Sunday, 30 October 2011

Democracy Now - A guest post by austintxx

Today's post comes courtesy of austintxx, written in his unique style, involving some adult language...



I am a member of KPFT, a totally listener supported community radio station in Houston. The station first came on the air on March 1 , 1970 with the first song played being "Here Comes The Sun" by the Beatles. The KKK decided that they did not like a community radio station that played any and all music and let any one that wanted their voice heard come to the station and speak out. So just a little over two months later, on May 12, 1970, the KKK blew up the transmitter. After several weeks of repairs, the station was back up and running. THEN, on October 6, 1970, the fuckers did it again! The song being played at the time of the second interruption was "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie. On January 21, 1971, when the station came back on air, Arlo was in the studio to play "Alice's Restaurant" live. How perfect is that ?

I listen to the station 6-7 hours every weekday and one of my favorite shows is Democracy Now, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales. These are two of the best broadcast journalists in America. Period. You will learn more in the hour that you listen to this program than you will doing anything else that day. No commercials and they shoot straight as it gets.

We are having our fall fundraiser presently and imagine my pleasant surprise when it was announced that Juan Gonzales was coming to Houston to promote his new book News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media, co-authored with Joseph Torres of the media reform group Free Press, and to help out the station.

Well, it took mere seconds for me to pounce on the phone and pledge to do the meet & greet.

So, this past Wednesday, Oct 26, I went to Talento Bilingue de Houston and met and listened to Juan and Joe speak.

Juan blew us away

The man's eloquence and depth of knowledge on media history in America is unmatched.
Here is Amy's interview with Juan and Joe and you can see what real journalism is all about.


Also this following week on Tavis Smiley on PBS, Juan will be making an appearance.

“Juan González and Joseph Torres have rendered a splendid public service with this highly readable and engrossing story of how the press sees—and doesn’t see—who we are as a people. Race and ethnicity, power and privilege, the visible and the invisible are at the core of our democratic crisis today, and it’s hard to imagine a better way to face the challenge than to be armed with the story this book tells so well.” ~ Bill Moyers, Public Affairs Television.

I want to thank La Regina for allowing me to share my experience here.

[Thank you, austin!]

Saturday, 29 October 2011

A birthday treat

Today we have a guest post by our friend HelenNPN. It's her husband's birthday on the 30th, but the post had to go up today because it's already tomorrow where they are and she wanted to surprise him when he got up in the morning. Confused? Blame it on the time difference...

Over to Helen:

Milford Sound is part of the “wild west” coast of New Zealand. It is a fiord, fed by rainfall and freshwater springs. Remote and accessed by helicopter or a relatively expensive two hour bus ride plus a two hour boat ride from the nearest small town, it is nevertheless quite a popular draw for those who wish to view an untouched ecosystem. It is the kind of place that gives New Zealand the catchphrase, “99% Pure.”

Starting out from the motel, we couldn’t help but take a photo of the sign by the laundry clotheslines – apparently drive-by-laundry-hangings provide a criminal element in an otherwise serene Kiwi neighbourhood. ; )


The bus ride passes through lush yellow green valleys and waterfalls in beech forests. We are encouraged to fill up our water bottles at the from the passing springs before heading into the most remote areas - there will be no place to buy water and the confidence in this lovely fresh water is absolute. The terrain eventually becomes quite rugged; after what already seems like a long journey you find yourself on a boat, facing a very mysterious and slightly foreboding waterway. Colors fade in the mist and the Gilligan’s Island theme starts up in your head.





As the air becomes more moist, waterfalls seem to sprout before your eyes. It feels like you are looking on a primeval landscape, viewing how the first waterfalls fell from the first land that just now rose and shook off the ocean. A picture of how life began somewhere both grim and lush. In these caves a unique species of glow worm spread themselves out like constellations inside the terminal darkness. If enough food doesn’t make it into the cave, they feast on each other, but the colony is always maintained. The long deep body of water cut by curtains of cliffs ultimately opens to the sea.










Despite the isolation, there is always a roaring merry go round of noise from the ocean-wind-falls-sea birds. A group of seals stretch and revel in the isolation. The sun breaks through as we head back to the dock for the long bus ride back to the little town Te Anau, which seems like a very remote outpost itself.


All photos were taken by my husband Philip, who I think did a splendid job of catching such sweeping and dimly lit views with an ordinary digital camera. Happy Birthday Philip!


[Happy birthday from all of us too. Have a wonderful day with lovely Helen, you're a lucky guy!]

Friday, 28 October 2011

Baby elephant

Sleuth is very good at finding cute animal videos. Here's one of her contributions:



Thank you, Sleuth.

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Talented hands

Shapeshifterbelly sent me some photos of hand art and I did a bit of research. I had seen some of them before and was curious about the artist.


Mario Mariotti (1936-1997) was an Italian artist who grew up in Florence (surrounded by stunning art). There are a few books depicting his creations, covering different themes.



















Thank you, Shapeshifter, these pictures are fantastic.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

So Palin...

There was a special offer at our supermarket : "Buy two, get third one free." We use a lot of paper towels, so it was a good bargain... until we got home and paid attention to the brand!



I don't know how we're going to cope with seeing her name on 1,500 sheets of this stuff. We wouldn't mind it so much if it had been something suitable, like toilet paper!

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Some music...

I featured this song on the old blog as "Les Feuilles Mortes," with Yves Montand singing the original 1945 version - music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by Jacques Prévert.

This version (featuring beautiful photos) brings together two incredibly talented musicians:



[Our son Billy is arriving tomorrow. I prepared a few posts and they're scheduled to appear on a daily basis while we catch up on the past two years!]

Monday, 24 October 2011

In touch with Mother Nature

Grasshopper went on a bike ride on an Old Indian trail converted to a bike/walking trail along Des Plaines river. The photos are lovely. I wonder how many people will be able to work out the last one... I had to ask Grasshopper, then it became clear.









Thank you, Grasshopper. That was a great debut on What Time, eh?

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Moving stuff around

Some of you are familiar with my other blog, "Do I smell burning?" It's been abandoned for months. As this blog has a bit of everything, I'll gradually move all the recipes here, then close the other blog.

PUMPKIN, CARROT AND BEETROOT SOUP

Pumpkins are plentiful at this time of the year so here's a soup that will give you a bumper dose of the important anti-oxidant beta carotene. It's delicious!

Ingredients

Pumpkin, diced
Carrots
Beetroots
Trimmed leeks
A couple of potatoes
Dry white wine
Paprika
Chicken or vegetable bouillon
Onion and garlic
A very small amount of grated ginger
Salt & pepper to taste.

Preparation

Dice onions, chop garlic, cut all vegetables into chunks. I didn't give exact amounts of anything, you can vary according to taste and how much soup you're making. In a large pan, fry the onions until golden. Add the veggies, mix well, add the garlic, paprika, ginger, white wine and enough bouillon for the amount of vegetables. Adjust seasoning. Simmer for about 1 hour. Check that everything is cooked, whizz the lot in a blender, re-heat gently, taste and adjust seasoning and serve. A sprig of parsley or basil gives each bowl an elegant look.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

Meeting your wife's needs

Mrsgunka strikes again:


After 35 years of marriage, a husband and wife came for counseling. When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a passionate, painful tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the years they had been married.

On and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs she had endured.

Finally, after allowing this for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking the wife to stand, embraced and kissed her passionately as her husband watched with a raised eyebrow.The woman shut up and quietly sat down as though in a daze. The therapist turned to the husband and said, 'this is what your wife needs at least 3 times a week. Can you do this?'

'Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Fridays, I fish.'

Thank you, Mrsgunka.

The question about the blog roll


It looks like the readers are divided on the topic of the blog roll. I'm not one to make a mountain of a mole hill, so I'm quite happy to reach a compromise and make life easier. I've added a simplified political blog roll, showing only the name of the blog and when it was last updated. The link will take you to the home page, where you can navigate the blog to your heart's content. In order to keep the sidebar uncluttered, only the five most recently updated blogs will appear and you'll have to click on "show all" to see the rest. I have also "weeded" the list a little bit, so only the active blogs were included. If you wish to access the original list, there's always Palingates, where it remains unchanged.

I created a separate list of blogs that I think are more in keeping with the ethos of "What time is o'clock," so we can separate pleasure from politics.

Now that we have blog rolls, I have removed the poll. [I seem to have turned into a poet, the rhymes came so easily. LOL!]

Friday, 21 October 2011

Beauty bursting into life

Long time (quiet) reader of the old blog Susie sent me this truly beautiful video. She was inspired by the gentle atmosphere of the new blog.

Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.


Thank you, Susie.

It's about time



Back in 2003, there were worldwide protests against the invasion of Iraq. Bush's lapdog Tony ("I want to be like Churchill") Blair ignored over a million people who marched through the streets of London and went ahead with the illegal war. I was there, together with Peter and our son Paul. There were so many people that it took us 6 hours to walk from Waterloo Station to Hyde Park Corner (3 miles).

The graphic truth

I can't resist a bit of politics, so when reader ianai sent me some graphics, I had to share:



Thank you, ianai.