LNG interview with Jeff Baker of the Portland Oregonian...

...complete with a helpful list of "Do's & Don't's" here.

Women & Children First first

Tonight, Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object had its hometown premiere at Women and Children First on Chicago's far north side, with Jac Jemc introducing. If you are ever in Chicago, you should go to this store. Also? They make nice signs for their events:
Lindsay Hunter read with me. Her name, as you can see, is on the sign above. She was great! You should check out her reading series, Quickies! This is one half of the beautiful audience:
And this is the other:
After the reading, as is customary, people asked questions and got their books signed:
Thanks to everyone for coming!

Melissa Albert reviews LNG at Time Out Chicago

“Rooney benefits from the tendency of a silent someone to become furniture, making her a great source of voyeuristic wisdom,” she says.

Also? “Considering the constant co-opting of her face and figure for any number of mythical people, Rooney’s take on the job is fittingly schizophrenic.”

Read the whole (very thoughtful) review here.

REBUTTAL TO SOCK MONKEY'S LATEST RANT

Sock Monkey has put another video up on YouTube, this one concerning my new book:



I would like to make some corrections to what he has said in this video. While the book Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharmadoes contain some material concerning sex, it does not contain "dirty parts" as Sock Monkey says. The book is in no way pornographic at all. I admit that at one point I wrote a somewhat pornographic version. But even there it was more an attempt at parodying a naive Fifties style one might find in an old dime store sex novel than actually trying to be "dirty." This didn't work so I revised the text and eliminated those portions.

He says there are scenes of drug abuse. It is true that drug use is mentioned, but not in such a way as to glorify or condone it. This is a very important point. I have made my stance on drug abuse abundantly clear both in this book and in other writings. I am 100% against the use of drugs especially when it comes to the so-called "meditative" or "enlightenment-producing" qualities of these substances. They have none. Drugs have no place at all in the true quest for one's original nature.

Finally he states that the book contains, "insults towards many Zen teachers who are nice people who should not be insulted." This is completely false. No Zen teachers are insulted in the book. I wrote about certain trends that worry me in American Zen. But I did not mention anyone specific save for a few references to the late Frederick "Zen Master Rama" Lenz, who couldn't really be called a Zen teacher in any case.

As to his allegations that he wrote the book while I "sat in (my) room picking (my) nose all day" this is patently absurd. Sock Monkey did not write this or any of my books. All allegations that my books have been "heavily ghost written" are completely false. One can compare the writing style in this blog to the style in my books and see that they are all the work of the same person.

Furthermore his statement that he played all of the bass parts on the new Zero Defex CD, this is also a lie. I played all of the bass guitar on that CD and there are numerous videos available to prove it. Does Sock Monkey appear in any of this video material? No.

Sock Monkey also ignores the rest of the contents of the book, which is a sincere attempt to look at how the Dharma fits into real life in the 21st century. The material he talks about is there only to give examples of how Zen practice and Zen teaching is a real activity done by real people, not by cartoon-like "Enlightened Beings" who couldn't possibly exist in any case. To ignore this material is to ignore 90% of the book while focusing only on the small portion that is controversial. This is an immature response to the work. Though I would hardly expect maturity from a stuffed animal made from undergarments, I did expect better from Sock Monkey, who I have known and respected for a long time. I am sincerely shocked and saddened by his reaction.

Frankly I find it very odd that he first insults my books and then attempts to take credit for writing them. His position is indefensible.

All I can say to Sock Monkey and his threats is, "Bring it on!" I will not be silenced by the likes of you.

P.S. Don't forget about my appearance on February 1st (Sunday) at Dharma Zen Center in Los Angeles. All information is in the post just below this one.
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VOTE ME NUDE 13

14 MEMBER HAVE STRIPPED HER NUDE WITH THERE 14 COMMENT VOTES ON ODESSA VOTE ME NUDE.INVITES SOON TO ANDOVER CASTLE.




JOHAN'S FUN NIGHT RESULTS FOR THE CASINO DICE THROWS WERE.

CASINO DICE SCORE ON JOHAN'S FUN NIGHT
21:00 First throw of the dice=1-1-6-5
21:15 Second throw of the dice=1-2-4-6
21:30 Third throw of the dice=1-4-2-5
21:45 Forth throw of the dice=4-3-6-2
10:00 fifth throw of the dice=5-2-6-3
10:15 Six throw of the dice =3-4-2-3
10:30 Seventh throw of the dice=3-6-1-4
10:45 eighth throw of the dice=1-5-6-5
COMPARE YOUR DICE WITH MY CASINO DICE TO SEE IF YOU ARE LUCKY.

The two albums here have been taken down as were only for tonight.One member got the password to the second album and that was Billy.I know of one winner for the dice throw so far and that is Pedro with 3-3-4-2. Please look up your dice to see if you have won here on Johan's fun night. My thanks to billy and Pedro for your support here.
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FIELD TRIP REPORT and CHANGES IN SATURDAY MORNING SCHEDULE and TALK AT DHARMA ZEN CENTER FEB. 1st


I've made some changes to the Saturday morning zazen schedule at Hill Street Center. These are posted on a link that's over there to your left.

I'm trying a little experiment. For the next few weeks we will do one 40 minute period of zazen followed by a short chanting service. I want to see how that works out. If it's a bust, we'll go back to two periods of zazen with no chanting.

Last Sunday a few of us made a field trip to Zenshuji in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo district. Zenshuji is the Soto-shu's official temple here in LA and their practice is closer to what you'd find at a Soto temple in Japan. The zendo there is in a basement and the zazen meetings are at 8 AM on Sundays so there's very little noise -- unlike Hill Street Center where you always hear traffic and people and sometimes huge hordes of children in the playground next door. It's also set up like a real zendo, which gives it a very nice atmosphere, whereas HSC is basically a reconverted living room. They do a brief chanting ceremony, much like most Zen temples. I enjoyed it, so I thought I'd try one at our place.

I've been to chanting ceremonies at other places before, like San Francisco Zen Center, Tassajara and other places I've visited. But mostly these are crowded church-like affairs that sort of give me the willies sometimes. Zenshuji did the same kind of services I'd seen elsewhere, but with a much smaller group. I think there were 7 or 8 of us down there. It was nice. I recalled the chanting services Nishijima Sensei used to do once a week at his place in Chiba Prefecture (the first Dogen Sangha). I thought it'd be kind of nice to do this and see what happens.

I also know some people are intimidated at the prospect of doing a whole hour of zazen. But since zazen is the key to the practice, I'm only cutting it down by 20 minutes. A compromise.

I think it's good to visit a number of practice spaces if you can. I've noticed that people who attend just a single teacher's practice often develop a slightly warped attitude (and this includes people who attend only mine, maybe it goes especially for people who attend only mine). I'm not a fan of the practice of running around from meditation center to meditation center picking and choosing the parts you like of each one's practice and rejecting anything that bothers you. I know a lot of teachers out there make a good living offering such cobbled together practices. But I've never seen one of those that had the least bit of value. They're always very nice and completely undemanding. Sweet and useless, like high fructose corn syrup.

On the other hand, it's traditional to visit as many teachers as you like until you find one that suits you. Dogen did this as did a lot of the great teachers of the past. Once you find the right teacher it's best to stick with that teacher even if you don't like everything she or he does or says. The one that suits you won't always be the one you like best. Naturally if they start mixing up cyanide flavored Kool Aid it's probably time to go. But it's not good to jump ship just because certain things bug you. It's good to get bugged sometimes. Often that's exactly what you need. Remember the thing that bugs you is never solely "out there" in your teacher. In a very profound way these are things you create yourself even when they appear to be coming from someone else.

So anyway, it's good to check out other ways of practice and see how they really do things. You'll always be surprised. I know I always am.

Speaking of which, on Sunday Feb. 1st 2009 I will be giving the Dharma Talk at Dharma Zen Center at 1025 S. Cloverdale Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90019. The schedule is as follows:

10am- Morning Bell Chant
10:25am- Sitting
10:55am-short break
(between)11am-11:05am- Talk

This is a Korean style Zen temple and they do things a little differently from how we do them at HSC. Come along and check it out.

Last things: I'll have copies of my new book Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate for sale at Hill Street Center on Saturdays. So if you want one, you can buy it direct.

I've heard that the book is now selling some places. Somebody said they got theirs from Amazon and somebody else told me she bought one in New York City. So go look for 'em!

PART 2: THE GHOST AT NUMBER ONE


I just saw that Zen Wrapped in (etc.) is #1 in Amazon's category of Dharma and #3 in Zen (just after Thich Nhat Hahn and Shunryu Suzuki).

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Take a picture—it’ll last longer.

Often, if you are uploading a photograph of yourself camera-faced in the bathroom mirror, it means you’re some guy placing an ad on Craigslist for casual sex. In this case, it means I finally got a digital camera. After years of my life passing visually undocumented, I can now record any and everything of interest on the tour. Lucky you.

HIS REQUEST

My boyfriend has requested me to take my cloths off for a guy we both know very well.The guy knows nothing about what my boyfriend has requested me to do for him and he has been invited to dinner this Saturday and he does not know it but i will be his desert.

I can't be arsed to blog

So I shall patronise you all by just posting photos of Pumpkin.

I called her Pumpkin because I think she looks like black and gold/orange, which reminds me of pumpkins because those are Halloween colours. Ok fine, that doesn't make sense. I just think the name is cute lah, ok!

Anyway she learnt to respond to it by now, so no changing! :D

One day before I bought her:



It was love at first sight. Well, for me anyway. Pumpkin looks like she is deeply unsettled. Too bad for you doggie, you stuck with me!



Forlorn, would rather have a "true dog lover" owner.



Day one: We put her on the couch and she crawled up to my shoulder and promptly fell asleep. What a weird location to want to sleep on!












zzzzzzzz



zzzzzzzzzz



zzzzzzzzzzz again niaping against Mike's lap. I was so jealous!

































Several minutes later...



This direction seems to be better...



After her bath



All nice and fluffed out










In the t-shirt that I bought for her that was meant for bunnies (because all the dog sizes are way too big for her)! It says "Good rabbit" on it, isn't that cute!?

(And in case you about to start yapping about cruelty to animals, I bought said tee coz Pumpkin even trembles in chill when there is a big wind, or in aircon, ok! She is a puppy and she gets very easily cold!)

Anyway even this bunny tee is too big for Pumps, her front paws slip out of it, so I've decided not to let her wear it unless I am keeping an eye on her. As you can see in the pic she wiggled in her sleep and somehow put 2 front paws into one paw hole. Siao. Hahaha!

On a completely un-dog-related note,



My first Lv-yi-se (Green one colour)!!

At first I had the three 4 suos and one 3 suo - which means I was waiting for a 3 suo (green one colour + one colour + pong pong) but 3 suo was dead, and so is 2 suo as you can see I gang-ed it.

So I was waiting for 5 suo, which makes the cards completely not chio lor! One colour so boring and common!

I had one fa cai earlier in the game and threw that out, then I mo-ed another fa cai and kept it, throwing out my 3 suo - and I zi mo-ed the last fa cai (my MJ kakis are way too pro to throw it one lor)!! Woohoo!!

The 1 flower also mine.

Ok I shall stop the MJ jargon here.


And yes I am acutely aware of the rolls of fats in some of the doggie photos, so here's me in better times and also my best boring angle:




Taken in the loo.

I was about to go shower when I thought, "Why waste the make up? May as well camwhore", so I did.




Till next time and Happy CNY!


Note to self: Blog about USA trip and also cupboard nearly killing me.


p/s: Pumpkin is also sleeping on my lap now as I am posting this. Everybody say Awwwwwwwww!
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BOOK TOUR and WHAT'S YOUR NEW BOOK ABOUT

Some stuff happened yesterday I heard. Some government thing or whatever. Buncha people listening to a speech...

I'm so tired of hearing about it. Look, every God damned day is a historical day. Every God damned day the world changes forever. I know there's some pretty cool stuff going on, what with a president whose dad was from the country I called home in my childhood and all that. Plus he has a Klingon name. Good. Fine. OK. I GET IT.

Enough.

Phew.

ANYWAY, I'm still setting up World Domination Tour '09 (my book tour) and looking for venues. Right now I have some potential gigs in Portland and in Saskatoon probably in late April thru late May. It would be nice to fill in some stuff between in Seattle, Vancouver BC and anywhere else up there in the Northwest. So if anybody's got any ideas, please write me at spoozilla@gmail.com.

If anyone knows a booking agent that would be nice to have.

One of the things I keep getting asked lately is, "What's your new book about?" I always have trouble answering this one. When you ask anyone who makes some work of art what it's about or what genre it falls into they have a hard time answering. Everyone knows the old cliche of the band with three lead guitars, a giant fire breathing skull prop and a bank of Marshall amps who claim they're not heavy metal. Same with me.

It's a Zen book, I guess. That's where it'll be filed anyway. Although I was very gratified when Book Soup in Los Angeles filed Sit Down And Shut Up in the music section just after its release. They later moved it to "spiritual," which bummed me out. Such is life, though. It's about my mom dying, my grandma dying, my job ending and my marriage falling apart. It's also as much as this about the Dharma and how that worked into all of these things. I got fed up with Zen books that ignore real life and pretend we're all just sitting on mountain tops being beautiful. That's a lousy fantasy and it needed kicking in the teeth. Nobody was doing it, so I had to.

The other day I watched the Star Trek episode The Enemy Within. In this episode, Cpt. Kirk is split into two halves, one "good" and the other "evil." The "good" Kirk is easier to deal with, but he can't make any decisions and gradually begins to lose command. As Mr. Spock explains it, "What is it that makes one man an exceptional leader? We see here indications that it is his negative side that makes him strong, that his 'evil' side, if you will, properly controlled and disciplined, is vital to his strength."

There's another scene in which they're debating whether to tell the crew what has happened. Spock says (and this is from memory, Star Trek geeks feel free to correct me), "You are the captain of this ship. You haven't the luxury to be seen as anything less than perfect. If the crew sees you as less than perfect they lose faith and you lose command."

This also figures into the nature of the book. I think a lot of spiritual (forgive the use of that term) teachers believe this. They believe that they have to put on a front, to be seen as perfect, that if they are seen as anything less their followers will lose faith in what they teach. This, I think, is the basis of a lot of what goes on in the world of religion.

Of course, none of these teachers really are perfect and when word gets out about their imperfections, sure enough their followers lose faith and all heck breaks lose. If anyone wants to know how this has worked in the Zen world read Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Centeror The Great Failure: My Unexpected Path to Truth. I won't rehash those stories here. Basically they're about what happens when folks who see Zen teachers as perfect beings find out they're not.

I've already had problems with people whose mental projections of me don't match what I really am or what they believe I ought to be and who experience tremendous disappointment and anger as a result. Some of this is in the new book. I've watched this same stuff happen with my own teachers as well. It seems almost a rite of passage.

I don't know if Mr. Spock is right about captains of Starships. Perhaps he is. I don't think this logic applies to Zen teachers, though. It's vital that we present ourselves realistically. It is impossible to present yourself completely in any book and I haven't tried. But what I have tried is to present the bare facts. I decided that if someone was going to write a Shoes Outside The Door or Great Failure type book about me, it was damned well gonna be me who did it first. I've dug up dirt on myself I guarantee nobody else could possibly have found. And hopefully I've also dug up some deeper truths than they could have discovered either.

I don't know how the book will be received. I imagine a great many readers will hold on to their fantasies. They'll read my account and think, "Well Brad isn't the superman I was looking for, maybe someone else is." They will be wrong. But they'll have to find that out themselves. And that will be much more painful.
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FROM A FRIEND AND MEMBER OF ODESSA

Some of you asked Johan to take some photos on his journey and here they are.

Karen here are some pictures on the road.

Love johan.

Photo 1 a shot of the snowy road in PEI

Photo 2 stuck in the Snow

Photo 3 Thanks to the snow plow




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