Our manager called today. ***** record’s London office called about releasing the new CD. brought up my age as a downside to the group if you can fucking imagine. For years we were always too “green”  or too young. And now all of a sudden I am too old... I'm only the fucking singer and songwriter, right, so dispensable. There is this thing about age and the music biz... we must find a way to open these turtles up a bit, get them to catch up to speed before they destroy everything we love about music entirely. some of the best music in the world is being made by girls and guys in their forties or fifties or sixties (sting, bowie, u2, Lou, Dave Matthews –how old is that guy anyway? Stones, Caetano, David Byrne, prince, Aimee Mann, on and on.... But these suits are just absolutely fucking clueless most of the time. I used to never think that because I never wanted to come off like or think I was some jaded or cynical wannabe bastard that could do nothing but complain. I have achieved enough now in my art, at my craft, that I don't have that worry anymore – I mean, that's just not me, one day I woke up and realized that I wasn't going to be one of those ‘oh look at my cool vintage t-shirt I bought on eBay’ kind of cynical pseudo-cool people who cut everyone and everything down that is successful... that's just not me... I don't have to resist anymore I guess because I know its not me....

but I gotta say, its true what they say about the record execs...  most of these guys are just fucking clueless about music or art. They're looking and listening for money, not for soul... Not all of them, but a lot of them. we’re lucky in that we know a few who are really cool. But man... go to the underbelly of the beast and you just won't believe what you will find in the corporate music world... (turn on MTV and see all the sort-of-long-hair bands that last year were short-hair bands that the year before were spiked-hair bands that a few years before that were shaved head bands who years before were super-long-hair bands, and you will see the belly of the beast that has ruined commercial music to the point where everyone is walking around wondering why music sucks so bad even though it really doesn’t – its just gone underground... its on Internet radio and satellite radio now.)

One minute a guy is jumping up and down raving about the new disc and in the next he is worried about how to cover up for the fact that the lead singer is over 30. we are truly an youth obsessed society right now, always have been, which is too bad because for all the beauty of youth, it offers us very little else in the way of stimulation or inspiration. The exces just need to get a fucking clue and realize that we love music. people love music. we all love music. we need music. we adore music. for many of us, music is very important to our fucking lives. And we don't care who is making it half as much as we just want the music to be good and honest and real and speak to us in that really special way that our favorite music does... they gotta spend a lot less time looking for youth and a lot more time looking for career artists.. real artists who touch their soul, not their pocket book. Amen to that children. So we need to bring these people up, raise their consciousness a bit, rather than coming down on them. show them what's its all about. nuff said.
current spin: noir desir, visages des figures. French version of radiohead or U2. good band. I'm digging them.

also check out this amazing Internet radio station: www.chondo.net if you want to dig into some groovy African music.

Last screening: 21 grams. Holy shit. wow. This may have been the best movie of 2003.

Between studying the history of Muslim Iran so intensely lately and the Jesus guy in the movie tonight, I was reminded of humanity’s mission at this time; man do we have a mission: in a nutshell, we must find a way to preach the same message that the religions are preaching without the religions in the message. Preach the same word, the same vibe, the same message, the same energy, but get rid of the Jesus and the Allah and the Mohamed and the Krishna and all the rest of it... Move beyond it in our words first probably and then our consciousness will follow. You know its not like we don't dig the word you know... you gotta make sure that religious people understand that... the word can be a good thing.

sometimes...

But the problem is that a lot of the time the word is not good, but because of religious peoples insistence that the word is of their God and that their God is infallible, it creates a short circuit in what is normally rationally thinking intelligent life forms’ brains. So even if the word isn't necessarily good, as in the Muslim religion’s word that women need to act or dress a certain way for example, the people will find a way to talk themselves into accepting it as “the word.” Even when its kind of obvious that it isn't ‘the word.’ In all fairness, its not just the Muslims. Its all religions. The Jews can’t eat pork and the Catholics can’t eat meat on Friday and the Christians believe in capital punishment and the Indians can’t kill cows because they are sacred and the Tibetan Buddhists aren't supposed to go to war to defend their homeland... on and on...  ridiculous stuff.

He says ‘thank you lord for keeping us together, for giving us the meal. Amen.” I say ‘why?’ why do we have to thank someone/something outside of ourselves for anything? Can we not keep ourselves together? can we not give us our own meals?

He says ‘Jesus saves? Without gods word, the devil can come into our lives and take control of us.”
Can we not save ourselves? And what's more, what do we need to save ourselves from? not everyone is in need of saving. Certainly some are... but can they not save themselves? Can we not help save them? and what about this devil? I mean, at this point how necessary is this? can we just put the devil away for a while?

He says ‘if a man hits you, offer him the other cheek.’
O.k. that is just plain stupid. the idea behind it might be a nice one, and I think we all like to get warm and fuzzy over the intention behind it, but lets leave fairy tale ideology to fairytales and not confuse ourselves anymore than we already are. I think too many of us offer the other cheek at this point. I say we start standing up more and helping others stand up as well.

He says ‘my duty is to God.’ totally missing the point.
Our duty is not to a God. Our duty is to the ideals that we currently project onto the God concept. That will be humankind’s salvation. Rather than ‘thanks be to God’ we need to start coming to and from more of a place of ‘thanks be to ourselves...’ imagine a whole room filled with people who are filled with gratitude for everyone else in the room. A whole room of people filled with gratitude for all of humanity? Imagine the possibilities of that... no more giving thanks to unseen imagined forces. Thanks be to us.

O.k. think fast, not an easy mission, but definitely our future -- especially as the last two ancient tyrannical dinosaurs, Christianity and Islam, battle it out for what they think is world domination when in fact the majority of humankind could care less and instead just wishes that they would go away and leave us all in peace – so who is attempting the mission at this point? – spreading the word of power and empowerment and life-force and goodness and love and peace and compassion without the religious connotations that humankind has for so long erroneously thought necessary... Avatar is doing it, waldorf schools and the Steiner movement are doing it. oprah is doing it, Tony Robbins is doing it, ram Dass is doing it, Gary null is doing it, twyman is doing it, Dimartini is doing it, shit even scientology is doing it. plenty of people are doing it.

The enlightened on the planet need to be ever-tolerant of the religious among us and learn as much as we can from the glorious gifts that the religions have to offer us. But we also need to support and nurture the other modalities that are starting to come around the globe that are creating new ways to celebrate life and love and the pursuit of joy and peace and happiness using new methods and creating new rituals without old-world religious connotations.

Check this shit out. this is exactly what I am talking about. no mention of God or prophets or holy books but still very heart warming and spiritual fulfilling:

A friend of mine from Iran sent me this Norooz wish ... I thought you'd enjoy reading it. Norooz is the Iranian New Year. (remember that new years as we know it today is not really “new years.” that's just the massive grip that western civilization has on mass consciousness... its easy to be fooled into believing – even if you are really smart and enlightened that whatever the majority believes, that whatever the richest and most powerful among us believe, is the truth, when in fact often times it is not. Its just one group’s version of new years. there are still plenty of times of the year that are considered “new years” by other groups of us around the world.  the Jewish people have a different one. so do the Chinese. And so do the Iranians. They happen to celebrate their new years at the same time as the wicans and pagans do: the spring solstice. Could there be a more perfect time to celebrate new years?)
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To my dearest Friends and Students

 Norouz, the birthday of the Mother Earth, and our New Year are approaching. 

I wish you all health and the Divine blessing of appreciation.

Each day that comes is one of the most valuable gifts, incomparable to any other, that we will ever receive.  We all know that each day is important, but the importance of a day for us is often based upon what we have accomplished.  We place our life on a scale, and the weights that measure it have been given to us by this world. Everything is judged by failure or success. We make everything conditional in our lives.  And what is forgotten is the value of existence, the value of this breath coming every moment and blessing us.  This is the blessing. But we don't know how to accept it.  Yet we have been given a precious gift.  It is given freely, without judgment, with no condition.

Discover this life you've been living. Discover it the way it is meant to be lived—in joy, in gratitude, in beauty. Discover the potential of each day. Discover the rhythm as the sun shines on the horizon, light comes, and awakening happens; and then comes the sunset and sleep—everything is erased and another day begins. Discover that.

That's what this existence is all about. That's what peace is all about.   Peace is not in yesterday and peace is not in tomorrow, but peace is today.  Tomorrow is anticipation. Yesterday is just memories.  And today is the gift--the truest and the most important gift.
Be Happy Always and All Ways Here & Now

Picture of a table at your average Norooz (Iranian new years) celebration