666

That last one was post number 666. They say that's the number of the devil though I'm not sure why. Anyway, that's proof you don't want to f@ck with the folks at the Best Way.
Venice out.

Hispania and Japan

Bloody hell. It's been over a year since my last post, which appears to have also been the last one on this blog. If you asked me, I would have said the last post was maybe 6 or 7 months ago, but in fact it's been over a year.
Anyway, right now I am listening to an album called "Hispania and Japan" which according to my iPod is by Jordi Savall. It was recommended by emusic. It's a nifty, intriguing recording, full of beautiful and exotic music, but it isn't quite what I thought it would be. It is inspired by the travels of a saint from Spain, to India and then to Japan and uses music from all those cultures as it goes. The Spanish influenced music includes a lot of choral pieces; the Japanese music is very heavy on the shakuhachi. The funny thing is that for the most part the tracks alternate. there will be a Japanese pieces followed by a choral, or a Spanish style guitar. Rarely do the two styles blend on a single track.
One might question what the point of this is, especially in this day of playlists and so forth. If i wanted to listen to different styles of music, this critic would say, I would just program my iPod this way. But that isn't really fair. The different tracks on this album go together in way that forms a whole: you might end up wondering why more composers don't preface their choral music with a solo biwa.
And each track, taken by itself, is worth listening to. So it's a good album, probably more suited to solitary enjoyment that anything else.
Ok, so the post is up. With any luck there will be another in less than 16 months!

Buddhism in America

Lately, I've been thinking a great deal about Buddhism and how it relates to Western thought. I've also, not coincidentally, been reading a lot of older books on Buddhism, written by various turn of the (last) century Brits and have noticed they have a tendency to regard Mahayana and especially tantric practices as being impure and irrational, the result of Hindu superstitions finding their way back into Sakyamuni's rational religion. Over at one of my favorite blogs, there is an excellent post about how this tendency presupposes a "Protetestant" mindset, one in which a rational religion is overrun by ritual, speculation and supersition. it's a great post and a great blog. I'd like to write more, but don't have the time right now. so check it out for yourselves.

A new start, Reviving the blog, Figuring out what's next!

It's been quite awhile since 'The Best Way..." has been particularly active. Having been thrust into a semi-involuntary job hunt as of Friday, I'll be posting... something... on a more regular basis again. Before I was let go from my job on Friday, I started my day listening to what turned out to be an immensely appropriate soundtrack for the day, so without further adieu, Ladies and Gentlemen the soulful and stupendous Lauryn Hill:

Add this to the list of exciting blogs

It's been longer than I care to remember since I posted anything here. The whole family and career thing keeps getting in the way. But in the mean time I thought I would let everyone know about an interesting blog I've been occasionally browsing. It's the product of several professional philosophers of religion and contains wide ranging and often insightful posts. Check it out!

Ok ok ok ok ok

So, I haven't posted in ages. Not sure who visits The Best Way anymore, but if you do here's a little something that might be fun: you can follow me on Twitter! I have had a hard time blogging of late, but perhaps I'll get back into it. In the meantime I have been microblogging aka Tweeting. It may not be quite as awesome as the blog once was back in those glory days of the Obama campaign... but it's something!

You can find my little tweets here: http://twitter.com/SolarJC

And I'll try to blog a bit more in 2010... I can't say that's necessarily my new years resolution or anything, but I'll try :)

Things I Want

You can add to the list a solar-powered hybrid robotic lawn mower. How cool is this? Apparently it's in the neighborhood of $3,000 worth of cool... and damn, not sure that's going to fly right now, but I have to tell you... it sure is tempting. The funny part is that I actually enjoy mowing the lawn, we just happen to have a broken lawn mower right now and a heckuva lot of grass to tend to, so we're without a great solution, and then comes along the internet to tempt me with robotic solutions.

Wind! Huh... good god, what is it good for?

Quite a bit in the right circumstances. There was a very nicely put together piece on wind energy on NPR yesterday as I drove home. This morning I tracked it down on NPR.org. Follow the link to either read or listen to the story. One piece that was encouraging given what I find myself doing these days was to hear an expert say that residential solar is really the best solution on the market right now for homeowners or businesses with a small need for electric generation. Wind is such promising technology, and it was fascinating to get All Things Considered's perspective on where the wind industry stands.

WashPo Poll Shows Americans like Obama Energy Policy

We want cap and trade (subscription required - but only a free one), say 52% of Americans... probably if they worded it something like, "would you support a system where companies that pollute beyond certain reasonable thresholds are required to make contributions to a system that invests in renewable energy projects" that 52% might grow. Anyway, this is awesome. Thank you Washington Post, and thank you America for being friggin awesome. Now, Congress, are you listening!?!?!? Seriously! Let's get this cap & trade done, already.

An interesting peek at Iran

I stumbled today upon an interesting collection of images from Iran pulled together by a guy who's a student at teh New School in NYC... he was interested in showing some of what normal life (before the election and the ensuing protests) looks (or looked) like in the streets of a nation many Americans know so little about.

Shatner

Enjoyable little Friday tidbit from SNL

William Shatner SNL skit Get A Life 1986-12-20
Uploaded by efly2020 - Watch more hilarious videos.

PA to have 2 Democratic Senators as of later today, Democrats to have even bigger less filibuster-prone majority!

Wowzers... so PA has played big this year... the Phillies won the World Series, the Steelers the Superbowl... the Sixers and Flyers made the playoffs (at least I think the Flyers did, right?) but no sports action can quite rival what's going on in Washington today thanks to the Keystone State. With almost 30 years of service in the Senate, stalwart independent/moderate Republican Arlen Specter is announcing later today that he will switch party affiliations to join the majority and (once the whole Minnesota debacle is settled) provide a filibuster-proof margin to the Democrats in the US Senate.

Now, Specter has been facing up with the prospects of a concerted challenge from right-wingers in PA come the next round of elections, and while he enjoys a high degree of popularity back home the state laws are such that only registered Republicans can vote in their party's primary for the Senate seat. If Specter lost the Republican primary he would not be able to run as an independent like Lieberman did up here in CT... so there certainly is some smart political calculus behind the decision. Anyway, this is a pretty monumental day in politics, PA state politics and a big day for Democratic priorities up on Capital Hill!

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. - from a statement released by Specter today

Thanks, Arlen!