Karan Casey Sings For Peace, March 7

Karan Casey is a star of Irish music whose concert tours span the world. Whenever she tours America, she tries to visit Ithaca to perform a benefit concert for the peace and justice work of the Ithaca Catholic Worker and her friend, Ellen Grady.

The latest concert, of about nine or ten over the years, is Thursday 7 March at the Community School of Music and Arts. Karan will appear with guitarist John Doyle, with whom she has worked for 20 years, including in the Irish supergroup Solas, at its founding in the 1990's.

We spoke with Karan via Skype from Ireland on Sunday. A portion of that conversation appears in the Ithaca Times tomorrow.

Ellen is out of jail in time for the concert. She was imprisoned for a peaceful demonstration in Syracuse against the drone war planes operating from there. You can say hello to her today, selling tickets for the show at a table at GreenStar Coop from 4 - 6 p.m. Tickets are also available at Angry Mom Records on the Commons, open 7 days a week.

Facebook: Too Little, Too Much

An acquaintance of ours, who is also a Facebook friend (copyright?), recently posted there that she is taking a break from Facebook for a while. No posting, no looking.

We didn't think too much about it, as we don't need Facebook every day, like coffee or something. It stayed in mind, though, as we saw notice of an article somewhere about whether social media actually makes people feel lonely, rather than connected.

We didn't pursue that, either, but it came up for us personally when we looked at Facebook and did actually feel a bit blue.

There were extenuating circumstances for us. We were sick, with a throat swollen up like a bullfrog's, and pretty much quarantined. We had occasion to look at Facebook, and were struck by a bunch of bad feelings.

Here is one friend, dressed up and supremely happy at a dance. Here's another, hosting a birthday party for her lovely kid. Here's another, in Ecuador. And here we are, in lounge pants, and not our best socks, worrying about our apple juice supply.

It's not just a question of envy, though. Because here are our other friends depressing us even worse with their sad photos of funny animals, rancor about right-wing radio, and entries consisting of the word "Yum".

This is when it occurs to us, it is a no-win situation. Facebook is making us hate our friends because they are too interesting, or not interesting enough.

JW, is this what you meant? How I see the light now. When one writes a letter, it takes time. Thus it has scope and complexity. Facebook postings don't. Thus the dissatisfactions.

Write me a letter. I promise I'll write back.

Cue From Cupid

Just because something came along with a holiday years ago doesn't mean it's worth less than before. Usually it is the opposite, in fact.

And so it is, we believe, with our advice to the lovelorn on Valentine's Day. We first printed this bit, "Valentine's Day Tip For The Unattached," here in Ithaca Blog exactly five years ago today.

Have a look, either by using the blog search field above left, or by using the calendar at right. And, by all means, get out there and have fun.