I am feeling a little funky tonight. I have made the decision to put some hard dollars behind my blog. New hosting. New domain. That’s right… I’ll be moving and unlike the rental space I’m in now, I have more control over my new space. I can paint it red if I want. Hmmmm.
I knew this day may come, and I feel alright. Gigidy gigidy. WordPress and my wee blog msotd.wordpress.com has served me well, but I require more freedom, and now I have it. I just need to pack up my stuff and move. Perhaps this weekend?
I’d tell you the new domain, but the paperwork hasn’t cleared yet and I don’t want to jinx it. Short domains can be hard to come by. msotd.com and sotd.com were taken, but I got my third choice. More to come later. Until then, stay cool. Stay cool.
Feeling good, yet melancholy? Here is the song for you. That is where I am. And here is why…
I went to a class run by my friend about being environmentally friendly, living with less stuff, sustainability, etc. etc. (…more on the content another time…) It was fun, good and invigorating, but yet there is that tinge of hopelessness I could not help but feel once I returned home and realized the issues are huge. Monumental in fact. And they are getting worse, not better, even despite increased awareness. Yes there are things that can be done by individuals such as myself, but it is probably easier to move mountains than it is to change the masses. One rock at a time I guess. One rock at a time.
The one thing I will tell you all is you need to watch “The Story of Stuff” if you haven’t already.
I know. Life sucks. We are all “born into the grave” so to speak. Humans. The plants. The animals. Everything.
13 years ago though I made a choice though. I wanted it to suck a little less… first for myself. I stopped eating meat starting with beef. I was tired of eating it because I had one too many bad hockey-puck hamburgers (sorry Mom).
It was at that time of my beef boycott I first saw the movie “Babe”. Immediately afterwards I decided I was not going to eat pork ever again. I was going to do my part in not making life suck for “Babe” and all pigs. I know it is like blowing into the wind, especially surrounded by so many meat eaters, but sometimes you have to stick to what you believe even if people think you are crazy or wrong.
I watched “Babe”, yet again, last night and felt reassured and affirmed in my decision. Watching the movie now is like a religious experience for me. I am not so unlike Farmer Hoggett. I believe I am generally quiet and patient in my disposition, and open minded to otherwise abstract, unusual and even bizarre possibilities, just as he is. Although I have never known a pig personally, I do believe them (and all mammals) to be too intelligent for me to consume ethically. I heard the song, “If I Had Words”, played throughout the movie and it was powerful for me. Silly? Perhaps. Do I expect anyone to understand? No. The movie changed my life though. From being annoyed by bad burgers, this movie pressed me to pursuing a new way of eating, and ultimately a new lifestyle that I still have over a decade later. This song represents a sort of theme song for my vegetarianism, and my wish to preserve life, not destroy it.
PPPS: Also, for those of you who want more, here is the version with the “mice” singing, which is actually just a sped up version of a recording of “If I Had Words” sung by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley. Crazy, right!? Who knew?!
PPPPS: Despite James Comwell’s rendition being made for film, and not for an album, and being very short, and being a cover of a cover so to speak, it still has a modest, humble and honest quality I appreciate greatly.
PPPPPS: PS (or more properly, P.S.) is Latin for “post scriptum”, which means “written after”, and thus PPPPPS is “post post post post post scriptum”, ridiculous for sure, but if you don’t like it, why don’t you go blog about it or eat one of my mom’s hamburgers?
Today is Election Day here in the USA and I don’t know about everyone else, but I am sick of politics, politicians, and elections in general. I think it is time for a constitutional convention at the county level, the state level, and the national level. Common sense has apparently “left the building” and the change we are promised year after year is insufficient or in the wrong directions. It is unacceptable and I vote we tell them all that they are all fired and we start over!
Outlaw the political parties. Remove the power of corporations, lobbyists, and the American plutocracy, and give that power back to the people. It is all about “We the People” after all. Change the focus from getting rich to the pursuit of happiness and quality of life. Make sustainability a priority. We need big change but our leaders are too chicken-shit to do more than twist a couple knobs on a broken system. They are weak.
Time for big change. Real change. …Time for a revolution. Turn off your TV too because…
This is totally one of those songs you’ve heard all your life. It is way over used by the media, commercials and sporting events. Yet when was the last time you heard the whole thing played from start to finish? I’m so old, I’ll probably be wondering where I left my car keys next.
I went to my yoga class this morning, and I finally think I felt my mind and body were quiet and I did not need to struggle to keep them quiet. So frequently I have been unable to stop the flurry of things I should be doing, concerns, hopes, and fears from flying through my thoughts even when in “Tadasana” in the stillness of a morning yoga class. Today it was no issue. All was quiet.
On the way home I was thinking about how I use to just do yoga at home and it was good, but never quite as satisfying. I use to resist the assistance of others, in yoga and in most things, but I have accepted that sometimes I need help to get where I want to go. My yoga class is just one example. I started humming this classic, “Lean on Me” as I walked home. If we all lean on each other, then we become a forest, right?
(OMG, yoga… Tadasana… forests… perhaps I am a hippie… an intellectual hippie though. Oh and I shower daily, so there!)
I realized a while ago I had zero Earth, Wind and Fire songs in my collection. I have corrected that oversight. To celebrate here is my favorite song by them, and hey what do you know… it IS September! Let the dancing begin!
G her E and I (yes G has a friend, and we will call her E, and we will speak as though “G owns E”), we were listening to the radio last night and there was a station playing a “Disco Dance Party”. I thought all radio was trending towards “suck” but after last night I have renewed faith. It was awesome. Song after song of disco, funk and dance tunes that we knew and loved (and even danced to a little). Good times!
One of the many songs was “Copacabana (At The Copa)”. It was the song that started the dancing, so I feel compelled to share it now! As Hans and Franz use to say, “Now is the time when we dance”!
Oh and Freddie Mercury was a gay man. Period. Who cares, really? Anyone who denies it is in denial themselves. And if you have a problem with homosexuals, You should listen to this Lily Allen song.
I have not been sleeping well the past few nights. Insomnia sucks. If you’ve ever seen “Fight Club”, insomnia is a lot like it is described in the beginning. “When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep… and you’re never really awake.” You end up living life like a zombie the next day and ever onward until you do finally get a full night of sleep. Stupid sleep.
Usually insomnia is an indicator of something wrong either physically or mentally. I have some ideas what my problem may be. Without getting into specifics, perhaps Black Sabbath has expressed my problem?
I need someone to show me the things in life that I cant find
I cant see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind
Or perhaps it is because my Heavy Metal cred was questioned the other day? Though it is true, I know less about heavy metal and classic rock than I do about new wave, electropop and post-punk, I like and listen to bands like Black Sabbath when I am in the mood. I am just not in the mood that often I guess.
My Aunt is a huge fan of the musical “A Chorus” line. She has seen it something like 6 times on Broadway, and several other non-Broadway productions. Crazy. G and I had an opportunity to see a local production with her last week. I thought it was alright, some songs better than others. Some parts better than others. Aside from “One” which everyone knows whether they know it or not, this song “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” was particularly entertaining and funny. I’m sure a lot of people know this song as “Tits and Ass”.
The recording above is of the original Broadway cast from 1975, with Pamela Blair singing. I actually think the performance of the song we saw last week was better, probably just because it was live.
Listen on Blip.fm!