keep cool, babylon...

when sept 11th happened, i had just completed my junior year in art school at cmu, the automobile revision project & my first group art show (in holland with many other talented artists). i was taking a year off from school to re-assess and re-align... to figure out how to best use my last year of classes.

i was at my girlfriend's ancestral home when we saw the news... i was to fly to vermont to build a music studio with some friends the next day, and like many people, had to wait a few days until the planes started flying again. not much changed in those initial days, but the event certainly helped to define that year.

which brings me to reggae. i had just discovered reggae (beyond bob marley) through Suzie Silver recommending me Alton Ellis (and rocksteady in general) and listening to Lee Perry's Arkology. i had made a couple mixes, nothing special, but collecting my favorite songs i had been able to score off of napster (lol) or my friend Jim's palatial collection of dub & roots. i was (and still am) very fond of the Twinkle Brothers' album "Rasta Pon Top" with it's luscious harmonies and rock-of-gibraltar-solid rhythm section. i loved "Festival Wise", with it's imagery of people dancing outside evoking the outdoor raves and hippie festivals that had been so influential to me in the previous years.

but reggae became something much more to us after 9/11. to a young radical's mind, the patriot act, the violence & wars, the opportunistic business dealings, the utter perversion of justice... done in our name... brought us to a state of artistic, political and spiritual fervor. reggae embodied all of this. with it's soul fire, reggae was rife with referents we enjoyed identifying with. there was little questioning our appropriation of this black rebel music... it felt as if it was speaking to our very being... we let it educate us on the ills of babylon, political rhetoric & the wisdom of the spirit... that hot & cool play of the heart.

in reggae we saw the events of 9/11 connected to a historical context... the valentine's "blam blam fever" and not only spoke to the violence inherent in poverty, but offered a condemnation of our military reaction in afghanistan & iraq... "the gun fever is bad", indeed. the heptones (utterly, heart-breakingly beautiful) "country boy" offered a similar critique of gun violence (in a jamaican context), but also was an excellent diss to GW... "country boy, you shootin' up the place". despite feeling the immense pressure... the gravity of the situation, reggae taught us we could help... we could resist with righteousness & love... borrowed, though it was.

along with great books & greater people and experience... our resistance eventually took on an essence of it's own... artistically, politically & spiritually, we became more than the privileged caricatures we were that year in vermont. but everyone starts somewhere, and i'll always be thankful to reggae for being the kick in the pants that helped myself and my peers to have the courage to resist, the wisdom to connect our struggles with others' and the respect for the rhythms of the spirit... the time to go to battle, and the time to chill the fuck out and let things pass.

speaking of chilling the fuck out, we made a lot of reggae mixes that year, and sent them to our friends around the country. it was our little act of peace in the midst of all that war. they were in constant rotation. they we're our discipline, our meditation. "resistance reggae" vol. 3 and vol. 4 are below. enjoy them. light a fire. keep cool.


01. dave & ansel collins - double barrel
02. niney - blood & fire
03. the maytals - pressure drop
04. stranger cole & lester sterling - bangarang
05. justin hines & the dominoes - carry go bring come
06. lee perry - soul fire
07. yabby you - conquering lion
08. the upsetters & dillenger - rastaman shuffle
09. the heptones - coutry boy
10. ras michael - keep cool babylon
11. the melodians - rivers of babylon
12. lee perry & the upsetters - dread lion
13. johnny clarke - african people
14. alton ellis - arise black man
15. the congos - at the feast
16. desmond dekker - (007) shanty town
17. bob marley - bus dem shut (pyaka)
18. little roy - hurt not the earth
19. abyssinians - mark of the dub
20. black uhuru - guess who's coming to dinner
21. rhythm & sound w/ tikiman - spend some time

DOWNLOAD VOL. 3


01 - lee perry - good will dub
02 - the congos - education of brainwashing
03 - the valentines - blam blam fever
04 - johnny "dizzy" moore
05 - alton ellis & the flames - blessings of love
06 - herman marquis - tom's version
07 - u roy - festival wise
08 - cornell cambell - jah jah me no born yah
09 - prince far i - commandment of drugs
10 - honey boy martin - dreader than dread
11 - lee perry - perry's jump up
12 - lee perry - rub & squeeze
13 - the congos - youth man
14 - the ethiopians - train to skaville
15 - derrick morgan - blazing fire
16 - don drummond - don d lion
17 - blake boy - cambodia
18 - the maytals - take me home country road
19 - the heptones - cool rasta
20 - lee perry - city too hot
21 - ras michael - rise jah jah children
22 - lee perry - the upsetter
23 - heaven sisters - rasta dreadlocks

DOWNLOAD VOL. 4

note: jim mulhearn is at least equally to credit for these mixes. i couldn't find the version of the original artwork that properly titled. also... the struggle continues, modern reggae keeps moving.

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the music of the earth

So a friend of mine, Janus sunaJ (who happens to be quite a scholar of mysticism, particularly gnosticism & hermeticism), asked me to make him a mix of "armenian, sufi qawalli, persian, malian, balkan & morrocan music". i've been tinkering on it this past week and of course added in some other cultures... some tuvan, romani, indian, andalusian, egyptian, kenyan, japanese, native american, etc...

it's become a sprawling 5+ hour mix of beautiful music from around the globe, loosely based around a concept of an initiatory meditation journey. i had quite a lot of fun with it. i hope you enjoy listening as much as i did. each "disc" is approx 75 minutes long. i recommend downloading all 4 and listening to them in order (accompanied by your favorite person & favorite sacrament!)

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 1 "the surface is scratched"

✓ huun huur tu - prayer
✓ unknown west africa - Karamako
✓ Armand Amar - Song of the Red Dervish
✓ unknown sufi - Ferahfeza
✓ Istambul Oriental Ensemble - Basbasa
✓ Talvin Singh Taksim - Master Musicians Of Jajouka
✓ Sheik Yasin Al Tuhami - Qalbi Yuhaddithuni
✓ Claude Chalhoub - kaa
✓ Nass el Ghiwan - El Gasba
✓ Debashish Bhattacharya - Sufi Bhakti
✓ Shivkumar Sharma & Zakir Hussain - Raga Kedar, Gat In Ektaal
✓ Madjid Khaladj - Dayre
✓ La Notte - unknown
✓ Zakir Hussain - Where deserts meet
✓ Musafir - Moria Badnawa
✓ unknown african - Anklung
✓ Boubacar Diagne - Laye Laye
✓ unknown south african - Domba
✓ unknown sumerian - Hurrian Hymns, 19 And 23
✓ Hideaki Kuribayashi - Shouhin 1

download pt. 1 here

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 2 "the road is winding"

✓ Djivan Gasparian - My Home
✓ A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Kiraly Siratás
✓ Claude Chalhoub - Track 04
✓ Shri Subhankar Banerjee - Tabla Tale
✓ Hossam Ramzy - Sha-Awit Katie (Katie's Cheeky Playfulness)
✓ Hossam Ramzy & Rafa El Tachuela - Ahlam Ghernatah (Memories of Old Granada)
✓ Gritos De Guerra - Buleria
✓ Gnawa Diffusion - Gazel Au Fond De La Nuit
✓ Slonovski Bal & Krassen Lutzka - Oriental
✓ Boban Marković Orkestar - Magija [Magic]
✓ Rita Abadzi - Prepei Na Skeptetai Kaneis
✓ Romica Puceanu - Unde o--fie puiul de aseara
✓ Taraf de Haidouks - Balada Conducatorolui
✓ Shahram Nazeri - Selfless
✓ Huun-Huur-Tu - Mezhegei
✓ Sussan Deyhim - The Candle & The Moth

download pt. 2 here

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 3 "the book is blank"

✓ Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic - Polegnala e Todora
✓ Mohammad Reza Mortazavi - The Will
✓ Trio Chemirani - Le Retour de Molla Nasr'din
✓ Zakir Hussain - Kalpana
✓ unknown touareg - unknown
✓ unknown gnawa - Tramin
✓ unknown tuvan - tongue twister
✓ unknown native american - Beowawe
✓ unknown crow - Crow Traditional Song
✓ unknown african - Lukuji
✓ unknown inuit - girl's game & agnutn
✓ unknown new guinea - spirit flutes
✓ unknown navajo - night chant
✓ unknown northern japan - ainu hero narr
✓ Huun-Huur-Tu - Khöömei
✓ unknown javanese - pangkur
✓ Alemu Aga - Selamta (The Creation)
✓ unknown brazilian - Capoeira
✓ Master drummers of Dagbon - Gurinsi-Waa
✓ unknown haitian - Port-au-Prince Drumming Demonstration
✓ Boubacar Diagne - Dembe
✓ Idjah Gadidjah - Daun Pulus Keser Bojong
✓ Halima Chedli Ensemble - Healing in Morocco "Touhami Dikr (excerpt)"

download pt. 3 here

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 4 "the child is born"

✓ Philip Glass & Foday Musa Suso - suso's song
✓ unknown ghanan - apatampa
✓ Ali Farka Toure - Savane
✓ Mamadou Sidibe & Jongo Traore - Prenpreni (Bush Spirit)
✓ Unknown Kalahari Bushmen - Nxai
✓ Umalali - Luwübüri Sigala (Hills of Tegucigalpa)
✓ Salif Keita - The Mansa of Mali
✓ Corale Corse - Paghjelle
✓ unknown indian - unknown
✓ unknown indian - unknown
✓ Carmen Amaya - unknown
✓ Toumani Diabaté & Ballake Sissoko - Kita Kaira
✓ Raul Garcia Zarate - Suenos
✓ Fernandor tor - unknown
✓ Qing ge le, Da ri ma - Jujube Tree On THe Holy Hill
✓ Unknown Tibetan Buddhist Monks - Nyen-seng
✓ Forward Kwenda - Mbira Spirit Ceremony "Tadzungaira & Gonamombe Rerume"

download pt. 4 here

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hip hop and the occult...

so i listen to part 1 of an interview with mitch horowitz on the (occasionally goofy or dull) occult of personality podcast (which is also sometimes fascinating). a little while later, i notice mitch horowitz is guestblogging over at boingboing. he has an article up on the occult and hip hop there, which links to a piece on npr, which has an excerpt from his new book, "occult america". the piece on npr discusses the influence of 5-percenters/nation of gods and earths on hip hop artists, as well as how they differ notably from the nation of islam movement. i first delved into 5-percent material through the wu-tang manual, written by rza, but mos def, busta rhymes, rakim & big daddy kane are all affiliated with the 5-percenters. they utilize a system of "supreme mathematics", including the 8th degree, "building", which is definitely a word i hear most around emcees... "let's sit and build for a minute." insha'allah we will! this all makes me want to go back and listen to old mystik journeymen albums to see if i can decipher any occult truths!

but for real, most of the great musicians (or artists or thinkers) ply some sort of spiritual dimension to their music (or art or thought), even when they mock it in the same breath... so the article seemed kind of obvious to me... but notable still for the fact that these idea seem more mainstream, more present in pop consciousness...

saul williams, whose self-titled album is littered with occult reference

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dante's paradise

a great piece of writing was sent in answer to one of my questions... it not only answered my question but it was so charming in it's delivery i thought it would be enjoyable to others...

me (paraphrased):

"hey... what's the deal with the paradiso?"

brilliant response from an un-named genius:

"I confess to having a strong preference for the Paradiso, which is not shared by many. For whatever reason, a lot of people are intrigued by the rather creatively imagined punishments and purgative exercises in the other volumes (e.g., the proud carrying around heavy rocks on their shoulders so that they can't look up!), but as someone drawn to the classic mystics, I find the whole structure of the Paradiso-- ending with the sublime and inexpressible (even for Dante) beatific vision-- utterly fascinating. You just have to accept that it's a bit of a shortcut through the medieval mind to begin there. There's quite enough to keep one busy for a long time, because it's impossible to avoid following the footnotes into the cosmology and angelic theology of Pseudo-Dionysius (the most esoteric of the lot, who probably only made it into mainstream Christian thought because of his pseudonym), Bernard of Clairvaux, Aquinas, the Neo-Platonists, etc.

I am hardly a scholar on the subject (although I've certainly accumulated the resources to do it if I should suddenly acquire a different kind of mind.) I've always felt free to mine the metaphors liberally-- and avoid the arguments that stopped being interesting several centuries ago (not to mention Italian city-state politics-- which got Dante exiled and with some speculative time on his hands in the first place). Maybe it was exile that evoked in him such a compelling interest in the final resolution of things... And keep in mind that Dante wasn't entirely literal about all of this. There's a place where he explains that the whole distribution of the souls that he encounters into the various planetary spheres is really just an organizational convenience arranged for the benefit of his mortal mind. Rather generous of God, I think-- but one of the reasons that I retain more patience than most with classic Christian symbology. The truth in it has nothing whatsoever in common with the verifiability of the six o'clock news..."

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that veiled gazette #369

blogging is hard...

it's been a long time since the last digest... a lot of current events have passed, scandals, debates, triumphs, miseries... i'm not going to touch on most of them... but only share with you the fragments i collected in the meantime... just things i dragged into the ever-over-flowing folder of "blog ideas" on the bookmark bar... blogging has been a weird fit for my current efforts, and there has been much talk and some action on quitting the internet around me... BUT, i feel the flame hasn't died quite yet... and we'll see where this shrouded deer leads us next.

quality performance art...

ART, FASHION : fascinating article about faking a vermeer... old pal's art on boing boing video... dj ripley has been posting a lot of great jamaican fashion from her trip there. here, here, here, here, and here. flower mandalas and other decent new-agey art. speaking of new-agey (old-agey?) this celtic talismanic jewelry reminded me of calder's contour drawings of animals. this guys design is supercolorcleanskillz. subway mind fuck art. did you know that motorcycles used to look WAY cooler? here's good billboard mod. and more book sculpture.. this time a face. the results of this camera art are boring, but the idea is good. more pretty art on basic sounds... also, van gogh didn't cut off his ear... it was gauguin!

MUSIC: flute-boxing. daichi-boxing. woman-boxing. competition-boxing. music of colombia via geko jones. love this guy's tabla style. blue daisy sounds like flying lotus, burial and a nice hum. great new mellowish dubstep artists here, here, and here. afro punk interview. LOVED this 10 essential wiley tunes article. poppy music blog. lovin' this old school jam. wendy carlos interview (if you don't know about her, you need to read up...) a bonus for those who actually read these digests, i picked my favorite brian eno tracks off his first four pop albums and put them here. old buddy from college's remix site, remixin. skweee... get hip. oh, and can someone please toss me khalid's secret eq chart?... yeah, thanks.

90 degree angles get old quick...

ARCHITECTURE, ECO, DIY: holy shit, dangerous tea house! splendid, extensive collection of beautiful and bizarre houses... including the one above... great inspiration there for designing or remodeling buildings (both of which i've been doing recently)... i've posted before about art made with books, including shelves, but here's a cool upside-down book shelf design... LED lights can now do pretty much every color... some interesting eco work... saw it on the colbert report... ceiling porn. bottles and cob. laundry water greywater system. other bizarre houses and furnishings chronicled in dornob magazine.

one of many real angels...

SEX: i continue to be interested in finding a way to fit sex into this blog. i enjoy it being mostly family friendly... but there's something to the eroticism of brian's blog that helps counterpoint the brutal truths and mystic bliss. apparently obsession with sex goes back some ways. anyway, as erotica goes, mod fetish tends to be more artful and interesting than most, but is mostly just photos of naked women... i guess there's just a big part of me that would rather be naked at burning man... and that's about all the sexual openness i can muster for the moment.

ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN, GREATSITE, TECHNOLOGY : the pirate bay just got sold, but that's o.k. because google is the new pirate bay. it's a silly issue, because pirates buy more music than non-pirates. this is a nice collection of rainbow design tutorials, (including how to make lines like in the picture above). good source of high res photojournalism is the boston globe's big picture and the wall street journals photo journal. I always enjoy looking up words on the online etymological dictionary (try magic!), but the urban dictionary is indispensable for slang (try hyphy!) dig the voting process. yeah, yeah, change the internet forever... and phones. i'm up in the air about internet privacy issues, but this tool seems to make it simple to stalk. oh, and if you're going to waste time playing video games, this one helps map proteins...

BABYLON, POLITICS : the g20 is in pittsburgh soon, and that fucks with me... mostly because i have some outspoken anarchist youth using my first floor to feed people and have meetings, and cops love to fuck with innocents. grr. obama - he releases some important secrets, blocks other important secrets. i could do a whole post just on how complex my feelings are about obama and the new senate... among the issues are the "two" wars... the cronyism going on that he campaigned against, and the fact that the soldiers are still being told to "hunt people for jesus". (of course the bush era version of this was far weirder... really, really weird.) after 5 years, portugal's drug decriminalization has produced some seriously positive results. did you know that as many people are making their living from blogging as are from being lawyers? old bomb scars. face transplant successful (warning, graphic images) here. old castes in newly revealed maps... constant police brutality. how will the newspapers survive? there's no huffington post without the new york times, so can the grey lady stay alive by being a non-profit? REX84... yuck. and google beware.

WEIRD, SUFI: plants can recognize genetically identical cuttings... i'm a big fan of rumi... and never heard him weigh in on hallaj until reading this poem. great zen motivational poster from the great mojo1000. weird water properties. weirder other substances, including the ferro-fluids in the video above. earliest bible online for free. gurdjieff's long gone, but a movement technique not unlike his exists(youtube)... tap the wisdom of the crowd. it appears having religion is good for your health... remote viewing experiment - hey, you don't have to convince me. mentalist whoops master chess players(youtube). remember, death is milliseconds away.

seriously...

HUMOR: stephen colbert in iraq... i had profoundly mixed feelings about the whole thing, partially because apparently conservatives don't realize stephen colbert is joking (seriously!) laura and i were hurting from laughter watching this old snl thing. this may not be funny to some, but a lot of people got weirded out when amazon dropped all of it's search results for gay and lesbian books, but it may have just been one lone hacker making a "point" facial hair contestants. mark twain motivational posters. funny silhouettes. married to the sea.

VIDEO: parkour (first 7 seconds AMAZINGZOMGWTFAWESOMESOX)... free running... speed stacking... psychedelic yoooooouuuutube... and now witness a baby give a fiery sermon. it's not what you say, but how you say it, apparently:

PERSONAL, POINTSOFPROCESS: mixing dirty was named as a tie for mix of the year. I've got a brand new deejay night, which i'm gonna call "The Garden of Earthly Delights". Way more details (and previews of the gorgeous flyers i made) coming. as i've been blogging less, i've mostly been tossing little tidbits on facebook. i post compelling images in an album called "incarnations", and some art in an album called "art i like" Some links that probably aren't here are here on facebook. maybe i'd have more time to blog if i had a monkey babysitter. but seriously... kids are awesome. i love my son... he's such a joy... and we're having another in february. but then that's enough. two will do... i'm travelling now to take him to see his 6 grandparents... which is why i have the leisure to blog. pittsburgh too hot! i-man haffi cool out, up on the mountain top...

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works in progress...

massive Music organization

and many Painting efforts,

including "Springtime in

the Desert of Al-ʿAẓīm",

pictured (incomplete)

here July 6th 2009.

click to enlarge:

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potato story

An old man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, Bubba , who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Bubba,

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.

Love,

Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,

For heaven's sake, Dad, don't dig up that garden, that's where I buried the BODIES.

Love,

Bubba

At 4 am the next morning, FBI agents and local police showed up and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. The same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,

Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love,

Bubba.

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islam via omar mullick

a lovely flow of events occurred yesterday, and i'll share with you all the notes taken. i was chilling out in Jamil's yesterday, picking up some jamaican colors for reggae night, and a photographer from national geographic comes in. his name is Omar Mullick, and he's a sharp cookie... we talk about anarchism, pittsburgh, photography and eventually islam. he has a degree in philosophy, a three year old boy and a rebellious past, so we had enough common context and perspective that i found it possible to ask things about islam without fear of offending him... or getting a bullshit response. also, having studied in a madrassa in saudi arabia, with orthodox in yemen and mystic sheikhs in america, he's got some real knowledge to draw from. he had some very interesting takes on orthodox islam's opinions of women, homosexuality and strictness. for instance, he claimed shariah literally means "broad road"... implying a lot more breadth than it's current limited interpretation.

a number of little links came out of this.

he recommended the thomas cleary translation of the quran. (interview with cleary here). he also recommended the footnotes in the yusuf ali version... he suggested they were good for a loving but critical eye on the text. when i asked about if there was any missing gospel-like b.s. with the preservation of the quran, he suggested i watch something called "the preservation methodology" on youtube (but i can't find anything long enough to be what he was suggesting...) he most fervently suggested nuh keller's "becoming muslim", despite feeling like it's title only represents a small aspect of what the (short) essay covers... Omar holds the sheik's work in "unambiguous regard".

on non-islamic topics he recommended i watch performance for it's hassan-i-sabah references. hassan is famous for stuff he probably didn't say, but i'm down with the myth anyway. he's buddies with the brian jonestown massacre. he also hat-tipped sweet earth, a collection of photographs of intentional communities.

omar mullick's website (most of the work is 3+ years old) is here.

anyway... good day.

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that veiled gazette #349

editor's note: sorry for the delay getting out this issue. i've been super busy, so blogging has been hard to get to, but admittedly i've also been a little geeked out on using facebook for the first time. finding old friends, writing letters, posting little things for them, becoming a "fan" of hummus, etc... for real though, it has been fascinating watching people from completely different periods of my life talking with each other. not that that doesn't ever happen here, but, well, it's a different audience. i love you both, and that veiled gazelle isn't going anywhere...

painter in bangladesh, via wall street journal's picture of the day

ART: the delicate special works of rachel sumpter. the composite (time not space!) photography of peter funch. the (street art blog) wooster collective truly continues to put out great stuff. check out sally's blue wall or this colorful wheatpaste. my old friend fran (thank you, facebook) documented a cool piece that involves ink drawing on walls and an air compressor. design is fun, but "hyperbolic bronnerism" is even more fun. it's a little hard to navigate, but the site neocha is a collection of independent chinese culture. also, check the vibrant, subtley pagan, mucha-like (mostly) nudes of svetlana valueva. also, while he's a bit miffed about watchmen (his work, originally...) that's o.k., because alan moore is a super-genius. witness video (direct link here):

MUSIC: wizards are better posts some good bassline & dubstep stuff (and some hipster crap). are you annoyed that pirating music takes so much time? take the wait out with skipscreen. blackdown makes a mind map on the origin of scenes. promotion services for world musicians. frieze article by dj rupture on the "decline" of digging. also, i hadn't heard about soul singer phyllis hyman, but she's got a nice voice (video) (and is from pittsburgh!) three more youtube music links here: kinsmen (indian jazz ensemble), carl craig classical remix, and some ethiopian heat. anyway, i've been posting A LOT of DUBSTEP. so here are seven songs that aren't:

(mp3) atom™ - "wellen und felder II" - bizarre, yet entrancing ambience from uwe!

(mp3) dinosaur l -"go bang" (walter gibbons mix) - classic arthur russell material

(mp3) amon tobin - "twelvses" - throwback gorgeousness, not two fingers style

(mp3) morteza - "morteza"? - weird iranian pop i was given for my nouruz gig

(mp3) isoleé - "a nightingale" (original mix) - abstract & beautiful tech-house

(mp3) hermutt lobby - "play" - twisted, wonky, slow glitch-hop type shiznit

(mp3) jakes - "swerve" - fun drum n bass track... with an mc! ~1996 style?

your's truly spinning at global beats march 2009. photo by carla.

TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, DIY: great rhyme writing resource in writerhymes. inflatable hood for sleepy travelers. do dumb shit to photographs with pikipimp. laura's always been a proponent for local currency... learn about algebra (i forgot all mine in art school...) create large wall posters with little printers. nice home-made picture frames out of jars. and for the record, artificial life could be created within 5 years, whatever that means...

ECO: meditate on the size of the earth and how lucky we are. 25 reasons why you should consider earth-sheltered technology. paris is grey, and sarkozy has a plan. another weird plan on the table for global warming issues. or is global warming all a hoax? i dunno, i'm not a scientist... something tells me that it's not a bad idea to act like it's real, if only because we might help with the bio-diversity problem. good soy milk recipe. candle-powered heat? i don't live in these cities, but: space in detroit. space in baltimore. i found some nice eco stuff on chelsea green, including this article on the case for "small" hydro-electric power.

british kid in thailand, via wall street journal's picture of the day

BABYLON, SCANDAL, POLITICS: you know about Carnivore and ECHELON, right? their giant spy networks that troll everyone's communications for these words, among others... well there is at least one more ghost-net recently discovered, this time in china. here's what you might look like to your government. there are some sneaky shenanigans in the obama copyright treaty... france is ready for rebirth of the "violent left"... that's a hilarious article, but to be fair, they have had some history of awesome riots (which in turn left us a lot of slogans.) there's been a tiny crack made in the travel restrictions to cuba, but then there's the wholeembargo thing. why? chomsky has some ideas on that... also an OLD scandal may be getting some light shed on it.

SUFI, WEIRD: perfect memory, anyone? bahauddin's book sounds pretty great. my friend found one of the (super rare) copies ofthis book in a junk shop... still haven't seen it yet. for free, an archive of female sacred poets. amazing horse dancing in pakistan (video... jump ahead for the fast parts.) the thousands of inscriptions are getting translated, finally. i'm starting to think i ought to learn a bit more about ramon llull. creationist science fairs... first prize in the high school division actually sounds pretty interesting... top ten secret scientologists. get your daily weird at the daily grail. finally, the sisters of perpetual indulgence celebrate 30 years.

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arabic calligrams

calligram (image made from calligraphy) by the awesome sudanese artist hassan musa.  many more here.

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chain of transmission

ustad allah rakha, father/teacher of zakir hussain, who in turn taught rohan singh bhogal. first video is 8 min, second 4 min, last one 1 min. all of them are awesome... in different ways. evolution, yeah?

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anti-racist swastika activism

i was reminded today of one of the weirdest people on the planet, manwoman. i originally heard of him the research's excellent book "modern primitives". he makes some art, writes poetry, but weirdest of all he is dedicated to saving the "swastika". for those who don't know, the swastika as a symbol goes back to neolithic times, with many beautiful meanings. the nazis really ruined it for everyone... hear's the nutty fellow explaining all the different historical uses for you... the swastika stuff starts about a minute in after his explanation of the third eye...

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brian's contribution

reminds me of a list mark dixon had once.  it was like sleep for 8 hours, work for 10 hours, drink for four hours and beat the hell out of those who got it comin' to em for 2 hours.  if i find the original (i got a note of it somewere... including our version with more sex in it...) i'll post it.

anyway, this image came from the blog of the translator/mystic brian browne walker.  great site.  at times erotic, at times violent, always thoughtful, loving and honest.  and his translations are the shit.  his version of the tao te ching is the best of the four or so i've read...

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elitism

"the only true aristocracy is that of consciousness."
- d.h. lawrence as quoted by brian browne walker in his translation of the i-ching

i had a lovely conversation with a poet acquaintance of mine in which i remembered an aspect of sufism that makes me feel strange. there is this myth in sufism of the hidden masters, the super-elites, the inner circle who using their substantial psychic powers battle the "evil" mages of the world and ultimately keep their awareness on many things and shape the world.

on the one hand i am quite aware of the superior powers that can be wielded with higher states of consciousness. on the other hand though, i am supremely skeptical of the possibility of higher powers existing uncorrupted, existing in a non-deluded state. i'm not saying that good is only done by the weak, just that the strong sometimes sit around kissing their biceps.

"more harm is done by fools through foolishness than is done by evildoers through wickedness"
- the prophet as quoted here

part of this discomfort of mine surely stems from my anarchism... elites by their very existence toss anarchism's white whale of non-hierarchy out the window... no government is needed to deny folks autonomy when people by their own skill and wisdom control the world by sheer superiority. it is a prison, whether from the "evil" mage or the hidden sufi lover.

on the one hand are these qualms, this nausea i feel whenever i notice that people can be (and sometimes want to be) pawns. i play a good chess game, but in real life, people die, and i don't want to be king. on the other hand, much of the justice in the world has come from people who earned their wings proudly; powerlessness/nonintervention can be a copout.

"to the sinful and vicious, i may appear to be evil. but to the good - beneficent am i."
- mirza khan, ansari as quoted by idries shah in the sufis

a big difficulty in determining the effects of power is embodied in this quote. i have my criticisms of barrack obama, for example, but my position to judge his choices isn't his. his short-sightedness to me may be great vision to him and vice versa. it is said that a sufi signed the death warrant of hallaj... fulfilling the needs of each to teach their lesson...

i am both worthy and unworthy of power, i both wield it and it wields me... knowing these paradoxes, i try to accept it when i'm called upon to be powerful, and cede it when i'm called upon to be a pawn. like pistons in an engine of agency, the universe allows for tyrants and rebellions... power creates ugliness no more than powerlessness creates beauty.

after thoughts:

"power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. great men are often bad men."
- lord acton as quoted here

"i wonder at a lover who in conceit of his merits walks proudly among the flowers of the garden"
- ibn al-arabi, the interpreter of desires, as quoted by peter lamborn wilson in scandal - essays in islamic heresy

in defense of the sufis, the deification of individual power enshrined in thelema, laveyan satanism, monopolist capitalism and certain forms of individualist anarchism isn't to be found in sufism. laura put it very simply: where as the listed ideologies are like, "power... let's get some!", sufism is more like "power... since we keep finding some, let's use it wisely."

i mentioned above that powerlessness and nonintervention can be a real copout. naturally i don't believe that everyone who is powerless is so by choice, or even that all of those who eschew power for a monastic lifestyle are cowards or worse... i just think that sometimes the willful pursuit of power can be a loving act, a necessary act even, despite my fears of it.

but note: one of the best acts that can be committed by the powerful is to share that power with those who don't have it. education, charity, and healing are all children of that impulse. at other times, the best act that can be committed by the powerful is to annihilate the power itself. finally, i believe love is knowing when to walk these lines and when to cross them.

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the eagle and the condor

"Runners from the Northern and Southern routes of the Peace and Dignity Journey, a sacred journey starting in Tierra del Fuego and Alaska and traveling on foot thousands of kilometers through hundreds of indigenous communities, met Friday on a bridge crossing the Panama Canal in the Kuna Nation.

The goals of the journey, which has taken place every four years (starting in 1992), include strengthening and sharing indigenous culture, bringing peace to all Nations, and uniting indigenous peoples -- thereby fulfilling the Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor. This year's run honored indigenous Sacred Sites, many of which are threatened by resource extraction or development."

via

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water

water.
so nice it is... (video)
masuro emoto may have psychically influenced water crystals.
here's a mix by my friend thermos, make it rain... all songs relating to water.

sufism often discusses itself as a river leading to an ocean... here's rumi (and his pal...)

"ask the way to the spring, your living pieces will form a harmony. there is a moving palace that floats in the air with balconies and clear water through, infinity everywhere, yet contained."
-mevlana jalaluddin rumi

"how many words the world contains! but all have one meaning. when you smash the bottles, the water is one."
-shams i tabriz

thoughts have capillary action...
but don't miss the "frost beards"

macro bubble shot by sophie via.
pacific ocean shot by yours truly.

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