O flower of Scotland
When will we see
Your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again

The hills are bare now
And autumn leaves lie thick and still
O’er land that is lost now
Which those so dearly held
And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again

Those days are passed now
And in the past they must remain
But we can still rise now
And be the nation again
And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We had a little adventure on our way to Monterey which included a tire blowout. We got very lucky and had carne asada with our mechanics in San Martin California!

Teacher

To a small community, to a big nation

They lend a very strong foundation

They guide us against right and wrong

 They teach us the anthem and also the national song.

Geography tells me where I stand?

It names the river, the barren land

With Languages everyday new word I learn

 The power to express my heart’s churn.

History they bring alive

 Civic senses make us strive

 Matters related to finance and money

Is taught to us through Economy.

Hyacinth it is; I know

‘Cause Botany made me see them and glow

Zoology made me see the smallest of being

 The diseases I could identify, the remedies I could think.

Life’s tough calculation

Was taught through Maths and Stats

Chemistry made me see the logistic chemical reason

 As to why some people are thin and some very fat.

 The mystery of gravity, the history of circuits

 Was taught to me through Physics and Electronics

 Across the continents, strangers I met

 ‘Cause Computers taught me to handle the net.

Importance of health and fitness

 Relaxation for mental and physical stress

 Was taught to me through Physical Education

My inner beauty, I could express.

 You took out the best in me

 You made me a winner in life’s run

 I can’t thank you enough TEACHERS

‘Cause you made learning real fun.

Hmmmm… We’ve been going a bit dubstep crazy here at WANARB in the last week or so. In all honesty it’s not my usual weapon of choice but it seems like there are loads of massive tunes knocking around the blogosphere at the moment. And Jakwobs remix of Ellis Gouldings ‘Under The Sheets’ is certainly no expection. In fact – this tune is a MASSIVE anthem. I don’t know who Ellie Goulding is – and I know very little about Jakwob (apart from what I have heard from him sounds very promising indeed) so I won’t say much except LISTEN TO THIS. Wow.

Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets (Jakwob remix)

HazMat

MORE ON JAKWOB:

MYSPACE :: FACEBOOK :: BUY TUNES

I picked up this short novella with no real idea of its content. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I hadn’t anticipated this dystopian novel of unmatched bleakness.

Equality 7-2521 is the protagonist of this story, in a primitive society of the future where individuality is a crime, and men live only to serve the common good, as dictated by a shadowy council of leaders. In Equality 7-2521 we find a man in whom individuality has neither been bred out, nor quenched; unlike his docile and spiritless ‘brothers.’ However, Equality 7-2521 recognises his uniqueness only as a sin against the collective, having no concept of ego.

The story is narrated by Equality 7-2521, in the form of a secret memorandem written in stolen moments. The language employed is utilitarian and colourless, reflecting the unambiguous and serviceable creeds by which the community lives; the only language Equality 7-2521 knows.

What impressed me most was the author’s success in reducing her characters to self-similar drones, without capacity for original thought. In other dystopian novels which I have read the potential has remained, oppressed, but intact. I also waited in vain for the emergence of those who are more equal than others, but removal of identity is complete, and the system is perfectly collective, and self-replicates without obvious advantage to those who rise to leadership positions.

This is collectivism taken to the absolute extreme, and at the time of writing would have served as a polemic against communist ideals.

As the story follows Equality 7-2521’s struggle to find a workable concept of self it becomes clear that this self-awareness will manifest as a religion.

“As the flames rose, a thing happened which no eyes saw but ours, else we would not be living today. Perhaps it had only seemed to us. But it seemed to us that the eyes of the Transgressor had chose us from the crowd and were looking straight upon us. There was only joy in them, and pride, a pride holier than it is fit for human pride to be.”

Having taken apart collectivism Ayn Rand finally introduces Objectivism, a philosophy and movement of her own design. (I might add that I have spent nearly as much time reading/thinking about the implications of Anthem as it took to read it!) I have read that Ayn Rand was anti-religion too, so maybe I missed something there, but I definitely got the impression that Objectivism in this context equated to a worship of self or ego.

I wonder why this book is not mentioned in the same breath as 1984, Brave New World, or Fahrenheit 451, et al. Perhaps Ayn Rand pushed her dystopia beyond the limits which people are prepared to entertain, but I enjoyed the extremity of her world, a mental exercise which left the reader with plenty to ponder. Although I cannot agree entirely with Ayn Rand’s philosophy, it certainly gave rise to some intriguing lines of speculation.

There aren’t many words that will make me go back for a second look but calling a track ‘Dublicker’ is one of those sure-fire ways to make me do a double take. Obviously i’m going to blog about this track because it’s a Dubstep remix of the controversial ‘Windowlicker’ by Aphex Twin. Not that it was really that controversial, it was only the name and the insane video that really had pressure groups down their knitting and get excited.

However another good reason to blog this tune is that the group or person who put this remix together has chosen to stay anonymous. This was actually brought out on a nondescript white label vinyl, with just a little title on the front and obviously someone got hold of it and went “digitizie that!”. Good fucking work too, because there’s something humbling about a tune with no fanfare, banner waving or press release stating who just remixed their same-same-insert-genre-here track.

That’s not to say this isn’t any good, well the first minute is kinda meandering and you start to think maybe there was a reason the producer wanted to stay anonymous but then at the 2:35 mark it suddenly picks up and it all makes sense by catapulting you into Dub-heaven.

God the more I listen to this the more I love it. Seriously whoever put this together, stand up! Be recognised!

Unknown Artist Vs Aphex Twin - Dublicker

4th Level Zombie

A wonderful community located just 34 miles north of Phoenix; Anthem makes one of the best places where you can settle with your family. Situated on the I-17, the area has a number of places of enjoyment and various attractions that will keep you busy throughout the stay. The area also organizes a number of festivals all around the year and you can be a part of all this by investing in the real estate property in Anthem. There is a range of options available for you to select from in Anthem.

Invest in the Anthem homes for sale that offer you a wide selection and you can find really affordable deals. Located at the base of Gavilan and Daisy Mountains, the homes with scenic views make a great investment. You can also make an investment in the houses with private pools, gated homes, waterfront properties and new construction houses. All these and many more options await you in Anthem. So make a choice of an amazing property soon.

Song:Say Yeah
Artist: KISS
Album: SONIC BOOM
Transcribed by: MXFNCK (mxfnck@hotmail.com)

Tune one half step down. The chords are not relative to this. An E chord would in
fact be an Eb. Listen to the song for timing et cetera.

-INTRO-

play once:

e--------------|
B--------------|
G--------------|
D--77-9--------|
A--55-7--------|
E--------------|

Intro chord sequence (open chords).
Listen to the song for timing and picking, it's fairly easy.
(Note that this progression is the same as in Bruce Springsteen's 'Radio Nowhere'
and in the Cranberries' 'Zombie')

Em, C, G, D (4x)

-VERSE-, these are power chords:

E5            C5         D5               E5            D5 E5
You, you're living your life when you're dreaming
         E5             C5         D5        E5         D5 E5
Late at night you're hearing my voice in your head

-PRE-CHORUS-

G5                    A5
It's time you see what it's all about

G5                            A5    B5
There's one cure and there's no way out

-CHORUS-

C                 G   D
I don't wanna hear you might
There's a fire gettin' near and sparks ignite
If you're ready for a wild ride

(Here you play the same open chords as in the intro chord sequence)
                       Em     C    G    D
Let me hear you say yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah)
        Em     C    G    D
Say yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah)

-BRIDGE-

F
Who knows where we'll be in the morning
C  G
    I know we're here tonight
C    F
   Get uptight and it all gets so boring
D
It takes two to make you come alive
C  D
   Take my hand, kiss your fears goodbye
C   D
  There's something here that we can't deny

-During the SOLO, play the verse chord sequence-

-Interlude-
                           C   G    D
Well, let me hear you say it
                            C   G   D
Well, I wanna hear you say it
                              Em   C  G      D
Well, let me hear you say yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah)
        Em  C   G     D
Say yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah)

And then finish the whole thing up by repeating the chorus, and conclude with a nice C5 D5

When put together you play this (the conventional rock n roll anthem recipe):
Intro
Verse
Pre Chorus
Chorus
Verse
Pre Chorus
Chorus
Bridge
Solo
Pre Chorus
Interlude
Repeat Chorus

Cheers,

Max

There are some people who visit Twitter,

Who are not nice, in fact they’re a little bitter,

So in order to avoid or block these tweeps,

I wrote this little poem for you to keep.

99% of people are considerate and kind,

Mostly the majority obeying the rules I find,

But like anything we seem to have in life,

1% just seem to cause you strife!

You know the ones I am talking about,

Twitter trolls who brood and pout,

Just looking for someone they can prey,

Annoying abuse they usually say,

Why they do it? Who really knows,

Maybe the lonely just need a show,

Perhaps its fun for their little minds,

Ruin the fun by wearing their blinds.

Then there are a stranger bunch,

Who all they do is the RT crunch,

This is a twitterer who does nothing else,

Only re-tweeting another soles verse.

Don’t get me wrong RT’ing is great,

But not when you do it from 8 – 8,

RT is you showing you liked something,

But also to the party your own words bring.

Then there is the pier de resistance,

The one that causes the most annoyance,

Not interested in you by any means,

For in their eyes all they see is green!

Not jealousy at all but money my friend,

And these people don’t follow any trend,

For after hello usually comes a Direct Message,

One that seems to be Twitters right of passage,

“You I can make a million dollars today!”

Usually you know their own bills they can’t pay,

So next time one of these in your inbox drops,

Just remember Twitter allows you to block!

But as I said at the beginning of this,

It’s only 1% that you really should miss,

For Twitter has something for one and all,

A home with family and friends you will call.

Just join the conversation with a smile,

Listen to others and stay a while,

Very soon you will feel a warm embrace,

By people who call Twitter their place.

This poem was part of a presentation that I gave at the global tour of “Cool Twitter Conferences” that happened in Dubai. Full of amazing people with interesting insights into the world of Twitter and social media. As one of many speakers I was fortunate to share some of the things that I do as the Poet of Twitter. To all the people that attended in Dubai, It was an honor to meet each and everyone of you. Thank you!

For the past two days, online and mobile social media community site Zoopy.com has featured two videos featuring Shiraaz Ismail . Shiraaz hosts the breakfast show on Bush Radio with Victor J. CLICK ON PICS TO WATCH THE VIDEOS.

We are not sure why, but we think the cute and funny factor may help. On a serious note Shiraaz wanted to highlight that many young people need to learn the national anthem.

Bush Radio uses zoopy.com to promote the work of artists as well as some of the video productions it is involved in, like the work of the CREW , during the annual Media Kidocracy Konfrence. It is also a way in which the interns at the station get to experience the intergration of media.

“There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.”

~ Ayn Rand

ANTHEM

Final Project for Anthem

            Friedrich von Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom could be seen as the prequel to Ayn Rand’s Anthem.  The idea behind this possible connection is that The Road to Serfdom could be a “how-to” manual for creating a society like the one described in Anthem.  Your task is to explain whether of not you see this as true, and provide evidence from both stories to support your position.  Your paper should contain the following elements:

• An introduction, body, and conclusion
• A thesis statement with supporting topic sentences and details from both works and any historical background information you deem appropriate (this is not a history assignment)

Here are some ideas or questions to consider:

• If you agree with the premise above, where do you see direct connections between the two works?
• If you disagree with the premise above, where do you see discrepancies between the two works?
• How important is historical context to these stories?

• Do Rand and von Hayek oversimplify?
• What is the plausibility of the premise?  Does it make you think or is it “out there”?
• I would seriously consider mapping out your thinking and ideas before you begin.

 You will have the next five days in class and, if needed, the Thanksgiving break.  You can turn in your paper next Wednesday or the Monday we get back.  Please follow the guidelines for written work found on the website.

The PDF of the Road to Serfdom can be found here.

Get to experience what its like to live in an award winning area. Anthem Real Estate have homes available in a community set in the heart of Arizona. Why not look to moving to Anthem!
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Life in Anthem means enjoying the best of what Arizona has to offer! There are the spas, the resorts, the golf courses all around! Who doesn’t love the sunny weather all year round ? The city of Phoenix can give you shopping, dancing, latest concerts, shows and plays. We hope these are the things you consider fun!
Anthem can be your home now! See what it has in store for you!

This last weekend had some special love on it. I don’t know if it had to with the prayer that has been going on before, after or during the gatherings or God is just simply moving in the lives of people that are coming. Either way, it was a great Sunday. I blogged about one of the songs we did which was a hymn called ‘Holy God’. It’s an incredible hymn and I think you should check out the blog post about it.

We also did the Chorus and Bridge of another new Matt Maher tune called Christ Has Risen. It was an amazing night of prayer and song. Here’s a couple videos from the day. Beware, the audio came off of the Front of House mix…so the recording quality isn’t Grammy level. At least it will give you an idea of what we did though and it’s been a while since I’ve posted me leading. Let me know what you thought about the songs. Enjoy!

National Review Online has published a short work by Peter Wehner about Ayn Rand that is worth reading, although it is several paragraphs too short.  One hopes NRO reproduces and publishes other sober comments about Ayn Rand on their site,  including republishing Mr. Chamber’s 1957 Review of Atlas Shrugged.  Hopefully, readers of NRO (and this blog) will read Rand’s works and draw innumerable lessons from them, including the one important lesson, that Ayn Rand’s underlying philosophy is unsalvageable and monstrous.

While Ms. Rand’s novels are often a fun read (Anthem is a well written and fairly short work), and should spark some serious reflection and thought on the part of her readers, the ideology of Ms. Rand was ugly, ruthless, cruel and it was an ideology she felt should be the rule book of society as well as Wall Street (her idol).  She was deeply wrong.

“We shall execute the whole litany” said regicide Vladimir L*nin as he plunged Russia and other nations into a decades long bloodbath — a nightmare that lasted for decades after he was himself laid out as a mummy on display.  Rand was just as sanguinary, just as dedicated a revolutionary and she too is wrongly venerated by the misguided.

Ms. Rand’s philosophy is one of personal satiation — gluttony in all its manifestations and taken to extremes.  It is no less hateful of dissenters, no less deadly to those who can not or will not partake of the bitter droughts of carnality and cruelty for the sake of the individual’s revels as ends in themselves.  She tolerated deviation from her beliefs no more than the firing parties of the Reds or their close cousins the fascists.  Ms. Rand was no advocate of individual rights, no humanist, but an hysterical, sadistic, craven hissing harpy demanding cruelty towards the weak.

Just as the godless Bolshevik allowed of no higher authority than the State which was in reality far removed from the worker, so Rand did too advocate a godless society in which the strong triumphed and those who could not were at best contemned but utilized.  Rand brooked no discussion of accountability to a source of authority, morality or ethic higher than herself — the author of her own canon of scripture and sutras.

Yes, I am well aware of the justifiable fears of a theocracy doing horrible harm to us all.  Yes, I too am aware of what happens when religion and politics mix and no one is more willing than I to point out the corruption and hypocrisy of even my own denomination — one all too willing to play the role of humble civil servant to the detriment of Christianity and Government.  The point is that Marxism, Fascism and Objectivism all see man as the measure of all things, and the sole purpose of all that exists.  To these ideologies the universe exists to be made subject to the mightiest of humans.  Whomever or whatever doesn’t comply or can’t serve satisfactorily is subject to annihilation, for Rand’s man, and the Soviet and Nationalist States are accountable to no one.  Right and wrong in Rand’s system are not based upon any criteria of appropriateness such as Chuang Tzu or any other philosopher would think valid, no concept of universal love as espoused by the much too neglected Mo Tzu, but subject strictly to the base desires of man the hungry tyrant.

Ms. Rand was a seductive writer.  She strikes a chord even today with Western men and women who rightly equate their economic prosperity with individual rights and a generally capitalist and market based system.  She almost makes sense to advocates of limited government who can point to Washington’s red tape and profligate spending as real enough problems.  Ms. Rand almost sounds not-shrill, not wrong, not evil (yes, I use this word in a sense that conveys a sense of sin, mortal sin, damnation, hell, perdition, eternal suffering, the devil. I use it without any concern for the delicate feelings of sensitive secularists), but ultimately she was no defender of individual rights and liberties.

She may have been initially, but later was no defender of capitalism and free markets, but an unholy herald for those who would exploit and rape markets, companies, even whole nations.  She is a siren luring the naive onto the rocks of a cruel type of hedonism that would make husband leave wife, wife leave husband, families leave behind their elderly and infirm, abandon handicapped children, walk away from siblings and regard friendship, so important and cherished by Socrates (check out  Xenophon’s Memorabilia), as an end to personal means (money, sex, power over others) and nothing else.

Interview with Mike Wallace Part 1

Interview with Mike Wallace Part 2

Interview with Mike Wallace Part 3

This hedonism of Ms. Rand is not of the non-Deontological system of realizing such pleasures as espoused by that great man of uprightness and morals, Epicurus.  The pleasures and joys of her philosophy are the very vices Epicurus loathed, and urged his followers to eschew.  Lucretius made poesy reviling rude and rustic superstitions of revealed  religion, he exhorted his readers to embrace reason, moderation, and piety little pleasing to the ears of Stoics or  Christians, but a piety that demanded sober living in a cosmos not intended for self destructiveness.  No, Ayn Rand’s ideology is as repulsive to the believing Epicurean as it is to the Orthodox Christian, the Platonist or the Stoic.

In 1933 the Soviet thug and dictator Joseph St*lin decided to solve the problem of dissent and resistance in Ukraine by creating a famine and starving some seven million people to death.  There are a dwindling few survivors of the horrors.  For some reason, one gets the impression that Ms. Rand created a philosophy that would have willingly obliged the strong and mighty individual hero to do something similar, if needed, to achieve an extreme manifestation of  individuality similar to that achieved by the USSR’s “Man of Steel.”  Though she did speak out against Communism, and often eloquently too, one wonders if her philosophy was any less disdainful of the mass of humanity.

Atlas does not hold up the cosmos to serve the wants of the decadent and debauched.  He carries the weight of all created essence on his back in the service of an infinitely greater, higher cause than Ayn Rand’s man the triumphant appetite.  To Rand’s poisonous philosophy Atlas gives a shrug.

Reissue of the year: janglerock pioneer Willie Nile and his band were fresh off opening for the Who on tour when they recorded this one live in Central Park. The show wasn’t released until 1994 on the Archive Alive label, and has been out of print for the past fifteen years. What you get is a careening three-guitar juggernaut more wired and weary from the road than they are tight, but the energy is through the roof: the cd cover shot of Nile leaping a couple of feet in the air, guitar in outstretched arms like an offering to a cruel god, says it all. The version of Nile’s signature song, Vagabond Moon (the #1 song of the year in Finland that year) is as fresh as the day they first recorded it. Old Men Sleeping on the Bowery, an evocative period piece if there ever was one, makes you hunger for the days when its title rang true with a blast of guitar fury. Riff-rockers like I’m Not Waiting and It’s All Over stomp along on an irrepressible backbeat. The show’s highlight is a characteristically volcanic take of Sing Me a Song, the ferocious anthem that winds up Nile’s debut studio lp (nine of the cuts on that record are represented here) Even the secondary, b-side tunes rise to a level where they have to be reckoned with. Basically, what this cd offers – other than a delicious blast from the past – is proof that Nile has not been faking it for the last thirty years. He’s always been like this. There’s a limited run of 2500 copies of the reissue and who knows how many more, if any. after that: you can paypal it or send a check for $15 plus $3 for postage (multiple copies $15 plus $7 flat rate for shipping) to  GB Music Ltd., 494 Greenwich Street, NY, NY 10013. Snooze and you might lose.

ANTHEM

Homework: Please finish reading Chapter 8 for tomorrow.  Answer and submit any questions for the chapter.

We have been discussion the Hero’s Journey or Monomyth as it is manifest in Ayn Rand’s novel.  Please take special not of the conversation that we had about the Threshold and the “Belly of the Whale”.  These two plot points can be confusing as they represent moments of change in the direction of the plot action.

Oooh I love WNRN <3 Two days ago, Blind Pilot and the Low Anthem played some tunes there. They’re together on tour now, so check them out if you’re able to!

Enjoy ‘Two Towns for Me’ below!

On September 13, 1814 a poem titled “Defense of Fort M’Henry” was written by poet Francis Scott Key. The poem was based on events he witnessed while observing the battle for Fort McHenry near Baltimore, Maryland and the reassurance he felt when he saw America’s flag still flying. Years later this poem was set to the music of John Stafford Smith’s song “To Anacreon in Heaven.”

The words and music of “The Star Spangled Banner” spread throughout the United States, gaining acceptance by citizens and the military alike. In 1931 President Herbert Hoover declared the song to be the official National Anthem of the United States.

The first public performance of the anthem happened in October of 1814 in Baltimore at Captain McCauley’s Tavern. The first performance of the song at a sporting event happened on baseball’s opening day in 1897 in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania.

Re-read the inspirational words of our National Anthem.

Listen to the singing of the anthem by Carrie Underwood.

Like other American symbols, the National Anthem holds a special place in our hearts. We are proud and oftentimes emotional when we hear the music played or sung. Tell me in 5-6 sentences what the anthem means to you. If possible, include a special memory that you have when you heard the anthem.

Please post your response by Friday, November 20th at 7:00 am.

image attribution: www.gutenberg.org/…/images/starcover.jpg