Ah. Been away from the desk for weeks. Ran out of dragonwell tea!
God forbid!!
Dragon Well - 1st Grade (Spring Harvest)
Cups to a sweet and nutty liquor, hints of chestnut.
In our annual search for our highest grade of Dragon Well, we apply 3 criteria: appearance - looking for consistency in leaf size, shape and coloration; aroma - vegetal sweetness and clean; and, finally, taste - we cup the leaves, release its flavors, then taste and with good fortune, we find one of China's true gifts of spring. A "famous tea", our "Long Jing" is artisan crafted, made with a first-grade leaf; one will note its consistent "feather-shaped" size and golden-jade appearance, both characteristic of this prized green varietal. The leaf is hand processed in a wok accentuating its sweet, nutty notes. This lot has a robust, offering a natural sweetness with only a hint of underlying astringency. Tea was harvested in April 2018. Lot # 8-1.
Cups to a sweet and nutty liquor, hints of chestnut.
In our annual search for our highest grade of Dragon Well, we apply 3 criteria: appearance - looking for consistency in leaf size, shape and coloration; aroma - vegetal sweetness and clean; and, finally, taste - we cup the leaves, release its flavors, then taste and with good fortune, we find one of China's true gifts of spring. A "famous tea", our "Long Jing" is artisan crafted, made with a first-grade leaf; one will note its consistent "feather-shaped" size and golden-jade appearance, both characteristic of this prized green varietal. The leaf is hand processed in a wok accentuating its sweet, nutty notes. This lot has a robust, offering a natural sweetness with only a hint of underlying astringency. Tea was harvested in April 2018. Lot # 8-1.
Reordered a fresh batch from Silk Road Teas. And. Aaahhh….
No. I’m not disappointed. Quite tasty indeed.
I tried to drink up odds and ends of other mystery teas in small twist-tied plastic bags, of unknown dates and origins, in a variety of original and dubiously re-labeled, curiously shaped tins, in an assortment of recycled jars… in our kitchen cabinet which houses these sorts of ominous relics. But. Alas.
None of them was quite to my taste.
Light of Day Organics: Yunnan Gold, Lapsang Souchong, Tulsi Citrus Soother, Rusty Treasure… all palatable, I admit. Just not quite right for that first—most important—sip of the dawning day. Rusty Treasure makes an excellent iced tea refreshment however. Mariage Freres, Maison de The a Paris: Marco Polo Rouge. Another candidate for iced tea mid-afternoon. La ManufActure de The: Soleil Vert. Give me a break. Who buys these things?! Really. And anyone who spells tea with an… t(H)e?! And A funny Accent over the—
Kusmi Tea: Strawberry green tea, Ginger-lemon green tea, Imperial Label, Jasmine green tea… and the Kusmi list could go on for pages. Good stuff, Kusmi. Just not for my first morning sip of warm… liquid sunshine glinting off… the perfumy gutters in…
Often referred to as "Temple" after the medieval fortress that once stood in the area and was built by the infamous military order known as the Knights Templar, Paris' third arrondissement sits near the heart of the city. It's prized by locals for its attractive combination of bustling commercial areas, distinctive museums, pleasant market squares, leafy parks and quiet residential streets.
Uh. Right. The third arrondissement. Where were we?
ReAl TeA. Not un-prescribed… temPle t(H)e… medication with a jaunty beret.
Tea. Sorry. The mind gets lost in a maze of back alley scents.
I did have an extremely tasty sip—several alluring cups actually—of perfectly brewed, delightfully balmy puer… tEa. Served to me cordially out of a large, handy stainless steel Stanley thermos by a generous, young Vajrayana Buddhist monk during a sang ceremony last Sunday morning in the newly built and just recently consecrated Tibetan temple at Ewam KuSum Ling in Kneeland, CA.
Ewam KuSum Ling Dharma Arcata Humboldt Nyingma Buddhism ...
https://www.ewamkusumling.com/
The very morning after… the opening for my art exhibition in the Piante Gallery in Old Town Eureka, CA. You know, a couple of doors down from Smug’s Pizza—the tiny take-out pizza joint on Second Street?
Never heard of Piante? Really.
Oh well.
It’s possibly the most prestigious fine art gallery within half a mile of the Humboldt County Jail in downtown Eureka, CA.
No. The Piante (Art) Gallery is downstairs on the street level.
Not in the jailhouse damn it!
It’s in a two-three story, picturesque… leaning… structure that used to be a bustling whore house. Back in the late nineteenth century? Nice older wooden building with rugged, gnarled, wide wooden… primeval new world… locally harvested (if not sustainably) old growth redwood… wobbly, whorled floorboards and nifty grooved… well-scarred wainscoting.
It’s a cool old place with lots of friendly ghosts. Trust me.
If you’re thinking SoHo… NYC. Picture Leo Castelli Art Gallery, 420 W. Broadway, 1975.
Now ya gotz it goyim!!
THE BIG TIME!! That’s right.
Bright Lights, Big City…
Yeah. Two of the incomparable Kosmic Whales (See the: Work folders in OmWork) were (and still are at the moment of writing this Confession) there. (For thirteen more days). Oh yes! The invaluable Five Elements hung/hang together (side by side on a single twenty foot wide wall, in the correct order) for the first time ever! (Look out lowly samsara!) An assortment of prestigious Oms (aesthetically arranged in person by, Sue Natzler, the gallery owner) are forever now rebooting the virtual universe, even as we sit here sipping our dragonwell!
Long live the psycho-spiritual-cosmic domain! (Reality Itself).
Not to mention (to shout from the collapsing rooftops) the enigmatic horseman himself—Seeker—the invincible bardonaut (supreme rider of the kosmic sacro-cranial circuit) put in multiple, inscrutable appearances. If you’re following this twisted yarn here in AdobePortfolio OmWork Confessions…
Then, you know. You know this is the “big breakout moment” in the confessional closet.
In the besieged, bedraggled, bed-wetting…
HISTORY OF SACRED ART IN AMERICA!!!
This is the Nobel Prize world peace moment!!
No.
It’s the Pulitzer Prize redemption story event!!
No. It’s—
Wriggling Brothers Barroom and Bailey’s Irish Cream…
It’s a Trump-like moment, folks. It’s a really, really big shoe
“The moment we’ve all been waiting for, ladies and gentlemen”…
Push me pull you do-nothing llamas—
Esoteric, ecstatic, vajra and bell swinging lamas?
Senores y Senoras… Senoritas en las Tony Lamas?
Como te llamas paloma?
Apostates and apostles banking in the Bahamas—
Esoteric, ecstatic, vajra and bell swinging lamas?
Senores y Senoras… Senoritas en las Tony Lamas?
Como te llamas paloma?
Apostates and apostles banking in the Bahamas—
An authentic, signed original “You’ll Never Be Picasso” moment!!
Ummm.
Damn it. Where’s the thread, padre? My green jeans are unraveling!
TEA!!! Real Bloody Tea… damn it all.
Right.
So. The very next morning. Sunday morning at ten-thirty, more or less—
Sunday, the 6th of May. The very day after the grand art opening at Piante Gallery on Cinco de Mayo, 2018.
I found myself sitting attentively in a full-on Tibetan Vajrayana sang ceremony. A fire and smoke puja— a sacred smoker. Listening ecstatically in a resonating Tibetan temple full of the most exquisite voices. To a gathering of Buddhist nuns and monks chanting prayers to the GREEN, the RED, the YELLOW, the WHITE… if not Ekajati… the Blue Herself
Making offerings of gratitude… giving gifts of flour, cedar smoke, honey… extolling virtues… ringing bells and pounding drums… trilling hopes for graceful bounties… singing for enlightenment… lifting their unified, heaven-sent voices in sacred verse, in Tibetan and English, to
BELOVED MOTHER OF LIBERATION, NOBLE LADY TARA!!
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha… Om Mane Padme Hum… all of it! Times seven times seven times a billion…
It was… beautiful. Heart filling. Totally unexpected. I had no idea whatsoever that this amazing holy place: Ewan Kusum Ling… twenty minutes uphill from downtown Arcata, CA… even existed.
I think it is an auspicious moment in the Art History of the Universe, dear hallowed art enthusiasts and sacred art collectors amongst you goodly cyber-readers.
This profoundly significant sang ceremony. Following so rapidly on the grimy… Mad River mud-coated… heels of my barely advertised, hardly known, impromptu, last minute… almost secret… and certainly esoteric… art opening.
Well. “It’s a sign from heaven”… as they say… to be sure!
But. It comes with an odd twist. Like a good martini.
Here’s the deal.
When I took the Original Five Elements and the Original Five Oms down off the walls… in My Father’s House. To truck them over to Piante Gallery in my turquesa y blanco 1969 Ford f/250 Ranger. Which is running ok on only 7! lucky cylinders at the moment! I noticed a date that was printed in the lower right corner of each piece. This date was for the day upon which these works were apparently built.
By General Graphics, in Alemeda, CA. Across the bay from the mission in San Francisco.
That date was the exact same date… as the day upon which, I had the Original Sacred Vision of Five, or, the Holy Visitation of the High Council of Five, or, the Star Council Meeting of the Five Original Elements, or, the Council Ring of the Fiery Five Elders—
Or. I’m still working on the title.
The point is. The day of the art opening in Old Town, Eureka, was the same day I was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital in… Eureka, CA! The same day that I had my extraordinary meeting with the aforementioned… Divine High Council. The same day I… more or less… died
The very same day I died! In other words.
May 4, 2014. Or was it May 5, 2014. Or May 6, 2014?
Only four years later.
Ah. 5-5-14!! That’s it!! The magic number! Bingo!
If I may, good readers—
The eerie fact of the miraculous manly matter of it is!
At That Very Righteous, Religious Moment (the day I died in the hospital). May something or other, 2014. General Graphics, in graceful Alemeda, CA, was pushing forth the Original Five Elements! Giving immaculate birth (in a dust-free sanctuary) to the face-mounted 1/4 inch acrylic, 1/16 inch aluminum panel backed, 2 inch wooden subframe floated, french cleated…
Stunningly Beatific Original Five OMs!!
It’s incredible!! It’s beyond words!!
These marvelous, miraculous, wondrous, awe-inspiring… Divine Works of Finest Most Illustrious Fine Art!! Then.
GUSHED FORTH AT THE VERY PRECISE INSTANT THAT
OOZED OUT AT THE DECISIVE MOMENT AT WHICH
THE FATE-FILLED, STAR-WRITTEN
IF NOT CORRECTLY PROPHECIED TIME WHEN
(SUDDENLY, BUT NOT ENTIRELY UNEXPECTEDLY…)
THE KARMIC WHEELING, DHARMA BELL-RINGING EXACT
SUDDEN HOUR AS—
I WAS LAID OUT STRAIGHT UPON MY
OOZED OUT AT THE DECISIVE MOMENT AT WHICH
THE FATE-FILLED, STAR-WRITTEN
IF NOT CORRECTLY PROPHECIED TIME WHEN
(SUDDENLY, BUT NOT ENTIRELY UNEXPECTEDLY…)
THE KARMIC WHEELING, DHARMA BELL-RINGING EXACT
SUDDEN HOUR AS—
I WAS LAID OUT STRAIGHT UPON MY
SSShhhhh…. deathbed.
Nevertheless. I’m getting a little ahead of the brewing storm….
Fin. Not. Oh no.
You haven’t seen the “fin” word yet.
No thunder and lightning in a blue sky, no rainbows in an empty meditation hall... nor puff of magical mystery smoke from a magus' pipe thus far… you wet, slimy serpent.
Back down, Senor Cancer!! You obstreperous, blue-balled rapscallion!!
Back down, I say.
This Holy Sanctified Marriage into Immortal Eternal Emptiness won’t be consummated until the pale, dragon-eyed—
Purple-tongued giraffe in the Audubon Park Zoo warbles Dixie.
Halleluuuuuuja!! Halleluuuya…
And that’s a fact you can bank on, Mr. President.
