Lion of Light: Drops of Atmosphere

Some probably already knew, but those who aren't seeing a lot of show dates and are wondering what I'm up to. Well I'm in the studio, well multiple studios actually, creating the next record which we're tentatively looking at releasing both on it's own and as a "double ep" along with the former ep - Kin of Nietzsche. Still bouncing around ideas for titles, but the songs are starting to take shape in the studio and getting tasty. More updates to come.

Be Ever in Bliss,
JA

Tour Announcement Time: Let's Do it Short and Sweet

Recently got word that this November I'll be playing shows in India (Bombay, Pune, Goa, and maybe some more spots)
and what looks like Spring of 2010 I'll be doing some shows in Dubai.
Hard Rock Cafes and Amphitheatres are on the itinerary.
Should be fun. Further details coming. All my friends there in India, I'm looking forward to seeing yous again.

Much Love

sing to me
bleed for me
and if you should die,
die with me
or if not
come from me
come back
and be love
and beseige
the four chambers of my true house
invest in that property and cultivate the field of it
it is already yours
it is more than four
multiply this by six billion
multiply that by
the stars
for
I am that many
and I am one
one
but only because
i am not
just this
that you see
this that you breathe
is only a fraction
an ephemeral piece of me
be
still
quiet
listen to the soundless whsiper of the entirety of this creation
breathing
in and
out and
when your heart is pure
and free of debris
when it is love only
the breathing
will echo there
like thunder
and you will know me
and you will never need to know anything else ever again

It is of the utmost importance that a person's mind be ruthlessly controlled and constrained to its delegated duty as a servant of the higher nature and the heart. For its deviousness cannot be overestimated, and its collusion with the ego (false self) and the enslaving facets of the world in one planned coup of your being after another is inherent to its traitorous nature.

It wants the throne of your being, and in the majority of cases has already attained it. If it is now in charge you must endeavor with all the strength and fortitude you possess to overthrow it; a task which may take many years. But, make no mistake, It is a defunct imposter, and a usurper. Should it be allowed to rule, there will never be peace in your internal state. Its leadership leads to all manner of miseries; its agents are fear, and doubt, and worry. It is faithless, and its unchecked rule will lead to a hell of your own making. It is a computer. Would you let a computer rule your country? Why, then, do you allow it to rule your internal state? The internal state does need its services to function in the world, but the services must be rendered from its proper position as your servant, your advisor, your informant. not as your master. To allow it the throne is to assure unhappiness & disaster. Above any other work in your life, controlling your incredibly powerful, but traitorously inclined mind is the most important.

Be Ever in Bliss,
JA

Everyone is a force for something, and all the time. The question is not whether you'll be a force for something in your life, but what you will be a force for? When you start making informed decisions as often as you are able for what to be a force for... It won't be long before you will find yourself becoming a great human being.

Be Ever in Bliss,
JA

destroy destroy destroy this line this page that i now write it isn’t poetry if i never break the line or relate to something beautiful or fade in on a new scene or let the words flow smooth as silk as smooth as glycerine upon a new found friend of mine a lover she may be these words are not for her so no they’re nothing you need keep away away away i say be gone destroy this ink this parchment isn’t even real just pixels on a screen and fade and fade and fade from sight the poet and his pen who needs them keys and screens and lights that blend and blend and blend like mushrooms into salads that i never wanted no i don’t want more i don’t need more go get your broom sweep sweep i say sweep sweep away these words like hotel rooms from corners of your memory too many and too soon they left me here and felt so clear back when i found them new i knew i’d never leave them then but now i guess i've left them

I was recently asked about Miracles by someone and they were curious how to make them happen, I'm going to include the response here as a Journal Entry:

Miracles have a constant flowing... They are not so rare as is often believed.

The way to create them is love. But not just any love, divine love. This pure and divine love is unconditional and has all the creative power of the universe latent in it. It has the literal power to produce miracles. It exists in its pure state only in the complete absence of any form of fear. A consciousness capable of this love can work miracles. And beings in human form have done so.

Another way to influence their happening is with pure and unblemished complete faith and confidence in the divine to act. If such faith and confidence exists with no doubt whatsoever, the divine is compelled to act by that faith & confidence. It must be complete, there must be no doubt, but if so it commands the attention and power of the divine. Saints have worked miracles in this way.

The closer to these states that can be accomplished, the better. For some, the most achievable state is to demand action w/ a spirit of as much surrender and love as is possible. This can be effective too, particularly when the demand the surrender and the love are strong.

Be Ever in Bliss

Recently got some pictures from the India Tour and the Amphitheatre Show there in Goa:


Had a Great Time...
Be Ever in Bliss

As some of you know, but many do not. What I would call a sacred duty to my earthly Mother (who's been ailing tremendously from a serious health complication) has kept me from writing you all and keeping up with journals and letters for several months now, as well as curtailing show schedules, videos and all the other stuff I love to give you all. Despite this, the website traffic has doubled over that time period, the project is starting to grow some legs of its own it seems. Lots of people stopping by, so to all of you, Thank You, and rest assured while my family duties may cause some delay, I will get back soon to giving all of you the good stuff that's planned for the future. Also wanted to mention I appreciate those who have supported my mother in her time of need (as some of you are reading this).
Anyway, just thought I'd post a piece done back in March, before the India Tour and Hard Rock Cafe shows over there. The clips in this short piece include footage you've already seen from the welcome video, but I do talk about the new record and some other things:

Hanging Out With Jesus Aaron (March 2008)

Much Love &
Be Ever in Bliss,
JA

So, just posting some of the many press articles on the tour for you all. Much Love to all the writers and reporters who covered us:

GROUP SHOT AT THE OPENING PRESS CONFERENCE

OUTSIDE THE HARD ROCK IN PUNE

POSTERS FOR THE 2 HARD ROCK SHOWS

A WEIRD PREVIEW ARTICLE IN THE MUMBAI MIRROR

SHOW MENTION (DNA-AFTER HOURS)

FROM "THE ASIAN AGE" NEWSPAPER

KALA ACADEMY SHOW REVIEW (THE GOAN OBSERVER)

REVIEW IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Sweat pooling on the bottom of my fingers as I change from A to D and then back again before the amphitheatre crowd at Kala Academy in Goa. India is hot all the time, but when you're under the bright lights and performing outdoors the water forming on your hands while your playing becomes palpable, almost distracting. As I finish the song a short but relatively charming fellow they call Elvis screams out "Jesus!" from the front row, as the rest of the spectators applaud. The dry ice floating through the blues and reds and yellows of the lights might as well be steam, it's so hot, and it really feels surreal to be playing this show on the other side of the world from all the others I've played. The fact that it all seems to be working hits me and it's a lot of fun. So I finish what feels like a very solid set, call down a parting blessing on the enthusiastic crowd, and go backstage satisfied. First big show in India and the crowd was great, the stage was well set up, the set felt good, the sound guy handled his job. I'd promised the sweet young lady from the Times of India (one of the bigger newspapers) before the show that she'd enjoy... (I would find out later that she did). It's been weeks of doing promotions and waiting, so it really felt good to play and play well. HOT though, I find a fan in the green room and just get under and spread my arms to dry off. I'd decided that since I was doing the set solo and a lot of the others acts were doing rockish type stuff, rather than doing the same it'd be wiser to just set a whole different vibe, keep it more involved, poetic, and intimate and I decided there that it'd worked out... a magical night in several ways. Can't wait for the Hard Rock Cafe shows in Mumbai and then in Pune in a couple days...

Saris like the colors of sunrise flapping in the wind as women, riding side saddle on the back of their husband’s motorcycle, manage to look quite composed and even bored as they swerve around dogs, cows, rickshaws, pedestrians,bicycles, cars, and buses. I bounce along in my cab on the way to a live radio interview on what I’m told is India’s biggest radio station (or one of them anyway). It’s about a 30 minute ride from the Hotel Santiago in Baga (which is one of the most western areas of all of India, never seen so many pale skins in one place over here, most all of them are from England, a hot spot for British tourists I guess, and understandably so, as it is kind of a paradise type area here).

Radio Indigo 91.9 FM in Goa has a nice studio space just a stones throw away from the garden area of the main shopping district of Panaji. I spent about an hour hanging out and chatting on air with Mark Rocha, a talented and super friendly RJ (they don’t call them DJs in India) who works the primetime hours. Just another bit of promotion for the shows in India and particularly for the Goa show coming up on the 29th at Kala Academy, so far we’ve had several articles in the local and even national papers, 40 foot billboards with your face on them, TV interviews, ads running in magazines etc… This tour is mostly promotional, an introduction to the quickly changing Indian Market. I’m told my music video for the song “We Like Pretending” has been accepted by VH1, Channel V, Channel Z, and MTV India (basically all the big music video playing stations. Back at the hotel we’ve been flipping through these channels in case we catch it and just to see what they’re doing with music videos over here. Unlike the states, where it’s all reality shows, the music channels mostly do play music videos (what a novel concept).

A pretty interesting thing is there is no kissing allowed on screen in Indian Music Videos or TV or even Movies as I understand (though HBO and others play western movies where there is). Anyway, it’s funny to watch how far they push their music videos and commercials without the kiss. The actors will like lick all the way up the torso of each other and kind of bite each others neck in the most seductive way they can and then go in for the kiss, but the kiss won’t happen; the camera will cut away or the girl will playfully slap the guys mouth away. It’s funny because the stuff they do is way more provocative than kissing, but they don’t kiss and if they do the camera doesn’t tell. Funny how every country has these little peculiarities.

Well that’s all for now… I’ll be updating everyone on the big show at Kala Academy, and the two Hard Rock Café Shows in Mumbai and Pune respectively. If you’re around here check out the music video channels and let me know if you see the video. If you’re not… Kiss, Kiss from India.

Be Ever in Bliss,
-JA

Here's a good litmus test for how well you're living up to your ideals: Multiply everything you do by 6 billion. That is, what if the world was following your lead? What kind of world would it be? Everytime you recycle or don't recycle multiply it by 6 billion. Let the water run while brushing you teeth, multiply by 6 billion. Take a second to pick up a piece of trash on the street, or smile at someone multiply by 6 billion. Live as if everyone looked to you and would behave the way you do. Then you'll be living as a representative of your ideal world. Then you'll be living the way you always knew you could.

Be Ever in Bliss,
Jesus Aaron

Update for all yous regarding the India Tour. Though the tour got pushed back to April... In addition to being supported by MTV India and VH1. I heard through the mill that all the Hard Rock Cafes in India are actually getting on board for this thing. Which makes for a hot looking April coming up. Just keeping you lovely folks updated. More info soon.

Be Ever in Bliss,
Jesus Aaron

In our economic model here in America, which centers around Christmas time, and indeed would collapse without it, the mad dash for gifts and determining what morsel of entertainment paraphenalia might evoke pleasure in our friends and family has come to rule the Holiday season. While it is sometimes great fun, and for a worthy cause (ie celebrating the birth of Christ). In recent times its become of greater benefit to the bottom line of corporations than to the soul of the individual.

The nice thing about the New Year's tradition of resolutions is it is a perfect and particular opportunity to "turn it all around". And the corporations (other than the fitness equipment and champagne sales folks) haven't found a good way to exploit it just yet.

While a complete conversion is quite unlikely, those who would make the most of this holiday can actually do more for their fellow man than buying everyone you've ever met exactly what they wanted for Christmas could ever do: Namely, by making the resolution, that in the next year you will employ your focus on ennobling yourself.

Commit to overcoming negative qualities within yourself which feed all the worlds problems. Things like Greed (which Christmas as we practice it actually now fosters to some degree), Lust (which Christmas Advertising now fosters), Anger, Laziness, and Cowardice. Take aim on your own mind. Take serious steps towards learning to control your thoughts and emotions. Probably less that one in 10 million people really has complete control of their mind and themselves. It is the rarest and most valuable of accomplishments. It is the mark of the super-human. It creates a being of such grandeur others will marvel at them (and sometimes hate and kill them too, nice right?), but happiness is theirs, and permanently, because it flows from within and requires no particular exterior events. It is in fact your true state, begin your move towards this on New Years. All the goodness in the world is hiding within the very beings that inhabit it; it is buried beneath the negative qualities that are fostered by their sense of fear and inferiority. If I can wish one thing for each of you, it is that you should commit to ennobling yourself and to ovecoming everything petty and small and fear based in your consciousness, and it is the only thing in the world worth doing.

And it is in the presentation of this opportunity so explicitly to you, that the modern version of New Years can actually trump the modern version of Christmas in its use.

Be Ever in Bliss.

So, just a big thanks to everyone who participated in the tour and everybody who came out to support. Also big thanks to the venues (Eddie's Attic, The Melting Point, etc...) The Heart of Georgia Singer/Songwriter Tour for 2007 was great fun for both the musicians and the audience, anyone who missed the shows this year, you better ask somebody.... ;) they'd tell you just how good it was. Anyway, Happy Holidays to everyone and watch out for more next year when some of the best singer/songwriters in GA come a rolling through her key cities and townships and playing some of her finest venues.

Be Ever in Bliss,
-JA

Jesus Aaron just signed with an international management company. Woa! you
say...? W.O.A. indeed. and with the surname International. That's
right W.O.A. International, primarily based out of India, and Jesus
Aaron will be doing big things in India starting immediately. A large
tour, sponsored by MTV India, and VH1, and others, will send 15
international artists, a tour bus, and thousands of fans flocking to
pretty much all the major cities in India. Madness you say, perhaps,
but in that good way. It will all ensue in January and February of
'08. Jesus will be there.

Impyre Vontyler
Vampire Hairstyler
Cuts in the Dungeon for
Dracula's Goons.

Hairdos for Terrible
Multi-dimensional
Blood Thirsty Cannibal
Pale Faced Bafoons.



*The Double Dactyl is kind of an estranged cousin of the Lymerick, but includes the added cute challenge of the 6th line being a Single 6 syllable Rhyming word in the double dactyl form. A dactyl by the way is a form of tri-meter that goes accented, un, un.

Embarrassment, like worry, is a debilitating waste of time and energy.

I will be an in station guest tonight on Elisa Apostle's show from midnight to 2 am PST on KSUB, The Radio Station of Seattle University. I'll be promoting the debut record, the Seattle Show Friday night at Caffe Bella, the value of goats milk in daily diet, mandatory thigh high stockings in bowling alleys (for girls), and the ominpresence of divinity and its coolnesses.
You can listen online at:
http://www.ksubseattle.org

God helps you much more when you treat him as a beloved friend, and not a ruthless, dictatorial, monarch.
Fear of God is a crutch (and a clumsy one) for those sparse in faith, for purposes of helping them to behave and walk the path; in truth, there is nothing about God to be afraid of, even for those called "sinners". However, the Laws of the Universe, such as: As you sew, so shall you reap, can get downright nasty. And it's time's like those when it''s even more important not to be afraid of God, but to call on Him as a friend.

Be Ever in Bliss,
Jesus Aaron

I've been in contact with some of the key players in the industry and so I happen to be in a position to be in the know about some of the ins and outs. Here's some of what's happening.

500 Record Stores per year are closing... 76,000 people have lost their jobs... The perceived value of music in the minds of consumers has been plummeting... Recording costs continue to rise in big studios... 6 million bands or so on myspace all think they've got something and are flooding the market with what amounts to white noise... I'm also convinced, by the way, that myspace has contributed to the concept that music is less valuable, since every song one could want to hear has become freely available here (btw I may have to start putting up samples instead of full songs just to do my part to counteract this lowering of value in the average person's mind)... Record Companies are getting more and more risk averse as a result of this stuff and only putting out formulaically proven stuff as a result (ie music that sucks)... and Piracy... yeah we all know it's insane.

Wal Mart, who accounts for 37% of music sales, yes I know it sounds insane but it's true 37%! has decided music doesn't make enough per sq. inch of their floor space. Many anticipate that in the next couple of years they will scale back their catalog and only carry the top 200 selling cds. This means if you're an Indie or on a Large Indie Lable, even Major Label artists not high enough on the totem pole... forget about it, 37% of the pie is gone.

Also cute was both Best Buy and Wal Mart's idea to sell CDs below cost for a while. Effectively & Artifically lowering the value of a record in the consumers mind to under $10. They then tell the distributor they can't buy records for more than $7.25 and because they account for such a large market share the distributor has trouble saying no, which means when the label sells to the distributor they aren't getting much, and you can imagine how much the artist gets... for those of you that don't know... you have to sell about 750,000 records on a major label before you recoup the advance they give you to make and promote a record. Since very few are getting that many sales now... you do the math.

Here's more fun stuff: Some of the biggest distributors, who have always budgeted for 20% returns (if a cd doesn't sell the record store can return it and get their money back from the distributor). In the last year these distributors are seeing 50% returns. Let's just say this HURTS these people. Let's just say this HURTS record companies. Let's just say this HURTS the artists who make the music...

What's to be done? Now more than ever... SUPPORT the music you love by buying it, buying merchandise from the bands, going to their shows... or it may disappear, and that would really be a monumental shame.

Oh, btw, all you people out there pirating music... just so you know, a lot of this is your doing. If you want music to get even worse and more of the people who make it, and make it available to you, to lose their job, keep right on stealing it.

Everyone loves music, I don't see how anyone cann say it's over priced at just 99 cents per song. So do your part my friends... If you love someone's music, don't steal it, buy it.

Be Ever in Bliss

So my fair feathered friends, as mentioned to those on the mailing list, with the assistance of a fantastic Radio
Promo Firm out of LA (Bryan Farrish's) we're launching a pretty huge
radio campaign. 500+ stations covering the whole US map (& including
some international stations) for 16 weeks. If the record is well
received, we should definitely get some great airplay out of this and
some type of chart position on the Roots Report and Folk DJ Charts.
Wind up the monkeys and let them have a backflip contest.

Be Ever in Bliss, -JA

So, here's what I see happening all the time: A Band puts every ounce of effort, time, inspiration, and money they can muster (maybe they even mortgage their house) into making a recording of music: Someone falls in love with it, goes around saying, Oh they are so amazing, they touch my soul, my life is improved by their very existence... And immediately they turn around and say how can I steal from them, the people that support them (yes, including their record company), their children, and all the people who work on a percentage basis for them. Oh yeah, I can download/listen to their music for free on such and such site and they, and none of those around them will see a dime; nice. Oh and additionally, double bonus, they're an Indie Artist, so by not buying their record, they may not have sufficient funds to even make another record. Anyone else see a problem with this? Would it not have been better to spend $0.99 to download the song legitimately. Wouldn't you rather spend $0.99 than steal from someone you claim to love. Enough said, I really don't see how there is even a debate about piracy. It's no good for anyone. Even the fan doing the stealing loses out in the long run. My advice to people is to support what you love in life, and you'll see more of it.

Be Ever in Bliss,
-Jesus Aaron

you're not really paying attention."
-Jesus Aaron