Special thanks and hugs to Bonnie L. for sharing this spectacular video with me.
Get ready to be amazed at how kite-flying master Ray Bethell "choreographs" 3 beautiful kites to fly, climb, swerve, twirl, and dive to music that sounds like it was made for this video! ("Flower Duet" from the opera Lakmé by 19th-century French composer Léo Delibes).
The setting is apparently Vancouver's English Bay Harbor. Looks like Heaven to me.
Hearing this little lady sing this inspirational song (written by her uncle) makes ME believe that angels do indeed live among us. For the first time in quite awhile, I'm literally speechless, and have nothing more to say about this except...
enJOY!
Biz Burnett
Jackie Evancho sings To Believe(this video includes the lyrics)
A few years ago, I created a Healing & Doctor mix CD as a birthday gift for my son-in-law, an M.D. (Internist). I'm posting those tunes here now so I can gift them to my sister and a dear friend, both of whom are recuperating from their respective recent successful surgery.
Seems like every time I listen to these tunes--even if I "have time" for only one or two of them--their vibes are extra-restorative. Maybe that's due to how much music makes me smile. Music feels like a "quiet cousin" of laughing, which Norman Cousins proved is the best medicine there is.
Ending this mix with Jerry Seinfeld's hilarious "The Doctor's Waiting Room" routine seems most appropriate especially because I strive daily to earn the reward already earned by one of the two folks to whom I'm dedicating this post. He is well-known for his extraordinary sense of humor and ability to get people laughing, to the extent that a mutual friend of ours gifted him awhile back with a small plaque that says: He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.(Anonymous)
A speedy and full recovery to all who are healing or who are praying for healing to begin!
enJOY!
Biz Burnett
Each song link below opens the audio player in a new window. All Songs (in a Google Drive folder)
(no Google sign-in required)
(Click in the bottom-left of the player screen to see an icon/link to each song in the folder.)
Something a little different today. It's so beautiful and memorable, I just HAD to share it here.
I just enJOYed watching the "stunningly beautiful" short film below on Gratitude and Happiness by award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer, Louie Schwartzberg. Louie shared his film in a 2011 TEDxSF talk.
Louie's short film includes Brother David Steindl's spoken words, Gary Malkin's musical compositions, and Louie's cinematography. They've crafted a "keeper" video that reminds us of the precious gift of life, and the beauty all around us.
Louie's notable career spans more than three decades providing breathtaking imagery for feature films, television shows, documentaries, and commercials. As a visual artist, Louie has created some of the most iconic and memorable film moments of our time. He is an innovator in the world of time-lapse, nature, aerial, and "slice-of-life" photography. He is the only cinematographer in the world who has literally been shooting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, continuously for more than 30 years.
Louie has many accomplishments and awards to his credit, including having been recognized as one of the top 70 Cinematographers for the On Film Kodak Salute Series. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Today, while creating a page about ThoughtPrint™ on my website, I thought about how we can intentionally and unintentionally use and misuse Language to build bridges, barricades, or bombs.
That reminded me of one of my favorite songs, Love Can Build A Bridge, by The Judds (Wynona and Naomi). That moved me to share below their "old" (and somewhat grainy but still inspiring) music video.
My Musical Minutes blog combines two of my favorite things: Music and Writing (Language). Music is a universal language that can bridge people together in ways that Language cannot. I've always been a language "buff" (English, Latin, French, Greek, Spanish, computer languages). But I love Music above them all for many reasons, probably #1 being because it cannot build barricades or bombs.
At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today, many Americans will put our busy lives on pause, to remember and honor the courageous life and leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As I pondered songs that remind me of his abiding faith in our ability to live together in peace and harmony, the first song that came to mind (perhaps because I took 9 years of piano lessons!) was Ebony and Ivory by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. Watching the 1980s-something music video below really "took me back." And I LOVED how, at around 2:30, they're both actually sitting walking on a huge piano keyboard, and then they end up sitting on 2 black keys, next to each other!
While watching that video, I thought about and appreciated how much progress we've made since then. Yes, there's still much room for improvement. But I sometimes envy my grandchildren, who may take for granted their many opportunities to befriend so early in life this multi-color, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural world. That's about 180 degrees different from what I experienced during the first oh-so-homogenous 40 years of MY life!
I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing Red Tails, the new movie about the African-American World War II aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen. I'm embarassed to admit that 'til now, my exposure to those valiant men and the effect they had on U.S. race relations has been limited to learning enough to pass a high school history test. I'm now eager to learn about these men and their commitment to prove that, as the movie's sub-title tells us, Courage Has No Color. This is also what Stevie Wonder's song Black Manreminds us of, as you'll hear in the great video below. It's long, but nowhere near as long as the history timespan it chronicles! Lyrics are below.
What a coincidence that the player image for this YouTube video is Rev. King!
enJOY!
Biz Burnett
Lyrics to Black Man by Stevie Wonder
First man to die
For the flag we now hold high
Was a black man (Crispus Attucks)
The ground were we stand
With the flag held in our hand
Was first the red man's
Guide of a ship
On the first Columbus trip
Was a brown man (Pedro Alonzo Nino)
The railroads for trains
Came on tracking that was laid
By the yellow man
We pledge allegiance
All our lives
To the magic colors
Red, blue and white
But we all must be given
The liberty that we defend
For with justice not for all men
History will repeat again
It's time we learned
This World Was Made For All Men
Heart surgery
Was first done successfully
By a black man (Dr Daniel Hale Williams)
Friendly man who died
But helped the pilgrims to survive
Was a red man (Squanto)
Farm workers rights
Were lifted to new heights
By a brown man (Caesar Chavez)
Incandescent light
Was invented to give sight
By the white man (Thomas Edison)
We pledge allegiance
All our lives
To the magic colors
Red, blue and white
But we all must be given
The liberty that we defend
For with justice not for all men
History will repeat again
It's time we learned
This World Was Made For All Men
Hear me out...
Now I know the birthday of a nation
Is a time when a country celebrates
But as your hand touches your heart
Remember we all played a part in America
To help that banner wave
First clock to be made
In America was created
By a black man (Benjamin Banneker)
Scout who used no chart
Helped lead Lewis and Clark
Was a red man (Sacagawea, a woman!)
Use of martial arts
In our country got its start
By a yellow man
And the leader with a pen
Signed his name to free all men
Was a white man (Abraham Lincoln)
We pledge allegiance
All our lives
To the magic colors
Red, blue and white
But we all must be given
The liberty that we defend
For with justice not for all men
History will repeat again
It's time we learned
This World Was Made For All Men
This world was made for all men
This world was made for all men
This world was made for all men
God saved His world for all men
All people
All babies
All children
All colors
All races
This world's for you
and me
This world
My world
Your world
Everybody's world
This world
Their world
Our world
This world was made for all men
Hear me out...
Who was the first man to set foot on the North Pole?
Matthew Henson - a black man
Who was the first american to show the Pilgrims at Plymouth the secrets
of survival in the new world?
Squanto - a red man
Who was the soldier of Company G who won high honors for his courage
and heroism in World War 1?
Sing Lee - a yellow man
Who was the leader of united farm workers and helped farm workers
maintain dignity and respect?
Caesar Chavez - a brown man
Who was the founder of blood plasma and the director of the Red Cross
blood bank?
Dr. Charles Drew - a black man
Who was the first American heroine who aided the Lewis and Clark
expedition?
Sacagawea - a red woman
Who was the famous educator and semanticist who made outstanding
contributions to education in America?
Hayakawa - a yellow man
Who invented the world's first stop light and the gas mask?
- a black man
Who was the American surgeon who was one of the founders of
neurosurgery?
Harvey William Cushing - a white man
Who was the man who helped design the nation's capitol, made the first
clock to give time in America, and wrote the first almanac?
Benjamin Banneker - a black man
Who was the legendary hero who helped establish the League of Iroquois?
Hiawatha - a red man
Who was the leader of the first microbiotic center in America?
- a yellow man
Who was the founder of the city of Chicago in 1772?
Jean Baptiste - a black man
Who was one of the organizers of the American Indian Movement?
Denis Banks - a red man
Who was the Jewish financier who raised funds to sponsor Christopher
Columbus' voyage to America?
Lewis D. Santangol - a white man
Who was the woman who led countless slaves to freedom on the
underground rairoad?
Harriet Tubman - a black woman
It was a bittersweet experience the past three days, as I listened to The Story on WUNC 91.5FM (my local [Raleigh/Durham] NPR affiliate). Dick Gordon's 3-day"Re-Inventing Haiti"series moved me to tears, some of which were joyful...almost as joyful as the spirit of many amazing Haitians who have literally "lived to tell about" the horrific 2010 Haiti Earthquake and its aftermath. Their steadfast conviction that this event occurred to provide the opportunity to rebuild EVERYTHING in Haiti literally from the ground up reminded me of one of my favorite songs,Life Holds Onby the awesome Beth Nielsen Chapman. (The video is embedded below.)
Today is an "Hallelujah Amen!" day in my professional and spiritual life! I and some virtual co-workers have finally completed an intense piece of a project that will literally createa new "financial aquaduct system"for every U.S. nonprofit, the millions of people and other good causes they serve, and hopefully millions of small- and mid-size U.S. businesses who would love to financially support those nonprofits more than their current cashflow allow. I will soon post more here about this revolutionary newno-cost noprofit fundraising system, but in the meantime, the image below says it all about where we've ALL been economically for over 3 years. And it PROVES to me that life does INDEED "..hold on...given the slightest chance." It proves to me that if we just "Keep the faith, Baby!"and work cooperatively together, we CAN accomplish ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!
I was swinging on the swings when I was a little girl Trying to get a handle on the big, wide world When I noticed all the grass in the cracks in the concrete I said, where there's a will, there's a way around anything
Life holds on Given the slightest chance For the weak and the strong Life holds on
There was a third-grade boy that we knew in school He was found face down in a swimming pool And as they worked on that kid every minute was an hour And when his eyes fluttered open we could feel that power
Life holds on Given the slightest chance For the weak and the strong Life holds on Life holds on Life holds on
Sirens screaming down my street Fading as they go Whining somewhere far away To someone I don't know Still, I say a little prayer There's always hope Life holds on
Through the window in the kitchen I can see outside My kids taking turns coming down the slide And I try not to worry as they grow a little every day No, I've just gotta believe they're gonna find their way
And that Life holds on Given the slightest chance For the weak and the strong Life holds on Life holds on Life holds on Life holds on
