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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. --Winston Churchill
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
09:05AM
Unique Readers:
Primarily
Public Domain
Everything I've written here, except my copyrighted
essays, poetry, lyrics, and music is hereby placed in the public
domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the pictures
used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair
use. Thus the license here would best be described as:
Primarily Public
Domain.
Please ask permission if there is any question in
regards to public domain usage.
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| Thursday, February 27, 2003 |  |
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 27 Feb 2003 @ 19:40
Upcoming Symposium with the Worldwatch Institute and UCSB
Friday, March 7 & Saturday, March 8, 2003
Santa Barbara, CA
Are you in the Santa Barbara area? The Worldwatch Institute and the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) will be presenting our second annual symposium, The Challenge of Sustainable Development, on March 7 and 8 at UCSB.
Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin and Senior Researchers Hilary French and Molly O Meara Sheehan will participate in lectures and panels that explore the environmental challenges of the 21st century, and present solutions for achieving an ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just future. For more information, go to arts and lectures or call 805.893.3535.
About World Watch magazine: This bimonthly magazine is published by the Worldwatch Institute. Launched in 1988, the magazine has won the Alternative Press Award for investigative journalism, the Project Censored Award, and a number of Utne Reader awards. Recent editions have featured articles on the imminent disappearance of more than half of the world s languages, airport sprawl, the rapid growth of organic farming, and human genetic engineering. To order a subscription, please visit Worldwatch Magazine.
About the Worldwatch Institute: The Worldwatch Institute is an independent research organization that works for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society in which the needs of all people are met without threatening the health of the natural environment or the well-being of future generations. By providing compelling, accessible, and fact-based analysis of critical global issues, Worldwatch informs people around the world about the complex interactions among people, nature, and economies. Worldwatch focuses on the underlying causes of and practical solutions to the world s problems, in order to inspire people to demand new policies, investment patterns, and lifestyle choices. For more information, visit the Worldwatch Institute. More >
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 27 Feb 2003 @ 14:27
I have been writing poetry since I was 12 years old.
Originally this occurred in somewhat of a trance-like state,
strange suspensions in temporality in which I would not remember pen to paper until it was over. Later, as I began writing songs and discovering my singing voice, I was able to access the same creative zone, through more of a conscious process.
Here are two of my favorites:
TODAY...
Today I excite the senses,
To bestow upon me their everlasting grace,
Like notes adorn the symphony of conscious Being.
A hive with nectar and queens who guide an
army of delight and devotion,
Wings of an Angel fluttering in my ear,
Whispering, urging,
Gyrations of their lilac scent and
rose adorned countess lips.
Today I step with newly chiseled high steps,
Mirroring the future through
the looking of explorers eyes.
I course the labyrinth where the sun
breaks seeds through soil,
Where men caress the edge of time,
Where no prediction gifts me with its’ sight.
I jump sparkling like an opal dove,
Into Uncertainty.
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IN QUIET MOMENTS
In quiet moments,
When stillness becomes my world,
I stand inside myself, I stand beside myself.
Present and lost in love’s magnificence,
Bequethed with the freedom that wisdom brings.
Sanctity caresses every breath,
Every gesture,
Every word.
In quiet moments.
I revel and shake,
The mystery that lives in my bones
Since before the earth was formed,
Before the first whisper of the moon’s
sacred marriage to the sun.
Sometimes these secrets explode within me,
This vessel turns from steel to gold,
And I lose myself, I lose myself
In this familiar wine.
Yet deep inside I know,
I must pass this drink,
I drink so that all may be drunkards
when Spirit shines,
When spirit shines,
In quiet moments.
These two poems were from a small booklet that I self published several years ago. There are more online at my website. Also, there are lyrics to read from some of the songs I've written. More >
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 27 Feb 2003 @ 14:16
So here's a thought. Maybe, and I say maybe, 'cause I think It's All made up anyway, all self organizing systems, i.e. Life, is a three dimensional palindrome, where everything meets in the middle, the center, the still point where all things are born and all things return.
A Palindrome is a word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. Like "Damn! I, Agassi, miss again! Mad!"
Letecia sent me this really fun site, since she knows I love palindromes. Not that I ever make them up, but I am fascinated by the concept and how it might apply to consciousness. More >
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| Wednesday, February 26, 2003 | |
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 26 Feb 2003 @ 08:27
I never knew this play existed until recently when Letecia and I went to see the Vagina Monologues and the reading of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" was also announced.
I'm not sure that a witholding of sex would in actuality be that effective. Given the financial losses the sex industry would incur,which I assume is in the tens of billions annually,and the syndicated crime organizations that run it, I rather doubt that commercially available services would be suspended.
I have maintained for decades that one of the greatest pro peace actions that we can take is to severly cut back or stop altogether our consumer activities for at least a week. That kind of "buying strike" would cause corporate shareholders of the military industrial complex and ancillary companies to take notice. Another good reason to shop responsibly, support your local farmer markets, start a personal or community garden and make sustainable choices.
Lysistrata, a comedy written in 410 bc by Greek dramatist Aristophanes (c. 447 c. 385 b.c.e.), tells the story of a group of women from opposing states who unite to end the Peloponnesian war.
After matronly storm troopers take over the Acropolis, where the treasury is located, the women rise to end the war by withholding sex from their mates --- until, desperate for intimacy, the men finally agree to resolve their conflicts through peaceful diplomacy rather then violence.
This classic and somewhat bawdy comedy is being performed on Monday, March 3 worldwide in 36 countries and numerous cities in the US. It originated in New York as the “Lysistrata Project” to emphasize the need for peace and to refrain from war.
In Ojai a group of men and women are joining this event in the auditorium of Chaparral High School, at 114 N. Montgomery St. at 7:00 PM with a reading of this play in a translation by Drue Robinson Hagan.
This performance is free and open to the public . A donation is of course welcome to cover expenses and to benefit Citizens for Peaceful Resolution
Information abounds on the net that speaks to the current activism surrounding it,excerpts,the entire script and educational materials. More >
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 26 Feb 2003 @ 08:03
Well honestly I've never been to one of these conferences, however, I do support the vision of a coming together of multi-disciplinary minds,hearts and bodies to see whatform organizes itself out of the chaos.
Here's the latest info. and schedule on the Prophets Conference. Maybe someone who has been to one has more to say.
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Now, more than ever, we need to join together with others of like mind and find ways of navigating ourselves through these radical times of uncertainty.
Coming together in the Florida Keys is an exceptional group of committed souls faculty members and a community of delegates coming from as far as the UK to the east and Hawaii to the west, to ferret out possible solutions to our current personal and global challenges.
If you are not able to join this exceptional gathering in the Florida Keys, we encourage you to show up somewhere, in your community of kindred spirits, and share your voices. Make a difference. Strengthen your spirit. We need to come together now.
The tropical warmth and beauty of the Florida Keys, coupled with the significant energy and information, has the potential to make an impact in our personal and collective consciousness.
There are many ways to join this gathering for the full weekend, one day or days (one-day passes) or individual presentations (single presentation tickets). Or tapes, following the conference. Tickets will be available at the door. We all need to show up somewhere, in someway. Now.
If you have the ability to join the Florida Keys conference, please come and be part of this gathering. Inexpensive lodging is available in the nearby areas of Islamorada, Marathon and Key Largo. Your voice and spirit matter.
Full information is linked for you at Great Mystery.
A few low cost early registration incentives are still available for the Sedona, Stanford, and Oxford conferences. Early Registration Discount.
Schedule of speakers is on the next page. More >
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| Sunday, February 23, 2003 | |
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 23 Feb 2003 @ 12:41
One of my music collaborators, Greg Hurley, sent this to me.
Given the numerous occassions that I use PayPal, I guess my anonymity is shot. Aaarrgghh... another seemingly "ease of use" programming where ideology has shadowed integrity.
Originally I saw this article here.
"When someone uses our site and clicks on the 'I Agree' button, it is as if he agrees to let us submit all of
his data to the legal authorities. Which means that if you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details - all without having to produce a court order. We want law enforcement people to spend time on our site."
The quote comes, apparently, from Joseph Sullivan, director of law enforcement and compliance at eBay, the largest retailer in the world. It's in a February 21 online Ha'aretz story. More >
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 23 Feb 2003 @ 11:50
My friend Ken Symington,ethnobotanical preservationist,elder mentor, Nature Friends retreat center steward and one of the founders of the Invisible Theater Made Visible men's pereformance troop, for which I am privileged to be the music director of for the last four, years sent me this wonderful email. ----
I recently read this comment by Julie Taymor, producer/designer of recent theatrical events (Lion King, Frida, etc) that relates to our Invisible Theater project. I thought you might enjoy reading it.
"I went to Bali to a remote village by a volcanic mountain on the lake. They were having a ceremony that only happens every 10 years for the young men. I was listening to this music, and all of a sudden out of the darkness, I could see glints of mirrors and 30 or 40 men in full warrior costume. They came out with these spears and they started to dance. With these voices coming out of them. They didn't care if somebody was paying for tickets, writing reviews. They didn't care if an audience was watching. They were performing for God. And that profoundly moved me then."
The pic looks like Ming the Mechanic when his server goes down or his email "in" box exceeds 1000 per day. More >
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 23 Feb 2003 @ 10:00
How could this not have some influence on our behavior?
It would be interesting to see global / human history graphed to the eleven year solar activity cycle.
A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
Credit: SOHO Consortium/, EIT, ESA, NASA
Explanation: A huge eruptive prominence is seen moving out from our Sun in this condensed half-hour time-lapse sequence. Ten Earths could easily fit in the "claw" of this seemingly solar monster. This large prominence, though, is significant not only for its size, but its shape. The twisted figure eight shape indicates that a complex magnetic field threads through the emerging solar particles. Recent evidence of differential rotation inside the Sun might help account for the surface explosion. The sequence was taken early in the year 2000 by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite. Although large prominences and energetic Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are relatively rare, they occur more frequently near Solar Maximum, the time of peak sunspot and solar activity in the eleven-year solar cycle. More >
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| Friday, February 21, 2003 | |
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 21 Feb 2003 @ 20:33
I received these two posts on the same day, which seemed quite synchronistic to me. It's astounding to me that music organizations worldwide, especially women in the symphonic industry, have not, to my knowledge, revealed this chauvinism to the world. But then partriarchy has had a firm foothold, and foot up the wazzu in the arts for centuries.
Someone needs to take the sausage away from the Vienna Sin-phonic Dorkestra.
#1 -Letecia Layson forwarded this to me.
Vienna Orchestra Muzzles First Female Member
(WOMENSENEWS)--The first woman appointed to the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has reportedly been ordered by the orchestra's manager to not speak to the press about her groundbreaking achievement.
A spokesman for the Philharmonic denied the claim, but told the British newspaper the Guardian that the orchestra does not "allow individual members to give interviews to prevent an unfair bias on any individual. The orchestra has to function as a unit."
The orchestra has been all-male since it was founded in 1842. In 1996, under threat of losing government funding, the approximately 150-member orchestra said it would admit women to its ranks.
In 1997, the orchestra hired a temporary female harpist but did not list her name in the program or show her face on television.
Viola player Ursula Plaichinger was shown on television during its New Year's performance, her first concert with the group. Her appointment to the orchestra was not announced before the concert.
Plaichinger is considered a "substitute" member of the orchestra until 2004, at which time she will be allowed to apply for full membership.
#2
"My intention always has been to arrive at human contact without enforcing authority. A musician, after all, is not a military officer. What matter most is human contact. The great mystery of making music requires real friendship among those who work together. Every member of the orchestra
knows I am with him and her in my heart."
-- Carlos Maria Giulini, conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1978-1984) More >
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| Thursday, February 20, 2003 | |
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 20 Feb 2003 @ 18:55
Several years ago I researched and declared myself a sovereign citizen of the Republic of California. I gave back my Social Security number, refused letters that did not have my correct township address, and asked my employers , at the time, to not withold taxes from my wages. I wholeheartedly believed, and still do, that the information that was presented to me regarding the hostory of the U.S., the tax ID system, the zipcode system, the Federal Reserve the DMV laws etc. wre/are illegal under constitutional law.
I nolonger live outside of The System, because frankly it was too difficult to re-educate almost every person I spoke to and the fight for freedom seemed to perpetuate internal and external agression. An "us and them" scenario that you also see sometimes at activist rallies. After losing two jobs because of my views and consistent heat from other sovereigns who thought I should sue those companies, I decided that the calories used towards this endeavor just wasn't an efficient use of energy. It was not a sustainable practical idealogy though the information is a powerful tool to have.
An interesting article came across my desk about a man who uncovered some political relationships and met with some opposition. In fact, he wound up in a mental institution.
Most of the account is taken directly from the source, apolitical prisoneer Stephen Ames, locked up in a Pennsylvania Mental Hospital. More >
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 20 Feb 2003 @ 18:24
I received a story today about the transformation of the music industry. Being an independent musician/producer, I have struggled with the personality apsects that want fame and fortune, knowing full well that the stress probably would have caused a self destruct and that my creative license might have been revoked by the marketeers.
Starting from the ground up, my grassroots sort of approach has enabled me a huge sense of freedom as well as opportunities to explore a myraid of styles that have been incorporated into dance, theater, video, album, workshop settings. And...thank God/dess I have other revenue streams that feed my belly.
The music industry has been like this large, looming, plodding authority figure that has total control of whether my music is heard or financially successful. I say this in past tense, because there is just a plethora of online advantages now for artists and because of this the music industry is transforming. This is a great article written Peter Spellman from the Berkely School of Music.
I chose to create my own website, as well as have free downloads on an mp3.com site and CDbaby. Though I don't get a lot of traffic I love the serendipitous nature of the emails I receive. I've always appreciated passive marketing approaches rather than in your face, sellsell buybuy. Music is such a personal experience for the composer and listener and the internet has closed the gap so a relationship can exist between the two.
Well, that's all for now. I'll continue this stream of thought at a later date.
Peace Through Music,
Support Your Local Musician and Farmer's Market More >
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| Tuesday, February 18, 2003 | |
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 18 Feb 2003 @ 18:27
Bring Your Own Cup...
Just a thought. I read this the other day.
A message from our beautiful Gaia, please bring and use your own non-disposable cup (preferably ceramic or metal) if you stop to get a hot drink sometime during your day.
Each 24 hours American citizens generate 25 million empty, i.e. throw away, ie. trash, i.e. land fill hot drink cups.
BYOC More >
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 18 Feb 2003 @ 13:51
Letecia bought some family tree software and made it available to me. I realized no one in my family had interviewed my parents or chronicled in detail our family history. (of course depending how many branches I pursue it could take me back to the first few bi-peds somewhere in Africa or Asia depending on what theory you adhere too)
So I've begun to record the stories of my mother (Ukrainian descent) and father (Polish descent)and researching on the web whatever I could find. there a lot. Ellis Island immigration reports, books translated to english specifically about my father's hometown,etc. etc. I've pretty much completed the info. aspect and now have begun scanning the photos and maps to add them to the files. It's a great software program called Family Origins.
There is a sense of family pride that I'm feeling for the first time and a deeper understanding of myself; why I do and think the things I do and think. Also, it's fascinating to connect the dots of all those people I met when I was a child who we are no longer in touch with, yet are cousins, or aunts etc. People who I failed at the time to ask questions of or listen to THEIR stories.
As the family tree expands from our personal his/hertory to collective his/hertory, I begin to see much more clearly and viscerally that ther is only one family and that the seeming separation is an illusion and that competitiveness is a lousy and unsustainable way to utilize energy and that resources are here for everyone in the larger global family to have access to. More >
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| Monday, February 17, 2003 | |
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 17 Feb 2003 @ 17:10
Well, here I am, after some poking and proding from Letecia Layson and Flemming Funch. I'm one of those people that says they don't have much to say, yet then goes on and shares tons of resources, stories, experiences etc.
I have cultivated a skill of witnessing, listening, sitting in the silence until there is an impulse that stirs and moves me into action. Something that I have come to call Simple Brilliance and... the simplest systems sometimes have a unique and complex coalescence (I love that word).
So here, I'll be posting my personal poetry /lyrics and music ,talk about sustainable/permaculture lifestyles,gourd crafting and the healing arts.
I'll also probably be subjecting you to various musings, resources and social commentary that steadily streams across my desk.
So here it goes...the red pill...IT is Real IT is Rael More >
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Sounding Circle implies the cycles, spirals and symbols of our thought, our culture, our lineage and our imagination.
A place to share ideas, create community, and give voice to our muse.
"Giving more than we take, taking just what we need."
"The universe is music connecting 10th dimensional hyperspace".
Prof. Michio Kaku, Phd. |
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"It's not what you think, it's what you think about."
- lyric from You Can't Turn Back (But You Can Turn Back On) |
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Sounding Circle
