Quest for Community

“Once upon a time…in search for community…isn’t that what we’re all doing here? my family looked into moving to an Intentional Community, hopefully one that championed both the environment and the arts in which both my husband and myself were trained. Zendik, which was in Texas at the time, and has recently disbanded after moving to W.V. and leaving it’s property up for sale, was one of the top considerations of the 36 communities we wrote to. An artist community where people understood each other and celebrated diversity and the freedom to practice your art be it music or painting whatever moved you. In reading this i was sad to see the fall of Zendik and wonder how many other efforts like theirs have fallen. Yet here we are. Stay with me now, i know i suffer from excess verbiage. Here we are reaching out to each other for community. Our culture has tried to mimic it through churches or the camaraderie of sports. And to some that is enough. You go home. No more responsibilities to other people. No sharing -which is at the very heart of community. Yet wouldn’t it be nice if we could be in closer proximity to share ideas and help each other build garden beds or clothes lines or front porches where we could sit an have a drink together or drum and watch the sunset? This is what brought me to SCOD. It’s always here to see what you guys have done today. You give me ideas of what i can do tomorrow. And this medium has made it possible for like-minded people to talk about things that matter. that’s real community.”

– Karen Boe

Zen and the Art of Physical Maintenance

Sustainable Spirituality, Philosophy, Psychology, and Martial Arts in Craftsmanship and Stewardship

Class Meets Tuesdays & Thursdays:  3pm -4pm

Class Room:   TBA  (Gmail, Skype, Facebook)

Professor Walton D. Stowell II, M.A.

Office:  Facebook

Office Hours:  Tues & Thurs 12 noon – 1 pm

In this esoteric course we will study Zen, Karma, Dharma, the Doctrine of Reciprocal Maintenance, and many other mental and spiritual concepts that can help us as individuals in preservation work during our life time. We will study the mind’s relationship with our own bodies, natural environment, and our built environment. How do moods, attitudes, and  behavior habits affect our work? Which ones do we want to foster in our own careers and lives?

Required Texts:  Books on Buddhism (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), Books on Hinduism, Books on Philosophy, and related texts to be chosen from a list during the course.

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Course Requirements:

Grades for this course will be determined in fourths by class attendance, participation, assignments, and tests.  There will be a minimum of 3 projects and 3 tests (including the Final Exam).  The Final Exam will be given at the scheduled time during finals week.

The grading scale for the course will be as follows:

Completed = Pass

Accepted Pending Revisions = (APR) Needs some more work

Incomplete = Does Not Pass inspection, too much missing data or errors

Attendance Policy:

All of the vital information for the tests and the final exam will be gone over in class postings, in-class discussions, and question-and-answer.  Therefore regular attendance and note taking is required for mastering the material.  Legitimate excuses received will be honored for some absences, however unexcused absences will result in grade reduction accordingly (ratio to percent).  The more absences, the greater the grade reduction.

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Tests and Projects:

Test topics will be taken from lectures on the readings, and question-and-answer class discussions.

The majority of test questions and short essays will be based on the readings as discussed in class.

Projects will include:  art and written essay reports.

Project research and investigation will count towards the overall participation grade.

Final Exam:

A series of long essay questions based on the readings, class discussions, and projects.

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Tentative Class Schedule Segments:

1.  Introduction / Reading assignments

2.  Begin Project 1

3.  Development / Discussion / Refinement

4.  Show Project 1 / Test 1

5.  Begin Project 2

6.  Development / Discussion / Refinement

7.  Show Project 2 / Test 2

8.  Conclusions / Discussion / Test 3 = Final Exam

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Warning: In many ways this is an alternative class, and student beliefs may be challenged; the subjects are widely debatable due to their controversial natures.

 

 

 

Beatniks “The Beat Generation”

The Beat Movement: Beats and Beatniks

Beatniks (or Beats) are counter-culture bohemians born from a reaction to the 1950’s. The word ‘Beatnik’ is a combination of “The Beats” (from Jack Kerouac’s “The Beat Generation”) and the Russian suffix “nik” (as in Sputnik). The term ‘Beat’ as “beaten, down-trodden, tired” came first, derived from the street slang used from 1910-48. Because of the Communist association, the label “Beatnik” was derogatory when used by the mainstream ‘Red Scare’ automatons.

If the mundane mainstream 1950’s were cookie-cutter suburbanites, where men wore suits and talked straight, and women had bee-hive hairdos and talked innocent; then the Beats were trying to break out of that box by any means. According to the mainstream that means was by drugs, violence, and communism. According to actual Beats, being Beat was a state of mind; which by thinking different just so happened to also often led to dressing different, being around jazz music, being a free thinking poet, an artist, and feeling alive. Being Beat can also be described as being in rhythm with the Beat of Life, or playing off of it. “Everyone plays to the beat of a different drum”.

The Beatnik style can include: sunglasses, berets, turtle necks, goatees, congo drums, coffee, smoking, jive talk slang, abstract poetry about a zeitgeist, zen satori attitude, bumming, hitch-hiking, fast talking, fast cars, fast women, beat-up cars, artsy clothing, black clothing, and an open mind. Some famous Beatniks included: Allen Ginsburg, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Gregory Corso, Herbert Hunke, Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ken Kesey formed the Merry Pranksters in 1964 with Tom Wolfe, Ken Babbs, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Garcia, Wavy Gravy, Paul Krassner, Stewart Brand, Del Close, Paul Foster, and the Kentucky Fab Five authors. The Merry Pranksters were an occasion in the 1960’s where Hippies were led by Beatniks.

The Beatnik Movement became characterized as a superficial fashion trend, a fate similar to the Hippie Movement of the 1960’s (Peaceniks). Just as with other serious movements, there are still many Beatniks who may not even call themselves Beatnik because of the negative associations with the word, but many of the attributes of the movement are a way of life for them. Some cats are square, and some cool cats are like hipsters, ya dig? Beatniks are people that are just totally Beat, man.

Note:  The term “Bohemian” was used to refer to alternative artists, dancers, writers, actors, and musicians much earlier. ‘Bohémien’ was a common term for the Romani gypsies of France, who had reached Western Europe from Bohemia. In the early 19th century working classes became better documented, so we know all types of bohemians lived in low-rent, lower class gypsy or mixed-ethnic neighborhoods. Bohemians practiced unconventional lifestyles; including hermits, vagabonds, prostitutes, prophets, gypsies, hippies, or beats.

Essay On Art

Although our lives are limited on Earth with the beating of our hearts, at the same time “we have all the time in the World” at this very moment, ironically. All the time in the World, at any given moment, may do us no good in finishing all the projects we set out to do to the best of our ability; yet we must use what we have, and write what we know. Also some satisfaction may be gained from the fact that some of our works will live on after our deaths, for whatever immortal or limited legacies they may be.

I understand the dichotomy of the “good or bad” opinion, and I do personally judge things as such on occasion in order to expedite my personal daily tastes. However, realizing that my tastes change; have changed and will change (to various degrees); i conclude that although art may be subjectively good at any given moment, it may also be bad simultaneously; and neither good nor bad at another moment to someone using another language or logic to analyze the subject material. Also when measuring a thing, the measurement result depends on what measuring system is used, and geometries may give a misleading reading. Even when using Trigonometry to calculate the value of an object, few material objects have the simplicity of a true square or circle (in fact none according to people like Plato, see – archetypes).

In fact the purposes for which we use our compositions, determines more “good or bad” than the experience of their existence alone. A hammer may be deemed “bad” when used for “bad” or unwanted destructive purposes; just as music or art is used for “bad” purposes, bringing harm to others and the listener. The same hammer may also be deemed “good” when used at another time, it builds and helps to improve “good” projects; just as the same music or art that has negative value for some, is used to motivate “good” change or moods in others.
You may say you cannot judge a neutral instrument or functional tool “good or bad”, and it is this argument that I apply Universally to all Arts. Some Art may be more or less useful to a person, than others, but they are neither “good nor bad” in the eyes of Nature. To me this is the true answer to the question why “God” (good) allows “Satan” (bad) to exist. To individual judgment-calls, the bipolar existence allows us to label and segregate choices, but many deeds in the name of “good” are “bad” to others; therefore to a third objective party a holy relic of one nation, that is a cursed object to another, is simply a work of art deemed powerful for destruction or creation by both sides.

I will allow that certain pieces of Art are more or less “bad or good”, for certain people or purposes. Whether those purposes are “good or bad” is even another matter. So while I say your work is good, I use the judgment for a purpose to support the purposes for which the work is made. Some songs may be sad, and therefore attends negative emotions that some do not want to experience, a sad song can be uplifting to others due to underlying uplifting instrumental harmonies or vocals, despite word semantics.

So to recap, Fantasy Art is my favorite art-subject, and as such I consider all Fantasy to be more personally important to me than Still-Life (non-fiction), which to me is either more objectively removed or invasively personal. This is why I am more tolerant with Fantasy, as I would be with friends. I may be alone in my love for certain fictional works, yet in order to not be lonely, I chose to be accepting of other works in order to share a zest for life and mutual interests.

To me, what is considered ‘pure honesty’ is not always more valuable than ‘sugar coated honesty’. Just as a ripe fruit may be sweet, it is no more PURE than an unripe or rotten fruit. ‘Pure honesty’ may also be unripe or rotten, as it may be influenced by negative feelings from something else entirely and unrelated. Truth may be told as honestly with sweetness, as it may be told with sadistic harshness.

Such is the depth of my belief in Yen/Yang relativity (Zen). Friends may take some pleasure in knowing I tend to side on the “good” side of Art as Inspiration, with less emphasis on any critique that is ‘worthless’ to my productive sensibilities. In my Wiccan faith this is the balance between God and Goddess, and how it affects us in Nature (Existence).

– Drogo