Scrutinize your Tarheel Tavern

Asheville's Scrutiny Hooligans tackles the Tarheel Tavern. The subject: Transformative Joy.

Utter Transformative Joy - The Tarheel Tavern #103

The Transformational Joy of Music

There are many sucky things about life. Music ain't necessarily one of them. In fact music can be one of life's higher medicines. It's a shame so many people never veer beyond the official "top 40" and discover the exotic medicinals that lie beyond.

An example of what I mean can be heard in the work of Gorecki, who is cool even if only because his name contains Gore, who was, as everyone knows, the first hero of the 21st century.

But check out Gorecki's 3rd symphony...the "sorrowful symphony". You may want to skip right to the 2nd and 3rd movements, which, I think, are the most sublime. I have found, over repeated listenings, that around 6 minutes into the 3rd movement, my psyche experiences a transformation, and yes, a joyful transformation -- A release almost, from the sorrow that preceded it. I suspect others have also felt this.

I have also felt this transformative power in the works of Arvo Part, Lisa Gerrard, Andrea Bocelli, Mark Isham, Ennio Morrocone, Phillip Glass, Roberta Flack, Sibelius, and others.

When coupled with images, this transformative music can really cause a spirit to soar, offer repose, or induce all manner of magics. The love theme in "Life is Beautiful", the final climax of climaxes scene in "Cinema Paradiso", the epiphany in "Truman Show" where Truman cracks his own cosmic egg, as it were, and begins beating against that final prison wall, crying out for freedom.
Without the music these scenes could never be so transformative.

I'd be interested in hearing of the favorite scenes of other Taverners.

Oprah, "The Secret" and the Charlotte connection

DO YOU KNOW THE SECRET?

On Thursday, Oprah Winfrey's TV show was covering a phenomenon called "The Secret", which is fast taking over the world, and will soon be taking over Mars and Venus, radiating out. The book "The Secret" has recently been made into a DVD hosted by the reverend Dr. Michael Beckwith, who, in his day job runs the Agape community in California with his wife, Ricki Byers Beckwith of Charlotte.

The philosophy behind "The Secret" has been touched upon by others throughout the millennia, and has recently found its way into the works of Robert Fritz (a pioneer in the study of creativity and vision) and Peter Senge of "The Fifth Discipline" and "Metanoia" fame. I've had the good fortune of studying with both, and look forward to meeting Michael and Ricki, with whom I already feel a spiritual kinship.

One reason I am going to vote for John Edwards is that I can see that he too is keen on the power of creativity and vision, and is also willing to use these faculties in the service of humanity. By contrast, Dubya was only "clever" at helping himself...at the expense of humanity. We need a BIG change.

Oprah to bring "The Secret" to TV

(CBS 11 News) FORT WORTH "It's something that has existed since the beginning of time. It's been hunted down, stolen and bought for vast sums of money." Those are the first words in the new DVD "The Secret."

It's a compilation of the insights of some of the greatest minds the world has ever known (Plato, Leonardo, Galileo, Napoleon, Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Einstein, Emerson, etc.) and modern-day thinkers and philosophers such as author Jack Canfield, world renowned spiritual guru Dr. Michael Beckwith and more, revealing the secret to ultimate personal power.

We'll keep you posted...

Mr. anonyMoses H. Wondrous exchanges baraka with John Edwards

John Edwards at MySpace


Dave, Jude and John

Dave and John admire Jude's scarf.

Molly Ivins is dead. Breast Cancer takes our sweet iconoclast...

A Sad Farewell to an American Great
by Kevin Hayden

Rest...

Microphilanthropy: Help Mike Young

Dear friends and readers,

I am trying to help my friend Carolyn pay the mounting bills, and ease the worry that comes with her philanthropy. They are only asking one or two dollars, but certainly if you can give more, I'm sure that would truly make their day. Lord knows they coul use some surprises...

I'll just let Mike share his story:

I'm Mike Young
I am 46 years old. I am Mentally Challenged because of a hunting accident when I was 14 years old. I was shot in the head
and spent over a year in the hospital. During my recovery I underwent many surgeries and rehabilitative therapies.
I have lived and been cared for by my Aunt Carolyn since 1995 and she does a GREAT job. My mom and dad passed away within months of each other. My mom, on her death bed asked her sister (Aunt Carolyn) to care for me before she died. Being close sisters and always there for each other my aunt Carolyn did not think twice about saying
yes. With hardly any financial support she has been taking care of me.

READ MORE

Please give what you can.
-Dave

Colbert wins Culture War with Bill O'Reilly

NIGHT OF THE COLBERT


The chivalric Steven Colbert slices and dices...using only his tongue and wit. Meanwhile the arrogant, self-obsessed bully still hasn't learned to speak in moderated tones, but instead keeps trying to start a civil war here at home.

Each appeared on the other's show. Colbert brought uncontrollable laughter to O'Reilly's otherwise moribund show. And he took their microwave. (You'll find out.)

On Colbert's show, Steven prepared us all with a description of the outcome of the thinking of people like himself. A world turned to Hell.

The first thing O'Reilly had to do was to point out that Colbert was a French name, because the demographic of "people who hate" is among his largest. After wasting time on ridiculous misanthropic generalizations, he tried to paint his as a backwoods imposter. Just one petty attempt after another to besmirch his name.

Apparently he hasn't heard of Claudia Colbert.

In the end it turned out to be a rather friendly exchange. People left of center
prefer love and peace over hate and war, truth and caritas to spin and deceit.

Colbert, last night, showed the path.
Now is no time to be in war mode. In no way can we afford it.
Time to heal, mate!


[tags] detumescent dirigible O'Reilly Colbert champion[tags]

Arianna to attend important gathering of minds, visionaries, leaders

The page will bring together and organize blogs, videos, photos, news articles, and reader comments related to Davos. Plus, the page will attempt to connect the voice of the people with the voice of those gathered at the conference through a video bridge that will allow anyone in the world to submit a video question to a Davos participant -- and, perhaps, get a video reply. - AR

Davos Notes: HuffPost Brings You Your All-Access Pass
(HATTIP TO the supreme cogitatrix)

Bush needs 2 more years of killing so he avoid responsibility

One would hope that the doctor is hoping for a quick healing.
Thank God George W. Bush is not a doctor, because he is praying that the illness of war gets worse, and gets worse...for years. The opposite of a doctor. The opposite of a healer. The opposite of peacemaker. Behold "The Prince of War". No Jesus.

To save his one ass, Nojesus is willing to sacrifice a million others, most of whom are higher quality people. But will the new congress stop this madman? Or will they prove themselves to be madmen?

Shiny Happy People

North Carolinian

My philosopher/nurse nephew, The Philoblogger, enjoys a day in the mountains.



Shiny, Happy People enjoying the Cone Estate.

Visitors to the North Carolina mountains should not miss the estate of Moses Cone. One can rest the head and feed the mind and stomach at nearby Blowing Rock.

Secrets of Heathen Time-Keeping and other discoveries of Garrick Wells

Secrets of Heathen Time-Keeping and other discoveries of Garrick Wells

Charlotte-based intellectual, Garrick Wells (also known as the literary character, Ammonium) will not let your mind rest. Indeed, he will not let his own mind rest, so why give you that luxury? We are fortunate that he focuses on unusual matters...

Mr. Wells, founder of the Charlotte Astronomical Society, writes:

Conclusion: I have reconstructed the extinct calendar of the heathen that astronomical and historical evidence seems to substantiate and without any need for the Roman calendars. The calendar explains the enigmatic old Winter's day and the once lost thing period. I have illustrated the religious purpose of the calendar.
I have introduced the Golden Latitude.
This might explain why some major cities founded by Northmen exist where they do. The great heathen center: Lejre in Denmark is on this latitude.
Today anyone can make a runic calendar stick and restart this ancient calendar by finding the years of the closest full moon to 2/8 or 11/1. Actually 2001 had a full moon on 11/1, so the golden number is 1. For the Odinic rite, the last holy year was 2004 and the interval will continue octennially.

Prelude to a Blogger President: Edwards & the Democratic Future

The Future is your Friend...



Read more about John Edwards at these fine resorts in the blogosphere:
Iddybud Journal
Benny's World
Random Thoughts from Reno
The Real Paul Jones
skippy the bush kangaroo
Blue Girl, Red State
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Edwards 08
Billy the Blogging Poet
The Nation blog
Exile on Jones Street



(Thanks to Bora at Science & Politics for these, and the other great work he is doing, and Jude for her continuing to dazzle us with her astute observations.)

It's Official! John Edwards is in the Race!

"He is one we've been waiting for."



The Real Deal


Odd that on a day when we remember President Ford who is now dead, we say hello to a gentleman not unlike Gerald Ford in his demeanor and athleticism. So maybe it's not so odd. Maybe John Edwards will, like Ford before him, serve to heal the nation of harshness and corruption, and set an example of how like Atticus Finch is the true character of Americans.

We've got to change the face of America. John Edwards is a good start.

Reopen the World that The Bush hath clamped shut with his Americo-
and Texocentric policies and other intellectual poverties.

Welcome to the Neo-Edwardian Age.

Democrats want to thank the Republicans who stayed at home

Sometimes the best way to get something done is to do nothing at all. And I have heard from quite a number of Republicans who made a political statement by simply staying at home this voting season, and others who voted for the Democrat. Sometimes this is necessary, especially when those in power are micranimous and self-serving. For these folks I especially hope the Democratic congress earn your vote. I also hope they don't succumb to arrogance, greed, ambition or blind obedience to custom. As Deepak Chopra once wisely said: One experiences a sea-change when one shifts one's orientation from "What's in it for me?" to "How can I help?"

May the Democrats prove truly and universally helpful.

Nixon or Haggard?

SUPERTELEVANGELISTIC SEX-AND-DRUGS PSYCHOSIS
Parody of
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

(thanks to Sir Rah Bourbon)

See Rock City AND the new Iddybud Journal

Iddybud hanging out with General Wesley Clark

Iddybud Journal

LET us vote then, you and I

LET us vote then, you and I,
When the evening news is spreading lies
to the patients etherised upon a fable;
Let us go, through a certain half-deserted mind,
The muttering unkind
A mindless knight in one-night crack-ho tails
And cornpone restaurants with taco-shells:
Sheep that follow like a tedious dittohead
Of insidious portent
To feed you all a dose of healthy koolaid...
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and drink this sh*t...
From the boom we men come aglow
Walking from Los Alamo.

The yellow blog that wipes its back upon our window pains,
The yellow news that rubs our nose in blue dress stains,
Licked its lips upon the money of the evening news,
Lingered upon the fools that stand to gain,
Let fall upon his face the pretzel that falls from skies,
Slipped by the congress, made of sullen lies,
And seeing that it was a soft September morn,
Turned around the plane, and fell to Sleep...

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow dust that billows down the street,
Wiping its ass upon the window-panes;
There will be Time, there will be War-
ner,
To prepare a place to meet the presses that you meet;
There will be time for Russ and Rush to bloviate,
And time for all the worthless ways of glands
That lift and drop a dollop on your fate;
Time for Dick and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred distortions and revisions,
Before making toast of Cheney.

In the gloom the warmen come aglow
Talking of Guantanamo

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I care?"
Time to turn my back and nude-descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my chair--
[They will say: "How his chair is growing thin!"]
My morning coke, my dollar mounting firmly to boy Ken,
My bolo is immodest, but inserted by a marking pen--
[They will say: "But how his arms of war are sin!"]

Do I dare
Destroy the universe?

In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minuteman will reverse.

For I have blown them all already, blown them up:--
Have known the evening, mourning, darkest noons,
I have mangled up my life with cocaine spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying thup!
Beneath the building from a farther plume.
So what should I consume?

And I have known the ayes already, known them all--
The ayes that fix you in a formulaic phase,
And when I am formulaic, scrawling with a pen,
When I am penned and scribbling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit on all the but wholes of my days and ways?
And who should I consume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all--
Arms that are daisy-cut and grossly unfair,
[Caught in the gunlight, downed without a care!]
Is it blue stains on a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie are sold at table, with talk of shock and awe.
And should I then consume?
And when should I begin?
. . . . .

Shall I say, I have gunned at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the ruins
Of lonely kids in tatters, pouring out of windows...

I am just a pair of ragged shoes
Scuttling across the floors of silent news.

. . . . .

And the afternoon, the evening, creeps so peacelessly!
Scorched by hot zingers,
Asleep ... wired ... or country singers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you Cheney.
Should I, after koolade, coke and icees,
Have the strength to force the world to its crises?
But though I'm inept and blasted, inept and crazed,
Though I have seen many heads [grown slightly shorn] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet--and I'm no mad hatter;
I have seen the speeches of that city slicker,
And I have seen the eternal Bushman hold my coat, and Snicker,
And in shorts, I was DeLayed.

And would it have been worth it, after Oil,
After the kegs, the candy bar, the T,
Hugging the porcelain, a lonesome walk with you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have snapped at the batter with a towel,
To have squeezed the universe into a booger
To roll it toward some overstating question,
To say: "I am Nazareth, book of the dead,
Come back to sell you all, I shall smell you all"--
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not how I vote at all.
That is not it, at all."

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the fun set and the shipyards and the wrinkled sheets,
After the novel, after the hiccups, after the nose that trails along the floors--
And Kos, and Media Whores--
It is impossible to know just why I'm mean!
But as if a manic slattern slew the pervs on ladders in a screed:
Would it have been with child
If one, settling a pillow or throwing up on call,
And turning toward the window, should spew:
"That is not it at all,
That is not how I vote, at all."
. . . . .
No! I am no ham omelette, nor was meant to be;
Petrol attendant, bored, one that will screw
To stifle progress, start a war or two,
Advise the Dick; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to disabuse,
Lunatic, caustic, and supercilious;
Full of false sentence, can't define "obtuse";
The times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
I am, for you, the Fool.

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I prefer my money rolled.

Shall I kiss your left behind? Do I dare to be impeached?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and strut upon the stage.
I have heard Travolta singing, to my age.

I do not think that he will sing of me.

I have seen them hiding leeward in the caves
Bombing the dark hair of the slaves blown back
With my thoughts forever white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the star
By star-whores wreathed with seafoam green and crown
Till human votes awake them, and we drown.

War Song of G. Dubya Bushrock
(reprinted from November 2004)

Neocons cut and run...from the President and his legacy of incompetence.

Ask Perle, Adelman or Frum what they think of the competence of the Bush White House, and you will no longer get happy talk. They failed, and thus the Neocons also failed. Now they have cut and run from both Iraq, and the man who put us there.