the tower of power

There was a time when silver oxide was a predominant to capture images. There was also a time when metal structures hovered on hill tops. People stood there and kept watch in case of wildfires.
Both are essentially gone. Satellites have replaced the towers and the "watch-woman" is retired - but I found some images of old I took about 15 years ago of this, placed them on the lawn  and used the digital capture device for reproduction...

I really don't have a punch line for this post, nothing of interest to say. Sorry.

But I must say - I always loved her face.

the world is comfortably insane

There are complaints out there that the new environmentally designed "Sun Chips" bag made by Frito Lay which can be composted - is too noisy when opened. There are 20 million people homeless in Asia. There are millions of chicken eggs on recall in the US because of a bacteria outbreak. The economy, despite of the dance of all the witch doctors, is a miserable recovery. And the word "recovery" should be eliminated all together from the dictionary. We cut our lawn and expect the grass to be greener on the other side of the fence. How idiotic. 
The flowers in my garden still bloom, on the other hand - for each blossom that withers a soldier dies in a foreign country. An islam meeting place to be opened close to "ground zero" in Manhattan, New York, stirs peoples minds as if that would change anything. There is little logic behind all this.

Horizon

Leaving Hobbittown will be tough. I will miss my four 'a clock afternoon tea, the smoke rings evaporating from a cob-pipe, the fresh smell of Basil in the garden and in general; tranquility.

But it must be so. Even in my old age changes present opportunities. When you look at this picture, you will gaze into the far distance. That is where Alsace is at, and that is the place I will put my foot down, for now. The US has become a gambling pit, a Casino of sorts lately. It is time to face an other reality.

The other picture here depict my supportive wife and friends from Europe who urge me to make a move.
Today I got a job offer in the US which I shouldn't refuse, but I already booked my ticket Europe bound. Destiny works mysterious ways.

BeePee

the BP thingy

OK, so here are the lyrics:

Look at me now, I am BP
I will promise you plenty of energy
the world shall burn - all it's fuels
sail away with me on this ship of fools.


Look at me now, I am BP
and I have a brilliant strategy
suck out all the oil from below the sea
yeah, I'll give you plenty of energy


All is well when you gaze out to the sea
all looks swell from your condo's balkony


Seagulls are covered in black molasses
the oil spill grows bigger while we drag our asses
fisherman miss out on their daily catch,
help me Sir, do you have a latch?
I wanna stop this spill, and go for the kill
though to succeed to stop this mess - I guess I never will!
The ocean is polluted and a general saluted
while I give you this - and here is the key
I deliver you plentiful of energy
and don't forget my name, it's simply: BP!


Politicians scratch their heads
repeat what all ghost-writer said
and without even blinking
they speak loud what they are thinking,
I am BP and I give you energy


All is well when you gaze out to the sea
all looks swell from your condo's balkony


So the Gulf is infected and the shores not protected
put more platforms up, fill the missing gap
'cause I am BP - and I'll give you energy


I am here to stay, take your liberties away
forget them now - I have no more to say.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beware, above text is a draft. The copper relief of the image is over 20 years old, hanging on the entrance wall of a restaurant - it's called "Nordic Light". I get free meals there whenever I appear. Kind of cool.

Earth and Sky - final

 
The easiest way to download this song as an mp3 file, if you want to keep it, is to click on the top right logo (imt) of this player which gets you to the host site; type "zayart" into the search window (top right) - and voila, there is the song, ready for download to your hard-drive as an mp3.

Ok, so this is the final version for now. This is what the father of the girl will get. It is still a bit rough, but so be it. At least there is more structure now, some guitar noodling on my part while my brother plays the rhythm, and then I added violin. All recorded instruments were a "one take situation", all improvised on the spot. The violin was shuttled over via internet and added to the multitrack.

So the other day I went to a concert, Camille Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No.3; and then the barely fifteen year old violin player was absolutely spectacular, sound wise, and also in her ease to communicate with the orchestra; fabulous!
Oh, I should mention her name, just in case you are in the vicinity of her giving a performance. Her name is Sirena Huang.You will be in for a treat if you catch her preforming.
But I can tell you this much, despite her fame, she is totally sane and natural and hates and loves exactly what every normal teenager would hate and love. I mean I might simplify here, but that is the sense I got from her webpage and from the miniscule interaction I had after her concert. Whatever, she is great, don't miss out on her if she happens to play in your town.

PS. There is a low resolution (video) version of my song on uTube, audio Ok, video bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UIY9UB5Z5k

Hot dogs again

It's that time of year again when I ponder what the United States of America is all about. Is it a new empire that put closure to an old one? Is it a continent that was populated by extremist religious groups not tolerated anymore in Europe? Is it a Democracy? Well, the "founding fathers" clearly said: No to that, leaving the states in an ambivalent free for all experiment. So what is it then, the land of the free, with awesome sculptures carved into the rocks of Mount Rushmore?
Did the Indian's blood fertilize the lands properly? Did the two party system evolve to anything else but a Duocracy?
Does the Hamburger taste better in the USA than in Hamburg - Germany? Besides, maybe the US burger is better since most obese, fat, ugly people live on this continent and most other continents are spared of such ... for now. (Sorry obese people, I just had to say it that way). And why do we American  opportunistic peoples only invest into the infrastructure of "Now" - and not the future? Why do we wait to call for international help to clean up the worst oil spill ever ... until six weeks down the road? Why don't we use our plenty abundance of resources wisely which would suffice for all of us? What's wrong with this "Independence"? Have we become cowards not able to live up to our dreams and expectations, do we have an issue jumping over our own shadow?
All right, today I am not using charcoal, but real wood - ash wood that is, to get my fire going. And then, we will have all kinds of meats and vegetables roasting on that fire, celebrating the 4th of July!
As Lincoln would have said: Let the fireworks begin!

will you pull me out of here?

Whilst in Puerto Rico early this year, the divide between poor and affluent people became more than ever obvious to me. This "SUV" the guy sits on does not radiate hope for a ride into a bright future. And then a few blocks away you will find posh Mega Casinos where gambling sets the tone of the day. All these hundred of thousands of Dollars each day down the drain, no, not down the drain, instead enriching those who are already rich. Is there a method to this madness?

I listened to a radio report today that workers in China get about $1 a day to assemble some of Apple's iPhones components for all the humans who have forgotten the skill to talk face to face, ten hours a day, seven days a week. No real raise in sight. They are now protesting. Something unheard of a decade ago. It looks like the workers will get modest improvements ... but still!

I have the belief that the world, because everyone of us 90% slaves are affected by it, need to locally refigure their situation and give the middle finger to bureaucracy, hedonistic government games, Altzheimer riddled politicians - but most of all an inner shift of consciousness to that "the Kingdom has failed", it is a continuos string of betrayal, ordained by the rich to the poor. We may call us a Democracy in the US, the constitution and all. But in reality we are just suckers to the ones who control cash flow. We are not "free"!!!

Murdoch,  that media man who controls the majority of our press, just declared the other day, that the US didn't buy Alaska from Russia to save the Moose or the Reindeer, but that drilling for oil would  be continuous. What does he know? He is a Aussie citizen who got his home passport taken away when he bought the American citizenship. He has no respect for the working people here, and he definitely has no sense of history. 

That is a good example, the one who holds cash - rules.

    

hope

I lost my head, but I still have wings to fly.
Most people believe that the head is the most important entity. Well, it is important, but not THAT important.
We humans always think (emphasis on think) that all riddles and maladies of this world find a solution through the use of what we call intelligence, based in the physical neurological system of our daily decaying bodies.
Reality shows us that this is not so. The conflict of Israel and Palestine is not "think". Afghanistan and Iraq is not "think". The oil spill is very little "think".
No, all this is a warped reality of human commotions and emotions gone awry.
Greed, stubbornness, religious misconceptions and survival instincts all rule human society - unless of course, we chop off our head. The displacement of the heart has become obvious in our times. It is time we use our wings. Angels did it, why can't we? The only way to grow and make your wings flourish, is by centering your primal energy into the middle region - the heart.
Then you will be able to rise above, and solutions might be found.   




Carved picture frame in walnut wood by me, the image is from Greece 

Silence is silver, conversation is gold - and then there is black gold

IfItWasMyHome.com - Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster 
(this is a link, click on it)

This is starting to piss me off.
BP, with all their promises and attempts is not able to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf?
There is a moratorium for the next six months for offshore drilling in the US.
So I believe that BP just let it slide, don't care if they can cap the well or not, as long as they can perform the "ultimate solution" - namely having two "relief rigs" drilling right by; of course not ready until sometimes in August.

In the mean time oil will spill out.
By not managing to cap the well, BP will circumcise the moratorium for off-shore drilling - a free ride again and pump the black gold into their coffers of that particular oil field. Very clever. It's all about money, not people.
In the mean time they dispense thousands of tons of chemicals on top of the sea and on the bottom just where it gushes out. God knows what that will do to the environment. Did I say environment, did I say natural habitat? Did I say long term?
Humans are such pitiful creatures, they don't even grow fur to protect themselves. They need clothes made of cotton and wool, all from nature and in the same breath they destroy their resources they depend on. Pathetic. Unless you wish to call a Nylon dress "clothing" - which of course again is derived from crude oil.
So get your windmills up, your solar-panels, whatever you can do - and kiss goodbye cooperations who wish to dominate our daly life.

Life as it can be

When I travelled up to Vermont, close to the Canadian border to visit my son, I observed and realized how living and 

working can be done differently.
In a small house by a creek, there was no electricity, instead propane lights at night. Very sufficient actually. Forget WiFi and all that stuff, cell phones barely work there - if at all. 
There is a certain tranquility about that.
It had been raining for several days, the pathways to the cottage drenched and soggy - and we were "just there". Then came the question: "You must be bored, shall we go somewhere, do an outing, maybe to town?" I said no, I am fine with this, I actually have no desire to socialize with others right now...
So I asked him: "Are you ever bored here?" - he answered, no. I keep too busy to ever experience that state of mind.
He does fine stonemasonry, building patios and indoor custom-cut floors with amazing patterns, building outdoor bread ovens, while also taking care of a herd of cattle at the adjunct organic farm.


Why do I bring this all up? Yes, it is because I sincerely believe in that the "healing" of the planet can not be left to the hands of cooperations (like BP) or even the government.
The little steps we do locally are much more powerful. Not noticed at first, but then shown to be very effective.
I wish you all to make your "local steps"!        

The first one is always the most astounding

The first poppy popped
and it reminded me of my first love
delicate yet powerful, truly astounding


Flowers and woman are in common, so I stopped 
admired the beauty and a dove
was cooing in the surrounding


Then we think back to this day
and in many ways we fled our conversations
which could have happened right now - fatigue


It is startling to see how many games humans play
to artificially alter their situation
believe me, today was not that day, not that kind of gig

Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues ... and me too!

the poppy saga of Afghanistan

All right, so 87% of  the world market's opiates are produced and grown in Afghanistan, opium and the derivatives  - like heroin; and the US is the largest consumer of such. The beautiful white poppies who calm down mankind once processed. 

I have red ones in my garden, and they are spreading, not as potent  as white ones. It is probably totally illegal to grow them, but I like their beauty. Just look at them, that makes me content, don't need to chew the seeds.

Mysterious Blight Destroys Afghan Poppy Harvest

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: May 12, 2010

Up to one-third of Afghanistan’s poppy harvest this spring has been destroyed by a mysterious disease, according to estimates revealed Wednesday by United Nations officials, potentially complicating the American and NATO military offensives this summer in the country’sopium-producing heartland.

Enlarge This Image

Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

Marines patrolled in Helmand Province in April while an Afghan girl harvested poppy. This year's blight might drive up opium prices, aiding insurgents.

Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.

Go to the Blog »

The Taliban’s public relations strategy against the offensives includes trying to convince local residents that Western troops will destroy their poppy crops, and in recent weeks Afghan farmers have started blaming the American and NATO militaries for spreading the disease, United Nations officials say. In many places, the blight has wiped out more than half of individual poppy fields.

The American military — which has decided that widespread eradication can be counterproductive to winning over Afghans — emphatically denies any involvement, and United Nations officials say the disease is naturally occurring.

Besides fueling the propaganda war, the blight might also help the insurgency by giving prices a boost. Reduced production is causing prices for fresh opium to soar as much as 60 percent, after years of declining prices, according to the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa.

While there is no evidence that the disease will return next year, the rising prices may make it harder to persuade farmers to give up the crop, he said.

The price increase is also raising by hundreds of millions of dollars the value of opium stockpiles held by traffickers and insurgents. The opium trade is believed to provide the Taliban with a large portion of their budget.

Greek

Greek


If a fish swims in
a pond without sunlight
it still keeps to the
Greek sense of peace
and the oceans gentle breeze
and the sun's soft warmth
comes up over the hills
gently touching me
and all the world around me
will come to a stand still
unless the wheels keep spinning
and Greek food makes me fill.




So we had that game last evening, waiting for the food to come. It was in a Greek tavern. There were four of us, my wife, my daughter and her man-friend.
The rules were such. You write three lines and then fold the paper, leaving the last line exposed. Handing it over, the next person continues to scribble. We did four rounds, then the food arrived - delicious. It was my birthday present!
Above is one example of the four "poems".  It's hilarious and just fun, by simply trying to do it, you'll see people sweat before they get hot. Give it a try!

Is there a tomorrow?

I certainly bore you to death by again picking up this subject. But now it's definitely closure time.
Tree planting, a plum tree I believe last Saturday in honor of Emily. I came a bit late, so I was not able to join the bunch of people to ride a horse up the dirt road - unfortunately! Haven't been on a horse for many years, would have liked to do so now. But oh well, maybe I can persuade the family to give me a horse and then take a ride at a later point. I am rusty, need to replenish.

Did you know that horses are one of the oldest species of animal life on earth, genetically speaking? They survived the dinosaurs, maybe because they were more intelligent than them.
I wonder how the human species will do in the future, is there a tomorrow?
They, the humans,  are a beautiful and soul-full creature, but somehow they seem to have a hard time connecting to all what is around them. 

Power/Energy/Life

What is power, which kind of power, who exercises it?

In Cape Cod in Massachusetts, there is a fair amount of opposition to an offshore windmill project that would generate a fair amount of energy. The reason, it could potentially kill some seagulls and it would also be an out of the ordinary sight for day-sailors cruising the bay.

In the mean time we follow the news of probably the worst oil spill in the United States caused by a defunct oil-digging rig run in the Gulf by BP, 1.5 million gallons so far oozed.
 They can’t even plug the thing to stop the oil spilling out more, because the well is 5000 feet deep.  This might go on for months. Devastation is inevitable.

Well, my opinion is, I'd rather see a few seagulls chopped up by windmills off shore than having to witness the destruction of vast habitats of the magnitude this oil spill will surely provide, not to mention about the loss to the fishermans who are all grounded for now.

I am not basically against off shore oilrigs, as long as they are save. But I lean more towards energy independence that would supply  energy without the dependence of fossil fuels.

Until people fully understand the havoc wreaked upon this country, as well as the rest of the world, by the capitalists corporations amongst us, there is little hope that we will see much change to our energy or economic policies.

Exploitation rules - the poor continues to get poorer, the middle class is disappearing, and the corporatists like BP will, once again, walk away unscathed.