Nirvana reunites w/o Kurt Cobain

Nirvana is the ultimate goal in Buddhism, the peak, the summum bonum. It's also a band.

Punk was fresh and rebellious and underground.

Long, long ago, in the early days of LA's hardcore punk scene, the Germs (one of the first hardcore bands with a female musician) used to play in Redondo Beach. They were banned from most places in Hollywood. I remember sitting on stage in front of Pat Smear's amp as he struggled to play even rudimentary guitar.

Darby Crash could not be convinced to use a microphone. He would yell and cut himself as he contorted on the stage, giving the crowd a show. Then years later Seattle vomited up Nirvana. And they would play around LA in small clubs. I resented Kurt's choice of a band name, a cheap shot, a low blow, exploitation, thinking that sacred attainment out of bounds for such a worldly purpose as a band name. Like Darby and I, Kurt at least understood the Buddhist significance of the word.

The Germ's punk tribute to Buddhism "The Slave"

Bam! Where did the shotgun blast come from?

Nirvana literally means "the end of all suffering." So on that basis it was a good name for a depressive grunge band from the mighty banks of the muddy river that runs through rainy Seattle. The Germs had a great album, "G.I.," a punk classic. Reading the liner notes, I was shocked to see that Joan Jett of all people had anything to do with it. She put it together. Joan Jett always just seemed like some rough gal who made out with child actor Dakota Fanning in a film about The Runaways, amazing she could extend her 15 minutes of fame to a lifetime of playing in front of an audience. (Of course, she didn't play herself in the biopic, but that's how I remember the female rocker).

• Dave Grohl joins lineup: LA FireAid benefit concert

The Germs live, "Lexicon Devil," with Darby Crash intoxicated as usual

Then, when Dave Grohl wasn't going to let Cobain's suicide (or murder by drug addled Courtney Love as the private investigator hired to investigate the death concluded and got in a lot of trouble for coming on the Kevin & Bean Show on KROQ and talking about it, now that Love was a rich heir that could sue anyone who dared to imply she was guilty of anything, as she went on to try her hand at acting in a movie about Larry Flynt) stand in the way of his musical career and went on to form Foo Fighters, bassist Krist Novoselic put together a band. I won tickets to see the group at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. I should have stayed home. They were horrible and boring and an insult to any expectations. Who, other than his mom, knew that Great Hair Dave was the secret power source of the group?

Whatever Cobain was channeling, it sure didn't seem Krist was contributing much. Though, of course, every member of a band contributes something ineffable even if people can't see it, maybe just energy and past life connections. So for all that time to pass, and all those Nirvana tee-shirts to be sold and worn by people who may never have heard the band, it's an inspiration to see the reformation go down like this. Pat Smear was a legend, and Dave Grohl knew it, so inducting him into the Foo Fighters was no accident. And it's almost as if he finally learned to play the guitar.

Dave Grohl and Pat Smear visit L.A.’s holiest David Bowie sites*

When people said the greatest grunge drummer in history would be playing the benefit, it seemed like a natural assumption that it would just be him on guitar with his very young daughter on drums like before. But this is Violet Grohl, not the little drummer girl (Harper). So what a treat to see all the effort that went into putting this together with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and St. Vincent with a defective earpiece still pulling out a fabulous performance. All hail, Dave (a kind of Don Bolles), a cheating cheater who cheats but that seems part and parcel to rock 'n roll. They all loved British Buddhist and almost-Scottish Buddhist monk David Bowie.

Vajrayana Buddhist David Bowie on spirituality

Dave Grohl, extreme metal fan of Sepultura

• *Millions have heard Nirvana’s cover of the David Bowie classic “The Man Who Sold the World” from their Unplugged album. Drummer Dave Grohl and guitarist Pat Smear (like Kurt Cobain and Darby Crash before them) are devout Bowie fans. But who knew that Smear and his bandmates in the Germs used to stalk Bowie all over 1970s' Los Angeles? Join Smear and Grohl as they drive around L.A. (in a custom and, as Grohl says, “totally ‘90s” Ford Bronco) visiting Bowie’s L.A. homes, both personal and creative. Along the way the two bandmates reminisce, nerd out on Bowie trivia, and even pick up a legendary passenger. (They also call Joan Jett at home.)
• Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Germs; Dave Grohl, Nirvana (reunion), Joan Jett, FireAid LA Fire benefit

Sex Addiction: David Duchovny is not alone

Mulder & Scully together again: Duchovny, Anderson, and Carter on the set of upcoming X-files movie (forbiddenplanet.co.uk)

More becoming addicted to “quick click” self-gratification
Sex Rx with Ian Kerner, Ph.D.
Sex therapist and relationship counselor
TODAYShow.com contributor
Sept. 4, 2008

For years David Duchovny, as agent Fox Mulder, chased down aliens and told us that we’re not alone. Now he's a sex addict who struggles with the issue in real life. He’s not alone either.

His recent entry into rehab for a self-described obsession with Internet porn has cast a national spotlight on a widely misunderstood issue that affects millions of Americans: sex addiction, specifically compulsive use of Internet-based pornography.

Although the term is commonly used in popular culture, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) does not yet recognize sex addiction as a condition, nor is it listed in their widely used clinical bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But most experts agree that there are growing numbers of people who find themselves in the grip of compulsive sexual behaviors that are beyond their control — behaviors that seriously damage their lives as well as those of their loved ones.

Playing now at a computer near you

Once viewed as rare and obscure, the rapid proli-feration of Internet porn has brought the issue very much into the mainstream, affecting men and women alike. Porn addiction and sex addiction have become synonymous; a “quick click” of self-gratifica-tion can escalate into a self-destructive pattern of behavior (Christie Brinkley’s former hus-band, Peter Cook, is alleged to have spent more than $3,000 per month on his porn habit). Like any substance of abuse, porn becomes a form of escape — from depression, anger, stress, boredom, intimacy, as well as an array of other issues. Self-gratification becomes a way of self-medicating. More>>

Condition Not Limited to Humans
"London Zoo's newest gorilla is addicted to sex"


TheLondonPaper.com

Can’t quit your ex? How to say goodbye for good
Why is it so hard to forgive and forget?
Looking for Mr. Right? It’s your move
No such thing as a broken heart?

The Problem in a Larger Context
What-Buddha-Taught.net

“Inconceivable, recluses, is the beginning of this Samsara. A first point is not known of beings roaming and wandering the round of rebirth, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving [tanha = lust, thirst, desire, see Buddhist terms]."

"Recluses, which do you think is more, the stream of tears that you have shed as you roamed and wandered on through this long course, weeping and wailing because of being united with the undesir-able and separated from the desirable–this or the water in the four great oceans? The stream of tears that you have shed as you roamed and wandered on through this long course…this alone is greater than the water in the four great oceans…For such a long time, recluses, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled the cemeteries” (Assu Sutra, S.15.3).

“There will come a time when the mighty ocean will dry up, vanish and be no more…There will come a time when the mighty earth will be devoured by fire, perish and be no more. But yet there will be no end to the suffering [dukkha = unsatisfactoriness, see Buddhist terms] of beings roaming and wandering this round of rebirth, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving” (Gaddulabaddha Sutra, S.22.99)

“Through many a birth I wandered in Samsara,

Seeking but not finding the builder of this house.

Painful it is to be born again and again.

“O house-builder! You are seen.

You shall build no house again.

All your rafters are broken.

Your ridgepole is shattered.

“My mind has attained the unconditioned.

Achieved is the end of craving.”

[Builder = craving, lust, desire; house: body (the Five Aggregates); rafters: defilements; ridgepole: ignorance] (Udana Vatthu, Dh.153-154).

This precious human birth
“Recluses, suppose this great earth were totally covered with water, and one were to toss a ring with a single hole in it. A wind from the east would push it west; a wind from the west would push it east. A wind from the north would push it south; a wind from the south would push it north. And suppose a blind sea-turtle swimming therein would come to the surface once every hundred years.

Now what do you think: Would that blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface only once every hundred years, stick his head through the ring with a single hole?"

"It would be a sheer coincidence, Venerable Sir, if the blind sea-turtle, coming to the surface once every hundred years, would stick its neck through the ring with a single hole."

"It's likewise a sheer coincidence that one obtains the human state. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a Tathagata, perfectly self-awakened, arises in the world. It's likewise a sheer coincidence that a doctrine and discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world. Now, this human state has been obtained. A Tathagata, perfectly self-awakened, has arisen in the world. A doctrine and discipline expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world” (Chiggala Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya 56.48).

So do not waste this precious human birth
Who knows by tomorrow, one may still be living or dead.

Thus reflecting, without procrastinating tomorrow or the day after,

One may incessantly exert right away on this very day

(Uparipan Bhaddekanatta Sutra 226).

“I teach one thing and one thing alone, namely, suffering and the end of suffering.

“Develop a mind of equilibrium.

You will always be praised and blamed,

But do not let either affect the poise of the mind:

Follow the calmness, the absence of pride” (Sutta Nipata).

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”