Well, a Good Gracious Good Day and a belated but heartfelt Happy New Year to you all… Jan 18th and my 1st Blog of the year. Seems I have been hiding out from this entire “Social Networking Hullabaloo”! Living a low key Holiday profile in Palm Springs Ca. Just a “Ho Ho Ho Homebody-Nobody” in contrast to my usual normal stance of Out-Loud-Uber-Overachieving-Pollyanna-on-Prozac! Comparatively I have been positively indulgent to whimsy for a brief respite.
Yet, instinctively, when I get on a plane I begin chatting to “The Universe” ( It looks better to do this on my lap-top than out-loud to myself), Especially on this “little” jaunt across the pond- a mere 17 undisturbed HOURS on ONE Frickin’ PLANE with ZERO connections from Los Angeles to Bangkok- Yeah… 17 (are you serious?) Hours?!! This is pushing the limits of fathom ability, this airship will be sucking nothing but vapors of fumes when it lands in Thailand. It is probably prudent if I don’t look like I have been doing the same talking to the Universe out-loud!
An outright assault (Our World Outside) while encased in a familiar frame it’s displaying a unnatural Ghastly picture. The only other pictures I’ve seen in my past weeks are made for my Latest Mistress & Muse and Adolescent Obsession (just seeing if your reading the words, not just moving your lips!) My Art- it has been an entire year now, I still feel like I have been locked inside Willy Wonka’s Wondrous Warehouse overnight without a chaperone…nothing is off limits or out of reach, I have complete run of the Mill.
Settling into window seat 14-A seeing the newspapers headlines that drain color from reality gently being wheeled down the aisle on a tidy silver trolley with festive splashes of purple Orchids which only enhances the garish grim shades of grief and gray that have cleaved Haiti’s heart in two… o m g what the?? The pictures and prose paint an abomination of numbers that strike me right across my chocolate stained face…7.0 (I am a California native, I know the gravity of that number 7).
60,000 + lives LOST… that is a “low ball figure”. Take an entire Olympic Stadium, fill it to the rafters with living vibrant people and now take them out of the Game in an instant, just gone faster than I can type this sentence.
I sit here after take-off trying to calculate just the sheer scale of that number. If I wanted to be respectful and give just one second of time to every individual soul lost to the quake, only one second to personally acknowledge every Man, Woman, Child, Mother, Father, Son and Daughter who each was a unique individual before they became a rising death toll figure left on the side of the road to be a sound bite for international news. but…
One second of time for each person from our planes graceful take-off in LA… ‘tick (1) ‘tick (2) ‘tick (3) during our 3 hot meals served…tick- countless hot hand towels…tick-Holly & Bollywood features…tick- mind numbing silence…’tick-to our gentle landing… 17 non-stop counting HOURS later, nearly halfway around the globe…’tick- as wheels touch down…’tick -I am at
61,200 individuals-
just one brief second to honor a person and people I will never know or recognize, people making their way in the world like we are doing today… -‘tick… -‘tick…-‘tick this is not a trick of Apocalyptic movie magic or of Pure Imagination, -‘tick wow…no frame could ever contain such a vision.
Legendary Composer Leonard Bernstein- quoted for having said (not about this event mind you, but)…
“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan and not quiet enough time.”
I think this expressive man, in his one lifetime left us an aural image of time and place, an eternal voice of humanity. I know he would agree he was 100% Correct. Great things were not achieved, as there was not quiet enough time and certainly not a plan… that could explain this…‘tick…’tick.
Haiti believe we cannot understand, believe we cannot expect you to, believe that we believe in you. Go Gently Haiti… Go Gently…
Namaste.
(Read more…)
The Universe told me today (via e-mail) that-
“Thinking brand new thoughts that you’ve never thought before Doug
is wildly more conducive to creating big life changes than just thinking different varieties of the same old thoughts you have everyday.
Think about it -The Universe
I shot back a reply- “Pardon my glibness oh great Devine Miss U. but I beg to differ…just a wee bit about what you just said!
The Universe (only mildly surprised) replies- “Excuse me Douglas, what is this your saying? Are you disagreeing with Moi?
Do you wish to stay locked on the same level of the game, NEVER achieving more?
Is this yet another excuse to not be all you want to be? Cuz, I have heard them ALL before trust m Bro!”
Trying to be insightful, I continue with – “No, your great U-ness not at all, what I am eluding to is, I do not think you need the to be so radical in your approach; going out seeking a brand new vocabulary to have “thoughts you’ve never thought before” to achieve these great life changes. (Read more…)
Dear Universe,
I have found the Ultimate expression that is better than “Going Green”, better than “Animal Safe” and adds color to our environ
ment too!
I found Robbie the Rhino here in a thrift store looking for a make-over, and as I took him apart and marveled at his clever design I found his makers, Chris and Company at Cardboardsafari.com a clever bunch of wonderful people, and we started to talk about wild Game!
The words Robbie the RainBow Rhino inspired the make-over, all done with my own original crayon technique you can see more on my artist tab, the white calking gave Robbie a frosted look, so once mounted on his sun and circular plaque, my inner child started to think about going on a color safari for the rare- but not endangered “Frosted Rhino”. The trick is to find a cherry big enough for his horn? hmmmm….
My new friends at Cardboardsafri.com Chris and Co. have said they would provide the raw materials for more color safari creatures. If you should have a desire for one please contact me here on my site and lets see what beauty is lurking to be explored and discovered, help me support the environment and my new buds at Cardboardsafari.com
Enjoy and Go Gently.
Doug
“Days of Significance”
This morning, as I begin to rise and greet the day, I am becoming conscious and alert for the very first time in my life. I have this beginning of an understanding that gently washes over me, it enlivens my inner being bringing me to a point of blissful alertness. Wow, this is better than Christmas!
Today will be my 1st Day of school & also my Graduation from it, it will be the day I am born (my true 1st Birthday) & my most recent Anniversary of that day. It’s the day where I will fly out on stage (for the first time ever) as that tenacious little bumblebee & the day of my 7th Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies where I will “Thank” for the last time my 4000 volunteer cast-members. The day that I hear that I am voted “Most Talented” at my High School (a place I thought, thought me invisible) & the day I receive an Emmy Award. It feels like the day I am going to meet Ron and Judy for the first time ever & the day I know that they are gone from my life forever. Finally, it feels like the day I “Get it” that I will finally meet the Universe face to face… on even ground…as equals, friends and fellow Gypsies..
In short, (a little too late for that don’t you think), as I wake to consciousness this morning I feel I have reached the day of why I AM HERE, my understanding of the totality of… well, ME! I realize I am at my Being Point.
By derfinition; THE BEING POINTTM is the always present moment of truth at which we are most fully alive and aware, at which love is chosen over fear, at which humans and organizations take control of their own destinies and give deliberate direction to their own evolution. (Read more…)
Emmy Award Winning Olympic Choreographer Strikes Gold!
Being Point Press Publishes The Back Side Of Wonderful by Doug Jack
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Santa Monica, CA
Being Point Press is delighted to announce the publication of The Back Side Of Wonderful, the first book by Emmy Award winning event choreographer and director Doug Jack.
Doug’s credits include Opening and Closing Ceremonies for Summer and Winter Olympics, Super Bowl Halftime Shows, Miss America Pageants, and a variety of other stadium, arena and large-venue events.
(Read more…)
Stepping back the pace a little today.
While most people like to Power-Up for Monday, I think today I will power down a few gears and try and focus my energies on one thing and not Cosmic multi task which is what I am so used to doing, so much so that it seems normal to me. Until I start to see the people in my daily life begin to flinch when I speak to them, or they start to lag behind and are too tired or fatigued to have the desire to keep the pace with me, saying that they will catch me on the next lap just as soon as they catch their breath. (Read more…)
There is an intense storm off shore.
You know it because you can see the clouds appear in the early evening sky, backlit by electric energy, and then instantly disappear into blackness.
Moments later a deep rumbling greets you, borne on the salt-swept wavetops of the surf. You are captivated by the storm’s size. Its sheer bulk encompasses your horizon.
It calls to you like a siren of the sea, it touches every pore of your being, and the ache to be engulfed in her turbulence is unlike anything you have ever felt or imagined possible in your lifetime. (Read more…)
Wow, I just read yesterday’s blog. It is no wonder I have been having a feeling of déjà vu on steroids.
For the past week, I mean not just a feeling like this moment I have lived before but ALL OF LAST WEEK, EVERY SECOND, EVERY MINUTE, EVERY DAY… I felt, no, I KNEW, what was going to happen next.
I absolutely without question knew. It got to a point where I was telling the Universe what she forgot! (Read more…)
