what a world, what a world! this week:

i flew home from san jose in that terrible storm and it has been a whirlwind ever since. today, the roof is being taken off my house -- try working under that! construction will go on all this week. and patrick arrives for ten days on saturday (to see his artwork, go to gracewoodstudio.com). and after five years, i am no longer teaching at the blessings center so meditation class will be held at my house. with other projects ongoing, its gonna be quite the scene! after patrick leaves, the ceilings in two rooms will be removed. consider the furniture, art, equipment, and general junk that needs to be moved... and still be able to work.

the letterpress printer is only just now going to start his portion of the body of water project -- two months late!

the film for the body of water project is coming along well. jessica is just a godsend. and i have made an even shorter film myself as a companion... its almost done...

thursday night, elizabeth and i will go to a cocktail party on the queen mary for a new star trek exhibit. it should be fun -- there is already a lot of buzz in the media about it.

friday bob and i will be in del mar for the antiques show then dinner with wifey. it will be nice to get away from everything for the day.

saturday morning is family day at the cemetary. cousins from all over will convene for brunch in whittier then champagne and chocolates graveside at rose hills. it is a nice time, the kids play and we all reminisce. sunday was the four year anniversary of daddy dying... the anniversary for my cousins dad is this week. my brother and grandmother and their grandmother are all buried there so it will be quite a party! im sorry my daughter wont make it -- she has a tea party she cant seem to miss...

saturday night i will go to see patrick and carolyn perform at the brewery -- touch monkey studio on the road!

and we are back to sunday -- always my busy day...

last saturday i was on the radio interviewed by the zany mystic (bbsradio.com) -- we always have a great conversation and my students congratulated me immediately after.

this coming week is art week in la with various shows and openings...

and i still have to find time to work. if you think this is busy, wait til february!

to see all my work or hear the radio interview (blogs tab): http://royanthonyshabla.com

first aid

i have tried a couple times to write about the california fires but i have no words for it. wifey was evacuated from del mar, cousin alice had to leave fallbrook (take the brownie recipe and run!), and big jeanne cant leave her home without a serious asthma/sinus attack from the smoke in the air. the los angeles area has been host to natural wild fires since before there were people here to lose their homes... and the fires will probably be here long after people are gone. if we are going to live in a place where nature is sometimes inhospitable, we will need to find some kind of peaceful relationship with nature to appreciate the occasional inhospitality. even the best friend is sometimes cranky. there are native plants that only germinate and flower after a fire. hopefully there will be a flowering after this disater. blesstheworld.com always sends the blessthebody.com spiritual remedy first aid to disaster sites to help those in need. how do you help the hundreds of thousands of people directly affected by the fires? you start with what is right in front of you. what i can do is this: every person who shows up to sunday evening meditation class at the blessings center los angeles this week will recieve a free bottle of first aid for himself and another to give to someone affected by the fires. come, meditate, heal.

for spiritual remedies: http://blesstheworld.com

radio head

the radio show went well i guess. everyone raved about it. and i was asked to be back on the show again in december. i think i shouldnt have said i was sitting in my bathrobe wearing a string of pearls... but it was a zen moment and so it shall remain in the archive for all eternity. despite the pearls from the supermarket in hawaii where i had a wonderful vacation with my daughter, there were other pearls... the zany mystic let the show ramble in an interesting freeflowing of ideas and at some point we talked about the presidential candidates and gay marriage. quite an amusing topic actually. amusing because of the ridiculousness of how the smallest minds in the country dictate how the greatest minds will behave. at least politically... but on marriage, these are my ideas: marriage is a contract. on the physical level, that contract is the merging of the assets of two people. on the emotional level, that contract is the commitment to love the other person until one is dead. and on the spiritual level, that contract is the appreciation of the witness of god in the lives of the married couple. usually one or more of those three aspects of the contract dissolves quickly (if it existed at all) but that is another matter. the idea that a government that allegedly has a separation between church and state would have anything more than a voice about the legal details of marriage (such as how old one must be to enter the contract of marriage) is absurd. and yet, like negroes had been in this country, gays are not considered human beings and are not afforded the same rights. it should be that any two people of adult age and somewhat sound mind (because how clear can someone be who actually wants to get married???!!!) could go to an attorney and draw up a legal contract of marriage. it should be the business of nobody else (except their mothers of course who will always have something to say). the emotional and spiritual aspects of the contract do not apply to the government and should be attended to by the marrying couple. if that involves other people (friends, family, minister, etc) that is the perogative of the marrying couple. but for the legality, the government has declared that gays do not deserve the same rights as others to enter that contract (even convicted felons on death-row can marry as long as it is man-to-woman). and the great minds of our polical generation allow the small minds of the christians to rule our country. high absurdity! especially if we actually do have a separation of church and state! the zany mystic said he gets about 10,000 listeners to the radio show each week and a guest could get 7000 hits on his website. i got two and i think one of them was me! obviously my pearls were cast before swine.

to hear the radio show, go to (blog link): http://royanthonyshabla.com

poet poet where art thou?

i have talked about the burning of the book, revolution rapture, by fanatics in oregon. free-thinking is not alive and well in america. it is the 50th anniversary of the first reading of "howl" by allen ginsberg, arguably the most important american poem of the 20th century. the trial for pornography that resulted from its publication changed the face of literature forever... though not necessarily for the better. now, fifty years later, that same poem being read on the radio would elicit so many fines the radio station would be put out of business. literary-nazism has stuck this country in the sanitary mud of the mccarthy era. producers of the tv show, family guy, admit the restrictions for broadcast media are getting tighter. on the other hand, it is the 800th anniversary of the birthday of rumi, the most published poet at this moment in time. celebrations to commemorate his birthday are planned all over the world. if you have not experienced the work of rumi AND the work of ginsberg, get yourself to a literate bookstore now. i am producing a small handmade book of poetry called body of water. it will be letterpress printed in berkeley and assembled with original art and fine details. the edition of 50 will presale for $100 each. reserve your copy now. i will also be on the radio ~ internet radio where you can say whatever you like ~ this saturday evening at 7 pm. bbsradio.com, station 1, a fireside chat with the zany mystic. tune in to liberate your mind.

to purchase my books: http://royanthonyshabla.com