SWEET SIXTEEN: Issue #16 of The Manifest is now available online. Do check it out. There are four new articles, as well as newly displayed visual art. (And check out Hannah's excellent review of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, though I'm a bit partial, natch.)
It is issue number one with me as Managing Editor, for which I proudly accepted Editor-in-Chief Paul Salamone's invitation. It is an honor to be affiliated with such an exciting and vital publication, the horizons of which lay open and resonant. We like to joke that TM is sort of like 'The Onion for meditators'. We would have our work cut out for us if we truly aimed for that level of humor; fortunately we are not, since if one is looking for The Onion, it is thankfully not hard to find.
Of course, stupid humor is part of everyday life, and thus ripe material for TM. Sarcasm is also part of everyday life, and thus part of TM. Vibrant sexuality is part of life, as are death, politics, art, technology, ecology, and the Divine. TM aims to explore all of that, and much more, in accessible and friendly ways that nonetheless are not bound by the endless irony of much of the contemporary publishing world's attempts to be 'cool' & 'hip.' While we don't want to puff our own chests needlessly, TM can simply lay claim to be an integrally-informed magazine for the Good, the Beautiful, the True, and the Funky.
So come on board to this Love Boat; we set off for a new cruise every week. Reservations are not only available, but also open-ended.
Come Aboard. We're expecting you. Love, life's sweetest reward. Let it flow, it floats back to you.
If the process of creating electronic music produces few fine violinists, it nevertheless engenders a new awareness of the nature of sound and of our responses to it. In each new experiment, the dynamic between life and its musical reflections is held up to scrutiny. Through new lenses we understand the sky in a new way. In different mirrors we look different. Music with new boundaries makes us hear ourselves anew. (Allaudin Mathieu, from The Musical Life)
THANKS FOR THE PATIENCE: For the last couple of weeks I've been underground while I write papers for the Integral University Art Domain, as well as midwife the creation of a staff blog at The Manifest called ... The Drinking Hole. Check it out, we are having a ball!
This is a truly beautiful time to be part of the integral scene, because projects long in the works are starting to poke above water. And not one by one, but simultaneously. As always, it goes: Day Zero - nothing; Day One - a world.
FANTASIA FOR WINE GLASSES: That is the name of a new sound project. Three members of the Chicago Salon of Integral Artists (ICHI-Art), Hannah, Mark Raterman, and myself, recently convened to manifest this project. Sufficed to say, we got clinky.
The Fantasia for Wine Glasses project aims to incorporate meditation towards the growth of 'group mind,' and then reflect that emerging consciousness as 'sound feeling' via wine glasses. Each person has two glasses, one in each hand. We sit in a circle, each of us on pillows, and with a omnidirectional microphone in the middle. I audio-record the various aural reflections that crystallize after various styles of group meditation (silent, singing, and toasting w/ wine). The clinky interactions are on one hand directed (using various agreed-upon improvisational games) and flowing (using a free fantasia style).
The project aim is three-fold: To provide a means for personal creative outlet, an exploration of collective process, as well as a polished product that can stand alone as a recorded artifact without the need for extended explanation. Our initial meeting, I am happy to say, was successful and enriching. After the clink session was complete, we reflected upon the energies that emerged. We have agreed to reconvene.
KEN WILBER AT BELIEFNET.COM: Ken's column on Integral Spirituality has been posted. It will be a regular feature of Beliefnet.com, which is a very good website that covers a all major religious and spiritual traditions, at least in part. The kosmic quote:
[C]onsider where we are in today’s modern and postmodern world. We have, for the first time in history, easy access to all of the world’s great religions. Examine the many great traditions—from Christianity to Buddhism, Islam to Taoism, Paganism to Neoplatonism—and you are struck by two items: there are an enormous number of differences between them, and a handful of striking similarities.
When you find a few essential items that all, or virtually all, of the world’s great religions agree on, you have probably found something incredibly important about the human condition...
CALIFONE: That is the name of this wicked indie band from Chicago. Hannah and I caught their show last night. They are perhaps best considered an electrified impressionistic pulsing folk group; a jamband without the excess (or virtuoustic talent on their instruments, which here is actually quite effective for the music). This is an interview that the group's leader gave to the Chicago Sun-Times. If you find their new album, Heron King Blues, do pick it up, because it is great music.
ART AS GNOSIS: That is the title of my new article for The Manifest, which published its new issue yesterday. What are ways he can enhance our awareness of the artistic act, as interpreters and as artists? Ananda Coomaraswamy, acknowledged expert in traditional world art, has some good things to say. Read the article.
MARCH ICHI-ART UPDATE: Here is the brieft intra-salon March memo I sent to the Chicago cats.
Mark and I had an impromptu mini itchy last night on the street outside his apt. We riffed about several things directly pertinent to the salon.
One is incorporating meditation a bit more, then doing some collaborative creativity exercises after meditating. We called it an evening to "Release Your Inner Bobby McFerrin". Hitting your body, vocal improvisation, random flutes, the floor, etc...
He agreed to my invitation to work with Hannah and me on a sound experiment I'm leading, which I'm calling Fantasia for Wine Glasses. We meditate, then I facilitate various short compositions where the three of us use wine glasses to get clinky. If our three-person experiment goes well, Erik and Rommel, would you like to participate in the next one?
Also, Stuart Davis plays Uncommon Ground next Thursday. M, H, and I plan to go to at least one of the sets.
We also talked about perhaps doing a Frank Lloyd Wright architecture tour later this Spring, as well as taking in some of the more breathtaking cathedrals and sacred buildings in town.
M wants to show us several of the short films he participated in; he is waiting on their transfer to video.
I'm game to meet the week after Stuart's gig. Maybe at either E's, R's, or M/H's pad...
THOUGHTS OF THE DAY: Art that depicts the essence of who we were can be beautiful. Same goes for art that depicts the essence of who we currently are, as humans. What about art that depicts the essence of who we can become? Is there something scary about treading down that path? If there is something to fear, then I say that is exactly where we need to go. Humans need something to guide us through the dead ends of personal and social confusion. In addition to those artistic road signs having in possession qualities of the Good and True, they are simply going to have to also have the quality of Beautiful. We have a moral duty not only to all sentient beings living today, but to all sentient beings who forged into consciousness ahead of us, to light the way. They carved the banks of the river so that we can ride the streams that flow again to the Sea.
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