Do the math.

or: Walk around THIS!                                                                                               Up, Down.                 Solar Eclipse 

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Contents: Do the Math, Dumbass Criticism, Humility, Jokes, Joe Oliver, Solar Eclipse for Kiribati, Daniel Pudles, Hong Kong, The Shallows, Keith, Wayne.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.                                                                        Daniel 5 The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.                        Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám                        Omar Khayyám (1048–1131)                        Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883) The writing on the wall - Come read it, come see what it say.                                       Thunder on the Mountain

 

Going to and fro in the Internet (where one can cancel lines as one chooses) and walking up and down in it. Complicated I know, and misleading in so many ways - silly biblical fol-de-rol; but it takes this kind of stimulus these days to achieve a fugal state and get the wheels turning. (The Daniel story is about humility too eh?)

One more thread, from Closing Time: "There's a voice that sounds like God to me declaring ... that your body's really ... you." Keep in mind that Cohen can't quite be trusted on this. Handel was confused about bodies too; taking 'the dead shall be raised incorruptible' from First Corinthians without really ... knowing.    A thread too much to be sure. Oh well. Sorry.

For the love of God y'all take pity on yourselves.

Cheguei aí faminto, meio fechado meio durão, marrento. Elas me deram as mangas pra chupar e o coração virou mais jovens, se tornou quase novo; e sim, renovado e mole, mas esquisito. É assim que falam os velhos safados, gordos e fedorentos e feios; cada um, no final, em sua propria solidão. 

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First, WATCH THIS FILM! - Do the Math, The Movie - a mere 45 minutes.

I grabbed what seems to me to be the central image and added a few details - click on the image above to see it. These are difficult numbers to walk around. What I find even more difficult to walk around is:Continuous human growth CAN NOT FIT upon a finite planet.
The very most important number is 350!I had an optimistic message from Jim Hansen this morning by email (God bless 'im), he wrote, "So don't despair re the tar sands. There are sensible alternatives."

[This image is not in the film ... ho hum ... but thinking of '350' always brings it to mind.] 

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There have been many such impassioned, rational, & coherent expressions on the Internet over the years. I made a short list a while ago here: from Severn Suzuki to Naderev Sano. Each one takes us a tiny step closer towards breaking the spell (as Michael Brune calls it) that has been spread over the smug & complacent multitudes. Watch it, think about it, and tell your friends about it. We have quite a way to go.

We had 40,000 recently on the Washington Mall. There were 100,000+ there in 1969 but it still took years to end the war in Vietnam. Time is short, it may be too short, but there is only one way to find out.

I wonder how metrics such as YouTube hits translate into action? Kony 2012 had a million hits in a few days last year - and then vanished like the morning dew when Jason flamed out. As I watch this film there are ~40,000 hits on it on YouTube - what does this mean? Hard to say.

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Oops, I had it wrong: There were 250,000 with Martin Luther King in 1963 and legislation came in 1964 and 1968 (he had to die to achieve half-measures); the war in Vietnam had 200,000 & 600,000 in 1969 and the war ended in 1975 (how many died for that, two million?). You can check it out starting here. 

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[IF I THOUGHT CRITICISM WOULD HURT THE MOVEMENT I WOULDN'T DO IT.   IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS THEN SKIP OVER IT.   I AM TRUELY SORRY IF IT OFFENDS YOUR SENSIBILITIES.   IF YOU DO READ IT AND DON'T LIKE IT THEN START A CONVERSATION - THERE IS A COMMENT FEATURE ON THIS BLOG AND I PUBLISH EVERYTHING BUT SPAM.]

 
350:   We were training to get arrested in a church in Washington; lined up in rows and marching. I suggested a group Tim DeChristopher salute as I had seen in photographs of the previous days. Some woman (a certified 'trainer' of some kind, one of the leaders) said no, they wanted it respectful: suits and ties and no rude gestures. Rude? I didn't want to argue with her. We did it anyway in the event. Why does this memory stay with me?

The photograph (above) of the kids on the steps of the Bundestag is labelled (on the 350.org Flickr) as "sending the message, a little aggressively." Look at it. Look at them. Do they seem aggressive? WTF is that about? Is this a Christian sunday-school thing?

Why is Bill McKibben still claiming to have written 'the first book'? He didn't. Why is this film so much about him? One of my red-neck friends tells me the thing he really dislikes about leftards and tree huggers and Greenpeace enviro-nutbars is that it is always "All about me!" Unfair criticism, sure; untrue & unreasonable, sure; but understandable, yes.

I tried to have a conversation with them years ago - on their blog, via comments - and they ditched it, deleted it, gone. All good.

Someone said to me that my criticism of 350 is unjustified - that I ask for too much. She may be right, there was no room for conversation at the time so we didn't get through it. Nonetheless, I put out for them big-time and got no help in return: money, demos, arrest in Washington, anything I could do to help, anything. If I am now somewhat bitter it is no surprise, or at least not unreasonable ... or at least understandable. Isn't it?

[It is May month and I keep my windows open and the screens off because I like it that way - the may flies come in, sometimes (briefly) in numbers - but I do not put up the screens. It was the same in Rio when the flies might carry Dengue. Crazy stubborn motherfucking old curmudgeon. OK. All good.] 

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[I need a dump truck mama to, unload my head.]

And if I often wonder what makes 350 less effective than it might be (than it HAS to be, MUST be) - this should be no surprise either - I do it because I care. Mostly it comes in uncomfortable memories and (possibly ugly & 'impertinent' and definitely) unanswered questions.

Man! The talking points are so good, SO GOOD! The film is generally so well constructed. Then why doesn't it equal Kony 2012? Not in terms of counting hits (which does seem to be something both Invisible Children and 350 obsess about - the numbers of hits, and the numbers of fricken 'Facebook Likes' and the numbers of email addresses on the mailing lists are simply neither true nor meaningful metrics; useful maybe in a minor way, but never the main game) but as a film artefact, as a communication.

Do the exercise, watch both films back-to-back (here: Kony 2012 & Do the Math), download 'em with KeepVid, take notes, analyse, consider, deconstruct if that's what it takes - look at them straight and figgure it out.

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Towards the end of it Bill McKibben says, "I think we can win this fight. I think we can win it if we act as a community; if we do not do anything that would injure that community but instead build and knit that community together in a way that allows it to take powerful action." Why does he mention this I wonder? Is there a fifth column at work?

I have to imagine what he means by "if we do not do anything that would injure ..." We? Injure? Unless ... he is talking to the likes of me. I guess it depends on what you mean by 'knit that community together'. We could duke it out with duelling scriptures but it might end in a draw, equivocally; or ... Matthew 18, v15 ff might be an ace in the hole. The Amish knitted up a strong community based in part on that one I believe and I am here doing my part.

[All that said I would give the little that remains to me in a moment if they called.] 

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True humility:   (As if I knew what that is.) But that's where my analysis of the two films fetches up. (Remember that Kony 2012 didn't work in the end - the actions largely evaporated - so this is not about good/better/best either.) Jason is humble but was unsupported; Bill is vain and unsupported; sure, it's more complicated than that.

Nevermind for a sec if I actually know how to distinguish degrees of humility: no one will deny there are such categories will they? However approximate and relative and qualified they may be?

We get so used to thinking of the likes of Martin Luther King and Mohandas Ghandi as great people (and Bill McKibben and Jason Russell) that we may lose sight of them as human people, with OEM supplied feet of clay. And it should also go without having to be stated that they did not start out as great as they ended; everyone makes mistakes, maybe the great learn more from them and more quickly.

Were King and Ghandi humble (nevermind truely or falsely)? Each of them had every reason not to be; but yes, I think so.

[My father was humble too - I am quite sure - but that's another story.]

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Trying to see where 350 came from I wanted to get to know the founders a little better. Somewhat easier said than done - except for Bill McKibben they seem almost not to want to be known. Eventually I found a video: What's Next for the Climate Movement? Part 1 & Part 2 in which each of them speaks (though generally without introduction); brief bios at 350: Our Team for all but Kelly Blynn; the two photographs at the top of the post and (approximate, tentative) names to the faces in them. They are: Jamie Henn, Will Bates, Phil Aroneanu, May Boeve, Jeremy Osborn, Jon Warnow, Bill McKibben, and Kelly Blynn. 

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Jokes my father used to tell: (about the way he told them)

Two guys work together; one is French, the other black. Before starting work the French guy always runs his finger underneath his nose saying, “Ah, Fifi!” He does this every day until eventually the black guy asks why he does it. He explaines that Fifi is his wife and her smell reminds him of her. The next morning the French guy sniffs his finger as usual saying, “Ah, Fifi!” Then the black guy drags his whole arm under his nose and says, “Aaahhh! ... Sapphire!”

Two little black boys, Rastus & Remus, are playing near the railroad tracks. Rastus climbs up on the fence beside the tracks and is sitting there when they hear the whistle of a fast-approaching train. Remus says, "Rastus! You get down off'a that fence right now, you hear? That train gonna come 'long an' suck you right off!" To which Rastus replies, "C'mon train!"

Three little boys are discussing riches as they oogle a new Corvette and a new Thunderbird parked at the curb. One says, "I want to be covered all over with gold, and if I want that car, why, I'll scratch off a little gold and go buy it." The second says, "I'd rather be covered all over in diamonds and if I want that car, why, I'll scratch off one'a those diamonds and go buy it." The third says, "I wann'a be covered all over in hair." "What?!" say his friends. "Yes," he says, "My sister only has a patch of hair about this big (making a triangle with his thumbs and forefingers), and she owns both'a those cars.

A farmer is complaining about a new mule who will not pull the plow. His friend says he knows just what to do. "Ask him politely and he'll pull." The farmer does not believe this so they go for a demonstration. They come into the barnyard and his friend picks up a piece of two-by-four and whacks the mule over the head. Then he just says, "Giddap," and off they go with the plow. The farmer is taken aback: "Is that what you call politely?!" "Well," says his friend, "I ask him politely - but first I have to get his attention." 

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Speaking of jokes: Take Joe Oliver ... please!

[I got the news from The Guardian.]

Oliver spoke in Washington recently and tried to discredit Jim Hansen. (Doh!) A description of the event at CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), a video of Oliver's remarks, and a short excerpt of what he actually said about Jim Hansen and the laughter that followed. (Which he interprets as praise of course. He wants to grow up and be John Diefenbaker I think - you can tell by the way he nods his head all the time.)

Needless to say the attempt backfired and discredited Oliver instead. This is a man willing to drink water from tar sand tailings ponds - maybe that will help make sense of it.

Later on he spoke with CBC's Evan Solomon (here is a screen-grab of that conversation). He sticks to his (guns?) but admits, "That's the point, he [James Hansen] does know his stuff ..." (?)

Oliver cites Andrew Weaver as his scientific authority, but Andrew Weaver demurs: Climate scientist hits back at Oliver for citing his study, saying “What Mr. Oliver has critically failed to grasp here is that although some scenarios are indeed much worse than others, these are all nightmare scenarios that we must not allow to happen. To prevent 2 degrees of warming, which is the stated goal of this government, we know that most of the world’s proven oil, coal, and gas reserves must be left in the ground.”

Another pre-eminent Canadian scientist, David Schindler, is reported saying, "By acting like this, he is actually jeopardizing Keystone, not promoting it, and making Canada look like a country full of jerks." 

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Solar eclipse of May 10 2013:   Details from NASA, and more here.

The green circle-thing on the left map indicates GE - Greatest Eclipse. The yellow lines are 10-minute intervals and the complete annular portion of the eclipse lasts just over 6 minutes so there won't be much to see from Tarawa. Still ... They get a front row seat for sea-level rise and almost a front row seat for the eclipse - some kind of symmetry in that.

This map puts you in the zone and shows Bonriki & Bairiki. They turn out to be parts of Tarawa which is Kiribati's capital & largest island city (50,000). Looks like Nauru the world's smallest republic (10,000) misses the eclipse altogether.

Highest elevation in Kiribati (comprising some 30 islands) is 3 metres, ten feet, not very high; and there is population pressure there too. We all remember Ian Fry at Copenhagen in 2009 eh? Here he is speaking for Tuvalu (which is not far away). A-and some recent photographs of Kiribati from The Guardian to keep y'all entertained. 

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Daniel Pudles must be doing alright - he keeps two websites: this & this; but neither shows his illustrations time-ordered so it's difficult to find the 'latest' without a bit of poking around. In the end this Google works (though not very well). Imaginative and eloquent. Well worth the effort to find 'em.

[No way to get rid of this %$#@!!-ing line that I can find with this wretched HTML.

On the other hand, Blogger sometimes makes improvments that actually improve: images now load in order, and 'Preview' looks more-and-more like a post looks when it is 'Published'.] 

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Michael Wolf:   These thumbnails look as if the digital copies are gibbled somehow, or maybe bar codes. At higher resolution they at first seem cobbled, possibly Photoshopped. (Can't be real!) Go to the website of Michael Wolf for a photographic vision of how the middle class lives in Hong Kong. Not fun as his portraits make very clear. Daemonic. 

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BookOS seems to have gone for a long lunch ...

So here's a short but telling excerpt from Nicholas Carr's 'The Shallows': a digression on the writing of this book (pages 199-200). He ends with, "I'm not sure I could live without it." Profound.

You can visit a website calling it "a 'Silent Spring' for the literary mind"; or read his 2008 Atlantic essay, it's still online; and you can find all the links you need on Wikipedia. No cheap copies at Abe's yet. Won't be long, wait for it.

The very last line (not counting the Epilogue) is "We are welcoming the frenziedness into our souls." Not far off Cohen's "The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it's overturned the order of the soul."

Good on 'im - a place on the lecture circuit for a few years, hope he sells lots of books and makes a pant-full and treats his family well. 

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...

                (writhes the reacher)

                ...

"Let's in" saith then that Fool.
                (the wreather wretches
                  the wrider wights

[From Umwelt Preface by Keith Ecclestone.] 

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Wayne, Mr. Hollywood, is gone:   Not a word about him that I can find. I haven't seen him for a while so I ask the checkout lady at the supermarket and she tells me.

He was the very best person I met on this street, in this city for that matter since I came back. I liked him. He deserves a proper obituary. I don't know enough to write one; except that he had diabetes and numerous other ailments that kept him in and out of hospital. I guess he didn't fall through the cracks in the social safety net; but he told me he had a sister so maybe she was looking out for him, running interference.

I will miss him and his cheerful song - he was always singing, making up the lyrics as he went along; or offering to marry every woman who came by - calling all of them 'Marilyn'; selling pens, taking donations. He called me 'Robert Redford' as he did all the men; said, "Hey Robert Redford, let's go to Hollywood!" Paul Quarrington wrote this song about him; a bit condescending but that's no matter now.

When he wanted something - when it was cold and he wanted a coffee - he would ask for it straight out, and you had to go and fetch it too, he didn't like to walk very much.

Important Update:   I met someone begging in Wayne's old spot who tells me that Wayne is still on the go - over close to the Toronto General somewhere according to the report. I will go over there and see if I can find him one of these days. Very pleased at this news if it is true, very pleased indeed.

Be well. 

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Gilmar is back on-line:

So! Are you just going to sit there looking?    Take it easy.    /    I want to see which will come out on top - the finasteride or the viagra ...    [See finasteride, a chemical treatment for enlarged prostate.]

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Down.

Sink sank sunk (sibilant).

(There, that didn't take very long.)                                                                       Up, Down.                        Earth Day 

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Contents:   Bathetic, Joanna Macy, Internet, Lot, Jim Hansen, Peter Sale, FAO Food Price Index, Uakti, Straight Talk?  Anima, 'Vantage #11.

I did remember Kateri Tekakwitha on the 17th and am looking towards the full moon on the 25th. Two quick word games: alma/lama Portuguese for soul/mud; and the familiar god/dog (Good dog).

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Much of this post is lugubrious & mewling self-pity - that's just the way things are - but there have been two positive & enlightening developments come on the radar recently, three actually ...

Positive Earth Day indications:

1) The 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize recipients. Notable as well because of the well organized website. Discovered via The Guardian: Azzam Alwash wins Goldman prize.

 

2) A report from Real Climate: Thin Ice — the movie; the movie website: Thin Ice; and the film itself on Vimeo (1 hour 13 minutes). An Earth Day gift from the climate scientists to all - and giving gifts on important occasions is a good habit to cultivate. A little optimistic for me, but not too much.

 

3) 10 key points for becoming a more compassionate activist, part of the Occupy the Economy handbook by Judy Rebick & Velcrow Ripper.

 

Let's make it 4) The Toronto Climate Action Network (TCAN) schedule is beginning to be fuller - obviously more used. This could be the best news of all. Congratulations to the organizers.

 

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Pathos at least allows for compassion, bathos not so much. Caved in a limited way on day 5; day 6 back at it lookin' like nothin' ever happened. Smoking is a death-wish; simple as that.

For many months the dominant mantra here has been 'Sorry' (also an s-word). Oh yeah, the Tourette's is still 'Oh Fuck! Oh Fuck!' and so on ... 'Fuckin' Bitch!' as the stumbling dropsy gets to the point of ridiculousness and I have to laugh; but the centre core of the boil has been and is unworthiness. Distinguishing guilt and shame is a useful and in some ways rewarding meditation - but in the end they collapse & conflate into a totally unacceptable self-pity (notwithstanding the absurdity of the positive thinking ideology - which is anyway refudiated by 'the conditions that prevail' [Thank you Sarah Palin & Jimmy Durante.]).

The last good word was from Gabor Maté (talk about a quick study). He said, "You have some work to do," or something like that - but the means he suggested have proven beyond reach and it's back to wazizname, Berger? ... in Hair singin' "I'm falling through a hole in the flag."

From an optimistic New Year's Day and Lucky '13 - the year we turned it around!; through Forward On Climate and The spell has been broken!; to stupid & ineffective activist emails - finally getting a hit and freaked out ditching it; and so inspired by Naomi Klein's "... plan to heal the planet that also heals our broken selves ...", incubating, waiting with bated breath, and at the first positive sign ... on the verge of ditching that too. Bathetic. Sinking. 

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What to think about Joanna Macy?

Read the bumph on Wikipedia ... an old lady, early 80's, Buddhist, lives by selling her books looks like ... dunno?

Ram Dass hit Montreal in 67 or 68, not a buddhist grant you; and later on, José Datrino, Profeta de Gentileza, a christian but still; and more recently our own k-k-Canadian Gabor Maté, definitely a buddhist and a very VERY clever fellow; ... but with experience over time my support for the messages of gurus wise or otherwise has changed. Not to mention Iron John, Jesus, (I am thinking of Tom T. Hall and 'Everything From Jesus To Jack Daniels' but I can't find it on YouTube).

So I have a look at her website and near the top somewhere it says, "... including despair work ..." and I am basically hooked.

At least deeply enough to take the next (tentative) step. And yet I am left wondering if at the end of the day I will find that it is me who should be giving the workshops on what to do about despair? 

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Trying to get a feel for where the Internet is and isn't. This is where much of the modern life is lived: fossicking about on an information compost pile. Not difficult to view it as a disease, an epidemic even. That these images correspond to consumption patterns - close to the root of the 'problem' in other words - is no surprise. The good part is that it can (and will) so quickly and easily vanish: In a moment; in the twinkling of an eye; at the last trump; like the morning dew; like smoke. Just pull the plug; or cancel the phone.

[Similes and metaphors from First Corinthians 15:52 & Hosea 13:3. I use these references only because they prove the ubiquity of Launcelot Andrewes' (and his colleagues of course) figurative language. Without the KJV gentle reader, English might require more ... salt.]

And they call it the 'last' trump because?     :-)

[Best of a bad lot: the top image is in fact a 'heat map' of the 2007-2011 malware infections by DNSChanger from Team Cymru; and the other is from Carna Botnet Internet Census 2012; all very sketchy.] 

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Lot:   A long and complicated story; but a natural to consider in the context of collapse. Wikipedia sums it up pretty well; or go straight to Genesis, chapters 11 to 19 (both the flight from Sodom and his son's begettings are in 19).

Rendered almost incomprehensible with dangling questions: Why did he offer his daughters to the thugs? Why did his wife look back? How did he not catch on to his daughter's wiles? (to list just a few). 

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Jim Hansen:   The last news was: Climate Maverick to Retire From NASA (published April 1 but no joke). He knows how to organize a website coherently; witness his blog. There is a mailing list - what a pleasure to receive regular emails from himself. The latest is this: Making Things Clearer: Exaggeration, Jumping the Gun, and The Venus Syndrome (.pdf). I read it several times. The first time I kept thinking "he is 72 and a prostate cancer survivor, maybe he's tired too?" He ends it with "I am running out of steam for this present communication," and I am looking at the ghostly photograph that accompanied the retirement article.

But on second reading I decide I must be projecting.

He mentions an upcoming paper, 'Climate Sensitivity, Sea Level, and Atmospheric CO2' - advance information is here: abstract & download (pdf). 

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Peter Sale:   I have praised his book here a number of times (1, 2, 3) and make comments on his blog which he permits. And I have roots in Huntsville. I thought ... I'll go up there and listen to him on Earth Day! So last week I put up a blurb about it. It is true that I am feeling generally like a leper ... but I go anyway, a pleasant bus ride with a driver who stops to show us the flooding in Bracebridge, a motel overnight ...

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Grant you it snowed in Huntsville on Saturday morning, but I think very few turned out primarily because of a lack of publicity. The town forgave its fee for the venue but I'll bet single malt that the powers-that-be really want no part of such things. The nexus of inadequacy falls to Rebecca Francis, the 'Sustainability Coordinator' (to be shared with the organizing committee no doubt). I will send them an email - if anyone responds I will publish it here. Tony Clement didn't show up (no surprise there though he is the local MP and could have) - an email to him as well then and ditto on a reply.

Peter is a good speaker; personable, charming and a professional - he prepares, thoroughly. Relating the global issue to the Friends of the Muskoka Watershed (and here is their blog) complete with some well-explained science on the local situation is canny and effective. Two big ideas fall out of Saturday's experience for me:

1) The planet can support about two billion folks; there are now over seven billion; something's gonna give and it probably won't be pleasant (even if you are watching it from a relatively safe haven like Muskoka).

2) There is no guaranteed reward for righteousness. This is a big step forward from religious notions of a magically equivalent payback - Karma and the like; and a reason to get serious sooner rather than later, There are no reserved or VIP seats in the Elysian Fields and no reward-miles on the spiritual credit card - we must (all) get our thumbs out while there is still time. 

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[A friend tells me that it does no good telling people like Rebecca "You blew it!" My friend is probably right, but for now it is the way I know - except to say "Nothing personal. Maybe you will learn from this and do better next time if there is one."]

Not enough publicity; no control of the AV equipment; no video record (that I know of) ...

That said - there is one very positive thing that can be said of the organizing committee: they may just all be church-goers and do it habitually, or maybe it was simply because of the low attendance - but - there were lots of greeters, and no shortage of opportunities for conversation with them. If they didn't all know what 350 represents, there was lots of room to explain. This 'greeting' is an essential activity and one that is often overlooked. Regardless of attendance, the vital results of any such event are the quality and strength of whatever relations are established. We are "l'armée des étoiles jetées dans le ciel" (Jacques et Raïssa Maritain).

A-and there was excellent coffee and lots of half&half if you like it creamy made by two women from Soul Sistas restaurant (thanks again - and who says soul sistas can't be white?).

There is a strong connection apparently with Transition Huntsville (and also here). 

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FAO numbers edging up at last:   The FAO Food Price Index is up a few points after a suspiciously long flat spot.

Two articles from John Vidal: How a warming world is a threat to our food supplies, and Millions face starvation as world warms.

Lester Brown is on the case: New Era of Food Scarcity Echoes Collapsed Civilizations, and as usual he has it nicely pinned. Unless we mobilize in a way equivalent to the American effort following Pearl Harbour we're done here. 

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Uakti:   Can you really criticise music? Does it work at all? Yes and no: everyone knows about what you mean when you say to someone who likes The Beatles, "I like the Stones," but exactly & precisely not so much. Here's an unrelated story on related issues.

It looks like Águas da Amazônia was the high point. I got curious about them (naturally). They've been at it a long time. Either you are an integrante/member or not, so it was unusually difficult to find the names and pictures of the two women involved (they are not 'members' apparently). They have moved on to Beatles renditions as a main effort recently - the Beatles are always big in Brasil - which I could not be bothered to listen to; before that it was 'Oiapok Xui' which is a slangy way of saying Oiapoque ao Chui/'sea to sea' so I listened, Forró de Larra (?!) ... forgettable. Maybe it's like writing in an invented language: Russel Hoban pulls it off in Riddley Walker but it often presents lame.

So then: the seminal moments between Uakti and Philip Glass must have been something to behold. Águas is so very strong.

These pictures come from Expo Guanajuato in Mexico taken by Sylvio Coutinho sometime (can't find a date anywhere, late 90s or early oughts I am guessing).

Some details on Wikipedia, and more on their own website (where the pictures are numerous but too small for me to see very well).                         Maybe try listening to this & this again. 

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One way of looking at it is my compulsive (what passes for) honesty; that: a) I never learned how to play politely anyway; b) I am lazy and it is easier (especially as memories fade); c) playing it straight has some advantages when you are young and it can become a habit; d) every one says honesty is the best policy though they may not mean it; and e) it has become a tiny keyhole-full of light in the murk to believe that straight talk can make a difference. ... And f) I guess - just don't care much anymore.

"I seen pretty people disappear like smoke."

But what do you do when almost no one will talk to you anymore? When the conversations all dwindle to silence. What happens then painted bird? I guess I'll just have to go along and ... find out.

"I dreamed about you, baby. It was just the other night. Most of you was naked, ah but some of you was light. The sands of time were falling from your fingers and your thumb and you were waiting for the miracle, for the miracle to come." 

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If my imagination moves towards beautiful young women it is not (only) because I am a dirty old man gentle reader. Mostly I am just old and harmless and these forays have led me (over the years since 2005) to a doorway and towards an anima I didn't know I had.

These photographs (I tried to buy rights but got no reply so some are watermarked) come from Araquém Alcântara via Terra:
In the lecture I posted the link to a while ago David Suzuki talks about a UN resolution proposed by Bhutan: "The purpose of government is not economic growth and more stuff. The purpose of government is to make sure that people are well and happy." The photographs of this girl look something like wellness and happiness (and security) to me.

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And oh yes: the Internet does not know itself. This may be its largest and determining deficit. 

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Walking along in the spring sunshine came to me Alzheimer's

'Vantage #11: as memory fades the continual mental background chatter fades too and experience becomes more sensual, or more immediately so at least: visual, auditory, olfactory, the delightful touch of the air (to the extent that the receptors still work).

"I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet."

Here LISTEN! to this, turn up the volume, and keep in mind that it is called Águas da Amazônia - maybe it will move you.

Be well. 

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And a few cartoons that simply had to be here. 

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Down.