PRELUDE - After the Goldrush

This was a song I heard in the early 70's when I wished a flying saucer would come and take me away from here. Or at least Scotty would beam me up or something..either way I loved this song

AFTER THE GOLDRUSH

Well I dreamed I saw the knights in armour coming saying something about a queen
There were peasants singing and drummers drumming and the archer split the tree
There was a fanfare blowing to the sun that was floating on the breeze
Look at Mother Nature on the run in the nineteen-seventies
I was lying in a burned-out basement with a full moon in my eyes
I was hoping for a replacement when the sun burst thru the skies
There was a band playing in my head and I felt like getting high
Thinking about what a fried had said, I was hoping it was a lie
Well I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying in the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colours flying all around the chosen one
All in a dream, all in a dream, the loading had begun
They were flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun
Flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun

Something I would like to do

I have been thinking and wondering how I could draw a few things and have them published on my blog, like design my own avatar and stuff like that. Wonder how I could get what I draw on a piece of paper onto a computer screen. Maybe Chris would know. I don't mean anything fancy or stuff like that. Like if the mood strikes me, it would be nice to draw my own picture for a post instead of other peoples'

The first book of this series,Wheel of Time

This is the book cover I like the best, where it shows Moiraine Sedai and her Warder, Lan (al'Lan Mandragoran, Uncrowned King of Malkier)

The Wheel Of Time..Robert Jordan

About 10 years ago, I began reading a huge fantasy series by Robert Jordan, called "The Wheel of Time". It started off with "The Eye of the World" and carried on to about 10 or more books. Each of these were very long, 700 pages or so . I was so wrapped up in this series that as soon as a new book would come out, I'd be calling Barnes and Noble to hold me a hard-cover soon as they got any.

The woman in this picture is my favourite character form the series. She is Moiraine Damodred , an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah. In this picture she is in the White Tower, where Aes Sedai are trained and live, unless they have business to take care of in the world. I won't get into any more detail. Suffice to say,The Wheel Of Time has many web sites covering every aspect of this series, all it's characters and illustrations drawn by fans. This picture is one I stole off one of these sites (so sue me). I belong to an Aes Sedai fanlisting myself, and of course I picked the Blue Ajah. I was very wrapped up in these books and was able to live in a fantasy world peopled by the characters.

I wish I could still escape from myself like this. I can't concentrate long enough to get thru these long books. I believe I have 3 more to read before the end. And as for the fantasy world, well lets just say the escapism door is shut to me at the moment. I wish it would open again

"Fortress of Solitude", stolen from Elfland for Babs,he he

More Cheshire Cat (and Alice!)

Cheshire cats

Two more Cheshire cats. I always had a thing about Alice in Wonderland but as a cat person The Cheshire Cat was my favourite character.

The Cat on the right ised to "fade away into a grin" but maybe I need to re-copy him over....

Flying Dreams

Isn't this a beautiful picture....they have a web site where people 's dreams are recorded and I found this beautiful illustration that someone created. The picture is much bigger but I think I did real well to get this much transferred . The ability to fly has always been a wish of mine since I can remember

Another pretty picture

I like this picture as well, esp. the combination of the colours

Beautiful picture

I just love this picture, never ever thought I'd ever learn to place pictures in my blog. When I kept my food diaries year before last, I cut this picture out and pasted it in my note-book with many other pictures that struck my fancy.

This is so much easier to do and as far as I know, it is permanent

Pretty Blue Fairy

Just thought I'd put this pretty blue fairy here just because.....

I found it!!! I was here: Lilith Fair '98, Great woods, Mass....

Presumably the event's impresario, folk/pop singer Sarah McLachlan, chose the name with all its sinister associations in mind. Lilith is a figure from Jewish demonology. The Bible has just a single reference to her, a cryptic one in Isaiah that pictures her lounging in the ruins of ungodly cities at the Day of Judgment (34:14). Other traditional literature explains that she was Adam's first wife, who on egalitarian grounds refused to submit herself sexually to the first man and so was banished from Eden. A couple of millennia later, modern feminists embraced the predecessor of Eve as a mascot. Her fans range from the editors of an obnoxious Jewish feminist magazine called Lilith, to neo-pagans (devotees maintain numerous Internet sites), to the scriptwriters on the television sitcom Cheers, who called Dr. Frasier Crane's first wife "Lilith."
Since Lilith Fair hit the road last summer, it has attracted gobs of media attention, most of which has emphasized the left-feminism of the women who run a lot of the booths and tents. At Great Woods a sort of Victims Row of booths paid tribute to causes like RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) and Massachusetts NARAL (the pro-abortion outfit). One booth sold ceramic "pocket goddesses" ("She comes with her own bag to protect her. Take her home and never be alone"). Another specialized in bumper stickers with slogans like "I believe in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures" and "My goddess gave birth to your god."
And yet. The next day a review in the Boston Globe reported that the bumper-sticker vendor was doing a "brisk" business, but that's not what I saw. I saw women crowding around a booth where you could get temporary henna "tattoos" in a variety of delicate and lovely arabesque designs, and another where you could have your hair brushed into an odd but cute flip. By comparison the anti -domestic-violence and pro-abortion booths were deserted.
In fact, walking around awhile, you got the definite impression that for many women these left-wing causes merely provide an occasion to exclude men, as Lilith more or less does, and celebrate, of all things, femininity.
After all, femininity, like masculinity, flourishes in a single-sex environment. (The co-ed military proves the point.) If you ignored Victims Row, you saw a lot of femininity at Lilith Fair. In older, better times, modesty of dress was a familiar signal of womanliness. That ideal has waned but it hasn't disappeared. The crowd at Lilith included lots of teens and twentysomethings who have developed an idiosyncratic yet pronounced style of modesty. Many of them wore baggy shorts and shapeless hooded windbreakers or sweatshirts (it was cool for August), which hide the shape of the body; others wore tie-dyed cotton Nepalese hippie dresses, ankle-length, which do the same thing but quite fetchingly. Hippie dresses were everywhere.
While femininity is difficult to define, it also resembles masculinity in that you know it when you see it. It has to do with a softness, a certain girlish exuberance -- the opposite of the hardness and cynicism associated with female high style in big cities like New York and Washington. By this standard the performers at Lilith were remarkably feminine.
A day at Lilith is 7 hours long, with 11 different acts on 3 stages, and so it's hazardous to generalize. But every singer I watched had the personal qualities that any traditional-minded father would be delighted to see in his daughter. Not least the two performers who appeared last, as Lilith's highlights: Natalie Merchant and Sarah McLachlan.
Miss Merchant, who used to sing in a fun if rather PC band called 10,000 Maniacs, struck out on her own a few years ago. Her current songs have to do with apolitical topics like a miracle cure ("Wonder") or a fifty-year marriage ("Beloved Wife"). She has feminine charisma that you can fully appreciate only by seeing her perform live. At first her hair was tied back in an adorable bun, but then she untied it and let it fall down around her shoulders in such a way that all the (not many) men in the audience were united in a collective sigh of longing. Later, when a big swing descended from above, she climbed onto it and swung for a while like a little girl. There's a charmingly awkward quality about her, especially when she dances; she could lose a few pounds, but you wouldn't want her to.
With her blond hair cut short, Miss McLachlan is a pixie, a sprite. She sings about "relationships," and her music happens to be terrific, mainly ballads of lost love. When the opening chords of "Sweet Surrender" sounded, the effect was thrilling, and when she sang "Witness" this reporter against his own will found himself swaying to the music. The effect is heartbreakingly sweet. Miss McLachlan left the stage with a girlishly energetic little skip.
If you compare Lilith to male-dominated rock events such as Lollapalooza, the most startling thing about it is how civilized Lilith is. One finds no mosh pit, no pushing or shoving at all. Those in attendance speak quietly. They sit at attention or rise to their feet in an orderly wave when a favorite song is played. Everything is neat and in order, so that you feel bad about dropping peanut shells to the concrete floor of the main pavilion. There was something unaccountably refreshing about the whole affair, like opening a window after a summer rainstorm when you have been cooped up in an air-conditioned room.
If only more of contemporary life were like Lilith Fair. If only there were more women who embodied the femininity of Natalie Merchant or Sarah McLachlan.
No, the model of femininity on display is not a classical one; it includes more pierced lips, noses, and tongues than you would choose to see if you had your choice. But these days, when it comes to masculinity or femininity in unexpected places, you shouldn't be stingy with appreciation if it's called for. Somewhere the demon Lilith is lounging around and gnashing her teeth at this blatant abuse of her bad name.
COPYRIGHT 1998 National Review, Inc.COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group
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Dream On....a state of mind

You would not believe the hassle I just went thru to find the lyrics to this song. Anyway, this song was very important to me in 1974. This was my last year before my life changed forever with bi-polar disorder. My teenage years were mainly spent in my imagination, where day to day problems with school, other people and problems at home didn't intrude. Many songs fueled this escapism. This song was the last to affect me in this way. Mental illness rips your life apart. Worst of all it takes away your dreams for a better life and rips away the rose-coloured glasses. You don't see life in the same way again, unless you are very lucky.

DREAM ON

Lay your head down on my shoulder
I won't let the night get colder
I'll protect you, I'll be keeping
Trouble far from where you're sleeping

Until you wake in the morning
You've got the world to yourself

Dream on
Dream about the world we're gonna live in one fine day
Dream on
Spend the night in heaven I'll be here to light your way
Someday tomorrow we'll smile
But little girl in the meanwhile
Dream on

You're a princess chains around you
I'm a hero who just found you
Till a brand-new day must wake you
Let imagination take you

Go where the music is playing
I'll be along in a while

Dream on
Dream about the world we're gonna live in one fine day
Dream on
Spend the night in heaven I'll be here to light your way
Someday tomorrow we will smile
But little girl in the meanwhile
Dream on
..........Righteous Brothers,1974