Every Human Being

"Give people what they need:  food, medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours of leisure.  Don't ask who deserves it.  Every human being deserves it."  ~Howard Zinn

17

I first heard this song on the radio in the 70s.  I don't think you'll hear a 17-minute rock opus on the radio today.

It's a love song from Adam to Eve, in the Garden of Eden.  Promising to be true seems like a pretty easy promise to keep when there are only two people in existence.

Full lyrics HERE.

Adolescence

 

There is nothin' fair in this world…

Full lyrics HERE, but they're kind of nonsensical. You can safely skip them without fear of missing some subtle nuance.

Moving on.

There were two times in my life that I tried, really tried, to fit in with a conventional office job.  It didn't work out either time.  There are economic advantages to being a cog in a machine, but I just couldn't rationalize the moral ramifications.  I couldn't do it.

In the late 80s I worked at DuPont, and I would get up very early in the morning on Sunday to have breakfast at Denny's.  What was early Sunday for me was late Saturday for the Club Kids, Goths, and transvestites that were just winding down their long night, trickling in with dilated pupils and a satisfied weariness about them.

The unconventional dress never phased me.  I felt more at ease there with them than I ever did by the short hair and gray suits that surrounded me most of my days.  They were accepting and kind.

Those Sunday mornings are my only good memories of those days.

Benevolent Gifts

 "Kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast.  Why?  Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws.  Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management.  They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us.  Kids ought to know that.  That's why I sing these songs.  That's why I tell these stories, dammit.  No root, no fruit."  ~Bruce "Utah" Phillips

Utah Phillips is on the web HERE.

I can still remember…

 I'm not sure what she's going for in the video-- it's a little distracting-- but it's a surprisingly good cover version:

Full lyrics HERE.

Passive Voice

 

Jackson Katz is on the web HERE.

So We Missed Out

I can't find an accurate source for the lyrics, so we may never know what kind of bottles the doe-eyed models are sucking on.  

Oh well.  It's still a beautiful song.

The Line

The song takes an interesting turn vocally about 2:39.  I don't know what you would call that.  "Falsetto" doesn't feel right.  Wikipedia calls it "Steven Tyler's trademark scream," but that's not a clean fit, either.

Tyler seems to have created something uniquely his own.

Full lyrics HERE.

I've lived to see the sun break through the storm…

Joe Cocker was nominated for a Grammy for this song in the early 80s, but somehow it never made it onto one of his albums and I don't think it was performed in concert.  It's a pity- it's a beautiful song.

Full lyrics HERE.

Yeah…

 

ButtPoems is on the web HERE.

What I *Really* Mean

 

The bible verses check out!  You can read them for yourself here:

• Judges 4
• Proverbs 31

That's Nice

"I'd rather be hated or loved, rather than just thought of as all right or nice. 'Nice' is the worst insult you could pay anybody. It means you are utterly without threat, without values. Nice is a cup of tea."  John Lydon, in his autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994

Hook me up a new revolution…

This is a beautiful cover of a Foo Fighter's song.  Full lyrics HERE.

Propaganda

Excerpted from The New Yorker article "The Frustration with Productivity Culture", by Cal Newport:

“I was inundated with requests for writing and speaking,” she (Celeste Headlee) said. She tried to say “no” more often, but found that “the offers got harder and harder to turn down.” She was soon overwhelmed. “I was more stressed out, and more busy, and sick,” she said, describing two prolonged illnesses that laid her low during this period. “That’s what made me realized I was in crisis: I rarely get sick.” Headlee concluded that humans were not wired to maximize activity—she argued that we’re pushed into this unnatural and unhealthy state by cultural influences that aren’t aligned with our best interests, citing “a combination of capitalist propaganda with religious propaganda that makes us feel guilty if we’re not feeling productive.”

You can read the full article HERE.

I Want You

Full lyrics available at BobDylan.com, HERE.

Have No Effect

 Excerpted from the poem "How Finite Minds Most Want To Be" by Rumi:

Metaphors mentioning the moon
have no effect upon the moon

"I'm not a doctor..."

“I’m pretty sure, I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure if you die, the cancer dies at the same time. That’s not a loss. That’s a draw.  ... It's not like the cancer goes home and fucks your wife after.”  ~Norm MacDonald

Don't Be Afraid, Ever

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, 'Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?' And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, 'Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.' And we… kill those people. 'Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.' It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok… But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."  ~Bill Hicks (source)

Come, come!

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of living, it doesn't matter
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come even if you have broken your vow a thousand times,
Come, yet again, come, come.

WikiQuote has a large collection of sourced Rumi poems and quotes, which is available on the web HERE.

Project Gutenberg has three books of Rumi's poems available to read online or download for free, and you can access their collection HERE.

The Jugular

 Excerpted from John Lydon's autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994:

That's the trouble with working-class people throughout the world. They always try to spur their hatred onto what they see as being lower down the scale, rather than going for the fucking jugular of the upper- and middle-class bastards who are keeping them down in the first place.

Epitaph

The epitaph on Rumi's grave reads, "When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men."

I like that.

Maybe They Think I'm Going To Have an Abortion

The Texas chapter of the NAACP is suing the University of Texas over the song "The Eyes of Texas," which they consider racist.  The article at EPSN (link) goes on to say:

For decades, it has been sung after games and graduation ceremonies, and is a popular sing-along at weddings and even funerals.

Um, no it's not.  It's a crappy little song they teach school children because the melody is simple, but nobody outside of UT sings that song, ever; certainly not at funerals.

Personally I don't think the song is racist, but I'd still like to see it banned just because the lyrics are creepy as hell (source):

The eyes of Texas are upon you
All the live long days
The eyes of Texas are upon you
And you cannot get away

Do not think you can escape them
From night till early in the morn
The eyes of Texas are upon you
Till Gabriel blows his horn

WTF?  Seriously, Texas, just stop following me around!  Leave me alone!

Only Made It Worse

“‘That’s horrid.’ Horrible, thought Susan. The word is ‘horrible’. ‘Horrid’ is a childish word selected to impress nearby males with one’s fragility, if I’m any judge. She knew it was unkind and counterproductive of her to think like that. She also knew it was probably an accurate observation, which only made it worse.”  ~Terry Pratchett, in Hogfather ©1996

Through the Fishbowl

 

(Click image to imbiggen)

I love the perspective on this, and the attention to detail-- the fish are reflected on the water's surface!

Idle Amusement

Excerpted from "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo; in Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad" by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks:

The Prophet has said
that a true seeker must be completely empty like a lute
to make the sweet music of Lord, Lord.

When the emptiness starts to get filled with something,
the one who plays the lute puts it down
and picks up another.

There is nothing more subtle and delightful
than to make that music.

Stay empty and hold
between those fingers, where where
gets drunk with nowhere.

This man was empty,
and the tears came. His habitual stubborness
dissolved. This is way with many seekers.

They moan in prayer, and the perfumed smoke of that
floats into heaven, and the angels say, "Answer
this prayer. This worshipper has only you
and nothing else to depend on. Why do you go first
to the prayers of those less devoted?"

God says,
"By deferring my generosity I am helping him.
His need dragged him by the hair into my presence.
If I satisfy that, he'll go back to being absorbed
in some idle amusement. Listen now how passionate he is!
That torn-open cry is way he should live."

Fist-Bump

 

One

 "I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church and I see one altar."  ~Rumi

Baader–Meinhof Phenomenon

 

From Wikipedia:

Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon or frequency bias, is a cognitive bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often, leading someone to believe that it has a high frequency (a form of selection bias). It occurs when increased awareness of something creates the illusion that it is appearing more often. Put plainly, the frequency illusion is when "a concept or thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere."

I've noticed that the number "108" keeps popping up in my life.  I've wondered whether it's really more common, or if it's just one I notice.  It's likely the latter.

But reading about "frequency illusion" reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

joie de Vivre

 "You ever look at their faces? 'We're pro-life.' Don't they look it? Don't they just exude joie de vivre?"  ~Bill Hicks

C-Sharp

“One of the things that people don’t realize about Dad’s kind of music is, when you replace a C-sharp with a gunshot, it has to be a C-sharp gunshot or it sounds awful.“  ~Spike Jones Jr.

Anyone Can Do It

 John Lydon (aka "Johnny Rotten") on the Sid Vicious personality cult, excerpted from his autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994:

Since I always have to have a point and purpose to everything I do, that's why people accuse me of being calculated. But it's the way I am. I always know my next move. I could never conjure up a death wish. This is all I have, life. I don't know what comes next, and frankly, I'm in no rush to find out. I didn't believe in playing the martyr just for the sheer hell of it, either. And to die over something as vaguely childish as rock 'n' roll is not on. Even though there's a lot of popularity in Sid's character, the people who buy the Sid myths, they don't buy records. They're wasters. That's the drug culture thing for losers and junkies, people who bemoan their sorry lot. I'm not part of that. I never was. I'll always go out and make sure it gets better. That's the difference between the Sid fanatic and the Johnny Lydon Appreciation Society. Life and death! There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.

Jumpin'

My mother passed away a little over two years ago, at the age of 82.  I popped open her CD player today, and the last CD she played was still in there:

You would have loved my Mom.  

We Couldn't Stand It

"It was horrible to hear Camille sobbing so.  We couldn't stand it and went out to buy beer."  ~Jack Kerouac as Sal Paradise in On The Road, ©1957

Not exactly overflowing with the milk of human kindness, are you there, Jack?

It's Always Something

 

Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis is on the web HERE.

I love it when a comic expands beyond the normal topics of idiots and anvils and explores some tougher issues.  Even something as dark as Death is a little different when it's coming from the mouths of a talking pig and rat.

And  I also like positioning the characters behind a wall, a subtle tribute to Charles Schulz.  :)

Even More Beautiful

 Via Another Day:

(Click Image to Imbiggen)

Não esqueço de quem me estende a mão.
Minha memória não é curta.
Apesar de eu esquecer nomes, jamais deixo passar batido o que fazem por mim.
Porque aprendi que ajudar o outro é bonito.
Mas ser grato é mais bonito ainda.

~ Clarissa Corrêa 

 ‒•–

I don't forget who reaches out to me.
My memory is not short.
Even though I forget names, I never let what they do for me go unnoticed.
Because I learned that helping others is beautiful.
But being grateful is even more beautiful.

~ Clarissa Correa

Agenda

 Now that Republicans have pushed Black voters to the back of the bus and reduced the status of women to mere fetus incubators, I look for them to force gays back into the closet.

"It's sad and I don't like it."

Excerpted from On The Road by Jack Kerouac, ©1957:

Dean was having his kicks; he put on a jazz record, grabbed Marylou, held her tight, and bounced against her with the beat of the music. She bounced right back. It was a real love dance. lan MacArthur came in with a huge gang. The New Year's weekend began, and lasted three days and three nights. Great gangs got in the Hudson and swerved in the snowy New York streets from party to party. I brought Lucille and her sister to the biggest party. When Lucille saw me with Dean and Marylou her face darkened- she sensed the madness they put in me.

"I don't like you when you're with them."

"Ah, it's all right, it's just kicks. We only live once. We're having a good time."

"No, it's sad and I don't like it." 

Every time you re-read a book, any book, you take something different away from it.  As we grow, learn, and evolve, we see the world through different lenses.

This time through On The Road, I'm inclined to agree with Lucille.  I'm almost overwhelmed by the selfishness and self-deception of the principle characters.  They are casually misogynistic, callous and manipulative; they abuse drugs and have sex joylessly; they believe their hedonism is teaching them hidden lessons about life when in reality that's the very thing preventing them from seeing anything other than an illusory surface.

Lucille is right.  It's sad.

And I don't like it.