Blog No. 217: February 28 Black Out, Bill Martin Poet, Choir Choir Choir People Have the Power

February 14, 2025

February 28th Black Out

February 28th The 24 Hour Economic Black Out Begins.
 
As our first initial act, we turn it off.

WHEN: From midnight, Thursday February 27th through Midnight Friday the 28th

WHAT NOT TO DO:

* Do not make any purchases

* Do not shop online, or in-store

* No Amazon

* No Walmart

* No Best Buy 

* Nowhere!

* Do not spend money on: Fast Food, Gas, Major Retailers

* Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non-essential spending

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

* Only buy essentials if absolutely necessary(Food, Medicine, Emergency Supplies)

* If you must spend, ONLY support small, local businesses.

Please do not stock up on Feb. 27 but plan ahead to get what you need.

SPREAD THE MESSAGE:

Talk about it, post about it, and document your actions that day!

WHY THIS MATTERS!

* Corporations and banks only care about their bottom line.

* If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message.

*  If they don't listen (they wont) we make the next blackout longer (We will)

This is our first action.

This is how we make history.

Poem by William Martin

Photo courtesy Adam Kinzinger and Hudson Institute

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

Bill Martin is the author of several books on Taoist and Zen thought, including: The Parent's Tao Te Ching, The Couple's Tao Te Ching, The Sage's Tao Te Ching ... 

Choir Choir Choir: People Have the Power

I think it is high time for another round of Patti Smith's Choir Choir Choir. Let us turn this up as loud as possible and sing along with it at the top of our lungs. May these words motivate us and propel us into action before it is too late...

Painting of the Week

Lunar Landscape, mixed media on canvas, 50” x 80”

Charity of the Week: World Central Kitchen

World Central Kitchen and Jose Andres are as usual on the front lines—in this case, helping and feeding victims of the California fires…

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Source: February-28-Black-Out-Bill-Martin-poet-Cho...

Blog No. 216: The Telepathy Tapes, Yuka Healthy Food App, The Power of Good: Sir Nicholas Winton

February 8, 2025

The Telepathy Tapes

Click image to hear an interview with Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell

I've struggled to write this entry, mainly because I don't even know how to start talking about this amazing podcast The Telepathy Tapes. Suffice it to say that this is the most mind boggling and exciting thing I have come across--and it is BLOWING MY MIND.

The Telepathy Tapes Podcast, produced by documentary filmmaker Ky Dickens, covers a very wide range of subject matter in the world of the paranormal, but begins with the newly brought to light and seemingly indisputable telepathic abilties of nonverbal autistic children. The podcast is based on the work of Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell, author, public speaker, researcher and practicing psychiatist, who through her study of autistic savants (and using, from what I can determine, are meticulously designed experiments) is proving the psychic abilities of many of her autistic subjects.

But the podcast doesn't stop here--in addition to first hand conversations with mothers, teachers and the autistic subjects themselves, the podcast also investigates unbelievable startling anecdotes regarding animal whispering intelligence, reincarnation, near death experiences and communication with spirits. What if I told you about a herd of elephants who somehow knew and showed up at the death of the human who provided them with sanctuary even through they were many miles away? Or about an African Gray Parrot who outloud spoke words describing the dream content of its owner in real time? And what if you heard that many autistic children meet and visit with each other telepathically in a nonphysical place called "The Hill." Sounds unbelievable! Even if you're skeptical, I have a feeling you might find this podcast mind opening like I did. To understand this possibility one must view the world around us through a new lens that transcends the current one of scientific materialism, one that proposes that everything around us is imbued with consciousness.

Powell believes that herein just might be the key to understanding human consciousness as it survives independent of our bodies as energy that, by its nature, never dissipates. To say that she defies the current prevailing materialist scientific model is an understatement and for that reason she is controversial. But to her, "the data was so compelling and accurate that I had to follow it even though I thought I was risking my scientific reputation, a risk a scientist takes when they challenge the current paradigm."

YUKA Healthy Food App

Here's a useful tool for when you go grocery shopping: YUKA, an app that lets you know what are the healthy choices you run across in a grocery story.

Originally launched in France in 2017, the app began as a tool for French shoppers to better understand the health impact of packaged food products while browsing the aisles of a grocery store. repertoire. In addition to food, they now also include cosmetics as part of their repertoire.

This is how it works--you scan a product’s barcode and immediately a score pops up from 1 to 100--the low numbers being a bad choice and 100 being the best healthy options. A score of 75 or higher is deemed excellent and more than 50 is good. The app is free, but you can get advanced services by paying from $10 to $20. Yuka takes no money from sponsors and no one can pay for a score to be altered.

The Power of Good: Sir Nicholas Winton

In light of today's current events, here is a story you won't want to miss. It answers the question of "what can we do? and shows the power of one determined individual who decided to do something.

This individual's name was Nicholas Winton (1909-2015) and this is his powerful story. In 1938 he was just a normal citizen, a young privileged stockbroker who, having heard of the suffering of the Czechoslovakian Jews and others in that country, decided to try and figure out a way to help them. He launched a scheme in which he organized and orchestrated the transport of 660+ children (on seven trains over a period of months) out of Czechoslovakia to safety, to be placed in families in England. In 2013, the full documentary Nicky's Family was released. You can watch it here.

None of these 660+ people (and their children and grandchildren) will ever doubt the power of one individual. Let Sir Nicholas Winton be an inspiration to us all in these extremely turbulent times...

Painting of the Week

A client just sent me this photo of a piece they bought many years ago from Gert Mathiesen. A beautiful piece that I had forgotten all about…

Charity of the Week: World Central Kitchen

Charity of the Week: Pasadena Humane Society

Anyone who has a pet can see the terror in the eyes of this dog and my heart breaks for all the animals affected by the LA fires. Please consider giving to the Pasadena Humane Society. They have taken in over 400 animals from the Eaton Fire Emergency and are desperately in need of monetary donations to help purchase medical supplies and other resources as they start to see a significant increase in the number of burned and injured animals coming to our shelter.

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Blog No. 215: Queer Eye: Billy the Librarian, Former Republicans Speak Up, Bob Dylan A Complete Unknown

January 31, 2025

Queer Eye: Billy the Librarian

Click image above to see trailer of the Queer Eye episode

Click image to see Billy Allen’s instagram: 3KingVisions

In the next life I would like to be a librarian. I love everything about these places: the books of course: the smell of them, the stories and knowledge hidden behind those exciting covers we are not supposed to judge. The idea of just having so much knowledge at our fingertips, as if all these beautiful words just jump out of the pages into our brains and hearts. A library is definitely my kind of temple...

I also love the netflix series Queer Eye--it is a tv show that teaches empathy, compassion, and brings us closer to the diversity, joy and pathos of human existence. These fab five have love in their hearts and they go out and attempt to share it...

The episode "Are You There Fab 5? It's me, Billy combines both of my loves in an inspiring episode--the Fab Five help out a man who had some wild partying years in his past but turned it around by going back to school and finding his calling.

Billy Allen is known in his Las Vegas Whitney Library Clark County community as a hip hop head librarian, who not only hosts a very popular animated hip hop story hour and inspires children to love books but also has an expanded view of what a library can do for a community. He realizes that a library is a tremendous place to hook up people with essential resources in the community and has made his library into that kind of hub. For that reason, he was awarded in 2024 a Compassionate City Awards by the city of Las Vegas.

To quote Billy in his acceptance speech: "To me, compassion embodies the essence of empathy and sympathy towards others. It's about understanding and acknowledging the struggles and joys of those around us, and actively seeking ways to support and uplift them. In the context of libraries, compassion is fundamental to our mission of serving our community. It's about creating welcoming spaces where everyone feels valued and respected, and where their needs and aspirations are met with understanding and care. Libraries are beacons of compassion, offering solace, support, and opportunities for growth to all who walk through their doors."

Former Republicans Speak Up

Substack is quickly becoming the place I go for real information on a variety of subjects, especially political ones. And one of the people I rely heavily on these days is Steve Schmidt, founder of the Lincoln Project, who had the courage to stand up as a Republican, a sorely lone voice in his party, to reject MAGA and fascism.

Another voice that I respect on substack and who has been very outspoken along with Liz Cheney is Adam Kinzinger, another former Republican. Here he laments indignantly "where are the democrats.." I would like to help their voices spread and be heard by more people.

Please consider subscribing as a paid or unpaid subscriber to their substack newsletters:

steveschmidt.substack.com
adamkinzinger.substack.com

Bob Dylan Movie
A Complete Unknown

The iconic Milton Glaser poster of Dylan ca. 1967

I spent many of my coming of age years with Bob Dylan--my first boyfriend was a huge fan and then I married a Dane who was also in awe of the musical legend. (Sometimes I think one of the main reasons Gert married me was so that I could translate and fill him in on Dylan's lyrics that he so wanted to understand.) My daughter will attest to the fact that Dylan's music was the soundtrack to her childhood in our studio in northern Westchester.

The movie A Complete Unknown is fabulous. Don't miss it. It documents Dylan's early days of his career from 1961 to 1965 and really captures that epoch to a tee. Timothée Chalamet does a superb job of playing Dylan and capturing his essence. I hope he wins the Oscar. I didn't realize ahead of time that he plays his own guitar and does all the singing, something which he worked on for many years before making the movie. Zane Lowe's interview with Chalamet is fascinating and a real behind the scenes look at the making of the film and Timothée's background.

The supporting cast also did a great job--Monica Barbaro was awesome as Joan Baez and she too plays her own guitar and it is her voice, not Joan's, that sings. It was wonderful to see Ed Norton doing wonders with the Pete Seeger character.

Quote of the Week

Paintings of the Week

Charity of the Week: World Central Kitchen

Charity of the Week: Pasadena Humane Society

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