Sagittarius/Brave

 Sagittarius - The Archer

Brave

Vajrapani

Vajrapani - Holder of the Thunderbolt

Patron Saint of the Shaolin Monastery

For more on the Vajra's

Dorje and Bell 

Vajra Heart

Wake the Tigerhead Vajra

Wakanda Forever/Vajrasattva Mudra

Return to Source

 The Rainbow Body

Ascension

The Last Jedi - Becoming one with the force

Shine

 Ash - You are a shining light

Degrees of motion - Shine on

Mos Def/Yasin Bey - Umi says "Shine your light"

Alicia Myers - I want to thankyou heavenly father, for shining your light on me.

Vinyl Solution

Vinyl Solution was a record label associated with the record shop of the same name at 231 Ladbroke Grove.

I first encountered the record label when it  put out the  LP's  "Van Stupid" & "Jesus meets the Stupids" by British skate punk band "The Stupids"

My next encounter was a via the rave scene as the label that put out 12 inchs by "EON" and Bizarre Inc 

But I most associate it with the UK breakbeat of JSaulKane / Depthcharge / Octagon Man who did A&R for the label.

It was the Bass Bin Brothers (Lovely John Superstar and Alex "voices" Shaolin) and the rest of the Subliminal Revolutions crew who  introduced me to the music of JSaulKane

Steve's Driving School

 Steve's Driving School

Ladbroke Grove

 

While Notting Hill is famous for Carnival, a Romantic Comedy and Up Market Boutiques , Ladbroke Grove to me represents the more urban and gritty end of the scale, synonymous with graffiti , breaking and hip hop in general. I remember the Vinyl Solution record shop and Children of Vision Hair Stylists back in the day.

I was lucky enough to go see Mos Def and Talib Kweli (Black Star) at Ladbroke Grove early in their career with my friends Alex Shaolin and Wayne Snooze.

I remember the year Tim Westwood hosted the  Radio 1 stage  in the underpass at Carnival and got shot. While Westwood clearly loved the music. I always thought the gangster image he portrayed was inauthentic and that was before the sex allegations came to light.

I had my own experience of "the endz" just after finishing University. I was "temping" and was  given a job as the pool attendant of open air lido in a small park just off Ladbroke Grove.

On my first day my I met my Supervisor at "Cerco" he practised Five Animals Kung Fu so we had a nice chat about that, He said "people don't often last in this post don't take it personally." I couldn't think why, it seemed a nice stress free role. I was looking forward to reading a book a friend had recommended the "Celestine Prophecy". No sooner had my supervisor left and a gang of youth turned up they said "This is our park and lido and you shouldn't come back to work tommorow". That night the lido was vandalised. I had to close it the following day and spent the day clearing up the mess. The vandalism continued all week and I suffered verbal abuse, threats, intimidation each day as I worked. By Friday I'd had enough and the following Monday I called in sick at which point my agency, at the suggestion of the supervisor moved we to a different job.