I know I need a laugh...

Since I brought down at least 1360 people who viewed my video montage of the Gulf disaster, I've been hard at work trying to mop up all the tears.

Dave Grohl, former drummer for Nirvana, lead singer for the Foo Fighters, and current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures, recently completed a side project for Slash. He played drums on a track called "Watch This." I hesitate to call it an instrumental because Slash's guitar sings throughout, but there are no vocals. (On the CD you do hear Dave say "Watch this!" at the very beginning.)

There are a few cameos in the video since Dave horses around with everyone he meets, so see how many you can identify. If you miss Slash, you just haven't been paying attention lately.



Go watch it again. I know you missed a few. Read more!

After all, I am your horse

Let me teach you.
When you are tense, let me teach you to relax.
When you are short tempered, let me teach you to be patient.
When you are short sighted, let me teach you to see.
When you are quick to react, let me teach you to be thoughtful.
When you are angry, let me teach you to be serene.
When you feel superior, let me teach you to be respectful.
When you are self absorbed, let me teach you to think of greater things.
When you are arrogant, let me teach you humility.
When you are lonely, let me be your companion.
When you are tired, let me carry the load.
When you need to learn, let me teach you.

After all I am your horse.

-- Willis Lamm
(c) 1997, Reprinted with Permission

Photo by Paula Arnold

Photo by Nancy Dietrich

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New Season--New Story

From Mused--BellaOnline Literary Review:

Summer. Sprawl on the hammock and soak up the richness of Mused. A stroke-affected woman struggles to move on. A hospital patient finds strength to make a choice. Depression, loneliness, angst-filled remembrances - and also hope, longing, spell binding beauty.

Images nestle you in the hills of Sicily, walk with you along the Great Wall of China. Thunder with a horse in full gallop, rest with a pelican by the water, and share the tiny world of a ladybug. Feel peace with the mountains of the Grand Tetons. [Can't wait to read this one!! Not mine!]

Fiction stories send us back to a childhood of boiling crabs and avocado-green appliances. They muse about angels and peer into overflowing inboxes, full of curiosity.

Non-fiction shakes up our view of the world. Recovering from a breakup. Galloping full tilt across a Cairo desert. [That would be mine...]

Al-Abyaad - The White One

Nice break from oil, anyway.

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Happy Father's Day

I love my father more than words can say, more than videos can show, more than music can express. He is an eternal optimist with a goofy sense of humor that never ceases to make me scratch my head and wonder if he really knew what he just said.


I love you, Dad.



The Eighties. Did that go without saying?



Posing back in Renaissance Times in 2009/1599?


Best picture after the jump:




I don't know what I love most about this classic 70's shot: Dad's "work" uniform, the orange atmosphere, my striped pants, or the dead mosquito squashed by the scanner.
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Happy Father's Day, Chris Cornell

Chris and little Toni

It has become clear to me that the world is in need of an antidote to the images of the Gulf tragedy, and since we can't all attend elite yacht races like BP CEO Tony Hayward, I turned to someone who gives most people I know instant relief from whatever ails them: pictures of Chris Cornell with his children. It just so happened I finished it on Father's Day Eve.

While Chris can consider it an early birthday present (July 20) in reality it is for us all to stop and breathe a sigh of relief, both by listening to Cornell's exceptional voice and by viewing the love he shares with all his children. The song is "Promise," by Chris Cornell and Slash.

Enjoy.



Go watch it again; you'll feel twice as good. Read more!

John Muir

What would John Muir do?





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Putting the "I" in the Environment After the Gulf Spill

Photo by Charlie Spiedel, AP

"For those who are not (yet) heartless cynics or emotionless Ayn Rand acolytes, the now-famous photographs of sludge-soaked pelicans on the Gulf Coast are painful to behold. It's those hollow pupils peeking out of the brown death, screaming in silence. They are an avian version of the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg that F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote about -- and they implicate us all."

Putting the "I" in the Environment After the Gulf Spill by David Sirota


Did you read it? Well, go do it!
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It's just no good.

Sorry--more bad news. Even the International Bird Rescue said, "We don't know how many survive after release." The problem is that the birds have ingested so much oil, they die a slow death of organ failure once released (if you call 7 days slow) even if clean on the outside. Perhaps euthanasia is more humane. Just not as good PR for BP.

Less Than 1% of Oil-Soaked Birds Survive

Honestly, how do you recover from this?

The answer? You don't.

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BP Gulf Oil Spill 2010

I am sick and tired of people bitching that the Gulf is not getting enough help or attention.

You want change? Stop waiting for everyone else to hold your hand and DO SOMETHING. WE wanted this oil. WE elected the officials that permitted this rig to be built. WE ignored more than 750 major safety violations by BP over that last several years. And now WE need to come together and TAKE CARE OF OUR PLANET.

I am the sole creator of this slideshow, or whatever it is, and it's my first one, so go easy. If you feel the urge--SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW. You have my permission--at least until I get sued for copyright infringement.



I hope I have made myself clear. Read more!

The Gulf, The World

I am not ignoring this--I am overwhelmed by this. I keep posting news items and over 50 pictures so far on Facebook of the devastation, and right now I am trying my hand at amateur "film-making" with a video of stills, mostly taken by the amazing photographer Charlie Riedel.

This article does a good job of introducing him to us:

The Oil Spill Story Finally Hits Home

For the the rest of it, follow me on Facebook. Help me spread the word. Nancy Dietrich.

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