Religious Liberal

A religious liberal blog, good one.

http://religiousliberal.blogspot.com/

Visiting Graves

I was talking to someone today who was telling me about a colorful individual (and his wife) from years gone by. Someone in my town. No one I personally knew but I've heard the name a few times in conversations.

So I said, "Is he buried around here?" And she told me where he was buried and just the sketchiest details of how to get there.

Later then I was in the area of the cemetery and decided to buzz in and see if I could see his grave. Driving slowly, looking, without getting out at this point. Don't see it... Then later, somewhere else in the cemetery, I wanted to get out and check out this other person's grave, and finally, larger than life was a big tombstone with the last name of the guy I was originally looking for.

It didn't do me much good, though, because it was just the last name, both sides of the tombstone. And I glanced around and didn't see any individual tombstones that would match up with the family in question. So I don't know where my person is buried precisely.

But someday, someday, I'll take the time and scout it out. I don't know why I want to see his grave exactly. Maybe it's just when I hear of someone colorful like that, it's a kind of personal connection to at least stand there where their remains are for a few minutes.

Classic Rock Society

Link to a music site with lots of information, concerning classic rock recordings, groups, news. In the UK. Points to various legal downloads or links for listening to tracks posted by the groups themselves.

http://theclassicrocksociety.blogspot.com/

John McCain Didn't Love America

The Daily Snipe

Does it seem that the McCain campaign is doing nothing but sniping at every little thing? Each day when we get the news, it consists of the same thing: Obama has done or said something, and McCain criticizes it, whatever it is.

Whether it's how he finances his campaign, who his advisers are, what he says about terrorism, what he has for lunch -- it's something for McCain to gripe about, whine about, and to act offended over.

As for financing Obama's campaign, McCain's gripe is that Obama made some sort of 'solemn pledge' to tie one hand behind his back. The 'solemn pledge,' of course, was no such thing, and whatever it really was, it was all contingent on negotiations and certain understandings. But throughout the campaign thus far, McCain has mucked around with his financing to the point that whatever integrity it may have started out with (may have started out with), it's long gone, evaporated, floated away...McCain is simply trying to force parity in the money they have to spend. It's transparent and pathetic.

So McCain has to try to score points by acting offended, acting the aggrieved party to a 'solemn pledge,' i.e., just posturing and lying. (Haven't we had enough of liars for the last eight years? I know I have.)

The truth is Obama is going to get more contributions than McCain. But it's a lot of smaller contributions, which as far as I can tell is public financing. Duh.

I can't stand McCain -- that ought to be obvious. But he would be a lot more tolerable if he were running a positive campaign. Stick to the issues and quit the daily carping, the daily sniping.

Old Time Radio

Here's a place that looks like it links to lots of archives of Old Time Radio shows, mp3s of episodes of shows from way back, '30s, '40s, '50s.

Calf Killer Old Time Radio.

I have quite a few OTR shows, burnt on discs some years ago. I never listen to them, but I know they'd be good. I tend to drift. Some are not great quality, but some are very clear. There are thousands of episodes out there of detective stories, mystery stories, horror stories, and comedies that you may never have dreamt existed.

One of my favorites, back when I was listening to them, was a show called "Diary of Fate." And, hey, sure enough, there's a link off to a directory of this show's episodes. There's only 25-some episodes, identified by the name of the main character of that episode.

The premise of "Diary of Fate" is that Fate (that inexorable force behind everything) is personified, and reviewing a big book that has the life stories of various individuals. He has a slightly sinister, satisfied-about-it voice when he does these reviews. Each review is an episode of someone who did something terribly wrong. Perhaps it could've been avoided, perhaps they might not have gotten caught, "but for a little thing." Fate says that a lot, "It was a little thing." Such as a happenstance visit, a red light at an inopportune moment, a phone call that delays you, etc. And in the episodes it's these "little things" that Fate uses to seal their fate!

A common premise would be trying to get rich by killing someone in the way. But the little things pile up and next thing you know...their life's down the drain! It's a good show.

Calf Killer has lots of links, and some of these shows I recognize as ones I have. The "Adventures By Morse" link doesn't go anywhere live, and I only tested a couple links.

As far as I know, they're public domain, either that or they're so forgotten that no one cares.

Memory and Rhetoric

Flip that around, Rhetoric and Memory!

I don't know that I can sum up this blog adequately. It is scholarly, concerned with bibliographies, quotes, papers, and projects involving rhetoric, memory, and education, with an apparent interest in African America, Latino, women's, and LGTB studies.

Forgive me if I'm wrong!

True Hauntings of America

If you like ghost stories and haunted places, here's a blog worth checking out: Haunts of America.

They've got some kind of flash thing going on there, so it won't allow my computer to copy anything. But the stories look interesting and well-researched.

I saw one on a haunting at a reformatory in Ohio. I was trying to clip a piece, but couldn't do it. It spoke of negative energy in the chapel. Maybe the negative energy has affected the site.

Dog Yoga

Blog: Barking Buddha Doga

Appears to be a worthy pursuit. I'm not sure of the concept, but my imagination tells me certain things about it, the relaxing qualities of dogs and other animals.

My own dog is always up for a nap. There seems to be a nap radar built in. If she detects a nap coming up, she's right there against the back of my legs. I can usually fall asleep pretty fast, but with the dog curled up there, it's a matter of a few minutes.

If that's not the concept of that particular blog, then so be it. There are other good things that would pertain to the subject of dogs.

Monasticism.Blogspot

Blog. The musings of Fr. Peter-Michael Preble.

Pastor of St. Michael's Orthodox Church of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese.

Posts on religion, religious issues, politics, and quite a few posts in his archive.

The First Person to Jump Off the Brooklyn Bridge

The first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge was Robert Odlum, a swimming teacher from Washington, at 5:45 PM, May 19th, 1885. Here's the rest, a post at Reflections From the End of the Night.

Byzigenous Buddhapalian

Blog to check out.

Miscellaneous spiritual, aesthetic, cultural, and political explorations by a world citizen.

Would appear to have a Democratic point of view, anti-McCain point of view, meaning intelligent.

Lots of interesting things, lots of links to other blogs.

My only negative is it has more pictures of buildings than I want to see. So probably some architectural interests as well.

Lots of Good Looking Stuff

PIGLIPSTICK.

Politics, culture, videos, liberal point of view, anti-Bush, intelligent, lots of graphics, interesting videos and things. Check it out.

Bush on Clinton and Obama

George Bush weighed in Friday on the Democratic candidates in an interview with an Italian journalist.

"I thought it was a really good statement, powerful moment when a major political party nominates an African-American man to be their standard bearer. And it's good for our democracy that that happened. And we also had a major contender being a woman. Obviously Hillary Clinton was a major contender. So I think it's a good sign for American democracy."

This is the kind of thing our pathetic president should have been saying over the years. He's been such a partisan hack, so oblivious to the notion that he's the president of the entire country, that you just don't expect to hear anything of graciousness or a sense of things coming from his lips.

One of my biggest objections to Bush is that he chose to go it alone, not caring for the rest of us.

Kino No Tabi

There is a world. You can't think of it as Japan or America or anywhere really that you've been.

This book is book one of "The Beautiful World." By Keiichi Sigsawa. First published 2000, Media Works, Tokyopop. This one, English translation, published 2006. Marketed to teens, young adult fiction.

It has episodes in the life of Kino, a young woman, and Hermes, her motorcycle. Hermes has a consciousness, talks, and is an actual character throughout.

Kino travels and stays in countries, or cities, for three days tops. She didn't always travel. When she was just about grown up, an old man came to her town, and stayed with her family. His name was Kino. He questioned the customs of their country, which included having a physical operation when you were 12, making you a grown-up. He assembles the motorcycle from the scrapheap.

Kino leads Kino-to-be to question this growing up business, a serious thing there. In the process he's killed, then they're coming at her with the knife, she gets on the motorcycle and leaves home. Doesn't call, doesn't write.

From there on, the book gets going. These episodes take her to various countries, like her own country, each with some peculiar ways. There's a city that has one survivor in it, because in the process of governing, everyone else got killed. So it's a functioning city with massive graveyards. There's a country of competing cities, who have overcome war between themselves, but this is won by keeping a common enemy in the middle, and periodically going out to massacre them. The book ends up with a city (country) where you compete for citizenship in a series of personal battles, more or less to the death.

Kino and Hermes have conversations, they rest and relax, there's some humor.

Everything seems to be making some statement, about government, the choices we make, mass behavior, personal awareness, and so on. There's one episode that reads like a real parable. Some guys working for 50 years but separately. Something like this: One is polishing railroad tracks, one is dismantling the tracks, and he's followed by another putting the tracks in place.

Kino is tough. She carries two guns, one a more conventional gun which can be shot over and over. And one that has a liquid 'bullet,' which needs careful preparation, good for one shot.

The book reads in a light, breezy way. The customs are so bizarre -- but really, if we could detach ourselves from our own customs, we could see that some of them approach or reach absurdity as well.

The story continues on beyond this book, as the cover says there is an eight-volume series. A piece of the back cover blurb says, "a critique on the inherent beauty of imperfection, oscillates between philosophical and winsome, while remaining consistently and overwhelmingly imaginative."

John and The Amazing Monochromatic Backdrop

As someone who studies and consults on the psychological effects of color for a living -- I consult for big bucks; you know the color of the sky, blue? That was me -- I found the image of John McCain's pale white head against the solid green background last night very nice, very nice indeed.

There's something about the color green that is suggestive. Obviously, we use it as a color suggesting the environment. Some places of course it wouldn't literally pertain, but that's beside the point. Also, green is the color of our money. You can look at the graphic there and if you were to squint at it and picture it a little larger horizontally, you can see John McCain's suggestion. That he's like other great presidents. A presidential head in the center of money. It's a very prosperous color in that regard. Seriously, draw an oval around him, and you've got a rival for Franklin on the hundred.

Now, since the speech, some have made light of the setting. You've got Barack Obama (booo!!!) surrounded by a sea of admiring supporters, full of life, bouncing to the beat, buoyed by their glad spirits, a sea of color in amazing liveliness. Color, all the colors in a rich, glad harmony, a happy profusion that really was kaleidoscopic, memorable, exciting. And not just the people -- blacks, whites, browns, young, old, Orientals -- but their signs, and clothing, all bobbing and waving with high energy, and all the breathtaking flashiness you can imagine. Clearly disgusting. And then you have John McCain (yaaay!!), much more humble than Obama, a man who decided on a color (green) and stuck with it, not trying to be flashy, not trying to show off his supporters, several scattered out in a small hall. Because McCain knows where the focus needs to be, on the man himself running for office. The crowd is anonymous, and should not be part of the equation. No one's voting for them.

Seriously, I was enthusiastic for McCain's presentation, but I had one beef. My biggest criticism is the way McCain was framed during the speech, that they didn't have a tight enough shot of his head. The green was good, but it should have been just at the edges, with his face filling up most of the screen. People like a president who's close, very close to them. But we need to find the positives with what we have. He filled up the screen adequately, he managed a brave smile when it seemed appropriate, his thin, remaining white hair appeared to be nicely in place. He went along with the flow, a comfortable, meandering flow.

If I were consulting for the McCain campaign, I'd counsel them to get rid of the crowd all together. Too distracting! With silence, the viewing audience can concentrate more on the content. Keep the single green background -- that's good -- but go in for a very tight shot on his head. Have him pause longer between sentences. It would make the tone seem more serious, which you want in a president. As for the smiles, what he's doing is good. But one suggestion: try for harmony. Such as look left, smile. Speak three sentences. Look right, smile. A pattern like that will keep the audience at home engaged and pleased. He says "my friends" a lot. That's also good. But have him add adjectives to spice it up, such as "my dearest friends," "my treasured friends," and "best friends forever."

As far as further analysis of the color, hmm, what more can I say? Yes, I'm a consultant, but what else is there? I think I mentioned it was green. Let's see, checklist here, green with some white print, white hair, pale skin, and some darkness in his suit. All looks real good, very good.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Term

Underground Reads

Interesting concept, a guy in New York asking strangers on the subway what they're reading. Then he posts the results to this blog, Underground Reads. That sounds like it could be very mundane as well as very interesting.

The blogger, named Garth, is an English teacher at High School for Public Service in Brooklyn, and also a writer.

One of his posts involves the book pictured, and Garth gives this report:

Manhattan bound 2 Train, Winthrop to Grand Army Plaza Jackie felt caught with "trash." As soon as I asked her if we could discuss her book, she started laughing. She was reading The Undomestic Goddess, by Sophie Kinsella. "It's an escape," she called her experience of reading the book, which was recommended by a friend. "It's about a woman who quits her job as a lawyer a job as a house keeper, even though she can't cook and clean."

So, if you don't want to be caught with trash, don't read where this guy might be lurking!