I feel very fortunate to have found inspiration in people that I admire. Though I've only met one of them (Morimoto), the information that I've found about these people through interviews, online videos, biographies, or even just their music, has given me an understanding of their personal philosophies and enduring spirit. Some of them have more specific qualities that I admire, such as the conviction of Nergal's independent thinking, while others have a more general quality, like the Dalai Lama's internal center and peace.
The Dalai Lama (center)
I've read "The Art of Happiness", "The Book of Joy", "The Universe in a Single Atom", and "A Profound Mind". Though I'm not a Buddhist, the Dalai Lama's teachings have a universal message that transcends religious thought. In fact, in "The Book of Joy", he tells Desmond Tutu that religion will be obsolete within the near future, which further emphasizes the non-denominational and universal appeal of the message of joy.
It's inspiring that whenever he's asked a question, he always has a centered response that makes complete sense within the framework of a peaceful mind. Some of the questions are difficult, like "how do you find peace when you have been cast out of your home and have to live as a refugee?" Some are more personal and have a more universal appeal, like "how can you say you are fulfilled when you have never had intimacy with a woman?"
The Dalai Lama wrote the forward to Piero Ferrucci's "The Power of Kindness", and Ferrucci echoes the Dalai Lama's message of kindness, empathy, forgiveness and mindfulness as the foundation to peace and a centered state of mind.
The Dalai Lama has probably developed the most centered state of mind of most human beings. I know that his life and the circumstances around it are very different from mine. But at the same time, we are all sentient beings, and we can all achieve inner peace and a sense of center, and his teachings are very inspirational to me in my quest for inner peace.
Barack Obama (fairness)
I have to admit that I don't know a lot about the enduring legacy of Barack Obama's presidency except the Affordable Health Care Act, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and to a lesser extent, his work with LGBT rights and his work to promote environmental issues. I fully intend to educate myself more about his White House accomplishments and failures. But even with this limited knowledge, from a bigger picture perspective, I feel that he was a great president. His presidency was unmarred by things like the Whitewater scandal, Monica Lewinsky and impeachment of President Bill Clinton, the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina failures of George Bush, or the (many) problems of the Donald Trump presidency's first 6 months. To that end, President Obama appears to be the best president of at least the past 24 years, if not more.
I read two of Obama's books - "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope".
"Dreams From My Father" dispelled my previous thought that Obama is not a
real black man because he had not come from slave roots. Though he didn't come from slave roots, I was wrong in defining his identity because of that. Now I believe that his background and experiences allow him to have a much broader perspective of what it means to be American. His roots were a white family from the mainland U.S., as much as it was a black family that was firmly rooted in Kenya - I believe that helped him understand both longstanding "traditional" white America, and immigrant families. He understands black American's issues of racism, both from his personal experiences with racism as well as his work with disadvantaged black communities in Chicago.
In "The Audacity of Hope", he talks about his political values, but they don't just tow the Democratic party line. Whereas I think most Democrats consider issues from a more myopic Democratic position, Obama considers issues from a broader perspective. For example, he considers environmental issues alongside the fact that it might impact job creation.
He says that he attended Town Hall meetings and listened to what everyone had to say, regardless of where they fell in the political spectrum.
I may be naive or wrong, but I think this came from a very honest perspective of fairness and inclusiveness rather being a calculating politician. This is the one attribute of Obama that stands out, and gives him integrity. In some ways, you could say that this was a result of his compassion for all people, and that's very inspiring to me.
I also feel that he is the most intelligent president that we've possibly ever had, and he will probably go down as one of the greatest orators of all time. His speeches inspire, and make complete sense.
I voted for him in both elections and I knew that there was promise in his presidency. I feel that his intentions were genuine. I also imagine that if his policies stumbled in any way, it was probably due to the politicizing and compromises that he had to make with congress.
Regardless, he is a great man that epitomizes fairness and equality for all, and because of that, I feel that he is the embodiment of the spirit of the United States. That's really inspirational to me.
Dave Grohl (dudeness and respect for tradition)
I was going to list Dave Grohl's inspirational attribute as "kindness", but he's too much of a rock and roll icon to be described as "kind". I don't think that word epitomizes what he is about. There's a rebellious spirit that defines his attitude, but at the same time, he has a reverence for what he believes as purity and a lack of bullshit. Maybe it's the recognition of the bullshit that makes him not so much "kind", as it makes him a "dude". So for lack of a better term, he epitomizes "dudeness".
I really loved Dave Grohl's drumming in Nirvana, but I love his voice and his songwriting in the Foo Fighters even more. His songwriting style is a combination of pop influences, hardcore, and classic rock, as evident by the melodic hooks, the somewhat complex guitar arrangements, and the aggression of the instrumentation. When the Foo Fighters came out, they were more hardcore than Green Day and the Offspring, but at the same time more classic rock sounding than Bad Religion and Pennywise. The song "Everlong" characterizes a lot of what he's about as a songwriter, and is one of my favorite songs of all time.
Grohl has never been shy about his opinions. After winning a Grammy, he spoke about the fact that he was able to get his Grammy for an album recorded in his garage, versus the digital perfection of ProTools. He's advocated for kids playing music in the garage for their own enjoyment, rather than trying to be on American Idol to garner the votes of people. He makes fun of what he considers pomposity, like the image of an eagle flying onto the lead singer of Creed's arm in their music video. He laughs at the Japanese interviews excited exclamations of "Rearry?", describing the word as a really excited Scooby Doo. Underneath all of this, you see that he really roots for the underdog, which makes him a "dude" in my book. Just an ordinary guy, albeit with an incredible gift for songwriting, singing, guitar playing and drumming.
He also has so much reverence for music that he loves, from classic stuff like the Beatles, to Sepultura and other metal, to newer bands like Royal Blood. I think it's so cool, that someone who is such an accomplished and prolific musician, to pay tribute to the greats and to promote the up and comers.
His "Sonic Highways" HBO series shows how he can play with a classic guitarist like Joe Walsh, to promoting new guys like Gary Clark Jr.
What I love about him is his love of music, his respect for the traditions of not only musical form, but also of the tradition of playing music in the garage, for the love of music, not for fame. That's such a great message.
Grohl is talented and funny, but he's also so humble and acts like just another dude. That's really inspirational to me.
Max Cavalera (humility and enthusiasm)
For a guy that writes brutal thrash metal, Max Cavalera is a pretty mellow and funny guy.
I've been a fan of his music for years. His early work as singer and rhythm guitar player for Sepultura was pretty amazing to me. After leaving Sepultura, he wrote a lot of music with Soulfly, and then formed Cavalera Conspiracy with his brother Iggor, who finally left Sepultura.
Fortunately, Max wrote a biography and I was able to read about his early life as a rich kid to an Italian diplomat in Brazil, to the poverty he went through when his dad died, and his rise as a musician in the most influential band from Brazil, not to mention one of the most influential metal bands ever.
I love how he incorporates his kids into his bands. I also love how he promotes new bands by taking them out on tour with him. He seems to be very humble in his appreciation of other music, in the same way that Dave Grohl promotes the bands that he likes. In fact, Cavalera played on Grohl's Probot project, and Grohl wrote the forward to Cavalera's biography.
Though I don't really like the shape of his new signature model, I really love most of his taste in guitars - from his early B.C. Rich Warlocks, to his SG and the SG derived ESP Viper, to his ESP EX - those are some of my favorite guitar shapes ever.
His wife Gloria said that he "shits riffs all day", which means that he easily comes up with guitar parts for songs all the time. Though his riffs can be pretty simple, they are the foundation of tons of classic and memorable songs.
His influence in the industry is pretty huge, and in fact he has guested on other artists' albums, and has had lots of guest artists on his songs. He's collaborated with guys like Ice T, Tom Araya from Slayer, Corey Taylor from Slipknot, the guys from Deftones, etc.
He's so prolific, he's an amazing songwriter, guitarist and singer, and humble and truly enthusiastic about music he loves, and that inspires me to try to be the same.
Masaharu Morimoto (precision and creativity)
Morimoto doesn't have a bio per se, but his first cookbook has a section on his early life and his career. He grew up a kid with a strict dad in Japan, and he had dreams of being a professional baseball player. When an injury sidelined his baseball career, he pursued cooking. He started by apprenticing in Japanese shops, which were notorious for demanding perfection in every facet of cooking. Infamously, he had to wash rice for years at a sushi bar before he was allowed to slice fish.
He told the story about how he rose through the ranks in the United States as a chef for Sony, and later for Nobu, and how he was invited to be on Iron Chef in Japan, where he wanted to show the Japanese chefs that a Japanese chef living in America was just as good as Japanese chefs.
He then become an Iron Chef on Iron Chef America, and opened restaurants all throughout the world.
I've eaten at his restaurant, Morimoto Waikiki, twice. I really enjoyed the food there. Maybe I was imagining things, but I remember once when I was having lunch there, that people were glancing over at me because I look a little like Morimoto, with my ponytail, glasses, and goatee.
He is such a creative chef, and has inspired me to try to create new fusions of food that go beyond traditional food of any particular culture. Though I don't have a lot of successful food fusion recipes, his spirit of creativity makes me try to think outside the box the way he does.
At the same time, he is well versed in the tradition of Japanese food, and seems to go through extreme lengths to perfect his food - even hulling his own rice. I am so inspired by his pursuit of perfection through precision cooking and preparation. Not only is a chef like Morimoto knowledgeable about different kinds of foods, but his knife skills are amazing.
Morimoto is definitely my inspiration as a chef, not for his specific recipes, but the spirit with which he creates them. I was fortunate to be able to meet him and have him sign my cookbook, which you can see in another blog post here.
Adam Nergal Darski (conviction)
I love music. Though I am an engineer by occupation, my passion lies squarely in music, which is why most of my influences are musicians.
My favorite kind of music is metal, which spans multiple subgenres. But I also listen to other kinds of music, and a lot of times my favorite bands are those bands that come out and fuse different musical elements to create something new, kind of like how Morimoto fuses different cuisines to create new foods. Bands like Ozzy's first Blizzard of Ozz combined classical music with bluesy rock and early Sabbath styled metal to form something new. Rage Against The Machine took Zep style classic rock riffs and fused it with rap in a different way from early rap rock collaborations like Run DMC/Aerosmith, or Anthrax/Public Enemy.
In metal, subgenres can be very confining. There was a period of time when thrash metal bands hated glam metal bands. For example, Lars Ulrich from Metallica made fun of the guys from Motley Crue early in their respective careers, and the Crue guys couldn't chase them to fight because of their high heels.
Similar animosity happened between black metal and death metal bands. But Behemoth blurred the line between death metal and black metal, and Behemoth's Demigod is one of the greatest albums of all time. Adam Nergal Darski is the mastermind behind Behemoth.
Nergal is a huge figure in Poland, not only for his work with Behemoth, but as a celebrity having transcended beyond his work as an extreme metal artist, into the pop realm as a judge on a Polish vocal contest show similar to American Idol.
Nergal write Satanic themed songs, but he is actually more atheist, and anti-organized religion. The religion he rails against happens to be Christianity, as it is dominant and according to him, oppressive in Polish society.
He has gotten in trouble for ripping up bibles, but despite bans against him and threats from the authorities, he maintains his conviction.
Even after facing his mortality through his battle with leukemia, he hadn't abandoned his lack of faith. Rather, he embraced the concept that he has the strength to beat his leukemia, which he said would have been in contrast to a believer's acceptance of God's plan.
I love the strength of his conviction, and his ability to draw from inner strength rather than giving up effort to fate. He inspires me to find my inner strength. Plus he's just a badass musician.
Paul Gilbert (humility and love of music)
I once got to see Paul Gilbert play a clinic at a local guitar store. Paul is an insane guitar player, and has the technical facility to do a lot of things.
In interviews, he seems like such a humble guy. I have to think he knows how good he is, but he never makes you feel like it. In jam situations, he is always gracious to the guitar players he is playing with, and you don't get a sense of competition from his side, even though he blows most guys away.
I saw a video of a TV show in Japan where he gets together with Marty Friedman and they play a lot of classic songs, and Paul seems to know thousands of songs. He's a fan of a lot of music, and he always talks about his love of the Beatles and Todd Rundgren.
I love how incredibly talented he is, and yet how he makes everyone feel comfortable when he's around, and how he shares his love of music through his own music.
