I put music to (other people's) poetry, spoken word and Hip Hop: Didgeridoo and Djembe Drums, amateur harmonic overtone chanting, & homemade beats. (See also: Cafe 9 Monday Open Mic, PWE.)
Art: line art, sharpie marker creations, occasional work with colored pencils and other media.
Photography: Underwater photographs in the tropics and a variety of New England lakes and rivers. Above-sea-level photographs in caves, lakes, waterfalls, cliff faces, treetops, etc.
Misc: Hiking, climbing rocks and/or trees; communing with animals, plants and any other authentic expression of Gaia that has survived pollution, clearcutting, ATV assholes who drive down riverbeds like in the Honda commercial, urban sprawl... and lots more.
I try to find time to read on a regular basis. Books are usually better than watching TV, but sometimes the idiot box pulls me in anyway. I don't care how many niche-theme channels they come up with; a good read is still better.
On the subject of my youthful appearance
I am 32 years old, yet I am often told that I look like I'm in my late teens. Except for a few more forehead wrinkles, smile lines, and some of those thick body hairs like the ones Billy crystal referred to in City Slickers, I look pretty much the same as I did in high school. I am tired of people saying things like "You look so young--what's your secret?" so I'm going to lay it down right here: a myspace exclusive.
1. I drink 3 to 5 cups of tea a day--white, green, or black. I like that tea has a bit of caffeine, but unlike coffee, it doesn't leave me feeling all strung out later in the day. More importantly, though, imbibing camelia senensis (tea) fills your bloodstream with antioxidants, which counteract the cellular damage caused by free radicals--harmful agents that float around in our bodies like menacing pirate-ship-molecules. A lesser-known property of antioxidants is that they increase nerve conductivity, making us smarter and more energetic.
I also recommend eating other superfoods rich in benign phytonutrients (See: tomatoes, green veggies, cacao, Tibetan Goji berries, Mangosteen and Acai fruit).
2. I love to trek into the Great Outdoors and stay fit while surrounded by natural beauty. Fitness clubs and other artificial exercise environment have many benefits (build muscle tone and cardiovascular strength, release endorphins, and all that jazz). However, being active in a natural setting has a whole other therapeutic component, which is derived from the harmonious confluence of vital energy that suffuses any such place.
The jungles of concrete and drywall where many people spend the better part of their lives are predominated by a dull, static background energy that results when there are lots of people but almost no plants or other animals. In the course of erecting these edifices to "progress," we have killed off most of the native species that once contributed to the sacred balance of the area, and we pay the price in ways that most people don't even realize.
3. Ever since I was a teenager, I have been studying mystical knowledge systems from around the world. I have integrated elements of many traditions into a daily practice that combines ancient and modern systems. As far as slowing the aging process, the most essential practices are the Hindu discipline of Pranayama Yoga, and Carlos Castaneda's recommendations for "storing personal power" as documented in his book Journey To Ixtlan.
Pranayama is a system of techniques through which people learn to be more conscious of their own breathing, and of the vital energy (AKA chi, AKA Prana) that is intrinsically tied to the influx and outflux of breath. In practice, it has many corollaries to methods found in other Eastern knowledge systems (such as Tai Ch’i and Qui Gong), which produce similar benefits in terms of promoting vitality.
Along with proper breathing, Pranayama emphasizes the need to work through unresolved emotional patterns that we sometimes cycle through like broken records. This inner work encourages the healthy flow of chi which, in turn, dissolves chemical blockages in the body's tissues that build up when we internalize stress, fear, and other conflicts. Scientific research corroborates aspects of this, as explained in The Science of Breath (see book list), and the film What the Bleep do We Know?
Now, I should probably add as a disclaimer that you need to be really gung-ho about rule #3 to get the full benefits, although anyone can enjoy some degree of enhanced vitality if they practice these techniques. I pay constant attention to the posture, body movements, and internal processes that are tied to the flow of my chi, always trying to cultivate inner radiance. That's the ideal, at least; the truth is that my mind is often a drunken monkey that wanders from its goals... plus, I have plenty of unresolved issues that can drain me and throw me off center. Where was I going with this again? Oh yeah: to reap the greatest reward, you have to be willing to devote a lot of attention to learning about these subtle energy dynamics. The good news is, like any innate skill, the more you try to be conscious of your own vital energy (via Pranayama or a comparable system), the less you have to work at making it part of your awareness.
Castaneda’s Journey to Ixtlan parallels many aspects of Pranayama theory and practice, if you read between the lines. His books describe detailed and highly effective techniques for energy cultivation, but to get at these nuggets of knowledge, you must sift through until you figure out which assertions make sense in light of your own experiences, and which ones seem so utterly "far-out" that there is no way to corroborate them. Ixtlan is his most accessible book by far; it is more concerned with how we go about our day-to-day lives than the peyote-inspired magical mystery tour that made Castaneda famous back in the 1960s.
To summarize, a healthy blend of chi, greens, trees, and teas can keep you looking much younger than you supposedly should. The great irony of all this becomes apparent when we consider all those who get caught up in the trappings of a demented modern ideology which regards the glamour of youth superior to the wisdom of age. So many people grasp at straws in a sad attempt to thwart the ravages of time, yet as long as they live superficial lives, none of it seems to work; they just keep throwing money at anti-aging fads and gimmicks, clinging to false hopes planted by a demented cult of advertizing. "Just pop our diet pills, buy our new exercise machine, and smear some more chemicals on your skin.. lay your hard-earned credit at the altar of a ridiculous social construction which denies the essential value of elders in our society. The fountain of youth is right around the corner.."
...Whereas folks who truly grasp the importance of working through their feelings, eating healthy, and basking in Earth's radiant beauty tend to be more vibrant and creative, and less, er, wrinkly.
So, there you have it. Now when people ask “How do you stay so youthful?†I can just refer them to my myspace page instead of making shit up like “I smoke crack 3 times a day, it’s full of vitamins.â€
I'd like to meet:
Camera-friendly poets
Music:
Hip Hop: Granola Funk Express, Mista Mayday, Immortal Technique, Nas, Mos Def, Beastie Boys, Agent 23, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Diggable Planets, Outkast, Gangstarr, Talib Kweli, Sage Francis, Dilated Peoples, LOCAL TALENT
Reggae: Bob Marley (of course), the other Marleys, Burning Spear, Peter Tosh.
Local reggae vibes: SeeLove at Cafe 9 every Monday evening from 6-10 PM; the Irie Feelings show, on 89.5 WPKN in Bridgeport & Montauk, Tuesday mornings from 8-10 E.S.T.; Selecta Grip on 88.7 FM WNHU , Saturdays at 12 noon EST; Diamond Cut Experience, also on WNHU Saturdays at 4PM.
Electronic/Dub/Lounge/Breakbeat, etc: Random Movement (wuddup cuz!), Thievery Corporation, Avatars of Dub, Symbiosis, Sounds from the Ground, Shpongle. Plus, lots of obscure trance and breakbeat cuts from the 90s, like DJ Simon and E.S. One.
Classical: Rachmaninoff Concerto #2, Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's 9th Symphony (but not in a sociopathic kind of way)
Instrumental/world: Fela Kuti, Anjelique Kidjo, Mickey Hart Plant Drum players, Tuvan throat singers, Gregorian monks, Tibetan Monks, lots of others.
Jazz: Thelonious Monk (I like anything monk-related I guess), Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Coltraine, Dizzy, Marsalis & Son... I know more about Ella & Louie-era through the 1980s than the recent stuff.
No time to list most of the rock, indie, punk, metal, folk, drum & bass, Abstract, trip hop, trance-ambient and spoken word genres. Please stand by.
Movies:
A few favorites, in no particular order: Waking Life, 1 Giant Leap, Heathers, Josie & the Pussycats, Breakfast Club, Heavenly Creatures, Monster, V for Vendetta, The Illusionist, Garden State, Running on Empty, The Dark Crystal, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Rssident Evil & sequels, Pootie Tang, Student Bodies, and (last but not least) Death to Smoochie.
Television:
30 Days, Penn & Teller's Bullshit, South Park, all Joss Whedon projects, Frontline, Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks, Lost, Six Feet Under, UConn Women's Basketball, Law & Order. Recently, I find myself intrigued by Dexter--but for the record, better to rent it than watch reruns on network TV; it's not as funny with the swear words taken out.
Old school TV shows: Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Liquid Television, Ren and Stimpy (including the reissued scripts produced for the Spike Channel), Tales from the Dark Side, Law & Order.
Books:
April '08 Update: Just finished reading Son of A Witch by Gregory McGuire. This is an aggressively postmodern "fractured fairy tale," with a twist at the end. It almost makes me think it was worth it to have muddled through Wicked, the first book in the series, which I found to be an awful, dreary ordeal that accentuated the most depressing aspects of life. The thing is, if I hadn't read Wicked, I wouldn't have understood some important things about what happened in the sequel, which I enjoyed. Granted, for a while there the storyline was a nihilistic journey through mopey, self-indulgent doldrums, but the end picked up with many clever touches and inspiring moments. I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say that there's a beneficent light at the end of the long, dark tunnel… in a postmodern kind of way.
Favorite epic mythology is The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. He wrote the final installment in '06, and if you've read any of the earlier ones, the last one will freak your mind even more.
Phillip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass and other 2 books in the series are pretty top-notch and have lots of secret hidden messages about religion. Very controversial stuff, especially since it's geared toward a younger audience: some say that Pullman's a secular humanist, others an atheist, others a mystical agnostic. Maybe he's just himself, and believes whatever he believes. Is that still allowed these days?
Some other picks, by genre:
Life Lessons:
Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda. This book is a symphony of epiphanies.
The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You. Forget the author's name, but it's great.
Demian, by Hermann Hesse. When I read this book in high school (way back in the early 90’s), it really, truly blew my mind. I recently picked it up again, and it's a different kind of experience now. Since the days of my youth, I've learned to blow my own mind at will, so as I re-read Demian, there aren’t quite as many moments where I'm like, "Wow, man... I thought no one else had these kinds of ideas!" All the same, I haven't been disappointed. Hesse was a bona fide cross-cultural mystic who--like Lao Tsu, Sappho, Stephen Mitchell, and others--had an almost magical ability to craft words into parables which cut through veils of illusion and reveal the deeper essence of things.
Ishmael is an inspiring story by Daniel Quinn, about a giant gorilla who drops some ill knowledge about the culture of despoilment that has so profoundly upset the Earth’s natural balance. It's way more brilliant than my little write-up can tell, so you won't know how good it really is until you read it. Just buy the book, alright? No one has ever regretted reading it. Seriously, there's been research.
Cross-cultural mystical studies: Varieties of Religious Experience by William James; The Future of the Body by Michael Murphy; The Celestine Vision by Michael Murphy and James Redfield; The Spiral Dance by Starhawk.
Indigenous cultures: The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner; The Forest People by Colin Turnbull; Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan; Black Elk Speaks by John G. Niehardt; Fools Crow and Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power by Thomas E. Mails.
Archetypes & mythological symbolism: Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung; The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell; The Origins and History of Consciousness by Erich Neumann.
Eastern philosophies & cosmologies: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa; The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra; Indestructible Truth by Reginald Ray; Katha Upanishad translated by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati; The Science of Breath by Rudolph Ballentine; Alan Hymes, & Swami Rama; Tao te Ching translated by Steven Mitchell.
Poetry: Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, William Bronk, E.E. Cummings, Rumi, Sappho, Dylan Thomas, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen.
Animals: The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson; When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy; People and Other Animals by Norma A. Donner.
Fiction: Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All; Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle. Anything and everything by Terry Pratchett and/or Neil Gaiman, especially Good Omens, which both of them collaborated on and (in my sometimes humble opinion) is one of the best satires ever written.
Reality-testing: Joseph C. Pearce, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg. John C. Lily, The Center of the Cyclone. Itzhak Bentov, Stalking the Wild Pendulum. The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes, edited by Ken Wilber.
Actually, I'm partial to all of Carlos Castaneda's books, though Journey to Ixtlan is my favorite, hands-down. I also enjoyed Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner's contributions to the "Toltec" quasi-mythology that Castaneda began in 1963. Abelar’s Book is The Sorcerer’s Crossing, and Donner wrote Being-In-Dreaming. Whatever they are--reality or a representation of reality--these stories are often strange and wondrous. They are also unnervingly consistent, in tone and message, with Castaneda’s accounts of his time with Don Juan and the sorcerers’ party.
Heroes:
I admit that I admire certain people almost to the point that I'd call them "heroes." Most of them are people that the average reader wouldn't recognize but some are well-known authors, musicians, and even a few politicians (a small minority of them, except when it comes to politicians who are minorities, in which case I admire the majority of them). Most are just people who have inspired me, by example, to be a better person.
My problem with this myspace category is that the idea of “heroes†is inherently overrated. Everyone is heroic in their own way, because everyone knows what it’s like to get it right sometimes: acting honorably, helping others when we can, using our common sense to find a solution to a problem, and so on. In the Hero Myth, these simple, everyday ideals are melded together and then inflated to monolithic proportions, resulting in a character that inspires people while making them feel small. All that makes mythological heroes seem so big is that they represent the idea of ourselves at our best. The vision is so purely distilled, we forget that it is made from our own hopes and dreams; otherwise, why would it resonate with us?
Hero myths aren’t just symbolic of the “great deeds†that people can achieve, but the subtler personal victories that occur along the journey, the life lessons that bloom in the minds and hearts of the characters. People emulate the hero archetype when they act with honor and kindness, as well as having enough clarity and general savvy to get through tricky situations. Everyone has these moments, so why externalize this archetype in the first place? Far better, I believe, to cultivate it within ourselves and one another.
Everyday heroism comes through when we learn to become more mindful of the life patterns that we build on over time. Our personal mythologies are a fabric made of many interwoven strands, each one a succession of millions of choices stretching back through time in us, all the way to the genesis of self and memory. This ever-shifting latticework is the template for the story of oneself, the story of one another, and the tiny part we play in the story of the Land.
In this spirit, I'm going to put something else in the Heroes section, just for the hell of it. As the Monty Python crew were fond of saying, “And now for something completely different.â€
How about some nature fun facts? OK, then. First off, lycopene is a phytonutrient with anticarcinogenic properties, which is found in large quantities in Tomatoes.
Another thing: Bengal cats are a recently conceived cat breed that combines domestic cat varieties with the Asian Leopard Cat, a wild animal found in the forests of Thailand. Cross-breeding the Asian Leopard cat with an Abyssinian produces some of the lovely rosette patterning in the pelt, although some breeders maintain that other combinations are even wicked-cooler.
Dark matter is a mysterious substance that is measurable only in its secondary effects (i.e., gravity), but gives off no discernible light or electromagnetic radiation. There may be a lot of it in the universe, but don't worry: it's way out in space.
The Echidna, or "Spiny Anteater," is one of those animals that's not really a marsupial but not like a normal mammal either. Kind of like a platypus. There's some name for it; it means something like "furry friend that strangely lays eggs," but all in Latin.
Don't let the "NRG Max" label fool you: Siberian Ginseng is not ginseng at all! It is in fact eleuthero, a close cousin to the popular Asian root, ergo this common nickname. Eleuthero may not be ginseng per se, but it sure does have some exciting corollaries at the phenotypal level. Especially noteworthy are its adaptogenic properties, which promote homeostasis in all of the body's systems, promoting alertness, mental clarity, and improved immune response. You might say that adaptogens are my hero, since they help people all the time but don't ask for anything in return. (See how I tied everything back to the "Heroes" theme right at the end?)
