"I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag." - General Smedley Darlington Butler
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." - James Madison
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
My Classes This Weekend
Plan Now for a Productive Organic Spring and Summer Food Garden 2-27-2011
There is an unfortunate widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy. You will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Growing these crops organically is easy as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons.
The class will be offered twice in February: on the 5th and the 27th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after, to give you time to plan the summer garden, prepare the soil, and acquire the needed seeds and soil foods. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class.
Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of adundant home grown food with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
Tropical Fruit Crops 101 2-26-2011
We have SO many choices for fruit crops for our landscapes beyond citrus, especially if we live and garden in warmer areas closer to the coast. You will learn how to improve the soil, where to grow the respective crops discussed, and receive a detailed handout with a very lengthy list of fruiting plants you can seek out for your edible landscape. Not only do these plants bless us with tasty nutritious fruits, they add visual lushness to any yard. Local and mail order sources of them will be covered too. The cost is $20 per student, and the class will be held here at my home on February 26 from 11 AM until 1 PM. John
There is an unfortunate widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy. You will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Growing these crops organically is easy as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons.
The class will be offered twice in February: on the 5th and the 27th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after, to give you time to plan the summer garden, prepare the soil, and acquire the needed seeds and soil foods. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class.
Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of adundant home grown food with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
Tropical Fruit Crops 101 2-26-2011
We have SO many choices for fruit crops for our landscapes beyond citrus, especially if we live and garden in warmer areas closer to the coast. You will learn how to improve the soil, where to grow the respective crops discussed, and receive a detailed handout with a very lengthy list of fruiting plants you can seek out for your edible landscape. Not only do these plants bless us with tasty nutritious fruits, they add visual lushness to any yard. Local and mail order sources of them will be covered too. The cost is $20 per student, and the class will be held here at my home on February 26 from 11 AM until 1 PM. John
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
My March Classes
Basics of Frugal Backyard Chicken Raising 3-13-2011
Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. I am teaching this well-received class again on March 13, on the 16th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow next fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes
BASICS OF URBAN FARMSTEADING AND FOOD SELF SUFFICIENCY FOR BEGINNERS 3-19-2011
There is wonderful security and satisfaction in being able to prepare many of our meals from abundant gardens around our homes. Imagine FRESH omelets and meat from a backyard henhouse, or expensive "exotic" crops such as arugula, Barbados Cherry, cassava, chaya, papaya, many herbs and staple crops for Thai and other ethnic cuisines fresh your own yard. But where to start if you have a "normal" yard of high maintenance lawn and ornamental shrubs? Organic landscape consultant and garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Fine Gardening, Florida Gardening) shows how to make the transition in stages based on your time, temperament, budget and goals, using his jungly south Tampa "urban farm" as the classroom.
Learn the ease of "sheet composting" vs. buying an expensive compost bin, using household graywater to nourish your crops and cut your water bill, cheap and easy organic pest control, plus a very effective, low-labor method for killing lawn areas in place and turning them into productive gardens. You will receive a detailed class handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen, and, if you wish, a camera, as people tell me that my classes are very information dense.
I will be teaching this class again on March 19th from 11 AM until 1 PM, from 11 AM until 1 PM followed by a 30 minute Q & A session. The cost is $20 per person. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611, which about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill Avenue. I hope to help folks eager to transform their yards into sources of sustenance, personal independence, and spiritual satisfaction.
Come see how little the freezes affected my food supply, and enjoy fresh raw nibbles as we walk amongst the free range chickens. John
Water Wise Container Gardening 3-20-2011
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on March 20, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
GROWING FOOD, CULTIVATING FREEDOM AND HARVESTING JOY 3-27-2011
Growing and raising much of your own food can free you from an unsatisfying job and addiction to the New Serfdom of endless debt as a "consumer". Learn three basics of successful gardening in central Florida, see the ease of a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, plus get two handouts with 30 key techniques, attitude shifts, and resources that can allow us to discover what we REALLY want out of life, how to live frugally, and ways to shed old, restrictive habits and replace them with pleasurable, expansive ones to create a self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of habitual joy and gratitude. People say my trippy livingroom exemplifies "thinking outside of the box that the box came in" so most of the class will be held in there after we tour my urban farm. I feel that happiness is a choice we can make daily, and that we can create our lives vs. them just happening to us, with productive gardening as the key. This class will be taught again on March 27, from 11 AM until 1 PM here at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611 813 839 0881 to RSVP. Please park on the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. Each student will receive 1 free packet of easy-to-grow seeds with instructions on their culture and harvest and use. See you then! John
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
HOT WEATHER CROPS FOR SUMMER BOUNTY FROM YOUR GARDEN 3-5-2011 3-26-2011
There is an unfortunate, widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy in Florida to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy.
In this class you will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Be sure to bring a pad and pen as folks tell me my classes are information-dense. Growing these summer crops organically is easy in good soil and full sun, as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons. The class will be offered twice in March, on the 5th and 26th. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com
RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class. Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of productivity with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
SUPER-FRUGAL TRULY CREATIVE INDOOR DECORATING 3-6-2011
The interior of our homes can be a palate for our truest level of self expression, each room a personal work of art. In my home the livingroom, which has a mirror floor, is a trippy Pee Wee Hermanesque excercise in psychedelic tacky excess I call "Gay Trailer Trash on Acid"....my bathroom is a no-holds-barred Undersea Fantasy, my bedroom is the inside of Thurston Howell III and Lovey's hut on Gilligan's Island, and my reading and workout room is a lusty over-the-top Victorian Old Roses theme. Learn how to tap into your own creative wellspring and how to use cheap/recycled/dumpster-dived materials to bring your vision to life. Hey, we only live once.....why not cut loose in our homes and please OURSELVES vs. what "fashion" dictates?!! To me, half the fun is turning each room into a creative expression free or super-cheap...why spend $1,800 on a couch when that amount could treat you to a life-changing trip to Costa Rica?!
This fun class will be held here on March 6, and the cost is $20 per person. There will be a handout but be sure to bring a note pad and pen.
Check out my livingroom....looks AWESOME at night! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWkLijEwcAM
Tightwad Gardening and Landscaping 3-12-2011
Times are tough for lots of folks these days, plus many are trying to break their dependence on fiat currency, endless debt, store bought corporate-produced food, and soul-draining jobs. But if one is not careful, starting a food garden to “save money” can quickly result in a tomato that has $47 in hidden costs (just an exaggeration but you get my point). Plus one can spend a fortune on basic landscape and yard care supplies. But a lifetime of pathological frugality has taught me MANY ways to grow organic produce for VERY close to free, and to spruce up a tired landscape for next to nothing with free mulches and soil foods, plus low cost edgings, bird baths and more. I will use my back yard as a classroom to teach these tightwad techniques and ideas, plus I will have a handout listing many freebies to be had from our wasteful culture. My free range chickens may walk in and out of the “classroom”. I have some cool garden-related dumpster treasures to share too. I learned a lot of cool things during the 19 years I ran my organic landscaping business here and in Denver, "THE GARDEN DOCTOR". The class will be held here, 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611 (813 839 0881) on March 12, from 11 AM until 1 PM. To get you in the spirit of “tightwad gardening” I will have free seeds and horse poop. You can park on the mulched area hugging the street, behind my white Dodge Caravan, or across the street where the white picket fence is, or the yard east of me on my side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. This class should very quickly begin paying for itself many times over so you can pay down debt and save up for a rainy day AND end up with a lush and productive landscape and gardens.Happy Gardening! John Starnes
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. I am teaching this well-received class again on March 13, on the 16th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow next fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes
BASICS OF URBAN FARMSTEADING AND FOOD SELF SUFFICIENCY FOR BEGINNERS 3-19-2011
There is wonderful security and satisfaction in being able to prepare many of our meals from abundant gardens around our homes. Imagine FRESH omelets and meat from a backyard henhouse, or expensive "exotic" crops such as arugula, Barbados Cherry, cassava, chaya, papaya, many herbs and staple crops for Thai and other ethnic cuisines fresh your own yard. But where to start if you have a "normal" yard of high maintenance lawn and ornamental shrubs? Organic landscape consultant and garden writer John Starnes (St. Pete Times, Fine Gardening, Florida Gardening) shows how to make the transition in stages based on your time, temperament, budget and goals, using his jungly south Tampa "urban farm" as the classroom.
Learn the ease of "sheet composting" vs. buying an expensive compost bin, using household graywater to nourish your crops and cut your water bill, cheap and easy organic pest control, plus a very effective, low-labor method for killing lawn areas in place and turning them into productive gardens. You will receive a detailed class handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen, and, if you wish, a camera, as people tell me that my classes are very information dense.
I will be teaching this class again on March 19th from 11 AM until 1 PM, from 11 AM until 1 PM followed by a 30 minute Q & A session. The cost is $20 per person. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611, which about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill Avenue. I hope to help folks eager to transform their yards into sources of sustenance, personal independence, and spiritual satisfaction.
Come see how little the freezes affected my food supply, and enjoy fresh raw nibbles as we walk amongst the free range chickens. John
Water Wise Container Gardening 3-20-2011
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Water is scarce and expensive, so I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! Most months my water use bill is below $10 despite all the food and Old Roses I grow here.
This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget.
I love how they use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden!
Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged.
You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person. This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on March 20, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following.
My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water.
Happy Gardening! John Starnes
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
GROWING FOOD, CULTIVATING FREEDOM AND HARVESTING JOY 3-27-2011
Growing and raising much of your own food can free you from an unsatisfying job and addiction to the New Serfdom of endless debt as a "consumer". Learn three basics of successful gardening in central Florida, see the ease of a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, plus get two handouts with 30 key techniques, attitude shifts, and resources that can allow us to discover what we REALLY want out of life, how to live frugally, and ways to shed old, restrictive habits and replace them with pleasurable, expansive ones to create a self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of habitual joy and gratitude. People say my trippy livingroom exemplifies "thinking outside of the box that the box came in" so most of the class will be held in there after we tour my urban farm. I feel that happiness is a choice we can make daily, and that we can create our lives vs. them just happening to us, with productive gardening as the key. This class will be taught again on March 27, from 11 AM until 1 PM here at 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611 813 839 0881 to RSVP. Please park on the south side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. Each student will receive 1 free packet of easy-to-grow seeds with instructions on their culture and harvest and use. See you then! John
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
HOT WEATHER CROPS FOR SUMMER BOUNTY FROM YOUR GARDEN 3-5-2011 3-26-2011
There is an unfortunate, widespread myth that summers are too hot, muggy and buggy in Florida to grow a successful organic garden here, but nothing could be further from the truth. Healthy soil and choosing subtropical and tropical crops that LOVE the heat is the key to fresh abundance from your yard for that long hot half of the year when so many folks let their gardens go barren and weedy.
In this class you will receive a handout with a long list of heat-loving crops, plus I will give you seeds of two kinds that utterly thrive each summer here. Be sure to bring a pad and pen as folks tell me my classes are information-dense. Growing these summer crops organically is easy in good soil and full sun, as very few pests attack them, but we will cover those few possible problems and how to deal with them cheaply and without using poisons. The class will be offered twice in March, on the 5th and 26th. The cost is $20 per student, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 813 839 0881 JohnAStarnes @msn.com
RSVP is helpful in my planning how to best teach this class. Just think....as your winter garden fizzles out each spring, you can phase in six more months of productivity with a whole new range of tastes, textures and nutrition! See you then. John
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
SUPER-FRUGAL TRULY CREATIVE INDOOR DECORATING 3-6-2011
The interior of our homes can be a palate for our truest level of self expression, each room a personal work of art. In my home the livingroom, which has a mirror floor, is a trippy Pee Wee Hermanesque excercise in psychedelic tacky excess I call "Gay Trailer Trash on Acid"....my bathroom is a no-holds-barred Undersea Fantasy, my bedroom is the inside of Thurston Howell III and Lovey's hut on Gilligan's Island, and my reading and workout room is a lusty over-the-top Victorian Old Roses theme. Learn how to tap into your own creative wellspring and how to use cheap/recycled/dumpster-dived materials to bring your vision to life. Hey, we only live once.....why not cut loose in our homes and please OURSELVES vs. what "fashion" dictates?!! To me, half the fun is turning each room into a creative expression free or super-cheap...why spend $1,800 on a couch when that amount could treat you to a life-changing trip to Costa Rica?!
This fun class will be held here on March 6, and the cost is $20 per person. There will be a handout but be sure to bring a note pad and pen.
Check out my livingroom....looks AWESOME at night! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWkLijEwcAM
Tightwad Gardening and Landscaping 3-12-2011
Times are tough for lots of folks these days, plus many are trying to break their dependence on fiat currency, endless debt, store bought corporate-produced food, and soul-draining jobs. But if one is not careful, starting a food garden to “save money” can quickly result in a tomato that has $47 in hidden costs (just an exaggeration but you get my point). Plus one can spend a fortune on basic landscape and yard care supplies. But a lifetime of pathological frugality has taught me MANY ways to grow organic produce for VERY close to free, and to spruce up a tired landscape for next to nothing with free mulches and soil foods, plus low cost edgings, bird baths and more. I will use my back yard as a classroom to teach these tightwad techniques and ideas, plus I will have a handout listing many freebies to be had from our wasteful culture. My free range chickens may walk in and out of the “classroom”. I have some cool garden-related dumpster treasures to share too. I learned a lot of cool things during the 19 years I ran my organic landscaping business here and in Denver, "THE GARDEN DOCTOR". The class will be held here, 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611 (813 839 0881) on March 12, from 11 AM until 1 PM. To get you in the spirit of “tightwad gardening” I will have free seeds and horse poop. You can park on the mulched area hugging the street, behind my white Dodge Caravan, or across the street where the white picket fence is, or the yard east of me on my side of Paxton. The cost is $20 per student. This class should very quickly begin paying for itself many times over so you can pay down debt and save up for a rainy day AND end up with a lush and productive landscape and gardens.Happy Gardening! John Starnes
http://www.johnstarnesurbanfarm.blogspot.com/
A very skilled firedancer
Sunday, February 20, 2011
'Move on Fast'
Last I heard, this wonderfully danceable remix of Yoko Ono's searing 'Move on Fast' from her iconic 1973 album 'Approximately Infinite Universe' is now No. 4 on the Dance Club Hits list/ Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auZW8jwEdts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auZW8jwEdts
Friday, February 18, 2011
video from 'Across the Universe'
I've been told it is a remarkably creative movie true to the spirit of The Beatles...this video for 'Strawberry Fields' convinces me I want to buy the DVD. Potent Vietnam-era images, wonderful psychedelia. Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n79B3FHi0Fs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n79B3FHi0Fs&feature=related
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
a unique old video of 'I Am The Walrus'
This is the best one I've seen. I wonder which version appeared in 'Magical Mystery Tour'? Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG73Pk1yUj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG73Pk1yUj8
Monday, February 14, 2011
'Let It Be' by The Beatles
A great live video for an iconic song from their studio. Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aX7SVmHbpg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aX7SVmHbpg&feature=related
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Need a few laughs today?
Time to post again the link to a trailer for my favorite comedy of all time....'Airplane'. Enjoy! John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaXvFT_UyI8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaXvFT_UyI8&feature=related
Friday, February 11, 2011
'Little Britain'
I love this rude, vulgar and non-PC British comedy team. A favorite character they portray is a churchy conservative woman who vomits at the slightest mention of any minority. Be sure to watch vomit-related clips from this stellar series. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYy2dTgRos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYy2dTgRos
clip from "Night on Earth'
If you like this portion of a remarkable series of vignettes set in taxis around the world, be sure to watch Part 3 that follows. Engagingly human and vulgar and raw. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIUEZS2P_Ic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIUEZS2P_Ic
'Love'
I consider this album, made by The Beatles' manager George Martin and his son using the original raw tracks on tape as their "ore", to be sheer crystalline genius. They did some very radical "mash ups" of different songs into whole new gems, but they treated 'Hey Jude' and 'I Am The Walrus' with very light hands. 'I Am The Walrus' is my favorite song hands down, with 'Appalachian Spring' and 'Why' by Yoko Ono right behind, and so I love this revisitation of this iconic musical score by the man who clearly contributed much to the astonishing creativity of 'The Beatles'. enjoy, John (no video though)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Myr3P-H2QE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Myr3P-H2QE
Thursday, February 10, 2011
I Found a Life Motto in a Denver Dumpster
One day in Denver in the mid 1990s I found this transparency for an overhead projector presentation on top of the trash when I lifted the lid of the dumpster in the alley behind me at 1684 Willow Street. I immediately resonated with it and ever since I've kept it sandwiched between the two layers of dumpster-dived of glass I use to create my coffee tables to insure that inspiring, evocative call to action message affects me daily. John
'My Love Is Alive' by Gary Wright 1975
I'd forgotten about this song and how mental I went over it in 1976, newly "out" and having just discovered magic mushrooms as an art major at the Ybor campus of HCC, with great teachers like David Dye and Jerry Meatyard. I remember getting rushes and goosebumps from the powerful keyboard work. Luckily this morning I saw a video title that suddenly reminded me of this great song. Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_fffjHnYxI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_fffjHnYxI&feature=related
Cracker's First Visit to a Nearby Fenced in Field Where He Can Haul Butt
He seems a BIT too fond of chasing the chickens, maybe let him burn off some of that energy here a few times a week. Will be fun to see if wants to chase a Frisbee or a ball or a good old-fashioned stick. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaT3X-X3t9A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaT3X-X3t9A
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
a very well done original video of 'Help' by The Beatles
What a thrill to find such a fresh, high-quality video of a stellar song showing the first expression of their psychedelic experiences, with 'Tomorrow Never Knows' not that far in their future. Great visuals editing. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq7yktrvSzo&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq7yktrvSzo&NR=1
My new dog 'Cracker'
Day three with this delightful, bright, energetic, super-affectionate cuddly-kissy pedrigree Australian Shepherd black tri-color I got for free via the "Pets" listing under Community on Craig's List after months of looking via rescue sites and the usual Craig's List page. He is 10 months old, was named 'Flapjack' which I was not wild about so last night after thinking of other ones that would sound similar, then tried 'Cracker' (slang for a Florida native like me and him) and he responded. So 'Cracker ' it is. I found a few poopy and one pee accident in my workout room this morning so will pay more attention to giving him time outdoors on a leash. He wants to be GLUED to me and amazes me by invisibly entering and exiting with me by shadowing my feet. Oddly, his tail is bobbed, which I read on-line might be natural. Like the young woman I got him from says he moves like lightning! He weighs about 15 pounds, strikes me as underfed but now he eats the super-nutritious home made high fiber stews I raised Sweety on that does wonders for general health while preventing anal gland problems so in a month he should be plumped up a little. Next to find a cheap place to get him fixed. Based on his feet I THINK he may get a little bigger but not much. His eyebrows and white line on the bridge of his nose are adorable. Today for the first time he BOLTED across the street to the McMansion as I unpacked a big roses shipment and he briefly ignored my telling him to come back, so I will be very cautious about the front door as we have a couple asshole speeders in this neighborhood. (no grieving on my part if they fatally encounter a telephone pole as there are readily visible young kids on this street yet they persist).
Angel and Luvyu are SLOWLY warming up to him, especially Luvyu who ADORED Sweety from the moment they met 12 years ago. Sweety died May 11...this is the longest I've been dogless, with just one month passing between my previous dogs. So it is a joy to have such an adorable pooch in my house again. I can't believe how much he wants to cuddle when I wake up in the morning! I look forward to folks meeting him at the Wacky Hat Firepit Potluck the 19th.
John
p.s. attached is a pic of 42 pound Sweety taken here not long after I bought this house in November of 1998 when she was a little over 2 years old. She was SUCH a sweet dog.
Angel and Luvyu are SLOWLY warming up to him, especially Luvyu who ADORED Sweety from the moment they met 12 years ago. Sweety died May 11...this is the longest I've been dogless, with just one month passing between my previous dogs. So it is a joy to have such an adorable pooch in my house again. I can't believe how much he wants to cuddle when I wake up in the morning! I look forward to folks meeting him at the Wacky Hat Firepit Potluck the 19th.
John
p.s. attached is a pic of 42 pound Sweety taken here not long after I bought this house in November of 1998 when she was a little over 2 years old. She was SUCH a sweet dog.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
perhaps my favorite of the many gems in 'Caddyshack'
"Hey wanna make fourteen dollars the hard way?"
Priceless! John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsQ0LX4LZ6c
Priceless! John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsQ0LX4LZ6c
My favorite song
If I were on a desert island (with electricity and cannabis and beer of course) and could have just one song, this would be it. It has been in my Top 3 favorite songs ever since it came out when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High here in south Tampa. I was TRANSFIXED the first time I heard it and am every time to this day. If only I could have a dollar for every time I've played it (AND the Twin Peaks theme song 'Falling')! Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42luHhrsNhg&feature=more_related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42luHhrsNhg&feature=more_related
Thursday, February 3, 2011
My First Solo RC plane crash
Despite the outcome it was fun as all get out! I'm not longer an RC solo flight virgin! Lesson learned: CHARGE YOUR PLANE'S BATTERY first...lol! John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byrkPCDHo1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byrkPCDHo1U
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A remarkably creative and evocative song and video by 'Single Gun Theory'
Breathtaking adjunct to their evocative yet wonderully danceable 'Fall'. Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryBfo7cUW0Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryBfo7cUW0Q&feature=related
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