1. |
Hoshaku Kempon
01:56
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Hoshaku Kempon
You saw your whole life at its essence.
You saw your past lifetimes and you knew their lessons.
Your doubt was stripped away and you knew
with perfect clarity what you were here to do.
You cannot unring the bell. You never will unring the bell.
Soon you gained powers.
You could feel people's feelings
you could see the true meanings behind their words
You could tell if they were sick and you knew how to fix them.
Helping them was your destiny, Brad Nixon.
Bladfold, who are you?
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2. |
Birth
01:32
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Nine months to the day
after Pearl Harbor day
you and your sister were born.
And your father interrogated Japanese for internment.
That's what he did in the war.
In your diary, you talk of being abandoned by your mother.
She wouldn't hold you much or touch you and you needed that from her.
It was hard to compete with your sister.
She was always smarter than you.
You had to become the entertainer
so mom would pay attention to you.
After the war your dad was a private detective
until the day you your brother and sister were kidnapped.
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3. |
Dyslexia
01:00
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Something is wrong, Brad.
You should be reading by now.
You're 12 years old, Brad.
What is wrong with you?
They gotta hold you back, Brad.
You gotta flunk the 5th grade.
They're gonna call you a retard, Brad,
'Cause your letters twist and change.
But you're so smart Brad.
You just got dyslexia.
Don't lose heart Brad.
There's no need for you to compensate.
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4. |
I Like Ike
01:55
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I like Ike like I like alcohol
like I like messing around
like I like life when you're 18.
'Cause you never know more than when you're 18.
I like Ike like girls and girls and girls and girls and
I like that one. Let's get married.
'Cause you never know more than when you're 18.
I wouldn't say I was a booksmarts guy.
But I'm really good at keeping spirits high.
I like to drink and get into trouble with my best friend Tom.
We march and protest those fuckers who would drop the bomb.
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5. |
Golden Boy
02:07
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Golden Boy it's time.
Do you live up to their expectations?
Or do you find your own path?
You are what you make of yourself so Brad,
what will you do?
Head on down to Haight and get high.
Find yourself some good LSD.
It'll open up all of your eyes
and your true path will be revealed.
Soon you find yourself at the house of an artist
making paper mache vegetables.
Next you find yourself back in Seattle
dancing on the desk of your mother in law.
Then you find yourself at an insane asylum
and your wife has divorced you and taken the child
and they're giving you insulin shock treatment to remind you
that a normal life and a normal job is what you should want.
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6. |
Monty
01:58
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Dr. Lamont West Jr., Ph.D.
Doctor of anthropology,
decided that the hippie subculture would be
the topic of his new immersion study.
So he bought a big house in Montlake,
took the doors off all the rooms
and let the hippies liver there for free.
Then you met mom and 3 months later you were married.
She was just 18 but you never know more than when you're 18.
"Today for your final examinations, I have brought in these members of the hippie subculture who have all just taken LSD. Your job will be to observe them feeling groovy, and to record your observations. Good luck."
One day when you were at Monty's, high in the sky,
your old friend Tom Garrett came over and said, "I'm gonna blow your mind. It's called Nichiren Shoshu. You just chant these little words, and the world comes to you."
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7. |
Hooked
01:48
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You got no money, no job, and no bed to sleep on.
You’re just wrapped in the drapes on the floor.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo…
Just keep on chanting you will make it happen…
Then your wife gets cancer.
So you chant your heads off.
And when they go to take it out, it aint there.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo…
Just keep on chanting you will make it happen…
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8. |
Nichiren Shoshu 101
01:41
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Nichiren Buddhism: a sect of Buddhism started by a Japanese monk named Nichiren. Nichiren believed that the Lotus Sutra was the most sacred and important of the Buddha’s teachings, and the very title of the Lotus Sutra in Japanese is itself a very powerful mantra, and those who chant this mantra will incur benefits and be brought closer to their innate Buddha nature, and thus to enlightenment.
Goka Gakkai: a laymen’s organization devoted to the study of Nichiren Buddhism. Started in 1930, its president since 1960 is a man named Daisaku Ikeda. Soka Gakkai / Nichiren Buddhism came to the US in the 1950’s, brought by the Japanese wives of G.I. servicemen from WWII.
The followers of Nichiren Buddhism do not pray to a statue of Buddha but to a gohonzon – a scroll inscribed with the sacred mantra. Members who have received their gohonzon typically keep it in a altar called a butsudan. Most gohonzon scrolls are created by some kind of printing process. But on very very very rare occasions a member may be granted a Joju gohonzon – a very powerful gohonzon that is hand painted by a priest in the temple in Japan.
“Namai-wa!”
“Bradford Nixon.”
“Bladfold?”
“Hai!”
Soka Gakkai literally translates to “value creation society,” but a perhaps a better translation would be something like, “Society for the Promotion of Positive Change in the World.” One of their primary goals has been “kosen rufu” – world peace.
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9. |
Kosen Rufu
01:48
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What would you wish for if you could have anything?
What is important to you?
New car?
New job?
Get laid?
How about a big screen TV?
We are American buddhists, and this is what is on our minds.
Maybe if we keep on chanting, our values will realign,
and we'll be chanting for kosen rufu.
Kosen rufu daimoku. Kosen rufu.
All the time you spend chanting could be spent making the world the way you're chanting it to be.
All the time you spend praying could be spent making the world the way you're praying it to be.
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10. |
The Big Life
02:24
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People still tell me they think about you every day.
You took them in and helped them out and made them part of your family.
The prostitutes and the junkies,
The battered and the abusers –
There’s Buddha nature in each of us, even the lowest of the losers.
You took in the homeless, and the helpless.
You told gay and straight they could all have faith.
You looked at each and every one of them and you’d say:
“I believe in you. Your destiny is not to live a small life.
I believe in you. You can do anything you want.
I believe in you. Everyone is meant to live a big life,
A surprising life, and amazing life.
Every life you’ve lived has led you here.”
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11. |
Guidance
01:30
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Oh please Mr. Nixon can I have some guidance?
Just five minutes of your time to fix my messy messy life.
Oh please Mr. Nixon I’ve been waiting for 3 hours,
just to hear you crack a joke at my expense.
I haven’t spoken to my parents in 3 months,
they don’t approve of what I’m doing.
They don’t understand
enlightenment’s so close at hand
that you can just chant for it.
So please Mr. Nixon can I have some guidance?
I think I’m paying for some shit I did in some previous life.
But please Mr. Nixon I think my karma is improving
just queuing up to wait for you in this line.
And when I confess to you that every now and then,
when life is looking bleak, my faith’s a little weak,
and I think, “could it be that all of this is bullshit?”
Well you always pick me up, dust me off and give me strength.
And even if your style is being mean,
when I leave your office I feel like I can literally do anything
And that feeling’s well worth the wait in line.
And in fact Mr. Nixon if there was anything I could do for you, well… anytime.
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12. |
Stuff I Gotta Do
01:26
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Got a big convention to plan, coming up real soon.
Gotta give a rousing speech to the YMD [“Young Men’s Division”] this afternoon.
Got a wedding to plan this week, a marriage I just arranged.
I still haven’t told them about it, it’s one of those days.
Got a big shakabuku campaign, starting out this week.
Time to go out back and smoke some weed.
You know what we need? A bagpipe band!
“Oh no! Another crazy Bladfold plan.
Ok, I’ll play in your bagpipe band.”
Gotta give some special guidance to the new recruits.
Send the hot ones back to my office,
I gotta spread the news.
Gotta get some members out to build me a house.
We’ll all do some mushrooms and… wow.
You know what we need? Valley Forge!
You know what we need? A fife and drum parade!
You know what we need? A floating volcano!
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13. |
So Many Women
01:57
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Did you expect, after you had died,
for your adult son to still be asking why
so many women? Why, why so many women?
Would you give the Stepford husband’s excuse:
“Because we can! When we have that much power to abuse.”
Or maybe hormones would be the way to explain.
You couldn’t help it. It’s just the chemicals in your brain.
Why? So many women? Why, why, so many women.
And your karma – wow – it must be awesome. Right?
That must be why, so many women.
Well Nichiren says that your earthly desires will lead you to enlightenment.
Maybe that’s why so many women.
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14. |
How Many Women?
01:22
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Oh leaders give me guidance.
Tell me what to do about my husband’s cheating.
“It’s your fault,” they said, “Your karma’s bad.
You need to cook the meals he likes and keep him happy.
And of course the most important thing of all is to chant more.”
How many women were there?
It depends on how you count.
I think probably 30 is an accurate amount.
And the rumor mill says you had a child with one of them.
Uh-Oh.
Half brother if you fold your DNA in half,
your mother’s half but the other half I’m told
belongs to Bladfold.
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15. |
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They were traveling 90 miles an hour,
going to Idaho and Montana
on a mission for Brad and NSA.
I don’t know what to say.
Except goodbye Les and Len.
They were your best friends but you couldn’t really grieve
‘cause you had to be strong
to help the members go on
and not lose their faith in the gohonzon.
You’ve been wearing that mask so long
you forgot the boy who first put it on.
So it feels empty in there.
Hence the thousand-yard stare.
Your faith in Nichiren could never be shaken
But you fell out of love with the organization.
Surrounded by people who love you yet lonely inside,
It was the beginning of the end of the ride.
the end of the ride
the end of the ride
the end of the ride
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16. |
Disillusioned Man
01:01
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Was it too good to be true --
all those people looking up to you?
Take a guess:
do they listen ‘cause your mouth is blessed?
Or does it matter what you’d say, ‘cause they’d follow anyway?
You start to doubt. You test it out.
You take advantage of the devout.
But can your psyche take the shock of finding out?
And then doubt begins to root. It grows acute.
And if they find out then you’re screwed.
But your crown’s too heavy just to be
some shitty painted cardboard thing
you crowned yourself with,
oh you selfish sad and disillusioned man.
So who’s the scammer and who’s the scammed?
You narcissistic sad and disillusioned man.
Acting out and self destructive,
more drugs and women, but still reluctant
to admit that you’re a sad and disillusioned man.
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17. |
The Fall
00:45
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When the leaders found out about all of it,
They moved us down to Los Angeles.
We thought we’d make a new start down there,
But things just got even crazier.
Turns out humiliation doesn’t lead to humility.
You started talking shit about the leaders to everyone you’d see.
Started saying things the members were afraid to say out loud.
So satisfying to hear and that started to draw a crowd.
The crowd started to turn into a following.
That’s when the leaders knew
it was time to pull the plug on the whole thing.
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18. |
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On the first day of the second to last one last chance,
We were waiting for you at the airport.
And when we arrived at the new house, you were high.
And we were just tired and hungry.
And you said you’d go and get some food for us.
And we watched the hours go by.
And finally you returned (smelling strongly of sex),
bearing a gift for mom.
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19. |
Ant Farm
02:06
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Thirteen years as a company man.
Three months severance and a moving van.
Goodbye LA, it’s time to head back home.
So distract the kids in the back with the license plate game.
Stop for a snack and a stretch at a park along the way.
And everyone’s wondering what it’ll be like
when we get back home.
And you told me:
“No Dony you can’t bring your ant farm along.
That tiny family won’t last that long
They build their tunnels out of sand,
and they won’t stand up on the bumpy car ride home.”
When we’re out of games I lay my head against the glass,
watch the factories and farmlands pass.
Wondering what it’ll be like when we get back home,
and if there is one.
And you told me:
“No Dony you can’t bring your ant farm along.
That tiny family won’t last that long
They build their tunnels out of sand,
and they won’t stand up on the bumpy car ride home.”
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20. |
After the Fall
02:19
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November 27th, 1979:
You move out, you leave the house, you leave your family behind.
And by Christmas a new “wife,” a new small and quiet life.
Well you were never there before, and even less after that.
So what happened after the fall?
You moved to Vashon and left it all.
And some still came and saw you…
until the leaders told them not to.
And your life got much more quiet
as you retreated deep inside you.
This was the time of hundred scams
and a thousand easy roads.
You raised yourself an opium garden
when the assignment was raise a son.
When I go back in time I say,
“Brad, you can help people, so help your son.”
But you’ve taken a blow.
You’re so low you can’t hear me
And the bell can never be unrung.
What is required of a father?
What does a father have to do?
When will the men of this world step up?
My little one, I promise I’ll be there for you.
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21. |
The Psychic Hotline
02:10
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Well I dropped out of college
To be an abstract comedy musician
And I need some money
So I call up my dad.
And I can hear him smiling
on the other end of the phone as he says,
“Why don’t you work for me on the psychic hotline?
The money is good and you can work from home whenever you want.”
35 cents a minute.
I just hang around and wait for the phone to ring.
“Yes I can do that sir, I can give you the lottery numbers.
You say the ones I gave you last week didn’t work?
Let’s try again. But it’ll take a little longer this time.”
Me and my dad are working the psychic hotline
and maybe we’re gonna strike it rich.
The people that call are mostly poor and lonely southern housewives.
They’re paying four bucks a minute
just to hear someone say everything’s alright.
They just want to talk to another human being.
They wanna know if their husbands are cheating.
My dad’s voice is in my ear: “no matter what you hear,
just keep them talking.”
Me and my dad are working the psychic hotline
and maybe we’re gonna strike it rich.
But I don’t how much longer I can work the hotline.
I’m kind of afraid to answer my phone anymore.
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22. |
The Schism
01:17
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The Schism was a chance for vindication.
An indication maybe you’d be coming back.
But the doctors didn’t think that.
Your newest wife fell off the wagon
just as you needed her most.
She up and left you alone.
Well you had no money so they stuck you in
some shitty place run by the state.
You couldn’t move your body.
All you could do was wait.
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23. |
Not Gonna Die
01:16
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I try to talk about your impending death.
You say, “Son, I’m not gonna die.”
“But you’ve got an incurable fatal disease.”
You say, “I know son.
And that’s why the world is gonna notice when I kick this thing.
I’m gonna show them the power of daimoku.
They’ll be so surprised when Brad is alive
and I’ll finally get my due.”
So you tell the doctors you won’t be needing resuscitation.
You’re depending on the power of chanting and meditation.
But it’s lonely in here
with the nurses mostly vacant.
When they know you’re gonna die,
they don’t have much patience.
No acolytes left,
just one or two friends who can’t stay long.
And then one day you throw up in your lungs
and you start to drown.
But you keep on chanting
though you can barely breathe,
Fighting to turn this thing around.
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24. |
Chant For It Brad
01:31
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You can.
Yes you can.
I believe in you dad.
You can.
Yes you can.
If anyone can, Brad Nixon can.
Just chant for it, Brad.
Just chant for it like your life depended on it.
Chant for it Brad.
I believe in you dad.
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25. |
Credits
03:38
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David Nixon and Daniel Spils Seattle, Washington
David and Daniel live and make music in Seattle WA. Hooray!
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