Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Digital Abstractions



Just a short collection of abstract shots I've done in the past few years.

I hope you enjoy?

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Years ago, when I shot only black and white...

...certain buildings were being torn down on Wisconsin Avenue to make way for the Grand Avenue Mall.

In the late summer of 1980, I ventured down to the ecavation and shot this, through excessive heat, humidity, and over-bearing mosquitoes.

This was on the western wall of the Woolworth building, depicting a time long gone, even then.

(Because GOOGLE is behaving stupidly again, please click the little square.  I am soooooo going to change over to wordpress, or somewhere.  Google has upset me enough to do so!)



Go here, for the update on what Grand Avenue is today.

Sad, soooooo sad.  In the 80s I lived just a short block away...and shopped the Grand Avenue many times...until the black gangs took it over.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Are you even watching...

...The National Debt clock on my sidebar?

And while we're at it...



So...why not?

And let me, an old woman, fly a damned kite...especially, as an artist, if I made it myself!

It's a heck of lot better than Kow-towing to the Obama administration.

I'd sooner believe Mary Poppins...

...than Michelle Obama!



Though BOTH are ficticious characters, I prefer Poppins!

And anyone who thinks Michelle "FATA$$" Obama could EVER compare to someone like Mary Poppins...hmmm...fictional character VS fictional character.

Got to go...sorry...got to start writing this phantasmagorigal EPIC!

Friday, March 25, 2011

I SHALL toast life!

Of course, Andrea is one of my favorites artist/singers of the last century and this.

Why not take the time to listen?



Miserere,
miserere,
miserere,
miserable me,
but I toast life!

But what a mystery my life is,
what a mystery!
I am a sinner from the year eighty thousand,
a liar!

But where am I and what am I doing,
how do I live?

I live in the soul of the world
lost in the depths of life!

Miserere, miserable me,
but I toast life!

I am the saint who betrayed you when you were alone.
I live elsewhere and observe the world from the sky
and I see the sea and the forests,
I see myself…

I live in the soul of the world lost in the depths of life!

Miserere, miserable me,but I toast life!

If there is a night dark enough to hide me, hide me,
If there is a light, a hope, magnificent sun that shines inside me,
give me the joy to live that is not yet there.

Miserere, miserere,
that joy to live that perhaps
is not yet there.

I'm so pleased to show you this...

...in the midst of my new neighbor's children acting like 'screaming meemies'!


I made these shots in 2005 at a Farmer;s Market on the near South side of Milwaukee in under two hours.

The morning was perfect, as was the light.

From a GOOD FRIEND...

...GRANNY JAN & JIHAD KITTY!

Just enjoy the Michelle Obama 'FASHION SHOW'...then take time to figure just WHERE the money comes from for all these high-priced 'designer clothes'.



Is Michelle Obama taking expensive clothing gifts (uh, ohhhh?) from designers...or is Momma Marion busy at the Singer?

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Google has turned, hasn't it...

...into some kind of 'Nanny-state'-controlled "BUNCH OF STUPID IDIOTS!"

I had several other shots to show you that Spring is arriving in Chicago...But Google seems to be sooooo 'out of it' lately.

I think I will change this blog...to someplace else...because Google seems to have succumbed to the so-called "Progressives", who are nothing more than COMMUNISTS in everyday WALMART clothing!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Dare...yes DARE to live!



Andre Bocelli, joined by Laura Pausini
Ti amo, Andrea, solamente per ti amo....

And for those of you who want something...

...that little something different and a bit soulful....

For the People of Japan...

...and all those across the world who may be suffering.



Andrea Bocelli is joined by Heather Headley.


A marvelous performance, which sounds quite like a true prayer.

Let us pray for all of the people of Japan, and any others who suffer, for a moment, if you would, please?

The Os? Yes...partying again!

"We have tonight, some distinguished citizens for our sister-continent, North America. Shall we play them Fox Trot?"


A resounding "NO" from Americans!


(It's long, but watch it closely, because I saw "The Os" ...below the video.)  This is an original complete clip, so save it if you like.



Sung by Alice Gentle, Movita Castaneda and Etta Moten, danced by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and the chorus.  This is notable for being Astaire and Rogers' first dance together; they dance with their foreheads touching.


Not a fox trot or a polka.

Must be some kinda new Hip-Hop thang, huh?

Thank you all, for bearing up with me...

...during this time when Google has apparently gone mad, and thinks they have 'streamlined' Blogger.  I can no longer give a remark give it ANY color for emphasis!

Thanks, dopes!  I am more of an artist that 15 of your employees combined...oh...I guess it's because I'm older?  That would be 'AGE DISCRIMINATION', jerks!

Bring back the COLOR!  This 'text background color is TRULY BS..and you know it!



Be that as it may, I truly thank you all for visiting here, especially my friend in Slovakia (Trencin).

Please contact me, as Trencin is the city where my grandfather, Benedikt Cerny (looks different in Slovak, and here in the US the name was turned to 'Cherney' at Ellis Island).  It would be wonderful to find a relative after all these years!
I look at this map and I become very proud I am continuing to blog (in the face of the worst, most borderline-insane troll...and his nursey wife...ever), even with that creep, whom I watch for as I leave my building (never knowing...).

He calls for now, in his comments (I, ironically, as RPFreeSpeech, will not allow you to see.  They are nasty, harsh, heinous, and not something I really want place in perpetuity--though I am certain this 37+, 6 foot+ male takes some delight in trying to intimidate me, the almost-65, disabled, 5'7", white-haired female.  He has also placed my name on a pornographic website) that I STOP blogging.

Oh the 'ironing', if you could see what he IS BLOGGING...the LIES!

I have not seen this man for two years now, though it was extremely apparent then that he was undergoing some sort of huge psychological change which even his nurse-wife found difficult to deal with.

He was making 'things' from melted wax--'things' that looked like voo-doo dolls.

His favorite blog is, as he claims:  http://bishopjamesalanwilkowski.blogspot.com/  and I guess that pretty much explains the "what goes around, comes around" aspect.

Self-proclaimed bee-shop James Alan Wilkowski:  You are totally welcome to assume you can SAVE this troubled man, Michael Giovanelli.However, I am taking ever last piece of paperwork I can print re: this 'defamation of character' re: M. Giovanelli, to the Chicago Police Department...in order to file a claim of 'harassment, defamation of character, libel and slander' against him.

And guess what, readers all across the world?  I haven't heard one, menial, little, even shimmering peep from Michael Giovanelli since I posted the other day that I would bring The Chicago Police Department to his 'basement' apartment in West Ridge.

However, things being what they are these days, I have enough evidence from his 'saved' , unpublished comments, to bring a quite nice lawsuit against him.

This lovely, innocent child...

...and what I assume may be "HIS" reactions, via the clothing, has delighted us all in a time of sadness and sorrow for the Japanese people.



Take joy in his reactions, and laugh.

But please, do not forget the Japanese people in their extreme time of need.

Prayer for them, right now, is essential.

I might remind you: it is ALWAYS 'right now'.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

"Get into the Light"



I have never watched nor even heard Glenn Beck until I was compelled to watch this video this afternoon.

I leave you all with this:

Is it right and good to KILL others because of their beliefs?

Monday, March 14, 2011

Just to let an evil troll know...

...I've collected all evidence of your comments.

I am certain some officer from the 24th District will arrive sometime this week...at your basement apartment...to show you the charges against you.

Watch and listen to this wonderful man

Think, just think for a moment, about this...

...if you would, please?

A small endeavor...

..which we ALL, every one of us living on this planet, MUST learn to live by, don't you think?

Google has once again f*cked with the American public...

...and for what?  Mo' money?

I have been attempting to post the "Fogel family massacre by Islamists" photos, courtesy of http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/...and I come across this Monday-morning, brand-new-piece-o-crap rendition of 'posting the Google way', which is NEW GARBAGE!

As it may take me several days to reset, I am now convinced it is time to leave the Islam-loving Google, and establish a place to show my photos and air my views elsewhere.

AND...oh. goody, this may allow me to leave my troll, Michael Giovanelli, or Mike Harris--as he sometimes prefers to call himself, behind...in the dust of Misericordia Home for the Insane and Troubled...as HE and his cohorts, including Bill Morton and fake, self-appointed bishop James Alan Wilkowski, are.

Google finally let me show you this...caution: very graphic

Very graphic means this is what death looks like in the REAL WORLD...where our golfing screw-up of the US seems NOT to abide (with his Commie wifey).
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

If...then?



Please pray that the Japanese people remain as strong as they can, and contend with yet another onslaught of adversity to their existence.

An observance:

Is all this the wrath of Satan, Lucifer, the evil angel who was allowed to be put in command of the world for 7,000 years? (READ your Bible...NOT your Koran!).

Who? BOO-WHO?

WHEN IDIOTS PREVAIL

Leftist Chris Matthews.

Silly. Silly. Silly man!



Interestingly or not, I was married to a TV Sports guy, who on his first broadcast after we were married, called a local score at "SEX" to four. He never lived it down.

Perhaps that is why he was shortly fired by the company (WTMJ4, Milwaukee WI)

The Moment it Hit!



From CBS, courtesy of TBS

Just stop what you are doing right now, and take some moments to imagine the humungous loss!!

Lives! Livelihoods! Homes! Cars! Trains! Roads!

The need for FOOD and WATER!


I urge ALL to pray for and with the people of Japan, that they may remain strong in this time of extreme adversity.

Help however you can, if only to be kind to someone else.

None of us can ever know what the next day may present us with, can we?

Shhh! I prefer the 'back' nine!

He does not like being criticized, and wants no one to 'bully' him. Man's got some pretty severe psychological problems, dating back to his Communist upbringing!

You might want to wander over to American Thinker, where Frank Burke offers an appraisal of Barack Hussein Obama's management capabililties in the areas of:

Management Style

Team Building and Leadership

Strategic Planning

Crisis Management

Financial Acumen


It's an excellent post, and what intrigued me even more was this comment:

Posted by: Crawdad64
Mar 14, 06:24 AM

Republicans, Tea Partiers, conservatives as a group, need to put forth a strategy that not only turns the country in 2012 back to the Right, but will keep it there for the long haul.

The damage being done now will take more than a first term to undo.

We'll need to invest a team in the first 8 years that is willing to make the changes, cuts and sacrifices to set a path for the future and pave the way for a second administration that will build on that and reestablish Constitutional authority in it's proper balance.

The liberal mold needs to be Cloroxed

Hurrah, it's Pi Day! 3.14159265...

From Wikipedia:

Many schools around the world observe Pi Day (March 14, from 3.14).

In the
Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Wolf in the Fold", after a murderous alien entity (which had once been Jack the Ripper) takes over the Enterprise's main computer with the intention of using it to slowly kill the crew, Kirk and Spock draw the entity out of the computer by forcing it to compute pi to the nonexistent last digit, causing the creature to abandon the computer, allowing it to be beamed into space.

The
Wheel of Dublin (Ferris wheel) has been nicknamed "the pi in the sky".

In the fictional movie,
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, pi is the answer to the combination that will allow the Tablet of Akh-man-Ra to open the gates to the Underworld.

Pi Day pie, which actually looks more like a temptingly-delicious cheesecake!

I am more concerned however, with the thought of how tomorrow will be celebrated.

Again, from Wikipedia:

The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martii) is the name of 15 March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was stabbed (23 times) to death in the Roman Senate led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus and 60 other co-conspirators.

On his way to the
Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar saw a seer who had foretold that harm would come to him not later than the Ides of March. Caesar joked, "Well, the Ides of March have come." , to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned to "beware the Ides of March".

Vincenzo Camuccini, Mort de César, 1798.

Sad to say, considering the thuggery and death threats over the past several weeks (especially in Wisconsin), I would not be surprised if some UNION GOON tries SOMETHING!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

We can look at tragedy...

...perhaps, in this way.



And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together;

for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40:5)

WE may not understand why,

but
there is a reason for everything that happens

on this great planet.

Dry Time....

Let us ALL take some moments to pray for those in Japan.

Too many have lost everything, including their lives.

*********

Below are two photos I took some 31 or so years ago. I haven't seen them as 'positives', nor enlarged, until I worked on them this morning.

They reminded me that superb, dry weather is so necessary for northeastern Japan over the next several weeks.


Some Drying Grasses, 1980

Most unfortunately, northeastern Japan
will not be seeing
any sort of drying for some time.

My Dried Rose, 1980

May the Japanese people continue to maintain strength and fortitude, as they look forward to 'a dry time', as these old photos of mine represent.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

It's that time again!

No matter what time your clock may say when you wake up tomorrow morning,
you'll be an hour late if you don't reset the time tonight.

Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 AM Sunday morning!

FYI: Helping Japan

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Here are some ways to help or contact victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and others throughout the Pacific:

CONSULATE GENERAL OF JAPAN AT CHICAGO — For information on Japanese citizens or loved ones and links to area mobile service providers’ Emergency Message Lines. Visit
www.chicago.us.emb-japan.go.jp/

AMERICAN RED CROSS — U.S. mobile phone users can text REDCROSS to 90999 to add $10 automatically to your phone bill. Or visit http://www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.

Natori, Miyagi Prefecture

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS — Sending relief teams and supplies to the area. Call 1-800-481-4462, or visit http://internationalmedicalcorps.org

SAVE THE CHILDREN — The relief effort providing food, medical care and education to children is accepting donations through mobile phones by texting JAPAN to 20222 to donate $10. People can also call 1-800-728-3843 during business hours or visit www.savethechildren.org/japanquake to donate online.

Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture

GLOBAL GIVING — The non-profit which works through grassroots efforts says Americans can text JAPAN to 50555 to give $10 through their phone bill. Or visit http://www.globalgiving.org/

Sendai City, (AP/Kyodo News)

INTERACTION — The group is the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations and lists many ways to help on its site, http://www.interaction.org

NETWORK FOR GOOD — The aggregator of charities has a list of programs and ways to donate to relief efforts. Visit http://www.networkforgood.org

Elementary School in Sendai City (AP/Kyodo News)

And, if nothing else...please follow this young man's example:

At prayer in Manami Soma, Fukushima Prefecture (AP/Kyodo News)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

It's there.

I know it's there.

The 12 story Farcroft building, now owned by James N. Pritzker, just a block and a half to the north, is hidden by today's fog.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Soooo Silly, Silly, Silly!

Here's the article. You be the judge.

Fudging the vanilla
What other flavors can replace that essential extract in a fudge recipe? The Daley Question offers options
By Bill Daley, Tribune Newspapers
March 8, 2011


Q: I want to make fudge but I don't have vanilla—is there anything else I can use? And which milk is better, condensed or evaporated?—Shayna Bracha Farber, Skokie

"I'd suggest she add a little, taste and then decide if she wants more,'' Greenspan said.

"If she uses an oil, like lemon or orange or peppermint, she should use even less."

And when it comes to liqueurs, a little can go a long way, too.

Another instance in which it's best to taste as you go.

"As for choosing either condensed or evaporated milk, up to you.

Remember, condensed milk is already sweetened ("Condensed vs. sweetened milk," Jan. 18).

It's best for desserts and baked goods.

Look at your recipe; you may need to adjust the amount of sugar or other sweeteners depending on which milk you use.

Do you have a question about food or drink? E-mail Bill Daley at: wdaley@tribune.com. Snail mail inquiries should be sent to: Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611. http://twitter.com/billdaley

*********

This TWIT never actually answered Silly Shayna's Silly Question, did he?


He merely assumed she would have "an oil, like lemon or orange or peppermint" in her cupboards, when she DOESN'T EVEN HAVE FREAKIN' VANILLA!

Just who is this "Bill Daley", and is he related to the now-almost-forgotten Mare Chicago??

Perhaps, today, we all should...

...take a bit of time to think about the USA, our 'homeland'...and pray also that it be blessed?

Feeling ill today...

...as the throat is sore, the glands are swollen, and the nose seems to want to run through every street in Chicago...so much for a very compromised immune system, thanks to the bacteria Cryptosporidium and John Norquist, the former Mayor of Milwaukee, WI (my hometown) who eventually resigned.

Sooooo, I wrote, as I am apt to do:

Day and night

Sirens scream in the night:
Up and down this street
Of this, the northernmost neighborhood
Of Chicago.

I wake, though,
Knowing they aren't coming for me.

For which I thank the Creator:
Once.
Twice.
And again.

Monday, March 7, 2011

First, he did this...



Then, he did this...



From Wiki:

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948) and "Boom Boom" (1962).

Hooker's life experiences were chronicled by several scholars and often read like a classic case study in the racism of the music industry, although he eventually rose to prominence with memorable songs and influence on a generation of musicians.

For those of you who might find it significant for yourselves to call me a 'racist, I truly wish Mr. John Lee Hooker and Mr. Cab Calloway--two of my 'idols' whom I was fortunate enough to meet and spend some time with--were still around to trounce you into the ground. They would have. Believe me.

And never forget...

...136 years ago today, Alexander Graham Bell was granted the FIRST patent for the telephone.

When your cell phone rings, and you answer by saying, "Yeah, I'm on de bus. Whatchu wan'?", you might want to take a moment, in silence, and thank your Creator?

Because it ain't all abou'chew, Watson!

The intense genius of a very sexy man...

..has apparently come to an end.

Enjoy this, shot on Phil Collins' farewell tour

Even now...

...after all these years...you might just want to really think about these lyrics?

And use your own God-given IMAGINATION?



Imagine!

For some reason, I am taken back 40 or so years in my research, and can only come up with this old New England adage from the time of Ben Franklin et al:

Use it up.

Wear it out.

Make it do,

Or do without.

John Lennon may have approved of this...or not. But I most certainly do!

This makes me giddy....

...because Bill Morton blames his own laziness on "post-election solitude"!

Click to enlarge the lie

Is this the same premise you're using, Bill, that prevents you from paying back the rent monies ($1,425) I loaned you, with the assurance of your payback, all the way back in 2009?

And are you and yours are so downtrodden after the NOVEMBER and FEBRUARY elections, that you have forgotten that it was I who financed the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce?

And that you and your cohorts are now desperately in arrears re: the agreed-upon payback?

Oh, Bill Morton...and fake Bishop James Alan Wilkowski, and Tsering Dorjee, and Toni Duncan, and Jay Ahmed, and Nina Interlandi Bell, and anyone associated with Bill Morton: it's all gonna come back atcha, and I don't have to raise a finger or even leave my house!

Before I eat them...

...I wanted to show you the beauty of today's produce shopping. Aren't they gorgeous?

BTW, the 'leaf bowl' is my own recreation: kraft paper, Sobo glue, wire, paint sponged on in three colors, floral tape, a little copper bronze powder mixed in acrylic polyurethane and a finish coat of sprayed polyurethane.

The 'leaves' are hand-cut from tracings of real maple leaves I found in my neighborhood.

Because the smaller leaves are attached to flexible aluminum wire, the four 'branches' can be adjusted as I please, to sit on the table or on the pedestal stand, where this piece normally resides.

This is one-of-a-kind. I don't know if I would ever make another, as it took the better part of three weeks--lots of 'dry-time'.

By tomorrow, some of this fruit will no longer exist (I'll have eaten it!), so savour this photo while you may.

Feel like you're getting ripped off?

I do!

Here's a shot of the toothpaste I use. The longer tube was bought a month after the shorter, squished tube.

Look a bit closer. The 'longer' tube contains only 3 ounces, whereas the 'shorter' tube contained 4 ounces.

They were the same price, so now I am paying MORE for LESS!

I found the same thing with my favorite dish detergent. These were bought 2 months apart.

Looked the same, almost, and the price was the same, so I grabbed the bottle and didn't really look at it until I got home.

Look closely at the amounts.
30 0unces in the old one, and 25 ounces in the new. Oh, oh, oh--5 whole ounces free, but actually 5 ounces LESS! For the same price!


FREE=BS, a lot of BS!

These are Colgate-Palmolive products, and I can only imagine what it has cost (US!) to do the re-tooling necessary for C-P to make huge profits at our expense.

This 'FREE' business is deceptive marketing, at the least, and I feel Colgate-Palmolive should be brought to task.

Go to:

http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/Corp/ContactUs/ConsumerAffairs.cvsp

***Just as a note, when was the last time you looked at that can of tuna you bought, and how many it will serve? These (sad, sad Obama) days, a can of tuna contains not 7 and a quarter ounces, not 6 and a quarter ounces, but ONLY 5 ounces/servings: almost 2!

Guess it's time for all of us who remain sane to DEMAND all the arugula and White House Honay Ale the Obamas can supply us with.

After all, according to FAT Michael Moore: What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine, right! Dipstick!

Looking into someone else's window...

...I found this sweet couple while on my walk to the grocery store today.

As it happens with most species of animals, the male is more colorful. The red beak is, indeed, a beacon for the somewhat drab female.


Unfortunately, this is NOT the case within the Obama administration.

But, at least this female doesn't have flabby wings, a butt that could cover China...and she is not wearing a stupid wighat, trying to be a cockatoo!

She is the one who is "keepin' it real!"

Saturday, March 5, 2011

From my Window: Shambhala Day

The bass drum, cymbals and chanting began at 8:15 on this dreary, cold and wet Saturday morning in Chicago.

It is Shambhala Day--the Tibetan New Year--and the Shambhalans were holding their 'Lhasang' purification ceremony in the parking lot. It's 33 degrees with a 21 mph North wind, and the rain is mixed with snow...UGH!

From their website:

SHAMBHALA DAY marks the beginning of the New Year, and represents one of the most important traditions of Shambhala Buddhism.

Based on the traditional Tibetan New Year's celebration of Losar, the day is calculated astrologically according to the Tibetan lunar calendar, and changes every year to coincide with the annual lunar cycles.

Shambhala Day is a time for us to express the wealth and richness of our spiritual and cultural heritage through feasting, conviviality, elegance and pomp.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, who will be coming off his year long retreat will address the worldwide Shambhala community on Shambhala Day through an onlinehook-up, which includes centres and groups from six continents and over thirty countries around the world.


The day typically begins at sunrise with a Kyudo demonstration, referred to as the "First Shot" to signify the beginning of the New Year.

A morning Lhasang (purification ceremony) is conducted, followed by breakfast, and The Exilir or Life Sadhana.

The Sakyong's address will begin promptly at noon, and will address the communities responses to the Letter of the Morning Sun. Lunch will be served afterwards.


In case you're wondering...

Lhasang is a smoke offering and purification practice from burning juniper and is traditional in Tibet.

In Shambhala, we offer lhasangs for the
Shambhala Day and on other special occasions.

Sometimes a lhasang marks the beginning of a large practice program such as
seminary.

A lhasang may also be used to recognize the sacredness of an object before it is offered to a practitioner, for example before students receive a
terma text.

With a home practice, small bricks of charcoal are lit and dried juniper is added.

A lhasang chant can be said additionally.

For large programs, usually a fire is prepared in a firepit and entire branches of juniper are added atop the fire.

Dipping the branches in a little water before adding them will increase the smoke.

A longer lhasang chant may be performed, and additional offering substances like a torma and alcohol may be purified (such as using the Vajrasattva mantra) and then offered in the fire at specific points during the long lhasang chant.

After 15 minutes, everyone began to head back inside.

Oh, one last thing...instead of hiding out in the parking lot, I wonder why these ceremonies are not held in their generous, and much more welcoming, front yard--right at the corner of Sheridan Road and Sherwin Avenue?

It would certainly be more inspiring than a parking lot, which is next to another parking lot!

Just asking....

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

While you was makin' Motown so big...

...there were more people out there contributing to the United States of America's music.

You might know them, Mister pResident, if you and your wifey had any concept of US history.











And, because neither Obama knows very much about the history of music in Chicago, I leave you with this:



Then, there's my favorite, because when I was a production Artist on "The Blues Brothers" in 1979, someone high up made a mistake and I had to kerosene-clean the character's car.

The character was CURTIS, played by Cab Calloway, who came up to me and asked, "Baby, What you doing to my car?"

I replied, shaking in my shoes, "Erm, Mr. Calloway, sir...someone wanted it aged down, but Mr. Landis wants it perfectly clean."

"Well, baby, can I help you?", Mr. Calloway asked.

"No, sir...that would be against union rules, sir.", I answered.

But he hung out with me anyway, and watched and talked as I gave his 'funeral car' two kerosene washes, a couple of Tide washes, and the final Windexing.

My mother, for some reason, loved this man as a performer. Me? I just loved him for who he was that day. Talk about COOL?



And, lest we forget the man--Ray Charles! If Ray was still alive, I'm certain he could teach Barky O how to dance, don't you think?

It's getting late for me...

...but, as I scrape the last remains from the Nutella jar, I wonder just why the MOO is trying so hard to look like June Cleaver?

She wasn't even a twinkle 'on Daddy's lap' until 1964 (the year I graduated from High School--so she doesn't know anything, as I went to a private school in Milwaukee, and she went to lowest-rated Chicago public schools.

That is why, at 47 years old, she is FIRST BEGINNING TO LEARN about nutrition!

All this garbage because she is black, and apparently she thinks blacks don't give a crap about nutrition--that is what she is saying.

I have a few black friends who say differently: they know and understand nutrition...and could take down this MOO at a moment's notice!

Bill the Cat is wondering why MOO salutes SEIU, because he misunderstood and brought long his 'Easter bonnet'! And he's also wondering why the back of her dress (which you cannot see) is, in fact, SEIU PURPLE, just like Jill's outfit!

Then, I wonder why her hubby, Barky, looks so ill lately (as though he may be HIV POS);

it's not as if he didn't know his daddy...just take a good look at his oldest daughter; you'll see Malcolm X (Little Shabazz) right there, alright! Butt...he's been a play-around-boy, especially here in Chicago, so many say.

Many say, you ask? Why not check out what the boys at www.hillbuzz.org have had to say in the past, re: Barky, Man's Country and, yes...Rahm, the mayor-elect of Chicago. (NOTA BENE: Hillbuzz is trading over to their new, improved website, so be patient. I am certain their archives will be available shortly.).

I'm also wondering why no one seems to understand Governor Scott Walker and his entire position re: the Dem-idiots who ran away.

Just wonderin'...like a normal citizen of the United States of America should be doin'--RIGHT?

I ask, again, for a few more minutes of your life...this could be the antidote to the Obamas

Watch...and listen.

You all deserve a break...today...tomorrow...and every day!



Outside the box of playing guitar...and beautiful music...has entered our Universe!

Beautifully produced, and even more beautifully incepted!

And 'fingering' is fast becoming a lost art, I fear.

Got a few minutes?

You might want to 'make time to take time' to watch this very--no--extremely well-done presentation. I found it at http://alwaysonwatch3.blogspot.com/ . You can view it here:

Then, watch it again, take some more time, and REALLY think about Liberty and Freedom, won't you please?