Friday, July 29, 2011

Babies

Tune in to the Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas Live on Blog Talk Radio Friday mornings at 9:30 am PDT.

Today's show: "Babies" is dedicated to Lolita, who works as hard as any human I have ever seen, and who sends me my Friday blasts. And of course to my partner here in the booth, my Therapy Buddy, Seemore.

Also on today's show:
1) Local News
2) Other News
3) Local Loco
4) Babies
5) Lit Minit : "Night," by Elie Wiesel

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

1) Local News

* 35 DAYS TO BURNING MAN! Fuck! It sold out.
Committees and Task Forces are useless. This according to Joe Eskanazi (his real name) in his cover story in this week's SF Weekly, and most sentient humans who will respond. Well, that's true, unless you count all the times they got something done. If you really want to address a problem, see inside.

2) Other News

          As the lead story out of Seattle, cops open up their 911 call to Twitter, with surprising results.

...and of course, war, crime, misery, rape, arson, murder, mayhem and chaos...

3) Local Loco : Read your local paper. And write a little, too. Write a Letter to the Editor, or to one of the advertisers. Thank them for a good ad or voice your concern about a dangerous product or service. Step out of line a little. Work now or pay a LOT more later, when some Media One clone owns all the local press. See Meet Joe Black for more.

4) Feature: "Babies"

        We are babies. We whine and weasel and try to get as much fun and freedom as we can, and safety and security for ourselves and our families, of course. But we miss the bigger picture. Not only that, when you show us the big picture we can be counted on to have a nonsensical counter productive response. Just watch any Democrat political discussion. No answers here, only questions leading to more of the same. What do you do with a species capapble of Nuclear Physics that also burns babies like cordwood? This and more next week on Hard Work Hour.

5) Lit Minit : "Night," by Elie Wiesel

TYSM for reading and listening. I hope you had fun. Now, GBTW!

-- DD

...but if you DO have time right now, you can get more fun here by following these links:



SF Weekly
"Night," was read with great love and respect but without any authorization or permission from the author, their heirs or publishers.

Also used, but without permission, the intro music is "Wheels," by CAKE off of their album "Pressure Chief."





Notes and links from BTR show "Babies" Show 7/29/11 HWH w DD

All material licensed by Creative Commons. If you want to use it, ask!

Now, get back to work, dammit!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Genocide

 Tune in to the Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas Live on Blog Talk Radio Friday mornings at 9:30 am PDT.

Today's show: "Genocide" is dedicated to Ms. Djusberg who I know will never stop teaching and learning.  Oh, and to my Therapy Buddy (See, Richard?)

Also on today's show: 
1) Local News
2) Other News
3) Local Loco
4) Genocide
5) Lit Minit : "Kiss My Math," by Danika McKellar

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

1) Local News

* 42 DAYS TO BURNING MAN!

   * CCSF is a great institution and one of the largest college systems in the country (Community College of the Air Force is first with >300,000 enrolled {we don't count Kaplan or Phoenix as real schools-they are more evidence of the degeneration of our schools-ever take one of their programs?})

      CCSF has more than 100,000 hard-working students in it's grasp and seems to do well by them at first blush, including offering a more than cursory Study Abroad program. More later...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_colleges_and_universities_by_enrollment

http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/

http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/en/educational-programs/school-and-departments/school-of-international-education-and-esl/study-abroad.html


*  Commonwealth Club has lots of think global act local type discussions and forums and has been doing this for a long, long time. I am lucky to be included, and I look forward to meeting up with the group.


* Lots of naked people on the cover of the Guardian this week, guess it's no surprise, since so many of them walk around town in similar non-garb.

* Leland Yee is not Ed Lee. Common mistake. One is the mayor and one is our State Senator for San Francisco/San Mateo. I and lots of people confuse the two. Just look at all those posters jammed in bakery windows saying "Run, Leland, Run!"

(read YOUR local paper for YOUR local news)


2) Other News 
   
          Christian Science Monitor on Rupert Murdoch and the legitimacy of media. Not the essay I was hoping to read, maybe I will have to bar the door and crank one out. Something epic about history and despots and greed and all of us and hope and well, I better put in some sexy, too, or it will be too tough to stay awake.

         Okay, how about parotting Murdoch's testimony before Parliament? I mean, he shirked off all responsibility. Shouldn't we do the same?

        No. Because without us he is lost. I am not at all concerned for the welfare of this man. I say this only to emphasize the flow of ownership. This horrible, unethical behavior was done by people that we probably like. Would hang out with. Enjoy the hell out of. Good people, desperate to keep a job or a desk or a byline. Pushed by circumstances to shelve their ethics and do things unimaginable in normal life. And it is our job to pat them on the back, get them on a better path. And STOP reading the publication that printed the shit. Rupert took our authority away by closing the rag, but we should all rally around by declaring a boycott of News of the World effective immediately, to be followed by more similar behavior. My interest here is to save the Wall Street Journal, which entered Murdoch and NewsCorp's grasp five or six years ago. I have been watching Fox News only occasionally since Al Franken's book attack on them, and since the funny ran out of it ages ago. So I am at a loss. I will post something on my boycott page and see what we can come up with. Read the paper and write to the editor to tell them what you think.

   ...and of course, war, crime, misery, rape, arson, murder, mayhem and chaos...

3) Local Loco : Read your local paper. And sing a little, too. Write a Letter to the Editor, or to one of the advertisers. Thank them for a good ad or voice your concern about a dangerous product or service. Step out of line a little. Work now or pay a LOT more later, when some Murdoch clone owns all the local press. See Meet Joe Black for more.

4) Feature: "Genocide"

        The dictionary has a definition that leaves me cold. Something about large-scale killing based on prejudice. It doesn't do it. Here is where we need video. Link to mayhem in Croatia in the 1940's.
   
        But even video does not show us enough, or show it as it is. How final. How the smell won't leave your nose with washing. How brutal it is. How wild and chaotic and erratic and worst of all: popular. In Croatia the killing went on for years with the approval of disinterested people in the area. Same in Germany and Poland in the 30's and 40's. In Rwanda at the end of the 20th century and doubtless on scales large and small all around and throughout us today, in our time.

        It is true I speak from ignorance, having served in no war and seen no killing. But we all have, really. The 20th century was the introduction of the blood smear telecast, and the cordwood corpse pile newsreel. We had fun with it. When Dirty Harry pulled the trigger, we cheered, or put up with those who did. We built a whole industry out of people whose main job was to push killing and fighting in our faces for a job! We have all been steeped in death and violence for as long as we can remember.

         We don't have to look very far to see why. We like it. We wage war, we poison pests, we even kill prisoners in our institutions of rehabilitation.

        No words of hope here. Just a little glimpse into our dark heart. The one we share with Lenin, and Marx, with Pol Pot and Hitler. For these men were not unique in their thoughts, only in their actions and in the deeds which society and history has stuck to them. Better we should attach all murders to our own consciences, for doubtless we have more hand in than we fear. Who wrote: "...it tolls for thee." ?

5) Lit Minit : "Kiss My Math," by Danica Mckellar

TYSM for reading and "listening." I hope you had fun. Now, GBTW!

-- DD

 
...but if you DO have time right now, you can get more fun here by following these links:

   SF Weekly
"Kiss My Math," was  read with great love and respect but without any authorization or permission from the author, their heirs or publishers.

Also used, but without permission, the intro music is "Wheels," by CAKE off of their album "Pressure Chief."





Notes and links from BTR show "Genocide" Show 7/22/11 HWH w DD

All material licensed by Creative Commons. If you want to use it, ask!

Now, get back to work, dammit!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Carmeggedon / Traumatic Brain Injury / ...

 Click BlogTalkRadio play button to hear show --->


Tune in to the Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas Live on Blog Talk Radio Friday mornings at 9:30 am PDT.

Today's show: "Carmeggedon / Traumatic Brain Injury / Boredom is Death" is dedicated to Elizabeth in her super secret bird-shit free location. Oh, and to my Therapy Buddy.

Also on today's show:
1) Local News
2) Other News
3) Local Loco
4) Carmeggedon / Traumatic Injury / Boredom is Death
5) Lit Minit : "Me Talk Pretty One Day," by David Sedaris.

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1) Local News

50 DAYS TO BURNING MAN!

Wine Country

(read YOUR local paper for YOUR local news)

2) Other News "Rupert Murdoch Empire In Peril?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-15-britain-phone-hacking_n.htm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9ac825be-aef5-11e0-bb89-00144feabdc0.html

A call to arms for all of us who have any intention of hoping for a better future for those who haven't had their chance yet, but will soon.

We have to deal with the corporate realities of News and Mass Media, and Rupert Murdoch is as good a place to start as any.

If you have any love for America left, if you think that a Free Press and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are -- were -- pretty good things, then this is your hour. Take ten minutes and write, text or talk to SOMEONE about it. Extra points and Karmic Goodies given to those who contact media centers, publishing conglomerates and centers of mass confusion that may actually disburse  the conversation/monologue to a wider audience. We need to take quite a bit of the responsibility for Fox News, NotW, and all the rest of the media under Murdoch's umbrella. Because the only reason he has for building this creation is to sell things to US. Enough of us are still watching Chris and Crew to make it worth NewsCorp's time and trouble to keep producing it. Advertisers are still buying and paying. And it is not fair laying this all off on the Tea Party Conflagration Experiment. We ALL are party to it, regardless of political affiliation or headgear. 

   If you want a jumping in spot, try my friend Julie: She is the L.A. Press Officer for NewsCorp:  

Julie Henderson, Senior Vice President 
Communications & Corporate Strategy
Phone:  310-369-0773
E-Mail: jhenderson@newscorp.com
     
        I don't want to put words in your head, you know. But if helpful, here is a possible script:

        Hi Julie,

       I know that you need a job and everything, but I think that your boss, Rupert Murdoch is a negative force in free media. I believe that many of his publications, especially Fox News here in the USA, and News of the World in England, work to reduce discussion and build distance between people instead of providing a free flow of researched information to inform a curious and respected population. I think that serving the lower needs of society has helped bring on the crisis now being experienced by NewsCorp in England today. I have great fear that The Wall Street Journal ( a recent NewsCorp acquisition) will soon show signs of this same reckless, sensational journalism so prevalent today across not just print media, but the entire emerging spectrum of human communication. This is something that your company has a large investment in. So do I.

I urge you to communicate to all levels in your company the need to affirm your intention to practice, provide and produce informed, respectful, diligent journalism in all NewsCorp's media holdings, especially The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.

Sincerely, Your Friend and Reader,

(Your Name)

And of course, war, chaos, misery and destruction et al...

3) Local Loco : Read your local paper. And sing a little, too. Write a Letter to the Editor, or to one of the advertisers. Thank them for a good ad or voice your concern about a dangerous product or service. Step out of line a little. Work now or pay a LOT more later, when some Murdoch clone owns all the local press. See Meet Joe Black for more.

4) Carmeggedon
5) Lit Minit : "Me Talk Pretty One Day," by David Sedaris.
TYSM for reading and "listening." I hope you had fun. Now, GBTW!


-- DD

 
...but if you DO have time right now, you can get more fun here by following these links:

      NewsCorp Executive Email List 

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" was  read with great love and respect but without any authorization or permission from the author, their heirs or publishers.

Also used, but without permission, the intro music is "Wheels," by CAKE off of their album "Pressure Chief."






Notes and links from BTR show "Carmeggedon / TBI / Boredome is Death" Show 7/15/11 HWH w DD

All material licensed by Creative Commons. If you want to use it, ask!

Now, get back to work, dammit!


--
Posted By commander1958 to Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas at 7/15/2011 10:28:00 AM



--
Douglas Whiting
Discovery Learning Tutoring
Credential # 070098094
310 435 8477
hardworkisfun@gmail.com

Carmeggedon / Traumatic Brain Injury / Boredom is Death

Click BlogTalkRadio play button to hear show --->


Tune in to the Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas Live on Blog Talk Radio Friday mornings at 9:30 am PDT.

Today's show: "Carmeggedon / Traumatic Brain Injury / Boredom is Death" is dedicated to Elizabeth in her super secret bird-shit free location.

Also on today's show:
1) Local News
2) Other News
3) Local Loco
4) Carmeggedon / Traumatic Injury / Boredom is Death
5) Lit Minit : "Me Talk Pretty One Day," by David Sedaris.

 
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

1) Local News

50 DAYS TO BURNING MAN!

Wine Country

(read YOUR local paper for YOUR local news)

2) Other News "Rupert Murdoch Empire In Peril?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-15-britain-phone-hacking_n.htm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9ac825be-aef5-11e0-bb89-00144feabdc0.html

A call to arms for all of us who have any intention of hoping for a better future for those who haven't had their chance yet, but will soon.

We have to deal with the corporate realities of News and Mass Media, and Rupert Murdoch is as good a place to start as any.

If you have any love for America left, if you think that a Free Press and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution are -- were -- pretty good things, then this is your hour. Take ten minutes and write, text or talk to SOMEONE about it. Extra points and Karmic Goodies given to those who contact media centers, publishing conglomerates and centers of mass confusion that may actually disburse  the conversation/monologue to a wider audience. We need to take quite a bit of the responsibility for Fox News, NotW, and all the rest of the media under Murdoch's umbrella. Because the only reason he has for building this creation is to sell things to US. Enough of us are still watching Chris and Crew to make it worth NewsCorp's time and trouble to keep producing it. Advertisers are still buying and paying. And it is not fair laying this all off on the Tea Party Conflagration Experiment. We ALL are party to it, regardless of political affiliation or headgear.

       And of course, war, chaos, misery and destruction et al...

3) Local Loco : Read your local paper. And sing a little, too. Write a Letter to the Editor, or to one of the advertisers. Thank them for a good ad or voice your concern about a dangerous product or service. Step out of line a little. Work now or pay a LOT more later, when some Murdoch clone owns all the local press. See Meet Joe Black for more.

4) Carmeggedon
5) Lit Minit : "Me Talk Pretty One Day," by David Sedaris.
TYSM for reading and "listening." I hope you had fun. Now, GBTW!


-- DD

 
...but if you DO have time right now, you can get more fun here by following these links:

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" was  read with great love and respect but without any authorization or permission from the author, their heirs or publishers.

Also used, but without permission, the intro music is "Wheels," by CAKE off of their album "Pressure Chief."



hardworkisfun@gmail.com



Notes and links from BTR show "Carmeggedon / TBI / Boredome is Death" Show 7/15/11 HWH w DD

All material licensed by Creative Commons. If you want to use it, ask!

Now, get back to work, dammit!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Food Appreciation Day

Click BlogTalkRadio play button to hear show --->


Tune in to the Hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas Live on Blog Talk Radio Friday mornings at 9:30 am PDT.

MASSIVETECHNICALDIFFICULTIES 7/8/11

Today's show: "Food Appreciation Day" is dedicated to Kirsten who is healing fast in "EFF-ELL-AY."

Also on today's show:  
1) Local News
2) Other News
3) Local Loco
4) Food Appreciation Day
5) Lit Minit : Joseph Larmor. An excerpt from his preface to Henri Poincare's 1952 book, "Science and Hypothesis."


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1) Local News

60 DAYS TO BURNING MAN!

(read your local paper for your local news)

2) Oops! We didn't get to Other News!

       Other News

       War, chaos, misery, destruction...

3) Oops! We didn't get to Local Loco, either

     Read your local paper. And sing a little, too. Write a Letter to the Editor, or to one of the advertisers. Thank them for a good ad or voice your concern about a dangerous product or service. Step out of line a little. Work now or pay a LOT more later, when some Murdoch clone owns all the local press. See Meet Joe Black for more.

4) Food Appreciation Hour

I had a big epiphany this week at the grocery store. I might have been in Mexico. Wait. To paraphrase Enigo Montoya : "...No, there is too much. Let me summarize. No. Let me get to the beginning..."

I spent some time in Southern Mexico a while ago. The life there was quite different. When I returned I stepped inside a supermarket and passed out.

What had been normal to me was too much. The lights, the row upon row of high-stacked shelves. The colors, the choices, the endless uncertainty and need to pick and choose and decide on so many things at once was withering. I wavered outside the Albertson's produce section, paused, turned, and stumbled out the door to the parking lot.

There I gave myself a big harsh "WTF ? So now I can't buy food at the market?" 


Then I did cut myself some slack and realized that even on my short eleven day hiatus from Los Angeles, I had changed. I -- at first offended and repelled by them -- had acclimated to the markets in Mexico and was not adapting too well to what had been familiar for so long. My first morning in Cocoyagua (Chaipas, Mexico near the Guatemala border) my fellow students had a market trip planned and came to my room to retrieve me. I gathered my little money and what I thought I needed and followed them to a cluster of tables outside. I was at the back of the pack of twelve and I attempted to edge around them. What were they doing here? If we don't catch a cab -- a BUNCH of cabs, we won't make it to the market. Dim awareness begins breaking into my impatient flagging and I hear a voice to my right: "...here! Try the cheese!" And a lump of white is shoved at me on a leaf. My first Mexican WTF. It was llike some African gesture on National Geographic. "Here, eat these bugs. They are really good for you."

"No Thanks!" I chirp with my best US Arrogant brogue hate-smile.

"Try it! It's really good!"

And it all hits me at once. My group is milling around looking for purchases. We are not GOING to the market. We are HERE. This is the market. This little collection of nine battered card tables and now I see people seated and standing at most of them. All of them have food-ish items on them. Like you see in a film about refugee camps. One "vendor" is speaking in quick quiet Spanish with Jan, my professor and tour leader. They exchange money and in exchange for pesos, Jan is given something (grain?) wrapped in a reused Orowheat Wheat Berry bread bag. Shit! Even UNICEF has their own packaging. WTF? Is this some kind of a test? This is, after all, my teacher in front of me. I raise my shields and go into stealth mode. Potentially hostile territory. Certainly unfamiliar. I range about.


Another table is surrounded by coffee smells, and I see beans in bags. Not American bread bags, but woven brightly colored baskets much bigger, pillow-size, and full of freshly roasted locally grown coffee. And it moves a little in me: HOLY SHIT! This is the source! Last week I paid $3 for a cup of Guatemalan coffee in Venice. I am standing five miles from Guatemala right now!! This is the shit!!


And for a week I took it in. I ate the cheese, even if there was no shrink-wrap in sight; no bar-coded proprietary ingredients list; no serving suggestions, no recommended daily allowance based on my body type. Just food. Fresh, because it would spoil in a day or two without refrigeration. Local because you can only carry so much, so far. Natural because nobody here can afford pesticides. Here if you have a pile of bricks, you are doing pretty well. Nobody has any money. But the land is rich. You can grow three stalks of corn from one kernel. This place makes Hawaii look sterile. I think if I stuck my laptop in the soil it might produce little progeny. The earth is fertile, but the life is hard, mostly because of the government. The land gives. The pests take. Some of each crop. Not too much. There is a lot to sell. The client shoppers know how to pick good products and they don't expect perfection. A little bruise does not make the whole mango bad. 

I feel a tap at my elbow, and a two foot tall woman smiles and says, "Cafe?" to my "Yes, yes!...uh, Si!, Si!" and I am led away from the table of beans to her kitchen, heavily trafficked, a few feet away. Wonder pushes away disorientation and lack of vocabulary. A chair is offered. I sit in a humble kitchen and accept a chipped cup half full of fresh brew. Canned milk and white sugar are offered. Trading two pesos for grace, I sit and sip and begin to see. 


Later, in America at Albertson's, the memory still strong in me, I can not believe how much "Too Much Food" we have, and how we squander.

Back to this week in California. My list for today's shopping, for example  I see this list: 1) Dish soap, 2) Mayonnaise, 3) Pickles, 4) Turkey, 5) Yogurt, 6) Cereal, 7) Oatmeal, 8) Cream of Wheat, 9) Prunes, 10) Granola, 11) Fruits and Vegetables, 12) Toilet Paper, 13) Kleenex.


I saw none of this available in Southern Mexico other than an incredible abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with the best corn, sugar and coffee, to say nothing about inedible freshly roasted cacao. I guess with some work I could take local corn and try to improvise the various grain items. And there must be a wheat source here, too. Though I saw no evidence of it on my visit. I wouldn't be surprised if much of this is available with a little more searching. Cocoyagua is a border town, and many Guatemalans do travel miles to make purchases. But it was not like here. No twelve competing brands of nose tissue, all in perfect, brand new boxes. No 100 yard long refrigerator cases. No 35 kinds of ice cream. No everything. 


You know what I mean, right? No EVERYTHING.  We have EVERYTHING, and we live like we will never run out. We have EVERYTHING here. Everything that is available on earth can be bought here. And we live in the middle of this ocean of abundance without usually considering how weird and expensive and impossible it is that we have all this for a few dollars. And how it can end just like it began. Quietly, mysteriously, while we are occupied with something else.


5) Lit Minit :Joseph Larmor. An excerpt from his preface to Henri Poincare's 1952 book, "Science and Hypothesis."

   Two weeks in a row for Joseph, and I may read it next week, too.  I chose this because it is about ten steps up the learning ladder than I normally like to read. It jumped off the shelf at me in Berkeley and I share it with you here. He is writing about the magic of learning and the depth of human capacity for it. I ran out of time and had to try to read the whole thing in 45 seconds. Sorry. Grab a copy @ your local library or online and have a look yourself. Or read it here. Another one of the beautiful things about famous stuff more than fifty years old. No copyright stuff!


TYSM for reading and "listening." I hope you had fun. Now, GBTW! 


-- DD


But, if you DO have time right now, you can get more fun here by following these links:

"Science and Hypothesis." was read with great love and respect but without any authorization or permission from the author, their heirs or publishers. 

Also used, but without permission, the intro music is "Wheels," by CAKE off of their album "Pressure Chief."



hardworkisfun@gmail.com



Notes and links from BTR show "Food Appreciation Day" 7/8/11 HWH w DD

All material licensed by Creative Commons. If you want to use it, ask!

Now, get back to work, dammit!