Gaia Inspires (Art, Movies & Books) Discussions - Transition Whatcom2024-03-29T09:14:37Zhttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/group/gaiainspires/forum?feed=yes&xn_auth=noWhat I Betag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2009-12-16:2723460:Topic:117762009-12-16T04:23:26.534ZDavid MacLeodhttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/DavidMacLeod
<b>What I Be</b><br />
<i>by Michael Franti and Spearhead<br />
</i><br />
If I could be the sun<br />
I'd radiate like Africa and<br />
Smile upon the world<br />
Intergalactic love laughter and<br />
If I were the rains, I'd wash away the whole world's pain and<br />
Bring the gift of cool like ice cream trucks on sunny days and<br />
If I was the earth I'd be like mountains bountiful<br />
And if I were the sky so high, I'd be like wind invincible and<br />
If I could be a seed, I would give birth to redwood trees and<br />
If I were the trees, I'd generate the…
<b>What I Be</b><br />
<i>by Michael Franti and Spearhead<br />
</i><br />
If I could be the sun<br />
I'd radiate like Africa and<br />
Smile upon the world<br />
Intergalactic love laughter and<br />
If I were the rains, I'd wash away the whole world's pain and<br />
Bring the gift of cool like ice cream trucks on sunny days and<br />
If I was the earth I'd be like mountains bountiful<br />
And if I were the sky so high, I'd be like wind invincible and<br />
If I could be a seed, I would give birth to redwood trees and<br />
If I were the trees, I'd generate the freshest air to breathe in<br />
<br />
(chorus)<br />
What I be, is what I be<br />
What I be, is what I be<br />
well, well, well, movin on!<br />
well, well, well, movin on!<br />
Do you love someone? Do you love somebody?<br />
Love that one!<br />
<br />
If I could be the leaves, then like jade I would stay evergreen and<br />
Spread my limbs out wide and pull love so close to me and<br />
If I could the roots, I would dig deep like ancestry and<br />
If were the fruits, you'd make the sweetest cherry pie from me and<br />
If I could be the night, my moon replace all electric lights and<br />
Magic music would transmit from outer space on satellites<br />
If I myself could be the ocean, you would feel emotion all the time and<br />
If I were the words, then everything that everybody said would rhyme<br />
<br />
(chorus)<br />
<br />
If I could be sex my words would protect<br />
I'd be in the lives of all who connect<br />
What the heck, I'd make it so we all got selected<br />
pores would be dripping pure hot intellect and<br />
The minds of the masses would all stay erect and<br />
Then just for kicks, I'd mail out some checks<br />
Addressed to those who sent their used latex in<br />
Yes, that's what I would if I were sex<br />
If I could be you, you could be me<br />
I could be you, you could be me<br />
I could walk a mile in your shoes.....<br />
And you could walk a mile in my bare feet<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92etaSVDu7w">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92etaSVDu7w</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1w5T-6MzZs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1w5T-6MzZs</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOv8HgJ__Os">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOv8HgJ__Os</a> Shared Leadership - "Seeing Nature - deliberate encounters with the visible world"tag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2009-09-25:2723460:Topic:76562009-09-25T19:01:59.511ZHeather Khttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/HeatherK
Inspiring reflections of visions & patterns within nature, that can be used to inspire us in creating our comunity's permaculture landscapes & cultures. Paul Krafel's book, <i>“Seeing Nature”</i>, was written after he spent 8 years immersed in the wilderness as National Park ranger. His words are a delight to read to savor & implement.<br />
<br />
I have just returned from being immersed for 3 weeks in the Olympic Parks ancient forests & shorelines observing the movements & patterns…
Inspiring reflections of visions & patterns within nature, that can be used to inspire us in creating our comunity's permaculture landscapes & cultures. Paul Krafel's book, <i>“Seeing Nature”</i>, was written after he spent 8 years immersed in the wilderness as National Park ranger. His words are a delight to read to savor & implement.<br />
<br />
I have just returned from being immersed for 3 weeks in the Olympic Parks ancient forests & shorelines observing the movements & patterns within nature. Now while back in our consumer-culture, I sense the movement & patterns within our community's emergent awakenings, and I am inspired to share words from Paul Krafel's observations of leadership within a flying flock of geese.<br />
<br />
<i>Quote from his book – “Seeing Nature:”</i> :<br />
"We rounded a summit & came upon a spectacular ridge connecting two mountains...The wind blew bracing & chill, invigorating us as we walked along the sinuous gentle pathway two miles high...Patches of life extend downwind from the rocks like shadows. The wind shelter of each rock extends only so far...We heard a sound overhead & saw a V-shaped flock of geese approaching the ridge. The flock came on slowly because it was flying straight into the mountain wind. As the wedge of geese passed low overhead, I noticed that the leaders kept exchanging places several times each minute. The lead goose is like a ridge rock; it cleaves the wind & creates a wind-shelter behind it. Yet no single goose has the strength to lead indefinitely. By dropping back into the shelter of the flock, a goose could regather the strength needed to lead the flock again against the wind. Trading places allowed the flock to fly with greater strength...<br />
"I remember the wedge of geese flying against the mountain wind. The older members used their mature strength to cleave a passage for the younger members who followed. As the younger geese mature, they shall move forward to help cleave a passage for the next generation...We fly within the protection of all that has gone before...As I mature, a desire grows within me to press forward and feel the resisting wind against my face, to help cleave a passage for the impossibilities that can follow...<br />
...Once upon a time, sex, vision, flight & consciousness were impossible. Impossible in the sense that they had never occurred in the entire history of the Earth. But tiny changes kept accumulating & eventually each of them became possible. Life pushes against its edges...Each expansion creates opportunities for new expressions of life & each new life creates opportunities for further expansion. This spiral of change with all it has made possible & with all it will make possible is what I've come to call Gaia. This spiral created the soft, moist, green world & made possible my ability to be conscious of this miracle. I feel humble gratitude for the life preceding me & the life surrounding me" <i>end quote</i><br />
<br />
- yours in the spirit of community inspiring life's upward spirals of co-creation & gratitude, Heather K Sketches of Spaintag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2009-09-06:2723460:Topic:69662009-09-06T16:55:00.828ZDavid MacLeodhttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/DavidMacLeod
As I transition to a lower energy world and footprint, I've been letting go of some of my collections of books, records, and cds. What can I let go of, and what has enough profound importance for me to continue to hold on to? I have not yet been able to let go of any of my Miles Davis recordings. Miles' music has been a huge inspiration in my life. If I had to narrow my collection down, the last two recordings I'd let go of would be "Kind of Blue" and "Sketches of Spain."<br />
<br />
I have no time to…
As I transition to a lower energy world and footprint, I've been letting go of some of my collections of books, records, and cds. What can I let go of, and what has enough profound importance for me to continue to hold on to? I have not yet been able to let go of any of my Miles Davis recordings. Miles' music has been a huge inspiration in my life. If I had to narrow my collection down, the last two recordings I'd let go of would be "Kind of Blue" and "Sketches of Spain."<br />
<br />
I have no time to write reviews just now, but I came across this recent review of Sketches. Not the best review I've read, but the most recent, and I think it gets at some of the emotional impact of this great recording.<br />
<br />
David<br />
<br />
<b>Where the smallest gestures become heroic.</b><br />
<i>by Morgana, at <a href="http://www.broowaha.com/article.php?id=5124" target="_blank">Broowaha</a></i><br />
<br />
Columbia released<p style="text-align:left"><b><img src="http://<a href="http://www.broowaha.com/media/images/articles///5923_200.png">http://www.broowaha.com/media/images/articles///5923_200.png</a>"/></b></p>
<p style="text-align:left"><b><img src="http://www.broowaha.com/media/images/articles///5923_200.png"/></b></p>
<b>Sketches of Spain</b> in March 1960 following the 1959 release of the Miles Davis’ crystalline perfect Kind of Blue. I was just starting Catholic elementary school having first attended the parish nursery school. After school, I would arrive home to a house filled with an eclectic, engrossing, unapologetically romantic array of music, all due to my Italian born mother. My passionately romantic mother gave no excuses for her grasping every opportunity to escape the everyday dryness of life. For her love of romance, romantic art and romantic music, my mother often quoted Henry David Thoreau.<br />
When I hear music, I fear no danger.<br />
<br />
I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related<br />
<br />
To the earliest times, and to the latest.<br />
<br />
My mother worked hard at making the smallest gestures become heroic and making pure pleasure her only meaningful measurement. My mother was on a heroic quest and she lived at warp speed towards ecstasy and coolsville. So also did Miles Davis. Each could only trust their heart.<br />
<br />
Miles Davis gets the bulk of the honor for Sketches of Spain. However, it is an equal praise to Gil Evans and Miles Davis. Miles Davis was born in 1926, died in 1991. That meant Miles Davis learned to play the trumpet during the frenetic 1940’s outbreak known as Bebop. It was Gil Evans that forced Miles Davis to pare his music down to the essence of only what needed to be said. It was Gil Evans that wrote “Saeta.” Miles Davis said in his autobiography that “you’ve got all those Arabic music scales in there, black African scales that you can hear. And they modulate and bend and twist and snake around.”<br />
<br />
In Sketches of Spain, Gil Evans and Miles Davis created a lush, lavish and inviting tone poem. Listening to Sketches of Spain pulls the heart into the vibe of the shadowy and surreal Andalusian panorama. Gil Evans and Miles Davis created in Sketches of Spain one of the most beautifully orchestrated large-ensemble writing in all of jazz and a milestone of studio orchestra jazz. It is what Leonard Bernstein was talking about when he said music could, “name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.”<br />
<br />
Other musicians on Sketches of Spain are trumpeter’s Bernie Glow, Ernie Royal, Louis Mucci, and Taft Jordan, drummer Jimmy Cobb, and percussionist Elvin Jones<br />
<br />
Spend time inside an album such as Sketches of Spain, and deeper impressions emerge. It’s like looking at a friend one day and realizing you’re in love with them - and have been for a long time. The artist and the depth and breadth of the work’s creation are revealed. Ideas and images are threads running through great albums and great art just like with any great love. The only way to get to the intent is to take the full ride. There are great treasures at the end of that ride. Taking just one song from an album, or a color from a painting, or one moment from a love affair, means you miss the sweep and grandeur of the album, the art or the affair.<br />
<br />
That requires patience. As I sit here again listening to Sketches of Spain, I continue to argue it’s worth it. Music like any art, and love, unfolds in real time. All speak for themselves. All are a journey. Listen intently for more than the constellations of cool sound do you encounter. That’s how music, art and love work. Not exactly what you ordered, but it works. Music, art and love both can send fantasies into warp drive, shred your illusions, magnify reality, exposes vices and vanities, bring calm to turbulence and visa versa. Not all music, art or friend/lover jumps out leaving a strong first impression. Great music and great art, like great love, takes a while to get under your skin. Once it’s there, it stays there.