There is

There’s a heaven and/There’s a star for you. – Daniel Johnston (Mark Linkous – Sparklehorse)

Emerson... again

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Try the best you can

Music [or anything creative] is really all about experimentation and lots of trial and error. It's just mind-numbingly boring until you hit on something that works well. – Martin Gore (Depeche Mode)

(brackets mine)

You can try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough

You can try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough  

Your life; your choice

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. - William Jennings Bryan

Do a good deed today... for yourself

He who does a good deed is instantly ennobled. He who does a mean deed is by the action itself contracted. He who puts off impurity thereby puts on purity. If a man is at heart just, then in so far is he God. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuva Farewell
by Paul Pena
Pena: vocals, guitar, dijeridu;
Ondar : vocals, Tuvan banjo

Written upon Paul's return to America from Tuva in 1995.

Here I am on my way now, on my way back home,
On this winged horse I've mounted, on my way alone.
I've been listening to the music of nature
I've been tuned to the wonder of the earth,
I've been listening and I've been relating
Now I feel the reason for our birth.
Everything here sings like a bird on the wing!
Now I get back home and find out they think it's all for show;
Now I get back home and find out they don't know!

Here I am in Tuva, listening to the sound,
Here I sit at the center of Asia, with my ear to the ground.
Lord, its been a long time, since I've felt so free!
Through the hardships and heartaches,
Through the tiredness of body and mind I see
That every heart needs to sing like a bird on the wing!
There's so many things you've got to know how to do
To get along; All I know to do is sing.
My friends they sing with me in some way,
That's the way it seems!

Yrlar sen, Kongar-ol! (Sing it, Kongar-ol!)

Got me a brother in prison, I know nothing about.
All I know is when he sings it's beauty;
His heart and soul come out.
They can't tell me nothing about him,
Don't know [if he's] dead or alive,
But I will sing to my Ezhim (friend) Oidupaa
If I can help him to survive, I don't know.
If I don't, Lord, his memory will remain!
Me and my friends we've heard his voice,
And now we know his name;
Me and my friends, we're gonna play his music to the world
And listen with no shame!

[So] here I am on my way now, on my way back home,
On this winged horse I've mounted, riding on alone.
I will listen to the music of nature
I will listen to the wonder of the earth.
I will listen and keep relating
You would do well to do some work on that, my friend;
If we don't, I know nothing will remain! What a shame!
Me and my friends we will remember all the love we've known.
We will tell everybody: In Tuva we've found another home!

Here I am at the center of Asia.

Tunap bodap borarymga-yo,
Tuva chonum bergenein-e.

Repeat

Every time I think of my people;
I am honored by the Tuvan people.

Eshterim tyvanyng chonum-nu
Eshterim tyvanyng ynak men!

Repeat

My friends, the Tuvan people,
My Tuvan friends, I love you!

Mr. Gorbachev... (you know the overplayed rest)

Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down. – Anonymous

 

Laughing

Remember, men need laughter sometimes more than food.  

- Anna Fellows Johnston

 

I Wish You Well

I wish you good friends that always treat you fair

Wanna wish you ribbons to tie around your hair

I wish you, truckloads of cheer

and many happy years

– I Wish You Well, Bill Withers

Try it your way

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. - Marcus Aurelius

Listen

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. – Richard Moss

That's all you've got

If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.” – Epictetus

Make It Happen

Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen

And I don’t know when

But just saying it could even make it happen. – Kate Bush, Cloudbusting

I still dream of Orgonon.
I wake up cryin'.
You're making rain,
And you're just in reach,
When you and sleep escape me.

You're like my yo-yo
That glowed in the dark.
What made it special
Made it dangerous,
So I bury it
And forget.

But every time it rains,
You're here in my head,
Like the sun coming out--
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

On top of the world,
Looking over the edge,
You could see them coming.
You looked too small
In their big, black car,
To be a threat to the men in power.

I hid my yo-yo
In the garden.
I can't hide you
From the government.
Oh, God, Daddy--
I won't forget.

'Cause every time it rains,
You're here in my head,
Like the sun coming out--
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

It's you and me, Daddy.

It's you and me... Daddy---

It's you and me... Daddy---

E-yeah yeah yeah yeah yo-ohhhhhhhhhh

And every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out.
Your son's coming out.
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen.

Ooo-ohh, just saying it could even make it happen.

I'm Cloudbusting Daddy.

Your son's coming out.
Your son's coming out.

Wookin' Pa Nub

I don't wish to be everything to everyone, but I would like to be something to someone. – Javan quote

Our thoughts are stronger, too

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. - James Allen

In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.
All the thoughts unuttered and all the feelings unexpressed
Play upon our hearts like the mist upon our breath.
But, awoken by grief, our spirits speak
How could you believe that the life within the seed
That grew arms that reached
And a heart that beat.
And lips that smiled
And eyes that cried.
Could ever die?

Here come the blue skies here comes springtime.
When the rivers run high & the tears run dry.
When everything that dies.
Shall rise.

Smell the catfood in your bank account

They want what they’re not

And I wish they would stop saying

Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa

Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa

D – Don’t Let’s Start, They Might Be Giants

 

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And I don't get around how you get around

When you are alone you are the cat, you are the phone
You are an animal
The words I'm singing now
Mean nothing more than meow to an animal
Wake up and smell the cat food in your bank account
But don't try to stop the tail that wags the hound

D, world destruction
Over and overture
N, do I need apostrophe
T, need this torture?

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And I don't get around how you get around

No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful
Everybody dies frustrated inside and that is beautiful
They want what they're not and I wish they would stop saying,
Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa
Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa

D, world destruction
Over and overture
N, do I need apostrophe
T, need this torture?

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And I don't get around how you get around

I don't want to live in this world anymore
I don't want to live in this world

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And I don't get around how you get around 

Spend some time with your best friend: you

Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world. - Eleanor Roosevelt

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Why not optimism?

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else. – Winston Churchill

99.9% Pure Nonself, Ivory Pure Nonself.

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9% of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself, And there isn't one. - Wei Wu Wei

RIP Harvey Pekar

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy and a tragedy. – Mark Twain

"I'm trying to get every man involved in art, into experimental music, or painting, or novel-writing," he said.
What mattered most to Harvey Pekar was that people appreciate their own latent abilities, the power of the every day. Ordinary life, he liked to say, is pretty complex stuff.

Stop making excuses

The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you. – Tom Bradley

"It's too hard!" "Shut your balls! No it's not!"

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. - Winston Churchill

 

 

You got the Power!

All serious daring starts from within. - Eudora Welty

Exception to the rule

To be loved for what one is, is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him, their own selves, their version of him. – Goethe

It's not the perfume that you wear
It's not the ribbons in your hair
I don't mind you coming here
and wasting all my time

I guess you're just what I needed
(just what I needed)
I needed someone to feed
I guess you're just what I needed
(just what I needed)
I needed someone to please

experimental periment mental experi tal, ex al, peri, experiment

Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction. – John Cheever

Daniel Johnston again

To understand and be understood is to be free – Daniel Johnston

Just getting back on track

Wrong reasoning sometimes lands poor mortals in right conclusions: starting a long way off the true point, and proceeding by loops and zigzags, we now and then arrive just where we ought to be. – George Eliot, Middlemarch

Watch clip until 3:34

Love. Life. Meaning.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. – Emily Dickinson

<

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. (you owe me)

Even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit. - Author Unknown

Well, when you're good at something, stick with it

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. – Omar N. Bradley

Indeed, it does not

God has no religion. - Gandhi