East & West - Unite!

In what is becoming a regular occurrence, I attended yesterday evening a meeting of the Art Experience Group (AEG). We ate, drank, watched a movie, and plotted to take over the world. The spiritual one, that is :) Here's an edifying quote from my buddy's email:

And, we are of course continuing to project the Part III of the legendary Joseph Campbell "The Power of Myth" interview with Bill Moyers - i think most of us would observe that it is really "food for the soul"... :) Here's the excerpt from Wikipedia on this next episode:
  • Episode 3: The First Storytellers (first broadcast 6/23/1988 on PBS)

Animal memories, harmonization with body and life-cycle, consciousness vs. its vehicle, killing for food, story: "The Buffalo's Wife," buffalo massacre, initiation ritual, rituals diminishing, crime increasing, artists, the Shaman, the center of the world

The experience of art, and something deeper that enables art and that we jointly create together, is what this meeting is all about - so, I'm looking forward to seeing you there!!.. :)
Cheerio! -
It's good 2 know that this dude, Joseph Campbell's writings on myths and mythology, are recognizably the inspiration for Lucas' Star Wars and many other works of art. A more condensed, palatable, dumbed down, truncated version of his ideas can be found in Zeitgeist, the movie (1). Note, however, that the movie Zeitgeist has been heavily criticized by many, including Jay Kinney, for taking more freedoms even than Michael Moore:
I’ve often pondered about what it might take to snap everyone out of the walking dream we collectively entered on 9/11/01. Just as the fall of the Berlin Wall provided the emotional pivot for the end of the Cold War, only a collective experience of an intensity equal to that of 9/11 might jolt us awake as to what is really happening in the corridors of power and certain undisclosed locations. It’s my hunch that Zeitgeist is one attempt to provide such a jolt, and it does indeed pack a certain punch. Too bad it also runs off in three directions at once, and is so indiscriminate in its sources and overly certain of its conclusions. Zeitgeist may be powerful, but its power is tainted with some simplistic and pernicious memes that have already received more propagation than they deserve. The video’s producer does inform us that “It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth . . .” Indeed.
The movie we watched (not Zeitgeist) is, of course, a mere pretext. The true reason we go to my friend's place is the conversation & xchnge of ideas. I met somebody who felt, like most immigrants at least sometimes, in-between two worlds, in some kind of happy purgatory (the 2 worlds being more horizontal than they were vertical). I promised I was going to send her the vision of Liu Young, a Chinese-born, German-educated man. It is luckily applicable to most East -> West immigrants. The slideshow can be 2x clicked and each photo can be commented individually. What is most interesting about our group is probably not only what we talk about, but also how we interact. I try to follow a collection of tips that's been floating around for ages:
1. Leave to copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies. 2. Sit in your yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down. 3. Specify that your drive-through order is “to go.” 4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it with your pen while talking to others. 5. Sing along at the opera. 6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions “to keep them tuned up.” 7. Reply to everything someone says with “that’s what YOU think.” 8. Practice making fax and modem noises. 9. Highlight irrelevant material in scientific papers and “cc” them to your boss. 10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up. 11. Finish all your sentences with the world “in accordance with prophecy.” 12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hand over your ears. 13. Disassemble your pen and “accidentally” flip the cartridge across the room. 14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting. 15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you “like it that way.” 16. Staple papers in the middle of the page. 17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise. 18. Honk and wave to strangers. 19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints by the cash register. 20. TYPE ONLY IN UPPERCASE. 21. type only in lowercase. 22. don t use any punctuation either 23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets. 24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times: “Do you hear that?”, “What?”, “Never mind, it’s gone now.” 25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk. 26. Try playing the William Tell Overture (The Lone Ranger Theme) by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce, “No, wait, I messed it up,” and repeat. 27. Ask people what gender they are. 28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet. 29. In the memo field of all your checks, write “for sensual massage.” 30. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets. 31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn’t rhyme. 32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble the answers in a notebook. Mutter something about “psychological profiles.”
For some reason, my buddy thinks I'm a smartass. I don't doubt that my ass is smart, as my intelligence overflows my brain and is spread equally all over my body, with a possible deficit in front and a corollary condensation at the back. Irrespective of my bodily intelligence distribution, which is most likely useless to you, here's a collection of links on meditation: Walking Meditation Standing Meditation Sitting meditation Lying meditation [tags]art, experience, group, ivory tower, meditation[/tags]

Sources

Zeitgeist, the movie (2007) - http://zeitgeistmovie.com/ Meditation links from: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/meditation.html

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