If you do not bring forth that which is within you, that which is within you will destroy you. If you bring forth that which is within you, that which is within you will save you.

-From the Gospel of Thomas

After Depeche Mode, we checked out Incubus a Radio City Music Hall, we must admit the idea of going to this show came out due to sleep deprivation after we covered Michael Jackson’s death. We were reminiscing about Brandon Boyd‘s hotness, realized they were touring, and bought tickets to the show in less than 15 minutes. The thing is we had not followed them musically since Morning View and were even a little embarrassed to go see a band that reminded us of being teenagers. Now I wonder why we ever felt like that, what is wrong with revisiting those things that make you happy? Nothing! Anyway, they rocked that venue, even if it was a bit too fancy for that kind of show. Incubus remains as cool as ever and we have a new found respect for those guys who just want to spread, love and light and all that cool stuff into the world.

The following in day we continued rocking out to Eagles of Death Metal at Webster Hall –not our favorite venue– but Boots Electric and Co. made it worthwhile. Josh Homme was missing in action but we got Joey Castillo to drum so that was still a touch of Queens of the Stone Age for the night. There was plenty of dancing on my end, a sweet proposal –beats the one I witnessed at Puxatony’s Groundhog Day!– and a creepy dude staring at us for a while which made us uncomfortable for a bit. Now, the price of insane traveling and concert going is being paid with an awful cold.

Next stop is Hercules & Love Affair.

The whole thing was amazing, Dave Gahan’s moves made us feel wrong inside, and I kept thinking about how he must feel… just one person feeding off so much energy from such a huge crowd all thinking about him. However, other than the obvious thrill of hearing some of my favorite songs live I was mostly touched by the following poem by the Persian poet Hafiz, which was displayed in the huge screens during “Precious,” I particularly find the line breaks brilliant. A few days after the show, I had the urge to go investigate more about Hafiz and found “The Gift” at a Barnes & Noble near work. As corny as it may sound, this book is the biggest gift from attending Depeche, the following poem is just one of the many gems inside that book translated by Daniel Ladinsky after Hafiz appear to him in a dream and told him to do so, you just can’t ignore such order now, can you?

I have learned so much

I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me

That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.

Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me

Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.

Hafiz Tr. Daniel Ladinsky – ‘The Gift’

We love this man.

His cover of Miracle Legion’s “All for the best” appeared online today, making us even more thristy for new Radiohead stuff. In the meantime, listen to it on StereoGum.

Needless to say, Ida has created uproar in the scientific community. Paleontologists are very excited by this find as they say it has taken them closer in solving the problem of how modern humans came about – who were our initial ancestors. Studying Ida has given them a great deal of information – her kind was very similar to modern lemurs but she branched off to another kind of ape – simians, from which modern apes and ultimately humans evolved. She lived in the trees, her claws and toes proving she had a strong grip to enable swinging from branches. And her teeth give proof that she was a vegetarian.

Ida was actually discovered 25 years ago and stayed in some collector’s drawer, until recently the collector decided to share his find with the rest of the world and take us closer to understanding human evolution. The collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, said along with Ida, many other fossils were found – a horse the size of a dog, some birds, a snake, etc. – all perfectly preserved fossils.

So why all these finds in the Messel Pit? What happened there to make it one of the most well preserved graveyards for pre-historic primates and other animals? Well, 47 million years ago, when the continents were still one big mass, Messel Pit, was a lush, tropical rain forest. At that time, Earth was also experiencing record temperatures and Messel Pit was a hot, humid and sticky place. But things changed – due to activity in the earth’s crust there was a violent volcano, converting part of the area into a mile wide lake. This 800 feet deep lake may have captured animals and sent them off into the deep. With very little oxygen, the fossils stayed intact and over the years turned into stone, giving us a perfect glimpse into the past.

I wonder what people who do not believe in evolution have to say now. I find it staggering that people find evolution easy to discard, but after this find we know, more than ever, where we came from. How can we deny that? We’d rather believe that we are a product of some magic wand by God – a concept for which there is no proof, and we choose to ignore the proof right in front of our eyes.

It makes me mad that people want to ignore the evidence put in front of us by God and then pray to God. How blind are we! We have a veil in front of our eyes that is preventing us from seeing the truth. We walk around with this veil and claim that we know the truth that God speaks to us, when in fact when God talks we call it blasphemy. God talks through events like these otherwise how can something so old stay in such well-preserved state? It is almost like God is telling us here is some proof of how you were evolved and there are still some morons among us who look at such evidence and call it altered. If we are God’s finest creations, how we can be apes or other lowly creatures, they argue. In that case, their belief is in a God that creates hierarchy. An all compassionate God is being divisional too amongst his own creations. He created animals and then he created us to be better than them. Why? Why do we deserve this special treatment? And even if we are created different to what end are we serving that purpose? By fighting amongst us? By creating hatred in his name? Politicizing people’s beliefs?

If I did believe in creation by a higher power, I find it impossible to believe we were created to be better. We were not. We simply used our brains and stood up on our two feet and started using our hands for different things. We decided to rub two pieces of wood and when it created light, we figured out a way to keep ourselves warm from the cold. We did this because we evolved and continue to do so even today. It sounds so simple and logical.

So why is it so hard to believe? — Frita

As you go out into the world, beware of those inexperienced fools who offer easy and exotic solutions to painful and complicated problems. Do your best to learn from all your experiences not just the stings of your failures but also from the joyful incidents that will occur along the way. But most of all, learn what is the true essence of what you love about life and if you’re able, do what you love to do. For if through your imagination, you can see the world and your life as an epic, great adventure, then from each sunrise to each sunset, we can be turning another page in the bible of our own lives. Telling the greatest story that it’s ever been told and living the greatest life that’s ever been lived.”

A ray of light

Anyway, on Jezebel, editor Tracie Egan posted a clip where little girls of all different kinds of textured hair and bi-racial and black backgrounds were being surveyed by a black woman. One of the little girls had her hair in multiple twisted pigtails who owned a blonde wig she called her “Hannah Montana” wig. She couldn’t have been older than 6 or 7 but she said she didn’t like the hair she has and  thought people liked her more when she had her wig on because her hair was “long and pretty.” There were also mannequin heads with different kinds of hair from “normal” straight hair to a kinky afro. The girls were asked to pick the hair they would least like to have and, of course, they chose the afro because it’s “nappy and it’s gross.”

There’s no question that watching this was completely unsettling especially since I completely relate.

I have to admit, I didn’t start having a consciousness of my hair type until i hit puberty. I had no idea I had curly hair. There’s a picture of me where I am months old and my baby hair is sticking straight up, Don King style. After it grew out, my hair was always tied in some manner. When it was too short braid,  it was tied with ballies and finger curled, when i had more length I was always in braids or pigtails or buns, sectioned in a single ponytail, two, three, or four sections. My hair was just always an unruly combed out curl mess that just stuck out every which way outside of the braided constraint.

My baby hair

Then I turned 11 and my stepmom thought it was time I started to relax my hair.

Relaxing your hair is like putting Nair on your head and taking it off before the hair burns off. Mix it with conditioners and you’ve turned a nappy ass mess into a sleek tamed mane that’s easy to style dry without all the kinky getting in the way. Does it stink? yes. Does it sting? oh yes. Does it look great after being set in rollers to dry and blow dried straight? oh hell yes. Does it kill your hair, cause breakage and split ends? yes, but that’s a small price to pay for good hair.

I went through this process every few months, whenever the roots grew in. I went along with it because well, it’s what Dominican women do because it makes their kinky hair look “normal,” beautiful, elegant, acceptable.

When I went through puberty the pigtailed hairdos of my past no longer did it. I wanted to wear my hair loose or in a ponytail or a half ponytail. No if ands or buts. And in order to have that, I had to get my hair done at the salon EVERY WEEKEND.

You see, only hairstylists familiar with the taming of such unruly Afro-mixed Dominican hair with good training and massive forearm strength could work their magic with rollers and a blow dryer and pull that hair straight and neat.

To most girls getting their hair done is a luxury, to me it was as necessary as sleeping and eating and I hated it.  I hated maintaining it, not being able to wash my hair whenever I wanted or let it air dry and have it look and feel the same or better than it did before I washed it. I hated wearing a shower cap in the shower and trying hard as hell not to wet the hair on the back of my neck so it wouldn’t frizz up and look nasty. I hated fearing getting caught in the rain or snow without an umbrella.

At school, I envied all the girls with “normal” hair who didn’t have to do much to make it look nice. They could wet their hair in the bathroom or go to the beach on really hot days without worrying about anything. When they bitched about their hair being frizzy or looking horrible, I just thought “if you only knew the crap I have to deal with.”

I started to wear my hair naturally when I was about 14. More like slicked back into a ponytail and set with massive amounts of hair gel. This style was (and still is?) the rage in ghetto Union City youth so at least I had that going. I was still relaxing  at the salon but started straightening  my own hair which was a major pain in the ass (long, thick, curly hair = hours of labor, so exhausting).

Three years ago, I’d had enough of relaxing. My hair was thinning due to illness, weak and breaking at the slightest touch. I started to read about the damage chemical straightening causes, I figured quitting would save the hair I had left. I started seeing a Dominican hair stylist who was completely against chemical relaxing which helped a lot. I chopped off all my damaged hair and now behold a chemical-free, unruly head of temperamental curls which are a blessing and a curse all the same.

Many women with “bad” hair would say they get their hair straightened, relaxed, put wigs or weaves on mainly for manageability not shame. While this is the main reason I still straighten my hair, I do feel like my kind of hair’s social stigma follows me around.

The reality is textured hair is not traditionally attractive, it doesn’t look like the kind of hair anyone run their fingers though, no silken tresses to write songs about just a pigmented cotton ball.  Hair like mine is seen as a quirk. “Oh it’s so crazy!” Some kind of novelty. Sometimes this doesn’t seem like a big deal, sometimes it does.

I probably haven’t said all I could on this subject– and believe me I could go on forever about this — but I have to say even though finding a hair stylist who has experience working with textured curly hair is difficult as is trying to fight its frizzy tendencies, I love my hair. I love its versatility,  I can wear it curly or wear it straight without having to chemically alter it. I love my hair because it’s a product of my mixed roots which something I’m extremely proud of.

I think that — just like anything else– if you just own it, you can work your hair no matter what it’s like.

It is sad that anyone should have to feel less than human because of the texture of their hair  or anything else. I think if we could override this social conditioning that makes everyone feel like they aren’t fit to be accepted in society for whatever reason, this world will be a better place. – Cheep

As right as the 3^rd theory sounds to my brain, the 4^th one completely intrigued me. How can the universe be here because of us? My rudimentary science skills are forcing me to conclude that means we created the universe and not the other way round. Such a theory, if proved would shatter so many traditional beliefs about who we are and where we came from. Imagine what it would do to the idea of God. Or perhaps God believers would rejoice. Medieval century church would also receive a boost since they argued that we are the centre of the universe. While this theory does not state that, but indirectly it does mean we are the centre of the universe and things exist for us.

But I think this has greater significance. In my view, this goes to show the amazing power of the human body, especially the brain. It tells us that if the mind decides to go a certain distance and achieve something, nothing is impossible. That ties in with what Dr. Taylor suggests in the book, that we are one with the universe, if we stay in the present things do not seem that difficult anymore.

Now my mind goes to my growling stomach. Snail & I are doing a 7 day de-tox diet and hoping Cheep joins it soon. But as in all de-tox diets it allows us very little food so time & again we are in hunger-mode. But amazingly it doesn’t force us to pick up a slice of pizza or eat some brownies. I think it’s simply because we are staying in the moment and realizing every second its significance and importance to our own bodies. We even chant our mantras for the day! For anyone curious, mine today is “I will honor my choices”.

Thoughts anyone? – Frita