changing my identity
One of the things I don't care for about livejournal is the obscure user names. It makes it hard for me to find people I know, and hard for them to find me.

I'm out on Facebook under my real name, but I'm increasingly dissatisfied with the whole Facebook experience.

So, I'm starting a new account here on livejournal under my real name - and my new user name is, charlieobert.

I won't be posting to this account anymore, and it will probably go away some time down the road.

So,if you're interested, come on over, put me on your friends list, and say Hi.

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The scariest thing about last week...
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I commented last week on seeing an article in the StarTribune about the Republicans having to take out millions of dollars of police brutality and misconduct lawsuit insurance for their convention.

That's not the scary part.

I mentioned that article to several people, and almost all of them responded by saying,

"That makes sense."

Now THAT scares me.

We are levels deep in Orwellian Doublethink when that makes sense.

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Police Brutality Lawsuit Insurance
This is an article from the Mpls Star-Tribune, Wed Sept 3.

Taxpayers off the hook for GOP convention lawsuits

Basically, the Republicans had to buy insurance for up to $10 mil in damages, and unlimited legal liability, for lawsuits related to police brutality or misconduct during their convention.

This is expected to save the taxpayers of St. Paul millions.

So not only is police misconduct expected, but liability insurance is in place against related lawsuit expenses.

And, against related damages - not from rioters, but from police.

But of course we all know there was no police misconduct...

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Cindy and I performing at Saracura February 23!
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That's right. Cindy and I will be performing live at SaraCura on Saturday afternoon February 23, at around 2 pm or so.

SaraCura's is at 1411 4th Street SE in Dinkytown. Our music will be part of their Meet and Greet vendor event that afternoon.

(For those of you who don't know the store - SaraCura is a fun, eclectic gift shop located in the heart of Dinkytown.They specialize in Belly Dance supplies and Henna,as well as silver and gemstone jewelry.)

Come on by and say hi - it will be good to see you!

Charlie

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Photo of Cindy and I
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This was taken at a lovely, laid back New Year's Eve celebration, at Betsy's Back Porch in Minneapolis.

The picture means a lot to me.

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Cindy and Charlie are playing at Magus Books Saturday afternoon December 15
When I talked with Roger at Magus Books in Dinkytown about his carrying the Felahi CD, he invited Cindy and I to perform live music at his store some time. We accepted.

Cindy and I will be playing at Magus Books on Saturday, December 15, for around an hour starting around 2 pm. Cindy will be drumming (on her new Raquy Signature Drum), and I will be playing various melody instruments and sometimes percussion. It will be kind of low key and informal, since we are the background ambience at their store.

It should be fun.

Charlie

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The First CD by my band Felahi is now available
I am pleased to announce that the first Felahi CD, titled, 'Felahi: Phase One", is now available.

It has 21 tracks and over 70 minutes of music, from the songs we performed over the last few years. (If any of you don't know about my band, check us out at felahi.com.

The CD will be distributed by cdbaby.com, and should be on their site within a week. From there, it will also be available on mp3 download services such as ITunes and Emusic.

Here in town (Minneapolis), the CD will first be stocked at Magus Books in Dinkytown, or online at the Magus Books website. I will also be contacting some other Discriminating Vendors of Fine Merchandise.

I will have copies available with me when we perform at the Pratt Haflas, and when Cindy and I play at Magus Books in Dinkytown next Saturday, December 15.

Price of the CD will be $15 plus shipping - obviously, no shipping if you get one from me live. I'll offer a discount on buying multiple copies - if you're interested in multiple copies please contact me.

Charlie

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starting a new job
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After many months of being a Drummer Supported By His Girlfriend, I am starting a new job this month.

I accepted a position with the Science Museum of Minnesota, as a part-time computer instructor. Along with the usual Office programs, they need someone who can teach Dreamweaver and Microsoft Project, and I've done both.

They have an interesting style there - the instructor has no computer or projector, and moves in the center of the space. The students line the walls so the instructor can see all their screens. The exercises are all question-driven to get the students involved. No books, no notes, just the instructor and the students with their computers.

I think of it as Training Without a Net.

Also, in October, my evening computer classes for Minneapolis Community Ed start - Access, Dreamweaver, and Linux Desktop for home users. That will be my first try at teaching Linux, and I definitely want to do more. Unless I totally misread the tech news, that should be a big growth area in the next few years, and I want to be visible doing it.

So, if these classes go well, I may have actually found a way of making a living that I can enjoy and feel good about. That is a new experience for me... I remember when Cindy and I first got together, we had a period where we were thinking, Hey, I'm in a good relationship, we're nice to each other, and this one might last - something must be wrong. Now we're used to a good relationship as being the norm.

I may need to get used to having work I like as being the norm. What a concept.

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Molly Ivins is dead
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Molly Ivins died this evening, January 31.

The Texas Observer is set up as a memorial to her for the next few days.

Raise more hell.

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wedding photos
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Some of you know my daughter, Eve. Some of you just enjoy pictures.

Anyway, if you are interested, here is a gallery of pictures from my daughter's wedding. I think they came out really well.

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Lord of the Rings... redefined
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I suspect there is a redefinition of 'Lord of the Rings' that is quietly going on, without people really noticing it.

It used to be a book series, a trilogy. That book series was normative.

Now, I think, we have an increasing number of people to whom 'Lord of the Rings' is a movie series. The books happen to be what the movies are based on, but the movies are now the normative definition.

These really are two different definitions; the flavor and emphasis of the book and movie are very different.

(For Cindy's and my generation, the question at Con was not 'have you read', but 'how many times have you read Lord of the Rings'. Can you still ask that question? )

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disturbed
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I'm disturbed by the discussion about allowability of torture, going on in Congress and the media.

What disturbs me, is the arguments against torture. Basically, they seem to be saying that, if America tortures prisoners, then other countries could use torture against Americans, and that would be bad.

That implies that torture would be okay if we knew for sure it would not be used against Americans.

That also implies that, somewhere deep down, we are convinced that we are the only worthwhile humans on the planet, and that only what happens to Americans is important. If we're the only worthwhile humans, then everyone else is somehow sub-human because sub-American.

How many times have you heard or seen a news item something like, a plane crashed in India, and this is bad because there were 3 Americans on board?

It's that deep, unconscious gut-level assumption of our specialness that disturbs me.

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worth repeating every once in a while...
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"I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. Oh, woe."

"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?"

"But nobody wants it! Everybody hates it."

"OH. WELL, THEN STOP."

Fnord.

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All Hail Discordia
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The new 10th "planet", the dwarf planet that led to Pluto's being downsized, has been named Eris.

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Applying Open Source to Studios
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Open Studios

There's no Public Domain, unless we do it ourselves.

Free recording services for community groups...

More on that line.

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Linux Music Nerds
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I'm a member of TCLUG (Twin Cities Linux Users Group), and on their email list.

There's a long thread on the topic 'I use Linux Because' - that has morphed into 'Oh, so you're a musician who uses Linux too, huh?'

One guy works in an IT department with 7 people - 3 studio musician types and 4 bass players.

(One member commented, "I've always thought of naming a band, Kernel Panic.")

I've been having a hard time finding more drummers for my band (looking for doumbek and conga players, cool bellydance music, no commercial potential), and I'm not finding them from looking in the usual bellydance community places.

So, I put out a call for drummers on the TCLUG list. I might have better luck there...

Raq On.

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Internet sacred text archive
Internet Sacred Text Archive.

Something like 1500 texts on all kinds of world religions - including paganism (Aradia, works of Margaret Murray and Gerald Gardner), Thelema, Tarot, Necronomicon, you name it, along with various marginal religions like Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism...

Worth checking out. They also have a Sacred Texts CD that they sell to help support the site.

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anger, fear and attack
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I'm pondering out loud here.

The following quote is from A Course In Miracles. The paragraph is reformatted to clarify the point.

( Read more...Collapse )

So - what would need to be true of the nature of Universe, for this quote to make sense?

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dancers and largeness of heart
Over the past couple of years I have been fortunate to have seen some dancers who I felt were world-level great, as good as they get. My wife was fortunate enough to take weekend dance workshops with them.

Amaya comes to mind first, and Elena Lentini. There are others, but those two stand out.

Of in-town dancers, just a hair below that level, I would include Margo, who was gracious enough to host Amaya and Elena.

All of these dancers come across with a largeness of heart, an openness, a generosity. From what I hear of their teaching, that matches their classes also - they are open, very giving, very accepting and affirming of their students.

They are not constantly reminding you that they are Better Than You.

I know other dancers here in town who are excellent technically; who have a feel for the music; who project a lot of energy.

Without that largeness of heart... something is missing, something that you can't get from working hard in front of a mirror.

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Noticing a trend
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I walk a lot in my neighborhood, and have since we moved here around 6 years ago.

During that time, the number of people I see on walks, who will smile, make eye contact and greet me, has declined sharply in the past few years.

Almost everyone who does return my greeting, looks to be age 35 or older.

A lot of people seem to be frightened, all of the time. The world looks to be a dangerous place to a lot of people, so they draw back, their world gets smaller. It is a self-reinforcing downward spiral.

This confirms some conclusions I have come to over the years -

There is a price to pay for being open to people and trusting them.

But, there is a higher price to pay for not trusting them.

And, it takes far more courage and inner spiritual strength, to see what is good in people, than it does to see what is wrong with them.

The "positive thinking" path I was raised in as a child (a member of the New Thought church named Unity) now feels like a demanding discipline, one that is well worth the effort.

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