Hemispheres

When we get into arguments that focus and fully engage our attention, we become avid seekers of relevant information. Otherwise, we take in information passively--if we take it in at all.
Christopher Lasch

TERRITORIES

I see the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth
Like the Chinese call the country of their birth
We all figure that our homes are set above
Other people than the ones we know and love
In every place with a name
They play the same territorial game
Hiding behind the lines
Sending up warning signs
The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles, we keep holding our ground
In different circles, we keep spinning round and round
We see so many tribes -- overrun and undermined
While their invaders dream of lands they've left behind
Better people -- better food -- and better beer
Why move around the world when Eden was so near?
The bosses get talking so tough
And if that wasn't evil enough
We get the drunken and passionate pride
Of the citizens along for the ride
They shoot without shame
In the name of a piece of dirt
For a change of accent
Or the colour of your shirt
Better the pride that resides
In a citizen of the world
Than the pride that divides
When a colourful rag is unfurled
Neil Peart

Afterword: The Whole Human Race by Mark Twain (1907)

I have not read Nietzsche or Ibsen, nor any other philosopher, and have not needed to do it, and have not desired to do it; I have gone to the fountainhead for information -- that is to say, to the human race. Every man is in his own person the whole human race, with not a detail lacking. I am the whole human race without a detail lacking; I have studied the human race with diligence and strong interest all these years in my own person; in myself I find in big or little proportion every quality and every defect that is findable in the mass of the race. I knew I should not find in any philosophy a single thought which had not passed through my own head, nor a single thought which had not passed through the heads of millions and millions of men before I was born; I knew I should not find a single original thought in any philosophy, and I knew I could not furnish one to the world myself, if I had five centuries to invent it in. Nietzsche published his book and was at once pronounced crazy by the world -- by a world which included tens of thousands of bright, sane men who believed exactly as Nietzsche believed, but concealed the fact, and scoffed at Nietzsche. What a coward every man is! and how surely he will find it out if he will just let other people alone and sit down and examine himself. The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.

My friend Little Jim?

What Can I Do? from Rayyiu Radzi on Vimeo.

Turn the Page

Every day we're standing in a time capsule
Racing down a river from the past
Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel
Facing down the future coming fast RUSH

Lock and Key - Rush (Official Video)

SEELY'S CELERY

My dream is to someday own a small business. A place where bread is baking, Bikes are making and books are... trading. "To attain this experience," writes Merton, " is to penetrate the reality of all that is, to grasp the meaning of one's own existence, to find one's true place in the scheme of things, to relate perfectly to all that is in a relation of identity and love."

That's your Grandmother!

"My Grandmother can go to HELL for all I care!" "That's not the way you're really gonna leave this funeral are you?!" "You Bastard! She loved you boys very much! I suspect that that's not at all the way you really feel... I think it's the
Whiskey talkin'!"

I Love This Creature

Black Teas

Black Teas

Fickle February

Chili Today Hot Tamale

Shot Down In Flames!

I went out with a fairly large group from Gazzigli's yesterday and commenced to lead out a one-man breakaway that had disaster written all over it. I got a big gap on the group and with the help of my little spy mirror, I was certain that I could hold them off at least until Swasey. But, much to my horror, I saw an elite group of five making in-roads on me and those bad asses caught me at the Centerville Fire station. I am pleased to report though that once they made the capture, they immediately shut it down and I was able to get on the last wheel and stop the projectile vomiting!

It was windy so perhaps that came into play. The group of five was working together, cheating the wind. I am a fat February poser pretending that I am ready for Summer!

Aboard The Whale (In-Board)

Anemone Within.

Seems To Me, It's Heredity

January Riding

Frozen mud in shaded sections, slop ball muck in the bright sunshine. Brake pad and chain maintenance after every ride. Clifbars hard to eat, too cold. Water from bottle, instant ice cream headache. Too many clothes, not enough clothes. Soaked by rain, wetsuit mentality. Glasses too dark, glasses to light, fogging up while climbing. Don't miss it, 'cause it won't last!

Who are the "Real Webfoots?"

The nickname for Oregon's first sports teams was "Webfoots," coined by longtime Oregonian sports editor L. H. Gregory. The name originated from a group of fishermen from the coast of Massachusetts whose descendants settled in Oregon's Willamette Valley. When the University of Oregon was founded in 1876, Webfoots was the natural choice for the school's nickname, because of Oregon's reputation for wet weather.

The Emerging Fate Of The Neandertals

"When you look at all of the well dated and diagnostic early modern European fossils, there is a persistent presence of anatomical features that were present among the Neandertals but absent from the earlier African modern humans," Trinkaus said. "Early modern Europeans reflect both their predominant African early modern human ancestry and a substantial degree of admixture between those early modern humans and the indigenous Neandertals."

This analysis, along with a number of considerations of human genetics, argues that the fate of the Neandertals was to be absorbed into modern human groups. Just as importantly, it also says that the behavioral difference between the groups were small. They saw each other as social equals.

Ill-Conceived

2 years at Shasta College and 15 Units short of an AA, my Grandpa asked if I would like to move back to L.A. to finish up and then move on to a Bachelors degree, Master's and Graduate work at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, 6 blocks from my childhood home. It only took about 3 months to flush my Charlatan ass out as the no-good, free-loading, pothead I really was. Looking back I have no real regrets. After all, that's where I was first able to get some really good, pure LSD and move on to my real life's work as a weather maker.