Book of the Dead

TIBETAN BOOK OF DYING

Amazon.com
Imagine that as you leave your body at death, you hear the voice of a loved one whispering in your ear explanations of everything you see in the world beyond. Unlike other translations of Bar do thos grol (or The Tibetan Book of the Dead), Robert Thurman's takes literally the entire gamut of metaphysical assumptions. Thurman translates Bar do thos grol as The Great Book of Natural Liberation through Understanding in the Between. It is one of many mortuary texts of the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism and is commonly recited to or by a person facing imminent death. Thurman reproduces it for this purpose, explaining in some depth the Tibetan conception of postmortem existence. Over as many as 12 days, the deceased person is given explanations of what he or she sees and experiences and is guided through innumerable visions of the realms beyond to reach eventual liberation, or, failing that, a safe rebirth. Like a backpacker's guide to a foreign land, Thurman's version is clear, detailed, and sympathetic to the inexperienced voyager. It includes background and supplementary information, and even illustrations (sorry, no maps). Don't wait until the journey has begun. Every page should be read and memorized well ahead of time. --Brian Bruya

From Library Journal
The Dalai Lama's blessing attends Thurman's translation of the Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between. Composed by Padma Sambhava in the late eighth century, this text minutely describes the "betweens" ( Bardos ) or after-death transition states. Thurman, who opens this work with a new section of preliminary prayers, gives a helpful commentary in terms Westerners can understand and boldface portions to be read aloud in the presence of the dead. He closes by appending Nyingma tradition works to the main text. This text has already been translated in 1927 and 1975, and some of Thurman's new translation choices are questionable. For instance, the West has adopted the term karma , which expresses the original meaning better than evolution --an alternative that obscures the personal responsibility emphasized in Buddhism. In addition, since Tibetan pronouns are sexually neutral, alternating his with her from verse to verse confuses. Still, Westerners will find this a colorful, awesome journey. For informed readers.
- Dara Eklund, Los Angeles P.L.

Mind Games

John Lennon - sweet video in Central Park.


We're playing those mind games together,

Pushing barriers, planting seeds,
Playing the mind guerilla,
Chanting the Mantra peace on earth,

We all been playing mind games forever,

Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
Doing the mind guerilla,
Some call it the search for the grail,
Love is the answer and you know that for sure,
Love is flower you got to let it, you got to let it grow,

So keep on playing those mind games together,

Faith in the future outta the now,
You just can't beat on those mind guerillas,
Absolute elsewhere in the stones of your mind,

Yeah we're playing those mind games forever,

Projecting our images in space and in time,
Yes is the answer and you know that for sure,
Yes is the surrender you got to let it, you got to let it go,

So keep on playing those mind games together,

Doing the ritual dance inn the sun,
Millions of mind guerrillas,
Putting their soul power to the karmic wheel,

Keep on playing those mind games forever,

Raising the spirit of peace and love, not war,
(I want you to make love, not war, I know you've heard it before) (more) (less

Core Yoga

Shiva Rea's got a nice vibe and excellent core yoga DVD for home practice. Filmed at White Sands National Park, the program was directed by James Wvinner and shot in HD by Hollywood's Sion Michel (Memoirs of a Geisha).

Available at
www.acacialifestyle.com
Background:
Good things flow from a strong core: a long lean torso, a healthy back, a positive flow of energy that benefits every aspect of your life. Now, one of the yoga world's top female teachers shows you an enlightened way to a powerful core. Unlike repetitive conventional abs work, Shiva's fluid yoga-based approach awakens your creativity and inner fire, building strength and grace in the same way that surfing, rock climbing, or dancing does—while you’re enjoying yourself, not counting the minutes until it's over. The program includes three flowing segments, which can be done all at once or individually.

More Herbie: Our Interview

Herbie Hancock In the Moment

Dig_iT catches up with Rockit composer and jazz genius in: The
Dig_iT Interview

Elaine Dennis Dec 13, 2002

Talk about a frontrunner: Herbie Hancock performed a Mozart piano concerto
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. As a youth, he became
obsessed with electronics. In college, he took a double major in music and
electrical engineering.
By 23, he was playing with jazz giant Miles Davis. In the ’70s, he was the
first major jazz musician to use synthesizers. And Dig_iT will never forget
Herbie as the digital lifestyle pioneer who read his Grammy acceptance
speech from a Palm Pilot, a first. It was one of eight Grammies (and an
Academy Award) the jazz legend has earned.
Hancock embodies the digital lifestyle: in the studio, at work, on the road,
and at home. He’s always up on the latest gadgets, and continues to pioneer
the use of technology in music and performances, currently by working with
new Surround-Sound technologies.
Herbie also founded Transparent Music, a multimedia company dedicated to
the presentation of barrier-breaking music, with the help of his manager
David Passick and former Verve Records president Chuck Mitchell. The
company plans to take advantage of almost every distribution format
available including concert events, films, TV, CDs, DVDs, and the Internet. A
recent company project called “Future 2 Future” has Hancock collaborating
with Bill Laswell and some of the edgiest young hip-hop and techno artists to
create their own music of the future via technology.
As if he’s not busy enough, five years ago Hancock founded the Rhythm Of
Life Foundation, an organization that’s trying to help bridge the technological
divide and find ways to use technology to help humanity. According to
Hancock,
“the philosophy of the foundation is based on the communication of multi-
cultural awareness and tolerance among communities, on instilling a sense of
courage and creative initiative in children, and educating one another about
our rich and complex ethnic heritage.” The foundation’s website is at
www.rolo.org.
We caught up with Herbie just before he headed out on a concert tour for
Future 2 Future, and just before he completed his Future 2 Future Live DVD,
mixed in Surround Sound.
Herbie told us his motto was “don’t be afraid to try.” He’s certainly lived up
to his words.
DIG_IT: What was your earliest recollection of technology being significant
in your life—something that really made you say ‘Wow!’?
HERBIE HANCOCK: That was in the early ’70s during my very raw avante-
garde jazz period. It was also a time when people were still into new sounds
and psychedelic stuff from the late ’60s. Synthesizers were just starting to
show their face on the scene as being a cool new thing.
I was working on my Crossings record in San Francisco at the time. My
manager and record producer, David Rubenson, suggested we put a
synthesizer on the record. I said, “Well that’s cool, but I don’t know anyone
that plays the synthesizer.” David said he knew this guy, Patrick Gleason,
who had his own studio and was doing synthesizer stuff and had a whole big
set-up. I didn’t know anything about synthesizers, but I said, “Tell you what.
Here’s this tune. Why don’t you ask him if he’d be interested in creating an
introduction on spec—if I don’t like it, I’m not gonna use it.”
I didn’t even have to go to his studio. We gave him the tape and he sent it
back a couple days later. When I sat down to listen to what he did, it blew
my mind.
DI: Were you worried at all about how your fans would react? How did you
feel about taking this out on the road and having this totally new experience?
HH: I was excited about it! Nobody in jazz was using synthesizers at the
time.
It’s interesting to me that a lot of the artists that are creating the new
electronic music scene today have been influenced by Sextant and some
other records I did during that period. So it’s kind of come back in another
form today.
DI: I remember when we went to a party together during Macworld in the
late ‘90s and we heard one of the DJs spinning your tune Rockit.
HH: Rockit was much later than Sextant, it was 1983. I’m talking about
music that I did back in 1972—so it was 10 years or so before Rockit. This
totally avante-garde music I was doing then was basically non-electronic,
except for some of the stuff Patrick did. But was reaching out in that
direction. We were very much into new textures and new sounds. And that
music was very raw and far out. That kind of sound had an influence on
Rockit. Also, it was a precursor to a lot of the hip-hop things and to the
electronic scene today. But it wasn’t Rockit that was the biggest influence on
them, it was Sextant and a tune I did called Nobu. I didn’t find that out until
I did Future 2 Future.
DI: Tell us about the Future 2 Future concept.
HH: It started with Bill Laswell, my producer. He sparked my interest by
saying that the stuff that I had done back in the very early ’70s was
influencing young electronic musicians today.
I’d heard maybe one or two things that sounded a little bit interesting, but I
really didn’t know anything about the new electronic music. Then Bill started
playing me some things I hadn’t heard and I finally got the idea. He thought
it would be interesting for me to work with young people who are working
electronically and were influenced by stuff that I did acoustically back 30
years ago.
DI: So did Bill help find these people?
HH: He helped me connect with these people—and I trust Bill. The first stuff
I heard was what he had put together with them to submit to me for my
record. I didn’t hear material that they had done before. This was the idea
for Future 2 Future—to record my immediate musical response from hearing
what they were doing for the first time.
Bill wanted that kind of spontaneity and I was interested. Even Gershwin’s
World, which I did before Future 2 Future, came from a more spontaneous
place. So it was Bill’s realization that people in this new electronic scene had
been influenced by me, and his own vision of what I might like to do and
what would sound good on a record.
DI: Was there any new technology that played a role in creating the record?
HH: The techniques for producing the record involved the latest technology
totally. We used ProTools for the editing. As opposed to being a post-
production process, the editing was a part of the creation of the music. Bill
did the editing without me being there. I would do some overdubs on
something that he had prepared and then he would go and edit that with
stuff we already had and maybe even add some other stuff. Then I would
hear that back and it would be totally different from what I heard before, and
I would already be on the keyboard responding to it.
So once the record was done and I wanted to put a group together to tour, I
had to figure out how to keep that spontaneity. It was kind of a dilemma—to
keep the spirit of the record and not have everything sound completely
different. How would anyone know that this thing was this tune as opposed
to one of the other tunes? So we decided to nail down certain signatures that
were on the pieces that would capture their spirit and still be spontaneous
live.
And then we added an element which was totally new for live playing—and
that was the Surround Sound experience. I’d really wanted to do it and so we
figured out a way that made sense. First of all, live recording consoles are
not built for Surround Sound, they don’t have enough outputs. Then, the
engineer is used to doing stereo. How were we going to get this guy to do
Surround Sound? How are we going get this done live? Every night you have
a sound check and every night is a different venue and you have to figure
out what to do. Our solution was to use two engineers. One guy did the
regular front-of-house stuff, and the other guy did surround.
The keyboards we had were designed in such a way that we could use them
for surround too. In addition to the two stereo outputs they had two auxiliary
outputs and the construction of the keyboard was such that the different
components of the sound—you could actually select which combination of
outputs you could send the components to. Say, if it was a high frequency,
high wavy sound component, we could send that to an auxiliary output and
send another more tonal straight brass sound to the left stereo channel and
another component to the right. So the surround component would come out
of the surround speakers and the other would come out of the stereo
speakers. That’s why we called it “immersive mixing”—a term we created.
As a result, we were approached by Thomas Holman—the TH of THX before
his company was bought out by Lucas—and we mixed the DVD at Skywalker
Ranch. Tom had heard what we were doing and was a fan. He actually mixed
some of my older material in 10.2 Surround Sound.
ED: What a great way for someone to showcase their stuff—with someone
like you who is really into pushing the limits of their technology and making
amazing music.
HH: The technology community actually sort of laughed at Tom Holman for
10.2, saying, “come on, this is ridiculous. 5.1 has been around for a while
and what more do you need?” But we blew their minds.
I just went to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention and
everything was in Surround Sound. There are now live boards that have
Surround Sound capabilities, so the word is out. I guess that’s why I had
such a great interest in doing the live show in Surround Sound. I wanted to
do it before everybody else. [laughs]
ED: So what is it that you are interested in now? What do you think is cool?
HH: What’s cool for me? The new software instruments. As a matter of fact,
we are pushing the envelope again, because we used some of the first
software instruments on the Future 2 Future tour. Software instruments by
Emagic—they have a Rhodes sound that is more like the Rhodes than any
other synthesizer I ever heard except for the Rhodes itself. They have a
clavinet that we use that is just like a clavinet. There’s a thing called the B4
which is actually a B3 organ. We used that on the tour. We jumped right into
it.
You know what? I’ve got to go, I’ve got people coming over in 10 minutes
and I’m still in my pajamas.
Elaine Dennis is a freelance writer, poet and advocate of music, wine and
technology, who resides in the California wine country. Reach Elaine at
elaine@inkit.com.

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Audacity of Hope in Motion

Thankfully, we are seeing a response to what has been a very grim time in the US, for many years but hyper-realized in the new millenium. We have been asked to embrace fear vs. hope- and it appears, hope is rivaling fear in a big way now- the 7 year itch, and time for major change.

We won't go into how damaged we have appeared in the world, but hope we can deliver upon and make up for that very bad spell shortly and for many generations to come, we can be compassionate to all humans and not controlling for our own interests.

Support Obama '08

Opera in theatres near you

Peter Gelb, GM of The Met, spoke a bit about the new directions of the opera at the E-G conference I recently attended at the Getty.

Both the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera are serving up performances locally via the big screen, thoughts?

Go see what you think.

Afterall, when was the last time you experienced Opera and the finest in the industry?

Pursuit of Equality

Great documentary film http://www.pursuitofequality.com/


Catch one of the most pioneering Mayors of our time in action on civil rights, along with those he served with a delicious but dangerous (politically) - yet well-deserved treat. This is all about leadership and taking changes to represent the values of your city, and above all, this is about civil rights and not doctoring the constitution to move backward in history.

Blue Suede Uggs

Not much else to say really.

These don't belong anywhere, much less found on the beaches of Santa Barbara, but perhaps this is where they find themselves most at home outside of LA and the Grove, perched upon a rock while one walks on the sandy beaches of coastal regions- or anywhere.

We would never see this occur on beaches in the Bay Area, thankfully. Uggs are meant to be worn only in your home, and I imagine they do not turn on the boyfriend in any way. Some LA Girls should really try to curtail this non-fashion element in their repoirtoire, hopefully, you will not try to take this trend too far out of state. just some friendly advice - don't do it- fugly.