dannygoldberg

In this inspiring episode of Rock & Roles, Danny speaks with Israeli singer-songwriter and activist David Broza about his influential musical career and activism. As a young man, David’s recording of, “Yihye Tov”, became the anthem of the Israeli peace movement during the Israeli – Egyptian peace negotiations of 1978. David has since used his successful music career to bring attention to several humanitarian causes and promote peace in some of the places that need it most. His genuine pursuit of harmony and human connection has given David access to both sides of the conflict in the Gaza strip to spread his message of peace. “The role of the artist is to inspire the people that are not artists. To show them the light.” – David Broza Show Notes 00:25 – After a brief introduction, David shares the meaning behind his peace anthem, “Yihye Tov”. Danny goes over David’s recent work including a new documentary on Netflix, “East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem“. 02:55 – David’s political activism was inspired by his parent’s and grandfather’s work of promoting education for peace. When David was 16, he helped his grandfather by distributing leaflets on campus promoting peaceful philosophy. 07:30 – With David’s help, his grandfather bought hill-top property in the “no man’s land” outside of Isreal. This property became Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom, a thriving village intended for Jews, Muslims, and Christians to co-exist. They live together harmoniously and promote their ideals of conflict resolution and peace. 11:15 – As David began his musical career, he met poet Yehonatan Geffen. Geffen had just written a poem in commemoration of recent peace negotiations with Egypt. David is asked by Geffen to write music to the poem which became “Yihye Tov”. The song became a hit, playing non-stop on the radio. David catches the attention of the grassroots movement “Peace Now” and is asked to join them. He accepts and follows the group from town to town, bringing attention to the cause. 14:40 – In the decades since the success of the negotiations, much progress has been made in Israeli and Palestinian relations. However, there is still much work to be done. Danny and David discuss how the situation came to be, and what the future of peace looks like between Israelis and Palestinians. 21:50 – Danny asks David to describe his personal experiences since the success of “Yihye Tov”.  He tells of meeting the Palestinian band, Sabreen, who saw beyond his ethnicity and embraced David in friendship. He would come to nurture the relationship, partnering with Said Murad and the rest of the band on projects throughout David’s career. 31:20 – David discusses his collaboration with Steve Earle and a multi-cultural studio crew on the powerful album, “East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem.” 41:30 – What place does spirituality have in David’s life? What moves David most is humbleness. Understanding that you do not have to control the situation, just be part of it. This philosophy has allowed him to work with people from all walks of life instead of rejecting them for their views. This has allowed David to reach so many different people and spread his message in places it would otherwise not reach. 50:00 – David speaks of a powerful experience visiting Shuafat, an overflowing Palestinian refugee camp with a long and dark history. He returned to work with the children of the refugee camp. This experience acting as proof to David’s connection to his own spiritual integrity. About David Broza Since 1977 David Broza has combined a career as a singer-songwriter and musician with a commitment to the peace process in the Mideast. His song “Yihye Tov” was written in the context of the Lebanon War and to this day is an anthem in Israel that plays a similar role to activists there as “Give Peace A Chance” does in the U.S. As Steve Earle says, “In Israel, David Broza is me and Bruce Springsteen and a bag of chips” Broza asked Earle to produce his most recent album East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem which is an unprecedented collaboration of Israeli, Muslim and Arab Christian musicians recorded at the Sabreen Studio in East Jerusalem. A documentary of the same name about the making of the album is available on Netflix as of Sept 15th, 2016. David has recorded over thirty albums in English, Spanish (he spent much of his youth in Spain) and Hebrew. He is married to the designer Nili Lotan and divides his time between New York and Israel.

My sister Rachel has worked for years in bridging spiritual ideas with the more legalistic framework of most conflict resolution. She recently published an anthology which she also wrote for called “Faith and Practice in Conflict in Resolution : Toward a Multidimensional Approach.” Dr. Rachel Goldberg has been mediating for over 20 years, and her work and training background include practice in individual, organizational and multi-party interventions and research on how worldview and values affect practice, and best practices in environmental and inter-cultural conflict resolution. She is now focusing on designing and providing a new framework, Multidimensional practice, which integrates emotional, somatic, and spiritual intelligence with classic conflict resolution practice. She is an Assistant Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at DePauw University, in Greencastle, IN.

Pamela des Barres and Danny sit down together for a chat on the congruity of spirituality, writing, music, and Pamela’s reclaiming of the word “groupie.” Pamela des Barres Show Notes One of Danny’s oldest friends, Pamela is famous for her friendships with some of the most famous musicians of the sixties (i.e. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Plant, etc.). Presently, she’s an author, writing coach, and leading “Rock Tours” around Los Angeles. 2:00 Pamela discusses her upcoming book, “Let it Bleed,” coming out in February 2017. She also shares how she came to lead women’s writing workshops over 16 years ago. 2:55 – Well known for loving Elvis and Jesus Christ. “The King and the King of Kings.” Rock n’ Roll isn’t incongruous with spirituality. Jesus and Elvis have always been inspiring figures for Pamela. Both were rebels, breaking down barriers, especially for men. “Jesus was the first rock god–carving his own path, reminding people of who they are, and getting in trouble for it. He was the first rebel for me.” 4:00 – As a child, the inner itch for spirituality started early for Pamela, visiting churches at the age of 8 and having a fascination with Jesus. 6:00 – As she matured into adolescence questioning arouse from encountering so much repression in the various religious traditions she explored. Danny adds in his attraction to the cultural shift in the 60s was a reaction to America’s materialism 8:00 – Pamela’s love with Jesus and began to seek alternative approaches to learning about him. She found Paramahansa Yogananda, and his book “Autobiography of a Yogi” through her love of music. The Beatles introduced her to Maharishi, which led her to Yogananda and the Self Realization Fellowship. On the interconnectedness of spirituality and rock n roll: “Music is god and touches the highest part of ourselves.” 14:20 – Pamela recalls how she was the woman in Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” short film, and one of the first people to hear the infamous song. She also shares an extremely far out experience she had with Jimi’s soul after his passing. 20:09 – They share their experience with the seekers of the the sixties that went with a “spiritual shtick.” Danny and Pamela also discuss the influence of George Harrison had by bridging the east with the west, and also by making compassion cool with the first benefit concerts. “George was important in ways that many don’t remember.” 24:56 – Rock Tour LA are the guided tours Pamela gives all over Los Angeles, sharing her intimate stories with some of the most famous musicians of the 60s/70s. 26:00 – How does one not get caught in your thoughts? For Pamela, it’s all about living in the now moment, and not fretting about the past or future. In the instance of her tours, where she’s always talking about the past, the freshness of the listeners is what helps ground her. 28:00 – Spiritual Practices. For Pamela, mantras and chants from the Hindu tradition have been the most consistent, powerful, and helpful for her, amongst a variety of other practices. Also shares about meeting Krishnamurti. 33:00 – Danny and Pamela discuss whether the idealism and social movements of the 60s actually improve anything? Pamela feels that the idealism made a dent and that’s important. 36:37 – Pamela expands on the term “groupie” and her experience as being someone that has worked to reclaim that word from being so pejorative. 38:00 – William Blake and the writing heroes of Pamela’s life and the far out experiences she’s had with these figures that have expanded her life and touched her soul. 43:00 What’s most inspiring right now when it comes, to music and reading for Pamela. 45:00 Church of Religious Science and how it helped Pamela integrate her beliefs early on, and be the first to teach her “your belief system creates your world.” Check out Pamela’s website for more on her Writing Classes, Workshops, and Rock Tours!

In this latest episode, Danny sits down with director and documentarian, Robert Greenwald. He founded Brave New Films twelve years ago during which time Robert has produced and directed nine documentaries. The subjects of his films range from Fox News to Wal-Mart to Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and most recently “Making A Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA” as well as dozens of short documentary pieces on progressive themes. Prior to that Robert was a major force in as a Director of TV films for which he personally received three Emmy nominations including for The Burning Bed and 21 Hours at Munich. He also directed several feature films including Xanadu and the Abbie Hoffman bio-pic Steal This Movie. Danny and Robert start off their discussion looking Robert’s relationship with the external vs. internal components of his life. From his external film career, success, and financial abundance paired with the internal development he experienced emotionally and psychologically. Especially, coming from a family of therapists and via his own experience with therapy: “I am in awe of the process… it has affected my life in amazing ways, it’s not always easy or pleasant….it’s much easier to blame other…but the process of talking no matter what particular school of therapy, and learning about yourself, learning about your behavior and trying to understand it as it continue to be an extraordinary process.” A constant theme throughout this podcast is Robert’s work with people who influence via social movements, and the “immense satisfaction” he gets from making documentary films and giving “a voice to those that stand up against the big guys.” From the inception, Robert has declined to accept any fees or salary for his work at Brave New Films. They also touch on the 1960s and the development of the counterculture in the late 60s. This influenced Robert enough to make a film on Abby Hoffman, and as a way to relive the 60s, to acknowledge the power impact of those times. This comes through in his other documentaries: the notion that we can challenge the system by looking at societal issues as a systemic issues not an individual issue. They go on to talk about the focus of Robert’s film “Steal This Movie”, the cultural and political figure, Abby Hoffman, and his impact on the Vietnam War era. Other pertinent topics they cover include: depression, what compels corporations to perpetuate suffering for their own gain; Carl Jung and his perspective on the “the shadow and wounds”; and some poignant anecdotes from his time documenting the stories around drone killing in Pakistan/Afghanistan. To close Robert shares on the responsibility one has when creating films that is bringing fear laden situations to light and what’s happening in the current 2016 Presidential Election.

Steve Earle bio        Since 1986 Steve Earle has recorded fifteen studio albums three of which have won the Grammy Award. He has just released a duets album with Shawn Colvin entitled Colvin and Earle.  His songs have  been recorded by Emmy Lou Harris, Johnny Cash, and Joan Baez among others.  He is also an TV and film actor including his recurring roles in the HBO series The Wire and Treme . He is the author of the short story collection Doghouse Roses and the novel I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive.

As listeners to this podcast know, one of my recurring themes is an attempt to unravel the “sixties” , to figure out what aspects of the so-called counter-culture were the contributions to consciousness I felt they were as a teenager, and which were  and counter-productive. It’s occurred to me recently that the year 1967 was pivotal. It had the “Summer of Love,” and also several race riots. It was the year that Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army and the year that the Beatles released Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club and All You Need Is Love. It was the year of the first albums by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Velvet Underground and The Grateful Dead . It was the last full year of Martin Luther King’s life and the first full year when LSD was illegal in most of the United States. I cold not think of anyone better to ponder the significance and insignificance of that year than my friend and Mind Pod icon David Silver who in 1967 was hosting the counter-culture PBS TV show in Boston called What’s Happening Mr. Silver. “

Tom Hayden, currently Director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center is one of my heroes, a unique example of deep commitment to justice ,a great work ethic and an inspiring life of inner growth while continuing as an indefatigable activist. In 1962 Tom wrote “The Port Huron Statement” one of the founding documents of Students For a Democratic Society (SDS). He was a “freedom rider” in the early sixties, going to the American south to protest racial segregation and then worked for the Newark Community Union Project from 1964-68. As one of the most effective leaders against the War in Viet Nam he was one of the “Chicago Eight” indicted (and ultimately acquitted) for the anti-war protests in front of the 1968 Democratic Convention. Tom spent eighteen years in the California State Legislature as a State Senator and an Assemblyman passing over one hundred bills related to the environment and social justice. He is the author of twenty-one books most recently Listen Yanqui—Why Cuba Matters, Inspiring Participatory Democracy: Student Movements from Port Huron to Today," and The Long Sixties from 1960 to Barack Obama

Ben Lee is a singer and songwriter, originally from Australia who now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Ione Skye and their two daughters. Ben first recorded in Sydney with his group Noise Addict when he was 16. The Beastie Boys liked his early work and signed him to their label Grand Royal. In 2005 he shifted is lyrical focus into a spiritual frame with the album Awake Is The New Sleep which included the song Catch My Disease. That album was several ARIA Awards (The Australian equivalent of the Grammys) including Best Song and Best Album. Catch My Disease was also a hit in the United States and elsewhere. Ben has continued to explore spiritual concepts in his work most notably on his last two albums Ayahuasca: Welcome To The Work, and Love Is The Great Rebellion. Ben also appeared as an actor in the Australian film The Rage In Placid Lake that co-starred Rose Byrne. Full disclosure: I have been Ben’s manager for almost a decade. When I started the podcast I knew I wanted him as an early guest because most of our actual conversations are as much about grappling with spirituality in the context of the so-called real world as much as they are about business.

Zach is the host of the “It’s All Happening” podcast, an infrequent blogger/writer and a seasoned digital marketer and brand strategist. Zach is also a practitioner of bhakti yoga as taught through many of the vedantic systems of Northern India. Through the practice of bhakti he has found keys that unlock doorways that allow the soul to experience it’s true nature of being eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. In addition to bhakti yoga, Zach has been influenced by many different methods and traditions of consciousness exploration and heart opening ranging from trans-humanism and hatha yoga to buddhism and clinical psychology. But above all he believes first and foremost in his gurus, Neem Karoli Baba, teaching that “love is the strongest medicine.”

Ione Skye embodies my definition of a renaissance person with many intellectual, artistic, and personal sides to her personality. However many people who were teenagers in the late nineteen-eighties will always know Ione best for her portrayal of John Cusack’s love object “Diane” in the film Say Anything. In the intervening years Ione has been in more than sixty films and TV episodes.  Daughter of sixties icon Donovan, Ione is a great lover of music and is married to one of my clients, the Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee. They live with their two daughters in Los Angeles. Ione has also directed several films and is the author of the children’s book My Yiddish Vacation which was published in 2014. She is also a painter. She painted a stunning Krishna which in in my office facing me every day I’m there. Many of her paintings can be seen at  http://www.ioneskyepaintings.com/

I had fun talking to my favorite intellectual, my friend Eric Alterman (who claims that he doesn't believe in God) about his Torah studies and the meaning of life and liberalism. Eric is The Liberal Media columnist for The Nation and the author of ten books, including most recently Inequality and One City: Bill de Blasio and the New York Experiment, Year One), and The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama. I first met him a decade ago after reading his still relevant What Liberal Media? and we soon developed the start of friendship which revolved a lot around talking about the meaning of life but I still learned a lot via the alchemy and formality of doing a podcast with him. Eric is also a music freak who wrote the book Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen and is a Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, He has also been the winner of the George Orwell Award, the Jack London Literary Prize and the Mirror Award for media criticism, and has been a Hoover Institution Media Fellow at Stanford University.

Rosanna Arquette has functioned at a very high level in many aspects of the entertainment business for many decades while staying faithful to her hippie roots (she grew up in a commune). Rosanna has been in more than seventy films and dozens of TV shows working with such legendary directors as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino and featured in contemporary cable drama in roles on “Girls” and Ray Donovan.” She has been on the cover of Rolling Stone and hosted Saturday Night Live and has directed documentaries and music videos. She is also an activist and a mystic and a passionate champion of music. I have long marveled at how she can keep one part of herself firmly planted in the ever changing zeitgeist of Hollywood and others in the beautiful mist of art and transcendence.

This podcast is a conversation between David Silver and myself about the Russian mystic and painter Nicholas Roerich. Roerich, who died in 1947 also lived in the United States for many years during the nineteen thirties and died in India.  He and his wife Helena Roerich were deeply connected to the Masters of the Great White Lodge, best known in writings about Theosophy and they created a path called Agni Yoga. Roerich’s paintings, his greatest legacy were vivid colorful renditions of saints from all religions as well as many sites in nature, particularly the Himalayas. Several hundred of Roerich’s paintings are on permanent exhibit at the Roerich Museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. (Details and examples of dozens of the paintings at Roerich.org). Though large forgotten in modern culture, Roerich had a huge influence on culture and politics of the first half of the twentieth century. In the U.S. he became close to both Henry Wallace and Franklin Roosevelt (in mid thirties went on an expedition to China and Mongolia on behalf of the US Dept. of Agriculture). Roerich also conceived of a symbol called the “pax cultura” that was to be placed on artistic institutions so that during war time they would be spared in a similar way that the red cross was designed to signify hospitals. Thirty-five nations, including the U.S. signed the”Roerich Pact” to that effect but the brutality of World War II overcame its noble intentions. Later, in India Roerich befriended future leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Ghandi.  In the world of arts, Roerich was an international force for elevating the purpose and stature of the arts and was a close friend and associate of Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Rabindranath Tagore, and H.G. Wells, among others as well as Igor Stravinsky for whom Roerich designed the sets for the famous and infamous debut of “Rites of Spring” in Paris in 1913.

I asked David Silver to join me in this podcast as he, Sara Davidson and I have been friends for many decades yet we have rarely all been in a room at the same time. Since the nineteen seventies, Sara has provided a unique journalistic bridge between various kinds of new age and traditional spirituality and the worlds of American literature of journalism. Sara did one of the first in depth articles on Ram Dass for Ramparts Magazine in 1971. (“Baba Ram Dass: The Metamorphic Journey of Richard Alpert”) Her most recent book is “The December Project” based on two years of conversations with Reb Zalman-Schacter Shalomi the founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement contemplating and leading up to his death. Sara is also the author of the novel “Loose Change” which was later turned into a TV mini-series and “Joan: Forty Years of Life, Loss, and Friendship with Joan Didion,” as well as a half dozen other books and dozens of articles for magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. Sara also has written and produced a number of television series. She created the series "Jack and Mike and Heartbeat" and she was the co-executive producer of "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman". For more info on Sara and her work go to saradavidson.com

Rick Jarow, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Vasser College and is the author of the books “Creating the Work You Love, and“The Alchemy of Abundance.”He is a pioneer of the “anti-career movement,” who integrates an awareness of many spiritual traditions with the pressures of day to day Western life. At age 19, Rick left Harvard University and traveled for seven years throughout Europe and India. This pilgrimage is partially recounted in his first book, “In Search of the Sacred. At age 26, he returned to the West to complete a doctoral program at Columbia University, where he received a Ph.D. in Indian Languages and Literatures and in New York he became also a student of Hilda Charlton for many of the years when I also attended Hilda’s meetings and mediations.

Ben Cohen , along with his long time friend Jerry Greenfield, was a founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream who ran it for its first twenty-two years of existence as it grew form a single ice cream shop in Burlington, Vermont to an internationally known and loved brand of gourmet ice cream. Ben is a role model for hundreds of independent business owners who emulate the Ben and Jerry’s model of a socially conscious corporation. From the outset, Ben and Jerry’s gave a percentage of their profits to charity, gave employees generous benefits, used only environmentally sound ingredients, and supported many humanitarian causes directly including Farm Aid, and the Children’s Defense Fund.    Inspired by many aspects of sixties counter-culture (two of Ben and Jerry’s most popular flavors were Cherry Garcia and Wavy Gravy, ) Ben has dedicated his post corporate life to activism in service of his ideas: peace and love. He also has the gift of making work and activism feel like fun. His current project, Stamp Stampede is a grass roots campaign to reduce the influence of money in politics.      Ben claims not to follow any particular path but the more I get to know him, the more I feel that aspiring Bodhisatvas could do a lot worse than to follow his vibe, his spirit and his example.

The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir once called Wavy Gravy “a saint in a clown suit.” Wavy started his career as Hugh Romney, a poet and avant- garde comedian in the Beatnik era of the late nineteen fifties. A friend and protégé of Lenny Bruce and Allen Ginsberg, Wavy had the idea to combine poetry readings with folk and jazz in Greenwich Village in the early sixties, and was Bob Dylan’s roommate when Dylan wrote “A Hard Rain A Gonna Fall” He was then a pioneer of the purest aspect of hippie culture, a protégé of Ken Kesey. Wavy and others then formed the commune The Hog Farm which toured America in the sixties bringing psychedelic notions of peace and love to the heartland and was famously in charge of security, food, and chilling out people with bad trips at the Woodstock Festival. Soon thereafter he was given the name Wavy Gravy by BB King. Wavy was also deeply involved in the movement to stop the War in Viet Nam. I recently went to a Graham Nash show where he told the audience that he wrote the song “Chicago” about the 1968 protest outside of the Democratic Convention explicitly at Wavy’s suggestion and Wavy was also involved with may direct actions to end the war. SEVA has been funded, in part by a series of benefit concerts Wavy has created over the years featuring the Grateful Dead, Jackson Brow, Buffy Saint Marie, Crosby Stills and Nash Bonnie Raitt and Steve Earle among others. "When Wavy Gravy calls, you don’t say no to the guy," says David Crosby. "All he wants to do it help people." Wavy also started and still runs He started Camp Winnarainbow a circus and performing arts camp for all ages. He is the author of two books The Hog Farm and Friends (1974) and Something Good For A Change: Random Notes On Peace Thru Living (1992) and is the subject a great documentary directed by Michelle Esick called Saint Misbehavin’

Like me, Bobby Miller co-exists in different worlds. He is a vibrant and pragmatic success in the worlds of art, entertainment and fashion and is also a mystic and a bhakti. Bobby has published  eighteen books of his photos  including the recently re-issued  “Fabulous! A Photographic Diary of Studio 54: REDUX”. His work has been exhibited in NYC, Palm Springs and Provincetown at AMP Gallery, where currently he has an exhibit called “Superstarz” which includes photos of Grace Jones, Elton John, John Belushi, Donna Summer, Gloria Swanson, Andy Warhol, Muhammed Ali, and Truman Capote among others. He is also the author of four books of poetry and is included in The 1995 American Book Award – winning "Aloud: Voices From The Nuyorican Poets Café." Bobby is also a teacher of mediation and yoga. He was and is a student of my spiritual teacher Hilda Charlton who I met in the early nineteen seventies via Ram Dass . Hilda passed away in 1988 although to many of us she is still an extremely vivid presence in our daily lives. Bobby is one of my role models in terms of his balance between ardent love for God and a cheerful non-judgmental love for those who don’t share his spiritual ideas or beliefs.

Paul Krassner is was one of the central figures of the counter-culture of the late nineteen sixties. He was one of the founders of the Yippies . He was a member of the Merry Pranksters. He first took LSD in 1965 at Millbrook when Tim Leary and Richard Alpert (now known,of course as Ram Dass) lived there. He was the Editor of Lenny Bruce’s autobiography ,”How To Talk Dirty And Influence People,” Most notably he was the Editor and The Realist an indispensable magazine for hippies and those who try to understand us. He was a contemporary and friend of Allen Ginsberg, Wavy Gravy, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs ,and Abbie Hoffman among others. In the decades since, Paul has written a couple of dozen books, recorded six albums (for labels I ran) and remained an important satirist and social commentator. At various times he has referred to his spiritual beliefs as a “radical atheist,” , “zen bastard,” and “free thinker.” Referring to his first LSD trip he says . “I realized I had to play with the mystery. Absurdity became my religion”. Yet when I turned off the microphone after this podcast and said goodbye and “God bless you Paul,” he instantly replied  “God bless you too. Fooled you didn't I? Paul quotes Mark Twain as saying that there is no laughter in heaven. For the record, I disagree with both of them. In fact when Paul laughs and makes others do so---that itself is a neighborhood in heaven.

Danny Goldberg introduces his Rock and Roles podcast with Raghu - Danny’s history in the music business with the likes of Led Zeppelin and Kurt Cobain is counterbalanced by his 40 odd year relationship to the path of Bhakti Yoga. Music of course is the bridge: “We were blessed with this moment in time when pop and mass appeal culture and music that could make you feel sexy and alive coincided with a certain level of spirituality”. Raghu brings up another moment in time where mindfulness seemed to transmute anger roles and Danny counters with the his idea of mindful triggers.