A New Shakespeare Play Discovered?

New evidence that Double Falsehood was, as 18th-century playwright Lewis Theobald claimed, based on Bard’s Cardenio.  According to The Guardian, it has thrills, spills, sword fights, violent sexual assault and – to modern ears – a terrible ending, but the little-known 18th century play Double Falsehood was propelled into the literary limelight today when it was claimed as a lost Shakespeare.

Running the Numbers: Portraits of Mass Consumption

Sociologists tell us that the human mind cannot meaningfully grasp numbers higher than a few thousand.  Photographer Chris Jordan has made large mosaics that help translate the raw language of statistics into powerful images of global mass culture that we can respond to emotionally.  The artist says, “I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.”

This picture, the artist titled, “Gyre,” is made from 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic that enter the world’s oceans every hour.  All of the plastic (2.4 million pieces) in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.

This mosaic is made from 106,000 small photos of individual aluminum cans.  106,000 is the number of aluminum cans used in the United States every thirty seconds.

Other statistics Chris Jordan has made into images include:

• 426,000 cell phones discarded per day in the U.S.
• 2,000,000 plastic bottles used by Americans every five minutes
• 10,000 dog and cat collars, equal to the average number of unwanted dogs and cats euthanized in the United States every day
• 2.3 million Americans in prison
• 166,000 packing peanuts, equal to the number of overnight packages shipped by air in the U.S. every hour
• 28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river)
• 320,000 light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt hours of electricity wasted in the United States every minute from inefficient residential electricity usage (inefficient wiring, computers in sleep mode, etc.)
• one million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the US every six hours
• one hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail
• 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months

Seeing the cumulative impact of individual actions through this talented artist’s lens awakens us to the enormity of our personal decisions.

To see more images and how Chris Jordan’s work is compiled:   http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

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Joan Baez: We Shall Overcome…

Yes, we shall…

Tribute to John Hiatt, an American classic.

John started writing music in 1971. I turned a friend on to him one time, and the friend came back with this question: “What’s his bag anyway?” I asked him if he liked the music, and he replied it was awesome, but it was everywhere on the musical spectrum.

I couldn’t agree more. His music incorporates everything from old country and western to psychedelic anthems. One would be hard pressed to find main stream musicians who do cover tunes who haven’t done John’s songs. If one were to listen to his album, “Little Village”, then “The Tiki Bar is Open”, then,  “Walk On”, one would think they were written by different people. Those who remember the song, Perfectly Good Guitar, it was his. His albums, Walk on, and, Crossing Muddy Waters, are my favorites. Just awesome music.

Hopefully, he stays around for many more years and is discovered by new generations as they explore the world of music. Some tunes:

Have a little Faith in me While many have covered this, he wrote it. A beautiful song.
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Cry Love

Dust Down a Country Road

Hie Away

“I like to write songs that make you feel different from the way you felt before you started listening,”- Shawn Phillips

  I have actually heard of critic’s reviews about Shawn where they complained that he used “The entire English language.” WHAT? How shallow have we become as consumers? The remarks about using the entire language reminded me of the scene in ‘Amadeus’ where some aristocrat is complaining that Mozart’s new composition was awful because “there were just too many notes!” Boy would he ever hate this cut, Hie Away. I was at one of his shows (in Tulsa I think?), where Shawn said something like: “Show me an artist who plays for the art of it, he’ll be the next guy without a major label.”

 For those of us who lose at scrabble; Hie -Pronunciation:\ˈhī\ -Function: verb -Inflected Form(s):hied; hy·ing or hie·ing -Etymology:Middle English, from Old English hīgian to strive, hasten. Date:12th century -intransitive verb: to go quickly : hasten -transitive verb: to cause (oneself) to go quickly.

Hie Away

 Tongues are rattling and multiprattling, the thanatoid elite
That call the noisome, remorseless horsemen, we pray they into sleep
For when they’re riding there is no hiding your face

Instant ambrose for distant decades, the same must speed relief
For tolls too briefly the sounds of mercy
I shall not hie to grief
In fear we ponder the use of thunder for peace

Moving rages divide the phases converging toward belief
That’s being proven in all its union, there is no more retreat
And blind delusions maintain illusions too deep

Now flows the hour of cringe and cower, the strong become the weak
Negate your power and all to flower,
In pain we all are meek
In light beholden the ages golden we seek

~~~~~~~~~~

Just one reason I like Shawn is exactly that attitude of doing his own thing. Rebel hippie musicians just have a soft spot in my heart. I could carry on for a while with rebelious quotes from Shawn, but I risk the chance of carrying on so long you lose interst. So instead of quelling your interest, let me try to spike it by presenting something completely different than PrariePops is used to me posting by SP. 

 

  I’ve always shared Shawn’s more mellow/acoustic numbers in the past, if you enjoyed those, check out this short clip of him at home practicing acoustic guitar.

Vonnegut’s Blues for America

Time for a cacophony of thought, sight and sound. I must be gone today, but hope this leaves you thinking and talking with each other. Kurt wrote this during Bush’s reign of idiocracy. I’m throwing in the video because it seems to fit somehow. I think Kurt would approve….

Kurt Vonnegut being a WW II veteran, I thought about him today. D-Day, the beginning of the modern world political era. The beginning of something we would all like to restore and preserve, America’s standing as a world leader, not only in business, but as a moral beacon. If America were anything like what men of Vonnegut’s era envisioned, I’d be a proud conservative, as it would be a better place, something worthy of conservation. ~sekanblogger

KURT VONNEGUT-

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED

FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

WAS MUSIC

read Kurt’s “Blues For America” here:

Writing!

Flash fiction, or really short stories of less than 1000 words . . . some love it; some hate it. Either way, it’s an interesting way of getting the most info in the least amount of words. For instance, Ernest Hemingway wrote, “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Another is one I wrote just for something to do.

Family Matters

I had just parked my car in the only slot I could find at the local Wally-World, when a voice from the past said, “Hi, Junior.”

I knew that voice. In the first place, my name wasn’t “Junior”, and second, this was one person I did not want to see.

I turned around to face him and said, “Long time no see, Chuck.

“I just wanted to let you know you’re off the hook, Junior. Mom found the ring she thought you stole, and told me to tell you all is forgiven. She wants you to come over for dinner sometime…said to bring the wife and kids.”

“Okay, Chuck, tell Mom I’ll think about it. Better yet, tell her to call and apologize to me, my wife, and my kids. Then we might be a whole family again. She’s the one that needs to get the ball rolling, not you. And you know Mom.”

“Yeah…that I do, Junior…that I do.” My brother gave me a quick smile, turned and walked away.

I walked towards Wally-World, shoulders slumped, wondering if she would call.

Anyone interested in in joining the fun?

jammer5

Susan Gets a New Look

For all you Susan Boyle followers:

Scottish Singing Sensation Gets Dye Job, Makeover

LONDON – Say it ain’t so, Susan!

Singing sensation Susan Boyle — whose dowdy image contrasted so greatly with her angelic voice that she became an instant Internet celebrity — has gone in for a makeover.

Boyle, 47, had her graying, frizzy hair dyed chestnut brown and styled in what The Sun tabloid says was a 35-pound ($50) makeover. And instead of the old-fashioned dress she wore on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent,” the Scottish singer was photographed wearing a stylish black leather jacket with what looked to be a Burberry scarf.

Asked if she would change her looks on CNN’s Larry King Live, Boyle replied “Why should I change?”

Judges of “Britain’s Got Talent” will decide whether Boyle gets through to the next round on May 23.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090424/ap_en_tv/eu_britain_singing_sensation

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