Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Friday, November 11, 2011

Friday: All-night dance at Occupy LA (11-11-11)

PROTEST FEST: Occupy Los Angeles, Dev (Wisdom Quarterly), DJ Anonymous
What it might look like -- before the rain starts

On arrival, be careful about these 11 types of dance injuries (FunnyOrDie.com)

The Los Angeles occupation is growing. On Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 (11-11-11) at 4:00 pm there begins an all-night Protest Fest concert/dance/rave. It will feature various DJ in the plaza under the southside steps. STOMP @ City Hall promises to be the largest peaceful action since tents brought back the spirit of a 1960's style youth movement that can no longer be dismissed by the mainstream media as mere "camping." There will be DJs, meditation, yoga, tables, big tents, and all the features Occupy LA has grown famous for in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Bring your ideas to the movement during the planning stages, at the [alternative] media tent, and put a West Coast twist on this party for the 99%.

(Facebook/Daily Mail)


STOMP @ City Hall, Friday, Nov. 11, 4:00 pm (clip courtesy of EDC 2011)

It started with 12 students on Wall Street...
(Daily Mail/NewWorldOrderReport.com) Protest enters [another] week with activists in Los Angeles saying they will remain "indefinitely." Demonstrators [unwilling to quietly accept] corporate greed along with U.S. banking and political systems [police abuse, endless war, poverty, hypocrisy...] Major cities across the U.S. are today bracing themselves for more protests against corporate America as the Occupy Wall Street campaign enters its [another] week and gathers pace. The demonstrations, which began in New York City, have already spread to Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and Seattle.
(EDC The Movie) Revolutionary rock and folk galvanized the '60s, as rave and punk do now. Sex, drugs, and raucous music are demonized just as they were in the '50s when repression led to the backlash called the Sixties.
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"Imagine" - Joan Baez visits Occupy Wall St.

() "Imagine" (John Lennon) by Joan Baez

Folk singer Joan Baez serenaded hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters Friday, most of whom weren’t even born when she became famous for singing out against the Vietnam War.

Folk singer Joan Baez, #OWS, Foley Square, Manhattan on 11-11-11 (Enid Alvarez/NYDN).

The irony of Baez performing on Veterans Day was mostly lost on the demonstrators, who had marched from their base in Zuccotti Park to Foley Square, just up from City Hall, for the concert. More

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

288,000 Jelly Beans, 1 video (Kina Grannis)



() Posted Nov. 2, 2011 -- "In Your Arms" took 22 months, 1357 hours, 30 people, 2 ladders, 1 still camera, and 288 thousand jelly beans! It already has well over 2 million hits. Kina is on tour and in Europe in 2012 and on Facebook all the time.She has a new album called Stairwells. "In Your Arms" was written by Kina Grannis, directed by Greg Jardin, produced by Daphne Raves, with concept art by Lauren Gregg, wardrobe by Gillian Zwick, sound design by Suzanne Goldish, using the production company: @radical.media. See the Secret Crazy Project celebration.


The awesome Jelly Bean Animation Team was: Kristina Carucci, Lauren Cunningham, MacKenna Dixon, Marcus Demmon, Kevin Harman, Alexandra Judelsohn, Jay Kim, Pearl Lung, Ptolemy Slocum, Erin Thiele, and Clarisse Wiedem with additional animators: Monica Ahanonu, Matt Beans, Sarah Burt, David Chang, Jane Cohen, John D'Arco, Hope Marquardt, Erin McLaughlin, Krisztianna Ortiz, Kyle Padilla, Allen Marshall Palmer, Natalie Pasallar, JJ Rubin, Cherie Saulter, Susan Wiedem, John Sheptock, Janine Sides, Hethur Suval, Chelsea Stark, and Sarah Tejeda.

Special thanks to Jelly Belly [a gross, allergenic, sweet tasting mix of chemical flavors, colors, sugar, bleached flour, and corn syrup that it better regarded as a pretty "art supply" than any kind of "food"]. Kina Grannis on Myspace or kinagrannis.com

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Supreme Court legalizes downloading music

Reuters, AFP, RT.com, Wisdom Quarterly
The United State Supreme Court has refused an appeal that would have made downloading music an infringement of Federal copyright law. Take that, Metallica (AFP/Andre Durao).

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, or ASCAP, had been attempting to appeal to the Supreme Court an earlier ruling by an appeals court in New York that said a downloaded song constituted a public performance of the song under federal copyright law.

Attorneys for ASCAP were fighting to reverse that decision in hopes that they’d be able to collect additional royalties off of songs downloaded from the Web.

ASCAP had insisted that digital downloads were on par with public performances, which would thus allow copyright owners to receive compensation for each download. A federal judge and an appeals court had rejected that argument, however, and now the Supreme Court is also refusing to hear it.

According to the appeals court, “Music is neither recited, rendered, nor played when a recording (electronic or otherwise) is simply delivered to a potential listener.”

US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli agreed with the appeals ruling and that just because a song was transferred over the Internet did not mean that it was being performed, reports Reuters. More

"Actually, Butthead, I'm not into Metallica anymore. They suck ever since that Napster thing!" "Huh huh huh, you said 'suck,' Beavis." "Oh yeah, huh huh huh, huh huh huh, huh huh huh."

Photo from http://www.wall-papers.ru/
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Saturday, October 15, 2011

The People United Will Never Be Defeated

931 "OCCUPY" PROTESTS SPREAD ACROSS PLANET
Songstress Otep Shamaya belts out a loving tribute to Sarah Palin and G.W. Bush in "Rise Rebel Resist"

Protests take violent turn in Rome

First rule of successful demonstrations -- keep them peaceful, even if police want violence. The Occupy Wall Street movement spreads worldwide as tens of thousands march in Europe.

The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine) covers the classic "Stray Bullets" (Are Raining Down). Hear more at Axis of Justice Radio


"The Atomic Cafe" offers a darkly humorous glimpse at mid-century America, an era (unlike our own) full with paranoia, anxiety, and apprehension. Whimsical yet razor-sharp, this classic illuminates the often comic paradoxes of US life in the "Atomic Age" we created while also exhibiting a genuine nostalgia for an earlier and more innocent nation.

Pornography, Homemade
Lisa Ling lives it up in "Our America" -- the new season delves into some of the most challenging, thought-provoking issues in society today. With stories ranging from amateur porn to polygamy, to sex trafficking and PTSD, Ling immerses herself into the lives of everyday Americans. Season premiere is Sunday, Oct. 16, 10:00 pm PST/9:00 pm Central, on OWN.

Comet Elenin debris to pass Earth Sunday

Related link

 What Bill Clinton thinks of Lady Gaga in LA

The former president admits he finds something stunning about the pop princess. Other celebs weigh in


"Iron Man" cyborg being built
News.yahoo.com
This handout video frame grab was provided by the Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). It shows a man controlling a robot arm with his mind. It was taken on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. The mind belongs to quadriplegic research subject Tim Hemmes. He is operating a mechanical prosthetic arm with Katie Schaffer during a testing sessions at a UPMC research facility in Pittsburgh. Hemmes had a chip implanted on the surface of his brain that reads his "intention" to move his paralyzed arm and sends that instruction instead to an advanced bionic arm. The goal is to create mind-controlled prosthetics to restore some independence to the paralyzed (AP/UPMC).


DSK with Tristane Banon (AP/Eric Feferberg, Pool) and with Nafissatou Diallo [Reuters/Todd Heisler/Pool (L) and Shannon Stapleton (R)]

IMF rapes in more way than one, allegedly
IMF says no celebration in Ireland until unemployment falls. Former Int'l Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK) with accusing victims Tristane Banon, the French writer who claims DSK tried to rape her in 2003, looks on prior to a television interview at the TV news broadcast by French TV station TF1, in Boulogne Billancourt, outside Paris, Sept. 29, 2011. DSK met in a face-to-face confrontation with Banon earlier that day as the two were questioned jointly by investigators at a police station in Paris, deciding whether to pursue the case. DSK allegedly also attacked Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault in NYC. The Manhattan DA's office wants to dismiss the charges against DSK.

More
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
Post-genocide Native Americans on Plains hit by poverty (ABC)
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Sunday, September 18, 2011

I Travel Time...with Tori Amos (video)

Wisdom Quarterly
"Caught a Lite Sneeze" with commentary by Tori Amos

It is very difficult to conclusively show whether or not "time travel" is a possibility. It is, however, evident that it is a perceptual alteration of normal consciousness. We all experience it in that way -- time dilation, missing time, the infinite now, Rip Van Winkle-ism, "Time" by Pink Floyd, lucid dreaming, vivid hallucinating, shamanistic "soul" retrieval, fever, NDE, mind expansion, smelling an odor and being shot back in time...

What is time? If we play a cassette tape, enjoy it, then hit "rewind," are we in a sense traveling back in time? No. But to the mind, the heart, the seat of emotions and associations, it might be. Time travel is alleged to be a real phenomenon not yet invented. But those (we) from the future return now because things, in a sense and not to get caught up or sneeze lightly at the paradoxes this implies, have in some ways already happened. And there is a near infinite number of ways they can still happen. The universe is far more startling than we give it credit for. But some, like Tori, already tap into that without the physic, quantum mechanics, or cosmological theories.
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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Body as Direct Path (Against the Stream)

AgainstTheStream.org


Today (September 15) Michael Zittel starts a 6-week series The Body as the Direct Path at the Melrose center in Hollywood, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm. Saturday is an exciting and full day at the Santa Monica center. It starts with Kate Shela's
  • 5 Rhythms Dance class from 10:00 am -11:30 am.
  • Intro to Meditation class follows with Mary Stancavage from 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm. The day ends with The Sangha Social:
  • Mindful Music Strikes Again hosted by George Haas and featuring Rick Coella and Pablo Das -- an evening of formal meditation to live music beginning at 7:30 pm.


Remember Against the Stream: Buddhist Meditation Society's regular line up of classes:
  • Friday Night Dharma Test Kitchen with Pablo Das, 7:30 pm in Santa Monica
  • Saturday Afternoon Sit with Mary Stancavage, 5:00 pm at Melrose
  • Sunday 11:00 am Meditation and Talk with Kevin Bortolin
  • Sunday Evening Just Sit 6:00 pm at Melrose.
Thank You to all who participated in the Sit-A-thon. All money raised supports scholarships to Levine, Ferraro, Das's Joshua Tree retreat next month.
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Friday, September 9, 2011

Burning Man: A Yogi's Perspective

Kurt Johnsen (YogAnonymous.org, Sept. 9, 2011)


First, the most common question: “It’s not a concert, so no one is headlining.”

Second, “No, it’s not a Hippie Fest like a Dead or Phish show.”

So what is it?

This weeklong art event, which creates a temporary city of 50,000 in one of the harshest places on Earth, is an experience. It’s a trip!

For sterile stats on its origins (1996 and on a California beach), see Wikipedia.

The location is one of the most unlikely places to party on the planet, a desert of fine almost wispy white sand. It is three hours outside of Reno, Nevada. Nothing, and I really mean nothing (neither plant nor animal) is there most of the year.

The American Beauty Challenge | You See what you Look For

Then the Burning Man crew comes in, weeks before the event. They lay out a clock-like grid for the temporary city, which partially wraps around a playa of art, a wooden man who stands ready to burn, and a temple that makes me cry each time I enter it. More

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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Klassikal Musik for Kids (video)

Comedy and classical music? Only on KUSC (Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles)



Tiger moms, listen up. A number of years ago, Richard Perlmutter was toying with the idea of creating lyrics set to masterpieces of classical music when one day, while humming Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the phrase "Beethoven's Wig is very big" popped into his head.



"It really resonated with my objectives because the words fit perfectly with the first eight notes of the symphony," recalls Perlmutter. "Besides, the wig is sort of like a mascot for classical music."







After dressing up the entire first movement with lyrics that are charged with "laugh out loud" humor that tickles funny bones of all ages, he turned to works of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, and other musical heavyweights.



Eventually, his muse led him to a studio where he created a groundbreaking recording, backed up by full symphony orchestra and four opera singers.







Perlmutter's first album, "Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies," was released in 2002. Within a week of its debut, he was featured on NPR's All Things Considered, followed by an appearance on NBC's Today Show.



The album shot to the top of Amazon's Bestseller List, holding the #1 position on both the Amazon classical and children's music sales charts for four months. Over the next year, Beethoven's Wig received 15 national awards including a GRAMMY nomination for Best Musical Album for Children. (kmozart.com)



How to Parent (according to Tiger Mom)

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Sold out "Burning Man" begins (watch live)

Madeleine Brand (KPCC)

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada - Economic austerity? Not when it comes to entertaining distractions. More than 50,000 people are converging this week at "Burning Man" for the annual arts festival. It reaches its zenith on Labor Day. Among the attractions are a 15 foot tall Pez Dispenser with a giant yellow chicken head and a giant fire breathing dragon that doubles as a Viking ship.

WATCH LIVE

The festival culminates with the torching of an enormous effigy. For the first time in the festival's 25 year history, tickets are sold out. Scalpers on EBay are charging as much as $800 for tickets [for those afraid to show up and get in for free or for much less], causing some to suggest that capitalistic interests are overshadowing this year's communitarian gathering.

Jessica Bruder joins Madeleine Brand from the desert. Bruder is the author of Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man, writing about the gathering's growing pains for the New York Times.

More







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Britney Spears' Out of Body Experience (video)

Wisdom Quarterly



Get More: 2011 VMA, Music



Britney Spears, while sitting in the front row of the VMAs on Sunday in Los Angeles, had her life-in-music flash before her. Note the shamanistic "mushroom" theme.* Spears was then groped on stage by "Jo Calderone" (aka Lady Gaga), who tried to kiss her. America's sweetheart, the fizzling pop diva, whose latest album is actually her best seller, is getting a boost after years of drugs, ill-advised marriages, and manufactured drama galore. Nun rumors, head shaving, Kevin Federline, it is amazing the world has still not had enough of Brit-Brit. Her beauty, fame, and longevity are no accident. Not only do they make money for many behind the scenes who then protect and promote her public image, but her past life wholesome karma (the Four Bases of Popularity) supports her experience, even as she exhausts her store of merit to no future advantage.

Britney accepts more accolades on stage with manly Lady Gaga (Reuters/dailymail.co.uk)

  • What wholesome actions (kusala karma) is considered the bases of popularity? Generosity, hospitality, kind speech, and impartiality. These are mentioned, but not elaborated, most famously in the Buddha's "Advice to Householders" (Sigalovada Sutra, DN 31).
*Blonde shamans, like the Scandinavian Sami, depend on mushrooms for visions (BBC).

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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Is Katy Perry (Catty Purry) an ET?

Wisdom Quarterly

 See lyrics to "ET" (featuring Kanye West) below.



Are we the only ones to notice what Hollywood namers named Catty Purry? It seems so. But there have been rumors -- we thought them a joke -- that Perry is in fact a human-extraterrestrial hybrid. Feline, reptilian (naga), shapeshifter?



To the extent that some people refuse to acknowledge other life forms throughout the universe and even this very solar system, this will sound incredible. But humans are seeded from the stars. There are many, many alien races. Many have visited, many still do, and many never left.



With sufficient DNA (often referred to as a suitable bloodline) these intelligences are able to take possession of an individual. What better way than through million-selling musicians and overnight popstars?



Lady Gaga, addled by drug abuse and body issues that inspire her to drink, starve, binge, and do hot yoga, might well be in the same boat. There are unseen beings all around. Why would an artist create a hit song glorifying ET-hybridization, miscegenation, human-alien mating?



It is like the "days of old" when the Nephilim (the Judeo-Christian "sons of god" or Buddhist devaputras) created "men of renown" (epic heroes) by mating with the "wives of men" (human females).





LYRICS: Katy Perry's "ET" (feat. Kanye West)



With nine nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) tonight, Katy Perry is set for another milestone in her meteoric rise to fame and a short career that promises to grow longer with each hit. Perry has just become the first female and only the second person (the first being Michael Jackson) to ever derive five number one hits from a single album. Amy Winehouse sleeps, and Lady Gaga shivers in her homemade platforms as Justin Bieber wets his Canadian Toughskins when they see Perry rising on the charts.



Britney Spears rejects a lesbian kiss from Lady Gaga (left) as she accepts the Video Vanguard award at the 2011 MTV VMAs in LA Aug. 28, 2011 (Reuters/Mario Anzuoni).
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Chanting "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" didn't save Amy


Even though she chanted daimoku, she remained addicted, suicidal, and on a self-destructive path. Does that mean daimoku doesn't "work?" That depends what one means by "work." If we think namu-myoho-renge-kyo is a magic phrase that makes us happy and is a get-out-of-death-and-suffering-free card, no, it doesn't "work." Nichiren Buddhism is a life-long practice -- even if our life turns out to be heartbreakingly short. It's not a quick fix or magic cure. More

Just Chant This and That's It?
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
Is it possible that Brahminical-style chants that mimic Sanskrit hymns (gathas) do not have magical power?

The Vedas gave the ancient Indus Valley Civilizations, which Adi Shankara's Hinduism claims as its inheritance, mantras for everything.

These enchantments first focused the minds of seers (rishis) and were then used by brahmins to enhance their temple-bound priesthood that the Buddha (and other spiritual wanderers or shramans) rejected.

But the technique is sound -- repetition that cuts off normal consciousness and gives way to an elevated state. Simply chanting never works anymore than saying "Abracadabra" or "Open Sesame."

But sincere, persistent, and devoted utterance of special sounds is widely accepted as being effective IF it is consistent and in integrity with one's life. Living one way and chanting another is working at odds with one's professed intention. For example, trying to quit drugs while chanting Nichiren Buddhism's hallmark hymn might really help.

But getting high to enhance the elevation brought on by dedicated chanting is only mocking the process. Or, worse, using the chant as a quick shortcut to material riches -- why, IF that worked, who wouldn't do it? Nichiren goes much deeper than a pretty mantra and a cultish appearance.
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