Music and videos and stuff I like and want to share with YOU!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Monday, December 9, 2013

Philip K. Dick “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later”


It was always my hope, in writing novels and stories which asked the question “What is reality?”, to someday get an answer. This was the hope of most of my readers, too. Years passed. I wrote over thirty novels and over a hundred stories, and still I could not figure out what was real. One day a girl college student in Canada asked me to define reality for her, for a paper she was writing for her philosophy class. She wanted a one-sentence answer. I thought about it and finally said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” That’s all I could come up with. That was back in 1972. Since then I haven’t been able to define reality any more lucidly.

But the problem is a real one, not a mere intellectual game. Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups. . . . So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing. It is my job to create universes, as the basis of one novel after another. And I have to build them in such a way that they do not fall apart two days later.

As soon as you begin to ask what is ultimately real, you right away begin talk nonsense. Zeno proved that motion was impossible (actually he only imagined that he had proved this; what he lacked was what technically is called the “theory of limits”). David Hume, the greatest skeptic of them all, once remarked that after a gathering of skeptics met to proclaim the veracity of skepticism as a philosophy, all of the members of the gathering nonetheless left by the door rather than the window. I see Hume’s point. It was all just talk. The solemn philosophers weren’t taking what they said seriously.

But I consider that the matter of defining what is real — that is a serious topic, even a vital topic. And in there somewhere is the other topic, the definition of the authentic human. Because the bombardment of pseudo-realities begins to produce inauthentic humans very quickly, spurious humans — as fake as the data pressing at them from all sides. My two topics are really one topic; they unite at this point. Fake realities will create fake humans. Or, fake humans will generate fake realities and then sell them to other humans, turning them, eventually, into forgeries of themselves. So we wind up with fake humans inventing fake realities and then peddling them to other fake humans. It is just a very large version of Disneyland.

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.

Philip K. Dick, in a 1978 speech titled “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later,” found in the altogether mind-bending 1995 anthology The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings 

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Forever


Happiness is a choice


Happiness is a choice.

Unfortunately we complicate our lives to the point of being unable to recognize happiness when it appears before our eyes.

So what should we do?   Here are 10 things you’ll need to give up in exchange for your happiness.

1.  Give up caring what other people think of you. I know it seems counter intuitive as we humans are primal pack animals that don’t want to be cast from the village, but spending time worrying what others think, is a waste of energy. You’ll never please everyone and it’s none of your business what others think of you.

2. Give up trying to please everyone.  Unless you’re living life to the beat of your own drum, your tribe won’t be able to find you. Be the best version of you you can be, and you’ll naturally attract in the people that are supposed to surround you.

3. Give up participating in gossip. 100 percent of the time, those sharing gossip with you will gossip about you. Believing gossip is like gambling everything on a horse sight unseen. It’s naive.

4. Quit worrying. Where thoughts go, energy flows. Worry is investing time and energy in something you don’t want to have happen. Learn to let go and trust.

5. Let go of insecurity. When we take ourselves too seriously, we think everyone else does too. There is one version of you on the planet. Be it, own it and quit worrying about it. No one really cares or watches you that closely.

6. Stop taking everything personally. Truth is, most people are too consumed with their own life to really consider what you’re doing. As my first boss said so well: “The world doesn't revolve around you. Most people’s reactions have nothing to do with you, so let it go.”

7. Give up the past. We have all been hurt, we all had parents that made mistakes and we've all been through hell. You didn't  listen to your parents when you were younger, so why are you still listening to their voices in your head now? Every experience in life has taught you something or made you stronger.

8. Give up spending money on what you don’t need in effort to buy happiness. Living simply allows the space for life to flow. We complicate our lives by spending too much money and filling our home with “things.” Less is truly more.

9. Give up anger. Anger burns a hole in the hand of the person still holding on to it. Move it out once and for all.

10. Give up control. Control is an illusion.  We live in an out of control world.  Learn to embrace the new and welcome change; otherwise you’ll grow old through your own rigidity. Learn to let go.

Photo at Mirror Lakes, Central Oregon. photo by Keith

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Nelson Mandela and Invictus



He truly lived his life by the poem that got him through prison:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~ Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Shel Silverstein -Zebra Question


Beethoven 9th Symphony, Movement 4 on the streets of Som Sabadell, Spain



This is wonderful. I don't care if it IS a bank commercial. Spain + Beethoven's 9th = Alegría

Hakim Bey "Chaos"


CHAOS NEVER DIED. Primordial uncarved block, sole worshipful monster, inert & spontaneous, more ultraviolet than any mythology (like the shadows before Babylon), the original undifferentiated oneness-of-being still radiates serene as the black pennants of Assassins, random & perpetually intoxicated.

Chaos comes before all principles of order & entropy, it’s neither a god nor a maggot, its idiotic desires encompass & define every possible choreography, all meaningless aethers & phlogistons: its masks are crystallizations of its own facelessness, like clouds.

Everything in nature is perfectly real including consciousness, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. Not only have the chains of the Law been broken, they never existed; demons never guarded the stars, the Empire never got started, Eros never grew a beard.

No, listen, what happened was this: they lied to you, sold you ideas of good & evil, gave you distrust of your body & shame for your prophethood of chaos, invented words of disgust for your molecular love, mesmerized you with inattention, bored you with civilization & all its usurious emotions.

There is no becoming, no revolution, no struggle, no path; already you’re the monarch of your own skin–your inviolable freedom waits to be completed only by the love of other monarchs: a politics of dream, urgent as the blueness of sky.

To shed all the illusory rights & hesitations of history demands the economy of some legendary Stone Age–shamans not priests, bards not lords, hunters not police, gatherers of paleolithic laziness, gentle as blood, going naked for a sign or painted as birds, poised on the wave of explicit presence, the clockless nowever.

Agents of chaos cast burning glances at anything or anyone capable of bearing witness to their condition, their fever of lux et voluptas. I am awake only in what I love & desire to the point of terror–everything else is just shrouded furniture, quotidian anaesthesia, shit-for-brains, sub-reptilian ennui of totalitarian regimes, banal censorship & useless pain.

Avatars of chaos act as spies, saboteurs, criminals of amour fou, neither selfless nor selfish, accessible as children, mannered as barbarians, chafed with obsessions, unemployed, sensually deranged, wolfangels, mirrors for contemplation, eyes like flowers, pirates of all signs & meanings.

Here we are crawling the cracks between walls of church state school & factory, all the paranoid monoliths. Cut off from the tribe by feral nostalgia we tunnel after lost words, imaginary bombs.

The last possible deed is that which defines perception itself, an invisible golden cord that connects us: illegal dancing in the courthouse corridors. If I were to kiss you here they’d call it an act of terrorism–so let’s take our pistols to bed & wake up the city at midnight like drunken bandits celebrating with a fusillade, the message of the taste of chaos.

text by Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson)
Painting is "Atomic Kill Threads" by Shane Hope

Friday, November 22, 2013

20 Things we should say more often


This video made me smile. I'm still smiling. I hope it makes you smile too.

Thao Nguyen -Kindness Be Conceived



My current favorite band...Thao and the Get Down Stay Down.  This is Thao Nguyen in a wonderful solo performance.

Hold me hard, I've been let loose
Sift me clear of all I do
If by a third degree, you feel a guilt for me
Then I've been a villain all my life
And if by a melody, you stay and sway with me
I've been a salesman on the side

Kindness be conceived
When we wake in the California light
There is a concrete stuck between 
How we breathe and why we die
Why we breathe and why we die

Who wouldn't hold a wounded bird with anger stuck in time?
I told you I would hold no more
It weighed too much like mine
You and I, and I, alone... 4x

Oh, kindness be conceived
When we wake in the California light
There is a concrete stuck between 
How we breathe and why we die
Why we breathe and why we die

Hold me hard, I've been let loose
Sift me clear of all I do
Kindness be conceived
When we wake in the California light
There is a concrete stuck between 
How we breathe and why we die.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Patti Smith -Dancing Barefoot-



She is benediction
She is addicted to thee
She is the root connection
She is connecting with he

Here I go and I don't know why
I flow so ceaselessly
Could it be he's taking over me

I'm dancing barefoot
Headin' for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
It makes me come up like some heroine

She is sublimation
She is the essence of thee
She is concentrating on
He who is chosen by she

Here I go when I don't know why
I spin so ceaselessly
Could it be he's taking over me

I'm dancing barefoot
Headin' for a spin
Some strange music drags me in
Makes me come up like some heroine

She is recreation
She intoxicated by thee
She has the slow sensation that
He is levitating with she

Here I go when I don't know why
I spin so ceaselessly
'Til I lose my sense of gravity

I'm dancing barefoot
Heading for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
Makes me come up like some heroine

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt - Natural Forces



I rode across the great high plain
Under the scorchin' sun and thru the drivin' rain
An' when I set my sights on the mountains high
I bid my former life goodbye.

An' so thank you ma'am, I must decline
For it's on my steed I will rely
An' I've learned to need the open sky
I'm subject to the natural forces
Home is where my horse is.

We loaded up in Buffalo
Took 90 South down to Ohio
On 80 West I'm Frisco-bound
An' when I git there I'll turn back around

An' so thank you ma'am, I must decline
For it's on these eighteen wheels I ride
An' I've learned to need the western sky
I'm subject to the natural forces
Home is where my horse is.

And ev'ry year they come to town
An' then drag em on right in the round
And Mr Bradley calls the score
And the cowboy there who tried for more

So thank you ma'am, I must decline
For it's on my three-year-old I ride
An' I've spin an' run an' stopped an' slide
I'm subject to the natural forces
Home is where my horse is.

The Cherokee an' the Chickasaw
Creek Seminole an' the old Chocktaw
"We volunteered to move!" they say
"And we'll understand, come Judgement Day".

An' so thank you ma'am, I must decline
For it's on this trail of tears I ride
An' I've done the road, the homeless sky
Sometimes at night I hear their voices
Home is where my horse is.

Now as I sit here safe at home
With a cold Coors Lite an' the TV on
All the sacrifice and the death and war
Lord I pray that I'm worth fighting for

An' so thank you ma'am, I must decline
For it's on my RPG I ride
Till Earth an' hell are satisfied
I'm subject to the natural forces
Sometimes at night I hear their voices
Home is where my horse is.
Home is where my horse is.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Dancing Colors



 “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

 -Wassily Kandinsky
 Photo by Fabian Oeffner

Monday, October 28, 2013

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan



 This video fills me up with hope. The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 from a record distance, showing it against the vastness of space. By request of Carl Sagan, NASA commanded the Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its primary mission and now leaving the solar system, to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth. It was subsequently used by Sagan as the title of his 1994 book of the same name.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Lou Reed "Magic and Loss"


Magic and Loss
by Lou Reed

When you pass through the fire, you pass through humble
You pass through a maze of self doubt
When you pass through humble, the lights can blind you
Some people never figure that out

You pass through arrogance, you pass through hurt
You pass through an ever present past
And it’s best not to wait for luck to save you
Pass through the fire to the light

Pass through the fire to the light
Pass through the fire to the light
It’s best not to wait for luck to save you
Pass through the fire to the light

As you pass through the fire, your right hand waving
There are things you have to throw out
That caustic dread inside your head
Will never help you out

You have to be very strong, ’cause you’ll start from zero
Over and over again
And as the smoke clears there’s an all consuming fire
Lyin’ straight ahead

Lyin’ straight ahead
Lyin’ straight ahead
As the smoke clears there’s an all consuming fire
Lyin’ straight ahead

They say no one person can do it all
But you want to in your head
But you can’t be Shakespeare and you can’t be Joyce
So what is left instead

You’re stuck with yourself and a rage that can hurt you
You have to start at the beginning again
And just this moment this wonderful fire
Started up again

When you pass through humble, when you pass through sickly
When you pass through I’m better than you all
When you pass through anger and self deprecation
And have the strength to acknowledge it all

When the past makes you laugh and you can savor the magic
That lets you survive your own war
You find that that fire is passion
And there’s a door up ahead not a wall

As you pass through fire as you pass through fire
Tryin’ to remember it’s name
When you pass through fire lickin’ at your lips
You cannot remain the same

And if the building’s burning move towards that door
But don’t put the flames out
There’s a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out

Some loss to even things out
Some loss to even things out
There’s a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out

Lou Reed "Sweet Jane"



One of my favorite artists, Lou Reed, back in 1974.  Today was "A Perfect Day" to die.

Kiyohiko Senba and the Haniwa All-Stars "Taiikusai" 体育祭



Kiyohiko Senba and the Haniwa All-Stars will blow your mind.
There are about one hundred people in this band.  A huge drum section and sound.  A big horn section. A large section of traditional Japanese instrumentalists. A dozen vocalists. All dressed in pajamas and nurses uniforms. Kiyohiko Senba is the writer-arranger-conductor. ENJOY!

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli play J'Attendra

Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli - J'Attendrai - Newsreel 'Jazz Hot' from Stoney Lane on Vimeo.

A short film of the great gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli and their band the Quintette du Hot Club de France performing on a movie set in 1938.  The Django Section begins around 2:30.  His two finger fretting technique (he lost most of his left hand in a fire) is amazing.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

America's Great Spaces Time-Lapse by Shane Black



This video makes me want to spend the rest of my life traveling to beautiful places to watch  sunrises, sunsets and all the spaces in between.  What incredible beauty.

Russell Band is the New Messiah



Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman talks to Russell Brand about voting, revolution and beards...THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

PJ Harvey "Rid of Me'



Little girl with a Big guitar, Big Voice and Big Attitude.

Guano Apes "Open Your Eyes"



Sandra Nasic and the Guano Apes from Germany to get your blood pumping today.

Hide your face forever
dream and search forever

Have you ever been for sale ?
when your isms get smart
oh so selfish and mindless
with that comment in your eye

Do you think that you are hard ?
really harder than the other
man you're acting cold
if you are not in charge

Don't split your mentality
without thinking twice
your voice has got no reason
now is the time to face your lies

Open your eyes, open your mind
proud like a god don't pretend to be blind
trapped in yourself, break out instead
beat the machine that works in your head

Will you offer me some tricks
if I ever need them
would you go into that room
if I call 'em

Do you think that you are better
really better than the rest
realize there's a problem
I know that you can give your best

Have you ever had a dream?
or is life just a trip?
a trip without chances
a chance to grow up quick

Open your eyes, open your mind ...

Hide your face forever
dream and search forever
night and night you feel nothing
there's no way outside of my land

Open your eyes, open your mind ...

Friday, October 18, 2013

Ukulele Ike "Hang on to Me"



Cliff Edwards (a.k.a. "Ukulele Ike", and later well-known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio) sings "Hang on to me" in "Starlit Days at the Lido", filmed in 1935 in Technicolor. Great uke strumming technique and the "trumpet" solo is fab.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Thom Yorke "The Clock"



I know...I already posted a version of this song but this is one song that deserves 2x.   Jools Holland has the best cameramen, the best sound technicians and the artists give the BEST performances on this show. Why can't we get it in the USA?

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Red Hot Chili Peppers on Jools



I miss the Chili Peppers

1.Dani California 1:03
2.Snow (Hey Oh) 5:45
3.By The Way 10:40

Patti Smith's Advice on Life


Patti Smith: Advice to the young from Louisiana Channel on Vimeo.

In this short video from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Patti Smith serves up a slice from her life’s wisdom pie.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Janis Joplin Interview......."You are what you Settle For"



On September 30, 1970, four days before her death, Janis Joplin gave her final interview, a profound conversation about creativity and rejection with Howard Smith of the Village Voice

Annie Flore Batchiellilys "Afrique, mon toit"



Magnifique......"L'amour déplace les montagnes".  Annie Flore Batchiellilys, an angel's voice from Gabon.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Saturday, September 28, 2013

My Morning Jacket "Holdin' On To Black Metal"



It's a darkness you can't deny
But it don't belong in a grown up mind
Suppose you'll find this place in a youngster's eyes
Coming into life you needn't cry
But as a boy you gotta let it go
Or
You'll find out something is good
Oh black metal you're so misunderstood

Holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Black metal you've been holding on too long

Oh black metal, so misunderstood
Don't turn yourself into Lucifer's fool
Black metal feeds those young, enough is enough
Wants refills out of Lucifer's cup
Black metal lead to and your teenage pop
Look at you starchild you're all grown up

Still holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Still holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Black metal you've been holding on too long

Catch your waves on Lucifer's beach
Taking shade and underneath Lucifer's trees
Getting sustenance from Lucifer's peach
Oh black metal it's a fact in all your speech 

Holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Holdin' on to black metal
(Black metal)
Black metal you've been holding on too long

(Black metal)
(Black metal)
Oh bring them to me
(Black metal)
Oh making me think
(Black metal)
Oh one, two, three
Let's rock! 

A Vast Tapestry of Lies




“Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”

-Harold Pinter

Photo "Ignorance" by Abdul Ghafar Afridi

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotton sings Freight Train



Elizabeth Cotten was about 8, she took the hand-made guitar her brother hid under his bed and laid it flat in her lap, flipping it upside-down to play it lefty.

She picked the strings backward, her thumb playing the melody, her index finger on the bass strings.

A quarter of a century past her death, Cotten is a household name only in a household of guitar players, and only if those players tend toward the folk-blues-Americana vein most popular among people old enough to remember the day Bob Dylan went electric. Dylan himself covered Cotten’s “Shake Sugaree.” Jerry Garcia dipped into her repertoire with “Oh Babe it Ain’t No Lie,” and according to legend, The Grateful Dead would visit the elderly Cotten to pay homage.

She thrived in the folk revival of the 1960s, discovered by crazy coincidence when folk music specialist Ruth Crawford Seeger lost her daughter Peggy in the Washington, D.C., department store where Cotten was working. The former Lloyd Street guitarist led the wandering daughter back to her mother, and way led on to way. While working as a babysitter for the Seeger family, Cotten casually picked up a guitar and played her way into the Newport Folk Festival. It’s the sort of thing that makes you believe in fate. Something, somewhere wanted Libba Cotten’s music heard.

She toured for decades, playing the most prestigious stages, making enough to quit domestic work, winning a Grammy at age 91.

If you’ve heard Cotten play, you’ve heard “Freight Train,” her most famous song and the only piece cited on the historical marker. She wrote it at age 12. The lyrics give instructions on what to do when the singer dies: Bury me deep, tell them I’ve gone to sleep.

“Freight train, freight train, run so fast,” the lyrics go. “Please don’t tell which train I’m on. They won’t know what route I’ve gone.”



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

How to Get Flat Abs and Have Amazing Sex




The covers of most men's and women's magazines have similar headlines: "Get Great Abs" and "Have Amazing Sex."

From the looks of it, these two issues have been recycled over and over (with some other stereotypically gender-relevant articles thrown in) on every Men's Health, Maxim, Cosmopolitan and Glamour cover since the dawn of time. In fact, I'd bet that if we could get a better translation of cave drawings, they would read something like "Grok get flat belly. Make girl Grok moan with joy."

And we keep buying them. We keep buying this lie that these things will make us happy. I've had washboard abs (past tense) and I've had some pretty phenomenal sex. Neither one made me a better person. Neither one completed me or made my life more fulfilling.

We chase this idea of "I will be happy when... "

I will be happy when I have a new car. I will be happy when I get married. I will be happy when I get a better job. I will be happy when I lose five pounds. What if instead we choose to be happy -- right now?

If you can read this, your life is pretty awesome.

Setting aside our first-world problems and pettiness, if you are online reading this, you have both electricity and WiFi or access to them. Odds are you are in a shelter of some sort, or on a smart phone (and then kudos to you for reading this on the go). Life might bump and bruise us, it may not always go the way we plan and I know I get frustrated with mine, but here's the thing: You are alive.

Because you are alive, everything is possible. So about those eight tips...

1. Stop believing your bullshit.

All that stuff you tell yourself about how you are a commitment phobe or a coward or lazy or not creative or unlucky? Stop it. It's bullshit, and deep down you know it. We are all insecure 14 year olds at heart. We're all scared. We all have dreams inside of us that we've tucked away because somewhere along the line we tacked on those ideas about who we are that buried that essential brilliant, childlike sense of wonder. The more we stick to these scripts about who we are, the longer we live a fraction of the life we could be living. Let it go. Be who you are beneath the bullshit.

2. Be happy now.

Not because The Secret says so. Not because of some shiny happy Oprah crap. But because we can choose to appreciate what is in our lives instead of being angry or regretful about what we lack. It's a small, significant shift in perspective. It's easier to look at what's wrong or missing in our lives and believe that is the big picture -- but it isn't. We can choose to let the beautiful parts set the tone.

3. Look at the stars.

It won't fix the economy. It won't stop wars. It won't give you flat abs, or better sex or even help you figure out your relationship and what you want to do with your life. But it's important. It helps you remember that you and your problems are both infinitesimally small and conversely, that you are a piece of an amazing and vast universe. I do it daily -- it helps.

4. Let people in.

Truly. Tell people that you trust when you need help, or you're depressed -- or you're happy and you want to share it with them. Acknowledge that you care about them and let yourself feel it. Instead of doing that other thing we sometimes do, which is to play it cool and pretend we only care as much as the other person has admitted to caring, and only open up half way. Go all in -- it's worth it.

5. Stop with the crazy making.

I got to a friend's doorstep the other day, slightly breathless and nearly in tears after getting a little lost, physically and existentially. She asked what was wrong and I started to explain and then stopped myself and admitted, "I'm being stupid and have decided to invent lots of problems in my head." Life is full of obstacles; we don't need to create extra ones. A great corollary to this one is from The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz: Don't take things personally. Most of the time, other people's choices and attitudes have absolutely nothing to do with you. Unless you've been behaving like a jerk, in which case...

6. Learn to apologize.

Not the ridiculous, self-deprecating apologizing for who you are and for existing that some people seem to do (what's up with that, anyway?). The ability to sincerely apologize -- without ever interjecting the word "but" -- is an essential skill for living around other human beings. If you are going to be around other people, eventually you will need to apologize. It's an important practice.

7. Practice gratitude.

Practice it out loud to the people around you. Practice it silently when you bless your food. Practice it often. Gratitude is not a first world only virtue. I saw a photo recently, of a girl in abject poverty, surrounded by filth and destruction. Her face was completely lit up with joy and gratitude as she played with a hula hoop she'd been given. Gratitude is what makes what we have enough. Gratitude is the most basic way to connect with that sense of being an integral part of the vastness of the universe; as I mentioned with looking up at the stars, it's that sense of wonder and humility, contrasted with celebrating our connection to all of life.

8. Be kind.

Kurt Vonnegut said it best (though admittedly, and somewhat ashamedly -- I am not a Vonnegut fan): "There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'"

Kindness costs us nothing and pays exponential dividends. I can't save the whole world. I can't bring peace to Syria. I can't fix the environment or the health care system, and from the looks of it, I may end up burning my dinner.

But I can be kind.

If the biggest thing we do in life is to extend love and kindness to even one other human being, we have changed the world for the better.

That's a hell of a lot more important than flat abs in my book.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Pearl Jam "Unknown Thought"



All the thoughts, you never see,
you're always thinkin'
Brain is wide, brain is deep,
oh are you sinkin'?
Feel the path of every day,
which road you takin'?
Breathin' hard and makin' hay,
yea this is livin'
Look for love and evidence,
that you're worth keepin'
Swallowed whole in negatives,
it's so sad and sickenin' 
Feel the air up above,
a pool of blue sky
Fill the air up with love,
black with starlight
 Feel the sky blanket you,
with gems and rhinestones
See the path cut by the moon,
for you to walk on...
For you to walk on

Nothing left, nothing left Nothing there, nothing left (x3)

See the path cut by the moon,
for you to walk on
see the waves on distant shores,
awaiting your arrival
Dream the dreams of other men,
you'll be no ones rival
Dream the dreams of others then,
you will be no ones rival...
You will be no ones rival

A distant time, a distant space,
that's where we're livin'
A distant time, a distant place,
so what you givin'?... What you givin'?

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Jarabe de Palo "Depende"



Que el blanco sea blanco
y que el negro sea negro,
que uno y uno sean dos
porque exactos son los números........ depende.

Que aquí estamos de prestao,
que hoy el cielo está nublao,
que uno nace y luego muere,
y este cuento se ha acabao........ depende.

Depende, de qué depende,
de según como se mire todo depende.

Qué bonito es el amor,
más que nunca en primavera,
que mañana sale el sol
porque estamos en agosto........ depende.

Que con el paso del tiempo
el vino se hace bueno,
que todo lo que sube baja
de abajo a arriba y de arriba a abajo........ depende.

Que no has conocido a nadie
que te bese como yo,
que no hay otro hombre en tu vida
que de ti se beneficie........ depende.

Que sí quiere decir sí
cada vez que abres la boca,
que te hace muy feliz
que hoy sea el día de tu boda........ depende.

Translation:
Let the white be white
and let the black be black,
let one and one be two
because the numbers are exact.......it depends.

Let us be here
let the sky be cloudy today
let the one to be born and later to be dead
and this story has ended......it depends.

It depends, on what it depends,
it depends on how you look.

How beautiful is love,
more than ever in spring,
that tomorrow the sun rises,
because we are in august....it depends.

That with the step of time,
the good wine is made
that everything that rises also falls,
from down upwards and from up downwards...it depends.

That you have not know anyone
who would kiss you like I did
that there is no other man in your life
who is rich from being with you....it depends

That he wants to say Yes
each time you open your mouth
that he makes you happy
that today is the day of your wedding...it depends.



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

John Green "Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?"



John Green is kind of amazing. He knows his facts way better than you or me. And they are mind-blowing and/or horrifying.

Octopus: Masters of Optical Illusion


The world is much more amazing than we can begin to imagine.

Friday, September 13, 2013

The Clash "Radio Clash"


 Live on the Tom Snyder Show in 1981. One of my favorite bands from the 70s & 80s is one of my favorite all-time bands. Their energy level is off the charts. Joe Strummer had more words than a politician with Tourette syndrome on speed.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

General Smedley Butler On War And Capitalism



 “War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909 -1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” “WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives… In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows… Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill… And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations… …a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men. Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well. Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn’t they? It pays high dividends… The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let’s get it… Of course, it isn’t put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and “we must all put our shoulders to the wheel,” but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed.” “TO HELL WITH WAR!”
 -Major General Smedley Butler USMC “War Is A Racket”
 

Friday, August 30, 2013

Jackson Browne "These Days"



Well I've been out walkin'
I don't do that much talkin' these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do...for you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
And it's so hard to risk another these days
These days
Now if I seem to be afraid ... to live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losin' ... for so long

Well I'll keep on movin' ... movin' on
Things are bound to be improvin' these days
One of these days
These days I'll sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten ... my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

Friday, August 16, 2013

Beastie Boys Sabotage



I can't stand it I know you planned it
I'm gonna set it straight, this watergate
I can't stand rocking when I'm in here
Because your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this fucking thorn in my side
Oh my, it's a mirage
I'm tellin' y'all it's sabotage

So listen up 'cause you can't say nothin'
You'll shut me down with a push of your button?
But yo I'm out and I'm gone
I'll tell you now I keep it on and on

'cause what you see you might not get
And we can bet so don't you get souped yet
You're scheming on a thing that's a mirage
I'm trying to tell you now it's sabotage

Why; our backs are now against the wall
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage

I can't stand it, I know you planned it
But I'm gonna set it straight this watergate
But I can't stand rockin' when I'm in this place
Because I feel disgrace because you're all in my face
But make no mistakes and switch up my channel
I'm buddy rich when I fly off the handle
What could it be, it's a mirage
You're scheming on a thing - that's sabotage

Black Sabbath End of the World



Ozzy and Tony and GEEZER!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

NightVision

NIGHTVISION from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

Nightvision is a celebration of the brilliance and diversity of architecture found across Europe. 

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Deanne Smith "Nerdy Love Song"


Deanne Smith on Youtube

NERDY LOVE SONG

C Am F G

I wanna be your abacus baby
you can count on me
and I won't say that I love you or I heart you,
but I will say less than 3, I less than 3 you

Your molecules must be moving really quickly
'cause girl, you're hot.
Are you igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary?
All I know is, baby, you rock.

if god existed, I'd thank him for you
but I'm rational and i read (a lot of) Sam Harris
you're beautiful like the font of Garamond
but I wanna see you sans serif.
(take your pants off)

I wanna be your abacus baby
you can count on me
I observe your quarks oscillating,
and I'm formulating a g-string theory

I'm an archaeologist and I'm gonna compute your age,
yeah, I'm wanna absolutely date you
you make me feel like a male giraffe
I wanna nudge your rump, make you urinate, and mate you (that's what they do)

the value of my love for you
cannot be expressed exactly
it's more irrational than pi
hey "Fuck" is a legitimate word in Scrabble, just FYI

I wanna be your abacus baby
you can count on me
you can suck me into the supermassive black hole
at the center of your galaxy (I'm talking vagina)

I may not be the biggest or strongest
but my knowledge of grammar shines
I know how to use the words further and farther correctly
every freaking time

farther indicates physical distance
and further a depth or degree
example: the moon is getting farther from the earth
about 4 centimeters annually (true fact)

example: you just keep getting further into my heart
wait: you just keep getting farther into my heart
no, wait: you just keep getting further into my heart
hang on: you just keep getting farther into my heart

I wanna be your abacus baby
you can count on me
if the situation is ambiguous
further and farther can be used interchangably (that's a rule! I knew that all along)

I wanna be your abacus baby
you can count on me
and I won't say that I love you or I heart you
but I will say, I less than 3 you
(please take off your pants)

Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Denali Experiment

The Denali Experiment from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Free-ride skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and big mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari step out of their elements and make an attempt to climb, ski and snowboard Denali. Sage and Lucas get a helping hand from a huge cast of seasoned and professional climbers and ski mountaineers from the North Face Athlete Team, including Hilaree O’Neill, Conrad Anker, Ingrid Backstrom, Jim Zellers, Emilio Previtali and Giulia Monego, as the two embark on the hardest expedition of their lives.
------------------------------------------------------------
a camp4collective production
Director : Jimmy Chin
Cinematographers : Jimmy Chin, Matt Irving, Adam Clark
Editor: Renan Ozturk
Motion Graphics: Barry Thompson, Eric Bucy, Marty Blumen
Additional Media: Teton Gravity Research, Absinthe Films, Colby Coombs, Renan, Sage and Lucas
Color: Anson Fogel
Shot with the 5D and TM900

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Alan Watts "Here and Now"



 “The future is a concept - it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.” ~Alan Watts...

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Fearless Surfers ride Teahupoo Swell



Huge swell at Teahupoo last week. Here are a few highlights....The crash footage might be better than the surfing....

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

KimiWaza 2013 Winner





This video is also a good test for technology-induced ADHD. A spectacular feat of concentration.



Saturday, January 5, 2013

Become A Lake



~ Become a Lake ~

An aging master grew tired of his apprentice’s complaints. One morning, he sent him to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.
“How does it taste?” the master asked.
“Bitter,” said the apprentice.
The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”
“Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.
“No,” said the young man. At this the master sat beside this serious young man, and explained softly,
“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

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