Sunsetime

gkristo — Fri, 21 May 2010 03:12:12 +0000

Evening sounds on the roofdeck, mostly on the low E and A strings. Lots of slides, birds, and some neighborly sounds in the background.

Seeking Awareness

gkristo — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:06:19 +0000

Seeking Awareness by gkristo

Layered, UnLayered, ReLayered

gkristo — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:58:19 +0000

Here’s a recording which started in Ableton Live 6 with a midi drum beat, played by hand to a metronome on a keyboard. Then a layer of guitar was played over it. The drums were then removed, another layer of guitar played over that, that layer removed, a synth layer played over that, and then all layers added back, and downmixed together as one.

(Layer upon)^4 by gkristo

Musings on Life

gkristo — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:18:36 +0000

I just had a great lunchtime conversation with Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska. We were talking a fair bit about spirituality as a means of social feedback. I’m planning a longer post on the topic @ plebiandesign.com/blog soon, but this is just a marker in time to point toward that future event.

Meanwhile, since we’re on the topic of quests toward spiritual understanding, I’ll share this quick video which re-creates Swami Vivekananda’s famous address to the The World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, on September 11, 1893.

WELCOME ADDRESS – Chicago, Sept 11, 1893.

Speech text below:

Sisters and Brothers of America,

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: “Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.” Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

- Swami Vivekananda