spark and sergio, a love story - part 2

Spark and Sergio are screaming.  Morrissey’s words.  “Sister I’m a Poet” crackling through the car’s broken speakers.

“And is evil just something you are?  Or something you do?”

A puff of black exhaust exploding into the October sunset.  Sergio’s boot pressed against the floor.  Clove cigarettes lit.  Through the smokey air, the twinkling towers of downtown Denver inching closer.

“Did you bring it?”

“And nothing else.”

She smiles.

Pulling her black trench coat open.

Read more

express check-out @ the heartbreak hotel

People suck.  At what?  Relationships.  People suck 13 times worse at something else.  Break ups.  Whether you’re on the giving or receiving end of the final farewell, it takes its emotional toll.  Big time.  How long you choose to suffer though, is entirely up to you.  I’ve known people whose lives were still poisoned by a sinister separation years after the fact.  Lucky for you?  I’m here to help.  Soothe the pain.  Right the wrong.  Cauterize the wound.  In typical Cash form; a trio.  My most tremendous trio yet.  The three R’s.

If you’re smart enough?  Big enough? Sane enough to listen up?  You’ll save yourself a lot of pain.

THE THREE R’S OF A HEALTHY BREAK-UP

1)  REVERIE

The first thing you need to do?  Reflect on all the good things that ever happened in the relationship.  You heard me.  I’m not talking highlights here.

I’m talking every.  Single.  Blessing.

Read more

assassinate assumptions

My favorite philosopher of all time?  Cash.  (duh. ;-)  1st runner up?  Don Miguel Ruiz.  Toltec teacher, shaman and best selling author, his trio of books:

The Mastery of Love

The Four Agreements

The Voice of Knowledge

should be considered required reading.

For every.

Human being.

On earth.

Or at least those human beings seeking happiness and peace.

I was reminded of one of his “Four Agreements” (and the incredible brilliance therein), following a startling conversation with my mother.

The agreement in question? Read more

the feast of the immaculate ego

In news that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one?  There’s something about Satanism I truly respect.  The fixation on black clothing, extreme facial hair and strange tattoos?  No.  Their motto; “Do as thou wilt?” No.  Well okay, yes and no to that one. :)  Perhaps its their (alleged) abstinence from drugs?  Hahaha, omg can you imagine?  No, not hardly.  It’s something far more important.  Sensible.  Sublime.

Satanists celebrate but one holiday per year; their own birthday.

This reverence for one’s self aligns perfectly with a very core part of my personal philosophy (see “the 6th Commandment of Cash“).  Honoring and loving yourself, feeding off the confidence that follows, and helping the people you care about do the same?  Is one of the most important steps you can take on the path towards power, happiness and peace.

There’s just one problem.  Most birthdays?  Suck.

Making reservations for 8 at T.G.I.Fridays, buying the first round of Flaming Pussy’s and then snapping a few dozen pics of the guest of honor puking out the window of a cab?  Doesn’t do much to build confidence.  Convey importance.  Celebrate a life, and person, you’re grateful to have around.

The solution?

Throw a different kind of “party” entirely.  One that matters.  One they’ll never forget. Read more

likability week on TGOC

One of my proudest discoveries yet can be summed up in the following, (somewhat sinister sounding) quote:

All power achieved without maximum likability will be hard won and short lived.

-cash

Why should you care?

Good question.

I’ll ask one in return:

Are you really that dumb?

All people, whether subconsciously or not, want more power.  Power creates freedom of choice.  Power creates freedom period.  If you fancy yourself a friend of freedom, you need to do everything you can to increase yours.

The easiest way (and therefore the only way) to get started? Read more

how to be the best dad* in the world

(Or wife.)  (Or girlfriend.)  (Or human being.)  My dad is amazing.  That’s probably the biggest understatement of all time.  The way he raised me, and shaped me, for success and happiness cannot be underestimated. Or explained.  But I’ll do my best.  Two simple words, said the right way, can be a magik spell of positive potential you can cast upon anyone in your life.  If you love them.  If you believe in them.  If you want them to succeed.  And find peace.

The words?

“Makin progress?”

These words were spoken to me, countless times, as I was growing up.  They’d fall off the lips of my father as I was doing something difficult.  Slaving over a homework assignment for school.  Trying to figure out the latest piece of high-tech musical equipment I’d acquired.  Working on a video or mix tape for someone important to me.

The cadence and tone of his voice are hard to describe.  It was a combination of absolute confidence, kindness, and divine encouragement.  He said them in such a way that I knew he felt my answer to the question could only be “of course”.  He said it in such a way that if my answer to the question was anything but?  I’d rethink my perception of it.  My answer to it.  Because he believed I would be, and should be ‘making progress.”  Because he believed in me. Read more

the peril of the pinnacle

Want to ruin your life?  It’s simple.  Start believing you’ve found the perfect ______ (insert blank with anything on earth; person, place or thing).  As soon as you commit yourself to this concept, you’re bound for doom.  Why?  Think about it.  There’s a great quote, a tag line, from some movie whose name I can’t recall right now.

Once you have everything, imagine what you have to lose.

Tis true.  If you think you’ve found the best / perfect / ideal ____, where do you go from there?  Downhill.  You’re set up for devastation the second x / y / z disappears.  Anything can dissolve as quickly as it appeared.  Why give something that kind of power over you?  It’s senseless.

I’ve been guilty of this crime many times.  Without fail?  Read more

ego porn fiend

A long time ago, in a TGOC post far, far away, I introduced the term “ego porn” (see here).  I’m not gonna lie to you;  I’m an ego porn fiend.  Thankfully so.  If you’re trying to figure out your life’s calling?  You should be too.

The ego porn you’re obsessed with defines the life’s calling you were blessed with.

What the hell am I talking about?  Glad ya asked.

The most cliched question of all time on this subject deserves some thought, but is only half of the equation:

“What do you enjoy doing so much, you’d actually pay to do it?”

For me, the answer is obvious;  writing.  It doesn’t cost me a cent to sit down at my laptop and get to work.  It does however, cost me several thousand cents to sit down at my laptop and get to work in the most mind blowing way possible; on Adderall.  I do pay (an insane premium), for the privilege of writing under the influence of the greatest drug on earth.  It’s the best money I spend.  On anything.  Period. Read more

disengaged (and lovin it)

Engagements are a dangerous game.  They create a lot of hope, and can deliver a lot of pain.  If you’re too invested in them.  If you’re too invested in anything.  I’m not talking about marriage here (although it certainly applies there too).  I’m talking about engagements.  Plans.  Activities.  Things you’re looking forward to.  Counting on.  Ever-so-very excited about.  These things, and the people you plan to share them with?  Have the power to kill you.  Your day.  Your week.  Your year.  If you let them.  Your only hope?  Disengagement.  One of the most important concepts on the path to peace.

What the hell am I talking about?

Glad ya asked.

I’m a strange bird.  If you’ve spent anytime at all on TGOC, you probably read that loud and clear.  If you spend anytime at all with me in person?  It’s even worse.  One thing that’s always made me different in a good way?  When it comes to plans, I’ll believe em when I see em.  Taste em.  Touch em.  Not one second before.  Until I’m dilated-pupils-deep in a fungasm fueled evening?  It’s not happening.  It might.  It might not.  Either way?  I don’t care.  I recognize the potential pleasure ahead, but understand the potential pain, ahoy, if things don’t go according to plan.  Which as you may have noticed?  Happens all the freaking time.

One of the best gifts I’ve ever received came to me in eighth grade. Read more

reconciling the american dream

One of my favorite movie quotes is also one of the darkest.  It’s from Watchmen.  It comes during a scene where two of the super heroes are stuck in the middle of a riot.  People are smashing windows.  There are cars burning.  Molotov cocktails flying.  It’s anarchy.

Dan Dreiberg: What happened to us? What happened to the American Dream?

Edward Blake: “What happened to the American Dream?” It came true! You’re lookin’ at it.

It always gives me a snarky grin.  I’ve never understood, nor agreed with, the concept of “The American Dream.”  By whose standards?  By what definition?  Growing up, like most people I’d reckon, I was taught the the American Dream included marriage, 2.5 kids, a house with a white picket fence in the quiet, safe suburbs, and a “respectable career”.  Whatever that hell that is.  Gag.  It didn’t appeal to me then, it doesn’t appeal to me now.

For one thing, so many people, who by that criteria should be living the American dream, have lives that seem anything but.  Bitterness, stress, and a lack of personal fulfillment, ahoy.  A constant quest to keep up with and exceed “the joneses” (see here) on all superficial, materialistic counts.  Hell no.

For another thing, even people who meet the criteria (kids, home, job) and actually do have satisfying lives are achieving that satisfaction from sources I could never comprehend.

Until now.

Sort of. Read more

Next Page »