Friday, April 23, 2004
___MANDATORY DRAFT 2005___ [Meera]
I'm going to be going to university next year.
I'd prefer -not- to be registering for the military next year.
I urge you all to do something about THIS surreptitious bill.
Here is a petition.
Posted on
1:11 PM
Thursday, April 22, 2004
TOP TEN CLICHES (FOR ME) TO AVOID [coolmel]
i recently noticed myself using too much cliches in both my writings and conversations. whether i do them consciously or unconsciously, i'm not sure. but in order to change something, it has to bubble up at the conscious level first. so i'm listing here (some of) my top ten cliches to avoid:
- integral (as in, "we're more integral than those assholes!")
- meatspace (as in, "see you in meatspace, buddy.")
- fuck
- kick-ass (as in, "whoa man, that performance kicked-ass!")
- "with compassion"
- mean-green (or any other color usage with Spiral Dynamics context)
- holon (as in, "yo,'sup holons?!")
- tier (as in, "you first-tiers can suck my second-tier *****!")
- buddy/dude
- blog
Posted on
7:47 PM
I'LL BE BACK [.j.evonne.]
Back to the monastery I go, but I leave you with the solemn promise that I only have eyes for you.
Credit to Yakmonkey, one of my favorite digital artists.
Posted on
4:21 PM
HIDE THIS BOOK! [Paul]
My 90-something liberal Catholic grandfather gave me Father William J. O'Malley's Busy Prayers for Busy People over two years ago, and I didn't crack it's hideous yellow cover until about a month ago. I was going through another booze bender at the time, and via over-exposure to our house's copious Buddhist thankga paintings, I looked not to the East for Salvation. On a whim, I cracked this little tome and found in it a treasure trove of daily readings--divided into four weeks, with readings for morning, daytime, and night--which includes quotes by Einstein, T.S. Eliot, Hemingway, Merton, Dostoyevsky, e.e. cummings, Milton, de Chardin, and others. Not only does it provide daily Western-flavored fodder for encouragement and meditation, it's all assembled with a mystical bent (uh, assuming you don't take this Jesus guy literally), and each reading gives you a "grace" sentence perfect for mantra practice, a.k.a. lecto divinia. Which is to say, this book is tits! (o)(o)
Posted on
3:21 AM
FIFTY-SEVEN PENETRATIONS [wrench]
hey, iggy pop turns 57 today - whoa!
who would have thought he'd make it this long? and in such good shape! listen, folks, forget these fad diets - say "adios, atkins," "sianara, south beach," "ciao, 48 hour miracle diet." as iggy's our witness, there's no better nutrition than 40 long years of hard drugs, broken glass, and peanut butter -
this one's for you, iggster :)
(shot of pop and bassman, mike watt, in 2002. courtesy of watt's hootpage)
Posted on
12:53 AM
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
ALWAYS WEAR SUNSCREEN [.j.evonne.]
World Naked Bike Ride: June 12, 2004
Boulder is on the list. I may be in Burlington VT. Out in the desert we call this Critical Tits. Big ones, small ones...watch 'em jiggle by a main street near you.
Posted on
7:00 PM
'BUILT THIS CITY' TOPS WORST SONGS LIST [Matthew]
NEW YORK (AP) -- Starship may have built this city on rock and roll, but Blender magazine is tearing it down, naming the band's "We Built This City" as the worst song ever.
Some tunes on the "50 Worst Songs Ever!" list were selected for their melodies, others "are wretchedly performed" and "quite a few don't make sense whatsoever," the magazine said.
The list, which appears in the May issue, includes songs by New Kids on the Block, Meat Loaf, The Doors, Lionel Richie, Hammer and The Beach Boys, among others.
Blender describes 1985's "We Built This City" as "the truly horrible sound of a band taking the corporate dollar while sneering at those who take the corporate dollar."
Posted on
3:42 PM
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS [Matthew]
..., Or The Perils of Benevolence. That is the title of a recently posted article in The National Interest, by Roger Kimball. Naturally, he generally comes out against PCness. Of course, this is a topic thoroughly explored by many, including the likes of Ken Wilber, Camile Paglia, and Christopher Lasch. Nonetheless, it is always fun to find a well-written take-down of what some hold as a sacred cow. The Kosmic Quote:Now, there is undoubtedly a sense in which teaching is a moral act. But its morality is like happiness according to Aristotle: it is achieved not directly but indirectly through the responsible engagement with the tasks at hand. Indirection--moral subtlety, an appreciation of human imperfection--are resources deliberately slighted by the politically correct. In their pursuit of a better, more enlightened world, PC types let an abstract moralism triumph over realism, benevolence over prudence, earnest humorlessness over patience.
All that, plus excessive PCness (good intentions acknowledged) is simply annoying.
Oh, and poke the bunny. Go ahead, just poke it.
Posted on
10:22 AM
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS GET IT [Paul]
From "The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School", by Michael McDonough:3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
You hear a lot about details, from "Don't sweat the details" to "God is in the details." Both are true, but with a very important explanation: hierarchy. You must decide what is important, and then attend to it first and foremost. Everything is important, yes. But not everything is equally important. A very successful real estate person taught me this. He told me, "Watch King Rat. You'll get it."
Posted on
9:50 AM
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
ON MARRIAGE [coolmel]
Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
- The Prophet: On Marriage
Posted on
8:09 PM
GETTING UNTETHERED [Matthew]
Rommel, man. Looks like you missed the classic TV show, the Rules of Marriage. I think you'd love it. It stars Elliot Gould, Sean Astin, the woman from Bewitched, and whole host of others. I think I even recall an episode where they dealt with publically espousing the beauty of models, when those models aren't your wife. Great episode. Early integral TV, for sure.
Posted on
4:53 PM
FLATLAND MY HO [coolmel]
first of all i would like to thank our ballsy editor for spoiling the Top #1 of Maxim's Hot 100 list. i have yet to receive my subscription, my wife is probably reading it right now. i tried Borders but those damn issues are sealed like condoms. anyway, the only reason Jessica made the top spot is that Britney is already the sexiest woman in the world! now excuse me while i read my FHM Philippine Edition.
Posted on
10:16 AM
NO SILICONE NECESSARY [.j.evonne.]
Paulo Freire
Earth Charter
Vikas Nath
Knownet Initiative
Amoration for more....
the low-carb blog
Posted on
6:06 AM
FLATLAND HO [Paul]
Thank God for the insipidity of Pop Culture, otherwise I'd forget why the hell I'm interested in integral theory in the first place. That's right, Maxim Magazine voted the plastic, minimally-talented, blandly attractive Jessica Simpson #1 in their fifth annual "Hot 100" List, all but confirming the all-powerful Flatland status quo. Once again, Maxim wins the prize for judging sexual attractiveness solely on exterior appearance, with little consideration given to interior beauty (if they did, we might expect to see Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati at least somewhere on that list). I doubt poor Jessica even has an interior; anyone who caught her recent appearance on SNL knows that behind all the tanned skin, platinum hair, and silicon boobies lies all the personality of a room-temperature bowl of soggy Grape Nuts. Sorry Coolmel, but this just sucks.
Posted on
2:51 AM
Monday, April 19, 2004
KINESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE AND HOT SAMURAI-WIELDING BABES [coolmel]
speaking of intelligences... so i went to see Kill Bill Vol.2 and was again mesmerized by the hottest samurai-wielding babe of the Western World. for those who are thinking of bringing their kids to the movie, go ahead, it has less gore than Vol.1. but what really made my day was the trailer of Hero which will be presented by Tarantino. the new god of martial arts Jet Li plays the nameless hero in which he'll display his bad-assed Wushu. the trailer alone makes "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" look like a Disney movie. but apparently, the movie is a reissue and has been available in the asian market for sometime now. i was actually tempted to look for the DVD. good thing there seems to be no local Asian stores here in Boulder.
Posted on
12:55 PM
MANAGEMENT INTELLIGENCES [Matthew]
Renown Harvard psychologist and researcher Howard Gardner -- the person who gave us the theory of multiple intelligences -- is at it again with a book, Changing Minds, that this time aims to examine the specific field of management and leadership. The Economist offers a short review. The reason I mention it here is the following portion of the review, which is reason number 1,560,992 that integral basically rocks the house. Emphasis is mine.Today, management again seems eager to borrow from the field of psychology. After a decade in which its prime focus was first the re-engineering of business processes and then the measurement of "value added", the science has turned its attention to the humans at the heart of the corporate machine.
I love this. The only field of psychology worth turning attention towards is integral psychology, if only because it incorporates the partial truths of all previous areas of psychology. After getting integral training, let's get those 'corporate hearts' jogged as self, culture, nature in full tilt body, mind, and spirit, and the machine is gonna change, baby. The machine is gonna change.
Posted on
7:54 AM
Sunday, April 18, 2004
BEACON STREET BARD, ON ASSIGNMENT [wrench]
here's a shot I took of pt. fermin lighthouse in pedro. it's an italianate victorian pad (a style inspired by the villas of northern italy) from the 1870's and this year'll be it's 130th in existence. I took a tour inside today. apparently, it was financed by a famous pedro investor from way back when (phineas banning), and then manned (I should say "womanned") by the smith sisters, helen and mary, who abandoned the post after 8 years due to 'loneliness'! remember that back then, the area surrounding the lighthouse was completely desolate, w/ the closest contact being 2 or 3 days away on horseback. soon enough, by the 1920s, san pedro was a'bustling, mainly thanks to: the port (longshoremen), the navy (bluejackets), and the canneries (fishermen). eventually, the lighthouse was turned into a park, but then came under navy control during the 1940s because of WWII (the sailors took the bulb out and added a lookout tower dubbed "the chicken coop"). speaking of the bulb, the smith sisters originally had to maintain it using lamp or whale oil, which over time was replaced by vapor iridescence, and finally electricity. oh, and the pad only had one bathroom, so when the folks stationed upstairs hankered for the camode, they had to careen down 58 stairs! I walked up to the top spot and was greeted by a righteous 360 degree eye gift. the seat of attention, maintain the light - big metaphors for matt to contemplate...
Posted on
5:51 PM
FUCK INTEGRAL, LET'S PARTY [Paul]
So I skipped the In-Town Get-Down to see this band last night called Hairbanger's Ball, a Chicago-based covers-only outfit who plays nothing but late-80s hair metal--Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Tesla, Poison--who were a hell of a lot of fun (while the in-town get-down was not, as i was informed). Yet, while everyone loves 80s irony these days, and while there was some ironic appeal, the band brought back the original, sincere feelings I had for this music back in my youth. I'm sorry, but I just can't take "Living on a Prayer" with tongue in cheek; it really IS inspirational. What pissed me off is, these guys TREATED THEIR OWN PERFORMANCE IRONICALLY. The worst offender was the lead singer, Vic Vox, who had the muscle-bound physique of a failed linebacker, a terrible wig, and annoying "point at the ladies and nod" mannerisms. Yes, fuckhead was only in it because 80s schtick is cool. Fuck you asshole, fuck you and die. If you're REALLY going to relive the "decadence" of 80s hair metal, you have to commit to it. I mean, the dude wasn't even drunk! The REAL 80s hair metal lifestyle, because of its excess, could almost be seen as a spiritual practice. But these guys, in their studied, soulless reproduction of the SURFACES of 80s hair metal, without the SUBSTANCE, are nothing but posers. At least the guitar solos were good.
Posted on
5:12 PM
FRAGMENTS OF ALEX GREY: LET LOVE DRAW THE LINE [.j.evonne.]
Drawing the line,
The Boundary line
Between this form and that
Is what the mind does.
Our minds are artists,
always drawing lines......
....Indeed, prior to all the lines,
The stainless ground,
The infinite Vastness is perfect
Just as it is.
Yet how can we know it,
How can we see it,
How can we share it,
Unless we draw a line around it?....
....Commit to Realization
And experimentation,
Stay centered in the Uncreated
Source of Creation,
Leave the critics behind.
Let Love draw the line.
Posted on
12:42 PM
