Saturday, May 08, 2004
THE MEMETIC SPIRAL [coolmel]
COLORS of Thinking
The Memespread Project was successful in spreading a meme into the blogosphere. Just imagine if the memes of Spiral Dynamics will spread as fast, and as far. Then the world will be a much more colorful place (for better, or for worse, remains to be seen).
This is not an experiment. But for those who care: spread this meme, link to it, replicate it, mirror it, send it to your friends, your parents, your spouse, your grandparents, your bosses, your doctors, your priests, your philosophy professors, your yoga teachers, your gurus, even to strangers. And let this meme put some new colors into everyone's perception.
Posted on
12:49 AM
Friday, May 07, 2004
A FEW ROTTEN RED TOMATOES [coolmel]
the more i hear stories like these, the more i believe [Wilber on] Spiral Dynamics might be right that everyone is born at square one... not that the Spiral is the solution (hell, even the spiral is divided in two). but at least it gives some sense out of these senseless acts of fucking stupidity. good luck to Donald.
Posted on
10:52 PM
JARS OF CLAY [.j.evonne.]
Prayer opens the spiritual sight of man, for prayer is desire, and desire develops will; the magnetic emanations proceeding from the body at every effort -- whether mental or physical -- produce self-magnetization and ecstacy.
- HPBlavatsky, Isis Unveiled I, 1877
Posted on
4:30 PM
CREED WORSHIP MY FOOT [coolmel]
who the hell says i worship Creed?! if there are mortals worthy of my worship, only these guys qualify. and you can tell that to Bono.
(so, when are we going to checkout that Church at the Bar? i'll do the driving.)
Posted on
1:31 AM
Thursday, May 06, 2004
9-11 WASN'T BORING EITHER (BUT IT STILL SUCKED) [Paul]
Sorry Coolmel, I started this e-zine, and there are certain things that won't be tolerated. Blatant Creed worship is one of them. From CreedSucks.com:"They generate a decent amount of dislike amongst critics and people in the alternative-rock world because they sound like a very watered-down version of music that meant a lot to them in the '90s. Kind of like Pearl Jam in leather pants," says Sia Michel, editor in chief of SPIN magazine. "They consider them unoriginal and over-the-top. Stapp can come off as pretentious and humorless when he's striking his rock-god poses -- unlike [U2's] Bono, for instance, who also seems to be winking at you at the same time."
If you want spirituality in your rock-n-roll, check out Modest Mouse.
Posted on
9:53 PM
CHRISTIAN BANDS ARE NOT BORING [coolmel]
here's a proof. looks like they'll never run out of playlist. yeah let's check it out Paul (and we should bring CJ) . too bad i left my creed, jars of clay, sister hazel, and p.o.d. cds. but i still have Throwing Copper. and SRV Live At El Mocambo.
Posted on
10:15 AM
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, NOW ON TAP [Paul]
Sick of going to a cold, grey church to get your Sunday sanctified? Looking for a way to "connect" to the Divine without ditching the dignity of the local dive? Then look no further than Church at the Bar, the zany outreach effort by Denver-based
Connected Life, a Christian group which meets twice a month at the D-Note bar in Denver to sip beer, take in some Christian rock, and hear the good news as delivered by group leader Mike Sheperd. The group's oft-quoted William Blake aphorism says it all: "The church is cold, but the ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm. But if at the church they would give us some ale...we'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day, nor ever once wish from the church to stray" (from "The Little Vagabond").
Sound too good to be true? Probably yes. Go back to that "Christian rock" thing--that's the tip-off. No progressive Christian--let alone mystic--would be caught dead moshing non-ironically to the turgid guitar-sludge of third-rate Creed cover bands, would they? Why do we get the feeling this is just another creepy attempt by Christian fundamentalists to "hippify" old-school fire-and-brimstone bullcrap for the clueless hordes? Regardless, this is just too far-out to ignore. Coolmel, we are going to this.
Posted on
11:47 PM
FILE THIS UNDER BULLSHIT [Matthew]
So Michael Moore is making a new movie. Big surprise: a controversy has erupted. From the New York Times article: The Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush, executives at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday.
"Wow" you think to yourself, "sounds like crap." Or you even think, "wow, sounds like censorship." In fact, Michael Moore seems to agree with you:Mr. Moore, who will present the film at the Cannes film festival this month, criticized Disney's decision in an interview on Tuesday, saying, "At some point the question has to be asked, `Should this be happening in a free and open society where the monied interests essentially call the shots regarding the information that the public is allowed to see?'"
"So," you think to yourself, "Moore has a point." Except that he doesn't. Now, he doesn't say censorship, but you know this is what he implies. In truth this is exactly where the bullshit comes in. Let's be straight: even if Disney/Miramax came straight out and said, "we aren't going to distribute this movie because we want to save our Florida-asses in Bushville Southeast," that is entirely within their right for the simple reason that D/M is a company. Companies makes business decisions all the time, about all sorts of reasons. That is sorta how "business" works.
Even if Moore wanted to distribute with a smaller company, that company would accept or decline based upon business reasons (unless altruism came into the equation). Nothing whatsoever stops Moore from putting this thing on the internet, renting out his New York apartment for a private showing for all of his beloved 'poor folk', or reenacting the thing at the sidewalk of Rockefeller Plaza. His "speech" is in no way blocked.
Thus what all this is not is censorship nor a first amendment issue. The first amendment deals with government suppression of speech, not some company making a decision based upon the bottom line. Gov't censorship should always be looked out for, and fought fully. But the 1st amendment is invoked far too much in today's boomeristic America. Of course, what all this ultimately is about is not Moore and censorship, but instead simply "mo(o)re pure hype." Which is why I'll stop now.
Posted on
7:45 PM
I DON'T CARE IF YOU HATE GDUB [Matthew]
But this story is simply touching.Attached is a picture of Mike McNaughton. He stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan Christmas 2002. President Bush came to visit the wounded in the hospital. He told Mike that when he could run a mile, that they would go on a run together. True to his word, he called Mike every month or so to see how he was doing. Well, last week they went on the run, 1 mile with the president. Not something you'll see in the news, but seeing the president taking the time to say thank you to the wounded and to give hope to one of my best friends was one of the greatest/best things I have seen in my life. It almost sounds like a corny email chain letter, but God bless him.
Posted on
8:07 AM
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Blavatsky and Kabalism [.j.evonne.]
"In the Heart is a spot which is the last to die, a spot marked by a tiny violet light; that is the seat of Life, the centre of it all, Brahma; the first spot that lives in the foetus, and the last that dies. When a Yogi is buried in a trance, it is this spot that lives, though the rest of the Body be dead, and as long as this remains alive the Yogi can be resurrected. This spot contains potentially mind, life, energy and will. During life it radiates prismatic colors, fiery and opalescent." 1890
And on Kabbala:
"There is such a thing as an "unwritten" Kabbala, as well as a written one, even in the West. Many things are orally explained, and always have been. Nevertheless, hints and allusions to it are numerous and scattered throughuot the exoteric scriptures, and the classification depends, of course, on the school that interprets it, and still more upon personal intuition and conception. The question is not whether there are three, five or seven colous in the rays of the spectrum, for everyone knows there are, in fact and nature, but one -- the colourless white. And, though Science discerns very plainly serven prismatic rays as clear as are the seven notes in the scale; yet, one has heard of very great men of science who insisted there were only four or five until it was found out that they were colour-blind." 1887
Posted on
11:20 PM
OH SHIT--MEXICANS!! [Paul]
The eXile's John Dolan takes Clash of Civilizations author Samuel P. Huntington to task for his latest book, Who Are We? The Challenge to America's National Identity, in this week's issue of the New York Press. Hunty's basic thesis is that the United States is above and beyond all else an "Anglo-Protestant" nation, and that the waves of non-Anglo Latinos now entering the country constitute a dire threat to the American way of life. Now, we're all for spirituality and living one's life with a larger purpose in mind, but we find ourselves nodding right along with Dolan as he quotes Huntington, with horror:In the new America, united in this civil religion, atheism will not be tolerated at all [emphasis ours]. Failure to believe forthrightly in God is simply un-American (which will be sad news for Ben Franklin): "[Civil religion] is not compatible…with being atheist, for it is a religion, invoking a transcendental Being apart from the terrestrial human world… To deny God is to challenge the fundamental principle underlying American society and government."
Atheism will not be tolerated at all? Is this nut serious?
Posted on
5:49 PM
MASHING UP WITH DAVID BOWIE [coolmel]
Wired featured an article about mashing.
When David Bowie issued a recent call for fans to enter a contest in which the best meshing of two Bowie songs into a single track would win its creator a new sports car, it brought a favorite art form of the DJ world into a very mainstream light.
i understand that record labels have to make their dough. but the future of music (and books, and movies) is on the Internet. business models and copyright policies have to be redefined so they could adapt to the inevitable. otherwise they would perish.
Posted on
12:20 PM
Monday, May 03, 2004
IMMATERIAL GIRL? [Paul]
The current issue of The New Republic includes an article by Yossi Klein Haveli on the LA-based Kabbalah Centre, recently made famous by born-again Kabbalah devotees like Madonna, Mick Jagger, and Coolmel wank icon Brittney Spears. Sadly (not to mention obviously), the KC of LA has very little to do with authentic spiritual transformation, as Haveli contends. Instead, it's just the latest wrinkle in Southern California's age-old tradition of new age misappropriations of real wisdom to serve venal, egocentric ends. Haveli: In the Centre's world, though, the spiritual quest isn't about God, but the seeker. The Centre does teach the need to give to others--and Madonna, for one, credits it with making her a better person.... But, as the Centre's own literature makes clear, the motive for such altruism is selfishness.... "Kabbalah teaches us how to respect the human dignity of another," says a disciple [Haveli] met there. "But it has nothing to do with being a good person. It's about not hurting myself [emphasis ours]. Not because God told me to be nice to others, but because my life becomes better. There's no motivation to be good for its own sake."
Oy vey!
Posted on
5:59 PM
SCREW INTEGRAL, STUDY MATH [coolmel]
1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 2p(1p) = 2p(1p) x 2p(1-p) x 2p(1p)
Posted on
5:28 PM
Sunday, May 02, 2004
AND THEN "GOD SAID, 'HA!'" [wrench]
in this autobiographical one-woman show (executive produced by quentin tarantino), SNL vet julia sweeney details the ordeal of tending her younger brother, mike, thru his terminal illness, surviving their zany parents who've moved in to help, and finding out she's got cancer herself. the poignancy and the depth, served up here with plucky tenderness, self-deprecating wit, and inexhaustible strength, are all too palpable - much respect, julia :)
Posted on
10:18 AM
LARRY OR LINDA? [coolmel]
who the f*** cares?! The Matrix still rocks! (right Marco?).
Posted on
9:53 AM
