The Party of the mind at FFTG

Last week I got to sit in during a radio show, FFTG or Flows from the Gutter.
I was impressed, first of all, by Papa Mingo and Miss Marcie's skill at keeping the conversation going.
But from a Buddhist philosphy perspective I learned something. When you hear a party on the radio, or when you see a music video you have an idea of a wild time. There is that "Party" or that "Happening place"
that kind of only exists in the mind and is shown to you in the movies. I had this experience once before when we did a lion dance at the airport and there was professional lighting and red carpets out. I realized that when this was filmed it would look like a Lion Dance in Zeus's halls.
And in the end, the Halls of kings of the past, were not as great even as some of the office buildings that are kind of Blah today.

So that is the illusion, way of looking at it. The cynical feeling that there is no real party.

However, there is another way of looking at it, and that is that the party does indeed exist.
But that it exists in your mind and it is the power of the person that creates that creates that party, that super positive state of mind, through skill and a state of being. THAT is what I learned from the show but also from the guests, Chazz Shabazz promoting a new album(spelling) and the CEO Billionaire Dreams (Again spelling... I apologize for my ignorance.)

I want to point out again that I am writing this as someone who knows NOTHING about HIP HOP. I might as well be some old guy who is walking by the young people listening to rap or whatever. I usually listen to Irish Music and Chinese Music and then random world music. (The Lyrics for some of that folk music though is remarkably similar to many Hip Hop narratives)

It was people being interviewed around a table but the energy of the room made it the hottest party there is. Better than any Hollywood thing I could imagine. Some club packed with people is for the masses, but this was the place where the immortals gather, at least the local ones. Not to put down what you hear in the mainstream, but I prefer the local flavor. Now if anyone of them make it huge then that doesn't make them less per se, but just because they haven't made it huge, also does not make them less than what you hear on the radio.

So they talk and the energy is high and then they put on some tracks. Now this was the "Aha!" or "Ommm" moment for me, because the tracks were not played for everyone in the room, just those with the headphones on. So watching, I saw people bobbing their heads making the typical hand gestures, Chazz Shabazz going through his own lyrics, his art, as he listened. But I was watching all of this in silence.

This is why I felt that Buddhist comparison.

The Buddha never had to be in a Temple  or on a mountain top to be the Buddha. In fact the Bodhi tree was kind of on the side of the road somewhere, and the side of the road is also where one goes to relieve oneself or dumps a body or garbage.

But in that place, Buddha was still Buddha.

This room was much nicer than the side of the road, but what I saw was, these artists were great and this art and the party was the happening place, not because of the physical location of the radio show or what people were wearing or the chairs they were sitting in. Their Spirit made it it the place by pure energy and THOUGHT.

It was eye opening to say the least and I knew I had to write about it. It just felt weird trying to write about Hip Hop, something which I know very little about, but trying to convey what I experienced... frankly without having even heard the music yet. It makes me want to start going to all these concerts and buying the albums and supporting the local Boston artists, because I feel that even people who don't listen to hip hop, should take a chance and broaden their perspective, especially if it means supporting people from THEIR community, from THEIR City.

I hope to get more involved with this in the future.