Saturday, December 21, 2013
Saturday, December 14, 2013
David Icke & Jordan Maxwell in conversation: The Agenda to Control Planet Earth
David Icke and Jordan Maxwell in conversation about the agenda to control Planet Earth, meeting again for the first time in 15 years. Wonderful stuff.
http://projectavalon.net
http://davidicke.com
http://jordanmaxwell.com
bill@projectavalon.net
[Brought to my notice by Shalamee Campbell]
Thursday, December 12, 2013
ANTOINE DUFOUR ~ A MAN AND HIS GUITAR (repost)
I stumbled on this consummate fingerstyle acoustic guitarist based in Canada in November 2009 during the hostage crisis in Mumbai. Found this man's focus and dedication to his craft entirely soothing and therapeutic. Check out his homepage!
[First posted 19 August 2011]
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Spectacular version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" ~ well worth sharing!
David Gilmour joining Roger Waters on The Wall to perform 'Comfortably Numb' in London, 2 May 2011.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Jeff Liebermann on science & spirituality ~ a stimulating 14-minute lecture
Jeff Lieberman, an MIT-trained artist, scientist and engineer, makes a scientific argument for mystical experience. He asks us to challenge our perception of what we are, our relationship to the universe, and our relationship to one another. Our minds are "thought-generating machines." What we would happen if we could turn off the machine? If we could transcend our individual experience of the world?
[Thanks to Hock Soh for alerting me to this video]
Monday, November 25, 2013
UMNO'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (Part Three)
(Photo courtesy of Howsy)
NAJIB: UP TO MUSLIMS TO DECIDE ON SAIFUL'S ACTION"According to our system, any individual accused of sodomy can clear his name the Islamic way or through the courts and Saiful has chosen the former. It is up to the people to make their own conclusions.
"I have said from the beginning that this issue is a personal matter between Saiful and Anwar and has nothing to do with the Barisan Nasional," Najib told reporters after meeting Umno's Permatang Pauh by-election machinery in Butterworth yesterday.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Come on, Najib, you gotta do better than that if you seriously intend to try your hand at stand-up comedy after your parole. So, the whole sleazy sodomy affair is, by your own admission, only a sandiwara (puppet show) to dissuade Malay voters from voting against Umno? In effect, it has EVERYTHING to do with Barisan Nasional's desperate fight for survival. The very fact that you were quoted right after you chaired an Umno meeting on the Permatang Pauh by-election makes your statement reek even stronger. If the entire matter were strictly "a personal matter" between Saiful and Anwar, why would every Umno big gun be making stupid, self-incriminating remarks about the ridiculous allegations? From the home minister to the deputy prime minister and even the prime minister himself - all of you have seen fit to stick your fat necks out "to ensure Saiful gets justice." How laudable... I mean, laughable!
Many of us got suckered into believing at first that you, Najib Razak, were personally responsible for orchestrating this pigheaded plot to fix Anwar. After all, you publicly admitted to having given "counsel" to Saiful Bukhari in your own house just before he lodged that mischievous police report. However, our best source of political gossip, Raja Petra Kamarudin, gleefully informs us that the real mastermind behind Sodomy II is Umno legal adviser Shafee Abdullah (pictured left).Now that Shafee has been fingered and exposed, the police black ops against Anwar will have been scuttled - hence the decision to appeal to Malay sentiments by getting Saiful to swear on the Qur'an that Anwar Ibrahim forcibly sodomized him. What exquisite timing - right on the eve of nomination day for the Permatang Pauh by-election! Oooh, I can just picture a motley bunch of besongkoked Umno conspirators huddled together in secret conference rooms, drinking kopi-O kau and plotting and scheming Anwar's downfall...
Another influential blogger who calls himself Tulang Besi (Iron Bones) pinpoints Abdullah Badawi's detestable son-in-law and his fatcat capitalist cronies in the media as the ones responsible for this ill-conceived attempt to smear and neutralize both Anwar and Najib with a single scandal. Stands to reason, no prizes for guessing which smirking, slimy jerk once boasted he intends to be PM by the age of 40...Not a hope in hell, Khairy!
[First posted 16 August 2008]
UMNO'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (Part Two)
SHAHRIZAT LAUNCHES A MAMAK-STYLE JIHAD!From Malaysiakini: "Wanita Umno has reportedly declared a "jihad" or holy war to prevent opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim returning to Parliament in a by-election this month.
"It is a jihad because this individual should not be given the chance to destroy the country's political stability and prosperity," women's wing deputy chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said, according to The Star newspaper.
Shahrizat, a former cabinet minister, lost her seat in Parliament to Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah in landmark March elections that handed the opposition unprecedented gains against the ruling coalition.
"If we allow him to lead the country, he would lead us to destruction," she said as she launched the women's wing campaign for the Aug 26 by-election in Anwar's home state of Penang.
Oh, Shahrizat, Shahrizat! It saddens me to hear you say such horrible, wicked things about my esteemed friend Anwar Ibrahim. The only time I recall meeting you was at the launch of the last KL International Litfest. Remember what I told you? "Shahrizat, you're the only BN minister I don't mind being photographed next to!" I thought you were intelligent and charming and your kids were beautiful and friendly. But how I can maintain those positive feelings towards you now that you've revealed your true colors? You're just another corrupt and misguided Umno hypocrite. If you had any foresight or wisdom you would have quietly hopped over by now, instead of going down with the KD Umnoputra. I know Abdullah Badawi was very nice to you after you lost your parliamentary seat to Anwar's astoundingly attractive daughter, Nurul Izzah - he kept you on the Umno payroll and made sure you still earned a big fat salary as Ng Yen Yen's stand-in.
It's quite clear now you're only in politics for the money and false glamor. If you were sincere about serving the rakyat you'd have considered joining DAP, PKR, or even PAS! Umno is the party that has very nearly destroyed Malaysia through systemic corruption, unmitigated greed and total abuse of power - and a large portion of the credit for that goes to your Supermamak former PM!
Those of us whose perceptions haven't been clouded by BN's sleazy largesse view Anwar Ibrahim as the nation's best hope at this juncture for genuine reform. There isn't a single Umno politician we can trust to do what's required.
Zaid Ibrahim made a feeble attempt to overhaul the judiciary and was instantly shot down by his Umno colleagues. Shahrir Samad no longer inspires at all. Indeed, Shahrir is now the Umno ghost that talks utter cock which nobody even bothers to quote. You were perhaps the last hope for Umno - and now you've blown it with your despicable misuse of the word "jihad"! It reveals how shallow, self-serving and narrow-minded your understanding of Islam actually is.Well, the upside of it all is that we can now torpedo the Umno flagship without having to worry about collateral damage - because the sinking vessel is transporting nothing but soiled goods anyhow.
Action stations! Fire one! Fire two! Fire three!
[First posted 16 August 2008]
UMNO'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (Part One)
RIGHT: Pin-up shot of Saiful Bukhari in a baseball cap that has been circulating the internet; Pederasts Anonymous have expressed Socratic interest in this promising young man and invited him to be their mascotSAIFUL BUKHARI AZLAN ON MALAYSIAKINI:
"I swore in the name of Allah at the Federal Territory Mosque this evening in accordance to the teachings of Islam and as advised by religious scholars and teachers that I was sodomised by Anwar Ibrahim."
What is Saiful saying? Islam teaches people to swear in the name of Allah (whose own credibility, credentials, and existence have yet to be established to everybody's satisfaction) whenever accused of any behavior deemed to be an offence? Any boy as pretty as Saiful will have had a long history of being "hit on" by males as well as females. By the age of 23 he ought to have learnt how to accept or refuse such erotic advances. To now claim he was forcibly sodomized by a 61-year-old man with a bad back defies belief - unless he was drugged and raped, which is a whole different scenario. Anyone who has ever attempted penetration of a tight anus will attest that this is virtually impossible without the the acquiescence, consent and wholehearted cooperation of the person to whom the anus belongs.
Penetration by force would result in tissue damage, bleeding and scarring easily detectable by even a cursory rectal examination - and we already have the sworn testimony of the good Burmese doctor at Hospital Pusrawi that no such signs of forced entry were discovered. Apparently a subsequent rectal examination of Saiful Bukhari at Hospital Kuala Lumpur also confirmed that there were no signs of forced entry. Saiful can swear on every book in the world till he's blue in the face - but that won't alter the results of the rectal examinations. Unless, of course, Saiful has an extremely accommodating and elastic anus that allows him to be sodomized by a rogue elephant and still show no physical signs.
Alpha blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has disclosed on Malaysia Today: "At 2.30pm on Wednesday, 25 June 2008, Senior Assistant Commissioner (SAC) II Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof (shown right in a 1998 file picture) met Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in room 619 of the Concorde Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Prior to this secret meeting, Rodwan and Saiful spoke on the phone at least eight (8) times." Now this is an extremely detailed disclosure which suggests that somebody within the police force is extremely unhappy with the dirty business at hand and has chosen to be RPK's "Deep Throat." I didn't hear any reporters questioning Saiful at yesterday's press conference about his connection with SAC Rodwan Yusof (who has been accused of helping Musa Hassan falsify evidence against Anwar Ibrahim in the 1998 sodomy allegation instigated by Mahathir). No doubt Saiful would have replied: "I will answer that in court later."
"The oath I've taken was done voluntarily and it was done to uphold the truth as a Muslim, a Malay and a Malaysian."
Saiful Bukhari sees himself as primarily a Muslim, then a Malay, and lastly a Malaysian. I'm sorry, Saiful, but being any of those doesn't add any credence whatsoever to your oath. The Umno chaps all claim to be Muslim, Malay, and Malaysian - and that has never stopped them from lying through every orifice just to cling on to power.
"I understand that if the allegations and oath that I've taken under the name of Allah are not true, I will be cursed by God and tragedy and curse will come upon my family and the generations after me forever."Even if God lets you off light, Saiful, you can bet your arse you will be spat at and shunned by a lot of people for stooping so low just for a bit of cheap publicity and a "scholarship" from Umno. But please leave your fiancée out of this curse business - I'm sure she had no idea what she was in for. Curse your father (pictured right), if you like; he looks like someone already accursed.
"I've taken this oath to prove that my allegations are completely true. This is the best way for me to attain justice in the world and the hereafter and for me to redeem my pride and dignity as Allah is the only place where I can complain to."
Load of crap, boy! Taking that oath on the Qur'an proves only one thing: you're convinced that other Muslims will be inclined to believe you're telling the truth, and that's what this evil game is really about - to poison the minds of Muslim-Malay voters against Anwar Ibrahim, the greatest threat Umno has ever faced in its entire history. And if you truly feel Allah is your recourse, why did you bother going for a rectal examination at Hospital Pusrawi before lodging a police report on 28 June as instructed by your Umno handlers?
"I've done this for God and I took my oath in the house of God, that I was humiliated and sodomised by Anwar Ibrahim and I do not wish to lie to the world as he has done."
You twisted little shit, Saiful! Umno is NOT God! You've been offered filthy lucre to "sacrifice yourself" to save Umno from Anwar Ibrahim - and you saw a golden opportunity to attain global notoriety as Anwar's political assassin - exactly like Mark David Chapman believed he would forever be remembered as the fuckwit who shot John Lennon.
Saiful, an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God would already know what a "good" boy you are (no need for you to sumpah on the Qur'an, that's only for show); an all-powerful God would have intervened to protect your chastity from being ravaged. God the omnipresent also resides in your anus and, for all we know, probably relishes the occasional rectal probe!
[First posted 16 August 2008]
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Remembering Paul Ponnudorai (20 November 1961~7 July 2012)
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| Too bad I missed Paul's 50th birthday gig at CJ's Pub & Restaurant on 20 November 2011 |
THE MUSICIAN’S MUSICIAN
22 December 2007
Paul Ponnudorai has been called the ‘greatest musical interpreter of our time’, but who is he?
With his long hair and easy-going demeanor, it’s easy to dismiss singer-guitarist Paul Ponnudorai as just another musician playing in a pub. But one listen to him and you’ll know he’s definitely not just hired musical help.
His fans (many of them musicians themselves) know him as the guy who can turn a tune on its head and make it an extraordinary piece of art. They bandy superlative terms like "genius" or "musical phenomenon" when describing him.
When his name popped up in a feature article in Time magazine in May this year, wherein the writer called him "possibly the greatest musical interpreter of our time," they thought his time - no pun intended - had come.
But it hadn’t. Ponnudorai still plays Thursdays to Saturdays at Harry’s bar at the Esplanade - a gig he’s had for five years. In a straw poll we conducted, many didn’t even recognise the name and one actually asked if he was "the guy who started that famous shop in Little India." (FYI: That’s P Govindasamy Pillai.)
While failure to hit the big time despite a plug from Time magazine might bug younger musicians, Ponnudorai is nonplussed: "(The Time article) was certainly a nice compliment, but I don’t think of myself as a guitar hero. I’m known and, yet again, not. I play because I love to play and sing. It keeps me happy. And if I can touch people with it, even better. Because having something is no fun unless you share it."
Ponnudorai will be sharing the music on Saturday with local jazz legend Jeremy Monteiro and American greats Tuck and Patti at the Esplanade as part of Monteiro’s annual Christmas concert series - an event the jazz maestro started five years ago.
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| Rehearsing in Singapore with Jeremy Monteiro (keyboard) & Howard Levy (harp) |
"When people see him, I’m sure they will be blown away by his ability and his singing," said Monteiro, 47. "Tuck and Patti have called him a ‘phenomenon’. The people who come to the show will come away with a better understanding of who Paul is."
Still, knowing how apathetic the Singapore audience can be, Monteiro is well aware critical acclaim is not necessarily followed by fame. "If you’re good, you should be famous," said Monteiro. "But it’s not always so. Like some musicians are famous, but are they good? Paul is definitely good - one of the best kept secrets of the music world."
The story of this secret started in Ipoh, Malaysia, where Ponnudorai grew up. He picked up the ukulele when he was four and the guitar at six. A left-hander, he taught himself to play right-handed and learned to keep time by playing to the creak of an old ceiling fan. His musical influences spanned from opera to country, courtesy of his father, who would play music at home.
But Ponnudorai never thought he’d be a musician. It was his brother who invited him to play during happy hours at a piano bar in Kuala Lumpur. Said the bachelor: "And as the story goes, I walked into a bar and I never walked out."
Since then, Ponnudorai has led what many would call "a full life," although he’s only a youthful 46. He’s had to endure threats from jealous musicians wanting to cut his fingers off, and played to gun-toting gang members in nightclubs - where they made him play Wham!’s "Careless Whisper" 17 times non-stop once.
He’s also won the hearts of some of the greatest musicians, including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans, guitarist Tommy Emmanuel and vocalist Bobby McFerrin.
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| Ponnudorai's only album was released in 2005 |
He’s survived two car crashes, with the second in 1992 resulting in him having brain surgery. "I was worried, after the second accident, about the extent of damage," he explained. "I was afraid to pick up the guitar."
But a few months later, a musician friend of his asked him to come on stage and jam with him. "I said: ‘No, I haven’t played the guitar in months.’ And he said: ‘Look, you believe in God, don’t you? Have faith.’ So I did go up and I played - and I haven’t stopped playing since!"
And though he may have a few regrets, Ponnudorai says the music makes up for it. "I think if I could have afforded higher education I probably would have missed out on these experiences I have garnered over the years playing music. I would not have had the interaction with people, spanning a period of 28 years. I don’t think any amount of money could buy that experience or pleasure. You know they say it’s the journey that counts, not the destination. I believe that’s true. I’m enjoying the journey right now."
MUNSHI AHMED FOR TIME
10 May 2007
A man who is quite possibly the greatest musical interpreter of our time performs every weekend at Harry's - an ordinary bar in a Singaporean shopping mall. There, before a half-empty room, while soccer matches are screened and waitresses ferry beer and fries, Paul Ponnudorai sings with astounding virtuosity, accompanied only by his Spanish guitar. His voice swoops and growls with the range and soulfulness of mid-period Stevie Wonder, and his fluid, polyrhythmic style of guitar playing appears to have little precedent. But it is his choice of material, and the inventiveness with which he arranges it, that cloaks Ponnudorai in the aura of genius.
Ponnudorai's style is to deconstruct a hackneyed standard, reassemble the parts in startlingly creative ways, and then perform it with a passion that nobody has previously dared. Thus the campfire dirge Five Hundred Miles becomes a spine-tingling R&B ballad, dripping with anguish. The Beatles' chirpy Can't Buy Me Love is transformed into a complex jazz exercise, incorporating some of the Karnatakan rhythmic phrases of Ponnudorai's South Indian ancestry. The Cascades' saccharine Rhythm of the Rain metamorphoses into the purest Burt Bacharach, with unexpected chord changes and lush melodic lines.
Comparisons could be made with José Feliciano, the Puerto Rican singer-guitarist who had 1960s hits with stylish remakes of songs like California Dreamin' and Light My Fire. But Ponnudorai is better. His ability to dice songs up, look into their hearts and perceive the common veins connecting every genre has won the attention of top international players who go to Singapore on tour. Harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans, drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist Tommy Emmanuel and vocalist Bobby McFerrin have all been in the audience. In 2002, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis showed up at a performance and was so taken by it, he grabbed his instrument and leapt onstage to play alongside a startled Ponnudorai, who did not recognize him. "He told me 'Ever since I got off the plane I've been hearing about nothing but you,'" Ponnudorai recalls. The pair jammed together for the next two nights.
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| Photo by Jack Hoo |
Marsalis was referring to the buzz Ponnudorai generates among local and overseas musicians. Among the public, it is another matter. If you watch Ponnudorai play, there will typically be a handful of fans near the stage. Everyone else will be at the other end of the room, noisily drinking and making a mockery of Singapore's reputation as a city at the forefront of smoking cessation. The kind of musician that the world produces only a few times in a generation is in the house, but the laity barely notice.
[Read the rest here.]
Sunday, October 27, 2013
The Entheogenic Art of Alex Grey (revisited)
entheogen |enˈthēəˌjen; -jən|
noun - a chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to produce a nonordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes.
entheogenic |enËŒthēəˈjenik| adjective - ORIGIN 1970s: from Greek, literally ‘becoming divine within’; coined by an informal committee studying the inebriants of shamans.
Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953 (Sagittarius), the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son's drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture. He went to the Columbus College of Art and Design for two years (1971-73), then dropped out and painted billboards in Ohio for a year (73-74). Grey then attended the Boston Museum School for one year, to study with the conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav.
At the Boston Museum School he met his wife, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. During this period he had a series of entheogenically induced mystical experiences that transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple would trip together on LSD. Alex then spent five years at Harvard Medical School working in the Anatomy department studying the body and preparing cadavers for dissection.
He also worked at Harvard's department of Mind/Body Medicine with Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex's anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (explained below) and for doing medical illustration. When doctors saw his Sacred Mirrors, they asked him to do illustration work.
Grey was an instructor in Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and now teaches courses in Visionary Art with Allyson at The Open Center in New York City, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. The most recent performance was WorldSpirit, a spoken word and musical collaboration with Kenji Williams which was released in 2004 as a DVD.
Grey's unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. Begun in 1979, the series took a period of ten years to complete.
It was during this period that he developed his depictions of the human body that "x-ray" the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spiritual forces. After painting the Sacred Mirrors, he applied this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as praying, meditation, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, nursing and dying. Grey’s recent work has explored the subject of consciousness from the perspective of “universal beings” whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls.
Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere have expressed appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Grey's paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of TOOL, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Newsweek magazine, the Discovery Channel, Rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including Feature Inc., Tibet House, Stux Gallery, P.S. 1, The Outsider Art Fair and the New Museum in NYC, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Alex has been a keynote speaker at conferences all over the world including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Basel, Barcelona and Manaus. The international psychedelic community has embraced Grey as an important mapmaker and spokesman for the visionary realm.
Transfigurations is Alex's second large format monograph containing over 300 color and black & white images of Grey's work. Sounds True has released The Visionary Artist, a CD of Grey's reflections on art as a spiritual practice. ARTmind is the artist's recent video exploring the healing potential of Sacred Art. Grey co-edited the book, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle Books, 2002). The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, a long-term exhibition of fifty works of transformative art by Grey has opened (Fall 2004) in New York City. He lives in New York City with his wife, the painter, Allyson Grey and their daughter, the actress, Zena Grey.
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| Cosmic Christ |
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| The Alex Grey Guitar |
[With special thanks to Melissa Lin for introducing me to Alex Grey! First published 23 December 2008]
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
John Lennon would be celebrating his 73rd birthday right now....
But I doubt he would have enjoyed turning into a grouchy old fart like Bob Dylan.
Happy Birthday, Johnny... wherever you are.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
What brand of smartphones and tablets is ideal for UMNO BARU members?
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| UMNO (1946~1988) ... UMNO BARU (1988~?) |
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| UMNO BARU president elected by 191 corrupt division chiefs |
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| UMNO BARU vice-president in charge of homo affairs |
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| Suck my keris! |
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| UMNO BARU faithful ever ready to lie for their party |
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| UMNO BARU thug threatening innocent bystanders with his shoe |
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| UMNO BARU in the digital age, preparing for the Great War in Cyberspace |
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| Who says the mentally and morally retarded can't use smartphones? |
[First published 25 April 2012]
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Visionary art as an antidote to corporate fascism
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| Galactic Alignment by Andréa Balt |
The world appears to teeter once again on the brink of
all-out war, as criminal regimes with covert links to oil giants, drug cartels,
vice syndicates, mercenary armies and terrorist cells attempt to shock and awe
the masses into docile submission to their totalitarian dictates.
Religious fanaticism, spurred on by vested interests with
divisive survival strategies, rears it ugly head whenever the corrupt status
quo feels threatened by increasingly vociferous demands for radical reform.
At apocalyptic times such as this, the soul finds refuge
and revitalization in magical epiphanies of the unfettered imagination as
expressed through visionary art.
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| Chêne (oak) by Gaëlle Van Nah Chong (6.7" X 7.9", Graphite on paper, 2013) |
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| Notre-Dame de McFarlane by Gaëlle Van Nah Chong (15.7" X 11.8" Graphite on paper, 2013) |
They have always been with us, these conjurers of phantasmagoric
landscapes who speak directly to the innermost cores of our being, bypassing
our nitpicking intellects.
A close encounter with such imagery restores our primordial memory of authentic freedom, of vistas undefined and unconfined by artificial boundaries and obstacles.
A close encounter with such imagery restores our primordial memory of authentic freedom, of vistas undefined and unconfined by artificial boundaries and obstacles.
They remind us who we really are, beyond
outward appearances, beyond bureaucratic pigeonholes, beyond our own fears and
fleshly limitations. It is the visionary artist we must thank for reconnecting
us with our inner beings where our humanity is most deeply rooted.
Throughout the centuries, they have spoken to us from
their own mysterious depths, with voices intimate and introvert, of the soul’s
adventures in dimensions far subtler than consensus reality. Visionaries like
Hieronymus Bosch, William Blake, M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Alex Grey, Abdul
Mati Klarwein – who share an artistic lineage with magical realists like Dante
Alighieri, Jorge Luis Borges, Lewis Carroll, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel
Allende. Their work serves an entirely therapeutic purpose, resensitizing and
reintegrating our battered psyches, affording us a secure hideaway from the ruinous
violence of outer realms ravaged by the territorial disputes of warlords and
would-be world conquerors.
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| La Désalpe by Gaëlle Van Nah Chong (11.8" X 30", Graphite on paper, 2013) |
It gladdens my heart to witness the continuance of this
essential therapeutic service as signified by the coming together of three
young visionary artists who, in expressing their own internal dreamscapes,
remind us where our true freedom dwells – in the secret depths of our own
unique individuality.
Melissa Lin, Pereira Irving Paul and Gaëlle Chong… thank
you for freely sharing with us the astounding authenticity, veracity and raw
power of your extraordinary inner visions.
Antares Maitreya
Magick River
1 September 2013
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| Oily Teh O Ais: 3 Person Show with Melissa Lin, Pereira Irving Paul & Gaëlle Van Nah Chong 7 - 21 September 2013 @ LostGens'
“MAMAK! SATU LAGI O.T.O.A!” by T.S. HON
It’s been raining cats and dogs for weeks now. These afternoon showers come unannounced but not unexpected. Though it puts a damper on our daily wheeling and dealing, it should be seen as a much needed respite from all the brouhaha generated during the country’s 13th general election and its bitter aftermath just a few months ago.
For many of the everyday people, the business of life and making a living goes on as usual. They’ve come to accept with resignation that the more things change, the more they remain the same. “Same shit, different day” as they say. Come Monday mornings, as they commute by trains or buses packed like sardines (or KFC poultry) to the daily grind, they turn off their anger and tune out their resentment with the major and petty transgressions both real and imaginary and go through the motions till payday. That’s when they put away their ‘salarymen’ attire, gingerly don their branded mall worshipper’s costume and proceed to engage recklessly in retail therapy. And everything turns out fine in the end... as usual.
Yet, there are those who do not rest easy even though it is so much easier to uncritically adopt a herd mentality to adapt to the workings of conventional society. They refuse to subscribe to a standardized way of living prescribed for them via enculturation, education or indoctrination. These ‘misfits’ and ‘outsiders’ hold stubbornly to their own dreams and beliefs that other, more authentic and spontaneous ways of existing are possible besides the roles/lifestyles promoted by consumerism, propagated by jingoism or sanctified by religious fundamentalism. They remain true to their personal convictions against the dilution of their individuality and the commodification of life in general by the machinations of the establishment (usually in complicity with regimes, those voted to power or those that seized it.)
Perhaps it is from this context that the exhibition ‘OTOA’ can be understood and appreciated. Featuring works by Pereira Irving Paul, Gaëlle Chong and Melissa Lin, ‘OTOA’ (the title being a private joke between Melissa and Gaëlle) is a three-person exhibition at LostGens’ latest venue - located at 8C Jalan Panggong in KL’s infamous Chinatown, which serves as an extension of its residency program.
Pereira Irving Paul (36) is a full-time multidisciplinary artist, independent curator and occultist currently based in Singapore whose works are guided by western and eastern magickal traditions. He specializes in Tarot and energy healing. 32-year old Gaëlle Chong hails from Lamboing, Switzerland. She is also a self-taught whose works are rich with mythical, archetypal symbols and imageries. She is a full-time artist based in Kuala Lumpur. Completing the trinity of this three-person exhibition is Melissa Lin Shi Min (31) or Mel as her friends calls her. Born in the state of Johor, Mel studied literature formally and later enrolled in an art academy in the Netherlands but has switched to astrology instead. She is as a full-time artist and certified astrologer (having obtained her certificate of graduation from the Nightlight Astrology School a couple of years ago) and is currently based in KL. She continues to practice and take advanced classes with her mentor, the writer and astrologer Adam Elenbaas.
This exhibition could have been like any of the many weekly showcases of new works by upcoming, mid career or veteran artists in the Klang Valley; nevertheless what sets ‘OTOA’ apart from the rest is the unconventional subject matter. These are not the predictable outputs of academically trained visual art practitioners, whose objectives are mostly commercial.
Rather the artists of ‘OTOA’ belong to that small minority of creative individuals who, unshackled from the tyranny of conventional society’s regulations and expectations, dare to tap directly into that unfiltered wellspring of the universal via the unconscious, inspired and alchemical, to explore the many parallel universes, realities and possibilities beyond the fossilized versions zealously maintained by institutions, organizations and the ruling classes. And to discover what it means to be a conscious and individuated human being living in a society of the spectacle.
Moreover, ‘OTOA’ comes at time when there is a discernible feeling of lethargy in the local art scene, a feeling of pointlessness and apathy towards all the banal, formulaic and generic looking works circulating around the galleries in the city. With so much sheen, shenanigans and vacuity masquerading as visual or performance Art, it is getting harder these days to penetrate the hype (or spectacle) and come across artists who are brave and willing to express (or rather expose) themselves in visual vernaculars that are deceptively unassuming, idiosyncratic but accessible enough to be understood. There is much food for thought here, way more enriching than all the expensive aesthetic candy that is being sold in the private showrooms for the ‘loaded’ and ‘cultured.’
Without the profit motive, hidden agendas or obligations, they came together in a spirit of camaraderie and kinship, each bringing something discovered or drawn from their ‘night journeys’ to this exhibition. Their works embody a little bit of magick, mystery and madness, elements that were familiar to our primordial selves before it was suppressed or exorcised in preparation for our (forced) entry into society as functional, efficient and obedient workers/consumers by our guardians, teacher and leaders. This they have done successfully with coercion, alternating between promises of remuneration and threats of punishment.
With the ‘spirit’ driven out from the flesh, once hardened, we are ready to become the nuts, bolts and cogs that form the ruling classes’ means of production or their instruments of destruction. This dehumanizing process can also be detected in our surrounding environment which was designed to suppress the subjective and spontaneous, and aggressively induces us to see the world objectively in only blacks and whites, namely yes or no, profit or loss, us or them, left or right. It encourages us to become more and more like the electrical contraptions or electronic gadgets we operate, use and enjoy; one-dimensional and manageable with the turn of a key, swipe of a finger, flip of the switch or push of a button.
The discontent and alienation are real and natural reactions to the stultifying conditions imposed upon us. Our unconscious mind seeks to communicate with us, to warn us of the imbalances in our lives by presenting signs, symbols or symptoms through our dreams, slips of tongue, or susceptibility to certain diseases. Can the artists’ non-objective subject matter (and the way they live their lives) be read as a conscious but subtle objection to the process of objectification of life? Perhaps.
Hopefully it is evident from their thoughts in the following interview. Will their works be able to stir, resonate with something within us that the system has not managed to extinguish completely and inspire us to question the validity of the ‘reality’ sold to us, or at least to reconsider the many life-affirming choices previously denied us? That will depend on whether we are prepared to face the truth about our existence. A life which has been comfortably boxed in within these four walls made up of denials, subterfuges, prejudices, and false impressions. If we are able to push the boundaries of our comfort zone and to peek or to slip through when the cracks appear, we have given ourselves a chance to step out of a long dark shadow cast over our lives, and to finally begin that search for our rightful place in the sun.
“Under the paving stones, the beach!”
T.S. HON interviews the three artists of OTOA
T.S.HON: When did your passion in art begin and who or what was your earliest influence(s) -visual arts, music, literature?
Pereira Irving Paul: I think what came first to me, what is more important than a passion for art is a passion for imaginative fantasy. I think that's the biggest factor that makes me who I am today. Art, music, writing, magick, are just vehicles that lead imagination into reality, making Imagination real is my true inspiration and passion I would say.
I started doodling and writing stories from as young as 10 but spent more time in my head with imaginary friends and places and that is still true for me today, at 36 years of age. I truly started art making in 2008, when I started working as a Tarot card reader. The archetypes opened something up in me and all these visions started pouring out proper. So in a way, Tarot has been a major influence in terms of how its energy and magickal mystery affects me to create.
TSH: What was the impact of these influences?
PIP: The mystery of Imagination has helped me build a strong 'interior universe' which is so critical to my creation and magickal process that it cannot be separated.
There's a term called ‘Paracosm,’ a fully developed interior world that began growing in early childhood. This universe is populated with its own denizens, logic, language, philosophy and life. This is where I live from and express myself artistically and magickally. My imagination is always evolving, becoming a source of greater power every day and becoming more alive to a point where I think it is now a kind of Guiding Spirit that I’m in contact with. It informs me and instructs me on my creative processes, it wants to come out and make contact with this world.
TSH: Who are your favorite artist(s), author(s)?
PIP: I'm largely influenced by the world of H.P Lovecraft as an author. Artistwise, I respond to and identify very well with Nathan Menglesis for some reason even though his themes aren't exactly in line with mine, but his style, the mess, the dirty look, the intensity, I love it.
TSH: What are your current concerns and how are the images you've produced able to communicate your thoughts?
PIP: Right now, my main mission is to translate occult extraterrestrial technologies and philosophies into something people can engage with through my writing, visual art, spoken word, film and sound. Each form or medium plays a part in creating the 'total work of art' or Gesamtkunstwerk.
Writing/poetry/spoken word is, as much as possible, the 'explanatory' element, the form of expression that tries to convey the sense of things, using language, to give certain meaning to feelings and energies I’m trying to convey. Sound and Vision are the instinctive, emotional and spiritual vehicles for these energies. It's about the feelings and powers one feels looking or listening to the work created. Visual works are symbolic, maps of concepts condensed into an image, that when looked at, opens up portals in the mind and soul. All of it together acts as a kind of interconnected trigger to open up doorways to secret realms and arcane power that I hope can help people to expand their consciousness and Spirit.
My concern is in the field of alternative consciousness expansion, of discovering alternate paths to Spiritual unfolding and attainment. I deal with darkness a lot; darkness as a kind of necessity that actually makes you shine brighter as a Light Force.
I feel that there are people who find it hard to connect with traditional paths of religion and spirituality and I hope that as an artistic and occult vessel, I can create works that 'fringe or esoteric avant-garde lovers' can identify with on some level, that the art can at least point the way to further exploration of unbeaten and extraterrestrial paths.
TSH: What are your preferred art mediums?
PIP: If I really had to choose one, I would say pen and paper, it's organic technology. I think marks made with ink grounds 'far out ideas' into something earthy (paper) and Ink has more permanence than say charcoal or graphite and I wish to earth certain energies and keep it here for future generations to tune into. Black makes things possible; all colours vanish into the black so in a way I think black contains all spectrums. It also represents mystery and the hidden universe, which I love exploring using art.
TSH: A quote from you on the works you've produced for this exhibition or your philosophy in life in general.
PIP: I believe in having and living a rich interior life. That is where magic and art co-exists as one. Both are creative powers, magic and art is one and the same. External manifestations may pass away but an inner life lives forever. I believe it is what we continue into after the physical body dies and the inner life is intimately connected to a much immense, more powerful form of Life Force that is ever present and eternal. I think it’s important to stay true to the inner life no matter how alien or 'scary' or weird. If it is empowering in some way to you, then it's a power that should be developed and honed. For more information please visit www.ipaulpereira.com
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