METTA PRAYER

May all beings be peaceful.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings awaken to

the light of their true nature.

May all beings be free.

May it be so,
Bhakti

GUITAR WORLD Letter to the Editor

GUITAR WORLD was cool enough to publish my 'Letter to the Editor' in which I thanked them for honoring the great STEVE VAI on the May 2009 cover as well as printing an article on the great JASON BECKER in the same issue.

Check out the July 2009 issue of Guitar World to read all about it.

Thanks Brad Tolinski!

THE CLOSER, TRUST ME, AND AN EARTHQUAKE!

Last night, I had the worst migraine in the world (although it was not the worst migraine I have ever experienced in my lifetime, I knew it had to be the worst migraine anyone on the entire planet was experiencing at that precise moment. That's the power of the migraine talkin', baby.). The migraine started in the back of my head and then wrapped around the right side of my skull and parked itself inside my right eye socket. With ice packs wrapped around the back of my neck, I made my way upstairs into the beautiful lightness of my darkly lit bedroom. There's something about darkness that dispels the urgency of a migraine. As I slipped under the covers--Kitty Von Kitty nestling herself beside me--I felt the migraine losing its feverish grip upon my sanity. With a deepish in-breath (not too deep; didn't want to strain the already fighting muscles wrapped around the skull), I envisioned the tension in my body and released it on the out-breath. I repeated this four times, much like one would repeat the wash and rinse cycle while shampooing.

At 9 PM, after having expelled most of the migraine into the ether, I turned on the television and watched The Closer-- perhaps the most original detective series created since Prime Suspect. I must say that Chief Brenda Johnson's (Kyra Sedgwick/The Closer) obsession with eating food on the job is quite reminiscent of Superintendent Jane Tennison's (Helen Mirren/Prime Suspect) obsession with eating food on the job. Mirren and Sedgwick worked together on Losing Chase (directed by Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon) back in the early 1990's. Is the food obsession a coincidence? I certainly hope not. This wonderful episode of the Closer ended, as usual, with Brenda breaking the case by relating the circumstances of the case to the goings on around her household--namely by listening to her fiance talk about this or that.

After The Closer, I began watching Trust Me, a modern day version of Madmen. I have been a lover of all things Madmen since the first episode, drawn to the show because of its truthfulness to the era it portrays: the language, dress code, blatant sexual discrimination, and sexual infidelities. Madmen portrays an America on the cusp of exchanging sexual repression for a sexual revolution. As I watched Trust Me I was waiting for a clincher--something that would pique my interest and make me want to watch the show for an entire hour. Minutes passed and no clincher: just another show about dysfunctional relationships and coworkers. Anyone interested in watching that treatment done to its fullest potential, go rent all six seasons of THE WIRE; the best cop show no one was watching until the sixth season and everyone should have been watching since McNulty uttered his first drunken word.

At around 10:30 PM my world was (literally) rocked. My bed began to rock from side to side. The stained glass angel hanging from my window-lock began banging against the window. Kitty Von Kitty awoke from a purring slumber. I muted the TV just as my Mom yelled upstairs, "Did you feel that? What was that?"

"It felt like an earthquake to me!" I yelled downstairs.

"I'm turning on the news," Mom yelled back.

The tremor only lasted 2-4 seconds. Thoughts raced in my mind, "Did a large truck just fly over the speed bump in front of our house? No...that would have caused the bed to shake up and down. What about an explosion far away? No...again, the bed was shaking back and forth, as if the floor was sliding back and forth beneath it." My mind was still contemplating the movement of the house as I turned the volume back on the TV. I watched the last half hour of Trust Me both in awe of how interesting the experience of the earthquake had been and how far off the mark Trust Me came from rocking my world. Two great actors a great show does not make.

The local papers confirmed that a .03 earthquake had occurred in Rockaway, a town twenty minutes from my house. I live 45 minutes west of New York City; a city that literally sits on hollow ground (the subway system) which itself is seated upon a fault line. Could the scientists predictions of an earthquake hitting New York City be correct? Anything can happen in a world where flowers bloom.

LET FREEDOM RING!

Thank you, Dear Lord,

For letting me be witness

to this most beautiful

day in American history.

With Great Love and Honor

I give praise to this,

our 44th president.

I thank him

for his humility,

character,

and enthusiasm.

May everyone catch his spirit of hope.

Love,

Bhakti

JASON BECKER

CLICK ON LINK ABOVE TO BUY JASON BECKER'S
NEW ALBUM: 'COLLECTION'. YOUR EARS WILL
THANK YOU!


As many of you know, I have been a great fan of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai for over twenty years. You also know that I had the great pleasure of meeting him last year. What you may not know is that when I told Steve about how my physical limitations have made it virtually impossible for me to play the guitar, drums, etc., he told me about Jason Becker's spiritual triumph over his physical limitations. Steve introduced me to the life of a man who would become my inspiration to keep making music, even if that meant writing a piece of music one month, programming the drum track another month, recording the drum track to my 8-track digital recorder another month; you get the picture. I was used to writing a tune in one day and recording all of the instruments myself until the piece was finished, most times working through the entire day and staying up all night. It never occurred to me that I could enjoy recording my music any other way, but after reading about Jason's story and watching videos illustrating his unique music writing style on YouTube, I have learned to discipline myself. I am recording again, albeit slowly but surely, and Jason is my hero.



Jason Becker is a TRUE guitar hero. He has been living with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) for almost twenty years. In a nutshell, he went from being a famous guitar prodigy in the late '80s, to a man not able to breathe by himself. He never lost his spirit or desire to live. I don't think I would be remiss to say that our physical 'dis-eases' have brought both of us closer to the Truth than we could have ever imaged. Perhaps I have that backwards: maybe it was our innate knowledge of the Truth from a very young age--our thirst to find that Truth--that has sustained us both.



An artist MUST create. Jason is a true artist. I could go on and on and write about what I know of Jason's life, but I would ask that you go to the source. PLEASE WATCH THIS TRIBUTE TO JASON BECKER'S LIFE. Your life will be changed for the better after you watch this video. There is nothing greater than being in the presence of greatness: Jason is the personification of how great the human spirit truly is.





FOR MORE INFO:



http://www.jasonbecker.com/



www.myspace.com/jasonbecker



TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO JASON BECKER PLEASE GO TO HIS WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE APPROPRIATE LINK.

Thank you.
Warm Regards,
Bhakti

tags: Jaibhakti, Bhakti Brophy, Jason Becker, Jason Becker Collection, Steve Vai, Guitar Hero, Jason Becker Tribute,

Link

President-Elect Obama

Thank you for giving disabled people a voice. Your presidential acceptance speech was moving and enlightening.

God Bless and Much Love,
Bhakti Brophy

ENGRISH!

The funniest website I have EVER found is called ENGRISH. I suggest you visit it often and a lot, whichever comes first.

http://www.engrish.com/

While there, you can learn how to create your own Engrish!

"Steve's vai is the electric guitarist where the world is best!!"

I hope this finds you all well and happy,
Love,
Bhakti

THE LIVES OF OTHERS

I have many movie reviews to post--but for now I must insist that you run as fast as you can to your respective movie-rental-outfit and rent THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

It was over a year ago that one of my loyal readers suggested that I watch this film. I am only sorry that it took me so long to take his advice.

I will not write anything else about this film save for it is a must see movie for all of my readers--i.e. people who live from the heart and stand up for the truth when they see it, regardless of the consequences.

Thank you for stopping by.

With Great Respect-
Love,
Bhakti

tags: Jaibhakti, Bhakti Brophy, The Lives of Others, Berlin Wall

JAIBHAKTI MOVIE REVIEW: "I AM DAVID"

"I Am David" (click on title for information)

PAUL FEIG: Writer/Director

If you don't cry during this movie, you aren't alive.

This past weekend, I watched "I am David" three times (on IFC: the Independent Film Channel). Ben Tibber, the young man who played David, deserved an Oscar nod for his performance as a young man who escapes from a Stalinist Labor Camp and heads out on a journey to find his true home, which is illustrated in colorful flashbacks throughout the film. The movie works because the whole is created by a cast of superior parts: the acting, the scenery, the wardrobes, the dialogue, and most especially Stewart Copeland's magnificent score, moves the story along at the most appropriate pace--the exact pace you would expect a young person of David's stature to absorb and assimilate his experiences. Never boring; always intriguing; my only wish is that the movie went into greater detail: the movie could have easily gone on for another half hour.

Joan Plowright's character is one of the all-time most compassionate, most humane characters I have ever scene on film. I wish so much her character to be an actual person: I would relish the chance to visit her for a spot of tea or sit beside her while painting watercolors of the lush scenery down by her favorite lake. The character she created shall forever be etched in my mind, and for that I thank her. She truly has made the world a better place by creating a character whom I believe we all should aspire to match in compassion, grace, and good humor.

At the end of the movie "Cold Water", the very poignant and appropriate Damien Rice songs, pulls us deeper and deeper into our hearts as the story comes to an end...which is really just the beginning. In my mind I bent down and swept David up in my arms, kissed his forehead, and told him I loved him. I believe you will too.

tags: Jaibhakti, Bhakti Brophy, I Am David, Joan Plowright, Ben Tibber, Paul Feig, Jim Caviezel, Damien Rice, Stewart Copeland,

Link

Heath Ledger Has Died

My prayers go out to the family and friends of Heath Ledger, who died today at 3:30PM in his Soho apartment.*

I would also like to extend my prayers to the family and friends of Brad Renfro, who died last week of an accidental overdose. * *


Om caitanyam, shasvatam shantam
Vyomatetam, nuranjanam
Nada Bindu Colatitam
Tasmai Shree Gurave Namaha

Shanti,
Bhakti

SOURCES: *OKmagazine.com; **Entertainment Weekly, #975

tags: Jaibhakti, Bhakti Brophy, Heath Ledger, Brad Renfro,