* Editor’s Note: Today {September 13th, 1996} marks the 23rd anniversary of Tupac’s tragic death at the age of 25.
Rest in Peace Tupac.
We will continue to celebrate your life and your legacy.
{Things are not the same without you…}
https://2paclegacy.net/today-marks-23-years-since-tupac-was-killed/
In this reflection, I wanted to explore the intellectual and poetic side of Tupac that is rarely discussed {the same happens with Jim Morrison the lead singer of The Doors}.
I hope to explore other artist’s reading lists in future reflections.
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“Readers are plentiful;
thinkers are rare.”
–Henry David Thoreau
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Tupac Shakur was always hungry for knowledge.
He was a voracious reader and student of life. His passion for learning and social justice advocacy was a part of his essence.
Tupac’s intellectual power came from a vast knowledge of eclectic topics. He loved to explore esoteric, the metaphysical and philosophical topics. This study became the foundation for his song lyrics and life philosophy.
His mother, Afeni Shakur, had already instilled in him a revolutionary education as she was a member of The Black Panthers. She passed on her wisdom and Tupac continued to polish the jewels.
Tupac was truly an autodidact {a self-taught person}. He would educate others through his song lyrics.
“Before his tragic death at age of 25, Tupac rapped about poverty, violence in the black community, police brutality, black empowerment, political strategy and spirituality.” https://www.blackfaves.com/story/11-books-tupac-shakurs-bookshelf-still-relevant-today/
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In this short video, Tupac’s first manager Leila Steinberg discusses Tupac’s love of literature and critical thinking.
“Leila Steinberg is an artist and community organizer who began working with youth twenty years ago in the San Francisco Bay area. As the daughter of a criminal defence attorney, she grew up surrounded by the workings of the justice system and took a front row seat at the personal tragedies and socio-economic pressures that turn so many at-risk youths into hardened felons. Steinberg helps them connect with their hearts and turn anger and pain into creativity.
AIM promotes artistic expression as a way to handle problems as opposed to choosing violence, drugs or other forms of escape. As the program facilitator, Steinberg sees confronting pain as the best way to move past it. She believes self-awareness is a key to making better choices.
Steinberg is committed to helping people who fall through the cracks of society. In 1995 she began a series of specialized programs for youth within the juvenile justice system and those residing in residential treatment facilities. As hip-hop music became the expression of today’s youth, Steinberg began training artists to develop voices powerful enough to reach a generation. While conducting poetry workshops in Northern California, she met Tupac Shakur and he became a regular participant in her class. They shared a vision of developing a space where each artist in attendance is encouraged, inspired and motivated to address social change in their work. Tupac referred to Leila as the “bow” and himself as the “arrow.” –http://www.pinlight.com/leila.htm
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This clip is from the movie Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel.
It is said to be a “documentary examining the politics, music and life of Tupac Shakur.”
This is the description from the Youtube video…
“This is a list of books read by Tupac during his lifetime including while he was at the Baltimore School of Arts and in prison. They are presented in no particular order. The topics include Black history, the afterlife, religion including Zen, war, women’s liberation, music, and poetry. Reading these books, it is clear how they moulded Tupac’s thinking and language. This is a handy list of good reading material if you ever find yourself locked up.”
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Written by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1984
Written by: George Orwell
Ah, This!
Written by: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
All God’s Children:
The Boskett Family and the American Tradition of Violence
Written by: Fox Butterfield
All You Need to Know About the Music Business
Written by: Donald Passman
And Still I Rise
Written by: Maya Angelou
Art of War
Written by: Sun Tzu
Assata: An Autobiography
Written by: Assata Shakur
At the Bottom of the River
Written by: Jamaica Kincaid
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
As told to: Alex Haley
Bhagavad-Gita As It Is
Written by: A.C. Bhaktive-danta Swami Prabhupada
Black Like Me
Written by: John Howard Griffin
Black Sister:
Poetry by Black American Women, 1746 to 1980
Edited by Earlene Stetson
Blues People
Written by: Amiri Baraka
Catcher in the Rye
Written by: J.D. Salinger
The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences
Written by: Walter B. Gibson and Litzka R. Gibson
The Confessions of Nat Turner
Written by: William Styron
The Destiny of the Nations
Written by: Alice A. Bailey
The Diary of Anais Nin
Edited and with a Preface by: Gunther Stuhlmann
The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
Written by: E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, James Trefil
The Grapes of Wrath
Written by: John Steinbeck
Great White Lie:
Slavery, Emancipation and Changing Racial Attitudes
Written by: Jack Gratus
The Harder We Run:
Black Workers Since the Civil War
Written by: William H. Harris
Here and Hereafter
Written by: Ruth Montgomery
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Written by: Maya Angelou
I Shall Not Be Moved
Written by: Maya Angelou
Imitation of Christ
Written by: Thomas a Kempis
In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens
Written by: Alice Walker
Initiation
Written by: Elisabeth Haich
Interesting People:
Black American History Makers
Written by: George L. Lee
James Baldwin: The Legacy
Edited by: Quincy Troupe
Kabbalah
Written by: Gersham Scholem
Life and Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Written by: Ira Peck
Life as Carola
Written by: Joan Grant
Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs
Written by: Linda Goodman
Makes Me Wanna Holler
Written by: Nathan McCall
The Meaning of Masonry
Written by: W.L. Wilmshurst
Moby Dick
Written by: Herman Melville
Monster:
The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
Written by: Sanyika Shakur
Music of Black Americans: A History
Written by: Eileen Southern
Mysticism
Written by: Evelyn Underhill
Native Son
Written by: Richard Wright
Nature, Man and Woman
Written by: Alan W. Watts
No Man Is an Island
Written by: Thomas Merton
Nostradamus: The Millennium & Beyond
Written by: Peter Lorie
The Phenomenon of Man
Written by: Teilhard de Chardin
Ponder on This: A Compilation
From the Writings of: Alice A Bailey & the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul
The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural Healing
Written by: Mark Bricklin
The Prince
Written by: Niccolo Machiavelli
The Psychedelic Experience:
A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
Written by: Timothy Leary, Ph.D., Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., Richard Alpert, Ph.D.
The Psychic Realm
Written by: Naomi A. Hintze and J. Gaither Pratt, Ph.D.
A Raisin in the Sun
Written by: Lorraine Hansberry
Roots
Written by: Alex Haley
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
Written by: Jonathan Kozol
Secret Splendor
Written by: Charles Essert
Serving Humanity
From the writings of: Alice A. Bailey
Sisterhood is Powerful:
Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement
Written by: Robin Morgan
The State of the World Atlas
Written by: Michael Kidron and Ronald Segal
Social Essays
Written by: LeRoi Jones
The Souls of Black Folk
Written by: W.E. Burghardt DuBois
Teachings of the Buddha
Written by: Jack Kornfield
Telepathy
Written by: Alice A Bailey
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Written by: W.Y. Evans-Wentz
Thoughts and Meditations
Written by: Kahlil Gibran
Tropic of Cancer
Written by: Henry Miller
The Visionary Poetics of Allen Ginsberg
Written by: Paul Portuges
Wisdom of Insecurity
Written by: A.N. Watts
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Written by: Robert M. Pirsig
Copied from: https://www.thuglifearmy.com/index.php/tupac-reading-library.html
{Goodreads also has an alternate list of books that Tupac read}.
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For more information…
Henry David Thoreau…http://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau_life.html
Tupac Shakur…http://2pac.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000637/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/23942.Books_Read_by_Tupac_Shakur_
Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel Movie…http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314806/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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Peace & Poetic Love…
-V.
Karl Pilkington Reflects On The Art of Seduction in The Moaning of Life…
15 SepKarl Pilkington has quickly become one of my favourite comedians. I consider him to be an ultimate “truth-teller” {as most comedians are e.g. Larry David}. They shine a light on many hypocritical, controversial or hidden aspects of society and human behaviour. I have respect for comedians and their honesty. They have such keen eyes and ears for social observation and commentary. A comedian will tell it like it is. You can count on them for that.
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In this short video clip, Karl meets Vinnie the “pick-up artist”.
The results are comedic gold.
{I simply can’t get enough of Karl’s sarcastic looks when the camera catches him in action}. He is clearly not convinced by Vinnie’s seduction tactics. Hilarious!
It is truly a case of the clueless leading the confused. I truly feel compassion and pity for these men. They went to this man for guidance and wisdom {just observe them staring at Vinnie}. If anything, he simply strayed them from the path of love and authentic, soulful relating.
Vinnie’s lack of respect for personal space and boundaries worries me. Respect is gravely missing from the equation. I totally agree with Karl when he notes, “you can’t go about just touching women!” Don’t you just love how outraged he is at this lack of respect? All men should be outraged at disrespect towards women. I think the measure of a man lies in how much he respects women {and others- including himself}. Karl is a man of integrity and is often the voice of reason. I find myself agreeing with him all the time.
An example of Karl’s solid logic is his response to Vinnie’s approach to seducing women. Karl observes, “why don’t you have a chat and see what they like first?…Give them some facts. I’m interested in nature and that so give them a little nature fact or a little…you know, something that like that if they go, “why are you talking about nature for you boring ****” and walks off then I didn’t want to go out with you anyway. If you don’t like nature then**** off.” Karl’s philosophy is to be authentic and if Karl Pilkington is anything he is the epitome of honesty and authenticity.
I love that Karl knows no hypocrisy. He probably doesn’t have a false bone in his body. His approach is to be real and I think more people should adopt this way of relating. I am a person that likes to know where I stand with people. I don’t have the desire or the energy to pretend to like someone or something when I don’t. Your life energy/chi/prana is sacred and I don’t think it should be prostituted in being false. Isn’t it a tragedy that so often people don’t know who they are before old age or death? Why not go within on the greatest journey of self-discovery? {I digress because I am going on a tangent}.
Karl’s authenticity is in direct opposition to Vinnie false pretense of seduction. Vinnie is playing a role. He is acting but who is the real Vinnie? We know exactly who the real Karl is and I deeply appreciate this. In my humble opinion, Vinnie has got it all wrong. His aim is to touch a woman physically and this approach is a disservice to women. It is so reductive because it shrinks women into a sole object of sexual desire, nothing more and nothing less. In this paradigm, women’s identities are fractured and their intelligence is dissolved- or at least obscured from the dialogue.
Most women would love it if a man would be attracted to their mind as well as their body. By only focusing on the body, Vinnie is creating a schism between the body and the mind. He clearly doesn’t know that the intellectual and creative realms are very sexual {i.e. “intelligence is sexy“}. If he really wanted to appeal to women, then he would teach these men to appeal to their minds, hearts and souls. In essence, his approach to seduction is boring because women are more intelligent and complex than he leads these poor men to believe. {Most women will also enforce their boundaries}.
I cannot give Vinnie any of credit for pretending to be interested in what women have to say. His false sense of interest does nothing to convince any woman that he actually cares about what they think or feel. I just get the feeling that he is always planning the next move as if he is in a game of sexual chess. Even his line of “the desert fascinates me” sounds like b.s. His declaration of “social freedom” is so ridiculous that it sounds like a comedy sketch in itself {a parody}. Is Vinnie claiming that social freedom exists when men can touch women at their leisure? I certainly hope not.
My conclusion is that the lady or Karl should be teaching the class on being attractive to women. Karl may not have any “chat-up/pick-up lines” but he knows how to listen to and relate to women; hence he knows how to respect women. Chat-up/pick-up lines are cheesy, to say the least. Authenticity will get you much further than any recycled and contrived chat up/pick up lines will. Karl has the alchemical gold that is missing from Vinnie’s lecture- respect for women.
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What do you think about Karl Pilkington, Vinnie the pick-up artist and the moaning of life episode on marriage?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
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For more information…
Karl Pilkington…http://www.karlpilkington.com/
The Moaning of Life TV Series…http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3277670/
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Peace & Comedic Love…
Continue reading →
Tags: Alchemical Gold, Attracted, Attraction, Authentic, Authenticity, Comedian, Comedians, Comedic, Comedic Gold, Comedy, Comic, Courtship, Critical Thinker, Critical Thinking, Egalitarian, Emotional Intelligence, Emotionally Intelligent, Gender Identity, Gender Relations, Honest, Honesty, Human Behaviour, Identity, Intellect, Intelligence, Intelligence Is Sexy, Intelligent, Karl Pilkington, Larry David, Listen, Listening, Relate, Relating, Respect, Seduce, Seduction, Sexual, Sexuality, Social Commentary., Social Observation, Sophisticated, The Art of Listening, The Moaning of Life, The Moaning of Life Television Show, Truth, Truth Teller