The Byrds performing some Bob Dylan songs on Playboy After Dark in 1968. You Ain’t Going Nowhere and This Wheel’s On Fire. Love the dancing.

The author, his son, and the goddamn bear his father loved more than him.

“It seemed to me almost that my father had got where he was by climbing on my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame.”

- Christopher Robin Milne on the use of his name by his father in the classic of children’s literature, “Winnie The Pooh.” (via)

Do you have any formal interest in psychology?

I loathe psychology as one of the major faults of our civilization nowadays. There’s something not right about this amount of introspection. I can only give you a metaphor: When you move into an apartment, you cannot start to illuminate every last corner with neon light. If there are no dark corners or hidden niches, your house becomes uninhabitable. Human beings who are trying to self-reflect and explore their innermost being to the last corner become uninhabitable people.

Let’s not forget that psychology isn’t just about introspection; it can shed light on other people.

No, you can understand others by other means. By dint of compassion, you understand other people, and there is a concordance of hearts. That is something different. Move away from psychology and engage in concordance of hearts.

via

Spike Lee Directing
Unprecedented Ben & Jerry’s Commercial

New Smooth Line Comes In Social Activist Flavors

Released: 3/10/94
Retired: 7/10/94Waterbury, VT: Spike Lee is directing an unprecedented Ben & Jerry’s commercial for its new line-up of eight diverse flavors – Smooth, No Chunks. The progressive actor/ director/ producer/ writer was the only choice when it came to communicating a fun diversity of flavors and social activism all in one spot.

“We were looking for the right match in terms of someone who was multitalented and visionary. Someone who understood that you can make a great product, create progressive social momentum and have fun doing it. That’s not easy, but we have the man to do it,” said Ben Cohen, company chairman and co-founder.

“After looking at dozens of tapes, we got to Spike’s and there was no contest,” said Holly Alves, Ben & Jerry’s marketing director. “Except, there was that one tape from Holstein, Hereford, Guernsey & Shapiro that we had to take a second look at.”

The commercials get across the Vermont-based company’s new line-up of Smooth flavors and its progressive social values that have roots in the sixties. Ben & Jerry’s and Spike Lee are working with eight multi-talented artist-activists who represent positive role models for social change.

The entire complement of vanilla, chocolate and coffee improvisations are portrayed by Carlos Santana, Buffy Sainte Marie, Bobby Seale, Daniel Berrigan, Dolores Huerta, Pete Seeger, Michelle Shocked and Spike Lee. The flavors are Aztec Harvests® Coffee, Double Chocolate Fudge Swirl, Vanilla Bean, Mocha Fudge, Deep Dark Chocolate, White Russian TM, Vanilla, Vanilla Caramel Fudge.

“It’s not just a black and white world,” said Jerry Greenfield, company vice-chairman and co-founder, “it’s shades of chocolate, coffee and vanilla.”

 

 

I wish I wrote this song.

“Lullaby” by Loudon Wainwright III.

Shut up and go to bed
Put the pillow under your head
I’m sick and tired of all your worries
Shut up and say goodnight
Say your prayers and turn off the light
I’m sick and tired of all your sob-stories

Shut up and shut your eyes
No more histrionics no more college tries
Stop pushing stop shoving stop straining
Shut your mouth and button your lip
You’re a late night faucet that’s got a drip
All you’re doing is merely complaining

The excuse that you’re crazy is useless
You’re not biting you’re barking you’re toothless
But you’re ruthless (you’re Rufus)

Shut up and count some sheep

And do me a favour don’t bitch in your sleep
No more agony please no more sorrow
Shut up and catch some Z’s
Ice cream with a cherry plus big pretty please
I promise we’ll resume tomorrow…Goodnight

Actually this song might be better re-done by Dr. Octagon.

The world mourns the passing of a man named Chalmers. Chalmers Johnson was the President of the Japan Policy Research Institute at the University of San Francisco, and he was a vocal critic of what he called America’s “military overreach” as one of many signs of the collapse of its empire. I first heard Chalmers speak late one night on C-SPAN in 2005 discussing his “Blowback” Trilogy, in which he sets out to explain the reasons for hatred of American hegemony throughout the world. I’ve never read “Blowback” or his more recent book “The Sorrows of Empire,” but his lectures are as illuminating as they are frightening. The one posted above is a 60 minute discussion of the parallels between the American, Soviet, and Roman empires. Of course that is a lot of history to cover in less than an hour, but he is a persuasive critic and a magnificent stylist, on par with Joseph Campbell or Richard Feynman but for his insights into the history of Western civilizations.