The Agony and the Ecstasy

"Art has a magic quality: the more minds that digest it, the longer it lives." - Irving Stone

While writing a review of Irving Stone's The Origin, Rob Alan Marsh reminds us, "Great books remain relevant for a reason – because they teach us something. They better us; broaden our understanding of the world and its many fascinating inhabitants. And for that reason they deserve to be re-introduced, from time to time, so they may find in this vast ocean of distractions, some few new fertile islets upon which to propagate."

Irving Stone wrote The Agony and Ecstasy after living in Italy for several years and visiting many of the historic places he would be writing about in the book. The Agony and the Ecstasy is a "biographical novel" based on the life of Michelangelo. In addition, it is a historical novel which brings the Italian Renaissance to life. Anyone with an interest in Renaissance Italy can gain quite alot of insight into it simply by reading this book. Although it is about the life and struggles of Michelangelo, the reader will learn about the art, wars, and religious and political atmosphere prelavant during this time period.

In order to make a living, Michelangelo was at the mercy of his patrons who were Popes, Cardinals and Political Leaders each with their own agenda. He was forced to create whatever works they desired and lived under the threat of being imprisoned if he chose to deny his services to the Vatican. His contemporaries included Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Martin Luther, Machiavelli, and Lorenzo de Medici among others.

"There are the Florentines – lusty, artistic, and wealthy; the Romans – dangerous, dark, self-involved; the Carrara – interdependent, suspicious, isolated; the Bolognese – joyous, hearty, uncultured. As Michelangelo travels and interacts with these different people, their cultures come to life and these too have lasting impact on Michelangelo’s works and methods." - Roofbeamreader Review.

Irving Stone had 495 of Michelangelo’s personal letters translated from Italian to English in order to help him write this book. It took Stone six years to complete the book. Stone spent much of this time living in Italy in order to research the book and visit the many historical sites that were part of Michelangelo’s life. The book is very factual and extremely interesting as it allows readers to experience this period of time from Michelangelo’s point of view.

Visit our Table of Contents to view more interesting articles

My Reincarnation

 My Reincarnation is a documentary film about the relationship between a father and his son.  Tibetan-trained Buddhist master Choegyal Namkhai Norbu and his Italian born son have differing goals and desires in regard to how Yeshi (the son) should live his life.  Yeshi is believed to be the reincarnation of his father's uncle who was a famous Dzogchen master who died after the Chinese invaded Tibet. Yeshi refuses to accept the destiny he inherited from birth which is to return to Tibet and be a spiritual teacher. Yeshi just wants to live a "normal" life.

 My Reincarnation was Directed and Produced by Jennifer Fox who spent twenty years filming this documentary. My Reincarnation utilizes archival film, still photographs, and over 1,000 hours of intimate scenes shot between 1988 to 2009. In addition, interviews with Namkhai Norbu and Yeshi help tell the story of one man's struggle to keep a spiritual tradition alive and another man's struggle to maintain his personal identity.   Over time both begin to change as documented in the film.

Visit our Table of Contents to view more interesting articles

Play and Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” -Albert Einstein

Drinking coffee, looking at what comes up on my Facebook news feed or whatever they call it.  This one catches my eye and makes me think:

"OK, so you are ten years old, you have a laptop, iPod, Facebook, and a Blackberry.... Dude. when I was ten I only had one thing to play with. It was called outside!"

Oh yes.  Playing outside.  That was it!  That was all we wanted to do.  We played every kind of thing:  house, army, cowboys and indians, tag, hide and seek, baseball, football, all kinds of things.  Most which required making things up and imagination. Our bikes were motorcycles after all.

"I remember when we used to play a game
Take you by the hand and spin you very fast
Midspin, let you go, stop yourself
Switching into statues, rock hard
Necessary spinning in the front yard, necessary spinning in the front yard,
Everybody's spinning in the front yard
Necessary spinning in the front yard
Sometimes I wish that I were nine years old again ... "

~ Necessary Spinning -  Translator

Letting your imagination run free is an important part of growing up which is at some point socialized out of us. On her blog Social and Emotional Living, Kimberly Hackett writes,  "My children played well when children. They built forts out of blankets and pillows, upturning sofas and chairs, making a mess of the house. It didn’t matter. Their creativity and freedom made me happy and it was easy to make them happy this way. They worked together, linking imaginations through interior tunnels that had few words. This is how they loved each other. I wonder where freedom goes. As my children grow older, I find myself missing their childhood freedom. No longer can we whimsically float down the wide river of play and imagination. There was school yanking us to shore, to a reality I could not control. School gave my children what I couldn’t, the chance to become socialized. They needed to maneuver on their own. Their ability to be with other children gave them another kind of freedom, the freedom in friendship. But school is a demanding taskmaster and the freedom of play and imagination is not usually welcome. "

Wouldn't it be great to be nine years old again?  Nine years old before laptops, iPads, Blackberries, Facebook so on and so forth.

Visit our Table of Contents to view more interesting articles

Lennon Bronte

No, this is not John Lennon.  It sure does look like him however. This is Branwell Bronte's self-portrait.  Branwell was a poet and a painter, and the brother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.  Branwell is said to have been the most talented of the bunch though Emily and Charlotte are more famous.  Branwell is said to have had an affair with a Mrs. Robinson (remember the Simon and Garfunkel song?  How about the movie The Graduate?  Based on Branwell's affair?  Hmmm. Maybe). Like many talented artists, Branwell became an alcoholic and a drug addict.  He eventually died of tuberculosis in 1848.

Fast forward to now.  In the book All You Need is Love,  Jewelle St James points out similarities between John and Branwell:

"Branwell, like John, was an artist and a poet. Branwell drank and did drugs, actually he did more than doing drugs, he was an addict. Branwell, like John, lost his mother at an early age, and had sisters but no brothers. Oh, and Branwell had good friends in Liverpool. … Branwell and John both drew caricatures, depicting aspects of their lives. [And finally - ] Branwell’s self portraits are the image of John Lennon! The nose, the glasses, everything." -  Jewelle St James.

What you need to know is that All You Need is Love by Jewelle St james is not about The Beatles.  It is "The heart-wrenching spiritual journey of one woman discovering her past life shared with John Baron, the seventeenth-century incarnation of John Lennon."

Apparently Jewelle St John had a session or two with Kevin Ryerson who confirmed that Lennon was Michael Byrne, John Baron and Branwell Bronte in past lives. Ryerson also went on to say that Cynthia Lennon was Mrs. Robinson in the past. 

Kevin Ryerson is an intuitive and trance channel much like Jane Roberts and Edgar Cayce.  Jewelle St James wrote a follow-up book titled The Lennon-Bronte Connection in which she talks about Lennon as Branwell and herself as Emily Bronte.

The interesting thing is that John and Branwell do look alot alike!  Do some googling.  You will see.


Visit our Table of Contents to view more interesting articles
An updated version of this article can be found here

Psychedelic Sufi Trance Rock

Stumbling around the internet I came across the phrase "psychedelic sufi trance rock."  What I found was an article about a singer/guitarist named Haale (Gofori).

"Haale grew up singing in Sufi with her Iranian family while listening to Patti Smith and Jimi Hendrix on the side. She fuses these two styles instinctually, combining meandering guitar riffs with transcendental Sufi lyrics and Persian rhythms, played on instruments such as the sitar and tonbak drum - Janera: Curating Conversations

Being that Patti Smith is my favorite artist, I like middle eastern music, and I have a thing for psychedelic music, I naturally went over to YouTube to see what I could find.  The first few videos I did have a Patti Smith/middle eastern/ psychedelic flavor.  No doubt about it.  I was going to post one of those but after watching a few more I decided this one is my favorite:



This is called "Wild Poppies" by The Mast.  The Mast is Haale (vocals/guitar) and Matt Kilmer (percussion). 

Visit our Table of Contents to view more interesting articles