...ok everyone...all 1.5 of you who read this blog...be on the lookout for these rogue mammary glands...they are reportedly going to cross the Mexican Border early on the morning of November 27...if you see them, please report back to me and I will give you further orders.....Love, Anado...oh! and Happy Thanksgiving!
It has been a busy time...this blog is stuffed somewhere back in there...and there is a there...there. Working on a number of design things...art of course...stocking and creating more necklaces...our annual Art and Whimsy Sale is in three weeks. So things are moving along. At the same time, I continue to watch my obsessive mind's tendency to grab on to a certain person or situation and run with it...this old serpentine mind of mine...This old mind of mine...let it go...I am including the Kingsolver design I did...it was a lot of work...Ah...Life! By the way...this is the final design...I noticed that I had posted an earlier design...
...I have recently, through the weird grace of Facebook, been reunited in the cyber channels with a number of friends from the distant past. I find it interesting where these encounters take me. My overused mind drifts into the abundant slip stream of the past and the most forgotten of memories reappear in their kerplunk-ness...some recollections are so far down there that hopefully they will remain unrevealed. So be it. Ultimately, however, I am reminded of the tremendous blessings that accompany friendship. I am also reminded of all the running I did to avoid those blessings. Through the streets I wondered...past fairy tails and acid flashbacks...to the feet of a sublime teacher who reminded me to "come back, Anado"...return to the source. In this "return" I meet some of the faces that touched my heart long ago...I am reminded of the good and bad times that brought me to this present moment. I remember years ago when I was such a young fool, Sufi Whirling in a disco called 12 West down near the piers in the Village...I wanted so much to stand out from the crowd...as time progresses I realize that acknowledgment ultimately lies within...in acceptance...and so the whirling continues...sometimes I advertise...but oftentimes in the most creative moments...I am moved to tearful gratitude to the One who encouraged me to "come back, Anado"...that is where I meet the Silence...
...Hilary and her sister Joanna came out for a visit the other day. These women are London girls through and through...I just had to post their photo. Joanna is Hilary's younger sister and lives on Portebello Road in formerly Swinging London and Hilary lives here in Mexico for the time being. Hilary just lost her longtime partner and Joanna came from London to be with her. John was a great man of huge intellect and equally humongous heart...we will miss him. Hats off to my London Girls...you have taken henna to the next level!
Here is the design that I am doing for a literary event here in San Miguel next February. I read the book which I absolutely enjoyed: "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver. The NY Times Sunday Review of Books gave it a glowing thumbs up and I agree. The symbols in the design reveal themselves if you read the book. The story takes place mostly in Mexico with brief but lovely patches in North Carolina and Washington DC...Read the book!
...my own personalized 6'4" Bed Warmer is up North of the Border and I am in serious need of its return. It has been frickin' cold every night for the last three nights and it is an experience that I do not cotton to...I am wearing chef pants, long sleeve shirt, and socks to bed...Our big yellow cat has been sleeping at the bottom of the bed and he is a poor substitute. I will never take my Bed Warmer for granted...I promise. I am including a photo of said Bed Warmer...kinda cute!
....back in the old days in New York I heard of either a poem or a book by the poet Ann Sexton entitled "The Awful Rowing Toward God". Because those days in New York were a bit nihilistic for me, I sorta related to that particular title...somewhere along the line, the rowing has become less arduous and at times life has become more joyous and I acknowledge the precious gift that I have been given. Today in Mexico we celebrate Dia De Los Muertos...we acknowledge our ancestors and friends who have passed on into the ether of the Mystery. I have been feeling a bit bittersweet this morning...remembering friends from the past. I am so absolutely grateful to be alive. I thank this godliness that surrounds us in this most beautiful way...I am blessed to the "nth" degree to be amongst such beatific friends and critters. To share this life with such a magical soul like Richard is pure magic....the rowing is joyous...the rowing is mysterious...the rowing is divine.
...the Dia de Los Muertos activities are beginning to occur around us in Mexico. We are making an altar here at the house. We are honoring those that we knew who passed on....Goddess please Love and Protect their spirits. The other night I heard pigs being slaughtered in the distance for the traditional meals...a strange evocative and frightening sound. Living here in Mexico away from the strong gringo presence in San Miguel can get awfully real and we feel honored to live in the campo...So we send best wishes to those who left before us...may their courage and wisdom help us in our time of passing...
This was sent to us from a visitor to our house last winter. He recorded original music for it...I was impressed...as a side note to this slide show...our creative life here is full and glorious and would not exist without the help of Carlos, Martina and Transito Ramirez...our Mexican Family...Viva Casa de las Ranas y Mexico! Either click or copy this link to your browser...It's Beautiful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8i59zeHCa0
I need to forget about eating sugar...I am wide awake at 3:02am after 2 helpings of tres leche cake at Sudheer's house this evening. Well, maybe I can blame the cake...I can also blame my behavior when I am with my old friend Sudheer. We share a mutual friend and I must admit, I am still at odds with her....I have to own the fact that I continue to have issues with her and it has nothing to do with Sudheer. While he and I are going back and forth in our discussion of her...our house guests and Richard are left somewhat amazed and left out...I am fueling the "conversation" with Sudheer as I pick at the tres leche cake...and here I am ...hours later...wide awake and somewhat ashamed about our conversation...letting go is so very tedious....Anado (I address myself)...just chill...as I write this, I realize the above mentioned woman has nothing to do with my lack of sleep...she is just a friend who happened to pass through my life and I latched on to some sort of blame that I could heap on her for her inability to live up to my expectations...so...it is expectations and tres leche.....a wicked combination...I shall move on...include a photo of Richard and I for this post and then attempt to return to sleep...maybe in my dreams I can bury the hatchet...or have another piece of cake and offer some to my friends....
...that is where I have been...Mexico City too...blame it on avoidance...fear of risk...but it is time to remind myself of what ol' Mister Rumi said: "even though you have broken your vows a thousand times...come yet come again"...so here I am the prodigal groove...house guest from Oklahoma arriving today...work in the studio...need to make money...remembering my self...my True Nature...trusting...that kind of thing....
Actually I have been here....Richard is back from the States...my prostate is normal...I have been working...all the electric line to the gallery was stolen last week...we have bought more and this following link came in the electronic mail from Canada....I like it....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8i59zeHCa0
cut and paste it or click on it....it rocks!
...of following way too many football scores on CNNSI...I am guilty of not reading enough literature...I am guilty of reading Art Magazines two years after I have received them...I am guilty of my addiction to colorful socks...I am guilty of eating way too many raisins...I am guilty of over feeding one certain cat...so what is my sentence? Abstinence? Career Counseling? Nope....but I do wish to read more...right now I am reading the galleys of Barbara Kingsolver's new novel, "The Lacuna"...I am actually enjoying it. I am designing the tee shirt and poster for her visit here in San Miguel...wish me luck...well...I am going to go read...today is Sunday...go Niners!!!!
...he's back and still wild. Carlos' son Johnny (Ti Ti) appeared at the door today with Manchas on a chain. Manchas has been gone for more than three weeks. I could not get a straight story out of Ti Ti so I will have to wait to ask Carlos. Carlos was up all night building the Xuchil which will be carried into town this afternoon and will adorn the Parochia for two weeks. Manchas is a loony tune...things had kind of settled down dog wise in his absence, but I love him and he is home. So I raise a toast to Manchas Groove, the wild child of Casa de Las Ranas!
...showed up about two years ago before we went to Barcelona. Carlos found him and he sort of replaced Kali in the numbers game here in our home...Kali had been run over, but at the time, I did not know that...Over the years, Manchas kind of grew into the family....he was always high strung, but between manic barking, eating seat covers, attacking Simba, fighting and playing with Slidell...he loved to hang in the studio. The other day I heard him barking and running up the road below the bedroom window....intuitively...I felt he was going away...and sure enough...he has. He has been gone for two weeks now...Richard and I have agreed that the other dogs appear freed up. Three times I had to intervene in what appeared to be a fight to the death between Simba and Manchas...it was frightening. I guess Manchas had too much time on the street and he never could relax here...May he be safe where he has landed....we loved him...he grew on us...Be free, Manchas Groove!
...and its shining down, on and through me...and you too. There are so many reasons to live in blame and non awareness...to judge with the knee jerkin' and smokin' and pointin'...but that is not the door to awakening...and neither is what a number of people call enlightenment...as if enlightenment was separate from this thing called living...I honestly believe that claiming your life is in the awakening...owning who or whatever you are...Looking back at my time with Bhagwan, I feel that he had to create that traveling magic show for some of us to settle down and take a look within...the Rolls Royces, the watches, the New Man, the Commune...all of it, I feel, was a ploy for us to take stock...to turn within....After all these years...I still have to remind myself to grasp the straw of abandonment of this so called personality...I remember as a child riding my bike so totally and with abandonment...that was enlightenment....I remember...I remember...I remember....PS....this may seem vague (the Posting), however, I will go into it later (like the next post)...but today some weird energy came into my studio (two neighbors)and they were crowding Carlos and trying to impose their will on him...he stood up for what he believed in and one of the people called him an "asshole"...I said, "he is not an asshole"...she said this because he would not go along with her wishes...this all happened in my studio and I feel like we (Carlos, Richard, and I) were poisoned by these two individuals...to make a long story short...they are trying to convince him to buy an electric transformer for his house...and for his reasons...he refused....ever since they left...the energy feels yucky...what I do know is this: I have never met a more honest human like Carlos...those of you who know him...I am sure you agree....
...you know I like to live my life...
hopefully totally...
and move and groove
and feel real good ...
in the beginning of this Century...
So I continue to plug away at the work here....Manchas and my camera are still missing...we Bless you, Manchas, where ever you have gone...and the camera remains a mystery....and as they say, "This too shall pass"...and now we are passing into Fall...a favorite and reverent time for me...the marigolds always remind me of when I found Bhagwan...31 years ago...half of my life! I look back and feel nothing but gratitude for these years that led me to this time with Richard and our home and work...I raise a toast to Existence and the Journey from the Alone to the Alone and all the friends and critters along the way...
...also known as the Divine One is home....she was down in the lower property for two days...all sorts of paranoid scenarios had crossed my mind about her condition (the mind!)....and now Dear Divine Cielo is back and in Groove proximity. She is sleeping in the big bed with Richard...lulled by the drone of the fan that lures me back to the horizontal for a few more hours of zzzzzzz...I have a class this morning...gonna need this rest....just so happy that Cielo is nearby.....
....life continues to unfold here in Mexico...one of our dogs (Manchas) is missing... our grey cay (Cielo) has not been home for two days...we have seen Federal Soldiers in ski masks chasing a white Ford Pickup....the pickup was going 80 miles per hour...the federales were on foot....we saw about 20 Federales arresting a suspect last night...again the Federales were wearing ski masks...our internet connection has been down for four days at our house...I am wearing leapard skin trousers today...I made a quite fabulous mirror last week...we have had some good rain...cutter ants attacked one of our rose bushes...and quite frankly...I LOVE MEXICO...the chaos and drama...the unparalleled vistas...the traffic...the Colonial buildings...our garden...our home..our love...Love and dig it all! Our lives happen here in a big way...Glorious hugs to all
...energy is lifting here in this special Groove Scene. Lots of work and creativity. If I had my frickin' camera, I promise that I would show you. Someone is coming out on Wednesday to help me look for it...she seems to think it is here. We shall see...I am amidst getting a kick start going on the Gallery Construction...my oh my...I have to keep my lips sealed on some of these revelations...so I promise to step aside when it is time for all to be revealed. Now...send some vibes this way and get the cheerless porn hacker who weaseled his or her way into my sight and has been leaving some really sick comments on one of my blog postings...I reported it to the server and hopefully tomorrow with your vibrationally channeled juju we can sage the adolescent wanker out of these premises and get on with my navel gazing.....
...as soon as I can figure this out I will be changing the name of this blog...the new name: Paisley Cowboy Annals...Jimmy Ray is officially retired from all duties or cahoots with me. He is going into a self imposed life time seclusion which is well deserved. Paisley Cowboy is a name that I have been toying with since the late 80's in Marin. It has no esoteric meaning...just a happy name. So until I can figure all of this out...could someone remind me not to have more than one glass of wine per evening...it is 3:52am and the sugar in the wine has awakened me...Richard is over in the bed sound asleep with our divine cat, Cielo....I am going to attempt to return to nocturnal/dream/rest soon... I wish you Sweet Dreams.....before I forget...the camera is still missing, but a woman whispered in my ear this evening, "Don't buy a new camera"...is it going to reappear?
...still dark outside...inside too...typing with the screen facing the keyboard so I can see...I knew I should have completed typing in summer school...but I hated going to class. When it gets down to it...I must have some sort of learning disability that was never addressed...but that was then...what I can address is this bad lower back problem...stretch this morning...maybe take an anti-inflammatory pill....schedule some body work....etc..Slowly the day starts...Lolita is probably working with the chickens and donkeys before harvesting her mango tree before going to the dog park after picking her grand daughter up at cheer leading practice....Richard is still resting with the divine cat...I will work in the studio today and a young Mexican photographer is coming out to photograph....the clock now reads 7:00 am....get going, Anado!
...the Land of chaotically charged (cargado) Mexico City. Richard arrives tomorrow afternoon and I came down to greet him. The trip has been semi-unpleasant...my back is out. I threw it out right before I visited Oklahoma City a few weeks back and it is not getting any better. The plus side is that it has afforded me some alone time in Mexico City...I can disappear into the environs of cafes and people watching....and this I am enjoying. My priorities need to be looked at closely and getting back to San Miguel will be a re-entry into the completion of the Gallery Space once known as the Chapel of Jimmy Ray and the continued adornment of Casa de Las Ranas. I have been feeling tentative in moving on...but the moment shall be seized and progress is on the horizon....excitement ahead..so I will remember the Buddha within...watching....waiting...acting.....
Well, Folks, it is around 3:20 am here at Casa de Las Ranas...and I must say that I can not get back to sleep. I emerged from a perfectly delightful narco-like dream sequence and have been awake for an hour and a half....I have visited all my familiar sites on the internet...did a lil' googling and finally I come up with the question: what is all this stuff about emerging artists? Where and what do artists emerge from? Or what are they emerging too? What constitutes emerging? I think this is a tag line that the business end of the art world has created for financial or definitive economic reasons...(I just made that up)...I know absolutely nothing...sometimes I believe that I know myself...and maybe I do...but quite frankly I forget all the time...to know my true nature...that seems so vague or unattainable. But the idea of knowing my true nature is so alluring that somehow, I remain in the chase....maybe I should just let myself emerge...I have been comparing myself with others for what seems like eons...enough...but maybe some more emergence is needed...as Gurjieff once said: "Remember Thyself" Perhaps I shall emerge from this remembrance into a knowing space of presence and acceptance....wish me luck as I escape fom this babbling...Babble on, Dear Babylon....Richard returns on Saturday....cuddles are needed on this end.....By the way, I still have not found my camera...
...for my camera. Yesterday I had some friends over for lunch. At the end of the gathering we took photos of one another. It was fun. This morning I went to get my camera to download the new photos into iPhoto...I can not find my camera. I have been looking everywhere. I had Carlos and Martina look for it...to no avail. I called all the women to see if they walked off with it by mistake...once I thought my camera was stolen, but it was found where I hid it under a pillow. It was found after I accused some of the guys who were working here of taking it...I felt like an absolute fool....Once a camera did come up missing here. But yesterday, when I left the house...I left it locked...I am absolutely at a brick wall on its whereabouts....Help!!!!!
...Richard and I are blessed by a huge family of critters...I probably spend the most time with these dogs and all their adventures. They love to hang in my studio...picking chairs to inhabit or lounging on the floor. Patzky, our lab, loves to hang out on his back exposing himself...Manchas, our spotted celebrity fool, has no idea what is going on...and of course the four others are divine and extra groovy and I love them in heaps and bounds. I guess you would say that these are my canine gurus. They have expressed and tought me so much about unconditional love and cleaning up vomit...it is never boring and in fact...when I had some health issues last summer...my divine friends kept watch over me until Richard returned from the States...I am forever grateful and amused by these funky hounds...thats Patzky and Manchas in the photo...
...or at least I thought I was...but with these cats living all around us...I do not hold a candle to our sleak tubular groovers. They seem to have it made until one of them loses it in the morning and goes running up the walls. We call this "cat space". As I type, Sueño is cleaning Malinche here at the desk. Malinche had been grroving on my sock shelf all day and now she is surrendering to a lick down by our local cat king. There is a ton of Dharma to learn from these Teachers...best bet is too watch them closely and get hip to the cat trip.....Skookum is caught in an afternoon respite in the photo below...
....I returned to Beloved Mexico yesterday and got home around 7pm last evening. I was gone less than a week but it feels like I journeyed into a realm of timeless remembrance. The healing tears have bathed me deeply. Bhagwan once said, "your tears are prayer"...It was a very prayerful healing of unimaginable depth. There is still more work in this life. The blessings that I have received are ultimately about redemption. I know that this home that Richard and I share is a true temple of joy and we along with the Ramirez Family and all of are critters are the caretakers of these environs...Gracias to the Goddess who translates to Guadalupe here in the Heart of Mexico!
.....well, I am on my way home after visiting OKC (Oklahoma City). It was a special time...a deep deep healing occurred and there is still more work to be done. I absolutely enjoyed my time with my sister Joanie. We got to know one another more. The depth of feeling and connection was tender and sweet. I applaud my sister in this life for her beautiful nature that continues on after the loss of two sons. Seeing my cousins Rex and Chris was also a hallmark along with visits with childhood chums and friends from the art community in OKC. I did not get to see my sister, Sarah....and so is the nature of this suchness called life. Hopefully one day it will be different between the two of us...I am not going to blame her...I love her from afar...so back to Mexico and the life there...the critters, Ramirez family...our incredible Casa de Las Ranas. I want to thank all of my extended family for there support and Love...your encouragement means so much to me...Richard returns in less than two weeks...I raise a toast to Life!
.. it is the mind that gets us hung up in the drama of life....and the heart leads us home. And so, Dear Friends, the heart has led me home to my roots. It has been a very heart felt experience...lots of heart! Seeing my divine dear sister, Joanie has been quite moving. My other sister Sarah is not responding to my olive branches...maybe I should release a flock of doves on her driveway...would that crack her armor? I feel a bit sad by her distancing...but so be it....I believe she is afraid to see me for idealogical reasons. But seeing old friends from my childhood, my cousin Chris...going over old photos with Chris and my sister...tears...love...this has been a blessed trip......here is a photo of me with my sister Joanie....
...I have to admit...I have never enjoyed being in Texas. Right now I am in the Houston Airport named after the first criminal Bush and I can not wait to split...I am heading to Oklahoma...I may enter lots of blog entries there...to keep me connected and to feed my ASD (Attention Seeking Disorder)...So stay tuned...Anado Groove is on the Move...Love to all! The photo was taken yesterday in Mexico City...I am floating!!!!
...at Cafe de Carlo in Colonia Roma after ingesting some of the strongest caffeine known to Womankind. Now he is strong enough to consider boarding a plane for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where he will roam the environs of Republican Middle Amerika with his heart in hand...so stay tuned...he leaves on Wednesday...early in the morning. So why is he writing this on Monday afternoon at 5pm? Good question...maybe he needed to fill some blog space...so...hello from Mexico...life is good..Richard and I had some good coffee. We happen to like this cafe, so I took a photo...
By the way...check out this link...we are going to this neighborhood for dinner tonight:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/travel/31surfacing.html?emc=eta1
....or how my life is a balancing act. I am going to Oklahoma next week and it is a really big step. My intention is healing and I have to hold that close and dear in my heart. Over the last few years, the depth of this living has become so apparent. Every so often I try to go back to sleep and it works for awhile, but I keep getting this cosmic "nudge"....Wake up wake wake up wake up...why not wake up this moment...and I try to cop some z's on the wheel...and another "nudge" comes my way...so with all the best wishes that are surrounding me...I return to the source... to the place where my life physically began in this very body...Bhagwan once said,"this very body: the Buddha...this very place: the Lotus Paradise"...so...finding the Lotus Paradise in Oklahoma...why not? Life in the Balance......
...only consequences. My friend Dan Webber from Nashville in troduced me to the before mentioned maxim....So Childstar and Lovee....I can put my grammar and spel'ling anywhere I Vant 2....However, if you drink as much mezcal as I did last night, one may wish to introduce some rules....We had a great time with some friends from Monterrey at Masako's....and let us just say that Richard drove home and leave it at that....
...that's where I am at today. Feeling good and enjoying "what is"...And if "what ain't" rears it's lil' head...I can dig that too. For I just had two great bowls of mushroom barley soup created by Richard the Moosehearted and a bit of a nap and I am ready to rock. So back down to the studio after this respite...I am working on a piece called "Walking on Water Has It's Consequences" , watch out Jesus Freaks...exposing the Myth here at the Groove Nest...and Dear Friends, while I am at it..."Michael Jackson was a fucking freak"...sure great dance moves...good songs...but I just refuse to buy the rest of the bull shit, especially with multiple children involved and I won't even go into the self loathing plastic surgery number...Sorry Lovee...that was my thought when I arose from my mushroom barley nap...movin' on...sailin' in the wind with Richard my loving friend!!!!!!
...not quite...but I am travelling north to my origins in Oklahoma City in two weeks. I have not been there in 11 years. The last visit was an overnight stay at a Super 8 on the way from Nashville to Marin. I only spoke with my sisters on the telephone that time. My intention in this forthcoming adventure is to attempt to reach out to my sisters whom I have somewhat abandoned or rejected. Yep...that's the truth. Sure, I have my excuses for not wanting to be around them: lifestyle, politics, fear, shame, sexuality...and uh...normalcy. Cuz you see that what was mistaken for normalcy in my birth family was not a pretty picture...no photo ops...not if you are shooting with a Kodak Brownie. I have been blaming Sarah and Joanie all these years because they are the remnants of a family I once had in Oklahoma. I finally see my part in the dysfunctional debris left behind. So my trip North will be an eye opener...leaving all expectations behind. Normalcy is not my MO...never was...never will be. But ordinariness? That I can relate to. I aspire to catch that golden ring and ride this bittersweet merry go round in abandoned thrill and gleeful wonder when I return to those ordinary hills where I was born.....
...I would not only step into the light...I would also remain there. Bill Reiner asked me today what it means to be cool. I told him it was like walking through life with a hard rain falling all around me, and allowing the water to wash off of me as if I were covered in duck feathers...or better yet: radiant and relaxed like Guadalupe. At age 62...I want to be cool...I want the rain to fall from my feathers and leave little pools of cool in my wake. And I wish to be covered in meters of blissful blue velvet with stars radiating from my being through the draped cover...I know that I may be getting a bit transcendental here, but today I feel like I stepped through a new door and had a glimpse of what it means to be truly compassionate...I feel like relaxing into this cosa nueva and allowing myself to feel the radiant coolness of the stars....
Mexico City is my kind of town...I could never see all of it and it never fails to reveal. Here is a photo of us taken by our dear friend Carol also known as Childstar on this blog. The house that serves as the background for this photo is an abandoned albatross in Colonia Roma near our hotel...we pass by it all the time and the graffitti and posters are in constant flux...and this is Mexico City in a nutshell...an ancient conclave in constant flux...flux amidst ruin....Love amongst the ruins....reminds me of my time in New York in the 70's...so very long ago.
...in Mexico City. We just returned from a party and beloved Anado has had maybe 5 or 6 glasses of Chilean Vino Tinto....time for bed, but I had to take advantage of the wireless and keep you up to date on our travels...I will check the spelling on this entry tomorrow....Life is good and we are enjoying our big city fix....Love
P.S. The next morning Carol and Richard and yours truly gathered in the lobby with the guys from the night shift for some pre-coffee calisthenics...the only thing missing was Lovee Groove our divine friend who opted to be in the States because she loves the aquatic parks there...she is our favorite enigma.
.....yesterday I just lost it. I flew off the handle and got absolutely angry. I am not going to tread into the details...it was an unfortunate situation and my therapist told me that it was an honest response...but it still felt shitty and fortunately I am moving on, What I have to keep reminding myself is to bring it all back home....Remembering my true nature amidst all the emotional landscapes that present themselves...I just need to remember that there is an angry injured child inside of me that wants to act up and he does! But that is not the "all" of me...just a portion...the Buddha Nature holds the whole enchilada...I might as well chow down because I did hear someone say back in the 70's, "You are what you eat"...So here I am...checking in...remembering the magic that has gotten me this far.....the image included in this posting reveals part of a large mosaic in our house...I named it: The Ascension....
...see how we run like defrocked nuns
...see how we fly...
we are groovin'...
Yellow Battered Hipsters
drippin' from the honeysuckle...
we're flyin'
I am the Groove Thing
We are the Groove Thing
We am the Groove Thing
kew kew ka-chew!!!!!!
We are going dancing tonight...how does my hair look......
...Richard and I have been very fortunate to have so much attention directed at our house and the work that has happened here. This past week a blog entry about our house appeared in the LA Times...we feel blessed and honored to be able to create this folly. The inspiration comes from every which way and most of all...the source that harnesses the intimacy that we feel with our dear friends and the critters that we get to live with....the dogs, cats, and burros. What joy it is to communicate the gratitude that we feel. My last entry dealt with a friend who passed on...may his being be free of suffering...I learned a lot from him and it was only this past week that I have been able to know that...thank you David Wojnarowicz, I raise a toast to your creative Spirit...here is a link to the LA Times blog and one of the photos that Ann Summa from the Times took of us...That's Richard and I with Barbarella and Lolita...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2009/07/home-tour-casa-las-ranas-is-the-happiest-house-in-san-miguel-de-allende.html
...his name was David Wojnarowicz and I knew him back in New York during the 1970's. I remember him as this gangly quiet guy (this was before nurds)...with a dark edgy insight and a way with sketching the absurd and the dangerous. At that time Art had to have a sense of Danger for me to turn my head. David was living in an apartment in downtown Brooklyn on Court Street. The railroad flat was in the name of Dennis Deforge...a gifted fellow poet from Ohio. David was living there with his boyfriend of the time...Michael Morais. Michael was a friend of mine from my poetry excursions. Michael is a whole other story, but it is David I am remembering. I recognized David's somewhat bent intelligence and I felt a kindred longing in both of our hearts for the Truth...I feel now that this longing was cloaked in his flirtations with the grit and grime of the gruesome gangway streets of not so pretty New York City. Some would say that David had his hand on the pulse of that urban corpse and he was dragging it through a spent rainbow of grays and blacks. My particular vision and yearning for something a bit more ultimate and glorious, weathered my enthusiam for this fading and temporary street life and it was time for me to split. Through the grace of Existence I washed ashore at the feet of Bhagwan, my teacher in India. The last time I saw David was after I returned from the East in 1980, I believe. I was walking down 7th Ave in my orange sannyasin clothes...Long hair and beard...I noticed David loping toward me in his way. I happened to have a book of Bhagwan's (The Book of the Secrets). I never tried to bring people to meet my Teacher...that was not my thing... My yearning had led me to India and I wanted to share that with David and not lay a "ya gotta find god" trip on him like a Hari Krishna, so I gave him the book. I told him it was his to read or throw away...we parted ways at that point...David continued on his path...over the years , I would hear things about his rise in the New York Art Scene...by that time I was working as a gardener in Marin County...reconnecting with the Earth...A friend gave me one of David's books to read one year...I probably read two pages and put it aside. I could not go there...I felt his longing had been replaced by anger...Anger at his situation...David had AIDS...what a drag for him and yet I can relate to his anger with the Government and Society...in his situation, Silence did equal Death...however, there was a part of me that knew a young man many years ago who could have transformed that anger...maybe he did...but the public David did not...I wish that his soul has met renewal and that his longing is causing sparks somewhere deep in a new heartland beyond the darkness and the grit and that his inner eye has reconnected with the Big Picture and that he brought his sketch pad and journal...and now that being can tell us all anew...refreshed in the Longing. Richard and I wish his soul the rest it longed for....
...that I am really sick of this Michael Jackson frenzy. Popular Culture is basically a cartoon...so welcome to the cartoon! Everyone was ready to cut off poor Jackson's testicles and now that he has died...the whole cartoon is marching on their knees to the Staple Center for his memorial service. Enuf already...I guess I can't say, "Get a Life"...how about "change the channel"...as Aretha would say, rescue me from this onslaught....Am I just a fuddy duddy curmudgeon? An aging hipster with an ax to grind cuz of LSD brain cell deficiency? Probably all of the above...but can we add some more depth to this cartoon? I promise to be nice tonight when I am at the auctioneer at this charity event...I will be nice to all the aging gringos like myself and not point the finger at the glaring out of balance expat cartoon culture...I'll just breath deep...
One million years ago, back in 1969, I was part owner of a Hippie Head Shop in Oklahoma City.
The store was the hippest thing between Chicago and Santa Fe, or at least, that was our impression. (The world is a small place when viewed through untraveled rose colored glasses and a few tokes of old school Mexican weed....). We lived amidst a red white and blue wasteland where the corn grew higher than a Mastedon's eye. That summer I was arrested in front of the store by undercover cops for selling Zap Comic Books...they let me go for some mysterious reason. Our store was the hub for the Hippie Scene that was crisscrossing Amerika at the time. Because of our lofty status in the Hippie community,we had the job of meeting the different rock bands who came to OKC at the airport and taking them to their hotels. One evening I picked up some of the members of Three Dog Night in my lil' MG with my St. Bernard in toe....where did they sit? I don't remember: It was the 60's...a photo of that event appeared in the local newspaper...so you are wondering why I called this particular entry "Three Blog Day"? Well...this is the third entry today in my blog and this third lil' ditty was inspired by a photo that Lovee sent me of Suburban Hell...I just have to post this...I know the kids are having fun...but I am delighted that they are there and I am here....Gracias Dios!
...got any good ideas how to get him out of this messy pool of interior addiction to thinking and writing about himself in this blog...and for that matter...pretty much all the time.....he is sitting here at the desk waiting for a call from New York from a writer who is writing about a friend of his that he last saw 30 years ago...this friend has since died...Anado is still alive and breathing...but we need to help him change the subject matter in this blog to more pertinent and timely events...
...sometimes I think I may know the answer to that question...but not always. Answering that would be to live it. And I guess that is what I am trying to do...but the catch is: Live it...but without hooks....so that leads me to remind myself that this entity that this "I" inhabits, is just passing through on this mobile travel log through all of this. And it is no big deal 'cuz everyone else is doing it and will continue to do it..No Hooks Allowed!....
Today is special...for the longest time I have been contemplating a Body of Work (outdoor installation) known as the Stations of the Groove. Well, today, I made a breakthrough and now I know in which direction to proceed...So I congratulate myself without hooks or dramatic pause...it feels good!
...the above title for this lil' blog entry is a big bundle of sweet
organic carrots hovering above my nose...drawing me into the mix where
time and time again I have to agree to start anew even though I have
broken all the promises to myself that this time it is for real...but
in this game....the only rule is to begin again and again in each
freshly established unfolding occurrence of light reflected on a brand
new evolving moment in time...just like now in this gobblygook
effortless (yet a bit wordy) awakening to a new day in Mexico and the freshness of the
morning breeze reminding me to let go of the tension of needing to
know....nowhere to go...no one to be...nothing to get hung about....
...our divine friend Lulu Torbet took this photo yesterday out on the Patio Chichimeca at our totally groovy and evolutionary house....these phenomenally honed visionary friends gathered with Richard and I for some down-but-no-longer-my- home Oklahoma Chili...we sat for this Quasi Last Supper Pose...I got to be jesus 'cuz of my long hair...his fate is not something that I aspire to...as Bhagwan once said: "jesus was the Last Christian"...ain't it the truth! By the way, that's Porn, I mean Childstar, playing Judas who is being the stool pigeon and pointing out jesus to the Romans.....or was it the Phillistines?
