bluezfire

From the page:

Yes, it is boogeyman time in America. Unfortunately for all of us, history has proved time and again that without reason and dissent, innocent lives are at stake. And now, not only are the lives of the uninsured threatened, but without our opposition to the absurdity, so is the president we elected.

If you believe that vitriolic protesters are a harmless radical fringe who are behaving "disrespectfully", remember the Salem witch trials, white mobs during Jim Crow slavery and ask yourself if there are not similarities in the tone and tenor of the hysteria. Death panels? Signs declaring "God Hates Obama"?

We have all seen the atrocities enacted upon those who march into battle believing God is on the side of their hatred. We know it is madness but we watch quietly, none the less. And people die.

If the last several months have taught us anything it is this: The real boogeyman is alive and well. And it is silence.

How many voices will it take to disrupt the insanity? How many voices will it take to drown out the madness that dominates the airwaves. Screaming is not the solution. Simply pick up the phone, write an email, make a phone call, attend a rally. Send a message to those who measure their heartbeats in votes.

Whether we are Democrat, Republican or Independent, silence is complicity.

From the page:

With all due respect to its terrific albums and kinetic, frenetic live shows, if The Avett Brothers could put on a three-song acoustic concert at every workplace in America, the band would be a world-beating colossus. For proof, take six minutes to don some headphones and listen to "Laundry Room," which opens this set at the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen.

"Laundry Room" is a highlight of the rootsy, harmony-drenched rock group's forthcoming album I and Love and You, scheduled for release in September. But if that song isn't peeking far enough into the future, the band - Seth Avett on guitar and vocals, Scott Avett on banjo and vocals, Bob Crawford on bass and Joe Kwon on cello - jumps even farther ahead with the as-yet-unrecorded "Down With the Shine." To close the set, the group finally looks backward with a lovely rendering of the ballad "Bella Donna," from last year's The Gleam II EP.

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These guys continue to blow me away and I love them more with each passing day. They never fail to make me dance and smile while listening to them. I can't wait for the new album release in September.

photo by me | Bonnaroo 2009





From the page:

The greenest success of Bonnarro 2009 did not come in the form of a composted cup or a biodiesel bus, but rather in the new status quo. In the past, greening was the exception not the rule. This year it felt as if we were no longer striving towards a sustainable society, but rather we were living in one. The culture of green is now commonplace in this community.

From the page:

Nestled into a lush farm in Manchester, Tennessee, the blockbuster Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival will roll out an impressive set of sustainability green goals as a backdrop for its amazing slate of shows next weekend, June 11-14. The great lineup notwithstanding - from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to Wilco - acclaimed cellist and crooner Ben Sollee may stand out as a singular act in reducing the festival's carbon footprint.

Selected as an NPR Top Ten new artist to watch, Sollee's unique work has been hailed as a blend of Al Green's soulful pipes with Yo Yo Ma's original string compositions. He will forego the jet arrival and zig-zag his way over 300 miles through the Kentucky hills and Tennessee Cumberlands on an Xtracycle (extended-frame bicycle). Sollee will be pulling his 1930 Kay cello, along with 60 pounds of equipment, for the weeklong tour, as part of a benefit of Oxfam America's development programs. Sollee has also been a vocal participant in numerous anti-mountaintop removal benefits in the region.

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Rock on! Yet just another reason to support Bonnaroo and all that it is and trying to be. I love to hear of artists/musicians not just talking about making changes, but actually out there leading by example.

I can't wait. The countdown has begun: FIVE DAYS until Bonnaroo!

Want to hear some of his stuff? Check out his videos on YouTube: Ben Sollee.

This leaves me hoping that our eggplants do really well this year.

This is almost exactly the tattoo that I want. Beautiful.

Artist: Annie B.

Spring Flowers and Inspiration





Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy. ~Astrid Alauda





I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error. ~Sara Stein, My Weeds, 1988








Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed. ~Walt Whitman



all photos taken by me

From the page:

People in cities and towns across the Front Range, and the nation, are embracing aspects of a lifestyle familiar to people who raise livestock and harvest crops in rural America. But the urban homesteaders are tending their goats, pruning their Nanking cherry shrubs, and
growing their alfalfa on one-eighth- acre standard city lots, using chain-link fences for grape trellises and replacing front yards of sod with tomato plants.







I think it's amazing to see the transition from people caring nothing about growing food (or how their food is grown) to people, like this, taking what little space they have and producing plenty. I do believe it's a new age of farmers, homesteaders, conscious caretakers of the Earth.

While what we are doing in Small Town, Tennessee isn't quite as drastic, we are a work in progress. We are slowly transforming our own front yard into a garden paradise, despite what the neighbors may or may not think about it. You can check out what we've done so far by following this link.

I, for one, look forward to an explosion of like minded people doing the same thing in the next few years. I can't wait to see it and be part of it.