Tag: Desmond

1991: Kickstarting the Bucket List

So don’t grow old – evolve.

(last updated: 21 April 2023)

Purchased in the early 80’s, that amplifier (pic 3) is still sought after to this day.


And for me, coupled with InterDyn P2 speakers of the early 90’s, should be on any audiophile’s bucket list. Only moderate volume levels are required. Slow jams of the 90’s were off the chain.

Those speakers were bought for a “modern” Denon PMA-1080R, which was a good amp back then, but the sound just wasn’t in the same league as the vintage amp that was brought back to life. The Acoustic Research speakers stored away were crackling – they probably should have just been repaired.

The CD player was a Technics SL-PS900. I read Hi-Fi magazines back then and it got an unbelievable review. Our neighbour from Brunei who ended up at HP after RMIT, Lawrance, was also into Hi-Fi gear. He followed on from Mikito with a bunch of other tertiary students from Asia. They had a Marantz amp and kept a lot of vinyl. I think his speakers were JBL but he wanted Infinity. He really got into Luther Vandross. Really nice guy too, and showed me Windows 3 before anyone else and even helped me install it, as well as scan for viruses. This made me a sort of go-to guy at school.

I kind of struggled with fashion back then, I didn’t really know what I liked and what I didn’t. As long as I wasn’t in Stussy pants: I wasn’t good enough at skateboarding for those! They would turn me into a try-hard! I had gray Stussy shorts though as they weren’t as obvious.

[ 1993 ]

Justin and Julian said they met Lawrance on the way back from Chapel Street on the tram and he gave them a whole heap of KFC for free. I’m pretty sure it was them, but not 100%. At one point I gave Lawrance our Paula Abdul Spellbound CD to keep – I think it was brought back from Chicago by my mum and no one really played it. But his whole apartment rocked it, though.

My mum had been in Chicago representing a gallery alongside Tom Spender at the CIAE Art Expo (1991?)

She just went into a record store and asked for their tips. She brought back Diamonds and Pearls with a special edition hologram cover that I didn’t see in Australia. I couldn’t believe the simplicity of the Cream beat.

So I made a mashup with Paula in 2022.

The chorus is only gifted at 2:15. Incredible build-up.

One of Justin’s friends Charles (not from my school) gave me his Billy Hyde drum pad around that time not long after I met him at his home. I couldn’t believe it. It was almost new and he was around my age. He said he never used it. I used it all the time.

People, especially friends and neighbours could really gift more to each other and often it does more for the giver than the receiver because it comes back in multiples. If you have something you don’t want or need, give it to someone who does. So simple, right? The topic of giving is mentioned in this post and maybe the IGs at its bottom could take heed the most. The Earth is said to raise up crystals to humanity when it needs them and there is no need to dig for them. Anyway, there was a film in 2000: Pay It Forward.

So one of the guys at the apartment with a souped up bronze Honda Civic was installing a new radio or sub-woofer and I was trying to screw in a bolt behind the radio with my small hand. I couldn’t see what I was doing and at one point I said “Have you gotta light?” and everyone standing around screamed with laughter. It didn’t matter – I got the bolt in regardless. No smoko required. That was at the back of the building where I often went to hit a tennis ball and their apartment is still standing to this day.

src

A few years later the whole apartment had cleared: maybe ’95 but Lawrance is still around somewhere – if you can get his attention for a test drive or test listen.
✓ 1 week ago

Dub Seven – part 7

(last updated: 15 January 2024)

1)

pic | 2 | CC
(self-portrait (2008) insertion)

Text Me Not Alone (1995 + 2023) [MJ]

2)

3)

– now playing

4)

pic | CC
( _ | _ | self-portrait (2006) insertion with colour overlay)

5)

pic | 2 | 3 | CC
(self-portrait (2013) insertion | ” | ” )

6)

pic | CC
(self-portrait (2008) insertion)

7)

pic | CC
(self-portrait (2015) insertion)

Childhood Upset (2023 + 2023) live [Timecop1983]

8)

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(self-portrait (2015) insertion)

Just Mission Walking (1980 + 2023) [INXS]

9)

pic | 2 | CC
(self-portrait (2006) insertion, pink saturation adjustment | self-portrait (2014) insertion)

Tell Heart Nostalgia (1987 + 2023) [Taylor Dayne]

10)

(PD)

Historian D'Ann Campbell argues that the purpose of the wartime posters, propaganda, and censorship of soldiers' letters was not to foil spies but "to clamp as tight a lid as possible on rumors that might lead to discouragement, frustration, strikes, or anything that would cut back military production." - src

pic (1941) | 2 (1942) | PD

– part 2

11)

Happy 2024 – 365 sleeps ’til MMXXV

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(self-portrait (2012) insertion, characters added)

Motown Cali (1997 + 1991) [Notorious BIG] [Boyz II Men]

12)

[ ** ]

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(self-portrait (2015) insertion, portrait insertion)

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13)

14)

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(self-portrait (2024) insertion, wall brand removed | slightly transparent t-shirt self-portrait (2024) insertion | self-portrait (2024) insertions, car insertion)

[ ** disclaimer ** ]

visual and illustrative representations only and not for further distribution unless otherwise stated. No bearing with any intent or interaction. I do not know the person(s) shown above and have not met them. There is a strong randomness factor too in the selection. They may or may not know about this derivative image, as with their associated photographer and uploader. It is enabled and encouraged by the Creative Commons license attached to the original source image. This is part of a limited series exploring old photos and creating high-quality, composite images related to new music and new music mashups.
✓ 3 months ago

James Brown and Sky Ferreira – One Machine (RaveDJ) (2022)

3 Dec 2010 +
3 Apr 2004 + 12 July 2004 + 
4 Aug 2010:

uses:

2003

+


✓ 1 year ago

Beyond 2000: When “Accidents” Happen

…no play when away.

(last updated: 22 June 2023)

The first dog we bought Coco (a Border Collie for $200) died at a few months old after she ate snail poison in the garden.

My mum had a discussion with the gardener in the morning before driving to school, but the poison was laid nevertheless. The gardener, Vince (who has since passed himself) said that he’d never had a problem with that snail poison in other homes. After the death, I recall Vince showing me the box that said “pet-safe” on it or something like that.

So when we arrived home from school we called out for Coco but she never ran up to greet us at the gate with her happy self. The dog was actually lying near the gate to greet us (see red below,) but she had sadly passed by that stage.

I never saw Coco dead – my mum did – and the gardener was fired, but I am still in contact with the gardener’s son who is a gardener himself and remembers the story. I later saw the bright blue snail poison squashed into the bricks of the garden path (see blue above.) I think Coco had removed the pellets from the dirt to eat or test out. It was really sad but we vowed to get another dog soon.

Our next dog, Socks was returned after a week due to him being too placid. He turned into a champion show dog.

After that, we ended up with Toby who was one of the last to go due to a wonky ear. He ended up super intelligent and we taught him heaps of tricks. Really I think all owners of working dogs should be training them as much as they can, especially if they are out of their natural environment.

Toby was once taken from outside Fuji restaurant where we were eating (with Miriam as standing above) and kept for a few weeks by some type of dog-napper who didn’t bother to check the engraved collar.

[pic]

We searched and searched and never found him. We stuck up posters too. One day we got a call and salvaged him. He seemed contented. The woman who took him thought he had been abandoned because he wasn’t tied up. It could have been far worse.

He used to lick windows, perhaps she would’ve kept him otherwise?

Interestingly, later on, that restaurant ended up abandoned for what could’ve been around 20 years.

Eventually Toby could go to Como park by himself and run around at Thursday night football training and then walk home. He could even cross roads by himself if he had the chance. We avoided all that, though.

He liked to chase buses, from the perimeter of the park on the grass, but never running onto the road.

As mentioned, I made a short film with him and it was shown to the students of VCE Media units 1+2 (for Year 10) – Karen may remember, she was one of the teachers at the time. But that video is no more. However, I did record a short clip of Desmond in 2007, the sequel dog to Toby:

Like many dogs, Desmond had a degree of separation anxiety and unless tied up, could follow me into shops – even supermarket aisles. Yet he had more style than most. With Toby, this wasn’t a problem because we followed the breeder’s advice and let him welp into the night while he was meant to go to sleep in the laundry as a very young puppy – he was left alone. And being more independently minded, it was easy to make a short film with Toby. Then again, it was never a concern for Des to run away.

Des handled puppy school with ease – so much so that he was offered multiple scholarships at various Ivy League schools, which he turned down in favour for eventual professorship at Harvard apparently – but he never told us directly.

Toby rejected the idea of puppy school altogether and even death, favouring the notion of transcending the Earthly realm and merging with an 8th density consciousness.

Back on a serious note, in a related story, in the early 2000s, I was housesitting for someone in my family and also pet-minding.

As I enjoyed the view, and watched an EWF DVD, for a few days I also saw Rozy (the Cocker Spaniel) rolling around on her neck and scratching her head.

I ignored her until one day I saw her attempting to push off her collar in the front garden (below right.) She was actually positioning herself so that I could see her doing it as her system of survival.

I took a closer look and there was a rubber band around her neck hidden amongst her hair and below the other collar.

The rubber band had caused a deep gash in some parts of her neck and there was blood and pus. I took it off and applied antiseptic. I also cut off some of the hair around her neck. She survived and recovered without me needing to go to a vet, but had it remained it could’ve been far worse.

I remember the neighbour a few days earlier coming over and playing with the dog. There was no one watching him – I just let him do his thing and I didn’t know him – I am pretty sure he came over especially to play with the dog.

Was it malicious – did he want to hurt the dog, the family or even me in the process? (I would’ve got the blame) Did he arrive with a rubber band in his pocket? He also had a younger brother, and it may have been him instead but I doubt it. The rubber band may have also been around the dog’s neck before he arrived (really?), but I knew nothing of it. The fellow above, if it was him, and I know his first name, and the incident was in ~2004, may also have been acting out of jealousy against the dog’s or my own attention within the family. Eden once came over while I was house-sitting, and I also met up with Mark (not from Wesley) who was working in the city at the time. Interestingly, there was a police street-homicide in between that residence and the neighbour’s residence in the 80s.

Anyway, I told the family what happened when they returned and they sort of brushed it off because Rozy was almost completely healed. I don’t even know if they ever followed it up. Perhaps I should’ve taken some photos. I never saw the neighbour again – that family moved out.


✓ 5 months ago

Israel Revisited – from exile to exodus (part 1/2)

In Australia, they say you should either be earning or learning. I chose yearning.

(also see: 2005: Up Periscope! and part 2)

In January 2005, I went for a drive to South Australia. I don’t fully know why I went – I just did.

I was only gone for a few days as I had a terrible sleeping arrangement in the back of my vehicle – but I had the taste of freedom that I yearned for – both physical and mental.

A couple of months later, I started a Monash law degree (to be my second degree) but I soon dropped out. Law camp was fun, but when it was time to start studying, I couldn’t focus at all. Also, one of the heads of Mannix College bid me farewell after I worked for the college on their IT setup and as an IT tutor:

Interestingly, from 2000 through graduation in 2001 (with Information Systems,) and until that point, I had been researching and writing about spiritual, esoteric and religious concepts at home (including Kundalini) out of my own volition.

Choosing to study law as a second degree was my attempt at decompartmentalizing my mind: and it failed.

So a few weeks later in March, I headed north from Melbourne and made Port Macquarie by about 10pm. The following day I kept driving as planned, eventually through Burleigh Heads where Yumi Stynes from Channel V was walking around asking people about their experiences with G-spots. I declined to answer and the guys in front of me straight out ignored her.

I made Surfers Paradise in good time and in the back of my mind I was thinking “what am I doing?” and I realised I was on holiday – some type of working holiday quest – and it felt great. I would never go back to the old way of planning my life in a cold, deliberate fashion – and I don’t think I could if I tried. It’s about holydays, not holidays.

Moreover, there was an IT recession at the time and work and investors (for GrooveTip) were hard for me to find. I was actually planning to live in Surfers, but like with my trip to South Australia – I just couldn’t get comfortable so pretty soon I headed back to Melbourne through Newcastle and Canberra.

However, when I passed through Byron Bay, the most amazing thing happened as I was almost asleep – a voice from deep within me cut through my awareness and said “GO TO ISRAEL” !!!

People back in Melbourne were surprised to see me and it felt awkward, but at least I had a way forward: to keep decompartmentalizing my mind… in Israel!

And in a more academic sense if:

In the classical literature of Kashmir Shaivism kundalini is described in three different manifestations. The first of these is as the universal energy or para-kundalini. The second of these is as the energizing function of the body-mind complex or prana-kundalini. The third of these is as consciousness or shakti-kundalini which simultaneously subsumes and intermediates between these two. Ultimately these three forms are the same but understanding these three different forms will help to understand the different manifestations of kundalini. ~ Kurt Keutzer 2002

… then perhaps I am (and was) just seeking to maximize Shakti?

I recorded a monologue in Jerusalem in early 2007 at Yeshiva Ohr Somayach detailing my life leading up to my arrival in Israel, that is, this exact story.


✓ 3 years ago

2000: Kundalini – the untold tales.

Looking back, I think some my collected tales were exaggerated or even lies – they were the tails!

(updated: 23 December 2022)

A week ago a new series started called “The K Files – Kundalini Secrets Revealed” and this reminded me of the late 90s when I became highly interested in the topics of eastern religion, metaphysics, mysticism, New Age, health and Ascension.

What really interested me back then were tales of true Kundalini awakenings whereby:

In personal accounts of the rising of kundalini, there is an endless array of emotions, strange thoughts, and visions, but descriptions of physical signs and symptoms or actual sensations are rare.

source: Sanella M.D. (1976) Kundalini – Psychosis or Transcendence? [page 7]

Back then I was under the impression that:

When allowed to progress to completion, the Kundalini process culminates in deep psychological balance, strength, and maturity.

source: Hansen (1995) Schizophrenia or Spiritual Crisis? On “Raising the Kundalini” and Its Diagnostic Classification

So in early 2000 I setup a website and published actual accounts of awakenings collected from forums and over email. I also had a links directory and wrote essays, with one being Evolution Revolution.

[ pic 3 – links at March 2005 | pic 4 – links at June 2006 with added Jewish section ]

I received lots of solid feedback from the guest book including:

Andy: Very informative page! Good to share these experiences without risking being treated as psychotic. I believe that mainly the subconscious is doing this... (May, 2004)

Christine: I deeply appreciate this site.. I can find no other like it... (November, 2002)

Mike: Thanks for the kind words and interest in my experience. It means a lot to be acknowledged like that. (June, 2002)

The work I was doing back then was a major reason for me to travel to Israel… to get more of a Jewish perspective on the metaphysical.

In other words, I went from reading What is Enlightenment? in Byron Bay regarding ‘Differentiation with Integration‘:

[src]

whilst also listening to Bashar in Melbourne:

to hearing Rabbi Geller at Aish Hatorah in Jerusalem alongside Jacob Winkler who had also ventured to Israel in a similar vein:

I even told Rabbi Geller about Bashar.

I met a number of Jewish students in Israel, mostly from the USA and mainly guys. At one point in 2006, I must have had around 40 phone numbers in my phone. That was just prior to Facebook becoming popular.

The chap below was from England, I don’t remember his name but “Snowgums” was the ski lodge I stayed at growing up (see his jacket brand), and drove to in a Jaguar with my grandfather.

The fellow at left below, I don’t remember his name but came on Birthright Israel. A lot of Birthrighters are Jews and have little conscious Torah understanding and maybe have few or no Jewish friends and really seek meaningful connections more than anything else. Some aren’t even strictly Jewish. Below right is Harav Nota Schiller of Ohr Somayach with Larry Flisser. With Rav Schiller, I made a point that some of the most important people in the Jewish world are not the best teachers and brightest minds, but the facilitators and administrators behind the scenes that get no glory. He appreciated that, and after I met Larry, for a moment he paused and then said I blessed him and we were instant best friends… at least for that moment.

 

And the real crux of the matter is that there is a vast chasm between “good” Kundalini awakenings and “bad” ones. So for those that go about trying to awaken the Kundalini, one has to wonder why on Earth would you want to do that? I mean, do you feel lucky punk?

But now in 2022, I recently heard about a healer who is having trouble stimulating Kundalini in her sick patients and is also scaling back her practice. So maybe it’s not about luck anymore, it’s about need and survival. Also, with pandemic and mass death at the forefront of people’s minds, perhaps it’s time to take Ormus King more seriously which sees both of these themes throughout, including death as a fuel for longevity and ecstasy in OK4.


✓ 4 months ago