Once in a Blue Moon

Well, that explains it. I’ve been feeling especially anxious lately and I usually only get that way around the days preceding a full moon. According to astrology, the moon is my planet.

And this month, there are TWO full moons, the second occurring today, August 31; the second full moon that occurs within a month is often referred to as a blue moon.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling like I couldn’t concentrate; I was distraught and restless and I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling like that since I’d just gotten out of bed! So while the coffee was brewing, I decided to sit down and meditate. Meditation usually clears my head and helps me concentrate, but let me tell you, yesterday, it was difficult to make myself do it for even ten minutes!

Afterward, it was like a veil had been lifted. I felt refreshed, inspired, focused and invigorated–after a mere 10 minutes of just sitting and breathing!

The benefits of meditation never cease to amaze me, and once again, it proved invaluable to me. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll consider giving it a try one of these days. Many years ago, my tae kwon do sa bum nim (master) taught me how to meditate. “Do not expect anything from mook yum (meditation),” he told me. “Just do it.”

So I did. I sat and meditated daily for six months without expectation and then one day, like a wary deer tip-toeing out from a dense forest, the benefits of meditation began to reveal themselves. And they were profound. I’m not saying that you need to meditate for six months before you’ll notice any benefits; your experiences will be different than mine–but I am saying that you will notice benefits if, like with anything else, you don’t give up!

Article and Interview on “Inspire Me Today”

It is a great honor and a pleasure to let you know that on August 27th, 2012, I will be the featured Inspirational Luminary on InspireMeToday.com. A representative from Inspire Me Today asked me to complete a 500-word essay on what I’ve learned from life and my mystical experience. Website owner Gail Goodwin was intrigued, so she invited to me to do an interview with her–that, in itself, was an honor! She asked me some really great and thought-provoking questions. I know you’re going to enjoy this interview. I certainly did.

For ONE DAY ONLY–AUGUST 27th–my essay and interview will be featured on Inspire Me Today’s home page and it will be available on Google Currents, on their iPhone app and through their RSS feed. Inspire Me Today features the “Brilliance” of a new Luminary each day. A lot of famous people have appeared on their site such as Sir Richard Branson, Guy Laliberte, Seth Godin, Neale Donald Walsch, Marci Shimoff, and now me! I can’t tell you what a tremendous honor it is to have been invited to share my thoughts alongside such esteemed company.

According to Inspire Me Today, “Luminaries who have great traffic on their feature day are selected to be included in our column on Care2.com, which has a community of over 19,000,000 readers!” So I hope you’ll stop by and perhaps leave a comment. This is the perfect opportunity to get word out about my book. Please tell all your friends!

And although my feature day is just one day, my article and interview will be archived under “Browse Our Inspirational Luminaries” so you can still access it at a later date.

From the folks at Inspire Me Today and from me, thank you in advance for your kind support. Together we really can make a difference. Oh, and did I mention YOU ROCK?!

~Baja Rock Pat

Book Review: “Backstage Past” by Barry Fey

Anyone who was a music fan from the late ‘60s through the late ‘90s in Colorado knows the name Barry Fey. He is a legend—the rock promoter who sold more concert tickets than any other promoter in history. Fey brought everyone from the Beatles and Led Zeppelin to Diana Ross and Willie Nelson to the Denver area (and other places as well).

In his new book, “Backstage Past,” Fey says that he once played a show featuring Johnny Winter, Fleetwood Mac, Zephyr and the Flock in 1969, all for a whopping $3.50. Those days are long gone but they were also the days when great new music was cropping up everywhere and on a daily basis. You couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing some exciting new record that you just had to run out and buy RIGHT NOW!

With forewords by Pete Townsend and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, cover flap endorsement by President Bill Clinton and a little poem tribute to Fey written by Bono, “Backstage Past” also includes a poster highlighting Feyline ticket stubs and backstage passes. At 270 pages, this book is a combination of behind-the-scenes footage of the sea of snakes that comprises the monolithic rock and roll machine and personal anecdotes about the stars themselves. Fey recounts how Mick Jagger and Keith Richards taught him how to snort cocaine, how a fan once gave him a vial of her blood to give to Ozzy Osbourne as a gift, how he had (and continues to have) personal conversations with Bono, how he was picked up and escorted to the show in a helicopter, and how he hosted  many a party for the Rolling Stones at his personal residence. There are also stories about The Who, Led Zeppelin, the Mamas and the Papas, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, U2, the Eagles, Aerosmith, Elton John, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen and just about everybody who was anybody in the music business, along with agents and promoters of the rich and famous.

The amount of money that exchanged hands was staggering, not to mention the power, the politicians, the crazed fans, and the groupies, along with some temperamental artists. There were those who were overly-sensitive and those who were just plain mean and nasty. Some surprised me and some did not, but I guess rock stars are just people too—people with big egos and a ton of talent. Underneath it all, we all have our vices and our virtues.

One would have had to have been a tough cookie to survive in that business and it sounds like Barry was. His “final words… for now” (in the book) were: “I wish that I would have been nicer.” But if that had been the case, he may not have had the stories to tell. And in spite of all the excitement that accompanies rock and roll, after reading this book, I’m rather glad I wasn’t privy to a lot of the stuff that Fey describes. Sometimes, as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. However, I’m sure Fey would agree with me when I say that his life has been anything but dull.

I loved his “Fey Lists”, where Fey documented his favorite bands, lead singers, guitar players, drummers, songwriters, songs, and albums, even though I didn’t always agree with him. But my favorite part of all was his list of “Pricks.” Who publishes a list like that? I couldn’t stop laughing. This dude’s got balls, but again, I guess one would have to to survive in that business.

Fey also mentions his love of Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado and he goes into great detail about Woodstock, painting a slightly different picture than how I had imagined it to be: rain and mud and the lack of toilets and food while exhausted people dropped acid and dropped like flies.

Backstage Past” (love the title—Fey credits his son for coming up with it) is a great read. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a peek behind the music, the glitz and the glamor that audiences see night after night at rock concerts—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the Oh-my-God!

Thanks, Barry, for taking us along for the ride, and thanks for doing such an outstanding job as a rock and roll promoter all those years. Your work helped make me into the person I am today—a true lover of great music, and for that I will always be grateful.