h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK I'm going to hafta draw a unicorn on a unicycle. If I don't then give me a virtual kick or two until I do.

Thanks! (does a twirl). . Now I have to write a hopeful poem. .

How clever is that! To make it damp and muddy round the pile, to see if any footprints appear! I would never have thought of that in a million years, you must be trained in tracking skills, surviving in the natural world, that really is so clever, I'm in awe.

Let me know if any footprints appear.

The yeti! . heheh.

OK Willem, yay! , that would be so great! And if you take too long, we will say 'now we hafta give Willem a virtual kick' just so we can say hafta. .

I was trying to, and couldn't. Why didn't I think of that - ask Willem to do it?

I think it might a toad hole, it would be great for a toad and food on tap

On the otherhand it could be a wasps nest, an old one perhaps, even if it is a new one the my footprint plan is scuppered

Could be but I think it is a little bit big and I'm confident it is not rats

*arrives breathless with amazing news*

Folks, this is just for you Daydreamers. I won't put it in my journal. As the Bard would say, it would be 'caviar to the general'. No matter what army he was in.

There's a film you MUST see. Particularly you, CC.

It's called 'Kumare'. The filmmaker is Vikram Gandhi. It's an independent film, won an award a couple of years ago. We just watched it on Netflix. I was in tears, it was so good. But we laughed, too.

What's it about, you ask? As well you might.

About a guru.

Here's his website:

http://www.kumare.org/home/

Very spiritual guy. From a previously unknown country at the foot of the Himalayas.

According to his website:

'Sri Kumaré was born into a merchant class family whose ancestors can be traced directly to the Indo-Aryan Civilization of Mohenjo-daro and Harrappa.'

Translation: Vikram Gandhi, whose middle-class parents came from India, grew up in New Jersey. He studied comparative religion and philosophy. He became a documentary filmmaker. He got tired of fake gurus. So he grew a beard and long hair, put on a robe, and talked like his grandmother for awhile.

He invented the guru Kumare - and he discovered something about the truth behind the illusion.

Trust me on this one: you'll laugh. You might cry. You will definitely become enlightened. This is the most spiritual film I've seen in a month of Sundays.

s and

The what smiley? . I love it, oh breathless messenger, I love that, too, 'arrives breathless with amazing news'.

So great, the spontaneous sharing of the treasures and fragments of our experience.



Oh breathless messenger! how do you guys unearth these extraordinary movies? . Mind you, I'm a slow runner, I haven't seen Star Wars yet. .

So, this looks like fascinating and possibly controversial subject matter, I wonder what the reaction was to this? Thanks! I will check it out!



Interesting, the guru question, I think about it often, having run into what seems like every corrupt charlatan under the sun.

I even had a run in with one of them. , creepy creepoid sitting there humiliating his followers, who were all young vulnerable searchers, destroying their ability to find the path within themselves, and having the nerve to write articles in New Age magazines .... grrrr don't start me.

Hmm (ponder ponder pace pace) and yet in pure form, the guru/teacher being a time honoured part of spiritual and also artistic tradition.

I saw this interview with the late great Ravi Shankar, who was talking about the rigorous spiritual discipline he had to undergo with his guru, in order to truly learn to play sitar.

And the Zen masters, haiku poets, and yoga traditions and it all. hmm


(paces around room, chewing Mars Orange crayon, I love my Mars Orange crayon, I shouldn't chew it, it's not like it tastes of orange) .



(and thinking about toads, because of Peanut's mystery creature. I love toads, sometimes they appear on the garden path at dusk, when it rains. One time there was one outside the front door and the Mr. wanted to invite it in to watch TV with us, and I said it would prefer to say outside in the cooling rain.) .

runs back in again

I realised something in the night, which in fact is connected to the guru thing, like about spiritual messages and things.

uh oh ....

As a hopeful poet , I want to learn to use words but to say nothing, without becoming totally abstract. My message is that I don't have a message. It's the message that scares me. Words are so powerful.

Apart from an inherent, incurable neurosis, , I think that's why I freeze up and get shy to put work out there.

I want to celebrate the no-message of the ordinary fragments of my being.

How to do this?



And also I want to learn that poetic thing that poetlady and DG and other people do, with the rhyming in the middle of the line.

I have this book of poems by Michael McClure, it's very Zen Buddhist, called Plum Stones:Cartoons of No-Heaven. I love love love that title.

I want to express my cartoons of no-heaven. The heaven within my no-heaven, the hell within my no-hell, the message of my no message.



So, start simple, with good old Notes

The String of Notes

Today I played my piano keyboards, found the scale of F-sharp minor, and heard it for the first time, a string of multi coloured lit up notes all wrapped around my soul as if I was a christmas tree! Not an action movie, this string of notes, no dramatic plot, and not designed to draw a crowd, or shout out loud its message to the world. And yet I heard it for the first time, sitting at my piano keyboards, all wrapped up in the scale of F-sharp minor, as if I was a christmas tree, how funny. .



Now, my next task is to rewrite that all poetic, in that way with the rhyming in the middle of the line, except now I have to go buy frozen peas, if you please.

I am a student again, I'm happy.

<------ that's Dmitri

back later for proper post

heheh I love that, breathless Zen messenger smiley. .



and I just got (boydoweneedakrishnasmiley) that is in Brunel, at end of DG's post. I notice that in some skins if you put things in pointy brackets it doesn't come out. And yet Happy we are in our smileyskins!



That was a funny paragraph ... , but you know what I mean. You do?



Of course, I don't know how to do that poetic thingy, yet, (boy-do-i-need-a-hootoo-writing-lesson-hint-hint-smiley) but I'll get there, I am very happy though, a breakthrough, all to do with you guys thankyou.



Boring paragraph alert, ignore me, I'm on a roll ...

That's it! The power of words. Words are such a responsibility. The message! The message is the fear, for me, the burden, the pressure. All my life, this burden (clutches brow). The message!

I honour the message, the sense, the direction, the inspiration, in the craft of writing, (bows down) but I will leave these true messages to the writers who can deliver them with style and grace, (bows down),

but I have found my muse of no-message. I love my muse of no message, that is a message sort of but isn't. .

At this rate I'll be ... confident. .

I think it's my age, I am old enough to realise. A slow starter. . 90 in the shade, good age to realise. .

(chews Mars Orange crayon, better switch to lime green, or lemon yellow, perhaps ruby earth, no maybe not that one, try port! Yes please I can drink that crayon).

I'm going to write lots of little bittie Notes about simple things, till I figure that poetic thingy.

Wow. Er, wow.

I, too, had a dream about this. But I can't remember the details. I only remember that I woke up with a sense of peace, and the thought, 'They do it themselves.'

Which makes sense. If you see this film, you'll understand it. YVikram Gandhi was sick of the false gurus. He wanted to find out if spiritual experience could be real. So he 'invented' a guru - one whose message was, 'You don't need a guru.' His 'followers' said he was holy.

In the end, they all learned that they were holy.

And then Vikram Gandhi made his movie, and went on Stephen Colbert's TV show. I wish I could share the clip with you - he absolutely pwned Colbert.

Colbert asked, 'Why would you pretened to be a false prophet?'

Gandhi said, 'Well, sometimes, when you pretend to be someone you aren't, you learn more than by not pretending.' And he looked right at the comedian whose career is famously based on pretending to be an idiot newscaster...and smiled his fake-guru smile.

I'll really see if I can find time for that film. Meanwhile here's a unicorn on a unicycle:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/UnicornonUnicycle2b_zps9e9a9d47.jpg

I hope you folks get that without distracting ads. If not please tell me and I'll figure something else out.

No ads. And it's gorgeous.

Send it to the Post, please - maybe somebody will write a poem to go with it?

That is really Willem. Brilliantly executed.

Willem that is great

and we didn't hafta to give you a kick

no distracting ads

I'm really going to find that film, can't wait! !



Willem, dear fellow, that is amaaaaaaaazing! Incredible! No ads, came through pure and brilliant!

Thankyou! What a Master.



I'm way out on my tangent now, happy as a summer lupin. What has happened to me? . I think I'm writing a no-message book. .

Two/One (A story from my world)

Playing dominoes one day, with friends, I said 'If I select a two/one now, I will win the game, and be lucky today.'

'And if you don't?' said someone, watching me select a three/five.

'Well, happy I am to be alive, but I won't expect luck' I laughed, and went on my way.

Walking through the gardens, I paused for a moment to breathe in the magnolia blossoms, no words to describe the resplendent wonder.

A lady appeared at my side, also in admiration. 'How lucky we are!' she exclaimed.

Indeed! I replied, and no more was said.

Two strangers, one magnolia vision. Lucky indeed.

I looked at my watch, it was five past three.

'As if' I said to myself, chuckling at my unconvincing last line.

The rest is true.

I love Willem's unicorn on a uncicycle.

Incidentally, what happened to the fish on a bicycle that used to be a feature of hootoo?

Like this?

http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/home

Still cycling way in the banner at the top of the page in goo

And alabaster, even if my link didn't work.