dharmabox

A break from chronic illness gives way to a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Scott — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:52:15 +0000

Chronic illness has made it near impossible to enjoy life as it should be, but I have those rare days when I get a break from the grind and can get out and see what life has going on, enjoy the kids and soak in the sunshine. This last Saturday was one of those days and we had our first annual “Chalking of Ghent” where the neighborhood came out and created beautiful art and music on “our” sidewalks and streets. And it was for the Ronald McDonald house, which provides a free, clean, comfortable place to stay for many children and adults who otherwise are facing difficult illness and long hospital stays.

*When I get done editing them I have some sound files, I plan to upload as well.

Yvon Chouinard

Scott — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:02:32 +0000

I’ve been a long time supporter of Patagonia and its founder Yvon Chouinard, so I was very pleased to run across an interview Yvon did with Fast Company back in July where he talked about his views on business, life and the environment. To say that we will ever have a green sustainable planet may be a pie in the sky dream for Earth First tree huggers, but to know that we can develop products that are infinitely recyclable is a step in the right direction.

Musical Schizophrenia

Scott — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:48:56 +0000

while surfing the web for new tunes to check out, i came across this incredible blog run by 2 music fans, one into rock and indie, the other into hip hop, jazz hop, soul. these guys have built an easy to navigate music site with one of the largest and most diverse music collections i have ever come across. musical schizophrenia has a two link system first is a buy link directly to the album (in all but a few rare cases) the second is a link to the featured album on one of the many file sharing sites such as mediafire, megaupload, rapidshare etc so you can try it before you buy it. It’s unfortunate, that record companys have not seen the light of day yet to a system such as this and insist that drm, 30 sec samples and spoon feeding music that they deem to be popular is what we need. however, most of the music i’ve found on musical schizophrenia, you’re not likely to find unless you were to spend hours digging through crates at a specialized music store and then only if you knew what the you were looking for and had time to be able to listen, check them out and say to yourself you know, i’m really feeling this one, so that when you left that store you knew you left with new music you really were happy with. at least that was how we used to do it. i hadn’t really felt that experience digitally until now. check em out, they even have put out an online magazine devoted primarily toward jazz hop, but it’s all good chillin to some fresh new tracks!

Phil Hartman Audition Video For Saturday Night Live

Scott — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:12:56 +0000

Phil Hartman Audition Video For Saturday Night Live

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ink

Scott — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:24:32 +0000

if you are a fan of ink you really should take a look at www.checkoutmyink.com. on the surface it’s a community of like minded people who show off their recent or not so recent tattoo’s, but it is more than that it is support, critique and inspiration for those of us who love to see art on the human form. complete with forums, comments, favorites and so much more, i can’t say i have found a more user friendly site dedicated to the art of tattoos. you can see my profile here .

wave and storm together my latest delve into inkdom

everyblock and norfolk virginia

Scott — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:23:47 +0000

i recently came across everyblock and was impressed with the shear volume of information, statistical data and news by area they are able to provide for the limited cities they offer their services for. it got me wondering what i could dig up for norfolk. here’s what i found: city of norfolk web site, a whole mapping directory system (only works in internet explorer unfortunately) for you name it, crimeview by street or landmark and dates (again internet explorer only), public works street repairs, public works general, outstanding warrants, department of human resources, street cams, public library, public schools, norfolk convention and visitors bureau, 2009 budget book, festevents, seven venues, arts and culture – norfolk development, wvec, wtkr, wavy, virginian pilot, norfolk international airport, virginian port authority, downtown norfolk, norfolk hotels, norfolk southern, the light rail system and a whole lot more that could keep you awash in information data overload for months.

the great thing about everyblock is that the whole project is open source and they plan to give the code out freely after june 2009, i for one am hoping someone be it everyblock or another outfit, maybe the creators of prettytasty.org will put out something for norfolk and get us on the map, as a genuine urban city ready to go toe to toe with many other big cities out there. meanwhile have fun finding out what crimes were committed in your neighborhood, whether your friends are wanted for arrest or you just wanted to stay in that special hotel at the city center.

the zen of punk or the punk of dharma

Scott — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:10:07 +0000

npr’s day to day ran a great story on buddhism and the zen of punk. it’s no surprise that people like brad warner and noah levine are leading figures in this movement of punk and buddhism. as i have discussed here before, buddhism’s flexibility to take on cultural nuances makes it ripe for it to incorporate western cultural phenomenons such as punk rock. especially because punk teaches escapism, questioning authority questioning self and rebellion against the status quo. buddhism asks the same questions what is self? what is authority? in fact the buddha says to question everything. it is the ultimate rebellion against self, against worldly desires, against the status quo and against attachments. the two may at first seem miles apart, but with a closer look it become easier to see how one can form out of the other and thrive. of course anger cannot exist in buddism, but the punk ethos of rebellion can rebel against even this. buddhism becomes the ultimate form of rebellion from the illusion that we stand in everyday. it can pull away the veil to reveal that when everything is stripped away there is nothing left but everything and nothing that it is all one and existence is now, in this moment, this minute, this second, this breath.

stay awake

Scott — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:14:16 +0000

it was over 4 years ago that i ran across my friend heiko müeller after he had joined the online social site tribe and i got a good look at the art he was doing at the time. i was administrating an art forum on that site (and still do) and began to write heiko about his art. what started out as discussion about art became a friendship that has lasted to this day. heiko’s art has also matured greatly over the last few years from the short online interview i did with him in 2005. he just released his first art book called “stay awake” through rojo magazine. it’s a small beautiful book, which chronicles his past 30 years up to his recent collection. his art is truly amazing, makes one think, unique unto itself and is hard to compare to any of his peers. if i had to try and describe it some of it reminds me of being a kid again in a twisted comic world where forest animals are mutated, religious relics run amok and the people are wonderfully dysmorphic, it’s magical realism in the visual realm. if that doesn’t sell you than for nothing else get the book to see yours truly’ name in the thank you’s (which was a real humbling surprise to me)

the art of dzaet

Scott — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:14:57 +0000

a few weeks back on a spur of the moment whim we went out to the ocean view art festival to take a look around. to be honest i wasn’t expecting to find anything worth getting hyped up about, but it was a way to kill a few hours. however, within a half hour of walking around i ran across the most original art i have seen in a very long time. she goes by dzaet and can be found at www.dzaet.com, though her real name is pamela hill. here you can see dzaet with her art and the piece i scored called symbiosis. i plan on doing an interview with her in the near future, which will be posted here and tribe. for only have been painting for a short period of time, her work shows real depth, it’s own unique style and qualities of an artist who is very seasoned. good stuff…

1% for planet

Scott — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:58:09 +0000

1% for the planet is an organization that takes 1% of the gross income of a member company and uses it to better the planet. started by patagonia and endorsed by people like jack johnson have helped to bring many other companies on board to be a part of this growing movement. watch the video to see what it’s all about and then do something good for our world. support 1% for the planet….