tracks in the dust

Archive for the tag “tracks in the dust”

29 Jul 2013

Join Me On the Radio

I will be on the radio; join me on the Internet streaming site!

A secret about me (probably because I haven’t talked about my college years for a long time). As I worked toward my degree (Communications) back around 1980 I was also “on the air” at the college radio station. A public radio stations where students could learn the craft ( I was focused on broadcasting). As the station manager I learned a lot about running a business, but my favorite time was getting on the radio and sharing music and information to the people on campus and around the city where the university was located (in the heart of the great northern state of Wisconsin USA).

So many of us from that time (late 1970’s to early 1980’s) are coming back for a reunion and 4 days of radio merriment. Also to raise funds for our school.

To All My Tracks In The Dust followers: If you want to listen ON THE INTERNET it will be available to stream at this link (for Windows and I-tunes users): http://www.uwsp.edu/wwsp/Pages/default.aspx

You can join me LIVE for 2 hours on Thursday August 1st from Noon to 2 pm:

That is 12:00 PM CDT US to 2:00 PM CDT US. And of course join any time you wish. I can promise you that some of the music will be classic time-machine stuff, but expect some fairly eclectic stuff as well.

Wherever you are; whether you join or not- keep music in your heart always!

Mark

Let’s Get Exposed: College Radio Stations (altavozdistroco.com)
26 Signs You Were A College Radio DJ (buzzfeed.com)

16 Jun 2013

1 Comment

Turning Back to History

Often these days it seems many of us have been turning our backs on history.

The Ipswitch Milestone

Somehow it seems to me, that many of the people I know have turned their backs on history. I mean we all understand that there were many things that have happened before us. There are so many centuries before today, before this minute in modern history, and so many more thousands of years of ancient history, and before that the millions of years that make up time before it was recorded by man.

During even the most recent times, history is has influenced how things are shaped today. We don’t recognize it, but everything is linked to most everything before it. As my kids get older, I fear they may not recognize or appreciate what came before. The importance of history seems to have become lost for the most part. Other than a few movies about time travel, or an occasional documentaries or film stories that hover around history (much of it in some fictional account), I am not sure that they genuinely would know about much of history. That scares me some. History has meaning in our life, it is the essence of what we are and how we should look at the circumstances of today. .

Both of my children s grandfathers fought in World War 2. They are not alive anymore to share what they had to do, and why they had to do it (they both weren’t always interested in sharing the horror of it). It would have been great for my children to hear what the fabric of their lives were made of.

During our lifetime there are history-making events happening… how will we recognize the important milestones among them in the future? How would we see them linked to the past? – Or would anyone see the link at all?

So many significant things in history are at risk to be forgotten by most of us. Perhaps just remembered as some image on a webpage that will endlessly get lost in the mounds of URLs that make up the throw away websites on the world-wide web….

It is important that we pass on some of it if we can. Like those tribes of years ago, who spent time sharing and repeating the history of the people before them. We need to share it. To let our children know why things happened in history, and what it meant then and what it means now.

Related Posts.

From No Blog Intended.A great post about Blind Spots In History . It is inspirational that someone wants to pay attention and understand that there is so much more.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged being remembered, choices, grandfathers, History, Life, Remembering the past, Self-Awareness, significant things, Time travel, tracks in the dust, world war 2, World War II

10 Jun 2013

All Things Must Pass

More frequently these days I recall how precious life is. It is very fragile. We have our chance to look at life from many ways. But in the end it all will pass. That’s why I share this song from the late George Harrison. It has always been one of those songs that captures the spirituality of the passing of time.

Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

Sunset doesn’t last all evening
A mind can blow those clouds away
After all this, my love is up and must be leaving
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
None of lifes strings can last
So, I must be on my way
And face another day

Now the darkness only stays the night-time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away

A VIDEO FROM VH1 – George Harrison’s last live performance before his death.

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Acceptance, All Things Must Pass, being remembered, Cancer, choices, George Harrison, Grace, Joy, Life, life is precious, Music, Rock music, Sprituality, tracks in the dust

19 Mar 2013

The World in Your Pocket

Smartphones have changed how we live our lives. I think it is amazing that in my lifetime so many things have changed, but this is a historical time when smartphones/cell phones have really made a permanent impact on my family.

The camera inside alone, sitting in everyone’s pocket allows very little of life’s imperfections to pass by. Now every mistake, every victory, every catastrophe, every violent act, every special moment can be recorded and broadcast out into the world-wide web to be permanently entered in the cyber record. It is “instant”. Since there are so many cameras in so many pockets, and every person can choose where to point it- even the subject matter can be managed by our individual point of view.

Things off the top of mind:

You are never alone (if you chose to be). “Social” has a much different meaning today. Not only text, but real-time pictures and videos change your perception of how you are connected to humans in your family to around the world in places you’d only read about.

You have access to what seems like infinite information. Like I have blogged before the friendly argument on a bar-stool at the local pub has changed forever. Just Google it. Share your opinion, it could be news in an hour.

You have access to hundred of thousands of books (probably millions). It is like having the entire library in your pocket. Summon (and pay for it) and you are ready to read things that may have been lost in the back-stacks at your city library.

You have entertainment where ever you want it; those long waits in line, those down-times when you are just looking for something to keep your mind going. Movies, music, even art are at your finger tips.

There’s a new definition of “getting lost”. It may mean that your Google Maps or navigation application may not be working correctly. Or that your battery has died I suppose. But stop and ask for directions? Hmmm.

That is just a start. I couldn’t have imagined as a child that every one would have their own phone numbers, their own built-in answering machine. That you could make long distance calls with a phone in your pocket without thinking about the “long distance” charges. That you could conference friends and family together and perhaps even see their expressions – from something that you would be holding in your hand. Virtually anywhere.

So I marvel at the idea of where my children will access the world when they are my age.

Decades from now there will be something our children cannot fathom, but I wonder what it is?

Today, they see the technology advances as a matter-of-fact. It will happen and it will evolve. What will be their marvel?

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, Cell Phones, Change, gadgets, Google, Memories, Reality Check, Science and Technology, technology, tracks in the dust

07 Mar 2013

2 Comments

Getting Stuck and UnStuck

I am not sure sometimes how I get into particular situations. There are just those times when “poof” I am there. You ever have that feeling of extreme distress? You can’t believe how you got there. It’s likely that you were thinking of something else, maybe head in the clouds.

There are plenty of times where when you are feeling stuck, it seems insurmountable Panic may ensue, or that feeling that you are never going to get out of the situation you are in. Things get blue or bleak or bad (funny how many words can describe it).

Some of my friends will surround themselves with others who are feeling the same way, so they can feel better that they are not alone in their sinking feeling. Other friends of mine will disappear off the face of the earth it seems for long periods of time. Seems like plenty of people think they have the remedy to help them get out of those feelings of being stuck in the situation they’re in.

But getting un-stuck is a challenge that has to be faced eventually. For most of us there is a time when you just have to admit that there is a way out– a solution. You have to make a decision. It’s funny sometimes that someone can “wallow’ at the bottom of a situation for so long.

We can all break-free of things if we put our minds to it. We have the ability to change things, but there are times that we just don’t. We draw out the inevitable and then later – after we finally look back – we ask ourselves “what took so long?” There has to be someway to recognize that getting un-stuck is a choice we can all make if we want without wallowing in it. Without just standing still and wondering why things don’t change.

Advice to my kids when they feel stuck: Take action and make things change. Sometimes I have to hear my own advice. Then God will provide.