The Magic Eye that is the Hubble Space Telescope

Just a few images from NASA's web site.

TIMELESS

A tribute to our very own Master of Space and Time                                                                         (Well, we did let the rest of the world have him fer a spell...) 

HERE'S A LINK TO LEON'S INDUCTION TO THE R&R HALL: (Priceless)

http://youtu.be/pT5aYRgmgyM 

                                                                         Leon and Elton...                              The Master of S&T...

http://youtu.be/pT5aYRgmgyM

Prepping for 'Mad Dogs' days?? 

Leon and his daughters played the little jewel of a venue in York, SC. The Sylvia Theater

Jack travels to The Rainbow Bridge

My boy, my confidant, Oh...my so-many-things-i-could-be-to-measure-up-to-be-the-guy-you-think-i-am-person. You are the first pup in my life that I've lived with and loved from cradle to grave...my broken heart is ...broken, you are not here anymore. My kids were raised by you! You were...and still are...the perfect friend

The world is so much more plain without you in it, Jacko...I'm so sorry you got so sick...so quickly. I hope to the God of all mercies that you never endured any pain...you are a godsend, my dear old friend. 

I loved your big head in my lap as we drove around in the 'blues truck'...and then the big white truck...Vans were your favorite...all that room in the back seat...yeah...just to jump in and drive around and munch on pork skins and milk, eh, pal??! 

Every time I'd go to the burger joints, I'd always get one or two for Homie...the master-Hogg-u-lah!! "...Cheese, Pleeze..."I remember so much...I'll come visit, and we'll talk more, ok pal?? Now, go lay down...no, you may not get on that couch...yours is over here. (of course, that policy was good only until the human-snore-cycle commenced. Couches were fair game once the 'parents' were alseep!!)

Dateline...Dec 26 2012...i miss you more than ever. Wonga.

Intentional Bias in North Carolina

A North Carolina trial judge recently resentenced three death-row inmates to life without parole under the state’s Racial Justice Act, which allows inmates to have their sentences reduced if it can be shown they were tainted by racial bias. In the trials of two blacks and one Lumbee Indian, the judge found “powerful evidence”of such bias.

No!!...Not in the Crown Jewel of 'The New South' Republi-Crat state...nahhh

Go figure, huh? No matter how this society feels it's 'done all it can do" for the descendants of the African people that were brought here by a 'code' of ethics so reprehensible it boggles my mind. It is (real time racism) still very much alive and doing what it does. While an almost pathological hatred and disavowal of African Americans has existed for centuries, the cause/effects, now...to a much larger degree, and within a multi-racial environment, is now, strictly a class/economic division set in motion by The Market. Leadership figures are bought and sold/hired and fired like so much corporate raider 'turn-over' specialists set in motion by the takeover 'corporation"...a/k/a Congress/White House to squeeze profits out of rocks.

The quest for 'money/wealth/status/identity' has jeopardized the contemporary African American to an even worse degree that it has before say 1990, simply by the context of esoteric/contemporary references to wealth and class that whites use as indication of just whom they're dealing with...Hip Hop, for example, was an emerging 'voice' to an oppressed epole(s)...the idiom has been c-opted by $$$$. Just ask Russell Simmons what time it is'...The ramifications were nuts...LA hates NYC (thats' where "Rap" music originated...actually a couple of blocks from where I grew up!)..."Gangsta Rap"  emerged out of the vapid insolence of LA...Thug Life became a WAY of life...and the whole became a circus that the Racist American could use as even more fuel to feed his hate.

Until the US in whole/part...what have you, discusses openly, the horrors that were the lives of the enslaved, bought-and-sold-like-baling wire-Africans...as well as the period between 1867-1940's ...the Jim Crow era, with its extrajudicial justice called lynching, and it's targeting of mostly (90%) African-American folk with that degrading and horrific existence of hiding from the white man...and his lynching tree. Those truths are the issues that must be personally & collectively discussed and dealt with. They must be addressed in order for this country to heal. There are those folks who would love nothing better but to have all of us croak so they might have the world...as their private, elite 'oyster'...IMHO?? Fuck 'em.

GOD...AGAIN About Chris Hedges' 'Truthdig' article

The use of the term ‘supreme being’, at least in my limited lexicon of experience, means a great many things to a great many people. To some, anthropomorphism is a vehicle that must exist for some in order to facilitate or give a 'face' to at least a cursory understanding of forces greater than ourselves.

The Dalai Lama as a multi-culturally respected world leader in the realm of ‘inner contemplation’ states that whatever your ‘religion’, ‘faith’, following’ may be…within your personal comfort zone should, at the helm, have love and compassion as its (their) compass. One need not ex-communicate oneself with their own path toward enlightenment (read: love), and pursue Buddhism, for example…but work within the context of what LOVE and compassion really are.

The teachings of Jesus Christ (whether one subscribes to the ‘Christian’ ways of thought or not) are at their core, very similar to that of every pursuit of ‘faith’ or spiritual journey across humankind. Love is at the core of it all…Joseph Campbell reminds us about metaphors…now that we, as a relatively evolved species, can understand abstract and complex thought, when he states that “God is a Metaphor for the Mystery that transcends all human forms of language and classification…” “God is a thought, God is an idea, but, its reference is to something that transcends all thinking.”

To also quote Campbell in his interview(s) with Bill Moyers, ” The great horror today, is what you see in Beirut”...(and…and…and…)...“where you have the three great Western Religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and because the three of them have different names for the same biblical god, they can’t get on together. They’re stuck with their metaphor, and don’t realize its reference.” THAT, I believe in and of itself is the foolish, man-made, line in the sand.

We try and corporialize and compartmentalize that which is transcendant…again, to simply to get our pea-brained selves some ‘thing/one’ to whom, to relate to...as in a 'someone/thing' simply because of who ‘we…are’. There is, again, in my opinion...and experience, no "Supreme Being" or 'entity, per se…but, there is the enlightened 'state of being'. However…the concept of God, in Campbell’s thesis…is beyond most of humankind’s ability to understand..."...even within the states of ‘being or non-being', which in and of themselves are classifications…it’s as simple as that.”

The manifestation of ALL of the teachings of every religion/faith/spirit-quest…is love, plain and simple.

Love is the ONLY thing that lasts, and cannot be diluted by dogma.

Hedges knows this and has seen it happen over and over…and he also understands, that that capacity is innate within us…all.

Jack

Jack ...my 'homie'...my pillow...my listener...my eater of all things hot dog...my peacemaker...my hope is to be the man you think I am, my big black soulbrother. I defer to your wisdom...and grace. I defer; to your inclusion, to your wonder, to your patience, to...you old man.  I'm so glad we're together pal.
        

God

Joseph Campbell, in the work/semi-autobiography "The Hero's Journey" explained something to me that finally rang true...He stated this simple but supremely enlightening statement: "God is a metaphor for The Mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and not-being (those are also categories)...It's as simple as that".

In other words...there's no vaidity to the "My God's bigger and better than Your God" maxim.

God...is, and, I'm thrilled because I've known this for a long time, sez me.

Summerime 2010

Friday Night 6-4-'10...12 .5 hours on the road with my two youngest sons...They not once uttered the dreaded "are we there yet, pappy"...The GPS kept it all real! I can't believe what great travelling companions my tow-heads have turned into...and FUNNY!!
No Fast Food...(daddy made nice wraps with BBQ, Cous Cous and deli stuff...and ate most of them, himself.) just 'pit-stops' to relieve the boredom of the asphalt, and the pressure on our bladders! Why is it that when kids have 10 bucks in their pockets, they just have to go to some spot and blow it on say, a pocket full of (mumbles)...or Skittles ???

I-75 is a trip in and of itself...Too many insane Pulpwood Drivers for my taste. I just know they've got a Mason Jar of some bev to take the edge off the bennies...and that shit gets reckless. I have precious cargo to deliver, you ass-hats! Came down through Athens, GA...Macon...and on to the Panhandle of FL...where the tone got more somber. 250,000 gallons of crude being spilled into the Gulf...Daily. The locals are terrified. This is an unprecedented catastrophy...and the Revolution Starts...NOW!!
We hit the room at around 8-9pm...dropped our stuff, and proceeded to grab a slice at Gigi's House 'o Pizza on Treasure Island...Land of the Ex-Pats, Keouac the Prophet, and The Out Of Sight Shop. Just the best!! back to our room in one of the last 'real' motels on the western Gulf Coast of Fla. Nothing fancy...good rates, clean sheets...and the pool's right outside our door!

          Logan and Clay with Carter ("Blues-Boy")


I missed Donna, already. She decided not to make the trip due to her brother Joe's battle with life and the end of it. She didn't want to be the one to say..."damn, let's go, we gotta get to Tenn., ASAP"...plus the poor girl's Rotator Cuff surgery (1 month, now) is giving her hell.
Regarding Joe...I feel like I gotta jump in with as much vigor and resources as I can muster, and help him do what he WANTS to do, rather than what the "System" has available...and that sure as hell ain't lying in some half-assed nursing home waiting to drift off into Stardust. While the staff might know the particulars...they sure as hell don't know, or want to know...The Man. And he's thinking about Hunter Thompson...and I'm thinking about building the Cannon. So, we're taking matters into our own hands, and moving Joe back to his comfort zone...Home.
But, I digress...

Update....7-21-2010

Joe is home, and is under the care of Hospice. He is losing his battle with his body...but he's winning the battle to 'Live Life Like You're Dying'. So many dynamics in family life. Mike Rutherford (Mike and The Mechanics/Genesis) coined it beautifully in his tune "In The Living Years". Closure, words not left unsaid, emotions running high...and the clock keeps ticking. Donna spent over a week with her big brother...se pic below...and got to know a great many things about what Is and what Isn't. Kids come out of the fogs that have kept them apart for years...and repent, share love, sorrow...and hope that the bridges can be repaired.
Esoteric?? maybe. Triumphant Epiphany?? damn right!