Prodigal Altar Boy Countdown - Occupy Bagram - Occupy Baltimore - Occupy Highway

2011 – Last 100 Days

Prodigal Altar Boy Countdown

T-41 Days to Go

20 November 2011

I wanted to share this YouTube video of the Occupy Wall Street folks that are walking to to D.C. to voice their opinions on the “Super Committee,” which has to come up with budget solutions by 23 November.  The video shows people with jobs who took time off from their jobs to walk form New York City to D.C.  Yes, WALK.  You have to want that.  In addition to the woman who took time off from her job there is a young man who gave his two-week’s notice and then (literally) hit the pavement to D.C.  Yesterday they arrived in Baltimore and connected with the Occupy Baltimore folks in McKeldin Square.  The conviction to walk to the nation’s capitol to speak out gives insight into the resolve of the people involved.  Stay tuned.

My Father-in-law sent me a picture he snagged off a Facebook page.  It shows the sense of humor of the folks on the “pointy-end of the spear.”  Take it for what it’s worth.

Goal:  1 hour per day working on the film

Details: 

Read Karen Everett’s blog article, “Declaring Your Documentary’s Central Thesis”

Listened to Karen Everett’s teleseminar “Using Personable Narration in a Documentary”

Total time:  1 hour

Goal:  30 minutes per day music practice

Details:

Warm-up on the MojoCaster

10:30 Service at Grace City

Pat Metheny – warm up exercise #1 bars 1-4

Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing – Living Colour version

It’s Your Thing – Isley Brothers

“So What” – Miles Davis

Amazing Grace – Key of F  (thanks to Kendall for showing me the chords, always the teacher) 

Total time:  2 hours

Goal:  15 minutes exercise per day

Active rest (Lazy Sunday ;-))

Goal:  15 minutes per day working on the score for the movie

Details:

“Granby Street” – on the MojoCaster, focus on placing lyrics in the verses and the ending

“Dies Irae” – 20X  today I did them in groups of five, allowing me to focus on execution

After playing “Dies Irae” twenty times, broke down the octave and dyad climbs

A Dorian riff work

A min – D7 chord work to go with A Dorian riff

Rhythm work on the E – B/D# - C#m – A  chord progression

Rhythm work on the R&B chord progression

“So What” – Miles Davis (watched Jazz on the Tube clip of “Tutu” so had to get back to Miles)

Total Time:  1 hour

Prodigal Altar Boy Countdown - What else I like about Occupy Baltimore

2011 – Last 100 Days

Prodigal Altar Boy Countdown

T-43 Days to Go

18 November 2011

What else I like about Occupy Baltimore

Another reason I like the Occupy folks, especially the Occupy Baltimore crowd, is the “squishiness” of “what it is they want” caused city officials to say silly things.  One case in point was when the Baltimore Sun reported on Occupy Baltimore giving food and shelter to the homeless.  First, the director of the mayor’s homeless services program dismissed the effort, saying, “I'm not sure why anyone would be interested in McKeldin Square at all," she said. "There are other resources that folks can access." (Maza, 2011)

 

Anyone with a passing familiarity with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs knows security needs, such as food and shelter, trump other needs and for this official to feign ignorance of why any entity that would be dispensing both food and shelter would not be of interest to the homeless points to a gross misunderstanding of homelessness or a hidden agenda axe to grind.  Since I said “feign,” I vote the latter, the woman obviously has an axe to grind.

 (Up next, Occupy Baltimore flips the script)

 

Goal:  1 hour per day working on the film

Details: 

Watched Karen Everett 12 week course “Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary” week 1 video.

Total time:  1 hour

Goal:  30 minutes per day music practice

Details:

Warm-up on the MojoCaster

Pat Metheny – warm up exercise #1 bars 1-4

Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing – Living Colour version

It’s Your Thing – Isley Brothers

Root 4 chord work

Total time:  30 minutes

Goal:  15 minutes exercise per day

Viking Warrior Conditioning

36:36 Protocol – 18 reps per set – 16kg kettlebell

18 sets

Total time:  21 minutes (20:48)

Goal:  15 minutes per day working on the score for the movie

Details:

“Dies Irae” – 20X - dyad/octave climb work

A Dorian riff work

A min – D7 chord work to go with A Dorian riff
"Granby Street" - Mojocaster - lyric work

Rhythm work on the E – B/D# - C#m – A  progression

Rhythm work on the R&B chord progression

Total Time:  30 minutes

Occupy Baltimore: I like 'em!

2011 – Last 100 Days

Prodigal Altar Boy Countdown

T-44 Days to Go

17 November 2011

Occupy Baltimore:

I like 'em!

A friend (thanks Les) sent me this cartoon.  It’s cute and Les sent it to me on a day when a co-worker asked me about my feelings about the Occupy Movement.  I think I surprised that co-worker by saying I really liked the movement and thought the intense anti-Occupy media out there is testament to their effectiveness.  What I like even more is their apparent lack of the power they wield. 

Their lack of a narrowed set of demands and the amorphous nature of the movement confounds description and characterization.  While the media would have you believe this is a bad thing, that is a projection of their frustration in trying to cover the movement.  It is hard to evoke a 15-second sound bite out of the Occupy folks because they are not focused on one central issue.  That means journalists have to work to get the story right.

The decentralized nature of the movement and lack of concrete demands also offers protection from co-option.  Because they are not demanding any one thing, there is no opportunity for someone to come in and promise that one thing to make them go away.  That is brilliant and speaks to my assertion the young people of Occupy learned a lot from their grandparents and parents.  If there is one lesson from the protests of the Sixties it’s that if you promise to ___________________________(fill in the blank, Stop The War, End Racism, Promote Equality, etc.), you set the stage for the rest of the public to ask, “Hey, you got what you wanted, why are you still protesting?”   

(Up next, what else I like about Occupy Baltimore)

Goal:  1 hour per day working on the film

Details: 

Additional research on archival photos from The Cathoic Virginian

Watched Karen Everett Module #4 “Assembling the Three-Act Structure into a Cohesive Narrative Arc”

Total time:  1 hour

Goal:  30 minutes per day music practice

Details:

Warm-up on the MojoCaster

Pat Metheny – warm up exercise #1 bars 1-4

Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing – Living Colour version

It’s Your Thing – Isley Brothers

Root 4 chord work

Total time:  30 minutes

Goal:  15 minutes exercise per day

Air Squats  super set with Perfect Push-Ups

10 sets of 10

5  sets of 5

Total time:  17 minutes

Goal:  15 minutes per day working on the score for the movie

Details:

A Dorian riff work

A min – D7 chord work to go with A Dorian rif

Rhythm work on the E – B/D# - C#m – A  progression

Rhythm work on the R&B chord progression

“Dies Irae” – 20X

Total Time:  30 minutes

Occupy Wall Street - If It's Good Enough for Pope John Paul II, It's Good Enough For Me!

"The Pope's Revenge"

2011 last 100 days

Countdown:

73 Days Left

Day: 27

18 October 2011

• Goal - 1 hour per day doing some work on the movie:

Doug Spotted Eagle - Vegas Pro Training DVD
Partially Digitized 31 October 2008 tape (081031A) using Karen's bin and numbering scheme.

• Time:  90 minutes

• Goal:  30 minutes per day basic music work:

Warm ups  on the MojoCaster

“Granby Street”  lyric swap

Dies Irae 20x whole piece.  Followed up with dyad and octave work.

Total time: 1 hour

• Goal:  15 minutes per day (minimum) exercise:

EDT 16kg Kettlebell Snatch (15 Minutes)
Left Snatch                            Right Snatch
Reps/Sets                             Reps/Sets
7X5                                       7X5
6X5                                       6X5
5X5                                       5X5
4X5                                       4X5
3X7                                       3X7
2x1                                       2X1
1X1                                       1X1

Total reps per side= 136
PR is 166 reps
Did 138 on 1 October and 126 on 13 October.

Hand to Hand Kettlebell Swings (16kg)
Sets/Reps
10X10

Total time
24:18
301 calories

   

• Goal:  15 minutes per day (minimum) scoring work for the movie:

Details:

“So What” - Miles Davis

“It's Your Thing” - Isley Brothers

“Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing” - Living Colour

D-sus work

Total time:  30 minutes

Notes:

Digitized part of a  tape from the 31 October (2008) shoot with TQ.  Part of what I digitized was the Superman Christmas liturgy, , using St. Mark’s Gospel.  A fitting piece to come up given that I just picked up the Eucharist picture from Jesse Wieman, who also did the TQ as Superman painting.  Watched Doug Spotted Eagle Vegas Pro Training tape from VASST.   

I continue to implore you to check out the graphics purporting to show the Four Things the Occupy Wall Street protesters Are Angry About.   As much as mainstream media wants to portray the protesters as unfocused, these charts come from The Business Insider, so somebody gets it.  Compare these graphics up with this clip of an Occupy Wall Street protester raising good points about wanting to see more “Jesus stuff like helping the poor.”  No wonder the clip never made it to Fox News!

Tie all of that in with this letter to the editor in the 13 October Baltimore Sun.  The author, Michelle D. Breau, makes an astute connection between the Occupy Wall Street movement and Pope John Paul II’s  warning the “...all-consuming desire for profit and the thirst for power at any price with the intention of imposing one’s will upon others are opposed to the will of God and the good of neighbor.”

TQ and John Paul II did not see eye to eye on many things, but were in lock step on the dangers of concentrating the world’s resources in the hands of a few.  In the trailer for TQ’s book, “A Reluctant Malachi.”  TQ states many churches have missed this point entirely.  Note TQ’s description of our responsibility dovetails with Occupy Wall Street.