Truffle honey
French toast on Sundays
The best caesar salad around (so they say)
Soma-fm
Exotic vitamins (really)
Hibachi madness
Indoor BBQ (don't try this at home)
Homemade popcorn
Marshmallows in the gas fireplace (months w/ R's only)
Semi-raw hot chocolate (months w/ R's usually)
Shwag from the farmer's market
Pies from farmer's market fruit :P
Mmmmmm - Spa time!
Sphinxley the Amazing Jumping Cat
Video, video, video, photography and video
fabric-to-boho-couture in 15 minutes!
Midnight oil burning
Shhhh - I'm writing. And I hate writing.

Horseback riding
Sphinxley's kisses
Peacock plumes (for Sphinxley)
high octane conversation
Luck
job referrals
apologies and relationship fix-it's
forgiveness
love
black currant pastilles
coconut sorbet
Pomegranates
coconut shrimp
kitty darshan
J.P.'s paintings
offers to help fix my cabin
moped mechanic know-how
film-to-tape transfers
trips to Hobo Hot Springs
(I may not be the fastest hiker, but I'm the cleanest!)
trips to Fossil Falls in spring
Any pie in Julian
swimming with horses
Sparkling burgundy (or, Cold Duck in a pinch!)
Cappuccino truffles (at least the 1st 2)
sticky rice, with mango
Really cool shoes
Those little French chocolates with the salt on top
scorpinos (but sub champagne for the vodka plz)
Foot massages

Do-it-yourself? No, Do-it-together:

sociablism.blogspot.com/2008/0...cy.html

**********

Ahhhhhhh! That's better...

www.last.fm/listen/artis...imilarartists

********

I've been interested in herbs forever... I always felt I knew them, even when I didn't!
My great-grandmother Susanna was a community herbalist in the backwoods of Canada... maybe I'm feeling her in my DNA?

Anyway, as I mooned around the internet, wondering how to afford real classes on my schedule, I found this, a certified herbalist school online!

www.planetherbs.com/courses/...labus.php

I'm not sure which level to start with, or how to segue from one level to the next, but I'm excited to fold it into my reality somehow, if only to bond closer to my plant-friends...

*********
The permaculture garden I helped a friend build -

everythinggardens.typepad.com/pho...html

Lifting and placing all that recycled concrete got us in super shape for Burning Man ;)
*************
Whoa. Spirit stuff.

www.al-kemi.com/Welcome/welcome.html
*************

The Muse.

Miss you.

www.erntefashionsystems.com
**************
9/11? Drugs? Government coverups?
No need to suffer the tinfoil-hatted conspiracy theorists.

Here is a useful resource: broadly-covered, objective, well-documented, yet orphaned information that you really should know:

www.thememoryhole.org/index.htm


*******************
Vipassana on Monday nights in Santa Monica...

Sliding scale, and beginners welcome!
www.zentrance.com/

*******************

My new favorite urban alt DIY permaculture site...

On this site, the possibilities are endless (how do they find the time?)

www.homegrownrevolution.org


... and if you want to get certified online, for peanuts:

permaculturevisions.com/

*******************
Awesomeness!

An amazing self-hypnosis technique for transcending any beliefs that hold you back:

metaprogrammers.tribe.net/threa...7a5671

*********
Bioregional animism -- It's what's for breakfast!

(ahem)

OK, when I was 3, which is as far back as I can remember, I just presumed everything was alive. Rocks, furniture, everything. This made perfect sense to my toddler mind. In the intervening years between then and now, lots of people tried to convince me otherwise. They nearly succeeded...

As it turns out of course, my toddler-intelligence was right all along. These days they describe how everything is linked to everything else with ideas like quantum physics and string theory. But on a more personal level, it all comes back to animism, the conviction that everything is alive, which some might call the first religion. And to bring it even closer, there's the particular wrinkle of bioregional animism, or, remembering and feeling how everything is connected within your own bioregional area.

So, if you've got some time to kill, and feel like getting your mind comfortably blown, check this guy out:
bioregionalanimism.blogspot.com/

He's here on tribe too
people.tribe.net/16064b50-...8c847c7a7d

that is all...
************

Avoiding Starbucks? Want to support the little guy?
Use the Store De-locator, to find the nearest independently owned cafe's, bookstores, and theaters!

www.delocator.net



Tiny LED "throwies" - throw them anywhere!
Perfect for political graffiti !

graffitiresearchlab.com/


My Myspace page --
I'm not there much, but here's where you can find me if you want to link up:
www.myspace.com/eyedancer

My online reel (I'm a professional video editor):
www.jewelshacienda.blogspot.com

My botanical fragrances and handmade glass aromatherapy jewelry:
www.highalchemy.blogspot.com

Go here to get sh*t done, get some support, and have fun!!
www.43things.com

Are your friends lecturing you on your eating habits?
Wondering which dietary habits are beneficial vs. harmful, or whether raw foods, fasting, or extreme diets have merit?
For a spirited discussion, with links to resources, check this out:
beyondveg.com/


Interesting article on men & porn:
(pretty even-handed, er, no pun intended!)
www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/...6,00.html

I want some!
www.iht.com/articles/200...ws/durian.php

Forgive me!
(Sharing my addiction...)
icanhascheezburger.com


Urban (& non-urban) onsen & spas:
www.tenthousandwaves.com/spa_links.html

Bio-diesel rental cars in LA!
www.bio-beetle.com/losangel..._cars.htm

One of my favorite places in SF and a great link in general:
SCRAP, the Scroungers' Center for Reusable Art Parts!
scrap-sf.org/links.htm

The coolest night-sky photographer in the world (and a really super-nice guy!):
www.astropics.com

Edible landscaping in LA:
notacornfield.com/farmlab/2...point.html

Mmmmmmmm - smells good!
www.scents-of-earth.com/franki...e7.html

This just makes me laugh!
tinyurl.com/2ormvo

If reading books is wrong, I don't wanna be right!

***************
Fritz Haeg's Sundown Salon is meeting to discuss books on Thursday nights in his Silverlake dome:

www.fritzhaeg.com/schoolhou...b2007.html

and here's his main site - the man is in constant motion -- amazing...
www.fritzhaeg.com

***************
Having trouble believing your friends who've been abducted by aliens?
Wondering when life enters the foetus?

Here, read this:

DMT, The Spirit Molecule
by Rick Strassman, M.D.
www.amazon.com/DMT-Molecu.../0892819278

***************
"Essence and Alchemy" ... a book of perfume.
Author and perfumer Mandy Aftel educates the reader on natural perfumes, aromatherapy, and alchemy in a readable yet poetic style. Extensive appendices of sources. Highly recommended!


The Alchemy of Critical Thinking:
Karla Mc Laren - a healer's healer, on the path to discernment and bridging.

As a well-known author and speaker, for years Karla Mc Laren has expounded from a distinctly intellectual basis on mysticism, New Age culture, and related topics. Favorites range from emotional experimentation to regenerating one's inner self. Titles include: "Emotional Genius," and "Energetic Boundaries."

Lately McLaren has introduced more scholarly discernment to her studies and writing, investigating skepticism and bridging the skeptic and New Age communities. At first she made a nearly 180 degree turn, disavowing many New Age beliefs and habits, as she outlined in this article:

www.csicop.org/si/2004-05/new-age.html

Today, she is completing a PhD in sociology, and working on a new book about the bridging I mentioned - throwing out the chaff, but keeping what really works in the alternative community.

Check out her old titles with a discerning eye in the meantime... never forget to question!

***************

Organizing From the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern
(A perennial favorite of mine, still working with it!)

Actress-turned-organizer Julie Morgenstern schools you --
how to organize everything in your life (including time!) according to the Kindergarden model of organization (space/time pods).
(Let me know if you're scheduling any group nap time, teacher!) Zzzzzzzz

tinyurl.com/vwelm


The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
tinyurl.com/3d2hjc
This book is about considering the extreme ends of the bell curve, and imagining the unexpected.

Anything by George Lakoff (UC Berkeley linguistics professor)
hint: how to REALLY cast (and avoid) spells!
www.whosefreedom.com/


"A Whole New Mind," Daniel Pink
This guy has an amazing resume', and he makes a nifty "applied futurist"!
read him at your own risk -- because I caution you, you will end up changing your life ;)
www.danpink.com/


"Mycelium Running," by Paul Stamets.
F*cking awesome. What can I say? The man's brilliant.
And I got him to sign my copy :)

(And no, it's not a book about magic mushrooms.
Not that there's anything wrong with them...)
www.fungiperfecti.com


"What the Dormouse Said," John Markoff .
How the 60's Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer.

All I can say, is: it was the perfect book to find at City Lights Books in SF!
tinyurl.com/2j7pbc


"Perfume" - a novel
OK, I already read this a long time ago - but the movie's coming out on DVD (sorry, no Smell-a-Vision).
It's disturbing, but really great writing.
www.sfsite.com/~silverag/perfume.html

Too bad they never published a scratch 'n' sniff edition. ;)


"The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art"
by David Lewis-Williams, cognitive archaeologist

A *must-read* for those interested in shamanism and the origins of art!
www.accampbell.uklinux.net/book....html

"Stumbling on Happiness"
A link to the happiness studies book from my "joy" link found elsewhere on this page...
and really good advice:
summation.typepad.com/summati...ng_.html


"Mulligan Stew," by Gilbert Sorrentino
(his best-known (and experimental) novel by the died-in-the-wool New Yorker and Stanford writing professor)
link:
www.powells.com/biblio


"Outside Lies Magic", John Stilgoe (a fascinating history & landscape professor from Harvard). Here Stilgoe talks about noticing historic details in your surrounding landscape. Link:

www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm

Anything by Stacy Schiff:

www.amazon.com/exec/obido...539-5418425


Discourses of Rumi
(A.J. Arberry translation, but soon to be joined on my shelf by other versions.)

"The Equisite Corpse", by 1960's literati Alfred Chester:
link:
www.bostonreview.net/BR18.2/field.html

Anything by Gore Vidal:
link:
www.pbs.org/wnet/america.../vidal_g.html

*****
(and an article that comes soooooo close - no pun intended - to a theory I'm researching about memes)
link:
vv.arts.ucla.edu/publicati...rtF5VG.htm

July 31, 2007

In the canyon, the road curved, the engine hummed, and the radio faded. We smiled. The sun was ready to set when we reached the trailhead, and we checked our notes to be sure of the right place. This was it.

Somewhere a rooster crowed. The light was golden. We shouldered our backpacks and started off.

It was a meadow trail, destined to end at a huge promontory, two miles off. Up and up -- dusty, and then, shade amongst the trees, and more dust. Deer, rabbits, more deer, a coyote (!) and then a flush of quail. Spotted feathers in the grass - one for my pocket.

The light grew pink, then deep rose. On more than one saddleback, we watched the sunset to the west, and in the east, the moonrise...

About an hour later, we found ourselves on a huge and pitted sandstone rock, jutting up and east over the canyon at the moon, the prow of a grand stone ship, up-ended, Titanic...

We lit incense wood for awhile, and sipped wine, but mostly we just dangled our legs over the rock and watched the moon, its nearest stars and planets struggling to glitter past its moonglow.

Under that effect, the path back down felt hyper-real, with deep shadows cucoloring beneath the live oaks.

After that, we felt self-conscious of our return to civilization, even though the moon shone silver on the water beside us while we drove.

How sweet to have something so wild, so close.

Such luxury.


July 10, 2007

We were driving South on the I-5, returning from a friend’s trunk show in SF. A little more than two hours into it, I spied the Mercey Hot Springs sign along the road.

I’ve wondered about that place on so many trips, and this time we weren’t in a hurry. So we veered West from the 5, and dove into the low golden foothills of the Western Sierras, the Diablo Range…

Thirteen rolling miles later, we came upon a ramshackle, green-tech, off-grid oasis of shady campsites and lace curtained love-shacks, with hotspring water piped everywhere.

There was no going back to the 5.

The place made its own music: birdsong and wind through the salt-cedars mostly, with just the occasional windchime.

It was golden hour by then, and the place so inspired me, I shot a series of video angles to put up on the web for the owner. Hiking further West to a lost hillside, I caught an amazing 360-degree view of those hills, the same ones I’d so wanted to explore from the 5.

After that, we settled into the mineral pool for a magical evening swim.

Later, the stars alone lit up a blackened and moonless sky, and the Milky Way’s dramatic spray lent a surreal “you are here” effect… and all of it equally visible from the soaking tubs too, which were conveniently clothing-optional!

The next day we explored a secret grove of far-off cedars, home to a shy band of snowy owls. They inspected us at least as carefully as we did them, and when they flew overhead, a few of their creamy, striped feathers floated down at us.

The owner of the place then gifted me a discount certificate for shooting the video. But he needn’t have. I’m sure to return – with more friends in tow…!

Link:
www.merceyhotsprings.com

*************
July 5, 2007

Yea, the Fourth was a veritable slice of apple pie. First the glorious sunshine. Then the swimming. Then the grilling (and the eating!) And the mind-morphing...

Somehow we managed to stay (mostly) on time, and left the house to ride bikes to the fireworks. Down on Main St., we happily surrendered to Critical Mass, and joined their thousand- strong entourage, bells ringing! The best part was taking over the roundabout in front of the Venice post office: riding herd, bike-to-bike, bells jangling - talk about stopping traffic!

Post-fireworks, another party ensued, this time on the huge rooftop of an old Venice building. The DJs were vibing some decent tribal electronica, so we were flying on the dance floor...

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and a smiling chocolate man leaned in to tell me my dancing rocked. (Whaaa?!) I told him that as a humble white chick, that was a real compliment coming from him, and I went back to it. Later, another tap -- only this time I was summoned over to a circle of people, men and women both, escorted inside the circle, and asked to dance for them - so I did, totally throwing down. We all loved it -- then I overheard their Portuguese (always music to my ears after my time in Brasil), and I asked in Portuguese about them. Their musical accent wasn't quite Brasilian, but neither was it the flatter Ibero-Portuguese. It turned out they were all from Angola (!)

Aha! Yet another magical place for my itinerary...

Think you're good at predicting what will make you happy? Think again!

*****
"You're happy. Imagine that!"

JUDY STOFFMAN
TORONTO STAR, May 21, 2006.

Real estate agents say you should buy the worst house in the toniest neighbourhood rather than the best house on a modest street.

But Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard University psychology professor, believes such a purchase is rarely a prescription for happiness. Before you sign that offer to purchase, consider how you'll feel coming home each day to a dump amidst the mansions.

"It will make you feel bad because the brain is a difference detector; almost everything that it senses, it senses as a comparison," he says in Toronto to talk about his book Stumbling on Happiness.

The capacity to imagine future happiness or unhappiness — called "affective forecasting" — is, Gilbert says, what distinguishes us from other animals.

As he puts it, "We don't have to actually have gall bladder surgery or lounge around on a Caribbean beach to know that one of these is better than another."

Gilbert has spent 15 years at Harvard's Social Cognition and Emotion laboratory investigating how people imagine what will make them happy, and why they so often get it wrong.

He has found that small pleasures like coming home to a house no worse than the neighbour's is more likely to yield long-term joy than inheriting $1 million, getting a big promotion or being elected president.

"It's the frequency and not the intensity of positive events in your life that leads to happiness, like comfortable shoes or single malt scotch," he says.

Gilbert's happiness level increased when he was hired by Harvard, not because of the prestige but because he could walk to work. Cargo pants also make him happy; he likes to buy them five or six at a time, though he wore a black sports jacket and well-tailored black trousers for our interview in the office of his publisher, Knopf Canada.

Although we humans have the capacity to imagine what will make us happy lodged in our well-developed frontal lobes, we are not good at it. It's the way we consistently err that fascinates the professor.

His researchers at Harvard interviewed voters before and after recent U.S. elections who said they would be extremely unhappy if George W. Bush won and would likely move to Canada — but who reported after the vote that they feel just fine.

"In prospect it always seems so dire," he says.

The Harvard researchers have also done extensive interviews with sports fans who just know they'll never smile again if their team loses but, of course, recover speedily after a loss.

"The human brain mispredicts the sources of its own satisfaction," Gilbert says, "and the reason is that we fail to understand how quickly we will adapt to both positive and negative events. People are consistently surprised by how quickly the abnormal becomes normal, the extraordinary becomes ordinary. When people say I could never get used to that, they are almost always wrong."


Gilbert believes we have an emotional immune system that helps us regain our equilibrium after catastrophic events.

"The studies of Holocaust survivors are clear — most went on to lead happy and productive lives," he says.

He also cites extensive research to show that disabled people and those who have had cancer are just as likely to report that they are happy as the able-bodied and healthy.

"I am not saying that losing a leg won't change you in profound ways. But it won't lower your day-to-day happiness in the long run."

Gilbert is not working in a vacuum. He is one of a growing number of scholars engaged in the relatively new field of happiness studies, an interdisciplinary area comprising psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers and economists.

At Harvard, economists Max Bazerman, Sendhil Mullainathan and David Laibson are notable in the field. A behavioural economist, Laibson is an expert on retirement-savings plans who studies why people tend to devalue the future in favour of present gratification.

At Princeton, Daniel Kahneman has co-written a standard work, Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology.

Ed Diener at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne is studying the relationship of income to happiness.

Launched in 2000, there is even a peer-reviewed Journal of Happiness Studies, of which Diener is co-editor.

While some see it as a soft subject, understanding happiness may be extremely relevant today, says moral philosopher Sissela Bok, due to a worldwide rise in living and health standards and a drop in birth rates and infant mortality. More people expect to be happy.

In Canada, University of British Columbia economist John Helliwell is the country's leading figure in happiness studies. Helliwell, whose book Globalization and Well-Being won the Donner Prize in 2003, has studied the happiness that comes from social affiliation and its relationship to productivity.

One of the problems in happiness studies is how to measure outcomes. You can't build a science on something that can't be measured. Gilbert, however, says that self-reporting, the method used by his lab, is perfectly reliable.

"We just ask people how they feel right now. The eye doctor relies on you telling him what you see. Vision, like happiness, is subjective, yet they have built a whole science of optometry on this."

Is there a better way to predict what will make us happy than using our imagination?

"Yes," he says, "but no one wants to use it. It's called surrugation, and it circumvents biases and errors. If you want to know how happy you'll be if you win the lottery, ask a lottery winner — it's a mixed blessing. Will having children make you happy? Observe people who have them."

People discount this approach because of what Gilbert calls "the myth of fingerprints."

"Most of us have the illusion of uniqueness," he says. "We believe that other people's reactions won't tell us about our likes and dislikes. But we are remarkably similar. We share the same biology, and others' experiences can teach us a great deal about our own.

"As long as we maintain our illusions about our uniqueness, we will continue to ignore information that's in front of our noses."

I've had three people in my circle tell me they had poverty mentality. When the third one told me this, I finally checked it out. Suddenly, they made more sense to me, as did a few other issues:

"Greed comes from a poverty mentality," says Cyndi Lee, founder of OM yoga in New York and author of Yoga Body, Buddha Mind (Riverhead, 2004).

A poverty mentality is feeling like you don't have enough, so you try to get more - but you are never satisfied. It causes a person to want more — more food, clothes, compliments, attention, sex or sexual partners -- anything, be it material or spiritual.

Curiously, affluence (abundance) can breed this poverty mentality as efficiently as lack can, especially in a media-dominated and envious society, saturated with the message that hierarchy, acquisition and consumption are the keys to power and pleasure.

It's curious that while perfectionism and inflexibility dovetail with the poverty mentality (incubating an intolerance for imperfection, if not downright narcissism), adaptability and gratitude for what you have leads to greater happiness - as shown by various happiness studies. (See my link to "joy", elsewhere on this page...)

<<:: Make-Over-your-mind links::>>

Step 1: Journey through your superconscious mind whenever you wish, quell your fears, and return, refreshed:
www.eegresearch.com/articles...al_17.htm

Step 2: Now that you've gesso'd the canvas, start painting with high amplitude -
You can read all about it on my new Blog-magazine:
highamplitude.blogspot.com

What I love about amplitude is, it redefines 'balance', where you rework your personal bell curve into a volcano. (Got amplitude? An overriding 'flavor spike'? Or... 'Sham-plitude'? (Ms. Faithfull would call that "sliding through life on charm...")

And if you want to describe it to others:
The short version (but buy it on Amazon...):
www.acollectorschoice.com/si/001532.html

I couldn't figure out how to actually screen it here, so you'll have to click on the link -- (sometimes it runs funny tho...)

At least it's proof that I was at BM (or at least on a pink cot somewhere)

video.google.com/videoplay

CinematograSiouxsen grabbed some video of us dancing part of our Starfire set on Xingolati ...

Link:
www.siouxzen.net/lucentdossier.AVI

Thanks Siouxsen!

Headed from SoCal to Burning Man?
Camp for free along the 395! (This is such a phenomenally cool site!) -- www.desertdutch.org/

Someone dragged me over to a story telling tribe.

here's what I wrote:

tribes.tribe.net/storytell...4e9ca1ae39

I'd love to get a Really Really Free Market going in LA ...!

Link:

www.reallyreallyfreemarket.org/

Those who can, do. Those who can't, bully.

Here's all the homework you'll need if you suspect someone's bullying you, or treating you with contempt in general:

www.bullyonline.org/workbull...y.htm#Why

How I Met My Wife
by Jack Winter
(The New Yorker, July 25, 1994)

It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate.

I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way.

I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I'd have to make bones about it, since I was travelling cognito. Beknownst to me, the hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn't be peccable. Only toward and heard-of behavior would do.

Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might cause was evitable. There were two ways about it, but the chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona grata or a sung hero were slim. I was, after all, something to sneeze at, someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually aroused bridled passion.

So I decided not to risk it. But then, all at once, for some apparent reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I could make heads or tails of.

I was plussed. It was concerting to see that she was communicado, and it nerved me that she was interested in a pareil like me, sight seen. Normally, I had a domitable spirit, but, being corrigible, I felt capacitated—as if there were something I was great shakes at—and forgot that I had succeeded in situations like this only a told number of times. So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings.

Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no time to prepare a promptu speech, I was petuous. Wanting to make only called-for remarks, I started talking about the hors d'oeuvres, trying to abuse her of the notion that I was sipid, and perhaps even bunk a few myths about myself.

She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a savory character who was up to some good. She told me who she was. "What a perfect nomer," I said, advertently. The conversation became more and more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail. But I was defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour. I asked if she wanted to come with me. To my delight, she was committal. We left the party together and have been together ever since. I have given her my love, and she has requited it.

Seth wrote:
>>Didn't you want to talk to me about Colby Schwartz - real estate? ....If you want to talk about Col-by, Call-me. ;-)

Jewel wrote:
>>H'm... Colby Schwartz ... Real Estate. Sounds like one of those old time detective shows.

>>... Colby... Coalbeeeeee... You are getting sleeeeepy.... you are...get....

........ Zzzzzzzzzz......

FADE IN
Int., Hallway, night. LATE.

The relentless SOUND of someone banging away on an old manual Kensington spills over the transom and reverberates across the worn linoleum, down the empty hall.

CLOSE ON:
A door. Black-and-gold hand-painted letters spell out COLBY SCHWARTZ - REAL ESTATE on the pebbled glass.

HANDS
... Quickly hunt-and-peck across the black Kensington's keys.

And there he is, SCHWARTZ. Rolled-up sleeves and his hand in his hair when he isn't typing, a three-day stubble on his chin and a forgotten fag dangles from his lip. Coulda been a cop in some former life, not as if he'd tell ya. Now, it's real estate, all day, and all night. Condos, horse properties, knock-downs ... He'd seen it all.

INSERT
On the ad underway.

Schwartz angrily RIPS it from the typewriter.

SCHWARTZ:
"Cripes!! How in Jeezus am I supposed to push a converted garage that's not Brentwood adjacent?"

Just then -- a KNOCK.

He wasn't expecting anyone. He watches, waits; then slowly, quietly, he opens a drawer with one hand, and reaches into it with the other.

Another KNOCK. More insistent.

SCHWARTZ:
"Yeah? Whattaya want?"

And then SHE walks in. Obviously not a first-time buyer. No, this one's done a few deals, been around the block, and not with her own money, from the looks of her. Black heels... black stockings... black dress... black hat ... blue eyes... red lips. She hesitates.

WOMAN
Mr. ... Schwartz...?

SCHWARTZ
Maybe. What's it to ya?

WOMAN
I need ... your ... help...

And with that, the dame FAINTS, dead away. Schwartz LEAPS, catching her just before her head strikes the desk. His GUN flies from the drawer, FIRING as it hits the ground --

*BANG!* The bullet shatters the pebbled glass, covering them both in icy shards.

She wakens, scared -- clutching his sleeve...

WOMAN
"Colby? Colby Schw -- "

SCHWARTZ
"Yeah, I'll help ya. Maybe. Three percent."

Recommended home page: the Arts & Letters Daily – a relatively painless way to install new ideas and question old ones on a daily basis…

www.aldaily.com

On their masthead they offer:
“Philosophy, aesthetics, literature, language, ideas, criticism, culture, history, music, art, trends, breakthroughs, disputes, and gossip”

Their main page offers excerpts and links in a number of categories; On any given day, any one of these blurbs is likely to lead you to some amazing ideas on science, arts, culture, you name it.

Then also, down the side of the page, the ALDaily links you to dozens of media sources, from old standards from around the world, to major and minor-eccentric blogs; Breaking news from the major & cable networks, magazines, newspapers, radio streams & diversions…

And their Reference area offers: Google, Refdesk, Arts Journal, SciTech Daily, more...

Nearly painless brain food to go with your morning chai.

Link up! It’s free -- and no sneaky ads to mess up your desktop.

The man in action -- !
He tells me he was in a rather curious state at this moment in time, and only vaguely remembers the photographer takinghis picture...

link:

news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery

here's a link to his work page (but it doesn't do the work justice - you really have to see them in person. The man paints endlessly, wherever he goes... I especially like his noctournes and RV's):
www.jpmarcelo.com/gallery.htm

Time was, when every family had some member who could play an instrument and read music. It was the world before recordings...

Link: www.nybooks.com/articles/18400

They're mostly talking about classical, but I think their ideas could easily extend to any style of music recording vs. performance going on now...

"Robert Philip's <Performing Music in the Age of Recording> is ... the best account I know of how musical life in general has changed since the introduction of vinyl and long-playing records in the 1950s, which made it possible for records to invade everyone's home.

...The book is full of fascinating detail cogently presented on rehearsal practices and standards, recording on piano rolls, the different instruments used in orchestras, the way records are edited, and the contrasting musical ideals of performers.

His main thesis is that recording has directed performance style into a search for greater precision and perfection, with a consequent loss of spontaneity and warmth. "

BM '05 has come and gone. Expectations, intentions, mad projects, quests, friendships and romances rose up, blossomed, and got leveled in equal measure with sun-up's, sunsets, scorching days, starlit nights, fire, and the howling winds...

I was surprised which lessons rose up to meet me...

The first one materialized as fear and focus ran me through the wringer, when the road literally ended near Mojave.

I'd taken a wrong turn on an identical-looking road at night; barrelling along in the RV at 60+mph, I suddenly realized I was the Coyote in a bad Road-runner cartoon, as the pavement 500 feet ahead of me disappeared. Nearly everyone else in the rig was asleep, but not for long.

Luckily, when you're in real fear, everything slows down, and you calculate. After blinking a few times to convince myself, I started pumping the brakes. We went airborne when the asphalt turned to gravel, but not too badly. I was amazed the Travco held up. Circling around, we noticed a previous driver had already amputated the helpful warning sign: "End."

The next day, luck arrived again in the person of Senior Ranger Sasquatch, who suddenly appeared at our (annual?) breakdown, preventing my cracking the RV's engine block with coolant at Mono Lake. (I'll take luck anytime...!) Being prepared paid off when I had the fuel filter we needed to keep moving. (That's such a classic BM lesson - plan ahead & be prepared... shouldn't we get merit badges for that?)

Being resourceful in the face of fear paid off again when there was no Ranger the next time the gas filter sludged and I had to swap it out myself (my first) - with five passengers patiently waiting, encouraging me hopefully, saying things like: "well, you look like you know what you're doing."...

The RV gifted me when I discovered its (undocumented) reserve gas tank (!) and just in time, when a cheap gas station suddenly appeared...)

When I thought I'd left my sewing machine at home, I had to practice letting the dream go of using it, and move on to Plan B. Then, when it suddenly surfaced, I was glad to have already had the practice of letting go.

I so resist letting go of dreams, and the exercise of transitioning was so less painful than I'd imagined, that now I'm ready to face letting go of the next things when I have to...

So many friends were so deeply open to me in their private pains and joys, I often felt simultaneously overwhelmed and honored to co-experience with them, hoping what I had to offer was enough for the moment ...

That's what true connectedness demands. If you want the real deal, you let it in, warts & all. Buffeted by the currents, you keep thinking and paddling and look for the light.

Being a conduit for tough news, staying resourceful, offering any truths I had available, being two or three things at once, regenerating the laughter, it was all practice in walking with others.

For me, the Tao says three things: be willing to open your eyes, be willing to be honest about what you are looking at, and have a flipping sense of humor.

Sometimes maintaining the sense of humor is the hardest part.

Maintaining empathy in conflict became a challenge sometimes this past BM. For me this is so key to regenerate oneself, to stay connected empathically, but unattached to outcome, even when someone is hurting you; Their reasons are nearly always based in innocent pain, past or present, and their actions are not meant personally.

Nights that started out with plain old dancing switched to (uh, psychedelically?) challenging video shoots, all-night sew-a-thon's for friends, or just being there for someone or three.

(I was actually a little annoyed with myself if-ever my ill-timed imbibing compromised some later shooting's potential - but, lessons learned...)

Practicing discernment, pacing, and delayed gratification were sometimes a Bummer, but paid off over and over. And collective resourcefulness sure came in handy when circumstances far beyond our control left our dance troupe minus many of our key dancers for a Friday night show ...

We still pulled that sucker out of the bag, baby!

(and then got off the stage as soon as possible...)

One thing morphed after another... my ongoing video project veered from its planned "cross-section-of-BM creativity and artists" approach to skew toward the highest-chakra'd project to hit me in the face: "Miracle Grow", a.k.a. the Flower Car.

More accurately a mobile art installation than art car, the Flower's gigantic, purely Yin vibe attracted the most amazed and amazing people like so many bees. Definitely a gift in many directions... just brilliant.

I got hours of amazing footage and interviews, including a huge chunk related to the Flower, and can't wait to lose sleep over editing it all ... it's a good thing my sight's already ruined.

As Lucent Dossier dancers, we'd met the Flower Car in its gestation, though we didn't know it at the time. We shared space with it in our studio, and had no idea of its eventual glory as we bruised and gashed ourselves on its metallic skeleton. Dancing to fundraise for it, we just took it as doing our part for the home team. How wonderful when it turned out so much grander and more magnificent than we ever imagined...

This year's sebatical in art and friendship is over. Brigadoon has faded away.

Happy new year everyone - I wonder what -- if anything -- BM '05 will imprint upon the outside world until it rolls around again next August?

All I know is, it will be some challenge to top this year's outrageous, high-octane experience.

So you think the people who live in Mexico City's dump have it bad? Consider their animals (link):

chronicle.com/temp/email.php


Click here to feed a shelter pet (free!):
www.theanimalrescuesite.com/cgi-...s.woa

AND:

Need to procrastinate ( and who doesn't?) succumb to the Kitten Wars!
www.kittenwar.com

People are only human – and so many people come from such long chains of dysfuctional families (myself included), that it is sometimes hard to imagine what loving families look like. This matters, since it’s possible to remake your psyche – and life -- into a healthy, happy one, but if you came from an abused place, you need a model to help discern the behavior (or people) to prune from your life – and which ones to keep and amplify.

A recent biography came out about writer Eudora Welty. She was known primarily as a writer of short stories, but what I see as practically the single most important contribution she made to modern and future culture is: the example her parents and family made of an ideal and loving couple and homelife.

I will make one disclaimer; that Welty’s family flourished in turn-of-the-20th-century Mississippi, a place where many minority people suffered mightily, due to the awful white anxieties of the era.

But that aside for a moment, consider the daily details of how these people interacted, what they valued in each other, their expectations, and their notable lack of attacking or sabotaging coping mechanisms on each other.

They were so playful and sweet to each other, to me it was an almost too-painful read in its unrelenting and regenerative happiness.

Here’s the link, and when you’re done, look up that psyche study on abused vs, loving-family toddlers, the one where abused toddlers abuse their wounded friends, but loving toddlers patiently sooth the injured child, no matter how long that takes:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...50.html