The Tao of Stars

Here under the night sky

my smile is reflected in moonlight

Away you are unaware

of my present stillness in your heart

It settles and warms

to the rhythm of your soul

Resonating with happy

that separate ways

Invite expansion and wonder

to love as one

Traveling each others being

we move together

Lightened and always remembering

the way...

I was unable to locate a collage John Lennon created of a woman in the moonlight however in searching I became aware of how appropriate I believe Mind Games is for me right now. Decembers Lunar Eclipse delivered me to where I wish I wasn't so I will try to focus on the Miracle of Love, even if my mind is playing games with me.......

Susan Werner at Philly Folk Festival (2010) - May I Suggest

Capricorn Moon

The first New Moon of 2011 will be tomorrow, January 4. At 4:03 am a solar eclipse will occur in 14 degrees Capricorn. Wherever Capricorn is in ones chart the eclipse will deliver you there. For me it’s in my first house, so issues of personal growth, independence and self will be in the forefront along with a new way of bringing myself to the world, forging a stronger identity. Sounds like emotional bootcamp especially since I have Venus sharing the first house, a regular people pleaser who asserts indirectly. I'm not sure if I like this roller coaster but I'm on it. Anyway, it is a hardcore indicator of new beginnings for all as each of us have Capricorn placed somewhere in our soul contract called a natal chart. There is an excellent free site at www.astro.com where you can have your chart drawn if you’re inclined and brave enough to look into Saturns hold on you. Meanwhile all this New Year New Moon inspiration re minds me of a beautiful song Susan Werner wrote which I was lucky to hear live at last years APAP Conference as she shared a Showcase with Vance Gilbert. She’s alone here but with it I wish you all Happy New Year with a song that has a timeless echo in each of our hearts…….Go ahead and hit play, it may have been written with Venus in Susan's heart...... but it's for you.

DRIVE MY CAR

The moment I became aware that Los Lobos would be ringing in the New Year at City Winery I wanted to go. It’s been almost three years since Dakotah Blue presented the band at WPU and I had a craving to hear one of my most favorite bands live. Traditionally I spend New Years Eve with friends and when I mentioned going to the city to see the show no one was able to commit. In early December the Fab Faux decided to play 4 dates in the week between Christmas and New Years. Tickets went on sale December 12^th and the sold out shows in City Winery’s intimate setting were amazing. It was a bit of a shuffle for Jack who was also playing at the Bowery Ballroom, in Patti Smith’s band. The close proximity of the venues and the earlier timing of the Faux gigs made it possible for me to pick him up after sound check at the Ballroom getting him to the Faux gig in time despite the mountains of snow throughout SOHO (or should I say SnowHo?) After the Faux encore, car service was running him back to the Ballroom. I was the back up plan in case the car service didn’t show up so by 8:40 we were checking out side for the car. The service did arrive and the first night after speaking to the driver, Rennie went inside as they were finishing the encore to be there to escort Jack out to the car. I remained outside by myself thinking how beautiful the night was. I was alone on the street just outside City Winery’s huge oak doors listening to the music spill onto the street. I noticed someone negotiating the snow bank and the melted snow pond forming on the corner and I looked over to see David Hidalgo of Los Lobos walking right toward me. Two women were accompanying him. I quickly said hello and re introduced myself letting him know that I work with the Fab Faux now. It turns out David, his wife and their friend were coming to hear the Faux so I brought them in. The show had just ended but they joined everyone in the dressing room. I was elated to have met up with them and I overheard Jimmy asking if they’d be able to come back the next night. It was all left up in the air when they left however the air in Manhattan is apparently filled with magic. The next night just before the show started, with the room filling with people, I saw them back, this time with Conrad and his wife and grandchild. We got them seats and I took off to look for Denny Laine who was arriving late after his own car issues. Needless to say David played during the encore, along with Denny who was a scheduled guest. My very first story here, written last December was of the surprise chance to work with Los Lobos and now I close out the year with another tale of wonder, or is it all just Serendipity? Either way it’s brought me so much happiness.

Here Comes the Sun

One day to the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe which is my one-year anniversary of writing Serendipity! Fourteen days until Christmas. Thirteen days to my son’s 19^th Birthday. Eleven days until the Winter Solstice. Today is the first day of a Mercury Retrograde that will last until December 30^th. And so it goes for the month of December…I had hoped to blog each week this past year however I am still happy that I’m writing this now with the intent to post even though Mercury is Retrograde. I have stories spinning around in my head however finding a way to get them out without setting off friends and family can at times be my challenge. I am becoming more courageous although it may be sometime before I can write about who sent what to my PO Box after working the Lennon Tribute. As I wrote that sentence I was smiling with a heart that still beats in disbelief. I am looking forward to Eric coming home from school next week. I am looking forward to Christmas because my shopping is half done and my house inside out is sparkling with lights. The lights are current day remnants from ancient Solstice bon fires that were lit everywhere on great Mother Earth since prehistory. Ever notice how you just need to switch the H to the beginning in earth and it becomes heart? She is a real living thing. This years Solstice will also bring a lunar eclipse to the heart of the human universe. To be a watcher of the stars, this stellar drama is a huge event. I am including some of Bob Bermans writing for Astronomy Magazine because he says it all.

The oddest celestial event? This year there's an easy winner. It's the millennium's first total lunar eclipse completely visible from all of North America and Hawaii. And whoa, beat the drums; it happens right on the solstice. 

This was exactly the kind of spectacle that inspired the fun-loving Mayans to push their most annoying relatives off pyramids. (Does any scholar actually know how they selected people for sacrifices? "Annoying" seems logical.) These days, our own citizenry is much too overweight to engage in such energetic rituals. But if you're tempted, be sure to first check local ordinances before you perform even a single goat sacrifice.

At midnight December 20/21, we'll have the highest Full Moon until 2020. From the West Coast, that Moon will be in total eclipse at midnight — how cool is that? Observers in Key West will see the magical Moon straight up, an imperceptible ½° from the zenith. Count on crowds blowing conches at Sunset Pier at that overhead moment of 12:17 a.m. But like all Eastern time-zoners, they must wait 'til 1:32 a.m. for the eclipse's umbral beginning.

We'll also get a rare chance to gauge the Full Moon's brightness. During the night's first half, it defiles the sky with a creamy glow that obliterates everything fainter than 3rd magnitude. Then, if you live in the country away from streetlights and other light pollution, behold the metamorphosis. Drink in the glory of the winter Milky Way after the Moon's been reduced to a coppery phantom, with the visible star count boosted from 120 to 2,600.


The magickal moon turning into a coppery phantom…sounds like an occasion to party to me. My friend Stacy and I are going to plan some Solstice festivities however one or two of my annoying relatives are not inclined to participate in this sort of revelry. I could get their goat by writing some of the tales they’ve inadvertently shared with me or included me in. That was just a fun loving throw them off the Ramapo Mountains Mayan type of thought. I found out recently that there is sacred Indian land in Ramsey, which Stacy and I by chance(?) happen to live on though I am not aware of any pyramids. I intend on acknowledging the power of the lunar eclipse, the Winter Solstice, which is the rebirth of the sun in 0 degree Capricorn, celebrating the birth of the Son several days later on December 25^th and celebrating my own son’s birthday on the 23^rd. My astrological chart has Mercury in Capricorn at 0 degrees in the 12^th house and it was at my astrologers advice to begin to open up and have the world hear my inner dialogue so it was her suggestion to blog. Here I am back again at the beginning, my one year anniversary of speaking my truth. Sun, son, sun here it comes……

The Scripture According to Patti Smith

For a couple of days after the Lennon Tribute, I tried to write something that would convey how Patti Smith’s performance blew me away. I was boring myself to tears and frequently using the delete key, with one syrupy recollection and rendition of the rehearsal and show after another. The show had awesome musical highlights that can be read about in various reviews however it wasn’t until Patti hit the stage that the show took a turn from music, entertainment and respect for John to SPIRIT. In an email addressing last minute performance concerns it had been suggested to the artists not to speak for more than 30 seconds because of the tight schedule. Outside of Claudia Marshall’s performer introductions I am unaware that anyone did speak, until Patti. She walked out onstage with a book of Kerouac and recited from The Scripture of the Golden Eternity. She then spoke about her own loss of her husband and how she looked to Yoko in finding meaning in her life, for herself and her children. She created magick with Strawberry Fields Forever and with Oh Yoko, welcoming Tony Shanahan to weave his voice with hers. Lucky for us that she’s not good at following directions or she doesn’t check emails or maybe that she just did what she wanted because every word she spoke conveyed a sharing of the spirit of Lennon’s life and music. She was awesome, lighting up the room with her presence that lifted the show to another place. I had never seen her perform before and her power was inspiring and true. It reflected a woman who is filled with quantum awakening in our universe. I believe somewhere out there is a constellation named after her……. Anyway, you may not find these thoughts in any of the reviews of the show, in which case, people need to open their eyes. People have the Power J

Thank you Patti Smith for sharing your light and I will hold dear the memory of sharing some Green and Black’s organic chocolate candy with you at rehearsal the day before, unaware how little my gesture was and much you would give to me the following night.

In honor of Patti, I’m posting a song that is a collaboration of another awe-inspiring quantum awakener in our universe, (got that? One Verse), John Trudells work with Annie Humphrey, ~Spirit Horses ~ and then I’m going out to buy my own book of Kerouac.

Project Bagism

bagism

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's concept of a peaceful world. If everyone wore a bag over them there wouldn't be anything to hate about them.

John : What’s Bagism? It’s like...a tag for what we all do, we’re all in a bag ya know, and we realised that we came from two bags, I was in this pop bag going round and round in my little clique, and she was in her little avant-garde clique going round and round, and you’re in your little tele clique and they’re in their...ya know? and we all sort of come out and look at each other every now and then, but we don’t communicate. And we all intellectualize about how there is no barrier between art, music, poetry... but we’re still all - I’m a rock and roller, he’s a poet... so we just came up with the word so you would ask us what bagism is, and we’d say WE’RE ALL IN A BAG BABY!

Out of the bag of the urban dictionary is the definition of Bagism that leads into my story. Early last Summer my friend Karen arrived at my house with a bag she made out of an advertisement for the Fab Faux Radio City show. It was very cool, very crafty and very unique, a genuine conversation piece. Soon after I was asked to become involved as Director of Artist Relations for the 30^th Annual John Lennon Tribute held last Friday night. Along with my responsibilities I felt I wanted to try to figure out some way to gift the artists with something memorable. It was a personal desire however I’ve been involved with enough shows to know that many times artists are gifted by fans and promoters with things that get left behind. It’s not because the gifts are not thoughtful but I think more because it can be a hectic night, dressing rooms get packed up quick and it becomes routine to be given………Anyway, I tried to think of something that artists would take and knew for a fact it should involve chocolate (or food in general) and be ‘Unique’. In thinking of who the performers were and as more were added to the bill it was apparent to me that many of them I had grown up listening to and loving. Some of them I love and had shared their own influences with my own music background. Although I studied classical music my bible was my Rolling Stone Magazines most of which I still have~except for the couple my sister stole when I moved out. The Rolling Stones became the focus of my BAGISM. For Jackson Browne, his bag was a picture with a review of a Capital Theatre Show in 1974. Shelby Lynne’s bag pictured Kris Kristofferson, Keb’ Mo’s featured Buddy Miles, Claudia Marshall received one of the few color bags, a Rolling Stones advertisement for Exile on Main Street. One of my favorites was for Bettye Lavette. It featured a great shot of James Brown, in a red jumpsuit. The review was titled, “Out of the Brown Bag”. When I gave it to her I received a hug and it really was one of my many happy moments of the evening. The bags were all given individually, upon arrival and contained a candy bar which was wrapped like the nights All Access pass, another BAG, of Karen’s kick ass granola, the stage schedule and my card if they needed anything on site. It turned out to be an outta site experience and I did check. All the Bags were taken so I’m smiling. To be able to give something little to artists that have shared so much with me was really a wonderful part of my job.

My own version of Bagism………..