short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2005-02-17
SPRING IN THE AIR
Not for the warmth of temperature but Spring is coming slowly to our shore | For the moment, there is practically no snow | That's supposed to change tomorrow, which is to be expected, Spring isn't here yet | As the chimny in the picture shows, I've still got the woodstove going | But the harbingers are here |
Today was the Audubon Society's Eagle Watch | I didn't get to do the touristy part of the day's events | I'm not inclined to share with urban yahoos the eagle nests I know about ...they may actually go there | Instead I split and stacked wood ...that perpetual task of all wood heating home dwellers | But I appreciated the pleasant sunny day, and the task kept me warm all day | After all, until Spring actually arrives, gotta keep that wood stove fed | ¶ 22:31 0 comments
Not for the warmth of temperature but Spring is coming slowly to our shore | For the moment, there is practically no snow | That's supposed to change tomorrow, which is to be expected, Spring isn't here yet | As the chimny in the picture shows, I've still got the woodstove going | But the harbingers are here |Today was the Audubon Society's Eagle Watch | I didn't get to do the touristy part of the day's events | I'm not inclined to share with urban yahoos the eagle nests I know about ...they may actually go there | Instead I split and stacked wood ...that perpetual task of all wood heating home dwellers | But I appreciated the pleasant sunny day, and the task kept me warm all day | After all, until Spring actually arrives, gotta keep that wood stove fed | ¶ 22:31 0 comments
2005-02-16
SPAM
"Jack's" observational skills have something to be desired | He sent me this e-mail today | I wonder when I last wrote about dogs | If the image isn't clear, just click on it to see the picture |
"Jack's" observational skills have something to be desired | He sent me this e-mail today | I wonder when I last wrote about dogs | If the image isn't clear, just click on it to see the picture |
UPDATE! 17 feb | There'a also a bunch of spam mail from Jill or Jessica Maurise [Morris, Marrius] going around as well, only she's hawking "hotels in Europe" that want to do link exchanges with "your" site
¶ 22:31 0 comments
2005-02-15
ENVIRONMENT | HUMAN RIGHTS | MURDER
When Sister Dorothy Stang was murdered last weekend, it was just another day in the lives of the perpetrators | This is perhaps the most prominent activist to be murdered in the Amazon since Chico Mendez in 1988 |
She spent decades fighting efforts by loggers and large landholders who continued to steal land and clear large areas of the Amazon rainforest | Shot to death Saturday in northern Brazil by thugs, doubtless hired by the very loggers and Latifunda who accused Stang of inciting violence in the region and supplying weapons and ammunition to local people |
Her assasination ought come as no surprise in an region still plagued with routine land-related killings, intimidation tactics and use of enslaved peoples as a workforce | Human Rights advocates who worked with Sister Dorothy remain skeptical that the Brazilian government will be able to do anything to change this | Para is the Amazon state with the highest murder rate related to land disputes | According to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a Catholic organisation campaigning for landless people and the poor, 1,237 rural workers died in Brazil from 1985 to 2001, and 40 percent of these occurred in Para |
When Sister Dorothy Stang was murdered last weekend, it was just another day in the lives of the perpetrators | This is perhaps the most prominent activist to be murdered in the Amazon since Chico Mendez in 1988 |She spent decades fighting efforts by loggers and large landholders who continued to steal land and clear large areas of the Amazon rainforest | Shot to death Saturday in northern Brazil by thugs, doubtless hired by the very loggers and Latifunda who accused Stang of inciting violence in the region and supplying weapons and ammunition to local people |
Her assasination ought come as no surprise in an region still plagued with routine land-related killings, intimidation tactics and use of enslaved peoples as a workforce | Human Rights advocates who worked with Sister Dorothy remain skeptical that the Brazilian government will be able to do anything to change this | Para is the Amazon state with the highest murder rate related to land disputes | According to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a Catholic organisation campaigning for landless people and the poor, 1,237 rural workers died in Brazil from 1985 to 2001, and 40 percent of these occurred in Para |
More sites about the area and the murder: Mercury poisoning and Para residents | Brazil promises crackdown after murder | Earth Observatory's Aerial photos of deforestation | The Independent reports on the Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy | GREENPEACE calles to petition the Brazilian government to End land grabs and violence |
¶ 21:23 0 comments
NOTABLES
"...conscience was no longer a private matter but one of state administration"
Arthur Miller 1915-2005 |
I remember reading The Crucible in high school, and it shaped my thinking more than the works of other writers I'd been exposed to | How timely that story remains today, with a frenzied powerful few whipping up fear in the community to accomplish some dark objective ~ namely, to murder a handful of scapegoats while hiding their own shortcomings | How little things have changed, or so it seems | Miller was one of a handful of authors and artists who refused to bow to the extremist behaviors later recognized as MacCarthyism | And though he is now gone, his presence remains ~ ever watchful and alert |
"...conscience was no longer a private matter but one of state administration"
Arthur Miller 1915-2005 | I remember reading The Crucible in high school, and it shaped my thinking more than the works of other writers I'd been exposed to | How timely that story remains today, with a frenzied powerful few whipping up fear in the community to accomplish some dark objective ~ namely, to murder a handful of scapegoats while hiding their own shortcomings | How little things have changed, or so it seems | Miller was one of a handful of authors and artists who refused to bow to the extremist behaviors later recognized as MacCarthyism | And though he is now gone, his presence remains ~ ever watchful and alert |
MORE SITES ABOUT ARTHUR MILLER AND HIS WORK: The Arthur Miller Society | Books + Writers' Miller Bio | PBS on Arthur Miller |
¶ 21:22 0 comments
2005-02-13
ART WORLD | CHRISTO'S GATES
Vee sent me some photos she took yesterday | Though we managed to get one taken of Bud + Bob after a chance run-in at the Sheridan Square subway entrance, I regret she isn't in any of them | We'd taken a bus trip into the city for the day, being let off in from of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sauntered right into Central Park | Many of the gates had not yet been opened so we were able to see the process | The first picture here is the duck pond near the Plaza | 
I took some liberties with the next picture [Vee calls it "Skyscrapers"] and rendered it into a "painting" using Photoshop |
We only got to see part of the installation, electing to tour other parts of NooYawkCiti the rest of the day | What we saw of it was ~ for us ~ exciting and refreshing |
While the visit and the exhibit was exciting for Bruce and I, it became evident that, for some people, it was just another day in Central Park | People were stepping outside that customary brusqueness we expect from NewYawkers | One very polished and poised woman, as she snapped pictures, giggled excitedly while noting that she finally had a reason for using the camera on her cell phone | I particularly enjoyed watching a policeman intently reading a directional map [that pix will be posted later in the week] and the guy who took his cat out for a stroll in the park | Once we left Central Park, we visited the new CNN-Time-Warner towers on Columbus Circle [was glad to see that the Edward Durell Stone designed Huntington Hartford Building still standing and intact] walked south to Times Square, hopped the New York City Subway to Christopher Street Station and toured Greenwich Village, taking in the West Side Highway, and Richard Meier's new blue glass high rise Charles Street apartments lining the Hudson River's edge by the old Piers | Our return trip uptown was highlighted with a gallery visit, a stop for French pastries in Chelsea, a visit to Grand Central Station and Rockefeller Center [where I did a pastel sketch which I am turning into a real watercolor tonight] Then, finally, the bus trip back home |
Bob + Buddy, Vee and their friend Jay went to see the Gates later in the day | I'm told Buddy was able to get one of the fabric squares they were giving out to visitors | Jay walked briskly through the park, we hear, well ahead of everyone else | And while he casually dismissed the display with "...you've seen one gate, you've seen them all..." once they left Central Park, it made enough of an impression on him that Jay, [who has long lived in New York City] took his guests on an unplanned ride to the borough of Queens | Finally, returning to the Village where they started, the group, including Buddy, came in contact with a gate of another color ~ the subway turnstile |
PHOTO CREDITS: All photos taken by Vee | © 2005
Vee sent me some photos she took yesterday | Though we managed to get one taken of Bud + Bob after a chance run-in at the Sheridan Square subway entrance, I regret she isn't in any of them | We'd taken a bus trip into the city for the day, being let off in from of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sauntered right into Central Park | Many of the gates had not yet been opened so we were able to see the process | The first picture here is the duck pond near the Plaza | I took some liberties with the next picture [Vee calls it "Skyscrapers"] and rendered it into a "painting" using Photoshop | We only got to see part of the installation, electing to tour other parts of NooYawkCiti the rest of the day | What we saw of it was ~ for us ~ exciting and refreshing |
While the visit and the exhibit was exciting for Bruce and I, it became evident that, for some people, it was just another day in Central Park | People were stepping outside that customary brusqueness we expect from NewYawkers | One very polished and poised woman, as she snapped pictures, giggled excitedly while noting that she finally had a reason for using the camera on her cell phone | I particularly enjoyed watching a policeman intently reading a directional map [that pix will be posted later in the week] and the guy who took his cat out for a stroll in the park | Once we left Central Park, we visited the new CNN-Time-Warner towers on Columbus Circle [was glad to see that the Edward Durell Stone designed Huntington Hartford Building still standing and intact] walked south to Times Square, hopped the New York City Subway to Christopher Street Station and toured Greenwich Village, taking in the West Side Highway, and Richard Meier's new blue glass high rise Charles Street apartments lining the Hudson River's edge by the old Piers | Our return trip uptown was highlighted with a gallery visit, a stop for French pastries in Chelsea, a visit to Grand Central Station and Rockefeller Center [where I did a pastel sketch which I am turning into a real watercolor tonight] Then, finally, the bus trip back home | Bob + Buddy, Vee and their friend Jay went to see the Gates later in the day | I'm told Buddy was able to get one of the fabric squares they were giving out to visitors | Jay walked briskly through the park, we hear, well ahead of everyone else | And while he casually dismissed the display with "...you've seen one gate, you've seen them all..." once they left Central Park, it made enough of an impression on him that Jay, [who has long lived in New York City] took his guests on an unplanned ride to the borough of Queens | Finally, returning to the Village where they started, the group, including Buddy, came in contact with a gate of another color ~ the subway turnstile | Since the digital [a Sony 3.2 megapixel Cybershot] wasn't working properly [it is almost two years old with no problems] I'll be waiting to have mine put on a CD to read them | Thank you Vee | Lest we forget, There are websites available for you to get the details of the Gates Project and it's construction
¶ 22:40 0 comments
SPYWARE WARNING
klogger is a type of spyware that, once entered on to your computer is suppoed to keep a memory of all the keystrokes you use, thus enabling it to save your passwords and oher sensitive information | Some who promote the site may send you information suggesting it's a good adjunct to google, helps save info for you | As noted, it'll do that | To the Anonymous letter writer who sent me three invitations to go to a klogger site then download and click, I wish you the very best as well |
By the way, I didn't | ¶ 22:19 0 comments
klogger is a type of spyware that, once entered on to your computer is suppoed to keep a memory of all the keystrokes you use, thus enabling it to save your passwords and oher sensitive information | Some who promote the site may send you information suggesting it's a good adjunct to google, helps save info for you | As noted, it'll do that | To the Anonymous letter writer who sent me three invitations to go to a klogger site then download and click, I wish you the very best as well | By the way, I didn't | ¶ 22:19 0 comments
