The Stone Pony, Ashbury Park, New Jersey, USA — One of Bruce Springsteens’s origional jam bars.
Young Street Bridge- Aberdeen, Wasington, USA — “the very bridge under which Cobain reputedly once slept, the one about which he wrote “Something in the Way.””
Check out more of the locations from Flavorwire —– here.
Amazon has just announced that it’s partnered up with over 150 galleries and art dealers across the US to sell you fine art through its new initiative Amazon Art.
The site offers over 40,000 original works of fine art, showcasing 4,500 artists. That, perhaps unsurprisingly, makes it the largest online collection of art directly available from galleries and dealers. Partners in the project include Paddle8 in New York, the McLoughlin Gallery in San Francisco, and the Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon—which will reportedly take a 5 to 20 percent cut on all sales—was planning to launch the new service. At the time, it seemed that plenty of galleries thought that selling art online via Amazon may be distasteful. Clearly, that negative feeling hasn’t stopped Bezos & Co..
Given Amazon’s last attempt at selling art—a project with Sotheby’s back in 2000 — only lasted 16 months, it’ll be interesting to see how the initiative works out.
Will Amazon present a better outlet to buy and sell art than ebay, etsy and other sites? What is your favorite site to find ART on?
“Enthusiasm comes from the Greek “enthousiazein [that] means ‘to be possessed by a god.’ With enthusiasm you will find that you don’t have to do it all by yourself. In fact, there is nothing of significance you can do by yourself. Sustained enthusiasm brings into existence a wave of creative energy, and all you have to do is ride the wave.”
~ Eckhart Tolle from A New Earth
From Chronicle — The Ideal English Major:
Real reading is reincarnation. There is no other way to put it. It is being born again into a higher form of consciousness than we ourselves possess. When we walk the streets of Manhattan with Walt Whitman or contemplate our hopes for eternity with Emily Dickinson, we are reborn into more ample and generous minds. “Life piled on life / Were all too little,” says Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” and he is right. Given the ragged magnificence of the world, who would wish to live only once?
The English major lives many times through the astounding transportive magic of words and the welcoming power of his receptive imagination. The economics major? In all probability he lives but once. If the English major has enough energy and openness of heart, he lives not once but hundreds of times. Not all books are worth being reincarnated into, to be sure—but those that are win Keats’s sweet phrase: “a joy forever.” …
For anyone on the spiritual path, Ram Dass’ Be Here Now is essential reading.
The book fascinated me. From Ram Dass teaching psychology at Harvard, to his extensive use of psychedelic drugs, to his emotions and feelings about dissatisfaction, it was such an interesting read. He pushed my mind and my ego to think about more in this physical form world that we are living in.
The part about contact highs was awesome. Ram Dass described a story on a very snowy night in Boston where he was at a friend’s house tripping out on psychedelic drugs. After a full night of partying he walked home to his parents house around 4AM. At the time a major snow storm was coming through Boston. He started shoveling snow. His parents came to the window and gave him the, “You’re crazy, come inside!” look. Instead of coming inside or defending himself, he did a jig in the snow and started making snow angels. His parents started cracking up laughing and Ram Dass began laughing. For that second, or that minute, all egos were no more, and the three of them were One. The greatness of life’s light was beaming in that moment. Ram Dass described contact highs as making someone else happy by making yourself look stupid. I love this because its an exercise or practice that reduces ego. Its a practice that can potentially bring about happiness and love.
At another point in the book, RD was tripping out on psilocybin, again. I have never tried this “drug,” but his response to it was amazing. He began to see life form as similar versus different. He described how we always are seeing the differences in each other. How we are better, worse, bigger, smaller, richer, poorer than anything and everything around us. Our egos are constantly talking to us, chatting in our heads telling us to be more, be better, be worse, you’re not good enough, etc. This drug took him to a different place. It made him see Oneness. “Race turned into a color like a t-shirt color.” He was present.
The “Be Here Now” part of the book was profound. His guru Neem Karoli Baba said to Ram Dass, “Do not think about the past, do not think about the future, just be here now.” He was talking about being present. Feeling your body, letting go of your thoughts in your head, acknowledging your ego is your ego. Deleting goals, wants, desires, and simply being present. He gave him what I think is great advice and said, “Emotions are like waves, watch them disappear into the ocean.”
I highly suggest reading this book. It was so useful in helping me acknowledge my ego. I can now draw on my ego when I am frustrated and use it as a tool to be present.
