LOVE ANGELES PROJECT®

Iranian-Americans in L.A.

Source: UCLA - June 6, 2010 to August 22, 2010 -- From October 2009 through January 2010, four documentary photographers—Farhad Parsa, Arash Saedinia, Parisa Taghizadeh, and Ramin Talaie—focused their lenses on second-generation Iranian-Americans of Los Angeles, the world’s largest population of expatriate Iranians. Document: Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles—on view at the Fowler Museum from June 6–Aug. 22, 2010—offers a selection of images by each of these photographers which consider the everyday lives of their subjects. The exhibition also addresses the processes of documentation and how they relate to the photographers’ understandings of their own hyphenated Iranian identities.

The photographs capture the varied lives and interests of LA’s Iranian-American community—from toddlers at play to an acupuncturist in the office of her Los Feliz practice, from a young man break dancing to a young woman at prayer. There are also a few recognizable figures such as public intellectual Reza Aslan and comedian Maz Jobrani.

"In cultivating this collaborative project, I wanted to examine documentation as a representational process by offering four Iranian-American photographers' perspectives on who we are, stressing the importance of including multiple voices in documenting our own Los Angeles communities," says guest curator Amy Malek.

About the Photographers:

Farhad Parsa received a BFA in Photography and Film Production from the California College of Art in 2000. In 2007 he released his first photography book, Cue the Strings, filled with ten years of photographs exploring the people and events that shaped his life. Also in 2007, he began 1234 NYC, a ten-year project focusing on forty New Yorkers, including students, small business owners, and workers in creative industries.

Arash Saedinia was born in Esfahan and raised in Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree in English at California State University, Northridge, and a law degree from Harvard University. He is an artist and educator.

Parisa Taghizadeh is a freelance photographer based in Los Angeles. She grew up in London where she completed a BA Hons degree in Fine Art and went on to work in film and television. She has worked as a photographer for arts organizations such as Artangel and the Serpentine Gallery, as well as on numerous films and documentaries including Michael Winterbottom's, In this World. Taghizadeh’s work deals with personal and cultural identity, such as in Make-Up, Iran, a long-term project dealing with women living in Iran and their relationship to make-up and its rituals. She is also working on Mother, a series of portraits of mothers without their children.

Ramin Talaie is a documentary photojournalist whose work ranges from everyday portraiture in the streets of New York to AIDS-infected and chemical-dependant prisoners in a dilapidated treatment facility in Tehran. Talaie has covered various presidential campaigns including the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama and the 2009 contested elections in Iran, which precipitated deadly protests and demonstrations. He is the founding editor of Document Iran Images, a news and stock photo agency based in New York City.

More Information: Document: Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles has been organized by Amy Malek, UCLA Anthropology Ph.D candidate, with Susan Slyomovics, faculty advisor, under the auspices of the G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) at UCLA and through generous funding from the UCLA Council on Research (COR), UCLA Center for Community Partnerships (CCP), the Farhang Foundation, and CNES. The exhibition will be on view in the Goldenberg Galleria.

The Fowler Museum at UCLA is one of the country’s most respected institutions devoted to exploring the arts and cultures of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. The Fowler is open Wednesdays through Sundays, from noon to 5 p.m.; and on Thursdays, from noon until 8 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The Fowler Museum, part of UCLA Arts, is located in the north part of the UCLA campus. Admission is free. Parking is available for a maximum of $10 in Lot 4. For more information, the public may call 310/825-4361 or visit fowler.ucla.edu.

Related Program:
Sunday, June 6, 12–6 pm
Opening Day Programs
Document: Iranian Americans in Los Angeles
A panel of scholars will discuss issues relating to the Iranian diaspora and visual anthropology. Next, exhibition curator Amy Malek is joined by the four documentary photographers whose work is featured in the exhibition—Farhad Parsa, Arash Saedinia, Parisa Taghizadeh, and Ramin Talaie—who will discuss their experiences documenting the everyday lives of second-generation Iranian Americans in Los Angeles. A gallery tour with Malek and a reception follow. Please check fowler.ucla.edu for a detailed schedule. 

World Cup 2010: One Love (Video)

Enjoy this lovely recap from Germany '06...

City of Open Veins

By Marianna Minà - I’ve walked the streets of many cities around the world in my 36 years, but nothing has remained with in me as the spirit and the air of the the place I call “The City of Open Veins”: Los Angeles, La Ciudad de Los Ángeles, The City of Angels, La Reina de los Ángeles.

Whatever you call this city, you have to realize it was born to give, to bleed it’s ideas, to bleed it’s mixture of cultures, of musical rhythms, of stories, of people to the world. Not because of an example of it’s greatness, but as an example that it can be done, that there can be languages as far as Farsi and Spanish coming together in one city and becoming one.

You might say: “You know, that is no different than Paris, London, Madrid or New York.” I answer: “It’s not the same spirit.” Paris is a place where these cultures bump into each other but try to maintain and mark their space, Moroccans are not the same as Egyptians, but they are not French either. In London, even if foreigners maintain their traditions, they all want to become citizens of the British Empire, a step above or away from what they come from. Madrid is like a stop in the journey: People are there on their way to becoming the citizens of someplace else, they know they will never be Spaniards (because real Spaniards are very zealous of what they are and where they come from), so they are there to make an impression with whatever there culture is, and leave to go back home, or proceed to the next melting pot.

New York is the modern Babylon, everyone will come there to make there dreams come true, but they will maintain there traditions, their language, not wanting to mix or fuse: Little Italy, Little Armenia, the Ghettos, China Town, are all demonstrations of this. I don’t really believe they are all melting pots, they are more of potpourri containers: The combination of what it’s in there smells good, but its ingredients still come in separate formats.

But in Los Angeles, everything changes. Everybody dreams humongous in LA, everybody is there to be the next big thing: The next big director, actor, guitarist, music producer, singer, photographer, designer, interior designer, pet trainer, chef, starlet, personal trainer, yoga instructor; because if your lucky and you bump into the right person at a café or buying your Sunday paper, this city will bleed on you a little of the force, magic, mojo, karma, light, passion or whatever you want to call it... And then, your ideas travel the world and become universal. How many cities in the planet do you know have that effect on your dreams?

By now, if you’re not a mass murderer or a sadist, you must be asking why I choose to use the word “bleed,” to describe the phenomenon I relate to this city. Well, it’s between a copy and a theory and a metaphor. Bear with me. If you where educated in a Latin country (as I was), at some point and time in your schooling a book comes your way: The Open Veins of Latin America, by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. In this volume the author explains how this continent has given ideas and riches to the United States, Europe and other ruling entities over the centuries until these super powers have bled Latin America to death and poverty. I encourage anybody with a little curiosity and an open mind to read it, especially Arizona residents. Galeano is one of the brightest minds of our century, you might not agree with what he says sometimes, but I guarantee you’ll enjoy the way he writes to the very last black humored word. Anyway, I use bleed as a way to describe a social/cultural shift of energy and riches as he does: mine is a good shift.

Second of all, I use it as part of a theory, that is not mine, but a very popular one in mass culture: Cities are live beings. So if they are alive, they must have some kind of blood running through their veins. I think of LA blood, as its light, energy, the unseen connection between beings, mojo, flow, fairy dust. I can tell you 100 words but you know what I am talking about, every city has it, it’s combination of white cells, red cells, platelets and plasma, that makes the city become alive, that feeds water cooler conversations, art ideas,  sports victories, just about every human action under that city’s sun.

Third and last, I use it as a metaphor of something mystical. In the religious practice of Cuban Santería, animal blood is used to purify, cleanse a person of evil spirits and evil vibes. It also transmits the essence of whatever animal it comes from, to strengthen their spirit. Not that I think we should all cleanse our problems like that - I don’t want every member of PETA writing to me - but, in my metaphor about blood, I do think this city’s blood has something special, a pizazz, a vibe, that helps everything we do in LA be in another level, whether it be enlightenment of debauchery, doing it in The City of Angels, will add and extra funk to it.

All the above being said, I also think of another kind of dreams being dreamt in this city, the ones of that Tijuana father trying to find a better place to educate his 6 children away from violence or that Beijing mother wanting her mentally gifted daughter to find a place to freely express herself one she has fully developed her intelligence. Or an Ethiopian mother just wanting her daughter not to be sexually mutilated in adolescence. It’s not the next big thing, but it’s... A chance of a better life, we all can relate to that... And it’s a big thing in anybody’s life. LA bleeds on that to, its blood rights the wrongs, licks the wounds, hushes the pains. May the “Queen of the Angels” always be such a nurturing mother to all of us.

So imagine what flows through the veins of this city, what red, hot and dense product of dreams feeds the minds and hearts of its residents from sun up to sun down. It’s made of ideas of what the future is and has to be, of what we have to feel when we see a movie around the world, about making it through a day with your family intact, of fulfilling your potential to the max, or the elation of finding your place in the world and making a life in it.

Of course I do not live in a Hello Kitty world and think that LA is perfect. It also sometimes brings out its worst: The gangs, the painful LA Riots, the excess of attention and focus on beauty with some horrible experiments in plastic surgery and the distorted image it sends to our teens, the stories of illegal immigrants dead on their way to a job in a farm and I could go on and on an on. But one has to take in to account what the ancient Chinese book of wisdom, the Tao Te Ching, says: Live in the paradox. There can’t be a city of dreams without a few nightmares once in a while, it’s just the way it is, it’s just the way the creation maintains its balance.

So in the end, we vampires of great intellectual and creative conquests or anemic souls deficient of new beginnings, or just plain California residents used to the renovation our own blood, come to Los Angeles to be fed, replenished and nourished by a city the gives of its life source constantly and without asking something in return. Or maybe, she only wants for new generations of dreamers to keep coming and feeding the bloodline with everything there is in there hearts and minds, for it to become richer and stronger. This city unites all that were embraced and adopted by it, like a foster mother. There is no other city with such a power, with such bravery that allows it to live constantly with open veins.

Feedback and comments can be emailed to Marianna Minà at openheartandmind@me.com

Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film (Video)

What Climate Change Means for Wine Industry

Source: Wired - John Williams has been making wine in California’s Napa Valley for nearly 30 years, and he farms so ecologically that his peers call him Mr. Green. But if you ask him how climate change will affect Napa’s world famous wines, he gets irritated, almost insulted.

“You know, I’ve been getting that question a lot recently, and I feel we need to keep this issue in perspective,” he told me. “When I hear about global warming in the news, I hear that it’s going to melt the Arctic, inundate coastal cities, displace millions and millions of people, spread tropical diseases and bring lots of other horrible effects. Then I get calls from wine writers and all they want to know is, ‘How is the character of cabernet sauvignon going to change under global warming?’ I worry about global warming, but I worry about it at the humanity scale, not the vineyard scale.”

Williams is the founder of Frog’s Leap, one of the most ecologically minded wineries in Napa and, for that matter, the world. Electricity for the operation comes from 1,000 solar panels erected along the Merlot vines. The heating and cooling are supplied by a geothermal system that taps into the earth’s heat. The vineyards are 100 percent organic and — most radical of all, considering Napa’s dry summers — there is no irrigation.

Yet despite his environmental fervor, Williams dismisses questions about preparing Frog’s Leap for the impacts of climate change. “We have no idea what effects global warming will have on the conditions that affect Napa Valley wines, so to prepare for those changes seems to me to be whistling past the cemetery,” he says, a note of irritation in his voice. “All I know is, there are things I can do to stop, or at least slow down, global warming, and those are things I should do.”

Williams has a point about keeping things in perspective. At a time when climate change is already making it harder for people in Bangladesh to find enough drinking water, it seems callous to fret about what might happen to premium wines.

But there is much more to the question of wine and climate change than the character of pinot noir. Because wine grapes are extraordinarily sensitive to temperature, the industry amounts to an early-warning system for problems that all food crops — and all industries — will confront as global warming intensifies.

In vino veritas, the Romans said: In wine there is truth. The truth now is that Earth’s climate is changing much faster than the wine business, and virtually every other business on earth, is preparing for.

All crops need favorable climates, but few are as vulnerable to temperature and other extremes as wine grapes. “There is a 15-fold difference in the price of cabernet sauvignon grapes that are grown in Napa Valley and cabernet sauvignon grapes grown in Fresno” in California’s hot Central Valley, says Kim Cahill, a consultant to the Napa Valley Vintners’ Association. “Cab grapes grown in Napa sold [in 2006] for $4,100 a ton. In Fresno the price was $260 a ton. The difference in average temperature between Napa and Fresno was 5 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Numbers like that help explain why climate change is poised to clobber the global wine industry, a multibillion-dollar business whose decline would also damage the much larger industries of food, restaurants, and tourism.

Every business on earth will feel the effects of global warming, but only the ski industry — which appears doomed in its current form — is more visibly targeted by the hot, erratic weather that lies in store over the next 50 years. In France, the rise in temperatures may render the Champagne region too hot to produce fine champagne.

The same is true for the legendary reds of Châteauneuf du Pape, where the stony white soil’s ability to retain heat, once considered a virtue, may now become a curse. The world’s other major wine-producing regions — California, Italy, Spain, Australia — are also at risk.

If current trends continue, the “premium-wine-grape production area [in the United States] … could decline by up to 81 percent by the late 21st century,” a team of scientists wrote in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.

The culprit was not so much the rise in average temperatures but an increased frequency of extremely hot days, defined as above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). If no adaptation measures were taken, these increased heat spikes would “eliminate wine-grape production in many areas of the United States,” the scientists wrote.

In theory, winemakers can defuse the threat by simply shifting production to more congenial locations. Indeed, champagne grapes have already been planted in England and some respectable vintages harvested.

But there are limits to this strategy. After all, temperature is not the sole determinant of a wine’s taste. What the French call terroir — a term that refers to the soil of a given region but also includes the cultural knowledge of the people who grow and process grapes — is crucial. Continue reading at Wired...

Dorothy Height: Civil Rights Matriarch Fought Racism with Dignity

Source: By Hamil R. Harris Washington Post - The first time I met Dorothy Height, she seemed out of place. She was wearing an obviously expensive pantsuit, sporting a wide-brim church hat and zipping around the Mall on a golf cart.

It was 1986, the first year of the National Black Family Reunion that Height had boldly pushed for. Even though racial diversity was in full bloom, Height believed that African American families needed to celebrate themselves in a big way.

By then, Height was already a civil rights icon, revered as a national treasure. I was new to Washington. As a freelance broadcast journalist, I needed a sound bite to get paid. Height stood in front of my little microphone and gave much more.

Of course I knew her, had seen her on television, but as I listened to Height her passion for social justice was overwhelming. Since then, I have interviewed her dozens of times. She was always available and accessible to the ordinary, as well as the extraordinary. And she always seemed to say the right thing.

Height began her career with another civil rights leader, educator Mary McLeod Bethune, and worked with presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama. She always mixed the social with the political, closing out the annual family reunion with a gospel concert and a traditional benediction.

More than a half-million people have attended the National Black Family Reunions since they began in 1986. Along the way, she reminded everyone that the event was not just about money. She forced vendors to keep the food prices low and kept the focus on health care and education.

In the summer of 1991, my wife and I attended the annual summer gathering with my mother-in-law and our new baby Aria. My wife, Taunya Harris, had never been to the reunion and wanted to see singer Jermaine Jackson. But it was Dorothy Height who stole the show. "I will never forget. Dr. Height came out on stage dressed in this blue outfit," she said.

Height knew how to bring people together. When comedian Bill Cosby offered a scorching critique of black America during the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education case, which declared separate schools for blacks and whites unconstitutional, many blacks were angry. But Height said that Cosby was right because "the promises of Brown have yet to be fulfilled. Continue reading at the Washington Post

The Real Avatar: Story of a Sacred Mountain (Video)

LA Fashion: Beryll Introduces T-shirt line

Source: LA2Day - Beryll introduces their first T-shirt line, the newest addition to the collection. True to the minimal and utilitarian design of +Beryll, these shirts are exactly the ones you have been looking for, with a buttery touch, a perfect cut, and a fit that clings to the body just right. The worn in and used aesthetic results in a super clean and effortless shirt.

Designer Sigmar Berg draws his inspiration from places he shares a special relation with. Malibu/ California not only harbors his home base, but also his favorite surf spot, Point Dume. This former volcano and sacred Native American place spreads out into the rough Pacific Ocean. As a tribute, the longitude and latitude of Point Dume adorn the left sleeve of each T-shirt. The ocean, the beach and its sandy and aqua hues deliver the perfect color palate for the line.

The worn in and used aesthetic is achieved by special garment treatments and handcrafted finishing touches. Each piece is made in L.A. from organic American cotton and is available for both men and women.

Chose from a round or v-neck style, and colors of white, black, navy, light blue, and sand. For the more edgy look some styles are available with a one-of-akind branding - an adornment +Beryll is already well known for.

About +Beryll:

+Beryll is a luxury fashion brand based in Los Angeles, California. Founder and Chief designer Sigmar Berg and his artesian workers at the +Beryll studio handcraft one-of-a-kind belts, boots, bags, jewelry, leather jackets and t-shirts. The limited edition sunglass line is handmade in Italy. All +Beryll designs are an alchemy of pure form, function and exquisite craftsmanship that epitomizes California laid back luxury.

Besides the by-appointmentonly flagship store in Santa Monica, CA, +Beryll is worldwide selling at trend-setting stores. +Beryll designs encompass understated luxury and have become a "must have" among celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, David LaChapelle, Demi Moore, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Lenny Kravitz, Katie Holmes, Matt Dillon, Sharon Stone and many more good people.

For more information, visit beryll.com

The Religion of Avatar - It Was Born in Piedmont, Italy?

Ok, so Avatar didn't sweep the Oscars, well I thought I could share one more interesting article on one of the most powerful films in history.

Source: Damanhur by Massimo Introvigne - A Turin based sociologist, director and one of the founder of the Center for the Study of New Religions. CESNUR also studies contemporary communal and spiritual movements, and their impact on social life.

This article has been published on two major Italian newspapers on January 30th and 31st, and is also avalible on the CESNUR website.

James Cameron's film Avatar combines an incredible technology, that can be only appreciated in 3D on the big screen and that can truly bring back to the cinema all those who feed only on Internet and tv, with an all-in-all very simple plot and a debatable ideology. The Na'vi, the peaceful inhabitants of the planet Pandora attacked by earthly mercenaries hired by a multinational, are in fact an obvious metaphor for all of those who are 'different': and the message is that those who are 'different' are always and in any case better than us. If it were only of a criticism of  what Giulio Tremonti calls the 'turbo-capitalism' of multinationals - including its scarce respect for cultures and the environment - there would be nothing to object. But the fact is - as many Christian critics in the United States have noticed - that the moral superiority of the Na'vi is derived from their religion, which the spectator is brought to admire and share.

The film teaches that this religion is superior to those of the earthlings, because it unites rather than dividing, because it is monistic rather than dualistic. It does not distinguish between Creator and creatures, and it venerates Eywa, the Mother or the All, a sort of collective mind of the universe that reveals it to be an extremely dense network of interconnections. Everything is connected with everything else, and the Na'vi shamans perform miracles, including healings, because they are able to penetrate these lines of connection and enter into attunement with Eywa. The classic name for this religion - not used in Cameron's film - is pantheism: but this is a pantheism revisited with an  ecological and New Age flavour. The reference to New Age is obvious, and it is more convincing than the hypothesis that the Na'vi's religion is a slightly modified variation of Hinduism - a comment that made the front pages of Indian daily newspapers. The expression "New Age," nevertheless, indicates a genre and not a species. There are very many  New Age groups, and there is quite a lot of diversity among them.

Those who are familiar with this world, when confronted by Avatar can't help but notice that the New Age group that comes closest to the Na'vi’s way of thinking is not in the United States, but in Italy, in the province of Turin. It's Damanhur, the "Aquarian" center founded in 1976 in Valchiusella by Oberto Airaudi, a place that is famous for its great underground temple. Despite how much its 'citizens' - as they prefer to call themselves - dislike this label, Damanhur represents the largest New Age community in the world. The hypothesis that Cameron could have been inspired by Damanhur is not so far-fetched. Books and videos about Damanhur in English are very common in the American New Age circuit, and the story of the underground temple that the community, quite incredibly, succeeded in keeping secret until 1992 has fascinated even large newspapers. The similarities are astonishing. Like the underground temple of Damanhur, the center of power and spirituality of the Na'vi is hidden: inside an enormous tree.

Like the Damanhurians, the Na'vi have their sacred language, and the use of it, both in Cameron's film and at Damanhur in Valchiusella, helps to indicate the difference with those who are not part of the community. Both the Na'vi and the Damanhurian citizens emphasize the value of being part of a 'people', a belonging that is not only ethnic but initiatic, and - as the protagonist of the film himself demonstrates - voluntary. The Damanhurians greet each other, recognizing the deep communion that exists between them, with the words, "Con te” (With you), not with the usual "buongiorno”.The Na'vi do the same by saying "I see you." At Damanhur, every member of the community establishes a special - bilateral - connection with an animal, taking on its name. Amongst the Na'vi, every warrior becomes one by choosing a winged animal to ride, and by being chosen by it at the same time.

The Damanhurian citizen, writes the founder Airaudi, becomes "a drop that is conscious of oneself and of all the other drops forming the sea of Being." The Na'vi would agree. Both the Na'vi and the Damanhurians believe pantheistically in a great All, where each manifestation of nature and life is in connection with all the rest. Like the Na'vi, the Damanhurians attempt to interact with these connections – also by using special symbols – obtaining results, or so they say, even therapeutic ones. One can understand - in the United States and elsewhere - the diffidence of the Church and the Christian community, for which pantheism and the negation of the ontological difference between the Creator and the creation are centuries-old enemies, now returning with the New Age. But until now, there haven’t been very many people who have seen the origin of this new Hollywood religion very close to us, in Valchiusella.

The Call of Wairua

Ironically, I watched the film Whale Rider for the very first time just a few months back, prior to knowing I would soon find myself in the very same village the story takes place in. Like most people who have seen the film, I was deeply moved by Pai, the heroic protagonist of the story, as well as the culture and traditions of the Maori people of New Zealand. I instantly experienced a deep and sensitive connection with the Maori without knowing anything about them or their history. Not long after enjoying Whale Rider, I experienced Avatar and witnessed glimpses into an ancient-progressive way of living on our planet which I was finally able to describe in the article entitled Coreservation. I knew that by sharing what I envisioned with my friends and community, more clues and further direction would be offered to me, both through personal insights, recommended books to read, people to meet, etc.

At the time, I was certainly aware that I was being shown something and/or led somewhere, but I didn't know exactly why or where. Still, I had an unshakable trust that more and more would unfold as I was open to accepting it.

And then I was invited to travel with my father to New Zealand. I only had three days to decide if I could join him on the trip, and believe it or not, the decision at first was not an easy one, for various reasons. However, at the right time, my heart confirmed the decision to accept the invitation. As soon as I became clear on going, my curiosity, excitement and sense of purpose began to get the best of me.

We flew into Auckland direct from LAX and immediately took a transfer flight to Queenstown in the south end of New Zealand's beautiful South Island. However, before catching the 90 minute transfer flight, I exited the airport for a few minutes to take my first few breathes of air on the North Island. It was extraordinarily familiar, comfortable and fulfilling in a way that was difficult to describe.

After about a week of exploration, including many of the popular sightseeing destinations in the open and vast South Island, we crossed back over to the North Island by way of a three hour ferry to the Capital city of Wellington. Once again and immediately, the strong familiar pull stirred within me.

As we continued North, I was able to begin engaging with a higher frequency of locals (70% of New Zealand's population is in the North Island). Intuitively, I knew that the details relating to my personal journey would be revealed to me as soon as I had the opportunity to interact with the people of the land, both the newcomers as well as the direct descendants of the native peoples.

Eight days into the journey, my Father and I experienced a miracle. Upon arriving late in the afternoon to the touristic lake town of Rotorua, a local angel advised us (in pure synchronicity) to get in the car and drive 12 km back out of town to visit three neighboring lakes which we might have otherwise passed by on our trip. We figured we could catch a nice sunset, so we immediately got in the car and went. In just a couple of minutes outside of the busy town, I noticed that we were the only people on the road, winding through bright fluorescent ferns on either side of us! We stopped at the first and second lakes and took some shots. I recall hearing my dad say "unbelievable" about a thousand times while I kept repeating "dad, I have never, ever seen anything like this, anywhere in the world." We pulled up to the third lake which was glowing down below us (image shown above). I was knocked back by the energy, it was loud, pure, moving in waves. It was pulling on my core. The familiar feeling I felt in the air from the second I set foot in New Zealand, was magnified exponentially. I was in a trance. We drove down to the foot of the lake and took more pictures. Upon leaving, I felt so grateful to the angel who pointed the way to our experience that I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to go back and thank her again, and tell her about the beauty we had just experienced. We drove back to where she worked, but she had already been let off for the day. I told another employee to make sure she mentioned that we wanted to thank her again. She assured us that she would be happy to know that we enjoyed our experience...

Early the next morning, we went into town for a light breakfast before getting back on the road. As I entered the cafe, the local messenger happened to be having a coffee at the exact place we walked into, prior to starting her work day on the other side of town. I couldn't believe it! I got to thank her in person before she even got to work to hear about it from a co-worker!

Before leaving the coffee shop, and out of joy for the magical way the world works, I posted the following as my status on Facebook:

When we practice acknowledging and engaging with others everywhere we go every single day, we open ourselves to all the forces seeking to guide us! when we meet people with humility and loving kindness they too will be more open to delivering you the message that they may or may not have been aware they were to do! 

I made the case to visit the lakes one more time before continuing on with our planned itinerary for the day. Twenty minutes later, we arrived once again to the magical Lake Tarawera with the intention of shooting a few more pictures of her surroundings before getting out of town. We walked around one side of the peace-filled shore, while soaking up her powerful vibes. On our way out, my dad popped his head into what seemed to be a little cafe on the lake, most likely catering to visitors who find their way over. We were met by Tongi, a very warm middle-aged Maori woman with a short hairdo, and Aria, Tongi's two year old granddaughter with piercing brown eyes (who may very well have been the light child who came to me in a dream two weeks prior, while still in LA). Getting caught up in an ongoing dialogue, Tongi invited us to sit down at the table. She told us about her growing up on that very lake before moving away and coming back many years later, never to leave again. She mentioned a few details about the lake and pointed out the large powerboat her family allows visitors to use, which was tied to the dock extending out into the water. I told Tongi about our experience the night before as well as the connection I felt to the north island of New Zealand, and especially to the lake. Looking into my eyes, as if to clarify my sincerity, she smiled with a slight nod of her head. "What is it?" I asked impatiently. "Wairua" she replied. "The spirit, the spirituality of the land. You feel it, you recognize it." I had goosebumps, and I could feel that the air shifted ever so slightly. Literally, wairua means "two waters." According to the Maori Dictionary, wairua is "spirit, soul, quintessence - spirit of a person which exists beyond death. To some, the wairua resides in the heart or mind of someone while others believe it is part of the whole person and is not located at any particular part of the body."

Tongi proceeded to tell us a bit about the history of the lake and the legend of the phantom canoe. Lake Tarawera was substantially affected by the eruption of Mount Tarawera on June 10, 1886. The eruption killed over 150 people, and buried the Maori village of Te Wairoa on the southwest shore of the lake. Just 11 days before the eruption, a local guide took a boat full of tourists to see the now non-existent wonder known as the Pink and White Terraces. Upon their return, each and every tourist saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile away from them. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom. The Chief Elder predicted that something terrible was about to happen, and it did.

I could feel the air shift just a little bit more. Tongi stood up to tell her assistant in the kitchen that she would be back in fifteen minutes to drive my dad and I somewhere to see something special. She picked up her keys, and as soon as she swung back around towards us, I witnessed her face go blank as she put her hand to her mouth and shouted out "oh my God!" The boat, which we all had just confirmed was tied up near the shore only a few short minutes before, was 200 yards out, sitting still in the middle of the lake, nobody was on board. Her assistant in the back, which may have been her daughter, expressed an even louder cry of disbelief. She knew the boat was securely tied up because she was the one who tied it down over twenty-four hours beforehand.  We soon noticed that the rope ties were hanging in tact on the dock, so it wasn't even as if the ropes snapped all of a sudden and the boat rapidly drifted out. I was buzzing. My dad and I shared thoughts through our exchanged glance. After making a few calls, a friend of Tongi's arrived to tow in another boat in order to fetch the one that got away.

We felt that it was time for us to go even if we had to miss the sacred place Tongi was going to drive us to. She recommended that before we left, we must walk up the shore, opposite the way we walked earlier, to visit the historical paintings of her ancestors on the under belly of a large rock which was covered by the tide for many years as well as to experience the surrounding natural gardens. We agreed to check it out, we exchanged our contact information and embraced in gratitude for our connection and already being able to openly share in the mystical.

After visiting the sacred paintings, my dad and I went through the gardens and I mentioned to him that I felt that I needed to meditate for ten minutes or so. I sat at the edge of the lake, closed my eyes and opened my spirit to the loud familiar forces in and around the lake (only tonight did I find out that my dad snapped a pic of me before heading back to the car). I didn't think about anything throughout my meditation until just before I was ready to come up. Internally I said, "thank you God for this trip, these moments, especially these experiences with my father. Please give me some kind of confirmation that everything we just experienced was in order and from the best of You." I slowly opened my eyes, looking forward across the water. Within seconds, and just five feet in front of me, a beautiful fish leaped out of the water, arcing a few feet up and over.

I went back to thank Tongi for pointing me to the experience. She smiled and mentioned, forever you have family here at Tarawera.

New Marilyn Monroe Photos on Sale

Source: Yahoo

The West Bank Story: A Musical with a Peaceful Purpose

Source: WestBankStory.com - A musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands in the West Bank... David, an Israeli soldier, falls in love with the beautiful Palestinian cashier, Fatima, despite the animosity between their families' dueling restaurants. Can the couple's love withstand a 2000 year old conflict and their families' desire to control the future of the chic pea in the Middle East?

Directed by Ari Sandel, written by Kim Ray & Ari Sandel and music by Yuval Ron; an official selection of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and 2006 Academy Award Winner for Best Live Action Short Film. 

Yuval Ron Ensemble Concert: Mark Your Calendars, It's Not to be Missed!

Sunday, January 31,  7:00 pm - Mystical Music and Dance of the Middle East- A feast for the senses, celebrating the ancient rich cultures
of the three Abrahamic Faiths.

The Yuval Ron Ensemble

Featuring: the stunning vocalist Najwa Gibran, Armenian woodwind master Norik Manoukian and folkloric dancers Maya Karasso and Miriam Peretz

Location: All Saints Church - 132 North Euclid Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101

Admission: Suggested Donation $20 - For more information: Call Norma Sigmund at 626-583-2734

Over the Summer, I had the privilege of being invited to the Yuval Ron Ensemble concert in Brentwood. When I heard that they often toured with trained dancers I knew that I was in for a treat, but I had no idea just how moving the Judeo-Arabic influenced rhythms and vocals could be. In addition to the mesmerizing music, the oral stories told by Yuval and others had so much depth and meaning for my personal journey that a few times I felt like my higher Self was talking directly to me. Yuval and I have since become good friends and spend a lot of our time sharing music of the worlds and discussing world peace and coexistence amongst peoples and nations.

This concert in Pasadena is NOT TO BE MISSED!!! I will be there with a huge group of friends and I would love to have you join us in celebrating life through inspirational music from various cultures of the world.

You must watch the trailer below for their latest release of the Seeker of Truth DVD and CD: 

Israeli Village Mashes Up World's Largest Hummus

Source: Yahoo - Fifty chefs in the Arab-Israeli village of Abu Ghosh on Friday mashed up over four tonnes of hummus, beating the Guinness World Record set in Lebanon just months ago.

"This is a new record," said Guinness adjudicator Jack Brookbank as the massive dip, dished out in a six-metre (20 foot) satellite dish provided by sponsors, weighed in at 4,087.5 kilos (8992.5 pounds).

That is about twice as much as the previous record set in October in neighbouring Lebanon, Israel's political and culinary rival.

"I've heard Lebanon is already planning to strike back," Brockbank told AFP as a band struck up a traditional Arabic tune to words hailing the humble hummus.

A simple but tasty dish of chickpeas, sesame paste, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic, hummus stirs passions and rivalries across much of the Middle East.

Lebanon recently sought to have the European Union register the dip as a Lebanese speciality, drawing hoots of derision from Israeli afficionados, who claim that would be like claiming intellectual ownership of bread.

Hummus, sometimes described as one of the oldest known prepared foods, is enjoyed in much of the Middle East and has probably been around for centuries.

Most hummus pundits agree its historical origins are lost in the sands of time, with various theories mentioning several areas of the Middle East, Rome, Greece and the Crusaders.

For Jawadat Ibrahim, who organised the event, the roots of the popular dish are irrelevant.

"It's something we all share and enjoy," said Ibrahim, who owns the Abu Ghosh Restaurant in the heart of the Arab-Israeli village of the same name which every weekends attracts hordes of hungry visitors, many in search of the perfect hummus.

About 50 chefs worked side by side to prepare the massive plate of hummus set up on a specially erected platform outside the restaurant located just a short drive from Jerusalem.

The Guinness official was impressed.

"It's really very good," Brockbank told AFP.

"I was a little worried they might sacrifice quality for quantity, but that was not the case," he said.

Ibrahim was beaming.

"Abu Ghosh is the town of the biggest hummus plate in history," he shouted out to cheers from a crowd of several hundred.

He acknowledged that Lebanese hummus "is very good" but boasted that "Abu Gosh is the hummus capital of the world" -- fighting words to rival fans.

With Lebanon apparently determined to one-up Abu Ghosh, Brockbank is convinced "it's going to be a long battle."

"But a nice one," he added.

Coreservation: One Hypothetical Step Towards a Peaceful Ancient-Modern Way

A few days after watching Avatar, I scribbled the following, "I can only describe it as that I caught a strong flash or two into how we (a community of people serious about changing the way we live and work together on the planet) were going to be living, working, surviving and ultimately thriving "together" in the near future. Ironically, just as I thought that I was beginning to see a clear landscape of my personal life mission/purpose, what flashed over me, I've never even imagined before... I saw "tribes" of heart-God-centered people actually living on and off the land in a future-ancient way. I realized that one potential interpretation of the prophetic "war" to take place (much like in the film) and written about in many of the spiritual texts was actually an internal war which is and would continue to rage within each of us who were willing to seriously "live this change." More specifically, how much would we be willing to let go of, relative to what we currently think we "need to have" for EVERYONE to live a balanced and abundant life TOGETHER... It is almost like the movie had so much power and purpose behind it that that it was actually a divine GPS point loaded into a master rescue plan for individuals and humanity as a whole to experience and instantly become a bit more enlightened relative to how we are supposed to live peacefully together here on Earth."

Well, the least I could do is attempt to describe my experience in a bit more detail. Pandora is here, right beneath our feet and directly below the trillions of tons of scrap automobiles crawling all the way home on the 101 this afternoon. Something went wrong didn't it? When did things really take a turn for the worst? Hey, remember the people who lived here before everything started to get really weird... I think we still call them the Natives? Well, I remember someone once telling me that a long time ago, they clearly expressed a strong intuition that the newbies to North America were going to "fall to materialism and destroy the Living Earth." Oh yeah and either kill the Natives or push them off the land they've lived on for thousands of years. So now that we're clear on when the unbalance began, we can at least get an idea of what not to repeat and at best realize where we ought to begin again...

It makes sense that the key to healing our people and planet would be through the people indigenous to the land - in general, the ancient tribes around the world all share the following basics: 1) respect the Great Spirit 2) respect the Land, Animals and Man 3) work hard, share and celebrate life all together. If you wish, you can throw in 4) create beautiful and timeless art, design and entertainment. You can also add 5) eating healthy - that is locally grown, naturally and in proper portions.

I think that we were suckered on a very dark form of what's been termed "healthy competition" with respect to the Capitalism of today. The type of competition that inevitably leads to fear, greed and resistance and separation amongst people, media, government, and educational institutions. And finally, the type of competition that is addictive and contagious - picked up by other peoples and systems in other places on the planet, setting up a world in which a few are sick with greed, while a few more are desperately sick, hungry and praying to the Great Spirit for a tiny bit of relief.

We know that the duality of structure will crumble, it has already begun on many levels. There is nothing to fear, this is simply evolution - the end of one way and the rebirth of another. It's time for some of us to take an exemplary leap of faith toward creating a new way of going about things, from the bottom up, on every front. It has been discussed for decades but the timing is now for many reasons, one of them being that technology needed to advance to a degree in which people everywhere on the planet can be enlightened, by example, in real-time. Call it a hunch, but I feel certain that the needed shifts to truly leap us towards restoring harmony on the planet will neither come from legislation nor a bunch of activists working from behind their home desktop. Throughout history, these leaps have occurred when individuals and/or tribes were willing to die for the cause of retaining or restoring peace. As pioneers into the era of peace, we must be willing to die to the old ways of material ownership and division.    

I am aware that many of the people God has already connected together, like myself, have adopted the necessary steps of pure and universal thinking and ways of living. A short time ago and in response to a mini-dialogue on restoring harmony on the planet, our brother Judah Isvaran posted the following on Facebook:

"A meeting of the Minds gets to be had...to create the committed actions & Visioning to unfold the possibility for "PANDORA" to exist NOW...The Spiritual Warrior's willing to step forth and stand in the drift to create it."

I look forward to coming together with whomever feels compelled to come forward with a thought, insight or master plan for us to give the planet the greatest gift we humans can give. The true cosmic shift which has already begun does not depend on governments, dual-party politics or anything else of that nature, rather a few people who are willing to listen to the voice of the planet and risk everything for what comes natural to us as living spirits. After our initial leap of faithful action, many more will follow, including institutions, support agencies, governments and more. People will magically come together and work together for the common good, not just because they "have to" as we've seen in "response" to say a tragic terrorist attack, but because they consciously and willingly surrender to the healing Spirit of Love. We will have everything we need at each step along the way.     

Coreservation: An Oasis of Peaceful Ancient-Modern Living

A working title that basically means Help the Natives help us help one another help Our Mother Earth. The mission would be 1) to coexist peacefully and indefinitely on one specific Native American reservation, learning the ways of the Natives and the Land with an intent to co-create a healthy, self-sustainable and thriving ancient-modern way of living and 2) to continually broadcast progress and findings to the entire world. If it succeeds, more reservations might become interested in building stronger, self-sustainable communities, and soon enough people in countries all over the planet may soon find their way back to their own Native peoples. What did that Brit say, Imagine all the people? Well, we've got to start somewhere. The idea is first to immerse ourselves in learning the ways of the Natives. Second, to work together with them in building a truly self-sustainable community. And third, bring the ways to other developing coreserations as well as back to the planet's outdated models, systems and institutions. 

What might this look like? A group of pioneers would travel to and live on a reservation, coexisting with a specific tribe in order to learn first hand about their traditional ways, culture, needs, struggles, etc. Sound familiar? We would NOT be there to "free" them from their ways, nor would we be trying to impose our culture, ways, mentalities, etc. However, we could certainly bring yoga, meditation, fitness, novel methods of conscious teaching, etc. After meeting regularly with the elders, together we could develop a plan to create the first Coreservation open to "outside" peace workers. Perhaps we could introduce some of the technologies which can be used consciously to broadcast peaceful awareness, and raise support for the Natives and the new community. At some point, teachers, translators, nurses, doctors, healers, builders, agriculturalists, etc. would be brought in to facilitate the development of an Ancient-Modern system of living. I envision children becoming educated in a powerful ancient-modern way. I see people eating together, meditating together, sharing stories around the fire. I see peace in the eyes of the people. I can experience the magnificence of the heavens and know that I am living amongst people who know we are one.

My hope is that what we would learn, co-create and broadcast to the world would ignite many fires all over the planet within existing media, people, governments, and educational institutions. We will live the change together, harnessing blessed technologies consciously, while living in harmony with each other and the planet.  

After almost a week of sitting with the notion of drawing up one solution for a leap into a new way of living, coexisting with our beloved Natives, I was startled to stumble upon the Hopi prophecies which I compiled below. If you're interested, I highly suggest that you read on, not to get crazy over the highly interpretable Hopi predictions, but more so to become up-to-date on the stories of the Ancients who lived on this same land:

The Hopi are a Native America Nation who primarily live on the 1.5 million acre Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. Hopis call themselves Hopitu - "The Peaceful People."

Evidence suggest that the Hopi consist of the descendants of various groups that entered the country from the north, the east, and the south, and that a series of movements covered a period of probably three centuries, and perhaps considerably longer.

Their ancestors, the Anasazi, appear to have been related to the Aztecs of Mexico, and may have arrived in their current location 5 to 10 thousand years ago. In that time, they have developed an intricate ceremonial calendar that has helped them survive and be strong in a place that would not seem to have enough reliable water to sustain life.

Art is a way for the Southwestern Native Americans to communicate their dreams, visions, and beliefs to each other or to people today.

Hopi Prophecy:

The famous Hopi Prophecy speaks about the return of the Blue Kachina to herald in the Fifth Age of Man. This is not unlike any other culture who await the return of their god or creational force - Example - "The Second Coming of Christ."

In the Hopi Medicine Wheel of the Hopi prophecy of the four peoples of the Earth, the cardinal direction North represents the body, plants and animals, the color white and 'white skinned peoples', and Childhood. (can also represent birth, and/or meeting a stranger and learning to trust as in infancy, explained in Erik Erikson's stages of Psychosocial development).

The East is held to represent the mind, air, the color yellow and 'yellow skinned peoples', learning the groups to which people belong and Adolescence.

The South holds the heart, fire, the color red and 'red skinned peoples', and Adulthood.

Finally West holds the spirit, water, the color blue or black, and 'black-skinned peoples' and Elderhood. West also represents the final life stage in the wheel, being an elder and passing on knowledge to the next generation so that the wheel may start again just like the circle it takes after.

An ancient Hopi Indian prophecy states, "When the Blue Star Kachina makes its appearance in the heavens, the Fifth World will emerge". This will be the Day of Purification. The Hopi name for the star Sirius is Blue Star Kachina. It will come when the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask.

[Note: Reality is a metaphor in which we quest to find answers to the greater truth of who we are and why we are here. Something in our souls tells us that change is happening on a global consciousness level. The blue frequency is part of that. Sirius is Isis - Return to the feminine of higher frequency energies - Rebirth of Consciousness. Blue links to higher/future frequencies of consciousness as we spiral up through the patterns of Sacred Geometry. Blue - electricity - our reality as an electromagnetic energy grid program. Blue: Indigo children, the blue alien lady, Isis, the Pleiades, Sirius, blue galaxies, blue chakra, blue ray and ascended master, and much more that will come 'out of the blue'. Use search engine to discover more about 'blue'.]

The end of all Hopi ceremonialism will come when a "Kachina" removes his mask during a dance in the plaza before uninitiated children [the general public]. For a while there will be no more ceremonies, no more faith. Then Oraibi will be rejuvenated with its faith and ceremonies, marking the start of a new cycle of Hopi life.

World War III will be started by those peoples who first revealed the light (the divine wisdom or intelligence) in the other old countries (India, China, Islamic Nations, Africa.)

The United States will be destroyed, land and people, by atomic bombs and radioactivity. Only the Hopis [peaceful people] and their homeland will be preserved as an oasis to which refugees will flee. Bomb shelters are a fallacy. "It is only materialistic people who seek to make shelters. Those who are at peace in their hearts already are in the great shelter of life. There is no shelter for evil. Those who take no part in the making of world division by ideology are ready to resume life in another world, be they Black, White, Red, or Yellow race. They are all one, brothers."

The war will be "a spiritual conflict with material matters. Material matters will be destroyed by spiritual beings who will remain to create one world and one nation under one power, that of the Creator."

That time is not far off. It will come when the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask. He represents a blue star, far off and yet invisible, which will make its appearance soon. The time is foretold by a song sung during the Wuwuchim ceremony. It was sung in 1914 just before World War I, and again in 1940 before World War II, describing the disunity, corruption, and hatred contaminating Hopi rituals, which were followed by the same evils spreading over the world. This same song was sung in 1961 during the Wuwuchim ceremony.

The Emergence to the future Fifth World has begun. It is being made by the humble people of little nations, tribes, and racial minorities. "You can read this in the earth itself. Plant forms from previous worlds are beginning to spring up as seeds [as described in SW-II, Effects and Coming Events # 1]. This could start a new study of botany if people were wise enough to read them. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in the sky as stars. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in our hearts. All these are the same, depending how you look at them. That is what makes the Emergence to the next, Fifth World.

The Hopi were told that after a time White Men would come and take their land and try to lead the Hopi into evil ways. But in spite of all the pressures against them, the Hopi were told they must hold to their ancient religion and their land, though always without violence. If they succeeded, they were promised that their people and their land would be a center from which the True Spirit would be reawakened.

It is said that after many years the elder brother might change the color of his skin, but his hair will remain black. He will have the ability to write, and he will be the only person able to read the Tiponi. When he returns to find his younger brother, the Tiponi will be placed side by side to show all the world that they are true brothers. Then great judgment will take place, for the elder will help the younger brother to obtain real justice for all Indian brothers who have been cruelly mistreated by the white man since he came to Turtle Island.

The transformed elder brother, the True White Brother, will wear a red cloak or a red cap, similar to the pattern on the back of a horned toad. He will bring no religion but his own, and will bring with him the Tiponi tablets. He will be all-powerful; none will be able to stand against him. He will come swiftly, and in one day gain control of this entire continent. It is said, "If he comes from the East, the destruction will not be so bad. But if he comes from the West, do not get up on your housetops to see because he will have no mercy."

The True White Brother will bring with him two great, intelligent and powerful helpers, one of whom will have a sign of a swastika (a masculine symbol of purity), and the sign of the sun. The second great helper will have the sign of a celtic cross with red lines (representing female life blood) between the arms of the cross.

When the Great Purification is near, these helpers will shake the earth first for a short time in preparation. After they shake the earth two times more, they will be joined by the True White Brother, who will become one with them and bring the Purification Day to the world. All three will help the "younger brother" (the Hopi and other pure-hearted people) to make a better world. In the prophecies, the two helpers are designated by the Hopi word for "population," as if they were large groups of people.

The Hopi were warned that if these three great beings failed, terrible evil would befall the world and great numbers of people would be killed. However, it was said that they would succeed if enough Hopi remained true to the ancient spirit of their people. The True White Brother and his helpers will show the people of earth a great new life plan that will lead to everlasting life. The earth will become new and beautiful again, with an abundance of life and food. Those who are saved will share everything equally. All races will intermarry and speak one tongue and be a family.

"My people await Pahana, the lost White Brother, [from the stars] as do all our brothers in the land. He will not be like the white men we know now, who are cruel and greedy. we were told of their coming long ago. But still we await Pahana.

"He will bring with him the symbols, and the missing piece of that sacred tablet now kept by the elders, given to him when he left, that shall identify him as our True White Brother.

"The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left....

"Many of my people, understanding the prophecies, shall be safe. Those who stay and live in the places of my people also shall be safe. Then there will be much to rebuild. And soon -- very soon afterward -- Pahana will return. He shall bring with him the dawn of the Fifth World. He shall plant the seeds of his wisdom in their hearts. Even now the seeds are being planted. These shall smooth the way to the Emergence into the Fifth World.

Greatest thing we have for healing is the human spirit.

We are children of the Sun.

We have been given a window of opportunity.

Spiritual Love is the answer. True knowledge is beyond words.

If there is an Armegeddon it is within each of us.

We have 12 strands of DNA in our blood.

Scientists don't know what they are for since they are not being used.

But we can activate them ourselves.

One way is through drumming and ceremony.

End time should be seen as the Beginning time.

We are creating at this moment what our Tomorrow will be...