Tell it like it is

Losar is underway and the NYT and Atimes marked the Tibetan New Year with stories about the seething people of Tibet, pinned down by the boot of Communist China.

Kent Ewing in the Atimes wants to know when the policy will change. He hits on the real deal in Tibet briefly, way down in his article:

"... Unless, of course, Beijing succeeds in virtually wiping out its cultural and religious heritage - and that would be a far greater tragedy."

That is exactly what is going down. The Chinese are learning from the Americans. What did the US do to the natives:

Your god? a wimp, worship ours or die!
Your language? primitive, speak ours or die!
Your way of life? laughable, become us or die!

And this is exactly what China wants to have happen in Tibet. They don't give two shits about the cultural legacy of 6 million nomads the West seems to love so much. Shit there are more people in Chengdu then in all of Tibet. China want them all to become Han or die. Period. The only thing that will change this inevitable death by "boa constrictor" would be a Holocaust, eliciting enough guilt that the international community steps in and makes another Israel-Gaza-West Bank strip of death. But Chinese aren't Palestinians and the Tibetan diaspora has a long way to go before they can match the Jewish Lobby.

The best Tibetans can hope for is the cultural circus that surrounds their most beautiful spots and the dirty money that comes with it. The US is indeed the template for all things these days.

The Himalayas are forbidding. Perhaps the Tibetan legacy will live on in the deepest most hidden valleys and when the world collapses a few years from now, Tibetans will finally be free.

I can't help it

So i watched and listened to President Obama's speech last night here on NYT and when he mentioned Ty'Sheoma Bethea I got all teary. I just can't help it. The man was destined to come.

So now i got to go and get another degree. Meeting with PSU people Friday morning. I can't help it.

Obama made me do it!

Dai Shi Men gong fu will never die

Here is a story i wrote about Dai Shi Men gong fu school for the South China Morning Post. I can't link the story because SCMP.com requires you pay. So here are the pdfs as pics.

The 72 down 82nd

I got all dressed up for a meeting downtown. walked in the drizzle two blocks to the mini mart and ran across 82nd in front of pick-ups to grab the 72 to the Max. Bus was empty but for me and three mexicans. A white man old and wrapped in sweatpants and O of U gear. Muttering to himself.

We take on two old Cantonese ladies another two Mexicans a black dude and his white girl. she's made up and looks like she has a mouth on her. she's yelling into a cellphone as we roll up and strikes a pose as she yells. hand on hip.

we take on some more poor white people. laid off guys and their haggard looking wives. they smile and let another old cantonese lady sit down. a poor blonde woman kisses him on his neck above a faded tattoo. she looks at me and smiles.

A bearded dude in a wheelchair and cowboy hat with beads hanging offa his jeans jacket gets installed. people make way with a quiet eagerness to be polite.

We roll passed Sizzlers and BK and Auto Parts and Fubonn Asian Market. Kids get on with their pants hanging low and their drawz showing. Chinese ladies with bags. Mexicans covered in drywall dust talk about work. Broke white people get on and they look the roughest. Especially the women. Sunken cheeks and too much make up. A look that says "i may look rough, but i am kinda brittle. Lets be friends. If not, fuck you." Ugly couples cuddle and kiss.

I get to dwntwn and do my thing. On the way back, a retarded man is making wierd noises behind me on the Max. Noone cares. Blacks and Mexicans and White girls bumpin hip hop with a scared but inviting look on their made up mugs jerk at every stop, jerk at every start.

We get to the bus stop and everybody's chillin. Everybody's smokin. Everybody knows everybody else sees them. We wait in the rain and avoid direct eye contact but when we do its a friendly thing. Its all good.

A super dork gets on and he is painting his hands with a sharpie. He tells a toothless bum next to him how cool it is to have painted hands. better than tattoos. Girls dig it. He has all sorts of chains and he knows the difference between one thickness of chain and the other. The bum is tanned with dirt and he looks very interested.

Another super dork gets on and holds a pointless conversation with a semi-retarded lady with a walker six seats in front of him. Whatever she says, he says: "it happens." She tells him that Laura stole her white paint tube and the Madonna painting she has been working on. He replies with: "I started my own business, Damnation Entertainment, Portland Firebreathing at its best."

She says What? He repeats it. Then: It appeals to a lot of people.

Just before i get off a young black couple get on. they are beautiful people. he is one of those super handsome black men with all the right gear but not all sagging and petty hustlin. he clearly has game and cares about himself. she is supafly cute and petite with the softest skin. i can tell. their baby is a divine combo with a huge afro. everyone on the bus smiles and coos and wants to talk with them. everyone. They get off at the next stop. Silence. When i finally get off, the rain has stopped and i walk the few blocks home dreaming about food.

Crisis of Credit

An excellent project by Jonathan Jarvis of the Design School breaking down the Credit Crisis for fools like me:

leaving Mipples

so its bout time to go and i had a good time in the Twins. I saw several old school homies like Tshisuaka and Jake and Ciaran and i got to spend some time with queens i have worshiped like Jessie and Mika and Kelly and i am leaving here a better man.

i got to meet my bro's girl Ann and lord almighty she is good for him. kicked it with my bro which is always good and will remain till the end of all days. he's insane, but only at times. ain't noone there when we hash the real stuff cuz it aint noone's business.

i got to freeze some more and I got to eat a plate at Al's. I went to Muddy's and drank a cup. I had steak. I saw the Supreme Court.

I missed out on a lot though. I didn't see Micah or Big 6. I didn't go to Chino or the MIA. I didn't stroll in the gardens by the Modern Museum and remember the first time i took shrooms with Q, K, A and Cracker. I didn't see Serum or Friendly. Didn't see Redboi or Big Mike. Didn't see Zach Combs and didn't see Iris. Didn't stroll campus and didn't chill by the Mississippi.

it was a contained trip. it was winter in Mipples dude and what can you expect but hibernation with a few short meetings?

So maybe in the summer i'll come again and cruise the lakes with my pipe danglin' ...

peace ya'll.

I got out of the house

My brother was sworn in yesterday and is now considered by the Supreme Court of Minnesota to be legit. Bonafide. Hey ...

here are some pics from that day (more pending from the actual swearing in):

Every step of the way

I realized something very profound this morning and i am going to try and explain as best i can.

it began when i thought about this scene in a movie i watched, in which a man said to another, lets have a moment. they then looked each other in the eyes and "had a moment". One of the men could handle it, the other couldn't, so the moment slipped away. I imagined myself in that situation, because i know what the one man who did not let it slip away was trying to do. so i did this, as i lay in Mika's bed stinking up the spot.

I ... where do i start? well, i seized the moment with this man and fell away "inbetween". I almost slipped away, but he could read my mind and actually saved me, he yelled my name and i came back. i told him i loved him and we kissed. suddenly my tribe members were there and they said: So you are gay?

The man and I laughed, because this is so far beyond the concept of gayness.

I should go through the entire process, but I think that is for another time when I can clearly get the facts down, but basically every book I have ever read, every movie I have ever seen and basically every conversation I have ever had informs this profound realization.

That, namely, the devil walks with you every step of the way. As does god. The divine universe in all its beauty and horror walks with you every where you go. now, when one slips "inbetween" as I am going to call it, one faces both the devil and the god alone. without constructs. and this is a dangerous place to be, because it is also a very powerful place. It is not only where we come from but where we are going. actually it is where we are all the time. and this is the profound thing.

We make this world around us, or this world was made for us because we are so very very important to it all in such a deep way. our responsibility to the divine scheme is quite crushing. We are in training.

Imagine a web of golden threads and we are happily enmeshed within. outside the web is the unimaginable beauty of true freedom and the union of the devil and the god into the stuff dreams are made of. the beauty and happiness of this i cant imagine. anyway, our task is not to rip these threads apart and dive into the field of union, but to pass through them with a content smile. ready and trained for the meeting with the god and the devil in their space, alone, without table and chairs and food and tea to save us. just the divine will and you.

so. it is very important to be trained, because if you rip through the fabric, like i have on several occasions with and without the help of mind altering drugs, you can get lost in the space inbetween. this is madness. and the only escape is for you to die. and start over. which i suppose is not that bad. But:

Our world is filled with the messages from the dead to those who still live, in the hopes that the soul that once was will read the words of his own hand and come to the profound realization that training is needed.

So what kind of training? I believe it is necessary to find a master that knows what the hell I am talking about and has walked more steps down the path then me. That would be best. In the meantime:

we are actually with the devil and the god all the time. the space inbetween is actually the only space. our world is a protective cocoon. a barracks. so we can practice the union and see the union. observe it and know its properties; consider the split and wonder aloud what union actually means. this helps.

we can also make decisions and treat people according to what we feel the properties of union are. such as telling your people that you love them. not squashing anger, but smilingly guide it somewhere safe. when drunk, feel the demons and fight them off, or let go of your angels and put your arm around the drunkard next to you and sing. i know this might sound pretty mundane and such, but it was a profound realization for me to see that this is all just a practice session.

and the deductive process was pretty awesome. i mean i cant put it all down because it would be pages, but if anyone has seen the movie a beautiful mind and those scenes where he puts patterns together? thats what it was like. i felt parts of my brain glow.

it makes writing and a tea business much more and much less at the same time. my first choice of the day: to consider things as much more.

i hear voices

So after a few days in the Twins aka Manyasspolice aka Mipples aka Minneapolis ... I have the following to say:

1) It aint even that cold. I hear its a "heat wave" out here right now, but it aint even that cold. its like .. 36 or something. no problem. i might whine for a second or two as i try and make them yellow Spirits burn faster, but its all in my head so i just try and ignore the cold and imagine myself elsehwere. And that actually worked. but as soon as it worked, i was like, OMIGOD i just transported myself, then of course it ended. Like you can see a star better when you squint or look sideways .. the whole, ions disappearing once you look directly at em thing. God is a prankster.

2) there is a passive aggressive need to be gangster here that makes me want to gibber and dance around the bar and point at bearded pretenders and just laugh like a maniac. I mean for real. Only (bitchass) towns like the Twins -- and I love minneapolis, but i know if oakland or houston or even kansas city came through we would throw our hands up and sign over the lakes for nothing -- towns like the Twins feel the need to be SOOOOOOO tough. Cuz they aint. Its just one of those things. On the flipside, there are people here who see it all just like I do and they too are a little more crazy. They tend to be funny smart people. They tend to love their friends and feel the need to spread that love to strangers. They exist here. They are tribe. Pretenders though, make the real man go silent or go slightly mad. Or move to Houston.

3) I like blonde women. I like Minnesota women. They all corn fed and busty. Something about the six months of winter gets em a little more forward then you would expect. I was interrogated by three very minnesota girls outside a bar recently. One of them let her shoulder strap slide down to show alil-alotta skin and then just eyed me. The other two was eyein me too. I love it when women get all "i'm eyein you."

4) me and my brother should only be together for brief periods. Not because we fight, cuz we dont, but because other people just caint handle the Truth.

5) Mika Shiozawa is the most beautiful woman on earth. (hey girl!)

6) Jake and Ciaran owe me money. I owe Matt and Chris money.

7) i better watch out or i'll wake up married.

balance in the force

Does anyone find it strange that all the Jedi never considered their own purge as the means with which the force would achieve balance?

i have been thinking of sacrifice and devotion. are they one and the same?

and just now i wrote a friend about the need to massage the message of A Great Purge into a person's psyche. You can't just throw the fact of pain in someone's face and expect them to bear their chest to the blade in the name of balance. Even sages like Yoda chose exile before sacrifice. How devoted is he, truly, to his religion?

Its the pain of the individual, the only pain we ever know, that kept Yoda wishing for life. Redemption. Vengeance. Balance is God's domain, all others are visitors, scraping one foot on another, looking for a place to sit thats out of the way, munching on crackers waiting for Grampa God to wander off into his study so they can finally ... just ... leave.

Balance is not our fruit. In fact, imbalance is our sustenance. Be it culturally, socially, academically or financially. If all was good in the force, we would all glow. Where is the majesty in that? In the land of the blind the one eyed man is an outcast. In an imbalanced world, balance is the realm of the purged.

The sage that conquered his ego and found balance with God finally descended from his cave and while walking through the streets was bumped by a stranger.

"Fool! Don't you know who I am?"

what a pleasant morning

Those who do not use the hours before dawn are fools.

i woke up dreaming of a fine fine situation, then flipped on the computer and started playing some o that Blue Train and then

this mezmerizing photo arrested my attention.

I have to thank my man Charles for sending me this.

And i just had to share it with you all.

Have a great day.

me and my cat gimpy

Gimpy got his first taste of pussy last week. I can imagine the look on his face, that shocked yet determined screwed up expression. A dash of confusion. Thats Chou Gui on the bed takin it all in ...

Its been an eventful week. I met with a lot of people here involved in international trade and China and it seems, like always, that whatever I wish for tends to just roll into my lap. its not the rolling into my lap part that's hard, its the next step. I have learned over time that that's pretty easy too. When i just cease to be what I think people want me to be, then all goes according to the great plan. its very easy on my mind actually. But like China, meetings tend to be big here. Lotsa of meetings and proposals and "going forwards". Its always amazing when something actually does happen because so many people probably had a hand in it and there were so many stages and processes and cutbacks and shortcuts and long routes around that when the goal is finally met, the whole world sighs in relief. Then we do it all over again.

I have been doing superman exercises and punishing my core with the wheel exercise. Its a good sore. The kind that eases back when you hit it with more pain. I have been getting Nicole thinking abut sex a lot. hahaha. its evil, I know, but I can't help it. I walk up while she's messing with the computer and just whisper something dirty that Mike Villar always used to say, then walk back out. HAHAHAHA. Oh man. She hasn't given in yet, but I expect her to booty call some dude soon enough. No woman can hold out for long. The downside is i ain't got noone to booty call and i don't know how much longer i can hold out neither ....

"I am not that into ..." tattoos short hair and multiple piercings. I know its cool and all, but I am just not that into it. I am also not that into out of shape women. Not that I am in shape. I dont expect in shape women to be like OOOOO sascha has a body. So me and the out of shape girls are in the same boat. We just aint gettin on.

And please don't put any "saaaaaasch, why don't you think about this and that" or "why don't you do this and that."

Stay off my blog if you trying to preach.

I'm into connections and empathy. Telekinesis and dream analysis. Big brown eyes and a knowing laugh. a girl that knows why bacon and biscuits and gravy is the SHIT. A girl down to learn massage with me in our one room apt together. A girl down with sweat pants on sundays with ice cream and a book. Thats a lot of girls, i think.

I am headed to Minnyaaaaapolis to kick it with old friends and my bro for a few days. Man i can't wait. me and my bro talk almost every day and its awesome. We gonna have a good time. I know its cold and shit, but i wouldn't mind a bit of snow and the pleasure of walking into an old haunt and taking a few layers off while old friends holler out and order a fresh round.

me and Mik and Nicole had tea and talked for a few hours tonight. It was really really nice. I served up some aged Puer and a nice smooth buttery Oolong. Felt nice to serve that tea to people and have them forget about me from time to time and just girl chat with each other. I enjoyed it immensely. I smoked outta my pipe and told a few Villar stories.

brother if you reading, mad love out to you. I wish i could jump into your ass and beat down the pain with a Stick of Hard Lovin. You know what I'm talkin about baby.