Growing old haiku



spring of youth in mist
a hot summer thirsty lad
quench.  he who knows love





Looming death

A child patiently stalked by a vulture, via deeplythinking
Do read the accompanying article at deeply thinking. To settle your curiosity somewhat, you could conclude that death himself took the picture.

Update*

Then again, some of the comments here put a different light on it.


A heist in plain sight, or the underminding of international monetary systems?

Jorgovanka Tabakovic: "I'm stubborn!"


This just in: Serbia, the country where the prime minister appoints the head of the national bank from the ranks of his own party.. Plus, the former head of the bank quit over new policies which would put the bank under parliament supervision..which according to 'sources' may be an issue because policy stability cannot be guaranteed, nor the independence from government or other, corporate, influences..

So what do you do to counter that?

The new head just tells all to relax and trust her because she is stubborn and won't be bossed around. And then, same article in the most esteemed Serbian newspaper Politika, some random anonymous elderly rural person is quoted saying to an official

"son, had we looked for her we wouldn't have found her, but we prayed to the lord, and we got her. I hope she'll be the best we ever had".

So when on one hand you have the likes of the EU, IMF, the Royal Bank of Scotland and so on..and the other the Serbian parliament and an elderly old man...

Which one is it... a heist in plain sight, or the undermining of international monetary systems?

Both.

In the sense that the people are going to get robbed either way, but Serbia might not share.


Liar



When did I lose my heart
I can’t remember when I lost my heart
Oh have you seen, what it looked like?
I can’t remember, How it felt like.

As the neon lights rape the dark
You’ll do better when the sun is up
The beast will stay in bed
You lie again in bed

Who can help a puppet
Begging for a life
yet holding the ropes
always holding the ropes

Who can help a blind man
To see the sun again
If he can’t feel the sun
If he can’t feel the warmth

A magician pulling tricks
At his own expense
I’m telling you it’s real
My word to you it’s real

The jury’s out for life
The jury’s around the corner
The jury’s in your head
Life in a courtroom

And it slips my mind

Who can help a puppet
Begging for a life
while holding the ropes
always holding the ropes

Who can help a blind man
To see the sun again
If he can’t feel the sun
If he can’t feel the warmth

Swan Sounds W10, SHEARWATER










The Austin, TX based band just released their latest LP Animal Joy, and I am oh so glad to report that it's thing of beauty!

What is it that nails it for me?
Well, I'm only occasionally drawn in by the lyrics.. as a non-native speaker the content of the vocals often just passes me by either because: the accents are too thick,  the content too culturally loaded, because I can't relate, or because I'm not really intrigued by or in any way favorably disposed toward the vocalist.(some might envy me, as this means I can occasionally enjoy a band like Limp Bizkit). whatever it may be, the conclusion is the same.. I take vocals mostly as instruments, rather than messages. And then out of the blue, someone like Jonathan Meiburg establishes himself as someone worth taking notice of.. someone worth reading into...
and the rest is, as they say, soup!

No idea how it sparked but I've learned  he's got a Ba in English, did a minor in religion, won a fellowship grant and visited: OZ, Falkland Islands, New Zealand, an Inuit colony and had his life changed by those experiences. These two videos help a bit to bring it home:

(1) what inspires the content of their songs
(2) fragments of Jonathan's Falkland Island experience (there are 5 episodes and they give a great impression of their Rook LP)

Now, I've been thinking about what should come first.. me giving you the taste of the music, or giving the context first.. Sure, fact is I was drawn to them by the melodies, by his voice and the somehow genuine feel of it all. But as you know, emotions rarely travel alone and the more there are the more they will overwhelm you! So, I imagine you might get properly into  it if you, like me, connect to the guy's journey and sincerity, his eloquence and his comely, calm presence.. and through it all the manner in which he deals with the richness of experience life throws at him.

Being somewhat of a seasoned cynic and hermit myself I find this full on appreciation of nature (birds in particular), and his adventurous spirit somehow tangible and appealing, and perhaps most importantly, stirring! The fact that he studied religion was a plus because it made me curious about his orientation... If you look at the videos it seems somewhat evident, perhaps casual.. hard to tell.


Anyway.. here are some personal favorites...(I just picked the first four songs on my playlist that I remember hitting home at once) try to "get" the lyrics if you like.. try to connect the dots.. the exercise makes the value, in my  opinion, settle that much deeper..but to be fair.. it  is often abstract, cryptic.. takes quite some effort..and you might end up just being puzzled..and given the fair of amount of deviations between the transcripts, you'd be one more to feel frustrated.. but hey whatever, it's about the journey...













p.s.


Whatever happened to  the swan sounds, why so few? Well the unsettling truth is that I've dropped the ball a bit on this one, and don't necessarily intend to change that..as sparse as the updates are, they are heartfelt, and that to me takes priority over quantity. You can, however, subscribe to my posts and skip that "check the blog" business and receive a notification (and a full copy) of all my latest post (See top right corner of the blog). I won't be able to see who subscribes by the way, so don't let your paranoia take over and piss and moan about abuse of data.




Atheism 2.0! Hm.





















Yeah I've been "not at it", whatever, happy new year.

An old friend of mine told me  the other day that I don't really know what I want. She was referring to me being on and off of fachehbookka. Granted.
Fortunately later on in our conversation we also were able to conclude that it wasn't a symptom of a larger issue, that is, "really not knowing what I want", rather... an offshoot.. very much like my cartoons addiction, it functions.. though it would be better if it didn't. Actually, I don't know.

Anyway, here's something I do know.. I'm not an atheist.
Though you wouldn't be able to tell if you spent a month with me, toilet calls and all.. I have no formal acknowledgment of the deity routine.....On the outside that is. On the inside, whole different thing.. me and Daddy Universe, God.. we talk, straight up. Well.. I talk.. what's my point..?

I watched a Ted talk today, by a disarmingly eloquent Britt (of Swiss origin) called Alain de Botton.. he was talking about atheism 2.0.. the short of it was.."atheists aren't all particularly good at being great people with admirable morale and character, and if these didn't want to remain in the influence sphere's of Walmart and CNN, they could take a clue from (organized) religion (institutions), because they're on to something". Well he could have said that about religious people just as well.. but allright. For an atheist, he did understand the benefits of religion quite well.. actually, better than I do. A-ha.

Three things struck me about his talk.
Number 1.. like a true atheist he started off by saying, and I quote
"of course there's no god, of course there are no deities or supernatural spirits or angels etc. now let's move on"

He went on, but I didn't.. for a minute I needed to process the bluntness of it. I haven't heard anyone say it quite like that.. I know that mumbling attention whore Dawkins spews all sort of manure over Christian's & co, but I haven't had people say it like they really mean it before. Dawkin's is too self absorbed and intellectually flimsy to be taken seriously.. but this man.. ooof... he went straight for my jingles by being effortlessly indifferent about the effect of those words. Where a chump like Dawkins (I have a score to settle with him) would take his glasses off, pause, bow his head while frowning meaningfully, and then proceed to spew red and yellow confetti vomit in the face of all those transfixed with the drama & spectacle of it all.. this guy put it in front of a point much larger. To him at least.

Brilliant. Though again it...it simply does nothing to me just yet. We cool Daddy.

2nd thing that struck me was the shot just after de Botton jokingly said that, as I quoted earlier, Walmart and CNN guided those in the spiritual wasteland that is Atheism.. I can imagine that those who were favorably inclined to his rhetoric up to that point would be the atheists..and they'd laugh..and surely, some did.. so did I...but I suspected there were some more seriously religious folks attending as well, try to spot a few in the screen shot below (click on image or here for a larger version):



Or are they just atheists who can't take this particular joke..? You make your mind up. My favorite is the blonde woman just above the man with the yellowish/whitish shirt in the middle.. or the one below him for that matter... in fact.. I can only spot two generously laughing people here.. Hm?

Brings me to the third thing that struck me. There WERE seriously religious people in the room..plenty of them as it turns out.. As the master of ceremony took the stage to thank Alain, he also asked a few questions and polled how many people, in whose lives religion played an important part, were present.. My second favorite, and another obvious one (the girl on the far left) raised their hand.. and I'd, conservatively, estimate around a third of the people did. But not my favorite one from above.. . I wonder how many were too scared to admit after such a confident bashing. Either way, what struck me about it is that I assumed from the beginning that there weren't going to be too many of them. Hm. Of course they were going to be there.. I know I would.. I'd want to know what the state of atheism was... according to a TED talker... proper night out..

The point being, it's become increasingly difficult for me to keep in mind I'm not isolated, since I don't take kindly to organized religion..it's not how I was brought up, and I have come to value (and understand the benefits of) that attitude quite a while ago...

But consider this...in this day and age.. it took an atheist to point out to me, and this was Alain's central point, that there is something to it.. sharing the habits, customs, and company of those like minded.... it has benefits.

And while I'm too stubborn (or is it obtuse & thematically lethargic)  to do something about it, it was a terribly nice message to witness.