Belinda Subraman: Mind and experience

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Goodbye Scotland and Ireland
2006-09-07 07:03:01
August 19,2006This morning was very slow. After typing a little, read a little, took several walks around the grounds, popped in on Stewart and Paul messing around with machinery, walked and read a little more.Around 2:00 p.m. we all set off for the Appin Agricultural Show which is an annual event in the village. It was as it sounded. There were prize winning sheep, Highlander cattle, prize winning fruit, vegetables and handicrafts, booths of fast food and alcohol. There was a stage where children did Scottish dances accompanied by a bag piper. All were in kilts and full attire. The closing event was a Sheath Toss ( which I had humorously misunderstood as a Sheep Toss). Brave men and boys were called up to toss a hay filled bag with a pitch fork over a bar attached to a large machine. The height started around 10 feet. The bar was next raised to around 15 feet which was too high for everyone. It was then lowered to around 12 feet. We stood in light rain during the last ha...
More About: Scotland , Ireland , Land , Good , Goodbye

Birthday Thoughts
2006-09-07 07:03:01
I spent a couple of hours this a.m. catching up on my web sites and messages then about 4 hours going through more boxes in storage at Paul?s weeding out what I could and loading up what I couldn?t let go. I?m about ¾ done at this point. For every load I bring back to my place I have to be able to absorb so the weeding out continues here. Tomorrow morning I?m taking a car-load of stuff to a friend for her church fundraiser. A lot of it is pretty good stuff.My new friend, Sylvia, and I made arrangements to meet on my birthday at a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho and this we did. We had a lovely meal. She handed me a book on Reiki and said she would teach me level one. (She is a Master). We then went to Barnes and Nobles for coffee. I looked for a detailed map of Las Cruces and she looked for DVDs. We made arrangements to meet Sunday. I will meet her husband and see her home environment for the first time and then she will come over to my place and I will record her reading s...
More About: Thoughts , Birthday , Thought , Birth

2006-09-07 07:03:01
Ken Clinger sent me chart information for TapeGerm Collective which tells how many songs, how many plays, etc. There?s a lot more going on there than I thought. This info makes my being #1 all this past week more meaningful. It?s hard to believe that Ken and I have been working together, off and on, for about 25 years. Our first projects were cassettes sent back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. I would never have met him if I had not been doing Sanctuary Tape Series. I had put out a call through various friends and publications for original music and poetry to be sent to me in Germany and one day a beautiful music cassette came from K.C. We did not collaborate right away but I thought enough of his music to put out a tape just of him as well as putting his music on various compilations. Somewhere in the first year or two one of us made the suggestion and I sent him a cassette made with whatever equipment I had at the time. These pieces live on SoundClick even now and are ...

Talking
2006-09-07 07:03:01
So much has been happening. I?ve had several incredible interviews this past week. One was with Susan McKeowon a beautiful and charming Irish singer who has received reviews in Time Magazine and Rolling Stone. She?s been on Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered and CBS This Morning and has recorded with Natalie Merchant.Just last night I interviewed Paul Zollo both a talented singer / songwriter / musician and accomplished and well known music journalist who has written several books of which the latest is Conversations with Tom Petty. Over the years he has interviewed countless greats including Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Carole King , Madonna, Jackson Browne, Donovan, David Byrne, Brian Wilson and so on.I continue to put my music show together fresh every week. I?m getting mp3s in my email and CDs in my P.O. Box. I long for more listeners though. I?m doing all I can think of to spread the word. This is the most exciting thing I?m doing now and it?s almost ...
More About: Talk , Talking

Living and Day of the Dead
2006-09-07 07:03:01
Since last I wrote, I interviewed Lyn Lifshin and her podcast is up and running. I interviewed Jill Kennon and Willie Runs Above and their interview should be up within 2 weeks. I interviewed a wonderful singer/songwriter, dancer/actor called, Celia, and I hope to have her show posted very soon. I?m waiting for the music that will go into the show. I have an interview Tuesday. Then I hope to have a break because I?m about to fail a certification exam because I?m not studying.We went to the First Day of the Dead Festival in El Paso. It was a good beginning but needed more organization. There was a little parade of skeletons and musicians, a stage showing independent film, a stage with music and a stage with poetry. There was no program or signs saying what was happening when but the organizers will learn a lot from this first event.Today Paul and I and Jill and Willie walked to the top of Mount Cristo Rey in a procession of hundreds who were remembering their dead. There were I...
More About: Living , Ving , The D , Day of the Dead

Test, Interviews and Recovery
2006-09-07 07:03:01
I just finished my certification exam from ADEC. I feel I may have passed. But I?ll have to wait and see.Since writing I have finished interviews with singer/songwriter/musician/artist, Jill Kennon and her Native American partner Willie Runs Above, singer/songwriter/musician/actress/dancer /storyteller, Celia and poet/writer/ educator, Janice Hale-Hobby. I have an upcoming interview this week with singer/songwriter/musician Avi Brown of Benny Strange.I haven?t written lately because work tripled for me since I was filling in for several nurses, had 3 interviews scheduled, have been sick and run down and was drafted and accepted helping out in a political campaign. (More on that last one in an upcoming entry). Things are beginning to lighten up. Work is slacking off and I no longer feel sick although chronic allergies are still with me. The viral component seems to have faded out of view. Now that the ADEC exam is over, test anxieties have lessened and will soon be gone. I h...
More About: Views , Recovery , Interviews , Inter , Interview

Things are picking up at Bzoo lately
2006-09-07 07:03:01
Recently I heard from Billy Jones who bills himself as the BloggingPoet.com who informed me that Bzoo radio was #69 in his 100 blogging poets in 100 days. Nice to be appreciated.Heard from Brian Lewis, handler of a Christine Anderson who is a pianist, vocalist, composer and songwriter who has a song forthcoming in ?Times of Your Life,? a made for TV drama called ?Officer Down.? She appeared with John Waite on Oct 23 at the Malibu Inn, won the 13th annual Los Angeles Composer of the Year Award and is appearing in some show on MTV.A David Michael Jackson wrote and introduced me to some of his music work and collaboration with other poets. I took him up on his offer and sent him some vocal work.A Daniel Barkowitz, staff member at MIT in Cambridge, MA, who was a ? poet featured on NPR? sent a link. Because of some odd ways I?m being approached I thought it necessary to make up some guidelines. Here they are:Guidelines for Gypsy Art Show InterviewsIf you are asking for an interview, ...
More About: King , Things , Pick , Lately , Late

Vegan Vixens and Good Sounds
2006-09-07 07:03:01
My daughter, Sunny (Sundari Belinda) is doing a gig called Vega n Vixens. There?s a link on her website www.SundariBelin.com It?s a sexy show with a mission to spread the word about animal rights and veganism. They?re right about how to get attention. Looks like they?re having a lot of fun. They?ve appeared with celebrities and have been on a few TV shows including Howard Stern. I just talked to Sunny who told me the Vixens just did something at the American Music Awards, gave out brochures or something and sat close to the stage for the event. She got to keep her outfit. She says she?s being sent to Seattle, WA next week for a Vegan Vixan appearance. They?re talking to TBS and Spike TV for some sort of show deal. She may be on to something.Meanwhile I?m getting hooked up to an external sound card and professional mic very soon. Paul got these items for me some weeks ago but they haven?t been installed. I didn?t even know what the thing in the box was. Just today I told h...
More About: Sounds , Sound , Good

Las Vegas Fantasy, Friendship, LOVE and Technology
2006-09-07 07:03:01
Dec. 1-5 I went on a road trip with Paul. We had a wonderful time. We spent a night in Arizona , 3 nights in Las Vegas (?V.I.P.s? at the Aladdin) and a night in NM on the way back. The second or 3rd floor of the Aladdin was transformed into a fantasy ?Arabian Nights? setting complete with Moorish fortress, ?ancient? shops, blue skies overhead, and the occasional pedicab. Walking there was like appearing in a Disney movie, which is exactly what I like most about Vegas. I couldn?t care less about gambling. Though I did buy a way overpriced ?color wheel? clock from The Museum of Modern Art from one of those ?ancient? shops. I enjoy it very much and it?s better than having thrown it away in a slot machine.The best part of the trip was visiting with Paul?s brother, Ron, his wife, Kim, Kim?s uncle Glen and her best friend, Kurt. We also had a nice visit with artist, Bob, another family friend. Ron and Kim recently bought a very expensive acre of land high up on a mountain overlooki...
More About: Technology , Friends , Love , Friendship

Christmas has passed
2006-09-07 07:03:01
Christmas has passed. I?m sure there were many momentous things I could have reported but I will keep to the recent past. Sunny, my daughter and her partner, Avi, drove in from Hollywood and stayed 4 days with us. It was a precious and pleasant time. We saw Memoirs of a Geisha together, played board games, went to dinner and had a bountiful Christmas gift exchange. They left the a.m. after Christmas because they had to get back to work on Tuesday.Anna, my other daughter, called us from Germany on Christmas Eve and we each held a phone so I guess that was a conference call. She seemed to be doing okay and we talked about the real possibility of meeting in Europe next year.On Christmas day we watched a DVD Paul had put together of Anna?s visit last summer with Isaac. Sunny was also with us a few days. That, too, was a magical time etched on my heart. So Anna was with us this Christmas. We seem to forget how important we are to each other as we go about our separate lives and ...
More About: Christmas , Christ , Chris , Pass

Computer Agonies, Broken Bones and Wishes
2006-09-07 07:03:01
I have been having computer agonies. In an attempt to improve my computer security on my new and developing network I began to be denied access to my own computer. My friend forgot to copy my profile so it didn?t recognize me. With a lot of agony and hours most things got patched up but my mail. All the folders and address book within were wiped out. After talking to Roadrunner we realized my mail had not been saved on the server. The hardest thing is losing the address book and folders with important passwords. It feels like my wallet was stolen. I can recover addresses and get new passwords after some time and a lot of clicks but 15 folders full of various correspondences are gone forever, some of which I considered important for future reference. I had already settled down with all this computer stuff and was not finding it nearly as exciting and now it?s back to feeling routine. That?s probably a good thing. It can?t be healthy to lean so much on a computer. Just look ...
More About: Computer , Comp , Bones , Wish , Wishes

Talk at work and work as talking
2006-09-07 07:03:01
My head is spinning. Did I think I didn?t have enough to do? I?ve started my third show series. It is called Life on Earth , a lifestyle show. I?m looking for passion and commitment and what makes people tick. I put together my first show tonight with a Peace activist who has been to Iraq and who has recently returned from the Pentagon. I?ll interview Sunny, the passionate Vegan tomorrow night.Hospice work has been slow with the census down, so while I?m in my uniform and badge (and off the clock) but ready to go out if called, I?ve been working some on these projects.How about a weird hospice story: On of my patients told about his wife?s father and a friend who owed him money. Just so happens the freind had an artificial leg that he often took off and laid beside him when he was comfortable in a friends house or at home. Granted the story was a little muddled and I?m not sure where the man was but his wife?s father took his leg when he wasn?t looking or was napping or som...
More About: Work , Talk , Talking , King

Hospice, Radio and Websites
2006-09-07 07:03:01
I?m almost breathless with almost too much work, but beautiful, exciting work. That is the work for Bzoo radio. Since I am gone all next week to visit my parents in North Carolina I?ve had to prepare for and engineer 6 shows. This is also the week I published Gypsy Mag 3. It looked perfect and all the links were correct and then I published it and the links went haywire. How embarrassing and weird! I put in a distress message to my hosting company but they are in England and it was probably the middle of the night and no one was answering. I woke up at 3:00 a.m (which is per usual lately) and saw my first attempt at an answer. We emailed back and forth until 6:00 a.m. Finally things got squared away. For all of this and I am grateful...and tired.I had a death this week, which is always poignant and one patient whose family revoked him for aggressive testing because one of the children just could not believe that all of the patient?s problems were due to the disease proces...
More About: Radio , Website , Site , Websites , Webs

North Carolina and Flowers for the Living
2006-09-07 07:03:01
I recently spent some time in NC with my parents and brothers. It?s a hard day travel there and back. So the airlines won?t lose money you get routed all over the U.S. On the way there we had a stop in Austin and plane change in Orlando. On the way back there was a plane change in Chicago. There was a snow storm and we came close to spending the night in the airport. We got by with a de-icing and since we were heading south they must have reasoned we?d be okay. We had another stop in Austin and then on to El Paso. Tack a 3 hour car ride to and from Raleigh onto that and you see how it?s a long day of travel.It?s always a mixed bag of emotions and contrasts going back to the home place. It?s hard to believe so much of life has gone by. It?s hard to see my father having so much trouble with his breathing. It?s interesting to see my two estranged brothers who I have no communication with outside of NC visits. Everyone seems to be doing okay. Everyone is making money and see...
More About: Living , Flowers , North Carolina , North , Carolina

GAS 40 with Francis Mai-Ling
2006-09-06 19:00:02
Francis Mia-Ling is pioneering the genre of Alternative-Classical music; taking classical piano to a new level, giving it a fresh sound with the traditional mixed with the current trend of rock and pop.. She is a published composer,poet, artist and member of ASCAP. Download her complete biography and press kit at her website: www.mai-ling.net.
More About: With , Fran , Franc , Francis