Hootenany at Brasserie Beaubien Montreal

relaxing after the event

in El Amigo

hootenany poster by Dana

Every Sunday evening Dana and Randy have been organizing and hosting a hootenany at Brasserie Beaubien. People can get up and sing. The audience can sing along or just listen. It's a relaxing social event. There's a hootenany facebook page with video clips and things, address at the bottom of the poster.

om ah hum

om ah hum

 Plenty of ups and downs occur on the wheel of life. A quick mantra to put things into perspective is OM AM HUM. On more than one occasion this mantra allowed Lohbado to pause before pressing the panic button. Take a moment to breathe, gaze into the distance, towards the horizon or at the sky, then let go. Sigh, breathe out, dissolve and rest a moment. Breathe in again.

back in order

Sometimes the best way to get things back in order is to take out the ink and start drawing. Don't hesitate. Be confident and clear.

don't be dogmatic

Dr. Jane Wormsly

Experience of the here and now is deceptive. One might seem to be experiencing a simple moment when in fact the moment of one’s experience involves infinite connections. It’s not possible for a person to be aware of the infinity of factors within an instant.

beyond grasp

ink on paper

pencil on paper

The version of reality by which you act is threatened by the way things are, by that which escapes definition, or aspects of the situation one failed to take into account, plus the background of one's actions. Lohbado looked at a book on the table. He experienced the appearance of a book by means of the senses. The essence of the book escaped his perception. A gap existed between the perception and the essence. Perception was based on what appeared to the senses. The essence could never be found, because the nature of time is motion. Each description becomes history. Instants vanish as quickly as they occur. Each instant is infinitely divisible.

winter progression

ink drawings from lohbado's sketchbook

origin fantasy

ink on paper

Origin fantasy, no origin, infinite regress, a philosophical dictionary distinguished between beginning and origin. Beginning is like when you begin something. Origin is the commencement of the cosmos, of everything, of being. Origin is a fantasy without solution. Speculation ends with a shrug of the shoulders or a leap into faith and superstition, the realm beyond reason. Origin is another one of life’s mysteries, which even a few thousand years of science and philosophy has been unable to resolve.

Club Morono incorporates origin into the letter O. One’s mouth drops open in wonderment while contemplating origin, oh. What can you say? You could pretend to know. Such knowledge is based on someone already existing baking concepts out of already existing ingredients. If a true void or nothingness could exist, there would be nothing to generate an origin. If there was something already there, an origin would be unnecessary, since something would already be there. One could speak of beginning, as in beginning a new project or a new training program, but that’s not the same as origin. Even the big bang theory presupposed the existence of material which gave rise to the bang. The big bang is not the origin, except in terms of using what's already there to begin a cosmos.

Oogah Rug

Oogah Rug

On the Oogah rug Moronovians might come to terms with the human condition. Sit down, relax and accept the fact that nobody lives forever. Each moment vanishes soon after occurring. Moments end up forgotten, or as hazy distorted memory pieces.

dream of summer

Lohbado's dream

Lohbado dreamed of being in a warm sunny landscape in summer. A long cold winter, flu and cold peak season, a dry hot place in the shade of a tree would be nice.

winter dogs

From a video of northern dogs, shot 2006 and 2007 in Kangirsuk, Nunavik.

robot holding a mandala

Lohbado robot

robot in the temple of digestion

robot in the temple

a dream cloud

dream cloud design by Lohbado

Winter drags on just like it does every winter. Lohbado enjoyed winter in some ways. The irritation and discomfort of the outer world stimulated him to connect with the inner world. There’s the outer world of the senses, ice cold in winter. The inner world is what goes on in the mind. The intelligible world involves how one thinks, defines, describes or relates to the sensible world. The mind... what is the mind... that’s a spacious question with many theories. There’s a whole discipline of philosophy called philosophy of mind.

Lohbado went to the Moronovian Tabernacle, sat down and looked at what was going on in his mind. It was nothing to write home about, nothing exotic or bizarre. It was quite ordinary, but in a way, quite surprising and infinite.

spaghetti lunch ritual

Why is one thing considered interesting and something else not interesting? Often the criterion seems random, based on personal preference. Lohbado found as much fascination in a pickle jar as in contemplating a rose. Of course, the beauty of a rose is mind-blowing. However, the texture and aroma of a jar of dill pickles is fascinating. A video about a rose might be more popular, because roses are considered pretty, whereas dill pickles look sort of like frogs. They’re not so pretty. Must one’s interest be limited to the pretty? Is one supposed to only look at pretty pictures of puppies, kittens, sail boats, landscapes, beautiful people, flowers? Is one supposed to not look at bowls, sardines, potatoes, brick walls, sidewalks, branches? Is there a reason why the interests or pursuits of the mind should be limited?

To Lohbado, pretty much everything was interesting, from the lowly potato to a diamond. A diamond is luminous, clear and beautiful. However, a potato has its charm, the power of earth, especially one just dug up. It feels raspy in the hand, has a damp funky aroma, something that lived in the ground until someone pulled it up and decided to eat it. The potato has to be cleaned, perhaps peeled. It could be prepared in a variety of fashions, boiled, baked, fried, scalloped, mashed, made into gnocchi or perogies. 

Club Morono does not take the snob approach to things. In fact, everything in the world of phenomena is worthy of attention. Of course, this could lead to a discussion about good and evil, about sad passions and joyous passions, the helpful or the harmful. However, even to understand harm, one first has to examine it. One pays attention to details then figures out how to deal with situations. Ignoring some things while gravitating to others provides a one sided view. With all that said and done, Lohbado preferred Irish ale to mass produced acidic pilsner from the corner store. However, even a cheap pilsner tastes great when it's all you can afford. It's nice to have experienced both, to make an informed choice as opposed to mindless reaction based on habit. 

in a bit of a pickle

Lohbado opened a huge jar of pickles. They were mushy and tasted like olives. They'd gone flat, no dill pickle zing. He reached for an old apple and with a cleaver cut it in half.

dream world

pencil and ink on paper

March came in like a tired old polar bear. Maybe it will go out like a spring chicken. Meanwhile, the record cold winter drags on. It takes a toll on the body and mind. Lohbado, like many people, became drowsy. Even to put on his heavy parka and boots became a chore. At the beginning of the winter, he was cheerful about it. He felt glad to have warm gear for the cold. But then he didn't expect it to last so long. So that's the story.

body sequence They Live

ink on paper

Speaking of body, Lohbado watched John Carpenter’s classic They Live. When the character puts on the special glasses, things appear without the frosting, in black and white. The image of a woman in a bikini on the beach featured on a billboard becomes a command: marry and reproduce. The environment becomes choked with commands to obey, no independent thinking, consume, watch TV, conform, buy, stay asleep. Worse, the hero is able to see the reptilian space aliens who came to earth to colonize. Earth to the aliens was a kind of third world, open season for exploitation, to benefit the ruling class. This works by keeping most of the population in a stupor, half asleep, apathetic, indifferent.

The aliens respond quickly to those who wake up and see what’s going on. In an early scene a police car, wailing sirens, rushes up to arrest a blind preacher telling a small crowd about the need to wake up. There’s a big scene in which hundreds of cops in riot gear, bulldozers, helicopters, a huge operation, a military storm, break up an encampment in city centre. Ringleaders of the camp, those who met in secret in the church at night, were severely beaten up, some of them shot and killed. One of them sells out and becomes wealthy. It’s definitely a film worth seeing.