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The Core is Getting Soft.9: Ring my Bell
For many years now, I have been using software in my meditation practice. In Buddhist meditation, we traditionally open and close each sitting by ringing a bell three times. One is instructed to follow the sound waves until they subside, providing a gradual transition in and out of the silent state of awareness. In today’s…
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Corporate Welfare.7: Walton Welfare
Tens of thousands of protestors participated in some 1,500 strikes initiated by the organization OURWalmart against the largest private employer in the country yesterday, which of course was Black Friday, known as the “Super Bowl of Shopping” in this country. To mark the occasion, Amy Goodman interviewed Catherine Reutschlin, a policy analyst at Demos who…
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The Core is Getting Soft.8: Couture on the Cheap
When you have friends with similar interests and desires as you, sometimes you have to be willing to experience the pangs of jealousy. I’m not just talking about romantic jealousy – for us musicians, it can be about the gear. When I was in grade school, there was a bright and talented kid a year…
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New Video: The Wrong Tree
Making a video with Michael Galinsky and his family was so nice, I had to do it twice. Here is what we came up with together for The Wrong Tree: Don’t miss Michael’s new book Malls Across America! It reminds me of how nothing makes me think of death more than watching decades old sports…
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Unhand Me
From “Major Aranda’s Hand,” by Alfonso Reyes: “Major Aranda suffered the loss of a hand in battle, and, unfortunately for him, it was his right hand…A delicate instrument, [the hand] possesses the most fortunate physical resourcres: hinges, pincers, tongs, hooks, bony little chains, nerves, ligaments, canals, cushions, valleys and hillocks. It is soft and hard,…
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Full Stream Ahead
Growing up, I only I heard the word “streaming” in reference to tears that were coming hard and fast on the cheeks of a maudlin actress. These days, it means a freebie. You can listen to my new album Spare Parts streaming in unabridged fashion for the next week at American Songwriter magazine. Is it…
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Corporate Welfare.6: Pulling a Fast One
UC Berkeley’s Labor Center has published a new study on the role public subsidies play in the business model of fast food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. Like the other corporations in this series of posts, it turns out that these firms surreptitiously pocket billions in public subsidies while preaching the doctrine of…