All these world leaders gathered at the Pope’s funeral, and a bout of handshaking and politeness breaks out causing the spin doctors to go into overdrive. Far from seeing this as a sad indictment on the state of international relations, I actually smiled broadly after reading this piece. It shows that when two humans meet, they tend toward the cordial. Even if they lead countries that are at war with one another or one denies the existence of the other, it’s impossible not to respond like a human to the presence of another.
My friend Jeff and I were talking yesterday about flow states, what they feel like, why they are important. As a musician I live for the flow state that we call “groove.” But it’s really heard to describe what that feels like. Saying that it’s a shared emotional space into which you let go and trust in the collective outcome doesn’t quite capture it. I think this video, which was posted up at MetaFilter, captures flow states exactly. Here are a bunch a young guys making incredible basketball shots which they could only make if they simply relaxed and let …
Lisa Gerrard makes music on her own and formerly with Dead Can Dance. “This music is probably the most un-mainstream work available, and it’s never going to be mainstream and it’s never going to be commercial. You give this work to MTV and they just look at it and say, ‘Thank you, no.’ It’s always going to be like that. This is the work I make. If I want to do something mainstream, darling, I know what to do. I have no interest in this. For me, the work process is humiliating enough without lying to myself. It’s not to …
Can someone tell me why, in the last week I have been flooded with Gmail spam that is not getting filtered? And can anyone tell me if there is an end in sight? Thank you.
Nipun and Guri are on a pilgrimage. They are keeping a blog. As they walk around northern India, they are looking for God, for compassion for giving and receiving. I think this is the most important weblog on the internet at the moment. I have been reading every single post, reading them out to others, reading and re-reading their accounts of engaged service. It continues to inspire me, in ways that pop out all over the place, like in this recent podcast of a conversation I had with Jack Ricchiuto and George Nemeth. Lately I have found myself actually physically …