A Higher Power, Energy, Eternity, astral memories, vibration, auras, chakras, polarities, meditation, Family, Love, Love, Love, loving, being in love, being loved, romance, romance, romance, the idea of happiness, La Duende, masculinity, the power of women, femininity, women, women, gentlemanly behavior, chivalry, a woman's gaze, smiling, embracing, tantra, kissing, laughter, beholding beauty, sensual confidence, making love, intelligence, culture, knowledge of wisdom, Hermeticism, Transcendentalism, wisdom of knowledge, conversing, philosophy, not knowing, knowing, philosophy, Earth, The Universe, astrology, astronomy, biology, ecology, history, humanity, humility, empathy, integrity, sacrifice, philosophy, old friends, new friends, peace, calm, subtlety, speaking softly, music, creating music, music, truly great cinema, truly great theatre, truly great food, preparing truly great food, decadence, simplicity, sharing, giving, writing, reading, poetry, painting, photography, museums, galleries, educating youth, the joy of children, wordplay, trivia, card games, mah-jong, Egyptology, quantum physics, psychoanalysis, yoga, martial arts, swimming, spearfishing, SCUBA, hiking, camping, being nocturnal, nightlife, singing, dancing, whiskeys, wine, libation, cigarettes, revolution, vigilantism, kicking of asses, taking of names, vintage clothing, vintage hats and headpieces, costumed affairs, T-shirts, torn jeans, scuffed leather shoes, new scars, being a renaissance man, being misunderstood.
The Seven Keys of Hermeticism
Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains
Music
I have a love for music that lies in the collective hearts, minds and souls of those who give birth to sound.
Some of the artists to whom I am polarized include:
Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Tommy Johnson, Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, Hubert Sumlin, T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, Robert Nighthawk, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Lightnin' Hopkins, Skip James, Fred McDowell, Fred Below, Otis Span, Memphis Slim, Pinetop Perkins, Roosevelt Sykes, Johnnie Johnson, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Ry Cooder, Charlie Musslewhite, John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, all blues artists, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Eric Dolphy, Charlie Parker, Yusuf Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Cannonball Adderly, Herb Adderly, Art Blakely, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughn, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Bill Connors, George Benson, Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Rush, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, all jazz/fusion/progressive rock artists, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, Television, The New York Dolls, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Cream, Blind Faith, Traffic, The Doors, The Animals, War, The Funky Meters, The Ohio Players, Parliment, Earth Wind And Fire, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Alice In Chains, Jethro Tull, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye, The Delphonics, The Temptations, The Platters, Sam and Dave, Booker T and The MGs, Peaches and Herb, James Brown, Donny Hathaway, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, Van Morrison, Nick Drake, Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Adrian Legg, Paco De Lucia, Tomatito, Sabacias, Manitas De Plata, Jackson Browne, Gram Parsons, CCR, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Jessye Norman, Sarah Vaughn, Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Mary Wells, Tammi Terrell, Diana Ross, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Laura Nyro, Patsy Cline, Sade, Erykah Badu, Nico, Flora Purim, Astrud Gilberto, Bebel Gilberto, Joao Gilberto, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ravi Shankar, Andres Segovia, Vladimir Horowitz, opera, many classical compositions, bossa nova, sambas, salsa, boleros, African and Cuban grooves, flamenco, ragas.
"Captain For Dark Mornings" by Laura Nyro
"The Stranger Song" by Leonard Cohen
Movies
8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, The Nights of Cabiria, Juliet of the Spirits, Amarcord, Roma, Satyricon, City of Women, The White Sheik, And The Ship Sails On, Variety Lights, I Vitelloni, The Clowns, Intervista, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers, Persona, The Silence, Winter Light, Through a Glass Darkly, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Virgin Spring, The Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Ran, Ikiru, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, High and Low, Kagemusha, The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D., M, City of God, The 400 Blows, Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game, Open City, Cinema Paradiso, L'Avventura, La Notte, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Pierrot Le Fou, Like Water For Chocolate, Diabolique, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Wide Sargasso Sea, Swept Away, Orfeu Negro, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Soylent Green, A Clockwork Orange, Rapa Nui, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, Lost In Translation, Shakespeare In Love, The Departed, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Brazil, Sleeper, Bananas, Manhattan, I Love You Alice B. Toklas, Great Expectations, High Fidelity, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, any Monty Python, Cannibal: A Musical, Shane, Hang Em' High, Fistful of Dollars, High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Good The Bad And The Ugly, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather I & II, The English Patient, I Am A Hotel, The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, Cocksucker Blues, Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll, Rock Rock Rock, A Band Of Gypsies: Live At The Fillmore.
A scene from Fellini's La Dolce Vita
Ingmar Bergman, on women
Television
PBS, The Travel Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, The National Geographic Channel and sports of all kinds.
Planet Earth: Birds of Paradise
From the Monty Python vault
Books
I am always reading several books at a time. More often than not, they consist of Old World literature, poetry and prose, history and educational texts and philosophic writings. Reading and writing are essential to my being: if I am ever shutout from either I may perish.
I am currently immersed in the poetry of Leonard Cohen's book "Flowers for Hitler"
My family and ancestors, The terminally ill, the single mother, the single father, the motherless child, the fatherless child, the orphaned, the homeless, the malnourished, the underprivileged, the oppressed, the enslaved, the murdered, the brokenhearted, the insane, the misunderstood, men who maintain a gentle approach towards women and children, ardent gentlemen, women who still love men with the vigor of old, the constant lady.
I am a 30 year old resident of Knoxville who loves all of the flowers and thorns life has to offer. On this plane I am but a point connected to all others.
Who I'd like to meet:
Elmer Henderson, William Henderson, Eve, Abraham, Muhammad, Jesus, Siddhartha, Lao Tzi, Mowlana Ja'laluddin Rumi, Hafiz, Moses, Joseph, Isaac, Job, Israel, Ramses II, Nefertiti, Kleopatra, Djoser, Cheops, Tutankhamen, Mohandas Gandhi, Hammurabi II, Hannibal, Napoleon Bonaparte, Constantinople, Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great, Alexander II, Catherine the Great, Nicolai II, Grigori Rasputin, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Leopold von Sacher Masoch, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Benjamin Banneker, Eli Whitney, Paul Robeson, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Benjamin Franklin, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo Di Vinci, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Michaelangelo Buonarroti, Gustav Klimt, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, El Greco, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Edvard Munch, Raphael, Rembrandt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Peter Paul Rubens, Ludwig Bemelmans, Jackson Pollock, Romare Bearden, M. C. Escher, Frank Lloyd Wright, Nicéphore Niépce, John James Audubon, Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Joseph Ayers, Jakob Johan, Adolf Appellöf, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Michael Sars, Leo Tolstoy, Dante Aligheri, William Shakespeare, Li Po, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexandr Pushkin, Vladimir Nabokov, Khalil Gibran, Aldous Huxley, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, Sidney Poitier, Marcello Mastrioanni, Charlton Heston, James Cagney, James Dean, Buster Keaton, Catherine Deneuve, Bridgitte Bardot, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Astrud Gilberto, Sophia Loren, Sandra Milo, Anouk Aimee, Anita Ekberg, Nico, Audrey Hepburn, Lee Remick, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Rachel Welch, Ann Margaret, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Betty Page, Norma Jeane Baker, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Medgar Evers, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, George Jackson, Angela Davis, Che' Guevara, Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vladimir Horowitz, Nino Rota, Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, Elvin Jones, T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Charlie Christian, Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, John Lennon, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Keith Moon, Lou Reed, John Cale, Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, Laura Nyro and more.
Dear Friends...Please read the Updated Reports on Bat Nha Violence @ http://lnk.ms/2H1R9. Help support this cause with your friendship, prayers, and letters.
“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”
I came across this beautiful version of Autumn Leaves, and became so enchanted by Eva Cassidy and her jazzy bluesy voice that I wanted to share the rhapsody with you. May the beauty of her voice, and the change of season touch your spirit.
Love & Peace 2 U, Yusef.
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~ Albert Camus
I'm well, Yusef...Thank you for asking. I'm enjoying the summer weather--It's such a wonderful time of year to connect with family and friends outdoors...I was thinking of you today--wondering what places your muse is taking you. We're thinking of seeing Cohen in San Jose, CA in November--I'm excited. It was so nice to receive your message with your kind wishes. Much love to you...
Hi Yusef...Just stopping by to share this film with you...Don't know if you saw the film, Into the Wild, by Sean Penn, based on the journal and true story of Christopher McCandless, but I have a feeling it will speak as deeply to you as it did me. It's one of my favorites. Hope your week is going well and that you are well. Much love 2 u...
Warmly, Bianca
The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.
Love, peace, and blessings 2 U Sweet Yusef...Wishing U a wonderful weekend.
"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet." ~Rumi~
My dear Yusef...I found this in the archives of my computer and created it for you some time ago...I'm just returning to baptize your page with it again...It seems only fitting to return it to its original home.
May the beauty of the day awaken you with joy.
The Guitar by Federico García Lorca Translated by Cola Franzen
The weeping of the guitar begins. The goblets of dawn are smashed. The weeping of the guitar begins. Useless to silence it. Impossible to silence it. It weeps monotonously as water weeps as the wind weeps over snowfields. Impossible to silence it. It weeps for distant things. Hot southern sands yearning for white camellias. Weeps arrow without target evening without morning and the first dead bird on the branch. Oh, guitar! Heart mortally wounded by five swords.
Thank you for your Cohen video--You always know how to make me smile…May the day hold much joy for you…Love & Peace 2 U Yusef.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-- over and over announcing your place in the family of things. Mary Oliver
what's been done has, well, ... i think you are genuinely a great person, someone who undoubtedly touches so many people's lives in a fantastic way. a gentleman. a cool guy!
Thank you so much Yusef. Yes, its a wonderful coffee. Organic/Ital, fair wage, and environmentally friendly. Also a wonderful way to remember Bob Marley, who brought so much positivity to this planet. You can purchase the coffee, by going onto this site and clicking on the banner. Peace and 1love! Blondy
The coffee is now available to purchase, online only. This is a wonderful coffee, many blends to pick from. Organic/Ital, fair wage, environmentally friendly and there is a charity aim as well.
You can purchase the coffee, by clicking on the banner on this page, and it takes you to their main website, where you will see the shop button. That easy.
So, a great coffee, for a great cause and a wonderful way of remembering Bob Marley, who brought so much positivity to this planet.
We sell a brand called Lucid. And sorry to say, we don't sell champagne. Don't sell enough of it and it goes flat to quickly. But Im there and im pretty bubbly, so who needs champagne :)??
the word "sojourn" i once would have considered equate with "my life on this planet" except i realize the opposite is true. take that to mean what you will. ;) good to see your words on the computer! love the pic.
So true, I adore most of Cohen's songs for their lyrical bite, soothed by his voice and the music. The whole of each song is delivered with intimacy to the mind and soul. That's just the way if feels to me.
"Now the crickets are singing The vesper bells ringing The cat's curled asleep in his chair I'll go down to Bill's Bar I can make it that far And I'll see if my friends are still there Yes, and here's to the few Who forgive what you do And the fewer who don't even care And the night comes on It's very calm I want to cross over, I want to go home But she says, Go back, go back to the World" -The Night Comes On - (love this one)
