Hank's Blog
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Saturday, August 30, 2003
Friday, August 29, 2003
The reconstruction of Iraq is held above our heads like a promise and a threat. People roll their eyes at reconstruction because they know (Iraqis are wily) that these dubious reconstruction projects are going to plunge the country into a national debt only comparable to that of America. A few already rich contractors are going to get richer, Iraqi workers are going to be given a pittance and the unemployed Iraqi public can stand on the sidelines and look at the glamorous buildings being built by foreign companies. - from Baghdad Burning
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion out of Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents. - Atrios
A new tune for our studio page... Quizomba, by Magali... Jorge proves that, given enough tracks, he can be a one-man samba school. Also updated the mix on Mentiras.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Mazz Swift every Wednesday at Paddy Reilly's Music Bar on 29th and 2nd Ave.
Forro in the Dark's shows at NUBLU.
Forro in the Dark's shows at NUBLU.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Monday, August 18, 2003
If you can't laugh at yourself, try laughing at someone else... The Star Wars Kid has helped me find a new love for my own inner dork nature.
Succeeding by Failure, the CEO Way
Since the beginning of the new century, over 570 public companies - including most famously Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom and Kmart - have declared bankruptcy. 2.7 million Americans have lost their jobs. Nearly $9 trillion in market value has been lost on Wall Street. But while the average American has suffered staggering losses in 401(k) and pension value, and many have struggled to stay afloat, the average CEO has added millions to his personal wealth. In corporate America, apparently, nothing succeeds like utter failure. At Enron, after tens of billions of dollars vanished - including $1 billion in employees' pension funds - and over 4,000 employees had been laid off, Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay strolled out the door with over $100 million. In his last three years at Tyco, Dennis Kozlowski received $466.7 million in salary, bonuses, and perks. He did such a bang-up job that, since the summer of 2001, Tyco has closed or consolidated 300 plants and laid off 11,000 workers. Since 1999, Bernie Ebbers - who claims he didn't understand that WorldCom was defrauding investors of $7 billion - received over $44 million in pay. When Ebbers resigned in April 2002, his severance package promised him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life, and the use of the WorldCom jet for 30 hours a year. And medical benefits. And life insurance. And a desktop computer...
- from Arianna Huffington's "Pigs at the Trough"
Since the beginning of the new century, over 570 public companies - including most famously Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom and Kmart - have declared bankruptcy. 2.7 million Americans have lost their jobs. Nearly $9 trillion in market value has been lost on Wall Street. But while the average American has suffered staggering losses in 401(k) and pension value, and many have struggled to stay afloat, the average CEO has added millions to his personal wealth. In corporate America, apparently, nothing succeeds like utter failure. At Enron, after tens of billions of dollars vanished - including $1 billion in employees' pension funds - and over 4,000 employees had been laid off, Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay strolled out the door with over $100 million. In his last three years at Tyco, Dennis Kozlowski received $466.7 million in salary, bonuses, and perks. He did such a bang-up job that, since the summer of 2001, Tyco has closed or consolidated 300 plants and laid off 11,000 workers. Since 1999, Bernie Ebbers - who claims he didn't understand that WorldCom was defrauding investors of $7 billion - received over $44 million in pay. When Ebbers resigned in April 2002, his severance package promised him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life, and the use of the WorldCom jet for 30 hours a year. And medical benefits. And life insurance. And a desktop computer...
- from Arianna Huffington's "Pigs at the Trough"
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Pema Chodron:
No one else knows what it takes for another person to open the door. For some people, speaking out is opening the door a little wider; for other people, being still is opening the door a little wider. It all has to do with what your ancient habitual reaction is to being in a tight spot and what is going to soften the whole thing and cause you to have a change of attitude.
- Be Grateful to Everyone, from Start Where You Are
No one else knows what it takes for another person to open the door. For some people, speaking out is opening the door a little wider; for other people, being still is opening the door a little wider. It all has to do with what your ancient habitual reaction is to being in a tight spot and what is going to soften the whole thing and cause you to have a change of attitude.
- Be Grateful to Everyone, from Start Where You Are
Monday, August 11, 2003
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Wallace Black Elk:
The word "tradition" causes separation. "That is your way." "This is my way." It separates us. The Spirit doesn't talk that way. For what I described in my talk here today [contrasting a world view in harmony with nature to a materialistic world view], you have to listen, and not try and twist it into "my way," "your way," "their way." That separates us.
So we really have to understand what we say. It's good to ask the Spirit. We bring our agenda back to the Spirit, and let the Spirit interpret for us and set our minds straight, so we won't be separate.
- from a Wallace Black Elk interview on Men's Web
The word "tradition" causes separation. "That is your way." "This is my way." It separates us. The Spirit doesn't talk that way. For what I described in my talk here today [contrasting a world view in harmony with nature to a materialistic world view], you have to listen, and not try and twist it into "my way," "your way," "their way." That separates us.
So we really have to understand what we say. It's good to ask the Spirit. We bring our agenda back to the Spirit, and let the Spirit interpret for us and set our minds straight, so we won't be separate.
- from a Wallace Black Elk interview on Men's Web
A voyage on a cloudy day to The Abstract Ranch to view an Idea...
the Staten Island Ferry has a close call with a very big boat...
The Abstract Ranch.
Saturday, August 09, 2003
Well, then there's The Duel ...
On tulpas:
... you could visualize something so clearly that what you were visualizing would actually become an experienced reality for other people. And that is what a tulpa is.
A tulpa, in Hinduism, is considered one of the siddhis, or spiritual powers, that people accidentally develop when they are deeply immersing themselves in intense, long-term spiritual practice. Hindus believe that these siddhis (powers) are real, but that they should be ignored and not played with. Siddhis can be dangerous in that they are tempting and can distract the spiritual seeker away from what he or she should be devoting their attention to, namely the development of the spiritual life. ...
In any case, that's what a tulpa is. It is a reality made up only of thought-stuff, not physical stuff, though it may feel as if it has all the substantiality of physical stuff. In this way a tulpa is much like a dream: it is created out of thought-stuff but appears and feels as if it were made of physical stuff.
And, according to the Hindu tradition, the entire physical universe is a kind of tulpa. It is real, but it has only the kind of reality that a dream has. According to Hinduism, this universe-tulpa is created for us by Brahman, who is the true substantial Ground of the universe. (Or another way to say the same thing, the universe-tulpa is created by Atman, our truest, deepest real Self, that Self which is the same Self as all the apparent separate selves, and is itself ultimately identical with Brahman.)
... you could visualize something so clearly that what you were visualizing would actually become an experienced reality for other people. And that is what a tulpa is.
A tulpa, in Hinduism, is considered one of the siddhis, or spiritual powers, that people accidentally develop when they are deeply immersing themselves in intense, long-term spiritual practice. Hindus believe that these siddhis (powers) are real, but that they should be ignored and not played with. Siddhis can be dangerous in that they are tempting and can distract the spiritual seeker away from what he or she should be devoting their attention to, namely the development of the spiritual life. ...
In any case, that's what a tulpa is. It is a reality made up only of thought-stuff, not physical stuff, though it may feel as if it has all the substantiality of physical stuff. In this way a tulpa is much like a dream: it is created out of thought-stuff but appears and feels as if it were made of physical stuff.
And, according to the Hindu tradition, the entire physical universe is a kind of tulpa. It is real, but it has only the kind of reality that a dream has. According to Hinduism, this universe-tulpa is created for us by Brahman, who is the true substantial Ground of the universe. (Or another way to say the same thing, the universe-tulpa is created by Atman, our truest, deepest real Self, that Self which is the same Self as all the apparent separate selves, and is itself ultimately identical with Brahman.)
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
"This is a new era of composing, survival minimalism and guerilla telepathic improvisational warfare... there's some shit out there that will return our call, if we bug it enough..." - Po Gyzer see the mcps low budget web site
This expert Flash animator shows his insight on what goes on in the fishies mind from inside the tank...
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
my friend Evann's film about Hula in America on PBS tonight.
Monday, August 04, 2003
Saturday, August 02, 2003
"You think about yourself too much and that gives you a strange fatigue that makes you shut off the world around you and cling to your arguments. A light and amenable disposition is needed in order to withstand the impact and the strangeness of the knowledge I am teaching you. Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy, and vain. To be a man of knowledge one needs to be light and fluid." - from "A Separate Reality" - more where this comes from:
http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/
http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/
well, there's always DeadRat!
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Majo No Takkyubin... another one of the great Hayao Miyazaki's anime films seen tonight. "Spirited Away" is still my favorite... Kiki is a young witch who goes through a crisis, thinking she has lost her magic. Love saves the day.
Friday, August 01, 2003
I learned today that I have a very pointy head. I had a very hard time balancing a block on my head. I am a Conehead. Saw a movie at Anthology Film Archives called "Denying Brazil", about the struggle of black actors in the brazilian television industry. Made me think of the infamous Dubya gaffe: "Do you have blacks too?"
I've updated our Orixas project page, put some MP3s up on the site. It's a work in progress, and the mixes are ROUGH :)
I've updated our Orixas project page, put some MP3s up on the site. It's a work in progress, and the mixes are ROUGH :)
