I'm super excited to share the news that I'm going to be one of the principal dancers in "Re/Genesis" a full-length hip-hop dance show debuting the weekend of April 12 in San Francisco. "Re/Genesis" is a collaboration between my dance crew Freeplay and the fantastic dance company Prince on Point, under the overall leadership of…
Category: The Spirit
Alan Watts (with help from Parker and Stone) on the Purpose of Life (video)
I love so much this excerpt of a talk from British-born philosopher and longtime Northern California resident Alan Watts. And this animated version of his talk done by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of "South Park" fame adds a funny, whimsical element to this already great talk. Now if you will excuse me while…
Unexpected Thanks
I have so much to be thankful for, today and everyday. As Quakers, we are reminded that “thanksgiving” is a state of mind, a way of living. Still, it helps to have a special day on the calendar to be especially and publicly assessing what we are thankful for. There is the usual list of…
What I Learned About Myself by Dying at SomARTS
This Saturday, I had the pleasure of being at the closing celebration for the "Day of the Dead" art exhibition at the wonderful SomARTS center in Soma, SF. There were a ton of excellent "Day of the Dead" themed art installations all over the place, including my friend Niloufar Talebi's very moving video installation "everybodydies." …
Visiting the Berkeley Friends Church and Christ-loving Quakers
Today I went to my first "programmed" Quaker Meeting for Worship, at the Berkeley Friends Church. There are many strains of Quakerism, only some fraction of which I am familiar with. One of the largest divisions among Quakers are between the "programmed" and "unprogrammed" Meetings for Worship. "Programmed" for Quakers refers to the kind of…
Cherry Blossoms in Cemetery: Beauty and Transcience
In Japan, cherry blossoms are symbols of the fleeting nature of life, since they bloom so quickly, and are gone just as fast. So it's appropriate to see a cluster of them at the Mountain View cemetery in Oakland, where I run a couple of times a week. Seeing the blossoms in bloom this morning…
Google’s Project Glass and Spiritual Augmented Reality
Today at Quaker Meeting for Worship I gave this message: I've been thinking about this new project that people at Google are working on. It's called "Project Glass." Essentially it's a pair of glasses you wear that present different information on a display in front of your face. They call it "augmented reality." So…
Thankful
About a year ago, I moved to the Bay Area from New York, with some fairly ill-defined goals — more of what Quakers call a “leading,” rather than any kind of concrete plan. I knew that I wanted to be closer to my family. I felt like it was time for some kind of big…
Christmas Decorations on Graves? No, Thank You.
Note to my loved ones: When I have discarded this mortal coil, please feel under no obligation to put cheesy seasonal decorations around my gravestone. Wherever I end up, I have passed beyond all interest in tinsel, foil and plastic fake trees. Thanks for understanding. (Seen at Mountain View Cemetary, Oakland.)
“67 Sueños”: Pro-migrant Mural Unveiling on August 26 at SF Quaker Meetinghouse
I am happy to share that a really beautiful new mural on a pro-migrant social justice theme is being officially unveiled on Friday August 26 in downtown San Francisco. On the northern wall of the San Francisco Quaker Meetinghouse, the new mural is called "67 Sueños" (67 dreams). Created by muralist Pancho Pescador in collaboration…