Alan Watts...

Listening to an Alan Watts lecture is a bit like having Gandalf over for tea.

Though he died in the early 1970’s, the internet is chock full of hours and hours of Alan Watts talking about philosophy, religion, the meaning of life, and how to live your own, best-possible version of it.  Google him.  Have Tea.

Among the many long form lectures you might find, there are also a bunch of these animated shorts created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of “South Park” fame.  Here’s a good one...

Watts says many awesome things in his lectures and books.  Here is are just a few…

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.” 

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” 

“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.” 

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” 

“Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.” 

“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.” 

“How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.”

--Alan Watts

What Terrence Mckenna was talking about…

“...scattered through the ordinary world there are books and artifacts and perhaps people who are like doorways into impossible realms, of impossible and contradictory truth.”  

--Terrence McKenna

Perhaps the greatest thing about the internet is that, for all its silliness and obscenity, it also seems to be a storehouse of the sum total of human knowledge and achievement.  It is a place where you can get up close and personal with the recorded thoughts and deeds of absolutely amazing people you might otherwise have never heard of.  

Many of you may already know all about Terrence McKenna.  He’s pretty famous.  But I didn’t.  Never heard of him until recently.  Through the miracle of the internet.

Terrence McKenna is exactly the kind of thing this blog is about.  He was theorizing in the 1980’s about how information would one day be so pervasive that every person would have access to all knowledge, and we’d be able to carry it around in our pocket.  

And low and behold… though he died in 2000, here he is now… in the palm of your hand (or on you desktop). 

Here’s a clip of Joe Rogan’s podcast (language warning!) where they discuss McKenna's “Stoned Ape” theory (from that book above) of how human intelligence evolved. 

He also said things like this - paraphrased in this article from the Scientific American website…  

"Modern science often depicts humanity as an accident, a bit player in the universe, but the timewave theory puts us at center stage in the cosmic drama, according to McKenna. 

There’s a lot more in the video below.  This is the thing that got me interested to read up on this “whoa, who the hell is this guy?” guy.   It’s the last recorded interview with McKenna before his death.  At least it claims to be the last, but it’s from the internet, so who really knows?  It’s also in the middle of the woods for some reason.  Which is strangely appropriate and awesome.  The video is over and hour long. and the most amazing part (cuz there is a LOT of “amazing” in here) is that he’s basically just talking.  Free-forming stunning thoughts in complex constructions of logic, insight, and what many may feel is total wackiness, like he’s ordering lunch for 500 co-workers at a drive-thru window.  Barely takes a breath.  Just goes and goes…

Definitely worth the time. 

Something Amazing You Should Know About

Here’s something amazing and beautiful I never knew about until yesterday.  It seems like something everyone should know exists.  

Are people getting more talented by the generation?  I play the guitar and um… wtf is going on here?   (BTW - it really gets going at about the 1 minute mark).

Here is Jon Gomm’s Bio from his Website.  

"Jon Gomm, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK, is an acoustic singer-songwriter with a revolutionary virtuoso guitar style, where he uses one acoustic guitar to create drum sounds, basslines and twisting melodies all at the same time. The emphasis is still on the soulful vocals and songwriting, and his original material is influenced by everything from Robert Johnson to Radiohead.

His live shows combine deeply personal performances and a natural wit, with a onceseen-never-forgotten two-handed guitar style, both physical and complex, producing sounds people can barely believe are coming from a humble acoustic guitar.

Jon first laid his hands on a guitar at the age of two (actually it was a ukulele - his parents couldn’t find a guitar small enough). He wrote his first song at the age of six, and was soon accompanying his father, a music critic, to gigs in his hometown of Blackpool. Touring musicians would often stay at the Gomm household on the understanding Jon would get a guitar lesson, meaning he had one-to-one instruction from such blues legends as BB King and Jack Bruce of Cream.

Nowadays, Jon tours worldwide. In January 2012 the song Passionflower went viral online, with the video passing 3 million hits, resulting in national TV appearances in the UK, Portugal, Holland and Turkey, and plaudits from new celebrity fans, such as:

“Wonderful to watch. Genius.” - Stephen Fry

“I love your work and style so much. You are very special” – Jon Anderson (Yes)

“Wonderful playing and singing” - David Crosby (Crosby, Stills and Nash)

“Hands down the most amazing guitarist I have ever seen!” - Tommy Lee (Motley Crue)

Jon is a truly independent artist, with his own label and no mainstream industry support, but using mostly online social networks for promotion, he has defied the odds with a huge, truly supportive fanbase resulting in tour bookings from Australia, Canada and the US to Poland and Estonia. His debut CD Hypertension has sold over 50,000 copies at the time of writing, and his latest CD Don’t Panic sold out within 3 days of appearing on Amazon. His videos are watched tens of thousands of times within hours of appearing on Youtube. He is currently releasing a series of Pay What You Want singles, with a new album planned for 2013.”

For tour dates and other info, check out the rest of his site.

www.jongomm.com