Babel Babble

This film destroyed me. Beautifully poignant and sad. Gorgeous looking and sounding. These lives of sand just falling to the wind.

Did anyone else notice the character connections with works by the awesome wordmaster Haruki Murakami?

-characters in the Japan scenes such as Haruki and Lieutenant Mamiya.

the flaming lips

The Flaming Lips were amazing and beautiful, with Wayne being the wonderful gentleman that he is and a crowd of the happiest folks. With lazers, conffetti, balloons, lights- it looked like "a goddamn circus up there"- all loud with sweat, and inspiration, everyone singing and screaming our lungs to greeting smiles, high pitch! and low-pitch., peace signs and rock signs, plus slow sing-a-longs with piano-toothed faces.

ready-SET-go!:
Ta! Da! - racing! for prizes of blissful grins - tapsmir - the TEST began - all of it RAD and FREE, battling robots TWICE with beautiful Yoshimi, then tracing veins of stars with our own pointed lights, stravinsky?, and hopeful politics (Yeah Yeah Yeah we vented our frustration!), with Taps he rallied our hearts and spirits in somber reflection, but Superman! Pompeii eruptions- reminiscing about loving about Jelly - Then we realized! (everyone) Encore w/ CC II, THE W.A.N.D. motherfuckers! and finally, beautiful delicious spoonfuls of happiness that had us leaving, bodies weighted with tons of hope and
love,
love,
love...


I've never seen a room of happier people, all just rocking out with the nicest dudes this side of the universe- The Flaming Lips.

do something rad!

and check out The People, Yes! - an awesome project that's gonna help people talk, and yell, and whisper, and get their voices Heard - VOTE for it: The People, Yes!

do it man!

(word.)

“I earn my living.
I make enough to get by
And it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself and maybe for others.
I could read and study
And talk things over
And find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time.”

- Carl Sandburg, "The People, Yes"

fortune cookie!

So me and my bros ate at a delish Chinese kitchen during the show last night and the nice folks gave us all sweet fortune cookies, mine reading:

"In life, it’s good not to get too comfortable."

Hey, i like it! it’s good to keep on the move, embrace change, challenge yourself, and constantly view things in a different perspective.

(it’s sort of optimistic isn’t it? almost promising change as change is inevitable)

My guitar teacher (who also happens to be Chinese) encourages us to "worry about not what you like, but what you don’t like", particularly when applied to viewing art, music, literature, film, etc. In other words, don’t get too comfortable with your own tastes, but strive to experience things that make you at least uncomfortable or even cause you to burn with hatred and disgust. And if you don’t like something, give reasons. Keep an open-mind and strive to understand things- "worry about not what you know, but what you don’t know". So i’m going to try and not get too comfortable, take a chance, and keep traveling.

Also:

"Learn Chinese- Baseball = Bang-qiu"
"Lucky Numbers- 40, 28, 33, 1, 41, 9"

“Who makes more money, a ‘Psykeiser’ or a ‘Psychogist’?”

According to my panhandling pal "Stutter Boss" (he’s a professional like Kobe Bryant and a good guy), Psychiatrists are more qualified than Psychologists, as their PhD’s require more schooling, and they can prescribe medication. However, he says, regardless of their educational background, how can anyone say something is wrong with his mind when they didn’t make him? And it’s a very valid point. He argues that if they had made him, like you would make an android or a computer, then he can understand how their diagnosis could be credible. Just like technicians find problems with any sort of machinery that they have created; they can then derive the appropriate diagnosis and apply the proper methods of solution because they know the machine inside and out. Man vs. Machine, you know the drill... So how can they truly say something is wrong with his mind when they know nothing really about the still mysterious and miraculous creation of man? How can anybody really say anything when they know nothing? Yes, even with modern science. But it’s ok, I’ll say all I want, an I hope you do too, just don’t mess with Willie "Stutter Boss", Jr. ‘cause he’s a good guy.

Kerouac's style!

So i’m reading On the Road, and while i’m only about a third of the way through the book, and while there are probably many more interesting insights i could discuss inside and outside of its pages, i can’t help but share my excitement as i read Jack Kerouac’s style:

the way he creates the mind-set -
leaving questions unanswered
leaving nouns undescribed and adjectives floating in yer brain-space
illustrating entire events with short sentences that say nothing but say it all
catching little details and little motions and little moments and movements that seem sparse and scattered in the grand scheme of things, but convey so much!
And the excitement! (and the sadness) of the language! the jargon, the dialect

And All of it so simply and wildly-descriptive, telling the story of what happened- and putting you THERE!

eureka!

Over the past several Saturdays I have made a (ritual?) of spending the late nite and early morning hours watching anime on Adult Swim. Aside from growing more and more attracted to the vibe of these shows I’ve also grown particularly fond of this note which appears (classic [as] style, white on black background) before the broadcasting of Eureka 7.


"Just in case that last disclaimer wasn't enough, this episode contains extreme violence.
We would rather run this than cut the violence from the episode because we are American Cowboys."


And I like it because its real. Of late, I've been more aware of, if not more exposed to, the rough and tough American spirit. And I like it. Its growing on me. While I have a lot of beef with particular facets of American morality, that kind of burly, masculine, gung-ho, fu manchu business is pretty rad.

Prime Example: Teddy Brosevelt- our bombastic, energetic cowboy of a 26th president. The Bull Moose was a tough, mustached "Rough Rider", hunted large game (like humans), and was even once shot in the chest and insisted to deliver his scheduled speech (from a torn and bloodstained manuscript nestled in his vest pocket) before visiting the hospital. Although not necessarily the qualities we would want ourselves or our children to take on, his crazy and somewhat legendary characteristics are at least admirable if taken with levity, in a sort of wierd, fun way.

The particular “American spirit” that I speak of encompasses probably more than one attitude, mind-set, feeling, emotion, or personality, and can surface in a variety of situations in various forms and levels of intensity. However, when you experience it, you know it. And recently, it has many times and in many ways made itself known to my conscious mind, sometimes inconspicuously working through the subconscious first, and other times yelling through my eyeballs, electrically demanding immediate attention.

As portrayed in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" this “American spirit” was embraced by the Merry Pranksters on their cross-country escapades and search for [ ]. ("A search that, I hope, will take me where I'm likely to find it"). Contrary to some of the other enlightenment seekers of the generation, there was something very American about these day-glo crazies, and that no-rules mind-set, the energy of that rough and tough, balls-out attitude, was often the vehicle for their many adventures Furthur into the human experience. Illuminated by Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey- big tough dudes themselves- they put everything "out front" and lived.

The hardcore music scene also tends to attract dudes that are into being tough, being interested in tough stuff, and giving killer bear hugs, because it's all about brodom, fun and rocking out. Oddly enough, the vibe seems often to be rooted in a [wacky?] sense of youthful Southern pride.

Also the word- blunt.

We all know them. And recently, I seem to have become more and more surrounded by them. Whether it be my guitar teacher and his kung-fu disciplinary methods, television's biggest bad-ass Anthony Bourdain, or the main character in Albert Camus' "The Stranger", a person who can demand that kind of honesty from himself is admirable.


or the words- brutal, raw.

Take The Godfather for instance-
How would you feel if you woke up, covered in horse's blood, in it, wet, with la cabeza,
lying,
eyes gaping,
at your feet?

Or recently, The Departed-
And who knew when that
elevator opened
not just one
or two
but three!
shots would fire?
in a fragment of time the entire world of that movie was flipped upside down.

Why such violence is so compelling I can't be sure, but I think it has something to do with a light-hearted understanding of the rough and tough American spirit, or the rough and tough Human spirit.

But, like anything else it's always best in moderation. Because sometimes, I like being a monk too.