unreasonable.org

I really enjoyed the Doctor Who episode Blink. Turns out it's based (loosely) on a nifty short story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/blink_annual.shtml

It's an interesting theme in the new series, how encounters with The Doctor change people's lives, opening them up to new possibilities.

So at Playa Del Fuego this weekend, I saw some cool firespinning and nifty burning art. But the thing that made me stand stunned and awed was a short video that was playing at one camp as I happened by, as they were getting ready for a movie. Amazing juggling - I feel like "juggling" isn't even the right word, I've never seen anything like this. A little Google-fu turned up the video:

(Speaking of PDF, my new fire poi arrived here at the house while I was there, so I didn't have the chance to spin fire this time. But I will soon!)

Zelda's writing exercise: write about food

and I am back in a Zen temple outside Kyoto

to keep vegetarian in Japan is not easy -
fish works its way into everything
but I did my best during my months there -

"They call all experience of the senses mystic, when the experience is considered.
so an apple becomes mystic when I taste in it
the summer and the snows, the wild welter of the earth
and the insistence of the sun.

All of which things I can surely taste in a good apple...."

-- D.H. Lawrence, "Mystic"

An Open Letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Dear DCCC:

I am greatly distressed and disappointed to learn that during the recent special Congressional election in Mississippi, the DCCC ran ads linking a key Republican donor, Sheldon Adelson, to what you refered to as "atheist China".

Certainly there are good reasons to point out the influences a foreign nation - especially one with a questionable human rights record - might have with a candidate.

But labeling China as "atheist" in this context can only be seen as a slur against atheists.

Put drafts of three more chapters of Why Buddha Touched the Earth on-line: The Mystical Sense, So You Think You Can Tell Heaven From Hell?, and What Would Buddha Eat?.

Tonight's Zelda's exercise: given the ccupation of "astronaut", we generated a list of nouns: cup girl dog sunglasses road water lamp-post police chocolate whiskey

and put them together in interesting combinations, like so:

I wanted to explore that girl, like a strange new world.

Whirling around the lamp-post like a stripper around a pole.

Breathing whiskey, the fumes rising from the glass.

Dog vomits at 3 a.m. Not a good night.

As part of my "Cultivating Creativity" workshop, we did a little writing exercise, describing a balled-up piece of paper.

"Stevie Washington. The Angry Youth. Born to Die. New York's New York. The turn of the century. All crime."

Anybody else remember these? Ah, MTV back in the 80s. Good stuff.

After a half-hour of Google-fu - it gets even better. Here's a downloadable bootleg QuickTime movie of several episodes, courtesy of AiT/Planet Lar.

I've also found a new set of Flash animation Stevie and Zoya episodes. They don't look all that interesting, sadly. But then, they're probably not from Joe Horne, but just from some undertalented fanboy.

In a story right out of the headlines from fifty years ago, Wendy Gonaver was recently fired from a teaching job at Cal State Fullerton for refusing to sign a loyalty oath.

The oath, a remnant of the 50s Red Scare, required Gonaver, a Quaker and a pacifist, to swear to "defend" the U.S. and California Constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." She was willing to to sign she could attach an addendum expressing her pacifism - a practice allowed by other state agencies. But Cal State Fullerton insisted she sign the oath as is if she wanted the job.

Excuse me, but anyone who wants people to sign a loyalty oath meant to enforce doctrinal conformity is an enemy of the U.S. Constitution and the free and vigorous debate of democracy.