Ziggy Stardust and the Ace of Spades

LemmyBowieI’m not sure when I first heard David Bowie, but I became a fan when he put out the Scary Monsters album. Ironically, that was the last album of his I ever really cared much about. The stuff he put out after that wasn’t bad — well, other than “Modern Love,” yuck! It just didn’t have much meaning for me. Instead, I dug back into his past from there.

Bowie wasn’t punk, but he was important to the punks. He was one of a handful of pre-punk artists who you could still get away with admitting you liked when the punk rock rejection of everything that had come before was in full swing. After all, he’d known that Iggy was cool before anyone else.

Bowie wasn’t gay. You don’t marry Iman if you’re gay. But he made it OK to be gay. He took a lot of shit for wearing dresses in public and dropping hints that he might be gay at a time when such a stance could get you killed. That was brave and it was important.

Just a few days before we lost David Bowie, we also lost Lemmy Kilminster of Motorhead. I’m grateful to have gotten to see Motorhead once in concert, a show in Austin a couple/few years ago.

Like Bowie, Motorhead was one of the few pre-punk bands you could still admit to liking when the punks hated everything that wasn’t punk. An Akron/Cleveland hardcore band called Agitated used to play Ace of Spades. I subbed as their bass player when the band reunited in 2005 and their original bassist refused to perform.

Lemmy and Bowie were alike in that they didn’t fear the future. So many others of their generation either were scared by punk or made really pathetic attempts at aping whatever they thought punk was (remember Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”? The Chipmunks and the Pink Panther understood punk better.) As I got older that was important to me as a lesson that you didn’t need to get completely out of touch as fashions changed and new generations came of age.

For a long time Lemmy hung out at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Boulevard playing video games. I’ve never been to the Rainbow and always figured one day I’d stop in and see if Lemmy was there. I probably wouldn’t have said anything to him. It’d have just been cool to see him there. I never did that and I regret it now.

I’ll just leave it at that. There are better eulogies than these for both men. I just felt like writing a few of my own memories. Thanks for listening.

Maybe we’ll sing “Space Oddity” together after zazen tonight at 8pm in Silver Lake (see info below).

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Our Saturday morning zazen in Culver City now starts at 10:00 am!

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Check out my podcast with Pirooz Kaleyah, ONCE AGAIN ZEN!

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UPCOMING EVENTS

January 17, 2016 11:00am Los Angeles Against the Stream 4300 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029

February 3, 2016 Ventura, California Ventura College

March 5, 2016 Austin, Texas Austin Zen Center

April 22, 2016 New York, New York Interdependence Project

April 23, 2016 Long Island, New York Molloy College “Spring Awakening 2016”

October 23-28, 2016 Benediktushof Meditation Centrum (near Würzburg, Germany) 5-Day Retreat

ONGOING EVENTS

Every Monday at 8pm there’s zazen at Silverlake Yoga Studio 2 located at 2810 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90039. Beginners only!

Every Saturday at 10:00 am (NEW TIME!) there’s zazen at the Veteran’s Memorial Complex located at 4117 Overland Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230. Beginners only!

Plenty more info is available on the Dogen Sangha Los Angeles website, dsla.info

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Your donations to this blog are still important, especially after what I spent on my so-called “holidays.” I won’t get any of the Angel City Zen Center fundraiser money. I appreciate your on-going support!

94 Responses

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  1. zacharythax
    zacharythax January 11, 2016 at 11:20 am |

    I must admit it’s been a pretty tearful day. I first saw Bowie on SNL when he did “The Man Who Sold the World” with Klaus Nomi and it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. I wore out ZIGGY STARDUST, ALADDIN SANE, HUNKY DORY, and DIAMOND DOGS all through college and especially the albums he produced for Iggy LUST FOR LIFE and THE IDIOT.

    Can’t think of anything else to do when a great musician dies but try to carry the torch.

    1. Mumbles
      Mumbles January 11, 2016 at 4:32 pm |

      A tearful day, indeed.

      Sounds like we led parallel Bowie listening lives back in the day…I was lucky to catch him on tour in 1978… -he released a great live double album from that tour titled STAGE-….and saw Iggy many, many times over the years…Have you checked out this old blog?

      http://idiotlust.blogspot.com/

      Tons of good info on my favorite album of all time, THE IDIOT, Bowie’s LOW & more…
      Condolences zacharythax

  2. Fred
    Fred January 11, 2016 at 11:58 am |

    “Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
    We know Major Tom’s a junkie
    Strung out in heaven’s high
    Hitting an all-time low

    Time and again I tell myself
    I’ll stay clean tonight
    But the little green wheels are following me
    Oh, no, not again

    I’m stuck with a valuable friend”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9yLDKm_BtQ

  3. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 11, 2016 at 12:08 pm |
  4. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 11, 2016 at 3:22 pm |

    I usually don’t like guided meditations, but this one is different.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY

  5. beasonlopes
    beasonlopes January 11, 2016 at 4:54 pm |

    Read the lyrics to ” modern love.” Underneath the pop was some insightful shit.

  6. minkfoot
    minkfoot January 12, 2016 at 7:06 am |

    Just saw a couple of the videos from Blackstar last night. Probably not something I’d want to see on acid, unless I was going gung ho for something.

    Sages have their death poems; rock stars approaching death, their last album. Seems to be a growing genre: The Wind, Brainwashed, Prairie Wind (so Young didn’t die, but he thought he might, so I’d include this album).

    Heinlein had his Martians creating art in two forms, that before, and that after, discorporation. Post-corporeal art was considered superior. The closest we have to that are death poems and farewell albums. There’s a special quality to the tone when the artist is about to exit world-time.

  7. Dogen
    Dogen January 12, 2016 at 10:10 am |

    punks hated everything that wasn’t punk.

    Must have been exhausting.

  8. Harlan
    Harlan January 12, 2016 at 2:58 pm |

    Well it was exhausting.. Being permanently demoralized was tiring. If you copied something you were only trendy which virtually every punk was. No one wanted to be trendy so unless you were some kind of genius in a vacuum you were doomed to an undirected hatred because nothing was actually still punk by the time you first noticed it was cool.

  9. Dogen
    Dogen January 12, 2016 at 3:40 pm |

    It doesn’t take genius to not follow the herd. Maybe a lil bravery.

    1. Fred
      Fred January 12, 2016 at 5:25 pm |

      Punks hating everything that punks hating punks

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb3zNjiFa4U

      For your next shroomy trip, Cygnus

      1. Cygni
        Cygni January 13, 2016 at 7:37 am |

        Thanks Fred, he will be missed.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE1Zcngd3VA

    2. Harlan
      Harlan January 12, 2016 at 9:05 pm |

      Dogen, I suppose you are saying you are brave and others are not. I guess that is possible.

      1. Dogen
        Dogen January 12, 2016 at 9:42 pm |

        Not at all, I’m saying that it doesn’t take genius to not follow the herd. Maybe a lil bravery, maybe something else?

        1. Andy
          Andy January 19, 2016 at 1:42 am |

          signalling. blink. signalling

  10. Michel
    Michel January 13, 2016 at 5:19 am |

    I remember that cartoon at a friend’s, on a poster, where you saw a herd of sheep going over a cliff, with all the sheep falling off the cliff to their doom, and the rest of the herd pushing behind. And one sheep, going against the flow, saying, “excuse me”, “excuse me”, “excuse me”…

  11. tuberrose
    tuberrose January 13, 2016 at 5:19 am |

    Probably all it takes is being contrary to go against the herd or pack or societal conditioning.
    I never was a major fan of Bowie but it was a sad day to see he had passed.

  12. minkfoot
    minkfoot January 13, 2016 at 6:21 am |

    When you go against the herd, you find yourself in a smaller herd of those going against the herd. One supposedly cute criticism against the hippies was that we were conforming to nonconformity. But that’s OK — sorry about that using up all the fun thing.

    1. Fred Jr.
      Fred Jr. January 13, 2016 at 7:56 am |

      But is anyone really driving the car? I’d like to think so, but there’s the sense that this comment is just an outcome.

      1. Dogen
        Dogen January 13, 2016 at 9:41 am |
      2. minkfoot
        minkfoot January 13, 2016 at 10:24 am |

        I understand.

        Of course it’s an outcome. But hardly “just” an outcome, as it’s also a go in.

        Something drives the car. Something else drives that something. Ad . . . um, finit, -in.

        Driverless cars aren’t really without drivers.

        1. Dogen
          Dogen January 13, 2016 at 10:46 am |

          You need to understand that the point is to not let yourself be driven (manipulated). Or at least be aware of when you’re being driven.

        2. minkfoot
          minkfoot January 13, 2016 at 10:58 am |

          What if a manipulation is a good thing? Do I refuse it out of a knee-jerk addiction to an idea of “freedom”?

          1. Dogen
            Dogen January 13, 2016 at 11:29 am |

            You still don’t understand. A knee-jerk addition to an idea could be manipulated.

      3. Shinchan Ohara
        Shinchan Ohara January 21, 2016 at 2:48 pm |

        The Supreme Way is not driven or driverless

        It’s a hyperloop

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A7GsAPR3J0

    2. Used-rugs
      Used-rugs January 13, 2016 at 9:07 am |

      Against the Stream, man!

      I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself.

      1. minkfoot
        minkfoot January 13, 2016 at 10:25 am |

        Or else, Go with the Flow!

        Nonexcluded middle r us.

        1. Used-rugs
          Used-rugs January 13, 2016 at 11:32 am |

          Like salmon, a true man of the Way swims against the Way to give birth to the Truth, and then dies.

          I’ll log off now.

  13. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 13, 2016 at 11:57 am |

    “I Can’t Give Everything Away”, had me looking to see which album- & o’ course, it’s “Blackstar”. Love it, thanks Cygni.

    From his last photo shoot:

    https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xpa1/t51.2885-15/s750x750/sh0.08/e35/12519310_1532589243734557_1331947886_n.jpg

  14. Khru 2.0
    Khru 2.0 January 13, 2016 at 7:30 pm |

    “The more you try to be happy, the more miserable you become. Practice goodwill and you will find goodwill. This is karma.”

    Robert Aitken Roshi

    1. The Grand Canyon
      The Grand Canyon January 14, 2016 at 4:07 am |

      “Shit Happens”

      – bumper sticker

  15. Alan Sailer
    Alan Sailer January 14, 2016 at 4:06 pm |

    David Bowie was the first musician that I got interested in after the Beatles. I bought the ziggy album because I liked the cover art. Low was the first album that I actually waited for the first release.

    Like Brad I found it more interesting working backwards in his discography and never enjoyed anything past Scary Monsters. My biggest debt to him was finding the work of his collaborators, most notibly Brian Eno and Iggy Pop.

    Eno led to Roxy Music, then to Phil Manzanera, Robert Fripp…it gets too complicated to trace much beyond that since there are way too many branches and connections.

    Thanks David. I hope that you enjoyed your life as much as I enjoyed your music.

    Cheers.

  16. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 14, 2016 at 5:21 pm |

    apropos of nothing, me demonstrating the sound of a Tonewood amp– just for fun, to post on the their Facebook page (it’s 4″ x 3″, plugged in and stuck on the back of my guitar, adding a slight reverb by vibrating the back of the guitar):

    https://www.facebook.com/markafoote/videos/996473890419415/

  17. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 15, 2016 at 9:41 am |

    First, they came for our rock stars, and I said nothing because I was not a rock star.
    Next, they came for our movie stars, and I still said nothing because I was not a movie star.
    Then, they came for our former porn actresses who were widows of rock stars and I yelled, “what the hell, man, is there some kind of twisted Rapture shit going on?!”
    http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/wayne-statics-widow-tera-wray-static-found-dead/

    1. The Grand Canyon
      The Grand Canyon January 15, 2016 at 1:40 pm |

      No! No!! Not that magnificent beard, too!
      Why, Buddha, Why?!?!
      http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dan-haggerty-dead-grizzly-adams-820154

  18. Shodo
    Shodo January 16, 2016 at 7:17 am |
  19. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 16, 2016 at 8:16 am |

    Looks like neuroscience is moving on to identify the sense of self as three different sensory coordinations (in the temporal-parietal region of the brain), but all three can be affected in heautoscopy:

    “Bodily self-consciousness (BSC) is commonly thought to involve self-identification (the experience of owning ‘my’ body), self-location (the experience of where ‘I’ am in space), and first-person perspective (the experience from where ‘I’ perceive the world).

    … BSC stems from the integration of visual, tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular signals.”

    (Visual consciousness and bodily self-consciousness, Nathan Faivre, Roy Salomon, and Olaf Blanke)

    Left out otolithic signals; how can the ch’i sink, without graviception?

    Meanwhile, back in the 12th century C.E., some people didn’t need neuroscience to explain the importance of the distinction of visual, tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular signals:

    “To unfurl the red flag of victory over your head, whirl the twin swords behind your ears—if not for a discriminating eye and a familiar hand, how could anyone be able to succeed?”

    (“The Blue Cliff Record”, trans. T. and J.C. Cleary, case 37 pg 274)

    Is it holding still, or letting go? Who pulls the chin in, and straightens the tailbone? Why is Mickey Mouse standing in that funny way?

    1. Mark Foote
      Mark Foote January 16, 2016 at 5:05 pm |

      I was thinking that Cheng Man-ching advised to “straighten the sacrum” (which I proceeded to misstate as “straighten the tailbone”), but I was wrong.

      “In general, what the ancients called, ‘straightening the chest and sitting precariously,’ has to do with the work of self-cultivation. …Holding the spine erect is like stringing pearls on top of each other, without letting them lean or incline. However, if one is tense and stiff, or unnaturally affected, then this too is an error.”

      (“Thirteen Chapters”, Chen Man-Ch’ing trans. Douglas Wile, page 21)

      “When turning one must take care to keep the wei-lu point (at the tailbone) and spine in alignment, in order to avoid losing central equalibrium.”

      (Ibid, pg. 67)

  20. minkfoot
    minkfoot January 16, 2016 at 10:56 am |

    Hay, Mark! Sorry I didn’t get back to you on Christian peak experiences. A number of things intervened. What was your question? Here’s an answer to something else:

    “This is what I’m talking about. This is what I mean when I’m talkin’ about time, and death, and futility. All right there are broader ideas at work, mainly what is owed between us as a society for our mutual illusions. Fourteen straight hours of staring at [pictures of dead bodies], these are the things ya think of. You ever done that? You look in their eyes, even in a picture, doesn’t matter if they’re dead or alive, you can still read ’em. You know what you see? They welcomed it… not at first, but… right there in the last instant. It’s an unmistakable relief. See, cause they were afraid, and now they saw for the very first time how easy it was to just… let go. Yeah They saw, in that last nanosecond, they saw… what they were. You, yourself, this whole big drama, it was never more than a jerry-rig of presumption and dumb will, and you could just let go. To finally know that you didn’t have to hold on so tight. To realize that all your life–you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain–it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person.”

    1. mb
      mb January 16, 2016 at 12:03 pm |

      http://genius.com/4306793

      I guess the author of the above quote would be the screenwriter(s) of True Detective?

    2. minkfoot
      minkfoot January 16, 2016 at 5:58 pm |

      The speaker is one Rust Cohle, who is a creation of Nic Pizzolatto, the writer and main creator of the show.

      When I first heard Cohle spout his nihilistic existentialist gloom-filled spume, I was filled with delight! What unfinished, pretarnished eloquence, delivering hard truth to people (Marty) who just want to get by with a little philosophical dishonesty. The appalling thing is that Cohle’s statements are not refutable, and so make most of us squirm. They are not the whole story, but Cohle doesn’t get any inkling of that until near the end. And all we have for relief is a vague subjective experience of a physically damaged man who just nearly died, and whose soul was warped decades earlier. Gotta love it!

      I was hoping for some Lovecraftian horror to become explicit, but I think Pizzolatto was artistically right to keep those references subtle and minimal.

      1. minkfoot
        minkfoot January 17, 2016 at 7:16 am |

        Whether it is plagiarism, sinfully or not, does not affect my admiration of Cohle’s speeches. But thanks for steering me onto Ligotti.

        1. Mumbles
          Mumbles January 17, 2016 at 2:05 pm |

          You bet, & I agree. That first season of TD was extraordinary.

  21. Mumbles
    Mumbles January 16, 2016 at 3:48 pm |

    Haunting…Catch the tear in his eye near the end…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKmBg-jOYUQ

  22. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 16, 2016 at 7:33 pm |

    As I look for a description of the precise location of the tanden, I find the last few lines of “Song of Substance and Function” in Ben Lo’s translation (with Martin Inn) of Cheng’s “Thirteen Chapters”:

    “In push-hands the hands are not needed.

    The whole body is a hand
    and the hand is not a hand

    But the mind must stay
    in the place it should be.”

    Quick, Darnold: does that mean self-identification, self-location, or first-person perspective “place where I am”?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC-h_r8KzQM

    1. The Grand Canyon
      The Grand Canyon January 17, 2016 at 4:54 am |

      “…a description of the precise location of the tanden…”
      “…self-location…”
      “…place where I am…”

      Everybody knows this is no where.

    2. Mark Foote
      Mark Foote January 17, 2016 at 10:49 pm |

      Just say, how things are
      say how, things really are

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7QDglLsiRs

      1. The Grand Canyon
        The Grand Canyon January 18, 2016 at 9:23 am |
        1. Mark Foote
          Mark Foote January 18, 2016 at 11:10 am |

          You are getting very seeply; I am going to hypnose you.

  23. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 18, 2016 at 2:54 pm |

    Maybe Gudo had a copy of Cheng Man-ch’ing’s “Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan”:

    …the most important process in T’ai Chi Ch’uan besides the tan t’ien is that “when the sacrum is straight, the shen (spirit) goes through the top of the head” and then you “suspend the strength to the top of the head.” These two phrases are the key points. The first phrase describes the sacrum and the top of the head, the second phrase refers to the flow through the yu chen ku or occipital region. The Taoists refer to these areas as the Three Gates–the sacrum, the occipital area, and the headtop. Physiology calls these para-sympathetic nerves which are of course located in the same place as the Three Gates. The sympathetic nervous system is the spine, and its function is dissipation. The function of the parasympathetic nervous system is recovery. How can you recover through the parasympathetic nerves? You accomplish this through the diaphragm which naturally contracts, expanding the chest, and pressing down on the internal organs of the abdomen, which in turn stimulate the parasympathetic nerves. This cycle causes the breath and pulse to slow down and increases the flow of saliva. It decreases the blood sugar and lowers the blood pressure. It also facilitates the flow of urine and reduces fever. This is all a result of the ch’i sinking to the tan t’ien and the coccyx staying straight so that the shen goes through to the headtop. If you know these two principles then you can talk of self-cultivation.

    (“Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan”, Cheng Man Ch’ing, trans. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo & Martin Inn, pg 96)

    1. Fred
      Fred January 18, 2016 at 3:26 pm |

      ‘”In push-hands the hands are not needed.

      The whole body is a hand
      and the hand is not a hand

      But the mind must stay
      in the place it should be.”

      Quick, Darnold: does that mean self-identification, self-location, or first-person perspective “place where I am”?’

      The bridge is flowing much like the relative world; the river is still, much like the Absolute.

      The place where you are is the place where the relative and the absolute are integrated

      1. The Grand Canyon
        The Grand Canyon January 19, 2016 at 7:50 am |

        Eagles cross over.
        Turkeys cross over.
        Cross over.

  24. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 18, 2016 at 3:38 pm |

    Glenn Frey?
    This is getting ridiculous. Did the average lifespan suddenly decrease for people born after 1940?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlmvtAHhnc

  25. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 18, 2016 at 4:46 pm |

    Only the small fry are exempt:

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/23/health/christmas-death-rate/

    not exactly Christmas, but close enough?

    1. Andy
      Andy January 18, 2016 at 10:46 pm |

      Alan Rickman, too. Christmas gave the generation-box a shake.

      So the age of the Baby Boomer is on its off. I’m a little sad at the passing of Bowie, but there’s an autumn sweetness to it too and I’m kicking the leaves.

      I’ve a nascent hypothesis on the go: if we wish to look for the character of what each generation has passed on, we should focus on the culture of its grandchildren.

      The image has to pass through the negative?

      1. Shinchan Ohara
        Shinchan Ohara January 19, 2016 at 10:24 am |

        That’s credible.

        I’ve noticed a secondary effect too, that might skew your results a bit. Fashions seem to get recycled every twenty-something years.

        Hippie styles had a comeback in the late ’80s; punk styles were mainstream cool for a while in the ’90s; the ’80s were cool ten years ago; and I’m seeing a lot of ’90s reprises now.

        I’m putting it down to young adults unconsciously wanting to look like what they saw as babies – in real life or on TV.

        Tempus freakin fugit.

      2. Shinchan Ohara
        Shinchan Ohara January 19, 2016 at 10:29 am |

        “Every child is fated to act out the unlived life of his parents” – CJ Jung

  26. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 19, 2016 at 5:32 am |

    “On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair,
    Warm smell of Colitis, rising up through the air…”

  27. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 19, 2016 at 10:55 am |

    Sometimes I’m tempted to repost what Brad has on his Facebook page over here, just so he might have a presence.

    I think it’s a difficult time to be starting up a zendo, and I sympathize. I wish I could do more to support you, Brad.

    Andy, I’m good with that thesis; I am struck by the influence of the arts, as well: the influence of the beats and surfers and the Japanese teachers on the 60’s, of the back to the country people and Dick Baker and the pot farmers in the 70’s, of the punks and the skateboarders and the Americans transmitted by Americans in the 80’s, of the PC people and the coders and the mountain bikers and the organic farmers and legalized medicinal pot and the small zendos with American teachers in the 90’s, of the online enterprise people and Whole Foods and craft brewers, too-big-to-fail, cellphones, raves and the concern with properly training American teachers in the 2000’s.

    Now in the 2010’s we have legalized recreational pot, some electric cars, techno DJ’s with followings, and temples in America that are officially designated training temples in the Soto tradition. The Sotoshu is trying to build a training temple in Lake County for the 900 and some-odd transmitted American teachers who never got to experience Eiheiji.

    Ferlinghetti still runs a book store, the Trieste still serves expresso, and the Hang Ah is still the longest continuously-operating dim sum restaurant in America. I am dancing to karioke in the East Bay with an amazing mix of good people, thank you Bill Graham.

    1. Andy
      Andy January 20, 2016 at 12:10 am |

      Thanks for the recollections & redolence Shinchan & Mark. Puts me in mind of Ashbery’s ‘Soonest mended’.

      “[…]And you see, both of us were right, though nothing
      Has somehow come to nothing; the avatars
      Of our conforming to the rules and living
      Around the home have made—well, in a sense, “good citizens” of us,
      Brushing the teeth and all that, and learning to accept
      The charity of the hard moments as they are doled out,
      For this is action, this not being sure, this careless
      Preparing, sowing the seeds crooked in the furrow,
      Making ready to forget, and always coming back
      To the mooring of starting out, that day so long ago.”

      I’m dreaming up intangibles, of course. But Jung’s ‘unlived life’ might roughly equate, in my metaphor, to the ‘negative’ through which the light of a previous collective’s generational cultural ‘image’ passes through.

      Indeed, 20 years might be useful spans with which to gauge exposures. For example, using Bowie contemporaries as an arbitrary focus, one might go hunting for clues using c.1972, c.1992, c.2012. (25, 45, 65 yrs old).

      The generational collective of c.1992 might be affected by their parents’ nostalgia for c.1972 (hence a fashion revival), but the ‘negativity’ of that impression ripens when they are in their 40’s (c.2012). c. 2032, therefore, when the generational grandchildren are in their 40’s would be the time to collect on the Boomers’ legacy, whatever that might be. Love & War, eh?

      1. Andy
        Andy January 20, 2016 at 2:58 am |

        Re. last para. To be clearer: “A generational collective in their twenties, c.1992, might be affected by a nostalgia for their parents’ time at a similar age, c.1972, (hence a fashion revival), but the ‘negativity’ of that impression (along with so many others) ripens when they are in their 40’s”

    1. mb
      mb January 20, 2016 at 12:03 pm |

      To be followed up, no doubt, by the “jet-ski accident” in Turks and Caicos “news” article…

      1. The Grand Canyon
        The Grand Canyon January 20, 2016 at 1:09 pm |

        What surprised me the most was finding out that Brad had a career from which he could retire.

        1. mb
          mb January 20, 2016 at 3:10 pm |
          1. The Grand Canyon
            The Grand Canyon January 20, 2016 at 3:25 pm |

            Well… I don’t drive it anymore.
            Besides, gasoline is so cheap now why should I even bother having an electric car? Thanks, Obama!

          2. Dogen
            Dogen January 20, 2016 at 3:37 pm |

            That’s what happens when a canyon gets delusions of grandeur.

          3. Le Petit Canyon
            Le Petit Canyon January 20, 2016 at 4:06 pm |

            Oui, Oui! Je suis plus grand – mais pas aussi grand que vous, Zafu:)

            Que voulez-vous Zafu?

          4. Dogen
            Dogen January 20, 2016 at 5:11 pm |

            Au contraire mon cheri, vous êtes beaucoup plus grande

    2. Dogen
      Dogen January 20, 2016 at 1:48 pm |

      It’s sad when punk rockers go out to pasture.

  28. Harlan
    Harlan January 20, 2016 at 12:33 pm |

    In the sixth century, Byzantine scholar Procopius wrote that some factions of young males wore their hair long at the back and cut it short over the forehead..

  29. Mumbles
    Mumbles January 20, 2016 at 5:54 pm |

    The front end 40 min of this is Bowie’s entire LOW album Live from 2002. The rest ain’t bad, either, but LOW live? C’mon…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl1xZIUK0Ew&spfreload=10

    Fucking amazing.

  30. minkfoot
    minkfoot January 20, 2016 at 6:40 pm |

    The discussion of recurrence of styles reminded me of this:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory

    1. Shinchan Ohara
      Shinchan Ohara January 21, 2016 at 4:12 am |

      Dang! Another one of my original inspired insights that wasn’t. 🙂

  31. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 21, 2016 at 11:27 am |

    Mumbles, thanks for the concert link; yer right, what a gift, I’m mind-blown.

  32. Mumbles
    Mumbles January 21, 2016 at 5:01 pm |

    Great, Mark, glad you enjoyed it. I’ve been doing nothing much besides watching old Bowie vids and The Norm MacDonald show for over a week now. Wintering in.

  33. Mark Foote
    Mark Foote January 21, 2016 at 9:42 pm |

    Raining in California, every couple of days for the last two weeks, but hardly winter-like- in the 50’s when it rains. Looks like clear weather after tomorrow for a bit; might get cold then.

    I could be here, in maybe 4 hours (but I’m not going):

    http://www.tarzanpanorama.net/Yosemite_Winter_Storm_detail.jpg

  34. Mumbles
    Mumbles January 22, 2016 at 4:40 am |

    http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/beauty.html

    Cold as a witch’s titty out here where the hoot owls shag the chickens (just to stay warm).

  35. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 22, 2016 at 4:47 am |

    It seems like Brad’s recently announced retirement is not going so well.
    http://zen.master.brad.warner.globalassociatednews.com/news/actor/thailand_unresponsive/California/hollywood/

      1. The Grand Canyon
        The Grand Canyon January 22, 2016 at 11:42 am |
  36. Michel
    Michel January 23, 2016 at 4:36 am |

    Global associated news is THE famous “Global Associated News Fake Celebrity News Engine” (enter a name to start your own celebrity rumour).

    You can enter yours too!!

  37. Dogen
    Dogen January 23, 2016 at 2:16 pm |
  38. Harlan
    Harlan January 24, 2016 at 6:42 am |

    “Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex.” – Joan Halifax quoting Frank Zappa on Twitter.

  39. Fred
    Fred January 24, 2016 at 4:42 pm |

    Ziggy played for time, jiving us that we were Voodoo
    The kids was just crass,
    He was the naz
    With God given ass
    He took it all too far
    But boy could he play guitar.

    1. The Grand Canyon
      The Grand Canyon January 25, 2016 at 8:27 am |

      No.

      1. Fred Jr.
        Fred Jr. January 25, 2016 at 10:54 am |
        1. The Grand Canyon
          The Grand Canyon January 25, 2016 at 1:04 pm |
  40. The Grand Canyon
    The Grand Canyon January 25, 2016 at 9:04 am |

    Once Again, Zen
    Episode #6
    https://vimeo.com/152951266

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