Good Times with Mo (Always Be a First Rate Version of Yourself) : March 23, 2009 blog

Notes from Olivia's Diary

Before I go to the hospital as a busy, busy doctor, my morning ritual consists of opening Sarah Ban Breathnach's "Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy", a daily journal feauturing 365 essays for women on everyday spirituality.

For the March 23 entry, Breathnack's title for her essay is 'Always Be a First-Rate Version of Yourself' where she writes that "we are constantly programmed by the world to be other women, not ourselves. With this pervasive social schizophrenia, it's no wonder that most women are terribly confused about the issue of their authenticity. To be authentic is to be genuine, veritable, bona fide, being actually and precisely what is claimed. THe only thing that we can genuinely claim to be is ourselves. . And our best is good enough."

While reading this book,I was also listening to the Twister on his morning radio talk show and he was talking about these four Spanish students who captured breathtaking NASA like photographs from 20 miles above earth using an equipment worth $140. I was so curious about the images the four students were able to capture that I run to my laptop and type in Mo's suggestions on googling 'spanish students capture pictures from a balloon'.

I zero in on one entry,London's Daily Telegraph which reports that:

"Under the guidance of their teacher, Jordi Fanals Oriol, the Meteotek team of IES La Bisbal school in La Bisbal d'Emporda, in Catalonia near the French border, took atmospheric readings and photographs last month with a digital camera lofted high above the planet by a simple helium-filled balloon.

Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort built the electronic sensor components from scratch and successfully sent the latex balloon to the edge of space and took readings along the way.

Marull, 18, told the Telegraph the experiment was launched to see if the balloon would make it past 30,000 feet, which is the altitude commercial airliners fly. Instead, it made it to over 100,000 feet.

The 18- and 19-year-olds told the British newspaper they tracked their progress using an onboard radio receiver and Google Earth."

Isn't that amazing? The four students exhibited derring-do to the extreme, and the results were way beyond fantastic capturing the world's daily major newspapers.

I look at the 'Simple Abundance' book lying in front of me. It is true. We can find the sacred in the ordinary. We can start with ourselves. We think we are ordinary, but we can start by daring to dream, and acting upon that dream. We can be first rate versions of ourselves, as exhibited by those Spanish students. The results might surprise you, and confound you, just like the images beamed a 100,000 feet away from earth.

Goodtimes!!!

(Photo: METEOTEK IES LA BISBAL SCHOOL/BARCROFT MEDIA)

Good Times with Mo (How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have) : March 18, 2009 blog

Notes from Moira's Diary

I'm a self-confessed Pierre Bonnard groupie. Whereas Mo Twister follows his beloved Coldplay band around the world (I heard he wants to catch the March 23 Singapore or March 25 Hong Kong shows next week), I get a bit obsessive trying to see all the works created by this painter who has been dead since 1947.

Born in 1867 at Fontenay-aux-Roses in France, Bonnard is known for his intense use of color. Yet, when you view his painting according to smatset.com's Morgan Meis, "every wavy line, every strange color in the painting is carefully chosen in order to portray what it feels like to be in that room, not what it looks like, so much as what it feels like."

I see one or two works at a time, the last painting I was fortunate to see was his work 'Dining Room in the Garden' in Las Vegas, of all places. The Guggenheim Museum opened a branch in the Ceasar's Palace in Sin City, and I found this Bonnard amidst casino tables and neon lights. I forgot about my quite gaudy surroundings when I saw this magnificent painting. I wanted to just stare at the painting for hours, but the security folks were quite antsy with people lingering too long in front of the painting, so I took a picture in my mind and just bought my 31st book on his works.

So imagine the joy I experienced when I heard that 80 of Bonnard's paintings are to be exhibited in one museum. The joy, the joy!!! The Metropolitan Museum of New York is the lucky home for all his works till April 19, and I was determined to view his paintings no matter what.

As I was preparing my things for my impending trip to New York, I happen to listen to the Twister's show at Goodtimes, and yes, I totally agree with him when he often says that it's so unfortunate that creating wealth is not taught to our kids. Money is important because it makes our life comfortable, it makes you safe, it affords you to just jump on a plane when a Coldplay concert is playing in Paris, or in my case, a once in a lifetime major Bonnard exhibit is offered to the public.

I was fortunate to learn about creating wealth because at an early age, I read this book by author John Gray who wrote How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have.

Written a decade ago, the famous author of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" postulates that "it is not enough just to be happy with what we have; we must honor our material desires as well." Everyone has the power to have more, and in this 310 page self-help book, Gray teaches how to achieve it.

Although some people might think this book might focus on blind positive thinking, this Gray book is a bit more complicated than that. A review from Amazon.com states that Gray "believes successful people experience unhappiness because they are cut off from their essential, unique selves by blocked emotions. He also posits that people who are not connected with the inevitable negative emotions associated with identifying desires cannot prosper materially. Finding and maintaining one's authentic self and allowing it to manifest its desires allow material success to flow into a person's life and enhance happiness."

I followed what Gray suggested, and all I can say is I've achieved almost all my dreams.

I keep a few pictures of Bonnard's work with me all the time. Some are used as my screensaver in my laptop, and some pictures are inside my journal. Most of the ones I keep are usually paintings I haven't seen yet and the pictures serve as a visual cue of what I want to achieve to see in the future.

I look at my journal now, and two of the paintings I haven't seen before is now in the current exhibit in New York. In a day, I'll be able to gaze at it.Hey good times!!!!

Good Times with Mo (Confessions of a Homophobe) : March 11, 2009 blog

Notes from Jaime

I'm a confirmed homophobe, and I'd be the first to box my brother senseless if he hints he's gay. I once did a mean sidekick to a classmate who touched my hand accidentally. I thought it was deliberate, and when I sensed it was really an accident, I calmed down and helped put ice on his black and blue hipbone. Ouch!

So there I was, stuck in the bowels of a traffic clogged Makati street, consoling myself that at least I was listening to some entertaining fare on the radio, good ole Mo Twister manages to keep me engaged with all the threads of his conversation, no matter how inane.

When the music sucks, I transfer it to chico and delamar's station, and I sometimes get amused with their seamless chemistry. Hearing their voices remind me of a sunny day at the beach with me holding a cone of wild strawberry ice cream topped with chocolate/caramel sauce. Delicious!

But sunny seamless days are not my cup of tea. I like some windy,rainy,foggy and dark days sometimes. The Twister's show keeps me amused, since it viscerally reminds me of our human psyche - sometimes dark, oftentimes twisted, but always at the end, surreal and funny. Like the show.

Anyway, tiring of chico and delamar's perfect weather voices, I returned to Magic 899 only to hear Mojo calling his father in Canada, with the Twister and Grace Lee prodding him on to articulate for the first time that he- Mojo Jojo is gay. Mojo apparently never said it in words, but just hinted at his condition all these years.

"Dad. . .?" Mojo starts hesitantly.

"Oh hi son," or words to that effect. His Dad's greeting was so warm and full of love.

"Di ba Lent na, and I've just been to Mass.." a gaggle of giggles from the funny trio here, who were snickering at the absurdity of Mojo thinking of a reason to blurt out a serious confessional.

"Dad, I'm gay."

I don't know what the Dad said, but he never once got angry. All I heard was that he wasn't disappointed at all. His voice was full love and understanding.

Frankly, I was just shocked at the conversation, and my mind was so befuddled I don't know how I worked that day,operating on semi-automatic mode to get through the day. I could not process at how the Dad showed so much love, at what is quite an unacceptable situation to me, if the same thing happened to me.

When the day ended, I thought I could finally relax. Unfortunately, my girlfriend had a lot of troubles in the office too and wanted to decompress at the end of the day.

Once I brought her home,I was just struck speechless when she plopped a DVD of "Harvey Milk" and Sean Penn came out of the screen as an unbelievably believable fag.

Coincidence?

I could not stop watching the movie because Sean Penn as Harvey Milk is just unbelievable.No wonder Penn won the Oscar as Best Actor last month! I could not see a shred of Sean Penn the person in any frame in that film. Macho, hard-drinking, alpha male Penn had disappeared.

Columnist Michael Sragow of the Baltimore Sun hit the nail on the head:

"As Milk, who rose to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors and became potential mayoral material, Penn breathes the character in thoroughly and breathes him out unself-consciously and passionately. His body language and facial expressions reflect an astonishing alteration in spirit, whether he's raising a fist in triumph at a parade or toppling into romance head-first at a subway stop with the pickup who turns into his most profound lover, Scott Smith ( James Franco).

"What's just as important as his gestures and movements are the sparkle in his eye, the laugh lines in his face and, when you can hear him above the fray or in the quiet of a lonely corridor or a private home, the resilience and humor in his voice. (In Penn's and Franco's characterizations, Milk and the affectionate, devoted Smith harmonize beautifully until politics tears them apart.) Penn the off-screen personality becomes deliberate and somber when he talks about politics on The Charlie Rose Show. As Milk, he creates a character whose passion is extroverted and infectious: Even his guile conveys a sense of play."

Seeing Milk's struggles with the establishment was awe-inspiring. I never knew gays were so ostracized and treated as sub-humans in San Francisco. They couldn't open a business establishment, or if they did, their neighbor merchants punished them by ignoring their existence. During the 70's, it was common fare for cops to raid a gay establishment and it didn't matter if they were well-dressed doctors or lawyers, everyone was beaten to a pulp.

After watching the movie, I could say that I still don't like gays personally, but now I think I see them with compassion. They deserve to live like human beings with the same rights as anyone (except marriage which I believe should be between men and women.)

I admire Mojo's Dad. If there's any great example of how to treat one's son, one's friend, one's sibling who has a same-sex preference, Mojo's Dad is the ultimate example for everyone to emulate.

As for me. Live and let live.

Goodtimes!!

(Photos of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk from www.iwatchstuff.com)