My girlfriend and I were miserable in
samsara. She was at the University of Hawaii and more miserable than I, asking: "When will the suffering end?" "We'll go East in search of enlightenment," I would answer. "You better finish school first and body surf more. Or we can go to a concert?"
In the meantime, we soothed ourselves with the idea of starting a
wholesome grindcore band. I look Tibetan (like
Gomo Tulku), and she is Scandinavian (like
Alissa White-Gluz), and we were vegans. (I still am).
With our crazy mops, we were either going to be called Zen Zero or Decorticated Disenchanted Strands (DDS), because we wanted to cut our long sun kissed hair down to the skin with revulsion or grow very long
yogi dreadlocks like the guys in Carcass (
see below).
Devi and dragon (angel and
titan), we would jointly sing the lyrics she wrote in a special notebook in class along the lines of Carcass (classic British
vegan grindcore) coroner jargon,
girl bands, Cannibal Corpse (a comedic, carnivorous American band made famous by their appearance in
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective), Cradle of Filth (dark British death metal), Dimmu Borgir (reptilian Norwegian black metal and our first concert experience), Deicide (darker American metal), Kittie, Dead Kennedys (San Francisco punk rock), and smaller wannabee bands of ALL kinds in Los Angeles.
If Carcass and
other vegans could sing that meat eating is as gross as cannibalism with no one noticing, surely we could certainly extol the Dharma without anyone caring. And we'd feel good about it.
There's a way to rage at the universe with themes of disgust,
dukkha, mindfulness of death, craving for liberation from
samsara, and corporeality in general. Dress Goth, date around, and have music soothe the savage breast.
Sometimes renunciation grows to a fever pitch and becomes aversion (
dosa) wanting nothing more than magical powers (
abhinna) and enlightening everyone that things are empty and repulsive.
Female death metal singing lessons (Angela Gossow)
Carcass taught us that things "reek of putrefaction" in a "jigsaw quandary," and it seemed so Buddhist/tantric/yogic to cover their song "Carneous Cacoffiny." That's a song from their hyperintelligent album
/medical tome "Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious." We had a really good sense of humor back then. I guess I was a bad influence on her. But she won complete freedom, so it all worked out. And they were her lyrics after all.
CARCASS: Sometimes it's fun to scream Zen-style.
Carneous CacoffinyCarcass...Striking up my discordant undertureA carnal cacophony perversely pennedTransposed...and decomposed...But don't hold your breathAs you wait for your god or the voidOr the abyss of nothingnessYour usefulness isn't throughYour productivity I resume...My sordid, soiled handicraftsWill be your afterlife's handicap....My corrupt crescendos...Will leave you out on a limbo...Your disposition I unleash...You will rest in my piece...With deadly dynamicsYou're dead, buried, and barredYour remains dampened and fingeredYour mortal coil is barbedThe death-bells are peelingRinging out as you flakeShrieking out their recitalsA celebration of your wake...Enter my funerealityMy world two meters underA curious habitatYour muddy trench I plunderPass on to etherealityChurned out under the sextant's bladeYou live your life in wretchednessAnd death is no escapeAnd death is no escapeAnd death is no escape
The Zen of Screaming (Melissa Cross)
Burning Man from 373 miles above Earth: A European space satellite took photos of the 2011 Burning Man [Labor Day week] festival in the Nevada desert.
(englishrussia.com)
