THE STREAM (pay no attention to the screaming man behind the screen)

Just recently, I read a tweet with a link to a list of the top political leaders and it got me thinking ... how did we get here? To my mind it is quite backwards to think of politicians as leaders, really at this point in history I hardly think this need be stated. It is not their job to lead, to set moral guidelines, or to set the course of the nation... it is their job to listen! to listen to us, the people, it is our job to be involved & to watch carefully what they do. This next bit sounds like a bad thing but really it's not so read carefully... We are not supposed to trust politicians! not because they are bad people but simply because they are...PEOPLE. I am not saying that you can't trust people, of course you can but you need to have a realistic assessment of their nature ( by the way... this is almost impossible the way we live today but maybe we'll get to that later) this is the reason why the story of the scorpion & the frog rings so true. We can...

Sometimes you hear about a movie and you want to like it for any of a number of good reasons, in my case I have never really got taken over by Bollywood films seen a few but to date ... My name is Khan had me even with the quite daggy line ... " My name is Khan ... and I am not a terrorist!" which is repeated over & over. Don't get me wrong the film has a fantastic premise Indian man grows up close to his mother which makes his sibling jealous, mother dies, both sons end up in America ... then 9/11... lots of tension to work with there, he eventually goes on a pilgrimage to meet the president to say... " My name is Khan ... and I am not a terrorist!" even the fact that he suffers from Asperger's Syndrome could work and I can certainly see where it would make the character more acceptable to American audiences but it led to some very bizarre situations at some points, like Khan's visit to Willamina Georgia where he meets "mama" Jenny &...

I like podcasts... I think that hearing the views of people be they famous or anonymous is interesting. I listen to some casts on Photoshop, technology, Tai Chi & Dr Karl's triple J science podcast, Recently I added a new one to my list "The field Negro's guide to arts & culture" besides having a great title it has a couple of things going for it, namely the hosts, Comedian W. Kamau Bell & Guitarist Vernon Reid from what I've heard so far two literate, funny, knowledgeable & well spoken hosts. Right off the mark the hosts made a disclaimer about this podcast not being about race, and from the first two episodes I can say that is true, but the fact that the statement had to be made in the first place... well that says something doesn't it? Now as you probably know I am quite fond of long rambling dialogues, lengthy monologues (mostly My own) & stream of conscientiousness patter so really the podcast format is really made for me. The next epi...

Now I know I've said this before but... I really must write more! I really do believe in bogging and I want to be a part of it... Ahhh but time, I never have the time but this time... No really … … I quit smoking didn't I? Yeah... I will do it! So now what? Right... A topic! Hmmm... I have it! In honour of the shenanigans involving the ATO ( Australian Tax Office) and Paul Hogan I want to make a list. People who get a pass on questionable behaviour (Providing they are not caught... on tape... clubbing baby fur seals... in Klan sheets... while the camp-fire they made earlier using the bible, Torah, Koran, the Declaration of independence, the Magna carta & the collected works of Tom Clancy burns away in the background) People who through their work or actions have enriched us beyond the point that we should ever give them grief about something stupid they may have said or done. For example... Paul Hogan... Actor, Director, Comedian (Stop laughing) He is all t...

Melbourne is the mistress of the "soft" launch... We are the home of deaf & Mute art installations, ridiculously unpublicized concerts, clubs that have no profile ... I could go on & on. And now with only a minimum of fanfare this fantastic, profoundly livable city has outdone itself with the understated ... strike that ... whispered launch of what could have been an important program. Modeled on a European style hire system , not really but that's what they say. This is a government program that could have been made much more successful with just the smallest amount of advance information as I walked through the city I practically stumbled over the bike racks on Swanston street and really only noticed them because of the one or two citizens there reading the instructions on the rental unit and scratching their heads an action I soon joined. If we are going to have these ideas succeed there has to be some noise made ... at this point even a red balloon tied to o...

Ok ... I don't want to be a worry wart but ... is anyone else concerned by a giant Ice burg off the coast of Western Australia. For those that don't know... this is not an ordinary event!

Listen I know that we are all entitled to say just about anything we want in the many forum, pages on the street and well just about anywhere but I just read a post written by a person that alleges to be a teacher, parent, spouse and American and while claiming to be all these things still found a place to keep the fear & hatred inside safe from the light of rationality. This particular post was commenting on the Obama presidency what this person wrote is really irrelevant... it's the motivation that I think is most interesting. We have all heard it before, griping from the loser in some contest ( in this case a presidential election ) but what is important to remember is that this is not a ball game or some other contest this is about the direction of our country and there is not supposed to be a loser. The idea is that whoever we pick the poor bastard should be working for us. In the interest of full disclosure you should know I do not write from within the borders of America...

Listen... It is sad to say but No matter how hard we try... none of us can avoid being put into some group. Black, White, Asian, Jew. Man, Woman. Straight, Gay. Those are just the easy ones... it seems the longer I live, the more subsets I hear of and/or are added to, I guess that just comes with the gift of life. I have never really understood why the desire to break life down to subjective groupings is so attractive. I have to accept it ... I guess... but i can't shake the feeling that we'd be much better off if we could take the judgment out of our little groupings. There has... as long as I can remember, been one particular bit of nonsense that gets my blood boiling and sad to say that I have heard this same nonsense come from the mouths of just about every kind of person. I'm sure you know it... it goes like this... " I have no problem with _ _ _ _ _ _ " or " _ _ _ _ control everything" or " _ _ _ _ _ _ just need to get over it" or ...

Driving around Australia off and on for these years has taught me a few things ... but I think the most important thing for me is that I learned how to pause... How to stop and take in the scenery... even scenery that doesn't have buildings in it! There has been lots of time to consider the scenery and a fair bit of time to reflect on the images I have taken along the way. I'd like to spend more time doing the same thing in the states as I remember it most places I experienced were blurred by the rush to get there our the rush to get back with barely anytime to just let it unfold ... I think I need to fix that!

There is one thing that bothers me ... well actually there are a lot of things but for this post let's try to focus on one. No it's not that Oprah will not be doing her thing on our TV screens ( It is a concern though ... think of all the comedy routines that will never be written) or the uneasy feeling I get when thinking that politics might be her next thing! Again... a valid concern but the real thing that gets me is a strange phenomenon that occurs anytime a "black story " happens. Anytime Oprah, Michael Jackson or any other black personality find their way into the daily news report ( News... that is funny) a fantastical thing happens, Black reporters that have not been seen since that last "Black Story" suddenly appear on on our screens but hey let's not make this a black thing... same thing happens with Koreans , Latino, Chinese , Japanese ... it's like there is some strange journalistic Green Room where "ethnic" reporters wait for ...

You know … it occurs to me , after all these years that there have been so many directional clues that I have not considered along the way to here . Maybe I'm a little slow or mybe I just lost focus for a while... or maybe , and this is the part that scares me, maybe I have a fatal flaw when it comes to women, it's not that the women I have known were bad, far from it, I have been extremely lucky to have known every one of them, but I am sure now, that as much as I would have wished it were not so, in every case we were not suited to each other. Is it the accumulating years that lead me to believe that the ones that I did not explore fully are the very ones I may have had the best chance with? Or is it just that crazy “road not taken” thing that does it? I would have liked to grow with someone, but it seems that is not my fate. I have wanted that thing , that ubiquidious “spark” I think in some cases I have tried to build the spark bu that can't work. Other times I have hop...

Protest Rally - Against Iranian Election, Melbourne Ok It seems that it will never end ... Fear political unrest, Killings in Burma , threats in Iran & fixed elections... Hmmm wonder where they could've got the idea that that kind of thing could be done? Refugees moving from one place to another in desperate attempts to keep their families together I hear that is what we all want to keep families together ... but apparently that only applies to certain families. Nuclear games between the U.S. and Korea, Iran, China ... Somalia, India... well you get it. What  can be done ... another protest, more signs , more interviews on the Tele. Do we need to be told that we have built our lives on the wrong scale? How can we manage to get up and do these useless things we do while on every front we are cming to the crisis point? All the issues and situations that we have put on the back burners for so long are now all screaming for attention simultaneously! It may get to the point where we...

There may be some kind of reason to this whole thing, logic would be too much to hope for but maybe the world is supposed to do something beside respond to the whims of mankind... I really do want there to be a point... more than wanting, needing, getting. Times like tonight are when the waste of it all gets to me... Fighting over god , money, love, hate, gender , sexuality ...  all so small... and in the end they just take us away from doing anything that moves all of us forward. "all of us" ... funny, there isn't really an "all of us" such a tiny planet and we have never enjoyed peace and prosperity... through all our time there has always been someone that has had to endure incredible hardships to make all the good times possible. Look at all we can do and yet right now in so many places people are dying of hunger... Hunger! How can this be? Money and food everywhere! Or ... is it! Who has enough? What segment of our world has people that have enough?

That's it friends, . I've finally flipped it! I'm going to keep writing on my favourite subject "Why humans (myself included) are so damn stupid", for a million posts or until the world's problems are solved... or fail to do so! and then... I'm going over to my window, to slide it open and shout... "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore! I've had enough of these life sucking idiots constantly assaulting me with their half-baked ideas about how the world is shaped, conveniently over looking the very basic fact that we should be shaping our world and we would if we could get up off our big fat asses for more than 5 minutes to get involved I can no longer take the endless waste and the resistance to truth that the way we live has brought. So whatcha you gonna do about it ... Mr. Schmarty, pants? well... glad You asked! First we gotta go way back... to take a look at all the crap we refused to give proper c...

A few months ago , I took a run down to Port Campbell to see the 12Apostles in Victoria , Australia but due to an accident on the road the route was closed so I had to turn around and head back to Melbourne 8 + hours round trip ... with no pay off... Granted it was a much worse time for the accident victim, last weekend I got the chance to finish that trip. click the kink and see what I saw. It's a fantastic part of the world.

When I Think that I have spent all these years trying to do the right thing only to find myself in one uncomfortable situation after another... is it so wrong to want to be loved honestly & with honor? All this searching was left me thinking... have I been wasting my time? Is it even possible to find considerate love in these times? and what does it mean anyway? All I know is I've come so far and I just won't take a life of sniping and bitching at my partner was it always this hard... or am I just not cut out for it?

  So what if you had only one day left, one day for it all to come good, one day to fulfill the potential so many have seen in you, one day to make sure your kids would be safe... what would you do? ok let hope we all have many years left to breathe the air, watch the sunset, and rise, swim in the ocean or rivers... so now we're gonna live so my question is the same ... what will you do to make it it all to come good,  to fulfill the potential so many have seen in you, to make sure your kids would be safe... what will you do?

    I took a survey today... and while I was answering the questions about the application I realized that  I really do use it, and like it there's so many ways to access all this information I Really do wish that there could be one page that could take me every where I wanna be... how hard Could that be. I got a new lappy and it has vista and I can see how all this can be useful I mean I'm writing this post with a writing pad with a handwriting recognition that works quite well it I has changed the way I do most everything from photography to web surfing. so now I am looking forward to living in a world where information is at my fingertips.

Sometimes it's the way you perceive a thing that makes all the difference. There are so many times I could have avoided many problems by simply taking time to consider all the options, in fact it could be said that I would not be sitting here if not for the mysteries of perception I could've been finished in the Accident... or if I had left my Apt. in NYC 5 minutes sooner on on that fateful day when I met The former mrs. Peabody met I would not be here. That world be a shame. . . but Just 3 short years ago I would not have called it a shame

I can't remember when I have so anxiously awaited the release of a bit of Hollywood fluff the saga of Jason Bourne has me riveted, (even with the memory of the 70's version still in my mind) let's face it ...the story has been told before. Amnesiac, killing machine struggling to get his memory and his life back! Here in OZ it won't come out till August 30th! Matt Damon... great actor but I think it's more about Bourne! Just 6 more sleeps!