I had an accident. It’s a little embarrassing... I have been biking out at Red Rock Canyon a little west of my house in Vegas. Sunday I was coasting down the second half of the scenic loop when improbably a huge moth and I intersected paths. This moth tries to make a home in my mouth and I (being an insect in mouth, ah, disliker) freaked out and fell. I broke my fall with a head-elbow, shoulder, & hip combo.
Two guys stopped to help me, thanks two guys.
I was able to drive to the trauma center where my friend works and he put staples in my head, thanks friend.
Everything is going to be alright. I'm taking this experience as a sort of "get out of jail free" version of the bike with a helmet lesson.

If you don’t know it, check out Tyler Hamilton’s story from the Tour de France. (He’s amazing. It makes my story a little pathetic.)

Everybody! Everybody!
Have fun at homestarrunner.com

This American Life | Running After Antelope

I have listened to some of the audio articles by Ruthie Bloom. They are interviews and (for me, so far) less interesting than her column that I read or Mike Pinteks interview of her (where I first became interested in learning more about her). [Previously posted links.]

The Zambonis have a great song called Hockey Monkey.
Listen to the song here.
Watch the video here.
.........................................
(its)
One! Two! Three! The kids love the monkey.
(and its)
Four! Five! Six! The monkey's got a hockey stick.
Seven! Eight! Nine! Havin' a good time. Yeah!
.........................................
Peace
Paul

Continuing to listen to things I found at the Jerusalem Post, I found America's Voices. It is subtitled as Broadcasting the Real Story from Israel to America. I haven't listen to the whole series but what I have heard is one sided. The choice of what to host on the webite especially so. Maybe it would be too much to expect otherwise. Among the full articles dedicated to "thanks to El Al" and "thanks to the David Citadel Hotel" for supporting the cultural exchange I found Ruthie Blum talking about "the Flip Side" and Dore Gold talking about the "Road Map for Peace" Blum's article is about the nature of living in Israel and very charming. Gold's is an opportunity for Sharon's approach to the Road Map to be broadcast to American audiences and informative albeit one-sided.
I continued looking for material by Ruthie Blum. I read her current column at the Jerusalem Post (a sort of quick enjoyable and melancholy work) and found her audio archive there. I have not yet listened to any of these stories but look forward to them.
Later I was nosing around for more interesting stories and found this one about the Machlis family. They host Shabbat meals and this and every subsequent story I could find about them priases their conviction and hospitality. I hope I might be able share a meal with them someday.
Peace,
Paul

Today I read a Religion and Peacemaking e-newsletter from the United States Institue of Peace [web page here].
Dr. Doug Johnston talked about his participation in an American Abrahamic delegation's trip to Iran with high level diplomatic visits. As I understand it the delegation was religious in nature and therefore avoided political discussions. Johnston concluded that Iranians are perhaps encouraged to aquire atomic capabilities by being surrounded by American military forces in Iraq and Afganistan while President Bush sticks to the 'regime change' and 'axis of evil' rhetoric, and that the student unrest is somewhat overstated. [I could not find a link to his note, which for brevity I did not include. If you want to read it I could email it to you.]
In the same e-newsletter Yehezkel Landau reccomended the Jerusalem Post article A mutually subversive journey by Yossi Klein Halevi. I can only repeat his recommendation. It is the story of the risks and opportunities of a pilgrimage of Israeli Jews and Arabs to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Finally, it was at the Jerusalem Post that I found new spoken stories at This Normal Life by Brian Blum. Blum is an Israeli immagrant telling stories of life in Israel. I wish there were a hundred story tellers like him on each side of the Jordan just telling stories about their lives and listening.
Peace,
Paul

I was listening to This American Life - The Kindness of Strangers. Around the 18 min 30 sec mark Act Two, 'Runaway' begins. Its a story of H. Jack Geiger being taken in by actor Canada Lee. The story lead me to find out about Langston Hughes; a frequent visitor to Canada Lee's house.
I knew the name from a life time of almost learning things. I found an entry at The Academy of American Poets and Hughes reading his own poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, here.

Have fun at the Kung Fu Movie Name Generator.

I am listening to The Whole Wide World with Christopher Lydon today. It’s compelling so far but I can't give it unequivocal thumbs up until hear more of it. I found out about it at Transom. I've opted to download the first few shows a couple clicks into the first link above. (That way I can put them on my MD player and listen while I am biking.) But if you want to listen to them over Real player here are some links:

Episode One: The Global Condition
Episode Two : War and Conflict in the Post-Cold War, Post-9/11 Era
Episode Three: Refugia
Episode Four: Global Culture
Episode Five: The Future of the Planet
Episode Six: What do Writers Think
Episode Seven: Live from WBGH

I am trying out the Ringo web site. The idea is to create a network of friends, keep in touch, plan events and such, helpful. Then when your friends start inviting their friends to join you get these networks of networks; some folding back on each other, interesting. With these extended networks you get to meet people who are like your friend (or at least who your friends like). If you want to join my ringo circle use this link.

Let's all pitch in to help FOUND Magazine. It's a collection of found artifacts that let you in to the annonomous lives of regular people. This one is the funniest I've seen. You can hear Davy Rothbart, foundmagazine.com's point guard, read it for This American Life here (a real audio link) if you fast forward to about 46:30 on the track. His reading starts around the 42 minute mark if you wind up wanting to hear more. So look around and if you find something interesting, send it to FMfinds. Have a nice weekend.
Peace,
Paul

Project Minus One: Capture Stories.
I want to get on public radio, This American Life specifically. I started this project just before I began the blog, so I'm calling it Minus One. I've been listening to the archives of This American Life while working and I really enjoy them. They have a lot of resources to help amateurs get going. Mainly thay send you over to Transom - A Showcase & Workshop for New Public Radio to get help. Transom is great. So far I am just following directions. Today I was listening to Jimmy and Jewel: A Love(?) Story and somehow got sidelined into Lost and Found Sound: The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski. Listen to Baronowski; he's one of our heros.

Share the Web
As a way of documenting the interesting things I come across surfing the web I will be using 'BlogThis!' frequently. I hope this will have the effect of creating content that will comment on who I am and what interests me. When strung together it might become a sort of web stream of consciousness.

I have the BBC News Ticker running at the bottom of my screen while I work. (You can get it at BBC News | Services | News Ticker.) The headline Bush deplores 'crime' of slavery caught my eye. (It’s the first link below.) The first reaction I had was: Crime in quotations like it isn't really a crime, and maybe we should be surprised that the president deplores slavery. The second: How is this news? Who doesn't deplore slavery? The article led me to want to know what Go're Island was all about. I found the second link at the UNESCO website using a google search for gore island.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Bush deplores 'crime' of slavery

UNESCO - Virtual Visit of Gor�e Island - Senegal

Welcome to making projects.
This is my first attempt at a blog.
My hope is that by documenting my ideas for projects I might have a better chance of completing some of them. Maybe some readers will pick up on my ideas and improve on them, others might encourage me to finish projects they find most interesting, and still others might just enjoy the content created in the process.
Thanks for visiting. I hope to add more soon.
Peace,
Paul