What's News' Favorite songs

What's News' Favorite songs: "

1. Catch the Wind - Donovan
2. Evil - Interpol
3. White Bird - It's A Beautiful Day
4. The End Of The Innocence - Don Henley
5. Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots (L'Homme A La Moto) - Edith Piaf
6. Lives In The Balance - Jackson Browne
7. True Faith - New Order
8. He - McGuire Sisters
9. Green Grass And High Tides - The Outlaws
10. Insomnia - Faithless
11. Let It Rock - Chuck Berry
12. Defying Gravity - Cheryl Wheeler
13. What If Jesus Comes Back Like That - Collin Raye
14. Walking On Sunshine - Nikki Cleary
15. Gunship Politico - State Radio
16. Common People - Pulp
17. San Antonio Rose - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
18. There Is A Time - The Dillards
19. You Won't Be Mine - Matchbox 20
20. 3 a.m. - Matchbox Twenty
21. I Hate Myself For Loving You - Joan Jett and The Blackhearts"

No Woman Is An Island Either

I want to live on the ground. Have a garden. I want my dog to be free to run in the grass. This is silly, isn't it? In light of snakes, bugs and floods being prevalent for people living on the ground. On my balconies, you can walk out (avoiding pigeon droppings) and look down at gardens and makeshift huts. If the day is not too smoggy, you can see a shimmer in the distance that people say is the sea. There is green and beauty everywhere. I am like a moon circling a planet full of wonders. touching but not part of it. From my experience, it usually takes two years before you are comfortable. Before you meet people you can trust and share real friendship with. Before people trust and know you.

The floods came all of a sudden. There was no tv, internet or telephone for me. I had water and electricity from backups belonging to the building society. It was much worse for others. They lost their animals, their homes, their lives. When even none of that happened, they had no safe water or electricity. And then there were those who did not have those things to begin with. I heard no news for a few days. Of the dairy buffalo all dying because they were tied in their barn. Of the pigs and chickens in cages. of the people under mud from a mountain collapsing. Taking advantage of disaster, some had the bright idea to call out that a Tsunami was coming and more died, trampled to death. Those "bright" ones wanted people to leave so they could rob them. The others shared all they had. They took people in their homes. shared water and food. My maid commended me for offering my own house, though no one came. She said one other offered first and they all stayed there. They knew that person. Funny isn't it? Even sharing, charity or whatever you call it... people want from non-strangers. That's an interesting thought to me.

I dream of living on the ground and getting to know people, language and realities. being part of the flow, and not a dugong-faced pariah, waving like a hand on a spring from my window of opportunity.

A person needs achievements. Ok, you can do that alone in your room, can't you? write a book or dance or have a conversation online? maybe a person needs tiny acclamations about her achievements? interaction. feedback. comraderie. being part of the whole I think, is more important to us all than many realize. Knowing someone well enough for them to say, "You're full of Shit!" or... "You and your existence matter in the scheme of things." Being beloved when sad or happy.

At home, you can put your hand on your weaving loom. on beads to make something. On paints and books about how to do a project. You can find a scrap of wood, or a sketchbook without having to go out. You have tools and spices collected for years. you have familiarities to touch. There is music. Building it anew in a foreign place takes ..........determination.
Beating the aloneness takes being able to make friends, though.

John Donne
Meditation XVII: No man is an island...
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Food For Thought

I am learning to cook vegetables Indian style. The recipe is simple. You cut up fresh vegetables small. you start with onions, curry leaves and mustard seeds. you put them in a little oil. Then tomatoes, chopped. one or two green hot chilis, halved. The changes depend on the next vegetable. You can use Okra (Lady Fingers) or Turin, which is a root vegetable that stings your hands when you peel it and cut it up. you can use green beans. or potatoes. If you add Masala which is ginger and garlic smushed. (there are others) it has one flavor. If you leave it out.. obviously it has another.

so you add the vegetable to the first mix and add a little water to steam. Serve over rice. One of the tastiest ones is called Pumpkin, but it doesn't look like pumpkin as I know it. It cooks up a bit translucent. and you add coconut to it's final touches. It's REALLY good. tastes like it has lemon in it, but it doesn't. You serve the vegetable dishes with yogurt, or hot pickle. Fruits for dessert.


I have learned to make breakfast porridge with mung beans, rice and nuts. it's sweetened. very healthy food.

I wash everything very thoroughly, and soak in bleach water, then rinse well. It is recommended. I do this at home in the states too. I think people don't use soaps enough. It would save us a lot of grief if we utilized them.

Do you think our collective consciousness is ill? We need a feast) of happy and good things. Hope Soup and Positive Pie. :P