April 2010 Report

4-04-10 - Let's see now, where were we? Ever since I got back from Germany in mid December, I've been working on boring details with the Shunryu Suzuki archive and music and also wrote an afterword which is not a word? I guess not - for the 40th anniversary issue of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind which has an epilogue so it can't be called that. I get these nice concerned emails from friends and strangers asking if I'm okay because cuke.com's been dormant. So I'll try to put some stuff up as regularly as possible but there are other things I'm trying to get done and I get so involved and they take so much time that I haven't been able to tear myself from what I was doing. Also haven't been going on Facebook. I considered getting off it but how do you do that? And then I went on today and it wasn't so bad. And if they with Google are going to take over the world then I guess I should be on their good side. So here's what I have to do and want to do in the coming months:

1 - Work on a new book based on stuff that's in here meaning cuke.com and whatever comes to mind. I'm thinking of making my relationship with dear departed Niels Holm a thread that runs through the book. We'll see what comes of that. Maybe I can post stuff I'm working on while I do it. It wouldn't hurt anything.

2 - Make a book for the German Dharma Sangha sangha - that's Baker Roshi's group. They hosted me last fall for 99 days and I loved it and we shared a lot of Suzuki Roshi archive material and I planned to work on it more there but couldn't stop studying German. I think I'm going back this fall so I want to bring a gift and I've already got a head start on it - a booklet with what they chant in German, English, and Japanese where applicable, some photos, and a lecture Baker Roshi gave to a gathering of students and guests that I think would be particularly appropriate for this book.

3-Continue archiving my music. Thinking of a separate web site for this. For years I've wanted to do this but keep putting it off for what seem to be more worthy efforts. But when I got to Crestone Mt. Zen Center in December and unpacked and was sitting at my computer just getting ready to do some work on shunryusuzuki.com, I thought, if I don't do it it'll just keep bothering me. Why not just do a tiny bit with the music to get a start - then do a little bit every day and eventually it will get done? So I started and didn't stop for a few months. Through the years I'd quickly recorded every song I'd written on an office cassette machine or whatever was available. Now I've got 1061 songs all in separate digital files. Some have a number of different versions, some are with bands. I've already got a couple of projects on the net. Last year I put up Songs for To Find the Girl from Perth. I'll mention another one tomorrow or the day after or the day after that or the day after that etc.

4 - More work on the oral history, memories of Suzuki Roshi and whatever from back then. This is another thing that bothers me I haven't done more on or that there's so much to do. Maybe I could do this in conjunction with work on the current book (see #1).

5 - More to do with Shunryu Suzuki archive. This will all get done eventually I guess. But there are some things that won't get done if they aren't done fairly soon. I'll write a brief report on what's been done and mainly what there is to do. Till then, again - check out shunryusuzuki.com. It's got everything but the photos and it could have those if someone just helped to get that together. Right now there are about 460 photos in the archive that I've got. They could be cropped too and have the folks in them identified.

6 - Pray for help. I'd like to have the perfect assistant. I think of Sandra Bullock in A Time to Kill. This poor Southern lawyer was trying to get by doing pro bono work and she showed up at the door - beautiful, degree from Harvard, smart as heck, lots of energy. She in real life is having marital problems and might want something different to do. Hmm... I'm sure Katrinka wouldn't mind.

I also think of Bill Lane. Michael Katz and he worked together in the brief-lived ZC bookstore at Fort Mason back in the early 80s. Michael said that on his desk were two smallish piles of paperwork -- his in and out piles. Next to them was a unsightly third pile that towered above the other two. At the end of a workday, Bill drifted over and asked Michael about the third pile. It was his undecided, problem pile, and Michael admitted that he felt sort of overwhelmed by it. Each item represented books that were supposed to be on their way to the store and, for one reason or another, were not. Bill picked up the top piece of paper and they started with that. Then he picked up the next one and, after an hour or so, the pile was gone.  You see - he didn't ask how he could help. 

I've thought about raising money to pay an assistant or for assistance- nothing for me, just for them.

7 - There's also a lot to do here in Tarrantland, the home of John Tarrant, head teacher of PZI. and lot more coming.

Right now I'm making DVD data discs of the Suzuki archive - low resolution version for the audio, video, and photos. I think it would be good to make a brief video with an update of what's been done on the archive so I could show what hardware is used, what forms it's in. Hmm.

That's enough for today. Take care. dc