the fainting couch. 

"Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News, I Gotta Bad Case of..."

“… loving you.”

No, that’s not it…

What do I have, you may wonder?

Amoebas! A wonderful case of Amoebas! .www.amoebamusic.com!

Starting on Monday, May 16th, I will rejoin the world of the gainfully employed as I make another foray back into music and start my next great adventure working for the world’s best record store, Amoeba Music on Haight Street. That ain’t hyperbole, baby, just check out Rolling Stone’s February 19th, 1998 issue proclaiming just that honor.

True to the Cherokee belief that you stand on the shoulders of all those who come before you, my work history has given me an insanely deep set of skills and experience to draw from. In marketing, branding, management, event production, customer service, nonprofit, for profit. The common thread, a passion for what I was doing. Music, an active lifestyle, AIDS and breast cancer fundraising.

It was definitely going to take a visionary company to appreciate and place value on the diversity of experience I bring, a work history driven by my need to feel passionately about my work and my life, and to effect positive change in our world. Amoeba “got” me, I also get them. And I’ve successfully avoided having to wear a suit yet again. Right on!

At Virgin, I had the great good fortune of working with amazing, passionate people like my former Virgin colleagues and now Amoebites, Kristen Frederick & Viola Galloway. Creative people. Funny people. Smart people. We were changing how music was sold. Obscure artists we loved sold in large numbers. We broke artists. We created trends. We believed it and we lived it until Virgin became a lifestyle.

Amoeba Music is very much the place that I had hoped Virgin Megastores could sustainably become—a tastemaker location with an unmistakable authenticity driven by a love of music, with integrity, and a desire to proselytize about the things they love so that others can love them, too.

Like my last waltz through the realm of retail, my beloved Sports Basement it is locally owned, doesn’t believe in titles, is enormously socially responsible (they’ve saved over a million acres of rainforest for indigenous people by donating a percentage of all sales to the Rainforest Action Network), with a total DIY ethic, and a staff FULL of expertise, personality, and heart. It is also a community magnet/gathering place of insanely loyal and passionate customers who are personally invested in the store.

What’s not fun about spending time in a place like that?

On a prophetic side note, on my last day at the Basement before joining the Breast Cancer 3-Day (anyone need a flow chart to track the “‘Where’s Craig?’ Wonderful, Wandering Career Path?”), I was given a gift certificate to Amoeba—how perfect is that? A similarity of culture, passion, integrity.

And because Amoeba does great work like donating to RAN and tsunami victims, it fulfills my need to be creating positive change in the world. After five years in the realm of non-profits, I’ve had three jobs and been laid off from two of them. San Francisco is a fairly toxic environment for folks who are laid off. Let me tell you, it is not easy. It’s stressful, makes you question your value as an employee and as a person. And it’s drained the bank account into the negative tens of thousands of dollars, twice. Let’s just say I didn’t thrive during those periods.

But, pish posh, enough of that!

It’s over! No regrets, and I have learned a lot about myself. If you release expectation and just let the future take care of itself, you will be where you are supposed to be. Life’s funny that way. If you stay open to opportunity, you’ll be provided the lessons you need in just the right time, challenging you to grow, and all the while taking care of you.

Here is one of my favorite monologues dealing with this phenomenon. It’s from the movie ‘American Beauty’:

"It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing.
And there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right?
And this bag was just... dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes.
That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid ever.
Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember...I need to remember.
(distant)
Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it...and my heart is going to cave in."

I am glad to be rejoining the work force, reconnecting with my love of music, the rhythm and the beauty.

Thanks for being a vital part of my beautiful world.

Peace/Music/Heart.

Craig
____________________________________

"I hate quotations, tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

PS- Above is a picture of Fugee, who swooned upon hearing the news that he would not be spending 24 hours a day with me. Wish him well…

Mercury Returns

What Is An AIDS Ride?

Hello Friends and Family-

A good friend recently asked me to help them define what an AIDS Ride is. It seems their employer was feeling that it wasn’t an appropriate cause for them to be affiliated with. Strange to encounter that depth of ignorance and desire to stigmatize HIV almost a quarter of a decade into the pandemic.

I wrote the attached piece saying what an AIDS Ride is for me. It really gave me a chance to think about how extraordinary these events are. In fact, you wouldn’t receive all these unsolicited emails without them. I am alive because of them and so are countless other thousands.

I wish I could ride this year, but I have to deal with trying to keep the roof over Fugee’s head, and to have him rolling in pricey whole foods kibble. But I do have four friends riding this year. I ask that you might consider sponsoring one (or all!) of their journeys’ to create a more perfect world.

My friends are:

Alexandra Brucker https://www.aidslifecycle.org/donate/form.cfm?n=5710
Jason Webber https://www.aidslifecycle.org/donate/form.cfm?n=3066
Ricci Treffer https://www.aidslifecycle.org/donate/form.cfm?n=5282
Michelle Wharton https://www.aidslifecycle.org/donate/form.cfm?n=5281


I salute you guys, (and Mike and Darla who are crewing!)... Well done.

As Margaret Mead noted, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."

Peace.
Craig
.
What is an AIDS ride?

Quite simply, it is an example of mankind in its finest hour. It is hope for those living with a virus which has no cure. It is education and outreach to help prevent others from having to know what it means to live with HIV. It is access to treatment and quality of care for those that cannot otherwise afford it. It is essential funding for programs and policy here and in Africa, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe.

It is action in the face of dire odds, compassion without limits or conditions, it is hope, it is love made tangible, a human tapestry of people united by a common goal—to make a personal commitment in the fight to end the pandemic and human suffering caused by HIV.

It is a personal effort to make a difference in our world. Doing something extraordinary, difficult, at times exhausting, painful, something bold, beautiful and necessary—not because it is a vacation, or a cycling adventure, or a diversion. It is simply the right thing to do.

How did I come to do the AIDSRide that first time back in 1995? I had heard of the ride and decided I must do it; it was my obligation having my health and the determination to make a difference. Not an easy decision—actually a terrifying one—not knowing if I could ride my bike 600 miles in 7 days or raise the 2,000 dollars. But it was the only logical decision.

At the time, I didn’t know anyone affected by AIDS or HIV. But in a period of four years, I had been hospice care person to each of my parents. It was the most difficult and beautiful period of my life. That experience made it increasingly clear that I would do anything I could to ensure that no one should have to face any catastrophic illness without access to treatment or support. So I rode.

At the time, I was national marketing director for Virgin Megastores. The ride fell at a time which was not convenient for third quarter advertising. When I approached my boss about participating, he didn’t hesitate. He immediate said, “Of course. You must do it. There is no convenient time.” Later that day, Richard Branson called and personally sponsored me for $2,500 dollars and said “Well done, mate.”

That ride had a profound effect on me. Seeing so many disparate people united doing something difficult, joyously, tirelessly, just because it was the right thing to do. Young, old, gay, straight, athletic, sedentary, healthy, very ill, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, poor, wealthy, famous, homeless. We were family. Boundaries were erased, and for that week, we were one living, breathing testament of hope in action.

I swore I would ride every year that I could, as long as there was a need. So I rode the following year. And signed up to ride the year after that.

In 1997, I was an example of what ride could do. While accessing the services of the Southern California beneficiary of the ride, I found out I, too, was HIV positive. They got me into quality medical care, ensured my support system was strong, treated me with dignity and hope and compassion.

I took two years off from doing the ride as my body adjusted to toxic though effective medications. In 1999, I anxiously returned to the ride as a Positive Pedaler, a group of men and women living with HIV, dealing with the challenges an extreme endurance event while simultaneously coping with neuropathy, fatigue, nausea, anemia—and doing everything they could, riding those same 600 miles, to make sure that there would be hope, services and treatment for others. I was scared, not sure if I would be able to do the ride, if I still had it in me.

I never rode stronger or faster that I did that year, finishing each day hours earlier than I ever had.

It refined the possible.

So I continued to up the bar. In 2001, I worked for the AIDSRide and as a rider representative, I supported 600 riders from Northern California, keeping them trained and fundraised. We raised 12 million dollars that year. In addition, I personally committed to riding my bicycle 1,500 miles in six weeks, from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Alaska, from Missoula to Billings, Montana, and from Montréal to Portland, Maine—raising over 20,000 dollars for AIDS vaccine research, so that just maybe, my niece and nephew might know a world without AIDS.

In 2002, I helped form AIDS/LifeCycle so that the funding and services that were there for me would be there for others. In addition, I raised 5,000 dollars running in the Honolulu AIDS marathon program, and also raised another $15,000 for a self-designed ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for AIDS relief in Africa. As an extremely fortunate man with access to medications my body responded to and could tolerate, I was more fortunate than more than 95 % of the world population of those living with HIV. I must share my good fortune.

So, that is a rather long way of saying the ride is a journey. Difficult, beautiful, powerful, life affirming, perfect. Seven days to remember that all is one. That we are our brother’s keeper. That kindness and sweat and joy and determination erase limitations and create a world as it should be. Without judgment or stigma or diffusion of responsibility. It is our world, and we choose life, love, compassion, brotherhood. Hope over inaction, we choose life.

That IS what an AIDS ride is.

Philosophy for a Phriday - Course Credit Available...

Hermes The Alchemist by Otto Edmond Hermes

Hello friends!

Just got an email from a friend who said that they were thinking about me and had missed my pseudo-spiritual emails of late—you know like the India/Africa stuff. So what the heck… I’m thinking of YOU. So without the luxury of a plane ticket, disposable income, a palm tree, malaria or dysentery, here’s a view from my crackled rose colored window today.

(I know that this email will be an easy delete for many of you. That’s fine—I know which of you will find this fascinating and which will be thinking—“Has Craig been eating spoiled rye bread again?” But don’t miss out on your chance for a Free Philosophy lesson with Hermes’ Phriday Aphternoon Happy Hour Karma and Dogma Wash.)

So it’s funny when you look in to the meaning of a name. I, being a Gemini, which is Mercury, which is Hermes, has always fascinated me. Had an intuitive Swedish astrologer/psychic tell me in 1981 that I would have a blood infection but would live to be old (’81!-pre-HIV awareness), that I would work for an influential man from Europe (Branson), that I would live extended periods of my life in exotic locales, and that I would have a deep quest for meaning and esoteric knowledge—and that my name and astrological chart was no chance occurrence—that I would live up to my name Hermes. Now either I have a hefty dose of Dionne-Warwick-Psychic-Friends energy flowing my way, or I have done an exceptional job of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m too cynical to believe that.

So that made me look in to this character Hermes and what is referred to as Hermeticism. Spooky thing is it is exactly what my own view has evolved to be after my stopping by the All Religions Peep Show.

Who Hermes?

Hermes Trismegistus, the "scribe of the gods," dwelt in old Egypt in the days when the present race of men was in its infancy. Contemporary with Abraham, and, if the legends be true, an instructor of that venerable sage. All the fundamental and basic teachings embedded in the esoteric teachings of every race may be traced back to Hermes. Even the most ancient teachings of India undoubtedly have their roots in the original Hermetic Teachings.

“From the land of the Ganges many advanced occultists wandered to the land of Egypt, and sat at the feet of the Master. From other lands also came the learned ones, all of whom regarded Hermes, and his influence was so great that in spite of the many wanderings from the path on the part of the centuries of teachers in these different lands, there may still be found a certain basic resemblance and correspondence which underlies the many and often quite divergent theories entertained and taught by the occultists of these different lands today. The student of Comparative Religions will be able to perceive the influence of the Hermetic Teachings in every religion worthy of the name, now known to man, whether it be a dead religion or one in full vigor in our own times. There is always certain correspondence in spite of the contradictory features, and the Hermetic Teachings act as the Great Reconciler.”
- http://kybalion.home.att.net/kybalion.html#top

What is Hermetic Philosophy?

It is the basis of all modern occult and metaphysical thought. It is also very much the undercurrent of all religions. I’ve always felt that religions all say the same thing – each has just sullied the pure message with its own unique cultural bias. In looking at Hermes Seven Principles of Philosophy, they refer to concepts the Buddha described (principle of vibration); Vedic karma (principle of cause & effect); Taoism yin/yang (principles of gender and polarity); Judeo-Christian Man-in-God’s-image basis (principle of correspondence); quantum physics (principles of vibration and rhythm); Gnostic and esoteric beliefs that God is found through knowledge (principle of mentalism); and all religions’ basic tenet of the Golden Rule.

Wow. Heady stuff. Isn’t fun to get unsolicited information about stuff you might not even care about? Maybe it will make you think. Maybe not. But here you have it.

The philosophies are small bites and deceptively deep. It’s like Chicken Tapas for The Soul. Chew it. Taste it. Digest it. And remember, no swimming for 45 minutes after esoteric philosophy. Don’t want you getting a brain cramp.

Enjoy.

Craig

The Seven Hermetic Principles of which the entire Hermetic Philosphy is based, are as follows:
1. THE PRINCIPLE OF MENTALISM: "The All is Mind; The Universe is mental."

2. THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE: "As above, so below; as below, so above."

3. THE PRINCIPLE OF VIBRATION: "Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."

4. THE PRINCIPLE OF POLARITY: "Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike is the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."

5. THE PRINCIPLE OF RHYTM: "Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall, the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."

6. THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: "Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation but nothing escapes the Law."

7. THE PRINCIPLE OF GENDER: "Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes"
____________________________________
craig hermes

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." -Eden Phillpotts