RIP Quentin Elias

I just saw where Quentin Elias passed away earlier this week.  He was a beautiful man and many who knew him have posted on other sites that he was a beautiful man on the inside too.

RIP Quentin.

Back to nature

Academy Awards come to Hollywood (preview)

Ashley Wells, Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson, Dev, Wisdom Quarterly; AirTalk's Mantle, Loewenstein, and guest film critics prerecorded at the Egyptian Theatre (KPCC FM, SCPR.org)

Golden Oscar overlooking Hollywood lights, L.A., viewed from Griffith Observatory (below); golden Buddha towering over Nan, Thailand (above) in a haze (abilityriddle/flickr.com).

Oscar statue seen high atop space observatory in view of the stars, Hollywood, CA before 83rd Annual Academy Awards to be held Sunday, March 2, 2014 in rain-soaked LA (KAT/WQ).

   
Oscar ballots at the ready! Academy Awards preview

Oscar statue (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

KPCC film critics give the how and why on marking viewing-party ballots for awards-worthy films. For the 11th annual “FilmWeek on AirTalk” Academy Awards preview, Host Larry Mantle is joined by Wade Major of boxoffice.com, Tim Cogshell of Box Office Magazine, Alynda Wheat of People Magazine, Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor, Henry Sheehan of dearhenrysheehan.com, Charles Solomon of amazon.com, regular KPCC Film Critic Lael Loewenstein, and Justin Chang of Variety.

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW

COMMENTARY

Give me an award for my art!

The most important category this year is "Best Documentary," and we have our fingers crossed for Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley's "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" (Democracy Now!). But it is a tough category this year with other great choices such as The Act of Killing (about Indonesia, its military regime, and the million Indonesians they killed to stay in power and enrich themselves), The Square (about Egypt's Arab Spring centered in Tahrir Square), and 20 Feet from Stardom (about the best part of most pop music, the amazing and unsung back-up singers). 

Hollywood Oscar, Griffith Park (ocio.go)

And then there's "Magnetism" in space between Sandy Bollocks and Ceorgie Glooney, which will probably sweep the whole show along with Jared Leto's "San Antonio Sellers Club" ably supported by Matt Mc Something or other. And we have our fingers crossed that this is finally Johnny Depp's year for his fantastic work as the pirate in "Saving Capt. Phillips." *Wink* See all of the nominees in all of the categories so as to memorize all of the fine minutiae for your Sunday viewing party: oscar.go.com/nominees

• LIVE: Full Oscar coverage, breaking news (Huff Post)
• "12 Years a Slave" sweeps Spirit Awards! (LN/LA Times)

OSCARS 2014: Complete LIST of nominees and WINNERS

"White Rabbit" Arabic version by Mayssa Karaa for "American Hustle"

Los Angeles skyline in window as viewed from Tinsel Town/Hollywood

Friday Hot Flash

Living arguments on gun control (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com); Kevin Uhrich (PW)

No walk on the beach

I'll kill ya...for pointing that at me

The sun had already started setting by the time a former girlfriend and I arrived at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades one night...

 

We were going to have dinner at nearby Gladstone’s Restaurant, where Sunset Boulevard ends at Pacific Coast Highway, but decided to first grab a blanket from the car and head down to the sand to watch the sun go down...

 

It was chilly that night, and few people were out there with us, except for one young man who stood just where the sand turned into parking lot, seemingly watching our every move.

(Comedy Central) We the U.S. are the problem, not our guns, as Canada demonstrates.

 

After a [while] I didn’t really think much of the guy, but I looked around just the same, to see exactly how alone we really were out there.

 

Looking back over my right shoulder, my eyes scanned the rest of the parking lot, then north, along the sand. That’s when I saw another young man, this one a short distance from us, walking slowly on the beach, not along the surf but toward the parking lot, all while looking intently at the two of us.

Tea Party Republican Libertarian Na...

He made some motions with his head toward the guy in the parking lot, who by this time was joined by a third man, and those two started making their way into the sand to meet their associate.

Gladstone’s was only about an eighth of a mile away, but it might as well have been miles if we had to run to it in the deep sand in order to get away. By this time, we had finished..., my friend seemingly oblivious to what was going on around us.

(Comedy Central, Daily Show, Part II) John Oliver vows that never again
will a political career end in a senseless act of meaningful legislation.

Let us prevent political suicide in the face of NRA lobbyists.

“C’mon, I think we better go,” I said, grasping the slender neck of the bottle, preparing myself to smash it across one of their heads, if necessary.

“What’s the matter?” she asked before turning around and suddenly realizing that our new friends were actually about to try something.

 

Guns don't kill people; bullets kill people.

With that, she stood up, faced the three guys and placed her hand inside of her purse, which she then raised up slightly at arm’s length with her other hand. A look of deadly earnestness crossed her face, but she didn’t say a word. They all seemed to understand that my girlfriend was armed with a gun, and, even better, that she at least appeared prepared to use it if need be.

(Comedy Central, Daily Show, Part III) John Oliver: it's pointless for US to

study Australian gun control because the situations are just too similar.

 

I gathered up our stuff and headed toward the car as she turned toward our potential assailants, never once taking her eyes off of them. They stood there frozen, apparently knowing better than to make any kind of move as we hustled back to the car, got in, and drove away. We never did go to dinner at Gladstone’s. More

My government killing me

Democide is a term revived and redefined by the political scientist R.J. Rummel as the murder of people by their government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder." He created the term as an extended concept to include forms of government-murder that are not covered by the term "genocide," and it has become accepted among other scholars in spite of the fact that the term democide was defined and used in English more than 40 years earlier by Theodore Abel. In the 20th century democide surpassed war as the leading cause of non-natural death... More

Guns: Are we pro or con?
Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORIAL)

Like Budai, let's throw away the AKs (CC)

We unanimously agree. Our position on guns is that they should ALL be gotten rid of. We cannot have police, the paramilitary, and military retain firearms and expect that citizens, protesters, and advocates of civil liberties would be safe from these deadly agents, who in the past have done so much to violate the Constitution, our rights, and the laws of the land with tacit approval of the court and manipulated juries. It would be Martial Law and oppression that perhaps is only staved off because the two sides, ordinary second-class citizens versus elites and their soldiers, have guns. So they should have access to the same terrible guns.

Killing is unskillful, unwholesome karma. And what excuses we make for this intentional action will do little to alter the bitter fruit of our deeds. Many are willing to kill -- whether motivated by fear, greed, delusion, or hatred. Because that is the subtle underlying motivation, the harm is there. Rationalizations that it is "self" defense or patriotism or attacking one group to defend another group does not change the personally verifiable fact that when it is being done, one of these for motivations is at work.

Nothing good will come of it when that karma ripens. Yet, there are many people willing to shoot and kill for pay, for pleasure, for peer pressure, or simply not knowing and not understanding karma.
 
We stand for life and for the right of living beings to live oppression-free. Guns are not the way to life or beneficial karmic results. Say no to guns in the hands of authorities or in the hands of second-class citizens. But when they are in the hands of one, it seems they have to be in the hands of the other. Put the guns down.

(Mental Floss) Don't expect "science" to solve the issue

• VIDEO: Ted Nugent is a racist, I mean a black guitarist
• VIDEO: Democide is when the state kills off its citizens
• VIDEO: Capitalists propose giving millions of small handguns to Indian women to kill men on buses and elsewhere who "Eve Tease" (sexually harass) them. What could possibly go wrong? It's not as if men and criminals can take or borrow the guns from their sisters, mothers, and daughters to kill, rape, rob, engage in a budding drug trade, or cause general mayhem for corruptible police in a post ahimsa world.
• VIDEO: We have a RIGHT to bare arms! And to bare legs, bare bellies, bare bottoms... so why not let ALL citizens go topless if they want?
• VIDEO: Ex-FBI Agent explains what to do if police abuse you and your rights (Make Yourself Arrest-Proof, Dale Carson)
• VIDEO: Police given right to shoot anyone by claiming they thought the "suspect" was reaching for a waistband. It also works if they shout, as they beat you, "Stop resisting!" Or they could make it all up. How would everyone having a gun to reach for help the situation? Does a citizen have the right to shoot police about to kill him or her when we don't even have the right to have one?
• VIDEO: Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan talks to Alex Jones

U.S. Government vs. Jon Stewart's Daily Show claim. See 5:10.

Dalai Lama called liar, scolds Los Angeles

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Gary Sanders

The audience and Eric Benet serenading the Dalai Lama with a love song (philflash)

The Lourdes Foundation welcomes the Dalai Lama to Los Angeles

 

Buddhist Richard Gere

The Forum just had a $500 million renovation, inaugurated by The Eagles. But today when the black limousines and SUVs pulled up, it was the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and beloved worldwide Nobel Peace Laureate.

But on the northeast corner of the $25 per spot Forum parking lot, someone is calling him a "liar" and a "the worst dictator in the world." It is a Tibetan monastic.  Not one monastic but a group of anis and monks, presumably lamas. Not only this group, but many laypeople as well. They are singing, "Stop lying, Dalai Lama." This is the Dorje Shugden controversy, and most people won't see it tucked into this tiny "Free Speech Zone" on the fringes of Manchester Blvd. -- unless they saw it when they drove by.

Buddhist group protests Dalai Lama

Outside "Zen" author and former Laker's coach Phil Jackson is entering through the VIP doors. Inside, the supreme and exalted high-lama of the Yellow Hats is behaving like wise Yoda (who was patterned after him) but soft and loveable like a plush toy.
 
Eric Benet is singing, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love; it's the only thing that there's just too little of..." and encouraging audience participation. We're serenading the Tibetan Buddhist leader. Up in the stands there is a very vocal level of participation, out of character for this characteristically cool and jaded L.A. crowd. (Like Lorde, whenever any artist asks us to throw our hands in the air, we yawn, so there). It is a thousand Inglewood High School students brought here to see the Tibetan master and Nobel Peace Laureate inspire this city to choose compassion over violence, amity over enmity.

Eric Benet serenades the Dalai Lama, drowning out protesters outside

This is Black History Month, Inglewood's Mayor Butts reminds us in his welcome speech. Then Maria Shriver, scion of the Kennedy Family (Camelot), former First Lady of California (betrayed ex-wife of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger), and co-organizer of The Women's Conference lecture series. She once visited the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) to invite him to address her series' participants. She inspires us, brings us to our feet, and the Dalai Lama begins his loveable silliness.

You smell good. - Than'kyew. - Don't sniff him!

See, what he will say is not on the minds of people. No one is fretting that he choose just the right word. (Except for his assistant/translator standing distractingly at his side on stage to ensure that the speaker never be left wanting for just the right word). The Dalai Lama's tastefulness and emotional intelligence is unassailable, unimpeachable. He is far more talented than most politicians, more compassionate and in touch with his people (and many more non-Tibetans) than the Vatican Corporation's CEO, the Holy Roman Empire's remnant Pope, ever has been. What people are here to hear, it becomes clear, is HOW he will say it. We are here for an emotional experience to inspire us.

America loves the 14th Dalai Lama (JB)

The message is always the same -- overflowing with love (metta), compassion (karuna), empathic-appreciation (mudita), unbiased equanimity (upekkha) in addition to calls for greater Socially Engaged Buddhism.

We love him for that because we "sense" his love, his open heart. It opens our heart. He may be called a liar, oppressor, and feudal dictator outside, but in here, he is in love, and we are in love, and y'know how it is when you're in love? It's all love. Who sees any faults?

He may sound like he's scolding Los Angeles, the seat of global communications and pro-military propaganda and psy-ops, pointing his finger like a young and impetuous Bill Clinton (who was eventually taught to bend it to soften his delivery), but we all take in stride like we're being chastised by the new and improved Pope Francis. He's not chastizing us; it's the people sitting around us he's after, and they need it, we imagine  in our pettiness.

"Jeepers Creepers Slacker Guy" (Mr. Show)

Yes, the Dalai Lama's message is always the same:
 
"Attention please! If you have the time,
I'd like to blow your mind! 
Always be good, except when you're bad. 
Choose to be happy, except when you're sad. 
Don't quote me on this; don't hold me to that!" 
Is there a God? 
"Don't know for a fact." 
Should we live a good life? 
"I guess it shall be." 
Are you the [Maitreya]?
"Yes I, no I, I perhaps could be..." 
Hey, man, why can't you commit? Stop walking the line! 
...Your people need some leadership!
"Cut me some slack, I can't make up my mind.
Get off of my @$$, I heard you all the first time.
I'll get to it eventually. Just leave me be!

I can moan and groan, but I'm still on my throne.
My throne is this stone! Who'll throw the first stone?" 
...Jeepers Creepers, Slacker guy, just wants to wave without saying goodbye. Jeepers Creepers, not so great, a guy we'll never really love or hate (famously delivered by comedian Jack Black in the Mr. Show production of "Jeepers Creepers," a Slacker rendition of "Jesus Christ Superstar").

Y'know what you must do? - Yeah, uh-huh...

Above the stage on the jumbotron monitors, "Choose to be kind whenever possible." Who can disagree with that? And by the same token, its utter banality, who can agree with it? It's not saying anything. If one THINKS about it, nothing is being said. The whole speech is one long emotional-intelligence session. It's not about intellect, debate, instruction, or Buddhism in particular. It's all very general, all very pedagogical, reflecting what we think back to us. A masterstroke or a waste of time?

People love it. People can't get enough of it. We fly to India to hear more of it. The Lourdes Foundation speaker, Mr. Lourdes of the Lourdes family, at the end explains why his family and their foundation brought the Dalai Lama to Los Angeles today. He himself went to India and heard the saintly Tibetan monk speaking and thought, "People have got to hear this!"
 

The spectre of self-immolation

There is not much of anything to hear, and people will be disappointed if they are expecting a substantive speech. This is about feelings and talking points, skillful PR, and endearing delivery. It's masterful, all right, but not for reasons the audience might expect. It is wonderful for what it is: Choose compassion. Don't be bad. Fund education. Be kind. *Yawn* Teach the children well. Promote loving meditation (metta). Respect your elders. *What time is it?* Eat your mom's apple pie and your ani's momo (the ubiquitous Tibetan dumpling dish, which is stuffed pasta stewed in tomato paste with greens and is so yummy that Marco Polo couldn't wait to tell the Italians all about it on his return from the exotic East's Silk Road).

Whoever dares disagree only imdicts him or herself. One does not belittle the Dalai Lama for calling such pabulum "Pablum."

Brian praised for his book Wish It, Want It, Do It

Author and America's favorite dog, Brian Griffin, grew rich saying such things: "Believe in yourself. Have high self-esteem.? The Dalai Lama was really saying this. How, Ven. Nobel Peace Laureate? No one disagrees. Shall we pull ourselves by our bootstraps and simply will it by our willpower? Is this not what Brain says? "Want it? Do it!" "Just do it," Nike, Inc. explains.
 

Ariana, Dana, and Bill Maher grill Brian

Check your cynicism and brains at the door. This is a message to the heart. No one tells the heart to think. We tell it to love, which is what it would normally do all by itself if it were not upset. So what kind of message/reminder is it? One that will make you rich: Tell people what they want to hear, what they already know, then tell them they're already enlightened anyway. People love it. No one questions it.

Obama has heard the Dalai Lama's message of peace. Did it work? Will he listen? Will he call off the NSA, which he has the power to do by executive decree because that is all that is empowering the NSA to do what it is doing. Will he ground the CIA/JSOC's drones, which he does not really have the power to alter or affect? JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, is the president's personal army, and yet he has no real power to stop it. (That's how it is with the US presidency, which is a Big Show, a distraction, a ceremonial position, a read-the-prompter post for those who love a lot of fun and palaver of politics-as-usual without much actual power. Obama, and many before him, does not have to decide anything, just communicate what movers and shakers have already decided). Will he?

Too hot to mention (Agent_Orange2006/flickr)

It doesn't matter because the Dalai Lama did his job, and "religion" did its job. Spirituality and authentic transformation have nothing to do with it. "China threatens drama if Obama meets with Dalai Lama" reads the headline. What will China do? Will India approve? Will lovers of Dorje Shugden rise up and bring down the dalai and panchen lama systems? Our speaker never mentioned the self-immolations or anything controversial.

If you want to hear less, attend a Thich Nhat Hanh lecture (more like a Hindu darshan, a chance to see a spiritually important person). That, too, is all about the heart, all about the experience, all about connecting and has next to nothing to do with the intellect. And that's the way devotees and fans want it.
 

See the Dalai Lama

The Buddha, in Indian tradition, moved from being seen to being heard: Stream-enterers (sotāpannas) often entered the stream -- that is, became enlightened -- by hearing (sotā) the Dharma. Who wants to hear uncomfortable truths about Vietnam, the war, Martin Luther King's struggle, existence? We do. It would be nice. But mass spiritual gatherings are for that. In the days when Bhakti rules the land and people, there's no room and not much tolerance for talk of Nyana.

See the Dalai Lama soon. He continues his tour across the US, Europe, and India: dalailama.com

Barefoot buddies having fun!