'Appalachian Spring' live performance

I've shared this link before...a wonderful performance!

If he is available I'd love to cook him breakfast.

John


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9mrXagbva8

"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." -George Washington


"Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac." -George Orwell

'Tomorrow Never Knows'

I love both originals of 'Within You Without You' and 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and so find this exquisitely rendered hybrid mix utterly delicious, especially when I am benefiting from smoking cannabis. The Beatles were brilliant musicians and history-changing catalysts for positive social change. Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x07N5uoWpIo

Attacking Libya Planned Ten Years Ago

Of course every one knows that retired US General Wesley Clark is an America-hating, pot-smoking, homo/hippie, tree hugging Librul...my hat is off to him for honesty so rare in our public officials and mlitary leaders.  John

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28199.htm

Cool Radio Controlled Plane for Mars Exploration

It must be a VERY lightweight craft as Mars's atmosphere is VERY thin, just 1% as dense as ours I think. Enjoy, John

http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov/

puh- RAISE Jebuzz!

Helium-filled inflatable sex dolls.....sheer genius! puh-RAISE Jebuzz!    John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVcDSn3Nfg0

Blog Less, Earn More John!

As much as I love working on all three of my blogs, it is time I pay more attention to boosting attendance to my classes and my plant sales that actually pay my bills. So instead of 1-2 blog posts daily, I will wean myself to 1-2 per week as I must increase my income to avoid depleting my retirement savings. Some blogs make their creators wildly wealthy, but mine have generated just a tiny trickle of income.....$20 plus some very nice gifts to date! So time for me to be a realist and get my financial house in order. But it HAS been fun. John

Hard

Hire a beautifully-muscled
bare-chested man
to use his jack  hammer
to shatter dragonfly wings covering a floor.
See the luminescent fragments
fly up and flutter down and stick
to his sweaty arms,
his broad, tanned shoulders
shuddering above the jack hammer.
See his green eyes glimmering above
his handsome mouth, the tip of his tongue
damp and warm between white teeth.

And when he turns off the jack hammer,
there is only the sound
of broken dragonfly wings
settling to the floor.

John Starnes  7-26-1988

Toys

Use an ice cream scoop
to gouge out little spheres
of night sky.

Leave one night sky ball
beneath a child's pillow
as she sleeps.

Put one in your freezer.

Play tennis with one.

Throw them all
back up into the sky
when you are through.


John Starnes  1988

video for Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'

Like Michael Jackson, she puts a LOT of VERY creative effort into some of her music videos. I marvel at the visual diversity of this video. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I&feature=fvsr

Waste Not Want Not

I've gotten cited twice this spring by Tampa's code people for my front fence line being overgrown......I'd agree as regards the perennial morning glory Ipomomea acuminata that has become fucking kudzu here in my fertile soil, though I liked the husky roses 'Barfield White Climber' and 'Marechal Niel' on the same trellis. I continue my battle against a weed I truly loathe....Bidens  a.k.a "Spanish Needle", a member of the Daisy family.....I feed nearly all I pull (cussing and grunting as I yank the bastards) to my chickens and ducks. If I could wriggle my nose like Samantha in 'Bewitched' I'd make it extinct in my yard as others love it as a veggie plus butterfly plant. The code guy seems happy since he sees that despite my cracked ribs I've scaled back those two roses, plus eliminated completely that scary morning perennial morning glory and am clearly clearing my lot for better order and productivity.

As I clear out my front yard I am using the stalks of Bolivian Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) and Cherry Laurel and more to rebuild up a DEEP (goal is 2 feet) mulch layer around each of my bananas that have survived 6 years of drought in south Tampa with kitchen graywater and by being pee'd on. Tidying up my front yard (Bidens especially) will as a reward provide live green plant matter for my ducks, chickens and bananas. Winter kill from the 27 degree winter freezes gave me lots of dead  cassava stalks to use to recreate ongoing compost heaps around each surviving banana plant, where I am also adding stalks from my aggressive rose out front 'Rosa bracteata', plus my purple odontonema, rotted firewood people set out curbside, bags of leaves similarly rescued curb side, plus branches of the Cherry Laurel and "False Mulberry" that annually, perennially that sends suckers into my yard many feet from the parent plant.

My goal is to buid up 2-3 feet of compost formers around my bananas and, to a lesser extent, my papaya plants in hopes I get a WONDERFULLY wet summer and fall here in south Tampa to help rehydrate our dry sandy soils that we are forced to work with.

Complying with my code violation by eliminating that kudzu-like perennial morning glory while turning cut back roses and tropical flowers into compost via "sheet composting" seems to me a win-win situation as regards all parties involved. John

GM's "Hy-Wire" Concept Car

It was supposed to be in showrooms by now...well, failing that, I hope that GM fully intends to blend its Hy-Wire/Autonomy/Skateboard technology into production cars and soon.  John

http://www.flixxy.com/gm-hy-wire-concept-car.htm

U.S.S. Bradbury

I don't know if this design has appeared in any of the movies (I think not) or is the work of a gifted individual, but I love it. Cool to see how they dropped the secondary hull altogether and fused the warp nacelles into the saucer section. John

Josh Wald: Sexiest Man Alive?

I know from personal romances with stunning hunks that looks aren't everything, that stellar good looks can leave a person's soul and powers of empathy greatly diminished. But this Josh Wald.......DAMN!  Those smoldering eyes, those curvaceous lips, that incredible chiselled chest....I don't care IF he is shallow for the duration of a steamy encounter! He is one amazingly attractive man. Enjoy. John  (p.s. sorry for the obligatory thumping music club soundtrack)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpeB468l0fk

1959 Pontiac

I'd forgtten their own unique exuberance with fins in the same year that Cadillac boasted those iconic gigantic "rocket ship" fins. Sad to realize that Pontiac is no more...they were my second favorite car division when I was a kid due to their bold styling......Buick was right behind them.  John

                    Obsession

Part 1

There is a wind that blows through New Mexico.
It smells like prehistoric ice  and
pollen and is so thin and dry
the lakes there are barely rippled.

I have seen mountains there
that flavor me with tears;
the touch of stone againat finger,
against lip and retina
releases memories from bone
and tendon and single cell.

Quartz.
Granite. The pungent scent of moss
wetted by melting snow.
Cactus.
Rabbit droppings dry beside dusk-reddened boulders.

A thin wind.

I was a young man inside all this, shaken.


Part 2


There is a wind that blows through a man.
It smells like the flesh he's loved and
the books he's owned and
is the color his eyes become
in darkened rooms.

There are continents in him
that waver me with fears;
the touch of warm breath against cheek,
against belly and thigh
instills memory into bone and
tendon and every cell.
A  whisper.
A promise.
The hot musk of blue jeans leaving brown skin.
Hot dry hands. His shirt dropping to the floor at sunset
as I watched, waiting, hungry.

I was a young man inside all this, shaken.


Part 3

There is a wind that blows through New Mexico.
It smells like him and me and
mountain ice and draws both sweet and bitter tears
from me,
like pearls from a black velvet pouch.


It is the touch of one finger
to another,
to lips,
to cold mountain stone,

to a man inside all this again, shaken.

September 1984

It Blows My Mind to Try to Imagine the Incredible Worlds Out There! John

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Could_exoplanet_be_a_haven_for_life_999.html

1966 Oldsmobile Toronado

Even today it would turn heads with its sleek aggressive futurism and bold stance.  John

This song and The BeeGees SAYS "1970s" and so I love it! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v8I5egzoMo

Citroen is producing some truly creative cars once again

I love this Metropolis concept, which I hope/suspect is a very thinly veiled peek at a near-term production car. Stunning in its proportions, stance, design language and details.  Futuristic yet luxurious, which is what I hope Cadillac soon champions. Enjoy, John

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/02/pics-aplenty-citroen-metropolis-concept-waves-hello-from-shangh/

One of my most favorite scenes from the iconic 'Caddy Shack'....

Priceless!    Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMVvTl83gWg&NR=1

A 'Caddy Shack' classic

It and 'Airplane' are my favorite-ever comedies, with 'Sordid Lives' right behind. Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dgxzItaQzw&NR=1

'Cut Piece'

Sheer brilliance in 1965....brave, tentative in her willful vulnerability.  John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAmGvz5M31E

All these years later

this wonderfully danceable, enigmatically trippy song still takes my breath away.  John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52-zmNmplRQ

"In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest". - J. William Fulbright

Cool Looking Shuttle By India

I love the double vertical stabilizers....I wonder if it will have a crew?   John

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/India_designing_reusable_spacecraft_999.html

             Love is a cool,  green     Light


Love is a cool,  green     Light
bending around dark corners,
surprising us.

It is a friendly hand pressed against
the small of the back.
It is a hungry finger tracing a warm line
up a thigh.

It is a smirk, then a whisper.

Love is a touch
filling in the soft hollows
our names have left in history.

All these things and more
weave a filament that shines a rare light,
 revealing us.

It erases the shadow of an old gray pain
aching to be healed, at last,
by the sheen of trusting eyes.

Love is a cool,   green    Light
that preceded the world.
It glimmers inside every child, every forest.

And it borrows its scent
from rare herbs
as it follows the wind,

healing us.


John Starnes 1994

Petition Against Uganda's Death Penalty for Homosexual Men and Women

Appalling!  Please sign, John

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_homophobia_petition?fp

A Water Ocean on Titan?

The photos of surface oceans of liquid methane and ethane are amazing....now this new clue. John

http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/A_Water_Ocean_on_Titan_999.html

Horsetails

I think they are the only land plant that has silica as a structural component. As I recall, American pioneers used their stalks to scrub pots and pans due to the abrasive quality, hence their nickname "scouring rushes". I saw them in great profusion in wet forests on Olympia, Washington in 1994 when Jeff and I camped there.  John

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Hot_Spring_Horsetails_Oldest_Existing_Land_Plant_999.html

'Waiting for the D Train'

This is nearly as piercing and inspiring and challenging as her 'Why' from 1970. It gets played each time I get altered, guaranteed. Cool that Yoko was 76 when she belted out this gem.  John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yLKsympUmM

Single Gun Theory

I am so glad to that member of GMInsidenews for turning me on to this VERY creative musical group from the 1980s all these years later. 'Fall' still captivates me after easily 200 viewings but I am now finding this song and video to be lusciously enigmatic, nicely danceable, and visually innovative, all pre-computer graphics, just collage and start-stop editing and fades. To me it has a hypnotic monotal drone backdrop that reminds me of that remarkable song by The Beatles, 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iZC3DrhscI&NR=1

When I was a kid we were brainwashed that this is what the Soviets did to their citizens.....

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/record-number-of-americans-targeted-by-national-security-letters/

Never in my depressed, closeted teens and twenties could I have imagined this on TV

.....though I gather that in the US the kiss scene was deleted. (Yet gory killing scenes are on the screen ad infinitum.) I have seen Torchwood just a few times.....I gather it is a sci-fi series based on time travel. This tastefully romantic, eloquent love scene reminds me of the last man I was in love with, a sweet, bright, handsome, albeit confused guy that I wish all the best for. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASEwZcqb6ow

Well, Here's Hoping It DOES Miss!

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Large_asteroid_to_pass_close_by_Earth_999.html

Simply Amazing.....Just Like In Sci Fi Movies!

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Next_up_paper-like_flexible_phones_999.html

'Broken Wings' by Mr. Mr.

I went mental over this evocative song  in the late 1980s when I was new to Denver....I'd love to have $1 for every time I played it, altered or not. But back then I had no idea about music videos, so for the last few years I've relished revisiting the song and this well-crafted video. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im40r8tvCl8&feature=fvst

Cool Looking Early Lockheed Proposals for SST Airliners

The 1962 one blows me away even now with its cranked main wings and canards. John

Free New Material for my Foam Radio Controlled Plane Projects

Someone made a yard sale sign out of these, so after they set out curbside for 2 weeks past the yard sale, I snagged them while walking Cracker after noting they are made from a light, strong, slightly flexible plastic foam. My first thought was to make vertical stabilizers and winglets from it, but I can imagine ailerons and flaps a result too. John

Very Exotic Exo-Planet

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astronomers_unveil_portrait_of_super_exotic_super_Earth_999.html