Opening Scene from "Werckmeister Harmonies"

opening scene from the best movie i haven't seen yet. thanks, haven.

in love,
ge

Amma Part II

she's real. she's totally real.

Sarah Haskins

everything about sarah haskins is awesome. discover the joy...the commentary...the truth...and the laughter. that's right: i'm posting every sarah haskins video the internet has to offer. why? because they are all awesome.

thanks, caitlin.

Farm and Wilderness Camp

i...love...camp! i have such a camp crush on farm and wilderness. journey's end farm camp is still the best...but f and w is like the party next door that you can hear people having fun at and you just want to go check it out!

yay camp!

in love,
ge

Veena - Jayanthi Kumaresh

the veena is one of the most beautiful instruments i have encountered. it is so unique and special, and jayanthi kumaresh plays it so incredibly. i love the playfulness and intensity of this performance. the third video ends with a raging drum solo as well.

i have a restless spirit today, and this music resonates on that level for me.

to read up on veenas, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veena

in love,
ge

NEPA!

NEPA, meaning Northeastern Pennsylvania, is a place like no other. its language, culture, and customs, long hidden from the outside world, are unique and surprising...and it's also where i'm from! if you ever pass through, give me a call, and i'll show you all the sights! like the largest poured concrete structure in the world, the nicholson bridge! the bluebird diner, factoryville's own 4-star dining! scranton, an actually cool city i don't really want to make fun of! mostly! the deitrich theater, tunkhannok's community run movie theater! journey's end farm, home of my quaker meeting, my quaker camp, and several wonderful people, including wood-beau, k-fitz, and the curtis family! nay aug park, with the sweetest waterfall scranton has to offer, as well as an animal sanctuary/slash community run zoo! the bog, the bar where all the cool kids hang out to look cooler! it's all here! it's all NEPA!

first up, let's learn the language. although this video is at times embarrassingly corny, so is all the comedy you come across in NEPA! including the comedy i did! the importance of this video is that it captures the NEPA dialectic. the second video is proof that people actually talk this way! ray lyman, scranton hero, a man of the people!





up next, scranton! home of , the office! as well as the craziest st. patrick's day parade ever, simply referred to as "parade day" it's beautiful! it's rundown! it's homey! it's weird! it's NEPA!









the nicholson bridge! the 8th wonder of the world! there are people who died making it buried in the concrete! wahoo!



factoryville! if you search it on youtube, all you get is people shooting guns out behind their house, a lot of footage of raccoons, a few kayaking videos, and this video of a plane landing at seaman's airport! if you listen closely, you can hear my 5th grade teacher, mrs. seaman's in the background! huzah!



perhaps nepa's most important feature is its unique foods! welsh cookies! hoagies! perogies! and old forge pizza!

here's footage of a small child making welsh cookies, the tastiest cookies in the world! that's not even a joke!


next is an old man making a hoagie! all of eastern pa, including philly, knows what a hoagie is!


actual chefs making perogies! thank you eastern europe!


and there's no videos on old forge pizza...what's this world coming to?

believe it or not, nepa has great music! here is one of our local favorites, and the moneynotes, playing at the bog, the coolest bar in scranton! because it has to be!


and a little documentary about them! how cool! my friend, settie, is the redhead (i don't like the violence either...but most boys seem too)!


and nepa is so cool that politicians are scrambling to claim it as their home! even if they haven't set foot in nepa for several decades!





"scranton is a place that never leaves you. it becomes part of your heart."

amen joe, amen.

50 People, One Question - Benjamin Reece

this is a pretty fascinating video. try to follow your response to the images of the people and what they say. it was so interesting to see what judgments came up in me immediately upon seeing some of the interview-ees. and how some of them were affirmed, while others were dispelled. so many of their responses are surprising in so many different ways! a nice little microcosm of humanity...[you're a nice little microcosm of humanity]

in love,
ge


Fifty People, One Question: New Orleans from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

"Tranny Triptych" - Morty Diamond and Glenn Marla

hello friends! today's post is a powerful one. it features morty diamond (sex educator, performance artist, filmmaker, etc.) and glenn marla (performance artist, burlesque superstar). i had the pleasure of meeting glenn by way of serendipity in nyc. one night, we discovered that we had two mutual friends: his roommate, thailan, and dave end. what a world!

what i think is amazing about this video is that it manages to be vulnerable and artistic and playful all at the same time. so often the sharing of our stories and difficulties happens in a spirit of absolute seriousness with somber tones (understandably). but this bit of wonderfulness manages to express these stories in a way that is playful, loving, and open, without diminishing the emotional honesty of what is being shared. a truly remarkable accomplishment.

in love,
ge


glenn marla: www.myspace.com/smulyan
morty diamond: www.myspace.com/mortydiamond

CERN Rap

i am not quite sure what the best thing about this video is...i think it is probably imagining all the CERN interns running around the LHC, videotaping themselves. also, it has so much information! in rap form! brilliant!


CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

"Iceland" - Eva Sturm

vimeo comes through again. such beautiful images...and a powerful, simple message.

for those of you keeping track, this is actually the second time that this sigur ros song has made it onto my blog as the background to a video....can you name the other one?

in love,
ge


Iceland from Eva Sturm on Vimeo.

"Beautiful Flower" - India Arie

amazing. i am not, nor have i ever been, a girl. but i do know that there needs to be more songs and images like this one, to counteract all the poison and sadness.

much love to all women who have survived and thrived and come into their power. we love you and we need you.

much love to all women who still struggle and suffer. we love you and we need you.

and much love to those who are both.

in love,
ge

Lauryn Hill Unplugged

ok, so i should totally be doing my homework instead of posting, but funk it. this is about lauryn hill unplugged. i honestly assumed that i had already posted these videos because of how incredible they are, but to my surprise, this is their first appearance. and, to be frank, this blog would be pretty empty without them.

lauryn hill got a lot of s*** for this performance and the album that accompanied it. it was panned by critics, getting half a star in some cases. in the fall out afterwards, she fell apart, getting mixed up with a somewhat occultist figure, an awkward reunion with the fugees, and a life that did not make sense given the content of this performance. from all accounts, she fell apart.

you might think, well, this discredits these songs. she must not have gotten it in the way that she said she did. "I Gotta Find Peace of Mind" and "I Find it Hard to Say [Rebel]" don't make sense if she did not continue down the same path of spiritual awakening that she was clearly on at the time.

and if you do think that, i can't blame you. i have thought it myself from time to time. but i think that it is not the truth. watching these videos, listening to these songs, hearing the album, you KNOW she KNOWS. but she is still suffering and struggling and questioning so much. she got rid of the clothes, the band, the record deal. she confesses on the album that if her voice cracks, it is because she is not trying to be a "perfect singer" anymore. just honest. she had never performed these songs live before, messing up in front of millions. this is unlike any performance by a pop singer in recent memory, maybe ever. and you can tell that for how enlightened she is at this moment, she is still in so much pain....but i mean, what do i know? who knows what was really going on in her mind? all i can say is, crying to the tune, "I know it's possible. Free, Free, Free your mind," is as real as it gets...

this performance stands as a testament to the beauty, love, and transforming power of the divine. what happened afterwards is a testament to how rough this world is and how it can chew you up and spit you out and lead you astray and every other un-godly thing you can think of. can you imagine what it must have felt like to have this album laughed at by critics, an album on which you bared your soul, crying in testimony to god? i can't. it must have been devastating.

all i can say is, thank you, ms. hill. thank you for sharing with us what you discovered about god and yourself. i'm sorry we didn't understand, though many of us hold on to this album as gospel, as true today as it was when you performed it [i am one of them]. i hope you continue on, through whatever it is your going through, and emerge knowing that you are beautiful and divine. hopefully, you never forgot.

in love,
ge

p.s. if you don't have this album, you should probably buy it. one of the major things it got slammed for was all the talking she does in between songs. but you know what i think? i think the talking the best part...prophetic to say the least...

Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

the first performance of mr. tambourine man at newport.

"The House of Beauty" - Mark Doty

nobody reads a poem like mark doty. it's as if he is speaking each word for the first time, careful not to waste any sounds that might be missed by speaking without care. if you like poetry at all and you've never been to the dodge poetry festival, you haven't lived. it's sacred and holy. people get together for five days and read poetry to each other. what is better than that?

Dick Gregory on Rest, Water, and Fitness

i love dick gregory. he was one of my first heroes, because he would go to the front lines of the civil rights movements and get everybody laughing in order to dispel the danger of violence. but he has done a whole lot more than that. here is a link to his blog:

http://www.dickgregory.com/index2.html

and here is dick gregory letting us know how to have healthy bodies:

The Animal Odd Couple

my parents sent me this one (thanks mom and dad).

Rocket Man - WIlliam Shatner

incredible.

Bruce Springsteen!

bruce springsteen is incredible. this fact took me some time to realize. but now i understand...unfortunately all of his music videos are blocked from being embedded. no matter. his live performances will do just fine...the other problem is that i want to post every video of him ever. he's just so damn nice to look at!

if there is any good at all to be found in masculinity, bruce springsteen has found it.

and if you are yet to be convinced of his greatness (thanks jake), i will be happy to elaborate. just look at clarence, his sax player. his beauty rivals the boss!

in love,
ge