Cat Friday

St. Francis

Athena

Athena


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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A Caligula Moment?

Daily Kos: The Question No One Dares Ask George Bush

In the Pink

In the Pink
Originally uploaded by vajra.

EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED!

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. In short it was a time very like the present...

Watching Bob Dylan this evening makes me feel nostalgic. Nostalgia is a secondary emotion and not a place I usually go. Nevertheless, looking back I think of how we were all so filled with energy and passion to change the world for the better, to leave behind the shackles of family and social authority. We were correct that those institutions were shackles but we didn't know that they couldn't be left behind.

Autumnal

Fall has arrived-gently-without the usual crisp crack of a morning in late August. This year it has rolled in: one lovely change after another. The liquid amber are moving toward red and gold. The Japanese maples are on the brink of letting their leaves drop, float, fall. Yet, the weather continues warm most days, and the nights have only the occasional chill. My favorite season.

*****
Forty years today!

The Signs of the Times

"You know, if there's one thing I've hated since 9/11, it's that thing I hear all the time, that everything changed. When obviously nothing changed. The best example from the hurricane was the firefighters who came from I forget where, but they were sent down there to help, and they were given - before they could get to the disaster area - eight hours of sexual harassment sensitivity training." – Bill Maher

Discardia: Getting to the happy home

"I've been practicing discardia for several years now and am now reaping significant benefits. My home is light, airy, uncluttered and comforting. Waking in it or returning after being away gives me an immediate sense of my load being lightened. Living in it is restorative.

I did not achieve this in one blow, but by gradual steps. Here are some of them:

1. I picked a place to live which was the right underlying canvas for the home I want: lots of windows, wood floors, white walls, views of greenery from the windows.

2. I moved in with everything I own, a small amount of which went into the basement, but most was arranged around my 6 spaces (kitchen, living/dining room, entry/hallway, bathroom, bedroom, and "the other room") and 2 small closets. Having it all out where I can see it allows me to start evaluating what I want and what is no longer part of the life I want to be living.

3. I immediately began watching for things to change. This is what makes the difference. Keep an eye out for a change you can make which would improve a space and then - here's the important bit - do it. Some examples:..."

Cat Friday

Manifesto by Jonathan Adler

We believe that your home should make you happy.

We believe that when it comes to decorating, the wife is always right.
Unless the husband is gay.

We believe in carbohydrates and to hell with the puffy consequences.

We believe minimalism is a bummer.

We believe handcrafted tchotchkes are life-enhancing.

We believe in dorky enthusiasm.

We believe in our muses: David Hicks, Alexander Girard, Bonnie Cashin. Hans Coper, Gio Ponti, Andy Warhol, Leroy Neiman, Yves Saint Laurent, and Madonna.

We believe in the innate chicness of red with brown.

We believe in being underdressed or overdressed always.

We believe in infantile, happy emblems like butterflies and hearts.

We believe celebrities should pay full price.

We believe in rustic modernism: Big Sur, A-Frame beach houses, raw beams, and geodesic dome homes.

We believe in Palm Beach style: Louis chairs, chinoiserie, Lilly Pulitzer, The Breakers circa '72.

We believe our designs are award winning even though they've never actually won any.

We believe in Aid to Artisans.

We believe dogs should be allowed in stores and restaurants.

We believe in mantiques - suits of armour, worn chesterfield sofas, heraldic tapestries.

We believe our mirrors will make you look younger.

We believe colors can't clash.

We believe in blowing your nest egg on our pots.

Everybody Poops - Gawker

The Resident is so sure of so many things...

I. Need. Chocolate. NOW!

One Drop of Water

One Drop of Water
Originally uploaded by vajra.

New Rules by Bill Maher

September 16, 2005

And finally, New Rule: For Christ's sake, no more devil movies. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" opened huge last week, and it surprised a lot of people, mostly because Owen Wilson wasn't in it. But exorcism, or as the Catholics call it, "elective surgery," is a popular theme nowadays because it reinforces the comforting notion that evil resides outside of us.

Well, I'm sorry, but it doesn't. And whenever I hear someone blame a bombing in Baghdad or a levee breaking in New Orleans on the forces of evil, it makes me so mad I just want to grab my pitchfork and stick it right through my cloven hoof!

Now, Americans have always loved devil movies: "The Exorcist," "The Omen," "Rosemary's Baby," "The Devil's Advocate." The list goes on forever because Americans love the devil. Why? Because he's simple and he provides a simple answer. He did it.

But evil is not a demon with a tail and horns. That's a Jew. And evil - evil isn't some spectral goblin with red eyes and the voice of Anthony Hopkins. That's Anthony Hopkins.

Is George Bush purely evil? Of course not. And that's what's so evil about him. He doesn't twirl a mustache and smirk and cackle. Well, he doesn't twirl a mustache. He's like the Peanuts character Pigpen. Wherever he goes, he stirs up such a humongous mess it can only be cleaned up by Halliburton. But he is not pure evil.

Because evil is a chain. Did any one person doom New Orleans? No, it's a chain. People vote for a corrupt leader; a corrupt leader puts unqualified cronies in high places, and when those cronies fuck up, evil gets done. The devil didn't fly up from hell and knock a hole in that levee. The levee just didn't get built because the money for it went to rich people's tax cuts and pork projects and corporate welfare.

Evil isn't "Salem's Lot." It's Trent Lott. This week, an ailing American bald eagle was found to be dying from mercury poisoning. Republicans immediately tried to blame it on the eagle's lifestyle choices. But it's worth noting that also this week, the White House threatened to veto limits on mercury pollution. Now, pure evil would be if George Bush sat around the White House saying, "Let's poison eagles!" And even I don't believe George Bush would do that.

Cheney would do that. And even he is not pure evil. Dick Cheney doesn't hate poor children and caribou. They're just in the way.

Bottom line: some people think Satan is real and some people think global warming is real. If you think stopping gays from doing it is more important than the ice caps melting, the boogeyman is you...

New Rules by Bill Maher

September 9, 2005

All right, it is time for New Rules, everybody. New Rules.

Okay, New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking up the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.

New Rule: Don't drag kids into adult fights. Everybody knows you don't exploit children as pawns during a strike. You exploit children as pawns during a divorce! Let's limit kids to their one true airline responsibility: kicking the back of my seat.

New Rule: The term, "CPT," which stands for Colored People's Time, based on the belief that blacks are often late, must now be renamed "FGT," for "Federal Government Time." And when people like Mike Brown walk in anywhere, even five minutes late, everyone must roll their eyes and mumble, "FGT."

New Rule, and this one is long overdue: No more bathroom attendants. After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just had sex with George Michael. I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish. I don't want to be on your webcam, dude. I just want to wash my hands.

And finally, New Rule: America must recall the president. That's what this country needs. A good, old-fashioned, California-style recall election! Complete with Gary Coleman, porno actresses and action film stars. And just like Schwarzenegger's predecessor here in California, George Bush is now so unpopular, he must defend his jog against...Russell Crowe. Because at this point, I want a leader who will throw a phone at somebody. In fact, let's have only phone throwers. Naomi Campbell can be the vice-president!

Now, I kid, but seriously, Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you anymore. There's no more money to spend. You used up all of that. You can't start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

Yeah, listen to your mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's maxed out, and no one is speaking to you: mission accomplished! Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service. And the oil company. And the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or spaceman?!

Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying that there's so many other things that you, as president, could involve yourself in...Please don't. I know, I know, there's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela, and eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote. But, sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man.

Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans...Maybe you're just not lucky!

I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he's saying is, "Take a hint."

All right, that's our show. I want to thank our fabulous panel. George Carlin, Cynthia Tucker, Jim Glassman, thank you for putting up with us. And Joe Scarborough, Walter Maestri. Thank you very much, folks. Appreciate you, too. Good night.

Solitary Swan

Solitary Swan
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Cat Friday

Triangle
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Everything Happens For a Purpose

Jon Carroll aced it in this column. Things happen but rarely for a "purpose."

Agave

Agave
Originally uploaded by vajra.

green shadows
moist lush
succulent

By Any Other Name

The Worst President__Ever!

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don’t know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
No one alerted you.
__George Harrison

Why Is Everybody Picking On Him?

The Worst President Ever:




"He has always been merely an entirely selective figurehead, a hand puppet of the neoconservative machine built and fluffed up and carefully placed for the very specific job of protecting their interests, no matter what. Repeat:No. Matter. What. Flood, hurricane disaste,r war, social breakdown, economic collapse? Doesn't matter. Corporate interests, baby. Protect the core, screw everyone else unless it begins to affect the poll numbers and then finger-pointint, deflect, prevaricate. All of a piece, really. Because Bush, he was never actually meant to, you know, lead." __Mark Morford

Cat Friday

Bonne Anniversaire!

"The one thing necessary is a true interior and spiritual life, true growth, on my own, in depth, in a new direction. Whatever new direction God opens up for me. My job is to press forward, to grow interiorly, to pray, to break away from attachments and to defy fears, to grow in faith, which has its own solitude, to seek an entirely new perspective and new dimension in my life. To open up new horizons at any cost. To desire this and let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest. But really to desire this and work for it."
___Thomas Merton

Symphony Gala

Off to see YoYo Ma and MTT.
Yay! the season is upon us.

Blog Day

Apparently I missed it.

Bread and Roses

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!

As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

Speaking the Truth to Power

http://lastplanetojakarta.com/images/kanye.gif

An American Failed By Bush

Louisiana 1927
(Randy Newman)

What has happened down here, is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north (south) and it started to rain
It rained real hard, and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river (water) rose all day, the river (water) rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright
The river (water) had busted through clear down to Placker Mine
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

President Coolidge (Bush) come down, in a railroad train (in his plane)
With his little fat man with a note pad in his hand
President say "little fat man, oh isn't it a shame,
What the river has done to this poor cracker's (people's) land"

Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, you're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, oh Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, oh Lord, they're trying to wash us away
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG?

This is happening right now on the Gulf coast. In the richest, most powerful nation on earth.

Peaceful living is about trusting those on whom we depend and caring for those who depend on us.
_Dalai Lama