DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

"Do you realize that I asked you, 'what do we know about Edward Snowden?" not, 'what are our theories?"

                        "Yes Sir, Mr. President.  You choose the theory and in 24 hours it will be fact.  We have Fox News and the NSA on standby..."

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

"The second theory is that tEdward Snowden is motivated by serious psych issues: narcissist, fantasist, paranoid..."

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

"Our first theory, I should say that of Susan Rice and your NSC, is that Edward Snowden is a Chinese Agent..."

"But, no one believes that the Chinese could devise the sophisticated PR blitz he's conducted...but since he's in Hong Kong, we can't rule it out..."

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

"So, what do we know about this Edward Snowden fellow...?"

                                                    "Mr. President, we have three working theories...."

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

 "Hi...Oh, sorry!"

.................................................................."That's okay, I was just meditating to clear negative karma..."

"When I'm depressed, I listen to Cat Power..."

..................................................................."I'm Durga!"
................................................................................"Kate Heinzelman!..."

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

"Walking to the Metro I pass Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and his Mini-Me."

"Then, I pass Kathi Wilcox of Bikini Kill...with her munchkin..."

"Oh, look, over there is Ian Svenonius of The Make-Up, and his wig."

"Oh, God!  Punk IS dead!"

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

DURGA THE PINK LAMA

NOAM CHOMSKY EMAIL INTERVIEW

I sent Noam Chomsky a copy of my drawing of him and he responded.  I also sent him some questions and he was kind enough to respond (amazing considering his workload!).  

-My questions:


a)      given the historical persecution of Jews, and as a Jew yourself, do you feel any sense of loyalty to Judaism and/or to Israel and an obligation to defend it?

Sure, but I also feel a special reason to keep emphasizing the substantial evidence that the major threat to Jewish interests in the world today are the policies of the State of Israel, and US support for them.

b) does the existence of Israel serve to protect Jews, given the above premise?

It could, if Israel had not chosen expansion over security, a fateful decision 40 years ago, pursued without a break since – thanks to US support.

2.
The Dalai Lama is an iconic figure.  Do you support the concept of a free Tibet and are you sympathetic to the Dalai Lama's politics?

70 years ago, as a teen-age activist, I thought it was a serious error for the US to insist that the Outer Provinces (including Tibet) must be recognized as part of China.  Whether it’s possible to reverse that long-standing policy, and if so how, is far from clear.  The Dalai Lama has taken various positions on this over the years.

3.
a) Given that all people are products of their experiences and
neurology, how can you feel confident that your belief system is any "better" than anyone else's?

As on every issue, from physics to human affairs, because of the arguments and evidence I’m familiar with.  If there are counterarguments/evidence, will be glad to learn from them.

b) In other words, if you had been born, say, a Muslim in Indonesia
presumably your entire world view would be different; despite your
rigorous logic are not all beliefs ultimately relative?

Only in the sense that we cannot prove any empirical proposition.  That’s been clear since the 17^th century.

c) Are your beliefs in fact simply reactive emotional reactions
expressed in an intellectual manner?

If presented with an argument to this effect, I’ll be happy to listen to it.

4.
Did Jesus exist (was he a real person?)

That seems to be the weight of evidence.

5.
a)What is the most important rule of life you believe a person can
best live by?


b)Another way of asking this is, what is the most important question
you believe a person can ask themselves?

Too many answers.

METAGENEALOGY BY ALEXANDRO JODOROWSKY & MARIANNE COSTA

1. Translation exercise french to english pp. 9-10:

Alexandro Jodorowsky / Marianne Costa
Metagenealogie
Family, a Treasure, and a Trap

Editions Albin Michel (c) 2011

FOREWORD

What is metagenealogie (or metagenealogy)? Why not talk instead of psychogenealogie, since the word is fashionable?

The term psychogeneologie was invented by Alexandro Jordorowsky in early 1980. Since then, usage has been popularized to the point where it covers extraordinarily varied practices, and that diversity ultimatley effects the use of the term. 

The relevent term is one of psychology pure and simple, the other term is more ambiguous. But, the common point of the approaches is that they focus on the emergence of consciousness, the influence of the individual lineage on soul.

The interest of therapists and the public for knowledge of one’s genealogical tree has grown steadily since the year 1970, when psychoanalysts  first began to address the issue of the trans-generational line.   

The West is discovering that many cultures have always asserted unconscious religious, magical or shamanic forms as a means of exploring how the family interacts with the personal unconscious, our good and for ill.

But, if you arranged today for a reading of a psychogeneologist you’d more likely than not find yourself in front of an educated therapist as opposed to a medium or clairvoyant.  What would you get from that?  Maybe a diagram that coldly analyzes five generations of ancestors, perhaps intutive messages from past memories or the assurance that your are descended from royalty.  It is possible that you will be amazed by the information received. 

Maybe you will discover some unconscious habits or family secrets or an obsession with a phobia.  At worst that would be an exercise in cold intellectualism and unnecessary.  But, it is a contrast to the irrational sessions rich in cliches and divination based on New Age fiction.

In between these two extremes, metageneologies proposes to reconcile apparent contradictions, situating them precisely at their point of junction.  Where the rational collaborates with the irrational, or where science dances with art, or claravoiyance equals as much intuition as lucidity.  In actual language, where concepts are neurologically henceforth the currency of being, we’ll be able to state that the left brain and right brain are equal.

_________

2. Translation exercise from French to English:

Metagenealogie by Alexandro Jodorowsky 

and Marianne Costa

-          the family: a treasure and a trap
© Editions Albin Michel 2011

pp. 10 - 11

(continuation of the Forward written by Marianne Costa)

How can we describe a discipline that is rooted as much in psychology as in art, in science as in spiritual and esoteric endeavors?   This book will lay out and present in an accessible manner the thirty five years of research uncovered by Jodorowsky on the genealogical tree.  The same question brought us together over more than ten years: how to transmit in a consistent manner the theory and its practice that their inventor developed?  Solidly anchored in psychological and scientific theory of its time, metageneology reflects also the entirety of a life and the passionate quest to know oneself.  It suggests that all maladies could be understood as a lack of beauty and consciousness and that healing consists in becoming an authentic self.

This is why, rather than a manual, we propose to write this novel with a double intention:   that which is accomplished already, to introduce metageneaology and that of becoming, for those who are willing to play the game and begin this journey with us towards the reconquest of one’s true identity.  For each part, an introduction retraces, in the form of an autobiography, key moments experienced by Jodorowsky.  We organized this narration as an initiation story, which works as a pedagogical chronology and guide and thread to the reader, conducting a lecture for those who wish to study their tree and reflect on their proper destiny. 

Following each of these slices of life, a more theoretical chapter embellished  with references to the Tarot, our symbolical model for the travel to the self, will permit one to advance a bit farther in the understanding of, and the healing of, your family tree.  You’ll find also here a series of exercises meant as resources to use attention, creativity and imagination, qualities which we think are essential in the enterprise of reappropriation and thus reinvention of the roots which we invite you to explore here.

We hope with all our heart that this double voyage will serve you as a classical hero, triumphing over your obstacles and providing the medicine capable of transforming in a substantive way your existence and your environment,  This elixir, in the manner of Jordorowsky, carries the name of consciousness.

ANGEL CLAW by ALEXANDRO JODOROWSKY

Is Angel Claw by Alexandro Jodorowsky trash erotica or philosophy?

It was first published in English under the Eurotica label of the publisher NBM in 1996.

It is now getting a deluxe artist edition reissue in France.

I argue that the book was marketed as geek porn based on the art of Moebius.

The text articulates in story form the philosophy of Jodorowosky, and thus the book should be more properly classified as philosophy.

This is book is Jodorowsky's stream of consciousness; he is writing in a Jungian exercise, probing his unconscious to reach the core of his philosophy.

His tradition is the magical realism of South American literature and the existentialist literature of France, leaning towards Bataille and Celine rather than towards Sartre.

The story starts with a funeral:

"The funeral lasted for hours.  My father insisted on leaving the coffin to go dance with his widows.  It took six guards to overcome the epileptic resistance and seal the cover.  Instead of earth, they filled the grave with the bodies of the widows."

I think what Jodorowsky is getting at here is that even in death some people cling to their past.

Here, we have the daughter facing her father's death.

And this becomes an opportunity for her to reach enlightenment.

How?

By facing her past and the realization that those in her past who have plied her with concepts all wore masks to hide their own identities.

"Who was he?  My father, my brother, my ideal man, a projection of my own virility?  Under the mask which condemned him to silence, there was no one.  Like the effigy of a God, he was all surface."

She learned that to free herself she had to confront the generations of false concepts within her.

She, like all of us, was the product of false concepts.

"The master told me with one look: 'if you wish to be what you really are, you must recognize first that your flesh is invaded by the image of your mother.'"

And how is she to release concepts, all of which are false and which keep her from realizing her true self?

She learned that: "From here on, the guide was me."

"There was only one teacher: myself."

She adds an especially interesting quote connected to her insight: "When you lose hope, you lose fear."

There is the cliche that the only thing one has to fear is fear itself; certainly mankind lives in a state of anxiety.  

Hope is the solution often proposed.  

Think of Obama's campaign, the most obvious manifestation of hope marketed as salvation.  

Televangelists and all religions also rely on the commerce of hope leading to life after death and of freedom from evil.

Jodorowsky's philosophy proposes something more radical than hope: self-realization.

Hope is reliance on something external to bring about freedom: God or a politician or money.

Jodorosky submits that it is the child which is in each of us that directs us to react while it is self-realization that frees one from fear.

To live a life where one acts, not reacts, is to live.

The woman in Angel Claw comes to understand that:

 "Since then, the images of the past had no more hold on me than dead leaves."

Releasing her childhood indoctriation, the only thing left to constrain her is gravity.

And in the end, when this philosophy transcends into spirituality, even gravity loses its hold on her.

And there the book ends.

Thus, in conclusion, the imagery of Moebius may lead one to classify Angel Claw as soft porn (or geek porn).  

But, the philosophy of Jodorowsky in Angel Claw is one of a philosophy of spirituality towards a method of personal liberation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWI3qNmUNlI&list=UUk_-m3iZ7xdOpEHhVC8JpCA&index=1

BILL LEWIS - 1930s CARTOONIST AND ILLUSTRATOR

This is a large drawing, about 20x17. It was crumbling apart but I had a preservationist repair and frame it because I've never seen anything quite like it: a huge cartoon panel with a narrative purpose but no beginning or end. Perhaps a surreal commentary on life? Coincidentally, while it was at the frame shop, I was reading a book on Russell Patterson, a cartoonist who had a huge influence on Disney and had the eerie experience of finding an inked version of this drawing in the book, attributed to Patterson. So, either Bill Lewis, who was himself sought after by Disney, copied Patterson or Patterson copied Lewis. Still, this leaves unexplained the purpose of the unusual cartoon which is a section of a larger panorama. Perhaps it was a design for a movie poster; I know Bill Lewis designed a number of them.

Here the report is of the preservationist, Susan Page, who restored the drawing.  I highly recommend her if you have any preservation work related to art on paper:

SUSAN PAGE

PAPER CONSERVATION

7407 MAPLE AVENUE

TAKOMA PARK MD 20912

Phone: 301.270.3994

susan.tsultrim@gmail.com

OWNER OR AGENT: Tom

TITLE OR SUBJECT: Graphite pencil drawing on machine made paper

DESCRIPTION: The large drawing is rendered in pencil on cream colored vintage machine made paper.

CONDITION: The media is in very good condition.  The paper has deteriorated over time and is acidic and brittle.  It has been folded and as a result fold lines have formed tears.  There are small losses along fold lines.

TREATMENT: The drawing was humidified, flattened and mended along all fold lines to stabilize the paper.  Small edge tears were also mended and the paper was deacidified to neutralize inherent acidity.

DATE: March 25, 2013

COST OF CONSERVATION: $375.

Framing will begin once payment for conservation is received.

Susan L. Page, Conservator

Below is the inked version of the drawing in the book on Russell Patterson by Alex Chun:

BILL LEWIS - 1930s CARTOONIST AND ILLUSTRATOR

Another illustration by my great uncle, Bill Lewis, in the 1930s...

BILL LEWIS - 1930s CARTOONIST AND ILLUSTRATOR

Another cartoon by my great uncle Bill Lewis.

Bill Lewis was a highly regarded cartoonist and illustrator in Fort Worth, Texas.

He was sought after by Walt Disney and designed and produced many movie posters.

https://www.facebook.com/cartoonistbilllewis

BILL LEWIS - EARLY DISNEY ARTIST

My great uncle Bill Lewis was one of the earliest artists with Walt Disney Studios.  


These are a couple of his sketches done in the 1930s.  


Unfortunately, he committed suicide before I could meet him, to my eternal regret.


This has had a big impact on me.


It made me realize that as hopeless as things often seem, there might be someone out there I could have a positive impact on.


I would rather live with pain than lose the chance to have a positive impact on another person's life.


Even if I can't see when or how that impact will occur.


Most of us go through life irrelevant.


To make one small difference is to make an exceptional act.


For instance, I still remember when I was beaten up in fifth grade how one kid came over to be my friend.


I don't remember his name.


But that singular act of kindness still lives with me.


And, if I give up, my never having a positive impact on another is a certainty.


My great uncle will never know how much I would have liked to meet him.


He gave up too soon.


I choose to persevere.

BILL LEWIS - EARLY DISNEY ARTIST

My grandmother's brother, Bill Lewis, was among the original Disney Studio artists. Here are a couple of his sketches. In future posts I'll share more of his drawings and information about his life.