Bears? With Bad Habits?
Steve Himmer entertains us with his blog about "reading, writing, nature, culture, and bears with bad habits." Fun, interesting and educational. We like it so much we put a link to it in our Wordscapes section, but you can just click here: Onepotmeal.
Labels: Literary Arts
# posted
by Fraser MacKenzie, Online Editor @ 8/31/2006 10:50:00 AM
31 August, 2006
A Piece of Sky
The sun was just coming up as I walked outside this morning. It looked like a red disc floating through wispy layers of grayish-purple fog, and I watched it as I continued up the hill near my house. I reached the top of the hill before I knew it, and stopped for a moment to stretch and catch my breath. When I glanced back toward the horizon, I took in the view and noticed all the other stuff I hadn't seen while I was gazing at the bright red sun: lots of telephone wires, a crane and bulldozer parked at a construction site across the way, light poles, traffic, etc. It was almost jarring to see the difference between the awesome sunrise I'd been watching earlier and the wide-angle view of the beginnings of the day that I now saw. What happened?
Nothing had changed, of course, except my own view; the sun had barely risen a few degrees higher as I made the short trek up the hillside. What was different was that my focus had shifted: instead of looking only at the rising sun, maintaining that intimate connection with it, my eyes now took in everything indiscriminately and the spell was broken. Photographers are familiar with this; they zero in on some part of a landscape and crop out the extraneous things on the sides that don't contribute to the power of the composition. We can edit our own compositions too, deciding what we will and won't allow to clutter our vision at any given time.
We don't want to have tunnel vision, of course; we don't want to be overly optimistic Pollyannas, refusing to acknowledge the carnage and crap all around us. We have to look at things realistically most of the time, whatever that means; "realistic" is a far more relative term than people think it is. But sometimes it's good to narrow the focus a bit, to ignore the distractions and the drone of everyday life, and just look at that one thing that inspires or moves or encourages you. We need to take time, now and then, to feed our minds something besides the mundane reality we deal with on a daily basis. It might be a piece of the sky; it might be a few moments with a child or a dog.
What's your focus right now?
Nothing had changed, of course, except my own view; the sun had barely risen a few degrees higher as I made the short trek up the hillside. What was different was that my focus had shifted: instead of looking only at the rising sun, maintaining that intimate connection with it, my eyes now took in everything indiscriminately and the spell was broken. Photographers are familiar with this; they zero in on some part of a landscape and crop out the extraneous things on the sides that don't contribute to the power of the composition. We can edit our own compositions too, deciding what we will and won't allow to clutter our vision at any given time.
We don't want to have tunnel vision, of course; we don't want to be overly optimistic Pollyannas, refusing to acknowledge the carnage and crap all around us. We have to look at things realistically most of the time, whatever that means; "realistic" is a far more relative term than people think it is. But sometimes it's good to narrow the focus a bit, to ignore the distractions and the drone of everyday life, and just look at that one thing that inspires or moves or encourages you. We need to take time, now and then, to feed our minds something besides the mundane reality we deal with on a daily basis. It might be a piece of the sky; it might be a few moments with a child or a dog.
What's your focus right now?
Labels: Think Tank
# posted
by Rob Colfax, Senior Editor @ 8/27/2006 12:28:00 PM
27 August, 2006
Piero Ferrucci and Psychosynthesis
Piero Ferrucci believes that each of us has a healthy core and that we have several ways to tap into that source. This, of course, is a somewhat different perspective from many of his predecessors and contemporaries in the field of psychology, who favor a more biochemical or analytical approach to the workings of the mind.
Ferrucci's mentor Robert Assagioli was a colleague of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung; by challenging the emphasis on pathology, Assagioli developed the idea that psychosynthesis is the key to a healthy mental outlook. The focus of psychosynthesis is bringing together disparate aspects of one's personality in order to form a more cohesive, authentic, and higher-functioning self.
Ferrucci feels that suffering comes from denying the best parts of ourselves. "We not only suppress violence and sex--as Freud said--but more to the point we suppress love and inner beauty because that’s much scarier," he comments. "It is much easier to be like everyone else. If you’re creative, happy and joyful, you are probably different from others.”
For more, check out the great article on Dr. Ferucci at http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4066&l=en.
Ferrucci's mentor Robert Assagioli was a colleague of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung; by challenging the emphasis on pathology, Assagioli developed the idea that psychosynthesis is the key to a healthy mental outlook. The focus of psychosynthesis is bringing together disparate aspects of one's personality in order to form a more cohesive, authentic, and higher-functioning self.
Ferrucci feels that suffering comes from denying the best parts of ourselves. "We not only suppress violence and sex--as Freud said--but more to the point we suppress love and inner beauty because that’s much scarier," he comments. "It is much easier to be like everyone else. If you’re creative, happy and joyful, you are probably different from others.”
For more, check out the great article on Dr. Ferucci at http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4066&l=en.
Labels: Think Tank
# posted
by Fraser MacKenzie, Online Editor @ 8/25/2006 10:01:00 PM
25 August, 2006
Not Coming Anytime Soon to a Theater Near You
Just posted the latest satirical list from Erin & Patrick. Go check out what you're [not] missing at the movies: Not Coming Anytime Soon to a Theater Near You.
Labels: Humor
# posted
by Fraser MacKenzie, Online Editor @ 8/24/2006 12:02:00 PM
24 August, 2006
"She Visits Her Beastmother's Uncle"
Just posted to the Wordscapes section: "She Visits Her Beastmother's Uncle" by F.X. MacKenzie
Labels: Poetry
# posted
by K.C. Collins, Field Correspondent @ 8/23/2006 05:27:00 PM
23 August, 2006
The Divine Joker
Do you ever think that maybe the universe has a sense of humor? Have you ever wondered whether some things are just so patently silly and ridiculous that they're not meant to be taken as truth? Maybe sometimes we suffer from a sort of psychic astigmatism, a blurring of the inner vision that prevents us from spotting the hoax, getting the joke, or seeing the humor.
Read the full article...
Read the full article...
Labels: Think Tank
# posted
by Rob Colfax, Senior Editor @ 8/20/2006 09:52:00 AM
20 August, 2006
Irish Guitarist Barry McCabe Talks About Beyond the Tears and the Gift of Music
A year or so ago, some of our staff here discovered an Irish blues guitarist named Barry McCabe on the CD Baby site. CD Baby, as some of you may know, specializes in marketing the music of independent artists; you don't go there to buy the latest blockbuster single you heard all over the radio--you go there to find quality music by musicians who haven't been co-opted by the corporate conglomerates. Barry McCabe caught our attention at first because we thought he sounded remarkably like another Irish guitarist, the "Last of the Independents," the late Rory Gallagher (although after listening to "Alberta" off Barry's Absolutely Live disc, Erin commented that she thought Barry was the more versatile vocalist of the two). Delving into his more recent CD The Peace Within, I noticed a broadening and deepening of musical perspective as Barry worked with piper Davy Spillane to create a compelling blend of Celtic blues.
Recently Barry McCabe has been hard at work on the new CD Beyond the Tears, as well as taking time out to play at clubs and blues festivals here and there. The CD is due out September 9; however, it's now available for pre-ordering online, and Barry has four tracks available for free download in the music section of his site (all the other tracks have samples available for listening as well). In addition to this, he's taking a unique approach to the new CD's release: recognizing that his listeners quickly become ardent fans who want to share their new discovery with their friends, he's giving away an extra CD free to everyone who pre-orders the new CD, so you have one for yourself and one to pass along to someone else who'd enjoy the music. (You can do this when you're not beholden to a bunch of corporate fat-cats, you see.)
From what we've sampled so far of the new disc, it sounds like it's every bit up to his usual high standards. Things start off with a Chuck Berry-style rocker reminiscent of Dave Edmunds, progress through a very smooth cover of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love," cruise the moody waters of a Peter Green-ish "Trouble" and finish up with the folky acoustic simplicity of "Sunset Waltz."
In his latest newsletter, Barry writes about how the new CD came about:
"OK, a little bit of background on the CD itself and the recording process.
"The songs on the CD are all ‘roughly’ connected in that they relate to this character called Johnny. As I say on the CD sleeve – who’s Johnny? Johnny is the personification of many people we see – or don’t – around us every day. Johnny is the misunderstood, the lonely, the outcast, the unfortunate, the part of society and ourselves we’d rather not know about.
"The idea to do an entire album based on one character hit me one evening as I was sitting in the car waiting for someone. The idea took shape in my mind pretty quickly and as I sketched it out on a piece of paper even some of the song titles were already there. I had been ‘waiting’ for an idea to hang the album on for a while so now that I had it I could get to work.
"I called up the guys in the band, told them to dust off the equipment and that the new CD was now a ‘work in progress’. It’s not always fair on them as they often have to wait on me and as I work very much on ‘feel’ I often have to wait for things myself!!
"We started working on 'Lonely Road' first and it fell into place quite fast. It was exciting to work on it but it was also a bit strange as this time I was going to attempt to write a complete album without ‘testing’ the songs on the road first. This time I had the feeling that I should leave everything until the last minute and basically work off what we’d hear back in the studio when we laid down the backing tracks. It was a terrifying idea at times but again I just ‘felt’ this was the right thing to do.
"I had a rough draft of 'I Wonder' ready and we ran through it just once as we were finishing up one evening. Then working in that strange fashion I have I basically did NOTHING for about another year. I was still working things out in my head but I didn’t get together with the guys anymore. I decided to buy myself a small 4-track recorder and proceeded to lay down a basic guitar track and a basic vocal. Then I overdubbed either a harmony vocal or one or two guitar parts.
"I had the idea all along to bring some friends in on the recording session and I was absolutely thrilled when they ALL said ‘yes’. I’ve known Johnny (Fean) for many, many years (from his days in Horslips) and he’s one of the most soulful guitarists you could ever ask to meet. He’s also a BIG Peter Green fan.
"Pat (McManus) is actually a cousin of mine and obviously I’ve known him for quite awhile too. Pat was with us in the studio from the very start and played a huge part in the album turning out the way it did. I’ve known Mark (Feltham) since his Rory days but got to know him much better over the last while as we kept bumping into each other at festivals across Europe. I’ll write more about these guys later (and their contributions) but it’s sufficient to say that they are among the top players of the world.
"When I did finally get back to working on the new songs I ended up turning out a song a day sometimes. It became a very prolific period for me and I felt inspired. I was laying it all down on my 4-track and as soon as I had what I wanted for the album I sent the rough mixes off to the guys. We met up the Saturday before going into the studio and we raced through the material. We worked up a very rough version of each song and that’s as far as I wanted to go with it. We all arrived at the studio the following Monday and proceeded to get stuck in. We worked really fast but at a very leisurely pace. There was no pressure on anyone and when we had what we thought was a good take we’d move on. We recorded in a very ‘live’ situation, meaning we all played in the same room without using headphones – just working off each other live. The up side of working like this is EVERYONE is REALLY in tune with each other. You get that special feel of it, when everyone is in the same place at the same time. The down side of it is that everyone’s got to get it right as there is no possibility to overdub because of the ‘leakage’ from the mic’s (in other words you’d hear the bass on some of the drum mics’s, etc.). Intense but in the end worth it, I think.
"I’ll write more about the experience later but hopefully now you’ll feel some of the same experiences we felt going through getting the music this far."
Regarding the promo in effect for pre-ordering the new CD, Barry writes, "Maybe it’s the heat or my generous nature, I don’t know, but we’re going to try the following and hope that it works. As a ‘thank you’ for your support, and for pre-ordering the new CD, all copies bought during the pre-order period will be autographed - AND - we’re going to give you all an extra CD for FREE with every CD that you buy. I know a lot of you have bought extra copies of my previous CDs for your friends (or maybe it was your enemies!) or had some of your friends bug you to make them a copy, so we thought we’d make it as easy as possible for you this time by actually doing some of the hard work for you already. This way they get their own copy (12 page full colour booklet and all).
"Music is a gift and it should be shared as much as possible. We’re starting the ball rolling by giving you a ‘gift’ with your purchase. We hope that whoever receives the ‘gift’ from you will in turn tell someone else about it and that way we can keep the ‘chain of giving’ moving forward. With the purchase of this CD someone somewhere will always be getting a ‘gift’ of music for free!
"I really hope we can make this work. Obviously we’re cutting our profit margin to the bone to try and achieve this so we’d be very grateful if you can alert your friends to this action. Only by doing that can we keep it moving forward and keep giving someone something for free."
So here are your links for Beyond the Tears:
Download 4 Tracks Free (and preview all tracks)
http://www.barrymccabe.com/music/?id=5
Pre-order from CD Baby (and get an extra one free - both are signed copies)
http://cdbaby.com/cd/bmcband4
Best wishes to Barry on the upcoming release, and thanks for sharing your music and insights with us.
Recently Barry McCabe has been hard at work on the new CD Beyond the Tears, as well as taking time out to play at clubs and blues festivals here and there. The CD is due out September 9; however, it's now available for pre-ordering online, and Barry has four tracks available for free download in the music section of his site (all the other tracks have samples available for listening as well). In addition to this, he's taking a unique approach to the new CD's release: recognizing that his listeners quickly become ardent fans who want to share their new discovery with their friends, he's giving away an extra CD free to everyone who pre-orders the new CD, so you have one for yourself and one to pass along to someone else who'd enjoy the music. (You can do this when you're not beholden to a bunch of corporate fat-cats, you see.)
From what we've sampled so far of the new disc, it sounds like it's every bit up to his usual high standards. Things start off with a Chuck Berry-style rocker reminiscent of Dave Edmunds, progress through a very smooth cover of Van Morrison's "Crazy Love," cruise the moody waters of a Peter Green-ish "Trouble" and finish up with the folky acoustic simplicity of "Sunset Waltz."
In his latest newsletter, Barry writes about how the new CD came about:
"OK, a little bit of background on the CD itself and the recording process.
"The songs on the CD are all ‘roughly’ connected in that they relate to this character called Johnny. As I say on the CD sleeve – who’s Johnny? Johnny is the personification of many people we see – or don’t – around us every day. Johnny is the misunderstood, the lonely, the outcast, the unfortunate, the part of society and ourselves we’d rather not know about.
"The idea to do an entire album based on one character hit me one evening as I was sitting in the car waiting for someone. The idea took shape in my mind pretty quickly and as I sketched it out on a piece of paper even some of the song titles were already there. I had been ‘waiting’ for an idea to hang the album on for a while so now that I had it I could get to work.
"I called up the guys in the band, told them to dust off the equipment and that the new CD was now a ‘work in progress’. It’s not always fair on them as they often have to wait on me and as I work very much on ‘feel’ I often have to wait for things myself!!
"We started working on 'Lonely Road' first and it fell into place quite fast. It was exciting to work on it but it was also a bit strange as this time I was going to attempt to write a complete album without ‘testing’ the songs on the road first. This time I had the feeling that I should leave everything until the last minute and basically work off what we’d hear back in the studio when we laid down the backing tracks. It was a terrifying idea at times but again I just ‘felt’ this was the right thing to do.
"I had a rough draft of 'I Wonder' ready and we ran through it just once as we were finishing up one evening. Then working in that strange fashion I have I basically did NOTHING for about another year. I was still working things out in my head but I didn’t get together with the guys anymore. I decided to buy myself a small 4-track recorder and proceeded to lay down a basic guitar track and a basic vocal. Then I overdubbed either a harmony vocal or one or two guitar parts.
"I had the idea all along to bring some friends in on the recording session and I was absolutely thrilled when they ALL said ‘yes’. I’ve known Johnny (Fean) for many, many years (from his days in Horslips) and he’s one of the most soulful guitarists you could ever ask to meet. He’s also a BIG Peter Green fan.
"Pat (McManus) is actually a cousin of mine and obviously I’ve known him for quite awhile too. Pat was with us in the studio from the very start and played a huge part in the album turning out the way it did. I’ve known Mark (Feltham) since his Rory days but got to know him much better over the last while as we kept bumping into each other at festivals across Europe. I’ll write more about these guys later (and their contributions) but it’s sufficient to say that they are among the top players of the world.
"When I did finally get back to working on the new songs I ended up turning out a song a day sometimes. It became a very prolific period for me and I felt inspired. I was laying it all down on my 4-track and as soon as I had what I wanted for the album I sent the rough mixes off to the guys. We met up the Saturday before going into the studio and we raced through the material. We worked up a very rough version of each song and that’s as far as I wanted to go with it. We all arrived at the studio the following Monday and proceeded to get stuck in. We worked really fast but at a very leisurely pace. There was no pressure on anyone and when we had what we thought was a good take we’d move on. We recorded in a very ‘live’ situation, meaning we all played in the same room without using headphones – just working off each other live. The up side of working like this is EVERYONE is REALLY in tune with each other. You get that special feel of it, when everyone is in the same place at the same time. The down side of it is that everyone’s got to get it right as there is no possibility to overdub because of the ‘leakage’ from the mic’s (in other words you’d hear the bass on some of the drum mics’s, etc.). Intense but in the end worth it, I think.
"I’ll write more about the experience later but hopefully now you’ll feel some of the same experiences we felt going through getting the music this far."
Regarding the promo in effect for pre-ordering the new CD, Barry writes, "Maybe it’s the heat or my generous nature, I don’t know, but we’re going to try the following and hope that it works. As a ‘thank you’ for your support, and for pre-ordering the new CD, all copies bought during the pre-order period will be autographed - AND - we’re going to give you all an extra CD for FREE with every CD that you buy. I know a lot of you have bought extra copies of my previous CDs for your friends (or maybe it was your enemies!) or had some of your friends bug you to make them a copy, so we thought we’d make it as easy as possible for you this time by actually doing some of the hard work for you already. This way they get their own copy (12 page full colour booklet and all).
"Music is a gift and it should be shared as much as possible. We’re starting the ball rolling by giving you a ‘gift’ with your purchase. We hope that whoever receives the ‘gift’ from you will in turn tell someone else about it and that way we can keep the ‘chain of giving’ moving forward. With the purchase of this CD someone somewhere will always be getting a ‘gift’ of music for free!
"I really hope we can make this work. Obviously we’re cutting our profit margin to the bone to try and achieve this so we’d be very grateful if you can alert your friends to this action. Only by doing that can we keep it moving forward and keep giving someone something for free."
So here are your links for Beyond the Tears:
Download 4 Tracks Free (and preview all tracks)
http://www.barrymccabe.com/music/?id=5
Pre-order from CD Baby (and get an extra one free - both are signed copies)
http://cdbaby.com/cd/bmcband4
Best wishes to Barry on the upcoming release, and thanks for sharing your music and insights with us.
Labels: Music, Think Tank
# posted
by Fraser MacKenzie, Online Editor @ 8/18/2006 11:11:00 AM
18 August, 2006
Stop the Arboreal Madness: An Open Letter to QPB
After opening my mail this morning, I was annoyed enough to fire off an e-mail to the Quality Paperback Book Club. (They don't normally annoy me; in fact, I usually enjoy browsing their catalog over breakfast, but not this time.) Then it occurred to me: not only could I e-mail them but I could post the e-mail here, giving anyone else this may have ticked off the opportunity to copy and paste (and modify as you see fit, of course), send off your own e-mail, and join me in my joust with this particular windmill.
The letter:
I enjoy QPB. However, I was quite irked when I opened my latest catalog to find emblazoned across the front, "We're killing more trees to bring you a BIGGER, BETTER CATALOG!" Perhaps this was an attempt at levity, but I don't see the humor in destroying more trees, especially at a time when we should be making every effort to become more environmentally responsible.
I neither needed nor wanted a "bigger, better catalog," and while I can only speak for myself, I'm sure that others might also welcome the opportunity to have less paper involved in interactions with QPB.
You offer the option of responding to this month's main selections online, yet the catalogs go out to everyone regardless of whether or not we've already responded. Why not offer members the option to not receive the catalog mailings if they prefer to enjoy QPB online? At least one music service does this type of paperless monthly selection process, and it works quite well. I would imagine it also saves a great deal of postage and printing costs for the company.
How about it?
The letter:
I enjoy QPB. However, I was quite irked when I opened my latest catalog to find emblazoned across the front, "We're killing more trees to bring you a BIGGER, BETTER CATALOG!" Perhaps this was an attempt at levity, but I don't see the humor in destroying more trees, especially at a time when we should be making every effort to become more environmentally responsible.
I neither needed nor wanted a "bigger, better catalog," and while I can only speak for myself, I'm sure that others might also welcome the opportunity to have less paper involved in interactions with QPB.
You offer the option of responding to this month's main selections online, yet the catalogs go out to everyone regardless of whether or not we've already responded. Why not offer members the option to not receive the catalog mailings if they prefer to enjoy QPB online? At least one music service does this type of paperless monthly selection process, and it works quite well. I would imagine it also saves a great deal of postage and printing costs for the company.
How about it?
Labels: Subversive Ideas
# posted
by P.L. Miller, Contributing Editor @ 8/13/2006 11:44:00 AM
13 August, 2006
Just a Minor Glitch or Two
If you've experienced difficulties getting to see various pages on our site recently, the situation is being remedied. To make a long story short, Dreamhost (the company who hosts our site) is located in Los Angeles, and some power outages there last month created some unanticipated difficulties. Fortunately, our site wasn't affected as badly as others, but they (and we) are still repairing some of the damages. You can help by letting us know if you run into a page that doesn't load completely; our webmaster has been checking our pages for missing sections since this happened, but if you happen to find something yourself, letting him know will get the problem addressed much more quickly. If you're interested in the far more technically-detailed version of the ongoing repairs, you can visit the Dreamhost weblog. Thanks for your patience.
Labels: Site Updates
# posted
by Rob Colfax, Senior Editor @ 8/12/2006 10:26:00 PM
12 August, 2006
Gender and Magic(k)
Phil Hine has recently added some new articles to his site. One particularly notable piece is Lou Hart's "Magic Is a Many Gendered Thing"; this is a paper which was written for the annual Pagan Federation Conference held in Scotland last spring. It's a good overview of gender concepts in Western neo-pagan practices (concepts which are in dire need of a good update, in my opinion).
Labels: Think Tank
# posted
by Hunter MacKenzie, Field Correspondent @ 8/10/2006 10:38:00 AM
10 August, 2006
Quantum Tarot?
Bill Vincent doesn't necessarily believe you can "see into the future" with Tarot, or that the cards themselves hold any intrinsic magickal powers. However, he does point out that when shuffled, they become a random device that can interact with our thoughts and intent much as other "random" instruments have been demonstrably influenced by thoughts in controlled experimental situations. (To try a very crude version of this yourself, set your CD player on random and attempt to influence what song comes up. You might be surprised.) Check out the article at Quantum Thoughts on Tarot.
Labels: Think Tank
# posted
by Hunter MacKenzie, Field Correspondent @ 8/09/2006 05:01:00 PM
09 August, 2006
What a Little Gunpowder Can Do
V for Vendetta is now out on DVD, and you have a choice of two versions: one with just the film, or a two-disc version with all the "extras." Despite some disgruntlement among die-hard lovers of the original graphic novel, the Wachowski brothers came up with a worthy and provocative successor to their Matrix trilogy. One of our staffers who would probably be better off remaining anonymous in this instance commented, "If you've ever had happy thoughts of blowing up the government, you need to see this film." For more on that subject, I suggest that unless you're really into the details of the filmmaking process, you can probably skip the "extras" on the two-disc set. Go for the single disc, read the book, and research Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Treason Plot for yourself. Shadowgalaxy.net is an excellent place to start. Go read.
Labels: Subversive Ideas
# posted
by Rob Colfax, Senior Editor @ 8/02/2006 11:48:00 AM
