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	March 20, 2004

A MUSICIAN'S PRAYER Donato Poveda, the wonderful Grammy-nominated Cuban expatriate musician-songwriter, has the following prayer in the liner notes of his new CD. He's a Buddhist. I found the words quite moving and thought I'd share them, in both languages: Que todos los seres obtengan la felicidad y las causas de la felicidad Que todos sean libres del sufrimiento y las causas del sufrimiento. Que nunca sean separados de la felicidad que es cuando cesa el sufrimiento. Que todos habiten en la ecuanimidad, libres del apego, el odio, y la aversion. May all sentient creatures find joy and the sources of joy. May all be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May none ever lose the joy that occurs when suffering ends. May all live as equals, free of dependence, hatred, and fear. For those like me that aspire to write music, Donato recommends two books: The Songwriter's Idea Book by Sheila Davis, and Writing Music for Hit Songs by Jai Josefs,  to bring structure to your creativity. They're on my list of next books to buy. Ironically, Donato, who fled Cuba in his youth to seek a freer life, was one of the few Cuban-born musicians able to attend the Grammy ceremonies. Those still living in Cuba were prohibited by the Bush Administration from attending, as "security risks". Such is the power of music. 12:28:17 PM  trackback []  comment []

FRIDAY FIVE: IF YOU... Every once in awhile I'm inspired to answer the Friday Five questions. Here are this week's intriguing questions (courtesy of 'Rayne', but not Our Rayne) and my extremely unorthodox (you're surprised?) answers, on the theme of "If you...": If you... 1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve? Vegan, with pizzazz. Bold flavours, international influences, fusion, appealing to all the senses. Really casual, with big, stuffed chairs and sofas instead of ramrod hard chairs. Even cushions on the floor. Warm, eclectic decor, with no animal products used in any materials. Everything in shareable containers and portions. Live, spontaneous music and dinner theatre. No uniforms. People with no money could sing or work for their supper, no questions asked. Unhurried service. Sliding wall open to the outside, weather permitting. Big windows, bird feeders all around. Socialized pets welcome. 2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell? If I owned a store, it wouldn't sell anything. It would be an exchange where people could trade, lend and borrow things -- books and music, power tools, stuff from their garden. arts and crafts, recipes. It would be run on a volunteer basis by and for the community in which I live. No signage, so no embarrassment for non-community members, and community members could bring guests. Might even be attached to the restaurant. 3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be? Fiction. I'm writing a novel, genre is what I think is called 'speculative' fiction. Next up is a book of quirky short stories. 4. ...ran a school, what would you teach? How to make a living through New Collaborative Enterprise. Critical thinking and creative skills. Self-sufficiency. Once people know these things they can teach themselves, and each other, anything else. The school would have no classrooms and no designated teachers or classes. Whole-class get-togethers would be infrequent and occur at a business location (tour included), or someone's home, or a restaurant. Otherwise, beyond the outline curriculum and resource list, all activities and discussions would be self-organized by the students. There would be no grades. 5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it? World music. Fusion of different styles and influences. African, Latin, Classical, Folk. The genre doesn't really matter. The writing is 90%, the performance 10%. It would be political, but, as Hendrix said, "Everything's political, isn't it..." 12:25:20 PM  trackback []  comment []

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