photo: BBC World
"Maybe it was Lhasa's unconventional upbringing that has given her such a unique vision, or maybe it was always within her. Whatever the reason, she stands as one of the most idiosyncratic Mexican-American performers, fully aware of the tradition, but putting her own spin on it. Lhasa's mother, Alexandra Karam, was an actress and photographer, her father, Alejandro Sela, a Mexican professor teaching in upstate New York -- Lhasa de Sela was born in the tiny village of Big Indian. The big family (Lhasa has three sisters, three half-sisters, and three half-brothers) was fairly nomadic and their travels took them between the U.S. and Mexico, traveling and living in a converted school bus. It was an arty life of music, books, and letters, but without the insidious influence of television, banned by her parents. Instead, the family was cast on its own resources for entertainment and that included nightly singing, where Lhasa developed her voice. The family spent a total of eight years south of the border, where Lhasa grew into the local culture, before finally settling (outside the U.S. again) in Montreal, Canada, in 1992, at the age of 20. She'd visited the place the previous year and met Yves Desrosiers, a young musician with whom her initial work had proved so fruitful that they decided to collaborate on a full-time basis. The pair played locally, adding bassist Mario Légaré, and then toured nationally, garnering rave reviews from coast to coast, before beginning work on Lhasa's debut, La Llorana. A foray to the U.S. in 1997 to travel and perform with Lilith Fair won a number of fans, who were surprised by the strange, richly sensual music and Lhasa's smoky jazz phrasing. The venture was repeated in 1998 to coincide with the American release of her album, which had already been available for a year in Canada. After touring behind the album, Lhasa moved to France, to work with her sisters, who perform with circuses there." ~ Chris Nickson, All Music Guide
"La Llorona," Lhasa De Sela
David Bromige, RIP
RSS Feed Button
Search Box
Carl Macki in the bush of poetry ghosts.
Lhasa de Sela
Spotlight on:
photo: Candy Darling on her Deathbed by Peter Hujar
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS I Am A Bird Now
"I Am A Bird Now the second full-length from this extraordinary New York artist and his cohorts, features contributions from both Antony's peers (Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhardt) and heroes (Lou Reed, Boy George). This album has to be one of the most pure and direct to have emerged in a very long time. It is one of the first classics of 2005." roughtrade more
Low The Great Destroyer
"Formed in 1993, Low is a trio from Duluth, Minnesota comprised of guitarist/vocalist Alan Sparhawk, percussionist/vocalist Mimi Parker and bassist Zak Sally. Throughout Low's history, the band has accumulated acclaim from critics ("Low build big magic from so little" - Rolling Stone) and musicians (Radiohead hand-picked Low to open a string of dates in 2003). Initially garnering attention as leaders of the '90s slowcore movement, Low went on to develop a sonic repertoire that incorporated pop, R&B and dissonant rock n' roll. With this kind of storied history, most people thought they had Low pegged. But then they turned in their Sub Pop debut, The Great Destroyer. The band's seventh full-length album, The Great Destroyer is fascinating in that it blends the band's austere melodies ("On the Edge Of," "Silver Rider") with an aggressive guitar onslaught ("Monkey," "Everybody’s Song") and even melds Low's varied styles together into a single song ("When I Go Deaf"). Co-produced by Low and David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev), The Great Destroyer is a welcome surprise and, in the end, a rock n' roll revelation." subpop also on roughtrade
VORN
randomly generated art
Vorn is created from data on the Internet
"UNDERSTANDING VORN" is an artwork in flux. Every five minutes it scours thousands of weblogs, searching for the four most recently posted pictures that begin with the letters 'V', 'O', 'R', 'N'. Every five minutes, UNDERSTANDING VORN changes, filled with fresh words and pictures from the blogosphere. . . more
UNDERSTANDING VORN was designed and developed for VORN Magazine, by Jonathan Harris of Number 27, during his residency at the FABRICA Communication Research Center in Italy.
link to Sonia Landy Sheridan
Moby Lives
credit: Melville House Buy t-shirt
David Kipen, book critic for the SF Chronicle, suggested this site. Does it help that he is published by Melville House, imprint of the blogger, Dennis Loy Johnson?
See also Book TV:"Literary Blogs and Their Influence"
Other literary blogs:
MaudNewton.com
Complete-Review.com
MoorishGirl.com
Beatrice.com
Bookninja.com
Ikara Colt Says G'bye
"Dear friends--Just a quick note to say that the band will be splitting up as of now.We would all like to thank everyone that came to see us, supported us and heckled us. We produced two albums and countless singles. We always said that we would split up after five years and that five years is up, better to go out this way than to turn into some old, tired and jaded outfit. As we always said this was never a career choice or a lifestyle option and sadly most bands I see seemed to be for those reasons. Cheers once again,Thank you and good night. IKARA COLT"
from label
Ikara Colt website
Ecolonomics
"Ecolonomics is a word expressing the understanding that our ecology and economics are two sides of the same coin. Ecolonomics is a movement away from behavior that is ecologically and economically destructive towards activities that protect our environment and nurture our economy. Ecolonomics is an academic discipline aimed at harnessing the symbiotic power inherent to the ecology—economics relationship. Ecolonomics is a vision that sees business, government and education working together to achieve a prosperous, sustainable future. Ecolonomics is a commitment to our future made individually and collectively, here and now."
Visit website
Spencer Dryden, R.I.P.
photo: Jefferson Airplane website
I was greatly saddened to lear of Spencer Dryden's death. I knew him mostly through his musicianship as drummer for the Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He will be missed. My condolences to his sons, Jackson, who worked with me at World's Records and Jeffrey and Jes.
Kylie with Scissor Sisters
"I Believe In You" video pairs her with Ana Matronic
and the rest of the Scissors.
New Order's New Order
"The LP, ‘Waiting For The Sirens Call’, is set to be released on March 28 via Warner Music and will be preceded by a new single 'Krafty' two weeks before. . ."more
blog about Factory Records, chronicled in "24 Party People"
ResumeWiki
"ResumeWiki is a great idea, the project flows from Jeremy Wright of Ensight, which let you post your own resume on the community wiki and let other people give you comments or edit on it.
ResumeWiki is a community edited resume centre. You post your profile (goals, etc) and resume the community of peers will give you comments and possible edits. It is about harnessing the power of lots of eyes to help you get your job. It is kind of like Open Source’ing your resume. Less bugs, more potential, less work for the individual (you). . . ."
more (from wen-xin.net [Kevin Wen's] weblog
Jeremy Wright founded ResumeWiki. He also publishes Ensight.
Bill Gates: Explains Remark
Stung by criticism of his remarks calling Creative Commons "communist," Bill Gates--well, you decide--here's the rest of the interview.
This is what he said at the latest CES. From Wired News.
Creative Commons Presents:
"We have two Flash-based shorts to watch, "Get Creative," which explains the history and launch of Creative Commons, and "Reticulum Rex," that revisits Creative Commons a year after launch and looks toward the future."
Nonprofit for flexible copyright.
musicplasma
This site has one of the best interfaces I've seen. It's great for searching band associations. The all-Flash design may take a little getting used to.
Source: John Battelle's searchblog
See aso: "Battelle's BlogPlasma" post at Geeking with Greg for a continuationof the idea to the blogosphere.
allmusic Editors' Choice 2004 Releases
Like every year, 2004 produced its fair share of remarkable music. Here are the albums, box sets and reissues that All Music Guide's editors believe to be the best of the year. Please check out the Writers' Bloc pages for lists from individual editors.
(Note: you must register at the website to go to this page.)
MESSAGES FROM THE TSUNAMI
photo: Minerology Museum,University of Muenster
By Park Teter
(Park Teter taught Western Civilization at the American University of Beirut, was the University of Pennsylvania’s Advisor in Humanities at Pahlavi University in Iran, and then studied the Scientific Revolution at the University of Chicago and Princeton. He is the author of THE REVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES and other works published at www.TheAgeOfMeaning.com.)
"I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands."
This statement could accurately describe the Tsunami that the world watched on television in December 2004. In fact, the statement is a description of "visions" experienced by Carl Jung in October 1913.
The First World War soon proved that Jung’s visions were appallingly prophetic. Will the Indian Ocean tsunami soon prove appallingly prophetic?
To see meanings in natural phenomena is commonplace in many cultures and among the "superstitious" who dwell in the midst of scientific civilization. This essay will show that:
"Scientific" refusal to see meanings in natural phenomena is irrational.
The meanings of the tsunami may prove prophetic.
Responding to the messages of the tsunami is terribly urgent.
There are practical ways to respond to the messages before it is too late.
Before exploring the meanings of the tsunami, it will be useful to put Jung’s "vision" in the context of an extended quote from his Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
Before the autumn of 1913 the pressure which I had felt was in me seemed to be moving outward, as though there were something in the air. The atmosphere actually seemed to me darker than it had been. It was as though the sense of oppression no longer sprang exclusively from a psychic situation, but from concrete reality. This feeling grew more and more intense.
In October, while I was alone on a journey, I was suddenly seized by an overpowering vision: I saw a monstrous flood covering all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. When it came up to Switzerland I saw that the mountains grew higher and higher to protect our country. I realized that a frightful catastrophe was in progress. I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands. Then the whole sea turned to blood. This vision lasted about one hour. I was perplexed and nauseated, and ashamed of my weakness.
Two weeks past; then the vision recurred, under the same conditions, even more vividly than before, and the blood was more emphasized. An inner voice spoke. "Look at it well; it is wholly real and it will be so. You cannot doubt it." That winter someone asked me what I thought were the political prospects of the world in the near future. I replied that I had no thoughts on the matter, but that I saw rivers of blood.
I asked myself whether these visions pointed to a revolution, but could not really imagine anything of the sort. And so I drew the conclusion that they had to do with myself, and decided that I was menaced by a psychosis. The idea of war did not occur to me at all.…
On August 1 the world war broke out. Now my task was clear: I had to try to understand what had happened and to what extent my own experience coincided with that of mankind in general. Therefore my first obligation was to probe the depths of my own psyche.
When Jung’s visions of mighty waves, floating rubble, and drowned bodies was followed by World War I, he realized that they had revealed not a private, but a public, psychosis. The Indian Ocean tsunami may have had all kinds of meanings for the private individuals experiencing or witnessing the heartbreaking tragedy. But, like Jung’s vision, the tsunami also reveals a public psychosis.
Jung did not recognize until after the outbreak of the First World War that he had a task that "took precedence over everything else." In this age of weapons of mass destruction, we must recognize before the outbreak of war that we have a task that takes precedence over everything else.
This task requires no "visions." Reality itself is a vision. The reality of weapons of mass destruction is as powerful a message as any vision.
Interpreting these realities is not a task for specialists. Every individual can share in the task Jung gave the highest precedence: "to try to understand what has happened and to what extent his or her own experience coincides with that of mankind."
Is the story of the future already written? Can we revise the script before the mass destruction symbolized by weapons of mass destruction?
Yes, we can "change the future." But only by getting the messages of the present.
The "Scientific" Myth
One of the greatest obstacles to interpreting the meanings of the tsunami is the "scientific" belief that natural phenomena have no meanings. This belief has, in fact, proved very useful to the advance of science. By limiting scientific inquiry to statements that can be tested by observation and experiment, science has achieved miracles. The result is a picture of the universe of amazing beauty and order and complexity… and tragedy. The "scientific" myth of a meaningless and impersonal physical universe is not only soul-destroying. It is wrong.
Scientists ask the mass and velocity of physical facts but never ask the meanings of physical facts. This irrational behavior has psychological roots in the formative childhood of modern science, in the age of Copernicus and Galileo and Newton, an era when Europeans slaughtered each other in religious wars over the meanings of revelations. Wars over meanings were one of the historical forces that channeled religious energy into exploration of a neutral physical universe without meaning. Most of these revolutionary scientists still saw the physical universe as testimony to the glory of the Creator, but they increasingly avoided any search for meanings located in physical facts.
There are physical facts that clearly have meanings. And these facts demolish the "scientific" myth of a meaningless physical universe.
Meaningful coincidences are natural phenomena that pose a scientific puzzle. That puzzle can be solved by a new scientific paradigm that recognizes that we project facts into the physical world in the same way that we project images into dream worlds.
Sample Data
Here is an example of facts that I projected into physical reality.
While driving with a friend across the arid plains of Colorado, I noticed a stack of giant hay bales, each one about five feet high and ten feet long. "Look," I said to my friend. "They look just like giant loaves of bread." Then I added: "There are the loaves; where are the fishes?"
I was referring to Jesus' miracle of feeding multitudes with a few loaves and fishes. I have never been a Christian, but have grown up in a country profoundly influenced by Christian traditions. So I had somewhere heard about the story of the miracle. But my referring to a Christian story was not at all typical for me. It popped into my head as the purest whimsy, and I attached absolutely no importance to my whimsical remark. And, if I had for some reason been looking for a feast of fishes, I certainly would not have searched the arid plains of eastern Colorado.
After driving a few more miles on a gravel road we came to the small reservoir that I had selected, from a local map, for our picnic. The reservoir was empty. The mud at the bottom of the reservoir was littered with dead fish.
There were about 20 large carp, five-to-ten pounds each, and maybe 200 smaller fish. Many of the carcasses had been partially eaten by scavenging animals and birds. The dead fish were concentrated in what had been the deepest part of the reservoir, obviously gathered together by the lowering water level. I could imagine the final scene. The fish would have been swarming more and more densely in the diminishing pool, until they were all packed wriggling and writhing together as their tails flopped and gills gasped in the last puddle of their element.
After asking "where are the fishes," I found the fishes.
Later I interpreted a message of this coincidence. All the fish in the reservoir were dead, rotten, scavenged. They had died in a ghastly manner. The population had become ever more crowded as the environment that had sustained them shrank around them.
Just as Jung encountered "visions" of a flood that predicted world war, I encountered the "reality" of a drained pond that predicted an environmental catastrophe.
But HOW did I put those fish into that mud?
In the same way that I might put fish and mud into a dream world. If I awakened from a dream of dead fish I would not look for those fish under my pillow or on the ceiling. I would know that my mind created the dreamed fish. In the same way, my mind created the dead fish in the pond.
But what about other people who drove past the drained pond… and maybe a local farmer whose cows normally drank at the pond and local kids who may have fished in the pond. Did they also create the drained pond?
One of the scientific puzzles posed by coincidences is that a fact encountered by many people may have special meanings for one person. How can a single fact have multiple meanings? It happens all the time. In dreams.
Overdetermination
In a dream world a single image can express multiple different unconscious ideas. We can borrow this principle of "overdetermination" from dream worlds to solve a puzzle in the physical world. In the real world a single fact can express the multiple ideas of many different people.
Thus the drained pond could mean one thing to me and something else to a farmer and something else to a fisherman.
We could all project the same fact for separate reasons.
But here is another scientific puzzle. HOW could we reach agreement on the fact of the pond? The farmer and the fisherman and I did not call a committee meeting to agree on the physical facts that could express our different thoughts.
How do we agree to create the same physical facts? A pond, a war, a tsunami?
We have a model in children’s games. Small children believe that the rules of their games – for example, marbles – are external, eternal, and not man made. As children mature they realize that the rules of their games are human agreements. When modern adults mature, they will recognize that the laws of nature are human agreements.
What appears to be objective is really collective.
Because collective natural laws are enormously important, we agree to give them enormous power. The power of a tsunami… or an AIDS virus… or the splitting of an atom… or gravity….
Recognition that we create physical facts in the same way that we create dream images opens up a cosmic opportunity. Just as an individual can awake from a dream and interpret its meanings, so an individual can awake from a reality and interpret its meanings. And a society can awaken from collective realities and interpret their meanings.
The meanings, for instance, of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The event was overdetermined. It expressed multiple meanings. For example.
Scientific studies of global warming lead to predictions of widespread coastal flooding caused by the melting of Arctic ice.
There is a striking similarity between televised images of the tsunami and Jung’s visions of "mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands." Jung’s flood visions were soon followed by world war. Will the televised tsunami images soon be followed by war? In this age of weapons of mass destruction, will a post-tsunami war exceed the horrors of the First World War?
A cartoon in the December 29, 2004 San Francisco Chronicle showed a small Earth floating on the ocean with the crest of an enormous wave poised to crash upon it. A signal coming from the Earth is broadcasting "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" A voice from Earth says: "Great. What’s THAT for?" On the crest of the wave is written the label: "POVERTY" The cartoonist, Tom Meyer, was interpreting a natural phenomenon as a message to humanity.
These three interpretations – poverty, war, and global warming -- of the tsunami need to be explored in depth. Other meanings can be found in this overdetermined catastrophe. Once it is recognized that natural phenomena have meanings, all news will be examined in search of possible messages from our unconscious.
From Idea to Action
The interpretation of realities can lead to the changing of realities.
For example, the cartoon interpreting the tsunami as poverty can lead to recognition that the one-time horrors of the tsunami are small compared to the horrors of every day life in the world’s poorest countries. All over the world governments, organizations, and individuals are eagerly responding to the suffering they have witnessed in the South Asian catastrophe. Why shouldn’t these same governments, organizations, and individuals eagerly respond to the everyday suffering of the world’s poor?
Of course there are already programs to reduce world poverty. But these are a drop in the bucket compared to the needs of the poor. And they are a drop in the bucket compared to the resources of the rich.
What will it take to translate the healthy and generous response to the tsunami into a healthy and generous response to everyday poverty?
Among many possible responses to poverty, here is one concrete proposal. The United States government can reduce military spending by $200 billion and spend an equal amount to promote health, education, welfare, and work in poor countries. That would not only bring life to the hungry; it would bring life to Americans who have awakened to their humanity.
And a transfer of 200 billion taxpayers’ dollars, from fighting war to fighting poverty, would do more than all the arms in the world to protect Americans from terrorists. And from their own inner terror.
The world would be more shocked by such an act of humanity than it was shocked by airliners crashing into buildings. Then America can lead a new coalition of the willing… willing to spend big, big money.
The spending will do more harm than good if it is experienced as the rich saving the poor. Rich and poor are all equal partners who share the problems that they can only solve together.
Of course the spending of money will fail unless it is spent intelligently. And the spending of money will fail unless it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible transformation. A transformation in which everyone can participate.
When World War I broke out, Jung wrote: "Now my task was clear: I had to try to understand what had happened and to what extent my own experience coincided with that of mankind in general. Therefore my first obligation was to probe the depths of my own psyche."
The first obligation of all of us is to probe, before it is too late, the depths of our own psyches.
The ocean is an archetypal symbol of the unconscious. Earthquakes are archetypal symbols of upheaval from the depths. The tsunami began with an earthquake in the depths of the ocean.
An upheaval in the depth of humanity’s unconscious can launch a tsunami of compassion that will flood the world.
Then the mighty waves, the floating rubble, and the drowned bodies of the Indian Ocean tsunami need not be followed by another world war.
They will be followed instead by a new civilization, in which the insanity of war is replaced by humanity awakening, at last, to the adventure for which we exist.
Works published at www.TheAgeOfMeaning.com describe how, individually and together, we can immigrate to The Next Civilization.
(Readers of this article are encouraged to distribute copies as widely as possible)
