johnsonroad.net

Theremin: I Want One

I used to get the PAIA catalog and I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of assembling one of their Theremin kits. After seeing this video I definitely want one.

Sunset Boulevard performance

This is from a recital at the end of the Acting for the Musical Stage workshop conducted by Four Seasons Theatre.

reviews of Over the River and Through the Woods

• “Laugh and cry with Over the River and Through the Woods by the Madison Theatre Guild” – Isthmus Daily Page
• “‘Over the River’ is worth the trip” – 77 Square

Gay marriage is a question of love.

Well said.

Obama’s Speech

John McCain on Attack Ads

Well said, Senator. Your abstinence from running attack ads against your opponent during this election season has been an inspiration to us all.

via [MikeMonteiro.com]

Steal This Comic

Reprinted with (explicit?) permission from xkcd:

Our National Shame

People can do unspeakable things when they believe they won’t be held accountable for their actions. Civilians do it. Soldiers do it. Presidents do it. The difference with Presidents is that they have the power to cover up and pardon their own crimes. They don’t have to hope they won’t be caught. They can sign their own immunity into law.

1. Assert that we must abandon our sense of decency if necessary to put the screws to the bad guys.
2. Tacitly approve of torture while maintaining enough plausible deniability to keep oneself out of war crimes court.
3. When the truth comes out, throw your loyal subordinates under the bus to leave them to feel the disgrace that you deserve.

Taxi to the Dark Side is a documentary about detainee abuse and murder at the hands of American soldiers: how it started; how it was allowed to continue; and its consequences for detainees, soldiers, officers, members of the Bush administration, and the perception of America to the rest of the world.

This is what our fear and jingoism have wrought. Human beings deserve better than this sort of treatment, and we as Americans deserve better than leaders who tell us that this is acceptable.

Please watch this film.

Sarah Palin in 30 Seconds

She has nothing of substance to say and does a pretty poor job saying it. Ladies and gentlemen, a potential President of the United States:

Sarah Palin: an unqualified, inarticulate, superstitious, hypocritical marionette of the right wing.

Want inner peace? Have a stroke.

Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist, had a stroke that effectively shut down the left hemisphere of her brain. It took her 8 years to fully recover. In this video she shares her experience of entirely losing her sense of herself as an individual being.

Mystics, meditators, and psychadelic explorers have been to that “place;” a bleeding brain took her there. To her it felt profoundly spiritual but also underscored her understanding of the vastly different roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Are we spiritual beings capable of having physical experiences or physical beings capable of having spiritual experiences? I think the way that we’re “wired” prevents us from being able to know which is true. Does such a dichotomy even serve us?

Science continues to demonstrate how electrical impulses and chemicals interact to create our perception, which can include vast experiences of consciousness. If we truly are nothing more than extraordinarily complex machines, does that really matter? We do know that what matters in our relation to others and the world is what we do in the physical realm.

[via Open Culture]