Old Hippie (1995 version)...
music break
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NziqyNiNdI
7/29/10
Urban Landscape Photography VI
Driving west in mid-summer sunset...
The glaring sun is mocking: "can you see me now?"
7/28/10
Eduardo Capetillo
"La Mujer Que No Sone"...
music break
La Mujer Que No Sone is written by Ricardo Arjona and here a young Eduardo Capetillo performs in the early nineties. It was a signature song for him, as part of the soundtrack he recorded for the 1990 telenovella Alcanzar una estrella (To Reach for a Star). The story line was of a plain, awkward girl who fell in love with her idol, played by Eduardo, who she meets through her machinations. She lived her dream.
As Eduardo sings he uses body movement and hand gestures to reinforce the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7VrZHknFqc
music break
La Mujer Que No Sone is written by Ricardo Arjona and here a young Eduardo Capetillo performs in the early nineties. It was a signature song for him, as part of the soundtrack he recorded for the 1990 telenovella Alcanzar una estrella (To Reach for a Star). The story line was of a plain, awkward girl who fell in love with her idol, played by Eduardo, who she meets through her machinations. She lived her dream.
As Eduardo sings he uses body movement and hand gestures to reinforce the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7VrZHknFqc
Declining Value
Tracking A Toxic Asset...
These are graphics from Planet Money's blog where they bought a toxic asset created with more than 2000 mortgages from across the country and tracked it. The asset had been worth $75,000 but was purchased for $1000 and the graphics shows how much value it has lost.
These are graphics from Planet Money's blog where they bought a toxic asset created with more than 2000 mortgages from across the country and tracked it. The asset had been worth $75,000 but was purchased for $1000 and the graphics shows how much value it has lost.
In the beginning Dec 2006, “Toxie” was a little sick
But by July 2010, “Toxie” was a almost dead…
7/27/10
The Avett Brothers
"Swept Away"...
Music Break
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzMH67nyvxU&feature=related
and you know who you are ;~}
Music Break
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzMH67nyvxU&feature=related
and you know who you are ;~}
Unfair Labor Practices
Non-union workers paid minimum wage by union organizers for shame on Walgreens campaign...
____________________________________________________________
Unions Protesting Churches in California
by Ryan P. Dixon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apmn4bXOVLU
http://www.youtube.com/ryanpdixon
Unions Protesting Churches in California
by Ryan P. Dixon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apmn4bXOVLU
http://www.youtube.com/ryanpdixon
7/26/10
No One Knows What the Future Brings
History and current events are a good guide...
New Years Day 2010 was not so long ago and I still remember the collective sigh of relief people shared that the previous decade was over. There was hope for a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to right the ship and correct the course we just raced through.
At the beginning of March, as businesses were closing every day along the primary streets, road traffic got noticeably lighter and and stores had fewer shoppers, I started researching the underlying core of the Leading Economic Indicators using multiple resources. Looking at the root causes and potential for solutions, none of them looked particularly strong for the short to intermediate term. The phony propped up Stock Market bubble, the Mainstream Media and Political Class's visions of sugar plum Recovery predictions, Stimulus and Quantitative Easing aside, a sea change storm brewing was evident. Efforts for a quick fix to the trouble we were in was not working as predicted and it seemed highly likely that it was going to get worse before it got better.
1. Unemployment: high unemployment and underemployment is a continuing vexing problem and likely to remain that way for a long time. Most importantly, unemployment and underemployment is directly related to people's income. Income is crucial to a recovery.
2. Debt Overhang: Individuals, businesses and governments are deeply in debt and it will take years to deleverage. The amounts on all fronts are staggering and must be reduced because it is subtracting from income.
3. Real Estate: A second wave of defaults in residential real estate is coming for these reasons:
Lenders have allowed borrowers to stay in houses with partial or no payments for longer than the average period of extensions and some borrowers have deliberately stopped paying. This is reaching it's end.
Alt-A mortgage holders are beginning to default and expected to become full blown.
ARM mortgage rates are going to reset in the September - October time frame.
Commercial real estate has declined in value on average a minimum of 50% in the past year but has not crashed yet. When it does, it will be about the time residential real estate hits it's second wave.
4. Retail and Consumer Goods: Most people are not in the position and/or the mood to be buying anything but what they consider the essentials. Maslow's theory comes into real life play: Food, Shelter and Clothing are priorities, everything else is secondary.
5. Production: The rate of producing goods, manufacturing and providing services is way down and not likely to increase until the other factors are resolved. Businesses are hoarding cash.
My prediction then was that May through November would be the period that how this great economic disruption will proceed will become more obvious. We are midway through that period. I also predicted we will be in an economic slowdown for a long haul of 5 to 10 years; I am more convinced of that now.
A few weeks ago I felt this Economic Depression deep in my being, a perception of what it is like to live in such an economic era, that hit me head on as more than intellectual theory. It made me sad and somewhat personally depressed and I had to take a deep figurative breath. I know I'm going to survive this, I've prepared for it as best as one can but that doesn't mean that I won't be taken aback by how it all plays out.
I see it in the faces of other people that they feel it now also. It depends on where you are in life on how good you think your chances of survival are. That also depends on your attitude and your ability to withstand the unexpected. There is a mid-term General Election coming in November and after that, what happens is anyone's guess. It is time to be ready for anything.
We are in a significant economic downturn that is more than the historical economic depressions that occur every 60-80 years (the average person's life span). No...we are in a 150-500 year historical Disruptive Event on the magnitude of the Gutenberg Printing Revolution, the American Declaration of Independence, the US Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. This is a historically exciting time to be alive in and we may as well embrace it.
The message for me personally has not changed. No matter how good or bad you feel, if you want to make it, no matter how hard it is, you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. To stop is to risk never getting started again. Never underestimate the power of helping other people and them helping you. Now is the time, more than ever, that we need to think creatively, be passionate about maintaining our dignity and rising above adversity, to right the ship to sail on to a better day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKB3PxG-0E
New Years Day 2010 was not so long ago and I still remember the collective sigh of relief people shared that the previous decade was over. There was hope for a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to right the ship and correct the course we just raced through.
1. Unemployment: high unemployment and underemployment is a continuing vexing problem and likely to remain that way for a long time. Most importantly, unemployment and underemployment is directly related to people's income. Income is crucial to a recovery.
2. Debt Overhang: Individuals, businesses and governments are deeply in debt and it will take years to deleverage. The amounts on all fronts are staggering and must be reduced because it is subtracting from income.
3. Real Estate: A second wave of defaults in residential real estate is coming for these reasons:
Lenders have allowed borrowers to stay in houses with partial or no payments for longer than the average period of extensions and some borrowers have deliberately stopped paying. This is reaching it's end.
Alt-A mortgage holders are beginning to default and expected to become full blown.
ARM mortgage rates are going to reset in the September - October time frame.
Commercial real estate has declined in value on average a minimum of 50% in the past year but has not crashed yet. When it does, it will be about the time residential real estate hits it's second wave.
4. Retail and Consumer Goods: Most people are not in the position and/or the mood to be buying anything but what they consider the essentials. Maslow's theory comes into real life play: Food, Shelter and Clothing are priorities, everything else is secondary.
5. Production: The rate of producing goods, manufacturing and providing services is way down and not likely to increase until the other factors are resolved. Businesses are hoarding cash.
My prediction then was that May through November would be the period that how this great economic disruption will proceed will become more obvious. We are midway through that period. I also predicted we will be in an economic slowdown for a long haul of 5 to 10 years; I am more convinced of that now.
I see it in the faces of other people that they feel it now also. It depends on where you are in life on how good you think your chances of survival are. That also depends on your attitude and your ability to withstand the unexpected. There is a mid-term General Election coming in November and after that, what happens is anyone's guess. It is time to be ready for anything.
We are in a significant economic downturn that is more than the historical economic depressions that occur every 60-80 years (the average person's life span). No...we are in a 150-500 year historical Disruptive Event on the magnitude of the Gutenberg Printing Revolution, the American Declaration of Independence, the US Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. This is a historically exciting time to be alive in and we may as well embrace it.
The message for me personally has not changed. No matter how good or bad you feel, if you want to make it, no matter how hard it is, you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. To stop is to risk never getting started again. Never underestimate the power of helping other people and them helping you. Now is the time, more than ever, that we need to think creatively, be passionate about maintaining our dignity and rising above adversity, to right the ship to sail on to a better day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKB3PxG-0E
7/25/10
The Left and The Right
For America...
Odd isn't it, that Jackson Browne, politically to the left of me, expresses lyrically in this song what I thing is right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ60111VNdw
http://www.youtube.com/floflo34600
Odd isn't it, that Jackson Browne, politically to the left of me, expresses lyrically in this song what I thing is right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ60111VNdw
http://www.youtube.com/floflo34600
7/24/10
Seth Godin "We All Live in Detroit Now"
Everyone has access to state of the art information...
If you're going to succeed, you're going to succeed because you do great work...
"If they can write it down in a manual, it's not a job you want because as soon as they write it down in a manual, someone is going to do it cheaper than you."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlBD75RfMtA
http://www.youtube.com/Stranahan
If you're going to succeed, you're going to succeed because you do great work...
"If they can write it down in a manual, it's not a job you want because as soon as they write it down in a manual, someone is going to do it cheaper than you."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlBD75RfMtA
http://www.youtube.com/Stranahan
Seth Godin on Education
Failure of our education model...
Seth Godin discusses with Lee Stranahan how our public schools were designed to do two things:
1. Train people to become compliant factory workers, sit in straight rows, do what they're told, follow instructions,
2. Teach kids the best way to feel good and fit in was to buy stuff and it's done a great job at both things.
"...They churn out people who await instructions, who can fill in with number two pencils perfect ovals but...
we don't churn out people who are creative and innovate and ask questions...
we don't turn out people who by any definition who are artists, we actually shun those people."
Hear what he says about a "shortage of people who are going to do something unique."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea5IgyVd3_U
http://www.youtube.com/Stranahan
Seth Godin discusses with Lee Stranahan how our public schools were designed to do two things:
1. Train people to become compliant factory workers, sit in straight rows, do what they're told, follow instructions,
2. Teach kids the best way to feel good and fit in was to buy stuff and it's done a great job at both things.
"...They churn out people who await instructions, who can fill in with number two pencils perfect ovals but...
we don't churn out people who are creative and innovate and ask questions...
we don't turn out people who by any definition who are artists, we actually shun those people."
Hear what he says about a "shortage of people who are going to do something unique."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea5IgyVd3_U
http://www.youtube.com/Stranahan
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