Saturday, March 7, 2009

Eden's Hour Gets Dreamy 03/07/09

Every time I look in the mirror I find more gray hairs ...does this mean I can get all nostalgic for my youth now? Well, if it does I can say that ten years ago, when I was a bright eyed 20 year old, I had a big dream (perhaps more of an obsession really) to organize rock benefit concerts that would help support peace-creating meditation groups being established to help raise the level of collective consciousness. My inspiration came mostly from my own experiences with Transcendental Meditation, but I was also highly inspired by some of the scientific research documenting the positive effects of group practice of the TM Program in war torn areas like this study documenting results in Lebanon.

This has been going through my mind a lot again lately as the entire David Lynch Foundation team is swimming in preparation for our biggest benefit concert yet. I realized that all things that are meant to happen will eventually happen ...even if it takes years. Nature organizes in seemingly bizarre, yet perfect ways.

And I have to laugh at all of the things that I have tried to do that failed miserably. One of these ideas was in 1999. At the time I lived in New England and I had written a proposal to Ben & Jerry's to see if they would consider sponsoring a music festival to support a group meditation project. I even suggested that they create an ice cream flavor combining two of my favorite lassi flavors, rose & cardamom, and they could call it Totally Blissed and the proceeds could support a specific peace project. They kindly wrote back and ...well, I was DENIED!

Not one to give up on weird idea, I also recommended this flavor to a unique ice cream shop that opened up in my neighborhood recently. And to my surprise, I popped in to pick up a pint of ice cream for a dinner party a few weeks ago and voila! They had the cardamom/rose flavor that I had long dreamed about :). You too can custom design your own flavor. They have all the classics, but they also have more unusual flavors like ube, mamey, black licorice, Mexican chili, and even bacon ice cream!

To top that off, Full Tilt Ice Cream (and arcade) fills another void in my hood, by providing a venue space for some great live shows.

The first show that I went to there was during Weird Fest. The only show that I caught was Calvin Johnson! That's right, THE Calvin Johnson, rock n' roll legend and K Records' big cheese. Right there in our little local ice cream shop. And I was one of just a few people there to enjoy it. I have had a few K Records artists as guests on my show and one of them, Dennis Driscoll, happens to live in my neighborhood so he came down for the show as well. Afterwards Calvin, Dennis, Gary, Chris and I set out on a long and unfruitful search for a late night meal.

Just last week, I caught another great show at Full Tilt Ice Cream. Spencer Moody and Corey Brewer were the original two members of the band Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death (consisting of a few members of Murder City Devils). Triumph of Lethargy has grown into a 5 person band, but Spencer and Corey performed an AWESOME and intimate two person set. Personally, I favor Triumph of Lethargy over Murder City Devils, but that's not to say that I don't like them both. The MCD song I'll Come Running is one of my all time favorite songs by any band. I'm just really into the overall sound of TOLSATD. And Andrea Zollo (of Pretty Girls Make Graves) rounds out the band's already kickin lineup with some kickin', yet appropriately understated drum beats!

Last weekend I went to yet another show, but sadly it was a little less intimate. I saw Antony & the Johnsons at the Moore Theater. My only regret was that the theater is so big that I had to strain to see Antony, especially since I was in the very back row on the top floor. But maybe someday I'll get to see Antony Hagerty close up and who knows, maybe someday he'll realize that we are soul mates. Okay, maybe not. But in the meantime ...I'll keep dreamin'!




Click HERE for the complete playlist for 03/07/09

3 comments:

obvious world said...

*woot*

Heather said...

Right on, it's so neat to see your dreams materialize, even if it's in unexpected ways, and on a different timeline than you were hoping.

Also, LOVE that Bat for Lashes vid!

Erin Skipper said...

Heather, Bat for Lashes is good stuff. I think the reason that I don't always get Hagelin's genius talks about physics is because I opted out of his physics course to do theater ....remember that block we spent making costumes?