HAALOS Benefit! "Remembering Woodstock: Even If You Don't Remember!" 8-15-09gc 7pm

(Image on left): Original Ad in the Los Angeles Free Press (Editor: Art Kunkin)
Next: Swami Satchidananda opens the Woodstock Festival by turning on a half-million people to Eastern Spirituality. Then, next is the AH-Some "Remembering" graphic done by HAALOS supporter Dennis, and of course, "The Radical Three"- Art Kunkin, Paul Krassner, Dean Gray.
HAALOS' WOODSTOCK 40th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: "REMEMBERING WOODSTOCK- EVEN IF YOU DON'T REMEMBER!"












PANEL DISCUSSION with Sixties Icons Art Kunkin (Editor: The Los Angeles Free Press, Alchemy Guru, etc.), Paul Krassner (Editor: The Realist, Yippies Co-founder, Author, etc.), plus Dean Gray (Editor: the Desert Valley Star). Live Music with local artists performing music from '69 Woodstock Concert. Refreshments.
Benefit for HAALOS $13.00 in advance from HAALOS
Also, re; seating- if you're comfortable sitting on the carpet, we'll have some cushions, and you're welcome to bring your own. Likewise, re; chairs- we have some, but you're welcome to bring a fold up lawn chair- just no 'Love Seats' please... (we've had problems).
Also- THIS JUST IN! Paul, in a show of support for his favorite Acu-Pressure spot: HAALOS, will be offering his classic book published by High Times, "Pot Stories for the Soul," for 13 pictures of George "I Grew Hemp" Washington ($13)! And if you're quick, you might get him to sign it! (My favorite story so far is Lynn Phillips' piece about her wild experiences in SF in the sixties, called "Love & Haight.")
$15.00 At the Door- (If Avail.!)
Saturday Aug. 15th 7pm Live Music 8:30pm
HAALOS Healing Arts Center & Empori-om
12078 Palm Dr.
Desert Hot Springs 92240
760-673-7580

-For Woodstock Era Music 24/7 (for free, as it should be) check out www.woodstockuniverse.com & click on the 'radiowoodstock69' button!
-My friend Lisa Law's Woodstock Photography will be on exhibition (along w/Jim Marshall/Baron Wolman/Henry Diltz Woodstock photos) in Venice at Duncan Miller Gallery from 8-15 to 9-25 (http://duncanmillergallery.com)
-The movie on Woodstock Icon Wavy Gravy "Saint Misbehavin' "is coming to Lost Angeles at the Arclight Theater 8-15 thru 8-20
(So Many Woodstock Events So Little Time!)
-Also, please check out: www.artkunkin.com, paulkrassner.com, desertvalleystar.com
and... oh yeah- if you want to contact me by email, i use this one WAY more than gmail (no offense, google!): conchustimes@yahoo.com
Please Share This Info W/Your Friends &/or Enemies! OK? GROOVY BABY!

High Desert Sky Saxon Tribute @ Pappy & Harriet's

Also- this just in! If you're on Facebook (or want to sign up- it's free!) check out Klaus Wille's AH-some album of about 25 photos of this night! copy & paste this link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=107094814462&ref=nf
Email message from Dead(red)Head Karen (wishing success w/the HIGH Dez Sky Tribute) : "Go get 'em Tiger! grrrowwwl..!"
Sunny's response: "SO cosmic that you said that girl-friend..!
That 1st link on my blog is for the youtube video of Billy Corgan & the 'Spirits in the Sky Band' at the Echoplex Sky Tribute doing the Seeds "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)" that i wanted to do last night at the show- where Sky's lyrics include one part about a tiger stalking in the this jungle tonight! (In my opinion, this is one of the songs that greatly influenced one young man that used to stand in the audience in front of Sky, mesmerized by his 'shamanic vocal talents'... Jim Morrison of the Doors..!) But I did 4 other Ah-some songs (directed by Sky): George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Sky's "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," & Sky's "Pushin' Too Hard." In the 1st Sky/Seeds song, Host Ted Quinn rapped the lyrics of a song i wrote for Sky, "Enter the Dharma Sky," that was missing for 5 years until Ted pulled it out of the album ("Little Richie Marsh- Starlight Date" Sky's 1st album of 50's doo-wap*) that Sky gave him at the Joshua Tree "Sky Sunlight & the God-Dog Band" Sessions. All four songs are up on youtube now- you can copy & paste this link to see "Can't Seem to Make You Mine/Enter the Dharma Sky": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRN7WUF_XHo
And then, of course you can click on 'Sundowner108's Other Videos' to see the others.
This most recent version of the God-Dog Band (that beautifully backed me up) were (Instant Karma Yoga's) Geoffrey Earendil on percussion, Clive Wright (from Cock Robin/ Harold Budd/too many others 2 list) on lead electric guitar, Gene Evaro on bass, w/his beautiful sisters Shavaughn, Gabrielle & Bryanna (who all gratefully came out of the Evaro Family Band rehearsal in time to make this magic happen)... and many others who joined, like Zaina Alwan, who creates the AH-mazing P & H stage backdrops and... Pappy & Harriet's Robin! There were quite a few others, including, but not limited to, Wally Ingram's family doing back-up vocals on "Stand By Me" (& why didn't Wally come up & get on the drum-set..? I mean since Sam wasn't using them- i'm just sayin'!)& BTW, Wally's daughter Lydia is quite the performer at 4 years old!
(And for a taste of the Evaro Family's music, go to w3.peaceloveevrao.com)
Oh what a Namas-Day/Night! Heart-Felt Thanks to EVERY-ONE from Echo Park to Joshua Tree (not to even mention the AH-some Austin & No. Cal. Tributes) helping the Spirit in Sky to Come Full Circle at the time of his transition. Special thanks of course to the One who, in the middle of the "Loss of a loved one (& subsequent grieving process)" was able to create miracles to honor Sky, Sabrina Saxon! Also thanks to AH-nother Heart-Sister of Sky's, HIGH Desert-Dweller Judy Wishart who not only created an album cover for one of Sky's 80's solo albums (seen up above & to the right of the humble little Sky Shrine behind Ted Quinn in the photo of him giving one of his Sky tributes), but also brought AH-mazing old Seeds poster art & photos of his performance at P & H to share! (She is seen in the last photo, with Sabrina & me in a "Seeds-AH-Tois") Also, as i reminded everyone last night near the end of my rendition of "Can't Seem to..," Sky's 49th Day in the Bardo (in-between state, according to the Tibetan Tradition) is TODAY Aug. 13th! It would be wonderful if all who know & love Sky (even if you didn't meet him in the physical before he left) could focus, in your own spiritual preference (i.e. song, chant, mantra, prayer, meditation, etc.) on Sky merging with the BRIGHT HALO OF RAINBOW LIGHT! *I'M POSTING SOME OF THE PRAYERS BELOW HERE-(for more, email me at conchustimes@yahoo.com)
And I know all of you who couldn't be there physically, were with US in the Dharma Sky- Where SKY is SMILING, real BIG right NOW (about as big as i was last night & will be whenever i remember this night!)...
...just AH-Some!
-=0=-
* If you're interested in this classic 1st Sky LP, it may still be available at: http://www.nortonrecords.com/lps_exclusives.html (& only $10-! i better grab one b4 they're gone!)

Here is just one set of the final prayers in the Bardo Terdol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), that I share w/you should you have the time to read while thinking about Sky Sunlight Saxon on his 49th day (today) and visualize him merging with the BRIGHT LIGHT of LIBERATION. Should you have the interest, all of them are available here:
http://www.summum.us/mummification/tbotd/appendix.shtml



'The Root Verses of the Six Bardos':

[1]

O now, when the Birthplace Bardo upon me is dawning!
Abandoning idleness -- there being no idleness in [a devotee's] life --
Entering into the Reality undistractedly, listening, reflecting, and meditating,
Carrying on to the Path [knowledge of the true nature of] appearances and of mind, may the Tri-Kāya(3 bodies of Buddha-hood) be realized:
Once that the human form hath been attained,
May there be no time [or opportunity] in which to idle it [ human life] away.
[2]

O now, when the Dream Bardo upon me is dawning!
Abandoning the inordinate corpse-like sleeping of the sleep of stupidity,
May the consciousness undistractedly be kept in its natural state;
Grasping the [true nature of] dreams, [may I] train [myself] in the Clear Light of Miraculous Transformation:
Acting not like the brutes in slothfulness,
May the blending of the practicing of the sleep [state] and actual [or waking] experience be highly valued [by me].
[3]

O now, when the Dhyāna Bardo upon me is dawning!
Abandoning the whole mass of distractions and illusions,
May [the mind] be kept in the mood of endless undistracted Samādhi,
May firmness both in the visualizing and in the perfected [stages] be obtained:
At this time, when meditating one-pointedly, with [all other] actions put aside,
May I not fall under the power of misleading, stupefying passions.
[4]

O now, when the Bardo of the Moment of Death upon me is dawning!
Abandoning attraction and craving, and weakness for all [worldly things],
May I be undistracted in the space of the bright [enlightening] teachings,
May I [be able to] transfuse myself into the heavenly space of the Unborn:
The hour hath come to part with this body composed of flesh and blood;
May I know the body to be impermanent and illusory.
[5]

O now, when the Bardo of the Reality upon me is dawning,
Abandoning all awe, fear, and terror of all [phenomena],
May I recognize whatever appeareth as being mine own thought-forms,
May I know them to be apparitions in the Intermediate State;
[It hath been said], 'There arriveth a time when the chief turning-point is reached;
Fear not the bands of the Peaceful and Wrathful, Who are thine own thought-forms'.
[6]

O now, when the Bardo of [taking] Rebirth upon me is dawning!
One-pointedly holding fast to a single wish,
[May I be able to] continue the course of good deeds through repeated efforts;
May the womb-door be closed and the revulsion recollected:
The hour hath come when energy and pure love are needed;
[May I] cast off jealousy and meditate upon the Guru, the Father-Mother.
[7]

['O] procrastinating one, who thinketh not of the coming of death,
Devoting thyself to the useless doings of this life,
Improvident art thou in dissipating thy great opportunity;
Mistaken, indeed, will thy purpose be now if thou returnest empty-handed [from this life]:
Since the Holy Dharma is known to be thy true need,
Wilt thou not devote [thyself] to the Holy Dharma even now?'
[Epilogue]

Thus say the Great Adepts in devotion.
If the chosen teaching of the guru be not borne in mind,
Wilt thou not [O shishya] be acting even as a traitor to thyself?
It is of great importance that these Root Words be known.

Sky Sunlight Saxon Memorial at the Echoplex July 24 2009 g.c.

A PICTURE is worth 1000 words... but a video is worth "900 Millon People Daily- All Making Love..." Billy Corgan covered this Epic AH-mazing Psychedelic Seeds Song- among others, Friday night- check it out here (copy & paste this link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwLfmc4Qi8
1st image is from the 1968 "Teen Scene." Next is the flyer I put together for our "last-minute" Sky Sunlight Tribute, signed by the original Seeds that were at the Echoplex, Daryl Hooper, Carl Belknap, Don Boomer & even their original road manager, Richie France! Next is the beautiful Sky Shrine put together by the Hostess, Sky's Wife Sabrina Saxon & her friends Lisa & Peter from Sandy Ego. Next is the "Climax of the Evening" photo w/everyone gathered for "Pushin' Too Hard," channeled by (Sky Tribute Artist) Don Bolles. Seeds drummer Carl Belknap is 5th person from the left. Next is the most psychelic photo (as in blurry) of Seeds keyboardist Daryl Hooper just to the right of one of the Go-Go Dancers, while Leighton Koizumi (the other Sky "Tribute Artist") sings his verse. Then Billy Corgan jams on bass in "Yahowa 33" w/Djinn Aquarian, as well as in the next photo- Is that Sky in the 'Orb' by Djinn's guitar? Next is the LA Weekly Aug. 31, 2007 special issue w/cover story on the Source Family w/Djinn on upper left. Then, "Mayor of the Sunset Strip" & old friend of Sky's Rodney Bingenheimer introduces the Electric Prunes with Prunes singer James Lowe right behind him. Next are member of the new Seeds that Sky recorded the "Red Planet" CD with at the time of the Pappy & Harriet's '04 Show: from left, Go-Go Dancer, Mark "Branch" Bellgraph, Rick "Rock N' Roll Avenger" Collins & Sky's long-time guitarist Tommy "Atomic" Azevedo. Next are (from left) Djinn Aquarian, Crystal, Rebekah & Spring Aquarian with some (human-created) "Orbs"- part of the psychedelic decorations everywhere. Next is Rick's beautiful wife Christa Collins performing Sky's "A Faded Picture," from the 'Web of Sound' LP. Then, Yogi John Franzoni, who, not only is the connection that I met Sky through, but also appeared on the cover of the LA Weekly on their special Yoga Studios issue some 2 decades ago, and who Sky is jamming with again on Etheric Tibetan Singing Bowls. Next is Yogi John, (seated) with other Source Family members, known then as "Boaz." Then the the Source Family issue again, with Sky's greeting for me signed with his Source Family name "Arelich"- he always called me "Champion." Then some of Sabrina's Shrine/decoration crew Lisa & Peter from San Diego. Then another Sky Shrine shot, followed by the human-orb (with a tiny Rodney on stage) declaring: " 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky!" (all photos (c) Sunny Sun-Downer)more info: SkySaxon.com SKY LIVES!
-= ;) =-

Paul Krassner Interview Part 2

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! GRATEFUL DEAD PERFORM IN RARE POLITICAL BENEFIT FOR BLACK PANTHERS! EXTRA! EXTRA!









Paul Krassner Interview, Part 2
By Sunny Sundowner
(As published in the current issue of the Desert Valley Star www.desertvalleystar.com)

When we last left our “Counter-Culture Hero,” we were hitting on a couple of the aspects of the un-official “Anthem of the (Nineteen) Sixties: Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll.” We were left with his take on what might have happened had his Yippie co-founder Abbie Hoffman and Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick been successful in dosing Richard Nixon’s beverage with LSD at a White House Social event for his daughter, Julie.
Paul says that his “religion” is “coincidence” and I truly believe it! Right as the issue of the Desert Valley Star came out with Part 1 of this interview, it was announced in the L.A. Times that, after a year-long battle, Yoko Ono finally won possession of 10 hours of video tapes of John Lennon & his family, one part of which shows "Lennon smoking marijuana and joking about putting LSD in Nixon's tea!" But the plot thickens- when I called Paul to tell him this news, he reported that what was even more amazing was that when I called he was just writing about a previous experience he’d had with John Lennon! “Truth is stranger than fiction!”
Sunny Sundowner: It’s interesting how you previously related that your LSD and cannabis use at concerts such as with the Grateful Dead would cause you to lose your inhibitions about such things as dancing in public. Well, speaking of LSD and the Grateful Dead, I wanted to get your take on this: (according to former Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully’s biography, “Living with the Dead”) back in the sixties, Jerry Garcia and his first wife, Sara were having a “bad trip” on LSD, or “acid bummer” as it was called back then. In spite of their “freak out” (the term’s original meaning), they had the good sense to visit Jerry’s song-writing partner Robert Hunter, who surmised the situation and proceeded to leaf through a book that he pulled down from his shelf: Tim Leary and friends’ version of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” titled “The Psychedelic Experience.” Jerry and Sara were on the edge of their seats waiting as Hunter was perusing different parts of the book for a while, and then finally closed it, looked at them and said, “It’s OK.” They couldn’t believe that was all there was to it, asking “It’s OK?” That then turned into their “mantra” as they left, going into a positive new experience, murmuring “It’s OK!”
Paul Krassner: Um, well I guess that sums it up- two words!
SS: Kind of like Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing?”
PK: Uh huh, right… and sometimes it just takes that “little nudge” of reassurance, which is what Hunter did. He had to sum up this profound book in a very simple way. I like that- this relationship between “profundity” and “simplicity”… or it could just be because I’m lazy. (Big Laughter)
SS: “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Guru-ship.” Then, oddly enough, what that very book recommends having for those embarking on a “psychedelic journey,” Jerry, decades later, became: a “guide,” musically-speaking, for thousands of young people taking these inner “journeys.” It’s also interesting that the Grateful Dead were one of the only groups that didn’t ever really do political benefit concerts…
PK: Well, they did do a benefit concert for the Black Panther “political prisoners” at the Oakland coliseum in 1971…
SS: Oh, I forgot about that! What a statement of “Counter-Culture Unity” that must have been! Were you there for that?
PK: Yes, I was there with a bunch of Merry Pranksters. It was really exciting. The unity of counter-cultural diversity was strong but unspoken. Everybody was frisked by Black Panthers before we were allowed to enter the concert hall. Later, I asked Ken Kesey what his reaction was. He replied, "I stood very still."
SS: Well, I hope he got stoned so he could dance, too! (Laughter) I guess what I was thinking about was more about the Vietnam War protests. I read that the Dead didn’t play at protests because they felt their music itself was their “anti-war protest.”
PK: Well, because it was “positive.” So it was “political” in that sense, because a Dead concert was really a “Camp Re-union” and a “Healing Ceremony” for many… but most of all, it was a sense of “Community” that was as much the attraction of it, as was the music itself.
SS: And we might go so far as to say that, in addition to being a healing ceremony, it was a “spiritual experience.” One interesting aside, though, came in an interview with Jerry later on, where he was asked what he thought about this one faction of “Deadheads” who considered him to be “God,” and he responded that he would tolerate it until they came for him with the “nails and a cross.” (Laughter) But you had an interesting bit of Jerry Garcia trivia about his “spirituality” involving “The Urantia Book”…
PK: Oh yeah- Garcia read the entire Urantia Book…
SS: And that’s like over 4 inches thick!
PK: Yeah, and it’s in small print. Back in the sixties, there was a legend that if you read the entire Urantia Bible, which is sort-of “science-fiction” in its own way- a mix of science-fiction and spirituality… but if you read the entire book, then ‘three elderly women would come visit you.” But Jerry told me that he never got that visit… and he was very disappointed. (Laughter)
SS: Do you think he considered it a waste of time, then? (Laughter)
PK: No, he had a “twinkle in his eye” about it- and he knew that it was the “journey” of reading it, rather than the “goal” of meeting “three elderly women.”
SS: Exactly! Well, in regards to another “new age” topic, do you have a belief one way or another on re-incarnation?
PK: Well, it’s inconceivable to me- I can’t separate consciousness from the physical brain. It’s just my own limitation. But even if, objectively, it was a true process, I would use it as a metaphor- I’d try to live my life as if it was my “last incarnation.” And, then have reincarnations in my own life. For example, my writing career has been essentially non-fiction and humor.
SS: And you could say that each one of your books or issues of “The Realist” was one of your ‘incarnations” in itself.
PK: Yeah, in a “sub-division scale.” But in a larger division… I’ve got two new books, one of which is “Who’s to Say What’s Obscene? Politics, Comedy and Culture in America Today,” with a forward by Ariana Huffington. And the other is “In Praise of Indecency- Dispatches from the Valley of Porn.” They’re both collections of my columns and articles… but my current obsession now is to work on novels. So, for me to work on fiction: that’s a new “incarnation” for me, because I have to make everything up. I have this friend who is a novelist, Avery Corman, who wrote his first article in the early sixties for “The Realist,” and then went on to write two novels that later became movies: “Oh God!” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.” So I called him and told him how I realized that writing fiction was difficult because you have to make everything up, and he said, “Come on Paul! You’ve been making stuff up all your life!” And I said, “Yeah, but that was journalism!”
Get more Krassner at paulkrassner.com!

The 1st Desert Valley Star "Annual Pot Issue!"

The Latest Desert Valley Star- July 4th: Freedom 4 Cannabis- 1st "Annual Pot Issue" Is Already A Collector's Item on the 1st Day It Arrives On the Streets! Geoffrey Earendil's AH-mazing artwork on the 1st High Desert Cannabis Dispensary (full page) Ad Features the Tibetan Dancing Chittapati flanked by an Indian Shiva Baba Worshipping Lord Shiva w/his Ganja-filled Chillum. Page 3 has Sunny Sun-Downer's AH-mazing & Hilarious Interview with "60's Counter-Culture Living Legend," Yippies Co-Founder/Realist Editor & Author of Countless Books- Paul Krassner!
Conch-Us Times Blog-Bonus- Tim Leary on "Smoking Marijuana"- Copy & paste the following link & go to: "Live And Let Live" from the 1970 album "You Can Be Anyone This Time Around" w/musicians Steven Stills, Buddy Miles, others... The title cut and "What Do You Turn On When You Turn On?" are also HIGHLY Recommended (& remember- Tim was saying this just about 40 years ago! Are PEOPLE finally Listening? Has the 100th Monkey Started Laughing?!)
http://new.music.yahoo.com/timothy-leary/albums/you-can-be-anyone-this-time-around--202184921
Now HERE's a suggestion for you multi-tasker-types: While you're listening to Tim & one of the first "Brotherhood of Eternal Love" public experiences, you can open another window, come back here & read the following interview- for a multi-faceted-experience! (Also- don't miss AH-nother AH-mazing coincidence at the end...-=0=-)
DANCING WITH CANNABIS AND THE DEAD-
The Sixties Culture’s Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll (Not-Necessarily-In-that-Order)
Sunny Sundowner’s Interview with “60’s Radical, Yippies Co-Founder, Counter-Culture Living Legend”
(And Desert Hot Springs Resident) Paul Krassner

SS: I thought we could touch on, among other things, the un-official “Anthem of the Sixties,” or “Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll,” but I wanted to do it in reverse order…
PK: OK.
SS: Do you feel that the rock n’ roll music of the sixties helped lead to a revolution of spiritual consciousness in the West?
PK: Well… At the time that the hippies started turning on with rock n’ roll, what was going on WAS a spiritual revolution. My good friend Lenny Bruce had a line: “The people are leaving the Church and going back to God!” (Laughter)
SS: No wonder he pissed off the government!
PK: Yeah, that was part of it… It’s just that there was no law against blasphemy, so they had to get him for the language that he used… The main word they persecuted him for was the same word that Country Joe & the Fish popularized at the original Woodstock Concert with their infamous “Fish Cheer”: “Give me an F!...” and of course you know the other three letters. So, rock n’ roll music… I’m eclectic in my musical tastes, but if I had to choose only one, rock n’ roll is my favorite. Partly because of the association with the counter-culture, and partly because- I belong to a “Secret Army”… That only dance when they’re alone… And rock music made me want to dance- especially if I was stoned. I went to Egypt in 1978 when the Grateful Dead played at one of the pyramids. I was hanging out with (Grateful Dead Manager) Bill Graham there. I had already taken acid and he gave me a ‘marijuana cookie’
SS: They had them back then, eh? I thought it was just “brownies!” (Laughter)
PK: Whatever you’d want to bake! And… we were both back in the area between back-stage and the stage itself… dancing- And he confessed to me that that moment was the first time he had ever danced in public. I said: me too! But I think that the music provided the missing link between your body and your spirit. It united those aspects. So many of the songs were about “optimism, hope and the mystery itself.” So it was an integral part, not just of spirituality, but also of politics. There were songs about racism, the Vietnam War, about how cruel humans could be. These songs were a response to those things saying we wanted to replace ‘fear’ with ‘joy’ and the music was a soundtrack for that process.
SS: One of my recent articles for the Desert Valley Star focused on the music of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the energetic effect it had on one’s metaphysical energy centers, or “Chakras,” if you will. So I was wondering if you remember an “Experience” or two with him?
PK: Well… Jimi Hendrix was the first “black Yippie.” The “Yippies” back in the sixties were the “Youth International Party”… and he had a Yippie button on his hat, and one thing the Yippies did besides protest the Vietnam War in Chicago in 1968, was to, on Valentine’s Day of the next year, send out hundreds of rolled joints to people in many different professions- teachers, lawyers, anyone we could think of. There was even one particular person they sent one to because his name in the phone book was “Peter Pot.” And each joint was mailed with a leaflet with the truth about marijuana and the unjust laws against it. So, Jimi paid for the pot… that was his contribution to that act of the Yippie’s “Guerilla Theater.”
SS: “Now it can be told…”
PK: In New York, the next year, in ’69 at Woodstock another thing that stands out in my mind, with all the incredibly good music that was there, was Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner,” because this was a gathering of the tribes from around the country and internationally, that had seen the “American Dream” morph into the “American Nightmare. That version expressed, for me, that anguish and disappointment of what was happening in the country- culturally, politically, spiritually… and that it articulated the consciousness of the audience- which, again, I’m projecting… but it was optimism that we have an alternative value system, and we’re going to LIVE IN IT- It’s not going to be an ‘abstract thing” in this country. So the ‘soul-full-ness’ of the wailing of his guitar… symbolizing that out of this “empire that was beginning to crumble”- I mean, we can see that more and more now over the decades, crumbling under the weight of it’s own corruption, there was another “empire” building, that we called the “counter-culture.”
SS: And you were on the fore-front of that counter-culture. Well, speaking of that concert, I’m reminded of the other famous ‘sunrise set’ by the Jefferson Airplane, with Grace Slick waking everyone up with “Look what’s happening out on the streets- Got to revolution!” the opening lines of the title-cut of their album “Volunteers of Amerika” (the original title before RCA records made them change it to just “Volunteers.”) That leads me to ask you a question regarding something that she talked about in her autobiography, “Somebody to Love?” Because she was friends with Nixon’s daughters before she moved to San Francisco, she was invited to some social function at the White House that Nixon would be participating in. But here’s the really wild part: she took as her date, your sixties Yippie Co-founder, Abbie Hoffman, and their plan was to dose the punch bowl with LSD so that hopefully Nixon would get dosed & see the “error of his ways.” So, I was just wondering what you think might have been the result if they had succeeded in their “mission.”
PK: Well, that’s a hypothetical question…
SS: I know- it’s a big “IF!”
PK: I don’t know… Abby would have gone to jail sooner? (Laughter)
SS: I was just wondering if you might be able to give an impromptu scenario of Nixon on acid- affecting the political situation of this country.
PK: Oh, I thought he WAS on acid! (Laughter)
SS: But it was the “Brown Acid” they warned people at Woodstock NOT to take!
PK: He didn’t listen when they said that! (Laughter) I don’t know… Allen Ginsberg always thought that he could create world peace if he could get- at that point it was Kennedy and Krushev, to both take LSD. I think because it helped serve as a vehicle to connect the sub-conscious and the conscious minds- but people projected their own experience on it and assumed that that would also happen with somebody like Nixon. But I think that acid would strengthen or extend a value system that somebody already had. So Catholics would have a “Catholic Acid Experience,” Jews would have a “Jewish Acid Experience”… whatever the symbols were. The best example is when I was at (“Acid Guru”) Tim Leary’s place in Millbrook (New York). When we were talking, the phone rang and he let me listen in- it was a stockbroker who was calling Leary to thank him for turning him on to acid, because it gave him the courage to “sell short.” By the same token I met a Socialist who, as a result of his acid trip there, gave a talk to the Socialist Scholars Conference about why Socialists should take acid. So whatever ‘vision’ someone had, acid could expand it. So I, being an Atheist… people couldn’t believe it, saying, “you mean you took acid and you didn’t find God!?” and I would say, “No, I found several more gods not to believe in…” (Laughter)
-Award-winning satirist Paul Krassner edited the groundbreaking countercultural magazine, The Realist (1958-2001), but when People magazine called him "Father of the Underground Press," he immediately demanded a paternity test. Visit paulkrassner.com.
Addendum: Paul tells me his religion is "coincidence," & I truly believe it! Right as this issue of the Desert Valley Star came out with this interview, it was announced in the L.A. Times Calendar Section's "Quick Takes" that Yoko Ono finally won possession of 10 hours of video tapes of John Lennon & his family, one part of which shows "Lennon smoking marijuana and joking about putting LSD in Nixon's tea." Here's a link you can copy & paste to see a story about the beginning of this case in the NY Times:
http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN2242733520080422?feedType=RSS
Could we then have coined a new term, I ask: "L.S.Tea?-=0=-

"New Age Abuse" by Sunny Sun-Downer

Here's the most recent one folks! (A bit more edited this time in the Desert Valley Star newspaper [and not posted on their website yet]... But, should you have access to the print version around the low or high desert, you're welcome to compare them & tell me which one you like more: the original story as I wrote it here, or the edited version, & I can forward your comment [unless it's negative- HA! HA!])


New Age Abuse by Sunny Sun-Downer
To quote the Dalai Lama of Tibet: “My religion is simple… My religion is kindness.” These are words that can really change the world, with all its divisive religious factionalism & the problems that manifest from that. And, Lord knows (no pun intended), I try to be kind, even when I’m particularly p.o.’d about something. So I will endeavor to remain kind as I breach this topic: Abuse of the “New Age” phenomenon (and I apologize for relying on this term “New Age,” as what we’re talking about here is derived from something definitely “Ancient Age” in actuality, but until someone offers a better term- OK, how about “Golden Age?”)
In my last article in this wonderful publication, I alluded to Hatha Yoga being used to sell products from air fresheners to insurance and mattresses. And I’m OK with that, because free market capitalism, for better or worse, has helped spread goodness around the world, and in this particular case, it’s helping to create the acceptance of what was up to recent in the Dysfunctional Western Society (as I label it), a laughable topic: yoga and meditation.
Previously-critical comments like, “Right, you think you can just ‘Ommmm’ your troubles away, don’t you?” or “What is becoming a ‘human pretzel’ going to do for you, really?” have transformed into others such as a doctor saying, “Well, I don’t know- maybe it is the Hatha Yoga (and/or meditation) you’ve been doing, but something’s been lowering your blood pressure and your apparent stress level as well!”
But what has fired up my ire? After resisting talk from friends for some time now, about how wonderful this or that social networking site is- I just finally ‘sold my soul’ & joined up with one of the ones that I have long had an aversion to (and don’t get me started as to why, but here’s a hint: Is George Sick Or Well?). My fellow journalist Art Kunkin has been, in his recent articles here, addressing the topic of working with the “chakras” (energy centers within the human body) to reverse the aging process with ancient Tibetan teachings- Anti-aging being something that is of great interest to a lot of people. Therefore, I find the timing for this diatribe AH-mazing (“Ah” is the “seed-syllable” connected with the “throat chakra” in the Tibetan system).
I noticed a “friend” on the site had taken a quiz titled, “Which of Your Chakras Is Most Open Right Now?” Naturally, being the “New Age Sensitive Guy” that I am, I likewise thought I might like to experience this quiz. But, man… did I have another ‘think’ coming! There was the expected list of questions with their subsequent choices, such as, “What is your favorite color?,” “What is your closest personality trait?,” What would you be seen wearing out on the town?,” What do you feel life is about?,” among others. OK so far. Then, the next one smashed me in the “3rd eye,” (so to speak): “Which are you most likely to get arrested for?,” with the only choices being “1)Brawling, 2)Obsession, 3)Stalking, 4)Stealing, 5)Money Laundering, 6)Threatening Letters, and finally, 7)Protesting.” That’s it? No “Other,” or “I don’t intend on ever getting arrested?” WAIT! Forget “Other!” and “I don’t…” So, what, exactly is my (tree-hugging, vegetarian) beef? What is this question doing in a quiz that’s supposed to be concerning “Higher Consciousness” in the first place?!
I default to, of all things, a capitalist-generated (as in TV commercial) saying that I saw recently: “THAT IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS!” Instead of following my inclination to vent further, I will ‘channel’ my extreme distaste with the “pond scum” consciousness-level human being(s) that THAT came from (with apologies to all pond scum!), into some words on the “Throat Chakra” (ironically the chakra that I was given as “most open” in this “New-Age-Farce-Of-A-Quiz,” after choosing “Protesting,” because at that point I would’ve been willing to be arrested for “Protesting” this cyber-insanity)!
The first four chakras (in the Hindu system): at the base of the spine, the pelvis, the solar plexus, and the heart, correspond to the four elements (respectively) earth, water, fire and air. The fifth, or “Throat Chakra” is the consciousness of space alone, and this is the characteristic of the element ether. Again, in conjunction with Mr. Kunkin’s great work, I quote Peter Rendel from his book Introduction to the Chakras: “The ether, or quintessence, as it was termed by alchemists, is the mixing bowl, so to speak, within which the lower elements are formed… and to which each returns when its period of activity is ended and another element manifests in its place. They are really modifications of the basic ether which can turn itself into any of them. In modern radio terms, the ether is the carrier wave for the elements.” So in ancient theoretical terms you might add, “In the beginning was the Word.”
I’ve expounded on the Throat Chakra here, because this chakra involves “sound” and our “word” manifest through the “voice.” This is the “vortex” of the meta-physical energy that we put out into the outer world on a physical level (whether in cyber-space or ether-space). Our words have power in this “Golden Age,” for the good of humanity or the opposite…For use or abuse. So what do you want to broadcast?
-Sunny is the director of the HAALOS Healing Arts Center, 12078 Palm Dr., Desert Hot Springs CA 92240, for stressed-out humans in need of re-centering body work (Also home to the Desert Karmapa Meditation Center). His past articles for the Desert Valley Star can be viewed at www.conchustimes.blogspot.com email: conchustimes@yahoo.com (760) 673- 7580

Stand-Up Lie-Down Breathe-Deep Comedy!

By Sunny Sun-Downer (As published in this week's Desert Valley Star newspaper, [www.desertvalleystar.com], except that the print article was edited maybe 5% for space considerations... Many Thanks to the DVStar!)
Comedienne Beth Lapides is my new “Jew-Du Gee-You-Are-U!” Let me explain. While she claims to be Jewish (which she says is “more vague than being ‘a Jew’ “), she is one of the only new mainstream comedians to be popularizing Hatha Yoga & Hinduism- therefore she is what I have coined a ‘Jewish-Hindu’ or “Jew-Du.” (The awakening to this title came to me after studying the Sutra that expounds on the mantra, “Om Oi-vey Padme Hum, Hail the Jew in the Heart-Lotus.” For those un-familiar with this, let me explain that the famous Tibetan mantra, “Om Mani Padme Hum” basically translates as “Hail the JEWEL in the Lotus of my Heart).
When she’s not enjoying Hatha yoga poses like the one that is “to die for,” Savasana, (the “Corpse Pose,”) she’s doing, among other things her “Un-Cabaret Workshops,” her comedy-yoga column “My Other Car Is A Yoga Mat” and her ‘Stand Up Yoga’ comedy show, currently titled “100% Happy- 88 % Of The Time” (after the book of the same name). And, if you ask me, if she’s smart she’ll immediately seek sponsorship for her national tour from one big odor-controlling corporation that’s currently using ‘Yoga Moms” to sell their plug-in “aroma-therapy” de-odorizers in television commercials. (No blatant plug here, but it rhymes with “raid.”) I tell you, sex used to sell products, but now you see Hatha yogis selling everything from insurance to mattresses! Another “SIGN” that the New Age is dawning on us- time to wake up & smell the Nag Champa (incense)!
And, speaking of “signs,” after catching her performance at Palm Springs’ Urban Yoga Center (www.urbanyoga.org) recently, I dubbed her my new “Gee-You-Are-U,” because while she gave all of us in attendance a cosmic transmission that opened our Humor Chakra, it involved a teaching in recognizing the “signs” that life presents to us, which helps us to tune into and connect to our “Ubiquitous” (or “Higher, Omni-present” Self,) the “U” in “Gee-You-Are-U,” as I like to see it. Yes, to paraphrase the famous metaphysical saying, “When the student is ready, the G.U.R.U’s signs will appear.”
A dove made a nest near their front door- a “sign” at first that everything was at peace in their “nest” at their Los Angeles-area home. But after two eggs appeared, was it a sign that they were then supposed to become bi-residential after all? They had been coming out to the desert since spending their fifth anniversary at a spa retreat in Desert Hot Springs, and they came to love coming to the desert over the years. At the same time, she told us, a nearby bee hive was a sign to remember to “Bee Here Now.”
Thanks to her husband-producer Greg Miller’s transformative and morphing slide show, it became an “MLE,” or “Multi-Level Experience,” with never a dull moment. The show is based on their eviction from their home-of-many-summers in L.A., with subsequent re-location out to the Southern California desert, being a “sign” that reflected humanity’s ‘eviction from the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age,” as she perceived it. This eviction added to the recent financial challenge created when the prospect of her potential comedy show on a major cable channel fizzled.
In the time-consuming search for a new home in L.A., they were getting frustrated at the point that they went looking at Mt. Washington (speaking of Gurus, this has been the home of Swami Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship for decades). After her previously-New-York-based husband compared it to “Queens with Los-Angeles-charm,” Beth said, “We might as well live in Palm Springs,” as a joke. Greg didn’t see it that way and blurted, “That may have been the wisest thing you’ve ever said!” Beth re-iterated, “It’s a joke!” But by the time they got home they were scheming on a plan to live both places, and the rest is history, as they’ve been (88%) happily living in Palm Springs for over four years now. The travails of the whole experience became fodder for the cosmic comedy trough that is their show. It hilariously touches on so much of the metaphysical amusements of the New Age movement experience like the feng shui-like “geo-de-stressing” of their new desert home by a ‘high-desert dowser’ to clear out the negative energy with dowsing rods, in which Beth at first was skeptical until she learned how to do it and ended following him around dowsing every corner of their new ‘mandala-space’ herself! She also discussed her experiences as she was first setting foot on the “Cosmic New Age” path, one time in particular at a “Metaphysical Convention” in Las Vegas that she attended while reporting for ABC Radio, when she didn’t believe in “Angelic Healing” & other things you can’t see with your two physical eyes. But then a famous “angelic healer” told her that she had a “psychic dagger” in the middle of her back where she had been endlessly experiencing back pain, and would she like it removed? After Beth thought for about two seconds, she agreed, and with-in a few more seconds the “psychic operation” was finished. After that, the pain was gone, and wouldn’t return, according to the healer- as long as she “committed to believing in angels.” She agreed, it hasn’t returned, and she became a believer in the cosmic ways of the unseen.
So much more could be included here, but I wouldn’t want to deprive you of much gut-massaging laughter from the master herself- from her workshops, her book, and monthly her column, available at her website, www.bethlapides.com. But I will add this- one of the highlights for me among the many metaphysically-enlightening topics she touched on, was conveying the work of “Mr. Zero-Point-Astro-Physicist” Gregg Braden whose discoveries have come to boggle the mind. While Greg (Miller) displayed the images, she related that our DNA is emitting photons of light particles 24/7… AND therefore we are constantly creating our own universe with our thought-field. That, then, takes me back to the instructions on a bumper sticker I saw at a Grateful Dead show decades ago: “Think Good Thoughts!”
And speaking of psychedelic shows, on the way home through the desert I had just turned east and started thinking more about the “signs” shown to us in life- and right then a big “shooting star” (or was it?) came down across the eastern sky, except it was GREEN & it seemed to come down in an “S-curve.” “S” for “SIGN” perhaps?
I’ll ‘sign off’ now, until next time, reminding you that “Meditation AND Laughter are the BEST Medications!”
-In a rare desert offering, Beth and Greg’s (normally L.A.-housed) highly-effective “Un-Cabaret” Writing & Performance Workshop comes to Palm Springs 6-9 p.m. every Friday in June, beginning June 5th, at Hotel Zozo, 150 S. Indian Canyon Dr., P.S.I-Love-You 92262. For more info, visit their website at www.bethlapides.com or call (323) 993-3305 (Also occurring in Los Angeles on Sundays in June: see their website for more info)


-Sunny Sun-Downer, a Zen “Marxist” (as in Groucho) is director of the HAALOS Healing Arts Center, home of the Desert Karmapa Buddhist Center, located at 12078 Palm Dr., Desert Hot Springs CA 92240 For info on Healing Body-work, Meditation & Yoga please contact him at (760) 673-7580 www.conchustimes.blogspot.com email: conchustimes@yahoo.com