The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

kick-a** blog recommendation

Greetings, friends and browsers of this blog --

This young man comes up with more good content than most ten bloggers combined. This excellent meditation on PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT is, IMHO, one of his best to date.

-- Despite public appearance, I am a very private person, and so I'm only going to say this once: IT WORKED FOR ME. I stumbled upon the basic principle Glen describes in this post by myself, by mistake, and through a great deal of trial and error. If you are one of the attentive few who truly knew me when I was 19, then 29, then 39, you know that I am not making this up.

-- I also believe that some of us genuinely evolve throughout our lives, whereas most of us merely achieve some fairly superficial levels of change, and never really experience what I would call a deep, integrated growth process.

To put it more bluntly, talk about personal transformation is cheap.

And very lucrative.

-- You may not agree with me on this point, and I will concede: IMPRINTING can happen at any point throughout our lives. While it is never too late, the earlier you start, the better your odds of lasting progress ... toward becoming the person you want to be, rather than the one you are told you should be. Growth and integration oriented change do NOT happen by remaining steadfastly in our comfort zones, however charming and appealing they may be.

That's all I'm sayin'.

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.04.23, 3:05 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can either (1) send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [!dot] com, or better still, (2) use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


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RIDE THE HAWAIIAN RAINBOW

Aloha, y'all. I just wanted to let you know about this lovely Internet station that plays a lot of what I call "smooth" Hawaiian music during the daytime hours here in Hawaii. (Most likely, that would mean afternoons and early evenings in the Continental USA.)

So what is it about HawaiianRainbow.com that rocks my world? Think tasty, 1940s-style instrumental combos, doing Hawaiian rather than jazz or pop in the classic sense of pop music (Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, etc.) Does that make sense? All done with Hawaiian instruments, but in that small-orchestral style of elegant, complex chording, precisely harmonized vocals, all with a healthy seasoning of chromaticism. (My inner music geek is showing, heh ... my inner chef, too.)

Anyway, I was introduced recently to this station by a kind soul who has granted me a window seat overlooking some elegant bits of Hawaiian culture. So to him, I say "mahalo nui" (thank you much) and dedicate this post.

HAWAIIAN RAINBOW also plays more traditional Hawaiian music, in what I would call a folk or indigenous style. I've heard that sound on the station late in the evening, which would be early morning for most of you in the Continental USA.

Enjoy, and if y'all have any comments or feedback to share, perhaps your own music stations and particular shows online that YOU enjoy, then shout it out by clicking on "POST A COMMENT" below, and share the joy.

Note: My photo here is from the series I took at the April 11 ho'ike (in essence, a show or exhibition) from the 44th annual Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, April 8 to April 14, 2007. This is an image of 'auana, as performed by the Japanese ensemble, Halau O Mehanaokala. 'Auana is a modern, song-accompanied hula, so I thought it was a good visual fit for the smooth, elegant music at Hawaiian Rainbow.

(By the way, I have many more lovely pictures here for you to enjoy — to see them all, just click the "hula" category tab in the sidebar to the left.)

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2008.08.17, 9:30 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is a culture-oriented site, focusing mainly on literary art and current events. If you enjoy this blog, and you wish to support its continued existence, please email a reply to this post. Indicate your desired contribution amount. The moderator will then reply with an invoice you can use to contribute via PayPal. Your name and contribution amount are confidential and NOT posted to the blog. Your three-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

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This meter displays this year's contributions to date in U.S. dollars and the annual goal of $200. Make a donation, watch the meter rise! Usually LitBoy posts your contribution on the very next blog post.

Unless otherwise indicated, all original materials here on LitBoy.com (writing, photos, drawings, graphics, etc.) belong to Bill Brent. If you want to re-use something here, please ask. Higher resolution images are available.

BOOK REVIEW: INFERNAL DEVICE: machinery of torture and execution, by Erik C. Rühling

What a wicked little book. It's just the thing for an apartment-sized coffee table, at a price that won't break your budget. In terms of torture gear, all the usual suspects are depicted and described within, along with a dungeon's worth of obscurities you've probably never heard of.

Rühling taught himself 3-D rendering in order to create his lovely (and gruesome) little book. This petite yet substantial volume (40 full-color photo pages) deserves some kind of design award. A few, perhaps. He renders his gallery of torture tools in a stark museum-exhibit style while his text, an impressive feat of condensed scholarship, vividly evokes images of the poor souls who were subjected to their horrors. It's a jarring and effective contrast of the mechanistic and humanistic. I am struck by the degree of brutality extended toward women in particular via these devices. Also an awareness of how, contrary to popular belief, we have not really evolved at all from the times and places in which these devices were employed. Hence Rühling's book also serves as a handy little reminder of how man's inhumanity to man is never more than a government directive away ... if that. Trenchant thoughts in these torturous times.

Among the book's highlights are some pithy and amusing treatises on the origins and history of various well-known devices such as the rack and the guillotine. As with most of the devices in Rühling's book, the guillotine underwent various manifestations and has borne many names in many countries at many times. This popular device's employment was often more grisly (read: less instantaneous) than most of us think. Yet my personal favorite is the ear chopper. Whether or not it was actually used, it is fun to contemplate the psychological torment value. No doubt, this says more about me than the ear chopper itself. Heh heh.

INFERNAL DEVICE: machinery of torture and execution, by Erik C. Rühling

Hardcover: 87 pages

Publisher: Disinformation Company (November 30, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1932857893

ISBN-13: 978-1932857894

Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches

CLICK HERE to buy this book at Amazon.

 

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Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2008.02.03, 8:58 p.m. Hawaii time]

[keywords: Erik Ruhling]

LitBoy.com is a professional blog. Keeping it online costs me $200 per year. That's before paying me for my writing, photography, or anything else I do here. If you enjoy this blog, please use the Tip Jar at the top of this page. Your two-dollar minimum donation helps keep this banner-free site alive. It's quick and easy!

0.00 / $199.90 (0.0%)

This meter displays this year's contributions to date in U.S. dollars (after the funds processor takes its cut). Make a donation, watch the meter rise! Usually I post your contribution on my next blog post.

All original materials here on LitBoy.com (writing, photos, drawings, graphics, etc.) belong to Bill Brent. If you want to re-use something here, please ask. Higher resolution images are available.