the indian wind along the telegraph lines

The music world has lost one of its best champions. John Peel, BBC DJ, agent provocateur and the force that launched a thousand careers, has gone to his reward. I mourn his loss more so than I have most individual musicians. While the individual musician takes a soul of talent with him, John Peel takes the springboard. David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, The Smiths … Peel launched them all. He leaves not a hole in the music world, but a giant gaping crater. As one fan put it, “Music is the water, John Peel was the quirky little man working the pumping station.”

Thanks, John. For all you did for music. For all you did for this listener on the other side of the pond. You will be sorely missed, and by bigger names than mine.

Rock on.

This one’s filed under History, for indeed, we saw history made last night. And history that would have made my late maternal grandfather beam.

The Boston Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the ALCS. In New York. Simply astounding.

Born and raised in Connecticut, I was torn between Red Sox and Yankees loyalty. My father’s family were all from the New York area, and were die-hard Yankees fans. My mother’s family were all from Massachusetts and have similar feeling about the Red Sox. I wore a Yankees baseball hat between the ages of 2 and 6. I also attended games at Fenway Park and cheered mightily for our doomed heroes. I always loved the Red Sox. ALCS match-ups between the two teams tended to leave me confused. But I tended to root for the Sox, since America loves an underdog. Something that got very hard to do when my family lived outside Albany, NY during the late 1970s. I was a 90lb Red Sox fan among the horde.

Being a Red Sox fan requires a certain amount of Slavic fatalism. Bucky Dent. Bill Buckner. The Curse. And in typical seasoned Sox fan style, going into this Series I hope for the best but expect the worst. Much like a Russian would have meant when they said, “Stalin has defeated the Germans.” Yay. Yippee. We’re probably screwed.

But today we celebrate. And like the apocryphal story of Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, the band plays The World Turned Upside Down.

Note: Today would be my grandfather’s 98th birthday. He died a month to the day after my birth, after returning from a game at Fenway. This one’s for you, Charlie.

Back in the summer of 1987 seminal sampler/synth band The Art Of Noise played Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. At the time I was a DJ at WRTC-FM, the radio station of Hartford’s Trinity College. I hosted a show I called Mutant Central Broadcasting that delved into punk, new wave, synth and all kinds of new (at the time) music. Cutting edge “you-don’t-hear-this-on-commercial-radio” stuff.

One of the perks was free concert tickets and backstage passes. So when The Art Of Noise played Toad’s, I grabbed a mic and deck and made the 45 minute trek. It was a great show, and afterwards AON member Anne Dudley gave some interviews. She was very charming, but I could tell she was tiring of the same stupid questions from the same type of “music reporters.” She perked up a bit when she found out I was from college radio, and even more so when I said, “Why don’t you interview me? You seem bored of the same-old same-old.” We had a blast.

After Anne’s full interview of her interviewer aired on my show, local fanzine Subculture (long since deceased) asked for a portion in written form for their magazine. I obliged. And recently I found my old issue of Subculture with said interview snippet, and have transcribed it to HTML.

Submitted for your enjoyment is Anne Dudley of The Art Of Noise interviewing yours truly. Thanks for being such a brick, Anne. And for the fond memories. And you know, in hindsight I should have taken you up on your offer to run away to Canada together. You’re a great gal. 🙂

mneptok interviews anne dudley
of the art of noise

july 15, 1987
toad’s place – new haven, ct usa

from the hartford, ct area fanzine subculture

---

slip of a tongue
an interview with anne dudley of the art of noise

the art of noise are people, not machines. the art of noise know their limitations. the art of noise sing and dance. they move and remain in flux. they played toad’s place july 15th. they spoke to me after the show and queried …

anne dudley: do you come down to toad’s place very often?

mneptok: only when the art of noise are in town. so i’ve been here about six times in the past week.

ad: really? and which version of the art of noise did you prefer? the mutant version, the minimalist version?

m: i liked the small version.

ad: the small version. that would be our jazz trio.

m: right. the benny goodman cover tunes were terrific. the production was very clean and the band seemed to have a genuine interest in the music they played.

ad: so you were totally taken in by it?

m: i haven’t been able to put it out of my mind.

ad: well, i’m very flattered. you see, i wasn’t even there. as a matter of fact, none of the art of noise were there at all; we sent our managers. we have very attractive managers, we just put them in costumes and make-up…

m: i couldn’t believe the guy dressed up as yourself, he was very convincing as a woman.

ad: exactly, i just control him from my satellite in orbit around new haven.

m: is it small in there? do you have to sit with your knees around your cheeks?

ad: well, have you ever seen doctor who? do you have doctor who here?

m: oh! you fly in a police box!

ad: yes, yes. all british people do that.

m: is that a regulation 32-j/c flying police box?

ad: i’m afraid i’m not at liberty to divulge that information.

m: i always liked tom baker as doctor who. he had a really cool scarf.

ad: yes, he did. what else do you remember about him?

m: curly hair…shifty eyes…

ad: shifty, like most of our band. we were going to have him in the art of noise if he could have played anything at all. anyway, tell me what it’s like to live in this part of the country.

m: well, we buy records, listen to them a lot, come to see the bands and then talk with them because they have nothing better to do than drink beer and talk with us.

ad: you know, nobody eats in england. three or four pints of english beer a night fills you. i can’t say i’m very impressed with the food in america. it’s all sort of bland. like turkey sandwiches.

m: well, the closest that stuff has come to to turkey is driving by a turkey farm on the way to the store. it’s all spun by monsanto chemical corporation. no nourishment, it won’t keep you going.

ad: you know, the only way i make it through the show is saying “to be in england in the summertime…” people seem to think that me saying that is the funniest thing in the world.

m: why, don’t you like england?

ad: i wouldn’t be anywhere else.

bus driver: five minutes!

ad: oh no! time to go to canada.

m: upper new york state is beautiful this time of year…

ad: you could come with us…

m: i hardly think that likely.

Great article entitled A Brief Introduction To Zen on the must-read K5. Simple, elegant, stunning. And very Zen.

Election fervor is in full swing. The Democrats are railing against the Bush administration. The Bush administration is taking potshots at the Kerry camp. But this year I have seen something new. Something disturbing. Something more befitting a banana republic than the beacon of democracy the US purports to be.

Campaigns have always been nasty, at least from the viewpoint of an outsider. Candidates have, during my memory, taken the low road when speaking to one another. But this election season, these “slash and burn” tactics of demagoguery have spread to the populace.

This is not a trend I’m alone in seeing. In a great article in The Oregonian reporter Erin Barnett talks about campaign signs being burned, shot at and stolen. By citizens. Against citizens.

Blogs are seeing the same trend. People whom I trust and respect have adopted an “us and them” stance. They harp on the “Bush sucks!” or “Kerry flip-flops” theme over and over and over again. To the same audience.

Does anyone think that if you burn the Bush sign in front of someone’s house that person will suddenly think, “My God! They’re right! Kerry’s the best choice!” Do you think if you shoot holes in a Kerry sign that the owner will have a similar epiphany about Bush? Do you think that people reading the umpteenth “Why George Bush sucks,” post on your blog are suddenly going to change their minds? You’re preaching to the choir at this point.

The article cited above describes this election as “the most polarized race for president in memory.” I agree. And at this point, no one is going to change their mind based on your blog or your pyromania or your marksmanship. People are polarized. And that’s bad.

Politicians behave in ways they think will get them elected. If a candidate thinks embracing the “no gay marriage” position will garner them enough votes to get them a win, they’ll do it. If a candidate thinks that by bashing Bush for “lying about Iraq” (which the record clearly shows he did not do, he had piss-poor intelligence he chose to believe) they’ll do it.

And they don’t care about the carnage left behind.

That’s right. When we’re all still divided and at each other’s throats in the middle of November, the winners won’t give a damn. They aren’t concerned about protecting the social fabric any further than what concern is necessary to get them elected. They’ll leave a bunch of people whipped into a frenzy over same-sex marriage and not give it another thought. Meanwhile, these people foster a deeper distrust and hatred of their fellow homosexual Americans. If Bush wins, do you think Media Channel will feel the slightest bit of responsibility if someone makes an assassination attempt? They won’t, even though they spent a tremendous amount of effort scaring Americans silly about George Bush.

The Bush campaign wants to keep you in fear about terrorists. Anne Coulter will say whatever is necessary about Kerry to sell as many books as possible. The Kerry camp wants to keep you in fear about the police state Bush will supposedly create. Al Franken will call people “big, fat idiots” if it gets him another book deal. Both sides want you to be scared. Distrustful. Off-balance. When you’re scared of something, you see it as alien to yourself. It creates an “us and them” dynamic. It divides so they can conquer.

And at the end of the day, they’ll wash their hands and go back to business as usual, and forget about the debris field they leave in their wake.

Let’s not let it happen here. It’s happened in plenty of other places. At the risk of invoking Godwin’s Law, remember that in 1933 when the Reichstag burned, the Nazis had Germans so afraid of Communists the German people were ready to blame a Communist plot whether it existed or not. And we all know what happened after that.

I’m not comparing anyone to Nazis. I’m merely pointing out that a climate of fear, distrust and divisiveness is not a climate in which freedom and liberty flourish. Before you burn a sign, steal a bumper sticker or post the bajillionth story on your blog about how bad Bush is or what a rat Kerry might be, think. Are you going to change someone’s mind, or are you just fanning the flames?

I was born into one of the greatest nations on Earth. I don’t want to die in some industrialized banana republic where we’re “us” and “them.” We’re all Americans. We solve our problems with polite, measured speech that tackles the issues. Not speech that focusses on fear, distrust, divisiveness, name-calling, flame-fanning or minutiae. Or by tackling each other.

Don’t we?

Hi, you’ve reached the magma residence. We’re not available to come to the surface right now, but if you’ll wait for the GIANT EXPLOSION AND LIFE-EXTINGUISHING PYROCLASTIC FLOW, we’ll be with you as soon as possible.

Another steam and ash eruption this morning, but not enough to release the pressure the geologists are thinking is lurking beneath the lava dome. So, the “big one” still has yet to hit.

Portland Sphincter Factor now at 7.2

So Mount Saint Helens (only 50 or so miles from us) “erupted” today. It was more of a burp. Nothing at all threatening, this time. Barely a 2 on the VEI scale, if that. Not like the 5VEI that tore the top off the mountain in 1980. And certainly nothing like the 6.9VEI that destroyed Santorini c1600BCE and hastened the decline of the Minoans. Largest explosion in modern history, that one. But no Atlantis myths spawned today, folks. Please move along.

A month or so ago I found a website that contains talks on Buddhism by my first Buddhist teacher, Bhante Punnaji. We first met in 1992 when I took a class in Buddhism at The Catholic University of America. CUA requires all students to take courses in religion. I still find it ironic I entered CUA spiritually adrift, and left as a Buddhist. Probably not exactly what they had in mind. I digress. Back to the topic at hand.

Soon after we met Bhante Punnaji returned to Sri Lanka for his forest retreat; a time when Theravada monks live alone in deep contemplation. Although not in keeping with Dhamma, I found myself missing his thoughtful and gentle presence. Fortunately, the Sangha (monks) at the Washington DC Buddhist Vihara kept me on track, and gave me a place to seek refuge in the Sangha.

So, it was most gratifying to me to find evidence of Bhante Punnaji on the Internet, and I e-mailed him to express my best wishes and thanks. And soon after I tried to defuse the Hollywood Buddha debacle, Bhante Punnaji returned my e-mail. I love when kamma works quickly enough for my little brain to see it happening.

One of my first tasks when I moved to Portland was to try to find a Sri Lankan vihara with which to affiliate myself. While there are a host of Buddhist resources in Portland, I found no Theravada vihara. Well, Bhante Punnaji told me that recently three bhantes moved to Portland to start a vihara, and if I was interested, I could contact another student of his. I dialed the phone before Thunderbird could mark the message as read!

Today the gentleman to whom Bhante Punnaji referred, his partner and I went to see the monks. (Off topic, these two people are charming folks. My honor and privilege to meet them.) To see Sri Lankan bhantes, to perform puja (bringing and serving them food) and to pray and chant was bliss. Total, unabashed bliss. It was like a homecoming for mind, body and spirit. It is hard to describe the feeling to someone that is not spiritual (I hesitate to use the word “religious” with my practice). If you have never had a spiritual experience, I highly suggest that you consider that there is more to existence than what the five sense process, and start looking around with your heart. You may be missing a lot. Today I feel purged, renewed and strengthened. A feeling I wish I could share with everyone.

The bhantes have purchased a house in Hillsboro. Given their budget, it is far from palatial. We went to look at it along with some other lay Sri Lankans, and we all agreed to meet there on Saturday for a thorough cleaning of our new vihara. It’s tough to tell which will receive the better cleansing; the house or its cleaners.

Namo Sanghaya translates from Pali as “honor to the Sangha.” For those of you that know me well, it is a testament to the day’s experiences that English fails me.

Thank you, Bhante Punnaji. For everything.

A few weeks ago I posted a story about how American business seems to be unaware of religious sensibilities outside of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I wish I could report that things are getting better.

While doing my daily perusal of Buddhist News yesterday I was shocked to see a story regarding a poster for the upcoming film Hollywood Buddha. And, according to Buddhist News, I was not alone in my dismay.

Well, those who know me well know that I am not one to sit on my hands. I picked up the phone and called the production company. By last night I had e-mailed Buddhist News. I’ll let my e-mails do the talking.

From: mneptok
Date: September 08, 2004 13:36:24 PDT
To: no_spam@ukmba.org.my
Cc: no_spam@buddhistnews.tv, no_spam@ybg.com
Subject: “Hollywood Buddha” poster

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you to inform you of a telephone conversation I had today with M. Philippe Caland, the producer of the film “Hollywood Buddha.” The poster for this film, which depicts M. Caland seated atop the head of Sakaymuni Buddha has been the source of controversy. The BuddhistNews.tv site is currently carrying several headlines about this issue.

I called the film’s production company and actually spoke with M. Caland himself. He assured me that he was shocked by the poster, as well. He did not design the poster, it was produced by a company that is respected as a creator of movie posters. When he saw the poster, he was as disturbed by it as we Buddhists are.

M. Caland assured me that he is working to remove the poster from all theaters, websites, press materials and any other public place. He will no longer be working with the company that produced that poster. And M. Caland also seems to have an understanding of Buddha-Dhamma, and how important it is in our increasingly violent world.

I would consider it a personal favor to myself if you would post a story to Buddhist News stating that the film’s producer and director was equally shocked and angered by the depiction of Sakyamuni Buddha in such an undignified position, and that he is working to make sure that this image is removed from public view. Also, he was not personally responsible nor aware of the poster’s content until it had been distributed.

I think this was an unfortunate mistake on the part of M. Caland, and a mistake that he has allowed to instruct him. Lord Buddha understood that we are not perfect beings, and the struggle for perfection through following of the Eightfold Path often leads to us making mistakes. The important thing is that we learn from our mistakes, and only make them once. Becoming awake is not an easy process, and M. Caland seems to have awakened to the error this poster company made. This being the case, I would hate for Buddhists to cultivate anger toward any living thing, and especially M. Caland. Let us all believe that this was a simple error, and cultivate compassion instead of anger.

Thank you for your attention. May all beings find peace and be free from suffering in the refuge of the Three Jewels.

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambuddhassa.

I then received a very polite and thoughtful response from the Buddhist News Editor-In-Chief thanking me for having the poster removed. I though this was an overestimation of my role in this affair, and that, indeed, M. Caland had already decided the poster was in poor taste. So I wrote again.

I hope you are not under the impression that I myself convinced Philippe Caland to remove the poster. When I spoke to him on the phone, he was already in the process of having this poster removed and changed. It was not on my advice or insistence that he decided to do this.

I appreciate that you feel that my actions have generated positive kamma for me, and perhaps they have. But I do not act in order to generate good kamma. I act in accordance with the precepts of Sakyamuni Buddha, and trust that kamma follows like the cart follows the foot of the ox. But I am grateful that you see my actions as meritorious.

It was most disturbing to me to see my fellow Buddhists so angry, especially members of the Sangha. To see the picture on the front page of

http://www.thaitemple.org

with a large, red “X” over the head of Lord Buddha and another human being, and with the word “IGNORANCE” written is deeply disturbing to me. I do not feel it is auspicious for bhantes to cultivate or promote anger or hatred. But, I would never think to counsel venerable bhantes, it is not my place. But if I can, through some small action, help to remove the cause of this anger, I am happy, and compelled by Dhamma, to do so.

I sincerely hope that together as sangha and lay-people we can set aside our anger, and show M. Caland that we practice Buddha-Dhamma by showing him compassion and understanding.

Again, my heartfelt thanks for your kind wishes. May you and all living beings be free from suffering and warmed by the bright lamp of Buddha-dhamma.

After speaking with M. Caland again today, he has convinced me completely that he is a decent, sensitive man who has been the unfortunate victim of a less-sensitive poster company. He graciously offered an invitation to the Hollywood premier of the film, an invitation I had to decline due to my current economic circumstances. M. Caland then offered to send a DVD of his film. Truly, a generous and thoughtful man. Philippe Caland has my gratitude and my apologies for being the recipient of any actions or words from Buddhists who are not being mindful of their deeds.

Thanks also go to Buddhist News, who have published a new story relating my experiences and communications. It is clear that Buddhist News does not want to prolong controversy simply to increase readership. They could have milked this story for days, allowing tempers to spiral while they received more website hits. But they are interested in the truth of matters, and it speaks well of their journalistic integrity.

Please, no comments thanking me for what I have done. It was the correct thing to do, and I did it not for kamma or merit or thanks. I did it because it was the correct thing to do. I hope I can do the same all the time; and that we all can.

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambuddhassa.

DrukNet IRC chum bagarmo (that’s her IRC nick, not real name) has completed her university studies, has turned in her thesis and is about to receive her Master’s degree. She’s headed back to Bhutan to begin teaching at Sherubtse College, most probably languages. A great choice, as her English is impeccable. Congratulations, and safe journey back to Druk Yul!