Here’s the long-promised table of contents for Sybil’s Garage No. 6.  Yes, it’s going to be a big one. Poetry Liz Bourke    “The Girl” Donna Burgess    “Ashes” Lyn C. A. Gardner    “God’s Cat” Alex Dally MacFarlane    “The Wat” Susannah Mandel    “Metamorphic Megafauna” Tracie McBride    “An Ill Wind” Kristen McHenry    “Museum” Jaime Lee Moyer    “One by Moonlight ” Daniel A. Rabuzzi    “Backsight” Michel Sauret     “Brick Wall Giants” Michel Sauret     “Son of Man” J.E. Stanley    “City of Bridges” Sonya Taaffe    “Skiadas” Marcie Lynn Tentchoff    “Sun-Kissed” Fiction Rumjhum Biswas    “Mother’s Garden” K. Tempest Bradford    “Élan Vital” Autumn Canter    “Day of the Mayfly” Becca De La Rosa    “Not the West Wind” Eric Del …

I listened to The Decemberists’ new album, “The Hazards of Love,” yesterday.  I expected more of the same, Colin Meloy wailing his Dickensian paeans to 19th century literature, romance and the Ottoman empire.   Colin’s unmistakable voice hearkens to their earlier work, but it’s profoundly clear the group has grown artistically, though “grown” doesn’t quite capture the extent of it.  Not at all. From the first full opening and title track, “The Hazards of Love”, until its last and fourth reprise sixteen tracks later, I was carried on a story of …

This article suggests that science’s attempt to find a Theory of Everything, whether with String Theory, and the merging of quantum mechanics with general relativity, amounts to nothing more than placing epicycles on the orbits of our understanding of reality.  Its central thesis is that consciousness came before matter and life, not the other way around.  It’s an interesting article, and one that I’m inclined to agree with on many, but not all counts. What’s interesting is how well this meshes with the Buddhist worldview, mystical worldviews such as Kabbalah, Sufism, …

View Aerial Shot of Lake Just spent part of a beautiful afternoon bike riding up the Bethpage bicycle path. Lots of people were out due to the warm weather. Thee trees were budding, and there were hints of green creeping up from the natural compost. It was rather peaceful. I saw several people fishing in the lakes, either hanging off of bridges, or wading deep into the water. It just bothered me that for some people, in order to enjoy nature they have to hunt it. …

Here’s a video showing what it would look like falling into a black hole.  Sometimes my days feel like this.