My Morning Jacket "Holdin' On To Black Metal"

It's a darkness you can't deny
But it don't belong in a grown up mind
Suppose you'll find this place in a youngster's eyes
Coming into life you needn't cry
But as a boy you gotta let it go
Or
You'll find out something is good
Oh black metal you're so misunderstood

Holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Black metal you've been holding on too long

Oh black metal, so misunderstood
Don't turn yourself into Lucifer's fool
Black metal feeds those young, enough is enough
Wants refills out of Lucifer's cup
Black metal lead to and your teenage pop
Look at you starchild you're all grown up

Still holdin' on to black metal

(Black metal)

Still holdin' on to black metal

(Black metal)

Black metal you've been holding on too long

Catch your waves on Lucifer's beach

Taking shade and underneath Lucifer's trees

Getting sustenance from Lucifer's peach

Oh black metal it's a fact in all your speech 

Holdin' on to black metal

(Black metal)

Holdin' on to black metal

(Black metal)

Black metal you've been holding on too long

(Black metal)

(Black metal)

Oh bring them to me

(Black metal)

Oh making me think

(Black metal)

Oh one, two, three

Let's rock! 

A Vast Tapestry of Lies

“Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”

-Harold Pinter

Photo "Ignorance" by Abdul Ghafar Afridi

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotton sings Freight Train

Elizabeth Cotten was about 8, she took the hand-made guitar her brother hid under his bed and laid it flat in her lap, flipping it upside-down to play it lefty.

She picked the strings backward, her thumb playing the melody, her index finger on the bass strings.

A quarter of a century past her death, Cotten is a household name only in a household of guitar players, and only if those players tend toward the folk-blues-Americana vein most popular among people old enough to remember the day Bob Dylan went electric. Dylan himself covered Cotten’s “Shake Sugaree.” Jerry Garcia dipped into her repertoire with “Oh Babe it Ain’t No Lie,” and according to legend, The Grateful Dead would visit the elderly Cotten to pay homage.

She thrived in the folk revival of the 1960s, discovered by crazy coincidence when folk music specialist Ruth Crawford Seeger lost her daughter Peggy in the Washington, D.C., department store where Cotten was working. The former Lloyd Street guitarist led the wandering daughter back to her mother, and way led on to way. While working as a babysitter for the Seeger family, Cotten casually picked up a guitar and played her way into the Newport Folk Festival. It’s the sort of thing that makes you believe in fate. Something, somewhere wanted Libba Cotten’s music heard.

She toured for decades, playing the most prestigious stages, making enough to quit domestic work, winning a Grammy at age 91.

If you’ve heard Cotten play, you’ve heard “Freight Train,” her most famous song and the only piece cited on the historical marker. She wrote it at age 12. The lyrics give instructions on what to do when the singer dies: Bury me deep, tell them I’ve gone to sleep.

“Freight train, freight train, run so fast,” the lyrics go. “Please don’t tell which train I’m on. They won’t know what route I’ve gone.”

How to Get Flat Abs and Have Amazing Sex

Kate Bartolotta

Owner and founder, Be You Media Group

The covers of most men's and women's magazines have similar headlines: "Get Great Abs" and "Have Amazing Sex."

From the looks of it, these two issues have been recycled over and over (with some other stereotypically gender-relevant articles thrown in) on every Men's Health, Maxim, Cosmopolitan and Glamour cover since the dawn of time. In fact, I'd bet that if we could get a better translation of cave drawings, they would read something like "Grok get flat belly. Make girl Grok moan with joy."

And we keep buying them. We keep buying this lie that these things will make us happy. I've had washboard abs (past tense) and I've had some pretty phenomenal sex. Neither one made me a better person. Neither one completed me or made my life more fulfilling.

We chase this idea of "I will be happy when... "

I will be happy when I have a new car. I will be happy when I get married. I will be happy when I get a better job. I will be happy when I lose five pounds. What if instead we choose to be happy -- right now?

If you can read this, your life is pretty awesome.

Setting aside our first-world problems and pettiness, if you are online reading this, you have both electricity and WiFi or access to them. Odds are you are in a shelter of some sort, or on a smart phone (and then kudos to you for reading this on the go). Life might bump and bruise us, it may not always go the way we plan and I know I get frustrated with mine, but here's the thing: You are alive.

Because you are alive, everything is possible. So about those eight tips...

1. Stop believing your bullshit.

All that stuff you tell yourself about how you are a commitment phobe or a coward or lazy or not creative or unlucky? Stop it. It's bullshit, and deep down you know it. We are all insecure 14 year olds at heart. We're all scared. We all have dreams inside of us that we've tucked away because somewhere along the line we tacked on those ideas about who we are that buried that essential brilliant, childlike sense of wonder. The more we stick to these scripts about who we are, the longer we live a fraction of the life we could be living. Let it go. Be who you are beneath the bullshit.

2. Be happy now.

Not because The Secret says so. Not because of some shiny happy Oprah crap. But because we can choose to appreciate what is in our lives instead of being angry or regretful about what we lack. It's a small, significant shift in perspective. It's easier to look at what's wrong or missing in our lives and believe that is the big picture -- but it isn't. We can choose to let the beautiful parts set the tone.

3. Look at the stars.

It won't fix the economy. It won't stop wars. It won't give you flat abs, or better sex or even help you figure out your relationship and what you want to do with your life. But it's important. It helps you remember that you and your problems are both infinitesimally small and conversely, that you are a piece of an amazing and vast universe. I do it daily -- it helps.

4. Let people in.

Truly. Tell people that you trust when you need help, or you're depressed -- or you're happy and you want to share it with them. Acknowledge that you care about them and let yourself feel it. Instead of doing that other thing we sometimes do, which is to play it cool and pretend we only care as much as the other person has admitted to caring, and only open up half way. Go all in -- it's worth it.

5. Stop with the crazy making.

I got to a friend's doorstep the other day, slightly breathless and nearly in tears after getting a little lost, physically and existentially. She asked what was wrong and I started to explain and then stopped myself and admitted, "I'm being stupid and have decided to invent lots of problems in my head." Life is full of obstacles; we don't need to create extra ones. A great corollary to this one is from The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz: Don't take things personally. Most of the time, other people's choices and attitudes have absolutely nothing to do with you. Unless you've been behaving like a jerk, in which case...

6. Learn to apologize.

Not the ridiculous, self-deprecating apologizing for who you are and for existing that some people seem to do (what's up with that, anyway?). The ability to sincerely apologize -- without ever interjecting the word "but" -- is an essential skill for living around other human beings. If you are going to be around other people, eventually you will need to apologize. It's an important practice.

7. Practice gratitude.

Practice it out loud to the people around you. Practice it silently when you bless your food. Practice it often. Gratitude is not a first world only virtue. I saw a photo recently, of a girl in abject poverty, surrounded by filth and destruction. Her face was completely lit up with joy and gratitude as she played with a hula hoop she'd been given. Gratitude is what makes what we have enough. Gratitude is the most basic way to connect with that sense of being an integral part of the vastness of the universe; as I mentioned with looking up at the stars, it's that sense of wonder and humility, contrasted with celebrating our connection to all of life.

8. Be kind.

Kurt Vonnegut said it best (though admittedly, and somewhat ashamedly -- I am not a Vonnegut fan): "There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'"

Kindness costs us nothing and pays exponential dividends. I can't save the whole world. I can't bring peace to Syria. I can't fix the environment or the health care system, and from the looks of it, I may end up burning my dinner.

But I can be kind.

If the biggest thing we do in life is to extend love and kindness to even one other human being, we have changed the world for the better.

That's a hell of a lot more important than flat abs in my book.

Pearl Jam "Unknown Thought"

All the thoughts, you never see,
you're always thinkin'
Brain is wide, brain is deep,
oh are you sinkin'?
Feel the path of every day,
which road you takin'?
Breathin' hard and makin' hay,
yea this is livin'
Look for love and evidence,
that you're worth keepin'
Swallowed whole in negatives,
it's so sad and sickenin' 
Feel the air up above,
a pool of blue sky
Fill the air up with love,
black with starlight
 Feel the sky blanket you,
with gems and rhinestones
See the path cut by the moon,
for you to walk on...
For you to walk on

Nothing left, nothing left Nothing there, nothing left (x3)

See the path cut by the moon,
for you to walk on
see the waves on distant shores,
awaiting your arrival
Dream the dreams of other men,
you'll be no ones rival
Dream the dreams of others then,
you will be no ones rival...
You will be no ones rival

A distant time, a distant space,
that's where we're livin'
A distant time, a distant place,
so what you givin'?... What you givin'?

Jarabe de Palo "Depende"

Que el blanco sea blanco
y que el negro sea negro,
que uno y uno sean dos
porque exactos son los números........ depende.

Que aquí estamos de prestao,
que hoy el cielo está nublao,
que uno nace y luego muere,
y este cuento se ha acabao........ depende.

Depende, de qué depende,
de según como se mire todo depende.

Qué bonito es el amor,
más que nunca en primavera,
que mañana sale el sol
porque estamos en agosto........ depende.

Que con el paso del tiempo
el vino se hace bueno,
que todo lo que sube baja
de abajo a arriba y de arriba a abajo........ depende.

Que no has conocido a nadie
que te bese como yo,
que no hay otro hombre en tu vida
que de ti se beneficie........ depende.

Que sí quiere decir sí
cada vez que abres la boca,
que te hace muy feliz
que hoy sea el día de tu boda........ depende.

Translation:
Let the white be white
and let the black be black,
let one and one be two
because the numbers are exact.......it depends.

Let us be here
let the sky be cloudy today
let the one to be born and later to be dead
and this story has ended......it depends.

It depends, on what it depends,
it depends on how you look.

How beautiful is love,
more than ever in spring,
that tomorrow the sun rises,
because we are in august....it depends.

That with the step of time,
the good wine is made
that everything that rises also falls,
from down upwards and from up downwards...it depends.

That you have not know anyone
who would kiss you like I did
that there is no other man in your life
who is rich from being with you....it depends

That he wants to say Yes
each time you open your mouth
that he makes you happy
that today is the day of your wedding...it depends.

John Green "Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?"

John Green is kind of amazing. He knows his facts way better than you or me. And they are mind-blowing and/or horrifying.

Octopus: Masters of Optical Illusion

The world is much more amazing than we can begin to imagine.

The Clash "Radio Clash"

 Live on the Tom Snyder Show in 1981. One of my favorite bands from the 70s & 80s is one of my favorite all-time bands. Their energy level is off the charts. Joe Strummer had more words than a politician with Tourette syndrome on speed.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down "Train In Vain"

 Thao does Clash

OutKast "B.O.B."

Have you ever been to Stankonia?

My Morning Jacket & Eryka Badu "Tyrone"

My Morning Jacket & Erykah Badu.  Beyond Awesome

General Smedley Butler On War And Capitalism

 “War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909 -1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” “WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives… In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows… Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill… And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations… …a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men. Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well. Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn’t they? It pays high dividends… The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let’s get it… Of course, it isn’t put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and “we must all put our shoulders to the wheel,” but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed.” “TO HELL WITH WAR!”
 -Major General Smedley Butler USMC “War Is A Racket”