The Beginner's Guide To Meditation - Shinzen Young

This seems more like a "how to" Podcast rather than an audiobook.

Young talks about meditation as concentration to produce equinimity that allows an insight into the self.  This allows one to serve the world with love and compassion.

He talks about when and how to practice.  He talks about sitting upright and finding time alone, and then the next part is intended to be listened to while meditating - he talks about focusing on breathing, relaxation, and then loving kindness.

I thought this was a pretty good book about the basics of meditation.  I think I'm going to try incorporating this into my life.

A Force For Good - the Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World - Daniel Goleman

I really enjoyed this book.  I love the Dalai Lama's message.  My reading of the Dalai Lama followed a (coincidentally) logical progression - from finding your own internal happiness (The Art of Happiness), followed by finding a broader sense of joy (The Book of Joy), then his internal thoughts and philosophies (A Profound Mind), ruminations on the link between science and spirituality (The Universe in a Single Atom), and then this book - A Force For Good.

In this book, Daniel Goleman describes various acts that one can perform to make positive changes in the world.  It's a great book, and I plan to look into joinaforce4good.com.

Fu pei guen

I love bean curd!  It's the residual stuff that you'd get from processing soybeans into tofu.

They sell this in dried sheets in Chinatown.  It's typically use in dim sum restaurants to wrap various meats and vegetables, and then the rolls are cooked.

I wanted to try making a vegan version of these rolls, which are called fu pei guen.

I sort of made my own recipe.  I started with diced firm tofu, minced shiitake and wood ear mushroom, shredded bamboo, and green onions, and seasoned with some mushroom seasoning, xiaozhing cooking wine, sesame oil and white pepper.  I wrapped them, fried them in a little bit of canola oil, then steamed them in a bamboo steamer.  The gravy is made with mushroom bouillon, more cooking wine, sesame oil and white pepper, thickened with cornstarch.

I really loved these!

First Invite Love In - Tana Pesso with Penor Rinpoche

I borrowed this book because it has a foreword by the Dalai Lama.

It's an interesting book, but a little strange.  In some of the first exercises, I found myself at peace and smiling, but as I read through the remainder of the exercises, I almost laughed at some of the ideas - specifically that everyone that you visualize was your mother in a past life, including rabbits, etc.

Conceptually, I understand developing compassion and empathy through identification with sentient beings, but how this book describes the visualizations ranges from profound to kind of silly.

Still though, like any book, I like to incorporate and learn from the things I like about it.  I only got about 30% of this book, but it will help me in developing compassion.

I'd rate this book maybe a 6 out of 10.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand

This book chronicles the life of Louis Zamperini, from a young troubled child, to an olympic runner, a military bombadier, and for most of the book, an American POW in the South Pacific and Japan.

It's a long book and often troubling, but it reflects Zamperini's strength, defiance, and forgiveness.  It was a very inspirational story, even just from the standpoint of physical exertion (it motivated me to walk 9 miles on the day I finished it!), but also for the message of forgiveness.

For its inspiration, it was my favorite book that I've read this year.

Wild - From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed

Wild is about Cheryl Strayed's expedition from Southern California to the top of Oregon.  She traverses the trail on a quest to deal with the loss of her mother, and throughout the memoir reflects back upon her issues with her mother, step-dad, siblings, ex-husband, and other various people in her life.

It reminded me a little bit of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" with the distinction being that I actually cared for Strayed vs. the pompous author of Zen.

I borrowed this book thinking I could read it over a few weeks, but ended up finishing it over a weekend.

I really liked this book - maybe one of my favorites this year so far.

R.I.P., Chester

My day got dark today.  Chester Bennington, one of my favorite singers, hung himself at the age of 41.  He left behind six children.

Chester had an incredible voice, and I admired both his note dynamic ranges, from melodic singing to angry screaming.  I loved his music, and the anger in his voice and lyrics hit even harder as I read about his traumatic abuse as a child and his subsequent drug use and talk of suicide.

I was sad when I found out that Chris Cornell killed himself, but Chester Bennington's suicide hit me pretty hard today.

Rest in peace, Chester.  You may be gone, but your music will live forever.

How the internet became my stage. | Meytal Cohen | TEDxBocaRaton

I've heard of Meytal, and have watched her drum cover videos.  She's a really good drummer, but having said that, there are a lot of "good" drummers (side note - and they are all still better than me).

There are a lot of people on YouTube criticizing her for being average but getting her success through her looks.  On the one hand, I feel that it's true that people pay her videos attention because of her looks and that she is a really good drummer, but not phenomenally amazing.  On the other hand, she seems humble and is making music that connects with people, and not blatantly over-sexualizing her videos, so I don't begrudge her success a single bit.

When I watched this TEDTalk, her humility was confirmed when she said that she's not the greatest drummer, and her message of making a living playing drums on the internet is inspirational.

America Again (Re-Becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't) - Stephen Colbert

In this second audiobook, Colbert addresses the topics of jobs, health care, Wall Street, energy, elections, justice and food.  Again, he potrays his conservative pundit persona in lampooning these subjects, though it's not as funny or engaging as his first book.  I still laughed out loud though.

I Am America (And So Can You) - Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert is both really intelligent and really comedically clever.  Listening to this audiobook is engaging, as his quips and one-liners hit you again and again and make you think.

He doesn't directly address politics per se as he did in the Colbert Report or in his Late Show opening monologues.  Rather, he tackles Family, Old People, Animals, Religion, Sports, Sex & Dating, Homosexuals, Higher Education, Hollywood, The Media, Class War, Race, and Immigrants, all with the political satire of his former mock-right wing pundit persona.

I find myself smiling and chuckling while listening to this book.

My favorite "new" drummers

This list is mostly drummers that are relatively newer, so it excludes some of my all time favorites like Dave Lombardo and Iggor Cavalera.

I just discovered Krihm, who has played with Decapitated and Behemoth.  He plays with a lot of power and his technique is solid:



I've also really loved the playing of Dave Suzuki, who was formerly with Vital Remains.  This guy is insanely fast:



Tim Yeung is a killer drummer who has played Dave Suzuki's parts in Vital Remains.  He has also played with Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, and Divine Heresy:



Eloy Casagrande is Sepultura's "new" drummer, and he has so much energy and technique.



John Dette has filled in with Slayer and Anthrax, and he's so good, you don't miss their regular drummers.



Inferno is one of my favorite drummers of all time, and I love "Slaves Shall Serve".

Frames of Mind - The Theory of Multiple Intelligences - Howard Gardner

Spider-Man Homecoming

I wasn't sure what to expect of this latest Spider-Man reboot.  When I saw in the opening that it was still under Sony, I lowered my expectations.  I was surprised that this movie was really great, despite some of the negative reviews I was seeing about it.

It was a great modern retelling of a classic story.  The multi-cultural cast was interesting, but not knowing the ethnic makeup of people in New York, I couldn't tell if it was trying too hard to be modern, or if it was an accurate portrayal of who Peter Parker's friends would be in real life.

The movie wasn't a super traditional Marvel type blockbuster.  The fight scenes were good, and the CGI was virtually undetectable.  I liked that more of the action scenes revolved around saving people, rather than fighting the main villain - the Vulture.

I thought the plot was a great coming of age superhero story, something that's lacking in recent Marvel movies, and really made you feel the youth of Peter Parker.

I would say this was my favorite Spider-Man movie yet, and quite possibly one of my favorite movies of the past few years.

Without You, There Is No Us - Suki Kim

This audiobook was a great listen!  Suki Kim goes double undercover, as she poses as an undercover missionary teaching English at Pyonyang University of Science and Technology.

She teaches and grows attached to a group of privileged elite young North Korean boys, and describes their culture and philosophy, which is shaped by the North Korean regime.  She sometimes  compares and contrasts their worship of Kim Jung-Il with the worship of God by her missionary counterparts.

I loved this book.  Kim documents the sometimes odd behavior of the North Koreans and provides a first hand look and sometimes speculation behind the way that they behave.  But she doesn't do this in a cold way - she actually grows quite enamored of her students.  This is one of my favorite books of the year so far.

The Healthiest Diet on the Planet - Dr. John McDougall & Mary McDougall

I was much more convinced of McDougall's theory after reading this book, versus when I read "The Starch Solution".  Perhaps it's the overall tone of the book, or perhaps I was more familiar and thus more receptive, but believe that the elimination of animal proteins is a good thing.

I still think it's best to reduce overall consumption of food as a whole, and now I think the next step is changing the way we eat - and having meals centered on plant based foods.

Hidden Brain - "Is He A Muslim?"

I heard an interesting Hidden Brain podcast this morning that said that more terrorism in the United States was carried out by non-Muslims than Muslims, but people more readily classify Muslim violence as "terrorism".

Although I generally trust NPR's programs to have integrity and objectivity, the independent thinker in me researched the subject more.

I found an article from the Atlantic that states that "Between 1975 and 2015, the “annual chance of being murdered by somebody other than a foreign-born terrorist was 252.9 times greater than the chance of dying in a terrorist attack committed by a foreign-born terrorist,” according to Nowrasteh."


The New York Times reports that "Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims"
 
Business Insider estimates that the odds of being killed by a foreign-born terrorist are lower than being killed by a sharp object accident.

One could argue that the relatively low statistics could be attributed to the government's efforts to thwart attacks, but the added cost-benefit ratio of a travel ban seems quite disproportionate, and ignorant of statistics.

New albums to check out

Gravebloom - The Acacia Strain
Hydrograd - Stone Sour
Unparalleled Universe - Origin
Vengeful Ascension - Goatwhore
Slime and Punishment - Municipal Waste
Wrong One to Fuck With - Dying Fetus

Cannibal Corpse

I must be really weird.  I just love brutal death metal.  Cannibal Corpse is pretty brutal - they get moderately fast, but nowhere near some bands like Vital Remains or Origin.  But they are just super heavy.  I love the silliness of dripping blood logos and black guitars with red blood stains.

The musicianship in this band is pretty outstanding, but they never sacrifice brutality just to show off.  I happen to really love Corpsegrinder's vocals, even though they're pretty one dimensional.  He ranks right up there with Glenn Benton, Nergal and Max Cavalera as my favorite extreme metal vocalists.

Dimebag Darrell

I consider Dimebag Darrell one of the greatest guitar players of all time.

Had he not been shot and killed, he would have been about a year older than me.  Because we grew up roughly around the same time, his influences are very similar to mine.  That's not super uncommon for guitarists our age, but it makes me feel a sort of kinship and even understanding of his guitar playing.

Of course, he had become an incredible guitarist in his own right, and was and still is highly influential to me, in a lot of ways.

As a guitar player, his feel, his tone, his playing, is unmatched to this day.  He was such a combination of his influences, from the soaring lead guitar playing that he got from guys like Randy Rhoads, to the groove of Eddie Van Halen, to the driving rhythm guitar playing of James Hetfield.  And like those guys that influenced him, he fused his influences into his own recognizable style.

I remember hearing Cowboys-era Pantera on Radio Free Hawaii and Z-Rock in the early 90s, and then seeing the "I'm Broken" video at my aunty's house in L.A. when I took my professional engineering exam for California, and was blown away at the intensity and groove of that song.

As far as his personality, he just seemed like the most genuinely nicest person that wanted everyone to feel at home.  It seems that tributes to him revolve even more around his generosity and spirit, than his incredible musicianship.  He was a positive person....  and I hope to someday leave a legacy, as a person, in even a small fraction of a way that he did.

Style-wise, people in the know see it in me, but most people don't realize that my red-dyed beard and razor blade necklace are tributes to Dime.  It's funny when people that don't know metal say "your red beard is cool" and "I've never seen a dyed beard before", but metal fans will come up to me and say "Dimebag, right?"

I feel fortunate to have a lot of people to look up to, and Dimebag is definitely on the top of that list.

Coincidences - do they have meaning, or do we attach too much meaning?

I listened to an interesting podcast on Hidden Brain about coincidences and the meaning we attach to them.  The author talks about how we might attach more meaning to things that are statistically more probable than we imagine they are.

Multiple Intelligences - New Horizons, by Howard Gardner

This is the kind of thing I ponder all the time, so I really enjoyed reading this book.

Gardner initially postulated multiple, distinct intelligences.  These are:

1. Musical
2. Bodily - Kinesthetic
3. Logical - Mathematical
4. Linguistic
5. Spatial
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal 

He later added Naturalistic intelligence, but decided against adding Humor, Cooking, Sexual, and Spiritual intelligences, noting that they did not meet his eight criteria for establishing a category of intelligence.

My observation of people supports Gardner's theory - I've seen myriads of different combinations, from some who have great logical intelligence but very little interpersonal intelligence, or lots of interpersonal but very little intrapersonal, etc.  I also get a little bit of sense that there is an overarching well rounded intelligence that some people have, while others have very little developed intelligence in any category.

He talks about how his theory has been used in education, his initial resistance towards getting into that field, and ultimately how he felt a responsibility to lecture in the field of education.

I stopped reading the book here because I'm not that interested in how this theory impacts the educational field.  I think I'd rather read more about the theory itself.  I'm also now prompted to read about emotional intelligence, which Gardner doesn't describe in his theory.

Invisibilia - True You

Trailer for this episode:  "What happens when you discover a part of yourself that is so different from who you think you are?  Do you hold on to your original self tightly?"

This podcast really made me think.  The two stories revolved around the concept about our ideas about ourselves, and what happens when we discover something about ourselves that we didn't think we were.

The first story was about a woman who appeared menacing, being 6' tall with a shaved head and wearing all black, and who kept people at an arms length.  She discovers that she is voicing a young giggly girl in her dreams.  Upon reflection, she remembers some extreme forms of punishment as a young girl, and subsequent dream analysis reveals that her dreams are not answers in and of themselves, rather, they are the way that her mind reduces the trauma of her past.

The second story is of a man who has a very strong Mormon background and gets punished for saying the "f" word.  He grows up to be a very "square" college professor, but finds a voice for his offbeat and often risque humor as a cartoonist with a pseudonym Lord Birthday.

The overarching theme in these stories seems to be early childhood trauma, or repression, and the way that adults overcome that trauma.  It's interesting to me as a parent because I think that bringing up a healthy, normal child involves giving them the power to express themselves in a way that they are loved unconditionally.

We live in turbulent times

Watching the news for the past few weeks, it seems that the world is descending into chaos.  When a Bernie Sanders supporter shoots a Republican congressmen, and when a white man plows a van into a group of Muslims at a London mosque...  a man from a party known to be anti-guns commits gun violence and a white man terrorizes Muslims in a similar manner to how a terrorist Muslim terrorizes white people....  I know these are just two isolated incidents, but when the tables are turned and people do unexpected things, I worry that a cycle of violence has begun.

I worry that, like Israel and Palestine, the cycle won't end.

There was a hint about this after the election.  Prior to the election, Trump was saying that he might not accept the results of the election (anticipating that he might lose).  The left was in an uproar, stating that he needs to respect the process of election.  Then, when Trump won, people were protesting and saying that the electoral college process needs to be eliminated, and I thought that those people were hypocrites.

I am very liberal, but I don't consider myself aligned with the Democratic party as a whole.

I believe that the world would be a better place if two things happened:  1) if people practiced more compassion and empathy in their lives; and 2) if people exercised more humility and worked towards independent thinking and realizing their intellectual capacity.

I like this episode of Huang's World where Eddie Huang gets different perspectives, and bridges cultural gaps through things like food.

My favorite metal bands right now

Nails
Goatwhore
Decapitated
Iron Reagan
Chthonic
Byzantine
Hatebreed

Pretty. Odd.

This is Panic! At The Disco's second album, and the last to include founding member Ryan Ross.

Though Brendan Urie is the lead singer and current songwriter, Ross was the primary songwriter for the first two albums.  Though they achieved commercial success on their first album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" with a pop-punk / emo sound, they expanded their songwriting style on Pretty Odd.

Pretty Odd sounds like a lost Beatles album from the Sgt. Peppers era.

The songwriting is amazing, and full of Beatles'isms, from the opening of "We're So Starving" leading into "Nine In The Afternoon" ala "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With A Little Help From Our Friends".  Nine also has a stringed instrument ending with a trumpet solo that screams George Martin arrangement.  Even the 3/4 beat single bar transitions and the half time chorus suggests a strong Beatles influence.

Where I think a lot of Beatles influenced music might have Beatles elements, what makes the songs of the Beatles stand out is excellent songwriting and catchy and inventive parts, and the way the songs evoke strong imagery and colors.  This is where I think Panic matches the Beatles.  I would have loved to hear the Beatles record all of these songs in the 60s.

The musicianship is magically Beatles too!  The vibrato on the lead guitars sounds like George Harrison, and bass lines have that McCartney-esque simplicity and movement.  Occasional use of slide guitar reminds me of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".  The sound of Urie and Ross harmonizing sounds like Lennon and McCartney.  And I'm in love with the sound of the rhythm guitar on "That Green Gentleman" - that sounds like a Tele through an AC30 with a fuzz box...  like a less distorted tone from "Revolution".

The production took cues from George Martin as well.  Hearing instruments panned hard left and hard right give the listener that Beatles feel without being super overt or particularly effected.

But despite all of the Beatles-isms, this album stands out on its own, and is full of amazing songs that I want to hear over and over.  I particularly love "Northern Downpour" - which will always remind me of driving no place in particular with my 13-year old daughter and harmonizing to this song.

Apple Music

I think Apple Music is one of the biggest things to come out in the past 10 years that has impacted the way I listen to music.  I have unlimited access to everything in the Apple Music catalog, and don't need to worry about the amount of memory that my phone has.

Now, I can listen to whatever I want, wherever I want, and that has been instrumental in discovering new music.  I'm rediscovering all of the music I haven't heard from the past 15 years and sometimes even longer.

Decapitated

Well, I guess it's back to metal today.  I can listen to other genres, but I always come back to metal.

I recently rediscovered Decapitated.  I first heard them on their Organic Hallucinosis album in 2009 and (mistakenly) wrote them off as generic death metal.

Listening to "Homo Sum" from 2011's "Carnival Is Forever" shows syncopation without sounding like Djent music or some carbon copy of Meshuggah.  That song reminds me of a more modern version of Pantera's "Primal Concrete Sludge" that has Dimebag's syncopated riff over a pretty straightforward double bass beat.  In fact, it appears that like me, the guitar player for Decapitated is influenced by Dime.

"Earth Scar" from the yet-to-be-released Anticult is a more straightforward Slipknot style straight ahead rock/metal song.  "Never" from the same album is a fast skank beat with an octave riff, that reminds me of something from Behemoth's Demigod.

Maybe that's what it is.....  the elements of their songs that remind me of some of my favorite bands make them sound very familiar to me.  They can blast beat and riff like the best modern death metal, but they incorporate enough different elements into their music to make their songs interesting.

Like Behemoth, Hate, Vesania, and Vader, these guys are from Poland.  Of all of those bands, I think Decapitated is one of my favorites along with Behemoth.

Taking a break from metal today to listen to some rap and soul

Maybe listening to Maya Angelou is putting me in more soulful mood.  My playlist today includes:

• The Mexican - G.Z.A. featuring Tom Morello (a song that my son's breakdancing teacher suggested I learn, since he knows I play guitar - I was thinking it would be cool to play this song live with breakdancers)
• My Shot Remix - The Roots (What a cool combination of musicians - my favorite M.C., Black Thought, with Busta Rhymes and Nate Ruess from fun.)
• Unfuck the World - Prophets of Rage (Love the combination of Rage Against The Machine, B. Real from Cypress Hill and Chuck D. from Public Enemy)
• Seasons of Love - Rent soundtrack (I fell in love with this song after hearing my daughter sing the lead at the end at a recent performance)

Weapons

I guess I wouldn't normally call guitars "weapons", but these two guitars are so sharp and pointy that I think they might poke your eye out if you're not careful.

These are my two favorite guitars, and the guitars I'm using with my current band.

The one on the bottom of the picture is a B.C. Rich Custom Shop Warlock, made in the United States.  It's a beautifully crafted guitar, super solid, it sounds amazing, and plays really well.  It's also perfect to play sitting or standing.  I bought it used, so it wasn't spec'd out the way that I would have spec'd it out if I had ordered it custom built for myself.  I changed the pickups from passive DiMarzios to active EMGs and they sound great.  I'll need to build a battery box into the back of the guitar someday.  I also took out the second volume control and the tone control, so there are unfilled holes on the front of the guitar but they don't bother me.  This is my main 6-string guitar that is tuned to drop C#, which I can use to play most heavy songs.

The guitar on the top of the picture is my E-II Jesse Liu JL-7 Katana, made by ESP in Japan.  It is an impeccably crafted guitar, probably the pinnacle of guitar building, but very different from the Warlock.  The Seymour Duncan blackout pickup in the bridge position is dead quiet and sounds great.  It's a little harder to play sitting down, but I can manage.  I was resistant to 7 strings for the longest time, but I really like this one.  I can play songs in E standard by just ignoring the low B string, and it's not that hard.  Or I can play songs that are in B.

I might want to get a third guitar for metal - probably a 7 string that I can tune to Drop Ab.  That way, I can play any song in Eb standard (Slayer!), and anything that's kind of low with the Drop Ab.

Oh, then maybe an 8-string for super low things like Meshuggah or Deftones.  I guess it never ends, does it?

Ghost World

I saw this movie years ago, and revisited it this weekend.

I thought it was a great movie about two friends.  The primary characters are Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johanssen), two recent high school graduates who start out with similar thoughts on how to proceed into adulthood but ultimately drift apart.  Both actresses were snarky, and they felt very "real".

The supporting cast of characters is quirky and fun.  Seymour (Steve Buschemi) is so weird, but there's something immediately identifiable about him....  a vulnerability, but also a jaded cynicism and a confidence in who he is.

It's not a typically Hollywood happy ending, and it's vague and symbolic, but I'll leave it at that so as to not spoil it.

It was a great movie.  I don't like artsy movies that I feel are pretentious.  Black comedies are more tongue-in-cheek because you don't take things too seriously.  In the field of black comedies, it was very smart, entertaining, and oddly satisfying.  I would rank it up there with Pulp Fiction, Napoleon Dynamite, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Sometimes life isn't about happy endings.  With that understanding, movies like this can be oddly satisfying.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

According to polls and reading recommendations, this is a classic book, and the fact that the audiobook is read by Maya Angelou herself makes the book that much more compelling.

Being born in Los Angeles and growing up in Hawaii, for me, reading about Maya Angelou's early life in Stamps, Arkansas is both foreign and interesting.  She talks a lot about racism and the church, which are a world apart for me.  She also talks about her relationship with her family, and in particular, her closeness with her older brother Bailey is especially touching.

She describes herself on numerous occasions as tenderhearted, and goes through trauma that renders her unable to talk in most social situations, but she overcomes this difficulty and comes of age when she and her brother Bailey move to California to be reunited with their parents.

The numerous chapters of the book cover little stories, from her toothache and the racism they encountered trying to get her teeth pulled, to her mother's con-man friends' tales of conning white men, to her travels to Mexico with her dad.

It's a good book that traverses different themes, some very heavy, some lighthearted.  It's a good biography and interesting from chapter to chapter, but as a whole, it's not one of my favorite books.

To Hell and Back - The Last Train From Hiroshima

Pelligrino writes about the devastation of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The first few chapters describe the pure annihilation and immediacy of the destruction, but slowly the narrative evolves to describe the physical and psychological effects of the bombings, primarily from the Japanese perspective but also from the perspective of the bombers.

Much of the book reads like a horror movie, with gory accounts of both obliteration and physical suffering of unimaginable measure.  On the one hand, the endless variations on death seem almost gratuitous, yet the shock upon shock of reading these horrors underscores just how cruel and unfathomable were the effects of the bomb.

The book ends with the redemption of forgiveness, and the pledge for peace.  While I feel that the point of the book could be made in a shorter narrative (taking out much of the gore), I think this book is essential reading to put war into a proper perspective.

Whether or not the bombings were justified has been fervently debated, but if innocent human life is sacred, then the answer is clarified by this book.

Invisibilia

I was looking for podcasts to listen to, and Invisibilia turned up as one of the top rated podcasts.

From the description, "Invisibilia (Latin for invisible things) is about the invisible forces that control human behavior - ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions."

I listened to Season 3 - Emotions, parts 1 and 2.  There were two primary stories - one about an accident that was caused by a driver whose young daughter died in a head-on collision, and how the family was sued by the driver of the other vehicle who suffered emotional distress from seeing the young daughter's dead arm hanging inside the mangled vehicle.  The other story was about a man studying a tribe of headhunters who had an emotion that the man had never experienced before.

The stories were enhanced by one researcher's idea that our emotions are not shaped by the world around us, rather that our emotions shape the world around us.  This was an interesting thought, and one day, when I was feeling down, I decided that if I changed my sad thoughts, that I could change my world and my perception of the world.  It was quite empowering.

Weekend repairs

I did some really minor home repair things with on one of my dad's rentals this weekend.  We fixed some slats in the storage area under the house, painted the stairway, installed electrical outlet plates, changed lightbulbs, touched up interior paint, and trimmed the bottom of the bathroom door to accommodate the threshold from the new flooring.  Everything was relatively easy, with the hardest part being the trimming of the bathroom door, and even that was pretty easy.

7 string

I've been practicing a lot on my 7 string.  I had a hard time getting used to this guitar, but I've been able to play songs in standard 6 string tuning (Desperate Cry by Sepultura) with it, without much problem.

What's nice is that I can switch between songs like that, and songs that are tuned down as low as B, without changing guitars.

I'm now inspired to pick up an 8 string, as the band that I'm playing in is learning a Meshuggah song in F#.

The Starch Solution

I'm generally leery of all "diets" that sway too much one way or another.  I believe that a healthy body doesn't only involve weight loss, though that's a primary component, perhaps even the most important one.  I also believe that a healthy body is one where blood pressure, artery health, blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides are all optimally maintained, and cancer risks are reduced.

Dr. McDougall makes a compelling argument for the consumption of lots of starch with a reduction of meat and dairy, citing older generations of Asians having healthier bodies, and also maintaining diets high in rice and vegetables.  He backs up this statement with evidence from working for Hamakua Sugar Company on the Big Island, and the idea resonates with me, as I know lot of older Asians and see how their eating habits affected their health.

I'm not convinced that, as he states in his book, one can add 4 cups of rice to their diet every day and be healthy, but what I do take away is that starch keeps you satiated, and it's wise to reduce animal protein.

With that in mind, I intend to try to eat just enough starch to keep me satiated, reduce my meat consumption, and eat a lot more fruits and vegetables.

Living Colour

I got to see Living Colour at the Blue Note Waikiki this weekend.

I loved their first album, Vivid.  Back in 1987 when they came out, funk rock wasn't a full fledged genre, but this album kicked it off in a big way.  After this album, I really started getting into funk rock like the Chili Peppers, Faith No More, Fishbone's transition from ska to funk, and later Infectious Grooves and Psychefunkapus.

I didn't follow Living Colour much after their first album, but as I downloaded the setlist in anticipation of this weekend's concert, I found out how good their later stuff is.

They were a really tight band!  Will Calhoun is a solid drummer, and plays perfectly for the songs, though he showed his technical ability during his drum solo.  Doug Wimbish is an amazing bass player, flashy but melodic and technical, always with the perfect groove.  His bass solo was a melodic chord progression looped, that he solo'd over.  Vernon Reid has always been an out there player - with strange chromaticism and frenetic shredding.  At this concert, I finally "got it" - he's such a unique player, and he really stands out because of the way he plays.  As a guitarist, one wants to find their voice, the signature style that, when you hear it, you say "hey, that's Vernon Reid".  I loved his playing!!  Corey Glover's voice has not aged or changed one bit, and he was able to hit all of the notes from the original recordings.  I have so much respect for that guy as a vocalist - such power and soul!!

They didn't play everything I hoped they would, but it was an incredible concert nonetheless!  And The Blue Note is an awesome venue for live music, and I got to see them really up close and personal - probably the closest I've ever been to a really good band like this.  I even got to watch Calhoun's feet hit the kick pedal!!

During the show, there was interplay between Vernon Reid and Corey Glover, and it reminded me of the way that I interacted on stage with our singer, Jim, in Giant Wheel Throw, complete with middle fingers to each other.

When I took the following picture, because Vernon wasn't there, I introduced myself to them as Vernon's replacement.  Corey said to me that "The difference is that I like you!!"  That was a funny moment, and a really nice cap to a great show!

Inspiration

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.

The Tyranny of Will - Iron Reagan

I'm completely obsessed with this album.  It came out in 2014, and it is incredible.  The genre is called crossover thrash, which takes elements of hardcore, but with more metal / thrash elements.  It sounds a little like Slayer's Undisputed Attitude, but with a more Anthrax-like tongue-in-cheek feel.

There's something strange about this kind of thrash that makes you feel good - despite the aggressive instrumentation and the harsh lyrics, there's an almost happy, celebratory energy.

The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

After listening to the introduction of this audiobook (read by Obama), I'm blown away not just by his ideas and belief system, but also by his humility and articulation.  I've always known his politics to be liberal, but he also believes in being all-inclusive.  I don't think it's a function of being a politician - rather, I truly believe that he considers all perspectives, and some of his values seem to emphasize beliefs that are stronger on the right than the left.