In My Mind’s Zen Garden

I’m sure you might’ve seen this on the news recently… Philadelphia police officers apparently “losing control” and kicking, punching, stomping and baton whipping three suspects:

1. I don’t care if the police had justifiable cause. This doesn’t look right.

2. I thought that suspects are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law. Apparently, for whatever reason, the police officers decided to have the trial, verdict and punishment delivered right there in the street.

3. Watching police officers brutally beat people like that… how am I supposed to feel safe? How am I supposed to trust their motto… “to protect and serve”?

4. People need to learn that violence only causes more violence. Only hate causes more hate.

I know there’s a lot of violence out there. But watching this… I feel really sad, folks. This brings tears to my eyes. :(

Okay, it didn’t help that I randomly visited Eric Cheng’s site and found a youtube video of Japanese piano prodigy Aimi Kobayashi… okay, I found another video that’s equally amazing!

So, early today I thought I had a gig at an upscale residence in an upscale part of town. When I got to the door the daughter of the birthday boy greeted me and invited me in. She showed me the options of where our jazz trio would perform, then I asked when the party was going to start because there was no one there yet. Things looked very quiet. And she said that the party wasn’t until June 7th.

OOPS!!!

Okay, today is May 7th. Apparently there was a mix up with the dates. Daughter of birthday boy (he’s turning 100 next month) had to leave to do an errand, then singer and keyboardist arrive in their van. Hehe… when I told them that the party wasn’t until next month… jaws started dropping.

So, no gig… I wasn’t getting paid. And, so I went home…

Okay, getting back to the little Japanese girl who is a piano prodigy… man, that girl plays better than me and I’ve been playing piano for decades… since 5… I’m not jealous or anything but I’m a bit depressed now… well, I’m not really a classically trained pianist, and now I don’t know what kind of pianist I am… hmm…

This is awesome. I need to incorporate ‘green smoothies’ into my raw foods diet.

Also, here’s a very nice Young Coconut Shake recipe I found on WendiDee’s Pure Jeevan site. Awesome!

I’ve been a long-time fan of Zannah’s blog - #!/usr/bin/girl (since the late 1990’s). Here she is testing the new video feature on flickr.com (as she goes through the Starbucks 24 hour drive-thru. Zannah is an “interent rock star”:

Just thought I would post some photos from my flickr account that were recently faved, being that this is a rare occurence:

This is me like, four and a half years ago when I was vegan, though not a raw foodie yet. As you can see I drank a lot of Starbucks soy mochas. And, my Apple Powerbook G4 was working (properly) before I switched to an HP Pavilion Notebook. Hmm… I look quite different here.

A couple of years ago the family and I traveled to the Grand Canyon for the first time. Actually, I had to perform at a lavish wedding in Scottsdale, so we thought about making a family trip out of the journey too. Here is the El Tovar Hotel and Restaurant, along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had completely forgotten about this pic. Unfortunately, our youngest boy was sick during most of the trip.

This photo is the most popular of all my flickr photos. But it’s kind of misleading… the room is actually much smaller than it looks. And, right now it isn’t that clean. The room looks like a train wreck right now.

Anyways, thanks to all who visit my flickr photos. If you haven’t been there yet, please explore…

I having certain feelings for distant lands toward the East, feelings that are remarkably strong and have come out of nowhere long ago…

Reincarnation is a concept that is very foreign to the Western world of Christianity and Judaism. I always wondered why I had such an affinity for places such as India, Tibet, and the Himalayas. Sometime in my youth I had a dream about living in the Himalayan mountain range, and possibly the northern parts of India. Perhaps, I even wandered through Tibet once, and had seen Mount Kailash. It looks awfully familiar to me.

As a matter of fact, I have these deep feelings from within, that I had lived somewhere in India or Tibet, in past life. My affinity for Indian and Tibetan culture seems to run deep. Though, I am Filipino by birth, and raised an American, I have a strong attraction to Indian culture, Hinduism, Indian music, art and religion… I have read Autobiography of a Yogi many times. Recently I watched Monsoon Wedding and I did watch it when it first came out in the theaters in 2001, but, I like watching movies about India. I have a nice DVD about the Origins of Yoga that documents the lives of the millions of wandering ascetics, yogis and saints. I collect old photos of Indian yogis and gurus, and I aspire to one day live the life of a serious devotee of Yoga.

In India, a vegetarian and vegan diet is a part of the culture, and is a part of “ahimsa“, a compassion and respect for all living things, to the point of not causing harm to them. It’s part of the philosophy of Yoga, thus… my dedication to Yoga and a Raw Vegan diet is an important part of my personal lifestyle…

One day, i shall visit those distant lands… one day. But for now, I guess I am an Indian or a Tibetan, reborn in a distant land, and longing to come home…

The gig with the Flamenco group went quite well last night. Not that there are times when things go wrong. For the most part the Flamenco group is always a fun gig and we generally do well. But last night was pretty special.

We had a nice crowd there, but it wasn’t as packed as Thursday night. Someone in the band mentioned that Cinco De Mayo is coming just around the corner, so people were probably getting geared up for the partying on Monday. And it’s too bad I don’t have a gig on Monday.

There was a young lady at the gig last night who was very enthusiastic about our music, and was dancing right up front there. It was very apparent that she was digging my drumming, and she called me “drummer boy”, and she complemented me more than once. One of the guys in the band was a bit nervous about her, as if she was rather “stalkerish”, but I had a talk with her after the gig, and she’s a very nice person. Just very enthusiastic about our music, that’s all. And I’m grateful for that. It’s nice to see people really get into what we’re doing.

I wanted to do something a bit different last night. I wanted to re-approach what I was doing on drums and started off playing as minimalist as possible. Sometimes, it’s best to approach the music from the point of “nothingness” and then slowly build from that. And I think it worked very well. I’ll be using this approach from now on.

Drum Solos are the hardest thing to do.

Especially when you play at any venue several times a month, the challenge is to keep things fresh because there are people that come to see you more than once. Sure, there will be times when I’m not as much in the zone as I could’ve been, but the main thing is to keep things creative and fresh each time. I had some very different drum solos last night, which I was happy about. I never want to play the exact same thing each time. And thus the challenge.

But, I’m at a point now where I want to add another cowbell and a woodblock. Mix things up more with the drumset. And get another set of double pedals so that I can strike the bottom of the floor tom.

Anyway, sometimes at the gigs I can feel like I’ve glimpsed eternity… until I get home and find myself once again away from the crowds and the excitement… back to the solitude of home, back to nothingness… until the next gig.

My good friend Pat is afflicted with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease)… my thoughts and prayers go out to you, Pat! This woman seems to have been cured of ALS through faith and prayer. Tonight, I light a candle for you, my friend.