The 1st amendment is not something to mess around with. If we lose it by excess chipping away from city, state or federal governments we are lost.Americans have the right to stand up to our government and speak out. Lately our various elected officials seem to grow tired of citizens speech. This is the most recent example. It won't be the last.For the record, he was allowed to come back into the chamber and make his full point.There seems to be some question if he is a priest. I'm not sure I understand but at some point he was a Catholic priest....
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
There was a time when 999 was the highest amount of posts you could upload on Blogger. I wasn't too worried about it because I didn't think I'd reach 999 posts. I don't think about things like that because they intimidate me.Here I am. Number 1,000 according to my post log. Dang! I feel good about it.I wrote long before there was blogging. Use to do an e-mail news letter. Had a old school user page that required HTML. I never warmed up to Dreamweaver but I gave it a go because I had much to say and thought my voice was as valid as some of the others...
I have watched and listened as privileged white men tried to help the nation understand the problems and worth of poor black kids. If I am understanding correctly, which is impossible because I use to be a poor black kid, I am incapable of going to work, thinking long term and handling my responsibilities as an adult.It seems I am unable of understanding my current and future situation in life. I did not know that I require intervention to help me move past my impoverished blackness of being. The fact that I had to use technology just to find out...
Thursday, December 15, 2011
If you happen to be in the Venice or Santa Monica areas around 7:30 p.m. you might want to stop by Beyond Baroque for a Celebration by the students of Anais Nin. If your fingers haven't flipped through Delta of Venus you have got a bit of catching up to do. If you feel a bit of frost bite in the heart or other regions of the body you really should plunk down money for her books. That is the heathen side of me, paying more attention to the erotic work instead of her other works.This is Nancy Shiffrin reading a work that you could say was inspired...
Friday, December 9, 2011
I am coming up on my 1,000 post. I tend to think that I haven't don't anything a thousand times. Nonsense, we all have. We just don't think of them. Anyway, I needed an old movie fix. You rarely can go wrong with a Leslie Howard movie.YouTube Link for The Animal KingdomActually it was Ann Harding. I had seen another movie in which she scopes out a playboy with potential and decides to plot to marry him. It was a lesson on entrepreneurship in the...
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
I have the heat on. And my coat. If I could find one of my hats it would be on my head too. It is not unusual to have a chill in the morning. This ain't a chill, this is straight up cold. I feel like it is back east weather.I personally like waking up to temperatures in the 60 degree range. This ish feels like lower 30s or something.I'm having to put clothes on the heater to warm them before I'll put them on. That is old school east coast living skills.Dear Canada. I have great respect for your country. I even watch some of your TV shows like Being...
Monday, December 5, 2011
It wasn't the Santa Ana Wind. It has been accused of downing multiple trees in the area. It is innocent. The hit job blast came from Canada and the other wind pattern location hasn't been identified as yet.It is still blowing outside but not at the intensity of last week. There are fire warnings being issued by NOAA and other weather services. Things are looking kinda normal for now. Pasadena is still cleaning up. There are trees down on a...
Sunday, November 27, 2011
I know Jan McLaughlin from the Yahoo Videoblogging Group and as one of the early video folks at Vidlicious. She is a profession sound artist, engineer and creator. The Rinse Cycle by soundsgoodtooThrough the Twitterverse she has posted a poem performed with Bruce Weber.More poetry, less pepper spr...
Sunday, November 13, 2011
It is about the flow of money. Much of that employment flow has been diverted to other states and countries.If you, you being a wealthy, rich or doing all right person don't understand what people are talking about perhaps you have a better relationship with things. So here are some things. These are called empty stores. Stores that had an owner and employees. They don't have them any more. When folks are unemployed their discretionary shopping money vaporises. That means they can't go shopping.No shoppers means no customers. No customers means...
Today is Sunday. A day of rest. Trying to catch up on my videos and it it almost but not quiet a lost cause. This is a video of me looking out at trouble from the Metro Pico Station. We are suppost to have our Santa Ana winds that cause warm air to lovinging caress the body.Not these rain clouds. What rest?I have cleaned the bathroom, Uploaded 15 videos to the Vlomo Gallery, throwing out trash, trying to finish a blog post and start another and did I mention the kitchen is a wreck?There is laundry. There is purging of things I haven't used or read...
Thursday, November 10, 2011
It is a moment and then it is gone. That is why we take photos when we get the chance. Trying to keep up with that road runner known as the Queen of Spain can be a full time job.Taking the kids to school. Getting herself to treatments. Speaking at conventions about cyberbullying and Lupus. I can just about keep up with her on Twitter. She's got multiple streams going on Facebook. At BlogWorld Los Angeles 2011 I caught up with Cecily Kellog, Anissa Mayhew and Erin Kotecki Vest. They were finishing their panel and had just got kicked out of the...
Monday, November 7, 2011
This takes some explaining. I like audio dramas, storytelling, audio theater, old time radio and stuff like that. I got hooked on Philippa Ballantine podcasts of Weather Child and other productions.Tee Morris, yes. too many to count. I usually listen to podcasts before I go to bed, when I need to mellow out at work or for medicinal purposes.I attended Tee's presentation at BlogWorld 2011 in Los Angeles. Excellent. He told the straight scoop and didn't try to get me to believe in the fairly money making slot machine of podcasting. I really appreciate...
Sunday, November 6, 2011
I feel like I have walked almost every inch of the Los Angeles Convention Center. I haven't but that joint is huge.Anyway this is a video that I recorded when I looked up into the rafters of the convention center. I have more but if you are curious about this Vlomo 2011 stuff check out the blog I'm curating at http://vlomo2011.tumblr....
Friday, November 4, 2011
I have been up since 3 a.m. I don't know why. I have been ripping and roaring around downtown Los Angeles for BlogWorld 2011. I have posted videos of the participants of Vlomo2011 and like a fool I thought that I would squeeze one more hour and put mine up. Ain't gonna happen. Lady MacBeth is going to bed.Dig you cats lat...
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Somebody has to do it and I guess it is up to me. But the mail that gets stuffed in my mail box is disheartening.One ad to lose weight. Another for Dish TV. Two ads for Pollo Loco. More ads for losing weight. As near as I can figure it I'm supposed to sit at home all day watching TV and not eating anything.This is my Day 2 video for International Videobloging Posting Month aka Vlomo20...
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Hello friends and assorted relations. It has been a day. A full day. Not like yesterday because all I remember is coming home and crashing at 4:30 in the afternoon. Waking up at 2:30 a.m.the previous day might have contributed to the experience.There is a bit of sleep desperation going on. I mean deprivation. It could be a good thing. Really. I'm taking the short cut to everything not requiring deep attention.I apologize in advance. The reason I'm apologizing is that I watch a man doing the dishes in one of the Vlomo 2011 videos. I was about to...
Not that I am comfortable at this time. I am not. But I miss being creative. It seems that my time is being spent informing folks of stuff, which I really like to do, but I don't get to create as much as I want to.I have been watching the Tate Shorts on iTunes. There is also a Tate YouTube channel. Those things blow me away. All kinds of artists, some pompous, so to the bone authentic. There is a wack job or two but I like them as well.So long as I don't have to live with them.The implied point of watching those videos is do it.So I am going to...
Saturday, October 29, 2011
I was having a conversation with about the Occupy movement came up. My friend said something to the effect that instead of occupation what the young folks should do is collectively buy stocks in corporations and effect change from within the system.Now, I might be misinterpreting his words or not understanding conceptually what he meant. But I'm going with what I think I heard which is something to the effect of "there can be no change by what they are doing, get into the system and fight."It is not a bad suggestion. Not a good one either....
Well yeah, there is a story about that. The poetry readings generally happen at a branch of the Pasadena Public Library. That branch is undergoing renovations. Currently the folks are meeting at Maui Wowie, accross the street from Pasadena City College.This is a good thing. Visually. And I like the smoothies.But from an audio standpoint it is a mess. You can hear the blender. You can hear the radio pumping out top 6 hits. You can barely hear the poets.There is no audio cleaner in the world that can handle that kind of background noise. The renovation...
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The library nerd in me loves that this video even exists. Matthew Battles is an author and librarian. His book, "Library: An Unquiet History" talks about how libraries constantly are re-invented for the needs of the time. In this video, Battles talks about the 19th century Chartist movement paved the path toward the public library system we have today. Toward the end of the video Battles makes the point about how the camp libraries of the Occupy movement will also shape how we share information in the days to come.For more info on the book: WorldCat...
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
I pay attention to what Jay Smooth has to say. Brother can post once every three months and it is all right with me because when he does hit record it makes sense to me. I've been trying to write my own thoughts but I can yank three pages of them cuz Mr. Smooth has scope out part of the signal.Case in point about Occupy Wall Street New York:Especially the part about the ringers. The guy from American Spectator that started the ruckus at the Air and Space Museum and all the media pundits, pundi, pontificates and those that cannot see non-scripted...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Los Angeles is a place of contradictions. Thousands of them. Los Angeles does have a kinda sorta Wall Street but the traders have to wake up early to play with the east coast markets. They, I heard told, do not necessarily walk around in gray pinstripe uniforms, er suits.Los Angeles does have towers of banks and financial institutions that are far up in the sky. Far away from commuters, the homeless population, vendors wanting to buy gold and silver and the other teaming masses. So no, this march will have no impact on them at all. Still,...
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Got an e-mail from Barnes and Noble about buying Borders customer data. Thing is, I opted out of Borders e-mail long before the bankruptcy. What I forgot was that I was a Border's member. It appears I can have a limited free membership into the BN premium club until I would have to pay in 2012.I don't want to pay BN an advance on the books I may or many not purchase. I didn't want to do that before the Nook and I don't want to do it now. I have another e-mail from Writer's Digest talking about them helping me to bulk up for NaNoWriMo, if...
Sunday, October 9, 2011
It is a known fact that there are chunks of Los Angeles that are automotive incompetent to drive a car. There are cities with reputations of having distracted, uncaring and flat out unskilled drivers.There are also people that transcend geography that have a tendency to piss off 8 out of 10 pedestrians. Now I don't want to cast all those who drive BMWs and Mercedes in a bad light. But I would swear that it is part of the code of automotive arrogance that allow almost hitting pedestrians is a badge of honor.A few minuets ago I was bringing my laundry...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
On September 26, 2011. Alessio Rastani scared the hell out of folks in the UK and Europe. He worked my nerves something terrible. I was so messed up I couldn't even read or do anything worth a damn.For those folks that can't see the video. he basically said in a clear, assertive voice that traders and brokers don't care about governments or stable societies. They are looking for profit. The next money fix.This is not news but he said it in plain English. That was news. And the work that others folks are trying to do to save Greece and parts of...
Monday, September 26, 2011
I feel like that rabbit from Alice In Wonderland. Running here, late there and mumbling to myself.I have video but I don't have time to edit just yet. My beloved computer is one foot from the grave and I can't make a decision on the replacement. It is a very personal thing. It has to be just right.So does chocolate and access to it. Which is why I went to the Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon that was held in Pasadena.This was the fifth salon...
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Before blogging there were web sites and e-newsletters. I started an e-newsletter to keep my computer students and my friends up to date about software programs and the Internet. My friends at the time didn't understand what the Internet was or why I was so jazzed about it. They thought it was something like CB Radio.I made so many mistakes back then. Spelling, typing, factual; you name it I did it. I kept plugging away at it and I got better. I learned from other people. I learned I didn't have to write a book each time I hit the keyboard.I didn't...
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Many folks I know are practicing a media blackout until September 12, 2011. To the extent possible, I do not watch mainstream television and have just about given up on most broadcast news so most of the time I am out of the flow. I will be even more so on Sunday the 11th. I'm reading the book Water for Elephants instead. I'm going through my junk mail. The PennySaver wants me to know that I can get a lap band if I want to invoke insurance verification.I don't have PPO insurance. Don't want a lap band either.Well, I would think about it if involved...
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The smoothie of the day is a mixed berry kind of concoction. I would have like to have added a chunk of garlic to it to keep what has been biting me at night unhappy but I can't find the cloves. Too lazy to look for it. I can imagine it. Some bloodsucker bug looking for an easy meal strolls up to my arm and takes a sniff. Just as he is about to break off a chunk of me he gets a snoot blast of Gilroy's finest garlic."Pee-yoo, that is some rank human! I'm not that hungry." He flutters to the nearest tiny crack in the door.Yes, I must find the...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sean Hill has no way of knowing this. I went to school with a roomful of guys with big Afros. I'm sure one of those Afros caused me to almost flunk French. I came back to the present because it is better in the here and now. Sean is an actor and poet who was one of the guess poets at the most recent get together. This is a poem because today, no matter what day it is, we need a po...
There are all sorts of ways to say I love you, I know you are present and thank you for affirming me. Poets are always reinventing the message.It is a one to one to many relationship. Strangers are always included. Don is the ringleader of the San Gabriel Valley Poets writing workshop and poetry readings. His poety blog helps you to keep track of all his doings in the area.Any poem that mentions the James Mason Thunderbird commercial is okay by me.James Mason was a fine actor, a classy guy. But he was a real person too. There are times when the...
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Yes there are more important things to do in the world. I have chosen to sit at my desk and drink an ice cold Strawberry smoothie.As I peruse the Tweet stream friends are talking about that vibrator movie. I don't like the name of the movie, Hysteria, but that has more to do with the old pathology of doctors treating women as a literal bag of symptoms.I like the idea of women going to a place where they can have therapeutic orgasms. So yeah, in theory the movie sounds okay.As part of BlogHer 2011 swag I got two silver bullet things and a hunk...
Sunday, August 14, 2011
There are times when people want to jump in and change the direction of what you wrote or want it to conform to what they think you should have done. It take a lot to be willing to listen not only to the other person but also listening to your internal compass. This is Glen A. Palmer from the blog, The Gentlemen's Standard.Glen 's blog mixes in male fashion, faith, I don't know any other way to say this, man issues, and other good stuff at his blog. I do encourage you to visit his blog because you will not see him represented in mainstream television...
This is Yvelette Stines talking about the need to making time to blog. She was one of the three panelists for the Authentic Voice session at Blogging While Brown 2011 in Los Angeles.Yvelette has a blog called Caming Corners where you can get tips and advice on inspiration, health and beauty topics.Postscript:The air conditioner unit in the hotel was super loud. I had to find a software program that reduced the machine noise and amp up the speakers because there was also no working microphone.It is not the best audio, but trust me, it sounded like...
Thursday, August 11, 2011
I have been to seven BlogHer conventions. Each one has a different personality and tone. The energy and engagement changes from year to year. You should know that each year that I have gone I usually say to myself, "Ok, I've done it no need to visit again."That last for about eight months and then I want to see folks and give it another go again. Because of the unexpected joy. This is a video from 5secondsformom on a Flash Mob dance at lunch. It kinda represents what we can get out of the conference. Make it happen. Dance if you want it. You want...
Monday, August 1, 2011
I remember back in the day when I would see Leo Buscaglia on television, it seemed all of the time. I have always remembered the story he told about his father asking him, "What did you learn today?"I woke up this early this morning. My body forgot it was on vacation. I listened to The History Guys podcast on Walt Whitman’s attention to wounded soldiers in Civil War Hospitals.It was about love, tending and connections. Things I have not felt of late emanating from the public discourse.I putter though the idiocy of the budget crisis and I just want...
Friday, July 22, 2011
I learned a new word today. Asperand I like saying it but I have to work at remembering how to say the word. There is a lot of competition for my brain cells. Asperand is the actual name for @ now commonly known as the at symbol.My retention thing has changed from"give me all you got" to "that is it for today, thank you but the storeroom is closed. " I don't like it but some days I gotta shut down open access and monitor what goes in and stays around to mess with my brain.Here I am standing on the nexus point between what was and what is and...
Sunday, July 17, 2011
You learn something everyday and sometimes twice a day. Then again, you can be reminded of things you should have known.In this clip, Cheryl Contee of JackandJillPolitics.com talks about the importance of networking, paying attention and keeping you eyes on the prior generation politicians who claim to be working on your behalf.I am an old city girl. I know about the political okey-doke. Apparently, so do members of Congress; including ones you kinda hoped they would do bett...
Saturday, July 16, 2011
This is a short video that I recorded during the session Keeping It Real: Political Accountability in the Age of Obama. This was one of many sessions at the Blogging While Brown conference held in Los Angeles.In this clip, Rashad is talking about how other groups network together to at least get their agenda on the discussion table. What can we learn and emulate is the question. Rashad Robinson is the Executive Director of Colorofchange.org where 800,000 voice work together to deal with the issues of the day using the tools of technolo...
Friday, July 15, 2011
It has been a while since I've posted poetry. My computer and I are trying to hold on until I get a new souped up power gizmo i5 or i7 level computer. Editing on a Dual Core CPU is no longer a joy when you are editing high definition video. All of the new software is geared toward Windows 7 and, well, production has slowed down when it hasn't flat out choked. My CPU meter is living in the red zone. It is a knock down drag out fight but we are now in an understanding phase. I understand that I can only have one software program open at a time and...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Our time seems to only validate the bad touch. The married politician looking for outside nookie. The celebrity caught with her panties off in front of paparazzi.What if you want to be touched and no one wants to do it? Or remembers the reason why it is important? I'm trying to make time for the things I like and it seems that poetry is always taking a back seat.This is a poem called Touch Me by Stanley Kunitz read at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. It shouldn't matter that he is 92 something years old. It does matter that he is speaking...
Monday, July 11, 2011
I'm stealing a little of my shrinking morning time to say how much I enjoyed the 2011 Blogging While Brown conference in Los Angeles. I do have photos and videos that I will be posting in a few days.I knew going into the conference my intent was to listen and meet folks. I messed up one time when I found myself talking in one of the sessions but it is the effort that counts.I feel encourage that there are so many new folks coming on board wanting to use the tools of blogging for advocacy and to generate alternative sources of income. No matter...
Friday, July 8, 2011
I'm not a blogging newbie. I was on the Internet before blogging was birthed.I remember when I had to work in HTML and then FTP web pages up to the server only to find that I had goofed on something and had to do it all over again.I learned things. How to stay out of old school chat rooms that were not moderated. How to write gender ambiguously so as not to have my words dismissed from jump street. To lurk and get the lay of the land to see if it was safe to be my authentic self.Then came my own blog. Videoblogging. BlogHer. Care2 and so much more....
Friday, July 1, 2011
Dear NYT,I got your most recent e-mail. Yes, I have cut back on traipsing around your web site. I know that I have 20 free visits. I appreciate that, I do. My friends, relations and colleagues keep sending me NYT links trying to get me to go check out a news story on your site.I slip up now and again. Yet, like the song lyric says, I'm trying to walk away from a love.You see, I don't like being made to feel like I am a poacher. I'm not. When you had open access to the Times I'd step in to read an article, find a source to cite or get lost in the...
Friday, June 24, 2011
In the spirit of helping folks find stuff to do for your third year of staycation I have a peace offering to the theater. If you are near the La Canada Flintridge boarder I ask that you give serious consideration to a live theater experience at the La Canada Flintridge Shakespeare Festival.I've got something for you.This ain't your pappy's set of dry ole performances. I got the straight skivvy from one of the performers that MacBeth has been reinterpreted:Inspired...
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Some of my questions have been answered and new ones take their place. This is hopefully my last post on the political media connections to the traditional form of minstrel theater.It is my exploration. If you don't know what minstrel theater is check out my prior posts on the subject:The Minstrel Show - Minstrel 101The Minstrel Show - History in a NutshellThe Minstrel Show - I've Seen This BeforeOnce again, this isn't about white people bashing. Minstrelsy is the mother of burlesque, vaudeville, stand-up comedy, slap stick, Bugs Bunny, Laugh-In...
Those of use who are nerd/geek girls who read the original comic book have seen Wonder Woman in skirts, shorts, panties and damn near thongs.Wonder Woman is the icon that made the other female comic super heroes possible. This is advertisement for MAC cosmetics. Diana, Princess of Paradise Island also known as Themyscira has fought many foe but I don't re-call that she used make-up to do it. The ad was a tie-in to the proposed television series. It appears that NBC has rejected the pilot so the new television show isn't gong to happen for 2011....
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
So, in my exploration of how this video, Give Us Your Cash, a racist, sexist low class statement about a politician qualifications came into being? It is too easy to go with the usual answers.You have to look at the American minstrel heritage to get a better understanding. This is a look at the structure of the performances.It was a free for all until a structured theatrical format was created. Many of the sources that I read cite E.P. Christy's...
It is the middle of June Gloom. It happens every year. It is depressing for those of us that need sunlight.People that revel in the overcast clouds and morning drizzle are happy. You can tell. They are the ones not complaining about the lack of sun.Me? I'm miserable. Ok, maybe sun deprived. Same thing. When I am walking around I try to look at the surroundings. What has changed? Is it their any more?The above photo is the Pasadena Museum of Art....
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