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A few years ago, two of the major bookstore chains went into the publishing business, and began producing their own books, both classic titles and new content.
It made complete sense. Why split money with publishers when you can publish it yourself and make a larger profit?
Yet, none of them ever took the next logical steps--signing a big-name author to an exclusive publishing deal. Or reprinting backlist titles that continue to sell on the used book circuit.
Seems like a missed opportunity. But then, they're retailers first and foremost, and expanding into publishing carries a lot of costs and risks.
Now, in the days of ebooks, we have the Kindle, the Sony Reader, the iPhone, and the Barnes and Noble nook.
The savvy, ewise author knows how to get his books on these devices. Mine already are, or soon will be. Kindle in particular makes it very easy to do, and Sony is stepping up as well. I'll be on iTunes soon thanks to IndiaNIC, and B&N thanks to Smashwords.com.
But Amazon, Sony, Apple, and B&N are missing out on a way to make a lot more money.
Publishers get rich by having exclusive content. Only one publisher has Stephenie Meyer. The others do not.
And yet Amazon, Sony, Apple, and B&N all carry Stephenie Meyer on their sites, for their ereaders. They're sharing the pie.
Sharing is not the main problem. All bookstores share. But in the case of Amazon, Sony, and B&N, they LOSE money on each book sold. Print publishers, in an effort to stave off the inevitable, charge these companies several dollars more for the ebook than the companies are selling them for.
The result? Every time Twilight sells, the etailer loses money. In fact, a good portion of the ebooks sold lose money for the etailer.
If the etailors got wise, they'd try to make deals with authors directly. But they won't, or can't. Because there is a cost and risk associated with publishing ebooks, the same as there is with publishing print books.
This is a shame. I'd love to sign an exclusive ebook contract, and have the etailer promote it. Sell it at a low price, and we'd both make a nice bit of change.
Maybe this will happen in the future. In the meantime, it seems like a smart person, or company, could capitalize on the current situation.
Let's call these people estributors.
In the book world, a distributor such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Partners, or Anderson, is the middleman between the publisher and the retailer. They warehouse the books from the publisher, and fufill orders to the bookstores and bookselling outlets.
What the ebook world needs is a middleman who can facilitate sales between Luddite authors with backlists but no tech savvy, and etailers selling ebooks.
An estributor could contact NAME authors (not self-pubbed newbies) for shelf novels and out of print backlists, arrange for cover art, format for Sony, nook, Kindle, and iTunes, and take a small percentage, say 10%, of the profits for a set amount of time.
The etailers would be making a profit from estributors, rather than hemorrhaging money like they're doing right now. Ebook prices stay low, which the customers want. And authors can concentrate on writing rather than all the tech stuff.
There are millions of out of print books still under copyright but not under contract. Estributors could position themselves to rival the sales of large publishers, if they get in while they can.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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Saturday, 14 August 2010
I Will Find Where Truth Is Hid, Though it Were Hid Indeed Within the Centre.
Sometimes the story unfolds, and the identity seems the most important thing. Who we are, our point of view, our role, our very being and existence as manifested by a body and a mind and thoughts and feelings and actions, seems the most important thing - perhaps the only thing. It can seem important to get to know one's own persona, the truth of it, the bare essential bones of it, uninterfered with by the comforting stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. It gets confusing. Surely those stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are an important part of our conditioning, part of the self-hypnosis that effects our essential reality? Surely it's impossible to disentangle all the stories, impressions, transference and projecting? Know yourself, some preach. Your persona is not important, preach others. Disenchanted with this conflicting advice, we try to develop our intuition, so as to know the right action to take, the right thing to do, the right way to feel, the right things to think, the right way to perceive reality - the TRUTH. We seek the unadorned truth of existence. We seek to strip away all filters of perception. We seek the fundamental answer to the fundamental question. The question: Why? Why me, why this, why anything? The answer: because it is.
The mind is a tricky, wondrous thing; perhaps it isn't the only thing, perhaps it isn't the be-all and end-all. Perhaps figuring things out isn't possible; in duality, the essential quality of manifested reality, co-existing mutually exclusive concepts are the norm. The mind can't fathom such chaos. But perhaps, if we stop trying, the truth is revealed. Maybe the truth is simply that it all exists, in an apparent motley jumble, full of hope and tragedy, comedy and despair, having and wanting, just as it does, in exactly the way it must. This could be labeled acceptance; but there doesn't even need to be something so far removed. What if there is no one that needs to accept? What if the identity, with its judgments and labeling, is simply an illusory, albeit it interesting, extra added bonus? Here we are, struggling or not, living life, coping, dying, praying, succeeding, trying to ease the burden of others, or retracted into a temporary perceived enclave of relative safety. We have been doing it right all along.
This clip is one from Lumet's The Verdict, my favourite performance by Paul Newman. As I stated above, here we are, living life, coping, dying...yet I find it hard to believe that Mr. Newman has died. He is my absolute favourite - and here's the conditioning behind it: he reminds me of my grandpa, who is 90 and looks after himself, bowls, fishes, keeps house, has all his marbles...despite having already died, at least conceptually, I find the hope arising that I've inherited his genes! The scene is the character Frank Gavin's summation, after a sticky trial taking a hospital to task for covering up a bad anaesthesia decision. Gavin was a washed-up alcoholic ambulance chaser before this case, and finds himself reborn in fighting for the comatose patient's family. A tour-de-force, and it almost makes me want to have such a concrete philosophy of life. We all seek truth. Enjoy.
118 comments:
What if it is actually possible to live a life where anger never arises, hatred never arises, loving feelings never arise, a life completely unadulterated by any feelings whatsoever? If you are at all curious, have a look at The Actual Freedom Trust homepage (http://www.actualfreedom.com.au/), where people report living such a life, and the Dharma Overground discussion forum (http://www.dharmaoverground.org/), where several enlightened people and a few people who report living such a life discuss these things.
- 14 August 2010 at 14:54
- No One In Particular said...
Feelings arise, or don't. Freedom is perceived and labeled, or not: same thing.
- 15 August 2010 at 05:55
A life unadulterated by any feelings whatsoever?
I'm thinking - trees!
I am not a tree myself, but there has been "wood" from time to time!
Willie R.
- 15 August 2010 at 12:39
Does it never bother you when a feeling arises and drives you to do something? If you are being driven by any feeling at all, be it love or hate, is that really freedom? Have you noticed the way people are driven to do horrible things like rape and murder and wars and suicide because of their feelings? Does that not bother you? And what is the use of being able to see things the way they really are if one does nothing about them?
- 15 August 2010 at 16:35
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, being bothered is a feeling. Perhaps there is no one bothered, and no one feeling - just botheredness (is that a word?) and the feeling itself. Feelings also drive wonderful, loving, nurturing, heroic acts, apparently. I am not bothered; no one is bothered. And there definitely is no use whatsoever of being able to see things the way they really are. Seeing is enough. However, usefulness can arise as well, from "time" to "time".
- 15 August 2010 at 18:07
Hi Suzanne,
This time again a right humdinger of a Shakespeare quotation from you! I wonder if the people at Shakespeare's time had the same difficulties understanding this? I guess not. English has changed a lot since then and this is Elizabethan English.
Finally, the girl in the picture is sooooo Groucho Marx!
All the best!
Burghard :-)
- 15 August 2010 at 21:33
I know "botheredness" is a feeling, I do not claim to be without feelings/emotions. I heard you mention grief in one of your interviews. Surely that means there is still something there in you that suffers even after enlightenment.
What I am saying is that there are people - not me - who have gone further and eliminated suffering altogether in any shape or form in themselves. That is, self-immolation in toto, the end of being itself. Lack of emotions is actually a side effect.
- 15 August 2010 at 21:36
At the bottom of that page, you can listen to a conversation between two people, one who claims enlightenment and one who claims "actual freedom" which is the end of being itself and the end of all suffering and of all passions and emotions and feelings.
- 15 August 2010 at 21:50
"I Will Find Where Truth is Hid..."...ah-HA!...there it is...right when they zoomed in on Paul Newman's face. And I was looking in all the wrong places :)
- 16 August 2010 at 00:18
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, great name by the way, grief (pain) is not necessarily suffering. There's nothing wrong with pain. The idea that there's something wrong with pain is what fuels suffering.
As you say, I suppose what you're talking about is a side effect. If there's still an ego floating about, who cares? If there is, it seems to be enjoying itself a LOT. There isn't anything here, as far as "I" can tell, that suffers. There isn't anything that resists what is. Maybe we're talking about the same thing. Maybe the elimination of all human emotion is a "worthy" goal, maybe not. Maybe there are no goals.
I'll look at the link if I get a chance. However, I've encountered most concepts that accumulate around enlightenment, awakening, liberation, seeing truth, whatever we're calling it today. They all exist, those concepts. They often conflict. They are. That's what's "important" about them.
Guilherme, thanks so much for your comments. And don't worry, I don't think you're making any claims to "proper" enlightenment, etc. It is so stimulating, having concepts to bounce off of - so enjoyable. But oh dear, maybe enjoyment arising is "bad"! Well, if so, so what? It is what it is, or at least how it's perceived.
Please come back and comment, frequently.
- 16 August 2010 at 07:53
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Burghard, Shakespeare had the description of Maya down to an art. My daughter said the picture looked like the film poster of Lolita, which had me worried, so I'm glad to hear there's a different perception "out there"!
- 16 August 2010 at 07:56
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Leslie, absolute truth can definitely be found in Paul Newman. My God, the way he looked in The Huster...has there ever been a better looking man?
- 16 August 2010 at 07:58
He is quite the face of Perfection...however...there ARE a few others :) I'll take his words on faith & trust anyday...serve 'em up.
- 16 August 2010 at 15:20
Hi Suzanne, or should I say, "Hi No One In Particular", or maybe I should just say, "Hi No", and leave out the surnames One and In and Particular, because No One In Particular is a long name! I was born in Brazil, and Guilherme's the name I got, apparently it's the equivalent to William.
Thank you so much, really, for welcoming my comments, especially since they are making a criticism of enlightenment, though I am not criticising "Suzanne" in particular.
I do not claim any kind of enlightenment at all, "proper" or otherwise. I am actually quite miserable most of the time. But I do not give up due to a few precious memories of perfect moments which remind me that life can be better. What I am pointing to, is a condition that is actually different to and beyond enlightenment. And my comments are not all based on hearsay, or reading, but also coming from a place of personal experience.
To clarify, there are a few people who claim to have arrived at a condition that is superior to enlightenment, and they call it "actual freedom", that is, an actual freedom from the human condition of malice and sorrow. I know what that condition is like because it is possible to experience it temporarily, and I have, in what is called a "pure consciousness experience" or PCE.
During the PCE, everything is perfect, brilliant, and untainted by any sense of self whatsoever, and no feelings whatsoever, in a PCE, there is not even a sense of being, which is unlike what loads of enlightened people describe when they say "There is only being". Enlightened people typically take "being" or "Being", sometimes disguised as "Awareness", to be the ultimate reality, when actually, being can be done away with too, just like the ego was apparently done away with in enlightenment.
Some of the people who claim an actual freedom were enlightened too before they achieved it, so they have intimate knowledge of both conditions. Most enlightened people seem to believe there is nothing left that could possibly be done, and therefore they perpetuate malice and sorrow. Similarly, a lot of people who are not enlightened, take their own ego reality to be all there is.
To emphasise, actual freedom is a new type of freedom. The man who first wrote about it is called Richard and he is from Australia. There is a huge lot of free information on his website (The Actual Freedom Trust website), by him and some other people.
Richard created a method, which he called "the actualism method" or just "actualism", which is really quite simple. It consists of asking oneself the question "How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?". The idea is to be as happy and harmless as it is humanly possible. The idea is to find out how one is feeling at any given moment and if not happy to find out why. So actually, the method he developed is not about getting rid of emotion, but it is about cultivating the felicitous feelings, those that feel happy and harmless, because those feelings are the closest imitation of actuality. One day one then has a PCE, and one day actual freedom.
And now that Daniel Ingram got interested in this, there is a lot of discussion going on on the Dharma Overground too. I sincerely wish more enlightened people would consider the possibility that malice and sorrow can actually be eliminated, that way they wouldn't perpetuate it.
- 16 August 2010 at 15:26
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme...no time...no perpetuation. Nothing wrong with tweaking experience, relabeling concepts, discussing "new" freedoms, trying to get the story "right". It is all the same thing. Call it Actual Freedom if you will. Why not?
- 16 August 2010 at 15:36
You mention grief and you call it pain. I agree that it is pain but for the sake of clarity I think it is important to make a distinction between *emotional* pain and *physical* pain. Physical pain is inevitable and even necessary, but emotional pain is not. Even if there is nothing wrong with emotional pain, if it can be eliminated, why not? Grief, for instance, is not pleasant, and not useful either. There are reports of people who have eliminated emotional pain, which also means they have eliminated emotional pleasure, and they say life is perfect and full of wonder and magical and a fairy-tale-like paradise. They report that physical pain (eg. being cut) and physical pleasure (eg. eating) still remain. By the way, there is some research on the amygdala in the brain, that shows how stimulating it in certain ways can produce emotions like fear or whatever which filter and colour perception. Evolution came up with those instinctual passions, as a way to avoid danger and perpetuate the species in a quick-and-dirty way. But humans are more intelligent than other animals and can afford to do away with those ancient passions. It is only software, apparently.
- 16 August 2010 at 16:58
Hi Suzanne (and Guilherme),
First, thanks to Suzanne for another direct but eloquent piece - you do have a way with words. But mainly I'm chiming in because of my experiences with the Actual Freedom folks, who have reappeared after several years' hiatus. I engaged in discourse with them for quite some time because I thought they were offering something free of the "spiritual" taggage/baggage. However I (and many others) eventually resolved that their offering was nothing more than a cult. And based on their most recent postings, they seem to have gone off even farther on that tangent. OK, enough opinion - the real fact of the matter is that what they offer is a very dualistic model, the body sensing its place in the universe. That is all well and good, and perhaps a delightful story to play out but behind that is the unmistakable fact that one cannot determine a separate individual. I sincerely recommend exploring other avenues before that of AF - you might check out Greg Goode for a very pragmatic exploration of the sense of a separate body. He has some good videos on youtube you might like.
But it's all good!
- 17 August 2010 at 01:31
Guilherme: Hello Guilherme, experience has taught that PCE's come and go. And, that's okay. Trying to maintain them is like trying to catch the wind.
- 17 August 2010 at 04:09
"Have you noticed the way people are driven to do horrible things like rape and murder and wars and suicide because of their feelings? Does that not bother you?"
But is that so? It is more that these things happen due to a lack of feeling. When you are told by someone that they have overcome emotional ups and downs you may be listening to soeone who has found transcendence, or you may be listening to someone traumatised or psychopathic.
- 17 August 2010 at 04:39
I had a look at the actual freedom site and there is nothing there that hasn't been said for thousands of years, yet they are claiming to be bringing something brand new to the world. It's either delusional or a scam, aside from any truth they may be describing.
Anyway, nice to come here and see what you are doing Suzanne, with your philosophy and pertinent Shakespeare and all.
Here is a question...
Some people have a condition in which they are blind, yet they can really see. They have no conscious experience of seeing, yet they react to visual events - there is a partial block in there awareness, they recieve visual information yet are unconsciousof it.
Could it be that some people can lose awareness of their thoughts or emotions in a similar way, and be thinking and feeling, yet not aware of it?
I can think of a couple of gurus that claimed to have transcended emotion and thinking, and really seemed to believe it, but their words and deeds said otherwise.
I think that before accepting people's claims as to their freedom it is prudent to consider the possibilities known and yet to be discovered about brain function.
case in point...
yet subjectively, what you get is what you get, and that may be nowhere or noself.
Seems to me.
- 17 August 2010 at 05:26
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, it's difficult, using words and concepts to descrbe immediate presence, although I have to say that Sailor Bob has the best example I've come across recently:
"In recognising presence awareness, there is no 'thing' to see, just natural non-conceptual seeing, actually as it is without subject or object. See this and the realisation is immediate that what is labled as awareness or consciousness or mind can never be formulated as either a subject or an object. Being empty of a subject or object, it is emptiness seeing (cognising emptiness). Emptiness can never be emptied of emptiness, nor can it be filled by emptiness. With that concept cancelled out, only the wordless thoughtless indescribable emptiness remains. Not a vacuum or a void, but a vivid self-shining, self-knowing, self-aware emptiness, like a clear sky full of light. See for yourself. No one or other can do it for you. Immediate simplicity. Continue to see that the seeing is continuous. Any doubt, question, or argument, and the conceptual seeker has appeared again. See that and non-conceptual emptiness remains undisturbed". -Bob Adamson
Well, something like that. All I can say is that everything seems much the same, but it is itself - unfiltered; the ego stuff, the feelings, the going about one's business are just things that seem to happen. There isn't an extra added persona that judges and sorts it out or possesses it. Everything just is. Studying the amygdala is fascinating, trying to figure it all out is just fine. But no matter what it seems that's going on, including the awareness and knowledge of what's perceiving it and the education about the mechanics of the brain, it's just what seems to be going on. I don't think what you're trying to describe is new - I think it's being described in a slightly new way, in words that resonate with you, probably because your persona, like so many, suffers from terminal uniqueness and wants a new, different, better way to be. There's nothing wrong with any of this. It is.
- 17 August 2010 at 06:56
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Chris, I suppose a lot of stuff can be labeled a cult - I just think minds love to be interesting and unique, and in the unfolding human story, it's fun to try to get a different take on conceptualising. It's all good - nice labeling!
- 17 August 2010 at 06:59
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Tapestry...I guess the PCE's (interesting labeling) can all kind of mush together in a big timeless blender of present awareness. Or something like that!
- 17 August 2010 at 07:00
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous, trying to explain and understand why people do what they do is mesmerising, and in the apparently unfolding story, is something that has been attempted since Caveman Burp suddenly turned to Caveman Urg and bashed him one on the head with his hunting club!
- 17 August 2010 at 07:05
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous No. 2, yes, all the filters of perception, borne of conditioning, can be seen as a hindrance or a blessing. They are both, and neither. What is, is, even if it's a lot of nonsense. It all arises in awareness - that ability to apprehend anything at all.
- 17 August 2010 at 07:08
That's right, Burp and Urg, but it seems like animals may have a theory of mind too, so it goes back even further probably.
And what about Cavewoman Burp. didn't she expect Caveman Burp to read her mind. Which came first, the club or the nag? An interesting anthropological conundrum.
Interesting that you picked up on that thing about the effects of depression on the visual system, when considered in relation to the accounts of moments of enlightenment involving a freshness and clarity to the visual world, something that has been noted and theorised upon in a different way here (if the not you that is you is interested in this part of the story).
Freaky science, eh?
- 17 August 2010 at 14:12
Actually, I like that term, "terminal uniqueness", I didn't know it, I have to say I think you got that one right. Thank you. However, I don't see the evidence that what I have been trying to describe to you is not new, so until you provide the evidence that actual freedom is not new, you got that one wrong. Where is anyone else proclaiming that they have completely eliminated feelings? You, in particular (pun not intended), are certainly not claiming that, you are simply claiming that feelings are not yours, as opposed to claiming that they have stopped arising. The only one I can think of that said something close is Bernadette Roberts. By the way, in that recording that I mentioned before, very qualified people discuss this issue of new or not new.
- 17 August 2010 at 21:39
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, OK Dude, you're right...it's BRAND NEW. And the elimination of feelings is the goal.
- 18 August 2010 at 06:59
Dear Guilherme,
You are trying to genuinely and openly converse and exchange with Suzanne. It won't happen. Eventually you will realize that only the contrived conceit of (fake) trivialization occupies her mind and compels her words.
Friendly advice move on ... let go ... you are wasting your time ...
- 18 August 2010 at 11:31
"so until you provide the evidence that actual freedom is not new, you got that one wrong. Where is anyone else proclaiming that they have completely eliminated feelings?"
Did you not google it to look for evidence? Little bit lazy?
Try "buddha eliminate feelings"
OK, I'll do it for you
From one of these entries, you can look for that.
Drum roll.....
"Mindfulness is practiced in Buddhist forms of meditation such as vipassana, through techniques like observation of the breath and bodily sensations. Right concentration refers to the progressive stages of dhyana (this is closer to what is called meditation in most Hindu traditions). In this discipline, the mind is gradually cleared of passionate desires, then thoughts, then finally even feelings of joy, until only pure awareness remains, in a state of perfect calm and equanimity. "
Took 1 minute (approx)
Sorry to be a smart arse.
- 18 August 2010 at 12:17
I should clear up, I'm not claiming that feelings are not mine if they arise, or that I am 'free' of them, though I understand the issues around all that.
All I am saying is that some of those that do claim that are very dodgy, but OK, it's none of my business what you believe or who you follow.
- 18 August 2010 at 12:34
Actually, self-immolation is the ultimate goal, the complete cessation of being, oblivion. The on-going goal is to be happy and harmless by minimising malice and sorrow and their antidotes love and compassion. The elimination of feelings is actually a byproduct of the end of being, but it does serve as a good indicator of whether being has been eradicated or not. Even if you disagree that such a thing is desirable or even possible, I want to say thank you for having engaged with me this far.
- 18 August 2010 at 12:34
OK, am listening to the podcast and these guys sound level, mellow and good humoured.
My experience of people who claim freedom from emotion is one of the people mentioned in this correspondence here, a megalomaniac.
Thus I cannot see it is a new idea, or that there are no unpleasant associations, however these two guys talking don't seem too bad, approach it intelligently, genuinely exploring.
- 18 August 2010 at 13:00
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous...29th comment Anonymous...great to have you back, although you are impossible to please! Anytime I try to crack a joke, you seem to think that I'm trivialising. Well...that's understandable. The other thing is I'm only so clever, and run out of intelligent things to say very quickly!
- 18 August 2010 at 14:05
- No One In Particular said...
Hey next Anonymous, very smart-ass indeed!
- 18 August 2010 at 14:07
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, self-immolation...whoa! STRONG concept. What is left to apprehend whether immolation has been achieved?
- 18 August 2010 at 14:09
- No One In Particular said...
Hey next Anonymous, well done doing the research.
- 18 August 2010 at 14:10
Hey Anonymous, to the comment about "trivialization", at least Suzanne has welcomed my comments (ie. not deleted them, hid them, censored them).
To the other/same/who-knows Anonymous, who thinks they are a "smart arse" and tells me to use Google. I have to correct you, and teach you a basic Internet lesson, did you ever learn to use quotes in a search engine? Quotes make a lot of difference so try [code]buddha "eliminate feelings"[/code] including the quotes. Not only that returns only a few results (less than a thousand with Google), the first result goes "Neither Buddhist Yoga nor Hindu Yoga seeks, as often mistakenly thought, to eliminate feelings and turn practitioners into hollow robots".
And maybe you should read a little bit of the Buddhist scriptures of the Pali Canon, the Tipitaka, sort of like the Buddhist bible, as opposed to rely on comments from some random website like you have done. Because then you will find information about metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (joy), upekkha (equanimity), translations of these terms is from Wikipedia.
I suppose not many people have bothered to check out that audio recording on Daniel Ingram's website, or do a web search on Daniel Ingram. Daniel is an arahat, an enlightened man on the Buddhist tradition with expert knowledge on Buddhism and meditation practices. He is the author of the popular book "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha".
And Suzanne, can you explain what you mean by "What is left to apprehend whether immolation has been achieved?", I don't really understand the question.
- 18 August 2010 at 14:35
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, as usual trying to be obtusely humourous...put another way, if no one is there who registers the fact that no one is there? It is what I try to write about over and over. No one is here even if something thinks that someone is here. Whatever arises - ideas/feelings/experiences along the lines of no emotions, virulent opposition to that very idea because it seems to negate what is good about humanity/duality/Maya/call it what you will; calling that good stuff metta or karuna or unadulterated joy; taking pleasant feelings, analysing them, fragmenting them, and carefully labeling them; objecting to such cerebral handling of joyful living; commenters objecting to me trvialising things I don't particularly know much about; commenters objecting to criticising comments: ALL of it, no matter WHAT its apparent form...it's the same thing.
- 18 August 2010 at 16:35
Yes Quiherme, I liked listening to these guys mellowing out at the ranch exploring their minds.
So Guilherme, are you saying that in all of history no one has claimed to have the experience of complete and permanent cessation of feeling and emotion, nowhere in the entire writings of all the sages of all the world, and this Actual Freedom is the first time ever, out of all the billions of people who have come and gone all over the planet, before history or after it?
Nah, I don't think so. How would anyone prove it?
- 18 August 2010 at 18:42
Anonymous said: "So Guilherme, are you saying that in all of history no one has claimed to have the experience of complete and permanent cessation of feeling and emotion, nowhere in the entire writings of all the sages of all the world, and this Actual Freedom is the first time ever, out of all the billions of people who have come and gone all over the planet, before history or after it?"
I don't know. I do think it's possible, like there is a first for everything.
More importantly though, is the fact that, right now, apart from these guys who are claiming actual freedom, no one else is claiming to have done it and no one else is even saying that it is possible to eliminate malice and sorrow, on the contrary, they usually insist that malice and sorrow is inevitable, it's OK because it is "being human", and so go on the rapes and wars and murders and suicides and domestic abuse. In this way enlightened people perpetuate malice and sorrow and so indirectly they perpetuate the wars and murders etc. In the history of enlightened people there is even the case of someone called Krishna who said it is OK to kill someone because you are not really killing the person only the body.
The fact is that right now, at the present time, in present history, there are people who are saying that malice and sorrow can be eliminated, that they have done it, and they freely divulge how it is that they have done it. It is definitely something new if one is only comparing it to what is available now. I think that giving more importance than it is necessary to the issue of new or not is a case of "fiddling whilst Rome burns". And as I understand, to go with the same analogy, enlightenment is a case of being OK with Rome burning, "It's not Self".
- 18 August 2010 at 20:17
It's a strange state of affairs, Guilherme, that despite all the evidence that this is a universe of both creation and destruction, that humans should seek something that is indestructable and permanently free from suffering, and seek a compassion that is endless.
I have come to the conclusion that people are like trees, and just as you walk through a forest you will see trees in all kinds of condition due to the forces of nature, healthy or damaged, so will you see people.
Maybe one day the human race will be like a plantation, all regular and cared for.
I still don't know why you insist that these people are the first or only saying what they say.
How do you know there aren't others that are secret under bad government regimes? Or in a remote village in the Amazon or Arctic?
I do want to say that I liked the guys chewing over their insights, pretty sweet people and dedicated to... something.
- 19 August 2010 at 01:43
And may I add that I have always thought the Gita may have been altered by the ruling class in a similar way as the bible was, to keep the warriors keen, though I'm not a scholar so I don't know. A lot of spiritual people seem to forget that little passage in their wishing for a world of spiritual peace.
If people are finding divine bliss on the battle field, it's not something that is being publicized very much. Do you think that Kindred Spirit magazine would carry an article by someone who experienced limitless joy while dropping white phosphorous on people? What about all those martial artists who are also into zen.
Say you were a burglar, and broke into Steven Segal's house while he was meditating and attacked him. Do you think he would be in a state of meditative peace as he broke you arms?
What about that?
- 19 August 2010 at 02:11
- No One In Particular said...
Perhaps what people are saying is that it doesn't matter how the story seems to be going; it is illusory anyway. Perhaps what some people are saying is: if there isn't any ego, persona, identity, whatever, that is interested in making the story go a certain way, the story takes care of itself, and perhaps it may unfold in some more compassionate way, more reflective of unconditional love. Perhaps what some people say is that the story is of duality, and in duality, there are always opposites. Maybe what the Actual Freedom people are trying to describe is the timeless, endless moment that is, now, always; our "natural state"; what all arises in. Maybe they are simply trying to say that in that reality, there are no feelings, there is no one to feel. In fact, perhaps they are just using a slightly different set of concepts to describe Nirvana, Nibbāna, Moksa, mandukya, the stateless state. Or perhaps not. I know nothing.
- 19 August 2010 at 07:42
Anonymous said: "I still don't know why you insist that these people are the first or only saying what they say."
It is not me who is insisting on the issue of new or not new. Did you not read my clear "I don't know"? And do you know what the expression "fiddling whilst Rome burns" means? Perhaps you could consider the fact that it is nearly impossible to know with absolute certainty if this is entirely new, and instead, find out whether this is the same or different to what people that you actually know are talking about. As I said on a previous post there is Bernadette Roberts, a former Catholic nun, who claims something similar, that her affective system has been extinguished, but she is not accessible for discussion, whereas there are actually free people who are currently active on the Dharma Overground discussion forum.
Suzanne said: "Maybe they are simply trying to say that in that reality, there are no feelings, there is no one to feel."
No, they are not. They clearly and unambiguously state that feelings used to arise and now they don't. Feelings are not physical and as such do not actually exist but they are felt nonetheless as long as being is extant. They go into much more detail than I will bother to go into here, if anyone is really interested, please go to the Actual Freedom Trust website, all of this has already been discussed there, go to "Actual Freedom Site Map" and check "FAQ's – Frequently Asked Questions", "CRO's – Commonly Raised Objections" and "FFM's – Frequently Flogged Misconceptions".
- 19 August 2010 at 15:12
Suzanne said: "Maybe they are simply trying to say that in that reality, there are no feelings, there is no one to feel."
And I said: "No, they are not."
My answer was not very good, despite that this is already explained in the Actual Freedom Trust website, but anyway.
What they say is that feelings are real and the identity is real but neither feelings nor the identity are actual.
In enlightenment, only half of the identity is gone, the thinker, who thinks they are a person, and what remains after enlightenment, is the feeler, who feels they are nobody.
In actual freedom, the feeler is gone too and only the body is left, so reality, which is really "my" feeling reality, vanishes and feelings vanish altogether, and what is left is actuality, the actual world of people and trees and tables and ashtrays and flowers and rivers and beetles and so on.
Reality never existed to begin with, but in enlightenment reality does not really vanish, it becomes like a dream, it's still there only now it is sugar coated with love.
- 19 August 2010 at 15:24
I forgot this...
Suzanne said: "Maybe what the Actual Freedom people are trying to describe is the timeless, endless moment that is, now, always; our "natural state"; what all arises in."
No, they say time is actual, they say there is no timelessness. And no, they say the state they achieved is not actually natural because they have eliminated emotions and emotions are natural.
Here is a straight forward comparison list:
180 Degrees Opposite
And back to the feelings again, basically, if there is a feeling there is a feeler, who is yet another identity in disguise. To quote Richard "'I' am 'my' feelings and 'my' feelings are 'me'" and "'me' at the core of 'my' being is 'being' itself". Basically, "pure being" is the feeler.
- 19 August 2010 at 15:52
Suzanne said: "In fact, perhaps they are just using a slightly different set of concepts to describe Nirvana, Nibbāna, Moksa, mandukya, the stateless state."
Richard was fully enlightened BEFORE, for 11 years, as described here:
A Brief Personal History
Suzanne said: "Or perhaps not. I know nothing."
Indeed not, as you could easily verify by checking their website.
- 19 August 2010 at 16:05
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, it seems like the ever lovin' ego will find all kinds of ways to be new and different; and that concepts are never adequate to describe what is, however you label it. But bless us all for trying.
- 19 August 2010 at 17:17
It's still nothing new.
- 19 August 2010 at 17:40
The first comment I sent today appears to be missing so I'm posting it again here:
Anonymous said: "I still don't know why you insist that these people are the first or only saying what they say."
It is not me who is insisting on the issue of new or not new. Did you not read my clear "I don't know"? And do you know what the expression "fiddling whilst Rome burns" means? Perhaps you could consider the fact that it is nearly impossible to know with absolute certainty if this is entirely new, and instead, find out whether this is the same or different to what people that you actually know are talking about. As I said on a previous post there is Bernadette Roberts, a former Catholic nun, who claims something similar, that her affective system has been extinguished, but she is not accessible for discussion, whereas there are actually free people who are currently active on the Dharma Overground discussion forum.
Suzanne said: "Maybe they are simply trying to say that in that reality, there are no feelings, there is no one to feel."
No, they are not. They clearly and unambiguously state that feelings used to arise and now they don't. Feelings are not physical and as such do not actually exist but they are felt nonetheless as long as being is extant. They go into much more detail than I will bother to go into here, if anyone is really interested, please go to the Actual Freedom Trust website, all of this has already been discussed there, go to "Actual Freedom Site Map" and check "FAQ's – Frequently Asked Questions", "CRO's – Commonly Raised Objections" and "FFM's – Frequently Flogged Misconceptions".
- 19 August 2010 at 19:38
To Suzanne and Anonymous, I don't think I will be posting much longer here as I see that there is no interest whatsoever and there is no genuine discussion and possibly there is really only trivislisation like Anonymous said previously.
One of my comments has not appeared so I re-sent it, let's see if it shows up, not that important, but I'm assuming Suzanne did not delete it on purpose, maybe it was not sent properly, as she has not censored me previously.
Suzanne, what you are doing is called using the straw man argument, just because I am not enlightened and therefore have/am an ego doesn't mean I cannot say something valid like you seem to suggest by saying that it's "ego" it's "persona", you are not engaging in any sensible discussion.
Simply saying that it is or it is not new does not make so, I have provided evidence where neither Anonymous nor Suzanne have done so, and if I were to argue like Suzanne, I could even be as arrogant and patronising as Suzanne and say that she is simply wrong because she is enlightened the same way she implies I'm simply wrong because I'm not, but I don't do that, because that clearly is not sensible rational thinking discussion.
- 19 August 2010 at 19:56
It really boils down to one of two positions: you are completely defined by the perimeter of your skin, including your brain which is where your mind lives; or you are not. I used to (really really) believe the former but after investigating this, I find that I cannot locate my self anywhere in particular, let alone somewhere in this meatbag. I recently spent time with my father who was dying of cancer. I could not determine when he was dad then not dad. Similarly, I can administer some chemicals or blunt force trauma to you and you will not be the same self you were prior to that.
So, applying Occam's razor, the great sages (list on request) present pointers to a fundamental truth that can and must be tested by you alone. My take with the AF folks was that nonduality and actual freedom were fundamentally harmonious but they would have none of that. Richard after all is the first, the first ever to stop being enlightened. Of course, his description of enlightenment reads more like a bliss-state rather than that described by someone like Jed McKenna. Or our charming hostess.
Nuff said - enjoy your story... exit stage left.
- 19 August 2010 at 23:03
I should thank you Guilherme, for putting me onto the DharmaOverground site, it's got some interesting things which I recognise and I will probably look at it more, so, thanks Guilherme.
- 20 August 2010 at 00:09
Interesting post. I agree that acceptance and surrender do bring peace. But they are transient thoughts just like any others. When you surrender or give up it's just another thought that says 'I'm going to give up'. The previous thought process which sought something is then negated by 'neti neti'-esque thoughts. But while that acceptance/surrender thought remains JUST A THOUGHT, it is transient like any other and may well disappear and the dreadful seeking may recommence. R. Maharshi said that the thought 'Who am I?' (Nan Yar) should be used all the time with every single thought. This brutal negation, he claimed, would destroy the ego. However, the strength of the inquiry and its persistent brutality depends on the conditioning of the practitioner, specifically their 'earnestness' in the words of Nisargadatta. He, and his guru R. Maharshi apparently must have been both obsessively earnest. But is this enlightenment? Is the total negation of thought necessarily a good thing? All human endeavour and experience is structured around thought? Was Maharshi totally thoughtless? The only evidence is his own word, a shaky basis...I take issue with the obsession with concepts. Concepts are transient. More comprehensive approaches must be welcome. Dogmatic people are narrow, v. limited types. Thanks for subscribing to my blog by the way! Appreciate the comments! x
- 20 August 2010 at 01:00
Loved these comments. One flower many petals. Thanks all.
- 20 August 2010 at 02:26
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Guilherme, as far as I can tell I've published everything you've submitted. The only comments I've ever censored were along the lines of "you're so hot baby I want to shag you," which is just another passing thought/feeling and not especially to the point.
I'm sorry you don't feel the concepts submitted were engaged with properly. Sticking strictly to the story, it's always interesting what our reaction is when our expectations aren't met, and our causes not taken as seriously as we would like. You seem to want to withdraw. Which is fine, but the parcel of comments I've published this morning seem to give you some concepts to bounce off of.
The thoughts that arise when viewing the Actual Freedom stuff are along the lines of: this is the same thing, different words/concepts, informed by egos that want to be better/different. Actual Truth and Actual Freedom, or New Truth and New Freedom, or Even More Enlightened than Enlightenment, however one wants to label it...it is pure, unadulterated humanity, wanting to improve, to grow, to change, to be better. It is all the "best" attributes of humanity. Whatever is thought about reality and written about it, is not reality. Including the tens of thousands of words I've written in this blog. It's very probable I'm just incapable of understanding or experiencing anything so lofty as what these guys are trying to describe. However, there is no enlightenment, or New and Improved Enlightenment. There is this. It is enough, however one wishes to dissect and describe it.
Please feel free to visit and comment, Guilherme, even if the responses you get are not the ones you want! In the story of mental health, when our notions are challenged, we "grow".
- 20 August 2010 at 06:37
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Chris, thanks for commenting, it does seem to be a state of non-corporeal bliss being described by the Actual Freedom people. I guess what writers like me bang on about is that what is, is comprised of all states, all desciptions, all feelings. And they all sit together well.
- 20 August 2010 at 06:53
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Tom, no problem, like the blog. I guess Guilherme's not going to get much agreement and reinforcement here - but I think the ideas are being engaged with, if a bit dismissively. All stories are one, all stories are not - even those stories that seem most to the point. Including any I seem to tell.
- 20 August 2010 at 06:55
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Tapestry, one ocean many waves, the gold necklace is looks for gold, etc. etc.
- 20 August 2010 at 06:56
Still going on about it being something new, but I've read about the same thing for years, the final disappearance of an 'I' - not even a diffuse 'I that is everywhere and everything'.
Really when anyone claims they are the first or greatest to achieve some spiritual state or other, and there are many, you have to ask, how do they know?
It's a big planet with a lot of people in a lot of places that nobody gets to hear about.
Maybe the most enlightened person is an old lady who works as a humble cleaner in a North Korean hotel, maybe it is someone who is also insane and no one listens, maybe it is someone who is deaf and dumb, or illiterate, or in prison, or has a big brain tumor that stops them from communicating anything?
Are the only enlightened people white middle class people with broadband access?
Regarding the historical record, how do you know that tomorrow there won't be found a completely unknown book, like a Pali version of the Dead Sea Scrolls, that puts your myth to rest?
How do you know the relevant texts were not lost or destroyed?
Did I miss something out?
- 20 August 2010 at 11:13
- No One In Particular said...
There are a few Asian middle class enlightened people as well.
- 20 August 2010 at 12:51
"There are a few Asian middle class enlightened people as well."
I did also miss something out, which is evidence of Actual Freedom that may be in a text in a private collection in a vault somewhere.
What about people who may have died before being able to have communicated their AF?
Finally, to state categorically that somebody knows they are the first ever to be Actually Free would require knowledge of all those things I mentioned and more, and that would imply omniscience.
So, is this Actually Free person that says they are the first somehow magically omniscient, or just able to somehow read the Akashic records or remote view backwards in time?
- 20 August 2010 at 13:34
'Did i miss something out?'
- 20 August 2010 at 16:03
- Triza said...
its becoming increasingly difficult to comment on blogs lately.If there is just awareness this open spaciousness then everything is welcomed or not it doesn't matter and what i've just written is just a conceptualization of "this" a point of view.From whom?was there ever "anyone" to want this different than it is...just the way it is?
Love the post suzanne and all the comments!
- 20 August 2010 at 16:57
Well, magic cat may seem to have all the answers, but what if it's just got a touch of rabies that makes it say things. People don't seem to consider these things in their desperation to find a reliable guru.
- 20 August 2010 at 20:10
Even more than all of this;I love deep sleep!
- 21 August 2010 at 04:58
No, you are mistaken, Anonymous. Magic Cat has never spoken of suffering from rabies. You can listen to a rare Satsang here if you are prepared to put your prejudices aside:
''Why 'I' eyes ya? All the live long day.'' - Magic Cat
Tapestry, plenty of deep sleep is also one of (Sri) Magic Cat's great precepts!
- 21 August 2010 at 13:27
- Colleen Loehr said...
I love this post- and the incredible video clip of Paul Newman.
"It's possible to feel something and just not poke it with a "why" stick."
Feelings with no one possessing them...Just the occurrence of feelings without an endless manufacturing of thoughts to explain and bolster and excuse and justify and perpetuate and control the feelings. Without the poking of the mind's "why" stick, there is no victim of the feelings, there is no shame in the feelings or battle with the feelings. They are raw energy, no less beautiful than the wind.
Your words always unhinge me from unrecognized assumptions Suzanne, and a sense of open space previously unnoticed becomes apparent. Thank you.
- 21 August 2010 at 15:58
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous, thanks for engaging with Guilherme, but I think he may have left in an amiable and contemplative huff. Remote viewing...now there's an interesting story arising!
- 21 August 2010 at 17:12
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Gabriel - nuttiness arises! My kids have already ferreted out that clip, it's priceless. In my non-existent childhood, we had a cat named Rusty who worshipped our dog (Butch) and when Butch ran to the window to bark, Rusty tried to as well...it wasn't bad, actually.
- 21 August 2010 at 17:15
- No One In Particular said...
Wow Colleen, I would have thought, keeping your profession in mind, that those particular unrecognised assumptions are deeply ingrained by conditioning and training! The illusion can be very powerful indeed. Apparently.
- 21 August 2010 at 17:18
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
For Chuck Norris it's a round of applause.
Gratuitous and unasked for, I know.
- 21 August 2010 at 22:44
- Colleen Loehr said...
Hi Suzanne,
Last night I read a great story by Glenn Close called "No More Secrets" about her family members with mental illness. (The story can be read online by Googling Guideposts magazine and entering "Glenn Close" in the search panel.) Glenn's sister says, "I am not my disease." She is simply someone who is being treated for a disease. Sometimes I feel like saying, "I am not my profession." I am just someone who has a job. Glenn, along with Ron Howard and others has founded an amazing group and I highly recommend checking out the website to anyone- it is bringchange2mind.org. This all came to mind as sometimes I feel boxed in by all the views people sometimes to seem to have about shrinks. There is likely some basis for the various stereotypes, but sometimes I want to say to folks- see me not as a shrink but just as a fellow human being. I agree with you that the illusion can apparently be very powerful indeed, and what I love about your writing is the electric honesty that sheds layers of illusion.
- 22 August 2010 at 02:01
- No One In Particular said...
Chuck Norris...the Gielgud of mediocre martial arts films with a white guy as the central character; in other words, Chuck Norris films.
- 22 August 2010 at 06:26
- No One In Particular said...
My one encounter (well, a string of encounters weekly for 18 months) with a shrink was very positive. He didn't really encourage me to poke the feelings; he just let me do it until I was finished.
- 22 August 2010 at 06:29
Now, I have a question for you Suzanne, if you want to play, and that is this.
After realizing that your knifey knife was vividly knifish, did you realize that you thoughts were also vivid in the same kind of way, that is very thoughty thoughts? And feelings. And sounds. Everything/anything else, really.?.
I find that talking (writing) about this makes thing vivid and present, simple and calm, like things have being. I don't know if that is something childish or buddhistic or nothing special at all, but I dig it.
- 23 August 2010 at 01:55
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, I found your missing comment in the new Blogger spam comment filter - no idea why it chucked itself in there, there's not any extra links or anything else untoward about the comment.
- 23 August 2010 at 08:03
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous, hmmm, yes, why not, thoughts are thought-y, feelings are feeling-y. Intense, no filters, but totally there. I'm still not describing it very well, but that's impossible anyway. And it seems to me that one man's writing is another man's meditation.
- 23 August 2010 at 08:05
- No One In Particular said...
By the way Guilherme the comment is a few up, published now, in the order that it was originally received.
- 23 August 2010 at 08:06
I didn't see no nun. Maybe something is getting lost in the Googleverse here.
I didn't read any clear 'I don't know' from Guilherme on the issue of whether the Actual Freedomers are really AF.
'What I am saying is that there are people - not me - who have gone further and eliminated suffering altogether in any shape or form in themselves. '
is a clear statement of belief that he does know.
Also, I am well aware of 'the fiddling while Rome burns'. I am not fiddling while Rome burns, I am filtering out people that make mistaken claims. Guilherme may have experienced AF during his PCE, though from what I have read these are not quite the same, but what he is describing has been described for a long time, not something new. That doesn't encourage me to follow the same path as him at all, even though it sounds effective for something and even though the Interactive Buddha people sound perfectly honest and good willed about their experiences and practices.
I'm impressed with them and their dedication and insight, much better than I have seen in a lot of places, but this thing about AF being something new just doesn't make sense to me.
Guilherme is just following the trail of his meditational experience, I hope it goes well for him because he is serious about it and gets results.
Suzanne, I think it's fair to say that even if your experience is one of there is only this, that what the 'only this' does could be different if you went through stages of meditational practice, just like any other sort of practice. Would you agree?
- 23 August 2010 at 12:36
Hi Suzanne, thank you for clarifying about the missing comments and for putting them back up. I really appreciate that you did not censor me.
- 23 August 2010 at 12:52
Maybe the reason it was filtered by the spam filter is that I had quoted something Anonymous had said so maybe the filter thought I was repeating myself = spamming.
- 23 August 2010 at 13:05
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Guilherme, the only comments I've ever censored were of the "hey baby can I get enlightened in your [euphemism for vagina]" variety.
- 23 August 2010 at 14:28
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous, sure, the unfolding can seem to go all kinds of ways...and does. Yet no matter how glorious or how narrow, it is the same thing.
I find hip-hop dancing to be the latest activity that seems to make oneness, or whatever you want to call it, even more obvious:
That's not me in the video but I'm learning the dance!
- 23 August 2010 at 14:36
And here is another question for folk in general, it requires to watch this -
Now, is someone subject to the rubber hand illusion experiencing a non-dual state in regard to that hand?
Is a full blown non-dual state simply an illusion like that taken to an extreme, and rooted in neurology?
What about that?
- 23 August 2010 at 21:03
I believe it was Dr. V.J. Shankar who said "the potential for mind to imagine is unlimited"
- 24 August 2010 at 04:41
- zafire said...
Hey if you were to answer that can i get enlightened ? would it be yes or no
- 24 August 2010 at 14:09
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous, not a state. Not a feeling. Not what is arising, not the story in time, whatever that seems to be, however the mind is filtering it. Just this. This.
- 24 August 2010 at 20:50
- No One In Particular said...
Zafire, hey dude great to see ya commenting. You cannot be enlightened.
- 24 August 2010 at 20:51
I don't really know what to say. Whatever I have to say feels hollow, shallow, meaningless. I've never read a blog like this before. And I call myself a wannabe writer. Emphasis on the wannabe. Blessings.
- 25 August 2010 at 18:51
That wasn't me, I'm chock full of deep meaning.
- 25 August 2010 at 21:47
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous, boy...do I know THAT feeling. Or it arises, or blah blah blah.
- 25 August 2010 at 21:52
- Bernard said...
Hello Suzanne and everyone,
Very interesting exchanges about Actual Freedom. Browsing the AF site, my first comment would be that these guys must have something to sell : claiming to have something ! NEW ! is the same old marketing trick. As a matter of fact they do sell books and DVD. My second comment is more positive, I appreciate such statement as "It is vital that one[...] utterly comprehends that the only person one needs to change, and indeed can change, is oneself." In other word, this is "soft" proselytism. Third and last comment is a question to Guilherme : "what happens of the human species once it has gotten rid of desires and feelings, of any survival instinct, what about reproduction for instance ?"
All the best,
- 26 August 2010 at 13:00
- ian said...
Why stick? welcome back. Greece,sunshine, swimmingpools and sunglasses of wine.
Have looked at a place called awakening women on internet. You might enjoy it.
I read somewhere that if you do somthing 10,000 hours there is a strong chance you will become good at it. So nobody does anything for 10,000 hours.Is this your record for comments? logs of love.
- 26 August 2010 at 17:08
- No One In Particular said...
Thanks, Ian, never been given a log of love before. Yes it's a comment record.
- 26 August 2010 at 22:20
Yes, even the AF gang can say something truthful. A stopped watch is right twice a day (or once a day in other climes).
But really my motive is to continue the thread long enough to be the centurion.
What a fun game!
- 26 August 2010 at 23:35
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Bernard. Sometimes, it indeed seems the story of humanity is about procreation, first and foremost. It seems as though our mechanisms to feel and think are set up for us to believe we are separate, so that being together is a challenge. But it doesn't matter what the story seems to be.
- 27 August 2010 at 06:32
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Chris...this is comment 99...to you.
- 27 August 2010 at 06:32
- Bernard said...
Yes Suzanne, it doesn't matter, absolutely, since we probably are doomed as dinosaurs were, although a little bit more fit for survival, with our heavy double-brain and all.
We are separate, yet able to write, talk to each other,and even able to smile at each other with kindness-humour-irony-understanding. That's encouraging :-)
Thanks for your words. B.
- 27 August 2010 at 07:32
- No One In Particular said...
Sorry Chris - Bernard beat you!
Bernard - the story of extinction and the story of redemption are the same thing.
- 27 August 2010 at 08:53
- zafire said...
I wouldn't want to be enlightened
- 27 August 2010 at 11:35
- Bernard said...
I guess you mean they are both part of the same-old-story-that-doesn't-matter.Well, what really matters is that I just came back here in time to write the 100th comment to your post of 14 Aug; Yeah ! :-)
- 27 August 2010 at 11:39
Dang. Probably some sort of European time zone conspiracy thing.
So this must be the *last* comment, right?
- 27 August 2010 at 15:40
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Zafire - I know exactly what you mean.
- 27 August 2010 at 16:51
- No One In Particular said...
Yes yes Bernard, well done.
- 27 August 2010 at 16:51
- No One In Particular said...
OK Chris, it's the last comment not counting my responses. Better finish off a new entry!
- 27 August 2010 at 16:52
- Wellness Education Institute said...
hey, sue!
i just got enlightened by reading over 100 comments on your post.
it only took me four days!
in any event, i changed a couple of things at wIe, which might affect the way that your site picks it up.
if you want a quick explanation, fire me an e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com
rock on!
- 30 August 2010 at 01:50
This body/mind is 63 yrs old and has lived alone for nearly 2 decades.It is a decade since there was a partner or sleeping with s/one; ie have been celebate.
There is no fantasising about sex, or desire when attractive people are seen.Have been at peace with no sexual feeling.
The other day I was in a store to buy some blank disks & a woman came up and asked me for advice on which disks she should buy to record a movie.
About late 30s she had the modern style of showing her (large) breasts.
Being that close to her had the most powerful and frightening effect.
The desire to fondle this stranger was so powerful it deeply frightened me.
Also became faint and body was shaking. Left the store as quickly as possible and got out of the shopping centre still shaken.
Given the choice of never having this experience again - well this body/mind would jump at never being so disturbed again.
That it was so frightening - because imagine the legal nastiness if fondling had happened.
No one would blame her for immodesty; this quiet, reflective body/mind would be treated as a pervert etc.
Horrible experience ... take it away .. Yes please
can do without that feeling!
(ps sorry to be anonymous but came here from a lead and dont want toget caught up in registering wth google and allthat)
- 30 August 2010 at 06:16
- No One In Particular said...
Hi Lenny, thanks for sticking with it...although I hope you have better uses for your nonexistant "time". I'll email you for details asap, it's a holiday today and the family is up London on the ferry from Kew to Westminster - 12 noon departure - got to get ready!
- 30 August 2010 at 09:56
- No One In Particular said...
Hey Anonymous...the story may seem to go a certain way...but the story of resisting fondling strangers can't be undesirable!
- 30 August 2010 at 10:12
To the other/same/who-knows Anonymous, who thinks they are a "smart arse" and tells me to use Google. I have to correct you, and teach you a basic Internet lesson, did you ever learn to use quotes in a search engine? Quotes make a lot of difference so try [code]buddha "eliminate feelings"[/code] including the quotes. Not only that returns only a few results (less than a thousand with Google), the first result goes "Neither Buddhist Yoga nor Hindu Yoga seeks, as often mistakenly thought, to eliminate feelings and turn practitioners into hollow robots".
Nevertheless, others say different.
Why wouldn't elimination of feelings turn one into a hollow robot?
"That is, self-immolation in toto, the end of being itself. Lack of emotions is actually a side effect."
It's not at all clear what is meant by being.
I would assume that the end of being would include the end of everything including the ability to communicate.
How could it not? What would do the communicating and why?
- 30 August 2010 at 23:06
when one gets the urge to fondle strangers... PLEASE...
...use the general rule of aviation:
"before placing the oxygen mask over others, take care of yourself first."
as they say in religion: "charity begins at home."
- 2 September 2010 at 04:40
But when your in the cinema, and the lady in the seat in front has such a warm, soft, silky looking neck, and it's so dark and intimate, and the film is so boring, and what would those little hairs feel like under the fingertips?... ooh!
- 2 September 2010 at 12:20
- No One In Particular said...
Rein it in, boys; I'm presuming you're boys. We are all one, but still.
- 2 September 2010 at 12:23
Ow, my wrist!
- 2 September 2010 at 18:39
- libramoon said...
We need to make up stories
to be able to create realities.
That's what separates sapien
from beast.
Speak to the feast
or famine.
Sage, carnie, beggar
Come to the play!
There was a Roman soldier bored with war,
with whores, with bloody babies.
Hoping to escape, he wrote a history,
moved into
his Holy fantasy.
It's but a Shangri-La, a piper's dream.
Metal men, formed from clay,
scream upon fields of battle,
when nerves
catch up with senses.
Soothed with martial melodies,
gratefully serve.
Listen, oh little one.
The wind will catch you up as you sleep.
You won't remember when you wake, weeping,
how small, insignificant you are. Mommy assures,
you're her own little star. Demons alone explain
your terror. You determine
to do better. You soothe yourself with stories.
You spin a tale of love within a dance.
You spin yourself the center of romance,
a home, a fortress, an emptiness fulfilled.
Like a child counting fireflies,
alive in the darkened air,
dare to immerse with sparkling wonder,
to share
more beautiful stories.
June 29, 2010
- 10 September 2010 at 23:55
- No One In Particular said...
Thanks Libramoon, nice poem.
- 11 September 2010 at 06:29

subset: commoncrawl


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The world of kabuki lost one of its greatest stars yesterday. Nakamura Kanzaburô, who had been fighting esophageal cancer, died in a Tokyo hospital yesterday at the age of 57.
I am not sure what I can say that wouldn't just be a repetition or rehashing of what I have just read in the Japan Times, and in the Mainichi Shimbun. I am tempted to want to write a much longer blog post, in honor of this great man, but I suppose I will leave it to the newspapers to do what they do.
I had the pleasure, the privilege, of seeing Kanzaburô perform on a number of occasions, both in Tokyo, and once in Washington DC. The last time I saw him perform, it was back in 2008, at the old Kabuki-za. The play Ukare Shinjû, a relatively new play not in the traditional repertoire, which Kanzaburô wrote and starred in, ends with his character flying out over the audience, passing into the afterlife atop a giant mouse, shouting (something to the effect of), "This is the real chûnori!"1 I suppose I shall always remember him in that moment.
Kanzaburô was a dedicated and masterful actor, but a creative one too, often creating new projects such as the Heisei Nakamura-za touring company, and Cocoon Kabuki, aimed at making kabuki more appealing to a younger / more modern audience; he played a role as well in creating new plays, such as Ukare Shinjû, and the zombie kabuki Ô-Edo no Living Dead. He leaves behind two sons, Nakamura Kankurô and Shichinosuke, both extremely accomplished actors in their own rights. I imagine that one of them will soon take on the Kanzaburô name.
In the meantime, today is truly a sad day for kabuki, for its fans, and of course, especially, for Kanzaburô's family. My heart goes out to them.
(1) Chûnori 宙乗, lit. "riding the sky," is the name of a special effects technique (keren) in kabuki, in which an actor flies up over the audience on wires, usually making his exit in this manner up over the audience, and out the back of the theater. The joke in Ukare Shinjû is that he is riding a mouse, which, in Japanese, rather than "squeak-squeak," says "chû-chû" – thus, the pun of "the real chûnori/riding-the-sky" as "this is the true riding-a-mouse!"


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Ontario is reviewing the rules for buying and selling tickets online to give fans a fair shot at getting tickets to see their favourite team, musical act or theatrical performance.
Event tickets are mostly bought and sold online. While this has given fans more options, it also means that tickets to popular shows and games often sell out within hours, sometimes minutes. Many tickets are then posted on resale sites at a price much higher than their original value. This leaves fans unable to find the tickets they want at a price they can afford.
Starting today, fans can help the government develop new legislation that would make the process of buying and selling tickets more fair and transparent by sharing their ideas through an online consultation. To participate go to ontario.ca/tickets and complete the survey.
The province is looking for feedback in four key areas:
Making it easier to find tickets online is part of Ontario's plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.
This website is provided for your convenience. If you'd prefer to call or email, my staff and I would be happy to hear from you.
Delivering a Plan for Care and OpportunityMarch 28, 2018
A $15 Minimum Wage & Stronger Protections for Workers!January 18, 2018
Free Prescription Drug Coverage for Youth Under 25 is Now in Ontario!January 01, 2018
Helping Families Save Money and Fight Climate Change At HomeDecember 13, 2017
Making Auto Insurance More AffordableDecember 06, 2017
Students Will Now See OSAP Amount and Net Tuition Fees Online
College Students to Receive Additional Support to Finish Studies


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AIKEN, S.C. – Shahmel Bracket scored five points in the final 15 seconds, including a pair of free throws with nine seconds left, to lead UNC Pembroke past Georgia Southwestern 69-68 and to the school's first trip to the championship game of the PBC Tournament. UNCP (18-10) entered the tournament as the #3 seed in the east and sends GSW (20-8), the #1 seed in the west, home after reaching the semifinal round for the first time in school history. UNCP will face east #1 seed Augusta State in the championship game on Sunday at 4:30.
With his team down 68-64 with 15 seconds to go, Brackett hit a running three-pointer from the top of the key.
"We were trying to drive Brackett into the help," said GSW head coach Mike Leeder, "and he rocked us back and hit a three."
Brackett then had the key defensive play of the game as he stole the inbounds pass away from GSW's Trayce Macon and was fouled with nine ticks left.
"Off the timeout, we inbounded the ball to Macon and we tried to dribble through a trap and turned it over," said Leeder. "Give Brackett credit - he came up with another hustle play."
Down one, Brackett drained both free throws for a one-point Braves lead.
The Hurricanes had the last shot, but Bobby Glover's three-point attempt was off the mark.
"I wanted to try to attack (on the last play)," said Leeder. "That wasn't the shot we wanted at the end."
Brackett, named third-team All-Conference this year, scored a game-high 26 points, hitting all 11 of his free throws, tying a PBC Tournament record. He hit half of his six three-pointers and had five rebounds and three steals. George Blakeney added 14 points and five boards while Chris Hargrove had 11 points and five boards.
GSW spread its offense around with four players scoring in double figures. Trayce Macon had 19 while PBC Player of the Year Phillip Brown had 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Both teams were slow to begin the contest. UNC Pembroke, making its first appearance in the PBC semifinals since 1996, opened up a 9-6 lead on a Marcus Heath jumper with 14:10 to go in the first. Neither team would lead by more than that margin in the first half until Brackett hit a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left that gave the Braves a five-point lead. Brown answered with a dunk for the Hurricanes at the other end and UNCP led at the half 36-33.
There were 13 lead changes and eight ties in the first half alone.
UNC Pembroke held the lead for the first seven minutes of the second half, but never by more than four points. Georgia Southwestern got a three-pointer from Macon and a free throw from Colin Slotter to tie the game at 42 with 13:08 to go.
The two teams would trade the lead six times over the next six minutes. UNCP built up a four-point lead once again with 4:15 to play on a Blakeney free throw, but the game was tied less than a minute later as Evan Mobley had a layup and Brown a pair of free throws.
A Glover three-pointer gave GSW the lead with 1:47 to play. GSW built that lead to four over the next minute with a Macon breakaway layup and a Mobley free throw. Macon added two more free throws with 20 seconds left to give GSW a four-point lead that led into the final sequence.
The Hurricanes shot 43% from the floor and 35% from long range while UNCP hit 38% from the floor and only four of 13 three-pointers. UNCP won the battle at the free throw line, hitting 21 of 26 (.808) while GSW was 15-22 (.682).
"I would like to congratulate UNC Pembroke," said Leeder. "I know they are fighting for their tournament lives and certainly played like that tonight.
They were the tougher team, they came up with a lot of loose balls and they out-rebounded us. They made the big plays down the stretch and were the better team tonight."
The winner of the PBC Championship game gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Augusta State and Georgia Southwestern are virtual locks for tournament bids while UNC Pembroke will need to win the event to earn the automatic bid.


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Grade Separation Projects Breaking Ground in North Carolina to Improve Railroad and Roadway Safety and Efficiency
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today announced that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has begun construction on rail safety improvement projects along the North Carolina Railroad's Piedmont Corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte.
This series of projects are part of the Piedmont Improvement Program, supported by a $520 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 grant, and will enhance safety for train travelers, motorists and pedestrians, while laying the foundation for a higher-performing freight and passenger rail network.
"North Carolina's Piedmont Improvement Program is strengthening freight and passenger rail service, while also delivering substantial road improvements to reduce congestion and make highway-rail grade crossings safer," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "Projects like these create jobs, promote economic growth and foster more livable communities."
A combination of new grade separations, such as road or rail overpasses or underpasses, and highway-rail grade crossing closures and enhancements, will enable trains on the Piedmont Corridor to travel faster and more reliably, and help communities benefit from reduced roadway congestion and improved safety at crossings.
There are more than 7,000 highway-rail grade crossings in North Carolina, with nearly three hundred located along the Piedmont Corridor in Rowan and Guilford counties. The Piedmont Improvement Program will eliminate 17 percent of the grade crossings in these two counties, creating separations between rail and vehicular traffic with new overpasses and underpasses.
A project that broke ground recently at Klumac Road near Salisbury will result in a new double-track railroad bridge to eliminate the existing at-grade crossing. And in July, NCDOT will begin construction of a new roadway bridge that will eliminate four crossings south of Salisbury at Peeler Road.
The Piedmont Improvement Program includes 12 projects dedicated to separating rail and highway traffic, and builds on NCDOT's immensely successful Sealed Corridor Program, begun in 1992, which aims to improve or consolidate highway-rail grade crossings along the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. The Piedmont Corridor is part of the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor, which runs from Washington, D.C. to Charlotte, with planning underway for an extension to Atlanta, Ga.
"The safest crossing is one that doesn't exist, and NCDOT is now on its way to eliminating 50 crossings between Charlotte and Raleigh while building strategic underpasses and overpasses," said Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo. "North Carolina Transportation Secretary Tony Tata and NCDOT continue to advance the Piedmont Improvement Program, which is proving to the nation that market-based investments in higher-performing rail service also deliver important safety improvements for trains, pedestrians, and vehicles."
Through the High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program, the FRA has partnered with 32 states to invest in more than 150 high-speed and higher-performing intercity passenger rail projects. Fifty-two projects worth $3.6 billion in funding are currently completed, under construction, or will soon start construction in 19 states and the District of Columbia.


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Directors as proficient and prolific as Claude Chabrol can be maddening. As with Woody Allen, Michael Winterbottom, or Takashi Miike, it's tempting to wish that Chabrol waited for true inspiration (or at least better scripts) before dusting off his director's chair. On the other hand, a willingness to work may be what makes him great. If he finishes with the same handful of masterpieces as Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick, does it really matter that he filled in the gaps with borderline hackwork?
The latest three entries in an ongoing series of Chabrol DVDs come from an era when the director was regaining his footing. Chabrol's string of post-New Wave classics from the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s had faded to rumor by the time he whipped up 1987's Masques, a low-ambition, high-entertainment take on a TV star's venality. Chabrol followed that immediately with 1988's Story Of Women, a high-toned historical drama that restored his international reputation. His greatest subsequent success has been La Cérémonie, a 1995 suspense film that doubles as an exposé of bourgeois fear.
All three films possess a slick, dynamic style, well-explicated on one of Story Of Women's DVD featurettes, where Chabrol breaks down the reasons behind his framing choices. Even the low-to-the-ground Masques employs an artful moving camera to tell its story of a blustery game-show host (Philippe Noiret) and the reporter (Robin Renucci) who dogs him with rumors of missing young girls. Tonally, Masques rests about on the level of a darkly comic TV mystery—more Alfred Hitchcock Presents than Alfred Hitchcock—but Noiret elevates the material with his swaggering performance. Story Of Women shows more reserve, even though its tale of a working-class abortionist in WWII is inherently gamy. Isabelle Huppert plays the amateur doctor, who gets rich in occupied France by providing her services to overburdened housewives and prostitutes. Story Of Women contains a potent gender critique, given that Huppert's venality makes her as suspect as the paternal power structure that shuts her down, and the film subtly examines how people excuse amorality by claiming a higher purpose.
The same theme runs beneath Chabrol's late-period masterpiece La Cérémonie, about a vacant maid (Sandrine Bonnaire) and the upper-class family that wants her to be happy so she can make them happy. Huppert returns as a bitter postal clerk who prods Bonnaire to assert herself, with bloody consequences. The title comes from an old French expression for the march to the guillotine, but it also describes the games that servants and masters play. Bonnaire disrupts the already-awkward circumstance of a live-in employee by behaving like Herman Melville's Bartleby, so blank that her exploitation becomes painfully obvious.
Chabrol's point of view remains consistent enough that any of these titles could suit any of these films. All in some way address the rituals of rubbing up against a life of privilege, and how feelings of arrogance and selfishness fester on all class levels. Noiret sums up Chabrol's sensibility superbly in Masques, when his character freaks out and flings a parakeet out a window. After taking a deep breath, he explains, "It was the bird or me."


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Help us get to over 4,000 biographies in 2018.
If you know of a past magician not listed in MagicPedia, start a New Biography for them or Email us your suggestion.
Richiardi Jr.
| This page incorporated content from Richiardi_Jr,
a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Richiardi's Chamber of Horror and Illusion
He began performing as an assistant to his father, but had no intention of becoming the third generation of Richiardis. He wanted to become a doctor instead. After his father's death in the United States, he saved up enough money to move back home to Argentina (where most of his father's illusion were stored). He attended military school and studied singing and dancing.
By 1943, wanting to carry on the family tradition, he began performing as "Richiardi Jr." in Argentina, later billing himself as "the youngest illusionist in the world".
He was a frequent performer on the Ed Sullivan TV Show and appeared in a number of TV variety shows including "Witness the Impossible" and NBC's "Magic of the Stars." In 1980, he taped his a cable TV special "Richiardi's Chamber of Horrors," hosted by Vincent Price.
While performing in the Bahamas his foot was injured. Richiardi died from complications following surgery when both legs had to be amputated for infection and diabetic problems.
His son Ricardo continued on the family performing tradition. His son's first appearance was in O'Porto, Portugal, performing the Rice and Water at the age of four on the same stage as Aldo when he was four.
See also Ricardo Richardine, Jr. (no relation).
- "Bernadette Award" presented by the Harry Blackstone on the Tonight Show in 1957.
- Performing Fellowhip from the Academy of Magical Arts (1972)
- Magician of the Year by the S.A.M. (1979)
- Magician of the Year from the Academy of Magical Arts (1982)
- Magician Of the Decade by the SAM (1980)
- Variety Entertainer of the Year from Atlantic City


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• Read more about the new college football playoff system here.
• Houston to bid for college football championship game
Here is local reaction to Tuesday's announcement of a four-team playoff to begin in 2014:
University of Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades said he was 'surprised' by the 12-year term of the new playoff system, which will run from the 2014-15 to 2025-26 seasons.
The biggest remaining issues, Rhoades said, is how the playoff revenue will be distributed and what will be the makeup of the selection committee.
"Obviously I think TV is a big piece of it," Rhoades said. "I think that was certainly a huge consideration, a huge drive in this type of format."
Rice athletic director Rick Greenspan said the adoption of a playoff format to replace the BCS is a significant step.
"The BCS had become such a lightning rod for negativity that I think it's a positive change in that the acrimony that might develop over who's the fifth team vs. the fourth team is going to be considerably more trivial than who is No. 1 or 2 or 3," Greenspan said.
Like Rhoades, Greenspan said a key issue is the assembling of the selection committee responsible for determining the four teams.
"Assuming that the selection committee is broad and neutral and professional as can be and doesn't have any bias, then I think it's a real positive step," Greenspan said.
While details on revenue-sharing have not been finalized, Tuesday's announcement said revenue could be distributed based on academic performance, which the watchdog Knight Commission has endorsed.
"Anytime we can maximize the revenue and strongly promote a point of distinction between amateur and professional athletics we're doing the right thing, Greenspan said. "When the line becomes indistinguishable between college and professional athletics, people start to wonder why some of the things we do seem to be a façade."
Rhoades, whose Cougars move to the Big East next season, said a team can ultimately control its fate by what is done on the football field.
"It's exciting that somehow, some way if we're considered one of the top 4 teams in the county – and at one point and time we were considered one of the top 6 teams in the country last year – we now have a opportunity," Rhoades said. "It's not going to matter what conference we're in. For us we just need to focus on making sure our football program continues to get better every year."
Click on the image below for a larger view:


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Summer School 2012
MoMA PS1's educational program Summer School returns in August 2012 for its second iteration. An annual series of workshops, lectures, and discussions, Summer School brings students together for a focused conversation on contemporary practice with artists, authors, musicians, curators, theorists, and scholars who have made significant contributions in their respective fields. Modeled after European summer academies, Summer School turns the grounds of MoMA PS1—an institution housed in a former public school—into a seasonal campus.
This year, Marina Abramović, Steve Paxton, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge will respectively teach master classes to a select group of students in the arts. Each class will culminate in a presentation open to the public at MoMA PS1 on September 9.
A pioneer of performance art, Marina Abramović (b. Yugoslavia, 1946) has been using her own body as the subject, object, and medium of her work since the early 1970s. In her art she explores the relationship between audience and performer, the limits of the body, and the potential of the mind. At MoMA PS1 Abramović will be joined by two assistants to teach The Abramović Method, a technique developed to train students in achieving a clear state of mind in order to develop ideas for their own work.
Steve Paxton (American, b. 1939) is one of the most significant choreographers of his generation. He indelibly transformed the vocabulary of dance through his contributions to the Judson Dance Theatre in the 1960s, as well as with the development of Contact Improvisation in 1972, a technique influenced by his studies in the martial arts based on ideas of gravity and momentum between two bodies. For Summer School Paxton will teach his seminal postmodern works, Satisfyin' Lover (1967) and State (1968), to be publicly performed in conjunction with the dance series Some sweet day at The Museum of Modern Art in October. Students in this workshop will also have to commit to performing in the Fall. Any type of walking and standing abilities may be used. More details to follow upon acceptance.
NOTE: Steve Paxton's workshop is also open to non-students; MoMA PS1 will hold an open call for performers on September 5, 2012 at the Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, from 5–8 pm. The workshop will run from September 6–8 and conclude with an open rehearsal at MoMA PS1 on September 9. Participants will perform at The Museum of Modern Art on October 17 and 21 as part of a three-week program of dance performances by contemporary choreographers entitled Some sweet day.
UPDATE: Registration for the Steve Paxton open call is now closed.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (b. Great Britain, 1950) has been testing the limits and conventions of music, language, art, and identity for nearly forty years. As a founding member of the 1970s British avant-garde performance collective COUM Transmissions, which morphed into the influential industrial band Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge made art and music history. More recently, in collaboration with his late partner Lady Jaye, the artist started an ongoing experiment in body modification aimed at creating one "pandrogynous" being. Participants in this workshop will be expected to look with great honesty and openness at the emotional journeys of their life to date and explore the creation of an intimate, personal, magical language.
Summer School 2012 at MoMA PS1 is organized by Jenny Schlenzka, Associate Curator, with curatorial assistance from Matthew Evans, Lizzie Gorfaine, and Jocelyn Miller.
Photos by Charles Roussel. Full Credit.


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Second in a series of posts with highlights from the Hue Jackson-Al Davis press conference Tuesday:
— Not comparing their ability as a head coach in any way, but Hue Jackson went out of his way to ingratiate himself with his new boss more than any coach than Joe Bugel.
Bugel actually put his arm around Davis after replacing Mike White and said, "I love this man.''
Jackson referred to Davis throughout the proceedings as "coach Davis'' and had this to say in his opening statement:
"Obviously when I came here a year ago a lot of things were said. 'Why you want to go work for the Raiders?' One, I'm from California and I love being back home. But two, the opportunity to work for coach Davis. I know a lot of people quote me when I say coach because he is a coach. He was one of the greatest coaches of our time coaching a football team.
"I want you guys to know, I've worked for a lot of owners in this league. I've been on four different football teams. I started with Dan Snyder, I worked for from there to Mike Brown, from there to Arthur Blank, from there to Steve Bisciotti. And I'm not saying this because I'm sitting here. I'm being very honest with you, not one of those guys, and they're all excellent at what they do, but I've never had the opportunity to sit and talk football, football, the X's and O's and what it takes to win in this league consistently on a consistent basis, and there's nothing like working for coach Davis.
"I know a lot of stuff gets said about this and that, I'm telling you I'm here. I'm a walking testimony of coming here in the first year and having an opportunity to make something great. We're not where we want to be but I'm so excited about the opportunity that the men that are sitting in the back of the room, Mike Waufle and Kevin Ross, guys that I know this past year that we did everything that we could to get this organization where we want it to be, and none of us are satisfied. We all are ready to roll up our sleeves and go to work. So I'm glad, to be here, glad to be the head coach of this football team. I plan on being here for a long time.''
OK, it's probably a good idea to talk up the boss. But referring to Cincinnati owner Mike Brown as "excellent" strains the credibility of the speaker.
— Davis wasn't overly impressed with the show of support in the locker room for Cable in part because he promoted after a show of player support instead in 1997 instead of Jon Gruden, a mistake he rectified the next year after the Raiders went 4-12.
"Three of the players came to me, led by the minister, Napoleon Kaufman, who runs a church now. They wanted a guy to be the head coach, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go in that direction,'' Davis said. " I hired the line coach as the head coach because the players wanted him. They were all excited. And he was a great coach. This guy was a great line coach. His name was Joe Bugel, and uh, but those things, sometimes you relent and sometimes you don't. But this had no chance.''
Davis felt Cable cultivated the support because "he was through, and he also knew how to go into the locker room and get the support. Which is good. I think it's great for a coach to get support when you're leaving.''
Davis seemed to find the pointed criticisms from punter Shane Lechler more amusing than disturbing.
"My first reaction was three years ago, if you get out your newspaper, Shane said publicly he wasn't coming back, he didn't like it here,'' Davis said. "A month later, he was coming back because I gave him the highest paid contract of a specialist in pro football.''
— Sounds as if the Raiders had no intention of picking up the option the contract of cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, whose deal voided automatically anyway because he failed to meet performance incentives.
Davis acknowledged Asomugha's skill as a cornerback and his worth in the community but noted, "that 17 million dollars can bring you two or three players that can help you win.''
When there were stories that Asomugha wanted to play with the New York Jets and Darrelle Revis, Davis said he him asked him point blank if he wished to be traded.
"He said, `No. I want to stay. I don't want to go.' ''
— Davis on the trade which dealt a first-round draft pick to the New England Patriots for Richard Seymour: "You may not think it was a good trade. I thought it was a great trade. Still do.''
— Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey still has the owner in his corner, although it's notable Davis didn't use the word "great'' when evaluating him.
"He's going to be good. (He has) explosion. He can catch, he's getting better, and he's a good guy. He's going to be good.''
More to come in a couple of hours . . .


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Log crashes through man's windshield, amazingly he survived
The driver who suffered minor injuries when he crashed his car into the back of a log on a truck and the log smashed through his front windshield said he didn't know what happened until he felt blood on his face.
The crash happened around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday on the Highway 28 bypass near Highway 29 in Anderson County, S.C.
Troopers said the truck was stopped when Justin Earl Douglas,23, drove his Kia into the log. Douglas was taken to the hospital with a laceration to his head, troopers said.
Douglas told WYFF that he didn't realize how close the log was to his car.
"The pole looked shorter. It looked like it was even with the rest of them," Douglas said.
He said he believes that he might have looked to the side for a second, and the next thing he knew the pole was in his car and he noticed the blood on his pants.
"And then I look up and there's pole right there where my head was," Douglas said.
Douglas said he doesn't remember moving out of the way. He said his body just reacted. "I guess I have a guardian out there. (It's) kind of nice to know that there's someone up there looking out for me," Douglas said.
He said he was on his way home from work when the crash happened. He said he was talking on the phone but it was through his Bluetooth.
Douglas was cited for driving too fast for conditions, according to troopers.
He told McDavid that he was driving the speed limit.
Troopers said the log had the required red warning flag attached to it.


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No state help with Pilsen road
News editor
Marion County received a letter back from Kansas Department of Transportation offering no aid for paving Remington Road between U.S. 56 and 290th Road.
Marion County Commission had recently sent a request for any available assistance, along with photos showing how narrow the road is, how steep the ditches are in places, and how dusty the road can be.
The road receives more out-of-county traffic than most other non-highways, as people make trips to Pilsen in honor of Father Emil Kapaun, who is to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Korean War and is a candidate for sainthood. Commissioner Dan Holub worries about the safety of a dusty gravel road with so many people driving on it who are unfamiliar with it.
The only funds KDOT has that could help Marion County with the cost of paving Remington Road is $130,000 the county is entitled to anyway. That would be just a fraction of the cost to pave the 9-mile stretch of road, the letter from KDOT acknowledged.
Road and Bridge Superintendent Randy Crawford met with the commission in closed session for 10 minutes to discuss personnel. No action was taken on return to open session.


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