Ray Walston

 I found my new phone background:

 

(clicking imbiggens)

WE decide

 “We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.”  ~Howard Zinn

I was getting used to

 

I think the reason this hits so hard is the familiarity.  It's a powerful expression of a universal feeling.

Full lyrics HERE, or you can just turn on the captioning in the video.

Can you hear me?

 I love songs that tell a story or sketch a portrait.  Those are rare these days.

From The Washington Post:

“It’s a very human story,” he (Bruce Springsteen) says. “We start carrying some of the baggage of our past as small children. And then at some point we either try to sort it out or outrun it. You can’t outrun it, which is what this character tries to do. And it’s very difficult to sort it out. But it’s the only way to go.”

Full lyrics HERE.

It's All Right

  He does an amazing job with this song.

Full lyrics HERE.

Stages

 

"Cicada, Stages of Conventionalization" by Hugo Froelich, Keramic, Studio Magazine, 1905:

From the blog The Curve in the Line.

Either/Or

 "For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgement. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don’t."  ~Jorge Luis Borges

Mallorca Café

 

Mallorca Café by Javier Mariscal

Without Me

“I did not want to think about people. I wanted the trees, the scents and colours, the shifting shadows of the wood, which spoke a language I understood. I wished I could simply disappear in it, live like a bird or a fox through the winter, and leave the things I had glimpsed to resolve themselves without me.”  ~Patricia A. McKillip 

Homegrown Tomatoes

 I get a definite Roger Miller vibe from this one.  Just try not to smile!

Full lyrics HERE.

YOU

 "If everything around seems dark, look again:  you may be the light."  ~Rumi 

He's

 I love the harmonica solo near the end.

The lyrics are available HERE, and the story behind the song is on Wikipedia, HERE.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does…

 

Joy Clarkson has her own web page at (naturally) JoyClarkson.com.

Like Me

 It's hard sometimes not to give in to despair.  Music helps.

Full lyrics HERE.

Mr. T Visits a Museum

 

This looks like it was scanned from a children's coloring book.

I get the joke- Mr. T's persona wasn't based on a powerful intellect, so it's kind of a bull-in-a-china-shop juxtaposition.  But I do like the subtle (if unintended) message that museums are for everybody.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

"When you hold a child in your arms, or hug your mother, or your husband, or your friend, if you breathe in and out three times, your happiness will be multiplied at least tenfold." ~Thich Nhat Hanh

 And that reminded me of this:

 

Full lyrics HERE.

Quite a Few

"There are many things I don't know, but quite a few I do.  I know you can't be lost if you know where you are.  I know that life is full of precious and fragile things, and not all of them are pretty.  I know that the sun follows the moon and makes days, one after another.  Time passes.  The world turns, and we turn with it, andn though we can never go back to the beginning, sometimes, we can start again."  ~Megan Hart, Broken ©2020

This reads like a poem, but the excerpt is from a novel.

Attempt to Conceal

"Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say 'My tooth is aching' than to say 'My heart is broken.'"  ~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain © 1940

Coca-Cola

 The Coca-Cola bottle dates it to a certain time.

(I tried, but failed, to locate the artist for credit.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment.)

Mmm… no.

That's my life, in a nutshell.

I'm not a huge fan of the The Office.  I prefer shows that are more character-driven, and I feel like The Office is more dialogue-driven.

But it does have its moments.

 

Is Not

 "Not getting your own way is not a crisis."  ~Michael Kewley

And Then

"I think it’s foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary:  you’re happy for an instant, and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life. Happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous."  ~Georgia O’Keeffe

It's interesting that to me that she sees "thinking" as a buzzkill. 

I'm not saying she's wrong.

But I'm Alive…

 Full lyrics HERE.

Passive

 

Currently Julian Assange is in jail for exposing American war crimes.

The people who actually committed the crimes are walking free.

Animal Rights

 

Moby's Animal Rights album was so poorly received that he almost left the music industry.  (He didn't, of course, and rebounded with Play and 18.)

The first time I played Animal Rights I hated it, but that was mostly on me.  I expected something different.  This album has some of his best lush, electronic grooves, which I did expect, but also some crashing, screaming, almost punk-rock songs, which I did not.

It was a little jarring at first, but the more I listen, the more I hear how the two divergent styles play off of and compliment each other-- the same way sweet and salt combine in honey roasted peanuts.

Disillusionment and angst are not new topics for Moby, but the way he expressed them in the song above is.  Full lyrics HERE.

Crimson, White, and Indigo

 

A beautiful rendition of a beautiful song.  I love the interaction between Phil and Jerry (bass and guitar) at the end.

Full lyrics available at The Annotated Grateful Dead, HERE.

Fireworks

 I'd call this more of a "toy" than a "game," but I just like it because it's pretty.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, take a look:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fireworks-arcade/id435664934

Winding Down

Joe Biden has made it clear that America will still drop bombs and assassinate people in Afghanistan, because if we don't bomb and assassinate people then terrorists might bomb and assassinate people-- and bombing and assassinating people is Wrong.

The logic is unassailable.

As we finally wind down the Bush Family Wars, we leave Afghanistan pretty much exactly the same as we found it, Iraq is much much worse, and the entire region is destabilized.  One of the first things Barack Obama did was stop releasing the civilian death toll, but the last figure given (roughly 16 years ago) totaled in excess of 1.1 million people.

We spent over two trillion dollars on this.

So it goes.

I don't think soldiers put a great deal of thought into what they're doing.  I find it hard to believe American soldiers really believed they were doing anything useful over there.  Expanding on that, I don't think Nazi soldiers were mindfully supporting genocide and oppression, or that Confederate soldiers were adamant about apartheid and slavery.

Someone said "Go here and do this," so they went there and did that.

That doesn't strike me as being particularly heroic. 

But that's what they did.

Wham Bam

 

The country/rock band "Silver" never released a studio album.  This single, a hit for them in 1976, is their only claim to fame.

Their keyboardist, Brent Midland, went on to become the longest-tenured keyboardist for the Grateful Dead.

But Rather

"One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things."  ~ Henry Miller

A Quick Note About Skin Cancer

 When I worked in the nursing home, there were two areas where skin cancer seemed to be the most common:  on the tip of the nose for smokers, and on the back of the ears.

The tip-of-the-nose cancer looks like a simple mole, but it's more than just a cosmetic problem-- it's a slow moving cancer that can metastasize and become fatal.  It has tendrils growing deep, so the sooner it's treated the easier the surgery and treatment is.

I blame the back-of-the-ears cancer on ballcaps, which provide a little protection to the eyes but none at all to the ears.  I saw this a lot in fishermen.  So, be sure to dab a little sunscreen on your ears before you head out into the sun.

Walk

 I don't particularly like the song, but the lead singer is mesmerizing.

I wonder if he intended to mimic Mick Jagger's moves, or if it simply manifested spontaneously?

The Moth Joke

 

Stick with it- it's worth the wait. :-)

I Should Just Let Them Go, but-

 

I prefer this cover version to Don Henley's original.  One notable difference:  since the drummer isn't singing lead, he's free to give a more energetic performance.  He doesn't have to conserve his breath.

Full lyrics HERE.

She Walks in Beauty

 What I love about Marianne Faithfull is that she never stops changing and evolving.  She has never been afraid to try something completely different.

Not every swing connects, but she hit this one out of the park.

Can Be Valuable

 

shhh, it's fine is on the web HERE.  The posting schedule is very sporadic, but always wonderful when he does.

The artist has chosen to remain anonymous.