Stuart Davis

I love the guy.  He's funny as hell, spiritual as shit and then some, and has incredible lyrics and tons of energy and enthusiasm.  Plus he writes some really entertaining and insightful stuff on his blog.  In this thread I'll probably quote some lyrics and blog stuff, and I'd encourage any other Stu fans here to do the same.

Here's one of my favourite blog entries of his; all of the movies on his list are great.  WATCH THEM.  You'll be glad you did.  :)

Top Five Mystical Films

Song Of The Day: Cut Off Your Head / Jim's Big Ego
Word Of The Day: Gematria / A cabbalistic method of interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures by computing the numerical value of words, based on those of their constituent letters. (from the Aramaic 'gimatreya', which is from Greek 'geometria')

All right, I've been thinking about movies a bit more since my recent blog on Star Wars. Here now, is my Top Five All-Time Esoteric Major Motion Pictures. It's pretty easy to compose this list, since there are literally only a handful of films that even possess a developed sense of the Mystery, but they have been mind-blowing masterpieces, and I have listed them below. Think of this list as a papal dictate; It's eternal, issued directly from God THROUGH me, and wholly infallible. But even with God herSelf on my side, there must be a method to this ranking, and I will now tell you how I calibrate my system. There are four crucial items for a film making it on this list:

1, Was it ENTERTAINING? Setting aside the Mystery, did I get bored? That's why Waking Life is not on this list, it put me to sleep. Yeah, I know it was deep and brilliant, and it's all one huge Buddhist metaphor, but it was boring. What The Bleep did not make it on this list because for starters that chick Ramtha is just fucking weird, not Good Weird either, she reminds me of some Scientologist Branch Davidian Adi Da Devote. Here's a little note to the kids hanging at her table in the Mystical lunch room: STARING without blinking while you talk to someone is not an indication of the depth of your spiritual realization. It is a sign of your spooky perversion. Knock it off. Anyway, category #1 is HOW ENTERTAINING WAS IT?

2, Depth of REALIZATION. Category two in our candidate's challenge is measured by the “Depth Finder”. What you do is simply take the ENTIRE contents of the film -its script, its direction, cinematography, the degree of stabilized awakening of each of its primary actors and actresses- and drop them into the Abyss Of Love (located in the non-locatable center of YOU, and if you don't know where that is, come back to this blog in a few more life times). Once you release the film into that Void, you count; One, Two, Three, Four, and so on. If a film bounces back up to you within 30 seconds, I hate to say it, but YOU do not have an adequate access to the Abyss, and the movies are being rejected for measurement because of your insufficient realization. If the movies bounce back within 60 seconds, they are being rejected because of limitations inherent in the FILM, and they cannot be considered for inclusion in our Top Five All Time Awesome Esoteric Films.

3, Capacity to INHABIT and EXPRESS its realization. It's one thing for a film to possess great depth of ~!~?~!~ (Waking Life, What The Bleep), but it's another entirely for it to express the trans-rational insight with surprise, beauty, and a profound sense of Un-Knowing that leaves us in awe and wonder at the Miraculous way it all fits together once we detonate the Kosmic Question Mark in our heart. Also known as the Backward Step, this is true Zero-Point energy, as it emanates out of the value 'Zero' issued from the Point Of All Places. Again, if you do not have access to the non-locatable Point Of All Places or our numerical origin in Zero-Sum, in terms of conducting this research you are not a sufficiently advanced Human Biological Measuring Instrument. This is also why virtually ALL film critics and their criticism are irrelevent when it comes to these films and related discussions. These films are beyond their province. Period. Not one critic had a CLUE when it came to Mulholland Drive, because they are critics, not practitioners, they are not agents in the ~!~?~!~….yet. For now, relying on Leonard Maltin and Gene Shalit to tell us what Mulholland Drive is about is like giving a box of Rubic's cubes to drugged monkeys. It's an inappropriate combination.

4, CONFLUENCE. Above all else, these films must transmit ~!~?~!~ to us through a confluence of powers which transcend any of their constituent parts. Being ENTERTAINING (#1) is “necessary, but not sufficient” for the activation of depth of REALIZATION (to paraphrase Ken Wilber), which is necessary but not sufficient for the capacity to INHABIT AND EXPRESS the Backward Step, which is necessary but not sufficient for pollination of the God-Flower “IS” in the Human Being, and it goes on and on. The Zero-Sum is not beholden to its parts, but the Promise would never deliver without their accord. One missing part will fracture the Whole; If you have every other element in line, but you have a confused, deluded actor or actress in the lead, forget it. It's now going to be Vanilla Sky instead of Thin Red Line. The same principle applies to all four quadrants. I always wondered why Zoolander wasn't more successful (not that it's in the running for this list, but it's a tangential example), till someone pointed out that it was released at the time of 9/11, and the public just wasn't up for a funny movie, it sort of got buried. In one sense, the public is never ready for the movies in the list below, because they present such significant challenges to World Views, to our notions of Reality, our sense of identity; Their greatness comes from a willingness to question our basic assumptions, but do it in ways that are not half-baked (Phenomenon- Hey Jon, Hubbard called and the space ship will you pick you up at midnight) megalomaniacally indulgent (The Passion- hey, Mel, Manson called and he wants his brain back), judgemental (Saved- hey Brian Dannelly, Irony and Stereotype called, they wanted to thank you for hooking them up and let you know they gave birth to a 92-Minute baby they're naming Flatland), or careful to “protect us” from the death of our relative, finite self-identity (Life Or Something Like It- Angelina, Lateral Movement called and said if you just drop your selfish tack on romance and fear of death, it will reward you with the perfect guy and postpone your death). The truly great esoteric films -like truly great esoteric teachers- understand that the combination which unlocks our largest Love is not going to come from pandering to our shallow desire for comfort, or our self-reinforcing addiction to consolation in the form of Story Morphine coupled with pretty pictures. Great esoteric movies employ a creative algorythym which cannot be reversed engineered, duplicated, or even deduced.

Lastly, I want to point out that this is a list of the top five Esoteric films, meaning those exhibiting conscious participation in the Mystery through film. There are many totally kick ass movies that won't be on this list cuz they're just not Esoteric films. Garden State, Manhatten, Dr. Zhivago and a hundred others would make my list of Masterpieces, but that's a different list. And I do have to say that I think the list of films below are in a category by themselves, and it is indeed the Greatest of the Greats. It's hard enough to make a kick ass film, but it's a truly singular feat of Integral Genius to accomplish what the films below have done; Going deep AND wide with an utterly unique invention. I give you now, the

Top Five Esoteric Films:

#5, American Beauty

It's all there, a panormic display of surfaces, lust, desire, greed, confusion, repression, hope and fear, all building into vortex of ultimate release detonated in that climactic the Death of Delusion. Each of these perfect characters are an aspect of our Self, dancing through the choreography of pain known as the human condition until we are finally left exposed, bare, and transparent to experience of Divinity hiding in each wound. This film is the magnificent embodiment of the Leonard Cohen lyric “there is a crack in everything, that's how the Light gets in…”. Kevin Spacey's voice-over in the last moments of the movie stand as some of the greatest secret teaching to make their way into the hearts of millions in the history of our collective search. A Western film through and through, it carries all of the potency of the World's wisdom traditions in a truly Occidental fashion, celebrating and embracing our unique conundrum in this time and age, forging new Alchemical Keys for this culture, instead of going for the easy-cheesy formula of feeding more Eastern snacks to hungry Westerners that can't -and shouldn't- digest Eastern soup. And that in itself is an enormous gift that will go on for generations. American Beauty is the Dharma springing to life in North America, a midwife to a baby Buddha bouncing through suburbs and strip malls, using a midas touch to unveil the Reality Behind the Appearances in our fascination with the constellation of distractions we so often mistake for “meaning”.

#4, Dancer In The Dark

Bjork's performance in this films is, by itself a miracle. It's exceedingly rare to find a performer so capable and willing to surrunder so completely in each moment of a song, to fearlessly explore and celebrate all the facets of being, and to harness it with gifts of expression that are truly historical. This is the musical difference between Bjork and Radiohead; While radiohead is chronically trapped and fused with the postmodern malaise, mesmerized by the innumerable shades of the Shadow passing over the planet, and admirably devoted to sounding a warning to the sleepwalkers, Bjork is actually able to lead us through it, to drop us profound hints left and right, that if you gaze into the Puzzle without clenching any certain lense, the vision changes. It is not only dark, it is not only light. While artists like Radiohead seem determined to expose the sinister Conspiracy at every turn, Bjork has found a freedom that allows her to look at things from any angle, since she's not ultimately married to any one view, she can see through the Shadow that is Radiohead's Eclipse. Bjork knows the way out of the Haunted House, but she doesn't sugar-coat it for us either. We get a real sense of what this Occidental Goddess is up to in Dancer In The Dark every time she bursts into phrases like these:

I've seen it all, I've seen the dark
I've seen the brightness in one little spark.
I've seen what I chose and I've seen what I need,
And that is enough, to want more would be greed.
I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be
I've seen it all - there is no more to see!

You've seen it all and all you have seen
You can always review on your own little screen
The light and the dark, the big and the small
Just keep in mind - you need no more at all
You've seen what you were and know what you'll be
You've seen it all - there is no more to see!

In addition to the insane vulnerability she holds through the entire film and the desperate intimacy we come to have with her character's plight, she continually dunks us into the Music of the Spheres. Her character hears and experiences music everywhere, emanating from everything, reminding us that all we have to do is adjust our Self, and we become antennas, instantly submerged in a infinite song that's always there, we've just filtered it out, compressed the infinite into bite-sized bits that our separate self finds more manageable. In a beautiful turn of surprise, silence is an incredibly powerful felt presence in this movie, and shows up over and over in a way that amplifies all the emotional force of the struggle to maintain contact with that invisible beauty of the God-song. Perhaps most important is how richly varied that song is, at turns comforting, sweet, and then achingly bitter and somber. Listening and watching Bjork, I can't help be reminded how limited my frequency can become, as I give in again and againn to the seduction of parsing that Big Song into tiny phrases. But then remembering that, I'm inspired to surrender again into letting it just be what is IS, not what I want it to be. This film again, doesn't make any attempt to inject us with pre-fab spirituality or the easy insights, but it shines through with all the Shadow and Light of Love, because Bjork is one of those rare Prisms that is willing and able to include every luminous event in the spectrum, from black hole to effulgent super-nova.

#3, Thin Red Line

In the opening of this film, we hear the Narrative voice say something like “Who are you to assume so many forms?” as his character floats through a secret Eden in the jungle, and that phrase sets the tone for the entire film. Through the eyes of the lead character Witt, we perceive the Presence of the Mystery in everyone, in every thing, all within the most radical paradox humanity has produced: War. Through some of the most brilliant direction and cinematography ever produced on the big screen, we are allowed into the secret life of God, but not in any manner we might expect from our conditioned, programmed notions of the Divine. This is a film that opens the aperture in the audience, and without sidestepping the agonizing brutality, without denying the painful contradictions of love and life, lifts us above and beyond the limits of our brain and its endless battles (the war of separate selves, occuring all around, while in the midst of it, the Self abides and includes all equally, without judgment). In the middle of death, disease, darkness, the movie deftly opens parallel vistas, glimpses of some Unknowable going on about its business, bathed in light, adorned in color and beauty, continuing its inexorable flow of Life not only in spite of the darkness of war, but in concert with it, in participation with it in ways our heads will never grasp, but our hearts are always teetering on the edge of discovering. And this movie is a gentle push, sending us tumbling over the event horizon into a place of disappearing. In the end, when Witt meets his death and makes a conscious choice to let himself be killed instead of captured, it is in the heart, not the head, that we recognize that we resting in something that cannot be killed, it is unborn, undying, and after watching Witt live as this reality for so much of the film, we are there with him as he sees the enemy soldiers and himself, and the beauty of the jungle, and the millions of individual stories and lifetimes of insects, animals, plants, people, countries, planets, and all that ever was or will be, as ONE. As Genpo Roshi once said, “it's only confusing if you try to understand it.” At the moment of death, Witt (short for “witness”?) radiates more than ever, released into everything around him, inlcuding us, and we are left with a palpable experience of that which is truly indestructable, and indescribable. How could we ever wish for more from a movie?

#2, Mulholland Drive

It's widely known David Lynch has been a meditator for decades, and that certainly goes a long way toward helping us decipher this film, in as much as “deciphering” refers to the intuitive apprehension of trans-rational insight. Mulholland Drive is perhaps the most mis-understood, mis-interpreted film to come down the popular pipe line in the history of Hollywood. I'm here to give you my Shamanic rendering of this unequaled masterpiece. Mulholland Drive takes place in the Bardo. The film begins with a death, and from there on out we are witnessing the constituent aspects of (separate) self unravelling in the subtle dimensions which comprise experience between bodily incarnations. Although those same dimensions of experience are present right now, right here as you read these words, the corporeal body acts as an effective filter, conveniently stratifying domains of experience into waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep (thanks, Neo Cortex!). When the human body is removed from that equation, the self / other boundary, as well as that accumulated experience previously mistaken for “self” begins to come undone. All you believed begins to unweave as the contents of “ME” dissolve through repeated dunkings (bouncings) into the Divine, pure light of unfiltered, un-mediated ISness. And that brings us to a terribly FUCKING interesting news flash which should be of interest to any incarnated human being (that's YOU, in case you are wondering): #1, If you dont' meditate or practice some equivalent form of awareness training, your SOUL is going to totally fucking black out after you die. You will see all kinds of fun or terrifying lights and fireworks which you may (mistakenly) interpret as “others” or “events”, but they are, without a doubt, the contents and epiphenomena of your very own SELF. If you have not stabilized (while incarnated) your awareness through waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep, chances are, no matter what the fuck you “believed” while alive as a human being, you are going to disintegrate like the whispy, transient fuck you are, and immediately be spit back into another life time as a human being, or a rat, or a kangaroo, or whatever the hell your appropriate container may be. That's the facts, jack. We MUST develop and train our awareness until we are permanently stabilized in that Self which is not contingent upon any particular state (waking, dreaming, sleeping) or aspect of our relative self (sex, age, race, yadda yadda). That is, we must do that IF we want to be effective, active agents in the Mystery. Becasue, #2, There is no way to conduct ourselves as effective Bodhisattvas unless we have done so. If we're just going to fucking black out every time there's a state change, or an excarnation, or a shift in the vibrational frequency of form, then we're just more fucking flotsam jetsam that can't hold its Dhukkha in the Samsaric binge-drinking that is known as ~!~?~!~. If you want to see what it's like for someone to die and navigate the Bardo while they are not conscious of what's going on (what makes you think you're even going to realize you're dead?), then watch Mulholland Drive. And then do everyone a favor and start meditating. There are an infinite number of sentient beings, and the appropriate expression and inhabitation of our Love, our true, free real Self which is LOVE- is to work for the liberation of them all. Doing that effectively requires an advanced understanding of every nook and cranny in the caves of experience known as Being. We must become expert spelunkers through the catacombs of interior and exterior tunnels of humanity, through waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep. Let's go. Let's wake up and serve LOVE, not the minutia churning about in that nexus of phantoms we call an “i”. Mulholland Drive fucking rocks, because this is the stunning non-verbal directive emitted from every revelatory frame.

#1, I Heart Huckabees

Holy Shit. This little Miracle is #1 on the list because not only does it do everything the first four movies on the list do, but it doesn't even bother to take itself seriously. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Birth, life, death, love, clutching, release, evil, good- this movie infuses all the secrets of our personal stories with Nitrus Oxide, and puts them in a zero-gravity bumper car smash up. People smashing each other in the face with inflatable balls to conjure mini satoris, people fucking in the mud after existential break-throughs, people tugging at one little thread in that careful tapestry of identity and watching the whole thing unweave and catch fire- literally. This movie is fucking brilliant, and hilarious, and anyone who thinks it's one iota less “deep” or “profound” than the first four films on the list needs to get fucked in the mud by a French deconstructionist. You ever meet those “spiritual” types that take themselves so seriously, and exude such a pretentious fucking disgusting sense of importance and gravity? I mean BESIDES ME, mother fuckers! This film is the antidote to all those egotistical shits masquerading as liberated beings. You know what? The Mystery is not supposed to feel like a Mr. Yuck Face all the time. “More serious” does not mean “deeper”. The CONCEPT and AFFECTATION of seriousness is every bit as shallow and transient as humor or levity. And that's one of the many gifts of this film, FINALLY someone has made a brilliant film about the deep questions, and is free enough to let it all go in the next moment. You ever see those monks spend weeks making sand paintings, and then blow them all away when they're done. That's all ANY of us are doing. That's the point, there's no one variety of impermanent phenomena that's any more enduring than the next -it's ALL vapor, the monks just know that, whereas the rest of operate under the assumption something will last, that there's something that continues “on” from our work. What “on”? The end of time does not exist somewhere in the future, it's RIGHT HERE. No-time exists right here, with “time”, you just take the Step Backwards, and POOF! our bullshit world of concepts, events, identities, and the sum total of that lie known as History is GONE. There has never been a human insight greater than a laugh. The shortest distance to realization is in a laugh, and if you haven't laughed, your realization is not whole, not complete, and not deep. It's ALL the punch line. And what's so funny? All those opposites, the endless assemblies of binary tensions we built our bullshit lives around, were all, every last one of them, perfectly complimentary aspects of our very own ever present Self. now that's funny. All murder was suicide. All enemies were siblings. All shadows were beacons. All walls were windows. It is an incredibly auspicious sign that this movie was actually made, and made it to theaters, and did relatively well with the public. Perhaps we're ready to cross over the threshold in the popular arts, and have a few more bands like Live and U2, and have a few more books like A Brief History Of Everything, and have a few more movies like I Heart Huckabees, and Mulholland Drive, Thin Red Line, Dancer In The Dark, and American Beauty.

We are a culture pregnant with the greatest of possibilities. Let's start pushing.

Re: Stuart Davis

I really thought that I  loved stuart davis and his records and then I saw him perform live at Schubbas in Chicago for his new album release “What!?”

And then the heavens opened up and the entire audience was struck with exstatic love and light and beauty and I realized that the depth of his music was bottomless!

“Should it matter that my mind won't fit back in my head?”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, Up already with the temple talk, your freakin me out!”

S. Davis


I can't get enough of this guy,

What about the stuart davis show!?

Benji

Re: Stuart Davis

His latest album is amazing, isn't it?  BTW are you an actual “Punk Monk” helping to promote his shows etc.?  Does he still have that whole set up happening? 

I love his lyrics, and felt disappointed that they aren't included in the latest album; at least they are online with additional commentary.  One of my favourites on the new album (and of his entire body of work, actually) is Easter, it's an amazing song.  Here are the lyrics, with his blog commentary:

Cliff Notes On the New CD / Easter

Song Of The Day: Easter
Word Of The Day: Clastic / having separate pieces, take apart-able.

Easter was one of the first “Big Mind” songs. It was written shortly after I'd first done Big Mind with Genpo Roshi, I was in one of those despondant, self-pitying cycles. Despressed, dejected. My daughter was in her cholic phase of infancy, screaming like a banshee -literally- six to eight hours a night. Only when I held her, of course. I thought my life was over. No sex, no rock 'n roll, no touring, no money, no partying or freedom. Instead, it was all sleep deprivation and imasculating torture from the feminine forces of the World (Headline: “Wife-Daughter Tag Team Annhilates Alpha Male”). But, I had learned Big Mind with Roshi, and funny enough, one of the voices came to the fore immediately in response to my self-pity. I think it was the Master. And the Master was not happy with this whiny victim. The Master was like, looking around at all the deities, going “Can you believe this guy? Can you BELIEVE this guy?” Then he leaned into me and was like “SHUT THE FUCK UP. You piece of shit. I sent you not one, but TWO Dakinis, and all you can do is sulk?!” So, then the Master wrote the song Easter, and told me I would have to play it thousands of times, to really remember. The whole song is sung from the Master's voice (when he sings 'this master' it's mocking me, like I'm a faux-master, pseudo master, poseur master) except when he throws it over to the chick, who is the Daughter of Man (Jesus' sister).

This is certainly one of my favorite songs I've (well, ok, the Master) ever written. Lyrically, musically, vibe-wise, Easter is really one of those rare numbers you know will have a long life. Alex Gibson produced the fucker like a home run too, and it SOUNDS un-fucking BELIEVABLE on the record. Nate Jenkins made these weird sounds and stuff, and I don't even know how to describe what he did, but damn.

Easter is in large part, a big wake-up call to that old Zen-boy syndrome, the enduring inclination (almost always a masculine thing) to ascend, to bypass that whole messy affair of the manifest realm, just hang out in your Zen tree fort in the Causal clouds. It's a pernicious proclivity in ascenders. In Wilber's model, there's ascending current, and descending current. Transcendent, immanent. Manifest, void. See? Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. But too often the boys get lopsided and it slips into a “Form is emptiness. Emptiness is emptiness.” Ha. So, then the send the Dakinis in, and they administer babies, and diapers, and the mundane gravity of familial convention, which is of course always -ALWAYS- the most exalted spiritual teaching in disguise. Decoys, people. 'S all decoys. God has no “other”. Anyway, my thanks to the Master for this song, which did help a lot, and still does.

Clues on this song:
Crows are a symbol to me, although of what I'm not sure. I saw a painting by Nantenbo once, and it really, really fucked with my head. It's my favorite painting of all time, it's called Crows. (Zen Master Tenkei Denson was seen one day feeding some crows. Later he was seen sweeping ants off the path. A monk asked him, “Why do you feed the crows and sweep away the ants?” He said, “Because I like crows and I don't like ants.”)
The Witness is that which is aware of all that arises, but the Witness itself has no qualities, no location, no characteristics. It is aware of phenomena, it's ever-present, without birth or death, but is aware of birth, death, and everything that goes with the collastomy bag of Being (including Bliss).
Caprophogy is eating shit. You can't find it even if you google, but look it up in the OED. Great word.

In the midst of perfection
this princess starts bitching
In the arms of Elijah
this infant keeps twitching
this “master” that's teaching
is a pupil repeating
this boxer loves headlines
but he couldn't take a punch line

Somebody slap me
I can't stop laughing
Suicide is back in fashion
All ascenders end up sinking
makes Love wonder
what fear's thinking

Two crows
sit at your window
keeping a vigil over your widow
Two coins
drop in a casket
over your sockets
(bury that bastard)
Two-thirds
ready for Easter
thinking you're Jesus
proving your Ceasar
ready for Easter

Right posture, right poses
too bad what's under the robes is
Still cross-eyed
in the witness
and searching for suchness
Back home, God's diamond
puts a diaper on the daughter
of a
Mystical martyr
who triggered a seizure
making believe that
his body's a disease
He's wishing for a World where
his vapor could thrive
giving up his life
(as if he were alive)
He would have his wings
if feathers came from crutches
or that cushion he clutches

Somebody slap me
I can't stop laughing
suicide is back in fashion
all ascenders end up sinking
makes Love wonder
what fear's thinking

Two crows
sit at the window
keeping a vigil
over your widow
Two coins
drop in a casket
over your sockets
bury that bastard
Two-thirds
ready for Easter
thinking you're Jesus
proving your Ceasar
ready for Easter

In the eye of a white tornado
in the pit of a black volcano
In the palm of a human hand
there's a grain of this quick-sand

[woman's voice]

I'm just a girl
with the planet inside of me
I'm the Daughter of Man
but the Men have been fighting me
I bathed my brother
and my brother ignited me
Divinity's twins
till some devil divided
the Goddess
from the Hominid's oddysey
I am
I am what I am
I am an antidote
to New Age philosophy
I am epicac
to this mythic caprophogy

(Refrain)

Re: Stuart Davis

Yea! The Stuart Davis Show is so integral. He has guests like Genpo Roshi and practices the art of perspective taking. His humor is expansive in that it covers so much and I think anyone can find it entertaining. He is never old or repeating things, it just seems so fresh to me. And to comment on Easter, fucking c'mon, is there any lyrics more amazing than the chorus to that song. I have'nt had a chance to listen to anything more than whats on Integral Naked and the new c.d., which I bought with the quickness. It was a good idea to start a Stu blog. Keep 'em coming!

Re: Stuart Davis

No, I am an offical Fake Punk Monk, kinda like Colbert is a fake news reporter.

However I did confess this to him on his myspace account comments section at one time.

And he actually disbanded that group, as far as I've heard, and I believe that it wasn't pretty.


Favorite Albums

1. Bell
2. Bright Apocalypse


Really they are all good, I do like how his music has become less folky and more rockin and sophisticated stylistically now.

Is there anything cooler than Stu Davis taking the voices of big mind and turning them into characters for his show?!

-Ben

Rockin around the spiral

Re: Stuart Davis

This was one of my first posts on my blog:

A Real Bodhisattva

Today, while listening to “Flower of a Zero” by Stuart Davis, it really sank in just how authentically spiritual Stuart is. His approach to spiritual responsibility is what I strive for. He knows that God cannot be found by just sitting on a cushion. That aspect of practice is important, and he does that, as do I. But Stuart knows that if you really want to find God, you have to take off the goggles, take out the nose-plug, and dive into the muck of humanity. To me, that’s what real Bodhisattvas do. They aren’t afraid to get dirty in order to experience all the various aspects of their own being and the dark sides of their fellow humans.

I don’t think you can be a truly effective spiritual practitioner or help others along their own spiritual path as long as you are anti-anything. As long as there are aspects of life that you are not willing to engage, you cannot be effective, because your filters do not allow you to see the present moment as it is. You have to be willing to give up everything you believe to be true and take each moment as it comes, and accept each person for where they are at, and understand that “there are no rules.”

Back to Stuart and Flower of a Zero. In this incredible song, he challenges us to be willing to go all the way in order to reach a hand out and help people struggle on their path. He dives into the realities that face those around us:

“Daddy likes polishing a pistol.
Mother digs fingerin’ her bible.
Sister’s stuck under an uncle.
I got a brother down bingin’ in the basement”

and presents the challenge:

“What’s another bruise in the belly?
Can’t you take a punch like a lover?
Don’t you wanna dance in the gutter…
for the flower of a zero?”

My interpretation of Flower of a Zero is simply the awakening of a human being. From “zero” to “flower”. What are you willing to do to help wake people up? Who are you willing to help? How far will you go? This verse literally gives me goose bumps every time I hear it:

“Shakin’ shadows outta the mortals.
You duke it out until the Devil is dizzy.
Breakin’ knuckles, fuckin’ climbin’ a spiral.
Diggin’ jewels outta the jungle”

That’s exactly it. Breakin’ knuckles to grow and find the best in yourself (jewels), overcome your obstacles (shadows), and help others do the same. This doesn’t happen on a mat in the lotus position. It happens when you engage with those around you who make you uncomfortable. Alcoholic mother? Drug-addicted brother? Schizophrenic sister? Who aren’t you willing to fight for? Can you enter the world of those around you who aren’t as “spiritually advanced” as you and discuss things important to them? Or just hang out with them to learn about yourself and see what makes you uncomfortable? Is the pain worth it?

Stuart tells us: “Shake it, cut it, open a vessel. A couple wounds could give you a vineyard.” In what ways are you holding back from your responsibility as a Bodhisattva? I struggle constantly with these issues. It is so much easier to surround myself with like-minded people in a safe environment. But I know that my path requires more from me. And so I fight. For my own growth and yours.

Stuart Davis is an example for all of us. I highly recommend listening to his music, seeing him in concert, and reading his blog. But remember, he “dances in the gutter” for the flower of a zero. So be ready for anything. Stuart has few filters.

If you haven’t listened to Stuart, you can buy and download every song from all his albums. “Flower of a Zero” is on the Bell album.

Re: Stuart Davis

Hey Aeryck

Great riff on Flower of a Zero - that was the song that I first bonded with; prior to that I couldn't get into his music, having listened to a few of his songs here and there.  But I listened to this one once, and couldn't get it out of my head for two days.  A while after that I went to one of his shows and that's when I became a fan - his live shows are something to see, for sure.

The phrase “flower of a zero” for me also has connotations of the manifest world coming into being from the unmanifest.  All of this is the flower of a zero…

breakin' knuckles, fuckin' climbing a spiral,
arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

Here's an entertaining rant by Stuart Davis against flatland atheism:

Open Letter To Rational Pundits

Re: Stuart Davis

In an Integral Naked thread titled Stuart Davis, SusanAskwith said:

I've listened to Stuart's music. Some of it I like; strictly personal preference in music I guess. But his shows are so wild (literally) to me. His choices about sexuality, and the zany format seem like the ones I expect from the high school kids I taught. They're interesting in that kids are growing, trying out new ideas, new forms of expression. What bewilders me is how this expresses integral. All I can make out is that integral includes everything, all levels of maturity. So I'm not offended, but it seems like a waste to me. Since this is an integral group, and Stuart is part of it, it must be just me not “getting it”. I want to open to it all. Help, please.

I remember Stuart Davis saying in one of the dialogues with Ken that in terms of his music, he sees the entire body of work as being an integral work, not individual songs.  A lot of his work is expressing various aspects of shadow - for example, consider the song “Wizard” -

Down in the green room
somebody's moanin'
A couple a' groupies
are makin' a movie
Your manager warned you
that women are evil
I guess he forgot that
you worship the Devil

Down, down, down in the dungeon
Dance, dance, dance with the daggers
Blow another bubble
Shiver for Wizard
La, la, la
Wizard of Wasn't
Moan, moan mother fucker
beg, beg, you dumb bastard
Dig it
Lick a little trickle
from the ick-suck-sicle
La, la, la
Wizard of Isn't

All of the ogres
are havin' an orgy
they're pluckin' the feathers
off a' the Angels
We battle our boredom
by building a kingdom
and suckin' some stardom
through a crack in a condom

(Chorus)

Why, Why do you hate me?
Why, I'm not the things I do
Jesus, Jesus loves me
You should find a way to love me too
I'm just like you
I just need love
can't we be friends?
Fuck off, sucker

You think love'll kill me?
Love built me
You wouldn't know love
if it sprouted horns and
spit shit in your face
I am love
I throw you down stairs
I whip the hurt out
I push the pus out
I got a tongue'll knock your teeth out
bend over, you new age pussy
siphon all the fear outta the phallus
pullin' all the pain outta the pelvis
I'm the bad ass cannibal a' this
alchemical carnival I'm stuffin' babies
into catapaults to bomb the cathedrals
I'm kickin' all you camels through the
eye of the needle I am love I am love

~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the other hand, he has songs that are very deep and meaningful, like “Easter” which I quoted a few posts back.  As for “The Stuart Davis Show” in particular, I don't find it personally very entertaining or appealing, although I've just browsed a few episodes so far and plan to give it another shot at some point; but I think that aspect is designed to appeal to the young 'uns, hence all the juvenile sexual humor and such.  It seems to be aimed at twentysomethings with integral/spiritual tendencies.  Integral Naked as a whole seems slanted in that direction, actually, whereas some of the newer apects of the Multiplex - I'm thinking particularly of Integral Spiritual Center - seem designed to appeal to a more mature audience.  I like the idea of different modes of presentation, and that approach does seem very integral to me.

When you ask “how does this express integral?”  I would just say, it's just one way of embedding/expressing integral information and perspectives to appeal to a particular audience.  Deeper truths and higher ethics are part of that material - I encourage you to read his blog entry Sex Secrets and the Ethics of Promiscuity Pre-Dharma Surrender as an example.  As for his shows, I find them hugely entertaining, and that kind of “shocking” sexual humor is a big part of that.  In the first show I saw, the first thing he said was, “Anal sex with robots is the new tantra.  And the great thing is, it's not cheating, because they have no interiors!”

Also check out Stuart Davis responds to his critics, which I consider one of the funniest things he's ever done.

spirals,
arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

“Working with Genpo Roshi, the koan 'reality has no opposite' has morphed into 'love has no opposite' for me. That became my soul's riddle. Hate is not the opposite of love. Fear is not the opposite of love. Evil is not the opposite of love. Love has no doctrine, no myth. It's not here to comfort us or punish us. It has no qualities, but it's present in all the qualities – go figure.

“So how does religion fit in? The word 'religion' comes from the Latin 'religione,' which means 'rejoin' or 'reconnect.' Whatever rejoins us, reconnects us, is literally religion. If love had an opposite, it would be scientology. But it doesn't! No voice, no view is the opposite of love. Each and every perspective has the power to wake us up, put us in direct experience of love.” - Stuart Davis, Love Has No Opposite, chapter one

Re: Stuart Davis

In another thread, Lizalicious brought this great Stuart Davis Blog Entry to my attention:

dirty purity

Re: Stuart Davis

Check out this awesome article Stuart wrote on the Secret:

The Secret: The Spirituality of Narcissism

Re: Stuart Davis

also,
you gotta luuuuv someone who says “nomz is the bomz!!”

;-)

Re: Stuart Davis

Just bought and downloaded my first Stuart Davis CD this week – What – so might have something to chime in about soon…thanks for the list of movies, too!
Durwin

Re: Stuart Davis

Nomali: true dat! 

Durwin: glad to hear you've aquired what I consider to be Stu's best album to date, which is saying something.

Here's a delicious tidbit from Ken Wibler's [hey, I've gotta leave in that typo] blog:

Another Face of Stuart Davis
November 24, 2006 19:51

~posted by Clint

You know Stuart Davis the musician. You have seen Stuart Davis on Stu Cam and now on The Stuart Davis Show. You may have seen his recently released Audio Book or heard a rumor that he has a print book in the works, but did you know Stuart Davis was also a painter?

Stuart's paintings feature poems in his constructed language IS, an assortment of figures on fire and reflecting light and dozens of crows painted on paper, wood, and canvas, in watercolor, ink, oil, pencil, acrylic, marker, pen, blood, tears, and piss. Here are a few from a recent series:

Trikaya

Two Crows

Three Crows

Sheho 2

Self Portrait

To see the rest of Stuart's paintings, visit his Flickr site.

Why does he paint so many crows? Stu posted this on his blog last month…

I'm reluctant to be honest about how deeply crows have become woven into the fabric of my being, because it's going to seem weird. I feel them, I would say, 80% of my waking and dreaming life now. I dream of them nearly every night, for weeks now. They are intense, beautiful, simple dreams.

I cannot explain why, one day at the age of 35 I woke up and felt possessed by crows, and began painting them. I wasn't even a painter. But they did not want music, or poetry, or phototgraphy. They demanded to be painted. Hundreds of them. For days, then weeks. I feel disjointed when I have to do something besides paint or study crows.

If I am taking out the trash, I am painting crows in my head. Making coffee? Painting crows. Running errands at the bank? Painting crows. Crows on paper, wood, canvas, in watercolor, ink, oil, pencil, acrylic, marker, pen, blood, tears, piss. Crows on copper (my next series). Sitting, flying, scavenging. I thought it would pass, but it has morphed and deepened. Driving, I look for them in the sky. Walking I search trees. At home I google them. When I see them, a rush of adrenaline. Then, I wait and want to see them again.

I am slightly embarrassed, in fact, to admit what incredible exhileration I feel every time I see a crow now. They take my breath away. When I first saw the murder in my back yard -after the first three days of painting them- it scared Light into me. It was such a stunning, unmistakable synchronicity that it shocked my soul into a bizarre recognition.

And that is the puzzle.

I cannot relate verbally what transpired. It doesn't slide into signifiers. I mean, I try, but… Like for starters, just what the FUCK is going on when you don't see crows, or think about crows for years (since that one, five years ago, in a blizzard), and then one morning you wake up and have to paint them, exorcise them, respire their enigmatic ¿Whatness, with no idea why? Painted and painted, twelve, thirteen hours a day. Then, on the third day I walk out of my studio, and there is a murder of them in my tree, right over the studio? CROWS? At THAT moment? I have never seen a crow in my yard, or in my town.

That moment cracked a mirror I had mistaken for a window.

Since then, they've been back -never as a murder- only in singles. I have followed one around my town for a half hour in my pajamas. Now I see them often. They are stalking me, I swear to God. Wherever I go, they're around. I have read dozens of sources, poetic, scientific. I asked my Zen teacher to explain to me just what is going on with these crows, I mean they're an old central Zen symbol, so a Zen Master must know…

“I don't know shit about that.”

That's a quote.

If I am really honest I would tell you I am pregnant. Or possessed. Enveloped, subsumed, hypnotized in a recognition I can't articulate. It has a hold on my heart, it hurts to turn away from it, emotionally or spiritually. I'm not *thinking* about them. They have nested in my belly, not my head. They're in me, I'm in them, and when they look at me (in dreams they often now get very close to my face and just look in my eyes, and it is ELECTRIC and vulnerable and exposing) I think I can say this much:

The murder that first came into my yard, the dozen on that third day of painting, they are my guides, my family. I mean that literally, somehow THOSE crows, on THAT day, were messengers of a sort. The Family Secret. Agents of Communion. See, I don't like writing this, cuz I it sounds ridiculous, and “purple” and deluded. But listen, I painted those fucking things for three days, for no reason out of nothing. My wife thought I was going crow-crazy. Then they SHOWED UP, in my yard, where they'd never been before. The recognition shook me. Those crows screamed THIS IS NO COINCIDENCE, SEE? WE ARE HERE! I still can't believe it. But I can't deny it.

Now all I want to do is be present to them, as one of them, and delve the Family Secret. What do these guides usher? I'm almost embarrassed to admit how open my Heart is to them, how deeply and sincerely I love them, without knowing why or even what it is.

But not as embarrassed as I am when they look into me, and show me how I idolize decoys, exalt delusions.

Black eyes blink, silken hoods tilt quizzically.

Later my Zen teacher Genpo Roshi admitted he did know something about them. “They are part of your Shiho ceremony. But it hasn't happened. And I don't know when it will happen, but they were there when it happened, spiritually.”

I know they are my family. They know me, and found me, and came at a time when I was broken. They are here now, and will be with me when I die, and without them I would be lost and listless. Biding the black, inscrutable Mystery. In both worlds at once, straddling cycles of birth and death without effort or sense of attainment. Wise, inventive, Paradoxical sense of humor.

Re: Stuart Davis

Drown is one of my favorite Stuart Davis songs.  Occasionally it haunts me.  I try not to take this personally.  :p  (from album “Self Titled” 2001)

I'd like to find the fucker who left us afloat
Who pushed us over and took in the boat?
Soup of humans, we're all eating waves
everyone struggles and no one is saved

It makes me thirsty, this salt I'm drinking
my head is bursting but I won't stop thinking
All I've got is what I know
I will not be food for the beast below

Gravity
Love is under me
Endless water, endless water
Gravity
Love is under me
Endless water, endless water

This body won't drop
love is a plank I won't walk off
Look below, where is the joy?
If you go too deep, it's an endless void

But my weight is too much to hold
my arms are ready to fold
Just beneath me, stillness is there
as I thrash the water and gasp for air

Gravity
[Drown Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com]
Love is under me
Endless water, endless water
Gravity
Love is under me
Endless water, endless water
Gravity
Love is under me

So why am I thrashing around?
There's nothing to fear, I'm ready to drown

Nothing's gonna change
I've always been water
Nothing's gonna change
I've always been water
Nothing's gonna change
I've always been
Drowning
Love is under me
Drowning
Love is over me
Drowning
Love is under me
Drowning
Love is over me
Nothing's gonna change
I've always been water
Everything is water

~~~~~

Re: Stuart Davis

Mmm. These first verses really resonated:

I'd like to find the fucker who left us afloat
Who pushed us over and took in the boat?
Soup of humans, we're all eating waves
everyone struggles and no one is saved

It makes me thirsty, this salt I'm drinking
my head is bursting but I won't stop thinking
All I've got is what I know
I will not be food for the beast below

As I've said to you personally recently, Arthur, I have had emotithoughts arise that give me what seems to be very clear insight into human nature and religious yearning. Where's that fucker that left us afloat? Sometimes I am struck by the outright depravity of humanity. We are monsters on some level. And we are angels, too. How the fuck did we get here? Many times in the last year, I have transcendent moments when I look at my interiors and then apparent exteriors and I just sit in wonder and awe. How the fuck did this happen? Sacred and profane all rolled into one cosmic spliff of delusion and transcendence.

Re: Stuart Davis

Heh, Colin - love it, particularly the last line: Sacred and profane all rolled into one cosmic spliff of delusion and transcendence. 

Here's a recent interview with Stuart Davis from One Mind Village:

~~~~~

What was your spiritual practice prior to Zen?  When did you find Zen?  I've heard you say that
Zen “just fit you”.  Why do you think it was such a cozy fit?

Before Zen, mostly the hedonistic indulgence of the rock 'n roll lifestyle.  After Zen, the puritanical
dissociation from my shadow that so often comes with the honeymoon period of Zen, or any other
interior practice.  The last few years, I feel the two starting to integrate.  But it's slow. And messy.  And
miraculous.  Zen was a fit for me because in my experience it's the most radical about not giving you
something to cling to.  It's not a religion.  It's not a philosophy.  It can include  religion and philosophy,
but Zen is not religion or philosophy, in my experience.  And it takes whatever you clutch as “it” and
dissolves that too.  What's left when Great Doubt has annihilated it all?  Zen also has a good funny bone.  
Doesn't take itself to seriously, which I really like.  I like humor as a vehicle for awakening.

Re: Stuart Davis

Check out The Stuart Davis Show - Pilot Episode on YouTube:

~~~~~

This is the pilot episode Stu hopes will land him a highfalutin Hollywood TV contract. Marci offers to let Stu sleep with groupies if he gives her another baby, Stu discovers a very odd fetish and a horrible rash, and Marci hits the jackpot of hot with a Scientologist on the block. Co-starring Marci and Aja Davis, Steve Brill, Nicole Fegley, and the Clones, this episode truly represents a new benchmark in integral enlightentainment….

~~~~~

I found it pretty funny, although I was a bit annoyed that Marci played a stereotypical brainless bimbo.  I particularly enjoyed the arguments between the clones over Stu's polyamory aspirations.  Best of all there was NO LAUGHTRACK.  Laughtracks totally kill a TV show for me.  (The only laughtrack that ever worked for me was the Rabbits one.)  Keep the Stuart Davis show LAUGHTRACK FREE!  (The deal is, you can have laughtracks or scientologists.  You've chosen scientologists - so be it.)

spirals,
arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

Hi Arthur,

I just dropped by this thread for the first time in many months and noticed this post about Drown, one of my favorite of Stu's songs as well. A few weeks ago on the “If you could choose only one song…” thread I posted this link to a video of Drown. That thread hasn't seen much traffic so I thought I'd repost it here as well. Have you seen this? There are also links on this page to many songs from the same performance.

Best,
Lauren

Re: Stuart Davis

Great, Lauren!  Thanks for the link to Drown you provided.  :)  You're right, there's a ton of other great related stuff, like Savoring Samsara - another favorite of mine, which has been known to lift me out of doldrums.  Jonah, one of my all-time favorite songs by him, is a brilliant and moving evocation of the trail of wreckage suicide leaves in the lives of loved ones left behind.   Fall Awake - yeah baby!  What a great song about spirit struggling to stay present and conscious in a cultural matrix that doesn't support it.   Nothing in Between is a beautiful song about our interconnectivity and unitive nature, a celebration of spiritual communion.  Flower of a Zero is the song that first changed my response to Stuart Davis from “damn, I want to like this guy, but his music is kinda boring” to “wow, this is a fucking great song!“  This particular clip shows a bit what his stage shows are like (but you really need to go to one to get the full experience, and a lot of people have mentioned really falling in love with his music only after seeing a live show).  Ladder is a profoundly chilling song about the glory, horror and potential of our evolutionary journey.  Rock Stars and Models is fucking hilarious.

Thanks again for bringing this stuff to our attention, Lauren.  :)

spiral out,
arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

Five different Stuart albums can be found in the Itunes Store - for those of you who prefer buying CD's online.


Pelle

Re: Stuart Davis

Pelle: Five different Stuart albums can be found in the Itunes Store - for those of you who prefer buying CD's online.

~~~~~

Thanks, Pelle!  My personal favorite way to buy a Stuart Davis album is directly from him at a concert.  Hopefully it won't be too long before I get to see one of his shows again.

spirals,
arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

“the actual process of evolution is not a pretty affair. it's like making sausage or laws. you don't want to know how it's actually done.”

This fantabuloso insight brought to you courtesy of the subject of this thread.

I was reading a fairly recent blog post of Stu's and started to dig it, then started to REALLY dig it, then started to squeal and yelp to myself. Please, pull up a chair, settle your tushy in nice and comfortable, and join me…
Persist if the first few paragraphs don't interest you much. There's a story within a story within a story here, and it's worth waiting for the momentum to build.
and, Hail Marcy!

Here's the rest of the post:

Re: Stuart Davis

Yippee, hooray for Stuart…. what a wonderful exposition! My heart soars.
Jane

Re: Stuart Davis

Wow.

Re: Stuart Davis

Stuart speaks to the divine Feminine.

My heart was aching while reading this.

Thank you Stuart.

Re: Stuart Davis

mmmmm, Gina. Thanks.

Re: Stuart Davis

Thanks Gina!    Mmmmm with you, Lauren!  :-)

And for all to enjoy (easily….)  in full brilliance:

Re: Stuart Davis

Dive [click for YouTube video]

Becoming mist again
the body is a drop
Water never ends
The body is a drop
Water never ends

It isn't a mistake
the swimmer is asleep
Water is awake
the swimmer is asleep
Water is awake

It isn't a mistake
becoming mist again
Water is a friend

Chorus:
Under this wave
over this soul
Losing my arms
Nothing to hold
Nowhere to swim
ready to drown
Longing to dive
Love pulls me down
Where the water is awake
The water is alive
Dive

Nothing to hold
an island in the head
Water in the soul
an island in the head
Water in the soul

Something will survive
let the body melt
Water is alive
Let the body melt
Water is alive

Something will survive
Nothing here to hold
Let the body fold

Chorus

Now I dive
into this mystery
into this place
that has no history
That has no face
everything but water
will be erased
as I dive
The water is awake
The water is alive

~~~

Re: Stuart Davis

I published a Stuart Davis essay on integralnews.com a while back; it got great feedback - check it out:

Infinity Hymn

In other Stuart Davis news, he's got a new album coming out, whoo-hoo!  From his website:

~~~

Re: Stuart Davis

One other thing - Stu is touring for his new album, check out the list of Upcoming Shows - and note that, shockingly, there are no dates on the west coast yet.  I've PM'd Stu and let him know that if he doesn't do a date close to where I live, he will be spanked.  (Stuart has a Gaia profile, so feel free to PM him yourself and harass, intimidate, and cajole him yourself - remember, the goal here is tour dates in California and/or Oregon!)  :P 

spirals,
Arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

WHOO-HOO!  Stuart's new album (Something Simple) is out!

Plus, check out his funkadelic redesigned website: http://www.stuartdavis.com/

It's continuously streaming his new album, and I'm totally digging it.  I'm going to buy this as soon as his website will take PayPal payments (PP is there, but it's not accepting payments just yet).

“Already Free”

Something simple
in me
woke up
already free

A thousand stories
removed
Living proof
nothing to prove

But I needed a push
to get me to see
Wherever I am
I'm already free

Hearts and minds
collide
Twist together
opening wide

My head is beneath
my feet are above
tangled up
in a comedy of…

But I needed a push
to get me to see
Wherever I am
I'm already free

I dug a tunnel
when I needed a lift
such a fool
just afraid of a gift

Something subtle
started to shift
now I'm soaring
over cliffs

But I needed a push
to get me to see
Wherever I am
I'm already free

~~~

Re: Stuart Davis

Yeah, yeah, already free, blah, blah, blah.

I'm tired of all these enlightened people running around saying how easy it all is and effortless, and “gateless gate,” etc.

Whatever. What has Stuart or any of them ever done for me?

Liz

Re: Stuart Davis

Liz: Whatever. What has Stuart or any of them ever done for me?

~

Hmm…apparently not much, baby - but Stuart gives great hug!  You'll see someday.  :)

“Love made a wick out of my tongue…”

spirals,
Arthur

Re: Stuart Davis

Man, I am so loving this album.  I want to give Stuart a big hug RIGHT NOW.  His lyrics are so groovy.

Check out Wand - obviously inspired by the amazing movie The Fountain:

Wand

I’ve been building a volcano
In the basement of my navel
Stuck a straw into the sun
Sucked some light into my lungs
Love made a wick out of my tongue

Hate
Hate is a puzzle
One look and I saw double
Fear
Fear is a riddle
That made my bones brittle
Love
Love is a wand
One wave, the riddle’s gone

There’s a field of flowers pushing
Through the tissue in the torso
Love dropped that seed into my wound
Step up, my chest is gonna bloom
You should get a whiff of this perfume

Re: Stuart Davis

Now I have to post the corresponding picture….

Re: Stuart Davis

oh yeah … the new album is so good … it's on constant rotation … have you seen his “other blog”? it's at http://www.dreamusher.com/ and he has a button up for paypal.  “the wand” is fabulous … and river is also delicious … :)

Re: Stuart Davis

In concert
LA  July 5th

Knitting Factory

Re: Stuart Davis

Thanks for the head's-up on the LA show, Gina!  Sadly, the timing of that show - like Stuart Davis himself, but this time in a bad way - sucks with great intensity. Liz and I definately won't be able to make it.

Therefore, Stu, I dedicate one of your own songs to you: Asshole World Renown:

Bored stiff with my wallet fat, I ordained myself a diplomat
bought a plane and some aerosol, sprayed my name on China's Wall
Then I pissed all over the Kremlin steps, punched a monk in Tibet
got drunk and disordered in the ol' big Apple, passed gas in the Cistine Chapel

I've thrown darts at the Mona Lisa, tied lead weights to the tower of Pisa
sold salt water in the big Sahara, then I took a shit in the Riviera
Asshole World Renown

Went to Rome and spread V.D., robbed the homeless in Tahiti
was slapped by a woman in the great Euphrates, kidnapped kids in the slums of Haiti
Poisoned livestock in Korea, tainted food shelves in Tanzania
torched Saigon like a Buddhist pyro, slashed tires in the streets of Cairo

I chucked eggs at Castro's doorway, I once puked on the king of Norway
for eighteen days I roamed Japan, choking little kittens with my bare hands
Stuck my gum on Venus De Milo, did Zimbabwe shooting rhinos
ran nude straight through Nepal, spit my chew in Taj Mahal

Asshole World Renown