Spotting Spiritual Reality

Sadly, it's easier to spot fakes, charlatans and plain lame-o s than the real thing. Some people I know are hosting a spiritual type guy for a speaking/workshop thingy. I read the blurb about it, and it bothered me.

One big clue for me: He's charging significant $$$ per day. If any of that money goes to him, or to some 'charity' that is actually funding him, to support his lifestyle, that's a big warning bell.

There's an interesting connection between the few spiritual leaders I respect: Y'shua (Jesus), Gautama (called the Buddha), various lesser sages and leaders (Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Junior) etc:

They didn't charge money for helping people.

Consequently, some of them lived very frugal lives. Even Paul (an ex Jewish rabbi who wrote many of the letters in the Second Testament) insisted on working for his living wherever he went, even tho' he acknowledged he had a fair case to be hosted for free.

(Incidentally, Mohammed was always a businessman and later a warrior, and got rich off his first wife. No comment.)

So yeah. Having been around spiritual stuff for most of my life, I am thinking "X and Y, you are lovely people... how have you let yourselves become duped by this guy?"

As another friend pointed out, in practical terms it costs a bit to hire out the venue, but realistically, you can talk to people (which is essentially what he's doing) anywhere.

And that's my thought exactly. There are plenty of little halls and spaces that don't charge much at all. To be honest, why not host him in your living room? That's what the early christians did, they didn't have big, lush, pointless meeting places.

True spirituality doesn't require a beautiful, comfortable, catered conference centre to connect with g0d (or become enlightend, or whatever). Ironically, things like deserts, storms and poverty seem to do a better job. If one MUST have beauty, why not find a friendly farmer, hire a small marquee ($1000) and do it there?

An expensive workshop also means only true believers are likely to be there. This makes it safe for the speaker, because otherwise people like me might stand up and say "BULL****!" ;) But a spirituality that can't stand challenge maybe isn't worth the saffron robe it comes in.

I'm sure the guy is a nice guy. I just don't think he's really "got it". Just a gut feeling.


listenig to Mortal | MuJo (uncertainty mix)

Four Day Work Week

At last i've remembered to check up on how the French are doing since introducing a 35 hour work week. Seems the jury is still out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1859891.stm - note from 2002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek - more critical
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2006/05/the_four_day_wo.html - ideas

increasingly i don't want a five day work week any more. But then there's that money thing.

listening to Coldplay | Talk (Thin White Duke remix) AWESOME!

How Do You Decide Who To Marry?

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? (written by kids)
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You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10
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No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it alway before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with.
-- Kristen, age 10
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WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10
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HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8
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WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8
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WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8
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On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that Usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
-- Craig, age 9
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WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7
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The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
- - Curt, age 7
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The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
-- Howard, age 8
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IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9
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HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
-- Kelvin, age 8
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And the #1 Favorite is........

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
-- Ricky, age 10

Posted on the BLJ forum. Classic!

Getting better slowly, drinking Jack Daniels (yuck! why don't i have vodka in the house?) and taking vitamins. I don't know if I will have the energy to make my 2 DJ commitments tonight. Anyone out there want to massage my achey back?

Stealing Music

I'm still sick, my back still aches. Blah. I'm staying home tonight and sleeping. And 'cos my brain is tired, i'm simply gonna steal this from teh blog of Bassnectar. I totally support what he's saying.

wah wah wah

(cue heartwreching violin strings)

hello!!!!

and thank you for joining us for another episode of YAN CAN COOK!

Today Yan will be divulging a rarest Californian recipe for: how to totally rip off an artist!!!!

ARE YOU READY!!??! ok, lets go!

First, come across a full length version of unreleased music. Mix that up with some excitement.
Next, rip that music to your computer. Mix that up with a few doses of technical savy.
Now toss it in the oven and set to bake.
Remove and put up the music for FREE download on some file sharing programs.
Send links to your friends.
(careful becuase some people will hear about this, and just go do some basic searches on their own, and they too will find it!)

...next, send out some emails telling people about the album being available for FREE.
Mix that up with playing it at parties, and burning it for friends.

And PRESTO!!!! You've potentially ruined someone's career!


So a word to the wise friends, in the age of entitlement and A.D.D., if yu enjoy music, SUPPORT the musicians, go without a lattee for 3 days and save your 15$ for their CD. DONT burn it and DONT download it for free. Dont support people who do, and spread the word.


Its one thing to illegally distribute someone's OLD music, but whoever thought it was cool in any way to post those links up and offer my brand new, unreleased, 3-year-in-the-making record for free, did something VERY wrong. As for the several hundered people who i KNOW downloaded it.

Shame On You in a deep way.


Let me break down the conundrum:

A record label MUST get press to support their release.

Press needs a full copy of the release 3-4 months in advance for adqueate coverage.

Press does NOT want clips or samples, they want the FINAL CD for review.

So when OM RECORDS sent out 400 select copies to press around the world, somehow, somewhere, someone took one of those copies and not only stole it but PUT IT UP FOR FREE DOWNLOAD!!!!!!!!

And the album isnt even out yet.

This kind of action can result in the creative death of an artist.

Let me say this is not about me making money.

I dont want to sell units to cash in, get rich, and sip bichz and roll 'roun inna benz. or whatever.

I want my LABEL to sell units, so that it is worth it for them to invest more time, energy and money into promoting, circulating, distributing and SUPPORTING my art (and the messages inside my art) worldwide.


So by simply buying a CD for yourself, or buying it for a friend, its not "Oh cool, im giving some cash to Lorin, who i like to support"...cuz if that was the case, id be taking donations for personal money.

Its about supporting this dope label OM, which has been working with me doing back breaking work for a year to make this release huge, so that it can be a springboard for the NEXT release, and the one after that, as well as what we are hoping will be a new Bassnectar record label, and lots of other stuff in the works.


PLEASE DONT STEAL MY MUSIC>
PLEASE DONT STEAL OTHER PEOPLE'S MUSIC
PLEASE DONT LET OTHER PEOPLE STEAL MY MUSIC (it hurt so bad to look online and see my own friends had downloaded the cd!)
IF YOU DONT LIKE ME OR MY MUSIC, thats fine, just leave me alone.
IF YOU DO: SUPPORT.

that means if you DO burn someone's CD, and you like it:
find them on myspace, or the web, write them a letter, send them a donation, offer to help the record label with street team or promo when the artist tours, line them up a gig, or USE YOUR OWN ADULT BRAIN to figure out how to support, but dont just go around sucking people's life force.

im serious. i dont wish to preach or bich... i wish to educate first hand so you understand HOW IT FEELS TO BE ME.

well first off, it feels great, i am constantly meditating on things that are going well in life, and loving the spring weather, and feeling soo inspired to do the work i am on this planet to do!
:)
FULLY!

but, i gotta call a spade a spade.

And that goes for DJS, in 2007, putting out mixes digitally or on CD with their name on it, but no tracklisting...come on folks, support.


I would rather not waste precious bandwidth of your attention span on trivial matters like this, when there is so much more going on.

but my career is in jeopardy if people don't support.

And the careers of thousands of mindblowing artists who are alive right now and probably in their studios working, think about them, send them a prayer, and show them your love.

not just now, but from now on.

NOTE: this applies to all artists you like. and anything you like. VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR.
And in reference to file sharing and CD Burning PLEASE dont think i am hypocritically judging anyone.

i mean come on, its 2007, i am realistic. i have burned CDs, i have traded music, etc. On one hand, i feel more justified because i am in the bizness, and i support artists so much. But on the other hand, as i have grown, i have understood how sensitive this issue is, and how fundamentally dangerous it is to creativity (and all that creativity brings: inspiration, emotional health, social change, new thought, empowerment) for piracy to become normal. Not only has is stopped being a personal practice of mine, but i feel obligated to voice this all publicly.


THINK ABOUT IT NEXT TIME YOU DO IT.

You want that music cuz it feels so good.

Well if it feels so good, its probably is good, and its worth your support.

And if you cant afford it, then wait till you can and enjoy it that much more.

Support artists.

Im open for discussion, hit me.

- Lorin

listening to that stupid milkshake song, it's stuck in my head, aaaaagh!

Silly Me

Had a big weekend out ... bed 4:30 Sat am, still somewhat sick, maybe 6 hours sleep. Bed 7am Sun am (after big club night out), not a helluva lot of sleep thanks to flatmate using power tools on the wall outside my bedroom at 11am. It's now 1am Monday. But i had fun! And on nothing but a couple of coffees and the occasional wine... am i hard or what!? Or just stupid.

Yeah, i had GOOD reasons for doing so, insuring i will earn money, didn't really have a better option. Otherwise i woulda' preferred to be in bed. But will be taking it easy the next few days, my horrible horrible cold is much better, ironically.

AND i lost my brand new cellphone tonight. Aaargh! Have blocked it and will get another soon, hopefully. The number will remain the same.

NOFX shut down in Wellington

The promoter emailed me this:

Hi everyone,
I heard about what happened last night in Wellington from my Dynamo peoples plus the NOFX road crew/tour management as I'm currently in Australia.
I wanted to give you guys the facts so you hear it straight from us and not some chinese whispers rumour about what happened at the Wellington NOFX show and why it turned to shit and people were shut out...

We were instructed that Victoria University Student Union Hall had a certain capacity (as per any show we do anywhere) BY Victoria university... This is what I set the ticket allocation @ ticketek to (which sold out), midway through the night the building owner arrived and decided that we had "over-sold the show" (despite there being a whole ton of room at the back of the room). We sold the same amount of tickets as Pennywise did (a little less even), we were instructed as you guys saw on here to release a further 25 door sales on the night... Which didn't happen.

The venue owner after a running battle with us decided she was going to shut the doors on the show and shut us down, we told her that in doing so - it would cause a riot... And sure enough it did.

I want you guys to know that I/we had NOTHING to do with shutting the doors, nor did we do anything wrong in our ticket allocation. We sold out the show to the capacity instructed to us by VUSA, I've busted my balls for nearly 10 years now booking shows often footing the bills out of my own pocket, I'm proud of the reputation that I/we've built in NZ as a legitimate touring destination with trustworthy and honest promoters.

I would hate for someone else's bad calls to affect my reputation and I'm sure that in this case that's probably exactly what will happen.

I can't refund tickets as the agreed capacity and ticket sales related to it have been accounted for, contracted and forwarded to NOFX and the various people involved in booking this tour - nor should I have to do when I have done nothing wrong.

Once again - I apologize to those who were stuck outside and missed the show. If you do want to try and get your ticket refunded I would suggest contacting the VUSA as it was at their end where the capacity was set and at their end where the show was needlessly "shut down".

Please pass this on to the dozens and dozens of pissed off NOFX fans who may not understand what happened and won't read this...

Unfortunately I doubt very much we'll be sending bands the size of NOFX down to Wellington, unless an appropriate venue pops up which sucks for all of us.

- Dave McDermott
Dynamo Promotions guy

listening to White and Dean | Out of Knowwhere