Funambulism Over Niagara

 

Reminder

Keep it in perspective. 

Don't look down. 

Keep your sight immediately in front of you. 

Trust your feet.

Keep on friendly terms with gravity. 

La Belle et la Bete

The final ecstatic scene from Jean Cocteau's 1946 La Belle et la Bete [Beauty and the Beast] along with the Philip Glass opera of the same.

Message from Uncle Walt

"I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, 
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me, 
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue." 

                                   ~ Walt Whitman - Song of Myself

Overwhelmed?

"Wisdom is knowing what to ignore."

Odd Elegy - Dhafar Youssef Quartet

Oud. Joy. Transcendence. Magic.

Old Man River

From the brave and great Paul Robeson; the lyrics changed as he got older and the world around him, too. This was among his last concerts in Europe after his 10 yr fight for his right to freely travel was returned to him by the US Supreme Court. Anyone as hated and feared as he was has got to be worth looking into, eh?

A chill ran up me when I heard him singing these last lines:

"But I keeps laughin'
instead of cryin' -
I must keep fightin'
until I'm dyin' -
And Old Man River
He'll just keep rollin' along."

New Year's Day 2012

Paying Attention

"Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on the forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager."
         - Susan Sontag




[photo of a sundog, seen by paying attention and looking up]

Sweet Release

Sidewalk Scratchings

Frida

Old Goats

'Zombieland' - T-Bone Burnett

Accentuate the positive

Destroy all the negatives

We're gonna stomp that devil beat in zombieland

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Occupy Wall Street - 
Been watching this groundswell over the last couple of weeks. "The revolution will not be televised" [Gil Scott Heron], but the internet? - well, that's a whole 'nuther kettle of fish.



It's not going away - the genie won't go back into the bottle.

It's on.


https://occupywallst.org/


Final scene from: 'The Great Dictator' (1940) - Charlie Chaplin

Haiku of the Golden Journey

what is this golden?
another autumn rising
this dream awakens

Sunflower Field ~ September Afternoon ~ Remembering Who We Are

From the movie 'Harold and Maude':

Maude: I should like to change into a sunflower most of all. They're so tall and simple. What flower would you like to be?

Harold: I don't know. One of these, maybe. 

Maude: Why do you say that? 

Harold: Because they're all alike. 

Maude: Oooh, but they're not. Look. See, some are smaller, some are fatter, some grow to the left, some to the right, some even have lost some petals. All kinds of observable differences. You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sorrow comes from people who are 'this', [she points to a daisy] yet allow themselves be treated as 'that'. [she gestures to a field of daisies].  
[cut to a shot of a field of gravestones in a military cemetery]

Haiku Fire of the Wandering Poet

in the long day
at my cane's tip...
a fuse cord


-Issa, 1816

Obsessive-Compulsive - Hah! It's not always a disorder.

"Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsession mercilessly."
- Franz Kafka

THE JOURNEY by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its still fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.

Dust Radio - Chris Whitley