Thursday, November 09, 2006

Deep thought for the day

"Those who never risk themselves, never fully become themselves."

-- Alexandra Saperstein

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend

If you haven't heard about these ladies, you're missing out.

In the isolated enclave of Gee's Bend, Alabama, over a period of 150 years, women have been turning out some of the most incredible artwork -- in the form of quilts -- I've ever seen.

With their use of bold colors, linear forms, and largely asymmetrical designs, they have married form and function in a stunningly beautiful way. Words can't do them justice.

To see some of these quilts, click here, here, here, and here.

To read and learn more, click here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Items for purchase: a PBS DVD and books.

Deep thought for the day

Rejection is the occasional cost of doing; it is almost never fatal.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Marcus Aurelius on Tranquility

"Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, seashores, and mountains... But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself.

[T]ranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself."

-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Part IV, paragraph 3

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Gandhi's wisdom

"Action expresses priorities."

"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."

"Find purpose, the means will follow."

"Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position."

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.”

"A man is but the product of his thoughts -- what he thinks, he becomes."

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."

"There is more to life than simply increasing its speed."

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.”

"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth."

"We cannot be speakers who do not listen. But neither can we be listeners who do not speak."

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

“Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.”

“We must always seek to ally ourselves with that part of the enemy that knows what is right.”

“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”

"An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so."

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

"Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed."

"The Rich must live more simply so that the Poor may simply live."

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being able to remake ourselves."

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Keynes on avoiding a type of fossilization

"When confronted with new information, I reassess and modify my position. What, sir, do you do when confronted with new information?"

-- John Maynard Keynes, economist

Purpose

To those who seek to use the term "do-gooder" as an insult or epithet, I would pose this question: What, exactly, would you do with your life?

Monday, August 28, 2006

Wynton Marsalis' Wisdom

"Sustained intensity equals ecstasy."

-- Wynton Marsalis as quoted in Ken Burns' Jazz documentary

Marcus Aurelius

"[A] limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return... [D]o what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice... [D]oest every act of thy life as if it were the last."

-- excerpted from Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" at Part II

Bass Man

A great documentary about the power of singular purpose and achieving transcendence through pro bass fishing.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Video Jukebox: Jazz Clips on YouTube

Ella Fitzgerald
Summertime
Lush Life
I Won't Dance
Body and Soul
Scatting with Roy Eldridge
Misty
Too Marvelous For Words
That Old Black Magic

Louis Armstrong
Medley
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans (with Billie)

Duke Ellington

Thelonious Sphere Monk

Art Tatum
Yesterdays
Humouresque

Oscar Peterson
The Theme
Cakewalk

Charlie Parker

John Coltrane

Charles Mingus

Miles Davis

Billie Holliday

Carmen McRae

Roland Kirk

Art Blakey

Jimmy Smith

Wes Montgomery

Kenny Burrell
All Blues

Dave Brubeck
Take Five

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Our children and their children

What kind of world will we leave to our children and their children? Will we be good stewards of this planet, our only home?

As every good mother has taught their children: Actions have consequences. Mother Earth is about to teach us this lesson as well if we continue our unsustainable and misguided ways.

If you haven't done so already, I'd strongly recommend seeing Al Gore's movie on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." It's a gripping, well-reasoned, and thought-provoking look at where we're headed if we do not correct our course.

You can learn how to take action to reduce your environmental impact at www.climatecrisis.net.

Do whatever you can: car pool, take the bus, or ride your bike to work -- even if it's only for one day a week; buy a hybrid or fuel efficient car if possible; purchase energy efficient light bulbs for the most commonly used rooms in your home; lobby your elected officials for light rail and bike lanes; or bump up your thermostat by two degrees in the summertime.

The stakes are too high for us to bury our heads any longer.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Video Jukebox: Soul Clips on YouTube

Wilson Pickett
I'm In Love
Everybody Needs Somebody
99 and 1/2
Mustang Sally
Land of 1000 Dances
Funky Broadway
Stagger Lee
Soulfinger (Hey, give some up for the band!)

Otis Redding
Shake / I've Been Loving You Too Long
Try A Little Tenderness

Sam and Dave
When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
Hold On, I'm Coming

Sam Cooke
You Send Me
Hey, Hey The Gang's All Here (with Muhammad Ali)

The Four Tops
Reach Out I'll Be There

The Temptations
The Way You Do The Things You Do

The Impressions
Woman's Got Soul

Curtis Mayfield
Keep On Keeping On
Superfly
I'm Your Pusherman
Future Shock

Gladys Knight and the Pips
The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me
If I Were Your Woman
I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Donny Hathaway
Put Your Hands In The Hands
The Ghetto

Marvin Gaye
What's Going On
Let's Get It On
Sexual Healing

Stevie Wonder
Superstition

Video Jukebox: Louisiana Music Clips on YouTube

Professor Longhair
Tipitina

Branford Marsalis and Friends
Bringing the Music Back to New Orleans

The Meters
Look-Ka Py Py / Jungle Man

The Neville Brothers and The Meters
Fire on the Bayou

The Neville Brothers
Tell It Like It Is
Amazing Grace / One Love / People Get Ready

The Dixie Cups and the Neville Brothers
Brother John / Iko Iko

Louisiana Red
Ain't Got No Future

Buckwheat Zydeco and the Neville Brothers
Ya Ya

T. Broussard and the Zydeco Steppers
Tell Me Why?

Dikki Du and the Zydeco Crewe
Hey Pocky Zydeco Way

Video Jukebox: Blues Clips on YouTube

Muddy Waters
Hoochie Coochie Man
Got My Mojo Working
Honey Bee
Long Distance Call

Howlin Wolf
Shake For Me

Sonny Boy Williamson
Your Funeral and My Trial
Bye Bye Bird

Big Walter Horton
That Ain't It & Down Yonder
Walter's Shuffle

Junior Wells
Stop Breaking Down
Messin' With The Kid

Buddy Guy
First Time I Met The Blues
Mary Had A Little Lamb
Money
Can't Be Satisfied (acoustic)

B.B. King
Sweet Sixteen
I Got Some Outside Help I Don't Need
Why I Sing The Blues
To Know You Is To Love You

Freddie King
San Ho Zay
Hide Away
Boogie Funk
Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone
I'm Tore Down

Albert King
Live at the Fillmore East
Kansas City

Albert Collins
A Good Fool is Hard to Find
Mastercharge

Magic Sam
All Of Your Love

Carey Bell
Mellow Down Easy

Skip James
Crow Jane

Mississippi John Hurt
You're Going To Walk That Lonesome Valley Blues

Son House
Death Letter Blues

Johnny Shines
Ramblin'

Mance Lipscomb
Jack of Spades

Bukka White
Aberdeen Mississippi Blues
Poor Boy Long Way From Home

Mississippi Fred McDowell
John Henry

Alvin Youngblood Hart
playing solo

Kelly Joe Phelps
Piece by Piece
Goodnight Irene