A Banjo

I have been recording music with my folk band, Powdered Whiskey, the last couple days. We have been fusing musical magic through a banjo, bass, guitar, ukulele, and harmonica.

I have always felt that everyone should play an instrument (vocals can count, I suppose).
If you don't have one, get one.
If you can't play it, learn.
If you know, start a band.
If you don't want to start a band...who cares? Go solo!

"Music is the cosmic dance!" -Maude (from Harold and Maude)

The Forevers: A Poem by Christopher Dragg

I look to my left, then to my right
I am surrounded by my brothers and my sisters
We all look the same,
more or less
As the day wears on, it becomes colder
and colder
We huddle together
but the more we do, the likelier we are to repeat our necessary task
We are too close, too heavy
I can feel it
And suddenly, I am falling
We are all falling
My brothers and sisters
above me and below me
we are all falling
Is it our fault?
No, it was inevitable
Falling is inevitable, it always has been
We all do it
We all have to do it
So that our kind may continue to live, and thrive
Earth approaches
and we splash, shatter, and disperse
but we do not die, we cannot die
I will live forever
My brothers and sisters will live forever


(Inspired by Oregon Rain)

A Haircut

Depression

If a friend expresses self concern, never ignore it.

Even if they are talking in the weakest of all fonts.

Creator

Do I dare discuss God?

I think not.

Disco Ball

Tunnel vision.

Sustainability

This is another one of my favorites. What Tree is saying is pretty much how I feel, but much like Tree, we (including myself) spend a lot of time talking about "sustainability" and not all that much time practicing it.

Millgram

If you don't know.
http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/milgram.htm

A Possum

Panels

Sometimes there are events in our lives that can change everything. Let them happen, and move on.

Punchline

Why fix what isn't broken?

Cube

It must be frightening for someone(thing?) living in a two dimensional world to run into something like this.

I think we all know these people; the ones that stand out above everyone else, make a lasting impression on us all; make us say, think, and and perceive things we normally never would. Embrace new people, always. You never know how long they might be in your life, and just how important they might be.

Budget Cuts

It seems every major public institution these days is having to face the problem of budget cuts, especially in the realm of education. At my school there have recently been a number of staff and faculty members laid off, as well as classes cut. I never thought that school budget cuts would effect me first hand, but I've recently discovered otherwise. I cannot get into quite a lot of the classes I would like to because the classes are too large. For me, this is hard to understand considering the ludicrous amount of money I am spending on tuition. One would hope that all classes would be available, but this is simply not the case, nor is there anything I can do about it. And I go to a small, but public university where class sizes are already smaller than they were in my high school, and I lived in a fairly affluent area. I wonder how big the classes are getting there, and how big they are in urban schools around the nation.

So, where are our tax dollars going anyway? It's clearly not education, in fact, only about 2% of your taxes go to education, whereas 21% go to National Security.
Now, I don't know about you, but personally I don't support the devastation of countries halfway across the globe, and I certainly don't want to pay for it. Know where your money is going, and if you don't like it, write your Governor, Senator, even the President. If that doesn't work...RIOT!!!

Attached is a link to a New York Times website that gives a pie chart (one of my favorite things in the world) that shows precisely where your hard earned money is going. Please, check it out.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/where-do-your-tax-dollars-go/

Consistency

This one is definitely one of my favorites. I think it speaks for itself.

Initials

Aaaand...there goes the fourth wall.

This is MINE! Not yours! Those are MY initials! MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!
AND YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!

There's a reason I don't post these on Facebook. If I did, Facebook would own them. But...I made them. They were my idea; I drew them, established the characters, signed my initials...how could they belong to anyone else?

We are so driven by a need to be recognized. Why? Do we all crave the spotlight? Or are there still people lurking in the shadows making art in the streets unrecognized and unknown? Are there people out there philosophizing without hopes of one day being known by the world? Are we all inherently self interested? Pfff, I don't know. Hell, I don't even know my own initials.

Gender?

This is a topic that is coming up more and more in our society. As issues such as same sex marriage (or as I like to call it, marriage) and the recognition of transgender individuals are more openly discussed, the question of sex versus gender is usually a common confusion. Even members of the LGBTQ community have trouble giving definitions to certain words. From what I understand, the "sex" of a person is purely scientific (ie, penis or vagina) whereas "gender" includes the social roles, norms, and expectancies attributed to either gender. However, even those are often far too blurred or complicated to be limited to just "man" and "woman". It's a difficult topic to wrap one's head around, especially for people who don't know what it's like to be a woman in a man's body (or the other way around), or to be attracted to members of the same sex, and don't know anyone who is open to talk about it. But we NEED to talk about it. The more we, as a society, a culture, try to hide and back away from these discussions, the worse it will get for everyone. The key to success for the LGBTQ community is support, particularly from the hetero community. Be an ally.

And will someone, please, make Maurice a sandwich?