A Saucerful Of Secrets

inside the Primary Containment Vessels, Unit 2,
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
3/26/12

From Japan Times :
Radiation inside the reactor 2 containment vessel at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has reached a lethal 73 sieverts per hour and any attempt to send robots in will require them to have greater resistance than currently available, experts said Wednesday.
Exposure to 73 sieverts for a minute would cause nausea and seven minutes would cause death within a month, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The experts said the high radiation level is due to the shallow level of coolant water — 60 cm — in the containment vessel, which Tepco said in January was believed to be 4 meters deep. Tepco has only peeked inside the reactor 2 containment vessel. It has few clues as to the status of reactors 1 and 3, which also suffered meltdowns, because there is no access to their insides.
The utility said the radiation level in the reactor 2 containment vessel is too high for robots, endoscopes and other devices to function properly.


BBC News is reporting that
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has said damage to one of the reactors is much worse than previously thought.
On Tuesday workers managed to insert a probe into reactor number two for only the second time and found damage worse than expected.
Radiation was up to 10 times the fatal dose, the highest yet recorded at the plant. The level of water cooling the melted-down nuclear fuel was also far lower than expected.
The other two melted-down reactors, which are yet to be examined closely, could be in an even worse state, our correspondent adds.


Pink Floyd: A Saucerful of Secrets

Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

with your mercury mouth in the missionary times,
and your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
and your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,
who did they think could bury you?
with your pockets well protected at last,
and your streetcar visions which you place on the grass,
and your flesh like silk, and your face like glass,
who could they get to carry you?
sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
my warehouse eyes, my arabian drums,
should i put them by your gate,
or, sad-eyed lady, should i wait?

with your sheets like metal and your belt like lace,
and your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace,
and your basement clothes and your hollow face,
who among them can think he could outguess you?
with your silhouette when the sunlight dims
into your eyes where the moonlight swims,
and your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns,
who among them would try to impress you?
sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
my warehouse eyes, my arabian drums,
should i put them by your gate,
or, sad-eyed lady, should i wait?

the kings of Tyrus with their convict list
are waiting in line for their geranium kiss,
and you wouldn't know it would happen like this,
but who among them really wants just to kiss you?
with your childhood flames on your midnight rug,
and your spanish manners and your mother's drugs,
and your cowboy mouth and your curfew gloves,
who among them do you think could resist you?
sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
my warehouse eyes, my arabian drums,
should i put them by your gate,
or, sad-eyed lady, should i wait?

the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
to show you where the dead angels are that they used to hide.
but why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
how could they ever mistake you?
they wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm,
but with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm,
and with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms,
how could they ever have persuaded you?
sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
my warehouse eyes, my arabian drums,
should i leave them by your gate,
or, sad-eyed lady, should i wait?

with your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row,
and your magazine-husband who one day just had to go,
and your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show,
who among them do you think would employ you?
now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
with your holy medallion which your fingertips now enfold,
and your saint-like face and your ghost-like soul,
who among them do you think could destroy you?
sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
my warehouse eyes, my arabian drums,
should i put them by your gate,
or, sad-eyed lady, should i wait?

--bob dylan ("sad eyed lady of the lowlands ")

And Where They Make A Desert

To plunder, to massacre, to steal,
this they call Empire;
and where they make a desert,
they call it peace.
--Calgacus
(as chronicled by Tacitus)




GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

An Evening With...

Sounds of Silence 1966


Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme 1966


Bookends 1968


Bridge Over Troubled Water 1970


...four old friends from Simon and Garfunkel

American Beauty

Grateful Dead
American Beauty
1970


box of rain
friend of the devil
sugar magnolia
operator
candyman
ripple
brokedown palace
till the morning comes
attics of my life
truckin'

Johnny Cash: "Navajo"

Johnny Cash
Navajo


We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
--sacred ritual chant

Finisterre

June Tabor: Finisterre


farewell, Finisterre
sleep away the afternoon
just rocking with the tide
drinking with the moon
last night I turned the glasses over
and I drank the bottle dry
the moon stared out to sea all night and so did I

The Black Cat's Footsteps

Anouar Brahem : Le Pas Du Chat Noir


I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost.
--Jack Kerouac
On the Road

Return Of The Ghost Dance

Robbie Robertson
with Red Road Ensemble and friends
Ghost Dance
Agrigento, Italy
5/13/95

St. Paddy's Stew

Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem: Mountain Tay

Dire Straits: Portobello Belle

Pogues: Whiskey You're the Devil

Chieftains: Round the House and Mind the Dresser

Mary Black: Song for Ireland


I like reading in a pub rather than a library or study,
as it's generally much easier to get a drink.
--Pete McCarthy

Two From Chelsea Wolfe

Chelsea Wolfe
Halfsleeper and Recluse

Doc Watson (1967)

Doc Watson

with Clint Howard and Fred Price

November 1967

Betty Nelson's Organic Raspberry Farm 9/2/68

Grateful Dead
Betty Nelson's Organic Raspberry Farm
Sultan, WA.
9/2/68

introduction
dark star
saint stephen
the eleven
death don't have no mercy//
cryptical envelopment
drums
the other one
cryptical envelopment
alligator
caution (do not stop on tracks)
feedback
stage announcements

Was It A Car Or A Cat I Saw?

Weird Al Yankovic pays palindromic homage
to Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues...

Waist Deep In Gasoline

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.
--Carl Sagan



Map of the 2053 Nuclear Explosions Since 1945 by Isao Hashimoto

Confidence Is Of The Utmost Importance

Clarke and Dawe
Solvency in Our Time

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Johnny Cash/Kris Kristofferson
Sunday Morning Coming Down
1978


well i woke up sunday morning
with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt
and the beer i had for breakfast wasn't bad
so i had one more for dessert
then i fumbled through my closet for my clothes
and found my cleanest dirty shirt
then i shaved my face and combed my hair
and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day

Gillian Welch/David Rawlings 2/19/12

Gillian Welch/David Rawlings
Warren Hellman Public Celebration
San Francisco, CA.
2/19/12



Hard Times
The Way it Goes
I Want to Sing that Rock and Roll
Down Along the Dixie Line
Elvis Presley Blues
Six White Horses
Look at Miss Ohio
Nobody But the Baby *
I'll Fly Away


* with Emmylou Harris

Swimming Through Stone

Mariee Sioux
Swimming Through Stones

Moaning Of The Midnight Train

Butch Hancock
Moaning of the Midnight Train
Allgood Cafe, Dallas, TX.
2/16/12

The Legendary Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson
Ancaster, Ontario
8/21/11

And No Birds Sing

Fukushima Explosion with Birdsongs from Samantha DiRosa


Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful - a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true'.

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

--John Keats
La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing

Buffalo Springfield
Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
Bridge School Benefit
Mountain View, Ca.
10/23/10

Earth First!

Chris Manes: Earth First! 1987


My job
is to save
the fucking wilderness.
I don't know
anything else
worth saving.
--George Hayduke

Atheists Don't Have No Songs

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers
Atheists Don't Have No Songs
Wilkesboro, N.C.
2010
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christians have their hymns and pages,
Hava Nagila's for the Jews,
Baptists have the rock of ages,
Atheists just sing the blues.

Romantics play Claire de Lune,
Born agains sing He is risen,
But no one ever wrote a tune,
For godless existentialism.

For Atheists,
There's no good news,
They'll never sing a song of faith.
For atheists,
They have a rule,
The "he" is always lowercase.
The "he" is always lowercase.

Some folks sing a Bach cantata,
Lutherans get Christmas trees,
Atheist songs add up to nada,
But they do have Sundays free.

Pentecostalists sing they sing to heaven,
Coptics have the books of scrolls,
Numerologists can count to seven,
Atheists have rock and roll.

For Atheists,
There's no good news,
They'll never sing a song of faith.
In their songs,
They have a rule,
The "he" is always lowercase.
The "he" is always lowercase.

Atheists, Atheists, Atheists,
Don't have no songs!

Christians have their hymns and pages,
Hava Nagila's for the Jews,
Baptists have the rock of ages,
Atheists just sing the blues.

Catholics dress up for Mass,
And listen to Gregorian chants.
Atheists just take a pass,
Watch football in their underpants.
Watch football in their underpants.

Atheists, Atheists, Atheists,
Don't have no songs!