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Mine is a story without a plot.

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Before joining first Bob Weir's side band and then the Grateful Dead, keyboardist Brent Mydland was a member of the group Silver.

They only charted once, in 1976, with the song "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang." It's catchy, with a very breezy 70s vibe.

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This placard is mounted to the grave of Lord Dunsany, author of The King of Elfland's Daughter, which he shares with his wife Beatrice.

Apparently he married a woman who had a way with words, too.

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Visit Original Link

The audience always joined in on this one.

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Sunrise (1933), by Maxfield Parrish

I got to see an exhibit of his work, and the surprising thing to me (other than the astonishingly large size) was that he literally cut-and-paste figures from other paintings into new works.

If you look closely at the originals, nearly all of them have a figure or a tree cut out and carefully glued in place.

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[oaluz]

When Kittens Came to My Prison, I Had Not Petted One in 15 Years

I had not touched a cat in 15 years when an orange kitten wandered over to sit with me in the grass.

"I had not touched a cat in 15 years when an orange kitten wandered over to sit with me in the grass one day. I was left without adequate words to describe that experience. It reminded me that I am alive. It instilled in me a raw, unbridled happiness that I had never felt before, not even as a child. 

I have spent many hours with those cats, and still I am amazed at how perfectly they reject everything it means to be in prison. They are playful and unselfconscious, curious and silly, soft and cuddly.

Sometimes it is even more interesting to watch my fellow prisoners interact with our cats. All those hard cases doing hard time melt like butter on a summer sidewalk when they visit the felines, feed them, watch them chase the birds and bees, and when they make toys to entice the cats to play with them. 

I don’t think about the past when a cat hops in my lap. I don’t think of what I should or could have done. I don’t think about courts or life sentences or parole boards. What comes to mind is peace, and a sense that everything is going to be OK. What’s in the past needs to stay there if I want to have a future, if I want to be grateful for today and for the fact that I am no longer the person I once was.

The cats, of course, already know this. They are gracious enough to spend their time with us so that we might learn, and so that we can enjoy a few quiet moments of warmth, softness, non judgment, and freedom."

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I worked with a woman who had recently been released from prison after a lengthy sentence.

I held the door open for her, and she looked confused. She told me later that she had no idea what I was up to, that nobody had ever held a door for her. It was a new and strange experience for her.

She told me that when she was let out the first thing she did was go to the grocery store to buy gum. Gum wasn't allowed in prison, and that made it precious.

When she wandered over to the toothpaste aisle she had a panic attack and ran out. There were too many choices. In prison she went to the commissary and asked for toothpaste, and was handed a white tube with black letters on it. I had never considered how many choices we make routinely, but through her eyes I can see why it would be overwhelming.

I never asked her about her crime, but I could tell she was a good person, and in different circumstances she could have had a very different life.

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Mindfull Breathing App - App Store

Download Mindfull Breathing by Bhagyalakshmi Kavati on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Mi

I have a lot of trouble breathing, and have to do exercises. I went looking for an app to help me, and found this one.

It's beautiful, easy to set up and customize, doesn't track you or require registration, there are no ads, and it's free!

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From the YouTube comments:

joethebluesman3312, I'm right there with you.

[pascalcampion]

Everything was bigger then.

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Putting the children in the distance tells a different story than a traditional close-up would.

I like this a lot.

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Nirvana- All Apologies (Audio)

Song Title- All ApologiesArtist Name- NirvanaAlbum Name- In UteroRecord Label- DGC RecordsFeel free to send me a message if you would like t

Sinead did her cover version just a year after Nirvana released the original.

Two very different approaches to the same material, but each is wonderful in its own way.

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Excerpt:

What's good? Life's good– But not fair at all

Full lyrics at SongMeanings.com.

There's a live version of the song from an appearance on David Letterman available HERE. It's a nice variation, a little more stripped down, but the drumming is a bit off and Elle Macpherson's mugging for the camera is irritating and inappropriate.

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How We Disappear by Alessandra Olanow

I am in the store touching things. Linen napkins, a blue bowl. The world is on fire and I am choosing between two kinds of soap.

Everyone here is doing this, filling carts with small comforts while somewhere a child goes to bed hungry, while the earth heats, while men make decisions about who gets to live.

I know what this is, this careful arranging while everything collapses. This is how we survive. And also how we disappear.

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Visit Original Link

This is one of my favorite cover songs. He just nails it.

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Last Poem by Ted Berrigan

Before I began life this time I took a crash course in Counter-Intelligence Once here I signed in, see name below, and added Some words remembered from an earlier time, 'The intention of the organism is to survive.' My earliest, & happiest, memories pre-date WWII, They involve a glass slipper & a helpless blue rose In a slender blue single-rose vase: Mine Was a story without a plot. The days of my years Folded into one another, an easy fit, in which I made money & spent it, learned to dance & forgot, gave Blood, regained my poise, & verbalized myself a place In Society. 101 St. Mark's Place, apt. 12A, NYC 10009 New York. Friends appeared & disappeared, or wigged out, Or stayed; inspiring strangers sadly died; everyone I ever knew aged tremendously, except me. I remained Somewhere between 2 and 9 years old. But frequent Reification of my own experiences delivered to me Several new vocabularies, I loved that almost most of all. I once had the honor of meeting Beckett & I dug him. The pills kept me going, until now. Love, & work, Were my great happinesses, that other people die the source Of my great, terrible, & inarticulate one grief. In my time I grew tall & huge of frame, obviously possessed Of a disconnected head, I had a perfect heart. The end Came quickly & completely without pain, one quiet night as I Was sitting, writing, next to you in bed, words chosen randomly From a tired brain, it, like them, suitable, & fitting. Let none regret my end who called me friend.

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The crowd makes it better.

There's a version on the You Tubes that has the crowd noise removed, and it's wildly inferior because of it.