Embark: A Duet in Venice Beach

I am ECSTATIC!! I recorded this over a year ago on my Blackberry while I was walking down a lovely shaded lane in Venice Beach. I was playing a water bottle and my solo turned into an incredible duet. I truly am beaming with pride! I totally forgot about this. This is better than finding a wad of cash in old jeans which ALSO happened to me today!! Sweet blizzard in a nativity scene I'm happy :)

Blackberry photo in Venice :)

Africa. India. Ecstasy.

I am excited to be working and learning with Arthur Lee Land. He has extensive experience with the art of live looping. He is teaching me about congas, bongos, djembes, talking drums, cowbells, shakers; the works.

One of his more exquisite loops is drenched with that African sunlight and the moving sidewalk on a moving sidewalk feeling that Elvin Jones is known for. I am now completely in love with implying 6 over 4 and we get lost for hours and hours in the continually expanding and contracting movements.

We have a show on new years at the new Cafe Paradiso and I'm gonna be playing tablas and djembe. For future shows my kit will look more like the picture above but Congas and a Djembe will be added.

My heart is pounding for Africa and India and the Shaman-healer-priest-wild man-nut bucket-asteroid lasso-Santa-triplet-whip-crack against-the-moon aesthetic is blossoming like the birth of a rose colored planet. I'm excited and honored to be getting an education and making music for a living simultaneously.

PS Jupiter left its phase of debilitation and I always and especially feel escalating gratitude for my tabla teacher Pandit Anup Ghoshji. Big love, namaste, and happy holidays to all!

Constraint and Innovation

Do to a complicated vacuuming accident my fellow blogger and drummer Sheldon can't use his right arm for awhile. 

Obviously there is the one armed drummer from Def Leppard .. but deeper than his personal victory is the principle that made Twitter virtually explode on to the scene.

When restrictive parameters are laid out with absolute clarity the conditions are ripe for wild experimental creativity and growth.

Limits are opportunities to test drive and/or implement new perspectives.

Take the book STICK CONTROL: do 8th notes with the hi-hat using only the foot. R=Kick. L=Snare. 

Open and expand through times of constraint rather than contracting into victimhood. 

Accidental Rhythm, Avant-Gardener Tony Oxley, and a Day as Beautiful as the Chance Encounter of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella on an Operating Table

There is the intentional and then there is serendipity, joyful accidents, chance, bald eagle mating rituals, and Tony Oxley's toaster-oven-in-the-bathtub drumming style....my favorite.

The rapture of ubiquity, god-as-child anything goes snowball fight in the howling void; automatic avant-gardner turning on the sprinkler at midnight, and that glorious alpha cowbell of the underworld stolen out of Picasso's backyard! (check the video below)

Today was an exalted day for me. Not only did I walk to Wal-Mart to buy nothing but I had a magical chance encounter with Mr. Sheldon Kreger, a truly fantastic human being/drummer/physicist. We talked about particle accelerators, John Hagelin, snowboarding, black holes, open source software and DRUMS!!

In the Christmas spirit, in the sanctity of a full on drum geek-out session he gave me some incredible recordings of Peter Erskine, Antonio Sanchez, Paul Motian, and Steve Smith to name a few of the many I am excited about!

Thank you Sheldon and let the 365 days of Christmas begin!

Paradiddle New York: A Pilgrimage

A Paradiddle is one of the primary rudiments of the drum set. 
It is usually notated | R L R R | L R L L |. 
That got me thinking about driving directions. 
 So I decided to make a Macro Paradiddle Pilgrimage 
through one of my favorite cities in the world; New York City.

The Paradiddle Pilgrimage starts at Blue Note Jazz Club. The midpoint is Birdland Jazz Club. The destination is the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

It took some tweaking at maps.google.com but this is what I finally came up with. Below the directions are listed for anyone who wants to actually make the trip :) I also took screen shots for your viewing pleasure. The manifestation of the Macro Paradiddle!!!! Check it out!!

Blue Note Jazz Club

131 West 3rd Street

New York, NY 10012

1. Head northwest on W 3rd St toward 6th

2. Turn RIGHT at 6th Ave

3. Turn LEFT at W 23rd St

4. Turn RIGHT at 10th Ave

5. Turn RIGHT at W 44th St

Destination will be on the left

Birdland Jazz Club

315 West 44th Street

New York, NY 10036

6. Head southeast on W 44th St toward 8th Ave

7. Take the 1st LEFT onto 8th Ave

8. At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit onto W 59 St/Central Park S

9. Slight RIGHT at Grand Army Plaza

10. Turn LEFT at Park Ave

11. Turn LEFT at E 125 St/Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Destination will be on the right

Apollo Theater

253 W 125 St

New York, NY 10027

Dynamics and Juxtapositions

Master uilleann piper Tim Britton just commented on an old blog post. At the end of his comment he left a mysterious and fascinating audiophile forum link. I read through it and below is a passage that struck me. It confirms my growing intuition about dynamics and the ideas of space that I have been conscious of in music that thrills me. Dynamics are crucial for drummers with access to such a huge range of volume. With this raw power comes a great responsibility :) Weeeeeeeee!

Loud ‘Forte’ passages sound altogether louder and appear to be at their very loudest when they are strongly in juxtaposition with extremely quiet ‘Piano’ passages.

Great music has its most powerful impact when the natural dynamics and contrasts are preserved that make sound continually interesting to the ear and brain, in a way, that naturally engages them.

If you fail to hold the listeners attention over time, by not providing proper relief for their ears and brain by eliminating the contrasting dynamics that would demand their listening attention and enrapturing enthral them.

Ultimately you will force the listener away from the source of sound, if you insist upon totally maximising level continuously, for in the last resort, the ear has a safety mechanism called ‘temporary threshold shift’ which acts to shut off sound, when it is delivered above a certain level continuously.

*to read the full passage click here starts on post #23

Silence and Professional Etiquette

photo by Hiroshi Sugimoto

Recently I realized that I was noodling a lot between songs and while my band mates were setting up their amps and the PA system. I figured I couldn't really help them and I didn't want to just sit there and do nothing.

I have a lot of work lugging, hauling, setting up hardware and drums etc. Because of this, once I am set up, I am anxious for the chance to play and continue my divine romance with my instrument. This fire is vital and the desire to play should be cultivated.

However I have made a rule for myself and it goes for LIVE SHOWS, RECORDING, AND REHEARSALS. Except for tuning and basic soundcheck protocol any other playing or experimenting is not allowed.

Silence is the ground of music and it cultivates the fire and the conditions to be present and grateful when it is time to play. It also makes setting up quieter and more efficient and communicating between songs effortless. It is basic professional etiquette and I highly recommend implementing it immediately.

Silence

Maharishi talks about the gap between scriptural syllables as the silence that gives rise to the form of the universe(s).

Space, silence is what serves music and people. Effective drumming invokes silence and is the invisible usher of silence.

Like keeping a small fire going or rowing a boat.

Practice with a relaxed and open heart. Transmute the desire to showcase your skill into a commitment to dissolve completely and serve the wholeness of the music of every moment.

Something I Wrote for KKJZ 88.1 in LA When They Asked On Air, "What Does Jazz Mean To Uou?"

It's tempting to start this paragraph with the word Jazz, but jazz survives its own annihilation. I think of jazz as the music that will be playing after the apocalypse. Classical music like that scene in the Titanic with the quartet playing as the ship is sinking, is the music being played during the apocalypse, but after the ego has been incinerated, what is left behind is a world of skeletons, gods and jazz. Embryonic in the dark altar in the heart of Africa jazz is bottled at the source where the universe is heard as one whole note. Jazz is the invocation and propagation of silence that binds all of us together back to a Higher Self. Jazz is freedom within imprisonment. Jazz is the volcano god whose muscle guts the hearts of people with the guts to unlearn everything they know, it's the dark feminine, the tornado, the against the grain of society power, aligned with the north star at all costs, worship of the terrifying moment stripped of all pretense, jazz is life and death, its firefighting, its wrestling the Marlin to ground zero, its a collision of planets, what a blessing we have created together, Africa, America, the whole universe of sound, truly I can see that the big bang, on the one, or the four if you're from New Orleans, is what started this amazing music.

Zane Musa Quartet

It was electric! Zane Musa has the divine mischief and syncopation of Monk, on the saxophone. He's like the reverse of a forklift-roadkill-death of a squirrel, barbecued and unstruck by lightning out of a canoe on the Snake River in Wyoming. 

 When he blows the molecules start doing their jobs better and people all over New York and Paris, snap up in bed in a cold sweat as he holds the tonic to bursting thresholds. 

I've been a fan of Zane's from Danny Masterson's Thursday night sessions at the Roosevelt in Hollywood. If you haven't heard Zane Musa then think of this as your new mission.

Back of Charlie O's coaster

Front of Charlie O's coaster

"Don't Be Frightened to Display Your Talents"

is an oblique strategy by Brian Eno. The Evangenitals recording engineer Tracy Chisholm has a deck of these in the studio. The Evangenitals, the Los Angeles band I play drums for, spent the whole weekend in the recording studio.

Because it was so ridiculously exciting and inspiring I thought I would share with you a revelation that I had about the recording process. When I thought about it deeper it really has to do with the creative process as a whole. Natalie Goldberg says in her incredible book WRITING DOWN THE BONES,

"First thoughts have tremendous energy. It is the way the mind first flashes on something. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash."

I remember hearing that Kerouac frowned upon revision and I found this in his biography at biblio.com:

"Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of Jazz, especially the Bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and others. Later, Kerouac would include ideas he developed in his Buddhist studies. He called this style Spontaneous Prose, a literary technique akin to stream of consciousness. Kerouac's motto was 'first-thought=best thought'"

The power of first thought energy is absolutely crucial in EVERY ART FORM. My revelation was that fearless resilience is needed to go from, WHEN THE RECORDING LIGHT IS ON, being free, in fearless first thought rapture of the timeless zone to, WHEN YOU ARE HEARING PLAYBACK OF THE RECORDING, being brutally honest, objective and analytic.  Then being able to switch between modes effortlessly and quickly with a SILENT EGO.

Many people develop a negative relationship with recording (making art) because they remain in their critical, analytic brain while they are creating. The critical brain annihilates first thought energy and the spontaneous joy of invention and cosmic mischief.

It is essential to be able to return to that PRIMAL and INNOCENT state when in the act of creation. This will free you from the fear of radiating your true and authentic self and the utterly terrifying depths of your latent talent.

The First Piano

I have been corresponding with Joe LaBarbera about the MFA program at Cal Arts and also to solicit advice about teachers and concerts in the area. I made a list of all the stuff that I am eager to learn, jazz, Afro-Cuban, rudiments, brushes, hip-hop, sight reading, etc. 

The first thing that he wrote back was that I should learn piano in addition to my pursuits as a drummer. This is a guy who toured the world with Bill Evans. He is a serious jazz drummer and jazz historian.

Because this advice should be SERIOUSLY and SOBERLY considered by every drummer, I am going to post another picture from my pilgrimage to NEW YORK. 

 It is the world's first piano made by the guy who invented piano; Bortolomeo Cristofori. BE HAUNTED BY THIS IMAGE :)

Louis Armstrong's House

I'm on disk nine of the Ken Burns History of Jazz 10 DVD set. Even though it is a VERY mainstream slice of the highly dangerous and beautiful art form of jazz, one of the main things that I have taken from it is that Louis Armstrong is an American Bach. In the Court of King Oliver he is the successor of the throne. The improvisations and innovations of Armstrong spawned an entire art form, an entire way of understanding rhythm and melody.

Louis Armstrong is widely misunderstood as just a mere entertainer because of his showbiz aesthetic yet in fact he is a Patriarch of Jazz, a complete virtuoso and innovator on the trumpet, and a musical force so huge I now refer to him as the fountain head, or the Holy Grail.

I was in New York last weekend and I made a point to make a pilgrimage to his house in Queens. It was a sad tourist trap that should be converted into a temple/shrine and upheld with silence and reverence and yet it was still amazing to stand in his den and pay homage to the founder of jazz, the real King of Swing.

Here is a photograph that I took of his doorway because I was not allowed to take pictures inside. I think it is an appropriate metaphor somehow :)

Isn't

The word ISN'T describes Zen and Hinduism in one fell swoop. 

The paradox of IS being N'T is the crux of Zen.

 In Hinduism

IS = VISHNU
N'T = SHIVA
and the apostrophe = BRAHMA, 

creating the universe out of the uncreated silence of Shiva to BE maintained by VISHNU the IS integrated and inseparable from it's own absence!

Post-It: Revelation Catalyst #3

The Secret Service

When you are backing a singer or a soloist it's like being part of the Secret Service. You don't see secret service agents staring at the wall and looking bored EVER! No, because their mission is CLEAR; they are to protect the President AT ALL COSTS, even if it means sacrificing their own lives. Mind, heart, intuition, breath, EVERYTHING is focused on the protection of the President.

IT IS THE SAME WITH MUSIC; EGOLESS SERVICE TO THE MUSIC AND TO THE MUSICIANS. Bradford Marsalis remembers what Coltrane's drummer ELVIN JONES had to say about this.

"a lot of younger musicians were hanging around with Elvin Jones, and they were talking about, ‘Man, you know, you guys had an intensity when you were playing with Coltrane. I mean, what was it like? How do you play with that kind of intensity?’ And Elvin Jones looks at them and says, ‘You gotta be willing to die with the motherfucker.’ They started laughing like kids do, waiting for the punchline, and then they realized he was serious...."

The AWARENESS needs to be resilient and flexible enough to maintain awareness on the execution of an instrument and feel (holding your own), while at the same having an awareness of the entire band as ONE UNIT (giving your all).

I tell my students that it is the drummer's DHARMA to be the OCEAN for JESUS to walk on. This requires a balanced ego, massive intuition, dedicated practice, and LOTS OF LISTENING AND RESEARCH. Peter Erskine says in the new DRUMHEAD magazine,

"Imagine, the rhythm section is a bright blue background and the soloist cuts a brilliant red diagonal stripe across it, it makes no sense for us to turn red"

RHYTHM SECTION = OCEAN
SOLOIST = JESUS WALKING

Self Portrait after Jazz Night at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood

Post-It: Revelation Catalyst #2

Trampoline Use Instructions

I dance around on a trampoline for 1/2 an hour at least 3 times a week. It's a good way to listen to music and stay in shape and get that heart pumping. Pay special attention to #18, especially those in Chicago. 

Silence, Stevie Wonder, Transcendental Meditation, Lord Shiva, Timelessness and the Role of the Drummer in the Universe!

The experience of experiencing time is immensely varied. You can listen to a song lying on your back in your room, or you can drive over three miles listening to the same song. In the same three minutes at light speed it's possible to travel 33,480,000 miles. That is why philosophers have reduced the body to dust and why the Hindus have Lord Shiva, the God of Destruction. Everything will be destroyed, except the uncreated consciousness of the destroyer. Similar to the Buddhist concept of Emptiness. Except in Buddhism emptiness is empty of Itself.

It is the responsibility of the musician and especially these days, the drummer, to BE and ASPIRE TO BE, a master of the entire field of time. Elvin Jones said,"That's what the drummer is supposed to do: keep the time. If you can do some thing else besides that fine. But the time is essential. That's non-negotiable." I heard that Victor Wooten can keep time at 4 BPM. An old friend of mine recently had a dream and posted this on my Facebook wall,

"I had a crazy dream you were in a battle with a Rastafarian drum god, and each beat would string through tree branches. In the end it seemed you won by tapping the drum only once every 6 minutes exactly. Dude, what? I'm totally serious."

A beat every six minutes is .01 BPM. But what about the rhythm of the moon; a cycle that most women are attuned to? 1 Beat every 28 days = 2.4801587301E-5 BPM. Or the Earth around the sun; 1 Beat every year = 1.90258751903E-5 BPM. The mathematics of the universe are astonishing in their precision. The stars are a navigation tool! JESUS!

Because the field of time is impossible to master if you are ONLY externally driven, it is vitally important for musicians to fathom the INNER silence of their own minds, and probe the depths of consciousness to arrive at the SOURCE OF TIME; the non-changing field of pure consciousness. Having access to timelessness is the freaking Holy Grail for drummers!!

Stevie Wonder knew that when he wrote "Jesus Children of America"

Say
Tanscen
Transcendental
Dental meditation
Meditation
Speaks of
Speaks of inner
Inner preservation
Preservation
Well...
Transcendental meditation gives you peace of mind
Peace of mind

It is much deeper than peace of mind. Peace of mind is the bare minimum for an artist of the New Paradigm. The light of inner silence is the fountainhead of all creative energy of the universe available to you in your own MIND. Timelessness is not a theory, it's a physiological process of lowering the metabolism until the breath stops altogether and you are sustained by the purity of your silent AWAKE consciousness alone.

The beautiful thing about Transcendental Meditation is that it is about INTEGRATION. It is about establishing that silence and peace of mind so that you are more powerful and masterful in your daily life. As a musician having access to that silence and (whole note) rest is the reference point for understanding and mastering the whole field of time.

The Living Masters

What if Meshell Ndegeocello asked you to play drums with her band? What if Prince asked you? What if D'Angelo asked you? What if Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, John Scofield, John Medeski, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Flea, Dr. John, Maceo Parker, Soulive, Victor Wooten, Stevie Wonder, Method Man? What if Michael Jackson asked? What if you asked him and he said yes? It doesn't matter if you don't play drums, whatever instrument, whatever trade.

These are some of many names that would get me seriously delirious if any possibility of drumming with them were to come my way. Find the living people in your life that you know would get your heart pumping wildly and make your head scream with excitement and feelings of unworthiness if you were given the opportunity to collaborate with them.

Pick one living hero-master.... for me that is Ms. Ndegeocello. If you had one week until an audition to join his/her band what would you do mentally, physically, emotionally, on your instrument, off your instrument, to FILL THAT ENORMOUS HONOR AND RESPONSIBILITY TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY? How would you respond NOW if a master approached you and needed your service?

Now align yourself with that excitement and joyous burden. That is your path. You are WORTHY without any doubt. Anyone is worthy who says they are! Get ready to battle, love, and serve the masters. Do it! We are all in the same band......period!

The Freedom to Create: Having a setup

David Lynch wrote a book called "CATCHING THE BIG FISH." It's Lynch's equivalent to THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS. There is a chapter called "HAVING A SETUP." This chapter talks about how crucial it is for an artist to have a studio, a place that is prepared with the tools and square footage to put your ideas into the ACTION and CREATION. He says,

It's crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen.

I'm posting this quote today out of pride, because my band, the Evangenitals, just put money down on a lockout studio in Silver lake. In addition to being able to rehearse 24/7, I will also be able to teach drums and tabla there. Most importantly I/WE will have a setup, a place to execute ART. (double meaning?)

One thing about drummers is that their "PROCESS" can be insanely annoying to neighbors who don't understand why you would want to practice straight eighth notes on a snare drum for one hour straight :) The crux of my mission statement is through music to facilitate "THE EXPANSION OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS IN EVERY LIVING BEING." Coltrane himself said it's about UPLIFTING PEOPLE.

That was my heartache about the drums; "out of context" when you are trying to rope a complex pattern into music, the process can be ugly, loud, and hard on the listener. Now that I have a studio with 24 hour access 7 days a week I can play as loud as I need and experiment with every possible dynamic and idea (screaming into megaphones etc :)) without the danger of invading someone's sanctity. That is a beautiful thing. That is freedom. The freedom to create. FIND IT!

Hunger and Practice

Don't have any standard for yourself for how much you are supposed to practice. Try making a regiment that is ridiculously within your means. And pretend like you are in first grade. Take your favorite piece and just commit to the bare daily minimum.

IT'S LIKE STOKING A FIRE!!!!! If you put too many logs on you'll put the fire out. If you put too few logs on it will go out too. In the same way if you stuff your face when you eat you'll get sick. It's same with music, granted there are thresholds you can push through!!! It is important to keep your fire alive and hungry. As your appetite and ability increase you'll be able to EAT more.

And same with a fire you start with small logs and then when it's HOT you add the bigger logs. Take simple pieces and practice them ONLY for the SAKE OF THE SHEER JOY OF PLAYING THEM not with the intention to improve.

Because if your purpose of practicing is ONLY to improve, then the feeling you'll get from it is the feeling of WANTING TO IMPROVE but if you use joy as your weapon for practicing then you'll breed more and more of that hunger and ecstasy for more practice.

Be simple. Don't judge your ability. Keep stoking the fire. Free yourself from any future oriented restraints and focus on the joy of music, because ONLY THAT will propel you forward!

Revelation Catalyst #1

Drum with Beethoven!

Follow Your Bliss with Balls (excerpt from a letter)

Keep your mind OPEN
HAVE FUN
HONE THE CLARITY OF YOUR PURPOSE

It really is a survival skill to follow your bliss
and expand your comfort zone with bliss as the basis
push yourself but completely without strain.

take a dance class
anything that teaches you how to feel the drums in your body
playing from your heart
it's about dancing
and being primal and GROOVING

INWARD AND OUTWARD VIEWS

To cling to oneself as Buddha, oneself
as Zen or the Way, making that an un-
derstanding, is called clinging to the inward
view.

Attainment by causes and conditions,
practice and realization, is called the out-
ward view,

Master Pao-chih said, "The inward view
and the outward view are both mistaken."

Pao Chih also says THE ZEN POCKET READER,
"Just seek nothing at all, and afflictions will naturally fall away"

These are my new favorite quotes.
Allow yourself to grow naturally without getting in the way of yourself.
Don't strain. Just be blissfully faithful and take CREATIVE ACTION.
Spontaneous Discipline.

Having said that I have recently made a spreadsheet for myself that has every category of what I would do in an UNLIMITED AND PERFECTLY IDEAL DAY.

from
Brushing Teeth
to tabla to drum books
CONCERTS:PERFORMING, ATTENDING, REHEARSING
rudiments
tabla solo
rebounder
to education from books films You tube blogging
fitness
and I have ZERO obligation to the spreadsheet
it is just my cosmic blueprint
reminder of what I continually return to putting my attention on
set as an intention to blossom in its own time with Easy Effort.

If you're having trouble focusing it's because your heart isn't open fully or the stakes aren't high enough.

I remember one saint Ramakrishna didn't attain enlightenment until his Guru stabbed him in the Third Eye with a piece of glass after several suicide attempts.

You are undertaking the path of the warrior so anything you can do to strip away the BULLSHIT
Dance
Yoga
Running
Singing
Free writing
Reading
Films
LISTENING TO ALL KINDS OF MUSIC
anything that opens your heart
VOLUNTEER
SERVICE
COMMUNITY
FRIENDS
AMENDS
LOVE LETTERS
TEMPLES
MEDITATION
SHOULDER STAND
MEANINGLESS WORK
TOTALLY RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
LAZINESS
INSANITY
make up parameters
buy a stop watch and say
"okay for fun I'm going to play the simplest exercise I know for two hours straight with zero improv"
or
"okay today I'm only allowed to practice for ten minutes"
find ways to STOKE YOUR PERSONAL FIRE
You MUST REALIZE THAT YOU ARE YOUR ONLY TEACHER
and THAT EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IS YOUR TEACHER
EXPERIMENTATION
write a love letter in tabla speak
FREEDOM IS WHAT EVERYONE SEEKS
FIND IT IN YOUR ART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IMPROVISE
DON'T IMPROVISE
TAKE RISKS
JOIN A BAND
USE GARAGE BAND
VIDEO TAPE YOURSELF
TAKE SELF PORTRAITS
YOU GOTTA GET IN DEEP
FIND THE ECSTASY OF INSANITY
THAT IS THE LIFE OF THE ARTIST
REVISE
FAIL
FAIL AGAIN
FAIL BETTER
STAY UP ALL NIGHT
DON'T LET ANYTHING DISCOURAGE YOU
EVERYTHING IS A GOOD OMEN DIRECTLY FROM GOD
FOLLOW YOUR BLISS WITH BALLS AND MASTERY WILL BE YOURS IN TIME.



SELF PORTRAIT WITH PETAL FROM PUJA TO GURU DEV ON MAHARISHI'S BIRTHDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 2009.

Hunting for Jesus

This morning I AM AWAKE VERY EARLY after going to bed VERY LATE. Al Green's song "Jesus Is Waiting" is playing in my head before I got up and now in my headphones. Here I sit guided by a strong predisposition to write. As'f this article has already been written. (As'f is my new favorite made up word :))

Last night I glanced at an article in a newspaper at DENNY'S (full moon :)). It was about how the Boone & Crockett club of Missoula, Montana had recently given their concurrence that the world's largest antlered Bull Elk is now dead and is a new world record for big game.

This morning in an ordinary epiphany I connected the Al Green song with this dead elk. What is the aggressive thirst to nail down forms; to control rather than to allow? This must be why so many artists either wind up insane, dead too soon, or religious. Once the inability to attain anything with FORM dawns as a reality, then the formless eternity of God is the next logical hunt.

I have mentioned before in this blog my theory of THE CROSS; the VERTICAL or INNER aspect of art which deals with spiritual practice and fulfillment; the HORIZONTAL or OUTER aspect that deals with knowledge and skill in action. But I found the third and crucial element, THE INTERSECTION, in this amazing piece in THE POCKET ZEN READER translated by Thomas Cleary.

INWARD AND OUTWARD VIEWS

To cling to oneself as Buddha, oneself
as Zen or the Way, making that an un-
derstanding, is called clinging to the inward
view.

Attainment by causes and conditions,
practice and realization, is called the out-
ward view,

Master Pao-chih said, "The inward view
and the outward view are both mistaken."

Pao Chih also says in this book,
"Just seek nothing at all, and afflictions will naturally fall away"

Outside the Box

This video was sent to me by my good friend George Foster. Even though this is "inside the box" It is a direct charge to LET YOUR BLISS LEAD YOU TO THE ECSTASY OF GOD AND TOTAL FREEDOM OUTSIDE THE *&%ing BOX. That is the charge to all musicians and artists, or as Eminem says "Lose yourself in the music the moment you want it you better never let it go..." :) Find your edge!

viva la "CISSY STRUT"

FREE TIBET,
David Hurlin



PS Here's Scofield's version
PPS Here's John Mayer's version
PPPS Here's the version by the guy who wrote the song
PPPPS Here's the crazy Oriental Allman Brothersesque Fusion Incredible version WOW
PPPPPS Here's New Orleans funk group Galactic's version