short notes: will brady's ruminations

A blog adjunct to rondak.org [click on the globe] | Perspectives on: human rights; environmental concerns; life as a visual artist; 21st century feudalism; progressive politics; aboriginal culture; new urbanism; permaculture; sustainable technology; non-traditional families; achievable utopias

2005-03-02

21st CENTURY FEUDALISM

This New Yorker Cartoon might be funnier if it wasn't true

Posted by: Will Brady / 01:06 (0) comments

2005-03-01

TRANSITIONS

I lost my boss yesterday | Married on Friday evening, she has retired from state service effective the end of the working day yesterday | She has always been [and, I expect, shall continue to be] determined, resolute, true to her convictions, stalwart, compassionate, courageous, hard working and ethical |
     Precisely some of the qualities essential when advocating for human rights in unseemly circumstances |
     I shall miss her glowing countenance at the workplace | I shall miss her drive and exhuberance, her probing questions and rapier quality analytical perspective |
     There have been, from her detractors, some comments | "Isn't she difficult to work for?" | Well, to be honest, there had been some times when I wasn't looking forward to discussing "stuff" with her, but I have to be equally honest in saying that, no, I did not find her difficult to work for | She pressed me to constantly engage in critical thinking, while simultaneously calling upon us [for I was not the only one she supervised] to remain empathetic and true ~ and I like that |
     In the type of work I do, working for someone who is straight-forward and honest is essential | So is the ability to fair-minded with people from all walks of life, even the worst among human beings [and, dear reader, take pause and do not assume what ~or which~ people I would place in that category] Even when she was under incredible duress, she took the effort to tell the rest of us not to harbor grudges nor let our thinking be poisoned by those of ill will |
     Her leave-taking is a great loss for my workplace | I am thankful that I shall be able to remain in touch |
     Good fortune to you, noble lady |

Posted by: Will Brady / 08:17 (0) comments

CORRECTION

I was wrong about Ecologia Cognitiva | In several ways:
First, it IS NOT Alex Grey's site, but the site of another blogger [Elias?] | It's still in Beta format, so to speak and Second, it's in Portugese, not Spanish [my own ignorance, sorry] | It is, nevertheless, off to a good start as far as I'm concerned |
The site's author wrote me about the endeavor, here is what he says:

"I am talking about a new space, where diverse cognitive approachs can be recognized as valid, and a new conversation starts. This new environment needs to be ecologia cognitiva ~ ... recognized and protected against attacks coming from totalitarisms, right and/or left, and that's why I recall the ativist ethos of 'ecology'.
From 'ecology' also comes the idea of a new ethic, developed from the notion that the earth needs care, and so do the people and cultures dwelling on it. But the most important in the main illustration is the notion of a space where a new dialogue between different cognitive possibilities can start, bringing in new concepts, shifting new paradigms. The whole thing based on the validation of the human research into these realms, by cultural or scientific means -- and I think the banner shows it all."

He also borrowed Mr. Grey's work and is concerned that by my "premature disclosure" of the site, might have gotten him into hot water | I hope not | What he writes about, and the links he has already provided are important and valuable ones | BTW, you didn't provide an e-mail to write you privately, that's the only reason I am responding in this manner |

Posted by: Will Brady / 07:42 (0) comments

2005-02-28

SNOW

A contest of sorts | This picture has been modified | there was an element in it that I found distracting and using photoshop I took it out | If you can tell me what it is, I'll send you an enlarged image of your choice [printed on photo paper and matted] from the Image gallery page
Of course, you'll have to send your snail mail address | hard copy doesn't travel well through the ethers | Send your responses to me at will.brady@gmail.com |

Posted by: Will Brady / 21:24 (0) comments

DISTRACTIONS

Today, both Connie and Robert sent odd pictures in the mail | Connie forwarded a series of painted hands [most from some investment brokerage house] while Robert proffered grown up versions of pictures hidden within pictures | I say "grown up" since the are evocative of the Highlights for Children exercises I remember from childhood |
What you see here are samples from the missives received |

Posted by: Will Brady / 00:00 (0) comments

2005-02-27

LANDSCAPE DESIGN

The Washington Mall | I came home Friday night to a urgent phone call from a lady friend who was calling to find out what I might know about the Reflecting Pond on the Mall in Washington D.C. | Seems one of our local school teachers gave her son an assignement to come up with details on how and why the pool was created | What's the philosophy behind it, that sort of thing | They've gotten so desperate for detail that the desk for the Washington Monument was called ["...somebody actually answered!] but they didn't know much about why the reflecting pond was built |

     Frederick Law Olmstead, Augustus St. Gaudens and Charles F.McKim all had a part in the planning of the renovated Mall in the 1920s | Knowing more about the values these men had, combined with the original vision of the city as proposed by architect Pierre L'Enfant would be closer to the direction in learning the answer to the question, or so I'm thinking |
     During the 20th Century, the Mall became the focal point for a range of public demonstrations and protest actions | Marian Anderson performed there when, in 1949, she, a world renowned opera singer who happened to be black, was denied performing at a concert hall | Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech", Vietnam War protests, and other mass gatherings have been held there | It is, or was, the space of the Polity |
     The Mall was patterned after the grandeur that is the gardens of Versaille | No doubt, we may see pomp and circumstance reserved for Corporate American nobility in the next number of years; you can be certain, however, that just as the space was nearly lost to us during the last Robber Baron Era, that this generation's Royal Thieves will not retain possession of it forever |

OTHER TALES ABOUT THE MALL: Don Poss visits the Vietnam Wall | National Park Service's "L'Enfant's Plans for Washington DC | A history of the Mall |

Posted by: Will Brady / 22:01 (0) comments

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

There are risks to speaking your mind

Among these risks could be public shunning, arrest, imprisonment, exile from one's native land, torture, abuse, death | Freedom of Speech, perhaps the most crucial of the freedoms granted to humankind, is constantly under seige | We owe to ourselves, to one another, to future generations, to protect that Freedom, that Fundamental Right | Stand up today and fight | Speak out for others engagaed in the battle under, perhaps less hospitable climes than your own | Failure to so do this, jeopardizes your own ability to speak |

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to the freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Posted by: Will Brady / 15:36 (0) comments

COGNITIVE PATHWAYS [UPDATED 02 mar 05]

The work of Alex Grey unveil for us a way of seeing that most might never experience | Some would maintain that only madmen and visionaries can see such things, and both are viewed with suspicion by conventinal thinkers | Indeed, the cognitive pathways of these two groups are usually sqaushed or suppressed |
     Mr. Grey's art and imagery is but the tip of his devotion to expanding consciousness | This is implicit both in the text and commentary on the website about his visual art |
     Another blog, Ecolovia Cognitia by a Brazilian blogger [] speaks to issues dealing with a freer exploration of the universe that is the Mind, and which ~ for me ~ evokes the spirit that Grey's images seek to call to our attention | That site provides a handful of thoughtful and thought-provoking links to others advocating the use of psychedelics as well as warning of the efforts of BigPharma and other thought control "police" who insist on suppressing such cognitive explorations | Sadly, many of the clinical careerists [some of whom are "professionals" others only hacks] abount in the Mental Illness Industry, wherein I work | Not only do those careerists work too quickly at suppressing newly opened doors of reality [drug induced sometimes, spontaneously opened up on their own, at others] but often they work to disavow and minimize the importance and impact of psychic phenomena and spirituality |
     All the more important that site such as Alex Grey's and Elias Ulrich's site remain up and active and visited | They call to our attention the rich tapestry of the mind and get beyond mere synaptic reactions to the core of cognitive explorations |

The first version of this entry inaccurately attributed Ecolovia Cognitia to Alex Grey | More accurately, Elias clearly states that the artwork of Alex Grey most potently illustrates what his site is all about | I hope this helps correct my initial error of crediting on the Elias' site |
The first rendition of the entry read as follows: Mr. Grey's art and imagery is but the tip of his devotion to expanding consciousness | This is implicit both in the text and commentary on the website about his visual art, but also via Ecolovia Cognitia a [Spanish Language] blog that speaks to issues dealing with a freer exploration of the universe that is the Mind | Grey's second site provides a handful of thoughtful and thought-provoking links to others advocating the use of psychedelics as well as warning of the efforts of BigPharma and other thought control "police" who insist on suppressing such cognitive explorations | Sadly, many of the clinical careerists [some of whom are "profssionals" others only hacks] abount in the Mental Illness Industry, wherein I work |

Posted by: Will Brady / 13:48 (3) comments

OTHER VOICES

Kimber brings these comments to the fore |
     Johnny Carson / on Democracy
"...democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head. This signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle."
     Maine Politicians / Who Pays for Tax Cuts?
"Over the course of two years, with all the state money and the federal match included,' he says, 'there's a $78-million cut' to services for the mentally ill people whom [mental health service] agencies help."
     "The rich folks are getting downright pissed off that us poor folks don't have the common decency to just die off so they don't have to pay for us anymore so they're just speeding up the process a little bit. God love em."

Posted by: Will Brady / 01:40 (0) comments

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