❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
The most important things belong first, not last, or never.
In search of a new world,
the wings of the spirit must not be clipped.
The days of our lives must become precious.
In all heaven and earth,
there is this one thing to do:
take your time
Enjoy the perfection of what you are doing.
Enjoy accomplishing it exquisitely.
Human life must know ecstasy.
Intense beauty is liberation.
…Here again, as everywhere,
the great river passing –
I passing,
you passing . . .
. . . forever flowing down
through time,
flowing through many channels,
fading out of the embraces of
its names . . .
. . . simple as the voice of a child
and never to be quite known.
In this light and breeze are resurrection echoes.
Suddenly one becomes aware one lives in an eternity,
And hears strange footsteps
ascending anciently trodden pathways.
Our lives like dreams endure
and reach out over the universe.
Nothing real is to itself alone.
There are sidestreams to rivers,
there are overtones to thought.
Great love reaches out
and is involved in the world’s
purposes.
Our loves are only symbols of
an unknown immortality.
Where communion is deep,
there exists no separation at all,
for what needs telling those we
love is understood already,
and what is supposed to be
gone and past is often more real than ever.
Through the sculpture of experience,
that part of ourselves
which survives, like cloud, resolves continuously.
This is the spirit of my hope and my religion.
Cedric Wright
Words of the Earth
As I am writing my will and the words and music that I want to be included after my mortal body dies, I went to Cedric Wright's book of Words of the Earth. I have typed a portion of the book that I love. This book includes the beautiful photography art of the High Sierra wilderness country of Cedric Wright accompanied by the beautiful prose that he wrote.
On the inside book cover which was written by David Brower, San Francisco, September 28, 1960, a quote by Cedric Wright includes this:
I have been unusually privileged in knowing intimately those wilderness areas where the intangible values sing clearly......The artist seeks fundamental beauty, the voice of concord, in a world which is presently dominates by opposite types of understanding. Beauty and understanding are the foundations not only of art, but also of a peaceful human world. It is imperative that in such times, as these the artist should use his words and his thought in addition to his art."
............................................................... Heath Ledger in The Four Feathers A wonderful film. Heath Ledger Uploaded by Cliffy4479
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can't help it. I am in this Heath Ledger groove. I just "watched" the most interesting radio interview with Heath done December 3, 2007 posted on Youtube in three parts.
............................................................... Part 1 Uploaded by springrose147
Stephen Schaefer:
Brokeback Mountain really was, you know, in some ways was a career peak, so, or in many ways.Did it really change things for you, in the way you looked at yourself, or, uh the way you felt what you were able to then go do? …as an actor, in terms of what Hollywood would offer you?
Heath:
Yeah, yeah, yes, it did.Um, I’d like to not to think of it as a peak (laughs)cause I’m only 28, I have a few years."
Schaefer: You can have many peaks.
Heath: Oh, okay, good.
Schaefer: There are peaks and they’re valleys.
Heath: That’s true, true.Okay, um,
Schaefer: One of many career peaks.
Heath: Hopefully.Um, but yeah, it um, I get, yeah it did on many levels, I think personally it did too.I, I um, I’d been looking, I always look for things that challenge me and, and duh, and dum and teach me and, and teach me and, and to be more understanding, accepting human being, an actor and, and, and dum and that was a real task, there were a lot of obstacles and um.
You know, I, uh, I don’t think it was, I don’t think you can say it’s being brave or being courageous.It’s just, you know, uh, I just think it’s being honest, understanding, accepting of myself, and of the story, of the character.It did teach me a lot about that.And about your power.To believe.And, and um. so-o, you know, I-I on a personal level got a lot out of it.And uh, um.And definitely, it, it, uh, um, uh, you know it opened some doors.You know, people are uh, somewhat utterly trusting me more now. (Laughs) Which, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, for them.But, um you know, it’s um..so
Included in this portion is this quote by Heath at 7:06 :
"...and dum, and then I do the Terrence Malik, movie right after that, then um The Tree of Life and then I um, and then I, I'll drop to the ground dead (laughs, Schaefer joins Heath in laughter) for a year...and duh, hybenate...um, mmm".
Transcription of Heath’s answering
The following answer begins at 7:45
Heath: Yeah, I, I guess so. I-I guess you’d… you know, I don’t know whether it’s optimism or just kind of um, I..you know, it’s...
Sometimes , you just, you-you have to kind of throw away the care, like you have to not be too conscious of what will be a success and what won’t be.Uh, cause you really – that’s out of your power.And, and, like I said, look what is success?And um, uh, so I, you know I just, I- I try to look at what I feel like…the, the
Cause for me, like, what a success is – is, I mean the only time that I’m alive, and living and expressing and feeling, and, and relating is, is, is when I’m on set and that time between “action” and “cut” and so that’s the only thing that’s really important is how that experience is, and, and how that experience will affect my life and what I have to give from my life to that experience.And everything that happens after that – is just irrelevant. You know, it’s
............................................................... Part 3
At 3:33, Stephen Schaefer chooses to follow the interview with the Bob Dylan song, "and now as we rock on out, we're going to be doing Antony and the Johnsons version of
Heath: is, is when I’m on set and that time between “action” and “cut” and so that’s the only thing that’s really important is how that experience is, and, and how that experience will affect my life and what I have to give from my life to that experience.And everything that happens after that – is just irrelevant. You know, it’s (transcription above repeated from Part 2 here on Part 3)
kind of um, if it’s a success, great, if it’s not, great, fine.You know, it’s um, it affects you, or it doesn’t.
But it’s, that shouldn’t in my, my mind, it shouldn’t kind dictate what your choices.Um, I, I –I just want to enjoy myself.I want to learn more.I want to work with good people.Um, creatively and as people who really just good people.
And duh, uh, so that, that, that drives me more than, then, well you know Terry had a really hard time on Brothers Grimm and you know, uh for some odd reason is finding it hard to get his next movie up and running.Oh, w-w, that’s too risky, I can’t be involved with that.No, no it’s like he’s one of the most creative, most visionary minds of, of, ever, in film history.I – I – I and a wonderful figure in my life.And had done a lot for me and cast me in The Brothers Grimm, when no one wanted to work with me at that stage of career.And, and, and uh, you know the company even once Terry brought me on boarddidn’t want me in the film and wanted to replace me and Terry said “No! I won’t do the movie without him for some odd reason.
Schaefer: Jesus, who knew?!Oh, God.
Heath: Yeah, you know, he, he’d given a lot to me and like if I can do anything to help him out then, then I will and dum, and so, you know, that’s the reason why.
Heath talks about the life of moving between staying home and working in films.
Schaefer: And final question.
And uh, this is something, you know, we ask actresses more often than actors.How do you find trying to have a balance then between your personal life and your professional life?With, you know, is it difficult, we see in the Dylan movie, the part you’re playing, that his personal life seems to really suffer from it.The celebrity.
Heath: Yeah, yeah it is difficult, but um, I mean, I can’t, I think my struggles are different to Robbie’s, I- I, but yeah, it is, but, it’s, it’s kind of heartbreaking in a sense – like having to-o, the inconsistency of your social life –
kind of clocking in, checking in with your friends, and getting back a routine with your family, and, and life and kind of doing the washing, doing the dishes, maintaining your household, uh, commuting, uh, and then that just being chopped off and having three weeks go to London and, and work through Christmas and act in Vancouver and work to Martin and go off to Austin, Texas, and work there for three months then you’re away from them and everything for seven months and then you then you come back and try to rekindle it again, only to have it taken away, a year later.And, and it can be really tiring, it can be really lonely.
It can be (exhales) all these things, but, but, but we still do it.Like it’s because, you know, it’s what we love, it’s something that drives us to it. Or away from it.Or you know, there’s a fascination, an addiction to the lifestyle as well, I think, um.It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, I believe.Um, you know. Cause part of you wants to stay home and do nothing for the rest of your life, but as soon as you’re there, you want to get out and start working.
Schaefer laughs, then Heath joins him)You know?
Schaefer, Yeah.
Okay, this is Stephen Schaefer for WPS1 Beyond the Subtitles. So long, farewell and “Thank You, Heath Ledger”.
Heath: Thank You, Stephen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This interview is precious and priceless.Heath is comfortable and relaxed in this interview.Stephen and Heath appear to be friends, here.What a pleasure to hear Heath in this 3 part interview that springrose147 has blessed us with.It is just so hard to deal with the sorrow to have him gone.Not unlike many around the world, I connected with Heath though I didn't "know" him.But Heath connected through his integrity, minus the pretense and hype.Just by being Heath.
Heath, without knowing, left many with an indelible mark. We never forget those who put us in touch with our own souls.
Dear Frankie is an endearing movie. Wonderful ensemble cast. Tender directing. Great, quiet movies like this one will be a classic for future generations. It is inspirational to see such a creation by human beings. The youtube below is a wonderful work of art that uses three works of art - Schumann's music Traumerei, scenes from Dear Frankie and the poetry of Robert Burns,Yon WildMossyMountains to present a new and unique lovely creation to simply enjoy beauty. ....................................................
Beauty is here - Click if you want to see it in High Definition and with a larger screen Created by Tishieann1 Text by Tish at youtube: Pictures of Scotland and video clips from Dear Frankie make up the background for a Robert Burns poem. Music is Traumerei composed by Schumann. This has turned out quite lovely and still looking forward to the time Gerry (Gerard Butler) plays to role of Burns in the upcoming production. The poem . . .
That nurse in their bosom the youth o' the Clyde, Where the grouse lead their coveys thro' the heather to feed, And the shepherd tends his flock as he pipes on his reed.
Not Gowrie's rich valley, nor Forth's sunny shores, To me hae the charms o'yonwild, mossy moors; For there, by a lanely, sequestered stream, Besides a sweet lassie, my thought and my dream.
Amang thae wildmountains shall still be my path, Ilk stream foaming down its ain green, narrow strath; For there, wi' my lassie, the day lang I rove, While o'er us unheeded flie the swift hours o'love.
She is not the fairest, altho' she is fair; O' nice education but sma' is her share; Her parentage humble as humble can be; But I lo'e the dear lassie because she lo'es me.
To Beauty what man but maun yield him a prize, In her armour of glances, and blushes, and sighs? And when wit and refinement hae polish'd her darts, They dazzle our een, as they flie to our hearts.
But kindness, sweet kindness, in the fond-sparkling e'e, Has lustre outshining the diamond to me; And the heart beating love as I'm clasp'd in her arms, O, these are my lassie's all-conquering charms!
Dear Frankie was inspired by this Czech film...... ....................................................
.................................................... Part 1 of 3 Kolja - Czech movie awarded by Oscar in '96 which softly describes a relationship between a middle-aged man and a Russian boy in Czechoslovakia in the late 80's. Director: Jan Svěrák Languages: Slovak, Czech, Russian Uploaded by withoutaim ....................................................
.................................................... Part 2 of 3 ....................................................
.................................................... Part 3 of 3
The best we can do is to inspire....passing on what we are, create and find worthy of our concentrated attention.
Speaking to reporters today, Susan Rice, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, castigated the government in Sudan for its decision to expel humanitarian groups. She noted:
"The United States is gravely concerned by the reckless decision of the Sudanese government to expel international aid groups working to ease the suffering of Sudan's citizens...The humanitarian situation in the country is already dire and this callous step threatens the lives of innocents already suffering from years of war and upheaval... Millions of civilians, including untold thousands of children and elderly people, will be left even more vulnerable to starvation, disease, despair and death if the government of Sudan does not immediately change course... The government of Sudan at its own choosing is now heading down a path toward even greater international isolation."
Reuters reports that Rice told Sudan's Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem that Khartoum's "decision was counterproductive and an "enormous escalation" that would exacerbate the situation on the ground and harm Sudan's relations with the international community." Rice also noted that the possibility of a no-fly zone is being discussed.
The Sudanese government’s recent expulsion of thirteen international humanitarian aid organizations from the most vulnerable areas of Darfur and other areas in eastern and northern Sudan will have repercussions that are difficult to fathom. In retaliation for the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on Wednesday for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, his regime is again targeting the very people whom they are supposed to protect.
There are approximately 4.7 million internally displaced Darfuris living in camps in Darfur today. In a press conference yesterday, Catherine Bragg, the United Nations’ Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated that the expelled groups made up 40% of the total number of aid workers in these camps. In her statement, Ms. Bragg reported that with the loss of these groups, over one million people would be left without food, health care and potable water.
Via Twitter updates, journalist Rob Crilly is providing on-the-ground reporting from camps outside El Fasher, Darfur and helping to explain the depth of what is happening.
Outside the hospital — run by the International Rescue Committee until it was ordered out — a mother brushed flies from the face of her daughter. “My baby is sick,” Fatima Abdulrahmen said. “She has a fever and I brought her here and now I don’t know what to do. Who will help me now?”
As the U.N. scrambles to fill the gap left by the expelled groups, the United States and the new Obama administration must take some important steps during this crucial time. If the reports on the President’s desk aren’t enough, I hope the sheer numbers of lives hanging in the balance are.
Update: This amazing map produced by OCHA illustrates the humanitarian crisis throughout Darfur.
Rest In Peace Odetta December 31, 1930 - December 2, 2008 When someone you don't know personally can leave a hole in you ~ you know there is something magic in the connection of our human spirits. At my post ~Failing a Child Becomes Legacy I have a video ~ Odetta which includes...
Odetta speaking from the words of the quote I have included here:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you, not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson in Return to Love I saw Odetta sing in small venues here in Newport, Rhode Island She offered her uniqueness with fearlessness. I only own one of Odetta's CDs ~ Blues Everywhere I Go and I bought it mostly for Hear Me Talkin to Ya
Odetta arrives to the 'Salute to the Blues' concert at Radio City Music Hall in this Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 file photo taken in New York. Odetta, the folk singer with the powerful voice who moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for a half-century, died Tuesday Dec. 2, 2008. She was 77. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson)
"They were liberation songs", Odetta described her folk and spirituals. "You're walking down life's road, society's foot is on your throat, every which way you turn you can't get from under that foot. And you reach a fork in the road and you can either lie down and die, or insist upon your life."
She had hoped to sing at President-elect Obama's inauguration, but on December 2, 2008 she passed away at age 77.
I will hear her liberation songs on that day; and I know I will not be alone.
December 31, 1930 - December 2, 2008
This Spadecaller Video is a tribute to Odetta, her music, and the many gifts that she contributed to the world during her vibrant lifetime. Odetta, the African-American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and human rights activists passed away on Monday. Often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement," her musical repertoire consists largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s, she was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Janis Joplin.
Odetta sings 'Jim Crow Blues' at New York's Radio City Music Hall in a 2003 photo. Odetta, the deep-voiced folk singer whose ballads and songs became for many a soundtrack to the American civil rights movement, has died at age 77, her manager said on Wednesday.
Text by visionaryproject In honor of Odetta, the National Visionary Leadership Project offers this clip where Odetta speaks about her life as an activist. To see more oral history interview clips with Odetta, visit: http://www.visionaryproject.org/gordonodetta/
Odetta Gordon performs in her native home of Birmingham, Alabama, during the City Stages Music Festival, June 11, 2000.
(Photo and caption submitted by M. J. M de Oliveira)
Folk music, civil rights legend Odetta dies at 77
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer Polly Anderson, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 3, 1:50 pm ET
NEW YORK – Odetta's monumental voice rang out in August 1963 when she sang "I'm on My Way" at the historic March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.
She had hoped to perform again in Washington next month when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the nation's first black president. But the acclaimed folk singer, who influenced generations of musicians and was an icon in the civil rights struggle, died Tuesday after battling heart disease. She was 77.
In spite of failing health, Odetta performed 60 concerts in the last two years, and her singing ability never diminished, manager Doug Yeager said.
"The power would just come out of her like people wouldn't believe," he said.
She was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital with kidney failure about three weeks ago, Yeager said in confirming her death.
With her classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites.
First coming to prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and other superstars of the folk music boom.
An Odetta record on the turntable, listeners could close their eyes and imagine themselves hearing the sounds of spirituals and blues as they rang out from a weathered back porch or around a long-vanished campfire a century before.
"What distinguished her from the start was the meticulous care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs; to understand the emotions of a convict in a convict ditty, she once tried breaking up rocks with a sledge hammer," Time magazine wrote in 1960.
"She is a keening Irishwoman in `Foggy Dew,' a chain-gang convict in `Take This Hammer,' a deserted lover in `Lass from the Low Country,'" Time wrote.
Odetta called on her fellow blacks to "take pride in the history of the American Negro." When she sang at the March on Washington — along with Baez, Dylan, Josh White and Peter, Paul and Mary — "Odetta's great, full-throated voice carried almost to Capitol Hill," The New York Times said.
"I'm not a real folk singer," she told The Washington Post in 1983. "I don't mind people calling me that, but I'm a musical historian. I'm a city kid who has admired an area and who got into it. I've been fortunate. With folk music, I can do my teaching and preaching, my propagandizing."
While she hoped to sing at Obama's inauguration, she had not been officially invited, Yeager said. Her last big concert was on Oct. 4 at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, where she performed in front of tens of thousands at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. She also performed Oct. 25-26 in Toronto.
In 1999, she was honored with a National Medal of the Arts. Then-President Bill Clinton said her career showed "us all that songs have the power to change the heart and change the world."
She was nominated for a 1963 Grammy awards for best folk recording for "Odetta Sings Folk Songs." Two more Grammy nominations came in recent years, for her 1999 "Blues Everywhere I Go" and her 2005 album "Gonna Let It Shine."
Among her notable early works were her 1956 album "Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues," which included such songs as "Muleskinner Blues" and "Jack O' Diamonds"; and her 1957 "At the Gate of Horn," which featured the popular spiritual "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."
Her 1965 album "Odetta Sings Dylan" included such standards as "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Masters of War" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'."
In a 1978 Playboy interview, Dylan said, "the first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta." He said he found "just something vital and personal" when he heard an early album of hers in a record store as a teenager. "Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar," he said.
Belafonte also cited her as a key influence on his hugely successful recording career, and she was a guest singer on his 1960 album, "Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall."
She continued to record in recent years; her 2001 album "Looking for a Home (Thanks to Leadbelly)" paid tribute to the great blues singer to whom she was sometimes compared.
Born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., in 1930, she moved with her family to Los Angeles at age 6. Her father had died when she was young and she took her stepfather's last name, Felious. Hearing her in glee club, a junior high teacher made sure she got music lessons, but Odetta became interested in folk music in her late teens and turned away from classical studies.
She got much of her early experience at the Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles, where she sang and played occasional stage roles in the early 1950s.
"What power of characterization and projection of mood are hers, even though plainly clad and sitting or standing in half light!" a Los Angeles Times critic wrote in 1955.
Over the years, she picked up occasional acting roles. None other than famed Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper reported in 1961 that she "comes through beautifully" in the film "Sanctuary."
In The Washington Post interview, Odetta theorized that humans developed music and dance because of fear, "fear of God, fear that the sun would not come back, many things. I think it developed as a way of worship or to appease something. ... The world hasn't improved, and so there's always something to sing about."
Odetta is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick of New York City, and a son, Boots Jaffre, of Fort Collins, Colo. She was divorced about 40 years ago and never remarried, her manager said.
A memorial service was planned for next month, Yeager said.
Associated Press writer Cristian Salazar contributed to this report.
The video below of Odetta singing Leadbelly’s widely-known song “The Midnight Special” is remarkable because of its closeness to the original Leadbelly lyric. The popularization of “The Midnight Special” — as with the fame of Leadbelly’s “Goodnight Irene” — was due to covers created by pop groups like Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Weavers. Odetta is a bridge figure, one of those marvellous artists who does not merely do everything right, but who also imbibes in a visceral way the very essence of the original.
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
................................................
Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
................................................
Spain Time
................................................
Melbourne Time
................................................
Hawaii Time
...............................................
...............................................
RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
Double Click on Videos to Enlarge
Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
Want to help? Call 1~800~GENOCIDE
"May I Suggest" by Susan Werner
Satchita - Playing for Change
Stand By Me ~ Playing for Change
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
