"I smile as a cause not as an effect."
----Kaneko Ikeda, wife of Soka Gakkai International President Daisaku Ikeda.
Nichiren Buddhism. SGI-Bloomington (member 13 years). Central district WD Group Leader. Member of the Bloomington Chapter Myoho Sisters Choral Group. District communications. SGI-USA activities. Shakabuku. Victory over Violence, Gandhi, King & Ikeda, Earth Charter exhibits. Supporting other SGI members to have joy and victory in their lives.
"Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about change."
----Malcolm X from "Malcolm X Speaks, 1965."
Social causes: World Peace. Human/Civil Rights. Breast Cancer Awareness. AIDS Awareness. World Hunger. Poverty. Saving the Planet and several other causes that I have close to my heart.
"Life is what happens to a writer between drafts."
----Damon (aka Dennis R. Miller)...who took 25 years completing his novel The Perfect Song.
Writing-short stories, press releases, ghostwriting, other pr writing, novels/nonfiction, presentations, screenplays/teleplays...etc.
"In the midst of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer."
----Albert Camus, French Exsistentialist writer
French language and culture. The Arts-clasical music, ballet/dance, theatre, art, literature, film.
"Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart."
----Gandhi
Trivia. Autograph collecting...spectator sports i.e. baseball, watching the Colts, Pacers and IU basketball...and a whole lot more.
I'd like to meet:
Those who are working on creating value in their lives and work daily in making the planet a better place. Those with similar interests and support of the same ideals and social causes. Fellow SGI Members,activists of all kinds,and others with similiar interests as well as those interested in Nichiren Buddhism. Those interested in making their voice heard.
Those in recovery....
Also, would like to meet fellow writers of any kind especially screenwriters, novelist, nonfiction writers, publishers and others in the communications,advertising/pr fields including artists, photographers, graphic designers, etc. to network with.
NOT TO BE RUDE--SO IF YOU DON'T FIT ANY OF THE ABOVE CRITERIA DON'T BOTHER ASKING TO BE ADDED TO FRIENDS LIST. YOU WILL BE BLOCKED...meaning no porn, no mlm/internet marketing, bands/others collecting friends to be collecting friends (myspace whoring), serious relationships/propositions (even though I am very flattered), private chats, etc.
Other than that I am more than happy to be your friend....looking forward to meeting to meeting you all.
Daisaku Ikeda, Tina Turner-because she is cool. Barbra Streisand-because she's hep too and for taking a position and sticking to it. And a myriad of others.
Music:
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."
----Victor Hugo
Although, I may be old school, I have quite an eccletic musical palate, like many musical genres...jazz, blues, classical, opera, pop, rock, hip hop, oldies, Motown, etc.
"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
----Charlie Parker
Ella Fitzgerald. Billie Holiday. Sarah Vaughn. Etta James. Dinah Washington. Duke Ellington. Art Tatum. Quincy Jones. Ray Charles. Charlie Parker. John Coltrane. Herbie Hancock. Buster Williams. Nancy Wilson...and many other jazz greats.
"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
---- Maya Angelou
B.B. King. Traci Chapman. Bonnie Raitt. Janis Joplin. Van Morrison. Sade. Annie Lennox. Macy Gray. Al Greene. Carlos Santana.
"Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel."
----Buffy Sainte-Marie
Stevie Wonder. The Four Tops. The Temptations. Smokie Robinson. Diana Ross and the Sumpremes. Earth Wind & Fire. Black-Eyed Peas. Alicia Keys. Missy Elliott. Mariah Carey. Patti LaBelle.
"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another."
----Frank Zappa
P!nk. U2.
"Music is everybody's possession. Only publishers think that people own it."
----John Lennon
Joni Mitchell. CNS. Bob Dylan. John Mellencamp. Willie Nelson. John Lennon. The Doors. Jimi Hendrix. The Rolling Stones. Neil Young. Peter Gabriel. Genesis. Phil Collins. Sting. Carole King.
"Without music, life is a journey through a desert."
----Pat Conroy
OMD. King Crimson. Brian Eno. Robert Fripp. Talking Heads. The Tom Tom Club. David Byrne. Bob Marley. Rita Marley. David Bowie. Ian Hunter. Mott the Hoople. Pink Floyd. Roger Walters. Elvis Costello.
"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence."
----Leopold Stokowski
Leontyne Price. Kathleen Battle. Pavoratti. Van Cliburn. Artur Rubenstein. Vladmir Ashkenasi/Horowitz. Isaac Stern. Pinchas Zukerman. Yo Yo Ma. Itzhak Perlman...and many others.
"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!"
----J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997
Beethoven's Appasionata. Debussey's La Mer. Chopin's La Polanais and Les Sylphides....etal.
"Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart."
----Pablo Casals
However, no eccletic list of music would not be complete without the musical genius and superb talents of the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Rock and Roll Tina Turner, Natalie Cole and the melodious voice and brilliance of Barbra Streisand. I am sure I have forgotton several others.
As the Rolling Stones would say, "It's only rock and roll"...
Movies:
A true movie buff. Love several film genres, especially those which have an impact on society and show the human condition. Plan to list eventually and add some great film quotes.
Television:
Have several favorites when I get the chance to watch and play couch potato after a long day at the computer writing, going to SGI activities or meetings. May get around to listing or doing something in this section.
Books:
" The faster I write the better my output. If I am going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them."
----Raymond Chandler
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra Series. The Buddha in Your Mirror. The New Human Revolution. Faith Into Action. The Lotus Sutra. Anything else by Daisaku Ikeda and put out by the SGI.
"My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success."
----Helen Hayes
Anything by Maya Angelou. Hamlet. A Tale of Two Cities. My Name Is Asher Lev. Watch Me Fly as I Become The Woman I was Meant to Be.
"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration."
----Ernest Hemingway
As a child...Green Eggs and Ham. Harry the Dirty Dog. Lyle the Crocodile. Amelia Bedilia. Babar the Elephant. Bennett Cerf. Ogden Nash...and dozens of others.
"Don't take life so serious. It ain't no-hows permanent."
----Walt Kelly
Other writers: Agatha Christie. Ian Fleming. Leon Uris. Elie Wiesel. Other works by Chaim Potok. And countless others.
Heroes:
"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb to agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
----Martin Luther King Jr.
Several---All SGI members, my late parents/family. Daisaku Ikeda. Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, Myrlie Evers Williams. Shirley Chisholm. Jeannette Rankin. Rosa Parks. MLK. Malcolm X...
Everyone who passionately creates daily value in their lives in making the world a better place on a daily basis. Those activist and individuals who make their voice heard. And many others...
