I wanted to share an interesting story with Imagine readers. A few weeks ago I was lamenting that my roommate and I always seem to get caught in these great conversations in our kitchen, with nothing to sit down on. You know the expression roughing it? Well, it doesn’t often bother me, but we have very little furniture. So, a few days after this desire emerged for chairs in our kitchen/dining room, I was taking a walk through these beautiful streets in the town of Holyoke where I walk almost everyday, and thinking, there are people in these houses right now with chairs they would probably be glad to be rid of. In fact, I mused, I would really love some folding director chairs, like the one I have in my room. But, I thought, that’s way too specific! I would be grateful to get any.
The next day, walking down Madison, there were four folding director’s chairs outside this beautiful house, along with some other stuff they had put out to the curb to get rid of. What’s more, in keeping with my interest in the ocean, they had beach sand on them. Two now sit in my kitchen, a third in my studio. I felt good.

Tristan L. Sullivan

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Photo by Norbert Rosing

Canada’s cruel, inhumane seal hunt is over. It is not called off forever, only over for this year, but there is something very encouraging and hopeful afoot. As a result of an outpouring across the globe from people like you, there is a high likelihood that the European Union will pass a ban on all seal products in June. This does not prevent Canada from this inhuman practice of course, but it would effectively end it as there will be virtually no market for seal products. It would also have strong implications for other nations like Russia who practice this atrocity.

Regarding this, please consider taking a moment to send a quick letter:

http://community.livejournal.com/action4animals/93120.html

Thank you for your attention at Imagine Weblog during this difficult time.

Tristan L. Sullivan

Photo courtesy of Rolf Hicker

If a heavenly creature plucked you from where you are right now and lifted you up to a higher, wider perspective: if you could see the whole world and your own life in it, you would understand beyond a shadow of a doubt that your role in the universe is absolutely crucial.

You make a difference. You are that difference. It is only individuals like you, the individuals who work with Sea Shepherd, the people who signed the petition below and who drive the outpouring of compassion and activism by people across the world who have ever brought about change.

Suppose I see a hungry dog on the way in to buy groceries. She obviously needs help. Now suppose I’m with a friend and in a hurry, and although my friend says he wants to help her I scold him. “You can’t help every animal in the world,” I tell him. I would be so wrong. God has not asked me to help every animal in the world. The Universe delivered me to this animal, at this time, right now. It’s called opportunity. Once I decide to take action, reach down to pet her and ask her how she is, a plan already forming in my mind for how to take action and help her, I will immediately feel a gratitude and peace in my heart. I will understand that what I’ve done affects every other feeling being on the planet. This is why I met up with her. I had a job to do. The same will happen to you. Try not to let yourself think about big things. Know that there are many others like you, that you are supported, that in fact most people on this planet feel the same way you do. A vast majority of people are sensible, compassionate, resent the ravages and viciousness of empire and oppression, sense the deception underneath. Do not feel isolated; don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Just take action, and know that if we do what we can when we are presented with the opportunity, and chose to first do no harm, for example by eating ethically raised meats and insisting on cruelty free shampoos and cosmetics, we are on our way to healing the world. We will always start from exactly where we are at this moment.

http://www.stopthesealhunt2007.com/donor-form.php?type=join

Please also consider this website, www.animalattraction.com . It’s a fun place, with fellow pet lovers posting their pictures and stories, and just for joining they donate 1 dollar to the animal welfare organization of your choice, plus a penny a day for each day you log in! It’s also a fun place to meet other pet parents and network, or if you’re single, find other pet loving singles for dating.

Help Protect Baby Seals

https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=20706339

Tristan L. Sullivan

Photo by Norbert Rosing

Today is a day of pain for me: the Canadian Seal Hunt began this morning. Atrocities like this bring home a painful reality, but it is one we have to face up to in order to move forward: there are generous, luminous, enlightened human beings on this planet, luminaries who inspire us and show the way, but all too often, human affairs are savage and extremely unevolved.

Revenue from this horrendous practice will represent only a fraction of the fishermen’s livelihood. This practice simply would not exist without human arrogance and brutality, without ignorance of our extraordinary potential here on this planet.
Atrocities like this always result from a closing off of our potential, of the wealth of talent and resources that have always been available to us; they result from fear. They are a product of zero sum thinking, and are only possible through complicity of the false authority of governments and officials, in this case Canada’s Minister of International Trade, David Emerson.

To confront the reality of this barbaric practice is extremely upsetting and heartbreaking. You can find photos of this here, but please know they are profoundly heartbreaking. If you’re motivated to take action on this then you don’t need to look at photos or videos. If you feel you need to experience the reality of it in order to understand, then photos and videos have a definite purpose. The first thing to understand however, in confronting atrocity: you are not isolated, you are not alone. A dramatic illustration:

On 25 January 2007, the Belgian Parliament approved a ban on the trade in fur and other products (such as oil) originating from seals. An historic moment, since Belgium became the first EU country to impose such a ban. It was hoped to have a snowball effect: the more countries followed Belgium’s example, the more the markets for seal products would melt like snow in the sun.

This snowball effect has occurred: since September, the Netherlands no longer allow seal products into the country, and meanwhile, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom have also publicly stated that the trade which originates from the seal hunt must be stopped. This is a powerful signal to Canada, which still allows the cruel seal hunt.

http://wildlife-nannies.com/wildlife_community/story.php?id=155&PHPSESSID=6f35b4f68c5046ca974a426d2af4d5d1

Another article that details a possible ban on seal products by the European Union that could come as soon as June.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=b61ae675-cb1f-4589-9a6f-fe1107298b88&k=75579

Please consider joining us in signing the following petition regard the UK ban. If this ban goes through, it will virtually end the Canadian seal hunt, as there will be no market! You can sign from anywhere in the world:

http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/seal_trade_ban.html

I intend to continue to post links and resources that will help us reach people and take action. Governments and officials do not address atrocities on their own, but they do respond to popular pressure. The greater the groundswell of people, the more assured we can be that this ban will go through. Likewise, the greater our efforts and commitment to stopping this horrific attack on these beautiful, innocent creatures the more quickly we can get it done.

Atrocities like these inspire feelings of rage and a desire for revenge, and this is understandable and normal; we need not suppress those feelings. They are a step up from despair, so let them come. Let us direct that energy though, along with our compassion and our love for these beautiful, sentient creatures, to a solution. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to take a moment and contemplate these fishermen as no longer needing or wanting to club innocent seals to death for a few dollars. Contemplate the European Union ban as done, as passed. Then, talk about this

Please find links below to take action right now, and consider any talents you can offer to help these beautiful little guys.

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/trademinister_protectseals08?

https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=20706339

Tristan L. Sullivan

To Imagine Weblog readers: the following is the About Me section from my website. I’m moving it here. Thanks for all your support.

They are messing with my heart…
-Thomas Dolby “Hyperactive”

Welcome! I’m Tristan L. Sullivan. I am passionate about music, film, and animal welfare. I started taking music seriously when I was nineteen: a late bloomer. My first instrument was drums, and I was fortunate to study with a world class jazz musician named Randy Kaye. He was a great mentor. I threw myself into it. Randy Kaye is a poet on the drums, especially with brushes. Graceful, subtle, very unique. From the start I got a highly creative, non-traditional perspective in my instruction.
I went to school and studied jazz and music theory. I played a lot of drums. Big band, small group, funk, shuffles. I loved playing brushes. I started playing keyboard, not just because this is required when you study music theory, but because I so intensely wanted to learn the melody to the Sade piece I was studying, the bass line from the latest Miles Davis song I was obsessed with. I fell in love with harmony and voice leading.
As I developed my voice on drums, I found my passion was playing funk music and blues shuffles. Right out of school I started a blues band and we did just that. This was with three of the most creative, gifted people I knew. We worked a lot. One of the interesting things, looking back, is that we had each (except our singer Ed Moran, who needed no schooling) studied and played jazz, and had a fairly complex understanding of music theory. We had some chops. But rather than exhibit this in our music, we chose to simplify. We found that when you channel that much intensity and passion into a simpler structure, the results are fascinating and powerful.
It was beautiful. I miss it. But this is now, and I’m excited about the future. I am excited about the creative potential available in this life to each of us.

What I want: I want to reach people. I love working with singers and producing music, playing keyboard, drums, writing a song, and I love performing. I want to continue to connect with interesting, creative, thoughtful people, make new connections move out west and watch it all grow. I want it now!

What follows are some thoughts of mine on life, culture, humanity, the world of arts and music. If you like, you can dive in deep. Or, you can just move on, look and listen. Either way, it is an honor to have you here. Thank you!

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If you were mine… If you were mine. I wouldn’t want to go… to heaven.

-Sade “Cherish The Day”

I was born with a love for the human voice. Sound thrills and delights me, especially the divine phenomenon we call music, and above all else when expressed by a vocalist. Each of us is dialed in to specific aspects of the divine, and that’s where our joy is, that’s where we shine.

I seem to be most tuned in to tone quality, and especially to the human voice. If you have the TV playing and I walk by I might call out a name: Annabelle Sciorra, Joe Morton, Keith David, Ted Levine, Charles S. Dutton, Debra Winger. Give me a phrase from an actor or a speaker I’ve heard before, I can identify them.

A voice has tone and inflection, but it also has character. It’s as if I’m recognizing someone I know. Then there’s the voice-over crowd; these people have very distinctive vocal quality. In documentaries and nature programs you often hear a guy named Peter Coyote. You might know Coyote as the wheelchair bound hellraiser in a Polanski film called Bitter Moon. Great voice: slightly gritty with a certain warmth, a storytelling presence, and that’s why they use him. Keith David, also. Powerful screen presence; great for voice-overs.

Annabelle Sciorra has one of the silkiest, most gorgeous voices on this planet. If an angel materialized on earth as a tiger, woke up and stretched after a long nap and started to speak, it would sound like Annabelle Sciorra.

When you take that extraordinary instrument and make music, I feel the most intense kind of ecstasy. I mean every cell stands up, worships and receives. I can’t dance, because I’m immobilized by the rush of feeling. It’s beautiful. I love it. I’m sure it’s one of the primary things I came down here to experience. This is how I experience my world: I hear, then I feel about it.

When I work with a singer, writing and recording, I am basically in a room with a divine being who intrinsically manufactures my drug of choice. As you can imagine, I get excited. The reality of us in that room together, her at a microphone and me at the keyboard, not only high on my drug of choice but with the potential to create our own and bring that to the world… well, it’s a privilege.

Movies combine sound design, speech, and music, so as you might imagine, I can get off pretty hard on that. In a scene with music there is a potential, this doesn’t always happen, but a potential to reduce me to a shuddering mass of ecstasy.

In a movie called MirrorMask you will find a fascinating remake of the Burt Bacharache written, Karen Carpenter classic “Close To You.” The arrangement is striking and unusual, a voice manipulated, slightly robotic while simultaneously vulnerable, human rendition that wakes you up and delivers the narcotic at the same time.

Another example is a sci-fi movie called Mimic. I’m a sucker for this genre, and fairly easy to please. Don’t get me wrong, the Ridley Scotts and David Cronenbergs of the world have a special place in here, but I can enjoy movies made without quite as much depth. Mimic is a worthwhile science fiction flick, and there’s one thing about it I find extraordinary. A man named Charles S. Dutton stars in the film, really gifted actor, and there’s a scene where his character descends with a scientist named Manny into an abandoned subway, dark and subterranean, and he sings, shouts out a vocal phrase to comfort himself. “Yeah, yeah… got a telegram this morning. Sayin’ that my wife was dead…” It is pure blues, my favorite music in the world, and as often happens with the genre it takes something painful and makes it into the most exquisite, beautiful expression of humanity on earth.

Mr. Dutton is what we would call a “Blues Shouter,” someone who sounds best when he’s belting it out. He just nails it. It’s a wonderful little musical interlude, one he may not have thought much of… but I highly recommend you rent the movie just to hear it. It is spontaneous, powerful, genuine. It really gets to me. I don’t know if Dutton takes singing gigs or not but I want to hire him, record a phrase like that and compose a moody, filtered and funk inflected piece for it… Dutton’s voice belting out over the top, looped so it repeats again and again, the groove and harmony pulsating support underneath. This is how I worship.

Tristan L. Sullivan

Fiction
Videos
Music

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

I happened to sit down in front of a television last night that was playing the History Channel. They ran a show on the 16th century French apothecary and astrologist, Michel de Nostredame. Michel is known to many as Nostradamus: the great seer and prophet who depicted in his drawings and writing many events that would later come to pass. They interviewed scholars, dramatized aspects of the man’s life, and we saw prints of his well done drawings and his text.

I have rarely seen such a laughable piece of racist, propagandist trash in all my life.

It got to the point where I could predict what they would roll out next, and then watch them do it. Just before a commercial break we learned (and then waited breathlessly through ads for Verizon Wireless and pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb) that de Nostredame had predicted an apocalypse, spurred by a powerful Antichrist! There was much talk about the great Apocalypse (and for the record I think that part may well turn out to be correct), and about this powerful catalyst, the Antichrist. Obviously, this couldn’t be a Christian man, like Mitt Romney. Our distinguished experts confirmed: Nostradamus intended for us to understand that this great Antichrist would be Muslim. We know that, they explained, because Monsieur Nostedame drew a picture of a half moon next to a serpent.

Then they rolled out the image of the Real Life Antichrist we face today. I thought to myself… No, they won’t do it. Will they? It’s too obvious! I mean, I know his face sells PBS specials like Frontline, but will they be that predictable? And who’s image did we see next? Take a guess.
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Many thanks to my loyal readers during this time of transition. I have been doing a lot of work on my website, blog, fiction, music and videos. I’m making a splash at youtube with my first ever public release. I’m excited to announce to that my fiction is now for sale online! Please feel free to visit anytime. You can also navigate from this page, which has descriptions and sample reading. I will be adding more titles soon.

This work represents my most intrinsic ideas and feelings, so it is very gratifying to have the opportunity to reach people.

By the way, any comments on the stories? Feel free to post them below.

Tristan L. Sullivan

A very bright man named Christopher posted a well written comment on this thread, which inspired me to follow up on the original essay. Christopher’s last paragraph:

I think the problem most have with “Christian” music is that the vast amount of songs just arent very good, lyrical or not. I’ve personally always found their melodies soft, their sound soft, their sentiment soft. it’s a preference for me, but it’s a great cause of concern for the genre because I think it’s created a stigma that’s difficult to outrun.

Christopher’s description reminds me of programs they showed us in grade school about drugs, or safe sex, or something similar. They tried to be down with the kids. You could hear it a mile away. It had no power.

In my opinion, an experience of enlightenment and connection with the divine means acknowledging all aspects of one’s self. We can’t remove one aspect and keep another. Deepak Chopra points out that we need to acknowledge both the sacred and the profane, the divine and the diabolical, and I think he’s correct.

I think art has two aspects to it: power and beauty. A given piece might be stronger on one or the other, and that’s fine. Frank Zappa’s “Dirty Love” speaks to a fairly different part of us than Karen Carpenter’s version of “Close To You”, but both are great songs. Each plays to different aspects of our humanity, but each is wonderful in its way. Completely remove either power or beauty from a piece however, make it completely dark or insipidly bright, and you’ve lost your resonance. If an artist wants to achieve anything truly meaningful, she has to embrace the dark side as well as the light.

Sometimes you walk into a nightclub, and the music just pulls you in it’s so alive up there. Spontaneous, driving. Beautiful. In my opinion, the players up on that stage are revealing everything. There is lust in their playing; there’s anger, there is compassion and kindness at the most sublime level.
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