On our last adventure I left Christine Kane talking to Dorothy and Toto began to follow me down the Road. Christine uses the time she found her dog to explain experiencing creativity. For me, this is a perfect example of trying to find my place in the universe. So far the dog hasn't come home, but I feel one is following me. I even named it, RadioBack.
Starting today, our primary method of travel for Six Degrees will be the Starship Cruiser. The speed in which she vaporizes the boundaries of status-quo and flirts about the fringes of the universe is beyond human comprehension. The music piped on board originates at The Loft.
A short time in hyper-drive places the Starship outside our solar system and in the beautiful city of Des Moines, Iowa. (Thanks to Starbucker for these coordinates) Thea Gilmore is just finishing "When I'm Gone" as Tom Vander Well of QAQNA greets us at the Space Port. Tom doesn't just instruct when writing about customer service, a very dear topic of mine, he orchestrates. Before leaving, Tom takes us ten miles past the city's edge to a Mail Pouch barn. Inside we find this absolute beauty. Tom directs us to the West and CustomersAreAlways.
Dar Williams barely lays down "Echoes" before California re-entry. Maria Palma hands us an aromatic Breakfast Blend as we de-board. Maria injects heart and soul into positive customer service experiences. Thanks so much for your hospitality Maria! She says, "if you enjoy my stories you'll be delighted with Mary's.
The Starship elevates and rockets toward New Mexico and Mary Schmidt. Lindsey Buckingham picks a beautiful guitar on "Down on the Rodeo." The very first impression that leaves an everlasting one with us about Mary is that she's a professional - her writing projects this most clearly. While showing us around Albuquerque, Mary points toward Service Stars & Snafus. We found this inspiring tidbit there. Mary talks about sound, positive business practices, but she didn't hesitate to tell us about something Broken.
Screaming eastward across the U.S., Gold Frapp plays "Beautiful." Ordinarily we wouldn't be visiting someone line Mark because he has no blogroll. But Mark is one of those cats out here doing good things. His work, This is Broken, is a most constructive vehicle that businesses and folks should pay attention to. Here's what else Mark is up to. I recommend Uncle Mark's Gift Guide. We contact Mary from New York and ask, "who else has passion out here?" "Go Down Under guys."
Sweet! We can crank up the Starship. We might be able to get two songs in before arriving in Adelaide, Australia. Evanescence jams on "You" as we revel in our good fortune in meeting really good people today. Lee Hopkins greets us with most south of the equator warmth. Lee writes about blogging, communications and tools to help your personal growth. We can't help but to notice the sincerity and human voice that he weaves into his work. Lee says, "you guys look pretty tired, but try stopping in Winter Haven, Florida, before taking Route 4 back to Tampa."
Ben Lee closes out our trip today with "Catch My Disease." The Starship lands in one of the many lakes surrounding Winter Haven and we transport to shore. Josh Hallett welcomes us. Josh is a true Internet and Social Media consultant. I am veering off course just a tad here because I am familiar with Josh. The intent though, is to highlight Josh's vast experience on blogging - click on his blogging category and settle in for a fresh, educational adventure. Josh leaves us with a post on our topic of customer service today.
Once home, I see Rosemary attacking her computer. She's been averaging over 3,000 words a day for the last month on a book and it reminded me of a couple of posts on customer service that she wrote for me when she was still a bank manager. Mr. Fiorucci's House and Roger. Be advised, these stories are touching. Besides being one of the best managers I've ever seen, her customer service skills were almost better!
Man! What a fantastic day! Thanks for riding along in the Starship.
What happens when an unathletic anti-runner completes two marathons? This one moved to Africa. Stay tuned for the hijinks sure to ensue...She writes about the differences between the US and Senegal
Looking just at gender relations, there are some major differences for women born here versus women born in the states. For one thing, polygamy is widely practiced, so many woman have to get used to the idea of sharing their husband with as many as three other women.
In poor families, when there isn’t enough money to keep all the children in school, education for sons is often prioritized over that for daughters. As a result, women are much less likely to be found as skilled laborers (tailors, electricians, plumbers)
which can pay a lot more than unskilled jobs, like being a maid or a cook. And the birth rate is very high in Senegal, on average more than four children per family, so most women spend a lot of time taking care of babies.That being said, Senegal is not the worst country in the world to be a woman. Women hold key government posts and jobs at various levels in private business. In cities, at least, women can wear whatever they want, go wherever they want, and do what they want. The more remote villages tend to stick to traditional dress, which isn’t any more or less restrictive for women than for men.
My favorite thing about having seasons is the changing over between them. Because after a long, cold, gray winter, that first moment of sunny, green, warm spring is a revelation. And after months of heat, humidity and tank tops, who doesn't love pulling on a brand new sweater in September or October?
So okay. There's not quite the same range of difference between winter and summer around these parts. It's November, and I'm still wandering around in tank tops and shorts, and sleeping with the fan on at night.
Read the full post on Dreams of fluffy blankets and frozen toes.
And then add Naomi's blog to your RSS Reader and follow along.
Technorati Tags : marathon, senegal, change, life, hitchhikers, hike, trail
Steve Hardy is the founder of Creative Generalist, a popular weblog for curious divergent thinkers. He is formerly the Business Director of 2004's Magazine of the Year Maisonneuve (eclectic curiosity) and is currently a Creative Producer of wireless media at Airborne Entertainment. .... A proud generalist with a knack for observation, synthesis, and sensible ideas, I've had the good fortune of working with a number of exceptionally talented people on many wonderfully exciting projects in a wide range of industries. I've actively participated in both creative and strategic roles (effectively blurring the distinction) and have experienced business from the perspectives of management, agency, client, supplier, intern and student. ... I started Creative Generalist partly as a notebook for my varied finds, partly as a tool to force myself to learn something new and different each day, and partly as a reminder that ideas are important and a generalist outlook on life -- all of it -- is the best way to discover them.
Many thanks to Steve and Troy for letting me join in on the exploration of the Long Tail...
Today's journey will be magical, mystical and liberating. First, I need to instill a thought about our preferred method of travel and then quickly instill a more dominant one.
Do you remember how Dorothy returned to Kansas? Ok, hold that thought. Because I can no more wear women's apparel than drink a glass of battery acid, we must overlay the visual of soft, worn and comfortable red leather boots onto the screen. Whew! I feel much better.
Other than early Clint Eastwood movies, no movie has touched my heart over the years more than The Wizard of Oz.
It has provided so many personal metaphors and has been such a source of inspiration that, "Oz is the Yellow Brick Road," became the mantra for the journey of my life. So, come along with Toto, Dorothy and I and lets explore the Yellow Brick Road.
Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow is playing on our iPod as we click our boot heels three times. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
Fog lifts from the yellow cobblestone and a gentleman appears. "Welcome to the Nest!" Tony Clark greets us with warm enthusiasm. He then asks, "Why Settle for Just One Path?" This question and the ensuing conversation captures my attention and holds me spellbound. Toto's ears perk. I thought I was the only person in the world who could not zero in on a clear understanding of passion and work!! Toto nods. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
Ronnie James Dio belts out Catch The Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow... on the iPod as Chris Cree talks about work and passion. "I’ve been doing quite a bit of introspection these days. It’s not that I’m narcissistic or anything. I just keep hearing folks say over and over again that you will be most successful career wise if you work where your passion is." Yep brother, I hear that too! Chris mentions that we should check out another Chris. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...
A bit further down the road and we meet Chris Johnston from Chris's Blog. Chris relays the question, "Is this job for the money or does it give them fulfillment in life?" Chris is actually referring to Noah Kagan's post at Okdork.com, The Paycheck vs. The Life. The discussion that follows this post is quite lively. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...
..." Danger, danger the Queen's about to kill
There's a stranger, stranger and life about to spill..." more iPod, more Rainbow, more Yellow Brick Road. ..."Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitartus Committiartum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby...change directions." We can do that in cyberspace, really, we can.
I can't seem to continue via links with the passion/work discussion so I throw out a few sandbags and change course. Chris talks about Adriana so Dorothy takes hold of my elbow and we stroll down the Road to Orlando and I Heart Tech. Adriana swims in a river of which I have no connection with. That's good. Travel is part of her work and she writes a post here on Travel Tips and the Internet. Adriana gazes down at Toto and then back at us, "you guys need to see Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools." I'm thinking that Dorothy has seen it all but she humors me. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
Ritchie B jams on Cold Hearted Woman as we read Kevin's post - Consensus Web Filters. Kevin, who was the founding executive editor of Wired has a very interesting site and it is well worth spending some time exploring. The connection to Wired magazine strikes a chord of ironee today. I just started reading Chris Anderson's The Long Tail this morning. Chris is the editor in chief of Wired. Toto notices my expression and barks, "you're not in Kansas anymore David." There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
The three of us swirl round in circles through cyberspace. Cows, barns and flying monkeys pass us by. (Didn't those flying monkeys creep you out?) The iPod is gone but music begins to fill the cloudscape. Jimi Hendrix picks a few strings as Judy Garland eases into Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Dorothy smiles. Tota barks. I cry. Judy and Jimi are beautiful man. My soul lifts as we descend. We are back on The Yellow Brick Road, right where it intersects with Rt. 66. Christine Kane stands there holding her guitar. She looks at Dorothy eyes wide open. They start to talk. I start to walk down the Road. Toto follows me.
This week I am forced to slow down due to a cold. while I resist the lack of activity at first I acknowledge that it could not come at a better time. work has slowed at least for a few days. and I allow myself the gift of being sucked into a good novel, one of those where the characters become a part of your life for the time being. you think about them while going about your day and wonder what crazy things they will be upto when you see them next.
I am wandering through the world of Ignatius P. Reilly, and it causes me to uncontrollably laugh out loud and lose a bit of my grasp on reality. (those of you who have read the book will know what i mean.) what crazy hero is this, with his tendency to preach about the ills of modern society to everyone he encounters, while taking no responsibility for the miserably, pitious state of his life? he must be one of the most annoying, insulting, obnoxious characters ever written. yet i can't help but like him somehow.
i can't put it down.
last week i bought a card with a picture of walt whitman on the front it, (not knowing who it was at first), because he had such beautiful eyes, and for the line "Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes."
now i am reading whitman everywhere. today a stranger sends me the most amazing book about corita kent (to which I am eternally grateful) and I open it up and read, "His [Whitman's] favourite occupation seemed to be strolling or sauntering about outdoors by himself, looking at the grass, the trees, the flowers, the vistas of light, the varying aspects of the sky, and listening to the birds, the crickets, the tree frogs, and all the hundres of natural sounds. It was evident that these things gave him a pleasure far beyond what they give to ordinary people." ~John Dewey
every day that i wake up i cannot wait to see what new connections the day will bring.
In his spare time, Andy is also an engaging speaker (motivating Fortune 500 companies the likes of GM, Eveready/Energizer and 3M), oft-published author, inventive stage director, half-decent snowboarder, hot-and-cold hockey goalie, and controversial pop artist.
Other accomplishments include being named one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” business leaders by the Financial Post in 1997, voted one of the “Top 100 Montrealers of the 20th Century” by the Montreal Gazette in 2000, and honored as a distinguished recipient of the McGill Management Achievement Award in 2004.
His major disappointment is that he has only one life to live…but he’s working on a solution.
I am interested in finding out what his solution to having only one life to live! I have enough to do to cover about two or three myself but anyway...
Andy writes:
Well, if you’re Fred, you can give the seemingly flavorless and colorless liquid a personality. Instead of tinkering with the product, Fred’s stroke-of-genius was changing the packaging from the standard chunky and round to an eye-catching sleek and flask-like.
Now not only does this water slide sexily into the back pocket of jeans, but it overflows with attitude. It even has its own blog and MySpace page(!).
Read more of what he says about this new Fred Water.
Andy writes:
Think about it. Think back to the great Surprise moments in your life, the highlights you STILL talk about. Not just the bargains or exquisite service, but the unexpected visit from a friend, the Surprise birthday party, the time your spouse’s simple haircut became a high-flying Afro perm, the $100 bill you found in the street…
I could go on and on, but the point here is that hopefully, so can you.
Read more about the highlight reel of life!
Technorati Tags : surprise, Andy+Nulman, Fred, highlight+reel, life
A few years ago, I shared a stage with Dr. Stephen Covey in Salt Lake City at a convention for hospice care workers. In his talk, Dr. Covey urged people to read books as a habit to improve their "emotional imagination". He said reading will increase the empathy you show people. This is true. When you read books (from self improvement to trash novel), you activate a part of your brain that unleashes creative energy. There is nothing more primal and perpetual than creative energy. You want to work out, write a protest song, call your mom. When you feel creative you feel alive.
The secret is thinking about your Customer's experience as the sum of several little experiences. Think of it from thought to memory. From the parking lot to the exit. A great example of how one company did this is found in the Sharp Colonoscopy Experience article published in in a publication by Pine & Gilmore. The execs at this hospital found one experience that was bad, getting a colonoscopy, and broke it down into segments. They improved in all the little things and eventually they created a colonoscopy experience so good that their clients were known to run out and tell their friends to go to Sharp "and get a colonoscopy".
... a gallery with little web presence, but lots of character and talent. Our goal with the blog is to extend the reach and voice, and showcase the talents of this small, but creative community. The owner of the gallery and her team of artists is allowing us to document each step of building the blog site.
My passion is to build community - offline and online. I've done this through property management, online community programming, volunteerism, and - for a short time - as an assistant pastor at a Baptist church in Maryland.
When I went to visit my brother in college one year he convinced me to like Chris Isaak. I was reticent to say the least (3rd def). But we drove around listening to his CD and my brother was like: "He's funny. Listen to him, he's funny." I said WELL WAX OFF MR MIYAGI BECAUSE I THINK YOU HAVE A POINT! And then we shared a deep and genuine laugh together over every lyric and every wail.
Anyhow, now I do really love Chris Isaak.
Blogcritics is an online magazine, a community of writers and readers from around the globe.
The screenwriter writes: “An office.” But the director and the cinematographer and many others must specify how that office looks, the style of the furniture, the way light strikes the surfaces, the position from which the camera sees the action, and hundreds of other factors that shape the image. No one could write all these details into a screenplay. Even if he or she tried, any item could always be construed in a different way when the image is created. Is the desk the shade of brown that the screenwriter envisioned? Are the lampshades the same size?
... I now realize, I missed part of the fun: picking out what you’ll put on and arranging items into playlists. I also met with frustration. I hadn’t realized the dominance of pop music as a paradigm for all music until I bumped into iTunes. Of course it had no trouble with my boomer tracks (Burt Bachrach, the Drifters, Sam Cooke, etc.). But the program didn’t like art music. It chopped up operas so that little gaps appeared between tracks that should flow seamlessly, and it couldn’t read my old and obscure CDs. At one point, iTunes decided that all my Sibelius symphonies should be arranged by movement, so it grouped together seven first movements, seven second movements, and so on.
Reinstalling and upgrading the program, as well as setting up playlists, eventually solved these problems. Now my Mahler plays seamlessly and my Björk has the right pauses between songs. I still listen more seldom than most podders; not when walking around the world, mostly just in airports or in hotel rooms. More enticing has been the video function.
For any parents or adults who want to communicate with a teenager using technology, don't use email. Teens don't check it that much. According to Extreme Tech, new research by Parks Associates showed that less than one-fifth of the 13-17 year olds surveyed profess to using email to communicate with friends, compared to 40 percent of adults aged 25-54. In fact, when teens do use email these days, it's usually to communicate with the adults in their lives. What they are using, at least to talk to their friends is instant messaging. They are also using text messaging on cell phones and internal messaging systems on social networks like MySpace or Facebook. They'll pick up email again when they enter the work world, but right now, it's the last thing they'll check.
Read her posting on "What are virtual friends for?"What technology has done is to "power" teen friendships. It's like plugging them in or "crank them up a notch." Suddenly there are many more ways for teens to stay connected. They can instant message or text, and often do even when their friend is in the same room. They can comment on each others blogs or MySpace profiles or share videos and photographs. Instead of having to find a landline to get in touch, they can be in constant contact 24/7. Most of the teens I interviewed for the book drew a distinction between online friends they had never met in person and offline friends who they also corresponded with online. It was rare that they would become friends with complete strangers who didn't share some kind of mutual connection or offline friend in common.
Each week this Spotlight will provide a central focal point for "what's important" in the emerging field of digital media and learning.
But that's not all. This Spotlight is part of Digital Bridges, an initiative to bring coherence and collaboration to the field. Concretely, this site offers the public a first opportunity to get involved by signing up to get notified of major news and collaboration opportunities. This spring we will launch a larger Knowledge Network to centralize these efforts.
This blog is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
The blogroll contains the likes of Danah Boyd and Henry Jenkins amongst others. These two for some reason have been popping up on my radar recently.
This is ONE place to rut into your RSS Reader of choice if you want to follow digital media.
Technorati Tags : digital+media, learning, MacArthur+Foundation
The “K12 Online Conference” is for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 and will include a preconference keynote. The conference theme is “Unleashing the Potential.”
The conference is using WordPress blog software to post each presentation. Each posting contains the presentation, a bio on the presenter, sometimes a podcast, and additional reference links.
The conference ends this Friday, November 3rd but the web site will remain.
The geographical diversity of the presenters is impressive; Australia, China, Scotland, and several states in the US, are just a sampling of what is on the current home page.
Check it out. This will be a resource for online learning.
PS - at least three presenters (Will Richardson, David Warlick, and Wesley Fryer) were prevously found by the Hitchhiker Team.
When I was a child, even today, I could wish for a castle door. Open it and on the other side would be a whole new life. Castle doors paved the way to places where everything changed. I could make the world rearrange easily walking through such a door. The problem was that always the person who walked through was always me.
Read the full posting on The Castle Door.
In her about page she says:
I walk. I talk. I trip every now and then. Occasionally I fall down. I dance in elevators when no one is looking, but I will not run for a bus.
When a powerful, wonderful, engaging idea grabs a hold of my mind, my thinking alters. I start seeing colors and possibilities that are "this close" tangible. The conceptual chemistry is magical. Cell upon cell ignites, passing charges across my synapses. I don't see myself. I don't feel time passing. I am inside the idea. I am train of thought speeding to a destination.
Energy dispels any self-consciousness, as my eyes turn inward to visuals of what the idea is, how it works, watching it tick and move. It's not that different from a mother imagining a baby a few weeks into pregnancy. Yet it's different completely because my imagining becomes true.
Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations
Stafford rose every morning of his life at 4 AM to write. He knew that if he showed up for writing, if he sat there with pen in hand and began where he was at that moment that it was possible he would be led somewhere interesting. He believed in writing as a practice, not as a product. He says in his essay A Way of Writing: “A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them. That is, he does not draw on a reservoir; instead, he engages in an activity that brings to him a whole succession of unforeseen stories, poems, essays, plays, laws, philosophies, religions.”
I don't know if you can ever really tame your dragons. More likely you can come to peace within yourself and learn to accept a certain amount of turmoil when you stir up their nest. What am I talking about? Well, coming thousands of miles across the country and ending up in a cabin in the woods, a rustic cabin, without phone or internet, and me without a car, well, that got my dragons out and roaring.
When I was studying in school a couple of years ago I spent quite a bit of time reading Bukowski’s poetry, went to the movie “Born Into This” about his life and wrote a couple of papers, one of which I've reprinted below and the other, which was about how I saw him and Rumi as some kind of poetry Odd Couple, I'll save for some other time. I even had a very powerful dream about him when I was at the Idylwild Poetry workshop where I felt his spirit daring me to crack open the “nice” me and let out the lion. Of course I wrote a poem about the experience, which is still waiting to be revised (which of course Bukowski would hate).
I was going to strip the paper off the ceilings and walls.
Repair the plaster cracks. Replace any rotted wood
around the windows. Prime and sand and wash
the walls. Then paint them a lovely eggplant or some
such variation on a purple theme. Then I was going
to accessorize with reds, golds, and sage green.
I could start it now but I have no enthusiasm for it.
I just sit here, sipping my cold coffee and not believing
this has happened to me.
Billy Collins alone was worth the price of admission,
the hotel cost for 4 nights, the cost of all the food I ate
and wine I drank. All the tanks of gas I burned and the tornado
I barely missed(had to get off the road and didn't
make it to Jersey until Friday morning).
More about it later. So much I want to write.
So much I don't want to forget.
From the verses of Shakespeare to the violence of Football, a soft hand on the nape of my neck to the rim's hard rattle after a dunk, the mute of Miles to the rhymes of Rakim, the simplicity of Hershey's chocolate to the complexity of garlic pepper seasoned, cedar-planked salmon drizzled with lemon-dill butter, my thoughts scatter like grains of black sand on a wind-blown beach.
He goes on to say about his visit to the Border's Book tent:
I got there around 9:30 am on Friday and went straight to the Border's tent. I was browsing the books and came across Ross Gay's "Against Which". I had never me the brother, never heard him read and had only read one or two of his pieces before. I gave his book my personal litmus test, which is to read the first and last poems in the book. The first poem was so good I decided to buy the book right away, $120 later i wobbled out of the tent looking for something to eat.
Read the full posting on Dodge 2006. He includes a couple of group poems composed while there and waiting in the food line for example.
Joel did a series of pieces responding to Wallace Stevens' works, in particular, this one in response to "The Man with the Blue Guitar"
............
The blues guitar and I are one.
My gutbucket blues guitar
Fills the juke-joint with dancing women
in thrall with the moon. The yellow men
Of the women are now blue, and coming
For my head that lies alone at night.
I pick a soul-churning dilemna.
How do I start to finish? And how,
As I conjure the colors, do I deal
With that which momentarily declares
Itself to be I and yet must be,
Might be, may be something more.
..................
Read his full posting to get all of this poem.
Add Joel to your RSS Reader of choice and cruise along with his joyful word ride.
Technorati Tags : Dodge+Poetry, poetry, Cave+Canem, Wallace+Stevens
Lover of breath, the heartbeat, first spring days, all the usual clichés about poets fit me pretty damn well....
Jennifer writes:
I might adopt the title of this as a personal adage. I bought a pair of pointed heels at a vintage store today. They are black alligator and are not me. I am more than contemplating the tattoo. I believe I am going to chop my hair very short. These could all be reactions to John and I pretty much being finished.
Read the full posting on "Are Pointed Heels A Cure for Sorrow?"
I had the song Fast Car by Tracy Chapman on my mind today. That song talks about getting out of a difficult situation. "I thought I belonged...." I listen to traveling stories. A few friends went to P-town for the Norman Mailer conference.
I spoke to a good friend in California who doesn't think twice about traveling. He tells me if I don't go soon I probably never will. I'm almost 35 and I haven't really seen the world at all.
Words matter to us. We love them, we work with them every day, and we get paid to analyze and create them. They're our livelihood and our passion. While our intent is to focus on the web, our red ink covers all the many layers of content that come from words. The web, yes — but also conversations, books, magazines, film, and more. Red Inked is a critique and a celebration. And its a community. We want your input and your feedback — your words.
Not just any words, your words! Read the full Manifesto here.
Did you know October 21st is Sweetest Day?
October 21st is Sweetest Day, and I am outraged by the entire idea. I found out about this disgraceful attempt at a holiday while searching for a gift basket online. Most of the sites I visited had Sweetest Day listed right in there with Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. Really! What a completely redundant holiday! It should be ashamed of itself, the way it blatantly plagiarizes Valentine's Day with the candy and cards to loved ones and copying the legend of St. Nicholas with a kindly man giving something to cheer the hearts of the dispossessed.
Read the full posting here.
Do you know when to say "frak"?
I once knew this guy who was getting his PhD by studying the intertextuality of film. He was a really interesting person with whom to watch movies, as he could spot allusions, references, stolen lines, and plot swipes as fast as I could plug my mouth with pieces of popcorn. Ultimately, he was a really annoying person with whom to watch movies, not only because there never seemed to be any point to the endless loops of verbal and visual sampling going on in every scene ever filmed, but it was also just plain disgusting that this guy was on his way to having a Doctorate in Excessive Movie-Watching. Talk about your easy As.
I was reminded of this guy last week when watching the second episode of the new season of Veronica Mars - and Veronica said, at one point, “Frak!”
With the first poems Hall read, the chant of the song within the poem could be heard, the soul of each stressed syllable revealing the meter of his freest verse poems. It was during these first minutes that he read the poem "White Apple" which contains the line, "white apples and the taste of stone", the title of his latest book. That line came to him years after he first had the dream of the poem, and brought the poem together and to completion. In this and other senses, he is also a mystic poet, and thus the chant of his song-poems. But then, shouldn't a poet who writes at once in a word about love, death, and his home, be naturally rooted in the mystic?
Nonetheless, all is well with the BillyBlogMom on the Big Island. The quake was close. The epicenter as you can see was between Kona and Waimea. Between Waimea and Hilo, but closer to Waimea, near Honoka'a, is the small town of Pa'auilo, location of Pihanakalani Ranch, home to Mom, "Poppa" John Ferriera, and the "AFoJaS" (Animal Friends of Jolee and Shayna). Everyone is all right. No significant damage to the house, just some busted dishes, glasses, tchotchkes, and spoiled food. Maybe some minor repair needed on the fireplace.
In happier news, the Tigers are going to the World Series! They swept the Oakland A's, finishing them off Saturday night in dramatic fashion, when Magglio Ordonez crushed a walk-off, three-run homer, in the bottom of the 9th inning.
I have one of these now. It's the new Verizon BlackBerry 8703e. I received it Monday from work and I've already been told by the young 'uns that I use it too much.
Pray for me.
Home of the "David Shapiro Fan Club." The "International Ron Padgett Society." The "Church of Clark Coolidge." The "Friends of Jess Mynes." Your source for warm positive feelings about Antonio Gamoneda, Morton Feldman, Thelonious Monk, Nada Gordon, Gary Sullivan, Joseph Ceravolo, Barbara Guest, and Minor Poetry of the Kansas School.
There are a small number of people who not only have the insight but can actually express it in meaningful ways to those on the other side. You know when you are in the zone of insight; it's unmistakable.
Of course, once I put this model in writing it no longer seems valid to me. That's what blogging is all about.
Jonathan asks:
If you took away one poet, would poetry be the same?
How would you answer Jonathan? Click on over to Bemsha Swing and answer the question.
If poetry and music are your thing, you'll consider adding Bemsha Swing to your RSS Reader of choice.
Technorati Tags : music, poetry, hitchhikers, hike, trail, Dodge+Poetry
She writes about her passion for books:The Clearing Space, launched in 2003, has grown out of my passion to help women find out how wonderful it can be when they have a career that they absolutely love; how empowering it is to redesign their professional and personal lives to fit like a glove; and how creating space in their lives is like a welcome mat for new and exciting possibilities.
She writes about three inspirations:Well, my body parts may no longer be perky or nearly as firm as they were 20 years ago, but I have a heck of a library! I spend my 'spare' cash on books. (Though, with the discovery of Slim Ink about 12 months ago, I have managed to save a heap of cash by borrowing/trying before I buy instead!) And so, when Chris wrote about A Bookshop Experience, it had me going 'uh-huh, uh-huh'.
One of the inspirations I got from it was that there are some terrific writers, who also happen to be business people, out there - who are eager to share their knowledge with us all, and who really have something to say.
The second is that the type of information these people impart to us through their writing is so genuine, so very authentic - that even if their message is not relevant to us personally right now - the passion and belief and generosity they demonstrate is always relevant.
The third lesson is that everyone needs to hear something different, and that what one person finds irrelevant can be totally life-changing for another.
ASTD launched Learning Circuits in January 2000. Its goal was to promote and aid the use of e-learning, creating a body of knowledge about how to use technology efficiently and effectively for learning. It delivers a fully interactive Website with discussions, demos and resources, and articles on a weekly basis. A bi-weekly opt-in email newsletter, LC Express, sends news, teasers, and links to subscribers. There are nearly 500 articles currently on the Website.
