RUBBER & REAL DUCKS GO VIRAL IN CHINA

COMMUNISTS AND OLIGARCHS HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR.....

LAUGHING AT MY NIGHTMARE.COM

There are a so many things to do on Facebook, YouTube, 

and even in real life....

Some are worth spending a few minutes of your time.  

This is one of them.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shane-burcaw-laughing-at-my-nightmare-documentary?c=home

JOSS WEDON, DIRECTOR

GRADUATES:  Action is more important than words....but words are more important than nothing.  Here are 13 minutes of funny, serious, true words than can help you, if you occasionally think of them.

The two professor-administrators at the front, who probably invited him, get his dark entertaining humor and agree. The professor in the back is probably bored and thinks he's a jerk.  You can make your own decision.  (The English is clear and non-academic.)

The problem is that at graduation ceremonies, students are thinking about partying, their dates, supportive and non-supportive families, no job, the terrifyng future, being hot or cold, holding on to their caps in the wind, eating, texting, boredom, and having a good night's sleep, hopefully with someone.

Still, the Graduation Speech Ritual is one of civilization's more useful inventions, too often unused.

http://www.upworthy.com/behold-the-bluntest-funniest-and-deadliest-graduation-speech-in-the-history-of-the-known-universe?g=2&c=upw1

ART and art

GREAT ART uses many different, constantly changing, carefully chosen and carefully crafted techniques (art language) in a single painting, to reveal deeper levels of thought and feeling....

MINOR ART discovers one or two new techniques and maintains them obsessively -- afraid to break through the surface, lose control, make mistakes, do failed paintings, or lose temporal reputations and sales. This very human, but anti-creative fear can be seen in a single painting, a series of paintings, or throughout an entire career....

There is nothing wrong with minor art. It can give us great immediate visual pleasure, make us laugh, feel a simple non-challenging emotion, and make our boring ugly environment more interesting or pretty....

But minor and great art are not interchangeable, and should not be mistaken for each other by art lovers, critics, museums, buyers, art teachers, art students, or other serious artists. The actual fate of our civilization and the human spirit depend on knowing, admitting, and celebrating the difference.

TO OUR GRADUATES

Life, as told by Lee Ang

DEAR MARGO ®

Margo Howard is (by far) the best, most psychologically astute, mentally healthy "advice" columnist in the international English media. Her wise advice is not always 100% correct, as she is not a mind-reader or God, but it is as close to constructive and useful reality, (not self-help dogma or nice-sounding politically-correct platitudes), as humanly possible. 

If your newspaper doesn't have it, you can read her column at no charge on the net, from Creators.com [This is not a paid endorsement.]

CHINA vs. A MAN

The monstrous Chinese government is so terrified of one tiny aging man who smiles and talks of the spirit.....Is a dinosaur terrified of a butterfly, or even a bee?  This gladiator competition is surreal and absurdist bad theatre.....No government can remain is power for long that has no sense of proportion or reality, though it can kill millions of its citizens in its vain attempt...a bloated version of Syria.

A GOOD WOMAN

February 3, 2013

Sotomayor, a Star on the Book-Tour Circuit, Sees a New Niche for a Justice

By JODI KANTOR

CHICAGO — At her Wednesday night book talk here, Justice Sonia Sotomayor glided through her audience of 700, dispensing homespun wisdom through a cordless microphone, interrupted by impromptu applause.

When the moderator read a question from Tabbie Major, age 7, about which books Justice Sotomayor loved as a child, she found the girl, locked her in an embrace, held on while reminiscing about Nancy Drew mysteries and then called out for a photographer to capture the moment. No need: a good portion of the crowd was already snapping pictures.

Welcome to another night in the life of Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court justice, current queen of the best-seller list and suddenly the nation’s most high-profile Hispanic figure.

A FATHER'S JOURNEY

New York Times:  December 22, 2012 

by Frank Bruni

FOR a long while, my father’s way of coping was to walk quietly from the room. He doesn’t remember this. I do. I can still see it, still feel the pinch in my chest when the word “gay” came up — perhaps in reference to some event in the news, or perhaps in reference to me — and he’d wordlessly take his leave of whatever conversation my mother and my siblings and I were having. He’d drift away, not in disgust but in discomfort, not in a huff but in a whisper. I saw a lot of his back.

GUNS: HOT ENTERTAINMENT REALITY FRANCHISE RETURNS

When I was young, idealistic, undiplomatic, and certain of right and wrong, I was outspoken. I said exactly what I believed, openly, in newspapers and magazines, on bulletin boards and telephone poles. I signed opinions, often including my address, and even, recklessly, my photo....

TOO MUCH TRUTH

Everything that every self-help book, cook book, medical book, philosophy book, political book, gossip book, make-over artist, and mange comic book says is right.

The environmentalists, educational reformers, and nutritionists, alternative medicine advocates, editorial cartoonists, columnists, educators, sportscasters, futurists, doomsday prophesiers conspiracy theorists, and art critics are all right.

I have to be afraid of H1V, swine flu, body fat, air pollution, chemicals on and in my food, water pollution, cell phones, drug interactions, anything made in China,