Happy belated Father's Day

Hope everyone had a happy father's day. I have a tradition of taking Larry Niven to brunch on Father's day. Larry, Fuzzy and I went to a "93rd Aero Squadron" restaurant in Van Nuys, and had a mostly fine time. One strange thing, though. As they are both quite conservative, we often get into conversations about philosophy, and politics, and such, as if I'm just about the only black person they know. No problem. The problem was that while we were having brunch, and discussing Reverend Wright and Michelle Obama (Fuzzy was afraid that Michelle hates white people, for instance) I spoke of how a person can attend a church for what they can give, as well as what they take away. Just a typical conversation about race and history and the psychology of personal evolution. While we were talking, I noticed that there was a big (really big) white guy in his 40's sitting at a nearby table. I may have had a hunch that he was interested. Not sure.

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At any rate, after about an hour, the folks at the other table got up to leave, and this guy walked over to me. "I couldn't help hearing what you were saying" he said. "Where did you grow up?" I had a feeling he was going to give me the "gee you're articulate" speech I get from white people all the time. I said I'd grown up in L.A., but was hesitant to mention what part. He launched into his capper. "Well, I grew up in Watts and South Central" he said. "And I think that what you've been saying is just bullshit."

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My my. Here I am having Sunday brunch with two very genteel, folks in thie late 60's, or early 70's, and he walks up to a stranger and says that? My take on him was that he was relatively well to do (the restaurant was pricey) and comfortable with physical and emotional confrontation. By what right did he think it would be cool to say that? That is a level of...hmmm. Let's say assumption of privilege that is pretty astounding. since he almost immediately walked away (with a "gotcha" expression) I don't have any clear idea what he was referring to . I can only guess. Wow. I wonder what it feels like to go through life thinking you have the right to interact with human beings like that.

#

So...the book project continues to evolve. The current title is simple: "100 Days." It is going to revolve around a very short list of practices to be integrated for the titular duration. Those practices are

1) Intermittent Fasting (if hunger on fasting days gets too extreme, eating fresh fruits and vegetables only on those days)

2) Five Tibetans

3) Five Minute Miracle (integrating the breathing practice into the rest of your life)

4) Triangle Goals (one in each major area, re-read every morning.)

5) Heartbeat Meditation.

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The minimum buy-in becomes abotu 10 minutes a day: three minutes of Tibetans, a minutes of meditation, a minute of goal overview, and five one-minute breaks during the day. The "Program Minimum" would, when mature, take no more than about 15 minutes a day. Program Maximum would be the "Golden Hour."

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I envision a workbook format, with at least one page per day, with room for writing, doodling, mind-mapping and so forth. Probably a workbook/CD set with a DVD. But I'll start with just the book. 100 days gives me plenty of time to discuss other ways of looking at the same concepts, exercises, Q&A, etc. What I'm going to do is address about 80 different subjects, and I'll use my morning blog to create rough drafts for each--so the next few months will repeat some material, clarify more, and give you the chance to throw rocks at others.

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Should be interesting.

##

And the question of the day is: what is the strangest rudeness you've encountered from a stranger? Do you have any idea what triggered it? My automatic thought is that the gentleman at the restaurant was frightened by something I said--probably a fear that America is changing in ways that not longer puts him, his sons and daughters automatically at the top of the pyramid. He holds beliefs about black people that are in conflict to my "I see no evidence that one group of human beings: black/white, gay/straight, male/female, whatever, is intrinsically superior intellectually or morally to another" and feels that because he grew up in the inner city, he knows this "truth" about black people better than I do...since I obviously was raised in a Monastery somewhere. Interesting. What's your story?

##

Dan: no, comments that Bill Clinton should be killed certainly aren't racism. But did someone say this on Television? My theory suggests that black lives are considered less important than white (and male less important than female) which in combination with political antagonism and fear of change means that comments like this will get made:

1) Deliberately, to provoke and anger.

2) Unconsciously, as an expression of unvoiced fear and aggression

##

Oh! And another question. This one is related to the supposed video of Michelle Obama ranting about "Whitey." This one is amusing: I, personally, have never heard a black person using this term, outside of television or film. In other words, it seems to be less a term black people use than one that white people THINK black people use. I'm wondering if anyone out there has actual experience of hearing a black person using this term. Just curious...

Signing Today

JUNE 14--Dark Delicacies Book--Burbank, California
2-4 p.m.
4213 W. Burbank, Burbank CA 91505
Tananarive and I will be appearing for a joint signing! This is a horror bookstore in L.A. Very cool!
For information, visit www.darkdel.com, or call 1-888-DARKDEL.

A Brainfart

I'm in a crush to get IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT ready to go by 11 tonight, and my brain isn't working. I'm starting a file for SEVEN SECRETS, now possibly called the TEN WEEK BODY/MIND DIET. I'm can't find the email of the gentleman who performed the Intermittent Fasting experiment at his university, and don't remember if he went public with his work. Would he please email me? I'd like him to post his results in a location I'll send him. Thanks!

Steve

Girls Gone Wild...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/fashion/12bisex.html?_

r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin

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An interesting article on the more fluid nature of female sexuality: that women tend to be more bisexual, and men tend to be either/or. Now, I think simple observation would give most of us THIS impression I've been in a variety of circumstances where the women outnumbered the men, and in every case the number of women who formed relationships with each other was far greater than the men who behaved in a similar manner under similar circumstances.

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In fact, I've actually never been in a circumstance where men seemed to form relationships with each other merely because there weren't women around. I wonder how this relates to images of sexuality in film. Specifically, the fact that I've seen thousands of on-screen kisses. Many quite hot. And I've seen women kissing each other--which is usually pretty hot (!). But I've rarely seen two male stars kissing each other in a movie convincingly. No, it's not that I just don't find men kissing to be hot (which I don't). I remember watching "Cruising" back in the day. Actually, walking into a blind screening of Freidkin's film at the Academy of Science-Fiction and Fantasy films. Dealing with an undercover cop in the seedy world of NY gay S&M clubs, it was pretty mind-blowing for a much younger Steve. One thing I can say is that there were tons of scenes of guys smooching, and it looked like they were getting into it. Male actors kissing each other generally look damned uncomfortable. There are interesting exceptions (one of them being Daniel Craig with Toby Smith in "Infamous") but in general...not so hot.

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You know me and biological influences. Whenever I see a phenomenon that seems worldwide (women moving in and out of each others' body space more easily than men) I suspect that there is some kind of genetic advantage. Frankly, any explanation I come up with for this one is pretty weak...unless throughout history there have been many, many, many times when women outnumbered men, and being able to relate sensually or sexually to each other, and form bonded relationships, was a serious survival value. But that's just the biological level. The truth may be more connected to social function, or even spiritual essence. Damned if I know. But while I HEAR about it, I've never actually ran into a case of a guy unable to hook up satisfyingly with women, suddenly attracted to a guy. With guys who are interested in girls, it's usually girls or nothing. Women are way more flexible. I've known a number of women who were struggling in their relationships with men...and then woke up one day in another woman's bed. Interesting, but I don't have a clear idea what's going on.

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Women themselves, when I've asked about it, just seem to feel that women look more at a persona's "energetic essence", more than the physical package its in. Maybe. I don't know. Any theories?

##

I've realized a couple of things about Intermittent Fasting over the last year. One is that a very interesting variation on I.F.--one that actually has some additional health benefits without sacrificing all of the values, would be, on fasting days, if hunger gets too high, eat a piece of fruit or a salad without complex carbs or heavy dressings. Such munching provides high water-content, high fiber, vitamin-rich but low-calorie relief. Because the value of I.F. seems to come from "waving" the caloric intake (with the greatest effect, of course, found when that "wave" goes to zero on fasting days) there is considerable reason to suspect that such a regimen could be far easier, and almost as efficient. Considering the almost universal cry in the health community that people aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables, it seems to me that breaking the fast with such healthy, light, low-calorie fare could NOT help but be an incredibly healthy change.

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Now, then...what else? Well...the Tibetans. Linking these two things seems to be dynamite. If you can already do 21 reps of each move, you might not feel what's happening inside you. But they are simple movements that hold complex lessons, like the Tai Chi form isn't "Tai Chi"--it's the FORM of Tai Chi. Once you know it, it's like making a clay pitcher--the pitcher isn't the point. The point is to fill it with "Chi", the fluid of life. As the point of the Tibetans is to transform the movements into a graceful daily breathing routine.

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Because you can start with only three reps, and those reps can be modified at first, it is available to anyone.

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My own experience with combining these two has been great, and I'm starting to gather some anecdotal evidence from Nicki and a few students. More time needed.

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But here's the thought: does anyone doubt that if you combined these two for ten weeks, the results would be powerful? And if that's true, it suggests a frame work for the "Seven Secrets" project that is more wieldy: a "Ten Week " or "100-Day" Body-Mind Diet based around these concepts, supported by simple meditation and goal-setting practices. Make two changes for ten weeks (or 100 days) to lose weight, gain tone and energy, save time and money...resist stress and focus your mind and life efforts...

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I can actually promise all of these, but as Steve Perry suggests, I should under-promise and over-deliver. A question: what would you guys prefer: "Ten Weeks" or "100 Days"?

#

Here's the far future story I'm thinking about: It branches off from Ursula Le Guin's classic "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", a paradise with a rotten center. Imagine a world of enlightened, evolved people (due perhaps to a state-sponsored or otherwise widespread program of meditation and electronically/chemically enhanced brain functions. People live, perhaps in controlled domelike environments. Music, art, science...all carried to the highest levels. But...these peak minds have a vulnerability. From time to time, maybe once a year, a form of viral encephalitis sweeps the population, triggering a negative amygdalic response to any members of the society who look LEAST like the others. During these times, no one goes out in public without wearing robes, wigs and masks designed to make everyone look identical. But any crowd will coalesce around the one with a hair out of place, or a robe slightly out of fashion...and tear that person to pieces. Once the blood lust is gone, everyone proceeds politely about his business.

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That's the situation. No one questions it. The world has broken into homogenized cliques. The story MIGHT center on a young girl who discovers another (child?) hiding in terrible fear, caught in the wrong dome when the fever strikes. The protagonist wants only to help her new friend get home alive.

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That's the frame. I honestly don't know where to go from there, but on the other hand, I haven't put concentrated thought into it. I'm kinda interested in hearing your thoughts...

##

Fox News calls Michelle Obama "Obama's Baby Mama"--a term relating to an unmarried woman. From the "family values" perspective of Fox, that's pretty much the same as calling her a slut. After the assassination reference to her husband, Fox has nowhere to hide, and they are showing their hand: make partisan "jokes", apologize if necessary, but get those venomous, potentially lethal memes into the public consciousness. Does anyone have the nerve to defend this monstrosity? And how in the world did anything said about Hillary Clinton compare to calling for his death, and calling his wife a whore?

Moving Day

Boy, Barack had better have a barber on speed-dial. Like Vin, The Rock, or Will (or yours, truly) don't let that hair grow out, offering another visual clue to his ethnicity. That hind-brain is a tricky thing. See all of the white folks complaining that this half-African man is considered "black"? Why can't he be white? They want him, and while I've heard versions of this going on for decades, I've never, ever seen as much of it as now. It is, in a very real sense, people reaching out across a life-shattering divide, and trying to join hands. In the process, we're having some of the most honest discussions about race I've heard in my lifetime. Great.

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More than I can convey in words, I would love to be able to relax some of those muscles. This isn't healthy, not even a little.

#

I have to go out to move Nicki out of her dorm in a few hours. She'll be home for the summer, and serving an internship at Strange Fruit Productions, an entertainment company we've been partnering with. A little bit of the rubber is about to meet the road. Daddy is nervous and proud.

Notice Anything..?

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In my entire writing life, I've never had security. I've made a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but I was never entirely certain where my next check was coming from, or when it would come, or how much it would be, or what I'd have to do for it. That's about to change. IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT blows my mind for lotsa reasons. Some of them are creative: I've wanted to write mystery-suspense for years, and just couldn't find the economic opening. Can't afford to spend a year writing a novel, unless it pays off. Because of the skills Blair, Tananarive and I bring to the table, as well as a publishing company that understands how to market black fiction, and a cultural wave unlike anything I've seen in my life, the Tennyson Hardwick mysteries look like they are a huge success. We finished the first draft this morning, and have to deliver Friday. With Buzzword, that's no problem.

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Writers live odd lives. Many have spouses who provide a consistent income, with the writing chunks coming in intermittently. When I was married to Toni, that was more or less the situation, and it worked. At other times, the writer is sole support for self and/or another. But two writers together has special joy and challenge. On the challenge tip, we have a "feast or famine" lifestyle. No security. We're either going to be rich, or poor. I see no doorway to the middle class. So...rich it is.

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Tennyson will allow me to actually budget my time differently. So long as I design my lifestyle to stay within the income made from that one source, I can spend the rest of my writing time working on what I really want.

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That would include a couple of movies, some non-fiction, the sequel to Lion's Blood, and a far future novel set in a very specific world.

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Hmmm...I'm tempted to bat around some ideas for that far future novel over on the message board. Hope you wouldn't mind.

##

Notice the rhetoric cooling down from the fringe elements of the Obama and Clinton camps? Thank God. Message to conservative Republicans: I promise that this is all going to turn out fine. Liberal Democrats are just as smart as you, but see things differently. And that's all right. You need two eyes to have stereo vision. Some of what we say sounds scary or stupid to you, in the same way that some of what you say sounds scary or stupid to us. Just the nature of limited human perception.

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We'll get through this. America, and the dream of freedom America represents, is larger than our fears.

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Anyone who has ever seen a Sammo Hung martial arts film will slide right into "Panda" without a murmur. The story of a chubby slacker who dreams of kung fu glory, who discovers unsuspected grace within his ungainly form, is pretty much laid out by the time the opening credits roll. The only question is: what is the journey? And in DreamWorks' production, voiced by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman as "Shifu", the wise martial rodent, the answer is: pretty good. Not bad. Amusing. I watched Jason's face, and he was energized and riveted. On the other hand: not completely rivet. He DID remember to ask to go Potty in the middle of the film. That might mean something, but I'm not sure how to quantify it. The potty meter: to what degree does a film change the average statistical probability of a child going to the bathroom within any given 90-minute stretch of time..?

Oh, well. Dustin Hoffman turns in a TERRIFIC performance. The 3-D animation is good. Jack Black is Jack Black, and the fight scenes, especially one on a bridge, are actually exciting. I'll give it a "B".
##
I'm a big fan of the Japanese Manga killing machine "Golgo 13", a strip that has been running for forty years. There were two Golgo movies: "The Professional" and "Queen Bee." "Professional" is great, brutal, sexy, and ahead of it's time with computer animation that looks pretty bad these days. Oh well. It has a great fight scene in an elevator, though, an environment that hasn't been overused. "Diamonds Are Forever" (where Sean Connery tusseled with his judo instructor. Nice.), "Trouble Man" (a little-known blaxploitation film with Robert Hooks as a pool-hustling, wealthy conflict resolution specialist who is also a karate expert. If Jim Kelly could act, he would have done a movie more like this.), and "Golgo" all take advantage of the confined space, implied time pressure (elevator moving between floors) and inherent drama of a passenger conveyance bottling-up life and death gymnastics. Great stuff. I've always thought that, all things considered, "From Russia With Love" is the best fight scene EVER. It was well choreographed, acted, there was plenty at stake, both actors had real charisma, the filmmakers had built it up since the opening scenes of the movie, takes place in a confined space, there was a beautiful unconscious woman at risk, both actors were athletes willing to get bruised up, the sound and appearance of motion intensifies the subjective violence a la "Eisenstenian Montage" where images coming from the right are met by a swinging camera coming from the left. Wow. THAT was a great scene.

I've seen bunches of superbly choreographed action scenes (the bridge sequence in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" redeemed an otherwise disappointing film. It ROCKS.) but that one works best for me.

Question of the day: what is your all time favorite movie fight or action sequence, and why?

Surely this is just my imagination...

Thus far, in every interview I've seen, every Hillary Clinton supporter who has sworn to vote for McCain has been white. That tugs at the back of my mind. Let's see: what is it that they might find comforting about McCain. His politics? No...his gender? No...his experience? That's a possibility, of course, although if they had wanted experience, they might have gone there in the first place: Hillary's elected experience is less than Barack's. Age? Maybe. Wisdom/Intelligence? Well, I would suspect they haven't any reason to rank either McCain or Clinton above Obama on that, but I could certainly respect an alternative opinion. When people shift allegiances, I would think that they are moving where they feel more...comfortable. Yes, that's the polite word I'm looking for. Is it my imagination that a disproportionate number of these folks are white, and if so, is it unfair to wonder if that has something to do with it?

Spike Lee "Uppity"?

Courtney Hazlett at MSNBC described Spike Lee as "Uppity" in his complaints that Clint Eastwood featured no black soldiers in his two films about Iwo Jima. (Eastwood rather lamely replied that the films were about the men who raised the flag, who were all white. Right. And how many extras were there, Clint? Looked like thousands, to me. And every one of them white. I admire you, man, but sell that bullshit somewhere else.)

Now, I don't know about you, but about 80% of the time when I hear someone being called "Uppity," the person being called such is black. And the one using the term says, basically, "it's in the dictionary...nothing racist was meant." Hmmm. I think this is one of those things where we'd have to do an analysis of cultural use of the term to see whether it is in fact used toward black people disproportionately. Sure as hell feels that way.

Sex in Florida

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Listening to political talk radio these days is both gladdening and sad. Gladdening for obvious reasons. But listening to all of the middle-aged (and older) women pouring out their grief about Hillary Clinton breaks my heart. The fact that so many of them seem to factor his race VERY highly in their ire does not escape me, even a little. But that's beside the point. Everyone deals with their life on the level they are living it. These ladies are so hurt that they see sexism peeking out from every gesture, every word, every action...and makes it a little difficult to tease out the genuine concerns. The thing that saddens me is the number of them who (in my mind) lie to themselves about how long it will take to get another woman candidate. Generations? Bullshit. That sounds EXACTLY like black folks who claim that white people are so evil that "nothing will ever change." So sad not to rejoice in the victories of your own and previous generations, or to have so little faith in humanity that one believes an entire segment of society lays awake at night trying to figure out how to keep you down.

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I don't know what to do about this. Do they really think that Clinton is so much smarter and stronger than other women? Really? Do they really think that men are such evil bastards? Do they really believe that the 40% or so women who voted against Clinton were brainwashed? Maybe. I don't know, but the rage and grief and sense that they were robbed...I can't help but think that this all relates to how they see their own lives, for the pain they had drowned in hopes for a female president...perhaps Hillary in direct reward for all she put up with from Bill? Clearly, to a number of them, the universe just tilted.

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All I can think is that they underestimate their daughters and sons. This is all working out. I think that's pretty clear, unless one is believes the basic nature of humanity is evil, in which case I genuinely feel sorry for you.

##

We talked about "Sex And The City" yesterday. Here's a question: what do you think is the best movie made from a television show, with or without the original cast? The worst?

##

Wow. A teacher in Polk County Florida just got hauled away for having sex with multiple teenaged boys at a party. One might well ask what the hell's going on here: are more teachers really having sex with their students, or are we just hearing about it?

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There was a teacher at my old high school, quite attractive, who I learned after graduation had had sex with several students. All of the students were for all practical purposes, grown assed men. And I spoke to at least one of the guys, and he laughed about it. I've spoken to other men (and women) who had sex with teachers. Some of them thought it was great, others that it was exploitative. But every single one of them has had, by their own reckoning, real problems establishing a mature, lasting, intimate relationship. Could be coincidence.

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In the new Tennyson book "In the Night of the Heat" we deal with this a bit. Now, personally, I think it's worse for a male teacher to have sex with a female student than for a female teacher to have sex with a male student. If girls didn't get pregnant I wouldn't say that, but I do believe the wiring is different there. However, it can't be really good either way.

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Does anyone out there know of a case where someone was having inappropriate sex like this in grade school, but went on to have a perfectly healthy love life?

Sex And The City (2008)

Sex And The City (2008)

Look, I have quibbles, but the major thing you need to know is that I loved it. Hell, I teared up more than once. The fact is that these three friends--and to a degree the actresses themselves--seem more like sisters than friends, and the stories of squabbling didn't detract from my enjoyment at all. This is about as good as an adaptation of a television show using the original cast can get (Star Trek:The Wrath of Khan may be the all-time champ). As someone else said, it's like an entire season of the groundbreaking HBO show rolled into two hours and fifteen minutes. If you love Carrie Bradshaw, sweet.

You know, I think I understood something about this show that I hadn't before: that it isn't an accident that these women aren't uniformly "Hollywood Beautiful." Carrie is living in a world in which if you have enough fashion sense, can aerobicize yourself to perfection and find the perfect apartment...you are beautiful enough to marry a prince. That an effort of will can turn a girl into a princess. And the show rides on that dream, and the concept that friendship can be more healing, more eternal, than the flower of love.

Watching these women helping each other through traumas large and small was a warm comfort I'd almost forgotten. The plot involves Carrie's romance--and impending marriage to-- the elusive Mr. Big. The way it all plays out makes sense to me, and I won't go into it. Let's just say that I walked out of the theater about as satisfied as I've been by a movie in a long time. It was what I came to see--the continuing adventures of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte--wonderful fictional creations living in a romanticized 90's New York. If you loved the series, you'll love this. For fans, an "A". For others, maybe a "B."
##
Warning: Sambo Alert

HBO pisses me off. In the six years that "Oz" runs, there wasn't a single black man with a sexual relationship, despite the fact that SOMEBODY got laid almost every week, and almost half the show was black. Despicable. "Sex And the City" wasn't much better--the four girls lived in a melanine-free cocoon. Eventually voracious Samantha did have a black lover, described as a "big black pussy" for being whipped by his racist family. And then of course there was Blair Underwood as a sports doctor infatuated with the prickly Miranda, who dumped him for barkeep Steve. At least Steve was the father of her child. And I definitely noticed that they gave him the least attractive of the four...in a scenario terribly similar to "Something New" where an upper-class gorgeous black man loses out to a lower-class white male. An image system whites are very very comfortable with, and something not entirely without a touch of reality. Skin color IS a giant advantage. I don't have to enjoy watching it, however.
On to the movie. There is one black character, played by Jennifer Hudson, playing Carrie's new assistant. Luckily, she has lost some weight since "Dream Girls" so the contrast isn't QUITE as stark as it could be. I mean, one plot point turns on Samantha putting on a few ounces of weight, and everyone gasps. The message is clear: beautiful is white, rich, and skinny. Casting Jennifer Hudson, who is none of these three, is an obvious stratification. This is class-consciousness in a way that makes me very uncomfortable. There are other black women shown, member's of Jennifer's family. All are hefty. And there are two black men. Both are large, one seems gay. Well, fine. And even at a New Years scene where Hudson is standing beside her date at midnight, not even a single kiss.

Fine. I understand. The unconscious dismissal and presumption is infuriating, but people have the right to create whatever fantasies help them through the night. But I've watched white men and women create these Mammy and Sambo caricatures since the beginning of film, and even with the annoyance, I can celebrate their beauty, power, and intelligence. But never forget the power Sarah Jessica Parker had on that film. I sure as hell don't.

Prince and Sri Chinmoy?

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Well...Will Smith got a step closer to getting laid last night. All hope for nookie is not lost. Obama, barring some gigantic cock-up, is the next President. I can't imagine McCain beating him without a huge wild-card. Interesting how McCain constantly plays the "Age Card" in his speeches about Obama's youth and inexperience...but if Barack was to make equivalent comments concerning McCain, he would be roundly criticized (and has been, when referring to McCaine's years of service. In other words, the text was positive, but the assumption is that the subtext is an insult. In McCain's case, the text itself was negative, leaving little room for misinterpretation). But that's all right. That's the game in politics--to take every shot at your opponent while saying "who, me..?"

#

I'm still hoping that Mrs. Clinton's intention is to retire her campaign within the next two days, on her own terms and in her own way. I never wanted these two historic candidates to go head to head. The very real concerns of women and the very real concerns of black Americans were manipulated and pitted against each other, with the hierarchical among us determined to rank one above another. Fair enough. That's not my mind-set, but fair enough. Personally, I would have been perfectly happy for it to have been "Lady's First." Just the way my mother taught me. Or is that being sexist?

#

My take on Prince. I've seen something like him before, and it was, oddly enough, Sri Chinmoy. With Chinmoy, my sense is that he is out of his body, controlling it like a puppeteer. With Prince, I think he is deep, deep, deep within himself, almost as if he is pregnant with his own embryo. There is something so shy and little-boy naughty about him, in contrast to his fabulous wealth, that I'm kinda blown away. I have no idea what people a hundred years from now will think of his music--or even if they will, at all. But I think he's riding the same train that some of the great creative and even spiritual minds of the ages ride. And I think that there is a component of that path that is available to all of us, if we align our hearts minds and physical energy. I am so terribly sorry his son died. I really wonder what kind of father Prince would have been.

##

And the question of the day is: how is everyone feeling about the coming election?

More on Prince...

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He showed up at the party at about one o'clock...I think. Mitchell Kaplan, T's former English/Writing instructor who now runs the Miami Book Fair, was at the party, and he glimpsed Prince standing behind a pillar at a guest house over to the side. Was he waiting for a sign from the band setting up onstage? It was very strange...just a small, familiar silhouette. I didn't see him make his way to the stage--I was trying to get a Diet Coke for T. Then suddenly the stage exploded with music, and he was playing "Come Together" by the Beatles, I believe. Most of the songs he played were by other artists, but toward the end, he hauled out some of his familiar pieces. I was standing about fifteen feet away from his microphone, but because of the crowd I had to lean sideways a bit to see him.

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This is where you have permission to call me crazy. I've told you guys that I've done a bit of aura reading. Laughter permitted. Even I don't know quite what to make of the phenomenon. Please feel free to consider me deluded. But don't call me a liar--that would be inaccurate. I see something around living things--more around animals than plants, more around plants than, say, chairs. Often it isn't much more than heat-shimmer, like the air above boiling water. Sometimes its kind of like organelles in an amoeba. And other times there are spikes of sharp light. Once, it was a shift in the visual field until I saw something like one of the big heads on Easter Island. Sometimes it's more kinesthetic, or even auditory--hard to explain, but there seems to be a correlation between the visual/kinesthetic/auditory and actual impressions of character and energy. I had no idea what I'd pick up (or hallucinate that I picked up) for Prince. I have extreme respect for him, and consider him to be one of the great artists and entertainers in human history. And what did I see in his aura..?

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Nothing. I mean, nothing. He was lively, his guitar playing was superb, vocals dead on, apparently completely committed to the music (he encouraged us to stop looking at him...to just dance and enjoy ourselves). But there was no one home.

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You know, in a way it reminds me a bit of the first aura I ever saw, Sri Chinmoy's. Before I ever glimpsed it, I watched him get off his plane at LAX, and was wierded out: he walked as if he was a marionette. As if he didn't live in his body. Later study suggests that the outer edge of human awakening (the step prior to Enlightenment) involves similar perspective, the viewing of the body as a temporary sheathe, allowing ease of movement into a state some call "out-of-body".

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Look--I glimpse the edge of this stuff, but don't claim to understand it. But this man can pay a million dollars a month for his West Coast digs. He has written literally thousands of songs, over a hundred of which are damned near standards. He moves perfectly (watched him dance? Listened to Charlie Murphy talking about his basketball skills?) and despite an extremely childlike demeanor, has mastered the physical game enough to turn himself into one of the richest men in the world on the basis of his creativity, and ability to tell major record companies to go fuck themselves. Remember when he turned himself into a symbol? A brilliant revolt against people who thought they could control his name and image.

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The first time I thought there was something different about Prince was when I listened to his song "I would Die 4 U" and realized it was a gospel song. My reaction was: "What the #$@@??" Here's this profane, hypersexual artist, who apparently had an exremely deep Christian belief system. As you know, I believe Christianity to have a deep anti-sexual vein running through it, triggering massive guilt in many people about their basic drives. I'd noted the same thing in a certain extraordinarily talented and prolific horror writer: sexuality and faith pulling in slightly different directions. Or powerfully different directions. Ripping a hole in the very fabric of consciousness. And what lies below is a seething ocean of creative magma.

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Harlan Ellison has a bit of this quality. In fact, most creative people do, to one level or another. But what I had a chance to see, or sense, here, is something phenomenal. It is what Micheal Jackson would have been had he had a chance to develop more naturally. That is a wrenching sadness.

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What is the phenomenon I see? I don't quite have a name for it. Call him a "Mundane Bodhisattva" if you will. My mind is a little blown right now...

And again, I am perfectly aware of how nutzo this sounds. I'm just reporting my experience. Whether or not it gels with your reality is up to you.

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Hillary is conceding tonight. I consider her an old-fashioned politician, and the fiercest fighter I've ever seen. But she was going toe-to-toe, while Obama was bobbing and weaving. I don't like politics precisely BECAUSE it induces people to do some of the things I saw in this race. I never took it personally--not the assassination talk, the comparisons to Jesse Jackson and other subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to racialize him, the insistence that the media and DNC were sexist (even if women) or that Obama had run some kind of hyper-bigoted campaign.

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And I listen to the wounded women, many of whom I have a terrible sense are unhappy in their personal lives, and looked at Hillary's struggles with Bill as representing their own marriages (I've heard the "well, a lot of women have relationships like that..." comment so many times it breaks my heart.) And I've watched, as they become more frantic, how their comments begin to slide into the "a white man doesn't stand a chance"-land of tunnel-perspective.

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And the most sobering thing is my very certain knowledge that if Hillary had been able to pull off some back-room magic and convince the Superdelegates to back her, black people all over the country would have been saying THE EXACT SAME THING. The DNC threw them under the bus. The Clintons ran the most racist campaign in history. Nothing has changed for black people. And threatening to vote for John McCain. Desperation, anger...FEAR. Fear of nothingness. Fear that all the effort, all the hopes and dreams have been for nothing.

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And I would have been talking to my friends and family, and to strangers, trying to get them to understand, to keep hope, to take pride in how far Barack came. Someone had to lose. My personal belief is that he was a hell of a lot smarter than his adversaries realized, for reasons that can be debated. But they are similar to the reasons I think he's going to slaughter McCain: from my perspective, McCain CANNOT see who Obama is. Can't. Too much of Conservative thought is based on the idea that the "playing field" is far more level than I believe it to me. Anyone who thinks race was an advantage for him is suffering the same blinders (from my perspective). Obama has been playing with a massive handicap, and if McCain saw what I see on that level, he'd probably be a Liberal. And he ain't. So chances are very very good that he will make the same mistake Democrats made with George Bush--underestimating his intelligence.

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We'll see. But so far? Wow. Boy's got skills.

Partying like it's 1999...

I'm exhausted. Sorry about the blurry picture, but even though I technically was allowed to take pictures, there were big burley bodyguards everywhere, who were mindful of people pointing cameras in the wrong direction. What was the wrong direction? Well...
The reason I'm beat is that I partied at Prince's house Friday night until 4 in the morning. That blue blur is his pool. The little human shadows are hundreds of people gathered around it. The windows in the back are the center of the first floor of the house. I'd estimate thirty bedrooms. Fifty million dollar house--on the market. Prince just leases it. Astounding. This was a party T and I were invited to during the BEA for Atria books, which is doing a book of astounding photographs of His Royal Purpleness. Prince came out and performed at about one in the morning. Unreal--more on it later. At about two thirty he warned us he was going to have to quit out of respect to the neighbors up the hill--and here, he gestured to an even more imposing house on a hill to the left. I found out the next day that Prince doesn't live in the house where he performed. That was just his "party house"--he actually lived in the larger place he pointed to. Oh my God. Got lots to say about this, but I had to do four events this weekend, and I'm toasted. Talk to you later.

Boy oh Boy, what a weekend!

No "Sex" today...

A couple of months ago I finished reading all of Shakespeare's plays (some of his sonnets remain) aloud. Been looking for some comparable challenge, and have half-decided upon the King James Bible, which I have on my Kindle. This edition comes with an original note to King James, written in a similar phrasing as the Bible itself. It's interesting how incredibly servile it is. Hard to remember just how highly people considered (or had to pretend to consider) kings in those days. The praise is so high that words concerning Jesus Himself seem not much grander. Sigh. People had a very low threshold for divinity in those days...
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Next week I'll be able to talk about something happening tonight. Let's just say that this weekend is a little too loaded: I have a party at 11pm this evening, two book events tomorrow, and will see Nicki at college and have another book event on Sunday. Will try to get a little rest in there.
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My favorite line from a would-be author is that they have a great story, they'll share it with me, I write it and they'll split the money. I always thought people were kidding when they said people did this, but nope, I probably get one request like that every couple of weeks. People just KNOW that their lives are interesting, far more interesting than anything I could have on my plate. Of course, if it's a Grampa or something, who lived through the sinking of the Titanic, maybe there actually was something really interesting. Most of the time it's yawn city.

I wonder if I'll ever actually come across a life story I find sufficiently engaging?
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So as Scott McClellan wracks up his multi-millions for spilling the beans, it's interesting watching the lines form. I personally suspect that his account is mostly true--if anyone can prove one of his facts (not suppositions) wrong, it could badly impact sales. Why did he wait until he had quit to do this? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a money-grubbing scumbag...but that doesn't make him a liar. It's my impression that people very, very rarely quit administrations in protest. Whether this is a matter of honor or fear, I have no idea. But falling on your sword for your leader (which is what I think happened with Powell) is pretty common.
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I probably won't see "Sex and the City" until next week. Kind of liked the show, frankly, although I consider it as much of a fantasy as "Knocked Up"--only dweeby women instead of a dweeby guy. But then, that's just me. I thought it had style, and was quite funny within it's range. You don't want to know what I thought about the entire Miranda-Blair arc, however...