Yeah. That was me. (Although I actually have never uttered any of those things. I mean really... who says stuff like that?) Ye of little faith. Wayward. Unbridled. Skeptical. I can't say that I have ever put much thought into the concept of the afterlife. There are so many crazy things that rattle around in my peanut jar of a brain on a daily basis, that I don't need another potential albatross screwing up my day-to-day. I'm good just the way I am. And then WHAM!!, just when you least expect it... salvation kicks you in the shins and calls out your mama!
Saturday afternoon may well have been one the most beautiful days in remembrance. Mid 80's and sunny. Absolutely gorgeous. And after the sleepy malaise that this winter kind of draped over The Rotten Apple, nice weather couldn't come any sooner. So what better way to spend the first really awesome day of Spring then to go to a Midtown Hilton and sit in on Moneyfest, a big Learning Annex sponsored tradeshow offering sure fire ways to make you the next Tom Vu! Right? Right? (Long story... but it actually was helpful.)
Why does everyone have a crazy accent in this thing?
So I had a few errands to run first in the neighborhood before the seminar at 4:00PM. And I'm walking down 5th Ave. in BK minding my own business, listening to J. Dilla's Donuts album on the iPod. So I hit 14th street and something catches my eye. It's a tattered, weather-worn book. Kind of thick and no cover attached. Nothing particularly interesting about it? Honestly, I don't even know what possessed me to pick it up? I mean, it's not like I pick up every filthy old paperback I come across laying in the street. (Isn't that how you get pink eye... or shingles?) So what was it about this one that literally stopped me in my tracks? My guess... Destiny! So for whatever reason, I decide to read the first sentence on the page...
"So I left to go to India, and I took a bottle of LSD with me, with the idea that I'd meet holy men along the way, and I'd give them LSD and they'd tell me what LSD is. Maybe I'd learn the missing clue?"OK... that's pretty nutty. What the fuck is this book all about? I checked the spine which was pretty banged up and read it... Be Here Now. That's it. No author listed. No nothing. So I start flipping the pages, and about 30 pages or so into it, the orientation of the text changes from horizontal to vertical and its completely FILLED (like 200-300 pages) with these absolutely insane illustrations and various ramblings of text. Now I'll admit, I am as curious as anyone when it comes to random stuff. I get no greater pleasure then finding someone else's discarded crap and making use of it. Not like I buy pre-used tighty whiteys off a hanger at a thrift store or anything, but I do love finding that lost needle in the haystack. You'd be surprised how many of these peculiar things I find make their way into some "project". So I gotta say this was the score of scores!
These are pretty intense for a leisurely stroll down the street, huh?
Beautifully-illustrated naked ladies... OK I see a theme shaping up.
Is that Freedom Rock? Well turn it up man!
Well it seems that Be Here Now was a pretty popular book... being that it has sold over 1 million copies since its first publishing in 1971. See here
So I suppose my Saturday afternoon needle in the haystack was not nearly as shiny as I had originally wished it was. And it is here where I must interject and say as amazingly powerful as the internet is, it is also a real turd in the soup bowl of one's consciousness sometimes. I mean how much cooler would this tattered old book be if I didn't have the ability to immediately find out ever minute detail about it and its origins. I'm acting like I found the the Declaration of Independence in a box of Cap'n Crunch or something, and less then 48 hours later, my personal triumph is relegated to essentially some wheat germ-loving kook's toliet reading. Curiosity it seems has once again killed the cat. What a pussy!
So needless to say, it was a pretty banner train ride to the Learning Annex spiel into the City. I tried to read a number of these pages and what did I assess from the incredible tome? Not too much really, other than it's super, super funky and without question a phenomenal undertaking. Transcendental meditation might not be my thing per se, but I do appreciate insane rantings and a good naked lady drawing as much as the next guy who puts his white draw string pants on one leg at a time. Namaste.
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