Saturday, August 25, 2012

Really intense series of dreams

I read a lot of things that are sort of weird and view youtube videos that are a little odd. The reason I do this is because it helps me imagine things and also to remind me that we might know a lot, but what we know might not be enough to paint the well-ordered picture about everything that we end up painting.

Meanwhile, the people who produce these various weird things are a little fanatical about their theories, and the irony is that they come up with these theories by daring to "step outsie of conventional thinking" but then get trapped into some fallacies that they refuse to step out of or modify even when confronted with scientific findings that disprove them.  For some reason, they come up with an hypothesis, and then piece together evidence that proves the hypothesis, while throwing out or ignoring pieces that don't.

Meanwhile, the purveyors of the conventional thinking, the sort of things taught in accredited universities which form the basis for the progress of our civilization in general, might also "spin" that information in order to advance a particular focus or mindset. This sort of practice is accepted, because there's always some room for interpretation, and multiple interpretations often improve the overall picture conveyed by the information, like adjusting the contrast on a TV.

I don't have any facts to add to any discussion about ancient alien visitors or the reasons the pyramids were built the way they are, or how they were built and by whom, but I like finding out about these things because it brings about an appreciation for the abilities of ancient humans.

At any rate, I read these things and think about them, and last night I had a really intense series of dreams. Here is my description as best as I can provide:

At the beginning of the series, I was in a sort of work setting near my home and I was leaving the door of the building. I saw a large number of aircraft heading overhead, of a type that wasn't familiar to me, but it was a very large number and they seemed to be military aircraft or cruise missile type aircraft. People were alarmed, and I seem to have contacted my wife about getting home and we did.

Then, at home, another series of aircraft went over, and these were famliar to me, more like the military aircraft I'm used to seeing, and it was a huge wave of these aircraft. The feeling was that these were going to meet the opposing force. Also, it seemed that the initial wave of aircraft was not hostile, but it was a remainder of a force from another country that had retreated to the US, and it was getting repaired here in the US.

The nature of the conflict wasn't clear, it didn't seem to be directly between the US and another country, but between several countries and some manner of undefined opposition.

After that large wave went over, I recall there was something like a news announcement, that the forces had been defeated.  It seemed to be on some kind of large screen or TV we were all watching, but also over the radio. This was very alarming, nobody knew what would happen next. It still wasn't clear who the "enemy" was, but they were obviously very powerful to defeat such a large force.

At any rate I was making sure that there was a safe place fo myself and my family and several other people I felt were friendly but can't name offhand.  At that point a new type of announcement started coming, but it was different, as if a different technology was being used to communicate. It calmly described that what had happened is that an extraterrestrial expedition had been opposed by terrestrial forces, and those forces were neutralized in a way that caused their equipment to stop functioning.

The reason for the expedition had been misinterpreted as hostile, when their mission was very important: they had come to evacuate Earth. This information was conveyed in a very convincing way, as if there was some technology that not only provided the information but invoked the emotional calm and acceptance of it. All of the instructions were very clear, there would be assignments to ships that would carry peoiple, and the started to broadcast assignments of people to ships, with the names of the ships being indicated.

All the ships stared with the letters "Oe" which was kind of interesting, but I can't remember the full names of any of them. It was an amazing amount of data to broadcast, because it would require a huge number of assignment to be made, but the lists were conveyed locally as if to the screen that a group was watching, so the assignments referreed to the people in that group.

At that point it seemed like my "character" changed, I wasn't myself, but I was someone else, and I was worried that I wouldn't be assigned to a ship, but then I was and I was happy. This person was a little selfish, they didn't really care about who else was assigned or not.

Then I was back as "myself" and an assignment had not yet been provided for me. At that point, I saw a large "zeppelin-like" airship appear from a very high altitude. It started getting larger and larger, and I saw that it was really gigantic, it was elongated and rounded at either end, with one end more tapered, like a zeppelin, but without the "ribs" that a rigid airship would have. .

I walked up with my hands in the air, sort of motioning this thing to stop, to see if it would have any effect, and surprisinly it did. It started to slow down and dip the front end towards me. The movements were gliding, like a lighter than air craft, but the fuselage was perfectly smooth, there were no motors or guiding fins that I could see.

As the front dipped down it had a protuberance on the front that extended towards me, like a flexible tube. As it got closer, the perception of distance seemed to "contract" and it was like the tube was getting closer but I was also moving closer to the tube. There was a brief communication, it was like a decision was been made or being requested, and then a kind of star-burst pattern appeared at the base of the tube, a very intricate pattern that provided some kind of test for me to take. I found the pattern very pleasing but I had some comments on why I thought it was not quite perfect, and that seemed to be the test: I was conveyed directly into the ship.

I remember very clearly what happened when I was inside the ship, there was no experiments or any interbreeding or that kind of scifi movie stuff, but it is less germaine to the story line and this is already a long post. Suffice to say that at the point I was taken on the ship both myself and the inhabitants were very contented, and they relayed some important things that I needed to do.

Now, this was a dream so all kinds of dreamlike imagery was in play, and the ship sort of "dropped me off" (although they mentioned that the technique used was more of a "winking in") to a depor where various specialized ships were being prepared, and I needed to make sure that these ships got off safely and that they were being loaded correctly. So I was to be involved as part of the team making the assignments for these ships, and they were important because they were like school busses. And they were, they were like colorful school busses without wheels, the aliens had dsigned them this way so as to avoid alarming the children that they'd be carrying. When a school bus "pulled away", it flew up then out of sight. One after the other, the busses flew away on sort of an arcing pattern, one after the other.

Once all the busses were away, the first phase of the evacuation was complete, and then the expedition could begin to move out.

All along I was kind of plugged in to this "higher consciousness" and I got the impression there was a lot of other information conveyed, but it was very fast and very encoded. I kind of recognized this, that when I woke up I'd be disconnected. There were two pieces of guidance, one was to "keep my thoughts still" and the other was kind of  "it is farther along and will happen sooner than you think".

Very wild dream, Some cool visuals, but it was rapid fire, sort of glimpses of things rather than memorable vistas like some dreams have.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Utenzil Logo

The Utenzil Logo, and its cryptic meanings:




I had a t-shirt contest some years ago, where the winning designs would go in my Cafepress shop.
The winner would also get a free shirt with their design on it.

The designer who came up with variations of the black and white design in the center was the winner.

The winning designer actually put some thought into the approach, by using the shape of my custom midi controller as the motif-- here a picture of me playing it:
So that is the reason for the pattern in the center. More on it's significance later.

The logo contains that pattern, and the rest is a "frame" around the pattern.

The squares of color around the edge, white (the black right angle demarks this square), yellow, blue, red refer to the races of man, borrowing from Native American color symbology, and the set contains the primary colors as well as white the combination of all colors. This is indicative of Utenzil's worldwide appeal and musical influences, you see.

The pattern formed by the squares also implies a bold cross in the middle of the square. This is intentional, it is the cross of the NSK state.  This represents my inspiration by and sublime bemusement with the concepts of the Neue Slowenische Kunst, a group of artists whose insight, bravery, creativity, cleverness and wit is very admirable, the key concept being to strip the meaning away from an aesthetic and re-apply that aesthetic in a way where the echo of the original, historic meaning becomes a statement about the current reality, causing that reality to vibrate and shatter when faced with it's own ridiculousness. Can I imagine being this clever while in the clutches of totalitarianism? Maybe. Could I be? I have to doubt it, but I would like to think I'd try to be.

Also, I'm Christian and as mentioned earlier I get inspiration from that, so that is the meaning of the cross.

It is a simple design with some complexity, but a balance. It's square, but the central pattern implies a circle. I will show you one thing about that:



This is the pattern that results when we circle each of the repeated "guitron shapes" in a way where alternating circles touch first the smaller neck, then the longer. Then we trace around the entire center motif  where the circle touches the outmost tips of the necks (my tracing is inexact for lack of the precise software to do that, but close enough to convey the concept).

The result is an oblique view of the beginnings of a sacred geometry known as the Flower of Life, so it is an allusion thereto, and also to three dimensionality, and there are various other ways to draw circles within the logo that result in this allusion.

The pattern in the center is derived from this, this shape repeated four times, with eight "necks" or arms. 4x8= 32, 4+8 = 12, 32+12=44, 4+4 =8: numerosymbolically,  it is a circle and a square.

The word "utenzil" is case normalized. In ASCII,
u=117, t=116, e=101, n=110, z=122, i=105, l=108

drop the leading 100 that they all share, we get

17,16,01,10,22,05,08 added = 79, 7+9=16, or 2x8, 1+6 = 7

8,7,1,1,4,5,8 added = 34, 3+4 = 7

so these letters are harmonically numerosymbologically balanced with regard to computer values

Moreover, if we take the letter values given their order in the alphabet,

21,20,5,14,26,9,10 added = 105, 1+5 = 6

3,2,5,5,8,9,1 added = 33, 3+3 = 6

they are hamornically numerosymbologically balanced also with regard to human values.

Now, taking first the odd numbers then the even from the reduced "human alphaordinal-based sequence", we'll assign musical values from a 12 tone scale based on number of semitones, starting from any note

3,5,8,1  minor third,fourth, aug fifth, then include the starting note (assign to right hand on the piano)

2,5,9 second, fourth,major sixth (assign to left hand on the piano)

Played together, these notes will sound like crap, which is what most of the post after the point I start doing the number stuff is.

And there we have it. May peace, joy and deep indwelling love be yours.











Monday, August 20, 2012

Pussy Riot, the Kingdom of God, Ideawars, and Oil

This lengthy post starts with a sort of lengthy disclaimer, apologies: First, I'm a Christian, an Episcopal Protestant, and I consider myself spiritual. The Episcopal church is a liturgical church, which is somewhat more like the Eastern church than the Roman church.  Secondly, I am a naif on most things, but I'm also curious and thoughtful. That is not to say that I am utterly gullible, but it is to say that I am receptive to ideas that are clearly and sincerely stated on how they resonate with me, irrespective of the source. At the same time, I'm shrewd enough to understand that people have agendas, and also that just because someone has an agenda doesn't mean they can't be sincere and truthful.

[Also, I have added some things since my original post, I wrote it very late at night and there are some things I want to improve and expand]

A long time ago, I wrote http://utenzil.blogspot.com/2004/10/conspiracy-theory-theory.html as an observation about global social trends.

I use the term "guild centric". What this means is that people are more likely to adhere to the mores, practices and/or traditions of the group they align with professionally as opposed to those of their locale or nation. This is likely to cause some friction, but it is all a part of international communication and the sharing of practical information and ideas.

Now I'm going to include some Wikipedia pages, one about a punk rock band and another about a political ideologist.

I am taking neither of these pages as being entirely true and accurate, because it's Wikipedia, but I recognize this information as being supplied by people who are very interested in the subjects for one reason or another, and so it should have a fair amount of validity.

So, the punk rock band is behaving in accord with the practices and mores of their guild: expressing personal outrage and frustration about social inequity through rock music. A punk band gets popular because their expression matches the feelings of others. This works everywhere punk rock existed and exists now, even though the genre was started in English speaking countries.  The punk rock guild, community, whatever you like to call it, works at pushing emotional social buttons and boundaries.

The reason for the sort of stilted writing style is because I'm being objective. I've liked a lot of punk rock music, and I've played in bands that did some punk rock style tunes, so I'm inclined to easily understand that point of view.

So we all hear now about the punk band called Pussy Riot and how they've pushed the boundary in Russia. Everyone in the West sees it that way, they are a punk band pushing boundaries, and this particular boundary was designed to stir up trouble and I'm fairly sure that a common reaction among most people in the US was "*yawn* another band pulling a stunt".

For myself, I was a little disquieted and disappointed that this had happened in a church. I know all too well that non-faithful people see Christians as judgemental, narrowminded and probably a little stupid. Maybe some people were thinking "Well, punk rock band in church, fine: that gets them back for all the smarmy television evangelists" and I can understand that point of view.

The reason I was disturbed that this happened in a church is this: a church is where I go to to think about things that are bigger than day to day things, and I really try to get myself in a position of spiritual understanding.  I've lost people close to me, and I've gone to church to feel the consoling words and ideas. I go to some bible study sessions, because he church I go to has some very informative, interesting and open discussion during bible study.

I enjoy contemplating the concept of God, for me there is a sense of unlocking an inner potential when I do this. I recognize that many people go to church when they're children, taken by their parents, and they "grow out of it" like believing in Santa Claus, and they tend to look at people like me as lacking intellect and practical realism. That's ok, they can have their opinion, I just happen to know how I feel. My experience has been that to visualize and think about a being whose existence and knowledge transcends time and distance, whose arc of existence is truly transcendant, and that a spiritual level is present that we can be attuned to if we try... for me it opens a lot of doors for me intellectually.
So when I heard the story, as a naif, I thought about someone sitting in a church, maybe mourning and thinking about a lost loved one, when a bunch of loud people rush in and start screaming and rocking out about something political and that doesn't sit well with me. On the other hand, I'm a musician and an artist and I cherish freedom of expression.

Because of this, I asked a question on twitter "What would happen if someone did this in a church here, what do you think?"

And someone in Russia answered me "What do you think?" and the conversation that followed is the reason I'm writing this.

My answer was, probably pretty similar, although they wouldn't be held so long prior to trial and they'd more likely be fined and have to perform community service.

Community service, by the way, is forced labor. It's important to understand this. It is not necessarily harsh or strenuous forced labor, but that is what it is. When you hear the phrase "community service", maybe you think of dishing out soup in a soup kitchen, but it can also be a little harder, like shoveling snow from around a church or community center parking lot in the dead of winter.

One thing that's interesting is what seems to be the reaction of most Russians. You might be surprised that some people in Russia had a pretty good handle on the event, and their opinion presaged the outcome.

I would also ask you to read this, commentary from the Russian who responded to my tweet:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/iu8ttn
(the translator he used unfortunately renders a phrase "Russia has always tried to destroy" but he clearly means that others have tried to destroy Russia, or that Russia has always tried to defend itself).  There is nothing wrong with what this writer is saying, he views it through the lens of his understanding of his country's history.

Another thing that's interesting is what this man says about it. It is really very interesting, you have to watch it to understand the rest of this post.

His commentary starts with an excellent description of "information war". Also, he invokes some very powerful religious concepts. One of them is "the kingdom of heaven on earth". It really is the fondest wish of Christians that this come about. Imagine walking down the street and everybody is acting and doing in accordance with God, and treating one another as Jesus taught.  So this is a very dear thing, it is the realization of the New Jerusalem, the church eternal, God's dearest wish for us as his children.

He goes further to emphasize the longstanding alliance in Russian history between the church and the government, and how in the pure Byzantine model, the ruler was under the guidance of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Now, to give you an idea of how I receive this, it's as kind of an epiphany. Because I have been taught to see Russia as having been derailed first by a self indulgent monarchy which corrupted the church: priests were used as agents, gathering information in confessions and then passing this along to the authorities for their own use-- a sacrilege. Then, the communists came in and decided to destroy both the corrupt monarchy and their puppet pseudo-church, where only vestiges of the latter remained. I'm not sure what sources I got this notion from, but this was my understanding.

But the church was not wholly false or corrupt, however: there were clerics and parishoners that were very true to their faith and their church and who somewhat miraculously pulled through this period into the present day. "Gold tried by fire", you could say truly. Again, I am a naif, but I feel this has to be true because I know what it is to believe and feel the belief deeply.

So here the political ideologist invokes this concept, and to me it is a dear thing, the reconstitution of an historic church body from it's purified vestiges. As he talks, I think he is correct, that the punk prayer in the church was the vanguard of what would be a larger protest, the signal for that to start.

He also mentions the US ambassador to Russia as supporting this, and it was the case that members of groups opposing Putin had visited with this ambassador, and he uses the phrase "serious information war".

I'm going to examine that notion. An "information war" is mainly the presentation and exchange of information that has an agenda.  I think you could say information becomes "weaponized" when it backs a particular agenda without seeming to, or when it is shaped to induce a certain effect. It works best when it contains a fair amount of truth, but where some truth is emphasized and other truth either omitted or downplayed.

I also think it's pretty easy to avoid "information war" if you are forthright about your intentions and opinions, it is simply an information exchange, a debate. I also understand that doing that this may not be possible if you are in a situation where freedom of expression is dangerous: you are apt to communicate primarily in a roundabout or encoded manner as a matter of course. Freedom of speech is a pre-requisite for information exchange.

Now, (and this finally gets back to music and art and the like) this is important, because the act that Pussy Riot performed was a symbolic communication. This is where they have a bit of an advantage over a commentary or editorial piece, because it is a multi-level communication, not just words-- a sort of play or recitation, some particular actions and a protest song.

I'm going to talk about the "performance" a little-- it was very brief. Here is the video of it:  http://youtu.be/PN5inCayfnM

It happened in a church, so I'm indulging myself to think of it as maybe more of a truly religous appeal than it actually was. It could very well have been simply a "stunt", but the symbolism is very evident. They go into "the temple" and they anger the authorities and then they are given what many believe is an overly harsh sentence in comparison to the seriousness of the offense.

Sounds kind of like Jesus, doesn't it?

What makes a stunt or not depends on how much truth lies in their assertions. Their assertions are that Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church are forming a stifling political framework that will not allow opposition, dissent or protest and is especially disadvantageous for women.

They are all university students, and they are not dumb: they knew that posting the incident on the internet would gain some attention, and, again, they are true to the punk rock "guild", so they now how to push society's hot buttons.

One thing I find very impressive is the level of the discourse, the intelligence and intellectual approach of both sides.  Gudin's rhetoric is really quite lovely when he talks about the Eternal Church being reflected in the Russian Orthodox Church, and the whole situation as an "existential duel". Meanwhile, in the US, we have idiot politicians using phrases like "legitimate rape". 

He's very correct that the concepts he describes are not like the Western model, I don't believe at all he is correct when he asserts that these concepts are the target of the rest of the world, but this is the exact kind of hyperbole that a right wing US pundit like O'Reilly would resort to. It is the case that Russia has suffered all manner of aggression in her history, this is important to understand, and allusions to the humiliation and defeat of the country it is a sort of button that can be pushed as well to achieve an effect.  The "consumer culture" as exported by the West is seen as a threat, but this is something else also: the consumer culture is not driven primarily by any Western government, it is driven by their client corporations and supported by the governments. But the push by these corporations to expand markets is seen as nothing less than "forcing our culture" on other countries.

He's also probably not wrong to consider all manner of nihilists and lunatic fringe elements would spring up in a "Westernized Russia" that enjoyed full freedom of expression, because they certainly do everywhere else. But that the presence of these would result in the destruction of the entire country and culture is not a realistic assertion.

Also, to consider a politician as the "embodiment" of a nation's ideals is something very un-Western: not even the most ardent pro-Obama editorial writer would invoke this concept.

OK, so not to be outdone, there is another level, a level beyond what Gudin proposes in a sort of resurrection of a Holy Russian empire and even the level what might be a "westernized" more egalitarian, open Russia.

At a point during the oratory, as a Christian, I am offended by the mention of spiritual things alongside the political. It is very clear that the Spirit of Truth transcends all and remains all the while kingdoms rise and fall, and if someone is going to invoke sacred eternal concepts in order to advance political agendas then that is antithetical to those sacred things and it will not be to earthly things that one answers to for this kind of machination. This applies to anyone who would manipulate people towards a self serving goal by twisting these ideas.

It is really beautiful, the eternal transcendent realm, the idea of it. Any music I  attempt and all of the things I mention in this blog are inspired by this, and so there it is.

But, in the realm of the firmament: what does the West really want Russia to be, and how much of that can Russia really be? Probably what is really the only important thing, what does Russia want to be?

The "Byzantine symphony of powers" seems not to exist for the people, but for the powers themselves. Is that really what Russians want, what Russia wants to be? I mean, I know that some Russians want Kazantip.

I think what the Russian people really want is safety and prosperity.

If there is any American idea that is helpful in this case it is the idea that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the rights of every human, and that this is self evident.

US administrations seem to think we can lecture Russia about all manner of things, and we actually can't nor should we because look at what they've endured!

But these inalienable rights not a unqiue cultural concept-- the identification and summation of these rights might be uniquely American-- but this statement is an observation of natural fact.  It follows that if everyone has these rights, then if my exercise of liberty or pursuit of happiness is somehow at odds with yours, then some arbiter is needed and so, in the United States, the government springs from this.

The phrase "pursuit of happiness" does lend itself to being interpreted as a hedonistic statement. But if you are grounded, and having a loving family and faith can help in that, what ends up happening is the pursuit of a long lasting, fulfilling happiness, of the sort that being glad with your beliefs and accomplishments brings. That's what it means, pursuing that happiness.

So if the symphony of powers could work from that concept, where the church and goverment faciliated the way to that fulfilling happiness, and where it might accomodate a bit of punk music now and then, it might very well be the kingdom of heaven on earth.

But before we play the happily ever after music, I think what some of the key interests in Russia want, and those interests are like those client corporations in the West, is oil.

Specifically, they want control of the pathways used to convey oil. If there is an ideology that somehow lends support to conditions that would facilitate the people supporting an assertion of that control, then it will be embraced and amplified by those key interests and fed back into the government. This is what happened during the Bush adminstration in the US, and it continues to happen.

So this is the backdrop, always, that the forces of Mammon lurk in the shadows, for both East and West. Bringing them to light with the Spirit of Truth, catching them up so that Michael might rebuke them and cast them out, that's the real existential duel.

[addendum, edit]
You might be asking "well, is he on Pussy Riot's side or is he on the conservative nationalist's side?". My true opinion is that, both probably to their horror, they are on the same side, as part of the exchange of ideas as their country moves forward into a new era. The protestors have established their position, some people think they got a harsher punishment than they should have, other people think they got off light. I know in the US that the punishment wouldn't be as severe, but I also know 100% that, depending on the church, they could have very well been shot by the parishoners.

Now more of the world is watching, although mostly in a more shallow way, but at least aware. At home, behind the catcalls of "Putin's afraid of a few women" and "they are poisonous pornographic hooligans" a dialogue has opened up. From my reading , Russia has extraordinary ideas and thoughts to offer the world, some of these are very profound, and it doesn't hurt to listen.

Here are some additional articles:

Wall St. Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/08/20/pussy-riot-rocked-my-family-dinner-table/

The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/the-kony-ification-of-pussy-riot/261262/
Guardian, UK, "Punk Prayer" in English
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/20/pussy-riot-punk-prayer-lyrics?newsfeed=true
RT, a story on "copycat Cathedral Crashers"
http://rt.com/news/pussy-riot-support-germany-111/

Telegraph, UK, Russian perspective, remarks from Putin, more perspective
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/the-daily-beast/9481567/Analysis-how-Pussy-Riot-rocked-Russia.html

The Eurasian Union
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/articles/society/29499.html

The Concept of Mega-regional Multi-national Unions in "Thrive"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVEDwnvwQkM&t=80m00

More background from the same movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVEDwnvwQkM&t=69m37s



















Wednesday, August 08, 2012

7.23cm

I learned about the significance of 7.23cm. It is the wavelength of a vibration that goes on everywhere, coming from everything. A "cosmic" vibration. Moreover, I learned that the frequency of a sound wave with this wavelength is 4744.1217 Hz. Isn't that wonderful?

So I have some thoughts and here they are:

If you extrapolate down from that wavelength, you can create a 12 note scale. You can do this by dividing the number by 1.059463095, and then dividing that resulting number by 1.059463095, and so on. At some point you'll come close to the 440 Hz frequency that you can use as a tuning frequency, then tune your guitar or whatever thing, and you'd have a thing that was tuned based on that cosmic frequency.