On a Saturday evening at the condo, still very new to us, we were settling and enjoying the late daylight hours of early July, when we noticed all the activity on the Broadway bridge. It turned out there was a political-bicycling event, hundreds of cyclists, finishing up a day’s ride crossing that bridge to get to the ending point in a park on the other side.

I didn’t have a video camera, but my tiny Canon does some video. This was taken from the balcony of the condo. And I’m sorry, it doesn’t play that well; it was a tiny camera, and the file logistics were troublesome too.

If you can’t see the youtube video above, just click here for the source file on youtube.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Vange, Megan, and I are up in the condo tonight, as I write this. We had a nice dinner at South Park, and now we’re looking at the sunset over the bridge.

Statistics. Picturing large numbers. Communicating numbers. Some of the numbers in this 11-minute talk are just amazing. He asks: "have we lost our sense of outrage?"

If the video here doesn’t show up — technical details — the link is Picturing Excess. Or, alternatively, here is the video, from Chris Jordan, speaking at TED.

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What is this doing on this blog, you ask? We’re people who care, no? People who think too.

Have you seen the Freakonomics Blegs series? It’s fun. Great lines in movies, things like that. I gather that  bleg is a contraction for blogging and begging, a play on words related to asking readers for contributions.

It made me think of some great lines in songs. Some of these are pure poetry. Or so it sees to me.

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose

I’d trade all of my tomorrows for a single yesterday

Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobbie McGee

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

The last time I felt like this I was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire

and I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn

Emmy Lou Harris, Boulder to Birmingham

You of tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by. So help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die. Teach your parents well, their childrens’ hell will slowly go by. And feed them on your dreams.

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Teach Your Children

because the cops don’t need you, and man they expect the same

Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand, and rivers that ran through every day. I must have been mad, I never knew what I had until I threw it all away.

Bob Dylan, I Threw it All Away

Cowboys like smoky old poolrooms and clear mountain mornings

Patsy and Ed Bruce, Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

I married her because she looks like you

Lyle Lovett, I Married Her Because She Looks Like You

Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance

Paul Simon, Train in the Distance

Why am I soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard

Paul Simon, You Can Call Me Al

All I ever had: Redemption songs: These songs of freedom

Bob Marley, Redemption Songs

In the end, only kindness matters

Jewel, Hands

And, if you happen to speak (or read) Spanish, how about these:

Simon Blanco tuvo suerte. De tres balas que le dieron, solo una fue de muerte.

Anonymous corrido, Simon Blanco

Yo soy como el chile verde, picante pero sabroso

Anonymous, la Llorona