Phil Cheney has created a draw-ering of one of my favorite humans, Ransom Hobbes. The Gorilla showcased up-top is one that belonged to Ransom and after he passed was given to me in remembrance. Ransom is one reason why I started to write, record, and play music. Thank you For creating this Philly, much love to the guitar pants, too.
Arts for and on a Monday. Billy William “Ransom” Hobbes, featuring Hobbes the Gorilla and Ahhh Lee! Star Bunny: Float the Cosmic Sea!
I am sitting here in the General Store of Saxapahaw.. most likely only a few days from the beginning of my Moon.. I know this because I am crying and sniffling out of nowhere. Roy Orbison came on the speaker set and I started slightly bawling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbxsmcT7GOk
The next song was Under The Boardwalk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyzCccndc2w
Now playing: Be My Little Baby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzhbGaCwBzs
I say, “JEEZ! What is UP with the radio station today???”
I must eat my yummy omelet and then go for a jog. Outside. Because it’s beautiful.
Now playing: This Magic Moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpePWo56zm4
I know why all these songs are making me nostalgic, I used to sweep and mop the floor at my first job (Angelo’s Italian Restaurant) for hours to an amazing oldies station… Forever ’til the end of time……….
On this day in history, 5 minutes ago I was crying, now I’m bopping my head. That’s what happened. So there. Also, there’s a 50% chance I ate at Skids Drive In on this day in history. 
Today I made plans to wake up at 7am, just like yesterday and go to the gym to administer my exercise healing medicine. That stuff works wonders, so I’m told. Yesterday I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked – but yet I was encouraged by others last night (during our weekly, ladies’ ukulele music-making night) that I’d accomplished a ton and I was being too hard on myself. I’m not that easily convincable. I did create an inspirational Collage for Phil Cheney (my sweetheart). That was something. See collage on left.
However, today ~ as beautiful as it is outside with the blowing cold rain and grey skies ~ I decided to sleep past my alarm and on into the morning. Waking around 9, I made a tiny pot of coffee with cream and agave sauce (it’s delicious), brought in the clothes that were on the line getting rained on, and came back upstairs to my peaceful little room to start working for the day. Couldn’t get my executive director on the phone, so now I am putting my thoughts into a journal for only a handful of people to explore.
Today will be different because today is not yesterday and it is still very far from tomorrow. I was wondering this morning what would happen if it was raining all the time and the sun decided never to come out again. It would be a miserable thing, I tell you, just miserable. I love rainy days, rain, and clouds, and wetness, yet as a human, my inner workings basque in the rays of the sun and they cheer me to the point of singing. Just the other day I woke up and started singing because the yummy sunlight was pouring in thorough the morning windows and it warmed my soul (if you believe in that sort of thing).
Onward into today.. Coffee, a candle, and a new arrangement of folk art on my walls (check out the next photo. That’s by Grace Kelly Laster, an amazing travelling artist who graces my walls with beautiful images of feminine, avian, and celestial images).
I received this painting from Phil on my birthday unexpectedly, such a lovely surprise. I’ve filled my world with art and creations from the spirit because it seems to enliven my own. I enjoy creating art and being an artist. Singing and playing instruments, playing music with other people, painting on a surface, and appreciating the art that is the nature all around me. Art by the Universe. Art of energy. Art of the seasons. Poetry of the wind and songs of the ocean. The theater of the dancing fire within.
So I just looked up what happened today in history and saw several things, but this one really caught my attention:
1. Dutch colonists killed Algonquins
I ask you, how is it that a website can say something such as “Dutch colonists killed Algonquins” and not give ANY explanation at all? http://www.historyorb.com/today ..here’s some more information I found out, albeit from wikipedia… jeez : 129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children in 1643. While I as reading about this “Pavonia Massacre” I began to think of something else. I was thinking about the conflict in Israel and Palestine, a tragic, imposed war between two groups of people – funded by outside sources set to gain something (resources, favors, contracts, etc) from this conflict.
At first I was saying to myself that I didn’t know why the massacre reminded me of this current conflict… but then I read it over again..
” Willem Kieft arrived in New Netherland in 1639 to take up his appointment as Director of New Netherland, with a directive to increase profits from the port at Pavonia. His solution was to attempt to exact tribute with claims that the money would buy them protection from rival groups… It was not uncommon among the native population to do so, but in this case his demands were ignored. At the time, the settlers in New Amsterdam were in intermittent conflict with their Raritan and Wappinger neighbors.[11] OnStaten Island, Dutch soldiers routed an encampment in retaliation for the theft of pigs, later discovered to have been stolen by other settlers. The death of a Dutch wheelwright, Claes Swits, at the hands of a Weckquaesgeek (Wappinger on the east side of the Hudson River) particularly angered many of the Dutch when the tribe would not turn over the murderer. At Acther Kol, in revenge for a theft, a Dutchman was shot with arrow while roofing a new house.[12] Kieft decided, against the advice of the council of Twelve Men, to punish the Indians by attacking Pavonia and Corlear’s Hook who had taken refuge among the Netherlanders (their presumed allies) when fleeing raiding Mahican from the north.[7] The initial strike which he ordered on February 25, 1643 and took place at Communipaw, was a massacre: 129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children”
Retaliation against a whole group of people for someone stealing a pig = retaliation against a whole group of people for firing a rocket, with TANKS AND MODERN WEAPONRY who are solely PROTECTING THEIR HOME FROM BEING INVADED.
My point is this: violence breeds violence, and colonialism: the extraction of goods, resources, and labor from one place to another who then OWNS the spoils and declares sovereign power over the colony, is one of the ULTIMATE forms of violence: against humanity and against this planet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism#Marxist_view_of_colonialism
This is a beautiful drawing of me by Phil Cheney for my birthday week kickoff!!
This is AK Lorraine’s Birthday Week. She is going to be 30 on Wednesday! I am kicking it off with a drawing I did of Her back in the Fall of 2010, when She was attending the SIT Institution up in Brattleboro, VT. It gets chilly up there, so You need a hat and a big coat before going out of doors into the Super Colorful Fall weather.
I began to think about a subject again this afternoon that I discussed this morning in the midst of a crisis that should, in the future, be easily avoided from insight provided by the past. I think very similarly about Black History Month they way I feel about Valentine’s day (if you haven’t read the earlier post, here’s a quote from that day: “Valentines day is so ridiculous because we should be giving love in such an obscene way EVERY DAY!!”) This is how I feel about Black History Month. Why don’t we celebrate famous Black history month all year long? And WHY, my friend pointed out, is it peppered with a bunch of white dudes being commemorated, one of which (ahem.. Washington ((who’s birthday is celebrated today))) owned slaves? I must say however, the benefit of having Black History Month is beneficial and enlightening to white people, who any other time, may not take the time to be curious about anything but things that concern them… like these facts: Toni Morrison was born today. She is the first Black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Read The Song of Solomon, it’s a stunning book. Also today in 1688, Quakers in Germantown, PA adopt the first antislavery resolution in the country.
But it shouldn’t be the federal requirement of a nation to get people to commemorate and appreciate the amazing works, unique history, and fallen heroes of a particular group of people – these things should be celebrated and honored all the time and with equal time and attention as everything else. The fact that we need a Black History Month just goes to show that we’ve gotten only slightly further down the road towards equality. (please see: http://www.dayinblackhistory.com/ )
I dedicate my blog today to all the rest of the months in the year that are left lonely without the presence of remembrance and beauty that ALL people embody and present to this world. I also dedicate my blog today to all the slaves that George Washington owned and only after he was dead were they emancipated. Sending out love to you, all of our ancestors, and current victims of hate, because you all have stared at a sunset such as this and been mystified at the possibility that some greater power is working to make things right, and if there isn’t such a power, our strength comes from the knowledge and satisfaction that we DO work against inequality and the oppressed will not be as such forever.
anita lorraine moore 