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We've made it to our eleventh book club edition! We've been inundated with emails for this one, so thank you so much for your engagement. There have been mixed thoughts about Nevil Shute's proper yarn, 'A Town Like Alice'... Plus, the fab Laura Hackett, deputy literary editor and fiction editor across both The Sunday Times and The Times, joins to share her thoughts and bring a touch of class (and a slightly questionable accent...). Thank you so much for your engagement and interaction. We hope you'll join us for the next one. Get your suggestions in at: janeandfi@times.radioFollow us on Instagram! @janeandfiPodcast Producer: Eve SalusburyExecutive Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A 101‑year‑old named Alice turns “retirement goals” into a masterclass: move, measure, and plan. Art McPherson tackles mixed market signals, new charitable and income‑tax wrinkles, and why timing tax advice matters more than tax prep. Hear how to track down forgotten 401(k)s, set up income, and learn from Alice’s resilience—preparing for surprises without surrendering your lifestyle. For more information visit www.artofmoney.com! Follow us on social media: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedInSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to Part 2 of our Underland meditation series. Last week we explored the underground as a place to dispose of what is harmful — trauma, secrets, and pain. This week, we venture deeper to discover the treasure, wisdom, and insight waiting for us in those shadowed spaces.Inspired by Robert Macfarlane's book Underland, this meditation uses the metaphor of underground cave exploration to guide you through narrow, uncomfortable passages toward expansive inner caverns of insight. Like Alice's journey down the rabbit hole, this practice invites chaos and uncertainty as pathways to profound self-discovery.What You'll Experience:Guided progressive relaxation from skin through fascia, muscle, and boneExtended silent meditation for deep inner explorationAmazon rainforest nature soundscapePractice softening resistance rather than fighting your experienceTools for working with difficult meditation sessionsPerfect for:Meditation practitioners ready for deeper shadow workAnyone struggling with dark or difficult meditation experiencesThose seeking self-discovery and inner wisdomPeople working through trauma or emotional healingClaustrophobic feelings in meditation or lifeRelated Episodes: Listen to Entering The Underland: Nature Meditation for Processing Fear and Underground Healing {part 1} for the complete exploration of disposing of what is harmful before mining for inner treasure.Content Warning: This episode discusses trauma, shadow work, and difficult emotions. Practice only when you feel physically and emotionally resourced to do so.Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/jjPrV2 to receive free mini meditations and soundscapes each week, along with creative musings and more.New episodes every Monday (just the meditation) and Thursday (a full meditation class).Learn more or contact me at https://www.merylarnett.com/. Thank you to Nick McMahan for today's nature field recordings; and thank you to Brianna Nielsen for production and editing support. Find them at:https://www.nickcmcmahan.com/https://www.instagram.com/itsbriannanielsenThis podcast explores meditation, mental health and the power of connection, offering guidance for caregivers, healers, and therapists facing compassion fatigue, burnout, and other mental health struggles through self-care, self-compassion, and resilience. With a focus on anxiety, depression, and overwhelm, each episode provides tools like meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, and grounding to cultivate clarity and reduce stress. Listeners can also experience nature-inspired guided meditations, designed to bring peace and balance in times of distress.
fWotD Episode 3057: Through the Looking-Glass Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 17 September 2025, is Through the Looking-Glass.Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. It was the sequel to his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), in which many of the characters were anthropomorphic playing-cards. In this second novel the theme is chess. As in the earlier book, the central figure, Alice, enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a large looking-glass (a mirror) into a world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just as in a reflection, things are reversed, including logic (for example, running helps one remain stationary, walking away from something brings one towards it, chessmen are alive and nursery-rhyme characters are real). Among the characters Alice meets are the severe Red Queen, the gentle and flustered White Queen, the quarrelsome twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the rude and opinionated Humpty Dumpty, and the kindly but impractical White Knight. Eventually, as in the earlier book, after a succession of strange adventures, Alice wakes and realises she has been dreaming. As in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the original illustrations are by John Tenniel.The book contains several verse passages, including "Jabberwocky", "The Walrus and the Carpenter" and the White Knight's ballad, "A-sitting On a Gate". Like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the book introduces phrases that have become common currency, including "jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day", "sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast", "un-birthday presents", "portmanteau words" and "as large as life and twice as natural".Through the Looking Glass has been adapted for the stage and the screen and translated into many languages. Critical opinion of the book has generally been favourable and either ranked it on a par with its predecessor or else only just short of it.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:42 UTC on Wednesday, 17 September 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Through the Looking-Glass on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Matthew.
Ever find yourself spiraling into overthinking, anxiety, or worst-case scenarios? Like Alice in Alice in Wonderland, one thought can send you tumbling down a mental rabbit hole. But what if you could stop the fall?In this episode, learn why you spiral, how to press pause, and practical steps to regain control.Listen now and take back control of your thoughts!
How much like Alice in Wonderland is the American Economy? Zach Abraham joins usZach Abraham joins us today to discuss the state of the economy and what the future holds. We talk about government run grocery stores being launched in Chicago and what appears to be a plan to kick out private retailers. We also circle back to the current state of our Alice In Wonderland economy and the truth behind the scam known as the ‘Federal Reserve'.What does God's Word say? Proverbs 29:2 2 When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.34 Bible Verses about sorcerers4Patriots https://4patriots.com Protect your family with Food kits, solar generators and more at 4Patriots. Use code TODD for 10% off your first purchase. Alan's Soaps https://alanssoaps.com/TODD Use coupon code ‘TODD' to save an additional 10% off the bundle price. American Financing https://americanfinancing.net Visit to see what American Financing can do for you or call 866-887-2275 BiOptimizers https://bioptimizers.com/todd Use promo code TODD for 10% off your order. Bonefrog https://bonefrog.us Enter promo code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your subscription. Bulwark Capital http://KnowYourRiskRadio.com Find out how Bulwark Capital Actively Manages risk. Call 866-779-RISK or visit KnowYourRiskRadio.com Patriot Mobile https://patriotmobile.com/herman Get free activation today with offer code HERMAN. Visit or call 878-PATRIOT. RuffGreens https://ruffgreens.com/todd Get your FREE Jumpstart Trial Bag of Ruff Greens, simply cover shipping. Visit or call 877-MYDOG-64. SOTA Weight Loss https://sotaweightloss.com SOTA Weight Loss is, say it with me now, STATE OF THE ART! Sound of Freedom https://angel.com/freedom Join the two million and see Sound of Freedom in theaters July 4th. GreenHaven Interactive https://greenhaveninteractive.com Digital Marketing including search engine optimization and website design.
This podcast starts with an ODE!!! Sparrow on poetical fire. #waveon. Did you see that? We interviewed the Milkman and then the GWS Giants hung in there and gutsed out a win in the pouring rain in 8 degrees centigrade at Traeger Park in Alice Springs in the middle of a desert. Is it a coincidence? (imagine thinking face emoji) Every possible angle in every possible universe is picked over by Ragnar Lothbrok, Sparrow and Needles in a forensic hour of fascinating football banter. Never Surrender by the Squinters is the world's best GWS Giants AFL fan-made podcast and we know it. And now that Ragnar has migrated from angry email writing fan to embittered podcast pundit, there is room in our inbox for YOU! Neversurenderpod@gmail.com
A Town Like Alice 4x-xx-xx (01)
Some brutally honest bedroom feedback, rating our hall passes & MG's most touching Random Act Of Kindness so far. #sydney #triplem See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to the nonlinear library, where we use text-to-speech software to convert the best writing from the rationalist and ea communities into audio. This is: Thiel on Progress and Stagnation, published by Richard_Ngo on the effective altruism forum. This is a linkpost for Peter Thiel is one of the most exciting and original thinkers of our era, but many of his opinions are scattered across a range of talks and articles. So Jeremy Nixon and I have put together an organised presentation of his views on progress and stagnation, in his own words. The full document, which is a little over 100 pages, is here; below I've listed some of his key quotes. While I don't agree with all of his opinions, I've found many of them very insightful and valuable. I'm particularly interested in understanding how to reconcile his views on stagnation with the sort of accelerationist view of technological progress portrayed here and elsewhere. Key quotes: When tracked against the admittedly lofty hopes of the 1950s and 1960s, technological progress has fallen short in many domains. When we talk about how fast science is progressing, we do it with little precision. Are we accelerating in scientific and technical fields? How fast is this? In response, we get fairly vague answers. I would submit that the consensus in both a Silicon Valley and academic context is that we are doing great and that everything is just moving super fast. All these forms of accelerations. And we can debate whether it's utopian - Kurzweil with the singularity is near, where all you need to do is sit back and eat some popcorn and watch the movie of the future unfold, or this dystopia, all the science fiction movies from Hollywood and all the robots will kill you, or you'll be in this matrix - we're either accelerating to utopia or accelerating to dystopia. The somewhat contrarian thesis I have on this is that perhaps the progress is not as fast as advertised. Things have been slower and have been slower for quite some time. The single most important economic development in recent times has been the broad stagnation of real wages and incomes since 1973, the year when oil prices quadrupled. To a first approximation, the progress in computers and the failure in energy appear to have roughly canceled each other out. Like Alice in the Red Queen's race, we (and our computers) have been forced to run faster and faster to stay in the same place. Probably the only engineering fields that are doing really well are computer science and maybe, at this point, petroleum engineering. And most other areas of engineering have been bad career decisions the last 40 years . Nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering, were really catastrophic decisions for very talented people to go into. So even though rhetorically we always say that we want more science and engineering people, in practice, these have been extremely tough fields. You could say that all these gadgets and devices, they dazzle us but they also distract us from the ways in which our larger surroundings are strangely old. So we run cell phones while we're riding in a 19th-century subway system in New York. San Francisco, the housing stock looks like it's from the 50s and 60s, it's mostly quite decrepit and incredibly hard to change these sort of things. So you have bits making progress, atoms are strangely very stuck. On our website, we have this tagline – “They promised us flying cars and all we got was 140 characters.” Which is a little bit of a dig at Twitter. But in some sense Twitter is probably a great business. The thousand people who work at Twitter are going to have well-paying jobs. I suspect it will last for decades. It's probably not enough to take our civilization to the next level. But again it's a mistake to blame Twitter for that. It's more a problem with not enough happening elsewhere. The story of specific success that masks generalized failure is one we find very hard to tell. We live in a world where we've been w...
All the land in the world. And god chose this land as his own. God saw this land and called it good. He said to the Europeans. This is the land. To divide and to take. Land to till and plant. Land to build and expand. The natives? Kill them in my name. You'll need slaves. And god told them, there's a continent not too far away. Where there are humans you can take. So god saw the land and said it is well. This land is great land. In the name of virgins. To establish a western front. A western world. A magic kingdom with kings and jokes.a blessed land. A blissful land. The dirt and earth cannot exchange hands. Holy is the nothing we come from, the abyss we'll float inside of. Like Alice. for eternity. They have everything on camera. All is a record. So it's ok. You've been found and you are exposed. They know it all. Your addictions. Your hang ups. Your wants. Your desires. Your search engines. So fuck it. There's nothing to lose. Other than your life. And life you lose anyway. So step out in radical behaviors to end the evil that is practiced. Evil in the name of god. Evil in the name of Christ. Evil in the name of lives. Evil in the name of lies.
My Links New Romance Author Website! Check it out and see what you think! You can also join the mailing list and get free short stories and be the first to hear about new romance books or giveaways! www.pennymayromance.com Interested in a spicy contemporary romance book? Check out Blissful Awakenings here1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096T46KX7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_V5RSM8Q1XM7HJQ45Q974 Tools I Use for This Show: Podbean - I use Podbean to host my website because I think they do a great job of distributing it to podcast channels are super easy to use. If you'd like to give it a whirl, here's a link for one month free! https://www.podbean.com/GoFindOutPodcast Canva - Free 30 day trial of Canva Pro! Make stunning social media images with Canva's designer tools! https://partner.canva.com/c/2534412/647168/10068 Looking for more inspiration? Sign up for the Go Find Out Podcast email list and get tips on how to kick your fears to the curb and go find out! You'll also hear about upcoming guests and any new book releases! https://mailchi.mp/269e51a68b80/im-ready-to-go-find-out You can also follow this podcast on: Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/GoFindOutPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gfopodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gofindoutpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkAbL0fPvaomE_vZKz-hIQ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jjrussellwrites Email me: EvergrowthCoach@gmail.com Interested in my fiction or articles about being an Indie-Author? Check out my author website at https://www.jjrussellwrites.com Want to support the podcast? Buy me a cup of coffee here! https://ko-fi.com/gofindoutpodcast
At the very center of the Christian faith lies a Community; a loving, self-sustaining, beautiful Community. The Trinity - God as Three-in-One - is the Mystery at the center of it all. We want to spend the summer exploring the Trinity by looking at each unique person that makes up the Godhead. We will first spend 5 weeks asking: Who is Jesus? Next, we will move to look at 4 key attributes of God the Father. The fact that God is trustworthy, holy, generous and self-sacrificing. Last, but not least, we will spend 2 weeks pondering how God the Spirit works in the world and in our lives. At the heart of our faith, lies a Community. A Community we are invited into because of God's love for us and God's desire to bring us into unity with himself.
I am someone who lives in the world of both/and. Meaning, I find deep value for the scientific research being done to explain the structure, functionality and physiology of our Bodies, BUT I believe we cannot take our finger off the pulse of the Spirit and Dao that courses through these temporary vessels we call our Bodies. Our bodies are the storytellers of our lives. But are we really listening? More and more of us are turning towards traditional cultural lineages of healing for guideposts of how to feel more at home in our bodies. Because we need both the microscope and the telescope to connect the dots on how to be safe, whole and embodied. I’ve invited Tracey Stevens to share her wisdom about these intangible narratives that run through our physical cells. Tracey is also someone who lives in the world of both/and.She has worked in the health industry for over 30 years. She started out in western medicine as an Occupational Therapist later trained in Five Element Acupuncture, Hypnotherapy, Past Life Regression Therapy and Compassionate Inquiry. Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole she has been on a deep metaphysical journey resulting in her practice today which specializes in helping people understand the emotional root cause of their physical problems. What You'll Learn in this Episode: Stoking curiosity about our Body to reclaim the medicine of alignmentThe history of colonialism and the fracturing of mind-body-spirit medicineHow the Body speaks through metaphorsThe potency of healing through stories Resources: Polyvagal Theory by Steven W. Porges Your Speakers:Kat Lee is an Intimacy + Relationship Coach, host of The Empowered Curiosity Podcast and Creator of The Heart Lab. She guides pattern-breakers to alchemize their emotions and embody their healing journey to cultivate intimacy as a spiritual practice. Kat Lee's Website // InstagramTracey Stevens is an acupuncturist specializing in the mind body connection She helps people find the emotional root cause of their physical issues.Tracey's Website // InstagramThis podcast is made possible with sound production by Andre Lagace.Original music by Mayan KitesSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=34245616)
Like Alice in wonderland, follow the white rabbit and go explore wonderful wonderland
Zazen is the bomb,the essence of essential.Without it, no Zen.* * *You can’t spell “zazen” without “z-e-n, zen,” and you can’t practice Zen without zazen. Some who should know better may disagree, but Zen cannot be separated from Buddhism, and Zen is founded exclusively on the insights that come from zazen. Some might argue that they do not have to practice meditation in order to “get” Zen, to adopt its worldview, and enjoy the benefits thereof. I say good luck with that.While working on my graduate degree in design, I had a roommate sharing an apartment on the north side of Chicago, a jazz pianist who would come home from the gig, toss his hat at the hat rack, and declare “My Zen thing is working!” — or not — depending on whether he missed, or not. For some, Zen is just that simple. We are either in the flow, or not. In the moment, or not. When we are, that is Zen. When we are not, it is not.This particular stereotype may stem from Zen’s Taoist heritage in China. Taoism stresses being in harmony with the Great Way, and offers some parables on that theme, including a shaggy dog story about the Taoist’s sympathetic neighbor, who loudly laments when his only horse runs off, then celebrates its return, followed by a whole herd of horses. Next, he laments the Taoist’s son breaking his leg while taming one of the wild stallions, then celebrating the fact that the army does not conscript the son, and on and on, with the pendulum swinging wildly, day after day. Meanwhile the Taoist himself responds only, “I don’t know, could be good, could be bad…” with each reversal of fortune.This tale, which begins to sound like a standup routine from the Borscht Belt, certainly has a grain of truth in it, like any good stereotype. It offers a shortcut way of thinking, so that we don’t have to take its message too seriously.But seriously, folks… life gets tedious, as grandma used to say. There are endless, and unrelenting — and not only technical — circumstances beyond our control — beyond anyone’s control — that intrude at the most inconvenient moments. Like the current pandemic. Or the impending election. But no worries — we won’t go there.Where we will go is back to zazen. It is the “bomb” — or more accurately, “da bomb” — which the dictionary defines as “an outstandingly good person or thing.” That such a hipster colloquial expression would be given space in what used to be the pages, now the computer screen, of what used to be the somber, sober, primary authoritative tome on English vocabulary usage — the dictionary — is both refreshing, and disturbing. Purists lament such liberal laxity of language, while laissez-faire anarchists celebrate mocking what used to be “the king’s English.”Which brings us to the repeat references to language that you may stumble across, if you are not careful enough to avoid the Soto Zen liturgy, especially those gnarly missives from China, three major teachings that we chant, from the early Chinese transmission. The first, second and third hail from around the 600s, 700s, and 800s CE, respectively, almost exactly a century apart. I will read the Japanese version of the Masters’ names, the Chinese pronunciation being more challenging:Hsinhsinming / “Faith Mind”(Jianzhi Sengcan/Kanchi Sosan d. 606)Sandokai / “Harmony of Difference and Equality”(Shitou Xiqian/Sekito Kisen 700–790)andHokyo Zammai / “Precious Mirror Samadhi”(Dongshan Liangjie/Tozan Ryokai 807–869)The first is by the third Ch’an patriarch after Bodhidharma, usually referred to as Sengcan, and is the longest, at a bit fewer than 1,000 words in English translation. The second is the shortest, at just under 300 words, and the third is in-between, at just under 500. That translates roughly into three pages for the first, one for the second, and two pages for the third. A factoid that, 100 years apart, these three Masters felt moved to comment on Zen at radically different length. Do you suppose that they imagined that we would be reading these, over 1,000 years later?What they have to say about Zen, and our compulsion to translate experience into words and concepts, is instructive. The first, Hsinhsinming, starts out challenging our very preference for preferences:The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferencesShortly thereafter, he points out that this applies to all dimensions of practice and daily life, without mentioning meditation, including our preference for passivity over activity, for example trying to suppress the monkey mind, which in Zen is a losing proposition:When you try to stop activity to achieve passivityyour very effort fills you with activityAs long as you remain in one extreme or the otheryou will never know OnenessWe should note that while both extremes are to be avoided, the gist of the poem points to nonduality of reality, where even emphasizing “oneness” as a thing can be misleading:Although all dualities come from the Onedo not be attached even to this OneAnd later, toward the end,When such dualities cease to exist, Oneness itself cannot existNonetheless, we dance with the idea of duality versus nonduality as we work our way through the Master’s analysis:Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity — assertion and denialTo deny the reality of things is to miss their realityto assert the emptiness of things is to miss their realitySo even emptiness, the holy grail of Zen, can be a case of over-thinking. Further:The more you talk and think about itthe further astray you wander from the truthStop talking and thinking, and there is nothing you will not be able to knowThat is pretty brutal, but compassionately so. Talking and thinking do not necessarily help. They can even get in the way of knowing, in the deepest sense of the term. From the second poem, Sandokai, we hear more comments about language from Sekito Kisen:…revered and common, each has its speechHow many times have we heard, and recoiled from, that holy-holy sort of tone of voice, preaching in stentorian resonance, or hush-hush whisper — indicating that what is being said is really special, apart from the ordinary, so listen up — but which often comes off as somewhat strained, even phony? Attempted eloquence slides into artificial cadence.But according to Master Dogen, in his first manual on meditation, “By virtue of zazen, it is possible to transcend the difference between common and sacred.” It is said that there is no “stench of holiness” in Zen. The down-to-earth, earthy and pithy comments of great Zen masters of the past, such as Dogen — who recognized the importance and rarity of encountering and hearing the “true Dharma,” but considered it nothing out of the ordinary — are downright refreshing by contrast. Sandokai also includes comments on the nature of language itself:Darkness merges refined and common wordsbrightness distinguishes clear and murky phrasesHere the reference to darkness versus brightness may be Ch’an symbolism, but I think a simpler, more direct interpretation is in order. Refined or revered speech includes the vernacular, when considered from the standpoint that there is no daylight between the common and sacred in Zen. The brightness of Zen’s direct, experiential insight allows us to sort through the phrases of the ancients, no matter how clear or murky the syntax.Toward the end of Master Sekito’s poem, we find another zinger on language itself:Hearing the words, understand the meaningdo not establish standards of your ownWhile Zen is the ultimate in do-it-yourself as a practice, there is something to be said for listening to others who have been there and done that, and to not be fooled by the words themselves, or our preconceptions of their meaning. Perhaps the most famous phrase from Zen, one that everyone seems to think they know the meaning of, is “The finger pointing at the moon.” Do not be taken in by either the finger, or the moon. The standards that have been handed down from the ancients — who were no slackers, after all — are what Dogen was interested in finding out, in China. Which he demonstrated, when asked what souvenirs he had brought back, by holding out his empty hands.Master Tozan, the founder of Soto Zen in China, begins the third poem with the stunning assertion:The dharma of thusness is intimately transmitted by buddhas and ancestorsNow you have it; preserve it wellWe have to wonder who he thinks his audience is. Is he implying that we already have the Dharma? “Thusness” is a tricky word here, pointing to the “as-it-is-ness” of reality, the ineffable truth that is fully in front of our face, but totally beyond expression, like the moon that can only be pointed to. If we “have it,” it must have somehow already been transmitted to us, in this intimate fashion, so intimate that we may be totally unaware of when and how it happened. Again, Master Dogen has got you covered (Jijuyu Zammai “Self-fulfilling Samadhi”):When you first seek Dharmayou imagine that you are far away from its environsBut Dharma is already correctly transmittedyou are immediately your original selfSo we don’t have something else to worry about acquiring, this Dharma. It is innate, our birthright. Yet we are charged with preserving it, and doing that well. So we have to at least have some idea of what it is that we are preserving, and how. Not to mention who, exactly, we are preserving it for. We understand that it cannot be transmitted in words, so in what kind of language is it communicated? Master Tozan, the “To” in Soto, drops a clue in the next stanza:The meaning does not reside in the wordsbut a pivotal moment brings it forthThis “pivotal moment,” of which we have heard much, seems to be the ticket to what is missing. As Master Dogen reminds us some 400 years later, in the same tract:All this, however, does not appear within perception, because it is unconstructedness in stillness, it is immediate realizationIf the Dharma were an object of perception, in other words, it would by definition have to be a mental construction. He continues clarifying this point, the difference between appearance and essence, in the Genjokoan excerpt from Bendowa, the first chapter in Shobogenzo, his comprehensive collection:The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization itself comes forth with the mastery of Buddhadharma. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge.So we cross some sort of boundary on this journey, but we cannot be aware of crossing it. I have to add my usual caveat that, just as we do not master Zen, but it masters us, the same may be said for Buddhadharma. It is more a process of surrendering to this truth, the “compassionate teaching,” than mastering it, as if one had taken up the challenge of actually reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace or James Joyce’s Ulysses cover-to-cover, and actually assimilating its meaning. Dogen seems to belabor the obvious, that the inconceivable, being inconceivable, would necessarily not be in any way, shape or form, apparent. So within this realization, we must enter into a new dimension of reality, in which nothing is as it appears. Like Alice in Wonderland.Zen has been said to be about the pursuit of the understanding of meaning. But that particle of meaning that can be translated into language is regarded as just the tip of the iceberg. And the truism from communications design, that the message is not that which is sent, but that which is received, holds true for Zen. As the poem relates further:Just to portray it in literary form is to stain it with defilementThis defilement is the attempt to reduce the profound essence of Zen to words and concepts. Because we are human beings communicating with human beings about Zen, we find that there is no exit from this trap. But we do not have to be confused, regarding the efficacy and precision of language, whether written or spoken. It is the best we have to work with, in all its inadequacy. But Master Tozan goes on to assure us that the effort, nonetheless, is worthwhile:Although it is not constructed, it is not beyond wordsAnd then he follows with an attempt to put his dharma where his mouth is, with the title stanza:Like facing a precious mirrorform and reflection behold each otherThis conjures quite an image. The mirror is mentioned as a repeat trope, or theme, in Zen, so we should give it due consideration — but as an image, rather than a concept. Like Alice going right through the looking-glass to the other side, or Einstein, engaging in thought experiments beyond thinking, and at the speed of light, the dharma gate begins to open just a crack. We can just barely see the light leaking through. Master Dogen captures this same spirit in another visionary passage from the same Genjokoan:When you see forms and hear soundsfully engaging body and mindyou grasp things directlyUnlike things and their reflections in the mirrorand unlike the moon and its reflection in the waterWhen one side is illumined, the other side is darkTaking the analogy of the mirror to new heights, or new depths. What we are actually seeing — in lieu of an actual mirror — is like a mirror, but radically different. In order to see something reflected in a mirror, or on the smooth surface of a body of water, both sides have to be illuminated: that which is reflected, and its reflection. Otherwise, nothing can be seen on either side, like a mirror reflecting an unlit, underground vault under a pyramid.However, our usual condition of seeing reflects only one side of the totality. Behind the eyes, so to speak, and on the other side of the objects in our field of vision, lies the dark. This velvety dark extends throughout the universe. We even suspect that there is a preponderance of dark matter, and dark energy, throughout. But as the poem reminds us, grasping this truth can be taken as an example of personal, perceptual relativity, illuminating the limits of our “eye of practice” (Master Dogen’s coinage):In darkest night, it is perfectly clear; in the light of dawn, it is hiddenSomething there is that comes out at night, but recedes in daylight, recalling the phrase, “How bright and transparent, the moonlight of wisdom,” from Master Hakuin’s poem, Zazen Wasan, “Song of Zazen.” This begs the question: if this light in darkness is not coming from the sun, the moon, or the stars, then where does it come from?In Sandokai, this same point is touched upon some 100 years prior:The spiritual source shines clear in the lightthe branching streams flow on in the darkHere the reference to the single source becoming many streams may be a trope for the five houses of Zen carrying the light of enlightenment into the ubiquitous darkness of ignorance characteristic of civilization. Bringing it down to the personal level once again:In the light there is darkness, but do not take it as darknessIn the dark there is light, but do not see it as lightLight and dark oppose one anotherlike the front and back foot in walkingThe direct experience of light under the intense glare of zazen reveals a vacillation characteristic of all sensory stimulus and sense-data. There is no darkness without light, and no light without darkness. And there can be neither without the observer.Matsuoka Roshi once made the startling declaration, “The light by which you see things comes from you.” In zazen, we begin to witness the nonduality of our so-called internal, versus external, lighting. It seems to originate on both sides of the sensory interface. Further, there is something timeless about it, as reflected in the “Precious Mirror”:Within causes and conditions, time and season, it is serene and illuminatingAnd even further, it is not really dependent upon our understanding of it, or lack thereof:Now there are sudden and gradual, in which teachings an approaches ariseWhether teachings and approaches are mastered or not,reality constantly flowsThe reference here is to the so-called Northern and Southern schools in China after the advent of Huineng, the famous Sixth Patriarch of Ch’an Buddhism, also known as the “gradual” and “sudden” schools of enlightenment, respectively. Of course, sudden and gradual comprise another binary dyad, which dissolves in the nonduality of reality. If there is such thing as enlightenment, it must be both sudden and gradual, simultaneously. The main point is that the reality that Zen points to is constantly flowing, outside of and independent of our ideas about it. It doesn’t care what we think.The earliest poem, Hsinhsinming, seems to verify this same finding:All is empty — clear — self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's powerThat this level of insight is not really accessible through ordinary exertions is easy to understand. But that does not mean it is entirely out of reach. It is some comfort to know that whatever the truth — the Dharma — is, it already is true, and that no amount of mental effort will make that any plainer.Lastly, it should be mentioned that the ancient masters did not suffer fools gladly, but they were willing to appear foolish themselves, if need be. In the last line of the third poem, Master Tozan gives us some friendly advice:With practice hidden, function secretly, like a fool, like an idiotJust to continue in this way is called the host within the hostThe “host” reference is to a Zen teaching model using the “host and guest” analogy as a foil to examine the relationship of self to other, mind to body, subject to object, et cetera — all the binary pairs of seeming opposites the discriminating mind may conjure. The host within the host is the “inmost” reality, in which the apparent separation between inside and outside — a fundamental dyad — disappears. What is left is not one, exactly, but definitely not-two. In society, we can function in this reality without making a big deal of it to others. We can be in our milieu, but not of it, like a fool, like an idiot. And we can continue in this way with no regrets. Please just do your best, on the cushion and off. I bow in gassho to you.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell
Today we celebrate a son of France who developed the first natural classification of flowering plants. We'll also learn about the young female garden writer who teamed up with an Australian botanical illustrator and turned out some fabulous garden classics. We salute the English Poet Laureate who wrote inspiringly about gardens. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a tour book of American Gardens that was just released this past week. And then we’ll wrap things up with the birthday of one of the greatest plant collectors of all time. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” It's just that easy. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and blog posts for yourself, you're in luck because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events November 6, 1777 Today is the anniversary of the death of the French naturalist and botanist Bernard Jussieu. We remember Bernard for developing the first natural classification of flowering plants. And although both Bernard and his brother Antoine were botany professors in Paris, Bernard was the stronger botanist, and there's a famous story about his incredible dedication to botany: One time, after botanizing in Lebanon, Bernard was sailing back to France. Of course, drinkable water onboard a long voyage home would have been a precious commodity. Yet, Bernard Jussieu purportedly shared his precious water with a little Lebanon Cedar seedling he was bringing home. He wanted to plant the little seedling in the Royal Garden, and he was determined to bring the little tree back alive to Paris. The French say the seedling lived to be over 200 years old and grew to eighty feet high. As for Bernard Jussieu, in 1759, he was summoned to Versailles to develop the Royal Botanical Garden at the Petit Trianon. Unassuming and laid back, Bernard quietly began arranging the plants in the garden in a new way. Jussieu's system of organizing plants into a more natural order was revolutionary at the time, and his method was something he wouldn't disclose to others. However, Bernard did put together a catalog of the plants in his garden. Bernard recognized a kindred spirit in his nephew, Antoine-Laurent. Bernard trained him for four years, and when he came of age, Bernard confided his methods of plant classification. As a result, Antoine-Laurent's work extended his Uncle Bernard's ideas around grouping plants. It took Antoine-Laurent Jussieu almost twenty years of refinement and perfecting of his Uncle's work before he finally published it as the Bastille was falling in 1789. Antoine-Laurent Jussieu kept Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature in his book, Genera Plantarum, but he grouped plants by genera and then into families. He called his system natural and strived to let nature be his guide. Today, many plant families can be attributed to Jussieu. Today, there's a metro station near the Paris botanical garden named in honor of the Jussieu family - which boasted five notable botanists in the family over several generations. November 6, 1868 Today is the birthday of the botanist and garden writer Alice Lounsberry. (Note: Online databases report the date of birth as 1873 - which is incorrect as Alice was already two years old on an 1870 census with her brother and parents.) Alice was a New Yorker, and she developed a love for botany as a young girl. In her mid-twenties, she was already serving as a board member for the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). But Alice is best known for her botanical books written with her dear friend and collaborator - the Australian botanical illustrator Ellis Rowan. So we have Alice and Ellis - and here's the fabulous story of how they met. In the late 1890s, Ellis decided to travel to New York. She caused a bit of a sensation during her first trip to the States a few years earlier. This trip was no different - except that Ellis contracted influenza after her arrival, and she needed to be hospitalized. Like Alice, New Yorkers read about Ellis's illness, and they sent cards and flowers to her hospital room to cheer her. Now Alice had an enormous sense of admiration for Ellis, and she felt she needed to do something more personal for her. So, Alice decided to hand-deliver a box of fresh wildflowers she had handpicked to the hospital and gave them to Ellis's nurse. Ellis was thoroughly charmed by the bouquet and the card which read, "From one flower seeker to another - and an admirer of your work." The following day, Alice visited Ellis. Even though Alice was twenty years younger than Ellis, the two hit it off. They spent an entire afternoon discussing botany and their work. When Alice offered to show Ellis where she liked to botanize for wildflowers, it was the incentive Ellis needed to get her health back on track. When Alice invited her to illustrate a book on Wildflowers she had been asked to write, their fates as writer and painter were jointly sealed. Together, they produced three books: A Guide to the Wild Flowers (1899) describing around 500 wildflowers. A Guide to the Trees (1900) describing nearly 200 trees & shrubs. And, Southern Wild Flowers & Trees (1901) where Alice wrote in the preface: "To learn something of the history, the folklore and the uses of southern plants and to see rare ones growing in their natural surroundings, Mrs. Rowan and I traveled in many parts of the south, always exercising our best blandishments to get the people of the section to talk with us. Through the mountainous region, we drove from cabin to cabin, and nowhere could we have met with greater kindness and hospitality." While they were working on their book on Southern Wildflowers, Alice and Ellis's time together was marred by tragedy. They were surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains when a telegram came for Ellis. Her only son, Eric, had died in South Africa. He was 22 years old. After finishing these books, the two women went their separate ways. Alice continued to write after working with Ellis - but without Ellis's artwork, her books failed to attract the same level of popularity. In 1910, Alice wrote a book called Gardens Near the Sea. In this book, Alice shared her thoughts on the garden: “For the garden is not only a place in which to make things grow and to display the beautiful flowers of the earth but a place that should accord with the various moods of its admirers. It should be a place in which to hold light banter, a place in which to laugh, and, besides, should have a hidden corner in which to weep. But above all, perhaps, it should be a place of sweet scent and sentiment.” After suffering a stroke, Alice Lounsberry died at the age of 81 on November 20, 1949. Unearthed Words A garden that you make yourself becomes associated with your personal history and that of your friends, interwoven with your tastes, preferences, and character, and constitutes a sort of unwritten, but withal manifest, autobiography. Show me your garden, provided it be your own, and I will tell you what you are like. – Alfred Austin, British poet laureate, The Garden That I Love, 1894 Grow That Garden Library American Gardens by Monty Don and Derry Moore This book came out just last week, and the subtitle is 100 Contemporary Designs. In this book, the beloved British horticulturist Monty Don and world-class photographer Derry Moore take us on a diverse and mesmerizing tour of American Gardens. Monty and Derry take us on a garden adventure: from Jefferson's Monticello ("MontiCHELLo”) to Longwood Gardens in Delaware to Middleton Place in South Carolina, to Central Park in New York, Bob Hope's Palm Springs garden, Frank Lloyd Wright’s garden, and the Seattle Spheres, and many many more. This book will leave you with a richer understanding of some of America's top gardens with beautiful photography and fascinating garden stories. This book is 224 pages of gorgeous American Gardens, and I think it would make a wonderful gift for the holidays. You can get a copy of American Gardens by Monty Don and Derry Moore and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $38 Today’s Botanic Spark November 6, 1885 Today is the birthday of the British plant collector and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward. During the beginning of the twentieth century, Frank Kingdon Ward went on twenty-four Indiana-Jones-like expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia to search for rare and elusive species of plants. Among his many accomplishments, Frank found the legendary Tibetan blue poppy. Frank’s accounts of his adventures are captivating. In 1942, he arrived in New Delhi after a 500 hundred mile walk over mountains and through jungles. The newspaper account said: "A thin, wiry little man in his 50s, Captain Kingdon-Ward...decided that the Japanese were getting too close for comfort, so he loaded two 60-pound bags of rice on two mules... But instead of taking the short road through the Chaukan pass, [he] decided to travel the 500-mile mule trail through Tibet... [Frank tramped] knee-deep in the snow [and] crossed the Himalayas at the 14,500-foot pass... [Frank said] "It was a pleasant walk and [my] reward is in the finding of dazzling flowers never seen before. You know they may always blush unseen — unless you manage to take them back and make them grow where others can admire them. They are a little bit of the enchantment of Asia transplanted into England or America. It is satisfying enough, if you can feel in an industrial age like the present, that you have brought home a little beauty for others to enjoy."
During Alice's adventures in Wonderland, she found herself in the presence of the King of Hearts. He wanted her to go, so he cited Rule 42: "All persons more than a mile high to leave the court." Heads turned to Alice. "I'm not a mile high," she objected. "You are," said the King. The queen testified that Alice is nearly two miles tall. "Well, I shan't go, at any rate," Alice said "besides, that's not a regular rule: you invented it just now."[0 Min] Alice in Wonderland and Rule 42. A reflection on what rules have been applied to manage Covid 19.[2 Mins] From chevrons on the floor to kids not singing in school, where do you stand?[3 Mins 30] Prof Christofer Toumazou (Regius Professor of Engineering, Imperial College) and a PCR test that is possibly far too sensitive?[5 Mins] We need more granulation on resolution data e.g. discharged through death, with ill health, or effectively well. How do we judge out proportional action?[6 Mins 30] The need for a circuit breaker? Let's discuss this. Don't treat us all like Alice.[7 Mins 30] Are we trying to catch the wind with a sieve? Competing paradigm's in battle.[8 Mins 30] What do you agree with? A CTA to think about all of our filter bubbles. JOIN US on Side Effects - email me at hello@weareten.co.ukLISTEN to this series on iTunes | Spotify | StitcherREGISTER for your FREE Daily Dose of Inspiration by me Matt Pattison [Receive an audio file each day that details insights from my work in health]BOOK TIME with me, on your project or 1:1 mentoringSupport the show (https://weareten.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=4ed5154e0f1cdbad62b378156&id=dc1a8d24c1)
And we are good to go. What is going on? Welcome to episode 352 of the IT in the D show. We are broadcasting live. Bob, can we let’s do one real quick guys. We’re not doing anything scary. This week. Fred Brown is not allowed near this broadcast. I am not staying up until one in the morning. Having conversations with freaked out people. Again, we are broadcasting live from the podcast. He trade autonomous zone here in beautiful betray, Michigan, probably sales guy that the Twitter is doing. The Twitter is find us online@itinthed.com. I don’t know why, because we are it in the D and you still are not even with a pandemic going on. You’re still planting a garden by putting top soil over a grass with styrofoam Cox. It’s a Turrell what’s going on. This is world. This is the world we live in. Are they just doing things to humor me right now? I say, dude, we are in season four of whatever show that we’re all on. And the writers are all trying to get fired so they can move on to better projects. And they’re just making shit up. As they go along. The park is sitting on their hands, trying to release this Chaz episode. They have to, Oh, they are dying. Hey, before we do that, let me go ahead and fire. When ready are you firing? When ready? Now you can carry on. I can’t dude, just watching what’s going on in Seattle. I can’t stop laughing. It’s like, this is a human South park episode. Come to life. This is the onion and Babylon be in the cell park. All had a baby. And do that now, like bikers, like, did anything happen with the bikers that were going out there today? I didn’t know if it was, I don’t like talking about this stuff. I don’t know if it’s real or not. Cause you’re like blinkers are on route and I’m like, Oh, I want to see this. This is like a put paper view on man. This is solved the nationals who doesn’t want to see that? Oh, that would be amazing. I’m not going to lie. You haven’t figured out what’s going on. It’s like there, they be like occupied as six block territory of Seattle and they, and to go against the injustices of the world, they’ve done the same thing. The U S does by building. The very first thing they did was built a wall with checkpoints and our guards fight the power. Apparently there’s some rogue, independent rapper with his entourage. It’s like beating the shit out of why isn’t this a movie like you wouldn’t pay 20 bucks a day to watch the cameras in there. We are living that’s that’s the dude, whoever created black mirror, season six, the fully immersive experience is just a goddamn genius. Like that’s, that’s the only thing I that’s the only way I describe what the hell is going on right now. Mark Burnett. You cancel cops. You don’t give me chance. Come on. Like Howard, do there’s gotta be life. I actually, now that you said that there’s gotta be live feed somewhere. Like there has to be, no, they don’t like there. I was watching something from Steven Crowder and it’s like some guy who was like, Oh, he’s on the scene. Um, and they, like, they took him and beat the shit out of him in and interrogation tent and wanted to see his film. Cause they thought he was a conservative pundit. Um, so there’s like actually 10 and I don’t know if they’re full of shit or not, or making stuff up. You know what I mean? Like, that’d be a 10 ton homo Bay. That’s the thing with these tweets. Like you don’t know if they’re like, like when, when the tweak you wanted to date to, they ran out of food. Cause the homeless people storm the tent. Well, and then you’ve got Fox news using, um, conflated images where they’re like they’re Photoshopping multiple images together to try to paint the situation is worse than it really is. So that’s not helping. So I don’t know what’s going on. I mean basically what the guy said was, uh, well, yeah. Then you also have MSNBC saying, well it’s a street fair. And like, basically it’s not a street fair. I mean they took over sitting on the police station. Well, they didn’t take over city hall. They did. They did take over the police station that the cops pulled out of. Um, yeah, I do that. That’s literally one of those stories that I like, I don’t know what to make of it. Like I, like, I want a movie I will. And you know, dude, Netflix and Hulu are probably both offering just giant bags of money right now to whoever to get film crews in there, you know, to, to get the inside scoop and get a documentary rolling like they did with fire festival. Um, it’s I it’s, it does. I mean like, like if you look at like some posts, it seems like it’s like, I haven’t seen anything like that since a grateful dead concert. And then you look at some posts and it’s like mad max. Like I don’t, I don’t know which to buy into. My favorite line I saw was it was like, it was like a Lollapalooza 92. Those kids finally had kids and they’re there and they grew up hearing all the stories and decided to go ahead and do it. Nice. It’s so stupid. Like, it really was like, like after like day four and they’re like, what are we doing now? I dunno, got any pot what’s going on? And then it’s like burning man. Like all the burning man, people at night. And what are you going to do when you run out of stuff? Because now you’ve got no, cause now you’ve got all the truckers that are saying, I ain’t going in. There are those gardens real. They can’t be real. It’s like, did you see it? And it’s like an eight foot by eight foot. It’s like, they just dumped like six bags on the grass, like playing in it. Like it’s going to be my garden, man. The Brando plant’s grave. Anyway, straps cameras on people like, seriously, you want to, you want to make money? It’s like the George Carlin bit like the mass murders, the square States. Yeah. You fence off all the square States and yeah, Seattle colon Chaz would be the number one show on all of us law and order Chaz rapper ever. I see Wiz Khalifa or whatever. They’ll think Rapper’s name. And it took over the town. All, I don’t see do it. I got nothing. He’s like the judge and they bring everybody in front of him and he’s taking him to Detroit or whatever. I don’t even know where the, you know, I can’t say I don’t mean, I honestly don’t mean to laugh because the, this whole thing was, was built on good intention. I think, I think I want to think not to bring it back to reality, but like there was like, things are starting to happen. Change is starting to happen. And like, but now the ban hammer has gotten a little crazy. I think, um, now you want to cancel cops, which did get canceled and then you cancel live PD and then, and then like, is, did pop patrol get canceled or no, they were, people were lobbying for it, but there’s no. All right. It’s one of those. No, no, no, that people weren’t. It was like two persons were two people on Twitter and it became a Buzzfeed article. Yeah. And then everyone, now everyone talks about, they wanted to ban puppet show, but like, do you like cops was the wa like, I guess I’m wrong. Cops was the one show that I sent will be on until the end of time, because you’ll never have a shortage of dumb people. And apparently I get, I don’t get my fix. No. And like, I understand. So like live PD apparently had an issue where they did film a really, really bad situation. Um, and you know, but like, and, and it is, I mean, I, I understand some of the sentiment, but like now they’re coming after like law and order and they’re coming after, you know, those franchises and that kind of stuff, because they say they, they glorify the police and okay. Anybody who’s ever watched law and order knows that’s not true. I mean, you’ve had cops with drug issues. You’ve had cops, you know, that have been raped. You’ve had cops that have been kicked off the force. You’ve had, you know, DA’s that have been, you know, killed. You’ve had, I mean, it’s, it, it, no, that’s, that’s not what that show is. Like. I think that’s gone with the wind and they have to dump Andy Griffith show. Now, like how far back we go on with this? Well, and so, you know, and we’ve kinda, you know, somewhat joked about this before, but I mean, it’s, it is kind of a real thing. So, you know, Amazon’s talking about pulling the Dukes of hazard, but yet the Jefferson’s is still on the air with George calling everybody honky, you know, so, I mean, is it, you, it it’s, you know, it’s, again, it’s looking for balance. That was the goddamn state flag and, uh, up until, well, how many years ago? Oh, Georgia. Yeah. Yes. Remember that one car that they got all pissy about or like, um, that was the state flag down in those years. Uh, so what do you, what do you, how far are you going to go with this? You know, well, and it’s, you know, and I get it and, and I think a lot of people, you know, like I was talking about it with like, you know, the Christopher Columbus statue getting pulled down and a lot of the, and a lot of the Confederate statues coming down and that kind of stuff. And he’s like, Oh, it’s a racing history. No, it’s not like the history is still there. It’s erasing a monument to dumb shit. Like, like why do you have a statue of a Confederate general in your town center? Here’s a good years ago. It’s on part of obviously lots of the German community. And all of them are talking about how the differences are between keeping Auschwitz up as a Memorial versus bringing, like having generally on a statue. Right. One is to remind people of the atrocities that occurred. They are not, shearing are heralding. There’s nothing to that. Right. Where I think the difference is a lot of these Confederate statues is, um, that they’re, that people view them as heroes. Correct. They’re there, you’re not, you know, the, the, the things that Amish fits in well, and there’s a difference between like an Auschwitz or like the Gettysburg cemetery or, you know, something like that. I don’t see any German statues of Heinrich Himmler. Exactly. Yeah. There’s yeah. Like there’s, yeah. There’s no statues to Himmler or Hitler or anything like that floating around. Um, you know, it’s, it is, I mean, it’s, you know, you look back and you, and especially when you realize that, I mean, the quote, unquote Confederacy only lasted just barely five years. Like it wasn’t like a long period of time in history when that succession happened and it got shut down, you know, like how did it be like, like anyway and not to get to, to go, no. How did they, like from it became state flags. And then all of a sudden it became like the cry of the rednecks. And it became certainly the reality is, I mean, you know, a lot of things are NASCAR and do it in the South. Like, so like I grew up in Virginia and, and, and things are taught like the civil war is not the civil war in the South. It’s the war of Northern aggression in schools. Um, and there are different names for battlefields that are, you know, that are taught, uh, and that kind of stuff. I mean, it, it really is a huge thing. And cause even though the Confederacy itself only lasted five years, what people tend to, I think romanticize is the, I guess for lack of a, for the first word that comes to mind is the antebellum, you know, lifestyle, you know, the, the gentlemen and like the good parts have gone with the wind minus, you know, the slavery and beatings and lynchings and killings and all that stuff. That was like my favorite book. What about all the good things Hitler, right? Yeah. You had the trains. It was great. Uh, but I mean, but no, I mean it’s the, the sad reality is, is people, you know, people romanticized certain facets of that era and, and it became a Confederate pride thing. Uh, and, and so that’s why, you know, the dude that like the South will rise again. You’ll still see that, you know, if, if you drive around, you know, we’re like, I don’t understand people in say Michigan flying them. Cause Michigan, wasn’t a Confederate state and you’ve lived here your whole life and you’ve got a Confederate flag. Nah, you’re just a redneck racist. That’s all. That is a, I mean, you got a lot of people that like their families, like their dads or their grandpas came from the South. Like I remember, um, I remember when Bubba passed and that was like part of his Memorial and that was what four or five years ago. And I joked back then and I go, everyone take a picture and I would go, Oh, no, you were like, no, no, no, no, no. I’m not having my picture taken in front of them. Nobody. I mean, it’s, it’s real. And I mean, it’s, you know, and, and so the, it it’s weird. I mean, I can’t say that I fully understand it. I mean, I grew up around that a little bit. Um, and I have friends that, you know, that were deeply entrenched in it. Um, but it, it never made sense to me. I mean, that’s why I love the, you know, everybody’s worried about, you know, the, you know, they’re not, you know, they’re not doing this and NASCAR, they’re not doing that. And NASCAR. Yeah. Don’t worry. The, uh, the real Confederate flag will still fly in that final lap when they’re waving the white flag for the final lap notification. I mean, that was the funny thing. It’s like, I don’t even watch NASCAR enough to know that that was a thing. So like they’re banning and I’m like, I didn’t know. They were even there so well, so, and it dude, and honestly, so there’s, there’s like something to keep in mind and it’s, and it’s a real powerful message that’s going to right. And we’re going around right now is that of all of the sports NASCAR has come out, banned the Confederate flag, fired a driver for using the N word when yelling at somebody and has, and has, and again has taken all these steps. No, do that. Yes. We had to Google who you were. Oh, that one guy. Yes. No, that was absolutely real. I don’t think so. I looked for it and couldn’t find it. It was so, I mean, that was a guy here that he had been yeah. Had never won a race and yet it was a total idiot. Yeah. But well, but he wasn’t the one, he wasn’t the one that got he, wasn’t the one that got fired. He’s the one that just quit and nobody cared because, well, you’ve never done anything. Um, but no, it’s like, they’ve, they’ve gone out of their way. That’s NASCAR, like the most redneck easiest, like Southern entrenched sport in the nation. What are you doing? NFL NBA, NHL, you know, like it’s, you know, if they can take such a hard line stance on this, where the hell are you during all This ever seen? I don’t, I don’t know. I’ve never been to a game down at NFL game down South. I couldn’t imagine maybe tailgating, but it’s not part of the, see the problem with NASCAR is the fans are in the S in the middle. I’ve heard of the game, like when you’re tailgating or not part of the game in the NFL. Right. So I think maybe that’s, you know, gotcha. Then the tailgating is all done in private property. So it’s, you can’t really mandate anything, you know, you can’t, you’re not going to let flags in the arena and there’s none in the arena. So, I mean, that’s kinda, um, but kind of on a, on an it front, a lot of people are already complaining about it. Not knowing what’s going on. If you haven’t read, uh, it’s on digital attack, map.com, but the U S is under a huge DDLs attack right now. And like 15 major cell carriers, um, are all kind of went poopy. Um, the problem is when you went to that, um, when I sent you that map, David starts at like 2014. So you get a fast forward, Like when you click play. Yeah. So like U S is getting slammed right now. Um, pretty much every major Carrier now is reporting huge outages, sell, sell, even with Verizon’s little press release. I thought that was cute. No, no, no. Everybody other carriers are reporting outages, but not us, but no. I’ve seen people with Verizon that are reporting issues. So I had a friend that called the T-Mobile store and what they told him was that they tried to fire up their five G network and things went haywire and that it would take like two weeks to straighten out. Which one would you want your store telling people that I would obviously turn it back off, turn it back off. That’s where I learned from it. You roll that back from production. I learned that from, I learned what was going on from brick. He goes 20, 20. Great. That’s all we need is for no more internet internet. Can you even imagine? Yeah. You want people to really go crazy, but Hey, when we are on the internet, we, uh, we need our privacy. That’s why all of us have teamed up with our friends, from private internet access. They are an award winning VPN provider with over a million customers all over the world. You can basically encrypt your data connections so you can keep everything you do online, confidential, and secure. Uh, your ISP government or hackers will no longer, longer have access to your data. You get access to over 3,200 VPN servers in 46 countries. When I loaded the thing up, I basically bounced around to six countries and three in the U S just to see what it would do, basically, as fast as you click the button, you’d move to a different server. And they have dedicated apps for all platforms, from windows and Linux to Firestick and more, and you could protect den 10 devices at the same time. 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Um, so basically the only one that knows what you’re doing on the internet is you, you know, guaranteed or pending, you’re not logged on to a whole bunch of things. You know, obviously your identity is going to track it, but Hey, there’s a 30 day money back guarantee. If you’re not completely satisfied with our service, do us a favor. You can get the first 12 months for only $2 and 85 cents per month. That’s less than a, a good cup of coffee, 76% off. Then you get months, months, 13 and 14 are free. Do us a favor, go to www private internet access.com/it. [inaudible] to get started, protecting yourself online today. That’s private internet access.com/it. And the day for 76% off. Nice. That was a good segue there. Joker, by the way, you like that, you know what? I’m going to get into this in a second. I had a bunch of arguments today. One of our guys at work, his name’s Gordon, his last name. So every time they bring them up, I put a flash Gordon gift. I can do a flash. So of course, one of the guys, he’s our, he’s our peer storage engineer. He’s like, what the hell? He’s like 34. He’s like, what the hell is that? Like, it’s flash Gordon. He goes, I don’t know what that means. So I started dropping YouTube clips and they’re like, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen it. I’ve got this huge semantic argument about how flash Gordon is one of the greatest movies ever. And he tried to tell me no. And he think he, I think he knows he’s getting me fired up. Right. It’s easy to do. But, um, I think, uh, I think I got one of my hands. Will you, uh, you, you hated joker. I didn’t hate it. I just said it sucked. And so, okay. So here’s my issues with it. So if you haven’t seen joker tune out for a minute or two, cause we’re going to get a little deep, um, here’s my problem. It was essentially the series finale of st. Elsewhere, uh, as directed by M night Shyamalan. Uh, and it wasn’t complete. It was completely predictable. As soon as the scene happened with the girl down the hall, not knowing who the hell he was. I knew exactly how that movie was ending. And I’ve had, I even said to myself, please, God, let this not be how they’re going to end this movie and sure as shit, that’s how they ended the movie like that. Like that entire movie, essentially being a dream sequence, um, kiss my ass like that. And this is what this, yeah, it was, and this is why DC sucks. And this is why DC, To me, it was American psycho ending where you didn’t know if, you know, he was in prison, then got moved over to Arkham and he did all that shit. Or if he dreamed it all up, like while he was going, like, you know what I mean? To me, that’s how it that’s the ending. It wasn’t necessarily, the whole entire thing was a dream sequence. It was interpreted like it could be, or it couldn’t have been, it could have been real, or it could have, could have been in his head or all, you know, to me it was American psycho. I knew that’s why I loved it. No, sorry. I know that ending can only lead in my opinion to the conclusion that the entire thing was in his head. Um, you know, just whether it’s the, the interactions with the girl that weren’t there, or, you know, like the other stuff that didn’t have. I mean, it’s, it’s, there’s just, no, that is not what that movie should have been. And, and especially after like I did, I liked dude, I thought Aquaman was a great flick. Um, I thought, you know, when Roman was a little long, but it was a good flick. Um, I have high hopes for wonder woman, 84 kind of redeeming it mostly cause I’m looking forward to the soundtrack. Um, but you know, and, and Shizam was good. And, you know, dude, you can’t take a character that has had such buildup like the joker, you know, whether it, you know, from, you know, Nicholson to, you know, Heath ledger and all that stuff and do that to that character. No, like, I, I, that was such a waste of a movie that was a bigger waste of a movie than suicide squad. I, that was, that was terrible. I’m not going to watch it because they just introduced a major renovation of the joker and then completely ignored it. This new joker isn’t related to any other DC movie they have out, there you go. What’s the point. Like I just watched Aqua man this weekend and I thought it was too cliche. Well, how do you think this? How was this joke or not related to any joke or they showed it was Batman origin, Which Batman? I don’t know the, was it the Well, so there’s the no, so Robert Pattinson, Batman. Yeah. Well, and that’s the thing, you know, cause he had, did show, you know, the well, but again, Is it because that was all in his head? Well, I mean, does it or see here’s that’s me. I thought he got thrown into prison when he was, you know, during that whole riot, after the right things, he got thrown into prison and then, you know, so some of it was in his, like, as he was progressing, some of it was in his head. Some of it was, but so how can The riot thing have happened if none of the predicate things were real? Because if not, It wasn’t, I dunno, it was hopping in and out. Yeah. Sorry. I thought it was pretty awesome. It was an awesome watch. And again, if you watch it, like I do with wrestling now, like watch it, like you’re a 12 year old, like granted his, a deeper twelve-year-old, but you know what I mean? I just did. I, did I enjoy it? I enjoyed it for being a different story. Like it wasn’t what I expected at all, which was another reason why I liked it. Um, I don’t know. Well, that’s a totally, like I had heard, like I heard it was dark and I heard it, you know, a lot, you know, in, in, you know, it was a lot of mental stuff and, and that kind of thing, but I still didn’t do it. I didn’t have any expectations walking into it other than God. I hope this is a good movie. Um, And I’m sorry. I think here’s the thing. Like we watched, you know, me and you are entertained by two different things, like right. You watch law and order and pay attention. Um, I watch wrestling and go and burp, like, you know what I mean? Like we, we watched TV and movies for two different reasons. I enjoy, you know, dumb and dumber 73 times, Dude, I’m a dude. I love brain candy. Like I, you know, I’m, I, you know, dude, I’m all about you. My, my taste in TV and movies is not that different than my taste in music. I, I love bubblegum pop, like give me, you know, did I, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched looser for, or, you know, or I’ve watched, you know, any of the other, you know, dumb shows that are out there. Cause I’m going back and watching those instead of watching anything new. Cause I don’t have faith in anything new. Um, but it’s, I, yeah, like I said, I mean just for me, Like from, if you look at it as if you look at it as America, like I looked at it as a parallel for American psycho, like literally you did like what Patrick Bateman, did he really think he was this assassin? Or was he killing people? And no one believed him because he was as wall street, hot shot. Like, you know what I mean? Like, like it, but like in his head he’s killing people while he’s going about his job as a hedge fund manager. Right. That’s kind of what I, that’s kind of what joker was to meet in parallel almost, almost like they ripped off the same story. See, and to me it was a two hour plus version of the five, second vignettes inside of true lies when Arnold Schwarzenegger would have those very vivid dreams of like punching Chet in the face and that kind of stuff. Like it was basically that for two plus hours and, and no shit forever and he’ll, he will always be chat. Um, but no, so I mean, yeah, so like I said, I’m, I hard, hard, hard pass. Um, and, and okay. So, and speaking, cause I did, I watched it cause it was on HBO. I just, when I thought I had the whole HBO go HBO now, HBO, max, HBO, Osho, HBO, like I thought I had that all figured out, you know, they changed everything again. And I want, I do, I want whoever is in charge of this shit. I want them on this show and I want them on this show when we are back in the studio so I can break distancing guidelines and slap them. No, I, I, I want a Jeff Haas slap. They, um, my, of course you get my kid hooked on loony tunes and then I can’t log into max anymore. Why not? They were pretty funny now it’s $15 a month, but I thought, okay, so again, so here’s free for infinity subscribers. Right. And I have HBO and it’s not now and now it’s not. Okay. So it was, it was supposed to be so like maybe I did something wrong because was so yeah. Cause so HBO go is now going and, and, and being replaced with HBO. Max HBO now is staying as like the add on for like Hulu users and people that are Amazon prime members that just want to get it that way. But I thought the whole point was HBO go basically was transitioning into HBO max, where if you had the subscription, it was just going to go ahead and carry forward. You know what the people, uh, I think the same salespeople that are working on COVID with the news or working on HBO. Oh shit. They can’t explain shit. Master good master bad master. Good master, bad master. Good master, bad master. Good. Okay. Speaking of which, we talked about, my one concert got canceled entirely, which I’m sad about my other one got moved to April next year. Um, did you see what the flaming lips are doing? I thought that was hilarious. That was, that was amazing. I thought it was the onion again and it’s not, um, they’re basically they’re performing. I mean, wasn’t it, the daily show that showed it Cole bear area. Um, there there’s basically four. Like it’s all I swear to God boy in the bubble with John, Travolta’s becoming modern, modern art. You can buy it. So I’ve, I’ve actually thought about buying those giant hamster balls. Like you can buy them off Amazon and I’ve legit thought about buying them just to have a couple in the pool. Um, and see what hilarious, when they’re sitting in these things, don’t you fall on your ass? Like they’re not stable. Like no. And you have to be very careful when you walk, because that’s the thing is like, once you start stepping forward, then your back foot starts getting lifted up. And it’s, it’s a whole, like I’m looking at the picture and the crowd there’s like, they allowed like 12 people in a crowd that can fit a thousand. Cause they got these goddamned bubbles in on. And like you can’t move. Where do you pee? Like nice shout, shout out to Ian who just said, forget it. Just rename everything HB know. And again, like what happens if the guy’s on stage and he’s singing, then he wants a bottle of sip of water and he’s got a key. Like he can’t do nothing. You’re stuck in his goddamn John Travolta dude. I don’t even, yeah. I don’t even know, although horrible, although where you’re probably gonna want. One of those is if you’re planning on going to Jami Neuner, cause apparently they’ve said to hell with everything we’re having Javi Nooner anyway, shabby, Nooner, if you’ve never, that’s the biggest cesspool of, I remember the good old days when the worst thing you were worried about catching a job, Nooner was, you know, crabs. There’s nothing worse than going out into the, into like four foot of water. And there’s like 15 dudes with their arms crossed, just staring at you and you all know and you know, they’re all paying every, not a minimum. Cause like no one goes out like to waste deeper water for no reason. And they all come out there, like The kind of conversation you continue to shop. So yeah. So, uh, so not, not that it’s been real high on my social calendar, uh, for the past, you know, I don’t know decade anyway. Uh, but yeah, hard, hard pass on, on Javi Nooner for me again. Yeah. So in some, uh, in some Detroit news, um, what’s going on with project Greenlight, that was kind of a, I thought that was a successful project. It is. Uh, so, and we’ve talked about it on the show before where the, one of the issues with any facial recognition system in general, and this is why you’ve seen, uh, like Microsoft and IBM have both announced, they’re getting out of facial recognition technology. Um, one of the issues is the enormously high rate of false positives, uh, when it comes to people of color. Like, so basically if you’re white, you’re going to be all right when it comes to facial recognition software, um, if you are not, it is as high as I believe, a 70% false positive rate, uh, using facial recognition. Oh, absolutely. So the entire point of it is so it’s, it’s all, you know, and we’ve all seen him if you’ve been downtown, you know, if there’s a green light out front, they’ve got security cameras and stuff that are hooked into the central police department. And so, and this was, and again, we’ve talked about this on the show before the big complaint about it was the use of facial recognition technology. Um, and when are they using it and how are they using it? And, and, and that kind of stuff, because, you know, essentially if it’s on 24 seven, then you’re constantly under surveillance and, you know, the, the DPD came out and said, no, we only turn it on. You know, we only turn it on when it, you know, we get an alert from, um, you know, one of the participating business owners that there’s been a crime and then we activate it and everybody kind of went yeah, right on. So, but this, to your point, this, this whole conversation comes this whole conversation Project Greenlight is that it’s paid a play. Like Sure, you can have security if the police will respond to you, you know, if you pay. Right. So, but so to your point, uh, the reason why he brought this up and the reason why it was on our story list this week is, uh, so the, uh, you know, the protesters, uh, the organizers of the protests and stuff downtown, you know, sat down and met, uh, and had a meeting with, you know, the powers that be, uh, and I believe number two, uh, on their list of demands was get rid of project Greenlight. And a lot of business owners have come out and said, uh, no, uh, because you know, it has helped them increase safety. It has helped them, you know, make their customers feel more safe and help their customers feel more secure and help their employees feel more safe and secure. Um, and so they want it to continue. Uh, so I mean, it’s, it’s going to be an interesting situation to see how that shakes out. Well, you know, my feelings on this crap when it first started, right. I’m like new. Um, and then it gets implemented and then the business owners are like, okay, Hey, you know, what’s the number 23%. Um, crime is down at their establishments. And some of, some of those places go through absolute health, um, trying to serve the public. So, I mean, um, so part of me is like, you know, you know, how do you know it’s not one of those things, how does democracy diet with thunderous applause, right? We’re not, I don’t think we’re there yet having private cameras, private group, private it’s private businesses, far as I’m concerned, it’s surveillance at private business. So I’m, I’m completely fine with that. What are, you know, um, I mean, if you think about it, it is a Very small step beyond us having nest cams in our studios and calling nine one one, if something happens and turning over the footage, it is, it is simply one step further where you have that connection with the police department to be able to instantly transmit them stuff and give them access to your, you know, to that feed and that kind of stuff, because it’s, you know, cameras under their control. Um, so I mean, I, I get it and, but I do, I mean, I, like I said, with the enormously high, false positive rate, I understand the concerns about it. I absolutely do, you know, in a city, you know, depending on which stat you want to listen to 80 to 83% African American, um, you know, it’s, that’s a problem like that. You know, that that’s a huge, I mean, that puts a lot of people at risk, especially in this day and age, That was always the problem. Like, uh, when they had the, uh, the blinking, uh, w with cameras, with like Asians, there was always, there was an issue. It always seems like some of the, so always something with these technologies is always an issue with some someone’s ethnicity. Right. Whether it was that, you know, do you remember that? Or no. Yes. Uh, and then, you know, like, yeah, the facial recognition thing, like, you know, that, yeah. I think that’s the crux, that’s the crux of this whole entire thing is, you know, he matches the description to the use so loosely. Right. Um, which, which, you know, And just for what it’s worth, uh, shout out to, uh, Greg Walters, he’s watching, um, and he had commented that there were plenty of live streams. And I said, Hey, we’d love to see a few links. And so he’s actually throwing links in, into the chat on this video, if you want to catch him later. Yeah, I totally will. Um, so you know what, uh, my favorite, you know, I think this is, uh, if this was Chinese new year, I think 2020 should be the year of the glory hole. I think we should promote that. I think we should make t-shirts. Um, I think this should be a no. So here’s the, this is the, this is how weird this year has gotten, um, the New York city department of health. Um, that’s the best tweet by the way, uh, the New York city department of health encouraging Gloria hosels, not on my 2020 bingo apocalypse bingo card. Nope, absolutely. Was not. Um, and I want to read this for beta, because I think this is hysterical. Um, this is from the department of health. This is not from like Metro to, this is not the onion. This is not even, it’s not even like the Metro times or like New York post or some rag, right. This is a big New York city department of health. Um, make it a little kinky, be creative with sexual positions and physical barriers, like walls that allow sexual contact while preventing close face to face contact. So in essence, a glory hole and a that’s supposed to kill COVID Randy. Um, your thoughts, it’s not going to kill COVID, it’s going to prevent the spread of prevent. Is it though? Did you hear what you hear? What they’re saying? What I’m saying, it’s not going to prevent it. How is it going to prevent it? So I can’t, I can do this in your mouth, but I can’t coffin it. See you’re safe. Hooray. I mean, it is trans, uh, transmitted by respiratory fluids. So if you’re not breathing in breathing out this whole thing this whole year is it’s a throwaway year. It’s so Stupid. Well, and, uh, and keep in mind if you pay attention to the latest conspiracy theorists, the world’s might be the world might be ending on Thursday. Uh, cause apparently they read the, the, the Mayan calendar interpretation. Uh, apparently there’s a thing with the changeover from, uh, to the Gregorian calendar and you add it last AIDS law basically lost eight days a year. And so you add up that number of years and basically the mine, the December 12th, 20, or December 12th, 2012 is now Thursday. Awesome. I’ll see you on the other side. Um, speaking of New York, this is actually newer post and this is a problem going on right now without bars and restaurants and public places being open. Um, there’s no place to take a piss in New York. And so now people are just whipping it out other than the streets and then peeing everywhere. Um, you know, the basically there’s drink windows selling to go cocktails all over the city. Right. Which is fine. But now where do I make PP? And there’s, there’s nowhere to go. Um, basically those as the story says, coworker saw some guy just coming down the street and pulling his pants down to pee. And she was like, nah, not here, man. They actually quoted that as an actual quote, brilliant journalism these days at the New York post. Um, but that’s been an uptake on the street. Most people, um, like go in a corner or I’ve like friends opened their jacket to cover them up. Um, like basically there’s, uh, you know, I mean, back in the day there was to say, you know, bathrooms are for public or customers only right now. They don’t even have them anyway. Well, yeah, cause they’ve got them locked, but well, cause, and that’s the thing, like, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to like all the regulations are coming that are coming out, you know, or that came out for like, you know, bars and restaurants opening. Um, I’ve got two friends that own tattoo shops, a tattoo and piercing shops. And dude like the regulations that came out for them are just absolutely overbearingly, insane. Like I understand what they’re trying to do, but you know, I understand why a lot of places are going, nah, we’re not opening yet new. I could See, I could see for a tattoo parlor. Right. But I like a bar has got almost be as clean as like a fricking surgical Florida hospital. Like it’s this stuff that they’re making them is So over and above Well, or let’s be real, the stuff that they’re supposed to be doing. Like, you know, I was talking to a mutual friend of ours cause I don’t wanna put him on blast, but a mutual friend of ours worked a shift on Saturday. Um, you know, and he, you know, basically said, you know, it was a slow, uh, B even when it got busy, um, you know, people weren’t tipping at well at all. Um, he had at least one walkout on a tab, uh, and he said at one point the door guy looked at him and said, Hey, I’m just going to start letting people in without mass. Cause I just turned away seven people and he was like, Oh hell no, you’re not like, no, no don’t do that. Like, that’s the point of see the thing I don’t get as you walk in with a mask and then you instantly take it off. Well, no, you can take it off. No. So that’s, that’s again, you’re allowed to take it off while you are seated. If you like get up to go to the bathroom, you’re supposed to put it back on. If you’re it it’s exactly. And we, and they wonder, and they wonder why, why, why, why we getting like really like, I can have it off here, but not there. Yeah. And you know, if you’re up and walking around, you are more likely to come in contact with other people outside of your party. Um, and that’s what they’re trying to do is, is, you know, basically limit contact, you know, and it’s, it’s like I said, you know, one of the reasons why, you know, the studio openings got delayed, um, was cause I’ve got, uh, those no touch, uh, you know, infrared thermometers on order and they got delayed. Um, and now they’re going to be here on a Wednesday and I mean, cards on table. I’m not going to lie. That is, I truly believe that that is far more of a touchy feely PR move than it is anything else. Because I mean, you don’t have to have a temperature. I mean, you can be completely asymptomatic and still have it. You can have a temperature, like you can just naturally burn hot and it’s not an issue you could have just like a normal cold and have a fever and it’s not Corona. Um, so I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of, but you know, but heaven forbid we don’t have that in the studios and somebody hops on, you know, Facebook or Twitter or Instagram poke is truly, isn’t doing anything to protect people. Cause you know, that’ll happen. That that’ll be the next thing that happens. That was, that was the thing I was making fun of people at work today. They started installing hockey glass between tables. Like, you know how we sit at like six foot tables, right? Like Ikea tables. And there’s just hockey glass between the tables, what the chairs are. There’s no separation between the people in the chair. So that was like us going to a hockey game. Are you banging on the glass and like chanting at the other people like imagine like glasses on the table, but you can, you can literally put your arm out and touch the person next to you. Right. So of course the guys that are like, they should have their own podcasts. They’re hysterical. I listened to them all day and I’m like, Oh nice hockey glass. I’m helping because they know, right. They’re like, Oh yeah, look, I can just touch Them. You know? Um, well, and that’s the thing. I mean, it’s, I, you know, it’s kinda like the whole Chaz thing. Like I want to believe that all of these rules and regulations are coming from a good place, but it’s just not entirely logical. It, it, to me, it’s just screams of, I don’t want to be public. I don’t want to be on a public freakout video on YouTube and you know, because I am helping, you know, I got my crocheted mascot and Alyssa Milano look, look at me, I’m doing my part. Like it’s, it’s, it’s, I’m doing my part. Are you, we get to become Starship troopers. Like literally this is, this whole year has been like one dystopian movie gone to hell. Oh for sure. Well and contributing to it. I mean, here’s the other downside, you know, especially, you know, with, with so many issues and everything else that people are dealing with over the last three months. Um, you know, so you’ve got the Michigan unemployment agency that’s dealing with, you know, originally they had flagged, I believe they said 340,000 accounts, uh, that is now up to 400,000, uh, that they flagged for being fraudulent and issued stop payments on. And I’ve seen like a lot of friends that are saying that their accounts are one of those ones that are flagged and there’s no, like there’s no way to get in contact with them. Like you’re still on hold forever. You’re still, you know, you can’t get through to somebody to actually like make this go away. And you know, and some people have had it like there for like weeks now. And I mean, and that’s, that’s a huge issue if like, if that’s your only, like, if that’s your lifeline right now, you’re screwed. Yeah, no, it’s good. You know, you’re exactly right. Again. Uh, I, I can’t, you know, I can’t imagine like, here’s the thing, you, you, you have a complete spectrum of people, half of them going, I don’t give a shit and the other half going protect me, save me, public shame, everyone things. Right. And there’s, there’s really, there’s not much, I don’t know. I don’t want to say I’m in between. I’m kind of in between about it. When I go out, I’m safe. I don’t go out that much, but when I do I’m safe. And then for the most part, I’m keeping myself and, you know, um, you know, but I’m not shaming anyone. If I see someone at the store, I’m not going to be like Nicky chill, I’m pulling out my phone and I’m going to post it Well. So, and actually, so there’s a good question. And I was hanging out with the, uh, the tales from the bar side curlier, um, and Remi had gone out, uh, he went out to a bar, uh, this weekend, um, and Lauren is kind of in the same boat I am or like, no, I’m cool. I’m going to wait. So like, you know, yeah. I mean, like I’ve noticed, you know, you’ve been out and checked in at a couple places on Facebook. Like, so what was like, what was the trigger for you that said, Hey, and, and you said you were, you know, you were traveling with, you know, bow and mags. Like, what was the, what was the trigger for you that said, okay, I’m feeling comfortable and safe enough that I’m going to go hit a couple of places That wasn’t a restaurant. That was a takeout window. Oh, okay. I eat my car. Oh, okay. Yeah. There’s picnic tables. It was Doug’s di it was duck delight. And that, uh, that Italian beef stand. Oh, didn’t you didn’t you hit second Base. I did. Okay. Um, yeah, just, you know, And how, like, I’m just curious, like, how did I, I have yet to be in a bar? Like, what was it like? Uh, there was the same two guys that are always there on the right. And there was like four people on the left besides us. Um, and that was, and it was dead quiet. So everybody’s sitting at, like, everybody’s sitting at the bar, is it no bar seating and the table. Okay. Just curious Three tables set up. Um, yeah. You know, I was in there for, you know, piece of pizza and a couple of pops got out. Well, no, I’m just curious. Cause like I know like Detroit shipping company, like they’re getting ready to reopen and they’re basically converting everything to outdoor seating, like, and they basically said, Hey, you know, you’re not going to be able to walk up to the bar and grab a drink. Um, there’s, you know, it’s, it’s basically the inside is going to be open to go to the bathrooms. Uh, everything else is going to be like tableside service. Like, you know, somebody will come take your order for food, somebody who could take your order for drinks and that kind of stuff. Um, at one of the outdoor tables sent me, I’m just, I’m, I’m curious, like, as I’ve, as I’ve heard of people going out, I’m just trying to, you know, me, I’m collecting data points and just trying to figure it out. No, I think, I think it’s a sliding scale as well. Like I just told you, like other people are treating it versus the restaurant. Like some of them are being super precautious about the dive bars, the dive bars don’t give a shit. I’m like, I don’t, you know, I haven’t been to, I don’t know what profession, you will never find a group of people who do not give a shit about the coronavirus more so than walking into a smoke shop. I’m just saying like that. Right. That’s what I’m saying. Like know, And you know, like, you know, again, people kind of, you know, there’s a, there’s a couple of people at work that are like single guys that usually everyday go to the gym and they like, and have a drink once in a while. Right? Like they’ve run out of shit to watch. They’re starting to go stir crazy. They’re working. I mean, I had one guy work a hundred hours last week, rebuilding DFS, because cause, cause that does, what else, what else? Right. I got nothing, you know, he goes out for a run like six in the morning and that’s about, that’s all he has besides being on teams with us. And then, you know, so he’s like F it I’m just rebuilding, you know, rebuild. It took me to SUNY on with a couple of other projects and rebuild a on prem DFS and then like, Okay, cool. It’s done. Like, wait, what’s done. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I got nothing else to do. What am I supposed to do? Um, I wanted to talk about a couple of things that I was kind of mad about too, that I totally forgot about. Apparently now Legos. Um, you can’t by the police station Legos. Do they, did they actually pull that or was that again, I’m one of those bullshit. I believe they pulled all of them, The advertising for them. I, and I think they requested, um, stores to pull them off their shelves, but did not mandate if I recall correctly. Oh, all right. Uh, um, Favorite stories, which just turn those into collector’s items. Just so we’re all clear. You don’t think I look up To go buy one that I’m going to sell it anytime, but you know what I mean? Yeah. One of my favorite stories this weekend, we have like 42 stories, like the liquidity, cause we didn’t get any last week. Yeah. I always like when hackers do do for the good of the public and apparently hackers jammed all those Chicago police scanners with chocolate rain dude, Which was amazing. Well, and we talked about this, I think two weeks ago where, um, one of the protests locations, somebody got ahold of one of the police radios and started playing NWA, uh, over, you know, over it. And so it doesn’t surprise me that this stuff goes on and more power to them. But so on, on the Corona vibe, did this story blew my freaking mind. I’m the guy that got coronavirus, um, was in the hospital and thankfully like he’s got insurance and like, you know, the government has all these programs out to help waive deductibles and that kind of stuff right now because of COVID. Um, yeah, his bill getting out of the hospital was a hundred and some odd pages long, one point $1 million Million. Um, I was, uh, I was showing that to my wife cause she’s in the medical field and I was going through the line by lines and I like the eyes. Well, the guy was seventies. So I mean, he was in and he was in ICU. So like, well, cause He was in an isolation unit as almost every COVID patient is like, I don’t, I don’t think that was like their do their, Oh, everybody that’s a COVID patient is essentially put into ICU. Cause they’re put into isolation rooms, ventilators and all that crap. By the time you’re getting admitted, you’re going into intensive care. I can’t find this story, but I want to say like every day it was like $9,600 For the room. Yeah. Another like another 1100 or $1,200 for the ventilator. Yeah. Oh, but yeah, one point $1 million. And I mean his out of pocket was zero, correct? Yes. I mean, the story got shared from everywhere thinking, Oh my God, Millie knows. But like, um, and you wonder why healthcare costs are going the way they are. Right. Just to be honest. Well, and so, I mean, that’s, you know, the other, I mean, that’s, you know, it’s been interesting, you know, in that same vein, you know, with all of the, you know, off premise, uh, like all the remote learning and all that stuff that’s been going on. Uh, so, you know, Frazier, uh, which is the school district I’m in, um, got approval to basically stay virtual, um, for all of next year for all grades. Um, which is going to be interesting to see how many people choose, um, an opt in to taking that route. The weird thing that went on this year was you, kids could opt for a greater credit that doesn’t affect their GPA. So interesting that most of the kids like had a couple of classes, which their GPA was based on that they were getting A’s in the rest of the classes. They just got credit. So if you have two classes, the 4.0, your grade point is a 4.0 and a, and literally like, this was, this is my, this has been me and my wife’s life for the last Month is every day. Um, your daughter has done 5% of her cover classes. She’s going to fail, blah, blah, blah. And then you go to your kid, it’s due the 12th dad, the up bucket. I’ve had those same conversations. Yeah. You have, you have 12% done. How are you going to get this shit done? Do the 12 dad quit like literally up til four in the morning, the night before and suddenly it’s all done and they did it and they need to ask you 30,000 questions while they’re doing it. Well, the, the, the weird thing was like, they had us doing Khan Academy, shit. It wasn’t even like schoolwork. It was just like stuff they found to make you do. Yeah. It wasn’t like, you know, but like literally they, like, I like, thank God those texts are gone. Cause like literally every day I would get a text. This is your so, and so’s teacher for this class and her kid’s failing, like, how are you failing? She’s failing. Like, and then it’s this whole back and forth like is a teacher full of Shinar? Are you right? Yeah. Who am I supposed to believe here? That’s the thing that’s going to happen. If they decide to go virtual all year at Frazier it’s the kids are going to not do shit until the stuff’s due. And then they’re going to cram it all in, in two days. And then, you know, learning like, you know what I mean? There’s gotta be some sort of mix or some sort of a, you gotta attend to the zoom class, like, Oh, Oh, that’s totally what, yeah. There’s, there’s still gonna be some of that. Um, Oh God, I can’t believe when we were talking about like pop patrol and that kind of stuff. So apparently they’re going to go back, uh, or actually they’re not going to go back, but they’re moving forward. Um, Elmer Fudd will no longer be carrying a gun on HBO, max. I don’t think there were many of him having a gun. And there was a, he was a pool runner. Yeah. It was scrubbed down. Really? One of the greatest, one of the greatest bugs bunny episodes of all time, the Leopold episode where the guy was Leopold. Yeah. The guy was coughing in the front row and he pulls out a six shooter, blows the guy away. Here’s the thing we grew up on that shit. We didn’t, we all knew the difference. We knew it was a cartoon and not real. We didn’t realize the racist undertones till we were like in her late. So those were some of the older ones let’s be clear. I mean, those were some of the, like the old Injun Joe and like, you know, the, the Jack and the Japanese guy. Yeah. Those, some of those. Yeah. But Hey dude, we were exposed to cross recipe. Dude. Bugs bunny was like the first cross-dresser I was ever exposed to. Right. There was nothing like it. Like, here’s the thing, like when you’re kids, you don’t care. Like that’s the one who like learn behavior and all that. I’m like, I didn’t go, I didn’t bomb anyone. Like, like that was the thing that sucked. I didn’t run upstairs and put on one of my mom’s dresses. Try to be bugs bunny. No. Yeah. The Wiley coyote road runner, there was like no dynamite. Oh yeah. They stopped showing the poof when he hits the bottom, you had a bunch of dynamite though. Was there? Yeah, like he was, uh, at the pool episode, uh, bugs, pretending he was a lifeguard and said no swimming without a buddy. So he, uh, gives a dynamite dummy to Elmer Fudd, Elmer floods grabs him and then he explodes. But what’s, I mean, Hey Randy, for the record, um, Greg chimed in and he’s having a flashback to the whole glory hole discussion, uh, he said, Hey, uh, it’s, it’s been found in semen as well. There’s something I never thought I would have to type screenshot that great, great moments with our members. We, we do what we can, you know, in, in these struggling times. No, that’s what I put, uh, the best response I sought of Elmer Fudd thing was obviously some tweet from somebody who said, I’m sure that Molotov cocktails and milkshakes and pellets of brick would be acceptable to placements being a Molotov cocktails. Did you see that? Uh, closed captioning transcription error where they put a mazel Tov cocktails? Oh my God. That was an amazing picture of the Orthodox Jewish guy. When I was reading the article about, uh, the U S military might be losing the trademark to a space force, Netflix series. Have you watched it? No. I still have not broken down into watched it yet. We, the Orville office is I like to call, um, it’s um, I don’t want to say it’s not good. It’s not what I expected. I’ve heard good things. I’ve heard some good things about like, you know, the problem is with these, with some of these actors is when they be, when they get a little bit too old, they become characters of themselves. Yes. Like, well, and some of them become caricatures of themselves. Yeah. That’s what I just said. Um, Oh, you said, you said characters. I didn’t know if you meant, like they were like here at characatures themselves. You know, like John Malcovich is in this any he’s like, he’s like, um, God, what’s the guy’s name that just got busted for all the porn in Hollywood. It’s like him doing Epstein. John. Malcovich not Epstein all of the actor that was in Kevin Spacey, Spacey thing. It’s like Spacey. It’s like Spacey doing Malcovich like, everything’s not [inaudible]. And it just it’s really it’s Eric doing? Walking. Eric does a good walking notes. It’s like a bad, it’s like a bad person. But like, um, corral is like always going to be corral from the office. Like, yeah. It’s just before the 40 year old Virgin. One of the two. Yeah. Right, right. And it’s not, I went into it wanting to like it. I still might like it again, but it’s like, it was just, it was a tough watch. It really is. Like you had to wait a half an hour for like a good one line. You expect it to be like yuck, yuck, like the office that you would think so. And it wasn’t, it was not the Orville office. All right. Hey, before we, before we roll, Hey, capital one knows life. Doesn’t alert you about your credit card. That’s why they created, you know, the capital one assistant that looks out for surprise credit card charges like over tipping, duplicate charges or potential fraud, then sends an alert to your phone and helps if you need to fix them another way, capital one is watching out for your money. When you’re not capital one, what’s in your wallet. See capital one.com for details. I always want to read the end, like really fast. Like the old micro machines guy have a little one, a little like another thing that went on, like we always talk about TV and crap. I was, I was, dorked like, nothing’s better than formula. If you’re a formula one fan at all. No. Like one out of a hundred races are in the rain. So like Sunday morning, soccer’s over. I flipped ESPN formula one and it’s in the rain and I’m gigged and I’m like sweet. And I’m texting Tulio. I’m guessing there’s a lot more crashes when that happens. Uh, no, it’s just, it just like with the mist and everything, it’s just really cool to watch. It was F in video game. They were televising it and they’re using it in like the cinematic view. So it looked cool. Like I got, literally I got angry. Like I want, you know, not that I want, I’m dying for sports to come back. You know, premier league guy, apparently it’s starting back this week. So I want to see how England is tackling it versus, uh, Germany with this, with the chance in the crowd. I’m hoping that they, uh, learn some tips, um, who does, Oh, Hey. Before I forget, uh, you were, we were talking about the whole space force thing. Um, the reason why the U S government will probably lose, um, any rights to it is that Netflix is smart. Um, and as soon as that project got greenlit, they filed all the trademarks, uh, everywhere for the words, space force. Um, and so, yeah, because why wouldn’t they, uh, and, and yeah, so we’ll, we’ll see how that plays out. That should be, that should be fun to watch. Can you declare eminent domain on a trademark? Well, who’s done space for us since Reagan anyway, or what did he call it? What did Reagan that was star Wars. That was star Wars. That was actually called star Wars. Did you see, what did the article I sent the movie called? Was it star scream? God bless it. Oh, no. You a star crash 1978. You through that. And I, I saw it like I it’s on Amazon prime if I recall correctly. Yes. So the reason I watched those under my recommended on YouTube, and some guys said that this movies, star Wars stole off this movie, but in actually in actuality, it’s reverse. I was like, yeah, well, cause he have it’s 78. That would be after star Wars. So, yeah. Right. So like, imagine like the it’s so bad. The count is like, from like a, a Mexican spectation station film, like Dracula, like that’s what he looks like. He was almost, um, like, it just it’s. So over the top then there’s David Hasselhoff is the, is the hand solo. Um, the guy that the guy that’s playing Luke is like the greatest American hero, but if he was a meth head, um, and then the princess Leia is like Barbarella, like Playboy playmate and Barbara Allah clothes. And like, it’s so bad. Like the opening, the opening scene is like a crawl. What was that battle beyond the stars? Do you remember that one? No. It had John boy in it. Um, and it had the Valkyrie, which was basically the blonde Elvira in the super revealing dress. Um, yeah, so same. And it was like right out. So yeah, same kind of thing. Doesn’t surprise me. But like the, the, the, the, they tried or they thought that this was like pre star Wars and Lucas stole it. You know what I mean? But like now, like, you know, then they found out it’s done a year after
Tanja is an entrepreneur, product leader and working mum based in Switzerland. After co-founding and scaling several start-ups in Madrid, Munich and Zurich, she is now leading her own company Product Academy as part-time CEO (40%) while also taking care of her two toddlers. Like Alice in Wonderland, Tanja usually thinks of "as many as six impossible things before breakfast" and can't go one day without eating chocolate. Listen to this interview and discover how Tanja balances part-time entrepreneurship and family time in order to find a sustainable work-life balance.
This is our first episode recorded in Alice Springs. Alice Springs is about 1,500kms south of Darwin, in the heart of Australia, but still in the Northern Territory. It is the second biggest city in the Northern Territory after Darwin, with a population of about 30,000. Pippa Tessmann has been a resident of Alice Springs for more than 30 years. She arrived from England as a backpacker and loved the place so much, she stayed. Pippa is a physiotherapist and runs her own business; Alice Springs Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic. She talks about her arrival in Alice Springs and her life in the red centre. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/territorystory/message
UNCUT VERSON - FIRST PLOG EPISODE Imagine lying in bed, in the middle of the night. You’ve woken up fully alert and switch on your bedside lamp. Your mind is ready to start the day, yet your body is heavy knowing it’s still dusk. You just lay there, looking up at the roof. Your eyes wandering from one corner of the ceiling to the other. Tilting your head to look over at the dresser, you see a family portrait, candle holders, an ornament you bought from an overseas trip; but it doesn’t give you any emotion or thought. You’re just blank! As blank as a canvas! So, you just stare and stare and stare. That’s my interpretation of “Writer’s Block”. It’s the most dreadful experience. It can happen in the middle of a story or at the end; as you’re wrapping it all up. In my case, it usually happens at the beginning. I had a marvellous response to my blog last week about learning lessons from my recent relationship. It wrote about the internalising and questioning yourself type stuff we all go through. Doubt kicks in and I ask myself “But what will I write about now?” “What next?” I have so many stories to tell that I don’t know where to begin. I thought about looking back at my past and working my way forward. Like Alice in Wonderland I think about my past actions. I dissect and analyse; innocently trying to make sense of utter nonsense. But I’m not the same person I was yesterday and what I will do today, will impact what lies ahead. Besides, I don’t want to go back. Instead, I choose to write about the here and now. Right now, in the present moment; is where I need to be. I’m sitting up against my bedhead with a blanket pulled up high; keeping me toasty during this miserable, yet satisfyingly rainy day. This is my “writers desk”! The place where my imagination runs wild and free. Oddly, it’s also the place I can feel empty and numb. It’s the future that scares me; the fear of not knowing. I suppose it’s because right now, at this present moment; I am confused and lost. My only wish is to grow small, small enough so I can somehow see the bigger picture. To see “where” it is that I need to put my focus. With all the work I have done through personal development, I know that I need to put myself first. Along with that comes my daughter. We are a package. She’s a seedling I am nurturing, watering and shining light on; so she can grow strong and evolve into a wise respectable woman. My business; Aquatique, Holistic Beauty & Skin Therapy, is also important to me. It’s a place where I feel most comfortable and my clients become my friends. Twelve years on, I still love my job but it’s more practical than bringing out my idealistic, dreamy and sensitive self. My passion is communication and I have so much to say. In fact, it’s why I have created this new path for myself. My aim is to inspire others to express themselves authentically by aligning the heart with the head and speaking truth. So, today I write about the struggle of writer’s block. Of putting down in print what I’m living in this present moment. Letting others know that it’s OK to have that blank, emptiness and to allow yourself to feel it, sit with it, embrace it. The confusion about the past and future and understanding that knowing yourself in the present is all you really need. To focus on your internal self, rather than the external. For the truth lies within. “Go inside you, feel the silence, use the eternal now that rules the past and the future.” ~ Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel How does one do this? Well, firstly, if you have struggled to live in the present moment, you need to admit to yourself you have been living in the past. Samantha from Sex & The City put it quite perfectly to those still living in the past, “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda!” Talking about your past is like reliving your story instead of creating a new one and moving forward. It took me till my 36th year to actually embrace the present and to find a way to do it simply. I met with a fellow life mentor, Toni-Maree Hannan. She taught me a great way to ground myself. I practise it daily and it is effective. I would love to share this technique with you. Sit upright and ground both feet on the floor. Close your eyes and breath in through your nose, fill your tummy like it’s a balloon and release. Concentrate on your breath, breathing in and releasing. Do this for 5 minutes. Then, as you are starting to feel connected with yourself, think about the 3 most important things you need to do for the day. No more. No less. Complete these tasks within the day. Keep your mind active thinking of the tasks at hand. If you do this daily, you will begin to start living in the moment. The anxiety of the future will ease. The guilt of the past will fade. I encourage you to move past your writer’s block and begin anew. In the present. LJ Lisa Jane is based in the northern area of Melbourne, Australia. She is an aspiring writer, with a magnetic smile and charismatic in nature. She educates and entertains with her stories bringing balance to any life experience. Lisa Jane is a separated mother; who in the present moment is choosing to stay single, co-parenting with her daughter’s Father whilst running her Holistic Beauty & Skin Therapy salon; Aquatique. Lisa Jane hosts a podcast: Yummy Mummy since 2017. Where she will make sense of what it means to be a parent, partner and lover in modern society whilst staying true to yourself. Follow Lisa Jane;facebook.com/YummyMummyPodcast Instagram: Yummy Mummy Podcast
Episode 75 (Franco-Files Pt. 2) Next stop on our journey through the world of Jess Franco is his haunting 1971 fever-dream A Virgin Among The Living Dead. Traveling to Portugal, naïve orphan Christina Bentham (Christine von Blanc) arrives at Montserrat Mansion for the reading of her father’s will, and is introduced to her family of decadent layabouts (including Franco regulars Britt Nichols, Howard Vernon, Paul Müller and Franco himself as the retarded manservant Basilio), and the mysterious Queen of the Night (Anne Libert). Like Alice’s trip through the looking glass, Christina’s voyage will tempt her beyond the boundaries of the logical. Without entirely abandoning the necessary sleaze, Franco creatively infuses this gothic premise with some of the most memorably poetic and surreal images of his entire career.You can Support PsychotroniCast by subscribing to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Happy New Music Friday, and welcome to the Hack Music Theory show! So, Alice in Chains, new album out today, woohoo!!! I've been a fan since their debut album dropped way back in 1990, so I'm super stoked to reveal the secret formula behind this band's unique fusion of dissonant riffs and catchy vocals. But first… Tea! GUITARJerry Cantrell's riffs are legendary! For three decades, he's been walking the line between metal and rock. By taking the dissonance of metal and combining it with the accessibility of rock, Jerry created an instantly-recognizable style. And if you wanna dam the river of Cantrell and syphon off a little for yourself, you'll need those two elements. So firstly, create that dissonance by using the Phrygian or Locrian mode. Then secondly, create that accessibility by using a slower tempo and fewer notes. Alright, so what you see on your screen is the riff that we wrote using the music theory from Jerry's riffs. We're in the Locrian mode here (our root is D♯), and we're at 67.5 BPM, which is the tempo of their song “So Far Under”. Right, so we've got four loops of the riff here, and the first thing you'll notice is that the riff consists of two sections: the first section is made up of 1/16 notes, and the second section is just one long note. And this is another clever hack of Jerry's, where the guitar and vocals take turns for your attention, which prevents things from ever getting overwhelming (like they do in metal). So we kick things off with a few 1/16 notes that really emphasize the dissonant Locrian vibe (♭2 and ♭5), then we restrain ourselves by just hitting one long root note while the vocals have their turn in the spotlight. And lastly, depending on how full you want your riff to sound, you can play it as single notes, or “power chords”, or a combination of the two. VOCALSVocals are catchy when they're easy to remember and sing. And while singing in the Phrygian or Locrian mode is easy for William DuVall, it sure ain't easy for most people, and that is exactly why he often uses the pentatonic minor scale as the basis for his vocal melodies. And yes, when done right, pentatonic minor melodies work great over the top of Phrygian or Locrian riffs. However, limiting your vocal melodies to only five notes (pentatonic) will get boring quick, so that's why every now and then William throws in a spicy non-diatonic note, which is a note that is not in the key. Alright, so what you see on your screen is the vocal melody that we wrote using the music theory from William's melodies. And underneath that is the guitar riff, but that's muted (it's just there for reference). So you can see we've got this descending vocal line coming down through the pentatonic minor scale, starting up at the ♭3, then hitting the 1, ♭7, 5, 4, and landing on the ♭3 an octave lower. Then the second time through, for variation, we throw in a spicy William note, which is actually that happy major 3rd note. And that gives us a little glimmer of hope, but only a 1/16 of hope, cos this is Alice in Chains after all haha! Also, you'll notice there's a little controlled clashing where we have a ♭5 in the guitar at the same time as a 5 in the vocals, but the ♭5 in the guitar is just a quick 1/16 note, so it sounds super tasty and not too clashy! MOREOkay, so now that you've got one section down, how do you write a new section for it, and then, how do you transition between those two sections? Great questions, and if this is something you need help with, then check out our cutting-edge online apprenticeship course, where you'll literally learn every step of the music making process, and most importantly, you'll learn how to finish your songs! NEXTAnd just before the playthrough. Please note, we intentionally wrote the music and lyrics of our example to be very similar to Alice in Chains, but we did that for the sake of this lesson. So, instead of copying Jerry and the boys, please explore how you can use this hack creatively with your own musical personality, so it sounds like you! Also, if you truly wanna get that Alice in Chains sound, you're gonna need an ultra mega powerful world-class male vocal, like Layne and William, so we called up the best singer we know: Meyrick de la Fuente. And big up respect to Meyrick for jumping in on such short notice. If you wanna hear more of this dude's phenomenal singing, then check out his awesome band Exist Immortal, who, by the way, also happens to contain a couple of my former students - wassup Kurt and David (#ProudTeacher). Alright, that's it! We really hope you found this video helpful, and if you did, subscribe and hit the bell to get notifications. Also, we believe in sharing our knowledge for free. So please pay it forwards by teaching this hack to a friend, so they can benefit from this lesson as well. Yeah I've been teaching music theory for 24 years, so I can safely say that the best way to learn something, is to teach it to someone else. So, go forth and teach! On that note, thanks for joining the Hack Music Theory revolution, and we'll see you next New Music Friday. Kate & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony)Music Teachers & Producers in Vancouver BC, Canada LEARN1: Read our free book (below) & watch our YouTube videos2: Read our "Part 1" book & "Songwriting & Producing" PDF3: Learn our Secret Art of Song-Whispering, and effortlessly finish your music! ABOUTHack Music Theory is the pioneering notation-free method for making great music. Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé (and wife) Kate Harmony, from their studio in Vancouver BC, Canada. Ray is the author of critically-acclaimed book series "Hack Music Theory", and has made music with Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and many more. Kate has the highest grade distinction in Popular Music Theory from the London College of Music, and is the only person on the planet who's been trained by Ray to teach his Hack Music Theory method! While these Hack Music Theory YouTube lessons teach music theory for producers and DAW users, they are designed to accommodate all music makers (songwriters, guitarists, etc.) and all genres, from Electronic Music to R&B, Pop to Hip-Hop, Reggae to Rock, EDM/Dance to Metal (and yes, we djefinitely Djent!). Wooohooo!!! You're a mere 30 minutes away from being even smarter than you already are. Just head on over to your inbox now for your free download. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. “The most brilliant, fast, easy & fun music theory book I've ever seen!” DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. 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Happy New Music Friday, and welcome to the Hack Music Theory show! So, Alice in Chains, new album out today, woohoo!!! I’ve been a fan since their debut album dropped way back in 1990, so I’m super stoked to reveal the secret formula behind this band’s unique fusion of dissonant riffs and catchy vocals. But first… Tea! GUITARJerry Cantrell’s riffs are legendary! For three decades, he’s been walking the line between metal and rock. By taking the dissonance of metal and combining it with the accessibility of rock, Jerry created an instantly-recognizable style. And if you wanna dam the river of Cantrell and syphon off a little for yourself, you’ll need those two elements. So firstly, create that dissonance by using the Phrygian or Locrian mode. Then secondly, create that accessibility by using a slower tempo and fewer notes. Alright, so what you see on your screen is the riff that we wrote using the music theory from Jerry’s riffs. We’re in the Locrian mode here (our root is D♯), and we’re at 67.5 BPM, which is the tempo of their song “So Far Under”. Right, so we’ve got four loops of the riff here, and the first thing you’ll notice is that the riff consists of two sections: the first section is made up of 1/16 notes, and the second section is just one long note. And this is another clever hack of Jerry’s, where the guitar and vocals take turns for your attention, which prevents things from ever getting overwhelming (like they do in metal). So we kick things off with a few 1/16 notes that really emphasize the dissonant Locrian vibe (♭2 and ♭5), then we restrain ourselves by just hitting one long root note while the vocals have their turn in the spotlight. And lastly, depending on how full you want your riff to sound, you can play it as single notes, or “power chords”, or a combination of the two. VOCALSVocals are catchy when they’re easy to remember and sing. And while singing in the Phrygian or Locrian mode is easy for William DuVall, it sure ain’t easy for most people, and that is exactly why he often uses the pentatonic minor scale as the basis for his vocal melodies. And yes, when done right, pentatonic minor melodies work great over the top of Phrygian or Locrian riffs. However, limiting your vocal melodies to only five notes (pentatonic) will get boring quick, so that’s why every now and then William throws in a spicy non-diatonic note, which is a note that is not in the key. Alright, so what you see on your screen is the vocal melody that we wrote using the music theory from William’s melodies. And underneath that is the guitar riff, but that’s muted (it’s just there for reference). So you can see we’ve got this descending vocal line coming down through the pentatonic minor scale, starting up at the ♭3, then hitting the 1, ♭7, 5, 4, and landing on the ♭3 an octave lower. Then the second time through, for variation, we throw in a spicy William note, which is actually that happy major 3rd note. And that gives us a little glimmer of hope, but only a 1/16 of hope, cos this is Alice in Chains after all haha! Also, you’ll notice there’s a little controlled clashing where we have a ♭5 in the guitar at the same time as a 5 in the vocals, but the ♭5 in the guitar is just a quick 1/16 note, so it sounds super tasty and not too clashy! MOREOkay, so now that you’ve got one section down, how do you write a new section for it, and then, how do you transition between those two sections? Great questions, and if this is something you need help with, then check out our cutting-edge online apprenticeship course, where you’ll literally learn every step of the music making process, and most importantly, you’ll learn how to finish your songs! NEXTAnd just before the playthrough. Please note, we intentionally wrote the music and lyrics of our example to be very similar to Alice in Chains, but we did that for the sake of this lesson. So, instead of copying Jerry and the boys, please explore how you can use this hack creatively with your own musical personality, so it sounds like you! Also, if you truly wanna get that Alice in Chains sound, you’re gonna need an ultra mega powerful world-class male vocal, like Layne and William, so we called up the best singer we know: Meyrick de la Fuente. And big up respect to Meyrick for jumping in on such short notice. If you wanna hear more of this dude’s phenomenal singing, then check out his awesome band Exist Immortal, who, by the way, also happens to contain a couple of my former students - wassup Kurt and David (#ProudTeacher). Alright, that’s it! We really hope you found this video helpful, and if you did, subscribe and hit the bell to get notifications. Also, we believe in sharing our knowledge for free. So please pay it forwards by teaching this hack to a friend, so they can benefit from this lesson as well. Yeah I’ve been teaching music theory for 24 years, so I can safely say that the best way to learn something, is to teach it to someone else. So, go forth and teach! On that note, thanks for joining the Hack Music Theory revolution, and we’ll see you next New Music Friday. Kate & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony)Music Teachers & Producers in Vancouver BC, Canada LEARN1: Read our free book (below) & watch our YouTube videos2: Read our "Part 1" book & "Songwriting & Producing" PDF3: Learn our Secret Art of Song-Whispering, and effortlessly finish your music! ABOUTHack Music Theory is the pioneering notation-free method for making great music. Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé (and wife) Kate Harmony, from their studio in Vancouver BC, Canada. Ray is the author of critically-acclaimed book series "Hack Music Theory", and has made music with Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and many more. Kate has the highest grade distinction in Popular Music Theory from the London College of Music, and is the only person on the planet who's been trained by Ray to teach his Hack Music Theory method! While these Hack Music Theory YouTube lessons teach music theory for producers and DAW users, they are designed to accommodate all music makers (songwriters, guitarists, etc.) and all genres, from Electronic Music to R&B, Pop to Hip-Hop, Reggae to Rock, EDM/Dance to Metal (and yes, we djefinitely Djent!). Wooohooo!!! You’re a mere 30 minutes away from being even smarter than you already are. Just head on over to your inbox now for your free download. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. “The most brilliant, fast, easy & fun music theory book I’ve ever seen!” DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK /* Layout */ .ck_form { /* divider image */ background: #EAE9EA url(data:image/gif;base64,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) repeat-y center top; font-family: 'Montserrat'; line-height: 1.5em; overflow: hidden; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; border-top: none; border-top-color: #666666; border-bottom: none; border-bottom-color: #3d3d3d; -webkit-box-shadow: none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow: none; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px; } .ck_form, .ck_form * { -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; } #ck_subscribe_form { clear: both; } /* Element Queries — uses JS */ .ck_form_content, .ck_form_fields { width: 50%; float: left; padding: 5%; } .ck_form.ck_horizontal { } .ck_form_content { border-bottom: none; } .ck_form.ck_vertical { background: #fff; } .ck_vertical .ck_form_content, .ck_vertical .ck_form_fields { padding: 10%; width: 100%; float: none; } .ck_vertical .ck_form_content { border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa; overflow: hidden; } /* Trigger the vertical layout with media queries as well */ @media all and (max-width: 499px) { .ck_form { background: #fff; } .ck_form_content, .ck_form_fields { padding: 10%; width: 100%; float: none; } .ck_form_content { border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa; } } /* Content */ .ck_form_content h3 { margin: 0px 0px 0px; font-size: 0px; padding: 0px; } .ck_form_content p { font-size: 14px; } .ck_image { float: left; margin-right: 5px; } /* Form fields */ .ck_errorArea { display: none; } #ck_success_msg { padding: 10px 10px 0px; border: solid 1px #ddd; background: #eee; } .ck_label { font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; } .ck_form input[type="text"] { font-size: 16px; text-align: center; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 8px 8px; width: 100%; border: 1px solid #d6d6d6; /* stroke */ -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; border-radius: 30px; /* border radius */ background-color: #fff; /* layer fill content */ height: auto; } .ck_form input[type="email"] { font-size: 16px; text-align: center; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 8px 8px; width: 100%; border: 1px solid #d6d6d6; /* stroke */ -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; border-radius: 30px; /* border radius */ background-color: #fff; /* layer fill content */ height: auto; } .ck_form input[type="text"]:focus, .ck_form input[type="email"]:focus { outline: none; border-color: #aaa; } .ck_checkbox { padding: 10px 0px 10px 20px; display: block; clear: both; } .ck_checkbox input.optIn { margin-left: -20px; margin-top: 0; } .ck_form .ck_opt_in_prompt { margin-left: 4px; } .ck_form .ck_opt_in_prompt p { display: inline; } .ck_form .ck_subscribe_button { width: 100%; color: #fff; margin: 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px 8px; font-size: 18px; background: #d74128; -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; border-radius: 30px; /* border radius */ cursor: pointer; border: none; text-shadow: none; } .ck_form .ck_guarantee { color: #626262; font-size: 12px; text-align: center; padding: 5px 0px; display: block; } .ck_form .ck_powered_by { display: block; color: #aaa; } .ck_form .ck_powered_by:hover { display: block; color: #444; } .ck_converted_content { display: none; padding: 5%; background: #fff; } /* v6 */ .ck_form_v6 #ck_success_msg { padding: 0px 10px; } @media all and (max-width: 403px) { .ck_form_v6.ck_modal .ck_close_link { top: 30px; } } @media all and (min-width: 404px) and (max-width: 499px) { .ck_form_v6.ck_modal .ck_close_link { top: 57px; } }
Happy New Music Friday, and welcome to the Hack Music Theory show! So, Alice in Chains, new album out today, woohoo!!! I’ve been a fan since their debut album dropped way back in 1990, so I’m super stoked to reveal the secret formula behind this band’s unique fusion of dissonant riffs and catchy vocals. But first… Tea! GUITARJerry Cantrell’s riffs are legendary! For three decades, he’s been walking the line between metal and rock. By taking the dissonance of metal and combining it with the accessibility of rock, Jerry created an instantly-recognizable style. And if you wanna dam the river of Cantrell and syphon off a little for yourself, you’ll need those two elements. So firstly, create that dissonance by using the Phrygian or Locrian mode. Then secondly, create that accessibility by using a slower tempo and fewer notes. Alright, so what you see on your screen is the riff that we wrote using the music theory from Jerry’s riffs. We’re in the Locrian mode here (our root is D♯), and we’re at 67.5 BPM, which is the tempo of their song “So Far Under”. Right, so we’ve got four loops of the riff here, and the first thing you’ll notice is that the riff consists of two sections: the first section is made up of 1/16 notes, and the second section is just one long note. And this is another clever hack of Jerry’s, where the guitar and vocals take turns for your attention, which prevents things from ever getting overwhelming (like they do in metal). So we kick things off with a few 1/16 notes that really emphasize the dissonant Locrian vibe (♭2 and ♭5), then we restrain ourselves by just hitting one long root note while the vocals have their turn in the spotlight. And lastly, depending on how full you want your riff to sound, you can play it as single notes, or “power chords”, or a combination of the two. VOCALSVocals are catchy when they’re easy to remember and sing. And while singing in the Phrygian or Locrian mode is easy for William DuVall, it sure ain’t easy for most people, and that is exactly why he often uses the pentatonic minor scale as the basis for his vocal melodies. And yes, when done right, pentatonic minor melodies work great over the top of Phrygian or Locrian riffs. However, limiting your vocal melodies to only five notes (pentatonic) will get boring quick, so that’s why every now and then William throws in a spicy non-diatonic note, which is a note that is not in the key. Alright, so what you see on your screen is the vocal melody that we wrote using the music theory from William’s melodies. And underneath that is the guitar riff, but that’s muted (it’s just there for reference). So you can see we’ve got this descending vocal line coming down through the pentatonic minor scale, starting up at the ♭3, then hitting the 1, ♭7, 5, 4, and landing on the ♭3 an octave lower. Then the second time through, for variation, we throw in a spicy William note, which is actually that happy major 3rd note. And that gives us a little glimmer of hope, but only a 1/16 of hope, cos this is Alice in Chains after all haha! Also, you’ll notice there’s a little controlled clashing where we have a ♭5 in the guitar at the same time as a 5 in the vocals, but the ♭5 in the guitar is just a quick 1/16 note, so it sounds super tasty and not too clashy! MOREOkay, so now that you’ve got one section down, how do you write a new section for it, and then, how do you transition between those two sections? Great questions, and if this is something you need help with, then check out our cutting-edge online apprenticeship course, where you’ll literally learn every step of the music making process, and most importantly, you’ll learn how to finish your songs! NEXTAnd just before the playthrough. Please note, we intentionally wrote the music and lyrics of our example to be very similar to Alice in Chains, but we did that for the sake of this lesson. So, instead of copying Jerry and the boys, please explore how you can use this hack creatively with your own musical personality, so it sounds like you! Also, if you truly wanna get that Alice in Chains sound, you’re gonna need an ultra mega powerful world-class male vocal, like Layne and William, so we called up the best singer we know: Meyrick de la Fuente. And big up respect to Meyrick for jumping in on such short notice. If you wanna hear more of this dude’s phenomenal singing, then check out his awesome band Exist Immortal, who, by the way, also happens to contain a couple of my former students - wassup Kurt and David (#ProudTeacher). Alright, that’s it! We really hope you found this video helpful, and if you did, subscribe and hit the bell to get notifications. Also, we believe in sharing our knowledge for free. So please pay it forwards by teaching this hack to a friend, so they can benefit from this lesson as well. Yeah I’ve been teaching music theory for 24 years, so I can safely say that the best way to learn something, is to teach it to someone else. So, go forth and teach! On that note, thanks for joining the Hack Music Theory revolution, and we’ll see you next New Music Friday. Kate & Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony)Music Teachers & Producers in Vancouver BC, Canada LEARN1: Read our free book (below) & watch our YouTube videos2: Read our "Part 1" book & "Songwriting & Producing" PDF3: Learn our Secret Art of Song-Whispering, and effortlessly finish your music! ABOUTHack Music Theory is the pioneering notation-free method for making great music. Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé (and wife) Kate Harmony, from their studio in Vancouver BC, Canada. Ray is the author of critically-acclaimed book series "Hack Music Theory", and has made music with Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and many more. Kate has the highest grade distinction in Popular Music Theory from the London College of Music, and is the only person on the planet who's been trained by Ray to teach his Hack Music Theory method! While these Hack Music Theory YouTube lessons teach music theory for producers and DAW users, they are designed to accommodate all music makers (songwriters, guitarists, etc.) and all genres, from Electronic Music to R&B, Pop to Hip-Hop, Reggae to Rock, EDM/Dance to Metal (and yes, we djefinitely Djent!). Wooohooo!!! You’re a mere 30 minutes away from being even smarter than you already are. Just head on over to your inbox now for your free download. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. “The most brilliant, fast, easy & fun music theory book I’ve ever seen!” DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. 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Jane Shore lives among the list of the most famous mistresses - along with the likes of Roseamund Clifford, Alice Perrers. Like Alice, Jane lives and loved at the very centre of political power for a while - but unlike Alice, left an attractive reputation. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
When I was six years old, I had my first love affair. Yes, really. Of course, not until years later did I recognize the experience for what it was. But like every first love, it changed my life forever. My father was a jazz musician, so our house was equipped with the best possible sound equipment. He and I loved to listen to music—just about any music available—at full volume, of course. This, my mother, could not stand—which made it, even more, exciting. While my playmates roamed the hills of Hollywood skinning their knees, I would lie on my belly in our living room, listening to music as loud as I could make it. One day, combing through our vast supply of records, I came upon Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." The name meant nothing to me. But I liked the colors on the cover, so I put it on the record player, turned up the volume and flopped down in front of our huge speakers. Strange, mysterious, discordant sound flooded my body, opening a secret door to somewhere deep inside me—a mysterious inner world I had never entered. I didn't know such a place even existed. I trembled with fear and excitement while Stravinsky's music continued to wind its way through my body. I flushed hot and then cold. My heart raced, then calmed. I lost all sense of place and time as I rode the waves of an imaginal sea of sound into unexplored worlds, too numerous to name. I have no idea how long all this lasted. Eventually, even the "boat" carrying me along on vivid images began to dissolve like sugar in water. In a perfect union, the sounds and the child-that-had-been-me swirled into a vortex and became lost in each other. We shared the excitement, fear, longing, fierceness, and sadness. As lovers, we had come together—music and child—in an immediate, passionate, all-encompassing union. Eventually, I found myself at the center of this whirlpool. Then, even the ecstasy of the movement vanished. Like Alice down the rabbit hole, I tumbled—not into Wonderland, but into an experience of unspeakable stillness. Zen practitioners claim this experience is available at any moment to each one of us. For me, it was an indescribable event—beyond space, beyond time, outside thought. Without the slightest possibility of ever being able to describe it, I knew that everything was as perfect as it was meant to be. In the words of Zen Master Daisetz Suzuki, in this place, I would eat when I am hungry, sleep when tired. I knew that "it was fine yesterday and today it is raining." In the words of Julian of Norwich, I was sure that "All things shall be well, and all things shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." My affair with Stravinsky lasted more than four hours. At least, that's what my mother said. "Don't tell me you are still listening to that awful music." She had to raise her voice to be heard above the sounds. "For God's sake, turn it off. Do something useful." So I did something useful. I went to school, then to university where I learned, at least, some of what you are supposed to learn. I earned praises for top marks, went to work, won prizes, gave birth to four children by four different men, raised them on my own, wrote books, made films, gave talks, led workshops, created products for companies, made television programs and so on and so on. In effect, I did what millions of men and women do—I became the breadwinner, the caretaker, the nurturer of people's lives. Through all the years between six and now, my passion for music, painting, books, poetry, architecture and movies has never left me. Far from it. During all of these years, the epiphany of emptiness that Stravinsky brought to me that day and the sense of absolute stillness has never faded. It has made it possible for me to create so many things as well as to explore new places and ideas. It's invited me to move beyond thought towards a place of unity with the rest of the universe. All this continues gnawing at me. I suspect it will never go away, just as the urge to breathe never goes away, no matter how long we try to hold our breath. What I did not know—and this took me scores of years to find out—is that the rabbit hole into which I had unexpectedly tumbled has for millennia, been, described by every culture and religion in the world in one form or another. Nor had I any idea that, at any moment in time, regardless of the circumstances of our lives, it is available to each of us. To Zen Buddhists, this wordless, timeless space represents ultimate reality: That which can only come through immediate experience. In Suzuki's words, "For the sake of those crucial experiences Zen Buddhism has struck out on its own paths which, through methodical immersion in oneself, lead to one's becoming aware, in the deepest ground of the soul, of the unnameable Groundlessness and Qualitylessness—nay more, to one's becoming one with it." It is a state in which nothing is thought or contrived, longed for or expected. It reaches out in no particular direction, yet it knows itself able to handle the possible as well as the impossible. Concentrated, yet so expanded too, such power is both purposeless and egoless. As such, it can be called truly spiritual. Why? I believe because it is charged with an awareness that spirit is present everywhere. Because the cosmos is present everywhere, we too are present everywhere. We can have direct experience of this, and access the power that continues to create the universe itself. And we have full access to that power of creation to use in our lives, in whatever way we choose. The Sufis call this state fana—the annihilation of your individual selfhood. When you experience fana, your everyday personality becomes transparent, so the larger being that you are shines through. You soon become absorbed in an all-encompassing fascination for the moment. Life is lived in the NOW. Cutting-edge physicists speak of a holographic universe in which we live but seldom access because we are plagued by endless mental concepts that blind us to so-called reality. This blinds us to the experience of Samadhi—"a non-dualistic state in which the consciousness of the subject becomes one with an experience of the object." This selfless absorption and total surrender of Samadhi is characteristic of children when left alone to follow their instincts. It is available to each one of us, regardless of age or condition. Honoring whatever brings you bliss in your life opens the door to it. That day, when I lay on the floor lost in Stravinsky, without recognizing, I became conscious of it what would inspire me most: The beauty of art—whether it be music, words, stories, sculpture, buildings or what-have-you. Why? Certainly not because I had any idea that art was supposed to be valued as part of what grown-ups refer to as culture. I couldn't have cared less. After all, I was a kid who, when not entranced by what I was seeing, hearing, feeling or touching, spent the rest of my day learning card tricks, wrestling with my huge dog Tuffy, and trying—unsuccessfully—to sell packets of chewing gum which my grandfather gave me to neighbors' kids. Nope—I loved the beauty and wonder of art in all its many forms because, unlike the world around me, with which had little in common, it had grabbed hold of me and would never let me go. It demanded of me both a submission as well as active participation in the making of it. I now believe that my first love affair at the age of six became the harbinger for how I have lived my life. At any moment in time, regardless of the circumstances of our lives, fana is available to all of us regardless of age. Honoring whatever brings you bliss opens the door to it for you.
When I was six years old, I had my first love affair. Yes, really. Of course, not until years later did I recognize the experience for what it was. But like every first love, it changed my life forever. My father was a jazz musician, so our house was equipped with the best possible sound equipment. He and I loved to listen to music—just about any music available—at full volume, of course. This, my mother, could not stand—which made it, even more, exciting. While my playmates roamed the hills of Hollywood skinning their knees, I would lie on my belly in our living room, listening to music as loud as I could make it. One day, combing through our vast supply of records, I came upon Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." The name meant nothing to me. But I liked the colors on the cover, so I put it on the record player, turned up the volume and flopped down in front of our huge speakers. Strange, mysterious, discordant sound flooded my body, opening a secret door to somewhere deep inside me—a mysterious inner world I had never entered. I didn't know such a place even existed. I trembled with fear and excitement while Stravinsky's music continued to wind its way through my body. I flushed hot and then cold. My heart raced, then calmed. I lost all sense of place and time as I rode the waves of an imaginal sea of sound into unexplored worlds, too numerous to name. I have no idea how long all this lasted. Eventually, even the "boat" carrying me along on vivid images began to dissolve like sugar in water. In a perfect union, the sounds and the child-that-had-been-me swirled into a vortex and became lost in each other. We shared the excitement, fear, longing, fierceness, and sadness. As lovers, we had come together—music and child—in an immediate, passionate, all-encompassing union. Eventually, I found myself at the center of this whirlpool. Then, even the ecstasy of the movement vanished. Like Alice down the rabbit hole, I tumbled—not into Wonderland, but into an experience of unspeakable stillness. Zen practitioners claim this experience is available at any moment to each one of us. For me, it was an indescribable event—beyond space, beyond time, outside thought. Without the slightest possibility of ever being able to describe it, I knew that everything was as perfect as it was meant to be. In the words of Zen Master Daisetz Suzuki, in this place, I would eat when I am hungry, sleep when tired. I knew that "it was fine yesterday and today it is raining." In the words of Julian of Norwich, I was sure that "All things shall be well, and all things shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." My affair with Stravinsky lasted more than four hours. At least, that's what my mother said. "Don't tell me you are still listening to that awful music." She had to raise her voice to be heard above the sounds. "For God's sake, turn it off. Do something useful." So I did something useful. I went to school, then to university where I learned, at least, some of what you are supposed to learn. I earned praises for top marks, went to work, won prizes, gave birth to four children by four different men, raised them on my own, wrote books, made films, gave talks, led workshops, created products for companies, made television programs and so on and so on. In effect, I did what millions of men and women do—I became the breadwinner, the caretaker, the nurturer of people's lives. Through all the years between six and now, my passion for music, painting, books, poetry, architecture and movies has never left me. Far from it. During all of these years, the epiphany of emptiness that Stravinsky brought to me that day and the sense of absolute stillness has never faded. It has made it possible for me to create so many things as well as to explore new places and ideas. It's invited me to move beyond thought towards a place of unity with the rest of the universe. All this continues gnawing at me. I suspect it will never go away, just as the urge to breathe never goes away, no matter how long we try to hold our breath. What I did not know—and this took me scores of years to find out—is that the rabbit hole into which I had unexpectedly tumbled has for millennia, been, described by every culture and religion in the world in one form or another. Nor had I any idea that, at any moment in time, regardless of the circumstances of our lives, it is available to each of us. To Zen Buddhists, this wordless, timeless space represents ultimate reality: That which can only come through immediate experience. In Suzuki's words, "For the sake of those crucial experiences Zen Buddhism has struck out on its own paths which, through methodical immersion in oneself, lead to one's becoming aware, in the deepest ground of the soul, of the unnameable Groundlessness and Qualitylessness—nay more, to one's becoming one with it." It is a state in which nothing is thought or contrived, longed for or expected. It reaches out in no particular direction, yet it knows itself able to handle the possible as well as the impossible. Concentrated, yet so expanded too, such power is both purposeless and egoless. As such, it can be called truly spiritual. Why? I believe because it is charged with an awareness that spirit is present everywhere. Because the cosmos is present everywhere, we too are present everywhere. We can have direct experience of this, and access the power that continues to create the universe itself. And we have full access to that power of creation to use in our lives, in whatever way we choose. The Sufis call this state fana—the annihilation of your individual selfhood. When you experience fana, your everyday personality becomes transparent, so the larger being that you are shines through. You soon become absorbed in an all-encompassing fascination for the moment. Life is lived in the NOW. Cutting-edge physicists speak of a holographic universe in which we live but seldom access because we are plagued by endless mental concepts that blind us to so-called reality. This blinds us to the experience of Samadhi—"a non-dualistic state in which the consciousness of the subject becomes one with an experience of the object." This selfless absorption and total surrender of Samadhi is characteristic of children when left alone to follow their instincts. It is available to each one of us, regardless of age or condition. Honoring whatever brings you bliss in your life opens the door to it. That day, when I lay on the floor lost in Stravinsky, without recognizing, I became conscious of it what would inspire me most: The beauty of art—whether it be music, words, stories, sculpture, buildings or what-have-you. Why? Certainly not because I had any idea that art was supposed to be valued as part of what grown-ups refer to as culture. I couldn't have cared less. After all, I was a kid who, when not entranced by what I was seeing, hearing, feeling or touching, spent the rest of my day learning card tricks, wrestling with my huge dog Tuffy, and trying—unsuccessfully—to sell packets of chewing gum which my grandfather gave me to neighbors' kids. Nope—I loved the beauty and wonder of art in all its many forms because, unlike the world around me, with which had little in common, it had grabbed hold of me and would never let me go. It demanded of me both a submission as well as active participation in the making of it. I now believe that my first love affair at the age of six became the harbinger for how I have lived my life. At any moment in time, regardless of the circumstances of our lives, fana is available to all of us regardless of age. Honoring whatever brings you bliss opens the door to it for you.
On this show, A treasure trove of movies for those raised in the 90s, We hunker down in the back of an abandoned police station with John Carpenter and his synth, and Alice, Alice, who the @#*?!!! is Alice? Welcome to They Don’t Make ‘em Like They Used To.