I have a few shots taken from this one session with the Thunderbird Family, the greatest indie folk band no one’s ever known. I’ll continue release more photos from the session as time goes on because I love the way the film came out on my old Nikon camera (which has since broken thanks to my naive trust of American Airlines). This felt like the right one to start with.
This is my old college roommate Ned Sedlak! Ned’s the man! He’s kept himself in the business since graduation working at Sony BMG and Warner/Chapel out in LA until moving on over to NYC to be a Production/Marketing Coordinator at tinyOGRE Entertainment. Ned’s a bad ass.
In this picture, Ned’s jammin’ out on the flute during an awesome session that took place in my old apartment at 1111 Boylston St right across from Berklee. That place was so filthy it was beautiful. He was the ‘utility’ guy of The Thunderbird Family, playing guitar, flute, and saxophone.
Warning: This post is going to dabble in areas of serious pretentiousness. I don’t know how to talk about this the way I want to without it, so I’m just going to embrace it.
About a year ago I started a growing obsession with reading source spiritual, religious, or philosophical texts or scriptures. I grew a bit…impatient, maybe…with reading other people’s interpretations or regurgitations of history’s great pieces of writing that revealed some sliver of TheTruth. I figured, why not go straight to the well myself?
So far, it’s been an incredibly rewarding decision that has literally enriched every single moment of my life. So I’m going to keep on going with it and see where it takes me.
Right now, I’m just at the beginning of the an edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead (apparently known in Tibet as The Great Liberation by Hearing In the Intermediate States) that claims to be the first complete translation. That’s pretty stunning to think about when you open up the cover and see this book was first published in 2005. Think about that…
Anyway, the book is rocking my world. I ran a quick Google search to (unsuccessfully) grab an image of the book’s cover for this post and came across this gem from a 2001 NME interview with Thom Yorke of Radiohead:
Sometimes, the world makes [Thom] literally ill and sometimes his own head makes him literally ill. Prone to extreme thinking-too-much syndrome (“I’d say, about most things, whoooo!”), he’s a “shameless dabbler” in Buddhism, read The Tibetan Book Of The Dead and it sent him bonkers, couldn’t finish it, “it freaked the living crap out of me, absolutely.”
So yeah, there’s that. Whatever. Thom Yorke has great vision, but he’s buried himself so deeply in the empty darkness of the Universe that he can’t separate truth from terror. I would bet that’s what ‘sent him bonkers’ more than the text itself. I still might go insane though so we’ll see.
I want to share an early portion of The Tibetan Book of the Dead with you because I loved it from the moment I first read it. It’s a translation of a poem called ‘The Root Verses of the Six Intermediate States’. The poem describes six inevitable modes of existence and the best frame of mind to carry into all of them in order to seek a higher state of understanding. They are: Living, Dreaming, Meditating, Dying, Being Dead, Being Reborn.
I’m not here to have a discussion about the merits of reincarnation, so if that’s an issue in your mind right now (which I’ll admit it is a bit troublesome for me), try to table it just for the moment and focus on the other five that we know to be real.
The introduction in the edition I’m reading says ‘it is recommended that practitioners should memorize these verses and recite them repeatedly, while reflecting on their meaning, throughout their lives.’
So in other words: take it in, mull it over and revisit it over and over and over and over again. I hope it does for you as much as it’s already done for me.
Root Verses of the Six Intermediate States
Alas, now as the intermediate state of living arises before me,
Renouncing laziness, for which there is no time in this life,
I must enter the undistracted path of study, reflection and meditation.
Taking perceptual experience and [the nature of] mind as the path,
I must cultivate actualization of the three Buddha-bodies (a term describing three specific dimensions of experiencing an enlightened mind).
Now, having obtained a precious human body, this one time,
I do not have the luxury of remaining on a distracted path.
Alas, now as the intermediate state of dreams arises before me,
Renouncing the corpse-like, insensitive sleep of delusion,
I must enter, free from distracting memories, the state of the abiding nature of reality.
Cultivating [the experience of] inner radiance,
Through recognition, emanation, and transformation of dreams,
I must not sleep like a beast,
But cherish the experiential cultivation which mingles sleep with actual [realization].
Alas, now as the intermediate state of meditative concentration arises before me,
Renouncing the mass of distractions and confusions,
I must undistractedly enter a state,
Which is devoid of subjective apprehension, and free from the [two] extremes,
And attain stability in the stages of generation and perfection.
At this moment, having renounced activity,
And having attained a singular [concentration],
I must not fall under the sway of bewildering mental afflictions!
Alas, now as the intermediate state of the time of death arises before me,
Renouncing [all] attachment, yearning and subjective apprehension in every respect,
I must enter the path, on which the oral teachings are clearly understood,
And eject my own awareness into the uncreated expanse of space.
Immediately upon separation from this compounded body of flesh and blood,
I must know [this body] to be like a transient illusion.
Alas, now as the intermediate state of reality arises before me,
Renouncing the merest sense of awe, terror, or fear,
I must recognize all that arises to be awareness, manifesting naturally of itself.
Knowing [such sounds, lights and rays] to be visionary phenomena of the intermediate state,
At this moment, having reached this critical point,
I must not fear the assembly of Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, which manifest naturally!
Alas, now as the intermediate state of rebirth arises before me,
I must with one-pointed intention concentrate my mind,
And resolutely connect with the residual potency of my virtuous past actions.
I must obstruct the womb and entrance and call to mind the methods of reversal.
This is the time when perseverance and purity of perception are imperative.
I must give up all jealousy and meditate on my spiritual teacher with consort.
From the mouth of the accomplished masters come these words:
‘O, [you], with your mind far away, thinking that death will not come,
Entranced by the pointless activities of this life,
If you were to return empty-handed now, would not your [life’s] purpose have been utterly confused?
Recognize what it is that you truly need! It is a sacred teaching, beginning from this very moment?’
And it is also said,
‘If I choose not to take the oral teachings of the spiritual teacher to heart,
This picture comes to you from Bangkok, Thailand. Do Do the chimp and Aom the tiger are buds apparently! For video of these two, scroll past my meandering thoughts that really add nothing to this incredible situation.
Is this chimp imitating something it saw the veterinarians/zookeepers around it doing or is this chimp knowingly providing care to the tiger cub? I don’t know. Regardless, this is an incredible picture that opens up my perspective about the world we live in.
Violent tendencies aside, we tend to pride ourselves as a species for our empathy and altruistic care for other animals. On the common and seemingly less significant level, we treasure the relationships we have with our pets. I love my dog and I feel like she loves me!
It’s pretty remarkable to see an image the seems to show two other species sharing that sort of relationship with each other on their own. That’s why pictures of cats hangin’ with dogs always get passed around the Internet. It tickles us to think about. This image of a monkey nursing a young animal that will grow up to be its natural predator takes it all to another level.
There are so many details to consider here! The chimp is using a man-made bottle to nurse the tiger. What proportion of this interaction is driven by some genuine maternal instinct and what is learned from or encourage by humans? Could a dynamic like this exist in the wild?
Careful, or Mike’s smooth voice and sexy innuendo’s about Christmas will get you.
Does this groove remind you at all of ‘Dick In A Box’? There had to be some inspiration pulled from Michael McDonald…with a little Boyz II Men and Bobby Brown thrown in the mix.
Don’t you know that things go in cycles? Something that was cool twenty years ago suddenly becomes cool today. What I love about this video is that neither tap dancing, bass solos, turtlenecks nor Arsenio Hall are cool today…yet this video will still blew my skirt up in ways I didn’t expect for a Tuesday morning.
SIDE NOTE: Are up-skirt paparazzi photos of wasted celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears the modern day equivalent of Marilyn Monroe’s iconic Seven Year Itch moment?
This video looks like it’s a complete improv between Stanley Clarke and Gregory Hines, two dudes who I have always known I was supposed to think are cool, but didn’t know how to get there. After watching this video, I’m pretty sure I understand a big sliver of why. I could be bias, but I gotta give Stanley the edge on this one. Killer playing on his part and I’ve seen better from Ole’ Greg.
Songs can come out anywhere, anytime. I think they gestate inside of me for a while until they find the right time and way to come out. I wrote this bass line while I was on the floor of Bass Player Live out in Los Angeles in October. I was fiddling with the new Source Audio Programmable EQ and apparently thinking about The Who. Some of the musical motifs in it have definitely been trying to fight their way into existing songs but not quite fitting.
I’m not sure where this one is going to go, but I love how it sounds. For the time being, I’ll be listening to it and writing melodies on top of it. Since I’ve got the blog rolling again, I thought it would be pretty cool to share this one with you right from the absolute beginning of its creation.
The cool thing about Source Audio is that this clip will be in my bass demo video for the Programmable EQ. That’s where a lot of my song ideas have gone to die though…gotta be careful with that early gratification.
What does this song sound like it’s about to you? What should the lyrics focus on?
By the way…How EXCELLENT does that sound file look?
Alright I’m dedicating this post to my big sis who has been a saint for putting up with me for years. She didn’t always like me, but from the moment she realized I was also a human, she has taken such good care of me and the rest of our family. Recently, she’s been so great about sharing all of my music with her friends for years now and making sure I know she really likes what I’m doing.
In return, I have continued full speed on my self-absorbed quest of trying to increase my awesomeness at all times. Well, Internet…TODAY IS THE DAY that I don’t stop because I just love being a little punk so very much.
However, take some time right now to hop on over to my sister’s website, Simply Savannah Events. She’s been a busy bee this year becoming the best new event planner in Savannah, Georgia! If you’re looking for a classy, affordable wedding, bridal/baby shower, or any other event, she’s your gal. She’s also on Twitter!
As you can see from a few of the other posts on this site, I’ve had the music for this song kicking around for a while. It took me a while to figure out the right lyrical concept that matched the intense melancholy of the music.
I found the right subject at the wake of a friend’s mother who died unexpectedly. It was an awful, awful event in their life and even though I went through the experience of suddenly losing my dad, I had no idea what to say or do to help.
We sat in a circle at the funeral home and one at a time, people began to share memories about my friend’s mother. I struggled to figure out what I was going to say if that wave of condolences hit my seat and all eyes in the room fell on me. I didn’t know her at all. I never met her and I wasn’t there for her…I was there for my friend. His life had just been completely blown apart and I had come to be there for him. But what does that mean, to be there for someone?
I looked around me and saw some other friends who had come to this tiny funeral home in New England from as far away as France and Africa to be there for him. I realized that the best thing I could do was to point that out, as obvious as it may have been. We had all come so far for him because we knew that what had just happened had literally blown his life apart and we were there because we each held a piece of him.
The pieces we held were our memories of him, the shared experiences and memories in our minds that build the story and character of this person that we love. Even though the person we loved in him may be gone after this experience, we were there to let him know who he was to us. He could take it or leave it. He decides how he pieces himself back together. He decides who he wants to be.
That’s the remarkable thing about intense loss like that. You pick up the pieces. You decide the person you’ll become.
Thankfully, I was never asked or expected to say anything. The idea stuck with me though and it eventually became this song. The idea grew from there. I thought about how I felt when I was dealing with my loss and how I felt at so many of the other funerals I’ve had the misfortune of attending. In the end, ‘The Parts That Build You Back’ is my song for anyone who finds themself walking into a funeral home with no idea what to do. I hope that it will help them find a narrative for an awful event that has the power to heal.
The Parts That Build You Back
Your strength, your story, your home, your sense of pride
taken on the day she died.
My God what a hole inside…
I can feel the hurt of the words you heard
that blew your life away,
echoing in all you say.
So when you stare down to that void, think of me
racing to you with pieces of you, the parts that build you back.
So all that your heart beat for can hum in your soul once more.
Hmmm…
No I don’t know the pain that broke you down to pieces
But I will make you whole again.
I don’t need to understand.
I’m holding in my hands those word you once said,
‘nothings gonna break me down, even if it all just fails’
You see, I’m keeping that until you want it back
It’s tied tight to your name, stronger than the sharpest pain
and when you know who you’ll become, think of me
Standing by you with pieces of you, the parts that build you back
So all that your heart beat for can hum in your soul once more.
No I don’t know the pain that broke you down to pieces
