When I hung out my own shingle and became a self-employed independent contractor, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to find any work.  I had sleepless nights worried that I would soon be bankrupt, foreclosed, and homeless.

Now it looks that instead of enjoying some rest over the winter holidays, I'll be working every day until the New Year, holidays included.  Everything's impermanent and this too shall pass, but it's reassuring to remember that our worst fears don't always come true the next time I have financial anxieties.

Dogen instructed,

It is said in the secular world that a castle falls when people start to whisper words within its walls. It is also said that when there are two opinions in a house, not even a pin can be bought; when there is no conflict of opinions, even gold can be purchased. Even in the secular world, it is said that unity of mind is necessary for the sake of maintaining a household or protecting a castle. If unity is lacking, the house or the castle will eventually fall. 

Much more, should monks who have left home to study under a single teacher be harmonious like the mixture of water and milk. There is also the six ways of harmony - that of body, mouth, and mind, keeping the same precepts, having the same insight, and carrying on the same practice. Do not set up individual rooms, nor practice the Way separately either physically or mentally. 

Our life in this monastery is like crossing the ocean on a single ship. We should have unity of mind, conduct ourselves in the same way, give advice to each other to reform each other’s faults, follow the good points of others, and practice the Way singlemindedly. This is the Way people have been practicing since the time of the Buddha (Shobogenzo Zuimonki, Book 4, Chapter 13).

The Road to Chattanooga

30,000 miles, right on the mark, and just so happened to have the camera on me to prove it.

Peaking Lights

Beirut, Athens

Last night, I went to Athens to see Beirut.  Not Athens, Greece or Beirut, Lebanon, to be sure - I drove to Athens, Georgia last evening to see the band Beirut.

Don't tell me I can't see a band!  Beirut sold out Atlanta's Variety Playhouse when they came through here on the last week of Rocktober, and although I had hoped that tickets would somehow materialize, they didn't and I wound up staying home that night (the one night of the penultimate week of Rocktober where I didn't go out to see a live band).

Since then, Beirut's tour took them through Georgia again, this time to Athens for a gig at the Georgia Theater.  And since I established last Sunday evening that I could make it to Athens and back in an evening, I headed back last night to finally catch Beirut.  I could call this little run of Athens concerts "Athenfest", but I believe there's already an actual event that goes by that name, so that could get confusing.

Perfume Genius opened.  Perfume Genius is singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas, who plays incredibly personal and intimate songs about the tragedies he's encountered in his young but tortured life.  For example, his song Mister Peterson seems to be about a teacher who sexually abused him before committing suicide by jumping off a building.

Dark, dark stuff and the songs were all played very quietly and with great delicacy, suppoted by two other musicians.  The audience, at least those near the stage, hung on every line and gave him their complete support, but overall it was music that required complete attention, probably better suited for a coffeehouse than a concert hall.

It was quite different from the sunny and buoyant music of Beirut.  

Beirut is led by Zach Condon, second from left above, who sings and plays trumpet and mandolin. 

Beirut has some unusual instrumentation, and is that rare rock band that doesn't employ a guitar. Six musicians on stage, almost all multi-instrumentalists, and not one guitar to be seen anywhere.  

What they did have on stage included up to three trumpets at any one time, trombone, french horn, sousaphone, xylophone, accordian, bass, drums, occasional keyboards, ukulele, and some other instruments I'm probably forgetting.

What's striking about Beirut beyond their unusual instrumentation is the joyous enthusiasm of their sound.  They draw from a variety of musical  traditions, most notably mariachi (Condon is from Santa Fe), but Balkan influences can also be heard, as well as gypsy and other native folk musics.

A little sample of their music for your listening pleasure:

I saw at least one young lady in last night's audience wearing an elephant-trunk mask like the ones in the video.

The young, UGA crowd really ate it up.  "You are so fine!," one woman called out to Condon in a thick, southern drawl, and Condon was noticeably nonplussed for a few seconds.  "I've never heard that before," he finally managed to reply, as the rest of the band cracked up.

They played their triumphant song Santa Fe from their latest album The Rip Tide about halfway through the set.

The sound system was marvelous.  I commend the Georgia Theater for such a good mix of a complex arrangement of instruments, as well as keeping the show on schedule - Perfume Genius took the stage right at 9 pm, and Beirut right at 10, as advertised.

Beirut played a 60-minute set followed by a three-song encore, including a Zach Condon solo number and three rousing mariachi barn-burners.  I managed to make it back home to Atlanta by 12:30, a little late but not too unmanageable.

A day today of modest accomplishment.  Putting one foot in front of the other, I proceed, albeit slowly.

More Pageants

Oh, look.  Influential west-coast radio station KCRW recently posted an endorsement of the band Pageants, whom I blogged about last September (after an anonymous tip!).  Nice to see this deserving band getting some traction.

Meanwhile, my tickets arrived in the mail today to see the following bands at (where else?) The Earl:

• Diamond Rugs and Dead Confederate (12/29/11)
• Twin Sister and Ava Luna (1/25/12)
• Bowerbirds (4/15/12)

Tomorrow, it's back to Athens, Georgia, now that I've established that I can make the trip there and back in one evening, to see Beirut, the band that I missed during Rocktober.  

Rohatsu

Today was the first day of our annual Rohatsu retreat at the Zen Center.  Rohatsu is a commemoration of the Buddha's enlightenment, traditionally observed on the 8th of December, and is the most intense and deepest retreat of the year.  Monks around the world tremble in anticipation of Rohatsu.

I was planning on using some of my new-found free time by attending Rohatsu this year, but an interesting derivative of Murphy's Law will prevent this from happening.  The first derivative of Murphy's Law states you will succeed at your task if you arrange things such that success is the worst thing that could happen.  In this case, the phone rang today (5:30 pm) and I have a gig, some geologic field work that will keep me busy for the next week or so, starting tomorrow.  That's exactly what I was looking for, but it will prevent me from attending Rohatsu again this year, and I don't think I'm in a position right now to turn away work.

But in any event, I was able to attend the opening of the retreat this evening, so Monday Night Zazen this week didn't include any Zuimonki readings or discussion, just 90 minutes of zazen.  In other words, it was the best possible way to engage the evening.

Prince Rama

Athens, Georgia, home of the University, the Bulldogs, the B-52s and REM, is about 70 miles east of Atlanta.  It's well beyond Atlanta's sprawling suburbs and is really a town unto itself, a college community with its own rhythms, scenes, and style.  

I drove out there today to see the band Prince Rama play.  They're wrapping up a tour of the US before heading off to Australia early next year and passed through Athens this evening, and I realized that one of the benefits of being underemployed is I can stay out late on a Sunday and not have to pay the Monday morning consequences.  So I drove the 70 miles to the show at a nice little restaurant in Athens called Farm255, just a few doors down from the infamous 40-Watt Club.

A local band called Pretty Bird opened.

For some reason, they made Pretty Bird play outdoors, even though the other bands were allowed to play inside.  And like the dog that's not let in the house, they were noisy and unruly, and that's a good thing.  They play without instruments except for a couple of drums, over which the members holler and chant and hum, creating their own form of accompaniment.

Tonight was also their CD (actually DVD) release party, something called Put Your Head in the Clouds, a Birdhouse Collection.  They were giving them away for free so I got a copy - I'll update this post if there's anything important to report.

Inside, another local Athens band, Bubbly Mommy Gun, opened for Prince Rama.  They played mainly instrumental, off-kilter rock with unusual time signatures and instrumentation.  For some reason, their idiosyncratic sound reminded me a little of San Francisco's Thinking Fellers Union 282.

Some of their passages almost sounded like nouveau swing, while others channeled some of the quirkier new wave (nouveau vague) of the late 70s and early 80s. My only complaint was that their set was too short.

There is no "prince" in Prince Rama - the band consists of two sisters, Taraka and Nimai Larson. Reportedly, they were raised on a Hare Krishna commune near Gainesville, Florida before attending art school in Boston. Their music mixes psychedelic rock with Middle and Far Eastern elements and occasional chanting, sometimes in Sanskrit.

It was a free show - no admission - but a bucket was passed around to support the band.  I contributed (of course), but  based on the fuel it took to get from Atlanta to Athens and back, the show wasn't really "free" for me.

The turnout was small, perhaps 50 people, but the audience was invited to come right up in front of the performers (there was no real stage - they played on the floor of the restaurant).  But what the crowd lacked in size, they made up for in enthusiasm, bobbing and swaying along with the pulsating music.

For only two musicians, the Larson sisters manage to produce a lot of sound, and the driving rhythms and soaring vocals were even more effective live than I had anticipated.  I was glad that I made the drive out to Athens to catch their set, and only wish that they'd drop by Atlanta some time and play The Earl.

So that was my evening in Athens.  It wasn't all that difficult getting there and back, but after all it was a Sunday evening and traffic was light (I wouldn't even try the trip on the Saturday of a football game).  In all, it makes me wonder why I haven't before. 

Today, presidential candidate Herman Cain announced he was placing his hilarious campaign "on suspension" (meaning he's still free to accept campaign contributions).  The announcement was made right here in Cain's native Atlanta.  The recipient of good fortune from Cain's misfortune appears to be presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, another Georgia resident, who's own campaign seemed virtually dead several months ago when his staff quit en masse.

But this year's Republican voters seem to be as fickle as their candidates are feckless.  Newt's campaign is most likely to go the way of Michelle Bachman's and Rick Perry's, and fizzle out once the public takes another good, hard look at Newt.

With less than a year before the election, it's becoming increasingly clear that the conservatives are incapable of even identifying a qualified candidate.

"There will be bleeding from orifices . . . "

I saw Montreal's Suuns (pronounced "soons") at MFNW in Portland during what feels like a year ago but was only last September.  Since that time, the band has released an interesting new video for their Red Song.  I like the sort-of science-fiction vibe that I get from the sound and imagery in this vid.  I don't think it cost a lot of money to make this video, but it shows what a little imagination and creativity can do with a DIY attitude.

Here they are at Branx during MFNW:

And here's a video of them at another venue playing Arena, the opening number for their Branx' set:

Interview

Below, a radio interview with my friend and dharma teacher Arthur Stovall (above, with his new bride), recorded in Chattanooga, Tennessee.