Changes!

This Egyptian unraveling is fascinating. How does a society change? Really, fundamentally change? We all live in societies, it's the collective energy of the people, their thoughts, their dreams, their actions, their interactions that make society.

Suddenly there is a spontaneous eruption - people actually take to the streets. A revolution, or evolution, or just a slight disruption? And where does it lead? Does the Dictator, the Strongman, the Authoritarian Ruler step down? And who replaces him? How do the voices of the protesters get channeled into something new?

Or is it like that Who song, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." This leads to questions about our own society. It seems the politicians are always the last to know. And our society morphs sometimes so slowly and sometimes so quickly. And where exactly are we going?

There's the need for freedom and safety, and human rights, and the ability to live a happy life. And there's lots of contention and opposition to any premise that's floated in the ether. And we clunk along. And then years go by, and we think things are so different, and then we again we think things are just the same as always too.

We have our cell phone, our laptop, our Google, and still there are all those human foibles and follies to contend with. We create love and joy and mayhem too. That's our social network - our lovely aquarium. And really is change like the rain? Or fog? Or lightening?

Center Can't Hold

Sometimes it feels like you are the center of the universe, and in some sense you are, and so is everyone else. Which actually means there is no center. Not everyone can be the center of the universe. So your feeling of being and holding the center is an illusion. And maybe an ego stroke too.

The center can't hold, because it is a fiction, a figment of your imagination. Still, you are important. At least to you. And you play a part in the universe, but it's not exactly of universal, earth-shaking importance, except to you. It's kind of hard to tell what and who is really all that important with so much matter and anti-matter, and people and things. Maybe importance isn't so important.

So below, so above. The cosmologists know that there is no center in the universe, there is just a great expanding. And we are in it, of it, expanding too...

Hair - The Long and Short of It!

I'm at Kat Palace, contemplating a haircut. First there's the contemplation, then the action, although, maybe I don't actually pull the trigger, maybe I just end up wearing a hat.

As that famous Irish singer with the funny name (Bono) once remarked, I don't have bad hair days, I have bad hair decades. Still I've been told by people (women) that my hair is "nice," and "super-fine."

I think maybe since I can't change my eyes, my ears, my nose, (although of course with the right plastic surgeon anything is possible - think King of Pop! Or then again, maybe bad example.); since I can't change the ravages of age, can't hide the scars, changing hair styles is a fallback. But when it comes down to it, my hair comes in two modes, messy, and not as messy.

As a wee lad I had a traumatic hair experience - a drastic crew-cut, which made me decidedly un-hip when the world was trying really hard to be hip. At the time, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. That was the last barber visit for nearly a decade and half.

I have gotten a lot more sanguine about hair. Now I can enter a barbershop or a hair salon, hop on a chair and declare, "Do what you like!" This is not as dangerous as it sounds. As they say, the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about 2 weeks.

Sometimes I have been counseled to bring a photo to sort of guide the cutter. I find this mildly amusing. Does anyone ever bring in a photo of someone older, fatter, shorter, and less appealing than the person bringing the photo? Probably not.

The best instruction I have found: make me look younger, smarter, taller and more dashing. Works every time. Not.

Channeling Lombardi

It seems President Obama is now channeling the Ghost of Vince Lombardi, telling us it's all about winning!

Somehow in the flush of success 2 years ago, I was thinking he'd be a combo of Gandhi, MLK, JFK, and the Dali Lama.

Maybe it was kind of an elevated expectation level on my part. So I guess if he wants to be America's Coach, Lombardi is not a bad role model. Run to daylight Obama!

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Just don't make me run through those tires please!

January Limbo

We have entered a January Limbo. My muse, the Lovely Carla, remarked that there was no horizon yesterday; just one continuous smudge of gray. It's a Limbo where we know there is a Sun, but we can't see him, there is warmth in the world, but we can't feel it.

So we trudge through the grayness, kind of like trudging through a not quite light, and not quite dark, cloud. It's the "not quite-ness" that adds to the Limbo-ness of the moment. Makes one want to shake the day and demand some kind of statement, other than surrender, or no not surrender - gray ambivalence.

But the gray is overwhelming. And underwhelming too. And a statement of it's own kind.

The Feeling Universe

Feeling sad and down. You look around and find lots of reasons to be sad and down.

Feeling happy and up. You look around and find lots of reasons to be happy and up.

Same universe, same you.

It seems that feeling comes before reason. We feel it. And then we tell ourselves a story...

Sound of Silences

How to defeat the craziness? Silence my friend. Or maybe it's just human silence. Turn off the Babel Channel.

Listen to the trees. Listen to the waves crashing on the rocks. Listen to the wind whistling past your ear. Listen to the dogs barking and the cats purring.

Turn off the internal monologue for awhile. There's peace in the spaces between the words, between the thoughts.

It's a Life

There's a rush of energy and then the crash. It's kind of like a wave pattern. Except in this case, it's a life...

Good Hair Day!

Put on a show rock and roll show at a hair salon last night. Never thought I'd ever type that sentence. It all went well. Another long cavalcade of acts. Everything seemed to roll out fine.

I was the sound guy, which was not a promising idea, but it turns out the acoustics were good and my little tweaks at the sound board seemed to work pretty well.

Also got to play some music with the Telepaths and WhiteWolfSonicPrincess. I thought we did a good job on both fronts. First the Telepaths brought the mayhem, and then well, WhiteWolfSonicPrincess (with special guests) brought some mayhem too. Our special guest vocalist did a War Pigs/Helter Skelter/Suffragette City medley that brought the house down!

Someone said "best rock & roll medley ever." Not bad!

Which is it?!

Praying to save your soul, praying to sell your soul?!?

Human Dichotomy

No sense in going into all the details, let's just say, I've been running a parallel existence. Living in two worlds (at least) simultaneously. The trick is not to lose one's self, but it's not really hard, a "self" is made up of all kinds of masks, some complimentary, some contradictory...

There are lots of personalities one can wear...

So yesterday was a day of contrasts. Hours trudging through bone-chillingness. Skating on ice. Nearly killing myself numerous times doing drudge work.

And then... well the freaking lap of luxury. Exquisite food, lots of warmth and light, hours with a good book and a hot jacuzzi experience.

Healing Cloud of Energy

We're preparing for a show on Saturday. It's gonna be all cover songs. We are collaborating with some people we've never collaborated with before and we're doing some songs we've never done before.

Earlier rehearsals were kind of painful. Clunking along through the verses and choruses. Lots of false starts and missteps.

But last night, we got everyone in the room and after a few run-throughs we were pretty much on the same page.

We have quite the group - 5 singers, drums, percussion, bass, guitar. You get all that energy going in the same direction and it seems like we could blow a hole in the ozone layer. Although it would be much better if we could send a healing cloud of energy to fix that thing!

Sometimes this blog seems (even to me) like one long, very disconnected and rambling monolgue

So yeah, there's the "doing" the flurry of activity, the running from place to place, the crescendo, and then...

Well, then there's the thinking, the stewing, the wondering, the second guessing, the worrying, etc...

The Doing

Well there's the thinking, and the worrying, and the fretting, and the hoping and the planning, and the re-thinking, and the doubting, and the confusion, and the indecision, and the back-biting, and back-pedaling, and spinning, and the stewing, and the brewing and...

Then there's the doing. I don't recommend the doing without some of the thinking. But I'm so glad to get past the thinking cap part and getting to the doing part!

We have to learn to like challenges...

Yes, so in order to be a happy, healthy, human being we have to believe...

It's not so much what we believe, although, of course the "what" is important too, but we must make the concerted effort to believe.

Against the odds, sometimes against the evidence. Against the wishes or thoughts of others, or even ourselves.

This believing is a sort of vision. Whether it's a mirage or hallucination or illusion, doesn't really matter. This vision must drive us.

And what is this vision? It has something to do with meaning and purpose and the idea that the future is better. This act of "believing" provides no certainties, or guarantees, it's simply a friend, a guide, a challenge.

We have to learn to like challenges...

A World of Will

So yeah, I deeply immersed myself into another world. I went from dogs and birds, to cats. It's a much quieter land. It purrs.

I've looked into silent inscrutable eyes. And I've gotten lost.

I've spent many hours in the contemplative mode. Reading, listening. It's a world of clocks and clouds. A world of will and imagination. It's a world to believe in.

I put on new clothes. Looked into new mirrors. Everything has changed. The food I eat was purchased and stored by someone else. I have slipped into another reality.

I am unsettled. Off kilter. But of course it's on the margins, the place where chaos and order converge, where the new emerges...

Sounds of Hope

Shorter Dr. King -- from a Jangling Discord to a Symphony of Brotherhood...

The Land of D

Disruption
Disinformation
Distraction
Dysfunction
Dystopia

The Voice of Reason

I do think we are lucky to have a major Public Servant in our midst who is smart, articulate, pragmatic, reasonable, upbeat, cool-headed, adult, optimistic, and inspiring.

In so many ways he is so counter to the discourse; he is an antidote, to our toxic political culture. He is a shining beacon in the night of the dark onslaught of Hate Radio, and Hate TV and Hate Inter-Tubes.

So much of our national conversation is dominated by Pernicious Clowns! I actually think the Toxic Clowns get louder and more obnoxious as it becomes more and more apparent that they are losers. Their ideas, their ideology of selfishness and greed only leads to a militant dead end.

The Hollowness of the Militant Right is deafening... into the void, a voice of reason resonates.

The Humble Fool

So yeah, we live in a Universe of Reason and Unreason, of Order and Chaos, of Logic and Magic. We are outfitted with these things we call Brains, which somehow emerged from the soup of creation. And with these brains we try to navigate through this multitudinous Universe.

Somehow our brains must also encompass reason and unreason, order and chaos, logic and magic. And as one of our dimmer Presidents once said, "It's hard work!"

We sometimes want to simplify the Universe, to make it more understandable, more agreeable to our little brains. But it's a fool's task. The Universe has more in store, more up it's sleeve in which to bewilder us.

So yeah, we must expand our brains, or expand our conception of the Universe to encompass everything. It isn't an easy task. It isn't always understandable, or agreeable, and it's probably a good first step to say, I am just a Humble Fool. Here for a brief time. Trying not to be an asshole...