from the Dr. Martin Luther King School in Cambridge. The bulletin board holds pamphlets on animal rescue groups such as Grey2K USA.

The instructors who teach the Flow Yoga class on Sunday’s 6:00-7:30 pm donate all proceeds to local animal rescue groups. In addition, the owners pump all their profits into their animal rescue efforts run out of their home. Their teachers come from many different countries and cover any different styles of yoga.

Doina Contescu, one half of the partnership, is a certified wildlife rehabilitation specialist and her passion ranges from animal rights/welfare, to theoretical physics, moral philosophy and meditation. Doina graduated from Harvard University in 1989. She currently hosts a monthly potluck vegetarian dinner at the studio, is a member of the Harvard College Vegetarian Society and a member of the Boston Vegan Meetup.

I very much admire her integrated and effective effort to support her life’s passions.

http://www.originalgood.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=75

http://www.karmayogastudio.com

2008-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Bursa in October 2006. Cumalıkızık Village is located 10 kilometers west of Bursa, in the foothills of Mt. Uludağ. Its history goes back to the founding of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the architectural structures in the village have been preserved and thus as of late, the village has been featured in many Turkish movies. This has resulted in a renewed interest in the village by the Turks and there are now 270 historial houses in stages of restoration and maintenace. 180 houses that have been lived in for some time.

As can been seen by the photographs, the houses are made of wood, mud, and rubblestones and most of them are triplex. The upstairs windows are generally latticed with a bay window.

The handles and knockers on the main entry doors are made out of wrough iron. The smaller knockers are used by the women and the larger one by the men. Each knocker produces a different sound, thus people inside the house know what gendered person is about to enter; this was important for religious and cultural reasons.

As can be seen from some of the photographs the streets are cobblestoned, very narrow, and have no sidewalk.

The village has a mosque, a fountain, and a bath house with one dome which go back to the time of the Ottoman Empire. In 1969, the remains of a Byzantine church were unearthed in the southeast of the village.

Kizik refers to the villages that are clustered together between the foot of Mt. Uludag and the valleys and the name stands for one of the twenty-four clans of the Oghuz Turks. Friday’s (Cuma in Turkish) were a day of formal gathering for worship in the village. The village contains a ethnography musuem where the village has collected historial objects of interest. There are some additional architectural works from the village on display in the Archeological Museum of Bursa.

Into Great Silence

2008-01-16T19:58:00.000-08:00

Into Great Silence (Die Grobe Stille) 2005

This documentary was filmed in the Grande Chartreuse, the head monastery of the reclusive Carthusian Order in France. Philip Groning, the German director and writer first approached the monastery sixteen years ago for permission to film; he was told that it would not happen soon, and indeed it didn’t. However, as you watch the documentary you will appreciate how time is something that is not hurried.

Unbeknownst to me this was a movie that the viewer participated in! By which I mean, you sat there for three hours watching a move with about as many words as in a three minute song. That said, by the end of the movie I would willingly have sat through it again straight away.

The opening introduction is very slow and it takes 25 minutes before you hear a sound. The opening shots show a row of identical buildings with black roof’s that looked just like Dutch burghers with their tall black hats accentuated by the fact that snow is falling.

Philip Groning lived in the monestry for six months and thus he films the monks daily rituals, prayers, tasks and weekly forrays to the outside world. In fact, so little is going on that you soon begin to appreciate the small things in life, very small, such as the grain in the wood on the floors, the ice crystals on the lettuces in the garden, and the water dripping from the roof very, very slowly. The photographer places great emphasis on light in the documentary which made me think of God saying, “Let there be light” and there was (Genesis 1.3). The documentary builds quietly upon itself and ¾ of the way through it you feel that everything is at one with nature or to put it another way, that to disturb nature is an affront, to live in harmony with it is not.

Every cell appears to have a window that opens out to the wonderful scenery outside. It is this natural world that provides substance to the soul and food for the body. There were a couple of shots of the white cows with their bells ding aligning as they moved around the land munching at whatever, and you thought "what a life” even if later on in their life they are their source of food for the monks.

The monastery is in the Chartreuse Mountains (part of the French Alps) in Eastern France and the original building goes back to 1084. When it rained, the rain seemed like a joyful gift. When the mist hovered over the range it seemed the mist was actually spirits, and when the monks sang their beautiful Gorgonian chants it felt as if they were singing to the spirits, thus creating a bridge to the “other” world.

Today the monastery is closed to the public and the monks support themselves by the production and sale of Chartreuse liqueur, which interestingly was not captured in the documentary at all which seems an ommission.

Toward the end of the documentary the film maker interviewed a very elderly monk on his thoughts about dying. The monk said he was not afraid of death, "the faster you run to God the happier you are". I then recalled how death is a word that you don’t hear much spoken in the U.S. we prefer to use other words such as “passing on” or “deceased” and it made me wonder why such a Christian nation is afraid of death.

The Joy of Cats

2008-01-13T14:39:00.000-08:00

My foster cats are five months old and are called Harpo and Carly. They are both black and white and look pretty cute as they follow each other around the house. Harpo is short hair and Carly is medium haired. Her tail looks like it was stuck on by accident because there is a fine white line between the end of her black rump and black fluffy tail.

Harpo is very aptly named. He is the funniest and the best natured cat you are ever likely to have the opportunity to own; if one can “own” a cat. He watches TV literally, and particularly likes Ovation and National Geographic. He also plays on the computer. He achieves this by jumping on the chair, standing on his two hind legs, and hitting the keys with his paws. His head then goes side to side as he watches the changes on the computer. His is also a flying cat. If you start to play ball with him he will literally leap four feet from wherever he is, flying through the air to get to the ball. And don’t bend down, not even slightly because he will make a flying leap onto your back where he will stay regardless of whether you decide to straighten up or not. And did I mention that he has a fetish! I am not kidding. You cannot let him sleep on the bed with you because you won’t sleep. He starts padding on your upper body (somewhere between you chin and your upper chest), and sucking, and eating your top, and all the while he is purring as loud as a Bengal Tiger. Today I tried to see when he would stop but after 45 minutes I gave up and deposited him in his room

Carly is a very pretty cat and very independent minded. She was part of a litter of kittens that were found at a used car lot. Unfortunately they all died, most likely from drinking anti-freeze. Carly was very sick but managed to pull through after three days in the vet. She is very timid; if you put your hand out to her she will run away (first option) or back up into a corner. But she loves sleeping on your bed. So while you are being devoured by Harpo she has settled on you. She cannot sit by you it has to be on you. If she falls off, she just crawls back up. She will come right up to your face and lick it and you can stroke her. But once you leave the bed all bets are off. Oh! And did I mention that she collects stuff. IF you try to play with her she grabs the object and very briskly, with her tail up in the air, runs off and deposints all the goods in a corner under my bed.

So if anyone out there would like to adopt these two adorable kitties here is their picture. You will need to fill out an application form from Cat Connection as they are the good folks who paid the vet bill and had them fixed.

Winter in New England

2008-01-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Boston

In December, 2007 we had a record amount of snow. It is now January 13th and another storm is coming in with a predicted foot of snow for Boston. So what does this mean to hardy Bostonians? A lot of snow shoveling that is what.

The last time I remember so much snow was in 1994. By the end of the winter, the towns had sent out their snow plows 14 times! The total amount of snow recorded at Logan airport for the entire winter was 9.0.3” inches. To non-Americans this translates (I hope) to 2.29 meters. As you moved away from the coast the snow was considerably more. Towns are very careful how they spend their snow plow funds so they only send out their plows when there is a lot of snow, thus you know we had more that 14 snow days.

I personally wish we could get all the snow in one storm like the Blizzard of 1978. We would be inconvenienced just once. So much snow fell during that blizzard that the government ordered all roads closed – only plows and doctors were allowed on the streets. I think it must have been fun to be stuck at home but I had left the day before and was sitting in London watching the pictures on the news and being truly amazed.

But back to the shoveling issue; shoveling out a long driveway is not fun but we have to get to our cars and also clear the pavement so that folks can walk on it safely. You also have to shovel around your mailbox and hydrant (should you have one) and enlist help to shovel out your elderly neighbor(s) if you have any. Or should I say this is how it was done in 1994. In 2007, we do not seem as neighborly. Many folks don’t bother to clean the pavement outside their house so that folks are forced to walk in the road which makes matters even worse for drivers trying to navigate bad road conditions. Anyway, shoveling so much snow leaves one weary. Doing this over and over and each time trying to lift the snow ever higher over the top of mounting snow banks makes one exhausted and snappish.

For those of you who live in warm climates, you have to realize that it is imperative to shovel the snow promptly otherwise, the cold temperature causes it to freeze. Once it becomes ice, you are in big trouble. In December alone I had two friends who had bad accidents. One broke her ankle and one had severe head concussion both from falling on ice.

Adding to the feeling of hopelessness are the snowplows. No sooner do you clear your way out of the house, then the plows come through to clear the streets. Of course, they plow the street snow right on top of the path you just cleared. This snow is wet and packed down by the plow blade, so it is heavy and a *&^% to lift. The plows come through several times, so you have repeated opportunities to mutter *&^%.

So remember, if you are trying to contact someone in an office or business, or even your own town’s highway department on a snow day, they have just gone through everything you just have and their energy is sapped too. Be polite and remember that we are only three weeks into the winter season. Happy snow plowing, remember to bend your knees when you are shoveling, and to exercise all year – it helps.

My Old Wool Coat

2008-01-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

Story and picture of Smokey courtsey of the author William Coolidge III.

I read this story in the SmallFarmer's Journal, summer 2007, and thought it a wonderful story of compassion and redemption.

After takin’ more than a decade off from deer hunting, I allowed my older son to cajole me into buying a big game license last fall. Naturally, one of the first things I had to do, if I was once again going into the woods in pursuit of the wily whitetail, was get all of my old huntin’ gear together. The rifles, ammo, compass, boots and wool pants were all in fine shape and rarin’ to go, but my ol’ red & black, “buffalo plaid” wool hunting coat had seen better times ~ it was gettin’ a little threadbare in spots, the zipper was ripping out, and besides that, it seemed a tad small on me, after so many years of ‘neglect’! Must’ve shrunk while it was hangin’ in the closet, that’s all I can figure!??

Well, a few days later, in conversation with my mother, I mentioned that I needed to buy a new hunting jacket. At which point she said, “Jeez, Bill, your father’s good Woolrich hunting coat is still hanging in the upstairs closet ~ or, would that be too small on you?”

Now, there’s NO wool coat in the world that I’d rather wear than the one that had belonged to my Dad, but since he had passed away nearly 4 years earlier, I had forgotten all about his coat. Well, Mom dug it out, I tried it on, and it fit like it was custom-made for me ~ I felt as warm and snug as if I was wrapped in my father’s arms.

Thanks to my son, Billy, who had persuaded me to go hunting again, I now had a special treasure in my possession ~ one that otherwise might never have come my way! And, equally as important, it freed up my old wool hunting coat for what was about to take place.

On Veteran’s Day afternoon, my cat, Smokey,

suddenly lost the use of his hindquarters, and began yowling in a strident, high-pitched cry, as if to signal us that he was in a great deal of pain. Now Smoke (a velvety-soft, steel-grey, domestic short hair…. and so much more), was not an old cat, by any means ~ approximately 20 months of age is all he was. But he had sustained some type of injury to his hips the summer before, and after being X-ray’d to confirm that he had no broken bones, the vet put him on Prednisone and he was soon pretty much his old self again. But an observant eye could perceive that he’d always lie down a little awkwardly, that he enjoyed laying under the woodstove (much as an older cat or dog likes to ‘soak up the heat’ into their arthritic joints), and that he definitely had a bit of a “hitch in his git-along.” He loved nothing more than to stretch out on the bed beside me at night, snuggling himself as tightly as he could against my thigh.

So, when I headed down off Rand Hill that Saturday afternoon, takin’ my “ol’ buddy” to the vet, I never had an inkling that it was anything more than another bout of what he’d experienced the previous summer. After a couple of X-rays, however, I received the bad news: Smokey had congestive heart failure (rare in such a young animal), & had ‘thrown a clot’ which lodged in his femoral artery, effectively cutting off most of the circulation, and all of the feeling, in his hind legs.

Thus began 48 hours of tears, prayers, pacing and nail-biting (on our part), and medication, oxygen therapy, electrocardiograms and ultrasounds for Smoke. Although he put up one heck of a valiant fight (in the words of the vet who was treating him, he had “an amazing will”), Smokey passed away, peacefully, 2 days later.

So, on a gray, rainy Monday afternoon in mid-November, I wrapped myself in the wool coat I’d “inherited” from my father, then wrapped my four-legged best friend in my old wool coat and laid him to rest in one of his favorite places in this world ~ right beneath our bird feeder!

Two final thoughts: To the wonderfully-compassionate veterinarian who went ‘above and beyond’ in her efforts to save my beloved cat, I offer yet another heart-felt “Thank you!”

And, regarding hunting season: I think that it’s over for me, at least for the foreseeable future. I just don’t think I could bring myself to take the life of an animal now ~ and, I seriously question whether I ever will again…. [In retrospect, that’s OK, though; for if Smoke, in his passing, saved the lives of others in the animal kingdom, then he did not die in vain.]

PittieLove Rescue, Framingham, MA

2008-01-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

After Best Friends my favorite organization in the entire United States is PittieLove Rescue and this is why I nominate them for any kind of kudos that is out there.

PittieLove Rescue Inc. is an all volunteer 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to finding wonderful forever homes for Pit bulls and Pit bull mixes that may not have had the best start in life. They have placed over 100 Pit bulls into loving homes since 2005; a truly remarkable feat. If we had a “rescue dogs” award they would win it hands down. Many of their dogs come from shelters where their time is running short or where staff wants to be sure the dog is placed responsibly. They also work with other rescue organizations and support Animal Control Officers in Massachusetts who often have Pit bulls in need of loving homes. The organization is run by a dedicated core of volunteers who understand what it means to care for all of the many breeds of dogs that are known collectively as Pit bulls.

The backbone of PittieLove Rescue however is its foster homes which allow them to “custom fit” their dogs to the homes they are going to live in. When PittieLove Rescue accepts a Pit bull these dogs make their way to their temporary home and live a pampered life that many have never experienced before. In this setting much can be learned about the temperament, likes and dislikes, and little quirks a dog may have. (See the story on Lenny updated November 6th) For example, does the dog like cats or other family pets? It’s a great service that they provide along with comfortable beds for the now happy Pit bulls!

What about giving this beautiful dog a home!

**Update 1/11/08**The situation is urgent. This was a much loved dog and then her owner got married and the wife wants her out! There have been no applications at all for her...So, could you open your heart and home??

PittieLove Rescue does all it can as an organization to make sure that Pit bulls get the love and respect they deserve. They attend many events around the New England region where they share their knowledge of Pit Bull type breeds and pass out information to attendees of these events. They often bring adoptable Pit bulls along too to help demonstrate the true nature of their rescued canine companions. They do all of this to educate the public about the remarkable traits of Pit bulls type dogs, their love for people and their clown like personalities. They hope the presence of their dogs will diffuse the hype and myths that are propagated by a media that looks to vilify the very dogs that we all love so much.
I LOVE PITTIELOVE RESCUE!!!!
http://www.pittieloverescue.com/

California's Secession Letter to Bush

2008-01-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

Picture courtsey of Arthur Tsicoulias - freelance photographer. He can be contacted at atsicoulias@copper.net

March 2007
Fm: Ed Flowers (I have no idea who Ed Flowers is or even if he is real but I received it via email)

To: President George Bush

Dear President Bush:

Congratulations on your victory over all us non-evangelicals.
Actually, we’re a bit ticked off here in California, so we’re leaving.
California will now be its own country. And we’re taking all the Blue States with us. In case you are not aware, that includes: Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and all of the North East.

We spoke to God, and she agrees that this shift will be beneficial to almost everybody, and especially to us in the new country of California. In fact, God is so excited about it; she’s going to shift the whole country at 4:30 p.m. EST this Friday. Therefore, please let everyone know they need to be back in their states by then.

So you get Texas and all the former slave states. We get the Governator, stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. (Okay, we have to keep Martha Stewart, we can live with that.) We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft, You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Old Miss.’ we get 85% of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get all the technological innovation in Alabama.

We get about two-thirds of the tax revenue, and you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian coalition’s we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms to support, and we know how much you like that.

Did I mention we produce about 70% of the nation’s veggies? But heck the only greens the Bible-thumpers eat are the pickles on their Big Macs. This means trouble for you, because most of the medical innovation in the U.S. happens in Blue States. Oh yeah, another thing, don’t plan on serving California wine at your state dinners. From now on it’s imported French wine for you. Ouch, bet that hurts.

Just so we’re clear, the country of California will be pro-choice and anti-war. Speaking of war, we’re going to want all Blue Citizens back from Iraq. If you need people to fight, just ask your evangelicals. They have tons of kids they’re willing to send to their deaths for absolutely no purpose. And they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their kids’ caskets coming home.

Anyway, we wish you all the best in the next four years and we hope, really hope, you find those missing weapons of mass destruction. Seriously!
Soon.

Sincerely,

California *Footnote*
We now have another opportunity to vote again - participate - it is important and many folks are

Bread And Puppet Theatre, VT

2008-01-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

Paul Zaloom, The Mother of All Enemies

March - Apri 2007, The puppet show portrayed Karagoz as a gay guy. He is walking around the city of an unnamed country (but obviously Turkey) with his boyfriend when the police arrive (puppets are pink pigs). He is arrested and sits on the bonnet of puppet car and is taken to jail. In jail he starts to flatulent and this flatulence at one point releases a Buttfart Genie who grants him wishes, as many as he wants, as the genie does not know how many he has to give.
So, Karagoz says thank you and doesn’t do much for a day or two and then having forgotten his grant of wishes he strokes his beard and says I wish that there was a hole in the ground that I could crawl through and low and behold a hole opens up but it is dark and so now he needs a flashlight. So he says, “I wish I had a flashlight” and of course he gets one but it is not bright enough and so he says “I really wish I had a stronger flashlight” and of course he gets that too. So, he escapes and he calls his boyfriend on the phone who says “don’t come because the house is surrounded by police” and so Karagoz asks himself what he should do and he says “I wish I was in a land of the free and lo” and behold a small plane appears and he starts flying to the U.S. but the place runs out of fuel and he lands in the middle of an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan and when the leader asks him where he is going he is about to say to find a boyfriend when he decides that maybe this is not the best thing to say and he says he is on the way to the land of the free and the brave and they say, “Oh, wonderful we will help you and can you take this briefcase to the lady in green” and he says fine.

They fuel up his plane and (I cannot exactly remember what happens next) but he is in a boat in the harbor of NYC near the lady and the coast guard arrive and ask him where he is from and he said from Pakistan and then of course he is surrounded by more coast guards and sniffing dogs and the sniffing dog here the tick tock of a bomb and it blows up blowing the head off the dog and the audience all sigh!!!!! Then Paul (the puppet master) ran around to the front of the stage and said what do you mean by sighing it is just a puppet dog and what about me you don’t care I have Carpal Tunnel in my hands from the puppets. And then he goes off about emails he has been receiving from army recruiters who want him to join the army and this back and forth conversation goes on until he sends them an email asking them about there don’t Ask, don’t tell policy and he says “of course, I am not saying whether I am or not” and that was the end of their recruitment effort of him. So back to the puppet play

Karagoz somehow ends up the Christian right part of American and the leader of one particular group while espousing all the correct garbage is really gay and tries to pick him up in a bar….Well the long and the short is he ends up back in jail in Turkey and he is visited by his Buttfart Genie who complains that most people would have wished for money, or a house, or car, or something sensible but not Karagoz he wishes for a flash flight and then a bigger flashlight, etc. etc. He starts flatulenting again and this time out comes, not a genie but the army recruiter who was trying to get him to join the army and has taken a fancy to him.

How does the story end? Paul had no idea. He said, “I really don’t have an end for this story it just like our current situation…we went into it unclear how to get out and so I thought I would give you a choice of three endings’

It was SOOOOOOOOO funny!

They will be back at the BCA Feb 7 - 12, 2008 with The Divine Reality Comedy

http://www.theatermania.o/ or 866-811-4111

Lang Lang

2008-01-09T16:04:00.001-08:00

Nov. 9, 2003, I had the privilege to hear Lang Lang perform at Jordan Hall. I was a little reluctant to go because I had read a New York Times article earlier in the week that said he was over extending himself. All the major orchestra's of the world have "found" him and all want him to perform with them. As a result, the article said his latest performance seemed rather tired. On top of this, he had performed at Carnegie Hall on the previous night and then came straight to Boston. However, I was not disappointed. On the contrary, this was the best classical concert I have been to, bar none. There was just Lang Lang and a piano on the stage. At the inter-mission the crowd gave him a standing ovation. If you know anything about Boston audiences, you will know that this is a rarity.

The program was very varied including Schumann, Hayden, Schubert, Tan Dun, Chopin and Liszt. If the first half was good, we hadn't seen anything yet. For the second half Lang Lang changed into a bright fuchsia pink silk shirt and set to business. The first piece was Tan
Dun's Eight Memories in Watercolor, Opus 1, of which four pieces (Staccato Beans, Herdboy's Song, Blue Nun, and Sunrain) were based on old Chinese folksongs. It is said that when Tan Dun first heard Lang Lang play his Floating Clouds at a New Year Eve's party a couple of years ago, he was awestruck. He said he could smell the earth of his homeland when Lang Lang played and it inspired him to think of where he came from and where he was going. These pieces were very varied in tone from medium to fast pace. From there he went straight to Chopin's Nocturne in D-Flat Major, Opus 27, a serenely slow piece of work. This was one of the best rendering I have ever heard of this piece. The audience appeared to have stopped breathing. There was no coughing, no rustling of paper or movement in the seats, just dead silence - completely. Lang Lang's performance captured all the human essence that is embedded in this piece and indeed the performance was in the true sense of the word, magical. It was so heartbreakingly lovely in its rendition that it brought tears to ones eyes and bear in mind that Lang Lang is just 21 years of age.

He then launched into Liszt's Reminiscences of Don Juan. Nothing he played before could have prepared us for what followed - his intensity, his verve, his breathtakingly fast speed, his passion, he bounced up and down on the seat, and I swear if he could have moved the piano he would (actually I am surprised it did not move by itself), he was unstoppable. What did it feel like; well it was like racing through New York City at 100 miles an hour. swerving to avoid traffic, jumping over obstacles, hitting pot holes, braking abruptly at the Hudson, falling in, being fished out, shaken dry and going off again. In short it was an exhausting and awe inspiring experience.

After two standing ovations he brought out his father, Guo-ren Lang, who played a two-string instrument called the erhu, which is the most popular and typical of the traditional Chinese string instruments and is highly versatile. Lang Lang played the piano while his father played the erhu. It was interesting to hear the merging of eastern and western music and instruments. Then there were two more standing ovations and Lang Lang came out and played another piece. He definitely has stage presence and the audience loved him. I hope you get the opportunity to see him perform.

Lang Lang was born in Shenyang, the birthplace of Seiji Ozawa, who was born there during the Japan occupation of Manchuria.

Just Give Up that Car

2008-01-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

Just Give Up That Car

Letters to Editor, Ode to Possibilities: WimWenders artice , December 2007. http://www.odemagazine.com/

Back in April 2007, in one of the usual late spring snow storms that are a source of complete irritation to New Englanders, I slipped on ice that some folks were shoveling from the pavement on to the road. My car was completely totaled. I recall my sense of relief and remembered thinking “I’m free at last.”

I knew that to replace the car would require a very conscious decision on my part and one that I could not make in light of global warming. Even though the actions of 97% of the population are ignoring it no matter, one times one, times one, etc, is the way that social change occurs.

It is now December and the benefits that I have derived from giving up my car are incalculable and also unexpected. I walk 2-1/4 miles to work every day and then there are trips around town. In quite a short time my cholesterol dropped to the point I was taken off medication. I found that when my friends would complain about the cold weather I didn’t feel it, I assume my circulation must have improved; I eat less because I find that I no longer want to eat until I am bloated. In short I feel really energetic and alive! Those benefits would be enough on their own but there is more.

Choices have to be made about what I buy as I have to carry it, so I no longer buy bottled water or canned goods because of their weight and/or bulk. I decided to grow my own vegetables at a farm that is eight miles away and can be reached by train. Since it is a working farm I also buy my eggs and meat their too. I directly see how my food is being raised; the amount of waste I generate is greatly reduced; in particular plastic bags as the farms don’t have any.

When I had a car I was always in hurry, I assume because a car represents speed. I would race home from work and be home by 4:15 p.m. and wonder what now! Now I get to fewer places but it makes no difference to my overall life. In fact, because of walking instead of traveling by car, I recently found a wonderful independent coffee shop and a great yoga studio. As I walk, I hear the birds sing and see kids on their bikes and sometimes coyote, raccoons, spotted turtles, and blue heron. I don’t get irritated by the traffic and am not in a hurry, since the bus takes the time it does and my feet walk as fast as they can. I am much more relaxed. In short the world looks completely different traveling it on foot. You too should try it sometime. It is really not the big deal that you think and with a few adjustments, I doubt that your life would be too impacted either and plant earth would say a big Thank You! .