StumbleUpon | kdh9910's comments & reviews

Flickr Photo Download: Purple and Orange Starfish on the Beach

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:41:33 -0700

this starfish, so utterly brilliant and perfectly formed, is almost like a well designed toy. but it is far more masterful than a toy, which is mass produced, and it convolutes in the water that we don't hardly even know, eating, mating, just going on. it is a miracle: it is its own, a life, unique and just like you are, and like i am. you never existed before nor will you again. this life is short. smile and glide through the water as a starfish might.

Amazing Planet - Filip Kulisev Photography

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:48:20 -0700

the third picture of this set is of stalks upon stalks of tall, green and verdant, bamboo. ahhh, the stalks feel so smooth in your fists. they are perfect.

can you imagine what it feels like to grasp the hardy stems of bamboo, or any plant, a tree too, then let your heart flow into the living thing, and to ask it to give it you its clean strength so you are able to step onward if you are in pain? i am talking now of physical pain, but i'd suppose you can go to the plants if you're feeling different types of pain too.

it's never failed me, but my neighbors think i am crazy, which is fine with me. then the gossips leave me alone. good.

the point is that this older form of life, a plant, is more primitive. it's open to the love that flows out of us from our minds and originally, from our hearts, in appreciation of them.

if you give your love to the tree or the bamboo stalk, that which perhaps has once nourished a panda, and pull ever so hard in your yoga pose that helps rid you of pain, its actual primitive spirit enters into you and it tackles the pain. it guides you to perform the correct movements in the proper time period. slow, for when you must move slowly, and then a quick tip, when you are meant to end that pose. it is as though the plant knows exactly what should happen, and when.

it's amazed me since i first tried it on the smaller linden tree that stood in the parkway outside of the old house i lived in. i loved that tree so much! and it knew me well. we were sympatico friends who appreciated one another. she did not disappoint me.

try it yourself, but put your mind into the correct form of humility to life that is far, far older than we are, perhaps wiser.

StudioZs favorites - StumbleUpon

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:26:20 -0800

i found studioz in such an interesting way. i had been looking at the scarce number of stumbles that i had placed on our site over these last 9 months of a depressing time. i was looking at that HORRID piece of green architecture, that skyscraper that has all the hanging gardens falling all over it, like mopheads. and then i looked at what other stumblers said about it, and here i found STUDIOZ, a gentleman from Brazil, who hates it as much as i do.

Go visit StudioZ: he has some real interesting slants on the uprising of communism all over the world these days. Be careful wherever you reside!

http://kdh9910.stumbleupon.com/review/27302267/

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:05:26 -0800

11.9.2008 - Part 1 of 3:

Hello to you people, such kind folks to me! I haven't been stumbling around here for about 9 months! I was (sometimes these days, still am) in the doldrums, in a funk, in a depression, inside of deep sorrow.

Is the sorrow gone? It simply can never vanish unless a very important aspect of my life changes, but that's too deep to talk about right here and now.

However, my change in attitude is that I am not going to let it drag me down into the muck and mire of tears--but more so, I refuse to let it stop me from being who I am and doing what I do! I WRITE. Finally, after too many years not loving what I do, I am loving what I do best: I WRITE!!!

And so, know I read your letters to me and that I appreciate them so much. I feel for you, I am so darned sensitive that it is impossible for me not to feel for you as I read your letters to me. Oh, you are so generous to write to me!

Our world really is getting tough, yes? It's got to be harder for those of you that are younger than I am. Why do I say that? I say it because you were born around the time, or after the time that the power movements evolved, specifically, the Women's Liberation movement.

I remember all too well how women used to "rap" at the WL meetings that my friend, Lise, brought me to in the early '70s. They were in Hyde Park, that bastion of liberalism that is actually a neighborhood of the south side of Chicago called "Hyde Park - Kenwood," which is where Barack Obama has a house.

As a side to this little discussion: I sold real estate for so many years, lived for many years in Hyde Park - Kenwood, and I have absolutely loved architecture from as far back as my memory goes, so how could it be that I would not share with you what living in Hyde Park is? It has the most splendid architecture! But UC run it, as the local gang members used to spray paint on the cement walls that are located underneath the IC tracks (UC = University of Chicago; IC = Illinois Central Railroad that runs to its final stop to downtown Chicago, Michigan and Randolph, just under the eastern end of the now Chicago Cultural Center) that used to be the main library of the Chicago Public Libraries, which, if you ever get here, is one of the finest places to visit in all of this city. It is stunning. I used to go to study there in my afternoons to finish off my independent study classes at the alternate HS I attended with other artistic misfits in downtown Chicago--not associated with the Chicago Public Schools that were not my style. Everywhere in this building (which always has new and interesting displays, as well as tours well worth the $$$) you will find so many of the works that the artisans of the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany made for it. I studied in the great hall, the domed room, underneath ceilings made of tiny mosaic pieces, and I would walk the building almost every day after I did my work for the day, looking at the windows and lighting inside of that gorgeous place. And the curvature of the stonework! Oh, my, you had better go to the Chicago Cultural Center, if you go to no other building in my city, if you ever visit!

But, I hope that you read up on Louis Comfort Tiffany before you visit this wonderful building, because you will learn that in 1893, at the Manufacturer's Building (the only building that is left from that time is the Museum of Science and Industry, which had to be reinforced and was NOT the Manufacturer's Building--but when you look at pictures from the Exposition, how you WISH they kept all of it), at the Columbian Exposition that was held in Hyde Park, probably the most beautiful world's fair that ever was, Thomas Edison was displaying electric lighting in a room exactly next to the room that Tiffany had for his glass works. I wonder if they had not met if we would ever have seen the wonder of Tiffany's gems for the public, not only for the rich, which is the reason that Louis Comfort was the black sheep of

Flickr: Karen Dallas (a/k/a Karen Dallas Hartig)s Photostream

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:04:55 -0800

11.9.08 Part 2 of 3

And so, to show you a photograph of the old main branch of the Chicago Public Library's main reading room where I studied and wrote papers in my high school in Chicago, here is a photograph (not mine) showing you how it looks after it was renovated to the Chicago Cultural Center. And just imagine... It had been scheduled for the wrecking ball!!!

Only one view of the Grand Hall with Tiffany's mosaics, lighting fixtures and stained glass Rose Window: Main Reading Room, Chicago Public Library prior to renovation into the Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan/Randolph, Chicago

http://kdh9910.stumbleupon.com/review/27310323/

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:01:55 -0800

11.9.08, continued... Part 3 of 3

So, as I was telling you, Louie Comfort Tiffany was the black sheep of his haughty New York family.� Yes, the ones that make all the drop-dead-die-for jewelry.� Of course, little Louis was expected to carry on wearing the jeweler's loupe in the shop, but he had said that he wanted to bring the magic of gems to the working class.� And that is how he started to work with stained glass and mosaics.� (I live virtually across the street from a cemetery that is so old that even Civil War vets are buried there.� The mausoleum has vaults that are so old you wouldn't believe it.� You walk through dim hallways and look into the private vaults, and there, at the end, you'll see a Tiffany window that's just beautiful, what with the soft light filtering through it, bringing calm and undisturbed sleep to the residents lying inside of that lonely room).� So, once electric lighting was at his fingertips, he was on his way to becoming one of the world's best known artisans.� (Do you wonder what might have happened to his art if Tesla exhibited next to him at the Columbian Exposition???� Hehehe!).�

And so, Hyde Park - Kenwood was quite a charged place to live in during the tail end of the '60s and the early '70s:� the profs that worked at my alternate HS hung out at the Point (a piece of land that juts out into our splendid lake, which is why our skyline is the best in the world, shimmering always from the lake on the east), where we'd go on about what Eldridge Cleaver wrote, or Studs Terkel, or Mike Royco (in reference to our windy city politics and all the dark dealings that never stop going on here).� The talks were really interesting.�

Anyway, in the early 1970s, I was the only mother of any of the young ladies that I knew.� I stayed at home with my baby and husband.� But these power movements were a-movin' along, so, my friends would drag me to their rap groups.� Having been a real flower-power hippie and love lady, I didn't like the power movements--they made life tougher and more dangerous for us.� In fact, after the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention fiasco between the Yippies and the Daley crowd over across the street in Grant Park, across the street from the old Conrad Hilton Hotel (it's still there, under sort of a different name), you would have thought that people would be afraid to congregate to discuss their brand of power movement, but that wasn't true at all, not in Hyde Park at least.� No way.� Of COURSE everyone discussed individual rights and the power movements!� (Would that happen again today?� I don't know, what with all the work our folks must do, just to "make it," not to buy extravagant things for themselves, besides, what with all the new spy machines being set up all over the city...).� So, I got taken to the rap groups of the Hyde Park women's lib movement.�

Everyone other than me would bemoan their fate, their boring state of affairs that their world turned on each day, Mr. Husbando getting up early to don a necktie and wingtips, to bolt down a cuppa java brew and a couple of pieces of toast before going into the office that had to look like they do in the cable TV show called "Madmen."� And the wives, sitting there in the rap group, would say how it wasn't right that their work wasn't paid labor and that they wanted to leave their kids with babysitters to get a job outside of the home.� There silly me would sit, saying how satisfied I was to be at home all day long, playing with my baby and cooking meals.� I didn't care whether it was paid labor or it wasn't:� I simply was happy in that situation, and so, the other women questioned me voraciously as to why it made me feel happy.� Yes, it did, and now it's so simple to see why it did.� Oh yeah, I ended up in divorce court taking custody of our boy, and then I had to get an outside job, along with the others.� Did it make me happy?� Nah, it did not.� Did it make my son happy?� Well, if you call a little boy running to his mom and jumping up into her waiting hugs, crying out "Mommy!� Mommy!," being happy, I guess I will allow you that.� So, I too became a part of the vast numbers of women entering the workforce.�

And this is the one thing that I want to point out about WL:� in my opinion, women's lib only enslaved both men and women in the long run.� I have asked men, many, many times to be frank and upfront when they answered this question, "If you could call the shots, would you want your wife to stay home keeping house for you and with your children, or is it a fact that you enjoy the extra money she brings home to the extent that you really, in your heart, would rather that she works outsideWHERE DID THE REST OF THIS GO???

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are | The Onion - Americas Finest News Source

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:19:25 -0800

you gotta watch this clip about the obama supporters that now walk in circles, like the demented (as john cheever so cleverly penned in one of his short stories), with nothing left to say, nothing left to do!!! the site is funny in itself too.

The Chicago Spire

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:48:49 -0700

And now, I present to you yet another wonder of modern architecture, coming soon to my home town! Mayor Richie Daley's current pet, The Spiral (to the left):

And Daley's budget shortfall 3 months ago, he screamed as he landed back from his vacation to Bejing for the Olympics (the only thing he ever wants for the city, damned be to all other improvelents), was TWO HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION!

But then, I guess he started contemplating the cost overruns on the Spiral, what with no windows and all, as well as gusts of wind whooshing by it from the west, onwards, down to the lake, where it is being built, as well as all the potential lawsuits brought by all the fereigners that are buying up a few condos in it, here and there (there had not been the bailout when it was started, dun, dun, dun, dun, da!), when they are picked up off of their feet and thrown down to the sidewalk, only to break many bones and to have to be taken to one of Chicago's hospitals in ambulances that may not be on the street come this January 2009, what with all the layoffs of city workers, because, I guess, he did not find the shortfall of FOUR HUNDRED TEN MILLION just last month.

But then again, just today, he announced that the city deficit is UP TO FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY-SIX MILLION DOLLARS!!!

But our el trains hurt your ears (fine stuff for Olympiads and the millions that will flock here to see them in God knows what year in the future they MIGHT come) as you ride them. And pretty soon, we citizens may sue the fair city that I want to leave, because Hiz Honor has determined that instead of replacing cars on the el trains, that he will install a few cattle cars that have no railings, and no seats, which means that if a woman is pregnant, or one has lost an arm, she won't be able to do anything other than scream as she looses her hold on the rings that will hang down from the ceiling.

Oh, I want to leave! Oh! I forgot: read comment no. 3.

Inhabitat & Singapore's Ecological EDITT Tower

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:33:06 -0700

When, oh when, will they stop this madness??? Methinks that it will all shrivel up and dry, being that there haven't been ANY solar flares for a long time now: the sun won't be flaring again for a long, long time. (Well, I suppose the benefit of that will be that it will be safer to live on Mars)!

Do you see how these crafty Chinese will again incorporate human waste into the agrarian building/plant structure? What will they do if the sun doesn't produce global warming?

Well, I guess another benefit is that all the shelves of ice that fell off of the singular coastline of Greenland (look at all the clips: they are precisely, exactly, the same!), the ice sheets that melted, producing rising tides on beaches, will now serve to form glaciers, and that way, all that global warming sunlight will be bounced back up into space.

And, ta da! We can re-engineer solar panels all over again, producing more jobs so that taxpayers can pay for more bailouts, so that they do not face the sun to collect solar flares, but so that they face the earth to catch the solar rays that will soon bounce right off of the planet earth!

Lotsa food for the residents, if they only get the rain!

elivings favorite web sites - StumbleUpon

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:40:10 -0700

elivings comes here to stumble around, and she find the most fascinating images! here is one she posted from this stumbler's page:

http://solstitiu.stumbleupon.com/

it reminds me of an experience i had just last night. have any of you ever seen the cirque du soleil perform? you really should! they are a troupe of many people now, including acrobats, superior stage designers, comedians, a full band, their own wonderful singers, and more.

talk about talent, fantasy, wonder! ummmm, i LOVE seeing the cirque. last night i saw their show under an outdoor tent called "kooza." glad to meet you, elivings!

this picture reminds me so much of a place of the mind that you might find when you let yourself and the world go, and you "travel." inside of the house, there are all sorts of characters that do wonders that astound you, they surprise you, they consume you. and then, in the depths of your mind, you DANCE!

kooza begins with a little boy out flying a kite. there is a delivery of a large red box--it's hilarious HOW it does get delivered! when he opens it, out pops a jack-in-the-box, who immediately sheds his outfit, and out steps a skinny, rather sinister-looking, maestro. you think he's going to frighten the boy, but instead, he waves about his magic wand here and there, taking him into the realm of fantasy in the big tent--what a circus is actually like. the cirque is real funny, too.

the cirque du soleil is AMAZING. "cuil it"--(see post below). you will find its web page where you can see their schedule of events (they have a show in vegas that never will travel based on the fantasy that the beatles gave to us), and also if you are a member, their free ecards are just what to send to your friends. i cannot compliment performers more than i can those who are part of the international cirque: if you wanted acrobatic-dance opera and amazing feats of the human body and thrills galore, this is what you'd see. i like the cirque better than an opera, really--the cirque takes me out of this world.

no, it is not too expensive: yes, it is worth every penny. go!