Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Older is Fine




older women showing off at high tide !!!!


Barbara Corcoran says ...



"Nothing as powerful, dainty and alluring as an older mother's body with knowledge of birth and death by way of birthing children into their families and for the rest of us in the world. Their play with image and concern over aging is sexy in many types of women not on the market place, but on the journey as women walking the long road of motherhood towards the last stage: the Old Wise Woman!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.30.15



older woman deeper beauty at the beach


beautiful Cosetta Chantal over the years


 

Need to Learn It


photographer Ruby Woo Vintage's take on a beautiful woman



 

PIPER

Piper Perabo

actress Piper Perabo stars in the series COVERT AFFAIRS
#41705

Piper Perabo
#41751


Monday, June 29, 2015

A Look At Marilyn !


Pamela Enriquez-Courts (Artist)

art by Pamela Enriquez-Courtis
upon a 12 ounce stainless steel flask with a print of Marilyn


The ghost of a past and the ghost of what we once dreamt of does become a ghost, but to see it in the form of Marilyn Monroe stirs the senses around and around for men, I imagine. For me, it disturbs the dream of an ideal making me face a fact I know that Marilyn Monroe lived her life and died. We still love her, but the times she came from her took her light. It would have happened in this era, the taking of her light, but we would not have cared in the same way because in these times we consume unlike her time when digestion was emphasized. - Gregory E. Woods Keeper of Stories 6.29.15


Problem with the Plumbing


flag flown by actress Elizabeth Banks 



“From slavery and the days of Jim Crow through the civil rights movement and beyond, white supremacists have targeted the Black church because of its importance as a pillar of the Black community, the center for leadership and institution building, education, social and political development and organizing to fight oppression,” Love wrote.

“Strike at the Black church, and you strike at the heart of Black American life,” the writer added. 


face covered - Domi Dollz 



I have listened and read on this subject since childhood. My father kept a photograph of two Black men hanging from a tree above his desk. I saw it everyday as a little boy. Daddy's life work balanced the terror of it because of his ability to facilitate between the two factions at war with each other and his deep knowledge of men, of himself, American history and the inner workings of the poor white Southerns and Eastern European immigrants he grew up with in small town USA.  There were other things my father understood and studied in depth. His ability to work against the structure of Jim Crow holding an important Federal position was as important as his youngest brother, Noel's role as a union president in Illinois for a predominately white union during these times. Their skill levels exceed the whining and cowardice of our times that baits one against another. A lack of depth cannot fix a plumbing problem beneath a house. Desert tribes never learned to live on the desert pretending they lived on an oasis. The six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy did not cease endless warfare by polite talk, or dancing around the core of what ailed their souls. In like manner the problems created by white people that dominate this nation cannot be solved throwing another group into the mix to ask, plead and petition for acceptance and equality!

I dread returning to the States.

WE insist equality comes without balance and while shunning the basics of life mirroring the two primary energies we plead and play with the idea we can alter nature without consequences! Caught up in the language of a people who eat their brother and kill their grandchildren to feed their children the nation are Africans and the indigenous people of Turtle Island whose ancestors know the secrets of reconciliation, know the ceremonies that bring warring elements and people together to heal. But, that is unquestioned by the dominate culture whose language has become our language, our way of speaking to ourselves and each other.

Life is not sacred in the United States. There is pretense. There is denial. There is fear. There is division, but there is no commitment to truth in the deepest sense of the word because murder and taking from others are the dominant paradigms. Outside of this way of living in the world this nation fears reconciliation and cannot abide with the notion that there is the sanctity of the Female and Male, that masculinity and femininity are sacred states of being holding Creation together. From the Doctrine of Discovery to the present a dark spirit has grown from the European to the conquered nations, a dark sizzling evil has taken and returned nothing to the Truth of Life.

We have to find our voices. The voices of our ancestors hold more truth than the games we play pretending to be an advanced civilization.  Successful in convincing citizens to separate the whole into segments U.S. citizens are crippled. Entering a circle of any kind is frightening to the point the womb cannot be perceived as sacred in this country. With that source of power and revelation rendered invisible and irrelevant how does man reconcile with the feminine, or know it is an important act to reconcile and merge with the feminine? Without this knowing how do racial clashes cease, if the value of a Black man is measured and estimated from boyhood as a product with costs towards profit?

Sex sells and women are for sell, but the sacredness of a woman's essence is shit in American's estimation and reality. Given away, compromised and meagered out to people as non-essential the intangible powers of women's wombs have no value to the degree that men of science have decided they know how to create a woman from a man without that substance! Such a deep renunciation has gone by without alarm as the century moves deeper into consequences too complex for simpletons to grasp. Great evils can be justified in this energy. Many deaths occur in this train of belief that flies against what people say they really want out of their lives.

I dread returning to the United States. I really do. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.28.15


flag under Roxanna Wilson 


SOMBER FIRES


String of Nighttime Fires Hit Predominately Black Churches in Four Southern States 



The first arson fire occurred in the early morning hours of Monday, June 22, at the College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church, home to a predominately black congregation, in Knoxville, Tenn. Knoxville Fire Department spokesperson D.J. Corcoran said the arsonist set fires at multiple locations on the church property, including igniting bales of hay left at the church’s door. The church’s van also was burned.

The following day, Tuesday June 23, an arsonist was blamed for a fire in the sanctuary s at God’s Power Church of Christ in Macon, Ga.

The third suspected arson fire occurred in the predawn hours of Wednesday, June 24, at the Briar Creek Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.

That fire, reported at 1 a.m. EDT, caused an estimated $250,000 in damage, destroying an education wing in one of four buildings that make up the Briar Creek Road Baptist Church complex in east Charlotte, authorities said. The church’s sanctuary and gymnasium sustained heavy smoke damage.

“Our investigators did not find any direct evidence that would lead them to believe at this time that this is a hate crime,” Charlotte Fire Department spokeswoman Cynthia Robbins Shah-Khan told Hatewatch today. 

“Of course, that is a possibility.”

The church has about 100 members, most of them African Americans, but it also shares space with two churches for immigrants from Nepal, according to media reports.

Also on Wednesday, fire destroyed the Fruitland Presbyterian Church, in Gibson County, Tenn., a landmark structure built in the 1800s.

While the cause of that fire remains under investigation, preliminary reports suggest it may have been caused by a lightning strike, television station WBBJ reported.

The fires also occurred at a time when there is increasing public pressure to remove the Confederate flag – one of the last hallmarks of white superiority — from government buildings and public places as well as banning assorted Confederate flag merchandise sold in retails stores and online. 

“As the nation grapples with the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., one of the oldest Black churches in the South, other Black churches have become recent targets of arson,” writer David A. Love said today at Atlanta BlackStar.

“From slavery and the days of Jim Crow through the civil rights movement and beyond, white supremacists have targeted the Black church because of its importance as a pillar of the Black community, the center for leadership and institution building, education, social and political development and organizing to fight oppression,” Love wrote.

“Strike at the Black church, and you strike at the heart of Black American life,” the writer added.

Sad how deeply these arsons burn into the fabric of the lies we tell ourselves. It would be a powerful political move to remove the symbol of the Confederate flag. But, to what end? What would change? Who would change? 

A friend of mind, Ade, responded saying, "Yes, Dawn Wolf, the answers are staring at us in the mirror, or maybe that is all too simple for the human mind."

Perhaps. Or we are made of more fear than courage and illusions are a better source of fuel to feed the fears that define us as a nation?

- Gregory E. Woods 6.28.15 

WHAT WE DO WHAT WE DID


by David Tolson 
June 28, 2010 


Iraq was not a mistake from the perspective that the U.S. invaded the country based on faulty intelligence. America purposely invaded this sovereign nation and executed its leader for reasons that I will not speculate on at this moment. Yes, Saddam was a brutal dictator, and he launched a biological attack against his own citizens; however, the irony is cruel when one considers that the U.S. has its own history of brutality against its citizens; engaged in medical genocide against blacks; and exposed the Native Americans and its own citizens with biological agents.


Even if we concede that Saddam was as depraved as the U.S. claimed that he was; this is not a sufficient reason to overthrow him in a United Nations’ led coup d’état and execute him for capital offenses. If so, then which brutal dictator is next? Kim? Ahmadinejad? Medvedev? Hu Jinatao? I mean we can create a list of international leaders that deserve the same fate as Saddam; however, even if brutality against one’s citizens and neighbors is the litmus test for being overthrown, the United States is in no moral position to make such judgments if one considers…


Bianca Jurca on May 4, 2013 enjoying herself !!!!


· Slavery;
· Genocide of the Native Americans;
· The Tuskegee syphilis experiment where the National Institutes of Health (formerly the Public Health Services) violated every medical protocol using African American men as laboratory animals to study the effect that syphilis had on them (some believe that the U.S. injected the black men with syphilis, but I have not found such in my research);
· The Gulf of Tonkin incident that illegally expanded the War in Vietnam;
· Watergate;
· The October Surprise when George H.W. Bush secretly tampered with the 1980 presidential elections by securing an agreement with Iran to release the hostages after the elections; and
· The Iran-Contra Affair. 


ENERGY OF LIFE


The energies of Life are unseen, but present and active within the body of emotion and the physical body of motion we observe the phenomenon of Life. It is a mystery to be alive. Many of us remember some of our lives before we came to live in this time frame. How much we remember is dependent upon factors and agreements we mostly don't, or can't remember. We cannot focus on those things. What good will come from it? It is the present we give devotion to, and it is the present we reside to contemplate the body of knowledge, the web of emotions, and dreams that tell the stories of this lifetime and teach the Spirit of Life from existence to knowing.

Life is a mystery and we are the mystery.

~ Gregory E. Woods
Keeper of the Sacred Medicine Wheels 9.11.13

eyes of Sheila Cooper from the Czech Republic

Kim Cattrall


Sunday, June 28, 2015

He Who Eats His Brother


Well, it took me about five minutes to come up with this FBI report for the years 2002 to 2005:
"Twenty three of the 24 recorded terrorist incidents were perpetrated by domestic terrorists. With the exception of a white supremacist’s firebombing of a synagogue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, all of the domestic terrorist incidents were committed by special interest extremists active in the animal rights and environmental movements."
In other words, 95% of our domestic terrorism is from left-wing groups. That's the FBI talking. Do you know more than the FBI? - Vincent J.  AronLump 




How much validity does Black life have if an FBI report does not report the terror acts against Blacks in this country? How much value do Black people place upon their own existence is the larger question. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories June 28, 2015  


A Freedom Song is a Story



The Massacre in Charleston, S.C. where 9 people were murdered took place at Emmanuel AME Church.This was Denmark Vesey's church. He was one of the founders of Emanuel African Episcopal Church in 1816. Denmark Vesey organized the largest planned Slave Rebellion in the history of the U.S. and was to strike on June 16th, 1822. Because of the Vesey Conspiracy that Denmark Vessey led, this church was burned. In 1834 all-Black churches were outlawed. It is believed that this was partly due to the Denmark Vesey Conspiracy.

The church's pastor, Clementa Pinckney, a Democratic State Senator was one of the 9 people killed during Bible study. Pastor Pinckney was also a Spiritual advisor to Walter Scott's family following the murder of their son at the hands of Cop Michael Slager on April 4th(Rev.Dr. MLK assassination). 

"Mother Emanuel AME"...Denmark Vesey was one of the founders of the Free African Society....later changed to Bethel Circuit when it became affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The history of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church reflects the development of religious institutions for African Americans in Charleston. Dating back to the fall of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richard Allen founded the Free African Society, adhering to the Doctrines of Methodism established by John Wesley. In 1816, black members of Charleston's Methodist Episcopal church withdrew over disputed burial ground, and under the leadership of Morris Brown. The Rev. Morris Brown organized a church of persons of color and sought to have it affiliated with Allen's church. Three churches arose under the Free African Society and were named the "Bethel Circuit". One of the Circuit churches was located in the suburbs of Ansonborough, Hampstead, and Cow Alley, now known as Philadelphia Alley in the French Quarters of Charleston. Emanuel's congregation grew out of the Hampstead Church, located at Reid and Hanover Streets.

In 1822 the church was investigated for its involvement with a planned slave revolt. Denmark Vesey, one of the church's founders, organized a major slave uprising in Charleston. Vesey was raised in slavery in the Virgin Islands among newly imported Africans. He was the personal servant of slave trader Captain Joseph Vesey, who settled in Charleston in 1783. Beginning in December 1821, Vesey began to organize a slave rebellion, but authorities were informed of the plot before it could take place. The plot created mass hysteria throughout the Carolinas and the South. Brown, suspected but never convicted of knowledge of the plot, went north to Philadelphia where he eventually became the second bishop of the AME denomination.

During the Vessey controversy, the AME church was burned. Worship services continued after the church was rebuilt until 1834 when all black churches were outlawed. The congregation continued the tradition of the African church by worshipping underground until 1865 when it was formally reorganized, and the name Emanuel was adopted, meaning "God with us". The wooden two-story church that was built on the present site in 1872 was destroyed by the devastating earthquake of August 31, 1886. The present edifice was completed in 1891 under the pastorate of the Rev. L. Ruffin Nichols. The magnificent brick structure with encircling marble panels was restored, redecorated and stuccoed during the years of 1949-51 under the leadership of the Rev. Frank R. Veal. The bodies of the Rev. Nichols and his wife were exhumed and entombed in the base of the steeple. 


Compiled from the writings of Thalia Autry , and The Emanuel Church site. http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/churchhistory.php other sources.


IN Our Bodies Who Are We?





introspective woman
 
Looking deep into this photography I remember: "Introspection is a finite quality in the sense of body. Its infinite quality rests in its ability to transcend beyond the body into the formlessness of higher awareness. Sadly, the art form of development is not toted in popular vernacular. Not that it matters because the development of body and spirit are essential to growth, depth and maturity. Eventually, one's soul purpose awakens and the developmental process begins with introspection which leads to light, light to enlightenment and so on. It is all dependent upon if and how deep you want to live in your body.

Is all a matter of discovery and choice. All choices are a matter of life and death!" ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.3.15



 

Consequences


face covered - Domi Dollz



Is America Reaping What it has Sown - Part III

by David Tolson 
June 28, 2010 


In the epic film Gladiator, there is a moment of deep contemplation by Marcus Aurelius where he rhetorically asks Maximus, “How will the world speak my name in years to come? Will I be known as the philosopher? The warrior? The tyrant? Or will there be a more golden sounding to my name? Will I be the Emperor who gave Rome back her freedom?” In a moment of unguarded speech, after conquering the Germanians, Caesar was concerned about his legacy. Maximus tries to insulate him from his anxiety attack by offering, “Sire, you brought the light of the gods to barbarian darkness. You have brought civilization to the farthest…” And then Caesar interrupts him and declares, “I have brought the sword…nothing more! Rome is far away and we shouldn’t be here." 

Marcus Aurelius asked the question that eventually all great leaders contemplate, but in a moment of unvarnished truth, he answers his own by replying, “…we shouldn’t be here." 

How will history judge the United States? Will it depict America as the benevolent crusader that it portrays itself, or will history be more candid and juxtapose its generosity and goodwill with its dark side? One cannot write a history about the United States without telling the story of its philanthropy; however, the story that shines brighter than its willingness to come to the aid of those who are less fortunate, is American aggression. This country was birthed in revolution and along the way annihilated nearly 200,000 innocent Japanese with the dropping of two atomic weapons; the only country to have done so. - David Tolson 6.28.10  



flag covering Roxanna Wilson 


Saturday, June 27, 2015

Summer Is Here




3 women cheering the day with beer !



jumping for joy !!!!



 

A Hidden Story


Acheria, The Fox: a Basque story



ONE day a fox was hungry. He did not know what to think. He saw a shepherd pass every day with his flock, and he said to himself that he ought to steal his milk and his cheese, and to have a good feast; but he needed some one to help him in order to effect anything. So he goes off to find a wolf, and he says to him,

"Wolf, wolf! we ought to have a feast with such a shepherd's milk and cheese. You, you shall go to where the flocks are feeding, and from a distance you must howl, 'Uhur, uhur, uhur.' The man, after having milked his sheep, drives them into the field, with his dog, very early in the morning, and he stops at home to do his work, and then he makes his cheese; and, when you have begun to howl 'Uhur, uhur,' and the dog to bark, the shepherd will leave everything else, and will go off full speed. During this time I will steal the milk, and we will share it when you come to me."

The wolf agreed to have a feast, and set out. He did just what the fox had told him. The dog began to bark when the wolf approached. And when the man heard that he went off, leaving everything, and our fox goes and steals the vessel in which the curdled milk was. What does he do then, before the arrival of the wolf? He gently, gently takes off the cream, thinly, thinly, and he eats all the contents of the jug. After he has eaten all, he fills it up with dirt, and puts back the cream on the top, and he awaits the wolf at the place where he had told him. The fox says to him, since it is he who is to make the division, that as the top is much better than the underneath part, the one who should choose that should have only that, and the other all the rest. "Choose now which you would like."

The wolf says to him,

"I will not have the top; I prefer what is at the bottom."

The fox then takes the top, and gives the poor wolf the vessel full of dirt. 1 When he saw that, the wolf got angry; but the fox said to him,

"It is not my fault. Apparently the shepherd makes it like that."

And the fox goes off well filled.

Another day he was again very hungry, and did not know what to contrive. Every day he saw a boy pass by on the road with his father's dinner. He says to a blackbird,

"Blackbird, you don't know what we ought to do? We ought to have a good dinner. A boy will pass by here directly. You will go in front of him, and when the boy goes to catch you, you will go on a little farther, limping, and when you shall have done that a little while the boy will get impatient, and he will put down his basket in order to catch you quicker. I will take the basket, and will go to such a spot, and we will share it, and will make a good dinner."

The blackbird says to him, "Yes."

When the boy passes, the blackbird goes in front of the boy, limping, limping. When the boy stoops (to catch him), the blackbird escapes a little further on. At last the boy, getting impatient, puts his basket on the ground, in order to go quicker after the blackbird. The fox, who kept watching to get hold of the basket, goes off with it, not to the place agreed upon, but to his hole, and there he stuffs himself, eating the blackbird's share as well as his own.

Then he says to himself,

"I shall do no good stopping here. The wolf is my enemy, and the blackbird, too. Something will happen to me if I stay here. I must go off to the other side of the water."

He goes and stands at the water's edge. A boatman happened to pass, and he said to him:

"Ho! man, ho! Will you, then, cross me over this water? I will tell you three truths."

The man said to him, "Yes."

The fox jumps (into the boat), and he begins to say:

"People say that maize bread is as good as wheaten bread. That is a falsehood. Wheaten bread is better. That is one truth."

When he was in the middle of the river, he said:

"People say, too, 'What a fine night; it is just as clear as the day!' That's a lie. The day is always clearer. That is the second truth."

And he told him the third as they were getting near the bank.

"Oh! man, man, you have a bad pair of trousers on, and they will get much worse, if you do not pass over people who pay you more than I."

"That's very true," said the man; and the fox leapt ashore.

Then I was by the side of the river, and I learnt these three truths, and I have never forgotten them since.

Footnotes: 

44:1 Cf. Campbell's tale, "The Keg of Butter," Vol. III., 98, where the fox cheats the wolf by giving him, the bottoms of the oats and the tops of the potatoes. See also the references there given.

From the archives of Blue Panther


http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/basque/bl/bl17.htm



Thursday, June 25, 2015

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Out of the Mouth of Babes



Michelle Obama sitting ...


A little girl asks the first lady how old she is, and what follows may be one of the cutest things you'll see all day. http://cnn.it/1HVwlP7

 

TRUTH TO PARENT

5647...


"Hold onto your Children's innocence. Teach them to Love their Spiritual beauty. Support them to cherish the beauty unfolding in their Hearts. Show them that it's OK to be self accepting, self affirming, powerful and humble Human BEings who truly Love their Neighbours as yourselves. Reflect their beauty to them in their acceptance and honouring of the diverse Uniqueness in which they live." - Mereana Taki 22.12.09


from Lioness Daiba Sala
September 8, 2013

How Americans feel about their children



"Enough is enough. We demand more empathy, more accountability, more economic opportunity, more compassion, more dignity, more power and more opportunity for all. We demand healthier communities, which means more from each other; more from our school systems and more from our judicial systems." Those are the words of Manifest Justice, the creative community exhibition. The exhibt, which took place last week - in Los Angeles’ gang affected Baldwin Village - featured protest posters, paintings, and three-dimensional works. Mostly focused on police brutality, the exhibition also touched on issues like education, racial justice, and LGBT rights. Programme coordinator Nijeul Porter says, “The idea is that art is at the center of social change". See some of the featured works below.

By Alexander Aplerku, AFROPUNK Contributor



art - California Prisons exhibit c
photo by @alwayspaisley




 

What are We Looking at, Guys?


July 26, 2011 


Black woman's full natural hairstyle & elegant poised self!!!!



 January 29, 2014 
.

Black woman's high intelligence. 



from Bulgaria a gentleness.
Росица Росен Дамянова
  February 8, 2014  
 



I HOPE


Having A Deaf Ear To Your Haters and Doubters
By
Dr-Sinclair N. Grey III 
  


If you want to blow up from the floor up, you can't listen to everybody. Let me say it another way. If you're really ready to excel, you can't listen to people who have never been where you want to go. People who never stepped out on faith will give you all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't do what's in your heart. Those aren't the people you need to listen to. As a matter of fact, don't even ask them ...to pray for you because they're not the ones in your corner. Seek out people who have faith, have seen God do the impossible, and believe God has something great for you .



The Bible tells us when God called Abram to leave the familiar and go on a journey, "Abram left, as the LORD had told him..." Please don't miss this. You'll always have haters and doubters. From family members to close friends, there's no way to escape it. However, I urge to trust in the One who called you and know that doors will open for you. You can do it. Stop making excuses and position yourself for God to use you.


Aaron Neville at 73 years of age



Sidney Poiter & Ruby Dee in The Raisin In The Sun



Tina Knowles celebrates her House of Dereon


patrycjagabana 12787
Patrycja Gabana
#12787



A Chat



pretty & promising woman

Pretty and promising can appear as one, but experimentation into the spirit of people reveals other things and the illusion of the two being one dissipates at the first indication that one's intent is wrong.
 
 
The concept of Beauty as attainable is grounded in base elements that need to believe a lie as truth to spoil what is promising in another person's life and what is pretty to the eye. This comes from dark places the other side of appreciation. How it affects one's growth from being pretty and young with promise towards the awareness of more is dependent upon other things Life affords us, and we take as our own to learn and grow from. The journey is where it begins: within. ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.3.15



Queen of the Pacific, a Mexican drug cartel leader Sandra Avila Beltran in cuffs & jeans


 

Monday, June 22, 2015

OUT of the Ordinary



Starfucked - Internationally published Fetish / Latex Alternative Model
from Sweden by 
Belinda Bartzner - Photography
Corset: House of Harlot 

Great Legs in Red
A KEENE SENSE OF STYLE 

"As much as I would love to just hop on a plane and sneak off to Paris five times a year it's just not really in the budget. So today, I've partnered with Maison Jules to share some of my favorite Parisian inspired places right here in LA. Their clothing is feminine & sophisticated while still being playful -- much like the women in Paris..." - Elizabeth Keene, fashion blogger 



Elizabeth Keene savoring a taste of Paris in LA
wearing an outfit by Maison Jules (6.19.15)


Elizabeth Keene by Jonny Villanueva carries a Thrifted top,
an ASOS skirt, J.Crew shirt, & shoes from The Candy Room,
accented by a Shoedazzle bag & Anarchy Street shoes !!!!