U2 Live - Vancouver BC, Canada

What to say… spectacular, moving, impressive, joyful, louder than life, bigger than life, a flawless rock performance and a beautiful city (Vancouver) way ahead of hippie Seattle in all sort of ways. The Irish boys were just a feet away from us the entire night, as we had the best seat in the house. Black Eyed Peas gave an amazing performance as well (Pics by Mrs. Golden)

Venue: BC Place
Opening Act: Black Eyed Peas
Main Set: Breathe, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day - Blackbird, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Stand By Me, Happy Birthday (Bill Gates), Stuck In A Moment, No Line On The Horizon, Elevation, In A Little While, Unknown Caller, Until the End of the World, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (remix), Sunday Bloody Sunday, MLK, Walk On - You'll Never Walk Alone
Encore: One, Amazing Grace, Where the Streets Have No Name, Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

Rebooting America...

An Irish Rocker/Activist/Philanthropist and New York Times Guest-Columnist, Paul David Hewson... suggests accountability for the Audacity of Hope.

"A FEW years ago, I accepted a Golden Globe award by barking out an expletive. One imagines President Obama did the same when he heard about his Nobel, and not out of excitement. When Mr. Obama takes the stage at Oslo City Hall this December, he won’t be the first sitting president to receive the peace prize, but he might be the most controversial..."

:::Read In Full:::

Beyond B&W [2]

By 2050, the U.S. Latino population is expected to nearly triple. Soledad O'Brien explores how Latinos are reshaping our communities and culture and forcing a nation of immigrants to rediscover what it means to be an American – CNN

~ Don’t miss Latino In America on CNN this month ~


Our journey in Seattle regarding race and culture has been nothing short of eye-opening and heartbreaking. I have experienced a kind of prejudice, not to simply say an oppressive attitude concerning people of color. This pushes me to ponder on a weekly basis, as I ride the bus, walk the streets and spend time in the classroom… Who am I really as a Hispanic-American? My wife (a family & children psychotherapist) on the other hand, has been faced with a totally new Hispanic community/culture and has seen first hand the effects of deportation and emotional ripping-apart of families. As our time in the Emerald city comes to an end, I will undoubtedly have a different view regarding race, culture and 'color'. Perhaps what my very-white-liberal-progressive- Graduate school has stirred in me is to not bury my emotions or bury my anger, by hiding behind counterfeit grace and religious piety… It still blows my mind to think that the white church, particularly in Miami, still does not understand the issues of race/culture and possibly never will...
Perhaps there will be more lenience on my behalf; perhaps there will more raw reality.

Beyond B&W

This is a great article (I don’t agree with the entire piece) – much to think about regarding the future of America and what it means to be a multicultural American in our current times. Here are bits and pieces from the article…

Whether Latinos, Asian Americans, Muslim-Americans and other groups like it or not, the black-white narrative is the nation’s dominant racial storyline - even if there are now more Latinos than African-Americans in the United States…
Where do Latinos fit in this black-white paradigm that has always existed and that, for all the talk about multiculturalism, has only intensified since Obama’s election? It depends on whom you ask. Many blacks see Latinos as closer to whites, while many whites see Latinos as co-conspirators with blacks. Neither is completely true… “There’s this almost hyper-visibility of Latinos,” she said. “But it’s a narrow and often wrong kind of hyper-visibility because it is the ‘illegal alien.’ Every Latino is presumed to be an immigrant and secondly to be an undocumented Mexican.”

Read the full article by LatinoMagazine ::: Here :::

I'll finish with this...

Hispanic Americans have been here for so long, and yet kept their identity, that it is rather doubtful they will follow the same process of assimilation by which Swedes, Irish and Italians joined mainstream American society. Especially now that there is an increasing awareness of the value of one’s culture and traditions, it seems safe to predict that Hispanic Americans will be around Mañana (tomorrow), and for as many mañanas as it pleases God to grant to this country…Hispanic Americans are going back to their historic roots and affirming their distinctive, not as something of which to be ashamed or to hide from view but as something of which to be proud and to exhibit at every possible opportunity.

~ Justo Gonzalez, is a prolific theological writer and historian of Christian thought – Author of Mañana: Christian Theology from A Hispanic Perspective.

Suu Kyi

Read more about what has been going on in Burma -Her verdict has been postponed until Aug. 11th.

::: Click Here :::

103°

Seattle breaks All-time heat record! Hottest Day Ever!

COLDPLAY Show

The Gorge Amphitheatre is a 25,000 seat concert venue located in George, Washington - Considered one of the premier and most scenic concert locations in the world - The venue offers sweeping and majestic views of the Columbia River, as well as extreme eastern Kittitas County and extreme western Grant County.