Monday, February 28, 2005

NASA Planetary Photojournal

a very beautiful place!


NASA proclaims this the Greatest Saturn Portrait...yet!

I'm inclined to agree.
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---------------oOo--------------- ten dreams gallery

Some gorgeous art for your viewing pleasure can be found at Ten Dreams Gallery!

I especially love the work of Helena Nelson Reed whose visionary work reminds me a bit of another esoterically-inspired artist, the late great Susan Seddon-Boulet.

Biography of Helena Nelson Reed here and Susan Seddon-Boulet's can be found here.

More art from Susan Seddon-Boulet can be found at Turning Point Gallery.
Posted by etherealfire :: 3:26 PM :: 1 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- oscar night

I missed the fun because my 11th hour homework marathon went into overtime last night. I know everyone else already knows the details, but since I didn't and had to go look it up, here's a link for the rare few like me, who didn't see it but wanted to:

The Academy Award Noms and Wins

The only nominated movie or actor I saw this year was Jamie Foxx's moving performance in Ray. I thought his performance and the movie were both amazing, so I was glad to see that he won best actor.

I'm anxious to see the other movies and performances by everyone else as well, though. Something to really look forward to in the next few months. I was torn in the Eastwood/Scorsese battle for director (even though I haven't seen either movie); for purely sentimental reasons, I suppose. I didn't see Eastwood's performance (or any of the other really fine nominees) so I was basically really rooting for Jamie Foxx but that meant that the only award for Eastwood personally would be Best Director, and since he has won that award before and Scorsese has been long overlooked I was really hoping he would get it this time.

The other award I really cared about was for Best Actress in a Leading role; although, again, I haven't seen one of the movies that these fine actresses were nominated for yet, so it was just silly sentiment on my part: I really hoped Imelda Staunton or Annette Bening would win, simply because the other 3 lovely ladies were younger and hopefully will get lots more chances. So it was based on absolutely no reason of consequence at all and I'm sure that Hilary Swank was most deserving of it.

I'm also sure that she must've remembered to thank her hubby this time around.

I shouldn't admit it but I'm a girly-girl when it comes to this kind of thing so why pretend differently; the thing I missed most is not getting to see the red carpet arrivals. But that's easily solved by going here.


I always look forward to seeing what Halle is wearing
photo image courtesy Yahoo movie images
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---------------oOo--------------- the rogers indicator



You scored as Verbal/Linguistic. You have highly developed auditory skills, enjoy reading and writing and telling stories, and are good at getting your point across. You learn best by saying and hearing words. People like you include poets, authors, speakers, attorneys, politicians, lecturers and teachers.

Verbal/Linguistic		89%
Intrapersonal		82%
Musical/Rhythmic		82%
Interpersonal		64%
Visual/Spatial		43%
Bodily/Kinesthetic		39%
Logical/Mathematical		39%

The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences
created with QuizFarm.com
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---------------oOo--------------- the power of creating

A very cool and inspiring place! Can I get an Amen for The Church of Craft?

The very lovely mission statement:

The Church of Craft aims to create an environment where any and all acts of making have value to our humanness. When we find moments of creation in our everyday activities, we also find simple satisfaction. The power of creating gives us the confidence to live our lives with all the love we can. By promoting creativity, we offer access to a non-denominational spiritual practice that is self-determined and proactive.

The Church of Craft maintains no dogma or doctrine beyond what every member believes for themselves.

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---------------oOo--------------- taming gravity

Fascinating article found at Popular Mechanics.com, report by Jim Wilson found here.

"While an operational device is at least five years in the future, developers of what can be loosely termed a force-field machine say it has cleared major theoretical hurdles. To demonstrate their claim, they invited POPULAR MECHANICS to visit their Huntsville, Ala., laboratory to see the most important component of their proof-of-concept demonstrator. It is a 12-in.-dia. high-temperature superconducting disc (HTSD). When the force-field machine is complete, a bowling ball placed anywhere above this disc, which resembles a clutch plate, will stay exactly where you left it."~~~JW

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---------------oOo---------------

Sunday, February 27, 2005

a little night music

No, not courtesy of Mozart or Stephen Sondheim although that would be very nice, too...

Just barely finishing up last minute homework; it has been a busy weekend and I'm sooooo tired but I'm relaxing a bit before attempting to head off to dreamland. One of the best ways to reach a relaxed state of bliss (for me at least) is listening to my favourite composer's work as performed by one of my favourite pianists Kathryn Stott. This cd is pure enchantment and has some of the most beautiful musical interpretations of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy; she has such a beautiful touch!

And for a little more about my personal classical music weakness:

The Great Claude Debussy and Impressionism.

Arabesque #1 is coming up and I think I will finally be sleepy enough to match my busy-weekend state of exhaustion; then I can call it a night. What a lovely way to bliss out...

"The music I desire must be supple enough to adapt itself to the lyrical effusions of the soul and the fantasy of dreams."~~~Claude Debussy

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---------------oOo---------------

Friday, February 25, 2005

oh yeah

Current song obsession of the moment, courtesy of the musical wayback machine via iTunes: Can's Oh Yeah originally on the album Tago Mago, but the version we own is from the tasty little prog-rock cd compilation called Supernatural Fairy Tales; a really great thumbnail sketch of the best of its genre... if you like that sort of thing... and YES, I do!!! :-)

I don't know what Damo Suzuki is going on about here (and in fact it's probably just as well that I don't) and I don't care... I just have become obsessed with the way it sounds when he does, it's just compelling in a goofy sort of way... I loooooooove this song.... I don't know why, but I love it and I can't get it out of my head.... ohhhhhhhhhh yeah!!!!


early 70's incarnation of Can
from the Official site for Can/Spoon
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---------------oOo--------------- the beautiful art of Kris Waldherr

One of the first bits of wisdom I ever received when learning to read Tarot Cards, was that there really isn't one correct deck to use and when the right deck comes along it will choose you. From the very first moment I saw Kris Waldherr's Goddess Tarot I knew that was the one for me. I first saw the beautiful art in an esoteric magazine which I can no longer even remember the name of, but the art and the accompanying article I will never forget.

I felt a very deep connection to the art and realized that was the deck I really needed to use. The deck also included a fantastic learning resource for a newbie like me, the Goddess Tarot Workbook. I really learned so much from that deck and that book!

From the moment I held those cards in my hands I knew I'd made a real connection with some source inside myself and I've found that inner reflection comes more easily with those cards; everything just flows better with them for me than with the more traditional decks. In fact, I don't really use the others anymore, because I just don't get that same connection. For everyone it is different, and there are a zillion wonderful decks out there, one to suit each individual's need, and that's one of the really great thing about the various options in decks. Every Tarot reader is bound to find a deck that resonates with them.

I don't know why, but I hadn't really looked to see if Kris had an online site; or at least not recently, because I think that I did look for her online before I actually bought the deck. I also remember finding a really great site a few years back called Aeclectic Tarot which has extensive information and reviews of all the major decks; I may have posted about it here or possibly in my online journal because it is such a wonderful Tarot Resource I know I would have had to share the link.

Anyway, while reading one of my favourite astrology bloggers today, the lovely Know It All Astrologer, I noticed she had an intriguing new link to a site that I had to investigate called Art and Words.

When I clicked there I was completely delighted to find out that it is the site of Kris Waldherr. And a lovely site it is too! It links to her beautiful Goddess Tarot and also to a brand new deck which I think I might just have to invest in called The Lover's Path.

It's a really lovely site and you can get a look at the beautiful art on both decks. She even has some downloadable desktops; wish I'd known about them sooner so I could have enjoyed them all through February.

Fer fun, here's the one I used for my desktop today:



A very lovely site! I can't wait to check out all the little nooks and crannies tucked away there.
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---------------oOo--------------- bonnie raitt shares some matters of the heart

Bonnie Raitt Mourns Famous Dad
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---------------oOo---------------

Thursday, February 24, 2005

muir woods

I've been cranky all day. I'm not feeling too swell and my mood has reflected it. But nothing makes me happier than reveling in the beauty of nature so I wanted to lighten up the blog a bit and help myself feel a little better at the same time.

The best cure I could think of is a post about a place that I've never gotten to see yet but I know I will one of these days, hopefully very soon, because I've always wanted to spend time there and just take in all that majestic beauty!

Beautiful Muir Woods, near San Francisco, named after naturalist John Muir, is a legendary wooded paradise, preserving the "last old growth coast redwood forest in the San Francisco Bay Area".


gorgeous photo of Cathedral Grove in Muir Woods
courtesy of Lumika.org

Go feast your eyes on all the beautiful images to be found there!

Also be sure to check out The John Muir Project dedicated to the preservation of our federal public forest lands!
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---------------oOo--------------- up a lazy river

Maureen Dowd has a few words about those experts on everything (except perhaps fact???): Swifties Slime Again.

"Instead of trying to destroy AARP, Republicans should be signing up the seniors' lobby to find Osama.

AARP's super-relentless intelligence network is certainly better than that doddering C.I.A's. Osama has to have turned 50, and AARP somehow knows where everyone who has turned 50 lives.

But no. The same Republicans who used to love AARP when it helped them pass the president's prescription drug plan now hate AARP because it is against the president's plan to privatize Social Security."~~~MD NYT, 02-24-2005

Oh, how I'd love to get these fellas on a sloooooooooow boat to China...

without a paddle....

and let them live out their retirement there....
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---------------oOo--------------- supporting our troops

Listening to Ed Schultz this afternoon and livid from the remarks from a pair of callers attempting to define what constitutes supporting the troops. What they are really talking about is not supporting the troops but supporting the misguided action made by this Administration to invade Iraq. They will never ever get it through their heads that these are two separate things. How convenient to reduce support of the troops to blindly supporting this Administration and allowing no criticism or protest of the disturbing decisions that have been made from the very top.

But then again maybe it isn't so terribly surprising, considering so many on the right grab their talking points from that duplicitous blowhard Rush Limbaugh who is currently spending time busily sending the poisonous message to our troops in Afghanistan that Democrats do not support them.

The appropriate and eloquent response to that deceitful tripe is William Pitt's Commentary, who says it all, once again. But it bears repeating, over and over, until they get it, or in fact, whether they ever [choose] to get it or not.

I have written letters, made donations, kept them (along with the thousands of innocent Iraqis) in my prayers. I think about our troops every single day. I'm horrified at the lip service being given to "support" by this administration even as they show just the opposite.

And I refuse to stand by silently and let someone else twist it around for their own political misuse and abuse: no one else gets to define what I feel or believe about this war, the administration who led us into it or the soldiers who are valiently trying to get through this horror as best as they possibly can. If there is only ONE thing about this God-Awful misguided war that the vast majority of Americans can agree on, it surely must be that our troops deserve our prayers and our moral support.
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---------------oOo--------------- just when you think it can't get stupider

Horowitz and Hannity perpetuate a lie without bothering to...GASP... check facts; but that's okay because when they don't, you can be sure that Media Matters will. Report here.

The unadulterated partisanship of the fair and balanced network is surpassed only by the complete audacity with which they operate. Furthermore, this misguided individual got air time to vent his spleen on the so-called left-biased Mainstream Media as well.

I cannot understand how these people continously get a free pass to blatantly distort the truth. Hannity has already been notoriously guilty of making false statements, been corrected by others over them, and then goes right back to repeating them again as if he'd never been informed of the falseness of them in the first place. The lack of accountability coming from these purveyors of right thinking is completely shameless. Why it continously surprises me each time they up the ante with something even more shameless, I'll never know. It just blows my mind that they operate this way and get away with this outrageous behaviour, REPEATEDLY and without any real or lasting consequences to uphold any accountability or responsibility for the abuses.

Meanwhile, the poor professor that was falsely maligned gets no chance to respond to the program giving air time to blatant distortions. So off the mark was this story that a pair of conservative bloggers both stated that the essay was poorly written and neither did it answer the essay question correctly nor would it have been deemed worthy of a passing grade.

That this non-story got any kind of airtime at all is just disgraceful; but the most disgusting part of it is that there is an audience, an unquestioning, non-critical thinking audience that gets its sole information from the likes of Fox and takes it at its word that it is the Fair and Balanced Network. And institutions of higher learning and those who have dedicated their lives to the education of the masses are dealt this kind of treatment in thanks. Not only do we have students who are wilfully trying to evade and avoid learning to think critically but we have news sources like the Fox News Network no doubt serving as the training ground and mouthpiece to this kind of idiotic, simpleminded attitude ~ as well as the perfect place to exploit non-stories like this one and as an added bonus, perpetuate their witchhunt on liberal institutions, you know those demonic entities otherwise known as UNIVERSITIES.

SICKENING! We the People really need to get our act together and grow the He** up; if we don't our reward is going to be exactly what it is shaping up to be: a nation of ignorami that vilifies its only hope to escape the prison of ignorance we've stupidly and willing marched into, handing the keys of our freedom of thought over to corporate run propaganda machines. Left Wing Media MY A**!

Yes, this one pushed all my buttons. I thought about editing this... but no. This makes me sick; I really wish the collective audience of these programs would wake up and make the networks that run erroneous propaganda like this accountable for their actions. I wish that same audience would look into this stuff and use the brains God gave them to ask hard questions and make some attempt at weighing the facts against the relentless rhetoric; and if the facts comes out wanting in the reporting of the news and information given, I really wish that audience would take those news sources to task by complaining. I wish that they would demand something better or just plain old turn the t.v. off before they give support to shameless storytellers and distorters of truth who have the nerve to proclaim the veracity of their very lies. I wish people would grow up, own their responsibility to help keep our news sources accountable for integrity. Because this agenda isn't being played out in a vacuum. It is getting alot of uninformed, apathetic assistance. And that just breaks my heart and makes me sick.

This is what my outrage looks like. No, it isn't very pretty. So be it. Publish post....
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---------------oOo---------------

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

ross halfin grammy pics

Ross has updated his diary now and has added lots of great JP-related grammy pics (no JPJ pics as far as I could tell though, oh well...)
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---------------oOo--------------- rebecca

I watched this Hitchcock movie for the very first time last night; it was showing on TCM as part of the 31 days of Oscar series. It starred cinematic legends Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier and the brilliant perennial scene stealer George Sanders.

I thought I'd seen it before until I saw the previews and realized I was confusing it with another movie entirely, mainly because that movie also was the name of a woman. It was driving me to distraction until about mid-movie when I remembered the movie I had it confused with: 1944's Laura, with another stellar lineup that includes Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and another brilliant character actor of the same witty and wonderful caliber of Sanders, Clifton Webb. There was also the added bonus of a young Vincent Price.

The two movies really weren't the same story at all but the female namesake of each movie had a mystery surrounding each of them; other than that and the memory of some really great character actors, they really weren't the same. I'm guessing (but I'm not sure) that Laura may not have been held in the same esteem as Rebecca; but as far as I'm concerned they are both really entertaining movies. Of course, give me a classic movie to watch and I'm pretty much in heaven, and I generally enjoy B movies as much as true classics... it's all good from where I lounge on my couch. :-P

Anyway, TCM has a really great lineup and I'm looking forward to clocking alot of couch time (as much as I can get away with) in the next several days. For a complete listing of the 31 days of Oscars, check it out here.



Hitchcock, Fontaine & Olivier 1940
from the movie Rebecca
image courtesy MPTV.net


Andrews, Price, Tierney and Webb
from 1944's Laura
image courtesy MPTV.net
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---------------oOo--------------- essays from the Galapagos

Science writer and Darwinist Richard Dawkins has written a series of essays on one of my favourite places and eternal source of fascination, The Galapagos; the first of these found at The Guardian Unlimited, is called The giant tortoise's tale.

An interesting lecture by Dawkins found at Edge, Science, Delusion and the Appetite of Wonder. Not surprisingly, he doesn't have any kind words for astrology or the paranormal/esoteric epidemic, but I can certainly deal with that; he's always a good read and his essays are always thought-provoking and accessible to a broad audience. An avowed athiest, who is allergic to the notion of anything metaphysical, this particular lecture waxes reverently over the mystical to be found in science.
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---------------oOo--------------- welcome to the Conceptual Age

found via Arts & Letters Daily, from Wired Mag's February Issue, Daniel Pink's Revenge of the Right Brain:

"Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion." ~~~DP

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---------------oOo---------------

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

yikes!

Found this link via a comment left at Oliver Willis' blog pointing to it; this whole thing just gets ickier and ickier.

But moving rapidly right along...

The reason I was there was to check out the vid link to Willis' guest appearance with Ruffini at Washington Journal. Very cool!
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---------------oOo--------------- Free Mojtaba and Arash Day

Received this link from my blog bud, Sean over at Sinister Dexterity.

Global blogger action day called!!!!

"The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers' is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on Tuesday to the 'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day'.

Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are both in prison in Iran.

Please go read the rest here! Also please go read this to get more background!



This is my ugly little protest sign, whipped up quickly (and artlessly) but my heart is in the right place; if anyone wants to put it up on their blog, feel free to save the image to your hard drive and upload it to your image server. If anyone wants to make their own protest sign, I'm sure that will be most appreciated.

I know that showing your support in any way that you can will be most appreciated! Thanks so much!!!
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---------------oOo---------------

Monday, February 21, 2005

the american president

It's a rainy, sad, gloomy day full of somber news and sad remembrances.

And, oh yes, it's President's Day. In honour of those who came before and held the highest office in the land, I found a link to The American President.

Also check out this page that has images of Abe Lincoln at Gettysburg!
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---------------oOo--------------- pharisee nation

Father John Dear laments the rising Christian Culture of Pharisees

"We have become a culture of Pharisees. Instead of practicing an authentic spirituality of compassion, nonviolence, love and peace, we as a collective people have become self-righteous, arrogant, powerful, murderous hypocrites who dominate and kill others in the name of God. The Pharisees supported the brutal Roman rulers and soldiers, and lived off the comforts of the empire by running an elaborate banking system which charged an exorbitant fee for ordinary people just to worship God in the Temple. Since they taught that God was present only in the Temple, they were able to control the entire population. If anyone opposed their power or violated their law, the Pharisees could kill them on the spot, even in the holy sanctuary."~~~JD

Found via The Estimated Prophet.
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---------------oOo--------------- malcolm x assassinated 40 years ago today

Just heard this on AirAmericaRadio's Morning Sedition with Mark Riley and Marc Maron.

Stories here and here.

Democracy Now has a fascinating piece called The Undiscovered Malcolm X: Stunning New Info on the Assassination, His Plans to Unite the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist Movements & the 3 'Missing' Chapters from His Autobiography.

A couple of really great Malcolm X resources:

Brother Malcolm
Official Malcolm X site

"It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country.
"~~~Malcolm X, NYC, 19 February 1965

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---------------oOo--------------- I just heard about John Raitt

I wasn't online or near a newspaper or radio yesterday, so I missed this one. I've always wanted to see The Pajama Game but never have yet. I idolize his daughter, Bonnie Raitt, a premiere slide guitarist and vocalist; one of my big musical inspirations along with Joni Mitchell, since the early 70s. My heart goes out to her family today.


Bonnie and John Raitt at the 2000
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction
Pre-Dinner; photo courtesty Yahoo AP
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---------------oOo--------------- jpj joins foo fighters on upcoming album

Awesome news! From XFM online; found via ebc.

"We have a few guests that are playing on the record. I put (Jones) on our wish list of guests and he actually responded and said that he would do it. And so I talked to him on the phone. Great guy. Nicest guy in the world.

And then I got an e-mail the next day saying, 'Hey, if you'd like you can sit with us at our [Grammys] table for the lifetime achievement awards.' It was unbelievable. It was pretty surreal.”~~~Dave Grohl

How utterly cool that must have been! Looking forward to this collab.
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---------------oOo--------------- jon stewart on the blogosphere

found via semidi.

Video clip here courtesy onegoodmove who also has Bill Maher and Robin William's funny funny snippets on the Gannon/Guckert story as well as some sobering moments as Joe Biden weighs in on the slow-to-move MSM and the lack of political outrage and action from congress.

If the vids don't start up right away be sure to hit the refresh button.
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---------------oOo--------------- sandra dee dead at 62

Found this bit of sad news via Pen-Elayne On the Web; it's raining again in Southern California and it matches my already blue mood. This is shaping up to be a really sad day.




Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin
happy and in love once upon a time
image with an old modern screen story
found here

The Ultimate Sandra Dee Website has a really nice tribute.
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---------------oOo--------------- gonzo gone

Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself.

A bit of the AP News Story by Catherine Tsai:

"Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67."~~~CT

He was always outrageous but always bitingly funny and just about always right on the money, even if it was so often a case of in-your-face honesty that many found far too hard to bear. It seems as though something must have become more unbearable than even he could face; in times like these, that is an especially tragic loss to those who need examples of the few who are courageous enough to speak out no matter the cost.


famous Songs of the Doomed photo
found here.


Also go check out the amazing fan-run HST resource
The Great Thompson Hunt
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---------------oOo--------------- everything is connected...or not?

frangipani's a life in tokyo has a beautiful photo and some pros/cons on the matter that can be found here.
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---------------oOo--------------- karenika's 50 states

Sharing the Beauty of the United States is a lovely, brilliant, inspired thing! Go feast your eyes on this visual testament to our national beauty!!!

One of my immediate favourites:

Karenika's enchanting shot of a bit of the land of Enchantment, White Sands, NM!
Posted by etherealfire :: 1:56 AM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- interview with photographer Carl de Keyzer

from Scene 360 Film and Arts Online Mag can be found here along with a mini-gallery of some of his photographs and a link to his website.

A snippet of the bio and interview by Brandon Luhring:

"De Keyzer’s work often starts from the premise that “disaster has already struck,” and that everywhere infrastructures are on the verge of collapse in overpopulated communities. His imagery is not dependent on isolated pictures but relies on accumulation and interdependence with text, often taken from his own travel diaries. His gift is to pick out the kind of societies and situations that are both symptomatic and of wide interest to the public: the people and culture of India, the collapse of the USSR, and more recently, the power and politics in the contemporary world."~~~BL

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---------------oOo---------------

Saturday, February 19, 2005

when real news debunks fake news

Frank Rich on Olberman's Countdown report of the Guckert/Gannon story here via Truthout.

"The prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time." ~~~~FR, 02-19-2005, The International Herald Tribune

Original report here.
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---------------oOo--------------- The Bitter Reality Brought by the Swift Boat Veterans

Commentary by Veteran August Keso dated 08-19-2004 found here.

"The relatively insane notion that the Swift Boat people have put forward concerning Kerry’s service, that what is in his records is all false and cannot be trusted will now apply to one and all veterans. All that will be required to wipe out the honor, integrity and value of your service is for one, ten or two hundred people with an agenda to step forward and proclaim they, and not the military know the truth. In the doing, everything you did that was documented will be null and void."~~~AK, Washington Dispatch

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---------------oOo---------------

Friday, February 18, 2005

ancient sculptures uncovered by tsunami

Just found image and link to this amazing report at bird on the moon.

"The deadly tsunamis that crashed into southern India have unearthed priceless relics, including two granite lions, buried under sand for centuries, archaeologists say."

Link to original report here.
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---------------oOo--------------- revisiting the majestic

I know this movie was pretty much roundly panned and didn't do so well at the box office. The first three reviews listed on the Yahoo movie page cite it as sappy, somewhat phony and easy to forget; one of the reviews calls it little more than a Jimmy Stewart Shrine ~ ha! I knew there had to be a reason I loved it so much!

I guess I've got no taste or else I'm just a sentimental sap (both actually are probably very true) but I really love this movie; it gets me every time.

We ended up watching it again this time around because it was a homework assignment for Mina. The story seems as relevent within the framework of today's national consciousness and the ongoing threats to the erosion of our constitution as it was relevent to the terrible era of 50s McCarthyism.

If the story truly is heavyhanded about it, I just don't see it. If ever there was a need for a wake-up call... but in any case, that little town and the story of the people who inhabit it is just irresistible to my sensibilities every time I see it.


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---------------oOo--------------- video interview: author Peter Matthiessen

The 3 part video interview from October 2004 found at Orion Online on Our Political Environment (Environmental Policy, Corporate Ethics, and Global Warming).

Bio from Orion Online:

For fifty years, Peter Matthiessen has been engaged with concerns that have informed and inspired two generations of readers and writers. His writing has appeared frequently on OrionOnline.org, most recently in the Discourse & Dissent feature, with Lighting the Fuse: Freeing the Iraqi People to Death. A reading from his book, Killing Mr. Watson is also available online, as well as an essay for the Thoughts on America series, The Volunteers, which appeared just after September 11th, 2001.

Matthiessen is a recipient of The National Book Award, a 1991 Laureate of the global Honor Roll of the United Nations Environment Programme, and the 2002 Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement. His nonfiction works include among others, The Snow Leopard, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Indian Country, Men's Lives, and, most recently, The Birds of Heaven.

He lives in New York.

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---------------oOo--------------- across the universe

Found two more intriguing BBC News Science stories; these two are space-related items.

Huge 'starquake' rocks Milky Way

"Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and would possibly have triggered a mass extinction," said Dr Bryan Gaensler, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who is the lead author on one of the forthcoming Nature papers.

Hubble pics 'like romantic art'

"An art expert says Hubble telescope images are a modern proxy for romantic 19th Century landscape paintings - carefully balancing art and reality."

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---------------oOo--------------- prehistoric bunny fossil found

Reported by BBC News here.

"The fossilised skeleton of a rabbit-like creature that lived 55 million years ago has been found in Mongolia, Science magazine reports."

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---------------oOo--------------- at last!

I should have known I could count on the ever-so-dependable fan-extraordinaire Sam Rapallo from Led-Zeppelin.com to get some Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award images up before too long!!!

Yay! They can be accessed here with great shots of Jimmy, John and Zoe and Jason Bonham!

Also, just found some images I had not yet seen from last August's induction of Jimmy to the London Walk of Fame; JP was the first one to be immortalized!!!

I posted about it here at the time with another image I found, but I'd never seen the ones that I found at Liquid Soap till today. And I wanna post one of those images here so bad I can't stand it... So I'm really reallllly hoping that's an okay thing to do:


Is this not a beautiful sight???
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---------------oOo--------------- artemis



Which Greek Goddess are you?
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---------------oOo--------------- Maui Ocean Center

I've been dreaming of sun, sand and sea again on this rainy early morning. I love the rain but lately I'm longing for a little bit more sunshine and balmy ocean breezes.

I found an under~the~sea type experience as a temporary cure at the Maui Ocean Center; Check out the Hawaiian Aquarium's E~Aquatic Journey wbich has some lovely pics!

Something else really cool: Coral Reef Adventure with a really lovely Gallery of stunning images to enjoy.
Posted by etherealfire :: 6:18 AM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- love and loss

American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures is a poignant and historically fascinating look at the symbolic art made in tributes and momentos to mourn lossed love ones.
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---------------oOo--------------- pisces rising: gotta dance


Ballet shoes- beautiful, graceful, and creative,
you enjoy dancing writing and music. You are
often very poetic and sometimes dramatic. Even
if dancing isn't your thing, you are still very
creative. You keep to yourself aside from a few
close friends that you can relate to. You find
your own ways to express yourself and don't
have a need to br surrounded by tons of people.
A small group of friends is fine. [please vote!
thank you! :)]


What Kind of Shoe Are You?(new and updated results!!)
brought to you by Quizilla
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---------------oOo---------------

Thursday, February 17, 2005

get a daily dose of durst

Right here!

A very recent dose:

"I have no problem with the Christian Right inserting their fairy tale theory of the origin of life into school books. As soon as they include a chapter on Darwin in the Bible." ~~~~WD, 02-15-2005

Wish I'd known about it sooner; I could have used some of those laughs, especially during the last few very trying months.
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---------------oOo--------------- sundance and franken reach agreement

Back By Popular Demand, Sundance Channel Greenlights New Episodes of 'The Al Franken Show'!

"The Al Franken Show" premieres Monday, June 6, 2005, and will air weeknights (Monday-Friday-Time: TBA); the series is slated to run through the end of 2005.

Great news! Watching the condensed version of the show last fall added a fun dimension to the banter between Franken and Lanpher, and I've really missed that benefit. The only major drawback for me personally is that they cut it down to approximately 40 minutes and while I can understand the improbability of having the entire 3 hour radio show running on t.v., I always felt like the t.v. version was leaving out too much to be satisfactory. So naturally, I will need to listen to the radio show as well as catch the t.v. show. It will really be great to see them in action once again!

In looking for a decent sized shot for Team Franken, I came up empty; but the reward was this lovely gem of an honest-to-goodness interview of my journalist-heroine, Katherine Lanpher, back when she was still the host of MPR's Midmorning Show complete with some really lovely images of her as well.

Note to AirAmerica: I love everyone there! I would love for you to take decent-sized regularly updated publicity shots of the various crews; I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one. But I'm guessing that with continued popularity (and the station is now rapdidly closing in on 50 stations and 15 of them in the top 20 market) this will eventually happen. In the meantime, here's a couple of individual images!


Al Franken, February 2005
photo courtesy Yahoo! AP News


Katherine Lanpher October 2001
image © Daniel Corrigan

Something I just learned today: Both were born in May; Franken's birthdate is May 21, 1951 (making him a Taurus but verrrry close to the cusp of Gemini) and Lanpher's birthdate is May 27, 1959 (Gemini). A pair of born communicators!
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---------------oOo--------------- roosevelt's grandson: hume should apologize

James Roosevelt Jr: Hume's "outrageous distortion" of FDR "calls for a retraction, an apology, maybe even a resignation" ~ from an appearance by Roosevelt on Keith Olberman's Countdown and reported at Media Matters.

It's one thing to be a pundit with an opinion; it's bad enough that the O'Reillys and Hannitys of the so-called fair and balanced network, bend and distort the truth at the slightest whim, but Britt Hume is a journalist whose specific job at that joke of a network is supposed to be to report the news, not distort it and interpret it to his own personal ideological bent.

As Al Franken has stated, this most shameful intentional misrepresentation of historical facts is far worse than Dan Rather's sin of rushing a story without getting the authenticity of a document checked first; a document that, BTW, has never had the reported information it contained disputed or denied by the President. A document that, while MAY or MAY NOT have been authentic NEVERTHELESS contained factual information.

I grieve for the sorry state of journalism in this country. Once upon a time, journalists were interested in reporting the truth. NO ONE was above or beyond the scrutiny of a free press. That is the way it was intended, in order to keep our news authentic and propaganda-free.

Look at what our press has become; a weak and ineffective mouthpiece to the political propaganda we are being spoonfed. It's a disgrace and until or unless the so-called credible journalists begin taking responsibility for their authenticity and integrity in reporting news, we are doomed to the fate of many an oppressed nation that gives little more than lip service to the cherished right AND obligation to practice free speech.

A nation that is so weak that it cannot stand up to the truth in the cold light of day is a nation in severe danger of losing the democratic principles, the very foundation upon which it has been created.
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---------------oOo--------------- 'liberal' media silent about guckert saga

Joe Conason's column at the Observer ponders the telling reticence of the so called Liberal (mainstream) Media to report the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert short and bizarre career in Journalism as well as his unusual previous career choices.

"The intrinsic media interest of the Guckert/Gannon story should be obvious to anyone who has followed his tale, which touches on hot topics from the homosexual underground and the investigation into the outing of C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame to the political power of the Internet. But our supposedly liberal media becomes quite squeamish when reporting anything that might humiliate the Bush White House and the Republican Party."
~~~Joe Conason, 02-17-2005

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---------------oOo--------------- hitchens thinks ohio vote was stolen

found here via the Al Franken AirAmerica Radio Blog, an endlessly great source of links and information.

And now, I can re-think the blue funk I've been feeling over Hitchens' apparent dangerously scary veer to the right that I recently lamented over....
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---------------oOo---------------

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

post-grammy valentines

The day after the Grammys (which also just happened to be Valentines Day) I ran out to the Borders to get my hubby, sister and daughter their favourite kind of Valentine gift; it's actually all of our favourite "any excuse" gift for that matter: music!!!

Inspired and reminded by the Grammys of music that everybody might want, I got hubby Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company and Brian Wilson's Smile, for little sis, Joss Stone's Mind Body & Soul and Madeleine Peyroux's Careless Love and for my daughter, Muse's Absolution and a Jimmy Eat World dvd Believe in What You Want.

And because I'm a brat (er, um let's just say, I'm my own best valentine ~ HA!) I couldn't leave without Alison Krauss and Union Station's Lonely Runs Both Ways.

We got flowers (beautiful but temporary) and candy (yummy, but fattening and temporary) but the music is now loaded up into the family iTunes and now everyone gets to enjoy the ultimate gift that keeps on giving ~ music!!!

I LOVE iTUNES!!! I LOVE VALENTINES DAY!!!! YAY!!!!


My favourite song from this one:
My Poor Old Heart

Much loveliness ~ Really love this cd!!!

We just watched Ray for the first time today as well. Had to sandwich it in between volunteering and school because Mina needs to write a report on the movie and it is due tomorrow.

I have to say that this movie really is no hype; Jamie Foxx really made me believe that he was Ray Charles!!! I'm so glad we got to see it. Stu and Suzanne didn't get to see it yet though so I hope they will get a chance to watch it tomorrow. I don't think I've seen any of the other movies with Best Actor noms yet but I certainly can see that Jamie Foxx' performance was Oscar-worthy!

Also, I suppose most everyone knows the history of Wilson's Smile but just in case there's someone out there who doesn't know or for anyone interested in learning more, this is an awesome site!
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---------------oOo--------------- flower child soul

sorry about the lazy updating. Here is yet another quiz ~ I know it looks like I'm padding my posts and I suppose I am but they are lots of fun when there's little energy for much else. School is kicking my a@@ right now and this was my volunteer day too. Also feeling a bit under the weather but I really wanted to post something.

So I found this very fun, very cool quiz via the lovely and talented blog, was it the Pagan remark? and had to post my results up as well.

You Belong in 1968

1968 If you scored... 1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! 1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too. 1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all! 1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day. 1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

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---------------oOo---------------

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

european lifestyle may beat america's

Todd Robberson report found at Pasadena Star-News Online.

"Europe's quality-of-life indicators are higher, violent crime is lower, and Europeans are generally better off than their American counterparts, according to recent research. They tend to be healthier, better educated and possibly happier, too." ~~~TR, Dallas Morning News

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---------------oOo--------------- you really got a hold on me

I've heard it said often that he is the kind of person you really love or really hate. But I can't say that I fall into either category. If anything, I suppose it's far more accurate to say that I often love to hate some of the things he has written and said... and I really hate it when he says or writes something that I love, in spite of myself.

Part of that is the sheer perfection and razor skill he wields with the language; he is, without question, a deep thinker and a great writer. And, with him, I don't really have any doubt that he is completely and honestly saying what he believes. Which makes it all the more frustrating when I couldn't possibly disagree more.

And so I wait.... wait for him to come back to the place where I can (mostly) find myself in comfortable agreement with him... or until I can accept the discomfort of an intellectual infatuation that leaves me entranced with his words even as I find the ideas and sentiment behind them so completely at odds with those things I most fervently believe in.

It's a frustration and a challenge. Because, perhaps like most people, I find it far easier to close my ears to things I don't want to hear when the person saying them holds little personal appeal to me. Terrible but true. What I wouldn't give to be able to discount him in that way, making my life ever so much easier; but also insulating me entirely from that which I do not want to entertain as the possibility of being right or true because in my gut it just feels so very wrong.

But maybe that is the secret gift from above. I can't think of even one single solitary person other than Christopher Hitchens who can compel me to do that. Maybe the fact that he holds that power to fascinate and provoke me is actually a good and useful thing. Because it forces me to think and to wrestle with the angels over ideas that I wouldn't even give a moment's passing thought if I didn't have to. It hasn't changed much of my philosophies but it has forced me to acknowledge that I can find something decent and appealing and worthwhile in someone whom I no longer find a common political and philosophical ground. Maybe there is something hopeful in that.

Or I dunno; maybe this is why...


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---------------oOo--------------- black is the color of muharram

"'I am a Nigger, and you will just have to put up with my blackness,' Professor Amina Wadud Confronts Her Hecklers in Toronto"~~~TF, 02-11-2005

Report from Tarek Fatah found at Muslim Wakeup!
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---------------oOo--------------- the angel of the trans-amazonian

Activist US Nun Murdered in Brazil.

That kind of love and courage, so rare and so often rewarded in just this heinous manner, that kind of brave and selfless love leaves me feeling small and awestruck. How does one muster that kind of courage? I guess only heaven knows that answer.

Found link via Windchime Walker's blog.
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---------------oOo--------------- seduction factor

Your Seduction Style: Ideal Lover

You seduce people by tapping into their dreams and desires. And because of this sensitivity, you can be the ideal lover for anyone you seek. You are a shapeshifter - bringing romance, adventure, spirituality to relationships. It all depends on who your with, and what their vision of a perfect relationship is.

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---------------oOo--------------- passion factor

Your Passion is Pink

Innocent and naive, you approach sex with a virginal mindset. You tend to enjoy teasing and flaunting much more than actual sex. You're a notorious flirt, and you can pick up anyone you desire. As a result, your reputation is a lot steamier than your real sex life.

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---------------oOo--------------- true romance

You Are A Romantic

You are more romantic than 80% of the population. You life your life like a fairy tale... or at least you try to. Living for magical moments, you believe there's only one true love for you. Love is the most important thing in your life, and you don't take it for granted. Your perfect match loves to be in love as much as you do!

Posted by etherealfire :: 2:22 AM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo---------------

Monday, February 14, 2005

a valentine

"Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful molder of human destiny...."
~~~Emma Goldman

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---------------oOo--------------- pre-grammy party jp pics

Now this is more like it... :-) Thanks to Reuters and AP!


Jimmy with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party in Beverly Hills, CA, on Saturday,
Feb. 12, 2005. (AP Photo/Chris Polk)


Led-Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page
at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party
in Beverly Hills February 12, 2005.
(REUTERS/Fred Prouser)

Now I can rejoice in a lovely (if temporary) Pagey fix.... YAY!

But.... still wondering where JPJ's lovely mug is?

Here's another report; this one via MSNBC. Mostly the same info but a few different things mentioned as well.
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---------------oOo--------------- lz grammy update

Watched the Grammys and even braved the pre-show footage on E in hopes of a glimpse of my heroes; and a glimpse is just about all I got, too. RP was a no show, JP was hovering around in the background and JPJ got a couple of minutes with Kathy Griffin and there were brief moments of the pair in the audience. Guess that's gonna have to be good enough for now. JPJ was charming during his brief exchange with Griffin and both he and JP looked very dapper and very happy ~ in those few brief moments they were caught by the camera. Ah well. I won't give up hope for an image or two somewhere ~ just have to keep looking in the next few days.

Meanwhile here's a bit of a report but the image that they chose to use with it is a 1998 photo of Page and Plant ~ NO JPJ and considering that Jimmy and John were the two that showed up today, you'd think somebody might have troubled themselves to provide one measly little photo of the pair from the event rather than some dated photo...

Oh my, I'm sounding snarky. But I'll get over it; besides I have perfect faith in the generosity of the very lovely and talented Ross Halfin ~ I just know he won't let diehard fans like me down. I'm guessing there will be photos to go with the always entertaining stories in the next few days or so.
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---------------oOo---------------

Saturday, February 12, 2005

fossil memories

I've been thinking about this all day. I don't know why; maybe because it's rainy outside. Sometimes little special moments of happiness come back to me and keep me occupied in reverent memory.

I'm remembering a girl scout field trip, some 38 lonnnnng years ago. I was nine, still living in West Lafayette, Indiana, and our girl scout troop headed off to Attica (I'm pretty sure that is where we went) or somewhere nearby where there was the most incredible fossil bed. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life and as I remember it, there were treasures scattered all over the field, easily found and won. I found a partial trilobite fossil that day (and lots of other little fossils not as readily remembered) and I felt like I'd won the lottery!

I remember it was muddy and drizzly and cold; not sure what time of year it was but I'm pretty darn sure it wasn't January... probably March or April. But any thoughts of misery evaporated in the face of that geological wonderland. That was easily one of the coolest, most exciting field trips I'd ever taken up to that point; even better than the Coca~Cola bottling plant where they gave us each a free bottle of coke at the end of the tour ~ and if you knew how much a Coke already meant to me even back then, you'd know that is saying alot.

So I searched in vain today, trying to find some information about that place. And I'm amazed that I found nothing. Leaving me to wonder if I'm not remembering exactly where it was, or if it closed down or just disappeared off the face of the earth? Maybe I need to have an exact name or something? It is ancient history after all, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised but its just sort of a shock to my senses. I have this vivid memory but no trace of the origin of it any longer.

But in my search I did find a couple of really cool sites:

The Fossil Site
A Guide to the Order of Trilobites

All my life I've been utterly fascinated by the natural world; especially fossils and rocks and gems. My daughter has inherited this same passion as well so maybe it's hereditary or something. I don't know why I get such a special thrill finding and examining them. Actually, I'm pretty much the same way about beautiful fallen leaves or feathers that get left for me to find by my neighborhood birds.

But the very first experience of that thrill came from that long ago field trip. I will never forget it...even though it has forgotten me or somehow got swallowed up or lost in time.


enrolled trilobites
one of the many cool images
found at Paleozoic Gallery
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---------------oOo--------------- fowl play

As most everybody knows by now, the Chinese New Year Began on Feb 9th this year and this time around it's the year of the Wood Rooster! That's my sign; actually the year I was born (Jan 3, 1958 ~ the tail end of that year in the Chinese calendar) was the metal rooster I think, rather than a wood rooster but aside from knowing that wood and metal reference the element difference of that particular year, that's the extent of my pitiful knowledge on the subject.

To find out what your Chinese astrological sign, click here!

To celebrate the Year of the Rooster, The Lipstick Mystic has created an Ask the Fortune Chicken Oracle.

Here's mine BTW and, no, I'm not going to share the question that produced this answer. :-P

The Fortune Chicken Says:

For a breath of fresh air, consider moving to a different henhouse. Admit it. Your current vantage point stinks.

But I will say this; our Golden Retriever, beautiful girl that she is, nevertheless has a bit of a problem with.... shall we say, chronic ongoing malodorous particle ejections from her hinder... and is laying right by my desk, ejecting the most foul of emissions even as we speak.... coincidence or prescient chicken? You decide.
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---------------oOo--------------- desert 'jewels'

A fascinating article on the studies being done in the west to monitor groundwater accumulation ~ the underwater springs that sustain the fragile desert ecosystem: Desert 'jewels' give scientists peek at fragile ecosystems, by Keith Rogers found at reviewjournal.com.
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---------------oOo--------------- cybertrippin: destination egypt

courtesy of Blaugustine. This is as close as I will probably ever get; another reason to thank the Heavens above for the internet and for fascinating, generous people who allow us to live a little bit vicariously through them! Enjoy!

And while there, be sure to check this link out as well:

Sunshine Project International, a very worthy project indeed.
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---------------oOo--------------- when nicole came home

From CodePink and Operation: Truth comes the story of Nicole Goodwin, one of the first homeless Iraqi vets. Find out more by reading Beyond the Yellow Ribbon and Hands in the Dark.
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---------------oOo--------------- common people

After the last several posts, I reallllly needed this. I love him, unabashedly and without shame. No whine, just lurrrvely cheesy goodness. Has Been? I hope not. Not in my Universe anyway....


Posted by etherealfire :: 2:15 AM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- canned hunting???

This practice just disgusts me more than I can say. Where in God's name is the sport in this???
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---------------oOo--------------- the religious wrong

Democratic Underground's article by Sharon Isikoff details How Conservative Christians Fail At Ethics:

"Whether you are considering the sanctity of life, the golden rule, virtues like charity, or sins like pride, there are so many ways that Conservative Christians who see the world in the absolute colors of white and black, right and wrong, consistently fail to find the best in themselves." ~~~SI, 01-14-2004

Also, a pair of sobering articles found via Common Dreams:

Jon Carroll's San Francisco Chronicle commentary, Fasten Your Seatbelts: The Rapture Index:

"The Rapture Index, as of this writing, stands at 153. Anything over 145 is labeled by the Rapture Actuaries as "Fasten your seat belts." In other words: Repent for the End Is Near. You may see all this for yourself at Rapture Ready.com, should you think I'm making it up."
~~~JC, 02-10-2005

Andrew Greeley's Chicago Sun Times commentary, Creationists Still Fighting Evolution:

"Ever since they won the battle but lost the war in the Scopes trial of 1925, conservative Christians have waged an intensive war against evolution. Despite repeated court decisions insisting that evolution must be taught in high school classes, the conservative Christians have managed to keep one form or another of 'creationism' alive and well as an alternative in the minds of many Americans -- including 62 percent of African-American Christians, 52 percent of mainline Protestants, 42 percent of Catholics and 26 percent of Jews. (Seventy-eight percent of Conservative Christians reject evolution)."
~~~AG, 02-11-2005

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---------------oOo---------------

Friday, February 11, 2005

great radio for the rest of us!

The New Haven Advocate celebrates Air America the Beautiful!!!

"Air America hit the airwaves almost a year ago, dedicated to (as one of its founders, Sheldon Drobny, put it) "a place for real discourse and alternative news in America." You can hear it on WLIB 1190AM in New York City, the two major satellite radio networks, and streaming at airamericaradio.com. Since November, WAVZ 1300AM in New Haven has been broadcasting most of the Air America shows interspersed with other syndicated liberal talk fare. Yes, there's a left-wing radio revolution afoot, and judging from its popularity and profitability thus far, it looks like Rush Limbaugh and his cronies will have to get used to sharing the air they once hogged all for themselves."

AirAmerica Radio is now 48 stations strong!!!

Found via Buzz Flash.
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---------------oOo--------------- "compassionate conservatism" RIP

A great Joe Conason commentary at Salon.com.

"Bush's budget barely cuts his vast deficit -- and the people it hurts worst are the poorest Americans."
~~~J. Conason, 02-11-2005

Found via Bob's Newswire.
Posted by etherealfire :: 11:12 PM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- playwright arthur miller dies at 89

Story here.

"Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in 'Death of a Salesman,' came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died. He was 89."

Some great links to a man deservedly described as one of the finest playwrights of the 20th century:

PBS American Master: Arthur Miller

The Arthur Miller Society

A blurb from literary underground review Bohemian Ink which lists some other good linkies as well.

"I have made more friends for American culture than the State Department. Certainly I have made fewer enemies, but that isn't very difficult." ~~~~Arthur Miller

Miller and Monroe back in the day
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---------------oOo---------------

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

"o'liellys" continue to stack up

Found at Media Matters, Keith Olbermann tracks the latest spin spouted from the self-proclaimed king of the no-spin zone, Bill (Integrity is my Middle name) O'Reilly.
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---------------oOo--------------- gannon gone

check out this post at MediaCitizen.


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---------------oOo--------------- creationists and the science classroom

Guardian Special Report, Religious right fights science for the heart of America.

"Science teachers believe that the genteel questioning of the intelligent design movements masks a larger project to discredit an entire body of rational thought. If the Kansas state school board allows science teachers to question evolution, where will it stop? Will religious teachers bring their beliefs into the classroom?

'They are trying to create a climate where anything an individual teacher wants to include in science class can be considered science,' said Harry McDonald, a retired biology teacher and president of Kansas Citizens for Science Education. 'They want to redefine science.'"

Posted by etherealfire :: 10:38 AM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo---------------

Sunday, February 06, 2005

baby, i lied

okay, I SWEAR this will be the last thing for tonight.

I'm posting this for no particular reason; except it's pretty and I like the idea of it sitting at the top of the page. And besides (in my head at least) its got a fantastic beat and you can totally dance to it.... er with it.... well, no; in front of it??? Er, whatever... Yeah! hmmm, I think I've had too much stardust and valentines this weekend. It's almost Monday... MUST GET BACK TO WORK....


Jimmy valentine, Led-Zeppelin.com Photo of the Month, Feb 2005
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---------------oOo--------------- my funny valentine

oh and one last thing before I go....

Mmmmmm, somebody really isn't in the mood for homework, I'm thinking...

I keep intending to update my i-tunes list on the sidebar but I don't have time right now coz I like to link to the sources as much as possible but I had to list my current romantic cd obsession right now because it is just such a thing of beauty: Cyndi Lauper's, At Last.

I've had this cd for well over a year now, but I have pretty much always listened to it in small doses; mainly because it's a mostly mournful tribute to love; beautifully and emotionally sung the way nobody else in modern pop music could; there's nobody quite like Cyndi. But for a long time I would literally get too emotionally overwhelmed to get very far into it before skipping through the other tracks to The Sunny Side of the Street or the cynical-comic turn of Making Whoopee or just heading backwards to Stay, because some of the other songs were just so sad.

In the last few months, though, (no doubt because it already matched my post-election mournful mood, in perfect solidarity) I find myself listening to it more and more often, and all the way through. And a beautiful, gut-wrenching little thing it is, too; but it somehow makes me feel so much better when I'm done listening. Which is a far less expensive way to have little cathartic moments than therapy... and it can be accomplished in the privacy of your own home. :-) Give me a journal, some atmospheric soft lighting and Cyndi's heartbreaking rendition of La Vie en Rose and I find myself in a delicious state of romantic angsty clarity.

Love is tragic! Love is beautiful! It's a bit of heightened, dramatic, and ever-so-addicting sentimentality that feels so good because, it feels so strong. It's the feeling of being alive. It's.... feeling something. Something besides numb and worried about the world falling apart. That's the beauty of emotionally connecting with music. It takes you somewhere else; you have no choice but to give in and experience it. Alot like love. Music is love.

Ummmm, yeah. I think I'd better get back to work now. This post has left me worried... and wondering if spilling my angsty guts and displaying these overwrought emotions was a mistake. Will you respect me in the morning? Will you still love me tomorrow? (sorry I just couldn't resist :-p) Enough amateurishly bad philosophy... well, for tonight anyway....


At Last, a praiseworthy Hymn to Love, a la Lauper

Posted by etherealfire :: 9:03 PM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- a weekend of movies

Ok, I really have to get back to work but I had to share some of the movies we have watched this weekend. It's been total self-indulgent fun!!! YAY!!!

When we went to Borders last week we discovered the bundle-of-two flicks that they are selling there... very clever indeed as I picked up about three sets of two before guilt and common sense (HUH? THAT must've been an out of body experience I was having for a change) settled in. I honestly could have grabbed up half a dozen of those bundled up sets; it was a fiendishly clever marketing idea and I sense it is going to be an enormous test of will-power to resist it everytime I go in there... but anyway, among the bundled sets we got was The Philadelphia Story (which I've seen a few times before and totally love) and The Women which I've wanted to see forever but never found it anywhere till it was bundled up in that tempting little set.

The movie has no male actors in it at all and though clearly a dated story it was an absolute hoot and total self-indulgent decadant fun to watch; I've been hearing for over a decade that an updated version of this movie was in the works (at one point Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts were two of the possible leads considered) and I really hope it finally does get made. I'd love to see what they do with it.


Lucky, lucky Katie!

heavenly image of Grant, Hepburn and Stewart found at The awesome UK Guardian's Film Gallery!



Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer & Joan Fontaine

Notably missing is Paulette Goddard, Ruth Hussey, Marjorie Main and Lucile Watson; but I couldn't find one with most of them together.

image found at the very cool Visions in Black and White!

Then we found All About Eve which is one of my all-time favourite Bette Davis movies... ever (along with the soapy pair of sobfests, Dark Victory and Now, Voyager... oh I know, I KNOW but I cannot get enough of those films; I think she is just magnificent) and so we had to have that one as well. When we found Now, Voyager (bundled with Mildred Pierce, I think ~ a really great Joan Crawford film that we had just recently seen for the first time), I knew I was gonna have to stop and save it for another trip. If Victory and Voyager had been bundled together though, that would have been impossible to resist.

So I guess I'd better thank my lucky stars that it wasn't or I would have been in big trouble...

I love the writing, the script from All About Eve so much. Practically every line in the movie is its own sterling little moment. Probably my favourite moment is in the stalled car when Margo Channing (Bette Davis) says:

"Funny business, a woman's career, the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. It's one career all females have in common - being a woman. Sooner or later we've got to work at it no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis nothing is any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed and there he is. Without that you're not a woman. You're something with a French provincial office or a book full of clippings but you're not a woman. Slow, curtain, the end."

It's the epitome of 50s mentality but every time I see this scene I believe the universal underlying truth within it, feel it right along with her as she delivers it with such stoic bravery while you just know she's dying a little inside... its just an absolutely gorgeous moment and imho, one of Davis' very finest.

And there's a million other moments like this, little gems from every single cast member. It's just a deliciously witty beautiful wordfest. The world should be this clever.... lol! Well, they don't quite write em like this anymore, that's for sure. And once in awhile, it is the very thing I crave.


Margo (Bette Davis) and her beloved Bill (Gary Merrill)

"Bill's thirty-two. He looks thirty-two. He looked it five years ago, he'll look it twenty years from now. I hate men."~~~Margo Channing

image found at Visions in Black and White

A little bit of fun trivia. Gary Merrill and Bette Davis fell in love during the filming of All about Eve and eventually married; they were together for 10 tumultuous years. I imagine that was a fascinating relationship. ;-)

We also watched the previously mentioned Shall We Dance, The Stepford Wives (which I thought was very smart and very funny, sorry world) and, at Mina's insistence, Napoleon Dynamite which really was a cute movie, er, in a... strange and twisted sort of way... and one I would never have seen if she hadn't recommended it.


kidman & broderick's formal welcome to Stepford
image courtesy of Yahoo movies production stills

And in keeping with a romantic theme:


Tina Majorino and Jon Heder at the high school dance

both images courtesy of Yahoo movies production stills
Posted by etherealfire :: 6:48 PM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo--------------- shall we dance?

I'm very naughty; I should be finishing homework and running an astrology report but I haven't posted anything for a couple of days and I just wanted to say how much I love this movie! As usual, I'm probably the last person on earth who hadn't seen this remake of the original most excellent original Japanese version.

I'm an admitted sucker for romance (and I especially love indulging in chick flicks in the romantic month of February), so its probably no surprise that I bought the video outright and knew I was gonna love it ~ and of course, I do!!! I've been in love with the original since the very first time I saw it and though I've caught it a few times on cable I don't own a copy of it; always intended to buy it but it never springs to mind when an opportunity arises. So when I saw the Miramax version for sale, I bought it immediately. And since I still haven't spent my Christmas gift certificate for the mall yet, I think I'm going to go get the original at Suncoast Videos the next time I'm there.

The Miramax movie is essentially the same as the Japanese Original but I think the very minor changes made were well-thought out adaptations to the Americanized version. I gotta say I love both movies; the new one hasn't dimmed my love for the original, nor do I think it is any less wonderful than the first.

I thought Jennifer Lopez was really great in this film; in fact I really thought the entire new cast did a great job with their take on the Americanized version of these characters. Stanley Tucci was, as always brilliant, although probably nobody could quite touch the outrageously funny performance of Naoto Takenaka, in the original role.

If anyone else in the world hasn't already seen it and wants to see it now, here's the Miramax Shall We Dance trailer found at Apple.com under the Quicktime Movie Trailers tab.


Shall We Dance: Sarandon & Gere
found at Yahoo Movies along with lots of other great production photos from the movie.


Shall We Dansu? original video image
courtesy of Barnes and Noble.com

Posted by etherealfire :: 5:53 PM :: 0 Comments:

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---------------oOo---------------