Wedding day pics

My sister got married yesterday. Here are a few pics from the rehearsal and the day of...

The Good Luck Wedding Spirit:

Chillin with the gramps

Amanda -- "the favorite child"

Momski

Aunties Eve (left) and Janie

Erin, the hot bride's maid

The church

Momski and Erin

More to come soon, plus links to Amanda's web page of wedding photos!

People I love

Here's Mary, who was instrumental in my resurrection, and Kevin, who has sustained me since...

I'll fix yer rack, if you keep Jack my dog...

Here's me playin The Weight with my bro Justin -- a brilliant and enlightened dude if there ever was one...


This was at a celebratory BBQ for Global Footprint Network and its cadre of interns and volunteer workers. Audrey Peller -- GFN's maverick researcher and tech-ops femme fatale -- baked me a cheesecake decorated with the words "Holy Crap, I am Awesome" for the occasion.

Folks, there never was a truer cheesecake.

What am I playin there? Yeah, that's a Martin D-35. Rosewood back and sides. Ebony fretboard. Uh-huh. You jealous? Should be...

Wendell Berry speech

Wendell Berry gave this commencement speech in 2005. I was going to write something about it, but there's no point in that. Just read it. He says everything, and better than I could anyway.

Also, Wikipedia entry on Berry, and an interview from Sojourner's Magazine.

Here's his essay writtern just after September 11 2001.

And, and excerpt from Christianity and the Survival of Creation

"Despite its protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly the religion of the state and the economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has, by a kind of ignorance, been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for the most part, stood silently by, while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flag and chanted the slogans of empire. It has assumed with the economists that "economic forces" automatically work for good, and has assumed with the industrialists and militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that "progress" is good, that it is good to be modern and up with the times. It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and defaults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation. For, in these days, Caesar is no longer a mere destroyer of armies, cities, and nations. He is a contradictor of the fundamental miracle of life. A part of the normal practice of his power is his willingness to destroy the world. He prays, he says, and churches everywhere compliantly pray with him. But he is praying to a God whose works he is prepared at any moment to destroy. What could be more wicked than that, or more mad?

The religion of the Bible, on the contrary, is a religion of the state and the status quo only in brief moments. In practice, it is a religion for the correction equally of people and of kings. And Christ's life, from the manger to the cross, was an affront to the established powers of his time, as it is to the established powers of our time. Much is made in churches of the "good news" of the gospels. Less is said of the gospel's bad news, which is that Jesus would have been horrified by just about every "Christian" government the world has ever seen. He would be horrified by our government and its works, and it would be horrified by him. Surely no sane and thoughtful person can imagine any government of our time sitting comfortably at the feet of Jesus, who is telling them to "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. . . " (Matt. 5:44)."

Tolstoy online!

Some diligent person, god bless their soul, has transcribed Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You in it's entirety for the web.

Not the dude from ZZ Top...

This treatise on christian anarchism is central to my own exegesis of the gospels. Classic, classic stuff. A must-read for anyone serious about living out the teachings of Jesus. (I mean the real radical stuff, like "blessed are the peacemakers" and the works of mercy, etc.)

See also the Catholic Worker movement, and the Wikipedia entry on Tolstoy.

Waterfalls

Some hikes yesterday to see waterfalls...
Yellow Branch Falls


Whitewater Falls

High on the mountain, wind blowin' free, thinkin' about the day that used to be...

I met up with some old friends in Asheville the other evening for a bluegrass jam reminiscent of the days at McGrath's pub in Alameda, CA.

Two-thirds of what we used to call the "Virginia Contingent" got together at Wayne's house for some down home cookin and some down home music. (Wayne's another Berkeley-ite, as well as "Thin Man" Larry.)

The Virginia Contingent was the bluegrass force brough by myself, Anya (pictured) and Clint at the McGrath's Monday night jams. I'm (of course) from West-By-God and Anya and Clint are both from VA -- Anya from Blacksburg and Clint from Charlottesville.

(Actually, Clint's from the old home place. He fell in love with a girl from the town, thought that she would be true. He ran away to Charlottesville, and worked in a saw mill or two.)

Where's Clint now? Last I heard he was in Africa tracking some big game (he's a conservation biologist).

Anyway, it was great to see Anya and her hubby Gen. They're truly special people, and I'm proud to be friends with them. Enjoy the pics...

I'm an uncle! (sort of)...

Here's me and my bro Steve and his baby Abigail. She is awesome -- we really hit it off.

Steve's in hs last year of residency for pediatrics in Greenville, SC. I'm trying to talk him into doing Doctors Without Borders, but I think with the new baby, and the mortgage, and the private practice opening up, not to mention Taryn's influence, he'll be staying put in SC.

I have known Steve since seventh grade, when we bonded over a discussion of the previous night's episode of "MacGyver." And now here I am holding his baby, for chirssakes! What a headtrip!

Circles of Hope

Just finished the Circles of Hope meeting at Black Kettle Farm in Essex NY. The food was great, the gardens were beautiful, and the people were really into 'sharing.' Man, was there a lot of sharing. Good, though. Just A LOT of sharing.

Enjoy the pics...

The full group

The farm house



Note the solar-thermal array...

...and the photovoltaics...




On top of Cascade Mountain, just east of Lake Placid...