Musically speaking!

There is no way that I can find only 10 songs that define my life. At different times during different decades a particular song might have described my life, soothed me, energized me, and irritated me. But it was THAT time and that time is gone. Of course certain songs do invoke memories but they are too numerous to mention.

I love all kinds of music. Of course Motown http://classic.motown.com/ is undoubtedly my favorite genre but I also luv rock, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin alternative, classical http://www.mozarteffect.com/MoreOnTME/WhatIsTME.html and even country (let me qualify that SOME country).

However, I do have to say that the 70’s hold a special meaning for me as I experienced some special life events. I graduated from high school, actually was old enough to drink at 19 for a short time, then turned 21, and got married in 1978. So here are the top hits from that decade. Disco forever! http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/oldies_list/top/70.htm

Then came the 80’s for me and that was special as I had two children during that decade. Here are the top hits from that era. http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/oldies_list/top/80.htm

Now I will say that the song Harbor Lights by the Platters does hold a special meaning for me. I like this because it is my mom’s favorite song. When I hear it I remember her getting dressed up to go out. She would put on her favorite black dress and special black shoes dabbing on her favorite cologne, which was Ciro’s Danger. My mom is 77 years old and I know that one day she won’t be around and it will be nice to hear that song and remember her when she was young and full of life.

Perhaps Nietsche said it best. "Without music, life would be a mistake." - -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Draft for my story

Discipline
http://www.busadm.wayne.edu/

Sample Recruiters for Finance Majors
Allstate Insurance Group
Ameritech Applied Technologies
Chubb Group of Ins. Co
Comerica Inc.
Consumers Power Company
DaimlerChrysler
Deloitte & Touche
Detroit Edison
EDS
Ford Motor Company
Health Alliance Plan (HAP)
Kmart
Michigan National Bank Corporation
New England Life Financial Services
Prudential Insurance Company
Sample Recruiters for ISM Majors
Ameritech Applied Technologies
Bank One
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Comerica Inc.
Complete Business Solutions, Inc.
DaimlerChrysler
Deloitte & Touche

http://www.ppom.com/

Anecdote/Community
http://www.masb.org/
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
http://www.wcs.k12.mi.us/
http://www.brazelton-institute.com/berrybio.html http://www.bellyrox.com/wwwbellyroxcom/puredance.html

http://www.yahoo.com/s/240226

http://www.sss.gov/
1984 by Orwell, George

Entertainment
www.ymca.net
http://www.pineknobmusic.com/

A Scanner Darkley

I went and saw the preview. I thought that the film effect of rotoscoping was perfect for the subject of the movie. At times, the pictures looked almost like a regular film but then it took on this animated quality that was mesmerizing. The story of how one man's life was taken over by a police narcotics operative unit was eerie because it makes you think that this really could happen. I enjoyed it. I would see more rotoscope films.

Off the Leash!

I have an English Springer Spaniel named Nike. She was named that by my oldest son, because she has this "swoosh" on her backside. It is really his dog. So why do I have her? Good questions, but he cannot take her where he lives at the present time. So Nike and I have had lots of quality time for approximately the last year. I take her for a walk every morning before work when the world is not quite awake and frankly sometimes I am not quite awake. Nevertheless, usually we go to the park close to my house where I let her off the leash so she can run off that boundless nervous energy she has before her imposed daily house arrest.

I have read recently how dog experts are recommending that taking your dog off the leash is quite healthy mentally and physically for the “Canis lupus familiris” (domestic dog).

So I got to thinking, about the parallel of when we “homo sapiens” get let off the leash.

Remember, when as kids a snow day was an ultimate day off the leash. Your mom doesn’t wake you up early. Then after you finally get up you and your friends go out and make snow forts until your fingers turn blue.

As adults we get off the leash when we take vacation time, hug your kids, have sex, eat a good meal, read a good book, see a good movie, listen to a good joke or perhaps even when we take a walk with the ole’ canis lupus familiris. Hmmm, which brings up the question of just who is walking whom? Does it matter? No, life is short so just enjoy the time off the leash!


http://answers.yahoo.com/question

At the end of his essay de Botton favorably compares comics to other artists. What does he see as the role or purpose of art-particularly comedy-in a society?

Alain de Botton says that comedy fits into Matthew Arnold’s definition of art as a discipline offering criticism of life. MA states that their work strives to correct both the injustices of power and the excesses of our envy of those positioned above us in the social hierarchy. Like tragedians, they are motivated by some of the most regrettable aspects of the human condition. (Matt Arnold 1822-1888 English poet, critic and educator) This reminds me of The Three Stooges comedies where their anti-Nazi message was clearly defined in some of their work.

I do think that it is important to occasionally poke fun at those institutions or people who have become self- serving or arrogant with their positions of power. It may sometimes be hard to listen to some comics as they slice and dice their way through catastrophe’s like Katrina but I think they also are making some important observations. Observations that perhaps help the public ask the right questions of those who make or perhaps neglect to make important decisions. This reminds me of the

De Botton also says that the unconscious aim of comics may be to bring about the world where there will be less things to laugh about. Yes, I would definitely like to hear one less joke by Jay Leno or Jon Stewart about the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, until there is withdrawal or peace we will just have to keep laughing.

Laura Kipnis should not watch the movie, “The Notebook”. I can hear the retching noises now, as she is totally disgusted with Allie for being so in love with Noah.

Both characters in this very romantic movie are the antithesis of her argument, “Why has modern love developed in such a way as, to maximize submission and minimize freedom, with so little argument about it”. In Notebook, it seems like the lovers always argued even to the point of physically slapping each other. Which by the way, kind of bothered me that they did get that physically abusive. Nevertheless, I believe it was Noah who said something like, “It’s what we do, we get mad at each other”, after one of their raucous meetings. I believe Noah and Allie went down the love’s path kicking and screaming yet enduring. The enduring relationship challenges yet another of Laura’s declarations that, “most of us pledge ourselves to unions that will far outlast the desire, that impelled them into being”. Noah, or Duke read to Allie everyday from her notebook till they both expired in each other’s arms.
Sure it’s a movie and who knows how many really bad days Noah and Allie really experienced as Laura Kipnis steadfastly proclaims couples will be subjected to over time. I even agree with some of her analysis of the manipulative nature of this so-called modern love. Yet, I can’t help but think that somewhere between Utopia and Laura Kipnis couples can have emotionally satisfying relationships without sacrificing their souls. I say “l'amour est grand”!

First, I would like to say that the movie, “The End of the Affair”, is a favorite of mine. It is pure romantic escapism. Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore are believable and they made you want to be them. I believe that we all would love to fall under that magic spell where the earth stands still and we feel the endorphins of love.

Ralph was so handsome, witty, sarcastically intelligent and had qualities that epitomized what would attract a woman. Julianne classically portrayed the long-suffering diplomat’s wife who was looking for just the right spark. Fiennes was that spark. Hollywood always picks handsome and or quirky guys and unhappy, bored wives.

Passion, deceit, tenderness, self-sacrifice and intrigue is a formula that Hollywood learned long ago to perfect when it came to telling a good love story. Plus, World War II was the perfect backdrop of tension for this love story.

Then the coup de grace was the tragic ending – so Hollywood yet we (the viewers)buy it every time. There must be something very appealing about a storyline that enables one of the lovers going through life loving someone that they will never see, grow old or sick and who they will miss ad infinitum.

Tarnation was a comment on the human condition. Normal? No not by most people's experiences. Yet, for Jonathan and his mother Renee, abuse, psychosis, sadness, loss, confusion and anger ruled their lives. Both had spiraled into the depths of mental illness so acute that there was never a chance to return to any semblance of a clear, concise, positive though process.

How, what, why are the questions I kept asking. Altho I missed the first 15 minutes of the movie, it appeared that it started with Renee's parents giving her shock treatments for some kind of behavior that she displayed. Obviously, the parents were unstable mentally themselves yet the doctors who recommended this treatment have to share the blame. Perhaps this is partly what Nietzsche talked about in regards to identity and letting someone decide your identity. Rosemary and Adolph certainly let someone else decide their daughter's fate. Were they just bad parents or mininformed parents. Perhaps Rosemary and Adolph were abused themselves and that is all they knew. All they knew was how to continue the cycle of abuse. Was Renee's fate pre-destined? One would have to delve into far more family history to see why this really happened. Parents are supposed to protect their children. Rosemary and Adloph did not protect Renee. Renee could not protect Jonathan thus he became the next victim.

It was uncomfortable to watch Jonathan. His self mutilation, his premature entrance into sexual behavior while he was still so young was frightening. You had to imagine how some predators took advantage of him and how confused and scared he must have felt at times.

It is also puzzling as there is this flash of brillance Jonathan displays as an almost a genius like quality in filming his life story iin real time. There seems to be this fine line between madness and virtuoso. He obviously was capable of being in a loving relationshiop with David. Perhaps this gave him some stability someting he never had growing up. Which brngs to mind the anger I felt over the foster home program. How can our foster system be so screwed up. How many times have we heard in the last few years that children sent to foster homes are sometiimes in more danger than if they stayed with the parents. Perhaps, if Jonathan had been placed in a safe environment with parents who gave him boundries and love his life might have been different. Maybe or maybe not as Renee's inability to parent left it's indelible mark on him. As he said at the end, that despite everythig he loved his mother. She was part of him, body and soul and he knew he could not separate from her but he also knew he did not want to be like her. His movie was a noble attempt to do just that. Yes Tarnation was disturbing and frightening yet also honest and hopeful.

On June 7 Carey Gillam of Reuters Health reported, “Across the United States, local and state officials are spending millions of dollars to plot strategies for dealing with a still hypothetical but experts say inevitable – pandemic flu crisis forecast to kill upwards of 2 million Americans.”

Every so often after what seems like a lull in the action the Avian Bird-Flu or H5N1 as it is commonly referred to, squawks it's way back into the headlines. How worried should we be and should we all be buying the “Avian Bird-Flu Preparedness Kit.” Trust me, just type in the words bird flu on any search engine and you will have a plethora of web sites from which to buy these products. Is this hype and greed on the part of those who would make money by playing on people’s fears or should we be taking this potential pandemic a little more seriously?

The USINFO.STATE.GOV web site special link lists ten things they think people should know when there is a pandemic outbreak. I will give you four that caught my attention:
Ø All countries will be affected
Ø Medical supplies will be inadequate
Ø Large numbers of deaths will occur
Ø Economic and social disruption will be great

Am I panicking? Nope. Am I concerned? A little. Are you?

http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/global_issues/bird_flu.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory