Spalding Gray: Swimming to Cambodia (video)

WritersBlocPresents.com, Laemmle Theatres, Wisdom Quarterly

"I hadn't had a perfect moment yet. And it's very important for me to have perfect moments in exotic countries like that... It kind of lets you know when it's time to go home..."

"Look, I got a vision of myself by now as a kind of wandering bachelor mendicant poet, wandering all the way down the beaches of Malaysia eating magic mushrooms all the way as I went until I reach Bali and evaporate in a state of ecstasy in the sunset!"

"But I wasn't telling Renee that. But she could see that my will, or what was left of it, was beginning to vacillate.

"And we fell into a fight on the way to the party in the Gulf of Siam. And we were fighting all the way, and we got there, to the Gulf of Siam, and it was exquisite, you know?

Gulf of Siam (Thailand)

"Unlike The Hamptons, where you have a boat, and a bigger boat, and then a ship, and a bigger ship, and desire, and the carrot, and the carrot, and the carrot, and desire, and desire, and desire, and desire.

"There was nothing to buy out there in the Gulf of Siam. I mean it was like one big piece of calendar art.

"I just said, 'Look, look, look, Renee, look at this beautiful sunset!'

"...I might be able to have a perfect moment right now."

Part 1 (iamtheuseless1)

Spalding Gray's "Talking Cure" is not only one of the best one-man performances but actually one of the best films ever. "Swimming to Cambodia" is a Jonathan Demme-directed performance film (before "Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia" but after "Stop Making Sense"). The film is a performance of Gray's monologue ("Talking Cure") which centers around themes like his trip to Southeast Asia to create the role of the U.S. Ambassador's aide in "The Killing Fields" and his search for a perfect moment.

"Swimming to Cambodia" was originally a theatre piece on which Gray worked for two years, and it won him an Obie award. The opening shots depict Gray walking toward The Performing Garage in New York. He goes in, walks past the audience, and takes his seat behind a table. On the table is a glass of water, a microphone, and a notebook. Behind him are two pull down maps. One is a map of Southeast Asia and the other is a diagram of the bombing of Cambodia, which Gray tells the viewers was called Operation Menu.

Spalding Rockwell Gray (1941-2004) was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist, and monologist. He was primarily known for his "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania." Gray achieved notoriety for writing and acting in the play, which was adapted into a film.

• Tribute to Spalding Gray with Nell Casey...
• Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, 7:30 pm
• Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset, WeHo

How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly

World renown mycologist and botanist Paul Stamets (Fungi Perfecti at fungi.com) is interviewed on his book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, what mushrooms have and continue to mean to the world.

Last Days of the Buddha
Sister Vajira and Francis Story, translators (DN 16)
1. Thus have I heard....
56. Then the Buddha spoke to Ven. Ananda, saying: "It may come to pass, Ananda, that someone will cause remorse to Cunda the metalworker [who accidentally fed the Buddha poisonous mushrooms* and brought about his "final passing," parinirvana, after he had earlier relinquished the will to carry on after having accomplished all of his goals], saying:

• Life of the Buddha in Pictures
  

"'It is no gain to you, friend Cunda, but a loss, that it was from you the Tathagata took his last alms meal, and then came to his end.' Then, Ananda, the remorse of Cunda should be dispelled after this manner:

"'It is a gain to you, friend Cunda, a blessing that the Tathagata took his last alms meal from you, and then came to his end. For, friend, face to face with the Blessed One I have heard and learned:

"There are two offerings of food which are of equal fruition, of equal outcome, exceeding in grandeur the fruition and result of any other offerings of food. Which two? The one partaken of by the Tathagata before becoming fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme enlightenment, and the one partaken of by the Tathagata before passing into the state of nirvana in which no element of clinging remains. By his deed the worthy Cunda has accumulated merit which makes for long life, beauty, well being, glory, heavenly rebirth, and sovereignty."'

Thus, Ananda, the remorse of Cunda the metalworker should be dispelled."

57. Then the Buddha, understanding that matter, breathed forth the solemn utterance:

Who gives, his virtues shall increase;
Who is self-curbed, no hatred bears;
Whoso is skilled in virtue, harm shuns,
And by the rooting out of lust and hate
And all delusion, comes to be at peace.

Mushrooms?
*NOTE: Sukara-maddava: a controversial term which has therefore been left untranslated. Sukara = pig; maddava = soft, tender, delicate. Hence two alternative renderings of the compound are possible: (1) the tender parts of a pig or boar; (2) what is enjoyed by pigs and boars.

In the latter meaning, the term has been thought to refer to a mushroom or truffle, or a yam or tuber. K.E. Neumann, in the preface to his German translation of the Middle-Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikaya), quotes from an Indian compendium of medicinal plants, the Rajanigantu, several plants beginning with sukara.

The ancient commentary to this text gives three alternative explanations:

1. the flesh from a single first-born (wild) pig, neither too young nor too old, which had come to hand naturally, that is, without being intentionally killed;
   
2. a preparation of soft boiled rice cooked with the five dairy-products;
3. a kind of alchemical elixir (rasayanavidhi). Dhammapala, in his commentary to Udana VIII.5, gives, in addition, young bamboo shoots trampled by pigs (sukarehi maddita-vamsakaliro). More