Friday, November 16, 2007

A Theory of Everything

Hey all check this dude out!! Garrett Lisi not only can the guy surf, he's working on the Theory of Everything, see this article in the UK Independent: Surfer Dude Stuns Physicists with Theory of Everything. Heck I can't even roller skate without breaking my left arm, done it twice. Thanks to my friend Melodie for passing this along to me.

Reminds me of Moon Man--now that's a story I should tell from my UC Berkeley days. I have a moon acre that I bought for a mere dollar. Well he's gone on to write a book about it and new moon acres are now five dollars. Heck I made money in lunar real estate. And when I ordered his book (two copies, one for me, one for a friend along with a moon acre for the latter) he sent along a brand new acre for me, wow a stock split too. Anyway here's his site I Sold the Moon and since we're on the topic I might add to Barry's injunction of "Think Cosmically, Act Globally" to Eat Locally.

Of course why have the two best books I've read recently been by Virgos? 'Splain' it to me Lucy!

--42--

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

More of the Healing Heart

Well it seems that yours truly my dear reader, cannot stay away on sabbatical forever. What does this week find your Reality Chick doing but attending three, count them three, political events and one, yikes this is where it gets scary, one meeting. It is time in these U$tates to meet candidates, candidates wives, contribute to as many ends as you can with whatever means available. But this time I promise I will breathe, keep my back open at the wings and not hunched over a steering wheel or even this input device.

The events were:

  • Elizabeth Kucinich this weekend
  • Cynthia McKinney today and tomorrow
  • And a Greens meeting this past evening where there were two candidates running one for Senate and one for the House (as in of Reps in DC)
And but wait there will be more.

However due to some Snafu in PDX land Ms. McKinney didn't make it to Corvallis, except by speaker phone--however myself and Tina being the "unwaged" lasses that we are decided we would drive down to Eugene to see her there. It was a fairly good crowd for Eugene, we in Corvallis, of course had more folks. We also had Tofu America pancakes and soysage for breakfast in Corvallis. And Eugene had a wonderful luncheon repast. So I joked with Tina that we should just follow Cynthia to Ashland (her next stop) and eat at Geppetto's, maybe we'd get the delightfully rude waiter. Yum. But we did return home.

Of course the drive to Eugene and back was quite wonderful, this fall day. And as Danu drove us in comfort we two Virgo lasses caught up on the last few years, since our WTO times and I talked of recent heartbreaks, weaving the story amongst others along the backroads between Corvallis and Eugene. The story has condensed, become part of the mythology, the way I describe my life. It along with the other stories I have not had time to tell myself or read about myself until now braided their way along the backroads. And I realise that part of the hard part about this particular heartbreak is that it happened in June--you see everyone is gone for the summer (especially here in Oregon as they go to the Country Fair, etc.) July is particularly vacant for those of us who stay home. And so the telling of this story amongst friends (too long lost) remained unsaid until nearly the end of September. It has now been honed, edited, the essential elements left for the telling and for the understanding.

Of course each heartbreak is a chance for renewal, for getting deep to the core of who you/we/I am. And as there are personal heartbreaks there are political ones. This may be the time for us all to fully realise our heartbreaks there too. To understand how great a love we come from when we act together to create a better world. To forgive ourselves its/our imperfections in the creation of this relationship with our greater selves, as we do with our individual selves. This is the time to care, to breathe, to know that you are working "in love". We have all had a terrible heartbreak from 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, ad infinitum (no thank you W). Our narratives are still being told as much as we tell our personal narratives about individual heartbreaks. We are still honing, understanding, and this is taking time--but in as much as the personal heartbreaks must take us through the grieving process which includes anger, so must our larger heartbreak that we share. And I think we have been in that anger, or we should relish it for a moment, accept it, feel it, love it for its cleansing. Take it in our silence or with wailing saxes, pounding drums, electric guitars on full feedback. Then can we begin to open the joy we once had and come back together again. But let us not be afraid anymore.

We can do it, we are the ones we have been waiting for---------------breathe, release, breathe, release--ACT, but with thought, with love this time. We may well be afraid, but we are facing our greatest fear now. And we still love.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

So what did You do with your Extra Hour?

Well dear readers, I went out to dinner, took in two concerts, brought the plants in for the cold season, and laid a carpet in the music room. Of course that took more than the extra hour and I had to sleep in Monday to recover.

Want to post a new pic of me with my new do and glasses.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Weekend Serenade for a Broken Heart and Celebration of Such

Dear Blogospherians,

What a week, what a time, what a life. As some of you know yours truly has been dealing with a particularly pesky broken heart. Well it seems that the mending is taking place. You know sometimes you meet someone who treats you with such sweetness, caring, and respect and if they do say those three words well you are gone. Has this happened to you dear blogospherian? But their “I love you” is not the same as your “I love you”. Of course, fear of rejection keeps you from asking, “Hey, what you mean you love me?” So if any of you in the dear blogosphere have an answer for what is the best, most polite, and less rejectable way of asking that let me know. For me when thrice said, if I like you, I’m gone. It’s almost like a spell. I mean don’t most folks run screaming from the room when you ask for clarification on that.

And the other lesson I’ve learned as we are speaking about the dreaded L word is that perhaps it is best to let the person know when you are “in love” with them. But don’t they run screaming from the room. Well dear blogospherian—you are worth loving. And if they do run screaming from the room, at least you know, it’s easier to deal with it in the beginning than many months or years later. Plus, it gives them real time information that they might want to use. And perhaps to your advantage?!

Anyway for me it’s been like having the water heater drained and a broken bone reset. Not quite as fun as a tooth cleaning but close; all very necessary maintenance activities (should you have the broken bone of course).

And I just did a Google on blogospherian and it is already on The Google. So I didn’t invent it but it is being used. Can we have Mr. Gates please add it to the MSWord dictionary. Well I can do that myself and so can you dear blogospherian. It’s just a right click away. Rejectable is also on The Google so you can right click that one too.

So here’s a toast to those that come along and reset our broken hearts by breaking them in all the right places and helping us put them back together. May their hearts be healed as well.

Thanks for the memories, attention, and caring. Now let’s move on to our next journey and calling.

With deep caring and Irini,

Y

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Gift

You have been given a gift.
Do you marvel at it?
Strange and precious as it is

Did you not ask for it?
Was it not ordered?

Were you not thrilled when it arrived; you opened it with such anticipation, tearing the packaging, maybe reading the card first, or then again later? Maybe you saved it for that special day to open.

And in the receipt or use thereof you find that it was not quite the item you expected from the catalogue.

Perhaps it was more, perhaps it was less, and perhaps it had different features than described or presumed.

Maybe your system requirements were not sufficient or the gift was for an older version.

But you have been given a gift.
And the gift you.

©11 October 2007—Yaney LA MacIver

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Dear John—Happy Birthday

The wheel has turned again, the great grapefruit SOHO wheel, and we come to the annual birthday celebrations of John Coltrane and John Lennon—Libras and happy birthday too to Linda the muse, who has called us all here, well some of us. And then Happy Birthday my dear Mr. Beel Dodge you will be 50 when KBOO is forty next year—what plans can we make for the party. Yes Daniel, I’ll go with you on 24 hours of St. John WillIAm Coltrane.

Hence two weekends in a row, of sleep or not to music, screaming Saxes, screaming Yoko, screaming Beatles, screaming flies, screaming electric unladylandlike guitars. Screaming, screaming—primal screaming. How after eight years of Lennon night I begin to notice a wave, a rhythm of the night—Because is always around 2 AM, and Good Morning too early in the morning before we country folks would ever hear a rooster crow, no wonder we are awake all night even in our own bed, and then the soft last two or three songs of the night before the country show starts. We walk softly out of the station; our trash put away, the dishes washed, softly to the bright October morning light.

And I think of/remember last year’s Lennon weekend and the first time I really went to the Greek Fest. And now dear Daniel tells me about the room in the Greek church that has the pix of the churches’ history including pix of his family and him with a crew cut, I imagine someone looking like Eddie Munster—I will have to see this room and the young Daniel to see this Adam’s family portrait.

How, last year/Lennon Weekend, the dream of the Laundromat in Greece was still alive, and the life that had been planned for next to ever was still taking shape, breakfast with Melodie, sitting in mamayiayiapapaFlessas’ living room discussing how that plan might take place and what it might look like. Oh my dear Laundretiki you are no longer a dream, a desire, and I’m not sure what else to put there, or where the dream is leading.

How last year, this weekend, I was so different than I am this year, this weekend. Perhaps I listened too loud to the music, maybe I was supposed to turn down the volume but it kept speaking to me and it did not seem to want to be on mute. I am as changed as if I had studied sax under John Zorn. My whole body has become an instrument, and I have learned how to whisper in the tenor—you should have heard me last Thursday. So soft on that G, so soft, listen loud, play soft. I have been played and I have played, been one, and been alone more than ever. Lost walls between me and the universe, lost boundaries, opened to all, open to one, with the door once open and the light of the sun shinning through it bright with arms open. Then as it opened the door closed, closed, closed; a glimpse as in the dreams, but only a glimpse, evaporation a mirage on the desert highway. Oh yes I could have written the Song of Songs, that is why I don’t need to read it more than the once. I have known it forever. Where is my love? He is always lost in the Song. Where is my love?

Oh and how listening to Lennon, finding the song of Donovan wafting through, even in Rocky Raccoon, and then hearing the Lennon in the other’s music. I don’t think I ever knew how much I’ve listened and internalised the music. But I do know now. And yet how Daniel also is the musician and how he and the good doctor Geoff play the instrument: Lennon.

And then there is Daniel, pitching, “join us" as in it's time to become a KBOO member, telling us all about Yoko and the Peace Tower that will light from the Earth on Tuesday. We parents of children dream/want to bring into being a world that will last for our kids. We will not go lightly into the night of destruction. Imagine. Through your music, Daniel, John and John, Timothy, Donovan, Frank, and Derek we dream/sing the new world that will come. If we continue singing/dreaming/loving.

Yes, "we are all one and it is all about love", haven't we consented on that in the meeting between us. But that love in the ether is just that ether, air/wind. And I call you to remember the very real/substantial earthlings that need love’s kinesis. Although:

Because God Is An Air Sign

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.
Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

Not an Earth Sign, God,
Or he’d be standing next to you in the grocery line.

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.
Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

Not a fire sign – oh no
Gusts extinguish each flame.

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.
Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

Not a water sign
Water obeys wind, creates walls/paths.

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

©6 October 2007—Yaney LA MacIver

Irini—Y—10/7/2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

An Extra Special Delivery on My Birthday

Hi all,


As many of you know my birthday was yesterday, September 11. Well now I share it with a grandson--so introducing Kylin Casey.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Mama's Got A Brand New Ride

Pablo and Malcom welcome you to the brand new ride, Danu is his name. And ain't he sweet!









Thursday, August 23, 2007

This is Corvallis/This is Me Any Questions

So here we are last night at the Hilltop Big Band concert in Central Park in Corvallis, Oregon that is. See the line where all the people are watching the show? Yeah way back there almost to the trees and Monroe Street! See the chair (just to the right of the speaker), see the gazeebo where the band is playing? Now folks where would you be?

And the band wasn't that loud. Drummer, keyboard, bass, guitar, three or four trombones, same for trumpets, two to three alto saxes, occasional soprano sax, two tenor saxes, and one baritone sax; and only miked for the solos.

I guess I'm always out, apart, but after 25 years in this town, you'd think there'd be a few more like me. Oh well as my sax teacher says, "Yaney, you must have tipped the usher."

Monday, August 06, 2007

Happy B'day Jazmyn

And here is the birthday gal herself--with a brand new pink guitar. Rock on Jazmyn.

What a Spree



Well this seems a bit blurry--but so was Mr. DeLaughter after a wonderful Polyphonic Spree Concert at the Aladdin in Portland last month.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Hi from Lammas

No I haven't forgot about any of you. Just busy summer and not much to say. Job is ticking away to its end sometime in September. Then what? Supposed to have been in Greece by now with the sweetie--but that's perhaps an impossibility. Yet there is a certain sweet property in Arta, Mallorca that we could purchase if the Pi sells. Donovan's Townhouse but what a dream a fantasy, yet however if the universe is closing Corvallis down to me, then what is it opening. This town can certainly be a tar pit that one can get stuck in and I've been here since 1983.

Well the plans I know about--grandbaby Jazmyn's b'day party this Saturday, August 4; Bert Jansch at Lola's Room on August 28th, my b'day 9/11, new grandbaby birth 9/17?, then Sonny Rollins on 9/21; folks visiting sometime October and then what?????????????????

And happy b'day to me sweet son Max, it's today!!

Friday, June 01, 2007

More on Peace

Hi all,

Here is a link to the John Hagelin Permanent Peace Site. I am very intrigued with this, especially in light of Cindy's withdrawl yesterday and my very real fears for my friend, Michelle Darr, and her family as she is traveling the country with:

"The Catalysts of H.O.P.E.(Healing Our People and Earth) began riding our bicycles across the United States for Peace and Sustainability on 17-Mar-07 in Portland, OR. All the way down the west coast and beginningto travel across the south, we and our message have been supported by Americans from all walks of life. We've had as many as 15 riders at one time, but our core has consisted of two adults, an 11-yr-old, and 20-mo-old twins."

I am very worried about them and their safety as I am worried about her partner, Ben, left at home with their young son Phoenix. It is a hard time on Ben and similar themes to Cindy's struggle predominate in that family as well.

It is very upsetting to me to see that Michelle has to feel her need to ride clear across country to end this war that the Congress will not. There is more bravery in young Tala (the 11 year old) than in Congress combined.

Anyway more on Michelle's tour de peace can be found at The Catalyst of Peace Site.

More hugs,

Y

It was 40 Years Ago Today and Assorted Ramblings

And other random thoughts about wallpaper, etc.

Happy Sgt. Pepper's B'day to all. To all you Lucy's out there may you have plenty of diamonds in your skies.

Now what you say is this about wallpaper? Well, I inadvertently started the wallpaper project in the bedroom last weekend. Cleaned everything out (five boxes of books to sell this weekend), washed the wicker--why dust when you can really clean.

Me sweetie has painted the ceiling and may, as we speak, be hanging some paper. Then on to the roof--but do I still have to sleep on the floor "like dog"? Stayed tuned for the next round of domestic concensus.

Now to me dear friends on the Whidbey side of things--here's some news. Hope this doesn't delay any of your commutes.

Mulkiteo Ferry Slams into Pilings

Well, what more can be said. Oh yes, Cindy Sheehan. Gosh my dear, I do understand. The movement eats us up and uses us. And what the heck are the D's thinking. I mean heck, you have Hillary, it takes a country to raze a village, Clinton she voted and still votes for the war.

Any way here's something that if the Congress, etc. took it up--we really might end war:

TM Anyone? More of the Don and David show.

Well it's a grandbaby weekend--have a pleasant one.

hugs,

Y

Friday, March 02, 2007

Memories of Andy

Dear All,

Here is the obituary from the local paper about Andy.



Wallace Andrew ‘Andy’ Bortz


Aug. 15, 1946 — Feb. 19, 2007

Wallace Andrew “Andy” Bortz, died of undiagnosed heart disease Feb. 19 at age 60 while working in the Portland area. Andy was born in Springfield to Mary Orla Remus Bortz and Wallace Alonso Bortz, both deceased. Andy is survived by siblings Carma Sue and husband Steve Henry of Seattle, Wash., Ben and wife Pat Bortz of Marcola, David Bortz of Corvallis, and cousin Daryl and wife Yuxi Osden of Texas.

Andy’s tour in the Air Force included Greece, South Dakota and Arizona. He then spent two formative years in San Francisco. Corvallis became his home in 1969. Andy loved education and learning; his college and later schooling included electrical engineering, botany and art at Oregon State University. A posthumous Limited Renewable Energy License has been awarded, as Andy was very close to becoming a licensed solar electrician at Linn-Benton Community College.

Andy was a gentle, kind man with many friends, and he was also a man of commitment and convictions. Andy’s passion for sustainable energy began in the early 1970s, leading to the formation of his business, Solar Design and Construction. He served as treasurer and longtime member of Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association. In his middle years, Andy was arrested several times for participating in non-violent protests against wars or for environmental preservation, particularly old-growth forest preservation and anti-nuclear action. Andy was instrumental in the creation of the Middle Santiam Wilderness Area. Last year, he acted as the general contractor for a solar, energy efficient home in Brookings, and he was very proud of this accomplishment. He had most recently been employed by Mr. Sun of Portland as a lead solar installer.

Andy’s wonderful tenor voice was appreciated by friends in Corvallis, Brookings, Eugene, Portland and especially through his participation in the Corvallis Peace Choir. Cross country skiing, science fiction, camping, visiting with friends, and hiking were some of his hobbies. Andy’s beloved dog Snow preceded him in death by just a few weeks. Snow and Andy were inseparable, and perhaps they are together again. We will miss the warm spirit, gentle nature, singing voice and commitment to world change found within our friend and brother, “Solarman.”

A memorial service for Andy will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 11, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on 2945 N.W. Circle Blvd., in Corvallis, followed by a reception at 3 p.m. Donations in honor of Andy can be made to SafeHaven Humane Society, P.O. Box 2018, Albany OR 97322.
Andy

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A Short Month Gone By

Sad news this day. I learned on Sunday that my friend, Andy Bortz had passed away a week earlier. Not sure if many of you know him. Details on his memorial service are and a piece written by a fella activist about Andy are below.

To Friends of Andy Bortz;

For those of you who haven't heard, Andy died on Monday February 19th of a heart attack.

There will be a memorial service for Andy on Sunday March 11th at 2pm. It will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Corvallis and there will be a reception following.

Many of you know Andy through your own circles, be it through his activism on behalf of the environment, his anti-war activity, his voice in the Corvallis Peace Choir, his communities in Corvallis, Summit, Portland and Brookings, his solar work as the "Solarman", or just by meeting him while walking his dog in the park. He was a great friend to us all, gentle in spirit doing what he believed in till the end.

Hopefully, many of you can make it to the service in support of his family and friends. There will be an opportunity for you to share what Andy meant to you in your life. For those of you who can't make it, or are a little shy about such things. Please reply by email to us your thoughts about Andy. Please make it a short statement or maybe just one word that describes the meaning of your relationship with Andy. We will make your thoughts known during Andy's service.

If you would like to contribute food for the reception, please me know by reply to this post, I'll pass the info along to the organizers so that they can plan. Please forward this email or spread the word about Andy and his memorial service to anyone who would like to know. Andy had many friends in many circles....

Thanks! -Marvin and Margaret

#############
EWllen O'Shea writes:

I just got the news. Andy Bortz died last week. Andy was a peace warrior. He was our community Solar guy. I am still in shock from learning that he died. I sat down and wrote this about Andy's life. I posted it to Portland Indymedia because I think it
is important to educate those coming behind us about the history of resistance. Andy was all about persistence. He loved peace. He wanted community.

Here is what I wrote:
Ode to Andy Bortz Forest Activist extraordinaire
The Solar Guy passes on
1947 - 2007

"Way back in the 1970s, a few nature-oriented philosophers came up with a visionary framework for viewing the world. They called it deep ecology, or biocentrism. The premise is pretty simple: Humans are not the end all, be all of evolution, but merely a strand in the web of life, with no inherent right to wreck everything and spoil the grand evolutionary pageant for everyone else. Deep ecology says that all living beings and life-giving systems are equal and have an intrinsic value, beyond what value humans may ascribe. In other words, all life and life-giving systems have
inherent worth and a right to exist for their own sake, regardless of what kind of money people think they can make off them." - John Johnson, EF! Journal, Samhain/Yule 2005 (25th Anniversary Edition) p. 43 - Do We Know Where Our Deep Ecology Is?

Andy was a friend of mine and he died suddenly in Corvallis about a week ago. Andy was a friend to many, and especially Andy Bortz was a friend to the Earth. In Corvallis, he was known as the Solar Guy. Andy was into solar when the technology was just in its infancy. He loved the old solar panels and the "Copper Cricket" one of the first solar water heaters. He knew the top of many mid-Willamette valley roofs. Installing, solar tubes, solar water heaters, solar panels. He helped to start several organizations that supported solar and alternative energy. His back yard is a museum to the evolution of solar technology in the last 35 years.

Andy believed in the "Commons" and loved to participate in community events like the Corvallis Peace Choir and Earth Day celebrations. He taught us all to believe and persist even when progress seemed forever blocked. Andy was a patient teacher. He loved to see the light go on when someone finally understood why we needed to protect and defend the earth.

Andy was also an amazing pioneer in forest activism. Andrew Bortz was one of the founding members of the Cathedral Forest Action Group (CFAG). They were the first forest activist groups to plan organized tree sits in the Middle Santiam. Due to these actions to stop massive clearcutting, we have a few good stands of old growth left. We have water, we have some air and we have wildlife left because of people like Andy Bortz.

In the early 1980s, the Corvallis, Oregon-based Cathedral Forest Action Group (CFAG) began to apply nonviolent, civil-disobedience tactics to protect the Willamette National Forest~Rs ancient Douglas-fir stands from the devastating clear cuttery of the Reagan Administration.

The group's tactics included debates, public forums, logging-road
blockades and setting up a "witness camp," whose visitors were taken to observe ancient forest ecosystems and freshly killed tree remains. CFAG~Rs blockades attempted to halt further road building into the Santiam forest in western Oregon, as well as to stop loggers from entering the Santiam via the already-existing spaghetti of taxpayer-funded roads. Most of CFAG's actions were well-orchestrated, peaceful sit-ins across logging roads, carried out in the hope of bringing the destruction of those forests into public view. One memorable blockade featured CFAG organizer Brian Heath holding a solitary sit-in atop a crate of explosives that was about to be used to blast a roadway through a ridge! But getting busted and banned from the forest for a year after spending no more than an hour "defending" it was not very cost-effective.

Were it not for the treespiking occurring with random precision, courtesy of the Bonnie Abbzug Feminist Garden Club, the pace of clearcutting within the Santiam region would have scarcely been slowed at all. This spawned an activists' brainstorming session around a campfire one smoky night. It was here that the treesit was born, a tactic that now occupies an important place in the toolbox of Earth activism. http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/articles.php?a=870

Here is a large portion of the Cathedral Forest Wilderness Declaration: (The Cathedral Forest Action Group was formed in 1984 to take a stand in protecting 80,000 acres of forest wilderness in central Oregon's Cascade mountains...) "We believe that all things are connected, that whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. If we destroy our remaining wild places, we will ultimately destroy our identity with the Earth: wilderness has values for humankind which no scientist can synthesize, no economist can price, and no technological distraction can replace.

"We believe that we should protect in perpetuity these wild places, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the plants and animals for the good of the sustaining Earth. The forests, like us, are living things: wilderness should exist intact solely for its own sake; no human justification, rationale, or excuse is needed.

"We perceive the Earth is dying. We pledge ourselves to turning this process around, to stopping the destruction, so that the Earth can become alive, clean, and healthy once again." (from page 196 of Deep Ecology) Andy's pledge was lived out each day of his life. He was the teacher of several generations of forest activists. Arrested several times, he was sued by the wealthy and almost lost his livelyhood. He was part of a land mark suit to allow peaceful non-violent activism to continue to occur in our beautiful forest.

May the forest bless you and cover you with boughs..
may the mountain winds heave you up to the heavens

You lived a good life
a life worth living
dream deep my brother
it is not over

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Trees on the Rooftop







What a TreeStorm it was the Thursday before Christmas and all was a blowin'. Trees one and trees two and trees coming down the chimney as well as one across the road! And nothing bigger than a postal van could get up the road. That tree just came down last Friday.

Save the Donovan

Why save the Donovan? Well that's the next post, where kiddies we show you the trees on the rooftop--ho, ho, ho.

A Good Friend--Aloha


Thanks so much to Nancy for sending this my way. What a gift during the holiday season.
This is Derek Parrott and myself at his Aloha party in June. Things were much warmer then.
Mahalo!