Jonn Richardson, Diunna Greenleaf and Bob Corritore — Image by kenne
We have thought more about Houston lately and our many “blues” friends. Since moving to Tucson from The Woodlands, we have stayed in touch via the Internet, social media and other electronic media. Friday, we learned via Facebook that our good friend, Mary Harris (aka, Ken & Mary of Ken & Mary’s Blues Project) was in the hospital after having a lung collapse — gotta be hard on breathing! The news is good, she is resting and getting better all the time.
Each time we go to Houston visiting family, we tried to include friends, which is not always easy. So, Ken & Mary are a “must see,” because we love them and they are soooo connected to all our blues friends in the Houston area, therefore we try to schedule trips around Ken & Mary’s house concerts. (Sometimes we can only schedule lunch.) We could go on and on with superlatives, but we will let past and future posting on the blues and Ken & Mary do the talking.
When time allows, we stream KPFT on Sunday morning, listening to Mr. & Mrs. V, who we are pleased to say have been a part of our circle of friends for almost as long as we have known Ken & Mary — our circle has grown to include blues in Tucson and Phoenix, with the likes of Marty Kool , KXCI, and all the great blues Bob Corritore brings into Arizona at his “Rhythm Room” in Phoenix.
This morning, we were streaming KPFT, knowing the the V’s would mention Mary’s hospitalization. We stepped away from the computer for a moment, when returning we heard Diunna Greenleaf singing one of our favorite Diunna songs, “Growing Up and Growing Old.” Given Mary’s situation, having heard Diunna sing it on several occasions, plus having the CD, I kept saying to myself, “myself, I thing I videoed her singing this song when she and Jonn were here at Plaza Palomino’s Rhythm & Roots Concert Series, Tucson, Arizona, and the Bisbee Blues Festival. Hoping that I had not lost the clips from their time here in September 2012, my Sunday became an “age like fine wine” project, in more ways than one.
Here’s the video, dedicated to Mary — hope we continue to hear great news on your recovery, Mary!
kenne & joy
“I aspire to inspire, before I expire.”
— Diunna Greenleaf
As an active social media user, I find this infographic very informative. Even though we may think that the use of social media is a youth thing, almost 50% of the users are over 45 years of age — interesting!
Are you doing things out of habit, or are you thinking? Most people have a daily routine that over time can be boring, yet paradoxically, comfortable. The comfort state may lead to not wanting to change our condition. Often, opposing opinions (ideas) are viewed as “divisive,” which can result in shackled learning.
A major element of the process of learning is the exchange of ideas. Today, one of the best ways for sharing ideas is through social media. People from all walks of life can more easily stay engaged, as they are often not aware of the goals, priorities, and constraints of others, especially in their circles of influence. The key to sharing ideas is the enabling of passion around an idea, which is the result of “contagious collaboration.”
Recently I read an article in the Atlantic, titled:
The 14 Biggest Ideas of the Year — A GUIDE TO THE INTELLECTUAL TRENDS THAT, FOR BETTER OR WORSE, ARE SHAPING AMERICA RIGHT NOW. (PLUS A BUNCH OF OTHER IDEAS, INSIGHTS, HYPOTHESES, AND PROVOCATIONS.)
14. The Green Revolution Is Neither 13. The Maniac Will Be Televised 12. The Players Own the Game 11. Gay Is the New Normal 10. Bonds Are Dead (Long Live Bonds) 9. The Next War Will Be Digitized 8. Grandma’s in the Basement (and Junior’s in the Attic) 7. Public Employee, Public Enemy 6. Wall Street: Same as It Ever Was 5. The Arab Spring Is a Jobs Crisis 4. Elections Work 3. The Rich Are Different From You and Me 2. Nothing Stays Secret 1. The Rise of the Middle Class—Just Not Ours
You may or may not agree that these are the 14 biggest ideas of the year, but you can learn more by clicking here.
It’s not a coincidence that the parent company of The Atlantic is the Atlantic Media Company, who partners with the Aspen Institute to put on the Aspen Ideas Festival, currently taking place in Aspen with people that truly understand the joy of ideas. What better source for a festival.
Over the years, photography has become my primary vehicle for carrying me through the door to the world of art, all it’s beauty and expressions of our universal connections. The Internet has made my wish to connect and share easier and more profound. Hardly a day goes by that my existence isn’t extended in-depth and insight.
For sometime my blog has had a link to the blog, chasejarvis.com. Chase Jarvis is a well-known photography and filmmaker based in Seattle. I love his work, but more importantly, I’m impressed with his use of social media as a creative outlet to the world of art. For Jarvis, social media is not going away, “. . . I think it’s going to change a lot over the next couple of years, but it’s interesting how that integrates with a creative person or with creativity in general.”
Yesterday, Jarvis posted a short entry, titled, “Whatever Makes You Nervous,” where he references Michael Jordan’s response to his golfing friends wanting to know how much they’re betting against one another on each hole. Apparently, Jordan’s stock response is: “Whatever Makes You Nervous.”
For Jarvis, that’s what we should bet on ourselves, every time. “Not what makes you comfortable, but what makes you nervous.” His point being that we must push our comfort level to grow.
All of us who have ever experienced some degree of success, did so by our willingness to take risks. As a young adult, one of my biggest fears was speaking in front of a group of people. But, I knew I needed to take on the fear and face the risk of making a fool of myself, which I have done many times. The degree my skills have improved, and any level of success I have accomplished, has been due to my confronting and pushing the stress level.
The Jarvis posting is a great reminder of how to succeed in life. And, as one reply to the posting noted by sharing the Woody Allen quote:
“If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough!”
What follows is what is becoming my annual entry on MySpace:
Infrequent Use of My Space
Current mood: accomplished Category: Blogging
Because of my use of other social media venues, Myspace has almost been none. I happen to be here this morning because of some thoughts I was having on freedom and that something our greatest freedom may be to choose freedom from freedom, which lead me to Googleing “freedom from freedom.” One of the results wasFreedom From Freedom – SUN RA’ MySpace Blog….which really got my attention since know enough about Sun Ra to know that he died in the early nineties — the Myspace blog shows his age as 95, which would be the case if he were still alive. But then, from what I know about Sun Ra, he’s probably still alive, only not here on earth.
So here I am, completely distracted from my original thought by the freedom the Internet allows, which actually does get me back to my original thought on freedom from freedom. What better example of our greatest freedom being that of choosing freedom from freedom than that of choosing to resist the temptation to seek a deeper knowledge through the freedom network, the Internet. My resistance is weak, like those of you who may read this posting. An image comes to mind in the form of a question: Will we become a sea of corpses at the feet of the Sirens in Ulysses? Get the picture of people bowing, others dead at the feet of social media icons — cause of death, “data overload.”
Everyday I ask people to become “friends,” “follow-me,” etc, resulting in, “Why?”
One of the groups I belong to is a book club, The Society of The 5th Cave, and now we are Twittering — well, some of us are. Since we are mostly older generation guys, it’s not easy to Twitt just because one of us puts 5thCave on Twitter.
Today I received another one of those “Why?” questions. What following is my response:
Good question. Here are some reasons why you need Twitter:
1. Easily link with people sharing common interests i.e., reading, book clubs, etc.
2. Quickly share club information and history.
3. Have interactive dialog on books selections.
4. Others can follow the 5thCave and learn about our reading list and reviews.
5. The social media group provides an element of trust because of our knowledge of one another.
6. Provide avenues for choosing to link (follow) other like minded people.
7. The are many other reasons for using Twitter, i.e.:
• Identify potential clients, news sources, leads, etc
• Find a job
• Build brand awareness
• Make money
• To get news and information
• Drive viewers to blog or website
. . .but may not apply to 5thCave.
To be a part of the Twitter 5thCave, one needs to register on Twitter.comand start following 5thCave.
Twitter is just one of many social media sites that allow people to network, which is fundamental to being human, but make use of technology to network.
The real negative of Twitter is you will need to check your site, which will contain postings on 5thCave if you are following 5thCave. What shows up on your site are the posting of those you are following — so the choices are all yours.
Hope this is helpful.
I would like to hear your comments on why you use social media.
Jonn Richardson, Diunna Greenleaf and Bob Corritore — Image by kenne
accomplished
Becoming is Superior to Being 
. . . Yes!
Source: Non Sequitur
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