Friday, July 13, 2007

Time Travels, Part Two


The recent Live Earth concert certainly presented us with the opportunity to mull over the by now well-quoted Gil Scott-Heron song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. On one level all the day’s global warming insights were framed by relentless iPhone and e-harmony advertisements, plus ongoing encouragement for us to text message in our support (using our new Apple merchandise presumably) and turn down our thermostats in winter (and strangely few if any admonitions on comparable summer adjustments). That said, what was irrefutable was that sonic resistance was everywhere and much less easier to frame. While everyone has their own particular musical tastes, anything that gets us to move in mind, body, and spirit – whether it is sung, slung, blasted, pounded, or whispered – and to do this collectively is an important event.

I have been thinking quite a bit about music and soundscapes of late due to my latest time travels. I was fortunate enough to make the trek to San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to see the North American premiere of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings an image/sound installation piece that undergoes subtle visual and audio transformations for the duration of the event (in this case, 6 hours!!!). For more on Eno’s work, see:
http://www.longnow.org/77m/
The installation was presented in conjunction with the Long Now foundation – an organization dedicated to rethinking our culture’s assumption that faster/cheaper is necessarily better and asks us to consider a deep time and larger worldview perspective. You can find out more about this group’s interesting projects/work at the following link:
http://www.longnow.org/about/

My trip to Bay Area though had a couple of other major highlights. A daylong excursion up to Bodega Bay was mainly a cinephile’s indulgence (Bodega Bay being the setting of course for still one of the best films ever – Hitchcock’s The Birds). You can see at the top of the blog post the Bay that Tippi had to navigate in that very, very tiny boat and then not far from there are some really spectacular views of the Pacific coastline – my photo from the blustery, kite-flying friendly day is below.

Lastly, I have to admit that my favorite place visited on this trip was in the Fillmore area of San Francisco and the St. John Coltrane Church. I attended the Sunday service, which was three hours of the most amazing live music I have experienced in quite some time. Uplifting and joyous in every sense of the words – the service at St. John Coltrane Church is something truly enlightening and transformative. I wish you all have the opportunity to hear these extraordinary messengers and musicians – everyone is truly and warmly welcomed in their house of devotion. Archbishop Franzo King and Reverend Mother Marina King founded their church in 1971! Here’s a link for more information:
http://www.coltranechurch.org/

All best for your own travels across time/space this summer and, as always, big sky mind wishes to you all!

Time Travels: Part Two




The recent Live Earth concert certainly presented us with the opportunity to mull over the by now well-quoted Gil Scott-Heron song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. On one level all the day’s global warming insights were framed by relentless iPhone and e-harmony advertisements, plus ongoing encouragement for us to text message in our support (using our new Apple merchandise presumably) and turn down our thermostats in winter (and strangely few if any admonitions on comparable summer adjustments). That said, what was irrefutable was that sonic resistance was everywhere and much less easier to frame. While everyone has their own particular musical tastes, anything that gets us to move in mind, body, and spirit – whether it is sung, slung, blasted, pounded, or whispered – and to do this collectively is an important event.

I have been thinking quite a bit about music and soundscapes of late due to my latest time travels. I was fortunate enough to make the trek to San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to see the North American premiere of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings an image/sound installation piece that undergoes subtle visual and audio transformations for the duration of the event (in this case, 6 hours!!!). For more on Eno’s work, see:
http://www.longnow.org/77m/
The installation was presented in conjunction with the Long Now foundation – an organization dedicated to rethinking our culture’s assumption that faster/cheaper is necessarily better and asks us to consider a deep time and larger worldview perspective. You can find out more about this group’s interesting projects/work at the following link:
http://www.longnow.org/about/

My trip to Bay Area though had a couple of other major highlights. A daylong excursion up to Bodega Bay was mainly a cinephile’s indulgence (Bodega Bay being the setting of course for still one of the best films ever – Hitchcock’s The Birds). You can see at the top of the blog post the Bay that Tippi had to navigate in that very, very tiny boat and then not far from there are some really spectacular views of the Pacific coastline – my photo from the blustery, kite-flying friendly day is below.


Lastly, I have to admit that my favorite place visited on this trip was to the Fillmore area of San Francisco and the St. John Coltrane Church. I attended the Sunday service, which was three hours of the most amazing live music I have experienced in quite some time. Uplifting and joyous in every sense of the words – the service at St. John Coltrane Church is something truly enlightening and transformative. I wish you all have the opportunity to hear these extraordinary messengers and musicians – everyone is truly and warmly welcomed in their house of devotion. Here’s a link for more information:
http://www.coltranechurch.org/

All best for your own travels across time/space this summer and, as always, big sky mind wishes to you all!