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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Jun 17, 2017 6:27:50 GMT -7
To all my friends and family on this forum. I found this very inspiring. What are your thoughts on the subject?
GENTRI Covers - "Let It Be" (The Beatles Cover)
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Post by karl on Jun 17, 2017 13:54:40 GMT -7
J.J.
With out thinking, these words bring to mind as let things go and regroup with new thinking for better solutions.
Karl
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Post by Jaga on Jul 9, 2017 1:18:35 GMT -7
John, very gentle music with meaning
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Post by pieter on Jul 9, 2017 8:31:23 GMT -7
John, Paul McCartney and his brother Mike with their mother Mary There are things in the spiritual world, in the space between our reality in this world living and the world of our loved ones who have passed away I can't say much about, because that is a metaphysical world, a transcedential world, a Twilight Zone. Paul McCartney like many of us human beings had a special bond and relation with his mother as a son. She was an inspiration and comforting spirit in his life because he knew her until his 14th year. No, doubt he remembered her being in his life for these 14 years. McCartney's mother, Mary, was a midwife, out at all hours on her bicycle to deliver babies. Her death from breast cancer in October 1956, when McCartney was age 14, had a profound effect on his life and was the inspiration for his ballad “Let It Be” (1970). Paul McCartney with his mother on the left and John Lennon with his mother on the rightPaul McCartney's mother Mary was a midwife and the family's primary wage earner; her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, where they lived until 1964. She rode a bicycle to her patients; McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at "about three in the morning [the] streets ... thick with snow". On 31 October 1956, when McCartney was fourteen, his mother died of an embolism. McCartney's loss later became a point of connection with John Lennon, whose mother, Julia, had died when he was seventeen. Happy father Paul McCartney with his two daugthers Mary McCartney and Stella McCartney, daughters of Linda McCartney Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney (New York, 24 september 1941 – Tucson, 17 april 1998)No doubt John, Paul's mother must have been a great woman, a hard working woman, who helped delivering a lot of babies to this world, and therefor connected to life despite her early death. She must have loved her sons dearly, but lost the battle against that terrible illness. Maybe she could connect from the other side to her son and appear to him in a dream. There is more between heaven and earht I can understand. These are spiritual and deeply personal things. And I certainly take Paul McCartney seriously. Here a Paul McCartney version of the song: Cheers, Pieter
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Post by kaima on Jul 9, 2017 11:01:31 GMT -7
I always though he was an ugly, snotty looking guy.
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Post by pieter on Jul 9, 2017 13:30:34 GMT -7
He might not be the most handsome man, but a great musician and probably good father and husband and son Kai! Maybe you as an American have another taste. Often people in continental Europe think the British and American cultures are close to each other, because both are English cultures, but it is a fact that there are huge differences between the American and English cultures, peoples and American English and British English.
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Post by karl on Jul 9, 2017 14:37:30 GMT -7
He might not be the most handsome man, but a great musician and probably good father and husband and son Kai! Maybe you as an American have another taste. Often people in continental Europe think the British and American cultures are close to each other, because both are English cultures, but it is a fact that there are huge differences between the American and English cultures, peoples and American English and British English. These are primarily the feelings also of my self in respect to the closeness of the Brits and Americans. This is natural of course in many ways, for the first colonies were British until the colonies revolted against the British Crown. There are also though, noticeable difference in speech and spelling of many words British and American brand of English language. With this, the American abhorrence of a king and Queen as part of goverment. With this, though is the American accent over that of British my self have always enjoyed. In the manner of conducting business, I do appreciate in many respects the straightforwardness of the Americans. They seem to have for the most part, good working knowledge of their products and/or services they are presenting. The most irritating aspects of doing business with many Americans is their confusion of time. A meeting is agreed upon to begin at the correct time, not a few minutes past. Karl
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Post by kaima on Jul 9, 2017 14:53:26 GMT -7
He might not be the most handsome man, but a great musician and probably good father and husband and son Kai! Maybe you as an American have another taste. Often people in continental Europe think the British and American cultures are close to each other, because both are English cultures, but it is a fact that there are huge differences between the American and English cultures, peoples and American English and British English. My remark was my own, not as an American. If America followed my taste in music they would have been reasonably successful and not the world hits and raised to the 'guru' level of today - the level that is reflected in this thread. As an ordinary and good man as you say he is, accepted. But still a stranger to me.
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Post by pieter on Jul 9, 2017 14:59:00 GMT -7
Karl,
If you look at the present white American population only a small percentage is originally Anglo-Saxon. The white Caucacian American culture is a Pan-European melting pot of English, Scottish, German, Austrian (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Welsh, Irish, French, Swiss, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Jewish, Finnish, Spanish, Portugese, Greek, Croat, Serb, Slovenian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Baltic, Icelandic, Portuguese, Romanian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Armenian, Georgian, Arab and Iranian cultures. The American English is heavily influenced by German, Scandinavian, Dutch, Yiddish, Latin, Slavic and other influences. In the American culture Germanic, Slavic and Romanesque (Latin) traditions, customs, saga, customs, cuisine and linguistics merged in the American English culture. Ofcourse American English has British roots, but it was heavily influenced by the linguistic elements of all these non-British, Non-English other immigrants. In the english language sense I live in a transatlantic reality constantly switching between British English and American English.
Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pieter on Jul 9, 2017 15:08:32 GMT -7
He might not be the most handsome man, but a great musician and probably good father and husband and son Kai! Maybe you as an American have another taste. Often people in continental Europe think the British and American cultures are close to each other, because both are English cultures, but it is a fact that there are huge differences between the American and English cultures, peoples and American English and British English. My remark was my own, not as an American. If America followed my taste in music they would have been reasonably successful and not the world hits and raised to the 'guru' level of today - the level that is reflected in this thread. As an ordinary and good man as you say he is, accepted. But still a stranger to me. Dear Kai, The Beatles came somewhat later in my musical development, because first I fancied the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, AC/DC, Kiss, Blondy, the Police and U2. Later the Beatles entered my life together with the Doors, the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, the Pretenders and popular music like Madonna and Michael Jackson that entered our teenage chambers and living rooms. The Beatles are very good in my taste. Firs the rock 'n roll of the Rolling Stones was easier to grasp for me. I don't know what your Alaskan and Slovak-American taste is. You are right that you are an individual and not a typical representative for an average American. You are different than John, Eric, Nicetoe, Jim Jeanne and Jaga. Born and raised in America but with a lot of travel and work experience in Europe and the world. I wonder what your taste is in American music. There was a bridge between the British and American pop music, but still the American popular culture was clearly different than the European, British one. Both traditions and cultures and pop music styles have influenced me. I made my own transatlantic mix of British, American and continental European music and culture. Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pieter on Jul 9, 2017 15:16:17 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Jul 9, 2017 15:20:28 GMT -7
Now I watched these funny video's I realise that I will often will use British english words instaid of American english words, because like Karl I was raised and educated in British English. I have to admid that I didn't realize that the differences were that big.
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Post by kaima on Jul 9, 2017 17:19:02 GMT -7
My remark was my own, not as an American. If America followed my taste in music they would have been reasonably successful and not the world hits and raised to the 'guru' level of today - the level that is reflected in this thread. As an ordinary and good man as you say he is, accepted. But still a stranger to me. Dear Kai, The Beatles came somewhat later in my musical development, because first I fancied the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, AC/DC, Kiss, Blondy, the Police and U2. Later the Beatles entered my life together with the Doors, the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, the Pretenders and popular music like Madonna and Michael Jackson that entered our teenage chambers and living rooms. The Beatles are very good in my taste. Firs the rock 'n roll of the Rolling Stones was easier to grasp for me. I don't know what your Alaskan and Slovak-American taste is. You are right that you are an individual and not a typical representative for an average American. I wonder what your taste is in American music. Cheers, Pieter Pieter, Music is no longer a large part of my life, and I was an entirely different person back in the '60's when it was so important. I was a standard American kid with a different perspective even back then, not the person I have developed into today. I do remember thinking at 15, what will the world (and I) be like when I am 30? 45? Those I could imagine by stretching my imagination. The world if I survived to age 60 was beyond anything I could imagine, try as I might. As it is, the world and I are a bit distant from what I imagined. It was 1963 or 1964 when I noticed radio spots with a few seconds of teaser: "What is a Beatle?", and such questions equally terse and inexplicable. Perhaps they included "Where is ...", "When are the Beatles coming?", and such... I remember this going on for perhaps 6 months, eventually leading to the totally unknown British rock group becoming known to the American public. Personally, I had feeling of being manipulated by this propaganda, and worked up a corresponding hostile attitude toward the Beatles, and it was only after about 4 years of being flooded by their music, sadly to the exclusion of so many other worthy groups, that I started to enjoy their music. Of course I have always felt the American public was manipulated by the early adverts and follow on work. They were good, perhaps, but certainly not to the point of excluding so much other good music of the time. Oh, I appreciated the British music and groups of the time and had a tendency toward American Folk music, bordering on country mucis, but I dropped the country music aspect when they changed their genre to the blend it is today. I rather liked, at least on occasion, country, western, hillbilly and blues, and worked up a taste for classical jazz of sorts, but never modern jazz. European folk music (polka music) was fine in limited amounts, and remains so today. For the modern me, I would say I stopped following groups and names of musicians 30 years ago. I bought an album of the Dixie Chicks in 2003 after they patriotically protested the Iraqi War before it started, and the American people turned on them in thoughtless anger at their speaking against an artificially cooked-up war. I appreciate the fine qualities of their voices, but do not appreciate the music they choose to produce. Otherwise I find the music industry and entertainment industry addicted to celebrating themselves and their contribution to our society. Their lives are often expounded upon in interviews and praise and awards created and splurged upon them in unending volumes. The rest of society is proportionately quite neglected and the contributions unacknowledged. Much the same goes for the military in the USA today, it is much raised and overly respected; courage for them is praised and neglected when so often practiced in our everyday society. We seem blind to the everyday common courage we encounter among the common individual, as we must have some defined person to pour upon our devotion. In moving to Alaska I worked up a high respect for the normal man and woman facing responsibilities with house and children and spouse to care for and worry about with life at -40 (C or F, they are the same at -40). It takes courage to maintain the house, car, and safety of spouse and family at those temperatures. This carries over today to a respect for the homeless in Alaska, today in our society that admires and sings the praises of the 'he man' tough outdoor adventurer. Going properly trained and equipped into wilderness or mountain, among the wild animals is looked upon as quite an accomplishment (look at American reality TV today!). Totally neglected is the homeless individual living out in the cold year round in Alaska, someone who obviously has the outdoor skills and an extreme toughness to live in these conditions everyday, not just during a properly equipped expedition. So in summary, I find myself having spent the entire time above praising the Everyday Human. Deserving of our respect and praise in so many ways. To bring this back to the Beatles and the individual so praised, I find him quite respectably ordinary. Fame is what separates him from the Ordinary Human, and he has been rewarded with great wealth due to this fame. I mentioned I find him rather ugly. That is the other side of the coin, as when someone cries because "Natalie Wood died, and she was so pretty". That I rank as tragic as the death of an ugly person with no fame. Kai
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Post by kaima on Jul 9, 2017 17:25:27 GMT -7
Interesting. I just glanced at the laptop computer screen and noted a glow coming from the camera, while I am using no software that would call for my picture to be taken or broadcast!
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Post by pieter on Jul 10, 2017 2:47:18 GMT -7
Dear Kaima,
Thank you for your thoughtful and interesting reply with a lot of human, pyschological and socialiological content. I like that your reply is personal, political and human. I aggree with you ofcourse. And I sincerely mean that. I aggree with you completely. I have always admired the common man, and people of all sorts of backgrounds and social classes who aren't famous, well known or in the spotlights of international media and showbiz glamour. I like the environment, nature, and I like towns, cities, villages and hamlets. Most of my time and travels I have spend in non-tourist locations. If in cities (Berlin, Copenhagen, Prague, Warsaw, Poznan, Krakow, Paris, London, New York, LA, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, Luxemburg, Capetown, Zürich or Vienna) I always like to go out of the city center and look for area's where people live in normal, working class or middle class neighbourhoods. During these country and city travels abroad I have learned a lot of local life, the people and culture over there by avoiding tourist destinations, tourist masses and stereotypical things. I saw places by daylight, in the evening and at night.
I wanted to see and experience how Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Germans, Walloons, Flemish people, Americans and South-Africans lived. I have seen many streets, boulevards, alley's, squares, parks, houses, buildings and skyscrapers. Very old houses, churches, buildings, monastries, villa's, palaces, cathedrals, shabby old working class neighbourhoods or rough city quarters (which tourists avoid), and also posh middle class or upper class neighbourhoods. I felt the millenia, centuries and decades that went by there. I connected it to my history books, memories, images of good photographers who photographed the down side of society (the projects, that same old shabby and living working class neighbourhoods). In the Netherlands I know a lot of towns and cities, and a lot of neighbourhoods. It must be maybe my artistic, creative side which feels attracted to the non-glamorous, shabby, and colorful side of the non-tourist destinations in these cities at home and abroad.
To come into your direction. I have a fascination for how infrastructure is designed and built, how people live in difficult circumstances (I love documentaries about the things you said), how homeless people live. I see and know homeless people in Arnhem, and knew them in Amsterdam and Zeeland where I came from. Fascinating life stories these people have if you take time to listen to them. And homeless people have very different backgrounds. Due to my fascination for old and new buildings, building styles (architecture) and the working of time on old buildings. I love old shabby houses with plants living on them, and ruins, I found in Belgium and other places. I saw construction workers work day and night. I have great respect for these guys who built our homes, buildings, roads, highways and the track on a railway or railroad. I lived in the former redlight disctrict of Arnhem when it was still a red light district (for Karl, the Reeperbahn of Arnhem, but than spread over several street.). I lived next to the railway tracks, and heard and saw trains day and night. My apartment shook like a little earthquake when heavy transport trains passed. I often watched construction workers working at night at the tracks, because due to heavy railtransport between the Rurhgebiet and Rotterdam through Arnhem the tracks received a lot of heavy train transports. A lot of both people train transport and heavy transport trains. Coals, new cars, sand for construction, cement, aluminium, concrete, containers, and sometimes large military equipment (tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, miltiary trucks and etc.) I took a lot of images from workers working at night and the evening, but also by day time. These anonymous workers who built roads, streets, boulevards, squares, viaducts, bridges, houses, buildings, and the unknown architects, technical drawers, calculators, construction designer, painters (street sign painters on the roads, and mural drawers), and next to that the guys who run the shops, little supermarkets, pubs, cafeteria, snack bars, social workers, parents who raise their children in working class neighbourhoods and middle class neighbourhoods.
And next to these people also the teachers of our schools, nurses, doctors in our hospitals, ambulance personel, the neighbourhood cop who watches over kids that might go into the wrong direction (often people don't see the social function these chaps or ladies have), the fire fighters, other police officers, local city council members (local politicians of local and national parties who work hard from an ideological, pragmatic or local/regional motivation -I work a lot of them as a local tv cameraman and journalist-), and artists (painters, drawers, graphical artists, sculpturists, art photographers), theatre and circus people and other creatives. I will always have a soft spot for artists and other creative people. That is my background. My education is art and history. The human layers in society are interesting to me, not the entertainment, movie and pop stars and celebrities. All these workers, farmers, fishermen, middle class people and yes also high class people and upperclass people (that are unknown to us) who create our human, political and social-cultural society. I have dealt with well known Dutch people and with a lot of unknown Dutch people and I can tell you they are all human. One day I film or speak with Geert Wilders or a Dutch princes and the other day with a homeless person, a construction worker or a local shop keeper. It is part of my job. They are all human, only life and social background has made them different.
Cheers, Pieter
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