zealot live fugees

Michael Franti: Hey World (Don't Give Up)

Maybe..

..I should be a lawyer. I'm really digging on Constitutional Law and the interplay between the Feds and the States. Hmmm nerrrrrrdy.

But it's not as wholesome. And, I'd be arguing all the time. I'd rather create and build with others. I like to share and play nicely. Is this possible in Law? Is this possible in anything any more?

Loving

"When It Don't Come Easy"
Patty Griffin

Red lights are flashing on the highway
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight
Everywhere the waters getting rough
Your best intentions may not be enough
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight

But if you break down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy

I don't know nothing except change will come
Year after year what we do is undone
Time keeps moving from a crawl to a run
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home

You're out there walking down a highway
And all of the signs got blown away
Sometimes you wonder if you're walking in the wrong direction

But if you break down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy

So many things that I had before
That don't matter to me now
Tonight I cry for the love that I've lost
And the love I've never found
When the last bird falls
And the last siren sounds
Someone will say what's been said before
Some love we were looking for

But if you break down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy

Living

My Symphony

by Rev. William Henry Channing (1810-1884)

To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.

Stand By Me

Playing For Change
http://www.playingforchange.com/

For Rainy Times

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

Holiday Spirit 2008

Over Christmas break, I needed a prescription filled so I went with my mom to the pharmacy. While waiting (as one does in a pharmacy), an elderly couple came through to pick up their surplus of meds. One for his heart, one to help with the symptoms of that one, one for his blood pressure, one for her arthritis, one for.. Between them, I must have counted seven or eight little red-orange bottles. The pharmacist started ringing them up, and the old man noticed the price of one of the prescriptions had gone up. "Wasn't that only $65 last month?" he asked. It was now $78. The pharmacist assured him that it was the right price and promised to look for another generic brand that would be less expensive. Their total for one month of prescriptions: nearly $600.

Tis the season.

Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

I look forward to sharing this with my students. She speaks to the human experience, at its core.

Anis Mojgani performs Shake the Dust at HEAVY AND LIGHT.

Afternoon

It's 3:30 p.m., August 26, 2010.
It's the first Thursday of my final year at Northern.
It's a way to journal.
It's a way to remember and recall and reminisce.
It's a way to collect all the cool stuff I find.
It's a way to prepare myself for my future.
It's a way to produce positive.
For me.

Ready-made posts

Originally posted April 27, 2010, during finals week.

Now I don't feign expertise or full understanding of what's going on with the housing crisis, subprime mortgages, credit defaults, foreclosures, recession v. depression debate, inside trading or other delineations in the current state of affairs of our economic system. And, frankly, I am militantly suspicious of anyone who lays claim to "know it all": it is in many ways simply too big, complex, dynamic, backwards and susceptible to real or imagined manipulation. But on the same hand, I haven't once bought this whole "No one saw it coming" argument coming from those same people who have made it their life's work. There is just more to the story.

And it pisses me off. All of it. Not just news of the corruption and deception within these institutions that hold the livelihoods of so many hard-working Americans, but (1) the maddening complexity of the whole damn thing and (2) the way it has been packaged and sold to us by inflammatory media sources.

This has been an ongoing frustration for me. But often when I have these sort of anxieties about feeling ignorant and taken advantage of as a citizen participant, life provides. I'm not going to get prophetic but rather just share some articles, clips and recordings that have contributed to my better understanding of what's happening, in layman's terms. Some are recent and some I've held onto for a few years.

Feedback and further sources are welcomed and requested.

IF NOTHING ELSE, CHECK OUT #1 and #2

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1. "NPR: THIS AMERICAN LIFE"
Episode: "Inside Job," Act One: Eat My Shorts
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/405/inside-job

You can stream it online. Love me some Ira Glass. If you don't delve into anything else, take a half hour to listen to this - gives full explanation of most Wall Street jargon and puts it into a real-life context. NPR worked in conjunction with ProPublica to ask, "Really? Nobody saw this coming?" ProPublica's subsequent full article on the housing crisis: http://www.propublica.org/feature/the-magnetar-trade-how-one-hedge-fund-helped-keep-the-housing-bubble-going


2. "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART"
Discussion with Jim Cramer, of CNBC's "Mad Money"
http://www.indecisionforever.com/2009/03/13/jon-stewart-and-jim-cramer-the-extended-daily-show-interview/

Jon Stewart (who does not stake claim in being anything other than a host of a comedy show) calls on Jim Cramer (who bills himself as a 'financial expert') to help be an illuminating force in reporting and commenting on our financial situation. Tag-line from Cramer's show: "Watch the "Mad Money" TV show on CNBC, Jim Cramer can help you make money! Watch as money manager Jim Cramer guides you through Wall Street investing." Unfortunately Cramer, like MANY others who are/were on the inside of all this, has bought into the theatrics of selling bullshit to the public. EXCELLENT.


3. "THE STOCK MARKET WHO CRIED WOLF"
A brief history of alarmist—and wrong—Wall Street predictions about the effect of new regulations.
http://www.slate.com/id/2252038/pagenum/all/#p2

So where do we go from here? Do we keep relying on those 'financial experts' who both perpetuated our current situation and now say "We had no idea this would happen?"


4. "EVERYTHING'S AMAZING AND NOBODY'S HAPPY"
C.K. Lewis on Conan O'Brien (pre-NBC/CBS drama)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

Funny commentary on the state of things and that it might be a good thing that the "foundations of capitalism" are crumbling.


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P.S. Zeitgeist "The Addendum" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912# gives a good overview of the foundations of our free market economy and how we employ capitalism in our country.