Dream, Baby, Dream...

Folk #1: Dreams. No one wants to hear about your dreams. You know, no matter how dramatic or traumatic, someone will say, "Yeah, well, it's only a dream." And the drama & trauma is supposed to just vanish. End of story. You plow on and try to recount the details, to convey the gravity, the deep meanings of the dream, and folks eyes cloud over, they yawn, they give you that 10,000 yard stare. Whatever.

Did anyone ever read Kerouac's Book of Dreams?  Yeah, me neither. It's only a dream, Jack.

So you have to contend with your dreams on your own, unless you pay for a professional to listen. Does anyone do that any more? That Freudian or Jungian talk therapy seems to be out of favor & overwhelmed by the onslaught of drugs. Drug therapy. They have a drug for pretty much everything. Be careful not to mix your medicine. Synergistic action can be extremely deadly.

I figure I just have to figure out things on my own. Dreams: Attacked by Feral Cats? A surprise hair-cut? Spooky-looking, ominous, threatening fish swimming around in a pond, lurking, haunting? Car crashes and guns drawn, like lost episodes of Miami Vice. Reliving ancient fuckups & calamities, reliving idiocies & episodes of self-sabotage. I really have been my own worst enemy, sometimes, in my long life. It's been a long & winding road.

I have long-ago, left behind most of my most self-sabotaging habits. Decades of living clean. Living honestly. Living Creatively with heart, head & spirit aligned. The most dramatic or traumatic episodes in my life were all basically instances of self-destruction. Sure, I never killed anyone, just killed my own brain cells for kicks.

So yes, in the middle the night, quiet, alone, vulnerable, a worried mind. It all vanishes in the a.m. Even if I awake before the light of day, the coffee does it's work. All that hurly-burly and tumult just fades away & evaporates. Still there is a lingering wisp of uncertainty hanging over me. Maybe I'm not as together as I think? I suppose I have some unfinished business. Work to do on my self. Every day just trying to be, & to do better. Do my best to be my best, as an enthusiastic, fully-woke & fully-engaged Human Being. Alive, aware, awake. Damn the torpedoes. I mean, fuck...

The Stink of a Loser...

Folk #1: Funny. Even when that guys wins, he has the stink of a loser about him. His wins are failures. No doubt. He knows it too. It drives him. Drives him mad. Fails & Flails. He rages, lashes out. He is always whining, blubbering, and complaining. He always feels like a victim, and then, victimizes as many folks as he can. He feels abused, so he abuses. A deeply unwell Human Being. This has been a grand experiment of failure, victimhood, & abuse. So damn ugly.

The Apotheosis of Stupiidity!

Folk #1: I ranted about the stupid ones in yesterday's post (see previous post), and then, this morning I find an article about Professor Carlo Cippola's treatise on The Basic Laws of Stupidity. Carlo was writing this treatise in the wake of Fascism and the Vietnam War, but of course, the Apotheosis of Stupidity is embodied in Trump & MAGA.  The Good Professor tells us that stupidity is... "one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness."

No kidding! Welcome to our Dystopia of Stupid here in the USA! Stupidity is a dark, malevolent force. Immune from argument, rationality, logic, and/or common sense. Ha. That's fucking Trump & MAGA in a nutshell. Bringing us all down in a grand heap of failure, incompetence, corruption and stupidity.

Cipolla divided people into four groups: the helpless, whose actions harm themselves but benefit others; the intelligent, whose actions benefit themselves and others; the bandits, who enrich themselves while harming others; and the stupid, whose actions harm others while producing no benefit to themselves. This latter group is Cipolla’s main concern. “No matter how high are one’s estimates of human stupidity,” he wrote, “one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid; b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one’s activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”

Fuck. I mean Bingo! Seems the USA is flooded with the Stupid, the Helpless & the Bandits. Also, Artificial Intelligence is a misnomer. Think instead: Bullshit Machine! Searching for Intelligent Life on the Planet? Yikes. Dear Pilgrim, it would be easier to find a Needle in a Haystack!

Confederacy of Dunces...

Folk #1: Ok. My stupid questions this morning. How did vast quantities of Human Beings get so stupid? How did our Culture become a hot-bed of stupidity, rage, idiocy, quackery, consipiracy-minded foolishness? How did we end up elevating the proudly stupid ones to positions of great power across all the major sectors of our Global Communities? How did we end up lionizing & rewarding folks who should be shamed, shunned, and/or imprisoned? It is so damn strange to be around so many very, very stupid people. Comically-corrupt, totally-incompetant, & supremely-greedy folks who can't stop advertising & promoting themselves, and shamelessly grifting off the other very stupid ones. Yikes. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to see that something is seriously, hilariously, ridiculously wrong.

No Time for Dooming...

Folk #1: There is no point in "dooming." Things have gotten so fucked up, stupid & corrupt, I mean shit, save your energy for voting these assholes out. Our Criminal President, and his boot-licking lackeys in the Republican Party have looted, crashed & punished us enough.  We are hurtling towards the Mid-term elections and, well, it seems a reckoning is coming. Even the MAGA numbskulls seem to be aware that the incompetence, the corruption, lack of any morality, or code of honor, has brought us to a very sad state of affairs. Reality & Democracy are the friends of any, and all, concerned American Citizens. The Natives are restless. Obviously, we all seriously fucked up when we elevated one of the worst amongst us to a position of great power. Talk about self-sabotage. Democracy is a pretty good tool for "self-correcting." The time for cleaning up the mess in which we all find ourselves is barreling towards us like a runaway train. And that is a good, very necessary thing, indeed.

Present Moment: Liberation...

Folk #1:  It has been said a million times in a million ways. Yes. Living in the moment. It's a dicispline, a practice & a method for better living. It's easy to lose the thread. The Past is ever-expanding, and so much of one's experience is there. You can be overwhelmed and become a captive of the Past; experiences, memories, long chains of reasons, choices, detours. The Future looms over us too. Hopes, Dreams, Fears. The Future is a promise, a murky beckoning. Easy to fall into a worried funk, or into a sunny Dream-state that never quite materializes. We get shackled & imprisoned by the Past, and befuddled & confused by the Future. Liberation is in the moment. Life is to be found in the moment to moment. Alive. Aware. Awake. We have agency in the moment, and only in the moment. Fully engaged in the moment. Funny. It's so clearly the wise, Life-affirming choice. Choosing the Present. Living there fully, without any doubt, or restraint. The Present is where we reinterpret the Past, and where we recalibrate our expectations for an uncertain Future. Sure. Bad shit can happen in the moment. One has to deal with the deal. Why is it so hard to remember, or easy to forget, that the Present moment is everything? Inhabit the moment, let it fly, let it flow, ride the wind. Damn the torpedoes.

The Finer Things...

Folk #1: How to renew, reset, recharge? That has been the question, the topic, the desired mission looming over me & my partner, for awhile, especially after recovering from nasty colds. I came to the simple, maybe obvious, realization yesterday, it's all about seeking out the simple, genuine pleasures, gravitating to the finer things, the finer situations, the finer folks. Quality. Not quantity. Yesterday was a long, luxurious day of finer things. A good meal, a good book, good music, playing guitar in the secret garden, catching the rays of the sun, going to a backyard concert with super-engaged, enlightening, enlightened, kind, gentle, and fully-realized, Human Beings. Getting closer to the essence of the Good. My partner and I were greeted as fellow travellers, by folks who knew us, & who knew our band, & knew our music, at this amazing gathering of creative souls. To be seen and acknowledged, that was quite suprising and gratifying. A day of Mojo Rising.  We let everything, and everyone float over to us. There was no needing, wanting, grasping. We met the day and everything in it, fully awake & alive. It was good. Very good indeed. 

Mojo Killers, Essential Medicine, Fake it to Make It...

Folk #1: Sure. Ykes. The vibes are BAD. My partner & I listened to a radio program on Friday.  A few scientists were speaking about AI & Climate Catastrophe.  Two very knotty, gnarly topics. The gist? We are royally fucked. 

No kidding. Sounds like these are two existentially doomy areas of deep concern. You could almost hear the despair in the voices of these learned folks. The only hope that was offered? Maybe something so terribly bad will happen, the Humans will change course? Yikes. Talk about hanging by a thin reed. Seems the Humans are playing with fire in multiple ways, and well, we may end  up burning the whole house down.

Alternatively, the vibes are so fucking bad, maybe an electoral bloodbath, a blue wave of magnificent proportions could be brewing?  I mean, who knows?! Fingers crossed. Hope dies last.

So, yeah, let's punish the Republicans for punishing us. Sounds like a good idea. 

Still, talk about Mojo-killers. What to do? We didn't want to just stew in the pot of doom. We decamped to our rehearsal studio and played music. We ran thru an album's worth of unrecorded songs. Sounds like a new album. But we were struggling thru. Sometimes, you know, you have to fake it to make it. We faked it for a few hours. It was quite helpful. Fake it good enough, and suddenly you are not faking it.

We also made a visit to our local THC dispensery. Pick your poisons wisely, Grasshopper. "Sleep gummies." Yes. A good night's sleep is a necessary corrective for so much b.s. The "Stay Asleep" gummies are a new essential item in our survival kit. The young person at the counter processed our order and sent us off with these encouraging words: "Stay Stoned Out There..."  Yes. Indeed. Faking it. Making It. Rocking in the Free World...

What to Believe In? The Wonder...

Folk #1: I suppose I do live with this idea of being a Human Being, a hybrid of Body & Spirit, although, these two phenomena are intimately intertwined, and may actually be one. I inherited this framework from growing up in the Catholic Church. Sure. I was always a skeptic. Later, in my teens & twenties, I rejected all that heavy guilt & sin talk and adopted more of a Buddhist framework. Both frames & models emphasize that Life is Suffering.

And that's OK. I take what I need, and leave the rest. Is that coherent? Not sure. It's just my way forward.

I conclude, we must do our best to live well despite the trials & tribulations of a life. Living well includes being, & doing good in the face of many obstacles. I have fallen for the Great Mystery of Existence. I am ok with not knowing what the hell is going on. I do have a vague, but powerful sense, of being connected to everything in the Universe. This is based on a few experiences of transcendance and "elightenment" over the years. Full-blown body experiences, heart, head, spirit aligned. 

It is hard for me to argue with these events that happened to me. I experienced them completely & made them a part of my fundamental nature.

Can one stake one's Life on a few strange, seemingly other-worldly, mystical experiences? I think so. I don't make any great claims, this doesn't make me "special" in any way. I suppose it feeds me with a sense of Wonder. I gravitate to Beauty. I embrace being a Progressive Human Being, open to the Good, as well as embracing Kindness, Intelligence, & a Positive Affirmation of Life in it's many splendored forms.

But, I am more than ok with living inside the great Cloud of Unknowing. There is a deep in the bone humility baked in, I know nothing, I am here to experience, to observe, to witness, to make my way with heart, head, spirit aligned.

To steal from William Blake, Life here on the Planet, living with other Human Beings, is "The Marriage of Heaven & Hell." That is our cross to bear. Living with the dichotomy, the contradiction. Good & Evil side by side alive in us at all times. Imagine Heckle and Jeckle, Angels & Demons. They are useful. Navigating thru the straits as best we can. Free to choose. And these choices make us who we are. Failure & Success two sides of the same coin. Batten down the hatches, & Damn the Torpedoes. There is a Life to be Lived. Choose wisely, Grasshopper!

Making the God Machine...

Folk #1: Let me play dumb for a moment. Ha. I know you are thinking: Maybe it comes naturally for this dude?! So the Humans, the deeply-flawed creatures that we know so very well, have decided it's a good idea to make a God Machine, an AI, a Super-Intelligence, built on, nutured by, and cared for, by these very same flawed Humans. The God Machine is a mirror of Humanity without eyes, arms, heart, spirit, emotion. The God Machine resides on a vast network of computers. This simulated, virtual, digital, very, very, unreal God will have access (remember everything can be hacked), to all the data & all the "smart" devices  that Humans have collected & connected on & to, the Internet. All the books, all the Scientific papers, all the gossip, the lies, the disinformation, propaganda, conspiracy theories, all the phones, TVs, missiles, Nukes, etc. Anything that has been "digitized," including all the madness, the Pop Culture craziness, and the contradictory, gnarly shite of Human Life too. Some of the Humans tell us this is all a super, very good idea; it is inevitable, no sense asking questions, or being worried, & the way  & wave of the Future. We will create this God Machine, and then turn over all responsiblity to it. Maybe this has always been a secret desire of the Humans? Giving up their agency to something bigger? Leave all the messy, gnarly, hurly-burly, fretting over choices & decisions, to someone, or something else, the great, magnificent, all-knowing, God Machine? The Future will be a Promised Land of prosperity, wealth & leisure. A beautiful, lazy Utopia! We Humans will have more leisure time, sex parties, drug parties, sex & drug parties, more time to watch cat videos, you know, the essence of the Good Life?! This God Machine will make Life & Death decisions for us, it will give advice, decide who lives or dies, who gets care, or not, who gets blown up in a foreign land, and will implement fixes & plans all across the Globe. It will have access to all the information, all the Governments, and all of their armaments. Vast, un-Godly sums of money are being thrown into this grand mission (folly?). Money is being burned at a prodigious, alarming, astonishing rate. Enormous data centers are being built everywhere. All of our resources land, water, air, electricity, time, & money will be funneled to feed this glorious God Machine Beast. And, well, everyone is just sitting back, watching all this furious, frenzied, activity as it unfolds, waiting for the exciting results. Hmmm... Yikes. Like, what could possibly go wrong?! Did anyone ever hear the phrase: Unintended Consequences?! Do any of the Humans think this is like a really, really Super-BAD IDEA?!

Wild Ride for Us All...

Folk #1: No predictions. Just an acknowledgement of "what's happening now."

The man's brain is totally deteriorating right before our eyes. And, he is immensely, prodigiously, historically unpopular, except for his hardcore, brain-dead MAGA cult, and, well, even some of those racist, clueless, backward, retro folks seem to suddenly be pretty unhappy with prices of everything, the war, the tariffs, etc. Even some of the Nazi shite is turning out to be unpopular & has penetrated some of these numbskulls. An America of concentration camps, murder in the streets, ICE out of control, deportations of children & Grandmas, murder on the high seas, pretty damn ugly and soul-killing.

Plus, don't forget tax cuts for the fithly-rich, taking healthcare from folks, cutting food benefits for needy children, attacking Education & Science, punishing the American people, just for the fuck of it. Yikes. That's the Republican party's platform: Elect Us and we will punish you all some more!

Trump is sinking the Republican party, he is destroying them, and the USA, from the inside out. We all need to batten down the hatches and try to ride out this unfolding catastrophe. Hold on for dear life my friends. Vote for the Dems, hope for the best, and damn the torpedoes.

 What happens next? Who knows?! Wild ride for us all.

Fools Playing a Fool's Game...

Folk #1: Predicting the Future? Nah. That's a fool's game. Too many variables. Too many unknowns. Unintended consequences. Chaos looms. We don't know what we don't know, and what we know is limited, shaky, and totally fungible. Best way forward? Lean towards clarity, clear-seeing, being here, now, in the moment, taking things as they come. Seeing what is right before your eyes. Knowing that the way forward is murky & one's understanding is flawed & limited. We are often driven by our fears, worries, doubts, or our desires, hopes, dreams and plans. We impose our ideas & feelings on the Future and render it cloudy & confused. We cloud our own minds. There is a vast Cloud of Unknowing that engulfs & surrounds us. It is important to know that the unknown is just as important, decisive, and determinative, as the known. Our culture has become unhinged; creating simulated, virtual worlds, and then pretending that they are real. One can't bullshit their way past the real. We are watching vast sectors of society succumbing to fabulism, delusion & denial. Reality is a hard, gnarly, knotty, fucking teacher. The lessons of the real are rock-solid. Sure. One can speculate, guess, conjure up visions, but be assured these are only idle entertainments; it's like drawing invisible pictures in the air, and then, fabulating that they are real. A form of madness, & idiocy, no doubt. Foolish.

How to Digest the Craziness?

Folk #1: What is the best way to digest the craziness unfolding in our toxic dystopia? Being astonished, gobsmacked, appalled, full of questions & wonder, dizzy, disappointed, furious, hungry for truth & authenticity, ready & willing to stand for goodness, Justice & a better day, leaning on kindness, embracing diversity, getting angry, and channeling it into a fiery resistance, being opposed with all your heart & soul to corruption & idiocy, talking to your neighbors, reminding them that America is better than the creeps running the show at moment, pointing out the hypocrisy, noting the lies, and the bad actions, renewing your empathy for those who are suffering, laughing at the fools, and their wrong-headed-ness, sure, voting for the Democrat running in every office in the land, envisioning triumph for Democracy, leaning towards our better angels.

Little Nuggets...

Folk #1: Shite! I am left to my own devices. Loaded down with cliches. No unique, or great, insights this morning. But I feel compelled to write this shit down. Of course, according to David Foster Wallace, cliches are cliches because they are often true. Thinking I am no great thinker or philosopher. You could put these little nuggets on a Hallmark Card, and no one would be impressed. 

One step at a time. Take nothing for granted. Live in the moment. Admit that you know nothing. Be kind. Be careful. Listen. Learn from Nature. Don't be full of your self. Fill yourself with other things. Keep your feet on the ground, your head in the clouds, & watch your step! Take care of your self & others. Don't look too far back, or too far forward. You will be surprised. You will be wrong. You will carry on. Failure isn't a sin, it's a learning opportunity. Today is the first day of the rest of your Life. Life is an experiment. Improvise! Conjure up the next thing & watch it fly or crash. No worries. Damn the torpedoes. It's not about you. Thrive anyway. It's ok to dream. Don't take it personally. Embrace it all.

Hopes: The Ups & The Downs...

Folk #1: "Being a creative person," you know, writing, playing, performing, singing; creating things like poems, plays, short stories, songs, & then also, setting up a theater company, and a band or two to manifest these things in the world requires a bit of an imagination, and a positive attitude & discipline. 

What drives you? There is a need to express yourself. A desire to make something beautiful, challenging, well-made.

You know, making things is a fleeting act of Hope. It's sort of a big "What if?" And "Damn the Torpedoes." What happens when you send these things out into the Universe? Who knows? It is all a crapshoot. 

There's a tension between "getting your Hopes up," and "not getting your Hopes up." You fire yourself up, and then, often, you need to reel yourself back down. You are always bumping up against the real. You can imagine a better world, a better day, a better way, you try to live it too, and then you face the forces of reality. 

So often you are surprised. Some things land with great effect. And then there are those experiments, ideas, actions that crash & burn. The crashing & burning is just part of the process too. You learn. Yes. And then time for a new improvisation. It's a of life, a way of living & being.

"Long Past His Sell Date..."

Folk #1: Yes. Perfect. Fat, super-unwell, blowhard & con-man "long past his sell date..."  What is more useless & pathetic than a salesman who just can't get it up anymore? "Trump can’t sell it anymore — he’s hated, but not respected, let alone feared." Tough times for our wanna-be strong-man. 

Decoding the Human...

Folk #1: Once you see the rampant, pervasive evil of racism in action, you can't unsee it. It's pernicious, malevolent, ugly. A world-wide problem engulfing & consuming all people, all lands. Racism: a demon tool used to justify and empower human beings in their project of murdering, enslaving, dehumanizing, oppressing, other human beings. Why is this so obvious & appalling to some of us? And why are others so seemingly blind or indifferent, or actively particpating in the horror? Racism feeds the Fear & Hate. Evil flows from that well. "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad,; a cheat code for one kind of insight & understanding. Once you see, you really can't unsee. It's a liberation & a burden too. An explanation & a knotty, gnarly mystery. The Human Heart is an imperfect vessel.

Popular & Not Popular...

Folk #1: Pop Culture & Popularity. You know. Sort of like the "fickle finger of fate." A shaky hill to die on. Is popularity over-rated? What's popular today, is often forgotten tomorrow. Most of my Life, I have searched for quality over popularity. I was never in the popular crowd, always on the margins. I often dismissed the popular, thinking it was hollow, bland, lowest common denominator shit. Sure sometimes the popular has also resonated with me as really good too: The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Barack Obama, Pizza, Sony Walkman, Levis, Timberland Boots, "Hamilton" (Hip-Hop Musical), "It's a Wonderful Life." 

Chuck Klosterman argued that the popular in culture is important, not necessarily good, but what is popular tells us something important about our culture and the people in it. Still, I can't shake that Mad Magazine Headline: "Eat shit. 50 Million Flies Can't Be Wrong." 

I suppose it is gratifying to see the mighty fall, to see that gravity & reality still do exist. These stories of popular people imploding before our very  eyes can be fun to watch. Turns of out so many of the popular people in our culture, our politics, high finance, etc. are totally corrupt, greedy shits. This seems to be the time of recknoning on so many levels.

Our current President is testing the theory beautifully. Popular with a large segment of folks, and then using his power by totally setting everything on fire. How quickly can the fickle finger of fate turn? Turns out electing one of the dumbest fucks on the planet is a sort of counterproductive move for pretty much everyone else. It seems that incompetence, corruption, stupidity, American Concentraiton Camps, ICE murdering Citizens, Deporting Grandmas & Children, crashing the economy, pointless wars, Tariffs on all our products &  allies, building monuments to himself, stealing money, trashing our government, punishing the common ones at every turn, NOT VERY POPULAR!

This November let the forces of Opposition Rise & Flourish!

Vibe-Casting: Breaking Bad...

Folk #1: Vibe-casting this morning. It's sort like mental spit-balling. My attenna are up and tuned into the wobbly state of everything here in the USA. Seems to me everything is breaking bad. Yes the vibe is decidedly putrid. I know, that may be an overly broad generalization. But, really, it seems very apt & on-target. The bottom is falling out. The sky is falling. Car-crashes around every corner. The Fat Lunatic's brain is dissembling at an accelerating pace. The ooze of corruption is a raging toxic river that has jumped the banks & is sliming vast sectors of our politics, finance and culture. Oil shocks. Forever Wars. The GOP, the Idiot Party, dismantling government by & for the people. The Creeps nominally in charge are acting very, very stupidly; super-greedy fucks totally out their league & out of control. The natives are getting restless. "Throw the bums out," is an impulse brewing across the land. Since we are supposedly still living in a Democracy (hanging on by a thread, on life-support), the common ones will soon be casting votes. The GOP & MAGA Cult have reached an end-point. They ran out of ideas long ago. Hate & Tax Cuts for the Wealthy can only go so far. They are colliding with a very real wall. Maybe an electoral bloodbath is brewing? The vibe reads in the affirmative on that front: Yes. Bloodbath. A cascade of failure. A certain kind of political death. And then, some kind of progressive movement of renewal? Yes. I see all the carnage clearly, and still, I can't help but conjure up a glimmer of spiky, gnarly, Hope...

Synching with the Times...

Folk #1: Yes. Still dealing with a nasty cold, and it has seemed to synch me with the times in which we live. I am feeling skeptical, gnarly, spiky, torn & frayed, recalcitrant, unruly, oppositional, pissed off, uncooperative, resistant, firey, revolutionary, porcupine-like, radical, open to change, fucking angry, flinty, lit up & ready to stir shit up. What is happening here? I am against it with extreme prejudice!

Football & Music...

Folk #1: Derailed by a bug, a germ. Being in close proximity to other Human Beings can be detrimental to one's health. People; they are the solution & the problem. Even if you take precautions, wash your hands frequently, eat well, sleep fairly well, etc, talking, and hanging out with, other Human Beings can be a crapshoot. I came down with a little garden-variety cold, but it really knocked me out. I spent most of yesterday afternoon in a comfy chair, watching the Chicago Bears Offense dominate the other team in North Carloina. Seems the Bears really have a Quarterback, a great Coach, a powerful Offense, and a fairly-lame Defense. It's gonna make for a spicy season. Football, I suppose, it's one my 'guilty pleasures." I know it's a violent game, "every play is a car crash," there's all the over-amped hoopla and hype, but I come from a long ancestral line of Chicago Bear fans. It almost seems like a familial duty to check in, keep the tradition alive.

I am a Zen Football fan. I don't bet on games, I don't have a Fantasy Football Team. I try to be clear-eyed, clear-headed. Not too emotionally over-wrought. One my tools for the Zen approach to a game, turn the sound down, and put on a mix of great albums. I ride the vibe of the music while I watch the game. It's a distancing techniquie. Super-enjoyable!

So, what the was the  soundtrack for the afternoon? A 5-CD mix set to "random play." Featuring a few of the greatest vocalists of any era: Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Tweedy & Wilco, Ray Charles, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. It really, really worked. The game was a kick, the music was a much needed booster shot. That's entertainment, folks...

"Perception is NOT Reality..."

Folk #1: Battles every day, or as PT Anderson's movie put it: One Battle After Another. 

There's "Perception is Reality" vs "Perception is Not Reality." Much of our culture,  social media, AI wants us to believe the former & not the latter, but really, reality trumps perception every time. "Can I believe my lying eyes & ears?" Often not. We now live in a land where everyone lies, and they do it for fun & fortune. Empires of Wealth & Power are built on major edifices of lies. One needs to spend an inordinate amount of time, parsing thru the lies, trying to get to the nub of things. Reality is out there for sure, sometimes you need to cut thru the fog, the glitter, the B.S. the hype, the PR, the smiling, glad-handing experts who excel at casting spells  & clouds of unknowing. Worlds of fantasy & whimsy. Some of this is just fucking entertainment, but there is a deadly serious side to it all too. An existential attack & a pernicious undermining of the real. 

How to fight it all? 

Discipline. Caution. A healthy skepticism. A determination to see clearly, and to know that your own perceptions are suspect, and can sometimes be wildly misleading. Question everything. Especially your self. Not as a contrarian asshole, but as a truth-seeker & truth-teller, knowing there are limits to everything, including your own understanding. Best to start from "Beginner's Mind - Shoshin," "I know nothing, I wonder what the fuck is going on here?" Also, one must be open to changing one's mind in the face of facts & evidence, anything that contradicts one's initial impressions and fundamental biases. I am not saying it's an easy way forward, but, I do believe it's really essential  to live up to a code of trying one's best to live in the real.

Death Cults & End Points...

 

Folk #1: MAGA is a death cult, just like all of the other death cults. Think of Jim Jones & Jonestown, drinking the Kool-aid. Hitler and his evil cabal. David Koresh in Waco Tx. Charles Manson and his Family. Often these cults end in suicide, or a confrontation that leads to a certain end. The rest of us can hope that the cult will get to the end-point before they reap too much chaos, death & idiocy. We are in the end-stages of MAGA. It's gonna be a car-crash, a break-up  a break-down. The rest of us must carry-on and try to rebuild, reset, reboot, remake. Leave the hate and death behind. Those dead-enders face a grim future. Accontability,  responsibility, & a reckoning with reaity.

Zen Caretaker...

Folk #1: Being caretaker of a stately manor in the Heartland. Actually a couple stately manors. One quite old, one quite new-ish, decidely modern. In charge of a big estate on a frequent schedule when the globe-trotting owners are away, and they are often away. Taking care, living with adorable, little furry beasts. It's a job. A responsibility. The key is to be super-Zen in everything. Thinking of The Way of the Samarai. Watch every step, every breath; be aware, step lightly, live gently. Sure, take charge when you are in charge. Still, every action, every step, is in service to one's retainer. All actions are a sacrifice, and a ritual of service. No lopping heads, think of a Peaceful, totally-woke, Samarai. A wielder of leashes, dancing thru the neighborhood with a pack of Zen-like dogs. Collect the mail, coordinate with the landscapers, the cleaning crew, the plant people, the compost guy, the garbageman, the pool guy. Trouble-shoot flooding, power outages, generator fails. There is a whole little ecosystem built around, and supporting, the manor. Then vanish into thin air. Leave no trace, no evidence, no hint, that you were ever there. Not a speck, not a hair, not a spot, nor a cushion out of place. Erase yourself from the picture completely. That's the Zen aspect. Being there when you are called on to be there, and vanishing, when you are not. This kind of Existence resonates with simple, sustained, authenticity. A job in which you must be your best self always, and then, let it all disappear, give it all up, with no regrets, no tears, no gripes, nothing in which to hold. No needing, wanting, grasping. You retreat back to your humble abode. And reset. 

Getting to "No..."

Folk #1: "Defiance." Yes. It comes naturally to me: recalcitrant, gnarly, spiky, willing to play Devil's Advocate.  Sometimes, being defiant, just for the fuck of it. Defying authority. Sure. That has been in my kit-bag from the beginning. These days, defiance is a sure-fire, go-to mode. So much of what's going down just doesn't sit right with me. I often feel out of place, out of time. You know, maybe living in a different time-line? Certainly in a different head-space. I tend to be open to new ideas, but can easily dismiss the raging tsunami of  B.S. ripping through the culture these days. Engaged in long-form improvisation day to day. Trying times for sure. I say fuck these people, and damn the torpedoes. Finding my self, my own gnarly way, alive, aware, awake, toiling away in the fields of opportunity. Declaring "No," with an unbridled enthusiasm; it can be a powerful, enabling choice, & oh, so very satisfying to employ in these dire times.

A Furious Dance...

Folk #1: Hell. I am not an alarmist, just a thinking person, stuck in the middle of a world of alarmists. Still, I have an unpeaceful, uneasy feeling that something major, major is gonna go down. Funny. I can't pinpoint it. Look around. and anyone can see there are many pressure points, hot-spots, bad actors, negative trends. There is bad shit going down every day. Still, that's not it. I have a vague premonition, one without a name or subject. Is it something expected or unexpected? I don't know. I surmise it's something world-changing, mind-blowing, maybe apocalyptic, catastrophic, or at least something that will be undeniable for anyone paying attention. Is anyone paying attention? I am not saying "the end is near,"  that seems foolish, but I do think we humans will be compelled to rethink much of what we take for granted. We have been hurtling thru our days at a super-fast, accelerating clip; the world is in a furious dance. There is a day a time sitting out there on the near horizon. I suppose it is a day of reckoning, or a day of chickens coming home to roost. I don't think it has anything to do with a god, or an extraterrestrial alien invasion. Although, who knows?!  I am more in the camp of this being something of our own doing, a major self-sabotage, a total fuck-up with consequences for many of us. Yikes. Is it gonna be fun? Depends on how you define fun.

Woke Working Folks...

Folk #1: My partner & I are working stiffs, and come from a long line of working stiffs. Woke working stiffs. Happy to have jobs, able to work, making an honest buck, happy to be woke too. You know, fully Alive, Aware, Awake. 

Labor Day 2026 we both had a day off. We did lots of goofing off. Riding bikes on the lakefront. Lazing on the grassy knoll, looking across the lake at the shimmering Emerald City a tiny city of toy skyscrapers way off in the distance. Eating vegetarian Beyond Meat sausages (no animals were sacrificed in preparation of  this meal) (yes, that's woke), and saueted potatoes for lunch. 

Then, we decamped to our secret garden, played CDs (Steely Dan, Mono, Fontaines D.C.)  on our amazingly great Sony boombox & left most of the drama & trauma behind. We marveled at the geese honking and flapping in the blue sky overhead. We watched a tiny little spider building a silky web, yes, we were entertained and amazed by that little spider tossing irredescent, silky threads, pool-side, from one metal handrail to another. The spider web was an intricate, complex, gorgeous thing. Talk about working for a living, working for the next meal. That spider showed us the value of the doing good work, one silky thread at a time. 

We sipped non-alchoholic drinks (yes, that's for sure woke), & sat in silence for long stretches of time. Time seemed to stand still. The day just elongated.

We were still talking about, & laughing at, that white, middle-aged, prosperous-looking woman who accosted my partner the day before. It was at the local Trader Joe's. My partner stopped to give some change to a young girl (from a marginalized segment of the population),  panhandling at the entrance of the store. My partner & I always give money to the panhandlers (men, woman, mothers with children, men with children). Sometimes it's quite the scene. It's part of our shopping routine. We are even casual friends with some of the needy folks, chatting, laughing, talking about the weather, and the spooky, uncertain ways of the world. 

The store is a popular location for down on their luck folks asking for money. The woman walking behind my partner shouted: "That's just like you woke people, rewarding bad behaviour." My partner was stunned, and firmly silent. She gave that woman a stern look in return. The woman then marched into the store, stormed over to the store manager and complained about the panhandler. The manager replied: "She has a right to be there."

Why were we laughing? 

We couldn't imagine the thought-train of being against lending a helping hand, reaching in a pocket for some small change, an easy gesture of kindness & care extended to one of our fellow human beings. Why was that young girl asking for money? Really? Who knows? Bad luck, unfortunate decisions, trying circumstances, self-sabotaging habits, accidents, trials & tribulations, the hurly-burly of life, difficult childhood, an inordinate amount of trauma & drama, you know, I mean, whatever. A person who appears to be in need. Treat them kindly. Not such a big ask, or heavy burden.

WTF?!

You know, we fall back on those two old Biblical-style ideas "There but for the Grace of God, Go I."  "Do unto others as would have them do unto you." And one we coined ourselves:  "We are all one catastrophe away from catastrophe." Empathy & compassion are good, necessary drugs. We see ourselves in the faces & places of other people. We aren't really even church-y people. Small acts of kindness, that just seems like a logical & rational way forward; we imagine a world of kindness, care, & generosity, I mean that is the world we certainly want & hope get to live & to thrive in.

Anyway, yes, it's good to know, and to live by, the ideas & actions you are aligned with, and to know & walk awary from what you don't really believe in at all. Embrace: Love, Kindness, Genrosity, Compassion, Empathy, Reject: Hate, Racism, Selfishness, Greed, Cruelty.  

It was a very good day. No labor, all casual goofing off. Good medicine for the headspace & the heart & spirit too.

Underestimating the Cruelty & Horror...

Folk #1: I suppose our greatest fault as a species is underestimating the level of cruelty & horror some folks will unleash on other folks, in the name & the cause of racism. We woke folks, want to give others the benefit of the doubt, "there but for the grace of God, go I," and we tend to assume the best of others. You know, we are big believers in the interconnected, mutually beneficial web of life on the planet. We honor and celebrate the human family in it's gloriously-broad, splendor & diversity.  In the worst light, maybe that is a shaky, misleading, and fatal assumption? There are malefactors, bad actors, literal Nazis seeded amongst us here in the USA and around the world. They are horrible, dastardly-terrible people. They should be shunned, shamed, and prosecuted when they act out. How to tolerate the intolerable? It's a conundrum. Instead of these folks being marginalized & stigmatized, they have been mainstreamed (for instance see MAGA & the Republican party) & rewarded. It is so very painful to see, and also, so very hard to believe. But, you know, there it is, reality again...

Ha. The Lightness & Hilarity of "Don't Be Here Now."

Folk #1: Just let it go Sisyphus (see previous post). Living my philosophy day to day. Funny how you discover that some of this shite associated with living is not really that hard, you know, it doesn't have to be hard. You actually have agency. Maybe you just let go of the rock? Let it roll down that damn hill? What was so important yesterday, is now so unimportant today. I suppose that's one of the reasons I never got a tattoo. What do I want imprinted on my arm forever? No thing. A blank slate, an open book, a naked arm.

My partner & I were confronted with a glad-handing, faux-friendly, wanna-be sage and wise-man last evening. He engaged us in conversation, friendly-like, but really, it was an assault, a power move, letting us know we were in his domain, and well, we were not quite worthy, we didn't really belong.  It was all conveyed with smiles, and gentle words. He repeated that Ram Dass idea: "Be Here Now," living in the moment, taking one day at a time. We have parroted that same philosophy for years. Coming from our wanna be wise-man, it was so transparently a clown-like put-down. Funny. It just sounded toothless & silly & besides the point. 

The point of no point. 

Once he turned away, a profoundly foolish man, we laughed. Sweet belly laughs came out of us. Not snide or cynical. Pure joyful laughter. I whispered to my partner: "Don't be here now." We fell into a  sweet, sunny pool of laughter. Liberated, released, renewed. Everything fell away, no worries, no enemies, no unfulfilled desires. There was a beautiful, rosy haze around everything and everyone in the room. A bold rosy glow.

I looked it up this morning, wondering if anyone else coined that line? Yes. Indeed. Zen Peacemakers "Don't Be Here Now."   Ha. Right. But, of course, there is no one to follow, no one phiosophy to hold us, or to pin us down. No club to join. No dues to pay. The joy is in the complete letting go. The laughter is a doorway. How easy it is go thru an open door. Alive. Aware. Awake. Being. Day-dreaming. Imagining. Surfing the wave, riding & reading the energy of any room. Watching all the rocks rolling down all the hills. Forever. Watching our fellow human beings spinning, gyrating, colliding, knocking against each other in a long-running tragedy & farce. 

Finding an essential purity of existence. Beyond all that shite. Not a nothingness, no, instead an everything-ness. Embracing it all, but with a very light touch & embrace. Embracing & letting go simultaneously. Joyfully, truly, madly, deeply. No clinging, no needing, no wanting, no grasping, no holding on.  No fighting or hanging on. No fear or desperation. A bold, empty, but incredibly gorgeous clarity.

Yes. So, so very funny, yes, and so, so very good.

Pushing that R&R Up the Hill...

Folk #1: Pushing that rock & roll up a hill like a modern-day Sisyphus...

The above line reflects an uneasy sense of futility that often hangs over some of the things I do with my time on the planet. That rock & roll will also tumble down the hill, & I will watch it with a feeling of deep helplessness. Sure, that sense of futility & helplessness will pass, I have learned that my feelings are not final, but sometimes the bad juju can overwhelm me in the cold light of the morning.

I am one of those human beings who want to create amazing, beautiful, powerful things. Mainly through music & lyrics, but also in my daily interactions with other humans. Living a life with meaning; mind, body, spirit aligned. I know it is all just up to me, plus opening the door to inspiration from all corners & comers. Committing to my own private preoccupations with all the attention, dedication and creativity I can muster, knowing that everything I do has limits. Delusions of grandeur?  Ha. I am well-aware that I am a flawed, quirky, imperfect being doing my best to be the best version of myself I can be. My imagination may exceed my actual reach, and I suppose that's fucking obvious.

What to do? Fall back on clear-seeing, knowing that reality is a hard teacher, acknowledging that shit just happens & intervenes at inconvenient times. Still, despite everything, "damn the torpedoes," & gathering up my energy, using those hard realities as rocket fuel for the next song, project, human interaction & moment. Oh, yeah, sometimes reaching out to sublime transcendance. Yes. that happens too sometimes.

Headspace Clear...

Folk #1: We have been doing a better job at "clearing the head-space." How to do it? Chill out in the secret garden. Watch the trees swaying in the wind, under a vast, hovering blue sky, big puffy clouds rolling overheard, and the hummingbirds dancing over, & around the flowers. Listening to the cicadas singing; a love song, a death song, a song of worship, a cry for help, a prayer to the great "Whats-It?" Hard to know. Lots of flapping & flying, and flopping, death throes, on the ground. The squirrels & rabbits rooting around, and munching, on the delicacies of a green lawn. Dragonflies, incredible, multi-winged, little entities, buzzing, swooping over us with authority. Long silences from the Humans. We just hit the wall. Nothing to say, no point to make, happy to be breathing. One of us floating. One of us sitting like an empty Buddha. Sometimes, no reason to dwell, to sink, to fall, to delve into anything, instead, ride the wave, skim the surface, skate the day. A determined shallowness abides. Pure existence. It's good. A brief jump into a different, much less hectic timeline. A retreat into a oddly timeless zone. The day elongates. A numb clarity emerges from the chillness. Good medicine & a new, required, discipline.