A song that makes me feel creative

Hmmm. Many songs make me feel creative. What criteria should I go with? Simplicity in message? The ability to weave multiple tastes and textures into something in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? The ability to work in the unexpected and unusual into expected conventional formats and thereby challenge and surprise the listener?

Does anyone even understand what I'm trying to state here? More to the point do I even know what I'm trying to say?

Not really, so screw the questions. Here's some Jethro Tull:

A song that makes me feel creative

Hmmm. Many songs make me feel creative. What criteria should I go with? Simplicity in message? The ability to weave multiple tastes and textures into something in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? The ability to work in the unexpected and unusual into expected conventional formats and thereby challenge and surprise the listener?

Does anyone even understand what I'm trying to state here? More to the point do I even know what I'm trying to say?

Not really, so screw the questions. Here's some Jethro Tull:

A song that makes me feel creative

Hmmm. Many songs make me feel creative. What criteria should I go with? Simplicity in message? The ability to weave multiple tastes and textures into something in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? The ability to work in the unexpected and unusual into expected conventional formats and thereby challenge and surprise the listener?

Does anyone even understand what I'm trying to state here? More to the point do I even know what I'm trying to say?

Not really, so screw the questions. Here's some Jethro Tull:

Nelson Mandela is 93 today

I saw today on the news that Nelson Mandela just celebrated his 93rd birthday and it got me thinking how happy I am to be proven wrong sometimes. Right now we live in a world where economic collapse appears to be imminent and with no real evidence so far to hope that the US will not default and send the world economy over a cliff it would be easy to just imagine a destitute near future filled with misery and horror. Of course I initially pegged South Africa's post Apartheid era as being essentially one long unending bloodbath, so my visions of the future are thankfully not perfect.

Honestly, I don't think there is a former head of government anywhere in the world that I have more respect for.  He was certainly not perfect, and South Africa is no utopia, but to take one's country and guide it in such a way that the cultural goal became reconciliation instead of revenge is perhaps the greatest feat of statesmanship of the late 20th century.  To suddenly be given power over a state whose official policy was to subjugate and dehumanize you and your ethnicity for decades and not seek revenge, well, to be honest I doubt my instinctual response would be so magnanimous were I to be placed in his shoes.

That last part is a horrible thing to admit but it would be even more horrible if such an initial  response was allowed to lie unchallenged by real world experience.   For actually showing that years of injustice does not have to automatically be met with retaliation and reprisal I think I, and the rest of the world, will be in his debt for many years to come.

Happy Birthday Mr. Mandela. You've certainly earned it.

Nelson Mandela is 93 today

I saw today on the news that Nelson Mandela just celebrated his 93rd birthday and it got me thinking how happy I am to be proven wrong sometimes. Right now we live in a world where economic collapse appears to be imminent and with no real evidence so far to hope that the US will not default and send the world economy over a cliff it would be easy to just imagine a destitute near future filled with misery and horror. Of course I initially pegged South Africa's post Apartheid era as being essentially one long unending bloodbath, so my visions of the future are thankfully not perfect.

Honestly, I don't think there is a former head of government anywhere in the world that I have more respect for.  He was certainly not perfect, and South Africa is no utopia, but to take one's country and guide it in such a way that the cultural goal became reconciliation instead of revenge is perhaps the greatest feat of statesmanship of the late 20th century.  To suddenly be given power over a state whose official policy was to subjugate and dehumanize you and your ethnicity for decades and not seek revenge, well, to be honest I doubt my instinctual response would be so magnanimous were I to be placed in his shoes.

That last part is a horrible thing to admit but it would be even more horrible if such an initial  response was allowed to lie unchallenged by real world experience.   For actually showing that years of injustice does not have to automatically be met with retaliation and reprisal I think I, and the rest of the world, will be in his debt for many years to come.

Happy Birthday Mr. Mandela. You've certainly earned it.

Nelson Mandela is 93 today

I saw today on the news that Nelson Mandela just celebrated his 93rd birthday and it got me thinking how happy I am to be proven wrong sometimes. Right now we live in a world where economic collapse appears to be imminent and with no real evidence so far to hope that the US will not default and send the world economy over a cliff it would be easy to just imagine a destitute near future filled with misery and horror. Of course I initially pegged South Africa's post Apartheid era as being essentially one long unending bloodbath, so my visions of the future are thankfully not perfect.

Honestly, I don't think there is a former head of government anywhere in the world that I have more respect for.  He was certainly not perfect, and South Africa is no utopia, but to take one's country and guide it in such a way that the cultural goal became reconciliation instead of revenge is perhaps the greatest feat of statesmanship of the late 20th century.  To suddenly be given power over a state whose official policy was to subjugate and dehumanize you and your ethnicity for decades and not seek revenge, well, to be honest I doubt my instinctual response would be so magnanimous were I to be placed in his shoes.

That last part is a horrible thing to admit but it would be even more horrible if such an initial  response was allowed to lie unchallenged by real world experience.   For actually showing that years of injustice does not have to automatically be met with retaliation and reprisal I think I, and the rest of the world, will be in his debt for many years to come.

Happy Birthday Mr. Mandela. You've certainly earned it.