Yep, old pal and home-town buddy Bubba Baker the tattoo artist (he did the Viking Ship Tattoo on my back some twenty five years ago) is a host of a television show called Real American Biker.
Believe me, all four of these fellows are the real deal, yeah, they have been on television and movies playing bikers and tattoo artists, but they are not actors portraying these types of fellows, they are real bikers who have figured a way to keep themselves the way they are… and still survive in the capitalist system (the best one devised so far) using their skills and abilities to prosper and make a career out of being themselves!
Bubba is a really great guy, oh yeah, he’s a huge dude, tattooed, bearded, and rides an ear-splitting chopper with the handlebars waaaay over his head.. but he’s also a man with a heart of gold who’d help an old lady with a flat tire, or the person who needs a jump or what-not, ( I would not associate with anyone who was not such a person). Yeah, he’s a good fellow, so it is my distinct pleasure and honor to introduce you to his show!
This is our cat Mi-Mi-Coke.
She is the model cat for our Rivenrock Gardens Cats Screensaver
Our screensavers are free for use by all, feel free to distribute them if you wish…
they all carry one Rivenrock image as the first image,
after that you have only the picturescue images of the screensaver.
Our local hills, not far away
When we were kids our dad used to take us
to the snows in the hills every winter
to ride truck innertubes down the white slopes.
We called them the ‘Snowy Mountains’.
Every time I see white-mantled mountains,
I remember those winter-time excursions as a family.
Build time and memories with your family…
one day the memories may be all you have…
pray they be mostly good memories…
if that is the case, you have been highly blessed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Although mountains belong to the nation,
mountains really belong to people who love them.
When mountains love their master,
such a virtuous sage or wise person enters the mountains.
Since mountains belong to the sages and wise people who live there,
trees and rocks become abundant,
and birds and animals are inspired.
This is so because sages and wise people extend their virtue.
You should know…
it is a fact…
that mountains are fond of wise people and sages.
Zen Master Dogen,
‘Moon in a Dewdrop’
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
‘Happiness Is’…Tibetan Buddhist Music video by Singer Yungchen Lhamo
I came upon a couple of commercials I’ve been in. One was directed and filmed by the cinematographer Harold Skinner, that is the Budweiser Commercial His director friend Peter Rhoads saw the commercial, saw me in it, and asked me to be in his next commercial…’Sock Shop Like they say… ‘Work begets work’
Thanks for allowing me the privilege of working with you fellows!
‘Sock Shop’, commercial (2007) 1 min, 04 sec
Directed by Peter Rhoads Filmed on Universal Studios Backlot, “European Street’
It was a lot of fun working on this set (like all sets I’ve been on)… But what an historic place to film in!
‘Budweiser’ Commercial 1 minute
Directed by Harold Skinner Filmed in the desert at a ‘Diner’ This one is waiting on sound
Rivenrock Gardens is being evaluated by Whole Foods as a
supplier of Organic Edible Cactus!
Yes, this is good news indeed, we’ve been pursuing supplying
large distributors such as Whole Foods for a few years now. This is
the first big indication that such a huge distribution company
might actually buy from us.
Such a move would benefit us and our customers… due to the
high price of transportation for little batches of cactus, and the
attendant costs associated with processing numerous small batches,
we can sell cactus wholesale to a large company such as Whole
Foods, and they will distribute it through their huge network and
bring it to many markets around the country. Our customers who buy
from us over the mail, will be able to go and get just the amount
they need for that week, one pound, two pounds, and be able to get
it like-as-not for less on a ‘per-pound’ basis than we can sell it
to them through the mail system. It is a win-win situation for us
all.
But, Whole Foods still seems unsure of the suitability of cactus
sales to the public… what we need to do is convince them there is
a market out there.
What we are asking our customers and readers to do is next time
you are in Whole Foods, mention our cactus to their produce
manager, let him know you would be a buyer for cactus since you
likely are already… that you appreciate the quality and growing
practices of Rivenrock Gardens, and could they please send an e-mail
to the buyers in Vernon California to let them know that there is
indeed a market built up… and with their marketing saavy, it will
only grow.
While we’re at it, if you are in Trader Joe’s or other health
food stores, let them know we offer pricing incentives for quantity
buyers, you might well be able to buy your cactus from us through
such an outlet for a lower price.
We desire to ‘turn-the-world-onto’ this wonderful food source.
And you, the reader and buyer hold the key.
African Gray Parrots are a really smart type of bird. They not only are able to learn to speak, it seems that many of them can learn to understand the difference in sizes shapes and colors. They can also seem to compile sentences that make sense…this is seen as a highly advanced brain function. We have a story of a little African Gray named Mr. Yosuke Nakamura. He recently ‘Flew the Coop’ and was lost. The local Police were able to capture him and turned him over to a veterinarian. The vet eventually got the bird to talk (he wouldn’t say a thing to the cops… good training), and the bird gave his name and address. It was a touching story, and you should go to Mr. Yosuke Nakamura newspage to read the whole story.
We know an author named Suzan Vaughn who wrote an article about our cactus farm some years ago (in 2000)… she is also a pet psychic and has just gotten her book published ‘Dispatches From The Ark: Pages From a Pet Psychic’s Notebook“. Well, she is having a book signing tomorrow the 22nd at 5pm – 7pm at Nan’s Pre-owned Books, 1328 Grand Ave, Grover Beach, CA.
The band in the post below. ‘The Blues Doctors’ will be playing at the book-signing also… so it will be a super-fun time.
We have met Suzan a few times in the eight years since she wrote the book, she’s always been a fun and delightful person to be around. We have heard a few anecdotal stories of lost animals she has re-united with their homes… one was the dog found running loose in the canyon, obviously lost. The person who found the dog kept it for a few days and posted flyers around and went looking for its home to no avail. This lady contacted Suzan (a local resident and friend of hers), Suzan spent a few moments with the dog, and expalined that the dog said it was new to the area and was exploring and got confused and lost… it knew the home it was at had ducks and goats. Driving through the canyon, they saw some goats in a field, and drove up behind the barn where a trailer had been recently parked. The people came out happy when they saw the dog.
It’s stories such as this that make me think there is so very much more to human potential than most of us can tap. I suppose when we close our minds to the possibilities, it occludes the potential. It is like the tales of the four-minute-mile. Once that barrier was broken, many more athletes were able to break that barrier in a short time. So I guess the idea is to keep up our minds open to the infinite possibilities that God gave us in this world.
To Suzan we wish the very best in her work with helping people and their animals….and when you get on ‘Oprah’, mention us to her!
And we do intend to come by and get our own signed copy!
We live in a magical canyon! Yep… it’s a chicken-and-egg question though; is it really interesting, super-talented, amazing people who choose to move to this enchanted canyon… or does this canyon take regular folks and ‘super-charge’ them… pushing them into their highest potential? I don’t know… all I know is that we have a ‘World-Record-Winning Bull Rider’ in the person of Gary Leffew, and have another couple who have played music with everyone from Peter Frampton to the Monkeys and Neil Young, and an amazing couple, Al and Val Ingram who are the most talented Blues musicians I have ever heard play (and I’ve even played my didgeridoo with them before!). We have such great neighbors and are blessed to be among such wonderful people.
Al is a very super-talented keyboards-man, banjo picker (that’s a tough instrument), super bass and guitar player, in fact, if something can make music, he wants to know about it. And Valerie has a world-class voice that carries the highs and lows of music so well… she was created by God to sing the Blues!
Valerie sounds just like Janis Joplin and has toured the world with ‘Big Brother and the Holding Company’, Janis’s old band. Valerie also belts out tunes of Gospel and the old Spirituals like ‘Swing Low’. I have most of the songs from their CD in the mix on my computer and also on my player when I travel. It always makes me smile when I hear a song from their album ‘We Wanna Blues You Up!’.
Yep, they are darn good….
And guess what? They are playing tonight and will have recording instruments preserving the event for posterity! You can come on over and hang and party and listen to their live music put onto a CD and be part of history!
Here’s an exerpt from the message they sent me…
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wednesday, May 21st, 6:30pm – 8:30pm @ Bon Temp Creole Cafe, San
Luis Obispo, CA – We are having a CD making party. That’s right, we are
going to record live “Live at Bon Temp Creole Cafe, Vol 2″. We would love
for you to come out and join the fun….eating and drinking that great
Cajun, creole food and having a bunch of good ol’ fun. We play at Bon Temps
every odd Wednesday of each month. Make sure you catch Karen Tyler every
even Wednesday at the same time.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yep, Vickie and I don’t often leave the canyon just for fun… usually it is business of some kind that gets us out.. but this is one event we should for sure try to make.
Just so’s ya’ll know… Bon Temp means ‘Good Time’ in French Cajun, and it’s pronounced ‘Bone tomp’ (kinda like that in a way… I’m not really a linguist).
But if you possibly can, come on out and have a Good Time at the Bon Temp Creole Cafe in SLO-Town tonight! As Bob Seger once said… “who knows, you might even end up on an album”!
It is so much better to surround yourself with good people.. and the few I really know do seem to come high on the evolutionary scale.
I know a woman.. I’ll call her Jayne because that was her mother’s name and the name she takes for her blog… she wrote a beautiful post on someone she knows who’s memorial she recently attended… her posting is at http://weblog.xanga.com/Jaynebug/657751767/electrical-memorial.html
She happens to be reading Kahlil Gibran’s epic Masterpiece ‘The Prophet’… it made me tear open our copy and post this…
‘On Joy and Sorrow’
”Kahlil Gibran”
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises
was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine
the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit,
the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart
and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,”
and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board,
remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver,
needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We all have treasures in our lives…. may we all come to realize before the end that the real treasures are the people around us. But when we choose these treasures around us, we must pick and choose.. because there is ‘Fools-Gold’, and there is ‘Gold-Plated’. Oftentimes gold is hidden away within other base minerals…you might well pass by a ‘Golden-Person’ and not know it, because you don’t look past the rough and unkempt exterior, the shabby clothes. Gold is its own standard…
Fame or integrity, which do you hold most dear?
Your wealth or your life, to which will you cling?
Gain or loss, which one increases your anxiety?
In fame and wealth and gain can be found the seeds of failure,
And in integrity and life and loss can be found the root of treasures.
Thus it is that a contented person is never ashamed of what they have,
Having self-restraint he can avoid trouble,
In this way he can endure long, and live contentedly.
Chapter 19
If we could discard knowledge and wisdom,
then the people would be a hundred times happier.
If we could renounce our kindness and discard our righteousness;
the people’s harmonious relationships and love would form of their own accord.
If cunning and profit were renounced, stealing and fraud would disappear.
Since the above three are merely words and slogans, they are not sufficient as they are lost in the world of man.
Therefore we must look to that to which they belong:
Cultivate simplicity and be like the uncarved wooden block.
Reduce your selfishness and diminish desire and ambition.
Stop worthless learning and you will reduce vexations of the spirit.
Chapter 16
Empty the self completely; Embrace perfect peace.
Realize that all beings alike go through their processes of activity and life,
and then they return to the original source.
Returning to the source brings peacefulness and stillness.
This stillness is the flow of nature,
and signifies that the beings have lived their allotted span of life.
Accepting this brings enlightenment and tranquility,
ignoring this brings confusion and sorrow
If one can accept this flow of nature; one can cherish all things.
Being all-cherishing you become impartial;
Being impartial you become magnanimous;
Being magnanimous you become natural;
Being natural you become one with The Way;
Being one with The Way you become immortal:
Though the body will decay, the Way will not.
Chapter 13
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
Perceptions of success and failure both arise from concern for the self.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms,
they also arise from thinking of the self.
When we don’t see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?
Therefore, if you dedicate your life to the benefit of the world,
you can rely on the world.
To the likes of this, the world can be entrusted.
Chapter 39
In the beginning of being, there were those that attained harmony with the Tao.
Heaven attained harmony and became clear.
Earth attained harmony and found peace.
The ancients attained harmony and were replenished.
The valleys attained harmony and became fertile.
All of nature embraced harmony with the Tao and became fruitful.
The ancient Sage-Kings sought harmony with the Tao and became natural leaders.
Without the blessings of the Tao, heaven itself might be riven.
Without the glue of the Tao the Earth might shake apart.
Without the guiding of the Tao mankind’s spirit becomes confused, and disharmonious.
If the blessings of the Tao were withheld the valleys would become parched and barren,
Nature would be reduced to meager remnants and finally disappear,
And the leaders would become corrupt and strive to bring conflict and war to nations.
Therefore; humility is the root and treasure of the great,
And all great things are built on the foundation of the lowly.
It is for this reason that the truly great think of themselves as ‘unworthy’, ‘abased’ and ‘low’, for are these not the root of humility?
Count and describe the parts of a chariot, but without being whole what is its use?
Don’t glitter like jade, keep your riches in your heart, while retaining an outward appearance as simple and rugged as a common stone.
This is truly an amazing song… it starts off with such a youthful exuberance of happiness with life… it slowly builds to a self confidence, then ratchets quickly through self-righteousness to supreme over-confidence, then with an egomaniacle bent it degenerates into a despotic rant and paranoid state bent on annihilation.
Could it be that like a deranged person, a people, a society can move from happiness just to be able to ride a bike without training wheels, to desiring to destroy the next block over?
The lyrics are very telling…and damning.
We as a people, we as a species hold such high and lofty promise,
we are created greater than the angels….
but it is our own egos that fuel the fires of destruction.
Ego is the killer. Let loose of your ego… hold to what is good and right, don’t give in to feudalism, despotism and centrism.
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebarsI can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it’s good to be
ALIVE
and I’m a famous rapper
even when the paths ‘re all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to “De Colores”
And “I’m Proud to be an American”
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
And I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone
Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it’s good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
I’m all curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no resistance
Cuz I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
And I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule
Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let’ em all die from exasperation
Have ‘em all healed from their lacerations
Have ‘em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like ‘em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
Because I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
