Source: Tweaked a Themetapicture.com post to make it PG rated.
Month: January 2013
Snowman
Wednesday. January 16, 2013. 5:35am.
I flip on the weather channel for a read on the highway conditions. (Like it matters, right?)
The weather woman warns that roads will be treacherous – – wet and slippery with snow accumulation. (A call to arms for the Snowman. Need to get to the office to get a jump on God’s work.)
I’m out the door. Dark. Gloomy. Damp. Shivering. Seats are cold. Steering wheel is frigid. Frozen ice on windshield. (Where are my gloves? I miss Miami. Soft, warm, gentle breezes. Palm tree fronds rustling.)
No point sitting here, let’s get this engine firing so we can blow heat into this beast. I back out of the driveway, skidding backwards. (Not a good sign. I’m a mere 20 yards from the house.)
I arrive at I-95. Early morning traffic trying to beat rush hour and the interminable snarls later in the day. Cars, SUVs, hulking Semi-trailers – all lurching ahead in a conga line. (It’s looking a lot like Gotham City, except I’m 40 miles away from Gotham.) Continue reading “Snowman”
David Byrne: Hidden Roots
David Byrne, 60, is a Scottish musician permanently residing in the United States. He is best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American New Wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. He has received Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Brainpickings.org describes Byrne “as also one of the sharpest thinkers of our time and a kind of visual philosopher. About a decade ago, Byrne began making ‘mental maps of imaginary territory’ in a little notebook based on self-directed instructions to draw anything from a Venn diagram about relationships to an evolutionary tree of pleasure yet wholly unlike anything else. In 2006, Byrne released Arboretum, a collection of these thoughtful, funny, cynical, poetic, and altogether brilliant pencil sketches — some very abstract, some very concrete — drawn in the style of evolutionary diagrams and mapping everything from the roots of philosophy to the tangles of romantic destiny to the ecosystem of the performing arts.”
Bottom line: Brilliant.
Sources: Brainpickings.org and Wiki
There is nothing that I dislike
“There is nothing I dislike.”
“These are the extraordinary words of the great teacher Linji; they are a lifetime koan for anyone who dares to take it on. Lifetime koans like this one never give up on you, luckily. ‘There is nothing I dislike’ is daring and fragrant and alive, and it is like this because it’s like this. ‘There is nothing I dislike’ rearranges us profoundly, when we offer ourselves to its energy, its scrutiny, its disturbance in us. Continue reading “There is nothing that I dislike”
Sunday Morning with Julia Lezhneva
Julia Lezhneva, 23, is a Russian soprano and opera singer. She was born on Sakhalin Island into a family of geophysicists. She has travelled the world at a young age performing at concerts, competitions and festivals at some of the world’s greatest venues. I’m not an opera fan but this young lady is inspiring. She has found her calling. She has achieved Mastery and Excellence at a very young age. The joy in her face, her words and her music lights up the room. This CBS-like “Sunday Morning” clip leaves me invigorated about the generations coming behind us. Bravo Julia. You are something special.
And if you are interested in hearing more from Julia Lezhneva, here’s a 2-minute excerpt from Handel’s “Saeviat tellus inter rigores”.
Sources: Thank you Rob @ The Hammock Papers for posting this clip and pointing me to Lezhneva. Be sure to check out his blog for similar inspiring posts. It’s a daily stop for me.