Life is not a contest
Current mood: amused
Category: Life

This is not a test
Reality is not tv
Most of the world will never know about you
Fewer will (or should) even care.

When we're visiting friends or relatives who happen to like to watch American Idol we get a chance to see what the fuss is about. Sure some of these folks are talented. For me, if I'm forced to watch, then the judges are the show ... you can learn something from a few of the things they say, but it struck me that the draw for audiences is that the producers figured out how to make it a sporting event. I guess that's great if you like to watch sports.

Imagine if Rapheal, Reuben, Picasso, Dali and all the others had to compete for best painter. Now there's a sport I'd watch ... before long they might be slinging paint at each other. Well, before I get too distracted, my point is that in spite what your publicist might tell you, they didn't create because they wanted to appeal to the masses. They looked inside their souls and beautiful (and / or) thought provoking enduring art
came out. That they may have become popular is only because what they found in their souls just happened to match what many of the rest of us have sensed in our own souls.

Now I confess, on occasion that I've entered TagYerit's songs into contests, but never for a moment deluding myself that we'll ever win this week's flavor of the month contest. Just hoping to get a few more folks to hear our songs. That's all.

So what's my own flavor or reality this week? Ah, it's spring. Watching the brown of pre-spring transform to a wide palette of greens. If that just happens to be your flavor, or if you're even remotely curious about how that flavor translates in song ... Here's a clip of TagYerit's song
Amelia And All That Is (aka The Great Unfolding)

available at ITunes

along with other of your favorite digital outlets ...

AMELIA, and All That IS (The Great Unfolding)
©1995 Rich & Flo Newman (BMI)
Around the quiet islands of snow
Could it be I see the green start to show
I surprised a secret slender sprout
Hiding under an iced-in brick that I pulled out
(Chorus)
Seems like everyone's breath is holding
Waiting, waiting for the Great Unfolding
Its freezing but as I look around
Red clover is pushing up through the ground
Tiny new leaves in packages done so precise
Unfolding origami when it's time to capture light
Seems like...
Tiny spirals to huge feather fans
Fiddleheads to ferns
Shades of brown to 'Emerald City'
I just blinked, the scene had turned
How many years have passed that I failed to see
The early stages of this meadow mystery
Like purple cigars that are rolled up really tight
Turn to blooming violets almost overnight
Each bud is a whole pollen package store
Sitting right there hoping
Some thirsty bee is first in line
when it comes the time to open
Seems like...

Thought I heard Tweet minor for half a sec
Are the blueprints being drawn
Those brilliant flying architects
Just labor on and on
So you'll see me on the ground with my head bent real low
Not 'cause I'm feeling down or got no place to go
I'm just moving in close for the bestest best of shows
Taking my seat in the very front row
Waiting waiting for the Great Unfolding
Seems like everyone's breath is holding

8:41 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Fairy Flush TP Wedding Gown
Category: Fashion, Style, Shopping

(c) (p) FloraLee Newman 2008
The following was the invitation that we handed to friends at L&F's wonderful annual Mardi Gras party:

"Dear friends & family,

The Fairy Flush and Peter Tapilo would like to
make you "privy" to their little secret. ...
They've decided to take the plunge!

Mr. & Mrs. Claug D'Raynz and
Mr. & Mrs. Scott Brown-Tapilo
announce the union of their daughter
The Fairy Flush to Peter Tapilo

The wedding will take place at the
Lovely Septic Meadows Pavilion

The flushing bride requests your presence
At a ceremonial soldering and the
traditional tossing of the waxed ring."

The Fairy Flush also included the following poem on the invitation:

"Surprise - it's me. The Fairy Flush
No one thinks about me all that much
I reside and work inside your tank
Yet, you never utter a word of thanks
But it's true - If I was not around
There'd be a whole lotta SH**
NOT going down!

When the handle's pulled
I get in the zone
Each swish, valve, pipe's
The perfect tone
I know how to make it swirl the best
As of your deposits I help you divest!"

Those of you already in the know will connect The Fairy Flush & Peter Tapilo to their other personas as curators of the Whole World Toilet Paper Museum
The inspiration for the tp wedding dress came from Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com


The Fairy flush created her dress in her spare time (when the toilets were not in need of flushing) over the course of a week. The approximately 3 1/2 unused rolls were not missed by the flushers. The dress was held together with various tapes, including double sided tape, regular scotch tape & packing tape. The chords & straps for the dress were also made from tp. The dress held up pretty well over the course of the party, though the "lace" did take a beating and The Fairy Flush wishes she had had a bit more time to style it prior to the party.

7:27 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Think it can't happen here?
Category: News and Politics

Think it can't happen here? Well looks like it's all set so it could. What's that, " ... a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

I'm an optimist, so I like to believe that it won't, but I'm still not about to take chances. So before you let down your guard, read what old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts -- former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan fears from the Bush Administration (the first two links) Then check the facts by reading the 3rd link.

Oldline Republican warns something's in the works

"Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

President's Executive Order of July 17, 07

5:00 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Great Indie music movie
Current mood: content
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Check out "Once", if you haven't already.
It's a story of a street busker and a most interesting week he has when he's befriended by a girl selling magazines on the streets in Ireland. The two are actual musicians who write and sing their own songs. I believe it's misrepresented when reviewers call it a musical, but it has a most compelling musical soundtrack.
It's currently making the rounds at the arthouses.

While their "week's" timetable is unrealistic, even for the most gifted of musicians, there's much about this fable that rings true to the process.
And the story that the movie tells is much more realistic and therefore less predictable than typical Hollywood fare

My only criticism is that on occasion the handheld camera can be more obtrusive than I like.

"Once" - http://oncethemovie.com/
http://oncethemovie.com/
"Once" on IMDB

7:09 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Alternet - alternative news source
Current mood: hopeful
Category: News and Politics

Think you're up on the news? If you're like me, you wonder where to find the other news ... the real news & opinions that the major news outlets have no interest in disseminating. I mean besides the Daily Show / Colbert Report
Alternet is my current favorite

http://www.alternet.org

As example, here are a few of the headlines posted on their website today. (And if you like, you can have Alternet delivered to your email box.)

"Conservatives Cost a Lot of Money"

"Building an Embassy Fit for an Empire" The United States is building a massive embassy complex in the heart of Baghdad that is already becoming a symbol of America's imperial ambitions in the Middle East. ...

"What Lessons Can Progressives Learn from Evangelicals?"

"Family Values Begin at Home, but Who's Home?"

"Bush's Shadow Army"

"Think the Nation's Debt Doesn't Affect You? Think Again"

"Neocons in Cheney's Office Fund al Qaeda-Tied Groups ... and No One Cares?"

"According to U.S. Military Theory, We Can't Win in Iraq" War on Iraq: Bush's new top commander in Iraq says he thinks the war in Iraq is winnable, but his recent manual on counterinsurgency suggests otherwise.

http://www.alternet.org

7:28 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Deranged is Now Up
Current mood: busy
Category: Music

Life can sure get crazy busy.
I mean I know it's crazy in form. But time usually moves in a more or less linear fashion. Sometimes faster or slower, but lately it's just gotten out of hand.

So maybe it's appropriate that as I finally found the time to post the song Deranged here on Myspace, that I'm feeling a bit deranged myself. (Huge stretch if you know me)

Maybe it's really not time out of hand, but my energy level to do all these promotion things that go with the music.

For example, we finished recording and mastering the six song CD Gazing Globe in February of 2005 - that's right "FIVE" but it wasn't until a year later that we got the graphics to the point where we could release the CD. How did that happen?

We'd get a good start on designing graphics. Then get called away on business (as in those things that generate the money to keep us going) ... when we'd finally get back to doing more graphic work, it would take me a day just to figure out where I left off, then suddenly the distraction buzzer would go off again and we'd have to attend to life for a little bit longer. A year of this kind of thing till finally Gazing Globe is ready for the world. But hardly any time to let folks know about it.

So that's the story. Maybe I don't sound like I'm losing it, but there have been moments ...

Rich

Currently listening : Mono By Lonesome Brothers Release date: 13 June, 2006

7:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

PTI pumpkins
Current mood: carving pumpkins
Category: carving pumpkins Sports

Here's our latest pumpkin for all you Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon fans from ESPN..'s Pardon the Interruption




For more of our pumpkins check out Pumpkins on TagYerit

7:45 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Global Cooling
Category: News and Politics

First off, what's the deal with these myspace categories - this really belongs in environment and science. but anyway ...

So you've seen An Inconvenient Truth (or not) and you're wondering what can one do about it .... Well there's lots of course, but the point of this posting is just to point out a cool organization, Trees for The Future that plants millions of trees worldwide.
Check them out at
www.plant-trees.org

We'll all feel better if you pass this on (our kids will too) ...

Currently reading : Washington Irving : Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra (Library of America) By Washington Irving Release date: 01 March, 1991

7:28 AM - 3 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

Aliens? What's all the fuss?
Current mood: calm
Category: News and Politics

What's the deal with illegal immigrants? Why is there suddenly all this fuss?

I won't say that there's no problem, but I'm very suspicious that our Politicians-in-charge have decided to make a lot of noise about it to switch our focus away from the important things. And why is it, that Mr. Chief Politician still thinks he can solve all our problems by throwing troops at them?

Okay, so they're playing their usual games. Why is the media once again playing into it.

From where I'm sitting, absolutely nothing happened to suddenly create all this noise. The administration decided it was tired of taking the heat for it's bad policies in Iraq, it's incompetence in response to Katrina, the runaway oil prices, the environmental consequences of the free market, and worst of all its drooping poll numbers. Oh, and did I mention that the senior citizen voting block is none too happy with all the confusion around the new Medicare plan.

But don't you worry. We'll drop the taxes of the richest so that this mess gets even more expensive for the succeeding generations. I've got news for you. When the time comes for you young 'uns who will have to carry the burden, you WILL wish that the illegal aliens had been allowed to settle and become legal.

One last thought - to each preceding generation, the new immigrants are the unwanted ones. With few exceptions, the odds are good that your ancestors were resented for landing on these shores.

Currently listening : All the Roadrunning By Mark Knopfler Release date: 25 April, 2006

8:00 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Party of one
Category: MySpace

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but don't bother to ask me to add you as a friend if you haven't even bothered to check out my site and you have friends that number in the thousands. (Of course, in that case you aren't even reading this.)
Maybe your having thousands of friends has some kind of value to you, but it offers nothing to me. With currently upwards of 100 friends, I'd be hard pressed to remember all on my list, and I've made the effort to read and listen to stuff you all have on your page.
Sure you're beautiful/awesome, have a great voice, write incredible songs, play a wicked instrument. So what? Engage me and I might feel differently.
Till then, you'll find me quite content in my small universe.

7:48 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment