Some of my interests include: Folk art of India and Mexico, Winter Solstice and Christmas season, History of religion, Intersection of religion and politics, Intersection of music and spirituality, Liberal politics, Human rights, Gay rights, Music history, Vegetarian philosophy and nutrition...... .... HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY SUMMER OF LOVE 1967! STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER BY THE BEATLES (VIDEO ABOVE) WAS ONE OF THE FIRST CLEAR SIGNS THAT THE STUPIDITY OF DANCE-POP WAS BEING CHALLENGED; IT SIGNALED A TEN-YEAR PERIOD OF EXPERIMENTATION THAT LEFT A FASCINATING LEGACY OF POPULAR MUSIC....... .. .. Im a big Democratic Party supporter-- here are three presidential candidates I supported this year-- Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich
Music obsessives and collectors, the gayest people on the planet, anyone who wants Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Gonzales on trial for war crimes and torture....
.... .....BHAGAVAN DAS DISCUSSES CHANTING AND SPIRITUALITY, powered by THE GODHEAD ....
SIGUR ROS SING "HEIMA" ...My favorite music: For new stuff, I like the offbeat folk and rock (Sufjan Stevens, Denison Witmer, Jens Lekman, Sigur Ros, Rufus Wainwright, Deerhoof, Over the Rhine, Cloud Cult, Mason Jennings, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor), Jazz IS always cool (Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Sheila Jordan, Don Cherry, Astral Project, Classical Jazz Quartet, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Tim Whalen, Dianne Reeves, Eberhard Weber, John McLaughlin, Shakti), Progressive rock and psychedelic artsy stuff (The Incredible String Band, Beatles, Jon Anderson and YES, Donovan, Renaissance, early Genesis, Mike Oldfield, Daevid Allen and Gong, Moody Blues), Devotional music (Jai Uttal, Karnamrita, Bhagavan Das, The Sufi Choir, Bluegrass gospel, Gregorian chant, Choral masses), Electronic music (synthesizers, theremin, Pet Shop Boys), Percussion music (Pierre Moerlin, The Active Percussion Duo, Stefon Harris, Nemani Somayajulu, Bill Bruford, Joe Morello, Zakir Hussain, Buddy Rich, gamelon music), Indian classical music (sitar, tabla, bansuri flute, violin, jalatarangam), Asian Underground (Talvin Singh, dj Cheb i Sabbah), Irish-Scottish-English "traditional" music (David Munnelly Band, Gan Bua, Brian Hart, Danu, Liam Clancy, Flook, Derek Bell, Bill Jones, Jon Loomes, The Devil's Interval), folk music and political music (Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Dougie MacLean, The Roches, David Rovics, Joni Mitchell), Gay topical singer-songwriters (Romanovsky and Phillips, Phranc, Meg Christian, Michael Callen, Lynn Lavner, The Flirtations, bitch and animal), and Christmas music (all varieties)....
powered by talented artists ......
.......Documentaries and films about music, religion, politics. New Age films (Out on a Limb, My Dinner with Andre, What the Bleep Do We Know?, Yellow Submarine, Brother Sun Sister Moon), Political films (Sophie Scholl, Battleship Potemkin, Gandhi, Reds, Good Night and Good Luck), Deepa Mehta films (Earth, Bollywood Hollywood, Fire, Water) Gay films (The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, Lie Down with the Dogs), Woody Allen films (Everyone Says I Love You, Stardust Memories, Love and Death, Manhattan, Deconstructing Harry), films about Ram Dass (Fierce Grace, Ecstatic States) Political documentaries (Fahrenheit 9/11, The US Versus John Lennon, Why We Fight, Making Sense of the Sixties, It Was Twenty Years Ago Today, Why Am I Gay?), anything about or with Mel Torme....... .....DENISON WITMER, MY FAVORITE CONTEMPORARY FOLKIE, SINGS AN UNRELEASED NEW SONG "CARRY THE WEIGHT." ....
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powered by political awareness
NEW WAVE THEATRE SPOTLIGHT: Here's a clip from New Wave Theatre: THE HOST PETER IVERS STUDIED CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AT HARVARD. AFTER HIS MURDER IN 1983, THEY ESTABLISHED THE "PETER IVERS VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM" IN HIS HONOR. ... ......Below is another clip from New Wave Theatre. Note the contradiction between host Peter Iver's metaphysical take on art versus the band Fear's cynical song (the lead singer turned out to be a right wing idiot, but take note of Spit Stix's first class drumming). This contradiction was in part what fascinated me about New Wave Theatre, since the punk ethos had defined itself so strongly as anti-hippie, yet hippie spirituality seemed to permeate the show's between-song banter and skits. I have always wondered if this had something to do with the death of the host Peter Ivers, who was murdered in his apartment, i.e. did some hateful punk do it (robbery was the suspected motive).... .......CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO BELOW TO SEE A SURREAL TRIBUTE TO NEW WAVE THEATRE PRODUCER DAVID JOVE WHO DIED OF CANCER IN 2004 ....... OTHER TV: Democracy Now!, C-Span, History Channel, And y Milonakis Show, New Wave Theatre (show about Los Angeles punk/new wave club scene in the 1980s), The Simpsons, South Park, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List....
Amish Grace: How Fogiveness Transcended Tragedy, A Christmas Carol, A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays, Comes the Peace: My Journey to Forvigeness by Daja Meston, Songs of a Vagrom Angel by Else Barker, Philosophy and The Beatles edited by Baur and Baur, What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills, Be Here Now (Ram Dass), Birth Of The Cool : Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant Garde (Lewis MacAdams), SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece (Domenic Priore), Sex Death Enlightenment (Mark Matousek), Out On a Limb (Shirley MacLaine), Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda), The Autobiography of Donovan (Donovan), The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States (Karen Pechilis), Scrapbook of a Haight Ashbury Pilgrim (Elizabeth Gips), Siddhartha (Herman Hesse), anything by or about Mel Torme....
powered by Dada and Surrealism .... ... THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND perform "The Half Remarkable Question" and "Painting Box"-- let me tell you the patchoulie never got stronger than this band in the 60s. BRILLIANT!!
THIS PIC: MA JAYA SATI BHAGAVATI
People who take shit for standing up for fairness: The whole crew at Air America Radio (Stephanie Miller, Ed Shultz, Randi Rhodes, Rachel Maddow, etc.) Rev. Matthew Fox, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, Neem Karoli Baba, Ram Dass, Rev. Troy Perry, Father Bede Griffiths, Ammachi, Michael Moore, Swami Tadatmananda, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) Allen Ginsberg, Gandhi, Julia Butterfly Hill, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Mel White, Ward Churchill, Bayard Rustin, Lt. Ehren Watata (first officer to refuse to serve in Iraq), Randi Rhodes (Air America Radio), Rachel Maddow (Air America Radio), left wing politicians and anyone who coalitions with them: Senator Russ Feingold, Sen. Tom Harkin, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Representative Barney Frank, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep. Tammy Baldwin .....