Tag: Zara

Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui (trailer)

Music, Money, Madness . . . Jimi Hendrix In Maui (Film Trailer)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFROkK-h5Oh/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE-dTLxnhHg/
✓ 5 years ago

Fred Falke – LEIA LOVES SYNTH (2020)

What set Zara apart, according to the BBC, was its ability to bring the latest high-fashion trends to the average person more quickly than other, bigger and more established stores were doing. As the company said in its mission statement: ‘Zara’s aim was to democratize fashion. In contrast to the idea of fashion as a privilege, we offer accessible fashion that reaches the high street, inspired by the taste, desires, and lifestyle of modern men and women.’ ~ Time, 2017

see more Star Wars Looks
✓ 5 years ago

Franc Moody – Flesh and Blood (2020)

ZARA !!!

seen: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_vm-lBgB2/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CC85wxGCMEd/
✓ 2 years ago

Israel Revisited
– from Exile to Exodus (part 2/2)

I didn’t know what I was in for… I wouldn’t want it any other way!

(last update: 21 April 2024)
(also see: part 1)

After landing in Israel in June 2005, immediately I felt a raising of my energy. It felt perfect to arrive.

Prior to that, the only time I had been in Israel was in January 1988 for a couple of weeks.

The first place I went to was the Jerusalem botanical gardens.

[src 3]

At the garden cafe (far right above,) I spoke to the waitress and she was very friendly and attractive. I didn’t even know if she was Jewish or not and didn’t even think about it. I ended up giving her my phone number (did I get hers?) and minutes later as I was leaving, I saw a lone young man walking toward me in what looked like a state-of-fury. Then, like an edgy kangaroo, I basically fled the scene, jet-lag be damned. There was no confrontation and I never returned. I determined later from her name that she must have been Arab. I was nervous for a day or two that he might call for reasons unknown to me and I never spoke to her again and don’t remember her name.

Anyhow, I soon noticed my lips drying up – this was due to the hardness of the water. Pots and pans were even left with a white residue of minerals after each meal. The only solution was bottled water.

I headed to the Old City and to the Western Wall (Kotel.) On the way there, I asked Jeff Seidel for directions. He gladly pointed it out to me and he also became a friend.

Below, mid-2006, during an Orange vs Blue protest in Jerusalem. However, I was also there during the first protest in mid-2005.

I didn’t have much of an opinion at the time, but had a feeling withdrawal was not a good thing. The prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon had a stroke at the end of 2005 and then within a month fell into a coma.

Tens of thousands of orange-clad activists lined major highways Monday in a nationwide protest against Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, disrupting traffic, shouting slogans and drawing noisy honks of support from motorists.

With tensions running high as the withdrawal nears, Israel has descended into an emotional color war. Jewish settlers and their supporters have embraced orange. On the blue side are peace activists and other backers of the withdrawal. Each side’s weapon of choice: ribbons _ tied to cars, backpacks and even wedding bouquets.

– 2005, source

In the back of my mind, even to this day, I have a hypothesis that the only character trait that Israelis have that extends beyond their toughness is their idiocy. This relates to class and status divisions, baseless hatred, might makes right, crippling xenophobia and acts of self-sabotage such as the funding of Hamas.

Anyhow, years later, I actually spoke to a soldier who was stationed at a checkpoint or border-crossing in Gaza, a student from Jerusalem, and he was very much for the withdrawal – he said it was very difficult and dangerous work. Another chap hated carrying his machine gun so much that he was imprisoned for initially refusing. And there was another fellow that simply hated the army, but had to do it anyway as it was compulsory.

Because many would prefer to avoid the instruments-of-war in favour for different ones.

I don’t blame them.

And speaking of war, from my understanding, in Russia hostage situations are resolved quickly because the state takes hostage the relatives of the terrorists. Why doesn’t the IDF do this? To free hostages, shouldn’t a second set of hostages (for want of a better word) be taken? Who are the other people that should be begging for their lives to the terrorists?

The IDF tracks leading terrorists. Why not the their family members as well? … so back to my hypothesis.

For this latest October 7 incursion, why not just bring a whole portion of Gaza into Israel proper permanently? All of Gaza city should become Israel and the fighting can stop, or half of Gaza. Something like that anyway. Land-grab is the deterrence to terror, not death, because death is seen differently in Jihad. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Hamas will never be eliminated because it’s just Islam by another name. Deceived Western minds will at least understand this response, and it will memorialise the fallen – streets can be named after them. If the Magen-David is raised in Gaza, let it stay there.

A 5 year-old buried under 5 tonnes of rubble means different things to different people. But why did the parents even have children in a war-zone? How can there be a genocide when there are millions of Arabs still alive in Gaza? Who’s to say the children weren’t conceived just to be cannon fodder yet will attain paradise to their benefit, thanks to the Jews? The evil of running a false-flag attack (if it was one,) and then getting no benefit boggles the mind: it’s akin to  Jewish suicide bombers attacking Israel alongside Palestinian ones. If “Free Palestine” is a strategy to reestablish a Muslim caliphate via useful idiots, how about “Free the Hostages” as a strategy to manifest the Israelites again?

Anyway, I mentioned the need for voluntary military service here – and not just for Israel.

Yet, ironically at the same time “in warfare, a theater or theatre is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress” [- source.] Thus, one is left wondering if warfare might be phoney and actually scripted for an audience, just like a music recital or rather a Broadway extravaganza. In which case, at some level, enemies are actually friends, or even one and the same in outlooks of full spectrum dominance. As such, I think people should choose different theatres to watch.

Continuing, some weeks later I ended up finding and staying at the Heritage House and also studying at Aish HaTorah which were both in the old city. The late Rabbi Meir Schuster, Elie, and Dave (from NYC) all worked at the HH.

(early 2006 )

I ended up buying Tefellin through Reb Schuster which I still own to this day.

I invariably had better days in Jerusalem on the days I donned my Tefellin.  They are used to tame the evil inclination and worldly desires. Today, I carry around a Tasmanian quartz crystal and should probably “dare to wear” the Tefellin again – may God help us all.

Continuing, on one Shabbat evening in the old city, I told the host how my paternal grandfather Oskar (below) fled Warsaw with my grandmother Hela (shown Elka below) and parents Abram and Jetta Sokol (shown below) a week after the war started. They went to Lithuania, across Russia by train, to Japan and then by ship to Melbourne on a Sugihara visa after mid-1940. The host was taken aback at how I found my way from Australia to Israel at such a young age (and non-religious.)

[ scanned original | src ]

Heroic Chiune Sugihara Saves Thousands of Lives | Sigmund Tobias | USC Shoah Foundation #shorts
  • pic 1 – www.sugiharafoundation.org/the-list/ (site down: 9 Dec ’22)
  • pic 2 – src DL
  • pic 3 – 1991
  • pic 4 – 1993
  • pic 5 – late 1980’s
  • pic 6,7,8 – 1997

As referred in the second pic above, Oskar once showed me his civil engineering degree obtained at The University of Berlin, Charlottenburg, but it wasn’t recognised in Australia due to it being of German origin so instead he went into the Flinders Lane rag trade, specifically at Londex House (London Export,) next to Tasmania House

[ 1 2 3 4 ]

As an aside, while Oskar escaped, his two brothers Benjamin and Eliyahu were betrayed by the Poles hiding them two days before the war ended for bread and sugar. They were murdered by Nazis. Oskar’s 3rd (and eldest) brother Leon “Lolek” Weisbrem  (1903 – 1999) joined the Polish army and was taken prisoner-of-war by Germany. His buddies saved his life by surrounding him at a roll call so the camp commander wouldn’t see that he was circumcised and deemed Jewish. He eventually fled Poland, across Europe to reach England in 1941.

source | 2 | 3 | Leon’s family tree from mid-70’s

I met him once in 1986.

Leon’s autobiographical book in Polish contains various other documents:

  • pic 1 – book cover
  • pic 2 – Wolf with son Leon (1932)
  • pic 4 – Eliyahu + Oskar + Leon + Benjamin – Warsaw ~1933
  • pic 6 – Leon second from left in Polish army
  • pic 7 – POW documentation
  • pic 8 – Nazi POW currency
  • pic 9 – postcard received while at Stalag VI-C POW camp
  • pic 10 – poem from London
  • pic 11 – other

At one point, he had the 3rd largest Japanese stamp collection in the world, which he sold while residing in Melbourne before he returned to London.

source: Kanai Catalogue 1979/80 Japan ‘Weisbrem’ Collection

Two more people I met in Jerusalem were Sharon (below left) from the CU Agency and Warren (below right, 2018) who is also from Melbourne, Australia. Warren (aka Avraham) and I took on an extras role for Sharon at Mt Zion for a Discovery/NatGeo documentary in 2005. In 2018, right before leaving Israel, I gladly met Warren again who by that stage was using a walker.

Interestingly, the “raising of vibration” that hit me when first entering Israel and kept bringing me back had left by 2018. It is for this reason that I tend to think the term “aliyah” (going up to Israel) is wrongly applied to Israeli immigration. It can be correct, but not all the time for everyone, for example I met two immigrants who were murdered there: Tony Rose in April 2014 and Dave Gordon (or was it rather a suicide… which is a murder of self anyhow?) in August 2014.

In a similar vein, I think the country name “Israel” is incorrect. That name should only be used once all the lost 10 tribes can (and do) return to the holy land and not while the Israelites are lost and in exile – imagine if that became the new security narrative rather than Iran!

src | 2

"Nearly all Jews today consider themselves as descendants of the tribe of Judah. Some do claim membership in the Levites, the priestly clan that - like other Jews - was exiled to Babylon and returned to rebuild the Temple. However, Jews with family names such as Levy (Levi), Rubin (Reuben), Simon (Simeon), Benjamin, Asher, etc. are unable to document their genealogies as going back to these historical tribes."

source


By this, even:

  • Holyland
  • Israel-2B / Israel To Be (ישראל להיות)
  • Israel 1 (as opposed to Israel 2 for the messianic age)
  • Israel 4 (see image below)
  • Future Israel
  • Israeland (ארץ ישראל)
  • Judahland
  • Judah / Yehuda (יְהוּדָה)
  • Jacob / יַעֲקֹב *
  • Green / Grün / Grünia **
  • Boronia (ie Adrian Boron, plant and suburb)
  • The Jewish State
  • Capital
  • Tribe / Blessed Tribe / Blessed
  • Heart
  • Semitica
  • Outpost Płońsk (DBG’s hometown)
  • Plonskia / Plonskonia
  • Israel Rebooted

could be a more apt name for Israel – at least as a thought exercise and for debate.

source | 2 | 3 | 4

* Israel was Jacob after being renamed by an angel. Similarly Abram was renamed by God to Abraham.

** (Green) was David Ben-Gurion’s (Israel’s Founding Father) original surname from his father Avigdor that was changed to Ben-Gurion. It was “taken from one of the Jewish generals who fought against the Roman legions in the time of Bar Kochba.” ~ source

Also, I wonder in ancient times if it was ever called Israel.

The name “Israel” first appears in the Merneptah Stele c. 1208 BCE: “Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more.”[29] This “Israel” was a cultural and probably political entity, well enough established for the Egyptians to perceive it as a possible challenge, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state. – source

My personal favourite name is The Kingdom of Israel and that is mentioned in a few places already on this blog and the subject of a film ennealogy that I started in Jerusalem in 2017.

This is the name that really should’ve been used in the “Free Your Mind” campaign video that influenced me to “make aliyah” in 2006.

However, it couldn’t have been used because there is no kingdom in Israel… yet. No messiah, no temple, no lost tribes and lots of division – and this isn’t about to change anytime soon. As such, the video is a con-job to me at this point and is more apt for gentiles. Really, there’s still an exile, even in Israel, but one should have faith.

Anyhow, the Temple Mount has not changed since 1948 (State-of-Israel’s inception) and wars never end because there is a fear of justice or the adoption of a “war-is-peace” attitude. Isn’t that farcical?

After Jerusalem, I made it to the holy mountain city of Tsfat.

Here I spoke to Jeremy Hart (Hartley?) at length who was immigrating to Adelaide from England. He wasn’t sold on Israel and was very concerned with the poverty.

I also met the late Tony Rose (from Manchester) and his children (photo Jerusalem, 2006.) Jeremy actually met Tony after my introduction. As previously mentioned, Tony was tragically murdered in Tsfat in 2014.

In Jerusalem, at around the same location as above, I overheard a couple of American guys discussing Israel and making “aliyah.” They said it was a highly security conscious, hyper-rational and highly competitive society. Their main gripe was that Jews fighting other Jews just doesn’t work – I suppose they meant especially in Israel – and I agree. It’s ironic, because I went to Israel to be in a place where there’d be less walls between people as a result of being from the same spiritual and genetic background – but it turns out the walls are just different.

On this note of “Israelis fighting Israelis,” at Hayarkon Hostel (pics below) in Tel Aviv during 2005 there was a non-Jewish British carpenter with an Israeli girlfriend. He told me how Israelis emulated much of their abusive behaviour toward each other from Arabs. I translate this in daily life to mean as countless Tom and Jerry-like battles for narcissistic supply, with this character trait in turn being the result of trauma associated from being born into a warzone and the subsequent creation of an invincible false-self.

Later while taking a bus from the hostel, a tourist mentioned to me how bogged down the small country was in security spending, with guards required at so many public places, not to mention defence spending as a whole. Moreover, the Walk Through Metal Detectors outside malls and bus/train stations were a real health turn-off for me. The risks are played down, but I can feel their effects so I avoided them.

Another standout reader comment I read on an Israeli news site was “Jews from the diaspora have difficulty fathoming the depth of moronicy present in this country.” I would have to agree – people can act in counterproductive ways to each other. And back in Australia in 2007, an Israeli ex-pat mentioned to me how Israelis when they leave the country often end up seeking other Israelis to associate with. After living in Israel for ~12 years, I would imagine that to mean that it is difficult to be comfortably sociopathic unless around other sociopaths. By this, I mean that sociopathy arises when narcissism is combined with baseless hatred.

Baseless hatred exists as a remnant causative factor of the destruction of the second temple. In a narcissistic society due to constant war, I suppose one could hate another simply for taking attention away from oneself to fracture self-worth. A religious fellow at the Mahane Yehuda market confirmed with me once that baseless hatred is everywhere in the country and keeps people divided. This is why Yaakov said to me something akin to “English speakers need to stick to English speakers.”

For Jews everywhere, there are also issues associated with being in the age of the “Shalom Rav” (Peace Rabbi), which I deem something akin to an atheistic security guard taking control of the Jewish synagogue they’re supposed to protect: some new type of coup between a rabbi and his security guard.

[ far right, June 2005, a potential bomb is detonated at a bus stop ]

Can’t we all just get along?

Anyhow, months later, in October 2005 and still with the travel bug, I reached Vancouver.

While browsing a second-hand bookstore I discovered a book (Idel, 1988) Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah and it really had a strong resonance with me. The book is  a study of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia. Abulafia uncovered new knowledge through an itinerant life and believed he was the messiah – although perhaps that belief was justifiable to the extent of his preeminence.

source

Abulafia even attempted to convert the pope to Judaism:

He went to Rome in 1280 in order to convert Pope Nicholas III to Judaism on the day before Rosh Hashanah. The Pope was in Suriano when he heard of it, and he issued orders to “burn the fanatic” as soon as he reached that place. The stake was erected in preparation close to the inner gate; but Abulafia set out for Suriano all the same and reached there August 22. While passing through the outer gate, he heard that the Pope had died from an apoplectic stroke during the preceding night. He returned to Rome, where he was thrown into prison by the Order of Friars Minor but was liberated after four weeks’ detention. He was next heard of in Sicily. ~ Wikipedia

Prof. Moshe Idel on Abraham Abulafia

I also visited the British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria, BC.

Back in Israel months later, I borrowed the Tanya from Ascent (in Tsfat) and started reading it back in my room.

One thing that struck me was how it described the world being  continuously created through the constant emanation of the names of God (in Hebrew.) I’d already heard something similar on a radio interview while driving to South Australia in early 2005 – that the Big Bang didn’t occur once – the world is big-banging into existence at every moment.

The apex of my learning came whilst studying at Ohr Somayach yeshiva in Jerusalem.

During one of my first classes there, I had the distressed thought:

“So this is it, I have come all the way from Australia, dropped out of university, travelled a great mental distance, spent lots of money and relocated to this premises and all for this classroom? A whole new journey of infinite learning was about to start. Please God if you’re listening, make my day.”

And the class proceeded as usual.

Then that night, in a dream-like state some angelic teacher stood near me and imbued me with an avalanche of wisdom. The transfer went for about a minute or so. I’d never experienced anything like it before or since. It was like the feeling of a million burning questions being answered.

Now who doesn’t want to stand in God’s stream of consciousness?

And so that was it, the exodus was over… at least for me at that point.

So the Ari (Isaac Luria) told the student something remarkable: "if I had 80 years to write down the material that I heard from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, I still couldn’t finish it." That’s how much stuff Rabbi Shimon said in whatever brief time that he (Luria) was sleeping or in a trance."
~  Rabbi Mendel Kessin 8:51


✓ 7 months ago

Social Proof, not Social Goof!

It’s about balancing the goofiness with precision … but don’t fail, though.

last update: 28 February 2025

I heard Lenny Kravitz for the first time with Let Love Rule on the car radio, probably around 1990 on PBS. I think my brother was sitting next to me and my dad was driving. Our car was passing a cemetery.

Lenny Kravitz - Let Love Rule (Official Music Video)

Really, I think LK should put acoustic guitar to bass/drums/organ more often, if I may suggest.

I was thrilled no one changed the station during the song and thought it was one of the coolest tracks I’d ever heard. Then I recognised the music again at a friend’s place a number of months later and it all clicked and I bought the album.

In 1992 (above left) I owned the Digipak edition of LK’s 2nd album (middle) and in 1993 I owned the Digipak of album 3 (right.)

My dad’s first reaction was to his name – okay so he must be Jewish!

However, one of my cherished Kravitz CDs ended up severely scratched after I lent it to Tim in 1993.

[ Note, LK Digipak in bedside table under Branford Marsalis CD. ]

I think it was Let Love Rule because Sitting on Top of the World never played past the second bar without getting stuck in a loop.

He later said that the CD was passed around in the unit without him knowing and he mentioned some other people. It ended up on the wood floor somehow. Accidents happen. But people return favours in different ways. A few people told me to clean it with tooth-paste. Why not?

At least Stain remained …unstained.

[April?, 1993]

Blize (2014 + 1993)

Later that year the whole year group helped clean up after a flood – really puts things into perspective seeing people dealing with their whole material lives being washed away. I think it was Seymour.

Helped us see-more.

That said, speaking of messups, I took the woodshed 2 steps forward and 1 step back (or was it vice-versa because people couldn’t leap up onto the roof anymore) by making it bigger and higher in the rear but with a little less overhang in the front so it was more work to stack it out of the way from the rain. I think it was an improvement, but not by much.

[ the original boiler woodshed ]

Later, the unit master suggested I should’ve done more planning and there was nothing wrong with the original shed but he wasn’t around while the work was done. That was done towards the end of the year and no one really complained.

With Jun by my side, a bunch of guys stood around as I drove in nails – it wasn’t like I did it without any sort of tacit approval either, or formality.

Anyway, during this time LK wasn’t really hard, manly or grungy enough to be universally accepted, at least at my school. It could have been the falsetto, who knows? I just liked his music. Image was secondary to me, if not completely irrelevant.

Anyway, on 12 Feb 1994 I saw LK in concert and I even bought a long-sleeved t-shirt – but that’s over now.

At school, it was strange because I think a bunch of girls liked me (as they liked Lenny) but I didn’t really know that – female competition and jealousy was probably a deterrence.

At a house party, I took a skateboard taken that I had carefully constructed in 1994 during woodwork (in the Deaf School) and many years later it appeared at someone’s place with serious mileage on it. A chap I knew quite well, Rikka, (Mark) mentioned some other names that gave it to him and they were my buddies anyway. Strange situation, we were both stressed, and I let him keep it as it was so banged up and possession is 9/10 of the law. Did I have a choice though? I didn’t think about the police at the time.

Also, I thought deep down that having the board disappear meant it might well have saved me from having an accident on it. I was more into skiing and blading and designed a pair of skis that were built in late 2012 for carving (but very strangely ended up great in powder too.)

2013 (Zermatt)

They were never stolen, but I haven’t seen them in years though. I hope they’re still around.

So I found these skis to be extremely safe – I only took one fall in ~20 days of skiing and that’s because I was testing their limits. So these Heartcarve skis are for endorphins, not adrenaline. And due to the lack of pain and fear, skiing becomes a much more social experience and I ended up talking to many more people on the chairlift and simply overall. The biggest challenge was finding a pair of boots that fit well, because so much g-force is taken by the tongue.

Note, like downhill mountain-biking, my upper body is facing in the same direction as my skis.

Back in 2008, on off-the-shelf slalom skis after having worked on Heartcarving since 2002:

Carving Blackcomb 2008

(also vid 2007 – Tirol)

1 2 3

2007 – Little Buller Spur | 2007 – Summit Slide  | ’08 + ’08 (Whistler)

Today, I think the style could be comparable to an e-unicycle.

INMOTION V13 (Full Send Street Riding) Technical Fast Electric Unicycling

The whole “always keep upper body facing downhill” thing is a paradigm to me that causes tension and pain in the body. Even today’s modern carvers still do it to a large extent.

I suppose no matter what the skis or technique, one can always numb it all down later apres-ski. I’m centred in my heart… isn’t that goofy?

So all boots have a pain point when fitting in the shop and that has to be on the front of the shin because after a few days of skiing, the front of the shin develops a muscle to counteract that force. For me that was the Garmont G2 – a miracle find because it was for bony, narrow feet.

Anyway, back to the skateboard, in one way I was happy for Rikka because he was a really good skater and I hold no grudges. In the news, there are so many stories about small disputes escalating into serious offences, it’s important to keep things in perspective and this is why condemnation as a mental device (also mentioned here and here) is problematic as it leads to disproportional, emotive responses. I should have kept a closer watch on the board at the party instead of long hair and smiling faces. But it also shows I made a good deck because he said a number of people had used it.

It was a Magnusson deck (~1988) that I cut down.

I used full-size large wheels from another board I owned, tightened the trucks, loosened the wheel nuts – like one of today’s cruiser boards, perhaps. Ollies were hard, yet it was fast and stable.

No wonder it disappeared. And I thought people would think I was a weirdo.

It’s worth noting that that board had nose-to-tail, hell concave and I initially bought the whole thing second-hand at Huntingfield Road for about $25 from a friend of a brother of a friend.

He didn’t like the concave, and it was still in pretty good condition. It was my first “professional” board.

The board I had prior to that was an el-cheapo and it was slow and unwieldly but got me tinkering around with it to try to make it better.

And I’d already been building Lego for years prior to that.

So on the Magnusson, I removed the rail and tail sliders it came with, and would stop by rolling onto sidewalk grass or s-bending on the road.

Like my skiing, I didn’t care about tricks and wasn’t too good at them either, I just wanted to cover distance in style – as with life.

To this day, I think it was a great design because my feet could stay over the trucks and this kept the board parallel to the ground rather than bending as with a longboard.

[ src ]

Perhaps I should see it as me having “lost” it rather than having had it “stolen.” I just forgot about it long-term because it was so new to me and I was so focused on school work.  Thus, the whole time it had a “borrowed” status among some of my school friends. But I never did tell anyone “here, that’s yours now to keep.”

On the other hand, maybe it was straight up stolen or taken as “ownerless” one night at the party – maybe it was dumped and picked up. And Rikka was most probably right, I did last see someone using the board at full pelt up and down the street at that party. Or was that a different deck?

It was on that night that I turned to a couple at one point and said “love is a beautiful thing” and they both laughed.

I could’ve said it to the skater. Finders, keepers, right?

A lot of people ended up there that night, in Toorak in late ’94 or early ’95. Eden was there. And that’s probably it right there with Mark:

… or not.

So at least it got good use! The whole thing has a sexual connotation too.

Anyhow, I really wanted to go to my school formal with someone I had met at a party that had been at my house, P, whereby Luke met her randomly shortly before it (with her friend S also coming to the party.) Luke thought they were hot and I chatted with both of them in the back garden with Mike around where Desmond is below.

So then in 1996 out of the blue P appeared outside South Yarra train station as if waiting to speak to me, and I spoke to her for a bit, but being into my walkman and schoolwork, my mind was too linear for me to pop the question. Well spoken, she had been on an ABC television show that year too. Frustrating.

Some months later I saw her at schoolies in Noosa (Rolling Rock) and we spoke again by chance at nearby Funkies, funnily enough where Tim’s good friend Sarah worked who I also knew quite well from school, and later that pair wound up in the back of the Nissan at some point as we went clubbing in early 1997. Just needed to find a Kravitz concert to complete the night.

So to P, I said “there’s no sign I’m not compatible with” (Prince – Kiss) and she said “bull.” She was with a friend and that was the end. I should’ve just said, “hey, let’s all meet at Silvers tonight” as it was in the same building, and come to think of it, I did see P once at Silvers in I think early 1997 but we never spoke. She either ignored me or I ignored her, who really knows in those chaotic places? So a few weeks or months later Lucy (and Noah,) who Luke knew, would’ve been over with her upright bass.

Right about that time I started delivering pizzas for Giardino which became Vintage Cellars and was a few doors up from Fuji where Toby was dognapped.

src | 2 | 3

Michael Todd of the Australian Ballet (1978) (above-right, bare legs) was a waiter and said he felt I had a shielded or guarded personality and should loosen up … something like that anyway. I didn’t really agree with him – but he may have had a point – I don’t know – I was serious a lot of the time. Perhaps I should’ve popped on a clown suit. Good guy though, and we had some interesting discussions. He looked at my hair, touched a few strands and said in a professional tone that I should cut it really short, which I eventually did (but only years later) or else grow it long.  Dreadlocks would’ve been ideal.

He was at the tail-end of his career and had trouble finding work in ballet in his late 30’s – he had to move into choreography at that point. It must’ve been tough for him to transition from an acclaimed dancer into someone who some people would treat condescendingly at a restaurant. Every job has its downsides and my car was starting to smell like the restaurant.

One rare regret I have from the years 1997-2001 is the lack of photos I took of my fashion choices of the day.  All my clothes were thrown away from that time too. So my biggest tip while doing deliveries was a $20 bill for a $13 pizza and to “keep the change.” That was from Brian Blythe (1939 – 2022) of Spotless at the doorstep of Coonac, Melbourne’s most expensive home.

I wasn’t just grateful, but also in awe. But how would deliveries get me there permanently? I did take some shots outside Coonac in 2020.

Photo deliveries?

Anyway, I did some additional delivery runs for a pizza shop in the Balwyn area in place for Zoltak.

Interestingly, during my time at uni, but I’m not sure when – most likely 2001 – I had the idea to run a meditation class. But it wasn’t really a meditation class. It was just about getting a whole heap of people in the same room.

The idea never moved beyond the image above, I had no qualifications, and people could get the same feeling at a cinema just as the lights dimmed. Maybe it’s something people will do in 2050 …for whoever remains. A meetup in its purest form. I still think it has potential: expect nothing, receive the universe, charge anything.

Maybe a group-sleep could work like in kindergarten but for adults in a retreat setting.

src

Wait don’t people do that on aeroplanes? Maybe in hyperbaric chambers or sensory deprivation tanks? Too Goofy?

So in early ’97 at uni I momentarily met P’s younger sister P2 (and her friend E) on the tram who later brushed passed me after she saw me laughing out loud in front of the commerce building – during my conversation with Robbie about clubbing. Kind of gnarly to think about it all now. It must be quite common, a person is friends or even an item with someone, and really they should be hanging out with the sibling.

So Robbie lived around the corner from me and Jun met him one night and Robbie said Jun was a “top bloke.” Jun, Robbie, myself and I think Peck were in a taxi going to Crown Casino, and we passed the Arcadia Hotel and I saw a homeless/derelict person outside and I said “Can I have a dollar?” to him and we all cracked up laughing. I highly doubt the guy heard over all the background noise, and I said it facetiously to take the piss out of us all – not him. Anyway, if he gave me a dollar, I could’ve tried to turn it into 10 for him at Crown minus the carried interest!

These days I’d have to wonder who are the real parasites – the super poor or the super rich? Speaking of which:

Gary nails it—this rentier economy has turned ownership and hard work into relics of the past. Like Yanis Varoufakis points out, this isn’t capitalism in its original sense; it’s a parasitic system designed to extract wealth rather than create it. The middle class is being squeezed, not because they’re lazy, but because the rules of the game have changed. We’re forced to rent everything—homes, jobs, even our futures—while the owner class rakes in profits from systems they didn’t build, exploiting our labor and resources. And then they preach about ‘hard work,’ as if it means anything in a rigged game. This isn’t progress—it’s neo-feudalism, and it’s dismantling the social contract piece by piece.

Gary’s Economics | top comment | 6 Jan 2025

I’ve seen the behaviour up close personally with the leeches of the fashion industry as mentioned here. And the same in Hollywood, from my experience. What’s theirs is theirs and what’s mine is theirs. It’s the international money mafia, baby!

Yet from my understanding, Hollywood A-listers don’t have full control of their money, and they can only spend on certain things. That was according to one internet personality (now inactive with many videos offline for many years.)

If so, then Steven Spielberg can buy a superyacht for himself, but couldn’t buy one for me, even if he wanted to. That personality also spoke of R Kelly being innocent, with his convictions being drummed or even fabricated so he could be used as a sexual misconduct scapegoat, and also as part of some type of revenge thing – although that was for a case in the 2010’s so just a continuation of that?

[drums switcheroo] R Kelly - Flirt (2007 + 2016)

Speaking  of A-listers, why is Harrison Ford still working? Is it a clone? Why is Lenny Kravitz back on tour in 2025, is he on a hamster wheel? How does he hear anything anymore? Why did R Kelly, Lenny Kravitz, Bruno Mars and Kanye West all lose their mothers early on in their careers? The rules in the beast-system are different and clandestine. But once you’re on the “freedom train,” there’s no turning back.

Lenny Kravitz - Freedom Train/Always On The Run - live 1994

Gary from Gary’s Economics was on the finance trading floor for 5 years before retiring a multi-millionaire with great resistance. How many Hollywood A-listers or pop stars have even been able to retire at all, let alone after 5 years?

It’s like there’s a centralized ledger of who has what amount of money, and people have to request for a voucher any time they want to buy or sell something of any value. Actually, I have no idea if there is a system like that in place, but it wouldn’t suprise me. I think Dave Chappelle said to be careful of being paid too much – something like that. The last thing I’d want is to be more valuable dead than alive with the value of a song catalog rising as a result, the negation of royalty payments, the avoidance of fading glory and the freeing up of fans and fame for new acts. Same with film. And there’s also the risk of failing mind-control and the slipping of “secrets.”

So maybe the fashion heads want to reciprocate… but can’t! No one wants to be “deactivated” and thrown off the train.

src

Also, status is bestowed to those who inspire the next and that should go to someone important like an heir.

Not a goofy outsider.

[ 23 Apr 2018 | 10 July 2018 | 7 Aug 2018 ]

Yet at the same time, according to Primal Status Elevated, one challenge “new money” has is maintaining and monopolizing primal status within their sphere of influence and greater society. As with Hollywood fame, companies (and families) can also seek their own type of fame to create inter-generational wealth (“old money.”) This is outlined in this video. I don’t think Marta Ortega has a very good fashion sense myself – how is she going to uphold a fashion dynasty for decades to come? But does it matter? People can gravitate toward their strengths anyway.

If I publicly had over $100 Billion, I would look at aiming to hide the bulk of the money from the public anyway, like the Wallenberg family (apparently) over the course of decades.

[11 July 2018]

It depends on the context of course – in France I could pitch myself as the second coming of Napoleon but I still might need a private army and prison.  In North Korea, it’s either life as a serf or a soldier… is that what the West has to look forward to? If the super-rich are squeezing out the middle class today, then won’t the ultra/invisible rich eventually squeeze those out tomorrow?

So it may be an interesting strategy to create the appearance of being a billionaire to elevate status, and the nepo babies need help – and so do their parents if they want to turn their surnames into long-standing brands. Who do they let into their inner-circle?

Anyway, Peter Thiel recently alluded to the notion that to lift billions out of poverty would require whole new energy sources. Interestingly, that may end up lowering birth rates. Also, perhaps those futuristic energy devices exist but are purposely hidden through a lack of love.

The Lost Century: And How to Reclaim It

It’s interesting to note how restrained Thiel is in pushing the envelope. That said, according to one theory, JFK wanted to use his platform to rein in the Federal Reserve and look what happened to him. No one wants to be first to invest in anything too disruptive. Anything too good is siphoned away into a breakaway civilization for the chosen few, right?

So I read about a very wealthy guy that started to buy up radio stations in the USA and he was “put to sleep” as well. But at some point you’ve gotta fight the good fight, but if you hit people in the wallet they tend to swing back. Prince sung “What’s the use of money if you ain’t gonna break the mould? … All that glitters ain’t gold.”

prince 'Gold' RARE Extended Alternate Music Video 1995

So another girl at school told me I looked like Joaquin Phoenix or Daniel Day-Lewis.

Anyhow, in Newcastle, Daniel Johns was bashed because he wasn’t masculine enough, and his music was already pretty heavy.

Silverchiar- Daniel Johns Interview pt. 2 (of 3)

They were the cool guys, we were just the others guys that were in a band that wasn’t as masculine. (1:00)

So back to Kravitz, in May 2018, I took this photo in Atlit, Israel and by September Lenny had his album cover on the shelves:

Fast forward to October 2023, LK’s newly announced album Blue Electric Light seems to have followed from my April 2019 pics from Innot Hot Springs.

src

And I read an interview in the 90’s about Lenny re-recording Tony Breit’s basslines from jam session tapes and not giving him songwriting credits and that caused a lot of tension. Unfortunately, I don’t have the exact quote on hand. This was from 1993, however:

src | screenshot

[ IG ]

So I do remember going to my CD at the time and looking at the album art perplexed.

src

Breit’s only listed playing on 4 tracks. Chad Smith got writing credits on Blood Sugar Sex Magik and he was “just” the drummer. But they’re a “band” so it’s different, right?

Has Breit written anything with Lenny? He plays guitar too. Maybe I’m over-reaching but I lost some of my innocence at the time.

Best of luck to them anyway and maybe what was written was garbage.

Or not. I think it was Me’shell Ndegéocello that said she wouldn’t even step into the same studio with someone with her instrument unless there was a contract in place. And re-recording parts is nothing new. On Guns ‘n Roses’ 2008 Chinese Democracy:

"According to Ferrer, he is the only drummer on the title track; the rest of the album features drums by Brain and Ferrer, using Freese's arrangements. Bassist Tommy Stinson stated he had to rerecord his bass parts with each change in drummer." - src
Brain said Freese played on 30 songs before he split with the band. While Axl Rose admired Brain's feel, he was set on the patterns that Freese had played, so he had Brain replicate Freese's parts note for note. - src

This made it the most expensive rock album ever produced – $13 million.

Brain on Chinese Democracy

And Coco Chanel said that creativity is the art of concealing your sources, non? But it shouldn’t have to be this way and what goes around comes around.

In the 80’s, I remember listening to Genesis on the radio and turning up the volume dial only on the 2 and 4 and muting the rest – I realized I could do that on any song.

The rest is just filler anyway, right? It was so easy to record stuff as well onto tape.

When it comes to my playing, I could see how someone would want it optimized, as there is a sloppiness and unpredictability to it but also taste and groove. My timekeeping, at times can be discernibly off. Yet one could also use quantizing – Grohl’s bass drum on Nevermind was quantized, well that’s what someone told me when it came out.

Chess Bloom (1991 + 2015) [full]

However, I’ve got excellent hearing when it comes to placing notes in relation to a pulse – that happens looking at a screen, not at tom-toms.

For example, with my drumming “switcheroo” (enabled by AI track separation) of It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over, Kravitz may have liked it, but recognized the imperfections, and then re-did it to his liking.

Playlist: drums switcheroo

Well, I highly doubt it, but it’s worth understanding the temptation in these situations. It’s about balancing the goofiness with precision. Or in more opportunistic settings, being able to conceal the sources. It’d also be possible to take the best bars and loop them.

Anyway, at the start of this clip, I am keeping time on the hats and laying out a fill at the end of the section.

Funktion View (1997 + 2015)

Same with Krav.

Lenny Kravitz - How Long Have You Been Blind (Harry Belafonte Tribute)

Very generic stuff, but I think RaveDJ quantized my drums and was able get the drum overlap right, and, Krav put out his track about a month after I first released mine (30 March 2023). RaveDJ have since made my mashups unavailable on that site.

Also, following on from the Phoenix/Kidman film from 1995 (mentioned above) is a new Kidman/Dickinson film almost 30 years later.

OK, so back to 2020, and today a rainbow literally appeared in front of me through the trees as I started playing this on drums, and it dissipated by the end.

It’s in my squint at 0:29 … It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over… yeah… tell that to the Social Goofs who stare at the rainbows that no one else are yet to see!

pics
www.etsy.com/nz/listing/590425852/vintage-90s-1993-lenny-kravitz-universal
sg.carousell.com/p/arthcd-lenny-kravitz-are-you-gonna-go-my-way-limited-edition-digipak-cd-poster-147322884/

✓ 6 months ago

Tyka Nelson – Royal Blue (1988)

Tyka Nelson - Royal Blue

I devised a custom outfit derived from Versace 90’s gear and a James Bond print in January 2018 in Jerusalem. The looks were showcased in Ormus King 2 – Lab Theft and Brazil scene.

Playlist: custom outfit

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by ZARA Official (@zara)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)

Harry Styles Inducts Stevie Nicks into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame | 2019 Induction

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)

“Alpha” Highxtar L’Officiel:

Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh™ Spaceship Earth, an “Imaginary Experience” [at 4:30] >>

Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh™ Spaceship Earth, an "Imaginary Experience"

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by -™ . ~ (@arch___itecture)


✓ 3 years ago