Remember back in the day, sitting by your boom box, waiting with your finger on the record button in anticipation of your favorite songs? When I was in middle school, there was a boy who used to make me rap mixtapes. This was how you shared music back then. It was something that took time and effort, and it was really special. A few years later everyone was burning mix CDs... and nowadays we just share entire libraries worth of digital music in practically no time at all.
I just came across this website called Muxtape. I absolutely love the idea behind this! You sign up for an account and you can make a "muxtape" by uploading 12 songs and placing them in which ever order you see fit. You can check out other people's muxtapes and share the link to yours with anyone... It's quick and simple and gives me a warm nostalgic feeling. Go try it out and comment with a link to your muxtape!
You can check out mine here:
http://seialkali.muxtape.com/
Friday, April 11, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
There is no tradition in our relation.
I found you in the shade. You were a crescent of light emerging from dead leaves, gutted fruits.
Cheeks blushed like peaches from before. Your eyes flourishing with ideas, resting in a garden of no more.
I sit before you and think, letting your eyes feed me. We sit in complete silence like two flowers in a patch of ecstatic soil. I think, think how one pushes through soft flesh to reach the hard and indomitable core. Water slides by in a brook & we sit.
Contemplating lives, loved ones and futures. We swim in the soil and get dirt in our hair. There is no tradition in our relation. Birds sing, but don't interfere.
I wouldn't wash the dirt from my hair, turning my head to mud; nor comb the rocks and twigs from it. Nope. Somewhere (someone suggests...) is a great magnet to which all things are drawn. And what with gravity, physical laws, et al., we spin around it as we approach. Like the Maypole or a carnival ride that stops in town, for a few. sweet. moments.
Cheeks blushed like peaches from before. Your eyes flourishing with ideas, resting in a garden of no more.
I sit before you and think, letting your eyes feed me. We sit in complete silence like two flowers in a patch of ecstatic soil. I think, think how one pushes through soft flesh to reach the hard and indomitable core. Water slides by in a brook & we sit.
Contemplating lives, loved ones and futures. We swim in the soil and get dirt in our hair. There is no tradition in our relation. Birds sing, but don't interfere.
I wouldn't wash the dirt from my hair, turning my head to mud; nor comb the rocks and twigs from it. Nope. Somewhere (someone suggests...) is a great magnet to which all things are drawn. And what with gravity, physical laws, et al., we spin around it as we approach. Like the Maypole or a carnival ride that stops in town, for a few. sweet. moments.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
On Adultery
Every once in a while there's a topic that seems to pop up in multiple situations in my life. Today that topic is adultery. I've had a lot of experience with adultery, both personally and from hearing stories about friends and even enemies (don't ever fool yourself into thinking your business doesn't get around). It's kind of funny what people do and say behind each others backs, myself included. I've got enough information to at least damage a couple of relationships, and the sad part is, most people can probably say the same thing. And yet, it's always the messenger who gets proverbially "shot". Not to mention, despite whether the cheating party is forgiven or not, the person who had nothing to do with the relationship usually ends up taking most of the blame. Where is the sense in any of this? Although, I guess love is a senseless emotion.
I think it's really funny when people scoff at the idea of an open relationship without even considering that they're probably indirectly in one anyways. What would happen if we lost this sense of our lovers as somehow "belonging" to us? Is jealously in relation to our lovers an inherent feeling, or is it socially constructed? Could a society where people were completely honest with each other, slept with whoever they wanted openly, and had multiple romantic relationships at once ever possibly work?
Probably not.
This is not to say that I know much about the vast majority of cultures, but it if I had to take a guess I'd say that people all over the world absolutely love drama. This is why we don't celebrate stories about how someone walked to the grocery store, bought dinner, walked back home and ate it. The most famous stories all have at least one thing in common, drama. A world without conflict is fucking boring, not to mention impossible. People will always have opposing opinions and interests, and there will always be those times where we'll only think about ourselves. Why? Daniel Goleman has a thought provoking take on that. But for the time being I'm focusing specifically on adultery.
I'm not quite sure what I really want to say, except for that I'm a little disturbed by all the lying and betrayal I've witnessed in the past few days. It's not the fact that people in relationships are sleeping around that bothers me, it's all the dishonesty about it that really makes me feel uncomfortable. Can you ever really completely trust anyone, myself not excluded? I don't believe we really can. Is this a problem we can and/or should fix? I guess it depends on your take in life. I'm beginning to think that maybe we shouldn't. Part of what makes life exciting is doing something risky. Also, having a secret can really give you this amazing sense of adventure and control over your life.
Anyways, I don't personally believe in a right or wrong, only outcomes. Whether you're trying to decide if you should cheat on your significant other or to sleep with that irresistibly attractive married man in your office, make sure you consider all the possible outcomes for your potential romp before acting upon your desires. Because heaven forbid anyone should be honest about their actions.
I think it's really funny when people scoff at the idea of an open relationship without even considering that they're probably indirectly in one anyways. What would happen if we lost this sense of our lovers as somehow "belonging" to us? Is jealously in relation to our lovers an inherent feeling, or is it socially constructed? Could a society where people were completely honest with each other, slept with whoever they wanted openly, and had multiple romantic relationships at once ever possibly work?
Probably not.
This is not to say that I know much about the vast majority of cultures, but it if I had to take a guess I'd say that people all over the world absolutely love drama. This is why we don't celebrate stories about how someone walked to the grocery store, bought dinner, walked back home and ate it. The most famous stories all have at least one thing in common, drama. A world without conflict is fucking boring, not to mention impossible. People will always have opposing opinions and interests, and there will always be those times where we'll only think about ourselves. Why? Daniel Goleman has a thought provoking take on that. But for the time being I'm focusing specifically on adultery.
I'm not quite sure what I really want to say, except for that I'm a little disturbed by all the lying and betrayal I've witnessed in the past few days. It's not the fact that people in relationships are sleeping around that bothers me, it's all the dishonesty about it that really makes me feel uncomfortable. Can you ever really completely trust anyone, myself not excluded? I don't believe we really can. Is this a problem we can and/or should fix? I guess it depends on your take in life. I'm beginning to think that maybe we shouldn't. Part of what makes life exciting is doing something risky. Also, having a secret can really give you this amazing sense of adventure and control over your life.
Anyways, I don't personally believe in a right or wrong, only outcomes. Whether you're trying to decide if you should cheat on your significant other or to sleep with that irresistibly attractive married man in your office, make sure you consider all the possible outcomes for your potential romp before acting upon your desires. Because heaven forbid anyone should be honest about their actions.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
commodification of human emotion.
Oh what a strange world we'd live in if we could really neatly package human feeling.
The worst part is hypocrisy hiding in theses ads for the International Red Cross, while the Canadian Red Cross, despite the blood bag filled with compassion, doesn't accept blood donations from gay males. Apparently it's 1981.
You'd think that by 2008 any humanist and forward-thinking organization would realize that supporting this kind of homophobia is dangerous. We all know that AIDS is not a gay disease. We all know that AIDS doesn't discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, class or race.
AIDS can be contracted by everyone. Everyone (except gay males) can donate blood. Therefore, anyone with AIDS can donate blood. To maintain this kind of discrimination against gay men is pointless, offensive and does nothing to protect the blood supply. All it really accomplishes is preventing sick people from getting blood they could use.
Compassionate, tolerant, aware? Get it together Red Cross.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A French, Buddist monk tells us how to be happy...
Taken from TED: Matthieu Ricard
"What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community."
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