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New Theme...Mirrored Reflections
Good Day everyone!
Okay here we go for a new theme of Mirrored Reflections and work on your photography skills..
1. Inside photos only
2. Must be new photos (NO ARCHIVES or Files)
3. No Flash
4. Daylight or Night, but would like to see more Night photos To work on lowlight skills
5. Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings..if you can do so
6. Be aware of your room and its suroundings
7. Most of all...Just have fun....
Start June 22 - End July 13
Please Post all Photos in Reply of this Message
Okay here we go for a new theme of Mirrored Reflections and work on your photography skills..
1. Inside photos only
2. Must be new photos (NO ARCHIVES or Files)
3. No Flash
4. Daylight or Night, but would like to see more Night photos To work on lowlight skills
5. Don't be afraid to experiment with different settings..if you can do so
6. Be aware of your room and its suroundings
7. Most of all...Just have fun....
Start June 22 - End July 13
Please Post all Photos in Reply of this Message
Right Turn, Wrong Candidate?
Has anyone noticed that Obama has made a sharp right turn. He suddenly is moving to the right of John McCain. If I were to listen to his recent speeches, he is agreeing with Bush more times than McCain. I am expecting him to support off shore drilling and long term Iraq presence. He even supports gun ownership, wears a flag pin to show his patriotism (depending on the crowd)and panders to the evangelicals (although he has his own interpretation of the Bible)! Does this mean he will be a conservative President? Has he really changed his mind, or is this just same old politics?
My theory: Obama's handlers feel that he has already wrapped up the black, gays, anti-war, anti-military, pro-abortion and left wing voters. He now has to appeal to the "religion clingers and blue collar workers". With all his money - he is courting the super rich, special interest money now - he can afford to spread around his new image in ads to make McCain try to defend his base. And Oh, by the way, wink wink, he will make a sharp left turn as soon as elected. He will let his surrogates do his dirty work attacking McCain's character.
My theory: Obama's handlers feel that he has already wrapped up the black, gays, anti-war, anti-military, pro-abortion and left wing voters. He now has to appeal to the "religion clingers and blue collar workers". With all his money - he is courting the super rich, special interest money now - he can afford to spread around his new image in ads to make McCain try to defend his base. And Oh, by the way, wink wink, he will make a sharp left turn as soon as elected. He will let his surrogates do his dirty work attacking McCain's character.
Topic of the Day 07/06/2008
DO YOU THINK SHE SHOULD HAVE USED HER "ARTISTIC LICENSE"??
Denver singer opts for black national anthem lyrics over 'Star-Spangled Banner'
By DeeDee Correll, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2008
DENVER -- The jazz singer, invited to perform the national anthem before the Denver mayor's annual state of the city address, stood at the microphone and let loose her voice.
What came out were the lyrics of the song known as the black national anthem, set to the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
"Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring," belted out Rene Marie, as the expressions of city officials behind her grew puzzled.
It was, Marie later said of the unpaid gig, an artistic expression of her emotions about being a black American and a decision she made months ago to no longer sing the national anthem. But instead of telling that to the mayor's office beforehand, "I pulled a switcheroonie on them," Marie told the Denver Post.
Now elected officials and residents are joining a chorus of outrage: Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. called her actions disrespectful; Mayor John Hickenlooper accused her of deceiving the city for the purpose of a political statement.
"We all respect artistic license and support freedom of expression," he said. "But in a tradition-laden civic ceremony . . . making a personal substitution for the national anthem was not an option. We asked for 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and that's what we expected."
Even Sen. Barack Obama, campaigning for the presidency this week in Colorado, weighed in.
"We only have one national anthem," Obama told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday. "And so, if she was asked to sing the national anthem, she should have sung that. 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing' is a beautiful song, but we only have one national anthem."
On newspaper websites, comments have poured in by the hundreds, most of them critical of the popular local singer. Some have said her performance would harm Obama's presidential bid, a suggestion Marie dismissed as "a serious overestimation of my influence as an artist."
She did not return a call seeking comment, but on her website she defended her decision in a statement:
"I am an artist," she wrote. "If I wait until I am asked to express myself artistically, or if I must ask permission to do it, it would never get done. I knew that if I asked to do my version of the national anthem, the answer would be 'no.' "
Marie, 52, said that as a child raised in the segregated South, she sang both songs. But she grew to feel the sentiments of freedom expressed in the national anthem weren't a reality "for black folks living in a town with Jim Crow laws, where the flag often hung from buildings they could not enter," she wrote.
"Nobody but black folks found comfort in 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,' " penned by James Weldon Johnson and put to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, in about 1900 to commemorate President Lincoln's birthday. The hymn was sung at protest rallies during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and '60s.
So Marie decided to meld the two anthems in what she describes as a love song to her country. She said she also rewrote the melodies to "America the Beautiful" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee," but kept the lyrics. She calls the three-part suite "Voice of My Beautiful Country."
Though she apologized to the mayor for any distress she caused him in her performance Tuesday, she stopped short of the public apology others are calling for. "As for offending others with my music, I cannot apologize for that. It goes with the risky territory of being an artist," she wrote.
Her chances of performing her art for the city again?
Probably not good, according to Hickenlooper, who said he wished he had interceded during Marie's performance.
"We will do whatever it takes to ensure that a situation like this never occurs again," he said, "even if I have to sing the national anthem myself."
deedee.correll@latimes.com
Denver singer opts for black national anthem lyrics over 'Star-Spangled Banner'
By DeeDee Correll, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2008
DENVER -- The jazz singer, invited to perform the national anthem before the Denver mayor's annual state of the city address, stood at the microphone and let loose her voice.
What came out were the lyrics of the song known as the black national anthem, set to the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
"Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring," belted out Rene Marie, as the expressions of city officials behind her grew puzzled.
It was, Marie later said of the unpaid gig, an artistic expression of her emotions about being a black American and a decision she made months ago to no longer sing the national anthem. But instead of telling that to the mayor's office beforehand, "I pulled a switcheroonie on them," Marie told the Denver Post.
Now elected officials and residents are joining a chorus of outrage: Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. called her actions disrespectful; Mayor John Hickenlooper accused her of deceiving the city for the purpose of a political statement.
"We all respect artistic license and support freedom of expression," he said. "But in a tradition-laden civic ceremony . . . making a personal substitution for the national anthem was not an option. We asked for 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and that's what we expected."
Even Sen. Barack Obama, campaigning for the presidency this week in Colorado, weighed in.
"We only have one national anthem," Obama told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday. "And so, if she was asked to sing the national anthem, she should have sung that. 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing' is a beautiful song, but we only have one national anthem."
On newspaper websites, comments have poured in by the hundreds, most of them critical of the popular local singer. Some have said her performance would harm Obama's presidential bid, a suggestion Marie dismissed as "a serious overestimation of my influence as an artist."
She did not return a call seeking comment, but on her website she defended her decision in a statement:
"I am an artist," she wrote. "If I wait until I am asked to express myself artistically, or if I must ask permission to do it, it would never get done. I knew that if I asked to do my version of the national anthem, the answer would be 'no.' "
Marie, 52, said that as a child raised in the segregated South, she sang both songs. But she grew to feel the sentiments of freedom expressed in the national anthem weren't a reality "for black folks living in a town with Jim Crow laws, where the flag often hung from buildings they could not enter," she wrote.
"Nobody but black folks found comfort in 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,' " penned by James Weldon Johnson and put to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, in about 1900 to commemorate President Lincoln's birthday. The hymn was sung at protest rallies during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and '60s.
So Marie decided to meld the two anthems in what she describes as a love song to her country. She said she also rewrote the melodies to "America the Beautiful" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee," but kept the lyrics. She calls the three-part suite "Voice of My Beautiful Country."
Though she apologized to the mayor for any distress she caused him in her performance Tuesday, she stopped short of the public apology others are calling for. "As for offending others with my music, I cannot apologize for that. It goes with the risky territory of being an artist," she wrote.
Her chances of performing her art for the city again?
Probably not good, according to Hickenlooper, who said he wished he had interceded during Marie's performance.
"We will do whatever it takes to ensure that a situation like this never occurs again," he said, "even if I have to sing the national anthem myself."
deedee.correll@latimes.com
I did it!!
Ok, Grannies and Gramps, name one thing you've done in the past 10 years that made you go outside your comfort zone, but you accomplished it and made you feel proud of yourself.
Me, I fixed my computer after my youngest granddaughter decided to stand on it, and it fell over and stopped working. Took me three days, but I found a blown fuse which was the problem. Cost me $3 and the computer started working again. Man, was I happy!! And amazed that I actually found it and fixed it!
Me, I fixed my computer after my youngest granddaughter decided to stand on it, and it fell over and stopped working. Took me three days, but I found a blown fuse which was the problem. Cost me $3 and the computer started working again. Man, was I happy!! And amazed that I actually found it and fixed it!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are words in the English language some find offensive ... they can't be said on radio or TV, ok you hear it on cable. So you may be surprised to know one of those words is an acronym for "fornication under consent of the King. So here is some way out history .. If you use the word you should know it's origin!
view link
What?
Rump
Give me a break.... I nominate you for the Assbag of the week award!
you know you want in whispers panties... you are just waiting for the right moment and then you are going to jump on her like a hungry wolf on a baby lamb...
you know you want in whispers panties... you are just waiting for the right moment and then you are going to jump on her like a hungry wolf on a baby lamb...
Question about Soy
I recently read in an alternative health book that soy is BAD for you. Causes hormonal issues, and is not a good protein, particularly. This guy was advocating organic meat, anyway, he wasn't a vegetarian. But I wonder, if soy turns out to be bad for us, what the hell should we eat for protein.? I guess beans and more beans.. Sigh..I really don't know what to do about salads anymore eihter, since the salmonella outbreak I haven't had any, and it reduces opportunities all around if you are afraid of your produce. If you can afford to buy it anyway!
