Freedom Rings. Answer the Call.

Someone took the words right out of my mouth today, and quite eloquently. So, please visit here .

No Right Answers

Last week, we had to get up real early to cross the state for my daughter's gymnastics competition. At 3 o'clock in the morning, I thought I woke up to the sound of a very state-of-the-art alarm clock that spoke to me in a lovely woman's voice: "It's 3 o'clock, Cathy, please wake up." It repeated itself until I reached over and turned it off. Then I said to myself, 'wait, this isn't my clock' and went back to sleep.

When I really woke up 2 hours later I remembered the 'false awakening' and just had to laugh. Was that my bio-rhythms in vocal form? Did I wake up in my future when I will have a clock like that? Or, was my dreaming self just trying to get lucid?

There are, of course, no 'right' answers, but it does beg the questions.

An Inconvenient Truth

I love me a documentary, independent film and skiing. That's why one of these bone-chillin' winters, I am going to vacation at Sundance Film Festival. Now I've come to find out, I wish it was this year, as one of my most passionate 'causes' was addressed at Sundance, in documentary form, by one of my favorite people. Yep, I mean it. It's An Inconvenient Truth. It's Al Gore. Here's a synopsis of the film:

Extreme poverty, intractable wars, virulent disease, hatred of all stripes–these are a few of the scourges we live with today. And yet global climate change trumps them all; for if it's not addressed, all life on the planet will be devastated, regardless of geography, class, race, or creed. The Inconvenient Truth is the gripping story of former Vice President Al Gore, who became interested in this startling issue while at college 30 years ago, and now devotes his life to reversing global warming. Traveling the world, he has built a visually mesmerizing presentation designed to disabuse doubters of the notion that climate change is debatable. The heart of Davis Guggenheim's film is this elegant multimedia lecture itself, where Gore indisputably correlates CO2 emissions with exponentially rising temperatures, already responsible for dramatic climactic shifts like ice-cap melting, drought, and rising sea levels. Interwoven with this riveting public address are intimate moments revealing the poetic, searching side of Gore as he struggles to define his purpose in the aftermath of the 2000 election. This is activist cinema at its very best, for it serves to popularize and demythologize a problem long obscured by those most threatened by the solution. With humor and searing intelligence, Gore outlines crucial steps we must take to avert impending disaster and proves that inaction is no longer an option–in fact, it's immoral.— Caroline Libresco


It was a huge success at the festival, and was picked up by Paramount for nation-wide release. People are saying they want Gore to run in 2008, but he calls himself a recovering politician and has no plans to do so. I can applaud that. One of the best functions of being president is picking one issue that's especially close to your heart and trying to improve things in that area. For Bush, that's OIL-- obviously, for Clinton--health care. For Gore, if he was president, it would be global warming--so I'm glad to see this documentary out there, because he gets to fullfill his purpose without dealing with the bullsh**t mechanisms of politics. And that's a win-win right there.

"I Went Out To Buy Transcendence and Came Back With a Telephone"--Anthony Weir

Thanks to a $30 certificate at Amazon.com, things are going to be pretty quiet on the blog front the next few days. I'll be tearing thru this, this, and this for a while. That, and I finally read my first Philip K. Dick novel last week and now want to read them all--which will take quite some time, as he was a very prolific writer. His stuff is like literary LSD . Very authentic while at the same time being totally unreal. I've never read anything that kept me on my toes quite so much.

After a couple of bone-chilling days, the temperature is back up to 70 and sunny today and the rest of the week. Am going to be taking advantage of that, as well. I'll be the one in the convertible with the top down and music blaring, waving at all you poor guys who have to have the windows rolled up and the heat churning-on.

Kairos

They have updated the ashes and snow website. I highly suggest a visit and be sure to have an enhanced experience.

I cannot say enough about this art installation, which I saw in NYC last year. Besides, I already did say enough--
here.

I wish I thought of this one. It would go perfect on Hermione a.k.a. the scientist/activist--who once had a teacher/mentor who told everyone that she was Einstein's great-granddaughter. And everyone believed.

Yep, that was me bragging.

Not a Material Girl

Isn't that cute? It's a water-powered clock. Water can now power Time. I'm impressed.

Gadgets are cool, I guess, but I think I must've been Amish in another life. Not like I'm a Luddite, but I really would be okay without all of this technology. Let's all break back up into tribes, I say. I've always been this way. When I was a kid, there were only 3 material conveniences that put a twinkle in my eye:

refrigerators with ice and water in the door

rear windsheild wipers on automobiles

electric cars

Done. Done. And done.

Anyone else remember what gadgetry they coveted as a kid? Yes, 007-inspired ones count, too. I mean, that is where I got the idea for that ejection seat in my car.

Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue

• It amazes me how out of touch with reality REALTY can be. Houses that went for $3 million dollars 5 years ago on the beaches in the town where I live (in hurricane ravaged Florida) are now going for $10 million. Who could possibly be that short-sighted? Oh yeah, rich people. I guess the people who are buying these things want some excitement in their lives? IF not the threat of your own private tsunami, what exactly does it take for people to realize that God or Gaia or whatever you want to call her doesn't want you to live there?

• Never go it alone when buying new sunglasses. You can never tell what the @#%$ they look like on you.

• Always be wary of endevors that require new clothes. Ok, I didn't say that--Thoreau did. Or something like it. But I thought it the other day, picking out an outfit for some interviews. I made sure to buy a shirt that I would wear by choice under many circumstances and dark pants that would conceal my full tattoo bodysuit.

• Raising kids as activists is not always sunshine and buttercups. Especially when they refuse to use Elmer's glue on their science fair boards for the sake of the poor cows.
  

Urban Outlaw

J-Star makes my day. Check out her photo set called Yellow Means Please.

Be sure to view it as a slideshow. The captions say it all.