Recently I received an email from my former roommate and friend who I met when I lived in El Salvador. I was glad to hear from him as we had not spoken in several years. I regret that we lost...|||I considered talking to a counselor in college, but I didn't. I think that was a mistake. They may not have been able to help me, but I believe it would have been worth at least trying.|||I wasn't much of a teacher. But that school wasn't the right place for me. Nor did I have the proper mindset. Perhaps in a different environment things would have worked out otherwise.|||I wouldn't call Noah's behavior psychopathic. I think it was a realistic portrayal of what he could be like under the circumstances. While I don't consider it a great movie, I did enjoy it. As far as...|||http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91LODaJUKjY|||I enjoyed the miniseries and first season of the new Battlestar Galactica. In my opinion the show starts to drag from the second year.  I have not seen the original.  With difficulty, I watched a...|||Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse (This may be my absolute favorite book.  The relationship and contrast between the two main characters reminded me of a friend and myself. I only hope that we...|||As I mentioned in another thread I believe the situation within classical music will have to get worse, perhaps much worse, before any legitimate action is taken to address its problems. Talking...|||Gore Vidal is well known for his historical fiction. Julian about the Roman emperor Julian and Creation about a Persian ambassador are both very good. I wish he had set more books in the ancient...|||I'm becoming increasingly fascinated with Ancient Egypt and its religion. The best book by far that I've read on Egypt is Serpent in the Sky by John Anthony West. There's also an 8 episode...|||Here are two recent interviews of Peter Joseph, coming from both a left and right wing perspective. That these interviews are not antagonistic and show a real desire to understand the issues and...|||Pepe Romero   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5tZrpUkr6I  Manuel Barrueco   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW_SpuyeV-0|||If anything for me the process has been the reverse. Like most my original exposure to classical music was primarily through the 19th century, romantic era repertoire, which I used to enjoy much more...|||Some classical guitar  Federico Moreno Torroba - Suite Castellana   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvMCM3IK2Dc  Mauricio Carrilho - Suite for guitar and orchestra (Part 1)|||I believe there may soon be a separation of the wheat from the chaff. The capitalist system and the value system it is based upon is collapsing and it is going to take a lot of people with it. When...|||There are of course good 'Christian' movies, but not of the American evangelical/fundamentalist variety. This brand of Christianity doesn't really have an intellectual or artistic tradition, nor does...|||http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luYz7-sKz4|||Island - Aldous Huxley Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance/Lila An Inquiry Into Morals - Robert Pirsig Creation - Gore Vidal Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse All Quiet on the Western...|||Sean O'Boyle - Didgeridoo Concerto   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO96J9UtvTE  Eduardo Falu - Suite Argentina   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg4XqvJYuAM|||Richard Harvey - The Plague and the Moonflower  1 - Prologue   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22_BTvapiCI  2 - Intrada|||Island by Aldous Huxley Creation by Gore Vidal The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein Serpent in the Sky by John Anthony West Why America Failed by Morris Berman|||Fazil Say - Istanbul Symphony   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJlNysSoXeE|||I also recommend Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as well as its sequel Lila.|||I'd be very surprised if these turn out any worse than the prequels. Disney can't ruin Star Wars. George Lucas has already done that.  I'm cautiously optimistic, as there will at least be new...|||Richard Galliano Opale Concerto   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW58Lkrf8cY|||The people in my signature are Ralph Nader, George Carlin, Alan Watts, and Graham Hancock. All have been inspirations to me and very important in the development of my thinking.|||Snow Leopard   Infinite growth is the ideology of capitalist economy. To change the infinite growth model is to change the ideology. Earlier in the thread there was some discussion of more...|||I have not read any of those, but I would like to read One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest as I liked the movie.  I'm currently reading The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the...|||Unfortunately the situation within classical music will probably have to get much worse before any significant changes are made. But that seems to be true of many things.|||Snow Leopard   That's a good point about overpaid managers and conductors. That's something that definitely needs to change.  And it's true that simply playing more Glass, or Adams, or Reich is...|||Alyosha   Greg Sandow has probably written more than anyone about the troubled situation classical music is in, and what changes need to made. I don't agree with all of his views, but I appreciate...|||Alyosha   Certainly classical music is more accessible now, which makes its almost total cultural irrelevance all the more remarkable. Of course people can attend a concert if they want to. But...|||Alyosha   Classical music, especially new classical, far from just Glass, has a very low cultural relevance. For quite some time there has been talk about the 'death' of classical music. Death is...|||In my threads about contemporary classical music, the composer Philip Glass has twice been singled out for criticism. This is not unusual, as he's also criticized elsewhere. I doubt those who...|||Niamh_Chinn_Oir   Brave New World is an excellent book, but I think it's unfortunate that it overshadows the rest of his work. Island, in my view, is a far more important book than BNW. BNW gives a...|||infpblog  Society may tolerate alternative values as long as those values don't pose a threat to the existence of the current system, that is the widespread acceptance of the values encouraged by...|||infpblog  The values of a society are not neutral. Some values, insights, or types of wisdom are encouraged and some are not.  'Wisdom' that says get a good job, make money, and buy nice things...|||infpblog  I'm not so sure that people value air. If we did, I don't think we'd be so tolerant of pollution. Now if pollution were to reach a certain point where air did become a scarcity, then we'd...|||Intentional Communities - ecovillages, communes, cohousing, coops|||Living in a commune is something I've considered for a long time, and I plan to stay at one at least temporarily in the near future.  Garbage Warrior is a good documentary.|||Some lesser known 20th century violin concertos.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpd-d-SBJ88   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnK7m1iItQ&feature=plcp  ...|||http://www.impawards.com/1993/posters/remains_of_the_day.jpg|||The 2003 film The Corporation shows how corporations if judged by the same standards as human beings would be considered psychopaths. Corporations are the dominant force in contemporary society, and...|||While there may be some overlap with the information covered, Moving Forward and Thrive are quite different in their proposed solutions to today's problems.|||Organ and Orchestra   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StjRTrR9A0g   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zaoSetk2I   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR7mRoVA9BM|||I mostly read non fiction.  Context seems to matter in what I read. I recently took a trip to Canada and read Creation by Gore Vidal, Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse, Stranger in a Strange...|||Snow Leopard   Yes, that's absolutely true that the classical world is separated from contemporary classical composition. That needs to be corrected if classical music is to get out of its current...|||Have not heard the music of Paul Lansky previously. It was interesting, though probably not something I would seek out.  Exactly defining what classical is or isn't can be difficult, but I don't...|||I have no doubt that classical music has some future. People will continue to attend symphonies and operas, and listen to recordings. Classical music will not die, but that doesn't mean it is really...|||Souled In   There's no need to apologize, and I appreciate your point.  There is probably a degree of defensiveness on my part, because I do not like to be ridiculed or mocked. However, at times...