Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Get Thy Bearings...


Hot, sticky summer nights make anything other than listening to music (tonight it's 'Get Thy Bearings'), padding around my house barefoot and clutching a glass of ice water a chore.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Visionaries #1


TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Over the past 29 years TED has grown in popularity and brings together some of the world's most diverse and interesting thinkers.


The following is a selection of my favourite TED talks.
The Graham Hancock one in particular is fascinating, mainly due to its content and partly because of the furore that sprung up around it (details on which can be found with a Google search)





Graham Hancock is a British writer and journalist who has asked questions regarding the status quo and general acceptance around education, media and society in general. He also has written about ancient civilisations and altered states of consciousness. The video above is one of my all time favourite TED talks and I've shared it widely with friends.




Alex Grey is an American artist who mainly focuses on spiritual, visionary and psychedelic art. He is one of my favourite artists and I've featured his work here previously. In this talk he explains how art has helped evolve his consciousness and how it affects people that encounter it.






Ron Finley is an artist and designer living in Los Angeles. His vision for healthy and accessible food for all in the community is based on a beautifully simple idea: "Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do in the inner city"

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Ten Days #6




Grateful for those who are there unfailingly; who doesn't gossip, take offence to respectful honesty or act constantly with self interest, who offer the gift of their friendship with humour, grace, strength, kindness, loyalty and empathy.

Also thankful for those individuals i encounter who do not possess these qualities, for the contrast makes the 'good uns' all the more special. 



Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Mind Over Matter



I try to remind myself daily of this, echoing the adage that "Watch your thoughts, for they become words.  Watch your words, for they become actions.  Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” (unknown)


Image: Bee Do Have

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Mapping



It's been a while since i've made one of these partly as i've had to move all of my mixes onto Mixcloud to ensure decent quality streaming. Feel free to have a listen!

All six volumes are available here




Just Ask Melanie (0.00)
Overnight- Hudson Mohawk (0.30)
Let It Bleed - Goat (3.11)
Where's Me Jumper? - Sultans of Ping FC (7.01)
Na Cherniy Den - Yanka Dyagileva (10.03)
This Is The Day - The The (12.53)
Marijuana - Chrome Sparks (17.31)
Here Come The Girls - Ernie K.Doe (20.25)
I'm In Love With A German Filmstar - The Passions (23.27)
Q.U.E.E.N Feat.Erykah Badu - Janelle Monae (27.22)
The Taste Of You - Erin McKeown (32.32)
These Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Crispin Hellion Glover (34.18)
Moonage Daydream - David Bowie (37.54)
Get On It - Ruby Goe (42.25)
Want It Back - Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra (45.42)
Toxygene - The Orb (49.49)
Wiseman (Math Rosen Remix) - Frank Ocean (53.17)
The Mighty Sword - The Frames (58.01)

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

This too shall pass




A farmer had only one horse. One day, his horse ran away.

All the neighbors came by saying, “I'm so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.” The man just said, “We'll see.”

A few days later, his horse came back with twenty wild horses. The man and his son corralled all twenty one horses.

All the neighbors came by saying, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!” The man just said, “We'll see.”

One of the wild horses kicked the man's only son, breaking both his legs.

All the neighbors came by saying, “I'm so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.” The man just said, “We'll see.”

The country went to war, and every able-bodied young man was drafted to fight. The war was terrible and killed every young man, but the farmer's son was spared, since his broken legs prevented him from being drafted.

All the neighbors came by saying, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!” The man just said, “We'll see.”


Story: Unknown, Zen story
Image: RenĂ© Campbell 

Monday, February 25, 2013

Pale Blue Dot



“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” 



Carl Sagan

Saturday, February 09, 2013

You're The Why


PMV changed my life in ways unimaginable and there isn't a day that goes by where i don't pause and express gratitude for his love, patience, intelligence, humour, kindness, honesty and respect.

Happy Anniversary my dearest.
I love you. Indubitably!
R3

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Break The Silence






Leslie Morgan Steiner is a writer and outspoken advocate for survivors of domestic violence -- which includes herself. The embedded video below explores why domestic violence victims don't leave, and is one of the most powerful TED talks videos I've watched, it really hit home as i was involved with an emotionally and at times physically abusive individual years ago. It took time but i eventually got out and escaped from the situation/individual. It's not something i speak about often but i am always honest if the subject of domestic violence and abuse arises. I speak up as i feel that open and honest dialogue is needed from everyone, to expand people's perception and to shed the stigma attached.



The who's and what's and why's of domestic violence are complicated and there is a perception that it applies only to women but the reality is that it affects both men and women. Domestic abuse applies to everyone, all demographics, sexes, colours, shapes and religions. The following excerpt comes from Lundy Bancroft, author of 'Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men' and  eloquently describes a common dynamic (but i should add that I strongly feel that His/Him is interchangeable with Her). 

"The abusive man’s problem with anger is almost the opposite of what is commonly believed. 
The reality is: Your abusive partner doesn’t have a problem with HIS anger; he has a problem with YOUR anger. One of the basic human rights he takes away from you is the right to be angry with him. No matter how badly he treats you, he believes that your voice shouldn’t rise and your blood shouldn’t boil. The privilege of rage is reserved for him alone. 

When your anger does jump out of you —as will happen to any abused woman from time to time —he is likely to try to jam it back down your throat as quickly as he can. Then he uses your anger against you to prove what an irrational person you are. Abuse can make you feel straightjacketed. You may develop physical or emotional reactions to swallowing your anger, such as depression, nightmares, emotional numbing, or eating and sleeping problems, which your partner may use as an excuse to belittle you further or make you feel crazy."


If you are suffering from domestic abuse or violence, please know that you are not alone. 
You are not crazy. 
You do not deserve to be treated this way. 
Regardless of your situation, you can change it.
Talk to someone, break the silence. 
Google domestic violence aid and the city you live in, there are services and people out there who can assist and guide you through your options.






Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Four Walls



"In many shamanic societies, 
if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, 
they would ask one of four questions: 
When did you stop dancing? 
When did you stop singing? 
When did you stop being enchanted by stories? 

When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?"

                                                                            Gabrielle Roth




Image: Katherine Crockett by Albert Watson

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Ohrwurm


Chrome Sparks is Jeremy Malvin, a young musician and producer living in Brooklyn by way of Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor. Marijuana is a hypnotic, spiraling ear worm of a track and so darn catchy i'm surprised that some big corporation hasn't licensed it for an advert yet. 

Monday, January 21, 2013

Fresh Blood



No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow. 
Euripides 

Brazilian filmmaker and writer Edson Oda has created one of the most stunning and unusual short films I've seen by taking a comic book story and bringing it to life.


Malaria tells the story of Fabiano, a young Mercenary who is hired to kill Death in an intriguing turn of events. The short runs for over five minutes and combines a variety of techniques including Origami, Kirigami, time lapse, nankin illustration, comic books and western cinema. 

Although he originally intended on submitting Malaria to the Django Unchained Emerging Artist contest, it was behind schedule and instead he submitted and won first place with The Writer .


Au Courant








Some of my favourite graffiti recently has come from the spray can of Goin, a French artist who has make a name for himself within the graffiti community over the past decade. His socially aware work casts a critical eye over big business, politics, modern living, materialism, greed and corporation. Although he mainly works with stencils for his street art, he also creates sculptural pieces and prints. 


His involvement in the world of street art stemmed from his time playing guitar in a French punk band in 1994. The bands bassist created artwork for their albums and Goin became interested in how images could be used to manipulate the masses (slogans, advertising, logos etc) and how by putting a personal spin on these, viewer perception could be modified. His art acts as a wake up call to critical thought and a willingness to create change.










To see more of his work:
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