educational programming

Last night Matt and I stayed up too late catching the encore showing of Part 1 of the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary Prohibition. We also drank a little Maker's Mark in honor of the occasion. The first episode addressed the basis and rise of the prohibition movement.

What stood out in particular to me is that while people tend to think of prohibition as a conservative movement steeped in our Puritan roots, it was actually a very progressive movement, believed to be a way to rid the country of slums and end poverty. It really united religious and non-religious (the picture above is of women demonstrating in support of prohibition laws), and it was thought that a prohibition amendment would usher in a utopian era of peace and prosperity. But according to the documentary, the same day the amendment passed, liquor was stolen from various locations in Chicago.

We're about to start Part 2, which picks up as Prohibition begins. I believe we'll be drinking "sacramental" wine in keeping with the spirit. I love American history, and since starting to homebrew I've become increasingly interested in our alcohol laws, which are tied to the end of Prohibition, so this is particularly interesting to me. Plus: organized crime and the Roaring 20's! Glamorous! 

Things are coming into focus...

I love too much music to be able to truly commit and label any single band as my "favorite." That said, my favorite band is Heartless Bastards.  Erika Wennerstrom gives word and voice to feelings and ideas I am only partially aware of until I she plays and sings them.

The songs resonate with me so strongly, that I've adopted "Into The Open" (a song on the 2006 album, "All This Time") as my personal anthem. I've seen Heartless Bastards live twice: once this year in Portland, OR; and once in May of last year at my favorite local music venue, The Casbah.

So when I decided to look for a good video of Heartless Bastards playing "Into the Open" in honor of trying to re-launch my journey of self-discovery and whatnot, imagine my joy at finding them playing MY song at the Casbah the night I was there. What?! Yes! It's amazing! Kismet! Destiny! Listen right now!

 (the intro to the actual song starts at about 55 seconds, and goes until about 5+ minutes into the video)

If at first you don't succeed, blahblahblah

So here I am AGAIN. Promising myself (as no one else reads this, because I do not write anything) to write consistently (and then maybe I'll start inviting people to read). All I've blogged this year are a couple YouTube videos. Sigh. But there is no point in berating myself over the past. Onward and upward and so forth. 

To help me with this goal I am participating in Blogtoberfest, committing to post every day for the month of October. Eep. Public commitment. Scary. 

Of course the beginning is easy! I get to do this obligatory Blogtoberfest introductory post! Sweet! The tough part--deciding what to post about, preparing pictures, making time, etc--starts Monday. But I'm-a do it!

As a warm up I've done a few posts about the adventure of finding and adopting our cat, and back-dated them because that's my prerogative. Heh.  

So here it goes. One down, 30 to go.