The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 25) – Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, Turangawaewae & Nicolaus Copernicus

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo

Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo‘ is a mantra / technique practiced at the commencement of sessions of Kundalini Yoga. I wrote about my yogi Nirvair Khaisa (pictured above) in two other articles here. The mantra begins seated as per above, but with the palms together pressed gently against the chest. The participant inhales deeply through the nose and then upon the exhale participant recites slowly ‘ONG NAMO GURU DEV NAMO’. This process is repeated two more times.

What does ONG NAMO GURU DEV NAMO mean? Ong Namo means to call on our highest consciousness (the Logos, if you like). Guru means teacher, literally one who brings us from darkness to light. Dev refers to subtle or divine. Guru Dev Namo calls on the the divine teacher to guide us.

As Nirvair explains in the video below, the first time the mantra is spoken the learner should feel as though they are a singular / small point in the Universe. The second time they should expand themselves out and be as big as they can and the third time, they should bring these two mental-images together – the outer and inner. You can watch Nirvair Khaisa explain the process in this video.

Turangawaewae

Tūrangawaewae Marae is located in the town of Ngāruawāhia in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the headquarters for the Māori King Movement and the official residence and reception centre of the head of the Kīngitanga – the current Māori King, Tuheitia Paki.

I learnt this Maori concept Tūrangawaewae from my friend Bruce Goodman who resides in New Zealand. Turanga represents ‘standing place’. Waewae is ‘feet’. Turangawaewae is often translated as a place to stand but symbolically represents places we feel especially empowered or connected to.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)

A mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the Universe that placed the Sun and not the Earth as the centre of the Universe. It was a major event in the history of science and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. Interestingly, the Catholic opposition to it commenced seventy-three years later, when it was occasioned by Galileo.

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Posted in Reading, Reflections

Nasty Girl (2020) – Nathy Peluso

I cannot begin to tell you the heat this song brought on me from individual circles when I circulated it. The video below is one of the best produced I have seen. The song has over 350 million views since it was released in 2020. That’s for good reason since it’s pretty darn good. Ordinarily, I don’t like to listen Rap or Hip-hop, but Nathy’s bold delivery, unique expressions and the music-video production are exemplary. This is one of the best songs I have heard released in recent years. The lyrics can be perceived as very offensive because they are. This is street-music Latina style, and it is excellent.

Nathy was born as Natalia Beatriz Dora Peluso and is an Argentinian singer (of Italian Ancestry), songwriter, dancer. Peluso worked in Spain and is distinguished for her theatrical personality onstage, and her fusion of hip hop, soul, and world music. Peluso’s popularity expanded after collaborating with Bizarrap on “Nasty Girl” as seen below. At the age of 16, she began to perform at hotels and restaurants in Torrevieja, mainly performing classic songs by Frank Sinatra or Nina Simone.

Another single which will later feature here from her is Sana Sana. What I always find so appealing of this song are Nathy’s expression, individuality and delivery. Also, the song morphs into different styles and message. It’s also funny as hell. The ending part ‘Nasty Girl‘ is one for the ages:

I’m a-, I’m a-, I’m a nasty girl, fantastic
This ass is natural or not plastic
What I touch I do bombastic
All’ that’ gile’ I chewed it…

(Loose English Translation)

I regularly come back to this song….It doesn’t surprise me Nathy has a theatrical background. She is immense on the delivery of the song; like just about nobody I have ever seen. This song is ‘so good’, and I don’t even like the genre. I feel privileged to be able to see it.

Reference:
1. Nathy Peluso – wikipedia

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I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (Live 1966) – Bob Dylan

This song was originally released in 1964 on his fourth studio album Another Side of Bob Dylan, but the version below is from the legendary Manchester Free Trade Hall 1966 concert. This bootleg records one of the most momentous occasions in contemporary music history. Akin to the second half featuring the BandI Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) is chaotically spectacular. The concert culminates in the famous ‘Judas‘ accusation by a fan just prior to Dylan launching into Like a Rolling Stone. I wrote recently about Edward Norton’s comments of Dylan’s impact on the music scene in his youth in which he highlights the magnitude of this concert moment.

I can’t understand, she let go of my hand
And left me here facing the wall
I’d sure like to know why she’d go
But I can’t get close to her at all

Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime
She said she would never forget
But now morning’s clear, it’s like I ain’t here
She acts like we never met

This is the second song to appear here from the concert, but I imagine all the songs from the second half will feature here. This was Dylan simply redefining the music playing field as it were, but many folk purists and critics weren’t ready for it. After Bob went electric, he morphed his older numbers into this punk-rock sound, and it is why Edward Norton said words to the effect that ‘Dylan was the original punk-rocker‘. Dylan’s general demeanor, aggressive approach to rock and just the loudness of it is cognizant with a ‘punk-rock’ brand.

This music may be off-putting to some especially if they are not accustomed to it. Dylan repetitively wails his harmonica like a man possessed and howls in pain as Garth Hudson’s organ swirls. It’s just Dylan venting musically about being rejected. I think initially my ears found ‘I Don’t Believe You‘ a little bit jarring, but the more I hear it and inculcate its significance, the more I am fascinated. This is simply my favourite live record by anyone. Dylan played today’s song 363 times live between 1964 and 2013.

References:
1. I Don’t Believe You – Wikipedia

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Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K. 620 (1791) – Overture – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist of Die Zauberflöte, shown performing in the role of Papageno. The object on his back is a birdcage; see below.

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) K.620 Overture is the second piece to appear hear from Mozart’s famous Opera. This is so good. It premiered just 2 months prior to the composer’s death. A synopsis of the Opera can be found in my previous post – Queen of the Night Aria. The Opera was the culmination of a period of increasing involvement by Mozart with Schikaneder’s theatrical troupe.

Schikaneder was a self-proclaimed singer-dancer-playwright-impresario-etcetera who had become the manager of the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, a venue for entertaining the common folks with less-than highbrow acts – a bit like Broadway shows mixed with vaudeville antics. This is depicted towards the end of the movie Amadeus. His Kinship with Mozart apart from their mutual feelings of being snubbed by the Viennese elite, was also owed to their Masonic brotherhood, a secret society of enlightenment that was viewed in Mozart’s day as hostile to the Roman Catholic Church and even the State.  It’s no surprise, then, to find that the plot of The Magic Flute, though clothed in fairy tales, is an allegorical story pitting the Masons against the Church, or perhaps against the late Austrian Empress Maria Theresa who condemned the secret society.

Mozart conducted the Opera when it premiered in 1791 and the role of the Queen of the Night was sung by Mozart’s sister-in-law Josepha Hofer.

On the reception of the opera, Mozart scholar Maynard Solomon wrote: ‘It was immediately evident that Mozart and Schikaneder had achieved a great success, the opera drawing immense crowds and reaching hundreds of performances during the 1790s

Wolfgang wrote the following to his father as shown in the video below:

You know of my greatest longing – to write Operas. Do not forget my wish to write Operas! I am envious of every man who composes one

References:
1. The Magic Flute : Wikipedia
2. Mozart overture to the magic flute die zauberflote-k-620 – Music Program Notes

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I Can’t Break it to My Heart (2007) – Delta Goodrum

The Australian singer-songwriter Delta Goodrum has been mentioned here before in a song Affirmation by the Australian group Savage Garden. Today’s song I Can’t Break It to My Heart is the fourth single from Delta Goodrem’s third studio album Delta. The video below is from her special A Night with Delta Goodrem and you could be forgiven for thinking you are listening to Celine Dion from the start. Goodrem signed to Sony Music at the age of 15. Her debut album, Innocent Eyes (2003), topped the ARIA Albums Chart for 29 non-consecutive weeks. It is one of the highest-selling Australian albums.

If it’s okay
I’ll leave the bed light on
And place your water glass where it belongs
And if alright
I’ll lie awake at night
Pretending i’m curled up at your side

See i’m circling these patterns
Living out of memories
I’m still a long way from accepting it
That there’s just no you and me

But if I still believe you love me
Maybe i’ll survive
So i tell myself you’re coming home
Like you’ve done a million times
And if it’s alright
I’ll still be loving you
’cause i can’t break it to my heart

I Can’t Break It to My Heart is from her third number-one album Delta released in 2007 and the single peaked at number thirteen. I have no idea how I came across this song, but I liked it from the get-go. Delta was the Pop Diva of Australian music in the early 2000’s. When Delta was suffering from cancer making her second album in 2004 and seen during the ARIA awards when David Hayes sung her song; her plight was a national concern.

On 16 August 2020, Goodrem released a six-minute video detailing the back story behind her song Paralyzed. In the video, she revealed that after having her salivary gland removed, she faced serious complications that led to the paralysis of a nerve in her tongue, which left her having to re-learn to speak. In 2022, Goodrem was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the not-for-profit sector, and to the performing arts“.

References:
1. Delta Goodrem – wikipedia

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Breaker Morant (1980) – Bruce Beresford (Friday’s Finest)

This Australian war drama film concerns the 1902 court martial of lieutenants Harry Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton—one of the first war crime prosecutions in British military history. Anyone who has seen this film won’t forget the closing lines and level of final defiance while facing death: ‘Shoot straight, you bastards – don’t make a mess of it‘. This quote is iconic in Australian film folklore. The film won ten Australian Film Institute awards and was nominated for the 1980 Academy Awards although it wan’t that successful commercially.

The movie in ‘feel’ and context is similar to another one of Australia’s most cherished movies Gallipoli released just after Breaker Morant, which was compared here with the recent effort – 1917.

IMDB Storyline:
During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.

It is seemingly an overtly patriotic Australian film which denounces British tyranny and rule over Australia, but the director had words to say about that. In a 1999 interview Beresford explained that Breaker Morant “never pretended for a moment” that the defendants were not guilty as charged. He had intended the film to explore how wartime atrocities can be “committed by people who appear to be quite normal“.

In the film the British military is determined to kill the defendants. According to the Australian historians Margaret Carnegie and Frank Shields, Morant and Handcock rejected an offer of immunity from prosecution in return for turning king’s evidence. Military prosecutors allegedly hoped to use them as witnesses against BVC Major Robert Lenehan, who was believed to have issued orders to take no prisoners. But in my meagre estimation, that’s a harsh penalty when you have good reasons to know they were just following orders and not going to inform on a senior figure.

References:
1. Breaker Morant (film) – Wikipedia

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I Believe in You (1979) – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan San Francisco, Nov 16 1979

Today’s song I Believe in You and Precious Angel are my favourite songs from Dylan’s conversion to Christianity record Slow Train Coming. I remember in my second year on Exped at Sea listening to this song ad nauseam. You would think I had grown tired of it over the years after the hundreds of listens. I even tried Dylanholics Anonymous. Nope, didn’t work. Each new listen sounds like it’s been reborn.

I think what impressed back then and still does now was how such an artist with the world at his feet and millions and millions of dollars has the humility, openness to express himself as vulnerably as he does here and with such conviction. That reminds me of the story of Office Buble picking Dylan up for vagrancy in her police car in New Jersey.

They ask me how I feel
And if my love is real
And how I know I’ll make it through
And they, they look at me and frown
They’d like to drive me from this town
They don’t want me around
Because I believe in you

Slow Train Coming is the 19th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 20, 1979. I too became a born-again Christian at about the same age as Dylan and I can resonate with a lot of the material here and the proximate Christian albums which were scorned by nearly all and sundry. The Christian albums are now seen in a more favourable light because of the context and sheer quality of some of the songs. I think today’s song will be one of Dylan’s crowning outputs from this period. The single from the record Gotta Serve Somebody became his first hit in three years, winning Dylan the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. I remember Nick Cave professing he got into music because of that song.

Someone wrote about ‘I Believe in You‘ in the YT comments below: I’ll never forget Bob on Saturday Night Live singing this song. That was perfect evangelism in the music world. I began writing songs because of that performance.

References:
1. Slow Train Coming – wikipedia

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The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 24) – Phallocentrism, Entropy & Martin Luther King Jr

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

Phallocentrism

In a primitive form it is focused on or concerned with the phallus or penis as a symbol of male dominance. In post-structuralist theory, especially feminist theory, Phallocentrism is a structure or style of thought, speech, or writing (often considered as typical of the tradition ‘western philosophy, culture or literature’) deconstructed as presenting male attitudes and reinforcing male dominance in or through language.

The term was coined in 1927 by Ernest Jones, as part of his debate with Freud over the role of the phallic stage in childhood development, when he argued that “men analysts have been led to adopt an unduly phallo-centric view“.

Entropy

Entropy is the measure of the amount of energy which is unavailable to do work. In this sense entropy is a measure of uncertainty or randomness. A law of physics states that it takes work to make the entropy of an object or system smaller; without work entropy can never become smaller. You could say everything slowly goes to disorder.

In my article ‘Be Prepared to Lose all your Concept of ‘Time’ about the Physicist’s Carlo Rovelli presentation, he stated the following:

So the distinction between the past and the future is only that. So we observe this strange order in the past. Everything in our experience which is ordered in time is because of Entropy. There is nothing else that distinguishes this past and future except this entropy. So the reason we have traces in the past if nothing else is because of entropy. There had to be some heat, some disorder at some point. So a 15th century monk wrote a text, but if it were not for friction from the paper the ink would not have been captured. The friction produces a little bit of heat so there is disorder, but resulting from high order. High order in the past determines traces. If you like, a cause and effect. It only occurs because of the law of entropy, otherwise there would have been no dissymmetry.

Martin Luther King Quote

On August 28, 1963 Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. for the “March On Washington,” performing When The Ship Comes In and Only A Pawn In Their Game before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his remarkable I have a Dream speech.

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I am Australian (1987) – The Seekers

The Seekers appearance on London Tonight, 2000

It is fitting that a song as invigorating and unifying as I am Australian inaugurates the ‘I’ songs in the Music Library Project.

We are one, but we are many‘.

I am Australian by The Seekers is unofficially Australia’s national anthem. Many Australians would prefer this modern classic as our official Anthem. In fact there have been calls for it to become Australia’s national anthem, notably in 2011 by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

I am Australian is remarkably well written, produced and performed. It gives me goosebumps, turns me glassy-eyed and makes me sentimental of my Island Home. When I made a family DVD for my son’s 3rd birthday I used I am Australian with a compilation of baby photos just after his birth. I think this is one of, if not Australia’s greatest song encapsulating its history, national spirit and identity. Each line in it is so profound and could be studied for days on end. In fact, it is commonly taught in primary schools in Australia.

I came from the Dreamtime
From the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart
The keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I’ve been the first Australian

I came upon the prison ship
Bound down by iron chains
I fought the land
Endured the lash
And waited for the rains
I’m a settler
I’m a farmer’s wife
On a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man
I became Australian

I am Australian was written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of The Seekers and Dobe Newton of The Bushwackers and was released in 1997 by trio Judith Durham (of The Seekers), Russell Hitchcock (from Air Supply) and Yothu Yindi’s Mandawuy Yunupingu. It reached number 17 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.

I Am Australian is popular at celebrations such as Australia Day and New Year’s Day. The song was used by the Australian Republican Movement in radio and television advertisements during the 1999 Australian republic referendum. It was also played at citizenship ceremonies from 2008 until 2012 when the Copyright Tribunal ruled that this was an infringement and ordered the Federal Government to pay Bruce Woodley $149,743.34 in compensation.

References:
1. I am Australian – Wikipedia

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22/08 – 28/08/22 – Rosebud Baker, Mole Man & Masters of the Universe

news on the march

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

How Women Can Tell If an Ex Has Slept with Someone Else – Rosebud Baker
Stand-up at Comedy Central Stand Up

Rosebud Baker details why her year has been so terrible, including the death of two pets and a breakup. (Contains strong language) Whether you’re a casual fan or a comedy connoisseur, Comedy Central has extended stand-up sets from the freshest voices that you need to hear…(Watch stand-up bit here)

Mothman by Day, Mole Man by Night
Blog article at Sarah Angleton

Sometime around September 25, 1924 the streets of Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle district opened up and swallowed a truck. I imagine that was quite a shock for the truck driver who suddenly found himself in the literal dark underbelly of his nation’s capital. It was also a surprise to nearly everyone in the city, especially when it was discovered that the reason for the sinkhole was an elaborate series of tunnels dug beneath the area. (Read entire article here)

Article: Back Off, Oh Masters of the Universe – Jordan Peterson
Article lecture at Jordan B Peterson

Globalist utopians demand that we fall in line with their “cure” for climate change. Dr Jordan B Peterson explains why the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is absolutely preposterous. (Watch article lecture here)

news on the march the end
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