I'm gonna make this short because I'm just about to rehearse...

"The
sharing of self joins me to the human race and brings me closer
to God..." - anonymous

As Americans we are in the middle of reflecting back on a great culture but we are currently uninvolved in the forward moving culture we used to be. 

With rare exceptions I doubt that I'll ever pay for recorded music again. Not because I don't want to but because we don't have to. 

The following is an excerpt from The Power Of Now (p. 189) by Eckhart Tolle:

"The ego believes that through negativity it can manipulate reality and get what it wants. It believes that through it, it can attract a desirable condition or dissolve an undesirable one. A Course In Miracles rightly points that, whenever you are unhappy, there is the unconscious belief that the unhappiness "buys" you what you want. If "you"-the mind-did not believe that unhappiness works, why would you create it? The fact is, of course, that negativity does not work. Instead of attracting a desirable condition, it stops it from arising. Instead of dissolving an undesirable one, it keeps it in place. Its only "useful" function is that it strengthens the ego, and that is why the ego loves it."

And from page 191: "When you have reached a certain degree of presence, you don't need negativity anymore to tell you what is needed in your life situation. But as long as negativity is there, use it. Use it as a kind of signal that reminds you to be more present."

I have operated from a place of negativity for a very long time. Almost ever since I started recording music.

I attached my self-esteem to my abilities as motivation to make me write and record things the way that I thought they should be. Its very effective but it can make you pretty miserable at times. And just like A Course In Miracles says I knew I was "buying" it and I thought it was worth it to do it that way.

I have a note from Eckhart's and Oprah's podcast for A New Earth and it says to ask yourself what you're relationship is with the present moment and are you making an enemy out of it? I've made peace with alot of moments since then. He also says later that acceptance does not mean approval. It is an acknowledgment of what is happening in that moment and without negativity or judgement I can choose what my action will be.

When I combine that thought with the first paragraph that I quoted here it really makes me question how I've been going about things.

Impatience is one of the things that he also identifies as being negative and it makes me look at how many things I do just wishing that they could be over so that I can get to do something that I enjoy and I'm so tired of living that way.

I notice it mostly in my workouts. I'm ready to be done before I even get to the gym. But I've also noticed how much more I peaceful I feel when I don't rush thru things. And I'm really trying to pay attention to my need for that.

When I'm writing sucky lyrics I don't have to think that "I suck" i just have to realize that the right ones are on their way but I'll have to do some more work before they show up.

i remember one time I was doing a photo shoot with a band that I was in and we needed to get the photos shot THAT day. We're outside and it starts raining. We had gotten some work done but we really were far from being finished and the photographer remarked, "Bummer, I guess that's that..." And thought he meant we were done because he was really into having the natural light and inside myself I'm thinking, "Fuck you. We've got to get these photos DONE". And for a moment I was upset but that wasn't what he meant. He suggested that we go back to his place and finish them inside.

And I realize now that I didn't have to feel the way I did. Even if he had said that we were done for the day because he didn't want to shoot these without natural light there would have been a way to not embrace negativity and talk about other options because of our schedule.

In fact as an alcoholic I'm told in AA over and over again that anger is a luxury I can't afford because it's something that has been a trigger to many an alcoholic and I kinda like that being my "excuse"... I'm not supposed to get angry because it's life threatening to me.

Sometimes something bad happens and you think its a really negative thing but something really great comes out of it and visa versa. And everything's temporary anyway.

Essentially that if we embrace the present moment in acknowledgment of what "is" without judgement and negativity then we are embracing Life and that the decisions that we make from that place are supported by Life which has no opposite.

This is some video I found of Eckhart Tolle. Not sure when it was filmed but apparently New Earth was out because he's identified as being its author.

This dude is fucking awesome because he's keeping it real. If you'll notice he's with the congregation of Unity Village... in their "sanctuary", at least that's what we call them down south, and there ain't exactly alot of people there for someone that is either about to be on Oprah or has been on Oprah.

I like Eckhart for what he has to say and the fact that he doesn't seem to cater to anyone. He's obviously found something very meaningful to him and he wants to share it, point it out and not have it diluted.

Anyway I've listened to him talk quite a bit on Oprah's podcasts and I'm almost thru the The Power of Now and he stays on message. For example he'll be talking about New Earth but it pretty much sounds like a chapter out of The Power of Now.

The last thought I'm having and the actual thing that got me to write this blog is 1. Some synonyms for "spiritual" are "nonmaterial, incorporeal, intangible". According to physics we're actually more *nothing* than we are *something* We are technically present with more intangible space than tangible. I kinda look at it the same way as I did the first time I found out that my body weight was actually more water than anything else. Like I didn't *feel* wet but I'm wet...

Numero 2 is just a theory that our solar system is like a large atom (relative to us) inside a larger particle which is inside *something* of which i have no idea. I've been thinking this for years. Is it any accident that the atomic particles we see orbit each other and that our planet is orbiting the sun?

There are tiny mites that live in our eyelashes. We don't notice them nor do we feel them but we know that they are there. I'm wondering if our place in the universe is any different...

I have to say something about Street Sweeper; Tom Morello's new band.

To do that I'll begin with saying something about Audioslave. I remember reading interviews with Morello where he would compare the speed with which his new band and previous band would complete the songwriting process.

In Rage Against The Machine they would give tracks of material to Zack De La Rocha which he would finish about a year later AND that with Cornell they'd finished close to 2 albums worth of material right out of the shoot. I'm guessing he's talking about a few months.

All I can say is... you can hear the difference. Not in the 1st Audioslave album, which is fucking off the charts amazing, but in the 2 subsequent releases.

The latter 2 efforts from Audioslave, while containing some spectacular tracks, were incredibly uneven and nothing lived up to that first album.

You can hear the difference in material that percolates and stuff that doesn't. RATM percolates. Audioslave doesn't. And I'm assuming that with a tour starting in less than 24 hrs and no album released yet Street Sweeper doesn't exactly percolate.

In a few thousand years there will only be a handful of bands that defined the 20th century. I won't make that list here but I'd be painfully surprised if Rage Against The Machine isn't one of them.

Here's the deal and what I can only guess was the bane of De La Rocha's existence whilst writing. When the riff in a song LITERALLY repeats 50x then there is NOTHING that stands between you and the audience. You have got to be so goddamned interesting that it isn't funny. The performance and content has to be so charged and the rhythms and variations to the rapping have to be such that people are hanging on your every word.

Admittedly *some* of the pressure is relieved because Tom Morello is beside you...*reinventing* rock guitar along the way. So that helps; ALOT. And this is help that Boots Riley ain't gonna get.

I've listened thru some of the Street Sweeper songs; they sound like outtakes from a RATM album. Or demos with instructions like, "Here's the riff and a dude rapping over it... and so and so will do some cool guitar stuff but that isn't on there yet..."

People care because it's Tom Morello and Boots Riley not because of the music.

And because I'm a fan of both Tom's activism and artistry I'm listening. But really it's a disappointment and it gets listened to more out of necessity to hear something new than because its amazing.

I'm all for staying busy but for god's sake can't we be a little more picky like Zack?

And just to bring it all full circle I think it's funny that Trent Reznor, who put on one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life and continues to be an inspiration professionally and personally, would talk about how embarrassing Chris Cornell's solo project is and then take Street Sweeper out on the road with him.

In their defense Street Sweeper has to exist. Or some project for these guys to be involved in because they like to play and stay busy. I use words like, "play" and "busy" because I don't hear alot of creativity in either the guitar-ing or the rapping. Boots may have some interesting things to talk about but I'm not going to care if his rapping doesn't have an interesting style.

And what would I do if I could take my new band out on the road to open for Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction? Well, it'd be a fucking dream come true. I'd be going and I'd be excited as shit and I would think I was God's gift to the music universe.

But seriously will somebody paint "Street Sweeper" on the side of a dead horse being beaten and send it to Reznor and Morello? That what it sounds like...