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Shows I’ve liked

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(NPL means I got it from the Nashville Public Library)

Le grand voyage. – French, Muslim dad wants to go to Mecca, forces twenty year old son to take him

Local color.  Old painter, young painter, summer lessons.  

Last stop. Tel Aviv bus station and racism. 

The grocers son. French

Green Chariot.  Israel.  Russian convert

The other son.  Jewish and Arab boys switched at birth

Commune (library) Black bear ranch. Peter Coyote.  

Time of favor.  Israeli soldier and rabbi. 

Israel. The royal tour.  Benjamin Netinyahu. 

Straddling the Fence.   Thomas Friedman reports on the Wall in Israel

The Wind Journeys.   Mexico. Accordion of the devil.  

In the footsteps of saint Peter.  David Suchet.     two part.  

The chosen people.   Messianic Jews.  

The Human scale.  Making cities human sized and neighborly.  

The exorcist in the 21st century.  Real.  

Buying the spirit.  Voodoo in Haiti. 

Yoga is… A transformational journey        Documentary 

With one voice.    Mysticism.  

The philosopher kings.  Janitors

Rain in the mountains- Native American Eric Smallwood talks to a dead man and learns his destiny.  Tries to return to the old ways.  Comedy.  

Dimensions.  Time travel.  England. 

Time Stalkers.  Wild West plus time travel.  A huge cast of stars. 

—–all the Rwanda films—-  hotel Rwanda   Sometimes in April.  Imbabazi – the pardon

Griefwalker   How we die.  Very philosophical. 

The week that changed the world.  

Road to Emmaus.  

Chariots of the Gods

In search of ancient mysteries 

Life in a walk.  Camino de Santiago. Yogi and Will Roth

The Secrets.  Orthodox Jewish women, Safed.   

Adrift in Tokyo.  Japanese. Odd. A walk to turn a man in for killing his wife.  

Love collage.  Japanese photographer and dead? girlfriend 

Mr Smith Goes to Tokyo 

The land of hope.  Japanese.  Fukushima radiation village.  

Shortcut to Nirvana. Indian Kumbh Mela festival 

Humano.  Andes.  Shamanism.  

The Temple Mount dilemma

Ram Dass Fierce Grace.   Aging 

Mythic Journeys. Mark Hamill. Deepak Chopra.   Animation.  

Key of life.  Japanese.  Switched identity.  Executive who needs a husband. Comedy.  Gangster.  

A girl walks home alone at night.  Iranian vampire western.  Black and white (NPL)

When Marnie was there.  (NPL. Ghibli.  Ghost, grandmother. )

Breaking the chain.  Hindu, artist.  Karma

Alien agenda – planet earth

I capture the castle.  English. Bill Nighy.  Despondent writer. Poverty. Gold digger. 

A prison on earth.  Slick alien conspiracy.  

The Norse: an Arctic mystery. Documentary on Baffin Island, the Thule people. 

Molokai.   Leper colony, father Damien.   Hansen’s disease.  

Treasure island – with Jack Palance.  

Finding neverland.   J depp 

Little white lie.  Lacey Schwartz.  Jewish, black, culture, hidden history.  

— Dark days.   Nyc subway, homeless.   Hoopla.  

The Vikings: Journey to the new world.  

Japanese story.  Australian. 

The phantom coach.  Shadow puppets, 7 minute scary story 

The man in the high castle.   Series.  

Touring Israel. Bible prophecy revealed 

 

— last flight of Petr Ginz.    Hoopla.  Jewish ww2

Radioactive wolves.   NPL.  Chernobyl 

The Pruitt-Igoe myth. Npl.  Housing project in St Louis. 

Surviving Progress.   Npl.  Overconsumption, environmental collapse.  

 The Human Scale. Npl Jan Gehl.  Cities for people

Tomorrow we disappear.  Npl – India slums rehab

Urbanized.  City design

Black out.  1977 NYC power out (npl)

Watchers of the Sky.  (Npl) genocide as a crime.  

A convenient truth.   Urban solutions from Curitiba Brazil.  Hoopla

Connected.  An auto-blog-ography about love, death, and technology.  Tiffany Shlain

If you build it.   Studio H. Matt and Emily. High school shop class town revitalization.  

My Italian secret- heroes of the holocaust.  Npl 

Lost and found.  Uganda refugees, prisoners.  Npl.  

16 acres.  Ground zero rebuild.  Hoopla.    Twice 

Christiania.  Dutch squatter micronation.  Hoopla. 

American Commune.  The Farm.  Hoopla. 

Mother of Mine.   Finnish and Swedish.  Ww1.  Almost orphan.  

heart of a dog by Laurie Anderson.  702.81092

The woman in Gold.  Klimt and Nazis

The Shack

The hundred foot journey.  – Indians in France. Helen Mirren.  

The extraordinary adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec.   Luc Besson. Pterodactyl , mummy, Paris.  

A man called Ove.  Norwegian. 

How I live now.  American goes to England, nuclear war breaks out.  NPL.  

California Typewriter.   Excellent documentary NPL

The unlikely Pilgrims – Australians in rehab walk the Camino.  Npl 

Crazy Wisdom.  Buddhism in the west.   Hoopla

Auroville.  Hoopla.  India commune, ideal village.  Many Germans

(A) sexual.    Hoopla.  Community, aspergers.  

Your name.   Japanese.  Npl.   Switching bodies, time.  

Children of the Stones.   NPL. Leylines, Avebury. 

Cinque Terre villages virtual walk – VITA virtual walk series.  Hoopla.  

Ethel and Ernest.   About Raymond Brigg’s parents in ww2 England.  

Obsession 

Ramen Heads.  

Where to Invade Next.   Michael Moore.  Npl

Three identical strangers.   Twin study.  Npl. 

The Endless.   Npl.  Loop.  

The Moses Code.  Hoopla

Tales from the Loop.  Prime. Series based on art.  

Undone.   Prime. time travel because of accident

James May our man in Japan

Throw down your heart.  Bela Fleck.  YouTube 

Brooklyn.  Irish girl in America.  

Replicas.  Netflix.  Keanu. 

Squid game

Elves.  Danish Christmas vacation gone wrong.  

Maboroshi.  Netflix anime

—-mostly on Netflix —-

Sense 8

Altered Carbon

The OA

Shadow and Bone

The Umbrella Academy

Sweet Tooth

Locke & Key

Glitch

Travellers

Another Life

Messiah

Always a Witch (time travel, Latin America, teenager)

The Eternaut (Argentinia, post apocalypse)

Gift (Gobekle Teppe, mystical)

Dark (German, alternate timelines)

The Castle toy store

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When I was growing up in Chattanooga, TN, there was a toy store called “The Castle”. This is because the owners had taken a normal brick building and added wooden shingles to it to make it look like a castle with turrets. It was where I was taken if I got a good report card or for my birthday – or just because I needed a toy.

I miss that experience of rooting around and discovering just that special thing that I needed. I never got anything really expensive because I was very aware of how much money my parent’s didn’t have. I appreciated them wanting to get me a gift, but I also knew not to take them for granted.

I did some digging and found a scan of a newspaper image of it.

Here is what it looked like before they added the shingles. I never saw it this way.

The owner was Frank May.

It was located at the intersection of South Germantown Road and Ringgold Road – so I saw it every day on the way to school. Smack dab right in front of me, coming down S. Germantown to go left on Ringgold Road was this castle, with a lit up sign that counted down the days to Christmas.

Illegal immigration thoughts

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I’m in an odd position about immigration / citizenship. So many people are illegally here already. And because they are illegally here, they are the new slave class. They work for very little money and have no protection against workplace dangers. And yet they stay – because it is better than where they came from. And if they speak up, they risk being sent back. So that tells me a lot about what they are trying to flee. 

I do not ascribe to the NewSpeak of “undocumented people” or “refugee”.  I call a spade a spade.  If you are illegally in this country, you are an illegal immigrant. Changing the terms does not change the facts. 

I’m opposed to anyone illegally here getting free anything – education, healthcare, etc.  However – if they do, it is the fault of the government for giving it. It isn’t meaningful to demonize illegal immigrants for getting anything for free.  The system needs to be fixed on the government side. 

Also, the American government needs to stop: 

giving money to other countries

going to war with other countries

We have enough problems here that need to be fixed. 

Americans need to get over the idea that this is “our” country.  We stole it from the people who were already here, and then committed genocide. That must be addressed and healed. We will not move forward until that wrong is corrected. 

Our immigration laws are racist – Europeans invade an already-occupied land and colonize it.  Then they make rules about who can and can’t come here – that are often skewed towards other Europeans and away from anyone who is not white. 

It is as if someone invaded your home, kicked you out, and then changed the locks and only let their friends in. 

What comes first?

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What came first – being a member of The Wander Society or paying closer attention to things? Many of us in order to be part of this funny little club had to read Keri Smith’s book first. Then we had to be curious about the clues in the book. We had to go outside of the book to find out more.

We had to figure out that there was a request to make a stack of stones, take a photo of them, and email them to a special email address mentioned in the book. It is kind of like coming across a treasure hunt without planning to. Just reading the book was the start. But then you have to engage the message in the book to get anywhere.

Being curious, not taking things at face value, and being willing to think outside the box (not even seeing the box!) are all traits that we brought with us into this group. Perhaps the best part of being in this group is that we are now validated for our curiosity. We are in a like-minded society (albeit a virtual one) of other people who wonder and wander. When we see pictures posted by other members of beautiful mountain scenes we want to lace up our hiking boots and go. When we see macro photography from other members of tiny little things that we otherwise would not have noticed, we think “Hey, I wonder what else I am missing and I should pay closer attention to?”

So perhaps they both reinforce each other – being curious and being a Wanderer creates Wanderers who are even more curious. Perhaps it is not simply “Solved by walking”. Perhaps it is all about wandering.

Perhaps instead of being inoculated against the world, Wanderer’s hearts are even more open. Perhaps The Wander Society serves as inspiration to share our hearts – our tender beautiful tiny huge hearts – with other people who share the view that the world is an amazing and tender and wonderful place.

Open letter to health insurance companies:

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My health insurance company asked me how they could do better. I answered like this –

It would be nice if it cost less. I don’t think I get $400 a month of use out of my health insurance. Make it so everybody can afford it. That way, they wouldn’t have to work so hard and stress so much about their bills – thus staying healthy. If people could afford health insurance on part-time work, they’d have time to exercise, visit with friends, and do the things that matter to them. We all know how important these things are to staying healthy. Or, if the rates need to stay the same, I’d love it if we as a society could turn “health care” into actually caring for health, instead of just managing disease. Too many folks don’t have time to take care of their health, so they get sick. “Health care” becomes “disease management” and palliative care, rather than truly helping people achieve health. It would be great if your health insurance company would pay for visits to nutritionists, personal trainers, massage therapists, and acupuncturists, for example. We live in changing times. It is time for new ways of thinking.

Things to do in a quarantine.

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Virtual tours of museums –

https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

Art prompts from Keri Smith, creator of “Wreck this Journal” –

https://www.explorationoftheday.com/

Music from the Metropolitan Opera –

“In an effort to continue providing opera to its audience members, the Met Opera will host “Nightly Met Opera Streams” on its official website to audiences worldwide. These free streams will present encores of past performances from its famed Live in HD series. The encore presentations will begin at 7:30 p.m. EST each night on the company’s website (see below) and and will then be available for an additional 20 hours thereafter.”

https://www.metopera.org/

Check your local library’s databases – with mine, you can learn lots of different languages and how to play a musical instrument, for example. You can learn Mandarin and Mandolin!

Make art. You know that project you’ve been putting off? Now is a great time to finish it.

Go for a walk. You aren’t supposed to stay stuck inside, just away from people.

Metropolitan Opera to Offer Up ‘Nightly Met Opera Streams’

Halloween Thoughts

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#1.  You have to wear a costume.

#2.  You must say trick or treat.

If these two things happen, I will give you candy.

No picking out what you want.  No candy for your “sick brother at home” or “the baby”. Each person must be present and follow #1 and #2 to get candy.

It must be at least twilight before Trick-or-Treating begins.  Dark is better.

You are never “too old” to trick or treat, as long as you follow #1 and #2 and are polite about it.

Halloween is on October 31st. Period.  It should not be moved because the next day is a school day. Sometimes Halloween celebrations are cancelled because of bad weather.  That is part of it. I remember tromping in my neighborhood in a vampire costume, by myself, with an umbrella, in the rain.  It wasn’t that great, but it sure was a memory.  Sometimes I think bad experiences toughen kids up to being able to handle what being an adult is like. 

Churches should stop doing “trunk or treat”.  They should celebrate their own holiday – All Saints Day.  They hate it when the secular world gets involved in their religious holidays.  It follows that they should stay out of this pagan holiday. If they don’t want their members participating in Halloween, then they should say so. Trying to sanitize Halloween is an embarrassment and a waste of energy.

It is time to stop, period.

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I don’t understand the necessity for products to prolong sex after it is necessary. We have prescriptions for men and women to make it possible for them to be sexually active after they are able to have children. Viagra for men, and pills and creams for women are intended to prolong something that has no need. It has turned something normal into something abnormal.

This ad keeps coming up on my home page. It is impossible to ignore. It takes up half the page.

I clicked on it to show you this –

It is “used in women after menopause to treat moderate to severe pain during sexual intercourse caused by changed in and around the vagina that happen with menopause.”

There is no need for this. Menopause isn’t a disease.

It is time to learn other ways to be intimate. Try talking. Try playing board games. Try going on vacation together. Use a different part of your body to connect with your mate – your heart.

This obsession with sex as the only way to connect is what has lead to the disturbing amount of unwanted pregnancies, abortion, and child abuse and neglect, among other avoidable tragedies. Imagine how our world would look if we focused our energy and time towards something meaningful instead.

Unusual wi-fi names

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Here’s a list of names of wi-fi that I’ve come across. I’ll add to it as I find more. 

Lizard Thicket

Te$$ertam

Chinafrica Guest

Maverick

NOTYOURDADDY

Kellogg’s Serial

Unfriendly2

jimmy carter’s Network

Asstastic

Ladgraceram2.4

Ostrander

Burshki

Dwight

earnest

enlazer_huesped

GEMINIGIRL-2.4

Metalgear

NoFreeWiFiHere’

NeverSoSlow

Prevatt

Jones Airways

CoeCoe27

Go Hokies

MarsOrBust

lucyisabutt_2.4

LifesABeach

dada

TB Orbi90

OutOfService

bonster

Davecave

Ting@City of Promise_2.4G

Wahoostop

Lich

Buyer beware

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I have recently learned about a day camp for children with special needs.  I am very concerned about it because the parents who might send their children to this might think that it was safe.  I think that is the furthest from the truth.

Yvonne Perry, creator of the “We are 1 in Spirit” blog and self-published author of books about being a host to “walk-in” entities, is holding a “Special Needs Children’s Day Camp” Monday July 10 through Wednesday July 12.

It is being held at a retreat center that she bought. She won’t even give out the address until you pay for the day camp.

There is no oversight or supervision to this.  There is no agency that is sponsoring this, no system of checks and balances.

Would you trust your child, especially one with special needs, to this person? Look into her eyes.  What do they tell you about her?

yvonne

She talks openly about being a host to “walk-in” entities.   She says that she has been taken over by multiple different personalities and spirits.  In the medical world, this is called “multiple personality disorder”.  In the spiritual world, this is called “possession”.

Either way, I wouldn’t think this is a person who should be left alone with children who would have a lower level of ability to communicate their needs.  Special-needs children are even more vulnerable that other children.

From the ad for it –

–“Nurturing the Special Needs Child” is a day camp for children K-5 through 4th grade, facilitated by Tiffany Holt and Yvonne Perry. Intuitive and special needs children are invited to participate in this program near Ashland City, Tennessee. This “hands-on” classroom is a 3-day workshop (Monday through Wednesday) designed for understanding the imaginative child and enhancing his or her self-esteem.”

 

So how much for all of this? For three days (8 am to 5 pm) of leaving your child alone with someone who is not trained, not licensed, not an authority in anything at all … $150.

The other host is Tiffany Holt, who according to the ad “is a certified K-8 teacher and Master level Reiki teacher. She is a Special Educational Assistant at Kenrose Elementary in Brentwood, Tennessee.”

But is this true?  All we have to go on is the words in the ad.

Wisely, the person with no real qualifications is at the end of the ad –

“Yvonne Perry is a former pre-school music teacher, a sound healing therapist, and the owner of Sweet Home Retreat Center. She is the author of many books, including “The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children”, which was inspired by her grandson (now 16 years old) who was in touch with the spirit world at an early age. She loves gardening, singing, being in nature, playing with kids, and creating beauty and harmony in everything she touches.”

as well as this …

“Yvonne Perry is a metaphysical author, light language practitioner, workshop facilitator, and shaman-ka who helps people shift into their most loving authentic selves. She does this through healing sound therapy and her books, prayers, seminars, coaching, and spiritual services.”

What is a “shaman-ka”?  She made this up.  Along with everything else.  “Sham” is more like it.

Be sure to read between the lines and notice that she charges people to “heal” them with her “light-language” (random non-language mutterings that she describes as speaking in tongues) as well as her “sound therapy” (singing random notes at people).

She is unlicensed, untrained, and unsupervised.  She has no certification in anything she does.  And yet she thinks that she can charge people for her “talents”.

Would you hire an electrician to rewire your house without making sure he was trained and licensed first?  No.

Would you allow a person to teach (or even babysit) your child if they were not certified to do so? No.

Then why would anyone pay this woman to “heal” them – or worse, leave their children alone with them?

I said nothing when she began her “healing” services over a year ago. Adults have to make their own decisions about what they do with their lives.  But I have to speak up when she starts thinking it is OK to say she is qualified to teach children – and special-needs children (who are more vulnerable).

She has written many books, and people might think that this means she has been reviewed by other experts in the field.  Most authors submit their work to a publishing company who checks out their work to see if it is accurate before they will publish it.  However, she skipped that step and self-publishes.  Therefore, she has no oversight.

Full disclosure – I wrote something for her that became part of her “light language” book.  This was before she decided to charge people for her services.  I am in agreement that people need to re-connect with the Holy Spirit in whatever way possible, but I disagree with charging money for it.