Love. [the never-ending process of self-love and manifesting love in the universe] Breathing. ["focus"] Meditative things. [running, yoga, doing the dishes, browsing the racks] Vegan/vegetarian diet. [avacadoes, broccoli, mangoes, cashews mmmmmmm] Listening, Talking. [dialogue] Community; bringing people together. [you're all here with me] Being nice to people, being honest with people. [stay true to thyself first] [it's hard sometimes, that's also when it's the most important] Multiplicities. [alternative learning] Physics, Astronomy. [stardust] Maps. History, especially in the way that it is re-written. [make up your own today] "Pre-history," perhaps one of the silliest words in the language. [you better recognize] Patterns, palindromes, 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 etc. See the Books section for more.
I'd like to meet:
Dreamers, poets, and singers of song.
[Please do click the top left picture if you're interested in my music page and schedule.]
Music:
Have you ever heard the first Prince record? Aw, shit.
Have you ever been to a Quintron/Morning 40 Federation show @ One-Eyed Jack's on Lundi Gras in drag? Aw, shit. It's on.
Musicians that have profoundly affected me, in no particular order: Miles Davis, Steve Reich, Dr. John, Donny Hathaway, Gustav Holst, Aretha Franklin, Herbie Hancock, Arvo Pärt, Stevie Wonder, Wayne Shorter, The Meters, Jack DeJohnette, Claude Debussy, Ralph Alessi, Otis Redding, Frank Zappa, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Allen Toussaint, countless anonymous players that are sidemen on great funk and soul records, my amazing friends and colleagues that have played with me, listened with me, and taught me so much about music.
Musicians I love: Gillian Welch (my birthday-mate), Fela Kuti, Olivier Messiaen, Common, John Zorn, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Lonnie Smith, D'Angelo, MMW, Black Sabbath, Keith Jarrett, J.S. Bach, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Gyorgy Ligeti, J Dilla, James Singleton, Dr. Dre, Stereolab, Krzystzof Penderecki, Ray Charles, Squarepusher, John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Led Zeppelin, A Tribe Called Quest, Simon Lott, The Beatles, Larry Young, Madlib, Prince, David S. Ware, Charles Ives, Radiohead, Sly & The Family Stone, Freddie Hubbard, The Shaggs, Black Sheep, The Fiery Furnaces, Zero 7, John Scofield, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Soundgarden, Steely Dan, Ornette Coleman, Portishead... this gives you a good idea, right?
Movies:
I recently discovered Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" and "El Topo." Wow.
Long-time favorites include "Brokeback Mountain" and one of Ang Lee's earlier films, "The Ice Storm"; "Jackie Brown" and the rest of QT's films; "O Brother Where Art Thou?", "The Big Lebowski," and all of the Coen Brothers films; "Short Cuts" and "The Player" from Robert Altman; "I Heart Huckabees," "Napoleon Dynamite," "The Princess Bride."
Television:
Check out a book called "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television," by Jerry Mander, instead of watching TV. Unless there's a baseball game on, and you mute and turn away from the commercials, the evil evil commercials. But in the interests of full disclosure, I admit I have episodes of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" on DVD.
Books:
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan has joined my canon of awesome eye-opening books.
For spiritual nourishment and really important concepts, I've been checking out "Anger" by Thich Naht Hanh, and "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.
Long time favorites: "The Gift," a collection of the poetry of Hafiz, a 14th-century Sufi master; Stephen Mitchell's translation of the "Tao Te Ching" and his collections "The Enlightened Heart" and "The Enlightened Mind"; Daniel Quinn's books, which really opened my eyes, and still have me asking lots of questions; Charles Bukowski's poetry, which doesn't make me cry like Hafiz's, but hits me somewhere very powerfully; of course, Howard Zinn's books, esp. "A People's History of the United States"; Eduardo Galeano's "Century of the Wind"; "The Ethical Slut" by Dossie Easton & Catherine Liszt, a guideline for those of us who aren't particularly interested in traditional relationships; "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon.
Heroes:
People that aren't afraid to be themselves and express their beings in the universe. The manifestors. Green things, for continuing to fight, even though we humans are trying our damndest to destroy them.
