Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Shooting a short film at Faliro. My name is Costas

Facebook:March 30, 2016 at 12:23PM

The opening sequence from Maria's play

Facebook:March 30, 2016 at 11:48AM

The 'love theme' from Maria's play, Master and Margarita

http://ift.tt/25vTxyD

Supermarket

An excerpt from my soundtrack for Albrecht Hirche's 2016 film
"Mädchen in Koffer"

https://soundcloud.com/blaine-l-reininger/supermarket

Love Theme from Master and Margarita

The love theme from Maria's play.

https://soundcloud.com/blaine-l-reininger/flamenco-filtre

You People Amaze Me

The opening sequence from Maria's play.

https://soundcloud.com/blaine-l-reininger/you-people-amaze-me

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Facebook:March 29, 2016 at 11:51PM

The trailer for Albrecht Hirche's new film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7URhCkvETT4

Facebook:March 29, 2016 at 11:50PM

After the Greek premiere of Albrecht Hirche's film "Madchen in Koffer" last night, I felt compelled to share this track.

http://ift.tt/1VS8PcO

Monday, March 28, 2016

Blaine and Steven Classical Side Project

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141902089909/steven-brown-and-blaine-l-reininger

Maria explaining the play to a Christian Group

Maria explains the play to a Christian group. The bald guy on her right is the priest. Apparently this whole group likes to take in theatre together.

Facebook:March 28, 2016 at 02:46PM

We break for 2 weeks, perform 8 more shows, then the tuxedomoon spring tour starts.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Mexicans burn effigies of Trump in Easter ritual

http://ift.tt/1ofh8BR

Facebook:March 28, 2016 at 12:14AM

that's that. Maria is still at the theatre, explaining the show to a church group. They enjoyed it, anyway, in spite of my devil song "jesus does not exist".

Master and Margarita old school.

Facebook:March 27, 2016 at 05:46PM

Last night of the show until April 13th and it's sold out.

The Rex Theatre, venue for our play (Experimental Stage in the Basement)

The Rex Cinema was built between 1935 and 1937, opening in 1937. It is a large cinema, and was located next to the (now demolished) Art Deco style Titania Cinema. The interior was decorated by Greek painters Yiannis Tsarouchis and his assistant Yiannis Palaiologas, who specialised in modern Greek figurative painting. It now houses two stages and many resources of the Greek National Theatre.

I have felt privileged to be working every day in this beautiful building. The whole area is vitalized by it and pulled upwards out of the dreck of nearby Omonia.

[caption id="attachment_5085" align="alignnone" width="376"] rex1937

Rex in 1937[/caption]

SO 36 Memories

Memories of a Berlin Hole in the Ground

Here is my contribution to a recent book written about SO 36, the legendary 1980's punk and new wave venue in Berlin. It tells the tale of Tuxedomoon's first Berlin gig in 1980:

Am Ostermontag feiern wir das Erscheinen des SO36-Buches.
Von 16 bis 17 Uhr spiele ich Songs von Bands, die zwischen 1978 und 1983 im Esso gespielt haben. 16 Uhr ist zwar etwas früh - dennoch würde ich mich sehr freuen, euch zu sehen.

Hier ein kleiner Appetizer - ein Text, den mir Blaine L. Reininger(Tuxedomoon) geschickt hat und der natürlich auch im Buch ist ...

...................................

"I remember the first show at SO 36 (1980). It was also our first time in Berlin, so we were all excited, feeling all Blaue Engel and David Bowie Krautrocky. We were not dismayed by the stripped down old supermarket we found when we got to the club, we were used to working in crudholes and dumps. The Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, the Mudd Club in New York, Plan K in Brussels, these were all dusty, decadent factory spaces, glamorous only with chemical enhancement or in retrospect.

I was amazed by the dressing room at SO 36. It was just a hole in the earth. There were no lights, no floor, just a pile of dirt on the floor of a sort of cave. I could respect this. It made me laugh.

I can't say that I remember much about that show, other than that the place was jam-packed, people crowded in getting sweaty. They seemed to love us to pieces. I was so happy to be making it in Berlin.

I remember the last song of our set, though. We were playing "No Tears". The song usually went that we would play the riff over and over and over and wait for Steven (Brown) to shout "MY EYES ARE DRY!!!" one last time. That was the cue for the end. That night, Steven held off the end over and over, endlessly, playing coy, teasing the audience, we kept playing that riff, a torturous riff with the left hand spread wide, we were getting tired, we were starting to get pissed off "End the fucking thing, Steven!" Steven decided to leave the stage, making his way through the crowd to the bar. He hammed it up back there, ordering a drink, lighting a cigarette, chatting up a likely looking lad standing there as we sweated and groaned our way through the two thousandth repetition of that goddamned riff....finally! He comes running through the crowd, beer in hand, jumps on the stage, grabs the mike and screams "MY EYES ARE DRY!!!" and that was it, folks. His eyes were most certainly dry! We left the stage to rapturous applause.
Later that evening, Steven was to be found out in the street, under a parked car drunkenly inviting the driver to 'RUN ME OVER!! PUT AN END TO THIS MISERY!!!' Thankfully, there was no one in the vehicle at the time. We put Steven in the van and went to the hotel.”

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Consciousness Is Everywhere

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141724331259/leading-neuroscientists-and-buddhists-agree

The name of this photo is easter 666

Another annual post.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Back to work. The Master and Margarita continues tonight at 21:30.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Easter Is Not Named After Ishtar

I have seen these posts on Facebook, promoting the kind of etymology one comes up with after a couple of bong hits. "Whoa, dude, Easter must be the English pronunciation of Ishtar. That must be where it comes from."

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141555004349/easter-is-not-named-after-ishtar-and-other-truths

Man In Tree

He has since come down. No one really knows what he was doing up there.

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141554839524/the-latest-hundreds-pause-to-check-out-man-in

Sahara Dust Over Athens

Dust from the Sahara is blowing over Athens, whiting everything out.

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141563009354

Mindpod Network

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141541657814/our-podcasts-mindpodnetwork

More on 3 Poisons

http://blainereininger.tumblr.com/post/141536431619/the-three-poisons-in-buddhism-the-roots-of

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Three Poisons

[caption id="attachment_4870" align="alignnone" width="377"] threepoisons

the three poisons[/caption]

Today, March 22, 2016, a group of fanatics, deluded, angry, ignorant attacked Brussels. They caused bombs to explode at Zaventem airport and on a crowded Metro train. At least 30 people died and 220+ people were injured.

I am haunted by this, as I was by the Bataclan attacks in Paris. These attacks have taken place in places I know well, places I have been and am likely to visit again. I played the Bataclan, I know that departures hall at Zaventem well. I have stopped for coffee at that Starbucks. I have certainly checked in at one of those gates. The Maelbeek metro is close to SABAM. I know people who work around there.

I pray earnestly that the delusion that is afoot in our century, the fanatacism that masquerades as religion, that turns thoughtful people away from spirituality and belief can be lifted. This cult of anger and death is the same no matter what book its followers profess to defend. Faux Christians, Muslims, even Hindus and Buddhists are gripped by an addiction to the chemicals produced in the body by anger and hatred, high on sheer reptile bloodlust. Those who believe that they are battling Satan are his most loyal followers, making blood sacrifices at his altar. Alla y'all. You Trumpians and you Wahabi freaks and you Bible thumping lobotomies. You are all the same. You are the dupes and slaves of other dupes and slaves, drunk on killing and greedy for power.

"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both." — Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951)

"The Buddha taught that hate is one of the Three Poisons. The Three Poisons are lobha, dvesha and moha, Sanskrit words usually translated as "greed," "hate" and "ignorance." In Sanskrit and Pali, the Three Poisons are called the akusala-mula

Akusala, a word usually translated as "evil," actually means "unskillful," and mula means "root." The Three Poisons are, then, the root of evil, or the root from which all unskillful or harmful actions spring.

From the article by Barbara O'Brien"

The Roots of Terrorism, According to the Buddha and Social Science

By Barbara O'Brien Updated November 16, 2015. To be an eyewitness to a terrorist attack is like seeing the fabric of reality ripped apart. I was an eyewitness to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York City on September 11, 2001, and I sensed then that the horror before me was not new, but an old thing that had been long submerged and ignored.

Facebook:March 22, 2016 at 10:06AM

Well, shit.

Brussels airport explosion: Latest updates - BBC News

Other, unconfirmed media reports, citing firefighters at the scene, say at least 11 people have been killed in the blasts and 25 injured.

Half Mute Re-Issue Announced

On the occasion of the Half-Mute tour, we are reissuing the album on CD, in a special remastered and repackaged edition.

The release includes a bonus album entitled GIVE ME NEW NOISE: Half-Mute Reflected. Thirteen artists have specially created covers of all the songs from Half-Mute and from the album's associated singles.

The contributors include Foetus/Jim Thirlwell, Aksak Maboul, Simon Fisher Turner, DopplAr (feat. 2 members from Amatorski), Cult With No Name, Coti K., Georgio Valentino and others, with special appearances by the three makers of Half-Mute, Steven Brown, Peter Principle and Blaine Reininger.

Give Me New Noise will also be issued as a stand-alone vinyl LP and digital album.

Further information is available at Crammed Discs.

Monday, March 21, 2016

March 21, 2016 at 06:28PM

Bloggin' agin.

4 on 3 off

Now that the play has started its run we have 4 days on 3 days off. Time for ordinary pursuits like the daily bike run to Syntagma. The smell of bitter orange blossoms is on the air, even in cloacal zones like Omonoia. I like to ride up to Syntagma and sit by the waterfall fountain, drink my coke zero and play with my phone. There it is.

Woland on Death and Dying

A meditation upon impermanence:

This is the text I wrote which serves as my opening monologue in Maria's production of "The Master and Margarita: A picnic With the Devil". It is derived from an improvised interview I did at rehearsal, discussing the Buddhist exercise of Meditation Upon Impermanence

The Christian practice of Memento Mori has a similar aim, reminding us always that none of the things we love, hate, or fear are permanent, so we shouldn't waste time worrying about keeping them. In the end, we lose it all.

Ultimately, this practice is not 'morbid'. It is, in fact, liberating in that it helps to diminish the suffering inherent in living.

You people always amaze me. You are all told that one day you must die, you watch millions of your fellows dying around you, yet you continue to tell yourselves that you alone will be spared. Each day 150,000 of you die, 6,000 every hour, 100 every minute, two each second, yet you continue to believe in your own immortality.

The truth you must face is that you cannot be spared by death. Everyone around you, everyone in this room, this building, this city, this country, all who now walk upon this earth will be gone within 100 years.

No insurance, no pension plan, no fame, no amount of wealth and power can stop your death. No exercise program, no diet, no plastic surgery, can make you younger, prevent decay, stop your death.

You can’t stop death by never thinking about it, not listening if somebody else is talking about it, or avoiding dying people.

You can't believe that your legacy, your art, your reputation, will grant you some shadow immortality. Eventually it will all go, Picasso, Beethoven, Shakespeare, even Jesus and Buddha; the statues and buildings will crumble, science will falter, technology will fail and fade away. The human species will become fossilized bones in the crust of a dead planet that will itself return to dust, in a collapsed universe, awaiting a new big bang.

Only by acknowledging your death, by realizing that your every breath could be your last, can you overcome your fear and be free. Some of you will realize this. Most of you won't.

Ay, que lastima! Krima.

(long pause)

But hey! Enough of my yakkin'! Let's get this show started!!

Azazaello!…..The people are getting bored! Move your butt and show us something!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

PARO Therapeutic Robot

PARO Therapeutic Robot

PARO is an advanced interactive therapeutic robot designed to stimulate patients with Dementia, Alzheimer's, and other cognition disorders.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZUn9qtG8ow&w=560&h=315]

A 3-Year-Old Boy Recalls Past Life, Locates His Body and Identifies The Man Who Murdered Him

http://ift.tt/1UdGbnh

http://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/research/ian-stevenson.html

Searching For The Science Behind Reincarnation

Say a child has memories of being a Hollywood extra in the 1930s. Is it just an active imagination, or actual evidence of reincarnation? Jim Tucker, a psychologist at the University of Virginia studies hundreds of cases like this and joins NPR's Rachel Martin to share his research on the science behind reincarnation.

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I think it's very difficult to just map these cases onto a materialist understanding of reality. I mean, if physical matter, if the physical world is all there is, then I don't know how you can accept these cases and believe in them. But I think there are good reasons to think that consciousness can be considered a separate entity from physical reality. And in fact, some leading scientists in the past, like Max Planck, who's the father of quantum theory, said that he viewed consciousness as fundamental and that matter was derived from it. So in that case, it would mean that consciousness would not necessarily be dependent on a physical brain in order to survive, and could continue after the physical brain and after the body dies. In these cases, it seems - at least, on the face of it - that a consciousness has then become attached to a new brain, and has shown up as past life memories. Jim Tucker

The show goes on. Tonight, 21:30, Rex Theatre, Athens, Greece.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

March 19, 2016 at 11:55PM

Ο Μαιτρ και η Μαργαρίτα photo by © Karol Jarek (2)

well, that's the second night of the play. jesus forgot his wig. my laser batteries were dying. that's how it always is on the second night.

The blog is moving

After the last 6 or seven years of tending to a self-hosted wordpress blog, I have decided that it is no longer worth the effort. I will instead migrate to a cloud-based wordpress.com blog. This has all of the advantages of the wordpress software with few of the drawbacks. I have grown tired of spam comments promoting athletic shoes and sex toys appearing every so often in my comments. I am also less than pleased with the slowness of my Greek host.

So, if you read this and want to subscribe, please do so at http://blr808.wordpress.com

thanks.

Picnic with the devil.

Friday, March 18, 2016

From Facebook March 19, 2016 at 02:03AM

The première was great. Lots of fun. Now it gets easier.

Backstage opening night.

the premiere performance

21:30 Tonight, Friday March 18, 2016, the premiere performance of
The Master and Margarita (A picnic with the Devil)
EXPERIMENTAL STAGE (-1) National Theatre of Greece, Rex Theatre, Athens, Greece

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The Five Precepts of Buddhism

Apropos of the previous post about Thich Nhat Hanh's precepts, I felt obliged to include a listing of the standard 5 precepts of Buddhism, the framework of the Buddhist moral and ethical code.

The five precepts:

1. Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami: I observe the precept of abstaining from the destruction of life.

2. Adinnadana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami: I observe the precept of abstaining from taking that which is not given.

3. Kamesu micchacara veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami: I observe the precept of abstaining from sexual misconduct.

4. Musavada veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami: I observe the precept of abstaining from falsehood.

5. Suramerayamajjapamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami: I observe the precept of abstaining from intoxicants that cloud the mind and cause carelessness.

The refrain "I observe the precept of abstaining from ..." which begins every precept clearly shows that these are not commandments. They are, indeed, moral codes of conduct that lay Buddhists willingly undertake out of clear understanding and conviction that they are good for both themselves and for society.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

THE FOURTEEN PRECEPTS OF ENGAGED BUDDHISM By Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

The world today is full of hateful actions and speech, made by angry people acting out of fear. Borders have been closed against people fleeing war. Ignorance, anger, and hatred are being inflamed and exploited by all sides. These ideas seem particularly necessary today.

1
Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth.

2
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.

Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views

3
Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.

4
Do not avoid suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.

Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry

5
Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.

6
Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.

7
Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.

8
Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

9
Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.

10
Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.

Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature

11
Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.

12
Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.

13
Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

14
Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realisation of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relations, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

From the book 'Interbeing': Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, revised edition: Oct. l993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California

Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist, and the author of Being Peace, The Miracle of Mindfulness, and many other books. He lives in a monastic community in south-western France called Plum Village, where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees world-wide. He conducts retreats throughout the world on the art of mindful living, and has conducted special retreats for American Vietnam War veterans, psychotherapists, artists, environmental activists and children.