You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you. -Isadora Duncan

Amani Utupe!
- Swahili for Grant us peace, Give us courage

"Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire."
~W.B. Yeats

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitches to everything else in the universe."
~John Muir

"Dear reader, there are people in the world who know no misery and woe. And they take comfort in cheerful films about twittering birds and giggling elves.* There are people who know that there's always a mystery to be solved. And they take comfort in researching and writing down any important evidence. But this story is not about such people. This story is about the Baudelaires. And they are the sort of people who know that there's always something. Something to invent, something to read, something to bite, and something to do, to make a sanctuary, no matter how small."
~Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events IN VIDEO VERITAS




it's steaming & teeming
with meaning & gleanings,
it''s bubbling, boiling
it's cooking, it's rolling along,
it's churning, it's singing,
it's soaking and searing
our channel cuts deep and your ears will be ringing
it's a fire and water sign co-conflagration under-the-counter-culture collaborative co-wo/manifestation of art-music-poetry-politics-vlog s & dialogs
channel opened by the pair of us in an attempt to get serious about walking out talk, we are:

norman b (Deviations from the Norm)
and rachel open c ( )

norm is a poet, activist, performer, writer, researcher, educator, part time artist's model and devoted cat daddy, generally he's the one who jumps around like moticos in front of the camera, but i brave the public scrutiny myself now and again.

rachel is the mother of 2 grown men, a folklorist, hiker, musician, writer, editor, herbal lore collector, conservationist peacenik human rights artist/activist and aspiring student of videographic arts in search of mentoring and technical guidance. your honest feedback and suggestions are always appreciated.

you can reach either of us here but rachel .......is likelier to get back to you
............. =^..^=........................ ..... =^..^=...............


one foot in front of the other
i'll be as your sister if you'll be as my brother

or imagine we all are related to each other

if you're like the plant i'll be your spray mister

we'll be aloe vera on mother earth's blisters

even if i cannot see what you're saying,
tell a vision to me

even if you cannot see eye to eye with me
i'll tell a vision to you


we seek to speak
to murmur moan
to shriek
to tweak
our sensibilities
finely, finally,
into a truer and bluer muse/human atunement,
highly wired low low tech lo-fi fidelity,
balancing walk & talk high stepping that high wire tension line running precipitously from despair to felicity!
on thru the fog, cue the music,now! the
music!
romp, stomp, glitch and glee
ampin and championin
sus' stain ablity
sea-rocked, fugue sick,
shell shocked

soothed, smarting
shoot just starting
to
observe,
conserve our reserves
and preserve our shattered nerves

through this community

give earthly life all the love that life deserves

a sense of continuity

praise jah! and pass the uncondition-

(all love)
(allah) we BE one emanation


above below before behind all around
and within let us begin the gathering in
heya red white black brown yellow green
far scattered children of another mother
we're asking moms' permission
to carry out her sacred medicine
having lost our root traditions
they were stolen, burned and jettisoned
let us carry on a mission
of begin again ablutions
toward a peaceful resolution
a healing evolution


hail the snails and the roses!
here's to earthworms and fungus,
to hemp, l'chaim!, to switchgrass!

and to a peace so humungous
these leastlings become us!
here's to worldwide unity,
freedom, diversity!
beyond understanding!

here's to life, to death, to whatever the heck else there might be!

life! people! my love!

how can i pretend to understand you?
when will you ever understand me?
do you think because we often disagree
so heartily, that i don't love you?
you're wrong!

do you think because i only see things my own way that i think i'm above you?
wrong again!

i have stumbled, flailed and fallen into love with you, with this, with all.
it's humbling.

but now i've said enough. time to move on,
get active, turn the cam on
& quit mumbling.


living under the grid, away from the fray, out on the fringes, below poverty line,less than half a mile from the railroad track, trying to stay in love, at home in our skin, in touch with our kin, in search of missing tribe, out of trouble, off the streets (but forever in solidarity with our brothers and sisters out there taking to the streets worldwide, in love and protest) here in the unglued, recessed, untied, depressed,repressed, obsessed, untried, still sacred albeit pre-occupied