Fire And Water: If I Had My Way

If I had my way
performed by Shirley Manson

lyrics:
If I had my way
If I had my way
I’d burn this whole building down

Delilah was a woman, she was fine and fair
She had good looks and coal black hair
Delilah, she gained ground on Samson’s mind
When he saw this woman she looked so fine
Delilah, she climbed up on Samson’s knee
Said, Tell me where your strength lies, if you please.
Then she spoke so kind and she talked so fair
Until Samson said, Delilah, Cut off my hair

(Chorus)

We’ve all read about old Samson, as far back as birth
He was the strongest man that ever lived on earth
One day while Samson’s walking, walking along
Looked down on the ground and saw an old jawbone
And he stretched out his arms and his chains broke like thread
When he got to move ten thousand men was dead

(Chorus variation)

Now Samson and the lion got entwined in a fight
And Samson he jumped up and took on the lion’s might
You will know just how a lion would kill a man with his paws
Well Samson got his hands up ‘round that lion’s jaws
And he ripped the beast and killed him dead
And the bees made honey in the lion’s head

Special Credit to Blind Willie Johnson

Before Jackie Robinson, there was Louis Sockalexis

"HOWES CAVE, N.Y. (AP) _ Long before Jackie Robinson endured torrents of racial taunts in breaking baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Louis Sockalexis had a bull's-eye on his back."

...

"Sockalexis's story is one of many chronicled in ``Baseball's League of Nations: A Tribute to Native Americans in Baseball,'' an exhibit on display through the end of the year at the Iroquois Indian Museum."

...

"Native Americans were expected to ignore racially charged ridicule. Nearly every player of Indian descent who stepped onto a ballfield during the first half of the 20th century was called ``Chief.'' It wasn't the only taunt: ``Redskin,'' ``Heap-Big Injun'' and chants of ``Back to the reservations,'' ``Dog Soup'' and ``Whoop, Whoop'' were part of the racist cacophony that emanated from the stands.

Bender didn't win games _ he scalped opponents. After throwing one of the best games of his career, Bender was depicted wielding a tomahawk and wearing a headdress.

Even teammates and opposing players sometimes did the taunting as teams around the country began calling themselves Indians and owners recruited Native American players as gate attractions."

Original Story: Native American Times, "Exhibit Chronicles American Indians in Baseball"

http://nativetimes.bizweb5.tulsaconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=179&Itemid=0

Pigeon in custody for drug smuggling :(

"A Bosnian pigeon is in custody for smuggling drugs into one of the country's highest security jails, an official said. "Pigeons the world over cringe and roll their eyes at this disappointing news. Many feel that, although drug-smuggling pigeons are a minority, the high-profile news attention works to reinforce negative pigeon stereotypes and ebb away at pigeon social gains.

Source: Telegraph

MIA

That's more "Missing in Action" than "Miami" -- for now, at least.

A few days ago, in eh-relative seclusion and to the chagrin of oh-so-many people, I finished the most important part of the puzzle of handling my s@#*. At the ...cost... of several weeks and a lot of concern and frustration for you, you, and you, "it is done," save the coming week's formalities.

Family, other friends, co-workers, and more have been wondering and wondering even moreso than usual. Phone, e-mail, and other contact options for me have been shoddy at best.

In the past 4 months of hiring, about half the people hired in one office had to be let go for a mix of negligence and gross misconduct on the part of key personnel. This, during an especially sensitive growth period that would have been tough even in the smoothest weather. Messy!

These days, I've been mostly cloistered up, cleaning up and making sure, one by one, that everyone gets whats due "and then some". It has meant a lot of 'waiting' for confirmed-completed actions by "the powers that be" and a lot of weird work on my part.

September looks to be a lot of fun for most people involved. A lot of thanks-given and wtfs more than sufficiently resolved; a lot of final words on abuses that slowed down the party for some, and what are likely to be pleasant surprises for the folks who stuck to their guns in the muddiest, foggiest bits--and almost everybuddy else.


and then the party starts in earnest :o

Comme un peintre qui voit sous ses doigts naître les couleurs du jour.

... Et qui n'en revient pas ...

Warning: Before reading this post, wait at least 15 minutes after eating, giving birth, or hatin' on a mofo. Don't give (y)our mind a cramp : \

Ask (m)any quantum physicists, philosophers, psychologists, andor friends ...whether armchair/grant supported/other... you might hear that we create the world as we perceive or imagine it -- metaphorically and literally.

Hopes and dreams and wants and fears and will -- maybe this is the stuff dreams are made of. Hey, maybe it's the stuff stuff is made of.

I don't subscribe to time (the magazines, the concepts) and am not terribly upset with my habits of making choices in consideration of matters that may be said to lie in my relative past or future. As I see, If I see, maybe neither direction is necessarily clearer or more accessible.

So, it may be that at times I'll touch on matters that I haven't learned of (yet) or that went on before I was around, or before anyone alive was around, or before anyone ever was around. It may be that I'll bring up something for which I have no apparent context, and it may be that until/since the time comes for the notions to catch up to the context in some other foo, it'll all be quaint art and bull for most practical purposes.

No, I won't claim to read minds or see the past or see the future or see ... anything, really -- but if I suggest that we may be no less influenced by what may be than we are by what may have been ... or if I suggest that we may be on a daily and even continuous basis confronting eddies and flows of our future and past or that the nature of being and choice itself might even depend on this sort of temporal incest... well, then. Fuck me, I'm screwed!

Cuz I wouldn't suggest any of that.

That's just crazy talk. Mental diarrhea.

Y'all just flush and mosey on.


Here's the beef:


I'm getting carried away in the fruit of my choices. I'm working in and on and through what some people continue to call "big things" and it's overwhelming and welcoming and comfortable and beyond me. As it seems it has needed to be for some time. And this flow is so sweet.

So, my work is art to me. My will-babies and thought-kids have been growing into practical toddler-group-notions, team efforts, and community endeavors. They've been sustained on the kindness of strangers and some kind of will. Beautiful people and difficult, necessary choices all day every day. It's fun, and there aren't words for the bits that stand out most to me as "yes *nod*".

And so, these Joe Dassin lyrics of "Et si tu n'existais pas" (If you didn't exist) ... well they stand out now as they have since Inessa first played that cassette in the '90s, back when Alla and I had time and inclination to talk -- as accessible reflections of some sense of getting lost in one's own creation. Even if only for a time.

Let the judges call it selfish, or privileged or genius or crucial or healthy or wtf or masturbatory or wtf.... the artist who painted the image I've posted above (without explicit permission, mind you! oh, know!) liked Sweet Honey in the Rock's song-expression "We Are" and I'll just say that it fits.

It fits, the notion that we should^* be taken in by our works, our art, our creativity -- it fits with the notion that we are ourselves creations, the stuff of dreams, the hopes of others long past or yet to be, that we should^* at once and ever be creating and created and creators and at any moment... look in-side or out-side and see ourselves being painted, even as we paint.

(This isn't quite what that Dassin song's apparently ....about... it's more written along the lines of someone who's expressing love and destiny and that even in a world that might exist without his ..destinée... his actions and life might somehow be bent in her would-be direction, he'd effectively create her if she didn't exist, and he'd be lost in his creation of her. Acceptance, acknowledgement, imposition of fate and dedication....something along these lines)

Every choice we make just might be every choice that will ever have been made, when it's all said and done, if it's ever all said and done.

As shady and tough and skew and unsummarizable and fruitful and suiting and refreshing and moving as what I'm working on is, I love it. I'm doing what I'm moved to do, what I'm called to do, what I choose to do, what I must do. I love me, too, and golly ... maybe even you! And this thing that I do, is totally in keeping with that. Even where I stumble, I don't fall. Even where I fall, I get back up, count my leg(s), get my silli butt up and get there. Absolutely-Grinning.

;) "and I can die when I'm done"

*=(subjunctive "should". Don't look at me for what you should or shouldn't do, punks.)

Liquidity

Time. Place. Fittingly enough

I started this post more than 2 months ago.
All that really "fit" was the title and this notion of fixed potential giving way to determined flow.

That, and availability for basic things like planned outings, phone calls, *cough*weddingsandgraduations*cough* singing, etc.

Some people have expressed difficulty understanding or accepting how busy I've been in recent months. Although I have taken breaks, traveled, and spoken with friends these months, I've woken hit the ground running and continued til sleeping otherwise. Each week has been more of an extended work session, sprinkled with naps and many, many urgent situations.

It's engaging. I look forward to what's next, even as I crash on [the whatever I'm sleeping on that day or night], and I still have no complaints. Easy? Nope. Manageable? Sometimes. Struggle? Welcome, to the extent needed to get done what must be done.

I haven't taken time to touch on highlights or attempt to explain my continual state of delay. For all the question marks floating about from others, mine is the same I'll likely ever have. For now, though, I'll be a bit like water just starting to melt and flow from ice; I'll communicate with intention when I'll have the focus and space to do so without essential distraction.

Consideration for the time-minded:
I'm still not that big a deal. Go ...soak up the sun :) I'll meet you there

Dear Immune System

Thanks.

All these years we've gotten to know each other, I've made an effort not to compromise our "understanding" and, every once in a while, even sleep. Whatever I've done or not done, you've come through. So much so that, despite the oodles 'n oodles 'n noodles of chipper, dapper, and downright voracious microbes and toxins glad to "do their thing" by any means possible, we've managed to keep the lights on in this here...body thing.

Even though our communication has been grand and our intrapersonal skills have been thriving these years, I'm also writing you this blog entry, not to embarrass you, but to serve as a more open expression of my appreciation.

Immune systems the world over, here operates an immune system among immune systems. Through thick and thin, an with very little outside help, this immune system has consistently kept average yearly sick days down to less than 1 calendar day, has made quick issue of distracting colds and prospective flu tenants, and has maintained informative and insightful dialog to warn of current and pending immune security threats.

I couldn't ask for amore engaged and responsible immune system, and I'm at a loss for words.

Mom, Dad.... thank you both for your contributions that have made this stellar relationship probable. I will do my very best to help ensure future generations might experience sublimity like that of this blissful immuni...mony.


*internalHugz*

ouch! : \

"And first, a word from our sponsors" 嗯.

I'm stoked :o

My friend and business parter is having an October baby.

I was in tears at his wedding, and it's likely I'll be in tears on "welcome, kid" day.

Minus the crazy 26/7 working/campusing/bizzing/emergencying of late, I'm all set for kids. Have been for years. Sign me up.

After May, it'll still be crazy, but with flexible, arbitrarily set flows of free time.

Sweet Honey in the Rock :: I Be Your Water

(Listen at Yahoo)

I...I......I.......I..........

I be your shelter
I be your land
I be your every-thing;
I be your friend

I be your water

when you're thirsty and dry.


I woke up moaning in a crowded sick place
Surrounded by evil, protected by grace
There were these hands, hundreds reaching for me
They knew exactly who and what I should be
Each way I turned, each one stronger than the last
Which would I choose and how could I pass?

Then I heard whispers (be still, be still, be still)
From deep inside me (be still, be still, be still)
Then I heard whispers (be still, be still, be still)
From deep inside me (be still, be still, be still)

As I gave power to the sound of my own voice
A way broke before me, I followed my choice
I walked along the way other lives had been
Till I came to what seemed like an end
Again these hands, (there were these hands ) reaching beck'ning for me
(there were these hands)
They knew exactly who and what I should be

Again the whispers (be still, be still, be still)
Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)
Again the whispers (be still, be still, be still)
Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)

The way before me was mine to take
There was no road, no path to take
As I had my life through this muddy rock way
Others toiled beside me for a justice new day
Still, I have felt lonely (I have felt lonely), most of the time (I have felt lonely)
Walking this sweet freedom struggle of mine
Still I have felt lonely (I have felt lonely), most of the time (I have felt lonely)
Walking this sweet freedom struggle of mine

Saved by the whispers (be still, be still, be still)
Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)
Saved by the whispers (be still, be still, be still)
Keeping me steady (be still, be still, be still)

Yesterday I stumbled around the bend
I saw you standing you reached me your hand
I've seen you before, oh many a time
Why, your life had plowed the road right next to mine
Now you make the sun (you make the sun) rise in my sky (you make the sun)
You rock the cradle honey, you make me fly
You keep me company
Now you make the sun (you make the sun)
Rise in my sky (you make the sun),
You rock my cradle honey,
You make me fly
You keep me company

I...I......I.......I..........

I be your shelter
I be your land
I be your every-thing
I be your friend
I be your water
when you’re thirsty and dry




..."I Be Your Water"
.....by Bernice Johnson Reagon (of Sweet Honey in the Rock)

(Listen at Yahoo)
(Sweet Honey in the Rock Official Website)

(
1) Download this song by any means feasible (eMule, I hear, just might do the trick)
2) Listen. Really. No--really.
3) Mail them a donation. Use online banking to save time and postage. If you're not inclined to do so, consider reading more about Sweet Honey in the Rock, listening to more of their music, then repeat steps 2-3.
)

À Toi

Lyrics and Music by Joe Dassin (an artist to whose art I was exposed a decade ago via Alla via her bro via an old friend of his. We're talking cassette tapes here.) ... youtube link at bottom provided in part for audio quality. Even if the music isn't your style, c'mon -- some of the lyrical notions... are sweet, rich.




À toi 與妳相伴
À la façon que tu as d'être belle 用與妳的美麗相稱的方式
À la façon que tu as d'être à moi 用妳是屬於我的方式
À tes mots tendres un peu artificiels 用妳那溫柔有時帶點做作的
Quelquefois 甜言蜜語

À toi 與妳相隨
À la petite fille que tu étais 與曾經是小女孩時的妳
À celle que tu es encore souvent 與直到如今還令妳難以忘懷的往事
À ton passé, à tes regrets 與妳的過去,與妳的悔恨
À tes anciens princes charmants 與妳那些迷人的王子們

À la vie, à l'amour 與生命,與愛情
À nos nuits, à nos jours 與我們厮守的夜晚,與我們同在的白晝
À l'éternel retour de la chance 與那慕然回首且不朽的美麗可能
À l'enfant qui viendra 與未來的孩子
Qui nous ressemblera 那將會與我們相似
Qui sera à la fois toi et moi 那將要同時屬於你我的孩子,同在

À moi 與我相伴
À la folie dont tu es la raison 與妳覺得必須要的放縱瘋狂
À mes colères sans savoir pourquoi 與我那些因誤解而來的怒氣
À mes silences et à mes trahisons 與我的沉默和,
Quelquefois 偶爾的背叛

À moi 與我相隨
Àu temps que j'ai passé à te chercher 與那些總是找理由與妳見面的日子
Àux qualités dont tu te moques bien 與那些在妳身上完全沒有的優點
Àux défauts que je t'ai caché 與那些我在妳面前隱瞞起來的缺陷
À mes idées de baladin 與我所有的幽默狂想

À la vie, à l'amour 與生命,與愛情
À nos nuits, à nos jours 與我們厮守的夜晚,與我們同在的白晝
À l'éternel retour de la chance 與那慕然回首且不朽的美麗可能
À l'enfant qui viendra 與未來的孩子
Qui nous ressemblera 那將會與我們相似
Qui sera à la fois toi et moi 那將要同時屬於你我的孩子,同在

À nous 與我們相伴
Àux souvenirs que nous allons nous faire 與那些我們將共同構築的夢
À l'avenir et au présent surtout 與未來,尤其與當下的每一刻
À la santé de cette vieille terre 舉杯祝福這個
Qui s'en fout 對我們的存在毫不在乎的古老大地

À nous 與我們相隨
À nos espoirs et à nos illusions 與我們的希望,以及我們遙不可及的幻想
À notre prochain premier rendez-vous 與我們未來的第一次約會
À la santé de ces milliers d'amoureux 舉杯祝福這世上千千萬萬
Qui sont comme nous 與我們同樣的愛侶們

À la vie, à l'amour 與生命,與愛情
À nos nuits, à nos jours 與我們厮守的夜晚,與我們同在的白晝
À l'éternel retour de la chance 與那慕然回首且不朽的美麗可能
À l'enfant qui viendra 與未來的孩子
Qui nous ressemblera 那將會與我們神似
Qui sera à la fois toi et moi 那將要同時屬於你我的孩子,同在






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUTUwPuokIM