Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. ~Osho
Monty Lapica is winning major award after major award for his debut film Self-Medicated. This could become the flagship film of the troubled-teen industry, a Coolhand Luke for children of the '90s. After his father died, his mother hired a company to abduct him and place him in a lockdown psychiatric treatment center for troubled youth. The staff was corrupt, the ordeal horrible - but he orchestrated an escape. That's all I know, all from the many raving reviews on the film, which is currently touring this country and abroad, attracting awards like a magnet. If you're in a major city, check the site - you may get to see it before the rest of us waiting for the DVD to be released. The website for the film is powerful and enigmatic in itself, and probably gives you a real good idea of what you're in for. I can't wait to see it.
Lone Souls has a new home - lonesouls.org
From the site:
The lone souls web site is an advocacy art project devoted to victims of the troubled-teen industry — residential treatment programs such as wilderness therapy, boot camps, etc. Lone souls collects and showcases related artwork and writing by survivors and anyone moved by this disturbing issue.
Submissions are welcome from any genre — poems, essays, song lyrics, drawings, paintings, photos, whatever. Email submissions to submissions @ lonesouls.org (Close the spaces; they're there to deter spam). Paste text works into the body of the email if possible; otherwise, PDF, JPEG and Word formats are preferred. Please include your name as you wish it to appear and a few words about yourself in relation to the troubled-teen industry; or, if you wish your work to appear anonymously, just let us know.
Language Log is a blogzine I've been recommending since the beginning of my own blogging life. Now I am delighted to tell you that a book has been published on it. Yours truly worked on it, as a matter of fact. It's really, really funny and smart.
WILLIAMS, JAMES & CO. PUBLISHES FAR FROM THE MADDING GERUND, BOOK VERSION OF POPULAR ONLINE LANGUAGE MAGAZINE
William, James & Co. presents Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log, a book based on the popular online magazine Language Log. The 276-page paperback trade book has just been released.
Although written by professional linguists on topics like syntax and phonetics, Far from the Madding Gerund appeals to a general audience with its “exuberant, tart, and totally addictive” style (The Boston Globe).
The authors examine language-related items in the news, evolving patterns of everyday speech, and language choices of everyone from major political figures and celebrities to people having audible cell phone conversations in shopping malls. Often the authors’ musings on language meander through warm stories from their lives, such as learning the value of political pluralism among fiery young GI’s in 1969 Vietnam, and being moved at hearing Ray Charles sing America the Beautiful in Santa Cruz County just a month before he died. As the Chicago Tribune explained about Language Log, “What you won't find are rants about the sorry state of proper standard English in America. Linguists tend to be more interested in observing how words are used than in complaining about what they hear.” The book champions linguistic descriptivism for readers who needn’t know the term.
Far from the Madding Gerund contains 139 of the best posts from Language Log (www.languagelog.com), a popular online magazine written in Weblog format by professional linguists. Web and book content is mostly written by Geoffrey Pullum and Mark Liberman. Pullum is Professor of Linguistics and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of California (The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, 2002); The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language, 1990. Mark Liberman is Trustees Professor of Phonetics in Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania (The intonational system of English (Outstandings dissertations in linguistics). Additional contributors to the site include 14 other linguistics professors.
From the introduction of Far from the Madding Gerund:“As you read this book, you may (we hope) find yourself thinking, “I never knew that!” or “I always thought that was bad grammar!” or “Was that really the origin?” or “Did they really write that?”. And while these thoughts are occurring to you, it may be that you will come to see the English language somewhat differently on some points. You will have fun, but your opinions about language will shift. You might even begin to think you’d like to know a bit more about linguistics than you know right now” (–Mark Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum).
Skullbolt: screams from a mutilated voicebox is a remarkable blog I just discovered. Bobby, the blogger, has a distinct character that resonates through his tight, evocative poetry as well as his prose and photography. Another sensitive, cynical artistic type trying to stay afloat in a society not set up to embrace such gems...What's not to like?
I am proud to post a poem and a photo by Bobby at Mighty Mix. 
The cat is not giving me CPR
when I realize what
shot out of the howling lawnmower
I wake up on a hammock
the cat is softening up a comfort spot in
the sad hole in my chest
lonely Saturdays I do nothing with
I could have remained at my desk
Friday evening and closed my
eyes until Monday morning
Smiling, I order from a catalogue
warming up the copier
the coffee machine accumulated
one drop all weekend
hanging there, finally falling
I miss lemonade
too late to get my head straight
I didn’t care about payday
I haven’t flipped pages on my calendar
NOW is on at PBS at 9:00 p.m. Fridays on the West Coast. Check local listings here.
This week on NOW, possibly the best investigative journalism program left:
In Your Eyes
Musician and human rights activist Peter Gabriel is empowering people to document human rights abuses in their own backyards and bring them to the world's attention. His organization, Witness, is based in Brooklyn, but has electronic eyes all over the world, acting under the motto "see it, film it, change it." Gabriel opens up to David Brancaccio about his horror at abuses as far away as Burma and as close as California, and how his efforts have led to real change.
"I think it appalls you at first when you start seeing what people actually do in the world. But I find some of the people you meet, that are fighting the abuses, extraordinary," says Gabriel.
