Hello all.

The real secret to getting something you need, is by first giving it away. If you are missing love in your life, give love away for free, if you have very little money, give whatever you have away. If you want more happiness, make it your aim first to bring happiness to someone else. If you want peace, send others peace. The list goes on. This goes to the simple universal laws of creation. As you sow so shall you reap. You can’t have more of something unless you are ready to give it away first. By giving it away first, you prove to the universe that you really have it, therefore receiving more of what you want.

+Baker

Quem quiser conhecer o Red Hot na sua melhor forma, o 5º álbum da banda Blood Sugar Sex Magik lançado a 18 anos atrás, mostra um grupo coeso e com uma pegada funky metal das boas.

Como estratégia de gravação o produtor Rick Rubin, levou a banda para um quarto usando pouca tecnologia para tocarem juntos o dia inteiro. Não precisa nem falar o que Frusciante e Flea fizeram naqueles dias.

Give it Away, Under the Brigde, Suck My Kiss, The Righteous & The Wicked pra num falar o CD inteiro.

Download(Blood Sugar Sex Magik)

I claimed it, I owed it; it was mine!  [1]

That mountain of ponderosa pine,

That spread of sage and crested-wheat grass,

That cluster of boards and nails known as a house,

That orchid of fruit I’d call “world class.”

I paid the taxes, held the title

To rolling pastures green to the line,

To cattle and horses and sheep so fine,

To full-headed, golden, bearded wheat.

It belongs to me and you can’t take it away;

Uh – What did you say?

You say that another soon will own

These bottom lands my hand has sown?

You say I won’t sell it or give it away,

Instead I’ll simply leave it here when I sigh

That final sigh and quickly die.

Another!  Imagine that!

Another will sit where I’ve sat and look o’er these fields,

And claim them his and gripe or brag about their yields.

And then like me he also will slip,

Beyond the sound of human lip,

And, leave as I will, his all behind.

His ALL, unless he will the Savior find.        

          – eab, 9/95

Va mai aduceți aminte de acest videoclip si de aceasta melodie ? Mie mi s-a părut super tare.

Daca veneau băieții ăștia in parcul de la Izvor cu siguranță eram si eu prezent :

This was originally supposed to be just a response to a comment on another blog, but it turned into bit of an essay so I decided to turn it into a post in it’s own right.

Basically, the question is: Should bands play their hits at every gig?

I’m going to see Muse for the 2nd time on Friday, and would be quite happy to hear all of The Resistance and not hear Time Is Running Out, Feeling Good, New Born & Knights of Cydonia.

But maybe this would not be fair on new fans who want to hear their most famous songs.

I saw them before (for the 1st time) at Wembley Stadium, they played 9 songs off of Black Holes, plus everything you would expect them to play (I think), except Bliss. I kind of consider myself relatively new to Muse, having discovered them at the Time Is Running Out stage, meaning songs like Bliss are actually from before my time. But by the time I got round to going to a gig I had listened to their previous stuff and decided that my favourite songs weren’t necessarily the famous ones, and Time Is Running Out has become one of my least favoured, alongside Feeling Good.

I think the idea that bands should always play their hits definitely applies to festival sets, but when they’re doing a headline tour for an album, I expect the set to be dominated by new stuff.

Having said that, I would always expect any band to play some hits, and with Arctic Monkeys only on album #3, I am surprised they would leave out Scummy; while Muse, having been around a bit longer, have a few more hits, and I think can better afford to leave out some of their famous ones. I can’t really comment on Radiohead because I don’t know what they’re famous for. I know The Bends is my favourite of their albums, but I bought it (followed by all the others) based on a recommendation without having heard any of the songs before.

Personally I wouldn’t spend around £60 (that’s a Muse ticket plus train fare) to see a band if I only knew a couple of songs. If people can afford to do that, fair play to them, they’re probably used to getting what they want.

Probably more relevant is my first trip to see Red Hot Chili Peppers when I was a relatively new fan (at the time I owned By The Way, What Hits!? and Greatest Hits), I would have been disappointed on that occasion if they hadn’t played By The Way, The Zephyr Song, Can’t Stop, Under the Bridge & Give It Away. But then, that was the Greatest Hits tour, so it would’ve been a bit stupid of them not to play the popular ones. I would’ve loved pretty much any of the songs from By The Way, which was the first ever album by anyone that I bought, Venice Queen is still one of my all time favourite songs. (My memory’s not good enough to remember an entire set from 5 years ago, I looked it up here. I still find it pretty cool that I was at the gigs where RHCP’s Live in Hyde Park and Muse’s HAARP were recorded, and I saw James Brown live.)

When I saw them on the Stadium Arcadium tour I was actually a bit disappointed they only played 5 of the 28 songs from the new album.

Both times I would’ve loved to see a Flea trumpet solo (having spent 10 years of my school life learning to play the Cornet), and songs like Higher Ground, Knock Me Down and Taste The Pain. They have quite a large back catalogue though, so I’m prepared for the unlikeliness of my ideal setlist actually occurring.

I imagine I will go and see them again when they return (apparently they’re starting work on a new album in the next couple of weeks). Hopefully I’ll finally get to see a Trumpet solo, maybe Funky Monks, Higher Ground… Funny Face would be awesome. Meanwhile I would not be at all disappointed if they didn’t play Dani California, Under The Bridge or Give It Away, but then again, they mix up their songs with extended jams or by incorporating other songs into intros, so hearing the same songs need not be boring.

I wouldn’t want to hear too many covers at a gig, and a Nick Cave song wouldn’t have meant anything to me, but I do think it’s interesting to find out who a band is influenced by, and I’ve discovered a lot of great songs via Chili Peppers covers, from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Ramones, Stevie Wonder, Looking Glass, David Bowie, The Meters, Bob Dylan, Sly & The Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel, Sweet, Cat Stevens, The Chantels, The Shangri-Las, Del Shannon, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, The Chirelles, The Beach Boys, George Clinton, Funkadelic, Iggy & The Stooges, Parliament, Jackson 5, Hank Williams, Fugazi, .45 Grave.

Our kids’ school Immanuel Lutheran Primary had their first shopping night event on Friday night. I had the privilege to be able to be a part of it. The idea was that the businesses involved would supply a percentage of their profit to the school’s toy library. That and the tiny entry fee for the night would have drawn in some good funds for the school. The event was an exploratory activity for the parents and friends association. I believe it was a success with fifty shoppers pre-purchasing tickets for the night.
I was happy to be there and get some exposure to the school community about our services. Unfortunately most of the people there were unwilling to have their photos taken because they weren’t prepared for it. Though it was fun asking them! I think people are so conditioned by what the magazines publish as people shots that they are scared to have their own photo taken unless they feel they look perfect. Well I was impressed with the ladies that did brave it in front of the lights. They can be confident of a nice portrait and providing a significant contribution to the school.
This is our kids first year at Immanuel and I am impressed by the school’s desire to foster and build a community spirit amongst it’s families. After having lived in various communities around our country that didn’t have much interest in transitory people like ourselves it’s good to be in a place that is trying to draw people together to impact on a community.
I am looking forward to the next event and am hoping that our donation can draw some good funds for the school. If you are a local Immanuel person looking out for some good portrait work. Check out the PhotoGraft website. The more local work in portraits and weddings booked the more we can afford to put back into the local community.

update: I have just been advised that the night raised $1500 dollars for the school. Well done!

Swap unwanted items instead of tossing them out

By Sharon Oosthoek

Have stuff you no longer use cluttering your closets? Is your basement brimming with cast-offs? Then it’s time to start reclaiming your space and, while you’re at it, do the environment a favour.

Freecycle is a worldwide online-based network of people who, as the web site points out, “are giving stuff away for free in their own hometowns.” The stuff includes everything from household items to children’s toys to computers. In other words, avoid adding to your local landfill by giving things away.

A new home for your stuff

When he started the first Freecycle group in his hometown of Tucson, Ariz., in May 2003, Deron Beal was working for a recycling company (he has since left to work full-time on Freecycle). While picking up items for recycling, Beal often found clients also wanted to get rid of usable “old things.”

“I’d take them and start to look for places to give them away,” says Beal. “But you call one charity and they don’t take computers. You call another and they don’t take desks. I thought, there’s got to be an easier way. Perhaps it would work as an e-mail group.” Today, there are close to 2,500 local Freecycle groups and more than a million members around the world. (Most are in North America.)

An environmentally friendly option

Angela Kabaroff, a mother in Abbotsford, B.C., was inspired to launch her Freecycle site after helping haul shopping carts, bikes and tires out of local streams. While Kabaroff wants to keep a lid on litter, she also likes to give and receive.

“It is like Christmas all year round, in the giving sense,” she explains. “It teaches my kids to keep things out of the landfill and also to appreciate what they have, and to give away what they don’t need.”

The good goods

Freecycle members are eager to give away a huge range of items. Recent postings on the Toronto site included scented candles, a French IBM keyboard, two casement windows and an air mattress.

The more uncommon items? Nose strips, Bald Cypress trees and an Ibanez 12-string guitar, says Rose Hill, a Freecycle moderator in Bakersfield, Calif. “There have even been a couple of houses given away in other groups.”

Fun and games

Briana Darbyshire, a mother in Red Deer, Alta., recently created what she calls a pass-along box. She got together a box of items she no longer needed and passed it on to others within her Freecycle network — just as she would individual items. “That person will take what he/she wants, add more items to the box and pass it on again,” she says.

How to use Freecycle

Getting set up on the Freecycle system is as easy as sending an e-mail request to your local site organizer, who can be found by clicking on your geographical area. Soon after, e-mail with offers of free things will start arriving in your inbox. Just don’t forget to set up a folder dedicated to receiving Freecycle messages to avoid overwhelming your regular inbox.

Members of each local Freecycle group post items they no longer want via e-mail and explore other postings for things they would like to find. When you claim an item, all you have to do is arrange to pick it up.

Local and legal

While there is no limit to how many groups you can join, the organization requests that members subscribe only to local sites to foster community and to pick up items. (Unlike eBay, Freecycle does not deliver.) If you can’t find a group in your area, consider setting one up. All the how-to information is on the site.

Each Freecycle group has its own rules, but what they all have in common is that items must be free. No buying, no bartering. And items must be legal and appropriate for all ages. Alcohol and guns are forbidden.

It’s about more than reusing

Hill says the intangible benefits are just as important as the environmental ones. “The point of Freecycle is primarily to keep usable items from the landfills, but it’s also to promote a new sense of community spirit we seem to have lost in the past 50 years,” she says.

As Beal points out, it was exactly this kind of community-building that people had in mind when they began musing about how the Internet might “democratize people.”

“It’s really people helping people,” he says. For example, one elderly couple had a fire and their local Freecycle group helped them refurnish their new home.