Television Anniversary - September 30, 2015

Today is the 55th anniversary of The Flintstones, the prime-time animated television series.

Album Anniversary - September 30, 2015

Today is the 20th anniversary of On, the sophomore album from Echobelly.

Video: "King of the Kerb"

Album Anniversary - September 30, 2015

Today is the 30th anniversary of Rain Dogs, the eighth studio album from Tom Waits.

Video: "Clap Hands"

Today's Words of Wisdom - September 30, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Rumi (1207 -1273):

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

and

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”

Truman Capote (1924 - 1984):

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”

and

“He loved her, he loved her, and until he'd loved her she had never minded being alone....”

and

“You can’t give your heart to a wild thing.”

and

“I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.”

and

“You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.”

and

“Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.”

and

“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.”

Elie Wiesel (1928 - ):

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”

and

“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”

and

“There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you.”

W.S. Merwin (1927 - ):

“On the last day of the world

I would want to plant a tree”

and

“Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing.”

A BIRTHDAY

by W.S. Merwin

Something continues and I don't know what to call it

though the language is full of suggestions

in the way of language

but they are all anonymous

and it's almost your birthday music next to my bones

these nights we hear the horses running in the rain

it stops and the moon comes out and we are still here

the leaks in the roof go on dripping after the rain has passed

smell of ginger flowers slips through the dark house

down near the sea the slow heart of the beacon flashes

the long way to you is still tied to me but it brought me to you

I keep wanting to give you what is already yours

it is the morning of the mornings together

breath of summer oh my found one

the sleep in the same current and each waking to you 

when I open my eyes you are what I wanted to see.

Untitled Poem 

by W.S. Merwin

“Inside this pencil

crouch words that have never been written

never been spoken

never been taught

they’re hiding

they’re awake in there

dark in the dark

hearing us

but they won’t come out

not for love not for time not for fire

even when the dark has worn away

they’ll still be there

hiding in the air

multitudes in days to come may walk through them

breathe them

be none the wiser

what script can it be

that they won’t unroll

in what language

would I recognize it

would I be able to follow it

to make out the real names

of everything

maybe there aren’t

many

it could be that there’s only one word

and it’s all we need

it’s here in this pencil

every pencil in the world

is like this”

Terrance Terich (1971 - ):

“For most people, their favorite part of the day is when work is over, when they put on their sweatpants or pajamas and relax. That is not MY favorite part of the day. I have five favorite parts of the day, at the beginning of every period, when I see each student’s face as he or she walks in through the door. THOSE MOMENTS are MY favorite parts of the day.”

and

“Provide the world with something that it is severely lacking. The world has enough people staring at screens. The world has enough people using those screens to snipe at each other. The world has enough friendships falling apart. What this world lacks more than anything is empathy, the ability to understand how other people are feeling, not just yourself, so I hope you can add some of that empathy to the world. When you can see another person's point of view, you can begin to understand, well, everything.”

and

“Many times, I've thought that other people were becoming obstacles in my path to a good life. But, life doesn't have a right path. There is no such thing as a good life. There is only life. There is only your path, and your path has many possible branches, and there are detours, and side streets, and u-turns. ”

and

“As you go forward in your lives, all of you on different paths, there is no better advice I can give you than to realize that you are surrounded by people. People who have your back. People who are strangers, but may soon turn out to be friends. People who need help. People who could benefit from your wisdom, or even just your attention. People who are alone, or lonely, or afraid. People just like you. People who need a kind word, a smile, a hand on the shoulder, a wink, a nod, a fist bump, a hug. The knowledge that they are distinct. You can make the difference in someone’s life. You've already made the difference in mine. Continue to be the difference. Be distinct.”

Film Anniversary - September 29, 2015

Today is the 10th anniversary of Serenity, the film follow-up to the Joss Whedon helmed television show, Firefly.

Today's Words of Wisdom - September 29, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Miguel de Unamuno (1864 - 1936):

“At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right”

and

“The less we read, the more harmful it is what we read.”

and

“We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616):

“There is no book so bad...that it does not have something good in it.”

and

“The pen is the tongue of the mind.”

and

“Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.”

and

“Everyone is as God made him, and often a great deal worse.”

Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954):

“Before I came here, I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture, I am still confused -- but on a higher level.”

and

“There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery”

Colin Dexter (1930 - ):

“He sighed and knew that life was full of ‘if only’ for everyone”