Blog Entries for Tony Ellis

Darryl's Story

tony@tonyellis.com — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:00:00 +0100

My wife first notices it from the window of our hotel room in Venice B

Pray N Play

tony@tonyellis.com — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:00:00 +0100

I've just been on the phone with my wife discussing the movie Eat Pray Love or, as the local cinema in Ottumwa where she saw it billed it, Eat Prey Love, which I assume is the arachnid version.

I haven't seen the movie yet but I read the bestsellin

Life in Death Valley

tony@tonyellis.com — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Tehachapi, CA: I look out my hotel window and see two inches of snow and the low gray clouds of a late winter storm and decide it's time to visit Death Valley where I can pretty much guarantee it will be 85 degrees or more.

Death Val

Love is all you need

tony@tonyellis.com — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:00:00 +0100

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the premiere showing of Saving the Disposable Ones by British filmmaker Stuart Tanner who is head of the film department at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. Produced by The David Lynch Foundati

Life and Death on the Roads of India

tony@tonyellis.com — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0100

I've been on a bit of a hiatus from writing my blog recently but was amazed to notice that

This I Believe

tony@tonyellis.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0100

From 1951 to 1955 journalist Edward R. Morrow hosted a popular five minute program on CBS Radio in which both famous and everyday people wrote short essays about their core beliefs which were then read on the air. The idea grew out of Morrow's experience covering World War II in Europe and t

Hopes and Big Red Balloons

tony@tonyellis.com — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0100

There is much talk of disappointed hopes and broken dreams as we round the corner from the one year anniversary of President Obama's election. A lot of expectations were riding on his shoulders as he faced the crowd in Chicago's Grant Park last year. I remember thinking at the time the

Crabs in a Bucket

tony@tonyellis.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0100

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to watch cable news these days. As a long time news junkie, I am sad to say this and (yikes) I seem to be agreeing with President George Bush I, although I would never call Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow "sick puppies" (http://ww

Chemical Consumption

tony@tonyellis.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0100

There are advantages and disadvantages to having a wife whose job is campaigning about the dangers of GMO food. The disadvantage is that you have to read the labels on every item of food before you buy it. The advantage is that you do actually read the labels before you buy it. Because, let's f

Rock and Roll Fantasy

tony@tonyellis.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Dim the lights. Queue the sound. I'm about to take the stage...

The applause is deafening. After a few quick instructions from my technical advisors, Matthew, age 6, and Andrew (age 9), my warm up act, who has just ripped a perfect version of Hendrix's Purple Haze, I head into into a gritt

Change of Heart

tony@tonyellis.com — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Good news for once about our tempestuous health care debate. While the brats inside the Beltway distract everyone with their school yard scrapping, others are out there are making positive change. Here’s a couple of examples:

Former top insurance executive Wendell Potter had a cha

Waiting for the Change to Come

tony@tonyellis.com — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Obama beware! You are making my wife mad.

She recently posted a comment on her Facebook page questioning whether we had gotten "our money's worth" out of the dollars we contributed to Obama's campaign last year. She's frustrated you aren't being more pro-active about brin

Snake in the Grass?

tony@tonyellis.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0100

The following is a letter just sent to the editor of the Des Moines Register. I will be talking more about The Family later...

Dear Sir

Senator Grassley needs calling to account for his outrageous statements addressed to senior citizens at his Iowa town hall meeting yesterday that they

King of Pop

tony@tonyellis.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Like many I felt a wave of sadness at the death of Michael Jackson. It's amazing how certain iconic entertainers have come to fix themselves in our hearts, their music creating great big looping paths of emotional memory through the different stages of our lives, their passing leaving great big

Health R Us

tony@tonyellis.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100

Congress is in danger of being seriously out of step with a changing national consciousness over the national health care issue. According to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, three quarters of Americans now support some kind of government run health care program to compete with private sector

Torture Trouble

tony@tonyellis.com — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

There is a lot of talk of torture in the air as America comes to terms with with the legacy of the past eight years. There is also a plethora of tortured euphemisms at work as people attempt to deflect responsibility for what was done to other human beings for the sake of our own peace and security.

Pure Power

tony@tonyellis.com — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100

If you are one of the five people in the world who haven't yet seen British singing sensation Susan Boyle on Youtube then go take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk. The beetle-browed, most unlikely chanteuse from Blackburn, Scotland (not Lancashire), first wowed audiences on the

Strawberry Fields Forever

tony@tonyellis.com — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0100

It is often suggested that economic crises lead people to more spiritual reflection (take the coins from the eyes of the corpse and suddenly it sees again), so it was interesting to read the cover story in this week's Newsweek magazine (April 13, 2009: http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583

A T-Shirt for Your Troubles, Sir

tony@tonyellis.com — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:00:00 +0100

I recently received an email from the new Executive Director of the Democratic Party, Jen O'Malley Dillon, offering me a free T-Shirt if I came up with a catchy billboard slogan to use against Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show blowhard who has become the self-appointed voice of the Re

A Coalition of Opposites

tony@tonyellis.com — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:00:00 +0100

More thoughts following on from my last blog about the need for a silent center in our lives.

According to the Legal Times blog (http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/02/justice-alito-imagines-john-lennon.html) Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito quoted at length from John Lennon's Imag