February 28th looking back

(check this section for edits)
Tuesday February 28th, 2006, I slept in a little, but made some key phone calls, talked to David Kahn for a while, who plans to televise my talk at the Pequot Museum on the 22nd of Marsh. We talked about the war between the Pequot and the Narragansett, both the old and the recent. Then I headed for class. I talked about how stonehenges developed, and how time was invented. In the end we did a PRO CON listing for the development of agriculture, and they were very keen on the CONS, which takes cultural insight to do as we are an agricultural people still. Then in one hour I created the new blogbook Wax Poetickle, pasting in seven chapters, whole books actually, from my USB thingy. People came in so I went to my office and used the phone to straighten out complicated plans with the Pequot Museum regarding the sale of books, and made several other calls. Then I checked over blogs, and called Kate Treworgy at Skylight Paths and we talked a long time, and she told me how to access the Author Links page, and there were all the links I’d created! There are about 100 authors listed, and I seem to have the most links, but that’s partly because I am really interested in learning about the internet right now, and knew that links were important, so I dug up lots of them and created new ones. People of Manitou was already up as a link!

I met an Algonquin friend at the computer lab and read the Algonquin poetry from Take the Red Road off the Wax Poetickle screen. It was a great moment in Algonkian literature. Then went to dinner at favorite buffet and then saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for a dollar! It was 2 and a half hours long, and the audio at the theater was poor, but for a dollar I loved it. It was …magical? I thought about the challenges poo Harry had to face and realized my Inwood Hill project would be harder than I thought, my own Goblet of Fire and went back to the lab and downloaded the rest of the pictures for the powerpoints.

Talked to DLP, he’s working on writing essays for scholarships. Said he was interested in seeing my screenplay, Night at the Pissoire. I just have to write it.
I taught class on geomantic cultures. Today was the day that I first posted the blogsite Waxpoetickle, and basically made five volumes of my poetry available for free, with little ads on how to purchase the print versions. I read it out loud to E. in the computer lab.

Monday, February 27th, was driving home from Canada, and was in a bathroom stall at a Walmart along the way, and looking down under the partition I saw feet and heard a harmonica playing and it gave me a great idea for an easy to make short independent film that was minimalistic enough to win a prize. I called it Night at the Pissoire.

I met with Georges Sioui today at 2:30, but took a wrong turn, got confused between Laurier and Rideau Streets, got there 15 minutes late, but I was packed and ready to return home. There was a Dutch gentleman there, husband of the professor of religion and anthropology. I said, you mean theo-anthro-pology. He agreed. They showed me a beautiful book she had written in French about shamans of the Dene. I asked him when he came over from Holland, he said 50 years ago. I said, “I just saw a movie “A Bridge Too Far,” about World War II in Holland. Do you know it? He said that his family lived through that battle! He said the whole campaign was rather foolish, but that they all survived somehow.
I was in an upbeat mood, happy to see Georges, and his friends, and unveiled my People of Manitou blogsite, starting with a picture of Georges with Steve Augustine. He thanked me, and then said I’d better note that he is not Algonquin, but Huron. He also noted that Gary Farmer was not Algonquin. I said I’d regretfully have to take him out but that his wife is Anishinabi and he often plays Algonquins.

I met his assistant, who is working on The Huron and the Algonquin paper, and I asked them all what they knew about Brownstown Michigan. Nothing, but she knew Fort Malden across the river on the Canadian side. I explained how Tecumseh had major councils there, but further research showed that the Huron kept the fire. Georges said that it was part of their oral tradition that the Huron, more sedentary and politically organized than the Algonquins would keep their fires going for them, in exchange for shamanistic services, as they felt the Algonquins were closer to the magical world than they and that their prayers were stronger.

I went through the entire book with them, and everyone was very happy, and ….the assistant said it was amazing I was giving that all away for free. I said I really believe in the cause of Algonquin recognition, and the text kept changing anyway, as people write new books, change their name, or die, and I have to put them in past tense. This was much easier. This book is my ethnic Algonquin Hall of Fame, and should be shared with anyone. If I built an actual museum, that would be different.

On the drive home I learned that the actual Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown had inducted a record 17 players from the Negro Leagues, another underappreciated ethnicity, at the same time as I had unveiled my blogbook. It was a moment that had taken a long time in coming in both regards, and a great day for baseball and Native education as well. And I suspect a lot of those black ballplayers had more than a little Native American (Cherokee for the most part) ancestory as well.

I won the golden engine award on the way home, but could not stop. I had some trouble getting gas, I guess its becoming scarce.

I called the parents of a certain baby to ask if her birth went well. The answer made me laugh. There is a certain expression in American business used to denote something with a top priority and a strongly aggressive approach, we say, "Nine AM, DAY ONE!" Well this little baby was born at 9 AM on January 1st, 2006 and she is here on this planet to change things and she means business! I had a dream this summer about her opening the hearts and minds of many people at a young age. I made an appointment with Georges Sioui and was ten minutes late. I showed him People of Manitou, for the first time, in a rough form. It was good that I rushed ahead and did this a few days ago, because I was able to demo it to Georges when I was in his office at the University Of Ottawa and other people were there as well.

Sunday, February 26th, 2006, again people were talking about a second earthquake, hit 8:30 PM the same time as the first. Again, Ottawa was at the center. We were gathered in circle at the time of the quake yesterday, but did not feel it! But everyone felt the first one on Friday which was a 4.5 on the Richter scale. Some one said it started like a truck passing on the street, then a truck going by the house, then a truck inside the house. There was a long “tail” to it, a long long after-rumble. Of course it was very dramatic, because we were there to talk about earthquakes and how prayer could help in situations where nothing else could. They said that God was helping me by illustrating my point nicely, in spite of the fact that Ottawa doesn’t usually have big earthquakes. I said this season had shown few large earthquakes so far, but a lot of little ones in places where they usually weren’t which showed that the crust was loosening up. We talked about the possibility of new hydrothermal vents opening up on the ocean floor, and agreed it was a real possibility that this is what has been happening, and a St Augustine volcano in Alaska. I stressed that it was tricky for a human to make informed prayers about these things, as some of it is very important for the earth to express herself, but that we can pray to the Creator, or pray to angels or the Landkeeper Spirits and give them a boost of energy and support to help them in their highly skilled labors. It’s a little bit like lobbying; you figure they will remember your village when it comes time to pull out all the stops. Earthquake kickback.

RTA workshop in Gatineau Quebec on Landkeepers. I was able to show People of Manitou to William Commanda and Ramola on R's computer, and I set William C up with a blog site of his own, where he will keep a diary of his rather exciting life (at ninty frigging three years old I should have such a life) in 2006.Just days ago, on the phone, William Commanda had told me about Manitouwiziwak, the name for a group of people that follow the great spirit in all things. That was the word I was looking for.

Saturday, February 25th, 2006; I had a number of delays this morning, and then the blizzard hit, all the way from Saugerties to Montreal, and had to go 40 mph the whole way. One car I saw was on its roof, another had gone straight into the woods and crashed. It was also very foggy, and at times a white out. I had to keep up a steady pace, as the meeting in Ottawa was a 7 PM. I hoped to get there at six and called ahead. The question is, what kind of shape would I be in? Just before the border crossing I checked my car and found that I had stashed away a large box full of unfinished CDs! A lot of them. This was a bad blow. This placed me in litiginous limbo because I’m supposed to declare the value of sale items and pay taxes on them, and yet I could not sell unpackaged CDs, but they were products nonetheless as they had music on them. So I decided to tell the guard at the booth, who knew me. She said she didn’t know what the ruling would be and told me to pull into parking lot one and wait.
I waited a very long time, in a howling blizzard might I add, and then the guard came and I told him the story and he said, “Why was that box there?” I said I forgot it was there. He said, “What else did you forget? Let’s take a look. I must search your car!” And he did! And I stood there in the blizzard to watch him. He took the box of CDs in to his bosses office and was in there a long time. I wondered if he was playing each CD to see if there were secret messages…there weren’t . Finally he came out and was all smiles, and handed me the box and said, “You don’t have to pay taxes, we trust you. They are….” I said, “Useless from a marketing perspective?” “Yes, but if you put the inserts in, you would sell them of course..” I said, “Yes, and I wouldn’t bring so many, and I would present a list to the guards!” We shook hands. I went to the car, and found my keys were gone. I called to him and he tossed me the keys and I was off in the blizzard. I said, “What is the weather report?” He said, “Lots more snow” I said “That’s what my day has been like!” And drove off.

The snow disappeared after Montreal and I had clear sailing and got to the workshop at 6 on the nose. The snow in Gatineau was piled very high.

Saturday, February 25th, I left in the morning, pretty late, and the snow was blinding, and I had to go 40 or less the whole way to Montreal. It was the most difficult drive so far.
I believe I wrote the diary up for this whole section, but it seems to have vanished. I don't know if I can remember all the details now. I think that's a first.

Friday, February 24th, 2006 Pathfinder papers due, lectured on Geomantic cultures throughout the world. I taught a guitar lesson after and it went really well. We set up a tape recorder and I taped blues guitar changes and called out what lead guitar scale forms to use and in what positions. I went home and slept in preparation for the trip to Canada, not feeling that well. There was a surprise blizzard and an earthquake in Ottawa!


Thursday February 23rd, 2006: 1 AM, movie finished, A Bridge Too Far, cant sleep, no messages.
I did some grading and some writing, and then went to Marist for Ethics. I showed the main part of The Insider, which is truly a great movie. There is still 20 minutes left, but it doesn't impact the students' papers that much.
I think this was the day of the great basketball matchup between Niagara and Marist, most of whom is in our ethics class. I let class out a few minutes early by unanimous vote to see the second half, and it was for me a highlight of the year. Unfortunately not all of their classmates made it all the way from Fontaine to the McCann sports arena to see All Stars Jared Jordan James Smith Ryan Stilphen et al. They must have gotten lost and ended up in McCoy's Bar and Grill instead. Amazing what a few letters can do to confuse the weakminded. I found a shuttle bus, and got on, and a little boy and his father got on after me. The boy, a priceless little sports fan, said, "Oh boy we're gonna see Jarred Jordan tonight!" I said, "Oh, are you his relatives?" thinking of the guy who sits in the back of my class and leans way back in his chair and stretches his legs. The father said, "Oh, no, that's his favorite basketball star in the world! We're big fans!" (Are they confusing Jarred with Michael, of the Wizards, who I once saw scored 53 points in the first half at MCI arena? No resemblance there!) That really made me realize what a celebrity JJ had become. I ran into Marist President Dennis Murray after the game and he was all smiles and shook my hand and said "Great to see you come out to the game, professor!" I said, "Great game, Dennis! I loved it!" They won soundly, the details of which were in all the papers, mainly the POJO. The only open seating was at ground level behind the bench, so that's where I sat. I had my long grey coat on. I tried to be inconspicuous, as I have a long history of making my students nervous when I watch them in sporting events (not my kid however), so I tried not to stare at them, but acted serious. Towards the end of the game James Smith was doing a second foul shot of two, and in the spirit of fun I couldn't resist yelling out "Get in the zone, James! Get in the zone!" referring of course to our discussion of the indescribable and ineffable principle of Tao the week before. Well, guess what? He muffed the shot! I felt bad. It was like that time with Johnny Damon where I freaked him out by chattering at him in Thai. What if it were my fault? The scorer near me said, "That was his only miss this WHOLE GAME!" Ryan Stylphen saw me and waved and smiled, and asked how I liked the game. I gave him the thumbs up, careful not to jinx the team yet again. They crushed the Purple Eagles and James had 23 points in the game, tying his career high. However if he had sunk that shot he would have set a new career record, just as if Damon had beat the Tigers in that game, the Sox would have won the pennant.

Washington’s Birthday. Scooter says I shouldn’t trust Zane Grey’s account of Washington and the Indians, he was a great storyteller. I was watching TV while in retreat and saw that the World Baseball Matches were scheduled from March 2nd to March 20th, and wondered if they were timed to keep the media from covering the Lovelock book’s USA release. (In fact the Lovelock book was simply not released in the US as planned. This is unusual for Penguin. Venk said on March 8, “What happened to free speech.” “But you did expect this to happen…” I said, “Yes, but only in a darkly cynical way!”

March 2nd is the day the Lovelock book is due to be released in the US, and a three week black out would do a lot to hinder public knowledge of the book. I thought about a blog called perhaps OneGreenEarth chronicalling the climate-related events following the February 2nd release of Lovelock’s book in England. For me, Jan. 17 was the pivotal day in my life as an environmentalist, the date William M sent me an email with the cryptic RE: Can this really be the end? I clicked the link and read lovelock’s statements, and his prognosis giving us 100 years to live as a species.

I went to bed at 2 and had an amazing dream. I was lying on my back and a big pure white bear, the Bear of the North walked up and stood over me. It seemed to be a she. It was sort of cute like a teddy bear, but realistic. It had a small silver keg around its neck. As I recall it lifted its paw to its chest and I touched the paw and if holding hands. It stayed for a while. I was afraid of the bear because it seemed to be a real bear, and real bears can attack if spooked. But I wasn’t afraid because the bear was radiating an incredible aura of love. It caused an amazing transformation within me. I wanted to give it an offering, but all I had was a book I’d written. I believe it may have been a copy of Native American Stories of the Sacred, but I’m not sure. I offered the book and the bear seemed to accept somehow. It reminded me of the white bull reindeer in Pathfinder; it might mean that I am entering the shaman’s path on a new level; perhaps I am at my peak. The other possibility is that I am nearing the end of my time.

When I woke up I was still filled with awe and love for the bear. Even in the dream I was trying to figure out the meaning, and thought of several possibilities.

Wednesday, February 22nd, I watched A Bridge Too Far, Brits and Americans stuck inside Holland completely surrounded by Jerrys and they lose big due to bad planning. Obvious reference to Iraq, but for me it also reflects some of what is happening in the green wars. Lovelock’s book is the first major offensive in the green war, and this is the enemy’s counter attack.

We went shopping today for stuff, I got a Senators hat for $5 with a big W. I said George W would understand about the Senators thing. It’s a cool hat. I also got two shirts as Im a little short here of supplies, and got materials for making a new cloth Algonquin map. I spent at least two hours on the project and got the outlines of the states and provinces down, which is one of the hard parts. There is still a long way to go.
I also got headphones for my home recording unit and had a conversation with the attendant (this was in Montague NJ) about Nine Inch Nails.

It took several trips with Scooter to replace the battery in the Nextel cell phone. We went to NJ to get one for $30, but we got home and it didn’t work, so we drove all the way back to NJ to get another one. This one worked. I spent the whole time soaking up the winter sun and reading Sorrow In Our Hearts, trying to figure out what was going on with Brownstown Michigan. A woman is blasting me on an internet site called Tripod about my mention of Brownstown in Native New Yorkers. Reading Sorrow for several hours I realized that Brownstown was a great council fire…..of the Huron! They gradually identified themselves as Wyandot. During the war of 1812, Tecumseh did have councils there, but it is hard to prove they were related to the Mohican one at Schodack as I had suggested in Native New Yorkers. Plus it was on dry land and not on an island. A few days later I talked about this with Georges Sioui, who is Huron and an expert on Huron history, and said that the Hurons maintained Algonquin council fires in exchange for shamanic ceremony, because the Huron were sedentary and more able to keep a fire, but the Algonquins as hunters and gatherers were closer to nature and the spirit world. So he said it was still possible that the fire at Brownstown was an Algonquin fire, as well as Huron.

We were supposed to go to Shohola, but could never get the battery problem straightened out. Later I found out there was a bridge from Shohola to Barryville where the old powwows were. My ex (who is Munsee) used to take me there for powwows, on top of a steep hill. There are no more powwows, but I heard the Cherokee took it over and do more traditional ceremony there. Ray knows the people.

Right in town I noticed a waterfall under a bridge near the Sunoco station on 6. We got out and explored it in the sun, which was relaxing.

I got a message from Kim, she gathered together three opera singers and they sang the water song over and over and fell in love with it and would like to do it often. I had gotten a message from Thunderbird Tuesday just before the movie New World that the ceremony was at 7 Tuesday, but the following week.

We watched Beware of Mankind for the first time. Towards the end, Joanne Shenandoah is singing Reason To Live at the Woodstock 94 Music Festival, a beautiful song sung by a great voice, performed in front of 250,000 people as part of the opening spiritual blessing ceremony.

I suddenly remembered a few days after seeing that, that the ceremony was partly my idea. Mark Lang was extremely resistant to the idea, and Betsy Stang said to me, “If you send him a very strong email at such a time and place and day, he will read it. But make it strong, and we might have a chance. I wrote him the email, and I said that the reason why Woodstock 69 went so well and acquired such fame was because Swami Satchitananda had given his blessing beforehand, and that if there was no blessing at this one, bad things might happen. I begged him to reconsider. Well, according to Betsy, that email completely turned him around and we had the ceremony, with lots of Tibetan monks and Rinpoches and me and my band of 36 Native Americans (at least half came upon my invite, the other half came with them) and other spiritual folks on stage behind Joanne Shenandoah. I didn’t know that there were going to be so many Tibetans, but later, after seeing “The Cry of the Snow Lion” I realized how very important it was. Chatting with Rinpoches about peace and contemplation, its easy not to know how horrible the Chinese persecution in Tibet really is. I have been in the vicinity of Tibet and yet I was amazed at what I saw in Cry of the Snow Lion! Horrible!

In the movie Beware of Mankind I can be clearly seen for a long time standing close behind Joanne Shenandoah on stage, just to the left of her on the screen, as if guarding her (which I guess I was) and occasionally looking left. That was funny because I’d been talking about that concert a few hours earlier in the day with the guy I bought the headphones from, and on Sunday when I showed Scooter the footage of Ilfra at my Evstock Festival the year after.

Notes from Sorrow in Our Hearts, by Allan W Eckert. I marked important pages in Ellis’ copy of Sorrow In Our Hearts with pieces of paper as follows: 590 Fort Malden and Brownstown.
P 611picture of the slab, on display in Anne Arbor MI. p. 624625 George Floyd, Grouseland and Vincennes, 630 meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh. 639 Brownstown in 1812, major gatherings. p 688 Brownstown as mainly Huron; P 694 St Josephs Island, 695 Lewis Cass, no fear 696 map of brownstown; p. 711 August 4th 1812 they came into Tecumseh’s camp at Brownstown. 712 T’;s camp close to Brownstown; p. 874 Freemont Ohio was the Wyandot village at Sandusky. Note 257 IOF Manchester Island 1 and 2 lower bend of Ohio, spot not clear. P 880 note 290 Washingtons’s secret plan to destroy the NA civilization. 881 John Adams was the one saying to Britain that our US boundaries go to the Mississippi, not the Ohio, the brits said Ohio, one of the fighting points of the revolution. No wonder NAs fought with British. Treaty of Paris 1783. note 325 “Blue Jacket (was at) the Grand Council that was at the mouth of the Detroit River.” (1788) 355 origins of Cincinatti relate to St Claire as Indian fighter. He was a member of the order. P 891 note 350; Chicago the place of onion smells. 351 Proctor at Malden; note 356 order of Constitution (Melanchton Smith) p 8983 note361 the incredible leap, use for Wawarsing story. note 433 p 906 Gen Knox quote for Washington and the Algonquins. P 920 T Jefferson note 519, Jefferson not really helpful to NA. p 921 note524 For IOF Tecumseh crossed river at Lachine, met Papineau. P 925 note 543 for NNY, Wyandot not Delaware as grandfathers.; p 933 note 568 the great slab is on display at the Milford Chandler loan in Anne Arbor, U of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.p 970 note 737 Brownstown, also T running up and down a beach on a horse. P 974 752 Matchemeneto, just mentioned by William Commanda.


Tuesday, Feb. 21st I taught her the water song and she sang it back to me and it sounded beautiful. The guy called back from Accelerated Credit and I didn’t hang up on him but explained why I called NY state about him, and what they had said in response. I explained that the gray areas of the “prepayment” situation was over my head, legally speaking, as it seems they intentionally pushed it and manipulated the situation into a very grey area. They say you don’t prepay, then you prepay by credit card on the trust that by the time they are done, it will be the day before the billing hits your credit card. And we’re talking lots of money here. In God we trust, I say.

I did a lot of unpacking packing , hanging up clothes, etc and working on downloading the emails from John Wells at Inwood Park.

Class went really well today, and all the loose ends came together and I could feel a positive feeling return to the class. Sometimes the complex art form of teaching as art gets bogged down in problems, today it was like a successful opera! Everything in harmony. I read the first verse of the Tao Te Ching, and explained that having the Tao is like being in the zone; you don’t try to analyze it too much. Some times you have a great dream and you wake up feeling magic, and that you can do anything. You’re in the zone. How long does it last? One person said 2 Minutes. I asked Wally, he said “It all depends on many factors.” Wally is so analytical some times.
So I explained the first verse this way, if you lose the Way, then all you have is integrity. If you lose integrity all you have is humaneness. If you lose humaneness all you have is righteousness. If you lose righteousness, all you have is etiquette. I tied that in with the fact that so many societies that believed in and taught the Tao eventually made rules for being in that graceful “zone” and then enforced it and punished those who didn’t follow. I said, that when a group of people fall out of “the zone” what else can you do? You can’t learn to be in the zone from a book. I said to James Smith, who was very tired from losing a close game to Old Dominion in the MAAC, I asked, “You’re involved in sports. Do you ever get into the zone?
He said yes, sometimes. Does it really work? Can you visualize those baskets? “Yes”
I said, “Have you ever experienced feeling like you were in the zone but things still didn’t work and you couldn’t score?” Yes. I said, “That happens to me once in a while too.” If you fall out of the zone, how do you get back in? You can’t, he said, it has to find you.
Then Larry who is quiet spoke up very excited. He said, “I was the quarterback on my high school football team, and I experienced the zone a lot, and it really works. When you’re in it you don’t want to get anything to throw you off.
I looked at Wally and I said, “Does the name Keltner mean anything to anyone? That was the Cubs third baseman who stopped Joe DiMaggios 54 game hitting streak. He made a surprise catch and stole a hit from DiMaggio late in a game and it broke the streak. (But DiMaggio stayed in the zone for several more weeks!)
We agreed that ball players are really superstitious trying to stay in the zone.
I said, that Wade Boggs was one of the most superstitious people who ever lived, but he batted .330 several years in a row, so it worked.
I started the class by reading from Ivan from Cossack Folk Tales. It was a rare Euro folk tale that was filled with oracles, offerings, sacrifices, spirit world travel and magical beings. They loved the story. I reminded them that they all admitted to using wishing wells, and were all shamans. I said Ivan literally offered gold coins as offerings to god, and fully believed in his prayers. I said, “How many are in business administration? Several raised their hands. I said “They don’t teach you stories like this do they?” No!
I said, “How many believe in the power of prayer?” All raised hands. I said, “So Ivan wasn’t so dumb, he was wise. If you really believe that prayer will work you would be very careful what you pray for. He had to choose between being Czar of all the Russias, or lots of money or a wonderful relationship. How many people would pray to be Czar of Russia? No one responded. What about lots of money? No one raised a hand. I said, “But we all want a wonderful relationship right?” Yes.
Near the end of class, they made internet presentations on various forms of Taoistic teaching around the world. We finished just before the end of class. Wally went ahead with Fi Rhinne, quoting Finn McCool. Lisette had Maat, as I recall.
I also had the meagus shells with me, and demonstrated. I told them to ask a question. “Is it daytime.” I rolled 5 and 2. “YYessss!” I exclaimed. It is daytime! Then kidding around I said “Is this a good and interesting class?” I got 3 and 4, but quickly cleared off the shells from the table. Someone said, “What did it say,” I said, 3 up 3 down and one standing on its end!”
I also read the anthro report on the Saami which backed up everything we said about the movie Pathfinder, and they agreed to go one minute past the end of class to hear it.
One big lucky victory: Last week L had complained ending class late on Valentines Day, to get to the stopping point in the movie, we both lost our cool. She said my watch was wrong, I said I set it to the radio every day. I researched the situation and found that I had been acquiescing to the clock in the desk and it was quite late. She exaggerated the lateness, but I was making a mistake by trusting that little clock. Today I explained the source of the problem and announced that from now on we would start on time, not by the desk clock, being careful not to make it start today, since they were in the habit of starting late, but I made it start next class. Then L’s presentation on Taoistic thought had to do with admitting mistakes, a pointed teaching which could have applied to either of us. By the time she had the floor at the end of the class, I had already resolved the problem and also admitted my part of the mistake. So by the time I had to go over the end time by one minute, I looked at L and she nodded. Very neat!!! In fact, that one minute really helped prepare them to write their papers on the Sami!

I am slowly, step by step increasing my presence on the internet. Tuesday, I was reading my 04 diary at Peacefile, and saw June 4th through July 24. My eyes dried out doing all night computer work and have had bad headaches for two days. Can’t seem to get enough water. I enrolled in world of blogs and linked my blog to everyone on that site. Many of them are “positive thinking” sites. I consider myself a positive thinker, but I deal frankly with so many grizzly subjects, I wonder if certain readers appreciate how positive my little light really is. At this point, influenced I suppose from Scooter who runs her jeep of life on a rocky road without springs or suspension and no oil, I tell it like it is, but with a smile.


I practiced the two pieces in the chapel until 4:00 then walked to the library and immediately saw Igor and I sat down. I sat and talked to him for a long time, about his book, in fact til 5:00. The cell phone went off and then the caller disconnected. As it turned out it was Ellis, cell phone died. I called back at 5:15 very confused, everything crazy. I was in the lobby from 4 to 5 with Igor, trying to pump his spirits back up about his book Right Under Our Noses. I offered to help after Robert Jay was squared away. He showed me in return how to do links and use counters.
I went to my car and had no gas, drove almost to Hess and found the envelope in the windshield, it was a note from Ellis, meet me at the movie. It was already starting time. Traffic was snarled. I found Elllis’ car in Rhinebeck on the right and parked next to it, and ran to the theater. I apparently missed 10 minutes of the film, but it wasn’t too bad. New World was very good visually, but they kept playing the theme from Elvira Madigan, which Mozart did not write for 100 years. Some of the music was a little like Philip Glass only flowing. Pretty interesting.
A lot was left out but nothing terribly inaccurate.
The guy from Alexander played John Smith, very hard to understand.
I later asked Ellis how she felt when Pocahontas gave water to the prisoner in the stockade; even during the movie I whispered “that’s you!” There is a resemblance between the actress and Ellis. There was a clear difference between the life of the Europeans and the “Naturals.” The Naturals were much more likeable, the Euros rather awful and stupid. The Evangelist was literally foaming at the mouth!

Afterwards I talked to Ellis, who said he was in the lobby between 4 and 5, waiting for me. I said that’s impossible. I have witnesses that you were not there, as Igor knows you. I asked permission to do a shamanic journey to get an answer as to why movies are such a problem.

Then we went to Mugal Raj, and had one of the finest meals of our time together. We talked with the waiter about India and Bangaladesh which is where he was from. I talked Ellis’ ear off, about everything, my various projects, about “the zone” and Tao.

I wanted very much to take E to the chapel and play the keyboard for Ellis, the new piece, but E was very reluctant, didn’t want to get home too late. I insisted, then ran out of gas, yellow warning, and suddenly was having all kinds of problems getting gas. Stations were closed and one place had two tanks that gave you 20 cents and stopped. That cost me 15 minutes, then found gas at that Hess station. We arrived later than expected to the chapel, 10:30 and it was locked, an unusual event lately. It was pretty sad, and I wondered if it had just been locked, and if the gas incident made the difference. We stayed up talking til 2 AM. There is this curse with movies and music where Ellis and I are concerned.

I have an idea of making an online scrap book, scanning all these objects at work.

Monday, February 20th, 2006: I worked a lot today on the Mets site and posted the Tigers Baseball Clinic article. Ellis remembered that Tiger Stadium was on Michigan Ave. I looked up Trumbull. I had rewritten some of the article, not too bad. I also searched all the Mets fan blog sites and made a list. Cerrone’s is the most sophisticated. I offered to supply him with Mets Yanks IQ tests, exclusive for two weeks, in exchange for a byline/link. He later responded saying he’d look at my site in a month and see if I was still up, and then would enroll me in links. Sunday night into Monday I worked on that IQ test.
I also edited and updated Algonquin Eagle Song, and posted it as a new weblog site/book, very exciting, calling it People of Manitou. Later I found that Google had discovered me for the first time as a blogger, crawling my profile. Late on Monday went through the students papers on great Algonquins and clipped the photos and bios they had found. I saved the clips on the stick, but have not had a moment to import them yet. I took a walk in the afternoon, and went into the woods and discovered Chief Awissawa’s hideout, a natural rock shelter by a stream I had never seen before. I rested beside it, and it felt good to be cold. Raymundo had always believed that Awissawa, Chief of the Renneiu and of the Family of Amorgarikakan (and the Behike of the Matouac) had a camp near that spot.

Sunday, February 19th, 2006: Hung out with E. We watched an hour of highlights from my first annual surprise 40th birthday Evan’s Little Woodstock concert. Wws very moved by it and loved Hugh Brody, not surprising. I was thinking of how to make it into a DVD. In dubbing I had cut off a lot of important stuff and figured I’d have to find the complete reel masters to continue. I don’t know where they are, but they are in beige containers from Jim Davis.
Then we ate snacks, doing laundry and errands, and went to the Saugerties diner for breakfast and I had a BBQ chicken. I read the baseball history IQ in the Post and it gave me an idea. I took her to see the Saugerties water fall at 9W, which is huge but noone knows about. E was trying to reach D who wanted her home even though the power was out. I said there’s just a little bit of sun left, lets spend ten more minutes, and we went to the beach and two swans swam up to me and she took a bunch of pictures. After she left I worked on various computer projects. I don’t remember.

Saturday, February 18th, 2006: I sang a practice concert for Ellis, went through most of the songs I planned to sing tonight. Ellis still wasn’t sure she was coming along until 3 and then she was going to go by Fishkill, and so I raced home, got there at 6, unpacked, packed, concert at 7. Showed up 6:15, Nextel worked even in Saugerties! We left immediately. Long way to Pine Hill. We got there at 7 PM and there were cars everywhere! No place to park. We tried the side door, closed! We went through the front, a good crowd gathered. There was no opening act, no introduction, I had to introduce myself. Ellis helped set up the mikes and PA and the books in the next room. To save heat they had us in the small front room. Young Eagle the Unquachaug was helpful.

The people simply waited as I tried to pull the stage equipment together.
We were up and running in about 6 minutes, and I mixed stories together with music and gave a full scale concert, lots of sing along and new original material, and then signed books at intermission, and then gave another half hour to hour concert and storytelling. Things went rather well. My voice was better than ever. I was using Ellis magic guitar, and the PA worked pretty well. Of course it would have been good to tape it, but it wasn’t possible in the time. I brought regalia I didn’t use. Great audience.

I had to ask Mary Lou for $25 for gas, but overall took in $200 on that and book sales, so it was worthwhile from the business perspective, but it was the best original song concert in a very long time, and the first time in 3 years Ellis got to hear me really sing without everything going wrong.

Also at the concert was David Carerra, but he left early on. Also I met J whom Farah had been talking about for years. Id say J is fully my height and rather large. kept clear of me, and Ellis kept J at a distance. J would like to come to the March 25th concert.

Claire Danielson came with Bob and it was his birthday, so I sang my birthday song. Then I sang Cheyenne for the first time in public, going through various keys, and it came out really well, except for one lyric pause. Ellis seemed happy. J enjoyed it too. Bob seemed to like it the best of anyone and I sort of made it a birthday offering. Later I gave him a copy of Miss Leeds catalogue, and after the event was over I autographed it and read him some of the highlights and everyone was laughing out loud, one woman could hardly breathe. It was a really fun moment, but Claire seemed to think Bob needed to get home. There was a feeling of warmth and good will there.

I also talked about the coming earth changes, but in a subtle upbeat way.

I dedicated the song No Word For Goodbye to the memory of Archie Cheechoo, who had just died of a heart attack. As I sang the song, the real relevance and timeliness of the song was more than I expected, and I started to cry, but it came out in my voice in a musical way, rather than the usual way, which isn't so great to listen to.


Young Eagle gave me a sharks tooth and a crystal and spoke to me in Unquachoag, and then gave a speech about the Unquachaog and the Algonquin history of Long Island, and praised me before all the people saying that I was chosen by the Great Spirit to carry a great burden in this world of the history and wisdom of the Algonquin people, and that I spoke the truth. He hugged me several times.

Was in Pa and almost didn't make it to Pine Hill for the big concert. There was no opening concert act, no MC, or introduction, just lots of people waiting for me to start. As we knew, James Audlin had already cancelled the appearance. It was a very cold night. Ellis took a lot of pictures ,which I will insert here eventually. I rehearsed the songs with guitar for several hours earlier in the day and was ready musically, but the logistics were not worked out right. Young Eagle spoke to me alot in Unquachoag, and said some words of praise at the microphone. The audience was super, plus Claire Danielson was there and Ellis and Claire got to meet for the first time, having heard of each other.

Here is a picture of me and Distant Eagle James Audlin at the Tibetan Center in Wappingers Falls NY.



Friday February 17th: Ellis had scheduled leg surgery but it was cancelled due to some dumb paperwork glitch. We had a full class at WV and V, read from Sami research to back up movie, people read Taoism/Dharma papers, went over rules for term papers, I read from Tao Te Ching, a highlight of the class for me.Caught up somewhat with correspondence, was online alot, found gas for 2.26 a gallon and filled up. It was very warm today so I took a walk. I worked on the quartet, now an organ solo, moving the sections around. I made a phone call and soon found myself alone in the Dutch Reformed First Methodist Episcopal Church of Fishkill, playing the piece, and then got an organ lesson, and played (parts of) the piece on the organ, bass pedals and all. It sounded just like I had hoped--like a religious meditation. I hadn't played a pipe organ in 30 years, and it was quite the experience. I prepared for Ethics class, but got stuck in traffic. I felt inspired to show The Insider today to class, the high tension ethical drama starring Russell Crowe as tobacco industry whistle blower Jeffry Wygand and Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman the producer of 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace, who was played I think by Christopher Plummer. Wygand has to decide between honoring his contract and hurting people or breaking the contract and saving lives. The students have to write a paper showing how they would have decided and why. If they chose to honor the contract they must quote Thomas Hobbes as their authority, and if they choose to break the contract they must quote John Stuart Mill.
As we began there were still six students who had not given their movie rhetoric presentations yet, and one was quite in depth and went on for a while (an A student, who wrote a long paper and did a lot of research, I certainly wasn't about to stop her!)So the movie didnt start til 7:15, but I went ahead anyway. As it turns out we couldnt' have seen the whole movie anyway, but got to a good stopping point.
One of the reasons I show this movie now, (I havent in three or four years) is because Wygand is much like today's James Hansen at NASA, who is under terrific pressure to shut up about climate change, and won't shut up. He is considered NASA's top expert in the field, and he is supposed to speak on behalf of NASA, but he goes out into the public and says he is speaking for himself and presents NASA/his research, about the dire environmental situation we are in. This morning I read the Rolling Stone article, another smash scoop by RS, on how NASA is giving up on earth as a reliable location for the human race and is betting all the marbles on Mars, which is a cold poisonous planet. My take on this is that if we can live on Mars we can live anywhere, including under the ocean. The same technology we need in New York's architecture is the same we need in Martian architecture, it needs to be that self contained in order to not add to pollution and climate change. But its alot of gas money for that commute (not that my commute to Marist doesn't take up gas money( and we need that money to survive here at home.

Friday February 17th, 2006: I got on the phone in someone else’s office, and talked to Robert Jay and he says his sale of his property in MD has been interfered with, and he has no cash flow. I agreed to do the rearranging of the structure of his rather large and complex book for four hours on credit, $100 credit. I also talked to the tour people at Metro International and said I wanted $200 to give a tour, they later called back and offered $100. Painfully, I accepted their offer for $100, knowing that I would not make much after expenses and that date would then be taken, so that if someone else came along, I’d be obliged not to take it. And then they called back and said that they wanted me to do it for free. I said “call me back some time later with $100 and I’ll be happy to do it for you.” Well it turned out that two weeks later I was offered a splendid gig in NYC for that very day. It would have been a rather awkward situation for everyone if I’d accepted the $100, or even the for free deal.

Thursday February 16th; forgotten day.

February 15th, I worked out a class assignment schedule for the whole semester for world views and values and printed it out. I went on a research trip around the Minisink Island region, for a thousand years the capitol and stronghold of the Munsee, to whom my Native New Yorkers book (coming to a paperback store near you) is dedicated. I found Milford's "The Columns" Museum, only open Wednesdays, and found several items worthy of the Smithsonian. They have the flag that Lincoln's head rested on after he was shot, authenticated, and with quite a stain of blood. And they had what looked like some really old Iroquoian regalia in fine condition from Francis Clark, who fought in the Civil War. He apparently inherited the war club and regalia from his grandfather. He claimed to have been made chief of the Brules by Spotted Tail. There was a beaded pouch and it had letters beaded in WANBLI CINA AHLAHPAYA, which they translated as Hovering Eagle. I believe wanbli means spotted eagle. They had an old flute that belonged to Judge EJ Baker and a document signed by DeWitt Clinton. There was an old poster of a town celebration honoring "Tom" Quick, although he is famous only for being a murderer, of Munsee. His father had a gristmill in town before the revolution. When his father was killed by Indians, little Tom, who had been friendly with the natives before, went on a rampage of revenge, a very famous story, but a bit grizzly.

Visited the Magagkamack cemetery in Port Jervis, one of the most colorful cemeteries in America, featuring hand hewn gravestones of people like Jake Squirrel who fought in the revolution, and other colorful characters. Some of the headstones had original poems, some simply bore initials scrawled into the stone with a knife. Some truly look all the world like Halloween lawn decorations. Magag is pumpkin and kamack is field in the Munsee language. In that dark Munsee humor heads are referred to as pumpkins, and as the bodies were in the early days simply interred without coffins, just some bark wrappings, they rise to the surface after a few seasons, skull first.
Found alot of really interesting headstones there, certainly some of the best. My favorite is that of Tunis Quick. The famous Tom Quick was born 1734 in this region (often "Tom" is in quotes) this Tunis was born 1787, over 50 years later.
Also visited the Port Jervis library historical room and found a book Tom Quick, The Indian Slayer by James E Quinlan, and a book called Along The Waywayanda Path by Donal Melville Barrell pub 1975 by T Emmett Henderson Middletown. 1975.
I may later add my notes and findings here. Alot of great info. Nice people.
In the library was a young Native American man with raven black hair down to his waist and a big hole in his jeans at the knee. He looked Wappingers to me, but I didn't feel like I should interrupt him.

Tuesday February 14th, I had class in the morning and showed the first part of Pathfinder. I gave an intro and then looked up and the screen was all the way inside the ceiling which is at least 14 feet up. I knew I couldnt reach the cord even standing on a table. Some of the students in the back giggled, and I said, "I wish Jim (the basketball player) were here!" Just then, he walked in, coming in from practice I assume, and stepped up on the table and was just able to grab the cord and hes at least a foot taller than me. He drew it down and we watched the movie. The five or ten minutes lost trying to find a way to bring the screen down meant we couldnt get to a meaningful stopping place. I gave it an extra minute or two by the clock in my desk, but we weren't close enough and I had to dismiss class at a downward point. A student was complaining about the 2 minutes and I was unhappy to break up the movie so absurdly. I now realize that the desk clock is a minute slow.
I went to the piano at school and made some changes to the string quartet score.
I worked on the Mets website, and finally finished the research piece on Mets VS Yankees comparisons, which is one of the larger pieces. I'd started it three years ago and then put it away. Its alot of work looking up all those team stats, but its a part of New York history that is almost totally unknown. Finally I had a complete comparison for all team stats between 1999 and 2005. Each season, the Mets usually have more extra base hits and stolen bases with lower ERAs than the Yankees. Mets fans realize the significance of this, as the city press (dare I honor them by calling them tabloids?) is always making unfavorable comparisons, assuming people don't know any better, and in fact they don't. I showed it to Ellis, a Yankee fan, who recommended just one or two literary touches and edits, and it was done. My purpose is not to insult the Yankees but to poke a little good natured fun at them from a Met perspective. Ellis helped me see it through the eyes of a Yankee fan. DLP says our goal in that baseball blog is to encourage fans of all types from all over the world to look favorably on the Mets and their plight in the spirit of brotherhood. Yes, we are doing that, but I still want some good Yankee jokes in there.