Digital Ink Los Angeles

What causes us to search for a New World?

A new route to the Far East spice trade? Nah.

Desire to spread the word of God, like the Dominican and Jesuit missionaries of the 18th Century? Not likely.

Escape from nuclear Armageddon or biological malaise? Maybe.

Discovery of raw materials and new water sources? More than likely.

The recent opening of the billion-dollar CityCenter in Las Vegas is a boastful nod to New World capitalism and its achievements, with the tagline: “Capital of the New World.”

What gives? Films like The Road, Armageddon, Cloverfield, and WALL-E portend the destruction of Earth.

Does Hollywood know something we don’t? One thing for certain, James Cameron won’t be directing my escape ship. And it’ll probably be pretty obvious we’re “not in Kansas anymore.”

Remember that song from the 70s, Children of the Sun?

“‘People of the earth can you hear me?’
came a voice from the sky on that magical night.
And in the colors of a thousand sunsets,
they traveled to the world on a silvery light…”

In 3-D, of course.

Administrator 21st Century Culture, 70s, Earth, Movies and Cinema, Social Responsibility, The New World aliens, armageddon, Avatar, Earth, entertainment, hope, people, social

Why does Charlie Brown pick the ugliest, scrawniest tree in the lot?

What does he imagine this sad tree will give him?

Well, he’s asking for something simple — the true meaning of Christmas.

According to the original two-buck Chuck, Charles Schultz’s, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965):

[first lines of story]
Charlie Brown: [Charlie Brown and Linus stop at a wall on their trip to the pond for ice skating] I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.
[begins to walk with Linus again]
I just don’t understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I’m still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.

Linus Van Pelt: Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy’s right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest.

What is the true meaning of Christmas?

Well, Linus defines the literal Christmas with his recounting of the Three Kings and Baby in a Manger story of Jesus Christ’s birth.

But, more to the figurative meaning of Christmas, Linus offers this idea regarding Charlie Brown’s little tree:

Linus Van Pelt: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.

Can’t buy that at a Christmas sale.

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Administrator 21st Century Culture, 60s, Social Responsibility, The Good Life Charlie Brown, Christmas, entertainment, friends, GOOD, kindness, love, popular, spirit

According to yesterday’s New York Times article, “‘Boneless’ Wings, the Cheaper Bite,” it is now more expensive to purchase chicken wings with the bones in than buying boneless chicken.

Hmmm…

The article states:

“All this is happening because wholesale chicken prices have turned upside down. The once-lowly wing is selling at a premium over what has long been the gold standard of poultry parts, the skinless boneless chicken breast.”

“Like the tail that wags the dog, the wings are now flapping the chicken.”

Thanks to all those tail-gaters, Happy Hour buffets, and Monday Night Football parties, wings are now a high-ticket item.

If that’s not a Sign of the Apocalypse, then WalMart’s recent selection as global leader in promoting a “green” economy might be.

Stay tuned.

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Administrator 21st Century Culture, New America, New Economy, Social Responsibility 2012, Apocalypse, Buffalo, chicken, economics, flavor, food, football, madness, party, prices, sauce, social, wings

Los Angeles’ Topanga Canyon has a special venue for theater with
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.

Thanks to FlavorPill’s Tanja Laden for the info:

In the ’50s, blacklisted actor Will Geer opened a theater on his Topanga property for fellow performers ostracized during the McCarthy Era. After landing the role of Grandpa Walton in the ’70s, Geer officially opened the nonprofit Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, which remains one of LA’s most beloved professional repertory theatres.

This summer, in addition to a trio of plays by Shakespeare and The Miser by Molière, the outdoor theater stages a clever retelling of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. Adapted by Heidi Helen Davis and the play’s leading lady, Geer’s daughter Ellen, the play is reset from turn-of-the-century Russia to the heels of the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Virginia, highlighting the timelessness of Chekhov’s last play.
–- Tanja Laden

Theater’s cool. And socially responsible.

But not socialism. Just social. Societal GOODness.

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Administrator 21st Century Culture, Social Responsibility, Stylio, The Good Life, writing acting, art, artisan, artists, arts, California, Chekhov, Los Angeles, plays, social, society, theater, Topanga, writing

Anyone who’s ever been to a ball game knows its call to stand and give praise to
Old Glory:

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

195 years ago today, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem describing the U.S. flag still standing after a British bombardment. It was during the War of 1812, and Mr. Key had been watching the Battle of Fort McHenry from the British confinement he was being held in for one night. When the sun rose, he saw the flag had survived.

On any day, the same freedom that allows someone to burn a flag also necessitates their need to give thanks for that same flag.

In a nation that allows someone to speak to the eminent figure of U.S. government in slander (You Lie!) in front of 50-million people, what’s the essence of this freedom if not the emblem of this freedom?

The Star Spangled Banner is more than an anthem to commence an athletic event, it’s a testament to American liberty and the idea that, no matter how tough things get, that flag will still be there. Regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, politics, age, or income, the flag flies.

Jim Hendrix saw the Star Spangled Banner as a protest song. Makes sense, as the freedom it personifies requires active participation.

Watch Jimi protest his liberties and freedoms by letting his “freak flag fly” here:

Administrator 21st Century Culture, Art and Justice, New America, Social Responsibility, The Good Life American, anniversary, flag, freedom, GOOD, images, liberty, praise, protest, sports, U.S.

“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.“
Mark Twain – Autobiography of Mark Twain

The truth is not always fact. And truth is often stranger than fiction.

American “Indians” are not from India, because Columbus didn’t discover a western trade route after all.

Michael Jordan wasn’t “cut” from his high-school varsity team as a sophomore, when he was the leading scorer on his high school junior-varsity squad that same year.

Breached levees caused the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina, but the city is in a sunken bowl, at least five feet under sea-level, surrounded by large bodies of water on every side. Where’s all that water supposed to go in a Category 4 hurricane? And, it’ll happen again, unless New Orleans becomes like Amsterdam and Venice.

If aliens arrive on this planet tomorrow, who might they believe to be in charge? Dogs who live a life of luxury, or the owners who follow them around with pooper-scoopers picking up their, well, shit? Go fetch.

When liberals and conservatives line up on either side of the political arena, who is hit by the flying bullets? All the people standing in the middle, trying to get something accomplished instead of proving who is “right,” “left,” or “wrong.”

FactCheck.org is one of the best available for some truthful reflection of the facts, as their business is, indeed, fact checking.

Also, TruthDig is a well-done web site, with some genuinely informed people making solid statements about all things human and otherwise.

Another soundly presented, professional, and unbiased web site is Common Dreams, for the “progressives” looking to build a better, New America.

And, lastly, for a simple, humanitarian organization with some of the greatest minds in the world, try the Aspen Institute for a little change of pace.

Smart people, doing good things. As might be guessed, not political.

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Administrator 00s, 21st Century Culture, New America, New Economy, Social Responsibility, The New World Congress, cultural, Democratic, facts, freedom, government, Indians, lie, lying, New America, Obama, partisan, politics, progressive, Republican, rhetoric, Senate, social, strength, true, truth

“In our blessed and mostly peaceful society we’re not as familiar with courage as we once were. We ascribe the virtue to all manner of endeavors that only really require skill, fortitude and a little daring, the qualities Pat Tillman showed on the football field. Pat’s best service to his country was to remind us all what courage really looks like, and that the purpose of all good courage is love.“
– Senator John McCain
Pat Tillman’s memorial service, May 3, 2004

Pat Tillman was an excellent football player. He was also an heroic soldier. He gave his life for a cause most Americans still can’t quite comprehend, except to say there are bad people who wish our nation harm, and men and women like Pat Tillman have a desire to defend everything this nation represents.

Every once in a while, an “Outlier,” a 1%er, a SuperGOOD person comes along, and their exceptional character necessitates their destiny. For Tillman, it was a sad ending to an otherwise extraordinary life. Only now, after years of cover-ups and back-room bureaucracy, have the facts surfaced about his death. Like much of war, they are not pretty.

Pat Tillman, Sr., in a letter written in 2005 to The Washington Post, stated that supposed “mistakes” by Army higher-ups were part of a pattern of conscious misconduct:

“With respect to the Army’s reference to ‘mistakes in reporting the circumstances of [my son's] death’: those ‘mistakes’ were deliberate, calculated, ordered (repeatedly), and disgraceful — conduct well beneath the standard to which every soldier in the field is held.“

Writer and “New-New Journalist” Jon Krakauer has a new book, “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,” which attempts to expose the facts behind the Pat Tillman tragedy.

Whatever the truth may be, Pat Tillman will always be a hero. On the 8th Anniversary of 9/11, Digital Ink Los Angeles remembers the people who’ve sacrificed everything for the love, not the glory.

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Administrator 1%, Heroes, New America, Social Responsibility, The Good Life 9/11, Afghanistan, Army, athlete, book, controversy, courage, death, fight, fighter, GOOD, goodness, hero, Heroes, heroic, love, NFL, sports, Super Good, war