Ben. {.BLF.} - ProfilesArchive

About Me

My work these days consists mostly of songs words poems to pierce reach and inspire - in which i've become most effective to inspire life and live it. In the words of woody guthrie, "my songs are as pretty as the paint on your tractor, the oil on your wheel." I've given up on living an american dream, and found life for the first time. I won't have a steady paying job, a retirement, a home. My home is not four walls, but wherever Jesus is; with the outcast church in Japan, with my brothers who struggle for survival and discipleship in the congo, uganda, sudan, in the faces of dozens of disabled orphan children adopted by one couple living in ensenada mexico, with the lone prophet speaking thruths that fall into the dead air, unseen and unheard to the deaf ears of a sleeping western church, in the tears of a weeping hispanic mother who hasn't held her children for seven years because of border laws, but works hard hours to raise oppurtunity for the future of her beloved daughters. Most important truths are not found in the laughter of comfort, but the trials of suffering, disaster, pain, and the beauty of life which springs from strife. I cannot let the voices of these amazing lives just become echoes in the grass, but choose to let them inspire what is most effective in my life, my work, my songs, my love. It then becomes a cycle.I'm homeless now, i'm just passing through, but i'm working harder than ever with the star of david around my neck.

My Interests

The Holy Bible, Being a man and a Cowboy, My family and un-related family, American Folk/Community music, Cowboy Songs, Opera, Synthesizers in a classical setting, Preserving international indigenous art.

Music:

this,
and Ol' Pete.

Movies:

Its a wonderful life, The man who shot Liberty Valance, Latcho Drom, The ballad of Ramblin' Jack, Alice's Resturant, Muppet Christmas Carol, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Fistfull of Dollars, Good the Bad and the Ugly, Akira, Rebel without a Cause, Quadrophenia, HomeSpun Video, Hudsucker Proxy, Blow, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Stagecoach.

Books:

Foxe's Book of Martyrs, The Great Deception, Bound for Glory, Cowboy Songs by John & Alan Lomax, American Songbag, Born to Win, The Incompleat Folksinger, Knowledge of the Holy, Confessions of a Yakuza, Mere Christianity, The Last of the Mohicans, Irresistible Revolution, Old Jules, Out of the silent Planet, Leaves of Grass, the adventures of Tom Bombadil, Desiring God, Archy and Mehitabel.

Heroes:

Elijah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Paul, Pete Seeger, My Grandparents, Woody and Arlo Guthrie, John and Alan Lomax, Carl Sandburg, William Doerflinger, St. Francis, Martin Luther, Ken Ham, Francis Schaeffer, John Piper, Psalters, C.S Lewis, Greg and Irene Gadeholt, MLK Jr., LÃ©on Theremin, Jim Henson, Mark Miner, Timothy Orton, Igor Stravinsky, Aunt Molly Jackson.

My Blog

So long (its been good to know yuh).

I spent most of this day with my grams Mary Michel.I’m not sure if she’ll remain here with us through this night, or through tomorrow. But i do know how much of a hard ol’ fighter sh...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:43:00 PST

Beginning the Beguine, January 25th 2008.

Roylene Ward my dear grandmother, passed away in her home at 11:55 this morning.I was unable to be there, though my mother was. Ol' Grams did have a few things to say before she left, most of wh...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:43:00 PST

My Grandmother.

my grandpa Gene, and grandma Roylene have been two of the greatest inspirations in my short lived life. not in status, or sucess (which carry no weight in reality), just their capacity to love, ...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:08:00 PST

Changes.

I'm not the friend I've wished to be.less good words jump from my mouth into ears who want to know who i am, or at least share a few good moments of our precious time together...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:30:00 PST

those dwelling in portland-town,

i'll be home in 5 days. has anything really changed?are you a town that still needs me? do i need to grasp you somehow? i believe i might actually ...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:27:00 PST

My boots are still in the front yard.

Yes it is true, i am still in Portland. When it came to it, Nate and i decided we were no good for each other. Not to say we don't appreciate each other, but when we actually ...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:01:00 PST

Dear Friends. I'm off down the road.

Comin' this March 16th, I am leaving Portland-Town to travel the main 48 states on tour with my friend Nate Allen. We will be playing our own songs, folk songs in bars, cafés, houses, churches, p...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:44:00 PST

How'd they know i was there?

I stayed the night at my parents house, i wake up the next morn to mom handing me a phone with a worried look on her face. They found me. Hello?Yes. Is this Mr. Benjamin Michel.Yes.Yeah. This is Veriz...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:13:00 PST

of dirt and grass.

put your feet on the cold side of the stairlet that be your warmth, your path, your lightto see this dirt honest reality it's phony.it's deadly.it's shiny. can you still hear a living, breathing, dust...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Tue, 17 Oct 2006 03:48:00 PST

here it is.

one day i woke up. or in the words of arlo, "i wasn't sleepin' er nothing, but i woke up". i'm here with the moring, and gone with the next dawn. i heard someone say, "the most honest song is wr...
Posted by Ben. {.BLF.} on Sun, 15 Oct 2006 05:10:00 PST