Quote of the Day
It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
- Dizzy Gillespie
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Quote of the Day
A Jazz Thing
So, I have been reading and researching a lot about Jazz lately, and I have been absolutely facinated with the brilliance of the minds of many of the jazz artists we know and love primarily from name only. I mean we have the album A Love Supreme, but we wouldn't know a flatted fifth from a G7, or an Eric Dolphy solo from a John Coltrane one. I used to think jazz was all about feeling and emotion, but I have come to learn that these great artists are able to express their innermost being so well because of the highest level of musical training, a rigorous practice regiment, and a highly creative mind bent on coming up with solutions to problems they have with self-expressions. For example, Charlie Parker has so much to say but the prevalent model for improvising limits his ability to express Himself. So, he devises a way to improvise based on the chordal structure of the composition instead of basing the solo on the melody. He comes about this discovery because of his knowledge, music training, and his intellectual curiously. He is able to pull off the performance of this ideas because of his musical training and incredible work ethic. The manifestation of all these elements into a solo is an incredible expression of the being of Charlie Parker, and we, the hearer, experienc the deep emotion in his expression without understanding all that is behind it. Thats that Jazz. Check out youtube for all kinds of videos of footage of vintage jazz performances and documentaries on Jazz. Here's couple samples:
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Friday, January 11, 2008
I am a winner!
I am a winner !
I can't even believe it, somebody pinch me because I think I am dreaming. See, I never win anything, when I sign up for contests, donate to charity drawings I never win anything. Well, things change. Okay, so I am a member of facebook the social networking site, I hear through either mashable or digg that the new smartpen Livescribe, which I have heralded here at thehallelreport, has started a group on facebook and is running a contest. The contest states that they are going to pick two people from their facebook group everyday to get a new Livescribe pen until its official release on January 28,2008. All you have to do is sign up for their group on facebook
to be elligible. So, of course I go over to their facebook group
to take a shot at a free smartpen, whichl I argue is the coolest of the utilitarian gadgets to come out since the tablet pc (maybe because I am into writing and am fascinated with digital ink). Anyway, I get this message from facebook that some unknown cat wants me to add him as a facebook friend. Like I normally do when I get an anonymous, random, friend request I click the person's name and go to their profile page and check them out to see how we might be connected. Nothing, I don t know this guy, could have never have known this guy, different political views, different coasts, different career paths, not one friend in common. I am thinking, ''who is this guy?" When I go back to my profile page I see I have one message in my inbox, which was distinct from the friend request. And there it was a gorgeous message from the same guy who requested to be my friend stating that I was one of the winners of a Livescribe smartpen. Oh yeah, I am a winner baby. So now I only I have to buy one pen (when I was going to buy two one for me and one for my wife who is in school and will really be able to use one of these pens). I am so excited, I can't wait till the 28th to get my pen. You can bet I am going to be blogging with it, I think it is going increase the number of ink bloggers by a couple of orders of magnitude, its supposed to have this easy blogging feature. I am already getting used to blogging with a digital/smart pen. lately I have been blogging exclusively with my Logitech Io2 pen. The Io2 can't hold the Livescribe pen's jockstrap (metaphorically speaking) if it lives up to all the hype, and does what they claim it will do. In the meantime, I am just counting the days till I get one of the hottest new gadgets to hit the market, and free!
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Saturday, December 8, 2007
A New Way to Ink Blog
You won't believe this but I found my Logitech Io2 digital pen. I remember when I misplaced it, I was heartbroken and couldn't believe I lost it. I thoughts I left it in one of my jacket pockets, I checked every pocket (at least I thought I did) two of three time and still no pen. Well, low and behold I put on my peacoat because it is cold enough to where it in North Caolina Now and there it was right in the pocket. So, what is the first thing I try to do, see if I can write an ink blog post with it using Sumocat's build 52. If you see this post I guess it worked.Show/Hide Text
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Friday, November 23, 2007
jazz requiem for revolutionary poets
Been thinking poetically a lot lately, which is one reason I haven't been blogging much around here. This is poem I have been working on for the last few days. Check out my recitation of the piece as well. I strongly believe that poems are meant to be read and heard. I think poets should give just as much attention to the written form as the spoken or performed form. Eventhough I say that this poem short on form, that is to say I didn't spend a whole of time on form, but then again this poem is about 90% done, I still have some fine tuning to do. I am hope to workshop this piece and have it rigorously critiqued. If you can help I am open to criticism, email me.
jazz requiem for revolutionary poets
For Amiri Baraka and Yeshua ben Yosef
there is no finer art
than revolution.
sublime, syncopated turning
liberated riff
radical act motivated by
thought liberated
from hegemony
thinking collective
not digging on nobody's exploitation
art is banal,
light repellent
burning on the surface only
without revolutionary goals;
in mind and regime changing mellifluously
like chords in a coltrane solo.
hear the beautiful struggle
as siren
as transcendent and elegant
marrow piercing
honest
as poetry as
words are to me,
i'd rather write
the constitution
rewrite it rather
give it
arms legs hands
teeth feet mouth
a whole, black man
living improvising
dauntless
incarnate dialectic
incapable of shutting down dialogue
open to inquiry
for who the question
is almost always the answer
a variation on a theme
of an aristotelian standard
this man is a revolutionary animal
poem.
positively bureaucratic.
but reluctant to govern
as less is more is the motto
matter is neither created
nor destroyed
only changes form is the constant
and the mantra
well-acquainted with suffering
not-opposed to death
As comfortable with chaos
as this poem is intimate
with the imperceptible power
infinitesimally smaller than a quantum
larger than the universe
forever expanding
like the piano bass and drums
jamming,
in the spirit
of prophesy
ezekiel bebop
a little crazy
and just credulous enough
to preach in cemeteries-
this is why you write poetry:
to cry onto the four winds
to give breathe to the revolution
baba zu zat zu zat zu zat. Amen
© 2007 michael penman. All rights reserved.
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
My message yesterday came to me in a dream last week. The dream was like I was having a conversation with God and he was telling me some answers to things I have had questions about recently. In the dream I was talking to people and God was like the Director or Narrator, because he would explain the meaning of the scene, but I could also communicate with his voice. I woke up covered in sweat with this
tremendous feeling of being in someone's presence even though I was in the house alone. Then as I got up and started walking around I heard the voice say to me "are you bitter or better?" And that that was a message for people to hear and ponder.
I came from Ruth 1:19-22 and James 1:2-4. By way of introduction, I talked about how unpredictable life often is, and how it is often filled with disappointments, setbacks, and unexpected turns. Such was the life of Naomi; I suggested that Naomi's life was almost as tragic as Job's. Naomi's life definitely didn't turn out as she expected or wanted. So, when life doesn't turn out they way you want it to, when you life is assailed by unexpected tragedy how do you respond to it? Do you get bitter or better from these misfortunes? I gleaned three points from Naomi's story that inform us about how to be better instead of bitter. In this story, we see that Naomi grows bitter from her tragedy, she says as much to the village women as she returns to Bethlehem-Judah, {Ruth l.20), whereas Ruth gets better. Further evidence that Ruth grows better while Naomi grows bitter is that bitter people are often difficult to get along with; they shun human companionship. This might be said of Naomi (Ruth 1.11). Naomi seems to have given up hope at this point and becomes bitter.
The first point we glean from the story is that bitter people focus on what they have
lost, So, don't focus on, what you have lost.
The second point we illustrated was realize you never had what you lost. One way to not focus what you lost is to realize you never had it in the first place. It is an illusion that things can be possessed. All material things are temporal, in flux, and deteriorating. They cannot be possessed; people, cars houses, jewelry, money cannot be possessed. Once we know this it should not be so difficult to let these things go when they are lost. The third and final point of the message was be thankful for what you still have. Ruth is thankful for what she still has, a relationship with Naomi, and this is why she clings to her.
I concluded the sermon with James's entreaty in 1.2-4 to embrace troubles trials, and disappointment. In fact, rejoice, don't be sorrowful, because enduring these things make you more spiritually mature -- better.
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Friday, October 26, 2007
Man, oh man, did Katt Williams upset some folk with this fashion statement. But was this a fashion faux paux or complete and utter lack of judgment? Was it modern day coonery or mad social commentary? Personally, I think this is genius. Bro. Williams in the spirit of Richard Pryor of D.L. Hughley made a colorful comment on the meaning of nooses past, present, and future to Black people in the context of America; as well as the meaning of contemporary hip hop culture's obsession with excessively extravagant, jeweled necklaces. Is Katt saying "how funny is this really? When are nooses being hung from anywhere a practical joke? And let's remember who use to hang from these so called practical joke nooses." Or is Katt saying the excessive necklaces we wear are not that different from nooses? I don't know exactly what statement Katt is making but the possibilities are multiple and that's the genius in it to me.
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Sunday, October 21, 2007
Check out my latest screencasts using Camtasia Studio 4. This time out I did two how-to's on subscribing to podcasts using the podcastready site's special application mypodder. I have posted previously concerning podcastready. com, I wonder if anybody has checked it out. I am big on podcastready because of it's social networking feature, you can share the podcasts you listen to with friends, and you know how big I am on social networking. So, please come on over to podcastready sign up and let's be fiends and share what cool podcasts we have found out there. Look me up under the username makmak01, run a search on that name.
Upcoming post: Commentary on Katt Williams' Hip Hop Awards Fashion statement
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I said in a previous post to watch out for my review of my new Treo 755p. Well that review is completed and you can view it below. I love Youtube.
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I have purposely held back my comment on the Jena six Story because first of all I was caught completely off guard, by the time I knew anything they were protesting thousands strong down there. Now I pride myself on being up on current events, news, and politics, but this travesty of justice completely caught me by surprise, I completely slipped it. The second. reasons why I haven't commented on this
story is because I wasn't comfortable that I had heard the entire story from beginning, in between to end. The mainstream media usually only emphasized a few events, the question about the tree, the three nooses hanging from the tree, and then the three young Black men assaulting the young Caucasian man. This kind of abbreviation of the news makes it difficult to form any kind of opinion on
a subject, I mean you shouldn't make a judgment on half the story. So, these
are the reasons why I have had no comment on the Jena 6 story.
What has changed is a report on what happened in Jena, LA by a commentator on the RadioNation podcast. After hearing this more thorough telling of the Jena 6
travesty I felt in a better position to weigh in. I have embedded a piece of the
audio below, but here is my brief analysis on the subject. First, those who say that
the young black men should have been charged for the crime of assaulting their
fellow white student but that the injustice was the severity of their punishment,
completely miss the real problem in this story. Then there are those that are a little bit
better informed that say the racism is evident in the fact the young white men
who hung the nooses, or the ones who assaulted one of their Black classmates were not properly punished. While I agree that that was racist. To focus on the criminality perpetrated by the young white men and young black men and call for fairness lets the real criminals off the hook. In my mind, the real criminals in this case are the School Superintendent, the District Attorney and the white elite
of the town many who are no doubt parents of high school students in Jena. For the record this is a classic example of racism. I could have my terminology wrong but there is a distinction between racism and prejudice. I was listening to NPR's coverage of this affair and a Caucasian caller hazarded the question, can't Black people be racist? And my reply to that question is not hardly, we are prejudiced, everyone has and acts on their prejudgments, but racism is a higher order, it is several orders of magnitude larger in scale than prejudice. A Black man may find out his daughters is dating a Caucasian young man and he may do everything under his power to break them up simply because he doesn't want his daughter dating a "white boy." This is
prejudice, he has judged this young man without having ever met him. This same scenario could be applied to a young man of a different class; even though he may be the same race as the young lady in question; the father doesn't like him, because of what part of town he lives on. This is prejudice, and yes we are all guilty of prejudice. But it seems to me racism is a historical and political phenomenon. It is when one race of people systematize their prejudices and then by means of superior political/military might enforce this system of prejudice. It is racism when the power elite in a society prevent through lending practices and city ordinances the sell of houses to people of
another race in their particular neighborhoods. There are few places on this globe
where Black people have amassed that kind of power. Now, while it is conceivable,
and quite likely that you would have aBlack DA and a Black Superintendent of schools in
office in the same city, I argue that it is unlikely that they could conspire with Black
parents to pervert the justice system as the people in Jena have. It's not that I don't think Black people are capable of racism, we most certainly are, power corrupts, but I argue that we don't have the confluence of position and power like Caucasians all over the
globe have, and specifically in this country. I feel the need to add that racism in a society is also a means of exploitation, whereby the race in power is able to maintain and even enhance
their economic, social, and political lot at the expense of the oppressed race. I feel that we overlook the real problem, when we don't find the fault in the institutions and their
representatives, the DA's the Super's for such miscarriages of justice, read racism. I mean where is the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department when you need them?
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
We had Young Adult Day at our church Sunday and the Lord gave me a burning one, I mean I really felt this one. I would like to think that my congregation; especially my young adults felt my passion and conviction on the subject. The title for my sermon was The World Is Not Yours, I came from Luke 12.13-15 and 1 John 2.15-17. The title is a variation
on the theme and subject of a rap song by NAS entitled "The World is Yours." I argue that while the message of this song may be ostensibly positive, it definitely does not reflect a Christian worldview or value system. It reflects more specifically the spirit of the world that puts tremendous value on material success. I think the operative question for Christians is why do I want the world? Jesus correctly frames this whole discussion when he poses the rhetorical questions >"what good will it be For a man if he gains the whole world, yet-forfeits his soul? Orr what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" This was the premise for my message, not to what some say is lower our expectations, but to change them.
I primarily exegeted the Luke passage for the body of my message. I used three points gleaned from the text of Luke 12. 13-15, I drew my first point from verse 13, where the young man addresses his initial question to Jesus. This young man's question is not appropriate I argued; such self-interested, material concerns are not the domain or concern of Jesus. We must come correct (1st point) When coming
to. Jesus or the church; naked self-interest has no place in the lives of disciples of Christ. The second point is related to verse 14. In this verse, Jesus' response to the young man reveals that Jesus has his own agenda (2nd point). Many contemporary televangelist would have us to believe that Jesus shares our concern for our very personal and particular material welfare, but Jesus' response to the young man suggests different, and I believe that is because God has an ultimate plan that seldom takes into account our particular material comfort. Finally, I made the point that we need to get right (3rd point). Instead of trying to get a job, get paid, get laid, get over, get down, get comfortable, get rich quick, we need to get right, or in other words establish a saving relationship with Christ. When I put the idea Jesus expresses about covetousness in verse 15 against the back drop of
1 John 2.17, I am convinced that getting a relationship with Christ is the critical thing, because everything material is passing away. Why play for little mortal chips, why not bet the farm on eternal life?
If you can't already tell, this is one of the sermons where even if no one else got anything out of it I definately did.
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Friday, October 12, 2007
I know, I know, I have been seriously neglecting this blog, but be forwarned it might get worse. Actually, my schedule is getting more hectic rather than less hectic. The main thing taking up my time now is that my wife has gone back to school, which means, I have to watch my lovely children, bless their hearts. It is a joy, but I just can't blog and hold my 4 month old at the same time, I know you understand. I have got something I want to mention:
By way of update I took the Moto Q back to Alltel within the 15 day trial period and got my money back minus about $60.00 for activation fee and the air time I used, pretty expensive trial I thought. So, after that I went back to Sprint and made up my mind to bite the bullet and pay through the nose for a Smartphone that was going to meet my needs. I didn't actually go to a Sprint store, I went to Radio Shack and the Lord went with me because as soon as I walked in looking at the Sprint phones they sell, the salesperson started telling me about the special deal they had on a reconditioned Treo 755p. When she told me I could get a 755p, for $60.00 after a $100.00 I was floored. And from that point, the deal only got better. She called to activate the phone and the sprint rep took it upon themselves to upgrade my data plan ( I had the old sprint data plan that came with the first pdaphones that Sprint came out with like 6 years ago, I had the Toshiba 2032 and then the Hitachi G1000. My data plan cost 10.00 a month for unlimited web and text messages), and this Radio Shack salesperson didn't like that, so for the next 45 minutes she argued with Sprint's Retention Department trying to either get my old plan back or get me a discount. Eventually, she got Sprint to take $15.00 off my base data plan rate, but I had to come off of $8.00 a month for unlimited texts. Then, I put in for my postal employee discount (25% off) which I had never applied to my bill and bam, my monthly bill decreased. Needless to say I thanked that Radio Shack employee, it was probably the best customer service I have ever had.
Upcoming Posts: -Treo 755 p renew
-Mobile websites
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Did you know you can find how-to's, software, and hardware reviews for virtually anything you can think of on youtube? For example, before I tried out the Moto Q I watched several video reviews of it. I recently tried to do a flash-based presentation with the web app S-Present. I watched several vidoe tutorials on youtube to show me how to best employ the application. Say you want to find a review or how-to, all you need to do is do a search on the youtube website and bada bing. So, before you make that next purchase or fumble around that unintuitive software UI see what others have to say about it on youtube.
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This is a cool new mobile interface. It reminds me of the iphone. I am not exactly sure what model of phones it works on. In one of the videos as you can see it is clearly loaded onto a windows mobile phone of some kind, but the documentation on the website suggests that their aim is for zenzui to work on the vast array cellphones. So, I have applied to be a beta tester of the application I hope they invite me.
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I'm in the market for a new cellphone right and I am searching high and I'm looking low for the best deal on a smartphone or pda phone. The first phone I gave a try out was the Motorola Q or Moto Q for short. These were things I liked about this phone:
1. Design- This phone feels awesome in your hand, Tactile wise this is the best smartphone I have ever used.
2. Price- It was free after a mail-in rebate.
3. Yahoo Go- This a third-party mobile web app (this the future in mobile computing by the way)
that was more user-friendly than Windows Mobile. While I had this phone I stayed on Yahoo Go more than in the windows mobile os.
And that's a good segue way into what I didn't like about this phone and what ultimately made me take it back.
1. No push email- With my treo 650, I had the ability to recieve email ala the blackberry.
2. Windows Mobile 5- this OS is snappy and quick, but the smartphone version of it is very limited. I couldn't even find a native app for entering text notes.
I have more to say about the Q in this little video I did: check it out.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Supercapitalism is a new book by economist Robert Reich. I first heard about this new book from a Fresh Air interview with Terri Gross. Then, it seemed like every time I looked up somebody was talking about this book. At this point I feel I need to be forthright and disclose that Dr. Reich is my main man for economic policy. He is a true progressive in my mind. He believes government is created to do for the public good what the often limited resources of the individual or a smaller governmental institutions (state. and municipalities ) can't do. We progressives, believe the Fed should have major social programs like national healthcare, Social Security, and Unemployment insurance. The Federal Government's welfare is not for people to make a living off of (I don't see how anyone could do that anyway) but to give them assistance in times when they are in need.
In Dr. Reich's new book, he argues that the demand for low, low prices by consumers, and higher returns for investors has put corporations in a bind. On the one hand, the demand for lower prices means a need for lower labor cost, which
impacts US jobs one way or the other. On the other hand, the demand higher returns means keeping overhead down so you can maximize profit, this often results in companies downsizing or outsourcing. The pressure on the American Labor force effects workers' incomes, so basically our demand for these things put pressure on our jobs; we are slitting our own throats. Pretty insightful, don't you think? This book is next on my reading list, be on the look out for insights from the book as I read it.
Finally, here's some youtube footage of Dr. Reich discussing this book.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
My blog has some new features that I am so excited about that I feel the need to point them out and explain them to you. First, I want to tell you about the Barrack Obama widget that links you to the latest videos his campaign has posted to youtube. I put this up not because
I am all that enthusiastic supporter of Obama, but because I support his embrace of the power of technology to get his message out. Most of
the candidates are using youtube, but Obama's camp has
gone further by widgetizing a feed to those videos on
youtube. The second feature I want to point you to is a flash audio widget that allows you to listen to and subscribe to the podcasts I am listening to. I am a big fan of podcasts. I have an mp3 player that has not one minute of music on it.I use it almost exclusively to listen to podcasts, And through podcastready, the application I use "to catch" my favorite products, you can get fed off of what I am feeding my head with. Thirdly and finally, another flash audio widget. This. widget streams audio to one special podcast that is particularly near and dear to my heart, and thats the podcast that I am myself producing for Tree of Life Ministries, Intl., a web-based ministry. that some minister friends and myself have started. With this widget you can listen to our latest podcasts right from this site, pretty cool I thought, Well, those are the new features I hope you find them useful.
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Monday, September 17, 2007
Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks more of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.
-Francois de La Roche Foucauld French author & moralist (1613 - 1680)
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Today on my way to the Farmer 's
Market to pick up some fruit, I
had one of those NPR driveway moments.
A driveway moment is when you can't
turn off the radio, can't turnoff
the car, can't get out of the car,
because you are captivated by a story
being run on NPR at the time. The
object of my intense interest was
a, story about methane gas geysers
in the fresh water lakes of the
near arctic north. It was ostensibly
just another story about the subtle,
but apocalyptic effects of global
warming, however as Melissa Block
related what she was seeing in the lake
I became more intrigued. She talked
about how the lake had the look of
a giant fizzing soda pop in the area
where the gas was rising out of the lake.
I think what really grabbed me was when they began describing what happened when open flame was
placed near the gas geyser,
a blowtorch effect was created. I guess I sat in
the car for about 5 minutes until they
finished the story, only us loyal NPR listeners know how subversive and disruptive NPR really is.
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