Dark shots with Nic Gonzalez

GOD - John Lennon

God is a concept, 
By which we can measure, 
Our pain, 
I'll say it again, 
God is a concept, 
By which we can measure, 
Our pain, 
I don't believe in magic, 
I don't believe in I-ching, 
I don't believe in bible, 
I don't believe in tarot, 
I don't believe in Hitler, 
I don't believe in Jesus, 
I don't believe in Kennedy, 
I don't believe in Buddha, 
I don't believe in mantra, 
I don't believe in Gita, 
I don't believe in yoga, 
I don't believe in kings, 
I don't believe in Elvis, 
I don't believe in Zimmerman, 
I don't believe in Beatles, 
I just believe in me, 
Yoko and me, 
And that's reality. 
The dream is over, 
What can I say? 
The dream is over, 
Yesterday, 
I was dreamweaver, 
But now I'm reborn, 
I was the walrus, 
But now I'm John, 
And so dear friends, 
You just have to carry on, 
The dream is over. 

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com

Handling Three Years of Solitude

"In SES I was trying to pull together dozens of disciplines in all four quadrants, and this was a seemingly unending nightmare. So I really closed in on myself, and for three years I lived exactly the type of life that many people think I live all the time—namely, I really became a hermit. In fact, apart from grocery shopping and such, I saw exactly four people in three years. It turned out to be very close to a traditional three-year silent retreat. It was by far the most difficult voluntary thing I've ever done... The worst part came about seven months into the retreat. I found that what I missed most was not sex, and not talking, but skin contact - simple human touch. I ached for simple touching, I had what I started calling "skin hunger." My whole body seemed to ache with skin hunger, and for about three or four months, each day when I finished work, I would sit down and just start crying. I'd cry for about half an hour. It just really hurt. But what can you do in these cases except witness it? So eventually a type of meditative equanimity started to develop toward this skin hunger, and I found that this very deep need seemed to burn away, at least to some degree, precisely because of the awareness I was forced to give it. After that, my own meditation took a quantum leap forward—it was shortly thereafter that I started having glimpses of constant consciousness, or a mirrorlike awareness that continued into the dream state and the deep sleep state. All of this came about, I think, because I was not allowed to act on this skin hunger, I was forced to be aware of it, to bring consciousness to it, to witness it and not merely act it out. This skin hunger is a very primitive type of grasping, a very deep type of desire, of subjective identity, and by witnessing it, making it an object, I ceased identifying with it, I transcended it to some degree, and that released my own consciousness from this most ancient of biological drives. But it was a very rocky roller-coaster ride for a while".

Ken Wilber talking with Scott Warren about the three years locked away writing his 1995 tome, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.  Transposed in One Taste (p.73)

The Fiery Furnaces - Charmaine Champagne

Check out that opening scene where they isolate the 'Ba's and 'Da's from shopping signs. Such a cool idea... reminds me of Robert MacPherson's work and also the good 'ol Oceanic Cafe at Central Station.

http://thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com/

The Ghosts of St. Petersburg

From: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/13/longexposure-shots-i.html

RT@endlesstea

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com/

The Troubadours

"So through the eyes love attains the heart, for the eyes are the scouts of the heart. 

And the eyes go reconnoitering 
for what it would please the heart to possess. 

And when they are in full accord and firm all three in one resolve, 
at that time perfect love is born from what the eyes have made welcome to 
the heart. 

For as all true loves know, love is perfect kindness which is born, there 
is no doubt, from the heart and the eyes." 
— The Troubadours

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com

A moment of induced satchidananda in the State Forest...

While researching Soul Sacrifice...

... I came across this hilarious list of declined and cancelled acts for Woodstock replete with Spinal Tap-esque reasons for the no-show.

Cancelled Acts

1. Jeff Beck Group (The band broke up in July, forcing cancellation)
2. Iron Butterfly (Stuck at the airport, their manager demanded helicopters and special arrangements just for them. Were wired back and told, as impolitely as Western Union would allow, "to get lost", but in other 'words'.)
3. Joni Mitchell (Joni's agent put her on "The Dick Cavett Show" instead)
4. Lighthouse (Feared that it would be a "bad scene".)
5. Ethan Brown (Arrested for LSD three days before the event.)

Declined Invitations

1. The Beatles (John Lennon said he couldn't get them together)
2. Led Zeppelin (Got a higher paying gig elsewhere)
3. Bob Dylan (Turned it down because of his disgust of the hippies hanging around his house)
4. The Byrds (Turned it down because of a melee during their performance at the first Atlanta International Pop Festival, held at the Atlanta International Raceway on July 4 and July 5, 1969)
5. Tommy James & the Shondells (Turned it down because of being misinformed about the size and scope of the event)
6. Jethro Tull (Turned it down because they thought it wouldn't be a big deal.)
7. The Moody Blues (Unknown reasons)
8. Mind Garage (Declined because they thought it wouldn't be a big deal and had a higher paying gig elsewhere)

... and the big bit of trivia I didn't know: "Hendrix insisted on being the final performer and was scheduled to perform Sunday at midnight. He didn't take the stage until 9 A.M. on Monday morning and played for 2 hours to a dwindling audience".

Much love to the internet!

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com

He Was Only 19...

In preparation for maybe putting together a traditional psychedelic 6 piece band, I've been trawling through my muscial vaults. Among the Joplin, Cocker, Baez, Garcia, and Hendrix turning my bedroom into Woodstock today, Santana's epic Soul Sacrifice stands out as the unchallenged aural time transporter... and not because of Carlos' chops, but more for the famously blistering solo from 19 year old Mickaël Shrieve.

My musical bros always provocatively quote the age of musical geniuses at famous moments in their career, and this has to be one of the most impressive of all time.  Under twenty years old, a set dead in the middle of the seminal hippy happening (the third act on day to of the three day festival) he tears out a three minute drum solo that almost 40 years later landed him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I was reading the speech he gave to the Hall of Fame on the occasion of his induction, and it was fascinating to hear the way he described their time both in Santana in and around Woodstock and the life of notoriety which followed him afterwards:

Well, we jammed. We played all night long and at the end of the night we all gathered in a small room off to the side. Actually, I think it was just Carlos, Gregg, and myself. Carlos asked me if I would like to join the band. I said, " You know, let me check my schedule." Just kidding! 

I was in the band. And what a band it was! I soon saw this was no peace, love, hippie thing. This band was like a street gang and its weapon was music. 

Cut to another year later and the band is set to play the Woodstock Festival. Bill Graham was able to get us on the show. We got paid, I think it was $500.00. We were known in California and we were doing a lot of festivals, always working, but still relatively unknown. We played the Woodstock show, which was of course incredible. It was also a mess. I think Paul Kantner had the best quote about Woodstock. " If you said you had a great time at Woodstock, you weren't there." Needless to say, we went over well. We were the right band at the right time. Our street gang tribal rhythms were perfect for the Woodstock tribe that day. 

Another year later and we're touring more, our first record is out and the Woodstock movie is opening in theaters across the country. Santana is playing in New York and our first day off we go to see the movie. We're standing in line waiting for the earlier showing to finish, and as the people are coming out of the theatre, we notice quite a few of the people in line. We didn't know if we were going to end up in the film or not. After all, we were the unknown group there that day. 

Halfway through the movie there we are playing Soul Sacrifice. Halfway through into my drum solo the screen splits and there are 6 images of me across it. I didn't know whether to shout out, "That's me!" or sink down in my seat. I sank down in my seat and watched and listened. At the end of the song the whole theatre burst into applause, as the 6 of us turned in our seats and looked at each other in laughter and surprise. 

Well, our little musical street gang had just made a sound heard round the world. As the film was released around the world, the band became known everywhere. On our first trip Europe to play the Montreux Jazz Festival, I walked to the train station to pick up some magazines, and there I was on the cover of one, in a small shot from Woodstock. 

Everywhere we went people knew us. Our album shot up the charts. This was all pretty heavy stuff for a 19-year old kid, but I loved it. As a drummer, there was no better band to be in. This was about really playing your instrument and these guys would really keep you on your toes. If you didn't play well you would hear about it! We played everywhere. We were one of the first groups to play Mexico and Central and South America. We played Africa, the Far East, the Philippines and Europe many times. 

Cut to 15-20 years later and I'm walking down 5th Avenue in New York City. By this time, I'd been out of Santana over 10 years, made about 7 solo albums; played on many people's records, done a lot of stuff. A guy walks up to me and says, "Hey Mike Shrieve! Oh man, I saw you in Woodstock. You were so great! I loved it so much....but what happened man? You've gotten....older." 

Well thousands of people have mentioned Woodstock to me. I kept trying to beat it with something else I did, but realized over time that this would never happen, and I learned to live with the fact, and accept that it meant so much to so many people, that you just couldn't fight it. It seemed I was 18 forever to them, and so be it. I'm 48 now and I've had a fruitful and long creative career but nothing has compared to my experience of playing in Santana. 

You can check out his most recent work at http://www.michaelshrieve.com. But for the sweet taste of free lovin' good times, take a seat, sip on the brown acid and share this 9:37 minutes of love with me:

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com

Sweet Song - Blur (Think Tank)

http://thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com/2009/08/sweet-song-blur-think-tank.html

"I can see your schwartz is as big as mine..."

LightSaver
By Matthijs Smit
From http://www.threadless.com/product/1951/LightSaver#zoom



http://thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com/

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Italian Spiderman!

It's like a continental bargearse...