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Jul. 13th, 2006 @ 11:41 pm (no subject)
"You said, "In the interest of the nation, we cannot stop development." Knowing I am without a job, you offer me a position in your company making bombs and guns to sell to faraway countries. My children are hungry, my wife is crying, and I almost give in. But our brothers there need food. Why do you send them bombs and guns to kill each other?"
-Thich Nhat Hanh
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Jul. 7th, 2006 @ 10:44 pm blogspot, I guess
I hate that I have not posted all week.

Very unlike Travis Bickle to not unleash several times a day, but I am not in front of a computer all day anymore (Freedom I say), and am instead in the dirt with the ants and worms...also stripping floors here and there.

More on that to come...

the other reason for not posting is that livejournal and my eMac are seemingly incompatible for the moment, and thus it is impossible to copy and paste almost anything.
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Jul. 1st, 2006 @ 12:56 pm Invisible Children (MCC)
First Person: Sam*
From the May/June 2006 issue of "a Common Place"

One morning in June 2003, at about 5 a.m., rebels came to my home in the village of Agwara [in Uganda’s eastern Amuria District] and took me and a younger brother. Soon we met up with other rebels with captured children, and they tied all 12 of us together with rope around our waists so that we couldn’t get away.

They made us walk for many miles. Then they gave clubs to some and made them beat and trample two of the children. When the two were dead, we began to cry loudly. Because we cried, they made us kill three more. [One may have been Sam’s younger brother. Sam is hesitant to talk about what happened to his brother, commenting only “They say he died.”]

I was with the LRA for 11 months, and we always moved from place to place. They made us cook, carry water, wash clothes. They trained us to use guns. Some days we were given no food; only the leaders ate. Some days we were given a little food, just boiled sorghum. If anyone made a mistake, the rebels killed them.

When we reached another district, government planes dropped bombs and three more [of the original 12 children] were killed. Later the army killed two more in a battle.

Once four children tried to escape but the rebels pursued them. When they caught them, they severely beat them and killed one.

I escaped alone one night. I went to an army barracks at about 10 in the morning. They brought me to Soroti [district town], where I stayed about one week in a rehabilitation center.

Then I learned that my parents had been killed in an LRA attack. When I heard that my three younger brothers were in this camp [Amuria camp for displaced people], I came straight here to take care of them. They are ages 8, 5 and 3.

Now I work helping builders who are making a dorm for a girls’ high school. [A project funded by the Norwegian government.] I mix mortar. I earn about 3,000 shillings a day [about $2.25 Cdn, or $1.75 U.S.] and with that I buy food, charcoal and medical treatments.
I have nightmares still because of all the bad pictures in my mind. What helps me is that at church I became born again, and I play soccer. I am 18.
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Jun. 30th, 2006 @ 12:07 pm (no subject)

As it happens, today will be my last day at the ENC Bookstore...but only because they cannot fit me into their budget for the new fiscal year (which begins July 1st).

However, they do have room for me (till september, at least) over at the Adult Studies campus with the Grounds Keeping/Maintanence Crew.

Same pay and benefits...with the new, exceptional benefit of working outdoors in the summer.

do it.

so I am going to continue looking for a job from here.

let me know if you know of other opportunities I should look into.

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Jun. 28th, 2006 @ 10:07 pm Kid A
Being American has stripped us of humility.
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Jun. 28th, 2006 @ 09:42 am Some of you may have seen this email:
Subject: Need your help

In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2
rivers, fed
by 2 glaciers.Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be
fought for it.

Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they
provide
the second largest source of income for the area.

Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and
other
minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy
the
glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world -
and to
make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain,
one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.

The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.
(Barrick Gold is mining at Lake Cowal-NSW Australia at the moment.)

The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose
members
is George Bush Senior.

The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year,
2006.

he only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a
temporary stay of execution.

If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of
especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2
rivers so
they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of
the
use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process.

Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and
not
one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be
left
with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.

The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have
been
forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the
Interior.

Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help
from
international justice.

The world must know what is happening in Chile.

http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/Chile_en/Barrick_opposition

Barrick's Response:
http://www.barrick.com/Default.aspx?SectionID=c9da9c08-a5db-43b3-8e82-542972663a3f&LanguageId=1
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Jun. 27th, 2006 @ 09:48 am permaculture at war with our cravings


http://sustainablewellness.wordpress.com/

It goes without saying that I, like most Americans, live by many myths that are destructive lies.  One of these myths (under bigger umbrellas) is that how and what we eat is based on our cravings, rather than our nutrition, our organic resources, or our spiritual beliefs.

Eating what we crave, rather than what is good for us and sustainable for our world, is no different than masturbating anytime we have sexual desires (or having intercourse to serve yourself rather than the other person).

In effect, I am saying that McDonalds,  hersey's chocolate, most store bought product, etc., is pornography at best.

Mass production-mass consuming is a house built on sand.

Maybe you don't understand how destructive this is:





Our Christian American worship of cravings, consumption, and modern technology is not challenged from our pulpits simply because of our fear of death and discomfort.

It is impossible to reconcile this lifestyle with the lifestyle we are called to as followers of Jesus.

Nowhere in our scriptures are we given the "go-ahead" to destroy whole species for the advancement of science, technology, and ultimately "man".  

Sometimes I wonder if "the beast" in the book of Revelation is not the industrial revolution,  and if the "anti-christ " is not modern technology.

That will be awkard to discover this as Truth, since we are in absolute adoration of anything that is "bigger or faster".

As far as all that craziness in the gospel goes (about letting go of wealth):



http://sustainablewellness.wordpress.com/

kelsie and I are moving slow, but we are seeking the Truth about ourselves, our cravings, our consumption...and we are thankful to have friends like the stetlers and the whartons to look to as models.

do it
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Jun. 27th, 2006 @ 09:43 am I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
I added pictures to my Bright Eyes post.

http://bickle-t.livejournal.com/121979.html
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Jun. 27th, 2006 @ 09:24 am New Pics






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Jun. 27th, 2006 @ 09:18 am Bonnaroo






http://www.flickr.com/photos/35914125@N00/sets/72157594175304772/
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Jun. 25th, 2006 @ 09:37 pm Fresh
Kelsie and I made salsa together.

That is so sexy.
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Jun. 19th, 2006 @ 12:33 am I'm Ready
when I moved to boston, I only knew maybe two radiohead songs.

by the time I encountered them two nights ago, I knew most every song from the last four albums.

for three years, they have provided the emotional force by which I was able to lose myself (for a minute there) and reconcile what I think with what I feel.

it was most poignant during the last election:

"while you make pretty speeches,
I'm being cut to shreds."

and also at the end of the most recent version of romeo & juliet (we are one, in everlasting peace):

when everything was deconstructing around me, my wife and son were the soil for which I would plant myself, and my friend doug was the rain and sun which nourished us for growth.

truth (God), can only be found when two or three are gathered. 

kelsie and i are so tightly woven, that there is simply not one without the other.

so it seems that I really did lose myself in boston...no doubt about it.

thank God.  may our family and community continue to be woven with the fabric of the messiah we follow.

this is everlasting peace.


furthermore, radiohead's music is the subjective definition of our generation.


I want to
I want to be someone else or I'll explode
Floating upon this surface for the birds
The birds
The birds

You want me?
Fucking well come and find me
I'll be waiting
With a gun and a pack of sandwiches
And nothing
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing

You want me?
Well come on and break the door down
You want me?
Fucking come on and break the door down
I'm ready
I'm ready
I'm ready
I'm ready
I'm ready
I'm ready
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Jun. 18th, 2006 @ 11:47 pm everything in its right place
just got outta the shower...man do I feel clean...no shower for four and a half days.

pictures of my feet later.

posting mostly to say that though the darkness of drugs was heavy (sometimes too heavy...like sniffing cocaine, chasing it with whiskey, then singing "King Without a Crown" with Matisyahu), the hippies were redemed as we were leaving.

as we were driving away, some hippie girls from Kansas tried to get us to stop...eventually we did because Blake had to use the restroom at the end of our campsite area.

they came up to the window, and girl #1 said that it was girl #2's birthday.  All she wanted was to get into bonnaroo (for she had not been able to afford a ticket, apparently).  they wanted our wrist bands...that way she would be free to roam and dance.

girl # 1 offered me five dollars as option number one...or girl #2 would earn it buy singing me a song with her acoustic guitar.

I, of course, wanted to share my wrist band, not sell it, so I jumped at the opportunity to hear girl #2's song written about not being able to get into bonnaroo.

it was something like, "you need a wristband, to get into bonnaroo land, and without it, we must turn around our peace van."

I was grinning of course.

the kicker however, came with the last few lines, when she began fighting tears.

I don't remember the lines, just that I was real happy to share this meaningful moment with her, knowing that she would dance her life away during Phil Lesh and Friends.

she, with shaking hands, cut off my wrist band, said thank you, and goodbye.


be well and smile, my friend from Kansas.

sing and dance till your content.


"everything in its right place"


may my life be an encore of this performance.
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Jun. 18th, 2006 @ 12:12 pm clean vibes
Mornings have been excellent today and yesterday.  Not much sleep happening.

Having ice coffee, brazilian berry smoothie with granola & banannas.

rock on

this morning I volunteered with www.cleanvibes.com and picked up four or five bags of recyclables.

got a clean vibes t-shirt and got interviewed for the clean vibes documentary.

eric stetler will be proud...he knows how unromantic it is to pick up people's shit (wet clothes...uugghh)...I had gloves on, thankfully.

Ishmael.


Radiohead was unimaginable...so was the pain in my feet.  I stood for hours and hours in the hot sun...after standing for hours and hours yesterday in the hot sun. 

it was like having migranes in your feet.

took me forever to limp back to camp.

when I wasn't emotionally involved in radiohead's music, I was thinking of my feet.

it was hard work and discipline to be 50-75 yards from the stage.

it was worth it to hear most of ok computer...along with most every song I wanted to hear from the other albums.

very emotional experience...more on that later.


I miss the shit outta my family.   I talk to Kelsie everyday, and it is when I smile most...and Canaan said "I love you" today on the phone.

Happy Father's Day to me.


Today is bluegrass day...along with Matisyahu.

do it.
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Jun. 16th, 2006 @ 04:28 pm AAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW
Bonnaroo.

Bright Eyes. 



So I decided to shade it out under a tree about 300 yards or so away from the stage.  2:00 pm show.  Hot as hell.  John and Blake decided to get closer so they left their backpacks with me.  Istarted out standing for the first song...sat down for the next couple...couldn't see his face anyways.  



Thought about moving forward...but I had three backpacks to contend with...so I enjoyed the shade...contemplating Bright Eyes lyrics.

Another upbeat song...so I stood up...band is jamming...lyrics heavy. 



Song ends...Conor is talking...then, out of the blue, says he has a few guest.

"I would like to introduce Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to the stage." 



Refer to the title of the post for my reaction.

So while I am freaking out, I try to just tell myself to be mindful of the performance, and not be anxious about moving in closer.

What the fuck ever (after the first full song)...I tied up the ties, Zipped up the zippers, and I was off like a half-back trying to score a touchdown (only with three backpacks).  Thankfully, the hippies didn't believe in tackle football.

I moved up a full 275 yards to that damn stage and I celebrated like Doug Wharton would want me too.

They did a jam session like you would not fucking believe.  David Rawlings ripped the shit outta that guitar...and Gillian (more homely than ever) was singing verses of Conor's tunes and doing her best to upstage the whole fucking festival. 



They were not even on the schedule.

Long Live Music!!!!!!! 



I miss my wife and kids....off to see Death Cab for Cutie.

be well and smile.

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Jun. 14th, 2006 @ 10:13 pm midnight run
Well...we are leaving at mid-night to drive through to be there early...set up camp...have some summer ale...get a feel for the place.

I am ready to let go...relax...celebrate...summer ale...have community...brown ale...pita & hummus...dance...with neon people...microbrew...sun and moon...hot and humid...

do it

be well and smile
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Jun. 13th, 2006 @ 12:35 pm :: PLANET ROO ::

Heighten your earth consciousness at Planet Roo, our on-site tribute to the planet we call home. In this area, you'll find booths with representatives from a plethora of environmental organizations and organic lifestyle companies. With a variety of partners and organizations including Clif Bar, MySpace, Rock The Earth, StopGlobalWarming.org and the NRDC, we'll be giving you tips on all the things you can do to help curb global warming. In Planet Roo you'll find valuable information about this pressing issue that will help you make a difference. We'll also host morning yoga classes here to get you limbered up for a day of maximum festival fun.

 
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Jun. 13th, 2006 @ 12:30 pm :: Brooer's Festival ::

This popular feature is back, with even more delicious libations gathered together for the sampling, as well as other special features. Under one tasty tent, you can enjoy hearty bocks, refreshing pilsners, crisp pale ales and more offered up by great microbreweries from around the country ­ including past years' favorites like Anheuser Busch specialty brews, Sierra Nevada, Magic Hat, Sweetwater, Oskar Blues and Starr Hill. Stop by on your way through Centeroo Village, and try a brew ­ or two.

 

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Jun. 13th, 2006 @ 09:48 am Exit Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-A_DI8mA8M

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Jun. 12th, 2006 @ 02:26 pm Four Days of Peace and People
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