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general

Corporate Greed Threatens Freedom (again)

The video above does a great job explaining Net Neutrality, what’s at risk, and why it’s important to maintain. Of course, several corporations are threatening to further regulate speed, access, and even content based on who can pay the most, acting as gatekeepers to the internet, something that should be open to everyone. Already, the internet isn’t free and open since we have to pay for service and devices to access it—and for many providers, data speeds are regulated based on how much you pay—but soon the FCC will decide if internet service providers can further throttle speeds and content, allowing corporations even more control of an important component of our infrastructure.

It’s sickening how many of the important decisions for our entire society are decided by they wealthy few, and this is just another example of a basic freedom that we need to be aware of and fight for.

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general

New Summer, New Freedom

Photo by Pedro Szekely
Photo by Pedro Szekely

I miss that “school’s out” feeling. You remember the one. It began to wash over you the morning you awoke on that last day of school and slowly settled in and warmed your whole body as the day progressed. Everyone was abuzz with excitement and relief, even the teachers, and as you walked off campus for the last time that year, there seemed to only be possibilities. Somehow with that final bell you were more free than you had been since you could remember. When that bell rung, time ceased to exist and summer began.

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general

Literally Overcoming the Urban Jungle


Recently I found out about Parkour. I think this sums up the “modern” form best:

Parkour is a non-competitive sport, which can be practiced alone or with others. It can be practiced in any location, but is usually practiced in urban spaces.[7][8] Parkour involves seeing one’s environment in a new way, and imagining the potentialities for movement around it.[9][10]

The video above is long (10’00”) but worth a full viewing. Once I got over the physical prowess and poetic, almost dance-like nature of it, I began to feel a sense of being uplifted. At first I thought it was just inspiring to see what people can do (courageously) with their bodies—which it is—but then I realized there was something powerful about seeing people navigate urban spaces in such an elegant and strong way. It’s a visual representation of the beauty of nature overcoming something so unnatural, and in many cases, ugly.

Some of the footage is shot at competitions and in natural settings, but much of it captures the “seeing one’s environment in a new way” and beautifully illustrates a freedom that I think people will always have over the cages they create.

Categories
music

The Civil Rights Movement Through Music

sing_for_freedomThere are times when I think there’s nothing more powerful than music to convey the broad spectrum of human emotion and experience. When that music has words, whatever meaning is left out by the words is picked up by the melody, harmony, and rhythm. And the history and cultural depth and experience that’s brought with the music, either in the music itself or through it’s performers and their interpretation, tells so much more than just words or pictures alone.

Here’s a playlist from Smithsonian Folkways via Rdio with some powerful music from the Civil Rights Movement.