(MeidasTouch) Mrs. Melania Trump (at her house in Trump Tower because she does not live in the White House with her alleged molester husband "John") throws alleged blackmailed child molester Mr. Donald Trump under the bus over the Epstein Files, as she is evading being served in a lawsuit by Don Trump and Jeffrey Epstein biographer Michael Wolff
It was a full house of participants gathered on a damp and drizzly evening. Next local poetry event is May 15th, 4:00-6:00 pm at the SPARC Centre Gallery. Also in attendance were the current Poets Laureate Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon, who announced the upcoming "Poetry & Cookies" on Saturday, May 17, 2025, 4:00-6:00 pm (with a surprise open mic portion, so sign up). A beautiful land acknowledgement to the Native Tongva (Kizh, Gabrieleno) tribe of Los Angeles and region including the Channel Islands was delivered by the head of the library to launch the evening. Handouts were given and introductions were made. Then we got to writing, prompted by the workshop leader, former library Poet Laureate Dr. Lipkin. Grief was expressed about the Eaton Fire four months after the LA Fire devastated the city.
These three submissions, written on site, stood out. A page of writing prompts was handed out with leading phrases meant to trigger the creative process and the start of a poem (prompt shown in green).
THE NIGHT WAS DARK BUT THERE WAS ONE LIGHT.
The tunnel, the train, ah, the 6:40, yes, right on time. And here by its light, the reason for my stumbling, railroad ties -- and this long slick guide, steely, cold in pointing only this way or that. You see, I can't go back. I was fated forward roam, here alone, at night, right on track, in search of some way out. Then came the breeze, a breath, fresh air cool on my face -- with something left to face, over there, one more thing, right there. The night was dark but there was one light.
The two hours raced as we each wrote four pieces -- a fairytale, elegy, persona poem, and a prompted piece. Poets love to "paint" outside the lines, so every work of creativity was its own, each somewhat elegiac for what was lost to the fire. Only a small percentage of the participants were men; one cried as did another woman, who read and read every chance she could get, apparently dying for validation.
Fairy tales have been around for centuries because they capture something essential about the human experience.
In this workshop, we will use fairy tales and their tropes as inspiration to write about our own lives.
Thinking about the forest, the animals, the seasons, and the symbolic characters we find in fairy tales,
we will explore the persona poem and elegy, among other exercises to spark the imagination,
to celebrate and commemorate Altadena, and to process grief.
The workshop is FREE and open to the public -- all ages and backgrounds welcome.
Please bring a notebook and pen if possible; otherwise, the Altadena Library may provide writing utensils.
Anniversary of the LA Fire
The Jan. 7th fire was the worst in its history
Tuesday, May 6, 2025, marks nearly four months since the Eaton Fire devastated the Altadena community. We extend a special invitation to Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre residents and to those impacted by the Palisades Fire. Please join us to write and process experiences, releasing grief, and showing Los Angeles community resilience.
ABOUT: The presenter
of this workshop is former Altadena Library Poet Laureate (2016-2018) Dr. Elline Lipkin, PhD, a poet, nonfiction writer, and academic (Prof. Elline Lipkin, UChicago, Graham School) who until the Eaton Fire had been an Altadena resident for 13 years. She holds an MFA and PhD in literature and creative writing and has been a research scholar with UCLA'sCenter for the Study of Women. She is the author of two books. Her third, Girl in a Forest (on triohousepress.org), is forthcoming in October 2025. She served her community for two years as Altadena Poet Laureate and editor of the Altadena Poetry Review.
Those who produce a poem worthy of attention at this workshop are encouraged to submit it to Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal for consideration. Editors will consider submissions, and publication may be the result. Yesterday (May the 4th Be With You Day) this website had 53,000 views, and today (Cinco de Mayo) 56,000 and counting (running from 5:00 pm to 5:00 pm). Moreover, the past six months have seen 2.94 million views. So publication may draw considerable attention to your efforts.
Read works of poetry, short fiction, memoir, slam, spoken word, rap, whatever in a circle of area poets at South Pasadena Arts Council SPARC Centre Gallery located at 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena, third Thursdays, from 4:00-6:00 pm. FREE
WEEKLY: Meditate with Amy Rutledge (Tuesdays via Zoom)
Meditate with Amy Rutledge, virtually, on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, 6:30–7:00 pm viaZoom. All-ages are welcome. Join Amy and others for a guided half-hour meditation via Zoom in recognition of Mental Health Month. Be kind to yourself and chill in a group for 30 minutes.
ABOUT: Amy Rutledge came to the study of meditation as a path toward personal healing after struggles with the effects of Lyme disease as well as depression and anxiety. She found that it helped her in unexpected ways when many other approaches failed. More: meditatewithamy.com
(KCW Attractions) April 28, 2025: LA Times Festival of Books at USC (April 27, 2025) featured TV star Wilmer Valderrama. Who? He's a Hollywood man-about-town (who dated many incredible women to prove his prowess as a super sexy Latin heartthrob, who is now on about writing with an insightful discussion concerning his book, An American Story. Hear his inspiring journey and thoughts on his work. #AnAmericanStory
We often hear said that "Los Angeles has no culture." That may be. But we do have the country's largest book festival.
Who knows who's doing all that reading, but we buy a lot of books and launch more careers than Nashville, Frisco, and even the Empire State, the Big Apple, where allegedly if one can make it there, one can make it anywhere.
How to boil down this mega literary festival full of authors, promoters, publishers, and poets?
To boil down the whole two-day event on the USC campus near the heart of the city (DTLA), there was this former teenage heartthrob named Avan Jogia. His post-teen fans mobbed the Poetry Stage tent to marvel at his ability to write, express emotion, and cuss. It was hot. (It wasn't but if one loves a TV star and sees him in real life, dressed in suit, tie, and checkered Vans, hey, that's something. What is it? An opportunity to sell lots of copies of a personally autographed hardcover poetry book about the darker side, very Emo and slightly Goth, called Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob).
USC encourages responsible graffiti: It's lit
The annual Los Angeles Festival of Books on the USC campus (now in a kind of lockdown status requiring picture ID to enter) is here, hosted by the Los Angeles Times.
It is two full days of authors, book sales, literary performances, networking, seeing and being seen, getting published, and maybe even wrangling a book deal with a major publishing house.
Don't count on it. There's nearly no money on anything but novels that get picked up and converted into something else by the Hollywood Machine, the dream of any serious writer eager to cash in rather than promote the art of communication and literature.
Books, books, read books on Venus and Mars!
There is also a religious section and a massive Buddhist organization giving out FREE sacred Buddhist texts and titles from both the back-to-basics historical Buddha-oriented Theravada tradition and the much larger Amitabha (a Cosmic Buddha) and Guanyin (Goddess of Compassion) emphasizing Mahayana school and its apocryphal writings. A lovely Muslim organization will have literature as in years past. Bring a book bag, enjoy food and live entertainment, and lots of schmoozing and walking around like a college coed. Info: Festival of Books
30 Years of Stories: The L.A. Times Festival of Books Returns
Modern "readers" prefer more pictures, manga, anime, and comics with easy emotional signaling
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is marking its 30th anniversary as it returns to USC’s University Park Campus all day on April 26-27, 2025. For three decades, this beloved event has brought together book lovers, authors, and storytellers to celebrate the written word. Join fellow book enthusiasts as USC welcomes the community to its campus for this annual event. Visit the L.A. Times Festival of Books at USC website
(YouTube Movies & TV) A Glitch in the Matrix, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher (Room 237, The Nightmare), is a multimedia documentary that dives into the great existential question: Are we in fact living in a simulation?
[Was the "simulation" called Samsara by the Buddha?]
Using a seminal 1977 speech from Philip K. Dick as a jumping-off point, Ascher presents compelling scientific evidence and philosophical musings through interviews with real people shrouded in digital avatars, as well as samples from cultural texts like Minecraft and The Matrix, to support the idea that the [world within this cakkavala, this prison planet, this Empire of the City, or] universe is a highly advanced computer simulation.
Part sci-fi mind-scrambler, part true-crime horror story, A Glitch in the Matrix is an eye-popping, open-minded, and highly entertaining journey to the limits of radical doubt that leaves no stone unturned.
The Dead Internet Theory
Whoa, I know I played Neo, but I feel my most important role in life was like playing Budda.
.
There is an online conspiracy, speculation, explanation, proposition (with evidence) that asserts that, due to a coordinated and intentional effort, the Internet now consists mainly of bot activitynot of real people.
Proponents of this "theory" (explanation of how things actually are) believe social bots were created intentionally to help manipulate algorithms and boost search results in order to manipulate consumer [6, 7], and no one can doubt that -- just as spam ruined email and junk calls ruined answering the phone when it's from an unfamiliar number.
Dog teleports in. Man's legs switch as he slips.
Some proponents of the theory accuse government agencies (like the CIA, NSA, NSC, DHS, DARPA, FBI, IRS, ISI, KGB, Meta, Google Corporation/Alphabet Inc., FB, Apple, AI, CCP, SpaceX, Amazon] and many more we do not know about) of using bots to manipulate public perception [2, 6].
The date given for this "death" is generally around 2016 or 2017 [2, 8, 9]. The Dead Internet Theory has gained traction because many of the observed phenomena are quantifiable -- one such quantifiable is increased bot traffic.
But the publicly available literature on the subject does not yet fully support the theory [2, 4, 10] but aspects of it are not in doubt.
This is where-when it becomes crucial to have read George Orwell's warning Nineteen Eighty-Four, to have a language or metaphor to refer to. In it the protagonist, Winston Smith (the Everyman), works in a cubicle at the Ministry of Truth manipulating reality, and all life is hounded by a "Telescreen." The screens are everywhere, always watching. Whether they are always all monitored, that is unknown, but one never knows when one is being watched. (Now, thanks to recording technology, we are always being watched not in real time but at any time authorities want to review the footage they are amassing for A.I. to go through). Sadly, most attempts to "rebel" are manipulated by police to preemptively (sting operation) undermine resistance, much as happened to the Occupy Movement, which was evaporated so that no one even seems to remember it now. It was big at the time. And the mainstream media was all for destroying it
Origins and spread
The Dead Internet Theory's exact origin is difficult to pinpoint. In 2021, a post titled "Dead Internet Theory: Most Of The Internet Is Fake" was published onto the forum Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe esoteric board by a user named "IlluminatiPirate" [11], claiming to be building on previous posts from the same board and from Wizardchan [2], and marking the term's spread beyond these initial imageboards [2, 12].
The conspiracy theory has entered public culture through widespread coverage and has been discussed on various high-profile YouTube channels [2]. [It has? This is the first we're hearing about it from a poorly done video by a man who can barely pronounce English words.]
It gained more mainstream attention with an article in The Atlantic titled "Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet 'Died' Five Years Ago" [2]. [Yes, thank you, we had missed it, though we suspected something was off, and it all started from the time we first surfed the Internet.] This article has been widely cited by other articles on the topic [13, 12]. More
Once upon a young American from the Bay Area in California decided to go on a spiritual quest.
(Yes, that's true of writers at Wisdom Quarterly, but this time we're talking about Jack Kornfield, who preceded us).
Kornfield decided to seek the wisdom of the East along with his hippie friends from the East Coast.
Jack Kornfield: Life is funny because karma is.
While working in the Peace Corps and learning languages in Asia, he trained to be a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India (just like we did, although we added Sri Lanka, where many of the sutra texts are stored along with their chief translator, Bhikkhu Bodhi, our teacher and inspiration.
Buddhism for Beginners (Jack Kornfield)
Wishing to visit Thailand, a friend who became Tan Jess, and I heard about Kornfield's guide to young seekers, which talks about a dozen living masters one might possibly study under in the original wandering ascetic forest tradition). Kornfield was good enough to write about his experiences under ten teachers, ten living Buddhist masters, for a Western audience back home. Not everyone is called to let it all go and go East. (But we were). Thankfully, Kornfield was.
The Wise Heart (Jack Kornfield)
Miraculously, he found what he was looking for, and not only he but at least four others. All seem to have attained the path of stream entry (the first stage of enlightenment) there under Dipa Ma and others.
There is Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein (IMS, IMS Forest Refuge), Sylvia Boorstein, and we could swear there was someone else who is not Trudy Goodman (founder of InsightLA.org) because she came into Kornfield's life much later and is now his wife, but maybe it was his previous wife, Liana.
Kornfield awakened (probably in Dipa Ma's living room in India), was sent back to the US, and is now the co-founder of the Bay Area's Spirit Rock Meditation Center near San Francisco and one of the co-founders of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.
Kornfield has worked to make Buddhism accessible for Westerners [10], combining loving-kindness and self-compassion with the practice of mindfulness. He incorporates the wisdom of Eastern and Western psychology. In his book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, he writes about the honest development of the wise heart within the cycles of day-to-day life.
Original 1977 cover of the book
For instance, "amid all the Western masters and teachers I know, some idealistic perfection is not apparent.
"Times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis, and struggle. "Most teachers will readily admit this" (pg. xix).
Kornfield's early lectures were featured by Joe Frank on his radio series "The Other Side." More
Jack Kornfield, Living Buddhist Masters (Internet Archive, archive.org);Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ajahn Mahindo (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Will Jailbird Trump make Xmas great again or be in arranging his affairs and on his way to jail?
“Biden is a war criminal!” Pro-Palestinian demonstrators demand ceasefire, end of illegal occupation
(Status Coup News) Dec. 3, 2023: On Dec. 1st, protesters flooded the streets in NYC, demanding a ceasefire and a Free Palestine. Following Israel ending the "pause," they have immediately begun bombing Gaza's civilian population, most of them women and children, and American peace activists have had enough.
This book is a denunciation of the American credentialed elite class that serves capitalism while insisting on its own "progressive heroism."
Professional Managerial Class (PMC) elite workers labor in a sphere of performative identity and virtue signaling, publicizing an ability to do ordinary things in fundamentally superior ways.
Author Catherine Liu shows how the PMC stands in the way of social justice and economic redistribution by promoting meritocracy, philanthropy, and other self-serving operations to abet an individualist path to a better world.
Virtue Hoarders is an unapologetically polemical call to reject making a virtue out of taste and consumption habits.
"Forerunners: Ideas First" is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.
(GoTraveler) Pamela Holt has become an expert solo female traveler. Together share in the adventure, the freedom, and the joy of discovering new experiences, foods, and friends. There is no better time to explore the world on one's own terms.
Host: Pamela Holt
Director: Pamela Holt
Writer: Pamela Holt
CEO: Pamela Holt
Art: Pamela Holt
Concept: Pamela Holt
Based on a notion by Pamela Holt (lol)
On top of the world: Tiger's Nest Buddhist Monastery, Bhutan, Himalayas
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Once upon a young American from the Bay Area in California decided to go on a spiritual quest.
