Can RAP Music Fans be Buddhists? (video)

Boo and Tee tag team interview (edited by Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven), Wisdom Quarterly

Artistic inked rendition of Boo and Tee (tattoo art by Erika Doyon/StudioArtease)

    

The Godfather of Soul James Brown

"Yeah we #1/Boo the color of mayonnaise/Tee the color of Akon/Trippin like a purpa haze/Got our tie we on/[Rap] her under the table/But babe she won."

  

The question arises around the campus offices of Wisdom Quarterly: Can someone be a Buddhist AND a hip hop gangsta-rap music fan?
 

What would Sid do? (weeklyvolcano.com)

"Of course," one might answer, "anyone who listens to the Beastie Boys might be both!" But "Brass Monkey" or even "So What Cha Want" is not what most people mean by "rap" nowadays. That's vintage hip hop. And it is now the gangsta rap genre that appears to be dominating the limelight and sucking all the air out of the room. Can those fans be Buddhists? We have already seen Buddhists in metal and punk genres.
 
WARNING: May trigger epileptic seizures. Explicit language! Earworm content.

  

There are far more US White and Brown rap fans than Blacks (not as a proportion but in total numbers). Boo and Tee are White-Latino, which makes sense in our increasingly blended Amerika, which manages to remain racist. They point out that rap superstars Cypress Hill happily combined the efforts of a Mexican (B'Real), Afro-American (Sen Dog), and Scandinavian (DJ Muggs), and whose final member (Bobo) had previously recorded and performed with the Beastie Boys.

"Latin Thugs" ft. Tego Calderon combines horns, beats, gang-violence

This popular sub-genre seems to glorify alcohol abuse, drug consumption and/or sales, "partying," casual sex, violence, sexism, gang banging, hyper-masculinity, false bravado, grotesque/comical conspicuous consumption ("bling") celebrating capitalism, and other realities of American society -- particularly the leisurely life of suburban denizens attempting to imitate their imaginary version of day-to-day urban survival.

On one extreme Tyga may be all about Rack City b-tches, but J. Cole likes the easygoing island version on "Can't Get Enough." Both appear to be obsessing.
 

Kanye West is much to blame in this regard with No. 1 hits alongside 2 Chainz, Katy Perry, JZ, and a whole stable of up-and-coming rappers -- and making Tadolf Swiftler cry by stealing her limelight that time.

QUESTION: Tee, are there any songs that you feel demonstrate this penchant of modern rap music to excess and heedlessness with regard to the Five Basic Precepts?

The original pompadour, hips, and showmanship

TEE: F@#% yeah, like, Kendrick Lamar, "Swimming Pools (Drank)." Y'know, White Man stole the Black Man's music. Called it rock 'n roll. Same thing happening here. They invent it; The Man reinvents it and cashes in. Elvis vs. James Brown, Eminem vs DMX. So who got more RAP IQ points than we do?

WARNING: Alcoholic themes, profanity.

QUESTION: Same question, Boo?

BOO: Sure 'nuff, totally, like "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj [ignores the precepts].
 
QUESTION: And you two are "Buddhists"?

BOO: Yeah. I guess.
TEE: Yes, I am.

Cartoon simulation of Tee rapping ("Family Guy")

QUESTION: How do you reconcile the two endeavors?

BOO: What do you mean?
TEE: I feel you, but it can be done. It's easy with Zen Buddhism. I don't drink anymore, but some Zen monks drink. What's up with that? Sake and sh-t...
BOO: Oh, they go. I'm in recovery. I mean, I still clean the screen. That's medicine. But I quit everything else. The Dharma keeps me in check, meditating. Keeps my head straight.
TEE: Think of it like this. Hey-Zeus [the Judeo-Christian Godman Issa] was preaching to who? The pimps and hoes, not the temple folk, right?
BOO: It's the new "rock 'n roll," grand concerts, big stadium arena shows, same as seeing Lennon or Zeppelin.
  
WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, celebration of alcohol abuse, sexual situations!
  

The N-Word

King Kanye and Kim (perezhilton.com)

QUESTION: Ah, then there's the gratuitous "n-word." Exceeded in frequency only by the s- and b- and f-words.  It gets to be a bit much, no?

BOO: Yeah. But it's free speech.
TEE: Yeah. Who needs political speech when we could be cussing? I'm sure that's what Founding Fathers like John Footpenis had in mind.
BOO: *Laughing*

QUESTION: Then there's the whole Kim Kardashian connection, who seems to be a hybrid, more alien than human. Not only her but the Canadian cousins Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Ryan Gosling, and Celine Dion, not to mention unrelated unnatural (supernatural) artists like Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj. [See below and "Sex and Justin Bieber."]

TEE: Blame Seacrest for that.
BOO: She's a st-pid h-. Kanye can't be blamed for that. He just capitalizing on her fame.
TEE: Yeah, and he's not even a baller [sports figure] except in the sense that he's a player [street guy who made it]!
BOO: He think he da new Sean "Puff Daddy Baby Jesus" Combs dating J-Lo. P!nk is embarrassing.

QUESTION: Is there a rap song that's not embarrassing?

TEE:  Totally! What about "Cashing Out" by Ca$h Out? It's like [the movie] "The Secret." Fake it till you make it. Anything by Minaj may be silly, but it's hella popular among White moms and their [pre-adolescent] daughters [and ABCNews' GMA].
BOO: Yeah, yeah, and that's not all. Plenty a artists drop great joints [release excellent songs]. Karmin? Kidding!
 
All ages. Child safe. Karmin does her best Nicki Minaj on "Suiper Bass."
 
QUESTION: Bottom line, Can a person be a hip hop (gangsta) rap fan and a Buddhist?

  

The Buddha comforts Kisa G

BOO: To be completely mindful is to be able to distinguish between what you like and what they want you to like. 

  

It's the same with being a punk and a Buddhist -- a movement based on chaos and anarchy and destruction going hand in hand with the centered, mindful, and ultimately serene approach of Buddhists?

To listen to rap and know -- despite all the violence and drugs involved in the culture and the explicit content of the lyrics -- is to distinguish and enjoy the music. What they [the rappers] say has no destructive impact on you. That's one Buddhist's bumbling rap. I don't know.

TEE: Damn, girl, straight up. Testify! Swerve! I just like the beat mostly. And 2 Chainz's preposterous imagination:


WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, sexual situations, and gratuitous violence!

WARNING: Light profanity, violent situations, drug use! Gangsta rap has something for everyone. This one's for suburban dads: "Boyz in the Hood" (Dynamite Hack).
   
WISDOM QUARTERLY: Thank you for the discourse and your exquisite decorum!

BOO: WTF?
TEE: Heh?

QUESTION: Boo, would you like to do a closing "rap" like Tee's opener?

BOO: You can hear me live at Get Lit's Open Mic (Wed., Oct. 17, 2012 @ Actor's Gang Theatre, 9070 Venice Bl., LA).

QUESTION: Would you mind coming back for a Part II?

TEE: Love to!
BOO: Love to!

We Are One

"Earthmen are easy!" (Travis Charest)

The only race is the human race -- but it extends into space. Hybrid devic beings like Kim Kardashian and other sex-crazed "stars" are the main attraction/distraction. Asuras, nagas, yakkhas, and devas (titans, reptilians, ogres, and dubious "angels" or fairies) make their contribution as Kanye contributes genes on behalf of the terrestrial humans. All hail the "king"!

Read More

Porn King paying to see Romney taxes

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

"He wants to see what? Ha, I'd sooner appear in his mag!" "But he's offering a mil." "Uh-oh."

 

Hustler's Larry Flynt offers $1 million for Romney's tax return

"Oh, Moroni, what wouldn't I do to win?"

The only guy worse than war-mongering Pres. Barry Soetoro Obama is Republican candidate Willard "Mittens" Romney (whose moniker "Mittromney" sounds an awful lot like Mormonism's namesake Maroni to us).

• Comedy: "Book of Mormon" comes to Los Angeles

Golden Angel Moroni with horn

But conservatives seem to have been seduced into backing the only candidate among many colorful personalities sure to lose against a popular incumbent. Money rules in American politics, but not personal fortunes or we'd have an ex-president Perot.

What matters is how much a candidate can get the military-industrial complex (the marriage of the War Department and private corporate interests). Romney is said to be an out of touch quarter-billionaire, but he is aiming much higher as he tries to give the USA the old Bain Capital treatment.

 

(unconfirmedsources.com)

Not if porn king Larry Flynt has his way! The publisher of the hardcore magazine Hustler is offering a million dollars to anyone who will show him Romney's old tax returns. What does that mean? That means a great big bargaining chip for old accountants who can easily get $2,000,000 from Romney to keep such financial information secret. How far Mittens has descended from his proud Mexican father who, as a former candidate, showed years of tax returns to silence critics.

• Larry Flynt's X-rated plan to expose Mitt Romney
• War is a Lie: Let's try (actual) Democracy

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"Fifty Shades of Grey" is HOT (cartoon)

"Peterotica" (Family Guy); DailyMail.co.uk; Wisdom Quarterly

Peter-Erotica fan: "Your prose suggests a male, working-class version of Emily Bronte."

It's mediocre, juvenile, with boring sex

Vanessa Allen, The Daily Mail

Better selling than Harry Potter, almost as hot

It may be the fastest selling paperback in history, but Fifty Shades of Grey is condemned as "mediocre and juvenile" by a leading novelist.

The verdict was delivered by Barbara Taylor Bradford, the doyenne of women’s fiction whose 27 novels have sold 88 million copies worldwide.

The author of A Woman of Substance said she was left "a little disappointed and confused" after reading the so-called "mommy porn" book.

Worse still, she described the novel’s much-hyped sex and bondage scenes as "a little repetitive, even boring -- and that’s despite all the sex toys."

 

  

The Fifty Shades trilogy has sold more than four million copies on Amazon’s British site alone since it went on sale in March, out-performing Harry Potter.

The books center on a university student, Anastasia Steele, and her introduction to kinky bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, and sado-masochism (BDSM) at the hands of her billionaire older lover.

Working-class Peterotica by Peter Griffin as read by icon Betty White (Pewtershmidt Publ.)

The trilogy was dubbed "mommy porn" because of its soaring popularity among women in their 30s and 40s and celebrity fans that include Victoria Beckham and television presenter Amanda Holden.

Submission in exchange for being taken care of?

But Mrs. Taylor Bradford told The Lady magazine: "I can’t really see what all the fuss is about. Yes, it’s rather racy. There’s even a pair of handcuffs. But as an author in my 70s, I can’t help but think it’s rather mediocre. Juvenile even."

The 79-year-old added: "In fact, while I’ve never indulged in, ahem, bondage myself, I did expect a little more of it in the book. It is, after all, what most of the kerfuffle has been about."

She said she found the DH Lawrence classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer more erotic and better written. More

 

As erotica I missed my chance for a big finish just like the Kool Aid Guy

Mommy porn author speaks

  
(20/20, ABC News) Part 1: E.L. James reveals the surprising research behind her mega hit erotic novel trilogy and soon to be Hollywood exploitation catastrophe -- even worse than the cinematic presentation of Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts. "E.L. James writes like a Bronte devoid of talent," the hostess reads the criticism to the author, perhaps referencing Peter Griffin's working-class stab at erotic fiction: "Dull and poorly written," "S and M for Dummies," "A sad joke, puny of plot," "For what it's worth, Fifty Shades of Grey is pornography plain and simple." But in the New York Times review of books, in the electronic-book section, the top three titles were James' works. So let us see. What's all the fuss?

  

Selected readings by famous voice actors

WARNING: Rated XXX (NC-17), graphic language, sexual situations!

Ellen DeGeneris read: Sanitized for viewers protection

 

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis role play to 50 Shades of Grey

• Fifty Shades of Grey to become a Musical?
• Violent past leads women to risky sex
• "Sex and Buddhism," Part 2: Lay Buddhists
• VIDEO: Cleansing for weight loss and sex
• Dr. John Gray (author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus) wants us to have cleaner bodies, better partners and relationships, and more sex. "Health is wealth." Plant-food is medicine. And when our food is our medicine, we don't need medicine. We certainly are more...
• VIDEO: Zen, Sex, and the Slow Orgasm
• Penguins are sexually depraved perverts
• Sex life of Sloths worse than Penguins?
• Islam: Questioning Mohammed's sexuality 
• Confessions of a Christian sex addict

Read More

Indian actress to pose for Playboy, ruin India

Huffington Post: Weird News; Wisdom Quarterly

India makes more movies than Hollywood

Sherlyn Chopra, a Bollywood film actor, will become the first woman from India to strip naked in Playboy. The 28-year-old knockout wrote to the magazine and suggested the idea herself, the BBC reported. They got back to her within a few days to accept. 

   

Fans will have to wait till the November issue circulates to get a glimpse of Chopra. A press conference earlier this week heralded the addition of a "Bollywood goddess" to the pantheon of beauties who've appeared on the pages of Hugh Hefner's magazine. 

 

India is socially conservative to a fault

But her decision to pose caused a controversy in her native India where the granddaddy of all adult magazines is banned. A critic cited by the Daily Mail wrote "one wonders if Sherlyn Chopra’s pictures wound a woman’s integrity."

  

Chopra, who has had small roles in a handful of Bollywood flicks, is unfazed by the criticism. "I have become the first Indian to pose naked for Playboy," she said to the BBC, "and nobody can take away that achievement from me," She uploaded snapshots from her tour of the famous Playboy mansions in Los Angeles to her Twitter account.

• PHOTOS: Sherlyn Chopra and Hugh Hefner
• Porn magnate Hugh Hefner reunited with girlfriend
• Bollywood hypocrisy: "The Dirty Picture"

 India tries to come to terms with its double standard in "The Dirty Picture"

as a Bollywood starlet is both made famous and condemned for being sexy.

Will gratuitous porn ruin India?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The specter of the bunny ears looms

Modern India is an amazingly conservative and sexist country. Although it creates far more movies than Hollywood, which are seen by far more people in India, there is no nudity in any of them. There is no sex, and for the longest time, there were no overt kisses, although both acts were implied. Dancing is celebrated and often serves as a substitute just as it has in many places around the world (including the US). And more and more violence is celebrated. But sex is taboo, which partially explains the massive population: With suppression comes a mystique with no legitimate outlet for experimentation, so illegitimate resources are exploited in secret. It is exactly because it is taboo that it remains titillating, fascinating, and an endless font of hypocrisy. Until now that titillation has been directed at foreigners (as well as children, the helpless, the most vulnerable, etc.), particularly Westerners, who constantly appear in what little porn is available in India. (It certainly exists but is very underground). Now rather than "liberating" anyone, Western-style exploitation can begin in earnest. Will it ruin India? It may. Other things like war, a war economy (thanks to a growing military-industrial complex), and infrastructure problems may seem more salient. But the day to day experience of living in sexist India is about to get worse.

Read More

Can girls be sex addicts? (video)

TurnMeOnDamnit.com; Amber Dorrian, Seven, Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Indieculturebox

Sex addiction (whether called nymphomania or satyriasis) is a sad condition, but it is funny and entertaining as the topic of a Scandinavian teen sex comedy -- with all the neurosis and discomfort of high school.
 

TURN ME ON, DAMNIT! was awarded "Best Screenplay" at the Tribeca Film Festival 2011. It is a story about a group of teenage friends who feel trapped in the Norwegian small town they live in, which they constantly flip off. "D*ck-Alma" is experiencing desires she never felt before as she is discovering her sexuality. [No precipitating molestation is shown but it can be inferred.] Her sexual curiosity makes daydreaming and phone-sex an escape from everyday life. At a party, Artur -- the boy who frequents Alma's dreams -- makes a bold move on her, but everything seems to go wrong. The life Alma wanted to escape from has somehow become even worse. The film consists of beautiful frames and music, with dialogue that is careful but spot on. Jannicke Systad Jacobsen strikes against all the taboos surrounding young women's sexuality. The world has been waiting for a film like this. And we can only hope that we have evolved enough that fewer people will feel squeamish or shamed by something everyone goes through at a certain age. Starring: Helene Bergsholm, Malin Bjørhovde, Henriette Steenstrup, Beate Støfring, Matias Myren.

Laci Green saves the world (again)
   

Even with the success of Zen and Fifty Shades of Grey -- Catholic, Jewish, Christian fundamentalist America may not be ready for a light film on such a heavy topic. But since it comes from faraway Norway, it just might avoid protests, intolerant outbursts, and church condemnation. As Americans we are very confused about sex due to our hopelessly entangled Puritanical and pornographic roots.

• Is "sex addiction" even real?
• GET HELP for past childhood sexual abuse

Read More

What is the Zen of Pornography?

What does this article have to do with Zen? Not much except the author's attempt to make a two sentence statement about pornography into a koan. Other then those two sentences there is no other reference to Zen or Buddhism. YET. Yet the title of the post is, "The Zen of Porn: If Pornography is Everywhere, Is It Nowhere?"

Upon reading that I thought that the article was going to be about some Zen Buddhist porn star or something. Instead it's an article about one woman's crusade against pornography.

I don't want to get into the debate about pornography itself (Though I will say that I consider pornography along with much of sexuality to be a personal matter). That said I found it somewhat disrespectful that she was using the Zen label to draw attention to an article about pornography. It appears to me that once again Zen has been misused for a catchy, "cool" title.

I know that it's often better to ignore this kind of thing but it seems at some point we need to say something if for no other reason than for self-respect. Yes, it's important not to get angry with every misuse of our Buddhist labels but it's also important to value our traditions--and ourselves. I don't think we need to get offended at every misuse of Buddhist labels either but at some point it comes down to showing courtesy for other beliefs and people.

Yes, it's important for ourselves to not get attached to simple words but simple words also carry sacred energy and meaning too. At some point we have to say something or we'll end up with Zen toilet seat covers and Zen toilet paper. Yes, it's important to keep the peace and not get personally invested in such disrespect but it's also important to stand for something.

Imagine saying, "The Christianity of Porn," you'd get bombarded by people finding offense and rightly so. Sometimes you have to draw a line. Yes, Buddhism is more than words but there is still a tradition to it and it would be sad if we just let all of our traditions disappear. True we don't need all of those things to practice meditation but then don't we just become someone who happens to meditate?

If Buddha is just a word then why do we take refuge in it? Don't we do Buddha's gift of the Dharma to us a bit of a disservice? Maybe I'm not a "real Buddhist" but I like some tradition and sacredness in my beliefs. I enjoy having things to respect and find meaning and value in.

Some people just don't know any better so I'm not saying we should insult them back but I am advocating that we educate whenever we have the opportunity.

~Peace to all beings~

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