July 28th, Cool breezes here in New York this week.

July 28th,
Cool breezes here in New York this week. lucky us. everyone in great spirits. Last night I had a great meeting about this non-profit that I am starting, turning the transcendence army into a charity that gives to children’s causes... good stuff. I love mid-town and the upper east and west sides. And I love summer in New York. people spend a lot more time communicating with each other because we aren't rushing our asses into warmer confines of homes or offices. A few minutes ago some cat I always say hello with and I were speaking and it turns out he's the music supervisor for def jam, the movie division. He just unloaded a barrage of stories about everyone in the biz without me saying a thing... I have no idea why he would think I was someone to drop names to. I'm an absolute nobody. A few minutes later another dude I always chat with when I'm sitting out here gets out of his car and we’re chatting, comparing notes about who works the hardest – I'm out here all freaking night on this laptop so it appears that I work the hardest but what he doesn’t realize is that he gets to work by 8am and I'm not even out of bed till close to 11am... so... anyway turns out that he's the VP at Tommy Hilfiger. I tell him I'm the lead singer for transcendence, and he says ‘the Minnie driver guys, right?’ and I'm like yeah, but we have a new album out now... [we will never live that one down.] so yeah, the midtown and upper east scene... say what you will about downtown being hipper.... but all you run into down there is out of work peeps, peeps still trying for it. whereas here its peeps who are already there. and then if you head up another twenty blocks, to the eighties... holy shit, its just over the top wealth and affluence up there. a whole new level.

Last screening: Dragon, the Bruce lee story. So cool. this is great. I was never into Bruce lee of martial arts, but I'm about to be.

Current spin: to rococo rot, the amateur view. More glitch music. Out of Berlin. like it.


I just read this on Bishop John Shelby Spong’s email blast. loved it. here it is:

“”””Jean Palmer from Daphne, Alabama writes:
"After reading Dr. Hecht's column I recalled my thoughts over the years about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, wondering why our United States government has always supported the Israeli side and seemingly neglected the Palestinians. My thoughts centered on our collective guilt over disbelieving the tragic Holocaust for so long. When the ship carrying refugees arrived on our shores during FDR's presidency and was forced to turn back to Europe, it caused me to gasp! How on earth could our country turn away refugees? Well, it seems we did and this has perhaps caused us to overcompensate on the Israeli side today. Having lived to the ripe old age of 71, I now know how guilt can cause one to do a 180-degree turnaround in some cases. I have asked myself why I was not sensitive to the issues of growing up in the segregated south all those years. Well, I was a child, then a teenager, then a nursing student, then a wife and a mother.too busy to think how others were faring, i n particular my African American brothers and sisters. Today, I embrace these same brothers and sisters wherever I am in church, social events, or anywhere else. Attempting atonement is a feeble attempt on my part but it seems to be the best I can do. I had been hoping that after 9/11 our government would stop, think and want to know why the terrorists hated us so much and how we might listen to their side of "the argument." So, what did President Bush and his administration do? They began a war they thought we could easily win; evidently thinking about how to turn the tide of Muslim hate was never a consideration. When I think of all the Iraqi people and our loyal military personnel who have been killed, it makes me nauseated!"””




I thought more about that scene with Ramstein in the park. Normally that type of thing is going to make me freak. I have spent so much time in my life worrying about and avoiding conflict. Doing everything I can to avoid it. I have been amazed at how little I was affected by it. I have found that i have developed this serene calm about friendship lately... realizing that we don't have to stay friends with everyone we’re friends with at one time, and we don't have to make friends with everyone we meet. That's not natural. I'm o.k. with the fact that we disagreed. Especially about something so profoundly important as that was. and I'm o.k. with the fact that my delivery of my truest beliefs weren't met with total acceptance, even disdain. You can’t go around trying to please everyone all the time. eventually you just have to start believing in you and what you believe, no matter what other people say. you know, you reach that point where you would rather spend as much time as possible as “pure awareness experiencing” rather than “consciousness desiring and resisting.” I'm not saying it’s easy, but if you continue to work at it, you get better and better at it.



Dreams. every night we dream. When do we know when to take dreams seriously? Or astrology for that matter... I mean, how do we know when to take it seriously and when to just let it go? or any of that stuff? palm reading and tarot card reading and psychics and horoscopes and religious studies and the I Ching and Feng Shui and omens and signs and messages we may get in meditation and all of it... hard to tell. Something I have been thinking about a lot the last year. what if we just lived through only what we saw and heard in real life and didn't take any of that other stuff seriously? someone says to me recently, ‘you know how this life is all an illusion?’ and I'm looking at them almost with pity, thinking, “what? I don't know about you, but this life seems pretty damn real to me...” But you know, in eastern thought, that is the viewpoint, that this is all an illusion, and this other world they have manufactured in their mind is very real. Western religions are the same way. speak to anyone of any of the four big religions and they place more importance on what they call “the afterlife” then they do on the “right here right now.”




I spoke with one of my favorite people in the world yesterday. a very famous and beloved psychic by the name of echo Bodine from Minnesota. We already had an appointment ironically enough, for months. She had nothing but good things to say. We shall see.


Last screening: Kevin smith speaks. He lectures at universities....

Current spin: still listening to dandy warhols. And this cat antony and the Johnsons. This guy is great. cabaret. Very gay. but very very good. you have to hear it to believe it. he could be very famous one day if enough money is put into him.


And here's an important announcement from the idiots at CNN.com:
“Anderson Cooper 360º”
””Children are starving to death. Anderson Cooper travels to Africa to put a human face on the hunger crisis in Niger. “”

Well thank God, because the Africans who are starving over there -- after all -- don't have human faces of their own.