The Little Thread Which Grew - the Apollo '73 to Everything But
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lkwdblds
Crusader
How Sweet FoTi
What a very sweet post! Thanks from all of our posters of which are one!
Lakey
I've read the whole things and I want you to write more.
What a very sweet post! Thanks from all of our posters of which are one!
Lakey
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
more pieces to a puzzle
Real estate recovery? (from today's San Jose Mercury News)
The Bay Area's two biggest metro areas had two of the nation's three biggest housing price gains in the second quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported today.
The median house price in the beautiful San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area jumped 26 percent year over year to $630,000. In the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area, the median price climbed 25 percent to $591,200. (Only Akron, Ohio, oddly enough, had a bigger gain, at 36 percent.)
Of course, prices in both the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas are still down sharply from the peak of the market. In 2007, for example, the median house price was $836,800 in the San Jose area (Santa Clara and San Benito counties) and $804,800 in the San Francisco area (which includes San Francisco, its relatively expensive suburbs in Marin and San Mateo counties, and more affordable -- at least by Bay Area standards -- communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties).
The Realtors' group said a surge in sales was driven by federal tax credits of as much as $8,000 for homebuyers, who had to enter deals by April 30 to qualify for the incentive. In addition, the rise in prices reflected a change in the mix of transactions.
"The recorded home prices in many markets were significantly depressed last year because of a large percentage of distressed homes sold at discount," Lawrence Yun, the group's chief economist, said in a statement today. "Now as more normal, non-distressed home sales are occurring, the median price in many areas is showing higher values."
Overall, 100 of 155 metro areas in the report had gains in the median house price. The average change was an increase of 1.5 percent to $174,200. Distress sales accounted for 32 percent of transactions, down from 36 percent in the second quarter of 2009.
Now that federal tax credits are no longer available, the group expects a slowdown in sales that will be cushioned somewhat by low mortgage rates. Economists and other observers, though, say the weak job market also is hurting real estate sales.
"Until the employment market stabilizes, we don't see stabilization in the housing market," Pete Flint, CEO of real estate website Trulia, told The Associated Press.
Thanks to our friends at The Associated Press, here's a list of the 10 metro areas with the biggest increases, and the 10 with the biggest drops, according to the Realtors' data:
BIGGEST INCREASES
1) Akron, Ohio, $119,700 median price, up 36 percent
2) San Jose, $630,000, up 26 percent
3) San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, $591,000, up 25 percent
4) Riverside, $190,200, up 18 percent
5) Elmira, N.Y., $99,200, up 17 percent
6) Lansing, Mich., $99,100, up 13 percent
7) San Diego, $392,600, up 13 percent
8) Palm Bay, Fla., $117,300, up 13 percent
9) Erie, Pa., $110,200, up 13 percent
10) Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., $94,1000, up 12 percent
BIGGEST DROPS
1) Cumberland, Md., $104,500, down 15 percent.
2) Tucson, Ariz., $150,200, down 14 percent
3) Ocala, Fla., $95,900, down 13 percent
4) Beaumont, Texas., $120,700, down 13 percent
5) Boise City, Idaho., $140,100, down 13 percent
6) Hagerstown, Md., $149,800, down 9.2 percent
7) Jacksonville, Fla., $139,000, down 9 percent
8) Daytona Beach, Fla., $117,000, down 8 percent
9) Salem, Ore., $176,800, down 7.5 percent
10) Biloxi, Miss., $128,500, down 7.4 percent
Real estate recovery? (from today's San Jose Mercury News)
The Bay Area's two biggest metro areas had two of the nation's three biggest housing price gains in the second quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported today.
The median house price in the beautiful San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area jumped 26 percent year over year to $630,000. In the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area, the median price climbed 25 percent to $591,200. (Only Akron, Ohio, oddly enough, had a bigger gain, at 36 percent.)
Of course, prices in both the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas are still down sharply from the peak of the market. In 2007, for example, the median house price was $836,800 in the San Jose area (Santa Clara and San Benito counties) and $804,800 in the San Francisco area (which includes San Francisco, its relatively expensive suburbs in Marin and San Mateo counties, and more affordable -- at least by Bay Area standards -- communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties).
The Realtors' group said a surge in sales was driven by federal tax credits of as much as $8,000 for homebuyers, who had to enter deals by April 30 to qualify for the incentive. In addition, the rise in prices reflected a change in the mix of transactions.
"The recorded home prices in many markets were significantly depressed last year because of a large percentage of distressed homes sold at discount," Lawrence Yun, the group's chief economist, said in a statement today. "Now as more normal, non-distressed home sales are occurring, the median price in many areas is showing higher values."
Overall, 100 of 155 metro areas in the report had gains in the median house price. The average change was an increase of 1.5 percent to $174,200. Distress sales accounted for 32 percent of transactions, down from 36 percent in the second quarter of 2009.
Now that federal tax credits are no longer available, the group expects a slowdown in sales that will be cushioned somewhat by low mortgage rates. Economists and other observers, though, say the weak job market also is hurting real estate sales.
"Until the employment market stabilizes, we don't see stabilization in the housing market," Pete Flint, CEO of real estate website Trulia, told The Associated Press.
Thanks to our friends at The Associated Press, here's a list of the 10 metro areas with the biggest increases, and the 10 with the biggest drops, according to the Realtors' data:
BIGGEST INCREASES
1) Akron, Ohio, $119,700 median price, up 36 percent
2) San Jose, $630,000, up 26 percent
3) San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, $591,000, up 25 percent
4) Riverside, $190,200, up 18 percent
5) Elmira, N.Y., $99,200, up 17 percent
6) Lansing, Mich., $99,100, up 13 percent
7) San Diego, $392,600, up 13 percent
8) Palm Bay, Fla., $117,300, up 13 percent
9) Erie, Pa., $110,200, up 13 percent
10) Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., $94,1000, up 12 percent
BIGGEST DROPS
1) Cumberland, Md., $104,500, down 15 percent.
2) Tucson, Ariz., $150,200, down 14 percent
3) Ocala, Fla., $95,900, down 13 percent
4) Beaumont, Texas., $120,700, down 13 percent
5) Boise City, Idaho., $140,100, down 13 percent
6) Hagerstown, Md., $149,800, down 9.2 percent
7) Jacksonville, Fla., $139,000, down 9 percent
8) Daytona Beach, Fla., $117,000, down 8 percent
9) Salem, Ore., $176,800, down 7.5 percent
10) Biloxi, Miss., $128,500, down 7.4 percent
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
interesting archaeological discovery
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer – Wed Aug 11, 6:49 am ET
LONDON – Archaeologists have uncovered the site of Britain's oldest house, the waterside home of nomad hunters dating back about 11,000 years.
The dwelling, which has lake views, a thatched roof and very original features, predates the country's famous Stonehenge monument by around 6,000 years and was built at a time when Britain was still connected to continental Europe.
Teams from the University of York and the University of Manchester working at the site believe the circular shaped home was built in about 8,500 B.C. next to an ancient lake at Star Carr, near Scarborough, in northeastern England.
"This is a sensational discovery and tells us so much about the people who lived at this time," Nicky Milner from the University of York said Wednesday. "From this excavation, we gain a vivid picture of how these people lived."
Discoveries made at the site suggest the house was about 3.5 meters wide (11 feet, 6 inches), constructed of timber posts and likely had a roof of thatched reeds. The site was probably inhabited for between 200 and 500 years, and there were possibly several homes built at the site.
Archaeologists have also uncovered a 11,000-year-old tree trunk, with its bark still intact, and found traces of a wooden jetty-like platform on the bank of the ancient lake that could be the first evidence of carpentry in Europe.
The house is about 500 to 1,000 years older than a building in Howick, northern England, previously thought to have been the country's oldest home.
"This changes our ideas of the lives of the first settlers to move back into Britain after the end of the last Ice Age. We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape," said Chantal Conneller, an archaeologist at the University of Manchester.
Artifacts found at the site — which include part of an oar, arrow tips and deer skulls — offer clues to the lives of the settlers. It's thought they kept domestic dogs, hunted deer, wild boar and elk, fished on the lake and had rituals that involved the use of headdresses fashioned from animal skulls.
Science minister David Willetts said the building was an important discovery.
"It brings out the similarities and differences between modern life and the ancient past in a fascinating way, and will change our perceptions for ever," he said.
The Star Carr site, which dates back to 9,000 B.C., was first discovered in 1947. Archaeologists began work to uncover the house about two years ago.
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer – Wed Aug 11, 6:49 am ET
LONDON – Archaeologists have uncovered the site of Britain's oldest house, the waterside home of nomad hunters dating back about 11,000 years.
The dwelling, which has lake views, a thatched roof and very original features, predates the country's famous Stonehenge monument by around 6,000 years and was built at a time when Britain was still connected to continental Europe.
Teams from the University of York and the University of Manchester working at the site believe the circular shaped home was built in about 8,500 B.C. next to an ancient lake at Star Carr, near Scarborough, in northeastern England.
"This is a sensational discovery and tells us so much about the people who lived at this time," Nicky Milner from the University of York said Wednesday. "From this excavation, we gain a vivid picture of how these people lived."
Discoveries made at the site suggest the house was about 3.5 meters wide (11 feet, 6 inches), constructed of timber posts and likely had a roof of thatched reeds. The site was probably inhabited for between 200 and 500 years, and there were possibly several homes built at the site.
Archaeologists have also uncovered a 11,000-year-old tree trunk, with its bark still intact, and found traces of a wooden jetty-like platform on the bank of the ancient lake that could be the first evidence of carpentry in Europe.
The house is about 500 to 1,000 years older than a building in Howick, northern England, previously thought to have been the country's oldest home.
"This changes our ideas of the lives of the first settlers to move back into Britain after the end of the last Ice Age. We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape," said Chantal Conneller, an archaeologist at the University of Manchester.
Artifacts found at the site — which include part of an oar, arrow tips and deer skulls — offer clues to the lives of the settlers. It's thought they kept domestic dogs, hunted deer, wild boar and elk, fished on the lake and had rituals that involved the use of headdresses fashioned from animal skulls.
Science minister David Willetts said the building was an important discovery.
"It brings out the similarities and differences between modern life and the ancient past in a fascinating way, and will change our perceptions for ever," he said.
The Star Carr site, which dates back to 9,000 B.C., was first discovered in 1947. Archaeologists began work to uncover the house about two years ago.
lkwdblds
Crusader
The first thing would be to express some contrition
Blue, it all gets back to following his own tech. He let major areas of people's lives become dangerous and ultimately collapse by not following things which he knew to be true. The quote above is a perfect example. My life and that of tens of thousands of others was put in danger by him not wearing his various hats which his PROMO insisted that he was doing in a power condition. We had to bypass him and write new policy so as to bring our lives up from Danger. We were not his Seniors but his Juniors so he provided us a Junior Danger Formula where a Junior can assign Danger to a Senior. I have assigned this to him. He can either apply his creation, Scientology tecb, and follow his own policy or he can tell me to fuck off and refuse to do his condition. He never followed Scientology tech during his LRH life and left that life in very poor conddition, as per his own words to you recently, I believe you quoted him as saying that at the end he was a complete fucked up mess.
You say that he is now totally rehabilitated and is doing great. I would like to know how he can be so fullly rehabilitated, after having participated in the destruction of so many lives, including mine. If he now has the ability to move on and expand to higher awareness levels without atoniing for his crimes then that means that Scientology tech is invalid. It means one can get out of Danger and get all the way back to Power while leaving tens of thousands of broken lives in his wake. Hubbard can not have his cake and eat it too. Either the tech is valid and one has to atone for his crimes before one can move forward and reach extreme heights of spiritual awareness or his tech is completly a scam such as Helluva is stating. He can't have it both ways.
What I would like to see is for him to take on a new human body and come back here, put his Ethics in on himself, and commit himself to cleaning up and repairing the damages which he has done to others. Going on to higher levels which we can not imagine and succeeding in that game after tromping all over tens of thousands of us is just not acceptable. In the Universe I agreed to be a part of, such a thing is not possible. Ron does not have my agreement to be doing that and I believe that tens of thousands and probably hundreds of thousands have similar sentiments to mine.
Lakey
Blue, it all gets back to following his own tech. He let major areas of people's lives become dangerous and ultimately collapse by not following things which he knew to be true. The quote above is a perfect example. My life and that of tens of thousands of others was put in danger by him not wearing his various hats which his PROMO insisted that he was doing in a power condition. We had to bypass him and write new policy so as to bring our lives up from Danger. We were not his Seniors but his Juniors so he provided us a Junior Danger Formula where a Junior can assign Danger to a Senior. I have assigned this to him. He can either apply his creation, Scientology tecb, and follow his own policy or he can tell me to fuck off and refuse to do his condition. He never followed Scientology tech during his LRH life and left that life in very poor conddition, as per his own words to you recently, I believe you quoted him as saying that at the end he was a complete fucked up mess.
You say that he is now totally rehabilitated and is doing great. I would like to know how he can be so fullly rehabilitated, after having participated in the destruction of so many lives, including mine. If he now has the ability to move on and expand to higher awareness levels without atoniing for his crimes then that means that Scientology tech is invalid. It means one can get out of Danger and get all the way back to Power while leaving tens of thousands of broken lives in his wake. Hubbard can not have his cake and eat it too. Either the tech is valid and one has to atone for his crimes before one can move forward and reach extreme heights of spiritual awareness or his tech is completly a scam such as Helluva is stating. He can't have it both ways.
What I would like to see is for him to take on a new human body and come back here, put his Ethics in on himself, and commit himself to cleaning up and repairing the damages which he has done to others. Going on to higher levels which we can not imagine and succeeding in that game after tromping all over tens of thousands of us is just not acceptable. In the Universe I agreed to be a part of, such a thing is not possible. Ron does not have my agreement to be doing that and I believe that tens of thousands and probably hundreds of thousands have similar sentiments to mine.
Lakey
Last edited:
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
40-year reunion of 'Mill Valley' third-graders
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Correspondent
Monday, August 9, 2010
A half-dozen middle-aged men and women adjusted their glasses and looked up at the television in Judy Berman's living room. Watching themselves as 8-year-olds in a promotional film shot 40 years ago by a young Francis Ford Coppola, they were celebrating the anniversary of a flukey hit record that painted the town of Mill Valley as an idyllic haven "where people aren't afraid to smile, and stop and talk to you a while."
"Mill Valley" by Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point Third Grade Class introduced the sylvan Marin County community to the national consciousness in those innocent post-hippie, pre-Watergate days, as much an idea as an actual geographic location. Coppola, a little known director two years away from making "The Godfather," shot the film for Warner Bros. Records when the town was all but a little village in the woods.
'The Serial' author
"It felt like a place where you might know the people you met going about your day," says author Cyra McFadden, whose newspaper column and novel "The Serial" skewered the pretensions of the burgeoning Marin lifestyle only a few years later. "It's hard not to sound corny, but it was very, very quiet in those days. That was before all this emphasis on organized sports. We had neighborhood softball games. All the kids played. All the adults played. And the dogs fielded."
McFadden remembers the song very clearly.
"It was a sweet song," she says, humming and starting to sing, " '... a place that's got a hold on me'... It sticks in your mind. Thanks: Now it will be there for the next two weeks."
Cleveland native Rita Abrams was 26 when she arrived in Mill Valley in 1969 and landed the kindergarten teacher post at Strawberry Point Elementary School. Having spent the previous winter teaching in East Boston, she thought she had stumbled into paradise under Mount Tam when she headed West. She painted her VW bus in rainbows and stars and wrote the song in a reverie on a bench by the downtown bus depot Christmas Day that year.
Abrams met record producer Erik Jacobsen at a party and told him about the song. Jacobsen, who had just finished producing the Norman Greenbaum hit "Spirit in the Sky," was intrigued. Abrams recruited her teaching assistant, Tommy Heath, to play guitar and borrowed the school's Webcor tape recorder to make the demo for Jacobsen. (Years later, as half of new wave rockers Tommy Tutone, Heath would have a worldwide hit of his own with "867-5309 Jenny.")
Professional musicians
Jacobsen brought professional musicians and recording equipment to the school to record her kindergarten class, but later phoned Abrams with the news that the results were unlistenable - "I thought my life was over," says Abrams - before continuing to say that he thought they should try again with the third-graders.
This time, Jacobsen moved the sessions to Wally Heider's Studios in the Tenderloin, where rock groups such as Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were making albums. During the "Mill Valley" session, David Crosby peeked in the upstairs room, where Creedence Clearwater had recorded "Green River," and surveyed the scene. "Far out," he said, and split.
The entire school crowded around the radio in the teachers' lunchroom when KSFO disc jockey Terry McGovern played the single on the radio for the first time in June 1970. By the time the kids entered fourth grade in the fall, their single was a hit. It only spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and rose to No. 90 before dropping off the charts, but not out of the collective pop consciousness.
A 'turntable hit'
The record was what was known as a "turntable hit" - a record whose radio airplay far outdistanced sales. Nonetheless, the song also managed to evoke a small-town America that had all but disappeared.
"It made me cry at the mix down and that's the only time that ever happened," says Jacobsen, who, like Abrams, had only recently relocated to Mill Valley from the East Coast when he made the record. "The Warner Bros. sales staff broke into wild applause when I played it for them."
After the single, the chorus was reduced to a more manageable baker's dozen to record the album, the group now called Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point 4th Grade Class. They sang at halftime at a 49ers football game in Kezar Stadium. They appeared on local TV in San Francisco and Sacramento. Life magazine came to look. Rolling Stone sent photographer Annie Leibovitz to take their photo. Abrams appeared on the TV game show "To Tell the Truth."
Their moment of fame was fleeting, but the song has hung over the singers' shoulders ever since. Rita Abrams has made a living with music - among other things, she created a series of children's music recordings with another Marin County one-hit wonder, Dr. Elmo Shropshire ("Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer"). From her condominium on the hillside where she has lived for more than 20 years and raised her own grown daughter, she overlooks Strawberry Point from the other side of the freeway. She still receives weekly e-mails from people all over the world asking about her song.
'Started me in music'
"That song is what started me in music," says Scott Garbutt of Santa Rosa, now a bass player in the hard rock band Tempus Fury. He was one of the third-graders on the single who didn't make the cut for the album sessions, but he attended the reunion eagerly.
Hostess Judy Berman bought the Eichler house in the Strawberry Point cul-de-sac almost 45 years ago and raised her children in the home. Her daughter was in Miss Abrams' kindergarten class, but her son was in the third-grade class that made the record.
"She was the best," she said of Miss Abrams. "She was all about music and dance and joy, and they adored her."
Music and video: Hear and see the kids sing "Mill Valley" at sfg.ly/dmDlHS.
Where are they now, those 3rd-grade hitmakers?
Rita Abrams kept in touch with most of the students on her record, although a few have eluded her. Over recent years, she has solicited e-mails from her former charges and arranged the recent reunion of the kids who made "Mill Valley" a hit 40 years ago. Here's an update on those original singers:
Cindy Koehn: Retired from the Army, now works in the staffing field and lives in Texas.
John Yamanaka: Ski instructor in Southern California, blogs about skiing and remembers buying a yellow Schwinn Varsity bicycle with the money he earned as a "child star."
Cissy Larsen: Whereabouts unknown.
Jerry Norton: Served in the Coast Guard, worked in the pharmaceutical business and the Golden Gate Ferry system.
Erin Maclean: She has had a tough time of things over the years. She has two grown children, Haley and Dylan, but her first child, Harper, died in a tragic accident at age 18, a nightmare for the family that included six weeks between his disappearance and the identification of his body.
Scott Victor: The little troublemaker is married, living in Napa and father of a guitar-playing teenage daughter. His mother still lives in Strawberry, and his little sister's children attend Strawberry Point School.
Brian Friedman: As a kid, he was quoted in Newsweek saying, "If we can just get on Ed Sullivan, we can make it to the top." He enlisted in the Marines at age 18 and was deployed in Afghanistan after two tours of duty in Iraq. He lives in Tanzania with his wife and two small children.
Maria Verhaaren: Whereabouts unknown.
Bruce Bennett: Still living in Mill Valley, where he works as a manager at Whole Foods Market.
Cecilia Bogren: Visiting from Gottenberg, Sweden, for the year, she has lived in Madrid for more than 25 years, teaching English and leading tours of Scandinavia during the summers.
Kelly O'Connor: Lives in Santa Rosa with her chemical engineer husband and their teenage son and works in the nursing program at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Greg Berman: A successful graphic designer running his own business in Los Angeles, with three teenage children. He moved away from Marin as soon as he graduated from high school.
Kathy Trudell: Retired with the rank of major from the Marine Corps nine years ago, she lives with her husband and two children in Southern California and is a lawyer. Twenty years ago, she attended the boot camp graduation of her fellow Strawberry Point schoolmate Brian Friedman.
Rita Abrams: Songwriter and kindergarten teacher Abrams never taught school again. She went on to win an Emmy for her score to the 1980 TV documentary on Marin called "I Want It All Now," and to write musical comedies such as "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" and "New Wrinkles," as well as greeting cards.
- Joel Selvin
MILL VALLEY
By Rita Abrams
I'm gonna talk about a place that's got a hold on me
Mill Valley
A little place where life feels very fine and free
Mill Valley
Where people aren't afraid to smile
And stop and talk to you a while.
And you can be as friendly as you want to be
Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley, that's my home
It looks as pretty in the rain as in the sun
Mill Valley
And there's a mountain that belongs to everyone
Mill Valley
And there are creeks that run on endlessly
And trees as far as you can see
It makes you feel as if your life has just begun
Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley, California, that's my home
I know that there might come a time I'll have to leave Mill Valley
And every memory will seem like make-believe
And all the good things that are mine right now
Will call to me and ask me how
I could have left them all behind
How could I leave Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley, California, that's my home
Copyright; Oh Boy Music, ASCAP
E-mail Joel Selvin at [email protected].
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/09/MNOV1EP0CK.DTL#ixzz0wN1GmLTc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-YaWE0zu-c
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Correspondent
Monday, August 9, 2010
A half-dozen middle-aged men and women adjusted their glasses and looked up at the television in Judy Berman's living room. Watching themselves as 8-year-olds in a promotional film shot 40 years ago by a young Francis Ford Coppola, they were celebrating the anniversary of a flukey hit record that painted the town of Mill Valley as an idyllic haven "where people aren't afraid to smile, and stop and talk to you a while."
"Mill Valley" by Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point Third Grade Class introduced the sylvan Marin County community to the national consciousness in those innocent post-hippie, pre-Watergate days, as much an idea as an actual geographic location. Coppola, a little known director two years away from making "The Godfather," shot the film for Warner Bros. Records when the town was all but a little village in the woods.
'The Serial' author
"It felt like a place where you might know the people you met going about your day," says author Cyra McFadden, whose newspaper column and novel "The Serial" skewered the pretensions of the burgeoning Marin lifestyle only a few years later. "It's hard not to sound corny, but it was very, very quiet in those days. That was before all this emphasis on organized sports. We had neighborhood softball games. All the kids played. All the adults played. And the dogs fielded."
McFadden remembers the song very clearly.
"It was a sweet song," she says, humming and starting to sing, " '... a place that's got a hold on me'... It sticks in your mind. Thanks: Now it will be there for the next two weeks."
Cleveland native Rita Abrams was 26 when she arrived in Mill Valley in 1969 and landed the kindergarten teacher post at Strawberry Point Elementary School. Having spent the previous winter teaching in East Boston, she thought she had stumbled into paradise under Mount Tam when she headed West. She painted her VW bus in rainbows and stars and wrote the song in a reverie on a bench by the downtown bus depot Christmas Day that year.
Abrams met record producer Erik Jacobsen at a party and told him about the song. Jacobsen, who had just finished producing the Norman Greenbaum hit "Spirit in the Sky," was intrigued. Abrams recruited her teaching assistant, Tommy Heath, to play guitar and borrowed the school's Webcor tape recorder to make the demo for Jacobsen. (Years later, as half of new wave rockers Tommy Tutone, Heath would have a worldwide hit of his own with "867-5309 Jenny.")
Professional musicians
Jacobsen brought professional musicians and recording equipment to the school to record her kindergarten class, but later phoned Abrams with the news that the results were unlistenable - "I thought my life was over," says Abrams - before continuing to say that he thought they should try again with the third-graders.
This time, Jacobsen moved the sessions to Wally Heider's Studios in the Tenderloin, where rock groups such as Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were making albums. During the "Mill Valley" session, David Crosby peeked in the upstairs room, where Creedence Clearwater had recorded "Green River," and surveyed the scene. "Far out," he said, and split.
The entire school crowded around the radio in the teachers' lunchroom when KSFO disc jockey Terry McGovern played the single on the radio for the first time in June 1970. By the time the kids entered fourth grade in the fall, their single was a hit. It only spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and rose to No. 90 before dropping off the charts, but not out of the collective pop consciousness.
A 'turntable hit'
The record was what was known as a "turntable hit" - a record whose radio airplay far outdistanced sales. Nonetheless, the song also managed to evoke a small-town America that had all but disappeared.
"It made me cry at the mix down and that's the only time that ever happened," says Jacobsen, who, like Abrams, had only recently relocated to Mill Valley from the East Coast when he made the record. "The Warner Bros. sales staff broke into wild applause when I played it for them."
After the single, the chorus was reduced to a more manageable baker's dozen to record the album, the group now called Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point 4th Grade Class. They sang at halftime at a 49ers football game in Kezar Stadium. They appeared on local TV in San Francisco and Sacramento. Life magazine came to look. Rolling Stone sent photographer Annie Leibovitz to take their photo. Abrams appeared on the TV game show "To Tell the Truth."
Their moment of fame was fleeting, but the song has hung over the singers' shoulders ever since. Rita Abrams has made a living with music - among other things, she created a series of children's music recordings with another Marin County one-hit wonder, Dr. Elmo Shropshire ("Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer"). From her condominium on the hillside where she has lived for more than 20 years and raised her own grown daughter, she overlooks Strawberry Point from the other side of the freeway. She still receives weekly e-mails from people all over the world asking about her song.
'Started me in music'
"That song is what started me in music," says Scott Garbutt of Santa Rosa, now a bass player in the hard rock band Tempus Fury. He was one of the third-graders on the single who didn't make the cut for the album sessions, but he attended the reunion eagerly.
Hostess Judy Berman bought the Eichler house in the Strawberry Point cul-de-sac almost 45 years ago and raised her children in the home. Her daughter was in Miss Abrams' kindergarten class, but her son was in the third-grade class that made the record.
"She was the best," she said of Miss Abrams. "She was all about music and dance and joy, and they adored her."
Music and video: Hear and see the kids sing "Mill Valley" at sfg.ly/dmDlHS.
Where are they now, those 3rd-grade hitmakers?
Rita Abrams kept in touch with most of the students on her record, although a few have eluded her. Over recent years, she has solicited e-mails from her former charges and arranged the recent reunion of the kids who made "Mill Valley" a hit 40 years ago. Here's an update on those original singers:
Cindy Koehn: Retired from the Army, now works in the staffing field and lives in Texas.
John Yamanaka: Ski instructor in Southern California, blogs about skiing and remembers buying a yellow Schwinn Varsity bicycle with the money he earned as a "child star."
Cissy Larsen: Whereabouts unknown.
Jerry Norton: Served in the Coast Guard, worked in the pharmaceutical business and the Golden Gate Ferry system.
Erin Maclean: She has had a tough time of things over the years. She has two grown children, Haley and Dylan, but her first child, Harper, died in a tragic accident at age 18, a nightmare for the family that included six weeks between his disappearance and the identification of his body.
Scott Victor: The little troublemaker is married, living in Napa and father of a guitar-playing teenage daughter. His mother still lives in Strawberry, and his little sister's children attend Strawberry Point School.
Brian Friedman: As a kid, he was quoted in Newsweek saying, "If we can just get on Ed Sullivan, we can make it to the top." He enlisted in the Marines at age 18 and was deployed in Afghanistan after two tours of duty in Iraq. He lives in Tanzania with his wife and two small children.
Maria Verhaaren: Whereabouts unknown.
Bruce Bennett: Still living in Mill Valley, where he works as a manager at Whole Foods Market.
Cecilia Bogren: Visiting from Gottenberg, Sweden, for the year, she has lived in Madrid for more than 25 years, teaching English and leading tours of Scandinavia during the summers.
Kelly O'Connor: Lives in Santa Rosa with her chemical engineer husband and their teenage son and works in the nursing program at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Greg Berman: A successful graphic designer running his own business in Los Angeles, with three teenage children. He moved away from Marin as soon as he graduated from high school.
Kathy Trudell: Retired with the rank of major from the Marine Corps nine years ago, she lives with her husband and two children in Southern California and is a lawyer. Twenty years ago, she attended the boot camp graduation of her fellow Strawberry Point schoolmate Brian Friedman.
Rita Abrams: Songwriter and kindergarten teacher Abrams never taught school again. She went on to win an Emmy for her score to the 1980 TV documentary on Marin called "I Want It All Now," and to write musical comedies such as "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" and "New Wrinkles," as well as greeting cards.
- Joel Selvin
MILL VALLEY
By Rita Abrams
I'm gonna talk about a place that's got a hold on me
Mill Valley
A little place where life feels very fine and free
Mill Valley
Where people aren't afraid to smile
And stop and talk to you a while.
And you can be as friendly as you want to be
Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley, that's my home
It looks as pretty in the rain as in the sun
Mill Valley
And there's a mountain that belongs to everyone
Mill Valley
And there are creeks that run on endlessly
And trees as far as you can see
It makes you feel as if your life has just begun
Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley, California, that's my home
I know that there might come a time I'll have to leave Mill Valley
And every memory will seem like make-believe
And all the good things that are mine right now
Will call to me and ask me how
I could have left them all behind
How could I leave Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley
Talkin' 'bout Mill Valley, California, that's my home
Copyright; Oh Boy Music, ASCAP
E-mail Joel Selvin at [email protected].
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/09/MNOV1EP0CK.DTL#ixzz0wN1GmLTc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-YaWE0zu-c
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
San Jose Municipal Rose Garden named 'America's best'
San Jose Municipal Rose Garden named 'America's best'
By Linda Zavoral
[email protected]
Posted: 08/11/2010 10:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 08/11/2010 11:21:45 PM PDT
Hey, Portland and Pasadena! There's a new queen of roses.
Just a few years after being put on horticultural probation, the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden has not only salvaged its reputation but will be named today as "America's Best Rose Garden," beating out more than 130 public rose gardens nationwide.
In the process, it's become a model for how to care for a community garden at a time of declining government and park budgets.
The award, from All-America Rose Selections, a nonprofit association of rose growers, is the first by the association best known for its rigorous testing of new varieties of roses. Its work has led to the introduction of such classic roses as Peace, Mr. Lincoln and Double Delight. All-America Rose Selections, which also accredits gardens, put the disheveled San Jose garden on probation in 2005 and then noted its transformation by lifting the probation status in 2008.
"The amazing work that the Friends of San Jose Rose Garden, the volunteers and park staff have done to turn the garden around is truly wonderful," said Henry Conklin, the Arizona-based president of All-America Rose Selections. "Their spirit, creativity and love of roses is emblematic of why the America's Best Rose Garden competition was created."
News of the award, which will be announced officially today, thrilled flower enthusiasts and civic leaders alike.
"I'm just ecstatic that we've gone from a park that was on probation -- and,
frankly, with weeds taller than I am -- to the No. 1 rose garden in the U.S.," said San Jose Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, whose district includes the rose garden.
For Dan Fenton, CEO of Team San Jose and his team of tourism officials, "It's a big deal. We will use it as a way to market San Jose as a destination," he said. With this new national distinction, he said, the garden can be promoted as a reception site for conventioneers visiting town and a must-see for tourists.
In 2007, Oliverio suggested that the city outsource its garden maintenance to a private contractor -- a failed proposal that upset union workers and ignited volunteer efforts by local rose enthusiasts Terry Reilly and Beverly Rose Hopper. They cofounded the Friends of the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden.
Oliverio said Wednesday that both the volunteers and city staffers deserve the credit for the transformation. The key, Reilly said, was in getting people to understand how passionate gardeners are about their hobby and then channeling that interest. "Some people hike (for recreation). Some bike. They walk their dogs. Some like to garden, pull weeds and pick roses."
Volunteers now average a total of 150 hours a week and thousands of hours since the group was formed in 2007. To assuage city fears about just anybody stopping by to prune or weed, the group trains volunteers and issues official vests to those who pass muster.
It's not unusual to see a vested volunteer or two or three toiling just after 8 a.m., when the garden opens, or at dusk, close to closing time, Reilly said.
For the first-ever competition, All-America Rose Selections (www.rose.org) asked individuals to vote for their favorite local rose garden. The results were weighted by attendance numbers to put smaller and larger gardens on the same footing. All-America Rose Selections judges then evaluated the top 10 finalists on their "beauty, creativity and the garden's overall contribution to the community."
Two New York state gardens -- the Dr. E.M. Mills Memorial Rose Garden in Syracuse and the Central Park Rose Garden of Schenectady -- earned second and third place, respectively. Sacramento's State Capitol World Peace Rose Garden and Oakland's Morcom Rose Garden also made the top 10. Absent were Oregon's "City of Roses," Portland, and its famed International Rose Garden, as well as rose gardens in and near the Tournament of Roses city of Pasadena.
San Jose received "far and above" the most votes, spokesman Joe Foster said.
The title of "America's Best Rose Garden" comes with a check for $2,500 -- and bragging rights aplenty. A Sept. 4 event is planned for the check presentation, with plenty of those vaunted volunteers expected to be in attendance.
"This award is a fabulous demonstration of how important volunteers are to our community," Hopper said. "They're priceless, really."
Now, other gardens around the country are looking to replicate San Jose's success with volunteers. Reilly and Hopper have been approached for advice by the people who run Sacramento's McKinley Park Rose Garden, the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland and an 800-plant garden, the Walnut Hill Park Rose Garden, that opened this year in New Britain, Conn.
Kate McCue, the Connecticut project coordinator, proposed resurrecting a 1929 rose garden that had thrived until city budget cuts in the 1980s left it to grow wild. It was ultimately plowed under. The city said the restoration was OK -- if McCue and her group could raise private money and handle garden maintenance.
"I modeled it after the volunteer project that San Jose has run so successfully," McCue said. "We've modeled everything -- the training, the supervised hours, the parties. It's worked so well here. I've made no secret of the fact that San Jose has been one of the critical advisers in the success of our garden."
Contact Linda Zavoral at 408-920-5960.
San Jose Municipal Rose Garden named 'America's best'
By Linda Zavoral
[email protected]
Posted: 08/11/2010 10:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 08/11/2010 11:21:45 PM PDT
Hey, Portland and Pasadena! There's a new queen of roses.
Just a few years after being put on horticultural probation, the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden has not only salvaged its reputation but will be named today as "America's Best Rose Garden," beating out more than 130 public rose gardens nationwide.
In the process, it's become a model for how to care for a community garden at a time of declining government and park budgets.
The award, from All-America Rose Selections, a nonprofit association of rose growers, is the first by the association best known for its rigorous testing of new varieties of roses. Its work has led to the introduction of such classic roses as Peace, Mr. Lincoln and Double Delight. All-America Rose Selections, which also accredits gardens, put the disheveled San Jose garden on probation in 2005 and then noted its transformation by lifting the probation status in 2008.
"The amazing work that the Friends of San Jose Rose Garden, the volunteers and park staff have done to turn the garden around is truly wonderful," said Henry Conklin, the Arizona-based president of All-America Rose Selections. "Their spirit, creativity and love of roses is emblematic of why the America's Best Rose Garden competition was created."
News of the award, which will be announced officially today, thrilled flower enthusiasts and civic leaders alike.
"I'm just ecstatic that we've gone from a park that was on probation -- and,
frankly, with weeds taller than I am -- to the No. 1 rose garden in the U.S.," said San Jose Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, whose district includes the rose garden.
For Dan Fenton, CEO of Team San Jose and his team of tourism officials, "It's a big deal. We will use it as a way to market San Jose as a destination," he said. With this new national distinction, he said, the garden can be promoted as a reception site for conventioneers visiting town and a must-see for tourists.
In 2007, Oliverio suggested that the city outsource its garden maintenance to a private contractor -- a failed proposal that upset union workers and ignited volunteer efforts by local rose enthusiasts Terry Reilly and Beverly Rose Hopper. They cofounded the Friends of the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden.
Oliverio said Wednesday that both the volunteers and city staffers deserve the credit for the transformation. The key, Reilly said, was in getting people to understand how passionate gardeners are about their hobby and then channeling that interest. "Some people hike (for recreation). Some bike. They walk their dogs. Some like to garden, pull weeds and pick roses."
Volunteers now average a total of 150 hours a week and thousands of hours since the group was formed in 2007. To assuage city fears about just anybody stopping by to prune or weed, the group trains volunteers and issues official vests to those who pass muster.
It's not unusual to see a vested volunteer or two or three toiling just after 8 a.m., when the garden opens, or at dusk, close to closing time, Reilly said.
For the first-ever competition, All-America Rose Selections (www.rose.org) asked individuals to vote for their favorite local rose garden. The results were weighted by attendance numbers to put smaller and larger gardens on the same footing. All-America Rose Selections judges then evaluated the top 10 finalists on their "beauty, creativity and the garden's overall contribution to the community."
Two New York state gardens -- the Dr. E.M. Mills Memorial Rose Garden in Syracuse and the Central Park Rose Garden of Schenectady -- earned second and third place, respectively. Sacramento's State Capitol World Peace Rose Garden and Oakland's Morcom Rose Garden also made the top 10. Absent were Oregon's "City of Roses," Portland, and its famed International Rose Garden, as well as rose gardens in and near the Tournament of Roses city of Pasadena.
San Jose received "far and above" the most votes, spokesman Joe Foster said.
The title of "America's Best Rose Garden" comes with a check for $2,500 -- and bragging rights aplenty. A Sept. 4 event is planned for the check presentation, with plenty of those vaunted volunteers expected to be in attendance.
"This award is a fabulous demonstration of how important volunteers are to our community," Hopper said. "They're priceless, really."
Now, other gardens around the country are looking to replicate San Jose's success with volunteers. Reilly and Hopper have been approached for advice by the people who run Sacramento's McKinley Park Rose Garden, the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland and an 800-plant garden, the Walnut Hill Park Rose Garden, that opened this year in New Britain, Conn.
Kate McCue, the Connecticut project coordinator, proposed resurrecting a 1929 rose garden that had thrived until city budget cuts in the 1980s left it to grow wild. It was ultimately plowed under. The city said the restoration was OK -- if McCue and her group could raise private money and handle garden maintenance.
"I modeled it after the volunteer project that San Jose has run so successfully," McCue said. "We've modeled everything -- the training, the supervised hours, the parties. It's worked so well here. I've made no secret of the fact that San Jose has been one of the critical advisers in the success of our garden."
Contact Linda Zavoral at 408-920-5960.
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
The Dalai Lama Says...
Dalai Lama: "There is a common perception that compassion is, if not actually an impediment, at least irrelevant to professional life. Personally, I would argue that not only is it relevant, but that when compassion is lacking, our activities are in danger of becoming destructive. This is because when we ignore the question of the impact our actions have on others' well-being, inevitably we end up hurting them."
Dalai Lama: "There is a common perception that compassion is, if not actually an impediment, at least irrelevant to professional life. Personally, I would argue that not only is it relevant, but that when compassion is lacking, our activities are in danger of becoming destructive. This is because when we ignore the question of the impact our actions have on others' well-being, inevitably we end up hurting them."
lkwdblds
Crusader
Nice concise summary ot the point I was making.
Nice concise summary of the point of my above post. However, It does not address what should happen to a perpetrator who, through lack of compassion, hurts others. Does the Dalai Lama have anything to say as to whether the perp must make up the damages he has caused before continuing onward and upward on his own spiritual journey?
I would like to coin a new word to replace perpetrator to cover the case where the perpetrator actually knew better and yet willingly and without care betrayed his followers. I suggest such an individual by called a "PERPETRAITOR". If such an individual can move onward and upward spiritually without atonment, then, by that line of reasoning, Adolph Hitler, must be having a great time up there in Heaven or back down here living the good life!
Lakey
Nice concise summary of the point of my above post. However, It does not address what should happen to a perpetrator who, through lack of compassion, hurts others. Does the Dalai Lama have anything to say as to whether the perp must make up the damages he has caused before continuing onward and upward on his own spiritual journey?
I would like to coin a new word to replace perpetrator to cover the case where the perpetrator actually knew better and yet willingly and without care betrayed his followers. I suggest such an individual by called a "PERPETRAITOR". If such an individual can move onward and upward spiritually without atonment, then, by that line of reasoning, Adolph Hitler, must be having a great time up there in Heaven or back down here living the good life!
Lakey
Last edited:
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
from a book written by Jack Horner in 1970
There are many philosophies of medicine such as practiced by the medical doctor, by the chiropractor, by the naturopath, by the osteopath. There are many other approaches to apply a science of man especially to the human body from witch doctors to the finest surgeons in the finest hospitals in the world. Philosophies from Buddhism, actually from earlier than Buddhism, on through to current versions of communism, capitalism, Catholicism, religious philosophies such as Science of Mind, Christian Science, Scientology. These are all philosophies which attempt to understand and bring about greater levels of comprehension in human beings.
Dianology contains utilizable, teachable, predictable techniques which, when used under specific conditions, bring about predictable, precise change by the individuals upon whom they are applied.
Dianology is a philosophy, too, which includes within its system the means by which the multitudinous phenomena of life are or can be incorporated.
Dianology borrows from many, many other truths, facts observed by philosophies and sciences down through the centuries and credit is due to all
Particular credit is due to A. Nordenholtz who founded the science called Scientology in which he realized the necessity for a science of knowledge
' and knowing that would incorporate within it all the , compartments of existence that could be comprehended. A science that included all other sciences and all other philosophies. And Nordenholtz* Scientology was the predecessor to many other sciences and philosophies such as L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics and Scientology.
More important, however, was the realization and the need of a scientific philosophy which would make possible a broad application of knowledge and
to increase man's understanding and awareness of himself in addition to his ability to causatively control and influence himself and his
environment toward better living.
Civilizations have fallen through inadequate philosophies and lack of broadly applicable sciences concerning man himself. And civilizations have prospered to the degree they have had philosophies and sciences that expressed the values and goals of the time and had workability in their time.
There has never been a truly comprehensive science of man, possibly because until this century on Earth there has not been a complete enough. communication system to make possible a true study of all of humanity wherever he is on this planet.
Man today has two important frontiers --the stars and himself. To go to the stars today re-quires billions of dollars and millions of man hours. It's a shame that some billions of dollars can't be spent on "inner spaceu. To pioneer him- self, man needs himself plus a few knowledgeable tools and points of reference for understanding. Man's ability to make this planet flower and to go to the stars and make them flower depends ulti- mately upon man's ability to understand himself and to know what he is, where he is, what he is doing and why. These questions have been posed in the past and have been considered basically un- answerable. There are answers. Dianology has found some of them. We intend to help develop a
truly scientific philosophy of man which will bring about an increasing number of answers about man, his nature, his destiny, and his future.
A truly scientific functioning philosophy --scientific philosophy --about human beings must contain: Answers as to the nature and function of thought, emotion and action.
The discovery of the basic source of the qualities, expressions, and behavior of the human being.
A knowledge of the mind, what it is and how it can be created or changed.
Workable, applicable methodologies which when applied bring desirable ., ,. changes to the individual.
Knowledge which, when applied, pre- vents insane behavior, neurosis, in- sanity, confusion, misunders tanding and sickness.
An understanding of sanity, and- the various degrees of sanity so that func- tioning, able individuals maintain and increase their sanity levels.
Knowledge which, when applied, resolves irrational nonsurvival behavior and interaction of life.
An exact study of the human spirit, its nature both qualitatively and quantitatively --if any.
Understanding of the values, goals and roles of life and how to establish them.
Dianology already has the answers to the above factors !
Dianology ,as a scientific philosophy, does con- tain precise axioms, which are self-evident facts and describe natural laws in the same way the physical sciences do.
Dianology contains techniques to bring about positive, creative changes in individuals and increases the intelligence and the ability and effectiveness of individuals.
Dianology defines the source of all of an indi- vidual's liabilities and assets.
Dianology verifies the exact basic nature of a human being. It defines the mind and its function. It defines behavior --its characteristics, motivations and expressions.
Dianology defines the mind; its parts, its scarce and its creation and contains the tools by which a mind can be understood and changed.
Dianology revolutionizes the field of human understanding by an exact and a more complete comprehension of exactly what understanding is and how it can be intentionally increased or decreased.
Dianology provides an area of knowledge which is capable of improving the fields of education, law, communications, psychology and many others. The very nature of the subject called Understanding, when understood ,makes easier the understanding of anything one desires to comprehend.
Dianology deals with Reality at its basic source and immediately increases the perception and awareness of Reality on an acceptable, satisfactory gradient for the individual involved.
Most important of all, Dianology makes poss- ible a state of personal creative freedom for the individual that has seldom, if ever, existed on Earth. The techniques of Dianology give a, person the tools, the knowledge and the skill by which he is capable of realizing his full potential freely, willingly and knowingly so that he can do what he wants to do, where he wants to do it, when he wants to do it with the certain knowledge that what he is 4doing is the best possible thing that can be done.
Truly creative, free, happy individuals are ab.le to work easily in conjunction with other truly, creative, free, happy individuals to bring about a world on which individuals live the kind of life they want to live --one that has satisfactory purpose, meaning, progress and achievement.
Dianology and its techniques can help to bring about such a world. A world on which men work with other men to make life a more pleasurable and worthwhile game. A game in which everyone wins. A planet-wide civilization that contains no prisons, no insane asylums and no conflicts that can not be resolved. A world without war. The true reali-zation of the nature of human beings will bring about a civilization in which people deal with each other with wisdom, understanding and intelligence and so bring forth increasingly better civilizations.
Dianology provides the techniques by which a person can knowingly and creatively evolve toward better and better expressions of his own potentials and nature and purposes in this universe. Dia-nology provides a bridge, awide, sturdy bridge. Any individual can cross this bridge from wherever he is to at least the state of Personal Creative Freedom and states beyond, that.
There are many bridges to better states of being. One of the best bridges ever built was built by Gautama Buddha. But his knowledge and tech- niques were lost and are rarely duplicatable today because the philosophies of his time did not con- tain the science of our time.
There are many bridges to freedom. Dianology is one bridge. A better bridge than most. It is a bridge which you are free to cross; a bridge you are free to leave at any time; and a bridge you are free to continue on as long as you wish to increase your own knowledge and ability.
A man named L. Ron Hubbard once insisted, "For God's sake, get busy and build a better bridgew. Dianology is a better bridge. Like any good bridge, it can be widened and improved, but as a bridge of human understanding it probably will continue to be lengthened for as long as mankind exists. Please feel free to cross this bridge or to go build your own bridge. We need men on this planet who are sane, creative, and serene. Dianology is one bridge by which this can be accomplished.
So, help us better our bridge and Dianology will help build better bridges elsewhere; Man needs bridges to increased wisdom and understanding. Today is the time! Now is the hour!
There are many philosophies of medicine such as practiced by the medical doctor, by the chiropractor, by the naturopath, by the osteopath. There are many other approaches to apply a science of man especially to the human body from witch doctors to the finest surgeons in the finest hospitals in the world. Philosophies from Buddhism, actually from earlier than Buddhism, on through to current versions of communism, capitalism, Catholicism, religious philosophies such as Science of Mind, Christian Science, Scientology. These are all philosophies which attempt to understand and bring about greater levels of comprehension in human beings.
Dianology contains utilizable, teachable, predictable techniques which, when used under specific conditions, bring about predictable, precise change by the individuals upon whom they are applied.
Dianology is a philosophy, too, which includes within its system the means by which the multitudinous phenomena of life are or can be incorporated.
Dianology borrows from many, many other truths, facts observed by philosophies and sciences down through the centuries and credit is due to all
Particular credit is due to A. Nordenholtz who founded the science called Scientology in which he realized the necessity for a science of knowledge
' and knowing that would incorporate within it all the , compartments of existence that could be comprehended. A science that included all other sciences and all other philosophies. And Nordenholtz* Scientology was the predecessor to many other sciences and philosophies such as L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics and Scientology.
More important, however, was the realization and the need of a scientific philosophy which would make possible a broad application of knowledge and
to increase man's understanding and awareness of himself in addition to his ability to causatively control and influence himself and his
environment toward better living.
Civilizations have fallen through inadequate philosophies and lack of broadly applicable sciences concerning man himself. And civilizations have prospered to the degree they have had philosophies and sciences that expressed the values and goals of the time and had workability in their time.
There has never been a truly comprehensive science of man, possibly because until this century on Earth there has not been a complete enough. communication system to make possible a true study of all of humanity wherever he is on this planet.
Man today has two important frontiers --the stars and himself. To go to the stars today re-quires billions of dollars and millions of man hours. It's a shame that some billions of dollars can't be spent on "inner spaceu. To pioneer him- self, man needs himself plus a few knowledgeable tools and points of reference for understanding. Man's ability to make this planet flower and to go to the stars and make them flower depends ulti- mately upon man's ability to understand himself and to know what he is, where he is, what he is doing and why. These questions have been posed in the past and have been considered basically un- answerable. There are answers. Dianology has found some of them. We intend to help develop a
truly scientific philosophy of man which will bring about an increasing number of answers about man, his nature, his destiny, and his future.
A truly scientific functioning philosophy --scientific philosophy --about human beings must contain: Answers as to the nature and function of thought, emotion and action.
The discovery of the basic source of the qualities, expressions, and behavior of the human being.
A knowledge of the mind, what it is and how it can be created or changed.
Workable, applicable methodologies which when applied bring desirable ., ,. changes to the individual.
Knowledge which, when applied, pre- vents insane behavior, neurosis, in- sanity, confusion, misunders tanding and sickness.
An understanding of sanity, and- the various degrees of sanity so that func- tioning, able individuals maintain and increase their sanity levels.
Knowledge which, when applied, resolves irrational nonsurvival behavior and interaction of life.
An exact study of the human spirit, its nature both qualitatively and quantitatively --if any.
Understanding of the values, goals and roles of life and how to establish them.
Dianology already has the answers to the above factors !
Dianology ,as a scientific philosophy, does con- tain precise axioms, which are self-evident facts and describe natural laws in the same way the physical sciences do.
Dianology contains techniques to bring about positive, creative changes in individuals and increases the intelligence and the ability and effectiveness of individuals.
Dianology defines the source of all of an indi- vidual's liabilities and assets.
Dianology verifies the exact basic nature of a human being. It defines the mind and its function. It defines behavior --its characteristics, motivations and expressions.
Dianology defines the mind; its parts, its scarce and its creation and contains the tools by which a mind can be understood and changed.
Dianology revolutionizes the field of human understanding by an exact and a more complete comprehension of exactly what understanding is and how it can be intentionally increased or decreased.
Dianology provides an area of knowledge which is capable of improving the fields of education, law, communications, psychology and many others. The very nature of the subject called Understanding, when understood ,makes easier the understanding of anything one desires to comprehend.
Dianology deals with Reality at its basic source and immediately increases the perception and awareness of Reality on an acceptable, satisfactory gradient for the individual involved.
Most important of all, Dianology makes poss- ible a state of personal creative freedom for the individual that has seldom, if ever, existed on Earth. The techniques of Dianology give a, person the tools, the knowledge and the skill by which he is capable of realizing his full potential freely, willingly and knowingly so that he can do what he wants to do, where he wants to do it, when he wants to do it with the certain knowledge that what he is 4doing is the best possible thing that can be done.
Truly creative, free, happy individuals are ab.le to work easily in conjunction with other truly, creative, free, happy individuals to bring about a world on which individuals live the kind of life they want to live --one that has satisfactory purpose, meaning, progress and achievement.
Dianology and its techniques can help to bring about such a world. A world on which men work with other men to make life a more pleasurable and worthwhile game. A game in which everyone wins. A planet-wide civilization that contains no prisons, no insane asylums and no conflicts that can not be resolved. A world without war. The true reali-zation of the nature of human beings will bring about a civilization in which people deal with each other with wisdom, understanding and intelligence and so bring forth increasingly better civilizations.
Dianology provides the techniques by which a person can knowingly and creatively evolve toward better and better expressions of his own potentials and nature and purposes in this universe. Dia-nology provides a bridge, awide, sturdy bridge. Any individual can cross this bridge from wherever he is to at least the state of Personal Creative Freedom and states beyond, that.
There are many bridges to better states of being. One of the best bridges ever built was built by Gautama Buddha. But his knowledge and tech- niques were lost and are rarely duplicatable today because the philosophies of his time did not con- tain the science of our time.
There are many bridges to freedom. Dianology is one bridge. A better bridge than most. It is a bridge which you are free to cross; a bridge you are free to leave at any time; and a bridge you are free to continue on as long as you wish to increase your own knowledge and ability.
A man named L. Ron Hubbard once insisted, "For God's sake, get busy and build a better bridgew. Dianology is a better bridge. Like any good bridge, it can be widened and improved, but as a bridge of human understanding it probably will continue to be lengthened for as long as mankind exists. Please feel free to cross this bridge or to go build your own bridge. We need men on this planet who are sane, creative, and serene. Dianology is one bridge by which this can be accomplished.
So, help us better our bridge and Dianology will help build better bridges elsewhere; Man needs bridges to increased wisdom and understanding. Today is the time! Now is the hour!
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
At the moment, I just want life to be like the Reagan commercial from long ago or the video of Mill Valley. A simpler time. I don't know that that scenario is possible.
But today, we're taking the smallest grandchildren to the beach.
Last night, the beach town we stayed at had a rock and funk band playing on the beach. Hundreds of happy people dancing and picnicking. Dogs everywhere.
Why can't it all be this simple! (not a question, I know the answer)
Knowing that there are people who can steal from us all with a fountain pen (whether LRH or Wall St.), and destroy countless lives, there is a duty to either be proactive or to respond. This is where it gets complicated.
lkwdblds
Crusader
Those old Norman Rockwell paintings........
http://www.kollewin.com/EX/09-15-19/Norman%20Rockwell%20Print.jpg
http://afrocityblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/norman-rockwell.jpg
Above are links to a couple of Norman Rockwell paintings! Those old Norman Rockwell's harken back to a simpler time. They represented simplicity as seen from the 1920 through 1950's period. Some creative artist ought to revive and update that genre of paintings to reflect the simpler times of the 1960's through the 1980's. Reaganism in the 80's seemed to just temporarily simplify the apparency of life in America.
Lakey
http://www.kollewin.com/EX/09-15-19/Norman%20Rockwell%20Print.jpg
http://afrocityblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/norman-rockwell.jpg
Above are links to a couple of Norman Rockwell paintings! Those old Norman Rockwell's harken back to a simpler time. They represented simplicity as seen from the 1920 through 1950's period. Some creative artist ought to revive and update that genre of paintings to reflect the simpler times of the 1960's through the 1980's. Reaganism in the 80's seemed to just temporarily simplify the apparency of life in America.
Lakey
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
Making up damages is an L. Rum Tubbard thing.
Such a demand automatically assigns a person a time-track not particularly of his own creation. In business you fire a person, or give them lesser responsibilities. You do not send them on an amends project.
"Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrows." Or some such quote would apply.
Would I put tubby back in the driver's seat? Nope. Do I care to associate with him? Nope. Will I ack the things he has done that are good? Sure. Will I take every opportunity to expose him for the fraudulent narcissist he was and possibly still is? Yep. That's his punishment and my enjoyment.
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
There is the old poster that I still like, a lot: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"
There is talk of a war with Iran now. How foolish. This would be only a war between governments. The people of Iran do not want war any more than We the Peeps.
When there is upheaval in Iran, go to Twitter to get the real news.
How about a new poster for these times: "What if they printed money and nobody needed or used it?"
lkwdblds
Crusader
I can't reconcile with a no atonement view of life.
I am not suggesting putting Hubbard back in the driver's seat! I am suggesting that those whom Hubbard injured be placed in the driver's seat. They order Hubbard to "dance to their tune" until such time as he has shown enough contrition and made up the damages to such a degree that he can then be released on his own recognizance to do whatever he wants to do from that point forward.
Ted, I don't know why but I can not reconcile with a no atonement needed concept. Perhaps it is being born Jewish and being exposed to that religion as a youth. Yom Kippur, the "day of atonement." In Catholicism atonement is sought through confession, etc..
I am open to change, maybe I picked up a bunch of crap from those religions. Penal systems the world over are supposed to be built on one paying a penalty for one's crimes against society. A criminal should only be released back into society once he or she has both atoned and been rehabilitated. The lack of requiring atonement would lead to situations where child rapists are not punished but rather symnpathized with and then excused without atonement and rehabilitiation and released back into society to rape more children. This is being done a lot now with today's Modern think.
Hubbard's Danger Formula has been a good mainstay for me. It is one of the elements of his tech which I consider workable. In a world with no contritition and atonement, a man like Hitler would be released on his own after WWII and would be able to move onward and upward without atoning for the damages and destruction which he caused. I do not think I could ever sign on to that policy.
Lakey
I am not suggesting putting Hubbard back in the driver's seat! I am suggesting that those whom Hubbard injured be placed in the driver's seat. They order Hubbard to "dance to their tune" until such time as he has shown enough contrition and made up the damages to such a degree that he can then be released on his own recognizance to do whatever he wants to do from that point forward.
Ted, I don't know why but I can not reconcile with a no atonement needed concept. Perhaps it is being born Jewish and being exposed to that religion as a youth. Yom Kippur, the "day of atonement." In Catholicism atonement is sought through confession, etc..
I am open to change, maybe I picked up a bunch of crap from those religions. Penal systems the world over are supposed to be built on one paying a penalty for one's crimes against society. A criminal should only be released back into society once he or she has both atoned and been rehabilitated. The lack of requiring atonement would lead to situations where child rapists are not punished but rather symnpathized with and then excused without atonement and rehabilitiation and released back into society to rape more children. This is being done a lot now with today's Modern think.
Hubbard's Danger Formula has been a good mainstay for me. It is one of the elements of his tech which I consider workable. In a world with no contritition and atonement, a man like Hitler would be released on his own after WWII and would be able to move onward and upward without atoning for the damages and destruction which he caused. I do not think I could ever sign on to that policy.
Lakey
FoTi
Crusader
Lakey, I'm a bit confused here. You quoted FoTi in this last post, but you seem to be addressing Blue. :confused2:
FoTi
Crusader
In Scientology, I understood the conditions were to be applied to a current life....and auditing was supposed to handle the past life track. If one believes that one has lived many, many lives over millions or billions of years, how would one ever do an amends for all of the bad deeds one might have done over that long period of time? I never saw anyone having to do amends for the overts they ran out in session as regards their past life or lives. The act of running out the overts and getting the charge off of them - as-ising the basic so that it wouldn't occur any longer or be bothering the person any longer so that they could live a better life was the action that I saw being done in Scientology.
Did you ever read about or hear LRH saying anything about doing amends for past life overts?
I'm also wondering why LRH is only communicating with Blue or TMT.
- Status