April 26, 2008
Finally! I’ve been watching this kid’s videos all year….(he’s doing a dance a day…he’s up to 357) and finally some Velvet Underground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_PhFy7XvY
This guy is taking 365 portraits….I was 337. I think I look tired and perplexed, but maybe I was…..
What am I doing everyday this year?
art x 365 = ?
April 20, 2008
So I’m doing my Monday post a tad early this week, because I need to nap and catch up on a few weeks lost sleep. Then I need to go to my friend Evan’s passover seder, which is probably going to be about 60% hardcore traditional seder, 30% hipster reverie, and 10% Buddhist infusion.
I thought I’d throw a few short things at you excellent excellent people. You can throw them back if they wriggle too much.
1) Swami Nichtern political predictions: Clinton wins Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday by 6 points, makes hardly any dent in delegate situation, then loses both NC and Indiana on May 6, and drops out on May 8, giving Obama a suddenly glowing endorsement and eventually becoming Senate majority leader.
2) A link to the online version of the article I wrote that just came out for Kripalu Magazine, “The Psychology of Ecology” is up HERE. Apparently they print about 300,000 copies of it, which sort of makes me want to hide. I think there are also almost 19,000 copies of One City in print. Makes me feel oddly naked, like there’s hundreds of thousands of paperdoll versions of me running around and mingling drunkenly without my say-so. Next time around I’m just going to publish ranting manifestos on the backs of cocktail napkins. No more than 20 copies, max. Let me know what you think, since the article’s sorta what the whole I.D. Project is about. I really don’t like writing nonfiction, but people keep telling me to, so I do.
3) And now, something I just found a few days ago. Seriously, I didn’t even know this man had a website. It is definitely a Moment of Zen. He’ll be at the IDP on Wednesday May 14, for a Guest Lecture Entitled “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” Seriously, that’s the title. He’s a weirdo.
4) Dean Sluyter will visit the IDP for a Guest Lecture this Wednesday April 23. Jessica says he’s great, and I believe her.
Now, Time To Rock The Pesach!
Photo Updates:
A Rousing Good Time had by all. Much vino, much laughter, much singing in Hebrew. I gotta say though, let’s not forget that the Egyptians had Buddha-Nature too.
April 20, 2008
Now that I know everyone’s top ten albums, what about books?
If I was packing and could only bring ten books, I’d pick the following…wrapped in sheets of poems numerous as styrofoam peanuts, of course… (Rilke! Rumi! Sexton! Whitman! the Beats!)
And if I contradict myself…well, you know what Walt says….
1. Catcher in the Rye -Salinger
2. Nightwood -Djuna Barnes
3. When Kafka Was the Rage -Anatole Broyard
4. When I Was Five I Killed Myself -Howard Buten
5. Echo -Francesca Lia Block (runner-ups: Weetzie Bat and I Was A Teenage Fairy)
6. Narcissus and Goldmund -Herman Hesse
7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -Roald Dahl
8. The Bell Jar -Sylvia Plath
9. The Power of Now -Eckart Tolle
10. A blank notebook to write my own, even if it doesn’t read as good later
(my apologies to all those great books I can’t fit here or am forgetting…I feel like I’m trying to remember my list of ‘thank you’s at the Oscars the the exit music is playing……)
April 18, 2008
As mentioned by I.D. Project Board Member and all-around homie Jerry in class on Monday Night, the video and story:
“This is the video from Beijing to the song that my boyfriend [wrote in NYC] in 2002. The song is called Taboo and it’s about how much we love playing the board game Taboo with our friends which can really get out of hand. Of course the kids from Beijing seem to have missed the sarcasm. We randomly found this on youtube. It’s pretty weird.”
-Jerry
April 16, 2008
Hey Everyone…
I just saw this amazing movie/documentary called “The Dhamma Brothers”. It is the story of the Alabam prison system introducing intensive Vipassana meditation retreats into their prisoner treatment programs. I had seen “Doing Time, Doing Vipassana” which is about the introduction of meditation into prisons in India… also amazing and I highly recommend it. But what made “The Dhamma Brothers” so remarkable is that it happened in Alabama, the state with some of the most PUNITIVE correctional facilities in the country. Plus Buddhism and meditation in general, arrived in the prison as this really foreign (witch-craftery) kind of discourse that threated the Christian standard. The film is really inspiring and moving, but never in a sentimental way….
See this movie!!!! (Watch the trailer first…..)
http://www.dhammabrothers.com/
peace and love,
cassmaster P
April 16, 2008
by Eva Talmadge
It’s a rare day that things in the office where I work are slow, but this week couldn’t be more dead. My boss is at the London Book Fair. Her assistant is “busy” re-naming files on our network drive. And I’ve incurred three centuries’ worth of reincarnation as a silverfish for the manuscript rejection letters I sent this morning alone.
Allow me to express this sentiment via YouTube:
Oh, the Buzzcocks. Old and still great.
But seriously. Here’s an article about the virtues of boredom in last month’s Boston Globe: The Joy of Boredom. exploring the “strong argument that boredom — so often parodied as a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness — is an essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science, and even love.” For people who meditate, none of this is really news, but it’s still fun to read about.
My favorite part, after a fabulous quote from Proust, sums it all up: “Marcel’s senses are recalibrated, his experiences deepened, and the very nature of memory begins to reveal itself. But it is only through the strenuous process of clearing his mind and concentrating that his thoughts begin to unfurl completely, immersing him in memory. Had Marcel been holding a silver clamshell phone in his hand instead of the delicately scalloped cookie, perhaps he could have quieted the boredom with a quick game of cellphone Tetris. And had Proust come of age with an iPhone in his hand and the expectation that his entire world fit in his pocket, he may never have written his grandiose novel.”
And here’s a short article about Dr. Richard Ralley, quoted in the Globe article above: In Defence of Boredom. Leading with a quote from the Buzzcocks song! 
Ah, boredom. Would that I could spend more time with thee.
April 14, 2008
I was in Memphis this weekend, teaching meditation workshops with Mr. David Nichtern. A lot of folks in Memphis are into meditation, so that was super inspiring. Who woulda thought?
I’m not going to do another political post until after the Pennsylvania primary, but let me just say that Hillary’s new strategy, to make it look like Obama is more elitist than she is, is a really flawed strategy. A candidate who looks like Martha Stewart, and who made $109 million in the last 7 years, is going to have a super-hard time selling herself as the “of the people, I luv huntin” candidate. Kudos to her if it works, but I would be utterly shocked if her new line of attack doesn’t backfire on her. Seems like it already is. People ARE bitter, Hillary. Very. How do you work with it?
Second, I was utterly shocked last week to discover—among my very friends and colleagues—a vitriolic disdain for my Scifi post among some seemingly open-minded and compassionate I.D. Project members. My particular surprise goes to GZA, who I know loves Battlestar Galactica every bit as much as I do, who tried to throw the “nerd” label at me, invalidating my experience through puerile name-calling (Eva, you too should learn to appreciate what you don’t understand). GZA’s actions, to dismiss Scifi while still watching it in the closet, can only be compared to the deep confusion that mires homophobic homosexuals. Yes GZA, you and other Scifi hating closet watchers are like the Roy Cohn of Scifi. There, I said it. Now maybe the healing can begin. I hope you someday come to terms with your true nature.
But just to show you that like Walt Whitman, I too contain multitudes, baby, here is a list of my favorite top ten albums of all time, five honorable mentions, and five of the best albums I’ve been introduced to in the last two years. Keep in mind that a favorite album is something different from a favorite song or artist. A favorite album is an hourlong meditation session with all the lulls and highs and backaches, not just the peak experience of a few minutes of blissful soaring presence.
You better post a few of your own favorites - up to ten albums - in the comments section. Especially GZA. I wanna see what you’re made of.
Having no self means having a big self, ladies and gentlemen. Here are a few more pieces of mine.
1. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
2. Digable Planets - Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
3. Radiohead - OK Computer
4. A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
5. Leonard Cohen - New Skin for the Old Ceremony
6. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
7. Nina Simone - To Love Somebody
8. Arcade Fire - Funeral
9. Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
10. Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Radiohead - Kid A
Beck - Mutations
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Aretha Franklin - Live at the Fillmore West
Flobots - Fight With Tools
CocoRosie - Noah’s Ark
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now
Blue Scholars - Blue Scholars (LP) and Joe Metro (EP)
Budos Band - Budos Band
April 13, 2008
I’m a buddhist, yeah, but I’ve been a sports fan longer. And as uncommon as sports talk seems to be among buddhists, I’m gonna indulge.
I know, I know, everyone tunes out and goes to the cushion, thinking lofty thoughts about literature and politics. But what illustrates the moment-to-moment flow of physical existence more vividly than sports? What illustrates the impermanence of glory more viscerally than a last-second field goal? Remember the Inner Game of Tennis? Remember Chevy Chase in “Caddyshack”? ’nuff said. It’s ESPN time in One City.
The Curse of the Bambino. Nineteen FOR-ty. NINEteen EIGHTeen. . . .
These are references, not all that arcane, to two of the most famous “curses” in sports history: the 54 years between New York Rangers Stanley Cup championships in hockey (1940-1994), and the 86-year exercise in futility (1918-2004) that was the Boston Red Sox pursuit of a World Series championship in baseball.
Those curses passed away. A new one arises. Impermance, thy name is sports. This week, that bastion of appearance vs reality, The New York Post, revealed a heinous deed.
A construction worker buried a Boston RED SOX jersey in the concrete at the new Yankee Stadium being built in the Bronx. He said he buried a David Ortiz jersey in the concrete, and has the cell phone pictures to prove it, in order to curse the Yankees for 30 years
The articles regarding the shirt curse have been suitably lurid. Here’s one, with pix of the deed: http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122008/news/regionalnews/underminer_a_bx__traitor_106168.htm
link and photo from NY Post
Luckily, Sunday’s Post revealed that two other construction workers have led stadium officials to the cursed spot, and thanks to several jackhammers, the jersey — and the curse — has been removed.
The whole silly affair made me think about impermanence, of course. And the power of thought and projection. Things happen, like failing to win the World Series for 86 years straight. (ha-ha). And humans want to believe there is a reason. They come up with a storyline, a narrative. They try to use their thoughts to affect reality - they wear lucky shirts, they don’t wash, they shave or don’t shave. But the reality is that . . . the Red Sox lost. Then they won. Then they lost. Whether or not the shaving, or washing, or lucky shirts were done, worn, or not.
Attachment and aversion, hatred and passion — they seem to get most of the press, buddhism-wise. But there’s such a human impulse for confusion! Not to diss attachment and aversion, greed and hatred, but let’s here it for the third pole, the third cause of suffering. There’s so much confusion of cause and effect, of how karma works, in the stands at Rangers games, under the concrete of Yankee Stadium, in everyday life.
And in my own mind, of course. How many times have I come up with a storyline - “She hates me because I laugh funny.” “He’s jealous of my job.” “That client is evil.” “That bus driver is an a**hole, because he saw me and he didn’t stop. He must hate women.” “We didn’t win because I didn’t try hard enough,” and billions of other equally ludicrous thoughts about how the world works.
As ludicrous as burying a jersey in concrete, cursing the Yankees? Yeah. just as ludicrous.
Sports: An unexpected laboratory for buddhism?
Who knows. I’m gonna go watch a game. . . .
April 13, 2008
Now that I’m working with elementary school girls, I’m immersed in current girl culture, where tamogochis have been replaced by Miss Bimbo and Barbie looks wholesome next to Bratz.
For those out of middle school, Miss Bimbo is an online game where players create an avatar and compete to be the “reigning bimbo.” According to the site, some of the goals of the game are:
Bimbos lose happiness points for eating too much chocolate, and try to get a high-paying job so they can afford boob jobs. It’s like creating paper dolls out of US Weekly or a videogame out of TMZ. And the game is marketed to girls as young as 1st grade.
The game was created by two guys in England, who have responded to the predictable criticism by saying the game “mirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way.” The site has responded to the backlash by posting a warning on the front page, and proudly proclaiming the ability to purchase diet pills with the game has been dismantled.
In the girls’ school where I’m working, some coloring sheets of Bratz dolls flashing flirtatious in black and white were confiscated from the lunch room this week. Bratz are scantily clad dolls, with strange alien-anorexic bodies and “a passion for fashion.” These dolls were designed for girls aged 4-8, and have been criticized for promoting a “sexualized image of girls.” They now sell more than Barbie.
It seems everyone has forgotten age 8 = kid and kid = child, not a market. Seeing more landmines in the path of girlhood saddens and angers me….things are tough enough in the way of self-development, compassion for self and other, and learning to value brains over passive beauty without adding fuel to the raging media fire. I witness so much inspiring energy, curiosity, and will for positive change in the girls I meet…so many young activists and artists who are passionate about the world around them. I hope their energy doesn’t get misdirected
*p.s. I’m sure things aren’t great in boy-media, either, but I don’t get to hang around it everyday…
April 12, 2008
by Eva Talmadge
I was going to post a blog consisting of a mixtape tracklist I made to accompany a short story I wrote, “Northern,” out now in issue 33:2 of the New Orleans Review, because this blog has had its share of dorkdom, politics, and depressing news about global warming for one week. And hell. It’s Saturday. Warm outside. So why not watch weird videos of records playing? These are some of the best tunes on earth.
But then I started watching old footage of soul acts on YouTube and got bothered by it all. “Northern” is a story about race. White kids listening to black music — in this case the best of Motown, Stax, and whatever gets called Northern Soul — plus two reggae songs — and this. Black musicians performing for white audiences. A white girl falling in love with the image of a black girl. It’s something I’m barely able to talk about — race in America, and a history that’s always fascinated me — and why I had to write a story about it in the first place. Fiction doing so much better a job of speaking the truth than words. Why else do we tell stories?
Anyway. A lot of these tunes are old 60s numbers, and until today I’d never seen any of them played live before. Watching this stuff just bothers me. Like “Hairspray” in a bad way. But listening to it — this music makes me so happy — so I can’t stay away. I’ll play these songs forever…
Here’s the tracklist. Watch a few of these videos, tell me how you feel.
Anyone interested in mixtape swapping: same rules as last time: write to me at etalmadge at gmail dot com, send your address, and we’ll trade. Good music for good music is the plan.
 | Kate on “Happy People Are Slugs… |
 | GZA on I’m Waiting For My … |
 | jmay on I Contain Multitudes: Part… |
 | sarahnyc on I Contain Multitudes: Part… |
 | ellen9 on MEDITATION AS TREATMENT AND… |
