MUSIC; Eastern PHILOSOPHY & MANTRA -- KRISHNA -- meditation; Wandering the streets of Chicago or Honolulu aimlessly; FASHION; traveling; ART; computer technology; working out/YOGA;
Just to name a few: Chryssie Hynde of the Pretenders fame (she is a practitioner of the Hare Krishna philosophy, and I would like to know how she came to be a devotee of Krishna and her experience of it all), Hugh Hefner (I'd like to talk philosophy with him as he is known to have a belief in a Divine Creator), Olivia and Dhani Harrison (son of George Harrison, above), Sinead O'Connor, Morrissey... AND Paris Hilton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Stevie Nicks -- gorgeous blonde girls like me for some reason; I wish it were the gorgeous blonde boys too!And of course, I'd like to meet Jesus and Krishna. I actually DID meet Krishna. (He has black hair) In a dream. He came up to me. I was in a beautiful forest. I asked Him, "What's your name?" And He said "Krishna," and then He left to go visit some old yogi meditating there in the forest. Most of my meetings with celebs are very short, but I thought it was so nice of Him to come and say "Hello!" to me. It was awesome!
I enjoyed meeting the wealthy, down-to-earth, socialite and owner of the American Tobacco Company, Doris Duke (1912-1993), above, left, as a young woman, middle, a small sampling of some of her jewelry, and on the right, being given a portrait of herself by an art dealership (Imelda Marcos is to her left in the picture). I met her at her Hawaiian estate called Shangri-la on the island of Oahu/Honolulu in 1990.
Doris adopted a Hare Krishna devotee in Hawaii named Chandi, who she said was the reincarnation of a daughter she had years before who had been "still-born." My friend, Achintya das, who introduced me to her one day, is a devotee and was Doris's astrologer from 1989 - 1993. Achintya met her through Chandi, and after Doris passed away, he wrote an excellent book about his friendship with her entitled "Dollars, Diamonds, Destiny & Death" which besides being a fun read, gives good insight as to "who Doris Duke was and what she was like?" Doris was considered to have a fortune of around $6 billion easily, but she told Achintya that she was worth $7 billion because of her priceless jewelry, art and a rare Islamic collection.
The funny thing about my meeting Doris Duke is that it really wasn't meant to be. I lived in Honolulu, and I hung with Achintya sometimes. Achintya had to pick something up from her one day, and he left me in the foyer. I was kind of naive as to who she was as he didn't talk about her much, and I didn't even think that she was home. Anyway, I waited there with who I thought was the maid or the decorator who was looking over and tending to the beautiful Persian tiles that were being put on the walls at the time, and then Achintya came back to the foyer and said "Jyo, have you introduced yourself to Doris?" I was like "Who?" "Jyo, this is Doris Duke." "Oh hello, " I said, immediately shy. "I love the colors on your tiles." "Thank you!" she said, and sensing my surprise at being alone with her for five - ten minutes without realizing that SHE was Doris Duke, she started to laugh. It was an infectious laugh -- I started to laugh too. She seemed like a really fun person to know.
Above is Shangri la, Doris's 6 acre estate overlooking the ocean at Diamond Head point on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Doris was a "good-guy." She was interested in (among many things) astrology, reincarnation, vegetarianism, jazz, dance, philanthropism, healing - as in reiki (Achinya says she had great healing energy), conservation of nature, collecting priceless art and jewelry, and yoga. She viewed the world and invested her money in such a way so as to disturb "the powers that be" who very much disliked her beliefs and what she was supporting -- money is power! Her estate continues to contribute $55 million yearly to various causes.
Unfortunately, Doris Duke died a bizarre, hushed, mysterious death. (Her bedroom at "Shangri-la" in Hawaii above.) Her manipulative Irish butler, Bernard Lafferty, took advantage of her illness and became one of an inner few who secluded her and directed everything and everyone she saw at the end of her life -- making her think that he was her friend and was protecting her when all he really had was selfish motives to get some large inheritance from her. Her real friends and acquaintances were given no access to her at the end of her life even though she asked about them and wondered why they were not visiting her any longer, and she requested their presence. Achintya was devastated to the point of drinking...I sensed that there was more than just a platonic friendship between the two of them, but I digress.
Lafferty DID made off with a big inheritance, but because he was a unattractive gay alcoholic, now with a fortune in his bank account, he died a very short time thereafter himself from an overindulgence in wine, drugs, sex and life in the fast-lane. Trouble in Shangri-la.
The Last Shadow Puppets (above) are a band making its mark on the music map with their new album "The Age of the Understatement." This band, which is a side-projekt of Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys (which band I never cared for), takes it's inspiration from the mellow, slick, pop-jazz kind of music of the early sixties. The Beatles were fans of this kind of music, and they would have loved this album especially because The Last Shadow Puppets are making new music in this style... a style that the Beatles also flirted with before going psychedlc on us in the years before 1967.
The band and album are getting rave reviews from ALL the critics, and the album is truly a gem and a great listen!
I think I have become an indie snob as I am totally into new bands such as
"Destroyer" which is a side-projekt of Dan Bejar who is with the "New Pornographers."
I don't really care for New Pornographers, but when I heard the new album from 'Destroyer" called "Trouble in Dreams" (which i believe is the second Destroyer album), I became totally smitten by it. I have no idea what Dan Bejar is singing about -- not even when I read the lyrics -- but I do know that the music and the artsy lyrics carry me away and I love to play it over and over. Something I haven't done with a new band in a long time.
REM - Supernatural Superserious
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Yay!!! R.E.M.(above and video) are finally back with a new great album called "Accelerate." I have been listening to these great band play for more than 20 years!!! These guys are my age so it makes me feel good that my peers can still rock (like I DO!)
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Against Me - Thrash Unreal
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Against Me! (above) are an exciting VERY good punk band who have worked hard over the past few years to make something out of themselves. Well, they have succeeded because their new album "New Wave" is full of intelligent lyrics over greatly wild instrumental melodies....it's punk in all ways!!! The sound is very exciting!!! (video above)
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A Place to Bury Strangers
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A Place to Bury Strangers (above)
Brooklyn-based pedal-mongers A Place to Bury Strangers recently leapt into the ranks of the Pitchfork elite, thanks to their ear canal-melting self-titled debut LP, the most recent release to receive our distinguished Best New Music tag.
That disc came out on tiny New England imprint Killer Pimp Records, but for the next two, A Place to Bury Strangers have inked with Chicago-based upstart Highwheel Record with new material out in early 2008.
The group have an exciting yet familiar sound -- sounds like you are listening to Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain. Yet their Eponymous latest release (I found my copy on ebay) is full of groovey, hip-hynotic sounds and the sound is all their own. Good luck trying to find a copy now as I heard that there have been only 500 copies issued. They should be releasing more CDs as they are growing wildly popular.
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Siouxsie -Into A Swan
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From London, Siouxsie Sioux, above, (of Siouxsie & the Banshees fame) has just released (10/07) a very good album which expands on her unique talent.
Siouxsie was there when punk first became headlines (1977) with the advent of the Sex Pistols. She morphed from punk rocker into goth-punk rocker and is often credited with starting the goth music category. Since then, she has constantly released material with both "Siouxsie and the Banshees" and a side projekt with ex-hubby Budgie called "The Creatures."
While most of her albums are very creative and infectious, this solo outing, her first in 15 years, is being hailed by all of the critics and fans alike. Even Pitchfork, who never like anything, are giving good reviews for her new album called "Mantaray." Catch her live if you can, because she always works hard on stage and her shows are very memorable. "Mantaray" has intelligent, catchy lyrics and melodies. Let's just say that Siouxsie is HOT right now!!! Above is the video "Into A Swan" from her latest album "Mantaray!" I was actually surprised that they had a video for this as Siouxsie remains "untouchable."
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From out of the U.K. comes Amy Winehouse (above). Amy has a unique voice - kind of husky and jazzy - and she sings 60's type songs with a modern twist. She has been way up there in the charts lately. She is sooo cool to see also as she wears her hair up in a bee-hive and then lets the rest of it fall back. And she puts on lots of thick mascara and eyeliner... at only 23, she's so accomplished. Her new album is called 'Back to Black' and here is a video of hers called "You Know I'm No Good" from that album.
It would also be interesting to say that her first album released about 3 years ago with no fanfare is very good. It's called "Frank," and on a few of the songs she sounds EXACTLY like Billie Holiday and in another, she can do Sarah Vaughn. Very talented singer, Amy Winehouse, but boy, is there ever a lot of drama surrounding this drug/drink bad-boy loving chanteuse.
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This artist, Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, (above) has a very seductive voice. She sings her own songs, but she is not afraid of covering other people's songs and making them all her own. I bought an album of hers called "Moon Pix" about a month ago, and it is very beautiful. So I bought her latest album "Jukebox" and it is laden with beautiful melodies, wise covers, and even some extra tracks on the deluxe version to burn onto a CD to make an even larger listen. She reminds me of Velvet Underground (banana on-the-cover album) chanteuse Nico who died in 1989. Cat Power even has a personality similar to that of Nico... I discerned that after reading an interview with her last year. Below is a video for Cat Power. I think you will like it!
Cat Power "The Greatest"
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Janis Joplin -- Much has been written about Janis Joplin (above). There are two or three biographies of her life. She sprang out in 1966's San Francisco hippy scene, and she quickly found her sound with Big Brother and the Holding Company - a psychedelic rock band. She put out three albums, but after she died there was enough material of hers to put out two more. Her voice was unmistakably hers. It was a combination of the old 1930's blues sound merged into a rock setting. Her hero was legendary 30's blues singer Bessie Smith. Bessie Smith died but had no gravestone on her grave so Janis had one put there. I know ten of her songs by heart! Love songs which deal mostly with the "losing in love" theme. There is a nice DVD set of her appearances on the Dick Cavett Show. Her and Dick liked each other a lot and the DVDs have some powerful performances of her on his show.
A few years ago, there was footage discovered of her and other bands on a train going East to West in Canada putting on concerts in various towns as they traveled. The footage is an invaluable find as it records the sign of the times of the hippy era. Whoever shot it just did not know how important it was, and when it was found intact, it was released as "The Festival Express." The sound and video footage are excellent. Get it! If I could name just one album of hers to buy, i would say "Cheap Thrills" with Big Brother and the Holding Company. It shows a good range of who she was as a singer/songwrite, and was her second album released. Her first album did not get much attention,, but it also is a great listen with two songs, one named "Down on Me" and another "Woman is Losers." All of her work can be found on a three disc box set which is very good. It also contains a booklet with nice photos and some biographical commentary.
Janis Joplin lived to be only 27. It was the age that Jimi Hendrix, Doors - Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain died. Seems the standard death age for a rock star. She was very intelligent, friendly, hip, funny, and just loved to party!!! In the 60s it was no big deal to take pot, LSD, shoot heroin, etc... but it was the extra potent heroin that killed her alone in her hotel room in Hollywood. She was a hard worker so when she did not show up for band practice one morning everyone was like "where's Janis?" So John Cooke, her manager, went to her room and found her there. He said that when he came into the room it was like no one was there.
She is fondly remembered by millions of fans and her family. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and also awarded a lifetime achievement award...all given to her posthumously. Her authentic version of the song "Summertime" won her an award from the Gershwin Foundation also.
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Amy Lee of Evanescence was all the rage in 2003. Her new album "The Open Door" has about 8 gorgeous tracks on it. She is very goth (she admits it) and dresses the part wonderfully. The result, combined with her gorgeous voice and music, makes for a superstar, "Rock Royalty" status!!! She often wears a t-shirt that says "Rock Royalty." Courtney Love once criticized her for that, and I thought it was crass -- Courtney shouldn't be putting down new stars who are half her age...sheesh. Here is the video for "Lithium" (for Kurt Cobain) from The Open Door CD.
evanescence - lithium
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Rufus Wainwright Hallelujah + Martha Wainwright and Joan Wasser
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I LOVE Rufus Wainwright (above with Judy Garland's sister, Lorna Luft singing "Stormy Weather")...He is sooo handsome! Whenever I hear his tenor, I get a pang in my heart.."sigh" He is a "national treasure." Seems like his whole family of singer/songwriters are.
His latest projekt is a very successful album of a live song-for-song concert of Judy Garland's famous 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall. (Above see him and his sister Martha Wainwright doing justice to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujiah.") Some of the songs were mean more of Judy's "soul and spirit" but that's just nit-picking...the ballads are gorgeously done by Rufus. " I can't give you anything but raves, Rufus!!!"
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Nina Hagen - New York New York -- Nina is from East Berlin. She lived there during the times when their was a Berlin Wall. She would come onto the stage and scream about the injustice of a Berlin wall, and put all of her mighty punk passion and voice into her music/mission. Now she is a freedom seeker, mother, activist, spiritualist. Nina is so many things, and they all make up one fascinating woman. This is the song that broke out onto the club/disco scene during 1982-1983. And she has several other hits also.
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Sinead O'Connor - In her heyday of 1990 she was incomparable as a singer/songwriter. I once had a dream that she was sitting at a table with a pen and paper in her hand (she was writing songs), and I told her in my geeky way that she should get an award for her songs, and she giggled a little at me...but she DID win the award...dreams are so telling!!! Sinead is so beautiful, funky and intelligent - what a combination. This video might be the only chance you will see her with hair!
Get her new album (out 6/26) "Theology." Sinead's songwriting has advanced spiritually -- writing songs for Jah (Rasta name for God), and it is a very important album for her. Theology is like a combination of all of Sinead's other albums, culminating in one album -- Biblical, Rastafarian and, since she is Irish, Irish standard moods. The songs obviously show Sinead's sincerity in goodness and spirituality, and she does it all in a "funky-reggae-groove" way which is lovely to hear!!! The album "Theology" comes in 2 CDs - one is an acoustic Dublin version and the other is a London version with cool and fancy background music. I like both - depending on what kind of mood I am in.
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Sean Lennon - From out of nowhere comes Sean Lennon with a new CD/DVD
released in October of 2007. The songs are all "Lennonesque" referrring to his
father's style of writing and singing but somehow they still manage to be all
of Sean's -- quite pleasantly and surprisingly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Vhn4o2kaQ
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Antony (no "h" in Antony) and the Johnsons - A fascinating new artist here doing a beautiful duet he wrote for Boy George, his childhood idol, and now 20 years later, here he is singing it along with Boy George himself "You Are My Sister (and I love you)"!!! (tears)
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Shelter - My brother in Krishna, Raghunatha das, reflects on his band "Shelter"
and in doing so provides a very interesting commentary on how the different
genres of music, fashion and spirituality can all merge together and become
something uniquely blissful!!! Hari Bol Raghunatha prabhu!!!
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Ana Nicole ~ RIP
Well, not really an actress - she was going to do a movie before she died... I think that AnaNicole was an incarnation of Marilyn Monroe. They both were like naive gorgeous blondes, had similar problems with family members, and they even died alike too, and Hugh Heffner says that "she was always talking about Marilyn Monroe"....hmmmm...could be...
Judy Garland (above) gave sooo much of herself to entertain a vast audience and support her three children... somehow it all ended up being too much for her -- the studio heads at MGM treated her like shit and demanded she keep thin starting at a very young age and gave her diet "speed" type pills when she was 12. Later, she relied on them and other pharmaceuticals because being robbed of her childhood to drugs, she always felt later in life that she was too insecure and fat for the entertainment business. So she relied on drugs not just to lose weight but to deal with her problem of not feeling well in her own skin.
If I could, I would hug her and tell her just that her life was more important than staying thin and dealing with the pressures of show-biz with drugs... but all I can do is pray for her soul. God bless Judy, and thanks for the concert at Carnegie Hall... you were ON, dahling....
I love Anderson Cooper. He's so gay, handsome and available. Everytime I see him on TV my Haagen Daz melts. And him and that other dude doing hurricanes together (upper right) pretending it's the wind that makes their bodies rub up against each other...LOL...pullease!; I also like Letterman or Leno -- whoever has the best musical guest, and "That 70s Show," "Cribs," "Ugly Betty," "American Idol," and CNN esp. during BIG news times.
The ancient 5,000 year-old Vedic scriptures of India, more precisely, Bhagavad-Gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam and biographies of people who I wish to know more of - like James Dean, Doris Duke, Boy George, George Harrison and Madonna. Other than that, I"ll read the paper, magazines or some other mind candy novel on a bus, train, boat or plane. I want to start reading the humungus book "Genet," the gay revolutionary that I found at a thrift store brand new, but it's is too big to carry around - maybe I'll read it if I ever have an extended stay in a hospital or in prison...LOL...no, not prison... The book, by gay author Edmund White, won awards.
ART: I love collecting art. Whenever I see something at an antique gallery, ebay, art gallery or thrift store, I really hope that it is something I can afford at first. If it is, I will purchase it. My favorites are Monet, Dali and Frida Kahlo (1905 - 1953), the Mexican artist. Frida was in a terrible bus accident when she was a young girl and had a lifetime of long hospital visits and struggled with the pain and body casts that she wore because the accident left her spine in terrible shape. She started painting in bed to express her pain, her feelings, the world and the earth around her, and became very good at it - and famous. She had lots of artistic sensibility in the clothing she wore as well. Once Pablo Picasso told Dali, "Nobody can paint a face as well as Frida does, eh?"
Frida (below)
Some of my heroes are my ever well-wisher and spiritual master His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (above).
When he first came to America in 1965, he was living in poverty in New York city's Lower East Side. He lived in the Bowery for awhile, and drunks realizing he was a holy man, moved away from his path on the doorsteps to make room for him to get by.
Many, many years later, some Hare Krishna devotees were speaking to an elderly black man in NYC who remembered Prabhupada, and he said "Yeah, I knew him. He was a cool cat!"
Srila Prabhupada tried to start a Hare Krishna movement in America. He figured New York city was the most important city so he decided to start there first. He became friends with the hippies, the beat generation -- including Allen Ginsberg who had already been to India and was familiar with Hare Krishna.
After he started the small center in NYC, he took off for San Francisco as some of his disciples were calling for him to go and start a temple there. Eventually, within 12 years, there were nice Hare Krishna temples in every major city of the world.
He gave his life to Krishna - translating books, opening new temples, traveling around the world to keep his disciples enthused, inititating many new disciples, and teaching his disciples how to cook and worship the Deity of Krishna on the altar in the temple room. He befriended John Lennon, Yoko Ono and especially George Harrison who wrote many popular songs for Krishna including "My Sweet Lord" and "Something."
Srila Prabhupada slept very little -- about 2 or 3 hours daily. He said that "sleeping is like death!" He spent his early pre-dawn time translating authentic yoga books from Sanskrit to English. Around 6:30 a.m. he would emerge from his room and take a morning walk (above, right) with friends, disciples, dignitaries, etc.
He took the order of his own spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Goswami Prabhupada, who he met in 1923 to heart. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta considered him to be a young, educated, moral young man and told him to start something In the West. He had a family life and couldn't do it right away, but he said that that instruction of his spiritual master was always on his mind. Finally, he came to America in 1965, and he energetically did so much in his elderly years of 69 to 82 years of age. He manged to publish 35 thick-volumed books on Krishna consciousness in a few short years, and the academic, literary societies were shocked at his achievment. He opened 108 temples around the world and circled the globe 12 times trying to spread the message of Krishna consciousness before he departed for the spiritual world in 1977 at the age of 82. I miss him so much, but I still have mystical dreams about him, and I am always learning something new by reading and re-reading his books.
One of my favorite memories of him was at the Dallas airport. When he arrived all of the devotees from the temple were there to greet him as well as the press. He went to the airport press-room, and one girl journalist asked him in a challenging way that he appeared to think that everything he owned - temples, farm communities, etc. - were gifts from God. "So you think that all of this is just gifts from God?" she said, sort of alluding to the idea that maybe he was just in it for the money. "Yes," Srila Prabhupada replied, "...because we have no other source of dependence - God is giving to you also, but you do not realize it!" And then he started answering questions in a humorous way, and he had everyone in stitches in the palm of his hand. His general personality was humble, friendly, never dull and very caring - and he ALWAYS made sure that people understood that chanting Hare Krishna mantra - the original names for God - was the most important way to make advancement in spiritual life. Here is a video of Srila Prabhupada seriously explaining about reincarnation to some of his disciples. Then the video below it circa 1968 has some very nice images of when His Divine Grace arrived at the airport and the devotees and friends came out to greet him. Notice how he chants with the cymbals, dances to the kirtan - public chanting of Hare Krishna, and moves - he was always in spiritual consciousness being with Krishna face-to-face.
PRABHUPADA - The Person the Illuminati Don't Want You to Hear
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Srila Prabhupada made a deep impression on George Harrison who was searching at the time for a real guru and a real spiritual experience. Srila Prabhupada told him that "most of these modern-day yogis say 'look at me, I am the divine incarnation, let me help you.’†Srila Prabhupada then said: "But I am saying that I am the servant of the servant of the servant of the pure devotee of Krishna... Not that I am a divine incarnation.†(However, in his life, Srila Prabhupada exhibited symptoms of pure devotion to Krishna that only an specially empowered-by-Krishna devotee would exhibit.)
When George once asked Srila Prabhupada if he should also shave his head and join the temple, Prabhupada replied that he could do more for Krishna through his music. Many years previously, the great-grandfather (or in other words, the spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master) of the Hare Krishna movement, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura, a great Seer and pure devotee, had predicted that a day would come when the maha-mantra and songs of Krishna would be sung throughout the world in the local musical style and in the local language.
George would be the first to make that prediction come true. When Srila Prabhupada heard George’s orchestrated version of the ancient Sanskrit Govindam prayers for the first time, he was moved to tears and asked for it to be played every morning in each of the movement’s temples. It is beautiful!
Some of my other heroes are John Lennon & Yoko Ono
...and Chryssie Hynde, of Pretenders (with Morrissey below), for PETA work, and also for inspiration in Krishna consciousness;
I have lots of heros -- anyone who is out there becoming involved and working towards a better, more peaceful planet and a happier human race to me is a hero!