I realize I've been making a mistake with the Gagablog for two years now, since Artpop came out. For the whole “Getting it Wrong” series, anyway. It came to me in the last couple of days, and since struggling so much with Sexxx Dreams, but became especially clear to me as I heard that song again, just now, before starting this.
Sexxx Dreams isn't just about having sex dreams and what they are about, what they “mean.” None of Artpop is “only” about what it means, but about the experience of it. It's Art. Yes, it means things, and many things to many people, and all of that is good, but that is not all it is “about.” Trying to analyze Sexxx Dreams became an analogy for this. Now I feel like I figured it out a little more, not the “meaning” but the same nature everything has as a magical puzzle. And having “solved” this puzzle I hope it will always be a reminder to me to help my awareness when enjoying and making art.
I realized this time, listening to Sexxx Dreams, that it is not just about having dreams, but very much about telling the person, in real life, about having dreams about them. Just thinking about what this realization means, magically, to me, turns my mind and reality inside out to fit the magic style I've discovered, which is my favorite kind. Thanks, Gaga. And she said it was like homemade acid, like a trip, yet instead of taking it I've been holding myself back by just talking about it.
I started a fairy tale on March 20th of this year and forgot about it. I read it and continued it this morning. It's going really well, but I couldn't resist interrupting it to write this, instead, after I put Artpop on. I will get back to it, soon, I hope – it's really good. “This edition”, Gagablog 88, has undergone some transformations in this last week that I think Illustrate the magical transformation I am going through, myself.
In general, my ongoing idea for the “next gagablog” has been, for months now, it seems, to write about Sexxx Dreams. Then I was displeased with how my last one turned out. This coincides with disappointment socially and on social media and with not making more progress as an artist, writer, and musician even though I have been making more progress than I have in many years, lately. But I haven't really gone for it. Really going for it is an analogy not for just having sex dreams or writing them down, but for telling someone, “hey, last night, I was thinking about you...”. So when I got upset with myself for not making my point well, last time I had this idea: Make Gagablog 88 an index were I go back over all the previous editions and give a summary or decoder version. This is what a mind will do, and maybe I will do it, sometime.
For now, I will just say all I was really trying to say in the last edition is that everything that keeps us apart is based on “smaller” and “larger” versions of the idea of “others” - especially of people as “others”. But as I write this, listening to “Swine”, I can't help but recall a cartoon I saw the other day with a cat and a dog looking sad on one side of a table saying “and if the humans hurt or mistreat us they can go to jail” and some farm animals on the other side with pleading looks wishing they could get that respect and protection. The idea of “others”, that some aren't as good or “count” as much, is the source of all problems. What if our respect for each other was literally based on how much we “counted”, so The Count, Count Von Count, would be the most popular and powerful person in the world? Wait, we don't have something like that with money, do we? “Ba-dump-Trump.”
Anyway, I don't think I will do an index. What happened was magic – between typing those sentences Gaga sang “listen to he radiate her magic.” Not yet anyway. What happened was magic, the kind of media magic I' ve been writing about here, all along. Pure Fairy-Tech-Art-Media magic. It was August 12th, 2105, yesterday, literally. But it was August 12th some decades ago that the magic “began.” Thanks to a new TV network, “Decades” I heard the story yesterday at 5 AM, as the meteor shower faded away and the sun came up (“Married to the stars, I own the world, we own the world..I feel on top of the world.” she just sang behinf those lines) We didn't see any shooting stars, but one reason is I didn't go back out due to watching the program on Decades about the premiere of the Wizard of Oz. I just “happened” to find it, flipping around. This network apparently does a “news” show about what happened on Today's Date throughout history. The big story for this one was the Premiere of The Wizard of Oz movie.
Oz is such a foundation for all my magical belief, I could go off on a thousand tangents. But I will focus on two points, the premiere and Salman Rushdie. The movie was originally released to one town, in Wisconsin, I think. It was only on there, for a whole week, before national release, possibly as a test market. It was a small town, I think they said tickets were 20 and 40 cents, and in that week it made 3000 dollars. Which I guess means about 10,000 people saw it that week, if I have the numbers right. A big hit! But it's funny that they would have to test it, the movie that would be one of the most influential in American culture, in the world. I was reminded of this “funniness” this morning when listening to Artpop. I remembered Gaga saying she always wanted to sing with electronic music – I thought she always was doing that, basically, before Artpop, but I guess Artpop is “more” electronic versus previous records being “more pop” (?). Anyway, it seems like Artpop was not the “huge hit” that her previous albums were and it reminded me of this “funniness” about the Wizard of Oz premiere.
First I want to say that Artpop is such an amazing album, I love it as much as all of Gaga's art. I think it didn't have the same sales impact as her earlier albums and has not yet had the same cultural impact, and I think this is mostly due to the music industry, honestly. I don't want to say too much about it and get side-tracked but I will say it is like letting a genie out of a bottle and thinking they could control it, finding out differently and trying to put it back in a “marketing” bottle. Gaga just transcends all of that like Magic transcends Reality, though. Magically I think there is meaning to Artpop having a relatively “limited” audience, at first, and then it's full influence being felt and developed over time, like the Wizard of Oz. And both are still “Big Hits” in their “early days” but that won't compare to their full influence. This is the “funniness” they share. What was a week for Oz in a “limted, local audience” and for those who flocked to see it, who knew, heard, or could sense it was something special, has been two years for Artpop. And Artpop has been a huge hit, especially “in the monster community.” But I know, I can sense, that time will show a much fuller influence. It is the kind of thing, like Oz, that grows over decades.
I won't go off on more Gaga-Oz tangents but save them for my upcoming book. I will say that I felt justified and encouraged to write that book by one more “news” item they mentioned on Decades in relation to Oz. I don't know if he said something about it on the same date or this aspect was just magically included in the piece about Oz, but I had never heard anything about Salman Rushdie and Oz before. Watching this program was already renewing my desire to write my Oz-Gaga magic book, I took it as a sign that I should at least write this gagablog about the Oz premiere. But when he brought up Rushdie I decided it was more like a message, an order from Oz. If you've followed any of my writings you know I believe Oz is real and calling to us as from “The Future” - it is a paradise future waiting for us and giving us clues how to get there. I've always felt this way and thought it was obvious from reading the books. But one focus of my Oz-Gaga book was about how the popularity of the movie version misled people into thinking it was a fairyland of dreams or imagination instead of a real place, the real place. So when I hear that Salman Rushdie also wrote about Oz being real I feel validated and encouraged to write about the magic of it, about how we get there. It's encouraging because he is so highly regarded and I think many people consider him a genius. It's also encouraging that he was the person they mentioned who “believed” this but I've never really heard anyone else's ideas on this subject before. It almost seemed like he is one of the only ones so far who has come forward with this idea. I'm very curious to read what he's already written about it but at the same time I feel certain I have much more to say, and this just makes me feel a new kind of pressure, a rivalry, to spur me on to writing.
I want to write about Oz being real, about the clues to get there, to dispelling illusions that hold us back, and about how Gaga is the key to it all, to transforming the world into Oz. I literally “can't wait” to write about that, anymore. And I have been stalling, in ways, by writing this and talking with folks on facebook – but not entirely stalling, there are things I have learned and accomplished here and there in that time. But the only things “holding me back”, now, from writing that book, besides regular daily obligations, are other art projects, making music, drawing, and writing stories. All of which I am doing more of, following the Yellow Brick Road / Glitter way again, finally. And I can say I am glad it took me this long to start the book, always refining the ideas in my head, but also it took me, in my life, until yesterday to learn that Salman Rushdie believes in Oz, and that he may still be one of the few who “get it”, so far.
I was just thinking of the title for this and came up with “Newsflash! Salman Rushdie Agrees! 'Oz is Real!'” - then a few seconds later I heard Woody Woodpecker in a cartoon downstairs say “Newsflash!” so I guess that settles it. I was wondering if there was some other “news”, from yesterday 2015, August 12th, that would be another fun theme to include here. I can't recall, or if I even heard the news. Maybe something about establishing safe zones in Syria. But I guess I get too caught up in how a personal, media, social, or internal events can magically relate to a World Event. I like to focus on it to point it out to people because it would be fun to talk about, but the truth is I already “believe” in this kind of magic plenty. I am only holding myself back from using it by doing this, by insisting on having someone to work with who wants to change the world with art, too. And I am so very fortunate that my friend is making music with me, now. It's like floodgates opening and my drawing and writing are coming back to life, too. And I don't have to worry about whether or not he has the same magical understanding of music I do, though he probably does, but it does not have to be a discussion that holds us back from actually making the music.
This has been my revelation, for today, about Sexxx Dreams: “Do it!” It's no simple irony that Shia is going Super-Saiyan, these days. It's magic. It's not all about the dreaming. Dreaming is amazing, and if you can get into it, wonderful. I wish I could remember my dreams more, write more of them down, including daydreams – I feel it is my path, one of them. But don't get too caught up in analyzing dreams that you don't enjoy them or go further with them, like I have been doing too often in the gagablog. And don't get too caught up in the dreaming to do something about them, to make them come true, at least by writing them down. I feel the way this “happened” to me shows me how Sexxx Dreams works, at least how it works in helping solve the magical puzzle that is Me, today. I get so caught up in the dreaming that I forget to say something, forget to do anything about it. When I thought about that song, hearing it in my head started replacing “hearing” it, even when I was listening to it. All this analyzing had drowned out the immediate effect of it. Instead of relating to Gaga, through her art, instead of experiencing her art, purely, I have been allowing myself to indulge in my fantasies about it and not fully opening myself up for it to change me by experiencing it each time. Too worried about what I will say about it, like an art critic. Maybe if an art critic reads this it will help him. But Gaga declares at the end, during Applause, that she's here to crash, or help us crash, the critic's Judgment. I got crashed and I'm so happy about it. Just hearing how sexy Gaga's voice is, in every song, but as I listened to Sexxx Dreams this morning it was like it woke me out of my own long, foggy dream. She was talking, telling me, telling someone, something. She was doing it, she is doing it, not just dreaming about it or writing about dreaming about it.
So the other “personal/social/media/magic” event that took place yesterday was I finally watched a cartoon, Madoka Magica, that I promised to watch probably years ago and promised again the day before yesterday. I watched it. The person who recommended it to me is a deep mystery to me, a little monster in Paris, I think, my longest-standing or possibly only real facebook friend. And I mean “real friend”, since I have no idea how real she is. But she has really been there for me and talked with me for years, so she is really my friend on facebook far more than anyone else I've ever met there. And I finally watched one of her favorite shows and I really like it. I've only seen the first 4 episodes, so far, but it makes me think I have been “inside out” in some of my ideas about magic, even though my magical ideas generally involve turning parts of the world inside out to reveal magic. I guess it is like I am myself going through that transition, to a greater type of magic in a more magically revealed world. Like I am finally playing my part. It makes me think I have to go ahead and do it instead of talking about it, and once I do, once I make that magical contract to enter the real world of magic and art, I will have many surprising, adventurous new challenges before me. I just have to stop holding myself back.
But it's not about writing about the virtues of plays or the necessity of roles, for me, any more. It's not about talking anyone into agreeing with me or doing it with me. It's about acting, about making the magic, for everyone, for the other actors, the audience, making the scenery come to life and an occurrence for the whole world. I hope some of my writing here can spur someone on, inspire someone to do something creative and make more magic in their own lives. But I really want to make the art myself, to bring fairies to life for people through drawing and writing, to play magic on people and invite them to make their own with music. Gaga has shown me how, and with all my gratitude to her and desire to show others what she does for me, the best way is not by talking about it but by doing it.
This 88th gagablog is all about wrapping it up, more than all the other times before, and also about how it goes on forever. Because there is always more to say, Art is eternal and describing the pursuit of it spins off infinite tales. But it is the Art itself that is that timeless stream. I've been running along the banks and splashing across it at times but it's time for me to dive in and swim. I've kept this up because it's so comfortable to keep dreaming and talking about the dreams. Living the dream is a scary, wonderful adventure. I've been holding back, like testing the waters or wondering what people will think. I've decided to stop focusing on reactions, on the mind and what my mind or others minds make of art. I've chosen to get into the art that I truly am, without regard for those perceptions. It's time to be me, to live my dreams fully so my dreams and my life fully come to life. I felt ashamed of myself for walking along, only occasionally making art or music, when I saw Gaga in concert last year and she said “if you have a dream chase it like the fastest horse you ever saw.” I want to start doing that, to chase down more of my best and fastest dreams, to make more and more art by diving into the stream of it instead of just playing on the banks. Thanks, Gaga, for the fantastic dreams, and thanks for waking me up, Mother Monster. I love you, have a fabulous day!
After I wrote this I went shopping. I'm about to read over it now and post it, but a couple of things happened since I went to the store. I've been wanting a copy of the Munchkin card game but never got it, then saw the new one, Munchkin Oz, and it was five dollars off, so I got it. Just a coincidence with talking about Oz earlier, surely. And at the thrift store I saw a couple of plush dolls of the Scarecrow and Tin Man, and they were nice but I couldn't justify spending I think 7 dollars each on them. They looked like they were from the 70's or 80's, though. The most magical thing that happened was I was in my back yard and saw an eagle or hawk, but a really big bird, flying a little ways off, behind a tree across the street. I wished I could see her again and then she circled around in a wide arc and cried out. A few moments later I saw either her or possibly her children, three hawks flying together. They were coming towards me from the right, but were very close. They actually flew right over my house, and one of them caught a wind current directly over my house, just a few feet from the top of the roof, and was just sitting there for a few seconds. Then it turned and I saw it's wings all spread out above me and they all flew off to the west.
I wished I had my camera to take a picture of it. When I first saw them coming I thought to go get it, but if I had, I would have missed the actual view of the hawk over my house. I see hawks or eagles almost every time I go on a hike, so much that I expect them. I have seen them around the house a few times recently. I hope to see them again, but this was such a cool, close-up view I can't expect to ever see something like that again. I would have liked to take a picture, or video, of it, but I'm happy to have seen it because I will always remember that. This, to me, is a pretty example of living in the moment and enjoying things without worrying about recording it. But also a reminder to keep a camera handy. Still, recording it here does immortalize the moment, in a way. But more importantly, looking out for things like that, hoping for magical signs and taking thr meaning from this that I'm “on the right track”, is something that I hope does turn into immortal stories and songs and art to share with everyone. I've had some struggles drawing Gaga and maybe now I am ready, for example. Or maybe I need to carry out the plan I've had of drawing some monsters I know, to get my drawing style going. Either way, it's time to start doing things and not holding myself back anymore.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Gagablog 87: “Sexxx Dreams” – Nicki Minaj, Iran-Turkey-ISIS, Fidel Castro
*LOOK FOR MEDIA MAGIC PART STARTING WITH ALL-CAPS PHRASE BELOW* I first heard Gaga's “Just Dance” on the radio in 2008 and knew she was magic and something special. I was already suspicious she was the icon I had been expecting for decades by the time I heard “Poker Face” and it convinced me, but when I saw her perform for the first time, “Papparazzi” on the VMAs, I knew she was truly the real Savior Goddess I always hoped for, transforming the world into the paradise it is to become. And I just knew these things, intuitively, from my earliest experiences with her and she continually fulfills my dreams and exceeds my hopes.
I had a similar experience when I first saw Nicki Minaj, when she was performing with another rapper on Dave Letterman's show. It seems like it was just a few months or a year or so before her own career took off. I saw her talent and beauty and was certainly impressed but it was something about her look, her expressions, that made me just know and say immediately “she's gonna be really big, like the biggest star in rap and pop music.” I feel like that feeling has been proven true by her career. She's really fantastically beautiful to me, like a Goddess, too. Her face is perfectly beautiful but the impact of her expressions shows fierce and passionate and loving spirit. She's a great artist musically and also makes the most of her incredibly sexy body and image to make powerful art. There is real magic to this art, music, and sexiness all in one amazing form and she exudes it. If I feel this strongly about Nicki why haven't I been saying she's The Goddess instead of Gaga? Well, it's not an “instead of” kind of thing, because she is the Goddess like everyone is, but is also “more” the Goddess, like Gaga is, because of what she represents. The way I understand things, Gaga is “the most” - to me – but I everyone is different. My point is to encourage people to expect more out of their idols and consequently themselves.
Artists who are so empowering to people really are manifesting divinity. Gaga always fit perfectly my own personal prophecy about the emergence of the Goddess but she will be revealed in many ways, through all of us. I could never get over an extremely strong attraction to Katy Perry, for example. Even when she dissed Gaga for “blasphemy” (which I deeply understood as Katy's own suffering and struggling with her asshole preacher parents but I still got mad about it) I could not stop wanting her, even when I tried. But Katy has become really cool in recent years. She seems to have moved past feeling judged by her parents, accepted being a witch and really had some awesome moments since then and powerful influence on people. Taylor Swift has been really cool lately by using her power to help indie artists get paid by Apple, which makes her cool to me even if I never appreciated her music. Miley Cyrus has had some major impact and better songs than ever, I suspect, lately. I mention all of these artists because they have all had rivalries with Gaga – rather, there has been conflict between the families/fanbases of these stars. And there is no reason for that. I personally think it is resolved just by letting Gaga be “at the top” and pioneering the direction for everyone else, so that everyone gets better together. That's just the way I see it, and would encourage other monsters to be happy about the success of all other artists and see all of it as a tribute to Gaga. And I'm not saying anyone is lesser, all have talent and are doing good, it's just the way I see it Gaga is the one on the forefront of the magical / artistic / spiritual dimension of it. They used to say Nicki was like a “black Gaga” because her wild outfits seemed Gaga-inspired, and I do think we have to all give Gaga credit for breaking the entire world into a more artistic and fashion-magic state, as well as for inspiring specific individuals. They say Miley was transformed by meeting Gaga – maybe it's just a meme and I don't know what that is based upon but it fits the way I see this all working. And Katy went through that transformation that made her much better an more magical, and it seems like the difference was going from being at “odds” with Gaga before, and holding her own self back by retaining her parents' cruel judgment of her, and getting over that and becoming more her true self, in Gaga fashion. Even Madonna, though she might not want to admit being inspired by Gaga, has certainly benefited from the exposure and media attention to comparisons between them. I'm just saying there should be no quarrels between us, and no matter who you think is “best” we can all be happy about any success that promotes people's understanding and love for The Goddess. And all of these fabulous artists do so in their own ways. And others, do, too – we all do – I just wanted to mention these because I think fans should be happier about all successes and never waste time fighting.
But I mention Nicki Minaj because I had a dream about her the other night. I've been waiting to have some kind of sex dreams ever since I've been preparing to write about that song, for months now. But I never did. I do think that is one reason I had the dream I did about Nicki. We didn't have sex in it, but hung out and flirted and made out on occasion. It was really nice. She was really nice. As I recall when I first saw her it was on a sidewalk, I was, and she was getting off a bus. It was probably a tour bus - I had seen a band unloading equipment at a venue, standing by a tour bus, waiting for pizza, a day or two before I had this dream – but it could have been a city bus. I want to say it wasn't because it was Nicki Minaj and I was aware in the dream that she was “who she is”, a big star, it wasn't like before she got famous. But I knew this because the dream seemed real and true, so I knew it was Nicki Minaj. And by her clothes, because she was always wearing something awesome, I think, and had on multiple different outfits in different parts of the dream. But she was not acting superior or like a diva, to me, just really sweet and friendly. We had a good time, like little dates around the city. Maybe it was also influenced., by watching “The Bachelorette” some. The last scene I remember was of kissing her as she lay back in large cushions. I was going to try to write a shorter version here, but might as well copy what I wrote down the next day or so – these gagablogs are always superlong, anyway. But I guess I will do that at the end and get to the point.
It was great making out with Nicki in my dream. She was really sweet and it was a dream come true just to dream about it, she's so beautiful and sexy. I've had at least two dreams about meeting Gaga, that I remember now. One was waiting, in a tree at times, outside of some townhouse/shop rows in Atlanta with a line of monsters lining up outside. I think I saw her coming down the alley, meeting cheering fans, then some monsters were gonna sneak me in a basement entrance to meet her “backstage” and the dream ended. That was years ago. I dreamed about a month ago that I met, “in person”, 6 or 8 Gagas who all surrounded me. They were all that neon-dreadlock style, like 6 copies around me at the points of a hexagram, like I was at the axis of a 3-way mirror she was looking into. I guess I'm trying to say it wasn't sexual or intimate in the same way as the Nicki dream. I feel lust for both of them, sure, and would wish to have those kinds of dreams with Gaga. But I like any good dreams, and especially cherish all of these. In my waking mind I can imagine having the same casual, fun, flirty time with Gaga in a dream, and maybe that will happen someday or somenight in real life. Maybe I would have more mystical-magical dreams about Nicki and think of her more that way if I was into more of her music and more aware of her like that. But it's not about comparisons and I'm bringing this all up to make a point about that. It's about getting along and loving each other and treating each other the best we can without letting comparisons and other separating ideas get in the way. If we want to embrace more and more, growing into more complex people, we will save the world with glorious examples that everyone will want to emulate and will together forge a new super-humanity. I'm kind of high so I say it like that but it's just true.
HERE IS THE MEDIA MAGIC PART FOR ANYONE WHO JUST SKIMS THIS STUFF SINCE IT IS TOO LONG: The next day after I had this dream I drove in the car and heard her song “The Night is Still Young” a few times on the radio, when I first got in and returning, too. That's really no surprise considering Denver radio, it will probably happen (and happened) any drive I take these days using those two stations presets, for at least the whole summer. And I think I heard some other songs with verses by her, too. But the next day, or later that day, I was at Target and someone had left a Cosmopolitan magazine in the $1-3 bins and it had Nicki on the cover – maybe last month's issue? Anyway, I glanced through the pictures and she looked great, wanted to buy it and remembered the internet had plenty of pictures, made “magical” justifications in my head but was broke and felt like $4 seemed like a lot, then. Now I wish I had got it, I am not quite as broke. I read a little of the interview and she said she was guarded with her heart and it reminded me of the sweet girl I had dreamed about. But of course by this time, as soon as I had woken up from the dream, I was planning to write an edition of my gagablog about it since it was like a lucid highlight to break the tedium of my Sexxx Dreams snore-stravaganza these recent months. And I was so happy to finally have a sexy dream! But I could not get away from an awareness of “rivalries” between fans of artists, and artists themselves at times, and how that fit in with some aspects of Sexxx Dreams.
I am still “building up” to an edition all about the lyrics of Sexxx Dreams but one aspect of the song I want to address here is whatever it is that seems “taboo.” There's this tension in Sexxx Dreams, like a reason why she is not supposed to have dreams about this person or want to carry them out. I don't know why that is, in the song, and might not discover it myself just by listening and writing about it for this “Getting it Wrong” series. It might become clear, or take research, or be a mystery. But I will just assume there is tension, she is not “supposed” to want this person or proposition, maybe because of someone's boyfriend. I don't know, I don't really understand monogamy. But I felt like I could relate to this after I had this dream with Nicki.
I'm not saying I felt bad at all about dreaming about meeting and making out with Nicki Minaj. I LOVED it, it was awesome, all I wanted was more of it, to go back to sleep and spend more time with her. I hoped, if I slept in the same place the next night, that I might dream of her some more. But as soon as I started thinking about writing about it in my gagablog relating to Sexxx Dreams I had an awareness of monsters possibly reading this (I don't know if anyone even has!) and saying “Not Nicki!” because of an idea of her being “rivals” with Gaga. I know that idea is in my head, it is my own imagination that this would happen. It is based on some things I see people say on facebook, even though Gaga herself discourages people talking ill of other artists, but I know the actual idea of “rivalry”, in this context, is really just in my own head. I'm the one bringing it up. And I can't blame the fact that other people actively perpetuate these divisions, however unconsciously or intentionally, and that it is much bigger than “me”, but I bring it up in this context, through my own mind. There is no rivalry between Gaga and Nicki - “that I know of” - and maybe there never was. But there used to seem to be more rivalry between them, meaning if it was just something fans or others were doing and nothing actually between the two people, there was more of it in the past and nothing to speak of, now.
ANYWAY THE MEDIA MAGIC PART is that the next day, or next – just a few days ago, now, and I know I should just write more of these, shorter – the big headline in entertainment news was a twitter battle between Nicki and Taylor Swift over award recognitions and various related issues including race and body image, I believe. I'm not saying I predicted or manifested this event by dreaming about Nicki and thinking if it would be seen as “betrayal” in the monster community – as much as I don't give a fuck if it would the very idea is what I am trying to tease out of all of this. I'm not trying to trivialize their dispute or the issues raised, either, if I say it's no “prediction” to anticipate quarrels between stars, especially music stars for some reason, because it happens all the time. I'm trying to say why do we do this, what is it that makes us want to pull away from each other when we have the chance to get closer, and is it the same things in all of these circumstances, and arises from the mind? Is there something about the taboo or barrier in Sexxx Dreams which is also the foundation of rivalries between “fanbases”/religions, the same thing as the various insider/outsider -isms Nicki was complaining about, rightfully, which are the same issues at the foundation of all the conflicts in our society? And can we look at all of these, together, and see where it all happens in the mind, and change it?
Furthermore, is it the same thing in international diplomacy, which can ultimately determine whether we have nuclear war or not, whether we all live or die? Is it the same thing, just some mistake that arises in the mind? If so, shouldn't we look at any way to diffuse conflict, even if it comes from the examples of pop stars? Ultimately it comes down to whether we see people as different, or an outsider. In the most intimate circles, amongst friends, you have your lovers and your friends and your lover's friends and friend's lovers and often these are distinct categories. But they don't have to be and it seems like increasingly the culture is embracing more cross-over of these. That seems to be the basic principle or tension in Sexxx Dreams. But on a “larger”, social media level, with perceptions of celebrities and family/fanbase social dynamics there is this same idea, seeing someone as an “other” and certain distinct boundaries between you. So some monsters don't want to accept Barbz, some Barbz don't want to accept Swifties, some Swifties don't want to accept Katy Kats and some of them don't want to accept monsters,. And vice versa and every combination and every one else and every genre of music, too. And of course this is contrary to what Gaga actively tells us, to spread kindness and support artists of all kinds.
The one reason I am glad it took me too long to finally write this edition is some more media magic that I can include. One aspect was from facbook: the other day my wall contained a number of pictures through the years of Gaga and various other stars. One was with Kim Kardashian and I even saw mean comments about her from “monsters”, I guess, on Gaga's page, such is the mass hysterical hatred for Kim. I have never understood it other than as jealousy. Anyway, there was one of Gaga with Justin Beiber and her advice to him on it about him being the boss and life having boh roses and thorns. I can't help think of the new Selena Gomez song on the radio these days which is super sexy to me, “Good for You.” I wanted to object to it as sexist or something, but I can't, it turns me on so much I just want to make excuses for how hot it is. This is one example of getting over boundaries to make a connection. I still think it can be a bad message to girls to suggest that they “just” want to look good for a boy, but the fact that I try to find ways to say it is okay ends up transforming me, helping me see new sides of things. I'm not using this principle to say it is always a good idea to cheat on your lover, or even that it often is, to learn a lot about life. It might not be a good idea, even most of the time. But it also might be a great idea to consider or carry out, sometimes. I'm reminded of how many times, I imagine, that Cosmo or other magazines recommend an affair to spice up romance with your lover. I'm also reminded of a Rachel Haywire story excerpt I read last night about every interaction with females being charged for as sex and by law all sex was for profit. I had some issues with it but appreciated how it presumed and revealed in a way that feminine sensuality and sexuality were the ultimate powers in the world. These are forces in society, these ideas, and they go against the mainstream slut-shaming that has been in effect and dominating the culture for centuries or thousands of years.
I don't know what the taboo is in Sexxx Dreams, why she seems to want to be with someone so bad that she is dreaming about it but not able to act on it. I don't know whether Selena Gomez and Justin Beiber are back together or not, or whether they are really “good for” each other. But it seems like the break-up, or some break-up, was the inspiration for her last song and maybe this is a song about being back with him. Or maybe it is about being with someone new. If it is just for him and they are back together, or for some new guy, then there is no real “taboo” being crossed in the song: it's just me wishing someone would sing that to me with a voice like that. If, however, it's a song about some new guy, in order to make Beiber jealous, then it is also crossing this social “boundary” between someone you are with and an “other” person. I just saw a commercial for “Scream Queens” and my lover asked me “do you want to watch that?” and I said “it looks like it has Arianna Grande in it, so yes, she's hot.” Even though I don't usually like that kind of thing at all, I can get over any difference in taste to get to see her acting. This whole “getting over boundaries” for attraction, or even the attractions crossing boundaries even if we don't except in dreams, is the basis for growth, for becoming better people. All of these pictures of Gaga with other artists shows there is no rivalry between them, but the fact that people create rivalries between them shows that people don't think they are getting enough credit. This is the same for all of us, though. We act like only some people are deserving of “special treatment”, or that if anyone treats us specially then it can only be because they are our one true love and get upset if we lose them, like no one else could possibly feel as good or better about us. The reason we feel this way is due to a deficiency of love in the world – not that there is not enough love, but we are trained and socialized to think there is not enough. It is the same dynamic with money and all other resources: scarcity is a myth and if we just share and act responsibly we will all overcome the poisonous effects it has had on society.
I don't try to connect these ideas with world events to make them seem more important: to someone in a relationship or gripped by passion that may be all they care about. But I have this magical notion that just getting the idea “out there”, even if no one reads it, makes magical changes in the world. Iran and America and the rest of the world are negtiating a treaty to end or slow Iran's nuclear weapons program. Without knowing any details, just seeing the republican opposition is all I need to conclude it is the best deal ever. Actually, I personally would always want to take it further, where peace is concerned. I think I said, here, years ago, that there is no convincing tone or phrasing to tell someone “you don't need a gun” if you are pointing a gun at them. But it is more possible to convince someone that they don't need a gun if you lower yours or don't have one. Like The 4th Doctor said, he never takes any weapons because that would suggest that he has an intention to use them. So my solution for America to get othe countries to disarm is to disarm ourselves. I heard Russia is planning to make more nuclear bombs. By one mentality, an old one that was outdated and evil even back then, the response we should have is to make more nukes ourselves. But here is an idea: what if, at the same time Russia was making more weapons, we started dismantling our military, or converting it to dedicate it to humanitarian purposes. They would just seem so uncool, in the eyes of the world, if we just move on to bigger and better things. It's all a waste, so is anything whose purpose is to destroy, except of course wrecking balls and antivirals and the like.
Currently there are all sorts of wild alliances in the battles in the middle east. As I understand it, the US supported Iraq in a war against Iran in the 1980s and gave Saddam Hussien chemical weapons that he used on the Kurdish people It was actually Donald Rumsfeld, in the 80's, who gave them the weapons, I think. Of course it was the USA under Bush who invaded Iraq under false pretenses and destabilized the country. Meanwhile the USA has always been giving weapons including nuclear warheads to Isreal and have always kept that tension alive with the disproportionate force it creates. I won't get into all the different aspects, even the ones I know anything about, but my point is to say that different alliances have been forming, and conflicts between countries developing, for decades. But at this point it is all really more interwoven and ridiculous than ever before. Just look at Turkey, which has been at war with the Kurds and are now partnering more with the US against ISIS. But the Kurds were the ones who seemed to be doing most of the fighting against ISIS and have seemed to be who the US most supports. These allies have a common enemy, but as long as the US was arming the Kurds they were helping Turkey's “enemy.” On the other hand, the source of ISIS is largely Assad and the instability of civil war in Syria. Remember when I said, more than two years ago here, that the war in Syria would be the last war, ever? This is how it will work out- we have to conclude how ridiculous it is and end it. “This”, Gagamagic, is intended to be a magic spell to end it, or a prophecy of how it will end, because it just has to end. And this is definitely a complex and big enough war to be the last one, without getting much bigger. The secret is that it is so complex and interwoven that it all comes apart if we just cut the right threads. Because all of them are based on the tension of war, but it does not have to continue. I know people might not understand how I want to do this, magically, but let me try to explain the change of mind and change of heart I am envisioning. Of all of these interconnecting alliances and rivalries, some forces must prevail over others. Of course there is a very real possibility of just entering an escalating war that ends up killing all of humanity- we can't forget that and can't allow a republican president who would probably make it happen. But if we don't completely kill ourselves, the actual most likely outcome is that alliances will grow stronger and end up providing pathways for lesser conficts between countries and people to be resolved. Conspiracists might speculate that ISIS is a creation of the American military, like a CIA black ops op. Even if this turned out to be true, what would happen? Everyone else declares war on the US for being jerks and either invades us or probably the world goes down in flames? Those don't seem too likely. As awful as the situation is, it is almost like the USA would just say “okay, our bad, you caught us, can we move on?” I don't mean to be making a joke out of all the awful death and suffering, I'm just saying it has to do with the way humanity and the mind work. We can't just destroy ourselves over anything, really, no matter how big or awful, or how small and trivial. But we make it possible to destroy each other, and even all of us, by this same ability of the mind to say someone is an “other.” Probably many murders are what they called “crimes of passion” when someone suppsedly loves someone and then finds out they are with an “other” person, or are an “other” person than they thought they were, and somehow this makes them feel like killing them. We get the same way, in wars, saying someone deserves death for being an “other.” And I guess people can get so off-track from humanity by bad leadership that they end up representing an “other”, but this can change depending on which side you are on.
It's safer to stay true to our lovers and our countries, I guess. Countries and people both change, and aren't ever completely what we think they are. People can say that the US and Iran can never be friends, for instance, but this is silly. I feel like I have some magical “proof” to conclude this, just when I was getting ready to say I just wanted to end it because it seems to be the longest and least efficient, most pointless gagablog ever – but I don't really think it is. Like all of them, like Gaga herself, I think it all magically helps to save the world. Magic is making things happen, or predicting the future in ways that help people realize it, including through art and music and writing. We have to step back and look at relationships and decide we will never kill each other. We need to step back and look at war and end it, just see how silly it is to have so many criss-crossing alliances and rivals and call the whole thing off. Might as well call off the rivalry between people who love different celebrities, or whatever, however trivial or important we think it is. We all need to come together to save ourselves from ourselves, from war and global warming. No conflicts of ideas or lesser issues can be more important than these that effect our total survival. I've felt disgust and fear living in the country that seems to be most responsible for keeping the planet-destroying and people-killing system in place, but as I see how all this works more I am glad to be closer to the problem because I know we must solve it and I can do more to help the more aware I become and the more faith I act with in making the needed changes come true.
I have one concluding example of how this magic of liberty works, how we get over barriers with this magical attraction, even if only in sex dreams, or getting over the most drastic differences and estrangement, even between countries. The US and Cuba have restored a relationship after like 60 years. Thanks, Obama! I heard on NPR that there is a story and they can't prove if it is true, that in the 1970's Fidel Castro was asked if Cuba and America would ever restore a relationship. He supposedly said yes, when America has a black president and the world has a Latin American pope. This kind of predicting the future is just knowing something have to be, being visionary. We can all do this and get better at it the more visionary people and ideas we come in contact with. But it's all about overcoming thise boundaries between us and seeing past seeing anyone as an “other.” Peace and Gaga love for all!
Here is the original recording of the dream:
I had a dream last night in which I hung out with Niki Minaj and made out with her some. It was awesome. I don't remember much of it now due to some poor decisions this morning including not writing it down earlier, but now that I am feeling mostly better I hoped that if I started writing some of it I would remember more and more as I went.
The part I remember most vividly was towards the end. We kissed and it felt so real. The whole dream was very real and vivid, the parts with Niki that I remembered when I first woke up especially. At this point we had just kissed and she was leaning back or laying in some cushions, smiling at me. I said something like “I love you, babygirl” or “you're beautiful, babygirl” and I've never used that word in my life in any context and immediately felt self-conscious, though she didn't seem to mind. I was shy and felt silly about it and said something like “I wish I could call you 'babygirl'” by which I meant I wished she was my girlfriend. I was hoping she would tell me I could be her boyfriend, but also that just because we had been hanging out and kissed a few times I wasn't making any assumptions. I don't know what her response was, or if she had any. I kind of think the dream ended there or changed to something else, it was near when I woke up, it seems.
Now that I think about it I do have some vague impressions of the other moments we had together. It seemed like I was greeting her as she came out of a door onto the street, and we walked down the sidewalk. I can't remember our first kiss, but I think we kissed a few more times in the dream before that last time, because it didn't seem like I had any question that she wanted to kiss me, but maybe it was just how she was looking at me. I still can't remember more than those vague impressions, as I write this, but right when I woke up it seemed like I remembered a few different scenes with her in the dream, and it seems like a good portion of my dreams were about hanging out with her. I was hoping to remember more as I wrote this, but I still only have impressions. One is that it was always comfortable and fun, maybe I was nervous the first time I met her. I'm trying to make the most of not being able to remember it, now, and have a couple of ideas. One is that I will go back to sleep and have more dreams – I could certainly use a nap. My sleep was restless last night, on a couple of chair cushions on the floor. So I hope I dream of her again. But that is like the consolation prize. I guess I should be embarrassed to say this but I'm really not at all. I was hoping, first, that she would have had the same dream, that I could describe it in my gagablog, it would magically find it's way to her and she would say “I had the same dream!” and want to meet me and make it come true. Then I had the idea that I would not remember it any more at all, but that at one point I would meet her and it would all start coming true and then I would remember it.
I think of those possibilities as likely. Good possibilities. Not “probable”in a statistical sense (Jack Tripper said as I typed that “All those women passing over me I don't know if I could handle that kind of rejection” - maybe a joke about working under a bridge, I wasn't paying attention, but it made me think of the ridiculousness of thinking of relationships based upon “odds”) What if it would be a one-in-a-million chance that we would meet and fall in love? The greater the odds against it, the surer we will be that it is love when it happens. Yes I just changed “would” to “will” after I decided to write “when” - the perogative of a writer (as Mrs Roper says “The story of my life”). This dream was surely partly inspired by watching half of “Finding Neverland” before going to sleep, bringing out the artist/writer temperament in me. And I feel like it was also inspired by great sex early in the day (“...called 'Bedroom playground' – and a centerfold ” the photographer for “Living Love” magazine says. “Did you come here to debate or make ten bucks an hour?” “Jack: “Where do I get undressed?”) It was a wonderful dream that certainly made it worth the uncomfortable bed if that had anything to do with it. When I think about how it compared to a lucid dream I don't feel like I had any “control” over the dream more than control over myself within it, and that due to feeling like it was really real, like it was really happening. I probably would NOT have that much control and would stutter if I met her in real life, so maybe I was the most fantastic, unbelievable part of it. People do meet each other and hit it off, even randomly, and that is possible that I could meet her. It seems unlikely that she would be getting off a bus - maybe a tour bus? - and walk down the street with me, but possible. I think that could have been it, that she got off a bus, we started talking and got along. Maybe it was inspired some by the Bachelor TV show, just “perfect” dates lined up for us, but it seems like there were some scenes like that – randomly on the streetcorner and maybe a diner we found? Then some other places, maybe a garden, maybe a hot air balloon? I read a quote recently an author said that if a scene can take place in a hot air balloon then it should. I just can't remember, I can see her face smiling at me, her hair tossing, but can't place the background, though it does all seem so close to recall, now, like just on the other side of a wall or aisle or hedemaze row. But I almost want the excuse of not remembering to not jinx it happening in real life, though I do want to recall it, she was so beautiful. But maybe I will dream some more of her when I take a nap and be able to record that, here.
Altogether it makes me think of Sexxx Dreams, the Gaga song I've been waiting months to write about. I keep expecting that my beliefs would come together serendipidously as I wrote this edition. It was ….
and that is as far as I got. Proofreading it just now I was struck by how “babygirl” is something Beiber says. Have fun, everyone, and sweet, sexy dreams! You never know what kind of “other” might become your next lover!
I had a similar experience when I first saw Nicki Minaj, when she was performing with another rapper on Dave Letterman's show. It seems like it was just a few months or a year or so before her own career took off. I saw her talent and beauty and was certainly impressed but it was something about her look, her expressions, that made me just know and say immediately “she's gonna be really big, like the biggest star in rap and pop music.” I feel like that feeling has been proven true by her career. She's really fantastically beautiful to me, like a Goddess, too. Her face is perfectly beautiful but the impact of her expressions shows fierce and passionate and loving spirit. She's a great artist musically and also makes the most of her incredibly sexy body and image to make powerful art. There is real magic to this art, music, and sexiness all in one amazing form and she exudes it. If I feel this strongly about Nicki why haven't I been saying she's The Goddess instead of Gaga? Well, it's not an “instead of” kind of thing, because she is the Goddess like everyone is, but is also “more” the Goddess, like Gaga is, because of what she represents. The way I understand things, Gaga is “the most” - to me – but I everyone is different. My point is to encourage people to expect more out of their idols and consequently themselves.
Artists who are so empowering to people really are manifesting divinity. Gaga always fit perfectly my own personal prophecy about the emergence of the Goddess but she will be revealed in many ways, through all of us. I could never get over an extremely strong attraction to Katy Perry, for example. Even when she dissed Gaga for “blasphemy” (which I deeply understood as Katy's own suffering and struggling with her asshole preacher parents but I still got mad about it) I could not stop wanting her, even when I tried. But Katy has become really cool in recent years. She seems to have moved past feeling judged by her parents, accepted being a witch and really had some awesome moments since then and powerful influence on people. Taylor Swift has been really cool lately by using her power to help indie artists get paid by Apple, which makes her cool to me even if I never appreciated her music. Miley Cyrus has had some major impact and better songs than ever, I suspect, lately. I mention all of these artists because they have all had rivalries with Gaga – rather, there has been conflict between the families/fanbases of these stars. And there is no reason for that. I personally think it is resolved just by letting Gaga be “at the top” and pioneering the direction for everyone else, so that everyone gets better together. That's just the way I see it, and would encourage other monsters to be happy about the success of all other artists and see all of it as a tribute to Gaga. And I'm not saying anyone is lesser, all have talent and are doing good, it's just the way I see it Gaga is the one on the forefront of the magical / artistic / spiritual dimension of it. They used to say Nicki was like a “black Gaga” because her wild outfits seemed Gaga-inspired, and I do think we have to all give Gaga credit for breaking the entire world into a more artistic and fashion-magic state, as well as for inspiring specific individuals. They say Miley was transformed by meeting Gaga – maybe it's just a meme and I don't know what that is based upon but it fits the way I see this all working. And Katy went through that transformation that made her much better an more magical, and it seems like the difference was going from being at “odds” with Gaga before, and holding her own self back by retaining her parents' cruel judgment of her, and getting over that and becoming more her true self, in Gaga fashion. Even Madonna, though she might not want to admit being inspired by Gaga, has certainly benefited from the exposure and media attention to comparisons between them. I'm just saying there should be no quarrels between us, and no matter who you think is “best” we can all be happy about any success that promotes people's understanding and love for The Goddess. And all of these fabulous artists do so in their own ways. And others, do, too – we all do – I just wanted to mention these because I think fans should be happier about all successes and never waste time fighting.
But I mention Nicki Minaj because I had a dream about her the other night. I've been waiting to have some kind of sex dreams ever since I've been preparing to write about that song, for months now. But I never did. I do think that is one reason I had the dream I did about Nicki. We didn't have sex in it, but hung out and flirted and made out on occasion. It was really nice. She was really nice. As I recall when I first saw her it was on a sidewalk, I was, and she was getting off a bus. It was probably a tour bus - I had seen a band unloading equipment at a venue, standing by a tour bus, waiting for pizza, a day or two before I had this dream – but it could have been a city bus. I want to say it wasn't because it was Nicki Minaj and I was aware in the dream that she was “who she is”, a big star, it wasn't like before she got famous. But I knew this because the dream seemed real and true, so I knew it was Nicki Minaj. And by her clothes, because she was always wearing something awesome, I think, and had on multiple different outfits in different parts of the dream. But she was not acting superior or like a diva, to me, just really sweet and friendly. We had a good time, like little dates around the city. Maybe it was also influenced., by watching “The Bachelorette” some. The last scene I remember was of kissing her as she lay back in large cushions. I was going to try to write a shorter version here, but might as well copy what I wrote down the next day or so – these gagablogs are always superlong, anyway. But I guess I will do that at the end and get to the point.
It was great making out with Nicki in my dream. She was really sweet and it was a dream come true just to dream about it, she's so beautiful and sexy. I've had at least two dreams about meeting Gaga, that I remember now. One was waiting, in a tree at times, outside of some townhouse/shop rows in Atlanta with a line of monsters lining up outside. I think I saw her coming down the alley, meeting cheering fans, then some monsters were gonna sneak me in a basement entrance to meet her “backstage” and the dream ended. That was years ago. I dreamed about a month ago that I met, “in person”, 6 or 8 Gagas who all surrounded me. They were all that neon-dreadlock style, like 6 copies around me at the points of a hexagram, like I was at the axis of a 3-way mirror she was looking into. I guess I'm trying to say it wasn't sexual or intimate in the same way as the Nicki dream. I feel lust for both of them, sure, and would wish to have those kinds of dreams with Gaga. But I like any good dreams, and especially cherish all of these. In my waking mind I can imagine having the same casual, fun, flirty time with Gaga in a dream, and maybe that will happen someday or somenight in real life. Maybe I would have more mystical-magical dreams about Nicki and think of her more that way if I was into more of her music and more aware of her like that. But it's not about comparisons and I'm bringing this all up to make a point about that. It's about getting along and loving each other and treating each other the best we can without letting comparisons and other separating ideas get in the way. If we want to embrace more and more, growing into more complex people, we will save the world with glorious examples that everyone will want to emulate and will together forge a new super-humanity. I'm kind of high so I say it like that but it's just true.
HERE IS THE MEDIA MAGIC PART FOR ANYONE WHO JUST SKIMS THIS STUFF SINCE IT IS TOO LONG: The next day after I had this dream I drove in the car and heard her song “The Night is Still Young” a few times on the radio, when I first got in and returning, too. That's really no surprise considering Denver radio, it will probably happen (and happened) any drive I take these days using those two stations presets, for at least the whole summer. And I think I heard some other songs with verses by her, too. But the next day, or later that day, I was at Target and someone had left a Cosmopolitan magazine in the $1-3 bins and it had Nicki on the cover – maybe last month's issue? Anyway, I glanced through the pictures and she looked great, wanted to buy it and remembered the internet had plenty of pictures, made “magical” justifications in my head but was broke and felt like $4 seemed like a lot, then. Now I wish I had got it, I am not quite as broke. I read a little of the interview and she said she was guarded with her heart and it reminded me of the sweet girl I had dreamed about. But of course by this time, as soon as I had woken up from the dream, I was planning to write an edition of my gagablog about it since it was like a lucid highlight to break the tedium of my Sexxx Dreams snore-stravaganza these recent months. And I was so happy to finally have a sexy dream! But I could not get away from an awareness of “rivalries” between fans of artists, and artists themselves at times, and how that fit in with some aspects of Sexxx Dreams.
I am still “building up” to an edition all about the lyrics of Sexxx Dreams but one aspect of the song I want to address here is whatever it is that seems “taboo.” There's this tension in Sexxx Dreams, like a reason why she is not supposed to have dreams about this person or want to carry them out. I don't know why that is, in the song, and might not discover it myself just by listening and writing about it for this “Getting it Wrong” series. It might become clear, or take research, or be a mystery. But I will just assume there is tension, she is not “supposed” to want this person or proposition, maybe because of someone's boyfriend. I don't know, I don't really understand monogamy. But I felt like I could relate to this after I had this dream with Nicki.
I'm not saying I felt bad at all about dreaming about meeting and making out with Nicki Minaj. I LOVED it, it was awesome, all I wanted was more of it, to go back to sleep and spend more time with her. I hoped, if I slept in the same place the next night, that I might dream of her some more. But as soon as I started thinking about writing about it in my gagablog relating to Sexxx Dreams I had an awareness of monsters possibly reading this (I don't know if anyone even has!) and saying “Not Nicki!” because of an idea of her being “rivals” with Gaga. I know that idea is in my head, it is my own imagination that this would happen. It is based on some things I see people say on facebook, even though Gaga herself discourages people talking ill of other artists, but I know the actual idea of “rivalry”, in this context, is really just in my own head. I'm the one bringing it up. And I can't blame the fact that other people actively perpetuate these divisions, however unconsciously or intentionally, and that it is much bigger than “me”, but I bring it up in this context, through my own mind. There is no rivalry between Gaga and Nicki - “that I know of” - and maybe there never was. But there used to seem to be more rivalry between them, meaning if it was just something fans or others were doing and nothing actually between the two people, there was more of it in the past and nothing to speak of, now.
ANYWAY THE MEDIA MAGIC PART is that the next day, or next – just a few days ago, now, and I know I should just write more of these, shorter – the big headline in entertainment news was a twitter battle between Nicki and Taylor Swift over award recognitions and various related issues including race and body image, I believe. I'm not saying I predicted or manifested this event by dreaming about Nicki and thinking if it would be seen as “betrayal” in the monster community – as much as I don't give a fuck if it would the very idea is what I am trying to tease out of all of this. I'm not trying to trivialize their dispute or the issues raised, either, if I say it's no “prediction” to anticipate quarrels between stars, especially music stars for some reason, because it happens all the time. I'm trying to say why do we do this, what is it that makes us want to pull away from each other when we have the chance to get closer, and is it the same things in all of these circumstances, and arises from the mind? Is there something about the taboo or barrier in Sexxx Dreams which is also the foundation of rivalries between “fanbases”/religions, the same thing as the various insider/outsider -isms Nicki was complaining about, rightfully, which are the same issues at the foundation of all the conflicts in our society? And can we look at all of these, together, and see where it all happens in the mind, and change it?
Furthermore, is it the same thing in international diplomacy, which can ultimately determine whether we have nuclear war or not, whether we all live or die? Is it the same thing, just some mistake that arises in the mind? If so, shouldn't we look at any way to diffuse conflict, even if it comes from the examples of pop stars? Ultimately it comes down to whether we see people as different, or an outsider. In the most intimate circles, amongst friends, you have your lovers and your friends and your lover's friends and friend's lovers and often these are distinct categories. But they don't have to be and it seems like increasingly the culture is embracing more cross-over of these. That seems to be the basic principle or tension in Sexxx Dreams. But on a “larger”, social media level, with perceptions of celebrities and family/fanbase social dynamics there is this same idea, seeing someone as an “other” and certain distinct boundaries between you. So some monsters don't want to accept Barbz, some Barbz don't want to accept Swifties, some Swifties don't want to accept Katy Kats and some of them don't want to accept monsters,. And vice versa and every combination and every one else and every genre of music, too. And of course this is contrary to what Gaga actively tells us, to spread kindness and support artists of all kinds.
The one reason I am glad it took me too long to finally write this edition is some more media magic that I can include. One aspect was from facbook: the other day my wall contained a number of pictures through the years of Gaga and various other stars. One was with Kim Kardashian and I even saw mean comments about her from “monsters”, I guess, on Gaga's page, such is the mass hysterical hatred for Kim. I have never understood it other than as jealousy. Anyway, there was one of Gaga with Justin Beiber and her advice to him on it about him being the boss and life having boh roses and thorns. I can't help think of the new Selena Gomez song on the radio these days which is super sexy to me, “Good for You.” I wanted to object to it as sexist or something, but I can't, it turns me on so much I just want to make excuses for how hot it is. This is one example of getting over boundaries to make a connection. I still think it can be a bad message to girls to suggest that they “just” want to look good for a boy, but the fact that I try to find ways to say it is okay ends up transforming me, helping me see new sides of things. I'm not using this principle to say it is always a good idea to cheat on your lover, or even that it often is, to learn a lot about life. It might not be a good idea, even most of the time. But it also might be a great idea to consider or carry out, sometimes. I'm reminded of how many times, I imagine, that Cosmo or other magazines recommend an affair to spice up romance with your lover. I'm also reminded of a Rachel Haywire story excerpt I read last night about every interaction with females being charged for as sex and by law all sex was for profit. I had some issues with it but appreciated how it presumed and revealed in a way that feminine sensuality and sexuality were the ultimate powers in the world. These are forces in society, these ideas, and they go against the mainstream slut-shaming that has been in effect and dominating the culture for centuries or thousands of years.
I don't know what the taboo is in Sexxx Dreams, why she seems to want to be with someone so bad that she is dreaming about it but not able to act on it. I don't know whether Selena Gomez and Justin Beiber are back together or not, or whether they are really “good for” each other. But it seems like the break-up, or some break-up, was the inspiration for her last song and maybe this is a song about being back with him. Or maybe it is about being with someone new. If it is just for him and they are back together, or for some new guy, then there is no real “taboo” being crossed in the song: it's just me wishing someone would sing that to me with a voice like that. If, however, it's a song about some new guy, in order to make Beiber jealous, then it is also crossing this social “boundary” between someone you are with and an “other” person. I just saw a commercial for “Scream Queens” and my lover asked me “do you want to watch that?” and I said “it looks like it has Arianna Grande in it, so yes, she's hot.” Even though I don't usually like that kind of thing at all, I can get over any difference in taste to get to see her acting. This whole “getting over boundaries” for attraction, or even the attractions crossing boundaries even if we don't except in dreams, is the basis for growth, for becoming better people. All of these pictures of Gaga with other artists shows there is no rivalry between them, but the fact that people create rivalries between them shows that people don't think they are getting enough credit. This is the same for all of us, though. We act like only some people are deserving of “special treatment”, or that if anyone treats us specially then it can only be because they are our one true love and get upset if we lose them, like no one else could possibly feel as good or better about us. The reason we feel this way is due to a deficiency of love in the world – not that there is not enough love, but we are trained and socialized to think there is not enough. It is the same dynamic with money and all other resources: scarcity is a myth and if we just share and act responsibly we will all overcome the poisonous effects it has had on society.
I don't try to connect these ideas with world events to make them seem more important: to someone in a relationship or gripped by passion that may be all they care about. But I have this magical notion that just getting the idea “out there”, even if no one reads it, makes magical changes in the world. Iran and America and the rest of the world are negtiating a treaty to end or slow Iran's nuclear weapons program. Without knowing any details, just seeing the republican opposition is all I need to conclude it is the best deal ever. Actually, I personally would always want to take it further, where peace is concerned. I think I said, here, years ago, that there is no convincing tone or phrasing to tell someone “you don't need a gun” if you are pointing a gun at them. But it is more possible to convince someone that they don't need a gun if you lower yours or don't have one. Like The 4th Doctor said, he never takes any weapons because that would suggest that he has an intention to use them. So my solution for America to get othe countries to disarm is to disarm ourselves. I heard Russia is planning to make more nuclear bombs. By one mentality, an old one that was outdated and evil even back then, the response we should have is to make more nukes ourselves. But here is an idea: what if, at the same time Russia was making more weapons, we started dismantling our military, or converting it to dedicate it to humanitarian purposes. They would just seem so uncool, in the eyes of the world, if we just move on to bigger and better things. It's all a waste, so is anything whose purpose is to destroy, except of course wrecking balls and antivirals and the like.
Currently there are all sorts of wild alliances in the battles in the middle east. As I understand it, the US supported Iraq in a war against Iran in the 1980s and gave Saddam Hussien chemical weapons that he used on the Kurdish people It was actually Donald Rumsfeld, in the 80's, who gave them the weapons, I think. Of course it was the USA under Bush who invaded Iraq under false pretenses and destabilized the country. Meanwhile the USA has always been giving weapons including nuclear warheads to Isreal and have always kept that tension alive with the disproportionate force it creates. I won't get into all the different aspects, even the ones I know anything about, but my point is to say that different alliances have been forming, and conflicts between countries developing, for decades. But at this point it is all really more interwoven and ridiculous than ever before. Just look at Turkey, which has been at war with the Kurds and are now partnering more with the US against ISIS. But the Kurds were the ones who seemed to be doing most of the fighting against ISIS and have seemed to be who the US most supports. These allies have a common enemy, but as long as the US was arming the Kurds they were helping Turkey's “enemy.” On the other hand, the source of ISIS is largely Assad and the instability of civil war in Syria. Remember when I said, more than two years ago here, that the war in Syria would be the last war, ever? This is how it will work out- we have to conclude how ridiculous it is and end it. “This”, Gagamagic, is intended to be a magic spell to end it, or a prophecy of how it will end, because it just has to end. And this is definitely a complex and big enough war to be the last one, without getting much bigger. The secret is that it is so complex and interwoven that it all comes apart if we just cut the right threads. Because all of them are based on the tension of war, but it does not have to continue. I know people might not understand how I want to do this, magically, but let me try to explain the change of mind and change of heart I am envisioning. Of all of these interconnecting alliances and rivalries, some forces must prevail over others. Of course there is a very real possibility of just entering an escalating war that ends up killing all of humanity- we can't forget that and can't allow a republican president who would probably make it happen. But if we don't completely kill ourselves, the actual most likely outcome is that alliances will grow stronger and end up providing pathways for lesser conficts between countries and people to be resolved. Conspiracists might speculate that ISIS is a creation of the American military, like a CIA black ops op. Even if this turned out to be true, what would happen? Everyone else declares war on the US for being jerks and either invades us or probably the world goes down in flames? Those don't seem too likely. As awful as the situation is, it is almost like the USA would just say “okay, our bad, you caught us, can we move on?” I don't mean to be making a joke out of all the awful death and suffering, I'm just saying it has to do with the way humanity and the mind work. We can't just destroy ourselves over anything, really, no matter how big or awful, or how small and trivial. But we make it possible to destroy each other, and even all of us, by this same ability of the mind to say someone is an “other.” Probably many murders are what they called “crimes of passion” when someone suppsedly loves someone and then finds out they are with an “other” person, or are an “other” person than they thought they were, and somehow this makes them feel like killing them. We get the same way, in wars, saying someone deserves death for being an “other.” And I guess people can get so off-track from humanity by bad leadership that they end up representing an “other”, but this can change depending on which side you are on.
It's safer to stay true to our lovers and our countries, I guess. Countries and people both change, and aren't ever completely what we think they are. People can say that the US and Iran can never be friends, for instance, but this is silly. I feel like I have some magical “proof” to conclude this, just when I was getting ready to say I just wanted to end it because it seems to be the longest and least efficient, most pointless gagablog ever – but I don't really think it is. Like all of them, like Gaga herself, I think it all magically helps to save the world. Magic is making things happen, or predicting the future in ways that help people realize it, including through art and music and writing. We have to step back and look at relationships and decide we will never kill each other. We need to step back and look at war and end it, just see how silly it is to have so many criss-crossing alliances and rivals and call the whole thing off. Might as well call off the rivalry between people who love different celebrities, or whatever, however trivial or important we think it is. We all need to come together to save ourselves from ourselves, from war and global warming. No conflicts of ideas or lesser issues can be more important than these that effect our total survival. I've felt disgust and fear living in the country that seems to be most responsible for keeping the planet-destroying and people-killing system in place, but as I see how all this works more I am glad to be closer to the problem because I know we must solve it and I can do more to help the more aware I become and the more faith I act with in making the needed changes come true.
I have one concluding example of how this magic of liberty works, how we get over barriers with this magical attraction, even if only in sex dreams, or getting over the most drastic differences and estrangement, even between countries. The US and Cuba have restored a relationship after like 60 years. Thanks, Obama! I heard on NPR that there is a story and they can't prove if it is true, that in the 1970's Fidel Castro was asked if Cuba and America would ever restore a relationship. He supposedly said yes, when America has a black president and the world has a Latin American pope. This kind of predicting the future is just knowing something have to be, being visionary. We can all do this and get better at it the more visionary people and ideas we come in contact with. But it's all about overcoming thise boundaries between us and seeing past seeing anyone as an “other.” Peace and Gaga love for all!
Here is the original recording of the dream:
I had a dream last night in which I hung out with Niki Minaj and made out with her some. It was awesome. I don't remember much of it now due to some poor decisions this morning including not writing it down earlier, but now that I am feeling mostly better I hoped that if I started writing some of it I would remember more and more as I went.
The part I remember most vividly was towards the end. We kissed and it felt so real. The whole dream was very real and vivid, the parts with Niki that I remembered when I first woke up especially. At this point we had just kissed and she was leaning back or laying in some cushions, smiling at me. I said something like “I love you, babygirl” or “you're beautiful, babygirl” and I've never used that word in my life in any context and immediately felt self-conscious, though she didn't seem to mind. I was shy and felt silly about it and said something like “I wish I could call you 'babygirl'” by which I meant I wished she was my girlfriend. I was hoping she would tell me I could be her boyfriend, but also that just because we had been hanging out and kissed a few times I wasn't making any assumptions. I don't know what her response was, or if she had any. I kind of think the dream ended there or changed to something else, it was near when I woke up, it seems.
Now that I think about it I do have some vague impressions of the other moments we had together. It seemed like I was greeting her as she came out of a door onto the street, and we walked down the sidewalk. I can't remember our first kiss, but I think we kissed a few more times in the dream before that last time, because it didn't seem like I had any question that she wanted to kiss me, but maybe it was just how she was looking at me. I still can't remember more than those vague impressions, as I write this, but right when I woke up it seemed like I remembered a few different scenes with her in the dream, and it seems like a good portion of my dreams were about hanging out with her. I was hoping to remember more as I wrote this, but I still only have impressions. One is that it was always comfortable and fun, maybe I was nervous the first time I met her. I'm trying to make the most of not being able to remember it, now, and have a couple of ideas. One is that I will go back to sleep and have more dreams – I could certainly use a nap. My sleep was restless last night, on a couple of chair cushions on the floor. So I hope I dream of her again. But that is like the consolation prize. I guess I should be embarrassed to say this but I'm really not at all. I was hoping, first, that she would have had the same dream, that I could describe it in my gagablog, it would magically find it's way to her and she would say “I had the same dream!” and want to meet me and make it come true. Then I had the idea that I would not remember it any more at all, but that at one point I would meet her and it would all start coming true and then I would remember it.
I think of those possibilities as likely. Good possibilities. Not “probable”in a statistical sense (Jack Tripper said as I typed that “All those women passing over me I don't know if I could handle that kind of rejection” - maybe a joke about working under a bridge, I wasn't paying attention, but it made me think of the ridiculousness of thinking of relationships based upon “odds”) What if it would be a one-in-a-million chance that we would meet and fall in love? The greater the odds against it, the surer we will be that it is love when it happens. Yes I just changed “would” to “will” after I decided to write “when” - the perogative of a writer (as Mrs Roper says “The story of my life”). This dream was surely partly inspired by watching half of “Finding Neverland” before going to sleep, bringing out the artist/writer temperament in me. And I feel like it was also inspired by great sex early in the day (“...called 'Bedroom playground' – and a centerfold ” the photographer for “Living Love” magazine says. “Did you come here to debate or make ten bucks an hour?” “Jack: “Where do I get undressed?”) It was a wonderful dream that certainly made it worth the uncomfortable bed if that had anything to do with it. When I think about how it compared to a lucid dream I don't feel like I had any “control” over the dream more than control over myself within it, and that due to feeling like it was really real, like it was really happening. I probably would NOT have that much control and would stutter if I met her in real life, so maybe I was the most fantastic, unbelievable part of it. People do meet each other and hit it off, even randomly, and that is possible that I could meet her. It seems unlikely that she would be getting off a bus - maybe a tour bus? - and walk down the street with me, but possible. I think that could have been it, that she got off a bus, we started talking and got along. Maybe it was inspired some by the Bachelor TV show, just “perfect” dates lined up for us, but it seems like there were some scenes like that – randomly on the streetcorner and maybe a diner we found? Then some other places, maybe a garden, maybe a hot air balloon? I read a quote recently an author said that if a scene can take place in a hot air balloon then it should. I just can't remember, I can see her face smiling at me, her hair tossing, but can't place the background, though it does all seem so close to recall, now, like just on the other side of a wall or aisle or hedemaze row. But I almost want the excuse of not remembering to not jinx it happening in real life, though I do want to recall it, she was so beautiful. But maybe I will dream some more of her when I take a nap and be able to record that, here.
Altogether it makes me think of Sexxx Dreams, the Gaga song I've been waiting months to write about. I keep expecting that my beliefs would come together serendipidously as I wrote this edition. It was ….
and that is as far as I got. Proofreading it just now I was struck by how “babygirl” is something Beiber says. Have fun, everyone, and sweet, sexy dreams! You never know what kind of “other” might become your next lover!
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Gagablog 86: Prophecy and Truth
Two months ago I wrote here in the gagablog that Gay Marriage would be legalized. I'm not gloating about it, that's not what this is. I'm going to make a point about prophecy and truth. It might feel like it, but when most people (who I know, anyway) cover their facebook profiles with rainbows to show celebration and support of this ruling, we are saying something like "we knew this had to happen someday and are glad the day is finally here." Some things just have to happen and anyone with their heart turned on can feel what these things are, more and more as we look for them. I call this the Truth, the truth of the Future. "Being on the Bright Side of History - the Future." Prophecy, really good prophecy, is only telling the truth early. While I guess there are "many possible futures" there is really only one Future Truth. I'm not saying "I know it, listen to me" I'm saying everyone knows it, listen to your heart, with or without a soundtrack.
The Future can - will - be very different. Many things we take for granted now will be seen as unfathomable relics from the past, including money and war, maybe death, too, sure, why not? The unavoidable fact that the future will be very different means that being able to think quite "differently", in certain ways, is the best way to look out for it and help us get there. This does mean that all have their unique paths, that differences and diversity are amazing and we will all go about "it" in our own ways, but what I'm saying is there is something within all of us no matter how different we are that brings us all together. It's like a different dimension or direction of our Selves that Does all point in the same direction, to the One Future Truth of peace and harmony. I know people get scared of language like this. It's actually the language of love which is why people react so strongly to it, but so many times in the past visions of a Better Future have been used to lead people to do mean things now. That's not what this is. Everyone senses and wants The Better Future - you can't help but want it, it's goodness itself. The problem is with people telling us "This is the only way." That's not possible, although all paths have goodness in them just as all people do and we do all come together so the more sharing of ways the further we go - it's just that there is no Dominant way. This is the Great Truth that people have known forever but it keeps getting bungled into other things. Everyone senses it, everyone knows the future is filled with love and acceptance, it's just that some people are used to it and work for it, idealists, and therefore are beyond much of the bungling, and others are stuck fighting it in themselves and bungling it up more. It's no surprise that the people who are srtuggling most with changes in America today are the ones who claim there will be a future of love for all people but only once all people believe as they do. The real truth is that everyone's belief is what leads them to the Future of Love but only when you get into it enough for that belief to actually change and come to life. And some beliefs really will change, but not if we remain subjects to them. I talk with many magical people whom I feel are handicapped by a belief in a hornswagglish phrase "nothing is true, everything is permitted." By choosing to continue to believe this nonsense they are just holding us back from a True, Accepting Future and maintaining a world of Judgement. This is as much bullshit and magical bungling of the world as Christians who are praying for a Judgement Day and Hard Rain, or such assholes to suggest God's Judgment is what is causing huge storms, not Global Warming caused by the companies THEY are shielding, even when it is Texas getting washed away. I guess this is the time to talk about the difference between the Truth and too much Prophecy.
The kind of prophecy I'm talking about is something anyone can do, something we all do all the time without noticing it and if we just start noticing it and encouraging it we will all get to do it better and realize it faster. It's just telling the truth early, like I said before. We all know the same Truth, it's just we are in different places of struggle with accepting it. The more we talk about it together the more we can help each other out of our struggles with the Truth. If we can talk respectfully enough with people of very different beleifs, with this Uniting Truth in mind as an earnest goal, we can very powerfully help ourselves out of suffering, out of bungling, out of our personal and collective struggle with the Truth. One reason I love and worship Gaga so much and have always considered her the Goddess of Love is that, to me and millions of others I've come in contact with who are "like me", she is going for this in a way that Does It for the world more than most anyone else we've seen and also Does It for us in a way that helps us realize we can do it too more than anyone else. I think of Obama and Pope Francis as similar figures in this regard. To me Gaga is well beyond them but I can totally see how others might respect and respond more to those other guys or many, many other people. Hopefully we all respond to people in our lives, our lovers and families and friends and aquaintences in ways that will all bring out the best in all of us. It's nice to have examples that wake up our best selves who then becomes our guide. Accepting and expecting us to guide ourselves to a place of togetherness can help us all get over some bullshit beleifs that hold us back. Because it is the nature of belief to re-unite us, and no matter how different the beleifs we hold are if we really start to get into them by sharing them with each other and exploring our own, even to the point of allowing them to change and grow, we will find ourselves much closer, more connected, and happier.
I wrote a speech for the Academic Decathalon team competition in 1993 about taking the Rebel Flag off of the Georgia State flag. I was passionate about it because it was the right thing to do, and we were "debating it" at that time and it became a ballot issue that along with our first statewide electronic voting machines helped elect the first Republican governor in Georgia in 150 years. When I gave the speech at the State level competition, in South Georgia where a much higher ratio of people were racist rednecks compared with Athens, my hometown, the judges wanted to kill me, at least their expressions said so, and I got a bad score, though I did alright. When our other scores were good enough that we beat every other team in the state and we went to the National competition, the judges for that round loved my speech and I got a great score. People have power and influence at local, national, and international levels. But as long as these powers can be used against Truth and Justice they aren't really any good compared to the power of the One True Future and Justice itself. That wins, in the end.
I was hoping to write something special for Gagablog 86 since she was born in '86 and that also seems to be the year I started taking Oz seriously as a prophecy for the future. Gaga is the fulfillment of that prophecy and maybe on my upcoming vacation I will finally write the book about Gaga / Oz magic I have been composing in my head for years. I hope I have written something special, and will get back to the Artpop lyrics, soon, too. I got off on a tangent earlier and forgot to say something about the Book of Revelation and things like that and how they are different from what I am calling prophecy here. If it's not good, it's not prophecy. I'm not saying Nostradamus didn't predict terrible things and they ended up happening, he probably did and others probably do similarly. But the whole "end of the world" scenario is not prophecy and it messes us up to think it is. I have not read the Book of Revelation though I told my preacher in the late 80's that it was my favorite book in the Bibe because I wanted to impress her and I thought it sounded cool. I think I get the gist of it, I've read parts or maybe I read it as a teen and forgot. But I know it inspires "Left Below" or whatever, which I also didn't see but saw the Simpsons parody of it and that was quite enough. But the whole idea of a vision of the end of the world never sounded like prophecy to me. It seems like a bad thing to expect a big reset or rapture, like it seems to be one leg of the mentality stool that destroys the planet, like we don't need to worry about what we do to it. Paws up and praise Jesus for Pope Francis for coming out against global warming last week. He keeps getting better and better and I just know the final straw to break the camel's back (and make him pure needly-eyed Jesus?) will be when he meets Gaga and then allows women priests and ends celibacy. But I heard a piece on NPR about how so many Catholics are excited by this but some are not. The example of the latter was, surpirse surprise, a conservative lady who said she respects him but thinks he is wrong about global warming. Her reasoning was that the entire planet, everything, was in God's Hands. Like it was all direct control. You can imagine how I see this as a stifling belief system. It can't really "live" if you question it and explore it for even a few minutes, it's too small-circle reasoning. But there is a path for all people to take a more liberating, life-giving belief system. We might each find it in our own way but we can all help each other because it is all about facing our common center. Since Revelation did not seem to be useful to actually describe the end of the world, I always assumed this and similar kinds of "prophecies" were actually better as guides for personal mystical or psychadelic experience, and getting this focus wrong completely fucks up the world. Just like if you think "Jihad" is something you have to do in the world, not in yourself, you might fuck things up. But Jihad in yourself, the true way, the struggle within with forces of belief, testing them and trying yourself to find the true best path, will help you, the world, and create the magical relationship the brings The Future.
In reading this over I was asked "what is this future, you never really say." And the best way is to say it is the Only Future. Dystopian Futures are for books and movies, and Apocolypses are only possible in the sense that our beliefs that make them possible need to be checked and changed to avoid disasters. The only future is Peace and Love and Harmony, we just Struggle with that idea for various reasons. We need to get into that struggle together and progress together, because we all have different struggles with it: some are frustrated it doesn't come sooner and others are scared of it. Love is what everyone is really the most scared of. We invent other things, ideas that are about to kill us at any moment, to distract us from a greater fear of love and intimacy with each other. And those ideas grow into bullshit that will kill us and others and causes all sorts of suffering. All because we are trying to justify reasons to not be in love with each other. It's pretty dumb but it gets perpetuated in endless ways. But it is time for these divisions to come to an end and for people to really come together more radically than ever before. As good things snowball into a wonderful new world we will all realize this is the path of peace we all dreamed of and even talked about sometimes - it's just more fabulous than anyone could imagine and that shouldn't really surprise anyone. I mean, the idea that it is more fabulous shouldn't surprise anyone, though it's what people can't seem to expect and free themselves to envision, but the actual fabulousness will continue to surprise us all the time. Which is why evem if we overcome death it won't get boring. There's literally nothing to worry about! Except unknitting the web of worry that crushes the world - but that is done in every different way and moreso the more we do, the more positively we do it. All we have to do is act in faith with the Great Future we all know is possible but none can proscribe, come together in love and acceptance and it happens. We will make it, and we have to, because all the alternatives are bullshit. Utopia or bust! "Follow that Unicorn on the road to love!"
I've been putting off writing about "Sexxx Dreams" for months now - I guess i was hoping life would echo art and I'd have some dreams or a sexy affair. I'm very satisfied sexually but still think of being more satisfied at times. And maybe that would happen if I started writing it - "what am I scared of?" ha ha. "I'm going to write about it next, I'm going to write about it next" - pretty prophetic,huh? Before the recent world developments I thought I might write one more "prelude" to Sexxx Dreams, about a girl and the magic of having a crush while reading "The Moonstone" and "The Lady in White" among other classics and other artistic "love echoes" to fuel the fantasy. It was more an expose of how I think in case people wanna be psychological than a real attempt to talk about magic directly - more like talking in code. After I stopped seeing the girl i guess that idea faded. I mean, I only ever just saw her at work, she didn't like me the same way. But just pondering it myself and enjoying great art made for some magical occurances. And I quit smoking cigarettes. Maybe I will write about it one day, but for now I just wanted to say try it out, be open to more love and enjoy some magical moments by looking out for them in the things you do, especially engaging nature and art. And love!
Also I want to end all war and oppression. Let's do it, we got this! Thanks Gaga, I love you - I saw Tony had shared an article where they said the two of you "erased the decades between you" and that is so beautiful, can't wait to watch more videos of you both - and thank you for erasing barriers of time, space, and everything else between us, between people all over the world. I love you, have fun! And THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!! We're winning, the shoe's finally on the other foot and we're running with it to the finish line of Goodness and Love for Everyone, Justice and Peace. Thanks for making it all crazy beautiful art, too. You know what I mean, I can't say it like you do.
The Future can - will - be very different. Many things we take for granted now will be seen as unfathomable relics from the past, including money and war, maybe death, too, sure, why not? The unavoidable fact that the future will be very different means that being able to think quite "differently", in certain ways, is the best way to look out for it and help us get there. This does mean that all have their unique paths, that differences and diversity are amazing and we will all go about "it" in our own ways, but what I'm saying is there is something within all of us no matter how different we are that brings us all together. It's like a different dimension or direction of our Selves that Does all point in the same direction, to the One Future Truth of peace and harmony. I know people get scared of language like this. It's actually the language of love which is why people react so strongly to it, but so many times in the past visions of a Better Future have been used to lead people to do mean things now. That's not what this is. Everyone senses and wants The Better Future - you can't help but want it, it's goodness itself. The problem is with people telling us "This is the only way." That's not possible, although all paths have goodness in them just as all people do and we do all come together so the more sharing of ways the further we go - it's just that there is no Dominant way. This is the Great Truth that people have known forever but it keeps getting bungled into other things. Everyone senses it, everyone knows the future is filled with love and acceptance, it's just that some people are used to it and work for it, idealists, and therefore are beyond much of the bungling, and others are stuck fighting it in themselves and bungling it up more. It's no surprise that the people who are srtuggling most with changes in America today are the ones who claim there will be a future of love for all people but only once all people believe as they do. The real truth is that everyone's belief is what leads them to the Future of Love but only when you get into it enough for that belief to actually change and come to life. And some beliefs really will change, but not if we remain subjects to them. I talk with many magical people whom I feel are handicapped by a belief in a hornswagglish phrase "nothing is true, everything is permitted." By choosing to continue to believe this nonsense they are just holding us back from a True, Accepting Future and maintaining a world of Judgement. This is as much bullshit and magical bungling of the world as Christians who are praying for a Judgement Day and Hard Rain, or such assholes to suggest God's Judgment is what is causing huge storms, not Global Warming caused by the companies THEY are shielding, even when it is Texas getting washed away. I guess this is the time to talk about the difference between the Truth and too much Prophecy.
The kind of prophecy I'm talking about is something anyone can do, something we all do all the time without noticing it and if we just start noticing it and encouraging it we will all get to do it better and realize it faster. It's just telling the truth early, like I said before. We all know the same Truth, it's just we are in different places of struggle with accepting it. The more we talk about it together the more we can help each other out of our struggles with the Truth. If we can talk respectfully enough with people of very different beleifs, with this Uniting Truth in mind as an earnest goal, we can very powerfully help ourselves out of suffering, out of bungling, out of our personal and collective struggle with the Truth. One reason I love and worship Gaga so much and have always considered her the Goddess of Love is that, to me and millions of others I've come in contact with who are "like me", she is going for this in a way that Does It for the world more than most anyone else we've seen and also Does It for us in a way that helps us realize we can do it too more than anyone else. I think of Obama and Pope Francis as similar figures in this regard. To me Gaga is well beyond them but I can totally see how others might respect and respond more to those other guys or many, many other people. Hopefully we all respond to people in our lives, our lovers and families and friends and aquaintences in ways that will all bring out the best in all of us. It's nice to have examples that wake up our best selves who then becomes our guide. Accepting and expecting us to guide ourselves to a place of togetherness can help us all get over some bullshit beleifs that hold us back. Because it is the nature of belief to re-unite us, and no matter how different the beleifs we hold are if we really start to get into them by sharing them with each other and exploring our own, even to the point of allowing them to change and grow, we will find ourselves much closer, more connected, and happier.
I wrote a speech for the Academic Decathalon team competition in 1993 about taking the Rebel Flag off of the Georgia State flag. I was passionate about it because it was the right thing to do, and we were "debating it" at that time and it became a ballot issue that along with our first statewide electronic voting machines helped elect the first Republican governor in Georgia in 150 years. When I gave the speech at the State level competition, in South Georgia where a much higher ratio of people were racist rednecks compared with Athens, my hometown, the judges wanted to kill me, at least their expressions said so, and I got a bad score, though I did alright. When our other scores were good enough that we beat every other team in the state and we went to the National competition, the judges for that round loved my speech and I got a great score. People have power and influence at local, national, and international levels. But as long as these powers can be used against Truth and Justice they aren't really any good compared to the power of the One True Future and Justice itself. That wins, in the end.
I was hoping to write something special for Gagablog 86 since she was born in '86 and that also seems to be the year I started taking Oz seriously as a prophecy for the future. Gaga is the fulfillment of that prophecy and maybe on my upcoming vacation I will finally write the book about Gaga / Oz magic I have been composing in my head for years. I hope I have written something special, and will get back to the Artpop lyrics, soon, too. I got off on a tangent earlier and forgot to say something about the Book of Revelation and things like that and how they are different from what I am calling prophecy here. If it's not good, it's not prophecy. I'm not saying Nostradamus didn't predict terrible things and they ended up happening, he probably did and others probably do similarly. But the whole "end of the world" scenario is not prophecy and it messes us up to think it is. I have not read the Book of Revelation though I told my preacher in the late 80's that it was my favorite book in the Bibe because I wanted to impress her and I thought it sounded cool. I think I get the gist of it, I've read parts or maybe I read it as a teen and forgot. But I know it inspires "Left Below" or whatever, which I also didn't see but saw the Simpsons parody of it and that was quite enough. But the whole idea of a vision of the end of the world never sounded like prophecy to me. It seems like a bad thing to expect a big reset or rapture, like it seems to be one leg of the mentality stool that destroys the planet, like we don't need to worry about what we do to it. Paws up and praise Jesus for Pope Francis for coming out against global warming last week. He keeps getting better and better and I just know the final straw to break the camel's back (and make him pure needly-eyed Jesus?) will be when he meets Gaga and then allows women priests and ends celibacy. But I heard a piece on NPR about how so many Catholics are excited by this but some are not. The example of the latter was, surpirse surprise, a conservative lady who said she respects him but thinks he is wrong about global warming. Her reasoning was that the entire planet, everything, was in God's Hands. Like it was all direct control. You can imagine how I see this as a stifling belief system. It can't really "live" if you question it and explore it for even a few minutes, it's too small-circle reasoning. But there is a path for all people to take a more liberating, life-giving belief system. We might each find it in our own way but we can all help each other because it is all about facing our common center. Since Revelation did not seem to be useful to actually describe the end of the world, I always assumed this and similar kinds of "prophecies" were actually better as guides for personal mystical or psychadelic experience, and getting this focus wrong completely fucks up the world. Just like if you think "Jihad" is something you have to do in the world, not in yourself, you might fuck things up. But Jihad in yourself, the true way, the struggle within with forces of belief, testing them and trying yourself to find the true best path, will help you, the world, and create the magical relationship the brings The Future.
In reading this over I was asked "what is this future, you never really say." And the best way is to say it is the Only Future. Dystopian Futures are for books and movies, and Apocolypses are only possible in the sense that our beliefs that make them possible need to be checked and changed to avoid disasters. The only future is Peace and Love and Harmony, we just Struggle with that idea for various reasons. We need to get into that struggle together and progress together, because we all have different struggles with it: some are frustrated it doesn't come sooner and others are scared of it. Love is what everyone is really the most scared of. We invent other things, ideas that are about to kill us at any moment, to distract us from a greater fear of love and intimacy with each other. And those ideas grow into bullshit that will kill us and others and causes all sorts of suffering. All because we are trying to justify reasons to not be in love with each other. It's pretty dumb but it gets perpetuated in endless ways. But it is time for these divisions to come to an end and for people to really come together more radically than ever before. As good things snowball into a wonderful new world we will all realize this is the path of peace we all dreamed of and even talked about sometimes - it's just more fabulous than anyone could imagine and that shouldn't really surprise anyone. I mean, the idea that it is more fabulous shouldn't surprise anyone, though it's what people can't seem to expect and free themselves to envision, but the actual fabulousness will continue to surprise us all the time. Which is why evem if we overcome death it won't get boring. There's literally nothing to worry about! Except unknitting the web of worry that crushes the world - but that is done in every different way and moreso the more we do, the more positively we do it. All we have to do is act in faith with the Great Future we all know is possible but none can proscribe, come together in love and acceptance and it happens. We will make it, and we have to, because all the alternatives are bullshit. Utopia or bust! "Follow that Unicorn on the road to love!"
I've been putting off writing about "Sexxx Dreams" for months now - I guess i was hoping life would echo art and I'd have some dreams or a sexy affair. I'm very satisfied sexually but still think of being more satisfied at times. And maybe that would happen if I started writing it - "what am I scared of?" ha ha. "I'm going to write about it next, I'm going to write about it next" - pretty prophetic,huh? Before the recent world developments I thought I might write one more "prelude" to Sexxx Dreams, about a girl and the magic of having a crush while reading "The Moonstone" and "The Lady in White" among other classics and other artistic "love echoes" to fuel the fantasy. It was more an expose of how I think in case people wanna be psychological than a real attempt to talk about magic directly - more like talking in code. After I stopped seeing the girl i guess that idea faded. I mean, I only ever just saw her at work, she didn't like me the same way. But just pondering it myself and enjoying great art made for some magical occurances. And I quit smoking cigarettes. Maybe I will write about it one day, but for now I just wanted to say try it out, be open to more love and enjoy some magical moments by looking out for them in the things you do, especially engaging nature and art. And love!
Also I want to end all war and oppression. Let's do it, we got this! Thanks Gaga, I love you - I saw Tony had shared an article where they said the two of you "erased the decades between you" and that is so beautiful, can't wait to watch more videos of you both - and thank you for erasing barriers of time, space, and everything else between us, between people all over the world. I love you, have fun! And THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!! We're winning, the shoe's finally on the other foot and we're running with it to the finish line of Goodness and Love for Everyone, Justice and Peace. Thanks for making it all crazy beautiful art, too. You know what I mean, I can't say it like you do.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
gagablog 85: Happy Mother's Day, Mother Monster!
I want to say Happy Mother's Day to Mother Monster and Mother Nature, Mother Earth, the Goddess of Love, Mother of All. Happy Mother's Day to my own wonderful mom. Happy Mother's Day to Art and Music and Magic and Mary Jane. I want to say this before I write the next prelude to exploring "Sexxx Dreams", which will be called "Fantasies, Classic Books, and Dreams" and will be all about media magic / bibliomancy and what I'm learning about the magic of love and art working together even over centuries of time. This is a special day to me, not for selling cards to families, but as a glimpse of the Divine Feminine in a day to celebrate motherhood. As I just indicated, I will consider anything my mother who is willing to mother me, like that bird in the picture book "Are You My Mother?" I'm exagerrating but I'm really blessed to have a number of mothers to be thankful for. I would feel like I am bragging because not everyone has a wonderful mom who loves them and exemplifies the Goddess. I'm so lucky that my mom was always a feminist which kept me connected to ideas of the Goddess gorwing up even in the Bible Belt, and when she became a priest when I was a teenager it helped me discover some of how the Goddess is still alive withing the cool parts of Christianity. But even with that fortunate upbringing, more liberal and goddess-worshipping than most American childhoods up t this point, I still had a strong need for more of the Goddess, more openly, obvliously and magically in my life. I've always believed that it is not just my life that needs more of the Goddess but that the whole world needs the Goddess and that this is precisely what will save us from all the destructive forces within us and the world. I can go on about this but the point is to acknowlegde how mother figures have served this role for me, guiding me and supporting me in my own personal quest to help people realize magic and the goddess for themselves and help save the world.
When I was a kid I left the church because it was not feminist, environmentlaist, pacifist or revolutionary (against capitalism and money in general) enough for me. I turned to The Goddess, who I vaguely understood as Mother Nature. A few years later She found me in the form of Mary Jane, weed, the divine feminine plant of healing, comfort, and inspiration. And smoking weed helped reveal to me how the Goddess had always been with me, secretly, in art and music all my life. Psychadelics helped that, too. Sexuality had always kept me focused on feminine beauty but eventually actually having sex made me more in love with the Goddess than ever before. I fell in love with girls and a cat-girl and witches. I've been in love with one special witch almost half my life and she is the best mother I know, honesty, but still a secret in many ways. I just saw on the news that President Obama called some moms on Mother's Day. I imagined they might be randomly selected, or the mom's of staffers, thanking them for raising good folks. This is a reminder how all good mothers are "our mothers" and we cann all try to honor them. But we also have more mothers than just biologically, we all do, and when some folks biological mom's aren't so great, thank the Goddess for appearing as "real" mothers, in various forms. My especially lovely examples of wonderful mothers in actual people in my family, include my mom and her mom, who we called Grandmother, and my Grandad's second wife, Jean, who was grandmother to me even longer than Grandmother and years after my grandad Pop died. My dad's mom we call Nana and I can't say enough about how much I owe her for raising a loving family as the Matriarch we saw most often. And when I think about it, the tender, compassionate and loving natures of my grandfathers and dad are also "mother-figures" in my life I am very fortunate for. Someone said they don't consider their Dad's second wife to be their step-mom unless she raised them, some, too. I had left home when my dad remarried but I am lucky to call his wife Jocelyn my mom, too. And I had a great babysitter and some great teachers growing up and some other role models who I attribute to mothering me in their ways, too. But even with all of these great actual mothers nearby there was still room, and a desperate need, for Mother Monster, Lady Gaga.
I'm writing this to illustrate how repression of the Goddess in our culture has left us all with this deep soul-need for The DIvine Mother, even those like me who have many loving mother figures and even feminist spirituality to help keep this connection alive despite obstruction. I just heard Labron James thank "the Man Up There" for helping him win the game and redeem himself for past mistakes. I don't want to say anything against "God" right here, just mentioning how accepted that idea seems to be, a God ruling us from on high, yet it is revolutionary to recognize the Goddess all around and within us. With all my good fortune to be raised by loving mothers and discover the Goddess in nature, love, magic, art, music, and sex, I still needed More. I felt supported, or found enough support within, to have Goddess-focused spirituality since I was a kid. But Weed was a big deal to me, a loving mother in her way, too. As I took a break to honor her, the local news showed a picture of a tornado over a long, flattish rainbow. It inspired me to the best way to say this. Then I tapped the bowl out in my palm and amidst the ashes there was a bright spark. I've never seen that before but it was like an exclamation point on this magic.
Dorothy had a wonderf mom, even though it was her aunt, Aunt Em. They loved each other very much and knew it, which is worlds better than many people have with their biological moms or others, or no one. I'm so thankful for my mom, she is so great, that I don't even want to talk about her, I feel like I'm bragging and could make someone feel bad. But what I want to say is that there are wonderful mom's out there and folks who will be wonderful moms to you even if yours wasn't good enough. But even the best mom's can't be or know everything to someone. Dorothy still needed the adventure to discover companions and the Mother figures of the Good Witches. As good as Aunt Em was, she could not understand everything about Dorothy, and of course Dorothy had to discover things about herself. I use this example because my mom was wonderful, but she could never support me as an artist. It was not in her nature or upbringing to accept that I could "just" be an artist. The message was always that I had to do some "work" and make art on the side, only hoping to survive from it but assuring survival with work. I do feel bitterness and resentment at that, but at the same time I am grateful to have worked and done the work I did and do. I just want to become the artist I knoe I am. And I owe it to Gaga, my Mother Monster, for inspiring me and encouraging me in that way. I can't say enough about it, I love her and appreciate her so much, as the Goddess of Love I have always believed in, for decades, since at least about 1986, I think, looking back on it. Since she made The Fame I have felt deeper and deeper that she is, for me, the Goddess I always beleived in. She made my dream for the world come true by coming true herself, making her art, and she makes my dream for myself come true by encouraging me in this missing way I needed.
Some people don't have any access to nature. I mean, they live in cities with no chances to be in the Great Outdoors, with mother nature. There are places we are utterly destroying Nature, all over the planet, in ways that can't be replaced. We all need to stop this, to reverse these trends. We all need Mother Nature, there is no way to overstate this. But even as a kid who grew up playing in the woods, always partied outside a lot, and gets to hike the Colorado foothills for the last decade on a regular basis, monthly, weekly, or daily, I still have more need for Mother Nature than I get. I love her everywhere. And eveyone should, but not everyone can, and some of our systems threaten her in various ways - we need to stop this. As I'm typing this there is a story on local news about a 8 year old kid, I think, who called and saved his mom when she fell into a diabetic coma. We need to be making, taking the call for Mother Nature. But I bring it up to say that I was charmed in this way, too, with a rich connection to Mother Nature. I've been blessed to smoke weed that has been really wonderful for most of my life, and it gets better and better in COlorado. Yet even with all of these blessings, this culture is still so anti-compassion and snti-creativity that I still really needed a Goddess of Love and art, my Mother Monster, to really bring out the fullness of my soul.
Not everyone is lucky enough to be in love, or inlove with a beautiful, magical, sexy witch artist girl who likes all the same things I like. I am so lucky, have been this lukcy twice as long as I have known Gaga, yet I still really need Gaga for that kind of encouragement, and to really see how believing in art makes it come truw.
Even with all of my lucky exposure to magic, all mylife, I still needed Gaga, my Mother Monster, to show me how it all really comes true and inspire me and others to finally go for it. And even with all the amazing magical music and art, other streams of magic to me, I still needed Gaga to really reveal so much of it in Her Art. I love her and can't say enough about her, but will be saying more soon and focusing more intesnsely on her after this period where I have been kind of holding back - hopefully for the last time.
So Happy Mother's Day to All the Mothers, and the Mother of All, for me the Goddess of Love, Lady Gaga. I love you so much, thanks for being such a fabulous mother to all your millions of monsterlings, "monsterites" I call us, religiously, I dedicated my book "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned from SMoking Weed" to you for helping liberate weed. I'm concluding this to go take advantage of this great state, and "after the break" the local news will talk about how people are calling us the "Silicon Valley of Hemp". You inspire us artistically and for so many causes for justice, and basically just believe in us and supprt us being who we are in a world that seems uncaring and can try to break people down. They are now making plants - factories - to turn hemp into all sorts of things, from biofuel to packaging and paper. This is "the revolution" and that's part of their motto. This is hemp, the "male" side of it, because of course Mary Jane's revolution is really picking up. Gaga just inspires us all to continue, to be our best, to become the stars we truly are. I can't say it enough but I will keepon trying, thanks for sharing and inspiring this love with us, Mother Monster! I love you forever!
When I was a kid I left the church because it was not feminist, environmentlaist, pacifist or revolutionary (against capitalism and money in general) enough for me. I turned to The Goddess, who I vaguely understood as Mother Nature. A few years later She found me in the form of Mary Jane, weed, the divine feminine plant of healing, comfort, and inspiration. And smoking weed helped reveal to me how the Goddess had always been with me, secretly, in art and music all my life. Psychadelics helped that, too. Sexuality had always kept me focused on feminine beauty but eventually actually having sex made me more in love with the Goddess than ever before. I fell in love with girls and a cat-girl and witches. I've been in love with one special witch almost half my life and she is the best mother I know, honesty, but still a secret in many ways. I just saw on the news that President Obama called some moms on Mother's Day. I imagined they might be randomly selected, or the mom's of staffers, thanking them for raising good folks. This is a reminder how all good mothers are "our mothers" and we cann all try to honor them. But we also have more mothers than just biologically, we all do, and when some folks biological mom's aren't so great, thank the Goddess for appearing as "real" mothers, in various forms. My especially lovely examples of wonderful mothers in actual people in my family, include my mom and her mom, who we called Grandmother, and my Grandad's second wife, Jean, who was grandmother to me even longer than Grandmother and years after my grandad Pop died. My dad's mom we call Nana and I can't say enough about how much I owe her for raising a loving family as the Matriarch we saw most often. And when I think about it, the tender, compassionate and loving natures of my grandfathers and dad are also "mother-figures" in my life I am very fortunate for. Someone said they don't consider their Dad's second wife to be their step-mom unless she raised them, some, too. I had left home when my dad remarried but I am lucky to call his wife Jocelyn my mom, too. And I had a great babysitter and some great teachers growing up and some other role models who I attribute to mothering me in their ways, too. But even with all of these great actual mothers nearby there was still room, and a desperate need, for Mother Monster, Lady Gaga.
I'm writing this to illustrate how repression of the Goddess in our culture has left us all with this deep soul-need for The DIvine Mother, even those like me who have many loving mother figures and even feminist spirituality to help keep this connection alive despite obstruction. I just heard Labron James thank "the Man Up There" for helping him win the game and redeem himself for past mistakes. I don't want to say anything against "God" right here, just mentioning how accepted that idea seems to be, a God ruling us from on high, yet it is revolutionary to recognize the Goddess all around and within us. With all my good fortune to be raised by loving mothers and discover the Goddess in nature, love, magic, art, music, and sex, I still needed More. I felt supported, or found enough support within, to have Goddess-focused spirituality since I was a kid. But Weed was a big deal to me, a loving mother in her way, too. As I took a break to honor her, the local news showed a picture of a tornado over a long, flattish rainbow. It inspired me to the best way to say this. Then I tapped the bowl out in my palm and amidst the ashes there was a bright spark. I've never seen that before but it was like an exclamation point on this magic.
Dorothy had a wonderf mom, even though it was her aunt, Aunt Em. They loved each other very much and knew it, which is worlds better than many people have with their biological moms or others, or no one. I'm so thankful for my mom, she is so great, that I don't even want to talk about her, I feel like I'm bragging and could make someone feel bad. But what I want to say is that there are wonderful mom's out there and folks who will be wonderful moms to you even if yours wasn't good enough. But even the best mom's can't be or know everything to someone. Dorothy still needed the adventure to discover companions and the Mother figures of the Good Witches. As good as Aunt Em was, she could not understand everything about Dorothy, and of course Dorothy had to discover things about herself. I use this example because my mom was wonderful, but she could never support me as an artist. It was not in her nature or upbringing to accept that I could "just" be an artist. The message was always that I had to do some "work" and make art on the side, only hoping to survive from it but assuring survival with work. I do feel bitterness and resentment at that, but at the same time I am grateful to have worked and done the work I did and do. I just want to become the artist I knoe I am. And I owe it to Gaga, my Mother Monster, for inspiring me and encouraging me in that way. I can't say enough about it, I love her and appreciate her so much, as the Goddess of Love I have always believed in, for decades, since at least about 1986, I think, looking back on it. Since she made The Fame I have felt deeper and deeper that she is, for me, the Goddess I always beleived in. She made my dream for the world come true by coming true herself, making her art, and she makes my dream for myself come true by encouraging me in this missing way I needed.
Some people don't have any access to nature. I mean, they live in cities with no chances to be in the Great Outdoors, with mother nature. There are places we are utterly destroying Nature, all over the planet, in ways that can't be replaced. We all need to stop this, to reverse these trends. We all need Mother Nature, there is no way to overstate this. But even as a kid who grew up playing in the woods, always partied outside a lot, and gets to hike the Colorado foothills for the last decade on a regular basis, monthly, weekly, or daily, I still have more need for Mother Nature than I get. I love her everywhere. And eveyone should, but not everyone can, and some of our systems threaten her in various ways - we need to stop this. As I'm typing this there is a story on local news about a 8 year old kid, I think, who called and saved his mom when she fell into a diabetic coma. We need to be making, taking the call for Mother Nature. But I bring it up to say that I was charmed in this way, too, with a rich connection to Mother Nature. I've been blessed to smoke weed that has been really wonderful for most of my life, and it gets better and better in COlorado. Yet even with all of these blessings, this culture is still so anti-compassion and snti-creativity that I still really needed a Goddess of Love and art, my Mother Monster, to really bring out the fullness of my soul.
Not everyone is lucky enough to be in love, or inlove with a beautiful, magical, sexy witch artist girl who likes all the same things I like. I am so lucky, have been this lukcy twice as long as I have known Gaga, yet I still really need Gaga for that kind of encouragement, and to really see how believing in art makes it come truw.
Even with all of my lucky exposure to magic, all mylife, I still needed Gaga, my Mother Monster, to show me how it all really comes true and inspire me and others to finally go for it. And even with all the amazing magical music and art, other streams of magic to me, I still needed Gaga to really reveal so much of it in Her Art. I love her and can't say enough about her, but will be saying more soon and focusing more intesnsely on her after this period where I have been kind of holding back - hopefully for the last time.
So Happy Mother's Day to All the Mothers, and the Mother of All, for me the Goddess of Love, Lady Gaga. I love you so much, thanks for being such a fabulous mother to all your millions of monsterlings, "monsterites" I call us, religiously, I dedicated my book "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned from SMoking Weed" to you for helping liberate weed. I'm concluding this to go take advantage of this great state, and "after the break" the local news will talk about how people are calling us the "Silicon Valley of Hemp". You inspire us artistically and for so many causes for justice, and basically just believe in us and supprt us being who we are in a world that seems uncaring and can try to break people down. They are now making plants - factories - to turn hemp into all sorts of things, from biofuel to packaging and paper. This is "the revolution" and that's part of their motto. This is hemp, the "male" side of it, because of course Mary Jane's revolution is really picking up. Gaga just inspires us all to continue, to be our best, to become the stars we truly are. I can't say it enough but I will keepon trying, thanks for sharing and inspiring this love with us, Mother Monster! I love you forever!
gagablog 84: Quantum Sex Cults vs. Citizens United / States Rights: "Ethiopian Jewish Lives, Matter, Too" (Sexxx Dreams Prelude continued)
A week ago I wore an Obama '08 campaign T-shirt. The next day I wore an independently made shirt that read "Obama in the House!" I thought something when I put it on about wearing an Obama shirt two days in a row. "What kind of day will this give me?" I asked myself, quoting an old friend. It may be that I had seen and forgotten that Obama was going to be on Dave Letterman that night, but it seemed like magic when it came on. This is very light magic, sure, a very simple connection. I happened to be wearing an Obama shirt when he came on TV, one that said he was "in the house". He was "in our homes" due to the magic of TV, he was in Dave's "house" for the last time since Dave will retire in a week. But the main "light" connection I want to mention is something he said. I wrote gagablog 83 about a week before this and I mentioned that the magic of making the Supreme Court make the right decision on Gay Marriage was like "gardening." When talking about reaching justice for victims of police brutality, Obama said it was like gardening. He used the same analogy to refer to the justice of ending the oppression of women: it's something that must happen and our roles to help it along are like gardeners.
This is "light magic", again. But all I deserve is light magic right now: I've been out of touch with Gaga. I have not watched any videos of the Cheek to Cheek tour and have not even been on facebook for a few weeks so I don't know what she is up to. Tonight I saw her dress for the Met Ball red carpet, on TV. She looked beautiful but I can't connect with anything she is doing because I have not been paying attention. I've been working on some music with my friend, making our band. Did Obama read my last gagablog and steal my gardening analogy? No, certainly not. Did my unread idea magically cause him to use that phrase? Maybe, depends on what you think of magic. But there is a light connection, light magic, between these events, even if you just call it coincidence. I don't own the garden analogy but it is significant why I found it so useful and the president did, too. It has to do with inevitability and purpose. A garden grows, that is what it is mean to do. The plants, the harvest, are the "truth" that we must get to: justice. We must know that we can get there and always have it in mind as we keep working towards it, in major, fantastic ways when possible but also with our every mundane action. This is one meaning of the Buddhist phrase "before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
I introduced the concept of Quantum Sex Cults one month ago today, on May 10th, 2015. I wrote a draft of a gagablog about it but it went off on long tangents, imagine that. I thought I would edit it after gagablog 83 but the day after I wrote that I heard some of the Supreme Court Justices' deliberations about gay marriage and it made a simpler way to address it. Basically all religions are designed to (re)connect people and all of life with "the divine" but it seems as if no religion manages to promote the full variety of sexuality. I believe this is a major reason why so many people identify as "spiritual" instead of "religious" because religion as we know it does not fully promote all of humanity. We make new religions, all the time, and are reforming existing religions, all day. I like to think some eastern or other religions are more pro-sexuality but one of my hopes was for the Kama Sutra and I finally read some of it and what a preachy and judgmental book! And I'm sure some religions are far more positive about sexuality but a lot of what I and other Americans are exposed to is based on sexual repression. Although it improves as religions reform there is a strong core which is against sexuality which coincides with being anti-woman and we see the results of this in culture wars in America. Ted Cruz recently rallied his base by saying there is a war against "Christianity" and maybe there should be a war against his kind of "Christians" but they should know that Jesus is on our side and they will lose it miserably and should just give in now and save us all the trouble.
Religions can be really good at guiding people's lives, especially for certain people in certain places and times. It can get confusing or problematic or wrong to try to apply the same guides to different places, times, and people. The idea is that religious ideas, being divine, are going to play in more places and times than regular ideas. Some religious ideas are basically universal and do apply everywhere, like "Be Nice." But one that has never played too well anywhere or any time is restrictions on sexuality. And there is no way it can: religion, as it exists today, cannot fully promote the variety of sexuality. While some decisions it makes good sense to seek the guidance of a religious system, sexuality is too personal and fluid to fit into any system of rigidity. There could be a new kind of system designed to promote everyone's sexuality but the reason this kind of system would be radically different from existing religions is there could be no centralized control and no one group to profit off of others. It has to be completely organic. Like gardening, it is going to happen, it's just a matter of getting in tune with nature to let it happen. And the same process applies to all Justice issues, from bigotry, racism, poverty, and misogyny to environmentalism. We have to allow the Goddess and Sexuality to emerge. There is no forcing it into any preconceived design, but the design is already there, Nature, if we are willing to start living harmoniously with it.
This is how it works via Quantum Sex Cults. I realized two things when I came up with the Sex Cult idea: Adults aren't going to "get" Gaga magic just yet - they are too far removed from imagination and magic. But we can sell them the idea as simply a "Sex Cult" and fill in the magical and fairy tale details, the art side, later. Also I realized that alternative spiritual movements might be fueled by a desire for acceptance of sexuality or other unjustly repressed factors such as inclusivity or environmentalism. But one accusation that has been leveled against alternative spirituality, especially witchcraft and other goddess-based religions, is that they might secretly be a Sex Cult. This is scary for two reasons: social repression has made it likely that "sex" itself is a scary concept to people but more than that, all the examples of "Sex Cults" we have seem to be depraved and abusive situations. The reason for this is that they are reactions to social repression that utilize old, controlling models of religion. The only way for a religious system to really promote sexuality is if it gives up all ideas of "central authority". This is what makes the "Quantum" characterization so necessary. I've been saying for years that there will be a revolution and only New Organizations will survive: Old Orgs are patriarchal and serve one dominant desire at the top of a hierarchy. The New Orgs will be lateral and serve everyone in them, not one dominant desire. This is already becoming obvious in the business world and the orgs that change the most fastest will be most successful in the future. A Sex Cult based on the old model is not only doomed, it is just a distillation of the evil it claims to address: there is no way someone can dictate to someone else about sexuality. Bringing "God" into that just reveals an even deeper disconnection with the divine, not a leader. Because the truth is we are all our own leaders, sexually. Yes we can, do, and should learn sexuality from each other and we will get much better at it after we liberate ourselves from repression. Religion might be great, as it is, for teaching us all sorts of non-sexual spiritual things but for sex we are our own guardian angels and can only tell ourselves what to do, and can only do get our own instructions by looking within. The beauty of being in love is sharing these instructions and looking within both/all of you together. So many good developments in spirituality and religion, in magic, have been stifled for fear of being labeled a sex cult. I see it all the time: groups who have every possibility to be or become sexual but avoid crossing over into that taboo area. So I realized that coming right out with it and proudly declaring yourself a Sex Cult is the best way to go ahead and liberate sexuality and restore spirituality to all kinds of sex and desire. The "Quantum" idea is to designate it as a "new" development but also because it is focused on "the smallest unit". This idea also defeats the argument of conservative justices about "States Rights" (and Citizens United)
The reason why they are "Quantum" Sex Cults is because everyone is the star, center, leader, high priestess, pope, or whatever role they want to play in "their" sex cult. "Everybody" (except kids, of course) the entire world of sexual people are already "in" the Sex Cult - there is no initiation. There is no structure to it other than the quantum structure of the universe: everyone is their own Sex Cult, and every group that exists or forms around sexuality is a Sex Cult. And it is a good thing because Quantum Sex Cults have to be as true as possible to everyone's desire. The model works for an individual and group and also within an individual. Sexuality can be so complex we likely have aspects and desires which are hidden. If we give each of these qualities and dimensions within ourselves an exalted status as the star of it's own Sex Cult we can explore them more freely and safely. You might only want to wear a cape in bed one night a month, for instance, but when you do then it is Captain Erotico's Sex Cult that night and you can really let yourself go into being her. The idea is to promote all sexuality for it's spiritual and magical dimensions, not to apply some existing concepts to sexuality, though of course sharing more information and greater awareness will benefit everyone. But it all starts with the individual, honoring the individual and honoring the wide spectrum of desire even within each individual. Of course most people prefer sex with others but for those who like it best alone this model can encourage and support discovery and pleasure and help remove the heavy social shame against masturbation. People who are lucky enough to enjoy sex with others will benefit from this model, too, in order to be eager and supportive to discover and explore each other's desires. Of course each person is the center of any couple or group they are in, so the action takes place in the spaces where participants desires overlap. Getting accustomed to this model should encourage more free, open, and unashamed approaches to sex and help people find partners and other people to be "in" their cult. And it should help people in committed relationships that don't want "more people" find more about each other to enjoy. But mostly it wins the culture war against the conservatives who are responsible for and profit from the whole social system of sexual repression - and responsible for unjust laws that enforce it.
when I heard the conservative justices talk about their objections to making Gay Marriage the law of the land, they seemed to be worried about "States' Rights" or this idea of a State as an entity with feelings - which reminds me of the Citizens United premise that organizations are "people" entitled to free speech. It's not just coincidence that many recent claims for States' Rights have been used to justify states banning gay marriage and that States' Rights has been the so-called ideal for continuing racial oppression for over a century. In these cases, State's Right's are just plain evil. The idea is that a state has feelings and those feelings will be hurt if we allow justice for all it's citizens. This is the same argument conservatives use to resist all sorts of changes and it is solidly evil when used this way. The greatest need people have, psychologically, is to belong. So of course we enjoy feeling like we belong to whatever we might belong to that we like, including the state we live in. I could go on and on about how weird it is to hear how people on TV talk about "Colorado" and "Coloradoans" like we are the only people who matter in the world - they just never talked like that in Georgia or mentioned the word Georgia even a tenth as much as they do here. Since everyone wants to belong this appeals to people, makes them feel like they do belong to be constantly reminded of "who" and where they are. But not everyone is always included: here in Colorado we had an asshole running for office who wanted to ban Spanish in all government buildings. In Georgia we had a debate and elected Republican politicians for their racist promises to restore the confederate flag as our state flag. And now some states try to keep gay people from marrying. In each of these cases, a group is saying that even though you are a "member" of the group in some way, you are not an equal member. Hillary Clinton just made this a national campaign point: no republican presidential candidate accepts a path to citizenship for immigrants, but at best they want to make immigrants second-class citizens. In all cases where State's Rights are the reason for denying peoples' rights, for restricting liberty, we are continuing evil of the same nature as slavery, with the same arguments. I can support State's Rights when the state is liberating people, such as Colorado legalizing weed. When it was medical only I did not want to participate: I could not justify joining an "elite" class with special rights, but I did as a path to even greater liberation and it worked. While I am morally opposed to any privileged class, it was still a rebellion against even greater evil of complete illegality, and it was a step in the right direction. I support our State's Right to legalize weed, but only because I see it as a step towards national legalization, not because it gives us something no one else can have. If it did not spread to other states I would not feel guilty enjoying the status here, but I don't think that is possible: it must and well spread all over the country. This is the how Progress works: always getting more liberation for more people, more inclusion of everyone into whatever organization or group there may be, and evolution of those groups to include and serve the most people in the most ways.
If it is not obvious how Quantum Sex Cults are the opposition that will defeat conservativism, elitism, and repression, just use some examples. A perverted Sex Cult is perverted precisely because some people have control or influence over others due to status, to elitism. Quantum Sex Cults are by definition non-elitist, inclusive: each one includes the tastes of it's "star", and there are billions of stars so all tastes are represented and honored. The process of people relating to each other in this encouraging way instead of in ashamed ways will lead to new networks that defy the old networks with their prejudiced standards. These are the kinds of communities the Love God Jesus intended for us, and are the communities the Goddess of Love Gaga is creating and modeling for us today. We are naturally opposed to "religion" and conservative mentality that says only certain kinds of sex are acceptable and denies rights to non-conformists. And we have truth, Justice, Love, Art, Jesus, the BEST American way, etc, on our side. We Can't Lose for so many reasons: it's not possible but it's also not acceptable to not try all we can do, to be the best gardeners we can. Because we are destined to reach liberaqtion, inclusion, and justice for all people. But we have to tend to things, hold to our ideals and care for things, to realize it. This is gardening. And we are all sharing the same Garden, even if some people don't seem to be in on the secret.
Another example from world events about how this elitism is the actual evil force behind all other evil forces comes from Israel where Ethiopian Jews are protesting being abused by white Israeli police. When I first heard this story it triggered feelings of resentment over Israeli-Palestinian relations in which the Israeli side always acts superior and entitled. And it reminds me of how anti-Semitism is so vehemently opposed - but in this case, oppressing Ethiopian Jews is technically anti-Semitism even if the oppressors are Jewish so apparently this is not as rigorously held ideal in all cases, or perhaps racism trumps it. I heard a quote from one of the protestors that said they don't want to identify too closely with the black protestors in America, which at first I heard through the lens of racism and elitism and thought "wow, even subjected to racism they are still being racist themselves and saying 'we don't want to be associated with THEM'" - but when I heard what he had to say to explain it I was ashamed for thinking that. He said he did not want to imagine that hundreds of years in the future they would still be being mistreated - not that black Americans deserve to be, just that they don't want to think they will still be suffering like that in the distant future, too - and no one should. I will admit I did not know Ethiopian Jews even existed before this news story, yet it is easy and obvious for me to see injustice and want to stand up for their rights. And the same goes for all oppressed groups, whether we have heard of them or not. We should have that philosophy. And when we do know who they are, or anything about the situation, that gives us the duty to learn more and do whatever we can to help.
The next Gagablog will also be a preview for Sexxx Dreams. It will be called "Fantasies, Classic Books, and Dreams" and it was too much to include here. But it is connected to this one through reading media magic: I've read a number of classic books in the last year which have magically influenced the crushes I have had on girls in that time period. I am currently re-reading "The Secret Garden" and it is far more beautiful to me now than it was years ago, when I might have had some envious resistance to Dickon. But now I accept more of what a beautiful story it is, maybe because I've been working with abused and neglected kids in the years since I last read it. But I see how the secret Garden is such a mystical analogy - and notice the author capitalizes "Magic". I see it in this case of world events, too, and an analogy for the Quantum Sex Cults as well: people who are "left out" are only left out until they can be trusted, but the Secret Garden heals us all, eventually. I see how we should all be looking for the bumps in our souls which show something is about to bud and shoot out, but instead elitists and conservatives are worried about things breaking out in other people: new paradigms, new definitions of marriage. These developments don't actually threaten anyone at all, only threaten the way they have kept things that give them advantages others don't have - but that is an unnatural arrangement to begin with and must be swept away for one that harmonizes with nature, allowing and embracing all it's glorious variety. The next preview will be about how some classic literature made magical connections with my imagined love life and fantasies and how this whole year or so, plus all my life up to this point, has led up to being finally able to explore Sexxx Dreams and the other songs on the magical journey that is Artpop.
This is "light magic", again. But all I deserve is light magic right now: I've been out of touch with Gaga. I have not watched any videos of the Cheek to Cheek tour and have not even been on facebook for a few weeks so I don't know what she is up to. Tonight I saw her dress for the Met Ball red carpet, on TV. She looked beautiful but I can't connect with anything she is doing because I have not been paying attention. I've been working on some music with my friend, making our band. Did Obama read my last gagablog and steal my gardening analogy? No, certainly not. Did my unread idea magically cause him to use that phrase? Maybe, depends on what you think of magic. But there is a light connection, light magic, between these events, even if you just call it coincidence. I don't own the garden analogy but it is significant why I found it so useful and the president did, too. It has to do with inevitability and purpose. A garden grows, that is what it is mean to do. The plants, the harvest, are the "truth" that we must get to: justice. We must know that we can get there and always have it in mind as we keep working towards it, in major, fantastic ways when possible but also with our every mundane action. This is one meaning of the Buddhist phrase "before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
I introduced the concept of Quantum Sex Cults one month ago today, on May 10th, 2015. I wrote a draft of a gagablog about it but it went off on long tangents, imagine that. I thought I would edit it after gagablog 83 but the day after I wrote that I heard some of the Supreme Court Justices' deliberations about gay marriage and it made a simpler way to address it. Basically all religions are designed to (re)connect people and all of life with "the divine" but it seems as if no religion manages to promote the full variety of sexuality. I believe this is a major reason why so many people identify as "spiritual" instead of "religious" because religion as we know it does not fully promote all of humanity. We make new religions, all the time, and are reforming existing religions, all day. I like to think some eastern or other religions are more pro-sexuality but one of my hopes was for the Kama Sutra and I finally read some of it and what a preachy and judgmental book! And I'm sure some religions are far more positive about sexuality but a lot of what I and other Americans are exposed to is based on sexual repression. Although it improves as religions reform there is a strong core which is against sexuality which coincides with being anti-woman and we see the results of this in culture wars in America. Ted Cruz recently rallied his base by saying there is a war against "Christianity" and maybe there should be a war against his kind of "Christians" but they should know that Jesus is on our side and they will lose it miserably and should just give in now and save us all the trouble.
Religions can be really good at guiding people's lives, especially for certain people in certain places and times. It can get confusing or problematic or wrong to try to apply the same guides to different places, times, and people. The idea is that religious ideas, being divine, are going to play in more places and times than regular ideas. Some religious ideas are basically universal and do apply everywhere, like "Be Nice." But one that has never played too well anywhere or any time is restrictions on sexuality. And there is no way it can: religion, as it exists today, cannot fully promote the variety of sexuality. While some decisions it makes good sense to seek the guidance of a religious system, sexuality is too personal and fluid to fit into any system of rigidity. There could be a new kind of system designed to promote everyone's sexuality but the reason this kind of system would be radically different from existing religions is there could be no centralized control and no one group to profit off of others. It has to be completely organic. Like gardening, it is going to happen, it's just a matter of getting in tune with nature to let it happen. And the same process applies to all Justice issues, from bigotry, racism, poverty, and misogyny to environmentalism. We have to allow the Goddess and Sexuality to emerge. There is no forcing it into any preconceived design, but the design is already there, Nature, if we are willing to start living harmoniously with it.
This is how it works via Quantum Sex Cults. I realized two things when I came up with the Sex Cult idea: Adults aren't going to "get" Gaga magic just yet - they are too far removed from imagination and magic. But we can sell them the idea as simply a "Sex Cult" and fill in the magical and fairy tale details, the art side, later. Also I realized that alternative spiritual movements might be fueled by a desire for acceptance of sexuality or other unjustly repressed factors such as inclusivity or environmentalism. But one accusation that has been leveled against alternative spirituality, especially witchcraft and other goddess-based religions, is that they might secretly be a Sex Cult. This is scary for two reasons: social repression has made it likely that "sex" itself is a scary concept to people but more than that, all the examples of "Sex Cults" we have seem to be depraved and abusive situations. The reason for this is that they are reactions to social repression that utilize old, controlling models of religion. The only way for a religious system to really promote sexuality is if it gives up all ideas of "central authority". This is what makes the "Quantum" characterization so necessary. I've been saying for years that there will be a revolution and only New Organizations will survive: Old Orgs are patriarchal and serve one dominant desire at the top of a hierarchy. The New Orgs will be lateral and serve everyone in them, not one dominant desire. This is already becoming obvious in the business world and the orgs that change the most fastest will be most successful in the future. A Sex Cult based on the old model is not only doomed, it is just a distillation of the evil it claims to address: there is no way someone can dictate to someone else about sexuality. Bringing "God" into that just reveals an even deeper disconnection with the divine, not a leader. Because the truth is we are all our own leaders, sexually. Yes we can, do, and should learn sexuality from each other and we will get much better at it after we liberate ourselves from repression. Religion might be great, as it is, for teaching us all sorts of non-sexual spiritual things but for sex we are our own guardian angels and can only tell ourselves what to do, and can only do get our own instructions by looking within. The beauty of being in love is sharing these instructions and looking within both/all of you together. So many good developments in spirituality and religion, in magic, have been stifled for fear of being labeled a sex cult. I see it all the time: groups who have every possibility to be or become sexual but avoid crossing over into that taboo area. So I realized that coming right out with it and proudly declaring yourself a Sex Cult is the best way to go ahead and liberate sexuality and restore spirituality to all kinds of sex and desire. The "Quantum" idea is to designate it as a "new" development but also because it is focused on "the smallest unit". This idea also defeats the argument of conservative justices about "States Rights" (and Citizens United)
The reason why they are "Quantum" Sex Cults is because everyone is the star, center, leader, high priestess, pope, or whatever role they want to play in "their" sex cult. "Everybody" (except kids, of course) the entire world of sexual people are already "in" the Sex Cult - there is no initiation. There is no structure to it other than the quantum structure of the universe: everyone is their own Sex Cult, and every group that exists or forms around sexuality is a Sex Cult. And it is a good thing because Quantum Sex Cults have to be as true as possible to everyone's desire. The model works for an individual and group and also within an individual. Sexuality can be so complex we likely have aspects and desires which are hidden. If we give each of these qualities and dimensions within ourselves an exalted status as the star of it's own Sex Cult we can explore them more freely and safely. You might only want to wear a cape in bed one night a month, for instance, but when you do then it is Captain Erotico's Sex Cult that night and you can really let yourself go into being her. The idea is to promote all sexuality for it's spiritual and magical dimensions, not to apply some existing concepts to sexuality, though of course sharing more information and greater awareness will benefit everyone. But it all starts with the individual, honoring the individual and honoring the wide spectrum of desire even within each individual. Of course most people prefer sex with others but for those who like it best alone this model can encourage and support discovery and pleasure and help remove the heavy social shame against masturbation. People who are lucky enough to enjoy sex with others will benefit from this model, too, in order to be eager and supportive to discover and explore each other's desires. Of course each person is the center of any couple or group they are in, so the action takes place in the spaces where participants desires overlap. Getting accustomed to this model should encourage more free, open, and unashamed approaches to sex and help people find partners and other people to be "in" their cult. And it should help people in committed relationships that don't want "more people" find more about each other to enjoy. But mostly it wins the culture war against the conservatives who are responsible for and profit from the whole social system of sexual repression - and responsible for unjust laws that enforce it.
when I heard the conservative justices talk about their objections to making Gay Marriage the law of the land, they seemed to be worried about "States' Rights" or this idea of a State as an entity with feelings - which reminds me of the Citizens United premise that organizations are "people" entitled to free speech. It's not just coincidence that many recent claims for States' Rights have been used to justify states banning gay marriage and that States' Rights has been the so-called ideal for continuing racial oppression for over a century. In these cases, State's Right's are just plain evil. The idea is that a state has feelings and those feelings will be hurt if we allow justice for all it's citizens. This is the same argument conservatives use to resist all sorts of changes and it is solidly evil when used this way. The greatest need people have, psychologically, is to belong. So of course we enjoy feeling like we belong to whatever we might belong to that we like, including the state we live in. I could go on and on about how weird it is to hear how people on TV talk about "Colorado" and "Coloradoans" like we are the only people who matter in the world - they just never talked like that in Georgia or mentioned the word Georgia even a tenth as much as they do here. Since everyone wants to belong this appeals to people, makes them feel like they do belong to be constantly reminded of "who" and where they are. But not everyone is always included: here in Colorado we had an asshole running for office who wanted to ban Spanish in all government buildings. In Georgia we had a debate and elected Republican politicians for their racist promises to restore the confederate flag as our state flag. And now some states try to keep gay people from marrying. In each of these cases, a group is saying that even though you are a "member" of the group in some way, you are not an equal member. Hillary Clinton just made this a national campaign point: no republican presidential candidate accepts a path to citizenship for immigrants, but at best they want to make immigrants second-class citizens. In all cases where State's Rights are the reason for denying peoples' rights, for restricting liberty, we are continuing evil of the same nature as slavery, with the same arguments. I can support State's Rights when the state is liberating people, such as Colorado legalizing weed. When it was medical only I did not want to participate: I could not justify joining an "elite" class with special rights, but I did as a path to even greater liberation and it worked. While I am morally opposed to any privileged class, it was still a rebellion against even greater evil of complete illegality, and it was a step in the right direction. I support our State's Right to legalize weed, but only because I see it as a step towards national legalization, not because it gives us something no one else can have. If it did not spread to other states I would not feel guilty enjoying the status here, but I don't think that is possible: it must and well spread all over the country. This is the how Progress works: always getting more liberation for more people, more inclusion of everyone into whatever organization or group there may be, and evolution of those groups to include and serve the most people in the most ways.
If it is not obvious how Quantum Sex Cults are the opposition that will defeat conservativism, elitism, and repression, just use some examples. A perverted Sex Cult is perverted precisely because some people have control or influence over others due to status, to elitism. Quantum Sex Cults are by definition non-elitist, inclusive: each one includes the tastes of it's "star", and there are billions of stars so all tastes are represented and honored. The process of people relating to each other in this encouraging way instead of in ashamed ways will lead to new networks that defy the old networks with their prejudiced standards. These are the kinds of communities the Love God Jesus intended for us, and are the communities the Goddess of Love Gaga is creating and modeling for us today. We are naturally opposed to "religion" and conservative mentality that says only certain kinds of sex are acceptable and denies rights to non-conformists. And we have truth, Justice, Love, Art, Jesus, the BEST American way, etc, on our side. We Can't Lose for so many reasons: it's not possible but it's also not acceptable to not try all we can do, to be the best gardeners we can. Because we are destined to reach liberaqtion, inclusion, and justice for all people. But we have to tend to things, hold to our ideals and care for things, to realize it. This is gardening. And we are all sharing the same Garden, even if some people don't seem to be in on the secret.
Another example from world events about how this elitism is the actual evil force behind all other evil forces comes from Israel where Ethiopian Jews are protesting being abused by white Israeli police. When I first heard this story it triggered feelings of resentment over Israeli-Palestinian relations in which the Israeli side always acts superior and entitled. And it reminds me of how anti-Semitism is so vehemently opposed - but in this case, oppressing Ethiopian Jews is technically anti-Semitism even if the oppressors are Jewish so apparently this is not as rigorously held ideal in all cases, or perhaps racism trumps it. I heard a quote from one of the protestors that said they don't want to identify too closely with the black protestors in America, which at first I heard through the lens of racism and elitism and thought "wow, even subjected to racism they are still being racist themselves and saying 'we don't want to be associated with THEM'" - but when I heard what he had to say to explain it I was ashamed for thinking that. He said he did not want to imagine that hundreds of years in the future they would still be being mistreated - not that black Americans deserve to be, just that they don't want to think they will still be suffering like that in the distant future, too - and no one should. I will admit I did not know Ethiopian Jews even existed before this news story, yet it is easy and obvious for me to see injustice and want to stand up for their rights. And the same goes for all oppressed groups, whether we have heard of them or not. We should have that philosophy. And when we do know who they are, or anything about the situation, that gives us the duty to learn more and do whatever we can to help.
The next Gagablog will also be a preview for Sexxx Dreams. It will be called "Fantasies, Classic Books, and Dreams" and it was too much to include here. But it is connected to this one through reading media magic: I've read a number of classic books in the last year which have magically influenced the crushes I have had on girls in that time period. I am currently re-reading "The Secret Garden" and it is far more beautiful to me now than it was years ago, when I might have had some envious resistance to Dickon. But now I accept more of what a beautiful story it is, maybe because I've been working with abused and neglected kids in the years since I last read it. But I see how the secret Garden is such a mystical analogy - and notice the author capitalizes "Magic". I see it in this case of world events, too, and an analogy for the Quantum Sex Cults as well: people who are "left out" are only left out until they can be trusted, but the Secret Garden heals us all, eventually. I see how we should all be looking for the bumps in our souls which show something is about to bud and shoot out, but instead elitists and conservatives are worried about things breaking out in other people: new paradigms, new definitions of marriage. These developments don't actually threaten anyone at all, only threaten the way they have kept things that give them advantages others don't have - but that is an unnatural arrangement to begin with and must be swept away for one that harmonizes with nature, allowing and embracing all it's glorious variety. The next preview will be about how some classic literature made magical connections with my imagined love life and fantasies and how this whole year or so, plus all my life up to this point, has led up to being finally able to explore Sexxx Dreams and the other songs on the magical journey that is Artpop.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Gagablog 83: Police Protests and Marriage Equality: Supreme Court Ends Hateful Laws TODAY, People Replace a Broken System SOON
I have a draft for a prelude to discussing Sexxx Dreams that is all about a new vision I had a couple of weeks ago for Quantum Sex Cults. I thought I would finish that and then write this one, but this is more important to do today, now, this morning at 4:20 AM mountain time.
I don't know what Gaga has been up to, I think she is still on Cheek to Cheek tour, now, and I have seen some things about her working on new songs. But the last thing I remember seeing her "do" is watering her garden. In a magical sense she is nourishing seeds she planted previously and in this way this one image of her - in her white outfit with her watering can - is symbolic of nurturing Justice: She planted seeds of justice by supporting gay rights and marriage equality and continues to do this. Watering seeds is necessary to grow plants, but the magical message I am taking from this image, at this time, is that in the future we will have plants, and we will have justice. This is something we must know and believe in - otherwise it would be pointless to water dirt. But just believing we will one day have plants and justice is not enough, we must do the watering, too. We must work towards it. And when it is issues of justice, whether it is marriage equality or ending police brutality and murder, we can know that we are on the Bright Side of History, that our ideals are of the future and what the future will be founded upon, and this faith and knowledge can inspire us so that we are using the purest, most magical water and care in our actions, but we need to have those actions, too.
We need both, faith and work, and our work is better when it is done with faith. If Gaga were to put out a message today to try to sway the court's decision it would probably not reach or influence them, even though she is Gaga. But she has been putting this message and call for equality out there for years, many people have, and our efforts are bearing fruit in poll numbers that show the majority of Americans now support gay marriage and this number keeps growing. I've heard some people being interviewed on the news who represent the fearful conservatives who say the court should not decide this issue because then we will debate it politically, while at the same time claiming the right thing to do is let states decide and continue to debate it politically. Don't try to understand that, these people are idiots and it makes no sense. The truth is, if you believe in the process you have to be able to believe, ultimately, in all of the process. I think most Americans disagree with the Supreme Court decision, as it now stands, that corporations are "people" and can spend as much as they want to influence and buy elections. And we will change this, either with a better decision by them or through another mechanism, even a constitutional amendment. In discussing this upcoming case, pundits on NPR were comparing the decision to ones made over anti-sodomy laws in Georgia and Texas. The first upheld Georgia's homophobic, oppressive and perverted laws against some kinds of sex that makes folks' sex into government business, but a generation later they overturned sodomy laws. The same process happened with laws against interracial marriage: the court upheld them, continuing racism, then overturned them a generation later. This is how the system works. If people have a problem with gay marriage and they think it is an actual social problem, not just their own bigotry and idiocy, then surely the rest of society will see the problem and demand the courts and government change course. But this won't happen, just like we will never go back to making pot illegal but more and more places will legalize it. Because there is nothing wrong with weed and nothing wrong with gay marriage and the more people are aware of that the less chance fearmongering will lead to oppressive laws.
This is just The Future coming true. I wondered what my role would be today in magically influencing the course of history as the Supreme Court hears this case. I thought how pathetic the whiners sound who are afraid the court will decide against them, that they are going to do the same thing they did with abortion and whine about it and elect war-loving 1% assholes in order to try to "get their way" - oppression - but they won't get their way, ultimately, because their way is wrong. Just like they will never "get their way" that we won't do anything about global warming because if we don't there won't be anybody's "way" to get because we will all be dead. There is no reason to respect ideas based on fear and idiocy. Now, will our court make a decision that is fearful and idiotic? Maybe - we are apparently relying on Justice Kennedy to join the liberal justices to end anti-gay marriage laws. But it will be the wrong decision if they do that, and we will have to change it in the future and work hard to do so. But even when they make the right decision, hopefully today or soon regarding this case, or in the future - but whenever it is we will still have work to do, to counter the "blowback" from conservatives and to ensure justice for all people who are oppressed in other ways. Even if they plant the seeds of justice today we still have to water them and bring them to flower. And while I hope we will have a breakthrough on this social justice issue, we severely need one to address police brutality, too.
The news was reporting that the Ayatollah of Iran was tweeting to shame America for police murders of black folks even when we have a black president. He's right. We should be ashamed and we should be doing more about it. They are burning down parts of Baltimore now, and the Man (woman mayor, in this case) calls them Thugs. But they are us. They want us to accept that communities and police must work together, but that does not mean we have to accept police brutality. To me, it means we should start training replacement police forces in case we have to fire or jail whole departments. It means the police have to change, and change a lot, if they want to keep their jobs and lives. They are saying gangs are now putting aside their differences in order to kill cops in the upcoming chaos in Baltimore. (CORRECTION: this was a bad early report and I checked FOX News and they are still reporting that the gang pacts are to kill cops - and maybe they are elsewhere. But the pastor from Baltimore said the local gangs there had formed a pact with him and other religious leaders to commit to Non-Violence, and that the rioters were high school students and incited by an outside gang, the Black Guerillas. So this just shows the gangs are more responsible than the cops, or the media, and the gangs organization may be what is needed to fill the power vacuum.) Violence is not the answer but it can sure bring a lot of attention to what the problems are - and when they try to hide, deny, and ignore the problems that is what you get. In too many cases the police ARE the problem and need to own up to it and change instead of trying to blame the victims, the people. The police, the army, the US government - all of these are powerful, in a way. But the greater power is the truth of Justice and Love, the truth of the Future. Because the only way we can even have a future is if we build it from the foundations of Justice and Love. And if the power of the system is continued to be used as an obstacle to that future, well, this system will collapse - into smoke and rubble or into fields of green and flowers. But if it does not change it will go away and we will be better off without it. But it can change, and will - this is the beauty and promise of democracy.
Some people don't really believe in democracy, just assume this system has kept them privileged and don't want to change a thing. Conservatives don't believe in democracy because they know the will of the people will not allow them to continue certain oppressive ways. If they really thought they represented a majority they would calm down and let the votes sort it out. But they don't, they believe in voter suppression so only "their kind" of people can make the decisions. And when they are afraid the Supreme Court will undo their fake democracy they denounce it. I'm not saying I have faith in the Court, only that I do have faith that marriage equality is the right thing and like all issues of justice, those who stand in the way will ultimately be swept away. But when I imagine how this will go today, I just can only see liberals happy and conservatives upset about the outcome, which is the way it should be. Because conservatives are just wrong, and maybe when they actually realize that they, or people they know, are gay, when they actually go to some gay weddings and have a good time, when they toke up some weed in a non-judgmental or incarceration-y environment - or when record temperatures melt their cars or more record snowstorms bury them - they will see the error of their ways. In the meantime, if a decision by 9 (or 5, really) justices can make changes in the world that allow more people to live freely, with less fear, and allow all of society to benefit from that openness - as we are finding as weed becomes more and more socially acceptable - then that is what needs to happen and will happen. I am writing this not exactly to be prophetic, just to add some water.
Justice isn't instant. But the dust of justice is everywhere, waiting to come to life. Just add water: you're awareness, your work, your emotions to share the stories that change folks' hearts. So believe, because we are voting and singing and rioting our way to a better day. And let's all take care of this garden we share, our community of beings and the earth itself, by tending our gardens and honoring the seeds our hearts have planted by seeing them through to flowering. Paws up for Justice and Equality! Thanks, Gaga, for growing us, your babies, so lovingly! I love you!
I don't know what Gaga has been up to, I think she is still on Cheek to Cheek tour, now, and I have seen some things about her working on new songs. But the last thing I remember seeing her "do" is watering her garden. In a magical sense she is nourishing seeds she planted previously and in this way this one image of her - in her white outfit with her watering can - is symbolic of nurturing Justice: She planted seeds of justice by supporting gay rights and marriage equality and continues to do this. Watering seeds is necessary to grow plants, but the magical message I am taking from this image, at this time, is that in the future we will have plants, and we will have justice. This is something we must know and believe in - otherwise it would be pointless to water dirt. But just believing we will one day have plants and justice is not enough, we must do the watering, too. We must work towards it. And when it is issues of justice, whether it is marriage equality or ending police brutality and murder, we can know that we are on the Bright Side of History, that our ideals are of the future and what the future will be founded upon, and this faith and knowledge can inspire us so that we are using the purest, most magical water and care in our actions, but we need to have those actions, too.
We need both, faith and work, and our work is better when it is done with faith. If Gaga were to put out a message today to try to sway the court's decision it would probably not reach or influence them, even though she is Gaga. But she has been putting this message and call for equality out there for years, many people have, and our efforts are bearing fruit in poll numbers that show the majority of Americans now support gay marriage and this number keeps growing. I've heard some people being interviewed on the news who represent the fearful conservatives who say the court should not decide this issue because then we will debate it politically, while at the same time claiming the right thing to do is let states decide and continue to debate it politically. Don't try to understand that, these people are idiots and it makes no sense. The truth is, if you believe in the process you have to be able to believe, ultimately, in all of the process. I think most Americans disagree with the Supreme Court decision, as it now stands, that corporations are "people" and can spend as much as they want to influence and buy elections. And we will change this, either with a better decision by them or through another mechanism, even a constitutional amendment. In discussing this upcoming case, pundits on NPR were comparing the decision to ones made over anti-sodomy laws in Georgia and Texas. The first upheld Georgia's homophobic, oppressive and perverted laws against some kinds of sex that makes folks' sex into government business, but a generation later they overturned sodomy laws. The same process happened with laws against interracial marriage: the court upheld them, continuing racism, then overturned them a generation later. This is how the system works. If people have a problem with gay marriage and they think it is an actual social problem, not just their own bigotry and idiocy, then surely the rest of society will see the problem and demand the courts and government change course. But this won't happen, just like we will never go back to making pot illegal but more and more places will legalize it. Because there is nothing wrong with weed and nothing wrong with gay marriage and the more people are aware of that the less chance fearmongering will lead to oppressive laws.
This is just The Future coming true. I wondered what my role would be today in magically influencing the course of history as the Supreme Court hears this case. I thought how pathetic the whiners sound who are afraid the court will decide against them, that they are going to do the same thing they did with abortion and whine about it and elect war-loving 1% assholes in order to try to "get their way" - oppression - but they won't get their way, ultimately, because their way is wrong. Just like they will never "get their way" that we won't do anything about global warming because if we don't there won't be anybody's "way" to get because we will all be dead. There is no reason to respect ideas based on fear and idiocy. Now, will our court make a decision that is fearful and idiotic? Maybe - we are apparently relying on Justice Kennedy to join the liberal justices to end anti-gay marriage laws. But it will be the wrong decision if they do that, and we will have to change it in the future and work hard to do so. But even when they make the right decision, hopefully today or soon regarding this case, or in the future - but whenever it is we will still have work to do, to counter the "blowback" from conservatives and to ensure justice for all people who are oppressed in other ways. Even if they plant the seeds of justice today we still have to water them and bring them to flower. And while I hope we will have a breakthrough on this social justice issue, we severely need one to address police brutality, too.
The news was reporting that the Ayatollah of Iran was tweeting to shame America for police murders of black folks even when we have a black president. He's right. We should be ashamed and we should be doing more about it. They are burning down parts of Baltimore now, and the Man (woman mayor, in this case) calls them Thugs. But they are us. They want us to accept that communities and police must work together, but that does not mean we have to accept police brutality. To me, it means we should start training replacement police forces in case we have to fire or jail whole departments. It means the police have to change, and change a lot, if they want to keep their jobs and lives. They are saying gangs are now putting aside their differences in order to kill cops in the upcoming chaos in Baltimore. (CORRECTION: this was a bad early report and I checked FOX News and they are still reporting that the gang pacts are to kill cops - and maybe they are elsewhere. But the pastor from Baltimore said the local gangs there had formed a pact with him and other religious leaders to commit to Non-Violence, and that the rioters were high school students and incited by an outside gang, the Black Guerillas. So this just shows the gangs are more responsible than the cops, or the media, and the gangs organization may be what is needed to fill the power vacuum.) Violence is not the answer but it can sure bring a lot of attention to what the problems are - and when they try to hide, deny, and ignore the problems that is what you get. In too many cases the police ARE the problem and need to own up to it and change instead of trying to blame the victims, the people. The police, the army, the US government - all of these are powerful, in a way. But the greater power is the truth of Justice and Love, the truth of the Future. Because the only way we can even have a future is if we build it from the foundations of Justice and Love. And if the power of the system is continued to be used as an obstacle to that future, well, this system will collapse - into smoke and rubble or into fields of green and flowers. But if it does not change it will go away and we will be better off without it. But it can change, and will - this is the beauty and promise of democracy.
Some people don't really believe in democracy, just assume this system has kept them privileged and don't want to change a thing. Conservatives don't believe in democracy because they know the will of the people will not allow them to continue certain oppressive ways. If they really thought they represented a majority they would calm down and let the votes sort it out. But they don't, they believe in voter suppression so only "their kind" of people can make the decisions. And when they are afraid the Supreme Court will undo their fake democracy they denounce it. I'm not saying I have faith in the Court, only that I do have faith that marriage equality is the right thing and like all issues of justice, those who stand in the way will ultimately be swept away. But when I imagine how this will go today, I just can only see liberals happy and conservatives upset about the outcome, which is the way it should be. Because conservatives are just wrong, and maybe when they actually realize that they, or people they know, are gay, when they actually go to some gay weddings and have a good time, when they toke up some weed in a non-judgmental or incarceration-y environment - or when record temperatures melt their cars or more record snowstorms bury them - they will see the error of their ways. In the meantime, if a decision by 9 (or 5, really) justices can make changes in the world that allow more people to live freely, with less fear, and allow all of society to benefit from that openness - as we are finding as weed becomes more and more socially acceptable - then that is what needs to happen and will happen. I am writing this not exactly to be prophetic, just to add some water.
Justice isn't instant. But the dust of justice is everywhere, waiting to come to life. Just add water: you're awareness, your work, your emotions to share the stories that change folks' hearts. So believe, because we are voting and singing and rioting our way to a better day. And let's all take care of this garden we share, our community of beings and the earth itself, by tending our gardens and honoring the seeds our hearts have planted by seeing them through to flowering. Paws up for Justice and Equality! Thanks, Gaga, for growing us, your babies, so lovingly! I love you!
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