Episode I - The Pumpkin Singers. Where The People sing the ceremonial Pumpkin Song to disturb The Monster and the good citizens of Great Barrington Massachusetts.
Episode II: The TailGators. Where Loopy Len and Dutiful Dana explore the mysteries of the magic parking lot and The Church.
Episode III: Sailing on the Golden River
A beautiful voice sings a beautiful song. If you have it to give, send a few shekels to the Guthrie Center. They feed the poor, help the needy and put on the best concerts in the northeast. And they need HEAT!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Thursday, October 08, 2009
This Little Light of Mine
This nation needs a rebirth. It has lost its soul. - Jim Flynn
Lost? Misplaced in my opinion. The soul of America is no longer to be found in the malls, in the megaconcerts, or even in a lot of town halls. It has retreated into the small places where neighbors are still helping neighbors, cleaning up after storms, taking children to school, singing in the church choirs, in short, to quote my wife, "choosing to be family".
Globally, economically and militarily we are mightily messed up at the moment. We did that to ourselves. Our fathers did it too. We almost recovered and then we let the city on the hill hawks lead us again and when we let the stupid rise to power, we pay because once in, they are tediously difficult to root out.
Choose your family. Choose to be with them. Watch the nefarious and don’t let your own need for significance blind you to the harm they do. Vote cautiously and often. Buy local. Read the lyrics to the songs your children listen to.
Give a damm but not a dime. Evolve your way. The nation is not due for rebirth. Our soul is intact. The universe sings to us. We quit listening.
Why? Someone trying to make a bigger buck told us we had to belong to a party, a cause or a hair club and we bought it.
Our soul is right where it’s always been in the small places where the chosen gather for the joy of being together, to be family.
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
The Trickster
Photo Credit: Arlo GuthrieTrickster is at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and who is always duped himself. He wills nothing consciously. At all times he is constrained to behave as he does from impulses over which he has no control. He knows neither good nor evil yet he is responsible for both. He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being. - Paul Radin
Again, knowledge cannot be aggregated into a single ruling body." John Papola
That quote from Papola isn’t precisely true. It is actually a limit on tracking identified resources in real time, that is, kinds, types and precision converted to actionable intelligence. The entire focus of web/Internet design has been to increase the precision given real time feeds.
No, you can’t know what goes on inside a human mind but you can observe, record and analyze speech acts. So trying to use human purposefulness as a defense or offense is to hide behind the rat hole of intensionality. You can know enough to make locally rational decisions.
To provide investors and other control mavens such information, you’ve been steadily and eagerly giving up your privacy and submitting to a 365 x 24 x 7 surveillance society. You did it for your convenience, fun and need to increase your self-perceived significance. By the very same game rules for markets, you are now hostage to the business models of IBM, Oracle/Sun, Microsoft, Apple and so on where next year’s profits rely absolutely on increasing your use and submission to the very technologies that provide that transparency.
After almost two decades of crying in the wilderness about this, my best advice is find a little place full of good people where you are secure with whatever your ambitions are and adapt.
Feed the trolls whatever will cause them to evolve. You can use the greed of others to modify their behaviors. That is the role of The Trickster.
Eat more rabbits.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Apple: Rouge The Corpse
When Apple ripped off Gary Lewis and The Playboys for the music to their new commercial, the emerging crack in their brand became obvious.
Cultural archaeology is one way to get ideas but at least rouge the corpse.
Cultural archaeology is one way to get ideas but at least rouge the corpse.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Ballad of Rip Van Freaker
I was riding home from Woodstock
Tokin' on a spliff
When my psychedelic hippie van
Went flying over a cliff
Maybe it was the hand of God
That bent time in a wrinkle
I'd slept like a dog for forty years
A modern Rip Van Winkle
So I hitched a ride to the nearest town
To see what I had missed
And oh man what a bummer
2009 is this
TV is a picture hanging on the wall
Women dress like men
But the men don't care at all
Underwear is advertised
Where everyone can see
Gasoline is expensive
But pornography is free
Milk will give you cancer
Water is a snack
The cars are made of plastic
The president is black
The Chinese are our bankers
Ho Chi Minh's our friend
And Arlo Guthrie's a Republican
The criminals go on talking tours
While preachers go to jail
They'll take your right to own a gun
But ammo's still for sale
A hunter needs a license
But an animal can sue
With the whole world turning upside down
What's a freakin man to do
The hippie thing is all messed up
A long hair just can't win
And Arlo Guthrie's a Republican
The Russians fly our astronauts
To an international station
While the United States of America
Becomes a third world nation
Good men just can't find a job
While bad ones still get rich
Some things keep on keepin on
And Brother, that's a bitch
Designer drugs are legal
But reefer's still a sin
And Arlo Guthrie's a Republican
I wasn’t sure how it all went down
I was sure I didn’t care
We’d had it right in 69
And now we’re running scared?
I prepared to hide my love away
When a voice said, “No kid, Wait!
You can’t change their wicked ways
But you can infiltrate!”
And that was what I needed to hear
The Revolution is style
Before the next election
Put an R beside a smile
"What’s in a name?" a poet asked
When your heart comes marching in
Singing “Arlo Guthrie’s a Republican.”
Urge for Going: The Weird Ways of What Comes To Us
Most references to this song I see on the web cite Joni Mitchell who authored it but apparently didn't record it or Tom Paxton who recorded it and some say made it famous.
I'd never heard of either of them when I learned it in 1967 although I saw Joni's name as the author on the RCA 45 produced by Chet Atkins and performed by George Hamilton IV. The funny bit is that I learned it on solo guitar and couldn't reproduce the Atkins arrangement so by the time I played it, my part sounded like Joni. It's still one of my favorites to play this time of the year. My old 45 is not playable so I'm glad to find this, though now I prefer Joni's version from a live Canadian TV show on YouTube. Still, it's fun to hear this again. I wonder if I had heard the others if I would have attempted it.
I'd never heard of either of them when I learned it in 1967 although I saw Joni's name as the author on the RCA 45 produced by Chet Atkins and performed by George Hamilton IV. The funny bit is that I learned it on solo guitar and couldn't reproduce the Atkins arrangement so by the time I played it, my part sounded like Joni. It's still one of my favorites to play this time of the year. My old 45 is not playable so I'm glad to find this, though now I prefer Joni's version from a live Canadian TV show on YouTube. Still, it's fun to hear this again. I wonder if I had heard the others if I would have attempted it.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Getting To No Me
Are you tired of answering Facebook quizzes designed to help your friends help the marketing departments of the companies that pay Facebook to pester you with these questionnaires? Consider them an opportunity to throw mustard on their spyglasses.
Getting to No Me
1. What time did you get up this morning? 3:15AM. Ask me when I went back to bed.
2. How do you like your steak? I take roses to the pasture.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Butter on the seat cushion.
4. What is your favorite TV show? A form of entertainment.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? As long as I'm breathing, I'm there.
6. What did you have for breakfast? My health.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? I don't date relatives.
8. What foods do you dislike? Humans. They are too salty.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? Wherever she sets the table.
10. Favorite dressing? Blue jeans.
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? The kind that run on gas.
12. What are your favorite clothes? Loose.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? The 23 century... meet Jane Jetson.
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Which side?
15. Where would you want to retire? Off the interstate. OTW, one gets run over.
16. Favorite time of day? Quitting time.
17. Where were you born? Next to Mom.
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Bingo.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Kelly.
20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Kelly.
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Kelly.
22. Bird watcher? Poll watcher.
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm a might person.
24. Do you have any pets? Kelly. Almost trained.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Whatever you report.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? Bigger.
27. What is your best childhood memory? My children standing at the window when I came home.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? I'm a Batman.
29. Are you married? I'm not your type.
30. Always wear your seat belt? Only in the car. It chafes in the shower.
31. Been in a car accident? I hiked to the top of one once.
32. Any pet peeves? No. Peeves is a house servant.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Cash.
34. Favorite Flower? Martha White Self-Rising.
35. Favorite ice cream? Frozen.
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Our kitchen.
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Only once, but I found the bug and recompiled.
38. From whom did you get your last email? Ethiopia.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Don't they have their own?
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? I regenerated my liver.
41. Like your job? Almost as much as Noah.
42. Broccoli? Didn't he make Bond movies?
43. What was your favorite vacation? When we moved out of my old apartment.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Me.
45. What are you listening to right now? Oh Happy Days. It's stuck in my head.
46. What is your favorite color? Petunia.
47. How many tattoos do you have? All of them.
49. What time did you finish this quiz? Quitting time.
50. Coffee? I never rent.
Getting to No Me
1. What time did you get up this morning? 3:15AM. Ask me when I went back to bed.
2. How do you like your steak? I take roses to the pasture.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Butter on the seat cushion.
4. What is your favorite TV show? A form of entertainment.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? As long as I'm breathing, I'm there.
6. What did you have for breakfast? My health.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? I don't date relatives.
8. What foods do you dislike? Humans. They are too salty.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? Wherever she sets the table.
10. Favorite dressing? Blue jeans.
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? The kind that run on gas.
12. What are your favorite clothes? Loose.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? The 23 century... meet Jane Jetson.
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Which side?
15. Where would you want to retire? Off the interstate. OTW, one gets run over.
16. Favorite time of day? Quitting time.
17. Where were you born? Next to Mom.
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Bingo.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Kelly.
20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Kelly.
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Kelly.
22. Bird watcher? Poll watcher.
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm a might person.
24. Do you have any pets? Kelly. Almost trained.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Whatever you report.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? Bigger.
27. What is your best childhood memory? My children standing at the window when I came home.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? I'm a Batman.
29. Are you married? I'm not your type.
30. Always wear your seat belt? Only in the car. It chafes in the shower.
31. Been in a car accident? I hiked to the top of one once.
32. Any pet peeves? No. Peeves is a house servant.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Cash.
34. Favorite Flower? Martha White Self-Rising.
35. Favorite ice cream? Frozen.
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Our kitchen.
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Only once, but I found the bug and recompiled.
38. From whom did you get your last email? Ethiopia.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Don't they have their own?
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? I regenerated my liver.
41. Like your job? Almost as much as Noah.
42. Broccoli? Didn't he make Bond movies?
43. What was your favorite vacation? When we moved out of my old apartment.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Me.
45. What are you listening to right now? Oh Happy Days. It's stuck in my head.
46. What is your favorite color? Petunia.
47. How many tattoos do you have? All of them.
49. What time did you finish this quiz? Quitting time.
50. Coffee? I never rent.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Undisputed Truth
You can watch 24 x 7 x 365 violence on Spike TV, or watch YouTube for the undisputed truth. It will be fun to read the defenders of laissez faire business models argue about this.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Where There Is Sadness, Joy!
This is the beautiful and ever inspiring Burns Sisters. With the passing of Mary Travers and the resurgence of racism and hatred in America, take a moment to listen to a prayer for joy.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Mama Told Me Not To Come
Want some whiskey in your water?
Sugar in your tea?
Whats all these crazy questions theyre askin me?
This is the craziest party that could ever be
Dont turn on the lights cause I dont wanna see
Mama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come
She said that aint the way to have fun, son
That aint the way to have fun, son
As the days of protest ground on in the Sixties, it got louder, noisier, nuttier and finally the cities were on fire.
Anyone up for a repeat of that except this time without the good music?
Not moi. Some pointers:
1. The tea baggers are Americans. They have the right to protest. One may not agree with their signs but then we did ourselves no favors with the Sarah Palin bashing and the Hillary Clinton bashing. Don't say it's not the same. It's EXACTLY the same.
2. The tea baggers have some points to make. Listen to them. If you can refute those points calmly and with facts, do so. Otherwise, DO NOT ENGAGE. This is critical. Having both sides throwing gas on a log fire is bound to set the forests ablaze. Everyone will lose.
3. Change doesn't come without discomfort. These people are scared. They should be. The forces out there who are pouring money into these campaigns are doing their best to scare them. Before calling them ignorant, racist rednecks, take a look at those cool cats on Wall Street and in the multi-nationals paying the big money to scare them.
4. Some of these people are racists. That's a fact. It is a disease and it will never be vanquished as long as there are differences to fear however stupidly. Calling them that won't change it. Worse, many of them, in fact the majority are not racists. Save that tag for when someone's civil rights are being denied them. The race card is too important to play it when all the other side has is a pair of deuces. Worse, it is incindiary. It sets a fire that won't be easily put out. Save it for the real thing.
Stay cool. Learn the facts. Answer the charges with the facts. Most of those people are good people upset and scared but determined. In their minds and hearts they believe they have to stand up for America. Let them know you are marching with them wherever our freedoms are threatened. Use reason and calm presentation to show them their freedoms are in fact not being threatened.
Don't surrender to your rage. As the rabbi said, an eye for eye leaves us all blind.
Friday, September 11, 2009
On 9/11
I was pulling into the parking lot at Intergraph when the DJ said a plane had struck the WTC. Because our business was 911 systems and a pilot had explained the scenario to me years earlier while we were flying into Reagan, I suspected this was the one predicted.
I also knew our business was suddenly solid gold.
It was a terrible feeling so instead of watching the TV with the others, I went to my desk to remove from our web pages the name of a colleague who had died from heart attack a month earlier. I walked down the hall in time to see the second tower collapse. A lady in the room said, "What happened to the firemen that ran in there?" and I said, "They're dead. You just watched them die."
It was macabre.
The irony is some of us who are analysts began the research into how our systems could be used to protect us. As a result, Intergraph Public Safety would become a sub to Lockheed for New York/New Jersey MTA and today, that is newsworthy on ABC.
You can know what will happen, what to do, try to do it and fail. The usual meme is you learn from your mistakes. That isn't always true for reasons I won't go into here and now because even if you believe me, it won't make a damm bit of difference.
I also knew our business was suddenly solid gold.
It was a terrible feeling so instead of watching the TV with the others, I went to my desk to remove from our web pages the name of a colleague who had died from heart attack a month earlier. I walked down the hall in time to see the second tower collapse. A lady in the room said, "What happened to the firemen that ran in there?" and I said, "They're dead. You just watched them die."
It was macabre.
The irony is some of us who are analysts began the research into how our systems could be used to protect us. As a result, Intergraph Public Safety would become a sub to Lockheed for New York/New Jersey MTA and today, that is newsworthy on ABC.
You can know what will happen, what to do, try to do it and fail. The usual meme is you learn from your mistakes. That isn't always true for reasons I won't go into here and now because even if you believe me, it won't make a damm bit of difference.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Hitler Was Obsessed
Some say the web is killing mainstream entertainment. Some say, "GOOD!!"
All I know is the web is starting to deliver entertainment waaaay funnier than anything on cable these days. Thanks to Danny Ayers for posting this on Facebook.
All I know is the web is starting to deliver entertainment waaaay funnier than anything on cable these days. Thanks to Danny Ayers for posting this on Facebook.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Do You Wanta Date My Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie
I gotta love this video. a) she was born in my hometown which means nothing but hey, go with it and b) it's funny.
Every season has its Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini hit. This song and video is that for this season.
Every season has its Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini hit. This song and video is that for this season.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Domine Iesu; the MP3
I finished demoing a piece for a Lent service next year, Domine Iesu.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~cbullard/mp3/DomineIesu.mp3
This is the first religious piece I've written specifically for a mass in Latin. Latin confounds some ears, so here are the lyrics translated:
and the English translation:
The first two lines are known as the Jesus Prayer from Egypt originally and later adopted into a Greek tradition according to Wikipedia.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~cbullard/mp3/DomineIesu.mp3
This is the first religious piece I've written specifically for a mass in Latin. Latin confounds some ears, so here are the lyrics translated:
Domine Iesu, Christe fili dei,
Miserere mei, peccatoris
Kyrie eleison,
Christe eleison
Miserere, Domine
Domine Iesu, Amen.
and the English translation:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Have mercy on me, the sinner
Lord have mercy,
Christ have mercy
Have mercy, Oh Lord
Lord Jesus, Amen
The first two lines are known as the Jesus Prayer from Egypt originally and later adopted into a Greek tradition according to Wikipedia.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
License Costs for Open Government Systems
As the Obama administration proceeds with the open government initiatives, a laudable effort in and of itself, I wonder what their plans are to cope with the ever rising costs for licensing third party content such as map data.
http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/06/08/data-transparency-via-datagov/
There are different licensing agreements for data that is inward facing and outward facing and different cost structures. Are these initiatives in the name open systems, a la cloud systems, accounting for the ever rising costs of deploying copyright information licensened for internal use originally?
The cloud may be open but it isn't free. IBM and Oracle won't tell you that.
http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/06/08/data-transparency-via-datagov/
There are different licensing agreements for data that is inward facing and outward facing and different cost structures. Are these initiatives in the name open systems, a la cloud systems, accounting for the ever rising costs of deploying copyright information licensened for internal use originally?
The cloud may be open but it isn't free. IBM and Oracle won't tell you that.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
For Iran and the World
A post from Arlo Guthrie at Arlo.Net:
For Neda
You guys wearing sacred clothing, holding the Holy Koran in hand, while your thugs beat, maim and kill your fathers, brothers, sisters & mothers - Yeah you guys (if you're reading this) - You have shown the entire world that you would sacrifice your own children for your temporary authority over them even as you KNOW you will grow old and pass away, and they will live to create a world of their own. The only question is how many will perish before you come to your senses or stand before your creator... How much blood will be spilt before your shame overcomes you and you shed tears for forgiveness? If the power of your authority comes only from clubs and guns, what does that say of your God? It would be better to have no faith than to have as little as yours... adg
P.S. Same goes for any nation anywhere, anytime (including ours) when tyrants cover the rotting stench of their cold dying hearts with the outward appearance of holiness.
For Neda
Sunday, June 21, 2009
On The Other Side
My brother, Michael made this video as a tribute to our Dad.
We'll pick again on the other side. I miss you, Daddy.
We'll pick again on the other side. I miss you, Daddy.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Devastating
As I read blogs from those who like to put "Hussein" as their middle name (upper middle class white kids who grew up on the right side of the tracks) criticizing the American response to 9/11, I find I am torn between my own criticism of the Bush Administration and the horror of that day.
So now I keep this photo taken by my son on his trip to New York to remind why devastating events shared all over the world tend toward over reactions.
Now let's look at the other side because from that event we went to this event and the clustering to both ends of the whipping stick is going fractal fast.
If the left keeps trying to replenish their endorphin high from the election just as the right is going calculating cold, polished chisels in Karnak are going to be scraping Obama's legacies off the temple walls faster than you can say Akhenaten.
I am not a Democrat or Republican, left or right in this analysis. I am a behaviorist and any behavioral strategist be they Axelrod or Rove can tell you this is a game of percentages of stimuli fed into the press amplifier. All those "Husseins" are playing the game plan of the very forces they wish to defeat. The defeat of Laura Hall should be a bell ringing. You are the other end of the same stick that walked into the Holocaust Museum and shot a man dead. It's a waste.
So now I keep this photo taken by my son on his trip to New York to remind why devastating events shared all over the world tend toward over reactions.
Now let's look at the other side because from that event we went to this event and the clustering to both ends of the whipping stick is going fractal fast.
If the left keeps trying to replenish their endorphin high from the election just as the right is going calculating cold, polished chisels in Karnak are going to be scraping Obama's legacies off the temple walls faster than you can say Akhenaten.
I am not a Democrat or Republican, left or right in this analysis. I am a behaviorist and any behavioral strategist be they Axelrod or Rove can tell you this is a game of percentages of stimuli fed into the press amplifier. All those "Husseins" are playing the game plan of the very forces they wish to defeat. The defeat of Laura Hall should be a bell ringing. You are the other end of the same stick that walked into the Holocaust Museum and shot a man dead. It's a waste.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Am I in Alabama?
Reading some of the snarky comments about Alabama having a symphony on Facebook, I try to stay civil, as in not restart the War of the Northern Aggression. Still one can't not recognize the quirks. Two true examples of life in the Heart of Dixie:
1. From the news, a local school principal disciplined a student with an uncivil name and then slapped the kid on the back of the head. The next day the kid's father was arrested and immediately released for going to the school and whipping the principal's uncivil behind.
2. My ex-boss at Intergraph was in India recently and visited a temple with another friend. A temple priest asked to be allowed to bless them. When he reached out to place his palm on the fellow's forehead to give the blessing, my ex-boss high fived him.
Ok, but we have excellent symphonies.
1. From the news, a local school principal disciplined a student with an uncivil name and then slapped the kid on the back of the head. The next day the kid's father was arrested and immediately released for going to the school and whipping the principal's uncivil behind.
2. My ex-boss at Intergraph was in India recently and visited a temple with another friend. A temple priest asked to be allowed to bless them. When he reached out to place his palm on the fellow's forehead to give the blessing, my ex-boss high fived him.
Ok, but we have excellent symphonies.
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